Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-01-09

l 'rly every other knee there was
| likewise so occupied
Families Returning Home
The two families were returning to
their homes in Antwerp. They We're
! of distinctly different castles. One was
bourgeois: the other laboring class
But trouble had evidently leveled such
distinctions and they chartered inces-
sanity in Belgian-French. The woman
of the laboring family did most of the
| talking. We gathered enough to know
that her home was destroyed; that o
| cook-StoVe was the only thing that hau
not burned up. The other family was
| in a much more uncertain condition.
They had fled from Antwerp on the
day the bombardment began, and did
| not know whether they possessed a
home or not. But, and here was the
! especial bit of woe that kept the
mother of the family weeping silently
! in the corner. their little son, about
ten years of age, had become sepa-
rated from them and lost in the flight.
| A child lost on the one hand, q cook
stove saved on the other-was there
ever such irony? The ineXactitudes of
Interpretation through the medium of
an English French. French English die
tionary made it difficult for us to un-
derstand how child could be so lost
and the family still persist in its flight,
but it seems there were thousands of
children taken along in that mad rush;
and besides. this one was not missed
until after the train had started. In
fact. there are many things about this
war that are ditficult'to understand.
Husband Little Interested
After the cook-stove the laboring
womans brief anxiety was to learn
from us whether her husband could
get work in America if she brought
him over. He sat beside her. lum-
bering hulk of a man who gazed dis
piritedly straight ahead and did not
seem to care whether or not he got
work in America or anywhere else.
The little children on our knees looked
at us without curiosity. They had
passed through much during the pre-
ceding weeks. and to them we were
merely a latest phase in the wonder
drama that was being enacted before
them day by day.
The train stopped at least over a
mile from the center of Antwerp, and
our iailers came and let us out of our
stuffy compartment and down by a
railway siding where the mud lay
were lined with soldiers a few feet
! apart, and along this lane we tramped
in common with the weary hundreds
who were returning in so many cases
to ruined homes.
II was a forlorn procession. Men
carrying children or old ValiseS, women
carrying both. Children carrying other
children or bundles. or else stringing
wailingly along behind the family par
ties. On all the German soldiers by
the wayside gazed stolidly, it seemed
to me implacably. although 1 learned
later that the latter was not so. We
walked a long distance, sometimes on
the path, sometimes stepping the ties
between the curving rails, and at last
came to barrier presided over by
German officers. Our jailors of the
train were there before us and pointed
us out particularly. But an officer
spoke fluent English and we had no
trouble in establishing our identity.
Nevertheless, this included an ex-
animation of our papers and of every
thing in our gripsacks.
In the meantime it should be men,
toned that while we were in the Ha-
que to get our passports vised and 10
obtain military pass from the Ger
man minister we had been asked by
Acting Minister Langhorne of the
American legation to carry some gov
ernnlental main to Minister Brand
Whitcock in Brussels. AS this would
lper Sc make us United States govern
ment messengers we were only toe
Iglad TO do so, as it enhanced our
chances of going through. One of the
packages was a large sealed port
folio, containing letters; the other
W oS ii ldTSe fnall sack. 90 not Know
what was in it. but from the weight
of it 1t must have, as my companion
declared, contained gold bricks.
1t was now l o'clock and we de-
cided to go to a restaurant and have
a bite to eat before pushing along
We found one of the main streets
the Broadway of the town, and, drag
ging our mail sack and other bag
gage behind us we went in and took a
seat at a table in a booth. In the
next booth sat two German army
officers and q man in civilians clothes
We were too weary to pay much at
tention to them, but we changed our
attitude when. having finished their
luncheon. they stepped up to our
table and one of them said with an
leXcellent accent:
Gentlemen. l hear you speak Eng
lish. May l trouble you to show your
IpaSSes?"
No trouble at all We would show
show him passes that would open his
leyes-from the German embassy in
Washington. ID. c.; from the German
Legation in The Hague. letters from
high German officials in the United
States. letter of identification from
the United States State Department
a passport signed by William Jennings
Bryan. and last but not least. beau
ltiful little silken American flag
wouldn't he feel cheap when he
saw all of these?
But he didn't, He merely looked
them over carefully, laid them down
evenly and said still more evenly:
Gentlemen, these will not be suffi-
cient TO pass you to Brussels"
We were skeptical. but inclined tc
be tolerant He was still quite a young
officer.
do you mean to say that the
Ipassierschein of your own ministel
II.
through to Brussels; that we must
get additional passes here?"
Il ought to know. ! am the mar
who issues the passes
lie smiled. His friends smiled We
smiled. and the Belgian waiter. who
could not understand a word of what
was said, also smiled. So we promised
to go around to the war office in the
Rue de Ricolai after lunch and in
woke his aid.
But after luncheon we decided tC
call first on United States CopsE
lDGdaficU that we nfpbt unhar.