Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-04-16
CONTINUED From Last Issue)

a LII through the night the tel(
"A gray hosts wound through tht
city, an undulating stream o
Gay onets and helmets, and Brussels
awoke to find on it's walls great white
affiches in French and German, signed
! by General Sixt Won Arnim, threaten
ing reprisals if any overt act of hos
tility occurred, demanding, in addi
ton, a contribution of 5O,OOO,0OO
! francs, as we'll as immense quantities
of supplies, and summoning the prov
| ince of Brabant to deliver up 49,.
| 100000 francs by the 1st of Septem-
| Der. For three days and three nights
the gray stream flowed by, and Brus-
sells was crushed by the sorrow and
| humiliation of an alien occupation.
| There was the same phenomenon Of
| the brilliant sun, though there we're
no longer any Belgian flags to catch
| its wonderful light in their folds.
| Those cook stoves were burning in
the Grand place, and the Uhlans were
at their sentinel posts. There were
no trains: trains, it was said, were
to stop; there were no horses, sud
denly no tiacres, no taXis, no automo-
biles except those in which German
officers raced about town. a soldier on
the box with q rife across his knees.
There we're no telegrapAs and no tele-
phones. and, strongest phenomenon of
all, there were no newspapers. 1t
was as though we had suddenly been
plunged into the dark, for, however
inaccurate, newspapers would have
served as a clearing house for the
wild and fearful rumors that set in
on such a tide as might overwhelm
one Staid persons had hoard firing
and seen the flash Of cannon, and
searchlights sweeping the eastern
skies at night, or the Germans were
fortifying the cemetery at Molembeek
just outside the town; or they had
mounted cannon at Jette st. Pierre II
order to lombard Brussels if the trib
ute money were not raised by Sunday
morning! The emperor of Austria
was dead; England had declared war
on Holland and the United States Oh
Germany, and everybody came to the
legation to learn if the rumors were
true. The flood of them, mounting al
the day, seemed to be at full tide il
the somber hour of twilight.
Of a piece of them were those silly,
romanticistic tales, ces blagues Chose
humbugs), of my activities; tales that
by their currency were to plague me
for so many weeks. The first of those
melodramatic tales, assigning to me a
role for which I was never in any wise
designed, was to the effect that | had
gone out to the east of town to meet
the German army and had told the
commanding officer, with | know not
what theatrical flourish, that If one
stone of Brussels was touched Amer
lea would declare war on Germany.
The ridiculous tale was spread about
Brussels and in Belgium, and over the
seas, to be published and waited
abroad to no purpose other than to af
ford one more SuEerfluous proof of
the place the cinema has in the affec-
lions of mankind and of that inveter-
ate vice of reporters, who foolishly
think that they can imagine some
thing that is more interesting than
the truth. 10. .sa =. u 49,. EEL.
At the legation there were numer-
Gus callers. American, English, Bel
gian, each with his peculiar personal
problem, his little worry, his desire
for comfort and reinsurance, and we
we're bedeviled all day with the diff
hCuiblCo VI SOIlIh5 VII dloPhLChOOs
The Germans had been most kind,
bowed, smiled, saluted even and as
sured us they could go-but they
never went and when we went to
learn the reason why we were sent
from pillar to post and from Peter
to Paul, with protestations, expla-
nations, apologies even. But the
dispatches remained undispatched.
On Saturday morning at half-past
seven o'clock was awakened out of
a deep sleep, and there was Gustave,
verX white and shaken, saying in
breathless voice:
Les AIlemands sont la! Deux gen.
ereaux!" (''The Germans are there!
Two generals!")
put on a dressing gown and went
down, and there in my office was
General Won Jarotsky and a nice
looking young aide-de-camp, polite