The commercial., March 15, 1918, Image 1

About The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?

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DR. E, M. LONG
DENTIST
Over Weh man'i Hardware Store
Union City, Term.
TeleJphoner
Offie 144; Residence 639-J
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j-ITcuh Courier, established lb97
: LARS LOOT
STORES AT TROY
i
.-.e Hundred Dollar in Merchandise
the Prize Booty.
Following a series of daring rob-
l . rif-s at Troy, the boldest and most
iiiplyte raid took place there last
,miav nlKht when the stores of
rhe J. S. Moftatt Sons were entered
ui4 burglarized almost gutted. The
Lurelars entered thru the front doors
after taking a bit and boring holes
in the door all the way round the
lock and droDDing it out. They left
thru the back doors.
It roust have consumed sometime
to eather all the different articles
stolen and put them Into bags or
hnnAie 'ma aa to carry them out
without leaving tracks. The men
It seems, wore on their feet toe sacks
Into the store, which were left be
hind. - -
Mr. Jas. R. Moftatt, after making
an inventory of the stock, estimated
the value of the goods taken to be
about five hundred dollars ,
On Monday morning the Dyers
burg bloodhounds were put on the
job and tracked the burglars to Mof
fott. There they lost the trace.
Since the first burglaries at Troy
a night watchman has been employ
ed to patrol court square. Why he
did not discover the dirty work go
ing on Sunday night no one knows
The burglars not only made their
escape without detection but up to
the time this notice had boen writ
ten had not been heard of.
A schedule of the articles stolen
was not altogether complete, but the
following was furnished by Mr. Mof
fatt to the officers:
1 pair men's plain too slippers, No
11.
1 pair men's patent button shoes
No. 9. Hamilton-Brown, St Louis
make.
1 box men's night shirts.
4 men's silk fancy stripe shirts
Textile Shirt Co., Cincinnati, S No
16: 1 No. 14.
Ladles' Black Cat brand silk hose
. Men's hats labeled Sir Knight.
2 piece bolts nice wool serge.
- 2 bolts nice quality fiaxon.
1 pair old ladies' plain toe shoes',
Godman make.
1 pair ladies' kid cloth top shoes
size 3.
1 blue serge men'a coat, size :
. 1 blue serge men's coat and pants
Blze 42.
1 tailored suit by Scotch Woolen
Mills, Chicago, brown and purple
mixed, label inside coat with name.
, L. M. Maxwell, and initials.
1 piece dark green silk poplin.
1 piece grey green silk poplin.
1 piece blue wash silk.
1 piece purple wash silk.
1 piece pink wash silk.
1 piece white wash silk.
1 piece navy wash silk.
1 bolt lavender mull.
1 bolt kimona goods, brown
ground with pink and green leaves
V, bolt same, tan ground with
brown and blue flowers.
'15 yards white voile.
1 lavender and, white stripe crepe
de chine waist.
2 navy blue chiffon taffeta waists,
1 white voile waist, blue satin
stripe.
2 misses cotton serge middy suits.
2 childs' calico dresaoa, blue collar
2 tan and green stripe childs'
gingham dresses, tan trim.
2 green, black and yellow stripe,
aincham dresses.
1 childs' navy and white gingham
dress. '
2 ladies' shepard plaid cotton suit
in skirts.
If the officers and the night watch
man fail to make any captures as
these burglaries proceed, a vigilance
committee will bavo to be deputized
and the work done in a determined
and peremptory manner as the case
. demands.
People eannot rest In safety with
such things as this happening every
few days.
Virus Permit.
Dr. Buddenbaum will be In Union
City Monday, Mar. 18, 1 o'clock p.
m.. at the courthouse to give an ex
amination for virus permits in hog
cholera work. Those interested will
please be on hand. All farmers are
Invited to attend the lecture pre
ceding the examination.
T. II. DOUGHERTY,
County Agent.
ALLEGED GERMAN ATROCITIES
Report of the Committee Appointed by the British Government
and Presided Over by The Right Hon. Viscount Bryce,
Formally British Ambassador at Washington.
(Thru the courtesy of the Current
History. Magazine. The New yora
Times' Monthly, we have permission
and will reproduce in fun, witn
weekly installments in The Commer
cial, the "Alleged German Atroci
ties." which are embraced in the
report made to tho British Govern
ment.) (Continued from last week.)
m An analysis and summary of
the evidence regarding the conduct
of the German troops in Belgium to
ward the civilian population of that
country during the first few weeks
of the invasion.
