Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-10-21
Burghers Raise Their Hats
and Sing "Il's Long, Long
Way to Tipperary'
People Cheer Belgian Cav.
airy and the. Old Bell Adds
Its Peals to Joyous Acclaim
BY PHILIP GIBBS


Continued from Page One
wept because their hearts had over
brimmed
As at Lille and Roubaix and Tour.
Going. so I'm Bruges, everybody spoke
a little English. even the children, be-
cause they had been learning for four
years until this day should come.
They gathered around, all spealsing
together. all telling of the things they
had suffered. all passionate against
| the enemy, who had been hard with
| them who had robbed them, imprison.
ed them. outraged their liberties and
their homes.
They tore the paper off my wall to
| light their fires" said Count Won den
| Steen
"They forced our young girls TO
work in the fields" said "A Flemish
I lady.
"They stole everything" said hun.
dreds of people.
There is hardly man in Bruges
who has not been IN prison" said the
| old Burgomeister, Wharf dc Bocarme.
/
| But above all this flame of indig
nation there was gladness, because the
| evil spell had been broken that very
| morning and the enemy had gone.
We drove round Bruges with a
swarm Of boys like flies on our car,
and as we drove they sang patriotic
| songs and the crowds cheered again.
! | stood while "A group of old burghers
/ raised thier hats and sang: ITS "A
| Long. Long Way to Tipperary" from
one end to the other. and while an.
other crowd scrambled to get my
shoulder badges. | was an English
man in khaki and that was good
enough for them. though I had done
nothing to help them except to write
| feeble words
10000 acquisitions by Foe
The noble old burgomeister. Wharf de
Bocarme told me the hard facts of the
German occupation of Bruges They had
$4,000 requisitions put upon them, 50
that they had to deliver up property 10
the value of $4,000 900. They took all
the wine of Bruges at the nominal price
of forty-one cents a bottle.
They made four separate demands for
everything made of copper and paid
nothing for II. They destroyed all the
machinery i'm the great works of La
Brugeoiso where $500 workmen were
employed
They put upon the town fantastic
expenses. as when they furnished a
rest house for German officers at the
cost to Bruges of nearly $4,000 and
made a winter garden, with marble
baths. like those at Pompeii, at "A cost
of $4,000, the only result being that
one German bishop had one bath there
and no Cne else.
Before leaving. the Germans assem-
bled all the boys and men between the
ages of seventeen and afty and sent
them off to Ghent They respected
houses occupied by their owners, but
stripped unoccupied houses of all theil
furniture and pictures and valuables.
Count van cen Steen told me tina
the enemy began the evacuation o.
Bruges "A fortnight ago. removing al
material of war. and were in stat'
of excitement and depression with tn,
consciousness of defeat.
The last German soldiers remained II
, Bruges until the early hours of Satur
day morning and forty-six Of them wer'
billeted at a convent near AsSebroock
suburb of Bruges, until 1880 or
O'Clock.
: went there to see an English lad!
, who has been living with these num-
since the beginning of the war. when
: like them. she was caught bv the Ger
= man invasion. When | came into tn
garden I seemed an appartiOE to her
because the Germans had gone such
short time ago. Her rry Of astonish
ment brought all the nuns into tn
garden. In their black and white dresses
No News From Outside World
10
D these ladies of charity, who had no
r known the cruelty of life before thi
+, war. Their food had been poor an,
: scarce and they were surrounded b!
the roar of gunfre and bombs and ha,
o narrowly escaped death not once o
r twice, but many times.
G When the British airmen used (,
bomb the docks of Bruges almost ever,
night and day for months the noise wa
{ frightful and 200 civilians in and aroun,
: Bruges were killed by bomb splinter
@ and anti-aircraft shells.
r Not once in all those four years di,
any man or woman in Bruges get an!
: news of the outside world, nor any let
: ter from any relative or friend, nor an.
knowledge Of life or death among thos
( they loved outside
n 1t was hard to bear. Their man.
s tragedies | cannot write of now
r but the remembrance of these thing
y was drowned In the flood of joy over
e whelmng the heart of Bruges.
% The old belfry was pealing out in tn
k deep tones which used to mingle wit
y my dreams when ! stayed here in IN
e boyhood. and as | left the city tn
: people were cheering the Belgian cav
II airy on their way TO chase the enem
further out of Belgium.
" At Ostend there are $4,000 out c
: 5000 people still living in the towi
ID and all of them were riass5d on tn
e sea front when Sir Robert Keyes lande
from his flagship. When he went o
n shore In a motor launch, which pt
i off from a destroyer with the King an
l. Queen of the BelgRns, they were greete
1t with overwhelming enthusiasm.
lie The last Germans left Ostend at
O'Clock last Thursday morning, but the
?" still had machine guns on the outskir
te of the town near the gas factory and II
port was still within range of the Ge
;" man guns when the King and Quee
ID landed and went through the street
,e The King and Queen were SO close
-e pressed by cheering crowds. eager I
lie touch them and to kiss their hands tht
-e they could hardly move
il The gallant old Vindictlve lies asla>
across the mole and the enemy. befol