Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-01-16
In the Wake of the War


Albert of Belgium.
ArnO bosch, the war correspondent OF Worlds
Work. tells the following incident:
"On an afternoon late in october the town square
In Furnes full OF military AUTOMOBILES and
few proviEon wagons I did not SEQ field pieces
or machine guns Every last one was right upon the
firing line. Ny feet tired from walking over
the Belgian blocks and held tenaciously TO the
sidewalk passing around the square, though It
mostly taken up with cafe tables and baby trees in
boxes. At point the tables empty and
single sentry sauntering up and down stopped
70 ask him the way TO the gendarmerie. and I'm the
middle OF giving the directions, he came to at
tention. as a door opened behind me, and saluted.
Two men came out of the door, one rather tall
with an easy manner. and smartly dressed as gen
eral In the Belgian army Tho other was older also
a general. wearing II anything, the gold braid
Of the two. They entered a waiting automobile and
drove off casually two men at home might leave
their office for their club.
''Something about the first Of the two men inn
pressed me familiar had only seen his back but
that had arrested attention. 1 thought possibly
had him at the beginning Of the in Brussels
30 asked the sentry his
That is our king. Albert he said quite simply.
During the next couple OF days the king Of
Belgium number Of times He spent his nights at
small villa the seashore at La Panne, a hundred
yards possibly beyond the hotel where had spent
mine. He passed through the streets unnotccd as
of the other Belgans who had retreated from
Antwerp and Client ahead OF the army but preferred
the chilly nights In unheated seaside hotel in Bel
GUM to comfort somewhere beyond. It seemed 20 be
point Of courtesy the part OF the Belgisns not to
I doubt Il he cares much for ceremony anyhow
Searching around for a single adjective to describe
him, should call him off-handed. His manner.
then. while alert. casual 1t Is easy to why
the Begians love him. II kings had always been
simple and direct Albert, I am inclined to think
democracy would have langquished."
Driven Mad by the Carnage.
when wilhelm Lamszus pictured the hero Of The
Human Slaughterhouse. crazed by modern car
mage, amid companions whining, ravng and Shrek
ing in ungovernable deriurn." says the New York
World. he lost his position n German school,
master. There may be consolation in the veri-
made by machinery upon transcends all
other ia the hosts It has driven 20 literal mad
hosts great that all the armies have organized
psychopathio wards under expert physicians to cope
with them. Many OF the insane will never recover.
Their twisted intelects for half q century 10 come
will remind Europe OF what It has suffered and
wherein IL has sinned
An Oxford professor of classic languages. crawling
on his belly TO kill his fellow in trenches at
dawn, describes soldiers from a company him as
coming past in dribets, 6riyen insane by shell fire.
Every circumstance favors the machine against the
The cold. tho sodden trenches the days Of
waiting the enemy never seen. the knowledge that
at any moment a shell may plump down in ones
retreat q mine be sprung beneath Il. the menace
In every bush stone bit OF cover all aid in
the ruin of the mind. Frequent changes OF the men
at the front diversions behind the lines when the
can be spared not enough to avert the caam-
ity that is for many OF them worse than death
'It different In the olden days, when men
could the enemy, and the bands played and flags
in the free air and the excitement OF the charge
carried one along with his fellows. The of ma
ohniss has developed hideousness beyond the power
Of man to endure. Is this the browning triumph of
civilization"