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_MATER DOLOROSA_
The inhabitants fled through the village (near Blamont). It was
horrible. The walls of houses are bespattered with blood and the faces
of the dead are hideous to look upon. They were buried at once, some
sixty of them. Among them many old women, old men, and one woman
pregnant--the whole a dreadful sight. Three children huddled
together--all dead. Altar and arches of the church shattered. Telephone
communication with the enemy was found there. This morning, Sept. 2, all
the survivors were driven out; I saw four little boys carrying on two
poles a cradle with a child some five or six months old. The whole makes
a fearful sight. Blow upon blow! Thunderbolt on thunderbolt! Everything
given over to plunder. I saw a mother with her two little ones--one of
them had a great wound in the head and an eye put out.
_From the Diary of_
GEFREITER PAUL SPELLMAN,
_Capt. First Brigade of Infantry Guard_
(_Prussian Guards_).
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_IS IT YOU, MOTHER?_
A corporal named Houston narrated that while he lay wounded on the
ground, after the battle of Soissons, he saw a young English soldier
lying near him, delirious. A German soldier gave the poor lad water from
his flask. The young Englishman, his mind wandering, said, "Is it you,
mother?" The German comprehended, and to maintain the illusion, caressed
his face with a mother's soft touch. The poor boy died shortly
afterwards and the German soldier, on getting to his feet, was seen
to be crying.
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_MEN TO THE RIGHT, WOMEN TO THE LEFT_
On Sunday, August 23rd, at half past six in the morning, the
soldiers of the 108th regiment of the line drove worshippers of the
Premonstratensian Church, separated the men from the women, and shot
about fifty of the former through the head. Between seven and nine
o'clock there was house to house looting and burning by soldiers who
chased the inhabitants into the street. Those who tried to escape were
shot off-hand.
At about nine o'clock the soldiers drove all who had been found in the
houses in front of them by means of blows from their rifle-butts. They
crowded them together in Place d'Armes, where they kept them until six
o'clock in the evening. Their guards amused themselves by telling the
men repeatedly that they would soon be shot.
At six o'clock a captain separated the men from the women and children.
The women were placed behind a line of infantry. The men had to stand
alongside a wall; those in the first row were told to sit on their
haunches, the others to remain standing behind them. A platoon took a
stand right opposite the group. The women prayed in vain for the mercy
of their husbands, their sons, and their brothers; the officer gave the
order to fire. He had not made the slightest investigation, pronounced
no sentence of any sort.
_Belgian Gov. Committee's Report._
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_A PITIFUL EXODUS_
In many groups were to be seen old, old people, grandfathers and
grandmothers of a family, and these in their shaking frailty and terror,
which they could not withstand, were the more pitiable objects in the
great gathering of stricken townsfolk. This pathetic clinging together
of the family was one of the most affecting sights I witnessed, and I
have not the slightest doubt that in the mad rush for refuge beyond the
borders of their native land many family groups of this sort completely
perished.
All day and throughout the night these pitiful scenes continued, and
when I went down to the quayside early Thursday, when the dawn was
throwing a wan light over this part of the world, I found again a great
host of citizens awaiting their chance of flight.
_London Daily Chronicle on
The Fall of Antwerp.
October 11, 1914._
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_SYMPATHY_
"_If I find you again looking so sad, I'll send you to Germany after
your father_"
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_WE WAGE WAR ON DIVINE PRINCIPLES_
The names of the priests and monks of the diocese of Malines, who, to my
knowledge, were put to death by the German troops, are as follows:
Dupierreux, of the Company of Jesus; Brother Sebastien Allard, of the
Society of St. Joseph; Brother Candide, of the Society of the Brothers
of Our Lady of Pity; Father Vincent, Conventual Carette, a professor;
Lombaerts, Goris de Clerck; Dergent, Wouters, Van Bladel, _cures_.
At Christmas time I was not perfectly certain what had been the fate of
the _Cure_ of Herent. Since then his dead body has been discovered at
Louvain and identified.
_From a letter from_ CARDINAL MERCIER,
_to The Kreischef of District of Malines._
_December, 1914._
The Cathedral of Rheims has many companions in distress. The German
army, when it invaded the north of France, destroyed, totally or
partially, by bombardment or incendiarism, churches and chapels at
Albert, Serres, Vieille-Capelle, Etavigny, Soissons, Hebuterne,
Ribecourt, Suippes, Montceau, Barcy, Revigny, Souain, Maurupt,
Berry-au-Bac, Mandray, Heiltz-le-Maurupt, Sermaize-les-Bains, Doncieres,
etc.
_From "Is War Civilization?"_
_By_ PROF. CHRISTOPHE NYROP,
_University of Copenhagen._
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_PROSPERITY REIGNS IN FLANDERS_
_Four hundred and eighty millions of francs have been imposed as a war
tax but soup is given gratis_