Ways of War and Peace

It came about, after worrying and waiting a week, in this way: The word came that our government had arranged so that we were to get some money on our letters of credit. After standing out in the hot sun a half-day the bank clerk gave my mother and me one hundred and fifty dollars on two letters of credit. I objected, saying that we were entitled to one hundred and fifty dollars apiece. The clerk replied curtly that the money to be paid out was at his discretion. The one hundred and fifty dollars was intended for traveling expenses until we should reach Berlin. He did not seem to take cognizance of the fact that we had a two weeks' board-bill to pay before we should get that far.

When I appeared with my mother a few days later in quest of more money he was furious, as he accused me of calling him a d – thing, though I had only accused him of being a disagreeable person.

It looked for a while as though the bank clerk was determined to have me arrested for calling him a bad name. I afterward learned that even in homes of peace you can be arrested for calling bad names and the offence becomes worse in war times. I was afraid that he might accuse me next of being a spy, so I made my escape and never saw the man again. The brewer and my mother finally quieted him and he gave us twenty pounds, or one hundred dollars, more. Some of the men finally arranged so that they got a few hundred dollars every week, at least enough to pay their board.

But I consoled myself by saying that there were some who had less credit than we had. There was an American man who had lived for years in China, and he said that he could not get a dollar. A Chicago lawyer took pity and shared his fifty pounds with him, trusting to fate to get some more.

After realizing fully that I could not get any money from the small bank, and in such desperate times it was foolish to depend on promises for aid, I decided to campaign for more money.

Just before the cables had been closed, I had been advised from home to seek advice and financial aid, if necessary, from two men in Frankfurt; the one I had met six months before and the other I did not know. At first I thought I would take a train and go up to Frankfurt to shorten the process of borrowing money. Though it is only a five hours' trip, under ordinary circumstances, from where I was, it had been prolonged to a fourteen hours' journey. I did not want to trust to the mail, as less than ten per cent. of the letters written were being received. I was glad to find out that I could wire for twenty-five cents, as money was too precious to be wasted on long distance messages, and it broke my heart every time I had to send a cable.

One evening I decided to find our Frankfurt friend. I soon discovered I had undertaken a large contract. When I looked in the directory I could not find his business address. I was about to give up in despair when the happy thought came that I might find it in the telephone book. I found the name, Heilburg, 61 Beethoven strasse. It's fortunate that many of the streets in Germany are named after the composers and artists, for though I had only been there once, I remembered they lived on a musical street.

After waiting a half-hour I got my party, and had as much difficulty in making him remember who I was as I had in holding an intelligible German conversation over the 'phone. I thought the man would drop at the 'phone when I asked him for two hundred and fifty dollars, and he compromised on half the amount. Though his intentions were the best, it took a week's hard telephoning every day until I actually had the money in my hand.

In the meanwhile I had received another cable from home telling me to call up a certain banker in Frankfurt. When I approached him on the same subject on the 'phone, he said he had never heard my name before, and I could not expect him to hand out money to a person he did not know. I acquiesced in his statement and said that his brother in America was a great friend of my brother. To this he answered he believed all I said was true, but did not see how he could loan me money without being authorized. Finally we compromised on seventy-five dollars, and he promised to let me have more if I sent our letter of credit. I refused to do that, as I knew it would only be lost in the mail.

I decided that I had enough to pay my board-bill for the next two weeks and that was a good deal more than others had, many of whom were living on credit or paying with checks and drafts. There were two or three of our guests who did not have dollar to their name, for all the English and French credit had been cut off. At the end of two weeks I saw my funds being depleted and I decided it was necessary to start on another campaign. In the meantime I had received a letter from a cousin in Dresden and I answered that I could use a little money. That week she sent me two hundred dollars, which paid our board-bill and debts accrued on telephone, telegraph and cable messages. When I left I still owed one week's board-bill. At first it looked as though our host did not intend to let us go without paying, but when he saw I was firm about paying no more he yielded, and said the rest could be paid after we got home. Money was so tight there for four weeks that anything beyond spending a penny for a newspaper was considered foolish extravagance, and I scolded my mother one day for spending twenty-five cents for flowers. Every time I took a carriage to make a long business journey I considered myself wicked, and a carriage ride for pleasure was out of the question. The only extravagance I knew was giving some money to the Red Cross society and some generous tips to the men who went off to the war. At times I thought I should forget how to shop if I ever reached the point where I had plenty of money of my own.

The condition of Americans in Berlin was not much better. I met friends with less than a dollar in their pockets. A doctor and his wife had come up from Carlsbad to Berlin with a quarter between them. Here they were fortunate enough to meet a friend who loaned them two hundred and fifty dollars for a ticket and traveling expenses.

