and the deep indignation roused by this German betrayal.

Von Bissing shrugs his shoulders and calls them "big children." So they
are. And his son, with a scornful smile, declares in the _Suddeutsche
Monatschrift_ (April 15th, 1915) that it is in "the people's blood to
demonstrate and to wear cockades." So it is. The love of processions and
public pageants of all kinds is deeply rooted in Belgian traditions.
But what does it prove? Simply that the people have preserved enough
freshness and joy of life to care for these things, enough courage and
independence to feel most need of them when they are most afflicted.
This is how they think of it: "Our bands used to pass through the
streets, shaking our window-panes with the crashing of their trombones,
our flags used to wave in the breeze--in the happy days of peace. Should
we now remain, silent and withdrawn, in the selfish privacy of our
houses, now that the country needs us most, now that we want, more than
ever, to feel that we are one people and that we will remain independent
and united whatever happens in the future?" Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von
Bissing sneers at the Belgians because on any and every pretext they
display the American colours. If they do, it is because they are not
allowed to display their own, and because they feel somehow that the
best way to show that they have still a flag is to adopt the colours of
the great country which has so generously come to their help. It may
well be, as the Baron informs us, that most of the "small and big
children" who wear the Stars and Stripes do not know a word of English.
What does it mean again? Simply that heart may call to heart and that it
is not necessary to talk in his own language to understand a brother's
mind. It is true that only children--children small and big--know how to
do it.

If the Germans had had the least touch of generous feeling for the