Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-12-03
German Soldiers MOUe
Freely Among British
Tonn,ies Astonislted at Meeting Gray Uni.
forms in Border TOlDns-Mdny Strange
Scenes in Liberated Belgium
By PHILIP GIBBS

the sight of all these well-groomed
horses. so sleek and so fine for their own
horse flesh was worn to skin and bones
You never saw anything like it," said
some English prisoners whom I met to-
day in Verviers. ''They could hardly
stagger along. and we used to have to
teach the poor beasts how to walk be-
fore we could get the transport out
These boys of the Twentieth ana
Forty-first divisions told me also that
the sight OF German transport in
retreat was like gypsy caravans on the
move. Their carts were tied UP with
strings and loaded UP with household
furniture stolen from the Belgians,
chickens, pigs, sheep, mattresses ana
pots and pans, while they led cows
along the road and pushed carts ana
,wheelbarrows loaded with what had
habit of falling to pieces in the bitches.
Their machine guns were taken back In
handcarts made UP of biscuit boxes.
During the last week ! have passed
through many strange scenes and seen
new aspects of human nature as they
are revealed in this drama> of liberated
peoples-some of them good to see and
some not good. 1t has been a great
stirring of human emotions-joy for the
passing of the hostile rule. with its daily
nagging tyrannies and black remem-
brances of brutal and cruel things the
spirit of patriotism exalted to intoXica-
ton by flags and banners and the pass
ing of the soldiers who fought for this
victory; the comradeship of the Allied
soldiers, linked together by what their
nations have suffered and achieved, so
| that strangers are friends received into
the family because they wear khaki or
blue or a prisoners badge: and under
| meath all this tenderness and generous
uplifting of hearts unforgettable hatred
of the gray men who have just gone and
thirst for vengeance against them and a
passionate desire to burn or break the
places where they lived and the things
they used and the property Of those who
were too familiar with them on this side
of their frontier.
Crowds Take Revenge
In Namur and Liege and Verviers the
crowds have been unable to restrain
themselves from laying hands upon GER
tain houses where people of their own
race were too kind to their own enemies
and made traffic with them. Smash !!
go the window-panes, and out Of the
windows come chairs and tables for a
bonfire in the streets to throw a ruddy
glare upon the laughing faces of the
mob. There are always crowds in the
streets and squares, collecting densely
when columns of troops pass through.
when the prisoners tell their tales. when
the portrait of King Albert Is painted
in colors of light on the wall of a pub
lie building. or when the ring is clear
for the dance, as I saw one last night
in Liege-a glorious game of kiss-in-the-
ring before the whistle blew for the
troops to go.
For the most part they are laughing
crowds. with the gayety of a big family
partly gathered together after long
separation; but now and then out of
one of these dense groups of men and
women there come wailing and shrieks
and new note in the laughter around
which does not cease, but becomes de-
risive now. 1t is another woman hav-
ing her hair cut of as a public infamy
because Of her known friendship with
German officers.
| l was in a restaurant the other night,
and handsome girl came in and hung
her furs UP on a peg. A waiter went