Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-02-06
By Frederic j. HaSkin

~ DRLIN, Nov. 25.-There was warm discussion
K in progress among a group o. Americans in the
- lobby of the Hotel Bristol here The subject Oh
debate that threadbare as to where merit lies
in the present young American doctor, on
furlough Berlin, in daily intimate associa-
horror, apart from the group reading
Finally, Of the disputants appealed TO MIN.
"Say, Doc, where your sympathiesr'
my sympathies the women and children"
he quietly without looking from his paper
There few saddening places in the world
than the great, square, sepuchral structure on the
lower Wilhelmstrasse, where the women and old men
go learn loved at the front. There
could be filter place than this for some budding
Zola ply his ptess Investigations of the express
sions of misery; for here be the whole
range of those dread emotions that are so well con-
cealed from the public stare in times of peace
may pry unhindered into the secrets of
agonizing suspense whose tense features, restless
fingers and fear-stricken suggest such crushing
OF heartache and covering fearfulness for the
morrow numb the imagination 1t is the story of
the fear that to bed each night with millions of
mothers, fathers and wives, filling their unoccupied
hours with numberless horrible visions and wringing
rumberess despairing supphcatons for for the
absent Only in this great, darkened quiet hail. whose
attendants constantly breaking the Of death
to parents and wives the shadow of fear lowers
oppressively, thck1y than in the homes. After
visit here feels that has bee2 in an ugly
charnel house Of human hopes and loves.
The hail. in which one seeks information concerning
the soldiers at the 'front.' is filed with of benches
and, behind rail partition at end, of
ancient clerks who make the searches through the 6es
Three or four benches filed mostly with women
A young woman of glossy brown hair held in
place by a somber shawl in a simple, print Bingham
dress and holding sleepy baby her arm, pauses
the door though upon the threshold of torture
chamber. An attendant whispers few words her
and brings her to the desk, where fills of
paper with the name and regiment of soldier-and
joins the waiting the benches An old is called
forward and gets his answer. 1t makes him finch,
salt upon a ragged His lips prayer or
repressed of painhe wipes grirny handkerchief
his forehead, squares his shoulders and
marches QUITO tell the mother probably The young
woman with the baby gets her answer Her exclama-
tion Of relief audible 'Missingr' The chances
taken prisoner but missing" might as we'll
mean blown into clumps of unrecognizable flesh in
some hell such that let loose upon the somme.
Within the confines Of your frst-class hotel in the
downtown streets avenues and of the big city,
and through the windows of the speeding railway
train, few indications that world war is in
progress. There are not guests your hotel
the elevator boys solicitous maids walters end room
servants are just much in the way in the
times of peace and prosperity. the same con-
unuous flow of business and shopping the down
town streets Yes there probably evidence of more
life in the cities there was in peace times:
for people into the Streets stay in the streets
in order to escape being alone their anxieties
For this reason, the cafes are always crowded
Women throng in these places early in the after
noon until o'clock in the morning, the prescribed
cafes and summer gardens.
From the trains notices only that the country
is under most intensive cultivation. Whatever land is
service Even the rights-of-way along the rails over
"nlch you are hurryng are planted in cabbages