ivilians were accused of having fired upon the military. Three
days after this the Acting Mayor and a party of citizens recovered the
body of the Mayor, who had been buried under a very thin covering of
earth in a very shallow grave--so much so that his hands and feet were
uncovered. He had one bullet hole in his forehead, which would seem to
indicate that the execution was not a military one, but that some
officer had, for some reason, shot him--perhaps in a moment of
impatience.

From Senlis we went to Clermont, which is the headquarters of the left
wing. There I had the great good fortune to be introduced to Gen.
Castelnau, who showed me his maps and the way a battle was fought on
paper. This is one of the greatest privileges I think I have ever
enjoyed, and the curious part of it was that their way of working in the
military art is very similar to the way we plot and scheme as
architects. The General interested me as a very fine, simple citizen.
Among other things he said to me:

"My dear Sir, how is it possible to fight with these people? They
seem to have no mercy, no decency. It really seems impossible to
know how to meet them."

He had with him several of his staff officers and one of them was
charged with making a report upon the atrocities committed. He allowed
me to read several of these reports and showed me photographs of one
incident that impressed me greatly. These photographs this officer had
taken himself and in order to prove that he had seen the incident and
was on the ground he was himself in the photograph. This special
happening was as follows:

In some little town to the east the Germans had taken out sixteen
peasants and field laborers. They bound their hands either in front or
at the back, tied them in bunches of five, cut their suspenders and
unbuttoned their trousers so that escape was impossible and shot them in
an open field. The report contained the names and ages of these poor
chaps. The oldest, I remember, was 67, and several were over 50. The
French had been able to get no explanation whatever of what had
occurred, as the village was absolutely deserted. The persecution of
women seems to be quite prevalent.

From here we returned to Paris, passing by Creil and Chantilly without
any incident, arriving in Paris at about 8 o'clock at night.

WHITNEY WARREN.

* * * * *

WHO BEGAN THE WAR, AND WHY?

THE SOCIALISTS' PART