Show TiE HORROR Or WAft A Chapter of Almost Incredible Cruelties in Civilized Warfare S S Lorraine Robert W Chambers latest novel the scene of which Is laid in the midst of the FrancoPrussian war has been somewhat sharply critl I cised on the score of its alleged exaggeration I exag-geration of the barbarities that marked the course of that great conflict I One critic says There Is something of the rabid sensational in parts Another An-other writes Nobody will believe i that a tenth part of the story is true I Scarcely half of 1 is even possible Still another observes He has a fine I scorn for exact truths and sordid possibilities I possi-bilities Even the most sanguinary are satiated remarks yet another Mr Chambers attention having been called to these criticisms he has replied I re-plied below to them in an open letter printed j I R CHAMBERS LETTER I selfpreservation is the first law i the privilege of selfdefense is seldom I I accorded to criticridden authors i An author choosing great war f > r a I background on which to trace romantic i patterns is usually assailed and sum I manly sandbagged He is charged with revolting realism by romanticists he i I is rebuked as a romancer by realists I j I he Is clubbed right and left by the vast i army of cmnlverous mediocrity I So called realism is photography both are equally distorted Even a I I phonograph cannot reproduce the dead I i Iy realism of dialogue There Is such a I thing as realism there is no such thing I as a facsimile reproduction of realism I For realism is life and all attempted I reproductions are and must remain interpretations in-terpretations These Interpretations I are acceptable or not according to the temper and intelligence of the audience I addressed and In proportion to the intelligence In-telligence and executive ability of the author I War Is realism To Interpret i is not i realism I Is the same story of painters paint-ers and their models and the legitimate I results of the combination My critics I charge me with multiplying the horrors of war Anybody who has used war a a background for fiction will understand i i j under-stand that the authors greatest dim i I culty is to eliminate and suppress from the mass of facts all but enough to j i tinge the historical painting with a lajut reflection of the truth As a skillful skill-ful artist makes a mob out of three or i four figures so must a romancer fling i a battle before his I readers 3r leave but the echo of a single volley in their ears I Yet the author must know the details de-tails he must understand the length I 1 and breadth of the subject he must II have counted the armies of the dead the wasted hamlets the shelltorn cit isAs ctI As I am accused of exaggerating the horrors of war In Lorraine and a I the charge is untrue I will take the most insignificant incident in the book a paragraph and quote It as I have I written i Then I wilt in this single j instance give n few of the actual facts that I have suppressed The paragraph reads I Three miles away the ruins of the village of Bazeilles lay In the bright September sunshine j Bavarian soldiers in greasy corvee lumbered among the charred chaos searching for their dead This is the truth unvarnished unexpurgated unex-purgated Bazeillcs was a slaughter house a massacre had been perpetrated there a horrible as any in history I Do my critics charge me with exaggeration exag-geration I have not even hinted at the I smallest fraction of the frightful brutality bru-tality and slaughter that characterized taly slaushter characterzed the attack on Bezeilles I have been reticent ret-Icent in the novel because it was a novel but I gave enough to show that the Franco Prsslan war was not a I Cuban skirmish or a Greek ebullition I used death and suffering where in my I estimation It gave the story raIson detrel Would my critics wish to know what I suppressed Here are the facts in regard to Bazeilles 1 After the capture of the village of Bazeilles a squad of Bavarian soldiers seized an old man Simon Dehave CO years of age and beat out his brains with their gunstocks in the presence of his wife The old woman died of fright 2 A brewer named Robert and a mason Pierre Porter were bound together to-gether and shot dead They were harm less citizens j 3 Two brothers named Grenolx I masons were also murdered in cold I blood S 4 Elisee Remy a young man sick In bed with pleurisy was confronted by a I Bavarian officer Unheeding the shrieks and prayers of the sick mans tyoung j I fc g I wife who crouched on the Ilcor with rcrro ler baby in her arms the Bavarian om I cer fired twice at the helpless invalid shattering his chin and wrist Remy rJt two weeks later I 5 Two Bavarians walking in the I alley of Lorson about 2 oclock In the i afternoon perceived a harmless