The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1914-12-15
BELGIAN BABIES

foremost Journalist, VINO mas been
seeing the worst results of the war in
Belgium, will appeal to every Amer
lean mother:
At the concentration yards they sat
in family groups, the children hud-
died about their mothers and grand
mothers like chickens around hens.
No child among them laughed or
played; they were too weary for that;
but no child cried / was trying to-
nave speech with these refugees, and
finding them too nerveless to give any
account of their adventures when an
ambulance arrived.
A nurse and a physician descended.
A woman rose from distant group
and joined them. She carried in her
arms bundle wrapped in rags The
slant of her back showed that the
bundle contained a child-there is an
attitude of motherhood which none
can mistake.
The woman in the nearest group
followed the pantomime with their
fearless, hopeless eyes.
What is it? asked.
For time none of the women an
swered. Then one spoke in dead
tone. "Her baby is dead" she said.
She had no milk in her."
Add another picture, brought out
by an American from Belgium. He
stood one morning by the back door
of German cook camp, watching a
group Of Belgian women grubbing
through the trash heap piled up be-
hind the camp. All these women car
ried babies.
What are they doing?" he asked
a German sergeant with whom he
had struck up acquaintance.
"Scraping our condensed milk
cans said the sergeant cts the
only way to get milk for their babies.
I've seen them run their fingers
round can which looked as bright as
new coin, and hold them into the
babies mouths to suck. My COM
pany," he added, "has been getting
along without milk in its coffee and
giving it to these women. We've re-
ceived no orders to the contrary and
we're mostly family men. But we're
an exception; and it doesn't go very
far"
Here is another recent picture from
stricken Brussels, that gay, dainty,
lively city in old times-the city
whose smiling people called it petit
Paris. The scene is the once busy,
pleasant boulevard Bischofsheim. A
woman collapses on bench set along
the sidewalk after the fashion of the
Greater Paris. In her arms is baby.
A child staggers along, clinging to
and yellow. she is on the verge of coll
lapse. The baby, surely not over five
months old, has pale, lead-colored
skin. Its mouth is open as though
set that way, It's eyes are. closed.
Two women of Brussels pass this
unhappy group. They hurriedly ex-
change some words, turn back to the
woman on the bench. Then one stands
guard while the lother hastens for
some milk and bread-such as is to
be found in the Brussels of today.
They force a little milk between the
teeth of the mother They let the
baby drink. Unweaned though it is,
it drinks as though it had never
drunk otherwise.
To the face of the mother comes a
few patches of color. She slowly re-
covers until she is able to eat a bit
of bread. The baby opens its mouth,
drinks more greedily. at has not
fed since two days" the mother whis-
pers.
The mother tries to rise from the
bench but she can not. The elder
child drinks the milk that is left. 1t
looks curiously at the piece of bread
as if it did not know what it was. The
mother forces it to eat. A crowd has
gathered, murmuring. This sight is
not new, yet each time it draws a
little crowd. Every one would like to
give-but no one can. Who is not
poor at this moment? Many of them
have children at home who today
weigh less than the day they were
born.
Belgium is shut off from the world
hinged with steel. Her own food
supply was used up long ago, either
by the people or by their conquerors.
The cattle were first of all to go;
even in August | saw the Germans
killing mich cows for rations. A cow
or a small dairy herd is left here or
there; but they are the exceptions.
The supply of condensed milk ran
short long ago. Now milk is neces-
sity to most civilized children between