Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1916-08-23

the discipline and requirements Of the
Belgian seemed little lax, but We
had only to measure the achievements
O. the Belgian soldiers in retrospect
to forget instantly any lack Of military
smartness of manner Or accoutre-
ment.
How interested We were, in watching
from our window the military maneu'
ers; but even more fascinated by the
antics of the individual soldiers, for
when not actually drilling, he was
playing. A group Of men would be
playing leap frog. another group aim
lessly tumblins over each other just
like great puppies, another group hav-
ing an exciting game Of football, with
a ring of interested spectators sur
rounding it. Solitary figures could be
gseen at tho later' d edEe, peyfnrmitx
their ablutions, but everywhere Bal
gian soldiers. When We emerged on
the street or walked up the prone
made, it was the same thing-soldiers
everywhere. 1t made one feel as
though all the soldiers in the Belgian
army were in La Panne. Civilians
were conspicuous by their absence. We
were the cynosure Of all eyes. We
were soon caught into the friendly
camaradeie Of the place; we met the
soldiers half-curious friendliness
more than half way.
Walking down the street we encoun-
tered a soldier carrying a little pail
containing his smoking dinner. He
called out something as we passed.
What he said was, Have some of my
monkey meat?'" But we sampled
some of the monkey meat one day,
and found it very good indeed, as were
the potatoes which accompanied it.
Really appetizing and good, we
adjudged it, and took second mouth
ful on the point of the soldiers fork
to the very great delight Of the SOL
dier himself, and a cirlce of highly in
terested onlookers. Then farther along
the street we found the camp kitchen,
from which the savory dinners were
being ladled out to the soldiers awit-
ing with their ready pals. We stop
ped our walk to watch the perform
ance, and to exchange some words
with the group Of soldiers gathered
there. rE a..sagGi
Then on to the Hospital de POcean,
once La Panne's largest hotel. now
wonderfully equipped and stated hos
pital. We were taken to see wonderful
pictures Of MANNED soldiers bodies,
repaired and made almost as good as
new. We saw many Of the soldiers
themselves, some with indescribably
terrible head wounds. yet made by aid
OF surgeon and dentist, quite present
able again. We were shown many re-
apparatuses for the reviv-
ing and upbuilding Of the poor unfortu.
mates, and rejoiced that our brave Bel
gian soldiers should have place such
as this in which to have repaired the
ravages of war. sf4r4a|
We had not been many hours in La
Panne before we became accustomed
to the whir of the aeroplanes, French
and Belgian, overhead. But what fas-
cinated us was to watch aerial war
fare, To see the shrapnel bursting in
the air, fading from balls o. flame in
to tufts of white cloud. then turning
into black blotches in the sky. And
we could not get over the wonder of
seeing how the aeroplanes all unafraid,
fitted to and fro. with no fear evil
IDENTIFY Of enemy guns. Six, eight. ten
and more we could count at time,
reconoitering; guarding little La
Panne, and the king and queen of the |
Belgians. At night from the inky
olackness of the beach, we could see
flare up the "star lights" from the
During our stay III La
Panne, we never tired Of walking
abroad and encountering the SOL
liers; seeing how they lived in the de-
serted villas where We're their QUAR-
ers; watching them drill watching
hem play, meeting and talking with
hem, getting to know something more
Zach day Of the real hear. of the Rel
sian soldier.