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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:35:33 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:35:33 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/10918-0.txt b/10918-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..46cefb2 --- /dev/null +++ b/10918-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3086 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10918 *** + +THE LOG OF A NONCOMBATANT + +by Horace Green + +Staff Correspondent of the New York Evening Post +Special Correspondent of the Boston Journal + +1915 + + + + +Preface + +In the following pages the ego is thickly spread. Their publication is +the result of persuasion from many sources that, before returning to +the war zone, I should put into connected form my personal +experiences as correspondent during the first year of the War of +Nations. A few of these adventures were mentioned in news letters +from the Continent, where I limited myself so far as possible to +descriptions of armies at war and peoples in time of stress; but the +greater part of them were merely jotted down from time to time for my +own benefit in "The Log of a Noncombatant." + + + +Contents + +I. From Broadway To Ghent +II. The Second Bombardment Of Termonde +III. Captive +IV. A Clog Dance On The Scheldt +V. The Bombardment Of Antwerp +VI. The Surrender Of Antwerp +VII. Spying On Spies +VIII. The Sorrow Of The People + +Appendix: Atrocities + + + + +The Log Of A Noncombatant + +Chapter I + +From Broadway To Ghent + + + +When the war broke out in August, 1914, I was at work in the City +Room of the "New York Evening Post." One morning, during the first +week of activities, the copy boy handed me a telegram which was +signed "Luther, Boston," and contained the rather cryptic message: +--"How about this fight?" + +It was some moments before I could recall the time, more than two +years before, when I had last seen the writer, Willard B. Luther, +Boston lawyer, devotee of some, and critic of many kinds of sport. + +We had been sitting on that previous occasion--a crowd of college +fellows, including Luther and myself--in a certain room in +Cambridge, Massachusetts, not far from the University in that +neighborhood where Luther had attended the Law School and the +rest of us, on our respective graduation days, had received valuable +pieces of parchment with the presidential signature attached. The +conversation had already run through the question of Votes for +Women, progressive politics, and prize-fights, and before the card +game began it had settled on the last-named, chiefly because of my +own vainglorious description of adventures at Reno, Nevada, at the +time of the Jeffries-Johnson battle for the heavyweight championship +of the world. I remember telling with some gusto of my first +newspaper interview--one with "Bob" Fitzsimmons, then the Old +Man of the ring, and "Gentleman" Jim Corbett, who was Jeffries' +trainer at Reno. + +"I had always wanted to see that performance," said Luther, "and +would have gone in a flash if I could have got any one to make the +trip with me. But remember this fact: whenever the next big fight is +held I'm going with you." Later in the evening we shook hands on the +proposition. + +At the time that Luther's telegram came I was planning to start for the +Continent as Staff Correspondent of the "New York Evening Post" +and Special Correspondent of the "Boston Journal." Remembering +that Cambridge agreement I immediately wired:-- + +"Yes. This fight will do." + +So that is how it came to pass that Luther and myself boarded the +Campania together, landed in Liverpool, cast about for ways and +means of getting into the scrimmage, and for the first month and a +half of my four months of wandering on the Continent were brother +conspirators, until the duties of partnership called my friend home and +left me without a companion in adventure. + +In London we absorbed to some extent a heavy British fog and to a +greater extent British public opinion. We marveled at the exterior calm +of a nation plunged in the greatest of wars, yet fighting, so it seemed +at the time, with its top hat on and its smile still undisturbed. Across +the English Channel three days later the Dutch steam packet +Princess Juliana carried us safely through mine fields and between +lanes of British torpedo boats and torpedo boat destroyers. We +landed on the Continent at Flushing. Thence we headed for The +Hague, Holland, the neutral gateway of northern Europe, where we +found the American Minister, Dr. Henry van Dyke, and his first +secretary, Marshall Langhorne, shouldering the work of the American +Legation in its chameleonesque capacity as bank, post-office, +detective bureau, bureau of information, charity organization, and one +might even say temporary home for the stranded travelers of every +rank and nation. + +Antwerp, the temporary capital of Belgium, was at this time invested, +but not yet besieged, by the German army. On the south the city was +already cut off by several regiments of the Ninth and Tenth German +Army Corps under General von Boehn. The River Scheldt and the +Dutch border formed a wall on the north and west. It was to Antwerp, +therefore, that we determined to go. After listening to the usual flood +of warnings against entering the fighting zone, and drinking our fill of +stories of atrocity and hate which every refugee brought across the +border into Holland, we took a couple of reefs in our baggage, and, +hoisting our knapsacks, set our course for the temporary Belgian +capital. By rail we traveled south across the level fields and lush +green meadows of Holland, over bridges ready to be dynamited in +case of invasion, and through training camps of the 450,000 Dutch +soldiers then mobilized along the border. At a little town called +Eschen the train stopped because the Belgians had torn up the +tracks. + +Seated on the cross-piece of a joggling two-wheeled ox cart, moving +at the rate of not more than four miles an hour, with a dumb +specimen for a driver, and a volume of Baedeker for interpreter and +guide, we got our first glimpse of the hideous thing called war. +Judging from the looks of the country and the burning villages, we +were on the heels of a devastating army. For three, four, and five +miles on either side of the road beautiful trees lay flat upon the +ground. It was not until we saw groups of Belgian soldiers tearing +down their own walls and hedges and applying match and gasolene +to those which still stood, that we realized that this was a case of +self-inflicted destruction. Farmhouses, stores, churches, old Belgian +mansions, and windmills were either in flames or smouldering ruins. +Where burning had not been sufficient, powder and dynamite had +been applied to destroy landmarks which for centuries had been the +country's pride. As far as the eye could reach the countryside was +flattened to a desert. It reminded me of the Salem fire, through which, +while the piles of debris were still smoking, I had been taken in the +"Boston Journal's" car. But instead of a single town, here for twenty +miles along lay stretched a smouldering waste. The devastation was +for the defensive purpose of giving an unobstructed view to the +cannon of Antwerp's outer fortifications, which on that side covered +one sector of the circle swept by her enormous guns. I should +hesitate to mention the millions of dollars of self-inflicted damage to +Antwerp's suburbs alone. Luther and I did not at the time have the +military password. So that first day was a specimen in the matter of +hold-ups and arrests. From the time that we started across the level +plains which approach the city until we got through the double sector +of forts, we were stopped, questioned, and searched by thirteen +different groups of soldiers. There were marry occasions where, after +one pair of stupid sentries had put us through the grill, a second pair, +watching from a distance of thirty yards or so, promptly repeated the +entire performance. As these fellows spoke only Flemish dialect, our +conversations were not particularly fluent. Frequently there gathered +around us a crowd of gaping peasants, and when the word +"Americaine" came out, there were "Oh's" and "Ah" of astonishment, +or as often, when our explanations were not believed, sibilant hisses +that shaped themselves into the menacing word "Spion." We had +been led to believe that sooner or later a wool-witted sentry would +shoot first and investigate later; but so far they had simply crossed +bayonets, or with their hands up and palms outward had signaled us +to halt. + +Our experience that day, as later events proved, was not an +extraordinary occurrence for war-time, especially for those +endeavoring to gain entrance to an invested city. But as our first and +maiden adventure it somewhat shook our nerve. When the grilling +was over we felt about as guilty as any criminal who has been put +through the third degree as practiced in the old police department +days, and I had several times to look over my passport and letters of +credentials to persuade myself that I was really not a spy. Eventually +we were permitted to pass the gates of the Gare du Nord. Once +inside the city gates, we made our way into the Place Verte and went +directly to the Hotel St. Antoine, whose proprietor sent our names to +police headquarters. The St. Antoine was at that time the residence +of the diplomatic corps and the Belgian ministers of state, and was +fifty yards from the Royal Palace and across the street from +headquarters of the Belgian General Staff. + +There is no need of describing in detail Antwerp at the time of my first +visit. One or two pictures will suffice to give a rough idea of its +existence up to the time of the bombardment. Try to imagine, for +example, going about your business in New York or Boston or Los +Angeles (of course Antwerp is smaller than these) when your country, +a territory perhaps the size of the New England States, was already +two thirds overrun, burnt, smashed, and conquered by a hostile +nation, whose forces were now within nineteen miles of the gates of +the capital. Imagine that nation's warriors in the act of crushing your +tiny army, whose remnants were already exhausted and on the verge +of despair. Then picture a quaint, sleepy city, with shadowy alleys and +twisting, gabled streets, in which every other store and house was +decorated with King Albert's picture or draped in the red, black, and +yellow banner of the country-a city whose atmosphere was charged +with fear and suspicion and excitement. Sometimes a crowd of a +thousand or two drew one toward the Central Station where +bedraggled refugee families, just arrived from Liege, Termonde, +Aerschot, and Malines, stood on street corner or wagon top and +thrilled the crowd with tales of atrocities and the story of their flight +from their burning homes to the south. Now and then the crowd +parted before the clanging bell of a Red Cross ambulance rushing its +load of bleeding bodies to the hospitals along the Place de Meir. +Nurses, male or female, clung to the ambulance steps. The first one I +saw made a vivid impression on me. She was an English-looking girl +in a new khaki skirt, supporting with one hand what was left of a +blood-dripping head,--the eyes and nose were shot away,--while +out of the other hand she ate with apparent relish a thick rye-bread +sandwich. Occasionally she waved remnants of the sandwich at the +gaping crowd. It struck me as a peculiarly unnecessary exhibition of +her callous fitness for the job of nurse. + +During the daytime the ordinary things of life went on, for the good +burghers and shopkeepers went about their business as usual, and, +generally speaking, fought against fear as bravely as the soldiers in +the trenches stood up against the German howitzers. It was only after +dark (when martial law permitted no lights of any kind) that the city +seemed to shiver and suck in its breath; doors were barricaded, iron +shutters came down, and behind them the people talked in whispers. +Military autos, fresh from the firing line, groaned and sputtered at the +doorstep of the St. Antoine; soldiers with pocket lanterns stamped +about the streets. From sheer nervousness after a day of +confinement some citizens, in spite of warnings, groped about the +more important avenues at night. Picture yourself on Broadway or +Tremont Street, with not a light on the street gleaming from a window, +and walking up and down with one hand on your wallet and the other +in the pocket where your Colt automatic ought to be. + +Such, very briefly, was the condition of Antwerp at the time when we +arrived. That very evening word came in that the Belgian forces, +which had been engaged with the enemy for five consecutive days of +severe fighting, had retired behind the southern ramparts of the city. + +During the night the stream of incoming wounded confirmed the news +of battle. In the moonlight, and later in the gray dawn, I watched the +long lines of Belgian hounds, pulling their rapid-fire guns out toward +the trenches. Many times later I was destined to see them. They +made a picturesque and stimulating sight--those faithful dogs of war +--fettered and harnessed, their tongues hanging out as they lay +patiently beneath the gun trucks awaiting the order to go into action, +or, when the word had been given, trotted along the dusty roads, +each pair tugging to the battle front a lean, gray engine of destruction. + +For our purpose the best approach to Brussels was by way of Ghent. +Luther pushed on ahead while I was finishing a story. The following +morning, shouldering my knapsack, which now contained an extra +supply of army rations, and carefully stuffing my different sets of +credentials in different pockets (one for Belgian, one for German, and +one for English consumption), I crossed the River Scheldt and made +a slow and tortuous railway journey to Ghent. + +Ghent lies thirty miles west of Antwerp. The trip took seven hours. +During the course of it I passed north of the Belgian lines and through +the western sector of forts, that is to say, Fort St. Nicholas, Fort +Haesdonck, and Fort Tete de Flandre. It was the same road along +which Winston Churchill's English marines and the remnant of the +Belgian forces retreated after the fall of Antwerp. + +Ghent resounded with praises of its American Vice-Consul, Julius +Van Hee, a hair-trigger politician and a live wire if there ever was one. +Van Hee, with his intimate knowledge of four languages and the +Yankee knack of being on the right spot at the right time, twice saved +blood-shed in the streets of Ghent and in one instance probably +prevented a repetition of the scenes at Louvain. + +In Ghent I again found Luther, with a fine young rumor in his pocket +--a rumor which turned out to be correct--that six German spies were +to be executed next morning at sunrise. The place mentioned was +behind the museum in a public park. + +"I suppose we'll take it in," said Luther. + +"I don't know about that," I answered; adding that, although +executions might be part of the day's work for a war correspondent, I +drew the line at seeing my first murder before breakfast. The tip was +correct enough except that it mentioned the wrong park. + +The following noon the Military Governor, according to regulations, +caused to be posted circulars announcing that the men had been put +to death; but at all events I am glad to say that at that early date I did +not have the experience of watching six blindfolded wretches backed +up against a wall, of seeing the officer drop his arm as a signal, and +of hearing the fatal crack of a dozen muskets, as the bodies +collapsed like a telescope, crumpled inward with the chin upon the +chest, and fell forward to the earth. + + + + +Chapter II + +The Second Bombardment Of Termonde + + + +September 15th was our day with Henry Verhagen, the tall gray +alderman of the town that was once Termonde. + +During all the time I was with him Verhagen did not speak a bitter +word. On the contrary, he was calm--particularly calm as he stood +beside the mound where the Belgian soldiers were buried in the +center of the ruined town, pointed to the pile of bricks where he had +lived, and told us how in two nights he had lost 340,000 francs, his +son, his factory, and his home. It was from him, from the +burgomaster's wife, and from a priest that we learned the story of the +city that had ceased to be. + +It was the night before that I had wandered into Ghent alone, without +even the excitement of getting arrested. Luther, who became restive +early the next morning while I was jotting notes in the log-book, went +off in search of adventure. Because of the influence exerted by Vice- +Consul Van Hee an arrangement was very soon made whereby a Belgian +Government car and chauffeur were placed at our disposal. We had no +laissez-passer for the firing line; but we were accompanied by the +United States Consul and not governed by any stipulation as to our +destination. In our Belgian car, decorated with all the American flags +we could find, and "American Consular Service" pasted in huge letters on +the windshield and side flaps, we raced along the Boulevard de +l'lndustrie, swung into the southern suburbs, and, once outside the city +limits, we opened up the exhaust and threw down the throttle as Van Hee +shouted out the order:--"To Termonde!" + +Termonde was at that time the scene of determined fighting between +units of the ninth German Corps and the Belgian defenders. Situated +as it is, twenty-one miles southeast of Ghent, it marks the southwest +corner of a square formed by Louvain and Termonde on the south, +by Ghent and Antwerp on the north. It controlled the bridge over the +River Scheldt and with it an important approach to Antwerp, the +capital at that time of Belgium. The heavy German siege guns, +capable of demolishing a first-class fort at a range of several miles, +could not have crossed the river so easily at any other point. For this +reason the Germans particularly wanted Termonde--an open bridge +to Antwerp was always worth the taking. The town had already at that +time been captured and recaptured; wounded and refugees were +swarming into Ghent full of battle stories and tales of terrible +atrocities. So it was Termonde that we vowed we would see. + +We first saw Verhagen trudging in the same direction as ourselves on +the level, dusty road two miles southwest of Ghent. As we +approached a cross-road marked by a tavern, a couple of +direction-posts, and nondescript stucco buildings, we made out two +Belgian sentries, with their rifles lifted overhead and indulging in +some acrobatic exercises which we interpreted as a signal to halt. Van +Hee swapped cigarettes with them and gossiped in their native tongue, in +return for which they gave us some good advice. They warned us to pay +no attention to sign-posts, which, in order to fool the enemy, were +either marked with false names or else were pointed in the wrong +direction. While we were talking, a tall gray alderman came along the +road with a greasy package under his arm and at his side a priest--one +of those ubiquitous black-robed figures with a hat like an inverted +oatmeal bowl. + +"Where to?" asked the Vice-Consul of Ghent. + +"A Dendermonde," (to Termonde), answered Verhagen, sizing us up +as strangers, and using French instead of the local Flemish dialect. + +"You know the road?" + +"Yes, well," said Verhagen; and so, partly because of charity and +partly because we could have him as a useful guide, we took him into +the car. + +As we sped through the level lanes of poplars, challenged as usual +by every Belgian regular or Garde Civique who could boast a uniform, +the smooth green meadows of Flanders with their trim hamlets of +stucco and tile seemed to deny the reports of savagery we had heard +the night before. We had been told, and we had read, of German +atrocities, and we had talked with survivors of Louvain. There was +pillage, burning, and looting in Louvain, we had agreed, but the +cruelty to women and children was the better part myth. And at all +events, there was a semblance of cause for that. Perhaps there had +been more resistance, more sniping by citizens than generally known, +and perhaps the German side had not been fully explained. + +Then suddenly Termonde lay before us. The center of the bridge was +gone. Splintered timber sticking on end lay in the mud at the river's +side, along with iron beams torn by the charges of dynamite. The +current was choked with masses of steel and wood. We crawled +across some temporary beams reconstructed by Belgian engineers, +and entered the ruins with a handful of Termonde's citizens who had +come back for the first time to see what was left of their homes. + +"I will take you to the center," said Verhagen. "That is where my +house was." + +A quarter of a mile behind us, as the alderman sat upon a rock +beside the gravestone, lay the thin neck of the Upper Scheldt, less +than one hundred yards wide at this point, where it curved between +the lines of charred and flattened buildings. We could still see the +rush of water tumbling and splashing through the wreckage of the +bridge we had just crossed. Twice it had been dynamited and twice +rebuilt in part, so that at present a single line of slippery beams, +suspended a few feet above the water and supported by some heavy +wire, was all that remained between ourselves and the retreating road +to Ghent. From the direction of Alost came the desultory boom of +German guns; across the stream behind us the Belgian outposts +whiled away the time with cigarettes and cards. Shaggy horses dozed +against the gun trucks, and the men of artillery, some stretched at full +length in the sun, others sitting bolt upright with arms folded, slept +soundly on the gun carriages. We could hear the stream gurgling. We +could hear the creak of a lazy windmill, and, coming somewhere from +the smoking piles, the hideous howl of starving hounds. Of other +human sounds there were none except the voice of Verhagen. + +Ten days before Termonde had been a thriving town; that day it was +a heap of smouldering ashes. America had heard a good deal about +Tirlemont and Louvain, but not much of Termonde. Because this was +a war of millions, it did not count in the news--for it was only a +community of twelve thousand inhabitants, as pretty and quaint as +the province of Flanders boasts, the prosperous center of its rope +and cordage manufacture, with fifteen hundred houses, barracks, two +statues, a town-hall, five churches, an orphan asylum, and a convent. + +Now only one of the churches stood, as well as the building where the +officers were quartered, the Museum of Antiquity, and perhaps a +dozen others. Across the moat, which led to the gateway of what +were formerly the inner fortifications, were piles of rotting horseflesh. +The bronze statue of De Smet, the Jesuit missionary, looked calmly +on the scene. All the rest was blotted out. There was no sign of +hot-tempered impetuous work of a handful of drunken Uhlans, a fire +started in anger and driven by the wind throughout the entire town. +There was not a breath of wind. That the night was calm was shown +by the fact that here and there single houses, even houses built of +boards, were spared at the commander's word. The convent was +burnt and pillaged, stones and mortar littered the street in front of the +Hotel de Ville, and upon the sidewalk lay the famous bells which +came crashing to the street below when shells burst in the belfry. +From cellar to garret nearly every remaining house was +systematically drenched with naphtha and the torch applied, and +when all was over hundreds of gallons were tossed into the River +Scheldt. Over a small group of houses in the poorer section of the +city, where the prostitutes were quartered, grim Prussian humor, or +perhaps a sense of value received, had prompted the conquerors to +write in great white chalk marks in German script, "Gute Leute. Nicht +brennen!" (Good people. Do not burn!) + +For an hour we walked through the silence of ashes and stone, +stumbling over timber and debris, tangled and twisted wire, a fallen +statue, broken bells or the cross-piece of a spire; we made our way +through piles of beds, chairs, singed mattresses, and stepped over +the carcass of a horse with its belly bloated and flies feasting on its +glassy eyes. We entered an apothecary shop where the clock still +ticked upon the counter. Thinking there could be no reason of war to +call for the destruction of the orphan asylum, we entered its portals to +investigate. Before us lay burnt beds and littered glass. We searched +what ten days before had been a convent, and crawled over heaps of +logs and brick into narrow alleys that reminded one of Naples or +Pompeii--alleys where the walls stood so close as to hide the light +of sun but not the odor of charred vats and sewage and smouldering, +smelling things, long dead. Not far from there the way widened into +the light, and before us, breaking the rays of sunset, stood the cross +above a heap of cobblestones. + +"They are buried here," said Verhagen, "and here too is my house." + +Another alderman, a friend of Verhagen, who had been allowed to remain +in Termonde most of the four days that the Germans stayed, had the story +detailed in his little pocket diary. On Thursday, September 3, he said, +he was just leaving his rope and twine factory when he heard the sounds +of musketry to the south. A small force of Belgian outposts were +completely surprised by a part of the Ninth German Army Corps under +General von Boehn. They were completely outclassed. Before retreating, +however, they let the enemy have a couple of volleys. In the return +fire they lost six of their men. They then retreated into the town and +across the bridge. + +Nothing happened after dark, but the next morning at nine o'clock the +cannonading started. Inside of half an hour, according to the villagers, +the entire German force of the One Hundred and Sixty-second and +One Hundred and Sixty-third Uhlans and the Ninetieth Regiment of +infantry of the Ninth Army Corps were in the town. They entered +simultaneously by three different roads. The burgomaster was +ordered immediately to provide rations for the regiment. But the +burgomaster was away. He was given twelve hours to return. When +he did not return, the burning began, according to the townspeople. + +"The soldiers did not wish to burn the town," said one man; "but the +orders were orders of war." He recounted that four Uhlans entered +his house with a bow, and a knock at the door, politely helped +themselves to his cellar, drank a toast to his wife, put his chairs in the +street, and sat there playing his phonograph. They said they were +sorry, but the house must be burnt. But before pouring on the +naphtha and lighting the flame they freed his canary bird. Verhagen +and the priest agreed that fright brought on an attack to a woman +about to become a mother, and that she fell in the Rue de l'Eglise. +A German lieutenant saw the trouble, put her on a stretcher made of +window shutters, and called the German army doctor. She was sent +to a field hospital and tenderly cared for until she and the child could +be moved. Such incidents in strange relief, told by men who had lost +everything, lent corroboration, if such were necessary, to the burden +of their story of the relentless destruction of the town itself. + +Our little band was the first to enter the ruins of Termonde after its +abandonment by the Ninth German Army Corps. And by a coincidence, we +were the last to leave. That very evening, at precisely the time we +were crawling across the broken timbers that spanned the Scheldt and +connected us with Belgium-owned Belgium, the Germans again pumped heavy +artillery fire into the town. This was later known as the second German +bombardment and occupation of Termonde. Because of superior artillery +range, the attack had the cruel advantage of the man who can strike and +still stay out of reach. On that evening at six-thirty, the Teutons +sent a few warning shells into the debris, and then the first column of +scouts entered simultaneously by the two southern gates. It was just at +six-thirty that our party started back for Ghent. + +As we crawled across on all fours the remaining beams cracked +beneath our feet and the Belgian engineers called on us to hurry. +"Oh, Tiber! Father Tiber," we thought as the last of us got across; +but unlike Horatius at the bridge, we were on the right side when +engineers applied the match to a small charge of dynamite, and the +beams crashed and the remaining planks of Termonde's bridge +writhed and twisted in the rushing waters. + +Twenty-seven miles away, when we whirled through the gates of +Ghent later in the evening, we said "Au revoir" to Verhagen and the +mendicant priest, and went to our rooms. At midnight came a rap at +the door; my gray-haired alderman broke into the room, bursting with +the latest news, his eyes aflame with excitement. + +"Revanche!" he exclaimed dramatically; "our enemies have paid for it +in blood!" + +Sure enough, after a few preliminary shells--a sort of here-we-come +salvo--the head of the German column had entered, and a party of +staff officers, for purposes of reconnaissance, immediately mounted +the spire of the only remaining church. The officers of the Ninth +German Army Corps swept the landscape with their glasses, but the +level plains gave nothing to their sight. They saw only the ashes of +Termonde, the river, and the straight stretch of sandy roads and +stucco hamlets beyond. + +They did not notice a valley of covered ground and a quarter-mile +stretch of trees and shrubbery, where three squads of Belgian field +artillery were neatly hidden. Here the men took cover at the first +sound of cannonade. Quietly in their retreat the Belgian artillery +officers had figured the range and elevation of the cathedral tower, +not over fifteen hundred yards away. Just as darkness was setting in +and the figures in the belfry were clearly visible, the battery sergeant +sharply dropped his arm. + +"C-r-r-m-p-h!" coughed the field pieces as the gunners drew the +levers home. There were four sharp reports, four flashes of flame and +smoke, the crescendo moan of tons of flying steel--and the church +tower, the bells, and the German officers came crashing to the +ground. + + + + +Chapter III + +Captive + + + +Up to the day that Luther and I went through the Belgian trenches +near Alost and got into the hands of the German outposts north of +Brussels, we had not seen nearly as much fighting as we wished. We +had looked upon the ear-marks and horrible results of battles; had +heard guns, smelt the blood and ether of wounded, and seen the +ruins over which had rolled the wave of battle. We knew that ahead of +us there had been much fighting in the Sempst-Alost-Vilvorde- +Tirlemont region. The Germans at that moment, if not actually +advancing toward Antwerp, were skirmishing and making feints in +every direction, with the ultimate disposition of their forces carefully +concealed. Of course, we had no official permission to be at the front +with either army; in fact, up to that point we had received nothing but +official threats on the subject of what would happen to us in case we +went ahead. But as no one did more than threaten, we kept on going, +since we preferred that mode of procedure to sitting around in Paris +or Berlin on the chance of one of those "personally conducted" tours +of inspection, whose purpose is to show the correspondent +everything except actual fighting. It was our hope during that early +part of the war to see as much as possible of the German army, +realizing that, if captured, we should undoubtedly be sent either +backward or forward along the German line of communication in +conquered Belgium. Once within the German outposts we pleaded +like Brer Rabbit not to be thrown into the German brier patch. So of +course we landed in it. After a few days in Brussels they shipped us +Eastward to Aix-la-Chapelle by way of Lou-vain, Tirlemont, and Liege. + +It was two days after the second bombardment of Termonde--at 7 +A.M., to be exact--that Luther and I started from Ghent for Brussels +in a military automobile, the property of the Belgian Government, and +again loaned for the occasion to Julius Van Hee, American Vice- +Consul, then Acting Consul at Ghent. We carried with us a United +States Government mail pouch, a packet of mail from Dr. Henry van +Dyke, at The Hague, addressed to Brand Whitlock, the American +Minister at Brussels, and another packet of mail from Henry W. +Diederick, United States Consul-General at Antwerp. Mr. Van Hee +hoped to obtain from the German authorities in Brussels some +smallpox vaccine to take back to Ghent, where a smallpox epidemic +was feared. + +Once out of the town limits of Ghent we bowled along at top speed, +with the American colors trembling fore and aft and impressive- +looking signs pasted on windshield and side-flaps. The autumn rains +descended heavily upon us, drenching everything except the +carefully protected mail bags. + +Six miles southeast of Ghent, we ran into a regiment of Belgian +infantry moving back from the direction of Brussels, and farther on a +squad of cavalry and some more cavalry outposts; then two +companies of bicycle patrol, the men with their heads bent over the +handlebars, Mausers slung over their shoulders, pedaling heavily +through the mud and slush of a cold September storm. A few +mitrailleuses, known as the Minerva type, and mounted on armored +motor-cars, were trained on the ravine through which the road dipped +a thousand yards ahead of us. They had sighted the German +outposts on the crest of a hill opposite us about three quarters of a +mile away. In a very poor kind of trench, hastily constructed in the +beet-fields, and little more than body deep, the men lay on their +bellies in the mud, nervously fingering their muskets and adjusting the +sights. A third company of bicycle scouts were ordered to advance for +the purpose of drawing fire. + +I doubt if that particular body of men had ever before been under fire. +Never was the fear of death more plainly written on human face. All of +the men went ahead without flinching or failing, but the muscles of +their jaws were knotted, their faces were the color of chalk, and one +or two dismounted for a moment, subject to the physical effects of +fear. I have seen men tremble before important physical contests: +Jeffries, stepping into the prize ring at Reno, Nevada, ready for the +beating of his life and the loss of reputation. I have seen murderers +condemned to death. Charles Becker, as I watched him taking his +death sentence that evening in the Criminal Courts Building, did not +give one the same uncanny feeling as this handful of Belgian scouts +pedaling out to meet the German fire. I do not intend to say the +Belgians were not brave men, for this was an isolated instance. And +indeed there was something gruesome about that little company +offered for the slaughter, simply for the purpose of locating the +German batteries. The men understood the meaning of the order and +appreciated the odds against them. + +The mitrailleuses pointed down the road we were headed on, and the +Belgian gun-captain told us they were going to clean things up as soon +as their own scouts drew fire and the first Teuton helmet appeared above +the crest. Naturally we were ordered back. Had we continued on this +road we should have been between the Belgian fire behind and the German +fire in front, for the Germans would undoubtedly have mistaken us for a +scouting party in an armored car. As it was, Luther jumped to the wheel +and insisted on seeing the thing through. We went ahead for about half +a mile. I told him that if the shrapnel began to burst too close he +would find me tucked safely underneath the car examining the gasoline +tanks or in the nearest farmhouse cellar, and I believe he would have. +But nothing came close to us on that occasion. My real "baptism" was +reserved for another day, because Van Hee suddenly wrenched the wheel +from Luther and turned our machine down a side road. It was a case of +out of the firing line into the frying-pan, for the side road led us +into a trap from which there was no turning back--the territory +patrolled by the burly pickets of the Ninth German Army Corps, forming +part of the Kaiser's army of occupation in Brussels. + +Out of earshot, and certainly out of sight of that skirmish, we were +speeding at a great rate along a level, lonely road flanked by +beet-fields and long lines of graceful elms that shook hands overhead, +when: + +"HALT! WOHIN? WO GEHEN SIE?" rang suddenly out of the darkness +as two figures jumped from behind a farmhouse and leveled their +rifles at us. I shall always remember that sharp command as the cold, +gray muzzles followed us like a sportsman covering a bevy of quail. +Our fat Belgian chauffeur, violinist in times of peace, and posing that +day as an American,--one of those men who look as if they would +bleed water if you pricked them with a bayonet,--needed no second +warning. Running the German gauntlet was not precisely his hobby. +Down went the emergency brake and the car jolted to a sudden halt. + +A bristle-whiskered German giant under a canvas-covered helmet +stuck his head through the flaps, and for more than ten minutes he +and another sentinel searched our knapsacks and credentials and +inspected the Government mail pouches which we carried. The +sentries were far from satisfied. We said little at first, realizing, +nevertheless, that we had run between the opposing trenches and up +to the German outposts without actually drawing fire. That, at least, +was something of a comfort. + +Then, as if the answer was the price of admission, the big one asked +us if we had seen many British soldiers around Antwerp and Ghent. +We had previously decided that the answer to such talk was, "None +of your business." But the fellow's bayonet was infernally bright and +sharp and his countenance like ice. It wasn't only the equinoctial rain +that made us shiver. + +While I was trying to limber up my German vocabulary he passed us +along to his Ober-leutenant in the hut along the roadside. The Ober- +Ieutenant was grave. He said we must report to army headquarters +in Brussels, and that under no circumstances should we be allowed +to return within the Belgian lines. In this way began our eight days' +confinement within the lines of the German Army of the North under +General von Boehn. + +Just as we had been warned repeatedly, so we discovered in reality +that to cross between two opposing lines was no joking matter. Bad +enough, particularly in the early days of the war, to a correspondent +without permission at the front. To work up from the rear (if you had +permission) was at least according to the rules of the game. But to +cross between hostile armies--that was the one forbidden act. The +fact that we were with an American Consul was not sufficient. Three +days later Van Hee was allowed to return, but the remainder of the +party, that is to say, Willard Luther and myself, were given a free trip +into German territory and incidentally more than a week's chance to +study the German army from within. + +Those next eight days Luther and I spent as willing and, on the whole, +decently treated captives within the lines of the German Army of the +North, talking freely with cultivated officers and grimy men of the +ranks, and in this way learning much of the German war machine, the +opinions of the officers and the men at their command. It would be +interesting to tell how in Brussels we dodged from War Office to cafe, +from cafe to consulate, from consulate back to War Office, and later +were worried and watched and suspected; how we were shipped +back across the German border on a combination Red Cross and +ammunition train; how we were locked for much of the night in a +half-mile tunnel of the northern Vosges Mountains, and there, in the +groping darkness of our box-car prison, shared the soldier's biscuit +and his bottle, so coming to know the Kaiser's private as a +companion and not as the barbarian his enemies paint him. + +The day after we got inside the German lines we went before Major +Heinrich Bayer, at that time military commandant in Brussels in the +absence of General von der Goltz. Jostling through the street and +jamming the courtyard of the War Office was a crowd of a thousand +persons--mothers, children, whole families begging for relief or +permission to leave the city limits; German subjects trying to get +passes, officials and employees of the civil administration taking +orders from the military authorities. A relay of aides, orderlies, and +secretaries led us from courtyard to corridor and from corridor to staff +headquarters and into the Holy of Holies--the office of the +commandant. + +Grim, stern,--but courteous throughout the interview,--the major +paced the floor beside his desk. He seemed anxious enough to be rid +of the "crazy Americans" who had wandered through the Belgian and +German lines, not altogether satisfied with their integrity, yet not +wishing to take a hostile attitude. I asked him when he thought the +war would be over. At the moment the German major, Vice-Consul +Van Hee, and I were the only persons in the room. + +"I do not know," he said, as if thinking aloud; "I really do not know. +America is the only country that has not fired on us yet, but all the rest +--" Then he added thoughtfully, "Perhaps it is better that you go. But +you cannot return to Ghent or Antwerp; you must go back to +Germany." He stopped as if he had gone too far, and then sharply +commanded the orderly to remove us. Forty-eight hours later Mr. Van +Hee got his release. To Luther and myself was given a curious sort of +pass, beset with limitations, which at times caused us royal treatment +and as often proved a fatal baggage tag. I have always believed a +joker lay hidden somewhere in that document. It started with a +flattering description of our status (as given by ourselves), but below it +directed us to be taken into Aix-la-Chapelle, Germany, and under no +circumstances to be returned within the Belgian lines. We had seen a +great deal too much for that. In spite of our protestations of good faith +and promises to keep dark what we had seen, the military authorities +considered us much safer under German guard. We were to be +taken on the southern route by way of Namur. To drive home the +importance of obeying this order we were reminded of the regulation, +printed in French and posted throughout the city, "that whosoever +passed the city limits or approached the fighting line without military +permit, or on the pretense of having such a permit, or whosoever +deviated from the route laid down would be shot 'sur le champ.'" That +same evening, however, army orders declared that the Namur route +was closed. We got a second War Office pass sending us to Aix by +way of Louvain, Tirlemont, and Liege. Armed with these we went +down to an old Major Bock von W------, in charge of transportation at +Schaerbeek, on the outskirts of the city. + +I showed him the passes and said with a painful attempt at levity, +"Major, we can't obey both of these, so we 're going to get shot either +way we go. If it is all the same to you I would rather die on your +route." To my great relief the old fellow laid back his gray head and +emitted a series of long, loud Teuton laughs. He was the first German I +had heard laugh and it did me good. I knew we were safe. On the +understanding that the business was strictly confidential and that no +other citizens or suspects were to know of it, he gave us a permit for +the military trains. It had been the intention of the War Office to +pack us under guard with the herds on one of those Government refugee +trains. But to live and sleep with the soldiers as we were now to do, +to see their marches, to absorb their uninformed and boastful talk, to +study their guns, munitions, and equipment, was better than our highest +hopes. + +"You have to do a lot of quick transporting?" I asked before saying +good-bye to Major von W------. + +"Yes," was the answer. "They 're at us from all sides. Some of the +men we are now transporting have been under fire in two countries, +and now they will see service in a third." He knew that I had come +from Ghent and from Antwerp, which the Germans were about to +bombard, yet, to his credit, it should be said that he did not ask for +information of Belgian activities. Similarly, although the soldiers, as a +rule, and one man high in the civil government of Brussels, asked +what was going on in Antwerp, it was noticeable that German officers +recognized the obligations of neutrality. + +Of how we left Brussels and of the first part of the eastward trip, I am +going to quote from the jottings in the log-book, which was written up +at some length after we left Aix-la-Chapelle:-- + +"Early on the morning of the 22d, I went up to Consul Watts's office to +get the mail pouch I had promised him to carry. Luther and I then +boarded a trolley car going northwest past the Gare du Nord and on +to Schaerbeek, a junction on the outskirts of Brussels. Although the +Major Bayer passes, with von W------'s counter-signature, got us as +far as Schaerbeek, we were challenged by the guards at the railroad +station. The stations were watched with the most astounding +precaution. Of course there was no such thing as a ticket; once inside +the gate you could jump a troop train, ammunition car, or blow up the +track if you felt like it. Wherefore they guarded the stations carefully. + +"At the gates had a terrible pow-wow with an officious Bavarian who +called himself the Officer-of-the-Day. I played all my best German +cards, including Count von Bemstorffs letter. At the end of half an +hour our pig-headed officer shipped us back to Brussels. We +returned to von W------, then in Brussels, who vised our pass with a +note to the effect that although we were civilians, exceptional +circumstances demanded our hurried return to Aix by military train. + +"When we eventually got into the Schaerbeek station we had two +hours to wait. Walked up and down the tracks or sat on the platform, +keeping an eye on everything that was going on. Luther says I spent +most of my time trying not to look like an Englishman. Occasionally, +when we spoke a word of English, some officer would shoot us a 42 +cm. glance and demand our papers. We were undoubtedly marked +figures, because in the first place no civilians were allowed along the +railway line, especially foreigners. + +"Watched several westbound loads go by until about two o'clock, +when they made up a combination train consisting of Red Cross +coaches and empty freight trucks going back to Aix for fresh loads of +men and ammunition. Aix is the great distributing center for the line of +communication into northern Belgium. Most of the open cars were +empty, barring occasional gun carriages on the way home for repairs; +in the closed freight cars lay a few wounded first line men, a half a +dozen male nurses, and some privates on furlough. Speaking of +nurses, I haven't--so far at least-seen a woman nurse nearer the +scene of action than a base hospital, i.e., one of the big hospitals in +Antwerp, Brussels, or Ghent. Luther and I, closely followed by the +two guards that had trailed us from the time we had got inside the +station, climbed into a freight car, apparently used as a box stall on +the out trip, and bare except for a pile of damp straw in one corner. +Interminable journey. Most of the time we stood on sidings waiting for +the outbound traffic. Made fair time to Louvain,--i.e., an hour and a +half,--and stayed there two hours, for which I was thankful, as it +gave me a chance to look around. Interviewed soldiers, citizens, and +a Jesuit priest, of which more later. One hour more to Tirlemont. Then +seven hours to Liege, where we arrived at 2 A.M., were smothered for +two hours in that tunnel, and took six and three quarters hours more +from Liege to Verviers--a distance of less than fifteen miles! It was +another five hours to Aix. + +"Saw tremendous troop movements along Brussels-Louvain-Verviers +line of communication. During the first day thirty-five troop and +transport trains went past us, moving towards the western frontier, +the larger part to strengthen the German attack on Antwerp, which we +had not long left behind us, others to discharge their loads as near as +possible to Lille, Tournai, and Mons. The average train was twenty +cars long, making about seven hundred carloads, with two hundred +or more in each car, giving a total of more than 140,000 fighting men. +We stopped counting at the end of the first day. + +"After we left Louvain I got out occasionally and stretched my legs +along the tracks, but Luther, not being able to talk German, stuck +pretty close to his diggings. Had a great time at a little town called +Neerwinden, where we stayed about half an hour. A crowd of soldiers +from our train joined a group cooking supper in the moonlight at one +of the soup kitchens along the tracks. They fed me lukewarm stew +and slabs of rye bread, then went on singing and arguing without +paying much attention to me. One bald-headed, stocky private told +the crowd the news that von Hindenburg had captured Warsaw. Later +a crowd of big brutes, apparently pretty drunk, swaggered down and +clapped me on the back with a 'Who are you, my friend?' + +"'Amerikaner,' I explained, not thinking it necessary to mention the war +correspondent part. They set up a cheer, clapped me on the back, +and finally lifted me to their shoulders for a triumphal ride up and +down the railroad ties, all the time yelling out 'Amerikaner! Hurrah! +Amerikaner!' + +"A few hundred years seemed the night we spent locked in that +box-car prison. A five-days' equinoctial storm had given way to the +coldest day of the autumn: our car, raw and dank as a dungeon, joggled +along endlessly until afternoon gave way to evening and evening to +chilly night. Hour after hour we looked out upon the rolling fields and +burnt farmhouses along the path where General von Emmich's army had +passed. As the moon crawled up over the rain-bathed foothills of the +Ourthe Mountains, the temperature dropped far below the freezing point. +For ages we lay awake braced against the cold. The soldier next me, who +had been through the fight at Maubeuge, coughed throughout the night--a +hollow, retching cough. "Tuberculosis," the Red Cross doctor told me, +although the fellow had got through his army tests all right. + +Between two and four in the morning we stuck in the middle of a +tunnel of the northern Vosges Mountains, two hundred feet, perhaps, +beneath the surface of the ground. The sliding door on the left side of +our car was locked: on the other side jagged walls, dripping wet to the +touch, jutted so close that a thin man couldn't have walked between +them and the car. Everywhere pitch blackness, the blackness of the +tomb. The consumptive soldier pulled a candle from his kit, balanced +it in the straw, and over it warmed his hands. If that candle had +toppled over in the straw we wouldn't have had a rat's chance in the +fire. It was impossible to get out of our car or to communicate with +another except by tapping. The fellows in the next car must have +been considerably frightened, for after about an hour they began +yelling and pounding at the walls. All you could hear was a roaring +sound that caromed against the walls of the cavern. Smoke from the +engine drifted back to choke us. It hit the consumptive worst. The +poor fellow began blowing and coughing, then rolled feebly on his +back and gasped. During the worst of the smoke one of the soldiers +in the next car set up a rollicking song, and others followed his +example. We could hear the clank of beer bottles as they finished, the +echoes of the song reverberating loudly, then faintly, then louder +again up and down the length of that interminable vault. A draught of +air cleared the smoke away and it didn't bother us again. At four in +the morning we steamed out of the tunnel into the open. A little after +that I must have dozed off, for I woke with a start when the +consumptive stumbled over me. + +"There you are," he said, throwing a bundle beside me; "I thought +you'd need it." + +Noticing, when he lit his pipe at dawn, that we had no army blankets +and were pretty nearly frozen, this "barbarian" had jumped out of the +car in the Liege freight yards, had run a quarter of a mile to the +nearest army kitchen depot, and had stolen for us a couple of +heaping blankets' full of warm, dry straw. + +It was impossible to believe that these men had committed the +atrocities reported at Termonde and Roosbeek, at Malines and +Louvain. At close range it was easy to see that the prevalent +conception of the "barbarians" was the purest kind of rot--the +picture created and fostered by the Allied press, of a vicious and +besotted beast with natural brutality accentuated by alcoholic rage. +With such men as individuals it seemed to us that neutral observers +could have no quarrel. To the Kaiser's privates who have been +fighting for a cause they do not thoroughly understand, was due, we +thought, the greatest respect; to the officers, too, who understand +what they are doing and are game in the face of odds; and most of all +to the suffering German people. But to the German war machine, we +reflected, was due a terrible punishment--the lesson it must learn +not only for Germany's enlightenment, but for the sake of civilization +and humanity. + + + + +Chapter IV + +A Clog Dance On The Scheldt + + + +When the German major at Aix-la-Cha-pelle stamped on our passports:-- +"Gesehen. Gut Zum Austritt Kommandant 2 Kompagnie, Landsturm Batl. +Aachen," we were free, so we thought, to shake the dust of Germany from +our feet. Hoisting our rucksacks, we gave up box cars in favor of a +civilized passenger train, northward bound, and at noon crossed the +Dutch border at Simplefeldt. + +For three hours we talked English, consulted maps, took notes, and +asked questions where and when we pleased. The holiday cost us +dear. At the end of that time we were under lock and key in the town +of Maastricht, the Province of Limburg, and the supposedly free and +neutral Kingdom of the Netherlands. We suspected at the time, and +in view of what I learned upon a later trip to Berlin I am quite certain, +that the long arm of the German Secret Service had reached out for +us across the border. + +Having started from Antwerp during its investment, but prior to its +siege by the German army, we were now on the third stage of a +round trip which was to land one of us back in the Belgian temporary +capital in time for the bombardment. During the previous two weeks +we had been stopped, questioned, and sometimes examined, no less +than one hundred and thirty times. Thirteen, we calculated, was our +average number of hold-ups on our early "marching days"; that is to +say, during those wanderings which led us by foot, train, ox cart, and +automobile past the double sector of Antwerp's fortifications, through +the Belgian fighting lines to Ghent and Termonde, and thence into the +arms of the German pickets on the outskirts of Brussels. + +And now, as the heavy door of the Maastricht police headquarters +slammed in our faces, and the key rattled in the guardroom lock, my +companion in crime threw down his hat and coat in rage. Between us +we treated our fellow-prisoners to a quarter of an hour's tirade on the +American citizen's right to freedom, swore that the Kingdom of the +Netherlands would repent this outrage, and each of us politely +assured the other it was all the other fellow's fault. + +All of which, though true, had no effect on the sniffling young woman +across the way, nor the sleeper on the hardwood bench next mine, +nor the bald-headed, big-lipped police sergeant who bent over his +desk in the corner, impervious to these usual outbursts of the newly +arrested, as he laboriously scrawled in the police blotter the report of +the day's round-up. + +"Sit down!" he bellowed as I advanced toward the pen door, and tried +to open it. + +When he resumed his scratching I did my best to explain in a +German-French-Dutch dialect of my own invention that we wished to +see Mons. le Commissaire at once; that we had only come to inspect +the concentration camp of German and Belgian prisoners, and that +we were leaving town that day. I particularly emphasized this point. +We were, in fact, I assured him in several different ways, leaving that +very afternoon--as soon as the disagreeable mistake of our arrest +was rectified. He may or may not have understood this: at all events, +he wore an expression as blank and graven as Jack Rose upon the +witness stand. His only answer was a vacant stare at the pit of my +stomach, followed by a slow scratch-scratching on the police blotter. + +In fact our arrest on that occasion was rather a Jack Rose affair; that +is to say, it started by our being invited to headquarters, suspicious +but not certain of our status until we finally landed behind the iron +doors. Without doubt Maastricht authorities were waiting for us even +as we stepped off the train, showing that we were doomed from the +time we left the border. Our captor, an unctuous, pink-cheeked +politzei, made his appearance not far from the internment camp. +Where were we going, and why? + +"To see the prisoners," we said. + +"It is possible," said the spider to the fly, "zat I can get for you +permission if you will come to ze guardhouse. Ze capitain is there." + +The "guardhouse" proved a precinct police station, and the captain +was not there: instead we found a mixed crowd of civilians and +militaires who looked us over and shook their heads. Next we were +taken to military headquarters \n the center of the town. For fifteen +minutes we hunted the evasive captain while I ran through my head +the various sets of credentials stuffed in different pockets; for, being +in Dutch territory, although only a few miles from the Belgian frontier +on one side and the German frontier on the other, I was not quite +certain which to produce. Among my letters I carried one from the +German Ambassador, Count von Bernstorff, to the Foreign Office in +Berlin; one from Professor Hugo Munsterberg at Harvard, and a note +from the secretary of the Belgian Legation at The Hague. +Unfortunately I did not have with me at the time a very helpful letter +from Colonel Roosevelt, ending with the statement that the bearer "is +an American citizen, a non-combatant, and emphatically not a spy." I +had promised the Colonel to use this, my trump card, only in case of +necessity--and once, on a later occasion, I did so with immediate +effect. On the whole, I now decided in favor of a United States +passport decorated with my picture and enough vises to resemble the +diplomatic history of the Continent. + +"The captain is not here. We go to the commissaire at headquarters," +said the polite politzei. It was then that we cut loose, told him to +bring the commissaire or the burgomaster to us, and started to walk off. +It was a bad move. So far he had handled us with a velvet grip, but at +the first sign of insurrection he showed his teeth, locked arms with +each of us, and, signaling another officer to follow, forthwith marched +us off to police headquarters and our ultimate resting-place, the +guardroom cell. + +How long we stayed there I don't know--long enough, at all events, +to get a glimpse of the Dutch police system and the third degree as +practiced in the Lowlands. There swung open a great iron door +leading to the street and the market-place, not so large but fully as +busy as Washington Market the week before Thanksgiving. Through +it, sobbing and screaming, their hats gone and their hair torn, came +two women, roughly handled by gendarmes and followed by a mob +escort. They were thrown weeping and expostulating into an adjoining +cell. A gendarme came out with trickles of blood on his face. He +mopped his brow and complained of feminine finger-nails. Close +behind him followed a male friend of the imprisoned women. He +pleaded with the sergeant at the desk, while the moans of the +women, under pressure to confess their crime, came from their cell. +But Jack Rose only scratched and scratched monotonously, and now +and then gazed at the middle of the speaker's stomach. + +In the mean time we fell back into our habit of talking for publication. +With an intimacy that would have surprised those gentlemen we +referred casually to Brand Whitlock, Dr. van Dyke, and the biggest +Dutch and Belgian names we could think of. We suspected that Jack +Rose and the man at our side understood more English than they +pretended. At all events, it had its effect. In half an hour we were +taken before the commissioner. + +Two cigars lay on the edge of the table nearest us. I could see at a +glance that we were free. + +"Do you speak English?" I asked him. + +"No," he answered in our native tongue; "only French, Flemish, +German, and Italian--but not English." And with a grin he asked for +our passports. + +"You are for the American newspapers?" + +"Yes," I answered--"one of us is a lawyer who writes occasionally. I +am correspondent for a New York and a Boston paper, but I won't +cable anything from here." For this reason, I explained, no +movements of troops or news of military value could leak out. + +"Ah, I see," said the commissioner who could not talk English. "An +amateur correspondent and a slow correspondent. But correspondents are +not at all tolerated in this province. It is five o'clock. You will +board the train leaving this province at 5.16 P.M." + +From Maastricht to the Dutch capital is, under usual conditions, a +four-hour run to the north. During this trip we passed encampments +and fortifications of the 400,000 well-drilled but poorly equipped +troops which the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in the spirit of no +negative neutrality, had mobilized along her borders. Whenever we +crossed a bridge every window in the entire train was fastened down +and there were strict orders against raising them. We discovered that +under the boulders were carefully concealed large charges of +dynamite ready for immediate use in case of invasion--so that +Horatius need not be called upon while axe and crowbar were at +work. The windows, it appears, were locked to prevent throwing out of +lighted cigars or matches. + +At one o'clock the next morning our train, delayed by war-time traffic, +rolled into the Hague station, whence three days later, I was to start +my lucky trip into Antwerp, the besieged. + +Clog dancing and cognac helped to get me from The Hague back +into Antwerp in time for its bombardment and capture by the German +forces under General von Beseler. I happened to perform the clog +dancing at a critical moment during a trip on a Scheldt River barge, +thus diverting the attention of the river sentries from my lack of proper +papers. While the pedal acrobatics were in progress my temporary +friend, Mons. le Conducteur, reinforced the already genial pickets with +many glasses of the warming fluid. + +Willard Luther, my companion in and out of jail during the first part of +the continental wanderings, was forced to leave for home the day +after we got back to The Hague. He had five days to catch the +Lusitania at Liverpool. Three of them he spent on a whirlwind trip +trying to see action in northern Flanders, but, much to his +disappointment, was called away before the final scrimmage at +Antwerp. If he had succeeded in getting in, I rather fear the +Massachusetts Bar would have lost a valuable member. He had an +insatiable passion to be in the neighborhood of bullets and bombs-- +not, as I take it, that he really wanted to get hit--merely that he +would like to see how close he could come. + +On October 2d, strictest regulations were passed prohibiting entry +within the fortifications of Antwerp without permit from the military +governor, General de Guise. Three weeks earlier entry had been +possible but difficult, and the feat was