Through the Iron Bars

A free download from http://www.dertz.in


Through the Iron Bars

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Through the Iron Bars, by Emile
Cammaerts, Illustrated by Louis Raemaekers
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Through the Iron Bars
Author: Emile Cammaerts
Release Date: June 17, 2004 [eBook #12644]
Language: English
Character set encoding: iso-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THROUGH
THE IRON BARS***
E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Brett Koonce, and Project
Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders

Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which

includes the original illustrations. See 12644-h.htm or 12644-h.zip:
(http://www.gutenberg.net/1/2/6/4/12644/12644-h/12644-h.htm) or
(http://www.gutenberg.net/1/2/6/4/12644/12644-h.zip)

THROUGH THE IRON BARS
Two years of German occupation in Belgium
BY
EMILE CAMMAERTS
ILLUSTRATED WITH CARTOONS BY LOUIS RAEMAEKERS
MCMXVII

CONTENTS.
I. The Prison Gates
II. The Lowered Flag
III. The Poisoned Wells
IV. The Sacking of Belgium
V. The Modern Slave 1. The Creeping Tide 2. "By the Waters of
Babylon"
VI. The Olive Branch
Through the Iron Bars

I.

THE PRISON GATES.
The English-speaking public is generally well informed concerning the
part played in the war by the Belgian troops. The resistance of our
small field army at Liège, before Antwerp, and on the Yser has been
praised and is still being praised wherever the tale runs. This is easy
enough to understand. The fact that those 100,000 men should have
been able to hold so long in check the forces of the first military
Empire in Europe, and that a great number of them, helped by new
contingents of recruits and led by their young King, should still be
fighting on their native soil, must appeal strongly to the imagination.
If it be told how the new Belgian army, reorganised and re-equipped
after the terrible ordeal on the Yser, is at the present moment much
stronger than at the beginning of the war, how it has been able lately to
extend its front in Flanders, and how some of its units have rendered
valuable help to the cause of the Allies in East Africa and even in
Galicia, the story sounds like a fairy tale. There is, in the history of this
unequal struggle, the true ring of legendary heroism; it seems an echo
of the tale of David and Goliath, or of Jack the Giant Killer; it is full of
the triumph of the spirit over the flesh, of independence and free will
over fatalism and brute force, of Right over Might.
I feel confident that some day a poet will be able to sing this great epic
in verses which shall answer to the swinging rhythm of battle and roll
with the booming of a thousand guns. But, in the meantime, I should
like to say a few words about a much humbler, a much simpler, a much
more familiar subject. It awakes no classical remembrances of
Leonidas or Marathon. My heroes risk their lives, but they are not
soldiers, merely prosaic "bourgeois" and workmen. They have no
weapon, they cannot fight. They have only to remain cheery in
adversity and patient in the face of taunts. They cannot render blow for
blow, they have no sword to flourish against an insolent conqueror.
They can only oppose a stout heart, a loyal spirit, and an ironic smile to
the persecutions to which they are subjected. They can do nothing--they
must do nothing--only hope and wait. But there are as much heroism
and beauty in their black frock-coats and their soiled workmen's

smocks as in the gayest and most glittering uniforms.
It is the plain matter-of-fact story of Belgian life under German rule.
Many more people will be tempted to praise the glory of our soldiers.
But, if the incidents of conquered Belgium's life are not recorded in
good time, they might escape notice. People might forget that, besides
the 150,000 to 200,000 heroes who are now waging war for Belgium
on the Western front, there are 7,500,000 heroes who are suffering for
Belgium behind the German lines, in the close prison of guarded
frontiers, cut off from the whole world, separated alike from those who
are fighting for their deliverance and from those who have sought
refuge abroad.
These are the people whom America, England, Spain, and many
generous people in other allied and neutral countries have tried to save
from material starvation. If I could only show to my readers how they
are saving themselves from despair, from spiritual starvation, I should
be well repaid for my trouble, for, among all the wonders of this war,
which has