There was a professor and his wife who were trying to get a second-class ticket on a Holland-American boat, though they only had twenty-five dollars in their pockets. They trusted to luck for their ticket and their money. Good fortune favored them, for on their way from Berlin to Holland they met a Southern man, who helped them get their ticket and paid for it.

Every day dozens of young girls who had been studying abroad, and teachers off for a summer's holiday, presented themselves at the German Embassy, telling their hard-luck stories of how they were down to the last cent, and that they would have to be home by the time school opened.

Mrs. Gerard took care of many of these cases herself and saw to it that they were provided with third-class tickets.

At the hotel where I was stopping I met an American lady with three daughters. She said that they had enough funds to take them home in four weeks by the strictest kind of management. The mother and the two young girls had taken over the task of doing the family washing in the bathtub, while the eldest girl was earning one dollar a day for stenographic work at the Embassy. A little later I met two girls who had been in Hamburg. They managed to pay their board and part of their tickets by helping the council out there.

I soon found out that even with money in my pocket, it was hard to make money count, for when it came to getting change they would only give you paper money of small denominations. Gold was the only thing that spoke, and silver was as much at a premium as paper was worthless. I found many people who were going without their next meal because they could not get their paper money changed. I went on a shopping expedition for an hour one morning, just to get a hundred marks changed. I was told that thousands of Americans were stranded in Switzerland, who were without a dollar and without a ticket. As a friend wrote to me, "It is a pitiable sight to see so many of our American women and children, including artists, invalids, school teachers, and mothers with families, who have been educating their children in Switzerland, driven almost to destitution. They come back with tears in their eyes from Swiss banks, because the clerks try to find any possible flaw in their drafts and refuse to honor their letters of credit. Even the more generous of these bankers have only a few hundred dollars a week on which to do business.

"Those of us who are living in Swiss families and boarding houses are fortunate, for the Swiss people are intelligent to understand our predicament and to feel sorry for us. But many have been living in fashionable hotels, where the prices mounted immediately when tourists came piling in by the hundreds. These proprietors expect to have their bills paid weekly, which means that many of their guests are without a dollar. I am sure that more than one wealthy woman has parted with more than one handsome piece of jewelry to pay a week's board bill for herself and her children. The question uppermost in every one's mind is, "When will the Tennessee with its chest of two hundred million dollars arrive, voted by Congress for the relief of Americans?"

"I am sure that the greatest hardships are being known by those who have been living in the mountain resorts in Switzerland, where they have been cut off from all communication. I have seen a number of such people come staggering into our town carrying dress-suitcases, exhausted for want of food and sleep."

On our boat coming home there were a number of destitute cases, men and women without a dollar to their name. After a few days a committee of wealthy men got up a fund to help them out. The day before our boat landed a New York Citizens' Club sent word to our captain that they should look up the destitute cases and they should be provided with money when they reached New York. Among the cases presented some were worthy and some were not. One woman made her plea that she had been separated from her husband a few years before, as a reason for getting money, though she had plenty to take her home.

The American women had been made destitute by losing all their baggage and can count their material wealth in dress-suitcases. The first time I decided to start for Holland the railroads were allowing tourists to take their trunks with them, but two weeks later they said they would not be responsible for any baggage taken. The most daring took a chance, only to leave their luggage in the stations. I saw stations that were piled high with five thousand and more American trunks. Some of the people were fortunate to get their trunks to the frontier, only to lose them on the boundary line. My mother and I left eight trunks on the other side. These are divided between France and Germany. Still we are glad that they are distributed in this way, for however the war goes, we ought to get some of our belongings. On our boat I heard that there are nearly a hundred thousand American trunks in Paris and the same number in London. Unless these trunks are regained, many a woman will have to content herself with two dresses and one hat this winter.

On our boat many a woman bewailed the loss of her trunks, as she said, "Just to think, this is my first trip to Europe and I haven't got one thing to show for it. It has been the dream of my life to say I owned a Paris dress and hat. A hundred dollars is a good deal to pay for a hat and a dress, but certainly they were worth it, if I only had something to show for it.

"I didn't mind for myself, but it doesn't seem like being away unless you have presents for the family at home. I had bought my sisters each a handsome evening bag, mother a handsome scarf and father a beautiful amber pipe."

These hard straits are in marked contrast with the luxurious way in which Americans have been traveling and living abroad the last ten years. Our steamers have reached a point where they were perfect ocean palaces, comparable with the finest New York hotels. The hotels in Europe have been transformed from simple boarding houses to marble palaces, equipped with every luxury and comfort. A room and bath in any first-class hotel brought seven dollars a day and a suite of rooms at thirty was not considered extreme. Many of the restaurants were so fine and fashionable that they didn't even print prices on their bills of fare.

