Read Ebook: L'Illustration No. 3729 15 Août 1914 by Various

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On annonce officiellement ? l'arm?e belge que les pertes allemandes autour de Li?ge s'?l?vent ? 2.000 morts, 20.000 bless?s, plus 9.700 prisonniers.

MONTENEGRO.--Les troupes mont?n?grines ont r?occup? la forteresse de Taraboch qui domine Scutari, et, en Herz?govine, plusieurs forts autrichiens.

Nos troupes, sur l'ordre du commandant de corps d'arm?e, se sont repli?es en arri?re, leur mission ?tant d'ailleurs termin?e. Nous sommes install?s sur des positions solides, que l'ennemi a attaqu?es en vain. Notre situation strat?gique demeure la m?me,--excellente.

Nos troupes sont, sur presque tout le front, en contact avec l'ennemi. De petits engagements, qui tous ont tourn? ? notre avantage, se sont produits.

Les Allemands se sont pr?sent?s devant Longwy et l'ont somm? de se rendre; on devine quel fier refus a ?t? oppos? ? cette d?marche.

BELGIQUE.--Le roi a install? son quartier g?n?ral ? Louvain.

Des engagements ont commenc? lundi, entre Saint-Trond et Tirlemont, mettant aux prises des forces importantes de cavalerie allemande pourvues de mitrailleuses et des lanciers belges envoy?s contre elles. La lutte se poursuit aujourd'hui. Landen, occup? momentan?ment par les Allemands, est repris. L'ennemi est partout tenu en respect. La cavalerie fran?aise est entr?e s?rieusement en action.

BELGIQUE.--Les forts de Li?ge tiennent toujours. Le minist?re de la Guerre annonce que le mouvement de retraite des Allemands s'accentue de ce c?t?; ils semblent se retirer et se masser vers l'Est.

Le gros des troupes allemandes est concentr? entre Li?ge et Luxembourg. Une grande bataille para?t imminente.

LA D?FENSE DE LI?GE

LES TROIS JOURS DE BATAILLE

Bruxelles, 9 ao?t.

Je vais m'efforcer de relater aussi sobrement que possible l'?pop?e de Li?ge, <>, comme l'a surnomm?e le romancier et ministre de la Justice, Carton de Wiart.

L'ultimatum du kaiser r?clamant le libre passage de la route vers la France, moyennant un march? honteux, fondit sur la Belgique le dimanche 2 ao?t, ? 7 heures du soir, soit quatre heures exactement apr?s cette d?claration publique du ministre d'Allemagne ? Bruxelles: <> Et c'est dans la soir?e du 3, quelques heures apr?s la fi?re r?ponse du gouverzer, the servant of Abraham, purchased Rebekah as a wife for Isaac, his master's son, . Jacob, having nothing to give as a compensation for his wives, was obliged to serve fourteen years for them . Shechem, wishing to obtain Dinah for a wife, and ascribing the unwillingness of Jacob to part with her to the insufficiency of the compensation he had offered, says--"Ask me never so much dowry and gift, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me: but give me the damsel to wife ." Compare, also, Exod. xxii. 15, &c.; 1 Sam. xviii. 25; Hos. iii. 2. This custom of purchasing wives was general among the Orientals. "In Babylon, the following course was pursued in every village once a-year. All the maidens of a marriageable age were collected together, and brought in a body to one place; around them stood a crowd of men. Then a crier, having made these maidens stand up one by one, offered them for sale, beginning with the most beautiful; and when she had been sold for a large sum, he put up another who was next in beauty. They were sold on condition that they should be married. Such men among the Babylonians as were rich and desirous of marrying used to bid against one another, and purchase the most beautiful. But such of the lower classes as were desirous of marrying, did not regard beauty, and were willing to take the plainer damsels with a sum of money given with them. For when the crier had finished selling the most beautiful of the maidens, he made the plainest stand up, or one that was a cripple, and put her up for auction, for the person who would marry her for the least sum. This money was obtained from the sale of the most beautiful; and thus the beautiful portioned out the plain and the crippled." Wives were purchased among the Assyrians and Arabians also; among the ancient Greeks and Germans and are still bought among the Orientals of the present day.

