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About The Alliance herald. (Alliance, Box Butte County, Neb.) 1902-1922 | View Entire Issue (July 4, 1918)
Confessions of a German Deserter (Continued from last week ) made In the ii'iiiltlntis fnctorler I cannot say. i nMH ' they were Bm1 er, I did MMj 1 11 tn dutn bullets made h.v the soldier- themselves. Tht point" were filed off from (icrmnn mus ket shells so that the nickel covering was perforated imrliiK the lend til Unit. The hnllet flaUriicd when It struck Its object. If. foi instance. It entered man' arm. the explosive charge In It would so shutter the nrm us to blow It entirely off mid leave It hanging hy the kin. German soldiers were frequently im supplying themselves with dum dam bullets In Hie trenches, preparing to Inflict terrltile wound. On January S, 111.r, the German at tacked on their entire front of the Ar gnnrie forest sector nnil Severn! hun dred prisoners were tiiken. The hand to-hnnd fight continued until sli o'clock In the evening. A fellow pioneer and myself found ourselves In n hit of trench held hy eight Frenchmen. It waa Impossible to retire ao we accepted the unequal fight Fortunately we were well supplied with hand Krennden. We cut the fuses shcrt so that they would explode a quickly aa possible. I threw one among the eight soldlera. Before the men could get out of ths way of the first. he second one fol lowed, which exploded In their midst. We took advantage of the confusion thus created to hurl five more. Out enemies were now reduced to four men. We opened fire with our muskets, clos ing In on the four. Their bullets whlr.r.ed around our heads. One man was shot In the mouth. That left three. They turned and tried to flee. In such moments as these one la In a great rage and forgeta danger entirely. We were very close to our enemies bow, right on their heels when the last man stumbled and fell. I sprang on top of him. He defend ed himself with his flats. My comrade went after the other two. Rleedlng at the mouth, this man fought on. After I had knocked aeveral of his teeth out he raised his hands and surrendered. I releaaed him from my grip and looked him over carefully. He was about thirty-five years old. He showed me hla wedding ring and talked to me. I knew what he wnnted, he wanted his life. He gave me his canteen that I might drink some wine and wept. Perhaps he thought of nil wla and children. 1 pressed his hand aim he showed me his bleeding teeth. TP-allod him a fool end told him he was ten away with the lL of only a few molars. I was glad him. I took him bao to protect him against being misused Aa I delivered him dyer to where the prisoners were heluV aasemhled, pressed my hand andjsmlled. cky to have got h had not killed jnyself, In order he i ne cnriilren were with their father and they kissed him ns he left. Me bnd one child on curb iiiin and his wife curried the third. Willi the greatest hnpplness the family walked along between the two armed soldiers. When the moment of parting came nil began to cry. This was the fnte of thousands of poor French and Belgian men and women, quartered MM their homes yet unable to know who was dead or alive. While we stood at I he depot ten Gcr man soldiers arrived with fixed bayo nets. Iletween them were three French citizens in civilian clothing, whom they BOCOrtad, All were elderly men. We asked an old Frenchman what this was about a nd be Mid : "We receive our food from the Ger MM mllllnry officials but It is not suf ficient to live on. The people have nothing left All stock and food had been seined. These three men refused to work any longer for the (fcrtnan military officials because they could not live on what they received. "They were arrested and are being sent to (lerinnny. No one knows what their fate would be there. The men were being taken awny by the Ger mans and Interned In Germany." We received nrdurs to march to Varennes and left the next morning. As we reached the heights of Varennes about noon we saw the wide country before us and the city nestling In the valley. Farther up on the heights was Vauqunls. Nothing could be seen of any houses but through our field glasses we could make out an enormous ash heap. Sheila fell there continuously and we were frightened at the pros- CHAPTER XVI. The next day we received orders to march to an unknown destination. We eoon arrived at the depot of A KMM where we were obliged to wall. The depot had been destroyed. The next Station was Chntel. Roth of these places are about five kilometers behind the front. The prisoners ware assembled In Apremout. Several of them had come from that town. Their families were etui In their homes and ninny prlsouere asked permission to visit them. 1 had occasion to witness such a visit in Ap remout. Two reserves led one of the prisoners to the house, which he had pointed out as his. The prisoner's young wife wits in the kitchen with her three Children, We followed them into the house. The woman turned pale as she sud denly saw her husband. They em braced. We went outside for we felt out of place there. The woman had not had a letter from her husband for five months lie cause the GmbhUM were between hei and