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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/5398-0.txt b/5398-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9fa70f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/5398-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2431 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Traveller in War-Time, by Winston Churchill +[The Author is the American Winston Churchill not the British] + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Traveller in War-Time + +Author: Winston Churchill + +Release Date: October 6, 2006 [EBook #5398] +Last Updated: February 26, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRAVELLER IN WAR-TIME *** + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +A TRAVELLER IN WARTIME. + +By Winston Churchill + + + + +PREFACE + +I am reprinting here, in response to requests, certain recent +experiences in Great Britain and France. These were selected in the hope +of conveying to American readers some idea of the atmosphere, of “what +it is like” in these countries under the immediate shadow of the battle +clouds. It was what I myself most wished to know. My idea was first to +send home my impressions while they were fresh, and to refrain as far as +possible from comment and judgment until I should have had time to make +a fuller survey. Hence I chose as a title for these articles,--intended +to be preliminary, “A Traveller in War-Time.” I tried to banish from my +mind all previous impressions gained from reading. I wished to be free +for the moment to accept and record the chance invitation or adventure, +wherever met with, at the Front, in the streets of Paris, in Ireland, or +on the London omnibus. Later on, I hoped to write a book summarizing the +changing social conditions as I had found them. + +Unfortunately for me, my stay was unexpectedly cut short. I was able +to avail myself of but few of the many opportunities offered. With this +apology, the articles are presented as they were written. + +I have given the impression that at the time of my visit there was no +lack of food in England, but I fear that I have not done justice to the +frugality of the people, much of which was self-imposed for the purpose +of helping to win the war. On very, good authority I have been given +to understand that food was less abundant during the winter just past; +partly because of the effect of the severe weather on our American +railroads, which had trouble in getting supplies to the coast, and +partly because more and more ships were required for transporting +American troops and supplies for these troops, to France. This +additional curtailment was most felt by families of small income, whose +earners were at the front or away on other government service. Mothers +had great difficulty in getting adequate nourishment for growing +children. But the British people cheerfully submitted to this further +deprivation. Summer is at hand. It is to be hoped that before another +winter sets in, American and British shipping will have sufficiently +increased to remedy the situation. + +In regard to what I have said of the British army, I was profoundly +struck, as were other visitors to that front, by the health and +morale of the men, by the marvel of organization accomplished in so +comparatively brief a time. It was one of the many proofs of the extent +to which the British nation had been socialized. When one thought of +that little band of regulars sent to France in 1914, who became immortal +at Mons, who shared the glory of the Marne, and in that first dreadful +winter held back the German hosts from the Channel ports, the presence +on the battle line of millions of disciplined and determined men seemed +astonishing indeed. And this had been accomplished by a nation facing +the gravest crisis in its history, under the necessity of sustaining and +financing many allies and of protecting an Empire. Since my return to +America a serious reverse has occurred. + +After the Russian peace, the Germans attempted to overwhelm the British +by hurling against them vastly superior numbers of highly trained men. +It is for the military critic of the future to analyse any tactical +errors that may have been made at the second battle of the Somme. +Apparently there was an absence of preparation, of specific orders from +high sources in the event of having to cede ground. This much can be +said, that the morale of the British Army remains unimpaired; that the +presence of mind and ability of the great majority of the officers +who, flung on their own resources, conducted the retreat, cannot be +questioned; while the accomplishment of General Carey, in stopping the +gap with an improvised force of non-combatants, will go down in history. +In an attempt to bring home to myself, as well as to my readers, a +realization of what American participation in this war means or should +mean. + + + + +A TRAVELLER IN WAR-TIME + + + + +CHAPTER I + +Toward the end of the summer of 1917 it was very hot in New York, and +hotter still aboard the transatlantic liner thrust between the piers. +One glance at our cabins, at the crowded decks and dining-room, at the +little writing-room above, where the ink had congealed in the ink-wells, +sufficed to bring home to us that the days of luxurious sea travel, of a +la carte restaurants, and Louis Seize bedrooms were gone--at least for +a period. The prospect of a voyage of nearly two weeks was not enticing. +The ship, to be sure, was far from being the best of those still +running on a line which had gained a magic reputation of immunity from +submarines; three years ago she carried only second and third class +passengers! But most of us were in a hurry to get to the countries +where war had already become a grim and terrible reality. In one way or +another we had all enlisted. + +By “we” I mean the American passengers. The first welcome discovery +among the crowd wandering aimlessly and somewhat disconsolately about +the decks was the cheerful face of a friend whom at first I did not +recognize because of his amazing disguise in uniform. Hitherto he had +been associated in my mind with dinner parties and clubs. + +That life was past. He had laid up his yacht and joined the Red Cross +and, henceforth, for an indeterminable period, he was to abide amidst +the discomforts and dangers of the Western Front, with five days' leave +every three months. The members of a group similarly attired whom I +found gathered by the after-rail were likewise cheerful. Two well-known +specialists from the Massachusetts General Hospital made significant +the hegira now taking place that threatens to leave our country, like +Britain, almost doctorless. When I reached France it seemed to me that I +met all the celebrated medical men I ever heard of. A third in the group +was a business man from the Middle West who had wound up his affairs and +left a startled family in charge of a trust company. Though his physical +activities had hitherto consisted of an occasional mild game of golf, +he wore his khaki like an old campaigner; and he seemed undaunted by +the prospect--still somewhat remotely ahead of him--of a winter journey +across the Albanian Mountains from the Aegean to the Adriatic. + +After a restless night, we sailed away in the hot dawn of a Wednesday. +The shores of America faded behind us, and as the days went by, we had +the odd sense of threading uncharted seas; we found it more and more +difficult to believe that this empty, lonesome ocean was the Atlantic +in the twentieth century. Once we saw a four-master; once a shy, silent +steamer avoided us, westward bound; and once in mid-ocean, tossed on a +sea sun-silvered under a rack of clouds, we overtook a gallant little +schooner out of New Bedford or Gloucester--a forthfarer, too. + +Meanwhile, amongst the Americans, the socializing process had begun. +Many elements which in a former stratified existence would never have +been brought into contact were fusing by the pressure of a purpose, of +a great adventure common to us all. On the upper deck, high above the +waves, was a little 'fumoir' which, by some odd trick of association, +reminded me of the villa formerly occupied by the Kaiser in +Corfu--perhaps because of the faience plaques set in the walls--although +I cannot now recall whether the villa has faience plaques or not. The +room was, of course, on the order of a French provincial cafe, and as +such delighted the bourgeoisie monopolizing the alcove tables and joking +with the fat steward. Here in this 'fumoir', lawyers, doctors, business +men of all descriptions, newspaper correspondents, movie photographers, +and millionaires who had never crossed save in a 'cabine de luxe', +rubbed elbows and exchanged views and played bridge together. There were +Y. M. C. A. people on their way to the various camps, reconstruction +workers intending to build temporary homes for the homeless French, and +youngsters in the uniform of the American Field Service, going over to +drive camions and ambulances; many of whom, without undue regret, +had left college after a freshman year. They invaded the 'fumoir', +undaunted, to practise atrocious French on the phlegmatic steward; they +took possession of a protesting piano in the banal little salon and +sang: “We'll not come back till it's over over there.” And in the +evening, on the darkened decks, we listened and thrilled to the refrain: + + “There's a long, long trail a-winding + Into the land of my dreams.” + +We were Argonauts--even the Red Cross ladies on their way to establish +rest camps behind the lines and brave the mud and rains of a winter +in eastern France. None, indeed, were more imbued with the forthfaring +spirit than these women, who were leaving, without regret, sheltered, +comfortable lives to face hardships and brave dangers without a +question. And no sharper proof of the failure of the old social order to +provide for human instincts and needs could be found than the conviction +they gave of new and vitalizing forces released in them. The timidities +with which their sex is supposedly encumbered had disappeared, and even +the possibility of a disaster at sea held no terrors for them. When the +sun fell down into the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and the cabins +below were sealed--and thus become insupportable--they settled +themselves for the night in their steamer-chairs and smiled at the +remark of M. le Commissaire that it was a good “season” for submarines. +The moonlight filtered through the chinks in the burlap shrouding +the deck. About 3 a.m. the khaki-clad lawyer from Milwaukee became +communicative, the Red Cross ladies produced chocolate. It was the +genial hour before the final nap, from which one awoke abruptly at the +sound of squeegees and brooms to find the deck a river of sea water, on +whose banks a wild scramble for slippers and biscuit-boxes invariably +ensued. No experience could have been more socializing. + +“Well, it's a relief,” one of the ladies exclaimed, “not to be +travelling with half a dozen trunks and a hat-box! Oh, yes, I realize +what I'm doing. I'm going to live in one of those flimsy portable houses +with twenty cots and no privacy and wear the same clothes for months, +but it's better than thrashing around looking for something to do and +never finding it, never getting anything real to spend one's energy-on. +I've closed my country house, I've sublet my apartment, I've done with +teas and bridge, and I'm happier than I've been in my life even if I +don't get enough sleep.” + +Another lady, who looked still young, had two sons in the army. “There +was nothing for me to do but sit around the house and wait, and I +want to be useful. My husband has to stay at home; he can't leave his +business.” Be useful! There she struck the new and aggressive note of +emancipation from the restricted self-sacrifice of the old order, of +wider service for the unnamed and the unknown; and, above all, for the +wider self-realization of which service is but a by-product. I recall +particularly among these women a young widow with an eager look in clear +grey eyes that gazed eastward into the unknown with hope renewed. Had +she lived a quarter of a century ago she might have been doomed to slow +desiccation. There are thousands of such women in France today, and to +them the great war has brought salvation. + +From what country other than America could so many thousands of +pilgrims--even before our nation had entered the war--have hurried +across a wide ocean to take their part? No matter what religion we +profess, whether it be Calvinism, or Catholicism, we are individualists, +pragmatists, empiricists for ever. Our faces are set toward strange +worlds presently to rise out of the sea and take on form and colour and +substance--worlds of new aspirations, of new ideas and new values. And +on this voyage I was reminded of Josiah Royce's splendid summary of the +American philosophy--of the American religion as set forth by William +James: + + “The spirit of the frontiers-man, of the gold-seeker or the + home-builder transferred to the metaphysical or to the religious + realm. There is a far-off home, our long lost spiritual fortune. + Experience alone can guide us to the place where these things are, + hence indeed you need experience. You can only win your way on the + frontier unless you are willing to live there.” + +Through the pall of horror and tragedy the American sees a vision; for +him it is not merely a material and bloody contest of arms and men, +a military victory to be gained over an aggressive and wrong-minded +people. It is a world calamity, indeed, but a calamity, since it has +come, to be spiritualized and utilized for the benefit of the future +society of mankind. It must be made to serve a purpose in helping to +liberate the world from sentimentalism, ignorance, close-mindedness, and +cant. + + + +II + +One night we entered the danger zone. There had been an entertainment in +the little salon which, packed with passengers, had gradually achieved +the temperature and humidity of a Turkish bath. For the ports had been +closed as tight as gaskets could make them, the electric fans, as usual, +obstinately “refused to march.” After the amateur speechmaking and +concert pieces an Italian violinist, who had thrown over a lucrative +contract to become a soldier, played exquisitely; and one of the French +sisters we had seen walking the deck with the mincing steps of the +cloister sang; somewhat precariously and pathetically, the Ave Maria. +Its pathos was of the past, and after she had finished, as we fled into +the open air, we were conscious of having turned our backs irrevocably +yet determinedly upon an era whose life and convictions the music of the +composer so beautifully expressed. And the sister's sweet withered face +was reminiscent of a missal, one bright with colour, and still shining +faintly. A missal in a library of modern books! + +On deck a fine rain was blowing through a gap in our burlap shroud, a +phosphorescent fringe of foam hissed along the sides of the ship, giving +the illusory appearance of our deadlights open and ablaze, exaggerating +the sinister blackness of the night. We were, apparently, a beacon in +that sepia waste where modern undersea monsters were lurking. + +There were on board other elements which in the normal times gone by +would have seemed disquieting enough. The evening after we had left New +York, while we were still off the coast of Long Island, I saw on the +poop a crowd of steerage passengers listening intently to harangues +by speakers addressing them from the top of a pile of life rafts. +Armenians, I was told, on their way to fight the Turks, all recruited +in America by one frenzied woman who had seen her child cut in two by +a German officer. Twilight was gathering as I joined the group, the sea +was silvered by the light of an August moon floating serenely between +swaying stays. The orator's passionate words and gestures evoked wild +responses from his hearers, whom the drag of an ancient hatred had +snatched from the peaceful asylum of the west. This smiling, happy +folk, which I had seen in our manufacturing towns and cities, were now +transformed, atavistic--all save one, a student, who stared wistfully +through his spectacles across the waters. Later, when twilight deepened, +when the moon had changed from silver to gold, the orators gave place to +a singer. He had been a bootblack in America. Now he had become a bard. +His plaintive minor chant evoked, one knew not how, the flavour of that +age-long history of oppression and wrong these were now determined to +avenge. Their conventional costumes were proof that we had harboured +them--almost, indeed, assimilated them. And suddenly they had reverted. +They were going to slaughter the Turks. + +On a bright Saturday afternoon we steamed into the wide mouth of the +Gironde, a name stirring vague memories of romance and terror. The +French passengers gazed wistfully at the low-lying strip of sand and +forest, but our uniformed pilgrims crowded the rail and hailed it as the +promised land of self-realization. A richly coloured watering-place +slid into view, as in a moving-picture show. There was, indeed, all the +reality and unreality of the cinematograph about our arrival; presently +the reel would end abruptly, and we should find ourselves pushing our +way out of the emptying theatre into a rainy street. The impression of +unreality in the face of visual evidence persisted into the night when, +after an afternoon at anchor, we glided up the river, our decks and +ports ablaze across the land. Silhouettes of tall poplars loomed against +the blackness; occasionally a lamp revealed the milky blue facade of a +house. This was France! War-torn France--at last vividly brought home +to us when a glare appeared on the sky, growing brighter and brighter +until, at a turn of the river, abruptly we came abreast of vomiting +furnaces, thousands of electric lights strung like beads over the crest +of a hill, and, below these, dim rows of houses, all of a sameness, +stretching along monotonous streets. A munitions town in the night. + +One could have tossed a biscuit on the stone wharfs where the workmen, +crouching over their tasks, straightened up at sight of us and +cheered. And one cried out hoarsely, “Vous venez nous sauver, vous +Americains”--“You come to save us”--an exclamation I was to hear again +in the days that followed. + + + +III + +All day long, as the 'rapide' hurried us through the smiling wine +country and past the well-remembered chateaux of the Loire, we wondered +how we should find Paris--beautiful Paris, saved from violation as by a +miracle! Our first discovery, after we had pushed our way out of the +dim station into the obscurity of the street, was that of the absence of +taxicabs. The horse-drawn buses ranged along the curb were reserved +for the foresighted and privileged few. Men and women were rushing +desperately about in search of conveyances, and in the midst of this +confusion, undismayed, debonnair, I spied a rugged, slouch-hatted figure +standing under a lamp--the unmistakable American soldier. + +“Aren't there any cabs in Paris?” I asked. + +“Oh, yes, they tell me they're here,” he said. “I've given a man a +dollar to chase one.” + +Evidently one of our millionaire privates who have aroused such burnings +in the heart of the French poilu, with his five sous a day! We left him +there, and staggered across the Seine with our bags. A French officer +approached us. “You come from America,” he said. “Let me help you.” + There was just enough light in the streets to prevent us from getting +utterly lost, and we recognized the dark mass of the Tuileries as we +crossed the gardens. The hotel we sought was still there, and its menu, +save for the war-bread and the tiny portion of sugar, as irreproachable +as ever. + +The next morning, as if by magic, hundreds of taxis had sprung into +existence, though they were much in demand. And in spite of the soldiers +thronging the sunlit streets, Paris was seemingly the same Paris one had +always known, gay--insouciante, pleasure-bent. The luxury shops appeared +to be thriving, the world-renowned restaurants to be doing business +as usual; to judge from the prices, a little better than usual; the +expensive hotels were full. It is not the real France, of course, yet it +seemed none the less surprising that it should still exist. Oddly enough +the presence of such overwhelming numbers of soldiers should have failed +to strike the note of war, emphasized that of lavishness, of the casting +off of mundane troubles for which the French capital has so long been +known. But so it was. Most of these soldiers were here precisely with +the object of banishing from their minds the degradations and horrors of +the region from which they had come, and which was so unbelievably near; +a few hours in an automobile--less than that in one of those dragon-fly +machines we saw intermittently hovering in the blue above our heads! + +Paris, to most Americans, means that concentrated little district +de luxe of which the Place Vendome is the centre, and we had always +unconsciously thought of it as in the possession of the Anglo-Saxons. So +it seems today. One saw hundreds of French soldiers, of course, in all +sorts of uniforms, from the new grey blue and visor to the traditional +cloth blouse and kepi; once in a while a smart French officer. The +English and Canadians, the Australians, New Zealanders, and Americans +were much in evidence. Set them down anywhere on the face of the globe, +under any conditions conceivable, and you could not surprise them; such +was the impression. The British officers and even the British Tommies +were blase, wearing the air of the 'semaine Anglaise', and the “five +o'clock tea,” as the French delight to call it. That these could have +come direct from the purgatory of the trenches seemed unbelievable. +The Anzacs, with looped-up hats, strolled about, enjoying themselves, +halting before the shops in the Rue de la Paix to gaze at the priceless +jewellery there, or stopping at a sidewalk cafe to enjoy a drink. Our +soldiers had not seen the front; many of them, no doubt, were on leave +from the training-camps, others were on duty in Paris, but all seemed in +a hurry to get somewhere, bound for a definite destination. They might +have been in New York or San Francisco. It was a novel sight, indeed, +to observe them striding across the Place Vendome with out so much as +deigning to cast a glance at the column dedicated to the great +emperor who fought that other world-war a century ago; to see our +square-shouldered officers hustling around corners in Ford and Packard +automobiles. And the atmosphere of our communication headquarters was +so essentially one of “getting things done” as to make one forget the +mediaeval narrowness of the Rue Sainte Anne, and the inconvenient French +private-dwelling arrangements of the house. You were transported back +to America. Such, too, was the air of our Red Cross establishment in the +ancient building facing the Palace de la Concorde, where the unfortunate +Louis lost his head. + +History had been thrust into the background. I was never more aware of +this than when, shortly after dawn Wednesday, the massive grey pile +of the Palace of Versailles suddenly rose before me. As the motor shot +through the empty Place d'Armes I made a desperate attempt to summon +again a vivid impression, when I had first stood there many years ago, +of an angry Paris mob beating against that grill, of the Swiss guards +dying on the stairway for their Queen. But it was no use. France has +undergone some subtle change, yet I knew I was in France. I knew it when +we left Paris and sped through the dim leafy tunnels of the Bois; when +I beheld a touch of filtered sunlight on the dense blue thatch of the +'marroniers' behind the walls of a vast estate once dedicated to the +sports and pleasures of Kings; when I caught glimpses of silent chateaux +mirrored in still waters. + +I was on my way, with one of our naval officers, to visit an American +naval base on the western coast. It was France, but the laughter had +died on her lips. A few women and old men and children were to be seen +in the villages, a bent figure in a field, an occasional cart that drew +aside as we hurried at eighty kilometers an hour along deserted routes +drawn as with a ruler across the land. Sometimes the road dipped into a +canyon of poplars, and the sky between their crests was a tiny strip +of mottled blue and white. The sun crept in and out, the clouds cast +shadows on the hills; here and there the tower of lonely church or +castle broke the line of a distant ridge. Morning-glories nodded over +lodge walls where the ivy was turning crimson, and the little gardens +were masses of colours--French colours like that in the beds of the +Tuileries, brick-red geraniums and dahlias, yellow marigolds and purple +asters. + +We lunched at one of the little inns that for generations have been +tucked away in the narrow streets of provincial towns; this time a +Cheval Blanc, with an unimposing front and a blaze of sunshine in its +heart. After a dejeuner fit for the most exacting of bon viveurs we sat +in that courtyard and smoked, while an ancient waiter served us with +coffee that dripped through silver percolators into our glasses. The +tourists have fled. “If happily you should come again, monsieur,” said +madame, as she led me with pardonable pride through her immaculate +bedrooms and salons with wavy floors. And I dwelt upon a future holiday +there, on the joys of sharing with a friend that historic place. The +next afternoon I lingered in another town, built on a little hill ringed +about with ancient walls, from whose battlements tide-veined marshes +stretched away to a gleaming sea. A figure flitting through the cobbled +streets, a woman in black who sat sewing, sewing in a window, only +served to heighten the impression of emptiness, to give birth to the odd +fancy that some alchemic quality in the honeyed sunlight now steeping it +must have preserved the place through the ages. But in the white close +surrounding the church were signs that life still persisted. A peasant +was drawing water at the pump, and the handle made a noise; a priest +chatted with three French ladies who had come over from a neighbouring +seaside resort. And then a woman in deep mourning emerged from a tiny +shop and took her bicycle from against the wall and spoke to me. + +“Vous etes Americain, monsieur?” + +I acknowledged it. + +“Vous venez nous sauver”--the same question I had heard on the lips of +the workman in the night. “I hope so, madame,” I replied, and would +have added, “We come also to save ourselves.” She looked at me with +sad, questioning eyes, and I knew that for her--and alas for many like +her--we were too late. When she had mounted her wheel and ridden away I +bought a 'Matin' and sat down on a doorstep to read about Kerensky and +the Russian Revolution. The thing seemed incredible here--war seemed +incredible, and yet its tentacles had reached out to this peaceful Old +World spot and taken a heavy toll. Once more I sought the ramparts, only +to be reminded by those crumbling, machicolated ruins that I was in a +war-ridden land. Few generations had escaped the pestilence. + +At no great distance lay the little city which had been handed over to +us by the French Government for a naval base, one of the ports where our +troops and supplies are landed. Those who know provincial France will +visualize its narrow streets and reticent shops, its grey-white and ecru +houses all more or less of the same design, with long French windows +guarded by ornamental balconies of cast iron--a city that has never +experienced such a thing as a real-estate boom. Imagine, against such +a background, the bewildering effect of the dynamic presence of a few +regiments of our new army! It is a curious commentary on this war that +one does not think of these young men as soldiers, but as citizens +engaged in a scientific undertaking of a magnitude unprecedented. You +come unexpectedly upon truck-loads of tanned youngsters, whose features, +despite flannel shirts and campaign hats, summon up memories of Harvard +Square and the Yale Yard, of campuses at Berkeley and Ithaca. The +youthful drivers of these camions are alert, intent, but a hard day's +work on the docks by no means suffices to dampen the spirits of the +passengers, who whistle ragtime airs as they bump over the cobbles. And +the note they strike is presently sustained by a glimpse, on a siding, +of an efficient-looking Baldwin, ranged alongside several of the tiny +French locomotives of yesterday; sustained, too, by an acquaintance +with the young colonel in command of the town. Though an officer of +the regular army, he brings home to one the fact that the days of the +military martinet have gone for ever. He is military, indeed-erect and +soldierly--but fortune has amazingly made him a mayor and an autocrat, +a builder, and in some sense a railway-manager and superintendent +of docks. And to these functions have been added those of police +commissioner, of administrator of social welfare and hygiene. It will +be a comfort to those at home to learn that their sons in our army in +France are cared for as no enlisted men have ever been cared for before. + + + +IV + +By the end of September I had reached England, eager to gain a fresh +impression of conditions there. + +The weather in London was mild and clear. The third evening after I had +got settled in one of those delightfully English hotels in the heart +of the city, yet removed from the traffic, with letter-boxes that still +bear the initials of Victoria, I went to visit some American naval +officers in their sitting-room on the ground floor. The cloth had not +been removed from the dinner-table, around which we were chatting, when +a certain strange sound reached our ears--a sound not to be identified +with the distant roar of the motor-busses in Pall Mall, nor with the +sharp bark of the taxi-horns, although not unlike them. We sat listening +intently, and heard the sound again. + +“The Germans have come,” one of the officers remarked, as he finished +his coffee. The other looked at his watch. It was nine o'clock. “They +must have left their lines about seven,” he said. + +In spite of the fact that our newspapers at home had made me familiar +with these aeroplane raids, as I sat there, amidst those comfortable +surroundings, the thing seemed absolutely incredible. To fly one hundred +and fifty miles across the Channel and southern England, bomb London, +and fly back again by midnight! We were going to be bombed! The +anti-aircraft guns were already searching the sky for the invaders. It +is sinister, and yet you are seized by an overwhelming curiosity that +draws you, first to pull aside the heavy curtains of the window, and +then to rush out into the dark street both proceedings in the worst +possible form! The little street was deserted, but in Pall Mall the dark +forms of busses could be made out scurrying for shelter, one wondered +where? Above the roar of London, the pop pop pop! of the defending guns +could be heard now almost continuously, followed by the shrieks and +moans of the shrapnel shells as they passed close overhead. They sounded +like giant rockets, and even as rockets some of them broke into a +cascade of sparks. Star shells they are called, bursting, it seemed, +among the immutable stars themselves that burned serenely on. And there +were other stars like November meteors hurrying across space--the lights +of the British planes scouring the heavens for their relentless enemies. +Everywhere the restless white rays of the searchlights pierced the +darkness, seeking, but seeking in vain. Not a sign of the intruders was +to be seen. I was induced to return to the sitting-room. + +“But what are they shooting at?” I asked. + +“Listen,” said one of the officers. There came a lull in the firing +and then a faint, droning noise like the humming of insects on a still +summer day. “It's all they have to shoot at, that noise.” + +“But their own planes?” I objected. + +“The Gotha has two engines, it has a slightly different noise, when you +get used to it. You'd better step out of that window. It's against the +law to show light, and if a bomb falls in the street you'd be filled +with glass.” I overcame my fascination and obeyed. “It isn't only the +bombs,” my friend went on, “it's the falling shrapnel, too.” + +The noise made by those bombs is unmistakable, unforgetable, and quite +distinct from the chorus of the guns and shrapnel--a crashing note, +reverberating, sustained, like the E minor of some giant calliope. + +In face of the raids, which coincide with the coming of the moon, London +is calm, but naturally indignant over such methods of warfare. The +damage done is ridiculously small; the percentage of deaths and injuries +insignificant. There exists, in every large city, a riffraff to get +panicky: these are mostly foreigners; they seek the Tubes, and some +the crypt of St. Paul's, for it is wise to get under shelter during the +brief period of the raids, and most citizens obey the warnings of the +police. It is odd, indeed, that more people are not hurt by shrapnel. +The Friday following the raid I have described I went out of town for a +week-end, and returned on Tuesday to be informed that a shell had gone +through the roof outside of the room I had vacated, and the ceiling +and floor of the bedroom of one of the officers who lived below. He was +covered with dust and debris, his lights went out, but he calmly stepped +through the window. “You'd best have your dinner early, sir,” I was told +by the waiter on my return. “Last night a lady had her soup up-stairs, +her chicken in the office, and her coffee in the cellar.” It is worth +while noting that she had all three. Another evening, when I was dining +with Sir James Barrie, he showed me a handful of shrapnel fragments. “I +gathered them off the roof,” he informed me. And a lady next to whom I +sat at luncheon told me in a matter-of-fact tone that a bomb had +fallen the night before in the garden of her town house. “It was quite +disagreeable,” she said, “and broke all our windows on that side.” + During the last raids before the moon disappeared, by a new and +ingenious system of barrage fire the Germans were driven off. The +question of the ethics of reprisals is agitating London. + +One “raid,” which occurred at midday, is worth recording. I was on my +way to our Embassy when, in the residential quarter through which I +passed, I found all the housemaids in the areas gazing up at the sky, +and I was told by a man in a grocer's cart that the Huns had come again. +But the invader on this occasion turned out to be a British aviator from +one of the camps who was bringing a message to London. The warmth of his +reception was all that could be desired, and he alighted hastily in the +first open space that presented itself. + +Looking back to the time when I left America, I can recall the +expectation of finding a Britain beginning to show signs of distress. +I was prepared to live on a small ration. And the impression of the +scarcity of food was seemingly confirmed when the table was being set +for the first meal at my hotel; when the waiter, who chanced to be an +old friend, pointed to a little bowl half-full of sugar and exclaimed: +“I ought to warn you, sir, it's all you're to have for a week, and +I'm sorry to say you're only allowed a bit of bread, too.” It is human +perversity to want a great deal of bread when bread becomes scarce; even +war bread, which, by the way, is better than white. But the rest of the +luncheon, when it came, proved that John Bull was under no necessity +of stinting himself. Save for wheat and sugar; he is not in want. +Everywhere in London you are confronted by signs of an incomprehensible +prosperity; everywhere, indeed, in Great Britain. There can be no doubt +about that of the wage-earners--nothing like it has ever been seen +before. One sure sign of this is the phenomenal sale of pianos to +households whose occupants had never dreamed of such luxuries. And not +once, but many times, have I read in the newspapers of workingmen's +families of four or five which are gaining collectively more than five +hundred pounds a year. The economic and social significance of this +tendency, the new attitude of the working classes, the ferment it is +causing need not be dwelt upon here. That England will be a changed +England is unquestionable. + +The London theatres are full, the “movies” crowded, and you have to wait +your turn for a seat at a restaurant. Bond Street and Piccadilly +are doing a thriving business--never so thriving, you are told, and +presently you are willing to believe it. The vendor beggars, so familiar +a sight a few years ago, have all but disappeared, and you may walk from +Waterloo Station to the Haymarket without so much as meeting a needy +soul anxious to carry your bag. Taxicabs are in great demand. And one +odd result of the scarcity of what the English are pleased to call +“petrol,” by which they mean gasoline, is the reappearance of that +respectable, but almost obsolete animal, the family carriage-horse; +of that equally obsolete vehicle, the victoria. The men on the box are +invariably in black. In spite of taxes to make the hair of an American +turn grey, in spite of lavish charities, the wealthy classes still seem +wealthy--if the expression may be allowed. That they are not so wealthy +as they were goes without saying. In the country houses of the old +aristocracy the most rigid economy prevails. There are new fortunes, +undoubtedly, munitions and war fortunes made before certain measures +were taken to control profits; and some establishments, including a few +supported by American accumulations, still exhibit the number of men +servants and amount of gold plate formerly thought adequate. But in +most of these great houses maids have replaced the butlers and footmen; +mansions have been given over for hospitals; gardeners are fighting +in the trenches, and courts and drives of country places are often +overgrown with grass and weeds. + +“Yes, we do dine in public quite often,” said a very great lady. “It's +cheaper than keeping servants.” + +Two of her three sons had been killed in France, but she did not +mention this. The English do not advertise their sorrows. Still another +explanation when husbands and sons and brothers come back across the +Channel for a few days' leave after long months in the trenches, nothing +is too good for them. And when these days have flown, there is always +the possibility that there may never be another leave. Not long ago I +read a heart-rending article about the tragedies of the goodbyes in +the stations and the terminal hotels--tragedies hidden by silence and a +smile. “Well, so long,” says an officer “bring back a V. C.,” cries +his sister from the group on the platform, and he waves his hand in +deprecation as the train pulls out, lights his pipe, and pretends to be +reading the Sphere. + +Some evening, perchance, you happen to be in the dark street outside +of Charing Cross station. An occasional hooded lamp throws a precarious +gleam on a long line of men carrying--so gently--stretchers on which lie +the silent forms of rich and poor alike. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +For the student of history who is able to place himself within the +stream of evolution the really important events of today are not taking +place on the battle lines, but behind them. The key-note of the new era +has been struck in Russia. And as I write these words, after the Italian +retreat, a second revolution seems possible. For three years one has +thought inevitably of 1789, and of the ensuing world conflict out +of which issued the beginnings of democracy. History does not repeat +itself, yet evolution is fairly consistent. While our attention has been +focused on the military drama enacted before our eyes and recorded in +the newspapers, another drama, unpremeditated but of vastly greater +significance, is unfolding itself behind the stage. Never in the history +of the world were generals and admirals, statesmen and politicians so +sensitive to or concerned about public opinion as they are today. From +a military point of view the situation of the Allies at the present +writing is far from reassuring. Germany and her associates have the +advantage of interior lines, of a single dominating and purposeful +leadership, while our five big nations, democracies or semi-democracies, +are stretched in a huge ring with precarious connections on land, with +the submarine alert on the sea. Much of their territory is occupied. +They did not seek the war; they still lack co-ordination and leadership +in waging it. In some of these countries, at least, politicians and +statesmen are so absorbed by administrative duties, by national rather +than international problems, by the effort to sustain themselves, that +they have little time for allied strategy. Governments rise and fall, +familiar names and reputations are juggled about like numbered balls in +a shaker, come to the top to be submerged again in a new 'emeute'. There +are conferences and conferences without end. Meanwhile a social ferment +is at work, in Russia conspicuously, in Italy a little less so, in +Germany and Austria undoubtedly, in France and England, and even in our +own country--once of the most radical in the world, now become the most +conservative. + +What form will the social revolution take? Will it be unbridled, +unguided; will it run through a long period of anarchy before the +fermentation begun shall have been completed, or shall it be handled, in +all the nations concerned, by leaders who understand and sympathize with +the evolutionary trend, who are capable of controlling it, of taking +the necessary international steps of co-operation in order that it +may become secure and mutually beneficial to all? This is an age of +co-operation, and in this at least, if not in other matters, the United +States of America is in an ideal position to assume the leadership. + +To a certain extent, one is not prepared to say how far, the military +and social crises are interdependent. And undoubtedly the military +problem rests on the suppression of the submarine. If Germany continues +to destroy shipping on the seas, if we are not able to supply our new +armies and the Allied nations with food and other things, the increasing +social ferment will paralyze the military operations of the Entente. +The result of a German victory under such circumstances is impossible to +predict; but the chances are certainly not worth running. In a sense, +therefore, in a great sense, the situation is “up” to us in more +ways than one, not only to supply wise democratic leadership but to +contribute material aid and brains in suppressing the submarine, and to +build ships enough to keep Britain, France, and Italy from starving. +We are looked upon by all the Allies, and I believe justly, as being a +disinterested nation, free from the age-long jealousies of Europe. +And we can do much in bringing together and making more purposeful the +various elements represented by the nations to whose aid we have come. + +I had not intended in these early papers to comment, but to confine +myself to such of my experiences abroad as might prove interesting and +somewhat illuminating. So much I cannot refrain from saying. + +It is a pleasure to praise where praise is due, and too much cannot be +said of the personnel of our naval service--something of which I can +speak from intimate personal experience. In these days, in that part of +London near the Admiralty, you may chance to run across a tall, erect, +and broad-shouldered man in blue uniform with three stars on his collar, +striding rapidly along the sidewalk, and sometimes, in his haste, +cutting across a street. People smile at him--costermongers, clerks, +and shoppers--and whisper among themselves, “There goes the American +admiral!” and he invariably smiles back at them, especially at the +children. He is an admiral, every inch a seaman, commanding a devoted +loyalty from his staff and from the young men who are scouring the seas +with our destroyers. In France as well as in England the name Sims is a +household word, and if he chose he might be feted every day of the week. +He does not choose. He spends long hours instead in the quarters devoted +to his administration in Grosvenor Gardens, or in travelling in France +and Ireland supervising the growing forces under his command. + +It may not be out of place to relate a characteristic story of Admiral +Sims, whose career in our service, whose notable contributions to naval +gunnery are too well known to need repetition. Several years ago, on a +memorable trip to England, he was designated by the admiral of the fleet +to be present at a banquet given our sailors in the Guildhall. Of course +the lord mayor called upon him for a speech, but Commander Sims insisted +that a bluejacket should make the address. “What, a bluejacket!” + exclaimed the lord mayor in astonishment. “Do bluejackets make speeches +in your country?” “Certainly they do,” said Sims. “Now there's a +fine-looking man over there, a quartermaster on my ship. Let's call on +him and see what he has to say.” The quartermaster, duly summoned, rose +with aplomb and delivered himself of a speech that made the hall +ring, that formed the subject of a puzzled and amazed comment by +the newspapers of the British Capital. Nor was it ever divulged +that Commander Sims had foreseen the occasion and had picked out the +impressive quartermaster to make a reputation for oratory for the +enlisted force. + +As a matter of fact, it is no exaggeration to add that there were and +are other non-commissioned officers and enlisted men in the service who +could have acquitted themselves equally well. One has only to attend +some of their theatrical performances to be assured of it. + +But to the European mind our bluejacket is still something of an +anomaly. He is a credit to our public schools, a fruit of our system +of universal education. And he belongs to a service in which are +reconciled, paradoxically, democracy and discipline. One moment you may +hear a bluejacket talking to an officer as man to man, and the next you +will see him salute and obey an order implicitly. + +On a wet and smoky night I went from the London streets into the +brightness and warmth of that refuge for American soldiers and sailors, +the “Eagle Hut,” as the Y. M. C. A. is called. The place was full, +as usual, but my glance was at once attracted by three strapping, +intelligent-looking men in sailor blouses playing pool in a corner. “I +simply can't get used to the fact that people like that are ordinary +sailors,” said the lady in charge to me as we leaned against the +soda-fountain. “They're a continual pride and delight to us Americans +here--always so willing to help when there's anything to be done, and +so interesting to talk to.” When I suggested that her ideas of the navy +must have been derived from Pinafore she laughed. “I can't imagine using +a cat-o'-nine-tails on them!” she exclaimed--and neither could I. +I heard many similar comments. They are indubitably American, these +sailors, youngsters with the stamp of our environment on their features, +keen and self-reliant. I am not speaking now only of those who have +enlisted since the war, but of those others, largely from the small +towns and villages of our Middle West, who in the past dozen years or so +have been recruited by an interesting and scientific system which is the +result of the genius of our naval recruiting officers. In the files at +Washington may be seen, carefully tabulated, the several reasons for +their enlisting. Some have “friends in the service”; others wish to +“perfect themselves in a trade,” to “complete their education” or “see +the world”--our adventurous spirit. And they are seeing it. They are +also engaged in the most exciting and adventurous sport--with the +exception of aerial warfare ever devised or developed--that of hunting +down in all weathers over the wide spaces of the Atlantic those +modern sea monsters that prey upon the Allied shipping. For the +superdreadnought is reposing behind the nets, the battle-cruiser +ignominiously laying mines; and for the present at least, until some +wizard shall invent a more effective method of annihilation, victory +over Germany depends primarily on the airplane and the destroyer. +At three o'clock one morning I stood on the crowded deck of an Irish +mail-boat watching the full moon riding over Holyhead Mountain and +shimmering on the Irish Sea. A few hours later, in the early light, I +saw the green hills of Killarney against a washed and clearing sky, +the mud-flats beside the railway shining like purple enamel. All +the forenoon, in the train, I travelled through a country bathed in +translucent colours, a country of green pastures dotted over with white +sheep, of banked hedges and perfect trees, of shadowy blue hills in +the high distance. It reminded one of nothing so much as a +stained-glass-window depicting some delectable land of plenty and peace. +And it was Ireland! When at length I arrived at the station of the port +for which I was bound, and which the censor does not permit me to name, +I caught sight of the figure of our Admiral on the platform; and the +fact that I was in Ireland and not in Emmanuel's Land was brought home +to me by the jolting drive we took on an “outside car,” the admiral +perched precariously over one wheel and I over the other. Winding up the +hill by narrow roads, we reached the gates of the Admiralty House. + +The house sits, as it were, in the emperor's seat of the amphitheatre +of the town, overlooking the panorama of a perfect harbour. A ring of +emerald hills is broken by a little gap to seaward, and in the centre +is a miniature emerald isle. The ships lying at anchor seemed like +children's boats in a pond. To the right, where a river empties in, were +scattered groups of queer, rakish craft, each with four slanting pipes +and a tiny flag floating from her halyards; a flag--as the binoculars +revealed--of crimson bars and stars on a field of blue. These were our +American destroyers. And in the midst of them, swinging to the tide, +were the big “mother ships” we have sent over to nurse them when, after +many days and nights of hazardous work at sea, they have brought their +flock of transports and merchantmen safely to port. This “mothering” by +repair-ships which are merely huge machine-shops afloat--this trick +of keeping destroyers tuned up and constantly ready for service has +inspired much favourable comment from our allies in the British +service. It is an instance of our national adaptability, learned from +an experience on long coasts where navy-yards are not too handy. Few +landsmen understand how delicate an instrument the destroyer is. + +A service so hazardous, demanding as it does such qualities as the +ability to make instantaneous decisions and powers of mental and +physical endurance, a service so irresistibly attractive to the young +and adventurous, produces a type of officer quite unmistakable. The day +I arrived in London from France, seeking a characteristically English +meal, I went to Simpson's in the Strand, where I found myself seated by +the side of two very junior officers of the British navy. It appeared +that they were celebrating what was left of a precious leave. At a +neighbouring table they spied two of our officers, almost equally +youthful. “Let's have 'em over,” suggested one of the Britishers; and +they were “had” over; he raised his glass. “Here's how--as you say in +America!” he exclaimed. “You destroyer chaps are certainly top hole.” + And then he added, with a blush, “I say, I hope you don't think I'm +cheeking you!” + +I saw them afloat, I saw them coming ashore in that Irish port, +these young destroyer captains, after five wakeful nights at sea, +weather-bitten, clear-eyed, trained down to the last ounce. One, with +whom I had played golf on the New England hills, carried his clubs in +his hand and invited me to have a game with him. Another, who apologized +for not being dressed at noon on Sunday--he had made the harbour at +three that morning!--was taking his racquet out of its case, preparing +to spend the afternoon on the hospitable courts of Admiralty House with +a fellow captain and two British officers. He was ashamed of his late +rising, but when it was suggested that some sleep was necessary he +explained that, on the trip just ended, it wasn't only the submarines +that kept him awake. “When these craft get jumping about in a seaway you +can't sleep even if you want to.” He who has had experience with them +knows the truth of this remark. Incidentally, though he did not mention +it, this young captain was one of three who had been recommended by the +British admiral to his government for the Distinguished Service +Order. The captain's report, which I read, is terse, and needs to be +visualized. There is simply a statement of the latitude and longitude, +the time of day, the fact that the wave of a periscope was sighted at +1,500 yards by the quartermaster first class on duty; general quarters +rung, the executive officer signals full speed ahead, the commanding +officer takes charge and manoeuvres for position--and then something +happens which the censor may be fussy about mentioning. At any rate, +oil and other things rise to the surface of the sea, and the Germans are +minus another submarine. The chief machinist's mate, however, comes in +for special mention. It seems that he ignored the ladder and literally +fell down the hatch, dislocating his shoulder but getting the throttle +wide open within five seconds! + +In this town, facing the sea, is a street lined with quaint houses +painted in yellows and browns and greens, and under each house the kind +of a shop that brings back to the middleaged delectable memories of +extreme youth and nickels to spend. Up and down that street on a bright +Saturday afternoon may be seen our Middle-Western jackies chumming with +the British sailors and Tommies, or flirting with the Irish girls, or +gazing through the little panes of the show-windows, whose enterprising +proprietors have imported from the States a popular brand of chewing-gum +to make us feel more at home. In one of these shops, where I went to +choose a picture post-card, I caught sight of an artistic display of a +delicacy I had thought long obsolete--the everlasting gum-drop. But when +I produced a shilling the shopkeeper shook his head. “Sure, every day +the sailors are wanting to buy them of me, but it's for ornament I'm +keeping them,” he said. “There's no more to be had till the war will +be over. Eight years they're here now, and you wouldn't get a tooth in +them, sir!” So I wandered out again, joined the admiral, and inspected +the Bluejackets' Club by the water's edge. Nothing one sees, perhaps, is +so eloquent of the change that has taken place in the life and fabric of +our navy. If you are an enlisted man, here in this commodious group of +buildings you can get a good shore meal and entertain your friends among +the Allies, you may sleep in a real bed, instead of a hammock, you may +play pool, or see a moving-picture show, or witness a vaudeville worthy +of professionals, like that recently given in honour of the visit of +the admiral of our Atlantic fleet. A band of thirty pieces furnished the +music, and in the opinion of the jackies one feature alone was lacking +to make the entertainment a complete success--the new drop-curtain had +failed to arrive from London. I happened to be present when this curtain +was first unrolled, and beheld spread out before me a most realistic +presentation of “little old New York,” seen from the North River, +towering against blue American skies. And though I have never been +overfond of New York, that curtain in that place gave me a sensation! + +Such is the life of our officers and sailors in these strange times that +have descended upon us. Five to eight days of vigilance, of hardship +and danger--in short, of war--and then three days of relaxation and +enjoyment in clubs, on golf-courses and tennis-courts, barring the time +it takes to clean ship and paint. There need be no fear that the war +will be neglected. It is eminently safe to declare that our service will +be true to its traditions. + + + +III + +“Dogged does it” ought to be added to “Dieu et mon droit” and other +devices of England. On a day when I was lunching with Mr. Lloyd George +in the dining-room at 10 Downing Street that looks out over the Horse +Guards' Parade, the present premier, with a characteristic gesture, +flung out his hand toward the portrait of a young man in the panel over +the mantel. It was of the younger Pitt, who had taken his meals and +drunk his port in this very room in that other great war a hundred years +ago. The news of Austerlitz, brought to him during his illness, is said +to have killed him. But England, undismayed, fought on for a decade, +and won. Mr. Lloyd George, in spite of burdens even heavier than +Pitt's, happily retains his health; and his is the indomitable spirit +characteristic of the new Britain as well as of the old. For it is a new +Britain one sees. Mr. Lloyd George is prime minister of a transformed +Britain, a Britain modernized and democratized. Like the Englishman who, +when he first witnessed a performance of “Uncle Tom's Cabin,” cried +out, “How very unlike the home life of our dear Queen!” the American who +lunches in Downing Street is inclined to exclaim: “How different from +Lord North and Palmerston!” We have, I fear, been too long accustomed +to interpret Britain in terms of these two ministers and of what they +represented to us of the rule of a George the Third or of an inimical +aristocracy. Three out of the five men who form the war cabinet of an +empire are of what would once have been termed an “humble origin.” + One was, if I am not mistaken, born in Nova Scotia. General Smuts, +unofficially associated with this council, not many years ago was in +arms against Britain in South Africa, and the prime minister himself +is the son of a Welsh tailor. A situation that should mollify the most +exacting and implacable of our anti-British democrats! + +I listened to many speeches and explanations of the prejudice that +existed in the mind of the dyed-in-the-wool American against England, +and the reason most frequently given was the “school-book” reason; +our histories kept the feeling alive. Now; there is no doubt that the +histories out of which we were taught made what psychologists would +call “action patterns,” or “complexes,” in our brains, just as the +school-books have made similar complexes in the brains of German +children and prepared them for this war. But, after all, there was a +certain animus behind the histories. Boiled down, the sentiment was one +against the rule of a hereditary aristocracy, and our forefathers had it +long before the separation took place. The Middle-Western farmer has no +prejudice against France, because France is a republic. The French are +lovable, and worthy of all the sympathy and affection we can give them. +But Britain is still nominally a monarchy; and our patriot thinks of its +people very much as the cowboy used to regard citizens of New York. They +all lived on Fifth Avenue. For the cowboy, the residents of the dreary +side streets simply did not exist. We have been wont to think of all +the British as aristocrats, while they have returned the compliment by +visualizing all Americans as plutocrats--despite the fact that one-tenth +of our population is said to own nine-tenths of all our wealth! + +But the war will change that, is already changing it. + +'Tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner'. We have been soaked in the same +common law, literature, and traditions of liberty--or of chaos, as one +likes. Whether we all be of British origin or not, it is the mind that +makes the true patriot; and there is no American so dead as not to feel +a thrill when he first sets foot on British soil. Our school-teachers +felt it when they began to travel some twenty years ago, and the +thousands of our soldiers who pass through on their way to France are +feeling it today, and writing home about it. Our soldiers and sailors +are being cared for and entertained in England just as they would be +cared for and entertained at home. So are their officers. Not long ago +one of the finest town houses in London was donated by the owner for +an American officers' club, the funds were raised by contributions +from British officers, and the club was inaugurated by the King and +Queen--and Admiral Sims. Hospitality and good-will have gone much +further than this. Any one who knows London will understand the +sacredness of those private squares, surrounded by proprietary +residences, where every tree and every blade of grass has been jealously +guarded from intrusion for a century or more. And of all these squares +that of St. James's is perhaps the most exclusive, and yet it is +precisely in St. James's there is to be built the first of those hotels +designed primarily for the benefit of American officers, where they can +get a good room for five shillings a night and breakfast at a reasonable +price. One has only to sample the war-time prices of certain hostelries +to appreciate the value of this. + + +On the first of four unforgettable days during which I was a guest +behind the British lines in France the officer who was my guide stopped +the motor in the street of an old village, beside a courtyard surrounded +by ancient barns. + +“There are some of your Americans,” he remarked. + +I had recognized them, not by their uniforms but by their type. Despite +their costumes, which were negligible, they were eloquent of college +campuses in every one of our eight and forty States, lean, thin-hipped, +alert. The persistent rains had ceased, a dazzling sunlight made that +beautiful countryside as bright as a coloured picture post-card, but a +riotous cold gale was blowing; yet all wore cotton trousers that left +their knees as bare as Highlanders' kilts. Above these some had an +sweaters, others brown khaki tunics, from which I gathered that they +belonged to the officers' training corps. They were drawn up on two +lines facing each other with fixed bayonets, a grim look on their faces +that would certainly have put any Hun to flight. Between the files stood +an unmistakable gipling sergeant with a crimson face and a bristling +little chestnut moustache, talking like a machine gun. + +“Now, then, not too lidylike!