ri2 
LAND & WATER 
August 2, 1 9 17 
roof was by a long perpendicular ladder leading to a trap 
door. We all scrambled up this— all but the Minister of Jus- 
tice, who remained behind m the garret with his top hat. 
We looked the place o%'er very carefully and the workmen 
^-evidently in order to feel that they were doing something 
--cut a few wires, which probably resulted in great inconve- 
nience to perfectly harmless people further along the street. 
But there was no evidence of a wireless outfit. One of the 
men started to. explain to me how that proved nothing at 
all ; that an apparatus was now made that could be concealed 
in a hat and brought out at night to be worked. He stopped 
■in the middle of a word, for suddenly we heard the rasping 
intermittent hiss of a wireless very near at hand. Every- 
body stiffened. up like a lot of pointers, and in a minute had 
located the plant. It was nothing but a rusty girouette on 
top of a chimney being turned by the wind and scratching 
spitefully at every turn. The discovery eased the strain 
and everybody laughed. 
Then there was another sound, and we all turned around to 
see a trap door raised, and the serene, bemonocled face of 
my friend Cavalcanti looked out on us in bewilderment. In 
our search we had strayed over on to the roof of the Brazil- 
ian Legation. It seemed to cause him some surprise to see 
-us doing second-story work on their house. It was a 
funny situation— but ended in another laugh 
The day was chiefly occupied with perfecting arrangements 
for getting pf£ our German refugees. The Minister wished 
the job on me, and I, with some elements of executive ability 
myself, gave the worst part of it to Nasmith, the vice consul- 
general. Modifications became necessary every few minutes, 
and Leval and I were running around like stricken deer all 
day, seeing the disheartening number of government officials 
who were concerned, having changes made and asking for 
additional trains. During the afternoon more and more 
Germans came pouring into the Consulate for refuge until 
there were more than two thousand of them there, terribly 
crowded and unhappy. Several convents were also packed, 
and we calculated that we should have two or three thousand 
to get out of the country. In the morning the Legation 
was beseiged by numbers of poor people who did not know 
which way to turn and came to us because they had been 
told that we would take care of them. We were all kept 
busy, and Leval, smothering his natural feelings, came out 
of his own accord and talked and advised and calmed the 
frightened people in their own language. None of us would 
have asked him to do it, but he was fine enough to want to 
help, and to do it without any fuss. 
' A crowd of curious people gathered outside the Legation 
tp watch the callers, and now and then they boo-ed a German. 
T looked out of the window in time to see somebody in the 
crowed -strike at a poor little worm of a man who had just 
gone out the door. He was excited and foolish enough to 
reach toward his hip pocket as though for a revolver. In 
an -instant the crowd fell on him, and although Gustave, the 
messenger, and I rushed out we were only just in time to pull 
■him inside and slam the door before they had a chance to 
polish him off. Gustave nearly had his clothes torn off in 
the scrimmage, but stuck to his job. An inspired idiot of 
an American tourist who was inside tried to get the door 
open and address the crowd in good American, and I had to 
handle him most undiplomatically to keep him from getting 
us all into trouble. The crowd thumped on the door a little 
in imitation of a mob scene, and the Garde Civique had to be 
summoned on the run from the German Legation to drive 
them back and establish some semblance of order. Then 
Leval and I went out and talked to the crowd — that is to 
say, we went out and he talked to the crowd. H e told them, 
very reasonably, that they were doing harm to Belgium, as 
actions of this sort might bring reprisals which would cost 
the country dear, and that they must control their feelings. 
He sounded the right note so successfully that the crowd 
broke up with a cheer. , 
In the course of the afternoon we got our telegrams telling 
of the appropriation by Congress of two and a half millions 
for the relief of Americans in Europe, and the despatch of 
the Tennessee with the money. Now, all hands want some 
of the money, and a cabin on the Tennessee to go home in. 
There was a meeting of the diplomatic corps last night to 
discuss the question of moving with the Court to Antwerp 
in certain eventualities. It is not expected that the Govern- 
ment will move unless and until the Germans get through 
Liege and close enough to threaten Louvain, which is only 
a few miles out of Brussels. There was no unanimous decision 
on the subject, but if the Court goes the Minister and I will 
probably take turns going up so as to keep in communica- 
tion with the Government. There is not much we can ac- 
complish there, and we have so much to do here that it will 
be hard for either of us to get away. It appeals to some 
of the colleagues to take refuge with a Court in distress, but 
I can see little attraction in the idea of settling down inside 
the line of forts and waiting for them to be pounded witl; 
heavy artillery. While we ma^ bfe in some danger I prefer 
to take mine in line of duty, and not as a pleasure. 