her husband's army Re had been In the 1 1 em lies tor n month, realising how Bsarbj ins wife and children were, yet suable to reach them and with no way of knowing whether they were ellve or deed. How he must have felt us the French shells iieu over bis head on their way to Apretnoni I There was no way of knowing whether the glow In the sky caused by the burning of a house was fur nished by his home or not. livery thing became a torturing uncertainty and all of lire was ., m il. Home again for a few hours; then sway, a prisoner! At least he would be able to get word to his wife by letter through the field posts Finally he said good by. Ills wife bad nothing to give him. no laundry, no food. Everything had been lost and she lived on the soldiers' bounty. She gave him her last money and he refused to take It. She accepted the money back. It consisted of a few ? and 10 pfSSV nil? pieces and some coppers, all she had. Unable to endure this we took a col lection among ourselves. We made up more than 10 marks. Watch, we gave to the young woman. She refused it at ilrst, then looking at tier husband, she took It Slid tried to kjsa our hands. When we refused to let her do this she ran to a store neurby and returned with cigars, tobacco, mutdies and sau sage, which she gave to her husband. She smiled perhaps for the first time In a long while. This Village Had Changed Hands Mora Than Fifteen Times. pect of having to go to that spot. Scarcely had we crossed the heights when some shells hurst behind us. The Preach artillery even singled out indi viduals. While Vauquols was In theB possession they could co-ordinate tin entire neighborhood. We iimli rstood now why tills ash heap' had been con tested for so bitterly. We ran down hill till we enme to Varennes. The southern section of the town had been wrecked Uy shells and tire. Many chimneys were all that was left standing of whole rowe of housea. Soldiers everywhere collected scraps of metal which were transport ed to Germany. The church bell-, were loaded on wagons and sent away. All the copper, tin, brass and nickel which could be found was gathered. The next morning we went Into the trenches. We had to reach our posi tion before daybreak, for 'with daylight the French kept all the approaches un der tire. There was not much of a trench In Vauquols. All that could be seen was a single stone pile. Literally, there was not. in this town, one stone left upon another. The ruins of this village had changed hands more than fifteen times. When we arrived one half of Vauquols was in German hands. The French were In possession of tb- hlghesl points from which they could overlook the country for many Ullles. In default of a trench we sought cover behind the stones, for it was im possible to dig trenches here, ns the ar tillery leveled everything. The soldiers concealed themselves behind stone walls and fired. Artillery of all cali ber covered these ruins. Amid all this destruction laj nu army of corpses, mostly German. CHAPTER XVII. Wo were of the opinion at first thftt this was only h temporary condition, but after a few days we saw a slaughter horderini: on Insanity under taken again ami again. H.v night and day it was always the same. I'slng Verdun as their base, the French con stantly brought up nev masses of troops. They had marshaled their heavy guns from the nearer Verdun forts by the use of field railways. In the spring of IS15 both sides be gan an offensive of local, but of an In ed Vauquols so that not a square foot of land could be found which had SO'i Men torn up by shells. Thousands anrt thousands of shells, large and small, were hurled Into the town for three days and three nights. This continued until not a single sol dier was left In the village, for both French and Germans had to retire from tills fire from both sides, as It was absolutely impossible to have sur vived this hell. The entire hill and ad Joining heights were enveloped In smoke. On the evening of the third dny the enemy bombardment abated somewbut and we were MM more sent Into the pile of debris, which had been torn by a hundred thousand shells. It was not yet dusk, and as the French had also advanced an attack developed. They came Into our lines Uh strong reserve units and the w-blest kind of a hand to-hand encounter ensued. Sharp daggers Hew from hend to head, breast to breast. Men stood on corpses In order to Ml I new corpses New enemies continued to arrive For each man who was killed three others appeared. We also received re-enforcements, thus permitting the slaughter to eon tlnue. Bad) man fought fren.iedly, expect ing his death blow momentarily. No life was worth a penny. Bach man fought like n beast. I stumbled and fell upon the stones and in less lime than Is required to re late It I saw before me a giant French' man with a pioneer's spade raised to strike a blow. With light ningllke speed I dodged and the spade struck a stone. In the next moment my adversary had a dagger plunged to the hilt In Ills abdomen. He went down with a terrible cry and crumpled up In agony on the ground. 