HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1914-12-31, Page 6nista iC, ,,tel IS ;sit said sail S;a: , :t;S,i;tatisa2S SI:Staielme; ?
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•WAR AS IT IS
•
el'blade %1rea rteiireitta'es iiti sfeia:tra este at rabic."s.'.'ani:etts'a!is:•ugisa; rata. Sege .
[In 'the following story of a simple They fled un all sides with fright -
country woman, set down as nearly tine cries. The street was a horri-
ble sight. The cries uf wesne' ,
groans of wounded, the ineee•saut
noise of volley firing, made a terei-
fyiog accompaniment to the roaring
of fire andthe ceas.'h of falling build
ings.
Ph. irliabit•ants sought refuge in
their cellars,' twenty or thirty, of-
ten more, erowded together. They
heard in the street the, pattering of
the firing, the eves of metiers, the
headlong gallop of animals eseap€d
from their stables. They dared not
go out. Above all they were in
ie,ar of being discovered, and trem-
bling with terror, they crept close
to each ether and waited for death.
How many hours, days, did this
hell last, I' don't know. I, was out
of my mind. Twenty-five of us were
!shut in a cellar, men, women, chil-
dren, rid folk. One night when it
was dark we marls up our minds to
go out. Without xnakmg a noise we
raised the trap-door which opened
on the street. Nobody there.
Quick, quick, let us get out cf here.
We were seen, and voices Cried to
us: "Heraus! Heraus Get out!"
German soldiers with revolvers
it th,jr hands came runni•lg from
all Bides.
"Get out !" We came out. Wo-
men and children first. We fell on
our knees and with joined bands
pleaded "Pity! Pity! We're not
soldiers." Still the voices ordered,
"Ilei aue !" •
Monsieur Chardin the deputy was
hardly out when he was killed by a
revolver shot, then after him an
olcl man of seventy, then before the
eyes of his mother, a lad of fifteen.
His mother eried, "He's not a
French soldier—he's not a soldier,"
but he was killed all the same.
Everyone was strieken with fear_
Some tried to escape, running, leap-
ing ditehes, climbing walls, but the
soldiers fired oh them and they fell.
That made the :o'.cliers very angry.
They dalled out words which we
did not understand, and they latish -
ed us back against a wall.
We thought our last minute had
some. Some officers passed. We
threw ourselves on our knees and
showed them our little children.
They turned away their heads,
was their. Thee were exacting scattered us with shoves of the feet
eta posuble '1n her words by a
Frenall newspaperman, is revealed
mere of the horror andwickedness
of war than we have known. We
feed nothing of the meaning of war
as we read the reports of so many
advances, so many retreats, sieges
and surrenders, so many thousand
dead, so many thousand wounded.
We read aur papers and put them
down, almost unmoved. It is a
dream, it is fist on, ea colossal that
we can hardly believe it true. Suf-
fering in mass does not touch our
hearts, bet the story of one poor
mother mourning heir aeon, or wife
her husband, does. And so the
story of OM pour woman who has
known war affects us terribly. Its
cimpllc.tty and direetneets is superb.
Translated by Robert W. Sneddon.]
Was was hardly declared before
German soldiers appeared in No-
meny. One day all the village was
working in the fields. It was har-
vest time, and the m,en with bent
backs were cutting the corn; the
women were binding the sheaves.
Harsh voices behind them made
them start:
."Have jou seen the Frenchi"
They turned round. There steed
a dozen great red-faced Bavarian
soldiers, with revolvers in theis
hands. They spoke angrily and
looked about them with watchful
glances. They had come out of a
little wood and crept across the
fie?dts.
"Have you seen the French 1"
Nobody had seen the French
troops. So the Bavarians retired,
crouching and gliding through the
corn, and disappeared into the lit
tie weed.
Next day and for days after pa-
trols of Unions scoured the Gauntry,
pilaging and robbing as they
pleased. The four gendarmes of
Nomeny wanted to stop the exploits
of those highway robbers. They
risked remarks and v -entered
threats. That made the Bavarians
laugh. It was too funny, sae to
amuse themselt es they made the
gendarmes prisoners. One of them
managed to get away
The Germans were masters of the
country. Nonenv and all about it
masters. The peasants were indig- and reviled us. One of then' had
pity en ns,
"Let them go," he said to the sol-
diers, and to us, -If you don't want
to be sbot, get out of here where
you wigh,'
We hurried away as fast as our
legs could carry us. We ran to the
house, We shut ourselves in the
cellar, myself and my husband, my
daughter and her three children, e.
buy of fourteen, a girl of twelve,
and a seven -months' old baby. A
little later an old man of seventy-
four came to join ns.
