The Daily Missoulian. [volume] (Missoula, Mont.) 1904-1961, 1917-04-15
CAN'T YOU UNDERSTAND WAR?
THEN READ REVIEW OF NOVEL
rich. because I am taking tickets for
my holidays at an Esperanto confer
ence at Boulogne."

AheH Cstiue the Uay. Inc austrian /.
Hungarian ambassador presented his
impossible ultimatium to the Serbian
government and demanded a reply
within 4s hours. With the wisdom of
retrospect we know now clearly enough
what that meant. The Sarajevo crime
was to be made an excuse for war; But
nine hundred and ninety-nine Euro
peans out of a thousand had still no
suspicion OF what was happening to
them. The ultimatum figured promi-
nently in the morning papers that cam !,
to Matching's Easy. but it by no means
dominated the rest Of the news; Sir
Edward Carson's rejection of the gov
eminent proposals for Ulster was given
the pride OF place and almost equally
conspicuous with the Serbian news
were the CaillauX trial and the storm
ing CT the St Petersburg barricades by
the Cossocks. Herr Heinrch's ques-
4, tions at lunch time received reassurins
replies" t.
Then the war cloud broke and an
discussions at Matching's Easy were
at an end. Off to the F'atherland went
Herr Heinrich. amid the "Auf Wieder.
sehp's" Of his friends, leaving his
squirrel and his violin in thei. minds
Tor tutute orders. And later
Teddy, the young husband, and Hugh
the idolized sen, in trim uniforms OF
khaki. kissed good-by and were off tc
the front. leaving Mr.. Drifting and
the group at Matchin's Easy dazed and
bewildered with the swift turn of
events. The essay upon "And Now
War Ends was laid aside.
At his writing desk and his maps
Mr.. Drifting followed the tremendous
happenings of the war-through Lux
emburg. through Belgium. the battles
OF the Marine and the Aisne. the de-
Tense of Ypres. And one night in
April he was perplexed by commo-
ton among the pheasants and a bark
ing of distant dogs, and then to his
great establishment he heard noises
like distant fireworks display and
saw something like a phantom yell
lowish fountain pen in the sky far
away to the east and after
he had rubbed his eyes and looked
again he realized that he was looking
at a Zeppelin-a Zeppelin flying Lon
donwards over Essex" Every new
happening brought him a new angle
from which to project the speculations
Of his ever active brain, seeking some
clew to the great mystery of the war,
something that would tell him where
his duty lay with respect to it. Even
when his boy. Hugh. with the army at
the front, he still felt sort of de-
tachment from tit had not vet oc-
Cured to him that anything would
happen to Hugh-he was only Ia
mere boy--they would put him in some
clerical position where he would be
safe. So he continued to write and talk
and play hockey and tend to the ordi-
nary affairs Of the day at Matching's
Easy But his thoughts were deepen
ing and widening with the process of
events-his earlier viewpoints seemed
painfully puerile to him. "The war
lowered over him like a vigilant teach
er. day after day.. week after week,
holding rod in its hand"
Z. Almost unbelievable stories of afro
cities-butchertes of old men and chill
dren-killings Of harmless citizens
outrages of women-terrible tales of
blood lust began to come through. and
Mr. Britting's philosophical mind be-
San to understand what Hate was.
And then news came that Teddy, the
blue-eyed father of the baby, was
wounded and missing.
And one morning little girl in
pinafore delivered him a piece Of yell
low paper which told him. in few
words. that Hugh had been killed
"and the government regrets"
And little later a friend in Norway
wrote him that Herr Heinrich, the
amiable Teuton, who had been a men,
Der of his household, had also been
killed in his trenches.
And the world that Mr.. Britling had
been living in and dreaming in and
philosophising about fell away from
him and vanished forever, leaving him
adrift in a weltering sea of doubt and
despair.
1t was then that Mr. Britling discov.
cred Coda Finite God, fashioned in
a human mold, with attributes Of hui
man consolation and sympathy.
For Mr.. Britling it was all ended
SO far as he was concerned he had
seen the war through. But he must
still keep thinking of the future-not
his own, but the worlds future. There
were things to be done-but, first, he
must return Herr Heinrich's violin to
that other sorrow stricken father in
Germany. And he must write him a
letter of coincidence. So he sat down
to write, and as he wrote his soul ex-
-panded into vast apocalyptic COM
prehension and he found himself
speaking the voice Of millions of Eng
fish people to millions OF .Ges man peo-
ple-to millions Of people in every ma
ton of the world. All the thought that
n a