face,
not on railroad trains, not through representatives in Parliament or in
convention, but in billets and trenches. Whatever Canada is, she is not
small. She is particularly the land of immense distances; her breadth is
greater than that of the United States. All of the great territorial
expanse of Canada in its manhood, in the thoughts of those at home, was
centered in a few square miles of Flanders.

I was in Canada when only the first division had had its trial and
recruiting was at full blast; and again when three hundred and fifty
thousand had joined the colors and Canada, now feeling the full measure
of loss of life, seemed unfaltering, which was the more remarkable in a
new country where livelihood is easy to gain and Opportunity knocks at
the door of youth if he has only the energy to take her by the hand and
go her way. I may add that not all the youth about Toronto or any other
town who gave as their reason for not enlisting that they were American
citizens actually were. They were not "too _proud_ to fight," whatever
other reason they had, for they had no pride; and if honest Quakers they
would not have given a lying excuse.

Out in France I heard talk about this Canadian brigade being better than
that one, and that an Eastern Canada man wanted no leading from a
Western Canada man, and that not all who were winning military crosses
were hardy frontiersmen but some were lawyers and clerks in Montreal or
Toronto--or should I put Toronto first, or perhaps Ottawa or
Winnipeg--and more talk expressive of the rivalry which generals say is
good for spirit of corps. Moose Jaw Street was across from Halifax
Avenue and Vancouver Road from Hamilton Place in the same community.

As I was not connected with any part of Canada, the Canadians, with
their Maple Leaf emblem, were all Canadians to me; men across the border
which we pass in coming and going without change of language or
steam-heated cars or iced-water tanks. Some Canadians think that the
United States with its more than a hundred millions may feel patronizing
toward their eight millions, when after Courcelette if a Canadian had
patronized the United States I should not have felt offended. I have
even heard some fools say that the two countries might yet go to war,
which shows how absurd some men have to be in order to attract
attention. All of this way of thinking on both sides should be placed on
a raft in the middle of Lake Erie and supplied with bombs t