The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-12-20


k4szgA Ian October blessed, in this
year of dread. with clear, cool,
braoing weather. much like our own In
dian summer. Around a turn in the road
came strange, shuffling multitude.
doubly strange in that well-ordered land
scape
At the head marched old woman,
a stalwart, straightforward Flemish wom-
an, vigorous in spite of her 60 years Be
side her walked a boy of not more than
l2 his figure already settling into peas
ant stoidity. He, Ike the old woman,
carried on his back bundle wrapped in
a sheet. And between them they dragged
by the hand a little girl, not more than 6
years old-half carried her, since now and
then she raised her feet from the ground
and let them support her.
1t was plain to see why she lifted her
feet Her poor little shoes, heavy though
they had been in the beginning. were worn
cleaf through. Her clothes and hair were
matted with dirt. and her face was gray
with il, save for the streazs made by her
tears She had stopped crying now she
was beyond that There comes the time
with all these refugees, young and old,
when they get beyond tears
Behind followed the rest of the refugee
caravan, like these leaders except for
minor details. OF course, there, was not
among them a man of vigorous years
only few grandfnthers, trudging along
beside their women folks. Mainly it was
q collection of young children-all, like
the little girl in the leading party. beyond
tears with misery.
dozen of the women, at least. carried
ha bes in arms who had somehow sur
vived the miseries of days and days OF
walking These were the last of the Bel
CLAN refugees ito pour into France. They
came. mainly, from that thiclSly. settled,
fertile. once prosperous southwestern
strip, along which Germans and allies
were now fighting for the bridge head oil
the User.
But not all. Some of them-as ! learned
from the few who had the energy to talk
lived further north A month before
they had fled from the German advance
after the capture of Antwerp and they
had been fleeing ever since-sleeping in the
fields through rain and shine, eating what
bread of charity heaven only knows.
The tail of the procession, / found mad
halted at a crossroads beside which some
one had erected a tent from blankets
strung on sticks. As | approached. Won
derlng what this might be. automobile
came whizzing down the road at 70 miles
an hour-there are no speed laws for mill
itary automobiles i'm time of war. 1t
stopped beside the tent; there was a parley
and a man in Belgium uniform wearing
q Red Cross brassard on his arm alighted.
What is it-what is happenings
asked the first of the refugees beside the
tent--an old man VINO croucned IN the
gutter.
.'Un enfant--a baby is being BORN" he
said briefly The man in uniform was
a Belgian surgeon taking time from his
work of repairing death to assist in giving
life
Again. it was the next day in Calais
Calais, once so busy and SO venerable, ana
in spots so pretty, but now faded ana
dirty with the passage of armies. Ten
thousand of these refugees came into
Calais that day. That day, also. the Red
Cross was bringing in Belgian wounded
by the thousand-there had seen serious
1ghting along the User.
The refugees, herded or escorted by tue
police, streamed down the streets to the
concentration yards prepared for them on
the docks OF the French government
which was going to transport them TO the
Midi as soon as it could get tac steam
ers You would hear now and then the
toot of an automobile horn. and the reru-
gees would make way for the passage oil
motor car loaded to capacity with the
White-faced wounded. The car would go
on, and the refugees would close their
gaps and resume their weary, nerveless
pace.
At the concentration yards they sat in
family groups, the children huddled about