In all but the city’s largest shops, women are in sole charge. Their husbands and fathers are usually occupied in positions deemed more worthy of masculine endeavor. The children are in school; a daughter of talent is studying at the famous Royal Conservatory; the son may be away learning to be a sailor or a doctor or a soldier. Nearly everybody works at one thing or another. People of leisure ride and motor in the fashionable Avenue Louise in the afternoon, and take refreshment at the “Dairy,” amid the green delights of the principal city park--the “Wood of Cambre.” In the restaurants the wife of the proprietor is behind the cashier’s desk, and in brisk and friendly fashion plays the part of hostess to the patrons of the establishment. The most vital interest in the estimate of Belgians of all classes is their home life. Certainly there are no people more industrious in the preservation of family traditions. Strangers are often surprised to learn that the old-time phrase, “East, West, Home’s Best,” originated, not with the Anglo-Saxons, but with the Flemish. In Antwerp, quays are brisk with sailors, many of them in picturesquely uncouth costumes. At the Flemish Theater, subsidized by the Government, and at the Opera, the city’s rich betray the fondness of their race for jewels and brocaded dress stuffs. Sometimes, as one gazes at a gorgeously appareled lady of Antwerp, one of Van Dyck’s paintings seems to have come to life. The most favored resort is the Zoological Garden where music and a sprightly restaurant attract the pleasure-loving Antwerpers, and tourists who wish to see the vivid city at its gayest. At the late sunset hour in the summertime, the people of Antwerp are also fond of going to the Kursaal on the bank of “the massive and lethargic Scheldt,” there to enjoy sky pictures of uncommon magnificence. Nearly all the populous communities of Belgium give enthusiastic attention to the development of water sports, football, hockey and horse-racing. The young Flemings of progressive Ghent, to the consternation of the English, have more than once carried off honors for rowing at the Henley Regatta, the classic event of the Thames. Liège, mistress of industrial and intellectual Wallonia, has her vivacious side, too. Her children are devoted to music and pageantry, and delight in out-of-door festivals. Well-to-do residents build their mansions in the hills of the suburbs, and thus combine city and rural pleasures. Often they travel to Brussels and Ostend, where the ladies of Liège are much admired for their brunette attractions, and the men for their Gallic wit and gallant manners. WRITTEN FOR THE MENTOR BY RUTH KEDZIE WOOD ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR. VOL. 8, No. 3, SERIAL No. 199 COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION. INC. [Illustration: IN THE COURT ROOM OF THE PALACE OF JUSTICE. BRUGES “CHIMNEY PIECE OF THE FRANK” (EXECUTED IN 1529-30)] _BELGIUM_ _Early Flemish Art_ SIX