The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1915-08-13
GENEROUS BILL.

hdlSer SlNtS CIeuIl W Nou ioi va
tory" Now, that is a downright hand
some piece of generosity on the par
of the Kaiser. 1t is the most magnan
imous thing we have known him to dc
since the war began. To be perfectly
candid about it, we didn't think he hat
it, in him, and we feel now like apollo
sizing for failure to understand how
big. and generous and careless o.
credit Bill is when it comes to be
slowing praise. The free and open
hearted way in which he pushes his
associates to the front when the time
Tor celebrating comes along gives us
an entirely different opinion of him
and makes us feel kind of mean and
small spirited for having suspected
him of being less noble and highmind-
ed than he proves himself to be by this
latest announcement.
The more you think about it, the
more imposing and exalted this act OF
the Kaiser's appears. Now there is
nothing in the world that appeals more
to "A mans vanity than glory and the
undivided credit for great human
achievements. Yet, here is the Kaiser
in the full flush of one of the crown
ing triumphs of history, the adored
leader of united people, refusing to
accept the laurels of victory and in de-
vout simplicity of mind and humility
of spirit bestowing upon another a
credit he could easily and rightfully
claim for himself. And he does this in
the face of an incredulous world a
world that is inclined to doubt if the
Almighty had anything whatever to do
with the event. Why, such self abase-
ment is stupendous. 1t has no pre-
cedent in the annals of the human
race.
If the Kaiser had been battling with
the forces of nature; if he had been
rescued from shipwreck, or saved
from flood or spared from a demolish-
ing earthquake, there would have been
remarkable in attributing his
fortune to the miraculous and in Civ
ing due praise to God But this is diff
ferent. He has been striving with
men. 1t has been a fearful, tremen-
ious struggle in which the brains and
strength and ingenuity of men have
been pitted against each other. He
has been successfully directing an or
SANITATION that has accomplished and
lealt death iii all the horrible and
srewsome ways that man and German
Iultur can inflict it. Under his com
uand. hundreds of thousands of his
people have been killed and mutilated,
md like numbers of the enemy have
net the same awful fate. God didn't
seem to be there. He didn't seem to
have anything to do with the agOniz-
ing, devastating tragedy. We never
should have thought of seeing his
guiding and beneficient hand in the
cloud of asphyXiating gas, in the
streams of liquid fire, in the bursting
shrapnel, in the spraying death of
machine guns, in the butchery of bay
onet charges or in any of the murder
GUS carnage of the titanic struggle
that filled mems hearts with the lust
Of blood and drove them on to kill, to
MAIN, to devastate, to revel in a he'll
!sh carnival of barbarism and primal
passion. Kaiser Bill could easily have
claimed all the credit and there would
have been no voice raised in all the
world to question his right to the hon
or But he didn't. He doesn't ever
| seek to share in it. He gives it al
to God without reservation. We dom
understand. 1t is too big for us tt
comprehend. And even though Bill
has said it, we don't believe that Got
| deserves it all. We think it must be
sort of charity on Bills part. Yes
that must be it. And come to thinl
about it, it is the biggest, most spec
tacular piece of charity we ever hear,
| of. It's so big it sounds like joke
but Bill don't joke. He's a charistiar
l-Jr.