(2) "An examination of the evi
dence relating to breaches or me
rulos and usages of war and acts of
Inhumanity, committed by German
soldiers or groups of soldiers, during
the first four months of the war,
whether in Belgium or in France.
This second part has again been
subdivided into two sections:
a. Offenses committed against
noncombatant civilians during the
conduct of the war generally.
b. Offenses committed against
combatants, whether in Belgium or
in Franco. ..
PAET I.
THE CONDUCT OF THE GERMAN
TROOPS IN BELGIUM.
Although the neutrality of Bel
glum had been guaranteed by i
treaty Bigned In 1839 to which
France, Prussia, and Great Britain
wore parties, and altho, apart alto
gether from any duties imposed by
trcety, no belligerent nation has any
right to claim a passago for its army
across the territory of a neutral
State, the position which Belgium
held between the Gorman Empire
and France had obliged her to con
sider the possibility that in the event
of a war between these two powers
her neutrality might not De respect
ed. In 1911 tho Belgian Minister at
Berlin had reauested an assurance
from Germany that she would ob
serve the Treaty of 1839; and the
Chancellor of the empire had declar
ed that Germany had no intention
of violating Belgian neutrality
Again in 1913 the German Secretary
of State at a meeting of a Budget
Committee of the Reichstag had de-
oiamii thnt . . "Relei&n neutrality Is
provided for by international con
ventlons and Germany Is determined
to resnect those conventions." Final
ly, on July 81, 1914. when the dan
ger of war between Germany and
France seemed imminent, Herr von
Below, theJerman Minister in Brus
oels. being interrogated by the Bel
gian Foreign Dopartmont, replied
that he knew of the assurances given
by the German Chancellor in 1911,
and that he "was certain that the
Mentlments expressed at that time
had not changed." Nevertheless on
Aug 2 the same Minister presented a
note to the Belgian Government de
manding a passage thru Belgium for
the German Army on pain of an In
stant declaration of war. Startled
as they were by the suddenness with
which this terrific , war cloud had
riflon on the eastern horizon, the
leaders of the nation rallied around
the King in his resolution to refuse
the demand and prepare for resist
ance. They were aware of the dan
ger which would confront the civ
Ulan population of the country tf it
were tempted to take part in the
work of national defense. Orders
were accordingly issued by the Civil
Governors of provinces, and by the
Burgomasters of towns, that the civ
Ulan inhabitants were to take no
part In hostilities and to offer no
pro vocation, to the invaders. That
no excuse might be furnished for
severities, the populations of many
Important towns wore instructed to
surrender all firearms into the hands
of t he local officials. (Copies of
typical proclamations have been
nrintod In' L'AUemaKUc et la Bel-
gique, Documents Annexes, xix vi.)
This happened on Aug. 2. On the
evening of Aug. 3 the German troops
crossed the frontier. The storm burst
so suddenly that neither party tad
time to adjust its mind to the sltua
tion. The Germans scam to , have
expected an easy passage. The- Bel
gian population; never dreaming of
an attack, were 'startled and atupe-
fled. . - . -:.'.. . 1
LIEGE AND DISTRICT.
On Aug. 4 the roads converging
UNION CITY, TENN, FRIDAY, MARCH 15, 1918.
upon Liege from northwest, east,
and south were covered with Ger
man Death's Hoad Hussars and
Uhlans pressing forward to seize the
passage over the Meuse. From the
very beginning of tho operations the
civilian population of the villages
lying upon the line of the German
advance were made to experience the
extreme horrors of war. "On the
4th of August." says one witness, "at
Herve," (a village not far from the
frontier,) "I saw at about 2 o'clock
in the afternoon, near the station,
five Uhlans: these were the first Ger
man troops I had seen. They were
followed bv a German officer and
Rome soldiers in a motor car. The
men in the car called out to a cou
Die of young fellows who were stand
ing about thirty years away.. The
vnnne men. being afraid, ran oft
and then the Germans fired and kill
ed one of them named D." The mur
der of this Innocent fugitive civilian
was a prelude to the burning and
pillage of Herve and of other vil
lages in the nelghbrohood, to the in
discriminate shooting of civilians of
both sexes, and to tho organized
military execution of batches of se
lected males. Thus at Herve some
fifty men escaping from the burning
houses were seized, taken outside the
town and shot. At Molen, a hamlet
west of Herve, forty men were shot.
