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_THE BOOK OF THE HOMELESS_

THE

BOOK OF THE HOMELESS

(_LE LIVRE DES SANS-FOYER_)

EDITED BY EDITH WHARTON

* * * * *

_Original Articles in Verse and Prose Illustrations reproduced from Original Paintings & Drawings_

THE BOOK IS SOLD FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE AMERICAN HOSTELS FOR REFUGEES (WITH THE FOYER FRANCO-BELGE) AND OF THE CHILDREN OF FLANDERS RESCUE COMMITTEE

NEW YORK _CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS_ MDCCCCXVI

COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS

D. B. UPDIKE, THE MERRYMOUNT PRESS, BOSTON, U. S. A.

LETTRE DU GÉNÉRAL JOFFRE

_Armées de l’Est_ RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE _Le Commandant en Chef_

_Au Grand Quartier Général, le 18 Août, 1915_

_Les Etats-Unis d’Amérique n’ont pas oublié que la première page de l’Histoire de leur indépendance a été écrite avec un peu de sang français._

_Par leur inépuisable générosité et leur grande sympathie, ils apportent aujourd’hui à la France, qui combat pour sa liberté, l’aide la plus précieuse et le plus puissant réconfort._

J. JOFFRE

LETTER FROM GENERAL JOFFRE

[TRANSLATION]

_Headquarters of the Commander-in-chief of the Armies of the French Republic_

_August 18ᵗʰ 1915_

_The United States of America have never forgotten that the first page of the history of their independence was partly written in French blood._

_Inexhaustibly generous and profoundly sympathetic, these same United States now bring aid and solace to France in the hour of her struggle for liberty._

J. JOFFRE

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

PREFACE

I

THE HOSTELS

Last year, among the waifs swept to Paris by the great torrent of the flight from the North, there came to the American Hostels a little acrobat from a strolling circus. He was not much more than a boy, and he had never before been separated from his family or from his circus. All his people were mummers or contortionists, and he himself was a mere mote of the lime-light, knowing life only in terms of the tent and the platform, the big drum, the dancing dogs, the tight-rope and the spangles.

In the sad preoccupied Paris of last winter it was not easy to find a corner for this little figure. But the lad could not be left in the streets, and after a while he was placed as page in a big hotel. He was given good pay, and put into a good livery, and told to be a good boy. He tried ... he really tried ... but the life was too lonely. Nobody knew anything about the only things _he_ knew, or was particularly interested in the programme of the last performance the company had given at Liège or Maubeuge. The little acrobat could not understand. He told his friends at the Hostels how lonely and puzzled he was, and they tried to help him. But he couldn’t sleep at night, because he was used to being up till nearly daylight; and one night he went up to the attic of the hotel, broke open several trunks full of valuables stored there by rich lodgers, and made off with some of the contents. He was caught, of course, and the things he had stolen were produced in court. They were the spangled dresses belonging to a Turkish family, and the embroidered coats of a lady’s lap-dog....

I have told this poor little story to illustrate a fact which, as time passes, is beginning to be lost sight of: the fact that we workers among the refugees are trying, first and foremost, to _help a homesick people_. We are not preparing for their new life an army of voluntary colonists; we are seeking to console for the ruin of their old life a throng of bewildered fugitives. It is our business not only to feed and clothe and keep alive these people, but to reassure and guide them. And that has been, for the last year, the task of the American Hostels for Refugees.

The work was started in November, 1914, and since that time we have assisted some 9,300 refugees, given more than 235,000 meals, and distributed 48,333 garments.

But this is only the elementary part of our work. We have done many more difficult things. Our employment agency has found work for over 3,500 men. Our work-rooms occupy about 120 women, and while they sew, their babies are kept busy and happy in a cheerful day-nursery, and the older children are taught in a separate class.

The British Young Women’s Christian Association of Paris has shown its interest in our work by supplying us with teachers for the grown-up students who realize the importance of learning English as a part of their business equipment; and these classes are eagerly followed.

Lastly, we have a free clinic where 3,500 sick people have received medical advice, and a dispensary where 4,500 have been given first aid and nursing care; and during the summer we sent many delicate children to the seaside in the care of various Vacation Colonies.

This is but the briefest sketch of our complicated task; a task undertaken a year ago by a small group of French and American friends moved to pity by the thousands of fugitives wandering through the streets of Paris and sleeping on straw in the railway-stations.

We thought then that the burden we were assuming would not have to be borne for more than three or four months, and we were confident of receiving the necessary financial help. We were not mistaken; and America has kept the American Hostels alive for a year. But we are now entering on our second year, with a larger number to care for, and a more delicate task to perform. The longer the exile of these poor people lasts, the more carefully and discriminatingly must we deal with them. They are not all King Alberts and Queen Elisabeths, as some idealists apparently expected them to be. Some are hard to help, others unappreciative of what is done for them. But many, many more are grateful, appreciative, and eager to help us to help them. And of all of them we must say, as Henri de Régnier says for us in the poem written for this Book:

He who, flying from the fate of slaves With brow indignant and with empty hand, Has left his house, his country and his graves, Comes like a Pilgrim from a Holy Land. Receive him thus, if in his blood there be One drop of Belgium’s immortality.

