MAGAZINE SECTION
PICTORIAL SUPPLEMENT
? PORTLAND. OREGON, SUNDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 6, 1914.
BRAVED ANTWERP BOMBARDMENT TO SAVE PICTURES
William A. Sherwood, an American Artist, Hid
in a j Cellar Until the City Pell and Then Es-
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caped with His Paintings to" the United States,
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NKW YORK: It was the deter
( mlntlon to save hJ pictures
Ithat first held William A. Bher
wood, an American artist, whose
home has been for 10 years in Belgium.
'in Jhe ltiealeged. city of Antwerp durin
f th bombardment and for 10 days aft
' r the Gnnans entered the town, and
then forced him and his wife, ref u-
fn in a peasant cart, to seek shelter
with the other exiles beyond the Dutch
frontier. And It was the mysterious
; appearance of the boxes of piotures, as
their cart started at last from the con
quered city, that brought a quick dls-
chares of German runs to hold up
their departure, with the question as
to whether these strangre things were
r were not rifle cases.
Blingiag- most of their paintings
I and etchings with them, and carrying
to American safety a tiny waif of a
Belgian dog, Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood
arrlTed a few days ago 'in New York.
For 18 hours without sleep and with
the most meagre supply of food and
water, they hid In the darkness of a
cellar In a deserted street while the
j German guns battered down Antwerp's
defenses.
For 10 days more they lived In the
; forsaken city, helping as they could
to care for the wounded and put out
; the fires from bombs and making un
i ceasing efforts to get a cart to take
them nd their work over the border
I jwui iicjr id me uuicn Iron-
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i by train, occupied the best part of a
, day In their peasant cart and they
pent on night on the floor of a rail
t way station In an abandoned Belgian
bamlet,
' When they reached Holland they
were cared for, along with 600 other
refugees by a factory owner who was
sheltering and feeding these exiles al
, most entirely at his own expense. And
the sight of seven floating mines as
their boat made its way from the coast
, line of Europe offered their last ad
venture from the war. Mr. Sherwood
has. brought back a record of war hap
. penlngs and a few etchings of war
f scene
i MO and Mrs. Sherwood have lived
; for years on the Rue Rembrandt la
Antwerp spending their summers at
Dlxmuds and Nieuport and Bruges and
. along the banks of the Yser and mak
" lng their home among the Belgian peo
ple. With the exception- of one other
family, Flemish friends of theirs, they
were the only people who remained on
y the Hue Rembrandt during the siege.
The two families took shelter together
' In' the cellar of Mr. Sherwood's house.
; while the jest of the street waa de
serted. -At Liege Just Before Siege.
1 ! "I should never have stayed In the
; city during the bombardment, of
course," jiaid Mr. Sherwood, "if it had'
"; not been for the pictures. 1 was trying
. to get a cart or something to get them
. out of the city, and before I could suc
ceed in finding any means of trans
i portatlon at all the Germans came.
Then, too, I was hoping' to be able to
get some money in Antwerp, and I
wanted, if possible, to wait for that.
I or course I never did get it. I had
fortunately, a little on hand, and I
couldn't get any more until wa reached
Rotterdam. ; I soon ceased to think of
waiting for money. Just as soon as we
could get our cart we left But that
was lo days after the siege.
"X waa In, Liege when the siege be
gan," he explained, "but I Irt Immedi
ately, was able to get out without any
trouble, and had no adventure at all
I thought at that time, as every one
did, that to go to Antwerp was to take
myself and my pictures to an abso
lute refuge. No one believed that Ant
werp could , fall. However, I did not
want to keep Mrs. Sherwood in Bel
gium in war time, and we began at
once to make' preparations to get my
pictures away. We found we couldn't.
I had had some pictures In the Marche
Soulier, and was fortunate enough to
get them out and in my cellar before
the siege. The Marche was burned.
"So, when the bombardment began,
we hid In the cellar, like every one
else who stayed. Our neighbors stayed
with us an old man, his three grownup
daughters, and two small children.
There was no electricity, gas, or water
In the city. We had managed to store
some water, of course, and fwe had a
little food not much. Fortunately,
there was wine In the cellar, and that
helped us out.
Soon Got Used to Shells.
"We had packed what we could In
suitcases, ready to leave everything
else and run if the house was struck
and burned. But as a matter of fact
we soon learned when we did leave
Antwerp how useless our packing
would have been if we had fled. The
refugees fleeing from the siege- had
to go, for the most part, afoot. They
couldn't carry so much as handbags
very far.
"At first the bombardment was ter
rific, of course. But after a few hours
we found that we were getting used,
to it. - And soon we discovered before
the end of the first 12 hours that we
could calculate approximately the' dis
tances of the firing range and make a
pretty good guess as to whether or not
we were In danger. .
"At those times Mrs. Sherwood used
to run upstairs and wash, when it
seemed reasonably safe. It didn't seem
to me that a bath was worth so much
danger, and I told her she was foolish,
but she would -do it. Then once, on the
' last day of the siege, I ventured out
in the street when the guns .seemed
fairly far away. .
