The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mr. Punch's History of the Great War, by Punch

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Title: Mr. Punch's History of the Great War

Author: Punch

Release Date: March 14, 2004 [EBook #11571]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Mr. PUNCH'S

HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR

1919

First Impression July 1919
Second " July 1919
Third " August 1919
Fourth " August 1919
Fifth " September 1919
Sixth " October 1919
Seventh " October 1919

[Illustration: PEACE--THE SOWER]

TO THE READER

_For whatsoever worth or wit appears
In this mixed record of five hectic years,
This tale of heroes, heroines--and others--
Thank first "O. S." and then his band of brothers
Who took their cue, with pencil and with pen,
From the gay courage of our fighting men.
Theirs be the praise, not his, who here supplies
Merely the editorial hooks and eyes
And, rich by proxy, prodigally spends
The largess of his colleagues and his friends._

_C. L. G_.

PROLOGUE

Though a lover of peace, Mr. Punch from his earliest days has not been
unfamiliar with war. He was born during the Afghan campaign; in his youth
England fought side by side with the French in the Crimea; he saw the old
Queen bestow the first Victoria Crosses in 1857; he was moved and stirred
by the horrors and heroisms of the Indian Mutiny. A little later on, when
our relations with France were strained by the Imperialism of Louis
Napoleon, he had witnessed the rise of the volunteer movement and made
merry with the activities of the citizen soldier of Brook Green. Later on
again he had watched, not without grave misgiving, the growth of the great
Prussian war machine which crushed Denmark, overthrew Austria, and having
isolated France, overwhelmed her heroic resistance by superior numbers and
science, and stripped her of Alsace-Lorraine.

In May, 1864, Mr. Punch presented the King of Prussia with the "Order of
St. Gibbet" for his treatment of Denmark.

In Augu