Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-09-17
=: The Truth About Belgium =:
BY BRAND WHITLOCK

jnear the stables OF my king, as
she said, with a proud and defiant
toss of her head before a court
martial a few days later-when she
saw two German officers. One of
them, the Count M, tn scion of
an old family. had often been in
Brussels and had been a guest in
the house of the girl. Seeing him
she said to her companions:
VOLTA encore un sale Prussian!'
t"There's a dirty Prussian again")
The officer heard the remark, as
doubtless il was intended he should,
turned. seized the girl by the arm,
and took her to the Kommandan-
tur. where shl was Intercepted and
then released. The next day she
was again summoned TO the Kom-
mandsntur; a great affair wassmade
of it. and when she went home from
the Kommandantur and related her
adventure the old countess, her
grandmother. famed up and wrote
a letter. in no gentle terms, to the
German authorities. Then she, too,
was ordered to appear, and, with
her little granddaughter-the count
ess was seventy-seven, the girl six
teen-haled before a court-martial
Of / know not how many officers,
all in uniform and decora tions, and
there tried.
stand up" they ordered the old
countess. She refused. There was
no lawyer to defend them. The
young officer was there as an ac-
cuser. He stood behind them, as
was the custom for accusing wit
nesAes before the courts-martial.
and the old countess reproached him
for not facing them. He testified
that the girl had called him ''un
cochon allemand." "a German pigo
'Vous mentez." C'You lieu said
the spirited girl.
The old countess was indeed ter
rible at the trial. When the Ger
man officers arose. solemnly held
up their right hands to take the
oath, she laughed in harsh derision.
"Ha. ha"' she said. lie sermenr
alemand" (the German oatho
They were. of course, furious.
She continued to taunt them thus
throughout the trial When they
asked her her name, she replied:
"Je demande de savoir lie votre,"
("I should like 20 know yours,"D and
then said to them:
"Envoyez-moi votre Kissing" etc.
C"Send me your Bissing:D
One can imagine the scene. A
bench of Germans officers in uni
forms and decorations, and the old
countess, whose husband had been
minister to Vienna in his time, sit
ting there haunting them, and the
little girl. the cause of it all, trou-
bled but coura geous, and the young
nobleman bearing the ancient name
Il, h. ie I'm
Hermancito, who always had all
the gossip. had heard that he had
not meant to carry the thing so far;
that he had regretted the whole
incident and. indeed, tried to have
the countess and the little girl re-
leased. but that Won Kissing was
furious; the German uniform had
been insulted, it was necessary to
make an example, and if he did not
prosecute the business to a conclu-
sion he would be expelled from the
officers club. It was the fetch of
militarism: 'the uniform had been
insulted;" it was as though an altar
had been violated.
And so when the trial was over
the girl was condemned to three
months Imprisonment in Germany,
and her grandmother, the old count
ess, TO four months.
"Cest monstreux, C'est inimagi-
nable"' CIT is monstrous. 1t is I'M
believabler') exclaimed an old Bel
tgian nobleman, who had once been d
friend of the German nobleman. His
eyes flashed with indignation. The
''affaire" was in the talk of Brussels,
and was in the newspapers outside.
T-n
more formidable proportions, for a =
Belgian nobleman wrote a letter to
the Count M, forbidding him ever
to salute him again in the street
and declaring that any Belgian who
would hereafter shake his hand
would be guilty of patriotism
and Furthermore, that if he
himself was too old to fight for his
country as his sons were doing he
was not too old to say to Count NJ
that if he were too cowardly to go
down on the firing line and fight,
he might do better than to play the
spy on little girls and old ladies in
Brussels.
The defiant letter was sent by
messenger, and the two countesses,
the old and the young, were taken
of TO Germany. 1t was supposed
that the affair was at an end. but
no, nothing was ever at an end. A
German officer came to notify the
Belgian nobleman that he had com
mitted a very grave offense in writ
ing as he had to the Count NJ;
the Etat Major (staff), he said, had
tried the count to determine wheth-
er he had conducted himself as an
officer should, and had decided that
he had, therefore, in criticising him
the Belgian nobleman had reflected
on the infallibility, Sacredness, or 1
know not what divine attribute, of
the German Nstaff-.and therefore
must go to Germany as prisoner.
In the end he did not go, because,
| think though | do not know-such
things are profound and complex in
their mystery-because when it
came to the test the rank of the
Belgian nobleman was too high for
Germans.
Madame Carton de Wharf
Madame Carton de Wharf, the wife
of the Belgian minister of justice,
had not gone to Antwerp with her
husband and the other members Of
the government, but had remained
behind with her six children and
the servants, living on in the minis
terial residence, when all tfse other
ministries were occupied by Ger
mans. This charming woman with
the white hair and the blue eyes in
the dark skin was to give an exam
pIe of the fine courage of which
women are capable. She used to
come occasionally to see us; in the
deep interest she had in social
ameliora ton of all sorts she had Wis
tied America; she was fond of il
and had much of its spirit; she
n pGa Of IbSpn'c