Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-07-27
BELGRADE, TORN BY CRUEL
HAND OF WAR, RECEIVERS
Moving Bodies OF Soldiers Are Only
Reminder Of Great World
Conflict.
NOT METROPOLIS OF THE WEST
Dream That 1t Would Some Day
Become Imperial City Now Shat
tered, and Stucco Palaces AIc
Breaking of Old Age.
ny MARY nEAToN WORSE.

BELGRADE. July 26.-Belbrade is
s stq@y s cyhrdn back TO liie In the
shops every. day new shutter is
pulled up. The peasant women come
to buy cloth ana a silk handkerchief.
with .onS fringe. for their heads.
To the people who have been here
from ,nri the nrs, il Is place full Of lie.
stranger and is fcrried across from
Semlin in steamer fun OF soldiers.
mas neasan b;.b and bo1!,ry. boa, piled
belgrade seems wounded place.
IL sits up on high promontory.
Selow II in great curve sweeps the
4 the Danube on its reach down TO the
LOT , an :mperia city 10 place Itself.
with the two great rivers circling
more than half way around i, and the
VIDE fields and tho level valley land.
stretched out 10 the horizon. So wide
and floods tho meadows one has the
IMPRESSION OF overiookinE the sea.
nu' re Grade was never An imperial
CT. 1t wanted 20 be- however. and
~, up big ministries of war ana
TTLL!'ne4 itself a palace for its kings
inefe Was perhaps "A time when the
ntucCo WAS new and the paint and or
fermentation fresh When Austria
sent across her diplomats % intrigue
ma nee ssr was eayetX In Belgrade il
OF the Western world. But /. gives
no such illusion today
the sou sn2wG and i , up. War swe3; oyer
has been done. For sin years no hama
nhs osen Hfcd TO complete the pre-
off,ns nuiit, TO make repairs. or to
pIaster w tho spots where shells have
$1,000 inc stucco of the wall. For
nearly four Of those six Years Re
gEade was in the hands OF the enemy
III weeks II was under she'll IRE
he crn. ana ,h.1 .e Is small house win
CuShen roof. a building with a wall
Enockef n and buildings tina, have M
glass in the windows
Sense of D~solntion Prevails.
nSonshout the whole city there is
joint. The hotels are full and when
1ne hnaIE coates room ii Is rnles
ro or. me p.ace where a meal can be
70 ones room in small enamel ,ii,h,
er The AuRtrians N leaving d.ss,rn,.
:. AZ the plumbing or Belgrade. de-
wrenched the pipe and '' ;hrsw ce, nn%y
aha bricks into tho drains
the esiss. r"e p.uinn!ns Is, so is al OF
slightly askcw All over the c'" ci, ~
mere is general air OF dilapida,ion.
and 'r tireI I'm ,mr people we're, still! dazed
mnat might be called Main stree,
sweeps mD through the center of The
ey me Ministry OF War. an ostenia-
tous orange -coiored building. and the
gasatded pa lace where the las, OF Inc
Nee e" s,,hSn me King and Queen.
II is wide street fianked Win
:. ID -co!ored buildings. on one side
y,rn passes a. Two preten,ious hotels.
'"eueiS oElcnta! IN architecture and
"a coi"T, lhey never have been I'm
ished war came and put an end ~,
nan IN Helrrade The stree; is
Wei! paved ana unusucu car tracks, run
down H. "NhS III!
n Belgrade does not achieve =
iarisian AR, as 1t evidently wished 10
achieve. at least IL must have civoo
The Illusion before the war NJ a E,ra,h
provisional town OF magnitude. B,,
now the illusion has vanished.
Confess tn Ambitions.
.,l rn 'a asnao buildings, and in this
Serbian capital merely BETRAYED them.
selves They confessed that .hnv
EWished 10 De Of the Western world.
tional life They buildei in rho ''G -, ma
OF france as much as they knew hI,t
IN transit Germany spoiled the ouri,v
OF the French outline. -
However everywhere are ,bo oid
Uuiu!neS or former generation lii,
t!e ohc-stoFy or story-and- "A half s,uc-
r roots "o Tbs- Win hishnitched red tile
and appealing One comes NM, III ~; I" .e
even In Main Street. 49," ''s'"
,,r rrs,hs ,% @i OK carts rumble slowly
tnroush me town from the river n
me warehouses. bringing supplies ~
precious hour or carting back thc fur
H azure "hich the Austrians foated
they were never able to unload
Ok Teams In Streets.
the oxen are white and have wide
branching horns Thcre is - cnm
stant ME of them from the steamers
On fron pne i've, tiver nank up the steep hill and
from there on down country Thnr
cannot carry much and Serbia nands
eraii. 'nrnE omen wear dresses lit
fra.Sy MADE 9o. Of ,atters and patchwork
peasants In their indcstructible crotbas
tngre ~ no one who is not patched
s,n, me 'l III. Of Paris is further dis.
siPatcu ny the droves of hogs that ara
herder home every evening. They
come toward one sQucaling and prunt.
NE, score at time; strong looking
animals with long. curly hair. ae
though merino sheep had Joined
their family circle at some date
IN carts constitute the principaI
.ra'nc' out occasionally a motor lorry
OF one Of the various armies or a
canton or the American Red Cross
passes belgrade is the Red Cross
e ers'r' snrhiag point a for all of North,
@archonses of s ;hs s srf the co een5Ta
sion. Every day Red Cross workers
leave by boat for remote towns down
the Danube. or for the interior by
OK, cart. The Red Cross is continual
ly broadening it's work and helping
villages which may he famine stricken
when there is plenty not twenty miles
away.
Red Cross Cares for Babies.
b In Belgrade itself the American Red
\ Cross has an orphanage, one of the
three Of all Serbia. for though
Serbias children are fatherless and
moihcrlcss. there has not been as ye.
time to make provision for their care.
There arc also large Red Cross work
rooms. where women make the gar
ments which are later given away.
THE returning prisoners, groups of
whom arrive daily even at this date.
are sent to the Red Cross disinfcct-
ing station. Fighting typhus has
been one of the principal Red Cross
tasks in Serbia. If the prisoners and
refugees returning through Belgrade
are not promptly disinfectcd they go
down into the country and presently
n typhua epidemic springs up. 1t Is
extremely difficult to make the Serbs
understand the necessity Of it.
B,"Why all this fuss?" they ask.
%Serbs arc not afraid to die" Here
in n nutshell is the philosophy OF the
East in the matter Of sanitation. 1t
seems to the average Serb slightly
ignoble and decidedly cowardly to pay
q,