October 4, 19 17 
LAND & WATER 
tl. 
a journal from a itegation 
By Hugh Gibson (First Secretary of the American Legation in Brussels) 
In tins last chapter from " A Journal of a Legation:' Mr. 
Hugh Gibson describes Louvain. when the burning, pillage, 
and massacre were actually in progress. The full storv cannot 
oe old until after the war, but enough is set down 'to estab- 
'^^h that the horror of Louvain tms deliberately planned 
trv the German General Staff and approved by the Kaiser. 
r^RUSSELS August 27/A, 1914.- There is bad news from 
J^ J-oiivain. The reports agree that there was seme sort 
of trouble in the square before the Jlotel de Ville a 
da\' or two ago. Beyond that no two reports are alike The 
(.ermans say that the son of the Burgomaster shot down 
some btatf Officers who were talking together at dusk before 
tht- Hotel de Ville. The only flaw in that story is that the 
Burgomaster has no son. Some Belgians say that two 
DodK-s of (,(-rmans who were drunk met in t he" dusk ; that 
one body mistook the other for French and opened fire. 
Other reliable people tell with convincing detaU that the 
trouble was planned and started by the Germans in cold 
blood. However that may be, the aflair ended in the town 
l>eing set on fire and civilians shot down in the streets as they 
tried to escape. According to the (iermans themselves 
the town is being wiped out of existence. 1 he Cathedral, 
the Library, the University, and other public buildings have 
either been destroyed or have sufifered severely. People 
have been shot by hundreds and those not killed' are being 
driven from the town. Jhey are coming to Brussels by 
thousands and the end is not yet. This evening the wife of 
the Minister of 1 ine Arts came in with the news that her 
mother, a woman of eighty- four, had been driven from her 
home at tlie point of the bayonet and~orced to walk with a 
stream of refugees all the way to Tervueren, a distance of 
about twelve miles, before- she could be put on a tram to her 
daughter's house. Two old priests have staggered into the 
— Legation more <lead than alive after having been cora- 
l)elled to walk ahead of the German troops for miles as a 
sort of protecting screen. One of them is ill and it is said that 
he may die as a result of what he has gone through. 
A Column of Grey Smoke 
August 28///.— After lunch Blount and I decided to go 
out to Louvain to learn for ourselves just how much truth 
there is m the stories we have heard and see whether the 
American College is safe. We were going alone, but Pousette 
and Bulle, the .Swedish and Mexican Charges d'Affaires were 
anxious to join us, so the four of us got away together and 
made good time as far as the first outpost this side of Louvain. 
Here there was a small camp by a hospital, and the soldiers 
came out to examine our papers and warn us>to go no further 
as there was fighting in the town. The road was black with 
frightened civilians carrying away small bundles from the 
ruins of their homes. Ahead was a great column of dull 
grey smoke which completely hid the city. We could hear 
the muffled sound of firing ahead. Down the little street 
which led to the town, we could see dozens of whit^ flags 
which had been hung out of the windows in a childish hojje 
of averting trouble. 
We talked with the soldiers for some time in an effort to get 
some idea of what had really happened in the town TlK-y 
seemed convinced that civilians had precipitated the whole 
business by firing upon the Staff ol a General who was parley- 
ing with the Burgomaster in the square before the Hotel de 
\ille. riif-y saw nothing themselves and believe what they 
are told. Different members of the detachment had different 
stories to tell, including one that civilians had a machine 
gun installed on top of the Cathedral and fired into the Ger- 
man troops, inflicting much damage. One of the men told 
lis that Ins compaii\' had lost twenty-five men in the initial 
flurry. I lit-y were a depressed and" nervous-looking crew, 
bitter against the civil population and cursing their ways with 
great earnestness. They were at some pains to impress 
upon us that all Belgians were Schuein and that the |)eople 
of Louvain were the lowest known form of the animal. 
After falkmg the situation over with the officer in com- 
mand we decided to trv getting around the town to the station 
by way of the ring of outer boulevards. We sot through 
in good shape, being stojjped a few times by soldiers and by 
little groups of frightened civilians who were cowering in the 
shelter of doorways listening to the noise of fighting in the 
town, the steady crackle of machine guns, and the occasional 
explosions. 