--there's a Bosch in front of you! Run 'im +through! Now, then!” + +The lines surged forward, out went the bayonets, first the long thrust +and then the short, and then a man's gun was seized and by a swift +backward twist of the arm he was made helpless. + +“Do you feel it?” asked the officer, as he turned to me. I did. “Up +and down your spine,” he added, and I nodded. “Those chaps will do,” + he said. He had been through that terrible battle of the Somme, and he +knew. So had the sergeant. + +Presently came a resting-spell. One of the squad approached me, whom I +recognized as a young man I had met in the Harvard Union. + +“If you write about this,” he said, “just tell our people that we're +going to take that sergeant home with us when the war's over. He's too +good to lose.” + + + +IV + +It is trite to observe that democracies are organized--if, indeed, they +are organized at all--not for war but for peace. And nowhere is this +fact more apparent than in Britain. Even while the war is in progress +has that internal democratic process of evolution been going on, +presaging profound changes in the social fabric. And these changes must +be dealt with by statesmen, must be guided with one hand while the war +is being prosecuted with the other. The task is colossal. In no previous +war have the British given more striking proof of their inherent quality +of doggedness. Greatness, as Confucius said, does not consist in never +falling, but in rising every time you fall. The British speak with +appalling frankness of their blunders. They are fighting, indeed, for +the privilege of making blunders--since out of blunders arise new truths +and discoveries not contemplated in German philosophy. + +America must now contribute what Britain and France, with all their +energies and resources and determination, have hitherto been unable +to contribute. It must not be men, money, and material alone, but some +quality that America has had in herself during her century and a half +of independent self-realization. Mr. Chesterton, in writing about the +American Revolution, observes that the real case for the colonists is +that they felt that they could be something which England would not help +them to be. It is, in fact, the only case for separation. What may +be called the English tradition of democracy, which we inherit, grows +through conflicts and differences, through experiments and failures and +successes, toward an intellectualized unity,--experiments by states, +experiments by individuals, a widely spread development, and new +contributions to the whole. + +Democracy has arrived at the stage when it is ceasing to be national and +selfish. + +It must be said of England, in her treatment of her colonies subsequent +to our Revolution, that she took this greatest of all her national +blunders to heart. As a result, Canada and Australia and New Zealand +have sent their sons across the seas to fight for an empire that +refrains from coercion; while, thanks to the policy of the British +Liberals--which was the expression of the sentiment of the British +nation--we have the spectacle today of a Botha and a Smuts fighting +under the Union Jack. + +And how about Ireland? England has blundered there, and she admits it +freely. They exist in England who cry out for the coercion of Ireland, +and who at times have almost had their way. But to do this, of course, +would be a surrender to the German contentions, an acknowledgment of the +wisdom of the German methods against which she is protesting with all +her might. Democracy, apparently, must blunder on until that question +too, is solved. + + + +V + +Many of those picturesque features of the older England, that stir us by +their beauty and by the sense of stability and permanence they convey, +will no doubt disappear or be transformed. I am thinking of the great +estates, some of which date from Norman times; I am thinking of +the aristocracy, which we Americans repudiated in order to set up +a plutocracy instead. Let us hope that what is fine in it will +be preserved, for there is much. By the theory of the British +constitution--that unwritten but very real document--in return for +honours, emoluments, and titles, the burden of government has hitherto +been thrown on a class. Nor can it be said that they have been untrue to +their responsibility. That class developed a tradition and held fast to +it; and they had a foreign policy that guided England through centuries +of greatness. Democracy too must have a foreign policy, a tradition of +service; a trained if not hereditary group to guide it through troubled +waters. Even in an intelligent community there must be leadership. And, +if the world will no longer tolerate the old theories, a tribute may +at least be paid to those who from conviction upheld them; who ruled, +perhaps in affluence, yet were also willing to toil and, if need be, to +die for the privilege. + +One Saturday afternoon, after watching for a while the boys playing +fives and football and romping over the green lawns at Eton, on my way +to the head master's rooms I paused in one of the ancient quads. My eye +had been caught by a long column of names posted there, printed in heavy +black letters. 'Etona non, immemora'! Every week many new names are +added to those columns. On the walls of the chapel and in other quads +and passages may be found tablets and inscriptions in memory of those +who have died for England and the empire in by-gone wars. I am told that +the proportion of Etonians of killed to wounded is greater than that +of any other public school--which is saying a great deal. They go back +across the channel and back again until their names appear on the last +and highest honour list of the school and nation. + +In one of the hospitals I visited lay a wounded giant who had once been +a truckman in a little town in Kent. Incidentally, in common with his +neighbours, he had taken no interest in the war, which had seemed as +remote to him as though he had lived in North Dakota. One day a Zeppelin +dropped a bomb on that village, whereupon the able-bodied males enlisted +to a man, and he with them. A subaltern in his company was an Eton boy. +“We just couldn't think of 'im as an orficer, sir; in the camps 'e used +to play with us like a child. And then we went to France. And one night +when we was wet to the skin and the Boschs was droppin' shell all +around us we got the word. It was him leaped over the top first of all, +shouting back at us to come on. He tumbled right back and died in my +arms, 'e did, as I was climbin' up after 'im. I shan't ever forget 'im.” + +As you travel about in these days you become conscious, among the people +you meet, of a certain bewilderment. A static world and a static order +are dissolving; and in England that order was so static as to make the +present spectacle the more surprising. Signs of the disintegration of +the old social strata were not lacking, indeed, in the earlier years of +the twentieth century, when labour members and north-country radicals +began to invade parliament; but the cataclysm of this war has +accelerated the process. In the muddy trenches of Flanders and France +a new comradeship has sprung up between officers and Tommies, while +time-honoured precedent has been broken by the necessity of giving +thousands of commissions to men of merit who do not belong to the +“officer caste.” At the Haymarket Theatre I saw a fashionable audience +wildly applaud a play in which the local tailor becomes a major-general +and returns home to marry the daughter of the lord of a mayor whose +clothes he used to cut before the war. + +“The age of great adventure,” were the words used by Mr. H. G. Wells to +describe this epoch as we discussed it. And a large proportion of +the descendants of those who have governed England for centuries are +apparently imbued with the spirit of this adventure, even though it +may spell the end of their exclusive rule. As significant of the social +mingling of elements which in the past never exchanged ideas or points +of view I shall describe a week-end party at a large country house of +Liberal complexion; on the Thames. I have reason to believe it fairly +typical. The owner of this estate holds an important position in the +Foreign Office, and the hostess has, by her wit and intelligent grasp of +affairs, made an enviable place for herself. On her right, at luncheon +on Sunday, was a labour leader, the head of one of the most powerful +unions in Britain, and next him sat a member of one of the oldest of +England's titled families. The two were on terms of Christian names. The +group included two or three women, a sculptor and an educator, another +Foreign Office official who has made a reputation since the beginning of +the war, and finally an employer of labour, the chairman of the biggest +shipbuilding company in England. + +That a company presenting such a variety of interests should have been +brought together in the frescoed dining-room of that particular house is +noteworthy. + +The thing could happen nowhere save in the England of today. At first +the talk was general, ranging over a number of subjects from that of +the personality of certain politicians to the conduct of the war and +the disturbing problem raised by the “conscientious objector”; little +by little, however, the rest of us became silent, to listen to a debate +which had begun between the labour leader and the ship-builder on the +“labour question.” It is not my purpose here to record what they said. +Needless to add that they did not wholly agree, but they were much +nearer to agreement than one would have thought possible. What was +interesting was the open-mindedness with which, on both sides, the +argument was conducted, and the fact that it could seriously take place +then and there. For the subject of it had long been the supreme problem +in the lives of both these men, their feelings concerning it must at +times have been tinged with bitterness, yet they spoke with courtesy and +restraint, and though each maintained his contentions he was quick to +acknowledge a point made by the other. As one listened one was led +to hope that a happier day is perhaps at hand when such things as +“complexes” and convictions will disappear. + +The types of these two were in striking contrast. The labour leader was +stocky, chestnut-coloured, vital, possessing the bulldog quality of +the British self-made man combined with a natural wit, sharpened in the +arena, that often startled the company into an appreciative laughter. +The ship-builder, on the other hand, was one of those spare and hard +Englishmen whom no amount of business cares will induce to neglect +the exercise of his body, the obligation at all times to keep “fit”; +square-rigged, as it were, with a lean face and a wide moustache +accentuating a square chin. Occasionally a gleam of humour, a ray of +idealism, lighted his practical grey eyes. Each of these two had managed +rather marvellously to triumph over early training by self-education: +the labour leader, who had had his first lessons in life from injustices +and hard knocks; and the ship-builder, who had overcome the handicap of +the public-school tradition and of Manchester economics. + +“Yes, titles and fortunes must go,” remarked our hostess with a smile as +she rose from the table and led the way out on the sunny, stone-flagged +terrace. Below us was a wide parterre whose flower-beds, laid out by a +celebrated landscape-gardener in the days of the Stuarts, were filled +with vegetables. The day was like our New England Indian summerthough +the trees were still heavy with leaves--and a gossamer-blue veil of haze +stained the hills between which the shining river ran. If the social +revolution, or evolution, takes place, one wonders what will become of +this long-cherished beauty. + +I venture to dwell upon one more experience of that week-end party. +The Friday evening of my arrival I was met at the station, not by a +limousine with a chauffeur and footman, but by a young woman with a +taxicab--one of the many reminders that a war is going on. London had +been reeking in a green-yellow fog, but here the mist was white, and +through it I caught glimpses of the silhouettes of stately trees in a +park, and presently saw the great house with its clock-tower looming up +before me. A fire was crackling in the hall, and before it my hostess +was conversing amusedly with a well-known sculptor--a sculptor typical +of these renaissance times, large, full-blooded, with vigorous opinions +on all sorts of matters. + +“A lecturer is coming down from London to talk to the wounded in the +amusement-hall of the hospital,” our hostess informed us. “And you both +must come and speak too.” + +The three of us got into the only motor of which the establishment now +boasts, a little runabout using a minimum of “petrol,” and she guided +us rapidly by devious roads through the fog until a blur of light +proclaimed the presence of a building, one of some score or more built +on the golf-course by the British Government. I have not space hereto +describe that hospital, which is one of the best in England; but it must +be observed that its excellence and the happiness of its inmates are +almost wholly due to the efforts of the lady who now conducted us across +the stage of the amusement-hall, where all the convalescents who +could walk or who could be rolled thither in chairs were gathered. The +lecturer had not arrived. But the lady of the manor seated herself at +the speaker's table, singling out Scotch wits in the audience--for +whom she was more than a match--while the sculptor and I looked on and +grinned and resisted her blandishments to make speeches. When at last +the lecturer came he sat down informally on the table with one foot +hanging in the air and grinned, too, at her bantering but complimentary +introduction. It was then I discovered for the first time that he was +one of the best educational experts of that interesting branch of the +British Government, the Department of Reconstruction, whose business +it is to teach the convalescents the elements of social and political +science. This was not to be a lecture, he told them, but a debate in +which every man must take a part. And his first startling question was +this: + +“Why should Mr. Lloyd George, instead of getting five thousand pounds a +year for his services as prime minister, receive any more than a common +labourer?” + +The question was a poser. The speaker folded his hands and beamed down +at them; he seemed fairly to radiate benignity. + +“Now we mustn't be afraid of him, just because he seems to be +intelligent,” declared our hostess. This sally was greeted with +spasmodic laughter. Her eyes flitted from bench to bench, yet met +nothing save averted glances. “Jock! Where are you, Jock? Why don't you +speak up?--you've never been downed before.” + +More laughter, and craning of necks for the Jocks. This appeared to be +her generic name for the vita. But the Jocks remained obdurately modest. +The prolonged silence did not seem in the least painful to the lecturer, +who thrust his hand in his pocket and continued to beam. He had learned +how to wait. And at last his patience was rewarded. A middleaged soldier +with a very serious manner arose hesitatingly, with encouraging noises +from his comrades. + +“It's not Mr. Lloyd George I'm worrying about, sir,” he said, “all I +wants is enough for the missus and me. I had trouble to get that before +the war.” + +Cries of “Hear! Hear!” + +“Why did you have trouble?” inquired the lecturer mildly. + +“The wages was too low.” + +“And why were the wages too low?” + +“You've got me there. I hadn't thought.” + +“But isn't it your business as a voter to think?” asked the lecturer. +“That's why the government is sending me here, to start you to thinking, +to remind you that it is you soldiers who will have to take charge of +this country and run it after the war is over. And you won't be able to +do that unless you think, and think straight.” + +“We've never been taught to think,” was the illuminating reply. + +“And if we do think we've never been educated to express ourselves, same +as you!” shouted another man, in whom excitement had overcome timidity. + +“I'm here to help you educate yourselves,” said the lecturer. “But first +let's hear any ideas you may have on the question I asked you.” + +There turned out to be plenty of ideas, after all. An opinion was +ventured that Mr. Lloyd George served the nation, not for money but from +public spirit; a conservative insisted that ability should be rewarded +and rewarded well; whereupon ensued one of the most enlightening +discussions, not only as a revelation of intelligence, but of complexes +and obsessions pervading many of the minds in whose power lies the +ultimate control of democracies. One, for instance, declared that--“if +every man went to church proper of a Sunday and minded his own business +the country would get along well enough.” He was evidently of the +opinion that there was too much thinking and not enough of what he would +have termed “religion.” Gradually that audience split up into liberals +and conservatives; and the liberals noticeably were the younger men who +had had the advantages of better board schools, who had formed fewer +complexes and had had less time in which to get them set. Of these, a +Canadian made a plea for the American system of universal education, +whereupon a combative “stand-patter” declared that every man wasn't fit +to be educated, that the American plan made only for discontent. “Look +at them,” he exclaimed, “They're never satisfied to stay in their +places.” This provoked laughter, but it was too much for the +sculptor--and for me. We both broke our vows and made speeches in favour +of equality and mental opportunity, while the lecturer looked on and +smiled. Mr. Lloyd George and his salary were forgotten. By some subtle +art of the chairman the debate had been guided to the very point where +he had from the first intended to guide it--to the burning question of +our day--education as the true foundation of democracy! Perhaps, after +all, this may be our American contribution to the world's advance. + +As we walked homeward through the fog I talked to him of Professor +Dewey's work and its results, while he explained to me the methods of +the Reconstruction Department. “Out of every audience like that we get +a group and form a class,” he said. “They're always a bit backward at +first, just as they were tonight, but they grow very keen. We have +a great many classes already started, and we see to it that they are +provided with text-books and teachers. Oh, no, it's not propaganda,” he +added, in answer to my query; “all we do is to try to give them facts in +such a way as to make them able to draw their own conclusions and join +any political party they choose--just so they join one intelligently.” + I must add that before Sunday was over he had organized his class and +arranged for their future instruction. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +I would speak first of a contrast--and yet I have come to recognize how +impossible it is to convey to the dweller in America the difference in +atmosphere between England and France on the one hand and our country on +the other. And when I use the word “atmosphere” I mean the mental state +of the peoples as well as the weather and the aspect of the skies. I +have referred in another article to the anxious, feverish prosperity one +beholds in London and Paris, to that apparent indifference, despite the +presence on the streets of crowds of soldiers to the existence of a war +of which one is ever aware. Yet, along with this, one is ever conscious +of pressure. The air is heavy; there is a corresponding lack of the +buoyancy of mind which is the normal American condition. Perhaps, +if German troops occupied New England and New York, our own mental +barometer might be lower. It is difficult to say. At any rate, after +an ocean voyage of nine days one's spirits rise perceptibly as the ship +nears Nantucket; and the icy-bright sunlight of New York harbour, the +sight of the buildings aspiring to blue skies restore the throbbing +optimism which with us is normal; and it was with an effort, when I +talked to the reporters on landing, that I was able to achieve and +express the pessimism and darkness out of which I had come. Pessimism +is perhaps too strong a word, and takes no account of the continued +unimpaired morale and determination of the greater part of the British +and French peoples. They expect much from us. Yet the impression was +instantaneous, when I set forth in the streets of New York, that we had +not fully measured the magnitude of our task--an impression that has +been amply confirmed as the weeks have passed. + +The sense of relief I felt was not only the result of bright skies and +a high barometer, of the palpable self-confidence of the pedestrians, of +the white bread on the table and the knowledge that there was more, +but also of the ease of accomplishing things. I called for a telephone +number and got it cheerfully and instantly. I sent several telegrams, +and did not have to wait twenty minutes before a wicket while a +painstaking official multiplied and added and subtracted and paused to +talk with a friend; the speed of the express in which I flew down-town +seemed emblematic of America itself. I had been transported, in fact, +into another world--my world; and in order to realize again that from +which I had come I turned to a diary recording a London filled with the +sulphur fumes of fog, through which the lamps of the taxis and buses +shone as yellow blots reflected on glistening streets; or, for some +reason a still greater contrast, a blue, blue November Sunday afternoon +in parts, the Esplanade of the Invalides black with people--sad +people--and the Invalides itself all etched in blue as seen through the +wide vista from the Seine. + +A few days later, with some children, I went to the Hippodrome. And it +remained for the Hippodrome, of all places, to give me the thrill I had +not achieved abroad, the thrill I had not experienced since the first +months of the war. Mr. George Cohan accomplished it. The transport with +steam up, is ready to leave the wharf, the khaki-clad regiment of erect +and vigorous young Americans marches across the great stage, and the +audience strains forward and begins to sing, under its breath, the words +that proclaim, as nothing else perhaps proclaims, how America feels. + + “Send the word, send the word over there... + We'll be o-ver, we're coming o-ver, + And we won't come back till it's o-ver, over there!” + +Is it the prelude of a tragedy? We have always been so successful, we +Americans. Are we to fail now? I am an American, and I do not believe we +are to fail. But I am soberer, somehow a different American than he who +sailed away in August. Shall we learn other things than those that have +hitherto been contained in our philosophy? + +Of one thing I am convinced. It is the first war of the world that is +not a miltary war, although miltary genius is demanded, although it is +the bloodiest war in history. But other qualities are required; men and +women who are not professional soldiers are fighting in it and will aid +in victory. The pomp and circumstance of other wars are lacking in this, +the greatest of all. We had the thrills, even in America, three years +ago, when Britain and France and Canada went in. We tingled when we +read of the mobilizing of the huge armies, of the leave-takings of +the soldiers. We bought every extra for news of those first battles +on Belgian soil. And I remember my sensations when in the province +of Quebec in the autumn of 1914, looking out of the car-window at the +troops gathering on the platforms who were to go across the seas +to fight for the empire and liberty. They were singing “Tipperary!” + “Tipperary!” One seldoms hears it now, and the way has proved +long--longer than we reckoned. And we are singing “Over There!” + +In those first months of the war there was, we were told, in England +and France a revival of “religion,” and indeed many of the books then +written gave evidence of having been composed in exalted, mystic moods. +I remember one in particular, called “En Campagne,” by a young French +officer. And then, somehow, the note of mystic exaltation died away, +to be succeeded by a period of realism. Read “Le Feu,” which is most +typical, which has sold in numberless editions. Here is a picture +of that other aspect--the grimness, the monotony, and the frequent +bestiality of trench life, the horror of slaughtering millions of men +by highly specialized machinery. And yet, as an American, I strike +inevitably the note of optimism once more. Even now the truer spiritual +goal is glimpsed through the battle clouds, and has been hailed in +world-reverberating phrases by our American President. Day by day the +real issue is clearer, while the “religion” it implies embraces not +one nation, wills not one patriotism, but humanity itself. I heard a +Frenchwoman who had been deeply “religious” in the old sense exclaim: “I +no longer have any faith in God; he is on the side of the Germans.” When +the war began there were many evidences of a survival of that faith that +God fights for nations, interferes in behalf of the “righteous” + cause. When General Joffre was in America he was asked by one of our +countrywomen how the battle of the Marne was won. “Madame,” he is +reported to have said, “it was won by me, by my generals and soldiers.” + The tendency to regard this victory, which we hope saved France and the +Western humanitarian civilization we cherish, as a special interposition +of Providence, as a miracle, has given place to the realization that +the battle was won by the resourcefulness, science, and coolness of the +French commander-in-chief. Science preserves armies, since killing, if +it has to be done, is now wholly within that realm; science heals the +wounded, transports them rapidly to the hospitals, gives the shattered +something still to live for; and, if we are able to abandon the +sentimental view and look facts in the face--as many anointed chaplains +in Europe are doing--science not only eliminates typhoid but is able to +prevent those terrible diseases that devastate armies and nations. And +science is no longer confined to the physical but has invaded the +social kingdom, is able to weave a juster fabric into the government +of peoples. On all sides we are beginning to embrace the +religion of self-reliance, a faith that God is on the side of +intelligence--intelligence with a broader meaning than the Germans have +given it, for it includes charity. + + + +II + +It seems to me that I remember, somewhere in the realistic novel I have +mentioned “Le Feu”--reading of singing soldiers, and an assumption +on the part of their hearers that such songs are prompted only by a +devil-may-care lightness of heart which the soldier achieves. A shallow +psychology (as the author points out), especially in these days of +trench warfare! The soldier sings to hide his real feelings, perhaps to +give vent to them. I am reminded of all this in connection with my trip +to the British front. I left London after lunch on one of those dreary, +grey days to which I have referred; the rain had begun to splash angrily +against the panes of the car windows before we reached the coast. At +five o'clock the boat pushed off into a black channel, whipped by a gale +that drove the rain across the decks and into every passage and gangway. +The steamer was literally loaded with human beings, officers and men +returning from a brief glimpse of home. There was nothing of the glory +of war in the embarkation, and, to add to the sad and sinister effect of +it, each man as he came aboard mounted the ladder and chose, from a pile +on the hatch combing, a sodden life-preserver, which he flung around his +shoulders as he went in search of a shelter. The saloon below, where +we had our tea, was lighted indeed, but sealed so tight as to be +insupportable; and the cabin above, stifling too, was dark as a pocket. +One stumbled over unseen passengers on the lounges, or sitting on kits +on the floor. Even the steps up which I groped my way to the deck above +were filled, while on the deck there was standing-room only and not much +of that. Mal de mer added to the discomforts of many. At length I found +an uncertain refuge in a gangway amidships, hedged in between unseen +companions; but even here the rain stung our faces and the spray of +an occasional comber drenched our feet, while through the gloom of the +night only a few yards of white water were to be discerned. For three +hours I stood there, trying to imagine what was in the minds of these +men with whose bodies I was in such intimate contact. They were going +to a foreign land to fight, many of them to die, not in one of those +adventurous campaigns of times gone by, but in the wet trenches or the +hideous No Man's Land between. What were the images they summoned up in +the darkness? Visions of long-familiar homes and long-familiar friends? +And just how were they facing the future? Even as I wondered, voices +rose in a song, English voices, soldier voices. It was not “Tipperary,” + the song that thrilled us a few years ago. I strove to catch the words: + + “I want to go home! + I don't want to go back to the trenches no more, + Where there are bullets and shrapnel galore, + I want to go home!” + +It was sung boisterously, in a defiant tone of mockery of the desire it +expressed, and thus tremendously gained in pathos. They did want to go +home--naturally. It was sung with the same spirit our men sing “We won't +come back till it's over, over there!” The difference is that these +Britishers have been over there, have seen the horrors face to face, +have tasted the sweets of home, and in spite of heartsickness and +seasickness are resolved to see it through. Such is the morale of the +British army. I have not the slightest doubt that it will be the morale +of our own army also, but at present the British are holding the fort. +Tommy would never give up the war, but he has had a realistic taste of +it, and his songs reflect his experience. Other songs reached my ears +each night, above the hissing and pounding of the Channel seas, but +the unseen group returned always to this. One thought of Agincourt and +Crecy, of Waterloo, of the countless journeys across this same stormy +strip of water the ancestors of these man had made in the past, and one +wondered whether war were eternal and inevitable, after all. + +And what does Tommy think about it--this war? My own limited +experience thoroughly indorses Mr. Galsworthy's splendid analysis of +British-soldier psychology that appeared in the December North American. +The average man, with native doggedness, is fighting for the defence of +England. The British Government itself, in its reconstruction department +for the political education of the wounded, has given partial denial +to the old maxim that it is the soldier's business not to think but to +obey; and the British army is leavened with men who read and reflect +in the long nights of watching in the rain, who are gaining ideas about +conditions in the past and resolutions concerning those of the future. +The very army itself has had a miracle happen to it: it has been +democratized--and with the cheerful consent of the class to which +formerly the possession of commissions was largely confined. Gradually, +to these soldier-thinkers, as well as to the mass of others at home, +is unfolding the vision of a new social order which is indeed worth +fighting for and dying for. + + + +III + +At last, our knees cramped and our feet soaked, we saw the lights of the +French port dancing across the veil of rain, like thistledowns of fire, +and presently we were at rest at a stone quay. As I stood waiting on the +deck to have my passport vised, I tried to reconstruct the features of +this little seaport as I had seen it, many years before, on a bright +summer's day when I had motored from Paris on my way to London. The gay +line of hotels facing the water was hidden in the darkness. Suddenly I +heard my name called, and I was rescued from the group of civilians by +a British officer who introduced himself as my host. It was after nine +o'clock, and he had been on the lookout for me since half past seven. +The effect of his welcome at that time and place was electrical, and +I was further immensely cheered by the news he gave me, as we hurried +along the street, that two friends of mine were here and quite hungry, +having delayed dinner for my arrival. One of them was a young member +of Congress who had been making exhaustive studies of the situation in +Italy, France and England, and the other one of our best-known writers, +both bound for London. We sat around the table until nearly eleven, +exchanging impressions and experiences. Then my officer declared that it +was time to go home. + +“Home” proved to be the big chateau which the British Government has +leased for the kindly purpose of entertaining such American guests as +they choose to invite. It is known as the “American Chateau,” and in the +early morning hours we reached it after a long drive through the gale. +We crossed a bridge over a moat and traversed a huge stone hall to +the Gothic drawing-room. Here a fire was crackling on the hearth, +refreshments were laid out, and the major in command rose from his book +to greet me. Hospitality, with these people, has attained to art, and, +though I had come here at the invitation of his government, I had the +feeling of being his personal guest in his own house. Presently he led +the way up the stone stairs and showed me the room I was to occupy. + +I awoke to the sound of the wind whistling through the open lattice, and +looking down on the ruffled blue waters of the moat I saw a great white +swan at his morning toilet, his feathers dazzling in the sun. It was one +of those rare crisp and sparkling days that remind one of our American +autumn. A green stretch of lawn made a vista through the woods. +Following the example of the swan, I plunged into the tin tub the +orderly had placed beside my bed and went down to porridge in a glow. +Porridge, for the major was Scotch, and had taught his French cook to +make it as the Scotch make it. Then, going out into the hall, from a +table on which lay a contour map of the battle region, the major picked +up a hideous mask that seemed to have been made for some barbaric +revelries. + +“We may not strike any gas,” he said, “but it's as well to be on the +safe side,” whereupon he made me practise inserting the tube in my +mouth, pinching the nostrils instantly with the wire-covered nippers. +He also presented me with a steel helmet. Thus equipped for any untoward +occurrence, putting on sweaters and heavy overcoats, and wrapping +ourselves in the fur rugs of the waiting automobile, we started off, +with the gale on our quarter, for the front. + +Picardy, on whose soil has been shed so much English blood, never was +more beautiful than on that October day. The trees were still in full +leaf, the fields green, though the crops had been gathered, and the +crystal air gave vivid value to every colour in the landscape. From time +to time we wound through the cobble-stoned streets of historic villages, +each having its stone church end the bodki-shaped steeple of blue slate +so characteristic of that country. And, as though we were still in +the pastoral times of peace, in the square of one of these villages a +horse-fair was in progress, blue-smocked peasants were trotting +chunky ponies over the stones. It was like a picture from one of De +Maupassant's tales. In other villages the shawled women sat knitting +behind piles of beets and cabbages and apples, their farm-carts atilt in +the sun. Again and again I tried to grasp the fact that the greatest of +world wars was being fought only a few miles away--and failed. + +We had met, indeed, an occasional officer or orderly, huddled in a +greatcoat and head against the wind, exercising those wonderful animals +that are the pride of the British cavalry and which General Sir Douglas +Haig, himself a cavalryman, some day hopes to bring into service. We +had overtaken an artillery train rumbling along toward the east, the +men laughing and joking as they rode, as though they were going to +manoeuvres. Farther on, as the soldiers along the highroads and in the +towns grew more and more numerous, they seemed so harmoniously part of +the peaceful scene that war was as difficult to visualize as ever. Many +sat about smoking their pipes and playing with the village children, +others were in squads going to drill or exercise--something the Briton +never neglects. The amazing thing to a visitor who has seen the trenches +awash on a typical wet day, who knows that even billeting in cold farms +and barns behind the lines can scarcely be compared to the comforts of +home, is how these men keep well under the conditions. To say that they +are well is to understate the fact: the ruddy faces and clear eyes and +hard muscles--even of those who once were pale London clerks--proclaim a +triumph for the system of hygiene of their army. + +Suddenly we came upon a house with a great round hole in its wall, and +then upon several in ruins beside the village street. Meanwhile, at work +under the windswept trees of the highway, were strange, dark men from +the uttermost parts of the earth, physiognomies as old as the tombs of +Pharaoh. It was, indeed, not so much the graven red profiles of priests +and soldiers that came tome at sight of these Egyptians, but the singing +fellaheen of the water-buckets of the Nile. And here, too, shovelling +the crushed rock, were East Indians oddly clad in European garb, +careless of the cold. That sense of the vastness of the British Empire, +which at times is so profound, was mingled now with a knowledge that it +was fighting for its life, marshalling all its resources for Armageddon. + +Saint Eloi is named after the good bishop who ventured to advise King +Dagobert about his costume. And the church stands--what is left of +it--all alone on the greenest of terraces jutting out toward the east; +and the tower, ruggedly picturesque against the sky, resembles that +of some crumbled abbey. As a matter of fact, it has been a target for +German gunners. Dodging an army-truck and rounding one of those military +traffic policemen one meets at every important corner we climbed +the hill and left the motor among the great trees, which are still +fortunately preserved. And we stood for a few minutes, gazing over miles +and miles of devastation. Then, taking the motor once more, we passed +through wrecked and empty villages until we came to the foot of Vimy +Ridge. Notre Dame de Lorette rose against the sky-line to the north. + +Vimy and Notre Dame de Lorette--sweet but terrible names! Only a summer +had passed since Vimy was the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of +the war. From a distance the prevailing colour of the steep slope is +ochre; it gives the effect of having been scraped bare in preparation +for some gigantic enterprise. A nearer view reveals a flush of green; +nature is already striving to heal. From top to bottom it is pockmarked +by shells and scarred by trenches--trenches every few feet, and between +them tangled masses of barbed wire still clinging to the “knife +rests” and corkscrew stanchions to which it had been strung. The huge +shell-holes, revealing the chalk subsoil, were half-filled with water. +And even though the field had been cleaned by those East Indians I had +seen on the road, and the thousands who had died here buried, bits of +uniform, shoes, and accoutrements and shattered rifles were sticking +in the clay--and once we came across a portion of a bedstead, doubtless +taken by some officer from a ruined and now vanished village to his +dugout. Painfully, pausing frequently to ponder over these remnants, so +eloquent of the fury of the struggle, slipping backward at every step +and despite our care getting tangled in the wire, we made our way up +the slope. Buttercups and daisies were blooming around the edges of the +craters. + +As we drew near the crest the major warned me not to expose myself. “It +isn't because there is much chance of our being shot,” he explained, +“but a matter of drawing the German fire upon others.” And yet I found it +hard to believe--despite the evidence at my feet--that war existed here. +The brightness of the day, the emptiness of the place, the silence--save +for the humming of the gale--denied it. And then, when we had cautiously +rounded a hummock at the top, my steel helmet was blown off--not by a +shrapnel, but by the wind! I had neglected to tighten the chin-strap. + +Immediately below us I could make out scars like earthquake cracks +running across the meadows--the front trenches. Both armies were buried +like moles in these furrows. The country was spread out before us, +like a map, with occasionally the black contour of a coal mound rising +against the green, or a deserted shaft-head. I was gazing at the famous +battlefield of Lens. Villages, woods, whose names came back to me as the +major repeated them, lay like cloud shadows on the sunny plain, and the +faintest shadow of all, far to the eastward, was Lens itself. I marked +it by a single white tower. And suddenly another white tower, loftier +than the first, had risen up! But even as I stared its substance seemed +to change, to dissolve, and the tower was no longer to be seen. Not +until then did I realize that a monster shell had burst beside the +trenches in front of the city. Occasionally after that there came to my +ears the muffed report of some hidden gun, and a ball like a powder-puff +lay lightly on the plain, and vanished. But even the presence of these, +oddly enough, did not rob the landscape of its air of Sunday peace. + +We ate our sandwiches and drank our bottle of white wine in a sheltered +cut of the road that runs up that other ridge which the French gained +at such an appalling price, Notre Dame de Lorette, while the major +described to me some features of the Lens battle, in which he had taken +part. I discovered incidentally that he had been severely wounded at the +Somme. Though he had been a soldier all his life, and a good soldier, +his true passion was painting, and he drew my attention to the rare +greens and silver-greys of the stones above us, steeped in sunlight--all +that remained of the little church of Notre Dame--more beautiful, more +significant, perhaps, as a ruin. It reminded the major of the Turners he +had admired in his youth. After lunch we lingered in the cemetery, where +the graves and vaults had been harrowed by shells; the trenches ran +right through them. And here, in this desecrated resting-place of the +village dead, where the shattered gravestones were mingled with barbed +wire, death-dealing fragments of iron, and rusting stick-bombs that had +failed to explode, was a wooden cross, on which was rudely written the +name of Hans Siebert. Mouldering at the foot of the cross was a grey +woollen German tunic from which the buttons had been cut. + +We kept the road to the top, for Notre Dame de Lorette is as steep as +Vimy. There we looked upon the panorama of the Lens battle-field once +more, and started down the eastern slope, an apparently smooth expanse +covered now with prairie grasses, in reality a labyrinth of deep +ditches, dugouts, and pits; gruesome remnants of the battle lay +half-concealed under the grass. We walked slowly, making desperate +leaps over the trenches, sometimes perforce going through them, treading +gingerly on the “duck board” at the bottom. We stumbled over stick-bombs +and unexploded shells. No plough can be put here--the only solution for +the land for years to come is forest. Just before we gained the road +at the bottom, where the car was awaiting us, we were startled by the +sudden flight of a covey of partridges. + +The skies were grey when we reached the banal outskirts of a town where +the bourgeoise houses were modern, commonplace, save those which had +been ennobled by ruin. It was Arras, one of those few magic names, +eloquent with suggestions of mediaeval romance and art, intrigue and +chivalry; while upon their significance, since the war began, has been +superimposed still another, no less eloquent but charged with pathos. +We halted for a moment in the open space before the railroad station, a +comparatively new structure of steel and glass, designed on geometrical +curves, with an uninspiring, cheaply ornamented front. It had been, +undoubtedly, the pride of the little city. Yet finding it here had +at first something of the effect of the discovery of an +office-building--let us say--on the site of the Reims Cathedral. +Presently, however, its emptiness, its silence began to have their +effects--these and the rents one began to perceive in the roof. For +it was still the object of the intermittent yet persistent fire of +the German artillery. One began to realize that by these wounds it had +achieved a dignity that transcended the mediocre imagination of its +provincial designer. A fine rain had set in before we found the square, +and here indeed one felt a certain desolate satisfaction; despite the +wreckage there the spirit of the ancient town still poignantly haunted +it. Although the Hotel de Ville, which had expressed adequately the +longings and aspirations, the civic pride of those bygone burghers, was +razed to the ground, on three sides were still standing the varied yet +harmonious facades of Flemish houses made familiar by photographs. Of +some of these the plaster between the carved beams had been shot away, +the roofs blown off, and the tiny hewn rafters were bared to the sky. +The place was empty in the gathering gloom of the twilight. The gaiety +and warmth of the hut erected in the Public Gardens which houses the +British Officers' Club were a relief. + +The experiences of the next day will remain for ever in my memory +etched, as it were, in sepia. My guide was a younger officer who had +seen heroic service, and I wondered constantly how his delicate frame +had survived in the trenches the constant hardship of such weather +as now, warmly wrapped and with the car-curtains drawn, we faced. The +inevitable, relentless rain of that region had set in again, the rain +in which our own soldiers will have to fight, and the skies were of a +darkness seldom known in America. The countryside was no longer smiling. +After some two hours of progress we came, in that devastated district +near the front, to an expanse where many monsters were clumsily +cavorting like dinosaurs in primeval slime. At some distance from the +road others stood apparently tethered in line, awaiting their turn for +exercise. These were the far-famed tanks. Their commander, or chief +mahout--as I was inclined to call him--was a cheerful young giant of +colonial origin, who has often driven them serenely across No Man's Land +and into the German trenches. He had been expecting us, and led me +along a duck board over the morass, to where one of these leviathans +was awaiting us. You crawl through a greasy hole in the bottom, and the +inside is as full of machinery as the turret of the Pennsylvania, and +you grope your way to the seat in front beside that of the captain and +conductor, looking out through a slot in the armour over a waste of +water and mud. From here you are supposed to operate a machine gun. +Behind you two mechanics have started the engines with a deafening roar, +above which are heard the hoarse commands of the captain as he grinds in +his gears. Then you realize that the thing is actually moving, that +the bosses on the belt have managed to find a grip on the slime--and +presently you come to the brink of what appears, to your exaggerated +sense of perception, a bottomless chasm, with distant steep banks on +the farther side that look unattainable and insurmountable. It is an old +German trench which the rains have worn and widened. You brace yourself, +you grip desperately a pair of brass handles in front of you, while +leviathan hesitates, seems to sit up on his haunches, and then gently +buries his nose in the pasty clay and paws his way upward into the field +beyond. It was like sitting in a huge rocking-chair. That we might have +had a bump, and a bone-breaking one, I was informed after I had left the +scene of the adventure. It all depends upon the skill of the driver. The +monsters are not as tractable as they seem. + +That field in which the tanks manoeuvre is characteristic of the whole +of this district of levelled villages and vanished woods. Imagine a +continuous clay vacant lot in one of our Middle Western cities on the +rainiest day you can recall; and further imagine, on this limitless +lot, a network of narrow-gauge tracks and wagon roads, a scattering of +contractors' shanties, and you will have some idea of the daily life and +surroundings of one of oar American engineer regiments, which is running +a railroad behind the British front. Yet one has only to see these men +and talk with them to be convinced of the truth that human happiness and +even human health thanks to modern science--are not dependent upon an +existence in a Garden of Eden. I do not mean exactly that these men +would choose to spend the rest of their existences in this waste, but +they are happy in the consciousness of a job well done. It was really +inspiring to encounter here the familiar conductors and brakemen, +engineers and firemen, who had voluntarily, and for an ideal, left their +homes in a remote and peaceful republic three thousand miles away, to +find contentment and a new vitality, a wider vision, in the difficult +and dangerous task they were performing. They were frequently under +fire--when they brought back the wounded or fetched car-loads of +munitions to the great guns on the ridiculous little trains of flat +cars with open-work wheels, which they named--with American humour--the +Federal Express and the Twentieth Century Limited. And their officers +were equally happy. Their colonel, of our regular Army Engineer Corps, +was one of those broad-shouldered six-footers who, when they walk the +streets of Paris, compel pedestrians to turn admiringly and give one a +new pride in the manhood of our nation. Hospitably he drew us out of +the wind and rain into his little hut, and sat us down beside the stove, +cheerfully informing us that, only the night before, the gale had +blown his door in, and his roof had started for the German lines. In a +neighbouring hut, reached by a duck board, we had lunch with him and his +officers baked beans and pickles, cakes and maple syrup. The American +food, the American jokes and voices in that environment seemed strange +indeed! But as we smoked and chatted about the friends we had in common, +about political events at home and the changes that were taking place +there, it seemed as if we were in America once more. The English officer +listened and smiled in sympathy, and he remarked, after our reluctant +departure, that America was an extraordinary land. + +He directed our chauffeur to Bapaume, across that wilderness which the +Germans had so wantonly made in their retreat to the Hindenburg line. +Nothing could have been more dismal than our slow progress in the steady +rain, through the deserted streets of this town. Home after home had +been blasted--their intimate yet harrowing interiors were revealed. The +shops and cafes, which had been thoroughly looted, had their walls +blown out, but in many cases the signs of the vanished and homeless +proprietors still hung above the doors. I wondered how we should feel in +New England if such an outrage had been done to Boston, for instance, +or little Concord! The church, the great cathedral on its terrace, the +bishop's house, all dynamited, all cold and wet and filthy ruins! It was +dismal, indeed, but scarcely more dismal than that which followed; for +at Bapaume we were on the edge of the battle-field of the Somme. And I +chanced to remember that the name had first been indelibly impressed on +my consciousness at a comfortable breakfast-table at home, where I sat +looking out on a bright New England garden. In the headlines and columns +of my morning newspaper I had read again and again, during the summer of +1916, of Thiepval and La Boisselle, of Fricourt and Mametz and the Bois +des Trones. Then they had had a sinister but remote significance; now I +was to see them, or what was left of them! + +As an appropriate and characteristic setting for the tragedy which had +happened here, the indigo afternoon could not have been better chosen. +Description fails to do justice to the abomination of desolation of +that vast battle-field in the rain, and the imagination, refuses to +reconstruct the scene of peace--the chateaux and happy villages, the +forests and pastures, that flourished here so brief a time ago. In my +fancy the long, low swells of land, like those of some dreary sea, were +for the moment the subsiding waves of the cataclysm that had rolled +here and extinguished all life. Beside the road only the blood-red +soil betrayed the sites of powdered villages; and through it, in every +direction, trenches had been cut. Between the trenches the earth was +torn and tortured, as though some sudden fossilizing process, in its +moment of supreme agony, had fixed it thus. On the hummocks were graves, +graves marked by wooden crosses, others by broken rifles thrust in the +ground. Shattered gun-carriages lay in the ditches, modern cannon that +had cost priceless hours of skilled labour; and once we were confronted +by one of those monsters, wounded to the death, I had seen that morning. +The sight of this huge, helpless thing oddly recalled the emotions I had +felt, as a child, when contemplating dead elephants in a battle picture +of the army of a Persian king. + +Presently, like the peak of some submerged land, we saw lifted out of +that rolling waste the “Butt” of Warlencourt--the burial-mound of this +modern Marathon. It is honeycombed with dugouts in which the Germans who +clung to it found their graves, while the victorious British army swept +around it toward Bapaume. Everywhere along that road, which runs like an +arrow across the battle-field to Albert, were graves. Repetition seems +the only method of giving an adequate impression of their numbers; and +near what was once the village of Pozieres was the biggest grave of all, +a crater fifty feet deep and a hundred feet across. Seven months the +British sappers had toiled far below in the chalk, digging the passage +and chamber; and one summer dawn, like some tropical volcano, it had +burst directly under the German trench. Long we stood on the slippery +edge of it, gazing down at the tangled wire and litter of battle that +strewed the bottom, while the rain fell pitilessly. Just such rain, said +my officer-guide, as had drenched this country through the long winter +months of preparation. “We never got dry,” he told me; and added with +a smile, in answer to my query: “Perhaps that was the reason we never +caught colds.” + +When we entered Albert, the starting point of the British advance, there +was just light enough to see the statue of the Virgin leaning far above +us over the street. The church-tower on which it had once stood erect +had been struck by a German shell, but its steel rod had bent and not +broken. Local superstition declares that when the Virgin of Albert falls +the war will be ended. + + + +IV + +I come home impressed with the fact that Britain has learned more from +this war than any other nation, and will probably gain more by that +knowledge. We are all wanting, of course, to know what we shall get out +of it, since it was forced upon us; and of course the only gain worth +considering--as many of those to whom its coming has brought home the +first glimmerings of social science are beginning to see--is precisely +a newly acquired vision of the art of self-government. It has been +unfortunately necessary--or perhaps fortunately necessary--for the +great democracies to turn their energies and resources and the inventive +ingenuity of their citizens to the organization of armies and indeed of +entire populations to the purpose of killing enough Germans to +remove democracy's exterior menace. The price we pay in human life is +appallingly unfortunate. But the necessity for national organization +socializes the nation capable of it; or, to put the matter more truly, +if the socializing process had anticipated the war--as it had in Great +Britain--the ability to complete it under stress is the test of +a democratic nation; and hence the test of democracy, since the +socializing process becomes international. Britain has stood the test, +even from the old-fashioned militarist point of view, since it is +apparent that no democracy can wage a sustained great war unless it is +socialized. After the war she will probably lead all other countries in +a sane and scientific liberalization. The encouraging fact is that not +in spite of her liberalism, but because of it, she has met military +Germany on her own ground and, to use a vigorous expression, gone her +one better. In 1914, as armies go today, the British Army was a mere +handful of men whose officers belonged to a military caste. Brave men +and brave officers, indeed! But at present it is a war organization +of an excellence which the Germans never surpassed. I have no space +to enter into a description of the amazing system, of the network of +arteries converging at the channel ports and spreading out until it +feeds and clothes every man of those millions, furnishes him with +newspapers and tobacco, and gives him the greatest contentment +compatible with the conditions under which he has to live. The number of +shells flung at the enemy is only limited by the lives of the guns that +fire them. I should like to tell with what swiftness, under the stress +of battle, the wounded are hurried back to the coast and even to England +itself. I may not state the thousands carried on leave every day across +the channel and back again--in spite of submarines. But I went one day +through Saint Omer, with its beautiful church and little blue chateau, +past the rest-camps of the big regiments of guards to a seaport on the +downs, formerly a quiet little French town, transformed now into an +ordered Babel. The term is paradoxical, but I let it stand. English, +Irish, and Scotch from the British Isles and the ends of the earth +mingle there with Indians, Egyptians, and the chattering Mongolians in +queer fur caps who work in the bakeries. + +I went through one of these bakeries, almost as large as an automobile +factory, fragrant with the aroma of two hundred thousand loaves of +bread. This bakery alone sends every day to the trenches two hundred +thousand loaves made from the wheat of western Canada! Of all sights +to be seen in this place, however, the reclamation “plant” is the most +wonderful. It covers acres. Everything which is broken in war, from +a pair of officer's field-glasses to a nine-inch howitzer carriage is +mended here--if it can be mended. Here, when a battle-field is cleared, +every article that can possibly be used again is brought; and the +manager pointed with pride to the furnaces in his power-house, which +formerly burned coal and now are fed with refuse--broken wheels of +gun-carriages, sawdust, and even old shoes. Hundreds of French girls and +even German prisoners are resoling and patching shoes with the aid +of American machinery, and even the uppers of such as are otherwise +hopeless are cut in spirals into laces. Tunics, breeches, and overcoats +are mended by tailors; rusty camp cookers are retinned, and in the +foundries the precious scraps of cast iron are melted into braziers to +keep Tommy in the trenches warm. In the machine-shops the injured guns +and cannon are repaired. German prisoners are working there, too. At a +distance, in their homely grey tunics, with their bullet-shaped heads +close-cropped and the hairs standing out like the needles of a cylinder +of a music-box, they had the appearance of hard citizens who had become +rather sullen convicts. Some wore spectacles. A closer view revealed +that most of them were contented, and some actually cheerful. None, +indeed, seemed more cheerful than a recently captured group I saw later, +who were actually building the barbed-wire fence that was to confine +them. + +My last visit in this town was to the tiny but on a “corner lot,” in +which the Duchess of Sutherland has lived now for some years. As we had +tea she told me she was going on a fortnight's leave to England; and no +Tommy in the trenches could have been more excited over the prospect. +Her own hospital, which occupies the rest of the lot, is one of those +marvels which individual initiative and a strong social sense such as +hers has produced in this war. Special enterprise was required to save +such desperate cases as are made a specialty of here, and all that +medical and surgical science can do has been concentrated, with +extraordinary success, on the shattered men who are brought to her +wards. That most of the horrible fractures I saw are healed, and +healed quickly--thanks largely to the drainage system of our own Doctor +Carrel--is not the least of the wonders of the remarkable times in which +we live. + +The next day, Sunday, I left for Paris, bidding farewell regretfully +to the last of my British-officer hosts. He seemed like an old, old +friend--though I had known him but a few days. I can see him now as he +waved me a good-bye from the platform in his Glengarry cap and short +tunic and plaid trousers. He is the owner of a castle and some seventy +square miles of land in Scotland alone. For the comfort of his nation's +guests, he toils like a hired courier. + + + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + + American religion as set forth by William James + Be useful! + Privilege of making blunders + Rising every time you fall (Confucius on greatness) + Sentimentalism, ignorance, close-mindedness, and cant + The English do not advertise their sorrows + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Traveller in War-Time, by Winston Churchill + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRAVELLER IN WAR-TIME *** + +***** This file should be named 5398-0.txt or 5398-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/9/5398/ + +Produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/5398-0.zip b/5398-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d554f4b --- /dev/null +++ b/5398-0.zip diff --git a/5398-h.zip b/5398-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..99b4c0b --- /dev/null +++ b/5398-h.zip diff --git a/5398-h/5398-h.htm b/5398-h/5398-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce66c02 --- /dev/null +++ b/5398-h/5398-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2653 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + A Traveller in Wartime, by Winston Churchill + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd7; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Traveller in War-Time, by Winston Churchill +[The Author is the American Winston Churchill not the British] + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Traveller in War-Time + +Author: Winston Churchill + +Release Date: October 6, 2006 [EBook #5398] +Last Updated: February 26, 2018 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRAVELLER IN WAR-TIME *** + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + + <h1> + A TRAVELLER IN WARTIME. + </h1> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Winston Churchill + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> <b>A TRAVELLER IN WAR-TIME</b> </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III </a> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + PREFACE + </h2> + <p> + I am reprinting here, in response to requests, certain recent experiences + in Great Britain and France. These were selected in the hope of conveying + to American readers some idea of the atmosphere, of “what it is like” in + these countries under the immediate shadow of the battle clouds. It was + what I myself most wished to know. My idea was first to send home my + impressions while they were fresh, and to refrain as far as possible from + comment and judgment until I should have had time to make a fuller survey. + Hence I chose as a title for these articles,—intended to be + preliminary, “A Traveller in War-Time.” I tried to banish from my mind all + previous impressions gained from reading. I wished to be free for the + moment to accept and record the chance invitation or adventure, wherever + met with, at the Front, in the streets of Paris, in Ireland, or on the + London omnibus. Later on, I hoped to write a book summarizing the changing + social conditions as I had found them. + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately for me, my stay was unexpectedly cut short. I was able to + avail myself of but few of the many opportunities offered. With this + apology, the articles are presented as they were written. + </p> + <p> + I have given the impression that at the time of my visit there was no lack + of food in England, but I fear that I have not done justice to the + frugality of the people, much of which was self-imposed for the purpose of + helping to win the war. On very, good authority I have been given to + understand that food was less abundant during the winter just past; partly + because of the effect of the severe weather on our American railroads, + which had trouble in getting supplies to the coast, and partly because + more and more ships were required for transporting American troops and + supplies for these troops, to France. This additional curtailment was most + felt by families of small income, whose earners were at the front or away + on other government service. Mothers had great difficulty in getting + adequate nourishment for growing children. But the British people + cheerfully submitted to this further deprivation. Summer is at hand. It is + to be hoped that before another winter sets in, American and British + shipping will have sufficiently increased to remedy the situation. + </p> + <p> + In regard to what I have said of the British army, I was profoundly + struck, as were other visitors to that front, by the health and morale of + the men, by the marvel of organization accomplished in so comparatively + brief a time. It was one of the many proofs of the extent to which the + British nation had been socialized. When one thought of that little band + of regulars sent to France in 1914, who became immortal at Mons, who + shared the glory of the Marne, and in that first dreadful winter held back + the German hosts from the Channel ports, the presence on the battle line + of millions of disciplined and determined men seemed astonishing indeed. + And this had been accomplished by a nation facing the gravest crisis in + its history, under the necessity of sustaining and financing many allies + and of protecting an Empire. Since my return to America a serious reverse + has occurred. + </p> + <p> + After the Russian peace, the Germans attempted to overwhelm the British by + hurling against them vastly superior numbers of highly trained men. It is + for the military critic of the future to analyse any tactical errors that + may have been made at the second battle of the Somme. Apparently there was + an absence of preparation, of specific orders from high sources in the + event of having to cede ground. This much can be said, that the morale of + the British Army remains unimpaired; that the presence of mind and ability + of the great majority of the officers who, flung on their own resources, + conducted the retreat, cannot be questioned; while the accomplishment of + General Carey, in stopping the gap with an improvised force of + non-combatants, will go down in history. In an attempt to bring home to + myself, as well as to my readers, a realization of what American + participation in this war means or should mean. