The Washington times., 1931-12-16
PATH Teton
T. t Front
A Story Of the Aftermath
( or the World War

there was too much blood
there it swept them away"
Suddenly Willy is standing
beside me.
1T is not a year since this
man"-he points to Albert
was lying out alone with his
two mates in a machine gun post
the only one in the sector-and
an attack came. But the three
we're quite calm; they set their
aim and waited; they didn't fire
too soon. Then when the col
umns before them, supposing
everything clear, began to ad-
vance, not till then did they
open fire; and so it went on,
again and again-it was a long
time before they could get re-
Inducements. But the attack
was repulsed in the end. And
afterwards we brought in those
who had been shot down by the
machine gun; there were twenty
seven hits, every one as true as
the next, almoS.. all of them ia
tal-and that is not counting the
rest, the thigh wounds in the
chest, in the head. This man
alone" he points to Albert
again-with his two mates had
taken care of enough to fill a
whole hospital, though, Of course,
most of the stomach wounds
never got that far. And for that
he was awarded the Iron Cross,
First Glass, and congratulated by
the colonel. Do you understand
now why this man is not sub
ject to your points of law and
your civil code? 1t is not for
you to judge him! He IS a SOL
dier, ne belongs to us, and we
pronounce him Not Guilty."
Quite Upset
The prosecutor has the floor at
last. Such monstrous disor-
der" he gasps, and shouts to
the bobby to put Willy under
arrest.
Renewed uproar. But Willy
keeps them all at bay and I
start in again. Disorder, is
it? Then whose fault is that?
Yours, I say! You, every one
of you. should stand before our
tribunal! 1t is you with your
war, who have made us what
we are! Lock us away, too,
with him; that's the safest
thing to do. What did you
ever do for us when we came
back? Nothing, I tell you!
Nothing! You wrangled about
'Victory!' You unveiled war
memorials! You spouted about
heroism! And you denied your
responsibility!
"You should have come to
our help! But no, you left us
alone in that worst time of all,
when we had to find a road
back again. You should have
proclaimed it from every pull
pit; you should have told us
so when we were demobilized;
again and again you should
have said to us: We have all
grievously erred! We have all
to find the road back again!
Have courage! It will be hard
est for you, you left nothing
behind you that can lead you
back again! Have patience!'
You should have shown us
again what life is! You should
have taught us to live again!
But no, you left us to stew in
our juice! You left us to go
to the dogs! You should have
taught us to believe again in
kindliness, in order, in culture,
in love! But instead, you
started again to falsify, to lie,
to stir up more hatred and to
enforce your laws. One of lis
has gone under already! And
there stands the second.'
We are quite beside our
selves. All the anger, the bit
terness, the disilluSionment in
us has seethed up and boiled
over. There is wild disorder in
the room. It continues a long
time. but at last comparative
quiet is restored. We all get
one days imprisonment for
contempt of court and have
to leave the place at once.
Even now we might easily
break away from the bobby
and escape, but that is not
what we want. We want to go
to prison with Albert. We pass
close by him to show him that
we are all with him.
Later we learn that he was
sentenced to three years i'm
prisonment and that he re-
ceived his sentence without a
word.