again easier after the German +occupation. But during the city's days of trial the military lid was +clamped and riveted. Except for those coming direct from England, +the highest civil recommendations were valueless. + +I had one of these,--a laissez-passer from Prince d'Eline, Secretary of +the Belgian Legation at The Hague,--issued because of the fact that I +was carrying a large packet of mail from the American Legation at The +Hague to Henry W. Diederick, United States Consul-General at Antwerp. I +had also been entrusted with three hundred marks to be delivered to a +German prisoner, Lieutenant Ulrici, known to have been wounded and +captured in the fighting around Termonde, and believed to be lying in a +hospital ship in the river or in Antwerp itself. The fact of carrying +such money was of course against me as indicating German sympathy. + +Because a large part of the railroad line between Eschen, Cappelen, +and Antwerp had been torn up, because there would be many +hold-ups, and because I couldn't speak a word of Flemish, I decided +against the overland route. Hearing, however, that L. Braakman & +Company, a grain and freight shipping concern, were running down +barges from Rotterdam, I got a Belgian friend to call them up on my +behalf. The result was a flat throw-down: without General de Guise's +sanction I might not even cross the gangplank. + +Nevertheless, I went to Rotterdam, crossed the river basin to the +island from which the Braakman boats ran, and there saw a director +of the company, who, fortunately, could speak both English and +Flemish. He took me to the captain of the river barge, a low craft that +looked a cross between a tugboat and a Hudson River scow. In less +than three minutes my case was disposed of. Verdict: "C'est +absolument defendu." It was time for a little "bluff." An hour later I +returned with a new proposition, having in the mean time telegraphed +Mr. Diederick either to meet me at the pier at Antwerp or to send a +military permit. Displaying a copy of this telegram I suggested that I +be allowed to board. If there was any one at Antwerp to meet and +vouch for me, well and good; if not, they were at liberty to ship me +back. That was my proposition. + +"He may go as far as the border patrol, fifteen miles east of Antwerp," +the captain said to my interpreter. "If the river sentries permit it he +may then go as far as the Antwerp pier, but he cannot land." + +We cast off Sunday, October 4th, at 6 A.M. The little Telegraaf III +poked her nose through the blue-gray haze of a chilly October +morning while the muddy waters of the Meuse slapped coldly against +her bow. I stamped the deck a few times, wondering if there was an +English-speaking soul aboard, and leaned up against the engine +room until the odor of coffee and bacon lured me to the fo'castle +hatch. A purple-faced giant, with thick lips that met like the halves of +an English muffin blocked the companion-way. + +"'Jour," growled the face as though it hated to say it, then pointed to +the food and cognac. This was Monsieur le Conducteur, ship's cook, +barkeeper, and collector of fares. + +In the center of a dark cabin, littered with charts, pails, and Flemish +newspapers, was a kitchen table. Now and then a smoking oil lamp +flared up to throw a light on the faces of my fellow-passengers, five of +them in addition to the captain and Mons. le Conducteur. They were, +as I discovered later, Mons. A. Albrecht, a leading alderman of +Antwerp and a friend of Mons. Vos, the burgomaster; a light-haired +Belgian piano salesman who could speak five languages; Mile. +Blanche Ravinet, of looks beautiful and occupation unknown; and two +others. From the suddenness with which the conversation stopped, I +judged they had been discussing "ze American." They were welcome +to say what they liked barring the word "spion." + +For hours we chugged steadily along, catching a fair tide on the +lower Meuse, and sliding past the neat little towns of Dordrecht, +Papendrecht, and Willemstad, through the Hollandische Diep and the +Krammer Volkerak. After that the Telegraaf III worried through the +canals and systems of locks which virtually cut the neck of Tholen +from the mainland, and, when the last of these had been +accomplished, splashed into the great basin of the East Scheldt. A +Dutch gunboat cut across our bows, signaling us to halt. An officer +boarded us to study the freight invoices. + +Farther upstream a launch came alongside, making fast fore and aft, +while two Belgian river sentries, in long blue coats and faded drab +trousers, poked their bearded heads above the rail. This, then, was +what the captain meant by the border patrol. + +Now, as luck would have it, the day was cold: we were the first boat to +come through the locks for some hours, and apparently the river +sentries had had no breakfast. So they dove into the fo'castle, where +Mons. le Conducteur produced bread and cognac. I at once ordered +Mons. le Conducteur to get a second round of liquid refreshment for +our military guests. Conversation flowed. The soldiers drummed on +the table to keep their hands warm and in a moment of inspiration I +showed them how the darkies in our country warm their feet. + +"Clog dance," I explained. + +"Encore," shouted the piano salesman. "That is splendid." + +"Pleaz again! Oh, pleaz!" echoed Mile. Blanche. "See, every one, ze +grand American foot game." + +The fat-faced conducteur, with whom I had suddenly grown in favor, +repeated the cognac treatment on the sentries. Before I knew it, they +had me alongside the table, one hand steadied against a thwart of +the swaying cabin, my head in the smoke of the oil lamp, my feet +pounding and kicking, as it seemed, at the very door of Antwerp. The +piano salesman shouted rag-time, Mile. Blanche drummed time on +the bench, and the river sentries pounded time with their rifle butts. + +"Encore!" they shouted when I sat down with aching legs. + +All at once the launch alongside gave an angry toot, for the officer +wanted his men back: there were other boats to be examined. The +sentries glanced quickly at our papers, not reading, I am sure, a word +of mine, speedily cast off ropes, and disappeared guiltily and +somewhat unsteadily over the larboard rail. + +An hour later the Telegraaf III took the river's turn, swinging past Fort +St. Philippe, until we could see the gray-blue spire of the Cathedral of +Notre Dame with its intricate network of stone silhouetted against the +autumn sunset. Mr. Diederick was not at the pier to meet me, nor was +there a military passport from General de Guise. + +"Stay by me," said Alderman Albrecht. As each of the pier sentries +saluted him he said a whispered word, and apparently his word was +good, for the American "foot game" artist was allowed to pass. +Perhaps Alderman Albrecht had decided that German spies don't +clog-dance. + +Though not officially admitted to the besieged city, I went at once to +my old stand, the Hotel St. Antoine, now converted into British Staff +Headquarters. At sundown a mist crept up from the river, and through +it we heard a roar of welcome and the rumble of heavy artillery. +Charging down the Avenue de Keyser came a hundred London +motor-busses, Piccadilly signs and all, some filled, some half-filled, +with a wet-looking bunch of Tommies, followed by armored +mitrailleuses, a few 6.7 naval guns, officers' machines, commissary +and ammunition carriages--the first brigade of Winston Churchill's +army of relief, which for five days was destined to make so valiant, +but so short, a fight against the overwhelming German army. + + + + +Chapter V + +The Bombardment Of Antwerp + + + +There was something typically British in the way those Englishmen +went about the defense of Antwerp. In the streets and barracks, and +more especially at the Hotel St. Antoine, British Staff Headquarters, +where I stayed until its doors were closed, I saw them at close range +during that week of horror. Once when I was eating with a company +of marines near their temporary barracks, they gave me the +password to the trenches, and, although I only got out as far as the +inner line of forts on that day, it gave me an opportunity to observe +the work of the men under long-range firing. At the St. Antoine, ten or +a dozen officers were quartered; others clanked in and out for hurried +conferences in the corridors or disappeared into the smoking-room, +whose heavy doors with the sign, "Reservee pour la Gouvernement +Anglaise," hid Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the English +Admiralty, and his portmanteau of war maps. + +Here was Belgium's last stronghold on the verge of downfall: the +outer line of forts had already fallen; Forts Wavre, St. Catherine, +Waelham, and Lierre were already prey to the Krupp mortars; the +German hosts were swarming across the River Nethe, six miles to +the city's south, and the cowering populace in their flight made the +streets terrible to look upon. + +Yet at the St. Antoine there was no particular flurry--so far, at least, +as the officers were concerned. At night they worked over their war +maps; in the daytime they went out to the forts. They would get up in +the morning, an hour or two earlier than the average business man, have +a comfortable breakfast, smoke a cigar for half an hour or so, and talk +things over. Then their military automobiles came trembling and +sputtering to the doorsteps, and in groups of fours and fives they went +out to the firing line. If only two or three of a group returned, you +would naturally have to draw your own conclusions as to the fate of the +rest. + +Those English gentlemen went about their jobs of life and death with +the same detached coolness as if their hunters were being saddled, +or they were waiting for the referee's whistle in Rugby football. Their +attitude was infernally exasperating; yet you couldn't help taking off +your hat to their sublime nerve and indifference. + +I overheard a typical remark when matters were in this critical state. It +came from a handsome, curly-headed officer, noticeable not only for +his apparent efficiency, but because he didn't let the game of war +interfere with his attentions to the little Princess de Ligne. The latter +was nursing her brother, who had been shot through the back of the +neck during a raid through German lines. She was a princess in rank, +and a queen in looks. Thirty hours before the first shell burst into the +Place Verte--Monday morning, it was--this fellow rapped at my +door. He had wandered into the wrong pew, for his words were +obviously intended to hurry up a brother officer with whom he was to +take the morning ride to the firing line. Sticking his curly, sunburnt +head around the corner he drawled in inimitable British intonation:- + +"I say, old chap, do hurry along; this is no ORDINARY occasion, you +know." + +In the Royal Belgian Palace there happened a few hours before the +bombardment an incident revealing the simplicity and kindliness of +King Albert's character. In connection with it, it is necessary to speak +of Harold Fowler, a New Yorker and Columbia College graduate, who +helped to save the public buildings of Antwerp, and later entered the +Allied ranks as a fighter. When the war broke out, Fowler was private +secretary to Ambassador Page in London. In November he got a commission +in the Royal Horse Guards, known as the "Blues." While the Germans were +pressing hard on Antwerp, the German commander, as I have mentioned +elsewhere, asked that a diagram of the city of Antwerp, with plans and +location of the cathedral, the Hotel de Ville, and the more important +works be sent to him in order that he might find the range and avoid +firing on them. Neutrals were to carry the plans through; and Fowler +and Hugh Gibson, secretary to the American Minister at Brussels (Brand +Whitlock), volunteered. + +Two days before the bombardment Gibson went to the Royal Palace +at Antwerp where General de Guise and his staff were in conference. +Fowler trailed along, but, not liking to enter, walked up and down the +hallway, hands in his pockets, admiring the portraits half-hidden in the +darkness of the foyer. A tall figure approached and in French asked +who he was. Fowler replied that he was an American and was waiting +for Gibson. + +"I see," said the figure, then speaking in English, "that you are +interested in pictures." + +"Very much," answered Fowler. + +"Then, would you like to see those in the Royal Chambers upstairs?" + +Fowler hesitated, feeling like an intruder, but the figure insisted upon +leading him upstairs. When they got into the light, Fowler turned to +examine his kind friend. To his utter astonishment he saw that it was +Albert, King of the Belgians! + +By that time we of Antwerp were getting a very fair imitation of a city +besieged. Water supply had already been cut off for some days. +There was just enough for cooking purposes; bathing and such +pleasantries were out of the question--even for Royalty. According +to the French maid in my corridor, Winston Churchill managed to get +a shave by ordering tea sent to his room and using the hot water for +shaving lather. + +Monday, October 5th, the night before the city emptied itself of +non-combatants, was almost a festive occasion at the St. Antoine. The +British entry gave tremendous confidence to the stricken city and the +tired Belgian soldiers--a bit of pride before the fall. New faces turned +up, friends in the English army met, shook hands, and discussed the +outlook. One was even reminded of lighter occasions, such as the +Copley-Plaza in Boston or the Hotel Taft in New Haven before an +annual Harvard-Yale battle. At the head of a long table in the center +of the dining-room sat the First Lord of the British Admiralty, looking +rather thoughtful, his baldish head and Trinity House uniform standing +out in contrast to the service uniforms of the younger men around +him. At the same table were commissary officers, sergeants, +aide-de-camps, Hugh Gibson, Harold Fowler, and somewhat farther down the +Russian Minister and my curly-headed officer, chatting over his coffee +with little Princess de Ligne. + +In the flash of an eye these scenes changed to scenes of terror. + +The news leaked out, and spread like wildfire, that the Kaiser's men +had crossed the River Nethe and had placed their big guns within +range of the city. It was not until forty-eight hours later that the +populace saw a handful of Flemish posters pasted in out-of-the-way +corners--posters signed by the Civil Government--which thanked +the populace "for retaining until the present time their praiseworthy +sangfroid, and regretting that the responsibilities of their office +necessitated their own removal to a neighborhood more safe." + +Queen Elizabeth, whom danger made a democrat, walked right into +my hotel, if you please, and stopped casually to say good-bye to the +Russian Minister. The crowd outside did not know she was leaving for +Ostend under cover of darkness--they cheered her loudly just the +same. She is a spunky sort of queen. + +Then came the flight. You knew the fear of the Germans had got into +their blood when waiters dropped their plates and dishes and ran; +when shops, houses, hotels closed and the people melted away; +when the French chambermaid besought with frightened eyes that +Monsieur take her away to England, and when the hotel proprietor +disappeared without even asking for his bill. + +There were other sights that did one good to see: such as gray-haired +Mrs. Richardson, venerable figure of a British nurse, with six wars to +her credit and a breastful of decorations from four different +governments, who refused to leave her hospital even if it was blown +to pieces, so long as there were men to help and wounds to heal. + +When the St. Antoine closed I took her to the American Consulate to +find a house where she could stay. That night and the next loads of +English Red Cross busses with their households of pain and ether +rumbled over the pontoon bridge across the Scheldt, went past Fort +Tete de Flandre, and disappeared in the swampy meadows on the +road to Ghent. I never saw her again, but I have always hoped that +Mrs. Richardson was among the nurses who went with them. + +When on Wednesday morning I was turned out of my room, I made +my way past a pressing throng of foreign faces to the Queen's Hotel +on the water front. There I found Arthur Ruhl and James H. Hare, +who had just come over from England. The hotel overlooked the +River Scheldt, forming a wide crescent on the city's north, and was +within fifty yards of one of the longest pontoon bridges constructed in +modern warfare. + +Here was a sight to come again and rend the memory. The crowds +were endeavoring to get away over one of the two avenues of +escape still open. I estimated that between five in the afternoon and +the following dawn three hundred thousand persons must have +passed through the city's gates. They were the people of Antwerp +itself, swelled by exiles from Alost, Aerschot, Malines, Termonde, and +other cities to the south and west. Intermittently for two days and +nights I watched them from my room in the Queen's. From five yards +beneath my window ledge came the shuffle, shuffle of unending feet, +the creak and groans of heavy cart wheels, the talk and babble of +guttural tongues, the yelp of hounds, as the thousands moved and +wept and surged and jostled along throughout the night and into the +uncertain mist of that October morning. They were so close I could +have jumped into their carts or dropped a pebble on their heads. +Infinitely more impressive than the retreat of the allied armies or the +victorious entry of the Germans a little later, was the pageant of this +pitiful army without guns or leaders. + +The twenty-foot entrance to that pontoon bridge seemed to me like +the mouth of a funnel through which poured the dense misery of an +entire nation. Think of this army's composition: a great city was +emptying itself of human life; not only a great city, but all the people +driven to it from the outside, all who had congregated in Belgium's +last refuge and its strongest fort. They bore themselves bravely, the +greater number plodding along silently in the footsteps of those who +went ahead, with no thoughts of their direction, some of them even +chatting and laughing. You saw great open wagons carrying baby +carriages, perambulators, pots and kettles, an old chair, huge +bundles of household goods, and the ubiquitous Belgian bicycle +strapped to the side. There were small wagons, and more great +wagons crowded with twenty, thirty, forty people: aged brown women, +buried like shrunk walnuts in a mass of shawls, girls sitting listlessly +on piles of straw, and children fitfully asleep or very much awake and +crying lustily. + +Sometimes the men and boys mounted their bicycles, rode for a +dozen yards, were stopped by the procession, and then, for want of +better occupation, rang their bells. One saw innumerable yelping +dogs: big Belgian police hounds harnessed to the cart and doing their +share of work, others sniffing along the outskirts and plainly +advertising for an owner. There were noisy cattle, too, some of which +escaped. Long after the city was evacuated I saw a cow bellowing +under an archway of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. + +In this way the city emptied itself, but so slowly that the very slowness +of the movement wore the marchers out. Each family group was +limited to the speed of its oldest member. Hundreds gave it up and +lay by the road, or formed little gypsy camps under the trees. At night +these were lighted by fires, overshadowed by the greater fire from the +distant burning city, and beside them stretched dumb-looking souls, +watching vaguely those who still had strength to move. + +Watching these wretches got so on my nerves that I had to get out +and do something. With a British intelligence officer, formerly of Sir +John French's staff, I wandered down to the southern quarter of the +city known as Berchem. As usual, the guns at the outer forts had +been booming throughout the evening. From the city's ramparts you +could not only feel the shudder of the earth, but you could see +occasional splashes of flame from the Belgian batteries, answered, in +the dim distance to the south, by smaller, less vivid splashes issuing +from the mouths of the German instruments of "Culture" which +throughout the night pounded ruthlessly on the unprotected houses +without the city limits. + +On the way home we stopped in at the British field hospital to see a +wounded British friend. + + + + +Chapter VI + +The Surrender Of Antwerp + + + +As we left the British field hospital, on the Rue de Leopold, a shrieking +skyrocket whizzed by above us and buried its hissing head in the +river to the north. One or two more fell at a distance of several +hundred yards, and in the southern part of the city flames from +several houses shot up into the quiet, windless night. + +The bombardment was on--the time was 12.07 Wednesday +midnight. + +For a moment I did not realize that this was the beginning of the end +of Antwerp. I had heard so much gun-fire and seen so many bombs +dropping from aeroplanes that I did not fully appreciate the +significance of these shells. I scribbled a few notes in my diary, +unstrapped my money belt, and then picked out an empty bed at the +Queen's Hotel and tumbled in. I must have slept for six or seven +hours. + +When I arose everything was quiet. The hotel was apparently +deserted. I remember being particularly irritated because there was +no one in the kitchen who would give me breakfast, so I made myself +some tea and then strolled into the street. It so happened that the +Germans had been pumping lead steadily into the city for six hours +and that this was the morning lull. The Germans are methodical in +everything. When they bombard a city they stop for breakfast. + +As I walked down the Avenue de Keyser I thought at first it was +Sunday--or rather a year of Sundays all rolled into one. Overnight +the city had been transformed into a tomb. Shops were closed; iron +shutters were pulled down everywhere; trolley cars stood in the street +as they had been left. My own footsteps resounded fearfully on the +pavement, and I walked five blocks before I saw a human being. + +I stopped at the American Consul's office on the Place de Meir, only +to find the place was locked. A frightened face behind the grating told +me that the consul had taken his wife to the country--good place to +be in, I thought. + +Things began to seem lonely. I heard shells falling and saw flames in +the southern quarter of the city, and decided to go in that direction to +look up an American correspondent and two photographers who had +asked me to bunk with them in the cellar of a little abandoned house +at 74 Rue de Peage. + +Turning down a little side street leading toward the Boulevard de +Leopold, I was greeted by a clap of thunder overhead. A shell +demolished a house across the street and about thirty yards down. +The concussion knocked over a couple of babies. I picked them up, +put them back in the doorway of the house where they seemed to belong, +saying over and over again mechanically, "There, there, don't cry. +There is nothing to be frightened about"; and then, just to show how +little I myself was frightened I began to run. I ran for all I was +worth. I ran right into the fire. The shells were falling fairly thick +on the Boulevard de Leopold; every two or three hundred yards a house +was partially destroyed; bricks and glass littered the pavement, and +occasionally, every quarter of a mile or so, I saw a figure skulking +along under the eaves of a building, crouching and ducking in time to +the nasty music of the shells. But I decided that the middle of the +street was the safest part. + +When I had gone about a quarter of a mile I got my nerve again. I put +my hands in my pockets, lighted a cigarette, and was just saying to +myself, "This is pretty good fun, after all," when CRASH!! CRASH!! two, +or possibly three, shells, bursting in rapid succession, tore down +houses a hundred yards ahead of me. Then one struck in the street, and +jagged fragments of angry shrapnel skidded along the pavement like a +thrown stone skipping along the surface of the water. I was again +trembling all over. + +Was the game worth the candle, I asked myself. "I've come three +thousand miles and overcome every obstacle just to get into this +horrible mess. If I get disfigured--no, I'd much rather be killed--will +it--" + +"Crash!! Bang!!" went a monster shell as I turned the corner. + +Two doors from the corner of a narrow street covered with bricks and +mortar fluttered a United States flag, and beneath it the door of 74 +Rue de Peage. This place was later spoken of as "Thompson's fort," +because Donald C. Thompson, a Kansas photographer, took +possession of it after the Belgian family fled, and plundered the +neighborhood for coffee, rolls, and meat, with which he stocked his +little cellar. The house next door had already been struck, and +shattered glass littered the pavement. The doorstep of 74 was +covered by a couple of mattresses and sand-bags. Beneath this, in a +dingy sort of coal-bin, heaped with straw, I found crouching the +tenants of "Thompson's fort." + +Next to Berchem, the southern quarter of the city, where the +Germans were approaching, the Rue de Peage was the worst spot in +Antwerp. We sat for a time listening to the shells. There were here, in +addition to Thompson, Edwin Weigel, a Chicago photographer; +Edward Eyre Hunt, of "Collier's Weekly"; and the Dutch Vice-Consul. + +We heard the distant resounding Boom ... Boom ... Boom ... ed ... + Boom ... Boom ... Boom. + +An interval of perhaps a second's silence, then a faint moaning, a +crescendo wail, the whirr and rush of a snarling, shrieking skyrocket +overhead, and a crash, like all the thunders of the universe rolled into +one, when the shell struck, followed by the roar of falling brick as a +neighboring house came pouring into the street. + +"Whee.....wheee.....Hi.....HIOU UIOUW," we heard. "Whee ... +whEEE ... whEEE ... UIOUW ... OUWW ... SSH ... SSHSHHH ... +BANG ... BANG!!!!!!" + +"Whee.....wheee.....Hi.....HIOUUIOUW," we heard. "Whee ... +whEEE ... whEEE ... UIOUW... OUWW... SSH ... SSHSHHH... BANG... +BANG!!!!!!" + +I tried to persuade the other fellows to come up to the Queen's Hotel +along the Scheldt waterfront on the northern side of the city, where I +was then encamped. It was a safer locality because the Germans +had not yet got the range of the northern end of the city. Weigel and +Thompson, having to look out for their kodaks and moving-picture +paraphernalia, decided to wait a while, as did Hunt. Hare, who came +in later, had two big kodaks which he wanted to get back to his room +in the Queen's. I offered to carry one of them for him. + +We shook hands all around and one or two of us exchanged +messages to be taken back in case there was any trouble--that is to +say, in case, as seemed likely at the time, some of us should get out +alive and some should not. Hunt gave me a letter to his family, and +later, with watch in hand, started to walk around the burning city to +calculate the number of falling shells per minute! I slung Hare's kodak +over my shoulder and we started back, taking separate streets. It was +a dash of three quarters of a mile and nothing fell particularly close to +us, although the buildings on all sides were in flames. Near a pile of +discarded uniforms of the garde civique, I saw what was left of the +figure of a man with his insides oozing out, his eyes still open, staring +vacantly upwards, and all around him the horrible odor of decaying +horses. By this time I was calm and was getting quite accustomed to +the bursting of shells. I suppose I had been through my "baptism of +fire." + +About half an hour later, when we were sitting in the Queen's, +Thompson, pale as a sheet, staggered into the deserted lobby closely +followed by Weigel and Hunt and the Dutch Vice-Consul, the latter +somewhat out of his head. Just after I left 74 Rue de Peage, a 32 cm. +shell burst on the roof, tearing off the two top floors of the house, +throwing Thompson's bed into the street, and setting the place on fire. +At sundown the house was in ashes. Somehow or other the men all +got out, rescuing a portion of their paraphernalia. + +All Thursday afternoon the German Taubes circled above the city-- +mostly along the waterfront. Below them puffed little clouds of smoke +where shells from the Belgian anti-aircraft guns were exploding. I +fancy the airmen were locating the pontoon bridge and signaling to +the Prussian battery commanders six miles away; but during +Wednesday and Thursday, when the crowds of refugees were +assembled on the waterfront, not a single bomb dropped among +them. A few shells, well placed, would have slaughtered them like +sheep. Before and during the bombardment I am quite certain that +the Germans intended to frighten, rather than injure, non-combatants. +Report to the contrary notwithstanding, it is equally true that, so far as +possible, the invaders kept to their promise to spare such buildings as +the Cathedral, the Palais de Justice, the Hotel de Ville, the Castle +Steen, and other historic landmarks. + +The bombardment lasted forty hours. That night,--Thursday, October +8th,--the second and last night which the town held out, all of the +Americans who were left gathered at the Queen's. The firing by this +time was terrific. Except for the lurid glare of the burning buildings +which lit up the streets, the city was in total darkness. For weeks +martial law had been in effect and there were no lights after sundown. +An unearthly feeling it was, to be locked in the darkness of this +strange city, unable to speak a word of the language, not knowing +whether the garrison had evacuated the forts or whether the city had +been surrendered, believing there would be street righting or an +insurrection of franc-tireurs. At times we heard through the darkness +the tramp of squads of soldiers. Surely, we thought, there come the +Germans. We remembered the atrocities at Louvain. + +About an hour after darkness settled on us I climbed to the roof of the +Queen's Hotel, from which, for a few minutes, I looked out upon the +most horrible and at the same time the most gorgeous panorama that +I ever hope to see. The entire southern portion of the city appeared a +desolate ruin; whole streets were ablaze, and great sheets of fire rose +to the height of thirty or forty feet. + +The night, like the preceding, was calm and quiet, without a breath of +wind. On all sides rose greedy tongues of flame which seemed to +thirst for things beyond their reach. Slowly and majestically the sparks +floated skyward; and every now and then, following the explosion of a +shell, a new burst of flame lighted up a section hitherto hidden in +darkness. The window panes of the houses still untouched flashed +the reflection in our eyes. + +Even more glorious was the scene to the north. On the opposite side +of the Scheldt the oil tanks, the first objects to be set on fire by bombs +from the German Taubes, were blazing furiously and vomiting huge +volumes of oil-laden smoke. Looking over on this side of the river, +too, I could see the crackling wooden houses of the village of St. +Nicolas, lighting with their glow all of northern Antwerp and the +water-front. In the swampy meadows on the farther bank we could see the +frightened refugees as they hurried along the still protected road to +Ghent. They passed on our side of the burning village, not five +hundred yards away. Every now and then as a fitful flame lighted the +meadow I could see the figures silhouetted against the red +background. + +They appeared to be actually walking through the flames like +Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. It was all a glorious and +fascinating nightmare. + +There was at this time an ominous lull in the moaning pound of +shrapnel. + +Out of the darkness in the direction of West Antwerp came a new +sound-the low methodical beat of feet. The noise became gradually +louder and louder until one could hear the rumble of heavy wheels +and distinguish the sound of voices above the crowd. This was the +beginning of the British and Belgian retreat, which started at about +eight o'clock Thursday night, and, under cover of darkness, continued +unbroken for eight hours. Following the line taken by the escaping +populace this retreat went past our position on the water-front. Before +dawn on Friday morning, when the light became strong enough for +the advancing army to make out the enemy's position, practically the +entire Belgian army plus ten thousand Royal British Naval Marines +had got across the pontoon bridge and were well along the road to +Ghent. During all these hours squads of gendarmes with fixed +bayonets held back such remaining townsfolk as attempted to get +near the bridge. To these wretches it seemed that their last avenue of +escape had been cut off. There were now at the Queen's, Arthur +Ruhl, Hare, and myself, in addition to an English intelligence officer +and the recruits from "Fort Thompson." We talked over our plans for +the next day. The intelligence officer volunteered to get up with me at +sunrise and scour the river for a barge. It was my idea, in case we +could make any kind of arrangements for a get-away, to come back +and report to the other fellows. I remember that Arthur Ruhl was +uncertain as to whether he would come with us or wait for the +German entry. He was worried about some friends in the British field +hospital, and he decided not to leave without looking them up,--a +pretty white thing to do, it seemed to me. + +I tried to sleep, but the rumble of artillery wagons and shouts of the +marchers prevented. So I spent most of the night of the British and +Belgian retreat beneath my window. At daybreak the intelligence +officer came to my room and we started out along the water-front, +moving in the direction of the Dutch border. With the rising sun on +Friday morning the German Taubes again swept over the city. When +the Germans saw that the whole British and Belgian army had got +away from them they moved up their 42 cm. guns and literally gave +us hell. This time they had no mercy on the few remaining +noncombatants. + +The intelligence officer's baggage delayed us a long time. When we +got up nearly as far as Fort St. Philippe, we separated. We saw a +barge anchored in the river and he had an idea it would leave about +seven o'clock, and that we might be able to get on it. I gave him my +knapsack containing my gold belt, which, in the confusion, I had not +had time to strap on, and started to make a dash back to the +Queen's, because I considered that I ought to let the other fellows +know what had happened to us. + +I had fifteen minutes to cover the distance. + +I ran. The shells, at that time, were falling at a rate, I should +judge, of five a minute. Opposite the Castle Steen I had a narrow +escape--just concussion, I suppose. Directly above me came a crash of +thunder. A few moments later I found myself lying in the street, head +pointing north--dazed. A bomb crashed through the eaves and tore a hole +as big as a small cellar in the street directly before the old castle, +bursting with the concussion of a tornado. For a few moments I sat on +the street feeling weak in the legs and unable to move. + +Again I started back to the Queen's. Two hundred yards east of the +bridge some soldiers held me up. + +"Get back!" they shouted, believing that I was making for the pontoon. +They turned me back, and I hesitated a moment. A terrible explosion, +louder than anything I had yet heard, rocked the city to its +foundations. For a moment the walls of the houses trembled and every +window on the waterfront was broken. The retreating Belgian army had +blown up that pontoon bridge and with it what then seemed the last hope +of escape for the few remaining survivors. For a few moments wreckage +writhed in midstream like a great sea creature in agony of death. + +Past me rushed groups of Belgian soldiers, the remainder of a few +hundred who had been left to cover the British and Belgian retreat, fire +the last shots from the forts, and spike the guns as the Germans +approached. Pitiable was the terror of these fellows when they saw the +bridge gone. Many of them were out of their heads through exposure and +exhaustion; not a few of them wept. One sergeant tore off his uniform +and fatigue cap and tried to exchange them for my citizen's clothes. + +The worst fire of the entire bombardment was concentrated during these +moments; the racket was stupendous. Because gunboats, barges, lighters, +tenders, rowboats, were commandeered by the military authorities to +ferry across soldiers and wounded there was slim chance for +noncombatants. Above the noise of bomb and shrapnel Belgian gunboats +added to the confusion by cannonading big boats along the quay. This +was done in order that the Germans might not make use of them for the +pursuit. It speaks volumes for my military knowledge that for a brief +moment I imagined the Germans had embarked upstream and were going to +make a river battle of it. + +By this time the American correspondents had left the Queen's, going +in different directions for different purposes. Hunt and Thompson, I +later learned, went to the American Consulate, where they stayed +during the German entry. + +For a moment I see-sawed up and down the river bank, remembering +I had left my handbag at the Queen's, but, infinitely more important, +that my knapsack with money belt and diary were in the keeping of a +peripatetic acquaintance somewhere along the crowded piers +downstream. Without that gold, the thousands of miles to New York +seemed doubly long. When I at last got back to the barge office a +dock-hand pointed to a bench in the corner; there to my intense relief +lay the knapsack, where my kind English intelligence officer had left it. + +A little later I managed to clamber on a river barge laden nearly +to the sinking point with Antwerp's peaceful burghers and their +dumb-looking women and children. Slowly--very slowly--we steamed out +of the haze of powder and oil-laden smoke, through long lines of +gunboats and a flotilla of drifting scows packed to the gunwales like +our own, and past Fort St. Philippe, whose garrison were at that +moment heaving tons of powder into the river. + +A few miles farther downstream they landed us on the northern bank +of the Scheldt near the little town of Liefkenshack. Here I began a few +miles of walking, occasionally varied by ox-cart locomotion. + +I was traveling with nothing but a knapsack (my suitcase had to be +abandoned) and therefore moving faster than the crowd. At one +point, for the sake of company, I joined a group and took a turn at +shoving the family wheel-barrow. They poured out thanks in the +guttural Flemish tongue, then loaded me with bread and bits of +mouldy pie. When that was not accepted they feared for their +hospitality. They talked and I talked, with a result that was hardly +worth the effort. Finally, after a conference, one of the group +disappeared into the crowd and returned leading an eight-year-old +boy. + +"Me talk American," said the boy. "We two speak together?" + +And so we talked, for the road was long and weary. + +Their advance was so gradual that, although I did not leave Antwerp +until the bombardment was over, I caught up with the army of +refugees before Roosendaal, just across the Dutch border. + +Here Holland opened out her arms. The kindness of the Dutch--as +yet personal, unorganized endeavor--was beyond conception. + +Churches, houses, public halls, stations were thrown open to the +multitude. You saw hundreds of Dutch soldiers join in the procession, +lift babies and bundles, and walk with them for miles. At Dordrecht, +when the trains came through, peasants passed scores of babies' +milk-bottles into the cars. When a jolly-looking Dutch girl, with a great +big gleaming smile that reminded me of some one, gave me milk and +chocolate, the tears began to trickle down my cheeks. I suppose it +was the reaction, or because I was tired, or, perhaps, because the +crowd was cheering and waving at us. For the others there were piles +of bread, Dutch cake, and, best of all, some good, long drinks of +water. For ten days Antwerp's water supply had been cut off. Von +Beseler, German siege commander, had seen to that. + +At Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal people used the walls of the +houses for post-offices. They wrote their names in chalk letters, giving +directions to relatives lost in the scramble. + +After ox carts, rowboats, and river barges had done their share, a +Dutch-Belgian "Stoom Tram" joggled us along for a few miles. Some +more walking and a little running before I at last crawled aboard a +twenty-car freight and passenger train moving slowly toward the east. + +At the first telegraph office across the Dutch border, I filed a cable +story to the "Boston Journal"; and later started an account for the +"New York Evening Post." I had an idea that I would score a "beat" or +"scoop" so that the people of the Back Bay could read of Antwerp's +fall over their coffee-cups the next morning. My cable account had too +much inside information. There were in it too many facts concerning +Winston Churchill's visit, also information about the number of Royal +Marines engaged, none of which it was thought proper to give out at +that time. So the English censor refused to let it through. That, +however, did not prevent the Dutch Cable Company from pocketing +my two hundred guilders. + +By the time I reached Rotterdam the word "refugee" had assumed a +new and altogether nearer meaning. I had been in a besieged and +captured city; I had mixed with homeless and starving people; I had +seen houses crumble and burn; and ghastly human figures with their +insides oozing away and the eyes staring vacantly. + +As I lay in bed that night I could hear, and I still can hear, the scruff, +scruff, and shuffle of feet as the compact body of this army--the +army without guns or leaders--dragged slowly past my window at +the Queen's, the tinkle of ox-cart bells, the talk and babble of guttural +tongues; the curses of the team drivers, the frantic cries of mothers +who had lost their children in the scramble, the cries of young children +who didn't know what was wrong, but realized in their vague, childish +way that something terrible was happening. + +I could see, and I still can see, those big Belgian hounds sniffing +along the outskirts of the crowd and plainly advertising for an owner; I +can see other hounds with their heads thrown back wailing at the +door of their deserted and abandoned homes. And I can see the +Dutch border where Holland opened out her arms, and the Dutch +peasants gave us rye bread and sandwiches and good long drinks of +welcome milk. + +Sometimes I can sit with my legs dangling over the stern of that old +towboat barge on which I finally made my escape, and can visualize +the blue-gray spire of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, standing, it +seemed to me, a quiet sentinel over the ruins of the tortured city; and, +then, as the old barge sweeps around the river's bend, I can look +back upon the last of Antwerp's story written in flaming letters of red +against the early morning sky. + + + + +Chapter VII + +Spying On Spies + + + +Less than forty-eight hours after the fall of Antwerp the wave of +helpless humanity whose crest broke on the Belgian border had +rolled over the entire length and breadth of Holland. Thousands of +Belgian refugees wandered as far north as The Hague, where +various Dutch relief committees and the American Legation at The +Hague did their best to house the homeless and relieve the suffering. +Dr. van Dyke rolled up his sleeves still farther and strained to solve +the problem of the unemployed, sometimes, when a case interested +him, turning his own pocket inside out. + +Eight days after the Antwerp bombardment, I left The Hague for my +second trip into Germany. + +Just before my start Captain Sunderland, U.S.A., at the head of the +American Relief Committee at The Hague, asked me to help him in +taking charge of two carloads of grain, which were to go across the +German border and be distributed among the starving Belgians at +Liege. England had agreed not to interfere with food supplies, +provided the United States saw that they did not fall into German +hands in Belgium. The present job required sleeping in the freight +cars and saying, in one form or another, "Hands off!" to every spiked +helmet that tried to interfere. Captain Sunderland could speak no +German, and as I had already been over the same territory and had +had some experience with the military authorities, he wished me to +accompany him. + +I decided, however, to go into the interior of Germany. I had already +seen three armies in the field, and had watched, more or less closely, +the people of two warring nations. I was now particularly anxious to +study the German point of view, and if possible get to the front with +the Crown Prince's army. + +For such a purpose I considered that I carried good enough +credentials. In addition to a packet of mail for Ambassador Gerard, +my letter from ex-President Roosevelt, and my United States +passport, which had been vised by Herr von Mueller, German +Ambassador at The Hague, I now carried a special laissez-passer +which Mr. Marshall Langhorne had been kind enough to secure for +me from the same legation. I had a letter from Count von Bernstorff, +whom I had seen the night he arrived in America, and a letter from +Herr von Biel, Secretary of the German Embassy at The Hague, +recommending me to the Foreign Office in Berlin. Professor Hugo +Munsterberg had taken the trouble to send me a note to Dr. R. W. +Drechsler, head of the American Institute in Berlin, and I had also a +letter to the head of the University of Berlin. + +It was a five-hours' run from The Hague to Bentheim, a small country +village on the German frontier. The train stopped a quarter of a mile +north of the border. Dutch officials came aboard to examine +passports and baggage of every passenger. They were good-natured +and talkative, and did not go minutely into details, as those leaving +the country were less carefully watched than "immigrants." Me, +however, they mistook for an Englishman (as was usually the case in +Germany) and told me I could not cross the frontier. A Dutch +manufacturer, with whom I had struck up an acquaintance, explained +my identity, and the official, who looked astonished, waved me ahead +with a doubtful expression, as much as to say, "On your own head be +it, young man." + +That first night passed without trouble. At the border station we lined +up, immigrant fashion, and went through an inspection by a number +of the businesslike German militariat attached to the Zollamt, or +customs service. For ten minutes I stood in suspense while a +fiery-looking officer, with a snapping blue eye, looked through my +credentials in silence. He wrote my name in a notebook, looked +through my eye as if he would read my very soul, and then, without a +remark, passed me on. I filed through a narrow gate--and so into +the Realms of the Kaiser. + +It was now eleven o'clock at night and the Berlin express came +through Bentheim at 7.45 the next morning. We stayed at a little inn, +somewhat resembling the Wayside Inn, at Sudbury, Massachusetts. +Here I fell in with a German manufacturer whom I had seen several +weeks before as we were bringing the good news from Ghent to Aix. I +was surprised at this man's change of opinion regarding the conflict. +On the first occasion he laughed outright at the idea of an extended +fight. Now, all through his arguments, he repeated such phrases as, +"Well, if Germany doesn't win," or, "Suppose the war does last two +years," etc., etc. + +In the morning I had a peculiarly disagreeable experience at Lohne, +some distance from the German frontier, where we had again to +change trains en route to the capital. Experience had by this time +taught me, when thrown with people on the road, to show them my +papers and make my identity known as soon as possible. + +I therefore clung pretty closely to my argumentative German +acquaintance of Bentheim and Aix. During the melee of changing +cars I was, however, separated from him, and became engaged in +conversation (spoken in English) with a Dutch chocolate merchant. +The argument must have been interesting, for I did not at first notice a +crowd of twenty or thirty travelers and villagers gathering around us: I +did, however, notice when they began to push and jostle in a manner +obviously intended for insult. When I tried to retreat the exits were +locked. The crowd, convinced that I was an English spy, closed more +compactly and manhandled me off toward an officer on the street +behind the platform. My hat was knocked off, and for a brief moment I +recalled the lynching anger which I had seen in the eyes of Belgian +mobs, as German spies in Antwerp were being led to the police +station. + +At the last moment my rescuer came in the shape of the German +friend of Bentheim, who broke through the mob and whispered in my +ear, "Speak German. Always speak in German, you fool!" + +I admitted the soft impeachment. + +"Ich bin ein Amerikaner--ein correspondent," I explained to the row +of angry faces; and while my German friend soothed and reassured +his testy compatriots, I moved away, glad enough to escape another +visit to jail. Those personally conducted jail tours were not so bad, I +had found, with a handsome gendarme at your side; but a howling +crowd was altogether another matter. + +I reached the capital that night. One of my letters says, a few days +later:-- + +"The atmosphere is oppressive to the Anglo-Saxon visitor. His looks, +his manner, his accent betray him as one of the English-speaking +pest, and the crowd, with its mind so full of English hatred, does not +readily distinguish the American. So drop into a word of English in a +cafe: your neighbor glowers and draws away. You face it out with a +nonchalant air, but gradually the tension grows, especially when, as +happened to-day at the prisoners' camp at Zossen, twenty miles +south of Berlin, a great burly Prussian puts a menacing eye on you +and says, without introduction: 'It is very dangerous for an +Englishman here!' + +"Day by day here the hatred grows of England and things English: +judging from the press and the temper of the people, one would think +that England is the only foe. As a nation and as individuals they bear +no particular malice toward France. They even feel sorry for +'misguided' Belgium--betrayed by the British, they say. But England +they look upon as the root of all their trouble, the despicable, +retreating enemy they cannot touch, the enemy, they maintain, +whose clever, but selfish, diplomacy has forced the brunt of the +fighting on the others, while she sits back to wait for the spoils." + +On my arrival in Berlin I delivered the mail packet to Ambassador +Gerard. Two days later I presented my credentials at the Auswartige +Amt, or Foreign Office, hoping to get permission to go to the western +front with the Crown Prince's army. I was told to see Baron von +Mumm Schwartzenstein, who was officially designated by Von Jagow +to handle neutral correspondents, and who, unofficially, I have reason +to believe, is connected with the Secret Service. He is a pudgy sort of +man, with a watery skin, and decidedly not of military build or bearing. +When, after much red tape, I was finally admitted to an outer office, +he stepped out to see me, merely taking my name and the names of +the papers I represented. I was told to come back in the evening. +When I did so and was admitted to His Holy of Holies, he said to me +at once:-- + +"I was expecting you to come yesterday. Why did you not?" + +This was rather startling, but his next remark altogether took away my +breath. + +"Were you satisfied with your treatment by the War Office in Brussels, +Herr Green? And why, if you have already been wiss ze army in +scenes of war, do you now come to me for permission?" + +Mind you, I had at this time spoken scarcely a word, and had certainly +told nothing of my age or previous condition of servitude in Brussels. +But the Government that never forgets knew all about my +movements. He smiled at my discomfiture, and, within the next few +minutes, proved to be such a genial German (for war-time) that I +soon told him all about my adventures, including the fact that I had +gone back into Antwerp and entered Belgian lines, after escaping +from German surveillance at Aix. I happened to speak of the +marvelous efficiency and preparedness of the German army in +Belgium. + +"Yes, that iss quite so," remarked His Excellency, with a smile. "You +see, we were prepared for everysing--except," he added after a +pause,--"except ze invasion of ze American newspaperman. When +he iss out of our sight, zen we do not feel secure." + +Several weeks later, after I had come out of the Kaiser's realm, a +representative of the "Boston Journal," who had been looking for me +all over the Continent, ran me down just as I was leaving The Hague +for England. + +"The Foreign Office in Berlin told me where to find you," he said. +"They told me that in Berlin you had stayed first at the Esplanade, and +then you had moved to the Kaiserhof. They said you had left the city +[this was when I went out toward Poland], that you had returned to +Berlin, and that on such and such a date at 8.45 you had departed for +The Hague."!! + +The military and civil authorities looked upon the correspondent as an +embryo spy. And if the correspondent's sympathies were foreign, he +was a thousand times worse than the ordinary spy, because he could +make use of the cable and press to spread his information. + +While waiting in Berlin for a chance to go to the front, I became, +therefore, more and more conscious of surveillance. Whether it was +the fact of being so much alone, or due perhaps to an unfortunately +English-like appearance, I do not know. At all events, the long arm of +the Secret Service continuously cast a shadow over my shoulder: I +even became suspicious of myself. + +For one who has not been through the experience it is difficult to +appreciate the strain of such constant, unending suspicion. On July +17,1912, I stood beside the body of Herman Rosenthal, the gambler, +as it lay in the coffin in the parlor of his house in the Tenderloin. My +newspaper had sent me to "cover" the funeral, and I managed, +because of some previous knowledge of the household, and by +giving the impression of a mourner, to gain access. The murderers +had not yet been caught. Because the public knew nothing of "Lefty" +Louie, or "Gyp the Blood," or even of the late Lieutenant Becker, it +was common gossip that the criminals lurked in the neighborhood, +and that, in order to avoid suspicion, they would appear among the +chief mourners. Therefore, each eye was turned against its neighbor, +and each man, as he passed you, asked the silent question,--"Did +you shoot Herman Rosenthal?" During all the months on the +Continent, and particularly in Germany, I felt myself at Rosenthal's +funeral. + +To a greater or less degree other correspondents had similar +experiences. I must mention one or two of them, in spite of the fact +that they may dim the importance of my own adventures. There was +Swing, of Chicago, German by relationship and sympathy, who +championed the Kaiser's cause and in his dispatches blew the +Teuton horn in the Middle West of America. Swing was given +exceptional privileges, including a typewriter and telephone near the +Foreign Office. Yet Swing himself was constantly shadowed, and it is +a fact that every time he used the telephone (and he was never +permitted to speak in English) a Secret Service agent cut in on the +wire to listen to the conversation. + +An anecdote which I have heard in connection with the same +correspondent, although I do not vouch for its accuracy, shows that +"keeping the lid" on newspaper men had its humorous side. It +likewise indicates the initiative and aggressiveness of many American +correspondents, who, as a rule, went right ahead in the face of +military regulations, in some cases risking their lives, and in almost +every case refusing to be "bluffed out," even where the threatened +penalty was death. Swing had made his way to the battle front near--- +-----, where he was taken into custody and brought before Von +Mumm, then on a visit to Staff Headquarters. + +"I find one of your countrymen wizin ze army lines," is the way +Excellency von Mumm is reported as telling the story, "and I say to +him, 'Herr Swing, it iss strongly forbidden zat a newspaper man come +to ze front. It is not permitted zat any one come here; you must go +away.' + +"Very goot, Excellency," said Swing. + +"Ze next day I am extr-r-remely sorry to encounter ze same +chentleman, and I say to him, 'Go away at once. If you are not gone +in one hour you will be shot!' + +"Very goot, Excellency," answered Herr Swing. "Auf wiedersehn." + +"Zat Very afternoon, to my sur-r-r-prise and gr-r-reat astonishment, I +see him again. He was still in ze army lines. And I say to him, 'Now I +have you! This time you will be shot at sunrise!' + +"And he look at me and say:-- + +"'Very goot, Excellency. Zat make perfectly bully story for my paper.' + +"And I look at him for a minute, and I do not know whether to shoot +him or to laugh. + +"And you know, I cannot help myself but to laugh." + +And finally there was the case of Cyril Brown, staff correspondent of +the "New York Times" in Berlin, with whom I floundered through the +maze of official red tape and military snares that entangled the +reporter at the German capital. Brown is an individual with a sense of +humor and a Mark Twain penchant for ten-pfennig cigars. He takes +his work seriously, but, unlike most war correspondents, not himself. +After some interesting freight-car adventures of his own planning, he +reached the Grosser Hauptquartier, a small city on the Meuse, where +at that time the brain of the German fighting machine was located. +This most vulnerable spot of the entire German Empire was, +paradoxically, in France. The Kaiser, the King of Saxony, the Crown +Prince of Germany, and Field Marshal von Moltke were here holding +council of war. It was therefore of utmost importance to conceal the +locality. Neutral correspondents were not allowed: the German press, +even if it knew, would not dare to breathe its whereabouts. When +Brown by strategy got inside the red-and-white striped poles which +marked the entrance to the Over War Lord's quarters, he was at once +arrested and taken before Major Nikolai, head of the Kaiser's +bodyguard and chief of the field detectives. + +It was late at night, and it was determined that Brown should go on the +first military Postzug, which left at 7 A.M. If he was not gone by that +time there were terrible threats of what would happen to him. + +It so happened that the day was the Crown Princess's birthday. Soldiers, +grenadiers, and servants of the Kaiser's household celebrated the fact. +Brown evaded his intoxicated sentinels and deliberately missed the +train. The following morning Major Nikolai discovered him behind the +guardhouse, himself feigning intoxication. Major Nikolai was about to +throw Brown into jail "for the duration of the war" when the young man +answered:-- + +"But, Major, I overslept. What loyal German could possibly remain sober +on the Crown Princess's birthday?" + +"Gott im Himmel!" exclaimed the major, bursting into a laugh; "vatever +can be done mit such a man?" + +To-day Brown has free run of the Foreign Office and the War Office in +Berlin, and is sending to his paper, in my humble opinion, the best +information obtainable in this country on the way in which the German +civil and military mind views the "crisis" with the U. S. A. + + + + +Chapter VIII + +The Sorrow Of The People + + + +I was conscious of a distinct break between the crisp, official +atmosphere of Berlin--where the war hurts least and the mechanical +appearance of success is strong--and the sentiment of the rank and file +of people whose suffering, as the war continued, became a more and more +important factor. + +On the night of my second arrival in the capital I sat in the rear of a +motion-picture theater, just off the Friedrichstrasse. It was a long, +dark hallway, such as one may see in any of the cheaper "movies" on +Washington Street or Broadway, where the audience sits in silence broken +by the whirr of the cinematograph and in darkness pierced by the +flickering light upon the screen. The woman in the seat beside mine was +the typical Hausfrau of the middle class. She was, of course, dressed +in mourning: the heavy veil, which was thrown back, revealed the +expression so common to the German widow of to-day --that set, defiant +look which begs no pity, and seems to say: "We've lost them once; we 'd +endure the same torture again if we had to." + +It was a sad enough story that the reel clicked off, and about as +melodramatic as "movies" usually are. But the woman kept herself well +in hand, since the public display of grief is forbidden and they who +sorrow must sorrow alone. + +A Bavarian boy, as I recall it,--the youngest son,--runs away from home +to join his father's regiment in Poland. When his captain calls for +volunteers for a dangerous mission, the boy steps forward. For hours +they trudge over the snow until surrounded by a Cossack patrol. The +Bavarian boy, although having a chance to escape, goes back under fire +to succor his wounded comrade. Just as he is about to drag the comrade +into the zone of safety, a bullet pierces his lung. For two days he +suffers torture on the snow. The body is found and brought home to his +mother. + +Now and then the widow next me bit her lip and clenched her fist, but +she gave no other sign of emotion. Another film was thrown on the +screen, humorous, I believe. Suddenly the woman began to laugh. She did +not stop laughing. It was a long, mirthless, dry, uncanny sort of +cackle. People stared. She laughed still louder. An usher came down +the aisle, and stood there, uncertain what to do. Hysterics had given +way to weeping: the tears were now streaming down the woman's face. She +tried to control herself, but could not, and then arose and between +choking sobs and laughter fled from the darkened room out into the +Friedrichstrasse. + +I mention this incident--the sort of thing that must have existed +everywhere, if one had eyes to see it--merely because it gave a glimpse +through the veil of public optimism into the wells of sorrow hidden for +the sake of public duty. Military and official Berlin was "staged," one +might almost say. It was on show to impress the neutral stranger, no +less than its own inhabitants, with the glorious sense of victory. + +But beneath it lay untold suffering which could be endured only because +of such united loyalty and team play as the world has seldom seen. + +This undercurrent of suffering, which increased week by week as the +writing on the wall grew longer, was in pitiful contrast to the +enthusiasm with which the women sent their men and sons away to war. +More than once I watched troops drilling at Spandau Hof, the great +barracks and training-grounds, a few kilometers west of the city. When, +on the evening of my first visit, a half dozen battalions of Landwehr, +just whipped into shape, entrained for the front, the people threw bits +of earth upon them, and, according to custom, stuck green twigs in the +end of every Mauser barrel, that each man might carry a bit of the +Vaterland with him on to the enemy's soil. In unspotted field uniforms, +and helmets still without the green-gray canvas service covering, they +clattered past the reviewing officers, each right leg coming down with +the thumping goose-step salute, until halls and barracks echoed with the +staccato tread of thousands of hob-nailed boots. The lusty military +band blazoned out "Die Wacht am Rhein" and other martial airs, until the +creepers began to run up and down your