The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1915-01-05

1ANa NSSioI III liz U tIICt, lIlc SItIN
and the splendor OF war will remain.
Belgium owes her Immortality to her
part in the war, just as America owes
her Immortality to her war of indie
%pendence and her abolition war. And
yet, thrill for thrill. / for one confess
Ia nothing, if it be not Beigium's
heroic defiance Of Germany, has
moved me more than Americas relief
of Belgium. There is no sense in
which the Splendor of this war, which I
is not her war, has passed her by. She
is saving Belgium today more surely
than the armies OF the allies.
The Glory is BeIgium's.
II some political exigency had COM
PEELED her to stand by is with her
army and her navy she would not
have given US q greater thrill. Her
armed intervention, which could only
have come by old political eXigency, |
| would not have touched us in the
same way. Nor could it have given
us the same assurance for the future.
If. as MIR. Bernard Shaw has told us,
America is to have a decisive voice
in the ultimate settling of the terms
Of peace, we shall know that it is the
voice Of Il nation that did not stand
aside In the hour of our necessity, but
took her splendid part.
1t is too soon for either side to talk
of victory. We and our allies are con-
WINGED that we are going to win in the
long run-though it will be a very
long run indeed from the western and
eastern battle lines to Berlin We are
certainly going to win or die. But
when the war and the splendor and
the horror Of it have passed into his
tory, when Americas part in it comes
to be written, we shall AVE to OWT
that, though there was 70 other way
for us but war. and though the cplen-
dor of it is as incontestable as the
horror, America yet showed US "a
more excellent way"
The Beauty OF q PrOSaic Food Ship.
A long time ago, IN the autumn OF
winter of -9O5, l saw the American
and British battleships lined up in the
Hudson. Every ship that sails to sea
compels to alteration, from a super
dreadnought to the humblest coaler
steaming across the Atlantic, and
these battleships were indescribably
beautiful and terrible. They provided
an indispensable thrill.
And yet l would have foregone that
sight gladly to have seen the rams
port ship MaSSapequa steaming out Of
New York HarbOr laden with her g.
$50 tons Of bacon, rice, beans and
flour, to ave seen her and the Cob
LEM and the Jar Blocke arrive at Rot
tendam; to have seen the Dutch stew
edOres leap on board and empty them;
to have seen the bargeS going up
the canals to Antwerp II Brussels
and Malines. l am sure there was
never a more stately spectacle than
: the transport ship Massapaqua, and
4 no ship ever made a prOuder voyage
The worst is over for Belgium sc
long as the good American transport:
{ come and go. But nobody who has
y not been to Belgium within the las
Y five months can picture, can ever
dimly conceive that country's desc.
49, -,o A~> - ho- --s41 m
Hector Munro's Motor Field Ambu
e lance from the last week in Septem
e her to the middle Of October. Th'
misery was intense even then; by thi
0 time it must be appalling.
If anything could make it saddle
it was the extreme beauty Of tn
country and the towns we passe,
e formed for the very expression 0
peace. Behind US to the west. alon
n the high road from Client thrOugl
h Bruges to Ostend, the villages an,
p towns were as yet ~untouched: tn
y fields. the plots OF flowers lay still an
vivid soaked in the rich autumn sun
t. light. But before us to the east an
a south, and northwards round Ant
rs Werp, was ruin and war. Whereve
g. our ambulance cars went they me
lie endless professions Of refugees: enc
ID less. for the straight, fiat f1emis
w IOauS dIS ellulcSS, dilu DIS IdI DIS you
il. eye could see the stream of peopl
is was ~unbroken; endless because tn
I'd misery Of Belgium is endless; tn
ne mind cannot grasp it or take it in.
is Author Cannot Believe What Her
ne Eyes Saw.
OF You cannot meet it with grle
LII hardly with conscious pity; you haN
r no tears Tor it; it is a sorrow Tia
st ~transcends everything that you HAY
n known Of s. crow. These people ha,
ty been left only their eyes to wee
cr with"
is But they do not weep any mo
ny than you do. They have no tears !;
ne themselves or for each other. Of 8
the thousands and thousands # re
OF ugees whom l have seen. l IA on
IL seen three weep, and they were thl'
es out Of six hundred who had Just III