TOLLING OF THE BELLS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 221, 22 October 1914, Page 8

TOLLING OF THE BELLS.

GERMAN EXCUSES FOR LOUVAIN. WHY THE TOWN WAS SACRIFICED Dr Paul Graben, correspondent of the ''Berliner Tageblatt," explains the destruction of Louvain in the following terms: — Our infantry, with all their baggage, had just begun their inarch to the railroad station, and were passing through the main street. Nothing in the appearance of the town betrayed anything unusual. On the contrary, the inhabitants nodded in a friendly way to the troops, and some of them even motioned to soldiers and officers to stop and take a glass of wine for refreshment. Suddenly, the bells began to toll furiously, and in the next moment there

dubitably, as I said before, that the larger part of the population had been given notice of the long-prepared attack. The task, therefore, was to visit condign punishment upon the entire population of the town. " But since it was impossible to execute forty-five thousand people, the order was given to convert their dwellings into smoking ruins—a punishment to them and a warning example to others in the country in which the accursed guerrilla warfare continues —as a holy and patriotic duty. .And so it was done, all inhabitants were commanded to leave the town within an hour, and then flames arose, and old. Louvain, which could look back upon an existence of almost 1200 years, fell a prey to destruction. Destruction Not Universal. Yet it was not complete destruction. In the vicinity of the railroad station a few buildings remained intact. Above all, there still stands the worldfamous Town Hall, one of the jewels of

A SHOCKING GERMAN OUTRAGE.

ensued a rattling • and clattering, a downpour of rifle balls, upon the pavement, as though all the powers of hell were suddenly let loose. Hearts stood still in icy., terror, instinctively our soldiers threw themselves down upon the pavement, and each one thought while the Satanic fusillade roader over him, in front and behind, on the right and the left, that his last hour had come. Each thought all the others dead and. imagined that he alone was alive. But soon the paralysing spell was'broken. A lieutenant jumps up to his full height and calls out in a voice vibrating with unrestrained anger, "Up, you fellows, and at them!" And they all jump up from the pavement, all who are still living, all who can still move hand or foot. In furious resentment doors are being battered in. And woe to.him who is found in the "house with arms in his possession—he has only time to send a short prayer to Heaven. A Hellish Clatter. "Meanwhile, a hellish clatter has been heard at the station, by the comrades who had already mounted■< the train. What is this! Each heart beats louder. A captain jumps from tho r compartment and runs around the locomotive to see, what is the matter, At this moment a fusillade is already being directed towards the train. Withput a sound, the captain drops to the ground, and with him the locomotive engineer and the fireman. The shots fired through the glass win- ! dbws of the railroad station are unable to restrain the furious indignation of pur men. Every car is being .emptied, and in mad haste the troops, bayonet in hand, pour into the town, to assist their comrades. The.die is cast, resistance is useless, in a short time the entire part of the town is surrounded, the 1 houses-"are ' emptied, its inhabitants driven together. Men Killed; Women Taken Away. Men aTe now being separated from ' women with their children. Severe sentence is being meted out to the men. Whoever is found guilty falls a victim |to the well-deserved bullet, in particu-

lar the leaders of the attack, the students and priests, who had to pay instantly the penalty of their crime. Women and children were taken away. Their destination was Antwerp, where they were to be left in care of the'i r Own countrymen. But the bestial ferocity of many women, who had taken part in tthe treacherous struggle showed itself even now. An eye-witness told me that one of these furies resisted fiercely when taken into custody, kicking and biting savagely and screaming.: "Bite through every German throat, put out their eyes! " All |he fact 3 in the case prove in-

Butch art, as well as St. Peter's Church, with its valuable old paintings; These monumental edifices were preserved by distinct order of the commanding officer. It was also his" intention to spare the University Library with its valuable old manuscripts and prints; but unfortunately it 4 was impossible, in existing excitement of those hours, to ascertain where the library buildings stood. Only after the flames had reached it was the commander informed of the fact. He instantly gave orders to put out the fire,,and our men tried their utmost; unfortunately, it was too late. Much as must be regretted such sad occurrences as the entire destruction of a town, no right-thinking person will blame our soldiers for what was a logical outcome of the situation. . . . The picture of the destruction of Louvain revealed itself to hie even before the military train on which I was rolled into the station. ''."'' A Waste Place Remains. What a frightful picture ,of destruction! Nothing but the bare enclosure of the main building of the station itself which had consisted of hundreds of glass windows, the platforms and the tracks a confused mass of glass splinters, debris, and fragments of military, uniforms. I leave the station and enter the town. One of the remaining houses bears the inscription, in chalk, on the door: — '' Spare our little house, you good; folks, we are well behaved!" Horrors of Destruction. The very first street I enter shows me the horrors of destruction to their fullest extent.. House after house, blackened by smoke, is roofless, only the bare four walls are standing, and inside there is a chaos of dehris. But far away, at the end of a long flight of streets, there rises above the burned and ghostly fragments of roofs, the graceful profile of a lofty edifice, the two gables of-the high Gothic roof each flanked by three-pointed turrets, the well-known silhouette of the farfamed Town Hall. In contrast to the ghastly work of destruction all round, this peaceful creation of the human mind touches one most deeply, and the soul is filled with deep mourning over the pas-

HioitH flint lntd lirotiglit mieli mlwiy on Lonvitin.

The Hl.mH, Iml'din me in covered with the bodien of liornen- umong them it few dead dogH -all sihot down in the wake of the bultalioiiH to which they belong. Sliiiilderlngly |;li« eye dlwomod m.'lho hninnn boilieH, Three, I'oiir, lie there, civlliiuiM, Willi ginned t'yefi, their pitle i'oßtureH wildly iUmloi'likl, I'lillon whore tho ball hit (himi w tlm bayoiiol pierced them. The HotiUnel who patrols the. still smoking street wailiH up to me with a word of warning. '' Stray shots are still being fired," lie says, "from tho cellars of ruined houses, and everywhere fellows

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