davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune., 1918-11-03

woman when the poems came into her
hands, and after writing an article in
defence Of him against the shri,l Vic
torian voices that feared so much hu-
man revelation, she began q correspon
dence that lasted until her death. fifteen
years later
Mrs. Gilchrist loved Walt Whitman
passionately. Her early letters are
illled with an impetuous worship of the
man who was able to call to her so pow
erfully across the intervening sea- While
tie letters are chiefly her own, few of
Whitman's are interspersed, and it is
clear that the feeling he returned to her
was in no degree reciprocal. The let
ters he wrote to her and her own reac-
ton to them both illuminate his reluct-
ance TO engage in so violent and COM
plete a deliverance of his essential self
as love affair with her would have to
become. 1t was as if he feared the sur
render of the inner citadel to any power
so avid of the color of his soul, so alb
sorbipg of his quality. The editor of the
volume, Thomas B. Harmed, who WAS
one of Whitman's literary executors.
says that the poets affections were
otherwhere's engaged. Yet his ap-
proach to Mrs. Gilchrist is so sensitive
and delicate, SO careful of her feelings
without yielding his own, that there
comes out of this volume a sense of
conscious discrimination against the
tremendous fact of personal passion
itself.
1t he was hard, with a kind of in
terror hardness, he did not make any
formula about his feeling for her. He
characterized it with the richness and
variety of which only such poet was
capable when he said of her to Horace
Traubel; II have that sort of feeling
about her which cannot easily be spoken
or love tstrong, personal love,
tool. reverence, respect-you see. it
won't go into words: all the words are
weak and formal" And later, 'sRessetti
mentions Mrs. Gilchrist. Well, he had a
right to-almost as much right as had (:
sort OF brothers right: she was his
friend, she was more than my friend. I
feel like Hamlet when he said forty
thousand brothers could not feel what he
felt for Ophelia."
He may have been afraid to take
from heri he did not fear to give.
New-York tribune., 1918-11-03
THE most astounding news of the
week from Germany was the down
fall of Ludendorff, the man who had

ME most ASTOUNDING Hc"o W WV
week from Germany was the down
fall of Ludendorf, the man who had
come to stride the German world
like Colossus. Unheard-of at the begin
ming of the war, he early became known
as satellite of the brighter star, Hinden-
burg, to whom he was assigned as chief OF
staff when Hindenburg set forth to drive
the Russians from East Prussia. In course
of Tine, however, Ludendorff came to domi-
nate the entire German horizon, both mill
tary and political; and the Junker elements,
right in the midst of the recent political
overturn at Berlin, were even looking to
him to declare dictatorship to save the
country and their precious solves
The fall of Ludendorff is of the most
promising Of recent occurrences in Ger
many. Why was the powerful usurper over
thrown? The cablsd reports of the week
mentioned only that his resignation fol-
lowed quarrel in an interview with the
nav Chancellor, Prince Maximilian. From
this hint, particularly in connection with
the incidents surrounding Hertling's over
throw, it is easy to guess what happened at
the interview between the two men. From
study of the German newspapers down
to October 10 it is'possible to believe that
Maximilian announced to Ludendorf that
a new regime now exists in Germany, un-
der which the military must take its orders
from the civil government, and that Luden-
dorff refused to submit
That conclusion is warranted by the fact
that the movement to which Hertling sue
cumbed was aimed chiefly at the usurping
military power Hertling foil because he
had proved too weak to withstand tle en-
croachments of Ludendorff and the local
military governors upon the functions of
the civil government The members of the
Reichstag, made wise by long and sad ex-
perience, had at last resolved to create
a strong government, responsible to the
Reichstag rather than to the Kaiser, which
would keep the army officers within their
purely military functions.
The German Revolution" began with the
meeting of the Main Committee Of the
Rcichstag on Tuesday, September "a. 1t
began with a speech by Hertling, which
showed that he had mo conception wnat-
ever of the actualities of the situation
He dealt only with political and military
generalities, but avodcd all live wires, like
reconstruction Of the government machin-
cry in the direction Of parliamentary re-
sponsibility and it's liberation from the
military usurpation. "How could he be ex-
pected to speak about such things" asked
Theodor Wolff, "since they are repugnant
to his inmost soul? Hertling belongs to an
epoch whose death knell is now ringing
amid the thunders of the cannon" Yet the
Junkers were pleased with the speech one
of their organs called it "preeminently
statesmanlike."
New-York tribune., 1918-11-03
\ Cold Shoulder
"A for the Junkers

