its citizens went without bread
themselves to feed the refugees. How can a small municipality suddenly
deal with so vast a catastrophe? Yet slowly some sort of order was
organized out of chaos, and when the Government was able to establish
refugee camps through the military the worst conditions were moderated,
and now, in tents and in vans on a fortunately situated piece of land,
over 3,000 people live, so far as comforts are concerned, like Kaffirs
in Karoo or aborigines in a camp in the back blocks of Australia. The
tents are crammed with people, and life is reduced to its barest
elements. Straw, boards, and a few blankets and dishes for rations--that
constitutes the menage.

Children are born in the hugger mugger of such conditions, but the good
Holland citizens see that the children are cared for and that the babies
have milk. Devoted priests teach the children, and the value of military
organization illuminates the whole panoply of misery. Yet the best of
the refugee camps would seem to American citizens like the dark and
dreadful life of an underworld, in which is neither work, purpose, nor
opportunity. It is a sight repugnant to civilization.

The saddest, most heartrending thing I have ever seen has been the
patience of every Belgian, whatever his state, I have met. Among the
thousands of refugees I have seen in Holland, in the long stream that
crossed the frontier at Maastricht and besieged the doors of the
Belgian Consul while I was there, no man, no woman railed or declaimed
against the horror of their situation. The pathos of lonely, staring,
apathetic endurance is tragic beyond words. So grateful, so simply
grateful, are they, every one, for whatever is done for them.

None of the Refugees Begs.

None begs, none asks for money, and yet on the faces of these frontier
refugees I saw stark hunger, the weakness come of long weeks of famine.
One man, one fortunate man from Verviers, told me he could purchase as
much as 2s. 8d. worth of food for himself, his wife, and child for a
week.

Think of it, American citizens! Sixty-six cents' worth of food for a
man, his wife, and child for a whole week, if he were permitted to
purchase that much! Sixty-six cents! That is what an average American
citizen pays for his dinner in his own home. He cannot get breakfast, he
can only get half a breakfast, for that at the Waldorf or the Plaza in
New York.

This man was only allowed to purchase that much food if he coul