back and you felt a lump rising +in your throat. Friends, relatives, widows, mothers already in black +for other sons, and more than the usual hurrahing crowd had gathered +under the arch leading to the railway track. As the close-locked fours +went through the gate, the people broke the ranks and pounded each man +on the back, while all the time the crowd was shouting. + +I asked my neighbor what they were calling. + +A German friend in the group explained: "The people shout +'congratulations!'" + +At that moment a Red Cross train returning with twenty carloads of +wounded stood on the siding. Scores of bandaged heads and limp arms +stuck out of the windows,--these were the slightly wounded, --and even +the half-dead figures strapped to the cots turned feebly toward the +marching troops. Most of these also waved, and those who were +physically able shouted the same words--"Bravo!" "Congratulations!" +"Bravo!!" + +That is the way after many months of war that the women and children +send their men away--no regrets, no holding back. "Good luck! Good +work! You've got a chance to die for Germany!!" + +Such a spirit, and with it a sincerity of purpose that could only come +from the conviction of right, is typical of the rank and file of +citizens. It cannot fail to impress the neutral stranger, though he has +traveled far in other countries at war and seen and lived with their +citizens and soldiers. One was forced to believe that the militarists +acted in conformity with the feelings of the whole people, and that this +hideous war was not merely the result of personal ambition. Except, of +course, among the soldiers the belief was most noticeable among the +lower classes. One found it among the peasants, one's neighbor in the +day coach, the artisan, the shopkeeper. You might reason with a +professor, a doctor, or perhaps an official in the Foreign Office at +Berlin. But it was not safe to try it on a sturdy peasant with three +sons on the firing line. It was like telling a man his mother is no +better than she should be. + + +From the Log + +"Among both fighters and those left at home, there is distinctly less of +the matinee hero business than in either England or France. The high +official in the civil government who said that the women were the best +fighters in the German army was not so far from the truth. The pluck of +the women is astonishing. There isn't the slightest display of sorrow +or call for sympathy. You see them everywhere in the streets, cafes, +and shops of Berlin; not in such great numbers, however, as in the +lesser provinces and the smaller towns, where the drain of men is +enormously heavier. + +"Later: Have been twice to the Casualty List Office, or Information +Bureau, where the names of the verwundet und gefallen are posted -- +column after column, company after company, regiment after regiment of +fine black type--nothing more or less than a printer's morgue, crowding +into one dark hallway the cemetery of a nation. There were fathers, +mothers, brothers, and children quietly and unemotionally scanning the +lists. It took me back to the terrible week at the White Star offices, +after the Titanic went down. At that time the relatives wept (some of +them) and nearly all harangued the officials, asking questions, sending +telegrams, begging for news. Here they look for the names of their +dead,--that's all,--and then go out without a question. You can't ask +questions of a Government! The Titanic lasted a week, and this goes on-- +God knows how long! + +"Had supper with Brown. Later a mother in black and a girl, also in +black (the daughter, or daughter-in-law, I should judge), came into the +Heiniger ( ?) Cafe while I was sitting there. For three quarters of an +hour they listened to the music, neither of them, I'll swear, speaking a +word. Then they paid twenty-five pfennigs for their beer and went out, +--still silent,--and the Ober bowed low and very respectfully. I asked +the waiter who they were, and he said the woman had that day heard of +the death of C... her fourth son. Something like the Bixby woman to +whom Lincoln wrote his famous letter. And there must be, literally, +thousands of them. + +"This people is terribly in earnest,--deluded, of course, with devotion +to a false idea, but it is the delusion that spells accomplishment. The +country is earnestly and honestly possessed with an Idea, and the idea +is that Might is Right. That is the awful pity of it. When will the +awakening come? + +"Later: To-day I had an interview of three quarters of an hour with Herr +Dr. R. W. Drechsler, head of the American Institute, attached to the +University of Berlin. To-morrow I hope to see Excellency von Harnach, +president of the University of Berlin, to whom I have a letter. Dr. +Drechsler was kind, agreeable, extremely interesting. He showed me some +New York newspapers--the first real news of the war I have had for +weeks. The 'Tribune' and 'Times' had an account of us fellows down in +the cellar at Antwerp. Drechsler and I had an interesting argument, and +before I left he deluged me with pamphlets and literature for the +improvement of my mind and sympathies. Even so he was unlike the +average German. As a rule they have attempted to cram their arguments +down my throat. These Teutons think they can force you to believe. + +"Dr. Drechsler and the proprietor of the Kaiserhof, and, of course, the +Foreign Office warned me that it was forbidden to go to the prisoners' +camps, either at Zossen or Doeberitz. Some correspondents had been +taken on 'personally conducted' tours; but because of misinformation +sent out the tours were no longer in vogue. So I thought that I would +risk it, without permit, and, wishing to take a swing through rural +Germany, I decided to visit the camp at Zossen, twenty-five kilometers +south of the capital. When the guards weren't looking, I slipped boxes +of cigarettes through the barbed-wire fence to Irish privates, and +listened to the talk of captured Cossacks, and watched the British +Tommies kicking around a 'soccer' football, squabbling about fouls and +penalties, and as much excited about the score as if they were at home +on Hampstead Heath." + +It was chiefly in my wanderings through rural Germany that I was able to +rub elbows with the rank and file of citizens, and to get that barometer +of public feeling which Colonel Roosevelt, I believe, has called the +barber-shop opinion. I think I am justified in saying that during the +winter there were many evidences, too many to be overlooked, that a +growing minority, suffering through loss of life and realizing the +territorial advantages which are now Germany's, earnestly longed for +peace on any reasonable terms. The sooner peace came, they felt, the +better would be the strategic position of the Vaterland. Some of this +minority, in addition to the women, were business men, or professors, or +merchants, or doctors. + +It was not far from Hanover, where you change cars for Cologne and Aix- +la-Chapelle, dispatching-centers of the troops for the northern line of +battle, that the Frankfort doctor in the seat next mine began to talk. +He was an oldish man over sixty, dressed in mourning, and careworn. He +had been to Berlin, he said, to verify the report of his son's death, +and was now headed for Aix, where the body lay. + +After Uhlman, the fat merchant, left, we were alone in the second-class +compartment, and the doctor got up and shut the door on the noise of +Landwehr soldiers singing in the section of the troop train attached +behind the car. Presently he showed me two postals from his boy. They +were the stereotyped cards allotted to the men on the field: on one side +space for the address, on the other side the printed word "well," space +for the date (but no locality), and the signature. The third card was a +casualty report, signed, probably, by the company captain, with the +three printed words "slightly wounded," "wounded," and "severely +wounded." The first and last were scratched out, but after the word +"wounded" was written, "condition low." + +The boy must have held out--because the body was sent to Aix--until well +along the homeward Red Cross trip. During the Antwerp bombardment, at +Brussels, Liege, and Louvain, I had seen scores of the wounded, and had +myself slept on those trains with their households of blood and pain and +ether, and their long lines of mail cars, box cars, and converted tram +cars fitted with their triple rows of berths, one above another. As the +old doctor talked, I could see the wheeled hospitals stealing into the +city in the darkness--for the troops go off with bands and holiday +accompaniment, but the return is made at dead of night, that the public +may not know the human cost. + +"We must have peace," the doctor finished, "and we must have it soon. I +do not say this because I have lost a son, and I do not say it alone. +There are thousands who feel it just as much, but they are afraid to +speak what is in their mind. You are a traveler from the great city +[Berlin], and you do not know what war means. All you have heard is the +talk of fight and victory and glory, and that is all you see if you do +not look close. You must live in the smaller cities, must see the +villages and farms without men, and you must come with me and see the +homes without husband or son." For the third time he interrupted himself +to ask:--"You are Amerikaner--yes? And why do you come?" + +"To see the war and find out what the German people think." + +"Then go home and tell your country what I think and say, and many +others like me." + +It was not easy to forget his tears and final words as he came up on the +platform at Hanover, and, looking around to see that no one overheard, +whispered hoarsely: "Fangen sie ihre Propagande an, junger Mann, und +Gott starke ihre Bemuhungen"--"Start your peace propaganda, young man, +and Heaven help the undertaking." + +The southern part of this trip was not without its crop of stories, some +humorous, and some atrocious. It was impossible to verify the statement +of the Bavarian travelers who boasted of the treatment of English +prisoners en route to the detention camp. On one occasion sixty were +captured, they said, and only five brought home alive. The Bavarian +soldiers guarding them said with a laugh, "But they were tired, so we +had to shoot the rest"; and the officer answered with a wink, "What +happens to English prisoners need never be reported." One never needed +more one's sense of the probabilities. + +And there was the good-natured cavalry lieutenant who said the Germans +had found a way to keep their prisoners in training. "You see," he +explained, "we lock twenty of the 'red-trousers' [Frenchmen] and twenty +Englishmen in the same room at night and shut the windows. You know a +Frenchman can't stand air, and a Kitchener will die without it. So we +stand outside to watch the fun. First a window goes up, and then it +goes down, and pretty soon there are growls, grumbles, and oaths. In +ten minutes a terrible fight ensues; in half an hour the Frenchmen are +badly beaten,--they always are,--and twenty battered English heads come +sticking out the window for a breath of air." + +And finally there was the Landwehr captain's letter, a thing in keeping +with the tales which come across the Polish border. Westward, in +Belgium and in France, the fight was modern and of the day. Move +eastward from Berlin and you got the mediaeval note. It was not to be +found at the English prisoners' camp at Doeberitz, where the Germans +stare with infinite contempt and satisfaction at Tommy Atkins behind his +triple row of wire gratings. But wander among the thousands of captured +Cossacks building their own prisons at the camp at Zossen, hear them +muttering "Nichevo"--"this is fate"--"I do not care," and, listening to +the stories of their captors, you felt the atmosphere of centuries gone +by. One such was called to my attention in the form of a Prussian +captain's letter, which was, I believe, published in Berlin. Here is +his letter of the war in Poland, not long ago received by relatives. So +much as is not private is given as he wrote it:-- + +"The inhabitants go out of our way like frightened dogs, with childish +fear. When they wish to ask a question, they kneel down and kiss the +border of our coats, as in the days of the serf system. We are +stationed here in Poland, about eight kilometers from the so-called +road, in a so-called village far from all civilization. The village +consists of a number of tumble-down cottages, with rooms which we should +not consider fit for stables for our horses. The rain is streaming down +unceasingly, as if Heaven wished to wash away all the sins of the world. +Our horses sink into the mud up to their knees. + +"We took up our quarters in this village after fifty-four hours' +marching, and came just in time to witness the end of a strange and +tragic romance. When I was about to open the door of a farm, it was +opened from the inside, and a subaltern came out, with a face beaming +with satisfaction. He reported that a little while ago he, with a few +of his men, partly captured and partly shot down half a company of +Russians. + +"'We were concealed' he told me. 'We let them come quite near, and then +we started firing.' + +"We entered a low-ceilinged room, or pen, sparsely lighted by wax +candles. The first object which caught my attention was a youthful +Russian soldier, almost a child, lying on a straw mattress, smiling as +if asleep. I approached; I put my hand on his forehead ... ice-cold-- +dead. Some of the men approached to take off the clothing; others stood +around in a half-circle, silently looking on. Suddenly there was a +murmur... They seemed awe-stricken, these brave fellows, who are not +daunted even by overwhelming odds. They hesitated, and one of them, +advancing a few paces to me, reports: 'This Russian soldier is a girl.' + +"This happened in the year 1914. + +"We found out that the girl was the betrothed of a Russian officer, and +fought side by side with him throughout the campaign, until killed by a +shot in the breast. The officer was taken prisoner. I buried her +myself that same day..." + +In order to make clear what happened when I crossed the German border +for the last time, I should explain that I now had with me several +trophies which I had obtained with great difficulty and was +correspondingly anxious to bring home. Among them was a German +private's helmet and an original Iron Cross of the second degree. The +marking on the temple band of the helmet said, "48th Regiment, 4th Army +Corps, Company 7, No. 57, 1909-1914,"--meaning that the owner started +service in 1909 and the helmet was issued to him in 1914. It is +believed it belonged to a soldier who was either wounded or killed +outside of Antwerp. The Iron Cross has on it: "1870" (when the order +was started), and the letter "F" (Friedrich), and the date of its +issuance. I should add that I did not rob a dead or dying soldier of +these trophies, but I was asked not to show them in either Belgium or +England, nor to state how I came by them. And I have kept my promise. + +I had also a fragment of shrapnel casing from a 32 cm. shell--the only +bomb which hit the Antwerp Cathedral during the German attack. It was +given to me by Mr. Edward Eyre Hunt, who picked it up on the morning of +the German entry. There were also some Belgian bullet clips and a bit +of shrapnel picked up near the spot where I was knocked down by the +concussion of a bursting shell on that same morning. + +When I reached Bentheim we were put through the usual search by the +border patrol and military officials of the Zollamt. I had pinned the +Iron Cross to my undershirt, but the helmet was a bit bulky for such +treatment. + +"Take it out!" roared the officer who discovered the headgear wrapped in +a sweater in my rucksack. "Dass ist str-r-reng ver-r-rboten!" + +When I explained that I had come by it honestly, and wanted to take it +home, he burst into a passion. The fact that I showed a letter from Von +Bernstorff and explained that I was known in the Foreign Office in +Berlin made no impression whatsoever. The officer said that if the +owner was dead, the helmet could not even go to his family. It was +government property and should return, therefore, to the commissary +department. At all events, it must not leave the Empire. + +I missed my train and was kept in Bentheim overnight. In the morning I +again tried persuasion, but without success. As it was now a question +of myself or the helmet, I decided to get myself home. I went back once +more, and as a final chance put up this proposition to my officer. I +showed my credentials and explained that I was going to The Hague. +Would he in the mean time put my name on the helmet, and if within +forty-eight hours he received a wire both from the Foreign Office in +Berlin and The Hague Legation, would he send the helmet after me? He +glared at me for a moment. Yes, he said, he would. + +At The Hague I immediately visited the German Legation and told them of +the customs officer's promise. + +From bitter experience I realized that in war-time out of sight is lost, +so far as baggage is concerned. Consequently I had given up all hope of +my trophy. A week later, when I happened to be in Dr. van Dyke's study, +I noticed a conical-shaped object resting on one of the secretary's +desks. There, on top of a pile of letters, with "Herr Horace Green" +scribbled in German script on a piece of paper pinned to the green-gray +service covering, lay my dented, battered, and long-lost German +private's helmet! + +Simply because the fiery customs officer had given his word, the German +Legation at The Hague had telegraphed to Bentheim and also, I take it, +to Excellency von Mumm at Berlin; and the customs officials had shipped +the helmet to the Dutch capital, where the German Legation, obedient to +promise, had turned it over to the American Legation for delivery to me. +The whole proceeding seemed typical of the overbearing gruffness, the +systematic attention to detail, and at the same time the thoroughgoing +honesty of the German character. + +So I tucked the helmet under my arm, and, saying good-bye to Dr. van +Dyke and Mr. Langhome, who had made my stay at The Hague so pleasant, I +crossed the mine-strewn English Channel for Piccadilly Circus. + +Two weeks later I was aboard the Red Star liner Lapland, driven one +hundred miles out of her course through fear of German war craft, yet +pounding along through a thick fog and hopefully headed in the general +direction of the good old Statue of Liberty. + + + + +Appendix: Atrocities + + + +I gained the impressions given below and compiled many of the instances +on the now threadbare subject of atrocities during the time that I was +in the war zone. The opinions will not meet with favor in this country, +particularly at present, when we seem on the point of breaking +diplomatic relations with Germany. + +Nevertheless, I think these notes present a point of view which ought to +be known, if only for the purpose of showing the other side of the +shield--and of checking, to some extent, the nursery tales in regard to +personal atrocities, which become more fanciful the farther they are +told from the scene of reported occurrence. After the horrible +Lusitania crime and other evidences of German Schrecklichkeit for which +there can be no justification, it is hard for Americans to reason fairly +in questions involving Teutonic methods of warfare. I am therefore +appending the notes in spite of a rather careful study of the Bryce +Report on German atrocities in Belgium. They are, of course, to be +taken into consideration merely as the evidence of what one man happened +to see or as was often more the case, not to see. + +In order that there may be no misunderstanding, it is well to define the +meaning of the word "atrocity." + +I suppose all will agree with me that the term does not include what may +be called the necessary horrors of war--such as hunger and poverty +resulting from the destruction of homes and loss of livelihood, the +suffering of refugees driven by necessity from captured towns, +starvation through no fault of the invader, the accidental wounding of +noncombatant peasants, farmers, etc. For the present purpose the word +is intended to include all cases of unnecessary, unprovoked personal +cruelty, as well as, of course, the outraging of women. Such acts, for +example, as the reported gouging-out of the eyes of prisoners, cutting +off the wrists of children, the alleged stabbing of old women, cutting +off the wrists and ears of nurses, and the more refined cruelties of +which I have heard reports, are, it goes without saying, atrocities. +Let us examine one or two of these. + +Near Osnabruck, Germany, an American visitor, pacing up and down a +railroad siding early one morning, chewing a mouthful of stale sausage +meat between thick crusts of rye bread, heard a particular cruelty story +which may be used here as an example. It was told by an army surgeon +with whom he was having his peripatetic breakfast. On the track +alongside stood a so-called Red Cross train, consisting of a combination +of well-equipped hospital coaches with their triple rows of berths slung +one above the other as in a sleeper; attached in the rear were a few +coal carriages and freight trucks. This train was waiting for the +outbound traffic to pass by. You see, the outbound traffic consisted of +fresh troops, being rushed to the front in one of those quick +transcontinental shifts which have played so important a part in German +strategy. But the eastbound train carried only wounded and dying on +their way back home. So, of course, the hospital cars must wait as long +as necessary, since they had no right or standing in the ruthless game +called war. + +In the cheerless interior of one of these freight cars (much the same +kind of car as that in which we were confined during the trip from +Brussels to Aix--apparently used as a horse-stall on the previous trip, +and with no bedding beyond a damp pile of straw in one corner) the +American noticed a young German private. This particular fellow was not +wounded. He wore no bandages; he was the only occupant of the +horse-stall; and he paced up and down the boards, muttering, muttering, +continually muttering to himself. Now and then he snatched up a musket, +went through the form of fixing a bayonet, and again and again lunged +savagely at the wall of the car. + +The Red Cross surgeon to whom the American went for information +dismissed the matter casually by merely tapping his forehead with his +index finger. + +"Just one of those insane cases," he said. + +Later in the day on better acquaintance the surgeon explained the matter +in this fashion:-- + +"The fellow was quartered in a village near Lille, doing sentry duty on +a house occupied by German officers. There was an uprising of citizens. +From across the way native franc-tireurs fired shots into the house, +killing one officer and wounding a second. Tracing the firing across +the street, the remaining officers entered a bakery-shop where they +found several men and a woman, all armed. They ordered the men to be +shot. The woman had in her hand a revolver with one of the cartridge +chambers empty. The German lieutenant saw that she was about to become +a mother. He then explained the gravity of her offense, told her that +she was practically guilty of murder, and took away her weapon. But +under the circumstances he ordered her released instead of being shot. +He turned his back and walked away about five paces. Suddenly the woman +snatched another revolver from behind the counter and fired point-blank. +As he fell, the officer called out to his orderly, 'Bayonet the woman.' + +"The sentry did what he was ordered, but, you see, it has affected the +poor fellow's mind." + +This story, along with a few others, I have picked out from hundreds of +atrocity tales which I heard during four months spent in England, +Belgium, Germany, and Holland. It will serve as an example, not only +because it has the earmarks of truth,--having been told in an offhand +way merely as an explanation of the private's insanity,--but because it +is typical of the kind of incident which in the telling is, nine times +out of ten, twisted into atrocious and wholly unrecognizable form. + +Under the law of military reprisal was there justification for the death +of this woman? Was the dying officer guilty of barbarian conduct? And +did the private, ordered against his will to perform an act whose memory +drove him insane, commit an atrocity? Without answering the question, +let us consider for a moment how that particular anecdote would be told +by a Belgian partisan. In my wanderings through Termonde, Liege, and +Louvain, I heard tales--unspeakable and on their face utterly +unbelievable--of which this kind of thing must have been the foundation. + +When the body of this woman was found, let us say, by French peasants +returning to their ruined homes, think how the horrible fact would be +seized, without whatsoever there was of justification! How the British +and French papers would describe that mutilated form! Think of the +effect of a two-column word-picture of the wanton sack and ruin of the +town, the shooting of its helpless citizens, and the description of that +mangled body sacrified to the Huns! Think how the fact would be clutched +by fear-crazed inhabitants, would be bandied from mouth to mouth, +distorted and dressed up to suit a partisan press, and "twisted by +knaves to make a trap for fools"! + +One of the first atrocity accounts which I heard in Belgium, as well as +one of the most persistent, had to do with scores of children whose +wrists had been cut by the Kaiser's troops. Hundreds of them were +reported to be in Belgium and Dutch hospitals or in the care of relief +committees. The gossip was so prevalent and in some instances so +specific that I had high hopes of tracking down and seeing, with my own +eyes, an instance. In each case which I heard abroad, my informant's +husband or brother or best friend had seen the children; but somehow or +other it was never arranged that I could see one of them myself. This +type of cruelty was so widely talked about that in plenty of cases the +German soldiers believed that some of their men had committed these +crimes. One of them told me that he understood that near Tirlemont the +wrists of several young children had been cut. He said that thirty or +forty children and peasants had fired on and killed German troops +marching through a neighboring village. A squad was sent to round up +the offenders, all of whom were found armed. Instead of killing the +snipers, whose age was between ten and seventeen, the surgeons were +ordered to slice the tendons of the wrist so that the noncombatants +should be prevented from holding a gun or using a knife. + +Soon after my ship, the Lapland, docked in America, I heard a case of +whose verity, owing to the source from which it came, I had no doubt. +The refugee in question, according to my informant, was an English +nurse, and lay with both wrists cut off at a well-known New York +hospital on Madison Avenue. She had been in Brussels at the time of the +German entry, and, being willing to work for the sake of humanity +wheresoever there were sick to care for, she had nursed wounded German +officers. Eventually, with a handful of English nurses still remaining +in Brussels, she had been deported to Holland, because it was feared +that German secrets were leaking out in letters sent by these English +nurses. This latter part coincided so precisely with the facts which +during my stay in Brussels I had found to be true, that I had no doubt +of the whole business. On recovery the nurse was to exhibit herself and +lecture for Red Cross funds. I was told this in strict confidence and I +was to see and talk to the handless lady on condition that the "story" +should not reach the press. I agreed. But to my bitter disappointment +the ----- Hospital had never heard of the woman. My informant then +confessed that his informant had made a mistake in the name of the +hospital. I offered four persons ten dollars each to trace the matter +to its source, the final result being a telephone call from my informant +saying that an English lawyer now in New York stated that to the best of +his belief there was "some such person in a hospital somewhere in New +Jersey." + +Merely for what they may be worth, and not in any sense as conclusive, I +mention the cases which came to my attention. During a month spent in +that part of Belgium where the most savage of the atrocities were +reported,--a month devoted to a diligent search for the truth,--I could +run down only two instances where the facts were proved, and where taken +all in all and looked at from both sides they constituted an atrocity. +I lived in an atmosphere of popular apprehension frequently amounting to +terror. A friend of mine saw children throw up their hands in terror +and fall down on their knees before a squad of German Uhlans who +suddenly dashed into a village near Vilvorde. The incident does not +prove that Uhlans are in the habit of acting atrociously; it does prove +the popular fear of them. Near the same town I investigated the case of +a peaceful villager, reported in the current conversation of the story +to have had his ears cut off and to have been finished off with a +half-dozen bayonet wounds. This I got at first hand from the man who +had seen the body. I asked him how he knew the man had been bayoneted by +Germans. My informant said that he himself was running from the village, +where a skirmish was going on between a regiment of the enemy (Germans) +and Belgian carabineers, that he was racing for his life through a rain +of bullets, etc., etc., and that under fire of sharpshooters he stumbled +across this body. He did not know the man was dead; but the case +interested him. So later he went back (still under fire of the +sharpshooters) and counted the number of holes in the man's shirt; there +were six, he told me, and he was sure from the shape of the holes that +they were the result of bayonets, not bullets. + +At one time when driving from Ghent toward Brussels with Julius Van Hee, +the acting Consul-General of the United States at Ghent, we passed a +little hillock of ground upon which was a small square slab of stone, +topped by a pair of sticks--hardly more than sticks--in the shape of a +cross. There was a yarn floating around the neighborhood, which had +almost crystallized into legend, that this was the fresh grave of a +child murdered by the Germans because it refused to salute. They said +the feet had been cut off and the boy was left to bleed to death. +Conceivably the story was true. We did not stop, for we could not carry +the investigation to the point of digging up a fresh grave. + +On the evening previous Van Hee had gone over to his office to lock up +preparatory to our early start for Brussels. A woman of Louvain stood +on the doorstep. How on earth she had ever got back to Ghent, neither +Van Hee nor Luther, who was in Van Hee's office and who told me the +story, could make out from her incoherent words. She had been torn from +her family, driven from house and home with a mob of wretched women, and +shipped into Cologne, Germany. She was almost starved; several others +went mad for lack of water. She now believed herself a widow. Between +tears and hysterics she told how soldiers had entered her house, how two +of them had held her husband against the wall at the point of a +revolver, while "several" others in succession violated her before her +husband's eyes!! + +These stories are not pleasant. But in seeking the real facts one +cannot work with kid gloves. Of the hundreds I have heard I have +mentioned a few of those which show the kind of thing believed to have +occurred in the ravaged country. Of all those which I heard, the last +mentioned and the one at the head of this chapter--for which there was +justification--appeared to have the greatest probability of truth. + +During the first rush of war the German system of destruction, and the +doctrine of "awfulness," as I saw it applied to physical objects, was +barbaric, relentless, and totally unjustified. At Louvain, Aerschot, +and Termonde it was at its height. On the other hand, in the mind of an +impartial student of the facts there cannot be the slightest doubt that +at Louvain there was an organized attack on the invaders by snipers and +franc-tireurs armed with knives, guns, revolvers of every description. +A half-day spent en route from burning Antwerp with a Jesuit priest of +Louvain and the testimony of several villagers would have convinced me +of this, had I not already been convinced by the stories of other +survivors. + +The burning of villages is one matter, the outraging and torturing of +women and children another. The truth of the former should not in any +way convict a German officer, much less Private Johann Schmidt, of +unprovoked personal cruelty. + +There undoubtedly were, though I did not happen to see them, numerous +cases of unprovoked cruelty and other evidences of barbarity that are +bound to happen in any war of invasion. The fact that I, personally, +did not happen to see them, and have found scarcely a non-partisan +observer who did, is neither here nor there. I merely state the fact as +one of the many bits of evidence which should be taken into +consideration. I have no case for Prussian militarism in so far as +applied to inanimate objects. The German system of destruction in the +early part of the war was utterly without excuse or justification; the +wreck and desolation, the hunger and suffering of the larger portion of +Belgium are utterly beyond the comprehension of those who have not been +there. Certainly words cannot convey the impression. The suffering, +particularly during the weeks following the fall of Antwerp, was so +awful and on so large a scale that the senses refused to grasp it. It +has been said that in the Civil War Sheridan was commanded, in pushing +up the Shenandoah Valley, to leave the countryside in such condition +that a crow could not live on it. A sparrow could not have existed in +many parts of Belgium. + +At the same time it is true that because of the tortures endured by the +Belgian people, because of the pain and horror of the war of invasion, +much of it unavoidable, the American public, because its sentiment is so +strongly anti-German, has been willing to believe anything of the race +against whom runs its prejudice. Truly remarkable is the rapidity with +which atrocity stories have been created and the relish with which they +are swallowed by drawing-room gossips. Those who have seen the war do +not find it necessary to talk about what does not exist. Mr. Arthur +Ruhl, who has seen and carefully studied all sides of the war, applies +the term "nursery tale" to the average atrocity story. Mr. Irvin Cobb, +John T. McCutcheon, and others who have been on the ground also took +them with a grain of salt. Curiously enough, the closer one got to the +actual fight, the less bitter was the feeling between participants, the +greater their respect for one another, and the less credulous their +belief in the enemy's barbarity. + +An American who was recently discharged from seven months' service with +the British army tells me that during this time the only knowledge he +had of personal atrocities was through the British and French +newspapers. And there are well-known stories of opposing trenches so +closely situated that the soldiers taught each other their respective +national airs, and the choruses of their camp tunes. + +To return to another form of alleged outrage, we have the ancient +argument on the case of Rheims. + +An interesting contribution to the testimony has been given by Cyril +Brown, now special correspondent of the New York Times in Berlin. Brown +made his way to the German army lines before Rheims, where, among +others, he interviewed First Lieutenant Wengler, of the Heavy Artillery, +commander of a battery which shelled the church spire, but known among +his comrades as "the little friend of the Rheims Cathedral." According +to Lieutenant Wengler two shots only struck the church spire (one from a +fifteen centimeter howitzer, another from a twenty-one centimeter +mortar) and this after French observers had used the tower for five days +between September thirteenth and eighteenth. So sparing was this young +"barbarian," in spite of provocative fire obviously directed from the +French cathedral, that "the friend of the Rheims Cathedral" stuck to him +as a nickname. + +In America Brown's statement provoked a storm of retort. Allied +correspondents claimed that a dozen shots at least crashed through the +roof, set the scaffolding ablaze, and that, at a time when Red Cross +flags were floating from the tower and red crosses were painted on the +roof, shells continued to devastate the beautiful interior, etc., etc. +There has been a quantity of discussion back and forth as to the number +of shots fired. Now, so far as the question of atrocity is concerned, +though every one will regret the ruin of this noble work of art, I hold +that it is not of the slightest importance whether there were fired two +shells or seventeen or seventy-seven. The important and only question at +issue is, whether the tower was used for observation purposes, or, in +other words, was there military justification for its attempted +destruction? + +Military men, English as well as German, to whom I have talked, take it +as a matter of course that the highest spot in any locality is used for +observation. As an English officer in Antwerp put it, "If the French +did not use the church tower they are d------fools." + +By way of guide and for sake of likely comparison I can state what I +know did happen in two other cities: Termonde and Antwerp. In Chapter +II of this book I have told how we made our way across the broken bridge +at Termonde on the day of its second bombardment, and how that night +word came to us of the manner in which the Belgians took revenge on the +conquerors. I told how staff officers, entering with a scouting party +at the head of a German column, mounted the only remaining spire in the +town. With a few well-directed shots from their concealed batteries +west of the river, the Belgians destroyed the tower and killed the +officers. The Belgians took no little pride in their marksmanship on +that occasion, and boasted freely of it. In this case, the use, and +therefore the destruction, of the observation-post was looked upon by +the Belgians as a natural and necessary instance of the work of war. As +evidence, it is rather valuable because given unconsciously and without +motive. + +Likewise at Antwerp. In all probability the fact has never been +appreciated that during the bombardment of this city,--the most +important, from a military point of view, in Belgium,--the spire of the +Notre Dame Cathedral was used as an outlook-station by the Belgian +defenders, if not by both Belgians and English. On the inadvertent +testimony of English themselves I know this to be true. On the second +night of the Antwerp bombardment the Americans who had not left the city +were gathered in the almost deserted Queen's Hotel along the water +front. Some time during the evening, I don't remember just when, but it +was while the British retreat was going on, an English lad called Lucien +Arthur Jones burst in upon us. At no little risk he had dodged through +the deserted streets and falling shells, much elated over the view of +the enemy he had just got from the cathedral tower. + +"I've had bully luck," he confided to me, after I had done him a noble +service (i.e., lent him a safety razor). "Belgian signal officers took +me up to the tower, where they can see everything the Germans are +doing." + +The following is taken from his account--an Englishman's account-- +printed in the London Chronicle, and copied in the New York Times, +Tribune, and other papers:-- + +"I now return to the events of Thursday. At 12.30 o'clock in the +afternoon, when the bombardment had already lasted over twelve hours, +through the courtesy of a Belgian officer, I was able to ascend to the +roof of the cathedral, and from that point of vantage I looked down upon +the scene in the city. I could just discern through my glasses dimly in +the distance the instruments of culture of the attacking German forces +ruthlessly pounding at the city and creeping nearer to it in the dark. +At that moment I should say the enemy's front line was within four miles +of Antwerp. + +"From my elevated position I had an excellent view also of the great oil +tanks on the opposite side of the Scheldt. They had been set on fire by +four bombs from a German Taube, and a huge, thick volume of black smoke +was ascending two hundred feet into the air. The oil had been burning +furiously for several hours, and the whole neighborhood was enveloped in +a mist of smoke. + +"After watching for some considerable time the panorama of destruction +that lay unrolled all around me, I came down from my post of observation +on the cathedral roof, and at the very moment I reached the street a 28- +centimeter shell struck a confectioner's shop between the Place Verte +and the Place de Meir. It was one of these high-explosive shells, and +the shop, a wooden structure, immediately burst into flames." + + + +Recapitulation + +The destruction of towns and villages, and the vengeance against +inanimate objects shown in the German march through Belgium was +barbaric. It was provoked by organized resistance on the part of +Belgian franc-tireurs, and by shooting from behind shutters, etc., and +other attacks by citizens of the invaded country. The Germans, though +truthful in the statement of the causes, inflicted punishment out of all +proportion to the crime. + +The reports of unprovoked personal atrocities, it is nevertheless true, +have been hideously exaggerated. Wherever one real atrocity has +occurred, it has been multigraphed into a hundred cases. Each, with +clever variation in detail, is reported as occurring to a relative or +close friend of the teller. For campaign purposes, and particularly in +England for the sake of stimulating recruiting, a partisan press has +helped along the concoction of lies. + +In every war of invasion there is bound to occur a certain amount of +plunder and rapine. The German system of reprisal is relentless; but +the German private as an individual is no more barbaric than his brother +in the French, the British, or the Belgian trenches. + +The End + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Log of a Noncombatant, by Horace Green + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10918 *** diff --git a/10918.txt b/10918.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f5d2939 --- /dev/null +++ b/10918.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3500 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Log of a Noncombatant, by Horace Green + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Log of a Noncombatant + +Author: Horace Green + +Release Date: February 3, 2004 [EBook #10918] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOG OF A NONCOMBATANT *** + + + + + +THE LOG OF A NONCOMBATANT + +by Horace Green + +Staff Correspondent of the New York Evening Post +Special Correspondent of the Boston Journal + +1915 + + + + +Preface + +In the following pages the ego is thickly spread. Their publication is +the result of persuasion from many sources that, before returning to +the war zone, I should put into connected form my personal +experiences as correspondent during the first year of the War of +Nations. A few of these adventures were mentioned in news letters +from the Continent, where I limited myself so far as possible to +descriptions of armies at war and peoples in time of stress; but the +greater part of them were merely jotted down from time to time for my +own benefit in "The Log of a Noncombatant." + + + +Contents + +I. From Broadway To Ghent +II. The Second Bombardment Of Termonde +III. Captive +IV. A Clog Dance On The Scheldt +V. The Bombardment Of Antwerp +VI. The Surrender Of Antwerp +VII. Spying On Spies +VIII. The Sorrow Of The People + +Appendix: Atrocities + + + + +The Log Of A Noncombatant + +Chapter I + +From Broadway To Ghent + + + +When the war broke out in August, 1914, I was at work in the City +Room of the "New York Evening Post." One morning, during the first +week of activities, the copy boy handed me a telegram which was +signed "Luther, Boston," and contained the rather cryptic message: +--"How about this fight?" + +It was some moments before I could recall the time, more than two +years before, when I had last seen the writer, Willard B. Luther, +Boston lawyer, devotee of some, and critic of many kinds of sport. + +We had been sitting on that previous occasion--a crowd of college +fellows, including Luther and myself--in a certain room in +Cambridge, Massachusetts, not far from the University in that +neighborhood where Luther had attended the Law School and the +rest of us, on our respective graduation days, had received valuable +pieces of parchment with the presidential signature attached. The +conversation had already run through the question of Votes for +Women, progressive politics, and prize-fights, and before the card +game began it had settled on the last-named, chiefly because of my +own vainglorious description of adventures at Reno, Nevada, at the +time of the Jeffries-Johnson battle for the heavyweight championship +of the world. I remember telling with some gusto of my first +newspaper interview--one with "Bob" Fitzsimmons, then the Old +Man of the ring, and "Gentleman" Jim Corbett, who was Jeffries' +trainer at Reno. + +"I had always wanted to see that performance," said Luther, "and +would have gone in a flash if I could have got any one to make the +trip with me. But remember this fact: whenever the next big fight is +held I'm going with you." Later in the evening we shook hands on the +proposition. + +At the time that Luther's telegram came I was planning to start for the +Continent as Staff Correspondent of the "New York Evening Post" +and Special Correspondent of the "Boston Journal." Remembering +that Cambridge agreement I immediately wired:-- + +"Yes. This fight will do." + +So that is how it came to pass that Luther and myself boarded the +Campania together, landed in Liverpool, cast about for ways and +means of getting into the scrimmage, and for the first month and a +half of my four months of wandering on the Continent were brother +conspirators, until the duties of partnership called my friend home and +left me without a companion in adventure. + +In London we absorbed to some extent a heavy British fog and to a +greater extent British public opinion. We marveled at the exterior calm +of a nation plunged in the greatest of wars, yet fighting, so it seemed +at the time, with its top hat on and its smile still undisturbed. Across +the English Channel three days later the Dutch steam packet +Princess Juliana carried us safely through mine fields and between +lanes of British torpedo boats and torpedo boat destroyers. We +landed on the Continent at Flushing. Thence we headed for The +Hague, Holland, the neutral gateway of northern Europe, where we +found the American Minister, Dr. Henry van Dyke, and his first +secretary, Marshall Langhorne, shouldering the work of the American +Legation in its chameleonesque capacity as bank, post-office, +detective bureau, bureau of information, charity organization, and one +might even say temporary home for the stranded travelers of every +rank and nation. + +Antwerp, the temporary capital of Belgium, was at this time invested, +but not yet besieged, by the German army. On the south the city was +already cut off by several regiments of the Ninth and Tenth German +Army Corps under General von Boehn. The River Scheldt and the +Dutch border formed a wall on the north and west. It was to Antwerp, +therefore, that we determined to go. After listening to the usual flood +of warnings against entering the fighting zone, and drinking our fill of +stories of atrocity and hate which every refugee brought across the +border into Holland, we took a couple of reefs in our baggage, and, +hoisting our knapsacks, set our course for the temporary Belgian +capital. By rail we traveled south across the level fields and lush +green meadows of Holland, over bridges ready to be dynamited in +case of invasion, and through training camps of the 450,000 Dutch +soldiers then mobilized along the border. At a little town called +Eschen the train stopped because the Belgians had torn up the +tracks. + +Seated on the cross-piece of a joggling two-wheeled ox cart, moving +at the rate of not more than four miles an hour, with a dumb +specimen for a driver, and a volume of Baedeker for interpreter and +guide, we got our first glimpse of the hideous thing called war. +Judging from the looks of the country and the burning villages, we +were on the heels of a devastating army. For three, four, and five +miles on either side of the road beautiful trees lay flat upon the +ground. It was not until we saw groups of Belgian soldiers tearing +down their own walls and hedges and applying match and gasolene +to those which still stood, that we realized that this was a case of +self-inflicted destruction. Farmhouses, stores, churches, old Belgian +mansions, and windmills were either in flames or smouldering ruins. +Where burning had not been sufficient, powder and dynamite had +been applied to destroy landmarks which for centuries had been the +country's pride. As far as the eye could reach the countryside was +flattened to a desert. It reminded me of the Salem fire, through which, +while the piles of debris were still smoking, I had been taken in the +"Boston Journal's" car. But instead of a single town, here for twenty +miles along lay stretched a smouldering waste. The devastation was +for the defensive purpose of giving an unobstructed view to the +cannon of Antwerp's outer fortifications, which on that side covered +one sector of the circle swept by her enormous guns. I should +hesitate to mention the millions of dollars of self-inflicted damage to +Antwerp's suburbs alone. Luther and I did not at the time have the +military password. So that first day was a specimen in the matter of +hold-ups and arrests. From the time that we started across the level +plains which approach the city until we got through the double sector +of forts, we were stopped, questioned, and searched by thirteen +different groups of soldiers. There were marry occasions where, after +one pair of stupid sentries had put us through the grill, a second pair, +watching from a distance of thirty yards or so, promptly repeated the +entire performance. As these fellows spoke only Flemish dialect, our +conversations were not particularly fluent. Frequently there gathered +around us a crowd of gaping peasants, and when the word +"Americaine" came out, there were "Oh's" and "Ah" of astonishment, +or as often, when our explanations were not believed, sibilant hisses +that shaped themselves into the menacing word "Spion." We had +been led to believe that sooner or later a wool-witted sentry would +shoot first and investigate later; but so far they had simply crossed +bayonets, or with their hands up and palms outward had signaled us +to halt. + +Our experience that day, as later events proved, was not an +extraordinary occurrence for war-time, especially for those +endeavoring to gain entrance to an invested city. But as our first and +maiden adventure it somewhat shook our nerve. When the grilling +was over we felt about as guilty as any criminal who has been put +through the third degree as practiced in the old police department +days, and I had several times to look over my passport and letters of +credentials to persuade myself that I was really not a spy. Eventually +we were permitted to pass the gates of the Gare du Nord. Once +inside the city gates, we made our way into the Place Verte and went +directly to the Hotel St. Antoine, whose proprietor sent our names to +police headquarters. The St. Antoine was at that time the residence +of the diplomatic corps and the Belgian ministers of state, and was +fifty yards from the Royal Palace and across the street from +headquarters of the Belgian General Staff. + +There is no need of describing in detail Antwerp at the time of my first +visit. One or two pictures will suffice to give a rough idea of its +existence up to the time of the bombardment. Try to imagine, for +example, going about your business in New York or Boston or Los +Angeles (of course Antwerp is smaller than these) when your country, +a territory perhaps the size of the New England States, was already +two thirds overrun, burnt, smashed, and conquered by a hostile +nation, whose forces were now within nineteen miles of the gates of +the capital. Imagine that nation's warriors in the act of crushing your +tiny army, whose remnants were already exhausted and on the verge +of despair. Then picture a quaint, sleepy city, with shadowy alleys and +twisting, gabled streets, in which every other store and house was +decorated with King Albert's picture or draped in the red, black, and +yellow banner of the country-a city whose atmosphere was charged +with fear and suspicion and excitement. Sometimes a crowd of a +thousand or two drew one toward the Central Station where +bedraggled refugee families, just arrived from Liege, Termonde, +Aerschot, and Malines, stood on street corner or wagon top and +thrilled the crowd with tales of atrocities and the story of their flight +from their burning homes to the south. Now and then the crowd +parted before the clanging bell of a Red Cross ambulance rushing its +load of bleeding bodies to the hospitals along the Place de Meir. +Nurses, male or female, clung to the ambulance steps. The first one I +saw made a vivid impression on me. She was an English-looking girl +in a new khaki skirt, supporting with one hand what was left of a +blood-dripping head,--the eyes and nose were shot away,--while +out of the other hand she ate with apparent relish a thick rye-bread +sandwich. Occasionally she waved remnants of the sandwich at the +gaping crowd. It struck me as a peculiarly unnecessary exhibition of +her callous fitness for the job of nurse. + +During the daytime the ordinary things of life went on, for the good +burghers and shopkeepers went about their business as usual, and, +generally speaking, fought against fear as bravely as the soldiers in +the trenches stood up against the German howitzers. It was only after +dark (when martial law permitted no lights of any kind) that the city +seemed to shiver and suck in its breath; doors were barricaded, iron +shutters came down, and behind them the people talked in whispers. +Military autos, fresh from the firing line, groaned and sputtered at the +doorstep of the St. Antoine; soldiers with pocket lanterns stamped +about the streets. From sheer nervousness after a day of +confinement some citizens, in spite of warnings, groped about the +more important avenues at night. Picture yourself on Broadway or +Tremont Street, with not a light on the street gleaming from a window, +and walking up and down with one hand on your wallet and the other +in the pocket where your Colt automatic ought to be. + +Such, very briefly, was the condition of Antwerp at the time when we +arrived. That very evening word came in that the Belgian forces, +which had been engaged with the enemy for five consecutive days of +severe fighting, had retired behind the southern ramparts of the city. + +During the night the stream of incoming wounded confirmed the news +of battle. In the moonlight, and later in the gray dawn, I watched the +long lines of Belgian hounds, pulling their rapid-fire guns out toward +the trenches. Many times later I was destined to see them. They +made a picturesque and stimulating sight--those faithful dogs of war +--fettered and harnessed, their tongues hanging out as they lay +patiently beneath the gun trucks awaiting the order to go into action, +or, when the word had been given, trotted along the dusty roads, +each pair tugging to the battle front a lean, gray engine of destruction. + +For our purpose the best approach to Brussels was by way of Ghent. +Luther pushed on ahead while I was finishing a story. The following +morning, shouldering my knapsack, which now contained an extra +supply of army rations, and carefully stuffing my different sets of +credentials in different pockets (one for Belgian, one for German, and +one for English consumption), I crossed the River Scheldt and made +a slow and tortuous railway journey to Ghent. + +Ghent lies thirty miles west of Antwerp. The trip took seven hours. +During the course of it I passed north of the Belgian lines and through +the western sector of forts, that is to say, Fort St. Nicholas, Fort +Haesdonck, and Fort Tete de Flandre. It was the same road along +which Winston Churchill's English marines and the remnant of the +Belgian forces retreated after the fall of Antwerp. + +Ghent resounded with praises of its American Vice-Consul, Julius +Van Hee, a hair-trigger politician and a live wire if there ever was one. +Van Hee, with his intimate knowledge of four languages and the +Yankee knack of being on the right spot at the right time, twice saved +blood-shed in the streets of Ghent and in one instance probably +prevented a repetition of the scenes at Louvain. + +In Ghent I again found Luther, with a fine young rumor in his pocket +--a rumor which turned out to be correct--that six German spies were +to be executed next morning at sunrise. The place mentioned was +behind the museum in a public park. + +"I suppose we'll take it in," said Luther. + +"I don't know about that," I answered; adding that, although +executions might be part of the day's work for a war correspondent, I +drew the line at seeing my first murder before breakfast. The tip was +correct enough except that it mentioned the wrong park. + +The following noon the Military Governor, according to regulations, +caused to be posted circulars announcing that the men had been put +to death; but at all events I am glad to say that at that early date I did +not have the experience of watching six blindfolded wretches backed +up against a wall, of seeing the officer drop his arm as a signal, and +of hearing the fatal crack of a dozen muskets, as the bodies +collapsed like a telescope, crumpled inward with the chin upon the +chest, and fell forward to the earth. + + + + +Chapter II + +The Second Bombardment Of Termonde + + + +September 15th was our day with Henry Verhagen, the tall gray +alderman of the town that was once Termonde. + +During all the time I was with him Verhagen did not speak a bitter +word. On the contrary, he was calm--particularly calm as he stood +beside the mound where the Belgian soldiers were buried in the +center of the ruined town, pointed to the pile of bricks where he had +lived, and told us how in two nights he had lost 340,000 francs, his +son, his factory, and his home. It was from him, from the +burgomaster's wife, and from a priest that we learned the story of the +city that had ceased to be. + +It was the night before that I had wandered into Ghent alone, without +even the excitement of getting arrested. Luther, who became restive +early the next morning while I was jotting notes in the log-book, went +off in search of adventure. Because of the influence exerted by Vice- +Consul Van Hee an arrangement was very soon made whereby a Belgian +Government car and chauffeur were placed at our disposal. We had no +laissez-passer for the firing line; but we were accompanied by the +United States Consul and not governed by any stipulation as to our +destination. In our Belgian car, decorated with all the American flags +we could find, and "American Consular Service" pasted in huge letters on +the windshield and side flaps, we raced along the Boulevard de +l'lndustrie, swung into the southern suburbs, and, once outside the city +limits, we opened up the exhaust and threw down the throttle as Van Hee +shouted out the order:--"To Termonde!" + +Termonde was at that time the scene of determined fighting between +units of the ninth German Corps and the Belgian defenders. Situated +as it is, twenty-one miles southeast of Ghent, it marks the southwest +corner of a square formed by Louvain and Termonde on the south, +by Ghent and Antwerp on the north. It controlled the bridge over the +River Scheldt and with it an important approach to Antwerp, the +capital at that time of Belgium. The heavy German siege guns, +capable of demolishing a first-class fort at a range of several miles, +could not have crossed the river so easily at any other point. For this +reason the Germans particularly wanted Termonde--an open bridge +to Antwerp was always worth the taking. The town had already at that +time been captured and recaptured; wounded and refugees were +swarming into Ghent full of battle stories and tales of terrible +atrocities. So it was Termonde that we vowed we would see. + +We first saw Verhagen trudging in the same direction as ourselves on +the level, dusty road two miles southwest of Ghent. As we +approached a cross-road marked by a tavern, a couple of +direction-posts, and nondescript stucco buildings, we made out two +Belgian sentries, with their rifles lifted overhead and indulging in +some acrobatic exercises which we interpreted as a signal to halt. Van +Hee swapped cigarettes with them and gossiped in their native tongue, in +return for which they gave us some good advice. They warned us to pay +no attention to sign-posts, which, in order to fool the enemy, were +either marked with false names or else were pointed in the wrong +direction. While we were talking, a tall gray alderman came along the +road with a greasy package under his arm and at his side a priest--one +of those ubiquitous black-robed figures with a hat like an inverted +oatmeal bowl. + +"Where to?" asked the Vice-Consul of Ghent. + +"A Dendermonde," (to Termonde), answered Verhagen, sizing us up +as strangers, and using French instead of the local Flemish dialect. + +"You know the road?" + +"Yes, well," said Verhagen; and so, partly because of charity and +partly because we could have him as a useful guide, we took him into +the car. + +As we sped through the level lanes of poplars, challenged as usual +by every Belgian regular or Garde Civique who could boast a uniform, +the smooth green meadows of Flanders with their trim hamlets of +stucco and tile seemed to deny the reports of savagery we had heard +the night before. We had been told, and we had read, of German +atrocities, and we had talked with survivors of Louvain. There was +pillage, burning, and looting in Louvain, we had agreed, but the +cruelty to women and children was the better part myth. And at all +events, there was a semblance of cause for that. Perhaps there had +been more resistance, more sniping by citizens than generally known, +and perhaps the German side had not been fully explained. + +Then suddenly Termonde lay before us. The center of the bridge was +gone. Splintered timber sticking on end lay in the mud at the river's +side, along with iron beams torn by the charges of dynamite. The +current was choked with masses of steel and wood. We crawled +across some temporary beams reconstructed by Belgian engineers, +and entered the ruins with a handful of Termonde's citizens who had +come back for the first time to see what was left of their homes. + +"I will take you to the center," said Verhagen. "That is where my +house was." + +A quarter of a mile behind us, as the alderman sat upon a rock +beside the gravestone, lay the thin neck of the Upper Scheldt, less +than one hundred yards wide at this point, where it curved between +the lines of charred and flattened buildings. We could still see the +rush of water tumbling and splashing through the wreckage of the +bridge we had just crossed. Twice it had been dynamited and twice +rebuilt in part, so that at present a single line of slippery beams, +suspended a few feet above the water and supported by some heavy +wire, was all that remained between ourselves and the retreating road +to Ghent. From the direction of Alost came the desultory boom of +German guns; across the stream behind us the Belgian outposts +whiled away the time with cigarettes and cards. Shaggy horses dozed +against the gun trucks, and the men of artillery, some stretched at full +length in the sun, others sitting bolt upright with arms folded, slept +soundly on the gun carriages. We could hear the stream gurgling. We +could hear the creak of a lazy windmill, and, coming somewhere from +the smoking piles, the hideous howl of starving hounds. Of other +human sounds there were none except the voice of Verhagen. + +Ten days before Termonde had been a thriving town; that day it was +a heap of smouldering ashes. America had heard a good deal about +Tirlemont and Louvain, but not much of Termonde. Because this was +a war of millions, it did not count in the news--for it was only a +community of twelve thousand inhabitants, as pretty and quaint as +the province of Flanders boasts, the prosperous center of its rope +and cordage manufacture, with fifteen hundred houses, barracks, two +statues, a town-hall, five churches, an orphan asylum, and a convent. + +Now only one of the churches stood, as well as the building where the +officers were quartered, the Museum of Antiquity, and perhaps a +dozen others. Across the moat, which led to the gateway of what +were formerly the inner fortifications, were piles of rotting horseflesh. +The bronze statue of De Smet, the Jesuit missionary, looked calmly +on the scene. All the rest was blotted out. There was no sign of +hot-tempered impetuous work of a handful of drunken Uhlans, a fire +started in anger and driven by the wind throughout the entire town. +There was not a breath of wind. That the night was calm was shown +by the fact that here and there single houses, even houses built of +boards, were spared at the commander's word. The convent was +burnt and pillaged, stones and mortar littered the street in front of the +Hotel de Ville, and upon the sidewalk lay the famous bells which +came crashing to the street below when shells burst in the belfry. +From cellar to garret nearly every remaining house was +systematically drenched with naphtha and the torch applied, and +when all was over hundreds of gallons were tossed into the River +Scheldt. Over a small group of houses in the poorer section of the +city, where the prostitutes were quartered, grim Prussian humor, or +perhaps a sense of value received, had prompted the conquerors to +write in great white chalk marks in German script, "Gute Leute. Nicht +brennen!" (Good people. Do not burn!) + +For an hour we walked through the silence of ashes and stone, +stumbling over timber and debris, tangled and twisted wire, a fallen +statue, broken bells or the cross-piece of a spire; we made our way +through piles of beds, chairs, singed mattresses, and stepped over +the carcass of a horse with its belly bloated and flies feasting on its +glassy eyes. We entered an apothecary shop where the clock still +ticked upon the counter. Thinking there could be no reason of war to +call for the destruction of the orphan asylum, we entered its portals to +investigate. Before us lay burnt beds and littered glass. We searched +what ten days before had been a convent, and crawled over heaps of +logs and brick into narrow alleys that reminded one of Naples or +Pompeii--alleys where the walls stood so close as to hide the light +of sun but not the odor of charred vats and sewage and smouldering, +smelling things, long dead. Not far from there the way widened into +the light, and before us, breaking the rays of sunset, stood the cross +above a heap of cobblestones. + +"They are buried here," said Verhagen, "and here too is my house." + +Another alderman, a friend of Verhagen, who had been allowed to remain +in Termonde most of the four days that the Germans stayed, had the story +detailed in his little pocket diary. On Thursday, September 3, he said, +he was just leaving his rope and twine factory when he heard the sounds +of musketry to the south. A small force of Belgian outposts were +completely surprised by a part of the Ninth German Army Corps under +General von Boehn. They were completely outclassed. Before retreating, +however, they let the enemy have a couple of volleys. In the return +fire they lost six of their men. They then retreated into the town and +across the bridge. + +Nothing happened after dark, but the next morning at nine o'clock the +cannonading started. Inside of half an hour, according to the villagers, +the entire German force of the One Hundred and Sixty-second and +One Hundred and Sixty-third Uhlans and the Ninetieth Regiment of +infantry of the Ninth Army Corps were in the town. They entered +simultaneously by three different roads. The burgomaster was +ordered immediately to provide rations for the regiment. But the +burgomaster was away. He was given twelve hours to return. When +he did not return, the burning began, according to the townspeople. + +"The soldiers did not wish to burn the town," said one man; "but the +orders were orders of war." He recounted that four Uhlans entered +his house with a bow, and a knock at the door, politely helped +themselves to his cellar, drank a toast to his wife, put his chairs in the +street, and sat there playing his phonograph. They said they were +sorry, but the house must be burnt. But before pouring on the +naphtha and lighting the flame they freed his canary bird. Verhagen +and the priest agreed that fright brought on an attack to a woman +about to become a mother, and that she fell in the Rue de l'Eglise. +A German lieutenant saw the trouble, put her on a stretcher made of +window shutters, and called the German army doctor. She was sent +to a field hospital and tenderly cared for until she and the child could +be moved. Such incidents in strange relief, told by men who had lost +everything, lent corroboration, if such were necessary, to the burden +of their story of the relentless destruction of the town itself. + +Our little band was the first to enter the ruins of Termonde after its +abandonment by the Ninth German Army Corps. And by a coincidence, we +were the last to leave. That very evening, at precisely the time we +were crawling across the broken timbers that spanned the Scheldt and +connected us with Belgium-owned Belgium, the Germans again pumped heavy +artillery fire into the town. This was later known as the second German +bombardment and occupation of Termonde. Because of superior artillery +range, the attack had the cruel advantage of the man who can strike and +still stay out of reach. On that evening at six-thirty, the Teutons +sent a few warning shells into the debris, and then the first column of +scouts entered simultaneously by the two southern gates. It was just at +six-thirty that our party started back for Ghent. + +As we crawled across on all fours the remaining beams cracked +beneath our feet and the Belgian engineers called on us to hurry. +"Oh, Tiber! Father Tiber," we thought as the last of us got across; +but unlike Horatius at the bridge, we were on the right side when +engineers applied the match to a small charge of dynamite, and the +beams crashed and the remaining planks of Termonde's bridge +writhed and twisted in the rushing waters. + +Twenty-seven miles away, when we whirled through the gates of +Ghent later in the evening, we said "Au revoir" to Verhagen and the +mendicant priest, and went to our rooms. At midnight came a rap at +the door; my gray-haired alderman broke into the room, bursting with +the latest news, his eyes aflame with excitement. + +"Revanche!" he exclaimed dramatically; "our enemies have paid for it +in blood!" + +Sure enough, after a few preliminary shells--a sort of here-we-come +salvo--the head of the German column had entered, and a party of +staff officers, for purposes of reconnaissance, immediately mounted +the spire of the only remaining church. The officers of the Ninth +German Army Corps swept the landscape with their glasses, but the +level plains gave nothing to their sight. They saw only the ashes of +Termonde, the river, and the straight stretch of sandy roads and +stucco hamlets beyond. + +They did not notice a valley of covered ground and a quarter-mile +stretch of trees and shrubbery, where three squads of Belgian field +artillery were neatly hidden. Here the men took cover at the first +sound of cannonade. Quietly in their retreat the Belgian artillery +officers had figured the range and elevation of the cathedral tower, +not over fifteen hundred yards away. Just as darkness was setting in +and the figures in the belfry were clearly visible, the battery sergeant +sharply dropped his arm. + +"C-r-r-m-p-h!" coughed the field pieces as the gunners drew the +levers home. There were four sharp reports, four flashes of flame and +smoke, the crescendo moan of tons of flying steel--and the church +tower, the bells, and the German officers came crashing to the +ground. + + + + +Chapter III + +Captive + + + +Up to the day that Luther and I went through the Belgian trenches +near Alost and got into the hands of the German outposts north of +Brussels, we had not seen nearly as much fighting as we wished. We +had looked upon the ear-marks and horrible results of battles; had +heard guns, smelt the blood and ether of wounded, and seen the +ruins over which had rolled the wave of battle. We knew that ahead of +us there had been much fighting in the Sempst-Alost-Vilvorde- +Tirlemont region. The Germans at that moment, if not actually +advancing toward Antwerp, were skirmishing and making feints in +every direction, with the ultimate disposition of their forces carefully +concealed. Of course, we had no official permission to be at the front +with either army; in fact, up to that point we had received nothing but +official threats on the subject of what would happen to us in case we +went ahead. But as no one did more than threaten, we kept on going, +since we preferred that mode of procedure to sitting around in Paris +or Berlin on the chance of one of those "personally conducted" tours +of inspection, whose purpose is to show the correspondent +everything except actual fighting. It was our hope during that early +part of the war to see as much as possible of the German army, +realizing that, if captured, we should undoubtedly be sent either +backward or forward along the German line of communication in +conquered Belgium. Once within the German outposts we pleaded +like Brer Rabbit not to be thrown into the German brier patch. So of +course we landed in it. After a few days in Brussels they shipped us +Eastward to Aix-la-Chapelle by way of Lou-vain, Tirlemont, and Liege. + +It was two days after the second bombardment of Termonde--at 7 +A.M., to be exact--that Luther and I started from Ghent for Brussels +in a military automobile, the property of the Belgian Government, and +again loaned for the occasion to Julius Van Hee, American Vice- +Consul, then Acting Consul at Ghent. We carried with us a United +States Government mail pouch, a packet of mail from Dr. Henry van +Dyke, at The Hague, addressed to Brand Whitlock, the American +Minister at Brussels, and another packet of mail from Henry W. +Diederick, United States Consul-General at Antwerp. Mr. Van Hee +hoped to obtain from the German authorities in Brussels some +smallpox vaccine to take back to Ghent, where a smallpox epidemic +was feared. + +Once out of the town limits of Ghent we bowled along at top speed, +with the American colors trembling fore and aft and impressive- +looking signs pasted on windshield and side-flaps. The autumn rains +descended heavily upon us, drenching everything except the +carefully protected mail bags. + +Six miles southeast of Ghent, we ran into a regiment of Belgian +infantry moving back from the direction of Brussels, and farther on a +squad of cavalry and some more cavalry outposts; then two +companies of bicycle patrol, the men with their heads bent over the +handlebars, Mausers slung over their shoulders, pedaling heavily +through the mud and slush of a cold September storm. A few +mitrailleuses, known as the Minerva type, and mounted on armored +motor-cars, were trained on the ravine through which the road dipped +a thousand yards ahead of us. They had sighted the German +outposts on the crest of a hill opposite us about three quarters of a +mile away. In a very poor kind of trench, hastily constructed in the +beet-fields, and little more than body deep, the men lay on their +bellies in the mud, nervously fingering their muskets and adjusting the +sights. A third company of bicycle scouts were ordered to advance for +the purpose of drawing fire. + +I doubt if that particular body of men had ever before been under fire. +Never was the fear of death more plainly written on human face. All of +the men went ahead without flinching or failing, but the muscles of +their jaws were knotted, their faces were the color of chalk, and one +or two dismounted for a moment, subject to the physical effects of +fear. I have seen men tremble before important physical contests: +Jeffries, stepping into the prize ring at Reno, Nevada, ready for the +beating of his life and the loss of reputation. I have seen murderers +condemned to death. Charles Becker, as I watched him taking his +death sentence that evening in the Criminal Courts Building, did not +give one the same uncanny feeling as this handful of Belgian scouts +pedaling out to meet the German fire. I do not intend to say the +Belgians were not brave men, for this was an isolated instance. And +indeed there was something gruesome about that little company +offered for the slaughter, simply for the purpose of locating the +German batteries. The men understood the meaning of the order and +appreciated the odds against them. + +The mitrailleuses pointed down the road we were headed on, and the +Belgian gun-captain told us they were going to clean things up as soon +as their own scouts drew fire and the first Teuton helmet appeared above +the crest. Naturally we were ordered back. Had we continued on this +road we should have been between the Belgian fire behind and the German +fire in front, for the Germans would undoubtedly have mistaken us for a +scouting party in an armored car. As it was, Luther jumped to the wheel +and insisted on seeing the thing through. We went ahead for about half +a mile. I told him that if the shrapnel began to burst too close he +would find me tucked safely underneath the car examining the gasoline +tanks or in the nearest farmhouse cellar, and I believe he would have. +But nothing came close to us on that occasion. My real "baptism" was +reserved for another day, because Van Hee suddenly wrenched the wheel +from Luther and turned our machine down a side road. It was a case of +out of the firing line into the frying-pan, for the side road led us +into a trap from which there was no turning back--the territory +patrolled by the burly pickets of the Ninth German Army Corps, forming +part of the Kaiser's army of occupation in Brussels. + +Out of earshot, and certainly out of sight of that skirmish, we were +speeding at a great rate along a level, lonely road flanked by +beet-fields and long lines of graceful elms that shook hands overhead, +when: + +"HALT! WOHIN? WO GEHEN SIE?" rang suddenly out of the darkness +as two figures jumped from behind a farmhouse and leveled their +rifles at us. I shall always remember that sharp command as the cold, +gray muzzles followed us like a sportsman covering a bevy of quail. +Our fat Belgian chauffeur, violinist in times of peace, and posing that +day as an American,--one of those men who look as if they would +bleed water if you pricked them with a bayonet,--needed no second +warning. Running the German gauntlet was not precisely his hobby. +Down went the emergency brake and the car jolted to a sudden halt. + +A bristle-whiskered German giant under a canvas-covered helmet +stuck his head through the flaps, and for more than ten minutes he +and another sentinel searched our knapsacks and credentials and +inspected the Government mail pouches which we carried. The +sentries were far from satisfied. We said little at first, realizing, +nevertheless, that we had run between the opposing trenches and up +to the German outposts without actually drawing fire. That, at least, +was something of a comfort. + +Then, as if the answer was the price of admission, the big one asked +us if we had seen many British soldiers around Antwerp and Ghent. +We had previously decided that the answer to such talk was, "None +of your business." But the fellow's bayonet was infernally bright and +sharp and his countenance like ice. It wasn't only the equinoctial rain +that made us shiver. + +While I was trying to limber up my German vocabulary he passed us +along to his Ober-leutenant in the hut along the roadside. The Ober- +Ieutenant was grave. He said we must report to army headquarters +in Brussels, and that under no circumstances should we be allowed +to return within the Belgian lines. In this way began our eight days' +confinement within the lines of the German Army of the North under +General von Boehn. + +Just as we had been warned repeatedly, so we discovered in reality +that to cross between two opposing lines was no joking matter. Bad +enough, particularly in the early days of the war, to a correspondent +without permission at the front. To work up from the rear (if you had +permission) was at least according to the rules of the game. But to +cross between hostile armies--that was the one forbidden act. The +fact that we were with an American Consul was not sufficient. Three +days later Van Hee was allowed to return, but the remainder of the +party, that is to say, Willard Luther and myself, were given a free trip +into German territory and incidentally more than a week's chance to +study the German army from within. + +Those next eight days Luther and I spent as willing and, on the whole, +decently treated captives within the lines of the German Army of the +North, talking freely with cultivated officers and grimy men of the +ranks, and in this way learning much of the German war machine, the +opinions of the officers and the men at their command. It would be +interesting to tell how in Brussels we dodged from War Office to cafe, +from cafe to consulate, from consulate back to War Office, and later +were worried and watched and suspected; how we were shipped +back across the German border on a combination Red Cross and +ammunition train; how we were locked for much of the night in a +half-mile tunnel of the northern Vosges Mountains, and there, in the +groping darkness of our box-car prison, shared the soldier's biscuit +and his bottle, so coming to know the Kaiser's private as a +companion and not as the barbarian his enemies paint him. + +The day after we got inside the German lines we went before Major +Heinrich Bayer, at that time military commandant in Brussels in the +absence of General von der Goltz. Jostling through the street and +jamming the courtyard of the War Office was a crowd of a thousand +persons--mothers, children, whole families begging for relief or +permission to leave the city limits; German subjects trying to get +passes, officials and employees of the civil administration taking +orders from the military authorities. A relay of aides, orderlies, and +secretaries led us from courtyard to corridor and from corridor to staff +headquarters and into the Holy of Holies--the office of the +commandant. + +Grim, stern,--but courteous throughout the interview,--the major +paced the floor beside his desk. He seemed anxious enough to be rid +of the "crazy Americans" who had wandered through the Belgian and +German lines, not altogether satisfied with their integrity, yet not +wishing to take a hostile attitude. I asked him when he thought the +war would be over. At the moment the German major, Vice-Consul +Van Hee, and I were the only persons in the room. + +"I do not know," he said, as if thinking aloud; "I really do not know. +America is the only country that has not fired on us yet, but all the rest +--" Then he added thoughtfully, "Perhaps it is better that you go. But +you cannot return to Ghent or Antwerp; you must go back to +Germany." He stopped as if he had gone too far, and then sharply +commanded the orderly to remove us. Forty-eight hours later Mr. Van +Hee got his release. To Luther and myself was given a curious sort of +pass, beset with limitations, which at times caused us royal treatment +and as often proved a fatal baggage tag. I have always believed a +joker lay hidden somewhere in that document. It started with a +flattering description of our status (as given by ourselves), but below it +directed us to be taken into Aix-la-Chapelle, Germany, and under no +circumstances to be returned within the Belgian lines. We had seen a +great deal too much for that. In spite of our protestations of good faith +and promises to keep dark what we had seen, the military authorities +considered us much safer under German guard. We were to be +taken on the southern route by way of Namur. To drive home the +importance of obeying this order we were reminded of the regulation, +printed in French and posted throughout the city, "that whosoever +passed the city limits or approached the fighting line without military +permit, or on the pretense of having such a permit, or whosoever +deviated from the route laid down would be shot 'sur le champ.'" That +same evening, however, army orders declared that the Namur route +was closed. We got a second War Office pass sending us to Aix by +way of Louvain, Tirlemont, and Liege. Armed with these we went +down to an old Major Bock von W------, in charge of transportation at +Schaerbeek, on the outskirts of the city. + +I showed him the passes and said with a painful attempt at levity, +"Major, we can't obey both of these, so we 're going to get shot either +way we go. If it is all the same to you I would rather die on your +route." To my great relief the old fellow laid back his gray head and +emitted a series of long, loud Teuton laughs. He was the first German I +had heard laugh and it did me good. I knew we were safe. On the +understanding that the business was strictly confidential and that no +other citizens or suspects were to know of it, he gave us a permit for +the military trains. It had been the intention of the War Office to +pack us under guard with the herds on one of those Government refugee +trains. But to live and sleep with the soldiers as we were now to do, +to see their marches, to absorb their uninformed and boastful talk, to +study their guns, munitions, and equipment, was better than our highest +hopes. + +"You have to do a lot of quick transporting?" I asked before saying +good-bye to Major von W------. + +"Yes," was the answer. "They 're at us from all sides. Some of the +men we are now transporting have been under fire in two countries, +and now they will see service in a third." He knew that I had come +from Ghent and from Antwerp, which the Germans were about to +bombard, yet, to his credit, it should be said that he did not ask for +information of Belgian activities. Similarly, although the soldiers, as a +rule, and one man high in the civil government of Brussels, asked +what was going on in Antwerp, it was noticeable that German officers +recognized the obligations of neutrality. + +Of how we left Brussels and of the first part of the eastward trip, I am +going to quote from the jottings in the log-book, which was written up +at some length after we left Aix-la-Chapelle:-- + +"Early on the morning of the 22d, I went up to Consul Watts's office to +get the mail pouch I had promised him to carry. Luther and I then +boarded a trolley car going northwest past the Gare du Nord and on +to Schaerbeek, a junction on the outskirts of Brussels. Although the +Major Bayer passes, with von W------'s counter-signature, got us as +far as Schaerbeek, we were challenged by the guards at the railroad +station. The stations were watched with the most astounding +precaution. Of course there was no such thing as a ticket; once inside +the gate you could jump a troop train, ammunition car, or blow up the +track if you felt like it. Wherefore they guarded the stations carefully. + +"At the gates had a terrible pow-wow with an officious Bavarian who +called himself the Officer-of-the-Day. I played all my best German +cards, including Count von Bemstorffs letter. At the end of half an +hour our pig-headed officer shipped us back to Brussels. We +returned to von W------, then in Brussels, who vised our pass with a +note to the effect that although we were civilians, exceptional +circumstances demanded our hurried return to Aix by military train. + +"When we eventually got into the Schaerbeek station we had two +hours to wait. Walked up and down the tracks or sat on the platform, +keeping an eye on everything that was going on. Luther says I spent +most of my time trying not to look like an Englishman. Occasionally, +when we spoke a word of English, some officer would shoot us a 42 +cm. glance and demand our papers. We were undoubtedly marked +figures, because in the first place no civilians were allowed along the +railway line, especially foreigners. + +"Watched several westbound loads go by until about two o'clock, +when they made up a combination train consisting of Red Cross +coaches and empty freight trucks going back to Aix for fresh loads of +men and ammunition. Aix is the great distributing center for the line of +communication into northern Belgium. Most of the open cars were +empty, barring occasional gun carriages on the way home for repairs; +in the closed freight cars lay a few wounded first line men, a half a +dozen male nurses, and some privates on furlough. Speaking of +nurses, I haven't--so far at least-seen a woman nurse nearer the +scene of action than a base hospital, i.e., one of the big hospitals in +Antwerp, Brussels, or Ghent. Luther and I, closely followed by the +two guards that had trailed us from the time we had got inside the +station, climbed into a freight car, apparently used as a box stall on +the out trip, and bare except for a pile of damp straw in one corner. +Interminable journey. Most of the time we stood on sidings waiting for +the outbound traffic. Made fair time to Louvain,--i.e., an hour and a +half,--and stayed there two hours, for which I was thankful, as it +gave me a chance to look around. Interviewed soldiers, citizens, and +a Jesuit priest, of which more later. One hour more to Tirlemont. Then +seven hours to Liege, where we arrived at 2 A.M., were smothered for +two hours in that tunnel, and took six and three quarters hours more +from Liege to Verviers--a distance of less than fifteen miles! It was +another five hours to Aix. + +"Saw tremendous troop movements along Brussels-Louvain-Verviers +line of communication. During the first day thirty-five troop and +transport trains went past us, moving towards the western frontier, +the larger part to strengthen the German attack on Antwerp, which we +had not long left behind us, others to discharge their loads as near as +possible to Lille, Tournai, and Mons. The average train was twenty +cars long, making about seven hundred carloads, with two hundred +or more in each car, giving a total of more than 140,000 fighting men. +We stopped counting at the end of the first day. + +"After we left Louvain I got out occasionally and stretched my legs +along the tracks, but Luther, not being able to talk German, stuck +pretty close to his diggings. Had a great time at a little town called +Neerwinden, where we stayed about half an hour. A crowd of soldiers +from our train joined a group cooking supper in the moonlight at one +of the soup kitchens along the tracks. They fed me lukewarm stew +and slabs of rye bread, then went on singing and arguing without +paying much attention to me. One bald-headed, stocky private told +the crowd the news that von Hindenburg had captured Warsaw. Later +a crowd of big brutes, apparently pretty drunk, swaggered down and +clapped me on the back with a 'Who are you, my friend?' + +"'Amerikaner,' I explained, not thinking it necessary to mention the war +correspondent part. They set up a cheer, clapped me on the back, +and finally lifted me to their shoulders for a triumphal ride up and +down the railroad ties, all the time yelling out 'Amerikaner! Hurrah! +Amerikaner!' + +"A few hundred years seemed the night we spent locked in that +box-car prison. A five-days' equinoctial storm had given way to the +coldest day of the autumn: our car, raw and dank as a dungeon, joggled +along endlessly until afternoon gave way to evening and evening to +chilly night. Hour after hour we looked out upon the rolling fields and +burnt farmhouses along the path where General von Emmich's army had +passed. As the moon crawled up over the rain-bathed foothills of the +Ourthe Mountains, the temperature dropped far below the freezing point. +For ages we lay awake braced against the cold. The soldier next me, who +had been through the fight at Maubeuge, coughed throughout the night--a +hollow, retching cough. "Tuberculosis," the Red Cross doctor told me, +although the fellow had got through his army tests all right. + +Between two and four in the morning we stuck in the middle of a +tunnel of the northern Vosges Mountains, two hundred feet, perhaps, +beneath the surface of the ground. The sliding door on the left side of +our car was locked: on the other side jagged walls, dripping wet to the +touch, jutted so close that a thin man couldn't have walked between +them and the car. Everywhere pitch blackness, the blackness of the +tomb. The consumptive soldier pulled a candle from his kit, balanced +it in the straw, and over it warmed his hands. If that candle had +toppled over in the straw we wouldn't have had a rat's chance in the +fire. It was impossible to get out of our car or to communicate with +another except by tapping. The fellows in the next car must have +been considerably frightened, for after about an hour they began +yelling and pounding at the walls. All you could hear was a roaring +sound that caromed against the walls of the cavern. Smoke from the +engine drifted back to choke us. It hit the consumptive worst. The +poor fellow began blowing and coughing, then rolled feebly on his +back and gasped. During the worst of the smoke one of the soldiers +in the next car set up a rollicking song, and others followed his +example. We could hear the clank of beer bottles as they finished, the +echoes of the song reverberating loudly, then faintly, then louder +again up and down the length of that interminable vault. A draught of +air cleared the smoke away and it didn't bother us again. At four in +the morning we steamed out of the tunnel into the open. A little after +that I must have dozed off, for I woke with a start when the +consumptive stumbled over me. + +"There you are," he said, throwing a bundle beside me; "I thought +you'd need it." + +Noticing, when he lit his pipe at dawn, that we had no army blankets +and were pretty nearly frozen, this "barbarian" had jumped out of the +car in the Liege freight yards, had run a quarter of a mile to the +nearest army kitchen depot, and had stolen for us a couple of +heaping blankets' full of warm, dry straw. + +It was impossible to believe that these men had committed the +atrocities reported at Termonde and Roosbeek, at Malines and +Louvain. At close range it was easy to see that the prevalent +conception of the "barbarians" was the purest kind of rot--the +picture created and fostered by the Allied press, of a vicious and +besotted beast with natural brutality accentuated by alcoholic rage. +With such men as individuals it seemed to us that neutral observers +could have no quarrel. To the Kaiser's privates who have been +fighting for a cause they do not thoroughly understand, was due, we +thought, the greatest respect; to the officers, too, who understand +what they are doing and are game in the face of odds; and most of all +to the suffering German people. But to the German war machine, we +reflected, was due a terrible punishment--the lesson it must learn +not only for Germany's enlightenment, but for the sake of civilization +and humanity. + + + + +Chapter IV + +A Clog Dance On The Scheldt + + + +When the German major at Aix-la-Cha-pelle stamped on our passports:-- +"Gesehen. Gut Zum Austritt Kommandant 2 Kompagnie, Landsturm Batl. +Aachen," we were free, so we thought, to shake the dust of Germany from +our feet. Hoisting our rucksacks, we gave up box cars in favor of a +civilized passenger train, northward bound, and at noon crossed the +Dutch border at Simplefeldt. + +For three hours we talked English, consulted maps, took notes, and +asked questions where and when we pleased. The holiday cost us +dear. At the end of that time we were under lock and key in the town +of Maastricht, the Province of Limburg, and the supposedly free and +neutral Kingdom of the Netherlands. We suspected at the time, and +in view of what I learned upon a later trip to Berlin I am quite certain, +that the long arm of the German Secret Service had reached out for +us across the border. + +Having started from Antwerp during its investment, but prior to its +siege by the German army, we were now on the third stage of a +round trip which was to land one of us back in the Belgian temporary +capital in time for the bombardment. During the previous two weeks +we had been stopped, questioned, and sometimes examined, no less +than one hundred and thirty times. Thirteen, we calculated, was our +average number of hold-ups on our early "marching days"; that is to +say, during those wanderings which led us by foot, train, ox cart, and +automobile past the double sector of Antwerp's fortifications, through +the Belgian fighting lines to Ghent and Termonde, and thence into the +arms of the German pickets on the outskirts of Brussels. + +And now, as the heavy door of the Maastricht police headquarters +slammed in our faces, and the key rattled in the guardroom lock, my +companion in crime threw down his hat and coat in rage. Between us +we treated our fellow-prisoners to a quarter of an hour's tirade on the +American citizen's right to freedom, swore that the Kingdom of the +Netherlands would repent this outrage, and each of us politely +assured the other it was all the other fellow's fault. + +All of which, though true, had no effect on the sniffling young woman +across the way, nor the sleeper on the hardwood bench next mine, +nor the bald-headed, big-lipped police sergeant who bent over his +desk in the corner, impervious to these usual outbursts of the newly +arrested, as he laboriously scrawled in the police blotter the report of +the day's round-up. + +"Sit down!" he bellowed as I advanced toward the pen door, and tried +to open it. + +When he resumed his scratching I did my best to explain in a +German-French-Dutch dialect of my own invention that we wished to +see Mons. le Commissaire at once; that we had only come to inspect +the concentration camp of German and Belgian prisoners, and that +we were leaving town that day. I particularly emphasized this point. +We were, in fact, I assured him in several different ways, leaving that +very afternoon--as soon as the disagreeable mistake of our arrest +was rectified. He may or may not have understood this: at all events, +he wore an expression as blank and graven as Jack Rose upon the +witness stand. His only answer was a vacant stare at the pit of my +stomach, followed by a slow scratch-scratching on the police blotter. + +In fact our arrest on that occasion was rather a Jack Rose affair; that +is to say, it started by our being invited to headquarters, suspicious +but not certain of our status until we finally landed behind the iron +doors. Without doubt Maastricht authorities were waiting for us even +as we stepped off the train, showing that we were doomed from the +time we left the border. Our captor, an unctuous, pink-cheeked +politzei, made his appearance not far from the internment camp. +Where were we going, and why? + +"To see the prisoners," we said. + +"It is possible," said the spider to the fly, "zat I can get for you +permission if you will come to ze guardhouse. Ze capitain is there." + +The "guardhouse" proved a precinct police station, and the captain +was not there: instead we found a mixed crowd of civilians and +militaires who looked us over and shook their heads. Next we were +taken to military headquarters \n the center of the town. For fifteen +minutes we hunted the evasive captain while I ran through my head +the various sets of credentials stuffed in different pockets; for, being +in Dutch territory, although only a few miles from the Belgian frontier +on one side and the German frontier on the other, I was not quite +certain which to produce. Among my letters I carried one from the +German Ambassador, Count von Bernstorff, to the Foreign Office in +Berlin; one from Professor Hugo Munsterberg at Harvard, and a note +from the secretary of the Belgian Legation at The Hague. +Unfortunately I did not have with me at the time a very helpful letter +from Colonel Roosevelt, ending with the statement that the bearer "is +an American citizen, a non-combatant, and emphatically not a spy." I +had promised the Colonel to use this, my trump card, only in case of +necessity--and once, on a later occasion, I did so with immediate +effect. On the whole, I now decided in favor of a United States +passport decorated with my picture and enough vises to resemble the +diplomatic history of the Continent. + +"The captain is not here. We go to the commissaire at headquarters," +said the polite politzei. It was then that we cut loose, told him to +bring the commissaire or the burgomaster to us, and started to walk off. +It was a bad move. So far he had handled us with a velvet grip, but at +the first sign of insurrection he showed his teeth, locked arms with +each of us, and, signaling another officer to follow, forthwith marched +us off to police headquarters and our ultimate resting-place, the +guardroom cell. + +How long we stayed there I don't know--long enough, at all events, +to get a glimpse of the Dutch police system and the third degree as +practiced in the Lowlands. There swung open a great iron door +leading to the street and the market-place, not so large but fully as +busy as Washington Market the week before Thanksgiving. Through +it, sobbing and screaming, their hats gone and their hair torn, came +two women, roughly handled by gendarmes and followed by a mob +escort. They were thrown weeping and expostulating into an adjoining +cell. A gendarme came out with trickles of blood on his face. He +mopped his brow and complained of feminine finger-nails. Close +behind him followed a male friend of the imprisoned women. He +pleaded with the sergeant at the desk, while the moans of the +women, under pressure to confess their crime, came from their cell. +But Jack Rose only scratched and scratched monotonously, and now +and then gazed at the middle of the speaker's stomach. + +In the mean time we fell back into our habit of talking for publication. +With an intimacy that would have surprised those gentlemen we +referred casually to Brand Whitlock, Dr. van Dyke, and the biggest +Dutch and Belgian names we could think of. We suspected that Jack +Rose and the man at our side understood more English than they +pretended. At all events, it had its effect. In half an hour we were +taken before the commissioner. + +Two cigars lay on the edge of the table nearest us. I could see at a +glance that we were free. + +"Do you speak English?" I asked him. + +"No," he answered in our native tongue; "only French, Flemish, +German, and Italian--but not English." And with a grin he asked for +our passports. + +"You are for the American newspapers?" + +"Yes," I answered--"one of us is a lawyer who writes occasionally. I +am correspondent for a New York and a Boston paper, but I won't +cable anything from here." For this reason, I explained, no +movements of troops or news of military value could leak out. + +"Ah, I see," said the commissioner who could not talk English. "An +amateur correspondent and a slow correspondent. But correspondents are +not at all tolerated in this province. It is five o'clock. You will +board the train leaving this province at 5.16 P.M." + +From Maastricht to the Dutch capital is, under usual conditions, a +four-hour run to the north. During this trip we passed encampments +and fortifications of the 400,000 well-drilled but poorly equipped +troops which the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in the spirit of no +negative neutrality, had mobilized along her borders. Whenever we +crossed a bridge every window in the entire train was fastened down +and there were strict orders against raising them. We discovered that +under the boulders were carefully concealed large charges of +dynamite ready for immediate use in case of invasion--so that +Horatius need not be called upon while axe and crowbar were at +work. The windows, it appears, were locked to prevent throwing out of +lighted cigars or matches. + +At one o'clock the next morning our train, delayed by war-time traffic, +rolled into the Hague station, whence three days later, I was to start +my lucky trip into Antwerp, the besieged. + +Clog dancing and cognac helped to get me from The Hague back +into Antwerp in time for its bombardment and capture by the German +forces under General von Beseler. I happened to perform the clog +dancing at a critical moment during a trip on a Scheldt River barge, +thus diverting the attention of the river sentries from my lack of proper +papers. While the pedal acrobatics were in progress my temporary +friend, Mons. le Conducteur, reinforced the already genial pickets with +many glasses of the warming fluid. + +Willard Luther, my companion in and out of jail during the first part of +the continental wanderings, was forced to leave for home the day +after we got back to The Hague. He had five days to catch the +Lusitania at Liverpool. Three of them he spent on a whirlwind trip +trying to see action in northern Flanders, but, much to his +disappointment, was called away before the final scrimmage at +Antwerp. If he had succeeded in getting in, I rather fear the +Massachusetts Bar would have lost a valuable member. He had an +insatiable passion to be in the neighborhood of bullets and bombs-- +not, as I take it, that he really wanted to get hit--merely that he +would like to see how close he could come. + +On October 2d, strictest regulations were passed prohibiting entry +within the fortifications of Antwerp without permit from the military +governor, General de Guise. Three weeks earlier entry had been +possible but difficult, and the feat was again easier after the German +occupation. But during the city's days of trial the military lid was +clamped and riveted. Except for those coming direct from England, +the highest civil recommendations were valueless. + +I had one of these,--a laissez-passer from Prince d'Eline, Secretary of +the Belgian Legation at The Hague,--issued because of the fact that I +was carrying a large packet of mail from the American Legation at The +Hague to Henry W. Diederick, United States Consul-General at Antwerp. I +had also been entrusted with three hundred marks to be delivered to a +German prisoner, Lieutenant Ulrici, known to have been wounded and +captured in the fighting around Termonde, and believed to be lying in a +hospital ship in the river or in Antwerp itself. The fact of carrying +such money was of course against me as indicating German sympathy. + +Because a large part of the railroad line between Eschen, Cappelen, +and Antwerp had been torn up, because there would be many +hold-ups, and because I couldn't speak a word of Flemish, I decided +against the overland route. Hearing, however, that L. Braakman & +Company, a grain and freight shipping concern, were running down +barges from Rotterdam, I got a Belgian friend to call them up on my +behalf. The result was a flat throw-down: without General de Guise's +sanction I might not even cross the gangplank. + +Nevertheless, I went to Rotterdam, crossed the river basin to the +island from which the Braakman boats ran, and there saw a director +of the company, who, fortunately, could speak both English and +Flemish. He took me to the captain of the river barge, a low craft that +looked a cross between a tugboat and a Hudson River scow. In less +than three minutes my case was disposed of. Verdict: "C'est +absolument defendu." It was time for a little "bluff." An hour later I +returned with a new proposition, having in the mean time telegraphed +Mr. Diederick either to meet me at the pier at Antwerp or to send a +military permit. Displaying a copy of this telegram I suggested that I +be allowed to board. If there was any one at Antwerp to meet and +vouch for me, well and good; if not, they were at liberty to ship me +back. That was my proposition. + +"He may go as far as the border patrol, fifteen miles east of Antwerp," +the captain said to my interpreter. "If the river sentries permit it he +may then go as far as the Antwerp pier, but he cannot land." + +We cast off Sunday, October 4th, at 6 A.M. The little Telegraaf III +poked her nose through the blue-gray haze of a chilly October +morning while the muddy waters of the Meuse slapped coldly against +her bow. I stamped the deck a few times, wondering if there was an +English-speaking soul aboard, and leaned up against the engine +room until the odor of coffee and bacon lured me to the fo'castle +hatch. A purple-faced giant, with thick lips that met like the halves of +an English muffin blocked the companion-way. + +"'Jour," growled the face as though it hated to say it, then pointed to +the food and cognac. This was Monsieur le Conducteur, ship's cook, +barkeeper, and collector of fares. + +In the center of a dark cabin, littered with charts, pails, and Flemish +newspapers, was a kitchen table. Now and then a smoking oil lamp +flared up to throw a light on the faces of my fellow-passengers, five of +them in addition to the captain and Mons. le Conducteur. They were, +as I discovered later, Mons. A. Albrecht, a leading alderman of +Antwerp and a friend of Mons. Vos, the burgomaster; a light-haired +Belgian piano salesman who could speak five languages; Mile. +Blanche Ravinet, of looks beautiful and occupation unknown; and two +others. From the suddenness with which the conversation stopped, I +judged they had been discussing "ze American." They were welcome +to say what they liked barring the word "spion." + +For hours we chugged steadily along, catching a fair tide on the +lower Meuse, and sliding past the neat little towns of Dordrecht, +Papendrecht, and Willemstad, through the Hollandische Diep and the +Krammer Volkerak. After that the Telegraaf III worried through the +canals and systems of locks which virtually cut the neck of Tholen +from the mainland, and, when the last of these had been +accomplished, splashed into the great basin of the East Scheldt. A +Dutch gunboat cut across our bows, signaling us to halt. An officer +boarded us to study the freight invoices. + +Farther upstream a launch came alongside, making fast fore and aft, +while two Belgian river sentries, in long blue coats and faded drab +trousers, poked their bearded heads above the rail. This, then, was +what the captain meant by the border patrol. + +Now, as luck would have it, the day was cold: we were the first boat to +come through the locks for some hours, and apparently the river +sentries had had no breakfast. So they dove into the fo'castle, where +Mons. le Conducteur produced bread and cognac. I at once ordered +Mons. le Conducteur to get a second round of liquid refreshment for +our military guests. Conversation flowed. The soldiers drummed on +the table to keep their hands warm and in a moment of inspiration I +showed them how the darkies in our country warm their feet. + +"Clog dance," I explained. + +"Encore," shouted the piano salesman. "That is splendid." + +"Pleaz again! Oh, pleaz!" echoed Mile. Blanche. "See, every one, ze +grand American foot game." + +The fat-faced conducteur, with whom I had suddenly grown in favor, +repeated the cognac treatment on the sentries. Before I knew it, they +had me alongside the table, one hand steadied against a thwart of +the swaying cabin, my head in the smoke of the oil lamp, my feet +pounding and kicking, as it seemed, at the very door of Antwerp. The +piano salesman shouted rag-time, Mile. Blanche drummed time on +the bench, and the river sentries pounded time with their rifle butts. + +"Encore!" they shouted when I sat down with aching legs. + +All at once the launch alongside gave an angry toot, for the officer +wanted his men back: there were other boats to be examined. The +sentries glanced quickly at our papers, not reading, I am sure, a word +of mine, speedily cast off ropes, and disappeared guiltily and +somewhat unsteadily over the larboard rail. + +An hour later the Telegraaf III took the river's turn, swinging past Fort +St. Philippe, until we could see the gray-blue spire of the Cathedral of +Notre Dame with its intricate network of stone silhouetted against the +autumn sunset. Mr. Diederick was not at the pier to meet me, nor was +there a military passport from General de Guise. + +"Stay by me," said Alderman Albrecht. As each of the pier sentries +saluted him he said a whispered word, and apparently his word was +good, for the American "foot game" artist was allowed to pass. +Perhaps Alderman Albrecht had decided that German spies don't +clog-dance. + +Though not officially admitted to the besieged city, I went at once to +my old stand, the Hotel St. Antoine, now converted into British Staff +Headquarters. At sundown a mist crept up from the river, and through +it we heard a roar of welcome and the rumble of heavy artillery. +Charging down the Avenue de Keyser came a hundred London +motor-busses, Piccadilly signs and all, some filled, some half-filled, +with a wet-looking bunch of Tommies, followed by armored +mitrailleuses, a few 6.7 naval guns, officers' machines, commissary +and ammunition carriages--the first brigade of Winston Churchill's +army of relief, which for five days was destined to make so valiant, +but so short, a fight against the overwhelming German army. + + + + +Chapter V + +The Bombardment Of Antwerp + + + +There was something typically British in the way those Englishmen +went about the defense of Antwerp. In the streets and barracks, and +more especially at the Hotel St. Antoine, British Staff Headquarters, +where I stayed until its doors were closed, I saw them at close range +during that week of horror. Once when I was eating with a company +of marines near their temporary barracks, they gave me the +password to the trenches, and, although I only got out as far as the +inner line of forts on that day, it gave me an opportunity to observe +the work of the men under long-range firing. At the St. Antoine, ten or +a dozen officers were quartered; others clanked in and out for hurried +conferences in the corridors or disappeared into the smoking-room, +whose heavy doors with the sign, "Reservee pour la Gouvernement +Anglaise," hid Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the English +Admiralty, and his portmanteau of war maps. + +Here was Belgium's last stronghold on the verge of downfall: the +outer line of forts had already fallen; Forts Wavre, St. Catherine, +Waelham, and Lierre were already prey to the Krupp mortars; the +German hosts were swarming across the River Nethe, six miles to +the city's south, and the cowering populace in their flight made the +streets terrible to look upon. + +Yet at the St. Antoine there was no particular flurry--so far, at least, +as the officers were concerned. At night they worked over their war +maps; in the daytime they went out to the forts. They would get up in +the morning, an hour or two earlier than the average business man, have +a comfortable breakfast, smoke a cigar for half an hour or so, and talk +things over. Then their military automobiles came trembling and +sputtering to the doorsteps, and in groups of fours and fives they went +out to the firing line. If only two or three of a group returned, you +would naturally have to draw your own conclusions as to the fate of the +rest. + +Those English gentlemen went about their jobs of life and death with +the same detached coolness as if their hunters were being saddled, +or they were waiting for the referee's whistle in Rugby football. Their +attitude was infernally exasperating; yet you couldn't help taking off +your hat to their sublime nerve and indifference. + +I overheard a typical remark when matters were in this critical state. It +came from a handsome, curly-headed officer, noticeable not only for +his apparent efficiency, but because he didn't let the game of war +interfere with his attentions to the little Princess de Ligne. The latter +was nursing her brother, who had been shot through the back of the +neck during a raid through German lines. She was a princess in rank, +and a queen in looks. Thirty hours before the first shell burst into the +Place Verte--Monday morning, it was--this fellow rapped at my +door. He had wandered into the wrong pew, for his words were +obviously intended to hurry up a brother officer with whom he was to +take the morning ride to the firing line. Sticking his curly, sunburnt +head around the corner he drawled in inimitable British intonation:- + +"I say, old chap, do hurry along; this is no ORDINARY occasion, you +know." + +In the Royal Belgian Palace there happened a few hours before the +bombardment an incident revealing the simplicity and kindliness of +King Albert's character. In connection with it, it is necessary to speak +of Harold Fowler, a New Yorker and Columbia College graduate, who +helped to save the public buildings of Antwerp, and later entered the +Allied ranks as a fighter. When the war broke out, Fowler was private +secretary to Ambassador Page in London. In November he got a commission +in the Royal Horse Guards, known as the "Blues." While the Germans were +pressing hard on Antwerp, the German commander, as I have mentioned +elsewhere, asked that a diagram of the city of Antwerp, with plans and +location of the cathedral, the Hotel de Ville, and the more important +works be sent to him in order that he might find the range and avoid +firing on them. Neutrals were to carry the plans through; and Fowler +and Hugh Gibson, secretary to the American Minister at Brussels (Brand +Whitlock), volunteered. + +Two days before the bombardment Gibson went to the Royal Palace +at Antwerp where General de Guise and his staff were in conference. +Fowler trailed along, but, not liking to enter, walked up and down the +hallway, hands in his pockets, admiring the portraits half-hidden in the +darkness of the foyer. A tall figure approached and in French asked +who he was. Fowler replied that he was an American and was waiting +for Gibson. + +"I see," said the figure, then speaking in English, "that you are +interested in pictures." + +"Very much," answered Fowler. + +"Then, would you like to see those in the Royal Chambers upstairs?" + +Fowler hesitated, feeling like an intruder, but the figure insisted upon +leading him upstairs. When they got into the light, Fowler turned to +examine his kind friend. To his utter astonishment he saw that it was +Albert, King of the Belgians! + +By that time we of Antwerp were getting a very fair imitation of a city +besieged. Water supply had already been cut off for some days. +There was just enough for cooking purposes; bathing and such +pleasantries were out of the question--even for Royalty. According +to the French maid in my corridor, Winston Churchill managed to get +a shave by ordering tea sent to his room and using the hot water for +shaving lather. + +Monday, October 5th, the night before the city emptied itself of +non-combatants, was almost a festive occasion at the St. Antoine. The +British entry gave tremendous confidence to the stricken city and the +tired Belgian soldiers--a bit of pride before the fall. New faces turned +up, friends in the English army met, shook hands, and discussed the +outlook. One was even reminded of lighter occasions, such as the +Copley-Plaza in Boston or the Hotel Taft in New Haven before an +annual Harvard-Yale battle. At the head of a long table in the center +of the dining-room sat the First Lord of the British Admiralty, looking +rather thoughtful, his baldish head and Trinity House uniform standing +out in contrast to the service uniforms of the younger men around +him. At the same table were commissary officers, sergeants, +aide-de-camps, Hugh Gibson, Harold Fowler, and somewhat farther down the +Russian Minister and my curly-headed officer, chatting over his coffee +with little Princess de Ligne. + +In the flash of an eye these scenes changed to scenes of terror. + +The news leaked out, and spread like wildfire, that the Kaiser's men +had crossed the River Nethe and had placed their big guns within +range of the city. It was not until forty-eight hours later that the +populace saw a handful of Flemish posters pasted in out-of-the-way +corners--posters signed by the Civil Government--which thanked +the populace "for retaining until the present time their praiseworthy +sangfroid, and regretting that the responsibilities of their office +necessitated their own removal to a neighborhood more safe." + +Queen Elizabeth, whom danger made a democrat, walked right into +my hotel, if you please, and stopped casually to say good-bye to the +Russian Minister. The crowd outside did not know she was leaving for +Ostend under cover of darkness--they cheered her loudly just the +same. She is a spunky sort of queen. + +Then came the flight. You knew the fear of the Germans had got into +their blood when waiters dropped their plates and dishes and ran; +when shops, houses, hotels closed and the people melted away; +when the French chambermaid besought with frightened eyes that +Monsieur take her away to England, and when the hotel proprietor +disappeared without even asking for his bill. + +There were other sights that did one good to see: such as gray-haired +Mrs. Richardson, venerable figure of a British nurse, with six wars to +her credit and a breastful of decorations from four different +governments, who refused to leave her hospital even if it was blown +to pieces, so long as there were men to help and wounds to heal. + +When the St. Antoine closed I took her to the American Consulate to +find a house where she could stay. That night and the next loads of +English Red Cross busses with their households of pain and ether +rumbled over the pontoon bridge across the Scheldt, went past Fort +Tete de Flandre, and disappeared in the swampy meadows on the +road to Ghent. I never saw her again, but I have always hoped that +Mrs. Richardson was among the nurses who went with them. + +When on Wednesday morning I was turned out of my room, I made +my way past a pressing throng of foreign faces to the Queen's Hotel +on the water front. There I found Arthur Ruhl and James H. Hare, +who had just come over from England. The hotel overlooked the +River Scheldt, forming a wide crescent on the city's north, and was +within fifty yards of one of the longest pontoon bridges constructed in +modern warfare. + +Here was a sight to come again and rend the memory. The crowds +were endeavoring to get away over one of the two avenues of +escape still open. I estimated that between five in the afternoon and +the following dawn three hundred thousand persons must have +passed through the city's gates. They were the people of Antwerp +itself, swelled by exiles from Alost, Aerschot, Malines, Termonde, and +other cities to the south and west. Intermittently for two days and +nights I watched them from my room in the Queen's. From five yards +beneath my window ledge came the shuffle, shuffle of unending feet, +the creak and groans of heavy cart wheels, the talk and babble of +guttural tongues, the yelp of hounds, as the thousands moved and +wept and surged and jostled along throughout the night and into the +uncertain mist of that October morning. They were so close I could +have jumped into their carts or dropped a pebble on their heads. +Infinitely more impressive than the retreat of the allied armies or the +victorious entry of the Germans a little later, was the pageant of this +pitiful army without guns or leaders. + +The twenty-foot entrance to that pontoon bridge seemed to me like +the mouth of a funnel through which poured the dense misery of an +entire nation. Think of this army's composition: a great city was +emptying itself of human life; not only a great city, but all the people +driven to it from the outside, all who had congregated in Belgium's +last refuge and its strongest fort. They bore themselves bravely, the +greater number plodding along silently in the footsteps of those who +went ahead, with no thoughts of their direction, some of them even +chatting and laughing. You saw great open wagons carrying baby +carriages, perambulators, pots and kettles, an old chair, huge +bundles of household goods, and the ubiquitous Belgian bicycle +strapped to the side. There were small wagons, and more great +wagons crowded with twenty, thirty, forty people: aged brown women, +buried like shrunk walnuts in a mass of shawls, girls sitting listlessly +on piles of straw, and children fitfully asleep or very much awake and +crying lustily. + +Sometimes the men and boys mounted their bicycles, rode for a +dozen yards, were stopped by the procession, and then, for want of +better occupation, rang their bells. One saw innumerable yelping +dogs: big Belgian police hounds harnessed to the cart and doing their +share of work, others sniffing along the outskirts and plainly +advertising for an owner. There were noisy cattle, too, some of which +escaped. Long after the city was evacuated I saw a cow bellowing +under an archway of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. + +In this way the city emptied itself, but so slowly that the very slowness +of the movement wore the marchers out. Each family group was +limited to the speed of its oldest member. Hundreds gave it up and +lay by the road, or formed little gypsy camps under the trees. At night +these were lighted by fires, overshadowed by the greater fire from the +distant burning city, and beside them stretched dumb-looking souls, +watching vaguely those who still had strength to move. + +Watching these wretches got so on my nerves that I had to get out +and do something. With a British intelligence officer, formerly of Sir +John French's staff, I wandered down to the southern quarter of the +city known as Berchem. As usual, the guns at the outer forts had +been booming throughout the evening. From the city's ramparts you +could not only feel the shudder of the earth, but you could see +occasional splashes of flame from the Belgian batteries, answered, in +the dim distance to the south, by smaller, less vivid splashes issuing +from the mouths of the German instruments of "Culture" which +throughout the night pounded ruthlessly on the unprotected houses +without the city limits. + +On the way home we stopped in at the British field hospital to see a +wounded British friend. + + + + +Chapter VI + +The Surrender Of Antwerp + + + +As we left the British field hospital, on the Rue de Leopold, a shrieking +skyrocket whizzed by above us and buried its hissing head in the +river to the north. One or two more fell at a distance of several +hundred yards, and in the southern part of the city flames from +several houses shot up into the quiet, windless night. + +The bombardment was on--the time was 12.07 Wednesday +midnight. + +For a moment I did not realize that this was the beginning of the end +of Antwerp. I had heard so much gun-fire and seen so many bombs +dropping from aeroplanes that I did not fully appreciate the +significance of these shells. I scribbled a few notes in my diary, +unstrapped my money belt, and then picked out an empty bed at the +Queen's Hotel and tumbled in. I must have slept for six or seven +hours. + +When I arose everything was quiet. The hotel was apparently +deserted. I remember being particularly irritated because there was +no one in the kitchen who would give me breakfast, so I made myself +some tea and then strolled into the street. It so happened that the +Germans had been pumping lead steadily into the city for six hours +and that this was the morning lull. The Germans are methodical in +everything. When they bombard a city they stop for breakfast. + +As I walked down the Avenue de Keyser I thought at first it was +Sunday--or rather a year of Sundays all rolled into one. Overnight +the city had been transformed into a tomb. Shops were closed; iron +shutters were pulled down everywhere; trolley cars stood in the street +as they had been left. My own footsteps resounded fearfully on the +pavement, and I walked five blocks before I saw a human being. + +I stopped at the American Consul's office on the Place de Meir, only +to find the place was locked. A frightened face behind the grating told +me that the consul had taken his wife to the country--good place to +be in, I thought. + +Things began to seem lonely. I heard shells falling and saw flames in +the southern quarter of the city, and decided to go in that direction to +look up an American correspondent and two photographers who had +asked me to bunk with them in the cellar of a little abandoned house +at 74 Rue de Peage. + +Turning down a little side street leading toward the Boulevard de +Leopold, I was greeted by a clap of thunder overhead. A shell +demolished a house across the street and about thirty yards down. +The concussion knocked over a couple of babies. I picked them up, +put them back in the doorway of the house where they seemed to belong, +saying over and over again mechanically, "There, there, don't cry. +There is nothing to be frightened about"; and then, just to show how +little I myself was frightened I began to run. I ran for all I was +worth. I ran right into the fire. The shells were falling fairly thick +on the Boulevard de Leopold; every two or three hundred yards a house +was partially destroyed; bricks and glass littered the pavement, and +occasionally, every quarter of a mile or so, I saw a figure skulking +along under the eaves of a building, crouching and ducking in time to +the nasty music of the shells. But I decided that the middle of the +street was the safest part. + +When I had gone about a quarter of a mile I got my nerve again. I put +my hands in my pockets, lighted a cigarette, and was just saying to +myself, "This is pretty good fun, after all," when CRASH!! CRASH!! two, +or possibly three, shells, bursting in rapid succession, tore down +houses a hundred yards ahead of me. Then one struck in the street, and +jagged fragments of angry shrapnel skidded along the pavement like a +thrown stone skipping along the surface of the water. I was again +trembling all over. + +Was the game worth the candle, I asked myself. "I've come three +thousand miles and overcome every obstacle just to get into this +horrible mess. If I get disfigured--no, I'd much rather be killed--will +it--" + +"Crash!! Bang!!" went a monster shell as I turned the corner. + +Two doors from the corner of a narrow street covered with bricks and +mortar fluttered a United States flag, and beneath it the door of 74 +Rue de Peage. This place was later spoken of as "Thompson's fort," +because Donald C. Thompson, a Kansas photographer, took +possession of it after the Belgian family fled, and plundered the +neighborhood for coffee, rolls, and meat, with which he stocked his +little cellar. The house next door had already been struck, and +shattered glass littered the pavement. The doorstep of 74 was +covered by a couple of mattresses and sand-bags. Beneath this, in a +dingy sort of coal-bin, heaped with straw, I found crouching the +tenants of "Thompson's fort." + +Next to Berchem, the southern quarter of the city, where the +Germans were approaching, the Rue de Peage was the worst spot in +Antwerp. We sat for a time listening to the shells. There were here, in +addition to Thompson, Edwin Weigel, a Chicago photographer; +Edward Eyre Hunt, of "Collier's Weekly"; and the Dutch Vice-Consul. + +We heard the distant resounding Boom ... Boom ... Boom ... ed ... + Boom ... Boom ... Boom. + +An interval of perhaps a second's silence, then a faint moaning, a +crescendo wail, the whirr and rush of a snarling, shrieking skyrocket +overhead, and a crash, like all the thunders of the universe rolled into +one, when the shell struck, followed by the roar of falling brick as a +neighboring house came pouring into the street. + +"Whee.....wheee.....Hi.....HIOU UIOUW," we heard. "Whee ... +whEEE ... whEEE ... UIOUW ... OUWW ... SSH ... SSHSHHH ... +BANG ... BANG!!!!!!" + +"Whee.....wheee.....Hi.....HIOUUIOUW," we heard. "Whee ... +whEEE ... whEEE ... UIOUW... OUWW... SSH ... SSHSHHH... BANG... +BANG!!!!!!" + +I tried to persuade the other fellows to come up to the Queen's Hotel +along the Scheldt waterfront on the northern side of the city, where I +was then encamped. It was a safer locality because the Germans +had not yet got the range of the northern end of the city. Weigel and +Thompson, having to look out for their kodaks and moving-picture +paraphernalia, decided to wait a while, as did Hunt. Hare, who came +in later, had two big kodaks which he wanted to get back to his room +in the Queen's. I offered to carry one of them for him. + +We shook hands all around and one or two of us exchanged +messages to be taken back in case there was any trouble--that is to +say, in case, as seemed likely at the time, some of us should get out +alive and some should not. Hunt gave me a letter to his family, and +later, with watch in hand, started to walk around the burning city to +calculate the number of falling shells per minute! I slung Hare's kodak +over my shoulder and we started back, taking separate streets. It was +a dash of three quarters of a mile and nothing fell particularly close to +us, although the buildings on all sides were in flames. Near a pile of +discarded uniforms of the garde civique, I saw what was left of the +figure of a man with his insides oozing out, his eyes still open, staring +vacantly upwards, and all around him the horrible odor of decaying +horses. By this time I was calm and was getting quite accustomed to +the bursting of shells. I suppose I had been through my "baptism of +fire." + +About half an hour later, when we were sitting in the Queen's, +Thompson, pale as a sheet, staggered into the deserted lobby closely +followed by Weigel and Hunt and the Dutch Vice-Consul, the latter +somewhat out of his head. Just after I left 74 Rue de Peage, a 32 cm. +shell burst on the roof, tearing off the two top floors of the house, +throwing Thompson's bed into the street, and setting the place on fire. +At sundown the house was in ashes. Somehow or other the men all +got out, rescuing a portion of their paraphernalia. + +All Thursday afternoon the German Taubes circled above the city-- +mostly along the waterfront. Below them puffed little clouds of smoke +where shells from the Belgian anti-aircraft guns were exploding. I +fancy the airmen were locating the pontoon bridge and signaling to +the Prussian battery commanders six miles away; but during +Wednesday and Thursday, when the crowds of refugees were +assembled on the waterfront, not a single bomb dropped among +them. A few shells, well placed, would have slaughtered them like +sheep. Before and during the bombardment I am quite certain that +the Germans intended to frighten, rather than injure, non-combatants. +Report to the contrary notwithstanding, it is equally true that, so far as +possible, the invaders kept to their promise to spare such buildings as +the Cathedral, the Palais de Justice, the Hotel de Ville, the Castle +Steen, and other historic landmarks. + +The bombardment lasted forty hours. That night,--Thursday, October +8th,--the second and last night which the town held out, all of the +Americans who were left gathered at the Queen's. The firing by this +time was terrific. Except for the lurid glare of the burning buildings +which lit up the streets, the city was in total darkness. For weeks +martial law had been in effect and there were no lights after sundown. +An unearthly feeling it was, to be locked in the darkness of this +strange city, unable to speak a word of the language, not knowing +whether the garrison had evacuated the forts or whether the city had +been surrendered, believing there would be street righting or an +insurrection of franc-tireurs. At times we heard through the darkness +the tramp of squads of soldiers. Surely, we thought, there come the +Germans. We remembered the atrocities at Louvain. + +About an hour after darkness settled on us I climbed to the roof of the +Queen's Hotel, from which, for a few minutes, I looked out upon the +most horrible and at the same time the most gorgeous panorama that +I ever hope to see. The entire southern portion of the city appeared a +desolate ruin; whole streets were ablaze, and great sheets of fire rose +to the height of thirty or forty feet. + +The night, like the preceding, was calm and quiet, without a breath of +wind. On all sides rose greedy tongues of flame which seemed to +thirst for things beyond their reach. Slowly and majestically the sparks +floated skyward; and every now and then, following the explosion of a +shell, a new burst of flame lighted up a section hitherto hidden in +darkness. The window panes of the houses still untouched flashed +the reflection in our eyes. + +Even more glorious was the scene to the north. On the opposite side +of the Scheldt the oil tanks, the first objects to be set on fire by bombs +from the German Taubes, were blazing furiously and vomiting huge +volumes of oil-laden smoke. Looking over on this side of the river, +too, I could see the crackling wooden houses of the village of St. +Nicolas, lighting with their glow all of northern Antwerp and the +water-front. In the swampy meadows on the farther bank we could see the +frightened refugees as they hurried along the still protected road to +Ghent. They passed on our side of the burning village, not five +hundred yards away. Every now and then as a fitful flame lighted the +meadow I could see the figures silhouetted against the red +background. + +They appeared to be actually walking through the flames like +Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. It was all a glorious and +fascinating nightmare. + +There was at this time an ominous lull in the moaning pound of +shrapnel. + +Out of the darkness in the direction of West Antwerp came a new +sound-the low methodical beat of feet. The noise became gradually +louder and louder until one could hear the rumble of heavy wheels +and distinguish the sound of voices above the crowd. This was the +beginning of the British and Belgian retreat, which started at about +eight o'clock Thursday night, and, under cover of darkness, continued +unbroken for eight hours. Following the line taken by the escaping +populace this retreat went past our position on the water-front. Before +dawn on Friday morning, when the light became strong enough for +the advancing army to make out the enemy's position, practically the +entire Belgian army plus ten thousand Royal British Naval Marines +had got across the pontoon bridge and were well along the road to +Ghent. During all these hours squads of gendarmes with fixed +bayonets held back such remaining townsfolk as attempted to get +near the bridge. To these wretches it seemed that their last avenue of +escape had been cut off. There were now at the Queen's, Arthur +Ruhl, Hare, and myself, in addition to an English intelligence officer +and the recruits from "Fort Thompson." We talked over our plans for +the next day. The intelligence officer volunteered to get up with me at +sunrise and scour the river for a barge. It was my idea, in case we +could make any kind of arrangements for a get-away, to come back +and report to the other fellows. I remember that Arthur Ruhl was +uncertain as to whether he would come with us or wait for the +German entry. He was worried about some friends in the British field +hospital, and he decided not to leave without looking them up,--a +pretty white thing to do, it seemed to me. + +I tried to sleep, but the rumble of artillery wagons and shouts of the +marchers prevented. So I spent most of the night of the British and +Belgian retreat beneath my window. At daybreak the intelligence +officer came to my room and we started out along the water-front, +moving in the direction of the Dutch border. With the rising sun on +Friday morning the German Taubes again swept over the city. When +the Germans saw that the whole British and Belgian army had got +away from them they moved up their 42 cm. guns and literally gave +us hell. This time they had no mercy on the few remaining +noncombatants. + +The intelligence officer's baggage delayed us a long time. When we +got up nearly as far as Fort St. Philippe, we separated. We saw a +barge anchored in the river and he had an idea it would leave about +seven o'clock, and that we might be able to get on it. I gave him my +knapsack containing my gold belt, which, in the confusion, I had not +had time to strap on, and started to make a dash back to the +Queen's, because I considered that I ought to let the other fellows +know what had happened to us. + +I had fifteen minutes to cover the distance. + +I ran. The shells, at that time, were falling at a rate, I should +judge, of five a minute. Opposite the Castle Steen I had a narrow +escape--just concussion, I suppose. Directly above me came a crash of +thunder. A few moments later I found myself lying in the street, head +pointing north--dazed. A bomb crashed through the eaves and tore a hole +as big as a small cellar in the street directly before the old castle, +bursting with the concussion of a tornado. For a few moments I sat on +the street feeling weak in the legs and unable to move. + +Again I started back to the Queen's. Two hundred yards east of the +bridge some soldiers held me up. + +"Get back!" they shouted, believing that I was making for the pontoon. +They turned me back, and I hesitated a moment. A terrible explosion, +louder than anything I had yet heard, rocked the city to its +foundations. For a moment the walls of the houses trembled and every +window on the waterfront was broken. The retreating Belgian army had +blown up that pontoon bridge and with it what then seemed the last hope +of escape for the few remaining survivors. For a few moments wreckage +writhed in midstream like a great sea creature in agony of death. + +Past me rushed groups of Belgian soldiers, the remainder of a few +hundred who had been left to cover the British and Belgian retreat, fire +the last shots from the forts, and spike the guns as the Germans +approached. Pitiable was the terror of these fellows when they saw the +bridge gone. Many of them were out of their heads through exposure and +exhaustion; not a few of them wept. One sergeant tore off his uniform +and fatigue cap and tried to exchange them for my citizen's clothes. + +The worst fire of the entire bombardment was concentrated during these +moments; the racket was stupendous. Because gunboats, barges, lighters, +tenders, rowboats, were commandeered by the military authorities to +ferry across soldiers and wounded there was slim chance for +noncombatants. Above the noise of bomb and shrapnel Belgian gunboats +added to the confusion by cannonading big boats along the quay. This +was done in order that the Germans might not make use of them for the +pursuit. It speaks volumes for my military knowledge that for a brief +moment I imagined the Germans had embarked upstream and were going to +make a river battle of it. + +By this time the American correspondents had left the Queen's, going +in different directions for different purposes. Hunt and Thompson, I +later learned, went to the American Consulate, where they stayed +during the German entry. + +For a moment I see-sawed up and down the river bank, remembering +I had left my handbag at the Queen's, but, infinitely more important, +that my knapsack with money belt and diary were in the keeping of a +peripatetic acquaintance somewhere along the crowded piers +downstream. Without that gold, the thousands of miles to New York +seemed doubly long. When I at last got back to the barge office a +dock-hand pointed to a bench in the corner; there to my intense relief +lay the knapsack, where my kind English intelligence officer had left it. + +A little later I managed to clamber on a river barge laden nearly +to the sinking point with Antwerp's peaceful burghers and their +dumb-looking women and children. Slowly--very slowly--we steamed out +of the haze of powder and oil-laden smoke, through long lines of +gunboats and a flotilla of drifting scows packed to the gunwales like +our own, and past Fort St. Philippe, whose garrison were at that +moment heaving tons of powder into the river. + +A few miles farther downstream they landed us on the northern bank +of the Scheldt near the little town of Liefkenshack. Here I began a few +miles of walking, occasionally varied by ox-cart locomotion. + +I was traveling with nothing but a knapsack (my suitcase had to be +abandoned) and therefore moving faster than the crowd. At one +point, for the sake of company, I joined a group and took a turn at +shoving the family wheel-barrow. They poured out thanks in the +guttural Flemish tongue, then loaded me with bread and bits of +mouldy pie. When that was not accepted they feared for their +hospitality. They talked and I talked, with a result that was hardly +worth the effort. Finally, after a conference, one of the group +disappeared into the crowd and returned leading an eight-year-old +boy. + +"Me talk American," said the boy. "We two speak together?" + +And so we talked, for the road was long and weary. + +Their advance was so gradual that, although I did not leave Antwerp +until the bombardment was over, I caught up with the army of +refugees before Roosendaal, just across the Dutch border. + +Here Holland opened out her arms. The kindness of the Dutch--as +yet personal, unorganized endeavor--was beyond conception. + +Churches, houses, public halls, stations were thrown open to the +multitude. You saw hundreds of Dutch soldiers join in the procession, +lift babies and bundles, and walk with them for miles. At Dordrecht, +when the trains came through, peasants passed scores of babies' +milk-bottles into the cars. When a jolly-looking Dutch girl, with a great +big gleaming smile that reminded me of some one, gave me milk and +chocolate, the tears began to trickle down my cheeks. I suppose it +was the reaction, or because I was tired, or, perhaps, because the +crowd was cheering and waving at us. For the others there were piles +of bread, Dutch cake, and, best of all, some good, long drinks of +water. For ten days Antwerp's water supply had been cut off. Von +Beseler, German siege commander, had seen to that. + +At Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal people used the walls of the +houses for post-offices. They wrote their names in chalk letters, giving +directions to relatives lost in the scramble. + +After ox carts, rowboats, and river barges had done their share, a +Dutch-Belgian "Stoom Tram" joggled us along for a few miles. Some +more walking and a little running before I at last crawled aboard a +twenty-car freight and passenger train moving slowly toward the east. + +At the first telegraph office across the Dutch border, I filed a cable +story to the "Boston Journal"; and later started an account for the +"New York Evening Post." I had an idea that I would score a "beat" or +"scoop" so that the people of the Back Bay could read of Antwerp's +fall over their coffee-cups the next morning. My cable account had too +much inside information. There were in it too many facts concerning +Winston Churchill's visit, also information about the number of Royal +Marines engaged, none of which it was thought proper to give out at +that time. So the English censor refused to let it through. That, +however, did not prevent the Dutch Cable Company from pocketing +my two hundred guilders. + +By the time I reached Rotterdam the word "refugee" had assumed a +new and altogether nearer meaning. I had been in a besieged and +captured city; I had mixed with homeless and starving people; I had +seen houses crumble and burn; and ghastly human figures with their +insides oozing away and the eyes staring vacantly. + +As I lay in bed that night I could hear, and I still can hear, the scruff, +scruff, and shuffle of feet as the compact body of this army--the +army without guns or leaders--dragged slowly past my window at +the Queen's, the tinkle of ox-cart bells, the talk and babble of guttural +tongues; the curses of the team drivers, the frantic cries of mothers +who had lost their children in the scramble, the cries of young children +who didn't know what was wrong, but realized in their vague, childish +way that something terrible was happening. + +I could see, and I still can see, those big Belgian hounds sniffing +along the outskirts of the crowd and plainly advertising for an owner; I +can see other hounds with their heads thrown back wailing at the +door of their deserted and abandoned homes. And I can see the +Dutch border where Holland opened out her arms, and the Dutch +peasants gave us rye bread and sandwiches and good long drinks of +welcome milk. + +Sometimes I can sit with my legs dangling over the stern of that old +towboat barge on which I finally made my escape, and can visualize +the blue-gray spire of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, standing, it +seemed to me, a quiet sentinel over the ruins of the tortured city; and, +then, as the old barge sweeps around the river's bend, I can look +back upon the last of Antwerp's story written in flaming letters of red +against the early morning sky. + + + + +Chapter VII + +Spying On Spies + + + +Less than forty-eight hours after the fall of Antwerp the wave of +helpless humanity whose crest broke on the Belgian border had +rolled over the entire length and breadth of Holland. Thousands of +Belgian refugees wandered as far north as The Hague, where +various Dutch relief committees and the American Legation at The +Hague did their best to house the homeless and relieve the suffering. +Dr. van Dyke rolled up his sleeves still farther and strained to solve +the problem of the unemployed, sometimes, when a case interested +him, turning his own pocket inside out. + +Eight days after the Antwerp bombardment, I left The Hague for my +second trip into Germany. + +Just before my start Captain Sunderland, U.S.A., at the head of the +American Relief Committee at The Hague, asked me to help him in +taking charge of two carloads of grain, which were to go across the +German border and be distributed among the starving Belgians at +Liege. England had agreed not to interfere with food supplies, +provided the United States saw that they did not fall into German +hands in Belgium. The present job required sleeping in the freight +cars and saying, in one form or another, "Hands off!" to every spiked +helmet that tried to interfere. Captain Sunderland could speak no +German, and as I had already been over the same territory and had +had some experience with the military authorities, he wished me to +accompany him. + +I decided, however, to go into the interior of Germany. I had already +seen three armies in the field, and had watched, more or less closely, +the people of two warring nations. I was now particularly anxious to +study the German point of view, and if possible get to the front with +the Crown Prince's army. + +For such a purpose I considered that I carried good enough +credentials. In addition to a packet of mail for Ambassador Gerard, +my letter from ex-President Roosevelt, and my United States +passport, which had been vised by Herr von Mueller, German +Ambassador at The Hague, I now carried a special laissez-passer +which Mr. Marshall Langhorne had been kind enough to secure for +me from the same legation. I had a letter from Count von Bernstorff, +whom I had seen the night he arrived in America, and a letter from +Herr von Biel, Secretary of the German Embassy at The Hague, +recommending me to the Foreign Office in Berlin. Professor Hugo +Munsterberg had taken the trouble to send me a note to Dr. R. W. +Drechsler, head of the American Institute in Berlin, and I had also a +letter to the head of the University of Berlin. + +It was a five-hours' run from The Hague to Bentheim, a small country +village on the German frontier. The train stopped a quarter of a mile +north of the border. Dutch officials came aboard to examine +passports and baggage of every passenger. They were good-natured +and talkative, and did not go minutely into details, as those leaving +the country were less carefully watched than "immigrants." Me, +however, they mistook for an Englishman (as was usually the case in +Germany) and told me I could not cross the frontier. A Dutch +manufacturer, with whom I had struck up an acquaintance, explained +my identity, and the official, who looked astonished, waved me ahead +with a doubtful expression, as much as to say, "On your own head be +it, young man." + +That first night passed without trouble. At the border station we lined +up, immigrant fashion, and went through an inspection by a number +of the businesslike German militariat attached to the Zollamt, or +customs service. For ten minutes I stood in suspense while a +fiery-looking officer, with a snapping blue eye, looked through my +credentials in silence. He wrote my name in a notebook, looked +through my eye as if he would read my very soul, and then, without a +remark, passed me on. I filed through a narrow gate--and so into +the Realms of the Kaiser. + +It was now eleven o'clock at night and the Berlin express came +through Bentheim at 7.45 the next morning. We stayed at a little inn, +somewhat resembling the Wayside Inn, at Sudbury, Massachusetts. +Here I fell in with a German manufacturer whom I had seen several +weeks before as we were bringing the good news from Ghent to Aix. I +was surprised at this man's change of opinion regarding the conflict. +On the first occasion he laughed outright at the idea of an extended +fight. Now, all through his arguments, he repeated such phrases as, +"Well, if Germany doesn't win," or, "Suppose the war does last two +years," etc., etc. + +In the morning I had a peculiarly disagreeable experience at Lohne, +some distance from the German frontier, where we had again to +change trains en route to the capital. Experience had by this time +taught me, when thrown with people on the road, to show them my +papers and make my identity known as soon as possible. + +I therefore clung pretty closely to my argumentative German +acquaintance of Bentheim and Aix. During the melee of changing +cars I was, however, separated from him, and became engaged in +conversation (spoken in English) with a Dutch chocolate merchant. +The argument must have been interesting, for I did not at first notice a +crowd of twenty or thirty travelers and villagers gathering around us: I +did, however, notice when they began to push and jostle in a manner +obviously intended for insult. When I tried to retreat the exits were +locked. The crowd, convinced that I was an English spy, closed more +compactly and manhandled me off toward an officer on the street +behind the platform. My hat was knocked off, and for a brief moment I +recalled the lynching anger which I had seen in the eyes of Belgian +mobs, as German spies in Antwerp were being led to the police +station. + +At the last moment my rescuer came in the shape of the German +friend of Bentheim, who broke through the mob and whispered in my +ear, "Speak German. Always speak in German, you fool!" + +I admitted the soft impeachment. + +"Ich bin ein Amerikaner--ein correspondent," I explained to the row +of angry faces; and while my German friend soothed and reassured +his testy compatriots, I moved away, glad enough to escape another +visit to jail. Those personally conducted jail tours were not so bad, I +had found, with a handsome gendarme at your side; but a howling +crowd was altogether another matter. + +I reached the capital that night. One of my letters says, a few days +later:-- + +"The atmosphere is oppressive to the Anglo-Saxon visitor. His looks, +his manner, his accent betray him as one of the English-speaking +pest, and the crowd, with its mind so full of English hatred, does not +readily distinguish the American. So drop into a word of English in a +cafe: your neighbor glowers and draws away. You face it out with a +nonchalant air, but gradually the tension grows, especially when, as +happened to-day at the prisoners' camp at Zossen, twenty miles +south of Berlin, a great burly Prussian puts a menacing eye on you +and says, without introduction: 'It is very dangerous for an +Englishman here!' + +"Day by day here the hatred grows of England and things English: +judging from the press and the temper of the people, one would think +that England is the only foe. As a nation and as individuals they bear +no particular malice toward France. They even feel sorry for +'misguided' Belgium--betrayed by the British, they say. But England +they look upon as the root of all their trouble, the despicable, +retreating enemy they cannot touch, the enemy, they maintain, +whose clever, but selfish, diplomacy has forced the brunt of the +fighting on the others, while she sits back to wait for the spoils." + +On my arrival in Berlin I delivered the mail packet to Ambassador +Gerard. Two days later I presented my credentials at the Auswartige +Amt, or Foreign Office, hoping to get permission to go to the western +front with the Crown Prince's army. I was told to see Baron von +Mumm Schwartzenstein, who was officially designated by Von Jagow +to handle neutral correspondents, and who, unofficially, I have reason +to believe, is connected with the Secret Service. He is a pudgy sort of +man, with a watery skin, and decidedly not of military build or bearing. +When, after much red tape, I was finally admitted to an outer office, +he stepped out to see me, merely taking my name and the names of +the papers I represented. I was told to come back in the evening. +When I did so and was admitted to His Holy of Holies, he said to me +at once:-- + +"I was expecting you to come yesterday. Why did you not?" + +This was rather startling, but his next remark altogether took away my +breath. + +"Were you satisfied with your treatment by the War Office in Brussels, +Herr Green? And why, if you have already been wiss ze army in +scenes of war, do you now come to me for permission?" + +Mind you, I had at this time spoken scarcely a word, and had certainly +told nothing of my age or previous condition of servitude in Brussels. +But the Government that never forgets knew all about my +movements. He smiled at my discomfiture, and, within the next few +minutes, proved to be such a genial German (for war-time) that I +soon told him all about my adventures, including the fact that I had +gone back into Antwerp and entered Belgian lines, after escaping +from German surveillance at Aix. I happened to speak of the +marvelous efficiency and preparedness of the German army in +Belgium. + +"Yes, that iss quite so," remarked His Excellency, with a smile. "You +see, we were prepared for everysing--except," he added after a +pause,--"except ze invasion of ze American newspaperman. When +he iss out of our sight, zen we do not feel secure." + +Several weeks later, after I had come out of the Kaiser's realm, a +representative of the "Boston Journal," who had been looking for me +all over the Continent, ran me down just as I was leaving The Hague +for England. + +"The Foreign Office in Berlin told me where to find you," he said. +"They told me that in Berlin you had stayed first at the Esplanade, and +then you had moved to the Kaiserhof. They said you had left the city +[this was when I went out toward Poland], that you had returned to +Berlin, and that on such and such a date at 8.45 you had departed for +The Hague."!! + +The military and civil authorities looked upon the correspondent as an +embryo spy. And if the correspondent's sympathies were foreign, he +was a thousand times worse than the ordinary spy, because he could +make use of the cable and press to spread his information. + +While waiting in Berlin for a chance to go to the front, I became, +therefore, more and more conscious of surveillance. Whether it was +the fact of being so much alone, or due perhaps to an unfortunately +English-like appearance, I do not know. At all events, the long arm of +the Secret Service continuously cast a shadow over my shoulder: I +even became suspicious of myself. + +For one who has not been through the experience it is difficult to +appreciate the strain of such constant, unending suspicion. On July +17,1912, I stood beside the body of Herman Rosenthal, the gambler, +as it lay in the coffin in the parlor of his house in the Tenderloin. My +newspaper had sent me to "cover" the funeral, and I managed, +because of some previous knowledge of the household, and by +giving the impression of a mourner, to gain access. The murderers +had not yet been caught. Because the public knew nothing of "Lefty" +Louie, or "Gyp the Blood," or even of the late Lieutenant Becker, it +was common gossip that the criminals lurked in the neighborhood, +and that, in order to avoid suspicion, they would appear among the +chief mourners. Therefore, each eye was turned against its neighbor, +and each man, as he passed you, asked the silent question,--"Did +you shoot Herman Rosenthal?" During all the months on the +Continent, and particularly in Germany, I felt myself at Rosenthal's +funeral. + +To a greater or less degree other correspondents had similar +experiences. I must mention one or two of them, in spite of the fact +that they may dim the importance of my own adventures. There was +Swing, of Chicago, German by relationship and sympathy, who +championed the Kaiser's cause and in his dispatches blew the +Teuton horn in the Middle West of America. Swing was given +exceptional privileges, including a typewriter and telephone near the +Foreign Office. Yet Swing himself was constantly shadowed, and it is +a fact that every time he used the telephone (and he was never +permitted to speak in English) a Secret Service agent cut in on the +wire to listen to the conversation. + +An anecdote which I have heard in connection with the same +correspondent, although I do not vouch for its accuracy, shows that +"keeping the lid" on newspaper men had its humorous side. It +likewise indicates the initiative and aggressiveness of many American +correspondents, who, as a rule, went right ahead in the face of +military regulations, in some cases risking their lives, and in almost +every case refusing to be "bluffed out," even where the threatened +penalty was death. Swing had made his way to the battle front near--- +-----, where he was taken into custody and brought before Von +Mumm, then on a visit to Staff Headquarters. + +"I find one of your countrymen wizin ze army lines," is the way +Excellency von Mumm is reported as telling the story, "and I say to +him, 'Herr Swing, it iss strongly forbidden zat a newspaper man come +to ze front. It is not permitted zat any one come here; you must go +away.' + +"Very goot, Excellency," said Swing. + +"Ze next day I am extr-r-remely sorry to encounter ze same +chentleman, and I say to him, 'Go away at once. If you are not gone +in one hour you will be shot!' + +"Very goot, Excellency," answered Herr Swing. "Auf wiedersehn." + +"Zat Very afternoon, to my sur-r-r-prise and gr-r-reat astonishment, I +see him again. He was still in ze army lines. And I say to him, 'Now I +have you! This time you will be shot at sunrise!' + +"And he look at me and say:-- + +"'Very goot, Excellency. Zat make perfectly bully story for my paper.' + +"And I look at him for a minute, and I do not know whether to shoot +him or to laugh. + +"And you know, I cannot help myself but to laugh." + +And finally there was the case of Cyril Brown, staff correspondent of +the "New York Times" in Berlin, with whom I floundered through the +maze of official red tape and military snares that entangled the +reporter at the German capital. Brown is an individual with a sense of +humor and a Mark Twain penchant for ten-pfennig cigars. He takes +his work seriously, but, unlike most war correspondents, not himself. +After some interesting freight-car adventures of his own planning, he +reached the Grosser Hauptquartier, a small city on the Meuse, where +at that time the brain of the German fighting machine was located. +This most vulnerable spot of the entire German Empire was, +paradoxically, in France. The Kaiser, the King of Saxony, the Crown +Prince of Germany, and Field Marshal von Moltke were here holding +council of war. It was therefore of utmost importance to conceal the +locality. Neutral correspondents were not allowed: the German press, +even if it knew, would not dare to breathe its whereabouts. When +Brown by strategy got inside the red-and-white striped poles which +marked the entrance to the Over War Lord's quarters, he was at once +arrested and taken before Major Nikolai, head of the Kaiser's +bodyguard and chief of the field detectives. + +It was late at night, and it was determined that Brown should go on the +first military Postzug, which left at 7 A.M. If he was not gone by that +time there were terrible threats of what would happen to him. + +It so happened that the day was the Crown Princess's birthday. Soldiers, +grenadiers, and servants of the Kaiser's household celebrated the fact. +Brown evaded his intoxicated sentinels and deliberately missed the +train. The following morning Major Nikolai discovered him behind the +guardhouse, himself feigning intoxication. Major Nikolai was about to +throw Brown into jail "for the duration of the war" when the young man +answered:-- + +"But, Major, I overslept. What loyal German could possibly remain sober +on the Crown Princess's birthday?" + +"Gott im Himmel!" exclaimed the major, bursting into a laugh; "vatever +can be done mit such a man?" + +To-day Brown has free run of the Foreign Office and the War Office in +Berlin, and is sending to his paper, in my humble opinion, the best +information obtainable in this country on the way in which the German +civil and military mind views the "crisis" with the U. S. A. + + + + +Chapter VIII + +The Sorrow Of The People + + + +I was conscious of a distinct break between the crisp, official +atmosphere of Berlin--where the war hurts least and the mechanical +appearance of success is strong--and the sentiment of the rank and file +of people whose suffering, as the war continued, became a more and more +important factor. + +On the night of my second arrival in the capital I sat in the rear of a +motion-picture theater, just off the Friedrichstrasse. It was a long, +dark hallway, such as one may see in any of the cheaper "movies" on +Washington Street or Broadway, where the audience sits in silence broken +by the whirr of the cinematograph and in darkness pierced by the +flickering light upon the screen. The woman in the seat beside mine was +the typical Hausfrau of the middle class. She was, of course, dressed +in mourning: the heavy veil, which was thrown back, revealed the +expression so common to the German widow of to-day --that set, defiant +look which begs no pity, and seems to say: "We've lost them once; we 'd +endure the same torture again if we had to." + +It was a sad enough story that the reel clicked off, and about as +melodramatic as "movies" usually are. But the woman kept herself well +in hand, since the public display of grief is forbidden and they who +sorrow must sorrow alone. + +A Bavarian boy, as I recall it,--the youngest son,--runs away from home +to join his father's regiment in Poland. When his captain calls for +volunteers for a dangerous mission, the boy steps forward. For hours +they trudge over the snow until surrounded by a Cossack patrol. The +Bavarian boy, although having a chance to escape, goes back under fire +to succor his wounded comrade. Just as he is about to drag the comrade +into the zone of safety, a bullet pierces his lung. For two days he +suffers torture on the snow. The body is found and brought home to his +mother. + +Now and then the widow next me bit her lip and clenched her fist, but +she gave no other sign of emotion. Another film was thrown on the +screen, humorous, I believe. Suddenly the woman began to laugh. She did +not stop laughing. It was a long, mirthless, dry, uncanny sort of +cackle. People stared. She laughed still louder. An usher came down +the aisle, and stood there, uncertain what to do. Hysterics had given +way to weeping: the tears were now streaming down the woman's face. She +tried to control herself, but could not, and then arose and between +choking sobs and laughter fled from the darkened room out into the +Friedrichstrasse. + +I mention this incident--the sort of thing that must have existed +everywhere, if one had eyes to see it--merely because it gave a glimpse +through the veil of public optimism into the wells of sorrow hidden for +the sake of public duty. Military and official Berlin was "staged," one +might almost say. It was on show to impress the neutral stranger, no +less than its own inhabitants, with the glorious sense of victory. + +But beneath it lay untold suffering which could be endured only because +of such united loyalty and team play as the world has seldom seen. + +This undercurrent of suffering, which increased week by week as the +writing on the wall grew longer, was in pitiful contrast to the +enthusiasm with which the women sent their men and sons away to war. +More than once I watched troops drilling at Spandau Hof, the great +barracks and training-grounds, a few kilometers west of the city. When, +on the evening of my first visit, a half dozen battalions of Landwehr, +just whipped into shape, entrained for the front, the people threw bits +of earth upon them, and, according to custom, stuck green twigs in the +end of every Mauser barrel, that each man might carry a bit of the +Vaterland with him on to the enemy's soil. In unspotted field uniforms, +and helmets still without the green-gray canvas service covering, they +clattered past the reviewing officers, each right leg coming down with +the thumping goose-step salute, until halls and barracks echoed with the +staccato tread of thousands of hob-nailed boots. The lusty military +band blazoned out "Die Wacht am Rhein" and other martial airs, until the +creepers began to run up and down your back and you felt a lump rising +in your throat. Friends, relatives, widows, mothers already in black +for other sons, and more than the usual hurrahing crowd had gathered +under the arch leading to the railway track. As the close-locked fours +went through the gate, the people broke the ranks and pounded each man +on the back, while all the time the crowd was shouting. + +I asked my neighbor what they were calling. + +A German friend in the group explained: "The people shout +'congratulations!'" + +At that moment a Red Cross train returning with twenty carloads of +wounded stood on the siding. Scores of bandaged heads and limp arms +stuck out of the windows,--these were the slightly wounded, --and even +the half-dead figures strapped to the cots turned feebly toward the +marching troops. Most of these also waved, and those who were +physically able shouted the same words--"Bravo!" "Congratulations!" +"Bravo!!" + +That is the way after many months of war that the women and children +send their men away--no regrets, no holding back. "Good luck! Good +work! You've got a chance to die for Germany!!" + +Such a spirit, and with it a sincerity of purpose that could only come +from the conviction of right, is typical of the rank and file of +citizens. It cannot fail to impress the neutral stranger, though he has +traveled far in other countries at war and seen and lived with their +citizens and soldiers. One was forced to believe that the militarists +acted in conformity with the feelings of the whole people, and that this +hideous war was not merely the result of personal ambition. Except, of +course, among the soldiers the belief was most noticeable among the +lower classes. One found it among the peasants, one's neighbor in the +day coach, the artisan, the shopkeeper. You might reason with a +professor, a doctor, or perhaps an official in the Foreign Office at +Berlin. But it was not safe to try it on a sturdy peasant with three +sons on the firing line. It was like telling a man his mother is no +better than she should be. + + +From the Log + +"Among both fighters and those left at home, there is distinctly less of +the matinee hero business than in either England or France. The high +official in the civil government who said that the women were the best +fighters in the German army was not so far from the truth. The pluck of +the women is astonishing. There isn't the slightest display of sorrow +or call for sympathy. You see them everywhere in the streets, cafes, +and shops of Berlin; not in such great numbers, however, as in the +lesser provinces and the smaller towns, where the drain of men is +enormously heavier. + +"Later: Have been twice to the Casualty List Office, or Information +Bureau, where the names of the verwundet und gefallen are posted -- +column after column, company after company, regiment after regiment of +fine black type--nothing more or less than a printer's morgue, crowding +into one dark hallway the cemetery of a nation. There were fathers, +mothers, brothers, and children quietly and unemotionally scanning the +lists. It took me back to the terrible week at the White Star offices, +after the Titanic went down. At that time the relatives wept (some of +them) and nearly all harangued the officials, asking questions, sending +telegrams, begging for news. Here they look for the names of their +dead,--that's all,--and then go out without a question. You can't ask +questions of a Government! The Titanic lasted a week, and this goes on-- +God knows how long! + +"Had supper with Brown. Later a mother in black and a girl, also in +black (the daughter, or daughter-in-law, I should judge), came into the +Heiniger ( ?) Cafe while I was sitting there. For three quarters of an +hour they listened to the music, neither of them, I'll swear, speaking a +word. Then they paid twenty-five pfennigs for their beer and went out, +--still silent,--and the Ober bowed low and very respectfully. I asked +the waiter who they were, and he said the woman had that day heard of +the death of C... her fourth son. Something like the Bixby woman to +whom Lincoln wrote his famous letter. And there must be, literally, +thousands of them. + +"This people is terribly in earnest,--deluded, of course, with devotion +to a false idea, but it is the delusion that spells accomplishment. The +country is earnestly and honestly possessed with an Idea, and the idea +is that Might is Right. That is the awful pity of it. When will the +awakening come? + +"Later: To-day I had an interview of three quarters of an hour with Herr +Dr. R. W. Drechsler, head of the American Institute, attached to the +University of Berlin. To-morrow I hope to see Excellency von Harnach, +president of the University of Berlin, to whom I have a letter. Dr. +Drechsler was kind, agreeable, extremely interesting. He showed me some +New York newspapers--the first real news of the war I have had for +weeks. The 'Tribune' and 'Times' had an account of us fellows down in +the cellar at Antwerp. Drechsler and I had an interesting argument, and +before I left he deluged me with pamphlets and literature for the +improvement of my mind and sympathies. Even so he was unlike the +average German. As a rule they have attempted to cram their arguments +down my throat. These Teutons think they can force you to believe. + +"Dr. Drechsler and the proprietor of the Kaiserhof, and, of course, the +Foreign Office warned me that it was forbidden to go to the prisoners' +camps, either at Zossen or Doeberitz. Some correspondents had been +taken on 'personally conducted' tours; but because of misinformation +sent out the tours were no longer in vogue. So I thought that I would +risk it, without permit, and, wishing to take a swing through rural +Germany, I decided to visit the camp at Zossen, twenty-five kilometers +south of the capital. When the guards weren't looking, I slipped boxes +of cigarettes through the barbed-wire fence to Irish privates, and +listened to the talk of captured Cossacks, and watched the British +Tommies kicking around a 'soccer' football, squabbling about fouls and +penalties, and as much excited about the score as if they were at home +on Hampstead Heath." + +It was chiefly in my wanderings through rural Germany that I was able to +rub elbows with the rank and file of citizens, and to get that barometer +of public feeling which Colonel Roosevelt, I believe, has called the +barber-shop opinion. I think I am justified in saying that during the +winter there were many evidences, too many to be overlooked, that a +growing minority, suffering through loss of life and realizing the +territorial advantages which are now Germany's, earnestly longed for +peace on any reasonable terms. The sooner peace came, they felt, the +better would be the strategic position of the Vaterland. Some of this +minority, in addition to the women, were business men, or professors, or +merchants, or doctors. + +It was not far from Hanover, where you change cars for Cologne and Aix- +la-Chapelle, dispatching-centers of the troops for the northern line of +battle, that the Frankfort doctor in the seat next mine began to talk. +He was an oldish man over sixty, dressed in mourning, and careworn. He +had been to Berlin, he said, to verify the report of his son's death, +and was now headed for Aix, where the body lay. + +After Uhlman, the fat merchant, left, we were alone in the second-class +compartment, and the doctor got up and shut the door on the noise of +Landwehr soldiers singing in the section of the troop train attached +behind the car. Presently he showed me two postals from his boy. They +were the stereotyped cards allotted to the men on the field: on one side +space for the address, on the other side the printed word "well," space +for the date (but no locality), and the signature. The third card was a +casualty report, signed, probably, by the company captain, with the +three printed words "slightly wounded," "wounded," and "severely +wounded." The first and last were scratched out, but after the word +"wounded" was written, "condition low." + +The boy must have held out--because the body was sent to Aix--until well +along the homeward Red Cross trip. During the Antwerp bombardment, at +Brussels, Liege, and Louvain, I had seen scores of the wounded, and had +myself slept on those trains with their households of blood and pain and +ether, and their long lines of mail cars, box cars, and converted tram +cars fitted with their triple rows of berths, one above another. As the +old doctor talked, I could see the wheeled hospitals stealing into the +city in the darkness--for the troops go off with bands and holiday +accompaniment, but the return is made at dead of night, that the public +may not know the human cost. + +"We must have peace," the doctor finished, "and we must have it soon. I +do not say this because I have lost a son, and I do not say it alone. +There are thousands who feel it just as much, but they are afraid to +speak what is in their mind. You are a traveler from the great city +[Berlin], and you do not know what war means. All you have heard is the +talk of fight and victory and glory, and that is all you see if you do +not look close. You must live in the smaller cities, must see the +villages and farms without men, and you must come with me and see the +homes without husband or son." For the third time he interrupted himself +to ask:--"You are Amerikaner--yes? And why do you come?" + +"To see the war and find out what the German people think." + +"Then go home and tell your country what I think and say, and many +others like me." + +It was not easy to forget his tears and final words as he came up on the +platform at Hanover, and, looking around to see that no one overheard, +whispered hoarsely: "Fangen sie ihre Propagande an, junger Mann, und +Gott starke ihre Bemuhungen"--"Start your peace propaganda, young man, +and Heaven help the undertaking." + +The southern part of this trip was not without its crop of stories, some +humorous, and some atrocious. It was impossible to verify the statement +of the Bavarian travelers who boasted of the treatment of English +prisoners en route to the detention camp. On one occasion sixty were +captured, they said, and only five brought home alive. The Bavarian +soldiers guarding them said with a laugh, "But they were tired, so we +had to shoot the rest"; and the officer answered with a wink, "What +happens to English prisoners need never be reported." One never needed +more one's sense of the probabilities. + +And there was the good-natured cavalry lieutenant who said the Germans +had found a way to keep their prisoners in training. "You see," he +explained, "we lock twenty of the 'red-trousers' [Frenchmen] and twenty +Englishmen in the same room at night and shut the windows. You know a +Frenchman can't stand air, and a Kitchener will die without it. So we +stand outside to watch the fun. First a window goes up, and then it +goes down, and pretty soon there are growls, grumbles, and oaths. In +ten minutes a terrible fight ensues; in half an hour the Frenchmen are +badly beaten,--they always are,--and twenty battered English heads come +sticking out the window for a breath of air." + +And finally there was the Landwehr captain's letter, a thing in keeping +with the tales which come across the Polish border. Westward, in +Belgium and in France, the fight was modern and of the day. Move +eastward from Berlin and you got the mediaeval note. It was not to be +found at the English prisoners' camp at Doeberitz, where the Germans +stare with infinite contempt and satisfaction at Tommy Atkins behind his +triple row of wire gratings. But wander among the thousands of captured +Cossacks building their own prisons at the camp at Zossen, hear them +muttering "Nichevo"--"this is fate"--"I do not care," and, listening to +the stories of their captors, you felt the atmosphere of centuries gone +by. One such was called to my attention in the form of a Prussian +captain's letter, which was, I believe, published in Berlin. Here is +his letter of the war in Poland, not long ago received by relatives. So +much as is not private is given as he wrote it:-- + +"The inhabitants go out of our way like frightened dogs, with childish +fear. When they wish to ask a question, they kneel down and kiss the +border of our coats, as in the days of the serf system. We are +stationed here in Poland, about eight kilometers from the so-called +road, in a so-called village far from all civilization. The village +consists of a number of tumble-down cottages, with rooms which we should +not consider fit for stables for our horses. The rain is streaming down +unceasingly, as if Heaven wished to wash away all the sins of the world. +Our horses sink into the mud up to their knees. + +"We took up our quarters in this village after fifty-four hours' +marching, and came just in time to witness the end of a strange and +tragic romance. When I was about to open the door of a farm, it was +opened from the inside, and a subaltern came out, with a face beaming +with satisfaction. He reported that a little while ago he, with a few +of his men, partly captured and partly shot down half a company of +Russians. + +"'We were concealed' he told me. 