The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1919-01-17
INTERESTING COMMUNICATION

The article below was handed into
this office by D. Maske, who copied
it from the original letter receive ed
by Mr.. DeGanck. Coming directly
from one who suffered from the over
bearing acts of the Huns while occu.
pying Belgium the letter is exceed
ingly interesting in the information
that it contains:
A few extracts from letters receiv-
ed by Mr.. and Mrs. Victor DeCanck
from East Flanders, Belgium, written
after the armistice was signed. The
armistice being signed just one quar-
ter of mile from DeGanck's old
home in the village of Scheldewin-
I deke. 1t has been more than four
Years since Mr. and Mrs DeGanck
have heard from them. Part Of the
letter reads thus: | could not write
to you for four years, as we were con-
stantly under fire from the beastly
Huns. In my home We had seven
rooms, six that were constantly full
of German soldiers and officers. and
| they took our bedding and we had to
| S.eep in the straw. Our COW, we had
to lead away ourselves to another
village and receive no pay: every 9TH
er thing IN cur barn yard they stole
and we had 70 furnish nay and grain
for their horses. One small pig we
hid in the kitchen at nights to save
| from the thlcving Huns. fhey came
/ into our house and ordered us to give
| up all our milk, butter, e,yss and meat,
or we were heavily .ineG or thrown
into Jail. They took all our mat
tresses and our copp,r. will tell
YOU in American money what some of
Our prices were. Fat pork. to 81
a pound; butter, $3.50 a pound: eggs,
% cents a piece; potatoes, $26 hun
dred; rye, sac a bnslei wheat $50
a hundred, and $34 per hundred tor
carrots; common working shoes, $50
to $40 a pair; stockings. s. a pair
roor quality soap, $3 pound, and
coffee SO - $40 a puun1 A COW
now costs from $4O0 20 $500, so you
can see what the people had to suffer
from the "hellishness Of the Hun"
The American Red Cross gave US,
through committee, box Of food
every week which was our share. Too
much praise can not DE given the Red
Cross. For the last three weeks Sher-
mans description of war was not in
it, it was worse than thai. The SOL
diers, who knew they could not last
much longer and from the bombs
which were coming from every direc-
ton. We slept, ate. and lived those
last three weeks in the cellar. One
bomb fell through our kitchen but for
some reason did not explode. rhe
horrors l could not describe. In our
sisters yard a great German machine
gun poured fire for days and days,
but none of our family were killed.
Five big bombs fell in our yard, tear
ing the earth for many feet around.
Not window was left in any of
the houses, the depot and railroad
were blown up and we thought our
last hour had come. OF course We
are alive but are mere skeletons, as
we were nearly starved to death. We
thought that Victor was also in
France on the firing line. as we saw
in papers where all Belgian Reserv-
lists were called but were glad 10 hear
from you that You we're safe in
America.
The Germans in their retreat blew
up every bridge. cut and destroyed all
trees and orchards. l must tell you
about the aeroplane plant OH our
mayors grounds. You remember the
miles of beautiful trees about his
place. Well the Germans cut them
all down and had a plant there. Our
nephew and niece were thrown into
Jail, because they would not work for
Germans, but after starving, i'll treat
ing them, they decided to work and
the boy was made bookkeeper in the
aeroplane plant. The niece was re-
leased and allowed to 30 home. Our
little boy aged says to tell you Santa
Clause has not visited The Belgian
children for over years. Julian
says to tell you she could not go to
school because 1t was blown up and
bombs fell mostly where there were
children.
We all wish you happy and pros
porous New Year. and will tell you
| more of this awful war when we are
more settled. We also hope to hear
soon from you.