And against the gallant sons of Belgium, France,
England, and Russia in turn were poured out with bestial ingenuity the
jets and curtains of "liquid fire" which seared the flesh and blinded
the eyes. For this there will be a reckoning if God be still in heaven
whilst the world trembles with the shock of conflict, and the souls of
men are seared.

Raemaekers in this cartoon shows not only the horror of such a method of
warfare, but also, with unerring pencil, the unwavering spirit of the
men who have to meet this "frightfulness." There is a land to be
redeemed, and women and children to be avenged, and so the fighting men
of the allied nations go gallantly on with their stern, amazed faces set
towards victory.

CLIVE HOLLAND.

[Illustration: LIQUID FIRE]

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NISH AND PARIS

Very happily and very graphically has Raemaekers here pointed the
contrast between the Gargantuan hopes with which the Kaiser and his
Junker army embarked on the War, and the exiguous and shadowy fruits of
their boasted victories up to the present. They foretold a triumphal
entry into the conquered capital of France within a month of the opening
of hostilities. Yet the irony of Fate has, slowly but surely, cooled the
early fever of anticipation. The only captured town where the
All-Highest has found an opportunity of lifting his voice in exultant
paean is Nish, a secondary city of the small kingdom of Serbia. There,
too, he perforce delayed his jubilation until the lapse of some eighteen
months after the date provisionally and prematurely fixed in the first
ebullition of overconfidence, for his triumphal procession through
Paris.

Nish is a town of little more than 20,000 inhabitants; about the size of
Taunton or Hereford--smaller than Woking or Dartford. Working on a basis
of comparative populations, the Emperor would have to repeat without
more delay his bravery at Nish in 150 towns of the same size before he
could convince his people that he is even now on the point of fulfilling
his first rash promises to them of the rapid overthrow of his foes.
Pursuing the same calculation, he is bound to multiply his present
glories 350 times before he can count securely on spending a night as
conquering hero in Buckingham Palace.

Even the Kaiser must know in his heart that woefully, from his own and
his people's point of vie