Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-04-11
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Antwerp 10 Gallipolli. by Arthur
Ruhl. (Scribner's. New York, $3.50.
How little do we Americans, wrap
ped up In our own affairs and obsess-
ed with the pursuit of wealth which
the war-gtven prosperity of this coun-
try has made possible-how little do
we really know of the actual conditions
in Europe and how little do we really
appreciate and SympathiZe with the
cheerful sacrifices which hundreds of
thousands of human beings, flesh and
blood like ourselves, are enduring day
after day, month in and month out,
in the cause of country.
This record of events and of the
actual witnessing of scenes of horror
and bloodshed, while perhaps eXag-
gerated to the degree that all writers
who are interested in their subject
must necessarily eXaggerate, still gives
us one of the clearest and most realis-
tic pictures of the countries at war
of any literature that the war has in
spired. Simple, frank in the matter
of details, and conversational in style,
this bird's-eye view of the war map
and the intimate associations which
it gives with peoples of foreign habits
and customs is the next best thing to
visiting the trenches ourselves.
A trip through Belgium just ahead
of the galloping troops and onrushing
hordes of German invaders. a halt at
Antwerp while shells shatter houses
next to us and we shiver in our beds
lest the next strike the house wherein
we are lodged; a visit to Paris, where
all is expectancy and uncertainty;
thence to Bordeaux, the temporary
capital of France, and a haSty glance
at London, from which q heavy fog
drives us ere we can learn much of
anything; on to the German prison
camps, in which French and English,
Algerian and Serbian, all mingle to-
gether in the little Walled-in city
that is all their own, and where they
take it as a matter of course and pro-
duce Bernard Shaw's "Androcles and
the Lion under the watchful but
twinkling eye of the German COM
mandant; an armored motor takes us
whizzing to the front, where we step
gingerly through the trenches and
watch the English, less than a hun
dred yards away bat invisible in their
own trenches, hurting bombs and
standing as watch-dogs within a few
seconds walk of their enemies; next
we cross over the pass and enter the
capital of Rumania, that little nation
smaller in size than Pennsylvania, yet
a factor in the world war. A careful
reading of Mr.. Ruhl's book will per-
haps dispel the haZy impression which
the average American holds of the
Balkans. Finally we visit the Turks
and Austria Hungary through which
we pass to the Galician front.
One feels, after having taken this
trip of one year with the author to
the principal scenes of the war. more
equal to solving in ones own mind just
what is the correct attitude one is to
take with respect to the countries that
are fighting for their very lives. 1t is
very hard to be on the outside looking
in and still form a definite and un-
shakable conviction on a matter that
has so many phases. Antwerp to
Gallipolli" will do much 70 crystallfze
the uniformed sentiment of the reader
toward this country or that, without
violating the we'll established neutral
ity that has been ours since the war
started.
Instead of the Thorn, by Clara