II

THE CHILDREN

One day last August the members of the “Children of Flanders Rescue Committee” were waiting at the door of the Villa Béthanie, a large seminary near Paris which had been put at the disposal of the committee for the use of the refugee children.

The house stands in a park with fine old trees and a wide view over the lovely rolling country to the northwest of Paris. The day was beautiful, the borders of the drive were glowing with roses, the lawns were fragrant with miniature hay-cocks, and the flower-beds about the court had been edged with garlands of little Belgian flags.

Suddenly we heard a noise of motor-horns, and the gates of the park were thrown open. Down toward us, between the rose-borders, a procession was beginning to pour: first a band of crippled and infirm old men, then a dozen Sisters of Charity in their white caps, and lastly about ninety small boys, each with his little bundle on his back.

They were a lamentable collection of human beings, in pitiful contrast to the summer day and the bright flowers. The old men, for the most part, were too tired and dazed to know where they were, or what was happening to them, and the Sisters were crying from fatigue and homesickness. The boys looked grave too, but suddenly they caught sight of the flowers, the hay-cocks, and the wide house-front with all its windows smiling in the sun. They took a long look and then, of their own accord, without a hint from their elders, they all broke out together into the Belgian national hymn. The sound of that chorus repaid the friends who were waiting to welcome them for a good deal of worry and hard work.

* * * * *

The flight from western Flanders began last April, when Ypres, Poperinghe, and all the open towns of uninvaded Belgium were swept by a senseless and savage bombardment. Even then it took a long time to induce the inhabitants to give up the ruins of their homes; and before going away themselves they sent their children.

Train-load after train-load of Flemish children poured into Paris last spring. They were gathered in from the ruins, from the trenches, from the hospices where the Sisters of Charity had been caring for them, and where, in many cases, they had been huddled in with the soldiers quartered in the same buildings. Before each convoy started, a young lady with fair hair and very blue eyes walked through the train, distributing chocolate and sandwiches to the children and speaking to each of them in turn, very kindly; and all but the very littlest children understood that this lady was their Queen....

The Belgian government, knowing that I had been working for the refugees, asked me to take charge of sixty little girls, and of the Sisters accompanying them. We found a house, fitted it up, begged for money and clothes, and started The Children of Flanders Rescue Committee. Now, after six months, we have five houses, and are caring for nearly 900 people, among whom are about 200 infirm old men and women whom the Sisters had to bring because there was no one left to look after them in the bombarded towns.

Every war-work, if it has any vitality in it, is bound to increase in this way, and is almost certain to find the help it needs to keep it growing. We have always been so confident of this that we have tried to do for our Children of Flanders what the Hostels have done for the grown-up refugees: not only to feed and clothe and shelter, but also to train and develop them. Some of the Sisters are skilled lace-makers; and we have founded lace-schools in three of our houses. There is a dearth of lace at present, owing to the ruin of the industry in Belgium and Northern France, and our little lace-makers have already received large orders for Valenciennes and other laces. The smallest children are kept busy in classes of the “Montessori” type, provided by the generosity of an American friend, and the boys, out of school-hours, are taught gardening and a little carpentry. We hope later to have the means to enlarge this attempt at industrial training.

This is what we are doing for the Children of Flanders; but, above and beyond all, we are caring for their health and their physical development. The present hope of France and Belgium is in its children, and in the hygienic education of those who have them in charge; and we have taught the good Sisters many things they did not know before concerning the physical care of the children. The results have been better than we could have hoped; and those who saw the arrival of the piteous waifs a few months ago would scarcely recognize them in the round and rosy children playing in the gardens of our Houses.

III

THE BOOK

I said just now that when we founded our two refugee charities we were confident of getting money enough to carry them on. So we were; and so we had a right to be; for at the end of the first twelvemonth we are still alive and solvent.

But we never dreamed, at the start, that the work would last longer than a year, or that its demands would be so complex and increasing. And when we saw before us the certainty of having to carry this poor burden of humanity for another twelve months, we began to wonder how we should get the help to do it.

Then the thought of this Book occurred to me. I appealed to my friends who write and paint and compose, and they to other friends of theirs, writers, painters, composers, statesmen and dramatic artists; and so the Book gradually built itself up, page by page and picture by picture.

You will see from the names of the builders what a gallant piece of architecture it is, what delightful pictures hang on its walls, and what noble music echoes through them. But what I should have liked to show is the readiness, the kindliness, the eagerness, with which all the collaborators, from first to last, have lent a hand to the building. Perhaps you will guess it for yourselves when you read their names and see the beauty and variety of what they have given. So I efface myself from the threshold and ask you to walk in.

EDITH WHARTON

_Paris, November, 1915_

Gifts of money for the American Hostels for Refugees, and the Children of Flanders Rescue Committee should be addressed to Mrs. Wharton, 53 rue de Varenne, Paris, or to Henry W. Munroe, Treasurer, care of Mrs. Cadwalader Jones, 21 East Eleventh Street, New York.

Gifts in kind should be forwarded to the American War Relief Clearing House, 5 rue François Iᵉʳ, Paris (_with Mrs. Wharton’s name in the left-hand corner_), _via_ the American offices of the Clearing House, 15 Broad Street, New York.

CONTRIBUTORS OF POETRY AND MUSIC