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + A TRAVELLER IN WAR-TIME + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I + </h2> + <p> + Toward the end of the summer of 1917 it was very hot in New York, and + hotter still aboard the transatlantic liner thrust between the piers. One + glance at our cabins, at the crowded decks and dining-room, at the little + writing-room above, where the ink had congealed in the ink-wells, sufficed + to bring home to us that the days of luxurious sea travel, of a la carte + restaurants, and Louis Seize bedrooms were gone—at least for a + period. The prospect of a voyage of nearly two weeks was not enticing. The + ship, to be sure, was far from being the best of those still running on a + line which had gained a magic reputation of immunity from submarines; + three years ago she carried only second and third class passengers! But + most of us were in a hurry to get to the countries where war had already + become a grim and terrible reality. In one way or another we had all + enlisted. + </p> + <p> + By “we” I mean the American passengers. The first welcome discovery among + the crowd wandering aimlessly and somewhat disconsolately about the decks + was the cheerful face of a friend whom at first I did not recognize + because of his amazing disguise in uniform. Hitherto he had been + associated in my mind with dinner parties and clubs. + </p> + <p> + That life was past. He had laid up his yacht and joined the Red Cross and, + henceforth, for an indeterminable period, he was to abide amidst the + discomforts and dangers of the Western Front, with five days' leave every + three months. The members of a group similarly attired whom I found + gathered by the after-rail were likewise cheerful. Two well-known + specialists from the Massachusetts General Hospital made significant the + hegira now taking place that threatens to leave our country, like Britain, + almost doctorless. When I reached France it seemed to me that I met all + the celebrated medical men I ever heard of. A third in the group was a + business man from the Middle West who had wound up his affairs and left a + startled family in charge of a trust company. Though his physical + activities had hitherto consisted of an occasional mild game of golf, he + wore his khaki like an old campaigner; and he seemed undaunted by the + prospect—still somewhat remotely ahead of him—of a winter + journey across the Albanian Mountains from the Aegean to the Adriatic. + </p> + <p> + After a restless night, we sailed away in the hot dawn of a Wednesday. The + shores of America faded behind us, and as the days went by, we had the odd + sense of threading uncharted seas; we found it more and more difficult to + believe that this empty, lonesome ocean was the Atlantic in the twentieth + century. Once we saw a four-master; once a shy, silent steamer avoided us, + westward bound; and once in mid-ocean, tossed on a sea sun-silvered under + a rack of clouds, we overtook a gallant little schooner out of New Bedford + or Gloucester—a forthfarer, too. + </p> + <p> + Meanwhile, amongst the Americans, the socializing process had begun. Many + elements which in a former stratified existence would never have been + brought into contact were fusing by the pressure of a purpose, of a great + adventure common to us all. On the upper deck, high above the waves, was a + little 'fumoir' which, by some odd trick of association, reminded me of + the villa formerly occupied by the Kaiser in Corfu—perhaps because + of the faience plaques set in the walls—although I cannot now recall + whether the villa has faience plaques or not. The room was, of course, on + the order of a French provincial cafe, and as such delighted the + bourgeoisie monopolizing the alcove tables and joking with the fat + steward. Here in this 'fumoir', lawyers, doctors, business men of all + descriptions, newspaper correspondents, movie photographers, and + millionaires who had never crossed save in a 'cabine de luxe', rubbed + elbows and exchanged views and played bridge together. There were Y. M. C. + A. people on their way to the various camps, reconstruction workers + intending to build temporary homes for the homeless French, and youngsters + in the uniform of the American Field Service, going over to drive camions + and ambulances; many of whom, without undue regret, had left college after + a freshman year. They invaded the 'fumoir', undaunted, to practise + atrocious French on the phlegmatic steward; they took possession of a + protesting piano in the banal little salon and sang: “We'll not come back + till it's over over there.” And in the evening, on the darkened decks, we + listened and thrilled to the refrain: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “There's a long, long trail a-winding + Into the land of my dreams.” + </pre> + <p> + We were Argonauts—even the Red Cross ladies on their way to + establish rest camps behind the lines and brave the mud and rains of a + winter in eastern France. None, indeed, were more imbued with the + forthfaring spirit than these women, who were leaving, without regret, + sheltered, comfortable lives to face hardships and brave dangers without a + question. And no sharper proof of the failure of the old social order to + provide for human instincts and needs could be found than the conviction + they gave of new and vitalizing forces released in them. The timidities + with which their sex is supposedly encumbered had disappeared, and even + the possibility of a disaster at sea held no terrors for them. When the + sun fell down into the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and the cabins below + were sealed—and thus become insupportable—they settled + themselves for the night in their steamer-chairs and smiled at the remark + of M. le Commissaire that it was a good “season” for submarines. The + moonlight filtered through the chinks in the burlap shrouding the deck. + About 3 a.m. the khaki-clad lawyer from Milwaukee became communicative, + the Red Cross ladies produced chocolate. It was the genial hour before the + final nap, from which one awoke abruptly at the sound of squeegees and + brooms to find the deck a river of sea water, on whose banks a wild + scramble for slippers and biscuit-boxes invariably ensued. No experience + could have been more socializing. + </p> + <p> + “Well, it's a relief,” one of the ladies exclaimed, “not to be travelling + with half a dozen trunks and a hat-box! Oh, yes, I realize what I'm doing. + I'm going to live in one of those flimsy portable houses with twenty cots + and no privacy and wear the same clothes for months, but it's better than + thrashing around looking for something to do and never finding it, never + getting anything real to spend one's energy-on. I've closed my country + house, I've sublet my apartment, I've done with teas and bridge, and I'm + happier than I've been in my life even if I don't get enough sleep.” + </p> + <p> + Another lady, who looked still young, had two sons in the army. “There was + nothing for me to do but sit around the house and wait, and I want to be + useful. My husband has to stay at home; he can't leave his business.” Be + useful! There she struck the new and aggressive note of emancipation from + the restricted self-sacrifice of the old order, of wider service for the + unnamed and the unknown; and, above all, for the wider self-realization of + which service is but a by-product. I recall particularly among these women + a young widow with an eager look in clear grey eyes that gazed eastward + into the unknown with hope renewed. Had she lived a quarter of a century + ago she might have been doomed to slow desiccation. There are thousands of + such women in France today, and to them the great war has brought + salvation. + </p> + <p> + From what country other than America could so many thousands of pilgrims—even + before our nation had entered the war—have hurried across a wide + ocean to take their part? No matter what religion we profess, whether it + be Calvinism, or Catholicism, we are individualists, pragmatists, + empiricists for ever. Our faces are set toward strange worlds presently to + rise out of the sea and take on form and colour and substance—worlds + of new aspirations, of new ideas and new values. And on this voyage I was + reminded of Josiah Royce's splendid summary of the American philosophy—of + the American religion as set forth by William James: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “The spirit of the frontiers-man, of the gold-seeker or the + home-builder transferred to the metaphysical or to the religious + realm. There is a far-off home, our long lost spiritual fortune. + Experience alone can guide us to the place where these things are, + hence indeed you need experience. You can only win your way on the + frontier unless you are willing to live there.” + </pre> + <p> + Through the pall of horror and tragedy the American sees a vision; for him + it is not merely a material and bloody contest of arms and men, a military + victory to be gained over an aggressive and wrong-minded people. It is a + world calamity, indeed, but a calamity, since it has come, to be + spiritualized and utilized for the benefit of the future society of + mankind. It must be made to serve a purpose in helping to liberate the + world from sentimentalism, ignorance, close-mindedness, and cant. + </p> + <p> + II + </p> + <p> + One night we entered the danger zone. There had been an entertainment in + the little salon which, packed with passengers, had gradually achieved the + temperature and humidity of a Turkish bath. For the ports had been closed + as tight as gaskets could make them, the electric fans, as usual, + obstinately “refused to march.” After the amateur speechmaking and concert + pieces an Italian violinist, who had thrown over a lucrative contract to + become a soldier, played exquisitely; and one of the French sisters we had + seen walking the deck with the mincing steps of the cloister sang; + somewhat precariously and pathetically, the Ave Maria. Its pathos was of + the past, and after she had finished, as we fled into the open air, we + were conscious of having turned our backs irrevocably yet determinedly + upon an era whose life and convictions the music of the composer so + beautifully expressed. And the sister's sweet withered face was + reminiscent of a missal, one bright with colour, and still shining + faintly. A missal in a library of modern books! + </p> + <p> + On deck a fine rain was blowing through a gap in our burlap shroud, a + phosphorescent fringe of foam hissed along the sides of the ship, giving + the illusory appearance of our deadlights open and ablaze, exaggerating + the sinister blackness of the night. We were, apparently, a beacon in that + sepia waste where modern undersea monsters were lurking. + </p> + <p> + There were on board other elements which in the normal times gone by would + have seemed disquieting enough. The evening after we had left New York, + while we were still off the coast of Long Island, I saw on the poop a + crowd of steerage passengers listening intently to harangues by speakers + addressing them from the top of a pile of life rafts. Armenians, I was + told, on their way to fight the Turks, all recruited in America by one + frenzied woman who had seen her child cut in two by a German officer. + Twilight was gathering as I joined the group, the sea was silvered by the + light of an August moon floating serenely between swaying stays. The + orator's passionate words and gestures evoked wild responses from his + hearers, whom the drag of an ancient hatred had snatched from the peaceful + asylum of the west. This smiling, happy folk, which I had seen in our + manufacturing towns and cities, were now transformed, atavistic—all + save one, a student, who stared wistfully through his spectacles across + the waters. Later, when twilight deepened, when the moon had changed from + silver to gold, the orators gave place to a singer. He had been a + bootblack in America. Now he had become a bard. His plaintive minor chant + evoked, one knew not how, the flavour of that age-long history of + oppression and wrong these were now determined to avenge. Their + conventional costumes were proof that we had harboured them—almost, + indeed, assimilated them. And suddenly they had reverted. They were going + to slaughter the Turks. + </p> + <p> + On a bright Saturday afternoon we steamed into the wide mouth of the + Gironde, a name stirring vague memories of romance and terror. The French + passengers gazed wistfully at the low-lying strip of sand and forest, but + our uniformed pilgrims crowded the rail and hailed it as the promised land + of self-realization. A richly coloured watering-place slid into view, as + in a moving-picture show. There was, indeed, all the reality and unreality + of the cinematograph about our arrival; presently the reel would end + abruptly, and we should find ourselves pushing our way out of the emptying + theatre into a rainy street. The impression of unreality in the face of + visual evidence persisted into the night when, after an afternoon at + anchor, we glided up the river, our decks and ports ablaze across the + land. Silhouettes of tall poplars loomed against the blackness; + occasionally a lamp revealed the milky blue facade of a house. This was + France! War-torn France—at last vividly brought home to us when a + glare appeared on the sky, growing brighter and brighter until, at a turn + of the river, abruptly we came abreast of vomiting furnaces, thousands of + electric lights strung like beads over the crest of a hill, and, below + these, dim rows of houses, all of a sameness, stretching along monotonous + streets. A munitions town in the night. + </p> + <p> + One could have tossed a biscuit on the stone wharfs where the workmen, + crouching over their tasks, straightened up at sight of us and cheered. + And one cried out hoarsely, “Vous venez nous sauver, vous Americains”—“You + come to save us”—an exclamation I was to hear again in the days that + followed. + </p> + <p> + III + </p> + <p> + All day long, as the 'rapide' hurried us through the smiling wine country + and past the well-remembered chateaux of the Loire, we wondered how we + should find Paris—beautiful Paris, saved from violation as by a + miracle! Our first discovery, after we had pushed our way out of the dim + station into the obscurity of the street, was that of the absence of + taxicabs. The horse-drawn buses ranged along the curb were reserved for + the foresighted and privileged few. Men and women were rushing desperately + about in search of conveyances, and in the midst of this confusion, + undismayed, debonnair, I spied a rugged, slouch-hatted figure standing + under a lamp—the unmistakable American soldier. + </p> + <p> + “Aren't there any cabs in Paris?” I asked. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, yes, they tell me they're here,” he said. “I've given a man a dollar + to chase one.” + </p> + <p> + Evidently one of our millionaire privates who have aroused such burnings + in the heart of the French poilu, with his five sous a day! We left him + there, and staggered across the Seine with our bags. A French officer + approached us. “You come from America,” he said. “Let me help you.” There + was just enough light in the streets to prevent us from getting utterly + lost, and we recognized the dark mass of the Tuileries as we crossed the + gardens. The hotel we sought was still there, and its menu, save for the + war-bread and the tiny portion of sugar, as irreproachable as ever. + </p> + <p> + The next morning, as if by magic, hundreds of taxis had sprung into + existence, though they were much in demand. And in spite of the soldiers + thronging the sunlit streets, Paris was seemingly the same Paris one had + always known, gay—insouciante, pleasure-bent. The luxury shops + appeared to be thriving, the world-renowned restaurants to be doing + business as usual; to judge from the prices, a little better than usual; + the expensive hotels were full. It is not the real France, of course, yet + it seemed none the less surprising that it should still exist. Oddly + enough the presence of such overwhelming numbers of soldiers should have + failed to strike the note of war, emphasized that of lavishness, of the + casting off of mundane troubles for which the French capital has so long + been known. But so it was. Most of these soldiers were here precisely with + the object of banishing from their minds the degradations and horrors of + the region from which they had come, and which was so unbelievably near; a + few hours in an automobile—less than that in one of those dragon-fly + machines we saw intermittently hovering in the blue above our heads! + </p> + <p> + Paris, to most Americans, means that concentrated little district de luxe + of which the Place Vendome is the centre, and we had always unconsciously + thought of it as in the possession of the Anglo-Saxons. So it seems today. + One saw hundreds of French soldiers, of course, in all sorts of uniforms, + from the new grey blue and visor to the traditional cloth blouse and kepi; + once in a while a smart French officer. The English and Canadians, the + Australians, New Zealanders, and Americans were much in evidence. Set them + down anywhere on the face of the globe, under any conditions conceivable, + and you could not surprise them; such was the impression. The British + officers and even the British Tommies were blase, wearing the air of the + 'semaine Anglaise', and the “five o'clock tea,” as the French delight to + call it. That these could have come direct from the purgatory of the + trenches seemed unbelievable. The Anzacs, with looped-up hats, strolled + about, enjoying themselves, halting before the shops in the Rue de la Paix + to gaze at the priceless jewellery there, or stopping at a sidewalk cafe + to enjoy a drink. Our soldiers had not seen the front; many of them, no + doubt, were on leave from the training-camps, others were on duty in + Paris, but all seemed in a hurry to get somewhere, bound for a definite + destination. They might have been in New York or San Francisco. It was a + novel sight, indeed, to observe them striding across the Place Vendome + with out so much as deigning to cast a glance at the column dedicated to + the great emperor who fought that other world-war a century ago; to see + our square-shouldered officers hustling around corners in Ford and Packard + automobiles. And the atmosphere of our communication headquarters was so + essentially one of “getting things done” as to make one forget the + mediaeval narrowness of the Rue Sainte Anne, and the inconvenient French + private-dwelling arrangements of the house. You were transported back to + America. Such, too, was the air of our Red Cross establishment in the + ancient building facing the Palace de la Concorde, where the unfortunate + Louis lost his head. + </p> + <p> + History had been thrust into the background. I was never more aware of + this than when, shortly after dawn Wednesday, the massive grey pile of the + Palace of Versailles suddenly rose before me. As the motor shot through + the empty Place d'Armes I made a desperate attempt to summon again a vivid + impression, when I had first stood there many years ago, of an angry Paris + mob beating against that grill, of the Swiss guards dying on the stairway + for their Queen. But it was no use. France has undergone some subtle + change, yet I knew I was in France. I knew it when we left Paris and sped + through the dim leafy tunnels of the Bois; when I beheld a touch of + filtered sunlight on the dense blue thatch of the 'marroniers' behind the + walls of a vast estate once dedicated to the sports and pleasures of + Kings; when I caught glimpses of silent chateaux mirrored in still waters. + </p> + <p> + I was on my way, with one of our naval officers, to visit an American + naval base on the western coast. It was France, but the laughter had died + on her lips. A few women and old men and children were to be seen in the + villages, a bent figure in a field, an occasional cart that drew aside as + we hurried at eighty kilometers an hour along deserted routes drawn as + with a ruler across the land. Sometimes the road dipped into a canyon of + poplars, and the sky between their crests was a tiny strip of mottled blue + and white. The sun crept in and out, the clouds cast shadows on the hills; + here and there the tower of lonely church or castle broke the line of a + distant ridge. Morning-glories nodded over lodge walls where the ivy was + turning crimson, and the little gardens were masses of colours—French + colours like that in the beds of the Tuileries, brick-red geraniums and + dahlias, yellow marigolds and purple asters. + </p> + <p> + We lunched at one of the little inns that for generations have been tucked + away in the narrow streets of provincial towns; this time a Cheval Blanc, + with an unimposing front and a blaze of sunshine in its heart. After a + dejeuner fit for the most exacting of bon viveurs we sat in that courtyard + and smoked, while an ancient waiter served us with coffee that dripped + through silver percolators into our glasses. The tourists have fled. “If + happily you should come again, monsieur,” said madame, as she led me with + pardonable pride through her immaculate bedrooms and salons with wavy + floors. And I dwelt upon a future holiday there, on the joys of sharing + with a friend that historic place. The next afternoon I lingered in + another town, built on a little hill ringed about with ancient walls, from + whose battlements tide-veined marshes stretched away to a gleaming sea. A + figure flitting through the cobbled streets, a woman in black who sat + sewing, sewing in a window, only served to heighten the impression of + emptiness, to give birth to the odd fancy that some alchemic quality in + the honeyed sunlight now steeping it must have preserved the place through + the ages. But in the white close surrounding the church were signs that + life still persisted. A peasant was drawing water at the pump, and the + handle made a noise; a priest chatted with three French ladies who had + come over from a neighbouring seaside resort. And then a woman in deep + mourning emerged from a tiny shop and took her bicycle from against the + wall and spoke to me. + </p> + <p> + “Vous etes Americain, monsieur?” + </p> + <p> + I acknowledged it. + </p> + <p> + “Vous venez nous sauver”—the same question I had heard on the lips + of the workman in the night. “I hope so, madame,” I replied, and would + have added, “We come also to save ourselves.” She looked at me with sad, + questioning eyes, and I knew that for her—and alas for many like her—we + were too late. When she had mounted her wheel and ridden away I bought a + 'Matin' and sat down on a doorstep to read about Kerensky and the Russian + Revolution. The thing seemed incredible here—war seemed incredible, + and yet its tentacles had reached out to this peaceful Old World spot and + taken a heavy toll. Once more I sought the ramparts, only to be reminded + by those crumbling, machicolated ruins that I was in a war-ridden land. + Few generations had escaped the pestilence. + </p> + <p> + At no great distance lay the little city which had been handed over to us + by the French Government for a naval base, one of the ports where our + troops and supplies are landed. Those who know provincial France will + visualize its narrow streets and reticent shops, its grey-white and ecru + houses all more or less of the same design, with long French windows + guarded by ornamental balconies of cast iron—a city that has never + experienced such a thing as a real-estate boom. Imagine, against such a + background, the bewildering effect of the dynamic presence of a few + regiments of our new army! It is a curious commentary on this war that one + does not think of these young men as soldiers, but as citizens engaged in + a scientific undertaking of a magnitude unprecedented. You come + unexpectedly upon truck-loads of tanned youngsters, whose features, + despite flannel shirts and campaign hats, summon up memories of Harvard + Square and the Yale Yard, of campuses at Berkeley and Ithaca. The youthful + drivers of these camions are alert, intent, but a hard day's work on the + docks by no means suffices to dampen the spirits of the passengers, who + whistle ragtime airs as they bump over the cobbles. And the note they + strike is presently sustained by a glimpse, on a siding, of an + efficient-looking Baldwin, ranged alongside several of the tiny French + locomotives of yesterday; sustained, too, by an acquaintance with the + young colonel in command of the town. Though an officer of the regular + army, he brings home to one the fact that the days of the military + martinet have gone for ever. He is military, indeed-erect and soldierly—but + fortune has amazingly made him a mayor and an autocrat, a builder, and in + some sense a railway-manager and superintendent of docks. And to these + functions have been added those of police commissioner, of administrator + of social welfare and hygiene. It will be a comfort to those at home to + learn that their sons in our army in France are cared for as no enlisted + men have ever been cared for before. + </p> + <p> + IV + </p> + <p> + By the end of September I had reached England, eager to gain a fresh + impression of conditions there. + </p> + <p> + The weather in London was mild and clear. The third evening after I had + got settled in one of those delightfully English hotels in the heart of + the city, yet removed from the traffic, with letter-boxes that still bear + the initials of Victoria, I went to visit some American naval officers in + their sitting-room on the ground floor. The cloth had not been removed + from the dinner-table, around which we were chatting, when a certain + strange sound reached our ears—a sound not to be identified with the + distant roar of the motor-busses in Pall Mall, nor with the sharp bark of + the taxi-horns, although not unlike them. We sat listening intently, and + heard the sound again. + </p> + <p> + “The Germans have come,” one of the officers remarked, as he finished his + coffee. The other looked at his watch. It was nine o'clock. “They must + have left their lines about seven,” he said. + </p> + <p> + In spite of the fact that our newspapers at home had made me familiar with + these aeroplane raids, as I sat there, amidst those comfortable + surroundings, the thing seemed absolutely incredible. To fly one hundred + and fifty miles across the Channel and southern England, bomb London, and + fly back again by midnight! We were going to be bombed! The anti-aircraft + guns were already searching the sky for the invaders. It is sinister, and + yet you are seized by an overwhelming curiosity that draws you, first to + pull aside the heavy curtains of the window, and then to rush out into the + dark street both proceedings in the worst possible form! The little street + was deserted, but in Pall Mall the dark forms of busses could be made out + scurrying for shelter, one wondered where? Above the roar of London, the + pop pop pop! of the defending guns could be heard now almost continuously, + followed by the shrieks and moans of the shrapnel shells as they passed + close overhead. They sounded like giant rockets, and even as rockets some + of them broke into a cascade of sparks. Star shells they are called, + bursting, it seemed, among the immutable stars themselves that burned + serenely on. And there were other stars like November meteors hurrying + across space—the lights of the British planes scouring the heavens + for their relentless enemies. Everywhere the restless white rays of the + searchlights pierced the darkness, seeking, but seeking in vain. Not a + sign of the intruders was to be seen. I was induced to return to the + sitting-room. + </p> + <p> + “But what are they shooting at?” I asked. + </p> + <p> + “Listen,” said one of the officers. There came a lull in the firing and + then a faint, droning noise like the humming of insects on a still summer + day. “It's all they have to shoot at, that noise.” + </p> + <p> + “But their own planes?” I objected. + </p> + <p> + “The Gotha has two engines, it has a slightly different noise, when you + get used to it. You'd better step out of that window. It's against the law + to show light, and if a bomb falls in the street you'd be filled with + glass.” I overcame my fascination and obeyed. “It isn't only the bombs,” + my friend went on, “it's the falling shrapnel, too.” + </p> + <p> + The noise made by those bombs is unmistakable, unforgetable, and quite + distinct from the chorus of the guns and shrapnel—a crashing note, + reverberating, sustained, like the E minor of some giant calliope. + </p> + <p> + In face of the raids, which coincide with the coming of the moon, London + is calm, but naturally indignant over such methods of warfare. The damage + done is ridiculously small; the percentage of deaths and injuries + insignificant. There exists, in every large city, a riffraff to get + panicky: these are mostly foreigners; they seek the Tubes, and some the + crypt of St. Paul's, for it is wise to get under shelter during the brief + period of the raids, and most citizens obey the warnings of the police. It + is odd, indeed, that more people are not hurt by shrapnel. The Friday + following the raid I have described I went out of town for a week-end, and + returned on Tuesday to be informed that a shell had gone through the roof + outside of the room I had vacated, and the ceiling and floor of the + bedroom of one of the officers who lived below. He was covered with dust + and debris, his lights went out, but he calmly stepped through the window. + “You'd best have your dinner early, sir,” I was told by the waiter on my + return. “Last night a lady had her soup up-stairs, her chicken in the + office, and her coffee in the cellar.” It is worth while noting that she + had all three. Another evening, when I was dining with Sir James Barrie, + he showed me a handful of shrapnel fragments. “I gathered them off the + roof,” he informed me. And a lady next to whom I sat at luncheon told me + in a matter-of-fact tone that a bomb had fallen the night before in the + garden of her town house. “It was quite disagreeable,” she said, “and + broke all our windows on that side.” During the last raids before the moon + disappeared, by a new and ingenious system of barrage fire the Germans + were driven off. The question of the ethics of reprisals is agitating + London. + </p> + <p> + One “raid,” which occurred at midday, is worth recording. I was on my way + to our Embassy when, in the residential quarter through which I passed, I + found all the housemaids in the areas gazing up at the sky, and I was told + by a man in a grocer's cart that the Huns had come again. But the invader + on this occasion turned out to be a British aviator from one of the camps + who was bringing a message to London. The warmth of his reception was all + that could be desired, and he alighted hastily in the first open space + that presented itself. + </p> + <p> + Looking back to the time when I left America, I can recall the expectation + of finding a Britain beginning to show signs of distress. I was prepared + to live on a small ration. And the impression of the scarcity of food was + seemingly confirmed when the table was being set for the first meal at my + hotel; when the waiter, who chanced to be an old friend, pointed to a + little bowl half-full of sugar and exclaimed: “I ought to warn you, sir, + it's all you're to have for a week, and I'm sorry to say you're only + allowed a bit of bread, too.” It is human perversity to want a great deal + of bread when bread becomes scarce; even war bread, which, by the way, is + better than white. But the rest of the luncheon, when it came, proved that + John Bull was under no necessity of stinting himself. Save for wheat and + sugar; he is not in want. Everywhere in London you are confronted by signs + of an incomprehensible prosperity; everywhere, indeed, in Great Britain. + There can be no doubt about that of the wage-earners—nothing like it + has ever been seen before. One sure sign of this is the phenomenal sale of + pianos to households whose occupants had never dreamed of such luxuries. + And not once, but many times, have I read in the newspapers of + workingmen's families of four or five which are gaining collectively more + than five hundred pounds a year. The economic and social significance of + this tendency, the new attitude of the working classes, the ferment it is + causing need not be dwelt upon here. That England will be a changed + England is unquestionable. + </p> + <p> + The London theatres are full, the “movies” crowded, and you have to wait + your turn for a seat at a restaurant. Bond Street and Piccadilly are doing + a thriving business—never so thriving, you are told, and presently + you are willing to believe it. The vendor beggars, so familiar a sight a + few years ago, have all but disappeared, and you may walk from Waterloo + Station to the Haymarket without so much as meeting a needy soul anxious + to carry your bag. Taxicabs are in great demand. And one odd result of the + scarcity of what the English are pleased to call “petrol,” by which they + mean gasoline, is the reappearance of that respectable, but almost + obsolete animal, the family carriage-horse; of that equally obsolete + vehicle, the victoria. The men on the box are invariably in black. In + spite of taxes to make the hair of an American turn grey, in spite of + lavish charities, the wealthy classes still seem wealthy—if the + expression may be allowed. That they are not so wealthy as they were goes + without saying. In the country houses of the old aristocracy the most + rigid economy prevails. There are new fortunes, undoubtedly, munitions and + war fortunes made before certain measures were taken to control profits; + and some establishments, including a few supported by American + accumulations, still exhibit the number of men servants and amount of gold + plate formerly thought adequate. But in most of these great houses maids + have replaced the butlers and footmen; mansions have been given over for + hospitals; gardeners are fighting in the trenches, and courts and drives + of country places are often overgrown with grass and weeds. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, we do dine in public quite often,” said a very great lady. “It's + cheaper than keeping servants.” + </p> + <p> + Two of her three sons had been killed in France, but she did not mention + this. The English do not advertise their sorrows. Still another + explanation when husbands and sons and brothers come back across the + Channel for a few days' leave after long months in the trenches, nothing + is too good for them. And when these days have flown, there is always the + possibility that there may never be another leave. Not long ago I read a + heart-rending article about the tragedies of the goodbyes in the stations + and the terminal hotels—tragedies hidden by silence and a smile. + “Well, so long,” says an officer “bring back a V. C.,” cries his sister + from the group on the platform, and he waves his hand in deprecation as + the train pulls out, lights his pipe, and pretends to be reading the + Sphere. + </p> + <p> + Some evening, perchance, you happen to be in the dark street outside of + Charing Cross station. An occasional hooded lamp throws a precarious gleam + on a long line of men carrying—so gently—stretchers on which + lie the silent forms of rich and poor alike. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II + </h2> + <p> + For the student of history who is able to place himself within the stream + of evolution the really important events of today are not taking place on + the battle lines, but behind them. The key-note of the new era has been + struck in Russia. And as I write these words, after the Italian retreat, a + second revolution seems possible. For three years one has thought + inevitably of 1789, and of the ensuing world conflict out of which issued + the beginnings of democracy. History does not repeat itself, yet evolution + is fairly consistent. While our attention has been focused on the military + drama enacted before our eyes and recorded in the newspapers, another + drama, unpremeditated but of vastly greater significance, is unfolding + itself behind the stage. Never in the history of the world were generals + and admirals, statesmen and politicians so sensitive to or concerned about + public opinion as they are today. From a military point of view the + situation of the Allies at the present writing is far from reassuring. + Germany and her associates have the advantage of interior lines, of a + single dominating and purposeful leadership, while our five big nations, + democracies or semi-democracies, are stretched in a huge ring with + precarious connections on land, with the submarine alert on the sea. Much + of their territory is occupied. They did not seek the war; they still lack + co-ordination and leadership in waging it. In some of these countries, at + least, politicians and statesmen are so absorbed by administrative duties, + by national rather than international problems, by the effort to sustain + themselves, that they have little time for allied strategy. Governments + rise and fall, familiar names and reputations are juggled about like + numbered balls in a shaker, come to the top to be submerged again in a new + 'emeute'. There are conferences and conferences without end. Meanwhile a + social ferment is at work, in Russia conspicuously, in Italy a little less + so, in Germany and Austria undoubtedly, in France and England, and even in + our own country—once of the most radical in the world, now become + the most conservative. + </p> + <p> + What form will the social revolution take? Will it be unbridled, unguided; + will it run through a long period of anarchy before the fermentation begun + shall have been completed, or shall it be handled, in all the nations + concerned, by leaders who understand and sympathize with the evolutionary + trend, who are capable of controlling it, of taking the necessary + international steps of co-operation in order that it may become secure and + mutually beneficial to all? This is an age of co-operation, and in this at + least, if not in other matters, the United States of America is in an + ideal position to assume the leadership. + </p> + <p> + To a certain extent, one is not prepared to say how far, the military and + social crises are interdependent. And undoubtedly the military problem + rests on the suppression of the submarine. If Germany continues to destroy + shipping on the seas, if we are not able to supply our new armies and the + Allied nations with food and other things, the increasing social ferment + will paralyze the military operations of the Entente. The result of a + German victory under such circumstances is impossible to predict; but the + chances are certainly not worth running. In a sense, therefore, in a great + sense, the situation is “up” to us in more ways than one, not only to + supply wise democratic leadership but to contribute material aid and + brains in suppressing the submarine, and to build ships enough to keep + Britain, France, and Italy from starving. We are looked upon by all the + Allies, and I believe justly, as being a disinterested nation, free from + the age-long jealousies of Europe. And we can do much in bringing together + and making more purposeful the various elements represented by the nations + to whose aid we have come. + </p> + <p> + I had not intended in these early papers to comment, but to confine myself + to such of my experiences abroad as might prove interesting and somewhat + illuminating. So much I cannot refrain from saying. + </p> + <p> + It is a pleasure to praise where praise is due, and too much cannot be + said of the personnel of our naval service—something of which I can + speak from intimate personal experience. In these days, in that part of + London near the Admiralty, you may chance to run across a tall, erect, and + broad-shouldered man in blue uniform with three stars on his collar, + striding rapidly along the sidewalk, and sometimes, in his haste, cutting + across a street. People smile at him—costermongers, clerks, and + shoppers—and whisper among themselves, “There goes the American + admiral!” and he invariably smiles back at them, especially at the + children. He is an admiral, every inch a seaman, commanding a devoted + loyalty from his staff and from the young men who are scouring the seas + with our destroyers. In France as well as in England the name Sims is a + household word, and if he chose he might be feted every day of the week. + He does not choose. He spends long hours instead in the quarters devoted + to his administration in Grosvenor Gardens, or in travelling in France and + Ireland supervising the growing forces under his command. + </p> + <p> + It may not be out of place to relate a characteristic story of Admiral + Sims, whose career in our service, whose notable contributions to naval + gunnery are too well known to need repetition. Several years ago, on a + memorable trip to England, he was designated by the admiral of the fleet + to be present at a banquet given our sailors in the Guildhall. Of course + the lord mayor called upon him for a speech, but Commander Sims insisted + that a bluejacket should make the address. “What, a bluejacket!” exclaimed + the lord mayor in astonishment. “Do bluejackets make speeches in your + country?” “Certainly they do,” said Sims. “Now there's a fine-looking man + over there, a quartermaster on my ship. Let's call on him and see what he + has to say.” The quartermaster, duly summoned, rose with aplomb and + delivered himself of a speech that made the hall ring, that formed the + subject of a puzzled and amazed comment by the newspapers of the British + Capital. Nor was it ever divulged that Commander Sims had foreseen the + occasion and had picked out the impressive quartermaster to make a + reputation for oratory for the enlisted force. + </p> + <p> + As a matter of fact, it is no exaggeration to add that there were and are + other non-commissioned officers and enlisted men in the service who could + have acquitted themselves equally well. One has only to attend some of + their theatrical performances to be assured of it. + </p> + <p> + But to the European mind our bluejacket is still something of an anomaly. + He is a credit to our public schools, a fruit of our system of universal + education. And he belongs to a service in which are reconciled, + paradoxically, democracy and discipline. One moment you may hear a + bluejacket talking to an officer as man to man, and the next you will see + him salute and obey an order implicitly. + </p> + <p> + On a wet and smoky night I went from the London streets into the + brightness and warmth of that refuge for American soldiers and sailors, + the “Eagle Hut,” as the Y. M. C. A. is called. The place was full, as + usual, but my glance was at once attracted by three strapping, + intelligent-looking men in sailor blouses playing pool in a corner. “I + simply can't get used to the fact that people like that are ordinary + sailors,” said the lady in charge to me as we leaned against the + soda-fountain. “They're a continual pride and delight to us Americans here—always + so willing to help when there's anything to be done, and so interesting to + talk to.” When I suggested that her ideas of the navy must have been + derived from Pinafore she laughed. “I can't imagine using a + cat-o'-nine-tails on them!” she exclaimed—and neither could I. I + heard many similar comments. They are indubitably American, these sailors, + youngsters with the stamp of our environment on their features, keen and + self-reliant. I am not speaking now only of those who have enlisted since + the war, but of those others, largely from the small towns and villages of + our Middle West, who in the past dozen years or so have been recruited by + an interesting and scientific system which is the result of the genius of + our naval recruiting officers. In the files at Washington may be seen, + carefully tabulated, the several reasons for their enlisting. Some have + “friends in the service”; others wish to “perfect themselves in a trade,” + to “complete their education” or “see the world”—our adventurous + spirit. And they are seeing it. They are also engaged in the most exciting + and adventurous sport—with the exception of aerial warfare ever + devised or developed—that of hunting down in all weathers over the + wide spaces of the Atlantic those modern sea monsters that prey upon the + Allied shipping. For the superdreadnought is reposing behind the nets, the + battle-cruiser ignominiously laying mines; and for the present at least, + until some wizard shall invent a more effective method of annihilation, + victory over Germany depends primarily on the airplane and the destroyer. + At three o'clock one morning I stood on the crowded deck of an Irish + mail-boat watching the full moon riding over Holyhead Mountain and + shimmering on the Irish Sea. A few hours later, in the early light, I saw + the green hills of Killarney against a washed and clearing sky, the + mud-flats beside the railway shining like purple enamel. All the forenoon, + in the train, I travelled through a country bathed in translucent colours, + a country of green pastures dotted over with white sheep, of banked hedges + and perfect trees, of shadowy blue hills in the high distance. It reminded + one of nothing so much as a stained-glass-window depicting some delectable + land of plenty and peace. And it was Ireland! When at length I arrived at + the station of the port for which I was bound, and which the censor does + not permit me to name, I caught sight of the figure of our Admiral on the + platform; and the fact that I was in Ireland and not in Emmanuel's Land + was brought home to me by the jolting drive we took on an “outside car,” + the admiral perched precariously over one wheel and I over the other. + Winding up the hill by narrow roads, we reached the gates of the Admiralty + House. + </p> + <p> + The house sits, as it were, in the emperor's seat of the amphitheatre of + the town, overlooking the panorama of a perfect harbour. A ring of emerald + hills is broken by a little gap to seaward, and in the centre is a + miniature emerald isle. The ships lying at anchor seemed like children's + boats in a pond. To the right, where a river empties in, were scattered + groups of queer, rakish craft, each with four slanting pipes and a tiny + flag floating from her halyards; a flag—as the binoculars revealed—of + crimson bars and stars on a field of blue. These were our American + destroyers. And in the midst of them, swinging to the tide, were the big + “mother ships” we have sent over to nurse them when, after many days and + nights of hazardous work at sea, they have brought their flock of + transports and merchantmen safely to port. This “mothering” by + repair-ships which are merely huge machine-shops afloat—this trick + of keeping destroyers tuned up and constantly ready for service has + inspired much favourable comment from our allies in the British service. + It is an instance of our national adaptability, learned from an experience + on long coasts where navy-yards are not too handy. Few landsmen understand + how delicate an instrument the destroyer is. + </p> + <p> + A service so hazardous, demanding as it does such qualities as the ability + to make instantaneous decisions and powers of mental and physical + endurance, a service so irresistibly attractive to the young and + adventurous, produces a type of officer quite unmistakable. The day I + arrived in London from France, seeking a characteristically English meal, + I went to Simpson's in the Strand, where I found myself seated by the side + of two very junior officers of the British navy. It appeared that they + were celebrating what was left of a precious leave. At a neighbouring + table they spied two of our officers, almost equally youthful. “Let's have + 'em over,” suggested one of the Britishers; and they were “had” over; he + raised his glass. “Here's how—as you say in America!” he exclaimed. + “You destroyer chaps are certainly top hole.” And then he added, with a + blush, “I say, I hope you don't think I'm cheeking you!” + </p> + <p> + I saw them afloat, I saw them coming ashore in that Irish port, these + young destroyer captains, after five wakeful nights at sea, + weather-bitten, clear-eyed, trained down to the last ounce. One, with whom + I had played golf on the New England hills, carried his clubs in his hand + and invited me to have a game with him. Another, who apologized for not + being dressed at noon on Sunday—he had made the harbour at three + that morning!—was taking his racquet out of its case, preparing to + spend the afternoon on the hospitable courts of Admiralty House with a + fellow captain and two British officers. He was ashamed of his late + rising, but when it was suggested that some sleep was necessary he + explained that, on the trip just ended, it wasn't only the submarines that + kept him awake. “When these craft get jumping about in a seaway you can't + sleep even if you want to.” He who has had experience with them knows the + truth of this remark. Incidentally, though he did not mention it, this + young captain was one of three who had been recommended by the British + admiral to his government for the Distinguished Service Order. The + captain's report, which I read, is terse, and needs to be visualized. + There is simply a statement of the latitude and longitude, the time of + day, the fact that the wave of a periscope was sighted at 1,500 yards by + the quartermaster first class on duty; general quarters rung, the + executive officer signals full speed ahead, the commanding officer takes + charge and manoeuvres for position—and then something happens which + the censor may be fussy about mentioning. At any rate, oil and other + things rise to the surface of the sea, and the Germans are minus another + submarine. The chief machinist's mate, however, comes in for special + mention. It seems that he ignored the ladder and literally fell down the + hatch, dislocating his shoulder but getting the throttle wide open within + five seconds! + </p> + <p> + In this town, facing the sea, is a street lined with quaint houses painted + in yellows and browns and greens, and under each house the kind of a shop + that brings back to the middleaged delectable memories of extreme youth + and nickels to spend. Up and down that street on a bright Saturday + afternoon may be seen our Middle-Western jackies chumming with the British + sailors and Tommies, or flirting with the Irish girls, or gazing through + the little panes of the show-windows, whose enterprising proprietors have + imported from the States a popular brand of chewing-gum to make us feel + more at home. In one of these shops, where I went to choose a picture + post-card, I caught sight of an artistic display of a delicacy I had + thought long obsolete—the everlasting gum-drop. But when I produced + a shilling the shopkeeper shook his head. “Sure, every day the sailors are + wanting to buy them of me, but it's for ornament I'm keeping them,” he + said. “There's no more to be had till the war will be over. Eight years + they're here now, and you wouldn't get a tooth in them, sir!” So I + wandered out again, joined the admiral, and inspected the Bluejackets' + Club by the water's edge. Nothing one sees, perhaps, is so eloquent of the + change that has taken place in the life and fabric of our navy. If you are + an enlisted man, here in this commodious group of buildings you can get a + good shore meal and entertain your friends among the Allies, you may sleep + in a real bed, instead of a hammock, you may play pool, or see a + moving-picture show, or witness a vaudeville worthy of professionals, like + that recently given in honour of the visit of the admiral of our Atlantic + fleet. A band of thirty pieces furnished the music, and in the opinion of + the jackies one feature alone was lacking to make the entertainment a + complete success—the new drop-curtain had failed to arrive from + London. I happened to be present when this curtain was first unrolled, and + beheld spread out before me a most realistic presentation of “little old + New York,” seen from the North River, towering against blue American + skies. And though I have never been overfond of New York, that curtain in + that place gave me a sensation! + </p> + <p> + Such is the life of our officers and sailors in these strange times that + have descended upon us. Five to eight days of vigilance, of hardship and + danger—in short, of war—and then three days of relaxation and + enjoyment in clubs, on golf-courses and tennis-courts, barring the time it + takes to clean ship and paint. There need be no fear that the war will be + neglected. It is eminently safe to declare that our service will be true + to its traditions. + </p> + <p> + III + </p> + <p> + “Dogged does it” ought to be added to “Dieu et mon droit” and other + devices of England. On a day when I was lunching with Mr. Lloyd George in + the dining-room at 10 Downing Street that looks out over the Horse Guards' + Parade, the present premier, with a characteristic gesture, flung out his + hand toward the portrait of a young man in the panel over the mantel. It + was of the younger Pitt, who had taken his meals and drunk his port in + this very room in that other great war a hundred years ago. The news of + Austerlitz, brought to him during his illness, is said to have killed him. + But England, undismayed, fought on for a decade, and won. Mr. Lloyd + George, in spite of burdens even heavier than Pitt's, happily retains his + health; and his is the indomitable spirit characteristic of the new + Britain as well as of the old. For it is a new Britain one sees. Mr. Lloyd + George is prime minister of a transformed Britain, a Britain modernized + and democratized. Like the Englishman who, when he first witnessed a + performance of “Uncle Tom's Cabin,” cried out, “How very unlike the home + life of our dear Queen!” the American who lunches in Downing Street is + inclined to exclaim: “How different from Lord North and Palmerston!” We + have, I fear, been too long accustomed to interpret Britain in terms of + these two ministers and of what they represented to us of the rule of a + George the Third or of an inimical aristocracy. Three out of the five men + who form the war cabinet of an empire are of what would once have been + termed an “humble origin.” One was, if I am not mistaken, born in Nova + Scotia. General Smuts, unofficially associated with this council, not many + years ago was in arms against Britain in South Africa, and the prime + minister himself is the son of a Welsh tailor. A situation that should + mollify the most exacting and implacable of our anti-British democrats! + </p> + <p> + I listened to many speeches and explanations of the prejudice that existed + in the mind of the dyed-in-the-wool American against England, and the + reason most frequently given was the “school-book” reason; our histories + kept the feeling alive. Now; there is no doubt that the histories out of + which we were taught made what psychologists would call “action patterns,” + or “complexes,” in our brains, just as the school-books have made similar + complexes in the brains of German children and prepared them for this war. + But, after all, there was a certain animus behind the histories. Boiled + down, the sentiment was one against the rule of a hereditary aristocracy, + and our forefathers had it long before the separation took place. The + Middle-Western farmer has no prejudice against France, because France is a + republic. The French are lovable, and worthy of all the sympathy and + affection we can give them. But Britain is still nominally a monarchy; and + our patriot thinks of its people very much as the cowboy used to regard + citizens of New York. They all lived on Fifth Avenue. For the cowboy, the + residents of the dreary side streets simply did not exist. We have been + wont to think of all the British as aristocrats, while they have returned + the compliment by visualizing all Americans as plutocrats—despite + the fact that one-tenth of our population is said to own nine-tenths of + all our wealth! + </p> + <p> + But the war will change that, is already changing it. + </p> + <p> + 'Tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner'. We have been soaked in the same + common law, literature, and traditions of liberty—or of chaos, as + one likes. Whether we all be of British origin or not, it is the mind that + makes the true patriot; and there is no American so dead as not to feel a + thrill when he first sets foot on British soil. Our school-teachers felt + it when they began to travel some twenty years ago, and the thousands of + our soldiers who pass through on their way to France are feeling it today, + and writing home about it. Our soldiers and sailors are being cared for + and entertained in England just as they would be cared for and entertained + at home. So are their officers. Not long ago one of the finest town houses + in London was donated by the owner for an American officers' club, the + funds were raised by contributions from British officers, and the club was + inaugurated by the King and Queen—and Admiral Sims. Hospitality and + good-will have gone much further than this. Any one who knows London will + understand the sacredness of those private squares, surrounded by + proprietary residences, where every tree and every blade of grass has been + jealously guarded from intrusion for a century or more. And of all these + squares that of St. James's is perhaps the most exclusive, and yet it is + precisely in St. James's there is to be built the first of those hotels + designed primarily for the benefit of American officers, where they can + get a good room for five shillings a night and breakfast at a reasonable + price. One has only to sample the war-time prices of certain hostelries to + appreciate the value of this. + </p> + <p> + On the first of four unforgettable days during which I was a guest behind + the British lines in France the officer who was my guide stopped the motor + in the street of an old village, beside a courtyard surrounded by ancient + barns. + </p> + <p> + “There are some of your Americans,” he remarked. + </p> + <p> + I had recognized them, not by their uniforms but by their type. Despite + their costumes, which were negligible, they were eloquent of college + campuses in every one of our eight and forty States, lean, thin-hipped, + alert. The persistent rains had ceased, a dazzling sunlight made that + beautiful countryside as bright as a coloured picture post-card, but a + riotous cold gale was blowing; yet all wore cotton trousers that left + their knees as bare as Highlanders' kilts. Above these some had an + sweaters, others brown khaki tunics, from which I gathered that they + belonged to the officers' training corps. They were drawn up on two lines + facing each other with fixed bayonets, a grim look on their faces that + would certainly have put any Hun to flight. Between the files stood an + unmistakable gipling sergeant with a crimson face and a bristling little + chestnut moustache, talking like a machine gun. + </p> + <p> + “Now, then, not too lidylike!