Fearful consequences, arising from such a mode of obtaining wives, were inevitable, and soon became apparent. As the procuring of wives depended upon the offer which any one was able to make, those that could afford it purchased as many as they pleased. Hence the practice of polygamy, than which nothing produces more contempt for the proper character of women, or tends more to their degradation. As these contracts were formed without the parties being previously known to each other, and without any affection subsisting between them, the woman, instead of being the help-mate or companion of man became his slave, and was kept for the gratification of his carnal appetites, or at best was regarded as a plaything for a leisure hour. Her rights were denied, her education was neglected, her intellect was degraded, her moral character was questioned. Man, seeking to possess as many wives as he could afford, gave the woman no credit for virtue. Acting upon this suspicion and false accusation, he placed her in the most inaccessible part of the house; dogs or eunuchs guarded the doors of her chambers; the harem was made as impenetrable as a prison; none but the nearest relatives were allowed to see her, and when permitted to pass through the streets her countenance was thickly veiled, and eunuchs watched her every step. Plutarch relates that when women travelled they were placed in a conveyance closely covered on all sides, and that it was in such a covering that Themistocles fled from Persia, his attendants being instructed to tell every inquirer that they were conveying a Grecian lady from Ionia to a nobleman at Court. The sacred books of heathen nations teem with loud execrations against the natural unfaithfulness and immorality of women. "The lust of a woman," says the pundits, "is never satisfied, no more than fire is satisfied with fuel, or the main ocean with receiving the rivers, or the empire of death with the dying of men and animals." And again: "Women have six qualities: the first is an immoderate desire for jewels and fine furniture, handsome clothes and nice victuals; the second, immoderate lust; the third, violent anger; the fourth, deep resentment, no person knowing the sentiments concealed in their hearts; the fifth, another person's good appears evil in their eyes; the sixth, they commit bad actions." The wickedness of women is a subject upon which the stronger sex among the Arabs, with an affectation of superior virtue, often dwell in common conversation. That women are deficient in judgment or good sense, is held as an undisputed fact, as it rests on an assertion of the Prophet; but that they possess a superior degree of cunning, rests upon the same authority. Their general depravity is affirmed to be much greater than that of men. "I stood," said the Prophet, "at the gate of Paradise, and lo, most of its inmates were the poor; and I stood at the gate of hell, and lo, most of its inmates were women." In allusion to women, the caliph Omar said, "Consult them, and do the contrary of what they advise," which Moore has thus paraphrased:--

"Whene'er you're in doubt, said a sage I once knew, 'Twixt two lines of conduct which course to pursue, Ask a woman's advice, and whate'er she advise, Do the very reverse, and you're sure to be wise."

When woman was created, "the devil," we are told, "was delighted, and said, 'Thou art half of my host, and thou art the depository of my secret, and thou art my arrow, with which I shoot and miss not.'" They were made so much to feel their inferiority, that Iphigenia is made to say, "One man, forsooth, is better than ten thousand women."

Though the Jewish women were treated more leniently, and enjoyed greater privileges than their sex in other nations, yet it is evident, from a variety of circumstances in Old Testament history, that they were not wholly emancipated from a state of unnatural inferiority. Polygamy was practised amongst the Jews, and its debasing effects were obvious. The harems, the veils, and eunuchs were not uncommon to their women. Weakness of moral character was imputed to them; unfaithfulness and incontinency were dilated upon . Josephus tells us that women, in consequence of their natural levity, were not admitted as legal witnesses in courts of justice. Maimonides teaches the same; "There are," says this great luminary, "ten sorts of disqualifications, and every individual in whom one of them is found, is disqualified from giving evidence; and these are women, slaves, children, idiots, the deaf, the blind, the wicked, the despised, relations, and those interested in their testimony; these are the ten." The Rabbins endeavour to justify this inhuman treatment of women from the law of Moses. "Women," say they, "are disqualified by the law from giving testimony: for it is said, 'At the mouth of two witnesses,' where the word 'witnesses' is of the masculine, and not feminine gender." It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the Jew, among his thanksgivings, should say to the Almighty every morning, "Blessed be thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, that thou hast not created me a woman."