citizen I ahead of them They killed him In I spite of the supplications of a woman named Llegeols who begged on her knees for his life i 6 Jean Jacquet 65 years old an inoffensive in-offensive citizen was kicked to death ofensl ctzen by a Bavarian soldier in mont 01 tne Bouquet hotel 7 A poor idiot 50 years old named Henry Eaptlste was wounded In the rue des Boulangers A Bavarian squad met him dragging himself along on crutches They tied him to a bale of hay and burned him alive S A municipal councilor Jean flap tlste was ordered to bring wine from his cellar to the Bavarians When he returned with the bottles the soldiers murdered him with their sabers saying say-ing he had not hastened sufficiently with the wine 9 Lambert Herbulet 54 years old and his wife were assaulted and horribly hor-ribly mangled with bayonets The old man died from his wounds the woman wounded In the face by a sabre thrust recovered 10 Emmanuel Boury Gustave Hen net and Jean Domelier the latter aged 84 years were killed by shells 11 A woman Julie Dehaye with her two little girls Irene and Marie sere smothered by smoke In the cellar where 1 I they had crawled to escape the shells I i 12 A woman named Henry was assaulted as-saulted and outraged She became Insane In-sane Two young girls suffered the same fate and were then butchered i one at the foot of the bed where the i corpse of her father lay 13 A woman SO years old Madame I Poncin was horribly maltreated by a I dozen drunken Bavarians 14 Madame Chariot clinging to her husband was shot In cold blood An S other woman was surrounded by soldiers S sol-diers who amused themselves by setting S set-ting her clothes on fire la Madame Ducheny 50 years old I j died of fright and bruta treatment 16 JeanNicolas Lesoille 57 was killed without pretext n cuwiici ui Kiucd because too deaf to answer questions IS Jean Lacroix 55 years of age was bound and laid on a heap of straw Both hatiu were then cut off and the straw seton set-on lire He died In frightlul wnonv 19 Madeline Legal sick was burnt to death In her house a Four persons were bound together and shot Ludevlc GrosJean brewer 30 Jeai PIerre Lamotte 47 brewer Augusta Augus-ta Degand travelIng salesman C6 and a servant Jean Urhiot They were shot by the spring Ju me Held outside the Vii lage There was no charge against them LUIS is not 4 huiiilreatn part ot the history his-tory of Bazsllles on Sept 1 and 2 1S70 A liuiaran ulticer after the massacre went crazy In consequence of the horrors ho had seen committed by his troops He fl a sent to the ingoistadt hospital The London Times printed a letter calling at itnuoj to the massacre The Belgian and Krilsh papers continued the dennis b l eyewitnesses Von der Tann the Ba varloii general at last was obliged to defend de-fend himself In the journals which he did a juii v loil jn Inc tUiegemeiiio iiei tung io any intelligent person his ie tease Is hid conviction As my object In this letter was to doS do-S feta iaseii against iiie cnarse 01 ilit it cxajicratlon I think that enough has been said to confirm my denial I It would not be difficult to write a vol unto of facts such as those already given to support my position However it is not necessary at this timeS time-S One ssozu moie in regard to the primal cause of the savage reprisals on both S sides during the FrancoPrussian war Trouble began when the French army in Africa was ordered to France The Germans Ger-mans denonced the French government I for employing Turcos The French re i plied taut Germany disgraced herself by I using Uhlans fcov ignorance on both i sides was ot the root of the matter Thj French had every reason to employ Tur cos Chasseurs dAfrique Zouaves and Spahis because these troops formed part of the imperial forces The Zouaves were I iuiopeans so were the Chasseurs dAf ique bpahls and Turcos were Algerians it is true but surely France had as much right to use them as England has to em ploy any or her colonial forces Of course the French were wrong In objecting to Uhane Uhlans are merely German lancers Cut the French people who are perhaps the most Ignorant and Insular of any people as far as knowledge of foreign countries is concerned Imag med Uhlans to bs a species of savage Cos acks ThIs International distrust and Ignorance Ignor-ance was the spark that set the fires of hatred blazing In 1S70 And the result was a warfare that was horrible beyond words almost beyond belle Let the curious historian investigate the real facts of the annihilation of Getteral Abel Douays corps Let the amatsur of facts rake out the incidents of the subjection of France In 1S70 Then let the critics decide whether wheth-er or not any living writer has exaggerated exagger-ated or could exaggerate any details of the FrancoPrussian war ROBERT W CHAMBERS |