The one I see the most of is Edward Curtis, who sails back and forth to Holland as courier of the Commission. He was at Cambridge when the war broke out, and after working on Hoover's London Committee to help stranded Americans get home, he came on over here and fell to. He exudes silence and discretion, but does not miss any fun or any chance to advance the general cause. Of course it is taking the Germans some time to learn his system. He is absolutely square with them, and gets a certain amount of fun out of their determined efforts to find some sort of contraband on him. They can hardly conceive of his being honest, and think his seeming frankness is merely an unusually clever dodge to cover up his transgressions. * * * * * [Illustration: Julius Van Hee, American Vice-Consul at Ghent] [Illustration: Lewis Richards] [Illustration: A Brussels soup-kitchen run by volunteers] [Illustration: Meals served to the children in the schools] _Brussels, December 21, 1914_.--Yesterday Brussels awoke from the calm in which it had been plunged for some time, when a couple of French aviators came sailing overhead and dropped six bombs on the railroad yards at Etterbeck. I was away at Antwerp and did not see it, but everybody else of the population of 700,000 Bruxellois did, and each one of them has given me a detailed account of it. The German forces did their level best to bring the bird men down with shrapnel, but they were flying high enough for safety. They seem to have hit their mark and torn up the switches, etc., in a very satisfactory way. For three or four days we have been hearing the big guns again, each day more distinctly; but we don't know what it means. The Germans explain it on the ground that they are testing guns. Mr. and Mrs. Hoover arrived last night, bringing Frederick Palmer with them. We dined together at the Palace. They were full of news, both war and shop, and I sat and talked with them until after eleven, greatly to the prejudice of my work. Had to stay up and grind until nearly two. Curtis, who came back last night, says that Jack was arrested at Antwerp on his way out, because he had Folkstone labels on his bags. It took him so long to explain away his suspicious belongings that he barely caught the last train from Rosendaal to Flushing. He seems to be destined to a certain amount of arrest now and then. Hoover turned up at the Legation this morning at a little after nine, and he and the Minister and I talked steadily for three hours and a half.