The Conservative, or Junker, party itself
was turned down with equal promptness.
After they had announced their surrender
to the new order of things by Sacrificing
their convictions" as they said, they signi-
fed their willingness to take part in organ
izing coalition government. This was,
however, quietly ignored by the majority,
which was in no temper to treat with q
party which, as they felt, had brought ruin
upon Germany.
But the Conservatives made big sur
render at still more important point.
After having fought the equal and direct
ballot in Prussia for years, they at last
saw the handwriting on the wall and an
nounced that they would vote for the gov
ernment's whole suffrage bill. This change
in itself will amount to a political revolu-
ton; it means the end OF the domination
of the old Prussi2n aristocracy i'll Germany.
The majority treatment of the National
Liberals also throws favorable light upon
its spirit and purposes. That party has long
been an uncertain element; a strong wing
of it, including its leader, Stresemann, has
been completely dominated by military am
btions during the war and has stood for
big annexations and indemnities In view
of this record the majority parties treated
it with marked GOODNESS in establishing the
new order. They did not ask it to take
part in drawing up the majority's pro-
gramme, but only submitted it., after having
been fixed, to that party TO take such action,
as it might think fit 1t also read the
handwriting on the wall and accepted the
M M ot al.
lowed to retain the Cabinet positions given
to it year ago when Hertling came in.
Thus, under the blows of Foch at the
'front.' the German people have apparently
taken their affairs into their own hands
wrestling them from the hands of the great
generals who have even controlled the
Kaiser. These blows of Foch were neces-
sary; but they supplied the needed i'm
pulse. Germanys dreams of victory and
conquests had to be transformed into what
the "Frankfurter Zetung" calls q sunk
heap of illusions" before the German peo-
pie could be moved to act
Finally German Interpretation Of this
movement may be quoted here from the
newspaper just mentioned;
"The Conservatives have been usurpers
of power, without any other warrant than
the weakness of other. Now these others
have been aroused from their sleep through
the frightful danger into which the home
land has been brought by the predominancc
of the politicians Of force. These others
have the overwhelming majority in Germany,
they have the spirit OIL idealism and hu-
manity, and that spirit is again to take
the leadership in Germany against min
ority that has heen hurled from power and
is now to be excluded from it to the ut
most"
New-York tribune., 1918-11-03
The Rebellion in Paint---Walt Whitmans Grand Refusal

returns with the Cezanne motif-still
the Cezanne--the pears that are really
round, the table of blue that is round
only as a table is round in a fever, the
rugged and robustious flowers in a vase
And they are palpable and ponderable
flowers, too.
Undeniably, something is gone out of
these anecdotes in the absolute Would
it be too much to say that there is no
longer any sweet rcasonableness in them,
that the time has grown past them? The
astheticians who played wet nurse to
these movements always aimed to avoid
direct reference to the common stuff Of
living. They dealt grandly and absorb
edly in distractions, but there was al
most something frantic in their efforts
to keep going at it. No spade was ever
called spade by them. 1t would be
rather Scheme in Garden" They
played furiously with metaphysical ideas
old Pater's music as the archtype tow
ard which all other arts strove to ap-
proach-and so human a thing as the
time-spirit did not exist for them: they
rwere the children Of no yesterdays but
of all tomorrow.
Yet, however suspect anything so COM
mon as the time-spirit may have been,
they were verify the truest sons and
daughters of it. The avoidance itself
was part of the malady that afflicted
them. With so much Of the war to the
rear, it is not difficult to go back and see
in retrospect that fevered and uncon-
scious world, and find easily and speed
lily in 1t the suppressions and frustra-
tions OF human energy that caused the
Imaginative will to become malformed
and to seek its escape in metaphysical
romanticism.
Life at that time had something in
human about it.; it was noticeahly too
full of formula, efiiciencies, rules for
complete adjustment of living. And it
was satisfied to have it SO, blindly, as If
the quality Of existence ever made room
long for the stereotyped phrase or for
any complacency at all. The anarchs of
art believed they were going through the
| travail of Kew art birth; all they were
New-York tribune., 1918-11-03

