Dearborn independent. [volume], March 13, 1920, Page 15, Image 15

About Dearborn independent. [volume] (Dearborn, Mich.) 1901-1927

Image provided by: Central Michigan University, Clark Historical Library

                
15
Despite All Obstacles, That Little Belgian
Paper Appeared "Regularly Irregular"
r kan all heard of
tke little Belgian
paper that was published
in Brussels despite all
efforts of the (urmans to
suppress it. ? how a copy
was even laid on the desk
of the German (Governor
General. This tells how
a 74-year l J "reporter"
and other i m tually kept
up tke publication.
W:
Brussels, Belgium,
Feb., 1920.
HEN the Ger
mans marched in
to Brussels thev
topped the publication
of all the Belgian pa
pers. They wanted the
Belgians to understand
that war was war; that
they were there to rule
and nothing must he said
or printed contrary to
their wishes.
And then a little pub
lication appeared. It
was called La Libre
Belgique ( Free Bel
giutn. ) The title itself
was a protest against tin
Belgian invasion. The fact that the paper appeared, and
came out "regularly irregular," as announced in the
first issue is not news, but how it appeared in spite of
warnings and threats of death and actual arrests and
punishments is news. This is told interestingly in a
book just out and written by M. Albert Van de Ker
ckhove. who was one of the writers for the paper and
under a 15 year sentence, when peace came. Ambas
sador Brand Whitlock has written a preface for the
book.
In opposing the authority it was necessary to pub
lish secretly. Victor Jourdain, a newspaper man 74
years old. Father Dubar, a Jesuit priest. Kugene Van
Ihren. Abby de Moor. Vicar of St. Albert parish, and
others were among those interested. The spirit of
adventure was strong, decisions were taken and on
February 1. 1015. I .a Libre Belgique saw the light.
Victor Jourdain was among those who first furnished
the copy written on a typewriter, which on one oc
casion, on being finished was rolled up and placed in a
hole in the end of a cane after which it was carefully
aled wit!, a metal cap. Van Doren with cane in
hand went first to one printer who w hen told what was
wanted threw his hands up in the air and apparently
with vision of a firing squad refused to do the job.
Carefully guarding the walking stick Van Doren went
in search of another. After further inquiries an
Italian wa found. His conditions were stiff but he
could be counted on. They were accepted and the
paper appeared with a circulation of 2.0(H) copies.
"Van Doren and his wife once in possession of the
printed copies slipped them in an envelope, and the
dbtribution began," writes M. Van de Kerckhove. "The
little news iper was placed in the letter boxes of
senators, de ities, and well-known persons. The suc
cess was real, Everybody wanted to see the clan
destine paper. The title pleased, the program also.
"One was even placed on the desk of General von
Bissing.
The w i a war of trenches and maneuvers began
and did r finish until the armistice. The same copy
of one number often had more than fifty readers. It
came back in shreds to its owner, who kept it as a
relic.
"The del ery of La Libre Belgique to homes no
doubt required some prudence, but it sufficed to have
a iUpple hand and rapidly to slip the prohibited paper
111 the kttei box of subscribers. It was the free dis
tribmion ii offered the most serious danger."
W
the
Press Hid Behind Furniture
HlLf the paper kept coming out regularly, it was
feh ' tin- method un to this time did not offer
, -
mavm, .r i i 18
...b.mi, ui saieiy aim a reai uuiucium pi
not) wa t i ii i vuliriwl iini'KiriF V ti .'Mintv riKtm in a
jarton manufactory, which in the beginning of the war
had been i rj as an ambulance, was finally found. Her
behind a ,,f furniture in a part of the room which
lad been partitioned off, a printing press and the necet
jyphcrnalh were installed after great difficulty.
