Women of Belgium: Turning Tragedy to TriumphKellogg, Charlotte
History
Women of Belgium: Turning Tragedy to Triumph
Kellogg, Charlotte
Commission for Relief in Belgium; World War, 1914-1918 -- Hospitals
Madame is the wife of a lawyer, with two sons at the front. As soon as
the war broke out she organized a Red Cross center. Then the refugees
came pouring into Brussels, and she felt that among them there must
be many to whom it would be torture to be crowded into the big relief
shelters. She said little, but by the end of August she had managed
to squeeze five families in with her own. From the day the Germans
abolished the Belgian Red Cross she gave her entire time to helping the
homeless who had been in comfortable circumstances before the war to
some quiet corner where they might wait its end. There was never any
announcement of her work, but the word spread like wildfire—many had
to be turned away daily. Then she found a big home on the Boulevard,
rather shabby inside, but conveniently arranged for suites of two or
even three rooms. Here a considerable number of families might have
space for a complete ménage; plenty of light and air, and room to cook
and sleep. Before long she was housing ninety-eight, but a few of
these were able to re-establish themselves, so when I visited her in
September, 1916, there were sixty-five. As her own funds were limited,
and fast disappearing, she had in the end to appeal to the “Relief” to
subsidize this “Home.”
On the first floor she had a little pantry-shop, where each family
received the permitted ration of bread, sugar, bacon and other
foodstuffs. One day a woman came to her, hungry. She was a widow with
two little girls, who, before the war, had earned a good salary in
the post-office. Somehow she had managed to exist for two years, but
now there was nothing left. She was given charge of the pantry at ten
cents a day. I have seen many processions of people descending long
stairways. I shall forget them. But I shall never forget this one of
the refugees from the upper floors winding down the stairways at the
shop hour, with their pathetic plates and bowls ready for the bacon and
bread that made living possible. They could, perhaps, add vegetables
and fruit, or an egg or two, to the ration to piece out the meal.
On the lowest shelf of this miniature shop were a few dozen cans of
American corn, which even yet the people have not learned to like.
Having been brought up to regard corn in all forms as fit only for
cattle and chickens, even disaster can not convince them that it is a
proper food for man!
Later we went upstairs to visit some of the apartments. They were
bright and clean, with cheery flower-pots on all the window-sills.
Every one showed a fine appreciation of what was done for him by making
the most of all he had; an attitude quite different from that of many
less used to comfort, less intelligent, who neither hesitate to demand
charity, nor to complain of what they receive. Each family had a small,
practical stove, which served for both cooking and heating.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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