St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1916-01-12
Col Harvey on England, America, and the War
The Editor of the North American Review" Tells What
the English Think of Us, and Why.--Some Vivid
WordPictures of Wartime Conditions.

/ hate that word!-to consider and
| even call ourselves Americans. / am
no longer. 1t is an awful thing to be
ashamed of ones country and don't
know that 1 am. But l am of the
American Government. / hate it, hate
it, as the Germans hate England. And
what about that girl there who is
working her young life out from six
in the morning till nine at night? She
is not British even under the law. She
is one of thousands of Americans,
men and women, here and in France
who practice disloyalty,' whose cor
ruptions of mind and heart no laws,
to the great regret of Mr.. Wilson, can
reach, whose splendid sacrifices to the
cause of our race and civilization and
humanity overwhelm him with sense
of Humiliation and scorn' impossible
to express. Peace and dignity of the
United Statesr Think of the Lusi-
tania and think of that! Peace with
out dignity is more like it. What a
glorious motto it is! Are all Ameri-
cans like the President? Can't they
or won't they realize what this war is :?
1t is too awful, too awful"
The taut nerves, breaking under the
strain, relaxed in a flood of tears.
There seemed to be little to say.
An American Fighter.
Here is another picture:
What, then is this war? A year ago,
when on Christmas Day Tommies and
Teutons called a truce and played
boisterously at foot ball, it did not
seem so bad. But now! A card was
brought up late one afternoon. 1t
bore the name of an acquaintance of
thirty Princeton man, whose mill
tary experience, though slight, was
sufficient to obtain a Second Lieuten-
ants commission in a battery early in
the war.
We had heard from British officer
how in the first engagement both of
his superiors were killed and he had
come into and since retained command
of a decimated but active little force;
how twice at least he had disobeyed
orders forbidding reprisalS and had
been reprimanded; how some two
months before he had been caught be-
tween the close lines-"gassed, you
know"-and rescued by his men, and
how finally he had been brought to
an English hospital on six months
leave for repairs to a broken jaw and
other bones and, at the expiration of
six weeks, was haunting the War Of
flee for a chance to return to his old
battery. He was in khaki, of course,
and as lean as a racehorse, but SEEM
ingly fit except for occasional spells
of coughing, for which he apOlOgiZed
as mere "hang-overs'' of the ''gassing"
from the effects of which, incident
ally, we were informed by an eminent
more zestful and restless young man
could not be imagined. To a WhimSi-
cal suggestion that he might be eager
to return for the Christmas football
game he shook his head, saying sober
ly: 1.-THE football days are past; it's
war now all right and has been for
some time; no quarter is asked and
none given; we've stopped taking
prisoners"
What were the relative merits of
the soldiers?
German DisIikes Cold Steel.
1.-The German" he replied, lis a
machine and needs machine to fight
with. Put him behind a rapid-fring
world. And that is where thew had
US at the beginning with their sixty
thousand machine guns to only six
thousand all told for the Allied troops.
But he has no taste for cold steel.
When it comes to close quarters on
equal terms Tommy Atkins is a mar
vel. And the Scotch! My God, man,
again 1 have seen squads of them
swing out in FRONT of those damnable
machine guns to certain death as
blithely as if they were on parade in
Hyde Park. It's one thing to partici-
pate in a big charge; you feel that you
have a chance at any rate; and then
the enthusiasm of numbers bears you
on. But to be one of a dozen of whom
you know in advance not one can es-
cape except by a miracle-thatS diff
ferent. And that's the Scot without
a CULVER. / don't say the English are
not as good. All l mean is that dis
dain of death must have had it's ORR
gin in the Highlands"