Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-07-02
forthcoming.


they might be of that minor quality
that was amusing in d cynical way.
Some Frenchman -Talleyrand,
suppose, since all the witty French
sayings of the last century are at
tributed to him-has said of some
deed that had been referred to as a
crime: lit is worse than crime;
il is an indelicacy." Thus we had
the story of a certain chatelaine near
Brussels who tried to be polite to the
German general who had quartered
himself and his staff in her chateau;
thinking TO make the best of it, she
asked the general:
"At what time will you have diu-
ner?"
Never mind about that" he said,
81 have already given orders"
And its pendant, that of the gou-
yernante in a chateau in the Arden
mes where German officers were quar-
tered. ~One morning an officer drew
his revolver and said to the guover-
mantle:
81 have a notion to shoot you"
"Why?" she asked.
"Oh, simply because / feel like
shooting some one today"
Then she replied calmly:
Why don'i you shoot yourself?'
No More Flour
When We got home that Septem-
Der evening from Louvain, Gibson
and de Leval were waiting for me to
say that during my absence word had
come that there was at last no more
flour in Brussels. The situation as
regards food had grown more and
more desperate and now it had come
to be acute. 1t was not surprise;
ten days before we had made tho
first effort to meet the situation that
was now upon us. Mr.. Daniel Heine-
man, the American who had so erfi-
GENTLY organized the relief for the
stranded Americans, had been i'll to
confer with me and, OF tie twelfth
of September, to be exact, since the
date is not without its interest, he
and Mr.. Willard K. Shaler. an Ameri-
can engineer resident in Brussels,
had gone to see certain men in
the German administration 20 dis
cuss possible means of getting food
in. A simple fact will express the
whole difficulty of the situation; IN
normal times of peace Belgium must
import from four-fifths to five -sixths
of her total food supply; the most
densely populated, the most inten-
sively cultivated country in the
world, this was the best she could do
Now, ravaged by war, with crops un-
gathered and industry dead, the
need was even greater and the ports
OF entry were closed by England on
the sea. We had heard, however.
that there were certain stores OF
wheat in Antwerp, belonging to the
Belgian government, and Davignon,
the minister % foreign affairs, had
contrived to get letter through to
me saying that the wheat, or part
of it, would be sent through to Brus-
sells if we could contrive the means.
| The excellent Heineman had been
/ busily at work and he assured us
/ that the Pacha would consent to its
/ coming in. Heineman, indeed, could
work marvels. He had large finan-
I cial interests in several countries,
| Germany among them; he could
speak German, and he could be ad-
| dressed as a Herr Doktor himself.
/ if necessary, since he had degTee
/ of Ph.D. from a German university
\ He was a member of the Comite Cen
/ trail Authorization ct Secours, and
/ he had worked untiringly to aid in
| that great work of charity. work
that so soon became work of 3us-
| tice.
There may have been in Brussels
men in and out of that COMMITTEES
/ who suspected what a task it would
/ be to feed Belgium, but | doubt II
/ any one fully realized it. ] am sue
/ that did not; in my house breakfast
was brought up punctually. luncn-
/ con and dinner were announced az
/ the usual hours: that was the least
/ of NV concern. | had never known
what it was to be hungry in all my
] life. or perhaps I would better say.
never known what it was to go hun
CRY; the appetite of the golf links.
| of course, was but one of the many
pleasures of the experimental
there was a waiting table in the
country club. The words Of the pray
err. Give us this day our daily
/ bread" had never had for me. lear.
! other than a poetic meaning. My own
attitude toward food was as lnsou-
Giant as that of a lap dog, for whom
nourishment is provided, though l.
was not as gracious or as grateful as
I that of a lap dog, since ] often grum-
| bled if it were not prepared TO
somewhat fastidious taste. speak
of my own attitude in this respect as
/ a confession and as an illustration.
too, since it was the attitude OF near
/ ly every one that I knew. on both
/ sides of the Atlantic. The war was
soon to bring us face to face with
great elementary facts of human ex-
istence; we were, as Kitchener said,
to taste the salt of life. Ard there
was this phenomenon; the ricn we're
as badly off as the poor, for not all
their money could buy food. The old
prayer was to acquire significance, It
was to, become the principal con-
Germ of each moment. not only Tor
us. but vicariously for seven millions
and ultimately for ten millions or
people. So that now ] never see
4 anyone idly crumbling bread at din
ner without shock.
Continued Next Issue)
/ published by special arrange
ment with the Mcclure Newspaper
IrvD rrr Il