Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-11-19
(coztInaed iron, Last IsczsJ

4 n DfGStnlAIilGHL that pNeN~~
was further off from Europe
than ever. and that before II came
again 10 the earth our own country
would we swept into the vortex OF
the war. The great conHictN was
growing more bitter, there waS 4
lower, deeper note of savage hatIed
in the chorus OF universal STRIFE,
and the great tragedy seemed 10 De
Whelming 10 some awful doom.
At the evening we imagined 4
more portcnpus whir III the Heppe-
Inns sailing Tow and passing direct
~ over our roof on their t&r nlShC
across the English Channel, mon
strous birds OF night, grim ana
black in the deep purple skies. At
morning we would feel u AGAIN
when we We're awakened ny the
burst of bombs the English and
french aYiatOrs were hurlGS on
lie hangers OF those ZeppeIinS. and
~ the boom OF the shrapEcl the
Germans were frinS in their eIiOlI
10 bring them down, even II the Ell
forts were unsuccessful Then AT
rIignt there WAS always the thud
OF the guns along the Somme, deep,
distant, lugubriOus. They had come
10 have something of the perma-
hence and persistence of the roar or
some mighty waterfall, producing
the appalling sense one has some
times at Niagara, an almost unSup-
portable Impotence with the sound,
a feeling that il must stop, If but
for an insIantS surceaSe in Its
mighty pain, and then the conscious
ness that it has gone on always,
and will go on. forever and forever
During the latter part OF that
month of September, a great court
martial was III progress at Linz
bourg, trying over sixty persons Tor
syping or for treason in time OF
NJ in fhA lpQrI-
ton, women in tears, pleading III a
confidence that was pathetic enough
TO break the heart they nalVely
thought to be the only one it was
necessary to touch, yet never sui
ficient even TO move the heart whose
dictates alone could have availed.
Before the month was over, seven
teen had been condemned TO death,
many OF the others TO lmprlSon-
ment at hard labor for life, and
most OF the remaining TO some rigid
penalty in those German prisons
whose horrid secrets are never re-
VeaIed, whose pains are never even
temporarily mitigated by those re-
vulsions 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
Luxembourg to ask my help In Sc
curing some mitigation of the SEN
tence of death that had been pro-
nOunced on her nephew and her
niece; two others or the same fam
lily mad been condemned to hard Ia
Dor, and there were three others
still in the Belgian army and at the
front. The mother of the condemn
ed boy had set out on what, under
the conditions OF travel that pre-
vailed in Belgium If one was poor,
was n long pilgrimage to Brussels
10 plead for ner own son and dauSh-
ter.
Having no illusions as to what the
sentence would be, she started be-
fore it was pronounced, but at BruS-
sells Il lawyer told her that her
daughter, too, had been condemned
and was about to be shot, and the
old mother collapsed. Thus it was
her sister who came, and she and
her daughter sat there in their black
garb, weeping, begging, pleading,
lmploring, 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. IL
was always the same-the impoSsI-
bility to secure a reasonable conf
pliance with the guarantees concern
ing native produce. The exceptions
which we had admitted were being
used by the militaireS to justify eV-
cry kind of intraction, cattle were
being lifted and driven off across the
border, butter was being seized
even from the farm of Monsieur Sol
way, the president of the committee
national.
1t was growing more and more
dllncult to exercise control; IL the
&. X. -. delegates reported that the
Al l. h. 4
taues darhly limited at spying; 1t
was not permitted to make Observa-
lions as 10 the conduct OF soldiers.
The Germans, too, and apparently
with elaboration, tried to eXaSper-
ate the Z. N, to induce its MEMOIRS
TO do something OF which complaint
could be made. Poor \ crnon KEEL
lOgg was Well-nigh worn out. 1t
would have worn me OuG, 100, but
long years dealing with hannah ma
ture IN the ugly form IL so often
assumes in politics, had provided me
with protective coloration which his
more secluded existence in the clas-
sic academic groves had not yet de-
NelOped. Hoover was there much
OK the time, and he mad his Irou-
bles, too, not all with the Ger
mans.
1t was indeed an impossibility
that we had undertaken 10 carry
out, a miracle We had impiOuSly
tried 10 perform. We could control
| the imported food, because it re-
4 manned in the hands OF the Belgian
/ or American organizations; but the
native food the soldiers would take
where they found il, and when they
went home to Germany they filled
. their valises with it.
The soldiers persisted in making
t these seizures, despite, sometimes
\ we were forced to believe in very de-
tiance of the assurances on that
! score which by such pains and eff
| forts We had secured from the gov
I ernor general. Won Kissing himself
/ had explained TO me that it was
| difficult to restrain the appetites OF
! the soldiers, especially when they
/ came back from the trenches, and
! doubtless that was true, especial
! ~ since the officers in immediate
/ command over them did not care
whether they were restrained o:
| not. The governor general had
1 promised me, after Villalobar'S din
ner that night. TO put a stop to this.
I and he did issue more stringent or
ders, even going so far as to threat
en-. no doubt as the heaviest pun
Z isnment he could think of, to send
TO the front all officers who permit
ted these seizures.
The German zentrals
But We were learning; it was not
! altogether the fault of those SOL
diers, half-crazed by the inferno OF
/ Nerdun, nor of their complainant
/ officers. There was, back in the
( labyrinth of the German organiza-
tion, farther back behind even the
military clique itself, Il system.
dark, mysterious. sinister, well
camouflaged, working silently and
remorselessly through the Zentrale
or central beTeaus.
Up 10 that time. ] may as well
confess, l had never understood the
. Zentrale, / do not fully understand
/ them now, but / know more about
( them than / did, enough to know
/ at any rate, that they were infinite.
| ~ more pcrnicious than the worst
Of our trusts as viewed by the pop
ular eye, without any OF the re-
1 deeminS features Of those trusts.
1 had supposed at first that the
| ZentraIc was simply another eXpres-
! -. \