"Have you room for me?" he
asked.
"Yes, come in. the more the
merrier."
I don't know how many days we
were shut up under ground... We
heard the German soldiers coming
and going, in the house above our
heads. We knew their heavy steps,
and without seeing we guessed what
they were doing. They were taking
out and carrying away my furni-
ture. pillaging and clearing out my
honse, And I saw through a crack
that they had all my things outside,
all my poor little things, my mat-
tresses, my pillows, my dresses and
those of nay daughter, all my linen,
even the baby's little shirts and the
baby carriage.
I saw other soldiers busy pillage
ing in other houses, top to bottom,
in the kitchen, the bedrooms . . .
smoking their pipes, drinking, sing-
ing, shouting. They were filling
their pockets to bursting with mon-
ey and jewelery that they found.
They were carrying away every-
thing--fui'nitu re, sheets, b edding,
linen, even women's underclothes.
They were taking off the window
shutters, putting everything in a
cart.
We watched them, with tears in
our eyes, rage im our hearts, But
what was it in comparison with the
misery we were enduring in this
black. hole, in this profound night,
where we could not see each other,
moving like blind people with our
arms outstretched ess as not to
bump into each. other or bruise our-
selvee on the walls, We spoke in a
whisper, mouth to ear, as if each
word that we had to say was a se-
cret for our ears alone,
We 'had only water to drink,
plums to eat. It was enough for us,
but fol° the children! My daughter
had no more milk, we had only wa-
ter to nourivia het Belles one, and it
made him ,sick.
Our little girl kept saying, "I'm
'so hungry, mamma, no hungry,"
and ery:ing.
To eremite her I said, "Don't ery,
these gentlemen will Genre and bring
ua eandy."
I said that., but I wished in my
heart that those gentlemen would
never creme, We lived tilde way for
daysand days. One afternoon I
heard a strand sound in the street.
It was like volleys of firing, like the
crackle of quisskftres.
"My God," Ithought the
and have wine are fighting
in Nomeny,"
Then I fell clown and began to
Pray,
nant, seeing their homes pillaged,
their fields laid waste, their stores
stolen. They could not understand
why our soldiers did nut come.
One day the French did come.
The inhabitants were beside them-
selves wa;h joy. Their eyes were
filled with tears of happiness. They
threw flowers on them and loaded
them with cakes and dainties.. The
women held out their aprons full of
ehocolate,fruit, tobacco and cigar-
ettes. A grocer threw his store
open to them.
The soldiers were implored.: "Pity
its, we are so unhappy. Protect ns.
Don`t abandon us."
And they answered: "Don't be
afraid. we'll defend you. We'll
stay with you."
Alas! they had to leave us.
On the 12th of August fur the first
time artillery rumbled near No-
meny and first one shell, then an-
other, fell en the school -house,
transformed into a hospital and
protected by the Bed Cross flag.
The Germans were bombarding the
town. It was their intimation that
they were coming to visit the town.
They came goon and began to
pillage. Immediately this strange
desire which they have for time-
pieces same to light, an inborn an-
cestral mania. They demanded
twenty-five wateltes. A search was
made. There weren't twenty-five
watches in Nomeny, After trouble
four were found at the watch-
maker's, poor steel watches, old
and weary. They were given to
these dangerous maniacs who were
eatisfied and took them, Then in
the wreeked houses they took the
bandages prepared for the wounded
and all the medicines. They drag-
ged ten French soldiers out of their
beers and took them away in spite
of their cries of suffering.
"We'll ll come back for the others
to -morrow," they announeed.
Birt next cloy the other wounded
were gone. Some good people had
put hem in a safe place during th,e
nigh.
Three drays later, tine cannons be-
gep to boom again. This time it
was our own big guns talking, The
inl{ttiiatants of Nomeny, hiding in
then' cellars, listened with snin.glgd
hops and fear. Towards the erose
of th,e day our soldiers re-entered
Nomeny. They were toe few, and
some hours later they retreated, to
return the, next day and again re-
tire. And the Germans returned•
and they too retired. Tlhis hide and
seek lusted five days, Freneih and
Germans occupying Nomeny in
turn. Our cavalry hunted the Ufa -
lane, and p,ata'ols meeting exchang-
ed shots.
