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

stand the affair in case-well, in case
he might have to understand it.
Mr.. Dederich was glad to see us.
We were the first news he had from
the outside world for a week or more.
He described the shelling of Antwerp.
Told how eight houses were destroy
ed bv German shells in the very street
in which he lived. How he and his
family hid in the cellar and listened
to the peculiar unmusical sound of the
shells as they passed overhead. How
at last what he called a living fire
struck nearby house from above and
descending through every floor set II
on fire from roof to basement. Mr..
Dederich rushed to the rear of his
own place to view the damage and
when he returned to his wife and
daughter he found the latter in con-
vulsions. That was enough, and so
braving everything he carried her out
of the house and the whole family
fled across the river, where they We're
safe
He spoke also of a young pewspa-
perman, who had visited him before
Antwerp was taken and who had spent
a night in one of the Belgian trenches.
He went in with the regiment in the
evening and when morning came the
bodies of eight hundred young Bel
gians clogged the trench. The news
paperman crawled out over them and
when he reached Antwerp. said Mr.
Dederich. he called upon me and he
sat and stared silently at nothing at
all. He appeared abstracted as
though it We're difficult for him to get
his mind down to affairs of the mo-
ment."
At last we said we must hurry TO
the war office or it would be too late
to get our passes.
Don't be in hurry" said Mr..
Dederich. The Germans are very
thorough you know. Sinch the in
vasion the clock has been put back
from Belgian TO German time. so that
gives YOU three-quarters of an hour
more"
1t was so a fact which the Bel
gians themselves very much resent
ed
"Oh, these Allemands." snorted one
with all the English accent he could
command, what will they do next ?
They shoot our people They ruin our
homes They eat our food They
make us go to bed by nine of the
clock whether we want it or not.
And now they even attempt to delay
the movement of the sum-
He forgot apparently that in de-
laying the movement of the sun the
Germans were graciously permitting
him to stay up forty-five minutes
lnger than. if they had reckoned by
Belgian time. The arrangement,
moreover. caused many complications.
The Belgians, in making engagements,
took it for granted. without mention
ing it, that Belgian time was meant:
the Germans, in the same way. went
according to the clocks of Berlin. We
Americans, being neutral, were some
what at loss, but adapted ourselves
as best we could to conditions.
dttri
ternoon, after an examination of all
our papers, official and private. and
after all of these and even the United
States mail packets had received the
official stamp of the German COM
mandanteur. And then we set out to
procure an automobile to carry up
through to Brussels, for we were told
that the railway bridges between Ant
werp and Brussels had been blown
} up by the Belgians during the retreat.
We might as well have looked for a
, loaf of bread in LieSe after the siege.
There was none. The Germans had
taken them all. Toward nightfall we
! succeeded in hiring a miserable turn :
out, two bony horses and tumble
down hack with a frightful driver.
} who agreed TO drive us to Brussels
: on the morrow for the modest war
, time charge o: seventy-fve shilling
and pourboire Of five shillings rs an
extra indictment.
Meantime we went to n hotel and
! hired what the Inhabitants fscetiously
call a Zeppelin parlor Ga room on
the top floor of a hotel preparatory
TO passing the night. On the way to
, the hotel we saw a great line, SIX
deep, of women of all ages, standing
in one of the main streets 1t had been
showing and a few flakes were still in
the air. Where the women stood the
| snow had been trampled into slush.
j Some of the poor creatures had
, shawls, some had not. Most OF them
shivered. My companion called my
attention to one who wore bedroom
: slippers. Her feet must have been
: cold and wet. Her face had a dull
: despairing look. The whole line con-
| stituted one of the most miserable
spectacles l have ever seen. 1t re-
> minded me of the Bowery Mission
; Bread Line, only these were not
: husbands and fathers had very re-
J Gently been shot to death.
/ The head of the line turned into the
/ doorway of a big theater where ra-
| tions of food were being distributed.
The tail of it curled around the cor
ner of the Hotel Weber on the main
street. At the door of this hotel as
J at the doors of others, two German
soldiers with guns stood on guard,
thus to signify that a general officer
was living there. In the big restau-
rant of the hotel many officers were
eating, drinking, talking. Quite a
! gay scene from a certain point of
view and quite in contrast with the
unutterable misery outside The wo-
men in line quite frequently looked
into the hotel, but the soldiers at the
! tables seldom thought to look outside.
Such sights interfere with ones di-
; gestion.
: After that we walked around the
} town and looked at the wrecks of
t houses. which had been broken down
by shells during the siege. Sometimes
/ we would find a whole block of houses
gone. sometimes a house here and
! there in row. There was one curved
, street with occasional gaps in 1t where
houses had been. I could liken 1t to
nothing else than a row of broken
: teeth in the gigantic mouth OF Ant
: werp. Nearly all the houses destroy
ed were those of business firms or of
} private citizens. The big city build
ings seemed untouched. How the