The wife of Gen. Metzinger, a distinguished French officer, whose son, a
captain in the army, was recently wounded, was traveling from
Switzerland to Lorraine a short time ago, cables a _Sun_ correspondent.
She says she overheard a conversation between two German officers during
a rainstorm.
One said: “Oh, I left my umbrella in a hotel in Paris.”
The other replied: “Never fear, you will be able to go and get it next
week.”
“Pray, do not trouble yourselves,” interrupted Mme. Metzinger; “my son,
who is a captain in the French army, will undertake to bring it
himself.”
The two officers alighted hastily at the next station.
“I KNOW NOTHING, SIR!”
The Cologne correspondent of _Der Tyd_ says:
“An endless train rolls into the station at Cologne. In it have arrived
700 French prisoners taken at Muelhausen and Lagarde, Alsace-Lorraine.
They were dressed in red trousers and short, dark-blue coats. One could
see that they had been in a fight. They were unkempt and badly in need
of a wash and a shave.
“I remember having read somewhere that a French Senator had declared
there was a great shortage of shoes for the French troops. I have seen
100,000 German soldiers going to the front, every one of them wearing a
brand new pair of russet shoes, heavy enough to withstand any campaign.
But there were no such shoes among these French prisoners. Their
footgear was of a flimsy character and worn so badly that in most cases
their toes were protruding. They ate greedily of bread and drank eagerly
the tea and coffee that were handed to them.
“The faces of most of them were blank and expressionless. They conversed
among themselves in an undertone. I asked one something about Lagarde.
“‘I know nothing,’ he answered sullenly.
“But after I told him he was speaking with a Hollander and not with a
German he modified his reply to: ‘I will say nothing, sir.’”