At last on the morning of the 20th
the great blow struck u.9 Sudden-
ly the :air was apiit and the .earth
shaken. Cannon thundered, Shells
and Gern,,an shrapnel screamed, in
space and fell upon Nomeny, It
wales an avalanche. They knocked
down walla, tore orf roofs, split
ceilings, bettered +houses, and eel
fire to the rules,
The inhabitants, terrified by title
hurricane of iron and Inc. did not
know ehere to turn or what, to do. Soon the heat became ineuppert-
able in our cellar; we could rr_t
bre•athe the air. We were el ,king.
We opeeed the &thole a little.
mare. As 50,;11 ne we et'd that a
thick :make ievasted our refuge and
I
saw that the beige opp. s. a was
o fire, I b g
1 t belt:eget.' eii t r a. sabot
t
maker, and it was the Weeden shoes
and the dry weed wish which the
house war filled that, bureleg,
made this crackling, this fusillade
I had heard. Scme soldiers were
moving about the fire, and in order
to keep it going they threw bask
into it the glowing embers which
had rolled at their feet. Other sol-
diers were dancing anent' the fur -
1111e5,
Then we felt that our horse was
burning, too. We knew it by the
frightful heat which was around us,
by the choking smoke in our
throats, the nose of falling plaster
and atones toppling down.
And we were still living., The
wall of the henhouse had just given
way and by the hole w•h; ch had
opened der poultry tumbled into
the cellar.
What a piece of luck, I thought.
We will hare eggs. But next day at
daybreak the cock crowed.
This beast is going to give us
away," said my husband, and he
ctrl its throat,
Then • a hen began to call her
ehiokens, clucking mournfully.
''She, toe," said my husband,
"the Will betray us."
And he cut her throat. He did
the same to as many of the bens
as be could catch, for he dare not
chase them on account of the noise
they made beating their wings and
sereeching. And then my daugh-
ter's little one, the seven months'
cicl baby which had eaten nothing
for days and was almost a skeleton,
began to cry, to cry oflunger, and
would not stop crying. Th calm it
we took a mouthful of water, kept
it a few minutes in the mouth to
warns it, and mouth to mouth made
the little one take it. But when it
put it out again the next minutes it
began to cry again.
"'Phis little one is going to kill
us," said my husband.
One day at last—ah, how afraid I
was that day ! we heard great heavy
steps stop in front of our air hole.
We waited with halted breaths, and
then. my God, the trapdoor slowly,
slowly opened. .1 shaft of light
skewed in our d•arknese.
a.
"•You'll waken me up," the +,aid,
"I will waken you tip,"
She put her arum round nay neck
and slept gently. But I tilde't wake
her. Others teak care of that. 111
the miming we heard loud voices'
talking on the other side of the gar-
den, and heads in spiked helmets
appeared over the wall, Some sol-
diers climbed over the wall, others
broke down the tloor5. Soon the
orchard was invaded, They pushed
us with their rifle butte and put us
out. I fell again at their knees
and implored their pity. 1 showed
them the crying children and our
poor little baby, se pale, thin,
wasted to a shadow, but they laugh-
ed and led us out. They led ue tc
before the cemetery and made us
sit against the wall in three rows,
our legs out, jammed against each
other; packed with the barks of
others on our cheats, We were for-
bidden to speak, move or sleep. And
even to eat, for they left us without
a morsel of food, We were dying of
hunger.
An officer creme along. He had a
little round piece of glass fixed in
one eye, He was tell, and raised
himself on tiptoe to look taller. He
looked at its a long time as if he
were reviewing his soldiers, and
said affectedly:
"Have the little children all they
want? And those ladies? Do they
need anything?"
His voice was soft ars butter but
his heart was full of spleen, fur
when his back was turned we heard
him slay :
"The French need nothing,
They're all soldiers."