j continuei the author, "one lived amid per
istal alarms and constant preoccupation, the newspaper
SeoW despite winds and tides. Success was greater
JjjJJ great, Number JO was illustrated for the first
mc- K;i(i(rs wm. onf(Tt.(j tH. Shntaneflque face of
jj govt.rn,,r general, reading attentively La Libre
fallf?k.e' ' ,lr nr'Kmal photograph had been admirably
JJ by a friend of A. Dewit, bookseller, and admirable
QPagan(,st. It caused general hilarity."
thp- "us tune a tragic incident marked the career of
loAtf? S,Ut hillipe Baucq, a young architect,
wS the distribution of the paper. He furnished
Fr ,of ,a Libre Belgique to seventy-live carriers,
servient I'' Mlss Cave11' Baucq already had rendered
face tu rhls cntry and like she he was doomed to
by the f erma" firing S(luad 1Ie had bcen arrested
a fiei crrnans accidentally while they were following
British uman' With Miss Cave11 hc had he,l)C(1
!romisin80 Ts across the Belgian frontier. Com
(lrnnfH g l';,,K Ts wre found. Hi was tried and con-
'EvervK ,MisS Cavdl " ths
hibited Stet 5Sf ! system for hand,inK the pro
',er babv Sometimes a mother would be pushing
A nrettv hahv rroir1 mi Libre
young woman sometimes carried a music
By EDWARD SCHUUiR
roll which instead of a sheet of music contained a
clandestine number." The raglan coat with specially
prepared suspenders was often used as a means of
concealing a supply of La Libre Belgique.
Caught and Sentenced
BUT after various vicissitudes, the clandestine print
shop finally was discovered, it was a catastrophe."
says the author, "worse than that a debacle. Father
Dubar and many others were caught in the net and
sentenced. The Germans believed they had killed La
Libre Belgique, but La Libre Belgique with more spirit
than ever led the charge against the Germans with ever
growing success."
It was an endless chain, a real battle, the publica
tion of La Libre Belgique under the eyes of the enemy.
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FACS1MILK OH URST PAGE OF I.IBKK BFI.GIOUK
When one fell another took his place. Tactics were
changed. Various persons were now charged with print
ing different succeeding numbers and general distribut
ing depots were changed every minute. More troubles
followed. The printer, Dolimont, who worked in a
cellar which he entered through a trap was arrested and
in a few days 42 others followed suit. Further secrecy
was found to be necessary. The management, editorial
department, printing and distribution were hereafter
kept scrupulously distinct. Friends, as it developed
later, worked on the same paper without ever know
ing it.
"It was precisely this discretion, sometimes carried
very far, which created after the liberation of Belgium
comical incidents and sometimes misunderstandings.
Propagandists who lived in adjoining houtef distributed
the prohibited papers in great number without ever
doubting a reciprocal activity. With what a laugh did
they discover one another after each having been hid
for four years. Some times two companions would
hoard a street car. They were neighbors and did not
breathe a word. Arriving at distributing depot! one
would sometimes meet a patriot leaving a package just
brought from the print shop while the other was
carrying his away.
"One can never know of this admirable devotion
shown by this small army w-hich never tiring, accepted
the most ungrateful role, constantly risking arrest at
all corners of the street while carrying packages.
"The students of a college one day played a 'dirty
trick on the Germans. It was decided to stick 250
copies of Libre Belgique on the walls of Brussels. At
daybreak they could be seen all over town. A copy
was stuck on the Hotel Astoria almost under the nose
of a sentinel while Ruprecht of Bavaria was there. A
Teuton officer took note of the incident which amused
the public. He ran to the Kommandantur. The pub
lic were ordered to take off the offending sheets. The
mucilage was good. It had time to dry. The police
were in no hurry. One could read and laugh at ease.
"Following tradition, several days after the arrest
of those who, it was claimed, were the chiefs of La Libre
Belgique, a number appeared. It was 143. All of the
copy of 143 had been seized. By an extraordinary ef
fort all of it was prepared a second time. Fathers
Peeters, Deharveng and Hebrant wrote from memory
the text of the articles captured in the cellar of the
printer Dolimont. As to the articles of Fidelis (M.
