South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-08-22
BY III. II. BURTON.


LONDON. Aug. 22.-What is the
actual lighting like In the very heart
of the great European war?
What is there to be seen in the VIII
lagos, along the roads, in the fields?
How do the people in the homes, in
the streets, in the country places take
it?
I am just a plain American citizen
who has never seen war! l have al
ways lived in the peace of Cleveland,
o., mostly, and in Chicago and New
York
Could l not go to this scene of hor-
rOr and devastation and tell the folks
at home, my country people, some
thing definite. something OF human
interest, something that would inter
est them more than the dull, heavy
mass of cable dispatches about fight
ing. skirmishes, troop movements and
the like? Could l. who had always
lived where there was peace, not tell
them just how terrible this war is?
L said I'd try.
Goes Over to Belgium to See.
So l went to Belgium and now I
am just back in London TO cable eX-
actly what l saw.
In performing my task / succeeded
in penetrating to within a dozen miles
Of Liege TO a point where the sky was
alight with fire, the air acrid with
powder and the whole arch of the
heavens reverberating with the thun-
derclap of cannon.
1t had been easy to reach Brussels.
I sailed from Folkestone. England, to
Ostend. the famous resort on the Bel
gian coast.
The trip to Brussels through the
marshlandS was uneVentful the train
but ten minutes late.
But in Brussels l began to notice the
first active signs of war raging so ter
riblv from Liege westward. The great
Palace hotel at Brussels had already
been turned into an immense hospital
and big Red Cross signs were painted
in every window.
I was at once sent TO the bureau of
the GendarmeTie, on Boulevard Water
loo, to declare myself. and there
requested a pass to Liege.
How shall l get TO the front?" I
asked a sergeant. Automobiles are
fifty dollars a day"
The trains are still running, he
laughed. The Germans can't hurt
us; Belgium is still the greatest sum
mer resort in the world"
Setting Fire TO Their Own Wheat.
| so l bought a secOnd-class ticket to
I4ouvain, fifteen miles away, then still
! the seat of the Belgian army.
The ride to Louvain began to tell
! me how very terrible this European
war is going 10 be. Everywhere l
saw farmers setting fire TO their ripen-
ing wheat fields SO the fated Germans
\ could get no food-could get not even
I a dry kernel of hunger-satisfyins
wheat.
: Along the roads motors filled with
/ armed soldiers were passing this way
and that, and armed messengers on BIZ
/ cycles rushed back and forth 70 the
\ forts between Brussels and LOuVain,
with dispatches from the government
/ 10 the army.
/ Belgian, French and English fags
| decorated all houses. and groups OF
\ Belgian peasants stood at every cor
\ ner discussing the terrible war.
Just outside Louvain the train sud
denly came TO a standstil and a squad
of Belgian cavalry came along guard
/ ing several Uhlans, German cavalry
men, who were laughing and joking
with their captors while cIgarets huns
impudently from their lips.
The Uhlan's uniform is dusty
| green so that they melt into the land
scape and are bad targets for the en-
envy.
Gay Soldiers. Playing Children.
At LOuvain the streets were fairly
choked with soldiers. They marched
I along the sidewalks. drank before the
cafes. played checkers on the curb:
/ or dashed about in automO blleS, bu'
everywhere children were running and
playing as usual. and pretty milliner'
stood in doorways waiting for some
one TO buy the hats they had intended
TO sell 10 the American tourists thi,
summer.
In front or the hotel De Vile. which
the Belgians had taken over as al
army barracks, stood ten stacks al
rifles. fifteen feet high. and in th'
quaint courtyard were two great mill
tary field wagons which were beini
personally guarded by Belgian officers