The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-06-13

Ildlneui the other sacred edlflce mad suffered too grievously from the fre- quent raids of the neighboring GhenI- CTS, and too i'll supported the long in ternecine wars waged in the days If Black Margaret, Countess of Flanders. Aardenburg was no longer a command ing commercial city. St. Bavon's church alone. repaired and restored in 1853, more than sufficed for the Cath ollie population of the Land of Oakland. It was accordingly divided into two sections, the one serving actively as church, and the other as a sort of open refuge for those who needed shelter. 1t was very appropriately in this sec ton of St. Bavon's, known as the ''Wandelkirk" that the ladies of Aar- denburg assembled last August with their sewing machines and bolts of ticking, to make straw mattresses for those whose homes had been destroyed and who singly or in huddled groups crept over the border, their lives uproote bv the catastrophe which had over taken them
 Antwerp Brought Thousands
 Then came the fall of Antwerp. No longer in little groups. but in great masses the terrified. fleeing people streamed into Aardenburg. St. Bavon's would not begin to hold the tithe of those who arrived by train or tram, on bicycles by boat, in carts drawn by dogs. or on foot. But St Bavon's re- mained the center of the truly remark able relief work which the Aarden- burgers undertook in that crucial hour. when thousands upon thousands of war driven women and children were saved from death or worse at the hands of the despoilers of their homes. It is still the center of this work, indefi- nitely lessened of course by now The great navy, a conglomeration of the ar chitecture of half dozen periods. ac- cording to the whim of him who re- stored or repaired it through the cen turies. today still shelters a motley gathering. Those who are left are tliose who are elpless-without money, work or friends. Yet they are amazingly cheerful, constantly testing at their own plight and endearing themselves in the hearts of the natives of the Land of Oakland by their industry and the pride with which they refuse all but the official assistance of the relief com mission
 T cannot understand the ungenerous criticism of the Belgians by my coun- trymen in other parts of the Nether- lands" one of the women of Aarden- burg, who had been most efficient in directing the relief work told the As- soeiated Press Here at least, they have been wonderful. They have done everything emselves-everythinS down to the most menial labor. And many of them are not used to that They still do it. What is so loveable in them is their good humored adap- tation to the hardships and depriva- tions of exile. Virtually every family of the scores still here has lost at least one of it's number-father, son, brother or husband. or in some instances wife or sister, whose fate they can only try not to imagine. Yet rarely have l seen tears-and so often grateful smiles and cheery words of comfort for those less fortunate"
 Schools have been established in three groups. Children from two to six years of age are cared for by the Catholic sisters in an impromptu kin degarten, or in nursery which has been improvised in the Reformed church. Those from six to 13 years of age are under the instruction and dis cipline of two men and two women, all Belgians, and themselves refugee school teachers, who have lost everything. Those from IS years or- and some of them 40 years old or more are taught in the evenings from 6 o'clock to o'clock. by volunteer teach CTS from the Catholic and the public high schools. Every evening these older pupils march to school to the tune of a flute upon which one of their number plays the stirring music of La Brabanconne. and they sing as they march of "a people forever uncon- quered.'