—there's a Bosch in front of you! Run + 'im through! Now, then!” + </p> + <p> + The lines surged forward, out went the bayonets, first the long thrust and + then the short, and then a man's gun was seized and by a swift backward + twist of the arm he was made helpless. + </p> + <p> + “Do you feel it?” asked the officer, as he turned to me. I did. “Up and + down your spine,” he added, and I nodded. “Those chaps will do,” he said. + He had been through that terrible battle of the Somme, and he knew. So had + the sergeant. + </p> + <p> + Presently came a resting-spell. One of the squad approached me, whom I + recognized as a young man I had met in the Harvard Union. + </p> + <p> + “If you write about this,” he said, “just tell our people that we're going + to take that sergeant home with us when the war's over. He's too good to + lose.” + </p> + <p> + IV + </p> + <p> + It is trite to observe that democracies are organized—if, indeed, + they are organized at all—not for war but for peace. And nowhere is + this fact more apparent than in Britain. Even while the war is in progress + has that internal democratic process of evolution been going on, presaging + profound changes in the social fabric. And these changes must be dealt + with by statesmen, must be guided with one hand while the war is being + prosecuted with the other. The task is colossal. In no previous war have + the British given more striking proof of their inherent quality of + doggedness. Greatness, as Confucius said, does not consist in never + falling, but in rising every time you fall. The British speak with + appalling frankness of their blunders. They are fighting, indeed, for the + privilege of making blunders—since out of blunders arise new truths + and discoveries not contemplated in German philosophy. + </p> + <p> + America must now contribute what Britain and France, with all their + energies and resources and determination, have hitherto been unable to + contribute. It must not be men, money, and material alone, but some + quality that America has had in herself during her century and a half of + independent self-realization. Mr. Chesterton, in writing about the + American Revolution, observes that the real case for the colonists is that + they felt that they could be something which England would not help them + to be. It is, in fact, the only case for separation. What may be called + the English tradition of democracy, which we inherit, grows through + conflicts and differences, through experiments and failures and successes, + toward an intellectualized unity,—experiments by states, experiments + by individuals, a widely spread development, and new contributions to the + whole. + </p> + <p> + Democracy has arrived at the stage when it is ceasing to be national and + selfish. + </p> + <p> + It must be said of England, in her treatment of her colonies subsequent to + our Revolution, that she took this greatest of all her national blunders + to heart. As a result, Canada and Australia and New Zealand have sent + their sons across the seas to fight for an empire that refrains from + coercion; while, thanks to the policy of the British Liberals—which + was the expression of the sentiment of the British nation—we have + the spectacle today of a Botha and a Smuts fighting under the Union Jack. + </p> + <p> + And how about Ireland? England has blundered there, and she admits it + freely. They exist in England who cry out for the coercion of Ireland, and + who at times have almost had their way. But to do this, of course, would + be a surrender to the German contentions, an acknowledgment of the wisdom + of the German methods against which she is protesting with all her might. + Democracy, apparently, must blunder on until that question too, is solved. + </p> + <p> + V + </p> + <p> + Many of those picturesque features of the older England, that stir us by + their beauty and by the sense of stability and permanence they convey, + will no doubt disappear or be transformed. I am thinking of the great + estates, some of which date from Norman times; I am thinking of the + aristocracy, which we Americans repudiated in order to set up a plutocracy + instead. Let us hope that what is fine in it will be preserved, for there + is much. By the theory of the British constitution—that unwritten + but very real document—in return for honours, emoluments, and + titles, the burden of government has hitherto been thrown on a class. Nor + can it be said that they have been untrue to their responsibility. That + class developed a tradition and held fast to it; and they had a foreign + policy that guided England through centuries of greatness. Democracy too + must have a foreign policy, a tradition of service; a trained if not + hereditary group to guide it through troubled waters. Even in an + intelligent community there must be leadership. And, if the world will no + longer tolerate the old theories, a tribute may at least be paid to those + who from conviction upheld them; who ruled, perhaps in affluence, yet were + also willing to toil and, if need be, to die for the privilege. + </p> + <p> + One Saturday afternoon, after watching for a while the boys playing fives + and football and romping over the green lawns at Eton, on my way to the + head master's rooms I paused in one of the ancient quads. My eye had been + caught by a long column of names posted there, printed in heavy black + letters. 'Etona non, immemora'! Every week many new names are added to + those columns. On the walls of the chapel and in other quads and passages + may be found tablets and inscriptions in memory of those who have died for + England and the empire in by-gone wars. I am told that the proportion of + Etonians of killed to wounded is greater than that of any other public + school—which is saying a great deal. They go back across the channel + and back again until their names appear on the last and highest honour + list of the school and nation. + </p> + <p> + In one of the hospitals I visited lay a wounded giant who had once been a + truckman in a little town in Kent. Incidentally, in common with his + neighbours, he had taken no interest in the war, which had seemed as + remote to him as though he had lived in North Dakota. One day a Zeppelin + dropped a bomb on that village, whereupon the able-bodied males enlisted + to a man, and he with them. A subaltern in his company was an Eton boy. + “We just couldn't think of 'im as an orficer, sir; in the camps 'e used to + play with us like a child. And then we went to France. And one night when + we was wet to the skin and the Boschs was droppin' shell all around us we + got the word. It was him leaped over the top first of all, shouting back + at us to come on. He tumbled right back and died in my arms, 'e did, as I + was climbin' up after 'im. I shan't ever forget 'im.” + </p> + <p> + As you travel about in these days you become conscious, among the people + you meet, of a certain bewilderment. A static world and a static order are + dissolving; and in England that order was so static as to make the present + spectacle the more surprising. Signs of the disintegration of the old + social strata were not lacking, indeed, in the earlier years of the + twentieth century, when labour members and north-country radicals began to + invade parliament; but the cataclysm of this war has accelerated the + process. In the muddy trenches of Flanders and France a new comradeship + has sprung up between officers and Tommies, while time-honoured precedent + has been broken by the necessity of giving thousands of commissions to men + of merit who do not belong to the “officer caste.” At the Haymarket + Theatre I saw a fashionable audience wildly applaud a play in which the + local tailor becomes a major-general and returns home to marry the + daughter of the lord of a mayor whose clothes he used to cut before the + war. + </p> + <p> + “The age of great adventure,” were the words used by Mr. H. G. Wells to + describe this epoch as we discussed it. And a large proportion of the + descendants of those who have governed England for centuries are + apparently imbued with the spirit of this adventure, even though it may + spell the end of their exclusive rule. As significant of the social + mingling of elements which in the past never exchanged ideas or points of + view I shall describe a week-end party at a large country house of Liberal + complexion; on the Thames. I have reason to believe it fairly typical. The + owner of this estate holds an important position in the Foreign Office, + and the hostess has, by her wit and intelligent grasp of affairs, made an + enviable place for herself. On her right, at luncheon on Sunday, was a + labour leader, the head of one of the most powerful unions in Britain, and + next him sat a member of one of the oldest of England's titled families. + The two were on terms of Christian names. The group included two or three + women, a sculptor and an educator, another Foreign Office official who has + made a reputation since the beginning of the war, and finally an employer + of labour, the chairman of the biggest shipbuilding company in England. + </p> + <p> + That a company presenting such a variety of interests should have been + brought together in the frescoed dining-room of that particular house is + noteworthy. + </p> + <p> + The thing could happen nowhere save in the England of today. At first the + talk was general, ranging over a number of subjects from that of the + personality of certain politicians to the conduct of the war and the + disturbing problem raised by the “conscientious objector”; little by + little, however, the rest of us became silent, to listen to a debate which + had begun between the labour leader and the ship-builder on the “labour + question.” It is not my purpose here to record what they said. Needless to + add that they did not wholly agree, but they were much nearer to agreement + than one would have thought possible. What was interesting was the + open-mindedness with which, on both sides, the argument was conducted, and + the fact that it could seriously take place then and there. For the + subject of it had long been the supreme problem in the lives of both these + men, their feelings concerning it must at times have been tinged with + bitterness, yet they spoke with courtesy and restraint, and though each + maintained his contentions he was quick to acknowledge a point made by the + other. As one listened one was led to hope that a happier day is perhaps + at hand when such things as “complexes” and convictions will disappear. + </p> + <p> + The types of these two were in striking contrast. The labour leader was + stocky, chestnut-coloured, vital, possessing the bulldog quality of the + British self-made man combined with a natural wit, sharpened in the arena, + that often startled the company into an appreciative laughter. The + ship-builder, on the other hand, was one of those spare and hard + Englishmen whom no amount of business cares will induce to neglect the + exercise of his body, the obligation at all times to keep “fit”; + square-rigged, as it were, with a lean face and a wide moustache + accentuating a square chin. Occasionally a gleam of humour, a ray of + idealism, lighted his practical grey eyes. Each of these two had managed + rather marvellously to triumph over early training by self-education: the + labour leader, who had had his first lessons in life from injustices and + hard knocks; and the ship-builder, who had overcome the handicap of the + public-school tradition and of Manchester economics. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, titles and fortunes must go,” remarked our hostess with a smile as + she rose from the table and led the way out on the sunny, stone-flagged + terrace. Below us was a wide parterre whose flower-beds, laid out by a + celebrated landscape-gardener in the days of the Stuarts, were filled with + vegetables. The day was like our New England Indian summerthough the trees + were still heavy with leaves—and a gossamer-blue veil of haze + stained the hills between which the shining river ran. If the social + revolution, or evolution, takes place, one wonders what will become of + this long-cherished beauty. + </p> + <p> + I venture to dwell upon one more experience of that week-end party. The + Friday evening of my arrival I was met at the station, not by a limousine + with a chauffeur and footman, but by a young woman with a taxicab—one + of the many reminders that a war is going on. London had been reeking in a + green-yellow fog, but here the mist was white, and through it I caught + glimpses of the silhouettes of stately trees in a park, and presently saw + the great house with its clock-tower looming up before me. A fire was + crackling in the hall, and before it my hostess was conversing amusedly + with a well-known sculptor—a sculptor typical of these renaissance + times, large, full-blooded, with vigorous opinions on all sorts of + matters. + </p> + <p> + “A lecturer is coming down from London to talk to the wounded in the + amusement-hall of the hospital,” our hostess informed us. “And you both + must come and speak too.” + </p> + <p> + The three of us got into the only motor of which the establishment now + boasts, a little runabout using a minimum of “petrol,” and she guided us + rapidly by devious roads through the fog until a blur of light proclaimed + the presence of a building, one of some score or more built on the + golf-course by the British Government. I have not space hereto describe + that hospital, which is one of the best in England; but it must be + observed that its excellence and the happiness of its inmates are almost + wholly due to the efforts of the lady who now conducted us across the + stage of the amusement-hall, where all the convalescents who could walk or + who could be rolled thither in chairs were gathered. The lecturer had not + arrived. But the lady of the manor seated herself at the speaker's table, + singling out Scotch wits in the audience—for whom she was more than + a match—while the sculptor and I looked on and grinned and resisted + her blandishments to make speeches. When at last the lecturer came he sat + down informally on the table with one foot hanging in the air and grinned, + too, at her bantering but complimentary introduction. It was then I + discovered for the first time that he was one of the best educational + experts of that interesting branch of the British Government, the + Department of Reconstruction, whose business it is to teach the + convalescents the elements of social and political science. This was not + to be a lecture, he told them, but a debate in which every man must take a + part. And his first startling question was this: + </p> + <p> + “Why should Mr. Lloyd George, instead of getting five thousand pounds a + year for his services as prime minister, receive any more than a common + labourer?” + </p> + <p> + The question was a poser. The speaker folded his hands and beamed down at + them; he seemed fairly to radiate benignity. + </p> + <p> + “Now we mustn't be afraid of him, just because he seems to be + intelligent,” declared our hostess. This sally was greeted with spasmodic + laughter. Her eyes flitted from bench to bench, yet met nothing save + averted glances. “Jock! Where are you, Jock? Why don't you speak up?—you've + never been downed before.” + </p> + <p> + More laughter, and craning of necks for the Jocks. This appeared to be her + generic name for the vita. But the Jocks remained obdurately modest. The + prolonged silence did not seem in the least painful to the lecturer, who + thrust his hand in his pocket and continued to beam. He had learned how to + wait. And at last his patience was rewarded. A middleaged soldier with a + very serious manner arose hesitatingly, with encouraging noises from his + comrades. + </p> + <p> + “It's not Mr. Lloyd George I'm worrying about, sir,” he said, “all I wants + is enough for the missus and me. I had trouble to get that before the + war.” + </p> + <p> + Cries of “Hear! Hear!” + </p> + <p> + “Why did you have trouble?” inquired the lecturer mildly. + </p> + <p> + “The wages was too low.” + </p> + <p> + “And why were the wages too low?” + </p> + <p> + “You've got me there. I hadn't thought.” + </p> + <p> + “But isn't it your business as a voter to think?” asked the lecturer. + “That's why the government is sending me here, to start you to thinking, + to remind you that it is you soldiers who will have to take charge of this + country and run it after the war is over. And you won't be able to do that + unless you think, and think straight.” + </p> + <p> + “We've never been taught to think,” was the illuminating reply. + </p> + <p> + “And if we do think we've never been educated to express ourselves, same + as you!” shouted another man, in whom excitement had overcome timidity. + </p> + <p> + “I'm here to help you educate yourselves,” said the lecturer. “But first + let's hear any ideas you may have on the question I asked you.” + </p> + <p> + There turned out to be plenty of ideas, after all. An opinion was ventured + that Mr. Lloyd George served the nation, not for money but from public + spirit; a conservative insisted that ability should be rewarded and + rewarded well; whereupon ensued one of the most enlightening discussions, + not only as a revelation of intelligence, but of complexes and obsessions + pervading many of the minds in whose power lies the ultimate control of + democracies. One, for instance, declared that—“if every man went to + church proper of a Sunday and minded his own business the country would + get along well enough.” He was evidently of the opinion that there was too + much thinking and not enough of what he would have termed “religion.” + Gradually that audience split up into liberals and conservatives; and the + liberals noticeably were the younger men who had had the advantages of + better board schools, who had formed fewer complexes and had had less time + in which to get them set. Of these, a Canadian made a plea for the + American system of universal education, whereupon a combative + “stand-patter” declared that every man wasn't fit to be educated, that the + American plan made only for discontent. “Look at them,” he exclaimed, + “They're never satisfied to stay in their places.” This provoked laughter, + but it was too much for the sculptor—and for me. We both broke our + vows and made speeches in favour of equality and mental opportunity, while + the lecturer looked on and smiled. Mr. Lloyd George and his salary were + forgotten. By some subtle art of the chairman the debate had been guided + to the very point where he had from the first intended to guide it—to + the burning question of our day—education as the true foundation of + democracy! Perhaps, after all, this may be our American contribution to + the world's advance. + </p> + <p> + As we walked homeward through the fog I talked to him of Professor Dewey's + work and its results, while he explained to me the methods of the + Reconstruction Department. “Out of every audience like that we get a group + and form a class,” he said. “They're always a bit backward at first, just + as they were tonight, but they grow very keen. We have a great many + classes already started, and we see to it that they are provided with + text-books and teachers. Oh, no, it's not propaganda,” he added, in answer + to my query; “all we do is to try to give them facts in such a way as to + make them able to draw their own conclusions and join any political party + they choose—just so they join one intelligently.” I must add that + before Sunday was over he had organized his class and arranged for their + future instruction. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III + </h2> + <p> + I would speak first of a contrast—and yet I have come to recognize + how impossible it is to convey to the dweller in America the difference in + atmosphere between England and France on the one hand and our country on + the other. And when I use the word “atmosphere” I mean the mental state of + the peoples as well as the weather and the aspect of the skies. I have + referred in another article to the anxious, feverish prosperity one + beholds in London and Paris, to that apparent indifference, despite the + presence on the streets of crowds of soldiers to the existence of a war of + which one is ever aware. Yet, along with this, one is ever conscious of + pressure. The air is heavy; there is a corresponding lack of the buoyancy + of mind which is the normal American condition. Perhaps, if German troops + occupied New England and New York, our own mental barometer might be + lower. It is difficult to say. At any rate, after an ocean voyage of nine + days one's spirits rise perceptibly as the ship nears Nantucket; and the + icy-bright sunlight of New York harbour, the sight of the buildings + aspiring to blue skies restore the throbbing optimism which with us is + normal; and it was with an effort, when I talked to the reporters on + landing, that I was able to achieve and express the pessimism and darkness + out of which I had come. Pessimism is perhaps too strong a word, and takes + no account of the continued unimpaired morale and determination of the + greater part of the British and French peoples. They expect much from us. + Yet the impression was instantaneous, when I set forth in the streets of + New York, that we had not fully measured the magnitude of our task—an + impression that has been amply confirmed as the weeks have passed. + </p> + <p> + The sense of relief I felt was not only the result of bright skies and a + high barometer, of the palpable self-confidence of the pedestrians, of the + white bread on the table and the knowledge that there was more, but also + of the ease of accomplishing things. I called for a telephone number and + got it cheerfully and instantly. I sent several telegrams, and did not + have to wait twenty minutes before a wicket while a painstaking official + multiplied and added and subtracted and paused to talk with a friend; the + speed of the express in which I flew down-town seemed emblematic of + America itself. I had been transported, in fact, into another world—my + world; and in order to realize again that from which I had come I turned + to a diary recording a London filled with the sulphur fumes of fog, + through which the lamps of the taxis and buses shone as yellow blots + reflected on glistening streets; or, for some reason a still greater + contrast, a blue, blue November Sunday afternoon in parts, the Esplanade + of the Invalides black with people—sad people—and the + Invalides itself all etched in blue as seen through the wide vista from + the Seine. + </p> + <p> + A few days later, with some children, I went to the Hippodrome. And it + remained for the Hippodrome, of all places, to give me the thrill I had + not achieved abroad, the thrill I had not experienced since the first + months of the war. Mr. George Cohan accomplished it. The transport with + steam up, is ready to leave the wharf, the khaki-clad regiment of erect + and vigorous young Americans marches across the great stage, and the + audience strains forward and begins to sing, under its breath, the words + that proclaim, as nothing else perhaps proclaims, how America feels. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Send the word, send the word over there... + We'll be o-ver, we're coming o-ver, + And we won't come back till it's o-ver, over there!” + </pre> + <p> + Is it the prelude of a tragedy? We have always been so successful, we + Americans. Are we to fail now? I am an American, and I do not believe we + are to fail. But I am soberer, somehow a different American than he who + sailed away in August. Shall we learn other things than those that have + hitherto been contained in our philosophy? + </p> + <p> + Of one thing I am convinced. It is the first war of the world that is not + a miltary war, although miltary genius is demanded, although it is the + bloodiest war in history. But other qualities are required; men and women + who are not professional soldiers are fighting in it and will aid in + victory. The pomp and circumstance of other wars are lacking in this, the + greatest of all. We had the thrills, even in America, three years ago, + when Britain and France and Canada went in. We tingled when we read of the + mobilizing of the huge armies, of the leave-takings of the soldiers. We + bought every extra for news of those first battles on Belgian soil. And I + remember my sensations when in the province of Quebec in the autumn of + 1914, looking out of the car-window at the troops gathering on the + platforms who were to go across the seas to fight for the empire and + liberty. They were singing “Tipperary!” “Tipperary!” One seldoms hears it + now, and the way has proved long—longer than we reckoned. And we are + singing “Over There!” + </p> + <p> + In those first months of the war there was, we were told, in England and + France a revival of “religion,” and indeed many of the books then written + gave evidence of having been composed in exalted, mystic moods. I remember + one in particular, called “En Campagne,” by a young French officer. And + then, somehow, the note of mystic exaltation died away, to be succeeded by + a period of realism. Read “Le Feu,” which is most typical, which has sold + in numberless editions. Here is a picture of that other aspect—the + grimness, the monotony, and the frequent bestiality of trench life, the + horror of slaughtering millions of men by highly specialized machinery. + And yet, as an American, I strike inevitably the note of optimism once + more. Even now the truer spiritual goal is glimpsed through the battle + clouds, and has been hailed in world-reverberating phrases by our American + President. Day by day the real issue is clearer, while the “religion” it + implies embraces not one nation, wills not one patriotism, but humanity + itself. I heard a Frenchwoman who had been deeply “religious” in the old + sense exclaim: “I no longer have any faith in God; he is on the side of + the Germans.” When the war began there were many evidences of a survival + of that faith that God fights for nations, interferes in behalf of the + “righteous” cause. When General Joffre was in America he was asked by one + of our countrywomen how the battle of the Marne was won. “Madame,” he is + reported to have said, “it was won by me, by my generals and soldiers.” + The tendency to regard this victory, which we hope saved France and the + Western humanitarian civilization we cherish, as a special interposition + of Providence, as a miracle, has given place to the realization that the + battle was won by the resourcefulness, science, and coolness of the French + commander-in-chief. Science preserves armies, since killing, if it has to + be done, is now wholly within that realm; science heals the wounded, + transports them rapidly to the hospitals, gives the shattered something + still to live for; and, if we are able to abandon the sentimental view and + look facts in the face—as many anointed chaplains in Europe are + doing—science not only eliminates typhoid but is able to prevent + those terrible diseases that devastate armies and nations. And science is + no longer confined to the physical but has invaded the social kingdom, is + able to weave a juster fabric into the government of peoples. On all sides + we are beginning to embrace the religion of self-reliance, a faith that + God is on the side of intelligence—intelligence with a broader + meaning than the Germans have given it, for it includes charity. + </p> + <p> + II + </p> + <p> + It seems to me that I remember, somewhere in the realistic novel I have + mentioned “Le Feu”—reading of singing soldiers, and an assumption on + the part of their hearers that such songs are prompted only by a + devil-may-care lightness of heart which the soldier achieves. A shallow + psychology (as the author points out), especially in these days of trench + warfare! The soldier sings to hide his real feelings, perhaps to give vent + to them. I am reminded of all this in connection with my trip to the + British front. I left London after lunch on one of those dreary, grey days + to which I have referred; the rain had begun to splash angrily against the + panes of the car windows before we reached the coast. At five o'clock the + boat pushed off into a black channel, whipped by a gale that drove the + rain across the decks and into every passage and gangway. The steamer was + literally loaded with human beings, officers and men returning from a + brief glimpse of home. There was nothing of the glory of war in the + embarkation, and, to add to the sad and sinister effect of it, each man as + he came aboard mounted the ladder and chose, from a pile on the hatch + combing, a sodden life-preserver, which he flung around his shoulders as + he went in search of a shelter. The saloon below, where we had our tea, + was lighted indeed, but sealed so tight as to be insupportable; and the + cabin above, stifling too, was dark as a pocket. One stumbled over unseen + passengers on the lounges, or sitting on kits on the floor. Even the steps + up which I groped my way to the deck above were filled, while on the deck + there was standing-room only and not much of that. Mal de mer added to the + discomforts of many. At length I found an uncertain refuge in a gangway + amidships, hedged in between unseen companions; but even here the rain + stung our faces and the spray of an occasional comber drenched our feet, + while through the gloom of the night only a few yards of white water were + to be discerned. For three hours I stood there, trying to imagine what was + in the minds of these men with whose bodies I was in such intimate + contact. They were going to a foreign land to fight, many of them to die, + not in one of those adventurous campaigns of times gone by, but in the wet + trenches or the hideous No Man's Land between. What were the images they + summoned up in the darkness? Visions of long-familiar homes and + long-familiar friends? And just how were they facing the future? Even as I + wondered, voices rose in a song, English voices, soldier voices. It was + not “Tipperary,” the song that thrilled us a few years ago. I strove to + catch the words: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “I want to go home! + I don't want to go back to the trenches no more, + Where there are bullets and shrapnel galore, + I want to go home!” + </pre> + <p> + It was sung boisterously, in a defiant tone of mockery of the desire it + expressed, and thus tremendously gained in pathos. They did want to go + home—naturally. It was sung with the same spirit our men sing “We + won't come back till it's over, over there!” The difference is that these + Britishers have been over there, have seen the horrors face to face, have + tasted the sweets of home, and in spite of heartsickness and seasickness + are resolved to see it through. Such is the morale of the British army. I + have not the slightest doubt that it will be the morale of our own army + also, but at present the British are holding the fort. Tommy would never + give up the war, but he has had a realistic taste of it, and his songs + reflect his experience. Other songs reached my ears each night, above the + hissing and pounding of the Channel seas, but the unseen group returned + always to this. One thought of Agincourt and Crecy, of Waterloo, of the + countless journeys across this same stormy strip of water the ancestors of + these man had made in the past, and one wondered whether war were eternal + and inevitable, after all. + </p> + <p> + And what does Tommy think about it—this war? My own limited + experience thoroughly indorses Mr. Galsworthy's splendid analysis of + British-soldier psychology that appeared in the December North American. + The average man, with native doggedness, is fighting for the defence of + England. The British Government itself, in its reconstruction department + for the political education of the wounded, has given partial denial to + the old maxim that it is the soldier's business not to think but to obey; + and the British army is leavened with men who read and reflect in the long + nights of watching in the rain, who are gaining ideas about conditions in + the past and resolutions concerning those of the future. The very army + itself has had a miracle happen to it: it has been democratized—and + with the cheerful consent of the class to which formerly the possession of + commissions was largely confined. Gradually, to these soldier-thinkers, as + well as to the mass of others at home, is unfolding the vision of a new + social order which is indeed worth fighting for and dying for. + </p> + <p> + III + </p> + <p> + At last, our knees cramped and our feet soaked, we saw the lights of the + French port dancing across the veil of rain, like thistledowns of fire, + and presently we were at rest at a stone quay. As I stood waiting on the + deck to have my passport vised, I tried to reconstruct the features of + this little seaport as I had seen it, many years before, on a bright + summer's day when I had motored from Paris on my way to London. The gay + line of hotels facing the water was hidden in the darkness. Suddenly I + heard my name called, and I was rescued from the group of civilians by a + British officer who introduced himself as my host. It was after nine + o'clock, and he had been on the lookout for me since half past seven. The + effect of his welcome at that time and place was electrical, and I was + further immensely cheered by the news he gave me, as we hurried along the + street, that two friends of mine were here and quite hungry, having + delayed dinner for my arrival. One of them was a young member of Congress + who had been making exhaustive studies of the situation in Italy, France + and England, and the other one of our best-known writers, both bound for + London. We sat around the table until nearly eleven, exchanging + impressions and experiences. Then my officer declared that it was time to + go home. + </p> + <p> + “Home” proved to be the big chateau which the British Government has + leased for the kindly purpose of entertaining such American guests as they + choose to invite. It is known as the “American Chateau,” and in the early + morning hours we reached it after a long drive through the gale. We + crossed a bridge over a moat and traversed a huge stone hall to the Gothic + drawing-room. Here a fire was crackling on the hearth, refreshments were + laid out, and the major in command rose from his book to greet me. + Hospitality, with these people, has attained to art, and, though I had + come here at the invitation of his government, I had the feeling of being + his personal guest in his own house. Presently he led the way up the stone + stairs and showed me the room I was to occupy. + </p> + <p> + I awoke to the sound of the wind whistling through the open lattice, and + looking down on the ruffled blue waters of the moat I saw a great white + swan at his morning toilet, his feathers dazzling in the sun. It was one + of those rare crisp and sparkling days that remind one of our American + autumn. A green stretch of lawn made a vista through the woods. Following + the example of the swan, I plunged into the tin tub the orderly had placed + beside my bed and went down to porridge in a glow. Porridge, for the major + was Scotch, and had taught his French cook to make it as the Scotch make + it. Then, going out into the hall, from a table on which lay a contour map + of the battle region, the major picked up a hideous mask that seemed to + have been made for some barbaric revelries. + </p> + <p> + “We may not strike any gas,” he said, “but it's as well to be on the safe + side,” whereupon he made me practise inserting the tube in my mouth, + pinching the nostrils instantly with the wire-covered nippers. He also + presented me with a steel helmet. Thus equipped for any untoward + occurrence, putting on sweaters and heavy overcoats, and wrapping + ourselves in the fur rugs of the waiting automobile, we started off, with + the gale on our quarter, for the front. + </p> + <p> + Picardy, on whose soil has been shed so much English blood, never was more + beautiful than on that October day. The trees were still in full leaf, the + fields green, though the crops had been gathered, and the crystal air gave + vivid value to every colour in the landscape. From time to time we wound + through the cobble-stoned streets of historic villages, each having its + stone church end the bodki-shaped steeple of blue slate so characteristic + of that country. And, as though we were still in the pastoral times of + peace, in the square of one of these villages a horse-fair was in + progress, blue-smocked peasants were trotting chunky ponies over the + stones. It was like a picture from one of De Maupassant's tales. In other + villages the shawled women sat knitting behind piles of beets and cabbages + and apples, their farm-carts atilt in the sun. Again and again I tried to + grasp the fact that the greatest of world wars was being fought only a few + miles away—and failed. + </p> + <p> + We had met, indeed, an occasional officer or orderly, huddled in a + greatcoat and head against the wind, exercising those wonderful animals + that are the pride of the British cavalry and which General Sir Douglas + Haig, himself a cavalryman, some day hopes to bring into service. We had + overtaken an artillery train rumbling along toward the east, the men + laughing and joking as they rode, as though they were going to manoeuvres. + Farther on, as the soldiers along the highroads and in the towns grew more + and more numerous, they seemed so harmoniously part of the peaceful scene + that war was as difficult to visualize as ever. Many sat about smoking + their pipes and playing with the village children, others were in squads + going to drill or exercise—something the Briton never neglects. The + amazing thing to a visitor who has seen the trenches awash on a typical + wet day, who knows that even billeting in cold farms and barns behind the + lines can scarcely be compared to the comforts of home, is how these men + keep well under the conditions. To say that they are well is to understate + the fact: the ruddy faces and clear eyes and hard muscles—even of + those who once were pale London clerks—proclaim a triumph for the + system of hygiene of their army. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly we came upon a house with a great round hole in its wall, and + then upon several in ruins beside the village street. Meanwhile, at work + under the windswept trees of the highway, were strange, dark men from the + uttermost parts of the earth, physiognomies as old as the tombs of + Pharaoh. It was, indeed, not so much the graven red profiles of priests + and soldiers that came tome at sight of these Egyptians, but the singing + fellaheen of the water-buckets of the Nile. And here, too, shovelling the + crushed rock, were East Indians oddly clad in European garb, careless of + the cold. That sense of the vastness of the British Empire, which at times + is so profound, was mingled now with a knowledge that it was fighting for + its life, marshalling all its resources for Armageddon. + </p> + <p> + Saint Eloi is named after the good bishop who ventured to advise King + Dagobert about his costume. And the church stands—what is left of it—all + alone on the greenest of terraces jutting out toward the east; and the + tower, ruggedly picturesque against the sky, resembles that of some + crumbled abbey. As a matter of fact, it has been a target for German + gunners. Dodging an army-truck and rounding one of those military traffic + policemen one meets at every important corner we climbed the hill and left + the motor among the great trees, which are still fortunately preserved. + And we stood for a few minutes, gazing over miles and miles of + devastation. Then, taking the motor once more, we passed through wrecked + and empty villages until we came to the foot of Vimy Ridge. Notre Dame de + Lorette rose against the sky-line to the north. + </p> + <p> + Vimy and Notre Dame de Lorette—sweet but terrible names! Only a + summer had passed since Vimy was the scene of one of the bloodiest battles + of the war. From a distance the prevailing colour of the steep slope is + ochre; it gives the effect of having been scraped bare in preparation for + some gigantic enterprise. A nearer view reveals a flush of green; nature + is already striving to heal. From top to bottom it is pockmarked by shells + and scarred by trenches—trenches every few feet, and between them + tangled masses of barbed wire still clinging to the “knife rests” and + corkscrew stanchions to which it had been strung. The huge shell-holes, + revealing the chalk subsoil, were half-filled with water. And even though + the field had been cleaned by those East Indians I had seen on the road, + and the thousands who had died here buried, bits of uniform, shoes, and + accoutrements and shattered rifles were sticking in the clay—and + once we came across a portion of a bedstead, doubtless taken by some + officer from a ruined and now vanished village to his dugout. Painfully, + pausing frequently to ponder over these remnants, so eloquent of the fury + of the struggle, slipping backward at every step and despite our care + getting tangled in the wire, we made our way up the slope. Buttercups and + daisies were blooming around the edges of the craters. + </p> + <p> + As we drew near the crest the major warned me not to expose myself. “It + isn't because there is much chance of our being shot,” he explained, “but + a matter of drawing the German fire upon others.” And yet I found it hard + to believe—despite the evidence at my feet—that war existed + here. The brightness of the day, the emptiness of the place, the silence—save + for the humming of the gale—denied it. And then, when we had + cautiously rounded a hummock at the top, my steel helmet was blown off—not + by a shrapnel, but by the wind! I had neglected to tighten the chin-strap. + </p> + <p> + Immediately below us I could make out scars like earthquake cracks running + across the meadows—the front trenches. Both armies were buried like + moles in these furrows. The country was spread out before us, like a map, + with occasionally the black contour of a coal mound rising against the + green, or a deserted shaft-head. I was gazing at the famous battlefield of + Lens. Villages, woods, whose names came back to me as the major repeated + them, lay like cloud shadows on the sunny plain, and the faintest shadow + of all, far to the eastward, was Lens itself. I marked it by a single + white tower. And suddenly another white tower, loftier than the first, had + risen up! But even as I stared its substance seemed to change, to + dissolve, and the tower was no longer to be seen. Not until then did I + realize that a monster shell had burst beside the trenches in front of the + city. Occasionally after that there came to my ears the muffed report of + some hidden gun, and a ball like a powder-puff lay lightly on the plain, + and vanished. But even the presence of these, oddly enough, did not rob + the landscape of its air of Sunday peace. + </p> + <p> + We ate our sandwiches and drank our bottle of white wine in a sheltered + cut of the road that runs up that other ridge which the French gained at + such an appalling price, Notre Dame de Lorette, while the major described + to me some features of the Lens battle, in which he had taken part. I + discovered incidentally that he had been severely wounded at the Somme. + Though he had been a soldier all his life, and a good soldier, his true + passion was painting, and he drew my attention to the rare greens and + silver-greys of the stones above us, steeped in sunlight—all that + remained of the little church of Notre Dame—more beautiful, more + significant, perhaps, as a ruin. It reminded the major of the Turners he + had admired in his youth. After lunch we lingered in the cemetery, where + the graves and vaults had been harrowed by shells; the trenches ran right + through them. And here, in this desecrated resting-place of the village + dead, where the shattered gravestones were mingled with barbed wire, + death-dealing fragments of iron, and rusting stick-bombs that had failed + to explode, was a wooden cross, on which was rudely written the name of + Hans Siebert. Mouldering at the foot of the cross was a grey woollen + German tunic from which the buttons had been cut. + </p> + <p> + We kept the road to the top, for Notre Dame de Lorette is as steep as + Vimy. There we looked upon the panorama of the Lens battle-field once + more, and started down the eastern slope, an apparently smooth expanse + covered now with prairie grasses, in reality a labyrinth of deep ditches, + dugouts, and pits; gruesome remnants of the battle lay half-concealed + under the grass. We walked slowly, making desperate leaps over the + trenches, sometimes perforce going through them, treading gingerly on the + “duck board” at the bottom. We stumbled over stick-bombs and unexploded + shells. No plough can be put here—the only solution for the land for + years to come is forest. Just before we gained the road at the bottom, + where the car was awaiting us, we were startled by the sudden flight of a + covey of partridges. + </p> + <p> + The skies were grey when we reached the banal outskirts of a town where + the bourgeoise houses were modern, commonplace, save those which had been + ennobled by ruin. It was Arras, one of those few magic names, eloquent + with suggestions of mediaeval romance and art, intrigue and chivalry; + while upon their significance, since the war began, has been superimposed + still another, no less eloquent but charged with pathos. We halted for a + moment in the open space before the railroad station, a comparatively new + structure of steel and glass, designed on geometrical curves, with an + uninspiring, cheaply ornamented front. It had been, undoubtedly, the pride + of the little city. Yet finding it here had at first something of the + effect of the discovery of an office-building—let us say—on + the site of the Reims Cathedral. Presently, however, its emptiness, its + silence began to have their effects—these and the rents one began to + perceive in the roof. For it was still the object of the intermittent yet + persistent fire of the German artillery. One began to realize that by + these wounds it had achieved a dignity that transcended the mediocre + imagination of its provincial designer. A fine rain had set in before we + found the square, and here indeed one felt a certain desolate + satisfaction; despite the wreckage there the spirit of the ancient town + still poignantly haunted it. Although the Hotel de Ville, which had + expressed adequately the longings and aspirations, the civic pride of + those bygone burghers, was razed to the ground, on three sides were still + standing the varied yet harmonious facades of Flemish houses made familiar + by photographs. Of some of these the plaster between the carved beams had + been shot away, the roofs blown off, and the tiny hewn rafters were bared + to the sky. The place was empty in the gathering gloom of the twilight. + The gaiety and warmth of the hut erected in the Public Gardens which + houses the British Officers' Club were a relief. + </p> + <p> + The experiences of the next day will remain for ever in my memory etched, + as it were, in sepia. My guide was a younger officer who had seen heroic + service, and I wondered constantly how his delicate frame had survived in + the trenches the constant hardship of such weather as now, warmly wrapped + and with the car-curtains drawn, we faced. The inevitable, relentless rain + of that region had set in again, the rain in which our own soldiers will + have to fight, and the skies were of a darkness seldom known in America. + The countryside was no longer smiling. After some two hours of progress we + came, in that devastated district near the front, to an expanse where many + monsters were clumsily cavorting like dinosaurs in primeval slime. At some + distance from the road others stood apparently tethered in line, awaiting + their turn for exercise. These were the far-famed tanks. Their commander, + or chief mahout—as I was inclined to call him—was a cheerful + young giant of colonial origin, who has often driven them serenely across + No Man's Land and into the German trenches. He had been expecting us, and + led me along a duck board over the morass, to where one of these + leviathans was awaiting us. You crawl through a greasy hole in the bottom, + and the inside is as full of machinery as the turret of the Pennsylvania, + and you grope your way to the seat in front beside that of the captain and + conductor, looking out through a slot in the armour over a waste of water + and mud. From here you are supposed to operate a machine gun. Behind you + two mechanics have started the engines with a deafening roar, above which + are heard the hoarse commands of the captain as he grinds in his gears. + Then you realize that the thing is actually moving, that the bosses on the + belt have managed to find a grip on the slime—and presently you come + to the brink of what appears, to your exaggerated sense of perception, a + bottomless chasm, with distant steep banks on the farther side that look + unattainable and insurmountable. It is an old German trench which the + rains have worn and widened. You brace yourself, you grip desperately a + pair of brass handles in front of you, while leviathan hesitates, seems to + sit up on his haunches, and then gently buries his nose in the pasty clay + and paws his way upward into the field beyond. It was like sitting in a + huge rocking-chair. That we might have had a bump, and a bone-breaking + one, I was informed after I had left the scene of the adventure. It all + depends upon the skill of the driver. The monsters are not as tractable as + they seem. + </p> + <p> + That field in which the tanks manoeuvre is characteristic of the whole of + this district of levelled villages and vanished woods. Imagine a + continuous clay vacant lot in one of our Middle Western cities on the + rainiest day you can recall; and further imagine, on this limitless lot, a + network of narrow-gauge tracks and wagon roads, a scattering of + contractors' shanties, and you will have some idea of the daily life and + surroundings of one of oar American engineer regiments, which is running a + railroad behind the British front. Yet one has only to see these men and + talk with them to be convinced of the truth that human happiness and even + human health thanks to modern science—are not dependent upon an + existence in a Garden of Eden. I do not mean exactly that these men would + choose to spend the rest of their existences in this waste, but they are + happy in the consciousness of a job well done. It was really inspiring to + encounter here the familiar conductors and brakemen, engineers and + firemen, who had voluntarily, and for an ideal, left their homes in a + remote and peaceful republic three thousand miles away, to find + contentment and a new vitality, a wider vision, in the difficult and + dangerous task they were performing. They were frequently under fire—when + they brought back the wounded or fetched car-loads of munitions to the + great guns on the ridiculous little trains of flat cars with open-work + wheels, which they named—with American humour—the Federal + Express and the Twentieth Century Limited. And their officers were equally + happy. Their colonel, of our regular Army Engineer Corps, was one of those + broad-shouldered six-footers who, when they walk the streets of Paris, + compel pedestrians to turn admiringly and give one a new pride in the + manhood of our nation. Hospitably he drew us out of the wind and rain into + his little hut, and sat us down beside the stove, cheerfully informing us + that, only the night before, the gale had blown his door in, and his roof + had started for the German lines. In a neighbouring hut, reached by a duck + board, we had lunch with him and his officers baked beans and pickles, + cakes and maple syrup. The American food, the American jokes and voices in + that environment seemed strange indeed! But as we smoked and chatted about + the friends we had in common, about political events at home and the + changes that were taking place there, it seemed as if we were in America + once more. The English officer listened and smiled in sympathy, and he + remarked, after our reluctant departure, that America was an extraordinary + land. + </p> + <p> + He directed our chauffeur to Bapaume, across that wilderness which the + Germans had so wantonly made in their retreat to the Hindenburg line. + Nothing could have been more dismal than our slow progress in the steady + rain, through the deserted streets of this town. Home after home had been + blasted—their intimate yet harrowing interiors were revealed. The + shops and cafes, which had been thoroughly looted, had their walls blown + out, but in many cases the signs of the vanished and homeless proprietors + still hung above the doors. I wondered how we should feel in New England + if such an outrage had been done to Boston, for instance, or little + Concord! The church, the great cathedral on its terrace, the bishop's + house, all dynamited, all cold and wet and filthy ruins! It was dismal, + indeed, but scarcely more dismal than that which followed; for at Bapaume + we were on the edge of the battle-field of the Somme. And I chanced to + remember that the name had first been indelibly impressed on my + consciousness at a comfortable breakfast-table at home, where I sat + looking out on a bright New England garden. In the headlines and columns + of my morning newspaper I had read again and again, during the summer of + 1916, of Thiepval and La Boisselle, of Fricourt and Mametz and the Bois + des Trones. Then they had had a sinister but remote significance; now I + was to see them, or what was left of them! + </p> + <p> + As an appropriate and characteristic setting for the tragedy which had + happened here, the indigo afternoon could not have been better chosen. + Description fails to do justice to the abomination of desolation of that + vast battle-field in the rain, and the imagination, refuses to reconstruct + the scene of peace—the chateaux and happy villages, the forests and + pastures, that flourished here so brief a time ago. In my fancy the long, + low swells of land, like those of some dreary sea, were for the moment the + subsiding waves of the cataclysm that had rolled here and extinguished all + life. Beside the road only the blood-red soil betrayed the sites of + powdered villages; and through it, in every direction, trenches had been + cut. Between the trenches the earth was torn and tortured, as though some + sudden fossilizing process, in its moment of supreme agony, had fixed it + thus. On the hummocks were graves, graves marked by wooden crosses, others + by broken rifles thrust in the ground. Shattered gun-carriages lay in the + ditches, modern cannon that had cost priceless hours of skilled labour; + and once we were confronted by one of those monsters, wounded to the + death, I had seen that morning. The sight of this huge, helpless thing + oddly recalled the emotions I had felt, as a child, when contemplating + dead elephants in a battle picture of the army of a Persian king. + </p> + <p> + Presently, like the peak of some submerged land, we saw lifted out of that + rolling waste the “Butt” of Warlencourt—the burial-mound of this + modern Marathon. It is honeycombed with dugouts in which the Germans who + clung to it found their graves, while the victorious British army swept + around it toward Bapaume. Everywhere along that road, which runs like an + arrow across the battle-field to Albert, were graves. Repetition seems the + only method of giving an adequate impression of their numbers; and near + what was once the village of Pozieres was the biggest grave of all, a + crater fifty feet deep and a hundred feet across. Seven months the British + sappers had toiled far below in the chalk, digging the passage and + chamber; and one summer dawn, like some tropical volcano, it had burst + directly under the German trench. Long we stood on the slippery edge of + it, gazing down at the tangled wire and litter of battle that strewed the + bottom, while the rain fell pitilessly. Just such rain, said my + officer-guide, as had drenched this country through the long winter months + of preparation. “We never got dry,” he told me; and added with a smile, in + answer to my query: “Perhaps that was the reason we never caught colds.” + </p> + <p> + When we entered Albert, the starting point of the British advance, there + was just light enough to see the statue of the Virgin leaning far above us + over the street. The church-tower on which it had once stood erect had + been struck by a German shell, but its steel rod had bent and not broken. + Local superstition declares that when the Virgin of Albert falls the war + will be ended. + </p> + <p> + IV + </p> + <p> + I come home impressed with the fact that Britain has learned more from + this war than any other nation, and will probably gain more by that + knowledge. We are all wanting, of course, to know what we shall get out of + it, since it was forced upon us; and of course the only gain worth + considering—as many of those to whom its coming has brought home the + first glimmerings of social science are beginning to see—is + precisely a newly acquired vision of the art of self-government. It has + been unfortunately necessary—or perhaps fortunately necessary—for + the great democracies to turn their energies and resources and the + inventive ingenuity of their citizens to the organization of armies and + indeed of entire populations to the purpose of killing enough Germans to + remove democracy's exterior menace. The price we pay in human life is + appallingly unfortunate. But the necessity for national organization + socializes the nation capable of it; or, to put the matter more truly, if + the socializing process had anticipated the war—as it had in Great + Britain—the ability to complete it under stress is the test of a + democratic nation; and hence the test of democracy, since the socializing + process becomes international. Britain has stood the test, even from the + old-fashioned militarist point of view, since it is apparent that no + democracy can wage a sustained great war unless it is socialized. After + the war she will probably lead all other countries in a sane and + scientific liberalization. The encouraging fact is that not in spite