lo 
LAND & WATER 
August 30, I917 
31 journal from a legarton 
By Hugh Gibson (First Secretary of the American Leiiation in Brussels) 
In this journal from a Legation Mr. Hugh Gibson, First 
Secretary of the American Legation in Brussels during the 
opening months of the war; coniinues his story. In the previous 
portion of lhis_ Journal, already published j« Land & Water, 
he liad desoribed how the American Legation took charge of 
Cernian residents in Belgium and made itself responsible for 
their safety. Here fie takes up the story after the entry of the 
German Army into Brussels. He describes a most exciting 
journey lehich he undertook by motor-car to Antioerp in order 
to cable despatches to Washington. .Antwerp at this time had 
become the headquarters of the Belgian Government. His 
account of the Zeppelin raid is most interesting, as this was 
the first occasion that the now discredited gas-bag was used to 
bombard a .sleeping city. Mr. Gibson's Journal is published 
with the consent of the State Department of the United Stales. 
ryRUSSELS, August zyth, 1914.— Some ten days ago I 
A^startcd on a trip to Antwerp, got through the lines and 
•^-^ managed to wriggle back into Brussels last night after re- 
establishing telegraph communication with the Department 
and having a number of other things happen to and around 
about me. 
All 1 can remember now oi the 23rd is that it was Sunday 
and that we could hear cannonading all day long from the 
east. It was hard to tell just where it came from, but it was 
probably from the direction of Wavre and Namur. It was 
drizzly all day. The German troops continued to pour 
through Brussels. From time to time during the last few 
days their march has been interrupted for a couple of hours 
at a time — apparently as a result of a determined attempt 
on the part of the French and English to stop the steady flow 
of troops towards the French frontier. Each time we could 
he4r the booming of the cannons — the deep voices of the 
German guns and the sharp dry bark of the French. At 
night we have seen the searchlights looking for the enemy or 
flashing signals. Despite the nearness of all this fighting ' 
and the sight of the wounded being brought in, the streets 
barred off to keep the noisy traffic away from the hospitals, 
and all the other signs of war, it has still been hard to realise 
that it was so near us. 
Our little German General von. Jarotzky has kept clicking 
his heels together and promising us anything we chose to ask ; 
we have run around day after day with our telegrams, and 
not one has got further than the Hotel de Ville. Being 
naturally somewhat touchy, we got tired of this after a few 
days and decided that the only way to get any news to Wash- 
ington was for me to go to Antwerp and get into direct com- 
munication over the cable from there. We got our telegrams 
ready and made a last try on the General on Monday morning. 
He was still effusively agreeable and assured us that he had 
determined to place a military field wire at our disposal so 
that we could communicate with Washington via Berlin. 
Our previous experiences had made us suspicious, so it was 
decided that while depositing our messages here I would 
make a try at getting through the lines and send whatever 
I thought best from Antwerp or any other place I could 
reach. We told the General frankly what we intended to 
do and he was all smiles and anxiety to please. At our 
request he had an imposing passport made out for me, signed 
with his hand and authorised with his seal. The Burgo- 
master wrote out an equally good letter for me when we 
reached the Belgian lines. Providence was to take care of- 
us while we were between the lines — and just to make it 
unanimous he did. 
We wanted to get away during the morning, but one thing 
after another came up, and I was kept on the jump. We had 
to stop and worry about our newspaper correspondents who 
had wandered off again. Morgan came wandering in during 
the morning and announced that he and Davis had set out oil 
foot to see whether there was any fighting near Hal ; they 
had fallen in with some German forces advancing toward 
Mons. After satisfying themselves that there was nothing 
going on at Hal or Enghien, Morgan decided that he had had 
enough walking for one day and was for coming home. Davis 
felt that they were too near the front to give up, and with a . 
Sherlock Holmes sagacity annoujiced that if they stuck to 
these German troops they would succeed in locating the 
French and British armies. Morgan thought this so probable 
that he was all for coming back and left Davis tramping along 
behind an ammunition wagon in search of adventure. He 
foimd it. 
