Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-08-11


officers told me that the depth bomb
was the thing that overcame the Ger
man submarine, they couldn't stand
the nerve strain when they were in
danger Of being blown up every
minute.
On the ten day voyage we had only
two clear days, the rest Of the time
being cold and rainy. 1t cleared a
little as we entered Plymouth harbor
in England, a strongly fortified naval
base of over 100000 people. Some
touched at Cherbourg, France and more
landed there The next day we steam
ed up through a port of Holland and
landed at Antwerp. Again it was
raining. The whole of the British Isles
and Europe suffered from drought last
year for two months, this year it has
already rained for forty days they tell
me without letting up.
Antwerp is the third largest port in
the world. Coming next to New York
and London. Here my boys were in
terested in the folks wearing wooden
shoes and the big dogs pulling carts.
Antwerp has the largest draft horses
in the world. They are larger than
either the Percherons or Clydesdale
horses and are the property of the
trucking company that does the heavy
hauling on the docks. They will
weigh two tons to the pair. When the
Germans captured Antwerp in 1914, the
kaiser, issued special orders to secure
at once the big Antwerp horses. Some
OF them escaped by being driven over
the river into Holland, some Of those
captured have been returned. 1 saw
two horses hauling 20 bales 0f cotton,
and another team hauling enough lager
beer to supply Yorkville for month.
And speaking OF beer, there is plenty
of it at 6 cents gallon and plenty Of
wine but, no whisky is sold in bars.
Whisky can be bought by the bottle,
but not by the drink and only limit
ed amount Of that. On the other hand
on our American boat, whisky and all
other drinks were plentiful, but high.
| saw only one man drunk, he was an
American Legion buddy-but there
was plenty of drinking.
Antwerp was shelled a little in 1914,
but not much. Here and there you see
vacant place in block. of houses.
The famous cathedral was hit once.
The most famous of Ruben's paintings
are in this church, but they had been
put in the cellar. These painting are
now about 300 years old and are paint
ed on wood, but are as beautiful as
ever-the Descent fro mthe Cross be-
ing the one most frequently copied.
Street car fare costs us two cents,
all the way across the city. Taxi and
carrier fares are cheap. Hotel rates
were low-food plentiful and first class.
Let me recommend the Geological
Garden to anyone visiting Antwerp.
There is not better one In the world,
and few larger. Probably it is because
Belgium owns such q great part of
Africa that enables them to get so
many rare birds and animals. Never
have l seen such tame animals, the
keepers give you peanuts to feed the
monkeys, etc. and there are two orang-
ou- -tangs which disprove Bryan's argu-
ments against evolution, they are so
man-like. 1 saw one twist a straw
rope, make swing to get in and swing
like a child, until his rope broke.
During the war the elephants died
of starvation-they also had to kill the
poisonous reptiles and lions and tigers
during the bombardment, for fear they
would escape; but since the war they
have secured others.
The Belgians are a mixed lot, all
street signs are in three or four
languages. In Antwerp they mostly
speak Flemish, in Brussels 80 miles
away French is mostly used. 1t is said
to make a Belgian happy just give
him pair of hip boots, big pile of
manure and pitch fork for they are
wonderful gardeners. Small fruits like
plums and apricots are plentiful,
apples and pears are high. Cauli-
flower, carrots, cabbage and beets,
with peas and beans are bountiful and
cheap. You have plenty of food in
Belgium, well prepared. The people
are cordial and grateful to Americans.
Many pathetic incidents come up in
war torn country. Many brutal
things have occurred. I saw the grave
Of a little 10 year-old Belgian girl, who
was shot down by a German guard for
handing some food over the fence to n
French prisoner. This was only few
days before the armistice. In the
Stcen museum at Antwerp are two
posts to which the Belgians were tied
and executed for spying. Most of
these had escaped to England, when
Antwerp was captured, then came
back to get information in their home
town and were executed. The Ger
mans put a fence along the Holland
Belgian border to keep the Belgians
from escaping. The wires were charg-
ed with high voltage current and