Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-21
Special Cable to Evening Public Ledger

Oct. 81.
To go into Lille was as good as any
thing that can come to a man who had
seen four years of war. and am glad
that I have lived to see the liberation
OF that city. ! saw the JOY of thousands
of people who during all those four
years hsve suffered tragic things. unfor-
gettable outrages to their liberty and
spirit. and have dwelt under dark
spell of fear and have waited month
after month. year after year, with a
faith that sometimes weakened, but
never died. for the rescue that has now
come to them.
1t seems a miracle to them. now that
II has come suddenly, and they fill their
streets like people in a dream. hugging
their gladness yet almost afraid tina,
1t Is unreal and that they may wake
again to find the swarms of field gray
men about them and guns in their gar
dens and the German law hard upon
them. l went into Lille Friday morn
ing very early. but the streets were
already thronged with people. with we'll
dressed women and children and men
of all ages in black coats such as one
sees outside the war zone. and never
before this within such close sound of
the guns.
Gratitude for Deiiverapce
They opened their arms in great en-
braces of gratitude and love for those
who have helped to rescue them from
their bondage, and I saw the joy of vast
crowds. and the light in thousands of
eyes was like sunlight about one, and
in few hours one made hundreds OF
friends who thrust gifts into ones hands
and poured out their emotion in words
of utter simplicity and truth. and
thanked one poor individual as though
he were all the army and had done this
thing alone.
II was overwhelming and uplifting
Before one had gone far up the first
avenue of Lille one was surrounded by
q great crowd A lady broke through
the ring and. clasping both hands, said ;
II embrace you for the gladness YOU
have brought us"
- She kissed one on both checks and
it was the signal for general embraces
Pretty girls came forward and offer
ed their cheeks. and small boys pushed
through to kiss he men bending down
to them. and old men put their hands or
ones shoulders and touched ones face
with their grizzled mustaches, and moth
ers held up their children to be kissed.
Children walked hand in hand will
me for little way as II they had
known me for years and talked all tn,
time of their gladness because the Ger
mans had gone. Then other children
took their places and other groups gath
cred and one was closed in by new
crowds who seized ones hands ant
cried: !
welcome! Welcome Long live
England" :"
H., in
heard English voices, and ladies came
forward a little and the groups parted
SO that we might talk. They had beei
caught In Lille when the Germans came
and had suffered this four years agony
I'VE have longed for this day." sale
one-of them. 'and now 1t is like
dream. We can hardly believe that al
those gray men have gone and that w
are free
An American doctor at Lille took m
into his house. where I sat in his prett
salon and drank a glass of wine wit
him and saw his secret cupboard. wher
ne had hidden his brass ornaments fror
the enemy. who had determined tina
every SCRAP OF brass in Lille should b
taken. In these apartments, as elegan
as any In London or Paris, or a thou
sand miles remote from the war thoug
only a mile or two, heard many thing
81 German brutality and German OF
pressiCn and the tragedy of the be
sitged city.
Tben there was an English clergy
man. who for four years had minis
tered to the English wounded and re
cited prayers over the English deaf
MIR. Moore IL his name, and his house
keeper Is Miss Browne, of Bcverle!
in Yorkshire, and his cat Is calle
Bunny, and he has people in Engan
who will be glad to hear after all TN
time that the clergyman and the house
keeper and the cat have survived th
ordeal of war.
I wonder IL any Of the sentries in III
trenches of Chapelle Armentieres eve
established spiritual contact with ths
city full Of human yearnings as II
stared over the parapet and saw throug
the mists the tall chimneys of Lii
Women lay awake. as they told nj
today. and cried out:
when will the English Gomez"
Children wept themselves to sleep a
their mothers told me this morning, b'
cause another day had passed and III
English had not come.
I'VE had SO long to wait for you, Yer
long" said many of these people toda.
ConscrIpted 5000 Girls
After the first terror of the Germa
occupation and the first nagging
law which regulated all their lives, 10
bade them to be out in the streets ait,
o'clock in the evening, and SHIT
them up I'm their houses like naught
children at in the afternoon whe
the German commandant was annoys
with some complaint, one of their wor
days came when. just before Easte
1916, 5000 young women of Lille we
forcibly seized and sent away to wor
in the fields. hundreds of miles fro
their homes.
II was a reign of terror for every gi
in Lille and for their parents. Differe
quarters in the town were chosen for Il
conscription of girls, and machine gul
were posted at each end of the sire,
and families were ordered to gather
doorways, when the German Officer
came around and made arbitrary choic
saying to one girl, You" and to a
other, YOU and then ordered the
men to take them.
Mr.. Moore. a clergyman. told me thu
some girls whom he knew were draggt
out of their beds and carried scream
ing away. They were girls In all CO.
ditions of life. and a young one who
met today told me that she wi
chosen but escaped by threatening
kill herself rather than go. for II was
be a life of misery and horror to al
girl Of decent instincts.
One Of them who was taken and spe
six months in this forced labor, to
me that she had no change OF linen q
that time and slept on a truss OF stra
in an old barn. at first with men WI
were put into the same barn with the
and then only with women.
They never had enough to eat In q