In the summer resorts ten years ago, a hotel keeper boasted of having an omnibus to take the people to the station, an elevator and a few bathrooms. To-day these simple hotels have been transformed into perfect palaces. Golf links, tennis courts and tango teas. The Americans are in no small part responsible for these high prices and foolish luxuries. These hard times, experienced in the war zone, may result in bringing them to their common sense, so that they can again enjoy the simple living.

WHAT THE QUEEN OF HOLLAND IS DOING TO PRESERVE PEACE

If you were only in Holland for a few days you would find out that Wilhelmina is the best ruler in Europe and one of the ablest stateswomen. No sooner had Europe gone to war than she had her government give orders for mobilization. Little Holland was the first after the declaration of war to declare neutrality, and they have kept their faith in not giving aid nor showing any partiality to either side. This has been no small task, for England has been pressing her on one side to join the allies and Germany would like to use her in a material way, especially in the bringing in of food supplies. England has time and again made charges that she was assisting Germany in spite of her neutrality. On the other hand England has several times seized food supplies that belonged to Holland, saying that she was importing them to send them on to Germany.

In spite of these difficulties, such as seizing Dutch boats, because they carried Germans and Austrians going home to fight for their country, the Queen of Holland, backed by her country, has shown an abundance of common sense.

At a recent opening of Parliament she addressed her people, saying she hoped she could keep perfect neutrality. This they would do unless they were forced into the war, for both she and her people wanted peace more than anything else in the world.

In order to maintain this peace in an honorable way, she, sided by her ministers, has done everything in her power to make a bold stand should one or the other of the nations cross the boundary.

When in Holland a few weeks ago, I had the good fortune to cross one of the Dutch frontiers. The boundary was well guarded with men to see that none of the marching men nor contraband of war should be carried across the border.

The entire standing army and a large part of the reserves, nearly a hundred thousand men in all, are scattered between the cities and the boundaries. It is said that she can call a much larger force to the front in case of actual warfare than she has at present. In nearly all the large cities, such as The Hague, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, I saw a large number of young men going through all kinds of military tactics. They were learning how to drill, how to fire, how to dig ditches and build impromptu forts in haste.

That Holland is determined to make a bold stand and fight for her rights if needed, is shown by the fact that she has mined her coast and dynamited her bridges so that she can cut her dams on short notice.

There was such a rumor the day we were at The Hague. It had been falsely rumored that the German Consul had been recalled that day and that the country would be flooded within twenty-four hours.

The Dutch took little credence of these wild rumors, and continued their business and went through their work of mobilizing in the same quiet, energetic way. In spite of their delicate position, there is not a country in Europe that seemed less interested in the war than this north country. The hotel-keepers were too busy looking after the welfare and comforts of tired Americans to take time to discuss war. The shopkeepers were too busy supplying the tourists who had any money left with old Dutch silver and delftware to worry about the war. While the steamship company were too occupied enlarging their boats with auxiliary cabins, getting extra crews and recalling their captains, who had already been sent to the front, to bother their heads about war scares. It may be a mere coincidence, still it is a strange one, that some of the persecuted forefathers fled from England and remained in Holland until they came to our America. It is just a little strange that an American gave such a handsome peace palace to the world, and it should find its place in Holland. It is no less strange that the Queen of Holland and her ministers have taken such an active part in all the peace movements. In the last few weeks they have been most energetic in succoring Americans who fled from Germany and Austria, and she has been most active in getting these refugees home.

As I saw the Queen of Holland leave her palace one afternoon in an automobile, the crowds waiting about her palace to greet her showed that she is near and dear to all her subjects. The fact that she was not surrounded by any soldiers or civil service men shows that she has nothing to fear from assassins. Every man in the crowd took off his hat as a mark of respect, while the women greeted her with shouts and the waving of handkerchiefs.

Though she is the third richest ruler in Europe, she refuses to indulge in any foolish extravagance. Her palace at The Hague is pretty, but simple, while she finds the one in Amsterdam too large and too expensive for common use. She spends a large part of her own private fortune for providing Creches, an old people's home. She is never so happy as when she finds among her people an energetic mother with a good-sized family. The one great unhappiness in Queen Wilhelmina's girlhood was that she wanted children and was deprived of having them. Her mother and friends say that she has grown ten years younger since she had her little daughter. She is the pride of her mother's heart, though the Queen makes every effort to see that she is not pampered by herself or her subjects.

Although Queen Wilhelmina is fonder of her home and more interested in the welfare of her subjects than she is of public life, she is a splendid stateswoman and diplomat.

She never signs any paper, whether it is important or unimportant, without carefully studying its contents. There is little about the history of her people or her kingdom that she does not know, for she believes much of her ability as a ruler depends on her knowledge of the past history of her country. She is very proud of her own ancestors and her people, because she says that they have been brave at sea and at home and have always aimed to play fair. She has not been blind to the fact that her neighbor, England, has been jealous of some of her colonies, especially of Java. But she does not believe in worrying about that fact.

