The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1919-07-19
THRIFTY DUTCHMEN TURNED
INTO DESPERADOES BY WAR
Genuine Shock Has Come to Those Who Old Days Admired Indus
trious HoNander Whose Only Occupation Now Is in
Deeds Of Daring and Robbery-Country Is
Now Paradise for Thieves.

Aht iHDSe WIN
the Hollander before the war as a
quiet, well-behaved, thrifty and indus
triOus soul, content to pursue the even
tenor of his way and sticking relfSf-
ously to Orderlness and good behaV-
Tor, his transformation since the sign
ing of the armiStice last November
Will come as a genuine shock.
Crime, in the pre-war days, was at
its minimum in Holland. Her stand
ing army of some $4,000 was COM
posed of young men who served their
allotted time In the military service
of their country with the minimum of
grumbling. returning cheerfully TO the
pillow, or the dairy, or the fisheries, as
soon as their term of army service
was over.
Except for an ever watchful eye on
her frontier, Holland lived calm,
cOntented existence, turning out her
rld-famous cheeses and her per-
haps. more infamous gins. her citizens
secure in the feeling that theirs was
a land where the law was observed,
where their chattels were safe even
though their front doors remained I'M
locked and where the infrequent of
fender against the penal code could
not hope to get his full name In the
papers. much less his photograph with
pretty border around it.
Today all this is changed. From a
land of safety Holland has been trans
formed into land of danger and the
HOllander-that is, he who is repre-
scented in the ranks of the pillow boy,
the driver of the horse or donkey
along the tow path, the churner of the
butter and the cream, the farm hand
or the miller's assistant-has been
transformed into a shiftless. lazy. dis
orderly ffe'er-dO-well, whose principal
occupation is burglary,
1t Is New Crime.
Burglary in Holland was not usual
crime in the pre-war days. That fact
makes the present wave of lawless-
ness all the more striking. The great
truth that has dawned upon the coun-
try is that the 100000 Hollanders who
have been doing military service as
On-combatants since the beginning of
the war have come to hate work and
to hate having to provide for their
own living. after enjoying food. cloth
Ing and shelter at government expense
for nearly FIVE years.
When Holland modified her young
manhood, middle-aged manhood and
full-grown manhood during the arst
six months Of the war, when there |
was mOmentary danger Of Germany
getting it into her disordered
brain to invade and despoil the Meth
erlands as well as Belgium. the Dutch |
government provided for the support |
Of the families Of the soldiers whom
she modified as wei. as for the sup
port Of the soldiers themselves.
In her well-ordered house, Holland
could not see 10000 families In want |
because 10000 male supporters were
taken for the defense of the father
land. She provided this support as
and as carefully as she !
provided for the thousands Of Belgian
and French refugees, who have lived
on the country's bounty from the day
Of the siege of Antwerp to the day
that Marshal Foch handed his foun-
tain pen to the German armistice COM
missioners and said: Sign
With the rehabilitation that began
during the latter days of last Novem-
Der the discharged soldiers found 1t
Irksome to resume their duties as fam
lily providers instead Of letting Will