We stayed like this for a night
aisd a day. Now and again one of
us, worn out with fatigue and sleep,
let fall their head on the shoulder
or back of aneighbor. A blow from
a rifle butt roused them. I prevent-
ed—the horrible thing—my little
ones from sleeping. We expected
to be shot every minute. One of our.
companions, a, M. Muller, who had
come to .spend his vacation at No-
meny where the war had surprised
him, saved ue leen death. He spoke
German perfectly. He talked with
the officers and succeeded in ap-
peasing them.
"You won't de .that," he said to
them. "Think what a horrible page
you would add to the history of
this war."
At last one morning we were or-
"Heraes : Helens! ' cried a voles, tiered to get up. Our cramped
We were beadles' in a corner of ankles refused to support us. We
the Cellar . We Clare not move, and
we held cur breaths. But our teeth
chattered and we trembled in every
limb, The children were enfolded
in my skirt, :and I pressed the baby
against my breast as tight as 1
could to keep it quiet.
A soldier came down the steps
softly and warily. I saw his large
fell at every step. They raised us
with blows from rine butts and
kicks. We went through Nosneny
on fire.
"Don't look to right or left," we
had been told, "Don't turn round,
or stop, if you don't want to be
shot."
But I saw in a garden an old
shoes, towered with mud, first of man, a poor paralytic, stretched
all, then his grey coat, then under dead on his couch. I saw a child
lying in a doorway—the skull was
open. I saw a French soldier lying
near the fountain. His chest was
crushed, he was stripped of his
clothes, half naked. I saw a store-
keeper of the town lying by his
store. I saw and others sa.w. We
passed alongside of a• row of
corpses • thirty of them lay along a
wail. At the corner of a street,
six little pigs were sucking a dead
SOW.
When we came to the end of the
town, we were made to retrace our
steps. We saw again the same hor-
rors. At last we came to a 'rouse
called the Mission Cross.
"Halt!" cried a non-commission-
ed officer,
Then the party stopped. M, Mul-
ler got up on a. milestone and said :
"I have secured your liberty. They
are going to put us on the way to
Naney. We are going to eet out,
but nobody must turn back or we
shall be shot. Come along now•."
We went on our way. M. Muller
led the way, carryings white handy
kerchief like it flag tied to a stick,
Behind him came the cure of No-
meny and another cure. The sol-
diers escorted us to a kilometer
from the town. 'When they left us
they wanted to take the children
Error ue and take then with thein.,
bet the priests intervened, and af-
ter a long discussion the soldiers re-
tired.
A little further on wo slaw many
French wounded, in .a field. Hear-
ing us pees, some of them raised
themselves up and signed to us, to
call tis and, ,ask irid, but we dared
not go to them.
At Manonoourit, which was full of
German ,soldiers, we were steppe,d•.
An officer came up and made the
cure step out of the ranks,. He
pointed to a• stretcher on the ground
in front of a houes. You wok]
guess true shape of a body under the
cover which was over it from head
to foot. The face was [hidden, Alt
that wasp visible was •t'ha cover stir-
ring a little, rising and, falling.
"A Frene�h officer," said the Ger-
his cap his terrible bearded fate.
He had a revolver in e:aeh hand. At
the bottom of the steps he stopped,
said something I did not under-
stand, came forward a. little in the
dark with his arms out, then he
made a half turn, went back to the
open door, spoke to his comrade
who had remained above, went up
and away.
Only then did we dare to breathe.
Then after a little when we thought
the soldiers were far enough away
we determined to leave our cellar.
But who would go out first. We ar-
gued for half an hour, myself, my
daughter and my 'husband. In turn
each of us went to the, stairs, but
stopped on the first step and came
back. We were afraid. Finally the
old man ventured, mounted the
stairs, looked about him and dis-
appeared. We heard his footsteps
going away in the distance. No
cries, no firing. He was safe.
Our courage returned to us.
There was no more reason for de-
lay. 1 went out first carrying the
baby in any arms, my daughter fol-
lowed with the other two children,
then my husband. We took a few
steps in the street. My heart wars
beating with joy. We ran at full
speed to a big orchard .at the end of
the town. Two or three hundred in-
habitants of Nomeny were lying
there flat under the ,trees. We lay
clown beside them. We said noth-
ing. We hardly dared to breathe.
From. time to time bullets whistled
over our heads. Some shells burst
beside us. We never stirred, with
our proses to the ground. We pass-
ed two days and two nights like
this.
