LAND & WATER 
September 6, 1917 
12 
at the hotpl. the morning was gone and it was time for lunch 
'^"tuf!a::d''.Sr7ut and bade n. farewell. You would 
have thought we were on our way to Heaven except lor 
the fact that they urged us to come back. 
Back to Brussels 
As we could hear the cannonading we decided that we 
wm.ld avo,d the Malines road and would try ^^^}^'^^^ 
zone of trouble and work our way into Hnissels ^m the wtst 
We got ferried across th. Scheldt on a terrible tub of a steanur 
that looked as though slit would go down ^n^^f^^J^^. ^^^f/^ 
of the military automobUes that she had to get acros.. so that 
"hev could get ammunition to the front \\e all ft -vay in a 
bunch front the other side, but vve.drcw aWd of hem a. 
we had not such a heavy load, and w.th.o '■'^•'-f ^^^^[.^ "l^^ 
hour were outside the Belgian lutes. \ an der Est had 
secured for us a most imposing /«,.s,s..-/,«.s-.s-.t, which took u. 
through with practically no trouble except h^^^ t a^so 
imposing that we were held at each barricade w lu.e all the men 
on'dutv^ook turns reading it. The only ticklish par the 
trip to "the Belgian outposts was working our wa> through tne 
village, which had been mined in anticipation of a Gtrman 
invasion. It is bad enough working one s way through th re 
in a motor with even»-body helping you to keep out "f hann s 
way, but it must be a trifle worse to do it in a mass with a man 
on "a hill a little way off waiting for you to come up to the 
signal post so that he can touch a button and send you m 
small pieces into the next world. 
We struck out through St. Nicholas. Hamme, Termonde 
and Assche, and got into Brussels from the west without 
mishap ; we have got quite used to having Pe.ople Po^;^ 
bayonets in our faces and brandish revolvers at us, so the 
latter part of the trip with only that to contend with 
seemed quiet and almost boring. TT^^„t,»m 
On the road in from Assche, we passed near Eppegh.m , 
and Vilvorde, where the fighting had been gomg on tor a 
couple of days. After news had been received in Antvverp 
of the defeat'of the French and English at Mons and Charleroi 
the Belgians were ordered to fall back on Antwerp and had 
left these little villages to be occupied by the Germans. As they 
occupied them they had set them afire and the flames were 
raging as we came by. They w^ere quaint little towns and had 
excited our admiration two days before when we had gone 
through-despite the fact that we had other thmgs on our 
minds beside admiring the beauties of architecture. Now 
they are gone. 1 1 ^ +v, 
the Germans gave us no trouble, and we got back to tne 
legation at Brussels by five. All hands poured out to 
meet u= and greeted us as prodigal sons. When we had not 
come back the day before they had about made up their 
minds that something dreadful had happened to us and the 
rejoicing over our return was consequently much greater 
than if we had not whetted their imaginations just a little. 
I found that the situation in Brussels had undergone Big 
change'^ whUe I was away. General von Jarotzky had been 
replaced by General von Lutwitz, who is an administrator 
and has been sent to put things in running order again There 
was no inkling of this change when I left and I was^'a good 
deal surprised. Guns have been placed at various strategic 
points commanding th? town, and the Germans are ready tor 
anything The telephone wire they had put through the town 
to connect the two stations and headquarters was cut day 
before ye'^terdav by some cheerful idiot who probably thought 
he was doing something good (or his country. The military 
authorities thereupon announced that if anything of the -ort 
was done again they would lay waste the quarter of the town 
where the act was committed. 
Some of the subordinate officers have since told us that 
von Tarotzky was a fighting general and had no business 
staying in a post requiring administrative ability. The new 
man is cut out particularly for this sort of work and is going 
to start a regular German administration. Functionaries are 
being brought from Berlin to take things over, and in a short 
time we shall to all intents and purposes bs living in a German 
city The first trains ran to-day in a halting fashion to Eiege 
and'the German frontier. Perhaps we shall have a newspaper. 