of + her liberalism, but because of it, she has met military Germany on her own + ground and, to use a vigorous expression, gone her one better. In 1914, as + armies go today, the British Army was a mere handful of men whose officers + belonged to a military caste. Brave men and brave officers, indeed! But at + present it is a war organization of an excellence which the Germans never + surpassed. I have no space to enter into a description of the amazing + system, of the network of arteries converging at the channel ports and + spreading out until it feeds and clothes every man of those millions, + furnishes him with newspapers and tobacco, and gives him the greatest + contentment compatible with the conditions under which he has to live. The + number of shells flung at the enemy is only limited by the lives of the + guns that fire them. I should like to tell with what swiftness, under the + stress of battle, the wounded are hurried back to the coast and even to + England itself. I may not state the thousands carried on leave every day + across the channel and back again—in spite of submarines. But I went + one day through Saint Omer, with its beautiful church and little blue + chateau, past the rest-camps of the big regiments of guards to a seaport + on the downs, formerly a quiet little French town, transformed now into an + ordered Babel. The term is paradoxical, but I let it stand. English, + Irish, and Scotch from the British Isles and the ends of the earth mingle + there with Indians, Egyptians, and the chattering Mongolians in queer fur + caps who work in the bakeries. + </p> + <p> + I went through one of these bakeries, almost as large as an automobile + factory, fragrant with the aroma of two hundred thousand loaves of bread. + This bakery alone sends every day to the trenches two hundred thousand + loaves made from the wheat of western Canada! Of all sights to be seen in + this place, however, the reclamation “plant” is the most wonderful. It + covers acres. Everything which is broken in war, from a pair of officer's + field-glasses to a nine-inch howitzer carriage is mended here—if it + can be mended. Here, when a battle-field is cleared, every article that + can possibly be used again is brought; and the manager pointed with pride + to the furnaces in his power-house, which formerly burned coal and now are + fed with refuse—broken wheels of gun-carriages, sawdust, and even + old shoes. Hundreds of French girls and even German prisoners are resoling + and patching shoes with the aid of American machinery, and even the uppers + of such as are otherwise hopeless are cut in spirals into laces. Tunics, + breeches, and overcoats are mended by tailors; rusty camp cookers are + retinned, and in the foundries the precious scraps of cast iron are melted + into braziers to keep Tommy in the trenches warm. In the machine-shops the + injured guns and cannon are repaired. German prisoners are working there, + too. At a distance, in their homely grey tunics, with their bullet-shaped + heads close-cropped and the hairs standing out like the needles of a + cylinder of a music-box, they had the appearance of hard citizens who had + become rather sullen convicts. Some wore spectacles. A closer view + revealed that most of them were contented, and some actually cheerful. + None, indeed, seemed more cheerful than a recently captured group I saw + later, who were actually building the barbed-wire fence that was to + confine them. + </p> + <p> + My last visit in this town was to the tiny but on a “corner lot,” in which + the Duchess of Sutherland has lived now for some years. As we had tea she + told me she was going on a fortnight's leave to England; and no Tommy in + the trenches could have been more excited over the prospect. Her own + hospital, which occupies the rest of the lot, is one of those marvels + which individual initiative and a strong social sense such as hers has + produced in this war. Special enterprise was required to save such + desperate cases as are made a specialty of here, and all that medical and + surgical science can do has been concentrated, with extraordinary success, + on the shattered men who are brought to her wards. That most of the + horrible fractures I saw are healed, and healed quickly—thanks + largely to the drainage system of our own Doctor Carrel—is not the + least of the wonders of the remarkable times in which we live. + </p> + <p> + The next day, Sunday, I left for Paris, bidding farewell regretfully to + the last of my British-officer hosts. He seemed like an old, old friend—though + I had known him but a few days. I can see him now as he waved me a + good-bye from the platform in his Glengarry cap and short tunic and plaid + trousers. He is the owner of a castle and some seventy square miles of + land in Scotland alone. For the comfort of his nation's guests, he toils + like a hired courier. + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + + American religion as set forth by William James + Be useful! + Privilege of making blunders + Rising every time you fall (Confucius on greatness) + Sentimentalism, ignorance, close-mindedness, and cant + The English do not advertise their sorrows +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Traveller in War-Time, by Winston Churchill + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRAVELLER IN WAR-TIME *** + +***** This file should be named 5398-h.htm or 5398-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/9/5398/ + +Produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Traveller in War-Time + +Author: Winston Churchill + +Last Updated: March 6, 2009 +Release Date: October 6, 2006 [EBook #5398] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRAVELLER IN WAR-TIME *** + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +A TRAVELLER IN WARTIME. + +By Winston Churchill + + + + +PREFACE + +I am reprinting here, in response to requests, certain recent +experiences in Great Britain and France. These were selected in the hope +of conveying to American readers some idea of the atmosphere, of "what +it is like" in these countries under the immediate shadow of the battle +clouds. It was what I myself most wished to know. My idea was first to +send home my impressions while they were fresh, and to refrain as far as +possible from comment and judgment until I should have had time to make +a fuller survey. Hence I chose as a title for these articles,--intended +to be preliminary, "A Traveller in War-Time." I tried to banish from my +mind all previous impressions gained from reading. I wished to be free +for the moment to accept and record the chance invitation or adventure, +wherever met with, at the Front, in the streets of Paris, in Ireland, or +on the London omnibus. Later on, I hoped to write a book summarizing the +changing social conditions as I had found them. + +Unfortunately for me, my stay was unexpectedly cut short. I was able +to avail myself of but few of the many opportunities offered. With this +apology, the articles are presented as they were written. + +I have given the impression that at the time of my visit there was no +lack of food in England, but I fear that I have not done justice to the +frugality of the people, much of which was self-imposed for the purpose +of helping to win the war. On very, good authority I have been given +to understand that food was less abundant during the winter just past; +partly because of the effect of the severe weather on our American +railroads, which had trouble in getting supplies to the coast, and +partly because more and more ships were required for transporting +American troops and supplies for these troops, to France. This +additional curtailment was most felt by families of small income, whose +earners were at the front or away on other government service. Mothers +had great difficulty in getting adequate nourishment for growing +children. But the British people cheerfully submitted to this further +deprivation. Summer is at hand. It is to be hoped that before another +winter sets in, American and British shipping will have sufficiently +increased to remedy the situation. + +In regard to what I have said of the British army, I was profoundly +struck, as were other visitors to that front, by the health and +morale of the men, by the marvel of organization accomplished in so +comparatively brief a time. It was one of the many proofs of the extent +to which the British nation had been socialized. When one thought of +that little band of regulars sent to France in 1914, who became immortal +at Mons, who shared the glory of the Marne, and in that first dreadful +winter held back the German hosts from the Channel ports, the presence +on the battle line of millions of disciplined and determined men seemed +astonishing indeed. And this had been accomplished by a nation facing +the gravest crisis in its history, under the necessity of sustaining and +financing many allies and of protecting an Empire. Since my return to +America a serious reverse has occurred. + +After the Russian peace, the Germans attempted to overwhelm the British +by hurling against them vastly superior numbers of highly trained men. +It is for the military critic of the future to analyse any tactical +errors that may have been made at the second battle of the Somme. +Apparently there was an absence of preparation, of specific orders from +high sources in the event of having to cede ground. This much can be +said, that the morale of the British Army remains unimpaired; that the +presence of mind and ability of the great majority of the officers +who, flung on their own resources, conducted the retreat, cannot be +questioned; while the accomplishment of General Carey, in stopping the +gap with an improvised force of non-combatants, will go down in history. +In an attempt to bring home to myself, as well as to my readers, a +realization of what American participation in this war means or should +mean. + + + + +A TRAVELLER IN WAR-TIME + + + + +CHAPTER I + +Toward the end of the summer of 1917 it was very hot in New York, and +hotter still aboard the transatlantic liner thrust between the piers. +One glance at our cabins, at the crowded decks and dining-room, at the +little writing-room above, where the ink had congealed in the ink-wells, +sufficed to bring home to us that the days of luxurious sea travel, of a +la carte restaurants, and Louis Seize bedrooms were gone--at least for +a period. The prospect of a voyage of nearly two weeks was not enticing. +The ship, to be sure, was far from being the best of those still +running on a line which had gained a magic reputation of immunity from +submarines; three years ago she carried only second and third class +passengers! But most of us were in a hurry to get to the countries +where war had already become a grim and terrible reality. In one way or +another we had all enlisted. + +By "we" I mean the American passengers. The first welcome discovery +among the crowd wandering aimlessly and somewhat disconsolately about +the decks was the cheerful face of a friend whom at first I did not +recognize because of his amazing disguise in uniform. Hitherto he had +been associated in my mind with dinner parties and clubs. + +That life was past. He had laid up his yacht and joined the Red Cross +and, henceforth, for an indeterminable period, he was to abide amidst +the discomforts and dangers of the Western Front, with five days' leave +every three months. The members of a group similarly attired whom I +found gathered by the after-rail were likewise cheerful. Two well-known +specialists from the Massachusetts General Hospital made significant +the hegira now taking place that threatens to leave our country, like +Britain, almost doctorless. When I reached France it seemed to me that I +met all the celebrated medical men I ever heard of. A third in the group +was a business man from the Middle West who had wound up his affairs and +left a startled family in charge of a trust company. Though his physical +activities had hitherto consisted of an occasional mild game of golf, +he wore his khaki like an old campaigner; and he seemed undaunted by +the prospect--still somewhat remotely ahead of him--of a winter journey +across the Albanian Mountains from the Aegean to the Adriatic. + +After a restless night, we sailed away in the hot dawn of a Wednesday. +The shores of America faded behind us, and as the days went by, we had +the odd sense of threading uncharted seas; we found it more and more +difficult to believe that this empty, lonesome ocean was the Atlantic +in the twentieth century. Once we saw a four-master; once a shy, silent +steamer avoided us, westward bound; and once in mid-ocean, tossed on a +sea sun-silvered under a rack of clouds, we overtook a gallant little +schooner out of New Bedford or Gloucester--a forthfarer, too. + +Meanwhile, amongst the Americans, the socializing process had begun. +Many elements which in a former stratified existence would never have +been brought into contact were fusing by the pressure of a purpose, of +a great adventure common to us all. On the upper deck, high above the +waves, was a little 'fumoir' which, by some odd trick of association, +reminded me of the villa formerly occupied by the Kaiser in +Corfu--perhaps because of the faience plaques set in the walls--although +I cannot now recall whether the villa has faience plaques or not. The +room was, of course, on the order of a French provincial cafe, and as +such delighted the bourgeoisie monopolizing the alcove tables and joking +with the fat steward. Here in this 'fumoir', lawyers, doctors, business +men of all descriptions, newspaper correspondents, movie photographers, +and millionaires who had never crossed save in a 'cabine de luxe', +rubbed elbows and exchanged views and played bridge together. There were +Y. M. C. A. people on their way to the various camps, reconstruction +workers intending to build temporary homes for the homeless French, and +youngsters in the uniform of the American Field Service, going over to +drive camions and ambulances; many of whom, without undue regret, +had left college after a freshman year. They invaded the 'fumoir', +undaunted, to practise atrocious French on the phlegmatic steward; they +took possession of a protesting piano in the banal little salon and +sang: "We'll not come back till it's over over there." And in the +evening, on the darkened decks, we listened and thrilled to the refrain: + + "There's a long, long trail a-winding + Into the land of my dreams." + +We were Argonauts--even the Red Cross ladies on their way to establish +rest camps behind the lines and brave the mud and rains of a winter +in eastern France. None, indeed, were more imbued with the forthfaring +spirit than these women, who were leaving, without regret, sheltered, +comfortable lives to face hardships and brave dangers without a +question. And no sharper proof of the failure of the old social order to +provide for human instincts and needs could be found than the conviction +they gave of new and vitalizing forces released in them. The timidities +with which their sex is supposedly encumbered had disappeared, and even +the possibility of a disaster at sea held no terrors for them. When the +sun fell down into the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and the cabins +below were sealed--and thus become insupportable--they settled +themselves for the night in their steamer-chairs and smiled at the +remark of M. le Commissaire that it was a good "season" for submarines. +The moonlight filtered through the chinks in the burlap shrouding +the deck. About 3 a.m. the khaki-clad lawyer from Milwaukee became +communicative, the Red Cross ladies produced chocolate. It was the +genial hour before the final nap, from which one awoke abruptly at the +sound of squeegees and brooms to find the deck a river of sea water, on +whose banks a wild scramble for slippers and biscuit-boxes invariably +ensued. No experience could have been more socializing. + +"Well, it's a relief," one of the ladies exclaimed, "not to be +travelling with half a dozen trunks and a hat-box! Oh, yes, I realize +what I'm doing. I'm going to live in one of those flimsy portable houses +with twenty cots and no privacy and wear the same clothes for months, +but it's better than thrashing around looking for something to do and +never finding it, never getting anything real to spend one's energy-on. +I've closed my country house, I've sublet my apartment, I've done with +teas and bridge, and I'm happier than I've been in my life even if I +don't get enough sleep." + +Another lady, who looked still young, had two sons in the army. "There +was nothing for me to do but sit around the house and wait, and I +want to be useful. My husband has to stay at home; he can't leave his +business." Be useful! There she struck the new and aggressive note of +emancipation from the restricted self-sacrifice of the old order, of +wider service for the unnamed and the unknown; and, above all, for the +wider self-realization of which service is but a by-product. I recall +particularly among these women a young widow with an eager look in clear +grey eyes that gazed eastward into the unknown with hope renewed. Had +she lived a quarter of a century ago she might have been doomed to slow +desiccation. There are thousands of such women in France today, and to +them the great war has brought salvation. + +From what country other than America could so many thousands of +pilgrims--even before our nation had entered the war--have hurried +across a wide ocean to take their part? No matter what religion we +profess, whether it be Calvinism, or Catholicism, we are individualists, +pragmatists, empiricists for ever. Our faces are set toward strange +worlds presently to rise out of the sea and take on form and colour and +substance--worlds of new aspirations, of new ideas and new values. And +on this voyage I was reminded of Josiah Royce's splendid summary of the +American philosophy--of the American religion as set forth by William +James: + + "The spirit of the frontiers-man, of the gold-seeker or the + home-builder transferred to the metaphysical or to the religious + realm. There is a far-off home, our long lost spiritual fortune. + Experience alone can guide us to the place where these things are, + hence indeed you need experience. You can only win your way on the + frontier unless you are willing to live there." + +Through the pall of horror and tragedy the American sees a vision; for +him it is not merely a material and bloody contest of arms and men, +a military victory to be gained over an aggressive and wrong-minded +people. It is a world calamity, indeed, but a calamity, since it has +come, to be spiritualized and utilized for the benefit of the future +society of mankind. It must be made to serve a purpose in helping to +liberate the world from sentimentalism, ignorance, close-mindedness, and +cant. + + + +II + +One night we entered the danger zone. There had been an entertainment in +the little salon which, packed with passengers, had gradually achieved +the temperature and humidity of a Turkish bath. For the ports had been +closed as tight as gaskets could make them, the electric fans, as usual, +obstinately "refused to march." After the amateur speechmaking and +concert pieces an Italian violinist, who had thrown over a lucrative +contract to become a soldier, played exquisitely; and one of the French +sisters we had seen walking the deck with the mincing steps of the +cloister sang; somewhat precariously and pathetically, the Ave Maria. +Its pathos was of the past, and after she had finished, as we fled into +the open air, we were conscious of having turned our backs irrevocably +yet determinedly upon an era whose life and convictions the music of the +composer so beautifully expressed. And the sister's sweet withered face +was reminiscent of a missal, one bright with colour, and still shining +faintly. A missal in a library of modern books! + +On deck a fine rain was blowing through a gap in our burlap shroud, a +phosphorescent fringe of foam hissed along the sides of the ship, giving +the illusory appearance of our deadlights open and ablaze, exaggerating +the sinister blackness of the night. We were, apparently, a beacon in +that sepia waste where modern undersea monsters were lurking. + +There were on board other elements which in the normal times gone by +would have seemed disquieting enough. The evening after we had left New +York, while we were still off the coast of Long Island, I saw on the +poop a crowd of steerage passengers listening intently to harangues +by speakers addressing them from the top of a pile of life rafts. +Armenians, I was told, on their way to fight the Turks, all recruited +in America by one frenzied woman who had seen her child cut in two by +a German officer. Twilight was gathering as I joined the group, the sea +was silvered by the light of an August moon floating serenely between +swaying stays. The orator's passionate words and gestures evoked wild +responses from his hearers, whom the drag of an ancient hatred had +snatched from the peaceful asylum of the west. This smiling, happy +folk, which I had seen in our manufacturing towns and cities, were now +transformed, atavistic--all save one, a student, who stared wistfully +through his spectacles across the waters. Later, when twilight deepened, +when the moon had changed from silver to gold, the orators gave place to +a singer. He had been a bootblack in America. Now he had become a bard. +His plaintive minor chant evoked, one knew not how, the flavour of that +age-long history of oppression and wrong these were now determined to +avenge. Their conventional costumes were proof that we had harboured +them--almost, indeed, assimilated them. And suddenly they had reverted. +They were going to slaughter the Turks. + +On a bright Saturday afternoon we steamed into the wide mouth of the +Gironde, a name stirring vague memories of romance and terror. The +French passengers gazed wistfully at the low-lying strip of sand and +forest, but our uniformed pilgrims crowded the rail and hailed it as the +promised land of self-realization. A richly coloured watering-place +slid into view, as in a moving-picture show. There was, indeed, all the +reality and unreality of the cinematograph about our arrival; presently +the reel would end abruptly, and we should find ourselves pushing our +way out of the emptying theatre into a rainy street. The impression of +unreality in the face of visual evidence persisted into the night when, +after an afternoon at anchor, we glided up the river, our decks and +ports ablaze across the land. Silhouettes of tall poplars loomed against +the blackness; occasionally a lamp revealed the milky blue facade of a +house. This was France! War-torn France--at last vividly brought home +to us when a glare appeared on the sky, growing brighter and brighter +until, at a turn of the river, abruptly we came abreast of vomiting +furnaces, thousands of electric lights strung like beads over the crest +of a hill, and, below these, dim rows of houses, all of a sameness, +stretching along monotonous streets. A munitions town in the night. + +One could have tossed a biscuit on the stone wharfs where the workmen, +crouching over their tasks, straightened up at sight of us and +cheered. And one cried out hoarsely, "Vous venez nous sauver, vous +Americains"--"You come to save us"--an exclamation I was to hear again +in the days that followed. + + + +III + +All day long, as the 'rapide' hurried us through the smiling wine +country and past the well-remembered chateaux of the Loire, we wondered +how we should find Paris--beautiful Paris, saved from violation as by a +miracle! Our first discovery, after we had pushed our way out of the +dim station into the obscurity of the street, was that of the absence of +taxicabs. The horse-drawn buses ranged along the curb were reserved +for the foresighted and privileged few. Men and women were rushing +desperately about in search of conveyances, and in the midst of this +confusion, undismayed, debonnair, I spied a rugged, slouch-hatted figure +standing under a lamp--the unmistakable American soldier. + +"Aren't there any cabs in Paris?" I asked. + +"Oh, yes, they tell me they're here," he said. "I've given a man a +dollar to chase one." + +Evidently one of our millionaire privates who have aroused such burnings +in the heart of the French poilu, with his five sous a day! We left him +there, and staggered across the Seine with our bags. A French officer +approached us. "You come from America," he said. "Let me help you." +There was just enough light in the streets to prevent us from getting +utterly lost, and we recognized the dark mass of the Tuileries as we +crossed the gardens. The hotel we sought was still there, and its menu, +save for the war-bread and the tiny portion of sugar, as irreproachable +as ever. + +The next morning, as if by magic, hundreds of taxis had sprung into +existence, though they were much in demand. And in spite of the soldiers +thronging the sunlit streets, Paris was seemingly the same Paris one had +always known, gay--insouciante, pleasure-bent. The luxury shops appeared +to be thriving, the world-renowned restaurants to be doing business +as usual; to judge from the prices, a little better than usual; the +expensive hotels were full. It is not the real France, of course, yet it +seemed none the less surprising that it should still exist. Oddly enough +the presence of such overwhelming numbers of soldiers should have failed +to strike the note of war, emphasized that of lavishness, of the casting +off of mundane troubles for which the French capital has so long been +known. But so it was. Most of these soldiers were here precisely with +the object of banishing from their minds the degradations and horrors of +the region from which they had come, and which was so unbelievably near; +a few hours in an automobile--less than that in one of those dragon-fly +machines we saw intermittently hovering in the blue above our heads! + +Paris, to most Americans, means that concentrated little district +de luxe of which the Place Vendome is the centre, and we had always +unconsciously thought of it as in the possession of the Anglo-Saxons. So +it seems today. One saw hundreds of French soldiers, of course, in all +sorts of uniforms, from the new grey blue and visor to the traditional +cloth blouse and kepi; once in a while a smart French officer. The +English and Canadians, the Australians, New Zealanders, and Americans +were much in evidence. Set them down anywhere on the face of the globe, +under any conditions conceivable, and you could not surprise them; such +was the impression. The British officers and even the British Tommies +were blase, wearing the air of the 'semaine Anglaise', and the "five +o'clock tea," as the French delight to call it. That these could have +come direct from the purgatory of the trenches seemed unbelievable. +The Anzacs, with looped-up hats, strolled about, enjoying themselves, +halting before the shops in the Rue de la Paix to gaze at the priceless +jewellery there, or stopping at a sidewalk cafe to enjoy a drink. Our +soldiers had not seen the front; many of them, no doubt, were on leave +from the training-camps, others were on duty in Paris, but all seemed in +a hurry to get somewhere, bound for a definite destination. They might +have been in New York or San Francisco. It was a novel sight, indeed, +to observe them striding across the Place Vendome with out so much as +deigning to cast a glance at the column dedicated to the great +emperor who fought that other world-war a century ago; to see our +square-shouldered officers hustling around corners in Ford and Packard +automobiles. And the atmosphere of our communication headquarters was +so essentially one of "getting things done" as to make one forget the +mediaeval narrowness of the Rue Sainte Anne, and the inconvenient French +private-dwelling arrangements of the house. You were transported back +to America. Such, too, was the air of our Red Cross establishment in the +ancient building facing the Palace de la Concorde, where the unfortunate +Louis lost his head. + +History had been thrust into the background. I was never more aware of +this than when, shortly after dawn Wednesday, the massive grey pile +of the Palace of Versailles suddenly rose before me. As the motor shot +through the empty Place d'Armes I made a desperate attempt to summon +again a vivid impression, when I had first stood there many years ago, +of an angry Paris mob beating against that grill, of the Swiss guards +dying on the stairway for their Queen. But it was no use. France has +undergone some subtle change, yet I knew I was in France. I knew it when +we left Paris and sped through the dim leafy tunnels of the Bois; when +I beheld a touch of filtered sunlight on the dense blue thatch of the +'marroniers' behind the walls of a vast estate once dedicated to the +sports and pleasures of Kings; when I caught glimpses of silent chateaux +mirrored in still waters. + +I was on my way, with one of our naval officers, to visit an American +naval base on the western coast. It was France, but the laughter had +died on her lips. A few women and old men and children were to be seen +in the villages, a bent figure in a field, an occasional cart that drew +aside as we hurried at eighty kilometers an hour along deserted routes +drawn as with a ruler across the land. Sometimes the road dipped into a +canyon of poplars, and the sky between their crests was a tiny strip +of mottled blue and white. The sun crept in and out, the clouds cast +shadows on the hills; here and there the tower of lonely church or +castle broke the line of a distant ridge. Morning-glories nodded over +lodge walls where the ivy was turning crimson, and the little gardens +were masses of colours--French colours like that in the beds of the +Tuileries, brick-red geraniums and dahlias, yellow marigolds and purple +asters. + +We lunched at one of the little inns that for generations have been +tucked away in the narrow streets of provincial towns; this time a +Cheval Blanc, with an unimposing front and a blaze of sunshine in its +heart. After a dejeuner fit for the most exacting of bon viveurs we sat +in that courtyard and smoked, while an ancient waiter served us with +coffee that dripped through silver percolators into our glasses. The +tourists have fled. "If happily you should come again, monsieur," said +madame, as she led me with pardonable pride through her immaculate +bedrooms and salons with wavy floors. And I dwelt upon a future holiday +there, on the joys of sharing with a friend that historic place. The +next afternoon I lingered in another town, built on a little hill ringed +about with ancient walls, from whose battlements tide-veined marshes +stretched away to a gleaming sea. A figure flitting through the cobbled +streets, a woman in black who sat sewing, sewing in a window, only +served to heighten the impression of emptiness, to give birth to the odd +fancy that some alchemic quality in the honeyed sunlight now steeping it +must have preserved the place through the ages. But in the white close +surrounding the church were signs that life still persisted. A peasant +was drawing water at the pump, and the handle made a noise; a priest +chatted with three French ladies who had come over from a neighbouring +seaside resort. And then a woman in deep mourning emerged from a tiny +shop and took her bicycle from against the wall and spoke to me. + +"Vous etes Americain, monsieur?" + +I acknowledged it. + +"Vous venez nous sauver"--the same question I had heard on the lips of +the workman in the night. "I hope so, madame," I replied, and would +have added, "We come also to save ourselves." She looked at me with +sad, questioning eyes, and I knew that for her--and alas for many like +her--we were too late. When she had mounted her wheel and ridden away I +bought a 'Matin' and sat down on a doorstep to read about Kerensky and +the Russian Revolution. The thing seemed incredible here--war seemed +incredible, and yet its tentacles had reached out to this peaceful Old +World spot and taken a heavy toll. Once more I sought the ramparts, only +to be reminded by those crumbling, machicolated ruins that I was in a +war-ridden land. Few generations had escaped the pestilence. + +At no great distance lay the little city which had been handed over to +us by the French Government for a naval base, one of the ports where our +troops and supplies are landed. Those who know provincial France will +visualize its narrow streets and reticent shops, its grey-white and ecru +houses all more or less of the same design, with long French windows +guarded by ornamental balconies of cast iron--a city that has never +experienced such a thing as a real-estate boom. Imagine, against such +a background, the bewildering effect of the dynamic presence of a few +regiments of our new army! It is a curious commentary on this war that +one does not think of these young men as soldiers, but as citizens +engaged in a scientific undertaking of a magnitude unprecedented. You +come unexpectedly upon truck-loads of tanned youngsters, whose features, +despite flannel shirts and campaign hats, summon up memories of Harvard +Square and the Yale Yard, of campuses at Berkeley and Ithaca. The +youthful drivers of these camions are alert, intent, but a hard day's +work on the docks by no means suffices to dampen the spirits of the +passengers, who whistle ragtime airs as they bump over the cobbles. And +the note they strike is presently sustained by a glimpse, on a siding, +of an efficient-looking Baldwin, ranged alongside several of the tiny +French locomotives of yesterday; sustained, too, by an acquaintance +with the young colonel in command of the town. Though an officer of +the regular army, he brings home to one the fact that the days of the +military martinet have gone for ever. He is military, indeed-erect and +soldierly--but fortune has amazingly made him a mayor and an autocrat, +a builder, and in some sense a railway-manager and superintendent +of docks. And to these functions have been added those of police +commissioner, of administrator of social welfare and hygiene. It will +be a comfort to those at home to learn that their sons in our army in +France are cared for as no enlisted men have ever been cared for before. + + + +IV + +By the end of September I had reached England, eager to gain a fresh +impression of conditions there. + +The weather in London was mild and clear. The third evening after I had +got settled in one of those delightfully English hotels in the heart +of the city, yet removed from the traffic, with letter-boxes that still +bear the initials of Victoria, I went to visit some American naval +officers in their sitting-room on the ground floor. The cloth had not +been removed from the dinner-table, around which we were chatting, when +a certain strange sound reached our ears--a sound not to be identified +with the distant roar of the motor-busses in Pall Mall, nor with the +sharp bark of the taxi-horns, although not unlike them. We sat listening +intently, and heard the sound again. + +"The Germans have come," one of the officers remarked, as he finished +his coffee. The other looked at his watch. It was nine o'clock. "They +must have left their lines about seven," he said. + +In spite of the fact that our newspapers at home had made me familiar +with these aeroplane raids, as I sat there, amidst those comfortable +surroundings, the thing seemed absolutely incredible. To fly one hundred +and fifty miles across the Channel and southern England, bomb London, +and fly back again by midnight! We were going to be bombed! The +anti-aircraft guns were already searching the sky for the invaders. It +is sinister, and yet you are seized by an overwhelming curiosity that +draws you, first to pull aside the heavy curtains of the window, and +then to rush out into the dark street both proceedings in the worst +possible form! The little street was deserted, but in Pall Mall the dark +forms of busses could be made out scurrying for shelter, one wondered +where? Above the roar of London, the pop pop pop! of the defending guns +could be heard now almost continuously, followed by the shrieks and +moans of the shrapnel shells as they passed close overhead. They sounded +like giant rockets, and even as rockets some of them broke into a +cascade of sparks. Star shells they are called, bursting, it seemed, +among the immutable stars themselves that burned serenely on. And there +were other stars like November meteors hurrying across space--the lights +of the British planes scouring the heavens for their relentless enemies. +Everywhere the restless white rays of the searchlights pierced the +darkness, seeking, but seeking in vain. Not a sign of the intruders was +to be seen. I was induced to return to the sitting-room. + +"But what are they shooting at?" I asked. + +"Listen," said one of the officers. There came a lull in the firing +and then a faint, droning noise like the humming of insects on a still +summer day. "It's all they have to shoot at, that noise." + +"But their own planes?" I objected. + +"The Gotha has two engines, it has a slightly different noise, when you +get used to it. You'd better step out of that window. It's against the +law to show light, and if a bomb falls in the street you'd be filled +with glass." I overcame my fascination and obeyed. "It isn't only the +bombs," my friend went on, "it's the falling shrapnel, too." + +The noise made by those bombs is unmistakable, unforgetable, and quite +distinct from the chorus of the guns and shrapnel--a crashing note, +reverberating, sustained, like the E minor of some giant calliope. + +In face of the raids, which coincide with the coming of the moon, London +is calm, but naturally indignant over such methods of warfare. The +damage done is ridiculously small; the percentage of deaths and injuries +insignificant. There exists, in every large city, a riffraff to get +panicky: these are mostly foreigners; they seek the Tubes, and some +the crypt of St. Paul's, for it is wise to get under shelter during the +brief period of the raids, and most citizens obey the warnings of the +police. It is odd, indeed, that more people are not hurt by shrapnel. +The Friday following the raid I have described I went out of town for a +week-end, and returned on Tuesday to be informed that a shell had gone +through the roof outside of the room I had vacated, and the ceiling +and floor of the bedroom of one of the officers who lived below. He was +covered with dust and debris, his lights went out, but he calmly stepped +through the window. "You'd best have your dinner early, sir," I was told +by the waiter on my return. "Last night a lady had her soup up-stairs, +her chicken in the office, and her coffee in the cellar." It is worth +while noting that she had all three. Another evening, when I was dining +with Sir James Barrie, he showed me a handful of shrapnel fragments. "I +gathered them off the roof," he informed me. And a lady next to whom I +sat at luncheon told me in a matter-of-fact tone that a bomb had +fallen the night before in the garden of her town house. "It was quite +disagreeable," she said, "and broke all our windows on that side." +During the last raids before the moon disappeared, by a new and +ingenious system of barrage fire the Germans were driven off. The +question of the ethics of reprisals is agitating London. + +One "raid," which occurred at midday, is worth recording. I was on my +way to our Embassy when, in the residential quarter through which I +passed, I found all the housemaids in the areas gazing up at the sky, +and I was told by a man in a grocer's cart that the Huns had come again. +But the invader on this occasion turned out to be a British aviator from +one of the camps who was bringing a message to London. The warmth of his +reception was all that could be desired, and he alighted hastily in the +first open space that presented itself. + +Looking back to the time when I left America, I can recall the +expectation of finding a Britain beginning to show signs of distress. +I was prepared to live on a small ration. And the impression of the +scarcity of food was seemingly confirmed when the table was being set +for the first meal at my hotel; when the waiter, who chanced to be an +old friend, pointed to a little bowl half-full of sugar and exclaimed: +"I ought to warn you, sir, it's all you're to have for a week, and +I'm sorry to say you're only allowed a bit of bread, too." It is human +perversity to want a great deal of bread when bread becomes scarce; even +war bread, which, by the way, is better than white. But the rest of the +luncheon, when it came, proved that John Bull was under no necessity +of stinting himself. Save for wheat and sugar; he is not in want. +Everywhere in London you are confronted by signs of an incomprehensible +prosperity; everywhere, indeed, in Great Britain. There can be no doubt +about that of the wage-earners--nothing like it has ever been seen +before. One sure sign of this is the phenomenal sale of pianos to +households whose occupants had never dreamed of such luxuries. And not +once, but many times, have I read in the newspapers of workingmen's +families of four or five which are gaining collectively more than five +hundred pounds a year. The economic and social significance of this +tendency, the new attitude of the working classes, the ferment it is +causing need not be dwelt upon here. That England will be a changed +England is unquestionable. + +The London theatres are full, the "movies" crowded, and you have to wait +your turn for a seat at a restaurant. Bond Street and Piccadilly +are doing a thriving business--never so thriving, you are told, and +presently you are willing to believe it. The vendor beggars, so familiar +a sight a few years ago, have all but disappeared, and you may walk from +Waterloo Station to the Haymarket without so much as meeting a needy +soul anxious to carry your bag. Taxicabs are in great demand. And one +odd result of the scarcity of what the English are pleased to call +"petrol," by which they mean gasoline, is the reappearance of that +respectable, but almost obsolete animal, the family carriage-horse; +of that equally obsolete vehicle, the victoria. The men on the box are +invariably in black. In spite of taxes to make the hair of an American +turn grey, in spite of lavish charities, the wealthy classes still seem +wealthy--if the expression may be allowed. That they are not so wealthy +as they were goes without saying. In the country houses of the old +aristocracy the most rigid economy prevails. There are new fortunes, +undoubtedly, munitions and war fortunes made before certain measures +were taken to control profits; and some establishments, including a few +supported by American accumulations, still exhibit the number of men +servants and amount of gold plate formerly thought adequate. But in +most of these great houses maids have replaced the butlers and footmen; +mansions have been given over for hospitals; gardeners are fighting +in the trenches, and courts and drives of country places are often +overgrown with grass and weeds. + +"Yes, we do dine in public quite often," said a very great lady. "It's +cheaper than keeping servants." + +Two of her three sons had been killed in France, but she did not +mention this. The English do not advertise their sorrows. Still another +explanation when husbands and sons and brothers come back across the +Channel for a few days' leave after long months in the trenches, nothing +is too good for them. And when these days have flown, there is always +the possibility that there may never be another leave. Not long ago I +read a heart-rending article about the tragedies of the goodbyes in +the stations and the terminal hotels--tragedies hidden by silence and a +smile. "Well, so long," says an officer "bring back a V. C.," cries +his sister from the group on the platform, and he waves his hand in +deprecation as the train pulls out, lights his pipe, and pretends to be +reading the Sphere. + +Some evening, perchance, you happen to be in the dark street outside +of Charing Cross station. An occasional hooded lamp throws a precarious +gleam on a long line of men carrying--so gently--stretchers on which lie +the silent forms of rich and poor alike. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +For the student of history who is able to place himself within the +stream of evolution the really important events of today are not taking +place on the battle lines, but behind them. The key-note of the new era +has been struck in Russia. And as I write these words, after the Italian +retreat, a second revolution seems possible. For three years one has +thought inevitably of 1789, and of the ensuing world conflict out +of which issued the beginnings of democracy. History does not repeat +itself, yet evolution is fairly consistent. While our attention has been +focused on the military drama enacted before our eyes and recorded in +the newspapers, another drama, unpremeditated but of vastly greater +significance, is unfolding itself behind the stage. Never in the history +of the world were generals and admirals, statesmen and politicians so +sensitive to or concerned about public opinion as they are today. From +a military point of view the situation of the Allies at the present +writing is far from reassuring. Germany and her associates have the +advantage of interior lines, of a single dominating and purposeful +leadership, while our five big nations, democracies or semi-democracies, +are stretched in a huge ring with precarious connections on land, with +the submarine alert on the sea. Much of their territory is occupied. +They did not seek the war; they still lack co-ordination and leadership +in waging it. In some of these countries, at least, politicians and +statesmen are so absorbed by administrative duties, by national rather +than international problems, by the effort to sustain themselves, that +they have little time for allied strategy. Governments rise and fall, +familiar names and reputations are juggled about like numbered balls in +a shaker, come to the top to be submerged again in a new 'emeute'. There +are conferences and conferences without end. Meanwhile a social ferment +is at work, in Russia conspicuously, in Italy a little less so, in +Germany and Austria undoubtedly, in France and England, and even in our +own country--once of the most radical in the world, now become the most +conservative. + +What form will the social revolution take? Will it be unbridled, +unguided; will it run through a long period of anarchy before the +fermentation begun shall have been completed, or shall it be handled, in +all the nations concerned, by leaders who understand and sympathize with +the evolutionary trend, who are capable of controlling it, of taking +the necessary international steps of co-operation in order that it +may become secure and mutually beneficial to all? This is an age of +co-operation, and in this at least, if not in other matters, the United +States of America is in an ideal position to assume the leadership. + +To a certain extent, one is not prepared to say how far, the military +and social crises are interdependent. And undoubtedly the military +problem rests on the suppression of the submarine. If Germany continues +to destroy shipping on the seas, if we are not able to supply our new +armies and the Allied nations with food and other things, the increasing +social ferment will paralyze the military operations of the Entente. +The result of a German victory under such circumstances is impossible to +predict; but the chances are certainly not worth running. In a sense, +therefore, in a great sense, the situation is "up" to us in more +ways than one, not only to supply wise democratic leadership but to +contribute material aid and brains in suppressing the submarine, and to +build ships enough to keep Britain, France, and Italy from starving. +We are looked upon by all the Allies, and I believe justly, as being a +disinterested nation, free from the age-long jealousies of Europe. +And we can do much in bringing together and making more purposeful the +various elements represented by the nations to whose aid we have come. + +I had not intended in these early papers to comment, but to confine +myself to such of my experiences abroad as might prove interesting and +somewhat illuminating. So much I cannot refrain from saying. + +It is a pleasure to praise where praise is due, and too much cannot be +said of the personnel of our naval service--something of which I can +speak from intimate personal experience. In these days, in that part of +London near the Admiralty, you may chance to run across a tall, erect, +and broad-shouldered man in blue uniform with three stars on his collar, +striding rapidly along the sidewalk, and sometimes, in his haste, +cutting across a street. People smile at him--costermongers, clerks, +and shoppers--and whisper among themselves, "There goes the American +admiral!" and he invariably smiles back at them, especially at the +children. He is an admiral, every inch a seaman, commanding a devoted +loyalty from his staff and from the young men who are scouring the seas +with our destroyers. In France as well as in England the name Sims is a +household word, and if he chose he might be feted every day of the week. +He does not choose. He spends long hours instead in the quarters devoted +to his administration in Grosvenor Gardens, or in travelling in France +and Ireland supervising the growing forces under his command. + +It may not be out of place to relate a characteristic story of Admiral +Sims, whose career in our service, whose notable contributions to naval +gunnery are too well known to need repetition. Several years ago, on a +memorable trip to England, he was designated by the admiral of the fleet +to be present at a banquet given our sailors in the Guildhall. Of course +the lord mayor called upon him for a speech, but Commander Sims insisted +that a bluejacket should make the address. "What, a bluejacket!" +exclaimed the lord mayor in astonishment. "Do bluejackets make speeches +in your country?" "Certainly they do," said Sims. "Now there's a +fine-looking man over there, a quartermaster on my ship. Let's call on +him and see what he has to say." The quartermaster, duly summoned, rose +with aplomb and delivered himself of a speech that made the hall +ring, that formed the subject of a puzzled and amazed comment by +the newspapers of the British Capital. Nor was it ever divulged +that Commander Sims had foreseen the occasion and had picked out the +impressive quartermaster to make a reputation for oratory for the +enlisted force. + +As a matter of fact, it is no exaggeration to add that there were and +are other non-commissioned officers and enlisted men in the service who +could have acquitted themselves equally well. One has only to attend +some of their theatrical performances to be assured of it. + +But to the European mind our bluejacket is still something of an +anomaly. He is a credit to our public schools, a fruit of our system +of universal education. And he belongs to a service in which are +reconciled, paradoxically, democracy and discipline. One moment you may +hear a bluejacket talking to an officer as man to man, and the next you +will see him salute and obey an order implicitly. + +On a wet and smoky night I went from the London streets into the +brightness and warmth of that refuge for American soldiers and sailors, +the "Eagle Hut," as the Y. M. C. A. is called. The place was full, +as usual, but my glance was at once attracted by three strapping, +intelligent-looking men in sailor blouses playing pool in a corner. "I +simply can't get used to the fact that people like that are ordinary +sailors," said the lady in charge to me as we leaned against the +soda-fountain. "They're a continual pride and delight to us Americans +here--always so willing to help when there's anything to be done, and +so interesting to talk to." When I suggested that her ideas of the navy +must have been derived from Pinafore she laughed. "I can't imagine using +a cat-o'-nine-tails on them!" she exclaimed--and neither could I. +I heard many similar comments. They are indubitably American, these +sailors, youngsters with the stamp of our environment on their features, +keen and self-reliant. I am not speaking now only of those who have +enlisted since the war, but of those others, largely from the small +towns and villages of our Middle West, who in the past dozen years or so +have been recruited by an interesting and scientific system which is the +result of the genius of our naval recruiting officers. In the files at +Washington may be seen, carefully tabulated, the several reasons for +their enlisting. Some have "friends in the service"; others wish to +"perfect themselves in a trade," to "complete their education" or "see +the world"--our adventurous spirit. And they are seeing it. They are +also engaged in the most exciting and adventurous sport--with the +exception of aerial warfare ever devised or developed--that of hunting +down in all weathers over the wide spaces of the Atlantic those +modern sea monsters that prey upon the Allied shipping. For the +superdreadnought is reposing behind the nets, the battle-cruiser +ignominiously laying mines; and for the present at least, until some +wizard shall invent a more effective method of annihilation, victory +over Germany depends primarily on the airplane and the destroyer. +At three o'clock one morning I stood on the crowded deck of an Irish +mail-boat watching the full moon riding over Holyhead Mountain and +shimmering on the Irish Sea. A few hours later, in the early light, I +saw the green hills of Killarney against a washed and clearing sky, +the mud-flats beside the railway shining like purple enamel. All +the forenoon, in the train, I travelled through a country bathed in +translucent colours, a country of green pastures dotted over with white +sheep, of banked hedges and perfect trees, of shadowy blue hills in +the high distance. It reminded one of nothing so much as a +stained-glass-window depicting some delectable land of plenty and peace. +And it was Ireland! When at length I arrived at the station of the port +for which I was bound, and which the censor does not permit me to name, +I caught sight of the figure of our Admiral on the platform; and the +fact that I was in Ireland and not in Emmanuel's Land was brought home +to me by the jolting drive we took on an "outside car," the admiral +perched precariously over one wheel and I over the other. Winding up the +hill by narrow roads, we reached the gates of the Admiralty House. + +The house sits, as it were, in the emperor's seat of the amphitheatre +of the town, overlooking the panorama of a perfect harbour. A ring of +emerald hills is broken by a little gap to seaward, and in the centre +is a miniature emerald isle. The ships lying at anchor seemed like +children's boats in a pond. To the right, where a river empties in, were +scattered groups of queer, rakish craft, each with four slanting pipes +and a tiny flag floating from her halyards; a flag--as the binoculars +revealed--of crimson bars and stars on a field of blue. These were our +American destroyers. And in the midst of them, swinging to the tide, +were the big "mother ships" we have sent over to nurse them when, after +many days and nights of hazardous work at sea, they have brought their +flock of transports and merchantmen safely to port. This "mothering" by +repair-ships which are merely huge machine-shops afloat--this trick +of keeping destroyers tuned up and constantly ready for service has +inspired much favourable comment from our allies in the British +service. It is an instance of our national adaptability, learned from +an experience on long coasts where navy-yards are not too handy. Few +landsmen understand how delicate an instrument the destroyer is. + +A service so hazardous, demanding as it does such qualities as the +ability to make instantaneous decisions and powers of mental and +physical endurance, a service so irresistibly attractive to the young +and adventurous, produces a type of officer quite unmistakable. The day +I arrived in London from France, seeking a characteristically English +meal, I went to Simpson's in the Strand, where I found myself seated by +the side of two very junior officers of the British navy. It appeared +that they were celebrating what was left of a precious leave. At a +neighbouring table they spied two of our officers, almost equally +youthful. "Let's have 'em over," suggested one of the Britishers; and +they were "had" over; he raised his glass. "Here's how--as you say in +America!" he exclaimed. "You destroyer chaps are certainly top hole." +And then he added, with a blush, "I say, I hope you don't think I'm +cheeking you!" + +I saw them afloat, I saw them coming ashore in that Irish port, +these young destroyer captains, after five wakeful nights at sea, +weather-bitten, clear-eyed, trained down to the last ounce. One, with +whom I had played golf on the New England hills, carried his clubs in +his hand and invited me to have a game with him. Another, who apologized +for not being dressed at noon on Sunday--he had made the harbour at +three that morning!