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Show Belgium Sketches The Voice of the Chimes By Katharine Eggleston Roberts (Copyright, 1920, Western Newspaper Union) In a little town In the plain of Brabanconne. the summer twilight filled the winding streets with shadows. shad-ows. Over the cobblestones, bright-cheeked bright-cheeked girls in wooden shoes, blue dresses, and red kerchiefs trundled Iheir two-wheeled carts of flowers. The scented breeze was cool. Here and there lights began to gleam behind be-hind the windows of the narrow, peak-roofed peak-roofed houses. The tower of the cathedral rose against the sunset sky like a misty dream and yet a dream immovable. Its sculptured saints smiled on the peaceful land. All was quiet In the happy silence that ends a day well lived. Then with the stealth of fairies the tiny notes played in the air. Softly it first, the magic music descended the houses. They saw a family grouped about the supper table. The father, whose bulging vest made him sit very straight and rather pompously, pompous-ly, gazed with satisfaction at his family fam-ily about the loaded cloth. The mother, moth-er, a woman of complacent curves, smiled benignly at her well-scrubbed children and her contented husband. In another part of town, a humbler part, a small square window framed another picture a brown-walled kitchen kitch-en where the copper glowed in the rays from a lamp on the red-checked table. The old man and the old woman wom-an nodded in their chairs. His stockinged stock-inged feet were stretched upon a footstool foot-stool and their wooden shoes rested beside him on the floor. As her fingers loosened from the knitting needles, the half-made sock slid gently gen-tly from her lap. The stars chuckled and skipped to get out of the way of the new moon who came to watch the last part of the drama in the village. vil-lage. And when she saw a girl, who, wide awake, dreamed of a sweetheart In a neighboring town, the moon of romance ro-mance took her message to the youth. Then from the cathedral tower, the midnight melody of the carillon put the girl to sleep. But that was long ago before the German guns roared out of the north strong voices "that chanted a fierce harmony of misery and ruin evil voices that sent a tempest of terror into the calm minds of the people and bade them sob their everlasting farewells. fare-wells. Now In the plain of Brabanconne lies the village, mangled and charred. Its narrow streets find their tortuons tvay among the crumbling walls and j summer twilight lays a gray pall over j the broken homes. The flowers that j gave their sweetness are faded and the tongues of their venders are dumb. Sadly the stars gaze through i the night mist, tear-dimmed eyes that search the blind windows In vain. The people they knew laugh no more, for their dreams, their loves, and their lives are withered. The waning moon seeks the tower and finds but a shattered shat-tered wreck, voiceless to utter the dirge that stirs deep in its heart. Still some of the stone saints smile, but the twist of their lips is ironic. The bells that had sung through the years, that had blessed the joy of the people, cried their last note In pain as they crashed to the foot of the belfry. bel-fry. And the ruined village Is mute; Its tragic doom goes unknelled for the voice of the chimes Is dead. A t'-' . ;-3 j. a. c iX The Voice of the Chimes Is Dead. till, swelling like bubbles of light, it burst In a silvery shower. Everywhere Every-where green shutters opened to let In the winged notes. Pedestrians paused, then hastened their steps toward the foot of the church, there to receive the sweetest benediction of the chimes. Slowly the music faded, melted Into the shadows and the perfume per-fume of the night. The million stars, wakening from their daytime' sleep, blinked till their eyes were bright, returning the twinkle of the lights within the windows. win-dows. Now and then they peeked into . r ' ' . . - . . v i- .v .' " , : - ,-'- -'"' : -! ";.''. :' i V ;....," '' ' - ' v:'"'7 y j A,i :. -.' 'j? :- "-" -T?" '"" ' " "'fe-y; :;- VJ -'- ' ' "' :'; ; . 1 : : ' . -. J-v, . I y ; v ' h- - - ' 1 1- 1 r 0:;-5y;y "y' - ; ' ' , -: :fv.:;;;y "ry M--''. t y- f ZQ ' : ' ' : 's::;:'v I , . After a Visit From the Spiked Helmet Men. j |