Chapter II: Introduction

It is not only a pleasure but a duty to write the introduction which Mrs. Wharton requests for “The Book of the Homeless.” At the outset of this war I said that hideous though the atrocities had been and dreadful though the suffering, yet we must not believe that these atrocities and this suffering paralleled the dreadful condition that had obtained in European warfare during, for example, the seventeenth century. It is lamentable to have to confess that I was probably in error. The fate that has befallen Belgium is as terrible as any that befell the countries of Middle Europe during the Thirty Years’ War and the wars of the following half-century. There is no higher duty than to care for the refugees and above all the child refugees who have fled from Belgium. This book is being sold for the benefit of the American Hostels for Refugees and for the benefit of The Children of Flanders Relief Committee, founded in Paris by Mrs. Wharton in November, 1914, and enlarged by her in April, 1915, and chiefly maintained hitherto by American subscriptions. My daughter, who in November and December last was in Paris with her husband, Dr. Derby, in connection with the American Ambulance, has told me much about the harrowing tragedies of the poor souls who were driven from their country and on the verge of starvation, without food or shelter, without hope, and with the members of the family all separated from one another, none knowing where the others were to be found, and who had drifted into Paris and into other parts of France and across the Channel to England as a result of Belgium being trampled into bloody mire. In April last the Belgian Government asked Mrs. Wharton to take charge of some six hundred and fifty children and a number of helpless old men and women from the ruined towns and farms of Flanders. This is the effort which has now turned into The Children of Flanders Rescue Committee.

I appeal to the American people to picture to themselves the plight of these poor creatures and to endeavor in practical fashion to secure that they shall be saved from further avoidable suffering. Nothing that our people can do will remedy the frightful wrong that has been committed on these families. Nothing that can now be done by the civilized world, even if the neutral nations of the civilized world should at last wake up to the performance of the duty they have so shamefully failed to perform, can undo the dreadful wrong of which these unhappy children, these old men and women, have been the victims. All that can be done surely should be done to ease their suffering. The part that America has played in this great tragedy is not an exalted part; and there is all the more reason why Americans should hold up the hands of those of their number who, like Mrs. Wharton, are endeavoring to some extent to remedy the national shortcomings. We owe to Mrs. Wharton all the assistance we can give. We owe this assistance to the good name of America, and above all for the cause of humanity we owe it to the children, the women and the old men who have suffered such dreadful wrong for absolutely no fault of theirs.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONTRIBUTIONS OF WRITERS AND MUSICIANS

