The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1918-11-20

Vuhltshed by special arrangement
with the Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate.
Copyright, 1918, by brand Whjtlock. UNI
der the title "MemoriCs OF Hclgium I'm
der the German Occupation All rights
reserved. COpyrighted In Great Britain,
Canada and Australia. An rights re
served for France, Belgium, Holland,
llaIy, Spain, Russia aud the SCandina-
Wan countries)
As the autumn Of 1915 advanced We
had something moro han a present.
mcut that peace was farther off from
Europe than ever, and that before II
rHlu" again to the earth our own Coun-
Try would I've swept into the vortex Of
the war. The great conflict was grow
ing more hitter, there was a lower,
deeper note Of savage hatred in the
chorus OF universal strife, and the great
tragedy seemed to he whclmiug to some
awful doom.
At evening we imagined a more por-
teniuuS Whtr In the Zeppelins sailing
low and passing directly over u roof
on their far flight across the English
channel, monStrOus birds OF night, grim
and black in the deep purple skies. At
morning we would feel 1t again when We
were awakened by the burst Of bombs
the English and French aviators were
hurting on the hangers Of those Heppe-
Inns, and by the boom Of the shrapnel
the Germans were firing In their EFFORT
to bring them down, even II the efforts
were unsuccessful. Then at night there
was always the thud OF the runs along
the Somme, deep, distant, luguhrious.
They had Come to have something OF
the ~pernanence and persistence Of the
roar Of some mighty waterfall, produ-
cling the appalling sense one has some
times at Niagara, ar almost unsupport-
able tmpatieuCe with the sound, Il feel
ing that II must stop, II but for an In.
stant'S surCeaSe In It's mighty pain, and
than the DgTlpngnp4u thaf n has gone
on always, and will so on, forever and
forever.
During the latter part Of that month
OF September, a great c|ourt-martiRl was
In progress at Limbourg, trying over
so persons for spying or for treason In
time Of war; and that meant, in the
legation, women in tears, pleading IN
a confidence that WAS pathetic enough
10 break the heart they naiVely thought
to be the only one 1t was necessary TO
touch, yet never sufficient even to
move the heart whose dictates alone
was over II had been condemned to
death. many OF the others to impriS-
onment at hard labor for life. and most
of the remaining to some rigid penalty
in those German prisons whose horrid
secrets are never revealed, whose pains
are never wen temporarily mltigated by
those roVulsions OF public sentiment
: which now and then make for some
reform in our own,
= A woman and her daughter came to
! the legation all the way from LuXem-
. bourg to ask my help III securing some
mitigation of the sentence of death that
had been pronounced on her nephew
| and her niece, two others of the same
family had been condemned to nard la
l Dor. and there were three others still
in the Belgian army and at the front;
The mother Of the condemned boy had
| set out on what, under the conditions
Of travel that prevailed In Belgium II
one was poor, was a long pilgrimage
I to Brussels to plead for her own son
I and daughter.
5 sentence would be, she started before
It was pronounced, but at Brussels II
LAWYER told her that her daughter, too,
, had been condemned and was about to
be shot, and the old mother collapsed
Thus II was her sister who anne ana
she and her daughter sat there in their
!, black garb. weeping, begging, pleading.
. imploring, and ! who would have done
so much, quite powerless IN the midst
Of all that weller OF woe In which the
world had been plunged,
/, Our Difficulties Increase.
The problems of the relief, work
seemed to be increasing each day. It
was always the same-the impossible
[ ty TO secure q reasonable compliance
} with the guarantees tOINbIIlIB hhtlNT
produce. The exceptions which we
had admitted we're being used by the
militaires to Justify every kind OF In
fraction, cattle were being lifted and
driven off across the border, butter was
being seized even from the farm of
Monsieur SolVay, the president OF inc
comite national, w
It was growing more and more diftl-
cult to exercise control; II the c. X u.
delegates reported that the soldiers
were taking food. the mllitaires darkly
limited at sDying, II was not permitted
70 make observations as 10 the conduct
Of soldiers, The Germans, too, and APP
parently with d~elIberation, tried to ex-
asperate the G. N, to induce It's mem
berg to dc something Of which COM
plant could be made. Poor vernon
kellogg was Well-nlgh worn out, 1t
would have worn me out, too, but long
wears dealing with human nature In
the ugly form it so often assumes In
politics. had provided me with protec.
tive celebration which his more secluded
existence in the classic academic groves
had not vet developed, Hoover was
there much Of the time and he had
his troubles, too. not all with the Ger
mans. 49,,
we had undertaken to carry out, n
miracle we had lmpiously tried to per
form. We could control the imported
food. because IT remained In the hands
OF the Belgian or American organiza =
lions; but the native food the soldiers
would take where they found II, and
when they went home to Germany they
filled their valiscs with 1t,
The soldiers persisted In making
these seizures, despite, sometimes we
were forced to believe in very defiance
NJ the assurances on that score which
bv such pains and efforts we had Sc
cured from the governor general. Won
Kissing himself had explained to me
that it was difficult to restrain the ap-
relites Of the soldiers, especially when
they came back fIom the trenches, and
doubtless that was true, especially
since the officers in immediate com .
mand over them did not care whether
they were restrained or not. The gov
ernor. general had promised me, af'sr
NIllalobar'S dinner that night, to put a
stop to this. and he did issue more
stringent orders, even going 50 far as
10 threaten, no doubt as the heaviest
punishment he could think of, to send
r to the front all officers who permitted
these seizures.
The German Z~entrale.
But We were learning, 1t was not al
together the fault Of those soldiers,
= half crazed by the inferno Of Nerdun,