there are seven rooms in brussels, each with a long table in the middle, and with rows upon rows of green wooden boxes (about the size of a macaroni box) on shelf-racks against walls. the racks, too, are painted the color of hope—the green which after the war might well deserve a place with the red, orange and black, for having so greatly comforted the people when all display of their national colors was supprest. each box has a hook in front from which hangs a pasteboard card, marked with a number; it hangs there if the box is full, when empty it is filed.
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the first morning i happened in on one of these sections, i found a director and three pretty young girls feverishly busy with hundreds and hundreds of little paper bags. there were as many green boxes as the table would hold, arranged before them, with scales at either end. they were running back and forth from the pantry with a bowl or an apronful of something, and then weighing and pouring into the bags tiny portions of beans and chicory, salt and sugar, bacon and other things. they weighed and poured as fast as they could and with almost joyous satisfaction tucked the little bags one after another into the boxes. then they dove into the big vegetable baskets at one end of the room, and each box was made gay with a lettuce or cauliflower. for some there were bottles of milk, or a few precious potatoes or eggs. if the egg chest had been gold, it could hardly have been [192]more treasured. for a moment it seemed the war must be a horrible dream. this was really the day before christmas! there were even a few red apples—as a special surprize, some one had contributed two kilos that day. since they were obviously far short of enough to furnish one for each box, the directors decided to tuck one into the box for each mother whom they knew to have a little boy or girl. box after box took its place on the shelves until finally, by two o’clock, all gaps were filled, and a curious wall-garden grew half-way up to the ceiling. it might well have been christmas, but actually this scene had been repeated two days a week, week in and week out, for over two and a half years, and nobody stops to question how many long months it must continue.
some time before the last box was on its shelf, the first woman with a string [193]bag on her arm arrived. she was carefully drest, intelligent-looking, a woman of about fifty. later i found that before the war she had a comfortable home, with servants and a motor-car. she slipt quietly along the racks till she found the card with her number, took her box from the shelf and transferred the tiny sacks and the two eggs to her string bag. then she placed the little packet of empty bags and string she was returning on the table, and, after answering a few questions about her two children, went slowly downstairs. none but the committee, or equally unfortunate ones who came as she did, need know she had been there. this was wednesday; she could come again on friday. other women came, and, as the first, each could go to her box without asking, and find the precious packages—mere mouthfuls as they seemed to me!
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i thought i smelled soup, and followed madame ... to a little side room where i saw chairs and a white-covered table. her cook was just depositing a big can of thick soup which she had been preparing at home, and which madame had ordered brought to the center each distribution day. any one who wishes may slip into this room on her way out, sit at a dainty table, and drink a bowl of hot soup.
by half-past two the place was filled. dozens of women were busy with their bags and boxes, while half a dozen directors were tidying up, storing strings and sacks, filing cards, washing utensils; there was a most heartening atmosphere of busyness and cheerfulness. and all the while one group was telling its story to the other and receiving the comfort warm hearts could give. i overheard the promise of a bed to one, or coal to another, and over and over again the [195]“yes, i understand; i, too, am without news.” from all the husbands and sons at the front no word! these women met on the ground of their common suffering. one of the saddest of all sad things happened that afternoon, when a mother, on seeing the lovely “unnecessary” apple, burst into tears. for so long, so long, her little marie had had nothing but the ration prescribed to keep her from starving. this mother broke down as she dropt the red apple into her bag.
these were all people who had been well-off, even comfortable, but whose funds either suddenly, at the beginning, or gradually through the two terrible years, had been exhausted. mostly their men were in the trenches; there were children or old people to care for; they had done their utmost, but at last were forced to accept help. i wondered how these few pitiful little bags could make any difference. the slice of unsmoked [196]bacon was neither so broad nor so thick as the palm of my hand, and yet that was to be their meat and butter for three days! in this distribution center it seemed absolutely nothing, but when i visited the homes later i saw it was a great deal.
in brussels there were in october, 1916, no less than 5,000 “pauvres honteux” or “ashamed poor” (there must be many more now) being helped through the seven sections of this “assistance discrète,” each of which carries the same beautiful motto, “donne, et tais-toi,” “give, and be silent.” at the very beginning of the war a great-hearted woman saw where the chief danger of misery lay. the relief organizations would naturally first look after the wounded, the homeless, the very poor. those who were accustomed to accept charity would make the earliest demands. but what about those whose business was [197]slowly being ruined, whose reserves were small? what about school-teachers, artists, and other members of professional classes? and widows living on securities invested abroad, or children of gentle upbringing, whose fathers had gone to the front expecting to return in three or four months? she saw many of them starving rather than go on the soup-lines.
