September 13, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
By Hugh Gibson (First Secretary of the American Legation in Brussels) 
This is the story of the iriinnphal procession qj the German 
Army through Brussels in August, 1914, of which Mr. 
Gibson was a spectator. 
jTyRUSSELS, August 2olh, 1914. — To-day has been one 
/") full of experience and the end is not yet. There was a 
'^—^ great stir in the streets and crowds of people and weary 
looking soldiei-s. At the Palace Hotel I found the usual 
collection of diplomats and some other [leople whom I knew, 
and from the crowd I elicited the fact that there had been some 
sort of a rout of Belgian forces near I.ouvain and the soldiers 
were falling back. That was about all they knew. I started 
back to the upper town in the hope of finding some news at the 
Porte de Namur. t)n the way up the hill I was stopped by 
half a dozen groups of Gardes Civ iqucs and soldiers who asked 
me to take them to Ghent. They were so excited and in- 
such a hurr\- that they could hardly be made to realise that, the 
car was not liable to seizure. I took advantage of the oppor- 
tunity to get a little first hand news and learned that they had 
been driven back all along the line .and were ordered to retreat 
to Ghent by any means they could find. There were no 
trains available — nobody seemed to know why. The last 
group that I talked with said that the vanguard of the Gennan 
cavalry was only about fifteen miles out of town and would 
be in this morning. They were all tremenduously e.xrited, 
and did not dally by the wayside to chat about the situation 
with me. I can't say that I blame them, particularly in view 
of what I have seen since. 
At the Porte dc Namur I found that the Garde Civique 
in Brussels had been ordered to disband and that the plan 
for the defence of the city had been completely abandoned. 
It was the wise thing to do, for there was no hope of defending 
the town with the small force of Gardes at the disposal of the 
military governor. It would have been quite futile and would 
have entailed a big loss of innocent civilian lives. The gover- 
nor wanted to do it purely as a matter of honour, but he would 
have paid for it heavily and could not have accomplished 
anything beyond delaying the Germans for an hour or two. 
The Gardes Civique were furious, however, at the idea of not 
being able to make a stand. There was a demonstration, 
but the cooler heads prevailed and the men withdrew to their 
homes 
The Triumphal March 
" 1 was out by seven this morning and looked about for new . 
before coming to the Legation. I found that the (jernian" 
were steadily advancing and that the vanguard was abou 
seven kilometres out of the city. They expected to begin 
the triumphal march about eleven. The Garde Civique had 
disappear-ffl from the streets and there were very few police 
to be found. The shops were closed, shutters down on all houses, 
and posters everywhere with the proclamation of the Bur- 
gomaster tirging the jxjople to refrain from hostile acts. It 
was an abandoned and discouraged looking city. On the 
boulevards there were long lines of high carts bringing in the 
peasants from the surrounding country. They are great 
high-wheeled affairs, each drawn by a big Belgian draught 
horse. Each cart was piled high with such belongings as 
could be brought away in the rush. On top of the l>elongings 
were piled children and the old women, all of whom had 
contrived to save their umbrellas and their gleaming .jet 
black bonnets piled with finery. Those who could not find 
places in the carts walked alongside, some of them even carry- 
ing other things that could not be put on the carts. It 
was the most depressing sight so far. Lots of them were crying ; 
all looked sad and broken. Every one of them was pro- 
bably without enough money for a week's living. Even 
those who have money in the banks cannot get it out at 
this time. They have no place to go here and have a bad 
prospect even if this part of the campaign is finished quickly 
and they are soon able to return to their homes. Their crops 
are rotting in the grountl and many of their homes are 
already in ruins That is the hard side of the war— lots harder 
than the men who go out and have at least a lighting chance 
for their lives. 
When I got down to the Ijp^Ai'um I found that the telegraph 
and telephone commtmication had been cut off. The train ser- 
vice is abandoned and we are completely isolated from the 
outside world. I did not think it would come so soon and only 
hoped that before we were cut off the news was allowed to get 
out that there would be no fighting in the city. 
I had a lot of errands to do during the morning and kept 
both motors busy. I found time to get up signs on my door 
and that of M. de Leval, warning all comers that both places 
were inviolate. That was in anticipation of quartering 
of troops on private citizens — which has not been done. 