--was taking his racquet out of its case, preparing +to spend the afternoon on the hospitable courts of Admiralty House with +a fellow captain and two British officers. He was ashamed of his late +rising, but when it was suggested that some sleep was necessary he +explained that, on the trip just ended, it wasn't only the submarines +that kept him awake. "When these craft get jumping about in a seaway you +can't sleep even if you want to." He who has had experience with them +knows the truth of this remark. Incidentally, though he did not mention +it, this young captain was one of three who had been recommended by the +British admiral to his government for the Distinguished Service +Order. The captain's report, which I read, is terse, and needs to be +visualized. There is simply a statement of the latitude and longitude, +the time of day, the fact that the wave of a periscope was sighted at +1,500 yards by the quartermaster first class on duty; general quarters +rung, the executive officer signals full speed ahead, the commanding +officer takes charge and manoeuvres for position--and then something +happens which the censor may be fussy about mentioning. At any rate, +oil and other things rise to the surface of the sea, and the Germans are +minus another submarine. The chief machinist's mate, however, comes in +for special mention. It seems that he ignored the ladder and literally +fell down the hatch, dislocating his shoulder but getting the throttle +wide open within five seconds! + +In this town, facing the sea, is a street lined with quaint houses +painted in yellows and browns and greens, and under each house the kind +of a shop that brings back to the middleaged delectable memories of +extreme youth and nickels to spend. Up and down that street on a bright +Saturday afternoon may be seen our Middle-Western jackies chumming with +the British sailors and Tommies, or flirting with the Irish girls, or +gazing through the little panes of the show-windows, whose enterprising +proprietors have imported from the States a popular brand of chewing-gum +to make us feel more at home. In one of these shops, where I went to +choose a picture post-card, I caught sight of an artistic display of a +delicacy I had thought long obsolete--the everlasting gum-drop. But when +I produced a shilling the shopkeeper shook his head. "Sure, every day +the sailors are wanting to buy them of me, but it's for ornament I'm +keeping them," he said. "There's no more to be had till the war will +be over. Eight years they're here now, and you wouldn't get a tooth in +them, sir!" So I wandered out again, joined the admiral, and inspected +the Bluejackets' Club by the water's edge. Nothing one sees, perhaps, is +so eloquent of the change that has taken place in the life and fabric of +our navy. If you are an enlisted man, here in this commodious group of +buildings you can get a good shore meal and entertain your friends among +the Allies, you may sleep in a real bed, instead of a hammock, you may +play pool, or see a moving-picture show, or witness a vaudeville worthy +of professionals, like that recently given in honour of the visit of +the admiral of our Atlantic fleet. A band of thirty pieces furnished the +music, and in the opinion of the jackies one feature alone was lacking +to make the entertainment a complete success--the new drop-curtain had +failed to arrive from London. I happened to be present when this curtain +was first unrolled, and beheld spread out before me a most realistic +presentation of "little old New York," seen from the North River, +towering against blue American skies. And though I have never been +overfond of New York, that curtain in that place gave me a sensation! + +Such is the life of our officers and sailors in these strange times that +have descended upon us. Five to eight days of vigilance, of hardship +and danger--in short, of war--and then three days of relaxation and +enjoyment in clubs, on golf-courses and tennis-courts, barring the time +it takes to clean ship and paint. There need be no fear that the war +will be neglected. It is eminently safe to declare that our service will +be true to its traditions. + + + +III + +"Dogged does it" ought to be added to "Dieu et mon droit" and other +devices of England. On a day when I was lunching with Mr. Lloyd George +in the dining-room at 10 Downing Street that looks out over the Horse +Guards' Parade, the present premier, with a characteristic gesture, +flung out his hand toward the portrait of a young man in the panel over +the mantel. It was of the younger Pitt, who had taken his meals and +drunk his port in this very room in that other great war a hundred years +ago. The news of Austerlitz, brought to him during his illness, is said +to have killed him. But England, undismayed, fought on for a decade, +and won. Mr. Lloyd George, in spite of burdens even heavier than +Pitt's, happily retains his health; and his is the indomitable spirit +characteristic of the new Britain as well as of the old. For it is a new +Britain one sees. Mr. Lloyd George is prime minister of a transformed +Britain, a Britain modernized and democratized. Like the Englishman who, +when he first witnessed a performance of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," cried +out, "How very unlike the home life of our dear Queen!" the American who +lunches in Downing Street is inclined to exclaim: "How different from +Lord North and Palmerston!" We have, I fear, been too long accustomed +to interpret Britain in terms of these two ministers and of what they +represented to us of the rule of a George the Third or of an inimical +aristocracy. Three out of the five men who form the war cabinet of an +empire are of what would once have been termed an "humble origin." +One was, if I am not mistaken, born in Nova Scotia. General Smuts, +unofficially associated with this council, not many years ago was in +arms against Britain in South Africa, and the prime minister himself +is the son of a Welsh tailor. A situation that should mollify the most +exacting and implacable of our anti-British democrats! + +I listened to many speeches and explanations of the prejudice that +existed in the mind of the dyed-in-the-wool American against England, +and the reason most frequently given was the "school-book" reason; +our histories kept the feeling alive. Now; there is no doubt that the +histories out of which we were taught made what psychologists would +call "action patterns," or "complexes," in our brains, just as the +school-books have made similar complexes in the brains of German +children and prepared them for this war. But, after all, there was a +certain animus behind the histories. Boiled down, the sentiment was one +against the rule of a hereditary aristocracy, and our forefathers had it +long before the separation took place. The Middle-Western farmer has no +prejudice against France, because France is a republic. The French are +lovable, and worthy of all the sympathy and affection we can give them. +But Britain is still nominally a monarchy; and our patriot thinks of its +people very much as the cowboy used to regard citizens of New York. They +all lived on Fifth Avenue. For the cowboy, the residents of the dreary +side streets simply did not exist. We have been wont to think of all +the British as aristocrats, while they have returned the compliment by +visualizing all Americans as plutocrats--despite the fact that one-tenth +of our population is said to own nine-tenths of all our wealth! + +But the war will change that, is already changing it. + +'Tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner'. We have been soaked in the same +common law, literature, and traditions of liberty--or of chaos, as one +likes. Whether we all be of British origin or not, it is the mind that +makes the true patriot; and there is no American so dead as not to feel +a thrill when he first sets foot on British soil. Our school-teachers +felt it when they began to travel some twenty years ago, and the +thousands of our soldiers who pass through on their way to France are +feeling it today, and writing home about it. Our soldiers and sailors +are being cared for and entertained in England just as they would be +cared for and entertained at home. So are their officers. Not long ago +one of the finest town houses in London was donated by the owner for +an American officers' club, the funds were raised by contributions +from British officers, and the club was inaugurated by the King and +Queen--and Admiral Sims. Hospitality and good-will have gone much +further than this. Any one who knows London will understand the +sacredness of those private squares, surrounded by proprietary +residences, where every tree and every blade of grass has been jealously +guarded from intrusion for a century or more. And of all these squares +that of St. James's is perhaps the most exclusive, and yet it is +precisely in St. James's there is to be built the first of those hotels +designed primarily for the benefit of American officers, where they can +get a good room for five shillings a night and breakfast at a reasonable +price. One has only to sample the war-time prices of certain hostelries +to appreciate the value of this. + + +On the first of four unforgettable days during which I was a guest +behind the British lines in France the officer who was my guide stopped +the motor in the street of an old village, beside a courtyard surrounded +by ancient barns. + +"There are some of your Americans," he remarked. + +I had recognized them, not by their uniforms but by their type. Despite +their costumes, which were negligible, they were eloquent of college +campuses in every one of our eight and forty States, lean, thin-hipped, +alert. The persistent rains had ceased, a dazzling sunlight made that +beautiful countryside as bright as a coloured picture post-card, but a +riotous cold gale was blowing; yet all wore cotton trousers that left +their knees as bare as Highlanders' kilts. Above these some had an +sweaters, others brown khaki tunics, from which I gathered that they +belonged to the officers' training corps. They were drawn up on two +lines facing each other with fixed bayonets, a grim look on their faces +that would certainly have put any Hun to flight. Between the files stood +an unmistakable gipling sergeant with a crimson face and a bristling +little chestnut moustache, talking like a machine gun. + +"Now, then, not too lidylike!--there's a Bosch in front of you! Run 'im +through! Now, then!" + +The lines surged forward, out went the bayonets, first the long thrust +and then the short, and then a man's gun was seized and by a swift +backward twist of the arm he was made helpless. + +"Do you feel it?" asked the officer, as he turned to me. I did. "Up +and down your spine," he added, and I nodded. "Those chaps will do," +he said. He had been through that terrible battle of the Somme, and he +knew. So had the sergeant. + +Presently came a resting-spell. One of the squad approached me, whom I +recognized as a young man I had met in the Harvard Union. + +"If you write about this," he said, "just tell our people that we're +going to take that sergeant home with us when the war's over. He's too +good to lose." + + + +IV + +It is trite to observe that democracies are organized--if, indeed, they +are organized at all--not for war but for peace. And nowhere is this +fact more apparent than in Britain. Even while the war is in progress +has that internal democratic process of evolution been going on, +presaging profound changes in the social fabric. And these changes must +be dealt with by statesmen, must be guided with one hand while the war +is being prosecuted with the other. The task is colossal. In no previous +war have the British given more striking proof of their inherent quality +of doggedness. Greatness, as Confucius said, does not consist in never +falling, but in rising every time you fall. The British speak with +appalling frankness of their blunders. They are fighting, indeed, for +the privilege of making blunders--since out of blunders arise new truths +and discoveries not contemplated in German philosophy. + +America must now contribute what Britain and France, with all their +energies and resources and determination, have hitherto been unable +to contribute. It must not be men, money, and material alone, but some +quality that America has had in herself during her century and a half +of independent self-realization. Mr. Chesterton, in writing about the +American Revolution, observes that the real case for the colonists is +that they felt that they could be something which England would not help +them to be. It is, in fact, the only case for separation. What may +be called the English tradition of democracy, which we inherit, grows +through conflicts and differences, through experiments and failures and +successes, toward an intellectualized unity,--experiments by states, +experiments by individuals, a widely spread development, and new +contributions to the whole. + +Democracy has arrived at the stage when it is ceasing to be national and +selfish. + +It must be said of England, in her treatment of her colonies subsequent +to our Revolution, that she took this greatest of all her national +blunders to heart. As a result, Canada and Australia and New Zealand +have sent their sons across the seas to fight for an empire that +refrains from coercion; while, thanks to the policy of the British +Liberals--which was the expression of the sentiment of the British +nation--we have the spectacle today of a Botha and a Smuts fighting +under the Union Jack. + +And how about Ireland? England has blundered there, and she admits it +freely. They exist in England who cry out for the coercion of Ireland, +and who at times have almost had their way. But to do this, of course, +would be a surrender to the German contentions, an acknowledgment of the +wisdom of the German methods against which she is protesting with all +her might. Democracy, apparently, must blunder on until that question +too, is solved. + + + +V + +Many of those picturesque features of the older England, that stir us by +their beauty and by the sense of stability and permanence they convey, +will no doubt disappear or be transformed. I am thinking of the great +estates, some of which date from Norman times; I am thinking of +the aristocracy, which we Americans repudiated in order to set up +a plutocracy instead. Let us hope that what is fine in it will +be preserved, for there is much. By the theory of the British +constitution--that unwritten but very real document--in return for +honours, emoluments, and titles, the burden of government has hitherto +been thrown on a class. Nor can it be said that they have been untrue to +their responsibility. That class developed a tradition and held fast to +it; and they had a foreign policy that guided England through centuries +of greatness. Democracy too must have a foreign policy, a tradition of +service; a trained if not hereditary group to guide it through troubled +waters. Even in an intelligent community there must be leadership. And, +if the world will no longer tolerate the old theories, a tribute may +at least be paid to those who from conviction upheld them; who ruled, +perhaps in affluence, yet were also willing to toil and, if need be, to +die for the privilege. + +One Saturday afternoon, after watching for a while the boys playing +fives and football and romping over the green lawns at Eton, on my way +to the head master's rooms I paused in one of the ancient quads. My eye +had been caught by a long column of names posted there, printed in heavy +black letters. 'Etona non, immemora'! Every week many new names are +added to those columns. On the walls of the chapel and in other quads +and passages may be found tablets and inscriptions in memory of those +who have died for England and the empire in by-gone wars. I am told that +the proportion of Etonians of killed to wounded is greater than that +of any other public school--which is saying a great deal. They go back +across the channel and back again until their names appear on the last +and highest honour list of the school and nation. + +In one of the hospitals I visited lay a wounded giant who had once been +a truckman in a little town in Kent. Incidentally, in common with his +neighbours, he had taken no interest in the war, which had seemed as +remote to him as though he had lived in North Dakota. One day a Zeppelin +dropped a bomb on that village, whereupon the able-bodied males enlisted +to a man, and he with them. A subaltern in his company was an Eton boy. +"We just couldn't think of 'im as an orficer, sir; in the camps 'e used +to play with us like a child. And then we went to France. And one night +when we was wet to the skin and the Boschs was droppin' shell all +around us we got the word. It was him leaped over the top first of all, +shouting back at us to come on. He tumbled right back and died in my +arms, 'e did, as I was climbin' up after 'im. I shan't ever forget 'im." + +As you travel about in these days you become conscious, among the people +you meet, of a certain bewilderment. A static world and a static order +are dissolving; and in England that order was so static as to make the +present spectacle the more surprising. Signs of the disintegration of +the old social strata were not lacking, indeed, in the earlier years of +the twentieth century, when labour members and north-country radicals +began to invade parliament; but the cataclysm of this war has +accelerated the process. In the muddy trenches of Flanders and France +a new comradeship has sprung up between officers and Tommies, while +time-honoured precedent has been broken by the necessity of giving +thousands of commissions to men of merit who do not belong to the +"officer caste." At the Haymarket Theatre I saw a fashionable audience +wildly applaud a play in which the local tailor becomes a major-general +and returns home to marry the daughter of the lord of a mayor whose +clothes he used to cut before the war. + +"The age of great adventure," were the words used by Mr. H. G. Wells to +describe this epoch as we discussed it. And a large proportion of +the descendants of those who have governed England for centuries are +apparently imbued with the spirit of this adventure, even though it +may spell the end of their exclusive rule. As significant of the social +mingling of elements which in the past never exchanged ideas or points +of view I shall describe a week-end party at a large country house of +Liberal complexion; on the Thames. I have reason to believe it fairly +typical. The owner of this estate holds an important position in the +Foreign Office, and the hostess has, by her wit and intelligent grasp of +affairs, made an enviable place for herself. On her right, at luncheon +on Sunday, was a labour leader, the head of one of the most powerful +unions in Britain, and next him sat a member of one of the oldest of +England's titled families. The two were on terms of Christian names. The +group included two or three women, a sculptor and an educator, another +Foreign Office official who has made a reputation since the beginning of +the war, and finally an employer of labour, the chairman of the biggest +shipbuilding company in England. + +That a company presenting such a variety of interests should have been +brought together in the frescoed dining-room of that particular house is +noteworthy. + +The thing could happen nowhere save in the England of today. At first +the talk was general, ranging over a number of subjects from that of +the personality of certain politicians to the conduct of the war and +the disturbing problem raised by the "conscientious objector"; little +by little, however, the rest of us became silent, to listen to a debate +which had begun between the labour leader and the ship-builder on the +"labour question." It is not my purpose here to record what they said. +Needless to add that they did not wholly agree, but they were much +nearer to agreement than one would have thought possible. What was +interesting was the open-mindedness with which, on both sides, the +argument was conducted, and the fact that it could seriously take place +then and there. For the subject of it had long been the supreme problem +in the lives of both these men, their feelings concerning it must at +times have been tinged with bitterness, yet they spoke with courtesy and +restraint, and though each maintained his contentions he was quick to +acknowledge a point made by the other. As one listened one was led +to hope that a happier day is perhaps at hand when such things as +"complexes" and convictions will disappear. + +The types of these two were in striking contrast. The labour leader was +stocky, chestnut-coloured, vital, possessing the bulldog quality of +the British self-made man combined with a natural wit, sharpened in the +arena, that often startled the company into an appreciative laughter. +The ship-builder, on the other hand, was one of those spare and hard +Englishmen whom no amount of business cares will induce to neglect +the exercise of his body, the obligation at all times to keep "fit"; +square-rigged, as it were, with a lean face and a wide moustache +accentuating a square chin. Occasionally a gleam of humour, a ray of +idealism, lighted his practical grey eyes. Each of these two had managed +rather marvellously to triumph over early training by self-education: +the labour leader, who had had his first lessons in life from injustices +and hard knocks; and the ship-builder, who had overcome the handicap of +the public-school tradition and of Manchester economics. + +"Yes, titles and fortunes must go," remarked our hostess with a smile as +she rose from the table and led the way out on the sunny, stone-flagged +terrace. Below us was a wide parterre whose flower-beds, laid out by a +celebrated landscape-gardener in the days of the Stuarts, were filled +with vegetables. The day was like our New England Indian summerthough +the trees were still heavy with leaves--and a gossamer-blue veil of haze +stained the hills between which the shining river ran. If the social +revolution, or evolution, takes place, one wonders what will become of +this long-cherished beauty. + +I venture to dwell upon one more experience of that week-end party. +The Friday evening of my arrival I was met at the station, not by a +limousine with a chauffeur and footman, but by a young woman with a +taxicab--one of the many reminders that a war is going on. London had +been reeking in a green-yellow fog, but here the mist was white, and +through it I caught glimpses of the silhouettes of stately trees in a +park, and presently saw the great house with its clock-tower looming up +before me. A fire was crackling in the hall, and before it my hostess +was conversing amusedly with a well-known sculptor--a sculptor typical +of these renaissance times, large, full-blooded, with vigorous opinions +on all sorts of matters. + +"A lecturer is coming down from London to talk to the wounded in the +amusement-hall of the hospital," our hostess informed us. "And you both +must come and speak too." + +The three of us got into the only motor of which the establishment now +boasts, a little runabout using a minimum of "petrol," and she guided +us rapidly by devious roads through the fog until a blur of light +proclaimed the presence of a building, one of some score or more built +on the golf-course by the British Government. I have not space hereto +describe that hospital, which is one of the best in England; but it must +be observed that its excellence and the happiness of its inmates are +almost wholly due to the efforts of the lady who now conducted us across +the stage of the amusement-hall, where all the convalescents who +could walk or who could be rolled thither in chairs were gathered. The +lecturer had not arrived. But the lady of the manor seated herself at +the speaker's table, singling out Scotch wits in the audience--for +whom she was more than a match--while the sculptor and I looked on and +grinned and resisted her blandishments to make speeches. When at last +the lecturer came he sat down informally on the table with one foot +hanging in the air and grinned, too, at her bantering but complimentary +introduction. It was then I discovered for the first time that he was +one of the best educational experts of that interesting branch of the +British Government, the Department of Reconstruction, whose business +it is to teach the convalescents the elements of social and political +science. This was not to be a lecture, he told them, but a debate in +which every man must take a part. And his first startling question was +this: + +"Why should Mr. Lloyd George, instead of getting five thousand pounds a +year for his services as prime minister, receive any more than a common +labourer?" + +The question was a poser. The speaker folded his hands and beamed down +at them; he seemed fairly to radiate benignity. + +"Now we mustn't be afraid of him, just because he seems to be +intelligent," declared our hostess. This sally was greeted with +spasmodic laughter. Her eyes flitted from bench to bench, yet met +nothing save averted glances. "Jock! Where are you, Jock? Why don't you +speak up?--you've never been downed before." + +More laughter, and craning of necks for the Jocks. This appeared to be +her generic name for the vita. But the Jocks remained obdurately modest. +The prolonged silence did not seem in the least painful to the lecturer, +who thrust his hand in his pocket and continued to beam. He had learned +how to wait. And at last his patience was rewarded. A middleaged soldier +with a very serious manner arose hesitatingly, with encouraging noises +from his comrades. + +"It's not Mr. Lloyd George I'm worrying about, sir," he said, "all I +wants is enough for the missus and me. I had trouble to get that before +the war." + +Cries of "Hear! Hear!" + +"Why did you have trouble?" inquired the lecturer mildly. + +"The wages was too low." + +"And why were the wages too low?" + +"You've got me there. I hadn't thought." + +"But isn't it your business as a voter to think?" asked the lecturer. +"That's why the government is sending me here, to start you to thinking, +to remind you that it is you soldiers who will have to take charge of +this country and run it after the war is over. And you won't be able to +do that unless you think, and think straight." + +"We've never been taught to think," was the illuminating reply. + +"And if we do think we've never been educated to express ourselves, same +as you!" shouted another man, in whom excitement had overcome timidity. + +"I'm here to help you educate yourselves," said the lecturer. "But first +let's hear any ideas you may have on the question I asked you." + +There turned out to be plenty of ideas, after all. An opinion was +ventured that Mr. Lloyd George served the nation, not for money but from +public spirit; a conservative insisted that ability should be rewarded +and rewarded well; whereupon ensued one of the most enlightening +discussions, not only as a revelation of intelligence, but of complexes +and obsessions pervading many of the minds in whose power lies the +ultimate control of democracies. One, for instance, declared that--"if +every man went to church proper of a Sunday and minded his own business +the country would get along well enough." He was evidently of the +opinion that there was too much thinking and not enough of what he would +have termed "religion." Gradually that audience split up into liberals +and conservatives; and the liberals noticeably were the younger men who +had had the advantages of better board schools, who had formed fewer +complexes and had had less time in which to get them set. Of these, a +Canadian made a plea for the American system of universal education, +whereupon a combative "stand-patter" declared that every man wasn't fit +to be educated, that the American plan made only for discontent. "Look +at them," he exclaimed, "They're never satisfied to stay in their +places." This provoked laughter, but it was too much for the +sculptor--and for me. We both broke our vows and made speeches in favour +of equality and mental opportunity, while the lecturer looked on and +smiled. Mr. Lloyd George and his salary were forgotten. By some subtle +art of the chairman the debate had been guided to the very point where +he had from the first intended to guide it--to the burning question of +our day--education as the true foundation of democracy! Perhaps, after +all, this may be our American contribution to the world's advance. + +As we walked homeward through the fog I talked to him of Professor +Dewey's work and its results, while he explained to me the methods of +the Reconstruction Department. "Out of every audience like that we get +a group and form a class," he said. "They're always a bit backward at +first, just as they were tonight, but they grow very keen. We have +a great many classes already started, and we see to it that they are +provided with text-books and teachers. Oh, no, it's not propaganda," he +added, in answer to my query; "all we do is to try to give them facts in +such a way as to make them able to draw their own conclusions and join +any political party they choose--just so they join one intelligently." +I must add that before Sunday was over he had organized his class and +arranged for their future instruction. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +I would speak first of a contrast--and yet I have come to recognize how +impossible it is to convey to the dweller in America the difference in +atmosphere between England and France on the one hand and our country on +the other. And when I use the word "atmosphere" I mean the mental state +of the peoples as well as the weather and the aspect of the skies. I +have referred in another article to the anxious, feverish prosperity one +beholds in London and Paris, to that apparent indifference, despite the +presence on the streets of crowds of soldiers to the existence of a war +of which one is ever aware. Yet, along with this, one is ever conscious +of pressure. The air is heavy; there is a corresponding lack of the +buoyancy of mind which is the normal American condition. Perhaps, +if German troops occupied New England and New York, our own mental +barometer might be lower. It is difficult to say. At any rate, after +an ocean voyage of nine days one's spirits rise perceptibly as the ship +nears Nantucket; and the icy-bright sunlight of New York harbour, the +sight of the buildings aspiring to blue skies restore the throbbing +optimism which with us is normal; and it was with an effort, when I +talked to the reporters on landing, that I was able to achieve and +express the pessimism and darkness out of which I had come. Pessimism +is perhaps too strong a word, and takes no account of the continued +unimpaired morale and determination of the greater part of the British +and French peoples. They expect much from us. Yet the impression was +instantaneous, when I set forth in the streets of New York, that we had +not fully measured the magnitude of our task--an impression that has +been amply confirmed as the weeks have passed. + +The sense of relief I felt was not only the result of bright skies and +a high barometer, of the palpable self-confidence of the pedestrians, of +the white bread on the table and the knowledge that there was more, +but also of the ease of accomplishing things. I called for a telephone +number and got it cheerfully and instantly. I sent several telegrams, +and did not have to wait twenty minutes before a wicket while a +painstaking official multiplied and added and subtracted and paused to +talk with a friend; the speed of the express in which I flew down-town +seemed emblematic of America itself. I had been transported, in fact, +into another world--my world; and in order to realize again that from +which I had come I turned to a diary recording a London filled with the +sulphur fumes of fog, through which the lamps of the taxis and buses +shone as yellow blots reflected on glistening streets; or, for some +reason a still greater contrast, a blue, blue November Sunday afternoon +in parts, the Esplanade of the Invalides black with people--sad +people--and the Invalides itself all etched in blue as seen through the +wide vista from the Seine. + +A few days later, with some children, I went to the Hippodrome. And it +remained for the Hippodrome, of all places, to give me the thrill I had +not achieved abroad, the thrill I had not experienced since the first +months of the war. Mr. George Cohan accomplished it. The transport with +steam up, is ready to leave the wharf, the khaki-clad regiment of erect +and vigorous young Americans marches across the great stage, and the +audience strains forward and begins to sing, under its breath, the words +that proclaim, as nothing else perhaps proclaims, how America feels. + + "Send the word, send the word over there... + We'll be o-ver, we're coming o-ver, + And we won't come back till it's o-ver, over there!" + +Is it the prelude of a tragedy? We have always been so successful, we +Americans. Are we to fail now? I am an American, and I do not believe we +are to fail. But I am soberer, somehow a different American than he who +sailed away in August. Shall we learn other things than those that have +hitherto been contained in our philosophy? + +Of one thing I am convinced. It is the first war of the world that is +not a miltary war, although miltary genius is demanded, although it is +the bloodiest war in history. But other qualities are required; men and +women who are not professional soldiers are fighting in it and will aid +in victory. The pomp and circumstance of other wars are lacking in this, +the greatest of all. We had the thrills, even in America, three years +ago, when Britain and France and Canada went in. We tingled when we +read of the mobilizing of the huge armies, of the leave-takings of +the soldiers. We bought every extra for news of those first battles +on Belgian soil. And I remember my sensations when in the province +of Quebec in the autumn of 1914, looking out of the car-window at the +troops gathering on the platforms who were to go across the seas +to fight for the empire and liberty. They were singing "Tipperary!" +"Tipperary!" One seldoms hears it now, and the way has proved +long--longer than we reckoned. And we are singing "Over There!" + +In those first months of the war there was, we were told, in England +and France a revival of "religion," and indeed many of the books then +written gave evidence of having been composed in exalted, mystic moods. +I remember one in particular, called "En Campagne," by a young French +officer. And then, somehow, the note of mystic exaltation died away, +to be succeeded by a period of realism. Read "Le Feu," which is most +typical, which has sold in numberless editions. Here is a picture +of that other aspect--the grimness, the monotony, and the frequent +bestiality of trench life, the horror of slaughtering millions of men +by highly specialized machinery. And yet, as an American, I strike +inevitably the note of optimism once more. Even now the truer spiritual +goal is glimpsed through the battle clouds, and has been hailed in +world-reverberating phrases by our American President. Day by day the +real issue is clearer, while the "religion" it implies embraces not +one nation, wills not one patriotism, but humanity itself. I heard a +Frenchwoman who had been deeply "religious" in the old sense exclaim: "I +no longer have any faith in God; he is on the side of the Germans." When +the war began there were many evidences of a survival of that faith that +God fights for nations, interferes in behalf of the "righteous" +cause. When General Joffre was in America he was asked by one of our +countrywomen how the battle of the Marne was won. "Madame," he is +reported to have said, "it was won by me, by my generals and soldiers." +The tendency to regard this victory, which we hope saved France and the +Western humanitarian civilization we cherish, as a special interposition +of Providence, as a miracle, has given place to the realization that +the battle was won by the resourcefulness, science, and coolness of the +French commander-in-chief. Science preserves armies, since killing, if +it has to be done, is now wholly within that realm; science heals the +wounded, transports them rapidly to the hospitals, gives the shattered +something still to live for; and, if we are able to abandon the +sentimental view and look facts in the face--as many anointed chaplains +in Europe are doing--science not only eliminates typhoid but is able to +prevent those terrible diseases that devastate armies and nations. And +science is no longer confined to the physical but has invaded the +social kingdom, is able to weave a juster fabric into the government +of peoples. On all sides we are beginning to embrace the +religion of self-reliance, a faith that God is on the side of +intelligence--intelligence with a broader meaning than the Germans have +given it, for it includes charity. + + + +II + +It seems to me that I remember, somewhere in the realistic novel I have +mentioned "Le Feu"--reading of singing soldiers, and an assumption +on the part of their hearers that such songs are prompted only by a +devil-may-care lightness of heart which the soldier achieves. A shallow +psychology (as the author points out), especially in these days of +trench warfare! The soldier sings to hide his real feelings, perhaps to +give vent to them. I am reminded of all this in connection with my trip +to the British front. I left London after lunch on one of those dreary, +grey days to which I have referred; the rain had begun to splash angrily +against the panes of the car windows before we reached the coast. At +five o'clock the boat pushed off into a black channel, whipped by a gale +that drove the rain across the decks and into every passage and gangway. +The steamer was literally loaded with human beings, officers and men +returning from a brief glimpse of home. There was nothing of the glory +of war in the embarkation, and, to add to the sad and sinister effect of +it, each man as he came aboard mounted the ladder and chose, from a pile +on the hatch combing, a sodden life-preserver, which he flung around his +shoulders as he went in search of a shelter. The saloon below, where +we had our tea, was lighted indeed, but sealed so tight as to be +insupportable; and the cabin above, stifling too, was dark as a pocket. +One stumbled over unseen passengers on the lounges, or sitting on kits +on the floor. Even the steps up which I groped my way to the deck above +were filled, while on the deck there was standing-room only and not much +of that. Mal de mer added to the discomforts of many. At length I found +an uncertain refuge in a gangway amidships, hedged in between unseen +companions; but even here the rain stung our faces and the spray of +an occasional comber drenched our feet, while through the gloom of the +night only a few yards of white water were to be discerned. For three +hours I stood there, trying to imagine what was in the minds of these +men with whose bodies I was in such intimate contact. They were going +to a foreign land to fight, many of them to die, not in one of those +adventurous campaigns of times gone by, but in the wet trenches or the +hideous No Man's Land between. What were the images they summoned up in +the darkness? Visions of long-familiar homes and long-familiar friends? +And just how were they facing the future? Even as I wondered, voices +rose in a song, English voices, soldier voices. It was not "Tipperary," +the song that thrilled us a few years ago. I strove to catch the words: + + "I want to go home! + I don't want to go back to the trenches no more, + Where there are bullets and shrapnel galore, + I want to go home!" + +It was sung boisterously, in a defiant tone of mockery of the desire it +expressed, and thus tremendously gained in pathos. They did want to go +home--naturally. It was sung with the same spirit our men sing "We won't +come back till it's over, over there!" The difference is that these +Britishers have been over there, have seen the horrors face to face, +have tasted the sweets of home, and in spite of heartsickness and +seasickness are resolved to see it through. Such is the morale of the +British army. I have not the slightest doubt that it will be the morale +of our own army also, but at present the British are holding the fort. +Tommy would never give up the war, but he has had a realistic taste of +it, and his songs reflect his experience. Other songs reached my ears +each night, above the hissing and pounding of the Channel seas, but +the unseen group returned always to this. One thought of Agincourt and +Crecy, of Waterloo, of the countless journeys across this same stormy +strip of water the ancestors of these man had made in the past, and one +wondered whether war were eternal and inevitable, after all. + +And what does Tommy think about it--this war? My own limited +experience thoroughly indorses Mr. Galsworthy's splendid analysis of +British-soldier psychology that appeared in the December North American. +The average man, with native doggedness, is fighting for the defence of +England. The British Government itself, in its reconstruction department +for the political education of the wounded, has given partial denial +to the old maxim that it is the soldier's business not to think but to +obey; and the British army is leavened with men who read and reflect +in the long nights of watching in the rain, who are gaining ideas about +conditions in the past and resolutions concerning those of the future. +The very army itself has had a miracle happen to it: it has been +democratized--and with the cheerful consent of the class to which +formerly the possession of commissions was largely confined. Gradually, +to these soldier-thinkers, as well as to the mass of others at home, +is unfolding the vision of a new social order which is indeed worth +fighting for and dying for. + + + +III + +At last, our knees cramped and our feet soaked, we saw the lights of the +French port dancing across the veil of rain, like thistledowns of fire, +and presently we were at rest at a stone quay. As I stood waiting on the +deck to have my passport vised, I tried to reconstruct the features of +this little seaport as I had seen it, many years before, on a bright +summer's day when I had motored from Paris on my way to London. The gay +line of hotels facing the water was hidden in the darkness. Suddenly I +heard my name called, and I was rescued from the group of civilians by +a British officer who introduced himself as my host. It was after nine +o'clock, and he had been on the lookout for me since half past seven. +The effect of his welcome at that time and place was electrical, and +I was further immensely cheered by the news he gave me, as we hurried +along the street, that two friends of mine were here and quite hungry, +having delayed dinner for my arrival. One of them was a young member +of Congress who had been making exhaustive studies of the situation in +Italy, France and England, and the other one of our best-known writers, +both bound for London. We sat around the table until nearly eleven, +exchanging impressions and experiences. Then my officer declared that it +was time to go home. + +"Home" proved to be the big chateau which the British Government has +leased for the kindly purpose of entertaining such American guests as +they choose to invite. It is known as the "American Chateau," and in the +early morning hours we reached it after a long drive through the gale. +We crossed a bridge over a moat and traversed a huge stone hall to +the Gothic drawing-room. Here a fire was crackling on the hearth, +refreshments were laid out, and the major in command rose from his book +to greet me. Hospitality, with these people, has attained to art, and, +though I had come here at the invitation of his government, I had the +feeling of being his personal guest in his own house. Presently he led +the way up the stone stairs and showed me the room I was to occupy. + +I awoke to the sound of the wind whistling through the open lattice, and +looking down on the ruffled blue waters of the moat I saw a great white +swan at his morning toilet, his feathers dazzling in the sun. It was one +of those rare crisp and sparkling days that remind one of our American +autumn. A green stretch of lawn made a vista through the woods. +Following the example of the swan, I plunged into the tin tub the +orderly had placed beside my bed and went down to porridge in a glow. +Porridge, for the major was Scotch, and had taught his French cook to +make it as the Scotch make it. Then, going out into the hall, from a +table on which lay a contour map of the battle region, the major picked +up a hideous mask that seemed to have been made for some barbaric +revelries. + +"We may not strike any gas," he said, "but it's as well to be on the +safe side," whereupon he made me practise inserting the tube in my +mouth, pinching the nostrils instantly with the wire-covered nippers. +He also presented me with a steel helmet. Thus equipped for any untoward +occurrence, putting on sweaters and heavy overcoats, and wrapping +ourselves in the fur rugs of the waiting automobile, we started off, +with the gale on our quarter, for the front. + +Picardy, on whose soil has been shed so much English blood, never was +more beautiful than on that October day. The trees were still in full +leaf, the fields green, though the crops had been gathered, and the +crystal air gave vivid value to every colour in the landscape. From time +to time we wound through the cobble-stoned streets of historic villages, +each having its stone church end the bodki-shaped steeple of blue slate +so characteristic of that country. And, as though we were still in +the pastoral times of peace, in the square of one of these villages a +horse-fair was in progress, blue-smocked peasants were trotting +chunky ponies over the stones. It was like a picture from one of De +Maupassant's tales. In other villages the shawled women sat knitting +behind piles of beets and cabbages and apples, their farm-carts atilt in +the sun. Again and again I tried to grasp the fact that the greatest of +world wars was being fought only a few miles away--and failed. + +We had met, indeed, an occasional officer or orderly, huddled in a +greatcoat and head against the wind, exercising those wonderful animals +that are the pride of the British cavalry and which General Sir Douglas +Haig, himself a cavalryman, some day hopes to bring into service. We +had overtaken an artillery train rumbling along toward the east, the +men laughing and joking as they rode, as though they were going to +manoeuvres. Farther on, as the soldiers along the highroads and in the +towns grew more and more numerous, they seemed so harmoniously part of +the peaceful scene that war was as difficult to visualize as ever. Many +sat about smoking their pipes and playing with the village children, +others were in squads going to drill or exercise--something the Briton +never neglects. The amazing thing to a visitor who has seen the trenches +awash on a typical wet day, who knows that even billeting in cold farms +and barns behind the lines can scarcely be compared to the comforts of +home, is how these men keep well under the conditions. To say that they +are well is to understate the fact: the ruddy faces and clear eyes and +hard muscles--even of those who once were pale London clerks--proclaim a +triumph for the system of hygiene of their army. + +Suddenly we came upon a house with a great round hole in its wall, and +then upon several in ruins beside the village street. Meanwhile, at work +under the windswept trees of the highway, were strange, dark men from +the uttermost parts of the earth, physiognomies as old as the tombs of +Pharaoh. It was, indeed, not so much the graven red profiles of priests +and soldiers that came tome at sight of these Egyptians, but the singing +fellaheen of the water-buckets of the Nile. And here, too, shovelling +the crushed rock, were East Indians oddly clad in European garb, +careless of the cold. That sense of the vastness of the British Empire, +which at times is so profound, was mingled now with a knowledge that it +was fighting for its life, marshalling all its resources for Armageddon. + +Saint Eloi is named after the good bishop who ventured to advise King +Dagobert about his costume. And the church stands--what is left of +it--all alone on the greenest of terraces jutting out toward the east; +and the tower, ruggedly picturesque against the sky, resembles that +of some crumbled abbey. As a matter of fact, it has been a target for +German gunners. Dodging an army-truck and rounding one of those military +traffic policemen one meets at every important corner we climbed +the hill and left the motor among the great trees, which are still +fortunately preserved. And we stood for a few minutes, gazing over miles +and miles of devastation. Then, taking the motor once more, we passed +through wrecked and empty villages until we came to the foot of Vimy +Ridge. Notre Dame de Lorette rose against the sky-line to the north. + +Vimy and Notre Dame de Lorette--sweet but terrible names! Only a summer +had passed since Vimy was the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of +the war. From a distance the prevailing colour of the steep slope is +ochre; it gives the effect of having been scraped bare in preparation +for some gigantic enterprise. A nearer view reveals a flush of green; +nature is already striving to heal. From top to bottom it is pockmarked +by shells and scarred by trenches--trenches every few feet, and between +them tangled masses of barbed wire still clinging to the "knife +rests" and corkscrew stanchions to which it had been strung. The huge +shell-holes, revealing the chalk subsoil, were half-filled with water. +And even though the field had been cleaned by those East Indians I had +seen on the road, and the thousands who had died here buried, bits of +uniform, shoes, and accoutrements and shattered rifles were sticking +in the clay--and once we came across a portion of a bedstead, doubtless +taken by some officer from a ruined and now vanished village to his +dugout. Painfully, pausing frequently to ponder over these remnants, so +eloquent of the fury of the struggle, slipping backward at every step +and despite our care getting tangled in the wire, we made our way up +the slope. Buttercups and daisies were blooming around the edges of the +craters. + +As we drew near the crest the major warned me not to expose myself. "It +isn't because there is much chance of our being shot," he explained, +"but a matter of drawing the German fire upon others." And yet I found it +hard to believe--despite the evidence at my feet--that war existed here. +The brightness of the day, the emptiness of the place, the silence--save +for the humming of the gale--denied it. And then, when we had cautiously +rounded a hummock at the top, my steel helmet was blown off--not by a +shrapnel, but by the wind! I had neglected to tighten the chin-strap. + +Immediately below us I could make out scars like earthquake cracks +running across the meadows--the front trenches. Both armies were buried +like moles in these furrows. The country was spread out before us, +like a map, with occasionally the black contour of a coal mound rising +against the green, or a deserted shaft-head. I was gazing at the famous +battlefield of Lens. Villages, woods, whose names came back to me as the +major repeated them, lay like cloud shadows on the sunny plain, and the +faintest shadow of all, far to the eastward, was Lens itself. I marked +it by a single white tower. And suddenly another white tower, loftier +than the first, had risen up! But even as I stared its substance seemed +to change, to dissolve, and the tower was no longer to be seen. Not +until then did I realize that a monster shell had burst beside the +trenches in front of the city. Occasionally after that there came to my +ears the muffed report of some hidden gun, and a ball like a powder-puff +lay lightly on the plain, and vanished. But even the presence of these, +oddly enough, did not rob the landscape of its air of Sunday peace. + +We ate our sandwiches and drank our bottle of white wine in a sheltered +cut of the road that runs up that other ridge which the French gained +at such an appalling price, Notre Dame de Lorette, while the major +described to me some features of the Lens battle, in which he had taken +part. I discovered incidentally that he had been severely wounded at the +Somme. Though he had been a soldier all his life, and a good soldier, +his true passion was painting, and he drew my attention to the rare +greens and silver-greys of the stones above us, steeped in sunlight--all +that remained of the little church of Notre Dame--more beautiful, more +significant, perhaps, as a ruin. It reminded the major of the Turners he +had admired in his youth. After lunch we lingered in the cemetery, where +the graves and vaults had been harrowed by shells; the trenches ran +right through them. And here, in this desecrated resting-place of the +village dead, where the shattered gravestones were mingled with barbed +wire, death-dealing fragments of iron, and rusting stick-bombs that had +failed to explode, was a wooden cross, on which was rudely written the +name of Hans Siebert. Mouldering at the foot of the cross was a grey +woollen German tunic from which the buttons had been cut. + +We kept the road to the top, for Notre Dame de Lorette is as steep as +Vimy. There we looked upon the panorama of the Lens battle-field once +more, and started down the eastern slope, an apparently smooth expanse +covered now with prairie grasses, in reality a labyrinth of deep +ditches, dugouts, and pits; gruesome remnants of the battle lay +half-concealed under the grass. We walked slowly, making desperate +leaps over the trenches, sometimes perforce going through them, treading +gingerly on the "duck board" at the bottom. We stumbled over stick-bombs +and unexploded shells. No plough can be put here--the only solution for +the land for years to come is forest. Just before we gained the road +at the bottom, where the car was awaiting us, we were startled by the +sudden flight of a covey of partridges. + +The skies were grey when we reached the banal outskirts of a town where +the bourgeoise houses were modern, commonplace, save those which had +been ennobled by ruin. It was Arras, one of those few magic names, +eloquent with suggestions of mediaeval romance and art, intrigue and +chivalry; while upon their significance, since the war began, has been +superimposed still another, no less eloquent but charged with pathos. +We halted for a moment in the open space before the railroad station, a +comparatively new structure of steel and glass, designed on geometrical +curves, with an uninspiring, cheaply ornamented front. It had been, +undoubtedly, the pride of the little city. Yet finding it here had +at first something of the effect of the discovery of an +office-building--let us say--on the site of the Reims Cathedral. +Presently, however, its emptiness, its silence began to have their +effects--these and the rents one began to perceive in the roof. For +it was still the object of the intermittent yet persistent fire of +the German artillery. One began to realize that by these wounds it had +achieved a dignity that transcended the mediocre imagination of its +provincial designer. A fine rain had set in before we found the square, +and here indeed one felt a certain desolate satisfaction; despite the +wreckage there the spirit of the ancient town still poignantly haunted +it. Although the Hotel de Ville, which had expressed adequately the +longings and aspirations, the civic pride of those bygone burghers, was +razed to the ground, on three sides were still standing the varied yet +harmonious facades of Flemish houses made familiar by photographs. Of +some of these the plaster between the carved beams had been shot away, +the roofs blown off, and the tiny hewn rafters were bared to the sky. +The place was empty in the gathering gloom of the twilight. The gaiety +and warmth of the hut erected in the Public Gardens which houses the +British Officers' Club were a relief. + +The experiences of the next day will remain for ever in my memory +etched, as it were, in sepia. My guide was a younger officer who had +seen heroic service, and I wondered constantly how his delicate frame +had survived in the trenches the constant hardship of such weather +as now, warmly wrapped and with the car-curtains drawn, we faced. The +inevitable, relentless rain of that region had set in again, the rain +in which our own soldiers will have to fight, and the skies were of a +darkness seldom known in America. The countryside was no longer smiling. +After some two hours of progress we came, in that devastated district +near the front, to an expanse where many monsters were clumsily +cavorting like dinosaurs in primeval slime. At some distance from the +road others stood apparently tethered in line, awaiting their turn for +exercise. These were the far-famed tanks. Their commander, or chief +mahout--as I was inclined to call him--was a cheerful young giant of +colonial origin, who has often driven them serenely across No Man's Land +and into the German trenches. He had been expecting us, and led me +along a duck board over the morass, to where one of these leviathans +was awaiting us. You crawl through a greasy hole in the bottom, and the +inside is as full of machinery as the turret of the Pennsylvania, and +you grope your way to the seat in front beside that of the captain and +conductor, looking out through a slot in the armour over a waste of +water and mud. From here you are supposed to operate a machine gun. +Behind you two mechanics have started the engines with a deafening roar, +above which are heard the hoarse commands of the captain as he grinds in +his gears. Then you realize that the thing is actually moving, that +the bosses on the belt have managed to find a grip on the slime--and +presently you come to the brink of what appears, to your exaggerated +sense of perception, a bottomless chasm, with distant steep banks on +the farther side that look unattainable and insurmountable. It is an old +German trench which the rains have worn and widened. You brace yourself, +you grip desperately a pair of brass handles in front of you, while +leviathan hesitates, seems to sit up on his haunches, and then gently +buries his nose in the pasty clay and paws his way upward into the field +beyond. It was like sitting in a huge rocking-chair. That we might have +had a bump, and a bone-breaking one, I was informed after I had left the +scene of the adventure. It all depends upon the skill of the driver. The +monsters are not as tractable as they seem. + +That field in which the tanks manoeuvre is characteristic of the whole +of this district of levelled villages and vanished woods. Imagine a +continuous clay vacant lot in one of our Middle Western cities on the +rainiest day you can recall; and further imagine, on this limitless +lot, a network of narrow-gauge tracks and wagon roads, a scattering of +contractors' shanties, and you will have some idea of the daily life and +surroundings of one of oar American engineer regiments, which is running +a railroad behind the British front. Yet one has only to see these men +and talk with them to be convinced of the truth that human happiness and +even human health thanks to modern science--are not dependent upon an +existence in a Garden of Eden. I do not mean exactly that these men +would choose to spend the rest of their existences in this waste, but +they are happy in the consciousness of a job well done. It was really +inspiring to encounter here the familiar conductors and brakemen, +engineers and firemen, who had voluntarily, and for an ideal, left their +homes in a remote and peaceful republic three thousand miles away, to +find contentment and a new vitality, a wider vision, in the difficult +and dangerous task they were performing. They were frequently under +fire--when they brought back the wounded or fetched car-loads of +munitions to the great guns on the ridiculous little trains of flat +cars with open-work wheels, which they named--with American humour--the +Federal Express and the Twentieth Century Limited. And their officers +were equally happy. Their colonel, of our regular Army Engineer Corps, +was one of those broad-shouldered six-footers who, when they walk the +streets of Paris, compel pedestrians to turn admiringly and give one a +new pride in the manhood of our nation. Hospitably he drew us out of +the wind and rain into his little hut, and sat us down beside the stove, +cheerfully informing us that, only the night before, the gale had +blown his door in, and his roof had started for the German lines. In a +neighbouring hut, reached by a duck board, we had lunch with him and his +officers baked beans and pickles, cakes and maple syrup. The American +food, the American jokes and voices in that environment seemed strange +indeed! But as we smoked and chatted about the friends we had in common, +about political events at home and the changes that were taking place +there, it seemed as if we were in America once more. The English officer +listened and smiled in sympathy, and he remarked, after our reluctant +departure, that America was an extraordinary land. + +He directed our chauffeur to Bapaume, across that wilderness which the +Germans had so wantonly made in their retreat to the Hindenburg line. +Nothing could have been more dismal than our slow progress in the steady +rain, through the deserted streets of this town. Home after home had +been blasted--their intimate yet harrowing interiors were revealed. The +shops and cafes, which had been thoroughly looted, had their walls +blown out, but in many cases the signs of the vanished and homeless +proprietors still hung above the doors. I wondered how we should feel in +New England if such an outrage had been done to Boston, for instance, +or little Concord! The church, the great cathedral on its terrace, the +bishop's house, all dynamited, all cold and wet and filthy ruins! It was +dismal, indeed, but scarcely more dismal than that which followed; for +at Bapaume we were on the edge of the battle-field of the Somme. And I +chanced to remember that the name had first been indelibly impressed on +my consciousness at a comfortable breakfast-table at home, where I sat +looking out on a bright New England garden. In the headlines and columns +of my morning newspaper I had read again and again, during the summer of +1916, of Thiepval and La Boisselle, of Fricourt and Mametz and the Bois +des Trones. Then they had had a sinister but remote significance; now I +was to see them, or what was left of them! + +As an appropriate and characteristic setting for the tragedy which had +happened here, the indigo afternoon could not have been better chosen. +Description fails to do justice to the abomination of desolation of +that vast battle-field in the rain, and the imagination, refuses to +reconstruct the scene of peace--the chateaux and happy villages, the +forests and pastures, that flourished here so brief a time ago. In my +fancy the long, low swells of land, like those of some dreary sea, were +for the moment the subsiding waves of the cataclysm that had rolled +here and extinguished all life. Beside the road only the blood-red +soil betrayed the sites of powdered villages; and through it, in every +direction, trenches had been cut. Between the trenches the earth was +torn and tortured, as though some sudden fossilizing process, in its +moment of supreme agony, had fixed it thus. On the hummocks were graves, +graves marked by wooden crosses, others by broken rifles thrust in the +ground. Shattered gun-carriages lay in the ditches, modern cannon that +had cost priceless hours of skilled labour; and once we were confronted +by one of those monsters, wounded to the death, I had seen that morning. +The sight of this huge, helpless thing oddly recalled the emotions I had +felt, as a child, when contemplating dead elephants in a battle picture +of the army of a Persian king. + +Presently, like the peak of some submerged land, we saw lifted out of +that rolling waste the "Butt" of Warlencourt--the burial-mound of this +modern Marathon. It is honeycombed with dugouts in which the Germans who +clung to it found their graves, while the victorious British army swept +around it toward Bapaume. Everywhere along that road, which runs like an +arrow across the battle-field to Albert, were graves. Repetition seems +the only method of giving an adequate impression of their numbers; and +near what was once the village of Pozieres was the biggest grave of all, +a crater fifty feet deep and a hundred feet across. Seven months the +British sappers had toiled far below in the chalk, digging the passage +and chamber; and one summer dawn, like some tropical volcano, it had +burst directly under the German trench. Long we stood on the slippery +edge of it, gazing down at the tangled wire and litter of battle that +strewed the bottom, while the rain fell pitilessly. Just such rain, said +my officer-guide, as had drenched this country through the long winter +months of preparation. "We never got dry," he told me; and added with +a smile, in answer to my query: "Perhaps that was the reason we never +caught colds." + +When we entered Albert, the starting point of the British advance, there +was just light enough to see the statue of the Virgin leaning far above +us over the street. The church-tower on which it had once stood erect +had been struck by a German shell, but its steel rod had bent and not +broken. Local superstition declares that when the Virgin of Albert falls +the war will be ended. + + + +IV + +I come home impressed with the fact that Britain has learned more from +this war than any other nation, and will probably gain more by that +knowledge. We are all wanting, of course, to know what we shall get out +of it, since it was forced upon us; and of course the only gain worth +considering--as many of those to whom its coming has brought home the +first glimmerings of social science are beginning to see--is precisely +a newly acquired vision of the art of self-government. It has been +unfortunately necessary--or perhaps fortunately necessary--for the +great democracies to turn their energies and resources and the inventive +ingenuity of their citizens to the organization of armies and indeed of +entire populations to the purpose of killing enough Germans to +remove democracy's exterior menace. The price we pay in human life is +appallingly unfortunate. But the necessity for national organization +socializes the nation capable of it; or, to put the matter more truly, +if the socializing process had anticipated the war--as it had in Great +Britain--the ability to complete it under stress is the test of +a democratic nation; and hence the test of democracy, since the +socializing process becomes international. Britain has stood the test, +even from the old-fashioned militarist point of view, since it is +apparent that no democracy can wage a sustained great war unless it is +socialized. After the war she will probably lead all other countries in +a sane and scientific liberalization. The encouraging fact is that not +in spite of her liberalism, but because of it, she has met military +Germany on her own ground and, to use a vigorous expression, gone her +one better. In 1914, as armies go today, the British Army was a mere +handful of men whose officers belonged to a military caste. Brave men +and brave officers, indeed! But at present it is a war organization +of an excellence which the Germans never surpassed. I have no space +to enter into a description of the amazing system, of the network of +arteries converging at the channel ports and spreading out until it +feeds and clothes every man of those millions, furnishes him with +newspapers and tobacco, and gives him the greatest contentment +compatible with the conditions under which he has to live. The number of +shells flung at the enemy is only limited by the lives of the guns that +fire them. I should like to tell with what swiftness, under the stress +of battle, the wounded are hurried back to the coast and even to England +itself. I may not state the thousands carried on leave every day across +the channel and back again--in spite of submarines. But I went one day +through Saint Omer, with its beautiful church and little blue chateau, +past the rest-camps of the big regiments of guards to a seaport on the +downs, formerly a quiet little French town, transformed now into an +ordered Babel. The term is paradoxical, but I let it stand. English, +Irish, and Scotch from the British Isles and the ends of the earth +mingle there with Indians, Egyptians, and the chattering Mongolians in +queer fur caps who work in the bakeries. + +I went through one of these bakeries, almost as large as an automobile +factory, fragrant with the aroma of two hundred thousand loaves of +bread. This bakery alone sends every day to the trenches two hundred +thousand loaves made from the wheat of western Canada! Of all sights +to be seen in this place, however, the reclamation "plant" is the most +wonderful. It covers acres. Everything which is broken in war, from +a pair of officer's field-glasses to a nine-inch howitzer carriage is +mended here--if it can be mended. Here, when a battle-field is cleared, +every article that can possibly be used again is brought; and the +manager pointed with pride to the furnaces in his power-house, which +formerly burned coal and now are fed with refuse--broken wheels of +gun-carriages, sawdust, and even old shoes. Hundreds of French girls and +even German prisoners are resoling and patching shoes with the aid +of American machinery, and even the uppers of such as are otherwise +hopeless are cut in spirals into laces. Tunics, breeches, and overcoats +are mended by tailors; rusty camp cookers are retinned, and in the +foundries the precious scraps of cast iron are melted into braziers to +keep Tommy in the trenches warm. In the machine-shops the injured guns +and cannon are repaired. German prisoners are working there, too. At a +distance, in their homely grey tunics, with their bullet-shaped heads +close-cropped and the hairs standing out like the needles of a cylinder +of a music-box, they had the appearance of hard citizens who had become +rather sullen convicts. Some wore spectacles. A closer view revealed +that most of them were contented, and some actually cheerful. None, +indeed, seemed more cheerful than a recently captured group I saw later, +who were actually building the barbed-wire fence that was to confine +them. + +My last visit in this town was to the tiny but on a "corner lot," in +which the Duchess of Sutherland has lived now for some years. As we had +tea she told me she was going on a fortnight's leave to England; and no +Tommy in the trenches could have been more excited over the prospect. +Her own hospital, which occupies the rest of the lot, is one of those +marvels which individual initiative and a strong social sense such as +hers has produced in this war. Special enterprise was required to save +such desperate cases as are made a specialty of here, and all that +medical and surgical science can do has been concentrated, with +extraordinary success, on the shattered men who are brought to her +wards. That most of the horrible fractures I saw are healed, and +healed quickly--thanks largely to the drainage system of our own Doctor +Carrel--is not the least of the wonders of the remarkable times in which +we live. + +The next day, Sunday, I left for Paris, bidding farewell regretfully +to the last of my British-officer hosts. He seemed like an old, old +friend--though I had known him but a few days. I can see him now as he +waved me a good-bye from the platform in his Glengarry cap and short +tunic and plaid trousers. He is the owner of a castle and some seventy +square miles of land in Scotland alone. For the comfort of his nation's +guests, he toils like a hired courier. + + + ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + + American religion as set forth by William James + Be useful! + Privilege of making blunders + Rising every time you fall (Confucius on greatness) + Sentimentalism, ignorance, close-mindedness, and cant + The English do not advertise their sorrows + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's A Traveller in War-Time, by Winston Churchill + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A TRAVELLER IN WAR-TIME *** + +***** This file should be named 5398.txt or 5398.