Bisbee daily review., 1915-07-11
OLD DUTCH SEAPORT AGAIN SEEN AMOUNT
 OF BUSINESS AGAIN
Little Town of Aardenburg, in the Province of Zealand, is Again BustIng, Busy Seaport.

since the thirteenth century when it | was a leading harbor city and the | main port of Northern Flanders. has ! this ancient little town known such | activity as since the outbreak of the | European war Just over the Dutch l line from Belgium, Aardenburg has | been the first stopping place Of hun . dreds of thousands Of homeless fugi- | tives-and many of them have remain ' cd and still remain, cared for by lhoirI hospitablo cousins of "the land of Cad . zand", as this portion of Flemish Zaa-' land is called by the natives.
 Historically. war is neither new nor strange to the Aardenburgers. From . the fifth century, when the Castle Of. Rodenburg, whence the town of today !. adopted its name. was one oi the strongest places of the Lowlands. it. has been besieged more than a dozen times. sacked on half a dozen occa- sions and burned at least thrice Pi-| lage and destruction are family tra- diions with the people of the Land of Oakland, even SO late as the con nict between Holland and Belgium, in 1890. Consequently, when the Ger mans invaded Belgium. the Ardenbur gers set to work as their grandfathers
 hade done to prepare to receive the refugees, the homeless. the wounded
 the hungry, desperate pitiable hot
 sam and jetsam of war that driftcd over the frontier, dazed by the hor- TOTS they had looked upon
 ] The church of st. Bavon was the | center of these preparations of the
 Aardenburgers St Amandus. in the year 633, laid the spiritual corner stone of this ancient edifce by found ; ing a cloister at the then Rodenburg 1 In S79, St Eligius who appears to
 have been of the church militant. first . and thenbunt it a church, "to the hon.
 or and glory of St Bavon" By the ] thirteenth century, Aardenburg had had come 10 be a commercial center or importance. with a harbor that could
 accommodate 60 ships-a great thing
 for those days-and ftungly possessed
 two churches renowned throughout
 the northern countries or Europe for
 miracles said to have been performed
 in their holy sanctuaries Hither came
 Philip the Fair of France. drawn by
 this reputation of piety. In 134O Ed
 ward III, of England followed the ex-
 ample of his royal cousin of France,
 and 13G years later the fifth English
 Edward paid similar visit to Harden
 burg
 By the middle of the XVII century
 however, only St. Bavous church re- mained; the other sacred edifce had
 suffered too rrievously from the ire . quent raids of the enighborine Gheut . CTS. and too il supported the long in. teuecine wars waged in the days of
 Black Margaret. Countess of Flanders
 Aardenburg was no longer com manding commercial city. St. Bsvon's ] church alone, repaired and restored 1 in 1853. more than suniced for tho catholic population of the Land of . Oakland. It was accordingly divided into two sections, the one serving ac
 lively as a church, and the other as a | sort of open refuge for those wh,
 needed shelter It was very appropri ately in this section of st. Bavon's
 known a sthe "Wandelkerk", that Inc ladies of Aardenburg assembled Ias ' August with their sewing machine.
 and bolts of ticking, 70 make straw , mattresses for those whose homes hac
 been destroyed and who singly or ir huddled groups crept over the border their lives uprooted by the catastro phe which had overtaken them.
 Then came the fall of Antwerp. N, I longer in little groups, but in grea d masses the terrified. fleeing peopl,
 streamed into Aardenburg. St Ba von's would not begin 10 hold the tith, !. Of those who arrived by train or teau on bicycles, by boat, in carts drawI ,. by dogs or on foot But st. Bavoni | remained the center of the truly re g markable relief work which the AaI e denburgers undertook in that crucia l. hour when thousands upon thousand
 of wardriven women and childrel IT were saved from death or worse a Y the hands of the despoilers of thei s homes lt is still the center of thi o work, indefinitely lessened of cours @ by now. The great nave a conglom y eration of the architecture of half B. dozen periods, according to the whu
 of whim who restored or repaired l
 through the centuries, today stiu she Il ters a motley gathering Those wh e are left, are those who are helpless a without money, work or friends. Ye r. they are amazingly cheerful, cor e. stantly testing at their own plight am B. endearing themselves in the heart
 iof the natives of the Land of Cadzan r by their industry an dlhe pride wit . which they refuse all but the onicia
 assistance of the Relief Committed
 'T cannot understand the ungenel
 ous criticism of the Belgians by m l- countrymen in other parts of the Netl IT erlands", one of the women of Aai & denburg, who had been most enicien
 ] nm