An Unpleasant Experience 
navis got back yesterday from his trip to the front, and 
we learned that he "had been through a perfectly good experi- 
ence" that will look well when he comes to writing it up, but 
one that gave him little satisfaction while it was in process 
He started off to follow the German army in the hope ot 
locating the English. After leaving Hall some bright young 
German officer decided that he was a suspicious looking 
character and ought to be shot as an English spy As a 
preliminary they arrested him and locked him up. Then the 
war was called off while the jury sat on his case. One of the 
„Hicers thought it would be a superfluous effort to go through 
the form of trying him, but that they should shoot him without 
further to do. They began considering his case at eleven 
in tlie morning and kept it up until midnight. He was given 
pretty clearly to understand that his chances were slini 
and t"hat the usual fate of spies awaited him. He argued at 
length, and apparently his arguments had some effect for at 
tln-ee o'clock in the morning he was routed out and to d to hit 
the road towards Brussels. He was ordered to keep religiously 
to the main road all the way back on pam of being shot on 
Meht and to report at headquarters here immediately on his 
arrival By this time he was perfectly willing to do exactly 
what was demanded by those in authority and made a bee- 
line back here on foot. " He turned up at the Legation yester- 
day morning footsore and weary and looking like a tramp, 
and told his story to an admiring audience. 1 was still away 
on my little jaunt and did not g«t it at first hand The 
Minister took him down to call on the General and got them 
to understand that I^.H.D. was not an English spy but on the 
contrary probably the greatest writer that ever lived, not ex- 
cepting Shakespeare or Milton. The General said that he 
had read some of his short stories and that he would not have 
him shot Just the same he was not keen about having him 
follow the operations, He is now ordered to remain in this 
immediate neighbourhood until further orders. To-day he haa 
several interviews with the General in an attempt to get 
permission to leave the country, but had no luck. The last 
we saw of Davis he came in late this afternoon to tell us 
that he did not know what to do next. He said that he had 
been through six wars but that he had never been so scared 
as he was at that time. If he is allowed to get out of Be gium 
I think that he will not darken the door of General von 
Lutwitz for some time to come. .. , , j 
I was surprised to learn that Hans von Harwath, who used 
to be military attacW in W ashington and whom I knew very 
well is here as .\djutant to our new Governor. 1 have not yet 
had' time to get over to see him, but shall try to do so 
to-morrow. I am glad to have somebody like that here 
to do business with. 
Louvain 
A terrible thing has happened at Louvain, the? town where 
we were only tetl days ago. Yesterday there was some sort 
of ';hindv in "the public square. Tlv^ Germans say that the son 
of the "Burgomaster shot down the commanding general. 
That sounds a little peculiar, as the Burgomaster has no 
son The Belgians say that two bodies of German troops 
who were drunk met each other and one body took the other 
for French and opened fire. However that may be, it ended 
by the town being set afire ; rapid-fire guns being placed m 
the -streets and the jbeople mowed down like grass. According 
to the Germans themselves the town is bemg wiped out ot 
existence The beautiful cathedral, the town hall and the 
other famous buildings of the place are in ruins. The people 
were killed by hundreds, and those who were not killed have 
■ been driven from the town. They have wandered m here by 
the thousands and the end is not yet. This evening tae %vitc 
of the Minister of Fine Arts came in with the news t lat her 
mother, a woman of eighty-four years, was driven from her 
home at the point of the bayonet, and had to walk with the 
crowd of fugitives all the waytoTervueren, a distance of about 
twelve miles, before she could be put on a tram to her daughter s 
house Two priests have turned up at the Legation near y 
dead from fatigue and fright ; one of- them, a man ot nearly 
seventy, is very ill and may die as a result of what he has gone 
through. Bar6n Capelle came in late this afternoon to tell 
me that the Germans were bringing in a lot of priests on 
carts of provisions and were planning to hold them as hostages. 
One of them had called out and asked him to notify me that 
Monseigneur de Becker, president of the Amencan College at 
Louvain, was among these prisoners. He is the o'^ nj^" 1 
went to see when I was in Louvain ten days ago. 1 had tolrt 
him he was perfectly safe and scoffed at his fears. 
The Minister was out when .this news came, but 1 salliea 
forth and tried to locate the Monseigneur. He was not to be 
found anywhere. When I got back to the Legation both the 
Minister and Villalobar were here and 1 told them all about 
what had happened. The people of the town were getting 
excited over the treatment that was being meted out to their 
priests, and it was in a fair way to result in serious trouble, 
Both Ministers made for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, 
where the German Government is established, and belore they 
left had secured orders for the release of all the hostages. 
A lot of these terrible things are done by subordinate officers 
and the people at the top seem only too anxious to learn ot such 
affairs and do what they c^n to remedy them. The day has 
been dreadful with stories of suffering and murder and pillage. 
[Ta be continued) 