Now, if one sex of the human family has been so degraded by the other; if she whom God created to be a help-mate and counterpart has been reduced by man to the slave of his carnal lusts; if such slavish and inhuman treatment has been justified on the false plea of the natural unfaithfulness and incontinency of the sex; if exclusion from society and imprisonment have been deemed necessary for the preservation of her morals, how greatly has woman been alienated from the original design of her creation! how unjustly has her character been aspersed! how inhumanly has she been treated! and how great is the importance of a book which celebrates the virtuous example of a woman, and thus strikes at the root of all her reproaches and her wrongs!

The importance of this view of the book may be further seen from the fact, that, in proportion to the degradation of women, men themselves have become degraded; for, deprived of the meliorating influences which the delicacy and tenderness of women were designed to have over them, and never more needed than in their fallen state, they have abandoned themselves to their worst passions and desires, and thus their whole civil and social condition has been proportionally undignified and unblest. Look, on the other hand, at the state of society where woman is restored to her rightful position, there we shall find refinement of manners, purity of conversation, mutual confidence and affection, domestic happiness, intellectual enjoyment, freedom of thought and action, sympathetic repose, and whatever, in fact, tends to mitigate the unavoidable evils of the present life; all referable, in a greater or less degree, to the unrestricted influence of woman upon the child and upon the man. In religion, her influence is still more potent. If first in the transgression, she is first in the restoration; and comprendre qu'il fallait remplacer la ma?onnerie classique des vo?tes, ma?onnerie si facile ? fissurer, par une mati?re homog?ne et r?sistante comme le b?ton de ciment, et cela tout en triplant les ?paisseurs habituellement employ?es. On revenait ainsi, par un d?tour quelque peu inattendu, ? un genre de fortification qui rappelait singuli?rement celle du moyen ?ge et les massifs imposants que l'on admire encore dans les donjons de Ham, de Coucy et de Vincennes.

D'accord avec l'ancienne ?cole fran?aise, le g?n?ral avait voulu garder aux forts d?tach?s un r?le pr?pond?rant depuis le d?but de l'attaque jusqu'? la fin du si?ge, alors que les Allemands pr?tendent encore ne faire entrer les forts en jeu qu'au moment de l'attaque rapproch?e. A sa mani?re de proc?der, il trouvait notamment l'avantage primordial de garantir la place contre les surprises ou les attaques brusqu?es de l'adversaire. <>

Un fort de ce genre pr?sente ?videmment une puissance consid?rable en m?me temps qu'une r?sistance passive extr?mement remarquable: les Allemands viennent d'en faire la f?cheuse exp?rience. Il a, par contre, l'inconv?nient de co?ter fort cher, et l'on ne saurait trop admirer la petite nation belge d'avoir su consacrer tant de millions ? la d?fense de son territoire. Elle a donn? l? l'exemple d'une admirable pr?voyance, pr?voyance qui jure quelque peu avec l'inconscience des marchands de terrain qui pr?tendaient, il y a quelques jours encore, d?molir les fortifications de Paris.

Les fortifications du g?n?ral Brialmont viennent de sauver la Belgique.

L'ATTAQUE <> ET LES D?FAUTS DE CETTE M?THODE ALLEMANDE

Le mode d'attaque que les Allemands ont employ? contre la place de Li?ge est d? ? un g?n?ral allemand, le g?n?ral von Sauer.

L'attaque ? la Sauer n'est autre chose qu'une attaque brusqu?e. L'assaillant ?tudie d'abord la place de son mieux au moyen de reconnaissances qui viennent compl?ter les renseignements obtenus en temps de paix, puis il refoule r?solument le d?fenseur en arri?re de la ligne des forts. Pour cela, il commence par bombarder ?nergiquement, avec son artillerie de campagne et les pi?ces du parc l?ger de si?ge, les positions avanc?es install?es en avant des forts; il op?re autant que possible partout ? la fois de mani?re ? laisser la d?fense dans l'ind?cision, et, quand l'adversaire est ?branl?, il donne l'assaut avec une extr?me vigueur. Les troupes de la d?fense refoul?es derri?re les forts, il installe la nuit ses pi?ces de si?ge ? environ deux kilom?tres des ouvrages qu'il veut attaquer et il ouvre le feu le lendemain matin avec ces pi?ces aid?es par l'artillerie de campagne. Toute cette artillerie inonde les forts et les batteries attenantes de shrapnels et d'obus de fa?on ? annihiler l'artillerie de la d?fense en tuant les servants et d?cimant la garnison.

