*By John Boon of The London Daily Mail.*
BRUSSELS, via Alost, Aug. 20. (Thursday,) 10 P.M.
The Germans entered Brussels shortly after 2 P.M. today without firing a shot.
Yielding to the dictates of reason and humanity, the civil Government at the last moment disbanded the Civic Guard, which the Germans would not recognize. The soldiers and ordinary police were then entrusted with the maintenance of order.
After a day of wild panic and slumberless nights the citizens remained at their windows. Few sought their couches.
The morning broke brilliantly. The city was astir early, and on all lips were the words: "They are here" or "They are coming!"
The "they" referred to were already outside the boundaries in great force. The artillery was packed off on the road to Waterloo. Horse, foot, and sapper were packed deep on the Louvain and Tervervueren roads.
An enterprising motorist came in with the information and the crowds in the busy centres immediately became calm. At 11 o"clock it was reported that an officer with half a troop of hussars bearing white flags had halted outside the Louvain gate.
The Burgomaster and four Sheriffs went in a motor car to meet the officers. They were conducted to the German military authorities at the head of the column. The meeting took place outside the barracks of the carabineers.
The Burgomaster claimed for the citizens their rights under the laws of war regulating an unfortified capital. When roughly asked if he was prepared to surrender the city, with the threat that otherwise it would be bombarded, the Burgomaster said he would do so. He also decided to remove his scarf of office.
The discussion was brief. When the Burgomaster handed over his scarf it was handed back to him and he was thus intrusted for the time being with the civil control of the citizens. The Germans gave him plainly to understand that he would be held responsible for any overt act on the part of the populace against the Germans.
From noon until 2 o"clock the crowds waited expectantly. Shortly after 2 o"clock the booming of cannon and later the sound of military music conveyed to the people of Brussels the intimation that the triumphant march of the enemy on the ancient city had begun.
On they came, preceded by a scouting party of Uhlans, horse, foot, and artillery and sappers, with a siege train complete.
A special feature of the procession was 100 motor cars on which quick-firers were mounted. Every regiment and battery was headed by a band, horse or foot.
Now came the drums and fifes, now the blare of bra.s.s and soldiers singing "Die Wacht am Rhein" and "Deutschland Ueber Alles."
Along the Chaussee de Louvain, past St. Josse and the Botanical Gardens, to the great open s.p.a.ce in front of the Gare du Nord, the usual lounging place of the tired twaddlers of the city, swept the legions of the man who broke the peace of Europe.
Among the cavalry were the famous Brunswick Death"s Head Hussars and their companions on many b.l.o.o.d.y fields, the Zeiten Hussars. But where was the glorious garb of the German troops, the cherry-colored uniforms of the hors.e.m.e.n and the blue of the infantry? All is greenish, earth-color gray. All the hel- [Transcriber: Text missing in original.]
are painted gray. The gun carriages are gray. Even the pontoon bridges are gray.
To the quick-step beat of the drums the Kaiser"s men march to the great Square Charles Rogier. Then at the whistling sound of the word of command--for the sonorous orders of the German officers seemed to have gone the way of the brilliant uniforms--the gray-clad ranks broke into the famous goose step, while the good people of Liege and Brussels gazed at the pa.s.sing wonder with mouths agape.
At the railroad station the great procession defiled to the boulevards and thence marched to encamp on the heights of the city called Kochelberg. It was truly a sight to have gladdened the eyes of the Kaiser, but on the sidewalks men were muttering beneath their breath: "They"ll not pa.s.s here on their return. The Allies will do for them."
Many of the younger men in the great array seemed exhausted after the long forced march, but as a man staggered his comrades in the ranks held him up.
It was a great spectacle and an impressive one, but there were minor incidents that were of a less pleasant character.
Two Belgian officers, manacled and fastened to the leather stirrups of two Uhlans, made a spectacle that caused a low murmur of resentment from the citizens. Instantly German hors.e.m.e.n backed their steeds into the closely packed ranks of the spectators, threatening them with uplifted swords and stilling the momentary revolt.
At one point of the march a lame hawker offered flowers for sale to the soldiers. As he held up his posies a Captain of Hussars by a movement of his steed sent the poor wretch sprawling and bleeding in the dust. Then from the crowd a Frenchwoman, her heart scorning fear, cried out, "You brute!" so that all might hear.
