TaÌˆgliche Omaha tribuÌˆne. [volume] (Omaha, Nebr.) 1912-1926, 1914-12-12

land all the rest OF t. Look u up
In the Legends" Thomas lngoldAby
never wrote anything truof. am
just back from a little epaRear'
across the well fought fields Of
yesterday" IN northern Belgium and
the outlook is indeed sombor
Yet there are %rcdeening features
IN the situation, the main one being
the competent and kind administra-
ton Of Germans. The conquerors OF
Belgium are doing everything In their
power 20 make easy the lot OF the
conquered. This Is true as | have
seen 1.-THE English newspapers 10
the contrary Notwithstanding.
Those English papers. by the way,
sent mo down into Belgium, or, at
least, they helped.
/ landed in Rotterdam late on a
Saturday night. Sunday being an
Off day and forty-eight hours more
being necessary for the red tape Of
passports, credentials and such, I
found myself with three whole days
TO XIII.
Now Rotterdam offers little Of
Entertainment to the stranger within
her gates. There cen 70 be but
two possibilities. One TO sit about
drinking Age stems OF Pilsener o r
small glasses Of Gin and bltters; the
other visiting the skating rink and
watching n hundred large, pink and
white, awkward Dutch girls cayort
on rollers.
ENGLISH PAPERS SHOW ACUTE
HYsTERiA
SO. having no taste for feminine
clumsiness. II happened that the
little party OF Americans from the
Ryndam put in their time over the
beer discussing the war possibilities
and reading the English papers. We
get them all here, some six OF eight
a day old, but fresh enough to be
interesting. For that matter, an
English paper Ia bound TO be interest
ing II # IL n week old. for II one may
Judge by the public prints, the British
are in a state of acute hysteria And
the spectacle OF staid old England
tapping her hands in emotional
dement, lannot but be entertaining.
But be more explicit. For u.
week OF ten days the English papers
published reports of the terrible
conditions in Belgium, particularly in
Brussels and Antwerp. Famine
threatened. they said. Not only the
natives. bat the Germans were short
Of food. And the Germans were going
about iong-faeed and discouraged, in
a generally ugly frame Of mind and
acutely hostile to the Belgians.
So then, though my instructions
had been to proceed TO Berlin, | was
minded to slip down to Brussels and
have a look at the conditions. In.
e~identally. | wanted 10 go 10 Brussels
II for no other reason than that |
had started for that place from Paris
in the middle Of August and never
arrived. It Is always a satisfaction
TO get to the place YOU start for II Il
does take a couple Of months ana
6tJ0 OF I000 niles travel.
FREE IN ANTWERP AS IN
NEW YORK
/ went down to Antwerp on a train
which carried at least 1905 Belgian
refugees who were going nome.
Nearly every train carries as many.
The service from Roseadaal to
Merxem. a suburb of Antwerp, is
pretty much rs usual, except that
all the cars are marked Neutral"
and no fare Is charged At Merxem
one runs into the German DONNA
ton, with all It's infinite care and
attention to detail. To enter Ant
werp passports must be yised by the
Belgian civil authorities OF the town
and BY the military commanders
office. Once In, You are seemingly
as free to move about and do as you
like as You would be in Boston or
New York.
My first impression Of the German
soldiery was that they are the finest
on the continent. At least. they are
the best that | have seen. Almost
universally they are big men, rugged,
we'll set up. bewhiskered. blond bur
Mes The German uniform Is every
BIT as practical as the English. pos
sibly more so, as the high boot Is to
be preferred to the shoe and bandage
nuttee.
GERMAN SOLDIER KNOWS HIS
JOB
The German soldier is intelligent,
He knows his job and is on 1t all
the time. When / was batting around
the north OF France early in the
mix-up, I found that half the sentries
at the railroad stations couldn't read.
In fact | went almost anywhere on
d homemade passport which had
had faxed up in a Boston notary's
Office. 1t had some beautiful seals,
which seemed to be just as effective
with the French as Mr.. Bryan's
signature. That sort OF thing would
never 20 with the Germans. When
d German sentry asks to see your
passport he has a reason and q good
one; and he reads the document and
knows what 1t says and means.
Antwerp al this writing Is d dead
town. Naturally, with the shipping
stopped, Ii must be. Aside from the
fact that there Is no business, there
ID nothing extraordinary In the APP
pearance Of the town or the people.
A few shells we're thrown into the
city--iust enough TO show what might
have been expected had not the Bel
pians moved out. One city block
100 yards west of the cathedral In
the center of the town has been
shaken down to a fiat ruin, and some
damage has been done In three or
four places In tho residential section