Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 246, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 November 1917 — Laned of the Flemings [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Laned of the Flemings

THERE is something about the name Flanders that seems immediately to call up to the mind visions of romance, of chivalry, of art and history that are produced by the mention of no other country, unless it be old Venice. The land of the ancient Flemings and of those medieval counts who ranked almost as high as kings is again living its romance in the bitter struggle against the Germans. We read how the people In London heard the guns roar in Flanders; of how the great offensive was being launched In Flanders, and yet the bounds of Flanders to the average man are something of a mystery. While Flanders proper Is nowadays divided into West and East Flanders, says the Philadelphia Public Ledger, the Flemish peoples of Belgium, who number rather more than one-half of the whole, are In the majority in the provinces of Antwerp and Hafnault also, and in the remaining provinces they may be said to divide the honors. These few facts tend to show that the Flemings are not by any means extinct, and that those persons who confuse Belgium with Flanders, or believe the two names are synonymous, are not greatly to blame, for they are only technically wrong. The Flemings are in origin a Germanic people, while the Walloons, the Belgians of the East, are more Celtic In their genesis. The Flemings are kin to the Dutch, and at one time they were a part of the United Netherlands. But they have had a long and strange history, and have, during the last 1,500 years, owed allegiance to many princes and countries; yet they have continued to preserve, their own language, to produce their own art and to maintain their love of the and the simple life. It is true that the great gambling place, the seaside resort Ostend, lies in Flanders, but it was the late king of the Belgians, Leopold, who made that quiet summer resort what it became. With Nieuport it is one of the most ancient towns in Flanders and dates

back to the times w-hen the Northmen came down and tried to make the Flemings slaves. Formerly Opposed the French, t Although the Flemings are fighting side by side with the French, they had for years prior to the war united in opposing everything French, and many parents in Flanders have pursued the inhibition to the extent of declining to permit their children to learn a single word of that language. There are no braver people In Europe than these selfsame Flemings, but they have been the victims of conquest over and over again. Had It not been that the Walloons dwell principally in the eastern provinces, those abutting Germany, there is reason to believe that long ago Belgium would have fallen to the German empire, and probably without any serious struggle. The events of the opening days of the present war, however, have changed the entire face of Belgium’s history and that of Flanders also. Today the people of Flanders have seen their beautiful cities reduced to ruins and their people enslaved by a cruel conqueror. At the same time they have seen France and England come to their assistance, and Flanders hereafter probably will not be so proud of its Low Dutch language that it will neglect the study of French, which is the language used largely in other parts of Belgium. Some years ago a more or less determined attempt was made in Flanders to popularize the Flemish language. Some of the foremost literary pien in the cdbntry consented to write only in that tongue, among them Maeterlinck and Verhaeren, but it Y’as not long before the former found that he was at his best in French, and so the “Belgian Shakespeare,” as he has been called, does all his writing in the language of France.' Land of Famous Counts. In the Middle Ages Flanders was a powerful principality, which, while under the suzerainty of the French king.

was virtually independent. The northeastern provinces were added to the Holy Roman empire in the eleventh century? Tfls thelandofthe Counts Baldwin. The first of the line, known as the Iron-armed, married Judith, the daughter of Charles the Bald of France, and obtained the newly created country as a gift from his father-in-law. In those days the counts of Flanders were regarded as therichest princes in Europe and were said to be far more wealthy than many of its kings. Baldwin IX will be recalled as the founder of the Latin empire in Constantinople. The cities of Bruges, Ghent and a few others at this time were proud and felt their might, bidding to become free cities, and were permitted their independence with the suzerainty of the counts of Flanders. The country was united with the Netherlands in the fourteenth century, but a century later passed to the Hapsburgs. It has been in the possession of the Spanish and of the French, but in 1830 finally liberated itself from Holland and from France. Ghent has been called the City of Flowers and the_Snul of Flanders. It was the home of Flemish art, and here was to be seen before the war Van Eyck’s masterpiece, “The Adoration of the in the cathedral of St. Bavon. It was here that the peace of 1815, which concluded the War of 1812, was signed by the commissioners of Great Britain and the United States. Bruges a City of Bridges. Bruges is a picturesque old city, a city of bridges and the Venice of the North. There the early printer Mansion taught his art to the English merchant Caxton, who carried the art to England and bfegan printing, preserving for us some of the most remarkable pieces of English .literature, for he was the first printer of Chaucer. All the arts have flourished in Flanders. Indeed, in the early Middle Ages it might be said to be the center of industrial art in Europe. Even now the tapestries of Bruges, the laces

of Ghent have their praises sung; and the towers of the ancient country have inspired a host of poets, for its old bells and its ancient architecture have been the joy of artists from every part of the world. Alas! the cruel isvasion of the Germans has reduced to ruins the historic Cloth hall at Ypres, which was built by that Count Baldwin who afterward led a crusade at Constantinople, and have made other towns unrecognizable. Flanders was the home of the guilds in the Middle Ages, and many of the guild halls are to be seen today, the product of an age of artistic architecture. The loss to rite world of art by the invasion of Flwiders cannot be estimated, and now most of its art objects are merely a memory.

Battlements of Castle of the Counts of Flanders.

Canal Scene in Bruges.