in nna household alone tho latner
and mother (names given) were
shot, the daughter died after be
ing repeatedly outragad, and the son
was wounded. . Nor were children
exempt. "About Aug. 4," says one
witness, " near Vottem, we were pur
suing some Uhlans. I saw a man,
woman, and a girl about nine, who
had been killed. They were on the
threshold of a house, one on the top
of the other, as If they had been
ehnt down, one after the other, as
they tried to escape." - -
The burning of the villages in this
neighborhood and tho wholesale
slaughter of civilians, such as oc
curred at Herve, Mlchcroux, and
Soumagno, appear to be connected
with the exasperation caused by the
resistance of Fort Fleron, whose
runs barred the main road from Alx
la Chaoelle to Liege. Enraged by
the losses which they had sustained,
suspicious of the temper of the civil
Ian Donulatton. and probably think
iqg that by exceptional severities at
the outset they could cow the spirit
of the Belgian Nation, the German
officers and men speedily accustomed
themselves to the slaughter of civ
ilians. How rapidly the process was
effected Is illustrated by an entry in
the' diary of Kurt Hoffman, a one
year's man in the First Jagers, who
on Ant. 5 was in ironi oi rori
Floron. He illustrates his story by
sketch man. "Tho position," he
says, "was dangerous, as suspicious
civilians were banging about
houses 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, were cleared.
the owners arrested, (and shot the
following day.). Suddenly" village A
was fired at. Out of it bursts our
baggage train, and the Fourth Com
pany of the Twenty-seventh Regi
ment who had lost their way and
been shelled by our own artillery.
From the point D. P., (shown in
diary), I shoot a civilian with rifle
at 400 meters slap thru the head,
as we afterward ascertained." With
in a few hours, Hoffman, while In
house 3, wan himself under fire from
his own comrades and narrowly es
caped being killed.' A German, ig
norant that bouse 8 had been oc
cupied, reported, as was the fact,
that he had been fired upon from
that house. He bad been challenged
by the field patrol, and failed to give
the countersign Hoffman con
tinues: "Ten minutes later, people ap
proach who are talking excitedly
apparently Germans. I call out
Halt, who's there?'. Suddenly rapid
fire Is opened upon us, which I can
only escape by quickly Jumping on
one side with bullets and fragments
of wall and pieces of glass flying
around me. I call out 'Halt, here
Field Patrol.' Then it stops, and
there appears Lieutenant Romer
with three platoons. .A maa has re
ported that he bad been shot at out
our house; no wonder, if he does
not give the countersign."
The entry, tho dated Aug. 6, was
evidently written on the 6th or later,
because the writer refers to the sus
picious civilians as having been shot
on that day. Hoffman docs not In
dicate of what offense these civilians
were guilty, and there is no positive
evidence to connect their slaughter
with the report made by the German
who had been fired on by his com
rades. They .were "suspicious and
that was enough.
The systematic execution of civ
ilians, which In Bome cases, as the
diary Just cited shows, was founded
on a genuine mistaae, was given a
wide extension thru the Province of
Liege. In Soumagne and Micheroux
very many civilians were summarily
shot. In a field belonging to a man
named E. fifty-six or fifty-seven were
put to death. A German officer said:
"You have shot at us." One of the
villagers asked to be allowed to
speak, and said: "If you think these
people fired kill me, but let them
go." The anawor was three volleys.
The survivors were bayoneted. Their
corpses were soon in the field that
night by another witness. One at
least had been mutilated. These
were not the only victims in Sou
magne. The eyewitness of the massa
cre saw, on his. way home, twenty
bodies, one that of a young girl or
thirteen. Another witnoos saw nine
teen corpses in a meadow, v
At Blegny Trctnblour, on the 6th,
some civilians wero captured by Ger
man soldiers, who took steps to put
them to death forthwith, but were
restrained by the arrival of an of
fleer, The prisoners subsequently
were, takon off to Battice and five
wore shot in a field. No reason was
assigned for their murder. -
In the meantime house burners
were at work. On the 6th, Battice
dost roved in part.' From the
8th to the 10th over 3(T0 houses were
burned at Hervo, while mounted
men shot into dooro and windows to
prevent the eccapo of the lnhab
Hants. '
At Heure le Romain on or about
the 15th of August all the male in
habitants, Including some bedridden
old men, were imprisoned, in the
church.- The Burgomaster's brother
and Hhe pflejt wero bayoneted.