she had a vision of true mutual aid. each person who had should become the sister of her who had not. there should be a sharing of individual with individual. she did not think of green boxes or sections, but of person linked with person in the spirit of fraternity. but the number of the desperate grew too rapidly, her first idea of direct individual help had to be abandoned, and one after another distribution centers were organized. an investigator was put in charge of each center who reported personally [198]on all the cases that were brought in, either directly or indirectly to the committee. the relief committee granted a subsidy of 10,000 francs a month, which, one sees at a glance, can not nearly cover the need. so day after day the directors of each section canvass their districts for money and food, and by dint of an untiring devotion raise the monthly 10,000 to about 28,000 francs. but, unfortunately, every day more of war means wretched ones forced to the wall, and this sum is always far from meeting the distress. we have only to divide the 30,000 francs by the 5,000 on the lists, to see what, at best, each family may receive.
i went with mademoiselle ..., an investigator, to visit one of these families. a charming old gentleman received us. i should say he was about seventy-three. he had been ill, and was most cheerful over what he called his “recovery,” tho [199]to us he still looked far from well. the drawing-room was comfortable, spotlessly clean; there was no fire. we talked of his children, both of whom were married; one son was in italy, another in russia—the war had cut off all word or help from both. he himself had been a successful engineer in his day, but he had not saved much, his illness and two years of war had eaten up everything. he was interested in mexico and in the panama canal, and we chatted on until mademoiselle felt we must go. as we were shaking hands, she opened her black velvet bag and took out an egg which she laughingly left on the table as her visiting card. she did it perfectly, and he laughed back cheerily, “after the war, my dear, i shall certainly find the hen that will lay you golden eggs!” outside, i still could hardly pull myself together—one egg as a precious gift to a dignified old gentleman-engineer! could [200]it be possible? “but,” explained mademoiselle, “if i had not given him that egg, he would not have any egg!” eggs were costing about ten cents each. “of course, we never even discuss meat,” she added; “but he has been quite ill, and he must have an egg at least every two or three days!”
the woman we visited next did not have a comfortable home, but a single room. she had been for many years a governess in a family in eastern belgium, but just before the war both she and the family had invested their money in a savings concern which had gone to pieces, and from that day she had been making the fight to keep her head above water. she had come to brussels, was succeeding fairly well, when she was taken ill. she had had an operation, but after months there was still an open wound, and she could drag herself about only with great difficulty. i found that mademoiselle [201]takes her to the hospital, a matter of hours, three times a week for treatment, and, besides that, visits her in her room. as we were talking, a niece, also unfortunately without funds, came in to polish the stove and dust a bit. mademoiselle reported that she was pretty sure of being able to bring some stockings to knit on her next visit. these would bring five cents a pair. and, as we left, she gave another egg, and this time a tiny package of cocoa, too. i discovered that every morsel this governess has to eat comes to her from mademoiselle. and yet i have never been in a room where there was greater courage and cheerfulness.
so it was as we went from square to square. in some homes there were children with no father; in others, grandfathers with neither children nor grandchildren; and between them, people well enough, young enough, but simply ruined by the war. mademoiselle was going back [202]to spend the night with an old lady we had visited the week before, and had found reading anatole france. she had felt she must make her last testament, and looking at her we agreed. that week she had received word that her only son, who was also her only kin, had been killed in the trenches three months before.
of course, every city has its hundreds of unfortunates; there must be everywhere some form of “assistance discrète,” but most of those on the lists of this war-time organization would in peace time be the ones to give, rather than receive, and their number is increasing pitifully as month follows month.
every one permitted to be in belgium for any length of time marvels at the incredible, unbreakable spirit of its people. they meet every new order of the military authorities with a laugh; when they have to give up their motor-cars, they [203]ride on bicycles; when all bicycle tires are requisitioned, they walk cheerfully; if the city is fined 1,000,000 marks, the laconic comment is: “it was worth it!” all the news is censored, so they manufacture and circulate cheerful news—nothing ever breaks through their smiling, defiant solidarity. one thing only in secret i have heard them admit, and that is the anguish of their complete separation from their loved ones at the front. mothers and wives of every other nation may have messages; they, never.
the thing that has bound them thus together and buoyed them up is just this enveloping, inter-penetrating atmosphere of mutual aid, so beautifully exprest every day through the work of the “assistance discrète.” it was this vision of fraternity in its widest sense that gave it birth, and every day the women of belgium are making that vision a blessed reality.
