i was reminded again to-day of how constant work must be the only thing that makes living possible to many of these women. we were at lunch, when suddenly the roar of the german guns cut across our talk. we rushed into the street, where a gesticulating crowd had already located the five allied aeroplanes high above us. little white clouds dotted the sky all about them—puffs of white smoke that marked the bursting shrapnel. tho the guns seemed to be firing just behind our house, we believed we were quite out of danger. however, marie ran to us quite white and with her hands over her ears. “oh, madame!” she cried, [168]“the shrapnel is bursting all about the kitchen!” she had experienced it. she had told me once that her sister had died of fright three days after the war began, and i realized now that she probably had. our picturesque léon slipt over to assure me that this was not a real attack, but just a visit to give us hope on the second anniversary of the beginning of the war, to tell us the allies were thinking of us, and that we should soon be delivered. without doubt they would drop a message of some sort.
i thought of our united states minister and his proximity to the luxembourg railroad station. he had several times smilingly exprest concern over that proximity.
i remembered, too, the swift answer of monsieur ... who lives opposite the railroad station at mons. bombs had just been dropt on this station—one had fallen in front of his house, and when [169]i asked if he and his wife would not consider moving he replied, “madame, our two sons are in the trenches—should we not be ashamed to think of this as danger?”
all the while the aeroplanes were circling and the guns were booming. then suddenly one of the aviators made a sensational drop to within a few hundred meters of the molenbeek station, threw his bombs, and before the guns could right themselves, regained his altitude—and all five were off, marvelously escaping the puffs of white before and behind them.
this was thrilling, till suddenly flashed the sickening realization of what it really meant. the man behind the gun was doing his utmost to kill the man in the machine. it was horrible—horrible to us.
but to belgian wives and mothers what must it have been? as they [170]looked up they cried: “is that my boy—my husband, who has come back to his home this way? after two years, is he there? my god, can they reach him?” the only answer was the roar of the guns, the bursting shrapnel—and they covered their eyes.
i visited madame ..., whose only son is in the flying corps, at her toy factory the following day, and realized what the experience had cost her. her comment, however, was, “well, now i believe i am steeled for the next.”
madame is accomplishing one of the finest pieces of work being done in belgium to-day. before the war she had a considerable reputation as a painter in water colors. as suddenly as it came, she found her home emptied of sons, brothers, nephews, and she went through the common experience of trying to construct something from the chaos of those tragic days. her first [171]thought was of what must be done for the little nephews and nieces who were left. they must be kept happy as well as alive. and she wondered if she could not turn her painting to use in making toys for them. often before the war when sketching in flanders she had looked at the quaint old villages, full of beauty in color and line, and felt that each was a jewel in itself and ought, somehow, to be preserved as a whole. and suddenly she decided to try and reproduce them in toy form for children. she drew beautiful designs of the villages of furnes and dixmude, loving ones of churches that had already been destroyed. she secured wood, began carving her houses, trees, furniture—then arranged her villages, drawing the patterns for the children to build from. needless to say the nieces and nephews were enchanted; and she worked ahead on other villages for other children.
[172]
not very long after this she visited the queen’s ambulance in the palace at brussels, and as she talked with the wounded belgian soldiers, the thought of the hopeless future of the mutilated ones tormented her. it suddenly flashed over her that they might be given hope, if they could be taught to make her beloved toys. she was allowed to bring in models—the soldiers were interested at once—the authorities gave her permission to teach them.
later she secured a building in brussels—her sister-in-law and others of her family came to help. they wisely laid in a good supply of beechwood in advance, got their paints and other materials ready, and began to work with a handful of soldiers. she soon needed machines for cutting the wood, and then found that no matter how thoroughly healed, a man who has been terribly wounded, the equilibrium of whose body [173]had been destroyed by the loss of an arm or leg, or both, could not soon be trusted with a dangerous machine—and she had to engage a few expert workmen for this department. girls begged to be taken in, and she added nine to her fifty soldiers—one of them a pretty, black-haired refugee from the north of france. the thick book with all the addresses of applicants for work who have had to be refused, is a mute evidence of the saddest part of this whole situation—the lack of work for those who beg to be kept off the soup-lines.
the fortunate ones are paid by piece-work, but always the directors try to arrange that each man shall be able to earn about 2? francs a day.
madame is not merely accomplishing a present palliative, but aiming at making men self-respecting, useful members of the state for their own and their country’s good.
