Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1918-04-23
Continued from Last Issue)
y Wednesday morning, August
26th. when Villalobar and l
drove over to see General the

! Baron Arthur Won LuttWltZ, we 1Ounu
! him at the foreign office. The Ger
mans had established themselves in
! the Belgian MINISTER'S and shut off
! the park and the rue de la LOi;
there we're sentries everywhere and
much explaining about der Spaniscn-
er Gesandter and der Gesandter der
| Vereinigton Staten and we waited
! a long while in the anteroOm where
We had sat so often waiting to see
~, NJ Davignon. German officers were
! coming and going, very much at
home. Finally we were shown into
! the presence of General Won Lutt-
WITT, who was most affable and
/ courteous. and evidently man OF
strength and will. We began, Viii
lalobar and /, to talk about the ques-
ton of communication and TO make
suggestions about Brussels; the
question OF food, for instance. But
! the General said:
please grant me a truce for two
days until l can install civil admin
istration. After that has been done
all will go beautifully
AS we we're about to go General
Won Luttwitz said:
"A dreadful thing has occurred at
Louvain The general in command
! there was talking with the burgo-
master when the son of the burgo-
master shot the general, and the
population began firing on the Ger
man troops
We did not at once grasp the
whole significance of the remark.
: And now, of course he went on,
I'VE have to destroy the city. The
orders are given and not one stone
will be left on another. I'm afraid
! that that beautiful Hotel de Vile,
/ which we saw as we came through
! there the other day, is now no more.
When he said this he lifted up his
hands in a gesture of regret.
That evening Gibson and Blount
returned from Antwerp, full of news;
first, and best of all, dispatch from
! Washington approving my course and
| leaving the question of the removal
/ of the legation entirely to my judg-
ment. Only those who have been at
| the end Of a telegraph wire, three
thousand miles away from home. and
in the midst of difficulties, can know
| the consolation that such words
would afford.
1t had been raining during the
night but it cleared partly. Davis eX-
pected to leave at l o'clock with
Gerald Morgan and Miss Boyle
O'Rielly on a troop train for Aix-la-
Chapelle.
81 told them he said at parting,
that in four days the American min
lister would begin to inquire about
me; that is the way they always do
! it on the STAGE He said this with
his humorous mouth twitching, fumb>
! ling with his broad black ribbon of
his eye glass. i babe him goodbye
| and watched him drive away in a
fiacre. 1t was drawn by the sorriest
| pair of nags l ever saw, and yet he
sat there as calm and distinguished
as if he were driving up Fifth avenue.
| And | thought of Van Bibber, and of
how the avenue looks in the late aft
! crnoon when the throngs are going
up Murray Hill. All me! Did that gay
! insouciance still exist anywhere in the
world? l stood and watched him out
of sight, regretting his departure. And
| I never saw him again.
/ The horror of Louvain was on us
| lie d ali LuC IuOIS ICl IlOlC
because it was vague, underlined, a
! kind of nameless, formless thing, that
sent shudder through Brussels, as
perhaps it was intended to do, where
! the like might happen at any hour.
| The city was filled with foreboding
and vague apprehension: miserable
refugees, with dumb expressions and
| eyes that had looked on horror,
came plodding YEARLY into town.
! Late in the afternoon it was re-
| ported at the legation that at Lou
| vain the Germans at that moment
were massacreing the people,; that
| the town was burning, and the TRACE
| dy complete; hundreds had been shot
! down; the cathedral, the library, the
| Hotel de Vile, we're in flames. Forty
priests, some of them from the Amer
! lean college, had been seized as hos
| tages. and were even then being
driven in carts along the road to
Brussels.
What was TO be done? AS l was
! thinking Villalobar came. he too
with that face of horrors; there
we're Spanish priests in that band
of hostages as we'll. We decided to
go at once to General Won Luttwitz.
! Villalobar's car was at the door and
we drove away. 1t was O'Clock.
! There was heavy guard at the min
/ istries and the sentinels were ugly;
one of them impudently mounted on
! the footboard of the car. At the
| foreign office we we're told that we
could not see the general. We in
sisted on sending in our cards, an
sat there waiting, sensible, in the
movements Of the officers who were
constantly passing through, of an eyi
atmosphere The windows were open
and the marquis and I stood there
/ looking out in the little place before
! the Palais de la Nation. There were
groups Of gray soldiers on the steps
( of the palace. their arms stacked on
| the pavement Two ugly machine
guns we're mounted to sweep the
park.
'They vomit DEATH" said Villalo
! bar. as though speaking to. himself
We turned away from the window.
! Finally Major Hans Won Herwaertz.
who had once been military attache
at the German embassy at Washing
! ton. and was then on the staff of Gen
| eral Won Luttwitz. wearing a great
! pair of tortoise shell reading glasses
came out to receive us. To him I
| made my protests about the treat
| ment of the priests and the profess