Conquest of America: A Romance of Disaster and Victory, U.S.A., 1921 A.D.

by Cleveland Moffett

  CHAPTER IX

  BOSTON OFFERS DESPERATE AND BLOODY RESISTANCE TO THE INVADERS

  Our wing of the advancing German army remained in Hartford for four days,at the end of which all signs of disorder had ceased; in fact, there waslittle disorder at any time. The lesson of New Haven's resistance hadbeen taken to heart, and there was the discouraging knowledge that a rowof German six-inch siege-guns were trained on the city from the heightsof Elizabeth Park, their black muzzles commanding the grey towers andgolden dome of State House, the J. Pierpont Morgan Memorial, the gleamingwhite new City Hall, the belching chimneys of the Underwood typewriterworks, and the brown pile of Trinity College.

  There was the further restraining fact that leading citizens of Hartfordwere held as hostages, their lives in peril, in James J. Goodwin'spalatial home, among these being ex-Governor Morgan G. Buckley, MayorJoseph H. Lawler, Bishop Chauncey B. Brewster, Dr. Flavel S. Luther,Bishop John J. Nilan, Mrs. Richard M. Bissell, Mrs. Thomas N. Hepburn,the Rev. Rockwell Harmon Potter, Charles Hopkins Clark, Rolland F.Andrews, the Rev. Francis Goodwin, Thomas J. Spellacy, and SolSontheimer.

  So the invaders' march through New England continued. It is a pitifulstory. What could Connecticut and Massachusetts do? With all their wealthand intelligence, with all their mechanical ingenuity, with all theirpride and patriotism, what could they do, totally unprepared, morehelpless than Belgium, against the most efficient army in Europe?

  Three times, between Hartford and Springfield, unorganised bands ofAmericans, armed with shotguns and rifles, lay in ambush for theadvancing enemy and fired upon them. These men declared that they woulddie before they would stand by tamely and see the homes and fields of NewEngland despoiled by the invader. Whereupon the Germans announced, bymeans of proclamations showered upon towns and villages from theiradvance-guard of aeroplanes, that for every German soldier thus killed byAmericans in ambush a neighbouring town or village would be burned byfire bombs dropped from the sky. And they carried out this threat to theletter, so that for every act of resistance by the fathers and brothersand sons of New England there resulted only greater suffering anddistress for the women and the children.

  The average man, especially one with a wife and children, is easily cowedwhen he has no hope; and presently all resistance ceased. What feebleopposition there was in the first week dwindled to almost nothing in thesecond week and to less than nothing in the third week. Stamford paid twomillion dollars in gold, Bridgeport five million, New Haven five million,Hartford twenty million, Fall River three million, Springfield fivemillion, Worcester two million, Providence ten million, Newport fiftymillion. The smaller cities got off with half a million each, and some ofthe towns paid as little as one hundred thousand dollars. But everycommunity paid something, and the total amount taken from New England,including a hundred million from New Hampshire, a hundred million fromVermont, and a hundred million from Maine, was eight hundred milliondollars, about a third of which was in gold.

  With a battle-front fifty or seventy-five miles long, von Kluck's forcesstrolled across this fertile and populous region, living off the land,leaving small holding forces with artillery at every important point, afew hundred or a few thousand, while the main army swept relentlessly andresistlessly on. It was a delightful four weeks' picnic for von Kluck andhis men; and at the end of four weeks everything in New England hadfallen before them up to the city of Boston, which had been left for thelast. _And the total German losses in killed and wounded were less thantwenty!_

  On July 2, General von Kluck's army, sweeping forward unopposed, reachedthe western and southwestern suburbs of Boston, passing through Newtonand Brookline, and making a detour to avoid ruining the beautiful golflinks where Ouimet won his famous victory over Ray and Vardon. Thissportsmanlike consideration was due to the fact that several of theGerman officers and the Crown Prince himself were enthusiastic golfers.

  Meantime there was panic in the city. For days huge crowds had swarmedthrough Boston's great railway stations, fleeing to Maine and Canada; andacross the Charles River bridge there had passed an endless stream ofautomobiles bearing away rich families with their jewels and theirsilver. Among them were automobile trucks from the banks, laden with tonsof gold. No boats left the harbour through fear of a grim Germanbattleship that lay outside, plainly visible from the millionaire homesof Nahant and Manchester.

  Even now there was talk of resistance, and German Taubes looked down upona mass meeting of ten thousand frantic citizens gathered in MechanicsHall on Huntington Avenue; but prudent counsels prevailed. How couldBoston resist without soldiers or ammunition or field artillery? Brooklynhad resisted, and now lay in ruins. New Haven had tried to resist, andwhat had come of it?

  At three o'clock on this day of sorrow, with banners flying and bandsplaying, the German forces--horse, foot, and artillery--entered theMassachusetts capital in two great columns, the one marching down BeaconStreet, past the homes of Oliver Wendell Holmes and Julia Ward Howe, theother advancing along Commonwealth Avenue, past the white-columnedHarvard Club, past the statues of Alexander Hamilton and William LloydGarrison, on under the shade of four rows of elms that give this noblethoroughfare a resemblance to the Avenue de la Grande Armee in Paris.

  It was a perfect summer's day. The sun flashed from the golden dome ofthe State House on the hill over Boston Common, and from the great whiteCustom House tower that rose impressively in the distance above the greenof the Public Gardens. Boston looked on, dumb with shame and stifledrage, as the invaders took possession of the city and ran up their flags,red, white, and black, above the Old South Meeting House on WashingtonStreet, where Benjamin Franklin was baptised, and above the sacred, nowdishonoured, shaft of the Bunker Hill Monument.

