This war has produced examples of every kind of misery which human
beings can inflict upon each other, except one. Europe has mercifully
been spared long sieges of populous towns, ending in the surrender of
the starving population. But many towns and villages have been burnt;
and masses of refugees have fled before the invader, knowing too
well the brutal treatment which they had to expect if they remained.
Very many of the unhappy Belgians have taken refuge in Holland; a
considerable number have found an asylum in this country. They are
homeless and ruined; if the war were to end to-morrow, many of them
would not know where to go or how to live. Families have been broken
up; husbands and wives, parents and children, are ignorant of each
other’s fate. In this picture we see a crowd of children, herded
together like a flock of sheep, with nobody to take care of them.
Their _via dolorosa_ is marked by long rows of crosses on either side,
emblems of suffering, death, and sacrifice. In the distance rise the
smoke and flames from one of the innumerable incendiary fires which
the Germans, like the cruel banditti of the Middle Ages, have kindled
wherever they go.