TaÌˆgliche Omaha tribuÌˆne. [volume] (Omaha, Nebr.) 1912-1926, 1914-12-12

ward appearances everybody IL
reasonably contented. Municipal AZ
fairs are conducted under Belgian
officials, - usual. belgian police
patrol the streets. cooperating With
the military In keeping order.
On Saturday night | dlned, with
some luxury aud ne normal expense,
At the Palace Hotel, the German
headquarters. The place was open
10 the public and was brilliant with
gold lace and snowy uniforms. Plenty
or native civilians and their women.
folk mingled with the German Of
hccrs.
After dinner I spent q couple Of
hours AZ the Bar splendid, a dancing
and drinking place, quite sportily
Favored with the Partisan at
| moBphoro. There we're half q hundred
pretty girls who might have come
from the French bouleyards and a
hundred or 80 OF the younger Ger
man officers, who certainly had come
from Berlin. There was American
ragtimo ad lib, American cocktails.
II you wanted them, oceans OF
champagne and kisses for those who
cared 10 take them. The young
Germans seemed 10 be enjoying them
selves. | wonder II the ladies' OF
Paris win greet the Teuton invader
with like cordlality-if they have the
opportunity.
WAR SPIRIT NEAR SURFACE
With Il all, the galety and APP
parently normal life Of Brussels, the
war spirit Is not far below the sur
face. Around II O'Clock one night !
was going TO my hotel when ]
Witnessed a little episode that
showed preHy conclusively that
battle, murder and sudden death
might easily take the place OF peace,
and az an instant notice.
A German soldier was coming up
a side street with a woman. A man
In citizens clothes approached. There
was loud talk, a brief acuffle and
the soldiers slung his rife down to
his hip and began to shoot. Smash
crash, bangl Three shots into the
middle Of the street and into a plate.
glass window. No one was hit.
People scnttled away in all direc
tions. | hunted a doorway. The
policeman in the square made no
move to investigate, and the soldier
went his way with his woman |
inferred from the incident that the
German soldier is inclined to be a
little touehy and is a bad n to.
trihe with.
~ 4h,a -nAt~w - Rxna ..rritns
Brussels Is well fixed. The bread
supply Is quite as usual at regular
prices. There Is plenty OF meat
plenty Of milk. plenty Of everything.
When | left Brussels the people
were a little worried. and strangely
enough owe the possibility OF the
Germans being defeated on the right
wing and having to retreat. The
%supposition is that in such an event
a big battle would be fought to the
south and west Of Brussels, where
the Germans are terrifying exten.
siveIy, and with a battle raging out
side, the city must surely suffer.
| came up from Brussels to Ant.
werp with a lot Of soldiers In a big
military auto truck. You have read
Of the destruction OF Tirlemont,
Louvain, Malines and all the rest,
Nothing that has been written could
have exaggerated very much. In the
forty miles | covered by auto every
town, village and hamlet had been
practically wiped out. There was
evidence that the Belgians had
contested every foot of the way.
The entire countryside was crisis
crossed with trenches and barbed
wire entanglements. Fresh graves
married. the roadside by scores. At
Mallnes, a town of possibly 5000
people, the bombardmeht had shaken
down so per cent. of the homes. The
cathedral, an enormous structure,
had been wrecked. Chunks as big
as a small house. had been smashed
out Of the massive tower In half a
dozen places.
To the north OF Malines and
approaching the outer lines of forts
the fighting must have been terrific.
In a half mile | counted in the fat
farm lands beside the road over a
hundred pits, circular c~raters, fifteen
feet across, where the big shells
had burst. At one point | saw three
big siege guns, at least Of S-inch
CALDER, out Of commission and rust
ing in the rain. Nearer Antwerp the
bitches were full of smashed auto I
mobiles, gun carriages, ~carts--all
the wreckage of a great battle.
Boiled down to the bones, the
Belgian situation seems to be this:
The country made a desperate, hope
less and foolish fight. II may have
heen a gallant fight. 1t was. But,
oh, the folly Of il!