Bixby Bulletin (Bixby, Okla.), Vol. 10, No. 31, Ed. 1 Friday, October 2, 1914 Page: 4 of 8
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BIXBY. OKLA. BULLETIN
ALLIED FORCES
GAIN 20 MILES
: ON THE GERMANS
After Sixteen Days’ Fighting
Along Aisne River They
Advance Lines In
Northwest France.
CRACOWSURROUNDED
Russians Throw Forces Around 8tra-
getic Point in Austria—Airships
Drop Bombs—More Naval
Action is Reported.
(.Summary oj Events.)
The allies claim substantial
pains apainst the army of Gen.
Von Kluek in northwestern
France, and the Germans admit
sliplit advances by the French-
British forces, but assert the
movement is not decisive. This
is the latest development, accord-
ing to the most reliable sources,
of the general engagement known
as the battle of the Aisne River,
proceeding on a line from Rheims
the eastern Austrian TUtlea of Lem-
berg and t’zeruowitz, together with a
number of smaller cities in northern
Austria, and they besiege the fortified
city of Cracow, near (he Austro Itusn-
ian-Uerman boundary juncture. The
Slavs also have a strong foothold in
Prussia, near Konlgsberg, and in Si-
lesia, near Iireslau.
The Servians have succeeded in tak-
ing the city of Sarajevo, in southern
Austria, where the assassination of
Archduke Ferdinand and his wife was
an indirect cause of the vur. They
are working northeastwardly through
itesnia into Croatia and Slavonia, all
southern Austria provinces.
Aeroplanes Drop Bombs.
There appears to have been more
aircraft activity during the last Beven
days than ever before in a conflict.
While Sunday crowds filled the
streets of Paris, on the afternoon
of September 27, a German aeroplane
dropped four bombs upon the city. A
man was killed and his little daugh-
ter crippled. Many houses were dam-
aged. One of the bombs fell near the
American embassy.
Russian aero-cannon brought down
a German dirigible balloon near War-
saw, Russia, the same day, after the
airship had dropped bombs which
killed three soldiers.
Another German dirigible dropped
bombs on the Belgian cities of Alost,
Ghent, Dynze, Minolboke and Rolleg-
hem, the night of the 26th, killing one
man and setting fire to many build-
ings.
A fleet of British aeroplanes dropped
bombs on the Zeppelin airship sheds
at Cologne, Germany. Belgians and
French aircraft have dropped bombs
FRESH MEAT FOR FRENCH CRUISER
M '-Et'.ng ztrz V arJbarfi at 2f "tews which ware i+kvu aboaf.d ine ?:*sucli-
cruiaer Montcalm in the harbor of San Diego, Cal. The Montcalm, which ia
now in Pacific waters searching tor German cruisers, Is unequipped with a
cold storage plant, and narrt»« tn«t enough fresh beef for immediate con-
sumption.
w to ('ompie<*ne on tlic
< hse river, and northward from
that point to the Belgian border.
Official reports from Berlin de-
elare that the forts and defensive
positions in the neighborhood of
ei dun, France, near the Alsa-
<m border, have been silenced by
’luj-n heavy artillery fire after
<1 days of very serious fight-
t'iie French and British war
1 lives are silent on war develop-
ients at this point.
Hand to Hand Fighting.
Both Berlin and Paris and London
\ye-n d.w 'sivo resu.ts fr m the bat-
• e (he <ne v ^
. siium September 12. within me
( ext few day*. The opposing armies
ere worn out alter the first ten days
- fighting, and the battle became
tactically an artillery duel until
bout tiie fifteenth day of the en-
agement when heavy re-enforce-
lents were received by both Ger-
uuis and allies. Infantry and
rivalry action became much sharper
lmost at once, and numerous lmnd-
j-haix* bayonet fighting was re-
1 orted.
There have been no denials from
German sources that the allies had
pushed hack the entrenched and em-
battled German infantry and artillery
about fifteen miles in northwest
France up to September 26. They are
said to have gained about five miles
more the two succeeding days.
Slavs and Serbs Winning.
The Russians, with a million men.
are pounding the Austrians and Ger-
mans and advancing slowly southward
in Austria and westward in Prussia
The Japanese are reported to have
reduced two of the forts guarding the
German colony and naval base at
Tsing Tao, in the Chinese leased
province of Kaio Chow. The Japs
have 30,000 troops In the field and a
strong fleet blocking the harbor ^here.
The czar will propose a federation
of Kuropean nations, the “United
States of Europe,” official reports
from Petrograd say, for the purpose
of limiting armaments hereafter, as
soon as the present war is over.