'We let them come quite near, and then +we started firing.' + +"We entered a low-ceilinged room, or pen, sparsely lighted by wax +candles. The first object which caught my attention was a youthful +Russian soldier, almost a child, lying on a straw mattress, smiling as +if asleep. I approached; I put my hand on his forehead ... ice-cold-- +dead. Some of the men approached to take off the clothing; others stood +around in a half-circle, silently looking on. Suddenly there was a +murmur... They seemed awe-stricken, these brave fellows, who are not +daunted even by overwhelming odds. They hesitated, and one of them, +advancing a few paces to me, reports: 'This Russian soldier is a girl.' + +"This happened in the year 1914. + +"We found out that the girl was the betrothed of a Russian officer, and +fought side by side with him throughout the campaign, until killed by a +shot in the breast. The officer was taken prisoner. I buried her +myself that same day..." + +In order to make clear what happened when I crossed the German border +for the last time, I should explain that I now had with me several +trophies which I had obtained with great difficulty and was +correspondingly anxious to bring home. Among them was a German +private's helmet and an original Iron Cross of the second degree. The +marking on the temple band of the helmet said, "48th Regiment, 4th Army +Corps, Company 7, No. 57, 1909-1914,"--meaning that the owner started +service in 1909 and the helmet was issued to him in 1914. It is +believed it belonged to a soldier who was either wounded or killed +outside of Antwerp. The Iron Cross has on it: "1870" (when the order +was started), and the letter "F" (Friedrich), and the date of its +issuance. I should add that I did not rob a dead or dying soldier of +these trophies, but I was asked not to show them in either Belgium or +England, nor to state how I came by them. And I have kept my promise. + +I had also a fragment of shrapnel casing from a 32 cm. shell--the only +bomb which hit the Antwerp Cathedral during the German attack. It was +given to me by Mr. Edward Eyre Hunt, who picked it up on the morning of +the German entry. There were also some Belgian bullet clips and a bit +of shrapnel picked up near the spot where I was knocked down by the +concussion of a bursting shell on that same morning. + +When I reached Bentheim we were put through the usual search by the +border patrol and military officials of the Zollamt. I had pinned the +Iron Cross to my undershirt, but the helmet was a bit bulky for such +treatment. + +"Take it out!" roared the officer who discovered the headgear wrapped in +a sweater in my rucksack. "Dass ist str-r-reng ver-r-rboten!" + +When I explained that I had come by it honestly, and wanted to take it +home, he burst into a passion. The fact that I showed a letter from Von +Bernstorff and explained that I was known in the Foreign Office in +Berlin made no impression whatsoever. The officer said that if the +owner was dead, the helmet could not even go to his family. It was +government property and should return, therefore, to the commissary +department. At all events, it must not leave the Empire. + +I missed my train and was kept in Bentheim overnight. In the morning I +again tried persuasion, but without success. As it was now a question +of myself or the helmet, I decided to get myself home. I went back once +more, and as a final chance put up this proposition to my officer. I +showed my credentials and explained that I was going to The Hague. +Would he in the mean time put my name on the helmet, and if within +forty-eight hours he received a wire both from the Foreign Office in +Berlin and The Hague Legation, would he send the helmet after me? He +glared at me for a moment. Yes, he said, he would. + +At The Hague I immediately visited the German Legation and told them of +the customs officer's promise. + +From bitter experience I realized that in war-time out of sight is lost, +so far as baggage is concerned. Consequently I had given up all hope of +my trophy. A week later, when I happened to be in Dr. van Dyke's study, +I noticed a conical-shaped object resting on one of the secretary's +desks. There, on top of a pile of letters, with "Herr Horace Green" +scribbled in German script on a piece of paper pinned to the green-gray +service covering, lay my dented, battered, and long-lost German +private's helmet! + +Simply because the fiery customs officer had given his word, the German +Legation at The Hague had telegraphed to Bentheim and also, I take it, +to Excellency von Mumm at Berlin; and the customs officials had shipped +the helmet to the Dutch capital, where the German Legation, obedient to +promise, had turned it over to the American Legation for delivery to me. +The whole proceeding seemed typical of the overbearing gruffness, the +systematic attention to detail, and at the same time the thoroughgoing +honesty of the German character. + +So I tucked the helmet under my arm, and, saying good-bye to Dr. van +Dyke and Mr. Langhome, who had made my stay at The Hague so pleasant, I +crossed the mine-strewn English Channel for Piccadilly Circus. + +Two weeks later I was aboard the Red Star liner Lapland, driven one +hundred miles out of her course through fear of German war craft, yet +pounding along through a thick fog and hopefully headed in the general +direction of the good old Statue of Liberty. + + + + +Appendix: Atrocities + + + +I gained the impressions given below and compiled many of the instances +on the now threadbare subject of atrocities during the time that I was +in the war zone. The opinions will not meet with favor in this country, +particularly at present, when we seem on the point of breaking +diplomatic relations with Germany. + +Nevertheless, I think these notes present a point of view which ought to +be known, if only for the purpose of showing the other side of the +shield--and of checking, to some extent, the nursery tales in regard to +personal atrocities, which become more fanciful the farther they are +told from the scene of reported occurrence. After the horrible +Lusitania crime and other evidences of German Schrecklichkeit for which +there can be no justification, it is hard for Americans to reason fairly +in questions involving Teutonic methods of warfare. I am therefore +appending the notes in spite of a rather careful study of the Bryce +Report on German atrocities in Belgium. They are, of course, to be +taken into consideration merely as the evidence of what one man happened +to see or as was often more the case, not to see. + +In order that there may be no misunderstanding, it is well to define the +meaning of the word "atrocity." + +I suppose all will agree with me that the term does not include what may +be called the necessary horrors of war--such as hunger and poverty +resulting from the destruction of homes and loss of livelihood, the +suffering of refugees driven by necessity from captured towns, +starvation through no fault of the invader, the accidental wounding of +noncombatant peasants, farmers, etc. For the present purpose the word +is intended to include all cases of unnecessary, unprovoked personal +cruelty, as well as, of course, the outraging of women. Such acts, for +example, as the reported gouging-out of the eyes of prisoners, cutting +off the wrists of children, the alleged stabbing of old women, cutting +off the wrists and ears of nurses, and the more refined cruelties of +which I have heard reports, are, it goes without saying, atrocities. +Let us examine one or two of these. + +Near Osnabruck, Germany, an American visitor, pacing up and down a +railroad siding early one morning, chewing a mouthful of stale sausage +meat between thick crusts of rye bread, heard a particular cruelty story +which may be used here as an example. It was told by an army surgeon +with whom he was having his peripatetic breakfast. On the track +alongside stood a so-called Red Cross train, consisting of a combination +of well-equipped hospital coaches with their triple rows of berths slung +one above the other as in a sleeper; attached in the rear were a few +coal carriages and freight trucks. This train was waiting for the +outbound traffic to pass by. You see, the outbound traffic consisted of +fresh troops, being rushed to the front in one of those quick +transcontinental shifts which have played so important a part in German +strategy. But the eastbound train carried only wounded and dying on +their way back home. So, of course, the hospital cars must wait as long +as necessary, since they had no right or standing in the ruthless game +called war. + +In the cheerless interior of one of these freight cars (much the same +kind of car as that in which we were confined during the trip from +Brussels to Aix--apparently used as a horse-stall on the previous trip, +and with no bedding beyond a damp pile of straw in one corner) the +American noticed a young German private. This particular fellow was not +wounded. He wore no bandages; he was the only occupant of the +horse-stall; and he paced up and down the boards, muttering, muttering, +continually muttering to himself. Now and then he snatched up a musket, +went through the form of fixing a bayonet, and again and again lunged +savagely at the wall of the car. + +The Red Cross surgeon to whom the American went for information +dismissed the matter casually by merely tapping his forehead with his +index finger. + +"Just one of those insane cases," he said. + +Later in the day on better acquaintance the surgeon explained the matter +in this fashion:-- + +"The fellow was quartered in a village near Lille, doing sentry duty on +a house occupied by German officers. There was an uprising of citizens. +From across the way native franc-tireurs fired shots into the house, +killing one officer and wounding a second. Tracing the firing across +the street, the remaining officers entered a bakery-shop where they +found several men and a woman, all armed. They ordered the men to be +shot. The woman had in her hand a revolver with one of the cartridge +chambers empty. The German lieutenant saw that she was about to become +a mother. He then explained the gravity of her offense, told her that +she was practically guilty of murder, and took away her weapon. But +under the circumstances he ordered her released instead of being shot. +He turned his back and walked away about five paces. Suddenly the woman +snatched another revolver from behind the counter and fired point-blank. +As he fell, the officer called out to his orderly, 'Bayonet the woman.' + +"The sentry did what he was ordered, but, you see, it has affected the +poor fellow's mind." + +This story, along with a few others, I have picked out from hundreds of +atrocity tales which I heard during four months spent in England, +Belgium, Germany, and Holland. It will serve as an example, not only +because it has the earmarks of truth,--having been told in an offhand +way merely as an explanation of the private's insanity,--but because it +is typical of the kind of incident which in the telling is, nine times +out of ten, twisted into atrocious and wholly unrecognizable form. + +Under the law of military reprisal was there justification for the death +of this woman? Was the dying officer guilty of barbarian conduct? And +did the private, ordered against his will to perform an act whose memory +drove him insane, commit an atrocity? Without answering the question, +let us consider for a moment how that particular anecdote would be told +by a Belgian partisan. In my wanderings through Termonde, Liege, and +Louvain, I heard tales--unspeakable and on their face utterly +unbelievable--of which this kind of thing must have been the foundation. + +When the body of this woman was found, let us say, by French peasants +returning to their ruined homes, think how the horrible fact would be +seized, without whatsoever there was of justification! How the British +and French papers would describe that mutilated form! Think of the +effect of a two-column word-picture of the wanton sack and ruin of the +town, the shooting of its helpless citizens, and the description of that +mangled body sacrified to the Huns! Think how the fact would be clutched +by fear-crazed inhabitants, would be bandied from mouth to mouth, +distorted and dressed up to suit a partisan press, and "twisted by +knaves to make a trap for fools"! + +One of the first atrocity accounts which I heard in Belgium, as well as +one of the most persistent, had to do with scores of children whose +wrists had been cut by the Kaiser's troops. Hundreds of them were +reported to be in Belgium and Dutch hospitals or in the care of relief +committees. The gossip was so prevalent and in some instances so +specific that I had high hopes of tracking down and seeing, with my own +eyes, an instance. In each case which I heard abroad, my informant's +husband or brother or best friend had seen the children; but somehow or +other it was never arranged that I could see one of them myself. This +type of cruelty was so widely talked about that in plenty of cases the +German soldiers believed that some of their men had committed these +crimes. One of them told me that he understood that near Tirlemont the +wrists of several young children had been cut. He said that thirty or +forty children and peasants had fired on and killed German troops +marching through a neighboring village. A squad was sent to round up +the offenders, all of whom were found armed. Instead of killing the +snipers, whose age was between ten and seventeen, the surgeons were +ordered to slice the tendons of the wrist so that the noncombatants +should be prevented from holding a gun or using a knife. + +Soon after my ship, the Lapland, docked in America, I heard a case of +whose verity, owing to the source from which it came, I had no doubt. +The refugee in question, according to my informant, was an English +nurse, and lay with both wrists cut off at a well-known New York +hospital on Madison Avenue. She had been in Brussels at the time of the +German entry, and, being willing to work for the sake of humanity +wheresoever there were sick to care for, she had nursed wounded German +officers. Eventually, with a handful of English nurses still remaining +in Brussels, she had been deported to Holland, because it was feared +that German secrets were leaking out in letters sent by these English +nurses. This latter part coincided so precisely with the facts which +during my stay in Brussels I had found to be true, that I had no doubt +of the whole business. On recovery the nurse was to exhibit herself and +lecture for Red Cross funds. I was told this in strict confidence and I +was to see and talk to the handless lady on condition that the "story" +should not reach the press. I agreed. But to my bitter disappointment +the ----- Hospital had never heard of the woman. My informant then +confessed that his informant had made a mistake in the name of the +hospital. I offered four persons ten dollars each to trace the matter +to its source, the final result being a telephone call from my informant +saying that an English lawyer now in New York stated that to the best of +his belief there was "some such person in a hospital somewhere in New +Jersey." + +Merely for what they may be worth, and not in any sense as conclusive, I +mention the cases which came to my attention. During a month spent in +that part of Belgium where the most savage of the atrocities were +reported,--a month devoted to a diligent search for the truth,--I could +run down only two instances where the facts were proved, and where taken +all in all and looked at from both sides they constituted an atrocity. +I lived in an atmosphere of popular apprehension frequently amounting to +terror. A friend of mine saw children throw up their hands in terror +and fall down on their knees before a squad of German Uhlans who +suddenly dashed into a village near Vilvorde. The incident does not +prove that Uhlans are in the habit of acting atrociously; it does prove +the popular fear of them. Near the same town I investigated the case of +a peaceful villager, reported in the current conversation of the story +to have had his ears cut off and to have been finished off with a +half-dozen bayonet wounds. This I got at first hand from the man who +had seen the body. I asked him how he knew the man had been bayoneted by +Germans. My informant said that he himself was running from the village, +where a skirmish was going on between a regiment of the enemy (Germans) +and Belgian carabineers, that he was racing for his life through a rain +of bullets, etc., etc., and that under fire of sharpshooters he stumbled +across this body. He did not know the man was dead; but the case +interested him. So later he went back (still under fire of the +sharpshooters) and counted the number of holes in the man's shirt; there +were six, he told me, and he was sure from the shape of the holes that +they were the result of bayonets, not bullets. + +At one time when driving from Ghent toward Brussels with Julius Van Hee, +the acting Consul-General of the United States at Ghent, we passed a +little hillock of ground upon which was a small square slab of stone, +topped by a pair of sticks--hardly more than sticks--in the shape of a +cross. There was a yarn floating around the neighborhood, which had +almost crystallized into legend, that this was the fresh grave of a +child murdered by the Germans because it refused to salute. They said +the feet had been cut off and the boy was left to bleed to death. +Conceivably the story was true. We did not stop, for we could not carry +the investigation to the point of digging up a fresh grave. + +On the evening previous Van Hee had gone over to his office to lock up +preparatory to our early start for Brussels. A woman of Louvain stood +on the doorstep. How on earth she had ever got back to Ghent, neither +Van Hee nor Luther, who was in Van Hee's office and who told me the +story, could make out from her incoherent words. She had been torn from +her family, driven from house and home with a mob of wretched women, and +shipped into Cologne, Germany. She was almost starved; several others +went mad for lack of water. She now believed herself a widow. Between +tears and hysterics she told how soldiers had entered her house, how two +of them had held her husband against the wall at the point of a +revolver, while "several" others in succession violated her before her +husband's eyes!! + +These stories are not pleasant. But in seeking the real facts one +cannot work with kid gloves. Of the hundreds I have heard I have +mentioned a few of those which show the kind of thing believed to have +occurred in the ravaged country. Of all those which I heard, the last +mentioned and the one at the head of this chapter--for which there was +justification--appeared to have the greatest probability of truth. + +During the first rush of war the German system of destruction, and the +doctrine of "awfulness," as I saw it applied to physical objects, was +barbaric, relentless, and totally unjustified. At Louvain, Aerschot, +and Termonde it was at its height. On the other hand, in the mind of an +impartial student of the facts there cannot be the slightest doubt that +at Louvain there was an organized attack on the invaders by snipers and +franc-tireurs armed with knives, guns, revolvers of every description. +A half-day spent en route from burning Antwerp with a Jesuit priest of +Louvain and the testimony of several villagers would have convinced me +of this, had I not already been convinced by the stories of other +survivors. + +The burning of villages is one matter, the outraging and torturing of +women and children another. The truth of the former should not in any +way convict a German officer, much less Private Johann Schmidt, of +unprovoked personal cruelty. + +There undoubtedly were, though I did not happen to see them, numerous +cases of unprovoked cruelty and other evidences of barbarity that are +bound to happen in any war of invasion. The fact that I, personally, +did not happen to see them, and have found scarcely a non-partisan +observer who did, is neither here nor there. I merely state the fact as +one of the many bits of evidence which should be taken into +consideration. I have no case for Prussian militarism in so far as +applied to inanimate objects. The German system of destruction in the +early part of the war was utterly without excuse or justification; the +wreck and desolation, the hunger and suffering of the larger portion of +Belgium are utterly beyond the comprehension of those who have not been +there. Certainly words cannot convey the impression. The suffering, +particularly during the weeks following the fall of Antwerp, was so +awful and on so large a scale that the senses refused to grasp it. It +has been said that in the Civil War Sheridan was commanded, in pushing +up the Shenandoah Valley, to leave the countryside in such condition +that a crow could not live on it. A sparrow could not have existed in +many parts of Belgium. + +At the same time it is true that because of the tortures endured by the +Belgian people, because of the pain and horror of the war of invasion, +much of it unavoidable, the American public, because its sentiment is so +strongly anti-German, has been willing to believe anything of the race +against whom runs its prejudice. Truly remarkable is the rapidity with +which atrocity stories have been created and the relish with which they +are swallowed by drawing-room gossips. Those who have seen the war do +not find it necessary to talk about what does not exist. Mr. Arthur +Ruhl, who has seen and carefully studied all sides of the war, applies +the term "nursery tale" to the average atrocity story. Mr. Irvin Cobb, +John T. McCutcheon, and others who have been on the ground also took +them with a grain of salt. Curiously enough, the closer one got to the +actual fight, the less bitter was the feeling between participants, the +greater their respect for one another, and the less credulous their +belief in the enemy's barbarity. + +An American who was recently discharged from seven months' service with +the British army tells me that during this time the only knowledge he +had of personal atrocities was through the British and French +newspapers. And there are well-known stories of opposing trenches so +closely situated that the soldiers taught each other their respective +national airs, and the choruses of their camp tunes. + +To return to another form of alleged outrage, we have the ancient +argument on the case of Rheims. + +An interesting contribution to the testimony has been given by Cyril +Brown, now special correspondent of the New York Times in Berlin. Brown +made his way to the German army lines before Rheims, where, among +others, he interviewed First Lieutenant Wengler, of the Heavy Artillery, +commander of a battery which shelled the church spire, but known among +his comrades as "the little friend of the Rheims Cathedral." According +to Lieutenant Wengler two shots only struck the church spire (one from a +fifteen centimeter howitzer, another from a twenty-one centimeter +mortar) and this after French observers had used the tower for five days +between September thirteenth and eighteenth. So sparing was this young +"barbarian," in spite of provocative fire obviously directed from the +French cathedral, that "the friend of the Rheims Cathedral" stuck to him +as a nickname. + +In America Brown's statement provoked a storm of retort. Allied +correspondents claimed that a dozen shots at least crashed through the +roof, set the scaffolding ablaze, and that, at a time when Red Cross +flags were floating from the tower and red crosses were painted on the +roof, shells continued to devastate the beautiful interior, etc., etc. +There has been a quantity of discussion back and forth as to the number +of shots fired. Now, so far as the question of atrocity is concerned, +though every one will regret the ruin of this noble work of art, I hold +that it is not of the slightest importance whether there were fired two +shells or seventeen or seventy-seven. The important and only question at +issue is, whether the tower was used for observation purposes, or, in +other words, was there military justification for its attempted +destruction? + +Military men, English as well as German, to whom I have talked, take it +as a matter of course that the highest spot in any locality is used for +observation. As an English officer in Antwerp put it, "If the French +did not use the church tower they are d------fools." + +By way of guide and for sake of likely comparison I can state what I +know did happen in two other cities: Termonde and Antwerp. In Chapter +II of this book I have told how we made our way across the broken bridge +at Termonde on the day of its second bombardment, and how that night +word came to us of the manner in which the Belgians took revenge on the +conquerors. I told how staff officers, entering with a scouting party +at the head of a German column, mounted the only remaining spire in the +town. With a few well-directed shots from their concealed batteries +west of the river, the Belgians destroyed the tower and killed the +officers. The Belgians took no little pride in their marksmanship on +that occasion, and boasted freely of it. In this case, the use, and +therefore the destruction, of the observation-post was looked upon by +the Belgians as a natural and necessary instance of the work of war. As +evidence, it is rather valuable because given unconsciously and without +motive. + +Likewise at Antwerp. In all probability the fact has never been +appreciated that during the bombardment of this city,--the most +important, from a military point of view, in Belgium,--the spire of the +Notre Dame Cathedral was used as an outlook-station by the Belgian +defenders, if not by both Belgians and English. On the inadvertent +testimony of English themselves I know this to be true. On the second +night of the Antwerp bombardment the Americans who had not left the city +were gathered in the almost deserted Queen's Hotel along the water +front. Some time during the evening, I don't remember just when, but it +was while the British retreat was going on, an English lad called Lucien +Arthur Jones burst in upon us. At no little risk he had dodged through +the deserted streets and falling shells, much elated over the view of +the enemy he had just got from the cathedral tower. + +"I've had bully luck," he confided to me, after I had done him a noble +service (i.e., lent him a safety razor). "Belgian signal officers took +me up to the tower, where they can see everything the Germans are +doing." + +The following is taken from his account--an Englishman's account-- +printed in the London Chronicle, and copied in the New York Times, +Tribune, and other papers:-- + +"I now return to the events of Thursday. At 12.30 o'clock in the +afternoon, when the bombardment had already lasted over twelve hours, +through the courtesy of a Belgian officer, I was able to ascend to the +roof of the cathedral, and from that point of vantage I looked down upon +the scene in the city. I could just discern through my glasses dimly in +the distance the instruments of culture of the attacking German forces +ruthlessly pounding at the city and creeping nearer to it in the dark. +At that moment I should say the enemy's front line was within four miles +of Antwerp. + +"From my elevated position I had an excellent view also of the great oil +tanks on the opposite side of the Scheldt. They had been set on fire by +four bombs from a German Taube, and a huge, thick volume of black smoke +was ascending two hundred feet into the air. The oil had been burning +furiously for several hours, and the whole neighborhood was enveloped in +a mist of smoke. + +"After watching for some considerable time the panorama of destruction +that lay unrolled all around me, I came down from my post of observation +on the cathedral roof, and at the very moment I reached the street a 28- +centimeter shell struck a confectioner's shop between the Place Verte +and the Place de Meir. It was one of these high-explosive shells, and +the shop, a wooden structure, immediately burst into flames." + + + +Recapitulation + +The destruction of towns and villages, and the vengeance against +inanimate objects shown in the German march through Belgium was +barbaric. It was provoked by organized resistance on the part of +Belgian franc-tireurs, and by shooting from behind shutters, etc., and +other attacks by citizens of the invaded country. The Germans, though +truthful in the statement of the causes, inflicted punishment out of all +proportion to the crime. + +The reports of unprovoked personal atrocities, it is nevertheless true, +have been hideously exaggerated. Wherever one real atrocity has +occurred, it has been multigraphed into a hundred cases. Each, with +clever variation in detail, is reported as occurring to a relative or +close friend of the teller. For campaign purposes, and particularly in +England for the sake of stimulating recruiting, a partisan press has +helped along the concoction of lies. + +In every war of invasion there is bound to occur a certain amount of +plunder and rapine. The German system of reprisal is relentless; but +the German private as an individual is no more barbaric than his brother +in the French, the British, or the Belgian trenches. + +The End + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Log of a Noncombatant, by Horace Green + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOG OF A NONCOMBATANT *** + +***** This file should be named 10918.txt or 10918.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/9/1/10918/ + +A. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Log of a Noncombatant + +Author: Horace Green + +Release Date: February 3, 2004 [EBook #10918] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOG OF A NONCOMBATANT *** + + + + + +THE LOG OF A NONCOMBATANT + +by Horace Green + +Staff Correspondent of the New York Evening Post +Special Correspondent of the Boston Journal + +1915 + + + + +Preface + +In the following pages the ego is thickly spread. Their publication is +the result of persuasion from many sources that, before returning to +the war zone, I should put into connected form my personal +experiences as correspondent during the first year of the War of +Nations. A few of these adventures were mentioned in news letters +from the Continent, where I limited myself so far as possible to +descriptions of armies at war and peoples in time of stress; but the +greater part of them were merely jotted down from time to time for my +own benefit in "The Log of a Noncombatant." + + + +Contents + +I. From Broadway To Ghent +II. The Second Bombardment Of Termonde +III. Captive +IV. A Clog Dance On The Scheldt +V. The Bombardment Of Antwerp +VI. The Surrender Of Antwerp +VII. Spying On Spies +VIII. The Sorrow Of The People + +Appendix: Atrocities + + + + +The Log Of A Noncombatant + +Chapter I + +From Broadway To Ghent + + + +When the war broke out in August, 1914, I was at work in the City +Room of the "New York Evening Post." One morning, during the first +week of activities, the copy boy handed me a telegram which was +signed "Luther, Boston," and contained the rather cryptic message: +--"How about this fight?" + +It was some moments before I could recall the time, more than two +years before, when I had last seen the writer, Willard B. Luther, +Boston lawyer, devotee of some, and critic of many kinds of sport. + +We had been sitting on that previous occasion--a crowd of college +fellows, including Luther and myself--in a certain room in +Cambridge, Massachusetts, not far from the University in that +neighborhood where Luther had attended the Law School and the +rest of us, on our respective graduation days, had received valuable +pieces of parchment with the presidential signature attached. The +conversation had already run through the question of Votes for +Women, progressive politics, and prize-fights, and before the card +game began it had settled on the last-named, chiefly because of my +own vainglorious description of adventures at Reno, Nevada, at the +time of the Jeffries-Johnson battle for the heavyweight championship +of the world. I remember telling with some gusto of my first +newspaper interview--one with "Bob" Fitzsimmons, then the Old +Man of the ring, and "Gentleman" Jim Corbett, who was Jeffries' +trainer at Reno. + +"I had always wanted to see that performance," said Luther, "and +would have gone in a flash if I could have got any one to make the +trip with me. But remember this fact: whenever the next big fight is +held I'm going with you." Later in the evening we shook hands on the +proposition. + +At the time that Luther's telegram came I was planning to start for the +Continent as Staff Correspondent of the "New York Evening Post" +and Special Correspondent of the "Boston Journal." Remembering +that Cambridge agreement I immediately wired:-- + +"Yes. This fight will do." + +So that is how it came to pass that Luther and myself boarded the +Campania together, landed in Liverpool, cast about for ways and +means of getting into the scrimmage, and for the first month and a +half of my four months of wandering on the Continent were brother +conspirators, until the duties of partnership called my friend home and +left me without a companion in adventure. + +In London we absorbed to some extent a heavy British fog and to a +greater extent British public opinion. We marveled at the exterior calm +of a nation plunged in the greatest of wars, yet fighting, so it seemed +at the time, with its top hat on and its smile still undisturbed. Across +the English Channel three days later the Dutch steam packet +Princess Juliana carried us safely through mine fields and between +lanes of British torpedo boats and torpedo boat destroyers. We +landed on the Continent at Flushing. Thence we headed for The +Hague, Holland, the neutral gateway of northern Europe, where we +found the American Minister, Dr. Henry van Dyke, and his first +secretary, Marshall Langhorne, shouldering the work of the American +Legation in its chameleonesque capacity as bank, post-office, +detective bureau, bureau of information, charity organization, and one +might even say temporary home for the stranded travelers of every +rank and nation. + +Antwerp, the temporary capital of Belgium, was at this time invested, +but not yet besieged, by the German army. On the south the city was +already cut off by several regiments of the Ninth and Tenth German +Army Corps under General von Boehn. The River Scheldt and the +Dutch border formed a wall on the north and west. It was to Antwerp, +therefore, that we determined to go. After listening to the usual flood +of warnings against entering the fighting zone, and drinking our fill of +stories of atrocity and hate which every refugee brought across the +border into Holland, we took a couple of reefs in our baggage, and, +hoisting our knapsacks, set our course for the temporary Belgian +capital. By rail we traveled south across the level fields and lush +green meadows of Holland, over bridges ready to be dynamited in +case of invasion, and through training camps of the 450,000 Dutch +soldiers then mobilized along the border. At a little town called +Eschen the train stopped because the Belgians had torn up the +tracks. + +Seated on the cross-piece of a joggling two-wheeled ox cart, moving +at the rate of not more than four miles an hour, with a dumb +specimen for a driver, and a volume of Baedeker for interpreter and +guide, we got our first glimpse of the hideous thing called war. +Judging from the looks of the country and the burning villages, we +were on the heels of a devastating army. For three, four, and five +miles on either side of the road beautiful trees lay flat upon the +ground. It was not until we saw groups of Belgian soldiers tearing +down their own walls and hedges and applying match and gasolene +to those which still stood, that we realized that this was a case of +self-inflicted destruction. Farmhouses, stores, churches, old Belgian +mansions, and windmills were either in flames or smouldering ruins. +Where burning had not been sufficient, powder and dynamite had +been applied to destroy landmarks which for centuries had been the +country's pride. As far as the eye could reach the countryside was +flattened to a desert. It reminded me of the Salem fire, through which, +while the piles of debris were still smoking, I had been taken in the +"Boston Journal's" car. But instead of a single town, here for twenty +miles along lay stretched a smouldering waste. The devastation was +for the defensive purpose of giving an unobstructed view to the +cannon of Antwerp's outer fortifications, which on that side covered +one sector of the circle swept by her enormous guns. I should +hesitate to mention the millions of dollars of self-inflicted damage to +Antwerp's suburbs alone. Luther and I did not at the time have the +military password. So that first day was a specimen in the matter of +hold-ups and arrests. From the time that we started across the level +plains which approach the city until we got through the double sector +of forts, we were stopped, questioned, and searched by thirteen +different groups of soldiers. There were marry occasions where, after +one pair of stupid sentries had put us through the grill, a second pair, +watching from a distance of thirty yards or so, promptly repeated the +entire performance. As these fellows spoke only Flemish dialect, our +conversations were not particularly fluent. Frequently there gathered +around us a crowd of gaping peasants, and when the word +"Americaine" came out, there were "Oh's" and "Ah" of astonishment, +or as often, when our explanations were not believed, sibilant hisses +that shaped themselves into the menacing word "Spion." We had +been led to believe that sooner or later a wool-witted sentry would +shoot first and investigate later; but so far they had simply crossed +bayonets, or with their hands up and palms outward had signaled us +to halt. + +Our experience that day, as later events proved, was not an +extraordinary occurrence for war-time, especially for those +endeavoring to gain entrance to an invested city. But as our first and +maiden adventure it somewhat shook our nerve. When the grilling +was over we felt about as guilty as any criminal who has been put +through the third degree as practiced in the old police department +days, and I had several times to look over my passport and letters of +credentials to persuade myself that I was really not a spy. Eventually +we were permitted to pass the gates of the Gare du Nord. Once +inside the city gates, we made our way into the Place Verte and went +directly to the Hotel St. Antoine, whose proprietor sent our names to +police headquarters. The St. Antoine was at that time the residence +of the diplomatic corps and the Belgian ministers of state, and was +fifty yards from the Royal Palace and across the street from +headquarters of the Belgian General Staff. + +There is no need of describing in detail Antwerp at the time of my first +visit. One or two pictures will suffice to give a rough idea of its +existence up to the time of the bombardment. Try to imagine, for +example, going about your business in New York or Boston or Los +Angeles (of course Antwerp is smaller than these) when your country, +a territory perhaps the size of the New England States, was already +two thirds overrun, burnt, smashed, and conquered by a hostile +nation, whose forces were now within nineteen miles of the gates of +the capital. Imagine that nation's warriors in the act of crushing your +tiny army, whose remnants were already exhausted and on the verge +of despair. Then picture a quaint, sleepy city, with shadowy alleys and +twisting, gabled streets, in which every other store and house was +decorated with King Albert's picture or draped in the red, black, and +yellow banner of the country-a city whose atmosphere was charged +with fear and suspicion and excitement. Sometimes a crowd of a +thousand or two drew one toward the Central Station where +bedraggled refugee families, just arrived from Liege, Termonde, +Aerschot, and Malines, stood on street corner or wagon top and +thrilled the crowd with tales of atrocities and the story of their flight +from their burning homes to the south. Now and then the crowd +parted before the clanging bell of a Red Cross ambulance rushing its +load of bleeding bodies to the hospitals along the Place de Meir. +Nurses, male or female, clung to the ambulance steps. The first one I +saw made a vivid impression on me. She was an English-looking girl +in a new khaki skirt, supporting with one hand what was left of a +blood-dripping head,--the eyes and nose were shot away,--while +out of the other hand she ate with apparent relish a thick rye-bread +sandwich. Occasionally she waved remnants of the sandwich at the +gaping crowd. It struck me as a peculiarly unnecessary exhibition of +her callous fitness for the job of nurse. + +During the daytime the ordinary things of life went on, for the good +burghers and shopkeepers went about their business as usual, and, +generally speaking, fought against fear as bravely as the soldiers in +the trenches stood up against the German howitzers. It was only after +dark (when martial law permitted no lights of any kind) that the city +seemed to shiver and suck in its breath; doors were barricaded, iron +shutters came down, and behind them the people talked in whispers. +Military autos, fresh from the firing line, groaned and sputtered at the +doorstep of the St. Antoine; soldiers with pocket lanterns stamped +about the streets. From sheer nervousness after a day of +confinement some citizens, in spite of warnings, groped about the +more important avenues at night. Picture yourself on Broadway or +Tremont Street, with not a light on the street gleaming from a window, +and walking up and down with one hand on your wallet and the other +in the pocket where your Colt automatic ought to be. + +Such, very briefly, was the condition of Antwerp at the time when we +arrived. That very evening word came in that the Belgian forces, +which had been engaged with the enemy for five consecutive days of +severe fighting, had retired behind the southern ramparts of the city. + +During the night the stream of incoming wounded confirmed the news +of battle. In the moonlight, and later in the gray dawn, I watched the +long lines of Belgian hounds, pulling their rapid-fire guns out toward +the trenches. Many times later I was destined to see them. They +made a picturesque and stimulating sight--those faithful dogs of war +--fettered and harnessed, their tongues hanging out as they lay +patiently beneath the gun trucks awaiting the order to go into action, +or, when the word had been given, trotted along the dusty roads, +each pair tugging to the battle front a lean, gray engine of destruction. + +For our purpose the best approach to Brussels was by way of Ghent. +Luther pushed on ahead while I was finishing a story. The following +morning, shouldering my knapsack, which now contained an extra +supply of army rations, and carefully stuffing my different sets of +credentials in different pockets (one for Belgian, one for German, and +one for English consumption), I crossed the River Scheldt and made +a slow and tortuous railway journey to Ghent. + +Ghent lies thirty miles west of Antwerp. The trip took seven hours. +During the course of it I passed north of the Belgian lines and through +the western sector of forts, that is to say, Fort St. Nicholas, Fort +Haesdonck, and Fort Tete de Flandre. It was the same road along +which Winston Churchill's English marines and the remnant of the +Belgian forces retreated after the fall of Antwerp. + +Ghent resounded with praises of its American Vice-Consul, Julius +Van Hee, a hair-trigger politician and a live wire if there ever was one. +Van Hee, with his intimate knowledge of four languages and the +Yankee knack of being on the right spot at the right time, twice saved +blood-shed in the streets of Ghent and in one instance probably +prevented a repetition of the scenes at Louvain. + +In Ghent I again found Luther, with a fine young rumor in his pocket +--a rumor which turned out to be correct--that six German spies were +to be executed next morning at sunrise. The place mentioned was +behind the museum in a public park. + +"I suppose we'll take it in," said Luther. + +"I don't know about that," I answered; adding that, although +executions might be part of the day's work for a war correspondent, I +drew the line at seeing my first murder before breakfast. The tip was +correct enough except that it mentioned the wrong park. + +The following noon the Military Governor, according to regulations, +caused to be posted circulars announcing that the men had been put +to death; but at all events I am glad to say that at that early date I did +not have the experience of watching six blindfolded wretches backed +up against a wall, of seeing the officer drop his arm as a signal, and +of hearing the fatal crack of a dozen muskets, as the bodies +collapsed like a telescope, crumpled inward with the chin upon the +chest, and fell forward to the earth. + + + + +Chapter II + +The Second Bombardment Of Termonde + + + +September 15th was our day with Henry Verhagen, the tall gray +alderman of the town that was once Termonde. + +During all the time I was with him Verhagen did not speak a bitter +word. On the contrary, he was calm--particularly calm as he stood +beside the mound where the Belgian soldiers were buried in the +center of the ruined town, pointed to the pile of bricks where he had +lived, and told us how in two nights he had lost 340,000 francs, his +son, his factory, and his home. It was from him, from the +burgomaster's wife, and from a priest that we learned the story of the +city that had ceased to be. + +It was the night before that I had wandered into Ghent alone, without +even the excitement of getting arrested. Luther, who became restive +early the next morning while I was jotting notes in the log-book, went +off in search of adventure. Because of the influence exerted by Vice- +Consul Van Hee an arrangement was very soon made whereby a Belgian +Government car and chauffeur were placed at our disposal. We had no +laissez-passer for the firing line; but we were accompanied by the +United States Consul and not governed by any stipulation as to our +destination. In our Belgian car, decorated with all the American flags +we could find, and "American Consular Service" pasted in huge letters on +the windshield and side flaps, we raced along the Boulevard de +l'lndustrie, swung into the southern suburbs, and, once outside the city +limits, we opened up the exhaust and threw down the throttle as Van Hee +shouted out the order:--"To Termonde!" + +Termonde was at that time the scene of determined fighting between +units of the ninth German Corps and the Belgian defenders. Situated +as it is, twenty-one miles southeast of Ghent, it marks the southwest +corner of a square formed by Louvain and Termonde on the south, +by Ghent and Antwerp on the north. It controlled the bridge over the +River Scheldt and with it an important approach to Antwerp, the +capital at that time of Belgium. The heavy German siege guns, +capable of demolishing a first-class fort at a range of several miles, +could not have crossed the river so easily at any other point. For this +reason the Germans particularly wanted Termonde--an open bridge +to Antwerp was always worth the taking. The town had already at that +time been captured and recaptured; wounded and refugees were +swarming into Ghent full of battle stories and tales of terrible +atrocities. So it was Termonde that we vowed we would see. + +We first saw Verhagen trudging in the same direction as ourselves on +the level, dusty road two miles southwest of Ghent. As we +approached a cross-road marked by a tavern, a couple of +direction-posts, and nondescript stucco buildings, we made out two +Belgian sentries, with their rifles lifted overhead and indulging in +some acrobatic exercises which we interpreted as a signal to halt. Van +Hee swapped cigarettes with them and gossiped in their native tongue, in +return for which they gave us some good advice. They warned us to pay +no attention to sign-posts, which, in order to fool the enemy, were +either marked with false names or else were pointed in the wrong +direction. While we were talking, a tall gray alderman came along the +road with a greasy package under his arm and at his side a priest--one +of those ubiquitous black-robed figures with a hat like an inverted +oatmeal bowl. + +"Where to?" asked the Vice-Consul of Ghent. + +"A Dendermonde," (to Termonde), answered Verhagen, sizing us up +as strangers, and using French instead of the local Flemish dialect. + +"You know the road?" + +"Yes, well," said Verhagen; and so, partly because of charity and +partly because we could have him as a useful guide, we took him into +the car. + +As we sped through the level lanes of poplars, challenged as usual +by every Belgian regular or Garde Civique who could boast a uniform, +the smooth green meadows of Flanders with their trim hamlets of +stucco and tile seemed to deny the reports of savagery we had heard +the night before. We had been told, and we had read, of German +atrocities, and we had talked with survivors of Louvain. There was +pillage, burning, and looting in Louvain, we had agreed, but the +cruelty to women and children was the better part myth. And at all +events, there was a semblance of cause for that. Perhaps there had +been more resistance, more sniping by citizens than generally known, +and perhaps the German side had not been fully explained. + +Then suddenly Termonde lay before us. The center of the bridge was +gone. Splintered timber sticking on end lay in the mud at the river's +side, along with iron beams torn by the charges of dynamite. The +current was choked with masses of steel and wood. We crawled +across some temporary beams reconstructed by Belgian engineers, +and entered the ruins with a handful of Termonde's citizens who had +come back for the first time to see what was left of their homes. + +"I will take you to the center," said Verhagen. "That is where my +house was." + +A quarter of a mile behind us, as the alderman sat upon a rock +beside the gravestone, lay the thin neck of the Upper Scheldt, less +than one hundred yards wide at this point, where it curved between +the lines of charred and flattened buildings. We could still see the +rush of water tumbling and splashing through the wreckage of the +bridge we had just crossed. Twice it had been dynamited and twice +rebuilt in part, so that at present a single line of slippery beams, +suspended a few feet above the water and supported by some heavy +wire, was all that remained between ourselves and the retreating road +to Ghent. From the direction of Alost came the desultory boom of +German guns; across the stream behind us the Belgian outposts +whiled away the time with cigarettes and cards. Shaggy horses dozed +against the gun trucks, and the men of artillery, some stretched at full +length in the sun, others sitting bolt upright with arms folded, slept +soundly on the gun carriages. We could hear the stream gurgling. We +could hear the creak of a lazy windmill, and, coming somewhere from +the smoking piles, the hideous howl of starving hounds. Of other +human sounds there were none except the voice of Verhagen. + +Ten days before Termonde had been a thriving town; that day it was +a heap of smouldering ashes. America had heard a good deal about +Tirlemont and Louvain, but not much of Termonde. Because this was +a war of millions, it did not count in the news--for it was only a +community of twelve thousand inhabitants, as pretty and quaint as +the province of Flanders boasts, the prosperous center of its rope +and cordage manufacture, with fifteen hundred houses, barracks, two +statues, a town-hall, five churches, an orphan asylum, and a convent. + +Now only one of the churches stood, as well as the building where the +officers were quartered, the Museum of Antiquity, and perhaps a +dozen others. Across the moat, which led to the gateway of what +were formerly the inner fortifications, were piles of rotting horseflesh. +The bronze statue of De Smet, the Jesuit missionary, looked calmly +on the scene. All the rest was blotted out. There was no sign of +hot-tempered impetuous work of a handful of drunken Uhlans, a fire +started in anger and driven by the wind throughout the entire town. +There was not a breath of wind. That the night was calm was shown +by the fact that here and there single houses, even houses built of +boards, were spared at the commander's word. The convent was +burnt and pillaged, stones and mortar littered the street in front of the +Hotel de Ville, and upon the sidewalk lay the famous bells which +came crashing to the street below when shells burst in the belfry. +From cellar to garret nearly every remaining house was +systematically drenched with naphtha and the torch applied, and +when all was over hundreds of gallons were tossed into the River +Scheldt. Over a small group of houses in the poorer section of the +city, where the prostitutes were quartered, grim Prussian humor, or +perhaps a sense of value received, had prompted the conquerors to +write in great white chalk marks in German script, "Gute Leute. Nicht +brennen!" (Good people. Do not burn!) + +For an hour we walked through the silence of ashes and stone, +stumbling over timber and debris, tangled and twisted wire, a fallen +statue, broken bells or the cross-piece of a spire; we made our way +through piles of beds, chairs, singed mattresses, and stepped over +the carcass of a horse with its belly bloated and flies feasting on its +glassy eyes. We entered an apothecary shop where the clock still +ticked upon the counter. Thinking there could be no reason of war to +call for the destruction of the orphan asylum, we entered its portals to +investigate. Before us lay burnt beds and littered glass. We searched +what ten days before had been a convent, and crawled over heaps of +logs and brick into narrow alleys that reminded one of Naples or +Pompeii--alleys where the walls stood so close as to hide the light +of sun but not the odor of charred vats and sewage and smouldering, +smelling things, long dead. Not far from there the way widened into +the light, and before us, breaking the rays of sunset, stood the cross +above a heap of cobblestones. + +"They are buried here," said Verhagen, "and here too is my house." + +Another alderman, a friend of Verhagen, who had been allowed to remain +in Termonde most of the four days that the Germans stayed, had the story +detailed in his little pocket diary. On Thursday, September 3, he said, +he was just leaving his rope and twine factory when he heard the sounds +of musketry to the south. A small force of Belgian outposts were +completely surprised by a part of the Ninth German Army Corps under +General von Boehn. They were completely outclassed. Before retreating, +however, they let the enemy have a couple of volleys. In the return +fire they lost six of their men. They then retreated into the town and +across the bridge. + +Nothing happened after dark, but the next morning at nine o'clock the +cannonading started. Inside of half an hour, according to the villagers, +the entire German force of the One Hundred and Sixty-second and +One Hundred and Sixty-third Uhlans and the Ninetieth Regiment of +infantry of the Ninth Army Corps were in the town. They entered +simultaneously by three different roads. The burgomaster was +ordered immediately to provide rations for the regiment. But the +burgomaster was away. He was given twelve hours to return. When +he did not return, the burning began, according to the townspeople. + +"The soldiers did not wish to burn the town," said one man; "but the +orders were orders of war." He recounted that four Uhlans entered +his house with a bow, and a knock at the door, politely helped +themselves to his cellar, drank a toast to his wife, put his chairs in the +street, and sat there playing his phonograph. They said they were +sorry, but the house must be burnt. But before pouring on the +naphtha and lighting the flame they freed his canary bird. Verhagen +and the priest agreed that fright brought on an attack to a woman +about to become a mother, and that she fell in the Rue de l'Eglise. +A German lieutenant saw the trouble, put her on a stretcher made of +window shutters, and called the German army doctor. She was sent +to a field hospital and tenderly cared for until she and the child could +be moved. Such incidents in strange relief, told by men who had lost +everything, lent corroboration, if such were necessary, to the burden +of their story of the relentless destruction of the town itself. + +Our little band was the first to enter the ruins of Termonde after its +abandonment by the Ninth German Army Corps. And by a coincidence, we +were the last to leave. That very evening, at precisely the time we +were crawling across the broken timbers that spanned the Scheldt and +connected us with Belgium-owned Belgium, the Germans again pumped heavy +artillery fire into the town. This was later known as the second German +bombardment and occupation of Termonde. Because of superior artillery +range, the attack had the cruel advantage of the man who can strike and +still stay out of reach. On that evening at six-thirty, the Teutons +sent a few warning shells into the debris, and then the first column of +scouts entered simultaneously by the two southern gates. It was just at +six-thirty that our party started back for Ghent. + +As we crawled across on all fours the remaining beams cracked +beneath our feet and the Belgian engineers called on us to hurry. +"Oh, Tiber! Father Tiber," we thought as the last of us got across; +but unlike Horatius at the bridge, we were on the right side when +engineers applied the match to a small charge of dynamite, and the +beams crashed and the remaining planks of Termonde's bridge +writhed and twisted in the rushing waters. + +Twenty-seven miles away, when we whirled through the gates of +Ghent later in the evening, we said "Au revoir" to Verhagen and the +mendicant priest, and went to our rooms. At midnight came a rap at +the door; my gray-haired alderman broke into the room, bursting with +the latest news, his eyes aflame with excitement. + +"Revanche!" he exclaimed dramatically; "our enemies have paid for it +in blood!" + +Sure enough, after a few preliminary shells--a sort of here-we-come +salvo--the head of the German column had entered, and a party of +staff officers, for purposes of reconnaissance, immediately mounted +the spire of the only remaining church. The officers of the Ninth +German Army Corps swept the landscape with their glasses, but the +level plains gave nothing to their sight. They saw only the ashes of +Termonde, the river, and the straight stretch of sandy roads and +stucco hamlets beyond. + +They did not notice a valley of covered ground and a quarter-mile +stretch of trees and shrubbery, where three squads of Belgian field +artillery were neatly hidden. Here the men took cover at the first +sound of cannonade. Quietly in their retreat the Belgian artillery +officers had figured the range and elevation of the cathedral tower, +not over fifteen hundred yards away. Just as darkness was setting in +and the figures in the belfry were clearly visible, the battery sergeant +sharply dropped his arm. + +"C-r-r-m-p-h!" coughed the field pieces as the gunners drew the +levers home. There were four sharp reports, four flashes of flame and +smoke, the crescendo moan of tons of flying steel--and the church +tower, the bells, and the German officers came crashing to the +ground. + + + + +Chapter III + +Captive + + + +Up to the day that Luther and I went through the Belgian trenches +near Alost and got into the hands of the German outposts north of +Brussels, we had not seen nearly as much fighting as we wished. We +had looked upon the ear-marks and horrible results of battles; had +heard guns, smelt the blood and ether of wounded, and seen the +ruins over which had rolled the wave of battle. We knew that ahead of +us there had been much fighting in the Sempst-Alost-Vilvorde- +Tirlemont region. The Germans at that moment, if not actually +advancing toward Antwerp, were skirmishing and making feints in +every direction, with the ultimate disposition of their forces carefully +concealed. Of course, we had no official permission to be at the front +with either army; in fact, up to that point we had received nothing but +official threats on the subject of what would happen to us in case we +went ahead. But as no one did more than threaten, we kept on going, +since we preferred that mode of procedure to sitting around in Paris +or Berlin on the chance of one of those "personally conducted" tours +of inspection, whose purpose is to show the correspondent +everything except actual fighting. It was our hope during that early +part of the war to see as much as possible of the German army, +realizing that, if captured, we should undoubtedly be sent either +backward or forward along the German line of communication in +conquered Belgium. Once within the German outposts we pleaded +like Brer Rabbit not to be thrown into the German brier patch. So of +course we landed in it. After a few days in Brussels they shipped us +Eastward to Aix-la-Chapelle by way of Lou-vain, Tirlemont, and Liege. + +It was two days after the second bombardment of Termonde--at 7 +A.M., to be exact--that Luther and I started from Ghent for Brussels +in a military automobile, the property of the Belgian Government, and +again loaned for the occasion to Julius Van Hee, American Vice- +Consul, then Acting Consul at Ghent. We carried with us a United +States Government mail pouch, a packet of mail from Dr. Henry van +Dyke, at The Hague, addressed to Brand Whitlock, the American +Minister at Brussels, and another packet of mail from Henry W. +Diederick, United States Consul-General at Antwerp. Mr. Van Hee +hoped to obtain from the German authorities in Brussels some +smallpox vaccine to take back to Ghent, where a smallpox epidemic +was feared. + +Once out of the town limits of Ghent we bowled along at top speed, +with the American colors trembling fore and aft and impressive- +looking signs pasted on windshield and side-flaps. The autumn rains +descended heavily upon us, drenching everything except the +carefully protected mail bags. + +Six miles southeast of Ghent, we ran into a regiment of Belgian +infantry moving back from the direction of Brussels, and farther on a +squad of cavalry and some more cavalry outposts; then two +companies of bicycle patrol, the men with their heads bent over the +handlebars, Mausers slung over their shoulders, pedaling heavily +through the mud and slush of a cold September storm. A few +mitrailleuses, known as the Minerva type, and mounted on armored +motor-cars, were trained on the ravine through which the road dipped +a thousand yards ahead of us. They had sighted the German +outposts on the crest of a hill opposite us about three quarters of a +mile away. In a very poor kind of trench, hastily constructed in the +beet-fields, and little more than body deep, the men lay on their +bellies in the mud, nervously fingering their muskets and adjusting the +sights. A third company of bicycle scouts were ordered to advance for +the purpose of drawing fire. + +I doubt if that particular body of men had ever before been under fire. +Never was the fear of death more plainly written on human face. All of +the men went ahead without flinching or failing, but the muscles of +their jaws were knotted, their faces were the color of chalk, and one +or two dismounted for a moment, subject to the physical effects of +fear. I have seen men tremble before important physical contests: +Jeffries, stepping into the prize ring at Reno, Nevada, ready for the +beating of his life and the loss of reputation. I have seen murderers +condemned to death. Charles Becker, as I watched him taking his +death sentence that evening in the Criminal Courts Building, did not +give one the same uncanny feeling as this handful of Belgian scouts +pedaling out to meet the German fire. I do not intend to say the +Belgians were not brave men, for this was an isolated instance. And +indeed there was something gruesome about that little company +offered for the slaughter, simply for the purpose of locating the +German batteries. The men understood the meaning of the order and +appreciated the odds against them. + +The mitrailleuses pointed down the road we were headed on, and the +Belgian gun-captain told us they were going to clean things up as soon +as their own scouts drew fire and the first Teuton helmet appeared above +the crest. Naturally we were ordered back. Had we continued on this +road we should have been between the Belgian fire behind and the German +fire in front, for the Germans would undoubtedly have mistaken us for a +scouting party in an armored car. As it was, Luther jumped to the wheel +and insisted on seeing the thing through. We went ahead for about half +a mile. I told him that if the shrapnel began to burst too close he +would find me tucked safely underneath the car examining the gasoline +tanks or in the nearest farmhouse cellar, and I believe he would have. +But nothing came close to us on that occasion. My real "baptism" was +reserved for another day, because Van Hee suddenly wrenched the wheel +from Luther and turned our machine down a side road. It was a case of +out of the firing line into the frying-pan, for the side road led us +into a trap from which there was no turning back--the territory +patrolled by the burly pickets of the Ninth German Army Corps, forming +part of the Kaiser's army of occupation in Brussels. + +Out of earshot, and certainly out of sight of that skirmish, we were +speeding at a great rate along a level, lonely road flanked by +beet-fields and long lines of graceful elms that shook hands overhead, +when: + +"HALT! WOHIN? WO GEHEN SIE?" rang suddenly out of the darkness +as two figures jumped from behind a farmhouse and leveled their +rifles at us. I shall always remember that sharp command as the cold, +gray muzzles followed us like a sportsman covering a bevy of quail. +Our fat Belgian chauffeur, violinist in times of peace, and posing that +day as an American,--one of those men who look as if they would +bleed water if you pricked them with a bayonet,--needed no second +warning. Running the German gauntlet was not precisely his hobby. +Down went the emergency brake and the car jolted to a sudden halt. + +A bristle-whiskered German giant under a canvas-covered helmet +stuck his head through the flaps, and for more than ten minutes he +and another sentinel searched our knapsacks and credentials and +inspected the Government mail pouches which we carried. The +sentries were far from satisfied. We said little at first, realizing, +nevertheless, that we had run between the opposing trenches and up +to the German outposts without actually drawing fire. That, at least, +was something of a comfort. + +Then, as if the answer was the price of admission, the big one asked +us if we had seen many British soldiers around Antwerp and Ghent. +We had previously decided that the answer to such talk was, "None +of your business." But the fellow's bayonet was infernally bright and +sharp and his countenance like ice. It wasn't only the equinoctial rain +that made us shiver. + +While I was trying to limber up my German vocabulary he passed us +along to his Ober-leutenant in the hut along the roadside. The Ober- +Ieutenant was grave. He said we must report to army headquarters +in Brussels, and that under no circumstances should we be allowed +to return within the Belgian lines. In this way began our eight days' +confinement within the lines of the German Army of the North under +General von Boehn. + +Just as we had been warned repeatedly, so we discovered in reality +that to cross between two opposing lines was no joking matter. Bad +enough, particularly in the early days of the war, to a correspondent +without permission at the front. To work up from the rear (if you had +permission) was at least according to the rules of the game. But to +cross between hostile armies--that was the one forbidden act. The +fact that we were with an American Consul was not sufficient. Three +days later Van Hee was allowed to return, but the remainder of the +party, that is to say, Willard Luther and myself, were given a free trip +into German territory and incidentally more than a week's chance to +study the German army from within. + +Those next eight days Luther and I spent as willing and, on the whole, +decently treated captives within the lines of the German Army of the +North, talking freely with cultivated officers and grimy men of the +ranks, and in this way learning much of the German war machine, the +opinions of the officers and the men at their command. It would be +interesting to tell how in Brussels we dodged from War Office to cafe, +from cafe to consulate, from consulate back to War Office, and later +were worried and watched and suspected; how we were shipped +back across the German border on a combination Red Cross and +ammunition train; how we were locked for much of the night in a +half-mile tunnel of the northern Vosges Mountains, and there, in the +groping darkness of our box-car prison, shared the soldier's biscuit +and his bottle, so coming to know the Kaiser's private as a +companion and not as the barbarian his enemies paint him. + +The day after we got inside the German lines we went before Major +Heinrich Bayer, at that time military commandant in Brussels in the +absence of General von der Goltz. Jostling through the street and +jamming the courtyard of the War Office was a crowd of a thousand +persons--mothers, children, whole families begging for relief or +permission to leave the city limits; German subjects trying to get +passes, officials and employees of the civil administration taking +orders from the military authorities. A relay of aides, orderlies, and +secretaries led us from courtyard to corridor and from corridor to staff +headquarters and into the Holy of Holies--the office of the +commandant. + +Grim, stern,--but courteous throughout the interview,--the major +paced the floor beside his desk. He seemed anxious enough to be rid +of the "crazy Americans" who had wandered through the Belgian and +German lines, not altogether satisfied with their integrity, yet not +wishing to take a hostile attitude. I asked him when he thought the +war would be over. At the moment the German major, Vice-Consul +Van Hee, and I were the only persons in the room. + +"I do not know," he said, as if thinking aloud; "I really do not know. +America is the only country that has not fired on us yet, but all the rest +--" Then he added thoughtfully, "Perhaps it is better that you go. But +you cannot return to Ghent or Antwerp; you must go back to +Germany." He stopped as if he had gone too far, and then sharply +commanded the orderly to remove us. Forty-eight hours later Mr. Van +Hee got his release. To Luther and myself was given a curious sort of +pass, beset with limitations, which at times caused us royal treatment +and as often proved a fatal baggage tag. I have always believed a +joker lay hidden somewhere in that document. It started with a +flattering description of our status (as given by ourselves), but below it +directed us to be taken into Aix-la-Chapelle, Germany, and under no +circumstances to be returned within the Belgian lines. We had seen a +great deal too much for that. In spite of our protestations of good faith +and promises to keep dark what we had seen, the military authorities +considered us much safer under German guard. We were to be +taken on the southern route by way of Namur. To drive home the +importance of obeying this order we were reminded of the regulation, +printed in French and posted throughout the city, "that whosoever +passed the city limits or approached the fighting line without military +permit, or on the pretense of having such a permit, or whosoever +deviated from the route laid down would be shot 'sur le champ.'" That +same evening, however, army orders declared that the Namur