ters. They are figureheads which the real
rulers Of the country have found useful in
the past, which would be flung aside and
discarded without mercy or remorse if they
seemed likely to bring disaster on the men
who in fact, though not in appearance,
hold the real rens of power. in Germany
If proof Of this be required, it will be suffi-
cient to cite the case of the interview which
the Kaiser gave some years ago to 'TNo
Daily Telegraph
"The interview was Objectionable and in
convenient to the supreme powers of the
country, and their representative, Chancel-
lor Won Bulow, went to the Reichstag and
stated that he had obtained promise from
the Kaiser that he would grant no inter
view for publication for the ensuing six
months. The fact is that the Kaiser has
always been at liberty to call himself All
Highest, to declare that the Spirit Of God
is upon him. to utter as many magnificent
phrases as he will. But he is not the real
ruler Of Germany.
"All the true power, the power that counts
New-York tribune., 1918-11-03
Junkers-The Real Reason for Fear

II T is the Junkers who are to be feared
4 in making peace with Germany and
not the Kaiser, warns "a Diplomat" !"
writing in "The Daily Express" of Lon
don. They are the men who run Ger
many, he says, and they would throw
over the Kaiser without compunction if
they could thereby keep themselves in
power. The article follows:
"The Kaiser is not the man who runs
Germany The Hohenzolerns are not the
family which runs Germany. The imperial
and kingly caste is not the caste which
runs Germany. Germany is run by the
Junkers.
"The time approaches when all the Allied
powers must be prepared to table their de-
ma,ds and their conditions of peace; it is,
therefore, Of the utmost Importance that
the true state Of things in Germany should
be clearly perceived. 1t is not sufficient,
then, to raise the cries, NO peace with the
Kaiser!' NO peace with the IIohenzollerns.
Neither Kaiser ncY Hohenzollsrn mat
New-York tribune., 1918-11-03

commanders be broken? The government
must have the power to carry its will into
effect"
Thus pressed by the majority leaders
Hertling finally made another brief speech
cn Thursday, saying that the government
had become convinced that some changes Of
the administration Of military law had
become necessary aud was considering what
should be done. Hertling had not yet heard
his political death knell sounding. On Sat
urday, however, Fehrenbach, the President
of the Reichstag, went to him in behalf OF
the majority and practically gave him his
marching orders. Hertling accordingly set
off at once to see the Kaiser at the Su-
preme Army Command to place his resigna-
ton in his hands.
But Hertling, according to the German
papers, did more than that. Although not
himself a believer in parliamentary gov
ernment, he had to make known to the
Kaiser that the time had come for the lat
ter to yield up most of his power to the
Reichstag. Thus Hertling had to ring out
theold, ring in the new; and already on
Monday, September &c. the Kaiser issued
his decree that laid the ground for the new
order in Germany. He consented to the es-
tablishment Of parliamentary government.
The most correct Interpretation of that
decree probably given by the pan-G Ger
man "Taeglche Rundschau," which wrote;
"on this day, September 80, 1918, the old
monarchical system based upon the Con-
stitution Of the German Empire has abdi-
Gated in favor of the parliamentary sys-
tenn"
Some Of the developments in connection
with the reconstruction of the government
tend to confirm that judgment. Thus tho
appointment of Prince Max as Chancellor
was made only after each Of the majority
parties -Progressives, Catholics and Social
ists-had separately declared themselves in
his favor, and only after they had adopted
p programme Of action. The various min
listers and under secretaries of state were
also selected in the councils of the party
leaders.
One little incident may be significant. In
the midst of the negotiations Won Berg,
chief of the Kascr's Civil Cabinet, appeared
upon the scene in order to take part in the
New-York tribune., 1918-11-03

and directs and governs, ia in the hands of
the Junkers. These are primarily the
landed gentry Of Prussia, but of late years
they have gone into business. They count
IN high finance. They count in banking.
They count in shipping. . . They CON
troll the diplomatic service. They own the
army. They are supreme in the higher
ranks of the Civil Service
'slt is they who pull the strings when the
Kaiser figure flourishcs its shining sword
And there can be no doubt that these
Junkers would throw over the Kaiser. the
Hohenzollerns and the empire itself, and
turn republicans--if they thought that they
would succeed in running the German Re-
public as they have run the German EN-
pre.
Therefore, let US beware Let US not
say: No peace with the Hohenzollerns!'
Let us rather say, NO peace with the
Junkers No peace with the caste and the
system that have made Germany the terror
OF the earth. So far as the IIohenzollcrns
are concerned, they are doomed anyhow"
New-York tribune., 1918-11-03
r~~~p>S-Wp'W-~v
Fpsy~s-peYN1
Lw-1-'-7l--''-@-
(conyrsshs 1918. New York Tribune Inc,


