New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-12-13
BY WILL IRWIN.
1.-TWO OR THREE little pictures before
l really begin:
Il was the Pas de Calais at the end
By WILL IRWIN.

IL was the HdS &c AdldlS at INC Gnu
of October-an October blessed, in
this wear OF dread. with clear, cool, bracing
weather. much like our own Indian Summer.
Around turn in the road came strange,
shifting multitude, doubly strange in that
wel-ordered landscape.
At the head marched an old woman, stall
wart sraght-back Flemish woman, vigorous
II spite Of her sixty years. Beside her walked
a boy Of not more than twelve, his figure al
ready settling into peasant solidity. He, like
the old woman, carried on his back bundle
wrapped in a sheet. And between them they
dragged by the hand little girl, not more than
sx years oid-half carried her, since now and
then she raised her feet from the ground and
let them support her
II was plain to see why she lifted her feet.
Her poor little shoes. heavy though they had
been in the beginning, wee worn clear through
Her clothes and hair were matted with dirt
and her face was gray with it, save for the
sreaks 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.
SUFFERING THAT HAS GOT BEYOND
TEARS.
Behind followed the rest of the refugee
caravan, ike these leaders except for minor
Details. OF course, there was not among them
man OF vigorous years-only few grand
fathers, trudging along beside their women
folks Mainly, it was a collection OF young
children-aIl. like the little girl in the leading
party, beyond tears with misery.
dozen OF the women, at least, carried babes
u arms who had somehow survived the miser-
rs Of days and days of walking. These were
the last Of the Belgian refugees to pour into
France. They came, mainly, from that tlckly-
settled, fertile, once prosperous southwestern
strip. along which Germans and Allies were
now fighting for the bridge-head of the User.
But not all. Some OF them-as / learned
iron the few who had the energy to talk
lived further north. A month before they had
fed 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
AT THE CROSSROADS: A BABY is
BORN.
The tail OF the procession, / found, had
halted al a crossroad beside which someone
had erected q tent from blankets strung on
sucks. As approached, wondering what this
might be, an automobile came whizzing down
the road at seventy miles an hour-there are
no speed laws for military automobiles in time
Of var. Il stopped beside the tent; there was
spsrlsy and man in Belgian uniform wearing
Red Cross brasssrd on his arm alighted
What is it-what is happening2" asked the
hrs, Of the refugees beside the tent-an old
nan who crouched in the gutter
I'm enfant-a baby is being born" he SAID
0ueily The man in uniform was Belgian
surgeon taking time from his work OF repairing
eeath TO assist in giving life.
Again: il was the next day in Calais
Calais, once 50 busy and SO venerable, and IN
spots so pretty. but now faded and dirty with
NE passage OF armies. Ten thousand OF
these refugees came into Calais that day That
DAY also, the Red Cross was bringing IN Bel
gan wounded by the thousands-there had
'een serious fighting along the User.
THE REFUGEES ARE HERDED IN THE
CONCENTRATION YARDS.
The refugees, herded or escorted by the
police, streaned down the streets 10 tn con-
eentration yards prepared for them on the
docks OF the French Government. which was
going 20 transport them to the Midi as soon
as IL could get the steamers. You would
hear now and then the foot OF an automobile
norm. and the refugees would make way for
ths passage OF the motor-csr loaded TO espscity
with the whitehead wounded. The EAR you'd
% on, and the refugees would close their gap
and resume their weary. nerveiess pace.
At the concentration yards they sat in family
groups, the children huddled about their