as many among the Russians, to which must be added the losses among the
Austrians, the French, the British, the Belgians, Italians, Serbs,
Turks, and Montenegrins. The appalling total is this vast harvest which
covers the plain.
WILLIAM MITCHELL RAMSAY.
[Illustration: THE HARVEST IS RIPE]
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"UNMASKED"
The "Yellow Book," it may be remembered, was the official publication of
some of the details of atrocities committed by the Huns on the
defenceless women and children of ravished Belgium. It told in cold and
unimpassioned sentences, in plain and simple words more terrible than
the most fervid outpourings of patriot or humanitarian, the tale of
brutalities, of cold-blooded crimes, of murders and rape and mental and
physical tortures beyond the capabilities or the imaginings of savages,
possible only in their refinements of cruelty to the civilized apostles
of Kultur. There are many men in the trenches of the Allies to-day who
will say that the German soldier is a brave man, that he must be brave
to advance to the slaughter of the massed attack, to hold to his
trenches under the horrible punishment of heavy artillery fire.
As a nation we are always ready to admit and to admire physical courage,
and if Germany had fought a "clean fight," had "played the game,"
starkly and straightly, against our fighting men, we could--and our
fighting men especially could, and I believe would--have helped her to
her feet and shaken hands honestly with her after she was beaten. But
with such a brute beast as the unmasking of the "Yellow Book" has
revealed Germany to be we can never feel friendship, admiration, or
respect.
The German is a "dirty fighter," and to the British soldier that alone
puts him beyond the pale. He has outraged all the rules and the
instincts of chivalry. His bravery in battle is the bravery of a
ravening wolf, of a blood-drunk savage animal. It is only left to the
Allies to treat him as such, to thrash him by brute force, and then to
clip his teeth and talons and by treaty and agreement amongst themselves
to keep him chained and caged beyond the possibility of another
outbreak.
BOYD CABLE.
[Illustration: UNMASKED
The Yellow Book.]
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THE GREAT SURPRIS
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