On or about the 14th and 15th the
village of Vise was completely de
stroyed. Officers directed the in
cendiaries, who worked methodically
with benzino. Antiques and china
wereremovd from tho houses, be
fore their destruction, by officers
who guarded the plunder, revolver
in hand. The house of a witness,
which contained , valuables of this
kind, was protected for a time by a
notice posted on the door by officers.
This notice has been producod to the
committee. After the removal of
the valuables this houso also was
burned. , .
German ooldicra had arrived on
'the 15th at Blegny Trcmbleur and
seized a Quantity of wine. On the
16th prisoners were taken; four, in
eluding the priest and the Burgo
master, were shot. On the same
day 200 (so-called) hostages were
seized at Flemalle and marched off.
There they were told that unless
Fort Flemalle surrendered by noon
they would bo shot. It did surrender
and they were released. -
Entries in a German diary show
that on the lftth the German soldiers
gave themselves up to debauchery in
the streets of Liege, and on tho night
of the 20th (Thursday) a massacre
took place in the streets, beginning
near tho Cafe Carpenticr, at which
there is said to have been a dinner
attended by . Russian and other
students. A proclamation issued by
General Kolewe on tbo following day
gavethe German version of the af
fair, which wr.s that bis troops had
been fired on by Russian students.
The diary states that in the night
the Inhabitants of Liege . became
mutinous and that fifty persons were
shot. The Belgian witnesses ve
hemently deny that there had been
any provocation given, some stating
that many German soldiers were
drunk, others giving evidence which
Indicates that the affair was planned
beforehand. It is stated that at 6
o'clock in tho evening, long before
the shooting, a citizen was warned
by a friendly German soldier not to
go out that night ' ....
Tbo the cause of the massacre Is
in dispute,, tho results are known
with certainty, The Run des Pitteurs
and bouses in the Place de l'Unl
versite and the Qua! des Pecbeurs
were systematically . fired with ben
sine, and many, inhabitants were
burned alive in their houses, their
efforts to escape being prevented by
rifle fire. Twenty people were shot
(Continued on page four.)
Me Stationery
Whites and Colors Pound Papers
Correspondence Cards
?ome attractive new things just a little dif
ferent to Five a little variety to
your correspondence.
Symohonv Lawn and Lord Baltimore
IN NEW CUTS. .
Oliver's Drug Store.
fancy Recleaned Tennessee
Burt Seed Oats
Oats will soon make cheap feed will maiure in
ninety days.
COTTON SEED
We have a car of Kuig'a Improved Cotton Seed, direct from
North Carolina; early maturing, entirely removed from the boll
weevil district A big portion of our native cotton was caught
by the frost last season. Beware of frosted seed. They will not
germinate. Call at our office and get descriptive circulars and
see sample.
SOY BEANS
Strictly nice recleaned Yellow Mammoth.
Japan Clover Seed Corn Sorghum Seed Red Clover
Red Top Timothy Alsyke White Clover
Orchard Grass.
Prices and .samples gladly mailed on request
Cherry- Moss Grain Co.
Ask your neighbor if our
"More for
Cash"
idea doesn't appeal to him.
We are thoroughly '.con
vinced that the man who
pays cash should have an
"inside" price.
The lines we carry
, Are "AMEgCA'S" Best
J.A.GOBLEpSON&GO.
" Union City, Tenn.
MONEY TO LOAN
On improved Farm Lands in Obion County, Tenn.,
and Fulton County, Kentucky.
I am authorized to take applications for loans at 51 per cent
interest, payable annually, on terms of five to ten years, with
privilege to borrower of paying off any part in multiples of
$ 1 00, or all of loan, at any interest-paying period. Do not
know how long this interest rate ' will continue and I advise
all prospective borrowers to see me at once. All negotiations
treated confidentialiy, and loans closed with least possible pub
licity. W. E. HUDGINS, Union City, Tenn.
Cumberland Phone Office 143, Residence 589
Real Estate and Insurance
DO YOU WANT INSURANCE?
Life, Health and Accident or Fire, placed in the best com
panies at the best rates. We can please ycu.
If you want to sell your farm or houae and lot we can furnish
the buyer. We handle property on a commission basis only
and will be fair to the buyer and seller.
WHITE & QU INN
Real Estate
VOL. 26, NO. 51
.... Pi? - IX
W, .
and Insurance
t