The Washington times., 1917-04-13
IRWIN COBB TELLS
OF WAR TRAGEDY
Brings Tears to Crowd in Re-
VeaIing What Red Cross
Women Do.

interrupted the talk given by Irwin
S. Cobb, war correspondent and
writer, in the Forrest Theater yes
terday.
Thrice Is He Armed That Hath His
QuarreI Just" was his subject. The
audience that literally packed the
house listened with rapt attention.
The lecture was under the auspices
of the Independence Square Auxi-
liary of the Southeastern Chapter of
the American Red Cross. Mr.. Cobb
made an earnest plea for assistance
for the Red Cross.
During his appeal a dramatic Incl
dent occurred. A message was handed
to him.
THE psychological for once has
occurred at the psychological mo-
ment,' he said after opening it. "Here
is a cablegram sent from London to
George Horace Lorimer, editor of the
Saturday Evening Post, saying, Give
my check for my article for $1,000
to the American Red Cross" 1t is
signed Northcliffe." 1t was from Lord
Northcliffe, proprietor of the London
Times and scores of other British
publications, and one of the towering
personages of the empire.
After recounting experiences in
Europe since the outbreak of the
war and picturing the changes in
national life which he saw effected,
Mr.. Cobb told of the hardships of Red
Cross nurses in the war zone, which
he said were far different than most
women OF the United States imagine.
Continuing, he said:
Il saw in one hospital at the 'front.'
three women engaged in a common
service, and one, they told me, was a
countess, a nobly-born woman, no
longer young, and plainly not strong,
but to the best of her ability and to
the limit of her strength doing what
ever service she might be called upon
to do. The second member of the
trio, and the head of the force, was a
professional trained nurse, and to her,
l suppose, this was part of the rou-
tine of her avocation, although she
was bringing to IT a full measure of
mercy and kindness to the poor,
stricken fragments of humanity lying
there.
"And the third was a prostitute
from the city sidewalks, whose lover
was at the front, and she, too, had
volunteered, and, wearing the same
uniform and sharing the same for
tune, for the time being, as her more
favored sisters, on the same social
level with the others, she was doing
with them those beautiful services
for the afflicted.
And the old doctor looked at that
woman, and said to me, My son, in
this war every day somewhere, over
and over again, the story Of Mary
Magdalene is repeated
Must Expect Losses.
Personally, I confess l have not
much sympathy with the people whe
belIeve-and there are many of us
who do believe it-that we can go to
war against another nation and not
have war made on us in return: that
we can strike blows and not receive
blows In return. If you knew some
thing of the spirit behind all wars,
and particularly the spirit behind
Germany in this war, you would knoT
that that cannot be-
1--WE have got to give a measure OF
our manhood to die on the field.
Without the shedding of blood there
10 no remission of sins. And every,
one here, and every man and every
woman and every child in America Is
going to have to give, and give, and
give, and keep on giving. / have no
doubt that there are mothers in this
audience who will give their sons to
die for their country, and sisters who
will send their brothers to death, and
every one of US who does not go to
the front must serve behind the lines.
either in money or in the work of our
hands, or in that which means more
to a nation in peril than any material
force, in white-hearted loyalty to our
flag, our President, our soldiers, and
our country"
The faces of men and women in the
audience were tense as the speaker
finished this picture of the future pos
sibilities.
He paid a tribute to the efficiency
of the Germans at war and told of
the .'most barbarous and most thor
Ough-going fashion" in which they
conduct war.
"The Enemy We Fight
Then he said:
And that is the enemy we fight
today, and he is going to employ
against us the same methods and the
same relentlessness as against those
countries over yonder.
81 made up my mind that one of the
principal troubles with the German
way of conducting the war was that
they are not good sports: the thing
tina islands out just as clearly on the
field Of battle as on the athletic field
1t Is as impossible to conceive of a
group of Prussian officers playing
football or baseball or cricket and
abiding by the rules of the game, as
to imagine a bunch of Yankee volun-
teers marching to the goosestep
They are not good sports"
Time and again there were sobs
and suppressed weeping in the big
gathering, and the speaker himself
was not ashamed to show his emotion.
Mr.. Cobb told many amazing Incl
dents. one in particular, convulsing
his audience with laughter. 1t was his
appearance before a son Of the Kaiser
in carpet slippers. which he wore be-
cause his shoes had been worn out.
The stage was draped with Ameri-
can and Red Cross flags, and Boy
Scouts stood about IL at attention. At
the conclusion rousing cheers for
Cobb were given, and THE Star,
Spsngled Banner" was sung by the en-
tire assemblage.
SHOWS FLAGS OF ALLIES
a