The Book of the Homeless

by Edith Wharton (ed.)

THE BOOK OF THE HOMELESS

(Le Livre des Sans-Foyer)

Edited by

EDITH WHARTON

THE BOOK OF THE HOMELESS

THE BOOK OF THE
HOMELESS

(Le Livre des Sans-Foyer)

EDITED BY
EDITH WHARTON

New York & London

MDCCCCXVI

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 could n'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 friendsmoved 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 1^er, Paris (with Mrs. Wharton's name in the left-hand corner), via the American offices of the Clearing House, 15 Broad Street, New York.