The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1918-12-31

u NAAACitN W @Attlhl ART AlAhhllA't ]
with the Mcclure Newspaper Syndicate
Copyright, 1918, by Brand Whttiock, UNI
the title Memories OF Belgium I'm
the German Occupation" All rights
reserved. Copyrighted In Great Britain.
Canada and Australia, All rights re
served for France. Belgium. Holland,
Italy, Spain, Russia and the Scandina-
Wan Countriesl
The year was dying; the leafless
trees widened the horizon Of the sky
that hung low and gray and cold over
the low countries, where The winter
days are short and dark, and where the
cold rain falls almost necessarily. We
looked on the sac eountenance Of that
scene with the consciousness that II
was for the last time; We felt that we
should not see the spring come TO shut
us once more within the green Of those
lofty trees Of the noble park and the
grass Of those lovely slopes. The guns
thumped on unrenttngly, often In the
watches Of the night I would listen 10
their regular throh-like the slow beat
ing OF the sad heart of a world that
had grown very old and cynical II
mean, in an age without illusions or
ideals.
There were no more smiles in the
once all-radiant city, and in the midst
of the almost universal depression,
there in the toret the Germans were
NANNAhk 'ht a. ANA ~ 'NAlAF NNNNN
and-grotesque touch by which the
sardonic spirits must mar even tragedy
IA group OF them in the Bots playing
al h~ide-and-seek behind ting noble
The shaving was going on everywhere,
though it had not rome to Brussels
yet. The capital. some said, was being
reserved until the last. while others
thought that it was 20 I've spared en-
tiTely, though one versed by expert
ence in the implacahle persistence ~
German intention knew hat the visit
vas only postponed In fact. as AN Of
fetal whispered to me one day, 1t was
fixed for a date in January. The ter
ror was perhaps no less and the rage
had not abated, but 1t had grown loss
acute and there was that pathetic
quality Of fatalistiC acquiescCnCC IN 1t
Events that once had inspired in.
dignation passed now almost unuottced,
as when there was a new announce
ment about the war levy and the prov
incial councils Of the provinces Of Ant
werp, Brabaut, Luxembourg, ticge
and Namur refused to comply with the
German order to levy the new COntrl-
button and the contribution was forced
by n decree of the E0vernor-gencral
The slave drive at Brussels tinally
began OH the goth Of January. For soy
eral days before that date German sol
diers went quietly about the city lely-
ing at certain houses yellow cards, or
dertng the men whose names they bore
to appear on the morning Of the day
noted at the Care du Midi, and in some
instances at the grand place, The
cards bore an offer Of work and threat
ened the recipient with a fine If he did
not appear, He WAS to come with
boots. blankets and extra clothing.
The men thus summoned were in cv,
cry case, or in nearly every case, un
employed. How the Germans had sc-
cured possession of the lists was a mvs.
terry; they had not been SURRENDERED
by any Of those having them in hand
and the Germans must have made VI
the lists themselves, slowly, patiently
from the report Mt the registration bu-
reau,
There had been no public order, the
notices were served ON each individual
The effect was not that Instantaneous
sensation that the posting Of a notice
produced in a village, but tho news
percolated gradually and created It,
silent horror. The. weather. in the
monotonous irony of things, was hitiua
cold-such weather AS Belgium hat
perhaps never known. ON the 18th %
January there was what we In AmericS
would call n blizzard. and ON that day
there was II notice, not ConNoking the
"chomeurs," but explaining the pro.
ceedings, and, with the hypocrisy
which almost invariably intensified tn,
evil quality of any of the German deeds
seeking to Justify it as benevolent il
its intentions and of benefit to tn,
Belgian nation.
That night, the eve Of the deporta.
tons. the fear that brooded over tn,
| city was almost palpahle to the senses
Even women had received the fata
yellow cards, The Goth came. and al
most before alphabetically in that cold
glacial dawn-the men began to appea,
at the Care du Midi. They came II
groups Of 10, of 90, of 50; some in warn
clothes, with their bundles patheticallN
ready, others without even rainCoats
shivering in the searching wind,
There We're women in masses, anC
children, come for the last good bye
But they could not approach the sta.
ton, The arrangements were diaholiC,
ally perfect; all the streets were barrel
n there was a squadron Of uhlans
grim and brutal rs only uhlans know
how to he, to keep people back, so that
only those furnished with the yellow
cards had the sinister distinction O
admission to the lines.
The men were taken inside the sta,
ton, Those who come to bid them pre-,
cautionary' and grievOus farewells ant
to wait in the anguish of Il persisteut
hope, and those who came merely tt
observe the pitiful tragedy, stood he.
hind those ropes, behind the lHnCes o.
the uhlanS, The hours slowly passed
the vicious process went on within tn,
brick walls OF the station.
Now and then a man would bolt from
the gaunt structure, dancing for very
T, Joy. Some physical defect, some laten.
disease, long perhaps the subject O
sad and morbid pre~ocCupation. dreaded
In itself as a portion of doom, a sen,
tence Of death, now proved to be