1 thrust the dagger Into my boot and stized the spade. There were new enemies all around and the spade came In handy. I struck an enemy between the head and shoulders. The sharp spade en tered his body and burled itself half way In. I heard the bones crack under the force of the blow. Another ndversary was nearby and I dropped the spade and seized the dagger. He struck me with his flst and the blood ran from my mouth and nose. We clenched. - My dagger was In my right hand. Each of us held the other around th breast. He was not superior to me In strength yet he clung to me as tightly as I did to him. We tried to reach each other with our teeth. T still held the dagger buf was unable to strike. Soon one of us would have to let go. While I was trying my best to find a way to kill him there was s terrlbl explosion nearby. I saw my opponent fall aniflk my self felt a terrible pain In tire right side of my lower jaw. I ran as quickly aa I could to thf rear and after a search of severs hours found a dressing station. wher I was bandaged. My face was so swollen that the doc tor could not tell whether or not mj Jaw had been broken. I wns placed on a train for woundet men, bound for Germany, and wai taken to a hospital In Dusseldorf. I arrived at Dusseldorf August 28 191.1. My wound was not dangerom and thev expected I would be cured Ir 14 days. Yet It required three weeks. During this time I made up my mini1 firmly that I would not murder anj more people at the order of and t( further the Interests of Hnhenzollern Ism, (bat this war would mean the en of the Hohennollerns and of Prussia i militarism. I decided to dsasrt to Hoi land. CHAPTER xvm. f prevailed upon the authorities S gn nt me an eight-day furlough to visit I inj home and I took edvantage of this ' to cross the Dutch border. I left my borne under a pretence of Intending to , vlsrj relath s. wearlug civilian cloth ing. I bought a railroad ticket to KaW denklrchen, a medlurj-sir.ed town near the Dutch border. During my trip to Kaldenkirchen I had plenty of time to review all that had hpppened. How different everything was after the first year of the war! My homa town once a lively country settlement, was now as calm as a graveyard. Is this town, which had a population bo fore the war of g,0U0 souls, more than 40 had been killed and many others crippled. Food was very high with lit tle to be had. There was no enthusiasm for tits wsr manifest anywhere. The people were downhearted, stunned. It was the same In other cities. The longing for peace was universal yet no one talked of peace or expressed tht desire for It. One word spoken, which displeased the autocratic government, merited the severest punishment. Tnat Is how It la to be explained that the German peo ple cannot force the Boheusallsms Into pence because the government with MststaaM of the military, smothered every expression of peace with Mood, even at that early date. The pi es, in Prussian government win als lighter anj Qermsa citizen -o' further Its own Interests in the MUM i say that it attacked the Innocent pom ulaflon of Belgium with ut regard. With a cleiin eouscience ami clean hands ! "(iott strafe Bngtand. Br 1st strafe ear doing through the streets this whs heard right and left as a comment and a reply. To m". fresh from the front, this UBd of greeting was unknown. Presently I learned the reason if hatred within the German nation waa not so great toward France and Rus sia. The people quietly accepted the enor mous sacrifices w hich the war demand ed from them In course of time. Rut the government, which even then, foresnw the unfavorable courss the war was taking, conceived the Ides of setting England up as the arch enemy which Intended to destroy Ger many entirely. The German war machine made uss of the blockade which England drew around Oermnny to such an extent, playing upon child murder, so-called, thifl the people developed an ever-increasing hatred toward Knglnnd. The French language was no longer spoken anywhere. A large part of ths Oerman people formerly used the French word "adieu," as a farewell ex pression but that was stopped. Care had to be taken In the use of this word to avoid arrest on a charge of high reason. I thought about these things as I II eared my temporary destination. I was sufficiently acquainted with the border so thnt when I arrived In Kal denkirchen I was able to rench It with out asking any questions. The spot which I had selected for crossing lay In a forest. After a march of two hours I arrived mar the bonier. It wns soon dnrk and I decided to tnaln 'n the woods over night. The next morning at daylight I v-n-tared on and without being seen by ths guards I crossed Into Dutch territory. With a sigh of relief I arrived at the next town. Ven in Holland. Everywhere 1 was received In a friendly manner. I observed that the Dutch people bated the German people as much as I did. After passing several months tn Holland, w here tens of thousands more German deserters lived. I made up my mind to move farther nujay than that from Germany for the arms of the Ger man government are long and Its spies are everywhere In most cases con scienceless criminals. Some of my Dutch friends made ms scqunlnted with sailors and these con sented to smuggle me to America on their ship. When the ship departed I