On the other hand, she is also aware that in the past Germany dreamed of some day uniting Holland to her own territory, if not by conquest by the coming of a German heir. The Queen smiles when she thinks of the Dutch people becoming English or Germans, for she says they are too fond of flowers, windmills, cows and meadows to be anything but good Dutch people. The Queen of Holland realizes that her people are divided in their feeling in this war. The peasants and the fisherfolk feel that they have more to gain by being friends of England, and they are strong pro-English in their feeling. The aristocratic party sympathizes with Germany, either because they have large business interests in Germany or they are related by inter-marriage. Though the Queen of Holland is married to a German prince, her attitude is one of neutrality in thought and action. Whenever any of her politicians or friends try to get her frank opinion she changes the subject by talking of home affairs, such as "How is your lovely wife and your family?" Because she is interested in the things nearest to her country and to her heart, she develops the trades of her people instead of spending their money for building great bulwarks of defense against the enemy that may want to devour her. She places more confidence in the men of her country and their loyalty, aided by her dams and dykes, than in a large costly army and navy.

WHAT ROYAL WOMEN ARE DOING WHILE THEIR HUSBANDS ARE AT WAR

It is a well-known fact, that in case of war, monarchs have a new responsibility thrown upon them, for they become commanders of the army along with their executive duties. Most of these direct their campaigns from their own royal palaces and from the ministry of war. An exception to this is that of Albert First, third king of Belgium, and the Emperor of Germany.

When King Albert saw that his country was being attacked, and his people in danger, he took command of the army and left his wife to guard his three lovely children. Crown Prince Leopold, aged thirteen; Prince Charles, aged eleven, and the little Princess Marie Jose, aged nine. It was with trepidation and great grief that he told his young and beautiful Queen Elizabeth, of Belgium, formerly Princess of Bavaria, good-by. She reminded him that her courage and determination had in no small part contributed to the reconstruction of the commerce, finance and order of their kingdom. If she had done this much she certainly could look after her own family now and do her part to ease the suffering of her people. She showed that this was more than a promise, for as soon as orders came for the evacuation of Brussels she and her children left the palace and sought a new and simple home in the heavily fortified town of Antwerp. This queen, who had endeared herself to her people by her heroism and thoughtfulness, was determined to do her duty now as she has always done since her husband came to the throne. Wasting no time, she planned for the comforts of her children for the time she would be gone, and then enrolled as a Red Cross nurse. She has entered thousands of homes, left grief-stricken by the horrors of war, and has comforted thousands of heart-broken wives and mothers. Kind words are only a small part of her methods. Where they have been destitute for want of money and food she has made every effort to see that they were relieved of these material wants. Not discouraged by the fact that she can get but a limited amount of money from the public treasury at this time, she uses most of her private fortune to carry on her work. In towns where she has visited and found families left shelterless, by the burning and sacking of homes, she has worked with tremendous energy to get these families into safe quarters and paid the rent herself. She has found work for hundreds of women to do in the fields and has given Red Cross work to many more, paying them out of her own purse. The Empress of Germany was not crushed by the news that Germany was about to enter into a world war. When her husband appeared on the royal balcony and made his address to his people she was at his side, and though her face looked careworn there was no sign of weakening. While he was busy consulting with high government officials and ministry of war she was equally energetic doing her part to organize the Red Cross work throughout her empire. She at once gave thirty thousand dollars to the national fund, and from time to time has added to the general contribution. It is said that the Emperor wept when he heard there was no alternative but war and explained to his sons that they must all go to the front at once, but his consort showed no sign of weakening, as she told her sons, one by one, good-by, and even when the Sunday night came and she had to bid farewell to her husband. She busies herself all day sewing for the Red Cross and visiting the many hospitals in Berlin, to which thousands of wounded soldiers are brought.

Though the Crown Princess Cecelia has had the reputation of being worldly-minded and fond of all out-door sports, ever since the war broke out she has shown that she has a very serious side to her make-up. She was in Potsdam with her four boys when the war news came, and when the Crown Prince hurriedly made up his mind to go to Berlin, she and the children accompanied him. When they drove through the streets thousands of her country women greeted her with shouts and tossing of flowers and her happy, sweet manner, so free from fear, did much to inspire them with added courage. She drove to the station with her husband when he went to join his regiment, and instead of shedding tears she laughingly suggested that he write her and the children a love letter every day. Then she busied herself looking after the palace she had given over for a hospital, looking after every detail of its furnishing. Though she has four children of her own, who take much of her time, she never lets a day pass without visiting this hospital in person and makes it a point to see that every need of the wounded soldiers is gratified. She has given much enthusiasm to her two sisters-in-law, along with many thousands of German women, in their Red Cross efforts. Because of her energy there are few circles of women in Berlin, even to the American women living there, who are not doing Red Cross work.