Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-10-15
: The Truth About Belgium 8:
BY BRAND WHITLOCK

Disconnected. out of countenance, not
knowing what to do.
But it was in an essentially SOL
emn spirit that the day was cele-
brated; in all the parishes OF Brus-
sells the churches, which, during
all the time of the occupation, were
TO the hunted and oppressed like
asylums of patriotism, were filled
from early morning and at 10
O'Clock, in the old Collegiate SITS.
Michel and Gudule, to give its
proper name to what is so often err
roneously called the Cathedral of ste.
Gudule, one more affecting and his
toric scene was added to the long
series of manifestations of the hopes
and despairS and triumphs of man
that had been unrolled on that ma
ieStic theater The old church was
crowded to every corner of nave and
transept. The mass was celebrated
by Monsieur RemeS, cure of st.
Nicholas. The nonce himself had
gone and was in the choir. The
high mass was finished, and the
celebrant from the twinkling altar
had just lifted the monstrance over
the throngs that knelt in the light
that was Softened by the stained
glass of the ancient windows, and
had given the solemn benediction,
when the first strains of la Bra
banconne rolled softly from the
great organ in the loft. The peo-
the organist was playing softly,
but when he had played the hymn
once he played it again, this time
with the full organ, until it's
strains rolled and reverberated and
resounded like prophetic thunder
from the vaulting upheld by those
lofty pillars. The crowd, unable
longer to control itself even in that
majestic place, burst forth with
cries of "Nive lie Roi! Vive lie Bel
i'm
on which they had been kneeling,
crying this again and again, then
demanding that the Brabanconne be
played once more. And 1t was, and
again, and for the fourth time, the
organist- played, and this time the
people sang it, and when at the end
they came to the words lie Roi, la
loi, la hberte," (the king, law, lab
erty) it was a whole vast congrega-
ton standing with TRANSPORTED, up
lifted faces, down which rained the
.pent up tears of all the woes, all
the anguish, all the injustice they
had borne. They wept aloud and
flung Up their hands and shouted
the words with voices broken by
emotion, and finally they shouted
and again 'sVive lie Roi! Vive la
Belg1que! Vive la liberte!" Long
live the king! Long live Belgiuni
Long live hbertyD
When j., who was there, told me
of it all his own eyes were moist
and his voice trembled again with
the emotion that had choked it on
that morning.
DO you think a people like that
can be conquered" he asked.
The Germans, of course, were
furious. A company Of infantry had
Rogier in front of the Care du
Nord, there before the Palace hotel.
to scatter the crowds. The soldiers
tried to keep the rue Neuve open.
and at the Place de Broukere a com
pany of the sray-coated soldiers
were formed on the steps of the
Monument Anspach in a picturesque
pyramid. But there We're no seri-
Gus collisions and toward evening
the German feeling was Expressed
with all the petulance of a child
when suddenly the walls seemed to
bloom, as it were, with little red
'afhches," ordering all those res
taurants, public houses, cafes. cine
long-to close. And thus the day
ended in a peal of Brussels laugh
ter.
The French national holiday, July
Il, had been observed by a closing
OF shops, and now, after the cele
brat1on OF the 21St, 1t was rumored
that another anniversary of a sin
lister significance in Belgian history
August would also be observed.
And sure enough, another little
were printed the words "Belges,
fermez tous, lie aout (Belgians.
close everything August -.
But there was another "affiche,"
forbidding the people to assemble.
to wear decorations, to make dem
onStrations, or in any way to OBJ
serve the 4th of August, the ami
versary of the beginning of the war
between Germany and Belgium.
Everybody was to be indoors by
O'Clock that night, Belgian time,
during the day. And there was a
penalty for diSobedience-five years
In Germany and 10000 marks fine.
Such was to be, the punishment for
the quiet, significant celebration of
July 81.
Scraps of Paper for Boutennieres
August 4 passed quietly. but the
Belgians had their revenge-all over
the city men were wearing as
bostonnieres little scraps of paper,
recalling the famous phrase by
characterized the treaties that he
had torn up that day the year
before. 1t was chiefly in the
Quarter Marollien that this exam
pie of the irrepressible zwanze
bruxelloise was to be seen. And the
zwanzeurs paid the penalty; two
streets in the quarter. the rue du
Dam were ordered closed. shut off
from the rest of the city, and for
a fortnight the deiZens of those two
rather lively thoroughfareS sang
la Brabanconne all night behind
their closed shutters.
We Pack Our Trunks
Meanwhile we were having more
important display of the German
mentality in the whole submarine
controversy that ran like a serial
through all the troubled months OF
that summer. We could only read
them, of course, and marvel at them
and live on from day to day won
dering when the war that we felt
to be so inevitable would come. The
experience repeated on it's own gil
gantic scale the smaller experiences
we were having in which the deeds
were so at variance with the dis
cussions that pretended to regulate
them. I would read the Rotter-
damsche Courant at evening and
think the whole controversy settled,