Once. at nightfall I felt someone
rub up against me softly. A small
hand caressed, my face and a weak
voice murmured : 'I'm. hungry, I'm
hungry, and my head isso sore."
I turned my head, and recognized
one 01 my little nieces.
"Hush 1" I said to, her, "etay
there and don't make any noise, I
will give you something to eat, all
in good time,"
man. "He ie dying. Give him ab-
solution."
The euro bent, raised thne cover
slightly to look at the faee of the
dying man, thee he raised his head,
made the sign of the cruse and ex-
tended his hand„ in prayer above
the stretciher, And •when it was
over the German officer stiffly sa-
luted the priest and retired.
We went on our way. At night
we reached Nancy, Our miseries
were at au end.
THE SUNDA SCII �l STUDY
AY 0
INTERNATIONAL LESSON,
JANUARY 3.
Lesson 1. God's; Patience with Is-
rael. Judges 2. 7-19. Golden
Text, llos. 14.
Verse 7. And the people served
Jehovah all the days of Joshua, and
all the days of the elders that out-
lived Joshua, who had seen all the
great works of Jehovah, that he had
wrought for Ise -eel. -Joshua. was so
strong a servant of Jehovah that he
not only kept the people of Israel
true to Jehovah during his own life,
but so influenced the elders who
were associated with him that they
too kept Israel true ere their Get].
This mark of Joshua's leadership
stands out very strong, It is also
to be noted that Joshua. and has
elders had seen the great works of
Jehovah that he had wrought for
Israel. Because they served Jelto'
vah, they were able to see what
Jehovah_ was doing; their eyes were
open. People in rebellion against
God or indifferent to God have
their eyes closed and are not able
to see,
9. In the border of his inheritance
in Timnath-heres, i.n the hill -coun-
try of Ephraim, en the north of the
mountain of Gaaeh.—Timnatih-h•eres
is the Timmath-serab of Jo•eh, 19.
50; 24. 30. This city of Joshua. leas
been placed at I%efr Haris, nine
miles south-easterly from Sheehem,
10. Another generation that knew
-not Jehovah.—The succeeding gen-
eration after Joshua and his elders
were tete and less true to the reli-
gion of Jehovah, and so it was in-
evitable that a time would comes
when the Israelites had entirely re-
ceded from the religion of their
father:-. .
11. Served the Baalim.—Baalim
i5 the plural of Baal and means
more than one god of lord. There
are many evidences that Ierael was
familiar with the worship of more
than one heathen god. See Judges
3. 7; 8. 33; 10. 6, 10.
12. The Gcd of their fathers, who
brought them out el the land of
Egypt.—The hisl'or_cal writers cif
the Old Testament never permitted
the people, of those clays, nor do
they permit as, to forget that God
was kind to the early Israelites in
Egypt.
13. Baal means owner or lord, and
is used of both gods and men. Baal,
however, was more particularly tie
god of the Tyrians. Ashtoreth is
the plural of Ashtoreth, who was
the principal goddess of the Zidon•
ions.
14. And the anger of Jehovah
was kindled . and he delivered
therm . . , and he sold, them . . , so
that they could n,ot any longer
stand before their enemies—This, is
a picturesque description of the
writer, Of course, when the Israel-
ites became weakened through re-
ligious corruption, they were not
able any longer to withstand their
enemies, ,and as Jehovah would no
longer have any protection er in-
fluence over them, •as• 01,8y were
exercising their own free will
against 'hire, it was natural that
they should be beaten by their
enemies and so weakened that they
could no longer fight for their
honor and eafeite. We can well un-
derstarnd that the children of Israel
in their time of mi.ely and consO-
quent repentance realized that the.
anger of Jehovah vase upon them.
16. And Jehovah raised up judges
who waved, them.—A remnant of the
righteous • is always left among the
people. History shows no period
when there was total ,and absolute
apostasy, And out of this remnant
,always has appeared a leader,
strong in religious conviction and
insight, asci capable to rally the
batekslidden people to the standard
of the true God. This, was the great
week of the judges. They saved
their people at eritica.l times. They
saved them because they could
bring them back to a belief in God,
to a worship of God ,and•, hen•ee,
strengthen their wens to strike the
enemy.
