The Democratic banner. (Mt. Vernon, Ohio) 1898-192?, 1914-12-25
By WILL IRWIN.

vv'sS SNTo w OtotTooSs
BY WILL IRWIN.
TWO or three little pictures before
really begin:
1t was the Pas de Calais at the
end o. October-an October blessed, In
this year of dread, with clear, cool.
bracing weather much like our own In
dian summer. Around turn in the road
came a strange, shuffiing multitude,
doubly strange in that well ordered
landscape.
At the head marched an old woman
. stalwart, straight backed Flemish
woman. vigorous in spite Of her sixty
years. Beside her walked boy Of not
more than twelve. his figure already
settling into peasant solidity. He,
like the old woman, carried on his
back a bundle wrapped In a sheet
And between them they dragged by
the hand little girl not more than six
years old-half carried her since now
and then she raised her feet from the
ground and let them support her.
BEYOND TEARS.
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 1t.
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, when
they get beyond tears.
Behind followed the rest of the refu
gee caravan, like these leaders, except
for minor details. OF course there was
not among them man of vigorous
years-only few grandfathers, trudg-
Ing along beside their womenfolk.
Mainly it was a collection of young
children-all, like the little girl in the
leading party. beyond tears and misery.
A MONTH OF FLIGHT.
A dozen of the women at least car
ried babes in arms, who had some
how 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
thiclAy settled. fertile, once prosperous
southwestern strip along which Ger
mans and allies were now fighting for
the bridge head of the User.
But not all. Some of them-as
learned from 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. skAping in the fields
through rain and shine, eating what
bread of charity heaven only knows.
BABE BORN IN TENT.
The tail of the procession, l found,
had halted at crossroads beside
which some one had erected q tent
from blankets strung on sticks. As l
approached, wondering what this might
be. an automobile came whizzing down
the road ut seventy miles an hour
there are no speed laws for military
automobiles in time of war. 1t stop.
ped beside the tent; there was par
ley. and man In Belgian uniform
wearing Red Cross brassard on his
arm alighted.
"What is it-what is happening?'
asked the first Of the refugees beside
the tent--an old man who crOuched In
the gutter.
"Un entant--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 now
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.
HERDED ON THE PIERS.
The refugees. herded or escorted BY
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 1,
could get the steamers. You woult
hear now and then the toot Of an an
tomobile horn, and the refugees woult
make way for the passage of motor
car loaded to capacity with the whit.
faced wounded. The car would Il
on. and the refugees would close theil
gaps and resume their weary, nerve
less pace.
At the concentration yards they sa
In family groups, the children hud
! died about their mothers and grand
mothers like chickens around hens
cyc child among them laughed or play
ed. They were too weary for that
But no child cried was trying t,
have speech with these refugees an
finding them too nerveless to give an,
account Of their adventures when al
ambulance arrived.
NO MILK; BABIES DIE.
nurse and a physician descended
A woman rose from distant groul