route +was closed. We got a second War Office pass sending us to Aix by +way of Louvain, Tirlemont, and Liege. Armed with these we went +down to an old Major Bock von W------, in charge of transportation at +Schaerbeek, on the outskirts of the city. + +I showed him the passes and said with a painful attempt at levity, +"Major, we can't obey both of these, so we 're going to get shot either +way we go. If it is all the same to you I would rather die on your +route." To my great relief the old fellow laid back his gray head and +emitted a series of long, loud Teuton laughs. He was the first German I +had heard laugh and it did me good. I knew we were safe. On the +understanding that the business was strictly confidential and that no +other citizens or suspects were to know of it, he gave us a permit for +the military trains. It had been the intention of the War Office to +pack us under guard with the herds on one of those Government refugee +trains. But to live and sleep with the soldiers as we were now to do, +to see their marches, to absorb their uninformed and boastful talk, to +study their guns, munitions, and equipment, was better than our highest +hopes. + +"You have to do a lot of quick transporting?" I asked before saying +good-bye to Major von W------. + +"Yes," was the answer. "They 're at us from all sides. Some of the +men we are now transporting have been under fire in two countries, +and now they will see service in a third." He knew that I had come +from Ghent and from Antwerp, which the Germans were about to +bombard, yet, to his credit, it should be said that he did not ask for +information of Belgian activities. Similarly, although the soldiers, as a +rule, and one man high in the civil government of Brussels, asked +what was going on in Antwerp, it was noticeable that German officers +recognized the obligations of neutrality. + +Of how we left Brussels and of the first part of the eastward trip, I am +going to quote from the jottings in the log-book, which was written up +at some length after we left Aix-la-Chapelle:-- + +"Early on the morning of the 22d, I went up to Consul Watts's office to +get the mail pouch I had promised him to carry. Luther and I then +boarded a trolley car going northwest past the Gare du Nord and on +to Schaerbeek, a junction on the outskirts of Brussels. Although the +Major Bayer passes, with von W------'s counter-signature, got us as +far as Schaerbeek, we were challenged by the guards at the railroad +station. The stations were watched with the most astounding +precaution. Of course there was no such thing as a ticket; once inside +the gate you could jump a troop train, ammunition car, or blow up the +track if you felt like it. Wherefore they guarded the stations carefully. + +"At the gates had a terrible pow-wow with an officious Bavarian who +called himself the Officer-of-the-Day. I played all my best German +cards, including Count von Bemstorffs letter. At the end of half an +hour our pig-headed officer shipped us back to Brussels. We +returned to von W------, then in Brussels, who vised our pass with a +note to the effect that although we were civilians, exceptional +circumstances demanded our hurried return to Aix by military train. + +"When we eventually got into the Schaerbeek station we had two +hours to wait. Walked up and down the tracks or sat on the platform, +keeping an eye on everything that was going on. Luther says I spent +most of my time trying not to look like an Englishman. Occasionally, +when we spoke a word of English, some officer would shoot us a 42 +cm. glance and demand our papers. We were undoubtedly marked +figures, because in the first place no civilians were allowed along the +railway line, especially foreigners. + +"Watched several westbound loads go by until about two o'clock, +when they made up a combination train consisting of Red Cross +coaches and empty freight trucks going back to Aix for fresh loads of +men and ammunition. Aix is the great distributing center for the line of +communication into northern Belgium. Most of the open cars were +empty, barring occasional gun carriages on the way home for repairs; +in the closed freight cars lay a few wounded first line men, a half a +dozen male nurses, and some privates on furlough. Speaking of +nurses, I haven't--so far at least-seen a woman nurse nearer the +scene of action than a base hospital, i.e., one of the big hospitals in +Antwerp, Brussels, or Ghent. Luther and I, closely followed by the +two guards that had trailed us from the time we had got inside the +station, climbed into a freight car, apparently used as a box stall on +the out trip, and bare except for a pile of damp straw in one corner. +Interminable journey. Most of the time we stood on sidings waiting for +the outbound traffic. Made fair time to Louvain,--i.e., an hour and a +half,--and stayed there two hours, for which I was thankful, as it +gave me a chance to look around. Interviewed soldiers, citizens, and +a Jesuit priest, of which more later. One hour more to Tirlemont. Then +seven hours to Liege, where we arrived at 2 A.M., were smothered for +two hours in that tunnel, and took six and three quarters hours more +from Liege to Verviers--a distance of less than fifteen miles! It was +another five hours to Aix. + +"Saw tremendous troop movements along Brussels-Louvain-Verviers +line of communication. During the first day thirty-five troop and +transport trains went past us, moving towards the western frontier, +the larger part to strengthen the German attack on Antwerp, which we +had not long left behind us, others to discharge their loads as near as +possible to Lille, Tournai, and Mons. The average train was twenty +cars long, making about seven hundred carloads, with two hundred +or more in each car, giving a total of more than 140,000 fighting men. +We stopped counting at the end of the first day. + +"After we left Louvain I got out occasionally and stretched my legs +along the tracks, but Luther, not being able to talk German, stuck +pretty close to his diggings. Had a great time at a little town called +Neerwinden, where we stayed about half an hour. A crowd of soldiers +from our train joined a group cooking supper in the moonlight at one +of the soup kitchens along the tracks. They fed me lukewarm stew +and slabs of rye bread, then went on singing and arguing without +paying much attention to me. One bald-headed, stocky private told +the crowd the news that von Hindenburg had captured Warsaw. Later +a crowd of big brutes, apparently pretty drunk, swaggered down and +clapped me on the back with a 'Who are you, my friend?' + +"'Amerikaner,' I explained, not thinking it necessary to mention the war +correspondent part. They set up a cheer, clapped me on the back, +and finally lifted me to their shoulders for a triumphal ride up and +down the railroad ties, all the time yelling out 'Amerikaner! Hurrah! +Amerikaner!' + +"A few hundred years seemed the night we spent locked in that +box-car prison. A five-days' equinoctial storm had given way to the +coldest day of the autumn: our car, raw and dank as a dungeon, joggled +along endlessly until afternoon gave way to evening and evening to +chilly night. Hour after hour we looked out upon the rolling fields and +burnt farmhouses along the path where General von Emmich's army had +passed. As the moon crawled up over the rain-bathed foothills of the +Ourthe Mountains, the temperature dropped far below the freezing point. +For ages we lay awake braced against the cold. The soldier next me, who +had been through the fight at Maubeuge, coughed throughout the night--a +hollow, retching cough. "Tuberculosis," the Red Cross doctor told me, +although the fellow had got through his army tests all right. + +Between two and four in the morning we stuck in the middle of a +tunnel of the northern Vosges Mountains, two hundred feet, perhaps, +beneath the surface of the ground. The sliding door on the left side of +our car was locked: on the other side jagged walls, dripping wet to the +touch, jutted so close that a thin man couldn't have walked between +them and the car. Everywhere pitch blackness, the blackness of the +tomb. The consumptive soldier pulled a candle from his kit, balanced +it in the straw, and over it warmed his hands. If that candle had +toppled over in the straw we wouldn't have had a rat's chance in the +fire. It was impossible to get out of our car or to communicate with +another except by tapping. The fellows in the next car must have +been considerably frightened, for after about an hour they began +yelling and pounding at the walls. All you could hear was a roaring +sound that caromed against the walls of the cavern. Smoke from the +engine drifted back to choke us. It hit the consumptive worst. The +poor fellow began blowing and coughing, then rolled feebly on his +back and gasped. During the worst of the smoke one of the soldiers +in the next car set up a rollicking song, and others followed his +example. We could hear the clank of beer bottles as they finished, the +echoes of the song reverberating loudly, then faintly, then louder +again up and down the length of that interminable vault. A draught of +air cleared the smoke away and it didn't bother us again. At four in +the morning we steamed out of the tunnel into the open. A little after +that I must have dozed off, for I woke with a start when the +consumptive stumbled over me. + +"There you are," he said, throwing a bundle beside me; "I thought +you'd need it." + +Noticing, when he lit his pipe at dawn, that we had no army blankets +and were pretty nearly frozen, this "barbarian" had jumped out of the +car in the Liege freight yards, had run a quarter of a mile to the +nearest army kitchen depot, and had stolen for us a couple of +heaping blankets' full of warm, dry straw. + +It was impossible to believe that these men had committed the +atrocities reported at Termonde and Roosbeek, at Malines and +Louvain. At close range it was easy to see that the prevalent +conception of the "barbarians" was the purest kind of rot--the +picture created and fostered by the Allied press, of a vicious and +besotted beast with natural brutality accentuated by alcoholic rage. +With such men as individuals it seemed to us that neutral observers +could have no quarrel. To the Kaiser's privates who have been +fighting for a cause they do not thoroughly understand, was due, we +thought, the greatest respect; to the officers, too, who understand +what they are doing and are game in the face of odds; and most of all +to the suffering German people. But to the German war machine, we +reflected, was due a terrible punishment--the lesson it must learn +not only for Germany's enlightenment, but for the sake of civilization +and humanity. + + + + +Chapter IV + +A Clog Dance On The Scheldt + + + +When the German major at Aix-la-Cha-pelle stamped on our passports:-- +"Gesehen. Gut Zum Austritt Kommandant 2 Kompagnie, Landsturm Batl. +Aachen," we were free, so we thought, to shake the dust of Germany from +our feet. Hoisting our rucksacks, we gave up box cars in favor of a +civilized passenger train, northward bound, and at noon crossed the +Dutch border at Simplefeldt. + +For three hours we talked English, consulted maps, took notes, and +asked questions where and when we pleased. The holiday cost us +dear. At the end of that time we were under lock and key in the town +of Maastricht, the Province of Limburg, and the supposedly free and +neutral Kingdom of the Netherlands. We suspected at the time, and +in view of what I learned upon a later trip to Berlin I am quite certain, +that the long arm of the German Secret Service had reached out for +us across the border. + +Having started from Antwerp during its investment, but prior to its +siege by the German army, we were now on the third stage of a +round trip which was to land one of us back in the Belgian temporary +capital in time for the bombardment. During the previous two weeks +we had been stopped, questioned, and sometimes examined, no less +than one hundred and thirty times. Thirteen, we calculated, was our +average number of hold-ups on our early "marching days"; that is to +say, during those wanderings which led us by foot, train, ox cart, and +automobile past the double sector of Antwerp's fortifications, through +the Belgian fighting lines to Ghent and Termonde, and thence into the +arms of the German pickets on the outskirts of Brussels. + +And now, as the heavy door of the Maastricht police headquarters +slammed in our faces, and the key rattled in the guardroom lock, my +companion in crime threw down his hat and coat in rage. Between us +we treated our fellow-prisoners to a quarter of an hour's tirade on the +American citizen's right to freedom, swore that the Kingdom of the +Netherlands would repent this outrage, and each of us politely +assured the other it was all the other fellow's fault. + +All of which, though true, had no effect on the sniffling young woman +across the way, nor the sleeper on the hardwood bench next mine, +nor the bald-headed, big-lipped police sergeant who bent over his +desk in the corner, impervious to these usual outbursts of the newly +arrested, as he laboriously scrawled in the police blotter the report of +the day's round-up. + +"Sit down!" he bellowed as I advanced toward the pen door, and tried +to open it. + +When he resumed his scratching I did my best to explain in a +German-French-Dutch dialect of my own invention that we wished to +see Mons. le Commissaire at once; that we had only come to inspect +the concentration camp of German and Belgian prisoners, and that +we were leaving town that day. I particularly emphasized this point. +We were, in fact, I assured him in several different ways, leaving that +very afternoon--as soon as the disagreeable mistake of our arrest +was rectified. He may or may not have understood this: at all events, +he wore an expression as blank and graven as Jack Rose upon the +witness stand. His only answer was a vacant stare at the pit of my +stomach, followed by a slow scratch-scratching on the police blotter. + +In fact our arrest on that occasion was rather a Jack Rose affair; that +is to say, it started by our being invited to headquarters, suspicious +but not certain of our status until we finally landed behind the iron +doors. Without doubt Maastricht authorities were waiting for us even +as we stepped off the train, showing that we were doomed from the +time we left the border. Our captor, an unctuous, pink-cheeked +politzei, made his appearance not far from the internment camp. +Where were we going, and why? + +"To see the prisoners," we said. + +"It is possible," said the spider to the fly, "zat I can get for you +permission if you will come to ze guardhouse. Ze capitain is there." + +The "guardhouse" proved a precinct police station, and the captain +was not there: instead we found a mixed crowd of civilians and +militaires who looked us over and shook their heads. Next we were +taken to military headquarters \n the center of the town. For fifteen +minutes we hunted the evasive captain while I ran through my head +the various sets of credentials stuffed in different pockets; for, being +in Dutch territory, although only a few miles from the Belgian frontier +on one side and the German frontier on the other, I was not quite +certain which to produce. Among my letters I carried one from the +German Ambassador, Count von Bernstorff, to the Foreign Office in +Berlin; one from Professor Hugo Munsterberg at Harvard, and a note +from the secretary of the Belgian Legation at The Hague. +Unfortunately I did not have with me at the time a very helpful letter +from Colonel Roosevelt, ending with the statement that the bearer "is +an American citizen, a non-combatant, and emphatically not a spy." I +had promised the Colonel to use this, my trump card, only in case of +necessity--and once, on a later occasion, I did so with immediate +effect. On the whole, I now decided in favor of a United States +passport decorated with my picture and enough vises to resemble the +diplomatic history of the Continent. + +"The captain is not here. We go to the commissaire at headquarters," +said the polite politzei. It was then that we cut loose, told him to +bring the commissaire or the burgomaster to us, and started to walk off. +It was a bad move. So far he had handled us with a velvet grip, but at +the first sign of insurrection he showed his teeth, locked arms with +each of us, and, signaling another officer to follow, forthwith marched +us off to police headquarters and our ultimate resting-place, the +guardroom cell. + +How long we stayed there I don't know--long enough, at all events, +to get a glimpse of the Dutch police system and the third degree as +practiced in the Lowlands. There swung open a great iron door +leading to the street and the market-place, not so large but fully as +busy as Washington Market the week before Thanksgiving. Through +it, sobbing and screaming, their hats gone and their hair torn, came +two women, roughly handled by gendarmes and followed by a mob +escort. They were thrown weeping and expostulating into an adjoining +cell. A gendarme came out with trickles of blood on his face. He +mopped his brow and complained of feminine finger-nails. Close +behind him followed a male friend of the imprisoned women. He +pleaded with the sergeant at the desk, while the moans of the +women, under pressure to confess their crime, came from their cell. +But Jack Rose only scratched and scratched monotonously, and now +and then gazed at the middle of the speaker's stomach. + +In the mean time we fell back into our habit of talking for publication. +With an intimacy that would have surprised those gentlemen we +referred casually to Brand Whitlock, Dr. van Dyke, and the biggest +Dutch and Belgian names we could think of. We suspected that Jack +Rose and the man at our side understood more English than they +pretended. At all events, it had its effect. In half an hour we were +taken before the commissioner. + +Two cigars lay on the edge of the table nearest us. I could see at a +glance that we were free. + +"Do you speak English?" I asked him. + +"No," he answered in our native tongue; "only French, Flemish, +German, and Italian--but not English." And with a grin he asked for +our passports. + +"You are for the American newspapers?" + +"Yes," I answered--"one of us is a lawyer who writes occasionally. I +am correspondent for a New York and a Boston paper, but I won't +cable anything from here." For this reason, I explained, no +movements of troops or news of military value could leak out. + +"Ah, I see," said the commissioner who could not talk English. "An +amateur correspondent and a slow correspondent. But correspondents are +not at all tolerated in this province. It is five o'clock. You will +board the train leaving this province at 5.16 P.M." + +From Maastricht to the Dutch capital is, under usual conditions, a +four-hour run to the north. During this trip we passed encampments +and fortifications of the 400,000 well-drilled but poorly equipped +troops which the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in the spirit of no +negative neutrality, had mobilized along her borders. Whenever we +crossed a bridge every window in the entire train was fastened down +and there were strict orders against raising them. We discovered that +under the boulders were carefully concealed large charges of +dynamite ready for immediate use in case of invasion--so that +Horatius need not be called upon while axe and crowbar were at +work. The windows, it appears, were locked to prevent throwing out of +lighted cigars or matches. + +At one o'clock the next morning our train, delayed by war-time traffic, +rolled into the Hague station, whence three days later, I was to start +my lucky trip into Antwerp, the besieged. + +Clog dancing and cognac helped to get me from The Hague back +into Antwerp in time for its bombardment and capture by the German +forces under General von Beseler. I happened to perform the clog +dancing at a critical moment during a trip on a Scheldt River barge, +thus diverting the attention of the river sentries from my lack of proper +papers. While the pedal acrobatics were in progress my temporary +friend, Mons. le Conducteur, reinforced the already genial pickets with +many glasses of the warming fluid. + +Willard Luther, my companion in and out of jail during the first part of +the continental wanderings, was forced to leave for home the day +after we got back to The Hague. He had five days to catch the +Lusitania at Liverpool. Three of them he spent on a whirlwind trip +trying to see action in northern Flanders, but, much to his +disappointment, was called away before the final scrimmage at +Antwerp. If he had succeeded in getting in, I rather fear the +Massachusetts Bar would have lost a valuable member. He had an +insatiable passion to be in the neighborhood of bullets and bombs-- +not, as I take it, that he really wanted to get hit--merely that he +would like to see how close he could come. + +On October 2d, strictest regulations were passed prohibiting entry +within the fortifications of Antwerp without permit from the military +governor, General de Guise. Three weeks earlier entry had been +possible but difficult, and the feat was again easier after the German +occupation. But during the city's days of trial the military lid was +clamped and riveted. Except for those coming direct from England, +the highest civil recommendations were valueless. + +I had one of these,--a laissez-passer from Prince d'Eline, Secretary of +the Belgian Legation at The Hague,--issued because of the fact that I +was carrying a large packet of mail from the American Legation at The +Hague to Henry W. Diederick, United States Consul-General at Antwerp. I +had also been entrusted with three hundred marks to be delivered to a +German prisoner, Lieutenant Ulrici, known to have been wounded and +captured in the fighting around Termonde, and believed to be lying in a +hospital ship in the river or in Antwerp itself. The fact of carrying +such money was of course against me as indicating German sympathy. + +Because a large part of the railroad line between Eschen, Cappelen, +and Antwerp had been torn up, because there would be many +hold-ups, and because I couldn't speak a word of Flemish, I decided +against the overland route. Hearing, however, that L. Braakman & +Company, a grain and freight shipping concern, were running down +barges from Rotterdam, I got a Belgian friend to call them up on my +behalf. The result was a flat throw-down: without General de Guise's +sanction I might not even cross the gangplank. + +Nevertheless, I went to Rotterdam, crossed the river basin to the +island from which the Braakman boats ran, and there saw a director +of the company, who, fortunately, could speak both English and +Flemish. He took me to the captain of the river barge, a low craft that +looked a cross between a tugboat and a Hudson River scow. In less +than three minutes my case was disposed of. Verdict: "C'est +absolument defendu." It was time for a little "bluff." An hour later I +returned with a new proposition, having in the mean time telegraphed +Mr. Diederick either to meet me at the pier at Antwerp or to send a +military permit. Displaying a copy of this telegram I suggested that I +be allowed to board. If there was any one at Antwerp to meet and +vouch for me, well and good; if not, they were at liberty to ship me +back. That was my proposition. + +"He may go as far as the border patrol, fifteen miles east of Antwerp," +the captain said to my interpreter. "If the river sentries permit it he +may then go as far as the Antwerp pier, but he cannot land." + +We cast off Sunday, October 4th, at 6 A.M. The little Telegraaf III +poked her nose through the blue-gray haze of a chilly October +morning while the muddy waters of the Meuse slapped coldly against +her bow. I stamped the deck a few times, wondering if there was an +English-speaking soul aboard, and leaned up against the engine +room until the odor of coffee and bacon lured me to the fo'castle +hatch. A purple-faced giant, with thick lips that met like the halves of +an English muffin blocked the companion-way. + +"'Jour," growled the face as though it hated to say it, then pointed to +the food and cognac. This was Monsieur le Conducteur, ship's cook, +barkeeper, and collector of fares. + +In the center of a dark cabin, littered with charts, pails, and Flemish +newspapers, was a kitchen table. Now and then a smoking oil lamp +flared up to throw a light on the faces of my fellow-passengers, five of +them in addition to the captain and Mons. le Conducteur. They were, +as I discovered later, Mons. A. Albrecht, a leading alderman of +Antwerp and a friend of Mons. Vos, the burgomaster; a light-haired +Belgian piano salesman who could speak five languages; Mile. +Blanche Ravinet, of looks beautiful and occupation unknown; and two +others. From the suddenness with which the conversation stopped, I +judged they had been discussing "ze American." They were welcome +to say what they liked barring the word "spion." + +For hours we chugged steadily along, catching a fair tide on the +lower Meuse, and sliding past the neat little towns of Dordrecht, +Papendrecht, and Willemstad, through the Hollandische Diep and the +Krammer Volkerak. After that the Telegraaf III worried through the +canals and systems of locks which virtually cut the neck of Tholen +from the mainland, and, when the last of these had been +accomplished, splashed into the great basin of the East Scheldt. A +Dutch gunboat cut across our bows, signaling us to halt. An officer +boarded us to study the freight invoices. + +Farther upstream a launch came alongside, making fast fore and aft, +while two Belgian river sentries, in long blue coats and faded drab +trousers, poked their bearded heads above the rail. This, then, was +what the captain meant by the border patrol. + +Now, as luck would have it, the day was cold: we were the first boat to +come through the locks for some hours, and apparently the river +sentries had had no breakfast. So they dove into the fo'castle, where +Mons. le Conducteur produced bread and cognac. I at once ordered +Mons. le Conducteur to get a second round of liquid refreshment for +our military guests. Conversation flowed. The soldiers drummed on +the table to keep their hands warm and in a moment of inspiration I +showed them how the darkies in our country warm their feet. + +"Clog dance," I explained. + +"Encore," shouted the piano salesman. "That is splendid." + +"Pleaz again! Oh, pleaz!" echoed Mile. Blanche. "See, every one, ze +grand American foot game." + +The fat-faced conducteur, with whom I had suddenly grown in favor, +repeated the cognac treatment on the sentries. Before I knew it, they +had me alongside the table, one hand steadied against a thwart of +the swaying cabin, my head in the smoke of the oil lamp, my feet +pounding and kicking, as it seemed, at the very door of Antwerp. The +piano salesman shouted rag-time, Mile. Blanche drummed time on +the bench, and the river sentries pounded time with their rifle butts. + +"Encore!" they shouted when I sat down with aching legs. + +All at once the launch alongside gave an angry toot, for the officer +wanted his men back: there were other boats to be examined. The +sentries glanced quickly at our papers, not reading, I am sure, a word +of mine, speedily cast off ropes, and disappeared guiltily and +somewhat unsteadily over the larboard rail. + +An hour later the Telegraaf III took the river's turn, swinging past Fort +St. Philippe, until we could see the gray-blue spire of the Cathedral of +Notre Dame with its intricate network of stone silhouetted against the +autumn sunset. Mr. Diederick was not at the pier to meet me, nor was +there a military passport from General de Guise. + +"Stay by me," said Alderman Albrecht. As each of the pier sentries +saluted him he said a whispered word, and apparently his word was +good, for the American "foot game" artist was allowed to pass. +Perhaps Alderman Albrecht had decided that German spies don't +clog-dance. + +Though not officially admitted to the besieged city, I went at once to +my old stand, the Hotel St. Antoine, now converted into British Staff +Headquarters. At sundown a mist crept up from the river, and through +it we heard a roar of welcome and the rumble of heavy artillery. +Charging down the Avenue de Keyser came a hundred London +motor-busses, Piccadilly signs and all, some filled, some half-filled, +with a wet-looking bunch of Tommies, followed by armored +mitrailleuses, a few 6.7 naval guns, officers' machines, commissary +and ammunition carriages--the first brigade of Winston Churchill's +army of relief, which for five days was destined to make so valiant, +but so short, a fight against the overwhelming German army. + + + + +Chapter V + +The Bombardment Of Antwerp + + + +There was something typically British in the way those Englishmen +went about the defense of Antwerp. In the streets and barracks, and +more especially at the Hotel St. Antoine, British Staff Headquarters, +where I stayed until its doors were closed, I saw them at close range +during that week of horror. Once when I was eating with a company +of marines near their temporary barracks, they gave me the +password to the trenches, and, although I only got out as far as the +inner line of forts on that day, it gave me an opportunity to observe +the work of the men under long-range firing. At the St. Antoine, ten or +a dozen officers were quartered; others clanked in and out for hurried +conferences in the corridors or disappeared into the smoking-room, +whose heavy doors with the sign, "Reservee pour la Gouvernement +Anglaise," hid Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the English +Admiralty, and his portmanteau of war maps. + +Here was Belgium's last stronghold on the verge of downfall: the +outer line of forts had already fallen; Forts Wavre, St. Catherine, +Waelham, and Lierre were already prey to the Krupp mortars; the +German hosts were swarming across the River Nethe, six miles to +the city's south, and the cowering populace in their flight made the +streets terrible to look upon. + +Yet at the St. Antoine there was no particular flurry--so far, at least, +as the officers were concerned. At night they worked over their war +maps; in the daytime they went out to the forts. They would get up in +the morning, an hour or two earlier than the average business man, have +a comfortable breakfast, smoke a cigar for half an hour or so, and talk +things over. Then their military automobiles came trembling and +sputtering to the doorsteps, and in groups of fours and fives they went +out to the firing line. If only two or three of a group returned, you +would naturally have to draw your own conclusions as to the fate of the +rest. + +Those English gentlemen went about their jobs of life and death with +the same detached coolness as if their hunters were being saddled, +or they were waiting for the referee's whistle in Rugby football. Their +attitude was infernally exasperating; yet you couldn't help taking off +your hat to their sublime nerve and indifference. + +I overheard a typical remark when matters were in this critical state. It +came from a handsome, curly-headed officer, noticeable not only for +his apparent efficiency, but because he didn't let the game of war +interfere with his attentions to the little Princess de Ligne. The latter +was nursing her brother, who had been shot through the back of the +neck during a raid through German lines. She was a princess in rank, +and a queen in looks. Thirty hours before the first shell burst into the +Place Verte--Monday morning, it was--this fellow rapped at my +door. He had wandered into the wrong pew, for his words were +obviously intended to hurry up a brother officer with whom he was to +take the morning ride to the firing line. Sticking his curly, sunburnt +head around the corner he drawled in inimitable British intonation:- + +"I say, old chap, do hurry along; this is no ORDINARY occasion, you +know." + +In the Royal Belgian Palace there happened a few hours before the +bombardment an incident revealing the simplicity and kindliness of +King Albert's character. In connection with it, it is necessary to speak +of Harold Fowler, a New Yorker and Columbia College graduate, who +helped to save the public buildings of Antwerp, and later entered the +Allied ranks as a fighter. When the war broke out, Fowler was private +secretary to Ambassador Page in London. In November he got a commission +in the Royal Horse Guards, known as the "Blues." While the Germans were +pressing hard on Antwerp, the German commander, as I have mentioned +elsewhere, asked that a diagram of the city of Antwerp, with plans and +location of the cathedral, the Hotel de Ville, and the more important +works be sent to him in order that he might find the range and avoid +firing on them. Neutrals were to carry the plans through; and Fowler +and Hugh Gibson, secretary to the American Minister at Brussels (Brand +Whitlock), volunteered. + +Two days before the bombardment Gibson went to the Royal Palace +at Antwerp where General de Guise and his staff were in conference. +Fowler trailed along, but, not liking to enter, walked up and down the +hallway, hands in his pockets, admiring the portraits half-hidden in the +darkness of the foyer. A tall figure approached and in French asked +who he was. Fowler replied that he was an American and was waiting +for Gibson. + +"I see," said the figure, then speaking in English, "that you are +interested in pictures." + +"Very much," answered Fowler. + +"Then, would you like to see those in the Royal Chambers upstairs?" + +Fowler hesitated, feeling like an intruder, but the figure insisted upon +leading him upstairs. When they got into the light, Fowler turned to +examine his kind friend. To his utter astonishment he saw that it was +Albert, King of the Belgians! + +By that time we of Antwerp were getting a very fair imitation of a city +besieged. Water supply had already been cut off for some days. +There was just enough for cooking purposes; bathing and such +pleasantries were out of the question--even for Royalty. According +to the French maid in my corridor, Winston Churchill managed to get +a shave by ordering tea sent to his room and using the hot water for +shaving lather. + +Monday, October 5th, the night before the city emptied itself of +non-combatants, was almost a festive occasion at the St. Antoine. The +British entry gave tremendous confidence to the stricken city and the +tired Belgian soldiers--a bit of pride before the fall. New faces turned +up, friends in the English army met, shook hands, and discussed the +outlook. One was even reminded of lighter occasions, such as the +Copley-Plaza in Boston or the Hotel Taft in New Haven before an +annual Harvard-Yale battle. At the head of a long table in the center +of the dining-room sat the First Lord of the British Admiralty, looking +rather thoughtful, his baldish head and Trinity House uniform standing +out in contrast to the service uniforms of the younger men around +him. At the same table were commissary officers, sergeants, +aide-de-camps, Hugh Gibson, Harold Fowler, and somewhat farther down the +Russian Minister and my curly-headed officer, chatting over his coffee +with little Princess de Ligne. + +In the flash of an eye these scenes changed to scenes of terror. + +The news leaked out, and spread like wildfire, that the Kaiser's men +had crossed the River Nethe and had placed their big guns within +range of the city. It was not until forty-eight hours later that the +populace saw a handful of Flemish posters pasted in out-of-the-way +corners--posters signed by the Civil Government--which thanked +the populace "for retaining until the present time their praiseworthy +sangfroid, and regretting that the responsibilities of their office +necessitated their own removal to a neighborhood more safe." + +Queen Elizabeth, whom danger made a democrat, walked right into +my hotel, if you please, and stopped casually to say good-bye to the +Russian Minister. The crowd outside did not know she was leaving for +Ostend under cover of darkness--they cheered her loudly just the +same. She is a spunky sort of queen. + +Then came the flight. You knew the fear of the Germans had got into +their blood when waiters dropped their plates and dishes and ran; +when shops, houses, hotels closed and the people melted away; +when the French chambermaid besought with frightened eyes that +Monsieur take her away to England, and when the hotel proprietor +disappeared without even asking for his bill. + +There were other sights that did one good to see: such as gray-haired +Mrs. Richardson, venerable figure of a British nurse, with six wars to +her credit and a breastful of decorations from four different +governments, who refused to leave her hospital even if it was blown +to pieces, so long as there were men to help and wounds to heal. + +When the St. Antoine closed I took her to the American Consulate to +find a house where she could stay. That night and the next loads of +English Red Cross busses with their households of pain and ether +rumbled over the pontoon bridge across the Scheldt, went past Fort +Tete de Flandre, and disappeared in the swampy meadows on the +road to Ghent. I never saw her again, but I have always hoped that +Mrs. Richardson was among the nurses who went with them. + +When on Wednesday morning I was turned out of my room, I made +my way past a pressing throng of foreign faces to the Queen's Hotel +on the water front. There I found Arthur Ruhl and James H. Hare, +who had just come over from England. The hotel overlooked the +River Scheldt, forming a wide crescent on the city's north, and was +within fifty yards of one of the longest pontoon bridges constructed in +modern warfare. + +Here was a sight to come again and rend the memory. The crowds +were endeavoring to get away over one of the two avenues of +escape still open. I estimated that between five in the afternoon and +the following dawn three hundred thousand persons must have +passed through the city's gates. They were the people of Antwerp +itself, swelled by exiles from Alost, Aerschot, Malines, Termonde, and +other cities to the south and west. Intermittently for two days and +nights I watched them from my room in the Queen's. From five yards +beneath my window ledge came the shuffle, shuffle of unending feet, +the creak and groans of heavy cart wheels, the talk and babble of +guttural tongues, the yelp of hounds, as the thousands moved and +wept and surged and jostled along throughout the night and into the +uncertain mist of that October morning. They were so close I could +have jumped into their carts or dropped a pebble on their heads. +Infinitely more impressive than the retreat of the allied armies or the +victorious entry of the Germans a little later, was the pageant of this +pitiful army without guns or leaders. + +The twenty-foot entrance to that pontoon bridge seemed to me like +the mouth of a funnel through which poured the dense misery of an +entire nation. Think of this army's composition: a great city was +emptying itself of human life; not only a great city, but all the people +driven to it from the outside, all who had congregated in Belgium's +last refuge and its strongest fort. They bore themselves bravely, the +greater number plodding along silently in the footsteps of those who +went ahead, with no thoughts of their direction, some of them even +chatting and laughing. You saw great open wagons carrying baby +carriages, perambulators, pots and kettles, an old chair, huge +bundles of household goods, and the ubiquitous Belgian bicycle +strapped to the side. There were small wagons, and more great +wagons crowded with twenty, thirty, forty people: aged brown women, +buried like shrunk walnuts in a mass of shawls, girls sitting listlessly +on piles of straw, and children fitfully asleep or very much awake and +crying lustily. + +Sometimes the men and boys mounted their bicycles, rode for a +dozen yards, were stopped by the procession, and then, for want of +better occupation, rang their bells. One saw innumerable yelping +dogs: big Belgian police hounds harnessed to the cart and doing their +share of work, others sniffing along the outskirts and plainly +advertising for an owner. There were noisy cattle, too, some of which +escaped. Long after the city was evacuated I saw a cow bellowing +under an archway of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. + +In this way the city emptied itself, but so slowly that the very slowness +of the movement wore the marchers out. Each family group was +limited to the speed of its oldest member. Hundreds gave it up and +lay by the road, or formed little gypsy camps under the trees. At night +these were lighted by fires, overshadowed by the greater fire from the +distant burning city, and beside them stretched dumb-looking souls, +watching vaguely those who still had strength to move. + +Watching these wretches got so on my nerves that I had to get out +and do something. With a British intelligence officer, formerly of Sir +John French's staff, I wandered down to the southern quarter of the +city known as Berchem. As usual, the guns at the outer forts had +been booming throughout the evening. From the city's ramparts you +could not only feel the shudder of the earth, but you could see +occasional splashes of flame from the Belgian batteries, answered, in +the dim distance to the south, by smaller, less vivid splashes issuing +from the mouths of the German instruments of "Culture" which +throughout the night pounded ruthlessly on the unprotected houses +without the city limits. + +On the way home we stopped in at the British field hospital to see a +wounded British friend. + + + + +Chapter VI + +The Surrender Of Antwerp + + + +As we left the British field hospital, on the Rue de Leopold, a shrieking +skyrocket whizzed by above us and buried its hissing head in the +river to the north. One or two more fell at a distance of several +hundred yards, and in the southern part of the city flames from +several houses shot up into the quiet, windless night. + +The bombardment was on--the time was 12.07 Wednesday +midnight. + +For a moment I did not realize that this was the beginning of the end +of Antwerp. I had heard so much gun-fire and seen so many bombs +dropping from aeroplanes that I did not fully appreciate the +significance of these shells. I scribbled a few notes in my diary, +unstrapped my money belt, and then picked out an empty bed at the +Queen's Hotel and tumbled in. I must have slept for six or seven +hours. + +When I arose everything was quiet. The hotel was apparently +deserted. I remember being particularly irritated because there was +no one in the kitchen who would give me breakfast, so I made myself +some tea and then strolled into the street. It so happened that the +Germans had been pumping lead steadily into the city for six hours +and that this was the morning lull. The Germans are methodical in +everything. When they bombard a city they stop for breakfast. + +As I walked down the Avenue de Keyser I thought at first it was +Sunday--or rather a year of Sundays all rolled into one. Overnight +the city had been transformed into a tomb. Shops were closed; iron +shutters were pulled down everywhere; trolley cars stood in the street +as they had been left. My own footsteps resounded fearfully on the +pavement, and I walked five blocks before I saw a human being. + +I stopped at the American Consul's office on the Place de Meir, only +to find the place was locked. A frightened face behind the grating told +me that the consul had taken his wife to the country--good place to +be in, I thought. + +Things began to seem lonely. I heard shells falling and saw flames in +the southern quarter of the city, and decided to go in that direction to +look up an American correspondent and two photographers who had +asked me to bunk with them in the cellar of a little abandoned house +at 74 Rue de Peage. + +Turning down a little side street leading toward the Boulevard de +Leopold, I was greeted by a clap of thunder overhead. A shell +demolished a house across the street and about thirty yards down. +The concussion knocked over a couple of babies. I picked them up, +put them back in the doorway of the house where they seemed to belong, +saying over and over again mechanically, "There, there, don't cry. +There is nothing to be frightened about"; and then, just to show how +little I myself was frightened I began to run. I ran for all I was +worth. I ran right into the fire. The shells were falling fairly thick +on the Boulevard de Leopold; every two or three hundred yards a house +was partially destroyed; bricks and glass littered the pavement, and +occasionally, every quarter of a mile or so, I saw a figure skulking +along under the eaves of a building, crouching and ducking in time to +the nasty music of the shells. But I decided that the middle of the +street was the safest part. + +When I had gone about a quarter of a mile I got my nerve again. I put +my hands in my pockets, lighted a cigarette, and was just saying to +myself, "This is pretty good fun, after all," when CRASH!! CRASH!! two, +or possibly three, shells, bursting in rapid succession, tore down +houses a hundred yards ahead of me. Then one struck in the street, and +jagged fragments of angry shrapnel skidded along the pavement like a +thrown stone skipping along the surface of the water. I was again +trembling all over. + +Was the game worth the candle, I asked myself. "I've come three +thousand miles and overcome every obstacle just to get into this +horrible mess. If I get disfigured--no, I'd much rather be killed--will +it--" + +"Crash!! Bang!!" went a monster shell as I turned the corner. + +Two doors from the corner of a narrow street covered with bricks and +mortar fluttered a United States flag, and beneath it the door of 74 +Rue de Peage. This place was later spoken of as "Thompson's fort," +because Donald C. Thompson, a Kansas photographer, took +possession of it after the Belgian family fled, and plundered the +neighborhood for coffee, rolls, and meat, with which he stocked his +little cellar. The house next door had already been struck, and +shattered glass littered the pavement. The doorstep of 74 was +covered by a couple of mattresses and sand-bags. Beneath this, in a +dingy sort of coal-bin, heaped with straw, I found crouching the +tenants of "Thompson's fort." + +Next to Berchem, the southern quarter of the city, where the +Germans were approaching, the Rue de Peage was the worst spot in +Antwerp. We sat for a time listening to the shells. There were here, in +addition to Thompson, Edwin Weigel, a Chicago photographer; +Edward Eyre Hunt, of "Collier's Weekly"; and the Dutch Vice-Consul. + +We heard the distant resounding Boom ... Boom ... Boom ... ed ... + Boom ... Boom ... Boom. + +An interval of perhaps a second's silence, then a faint moaning, a +crescendo wail, the whirr and rush of a snarling, shrieking skyrocket +overhead, and a crash, like all the thunders of the universe rolled into +one, when the shell struck, followed by the roar of falling brick as a +neighboring house came pouring into the street. + +"Whee.....wheee.....Hi.....HIOU UIOUW," we heard. "Whee ... +whEEE ... whEEE ... UIOUW ... OUWW ... SSH ... SSHSHHH ... +BANG ... BANG!!!!!!" + +"Whee.....wheee.....Hi.....HIOUUIOUW," we heard. "Whee ... +whEEE ... whEEE ... UIOUW... OUWW... SSH ... SSHSHHH... BANG... +BANG!!!!!!" + +I tried to persuade the other fellows to come up to the Queen's Hotel +along the Scheldt waterfront on the northern side of the city, where I +was then encamped. It was a safer locality because the Germans +had not yet got the range of the northern end of the city. Weigel and +Thompson, having to look out for their kodaks and moving-picture +paraphernalia, decided to wait a while, as did Hunt. Hare, who came +in later, had two big kodaks which he wanted to get back to his room +in the Queen's. I offered to carry one of them for him. + +We shook hands all around and one or two of us exchanged +messages to be taken back in case there was any trouble--that is to +say, in case, as seemed likely at the time, some of us should get out +alive and some should not. Hunt gave me a letter to his family, and +later, with watch in hand, started to walk around the burning city to +calculate the number of falling shells per minute! I slung Hare's kodak +over my shoulder and we started back, taking separate streets. It was +a dash of three quarters of a mile and nothing fell particularly close to +us, although the buildings on all sides were in flames. Near a pile of +discarded uniforms of the garde civique, I saw what was left of the +figure of a man with his insides oozing out, his eyes still open, staring +vacantly upwards, and all around him the horrible odor of decaying +horses. By this time I was calm and was getting quite accustomed to +the bursting of shells. I suppose I had been through my "baptism of +fire." + +About half an hour later, when we were sitting in the Queen's, +Thompson, pale as a sheet, staggered into the deserted lobby closely +followed by Weigel and Hunt and the Dutch Vice-Consul, the latter +somewhat out of his head. Just after I left 74 Rue de Peage, a 32 cm. +shell burst on the roof, tearing off the two top floors of the house, +throwing Thompson's bed into the street, and setting the place on fire. +At sundown the house was in ashes. Somehow or other the men all +got out, rescuing a portion of their paraphernalia. + +All Thursday afternoon the German Taubes circled above the city-- +mostly along the waterfront. Below them puffed little clouds of smoke +where shells from the Belgian anti-aircraft guns were exploding. I +fancy the airmen were locating the pontoon bridge and signaling to +the Prussian battery commanders six miles away; but during +Wednesday and Thursday, when the crowds of refugees were +assembled on the waterfront, not a single bomb dropped among +them. A few shells, well placed, would have slaughtered them like +sheep. Before and during the bombardment I am quite certain that +the Germans intended to frighten, rather than injure, non-combatants. +Report to the contrary notwithstanding, it is equally true that, so far as +possible, the invaders kept to their promise to spare such buildings as +the Cathedral, the Palais de Justice, the Hotel de Ville, the Castle +Steen, and other historic landmarks. + +The bombardment lasted forty hours. That night,--Thursday, October +8th,--the second and last night which the town held out, all of the +Americans who were left gathered at the Queen's. The firing by this +time was terrific. Except for the lurid glare of the burning buildings +which lit up the streets, the city was in total darkness. For weeks +martial law had been in effect and there were no lights after sundown. +An unearthly feeling it was, to be locked in the darkness of this +strange city, unable to speak a word of the language, not knowing +whether the garrison had evacuated the forts or whether the city had +been surrendered, believing there would be street righting or an +insurrection of franc-tireurs. At times we heard through the darkness +the tramp of squads of soldiers. Surely, we thought, there come the +Germans. We remembered the atrocities at Louvain. + +About an hour after darkness settled on us I climbed to the roof of the +Queen's Hotel, from which, for a few minutes, I looked out upon the +most horrible and at the same time the most gorgeous panorama that +I ever hope to see. The entire southern portion of the city appeared a +desolate ruin; whole streets were ablaze, and great sheets of fire rose +to the height of thirty or forty feet. + +The night, like the preceding, was calm and quiet, without a breath of +wind. On all sides rose greedy tongues of flame which seemed to +thirst for things beyond their reach. Slowly and majestically the sparks +floated skyward; and every now and then, following the explosion of a +shell, a new burst of flame lighted up a section hitherto hidden in +darkness. The window panes of the houses still untouched flashed +the reflection in our eyes. + +Even more glorious was the scene to the north. On the opposite side +of the Scheldt the oil tanks, the first objects to be set on fire by bombs +from the German Taubes, were blazing furiously and vomiting huge +volumes of oil-laden smoke. Looking over on this side of the river, +too, I could see the crackling wooden houses of the village of St. +Nicolas, lighting with their glow all of northern Antwerp and the +water-front. In the swampy meadows on the farther bank we could see the +frightened refugees as they hurried along the still protected road to +Ghent. They passed on our side of the burning village, not five +hundred yards away. Every now and then as a fitful flame lighted the +meadow I could see the figures silhouetted against the red +background. + +They appeared to be actually walking through the flames like +Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. It was all a glorious and +fascinating nightmare. + +There was at this time an ominous lull in the moaning pound of +shrapnel. + +Out of the darkness in the direction of West Antwerp came a new +sound-the low methodical beat of feet. The noise became gradually +louder and louder until one could hear the rumble of heavy wheels +and distinguish the sound of voices above the crowd. This was the +beginning of the British and Belgian retreat, which started at about +eight o'clock Thursday night, and, under cover of darkness, continued +unbroken for eight hours. Following the line taken by the escaping +populace this retreat went past our position on the water-front. Before +dawn on Friday morning, when the light became strong enough for +the advancing army to make out the enemy's position, practically the +entire Belgian army plus ten thousand Royal British Naval Marines +had got across the pontoon bridge and were well along the road to +Ghent. During all these hours squads of gendarmes with fixed +bayonets held back such remaining townsfolk as attempted to get +near the bridge. To these wretches it seemed that their last avenue of +escape had been cut off. There were now at the Queen's, Arthur +Ruhl, Hare, and myself, in addition to an English intelligence officer +and the recruits from "Fort Thompson." We talked over our plans for +the next day. The intelligence officer volunteered to get up with me at +sunrise and scour the river for a barge. It was my idea, in case we +could make any kind of arrangements for a get-away, to come back +and report to the other fellows. I remember that Arthur Ruhl was +uncertain as to whether he would come with us or wait for the +German entry. He was worried about some friends in the British field +hospital, and he decided not to leave without looking them up,--a +pretty white thing to do, it seemed to me. + +I tried to sleep, but the rumble of artillery wagons and shouts of the +marchers prevented. So I spent most of the night of the British and +Belgian retreat beneath my window. At daybreak the intelligence +officer came to my room and we started out along the water-front, +moving in the direction of the Dutch border. With the rising sun on +Friday morning the German Taubes again swept over the city. When +the Germans saw that the whole British and Belgian army had got +away from them they moved up their 42 cm. guns and literally gave +us hell. This time they had no mercy on the few remaining +noncombatants. + +The intelligence officer's baggage delayed us a long time. When we +got up nearly as far as Fort St. Philippe, we separated. We saw a +barge anchored in the river and he had an idea it would leave about +seven o'clock, and that we might be able to get on it. I gave him my +knapsack containing my gold belt, which, in the confusion, I had not +had time to strap on, and started to make a dash back to the +Queen's, because I considered that I ought to let the other fellows +know what had happened to us. + +I had fifteen minutes to cover the distance. + +I ran. The shells, at that time, were falling at a rate, I should +judge, of five a minute. Opposite the Castle Steen I had a narrow +escape--just concussion, I suppose. Directly above me came a crash of +thunder. A few moments later I found myself lying in the street, head +pointing north--dazed. A bomb crashed through the eaves and tore a hole +as big as a small cellar in the street directly before the old castle, +bursting with the concussion of a tornado. For a few moments I sat on +the street feeling weak in the legs and unable to move. + +Again I started back to the Queen's. Two hundred yards east of the +bridge some soldiers held me up. + +"Get back!" they shouted, believing that I was making for the pontoon. +They turned me back, and I hesitated a moment. A terrible explosion, +louder than anything I had yet heard, rocked the city to its +foundations. For a moment the walls of the houses trembled and every +window on the waterfront was broken. The retreating Belgian army had +blown up that pontoon bridge and with it what then seemed the last hope +of escape for the few remaining survivors. For a few moments wreckage +writhed in midstream like a great sea creature in agony of death. + +Past me rushed groups of Belgian soldiers, the remainder of a few +hundred who had been left to cover the British and Belgian retreat, fire +the last shots from the forts, and spike the guns as the Germans +approached. Pitiable was the terror of these fellows when they saw the +bridge gone. Many of them were out of their heads through exposure and +exhaustion; not a few of them wept. One sergeant tore off his uniform +and fatigue cap and tried to exchange them for my citizen's clothes. + +The worst fire of the entire bombardment was concentrated during these +moments; the racket was stupendous. Because gunboats, barges, lighters, +tenders, rowboats, were commandeered by the military authorities to +ferry across soldiers and wounded there was slim chance for +noncombatants. Above the noise of bomb and shrapnel Belgian gunboats +added to the confusion by cannonading big boats along the quay. This +was done in order that the Germans might not make use of them for the +pursuit. It speaks volumes for my military knowledge that for a brief +moment I imagined the Germans had embarked upstream and were going to +make a river battle of it. + +By this time the American correspondents had left the Queen's, going +in different directions for different purposes. Hunt and Thompson, I +later learned, went to the American Consulate, where they stayed +during the German entry. + +For a moment I see-sawed up and down the river bank, remembering +I had left my handbag at the Queen's, but, infinitely more important, +that my knapsack with money belt and diary were in the keeping of a +peripatetic acquaintance somewhere along the crowded piers +downstream. Without that gold, the thousands of miles to New York +seemed doubly long. When I at last got back to the barge office a +dock-hand pointed to a bench in the corner; there to my intense relief +lay the knapsack, where my kind English intelligence officer had left it. + +A little later I managed to clamber on a river barge laden nearly +to the sinking point with Antwerp's peaceful burghers and their +dumb-looking women and children. Slowly--very slowly--we steamed out +of the haze of powder and oil-laden smoke, through long lines of +gunboats and a flotilla of drifting scows packed to the gunwales like +our own, and past Fort St. Philippe, whose garrison were at that +moment heaving tons of powder into the river. + +A few miles farther downstream they landed us on the northern bank +of the Scheldt near the little town of Liefkenshack. Here I began a few +miles of walking, occasionally varied by ox-cart locomotion. + +I was traveling with nothing but a knapsack (my suitcase had to be +abandoned) and therefore moving faster than the crowd. At one +point, for the sake of company, I joined a group and took a turn at +shoving the family wheel-barrow. They poured out thanks in the +guttural Flemish tongue, then loaded me with bread and bits of +mouldy pie. When that was not accepted they feared for their +hospitality. They talked and I talked, with a result that was hardly +worth the effort. Finally, after a conference, one of the group +disappeared into the crowd and returned leading an eight-year-old +boy. + +"Me talk American," said the boy. "We two speak together?" + +And so we talked, for the road was long and weary. + +Their advance was so gradual that, although I did not leave Antwerp +until the bombardment was over, I caught up with the army of +refugees before Roosendaal, just across the Dutch border. + +Here Holland opened out her arms. The kindness of the Dutch--as +yet personal, unorganized endeavor--was beyond conception. + +Churches, houses, public halls, stations were thrown open to the +multitude. You saw hundreds of Dutch soldiers join in the procession, +lift babies and bundles, and walk with them for miles. At Dordrecht, +when the trains came through, peasants passed scores of babies' +milk-bottles into the cars. When a jolly-looking Dutch girl, with a great +big gleaming smile that reminded me of some one, gave me milk and +chocolate, the tears began to trickle down my cheeks. I suppose it +was the reaction, or because I was tired, or, perhaps, because the +crowd was cheering and waving at us. For the others there were piles +of bread, Dutch cake, and, best of all, some good, long drinks of +water. For ten days Antwerp's water supply had been cut off. Von +Beseler, German siege commander, had seen to that. + +At Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal people used the walls of the +houses for post-offices. They wrote their names in chalk letters, giving +directions to relatives lost in the scramble. + +After ox carts, rowboats, and river barges had done their share, a +Dutch-Belgian "Stoom Tram" joggled us along for a few miles. Some +more walking and a little running before I at last crawled aboard a +twenty-car freight and passenger train moving slowly toward the east. + +At the first telegraph office across the Dutch border, I filed a cable +story to the "Boston Journal"; and later started an account for the +"New York Evening Post." I had an idea that I would score a "beat" or +"scoop" so that the people of the Back Bay could read of Antwerp's +fall over their coffee-cups the next morning. My cable account had too +much inside information. There were in it too many facts concerning +Winston Churchill's visit, also information about the number of Royal +Marines engaged, none of which it was thought proper to give out at +that time. So the English censor refused to let it through. That, +however, did not prevent the Dutch Cable Company from pocketing +my two hundred guilders. + +By the time I reached Rotterdam the word "refugee" had assumed a +new and altogether nearer meaning. I had been in a besieged and +captured city; I had mixed with homeless and starving people; I had +seen houses crumble and burn; and ghastly human figures with their +insides oozing away and the eyes staring vacantly. + +As I lay in bed that night I could hear, and I still can hear, the scruff, +scruff, and shuffle of feet as the compact body of this army--the +army without guns or leaders--dragged slowly past my window at +the Queen's, the tinkle of ox-cart bells, the talk and babble of guttural +tongues; the curses of the team drivers, the frantic cries of mothers +who had lost their children in the scramble, the cries of young children +who didn't know what was wrong, but realized in their vague, childish +way that something terrible was happening. + +I could see, and I still can see, those big Belgian hounds sniffing +along the outskirts of the crowd and plainly advertising for an owner; I +can see other hounds with their heads thrown back wailing at the +door of their deserted and abandoned homes. And I can see the +Dutch border where Holland opened out her arms, and the Dutch +peasants gave us rye bread and sandwiches and good long drinks of +welcome milk. + +Sometimes I can sit with