The Detroit times., 1915-01-04
ev May eoYLg o'RElLLV.

LONDON, England. Dec le.-'n!
mail )-"Mon dieu, I've seen the ue'
yastation OF cyclone, the utter rum
wrought by earthquakes-yet never
never ANYTHING like the Belgium
-countryside overwhelmed by the Ger
man army
Nurse Marie Felicie OF the French
Red Cross has escaped from Brussels
20 London with first'hand tale Oh
The awful desolation OF the strlcheh
land.
"Au Flanders" she said to me
when | met her here, is filled Win
Belgian fugitiyes, returning now 10
lind If their little homes have oeeh
spared. Spared Good God Every
thing-everyth has been de-
stroyed.
You see. | know, for | have trav'
eled over all this country on foot-a
fugitive with the other footworn fugi-
tiyesl" Nurse Marie Felicie explained.
Nurse To 5000 Wounded.
| last saw her in Brussels, Aug. 29,
10 days after it's capitulation. Though
She was French. she told me then
that she was determined TO stay with
he wounded in spite Of German oc-
cupation.
Since then" she said to me today
in London. IL must have nursed 3,OOV
wounded Germans! All we're child
ishly ignorant about the war, all pitt
ully eager for peace Scores OF them
acted like men half asleep. Days oil
leafening noise, racking fatigue, ter
rible tension had brought them to the
edge of imbecility.
Brussels is a huge hospital. NOT
Two In a hundred stricken men die
rom wounds Rather they sicken
with sciatica or are killed by IL
hours OF standing up to their knees
I'm water when their clay trenches are
like brooks. The flooding OF Flan-
ders started an epidemic of pneu-
monia and typhoid The fumes from
lyddite shells poison exhausted men.
Poor food, prolonged depression 10
the rest.
German officials acknowledge the
startling increase OF suicide. when
this war was planned the German war
lfiice remembered everything except
the human beings who must do the
lighting. Now they realize that mis-
take
Ordered To Berlin; Flees.
THESE patients will all die un-
less we get them away from this ac-
cursed country the chief doctor said
TO me. Nurse Marie Felicie, you Will
go with sthe wounded to Berlin
ITO Berlin, Me- Frenchwoman" {"
| thanked him circumspectly and that
night | vanished My Red Cross pa
pers passed me at the barrier. After
that | was free--and refugee. alone,
penniless. without food, in the land
OF bondage.
That explains how | came to travel
across broken Belgium on foot.
Wherever | went saw little boys
toiling at mems work. old people wan
dering dazed amongst unrecognizable
ruins. and women half mad with grief
mourning beside black wooden
crosses
"On the road beyond the Brussels
barrier met with half hundred
women refugees. Picture to yourself
how we walked through the night TO
Waterloo. There was no moon. The
darkness was absolute, for the ham
let's OF Flanders show no lights:
matches cannot be had
Priests Stay BY Ruined Churches.
After walking for hours we won.
N refugees slept on straw in church
near Gembloux. The parish priests
may no longer show themselves in
ecclesiastical dress, They must wear
mutt. But they calmly insist on re.
naming In their ruined parishes
For. say they. il we leave. no one
viii remember where the vanished
boundaries ran. nor who owns the
ruined fields. Neither will anyone re-
call who married whom. nor where
the women and little children of the