The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-09-29
Christian Herald Relief Fund
for European Widows and
Orphans Now Open
AN OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL
Subscriptions Can Be Sent to
That Publication in New
York; State Department Will
Forward RemittanceS to the
Relief Committees Of Eu-
rope; Need Very Pressing

One of the inevitable results Of var
is that the suffering is not confined to
the COntesting forces in the field. The
great war in Europe, in which over
6, 100000 men are engaged in a deadly
struggle, has aroused the SympathieS
of the Christian world. Many thou
sands are already dead. while tens Of
thousands fill the hospitals. 1t is the
most tremendous conflict the world
has ever witnessed. Nc calamity to
equal it has ever befallen the human
race.
There is another very large class OF
sufferers by the war who, amid the
tumult nj confusion Of the time, are
ven more entitled to our sympathy
and help than any others. These are
the thousands of helpless widows and
orphans, who have been deprived by
this terrible war Of their natural pro
viders, their husbands, sons and
brothers having persisted in the StruS-
gle. In France, Belgium, Germany.
Austria, England, Servia, Russia and
other countries there is an immense
number of these unfortunates, for
whom no appeal has been made from
any source whatsoever. Aid is being
rendered to the soldiers on the ield
and in the hospital; but the benefi-
Charles thus helped may simply be put
to the front to fight again, thus pro-
longing the struggle. But the case Of
the Silent Sufferers'-the bereaNed
mothers and children whose homes
are broken up by the warts Ear
more pitiable. Tens Of thousands Of
them are left utterly helpless, while
great numbers have been cast adrift
on the world, Shelterless and friend
less.
Correspondents in their cable des
patches give here and there a para
graph which reveals a glimpse~of the
dark drama Of suffering and sorrow
that is now being enacted in in.
Vulnerable homes in EurOp>. Writing
from the war zone in France, one
correspondent says of the refugee
host:
Il was in the midst Of it and saw
unforgettable cen OF the enormou.
tragedy. 1t vas a flight of hundred.
and thousands Of families from st
Omer and ROubaix, Bethune, Douai
Ialenciennes, and Arras. who were
driven away from their northern
homes. They are still being hunted
by fear from place to place, wher,
they can find no shelter and n,
permanent safety. The railways hay,
been choked with them, and in thes,
long fugitive trains, which pas
through stations, there is no food @
IA pool uitd Ways. weary
Filthy, n exhausted. spend lon,
days and nights shunted into sid
lines, while troop trains pass an,
pass, and are held up in towns Wher
they can find no means of existence.
Can one wonder that mothers rusl
from their houses and wander fort
in a blind, unreasOning way to swel
the panic tide of fugitives. homeless
and without food, dropping here an,
there on the wayside in utter weari
nessY"
After the tide of war had SVEN
past, this vas the picture of tn
French frontier villages as the cor
respondent saw them: 1T was aImos
possible to reach the FreEch frontier
but the villages but lately populo
and filled with panic are now half de
serted n melancholy. The refugee
, pour aimlessly to the coast and bac
again
:, Remember, these refugees are nc
soldiers, but the wives and childre
+ Of men who have gone to the wa
f very many Of them never to return
War is inexorable. 1t demands nc
! only the life of it's victim on the feIs
+ but too often it involves the desola
ton OF his home. the breaking u
of his little circle or dear ones. NAL
f Ing them outcasts and w%anderer
! Surely the widows and the orphans
the Silent ererS-ara the vi,
, tins of the war most deserving of .,
: sympathy.
a correspondent in Belgium de,
cribes his visit to a deserted tow
There was a stream OF refugees alo,
the road every face bespeakinp ~,
and hclpicSsness- Aged nier ana M,
t men were there, ana snanv mothe,
i dragging or carrying their childr-
C with them. - mother among -
It fugltiHes' he writes. when miles :
It the wa, stdcenly remembered III,
in the terror ADD confas,c, ne
ing her household together and sna.1
o ing q few belongings. she had who1
IS forgotten her little infant ~sleen;nao'
its cradle She nov thcugbt p