the story of belgium will never be told. that is the word that passes oftenest between us. no one will ever by word of mouth or in writing give it to others in its entirety, or even tell what he himself has seen and felt. the longer he stays the more he realizes the futility of any such attempt, the more he becomes dumb. it requires a brush and color beyond our grasp; it must be the picture of the soul of a nation in travail, of the lifting of the strong to save the weak. we may, however, choose certain angles of vision from which we see, [2]thrown into high relief, special aspects of an inexpressible experience.
one of these particular developments is the unswerving devotion of the women of belgium to all those hurt or broken by the tragedy within and without her gates. how fortunate are these women, born to royal leadership, to have found in their queen the leader typifying the highest ideal of their service, and the actual comrade in sorrow, working shoulder to shoulder with them in the hospitals and kitchens. the battle-lines may separate her wounded and suffering from theirs, but they know always that she is there, doing as they are doing, and more than they are doing.
never were sovereigns more loved, more adored than albert and elizabeth. all through these two years people have been borne up by the vision of the day of their return. “but how shall we be able to stand it?” they say. [3]“we shall go mad with joy!” “we shall not be able to speak for weeping and shouting!” “we shall march from the four corners of the country on foot in a mighty pilgrimage to brussels, the king shall know what we think of him as man and leader!”
when they speak of the queen all words are inadequate; they place her first as woman, as mother, as tender nurse. they are proud, and with reason, of her intelligence and sound judgment. under her father, a distinguished oculist, she received a most rigorous education; she is equipped in brain as well as in heart for her incalculable responsibilities. i was told the other day that she dislikes exceedingly having her photograph as “nurse” circulate, feeling that people may think she wishes to be known for her good works. but whether she wishes it or not, she is known and will be known throughout history for her good works—for her clear, clean vision of right, her swift [4]courage, and her utter devotion to each and all of her people. albert and elizabeth, a and e, these letters are written on the heart of belgium.
if in the united states we have been too far away to realize in detail what the work of the queen has been, we have had on our own shores the unforgettable example of her dear friend, marie de page, to prove to us the heroism of the women of belgium.
before she came, we knew of her. after the first two months of the war she had left her mother and father and youngest boy in brussels—realizing that she was cutting herself off from all news of them—to follow her husband, who had himself followed his king to le havre. she worked her way across the frontier to flushing, and finally to la panne. the whole career of doctor de page had been founded on her devoted cooperation, and one has imagined the joy of that reunion [5]in the great base hospital at la panne, where he was in charge. her eldest son was already in the trenches, the second, seventeen years old, was waiting his turn.
she worked as a nurse at her husband’s side, day and night, until she could no longer bear to see the increasing needs of the wounded without being able to relieve them, and she determined to seek aid in america. this journey, even in peace time, is a much more formidable undertaking for an european than for an american woman, but marie de page started alone, encouraged always by her good friend, the queen. and how swiftly, how enduringly, she won our hearts, as from new york to san francisco she told so simply and poignantly her country’s story!
she was a belgian woman; so, even in her great trouble, she could not neglect her personal appearance, and after the fatiguing journey across the continent, [6]she looked fresh and charming as we met her in san francisco. the first day at luncheon we were plying her with questions, until finally she laughed and said, “if you don’t mind, i had better spread the map on the table—then you will see more quickly all the answers!” we moved our plates while she took the precious plan from her bag, and smoothed it across her end of the table. then with her pencil she marked off with a heavy line the little part that is still free belgium: she drew a star in front of la panne hospital and we were orientated! from point to point her pencil traveled as we put our eager questions. we marveled at the directness with which she brought her country and her people before us. we knew that her own son was in the trenches, but she made it impossible for us to think of herself.
then, tho there was much more to be done in america, she left. she must re[7]turn to la panne; her husband needed her. she had just received word that her seventeen-year-old son was to join his brother in the trenches; she hurried to new york. she did not wish to book on a non-neutral line, but further word showed her that her only chance to see her boy lay in taking the fastest possible ship. fortunately the biggest, safest one was just about to leave, so she carried on board the money and supplies she was taking back to her people.
we settled down to doing what we could to carry forward her work. then, on may 7, 1915, flashed the incredible, the terrible news—the greatest passenger liner afloat had been torpedoed! the lusitania had sunk in twenty-two minutes, 1,198 lives had been lost. we went about dazed.
one by one the recovered bodies were identified, and among them was that of marie de page.
[8]
we have found some little consolation in endowing beds in her memory in the hospital for which she gave her life. she is buried in the sand dunes not far from it; whenever doctor de page looks from his window, he looks on her grave.
“in”
as the only american woman member of the commission for relief i was permitted to enter belgium in july, 1916.
i already knew that this country held 3,000,000 destitute; that over one and one-quarter million depended for existence entirely on the daily “soupes”; that between the soup-lines and the rich (who in every country, in every catastrophe, can most easily save themselves) there were those who, after having all their lives earned a comfortable living, now found their sources of income vanished, and literally faced starvation. for this large body, drawn from the industrial, commercial [9]and professional classes, from the nobility itself, the suffering was most acute, most difficult to discover and relieve.
i knew that at the beginning of the war the great organizing genius of herbert hoover had seized the apparently unsolvable problem of the relief of belgium, and with an incredible swiftness had forced the cooperation of the world in the saving of this people who had not counted the cost of defending their honor. that because of this, every day in the month, ships, desperately difficult to secure, were pushing across the oceans with their cargoes of wheat and rice and bacon, to be rushed from rotterdam through the canals to the c. r. b. warehouses throughout belgium. it meant the finding of millions of money—$250,000,000 to date—begging of individuals, praying to governments, the pressing of all the world to service.
i realized, too, that the belgian men, [10]under the active leadership of messieurs solvay, francqui, de wouters and janssen, with a joint administration of americans and belgians, were organized into the comité national, whose activities covered every square foot of the country, determining the exact situation, the exact need of each section, and who were responsible for the meeting of the situation locally and as a whole.
but i knew from the lips of the chairman of the c. r. b. himself, that despite all the work of the splendid men of these organizations, the martyrdom of belgium was being prevented by its women. i was to learn in what glorious manner, in what hitherto undreamed of degree, this was true—that the women of belgium, true to the womanhood and motherhood of all ages, were binding the wounds and healing the soul of their country!
