THE LOG OF A NONCOMBATANT
by Horace Green
Staff Correspondent of the New York Evening Post
Special Correspondent of the Boston Journal
1915
Preface
In the following pages the ego is thickly spread. Their publication isthe result of persuasion from many sources that, before returning tothe war zone, I should put into connected form my personalexperiences as correspondent during the first year of the War ofNations. A few of these adventures were mentioned in news lettersfrom the Continent, where I limited myself so far as possible todescriptions of armies at war and peoples in time of stress; but thegreater part of them were merely jotted down from time to time for myown benefit in "The Log of a Noncombatant."
Contents
I. From Broadway To Ghent
II. The Second Bombardment Of Termonde
III. Captive
IV. A Clog Dance On The Scheldt
V. The Bombardment Of Antwerp
VI. The Surrender Of Antwerp
VII. Spying On Spies
VIII. The Sorrow Of The People
Appendix: Atrocities
The Log Of A Noncombatant
Chapter I
From Broadway To Ghent
When the war broke out in August, 1914, I was at work in the CityRoom of the "New York Evening Post." One morning, during the firstweek of activities, the copy boy handed me a telegram which wassigned "Luther, Boston," and contained the rather cryptic message:—"How about this fight?"
It was some moments before I could recall the time, more than twoyears before, when I had last seen the writer, Willard B. Luther,Boston lawyer, devotee of some, and critic of many kinds of sport.
We had been sitting on that previous occasion—a crowd of collegefellows, including Luther and myself—in a certain room inCambridge, Massachusetts, not far from the University in thatneighborhood where Luther had attended the Law School and therest of us, on our respective graduation days, had received valuablepieces of parchment with the presidential signature attached. Theconversation had already run through the question of Votes forWomen, progressive politics, and prize-fights, and before the cardgame began it had settled on the last-named, chiefly because of myown vainglorious description of adventures at Reno, Nevada, at thetime of the Jeffries-Johnson battle for the heavyweight championshipof the world. I remember telling with some gusto of my firstnewspaper interview—one with "Bob" Fitzsimmons, then the OldMan of the ring, and "Gentleman" Jim Corbett, who was Jeffries'trainer at Reno.
"I had always wanted to see that performance," said Luther, "andwould have gone in a flash if I could have got any one to make thetrip with me. But remember this fact: whenever the next big fight isheld I'm going with you." Later in the evening we shook hands on theproposition.
At the time that Luther's telegram came I was planning to start for theContinent as Staff Correspondent of the "New York Evening Post"and Special Correspondent of the "Boston Journal." Rememberingthat Cambridge agreement I immediately wired:—
"Yes. This fight will do."
So that is how it came to pass that Luther and myself boarded theCampania together, landed in Liverpool, cast about for ways andmeans of getting into the scrimmage, and for the first month and ahalf of my four months of wandering on the Continent were brotherconspirators, until the duties of partnership called my f