e la que je m'y mette_."

[Illustration]

_THE FALABA_

"_We have better luck with passenger boats than with war ships, for they
cannot shoot_"

On March 28, 1915, the British steamer _Falaba_ was torpedoed by a
German submarine. The torpedoes were fired while the crew and passengers
were entering the small boats. More than 100 persons, including Mr.
Thrasher, an American citizen, perished with the ship.

While some of the boats were still on their davits the submarine fired a
torpedo at short range. This action made it absolutely certain that
there must be great loss of life and it must have been committed
knowingly with the intention of producing that result.

BRITISH OFFICIAL PRESS BUREAU.
_April 8, 1915._

[Illustration]

_THE GAS FIEND_

At some time between 4 and 5 P.M. (22d April) the Germans started
operations by releasing gases with the result that a cloud of poisonous
vapor rolled swiftly before the wind from their trenches toward those of
the French west of Langemarck, held by a portion of the French Colonial
Division. Allowing sufficient time for the fumes to take full effect on
the troops facing them, the Germans charged forward over the practically
unresisting enemy in their immediate front, and, penetrating through the
gap thus created, pressed on silently and swiftly to the south and west.

BRITISH OFFICIAL EYEWITNESS.
_April 27, 1915._

"We shall not allow these wonderful weapons, which German intelligence
invented, to grow rusty."

_The Cologne Gazette._

Germany was a signatory to the declaration at the Hague Conference of
1899, and an article in that Declaration ran as follows: "The
contracting Powers agree to abstain from the use of projectiles the sole
object of which is the diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious gases."

[Illustration]

_SLOW ASPHYXIATION_

These men were lying struggling for breath and blue in the face. On
examining the blood with the spectroscope and by other means, I
ascertained that the blueness was not due to the presence of any
abnormal pigment. There was nothing to account for the blueness
(cyanosis) and struggle for air but the one fact that they were
suffering from acute bronchitis, such as is caused by inhalation of an
irritant gas. Their statements were that when in the trenches they had
been overwhelmed by an irritant gas produced in front of the German
trenches and carried toward