Grand Forks daily herald., 1914-11-05
Antwerp EVACUATED
| IN THE Widest PANIC
News That Germans Would Bombard City Held Back til
the Last Minute-High Officials Escaped Day Before
Scenes of Terror when Persons Tried to Leave

that Sherman walked all the way to
the Dutch frontier. Well, don't
blame him. l made that same march
myself
When the Gums Began to Pound.
When it was known that the Ger
mans were, to bombard-that very
day, mind you-and that the defend
ers of the city who had so courage
ously suppressed all news of the hor-
hors to come had also run away, the
widest panic broke out.
we all ran," said my refugees.
For miles the roads leading into
Holland were iammed with men and
women. old and young, rich and poor,
all walking desperately toward safety.
Every boat that could get away from
the piers on the Scheldt was loaded
to the waters edge with people. Then
the shells began to howl through the
air. The big, earth-quaking guns be-
gan to pound.
Those Of us who had waited be-
gan to flee then" said my friends.
narrow streets were blocked with
carts and mattresses and blankets and
the debris of thousands of ruined
homes. Men fought and tore at each
other as they tried to force a passage
through. The weaker and the women
were knocked down and thrust aside.
Sometimes companies of soldiers in
retreat would quick march through
US, pushing US aside"
An unknown number of thousands
spent that first night upon the pier.
The German guns seemed not to be
! throwing shells that way. They feared
! to remain under roof. The story goes
that more than a score of babes were
born that night in that restless, fright
ened. houseless multitude-and died.
l do not know. My refugee friends
They could only tell little OF what
they had seen. and that in cold, bare
| lifelesS words.
The shells!" they all said. "Ah,
! God, the shells Each shell seemed
to he coming direct for you. No mat
ter If it were mile away, it seemed
to speak right to your heart!" go,
Every member Of one group of refu-
gees /. saw hated the Germans, of
Germans had conducted the lombard
ment honorablX-even kindly-with
due regard to the laws o. war.
AIassacring the Wounded. ...
There was one exception.
They shelled the British hospital
said he. II saw It," a
| This man declared that Taube
| aeroplane circled and whirled above
the hospital until it had been definite
~ located.
Then the Taube dropped one OF
| those smoke things down." said he
"You know-the smoke bombs which
| give the artillery the range. - Right
afterward the shells burst through the
roof Of the hospital and exploded in.
! side" -.
The hospital was filled with wound.
ed. They were all desperately in
jured men, for the less seriously hurt
| had been given first aid and had been
sent away. tt
After the bombardment." said the
man. very gravely and quietly, II
went in that hospital. I wish had
| not done so. 1 wake up at night and
remember that scene in the dark
ness"
The shells had burst among those
dying men-men with arms off and
legs off and limbs in splints and
pierced by bullet and torn by shrap-
mel.
"They had thrown themselves out
Of their COTS" said this man, land
tried to claw their way to the door.
The floor was like a shambles. I do
not dare tell you what I saw there.
There were the prints of bloody hands
upon the walls. where they had tried
to pull themselves along. I saw pieces
Of flesh on the floor"
Another man in the party nodded
his head. He is an Englishman, who
lived for nine years in New York
He is in the employ of a firm Of news
photographers. I have his name and
address. He is singularly level.
headed Englishman.
II saw those things" said he. Il
also entered that hospital after the
bombardment." -
These things have not been made
known in England, Kitchener will not
l.permit il. !.