17. And yet they hearkened not
unto their judges..— One judge
would arise and be it strong teethe
in bringing the people together,
but as soon as the, danger W114 over,
back again into the evil practises
would 'the people go, Before the
rise of Deborah there were. a. DM^.
ber of tninar judges, who arra only
incidentally named, or not named
at all. This w•as the beginning of
tbs period of the judges, when it
was more difficult for any leader to
impress fully acrd finally upon the
minds of the people that they muse
be true to God if they 'would be
safe from their enemies. But be.
cause these, judges are only inoiclen-
tally named or not named at all,
we must not conclude that they
were nob great leaders.
. 18. When Jehovah raised them up
judges, then -Jehovah w'as with the
judge.—"I will neither leave you
nor forsake you," A steady stream
of testimony from the beginning of
Genesis to the end of Revelation
shows indisputably that God always
has been with his people, that he
has never raised up a man for any
particular position and left him to
his own resources. The leaders in
the world's history have been great
because God hes been with them.
When they turned from God or
when. other influences dominated
thean, their greatness began to
wane, and finally disappeared.
19. But it came to pass, when the
judge was dead, that they turned
back, and dealt more corruptly than
their fathers.—The perversity of the
leraelites is strongly shown here.
Every retrogration or backsliding
was worse and further than the
preceding one.
WEATHER AND STRATEGY.
Cold Not Altogether Unfavorable
to Fighting.
T :
ARD
ENGS COA:�i l�
U
l AI�Df
DEEP-SEA FISHERMEN WO'iili
IN l)ANGEROUii CALLING.
Catch German Mitres in Place of
Fish—Mine. Sweeping Very
Perilous.
Manned by Great Brihaia's deeps
sea fishermen, hundreds of tiny ves-
sels are patrolling England's coast,
from Harwich to the Pentland
Firth. From beats in which only as
few weeks ago ther were catching
herring and trawl fish they ore now
fishing for menaces to navigation
and maintaining a, daily "sweep
'for mines, Day and night the drift-
ers' patrol and tihe mine -sweeping•
flotilla are engaged in a work"
which, if it is lees glorious, is not,
en unimportant pant of the work of
England's navy.
What a perilous task the mins
"sweep" is is evidenced by tihe
number of disasters• which have
overtaken members of the fleet:. Tho
strain of the work is tremendous, as
each mean realizes that every turn
of the propeller may send him to the
bottom. For mine "sweeping" the
vessels work in pairs; steaming
abreast of eaaah other, a:nd drag-
ging between them a heavy chaste
that sweeps as a trawl net along or
just above the bottom of the seat.
When e mine is found it either ex-
plodes or is dragged to the surface
and put out of action. The danger
is in the vessels striking with their
hulls the mines that they are seek-
ing to discover with their trawls,.
Through the .roads of the North
Sea a centro ta.l procession of mer-
chant shipping, bringing supplies of
all kinds to the various ports, is
passing with regularity and. com-
parative safety. As fax as the
North Sea is concerned, it is only
mines, comparatively speaici:tg,
that constitute a danger to the
coastwise and oversea traffic, for
the seas are well cleared of hostile
ships.
Fitted with {tireless.
That the coming el winter will
have its effects on the strategy of
the contending armies of Europe is
but natural, but contrary to the
general opinion, the results o£.cold
weather will net be altogether . un-
favorable. This is pointed out by
a writer in the Scientific American,
who says
From the strategical point of
view, wintry weather is not an un-
mixed evil. In western Europe the
worst weather for military opera-
tions prevails in autumn, when the
rainfall is at its maximum. Call
weather sets the roads, makes the
sodden fields practicable for march-
ing, and the bridges over small
bodies of water. Only in the moun-
tain passes are these advantages
offset by the obstruction due to
snow. In the interior of the Con-
tinent—e.g., on. the East Prussian
and Austrian frontiers—heavy
snowfall occurs even over the
plains and lowlands, and opposes
an obstacle to military movements.
Here also, the intense cold freezes
over the larger rivers; thus the Vis-
tula is normally frozen at Warsaw
From late December to early March.'
On the other hand, when not frozen
over but filled with floating ice,
these streams become impassable
even by boat.
Again, it is difficult or impossible
to dig trenches in :frozen soil, such
as may •ba found in the -dead of win-
ter in the interior of the Continent.
Under such conditions armies have,
however, sometimes used blocks of
ice to good advantage in building
breastworks.
0.4
A Future General.
