GERMAN ORGY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 11, 14 January 1915, Page 6

GERMAN ORGY.

"Pardons," as they are still called, occupy a well-defined 'place in the public life of certain villages- in Bnttainy (writes the Paris correspondent of the London Daily Tlcgraph). They are part and parcel of the local manners and customs'of the people. ■ Religious in their origin, they in time gradually cleveldped into undisguised popular festivals; somewhat resembling the UU English 5 fair in their character. Occasions for feasting and merrymaing "pardons" are about the last sort of gathering of wllieh one would expect to bear hi time of war, and especially during such' ia 'sanguinary conflict as the Germans have now provoked iri Enrdpe. It is therefore-with not a little interest that one'learns' from the "Figaro" that some time agb a "pardon" was held'in one of the smiling little villages which 'find'their' picturesque contours reflected; in' the waters of the Metise. -Launched under the auspices of the Kaiser's soldiers, the "pardon" was niocltery—ah orgie of riotihg, drunkenness, and worse. Stern tragedy supplied still more stern, because* more cynical, the' feast was dissolved.

Alidenne was the scene—Audenne, not far from Huy;K» the'province of Naniur. The-Gerhiahs were'in posses-sfon-M.OOO of them'. The/ had mdde a parade of their entry, singing 1 songs of victory as they came. Soon they made their presence felt as well as seen. Under the very of their officers, they*!'set', abpst • pillaging' systematically the shops in the village: Everything that could be eaten, drunk, or smoked; Was laid hands upon, and for the officers was reserved the best,

SOLDIEPS* QUARREL 1 . On the very evening of their arrival the German troops lent themselves to a drunken orgie: Their brains' inflamed by excess of wine, the soldiers quarrelled among themselves. Revolvers barked, blood ran, and the inevitable happened: In order to explain the flow of blood amOng'the 'troops, the unfortunaet civil -population were .accused of having fired upon the inv aders.and for three, days the pillaging, with other and darker kimls of violence, were renewed with greater iuthlessness than ever. While' th 6 men stole right and left, the officers' sent off by train all sorts of valuables—. furniture, pictures, silverware, bronzes, jewellery. "•■, -A | To their brutality th 6 soldiers no limit. Intone, case,'for example, where they had'killed a husband, they compelled the new-made widow to sup-| ply them with food and "'drink in the very room where the mail's blood-. besmeared' body lay. Indeed; the wretched woman had to step over the j body every tipoe'she them with 'the refreshments they demanded. The, inhabitants were hunted in the streets, I hundreds of ..men, were shepherded to village and shot, in the open places of the town all and sundry—mea> women,' and children—were killed|jj aJJ*dvsome : eighty houses were burned down* ;,. *s v. •;•« THE INfQUITY. And now came the crowning iniquity.' The Germans had evidently bethought them of an act of "clemency." Accordingly, they placarded the village with posters,-signed by the commandant, announcing the "Festival of the Pardon of Audenne.". !: ,lt was a cynical, festival, fduT and barbarous. Hale and infirm were alike dragged to the Grand Palace,, where tables. were laid out. At these the soldiers renewed the noisy, druilken, roystering brgl'e which had marked the first evening of their occupation. They compelled the inhabitants, male and female, to . get drunk along with them "i thOse who had the temerity to were maK treated; and women and yoiing girls were submitted to the. ties. Finally, as the crowning mockery of the whole business, the residents, after'having implored the pardon of their village, were compelled to join the soldiers in acclaiming the Kaisor.