Norwich bulletin., 1919-06-12
In THE DAYS NEWS
Antwerp.

Antwerp, which was considered as
the base for evacuation of the Amer
lean army of occupation in Germany,
is described in the following bulletin
issued by the National Geographic
Society:
Antwerp Europe's Hamburg of the
sixteenth century and Athens Of the
seventeenth, compels American admi-
ration by it's phenomenal power to
come back rushed by wars, inqui
sitions, economic bans and persecu
tions of its people, Antwerp always
has risen again.
Figures tell the story. Population
| in 1863 1850; twenty years later,
only $1,000. From 1900 to 1850 the
population almost doubled. To its
100000 in 1904, a hundred thousand
more were added before the Germans
! came in October, 1914. The 1850
vessels that passed in and out Of it's
fine harbor in 1905 marked an in
crease of more than so per cent since
1885,
Not that Antwerp is a perennial
boom town. It is at least Is centuries
old And during that time its story
is one of struggle against repeated
| tragedies. When the Germans in
vaded the city it's noble cathedral
looked down on just one more, though
infinitely more cruel, blow of the sort
it had been receiving since the mid
die ages. Napoleon (some say Charles
! W, compared this tower to Mechlin
lace. Its delicate chiselling forms a
network of stone embroidery against
the sky that can be seen from the
surrounding fiat country, and from the
winding Scheldt, long before any
other building in Antwerp is visible.
hYrv1 oh of
came and went from Antwerp's har-
Dor in a day and two thousand wager
loads of merchandise usually entered
its gates. A thousand foreign bust
ness houses were represented there
Its own merchant princes dwelt il
almost regal splendor
amid this material wealth nobl
works of art We're created. In tn,
city's museum were speciment of it
glorious school paintings by Val
Dyck, the Teniers, Mehling. Massys
Jordaens, Jan Van Eyck and Rubens
though the list named was bette
masterpiece THE Descent from tn
5 Cross and two other noted works
, I'm the Museo Plantin were relic
of that Ebert Hubbard of the middl
ages. Christophe Plantin. whose pres
product was no less distinctive whe
] hereto pamphlets were struck o.
! when devout religious works wer
: printed and embossed
During the religious disturbance
e thedral, then considered second onl
a to St. Peters at Rome. was pillage
n by the Iconoclasts. Its images an
pictures. its magnificent vases, il
Sc affairs and it's great organ, cor
d sidered the finest of it's time. wer
1x,,,,, i
II ing vandals. Whitewashed walls
Il minded twentieth century tourists
these depredations.
"Other churches were ravaged
e that time. But what Antwerp suffer
y ed then was miles compared to tt
d horrors of the Spanish Fury
1876. when that latter day Nero. II
Duke of Alva, and his Council
# Blood, began a reign of terror wfic
= savagery could scarcely surpass Ty
ing wealthy citizens to horses tai
he would drag them miles to trial.
u Antwerp suffered grievously fro
this debauch of hangings, quartering
beheadings and butcheries. In thrt
1t days 5000 of her men, women ar
= children were slain, burned or drown
p ed; hundreds of the fine marb
% homes destroyed. and the equivaleI
erty wrecked.
). 'Tt was seven years later that IL
- doughty citizens of Antwerp mac
u short shrift of fine Duke of Aniou
lie plotting again Flemish liberty Whe
= the Duke and his men overcome IL
l. Flemish guard of a drawbridge, al
5000 of the Dukes troops rushed
to take the city. workmen 'foug
ut furiously with their tools, bake
J. cracked soldier pates with their ov,
4 shovels. and citizens grabbed arou
~ buses and chewed coins into shane
~ load them.
10 Not so successful was their r
sistance of the resourceful and y
tent Prince of Parma whose prolon
We ed siege included the reduction of t
of Scheldt to half its width at one poi
is by two great piers Guns we
i'll mounted on the fortified end of ca
20 pier, then the ends were connected
asort Of pontoon bridge. about
third of a mile long F'irslly a. car
- was out. in order to get munitions a
III SUPPLIES from Client.
en- Antwerp citizens waited In va
d. for floods and winter weather, ice a
n storms to demolish this barr
all Meanwhile they worked out a count
engineering project of equal ingen,
ty. One night suddenly turned briel
e. err than day, and the waters of t
~ Scheldt seemed to catch fire as if
Nv vast river of oil had been ignit
Parma and his army discerned TIL
ID masses of fame bearing down
he their mid-river forts and bride.
Zone of the floating fire sh