South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-09-17
BY MARY BOYLE O,REILLY.

BY MARY BOYLE O'REILLY.
THE HAGUE. Sept. lon Aug.
"a, LOuvain, in northern Belgium, was
splendid city OF over 90, 900 people
On Aug. %. % and rs it was a city
In flames. an imperishable monument
to the horror Of war.
n university important as Harvard
was destroyed. the immense and
priceless libraries, a fifteenth century
cathedral famous for it's art treas
ures. and the homes of happy peo-
pie who had sought no war. who had
been aggressive to no other nation
and who had quarreled with none.
More awful still not one soul of
that swarming population remains to
testify TO what had happened.
In villages only three miles away
in the important town of Tirlemont
10 miles 10 the east, in the capital
Brussels-20 miles to the west, abso-
lutely nothing is known Of the lost
people Of LOuvain!
Between sunset and sunrise the
men, women and children and babies
of city as pOpulous as Portland, Me.
but more splendid, simply disap
ped.red.
Regardless of sex or condition. en-
llAcly ItSdIOltSS u ali nuDldn TlSnlS,
they were crowded into troop trains
and railroaded to God only knows
what fate.
The van of that army of exiles.
10000 women and children, left the
doomed city on the night of Aug. 27.
Five American journalists, practical
ly prisoners of war On a troop train,
saw the heart-stricken victims as
semble. These five were Richard
Irwin, Gerald Morgan and Mary Boyle
O'Reilly.
other trains crowded with tens of
thousands of men and women prison
ers are said TO have followed during
the next few days.
On Aug. 80, heavy train filed
with eXiles from Louvain was stalled
at Liege. I know. because I was there
to meet il. And I am not a German
prisoner. even though l was in Liege.
Released, with the other CORE
spondents, from the troop train in
Germany I had crossed into Holland.
been arrested as journalistic suspect
in Maastricht been given a hearing,
and was released because I was so
densely ignorant and careless of mil
itary movements.
Being free / hurried down the river
TO Liege. In a bombarded city filled
with refugees and invaders, a
stranger, more or less. attracts no at
tention No one challenged the pres
ence Of a woman whose American
passport moreover. (but that's an
other story bore a German military
governors pass TO cross the frontier
In railway cut stood a heavy train
filled with the women of Louvain. A
few over driven Red Cross workers
distributed bottles of water To Sc
cure a bucket and cup made me a
volunteer
Their throats parched with sobbing
their eyes saturated with tears, the
prisoners-hundreds of them mere
girls-crowded the train windows.
Refusing food, deaf to plying
words. they pleaded only 10 be told
where they were bound. One calmer
than the rest cried as a terrified child
cries: whispering her story to me.
This is Sunday. you say. Ten days
ago the Germans entered Louvain
Then we knew we must suffer. The
city had been King Albert's head
quarters. When the king and our
army withdrew Louvain was an I'M
children, old people and priests
Never was such a city for learning
Louvain was the schoolhouse OF the
Low Countries.
The Germans arrived-the ninth
army corps. They made barracks Of
our churches stabbed their horses in
our schools. stacked their stores in
the halls. Then they made us pris-
oners Only one member OF the fam
lily could leave the house once a day:
il was forbidden 10 light a candle
after dark lest the flames served as a
signal. In the streets were 10000
soldiers.