Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-12-05

| POI 'ey ana all vegetables of this class
became so much dead stock. useless for
winter food, equally useless for sale
| mere was some dairying As fast as
the Germans came that stopped. They
bought up the cows for beef; those
| they missed went one by one to feed
| the population. since Belgium could
import no more meat.
Nation Unemployed and Helpless.
Leave out the more terrible effects
OF war-slaughter, grief, ruined homes
| tramplng, hopeless refugees-and con-
sloer this wholly as a financial and
industrial crisis. The world never saw
| the like. An Industrious, crowded ma
| ton thrown in one month into utter
bankruptcy. its currency become sud-
denly not worth the paper on which
| it was printed, it's whole industrial
| population out of work, it's whole pro-
duction stopped-that was Belgium in
early September, when the Germans
settled down upon 1t. Everywhere
| throughout the land the unemployed
| sat at the doors of their houses and
stared DULY at their conquerors be-
| cause there was nothing else to do.
Brussels was city of aimless, futile
crowds. The unemployed. men and
women alike, gathered in groups on
breath, or drifted across the city in
headless, disorganized mobs. I remem-
Der wildly one such mob Back of
the Palace Hotel is small, sunken
park.
Army of Unemployed.
| As passed down street near by
saw men running, heard the subdued
| clamor of crowd. 1 followed They
were pushing against the rail of the
| park. !, by lodging and showing, got
to the rail. There was nothing to see
| except three men laying a pipe The
crowd stared at this spectacle for a
while with blank eyes and drifted
away. They looked like our own army
| of the unemployed in an industrial
! crisis, only with an added helplessness
in their eyes.
| We expected trouble then; that such
trouble has been averted is due per-
better Belgians. to the judicious Sc
verify of the Germans, and finally to
the tact and devotion of our American
| representatives, notably Brand Whit
| lock Indeed, we just missed this
| crisis a night or SO after the Germans
| struck the allies on the southern Dor
der.
Hostages Saved Brussels.
| That night the German garrison was
reinforced by 5000 men sent back from
the front. Without newspapers, a prey
to rumors, the people believed that this
meant a German defeat The aimless
crowds grew brisker in their move
ments; the thrill of coming trouble was
in the air.
| Gentleman" said the German COM
mandant to his Belgian hostages that
| night, we should hate to destroy any
part of your beautiful city, but you
know what we might have to do"
| The influential men of Brussels went
from corner to corner, harranguing the
| mobs. begging the people to go home,
assuring them that the Germans had
not retreated- The police cleared all the
| pubic squares The Germans trained
| three machine guns on the Place da la
station The garrison slept that night
| on it's arms.
That. it turned out was to be the
Climax OF fears for Brussels; somehow
she has avoided ever since such .disas-
| ter as affected poor Louvain. But the
| unemployed are still there. budding in
tne Sums and tenements of Brussels as
| they huddle in every tenement and every
| farmhouse of poor Belgium. Only they
have grown much hungrier,- much less
hope1ui, much more dulled and dead
not in them Only the final despera ton
OF hunger will bring it out
A Subject Belgians Won't Discuss.
OF course. the war is horrible beyond
any previous conception We have of
war, and the heaped-up trenches OF the
dead, the human wreckage in the base
hospitals the epic sufferings of the men
on the line do not comprise all it's hor-
rors. Worse, to any man of sympat hetic
spirit. is the blight of misery over the
european peoples whom the army has
leLt behind. But there is still nobility
lett IN war-even such brutal. wholesale,
mechanical war this. There was a
KIND OF exultation in the way the Bel
CLANS dismissed the thought of their
own losses 1t reminded one of the
spirit which the Californians showed
after their comparatively minute dis
aster IN San Francisco. There, il wasn't
etiquette for man to mention that he
people wouldn't talk on that subject. A
| farmer who spoke some English sat near
his doorway near Aries and spoke with
me-cannily and cautiously-on the war.
Il suppose it will be a hard winter
for you here" ! said.
Expect Hard Winter.
"Oh, certainly" said he, and turned
the subject TO matters which interested
him more-my news from Mons But ]
| came back to the subject and held him
to it, brutality.
Il expect starvation here" 1 said
Certainly. he replied. my crop is
gone. So are my cattle. There's only
a little grain in town. I have two sons
in the army"-and he went on talking
of his sons, oblivious to his own hun
CRY future.
! ~"~.'~'.---~ Nd in set