Les Allemands, au contraire, comptent depuis de longues ann?es sur le succ?s d'op?rations de ce genre, et c'est pour les mener ? bonne fin qu'ils ont cr?? d?s 1886 les groupes l?gers d'artillerie de si?ge destin?s ? suivre les troupes de campagne et ? enlever, presque au pas de course, nos forts d'arr?ts et nos places fronti?res. Ce qui les a beaucoup encourag?s dans cette voie, ce sont les succ?s inou?s remport?s par eux en 1870 dans l'attaque des places fran?aises. Ils ne se sont pas rendu compte que ces succ?s ont ?t? dus, presque exclusivement, ? l'incroyable faiblesse que montr?rent ? cette ?poque, il faut bien le reconna?tre, les garnisons et les gouverneurs de la plupart des places attaqu?es.

L'exemple du si?ge de Port-Arthur aurait d? leur ouvrir les yeux. Ils n'ont pas voulu en tenir compte, parce qu'ils n'appr?ciaient pas les troupes belges ? leur valeur. Ils m?prisaient trop leurs adversaires et ne savaient pas o? ils allaient.

Et cependant, ? Li?ge, ils ont appliqu? les th?ories de Sauer jusqu'au bout: ils ont m?me p?n?tr? jusque dans la ville qui ?tait, bien ? tort, d?pourvue d'enceinte. Mais ils ont ?t? finalement repouss?s avec des pertes ?normes, ainsi que cela se produira toujours quand l'attaque aura affaire ? une place solide, ? une bonne garnison, ? un gouverneur exp?riment? et ?nergique et ? une population dont l'affolement ne viendra pas contrecarrer les efforts de la d?fense.

SAUVEROCHE.

Il n'est plus d'aucune <>, celui-l?. Ou plut?t si: il est de la classe des vieux,--de ceux qui ont pass? la cinquantaine, et dont les reins ne pourraient plus porter longtemps le poids du sac, et que leurs jambes, un peu fatigu?es, ne sauraient plus conduire <> aussi vite qu'autrefois... Car lui aussi est all? <>; il y a longtemps de cela: quarante-quatre ans! Sa jeunesse a connu le sublime espoir de vaincre, et, presque aussit?t, l'affreuse douleur d'?tre vaincu. Et il a v?cu pr?s d'un demi-si?cle sous cet affront, avec la haine de l'Allemand au coeur, et cette ambition de la Revanche qui ?tait demeur?e, chez nous, le r?ve obstin? de tous les vieux!

Le voil? pr?s d'?tre r?alis?, ce r?ve-l?! Au souffle de joie et d'enthousiasme qui a pass? sur le pays, le vieux s'est senti rajeunir. Il a vu partir un fils, un petit-fils peut-?tre, et, dans cette minute d'angoisse paternelle, il s'est aper?u qu'il ?tait content tout de m?me,--et presque jaloux de ceux qu'il accompagnait au train.

Le manque de cartes topographiques fut, pendant la guerre de 1870-1871, l'une des plus graves lacunes de notre organisation militaire et l'une des plus grosses de d?sastreuses cons?quences. On vit alors des officiers assumant la conduite d'unit?s importantes, r?duits ? utiliser, pour se guider, de simples cartes g?ographiques d'atlas scolaires! Que d'erreurs, que de surprises en sont r?sult?es! La le?on n'a pas ?t? perdue, et, comme tant d'autres, cette faute d'autrefois a ?t? sup?rieurement r?par?e: le service g?ographique de l'arm?e, m?thodiquement r?organis?, est en mesure de rendre aujourd'hui tous les services qu'on peut attendre de lui.

Au fur et ? mesure que se d?roulent les op?rations, tous les officiers, les chefs de sections eux-m?mes, re?oivent un lot complet de cartes de la r?gion o? ils sont appel?s ? op?rer, cartes de notre ?tat-major, et, au del? de nos fronti?res, reproductions parfaites des cartes des ?tats-majors ?trangers. Car on a pr?vu le cas, que chaque Fran?ais, au fond de son coeur, appelle de ses voeux ardents, o? nos soldats auraient ? marcher, en pays hostile, au-devant de nos amis et alli?s.