Russians Into Hungary.
London.—“Pursuing their success,
the Russians have pushed over the
Carpathian range and captured Uzsok
(Hungary), near the source of the
River Ungh, with numbers of guns,
artillery stores and prisoners,” says
the Petrograd correspondent of the
Morning Post. “Thence the Russians
have descended into the plains of
Hungary.”
Belgians Occupy Alost.
London.—The Ostend correspondent
of Reuter’s Telegram Company in a
dispatch dated Sunday, says: "The
Belgian troops in a sortie from Ant-
werp had advanced a little over a mile
in the direction of Erpe, when they
met a strong body of German cavalry.
In a sharp fight which ensued, the
Germans were repulsed and the Bel-
gians occupied Alost.”
Strike Simultaneously.
London. — Almost simultaneous
the two great hammer strokes in the
battle in Northern France have fal-
len and some decisive results must
be announced before long. The allies
have struck the German right wing
and the Germans on their part have
hurled themselves against the French
line between Verdun and Toul.
The commencement of these two
attacks in earnest was disclosed by
a French official statement, but little
is told of how they are progressing.
Hit the German Line Hard.
The action against the German
right is described as a very violent
general one, in which the French left
encountered an army corps composed
of troops which the Germans brought
from the center of Lorraine and the
Vosges.
The clash occurred In the district
between Tergnier and St. Quentin, so
that the French have made a consid-
erable advance to the northwest since
the last mention was made of this
part of their army.
Both Sides Reinforced.
London.—It wras learned that addi-
tional British troops have reached
the scene of the fighting in France.
They are reported to have been land-
ed at Ostend and Boulogne and to be
supported by a new French army
sent north from the mobilization cen-
ter in the south. It Is this army upon
which the allies are now believed to
be depending to complete the isola-
tion of the German right and to en-
velop the armies of Von Kluck and
Von Boehm.
German troops are being trans-
ported into France over the railway
line between Munich, Gladbach and
Aix-la-Chappelle, according to the
Amsterdam correspondent of Reuter’s
Telegram Company, who says this
fact .,s„8tnted in q, tglegraqj from,
Maestrlcht.
British in Baltic?
London.—A dispatch to the Stan-
dard from Copenhagen states that a
fishing fleet has arrived at Falken-
berg, Sweden, which has been in
HORRORS OF THE WAR AS SEEN OY
CORRESPONDENT ON OATTLEFIELD
upon German towns along the border,
and the Germans have dropped txplo-, close proximity to a fleet of thirty
sive shells on Ostend, Belgium, and
at Amiens, France.
More Naval Activity.
Fourteen hundred seamen, including
sixty officers, were killed, about Sep-
tember 22, when a German submarine
torpedo boat blew up the British flrst-
class cruisers Aboukir, Hogue and
Cressy, in the North Sea. The Eng-
lish now have 200 war vessels in
these waters.
The British cruiser Pegasus was
sunk by the German cruiser Konigs-
berg in the harbor of Zanzibar, South
Africa, recently | M[
’> v rag-! cru*ser Bayan sank aj I»ndon.—From several points the
12. within Ikn ®Ll r ■*••»<! io.- i nev g u-.r- received that the kaiser
boats which were laying mines in the
warships. They were sighted in the
vicinity of Anholt, a Danish island in
the Kattegat, a large arm of the
North sea, which has Sweden on the
east and Jutland on the west. The
news has caused great excitement
here.
Repulse Belgrade Assault.
Nish, Servia.—The Austrian forces
have again endeavored to cross* the
Danube at Belgrade and were re-
pulsed as they were on every prev-
ious endeavor, the war efftee an-
nounced.
The Kaiser Reported III.
By EDWARD PRICE BELL.
Correspondent of the Chicago News.
London.—Moving stories of the ruin
and agony of war in central Belgium
have been told me by F. A. McKenzie,
editor of the London Weekly Times,
best known for his work as a cor-
respondent in the Japanese war and
the Russian revolution. Obviously Mc-
Kenzie spoke honestly In every word
he uttered, and like every other ex-
perienced war correspondent from Bel-
gium and Franco I have interviewed
he was unable to describe what he wit-
nessed without an occasional redden-
ing of the eyes and faltering of the
voice.
“I have seen savage war in many
lands,” said Mr. McKenzie, “but never
before anything like that which Bel-
gium shows was done there. Oriental
armies in the hour of victory or Rus-
sian troops when relentlessly sup-
pressing internal rebellion were mild
and merciful compared with the treat-
ment given to this people.