MAURICE BARRÈS PAGE

Les Frères 59

Translation: The Brothers 61

SARAH BERNHARDT

Une Promesse 64

Translation: A Promise 64

LAURENCE BINYON

The Orphans of Flanders. _Poem_ 3

PAUL BOURGET

Après un An 65

Translation: One Year Later 67

RUPERT BROOKE

The Dance. _A Song_ 4

PAUL CLAUDEL

Le Précieux Sang. _Poem_ 5

Translation: The Precious Blood 6

JEAN COCTEAU

La Mort des Jeunes Gens de la Divine Hellade. Fragment. _Poem_ 9

Translation: How the Young Men died in Hellas. A Fragment 11

JOSEPH CONRAD

Poland Revisited 71

VINCENT D’INDY

Musical Score: La légende de Saint Christophe (_Acte I, Sc. III_) 55

ELEONORA DUSE

Libertà nella Vita 98

Translation: The Right to Liberty 98

JOHN GALSWORTHY

Harvest 99

EDMUND GOSSE

The Arrogance and Servility of Germany 101

ROBERT GRANT

A Message. _Poem_ 14

THOMAS HARDY

Cry of the Homeless. _Poem_ 16

PAUL HERVIEU

Science et Conscience 105

Translation: Science and Conscience 106

WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS

The Little Children. _Poem_ 17

GÉNÉRAL HUMBERT

Les Arabes avaient Raison 109

Translation: An Heroic Stand 111

HENRY JAMES

The Long Wards 115

FRANCIS JAMMES

Epitaphe. _Poem_ 18

Translation: An Epitaph 19

GÉNÉRAL JOFFRE

Lettre du Général Joffre vii

Translation: Letter from General Joffre viii

MAURICE MAETERLINCK

Notre Héritage 127

Translation: Our Inheritance 127

EDWARD SANDFORD MARTIN

We Who Sit Afar Off 129

ALICE MEYNELL

In Sleep. _Poem_ 20

PAUL ELMER MORE

A Moment of Tragic Purgation 133

COMTESSE DE NOAILLES

Nos Morts. _Poem_ 21

Translation: Our Dead 21

JOSEPHINE PRESTON PEABODY

Two Songs of a Year: 1914-1915

I. Children’s Kisses 23

II. The Sans-Foyer 25

LILLA CABOT PERRY

Rain in Belgium. _Poem_ 26

AGNES REPPLIER

The Russian Bogyman 139

HENRI DE RÉGNIER

L’Exilé. _Poem_ 27

Translation: The Exile 28

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

Introduction ix

EDMOND ROSTAND

Horreur et Beauté. _Poem_ 30

Translation: Horror and Beauty 30

GEORGE SANTAYANA

The Undergraduate Killed in Battle. _Poem_ 32

IGOR STRAVINSKY

Musical Score: Souvenir d’une marche boche 49

ANDRÉ SUARÈS

Chant des Galloises 143

Translation: Song of the Welsh Women 147

EDITH M. THOMAS

The Children and the Flag. _Poem_ 33

HERBERT TRENCH

The Troubler of Telaro. _Poem_ 34

ÉMILE VERHAEREN

Le Printemps de 1915. _Poem_ 37

Translation: The New Spring 38

MRS. HUMPHRY WARD (MARY A. WARD)

Wordsworth’s Valley in War-time 151

BARRETT WENDELL

1915. _Poem_ 40

EDITH WHARTON

Preface xix

The Tryst. _Poem_ 41

MARGARET L. WOODS

Finisterre. _Poem_ 43

W. B. YEATS

A Reason for Keeping Silent. _Poem_ 45

* * * * *

_The French poems, except M. Rostand’s Sonnet are translated by Mrs. Wharton_

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

CONTRIBUTIONS OF ARTISTS

LÉON BAKST FOLLOWING PAGE

Portrait of Jean Cocteau. _From an unpublished crayon sketch_ 8

Ménade. _From a water-colour sketch_ 126

MAX BEERBOHM

A Gracious Act. (Caricature.) _From a water-colour sketch_ 104

JACQUES-ÉMILE BLANCHE

Portrait of Thomas Hardy. _From a photograph of the painting_ 16

Portrait of George Moore. _From a photograph of the painting_ 138

Portrait of Igor Stravinsky. _From a study in oils_ 46

EDWIN HOWLAND BLASHFIELD

A Woman’s Head. _From the original drawing_ 142

LÉON BONNAT

Pegasus. _From a pencil and pen-and-ink sketch_ 70

P. A. J. DAGNAN-BOUVERET

Brittany Woman. _From a drawing in coloured crayons_ 42

WALTER GAY

Interior. _From an original water-colour sketch_ 32

J. L. GÉRÔME

Turkish Soldier. _From the original pencil drawing made in 1857_ 108

CHARLES DANA GIBSON

“The Girl he left behind Him.” _From a pen-and-ink sketch_ 26

ÉMILE-RENÉ MÉNARD

Nude Figure. _From a sketch in coloured crayon_ 150

CLAUDE MONET

Landscape. _From an early coloured pastel_ 22

Boats on a Beach. _From an early crayon drawing_ 100

PIERRE-AUGUSTE RÉNOIR

Portrait of his Son, wounded in the War. _From a charcoal sketch_ 64

AUGUSTE RODIN

Two Women. _From an original water-colour sketch_ 98

THÉO VAN RYSSELBERGHE

Portrait of André Gide. _From a pencil drawing_ 4

Portrait of Émile Verhaeren. _From a pencil drawing_ 36

Portrait of Vincent d’Indy. _From a photograph of the painting_ 52

JOHN SINGER SARGENT, R.A.

Portrait of Henry James. _From a photograph of the painting_ 114

Two Heads. _From a pencil drawing_ 132