The Deadly Lebel

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 25, 27 August 1891, Page 3

The Deadly Lebel

"Reports from competent military authorities who ■ have recently visited the *cene of the recent deplorable massacre at Fourmies the little French town on the Belgian frontier, seems to slmw that the iiew Lebel* rifle is a terribly engine of idestrnction. This wis the first occasion 6nlwhich{?lt ? ha&beeh used ; rb anything liteiacttial hostilities One of the little with sach frightful Telocity, was foind j to haVe gone through the bodies of three of the poor •victims in succession. Although so much smaller than the ordinary leaden bullet, some of these jball ploughed holes about ■■'■v4yffiSqiiare : iii'-;lhe wall of a little drinkipg >^hop in'the line of fire at the opposite side -of the square, from that in which the troops were drawn . ur. A woman who ntpod ibehind the counter had a tumbler in her hands literally smashed to Smithereens. The glass was reduced to fine fiust and scattered all over the place. Forty spldiers fired, and practically they otily fi^ed vbnce, for the first time they .aimed high up in the air. yet the. number o£ killed was seven and tUe wounded were counted by scores. Some of *ue latter had hideous looking wounds in two, three, and inVaonie cases four, different parts of thVliodyiili was a priest from the neighiiburing\chiSrct who courageously rushed forward MH^^tancliug between the sol* <lier« and the mob, held up his hands t<> beg that the murderous work might cease. H© declares he saw rather than heard the soldiers fire. There was little or no #ound, he says, and there was no perceptible smoke from the gunpowder.