Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-07-27

so much attention 10 matters Of
health when the only object is 70 keep
PEOPLE alive in the world. ''Trus; in
God, who knows your appointed day
and hour and do not fear death This
is the attitude that the Red Cross
must meet.
Belgrade is still under tho military
The streets are patroied by armed sol
hicrs ami when. at the request or Red
Cross officer. gave an order TO some
German prisoners who were moving
freight tor Tho Red Cross an officer
came up and told me | must not speak
TO them. so carefully are things
watched
Americans Arc Seen.
Tn strgets are snl Of sohisgf
men from Madagascar. occas ionally an
American and groups Of Englshmcn.
In courtyard FUN Of pear trees in
lish naval officers sitting around ~
ease. curious peep into England IN
This haf prien,ai spot; Th o,,;co are a a
belgrade. come 70 patrol the Danube
in mIoni'ors There are even Ia,i fGw
about watching the Serbian soldiers
with their bag packs on their backs or
guarding the endless gangs Of prisoners
ing the freight on the docks, one won
dcrs how long ii viii be before they
can all go home and begin norma!
At the far end Of Main Street is a
market where peasants come in TO sci!
their things. The women are small
and sturdy and infinitely foreign look
ing. This is the divide. Here West
ern Europe is left behind. The peas
woven skirts. accordion plated and
looped on each side in pannicrs. ~
SHOW their embroidered white linen
pctticatts Worked into their purple
knitted stockings are great flowers.
women Wear Short Jackets.
They wear short Jackets, sometimes
Of sheepSkin; and Two handkerchlcfs
head by round wooden ring and fan
ing down the back, and the other over
'panks." sort OF moccasn. kept on
with thongs wound around the ankle.
Every bit Of their costume is beau
The men are dressed in home pun
wool. Their trousers are wide at The
top, and they wear their bright-colored
socks outside fthem The shoes on
their feet are like moccaSins Their
S%aiS are 1Eh;- very snort and
Crowds, of them come up from the
river and throng the newly opened
long. the enemy has been here such a
time that only just now they be-
ginning 70 breathe again. They seem
Europe. What do they know about
Europe or the war. these peasants?
sowing and reaping their crops and
rearing children.
In nearly every generation invad-
ing armies have destroyed the work
OF these Serbian peasant men and
women. The invaders have killed
them. trampled their crops and stolen
their animals. Yet war is hardly over
before they are back again selling
their little diminished stores of things
and their spring vesetables. dressed in
their gorgeous clothes, with their silk
handkerchicfs hanging magniiicently
down their backs. War comes and de-
struction with it. but still they weave
cloth. and still they embroider
flowers.
Children Dance the Kola.
In the Belgrade Orphan Asylum of
the American Red Cross children play
in the yard without attendants. with
out direction. one very little boy plays
a harmonica and the rest dance the
kola. the national dance. They dance
with grave intentness one intricate
step after another, both boys and
girls.
The children's parents have been
nave been under bombardmcnt. They
have lived without food Who knows
what terror has been theirs or what
memories? Yet there they play in the
young leaves behind them. little chill
together.
Men and women die, but the Gus
toms that make country survive
These songs of a people do not perish:
nor do the patterns which they love
These things live; they form a cur
rent which carries with il the life Of
the people. The Red Cross orphanape
ana the children dancing the kola to
music or their own in the spring sun
shine is symbol Of the Serbia which
suffers but carries on.