Li^ge seems to be holding out still. The Belgians have 
astonished everybody, themselves included. It was generally 
believed, even here, that the most they could do was to make 
a futile resistance, and get slaughtered in a foolhardy attempt 
to defend their country against invasion. They have, however, 
held off a powerful German attack for three or four days. It 
is altogether marvellous. * 
Kindness to Germans 
In the course of the afternoon we arranged definitely that 
at three o'clock this morning there should be ample train 
accommodation ready at the Gare du Nord to get our Germans 
out of the country. Nasmith and I are to go down and 
observe the entire proceedings so that we can give an authori- 
tative report afterward. 
When I got there I found that the streets had been barred 
off by the military for two blocks in every direction, and that 
there was only a small crowd gathered to see what might 
happen, about as hostile as a lot of children. I got through 
the line of troops, and in front of the Consulate found several 
hundreds of the refugees who had been brought out to be 
marched to the Cirque Royale, where they could be more 
comfortably lodged until it was time to start for the train. 
They were surrounded by placid Gardes Civiques, and were 
all frightened to death. They had had nothing to do for 
days but talk over the terrible fate that awaited them if the 
blood-thirsty population of Brussels ever got at them ; the 
stories had grown so that the crowd had hypnotized itself, 
and was ready to credit any yarn. The authorities showed 
the greatest consideration they could under their orders. 
They got the crowd started and soon had them stowed away 
inside the Cirque Royale, an indoor circus near the consulate. 
Once they got inside, a lot of them gave way to their feelings 
and began to weep and wail in a way that bade fair to set 
off the entire crowd. One of the officers came out to where 
I was and begged me to come in and try my hand at quieting 
them. I climbed up on a trunk and delivered an eloquent 
address to the effect that nobody had any designs on them ; 
that the whole interest of the Belgian Government lay in 
gettmg them, safely across the frontier; called their atten- 
tion to the way the Garde Civique was working to make them 
comfortable and to reassure them, and promised that I would 
go with them to the station, put them on their trains, and see 
them safely off for the frontier. That particular crowd 
cheered up somewhat, but I could not get near enough to be 
heard by the entire outfit at one time, so one of the officers 
dragged me around from one part of the building to another 
until I had harangued the entire crowd on the instalment 
plan. They all knew that we were charged with their inter- 
ests, and there was nearly a riot when I wanted to leave. 
They expected me to stay there until they were taken away. 
Soon after midnight Fortescue came in, rolling up in a cab 
looking for a place to lay his head. He had just come from 
Liege, where he had had a close view of yesterday morning's 
heavy fighting. He said the Germans were pouring men in 
between the forts in ,sohd formation, and that these sheep 
were being mown down by the Belgians heavily intrenched 
between the forts. The Germans are apparently determined 
to get some of their men through between the forts and are 
willing to pay the price, whatever it may be. His description 
of the slaughter was terrible ; the Germans were pouring 
one regiment after another into the gap like water in a river 
but they never got through. To-day we hear that the Ger- 
mans have asked for an armistice of twenty-four hours to 
bury their, dead. 
After we had hung upon his words as long as he could keep 
going Nasmith and I got under way to look after our exodus. 
1 he Garde was keeping order at all places where there were 
refugees, and I was easy in my mind about that ; my only 
worry was as to what rhight happen when we got our people 
out into the streets. Promptly at three o'clock We began 
to march them out of the Cirque. The hour was carefully 
chosen as the one when there were the least possible people 
'" A u ^^^^^^'^ ' ^^^ evening crowds would have gone home, 
and the early market crowd would hardly have arrived. A 
heavy guard was thrown around the people as they came out 
ot the building, and they were marched quickly and quietly 
down back streets to the Gare du Nord. I never saw such 
a body of people handled so quickly, and yet without con- 
fusion. In the station four trains were drawn up side by side ; 
as the stream of people began pouring into the station it was 
directed to the first platform, and the train was filled in a 
lew minutes. At just the right moment the stream was 
deflected to the next platform, and so on until all four trains 
were filled. 
7"o be continued. 