"You see," he went on, "the fire of
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Belgian SoldCers In Antwerp jost before the SUj)
Antwerp Ftshmorjlers.
in
and deserted thoroughfare. And
those 15 blocks I saw two persona
one a Belgian soldier who was dement
ed because of the horror he had gone
through, and. who was leading his
horse up and down the city street with
apparently no real idea of what was
going on, and the other a Flemish
gardener, , who was ignoring siege
guns and Zeppelins and gaizng with a
sort of stolid interest at the damaged
trees along the roadway. For the rest
it was like, a city of .the dead. When
I got to the consulate I was dismayed
to find that our American consul had
. gone. Later I found the Swedish and
Haitian consuls, and I understood that
both the Swiss and Spanish consuls
me suns nuum Bccp iuq uiLy. iu ujii auiyeu. uut almost every one
direction, and then sweep back in a ' left Antwerp.
h'ad
houses, some burning, some destroyed,
some untouched but simply deserted,'
the offices with the people gone, the
streets tenanted only by the dogs and
Cats that the refugees had 1 left in
ther flight. No one knew anything.
No one could find out anything. The
only thing we could do was to creep
back to-our cellar In the dark and
wait. Of course, sleep was impossible.
We stayecf there and talked when we
could, and tried to cheer each, other
up, and listened to the noises. And
as I said, we got curiously used to it.
"Then it stopped. And after a while
we stuck- our heads out, so to speak,
again. I left Mrs. Sherwood in the
house and went out Into the street
for- a little while, and it happened
that I saw the German army entering
the city. There were 300.000 soldiers,
but only half that number actually
entered the city, and were reviewed
before the palace.
little closer circle, and then back again
in a sort of zigzag. We could bear
them-coming and going, and that Is
how we could guess how near the
danger was, from the strength of the
. "Of cburse, we were constantly ex
pecting our house to be hit by a shell.
Shells were falling around us all the - "The advance guard had stuck flow-
Parade for Cats and Dogs.
time. Finally, at about 3:1S in the
morning, toward the end of the bom-
noise they made. On tbe other hand," bardment, there was a, crash and the
there were the wo Zeppelins dropping house rocked like an earthquake, but
bombs pretty constantly. By the sec- did not fait Afterward we found the
ond night we were almost worn out i shell in the garden. It had just missed
sheer physical fatigue. Tl the house.
"On the last day 1 felt it necessary cumference i and it made a hole one
to make an effort to see the consul, meter deep. I brought home some of
so. I took what Seemed to be a good the pieces of it. I'm going .to give
moment and, went out In the street,, one to my mother for a paper-weight.
I walked for about 15 city blocks "During ' those hours of the siege
along the Chaussee de Malines, one we could not find out anything at all
ers in their' uniforms, and some had
succeeded in covering themselves with
garlands. They marched in -with every
evidence of a gala event, with the
flowers to show their ' triumph. It
was the most awe inspiring thing I
It was two meters In cir- -y saw. ; But the most awe inspiring
of the busiest streets in the city and
the one along which the Belgian army
had retreated. It was the worst Tit
the besieged part of the city, a ruined
about how things were going' or
whether the city was holding out at
all. When one of us would venture
out, it was only to see- the empty
feature was that' practically , only th
lost dogs and cats were 'there to see
the triumphant entry- There were so
few ..human ! beings left in Antwerp.
'The conquering army marched lnte a
dead' city.': Their advance was like the
movement:,' of an immense' machine.
The German army does not seem hu-
man.'
"After tn Germans came,' there
Isn't much to tell. Things were qnlet.
Almost all the Antwerp people had
gone. The banks, offices, and most
shops were closed. There, were no
more Zeppelins, of t course and there .
had been the machines hovering ovei
us and dropping, bombs, as of course
everyone knows, for days before the
bombardment. We came out of our
cellars and our friends went back to
their own houses. The city, however,
seemed peopled only by soldiers. '
Belgians Reluctant ta Leave.
. "I spent almost all my own time in
trying to get a cart to take us and the
pictures to Holland, but Mrs. Sher
wood did what she could in the city
and Joined with the sisters In a bucket
brigade, with what little water they
' could get, to fight the fires. Of course,
there was comparatively little damage
in Antwerp'. Of all the besieged towns
it suffered least. The cathedral and
the Musee Plantin were almost un
harmed; the Rubens pictures had long
since been sent away to safety, of
course." .
; With mention of Mrs. Sherwood's
assistance to the nuns and the nurses
in the city, and with a quick, summing
up of his own difficulty in finding a
cart, the artist's story passes quite
briefly over the 10 v days after the
bombardment. "Oflflve butcher shops
in his neighborhood only one, he said,
was open.
"It was very quiet," he . repeated.
"Strangely enough, among the few
Flemish families that had braved the
siege there was a curious reluctance
to leave when it was over. The Bel
gian bourgeoise is loath to give up its
home. Most of the people fled In the
first terror of the Germans approach.
