Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-10-15
Continued from Last Issue)

Y ,
M from the front it was to
Wv learn that the latest rumor
had il that Nillalobar and
/ had been arrested by the Germans
and whirled away in motors, no
one knew where. Perhaps the ru-
NOR in some of its forms related the
event to the Belgian national holi-
day which the Belgians had been
celebrating that day-corsidering
the disabilities under which they
lived. We had celebrated our own
national holiday little more than a
fortnight before, and the Belgians
had added to the meaning of the
day by the Fluctuations. 1t had been
an excessively hot day, as the
Fourth of July should be, and it's
celebration had made a little oasis
of liberty in q desert where liberty
just then was unknown. l had de-
cided against reception or mani
Hesitation of any sort as, under the
circumstances, in bad taste. But we
had raised a new flag, the old nav
ing been whipped out by the winds
and, as one might almost say, by
the emotions of those long months,
and as the lovely emblem rose and
fell in the heavy, humid air and
the sunlight touched it's bright col
ors, il had seemed never so beauti-
full, never so full of meaning. The
Belgians had silently celebrated the
day with US. There was telegram
lJdV1RnOIlt
Belgian government at Havre. The
salons were filled with flowers ana
all day there was a constant stream
of visitors at the legation, signing
the book, leaving cards and all sorts
of little souvenirs expressing fe-
licitations and reconnaissance. our
flag was on many a breast with the
ivy leaf 1t was strange that there,
away across the sea. the vibrations
of that wild. free music of 70 should
be felt; yet not after all; perhaps,
Sc strange for the principles OF our
revolution are loved in Belgium,
whose own principles are precisely
like them, and they were loved pas
sionately then because they were
denied, and scorned, and crushed
in our western world SO tondIy
imagined that political liberty had
been won for the world.
Bourgmestre Lemonnier and the
Echevins had called, and M. Lemon
nier had made a little speech, very
moving, presenting to my wife a
souvenir from the city of Brussels
And we had the young men OF the
c. r. B. at RaVenstein for luncheon,
with Villalobar and Van Vollen-
hoven, and speeches on the lawn
afterwards.
When their own national holiday
could not celebrate it as they had
in other years, in that gaiety, that
happy spirit of careless freedom
which / had seen in graceful play
on every hand the year before when
we had all gone to Ste Gndule Ior
the re Deum. Indeed they were
forbidden to celebrate it at all ana
perhaps that is one reason why the
day, which had such poignant mem
cries for them in that year OF 1919,
was marked by such celebration as
it had never known before. For
days "affiches'' signed by Won krae-
wei, the military governor OF BruS-
sells, vigorously prohibiting any
demonstration Acknowledgements
professions, the display of flags
and threatening with fine and I'M
Drisonment those who disobeyed.
There was already in force an ,ed1ct
forbidding the wearing Of ribbons or
patriotic colorS at any time, pro-
hibition to which Brussels wit had
Responded BY substituting a new
emblem, the ivy leaf, and suddenly,
as BIZ some spontaneous impulse,
the whole population was wearing
ivy leaves "le lierre," the symbol of
fidelity of which the motto is: "Je
meurs ou je ma'attache" CT die
history of the occupation OF Bel
gium is the story of the contest be-
tween German solidarity and brute
force and the nimble wit OF Brus-
-
tween wits alone Brussels would
have long since won it. The fact
embittered all the more the German
spirit which had nothing but the
clumsy if temporarily effective
weapons of force to use. After the
prohibition was published every one
who knew Brussels was certain
there would be a celebration such as
Brussels had never known before,
and almost at once the quality OF 1t
~ fINeaf
went from mouth to mouth saying
that inasmuch as the nation was in
mourning it's anniversary should be
observed by a solemn display of its
grief. Every shop, every establish
ment in Brussels, every cafe even,
should be closed. Everywhere little
hand bills with wide black borders
mysteriousiy found their way
through the city calling on all to
remain indoors, to draw the blinds
and to put up the shutters. And the
courageous little journal, the organ
of Belgian patriotism, re Llbre
Belgique," published a notice in
viting the people, Catholic and non
Catholic, to assemble at Ste Gudule
on the morning of the day where In
place of the Te Deum that had been
the expression of the nations joy,
high mass would be celebrated in
this hour of sorrow.
How the Day Was Celebrated
II WAS the S6CTeI Oh 1OiiClllhCAlCs
OF course, and. the day before the
twenty-first the pseudo newspapers
of Brussels published a statement
from the Kammandantur announc-
ing that the closing of shops would
be considered a demonstration and
an infraction of the prohibition. But
the threat had little terror; when
the day dawned all the houses,
whether in the Quarter Leopold or
in the QUARTER Marolliens, whether
in the Avenue Louise and the
boulevardS or the Rue Blaes and the
Rue Montague aux HerbeS Pota-
CERES wore the same sad express
sion of silence and desolation. The
shades were drawn at every win
dow, the shutters were UP, not
shop anywhere was open, even tn
Hotel de Vile itself had been closed
by the patriotic Lemonnier. But
the menace in the newspapers mad
frightened some of the restaura-
tours and the keepers of public
houses; a few of them were open,
but a crowd of two hundred per-
and it closed; three hundred Brux-
ellois menaced la Grande Bou-
cherie'' and it closed, and so in
turn the Res taurant de Ia Mon
naie," the "Taverne Roya1e," La
Lanterne,7 the Cafe Cosmopolite,"
before these crowds of stout burgh-
ers' who the politzei could not af-
fright, closed their doors and
through their windows one could
see the chairs stacked on the ia
bleS. In all Brussels there remain
ed open only some German bier
hauses and the two hotels that had
been taken over for German officers,
the, Palace and the Astoria. NO
newspapers were sold, but along the
Gid lie