Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-06-21


IL mad carefully prepared sbr so Ionp
time The emperor smoke of I,o1I'
VAIN and told him his heart bIed
when he saw that such measures
mad been inevitable" Mon coenr
S"Ishe, (My heart bleeds), there
IoIe was added TO the current
i piil @SeS Oh irony with which the peo-
PIE VI brussels expressed themselves
III al the cruel events OF the war. II
t became ne the same sort of bitter joke
thaC Hott NIT Uns' mad been since
~ people had been Questioned to see
Nnat ueVlce on the round buckles that
eIlsteHeu on the German belts, until
some. one thought of "Von Gott. ;"
then That was the common Meas
dntry' me changes were rung in all
the Keys ana many tale was in
part.
II was this sense of humor indeed
that Kept up the hearts of the Belgian
people, that peculiar esprit that early
won a moral victory over the Ger
mans. This sense of humor is a part
OF that indomitable courage which
has kept the Belgian nation alive
along the Calvary of its tragic his
tory. Even Baudelaire, the French
poet. who in his cruel and acidulous
spite words wrote as. many nasty
things about the Belgians as he did
about the Americans, whom he so
detested, has reluctantly rendered
them this justice always oppressed. >"
ne said, but never conquered" This
peculiar savoury wit, this esprit
trondeur, was everywhere in play, and
1t was not long before even the chill
dren of the Marolliens, as they played
at war, marching and counter-march-
ing there under the shadow of the
Palais de Justice, had a new game.
"Achtung!" the little captain of
he band would shout, brandishing his
sword, Mach Paris!'
And then the little command, doing
the goose step, the absurdity of which
did not escape even the children,
would begin to march-backwards.
The Siege of Antwerp Begins
However, if the Germans were not
investing Paris they were besiegins
Antwerp. And there came one eve
ming to our ears sound like the
slamming OF a distant heavy door.
We listened. The sound came again.
and again, punctuating the stiffness
with heavy thuds. And we knew
that the siege of Antwerp had begun.
The next morning the sound was
even more audible in the heavy air.
The ominous detonations rumbled
like far off thunder, and the awful
echo was tossed back and forth
across the gray sky, where a Ger
man taube was flying.
The sound of the guns increased
in intensity; it had the quality of a
sullen and stupid reiteration. as
though there were some argument in
the mere believing, in the constant
asseveration of the same thing. The
booming detonations shook the
houses; the windows in certain at
mospheres would rattle. The wealth
er was gray and heavy; there were
frequent gusts of rain and a general
intolerable depression began to set
tie down upon the world. The peo-
pie went about with long faces,
those Brussels faces that used to be
almost naively happy; men as they
met could only assure each other,
after glancing about to see that no
spy was within earhs'ot, that the forts
of Antwerp were impregnable.
Mourning began to appear; people
were hearing of the deaths of sons
and brothers. And always those
tales of atrocities, saturating the gen
real mind with their horror. Even
LIE Jeune, the coiffeur, had lost his
gaiety; Figaro, If as voluble as
ever, was not so insouciant; he had
two sons at the front One of them
had been a steward on the Red Star
line, and great boxer. I'll a dejolis
biceps," said LIE Jeune proudly ("He
has fine biceps"D. He was one of
those fortunate persons who find all
things relating to themselves super
lative. He was filled with terrible
hatred of the Germans, and was wait
ing for the Cossacks to double the
atrocities committed by the Ger
mans; though he never referred to
them as Germans, but always as "les
boches," with all the loathing the
word connotes. His one regret, he
said, was that he could not go to the
front himself.
Moi" he would say, "je suis un
de meilleurs tireurs gu existent, vous
savez" ('I am one of the best shots
that exist'O. But he was too old.
Late in the afternoon little Bulle
came. We called him little Bulle in
our effection, when we did not call
him Hermancito. He had delicate
ly fattering way of addressing me as
chief" His eyes we're wide with
new horror. He brought a dreadful
story that five hundred German SOL
diers had been murdered in their
beds the night before at Louvain;
their throats all cut while they
slept. Bulle had been told this
by the Frau Grabowsky, the wife of
the old white-haired Counsellor Au
lique, of the German legation, and
she said that she had the details from
her husband. The tale had its effect
on US. of course; but I had just set
myself to the task of analiZing it, in
the belief that it could not be true,
when, luckily. Won der Lancken
came very calm and casual, very
smart in his light grey-blue tunic and
dark trousers held under his boots by
straps and carrying little ezra
vache" (whip). He said he had Just
come from Louvain. and / asked him
fearfulIv, and yet with as casual an
air as I could command, how things
were going on there.
He said, "Why. all right"
r-T. ~ L.. 80 hA of