The few. who stuck .out through the
bombardment settled down when the
Germans came In into a kind of regu
lar life although I don't know how
much longer the food can last. Our
neighbors of the Rue Rembrandt re
fused to leave with us, and Mrs. Sher
wood and I. with the stray dog that
we had picked up, departed alone. But
we could not have stayed.. Thst.de
'serted city was dreadful. j- .
'"We had to have three speciaf
papers, pne ordinary passport and
identification card, one special 'Per
mis de sejour,' Issued before the bom
bardment, dated September' .23, mine
is, and one. card from the German
army of occupation, permitting us to
leave the city and pass through the
German lines. We had no trouble in
getting that, or In making our de
parture, once we had our cart. It is
rather interesting to note, though,
that for the hire of the peasant cart
and two slow Flemish horses and a
man to drive us to the frontier, we
had to pay a sum that practically
equaled the price of the horses and
cart in ordinary times!
"But the German sentries stopped
us as we were leaving, on account of
the pictures. We had : them in three
large packing cases, 35,. paintings. And,
of course, we " had our luggage, with
etchings and sketches in that. But
it was the packing boxes that stopped
us. There was a quick discharge of
guns and our man stopped, and out ran
a sentry tq demand an explanation.
Were ,hose pictures, or were they
rifles? He insisted that they looked
like rifle cases. We thought we wou.ld
have to stop and unpack everything
and have a thorough examination then
and there, but our papers proved so
complete and so official, that the sol
diers accepted them aod let us go..
We were rather startled by the guns,
but we noticed that our stolid Flem
ish driver never" turned a hair. He
didn't so much as start at the noise
of the shot. ;
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On the Dutch Frontier.
"Our trip to the frontier was un
eventful. . We passed many Idlers
and sentries, saw s few otlMr refugees,
Prom a r Antwerp Courtyard
caught hints of the deserted vtnagei
that we had known as prosperous
little hamlets before the war But
nothing happened to us. Wien night '
earns we drew up at a railway station
and spent the night In the waiting
room. Altogether the trip took nine
hours from Antwerp to Burgen-ap- .
Zoom, on the Dutch side, Just across
the frontier. We had only a few'
sandwiches to supply us with dinner
at night and breakfast in the morn
ing, and one bottle of wine. But, un
fortunately, after we had opened the
bottle and taken some of its contents
and set 1. down on the station floor
where we were camping. I upset It.
That was a sad loss, for we needed It. '
We were pretty hungry as welfe as
tired when we got to the border line.
"And there was a strange sight. I
had heard of .it, of course, but had
not realized how it would look. Drawn
up along the frontier were the Ger
man soldiers we had passed German
soldiers everywhere, of course and
facing them, not two meters away, on
the othe side of the border line, were
the Dutch guards,
"There they stood in battle array,'
so close they eould have touched each'
other, the Germans in the conquered
territory, the Hollanders ready to de
fend the neutrality of their country.
Of course, there was no hostility be
tween them; the Dutch were Just
ready. But it was one of the most
lm preset vj things I ever saw."
Holland's Splendid Work.
. Burgen-ap-Zoom is a small manu- '
factoring town . of 16,000 Inhabitants,
just over the line that separa'tes Hol
land from Belgium. It Is caring for
SB, 000 refugees, and, like the rest of
Holland, Mr. Sherwod points out, faces
famine as the price of Its generosity.
"I cannot say enough about the
' splendid people of Holland," the artist
declared. "They are doing the moat
wonderful work that can be Imag
ined. And they need help. I am con
vinced that the first thing we' ought
to do Is send food, flour, to Hollands
She needs foodstuffs. England can
not help ljer. because England Is fight
fng and Holland is neutral. We must,
because we are neutral and able to
help. ,
"Mrs. Sherwood and I were, cared
for," with our pictures and our dog, in
the family of a manufacturer of the.
town," he' went on. "As I said, we
had money enough to pay our way.
But this. man. who took us into his
house, was keeping 600 Belgians prac
tically' at his own expense. He has
them sleeping between the machines In
his factory and he is feeding and
caring for them. He is M. Emile
Perguy, bead of one of the Industries
of South Holland, and he is one of
the splendid men who are doing such
wonderful things now..
"I have heard a German quoted as
saying that the Belgian refugees do
not want to return to their homes and
go back to work," Mr. Sherwood con
tinned with some emphasis. "I want
ta say that I know that to be false. I
know the Belgians. I have, lived , with
-them for more than 10 years, in the
cities and among the peasants In .the
country districts, and I was among
the refugees. There are no more In
dustrious people anywhere. They
yearn to return to tbeir homes. I
have heard, too, what has i been said
of alleged Belgian , cruelties, and I
want to add that I know the Belgians
gentleness and consideration. I have
known of one Instance after another
of their real thoughtfulness and kind-
'ness, their gentleness to women and
to people in distress. I do not beltevo
these tales of so-called cruelties oa
the part of the Belgians."
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