Show reminiscences of a belgian baby by katharine eggleston roberts ht 1920 20 western newspaper unon un on whee ee eel zing I 1 bangi there I 1 was right in ID the middle of it I 1 thought the whole world was like that nod and im free to confess the first impression was anything but favorable those zep belins and their bombs were awfully annoying they made me nervous furthermore ther more a cellar Is no place in which to be horn born it gives one such ruch a wrong idea of home of course I 1 know now it was the best place for safety but then I 1 have my present viewpoint that was about five years ago yes my entrance was quite dramatic you see I 1 came just at the hie wrong rong N time they were expecting the roof to tall fall in at any minute and the atmosphere was rather strained it at all the sort of welcome a new member of a family expects but after all I 1 routh reason to complain As soon as the germans took our town they stopped destroying houses because they wanted to keep the city in good condition to live in after they had won the war 1 I suppose they are sorry now even at that they pleasant people to have around I 1 was asleep when they first came to our house id heard a banging outside but bill think anything of it and went on sleeping all of a sudden some one picked me up and lie he was anything but gentle I 1 ii like ice it and I 1 like him and I 1 said so s 0 in very plain and forceful language my illy lungs and vocal cords were simply worn out afterward I 1 surely was relieved when my sister took rne me away from him and I 1 guess he was too but that was just the beginning when I 1 saw another man lu in one of those rat colored costumes pull pui the mattress off my crib and take out its wool stuffing Dg I 1 was mad clear through and then I 1 looked around and saw they were doing the same thing to my mothers bed they took most of the blankets too but what could we do my aly father there because he had gone somewhere else to fight and I 1 was the only man iu in the house I 1 had tried kicking that german when he be first picked me up and I 1 realized he was too big for me to handle we hoped that one raid would be the end of it but it well to make a long story short they came another time and took all the pretty shiny copper and our doorknobs they removed our big bronze chandeliers and even the little hinges front from the piano we tried to hide some things but they found all e incept a few doorknobs and a couple of candlesticks then they came again and took the linen finally they made a search for potatoes after that they visited us once a week and seized wlate whatever ver they had bad missed before honestly I 1 concluded they were going to take the whole house and were moving it on the installment plan but they left the house ethelf and whatever hat ever they want in it my mother was awfully sad because we bear from father of course we have much to live on either the germans let anyone have more than a little bit of bread a week and everything else elee was just as scarce I 1 was always hungry and bald so till I 1 noticed mother was giving me part of her share I 1 make so much fuss after that As to clothes well as I 1 grew I 1 had to have new ones and we buy them because we have money and materials material were terribly high priced the rest of the family had worn out all the things they had in the begin I 1 wont bother you with all the di tells of those four years they were i mostly a monotony of nothing to eat ea and nothing to wear everybody felt sorry for me because I 1 was so young when the armist lep was signed we w just went crazy here the first belgian soldier who rode into town was waa carried about on peoples shoulders till til the poor fellow was worn out we V were terribly anxious to get rid of 0 the germans and because they leave fast enough to suit us everyone wore little pins like brooms to show alio them we were going to sweep them out if they hurry burry suddenly my father caroe came home I 1 heard roy my mother call his name and an all the family ran into the lie hall where he awni find geirin to cry an and F ZT P f when father came home laugh and cry again of course I 1 had ha never seen him and at first I 1 believe that the tall thin man wit ith hollow cheeks was my father to tell te the hie truth troth I 1 felt rather out of place pla and embarrassed so I 1 hung around aroun the edge of the crowd till someone remembered me and I 1 was presented presente to father frankly I 1 just know kno the proper way to greet him of C course he was my father but after all al W I 1 1 1 1 f I 1 x of T UR R P 11 1 1 T 0 ra Z aw nang my sister dyed some blankets we had hidden whenever the germans called and we made coats and other clothes ot of them then at night we put them over us to keep warm believe nip me there were some queer costumes here during the war As soon as I 1 learned to talk I 1 began g eting into trouble one day I 1 saw that german officer who bad yanked me out of bed when I 1 was just new I 1 thought maybe he lind understood erswood my former remarks and so I 1 made a few more he reached for me and I 1 ran at first he started to chase me but it jostled his dignity too much and I 1 was safe I 1 got into one scrape after another and sometimes when nhen I 1 was hungry I 1 run fast e enough dough those men certainly knew how to use their swagger sticks I 1 guess they must have practiced at home we were practically strangers the sensation was very queer I 1 think he be felt it too for lie looked at me curiously we got through the meeting somehow since then weve become better acquainted you know I 1 dont see how we got along without him how ore are things now well we have more to eat cat and we the germans around till all the time I 1 surely was glad when they stopped their weekly visits but of course youve noticed we any doorknobs everything that was taken has to be replenished I 1 heard the family talking when I 1 was supposed to be asleep they said something about bills that had been run during the war father sal said d he was glad his credit had been good but lie he know whether it would be five dve years from now flow I 1 dont know exactly what he be meant mother told him that the clothes wed made from the blankets were so worn that they do tor for either clothes or blankets tills this winter but my sister had been downtown pricing things and it seems you cant buy wool clothes now DOW for less than a fortune father said he be see how bow they were going to get enough new machinery in place of that the germans took from his factory to make the necessary fortune mother and my sister cant go out at the same time lime any more the coat question fathers things are none too good and just look at these trousers im wea wearing 1 arent they a sight too tight too it if I 1 dont get a new pair pretty soon ill il I 1 ju just t be desperate T take sic e it from me im never going to be born again during a war ill il wait till its all over and settled all I 1 could do was take up room and food and clothing and anyhow its no fit introduction to life why at first when we began to get more to eat aati I 1 was actually food shy im not fat enough set but it if I 1 have ter wear these clothes much longer I 1 guess its a 9 good tiling thing then as I 1 said before it has knocked my illy all to smil smash sit and now ill have to take a running jump to make good |