COMETHING seems to have taken
the heart out of the radicals OF
~ paint. Every SO often the world
of reality puts on show that
makes the most extravagant ecstasy Of
the fancy seem pallid inertia by COM
parison. Certainly, matched with mod
ern warfare, the modern aesthetics of
disintegration seem to be feeble and
childish thing. At the Daniel Gallery,
at West Forty-seventh Street, there is
now an exhibition Of the brothers and
sisters of the new eyesight, good many
of them bearing the assaulting names of
1915 and 1916, but scrutiny of their
wares will not disclose any but the most
conventional violences. They are, indeed,
radicalism with tongue in cheek; al
ready the grimace of emphasis softens
to grin. 1t is surely now an amiable
kicking up Of the heels.
Here is Macdonald Wright, whose
aquarelles barely retain anything sinis-
ter or connotative in. their mouldy pur-
pies and decaying greens, nor do they
present anywhere an absolute and az
resting design. So far as design in the
naked fact of it is concerned, the most
impressive work is Man Rays "Souve-
mir" pigmented with bits of hairpin and
human hair, though in the end it is, after
all, only an obvious bit of common geom-
etry.
Even radicals, having traded one dog
ma for another, may be expected to have
their own kind Of good form, and Will
lam Zorach's rich water colors probably
approximate that standard. Vaguely
based upon the landscape of the outside
world, they present a satisfying and
original organization of line and color,
without mass, it is true, but composed, it
would appear, out Of the imagination of
the painter rather than from his inven-
tion. However, good form does not stop
there. Mr. Lawson pipes sweet and
tenor note in this medley of brass, a
singer wandering into almost strange
lands. Preston Dickinson, in y common
enough village scene, shows his vistu-
osity in contingent and intsgsectins val
ues--a method toward the production Of
bulk without line. And Samuel Halpert
New-York tribune., 1918-11-03

mentioning other cases of military aggres-
sion. Groeber demanded that as the war
was now approaching its end, it was neces-
sary to have ''strong government, one
that will not permit the reins to be taken
out of its hands," He admitted that con-
fidence in the honesty of German policy
had been shaken through the measures
adopted by other authorities outside of the
government. He demanded the immediate
withdrawal of Won STEMS order, adding
that the Reichstag could net permit its own
decisions to be disregarded. He also called
upon Hertling to crush out the harmful
intrigues Of the military authorities against
his power, like prohibiting. public meetings
to discuss the Prussian suffrage reform.
New-York tribune., 1918-11-03
r udendorf the
IL Ruler of Germany

Scheidemann struck harsher notes. lie
said that the dismissal of Kuehlmann
showed that Germany was without civil
government, and demanded that Hertling
proceed with energy against the "side gov
ernment" which was working against the
Reichstags peace programme. Referring to
Won STEMS secret order, Scheidemann said:
"Things canot go on in this way; and the
time has come to say so openly. Luden-
dorf is ruling, not Hertling Unprecedented
power is yielding to the military district
commanders" Schcidemann claimed that
the morale of the country was being hope
lessly hlightcd by the stupid measures Of
the military authorities; they we're 'club-
bing it to fragments" The military power
was "growing more and more lordly, while
the government becomes weaker and weak
err Away with all side governmental"
Flschbeck, leader Of the Progrcssives
and now become Prussan Minister of Com
merce, also complained that the military
authorities disregarded the will of the gov
ernment, and said that the government
could not continue without a reform of
martial law Nobody sins so grievously
against the souls of the people, he said,
"as the military. =. The political division
Of the Supreme Army Command often
thwarts the purposes Of the imperial gov
ernment Cannot the Chancellor secure
the homogeneity Of his government? Can
not the resistanceo + the military district
New-York tribune., 1918-11-03