“The German plan of terrorism was
carefully calculated and Germany
does not deny this. Its aim is not
alone to prevent people from attempt-
ing to break the lines of communica-
tion in Belgium, but even more so
to alarm the neighboring Dutch peas-
antry that Holland would not join
the allies.
Burning of Belgian Towns.
“The German excuse is that the
burning of Belgian towns and villages
was done only as a punishment for
attacks by civilians. Yet In case aft-
er case entire districts were burned
out apparently because of the stub-
born resistance offered by the Belgian
army. Take, for example, Belle, a
place four miles from Ghent. Here a
little force of 500 Belgian volunteers
with two cannon successfully held up
several thousand Germans for two
hours and made them pay heavily in
life before the defenders retired.
“When the Germans entered the
town there was no resistance by the
villagers, who knew too well what
their fate would be. The troops went
Into the houses and feasted off the lit-
tle stores of provisions. Officers occu-
pied the largest buildings in the vil-
lage, the home of a lawyer, a com-
fortable three story building. The
lawyer’s wife anxiously gave them her
best, but when the dinner was over
the house was burned with 50 other
small houses.
Graves in Front of Kitchens.
”1 stood in the village street after
the Germans had gone as it was
marked by the burning ruins. I no-
ticed that the graves of the victims
had been dug sometimes in front of
their own kitchen doors. I had to ask
myBelf whether the whole thing was
not a fevered dream. The only crime
of these people was that their village
had been the scene of a battle in
which several German officers had
been shot.
“I entered the ruins of a farmhouse
where the eldest Bon, a lad of nine-
teen,-had-been shot kefore.b1« mtJher
and father’s eyes, because the Ger-
mans thought he was old enough to
be a soldier. The house was biymed
so thoroughly that not a dish, not a
scrap of wood and not an article worth
five cents remained. A child had
been killed close by, possibly by ac-
cident. With home gone, crops ruined
and the eldest son dead, the family
was so stupefied with grief that they
scarcely could reply to my questions.
“Down the roadway I could see
mothers coming back, gazing distract-
edly at the ruins of their old homes,
seeking for husbands and Bons, fear-
ing to ask for their daughters and in
some cases looking for their babes
and finding them In the ashes of
death.
While Termonde Burned.
“Not long afterward I stood In one
of the few houses left in Termonde.
German officers also made this their
headquarters during the sack of the
Baltic sea.
Three Austrian torpedo boats were
sunk by mines in the Adriatic sea,
September 24.
News was given out officially, Sep-
tember 26, that Lissa, the Austrian
island naval base and garrison in the
Adriatic, was bombarded and captured
by a French fleet, September 19.
1 roops later landed from the warships
and hoisted the French and British
flags over the forts.
Italy Flirts With War.
Rome reports that Austria is mass-
ing troops along the Italian border
and intends to invade Italy. Further
reports from the same source say Ger-
many asked permission to move
troops across Swiss territory, but was
refused; and that the Swiss asked
Italy to support them.
Italy has practically completed the
mobilization of her troops, and it ap-
pears to disinterested observers that
“I went to the Termonde art gallery,
which a month ago was the pride of
the district. Then it had a fine collec-
tion of Flemish pictures, now the en-
trances, corridors, and various rooms
are a mass of charred woodwork, with
here and there a head of a statuette or
plaster cast left. One of the chiefs
of the gallery came in while I was
there and gazed at the wreck of the
place which had been his life’s pride.
With clenched fists he cried, ’Canaille!
Canaille!’
The Wrongs of the People.
"Termonde is a city of ghosts. It
seemed impossible that street after
street of crumbling ruins could a week
before have been a busy, pleasant,
prosperous Belgian town. There was
the church of the Benedictine fathers
with the roof oft and the interior
gutted and burnt. All that was left of
a massive oak door were the iron
hinges. Still standing in place was
the religious statuary, which had been
deliberately shattered with the butt*
of rifles before the place was set on
fire. I noticed the figures at the sta-
tions of the cross with the heads of
Mary, the Christ and the attendant
crowds smashed in.
“Melle and Termonde are typical of
a large part of the country, but there
are exceptions. In some places the
German soldiers carried out their or-
ders to destroy bouses with evident
reluctance and did no more than they
were ordered to do. Apart from burn-
ing houses they behaved with mercy
and kindliness. In other places I
found that the troops and followed the
burning with a policy of deliberate
outrage—a policy which 1 believe the
German people, if they could under-
stand it, would repudiate and de-
’ nounce.