"Good-bye, Mick. God guard
you! And if y-c:u beat the Germans
half as well as you beat me you'll
becoming home a general," were
the farewell words et an Irish Fusi-
lier's wife, whish a correspondent
says he overheard.
Plenty of Time.
Oa,kle;y--Wesn't the tailor willing
to give you time ?
Owens—Give me time? He said
I'd get six months if he could have
his way.
'Yet the deaf and dumb can bear
and speak the language of love.
Irri•ta,ble Schoolmaster — Now,
then, .stupid, what's the next word 7
What comes after eheese7 Dull
Bey—A incense, sir, •
"Which one of the Ten Command-
ments Grid Adana 'break when he ate
the apple 1" asked the Sunday
Siehool teacher. "He didn't break
any," replied one little fellow,
"'Cause there wasn't any then."
Teacher—Tell me what lesson
can ;be ilearnecl tram the parable of
the ,prodigal song 'Small pupil
(thinking of the thtesks)--It teaches
People to stay where they are eom-
1 rtatble.
bern an Prisoners at Itergon, in Northern holland, Enjoying their M melting I cremes.
Many of the drifters engaged in
patrol work 'have been fitted with
wireless, eo that they quickly get
in touch with the, authorities when
minelayers or other hostile vessels
are sighted. The coast is divided
into districts, and Lowestoft, Nurtth
Shields, Folkestone, and other enc
fishing ports have become head-
quarters for the mine destroyers.
Hundreste, of ether fishermen,
members of the Royal Naval Re-
serve, have -been mobilized and are
now in barracks waiting to be draft-
ed into vessels as they are comntie-
sioned in the ttokehold or on the
deck, Not a'1 of the fisherm•elt
bave been able to find pieces in the
various branches. of sea Eel'y1ee..
Thousands uf them are out of work
and the outlook is. anything but
bright fee very many.
"In other years at this. time,"
Toilers of the peep, the magazine
of the ]loyal National Misaston to
Deep Sea 1 islaerm;ea, says, "the
great herring harvest of the east
cutlt should be fn full swing. To-
day the quay ie. lined with vessels,
but there is no sign of life on
board; also they are idle because
the markets .ten the other side al the
North Sean• are closed to them, aid
because their work at sea would be
a menace to themselves and casts
serious hampering to the rapid
movements of his. Majetty''s shpt
that come and go continually.
North Sett Cleared.
"At the outbreak of the was, the.
North Sea was cleared for a .time of
all fishing vessels, and many= of us
think it would have been well had
the prohibition been maintained
tenger than Id was. There can be
no doubt that numbers• of fishing
vessels have been captured and
turned into mine -laying ves.oelF,
while outwardly, to all appearwnce,
they are English, trawlers, enga•gecl
in their ordinary routine of fish -
Many of the fishing ports have re-
ceived blows through the nee -re-
turn of a large part of their ftcahing
fleets. The vessels. have simply
disappeared. Whether they been
been sunk or captarecl no ono can
say. Bouton, Grimsby and Hull
have been particularly heavy suf-
ferers through vessels strikes
mines. Thirty vessels were repasts
ed destroyed from Grimsby and ten
from Boston. In the carer•:, et early
two vessels were the crews all
saved.
"We lead a• rare) time e. few weeks
ago," one •fiehermat'e wife wrote
from North Shields, "'when two of
our nt^_nee-sweeping trawlers were
blown up armrest simultaneously by
mines; a morning of a,axioas .us -
perm:, •when, lit was_ impostihlo to
get cortect• information, then a hur-
riedmeraage from 41110 Board of.
Trade and the red task of gcin; to
waiting wives, one after another,
with tite news, h•: t their husba,:ids
W510 :amoalg the ,Hissing, Hien hags
teeing over to she South Shields
infirmary (1 see the wounded,
Otter mil scenes have taken pia•ce
cm our quay with the landing of
snrvivarrs of cells! mine t'�ieastei',1 .
One clay the survivors of an Iceland
trawler with furs miesi'ng, aaad
Imo thee same niurnitg four stu'-
s c si's from a resent, tateirnaer, eight
l c L .
Thti mine .weepers will eentinnue
their week all through the winter or
until the 515 > of the wa^, ilium
than 1100 vessels are cairyieg .on the
work le the North F?i`s,..