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/5/3/9/5398/ + +Produced by David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: A Traveller in War-Time + +Author: Winston Churchill (USA author, not Sir Winston Churchill) + +Release Date: March, 2004 [EBook #5398] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on June 30, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRAVELLER IN WAR-TIME, BY CHURCHILL *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + + + +[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of the +file for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making an +entire meal of them. D.W.] + + + + +A TRAVELLER IN WARTIME. + +By Winston Churchill + + + + +PREFACE + +I am reprinting here, in response to requests, certain recent experiences +in Great Britain and France. These were selected in the hope of +conveying to American readers some idea of the atmosphere, of "what it is +like" in these countries under the immediate shadow of the battle clouds. +It was what I myself most wished to know. My idea was first to send home +my impressions while they were fresh, and to refrain as far as possible +from comment and judgment until I should have had time to make a fuller +survey. Hence I chose as a title for these articles,--intended to be +preliminary," A Traveller in War-Time." I tried to banish from my mind +all previous impressions gained from reading. I wished to be free for +the moment to accept and record the chance invitation or adventure, +wherever met with, at the Front, in the streets of Paris, in Ireland, or +on the London omnibus. Later on, I hoped to write a book summarizing the +changing social conditions as I had found them. + +Unfortunately for me, my stay was unexpectedly cut short. I was able to +avail myself of but few of the many opportunities offered. With this +apology, the articles are presented as they were written. + +I have given the impression that at the time of my visit there was no +lack of food in England, but I fear that I have not done justice to the +frugality of the people, much of which was self-imposed for the purpose +of helping to win the war. On very, good authority I have been given to +understand that food was less abundant during the winter just past; +partly because of the effect of the severe weather on our American +railroads, which had trouble in getting supplies to the coast, and partly +because more and more ships were required for transporting American +troops and supplies for these troops, to France. This additional +curtailment was most felt by families of small income, whose earners were +at the front or away on other government service. Mothers had great +difficulty in getting adequate nourishment for growing children. But the +British people cheerfully submitted to this further deprivation. Summer +is at hand. It is to be hoped that before another winter sets in, +American and British shipping will have sufficiently increased to remedy +the situation. + +In regard to what I have said of the British army, I was profoundly +struck, as were other visitors to that front, by the health and morale of +the men, by the marvel of organization accomplished in so comparatively +brief a time. It was one of the many proofs of the extent to which the +British nation had been socialized. When one thought of that little band +of regulars sent to France in 1914, who became immortal at Mons, who +shared the glory of the Marne, and in that first dreadful winter held +back the German hosts from the Channel ports, the presence on the battle +line of millions of disciplined and determined men seemed astonishing +indeed. And this had been accomplished by a nation facing the gravest +crisis in its history, under the necessity of sustaining and financing +many allies and of protecting an Empire. Since my return to America a +serious reverse has occurred. + +After the Russian peace, the Germans attempted to overwhelm the British +by hurling against them vastly superior numbers of highly trained men. +It is for the military critic of the future to analyse any tactical +errors that may have been made at the second battle of the Somme. +Apparently there was an absence of preparation, of specific orders from +high sources in the event of having to cede ground. This much can be +said, that the morale of the British Army remains unimpaired; that the +presence of mind and ability of the great majority of the officers who, +flung on their own resources, conducted the retreat, cannot be +questioned; while the accomplishment of General Carey, in stopping the +gap with an improvised force of non-combatants, will go down in history. +In an attempt to bring home to myself, as well as to my readers, a +realization of what American participation in this war means or should +mean. + + + + +A TRAVELLER IN WAR-TIME + +CHAPTER I + +Toward the end of the summer of 1917 it was very hot in New York, and +hotter still aboard the transatlantic liner thrust between the piers. +One glance at our cabins, at the crowded decks and diningroom, at the +little writing-room above, where the ink had congealed in the ink-wells, +sufficed to bring home to us that the days of luxurious sea travel, of +a la carte restaurants, and Louis Seize bedrooms were gone--at least for +a period. The prospect of a voyage of nearly two weeks was not enticing. +The ship, to be sure, was far from being the best of those still running +on a line which had gained a magic reputation of immunity from +submarines; three years ago she carried only second and third class +passengers! But most of us were in a hurry to get to the countries where +war had already become a grim and terrible reality. In one way or +another we had all enlisted. + +By "we" I mean the American passengers. The first welcome discovery +among the crowd wandering aimlessly and somewhat disconsolately about the +decks was the cheerful face of a friend whom at first I did not recognize +because of his amazing disguise in uniform. Hitherto he had been +associated in my mind with dinner parties and clubs. + +That life was past. He had laid up his yacht and joined the Red Cross +and, henceforth, for an indeterminable period, he was to abide amidst the +discomforts and dangers of the Western Front, with five days' leave every +three months. The members of a group similarly attired whom I found +gathered by the after-rail were likewise cheerful. Two well-known +specialists from the Massachusetts General Hospital made significant the +hegira now taking place that threatens to leave our country, like +Britain, almost doctorless. When I reached France it seemed to me that I +met all the celebrated medical men I ever heard of. A third in the group +was a business man from the Middle West who had wound up his affairs and +left a startled family in charge of a trust company. Though his physical +activities had hitherto consisted of an occasional mild game of golf, he +wore his khaki like an old campaigner; and he seemed undaunted by the +prospect--still somewhat remotely ahead of him--of a winter journey +across the Albanian Mountains from the Aegean to the Adriatic. + +After a restless night, we sailed away in the hot dawn of a Wednesday. +The shores of America faded behind us, and as the days went by, we had +the odd sense of threading uncharted seas; we found it more and more +difficult to believe that this empty, lonesome ocean was the Atlantic in +the twentieth century. Once we saw a four-master; once a shy, silent +steamer avoided us, westward bound; and once in mid-ocean, tossed on a +sea sun-silvered under a rack of clouds, we overtook a gallant little +schooner out of New Bedford or Gloucester--a forthfarer, too. + +Meanwhile, amongst the Americans, the socializing process had begun. +Many elements which in a former stratified existence would never have +been brought into contact were fusing by the pressure of a purpose, of a +great adventure common to us all. On the upper deck, high above the +waves, was a little 'fumoir' which, by some odd trick of association, +reminded me of the villa formerly occupied by the Kaiser in Corfu-- +perhaps because of the faience plaques set in the walls--although I +cannot now recall whether the villa has faience plaques or not. The room +was, of course, on the order of a French provincial cafe, and as such +delighted the bourgeoisie monopolizing the alcove tables and joking with +the fat steward. Here in this 'fumoir', lawyers, doctors, business men +of all descriptions, newspaper correspondents, movie photographers, and +millionaires who had never crossed save in a 'cabine de luxe', rubbed +elbows and exchanged views and played bridge together. There were +Y. M. C. A. people on their way to the various camps, reconstruction +workers intending to build temporary homes for the homeless French, +and youngsters in the uniform of the American Field Service, going over +to drive camions and ambulances; many of whom, without undue regret, +had left college after a freshman year. They invaded the 'fumoir', +undaunted, to practise atrocious French on the phlegmatic steward; they +took possession of a protesting piano in the banal little salon and sang: +"We'll not come back till it's over over there." And in the evening, on +the darkened decks, we listened and thrilled to the refrain: + + "There's a long, long trail a-winding + Into the land of my dreams." + +We were Argonauts--even the Red Cross ladies on their way to establish +rest camps behind the lines and brave the mud and rains of a winter in +eastern France. None, indeed, were more imbued with the forthfaring +spirit than these women, who were leaving, without regret, sheltered, +comfortable lives to face hardships and brave dangers without a question. +And no sharper proof of the failure of the old social order to provide +for human instincts and needs could be found than the conviction they +gave of new and vitalizing forces released in them. The timidities with +which their sex is supposedly encumbered had disappeared, and even the +possibility of a disaster at sea held no terrors for them. When the sun +fell down into the warm waters of the Gulf Stream and the cabins below +were sealed--and thus become insupportable--they settled themselves for +the night in their steamer-chairs and smiled at the remark of M. le +Commissaire that it was a good "season" for submarines. The moonlight +filtered through the chinks in the burlap shrouding the deck. About +3 a.m. the khaki-clad lawyer from Milwaukee became communicative, the Red +Cross ladies produced chocolate. It was the genial hour before the final +nap, from which one awoke abruptly at the sound of squeegees and brooms +to find the deck a river of sea water, on whose banks a wild scramble for +slippers and biscuit-boxes invariably ensued. No experience could have +been more socializing. + +"Well, it's a relief," one of the ladies exclaimed, "not to be travelling +with half a dozen trunks and a hat-box! Oh, yes, I realize what I'm +doing. I'm going to live in one of those flimsy portable houses with +twenty cots and no privacy and wear the same clothes for months, but it's +better than thrashing around looking for something to do and never +finding it, never getting anything real to spend one's energy-on. I've +closed my country house, I've sublet my apartment, I've done with teas +and bridge, and I'm happier than I've been in my life even if I don't get +enough sleep." + +Another lady, who looked still young, had two sons in the army. "There +was nothing for me to do but sit around the house and wait, and I want to +be useful. My husband has to stay at home; he can't leave his business." +Be useful! There she struck the new and aggressive note of emancipation +from the restricted self-sacrifice of the old order, of wider service for +the unnamed and the unknown; and, above all, for the wider self- +realization of which service is but a by-product. I recall particularly +among these women a young widow with an eager look in clear grey eyes +that gazed eastward into the unknown with hope renewed. Had she lived a +quarter of a century ago she might have been doomed to slow desiccation. +There are thousands of such women in France today, and to them the great +war has brought salvation. + +From what country other than America could so many thousands of pilgrims +--even before our nation had entered the war--have hurried across a wide +ocean to take their part? No matter what religion we profess, whether it +be Calvinism, or Catholicism, we are individualists, pragmatists, +empiricists for ever. Our faces are set toward strange worlds presently +to rise out of the sea and take on form and colour and substance--worlds +of new aspirations, of new ideas and new values. And on this voyage I +was reminded of Josiah Royce's splendid summary of the American +philosophy--of the American religion as set forth by William James: + + "The spirit of the frontiers-man, of the gold-seeker or the home- + builder transferred to the metaphysical or to the religious realm. + There is a far-off home, our long lost spiritual fortune. + Experience alone can guide us to the place where these things are, + hence indeed you need experience. You can only win your way on the + frontier unless you are willing to live there." + +Through the pall of horror and tragedy the American sees a vision; +for him it is not merely a material and bloody contest of arms and men, +a military victory to be gained over an aggressive and wrong-minded +people. It is a world calamity, indeed, but a calamity, since it has +come, to be spiritualized and utilized for the benefit of the future +society of mankind. It must be made to serve a purpose in helping to +liberate the world from sentimentalism, ignorance, close-mindedness, and +cant. + + + +II + +One night we entered the danger zone. There had been an entertainment in +the little salon which, packed with passengers, had gradually achieved +the temperature and humidity of a Turkish bath. For the ports had been +closed as tight as gaskets could make them, the electric fans, as usual, +obstinately "refused to march." After the amateur speechmaking and +concert pieces an Italian violinist, who had thrown over a lucrative +contract to become a soldier, played exquisitely; and one of the French +sisters we had seen walking the deck with the mincing steps of the +cloister sang; somewhat precariously and pathetically, the Ave Maria. +Its pathos was of the past, and after she had finished, as we fled into +the open air, we were conscious of having turned our backs irrevocably +yet determinedly upon an era whose life and convictions the music of the +composer so beautifully expressed. And the sister's sweet withered face +was reminiscent of a missal, one bright with colour, and still shining +faintly. A missal in a library of modern books! + +On deck a fine rain was blowing through a gap in our burlap shroud, a +phosphorescent fringe of foam hissed along the sides of the ship, giving +the illusory appearance of our deadlights open and ablaze, exaggerating +the sinister blackness of the night. We were, apparently, a beacon in +that sepia waste where modern undersea monsters were lurking. + +There were on board other elements which in the normal times gone by +would have seemed disquieting enough. The evening after we had left New +York, while we were still off the coast of Long Island, I saw on the poop +a crowd of steerage passengers listening intently to harangues by +speakers addressing them from the top of a pile of life rafts. +Armenians, I was told, on their way to fight the Turks, all recruited in +America by one frenzied woman who had seen her child cut in two by a +German officer. Twilight was gathering as I joined the group, the sea +was silvered by the light of an August moon floating serenely between +swaying stays. The orator's passionate words and gestures evoked wild +responses from his hearers, whom the drag of an ancient hatred had +snatched from the peaceful asylum of the west. This smiling, happy folk, +which I had seen in our manufacturing towns and cities, were now +transformed, atavistic--all save one, a student, who stared wistfully +through his spectacles across the waters. Later, when twilight deepened, +when the moon had changed from silver to gold, the orators gave place to +a singer. He had been a bootblack in America. Now he had become a bard. +His plaintive minor chant evoked, one knew not how, the flavour of that +age-long history of oppression and wrong these were now determined to +avenge. Their conventional costumes were proof that we had harboured +them--almost, indeed, assimilated them. And suddenly they had reverted. +They were going to slaughter the Turks. + +On a bright Saturday afternoon we steamed into the wide mouth of the +Gironde, a name stirring vague memories of romance and terror. The +French passengers gazed wistfully at the low-lying strip of sand and +forest, but our uniformed pilgrims crowded the rail and hailed it as the +promised land of self-realization. A richly coloured watering-place slid +into view, as in a moving-picture show. There was, indeed, all the +reality and unreality of the cinematograph about our arrival; presently +the reel would end abruptly, and we should find ourselves pushing our way +out of the emptying theatre into a rainy street. The impression of +unreality in the face of visual evidence persisted into the night when, +after an afternoon at anchor, we glided up the river, our decks and ports +ablaze across the land. Silhouettes of tall poplars loomed against the +blackness; occasionally a lamp revealed the milky blue facade of a house. +This was France! War-torn France--at last vividly brought home to us +when a glare appeared on the sky, growing brighter and brighter until, at +a turn of the river, abruptly we came abreast of vomiting furnaces, +thousands of electric lights strung like beads over the crest of a hill, +and, below these, dim rows of houses, all of a sameness, stretching along +monotonous streets. A munitions town in the night. + +One could have tossed a biscuit on the stone wharfs where the workmen, +crouching over their tasks, straightened up at sight of us and cheered. +And one cried out hoarsely, "Vous venez nous sauver, vous Americains" +--"You come to save us"--an exclamation I was to hear again in the days +that followed. + + + +III + +All day long, as the 'rapide' hurried us through the smiling wine country +and past the well-remembered chateaux of the Loire, we wondered how we +should find Paris--beautiful Paris, saved from violation as by a miracle! +Our first discovery, after we had pushed our way out of the dim station +into the obscurity of the street, was that of the absence of taxicabs. +The horsedrawn buses ranged along the curb were reserved for the +foresighted and privileged few. Men and women were rushing desperately +about in search of conveyances, and in the midst of this confusion, +undismayed, debonnair, I spied a rugged, slouch-hatted figure standing +under a lamp--the unmistakable American soldier. + +"Aren't there any cabs in Paris?" I asked. + +"Oh, yes, they tell me they're here," he said. "I've given a man a +dollar to chase one." + +Evidently one of our millionaire privates who have aroused such burnings +in the heart of the French poilu, with his five sous a day! We left him +there, and staggered across the Seine with our bags. A French officer +approached us. "You come from America," he said. "Let me help you." +There was just enough light in the streets to prevent us from getting +utterly lost, and we recognized the dark mass of the Tuileries as we +crossed the gardens. The hotel we sought was still there, and its menu, +save for the war-bread and the tiny portion of sugar, as irreproachable +as ever. + +The next morning, as if by magic, hundreds of taxis had sprung into +existence, though they were much in demand. And in spite of the soldiers +thronging the sunlit streets, Paris was seemingly the same Paris one had +always known, gay--insouciante, pleasure-bent. The luxury shops appeared +to be thriving, the world-renowned restaurants to be doing business as +usual; to judge from the prices, a little better than usual; the +expensive hotels were full. It is not the real France, of course, yet it +seemed none the less surprising that it should still exist. Oddly enough +the presence of such overwhelming numbers of soldiers should have failed +to strike the note of war, emphasized that of lavishness, of the casting +off of mundane troubles for which the French capital has so long been +known. But so it was. Most of these soldiers were here precisely with +the object of banishing from their minds the degradations and horrors of +the region from which they had come, and which was so unbelievably near; +a few hours in an automobile--less than that in one of those dragon-fly +machines we saw intermittently hovering in the blue above our heads! + +Paris, to most Americans, means that concentrated little district de luxe +of which the Place Vendome is the centre, and we had always unconsciously +thought of it as in the possession of the Anglo-Saxons. So it seems +today. One saw hundreds of French soldiers, of course, in all sorts of +uniforms, from the new grey blue and visor to the traditional cloth +blouse and kepi; once in a while a smart French officer. The English and +Canadians, the Australians, New Zealanders, and Americans were much in +evidence. Set them down anywhere on the face of the globe, under any +conditions conceivable, and you could not surprise them; such was the +impression. The British officers and even the British Tommies were +blase, wearing the air of the 'semaine Anglaise', and the "five o'clock +tea," as the French delight to call it. That these could have come +direct from the purgatory of the trenches seemed unbelievable. The +Anzacs, with looped-up hats, strolled about, enjoying themselves, halting +before the shops in the Rue de la Paix to gaze at the priceless jewellery +there, or stopping at a sidewalk cafe to enjoy a drink. Our soldiers had +not seen the front; many of them, no doubt, were on leave from the +training-camps, others were on duty in Paris, but all seemed in a hurry +to get somewhere, bound for a definite destination. They might have been +in New York or San Francisco. It was a novel sight, indeed, to observe +them striding across the Place Vendome with out so much as deigning to +cast a glance at the column dedicated to the great emperor who fought +that other world-war a century ago; to see our square-shouldered officers +hustling around corners in Ford and Packard automobiles. And the +atmosphere of our communication headquarters was so essentially one of +"getting things done" as to make one forget the mediaeval narrowness of +the Rue Sainte Anne, and the inconvenient French private-dwelling +arrangements of the house. You were transported back to America. Such, +too, was the air of our Red Cross establishment in the ancient building +facing the Palace de la Concorde, where the unfortunate Louis lost his +head. + +History had been thrust into the background. I was never more aware of +this than when, shortly after dawn Wednesday, the massive grey pile of +the Palace of Versailles suddenly rose before me. As the motor shot +through the empty Place d'Armes I made a desperate attempt to summon +again a vivid impression, when I had first stood there many years ago, +of an angry Paris mob beating against that grill, of the Swiss guards +dying on the stairway for their Queen. But it was no use. France has +undergone some subtle change, yet I knew I was in France. I knew it when +we left Paris and sped through the dim leafy tunnels of the Bois; when I +beheld a touch of filtered sunlight on the dense blue thatch of the +'marroniers' behind the walls of a vast estate once dedicated to the +sports and pleasures of Kings; when I caught glimpses of silent chateaux +mirrored in still waters. + +I was on my way, with one of our naval officers, to visit an American +naval base on the western coast. It was France, but the laughter had +died on her lips. A few women and old men and children were to be seen +in the villages, a bent figure in a field, an occasional cart that drew +aside as we hurried at eighty kilometers an hour along deserted routes +drawn as with a ruler across the land. Sometimes the road dipped into a +canyon of poplars, and the sky between their crests was a tiny strip of +mottled blue and white. The sun crept in and out, the clouds cast +shadows on the hills; here and there the tower of lonely church or castle +broke the line of a distant ridge. Morning-glories nodded over lodge +walls where the ivy was turning crimson, and the little gardens were +masses of colours--French colours like that in the beds of the Tuileries, +brick-red geraniums and dahlias, yellow marigolds and purple asters. + +We lunched at one of the little inns that for generations have been +tucked away in the narrow streets of provincial towns; this time a Cheval +Blanc, with an unimposing front and a blaze of sunshine in its heart. +After a dejeuner fit for the most exacting of bon viveurs we sat in that +courtyard and smoked, while an ancient waiter served us with coffee that +dripped through silver percolators into our glasses. The tourists have +fled. "If happily you should come again, monsieur," said madame, as she +led me with pardonable pride through her immaculate bedrooms and salons +with wavy floors. And I dwelt upon a future holiday there, on the joys +of sharing with a friend that historic place. The next afternoon I +lingered in another town, built on a little hill ringed about with +ancient walls, from whose battlements tide-veined marshes stretched away +to a gleaming sea. A figure flitting through the cobbled streets, a +woman in black who sat sewing, sewing in a window, only served to +heighten the impression of emptiness, to give birth to the odd fancy that +some alchemic quality in the honeyed sunlight now steeping it must have +preserved the place through the ages. But in the white close surrounding +the church were signs that life still persisted. A peasant was drawing +water at the pump, and the handle made a noise; a priest chatted with +three French ladies who had come over from a neighbouring seaside resort. +And then a woman in deep mourning emerged from a tiny shop and took her +bicycle from against the wall and spoke to me. + +"Vous etes Americain, monsieur?" + +I acknowledged it. + +"Vous venez nous sauver"--the same question I had heard on the lips of +the workman in the night. "I hope so, madame," I replied, and would have +added, "We come also to save ourselves." She looked at me with sad, +questioning eyes, and I knew that for her--and alas for many like her--we +were too late. When she had mounted her wheel and ridden away I bought a +'Matin' and sat down on a doorstep to read about Kerensky and the Russian +Revolution. The thing seemed incredible here--war seemed incredible, and +yet its tentacles had reached out to this peaceful Old World spot and +taken a heavy toll. Once more I sought the ramparts, only to be reminded +by those crumbling, machicolated ruins that I was in a war-ridden land. +Few generations had escaped the pestilence. + +At no great distance lay the little city which had been handed over to us +by the French Government for a naval base, one of the ports where our +troops and supplies are landed. Those who know provincial France will +visualize its narrow streets and reticent shops, its grey-white and ecru +houses all more or less of the same design, with long French windows +guarded by ornamental balconies of cast iron--a city that has never +experienced such a thing as a real-estate boom. Imagine, against such a +background, the bewildering effect of the dynamic presence of a few +regiments of our new army! It is a curious commentary on this war that +one does not think of these young men as soldiers, but as citizens +engaged in a scientific undertaking of a magnitude unprecedented. You +come unexpectedly upon truck-loads of tanned youngsters, whose features, +despite flannel shirts and campaign hats, summon up memories of Harvard +Square and the Yale Yard, of campuses at Berkeley and Ithaca. The +youthful drivers of these camions are alert, intent, but a hard day's +work on the docks by no means suffices to dampen the spirits of the +passengers, who whistle ragtime airs as they bump over the cobbles. And +the note they strike is presently sustained by a glimpse, on a siding, of +an efficient-looking Baldwin, ranged alongside several of the tiny French +locomotives of yesterday; sustained, too, by an acquaintance with the +young colonel in command of the town. Though an officer of the regular +army, he brings home to one the fact that the days of the military +martinet have gone for ever. He is military, indeed-erect and soldierly +--but fortune has amazingly made him a mayor and an autocrat, a builder, +and in some sense a railway-manager and superintendent of docks. And to +these functions have been added those of police commissioner, of +administrator of social welfare and hygiene. It will be a comfort to +those at home to learn that their sons in our army in France are cared +for as no enlisted men have ever been cared for before. + + + +IV + +By the end of September I had reached England, eager to gain a fresh +impression of conditions there. + +The weather in London was mild and clear. The third evening after I had +got settled in one of those delightfully English hotels in the heart of +the city, yet removed from the traffic, with letter-boxes that still bear +the initials of Victoria, I went to visit some American naval officers in +their sitting-room on the ground floor. The cloth had not been removed +from the dinner-table, around which we were chatting, when a certain +strange sound reached our ears--a sound not to be identified with the +distant roar of the motor-busses in Pall Mall, nor with the sharp bark of +the taxi-horns, although not unlike them. We sat listening intently, and +heard the sound again. + +"The Germans have come," one of the officers remarked, as he finished his +coffee. The other looked at his watch. It was nine o'clock. "They must +have left their lines about seven," he said. + +In spite of the fact that our newspapers at home had made me familiar +with these aeroplane raids, as I sat there, amidst those comfortable +surroundings, the thing seemed absolutely incredible. To fly one hundred +and fifty miles across the Channel and southern England, bomb London, and +fly back again by midnight! We were going to be bombed! The anti- +aircraft guns were already searching the sky for the invaders. It is +sinister, and yet you are seized by an overwhelming curiosity that draws +you, first to pull aside the heavy curtains of the window, and then to +rush out into the dark street both proceedings in the worst possible +form! The little street was deserted, but in Pall Mall the dark forms of +busses could be made out scurrying for shelter, one wondered where? +Above the roar of London, the pop pop pop! of the defending guns could +be heard now almost continuously, followed by the shrieks and moans of +the shrapnel shells as they passed close overhead. They sounded like +giant rockets, and even as rockets some of them broke into a cascade of +sparks. Star shells they are called, bursting, it seemed, among the +immutable stars themselves that burned serenely on. And there were other +stars like November meteors hurrying across space--the lights of the +British planes scouring the heavens for their relentless enemies. +Everywhere the restless white rays of the searchlights pierced the +darkness, seeking, but seeking in vain. Not a sign of the intruders was +to be seen. I was induced to return to the sitting-room. + +"But what are they shooting at?" I asked. + +"Listen," said one of the officers. There came a lull in the firing and +then a faint, droning noise like the humming of insects on a still summer +day. "It's all they have to shoot at, that noise." + +"But their own planes?" I objected. + +"The Gotha has two engines, it has a slightly different noise, when you +get used to it. You'd better step out of that window. It's against the +law to show light, and if a bomb falls in the street you'd be filled with +glass." I overcame my fascination and obeyed. "It isn't only the +bombs," my friend went on, "it's the falling shrapnel, too." + +The noise made by those bombs is unmistakable, unforgetable, and quite +distinct from the chorus of the guns and shrapnel--a crashing note, +reverberating, sustained, like the E minor of some giant calliope. + +In face of the raids, which coincide with the coming of the moon, London +is calm, but naturally indignant over such methods of warfare. The +damage done is ridiculously small; the percentage of deaths and injuries +insignificant. There exists, in every large city, a riffraff to get +panicky: these are mostly foreigners; they seek the Tubes, and some the +crypt of St. Paul's, for it is wise to get under shelter during the brief +period of the raids, and most citizens obey the warnings of the police. +It is odd, indeed, that more people are not hurt by shrapnel. The Friday +following the raid I have described I went out of town for a week-end, +and returned on Tuesday to be informed that a shell had gone through the +roof outside of the room I had vacated, and the ceiling and floor of the +bedroom of one of the officers who lived below. He was covered with dust +and debris, his lights went out, but he calmly stepped through the +window. "You'd best have your dinner early, sir," I was told by the +waiter on my return. "Last night a lady had her soup up-stairs, +her chicken in the office, and her coffee in the cellar." It is worth +while noting that she had all three. Another evening, when I was dining +with Sir James Barrie, he showed me a handful of shrapnel fragments. +"I gathered them off the roof," he informed me. And a lady next to whom +I sat at luncheon told me in a matter-of-fact tone that a bomb had fallen +the night before in the garden of her town house. "It was quite +disagreeable," she said, "and broke all our windows on that side." +During the last raids before the moon disappeared, by a new and ingenious +system of barrage fire the Germans were driven off. The question of the +ethics of reprisals is agitating London. + +One "raid," which occurred at midday, is worth recording. I was on my +way to our Embassy when, in the residential quarter through which I +passed, I found all the housemaids in the areas gazing up at the sky, and +I was told by a man in a grocer's cart that the Huns had come again. But +the invader on this occasion turned out to be a British aviator from one +of the camps who was bringing a message to London. The warmth of his +reception was all that could be desired, and he alighted hastily in the +first open space that presented itself. + +Looking back to the time when I left America, I can recall the +expectation of finding a Britain beginning to show signs of distress. +I was prepared to live on a small ration. And the impression of the +scarcity of food was seemingly confirmed when the table was being set +for the first meal at my hotel; when the waiter, who chanced to be an +old friend, pointed to a little bowl half-full of sugar and exclaimed: +"I ought to warn you, sir, it's all you're to have for a week, and I'm +sorry to say you're only allowed a bit of bread, too." It is human +perversity to want a great deal of bread when bread becomes scarce; even +war bread, which, by the way, is better than white. But the rest of the +luncheon, when it came, proved that John Bull was under no necessity of +stinting himself. Save for wheat and sugar; he is not in want. +Everywhere in London you are confronted by signs of an incomprehensible +prosperity; everywhere, indeed, in Great Britain. There can be no doubt +about that of the wage-earners--nothing like it has ever been seen +before. One sure sign of this is the phenomenal sale of pianos to +households whose occupants had never dreamed of such luxuries. And +not once, but many times, have I read in the newspapers of workingmen's +families of four or five which are gaining collectively more than five +hundred pounds a year. The economic and social significance of this +tendency, the new attitude of the working classes, the ferment it is +causing need not be dwelt upon here. That England will be a changed +England is unquestionable. + +The London theatres are full, the "movies" crowded, and you have to wait +your turn for a seat at a restaurant. Bond Street and Piccadilly are +doing a thriving business--never so thriving, you are told, and presently +you are willing to believe it. The vendor beggars, so familiar a sight a +few years ago, have all but disappeared, and you may walk from Waterloo +Station to the Haymarket without so much as meeting a needy soul anxious +to carry your bag. Taxicabs are in great demand. And one odd result of +the scarcity of what the English are pleased to call "petrol," by which +they mean gasoline, is the reappearance of that respectable, but almost +obsolete animal, the family carriage-horse; of that equally obsolete +vehicle, the victoria. The men on the box are invariably in black. +In spite of taxes to make the hair of an American turn grey, in spite +of lavish charities, the wealthy classes still seem wealthy--if the +expression may be allowed. That they are not so wealthy as they were +goes without saying. In the country houses of the old aristocracy the +most rigid economy prevails. There are new fortunes, undoubtedly, +munitions and war fortunes made before certain measures were taken to +control profits; and some establishments, including a few supported by +American accumulations, still exhibit the number of men servants and +amount of gold plate formerly thought adequate. But in most of these +great houses maids have replaced the butlers and footmen; mansions have +been given over for hospitals; gardeners are fighting in the trenches, +and courts and drives of country places are often overgrown with grass +and weeds. + +"Yes, we do dine in public quite often," said a very great lady. "It's +cheaper than keeping servants." + +Two of her three sons had been killed in France, but she did not mention +this. The English do not advertise their sorrows. Still another +explanation when husbands and sons and brothers come back across the +Channel for a few days' leave after long months in the trenches, nothing +is too good for them. And when these days have flown, there is always +the possibility that there may never be another leave. Not long ago I +read a heart-rending article about the tragedies of the goodbyes in the +stations and the terminal hotels--tragedies hidden by silence and a +smile. "Well, so long," says an officer "bring back a V. C.," cries +his sister from the group on the platform, and he waves his hand in +deprecation as the train pulls out, lights his pipe, and pretends +to be reading the Sphere. + +Some evening, perchance, you happen to be in the dark street outside of +Charing Cross station. An occasional hooded lamp throws a precarious +gleam on a long line of men carrying--so gently--stretchers on which lie +the silent forms of rich and poor alike. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +For the student of history who is able to place himself within the stream +of evolution the really important events of today are not taking place on +the battle lines, but behind them. The key-note of the new era has been +struck in Russia. And as I write these words, after the Italian retreat, +a second revolution seems possible. For three years one has thought +inevitably of 1789, and of the ensuing world conflict out of which +issued the beginnings of democracy. History does not repeat itself, +yet evolution is fairly consistent. While our attention has been focused +on the military drama enacted before our eyes and recorded in the +newspapers, another drama, unpremeditated but of vastly greater +significance, is unfolding itself behind the stage. Never in the history +of the world were generals and admirals, statesmen and politicians so +sensitive to or concerned about public opinion as they are today. +From a military point of view the situation of the Allies at the present +writing is far from reassuring. Germany and her associates have the +advantage of interior lines, of a single dominating and purposeful +leadership, while our five big nations, democracies or semi-democracies, +are stretched in a huge ring with precarious connections on land, with +the submarine alert on the sea. Much of their territory is occupied. +They did not seek the war; they still lack co-ordination and leadership +in waging it. In some of these countries, at least, politicians and +statesmen are so absorbed by administrative duties, by national rather +than international problems, by the effort to sustain themselves, that +they have little time for allied strategy. Governments rise and fall, +familiar names and reputations are juggled about like numbered balls in a +shaker, come to the top to be submerged again in a new 'emeute'. There +are conferences and conferences without end. Meanwhile a social ferment +is at work, in Russia conspicuously, in Italy a little less so, in +Germany and Austria undoubtedly, in France and England, and even in our +own country--once of the most radical in the world, now become the most +conservative. + +What form will the social revolution take? Will it be unbridled, +unguided; will it run through a long period of anarchy before the +fermentation begun shall have been completed, or shall it be handled, in +all the nations concerned, by leaders who understand and sympathize with +the evolutionary trend, who are capable of controlling it, of taking the +necessary international steps of co-operation in order that it may become +secure and mutually beneficial to all? This is an age of co-operation, +and in this at least, if not in other matters, the United States of +America is in an ideal position to assume the leadership. + +To a certain extent, one is not prepared to say how far, the military and +social crises are interdependent. And undoubtedly the military problem +rests on the suppression of the submarine. If Germany continues to +destroy shipping on the seas, if we are not able to supply our new armies +and the Allied nations with food and other things, the increasing social +ferment will paralyze the military operations of the Entente. The result +of a German victory under such circumstances is impossible to predict; +but the chances are certainly not worth running. In a, sense, therefore, +in a great sense, the situation is "up" to us in more ways than one, not +only to supply wise democratic leadership but to contribute material aid +and brains in suppressing the submarine, and to build ships enough to +keep Britain, France, and Italy from starving. We are looked upon by all +the Allies, and I believe justly, as being a disinterested nation, free +from the age-long jealousies of Europe. And we can do much in bringing +together and making more purposeful the various elements represented by +the nations to whose aid we have come. + +I had not intended in these early papers to comment, but to confine +myself to such of my experiences abroad as might prove interesting and +somewhat illuminating. So much I cannot refrain from saying. + +It is a pleasure to praise where praise is due, and too much cannot be +said of the personnel of our naval service--something of which I can +speak from intimate personal experience. In these days, in that part of +London near the Admiralty, you may chance to run across a tall, erect, +and broad-shouldered man in blue uniform with three stars on his collar, +striding rapidly along the sidewalk, and sometimes, in his haste, cutting +across a street. People smile at him--costermongers, clerks, and +shoppers--and whisper among themselves, "There goes the American +admiral!" and he invariably smiles back at them, especially at the +children. He is an admiral, every inch a seaman, commanding a devoted +loyalty from his staff and from the young men who are scouring the seas +with our destroyers. In France as well as in England the name Sims is a +household word, and if he chose he might be feted every day of the week. +He does not choose. He spends long hours instead in the quarters devoted +to his administration in Grosvenor Gardens, or in travelling in France +and Ireland supervising the growing forces under his command. + +It may not be out of place to relate a characteristic story of Admiral +Sims, whose career in our service, whose notable contributions to naval +gunnery are too well known to need repetition. Several years ago, on a +memorable trip to England, he was designated by the admiral of the fleet +to be present at a banquet given our sailors in the Guildhall. Of course +the lord mayor called upon him for a speech, but Commander Sims insisted +that a bluejacket should make the address. "What, a bluejacket!" +exclaimed the lord mayor in astonishment. "Do bluejackets make speeches +in your country?" "Certainly they do," said Sims. "Now there's a fine- +looking man over there, a quartermaster on my ship. Let's call on him +and see what he has to say." The quartermaster, duly summoned, rose with +aplomb and delivered himself of a speech that made the hall ring, that +formed the subject of a puzzled and amazed comment by the newspapers of +the British Capital. Nor was it ever divulged that Commander Sims had +foreseen the occasion and had picked out the impressive quartermaster to +make a reputation for oratory for the enlisted force. + +As a matter of fact, it is no exaggeration to add that there were and are +other non-commissioned officers and enlisted men in the service who could +have acquitted themselves equally well. One has only to attend some of +their theatrical performances to be assured of it. + +But to the European mind our bluejacket is still something of an anomaly. +He is a credit to our public schools, a fruit of our system of universal +education. And he belongs to a service in which are reconciled, +paradoxically, democracy and discipline. One moment you may hear a +bluejacket talking to an officer as man to man, and the next you will +see him salute and obey an order implicitly. + +On a wet and smoky night I went from the London streets into the +brightness and warmth of that refuge for American soldiers and sailors, +the "Eagle Hut," as the Y. M. C. A. is called. The place was full, as +usual, but my glance was at once attracted by three strapping, +intelligent-looking men in sailor blouses playing pool in a corner. +"I simply can't get used to the fact that people like that are ordinary +sailors," said the lady in charge to me as we leaned against the soda- +fountain. "They're a continual pride and delight to us Americans here-- +always so willing to help when there's anything to be done, and so +interesting to talk to." When I suggested that her ideas of the navy +must have been derived from Pinafore she laughed. "I can't imagine +using a cat-o'-nine-tails on them!" she exclaimed--and neither could I. +I heard many similar comments. They are indubitably American, these +sailors, youngsters with the stamp of our environment on their features, +keen and self-reliant. I am not speaking now only of those who have +enlisted since the war, but of those others, largely from the small towns +and villages of our Middle West, who in the past dozen years or so have +been recruited by an interesting and scientific system which is the +result of the genius of our naval recruiting officers. In the files at +Washington may be seen, carefully tabulated, the several reasons for +their enlisting. Some have "friends in the service"; others wish to +"perfect themselves in a trade," to "complete their education" or +"see the world"--our adventurous spirit. And they are seeing it. +They are also engaged in the most exciting and adventurous sport--with +the exception of aerial warfare ever devised or developed--that of +hunting down in all weathers over the wide spaces of the Atlantic those +modern sea monsters that prey upon the Allied shipping. For the +superdreadnought is reposing behind the nets, the battle-cruiser +ignominiously laying mines; and for the present at least, until some +wizard shall invent a more effective method of annihilation, victory +over Germany depends primarily on the airplane and the destroyer. +At three o'clock one morning I stood on the crowded deck of an Irish +mail-boat watching the full moon riding over Holyhead Mountain and +shimmering on the Irish Sea. A few hours later, in the early light, +I saw the green hills of Killarney against a washed and clearing sky, +the mud-flats beside the railway shining like purple enamel. All the +forenoon, in the train, I travelled through a country bathed in +translucent colours, a country of green pastures dotted over with white +sheep, of banked hedges and perfect trees, of shadowy blue hills in the +high distance. It reminded one of nothing so much as a stained-glass- +window depicting some delectable land of plenty and peace. And it was +Ireland! When at length I arrived at the station of the port for which I +was bound, and which the censor does not permit me to name, I caught +sight of the figure of our Admiral on the platform; and the fact that I +was in Ireland and not in Emmanuel's Land was brought home to me by the +jolting drive we took on an "outside car," the admiral perched +precariously over one wheel and I over the other. Winding up the hill +by narrow roads, we reached the gates of the Admiralty House. + +The house sits, as it were, in the emperor's seat of the amphitheatre +of the town, overlooking the panorama of a perfect harbour. A ring of +emerald hills is broken by a little gap to seaward, and in the centre is +a miniature emerald isle. The ships lying at anchor seemed like +children's boats in a pond. To the right, where a river empties in, were +scattered groups of queer, rakish craft, each with four slanting pipes +and a tiny flag floating from her halyards; a flag--as the binoculars +revealed--of crimson bars and stars on a field of blue. These were our +American destroyers. And in the midst of them, swinging to the tide, +were the big "mother ships" we have sent over to nurse them when, after +many days and nights of hazardous work at sea, they have brought their +flock of transports and merchantmen safely to port. This "mothering" by +repair-ships which are merely huge machine-shops afloat--this trick of +keeping destroyers tuned up and constantly ready for service has inspired +much favourable comment from our allies in the British service. It is an +instance of our national adaptability, learned from an experience on long +coasts where navy-yards are not too handy. Few landsmen understand how +delicate an instrument the destroyer is. + +A service so hazardous, demanding as it does such qualities as the +ability to make instantaneous decisions and powers of mental and physical +endurance, a service so irresistibly attractive to the young and +adventurous, produces a type of officer quite unmistakable. The day I +arrived in London from France, seeking a characteristically English meal, +I went to Simpson's in the Strand, where I found myself seated by the +side of two very junior officers of the British navy. It appeared that +they were celebrating what was left of a precious leave. At a +neighbouring table they spied two of our officers, almost equally +youthful. "Let's have 'em over," suggested one of the Britishers; and +they were "had" over; he raised his glass. "Here's how--as you say in +America!" he exclaimed. "You destroyer chaps are certainly top hole." +And then he added, with a blush, "I say, I hope you don't think I'm +cheeking you!" + +I saw them afloat, I saw them coming ashore in that Irish port, these +young destroyer captains, after five wakeful nights at sea, weather- +bitten, clear-eyed, trained down to the last ounce. One, with whom I had +played golf on the New England hills, carried his clubs in his hand and +invited me to have a game with him. Another, who apologized for not +being dressed at noon on Sunday--he had made the harbour at three that +morning!