War Bread; a Personal Narrative of the War And
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
War Bread WAR BREAD A PERSONAL NARRATIVE OF THE WAR AND RELIEF IN BELGIUM BY EDWARD EYRE HUNT American Delegate of the Commission for Relief in Belgium in charge of the Province of Antwerp {With Illustrations) NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 1916 Copyright, 1916, BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY Published November, 1916 THE QUINN & BODEH CO. PRESS RAHWAY, N. J. Aan Zyne Eminentie DfiSIRE JOSEPH KARDINAAL MERCIER Aartsbisschop van Mechelen aan DEN HEER LOUIS FRANCK Gemeenteraadslid, Schepen, en V olksvertegenwoordiger, Voorzitter van het Nationaal Komiteit voor HuJp en Voeding der Provincie Antwerpen aan DEN HEER EDOUARD BUNGE Onder -Voorzitter van het Nationaal Komiteit voor Hulp en Voeding der Provincie Antwerpen to HERBERT CLARK HOOVER, of California Chairman of the Commission for Relief in Belgium and to BENNETT H. BRANSCOMB, of Alabama OLIVER C. CARMICHAEL, of Alabama RICHARD H. SIMPSON, of Indiana W. W. FLINT, of New Hampshire W. W. STRATTON, of Utah THOMAS O. CONNETT, of New York GARDNER RICHARDSON, of Connecticut GILCHRIST H. STOCKTON, of Florida J. B. VAN SCHAICK, of New York — Americans the -Loyalfriends', all, fellow-members of Antwerp delegation of the Commission for Relief in Belgium Thanks are due the Metropolitan Magazine, the Out- look, Leslie's Weekly, the New Republic, and Collier's Weekly for permission to republish portions of this book which have appeared in their pages. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. A Voyage in Wartime i Off to the Wars i Mutiny 4 Captured at Sea 13 Floating Mines 19 Interned 23 A Night on Devil's Island 27 II. Berlin the Terrible 34 Osnabriick to Berlin 34 Prussia Enthroned 38 How the Poor Fared 44 War Worship 50 " " German Preparedness 53 Three Famous Socialists 59 The Attack 67 III. The Fall of Antwerp 71 Berlin Versus Antwerp 71 An American Spy 74 England Aids Belgium 78 War Correspondents 82 The Bombardment of Antwerp 87 What a Shrapnel Shell Did 91 A Bath and a Forced March 95 Blowing up the Bridge 100 Enter: the Germans 104 The Army of Occupation 107 First Aid to Antwerp no v vi CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE On the Road to Holland 114 Vluchtelingen 118 At the Frontier . .121 Dutch Hospitality 127 Atrocities 133 Relief Work in Holland 138 Cities of Refuge 144 A Story of King Albert 148 IV. Belgium as a German Province 152 Antwerp Again 152 The Conquerors 156 Humorous Herr Baedeker 162 German Government 169 V. Starving Belgium 175 The Catastrophe 175 The Cry for Help 180 Brand Whitlock 185 Herbert C. Hoover 191 The Commission for Relief in Belgium . 198 A Dead City 202 American Delegate for Antwerp 206 Misery in the Campine 210 Communications 216 A Visit from Hoover 220 The Christmas Ship 224 Belgian Gratitude 228 Cardinal Mercier's Pastoral Letter .... 235 Patriotic Clocks 241 Alarums and Excursions 245 Internal Conflicts 251 The Waesland 255 A Belgian Co-operative 258 Breathing Spells 262 CONTENTS vii CHAPTER PAGE VI. The Belgian National Committee 269 A Great Financier 269 Hard Cash 273 VII. Saving a Nation 280 Their Daily Bread 280 Joyous Entries 286 Bread Lines and Soup Kitchens 293 Health, Clothing, and Housing 296 Unemployment 3°4 VIII. Diplomatic Conquests 308 Hauling Down the Flag 308 Great Britain Takes a Hand . 311 Feeding the North of France 315 IX. America and Belgium 318 The Golden Legend 318 La Belle Belgique 322 Appendix I. Three Famous Socialists 327 II. Press and Post 331 III. Public Charity and Exchange 333 IV. Incredibly Small Expenses 334 V. Gifts of Service 335 VI. The First Supplies 335 VII. Early Food Shipments 336 VIII. Flemish 337 IX. The Poor 338 X. Belgian Committees 339 XL The Millers' Belgian Relief Movement . .341 XII. The Priest 341 XIII. Ante-Bellum Belgium 342 XIV. The Artistic Temperament 342 XV. First Aid 343 viii CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XVI. Bar-le-Duc 344 XVII. Interlocking Organizations 345 XVIII. Food Requirements 345 XIX. Coffee 347 XX. A Co-operative Society 347 XXI. The National Relief Committee . .348 XXII. The Contribution of War 349 XXIII. Finance 349 XXIV. Wheat and Flour 35i XXV. Distribution 352 XXVI. Soup Recipes 353 XXVII. Selling Gift Goods 354 XXVIII. "American Shops" 356 XXIX. The Clothing Workshop 357 XXX. Temporary Houses 359 XXXI. Unemployment Relief 361 XXXII. Bricks and Laces 362 XXXIII. The Crop Commission 365 XXXIV. Belgian Harvests 366 XXXV. The North of France 367 XXXVI. French Financial Organization 368 XXXVII. Funding the Relief Work 37<> XXXVIII. Governmental Subsidies 372 XXXIX. Belgian Gratitude 372 ILLUSTRATIONS War Bread Frontispiece PAGE Young Germany 52 The Author's Passport 74 " " Beating the Camera 94 Belgian Refuge Directory 130 The Bread Line 166 Brand