Chapter M: Rudolf Herzog

_in Berlin Lokal-Anzeiger. Jan., 1915._

_RHEIMS--WAR AND CHRIST_

The commonest, ugliest stone put to mark the burial-place of a German grenadier is a more glorious and venerable monument than all the cathedrals of Europe put together.

GEN. VON DISFURTH
_In Hamburger Nachrichten._

Reduce to ashes the basilica of Rheims where Klodovig was anointed, where that Empire of Franks was born--the false brothers of the noble Teutons; burn that cathedral!

_Written in the year 1814 by_
JEAN-JOSEPH GOERRES
_in the "Rheinische Merkin."_

LIQUID FIRE

In October, 1914, the headquarters of the second German army at St. Quentin had issued an Order regulating the use of fire-squirts ejecting inflammable liquid. A special Corps of Pioneers, attachable to any unit which might need them, had been organized to handle this novel weapon. The Order explained that the instrument could squirt a flame which would cause mortal injury and which, owing to the heat generated, would drive the enemy to a considerable distance. It was recommended particularly for street fighting.

_Times History of the War._

_WE ARE ON OUR WAY TO CALAIS!_

In those days the German headquarters gave continuously the order, "To Calais, to Calais," and the staff considered no difficulties, calculated no sacrifices, in order to achieve success.

What these frenzied orders have cost in human lives history will tell later on.

"_The German Fury in Belgium_,"
By L. MOKVELD.

Then the "seventy fives" were brought up at a gallop and poured a hail of shell at the demoralized German infantry wading frantically through the water towards the canal. Rifles and machine guns joined the work of destruction, and the placid lake between the railway and canal was soon dotted with drowning Germans fallen from the demoralized crowds struggling to reach a haven of safety over the bridges of St. Georges, Schoorbakke, and Tervaete.

The crisis of the battle of the Yser was over; the Germans had made their great effort and had failed.

_The Times History of the War._
_Battle of the Yser. October, 1914._

_WRITE IT DOWN, SCHOOLMASTER_

_William: "Write it down, Schoolmaster. Monday shall be Copper Day; Tuesday, Potato Day; Wednesday, Leather Day; Thursday, Gold Day; Friday, Rubber Day; Saturday, no Dinner Day, and Sunday, Hate Day!"_

Take you the folk of the Earth in pay,
With bars of gold your ramparts lay,
Bedeck the ocean with bow on bow,
Ye reckon well, but not well enough now,
French and Russian, they matter not,
A blow for a blow, a shot for a shot,
We fight the battle with bronze and steel,
And the time that is coming Peace will seal,
You we will hate with a lasting hate,
We will never forego our hate,
Hate by water and hate by land,
Hate of the head and hate of the hand,
Hate of the hammer and hate of the crown,
Hate of seventy millions choking down,
We love as one, we hate as one,
We have one foe and one alone,
ENGLAND!

_Hymn of Hate, by_ ERNST LISSAUER.
_Translation by_ BARBARA HENDERSON.
_New York Times, Oct., 1914._

_BARBED WIRE_

_THE SEA MINE_

Take the very first incident of the war, the mine laying by the _Koenigin Luise_. Here was a vessel, which was obviously made ready with freshly charged mines some time before there was any question of a general European war, which was sent forth in time of peace, and which, on receipt of a wireless message, began to spawn its hellish cargo across the North Sea at points fifty miles from land in the track of all neutral merchant shipping. There was the keynote of German tactics struck at the first possible instant. So promiscuous was the effect that it was a mere chance which prevented the vessel which bore the German Ambassador from being destroyed by a German mine. From first to last some hundreds of people have lost their lives on this tract of sea, some of them harmless British trawlers, but the greater number sailors of Danish and Dutch vessels pursuing their commerce as they had every right to do. It was the first move in a consistent policy of murder.

SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE
_In "The German War."_

_HIS MASTER'S VOICE_

The _Vlaamsche Stem_ (_Flemish Voice_), a Flemish newspaper, was bought by the Germans, whereupon the whole of the staff resigned, as it no longer represented its title.