We got word that Villalobar (the Spanish Minister), had 
some news, so I went over to see him. He had heard from 
Ihe Burgomaster as to the plans for the entry of the troops 
and wanted to pass it along to us. The commanding general, 
von Jarotzky, was already at the edge of the city on the 
Boulevard \iilitaire and was expecting to start into town at 
one o'clock. He was to march down the Chaussee de Louvain, 
the Boulevards, and out the other side of the city, where his 
men were to be encamped for the present. Other forces, 
comparatively small, were to occupy the railway stations and 
the Grande Place. At the Hotel de Ville he was to establish 
the headquarters of the Staff and administer the city govern- 
ment through the regularly constituted authorities. It was 
all worked out to a nicety, even to the exact measures for 
policing the line of march. 
As I was about to start to see the triumphal entrv', the Spanish 
Minister came along with his flag flying from his motor and 
bade us go with him. We made off down the Boulevard 
and drew up at the Italian Legation— two motors full of us; 
the whole staff of the Sjjanish Legation and ourselves. The 
Italian Minister bade us in to watch the show — which we had 
intended he should do. 
This did not work out well, so M. de Leval and I started 
off down the street together. Thp first of the Germans 
appeared as we stepjied out the front door and we saw that 
they were not coming over the route that had lx>en originally 
planned : instead they were heading down the hill into the lower 
town. They proved to be the tr(X)ps that were to occupy the 
Grande Place and guard the headquarters of the staff at the 
Hotel de \'ille. We cut across through side streets and came 
upon them as they were passing Ste. Gedule. There was a 
sullen and depressed crowd lining the streets, and riot a sound 
was to be heard. It would have been better had the crowd 
been kept off the streets, but they behaved wonderfully well. 
A large part of the reason for bringing the German troops 
through here was evidently to impress the populace with 
their force and'discipline. It was a wonderful sight, and one 
which I never exjK'Ct to see equalled as long as 1 live. They 
poured dow n the hill in a steady stream without a pause or a 
break ; not an order was shouted nor a word exchanged 
among the officers and men. All the orders and signals were 
given by whistles. The silence was a large element of the 
impressivcness. 
These troops had evidently been kept fresh for this march, 
and I should not be at all surprised. if it should prove that 
they had not seen any fighting. If they have suffered any 
loss' they have closed up their ranks with wonderful precision 
and show none of the signs of demoralisation. They had clearly 
been at great pains to brush up and give the appearance 
of freshness and strength. Nearly all the men were freshly 
shaven and their uniforms had been brushed and made as 
natty and presentable as possible. They swaggered along 
with a palpable effort to show that they were entirely at 
home and that they owned the place. The officers looked over 
the heads of the crowd in their best supercilious manner, 
and the men did their best to imitate their superiors. 
First came a lot of Lancers— a couple of regiments, I should 
think ; then there was a lot of artillery, rapid fire guns and field 
pieces. Then more cavalry and a full regiment of infantry. 
When the last contingent of cavalry came along they burst 
into song and kept it up steadily. There was a decidedly 
triumphant note, arid the men looked meaningly at the crowd 
as much as to say : " Now do you realise what your little 
army went up against when it tried to block us ' " It seemed 
to me pretty rough to rub it in on them V»y singing songs of 
trium|Th as they rode into an undefended city. If they 
had been attacked and had succeeded in driving the invader 
back into his own capital it would be understandable, but it 
seemed to me rather unnecessary to humiliate these people 
after trampling on their poor country and slaughtering half 
their army. It was more than De Leval could stand, so I 
walked home with him to the Legation. 
, When we got back to the Legation I decided that I ought 
to see all that 1 could, so Blount and I went back in his car. 
First we worked our way through to the lower town and got 
a look at the Grande Place. There was a little more than 
two full battalions resting therewith their field pieces parked 
at the lower end of the square. Small squads were being 
■ walked around doing the goose step for the delectation of the 
hons Bruxe'.lois, who were kept a block away up the side 
streets leading to the square. The men had their arms stacked 
