ius Van Hee, American Vice-Consul at Ghent]

[Illustration: Lewis Richards]

[Illustration: A Brussels soup-kitchen run by volunteers]

[Illustration: Meals served to the children in the schools]

_Brussels, December 21, 1914_.--Yesterday Brussels awoke from the calm
in which it had been plunged for some time, when a couple of French
aviators came sailing overhead and dropped six bombs on the railroad
yards at Etterbeck. I was away at Antwerp and did not see it, but
everybody else of the population of 700,000 Bruxellois did, and each one
of them has given me a detailed account of it. The German forces did
their level best to bring the bird men down with shrapnel, but they were
flying high enough for safety. They seem to have hit their mark and torn
up the switches, etc., in a very satisfactory way. For three or four
days we have been hearing the big guns again, each day more distinctly;
but we don't know what it means. The Germans explain it on the ground
that they are testing guns.

Mr. and Mrs. Hoover arrived last night, bringing Frederick Palmer with
them. We dined together at the Palace. They were full of news, both war
and shop, and I sat and talked with them until after eleven, greatly to
the prejudice of my work. Had to stay up and grind until nearly two.

Curtis, who came back last night, says that Jack was arrested at Antwerp
on his way out, because he had Folkstone labels on his bags. It took him
so long to explain away his suspicious belongings that he barely caught
the last train from Rosendaal to Flushing. He seems to be destined to a
certain amount of arrest now and then.

Hoover turned up at the Legation this morning at a little after nine,
and he and the Minister and I talked steadily for three hours and a
half.

Despite the roar of work at the Legation, I went off after lunch with
Mrs. Whitlock and did some Xmas shopping--ordered some flowers and
chocolates. Went out and dropped Mrs. Whitlock at Mrs. B----'s, to help
decorate the tree she is going to have for the English children here.
B---- is a prisoner at Ruhleben, and will probably be there
indefinitely, but his wife is a trump. She had a cheery letter from him,
saying that he and his companions in misery had organised a theatrical
troupe, and were going soon to produce _The Importance of Being
Earnest_.

* * * * *

_Brussels, Christmas, 1914_--- This is the weirdest Christmas that ever