The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1914-12-25
THE BABIES OF BELGIUM
By VIII Irwin.

Two or u2ree little pictures before
! begin:
1t was the Pas de Calais at tie end
of October-an October blessed. IN
this year O. dread with clear, cooi,
bracing weather, much like our own
Indian Summer. Around a turn II
the road came a strange, shutting
multitude, dodbly strange in that we'll
ordered landscape.
At the |lead marched an old Wo-
man, "a stalwart, stralght-backed
Flemish woman, vigorous in spite OF
her so years. Besides her walked
a boy of not more than II, his figure
already settling into a peasant solldl-
ty. He, like the old woman, carried
on his back a bundle wrapped N
sheet. And between them they drag
ged by the hand little girl, not more
than six years old-aalf carried her,
since now and then she raised her feet
from the ground and let them support
Aer.
1t was plain to see why she lifted
her feet Her poor little shoes, heavy
though they had been in the begin
ming. were worn clear through. Her
clothes and hair were matted with
dirt, and her face was gray with It,
save for the streaks made by her.
tears. She had stopped crying now;
she was past that. There comes the
time with all these refugees. young
and old, wnen they get beyond tears.
Behind followed the rest of tae ref
ugee caravan, like these leaders ex-
cept for minor details. OF course,
there was not among them & man OF
vigorous years-only ew grand
fathers, trudging along beside Their
women folks. Mainly it was collec-
ton of young cnildren-all. like the
little girl in tie leading party, be
y0nd tears Win misery.
A dozen OF the women, at least, car
RED babes in arms who mad somehow
survived the miseries Of days and days
of walking. These were the last OF
the Belgian refugees to pour into
France. They came, mainly, from that
thickly settled, fertile, once prosper
Gus southwestern strip, along wien
Germans and allies were now lighting
for tie bridge-nead of the User.
But not all Some them-as
learned from the few who had the en-
ergy to talk-lived further North. A
month before, they ,ad fed from the
German advance after the capture O.
Antwerp; and they had been fleeing
e,er since-sleep;ng il t.e feds
through rain AMI shine, eating what
bread of charity Heaven only knows.
The tail o. the procession, found,
had lated at crossroads beside
which someone he'd erected tent
from blanke,s strung on sticks As l
approached, wondering what It's
might be, an automobile came whiz-
zing down the road at 20 miles az
hour-there are no speed laws for mil
itary automobiles in time Of war. 1t
stopped beside tie tent; u.ere was
parley; and a man in Belgium uni
form wearing a Red Cross brassard on
2is arm alighted.
What is it-what is i3appening?' l
asked the first of the refugees beside
the tent-an old man who crouched
in the gutter.
"Un enfant-a baby is being born"
he said briefly. The man in uniform
was Belgian surgeon taking time
from his work of repairing death to
assist in giving life.
Again; it was the next day in Calais
Calais, once so busy and so vener-
able, and in spots so pretty, but nov
faded and dirty With the passage of
armies. Ten thousand OF these refu-
gees came into Calais that day That
day, also the Red Cross was bringing
IN Belgian wounded by the thousand
there had been serious fighting along
the User.
Tie refugees, herded or escorted b.
The police, streamed down the streets
to the concentration yards prepared
for them on the docks by the French
government, which was going to trans
port them to the Midi as soon as 1t
could get the steamers. You would
hear now and tlen the toot of an
automobile horn, and the refugees
would make way for the passage OF
a motor-car loaded to capacity with
the white-faced wounded. The car
-o,,l5 oo on oDd tho -af,,c COOS woO1d