^ They were pathetic in their confidence t^hat the United 
Mate--. u:k >,,.„;n.. i., ...... tf,pni. j„ ^^rtme way word has 
travelled all over Belgium that we have entered the war on 
the side of Belgium and they all seem to believe "it. Nearly 
every group we talked to asked hopefully when our troops 
were coming, and when we answered that we were not in- 
volved they asked wistfully if we didn't think we should 
be forced to come in later." A little boy' of about eight in a 
group that stopped us asked me whether we were English, 
and when J told him what we were he began jumping up and 
down clapping his liands and shouting : 
Les Americains sonl arrivh ! Les Americains sont arrives 
His father told him to be quiet, but he was perfectly happy 
and clung to the side of the car as long as we stayed, his e\'es 
shining with joy, convinced that things were going to be all 
right somehow. 
About lialf way around the ring of boulevards we came 
to burning houses. The outer side of the boulevard was a 
hundred feet or so from the houses, so the motor was safe, 
but it was pretty liot, and the i-inders were so thick that we 
had to put on our goggles. .\ lot of the houses were still 
burning, but most of them were nothing but blackened wall 
with smouldering timbers inside. Many of the front doors 
had been battered open in order to start the fires or to rout 
out the people who were in hiding. 
Slaughtered Citizens 
Wo came to a German ammunition wagon half upset against 
a tree where it had been hurled when the horses had turned to 
run away. The tongue was broken and wrenched out. Near- 
by were the two horses dead and swollen until their legs stood 
out straight. Then we began to see more ghastly sights — 
poor civilians lying where they had been shot down as they 
ran — men and women^one old patriarch lying on his back in 
the sun, his great white beard nearly hiding his swollen face. 
All sorts of wreckage scattered over the street, hats and 
wooden shoes, German helmets, swords and saddles, bottles 
and all sorts of bundles which had been dropped and aban- 
doned when the trouble began. For three-quarters of a 
mile the boulevard looked as though it had been swept by a 
cyclone. The Porte de Tirlemont had evidently been the 
scene of particularly bloody business. The telegraph and 
trolley wires were down ; .dead men and horses all over the 
square, the houses still burning. The broad .road we had 
travelled when we went to Tirlemont was covered with 
wreckage and dead bodies. 
Some Ix'draggled Cierman soldiers came out from under 
the gate and examined our passes. They were ner%'ous and 
unhappy and shook their heads gloomily over the honors 
through which they were passing. They said they had had 
hardly a minute's sleep for the past three nights. Th."ir 
eyes were bloodshot and they were almost too tired to talk. 
Some of them were drunk — in the sodden stage when tha 
effect begins to wear off. They told us we could proceed in 
safety as far as the station, where we would find the head- 
quarters of the commanding officer. Here we could leave 
the motor and learn how far we could safely go. This crowd 
varied the wording a little by saying that the Belgians w?re 
all dogs and that these particular dogs were being driven out 
as they should be— that all that part of the town was being 
cleared of people — ordered to leave their homes and go to 
Bnissels or some other town so that the destruction of Louvain 
could proceed systematically. We thought at the time that 
they were exaggerating what was being done, but were en- 
lightened before we had gone much further. 
We continued down the boulevard for a quarter of a mile 
or so till we came to the station. Sentries came out and 
looked through our passes again. We parked the motor 
with h number of (ierman military cars in the square and set 
off on foot down the Kue de la Station, which we had admired 
so much when we had tlriven down its length just ten days 
before. 
The houses on both sides were either partially destroyed or 
smouldering. Soldiers were systematically removing what 
was to be found in tiie way of valuables, food, and wine, and 
then setting fire to the furniture and hangings. It was all 
most businesslike. The houses are substantial stone build- 
ings, and lire will not spread from one to another. There- 
fore the procedure was to batter down the door of each house, 
clean out what was to be saved, then pile furniture and 
hangings in the middle of the room, st't them afire, and mos'e 
on to th(' next house. 
It was pretty hot, but we made our way down the street, 
showing our passes every hundred feet or so to soldiers in- 
r4:illed in comfortal)!i- armchairs which they had dragged into 