Van de Kerckhove) a carbon copy had always been
saved. Father Delehaye and the author, II. Van de
Kerckhove, soon after were each sentenced to 15 years
at hard labor having been condemned by the German
for their part in publishing the paper.
The war was drawing to a close, but Libre Belgique
did not fail its readers, and if sometimes there was a
little delay in issuing during which time the public
imagined the worst, numbers were regularly maintained
in sequence, and "thanks to clever maneuvers," says the
author, "a copy even found its way into the prison of
Yilvorde. For all the prisoners, especially those who
worked for La Libre Belgique and who suffered cour
ageously for it, this was unparalleled joy to read
secretly within two steps of the Germans, almost in
their grip, the articles condemning' them, ridiculing
them and crying victory. For victory was there. The
deliverance was no longer delayed."
With the cessation of hostilities it was announced
that amnesty had been accorded all political prisoners.
After the departure of the incarcerated from their
cells, the noise in the vestibules of the prisons of St.
Gilles and Yilvorde was deafening. Those who only a
few minutes before had been prisoners with an un
certain fate awaiting them began singing the Bra
banconne. Vers l'Avenir and the Marsellaisc, and that
continued, says M. Van de Kerckhove, up to the day
the revolutionary troops tried to turn over Brussels to
the horrors of Bolshevism.
Audubon's Backward Glance car, c. crain
THERE is something appealing m the picture of an
old man who sits down at a table or desk, looks
back at his youth, and writes. Then, if ever, age
and childhood meet. The greatest ornithologist, or
bird man, in America's history turned, in his declining
years, to "scratching this poor book of mine with a
miserable pen." He wrote his journal for the perusal
of his two sons and he rather bluntly labelled it, "My
self. J. J. Audubon." After his death the bit of auto
biography was found inside an old calfskin volume.
' Perhaps it would be well for me." he ruminated,
"to give you some slight information respecting my
mode of life in those days of my youth, and I shall
do so without gloves. I was what in plain terms
might be called extravagant. 1 had no vices, it is
true, neither had I any high aims. I was ever fond of
shooting, fishing, and riding on horseback. To reach
the maximum of my desires in those different things
filled every one of my thoughts."
He put down the raising of fowls of every sort as
one of his hobbies.
"I was ridiculously fond of dress," he admitted. 'To
have seen me going shooting in black satin smallclothes,
or breeches, with silk stockings and the finest ruffled
shirt Philadelphia could afford, was, as I now realize,
an absurd spectacle but it was one of tnv fotbfo and
1 shall not conceal it. 1 purchased the Inst horses in
the country and rode well and felt proud of it. My
guns and fishing tackle were equally good, always ex
pensive and richlv ornamented, often with silver.
Audubon declared that in his youth he was extremely
fond of music, dancing, and drawing. Like most
young men of the period he was filled with the love of
amusement and therefore attended all the balls, skating
matches, and house or riding parties within reach. As
he disliked cards and never gambled he said he had no
evil practices other than his love of amusement.
"I was, besides," hc told his sons, "temperate to an
intemperate degree. I lived, until the day of my union
with your mother, on milk, fruits, and vegetables with
the addition of game and fish at timet, Never had I
swallowed a single glass of wine or spirits until the
day of my wedding. The result has been my uncom
mon, indeed iron, constitution."
His abstemious habits caused him and his associates
great annoyance when he was in France, for he would
not drink wine. Furthermore, as he cared for nothing
but pies, puddings, eggs, milk, or cream, often not a
single dish suited his taste.
"Many a time," he wrote, "have I robbed my ten
ant's wife, Mrs. Thomas, of the cream intended for
the market at Philadelphia."
He pictured himself in his youth strong and active as
an antlered deer, fair and as rosy as a girl. Apparently
he did not maintain the careful habits that gave him
health in his early years, for he afterward regretfully
asked himself the question:
"Why should I not have kept to that delicious mode
of living, and why should not mankind in general be
more abstemious than mankind is?"