less than the cost of the steak alone in Roubaix.

[Sidenote: Appearance of Brussels.]

The policy of the Germans appears to be to interfere as little as
possible with the everyday life of the country. The fruits of this
policy are seen in a remarkable degree in Brussels. All day long the
main streets of the city are full of bustle and all the outward
manifestations of prosperity.

[Sidenote: Business going on.]

Women in short, fashionable skirts, with high-topped fancy boots, stroll
completely at their ease along the pavement, studying the smart things
with which the drapers' shop windows are dressed. Jewelers' shops,
provision stores, tobacconists, and the rest show every sign of
"business as usual." I bought at quite a reasonable price a packet of
Egyptian cigarettes, bearing the name of a well-known brand of English
manufacture, and I recalled how, not many miles away in harassed France,
I had seen rhubarb leaves hanging from upper windows to dry, so that the
French smoker might use them instead of the tobacco which he could not
buy. Even the sweetstuff shops had well-stocked windows.

[Sidenote: Theaters and cinema palaces open.]

The theaters, music halls, cinema palaces, and cafes of Brussels were
open and crowded. On the second night of my visit I went with my two
French companions to the Theatre Moliere and heard a Belgian company in
Paul Hervieu's play, "La Course du Flambeau." The whole building was
packed with Belgians, thoroughly enjoying the performance. So far as I
could tell, the only reminder that we were in the fallen capital of an
occupied country was the presence in the front row of the stalls of two
German soldiers, whose business, so I learned, was to see that nothing
disrespectful to Germany and her armies was allowed to creep into the
play.

[Sidenote: An ordinary cinema performance.]

At another theater, according to the posters, "Veronique" was produced,
and a third bill announced "The Merry Widow." At the Theatre de la
Monnaie, which has been taken over by the Germans, operas and plays are
given for the benefit of the soldiers and German civilians. One
afternoon I spent a couple of hours in a cinema hall. A continuous
performance was provided, and people came and went as they chose, but
throughout the program the place was well filled. The films shown had no
relation to the war. They were of the ordinary dramatic or comic types,
and I fancy they were of pre-war manufacture. Nothing o