Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1940-09-12

The harder the Germans strike
them, the grimmer and the more
tenacious their resistance be-
comes.
So, right now, the war has devel-
oped into the most frightful carnage
with promiscuous hitting of military
positions and civilian abodes alike
and with killing of peaceful citizens
as well as of soldiers.
Leaves Us Cold.
Ordinarily, when we are told that
ship goes down with several hum
dred persons losing their lives, we
are horrOr-struck, and the daily press
resorts to the extremes in headlines.
But now, in wartime, hearts are
harder, and bit of dispatch from
the tiny Swedish village of Lysekil
leaves us cold. 1t merely said that
the German transport ship, Marion"
of Hamburg, had been torpedoed by
British submarine off the northern
point of Denmark, and had gone to
the bottom of the sea with three
thousand nine hundred men killed.
They were German soldiers, for
some reason or other, en- route for
Norway. Three thousand nine hun
dred individuals! Well, there is more
steel than tender sentiment in human
hearts these days, and we briefly
scan the six or seven lines in which
the story is told, without paying any
further attention to it.
That hardening of hearts is al
so one of the fearful tragedies of
great and bitter war.
No theater, however, can thrive on
tragedies alone-it needs, also, the
relief of comedy.
Rumanian Rumblings.
And comedy was enacted during
the last few days at Bucharest, the
capital of Rumania, where certain
political elements, enraged because
their government had yielded to Ger
man and Italian pressure and coded
a part of Pennsylvania to Hungary,
forced the abdication of King Carol
and the ascension to the throne of
his son, Crown Prince Mihai.
Carol, princely playboy, had for
years been a subject of gossip, ma
licious, humorous and otherwise, be-
cause of his numerous adventures
and escapades, when ten years ago
he suddenly returned to the capital
of his native country and blandly
announced that henceforth he was its
king! The funny thing was that the
army as we'll as the parliament
promptly agreed with him. And since
then he has kept on ruling-until
the other day when public indig-
nation wrung from him a proclama-
ton of abdication.
On Tuesday of last week couple
of men apparently tried to hit the king
with a revolver bullet or two; three
days later he vanished from his
palace, leaving for Lugano in Swift
zerland, and, passing through Yugo-
slavia, was reported to have been
once more in danger of assassination,
but escaped.
1t is an old, old story that poll
tics and romance often go to-
gether. The romance in this case
was the kings alleged mistress,
the Jewish Magda Lupescu, who
seems to have followed him in
to exile at time when the kings
divorced wife, Princess Helen,
returned to Rumania to be with
their son, the new king.
Mihai is king now. But it doesn't
mean anything. For the actual ruler
of the country is stern General Ion
Antonescu, prime minister and die
tator, who has suspended the consti-
tuition, abolished the parliament and
it is generally thought-paved the
way for later German absorption
of the nation.
And that is the point where the
comedy ceases to be amusing, and
transmutes itself into a new tragedy.