After getting out of their trouble at Louvain, McCutcheon 
Cobb, and Lewis set forth on another adventure. There are.' 
of course, no motor cars or carriages to be had for love or 
money, so they invested in a couple of aged bicycles and a 
donkey cart. Cobb perched gracefully on top of the donkey 
cart and the other two pedalled alongside on their wheels. 
They must have been a funny outfit, and at last accounts 
were getting along in good "style. The air is filled with 
nervousness, however, and there is a constantly increasing 
list of people who are being thrown into jail, or shot as spies — 
and there is little time for careful and painstaking trials for 
wanderers who are picked up inside the lines of the fighting 
armies and are unable to render a convincing account of 
themselves. I shall be rather uncomfortable about them 
until they reappKjar. 
While we were waiting for the final formalities for our trip 
to be accomplished I invested in a wrist watch and goggles. 
I did not care to take my watch and other valuables inside 
the fighting zone where I might have to make a run for it. 
As always happens when such careful preparations arc made, 
nothing did happen. We also bought a little fuzzy animal 
like a Teddy bear about three inches high and tied him on the 
radiator as a mascot. He made a hit with all hands and got 
a valuable grin from several forbidding-looking Germans. 
We had signs on the car fore and aft marking it as the car of 
the American Legation — the signs being in both French and 
German. As we were the first to try to make the trip we 
thought it up to us to neglect nothing that would help to get 
us through without any unpleasant shooting or bayonetting. 
The Start for A.ntwerp 
After formally filing all our telegrams with the German 
General, Blount and I got under way at half-past two. We 
pulled out through tlie northern end of the city toward 
Vilvorde. There were German troops and supply trains all 
along the road, but we were not stopped until we got about 
half-way to V. Then we heard a loud roar from a field of 
cabbages we were passing, and, looking around,^ discovered 
what looked like a review of the Knights of Pythias. A 
magnificent looking man on horseback, wearing several orders, 
surrounded by a staff of ten or twelve others, was ridipg 
toward us through the cabbages, waving angrily at us to 
stop. The whole crowd surrounded the car and demanded 
hotly how we dared venture out of town by this road. W hile 
they were industriously blowing us up, the Supreme Potentate 
observed the sign on the front of the car, Gesandtschaff der 
Vereiningen Staaten, whereupon he came straightway to 
salute and kept it up. The others all saluted most earnestly 
and we had to unlimbef and take off our hats, and bow as 
gracefully as we could, aU hunched up inside a little racing 
car. 
Then I passed out our pass which the Chief of Staff read 
aloud to the assembled notables. They were all most amiable, 
warned us to proceed with great caution, driving slowly, 
stopping every hundred yards, and to tear back toward town 
if popping began in our immediate neighbourhood. They 
were so insistent on our not getting in the way of bullets, 
that I had to assure them in my best rusty German that we 
were getting into this ragged edge of their old war sitaply 
because it was necessary for business reasons and not because 
of any ardent desire to have holes shot through, us. They 
all laughed and let us go our way with a final caution. 
From that time on we were in the midst of German patrols. 
We religiously observed the officers' advice to drive slowly 
and keep a look-out. Five minutes later, we began to meet 
peasants running away from their homes in the direction of 
Brassels. They reported fighting near Malines, and said 
that we were running straight into it. They were a badly 
frightened lot. We decided that the only thing to do was 
go ahead, feeling our way carefully, and come back or wait if 
things got too hot for us. We were stopped several times 
by troops crossing the road to get into trenches that were 
already prepared, and once to wait while a big gun was gotten 
into place. It was a ticklish business to come around a 
turii in the road and light on a hundred men sneaking along 
behind a hedge with their rifles ready for instant action. Just 
beyond Eppeghem we met a troop oiE cavalry convoving a liigh 
cart filled with peasants who had evidently been taken 
prisoners. The officer in charge was a nervous chap, who 
caYne riding at us brandishing his revolver which he had 
tied to the pommel of his saddle with a long cord. He was 
most indignant that we had been allowed to come this far, and 
Copyright in Ihe United States o1 America by 'The World's Work." 