peaceable adjustment of all differences and
a general disarmament.
"f2) A declaration on the Belgian cues
ton; restoration of Belgium, with an agree
nlent as TO an indemnity; also restoration
Of Serbia and Montenegro.
"(3) The peace treaties of Brest-Litovsk
and Bucharest must not be a hindrance to
q general peace; immediate organization of
a civil administration in all the occupied
regions; upon the conclusion of peace all
occupied territories to be liberated; demo-
cratic representative assemblies must be
established at once.
"(4) Autonomy for Alsace-Lorraine; uni
versal, secret and direct ballot for all Ger
men federal states; Prussian Diet to be dis
solved, unless equal suffrage be the immc-
date outcome Of the deliberations of the
House of Lords
"(b) A unified imperial government;
elimination Of irresponsible side govern
ments; appointment of ministers from the
Reichstag majority, or persons who repre-
sent the policies of the majority parties;
repeal of Article TX Of the Constitution; the
political utterances of the crown and the
military authorities must be submitted to
the Chancellor before their publication.
"(6) Immediate annulment of all orders
or provisions through which the right of
assembly and the freedom Of the press are
restricted; the censorship may be applied
only to purely military questions (strategy
and tactics in the field, troop movements,
manufacture of war materially; establish
ment of political control board over
all measures adopted under martial law;
abolition of all military institutions tlrat
serve for exercising q political influence"
New-York tribune., 1918-11-03
The Demands of
Il the Socialists

Hertlng did not even refer to the mini
mum programme" put forth by the Social
lists on the previous day as their lowest
conditions for taking Cabinet positions in
any new government. That programme is a
part of the documentary evidence leading
to the recent changes in the German gov
ernment; and as it has hitherto been
printed in the American press only in an
abbreviated form it is reproduced here en-
tire. 1t follows:
s"O Unreserved reaffirmation Of the
Reichstag's resolution of July 10, 1917, with
declaration Of willingness to enter a
league of nations having as its basis the
New-York tribune., 1918-11-03

selection Of ministers. He wanted, as some
Of the papers say, to have Conservative
put into the government in order to try to
save some remnants Of pant German and
Junker ideals. undcr the old regime it was
one of the big functions Of the chief Of the
Civil Cabinet to act as factotum for the
Kaiser in d!smissing old and appointing
new ministers. But now poor Won Berg
was to learn that the majority parties had
changed all that" His occupation was
gone, and he was unceremoniously sent
about his business.
New-York tribune., 1918-11-03
Hertling Mistook
IL Opposition Strength

The next session OF the committee showed
that Hcrtling had greatly undcrcstimated
the strength of the current that was run
ming against him. He had omitted to define
his attitude toward military domination,
but the members amply made good his
omission. Groebcr, Catholic leader and
1Iertling's chief supporter, complained that
General Won Stein, the Prussian Minister
Of War, had issued n secret decree pro-
hibiting meetings Of the International Law
Society to discuss peace questions, besides
New-York tribune., 1918-11-03

~ illlpOSt.
MACAULAY, speaking of Milton,
Ava said every genius had something
hard at the bottom of his nature, a kind
of concrete floor, perhaps, to keep the
impacts OF the spirits adventures from
penetrating too deeply. The artists
egoism in this sense is protective, a bar
against too great seizure of interior
riches from without. Few of them carry
this hardness into the quality of their
attitude. Nietzsche did, although his '.Be
hard!' was said in voice Of FRENZY.
Walt Whitman was hard in an entirely
other sense. He fronted reality at
every point calmly and invitingly. In
the face of national period that he
described in terms of "the struggle, the
traitor, the willy person in Office, scrofu-
ious wealth, the surfeit of prosperitv.
the demonism of greed, the hell of pas
sion, the decay Of faith, the long post
ponement, the fossil-like lethargy. the
ceaseless need of revolutions, prophets.
thunderstorms, deaths, new projections
and invgorations of ideas and mem
IN the face of this he was still imnas-
stoned by life without being passionate.
tie was new among poets, because real
lty at its most immediate point, was for
nm thing for immersion and en;ov-
ment. lie enjoyed facts so much that he
had to make tables of them for suffi-
Gent satisfaction, He was hard enough
not to be afarid.
The Walt Whitman who is briefly dis
closed in "Tbe Letters of Anne Gill
christ and Walt Whitman" published
by Doubleday, Page & Co., Is likewise
hard, but in strange and yet inviting
sense. The letters are chiefly those of an
Engllshwoman of literary gifts, a minor
figure in the feminist vanguard, who
learned of Whitman through william,
Rossetti's English Selection Of his
poems. She was already q mature