  Hostages were taken, as usual, these including Major Henry L. Higginson,President A. Lawrence Lowell of Harvard University, Major James M.Curley, Edward A. Filene, Margaret Deland, William A. Paine, EllerySedgwick, Mrs. John L. Gardner, Charles W. Eliot, Louis D. Brandeis,Bishop William Lawrence, Amy Lowell, T. Jefferson Coolidge, Thomas W.Lawson, Guy Murchie, and Cardinal O'Connell.

  A proclamation was made in the _Transcript_ (now forced to be theofficial German organ and the only newspaper that was allowed to appearin Boston) that these prominent persons would be held personallyresponsible for any public disorder or for any failure of the city tofurnish the army of occupation with all necessary food and supplies.

  On the night of occupation there were scenes of violence, with riotingand looting in various parts of Boston, notably in Washington Street andTremont Street, where shops were wrecked by mobs from the South End,several thousand of the unruly foreign element, crazed with drink andcarrying knives. Against this drunken rabble the American police, sullenand disorganised, could do nothing or would do nothing; and the situationwas becoming desperate, when German troops advanced along WashingtonStreet, firing into the crowd and driving back the looters, who surgedthrough Winter Street, a frantic, terrified mass, and scattered overBoston Common.

  Here, in front of the Park Street Church, another huge mob of citizenshad gathered--five thousand wildly patriotic Irishmen. Armed with clubs,rifles, and pistols, and madly waving the Stars and Stripes, they cursed,cheered, and yelled out insults to the Germans. Suddenly a company ofGerman soldiers with machine-guns appeared on the high ground in front ofthe State House. Three times a Prussian officer, standing near the St.Gaudens Shaw Memorial, shouted orders to the crowd to disperse; but theIrishmen only jeered at him.

  "They want it; let them have it," said the Prussian. "Fire!"

  And three hundred fell before the blast of rifles and machine-guns.

  At which the mob of Irish patriots went entirely mad, and, with yells ofhatred and defiance, swarmed straight up the hill at the battery that wasslaughtering them, shouting: "To hell with 'em!" "Come on, boys!"charging so fiercely and valiantly, that the Germans were swept fromtheir position, and for a short time a victorious American mob held theapproaches to the State House.

  Alas,
it was for only a short time! The enemy quickly brought forwardreinforcements in overwhelming strength, and an hour later there wereonly dead, wounded and prisoners to tell of this loyal but hopelesseffort.

  In other parts of the city during this night of terror there were similarscenes of bloodshed, the Germans inflicting terrible punishment upon thepeople, innocent and guilty suffering alike for every act of disobedienceor resistance. There were a few cases of sniping from houses; and forthese a score of men, seized indiscriminately in the crowds, were hangedfrom windows of the offending or suspected buildings. As a further lessonto the city, two of the hostages, chosen by lot, were led out into thePublic Gardens the next morning at sunrise and shot near the statue ofEdward Everett Hale.

  Machine-guns were now placed on the high ground before the Soldiers'Monument and at other strategic points, and ten thousand soldiers wereencamped on Boston Common, the main part of the army being withdrawn,after this overwhelming show of force, to Franklin Park on the outskirts,where heavy siege-guns were set up.

  The _Transcript_ appeared that day with a black-lettered proclamation,signed by General von Kluck, to the effect that at the next disorder fivehostages would be shot, and six beautiful buildings--the State House, theCustom House, the Boston Public Library, the Opera House, the BostonArt Museum, and the main building of the Massachusetts School ofTechnology--would be wrecked by shells. This reduced the city to absolutesubmission.

  Mrs. John L. Gardner's fine Italian palace in the Fenway, with its wealthof art treasures, was turned into a staff headquarters and occupied bythe Crown Prince, General von Kluck, and Count Zeppelin. The main body ofofficers established themselves in the best hotels and clubs, the CopleyPlaza, the Touraine, the Parker House, the Somerset, the St. Botolph, theCity Club, the Algonquin, the Harvard Club, paying liberally for thefinest suites and the best food by the simple method of signing checks tobe redeemed later by the city of Boston.

  Non-commissioned officers made themselves comfortable in smaller hotelsand in private houses and boarding-houses to which they were assigned. Apopular eating-place was Thompson's Spa, where a crush of brass-buttonedGerman soldiers lunched every day, perched on high stools along thecounters, and trying to ogle the pretty waitresses, who did not hidetheir aversion.

  It is worthy of note that the Tavern Club was burned by its own membersto save from desecration a spot hallowed by memories of Oliver WendellHolmes, James Russell Lowell, Charles Eliot Norton, and George WilliamCurtis.

  I must mention another instance of the old-time indomitable New Englandspirit that came to my knowledge during these sad days. The Germanslevied upon the city of Boston an indemnity of three hundred milliondollars, this to be paid at the rate of three million dollars a day; andon the morning of July 4, two of von Kluck's staff officers, accompaniedby a military escort, marched down State Street into the now desertedregion of banks and vaults and trust companies, to arrange for theregular payment of this sum. Entering the silent halls of a great bankinghouse, they came to a rear office with the door locked. A summons to openbeing unanswered, they broke down this door; whereupon a shot, fired fromwithin, killed the first soldier who crossed the threshold. A Germanvolley followed, and, when the smoke cleared away, there sat a prominentBoston financier, his father's Civil War musket clutched in his hands andthe look of a hero in his dying eyes. All alone, this uncompromisingfigure of a man had waited there in his private office ready to defy thewhole German army and die for his rights and his convictions.