There was one gross pleasantry, too, perpetrated by a gunner who led along a bear, evidently the pet of his battery, which was dressed in the full regalia of a Belgian General.
The bear was evidently intended to represent the King. He touched his c.o.c.ked hat at intervals to his keeper.
This particularly irritated the Belgians, but they wisely abstained from any overt manifestation or any unpleasant feature of behavior. The soldiery as they pa.s.sed tore repeatedly at the national colors which every Belgian lady now wears on her breast.
A more pleasant incident was when a party of Uhlans clamored for admittance at a villa on the Louvain road. They disposed of a dozen bottles of wine and bread and meat. The non-commissioned officer in command asked what the charge was and offered some gold pieces in payment. The money was refused.
Near the steps of St. Gudule a party of officers of high rank, seated in a motor car, confiscated the stock of the news vendors. After greedily scanning the sheets they burst into loud laughter.
Hour after hour, hour after hour, the Kaiser"s legions marched into Brussels streets and boulevards. Some regiments made a very fine appearance, and it is well that the people of England should know this.
It was notably so in the case of the Sixty-sixth, Fourth and Twenty-sixth Regiments. Not one man of these regiments showed any sign of excessive fatigue after the gruelling night of marching, and no doubt the order to "goose step" was designedly given to impress the onlookers with the powers of resistance of the German soldiers.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The First Rush Into Belgium.]
The railway stations, the Post Office and the Town Hall were at once closed. The national flag on the latter was pulled down and the German emblem hoisted in its place. Practically all the shops were closed and the blinds drawn on most of the windows.
At the time of writing I have heard of no very untoward incident. The last train left Brussels at 9 o"clock on Wednesday night. Pa.s.sengers to the city cannot pa.s.s beyond Denderleeuw, where there are strong German pickets.
*The Fall of Antwerp*
*By a Correspondent of The London Daily Chronicle, Who Was at Antwerp During the Siege.*
[Special Dispatch to THE NEW YORK TIMES.]
LONDON, Oct. 11.--A Daily Chronicle correspondent who has just arrived from Antwerp tells the following story of his experiences:
Antwerp has been surrendered. This last and bitterest blow which has fallen upon Belgium is full of poignant tragedy, but the tragedy is lightened by the gallantry with which the city was defended.
Only at the last, to save the historic buildings and precious possessions of the ancient port, was its further defense abandoned.
Already much of it had been shattered by the long-range German guns, and prolonged resistance against these tremendous engines of war was impossible.
Owing to this the siege was perhaps the shortest in the annals of war that a fortified city ever sustained. I have already described its preliminaries and the many heroic efforts which were made by the Belgians to stem the tide of the enemy"s advance, but the end could not long be delayed when the siege guns began the bombardment.
It was at three minutes past noon on Friday that the Germans entered the city, which was formally surrendered by the Burgomaster, J. de Vos.
Antwerp had then been under a devastating and continuous sh.e.l.l fire for over forty hours.
It was difficult for me to ascertain precisely how the German attack was being const.i.tuted, but from officers and others who made journeys from the fighting lines into the city I gathered that the final a.s.sault consisted of a continuous bombardment of two hours" duration, from 7:30 o"clock in the morning until 9:30.
During that time there was a continuous rain of sh.e.l.ls, and it was extraordinary to notice the precision with which they dropped just where they would do the most damage. I was told that the Germans used captive balloons, whose officers signaled to the gunners the points in the Belgian defense at which they should aim.
The German guns, too, were concealed with such cleverness that their position could not be detected by the Belgians. Against such methods and against the terrible power of the German guns the Belgian artillery seemed quite ineffective. The firing came to an end at 9:30 o"clock Friday, and the garrison escaped, leaving only ruins behind them.
[Ill.u.s.tration: GEN. VON KLUCK Commanding on the German Left Wing in the West (_Copyright, Photographische Gesellschaft, by permission of the Berlin Photographic Co., N.Y._)]
[Ill.u.s.tration: GEN. VON HINDENBURG The German Commander in the East (_Copyright, Photographische Gesellschaft, by permission of the Berlin Photographic Co. N.Y._)]