Cut Bank pioneer press. [volume] (Cut Bank, Mont.) 1909-current, 1915-01-01

reaches of the Scheldt river
toward Antwerp in the misty
small hours of the morning has
ever been struck with a sense
.. curious, of almost uncanny, con-
trasts, The city is heavily fortified,
grim and gray in spite of it's quaint
ness. The Scheldt flows through a
gentle country of green meadowlands
and sleepy villages.
Antwerp is perhaps the most i'm
portant port on the continent of Eu-
rope in point of commerce-a place
rerY much alive and very real, The
Scheldt is a toy river meandering
through a Noah's ark landscape.
The country is mostly Dutch-the
Dutch of the imagination aid of chill.
drens picture books. Flat meadows
q rlcr The river, broken with cluster.
ing villages, pert red rooted farm
houses, tiny church spires, windmills
everywhere and rows and rows of
regular green trees ma lie after the
same pattern and looking for all the
world like rows of paper dolls, cut all
OF a nicce that have delighted chill
de" for generations. Occasionally
appears a live thing-a cow. a dog
or horse modelled from the beasts in
tomine, and now and then a
little wooden man or the little wooden
ladies OF his family But over all is
th2 quiet 0f child's toy village after
t." Child IS tucked in bed. and the
whole country looks as if it we're
stood IN edge with it's feet in the wa.
tor osch morning and scrubbed behind
the ears
BATTLE-GROUND of the Nations"
And yet Belgium and Holland for
all their quaint charm and picture
book quality, have been for centuries
the battle-ground of the nations. Time
after time the great countries OF Eu-
rope have fought one another tooth
and nail, with these two little king
doms as pawns, their pleasant fields
the scene of many a bloody battle.
Even now, though Holland has so far
escaped, Belgium is blood d~rencbed
her men moved down, her towns laid
waste, her peace and prosperity de-
stroyed; and all because her powerful
neighbors have seer fit to go to war.
Leave the wharf section, and Won
go back a century or two, for The old
town Of Antwerp is the quaintest of
places. The streets are narrow and
winding with houses leaning DRINK
emily against one another and holding
at the shops across the way. Half the
A-rlma ~ : nfh chA~u -
lives on the sidewalks and the people
live in the streets. especially the chill.
dren and the dogs. They play and
squabble cheerfully in mid-street.
while wheel traffic makes its way as
best it cana motley traffic 1t Ia.
too, carts drawn by dogs and filled
with glittering brass milk cans, smart
and cheap taxicabs, open fiacres with
small, wiry beasts of some equine
breed, though hardly recognizable as
of the same species as the magnif.
cent percherons, which do all the
hauling and heavy work.
These great horses swarm, splendid
fellows with enormous shoulders,
feathered fetlocks and the kindest OF
faces. They are driven, If one can
call it that. by a rope passed casually
round the nose. hitched to a long low
skeleton of a wagon and they tower
above both wagon and driver like
mammoths. Navigation of the streets
on foot is thus rendered extremely
difficult, for though the gentlest Of
beasts, they could crush a traveller
under foot VIII ing him.