Whitlock 188 Herbert C. Hoover 194 Louis France: 206 Map of the Province of Antwerp 222 Christmas, 1914 228 Cardinal Mercier 238 Edouard Bunge 262 July Fourth, 1915 278 Temporary Houses 302 An "American Shop" 312 Flour Sacks 324 Antwerp's Clothing Workshop 358 WAR BREAD CHAPTER I A VOYAGE IN WARTIME Off to the Wars " " The Holland-America liner Nieuw Amsterdam lay fuming at her Hoboken pier. It was midnight, August 24-25, the first month of the war. The air was heavy, like oil scorched the dark with their elec- hot ; pier lights trical glare; and the ship's funnel spat smoke into the starless vault overhead. Gangways vomited stewards and hastily swallowed them again, for we were sailing in less than an hour. My trunks were lined with cartons of condensed soups, egg powder, and Erbsenwurst, for reports on European food conditions were already alarming; the money-belt about my waist was uncomfortably heavy with British and American gold-pieces, for the newspapers said reliable abroad were there was no exchange ; my pockets full of important letters, passports, and a bulky life in- surance policy. The times were inauspicious for travel. Yet the ship appeared to be full. Everywhere were 2 A VOYAGE IN WARTIME strange faces. Heavy featured, gruff voiced men, nine- teen to forty years old, with thick silver watch-chains looped across their waistcoats and little sausage-roll satchels in their hands, streamed into the ship and shouted good-bys to the crowds of friends who lined the pier. " " Who are they, steward ? I asked. " German reservists, sir." " But I thought the ship would be empty." " Nearly a thousand of them, sir." In the steerage twenty or thirty men strolled aim- lessly up deck and down, droning, with impartial en- " thusiam and tunelessness, The Watch on the Rhine," " Hail, Kaiser, to Thee," and a song from the latest musical comedy on Broadway. The night grew more and more electric, and half an hour before sailing time the tension suddenly snapped like cord. A steerage passenger with hair clipped convict-close and face fiery red, shirtless and hatless, reeled slowly down deck, sing- ing. Others followed him unsteadily, and at the end of the song they leaned together, arms linked, and he led " " them in three hochs for the Kaiser. Passengers from the first and second cabins cheered. The mob of friends ashore in the glare of the pier lights waved handkerchiefs and shouted applause. There was a sudden stir beside me. On the promenade deck a huge reservist, his cheeks slashed with the rapier scars of his German student corps days, bellowed a rip- OFF TO THE WARS 3 " *' ping hurrrrrrrrrrrrah ! and instantly, as if a military command had been given and an army had obeyed, the masses of men fell into triple lines across the decks, fac- ing the pier, and began to sing "The Watch on the Rhine." They roared and rumbled and trampled the music out, so that it beat in a steady series of explosions against the high walls of the pier. If Krupp guns could sing they would sing like that. There was more menace in the music than in any I had heard before. It ex- pressed no wild, universal human longing, such as one " " feels in the chant in the Marseillaise it ; seemed part of the vast, age-long, irresistible march of the Teutonic races. They sang Deutschland iiber alles. Volleys of voices beat my ears with a shock like battle. The singers, I learned afterward, had come from Alaska, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, the Saskatchewan, but they sang as if they had been drilled to sing together " " since childhood. Then came Hail, Kaiser, to Thee ; then the Austrian National then the old Hymn ; Swabian folk-song, Muss i denn, muss i denn sum St'ddtele hinaus, the farewell which German soldiers have sung for cen- turies to their sweethearts when they go to the wars. And there were sweethearts at hand; the pier was lined with them, waving their handkerchiefs and cheer- ing at every pause in the singing. There were mothers and wives and brothers and sisters and friends, all there on the pier, three or four yards away, packed against the 4 A VOYAGE IN WARTIME rail and plainly visible in the white electric glare. But while the men sang there were no tears, and when the singing stopped there were no tears, and when at one o'clock the ship began slowly to move out into the black river and the cheering rose to salvoes of enthusiasm, un- til the Captain had to blow his whistle to drown the partisan noise, still there were no tears. The grief of parting hid itself under a stern and pitiless joy at being able to share in Germany's war. The men were off to win personal glory, but far more than that they were to win national glory; glory for Germany, for German might, German efficiency, German organization, German intelligence, German capacity for taking pains—for " Germany first," Deutschland ilber alles.