“The most painful side of the busi-
ness was the Innumerable accounts of
wholesale outrages against women,
young girls and even children. One
responsible official told me of some of
the horrors and he was almost in tear*
as he spoke. ‘Of these cases,’ he said,
‘we can tell, but of most of them we
can never learn anything. Often out-
rage was followed by murder ant! of-
ten, too, a woman hides her shame.’
The Policy of Terrorism.
“Where does the responsibility for
these doings lie? They are the direct
outcome of the policy of the German
general staff, which decided on a pol-
icy of terror. It should be known that
soldiers employed in burning and loot-
ing are bound In part to get out of
hand and follow the burning and loot-
ing with outrages that make all hu-
manity recoil. But the Germans have
defeated their own purpose Out of
the grief, agony and loss of the little
people a new nation Is arising. Two
months ago Belgium lacked unity, and
apparently all those great, inspiring
forces which make a race supreme.
Germany has given her these. The
people are being made great and
strong by suffering.
„ "Aji I we/it among the Belg’ar «r
mles during my journey I saw soldiers
often poorly armed, unsuitably dressed
and not over well organized resisting
great German regiments and my heart
went out to them. Cheery and un-
afraid, the officers and men greeted
one everywhere. It was splendid be-
yond words.
Now Winter Is at Hand.
“I wish I could say something that
would bring home to the sympathetic
and kindly American people the real
need of Belgium. Today tens of thous.
ands are still living torn from their
homes and in sore distress. England
is looking after many, but vast num-
bers remain without shelter, with lit-
tle food and with everything gone.
Winter is on them and unless some-
thing is done the frosts and snows of
the coming weeks, the lack of food and
the absence of clothing will complet*
the work the Germans began.
is suffering from a severe cold and is i
under the care of the imperial phy-
sician.
Heavy Artillery Active.
London.—Heavy artillery continues
to play a leading part in the battle
qf the Aisne, which now has been
in progress more than a fortnight. With
the greatest stubbornness the oppos-
ing forces continue to hammer away
at each other from their well en-
trenched and strongly fortified posi-
tions, but up to the present without
reaching any decision.
Almost without a lull, great shells
are being hurled across the rivers,
valleys and plains stretching from the
River Oise in the west to the Meuse
in the east, and thence southward
along the whole France-German bor-
der, while the lighter guns play on
the infantry lying in the trenches
awaiting an opportunity to deliver at-
tacks and counter attacks, with, as
the French official communication
towrf,’ and they had marked on t^e bn- ****! ..«? t?lroP-^lv 1
v-HMn* .<m V. •v"7r‘ any decent man who saw
the saturnalia of cruelty and passion
in that devastated land could not well
say less.”
""‘I Sil0sia- Th0y continue to hold conflict on the side of the allies
she is seeking a pretext to enter th.? Isays, “alternate retirement
on cer-
tain points and advance on othera."
tei—the vriling still remained- dii
tlcns tnat the house was to be spared.
While Termonde was burning they
made holiday here. They found a
gramophone and plenty of champagne.
They seated themselves in the garden,
played tunes, sang and drank to the
crackling chorus of 1,600 burning
homes. A woman who witnessed the
feast said to me: ‘These Germans are
veritably without hearts.’
“When the officers had gone the
camp followers, who acted as order-
lies and hangers-on around the army,
burst open the door and ravaged the
house. Every window was broken, al-
most every bit of glass shattered, the
furniture smashed, drawers pulled out
and emptied, desks ransacked and cup-
boards laid bare. In the day nursery
a children’s toy dresser was forced
open and rummaged. The playthings
n ere thrown all around the nurserv
and books were tom and hurled to dif-
ferent parts of the room. Every-
where in the house the Germans
wrought havoc evidently for the sheer
pleasure of destroying.
German Schoolboys st Front.
London.—A dispatch to the Ex-
change Telegraph company from Bor-
deaux asserts that boys under six-
teen years old are fighting in th*
German ranks. The correspondent de-
clares he saw one wounded in th*
Bordeaux hospital whose age wa*
fifteen years and nine months and
who told him that all pupils at school
over fifteen had been mobilized and
placed in different regiments.
Death for 8elllng Newspaper*.
London.—"The German military
governor of Brussels," says the Ex-
change Telegraph’s Ostend correspon-
dent, “threatens to Bhoot all vender*
or other persons possessed of Belgian
or English newspaper.’’ German pa-
pers and some Dutch papers of pro-
nounced German sympathies alone ar*
permitted.
-«r*>
4 *
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Worsham, Harry W. Bixby Bulletin (Bixby, Okla.), Vol. 10, No. 31, Ed. 1 Friday, October 2, 1914, newspaper, October 2, 1914; Bixby, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc496330/m1/4/: accessed April 23, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.