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[[left margin in red]] Liege [[/left margin in red]]
The Belgians consider their [[red underline]] franc which is of a value well below 3 cents [[/red underline]] American money, still as a franc while saying that "things have become expensive. In fact everything calculated in American money is extraordinarily [[red underline]] inexpensive. [[/red underline]] Decidedly more so even than in Germany. [[strikethrough]] Clothes Goo shoes are sold [[/strikethrough]] Good homemade shoes are sold at one Dollar to 30 cents a pair! Clothing in the same proportion, altho' their cut looks awkward from an American standpoint. Hats are also very inexpensive about 1/2 to 1/4 our American prices. So is food in the market or in restaurants. Prices remind me of those I used to pay in 1880-1887 in Ghent.
Only imported goods are more expensive. So the [[red underline]] Belgians try to make [[/red underline]] everything themselves so as to save duties and are able to produce goods at very low wages. This is the answer to those who in the U.S advocate repeal of our tariffs. Our workmen could never live at the very low wages of [[strikethrough]] some [[/strikethrough]] ^[[most]] of the European countries.
The cobblestone road leading to the Fort passes over a monotonous hilly country [[strikethrough]] with [[/strikethrough]] bare for the most part with scant trees here and there. Strange that people should prefer to live below in that gray town with its scant ventilation, between two rows of hills. - Bronze war statues everywhere. The forts invented by General [[red underline]] Brialmont [[/red underline]] with their movable steel cupolas, embedded in cement, seemingly impregnable
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[[left margin in red]] Liege [[/left margin in red]]
structures, did not withstand long the horrible force of the tremendous German projectiles. In some cases some of these cupolas were bodily lifted skywards and turned over. The somber reality of such human abberations as that hideous war, makes one wonder [[red underline]] how long our race will continue forgetting the lessons of the past, and every succeeding generation preparing itself to commit the same criminal follies! [[/red underline]]
After returning I went to sit down at the Bodega in Liege to drink a glass of portwine. A few tables away sat half a dozen bragging men, drinking champagne, while loudly telling each others their prowesses of war and fighting their battles over again, while now and then publicly before the open window, kissing a coarse heavy woman who was one of their party. [[red underline]] I saw no beggars in the streets; [[/red underline]] probably on account of absence of American tourists. - But almost [[red underline]] everywhere loafing officers, [[/red underline]] parading their uniforms, but with less grace than British or Germans.
Drew $50.00 from the Bank.  My ticket 1st class from here to London costs $14.40.
[[left margin]] Louvain [[/left margin]]
[[underline]] June 16 [[/underline]] Left early for Louvain.  Again well cultivated fields in small patches. - The corn fields are full of red poppies - reminding me of these symbols of the [[strikethrough]] dead on [[/strikethrough]] buried on the battlefields. - Also ever recurring pictures of "the man with the hoe". No agricultural machinery, only hand work and bent men and women harvesting or hoeing or planting. The "machine age has not penetrated