Omaha daily bee., 1914-10-11
LOUVAIN In RUINS,
POMPEH OF TODAY
Professor of University There Pic
lures Desolation Left by the
Invaders.
GRAVES NEARLY EVERYWHERE
Writer of Letter Says Prussian Of
ficers stole Everything They
Could Conveniently Garry
Away.

NAStlNtlONs sept. ~ graphic ue-
scription Of the wreck and desolation OF
the ancient city Of Louvain, Belgium, Is
given by Prof E. ellison OF the University
of Louvain, in a letter to the Belgian
minister of justice. Henry Carton de
Wharf, one of the Belgian high commits
soners who recently presented state
ment of Belgium's case to President
Wilson. The letter says
Il ente the city, coming from Ter
vueren. Beginning at Berthem, l see
numerous burnt and crumbling buildings;
the nearer you come to the gloomy and
silent city the more the number. / pass
through the St Esprit street, the st.
Jacques square and Brussels street. where
only a few houses are in ruins. although
most of them are sacked and pillaged.
Smoking Heap of Ruins.
''At the Sept Coins Louvain reveals
itself to my eyes, like a luminous pano-
rama In the glade of a forest. The center
of the city is a smoking heap OF ruins.
Houses are caved in, nothing remains
but smoking ruins and mass of brick.
1t is a veritable Pompeii But how much
more tragic and vivid is the sight of this
new PompeiL
IAN oppressive silence. Everybody has
fled; at the windows of cellars I see
frightened faces and at the street corners
Prussian sentinels, stolid, immovable and
silent
In the center stand the walls of st.
Peters now a grinning silhouette, roof
and belfry gone, the walls blackened and
caved in. In front stands the Hotel de
Vile, dominating everything and almost
intact. Further on, the remains of Les
Halles, entirely destroyed except for the
arcade of big pillars of the Sale Des
Perdus.
Libraries and Treasures Gone
THE library and its treasures are en-
tirely gone. Entering st. Peters by the
Rue de Malines 1 find what was the big
bell among the ruins. The vaults are for
the most part caved in; there is a. con-
tinuous stream of stones falling, so that
we could not enter it without danger.
Everything is burnt II the paintings
by Boeht and Wander Weghe have not
been saved, they must have persisted.
The jubilee in the choir is standing. 1
walk all over the open space where the
city used to stand At the Sept Coins
everything is lying on the ground The
Rue Des Ecremers is burnt; to the right,
the Audience is burnt; the upper part of
the Rue Du Canal is burnt, including the
house of the dean and the Students
house.
b.. Nauseous OdOrs.
THE Rue De Diest up to st. eters is
a heap of ruins, bricks scrap lyon and
charred beams; no trace of sidewalk is
visible, and from the ruins the most dis
gushing odors are arising and emveloping
everything. Rue De La Station is en-
tirely burnt; but the fronts of the. modern
houses have resisted the fire 7 and the
sight there is not as tragic as elsewhere.
Il now approach the statue OF Just
Lipse; everything burnt. The house Of
David Aisehbach and the house of Mr..
Desagher fallen to pieces, and In the
Petite Rue Louis Nelson's everything Is
destroyed. At the foot of the statue, on
flower bed all trampled underfoot. there
Is an irregular hillock covered with a few
dead leaves.
Killed by Shrapnel.
IAN old woman, recognizing me, comes
out of her cellar and tells me, Monsieur,
this is the grave of Monsieur David and
his son, the best people that ever lived
she cries. They were killed by the shrap-
mel fired upon them as they were leaving
their house. The Capucihin brothers
buried the dead and made temporary
graves for them. Graves were found
nearly everywhere. In front of the statue
near a house find traces Of fire. In
this place., the old woman tells me, the
Prussians burnt body after soaking 1t in
petroleum Some men buried the
charred remains I pick mp key which
must have belonged to the dead man.
Everything Is Burned.
The greatest part of Rue Leopold is
burnt; the houses of Van Geluehten, Le-
marie, Debaisieux, and many others
among them In the Place du People
everything is burnt, except one house,
which is rlddled with bullets. At the
Marche AUX Grains the house of Mr.
Gilbert is destroyed, as well as the first
houses to the right, towards Boels. The
lower part of Rue de Tirlemont is also
RACED TO the ground; the military hospital
and the pharmacy of Mn Rauwez are re-
duced to ashes. A section of the Rue de
la Monnsie, the whole block facing Les
Halles, the house OF Mr.. Van Grunder-
bee, the optician, the book store of Mr..
Peters, etc, and the whole Vieux
Marche, except the college of the Jo-
sephites, form an entangled mass Of ruins
of many shapes.
In the Hue de NaTnur, above Les
Halles, nothing is burned. but everything
is pillaged. The avenues of Diest and
Tirlemont are destroyed.
DiabOIiGaI Sight.
In the center the sight is extraord-
narily picturesque, glpomy, abominable,
and more so in the evening when the full
moon is shining overtime mass of ruins;
1t is really fantastic, diabolical, 70 look
at.
The center OF old LDuvain, the old city
of the dukes of Brabant, exists no longer;
a new city will have TO be built in the
center Of the quarters spared by the
torch.
However that is not yet the end The