my legs dangling over the stern of that old +towboat barge on which I finally made my escape, and can visualize +the blue-gray spire of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, standing, it +seemed to me, a quiet sentinel over the ruins of the tortured city; and, +then, as the old barge sweeps around the river's bend, I can look +back upon the last of Antwerp's story written in flaming letters of red +against the early morning sky. + + + + +Chapter VII + +Spying On Spies + + + +Less than forty-eight hours after the fall of Antwerp the wave of +helpless humanity whose crest broke on the Belgian border had +rolled over the entire length and breadth of Holland. Thousands of +Belgian refugees wandered as far north as The Hague, where +various Dutch relief committees and the American Legation at The +Hague did their best to house the homeless and relieve the suffering. +Dr. van Dyke rolled up his sleeves still farther and strained to solve +the problem of the unemployed, sometimes, when a case interested +him, turning his own pocket inside out. + +Eight days after the Antwerp bombardment, I left The Hague for my +second trip into Germany. + +Just before my start Captain Sunderland, U.S.A., at the head of the +American Relief Committee at The Hague, asked me to help him in +taking charge of two carloads of grain, which were to go across the +German border and be distributed among the starving Belgians at +Liege. England had agreed not to interfere with food supplies, +provided the United States saw that they did not fall into German +hands in Belgium. The present job required sleeping in the freight +cars and saying, in one form or another, "Hands off!" to every spiked +helmet that tried to interfere. Captain Sunderland could speak no +German, and as I had already been over the same territory and had +had some experience with the military authorities, he wished me to +accompany him. + +I decided, however, to go into the interior of Germany. I had already +seen three armies in the field, and had watched, more or less closely, +the people of two warring nations. I was now particularly anxious to +study the German point of view, and if possible get to the front with +the Crown Prince's army. + +For such a purpose I considered that I carried good enough +credentials. In addition to a packet of mail for Ambassador Gerard, +my letter from ex-President Roosevelt, and my United States +passport, which had been vised by Herr von Mueller, German +Ambassador at The Hague, I now carried a special laissez-passer +which Mr. Marshall Langhorne had been kind enough to secure for +me from the same legation. I had a letter from Count von Bernstorff, +whom I had seen the night he arrived in America, and a letter from +Herr von Biel, Secretary of the German Embassy at The Hague, +recommending me to the Foreign Office in Berlin. Professor Hugo +Munsterberg had taken the trouble to send me a note to Dr. R. W. +Drechsler, head of the American Institute in Berlin, and I had also a +letter to the head of the University of Berlin. + +It was a five-hours' run from The Hague to Bentheim, a small country +village on the German frontier. The train stopped a quarter of a mile +north of the border. Dutch officials came aboard to examine +passports and baggage of every passenger. They were good-natured +and talkative, and did not go minutely into details, as those leaving +the country were less carefully watched than "immigrants." Me, +however, they mistook for an Englishman (as was usually the case in +Germany) and told me I could not cross the frontier. A Dutch +manufacturer, with whom I had struck up an acquaintance, explained +my identity, and the official, who looked astonished, waved me ahead +with a doubtful expression, as much as to say, "On your own head be +it, young man." + +That first night passed without trouble. At the border station we lined +up, immigrant fashion, and went through an inspection by a number +of the businesslike German militariat attached to the Zollamt, or +customs service. For ten minutes I stood in suspense while a +fiery-looking officer, with a snapping blue eye, looked through my +credentials in silence. He wrote my name in a notebook, looked +through my eye as if he would read my very soul, and then, without a +remark, passed me on. I filed through a narrow gate--and so into +the Realms of the Kaiser. + +It was now eleven o'clock at night and the Berlin express came +through Bentheim at 7.45 the next morning. We stayed at a little inn, +somewhat resembling the Wayside Inn, at Sudbury, Massachusetts. +Here I fell in with a German manufacturer whom I had seen several +weeks before as we were bringing the good news from Ghent to Aix. I +was surprised at this man's change of opinion regarding the conflict. +On the first occasion he laughed outright at the idea of an extended +fight. Now, all through his arguments, he repeated such phrases as, +"Well, if Germany doesn't win," or, "Suppose the war does last two +years," etc., etc. + +In the morning I had a peculiarly disagreeable experience at Lohne, +some distance from the German frontier, where we had again to +change trains en route to the capital. Experience had by this time +taught me, when thrown with people on the road, to show them my +papers and make my identity known as soon as possible. + +I therefore clung pretty closely to my argumentative German +acquaintance of Bentheim and Aix. During the melee of changing +cars I was, however, separated from him, and became engaged in +conversation (spoken in English) with a Dutch chocolate merchant. +The argument must have been interesting, for I did not at first notice a +crowd of twenty or thirty travelers and villagers gathering around us: I +did, however, notice when they began to push and jostle in a manner +obviously intended for insult. When I tried to retreat the exits were +locked. The crowd, convinced that I was an English spy, closed more +compactly and manhandled me off toward an officer on the street +behind the platform. My hat was knocked off, and for a brief moment I +recalled the lynching anger which I had seen in the eyes of Belgian +mobs, as German spies in Antwerp were being led to the police +station. + +At the last moment my rescuer came in the shape of the German +friend of Bentheim, who broke through the mob and whispered in my +ear, "Speak German. Always speak in German, you fool!" + +I admitted the soft impeachment. + +"Ich bin ein Amerikaner--ein correspondent," I explained to the row +of angry faces; and while my German friend soothed and reassured +his testy compatriots, I moved away, glad enough to escape another +visit to jail. Those personally conducted jail tours were not so bad, I +had found, with a handsome gendarme at your side; but a howling +crowd was altogether another matter. + +I reached the capital that night. One of my letters says, a few days +later:-- + +"The atmosphere is oppressive to the Anglo-Saxon visitor. His looks, +his manner, his accent betray him as one of the English-speaking +pest, and the crowd, with its mind so full of English hatred, does not +readily distinguish the American. So drop into a word of English in a +cafe: your neighbor glowers and draws away. You face it out with a +nonchalant air, but gradually the tension grows, especially when, as +happened to-day at the prisoners' camp at Zossen, twenty miles +south of Berlin, a great burly Prussian puts a menacing eye on you +and says, without introduction: 'It is very dangerous for an +Englishman here!' + +"Day by day here the hatred grows of England and things English: +judging from the press and the temper of the people, one would think +that England is the only foe. As a nation and as individuals they bear +no particular malice toward France. They even feel sorry for +'misguided' Belgium--betrayed by the British, they say. But England +they look upon as the root of all their trouble, the despicable, +retreating enemy they cannot touch, the enemy, they maintain, +whose clever, but selfish, diplomacy has forced the brunt of the +fighting on the others, while she sits back to wait for the spoils." + +On my arrival in Berlin I delivered the mail packet to Ambassador +Gerard. Two days later I presented my credentials at the Auswartige +Amt, or Foreign Office, hoping to get permission to go to the western +front with the Crown Prince's army. I was told to see Baron von +Mumm Schwartzenstein, who was officially designated by Von Jagow +to handle neutral correspondents, and who, unofficially, I have reason +to believe, is connected with the Secret Service. He is a pudgy sort of +man, with a watery skin, and decidedly not of military build or bearing. +When, after much red tape, I was finally admitted to an outer office, +he stepped out to see me, merely taking my name and the names of +the papers I represented. I was told to come back in the evening. +When I did so and was admitted to His Holy of Holies, he said to me +at once:-- + +"I was expecting you to come yesterday. Why did you not?" + +This was rather startling, but his next remark altogether took away my +breath. + +"Were you satisfied with your treatment by the War Office in Brussels, +Herr Green? And why, if you have already been wiss ze army in +scenes of war, do you now come to me for permission?" + +Mind you, I had at this time spoken scarcely a word, and had certainly +told nothing of my age or previous condition of servitude in Brussels. +But the Government that never forgets knew all about my +movements. He smiled at my discomfiture, and, within the next few +minutes, proved to be such a genial German (for war-time) that I +soon told him all about my adventures, including the fact that I had +gone back into Antwerp and entered Belgian lines, after escaping +from German surveillance at Aix. I happened to speak of the +marvelous efficiency and preparedness of the German army in +Belgium. + +"Yes, that iss quite so," remarked His Excellency, with a smile. "You +see, we were prepared for everysing--except," he added after a +pause,--"except ze invasion of ze American newspaperman. When +he iss out of our sight, zen we do not feel secure." + +Several weeks later, after I had come out of the Kaiser's realm, a +representative of the "Boston Journal," who had been looking for me +all over the Continent, ran me down just as I was leaving The Hague +for England. + +"The Foreign Office in Berlin told me where to find you," he said. +"They told me that in Berlin you had stayed first at the Esplanade, and +then you had moved to the Kaiserhof. They said you had left the city +[this was when I went out toward Poland], that you had returned to +Berlin, and that on such and such a date at 8.45 you had departed for +The Hague."!! + +The military and civil authorities looked upon the correspondent as an +embryo spy. And if the correspondent's sympathies were foreign, he +was a thousand times worse than the ordinary spy, because he could +make use of the cable and press to spread his information. + +While waiting in Berlin for a chance to go to the front, I became, +therefore, more and more conscious of surveillance. Whether it was +the fact of being so much alone, or due perhaps to an unfortunately +English-like appearance, I do not know. At all events, the long arm of +the Secret Service continuously cast a shadow over my shoulder: I +even became suspicious of myself. + +For one who has not been through the experience it is difficult to +appreciate the strain of such constant, unending suspicion. On July +17,1912, I stood beside the body of Herman Rosenthal, the gambler, +as it lay in the coffin in the parlor of his house in the Tenderloin. My +newspaper had sent me to "cover" the funeral, and I managed, +because of some previous knowledge of the household, and by +giving the impression of a mourner, to gain access. The murderers +had not yet been caught. Because the public knew nothing of "Lefty" +Louie, or "Gyp the Blood," or even of the late Lieutenant Becker, it +was common gossip that the criminals lurked in the neighborhood, +and that, in order to avoid suspicion, they would appear among the +chief mourners. Therefore, each eye was turned against its neighbor, +and each man, as he passed you, asked the silent question,--"Did +you shoot Herman Rosenthal?" During all the months on the +Continent, and particularly in Germany, I felt myself at Rosenthal's +funeral. + +To a greater or less degree other correspondents had similar +experiences. I must mention one or two of them, in spite of the fact +that they may dim the importance of my own adventures. There was +Swing, of Chicago, German by relationship and sympathy, who +championed the Kaiser's cause and in his dispatches blew the +Teuton horn in the Middle West of America. Swing was given +exceptional privileges, including a typewriter and telephone near the +Foreign Office. Yet Swing himself was constantly shadowed, and it is +a fact that every time he used the telephone (and he was never +permitted to speak in English) a Secret Service agent cut in on the +wire to listen to the conversation. + +An anecdote which I have heard in connection with the same +correspondent, although I do not vouch for its accuracy, shows that +"keeping the lid" on newspaper men had its humorous side. It +likewise indicates the initiative and aggressiveness of many American +correspondents, who, as a rule, went right ahead in the face of +military regulations, in some cases risking their lives, and in almost +every case refusing to be "bluffed out," even where the threatened +penalty was death. Swing had made his way to the battle front near--- +-----, where he was taken into custody and brought before Von +Mumm, then on a visit to Staff Headquarters. + +"I find one of your countrymen wizin ze army lines," is the way +Excellency von Mumm is reported as telling the story, "and I say to +him, 'Herr Swing, it iss strongly forbidden zat a newspaper man come +to ze front. It is not permitted zat any one come here; you must go +away.' + +"Very goot, Excellency," said Swing. + +"Ze next day I am extr-r-remely sorry to encounter ze same +chentleman, and I say to him, 'Go away at once. If you are not gone +in one hour you will be shot!' + +"Very goot, Excellency," answered Herr Swing. "Auf wiedersehn." + +"Zat Very afternoon, to my sur-r-r-prise and gr-r-reat astonishment, I +see him again. He was still in ze army lines. And I say to him, 'Now I +have you! This time you will be shot at sunrise!' + +"And he look at me and say:-- + +"'Very goot, Excellency. Zat make perfectly bully story for my paper.' + +"And I look at him for a minute, and I do not know whether to shoot +him or to laugh. + +"And you know, I cannot help myself but to laugh." + +And finally there was the case of Cyril Brown, staff correspondent of +the "New York Times" in Berlin, with whom I floundered through the +maze of official red tape and military snares that entangled the +reporter at the German capital. Brown is an individual with a sense of +humor and a Mark Twain penchant for ten-pfennig cigars. He takes +his work seriously, but, unlike most war correspondents, not himself. +After some interesting freight-car adventures of his own planning, he +reached the Grosser Hauptquartier, a small city on the Meuse, where +at that time the brain of the German fighting machine was located. +This most vulnerable spot of the entire German Empire was, +paradoxically, in France. The Kaiser, the King of Saxony, the Crown +Prince of Germany, and Field Marshal von Moltke were here holding +council of war. It was therefore of utmost importance to conceal the +locality. Neutral correspondents were not allowed: the German press, +even if it knew, would not dare to breathe its whereabouts. When +Brown by strategy got inside the red-and-white striped poles which +marked the entrance to the Over War Lord's quarters, he was at once +arrested and taken before Major Nikolai, head of the Kaiser's +bodyguard and chief of the field detectives. + +It was late at night, and it was determined that Brown should go on the +first military Postzug, which left at 7 A.M. If he was not gone by that +time there were terrible threats of what would happen to him. + +It so happened that the day was the Crown Princess's birthday. Soldiers, +grenadiers, and servants of the Kaiser's household celebrated the fact. +Brown evaded his intoxicated sentinels and deliberately missed the +train. The following morning Major Nikolai discovered him behind the +guardhouse, himself feigning intoxication. Major Nikolai was about to +throw Brown into jail "for the duration of the war" when the young man +answered:-- + +"But, Major, I overslept. What loyal German could possibly remain sober +on the Crown Princess's birthday?" + +"Gott im Himmel!" exclaimed the major, bursting into a laugh; "vatever +can be done mit such a man?" + +To-day Brown has free run of the Foreign Office and the War Office in +Berlin, and is sending to his paper, in my humble opinion, the best +information obtainable in this country on the way in which the German +civil and military mind views the "crisis" with the U. S. A. + + + + +Chapter VIII + +The Sorrow Of The People + + + +I was conscious of a distinct break between the crisp, official +atmosphere of Berlin--where the war hurts least and the mechanical +appearance of success is strong--and the sentiment of the rank and file +of people whose suffering, as the war continued, became a more and more +important factor. + +On the night of my second arrival in the capital I sat in the rear of a +motion-picture theater, just off the Friedrichstrasse. It was a long, +dark hallway, such as one may see in any of the cheaper "movies" on +Washington Street or Broadway, where the audience sits in silence broken +by the whirr of the cinematograph and in darkness pierced by the +flickering light upon the screen. The woman in the seat beside mine was +the typical Hausfrau of the middle class. She was, of course, dressed +in mourning: the heavy veil, which was thrown back, revealed the +expression so common to the German widow of to-day --that set, defiant +look which begs no pity, and seems to say: "We've lost them once; we 'd +endure the same torture again if we had to." + +It was a sad enough story that the reel clicked off, and about as +melodramatic as "movies" usually are. But the woman kept herself well +in hand, since the public display of grief is forbidden and they who +sorrow must sorrow alone. + +A Bavarian boy, as I recall it,--the youngest son,--runs away from home +to join his father's regiment in Poland. When his captain calls for +volunteers for a dangerous mission, the boy steps forward. For hours +they trudge over the snow until surrounded by a Cossack patrol. The +Bavarian boy, although having a chance to escape, goes back under fire +to succor his wounded comrade. Just as he is about to drag the comrade +into the zone of safety, a bullet pierces his lung. For two days he +suffers torture on the snow. The body is found and brought home to his +mother. + +Now and then the widow next me bit her lip and clenched her fist, but +she gave no other sign of emotion. Another film was thrown on the +screen, humorous, I believe. Suddenly the woman began to laugh. She did +not stop laughing. It was a long, mirthless, dry, uncanny sort of +cackle. People stared. She laughed still louder. An usher came down +the aisle, and stood there, uncertain what to do. Hysterics had given +way to weeping: the tears were now streaming down the woman's face. She +tried to control herself, but could not, and then arose and between +choking sobs and laughter fled from the darkened room out into the +Friedrichstrasse. + +I mention this incident--the sort of thing that must have existed +everywhere, if one had eyes to see it--merely because it gave a glimpse +through the veil of public optimism into the wells of sorrow hidden for +the sake of public duty. Military and official Berlin was "staged," one +might almost say. It was on show to impress the neutral stranger, no +less than its own inhabitants, with the glorious sense of victory. + +But beneath it lay untold suffering which could be endured only because +of such united loyalty and team play as the world has seldom seen. + +This undercurrent of suffering, which increased week by week as the +writing on the wall grew longer, was in pitiful contrast to the +enthusiasm with which the women sent their men and sons away to war. +More than once I watched troops drilling at Spandau Hof, the great +barracks and training-grounds, a few kilometers west of the city. When, +on the evening of my first visit, a half dozen battalions of Landwehr, +just whipped into shape, entrained for the front, the people threw bits +of earth upon them, and, according to custom, stuck green twigs in the +end of every Mauser barrel, that each man might carry a bit of the +Vaterland with him on to the enemy's soil. In unspotted field uniforms, +and helmets still without the green-gray canvas service covering, they +clattered past the reviewing officers, each right leg coming down with +the thumping goose-step salute, until halls and barracks echoed with the +staccato tread of thousands of hob-nailed boots. The lusty military +band blazoned out "Die Wacht am Rhein" and other martial airs, until the +creepers began to run up and down your back and you felt a lump rising +in your throat. Friends, relatives, widows, mothers already in black +for other sons, and more than the usual hurrahing crowd had gathered +under the arch leading to the railway track. As the close-locked fours +went through the gate, the people broke the ranks and pounded each man +on the back, while all the time the crowd was shouting. + +I asked my neighbor what they were calling. + +A German friend in the group explained: "The people shout +'congratulations!'" + +At that moment a Red Cross train returning with twenty carloads of +wounded stood on the siding. Scores of bandaged heads and limp arms +stuck out of the windows,--these were the slightly wounded, --and even +the half-dead figures strapped to the cots turned feebly toward the +marching troops. Most of these also waved, and those who were +physically able shouted the same words--"Bravo!" "Congratulations!" +"Bravo!!" + +That is the way after many months of war that the women and children +send their men away--no regrets, no holding back. "Good luck! Good +work! You've got a chance to die for Germany!!" + +Such a spirit, and with it a sincerity of purpose that could only come +from the conviction of right, is typical of the rank and file of +citizens. It cannot fail to impress the neutral stranger, though he has +traveled far in other countries at war and seen and lived with their +citizens and soldiers. One was forced to believe that the militarists +acted in conformity with the feelings of the whole people, and that this +hideous war was not merely the result of personal ambition. Except, of +course, among the soldiers the belief was most noticeable among the +lower classes. One found it among the peasants, one's neighbor in the +day coach, the artisan, the shopkeeper. You might reason with a +professor, a doctor, or perhaps an official in the Foreign Office at +Berlin. But it was not safe to try it on a sturdy peasant with three +sons on the firing line. It was like telling a man his mother is no +better than she should be. + + +From the Log + +"Among both fighters and those left at home, there is distinctly less of +the matinee hero business than in either England or France. The high +official in the civil government who said that the women were the best +fighters in the German army was not so far from the truth. The pluck of +the women is astonishing. There isn't the slightest display of sorrow +or call for sympathy. You see them everywhere in the streets, cafes, +and shops of Berlin; not in such great numbers, however, as in the +lesser provinces and the smaller towns, where the drain of men is +enormously heavier. + +"Later: Have been twice to the Casualty List Office, or Information +Bureau, where the names of the verwundet und gefallen are posted -- +column after column, company after company, regiment after regiment of +fine black type--nothing more or less than a printer's morgue, crowding +into one dark hallway the cemetery of a nation. There were fathers, +mothers, brothers, and children quietly and unemotionally scanning the +lists. It took me back to the terrible week at the White Star offices, +after the Titanic went down. At that time the relatives wept (some of +them) and nearly all harangued the officials, asking questions, sending +telegrams, begging for news. Here they look for the names of their +dead,--that's all,--and then go out without a question. You can't ask +questions of a Government! The Titanic lasted a week, and this goes on-- +God knows how long! + +"Had supper with Brown. Later a mother in black and a girl, also in +black (the daughter, or daughter-in-law, I should judge), came into the +Heiniger ( ?) Cafe while I was sitting there. For three quarters of an +hour they listened to the music, neither of them, I'll swear, speaking a +word. Then they paid twenty-five pfennigs for their beer and went out, +--still silent,--and the Ober bowed low and very respectfully. I asked +the waiter who they were, and he said the woman had that day heard of +the death of C... her fourth son. Something like the Bixby woman to +whom Lincoln wrote his famous letter. And there must be, literally, +thousands of them. + +"This people is terribly in earnest,--deluded, of course, with devotion +to a false idea, but it is the delusion that spells accomplishment. The +country is earnestly and honestly possessed with an Idea, and the idea +is that Might is Right. That is the awful pity of it. When will the +awakening come? + +"Later: To-day I had an interview of three quarters of an hour with Herr +Dr. R. W. Drechsler, head of the American Institute, attached to the +University of Berlin. To-morrow I hope to see Excellency von Harnach, +president of the University of Berlin, to whom I have a letter. Dr. +Drechsler was kind, agreeable, extremely interesting. He showed me some +New York newspapers--the first real news of the war I have had for +weeks. The 'Tribune' and 'Times' had an account of us fellows down in +the cellar at Antwerp. Drechsler and I had an interesting argument, and +before I left he deluged me with pamphlets and literature for the +improvement of my mind and sympathies. Even so he was unlike the +average German. As a rule they have attempted to cram their arguments +down my throat. These Teutons think they can force you to believe. + +"Dr. Drechsler and the proprietor of the Kaiserhof, and, of course, the +Foreign Office warned me that it was forbidden to go to the prisoners' +camps, either at Zossen or Doeberitz. Some correspondents had been +taken on 'personally conducted' tours; but because of misinformation +sent out the tours were no longer in vogue. So I thought that I would +risk it, without permit, and, wishing to take a swing through rural +Germany, I decided to visit the camp at Zossen, twenty-five kilometers +south of the capital. When the guards weren't looking, I slipped boxes +of cigarettes through the barbed-wire fence to Irish privates, and +listened to the talk of captured Cossacks, and watched the British +Tommies kicking around a 'soccer' football, squabbling about fouls and +penalties, and as much excited about the score as if they were at home +on Hampstead Heath." + +It was chiefly in my wanderings through rural Germany that I was able to +rub elbows with the rank and file of citizens, and to get that barometer +of public feeling which Colonel Roosevelt, I believe, has called the +barber-shop opinion. I think I am justified in saying that during the +winter there were many evidences, too many to be overlooked, that a +growing minority, suffering through loss of life and realizing the +territorial advantages which are now Germany's, earnestly longed for +peace on any reasonable terms. The sooner peace came, they felt, the +better would be the strategic position of the Vaterland. Some of this +minority, in addition to the women, were business men, or professors, or +merchants, or doctors. + +It was not far from Hanover, where you change cars for Cologne and Aix- +la-Chapelle, dispatching-centers of the troops for the northern line of +battle, that the Frankfort doctor in the seat next mine began to talk. +He was an oldish man over sixty, dressed in mourning, and careworn. He +had been to Berlin, he said, to verify the report of his son's death, +and was now headed for Aix, where the body lay. + +After Uhlman, the fat merchant, left, we were alone in the second-class +compartment, and the doctor got up and shut the door on the noise of +Landwehr soldiers singing in the section of the troop train attached +behind the car. Presently he showed me two postals from his boy. They +were the stereotyped cards allotted to the men on the field: on one side +space for the address, on the other side the printed word "well," space +for the date (but no locality), and the signature. The third card was a +casualty report, signed, probably, by the company captain, with the +three printed words "slightly wounded," "wounded," and "severely +wounded." The first and last were scratched out, but after the word +"wounded" was written, "condition low." + +The boy must have held out--because the body was sent to Aix--until well +along the homeward Red Cross trip. During the Antwerp bombardment, at +Brussels, Liege, and Louvain, I had seen scores of the wounded, and had +myself slept on those trains with their households of blood and pain and +ether, and their long lines of mail cars, box cars, and converted tram +cars fitted with their triple rows of berths, one above another. As the +old doctor talked, I could see the wheeled hospitals stealing into the +city in the darkness--for the troops go off with bands and holiday +accompaniment, but the return is made at dead of night, that the public +may not know the human cost. + +"We must have peace," the doctor finished, "and we must have it soon. I +do not say this because I have lost a son, and I do not say it alone. +There are thousands who feel it just as much, but they are afraid to +speak what is in their mind. You are a traveler from the great city +[Berlin], and you do not know what war means. All you have heard is the +talk of fight and victory and glory, and that is all you see if you do +not look close. You must live in the smaller cities, must see the +villages and farms without men, and you must come with me and see the +homes without husband or son." For the third time he interrupted himself +to ask:--"You are Amerikaner--yes? And why do you come?" + +"To see the war and find out what the German people think." + +"Then go home and tell your country what I think and say, and many +others like me." + +It was not easy to forget his tears and final words as he came up on the +platform at Hanover, and, looking around to see that no one overheard, +whispered hoarsely: "Fangen sie ihre Propagande an, junger Mann, und +Gott starke ihre Bemuhungen"--"Start your peace propaganda, young man, +and Heaven help the undertaking." + +The southern part of this trip was not without its crop of stories, some +humorous, and some atrocious. It was impossible to verify the statement +of the Bavarian travelers who boasted of the treatment of English +prisoners en route to the detention camp. On one occasion sixty were +captured, they said, and only five brought home alive. The Bavarian +soldiers guarding them said with a laugh, "But they were tired, so we +had to shoot the rest"; and the officer answered with a wink, "What +happens to English prisoners need never be reported." One never needed +more one's sense of the probabilities. + +And there was the good-natured cavalry lieutenant who said the Germans +had found a way to keep their prisoners in training. "You see," he +explained, "we lock twenty of the 'red-trousers' [Frenchmen] and twenty +Englishmen in the same room at night and shut the windows. You know a +Frenchman can't stand air, and a Kitchener will die without it. So we +stand outside to watch the fun. First a window goes up, and then it +goes down, and pretty soon there are growls, grumbles, and oaths. In +ten minutes a terrible fight ensues; in half an hour the Frenchmen are +badly beaten,--they always are,--and twenty battered English heads come +sticking out the window for a breath of air." + +And finally there was the Landwehr captain's letter, a thing in keeping +with the tales which come across the Polish border. Westward, in +Belgium and in France, the fight was modern and of the day. Move +eastward from Berlin and you got the mediaeval note. It was not to be +found at the English prisoners' camp at Doeberitz, where the Germans +stare with infinite contempt and satisfaction at Tommy Atkins behind his +triple row of wire gratings. But wander among the thousands of captured +Cossacks building their own prisons at the camp at Zossen, hear them +muttering "Nichevo"--"this is fate"--"I do not care," and, listening to +the stories of their captors, you felt the atmosphere of centuries gone +by. One such was called to my attention in the form of a Prussian +captain's letter, which was, I believe, published in Berlin. Here is +his letter of the war in Poland, not long ago received by relatives. So +much as is not private is given as he wrote it:-- + +"The inhabitants go out of our way like frightened dogs, with childish +fear. When they wish to ask a question, they kneel down and kiss the +border of our coats, as in the days of the serf system. We are +stationed here in Poland, about eight kilometers from the so-called +road, in a so-called village far from all civilization. The village +consists of a number of tumble-down cottages, with rooms which we should +not consider fit for stables for our horses. The rain is streaming down +unceasingly, as if Heaven wished to wash away all the sins of the world. +Our horses sink into the mud up to their knees. + +"We took up our quarters in this village after fifty-four hours' +marching, and came just in time to witness the end of a strange and +tragic romance. When I was about to open the door of a farm, it was +opened from the inside, and a subaltern came out, with a face beaming +with satisfaction. He reported that a little while ago he, with a few +of his men, partly captured and partly shot down half a company of +Russians. + +"'We were concealed' he told me. 'We let them come quite near, and then +we started firing.' + +"We entered a low-ceilinged room, or pen, sparsely lighted by wax +candles. The first object which caught my attention was a youthful +Russian soldier, almost a child, lying on a straw mattress, smiling as +if asleep. I approached; I put my hand on his forehead ... ice-cold-- +dead. Some of the men approached to take off the clothing; others stood +around in a half-circle, silently looking on. Suddenly there was a +murmur... They seemed awe-stricken, these brave fellows, who are not +daunted even by overwhelming odds. They hesitated, and one of them, +advancing a few paces to me, reports: 'This Russian soldier is a girl.' + +"This happened in the year 1914. + +"We found out that the girl was the betrothed of a Russian officer, and +fought side by side with him throughout the campaign, until killed by a +shot in the breast. The officer was taken prisoner. I buried her +myself that same day..." + +In order to make clear what happened when I crossed the German border +for the last time, I should explain that I now had with me several +trophies which I had obtained with great difficulty and was +correspondingly anxious to bring home. Among them was a German +private's helmet and an original Iron Cross of the second degree. The +marking on the temple band of the helmet said, "48th Regiment, 4th Army +Corps, Company 7, No. 57, 1909-1914,"--meaning that the owner started +service in 1909 and the helmet was issued to him in 1914. It is +believed it belonged to a soldier who was either wounded or killed +outside of Antwerp. The Iron Cross has on it: "1870" (when the order +was started), and the letter "F" (Friedrich), and the date of its +issuance. I should add that I did not rob a dead or dying soldier of +these trophies, but I was asked not to show them in either Belgium or +England, nor to state how I came by them. And I have kept my promise. + +I had also a fragment of shrapnel casing from a 32 cm. shell--the only +bomb which hit the Antwerp Cathedral during the German attack. It was +given to me by Mr. Edward Eyre Hunt, who picked it up on the morning of +the German entry. There were also some Belgian bullet clips and a bit +of shrapnel picked up near the spot where I was knocked down by the +concussion of a bursting shell on that same morning. + +When I reached Bentheim we were put through the usual search by the +border patrol and military officials of the Zollamt. I had pinned the +Iron Cross to my undershirt, but the helmet was a bit bulky for such +treatment. + +"Take it out!" roared the officer who discovered the headgear wrapped in +a sweater in my rucksack. "Dass ist str-r-reng ver-r-rboten!" + +When I explained that I had come by it honestly, and wanted to take it +home, he burst into a passion. The fact that I showed a letter from Von +Bernstorff and explained that I was known in the Foreign Office in +Berlin made no impression whatsoever. The officer said that if the +owner was dead, the helmet could not even go to his family. It was +government property and should return, therefore, to the commissary +department. At all events, it must not leave the Empire. + +I missed my train and was kept in Bentheim overnight. In the morning I +again tried persuasion, but without success. As it was now a question +of myself or the helmet, I decided to get myself home. I went back once +more, and as a final chance put up this proposition to my officer. I +showed my credentials and explained that I was going to The Hague. +Would he in the mean time put my name on the helmet, and if within +forty-eight hours he received a wire both from the Foreign Office in +Berlin and The Hague Legation, would he send the helmet after me? He +glared at me for a moment. Yes, he said, he would. + +At The Hague I immediately visited the German Legation and told them of +the customs officer's promise. + +From bitter experience I realized that in war-time out of sight is lost, +so far as baggage is concerned. Consequently I had given up all hope of +my trophy. A week later, when I happened to be in Dr. van Dyke's study, +I noticed a conical-shaped object resting on one of the secretary's +desks. There, on top of a pile of letters, with "Herr Horace Green" +scribbled in German script on a piece of paper pinned to the green-gray +service covering, lay my dented, battered, and long-lost German +private's helmet! + +Simply because the fiery customs officer had given his word, the German +Legation at The Hague had telegraphed to Bentheim and also, I take it, +to Excellency von Mumm at Berlin; and the customs officials had shipped +the helmet to the Dutch capital, where the German Legation, obedient to +promise, had turned it over to the American Legation for delivery to me. +The whole proceeding seemed typical of the overbearing gruffness, the +systematic attention to detail, and at the same time the thoroughgoing +honesty of the German character. + +So I tucked the helmet under my arm, and, saying good-bye to Dr. van +Dyke and Mr. Langhome, who had made my stay at The Hague so pleasant, I +crossed the mine-strewn English Channel for Piccadilly Circus. + +Two weeks later I was aboard the Red Star liner Lapland, driven one +hundred miles out of her course through fear of German war craft, yet +pounding along through a thick fog and hopefully headed in the general +direction of the good old Statue of Liberty. + + + + +Appendix: Atrocities + + + +I gained the impressions given below and compiled many of the instances +on the now threadbare subject of atrocities during the time that I was +in the war zone. The opinions will not meet with favor in this country, +particularly at present, when we seem on the point of breaking +diplomatic relations with Germany. + +Nevertheless, I think these notes present a point of view which ought to +be known, if only for the purpose of showing the other side of the +shield--and of checking, to some extent, the nursery tales in regard to +personal atrocities, which become more fanciful the farther they are +told from the scene of reported occurrence. After the horrible +Lusitania crime and other evidences of German Schrecklichkeit for which +there can be no justification, it is hard for Americans to reason fairly +in questions involving Teutonic methods of warfare. I am therefore +appending the notes in spite of a rather careful study of the Bryce +Report on German atrocities in Belgium. They are, of course, to be +taken into consideration merely as the evidence of what one man happened +to see or as was often more the case, not to see. + +In order that there may be no misunderstanding, it is well to define the +meaning of the word "atrocity." + +I suppose all will agree with me that the term does not include what may +be called the necessary horrors of war--such as hunger and poverty +resulting from the destruction of homes and loss of livelihood, the +suffering of refugees driven by necessity from captured towns, +starvation through no fault of the invader, the accidental wounding of +noncombatant peasants, farmers, etc. For the present purpose the word +is intended to include all cases of unnecessary, unprovoked personal +cruelty, as well as, of course, the outraging of women. Such acts, for +example, as the reported gouging-out of the eyes of prisoners, cutting +off the wrists of children, the alleged stabbing of old women, cutting +off the wrists and ears of nurses, and the more refined cruelties of +which I have heard reports, are, it goes without saying, atrocities. +Let us examine one or two of these. + +Near Osnabruck, Germany, an American visitor, pacing up and down a +railroad siding early one morning, chewing a mouthful of stale sausage +meat between thick crusts of rye bread, heard a particular cruelty story +which may be used here as an example. It was told by an army surgeon +with whom he was having his peripatetic breakfast. On the track +alongside stood a so-called Red Cross train, consisting of a combination +of well-equipped hospital coaches with their triple rows of berths slung +one above the other as in a sleeper; attached in the rear were a few +coal carriages and freight trucks. This train was waiting for the +outbound traffic to pass by. You see, the outbound traffic consisted of +fresh troops, being rushed to the front in one of those quick +transcontinental shifts which have played so important a part in German +strategy. But the eastbound train carried only wounded and dying on +their way back home. So, of course, the hospital cars must wait as long +as necessary, since they had no right or standing in the ruthless game +called war. + +In the cheerless interior of one of these freight cars (much the same +kind of car as that in which we were confined during the trip from +Brussels to Aix--apparently used as a horse-stall on the previous trip, +and with no bedding beyond a damp pile of straw in one corner) the +American noticed a young German private. This particular fellow was not +wounded. He wore no bandages; he was the only occupant of the +horse-stall; and he paced up and down the boards, muttering, muttering, +continually muttering to himself. Now and then he snatched up a musket, +went through the form of fixing a bayonet, and again and again lunged +savagely at the wall of the car. + +The Red Cross surgeon to whom the American went for information +dismissed the matter casually by merely tapping his forehead with his +index finger. + +"Just one of those insane cases," he said. + +Later in the day on better acquaintance the surgeon explained the matter +in this fashion:-- + +"The fellow was quartered in a village near Lille, doing sentry duty on +a house occupied by German officers. There was an uprising of citizens. +From across the way native franc-tireurs fired shots into the house, +killing one officer and wounding a second. Tracing the firing across +the street, the remaining officers entered a bakery-shop where they +found several men and a woman, all armed. They ordered the men to be +shot. The woman had in her hand a revolver with one of the cartridge +chambers empty. The German lieutenant saw that she was about to become +a mother. He then explained the gravity of her offense, told her that +she was practically guilty of murder, and took away her weapon. But +under the circumstances he ordered her released instead of being shot. +He turned his back and walked away about five paces. Suddenly the woman +snatched another revolver from behind the counter and fired point-blank. +As he fell, the officer called out to his orderly, 'Bayonet the woman.' + +"The sentry did what he was ordered, but, you see, it has affected the +poor fellow's mind." + +This story, along with a few others, I have picked out from hundreds of +atrocity tales which I heard during four months spent in England, +Belgium, Germany, and Holland. It will serve as an example, not only +because it has the earmarks of truth,--having been told in an offhand +way merely as an explanation of the private's insanity,--but because it +is typical of the kind of incident which in the telling is, nine times +out of ten, twisted into atrocious and wholly unrecognizable form. + +Under the law of military reprisal was there justification for the death +of this woman? Was the dying officer guilty of barbarian conduct? And +did the private, ordered against his will to perform an act whose memory +drove him insane, commit an atrocity? Without answering the question, +let us consider for a moment how that particular anecdote would be told +by a Belgian partisan. In my wanderings through Termonde, Liege, and +Louvain, I heard tales--unspeakable and on their face utterly +unbelievable--of which this kind of thing must have been the foundation. + +When the body of this woman was found, let us say, by French peasants +returning to their ruined homes, think how the horrible fact would be +seized, without whatsoever there was of justification! How the British +and French papers would describe that mutilated form! Think of the +effect of a two-column word-picture of the wanton sack and ruin of the +town, the shooting of its helpless citizens, and the description of that +mangled body sacrified to the Huns! Think how the fact would be clutched +by fear-crazed inhabitants, would be bandied from mouth to mouth, +distorted and dressed up to suit a partisan press, and "twisted by +knaves to make a trap for fools"! + +One of the first atrocity accounts which I heard in Belgium, as well as +one of the most persistent, had to do with scores of children whose +wrists had been cut by the Kaiser's troops. Hundreds of them were +reported to be in Belgium and Dutch hospitals or in the care of relief +committees. The gossip was so prevalent and in some instances so +specific that I had high hopes of tracking down and seeing, with my own +eyes, an instance. In each case which I heard abroad, my informant's +husband or brother or best friend had seen the children; but somehow or +other it was never arranged that I could see one of them myself. This +type of cruelty was so widely talked about that in plenty of cases the +German soldiers believed that some of their men had committed these +crimes. One of them told me that he understood that near Tirlemont the +wrists of several young children had been cut. He said that thirty or +forty children and peasants had fired on and killed German troops +marching through a neighboring village. A squad was sent to round up +the offenders, all of whom were found armed. Instead of killing the +snipers, whose age was between ten and seventeen, the surgeons were +ordered to slice the tendons of the wrist so that the noncombatants +should be prevented from holding a gun or using a knife. + +Soon after my ship, the Lapland, docked in America, I heard a case of +whose verity, owing to the source from which it came, I had no doubt. +The refugee in question, according to my informant, was an English +nurse, and lay with both wrists cut off at a well-known New York +hospital on Madison Avenue. She had been in Brussels at the time of the +German entry, and, being willing to work for the sake of humanity +wheresoever there were sick to care for, she had nursed wounded German +officers. Eventually, with a handful of English nurses still remaining +in Brussels, she had been deported to Holland, because it was feared +that German secrets were leaking out in letters sent by these English +nurses. This latter part coincided so precisely with the facts which +during my stay in Brussels I had found to be true, that I had no doubt +of the whole business. On recovery the nurse was to exhibit herself and +lecture for Red Cross funds. I was told this in strict confidence and I +was to see and talk to the handless lady on condition that the "story" +should not reach the press. I agreed. But to my bitter disappointment +the ----- Hospital had never heard of the woman. My informant then +confessed that his informant had made a mistake in the name of the +hospital. I offered four persons ten dollars each to trace the matter +to its source, the final result being a telephone call from my informant +saying that an English lawyer now in New York stated that to the best of +his belief there was "some such person in a hospital somewhere in New +Jersey." + +Merely for what they may be worth, and not in any sense as conclusive, I +mention the cases which came to my attention. During a month spent in +that part of Belgium where the most savage of the atrocities were +reported,--a month devoted to a diligent search for the truth,--I could +run down only two instances where the facts were proved, and where taken +all in all and looked at from both sides they constituted an atrocity. +I lived in an atmosphere of popular apprehension frequently amounting to +terror. A friend of mine saw children throw up their hands in terror +and fall down on their knees before a squad of German Uhlans who +suddenly dashed into a village near Vilvorde. The incident does not +prove that Uhlans are in the habit of acting atrociously; it does prove +the popular fear of them. Near the same town I investigated the case of +a peaceful villager, reported in the current conversation of the story +to have had his ears cut off and to have been finished off with a +half-dozen bayonet wounds. This I got at first hand from the man who +had seen the body. I asked him how he knew the man had been bayoneted by +Germans. My informant said that he himself was running from the village, +where a skirmish was going on between a regiment of the enemy (Germans) +and Belgian carabineers, that he was racing for his life through a rain +of bullets, etc., etc., and that under fire of sharpshooters he stumbled +across this body. He did not know the man was dead; but the case +interested him. So later he went back (still under fire of the +sharpshooters) and counted the number of holes in the man's shirt; there +were six, he told me, and he was sure from the shape of the holes that +they were the result of bayonets, not bullets. + +At one time when driving from Ghent toward Brussels with Julius Van Hee, +the acting Consul-General of the United States at Ghent, we passed a +little hillock of ground upon which was a small square slab of stone, +topped by a pair of sticks--hardly more than sticks--in the shape of a +cross. There was a yarn floating around the neighborhood, which had +almost crystallized into legend, that this was the fresh grave of a +child murdered by the Germans because it refused to salute. They said +the feet had been cut off and the boy was left to bleed to death. +Conceivably the story was true. We did not stop, for we could not carry +the investigation to the point of digging up a fresh grave. + +On the evening previous Van Hee had gone over to his office to lock up +preparatory to our early start for Brussels. A woman of Louvain stood +on the doorstep. How on earth she had ever got back to Ghent, neither +Van Hee nor Luther, who was in Van Hee's office and who told me the +story, could make out from her incoherent words. She had been torn from +her family, driven from house and home with a mob of wretched women, and +shipped into Cologne, Germany. She was almost starved; several others +went mad for lack of water. She now believed herself a widow. Between +tears and hysterics she told how soldiers had entered her house, how two +of them had held her husband against the wall at the point of a +revolver, while "several" others in succession violated her before her +husband's eyes!! + +These stories are not pleasant. But in seeking the real facts one +cannot work with kid gloves. Of the hundreds I have heard I have +mentioned a few of those which show the kind of thing believed to have +occurred in the ravaged country. Of all those which I heard, the last +mentioned and the one at the head of this chapter--for which there was +justification--appeared to have the greatest probability of truth. + +During the first rush of war the German system of destruction, and the +doctrine of "awfulness," as I saw it applied to physical objects, was +barbaric, relentless, and totally unjustified. At Louvain, Aerschot, +and Termonde it was at its height. On the other hand, in the mind of an +impartial student of the facts there cannot be the slightest doubt that +at Louvain there was an organized attack on the invaders by snipers and +franc-tireurs armed with knives, guns, revolvers of every description. +A half-day spent en route from burning Antwerp with a Jesuit priest of +Louvain and the testimony of several villagers would have convinced me +of this, had I not already been convinced by the stories of other +survivors. + +The burning of villages is one matter, the outraging and torturing of +women and children another. The truth of the former should not in any +way convict a German officer, much less Private Johann Schmidt, of +unprovoked personal cruelty. + +There undoubtedly were, though I did not happen to see them, numerous +cases of unprovoked cruelty and other evidences of barbarity that are +bound to happen in any war of invasion. The fact that I, personally, +did not happen to see them, and have found scarcely a non-partisan +observer who did, is neither here nor there. I merely state the fact as +one of the many bits of evidence which should be taken into +consideration. I have no case for Prussian militarism in so far as +applied to inanimate objects. The German system of destruction in the +early part of the war was utterly without excuse or justification; the +wreck and desolation, the hunger and suffering of the larger portion of +Belgium are utterly beyond the comprehension of those who have not been +there. Certainly words cannot convey the impression. The suffering, +particularly during the weeks following the fall of Antwerp, was so +awful and on so large a scale that the senses refused to grasp it. It +has been said that in the Civil War Sheridan was commanded, in pushing +up the Shenandoah Valley, to leave the countryside in such condition +that a crow could not live on it. A sparrow could not have existed in +many parts of Belgium. + +At the same time it is true that because of the tortures endured by the +Belgian people, because of the pain and horror of the war of invasion, +much of it unavoidable, the American public, because its sentiment is so +strongly anti-German, has been willing to believe anything of the race +against whom runs its prejudice. Truly remarkable is the rapidity with +which atrocity stories have been created and the relish with which they +are swallowed by drawing-room gossips. Those who have seen the war do +not find it necessary to talk about what does not exist. Mr. Arthur +Ruhl, who has seen and carefully studied all sides of the war, applies +the term "nursery tale" to the average atrocity story. Mr. Irvin Cobb, +John T. McCutcheon, and others who have been on the ground also took +them with a grain of salt. Curiously enough, the closer one got to the +actual fight, the less bitter was the feeling between participants, the +greater their respect for one another, and the less credulous their +belief in the enemy's barbarity. + +An American who was recently discharged from seven months' service with +the British army tells me that during this time the only knowledge he +had of personal atrocities was through the British and French +newspapers. And there are well-known stories of opposing trenches so +closely situated that the soldiers taught each other their respective +national airs, and the choruses of their camp tunes. + +To return to another form of alleged outrage, we have the ancient +argument on the case of Rheims. + +An interesting contribution to the testimony has been given by Cyril +Brown, now special correspondent of the New York Times in Berlin. Brown +made his way to the German army lines before Rheims, where, among +others, he interviewed First Lieutenant Wengler, of the Heavy Artillery, +commander of a battery which shelled the church spire, but known among +his comrades as "the little friend of the Rheims Cathedral." According +to Lieutenant Wengler two shots only struck the church spire (one from a +fifteen centimeter howitzer, another from a twenty-one centimeter +mortar) and this after French observers had used the tower for five days +between September thirteenth and eighteenth. So sparing was this young +"barbarian," in spite of provocative fire obviously directed from the +French cathedral, that "the friend of the Rheims Cathedral" stuck to him +as a nickname. + +In America Brown's statement provoked a storm of retort. Allied +correspondents claimed that a dozen shots at least crashed through the +roof, set the scaffolding ablaze, and that, at a time when Red Cross +flags were floating from the tower and red crosses were painted on the +roof, shells continued to devastate the beautiful interior, etc., etc. +There has been a quantity of discussion back and forth as to the number +of shots fired. Now, so far as the question of atrocity is concerned, +though every one will regret the ruin of this noble work of art, I hold +that it is not of the slightest importance whether there were fired two +shells or seventeen or seventy-seven. The important and only question at +issue is, whether the tower was used for observation purposes, or, in +other words, was there military justification for its attempted +destruction? + +Military men, English as well as German, to whom I have talked, take it +as a matter of course that the highest spot in any locality is used for +observation. As an English officer in Antwerp put it, "If the French +did not use the church tower they are d------fools." + +By way of guide and for sake of likely comparison I can state what I +know did happen in two other cities: Termonde and Antwerp. In Chapter +II of this book I have told how we made our way across the broken bridge +at Termonde on the day of its second bombardment, and how that night +word came to us of the manner in which the Belgians took revenge on the +conquerors. I told how staff officers, entering with a scouting party +at the head of a German column, mounted the only remaining spire in the +town. With a few well-directed shots from their concealed batteries +west of the river, the Belgians destroyed the tower and killed the +officers. The Belgians took no little pride in their marksmanship on +that occasion, and boasted freely of it. In this case, the use, and +therefore the destruction, of the observation-post was looked upon by +the Belgians as a natural and necessary instance of the work of war. As +evidence, it is rather valuable because given unconsciously and without +motive. + +Likewise at Antwerp. In all probability the fact has never been +appreciated that during the bombardment of this city,--the most +important, from a military point of view, in Belgium,--the spire of the +Notre Dame Cathedral was used as an outlook-station by the Belgian +defenders, if not by both Belgians and English. On the inadvertent +testimony of English themselves I know this to be true. On the second +night of the Antwerp bombardment the Americans who had not left the city +were gathered in the almost deserted Queen's Hotel along the water +front. Some time during the evening, I don't remember just when, but it +was while the British retreat was going on, an English lad called Lucien +Arthur Jones burst in upon us. At no little risk he had dodged through +the deserted streets and falling shells, much elated over the view of +the enemy he had just got from the cathedral tower. + +"I've had bully luck," he confided to me, after I had done him a noble +service (i.e., lent him a safety razor). "Belgian signal officers took +me up to the tower, where they can see everything the Germans are +doing." + +The following is taken from his account--an Englishman's account-- +printed in the London Chronicle, and copied in the New York Times, +Tribune, and other papers:-- + +"I now return to the events of Thursday. At 12.30 o'clock in the +afternoon, when the bombardment had already lasted over twelve hours, +through the courtesy of a Belgian officer, I was able to ascend to the +roof of the cathedral, and from that point of vantage I looked down upon +the scene in the city. I could just discern through my glasses dimly in +the distance the instruments of culture of the attacking German forces +ruthlessly pounding at the city and creeping nearer to it in the dark. +At that moment I should say the enemy's front line was within four miles +of Antwerp. + +"From my elevated position I had an excellent view also of the great oil +tanks on the opposite side of the Scheldt. They had been set on fire by +four bombs from a German Taube, and a huge, thick volume of black smoke +was ascending two hundred feet into the air. The oil had been burning +furiously for several hours, and the whole neighborhood was enveloped in +a mist of smoke. + +"After watching for some considerable time the panorama of destruction +that lay unrolled all around me, I came down from my post of observation +on the cathedral roof, and at the very moment I reached the street a 28- +centimeter shell struck a confectioner's shop between the Place Verte +and the Place de Meir. It was one of these high-explosive shells, and +the shop, a wooden structure, immediately burst into flames." + + + +Recapitulation + +The destruction of towns and villages, and the vengeance against +inanimate objects shown in the German march through Belgium was +barbaric. It was provoked by organized resistance on the part of +Belgian franc-tireurs, and by shooting from behind shutters, etc., and +other attacks by citizens of the invaded country. The Germans, though +truthful in the statement of the causes, inflicted punishment out of all +proportion to the crime. + +The reports of unprovoked personal atrocities, it is nevertheless true, +have been hideously exaggerated. Wherever one real atrocity has +occurred, it has been multigraphed into a hundred cases. Each, with +clever variation in detail, is reported as occurring to a relative or +close friend of the teller. For campaign purposes, and particularly in +England for the sake of stimulating recruiting, a partisan press has +helped along the concoction of lies. + +In every war of invasion there is bound to occur a certain amount of +plunder and rapine. The German system of reprisal is relentless; but +the German private as an individual is no more barbaric than his brother +in the French, the British, or the Belgian trenches. + +The End + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Log of a Noncombatant, by Horace Green + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOG OF A NONCOMBATANT *** + +***** This file should be named 10918.txt or 10918.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/9/1/10918/ + +A. 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