_THE PROMISE_

We shall never sheathe the sword which we have not lightly drawn until Belgium recovers in full measure all and more than she has sacrificed, until France is adequately secured against the menace of aggression, until the rights of the smaller nationalities of Europe are placed upon an unassailable foundation, and until the military domination of Prussia is wholly and finally destroyed.

H. H. ASQUITH,
_Prime Minister of England._
_November, 1914._

_THE RAID_

"_Do you remember Black Mary of Hamburg?_"

"_Aye, well._"

"_She got six years for killing a child, whilst we get the Iron Cross for killing twenty at Hartlepool._"

This morning a German cruiser force made a demonstration upon Yorkshire coast, in the course of which they shelled Hartlepool, Whitby, and Scarborough.

A number of their fastest ships were employed for this purpose, and they remained about an hour on the coast. They were engaged by patrol vessels on the spot.

During the bombardment, especially in West Hartlepool, the people crowded in the streets, and approximately twenty-two were killed and fifty wounded.

_British Admiralty report._
_December, 1914._

_THE TYPHUS INFERNO AT WITTENBERG_

They were received in apathetic silence (Dec., 1914). The rooms were unlighted, the men were aimlessly marching up and down, some were lying on the floor, probably sickening for typhus. When they got into the open air again Major Fry broke down. The horror of it all was for the moment more than he could bear.

Major Priestly saw delirious men waving arms brown to the elbow with faecal matter. The patients were alive with vermin; in the half light he attempted to brush what he took to be an accumulation of dust from the folds of a patient's clothes, and he discovered it to be a moving mass of lice. In one room in Compound No. 8 the patients lay so close to one another on the floor that he had to stand straddle-legged across them to examine them.

What the prisoners found hardest to bear in this matter were the jeers with which the coffins were frequently greeted by the inhabitants of Wittenberg who stood outside and were permitted to insult their dead.

_Report of the British Committee._

_REMEMBER WITTENBERG_

These medical officers protested with the camp commander against the herding together of the French and British prisoners with the Russians, who, as I have said, were suffering from typhus fever. But the camp commander said, "You will have to know your Allies"; and kept all of his prisoners together, and thus as surely condemned to death a number of French and British prisoners of war as though he had stood them against the wall and ordered them shot by a firing squad. Conditions in the camp during the period of this epidemic were frightful. The camp was practically deserted by the Germans.

At the time I visited the camp the typhus epidemic, of course, had been stamped out. The Germans employed a large number of police dogs in this camp and these dogs not only were used in watching the outside of the camp in order to prevent the escape of prisoners but also were used within the camp. Many complaints were made to me by prisoners concerning these dogs, stating that men had been bitten by them. It seemed undoubtedly true that the prisoners there had been knocked about and beaten in a terrible manner by their guards.

JAMES W. GERARD
_in "My Four Years in Germany."_

_THE WONDERS OF CULTURE_

On January 29, 1915, the first Zeppelin raid upon Paris took place. Twenty-four people were killed outright by the exploding bombs and over 30 were injured. With one exception all the dead and injured were civilians and the majority were women and children.

_TIRPITZ' LAST HOPE--PIRACY_

The waters around Great Britain and Ireland, including the whole English Channel, are declared a war zone on and after February 18, 1915.

Every enemy merchant ship found in this war zone will be destroyed, even if it is impossible to avert dangers which threaten the crew and passengers.

Also neutral ships in the war zone are in danger, as in consequence of the misuse of neutral flags ordered by the British Government on January 31, and in view of the hazards of naval warfare, it cannot always be avoided that attacks meant for enemy ships endanger neutral ships.

Shipping northward, around the Shetland Islands, in the eastern basin of the North Sea, and a strip of at least thirty nautical miles in breadth along the Dutch coast, is endangered in the same way.

_German Navy Official Communication. Berlin, February 4, 1915._

_ALCOHOLISM--BRITONS NEVER WILL BE SLAVES_

The vast majority belong to a class we can depend upon. The others are a minority.

But, you must remember, a small minority of workmen can throw a whole works out of gear. What is the reason? Sometimes it is one thing, sometimes it is another, but let us be perfectly candid. It is mostly the lure of the drink. They refuse to work full time, and when they return their strength and efficiency are impaired by the way in which they have spent their leisure. Drink is doing us more damage in the war than all the German submarines put together.