was placed In the conl bunkers and ar rived after 14 days In New York, safs and well. The first thing that struck me on sr rlvlng In the United States was ths wide latitude permitted German propa ganda. Most of the German papers pub lished here were body and soul for the kaiser and tried dally to Justify the German fight for the German cause. In this respect the government In Washington certainly went too far un til It was realized that no concessions could be made to the Prussian govern ment and thnt concessions made to Washington were nothing but deceitful talk, sustained only by action when It served its Interests of Imperialism. The promises which the German gov ernment made to Washington concern ing the Lusltnnln case, the U-boat war fare and so forth, were nothing but de celt on the part of the Rerlln govern ment It was the desire to preserve peace for the American people which Im pelled President Wilson, again and again, not to declare war and If Amer ica fights today It has only kept faith with Its democratic principles and as sisted the world In defensive war against the autocracy that Is a constant menace for the world, which prepared for this war over several decades. With the entrance of America Into the war the backbone of Prussinh mili tarism will I s broken. The Hlnden burgs and the Hohenzollerna nrs doomed. A victory for the allies will be a victory for democracy and a vic tory of the greatest majority seeking the welfare of the human race. (THE BND.) PRINCESS MURAT WferiHyHBjH flfl mmV aKasHamM Princes:; Murat, farmrrly M ss Hel ena Str'lo of New Ycrl;, hM ben ap pointed a member of the directing beard of the Friends of Fr.mce, tht new international ro. :ty formed for the promotion of close coolal and in tellectual rotat-Cai between this coun try and Franca. One Carload Every Two Minutes e had sme rga rtj In ly ind ar da ta , to at the 1 1 ick- t sde ay the w) Diesel-era xr xol s ond to the is 70 I 917. do- of ' han V the Is) as iet 15,000 POUNDS MEAT A MINUTE GOING TO ALLIES One Hog Out of Every Four Being Sent Abroad, Shipments of meat have been going to the allies for aome time at the rate of 16,000 pounds a minute. Aa the shipments are kept up during a ten hour day they amount to 9,000,000 rounds daily. The meat goes to sol diers of the United States and ths al lies and to the civilian population of all the countries at war with Germany. OsMSJS Tr&UMM, June (. 1111 T nlf In mo hoi of mo ta t In a ns mitt on ' R I all W. els wl $2t tha ! clai These statements were made by a prom inent representative of the United States Food Administration. No industry in the country has played a more important part in helping to win the war than the American live stock and meat-packing industry. Swift & Company alone has been forward ing over 500 car loads of meat and meat products per week for overseas shipment. Swift & Company, U.S. A. The wonderful thing about- the Erin t Gamble Concert Party Is that, whereas other musical companies have a life of from one to four years on i.he com n t stage, this one is continually before the public. A fiist rute, evenly balanced company with a fine ensemble is not the result of bringing together a few performers of various ability each successive season. The present personnel of the Gamble Concert Party has remained the same for four seasons and th re has been but one change in six years. The result is an all around polished and perfected performance rarely heard. The artists are not talenred amateurs, but skilled professionals, each the product of the greatest European masters. The oldest member of the party is Mr. Erin .-t Gamble, who is just attaining the zenith of his great career at thirty-six The fact that for the past twelve seasons he has aver aired 150 concerts yearly and has achieved a position on the concert plat term facile princepa, is a just tribute fo his glorious voice and superb style of singing. The delightful violinist. Viss Verna Page, and Miss Shonert, piano virtuoso, are by no nie.ins to ie called support. They sh.ir-- the program ecually with Mr. Gambit and are quits as successful and essential to the completeness of the fine performance of The Gamble Party. Moreover, thf mmbination of voice, piano, and violin is ideal. Tin Ernest Qanbu Concert Parti has become an Institution in tn.' n i! world and on the lyceum platform. It has a high reputation and si .nds for fine, legitimate and artist Ic ideals. It is popular and widely known from coast to coast, and he name of The Gamble Party in music r; uka with such strong men -j. Liua vi'us, Weadllng and ConwsU as lecturer To be heard on third day of Chaufamiua. ALLIANCE EVIDENCE EOR ALLIANCE PEOPLE The Statements of Alliance Kcsidt-i ts Am surely Mom Hrliahis Than Those of l iter Stranger-. Home testimony is real proof. Public statements of Alliance peo ple carry real Weight, What friend or neighbor s.-.ys CO i pels respect. The word of one whose home is far away invites your doubts. Here's an Alliance man's state ment. And it's for Alliance people's ben - fit Such evidence is convincing. That's the kind of proof that bac'.s Doun's Kidney Pills. i. 11. 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