Show ARGE IRE R RATS TS ON BRUSSELS TI I rIflE Ilk THE CI CHARGE OF THE r Outlook Lester G G. Hornby 1 N the I a. a 1 I who IB is at the front tells this story eton at t dinner dinner din din- Theobald SIsson sat at beside me ner ncr in Paris and told of ot his trip to toBru Temps during the ad advance advance ad- ad Bru Brussels for Le Lc time tIle Prussians lIe IIo mentioned vance anco of ot curious incidents relative reIn rela of the most one ono tive tl to the time siege that I have ha ever hoard heard direction from the general We e knew know which the time Pru Prussians would come and andI tho the could not think of or following crowd I leaving tho the city in tho opposite direction without first having seen geen of a a. definite sign of ot the tho in In In- with went along along- A peasant one who know the tho country whose me mc of change senses were keen to over every the wind We 0 had gone but a n. short way be beyond beyond bo- bo when my IllY companion yond thu the city and amid stepping into a grasping m my arm down tho the clump of busheS pointed great stretch of ot white road before us mis At first I saw aw nothing Then I aa saw caw w what ml might ht havo have been a a. little cloud of ef It dust raised b by a puff purr of ot wind yet it could hardly be bo the tho wind for It never left the road This lust dust cloud came steadily toward us alwa always s rising to the samo sarnO height about a meter above the road The peasants peasant's first t remark I was waB The Tho Prussians But wo 0 wore were I curious and wanted to see As the dust lust camo caine nearer I could see Ree behind It There was nothing merely the settling dut dust t But a as It came camo still nearer I aw saw close to time the road be beneath be- be neath the tho lust dust cloud a no dark racing mass of life with millions of ot little lC rats legs a rats Thousands upon t thousands of rats racing a aa as fast as us they could go bO in a n mad stampede e. e These countless countless count- count less loss thousands of homeless quadrupeds quadrupeds driven b by tho the Pru Prussians MIAns from other battle hattle fields In invaded Brussels be before be- be Before time the fore fere time the besieging army dust had hall settled wo we too took tool to the tho road and entered the city to leave len again from the other side with the last of ot the parting Belgians |