East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1915-02-10
BY ALICE RoHE.

Omitted Press Staff Correspondent
ROME, Jan. 27.--(By Mail TO New
York. THE roads from Liege to
Rome are rough and uncertain. They
wind through forests and mountains,
through villages where questioning
natives offer helping hand TO refu-
gees and through cities where the
name OF Belgium is a synonym for
martyrdom.
But II Is when the roads 10 Rome
leave the towns and the hamlets that
one suffers. And that is all the story
which can be drawn from Antolnette
Huen who, with her husband, walked
every step OF the difficult way from
Liege to the Eternal City, when the
Germans took the town.
Antoinette Huen is 22 and her hus-
band, Antonio, is "a, When they left
Liege they carried by turns in their
arms tiny Antoinette. who now lies
buried beneath a road side cross near
, Turin.
The little Antolnette died OF star.
walton and today, when Lady Rodd,
wife of the British ambassador 10
Italy, questioned Antolnette all she
can say is that the French came too
late to save Liege, that she is afraid
OF the Germans. that roads from Liege
to Rome are very rough and hard 10
travel and that her baby was so hun
cry and cold she died before they
could reach Rome.
The case of Antoinette and Antonio
is one which has ELECTED the lmmedi-
ate care OF the wife OF the English
Ambassador. who has given the two
dazed and half starved Belglans a
haven in the Embassy in the servants
quarters. If Antoinette can be reused
from her state OF dazed horror and
desires TO learn laundry work she will
be given employment here and An
tonic will be engaged as a gardener.
The arrival Of these two exhausted
Belgians in Rome is one Of the pc
culiar psychological stories OF the
war. Both peasants living near Liege
they saw the seige, the attacks Of the
Germans and fled with their child
Somewhere in Antonie's past there
was an Italian ancestor. He had
heard Of Rome. Perhaps somewhere
in the horror dazed brains OF this
man and woman lurked the memory
of that old saying, "all roads lead to
Rome" for with no tangible reason
for making the long and exhausting
journey the two Belgian peasants
from Llege-nothing could keep them
from their destined goal-even death,
the death OF the baby they had strug-
gled so hard TO save. could not swerve
them from their course TO Rome.
When the two arrived here they
were taken to the Belgian minister
But the war had reduced that lega-
tion practically to a penniless con-
dition.
Minister Dubois and his wife have
seen their own home, their country
estate, pictured in newspapers as in
flames-all their belongings have
been lost in the war. Naturally the
Rome legation of Belgium is not the
place for fugitives to receive finan-
cial help, although they are given
every assistance possible. II was
Lady Rodd who discovered a way to
help the sufferers who made one OF
the longest pilgrimage on foot to
Rome since the beginning to pill
erims seeking the Eternal City.
From Antoine who. though dazed,
Is not in the same communicative
state as the young wife.-Lady Rodd
learned that he had tried to pick up
odd jobs along the way in order to
buy food, but most OF the time they
had depended on charity. They had
slept in barns and in the open fields.
They did not think OF their own COM
fort, but 1t was the baby-the baby
who died before they could reach the
journeys end.
The fugitive Belgians tell to Italy
in small way the sorry story Of de-
vastated Belgium. But in the Eeter-
nal City the evidences of depleted
Belgium are shown in other manners.
In one Of the big hotels there is en-
ployed today-a lady-the wife Of
well known Belgian architect The
war has ruined them. the husband has
died and this gentlewoman, once
social favorite in Rome-is today
cook in a fashionable Roman hotel
where formerly she was a guest.
And this woman who no longer
seeks her old time friends was one Of
the first to offer her earnings to help
the pilgrims Antoine and Antolnette