initial commit of ebook 10918HEADmain

13 files changed, 3500 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/10918.txt b/old/10918.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f5d2939
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/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. Langley
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/etext06
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+     https://www.gutenberg.org/GUTINDEX.ALL
+
+
diff --git a/old/10918.zip b/old/10918.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d8b1da2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/10918.zip
diff --git a/old/images/antwerp_refugees.jpg b/old/images/antwerp_refugees.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7414bdb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/images/antwerp_refugees.jpg
diff --git a/old/images/belgian_dog_teams.jpg b/old/images/belgian_dog_teams.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5e34058
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/images/belgian_dog_teams.jpg
diff --git a/old/images/box_stall.jpg b/old/images/box_stall.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..369aee1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/images/box_stall.jpg
diff --git a/old/images/destroying_own_villages.jpg b/old/images/destroying_own_villages.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e596de5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/images/destroying_own_villages.jpg
diff --git a/old/images/dog_team_at_rest.jpg b/old/images/dog_team_at_rest.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0311950
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/images/dog_team_at_rest.jpg
diff --git a/old/images/german_parade.jpg b/old/images/german_parade.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de5e185
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/images/german_parade.jpg
diff --git a/old/images/red_cross.jpg b/old/images/red_cross.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7fc43ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/images/red_cross.jpg
diff --git a/old/images/the_kaiser.jpg b/old/images/the_kaiser.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..69bb28b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/images/the_kaiser.jpg
diff --git a/old/images/the_sentinel.jpg b/old/images/the_sentinel.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ae709a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/images/the_sentinel.jpg
diff --git a/old/images/trophies.jpg b/old/images/trophies.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f52bf60
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/images/trophies.jpg
diff --git a/old/images/windmill.jpg b/old/images/windmill.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ddbb3d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/images/windmill.jpg