Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-10-25

~ ahCS dItOtiler SuU1I1Sf OF'
many, there is no British nor
Canau an officer. no French
nor Italian whose face does not
turn to granite and steel when
ever you suggest that he will not
walk down the streets of Berlin
and institute military court,
and try u Kaiser and his staff
for murder. That is one of the
things that Is settled, and about
which discussion Is not permit
ted by soldier regiments.
The Ruin OF Rheims.
"One of the things that has horri-
lied the civilized world has been the
ruin of Rheims Cathedral. Ger
many, of course, was denied the gift
of imagination. 1t belongs to France,
to Italy, and to Athens. Heinrich
Heine, her own poet, says that Ger
many appreciates architecture SO
| little that it is only a question of
time when with his giant hammer,
Thor will at last spring up again
| and shatter to bits all Gothic Cathe-
drals.' This gifted Hebrew had The
vision that literally saw the Germans
pounding to pieces the Cathedral at
Louvain and Ypres, in Arras, in
| Bapaume, in st. Quentin. and
Rheims. The German mind is a
hearty, mediocre mind, that can
multiply and exploit the inventions
! and discoveries of the other races.
| The Germans contributed practically
nothing to the invention of the loco
motive, the steamboat, the Marconi-
gram, the automobile, the airplane,
! the phonograph, the sewing ma
chine, the reaper, the electric light.
Americans invented for Germany her
| revolver, her machine gun, her tur-
reted ship, and her torpedo subma-
rine. In retrospect it seems abso-
lutely incredible that Germany could
have been so helplessly and hope
| lessly unequal to the invention OF
the tools that have made her rich.
But that is'not her gift. If Sheffield
can give her a model knife, Germany
can reproduce that knife in quanti-
| ties and undersell Sheffield. The
| German people keep step in a regi-
ment, in a factory and on ship,
and therefore are wholesalers. The
French mind is creative. Stands for
| individual excellence, and is at the
| other extreme from the German tenn
| perament The emblem of the Ger
/ man intellect is beer; the emblem of
| the English intellect is port wine;
the emblem of the French mind is
champagne; the emblem of an Amer
lean intellect like Emerson's is q
| beaker filled with sunshine-my
knowledge of these liquors is based
on hearsay. 1t is this lack of imagi-
nation that explains NietZsche's
| statement that for two hundred
| years Germany has been the enemy
! of culture, while Heinrich Heine de-
clared the name OF culture was
! France.
Destruction of Rheims.
"It is this total lack of mental
capacity to appreciate architec-
ture that explains GeImany'S
destruction of some OF the no
blest buildings OF the world. She
cannot by any chance conceive
how the other races look upon
her vandalism. Her own for
ciSn government expressed 1T
publicly in one of her state pa
pers, in these words, let the
neutPaIs cease cllattering about
cathedrals, Germany docs not
care one straw If all the galleries
and churches in the world were
destroyed, providing we gain our
endS.'
"Guizot in his history of civiliza-
/ ton, presents three tests of civil
! ized people: First, they revere their
| pledges and honor; second, they rev.
erence and pursue the beautiful in
painting, architecture and literature;
third, they exhibit sympathy in re-
form toward the poor, the weak and
! the unfortunate.
! Louis Orr and Rheims.
Now apply those tests to the Kai-
ser and his war staff, and you un-
derstand why Rheims Cathedral is
ruin. No building since the Par
thenon was more precious to the
worlds culture. What majesty and
dignity in the lines What wealth
of statuary! How wonderful the
Twelfth Century glass! With what
lightness did these arches leap into
the air! Now, the great bombs have
torn holes through the roof; onl!
! little bits of glass remain. Broker
| are the arches, ruined some of The
| flying buttresses, the altar where
Jeanne dare stood at the crownine
j of Charles is quite gone. The great
library, the bishops palace, all tho
art treasures are in ruins. Ancient
and noble buildings do not belong
to a race, they belong to the world
Sacred forever the threshold of the
i Parthenon, once pressed by the feet
/ of Socrates and Plato; thrice sacred
that aisle of Santa Croce in Florence
i dear to Dante and Savonarola, to be
treasured forever the solemn beauty
Il of Westminster Abbey, holding the
\ dust of the men of supreme genius
In front of the wreck of the Cathe-
drai of Rheims, all blackened will
German fire, broken with the Ger.
man hammer, is the statue of Jeanne
dare. There she stands, immorta
i forever, guiding the steed of the
sun with the left hand, lifting the
banners of peace and liberty will
the right By some strange chance
no bomb injured that bronze. oh
\ beautiful emblem of the day wher
the spirit of liberty, riding in c
y chariot of the sun, shall guide 6
I greater host made up of all the peo-
pies who revere the treasures of art
and architecture, and law and lib,
erty, and Christ's poor, and Will
ride on to victory that will be the
sublimest conquest in the annals oi
time.
i lover against the greatest mill
tary machine that was ever forged
and controlled by merciless anC
cruel men, who have given up al
faith in God, who practice the Ter
Commandments with the mot" lef
out, who have stamped out of. the
souls of their soldiers every instinc
I of pity and sympathy, are our AL
\ lies. Here is Belgium, after all hel
agony, ready to die to the last mar
J., rather than submit to q cruel mas
ter, the Kaiser. And here is Eng
4 land. and all her colonies. How
I glorious this land! The land of sucl
I dear souls, this dear, dear land a!
| Shakespeare said. She has already
sacrificed one-third of her tota
Wealth. million of her sons; anC
here is France, not bled white, bu
! tired after three years OF grievous