--was taking his racquet out of its case, preparing to spend the +afternoon on the hospitable courts of Admiralty House with a fellow +captain and two British officers. He was ashamed of his late rising, +but when it was suggested that some sleep was necessary he explained +that, on the trip just ended, it wasn't only the submarines that kept him +awake. "When these craft get jumping about in a seaway you can't sleep +even if you want to." He who has had experience with them knows the +truth of this remark. Incidentally, though he did not mention it, this +young captain was one of three who had been recommended by the British +admiral to his government for the Distinguished Service Order. The +captain's report, which I read, is terse, and needs to be visualized. +There is simply a statement of the latitude and longitude, the time of +day, the fact that the wave of a periscope was sighted at 1,500 yards by +the quartermaster first class on duty; general quarters rung, the +executive officer signals full speed ahead, the commanding officer +takes charge and manoeuvres for position--and then something happens +which the censor may be fussy about mentioning. At any rate, oil and +other things rise to the surface of the sea, and the Germans are minus +another submarine. The chief machinist's mate, however, comes in for +special mention. It seems that he ignored the ladder and literally fell +down the hatch, dislocating his shoulder but getting the throttle wide +open within five seconds! + +In this town, facing the sea, is a street lined with quaint houses +painted in yellows and browns and greens, and under each house the kind +of a shop that brings back to the middleaged delectable memories of +extreme youth and nickels to spend. Up and down that street on a bright +Saturday afternoon may be seen our Middle-Western jackies chumming with +the British sailors and Tommies, or flirting with the Irish girls, or +gazing through the little panes of the show-windows, whose enterprising +proprietors have imported from the States a popular brand of chewing-gum +to make us feel more at home. In one of these shops, where I went to +choose a picture post-card, I caught sight of an artistic display of a +delicacy I had thought long obsolete--the everlasting gum-drop. But when +I produced a shilling the shopkeeper shook his head. "Sure, every day +the sailors are wanting to buy them of me, but it's for ornament I'm +keeping them," he said. "There's no more to be had till the war will be +over. Eight years they're here now, and you wouldn't get a tooth in +them, sir! "So I wandered out again, joined the admiral, and inspected +the Bluejackets' Club by the water's edge. Nothing one sees, perhaps, is +so eloquent of the change that has taken place in the life and fabric of +our navy. If you are an enlisted man, here in this commodious group of +buildings you can get a good shore meal and entertain your friends among +the Allies, you may sleep in a real bed, instead of a hammock, you may +play pool, or see a moving-picture show, or witness a vaudeville worthy +of professionals, like that recently given in honour of the visit of the +admiral of our Atlantic fleet. A band of thirty pieces furnished the +music, and in the opinion of the jackies one feature alone was lacking +to make the entertainment a complete success--the new drop-curtain had +failed to arrive from London. I happened to be present when this curtain +was first unrolled, and beheld spread out before me a most realistic +presentation of "little old New York," seen from the North River, +towering against blue American skies. And though I have never been +overfond of New York, that curtain in that place gave me a sensation! + +Such is the life of our officers and sailors in these strange times that +have descended upon us. Five to eight days of vigilance, of hardship and +danger--in short, of war--and then three days of relaxation and enjoyment +in clubs, on golf-courses and tennis-courts, barring the time it takes to +clean ship and paint. There need be no fear that the war will be +neglected. It is eminently safe to declare that our service will +be true to its traditions. + + + +III + +"Dogged does it" ought to be added to "Dieu et mon droit" and other +devices of England. On a day when I was lunching with Mr. Lloyd George +in the dining-room at 10 Downing Street that looks out over the Horse +Guards' Parade, the present premier, with a characteristic gesture, flung +out his hand toward the portrait of a young man in the panel over the +mantel. It was of the younger Pitt, who had taken his meals and drunk +his port in this very room in that other great war a hundred years ago. +The news of Austerlitz, brought to him during his illness, is said to +have killed him. But England, undismayed, fought on for a decade, and +won. Mr. Lloyd George, in spite of burdens even heavier than Pitt's, +happily retains his health; and his is the indomitable spirit +characteristic of the new Britain as well as of the old. For it is a new +Britain one sees. Mr. Lloyd George is prime minister of a transformed +Britain, a Britain modernized and democratized. Like the Englishman who, +when he first witnessed a performance of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," cried out, +"How very unlike the home life of our dear Queen!" the American who +lunches in Downing Street is inclined to exclaim: "How different from +Lord North and Palmerston!" We have, I fear, been too long accustomed to +interpret Britain in terms of these two ministers and of what they +represented to us of the rule of a George the Third or of an inimical +aristocracy. Three out of the five men who form the war cabinet of +an empire are of what would once have been termed an "humble origin." +One was, if I am not mistaken, born in Nova Scotia. General Smuts, +unofficially associated with this council, not many years ago was in arms +against Britain in South Africa, and the prime minister himself is the +son of a Welsh tailor. A situation that should mollify the most exacting +and implacable of our anti-British democrats! + +I listened to many speeches and explanations of the prejudice that +existed in the mind of the dyed-in-the-wool American against England, +and the reason most frequently given was the "school-book" reason; +our histories kept the feeling alive. Now; there is no doubt that the +histories out of which we were taught made what psychologists would call +"action patterns," or "complexes," in our brains, just as the school- +books have made similar complexes in the brains of German children and +prepared them for this war. But, after all, there was a certain animus +behind the histories. Boiled down, the sentiment was one against the +rule of a hereditary aristocracy, and our forefathers had it long before +the separation took place. The Middle-Western farmer has no prejudice +against France, because France is a republic. The French are lovable, +and worthy of all the sympathy and affection we can give them. But +Britain is still nominally a monarchy; and our patriot thinks of its +people very much as the cowboy used to regard citizens of New York. They +all lived on Fifth Avenue. For the cowboy, the residents of the dreary +side streets simply did not exist. We have been wont to think of all the +British as aristocrats, while they have returned the compliment by +visualizing all Americans as plutocrats--despite the fact that one-tenth +of our population is said to own nine-tenths of all our wealth! + +But the war will change that, is already changing it. + +'Tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner'. We have been soaked in the same +common law, literature, and traditions of liberty--or of chaos, as one +likes. Whether we all be of British origin or not, it is the mind that +makes the true patriot; and there is no American so dead as not to feel a +thrill when he first sets foot on British soil. Our school-teachers felt +it when they began to travel some twenty years ago, and the thousands of +our soldiers who pass through on their way to France are feeling it +today, and writing home about it. Our soldiers and sailors are being +cared for and entertained in England just as they would be cared for and +entertained at home. So are their offcers. Not long ago one of the +finest town houses in London was donated by the owner for an American +officers' club, the funds were raised by contributions from British +officers, and the club was inaugurated by the King and Queen--and Admiral +Sims. Hospitality and good-will have gone much further than this. Any +one who knows London will understand the sacredness of those private +squares, surrounded by proprietary residences, where every tree and every +blade of grass has been jealously guarded from intrusion for a century or +more. And of all these squares that of St. James's is perhaps the most +exclusive, and yet it is precisely in St. James's there is to be built +the first of those hotels designed primarily for the benefit of American +officers, where they can get a good room for five shillings a night and +breakfast at a reasonable price. One has only to sample the war-time +prices of certain hostelries to appreciate the value of this. + + +On the first of four unforgettable days during which I was a guest behind +the British lines in France the officer who was my guide stopped the +motor in the street of an old village, beside a courtyard surrounded +by ancient barns. + +"There are some of your Americans," he remarked. + +I had recognized them, not by their uniforms but by their type. Despite +their costumes, which were negligible, they were eloquent of college +campuses in every one of our eight and forty States, lean, thin-hipped, +alert. The persistent rains had ceased, a dazzling sunlight made that +beautiful countryside as bright as a coloured picture post-card, but a +riotous cold gale was blowing; yet all wore cotton trousers that left +their knees as bare as Highlanders' kilts. Above these some had an +sweaters, others brown khaki tunics, from which I gathered that they +belonged to the officers' training corps. They were drawn up on two +lines facing each other with fixed bayonets, a grim look on their faces +that would certainly have put any Hun to flight. Between the files stood +an unmistakable gipling sergeant with a crimson face and a bristling +little chestnut moustache, talking like a machine gun. + +"Now, then, not too lidylike!--there's a Bosch in front of you! Run 'im +through! Now, then!" + +The lines surged forward, out went the bayonets, first the long thrust +and then the short, and then a man's gun was seized and by a swift +backward twist of the arm he was made helpless. + +"Do you feel it?" asked the officer, as he turned to me. I did. +"Up and down your spine," he added, and I nodded. "Those chaps will do," +he said. He had been through that terrible battle of the Somme, and he +knew. So had the sergeant. + +Presently came a resting-spell. One of the squad approached me, whom I +recognized as a young man I had met in the Harvard Union. + +"If you write about this," he said, "just tell our people that we're +going to take that sergeant home with us when the war's over. He's too +good to lose." + + + +IV + +It is trite to observe that democracies are organized--if, indeed, they +are organized at all--not for war but for peace. And nowhere is this +fact more apparent than in Britain. Even while the war is in progress +has that internal democratic process of evolution been going on, +presaging profound changes in the social fabric. And these changes must +be dealt with by statesmen, must be guided with one hand while the war is +being prosecuted with the other. The task is colossal. In no previous +war have the British given more striking proof of their inherent quality +of doggedness. Greatness, as Confucius said, does not consist in never +falling, but in rising every time you fall. The British speak with +appalling frankness of their blunders. They are fighting, indeed, for +the privilege of making blunders--since out of blunders arise new truths +and discoveries not contemplated in German philosophy. + +America must now contribute what Britain and France, with all their +energies and resources and determination, have hitherto been unable to +contribute. It must not be men, money, and material alone, but some +quality that America has had in herself during her century and a half of +independent self-realization. Mr. Chesterton, in writing about the +American Revolution, observes that the real case for the colonists is +that they felt that they could be something which England would not help +them to be. It is, in fact, the only case for separation. What may be +called the English tradition of democracy, which we inherit, grows +through conflicts and differences, through experiments and failures and +successes, toward an intellectualized unity,--experiments by states, +experiments by individuals, a widely spread development, and new +contributions to the whole. + +Democracy has arrived at the stage when it is ceasing to be national and +selfish. + +It must be said of England, in her treatment of her colonies subsequent +to our Revolution, that she took this greatest of all her national +blunders to heart. As a result, Canada and Australia and New Zealand +have sent their sons across the seas to fight for an empire that refrains +from coercion; while, thanks to the policy of the British Liberals--which +was the expression of the sentiment of the British nation--we have the +spectacle today of a Botha and a Smuts fighting under the Union Jack. + +And how about Ireland? England has blundered there, and she admits it +freely. They exist in England who cry out for the coercion of Ireland, +and who at times have almost had their way. But to do this, of course, +would be a surrender to the German contentions, an acknowledgment of the +wisdom of the German methods against which she is protesting with all her +might. Democracy, apparently, must blunder on until that question too, +is solved. + + + +V + +Many of those picturesque features of the older England, that stir us by +their beauty and by the sense of stability and permanence they convey, +will no doubt disappear or be transformed. I am thinking of the great +estates, some of which date from Norman times; I am thinking of the +aristocracy, which we Americans repudiated in order to set up a +plutocracy instead. Let us hope that what is fine in it will be +preserved, for there is much. By the theory of the British constitution +--that unwritten but very real document--in return for honours, +emoluments, and titles, the burden of government has hitherto been +thrown on a class. Nor can it be said that they have been untrue to +their responsibility. That class developed a tradition and held fast to +it; and they had a foreign policy that guided England through centuries +of greatness. Democracy too must have a foreign policy, a tradition of +service; a trained if not hereditary group to guide it through troubled +waters. Even in an intelligent community there must be leadership. And, +if the world will no longer tolerate the old theories, a tribute may at +least be paid to those who from conviction upheld them; who ruled, +perhaps in affluence, yet were also willing to toil and, if need be, +to die for the privilege. + +One Saturday afternoon, after watching for a while the boys playing fives +and football and romping over the green lawns at Eton, on my way to the +head master's rooms I paused in one of the ancient quads. My eye had +been caught by a long column of names posted there, printed in heavy +black letters. 'Etona non, immemora'! Every week many new names are +added to those columns. On the walls of the chapel and in other quads +and passages may be found tablets and inscriptions in memory of those who +have died for England and the empire in by-gone wars. I am told that the +proportion of Etonians of killed to wounded is greater than that of any +other public school--which is saying a great deal. They go back across +the channel and back again until their names appear on the last and +highest honour list of the school and nation. + +In one of the hospitals I visited lay a wounded giant who had once been +a truckman in a little town in Kent. Incidentally, in common with his +neighbours, he had taken no interest in the war, which had seemed as +remote to him as though he had lived in North Dakota. One day a Zeppelin +dropped a bomb on that village, whereupon the able-bodied males enlisted +to a man, and he with them. A subaltern in his company was an Eton boy. +"We just couldn't think of 'im as an orficer, sir; in the camps 'e used +to play with us like a child. And then we went to France. And one night +when we was wet to the skin and the Boschs was droppin' shell all around +us we got the word. It was him leaped over the top first of all, +shouting back at us to come on. He tumbled right back and died in my +arms, 'e did, as I was climbin' up after 'im. I shan't ever forget 'im." + +As you travel about in these days you become conscious, among the people +you meet, of a certain bewilderment. A static world and a static order +are dissolving; and in England that order was so static as to make the +present spectacle the more surprising. Signs of the disintegration of +the old social strata were not lacking, indeed, in the earlier years of +the twentieth century, when labour members and north-country radicals +began to invade parliament; but the cataclysm of this war has accelerated +the process. In the muddy trenches of Flanders and France a new +comradeship has sprung up between officers and Tommies, while time- +honoured precedent has been broken by the necessity of giving thousands +of commissions to men of merit who do not belong to the "officer caste." +At the Haymarket Theatre I saw a fashionable audience wildly applaud a +play in which the local tailor becomes a major-general and returns home +to marry the daughter of the lord of a mayor whose clothes he used to cut +before the war. + +"The age of great adventure," were the words used by Mr. H. G. Wells to +describe this epoch as we discussed it. And a large proportion of the +descendants of those who have governed England for centuries are +apparently imbued with the spirit of this adventure, even though it may +spell the end of their exclusive rule. As significant of the social +mingling of elements which in the past never exchanged ideas or points +of view I shall describe a week-end party at a large country house of +Liberal complexion; on the Thames. I have reason to believe it fairly +typical. The owner of this estate holds an important position in the +Foreign Office, and the hostess has, by her wit and intelligent grasp of +affairs, made an enviable place for herself. On her right, at luncheon +on Sunday, was a labour leader, the head of one of the most powerful +unions in Britain, and next him sat a member of one of the oldest of +England's titled families. The two were on terms of Christian names. +The group included two or three women, a sculptor and an educator, +another Foreign Office official who has made a reputation since the +beginning of the war, and finally an employer of labour, the chairman of +the biggest shipbuilding company in England. + +That a company presenting such a variety of interests should have been +brought together in the frescoed dining-room of that particular house is +noteworthy. + +The thing could happen nowhere save in the England of today. At first +the talk was general, ranging over a number of subjects from that of the +personality of certain politicians to the conduct of the war and the +disturbing problem raised by the "conscientious objector"; little by +little, however, the rest of us became silent, to listen to a debate +which had begun between the labour leader and the ship-builder on the +"labour question." It is not my purpose here to record what they said. +Needless to add that they did not wholly agree, but they were much nearer +to agreement than one would have thought possible. What was interesting +was the open-mindedness with which, on both sides, the argument was +conducted, and the fact that it could seriously take place then and +there. For the subject of it had long been the supreme problem in the +lives of both these men, their feelings concerning it must at times have +been tinged with bitterness, yet they spoke with courtesy and restraint, +and though each maintained his contentions he was quick to acknowledge a +point made by the other. As one listened one was led to hope that a +happier day is perhaps at hand when such things as "complexes" and +convictions will disappear. + +The types of these two were in striking contrast. The labour leader was +stocky, chestnut-coloured, vital, possessing the bulldog quality of the +British self-made man combined with a natural wit, sharpened in the +arena, that often startled the company into an appreciative laughter. +The ship-builder, on the other hand, was one of those spare and hard +Englishmen whom no amount of business cares will induce to neglect the +exercise of his body, the obligation at all times to keep "fit"; square- +rigged, as it were, with a lean face and a wide moustache accentuating +a square chin. Occasionally a gleam of humour, a ray of idealism, +lighted his practical grey eyes. Each of these two had managed rather +marvellously to triumph over early training by self-education: the labour +leader, who had had his first lessons in life from injustices and hard +knocks; and the ship-builder, who had overcome the handicap of the +public-school tradition and of Manchester economics. + +"Yes, titles and fortunes must go," remarked our hostess with a smile as +she rose from the table and led the way out on the sunny, stone-flagged +terrace. Below us was a wide parterre whose flower-beds, laid out by a +celebrated landscape-gardener in the days of the Stuarts, were filled +with vegetables. The day was like our New England Indian summerthough +the trees were still heavy with leaves--and a gossamer-blue veil of haze +stained the hills between which the shining river ran. If the social +revolution, or evolution, takes place, one wonders what will become of +this long-cherished beauty. + +I venture to dwell upon one more experience of that week-end party. The +Friday evening of my arrival I was met at the station, not by a limousine +with a chauffeur and footman, but by a young woman with a taxicab--one of +the many reminders that a war is going on. London had been reeking in a +green-yellow fog, but here the mist was white, and through it I caught +glimpses of the silhouettes of stately trees in a park, and presently saw +the great house with its clock-tower looming up before me. A fire was +crackling in the hall, and before it my hostess was conversing amusedly +with a well-known sculptor--a sculptor typical of these renaissance +times, large, full-blooded, with vigorous opinions on all sorts of +matters. + +"A lecturer is coming down from London to talk to the wounded in the +amusement-hall of the hospital," our hostess informed us. "And you both +must come and speak too." + +The three of us got into the only motor of which the establishment now +boasts, a little runabout using a minimum of "petrol," and she guided us +rapidly by devious roads through the fog until a blur of light proclaimed +the presence of a building, one of some score or more built on the golf- +course by the British Government. I have not space hereto describe that +hospital, which is one of the best in England; but it must be observed +that its excellence and the happiness of its inmates are almost wholly +due to the efforts of the lady who now conducted us across the stage of +the amusement-hall, where all the convalescents who could walk or who +could be rolled thither in chairs were gathered. The lecturer had not +arrived. But the lady of the manor seated herself at the speaker's +table, singling out Scotch wits in the audience--for whom she was more +than a match--while the sculptor and I looked on and grinned and resisted +her blandishments to make speeches. When at last the lecturer came he +sat down informally on the table with one foot hanging in the air and +grinned, too, at her bantering but complimentary introduction. It was +then I discovered for the first time that he was one of the best +educational experts of that interesting branch of the British Government, +the Department of Reconstruction, whose business it is to teach the +convalescents the elements of social and political science. This was not +to be a lecture, he told them, but a debate in which every man must take +a part. And his first startling question was this: + +"Why should Mr. Lloyd George, instead of getting five thousand pounds a +year for his services as prime minister, receive any more than a common +labourer?" + +The question was a poser. The speaker folded his hands and beamed down +at them; he seemed fairly to radiate benignity. + +"Now we mustn't be afraid of him, just because he seems to be +intelligent," declared our hostess. This sally was greeted with +spasmodic laughter. Her eyes flitted from bench to bench, yet met +nothing save averted glances. "Jock! Where are you, Jock? Why don't +you speak up?--you've never been downed before." + +More laughter, and craning of necks for the Jocks. This appeared to be +her generic name for the vita. But the Jocks remained obdurately modest. +The prolonged silence did not seem in the least painful to the lecturer, +who thrust his hand in his pocket and continued to beam. He had learned +how to wait. And at last his patience was rewarded. A middleaged +soldier with a very serious manner arose hesitatingly, with encouraging +noises from his comrades. + +"It's not Mr. Lloyd George I'm worrying about, sir," he said, "all I +wants is enough for the missus and me. I had trouble to get that before +the war." + +Cries of "Hear! Hear!" + +"Why did you have trouble?" inquired the lecturer mildly. + +"The wages was too low." + +"And why were the wages too low?" + +"You've got me there. I hadn't thought." + +"But isn't it your business as a voter to think?" asked the lecturer. +"That's why the government is sending me here, to start you to thinking, +to remind you that it is you soldiers who will have to take charge of +this country and run it after the war is over. And you won't be able to +do that unless you think, and think straight." + +"We've never been taught to think," was the illuminating reply. + +"And if we do think we've never been educated to express ourselves, same +as you!" shouted another man, in whom excitement had overcome timidity. + +"I'm here to help you educate yourselves," said the lecturer. "But first +let's hear any ideas you may have on the question I asked you." + +There turned out to be plenty of ideas, after all. An opinion was +ventured that Mr. Lloyd George served the nation, not for money but from +public spirit; a conservative insisted that ability should be rewarded +and rewarded well; whereupon ensued one of the most enlightening +discussions, not only as a revelation of intelligence, but of complexes +and obsessions pervading many of the minds in whose power lies the +ultimate control of democracies. One, for instance, declared that--"if +every man went to church proper of a Sunday and minded his own business +the country would get along well enough." He was evidently of the +opinion that there was too much thinking and not enough of what he would +have termed "religion." Gradually that audience split up into liberals +and conservatives; and the liberals noticeably were the younger men who +had had the advantages of better board schools, who had formed fewer +complexes and had had less time in which to get them set. Of these, +a Canadian made a plea for the American system of universal education, +whereupon a combative "stand-patter" declared that every man wasn't fit +to be educated, that the American plan made only for discontent. +"Look at them," he exclaimed, "They're never satisfied to stay in their +places." This provoked laughter, but it was too much for the sculptor-- +and for me. We both broke our vows and made speeches in favour of +equality and mental opportunity, while the lecturer looked on and smiled. +Mr. Lloyd George and his salary were forgotten. By some subtle art of +the chairman the debate had been guided to the very point where he had +from the first intended to guide it--to the burning question of our day-- +education as the true foundation of democracy! Perhaps, after all, this +may be our American contribution to the world's advance. + +As we walked homeward through the fog I talked to him of Professor +Dewey's work and its results, while he explained to me the methods of the +Reconstruction Department. "Out of every audience like that we get a +group and form a class," he said. "They're always a bit backward at +first, just as they were tonight, but they grow very keen. We have a +great many classes already started, and we see to it that they are +provided with text-books and teachers. Oh, no, it's not propaganda," +he added, in answer to my query; "all we do is to try to give them facts +in such a way as to make them able to draw their own conclusions and join +any political party they choose--just so they join one intelligently." +I must add that before Sunday was over he had organized his class and +arranged for their future instruction. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +I would speak first of a contrast--and yet I have come to recognize how +impossible it is to convey to the dweller in America the difference in +atmosphere between England and France on the one hand and our country on +the other. And when I use the word "atmosphere" I mean the mental state +of the peoples as well as the weather and the aspect of the skies. I +have referred in another article to the anxious, feverish prosperity one +beholds in London and Paris, to that apparent indifference, despite the +presence on the streets of crowds of soldiers to the existence of a war +of which one is ever aware. Yet, along with this, one is ever conscious +of pressure. The air is heavy; there is a corresponding lack of the +buoyancy of mind which is the normal American condition. Perhaps, if +German troops occupied New England and New York, our own mental barometer +might be lower. It is difficult to say. At any rate, after an ocean +voyage of nine days one's spirits rise perceptibly as the ship nears +Nantucket; and the icy-bright sunlight of New York harbour, the sight of +the buildings aspiring to blue skies restore the throbbing optimism which +with us is normal; and it was with an effort, when I talked to the +reporters on landing, that I was able to achieve and express the +pessimism and darkness out of which I had come. Pessimism is perhaps too +strong a word, and takes no account of the continued unimpaired morale +and determination of the greater part of the British and French peoples. +They expect much from us. Yet the impression was instantaneous, when I +set forth in the streets of New York, that we had not fully measured the +magnitude of our task--an impression that has been amply confirmed as the +weeks have passed. + +The sense of relief I felt was not only the result of bright skies and a +high barometer, of the palpable self-confidence of the pedestrians, of +the white bread on the table and the knowledge that there was more, but +also of the ease of accomplishing things. I called for a telephone +number and got it cheerfully and instantly. I sent several telegrams, +and did not have to wait twenty minutes before a wicket while a +painstaking official multiplied and added and subtracted and paused to +talk with a friend; the speed of the express in which I flew down-town +seemed emblematic of America itself. I had been transported, in fact, +into another world--my world; and in order to realize again that from +which I had come I turned to a diary recording a London filled with the +sulphur fumes of fog, through which the lamps of the taxis and buses +shone as yellow blots reflected on glistening streets; or, for some +reason a still greater contrast, a blue, blue November Sunday afternoon +in parts, the Esplanade of the Invalides black with people--sad people-- +and the Invalides itself all etched in blue as seen through the wide +vista from the Seine. + +A few days later, with some children, I went to the Hippodrome. And it +remained for the Hippodrome, of all places, to give me the thrill I had +not achieved abroad, the thrill I had not experienced since the first +months of the war. Mr. George Cohan accomplished it. The transport with +steam up, is ready to leave the wharf, the khaki-clad regiment of erect +and vigorous young Americans marches across the great stage, and the +audience strains forward and begins to sing, under its breath, the words +that proclaim, as nothing else perhaps proclaims, how America feels. + + "Send the word, send the word over there . . . + We'll be o-ver, we're coming o-ver, + And we won't come back till it's o-ver, over there!" + +Is it the prelude of a tragedy? We have always been so successful, we +Americans. Are we to fail now? I am an American, and I do not believe +we are to fail. But I am soberer, somehow a different American than he +who sailed away in August. Shall we learn other things than those that +have hitherto been contained in our philosophy? + +Of one thing I am convinced. It is the first war of the world that is +not a miltary war, although miltary genius is demanded, although it is +the bloodiest war in history. But other qualities are required; men and +women who are not professional soldiers are fighting in it and will aid +in victory. The pomp and circumstance of other wars are lacking in this, +the greatest of all. We had the thrills, even in America, three years +ago, when Britain and France and Canada went in. We tingled when we read +of the mobilizing of the huge armies, of the leave-takings of the +soldiers. We bought every extra for news of those first battles on +Belgian soil. And I remember my sensations when in the province of +Quebec in the autumn of 1914, looking out of the car-window at the troops +gathering on the platforms who were to go across the seas to fight for +the empire and liberty. They were singing "Tipperary!" "Tipperary!" One +seldoms hears it now, and the way has proved long--longer than we +reckoned. And we are singing "Over There!" + +In those first months of the war there was, we were told, in England and +France a revival of "religion," and indeed many of the books then written +gave evidence of having been composed in exalted, mystic moods. I +remember one in particular, called "En Campagne," by a young French +officer. And then, somehow, the note of mystic exaltation died away, +to be succeeded by a period of realism. Read "Le Feu," which is most +typical, which has sold in numberless editions. Here is a picture of +that other aspect--the grimness, the monotony, and the frequent +bestiality of trench life, the horror of slaughtering millions of men +by highly specialized machinery. And yet, as an American, I strike +inevitably the note of optimism once more. Even now the truer spiritual +goal is glimpsed through the battle clouds, and has been hailed in world- +reverberating phrases by our American President. Day by day the real +issue is clearer, while the "religion" it implies embraces not one +nation, wills not one patriotism, but humanity itself. I heard a +Frenchwoman who had been deeply "religious" in the old sense exclaim: +"I no longer have any faith in God; he is on the side of the Germans." +When the war began there were many evidences of a survival of that faith +that God fights for nations, interferes in behalf of the "righteous" +cause. When General Joffre was in America he was asked by one of our +countrywomen how the battle of the Marne was won. "Madame," he is +reported to have said, "it was won by me, by my generals and soldiers." +The tendency to regard this victory, which we hope saved France and the +Western humanitarian civilization we cherish, as a special interposition +of Providence, as a miracle, has given place to the realization that the +battle was won by the resourcefulness, science, and coolness of the +French commander-in-chief. Science preserves armies, since killing, if +it has to be done, is now wholly within that realm; science heals the +wounded, transports them rapidly to the hospitals, gives the shattered +something still to live for; and, if we are able to abandon the +sentimental view and look facts in the face--as many anointed chaplains +in Europe are doing--science not only eliminates typhoid but is able to +prevent those terrible diseases that devastate armies and nations. And +science is no longer confined to the physical but has invaded the social +kingdom, is able to weave a juster fabric into the government of peoples. +On all sides we are beginning to embrace the religion of self-reliance, +a faith that God is on the side of intelligence--intelligence with a +broader meaning than the Germans have given it, for it includes charity. + + + +II + +It seems to me that I remember, somewhere in the realistic novel I have +mentioned "Le Feu"--reading of singing soldiers, and an assumption on the +part of their hearers that such songs are prompted only by a devil-may- +care lightness of heart which the soldier achieves. A shallow psychology +(as the author points out), especially in these days of trench warfare! +The soldier sings to hide his real feelings, perhaps to give vent to +them. I am reminded of all this in connection with my trip to the +British front. I left London after lunch on one of those dreary, grey +days to which I have referred; the rain had begun to splash angrily +against the panes of the car windows before we reached the coast. At +five o'clock the boat pushed off into a black channel, whipped by a gale +that drove the rain across the decks and into every passage and gangway. +The steamer was literally loaded with human beings, officers and men +returning from a brief glimpse of home. There was nothing of the glory +of war in the embarkation, and, to add to the sad and sinister effect of +it, each man as he came aboard mounted the ladder and chose, from a pile +on the hatch combing, a sodden life-preserver, which he flung around his +shoulders as he went in search of a shelter. The saloon below, where +we had our tea, was lighted indeed, but sealed so tight as to be +insupportable; and the cabin above, stifling too, was dark as a pocket. +One stumbled over unseen passengers on the lounges, or sitting on kits on +the floor. Even the steps up which I groped my way to the deck above +were filled, while on the deck there was standing-room only and not much +of that. Mal de mer added to the discomforts of many. At length I found +an uncertain refuge in a gangway amidships, hedged in between unseen +companions; but even here the rain stung our faces and the spray of an +occasional comber drenched our feet, while through the gloom of the night +only a few yards of white water were to be discerned. For three hours I +stood there, trying to imagine what was in the minds of these men with +whose bodies I was in such intimate contact. They were going to a +foreign land to fight, many of them to die, not in one of those +adventurous campaigns of times gone by, but in the wet trenches or the +hideous No Man's Land between. What were the images they summoned up in +the darkness? Visions of long-familiar homes and long-familiar friends? +And just how were they facing the future? Even as I wondered, voices +rose in a song, English voices, soldier voices. It was not "Tipperary," +the song that thrilled us a few years ago. I strove to catch the words: + + "I want to go home! + I don't want to go back to the trenches no more, + Where there are bullets and shrapnel galore, + I want to go home!" + +It was sung boisterously, in a defiant tone of mockery of the desire it +expressed, and thus tremendously gained in pathos. They did want to go +home--naturally. It was sung with the same spirit our men sing "We won't +come back till it's over, over there!" The difference is that these +Britishers have been over there, have seen the horrors face to face, have +tasted the sweets of home, and in spite of heartsickness and seasickness +are resolved to see it through. Such is the morale of the British army. +I have not the slightest doubt that it will be the morale of our own army +also, but at present the British are holding the fort. Tommy would never +give up the war, but he has had a realistic taste of it, and his songs +reflect his experience. Other songs reached my ears each night, above +the hissing and pounding of the Channel seas, but the unseen group +returned always to this. One thought of Agincourt and Crecy, of +Waterloo, of the countless journeys across this same stormy strip of +water the ancestors of these man had made in the past, and one wondered +whether war were eternal and inevitable, after all. + +And what does Tommy think about it--this war? My own limited experience +thoroughly indorses Mr. Galsworthy's splendid analysis of British-soldier +psychology that appeared in the December North American. The average +man, with native doggedness, is fighting for the defence of England. +The British Government itself, in its reconstruction department for the +political education of the wounded, has given partial denial to the old +maxim that it is the soldier's business not to think but to obey; and the +British army is leavened with men who read and reflect in the long nights +of watching in the rain, who are gaining ideas about conditions in the +past and resolutions concerning those of the future. The very army +itself has had a miracle happen to it: it has been democratized--and with +the cheerful consent of the class to which formerly the possession of +commissions was largely confined. Gradually, to these soldier-thinkers, +as well as to the mass of others at home, is unfolding the vision of a +new social order which is indeed worth fighting for and dying for. + + + +III + +At last, our knees cramped and our feet soaked, we saw the lights of the +French port dancing across the veil of rain, like thistledowns of fire, +and presently we were at rest at a stone quay. As I stood waiting on the +deck to have my passport vised, I tried to reconstruct the features of +this little seaport as I had seen it, many years before, on a bright +summer's day when I had motored from Paris on my way to London. The gay +line of hotels facing the water was hidden in the darkness. Suddenly I +heard my name called, and I was rescued from the group of civilians by a +British officer who introduced himself as my host. It was after nine +o'clock, and he had been on the lookout for me since half past seven. +The effect of his welcome at that time and place was electrical, and I +was further immensely cheered by the news he gave me, as we hurried along +the street, that two friends of mine were here and quite hungry, having +delayed dinner for my arrival. One of them was a young member of +Congress who had been making exhaustive studies of the situation in +Italy, France and England, and the other one of our best-known writers, +both bound for London. We sat around the table until nearly eleven, +exchanging impressions and experiences. Then my officer declared that +it was time to go home. + +"Home" proved to be the big chateau which the British Government has +leased for the kindly purpose of entertaining such American guests as +they choose to invite. It is known as the "American Chateau," and in the +early morning hours we reached it after a long drive through the gale. +We crossed a bridge over a moat and traversed a huge stone hall to +the Gothic drawing-room. Here a fire was crackling on the hearth, +refreshments were laid out, and the major in command rose from his book +to greet me. Hospitality, with these people, has attained to art, and, +though I had come here at the invitation of his government, I had the +feeling of being his personal guest in his own house. Presently he led +the way up the stone stairs and showed me the room I was to occupy. + +I awoke to the sound of the wind whistling through the open lattice, and +looking down on the ruffled blue waters of the moat I saw a great white +swan at his morning toilet, his feathers dazzling in the sun. It was one +of those rare crisp and sparkling days that remind one of our American +autumn. A green stretch of lawn made a vista through the woods. +Following the example of the swan, I plunged into the tin tub the orderly +had placed beside my bed and went down to porridge in a glow. Porridge, +for the major was Scotch, and had taught his French cook to make it as +the Scotch make it. Then, going out into the hall, from a table on which +lay a contour map of the battle region, the major picked up a hideous +mask that seemed to have been made for some barbaric revelries. + +"We may not strike any gas," he said, "but it's as well to be on the safe +side," whereupon he made me practise inserting the tube in my mouth, +pinching the nostrils instantly with the wire-covered nippers. He also +presented me with a steel helmet. Thus equipped for any untoward +occurrence, putting on sweaters and heavy overcoats, and wrapping +ourselves in the fur rugs of the waiting automobile, we started off, +with the gale on our quarter, for the front. + +Picardy, on whose soil has been shed so much English blood, never was +more beautiful than on that October day. The trees were still in full +leaf, the fields green, though the crops had been gathered, and the +crystal air gave vivid value to every colour in the landscape. From time +to time we wound through the cobble-stoned streets of historic villages, +each having its stone church end the bodki-shaped steeple of blue slate +so characteristic of that country. And, as though we were still in the +pastoral times of peace, in the square of one of these villages a horse- +fair was in progress, blue-smocked peasants were trotting chunky ponies +over the stones. It was like a picture from one of De Maupassant's +tales. In other villages the shawled women sat knitting behind piles of +beets and cabbages and apples, their farm-carts atilt in the sun. Again +and again I tried to grasp the fact that the greatest of world wars was +being fought only a few miles away--and failed. + +We had met, indeed, an occasional officer or orderly, huddled in a +greatcoat and head against the wind, exercising those wonderful animals +that are the pride of the British cavalry and which General Sir Douglas +Haig, himself a cavalryman, some day hopes to bring into service. We had +overtaken an artillery train rumbling along toward the east, the men +laughing and joking as they rode, as though they were going to +manoeuvres. Farther on, as the soldiers along the highroads and in the +towns grew more and more numerous, they seemed so harmoniously part of +the peaceful scene that war was as difficult to visualize as ever. Many +sat about smoking their pipes and playing with the village children, +others were in squads going to drill or exercise--something the Briton +never neglects. The amazing thing to a visitor who has seen the trenches +awash on a typical wet day, who knows that even billeting in cold farms +and barns behind the lines can scarcely be compared to the comforts of +home, is how these men keep well under the conditions. To say that they +are well is to understate the fact: the ruddy faces and clear eyes and +hard muscles--even of those who once were pale London clerks--proclaim a +triumph for the system of hygiene of their army. + +Suddenly we came upon a house with a great round hole in its wall, and +then upon several in ruins beside the village street. Meanwhile, at work +under the windswept trees of the highway, were strange, dark men from the +uttermost parts of the earth, physiognomies as old as the tombs of +Pharaoh. It was, indeed, not so much the graven red profiles of priests +and soldiers that came tome at sight of these Egyptians, but the singing +fellaheen of the water-buckets of the Nile. And here, too, shovelling +the crushed rock, were East Indians oddly clad in European garb, careless +of the cold. That sense of the vastness of the British Empire, which at +times is so profound, was mingled now with a knowledge that it was +fighting for its life, marshalling all its resources for Armageddon. + +Saint Eloi is named after the good bishop who ventured to advise King +Dagobert about his costume. And the church stands--what is left of it-- +all alone on the greenest of terraces jutting out toward the east; and +the tower, ruggedly picturesque against the sky, resembles that of some +crumbled abbey. As a matter of fact, it has been a target for German +gunners. Dodging an army-truck and rounding one of those military +traffic policemen one meets at every important corner we climbed the hill +and left the motor among the great trees, which are still fortunately +preserved. And we stood for a few minutes, gazing over miles and miles +of devastation. Then, taking the motor once more, we passed through +wrecked and empty villages until we came to the foot of Vimy Ridge. +Notre Dame de Lorette rose against the sky-line to the north. + +Vimy and Notre Dame de Lorette--sweet but terrible names! Only a summer +had passed since Vimy was the scene of one of the bloodiest battles of +the war. From a distance the prevailing colour of the steep slope is +ochre; it gives the effect of having been scraped bare in preparation for +some gigantic enterprise. A nearer view reveals a flush of green; nature +is already striving to heal. From top to bottom it is pockmarked by +shells and scarred by trenches--trenches every few feet, and between them +tangled masses of barbed wire still clinging to the "knife rests" and +corkscrew stanchions to which it had been strung. The huge shell-holes, +revealing the chalk subsoil, were half-filled with water. And even +though the field had been cleaned by those East Indians I had seen on the +road, and the thousands who had died here buried, bits of uniform, shoes, +and accoutrements and shattered rifles were sticking in the clay--and +once we came across a portion of a bedstead, doubtless taken by some +officer from a ruined and now vanished village to his dugout. Painfully, +pausing frequently to ponder over these remnants, so eloquent of the fury +of the struggle, slipping backward at every step and despite our care +getting tangled in the wire, we made our way up the slope. Buttercups +and daisies were blooming around the edges of the craters. + +As we drew near the crest the major warned me not to expose myself. +"It isn't because there is much chance of our being shot," he explained," +but a matter of drawing the German fire upon others." And yet I found it +hard to believe--despite the evidence at my feet--that war existed here. +The brightness of the day, the emptiness of the place, the silence--save +for the humming of the gale--denied it. And then, when we had cautiously +rounded a hummock at the top, my steel helmet was blown off--not by a +shrapnel, but by the wind! I had neglected to tighten the chin-strap. + +Immediately below us I could make out scars like earthquake cracks +running across the meadows--the front trenches. Both armies were buried +like moles in these furrows. The country was spread out before us, like +a map, with occasionally the black contour of a coal mound rising against +the green, or a deserted shaft-head. I was gazing at the famous battle- +field of Lens. Villages, woods, whose names came back to me as the major +repeated them, lay like cloud shadows on the sunny plain, and the +faintest shadow of all, far to the eastward, was Lens itself. I marked +it by a single white tower. And suddenly another white tower, loftier +than the first, had risen up! But even as I stared its substance seemed +to change, to dissolve, and the tower was no longer to be seen. Not +until then did I realize that a monster shell had burst beside the +trenches in front of the city. Occasionally after that there came to my +ears the muffed report of some hidden gun, and a ball like a powder-puff +lay lightly on the plain, and vanished. But even the presence of these, +oddly enough, did not rob the landscape of its air of Sunday peace. + +We ate our sandwiches and drank our bottle of white wine in a sheltered +cut of the road that runs up that other ridge which the French gained at +such an appalling price, Notre Dame de Lorette, while the major described +to me some features of the Lens battle, in which he had taken part. +I discovered incidentally that he had been severely wounded at the Somme. +Though he had been a soldier all his life, and a good soldier, his true +passion was painting, and he drew my attention to the rare greens and +silver-greys of the stones above us, steeped in sunlight--all that +remained of the little church of Notre Dame--more beautiful, more +significant, perhaps, as a ruin. It reminded the major of the Turners he +had admired in his youth. After lunch we lingered in the cemetery, where +the graves and vaults had been harrowed by shells; the trenches ran right +through them. And here, in this desecrated resting-place of the village +dead, where the shattered gravestones were mingled with barbed wire, +death-dealing fragments of iron, and rusting stick-bombs that had failed +to explode, was a wooden cross, on which was rudely written the name of +Hans Siebert. Mouldering at the foot of the cross was a grey woollen +German tunic from which the buttons had been cut. + +We kept the road to the top, for Notre Dame de Lorette is as steep as +Vimy. There we looked upon the panorama of the Lens battle-field once +more, and started down the eastern slope, an apparently smooth expanse +covered now with prairie grasses, in reality a labyrinth of deep ditches, +dugouts, and pits; gruesome remnants of the battle lay half-concealed +under the grass. We walked slowly, making desperate leaps over the +trenches, sometimes perforce going through them, treading gingerly on the +"duck board" at the bottom. We stumbled over stick-bombs and unexploded +shells. No plough can be put here--the only solution for the land for +years to come is forest. Just before we gained the road at the bottom, +where the car was awaiting us, we were startled by the sudden flight of a +covey of partridges. + +The skies were grey when we reached the banal outskirts of a town where +the bourgeoise houses were modern, commonplace, save those which had been +ennobled by ruin. It was Arras, one of those few magic names, eloquent +with suggestions of mediaeval romance and art, intrigue and chivalry; +while upon their significance, since the war began, has been superimposed +still another, no less eloquent but charged with pathos. We halted for a +moment in the open space before the railroad station, a comparatively new +structure of steel and glass, designed on geometrical curves, with an +uninspiring, cheaply ornamented front. It had been, undoubtedly, the +pride of the little city. Yet finding it here had at first something of +the effect of the discovery of an office-building--let us say--on the +site of the Reims Cathedral. Presently, however, its emptiness, its +silence began to have their effects--these and the rents one began to +perceive in the roof. For it was still the object of the intermittent +yet persistent fire of the German artillery. One began to realize that +by these wounds it had achieved a dignity that transcended the mediocre +imagination of its provincial designer. A fine rain had set in before +we found the square, and here indeed one felt a certain desolate +satisfaction; despite the wreckage there the spirit of the ancient town +still poignantly haunted it. Although the Hotel de Ville, which had +expressed adequately the longings and aspirations, the civic pride of +those bygone burghers, was razed to the ground, on three sides were still +standing the varied yet harmonious facades of Flemish houses made +familiar by photographs. Of some of these the plaster between the carved +beams had been shot away, the roofs blown off, and the tiny hewn rafters +were bared to the sky. The place was empty in the gathering gloom of the +twilight. The gaiety and warmth of the hut erected in the Public Gardens +which houses the British Officers' Club were a relief. + +The experiences of the next day will remain for ever in my memory etched, +as it were, in sepia. My guide was a younger officer who had seen heroic +service, and I wondered constantly how his delicate frame had survived in +the trenches the constant hardship of such weather as now, warmly wrapped +and with the car-curtains drawn, we faced. The inevitable, relentless +rain of that region had set in again, the rain in which our own soldiers +will have to fight, and the skies were of a darkness seldom known in +America. The countryside was no longer smiling. After some two hours of +progress we came, in that devastated district near the front, to an +expanse where many monsters were clumsily cavorting like dinosaurs in +primeval slime. At some distance from the road others stood apparently +tethered in line, awaiting their turn for exercise. These were the far- +famed tanks. Their commander, or chief mahout--as I was inclined to call +him--was a cheerful young giant of colonial origin, who has often driven +them serenely across No Man's Land and into the German trenches. He had +been expecting us, and led me along a duck board over the morass, to +where one of these leviathans was awaiting us. You crawl through a +greasy hole in the bottom, and the inside is as full of machinery as the +turret of the Pennsylvania, and you grope your way to the seat in front +beside that of the captain and conductor, looking out through a slot in +the armour over a waste of water and mud. From here you are supposed to +operate a machine gun. Behind you two mechanics have started the engines +with a deafening roar, above which are heard the hoarse commands of the +captain as he grinds in his gears. Then you realize that the thing is +actually moving, that the bosses on the belt have managed to find a grip +on the slime--and presently you come to the brink of what appears, to +your exaggerated sense of perception, a bottomless chasm, with distant +steep banks on the farther side that look unattainable and +insurmountable. It is an old German trench which the rains have worn and +widened. You brace yourself, you grip desperately a pair of brass +handles in front of you, while leviathan hesitates, seems to sit up on +his haunches, and then gently buries his nose in the pasty clay and paws +his way upward into the field beyond. It was like sitting in a huge +rocking-chair. That we might have had a bump, and a bone-breaking one, +I was informed after I had left the scene of the adventure. It all +depends upon the skill of the driver. The monsters are not as tractable +as they seem. + +That field in which the tanks manoeuvre is characteristic of the whole of +this district of levelled villages and vanished woods. Imagine a +continuous clay vacant lot in one of our Middle Western cities on the +rainiest day you can recall; and further imagine, on this limitless lot, +a network of narrow-gauge tracks and wagon roads, a scattering of +contractors' shanties, and you will have some idea of the daily life and +surroundings of one of oar American engineer regiments, which is running +a railroad behind the British front. Yet one has only to see these men +and talk with them to be convinced of the truth that human happiness and +even human health thanks to modern science--are not dependent upon an +existence in a Garden of Eden. I do not mean exactly that these men +would choose to spend the rest of their existences in this waste, but +they are happy in the consciousness of a job well done. It was really +inspiring to encounter here the familiar conductors and brakemen, +engineers and firemen, who had voluntarily, and for an ideal, left their +homes in a remote and peaceful republic three thousand miles away, to +find contentment and a new vitality, a wider vision, in the difficult and +dangerous task they were performing. They were frequently under fire-- +when they brought back the wounded or fetched car-loads of munitions to +the great guns on the ridiculous little trains of flat cars with open- +work wheels, which they named--with American humour--the Federal Express +and the Twentieth Century Limited. And their officers were equally +happy. Their colonel, of our regular Army Engineer Corps, was one of +those broad-shouldered six-footers who, when they walk the streets of +Paris, compel pedestrians to turn admiringly and give one a new pride in +the manhood of our nation. Hospitably he drew us out of the wind and +rain into his little hut, and sat us down beside the stove, cheerfully +informing us that, only the night before, the gale had blown his door in, +and his roof had started for the German lines. In a neighbouring hut, +reached by a duck board, we had lunch with him and his officers baked +beans and pickles, cakes and maple syrup. The American food, the +American jokes and voices in that environment seemed strange indeed! +But as we smoked and chatted about the friends we had in common, about +political events at home and the changes that were taking place there, it +seemed as if we were in America once more. The English officer listened +and smiled in sympathy, and he remarked, after our reluctant departure, +that America was an extraordinary land. + +He directed our chauffeur to Bapaume, across that wilderness which the +Germans had so wantonly made in their retreat to the Hindenburg line. +Nothing could have been more dismal than our slow progress in the steady +rain, through the deserted streets of this town. Home after home had +been blasted--their intimate yet harrowing interiors were revealed. The +shops and cafes, which had been thoroughly looted, had their walls blown +out, but in many cases the signs of the vanished and homeless proprietors +still hung above the doors. I wondered how we should feel in New England +if such an outrage had been done to Boston, for instance, or little +Concord! The church, the great cathedral on its terrace, the bishop's +house, all dynamited, all cold and wet and filthy ruins! It was dismal, +indeed, but scarcely more dismal than that which followed; for at Bapaume +we were on the edge of the battle-field of the Somme. And I chanced to +remember that the name had first been indelibly impressed on my +consciousness at a comfortable breakfast-table at home, where I sat +looking out on a bright New England garden. In the headlines and columns +of my morning newspaper I had read again and again, during the summer of +1916, of Thiepval and La Boisselle, of Fricourt and Mametz and the Bois +des Trones. Then they had had a sinister but remote significance; now I +was to see them, or what was left of them! + +As an appropriate and characteristic setting for the tragedy which had +happened here, the indigo afternoon could not have been better chosen. +Description fails to do justice to the abomination of desolation of that +vast battle-field in the rain, and the imagination, refuses to +reconstruct the scene of peace--the chateaux and happy villages, the +forests and pastures, that flourished here so brief a time ago. In my +fancy the long, low swells of land, like those of some dreary sea, were +for the moment the subsiding waves of the cataclysm that had rolled here +and extinguished all life. Beside the road only the blood-red soil +betrayed the sites of powdered villages; and through it, in every +direction, trenches had been cut. Between the trenches the earth was +torn and tortured, as though some sudden fossilizing process, in its +moment of supreme agony, had fixed it thus. On the hummocks were graves, +graves marked by wooden crosses, others by broken rifles thrust in the +ground. Shattered gun-carriages lay in the ditches, modern cannon that +had cost priceless hours of skilled labour; and once we were confronted +by one of those monsters, wounded to the death, I had seen that morning. +The sight of this huge, helpless thing oddly recalled the emotions I had +felt, as a child, when contemplating dead elephants in a battle picture +of the army of a Persian king. + +Presently, like the peak of some submerged land, we saw lifted out of +that rolling waste the "Butt" of Warlencourt--the burial-mound of this +modern Marathon. It is honeycombed with dugouts in which the Germans who +clung to it found their graves, while the victorious British army swept +around it toward Bapaume. Everywhere along that road, which runs like an +arrow across the battle-field to Albert, were graves. Repetition seems +the only method of giving an adequate impression of their numbers; and +near what was once the village of Pozieres was the biggest grave of all, +a crater fifty feet deep and a hundred feet across. Seven months the +British sappers had toiled far below in the chalk, digging the passage +and chamber; and one summer dawn, like some tropical volcano, it had +burst directly under the German trench. Long we stood on the slippery +edge of it, gazing down at the tangled wire and litter of battle that +strewed the bottom, while the rain fell pitilessly. Just such rain, said +my officerguide, as had drenched this country through the long winter +months of preparation. "We never got dry," he told me; and added with a +smile, in answer to my query: "Perhaps that was the reason we never +caught colds." + +When we entered Albert, the starting point of the British advance, there +was just light enough to see the statue of the Virgin leaning far above +us over the street. The church-tower on which it had once stood erect +had been struck by a German shell, but its steel rod had bent and not +broken. Local superstition declares that when the Virgin of Albert falls +the war will be ended. + + + +IV + +I come home impressed with the fact that Britain has learned more from +this war than any other nation, and will probably gain more by that +knowledge. We are all wanting, of course, to know what we shall get out +of it, since it was forced upon us; and of course the only gain worth +considering--as many of those to whom its coming has brought home the +first glimmerings of social science are beginning to see--is precisely a +newly acquired vision of the art of self-government. It has been +unfortunately necessary--or perhaps fortunately necessary--for the great +democracies to turn their energies and resources and the inventive +ingenuity of their citizens to the organization of armies and indeed of +entire populations to the purpose of killing enough Germans to remove +democracy's exterior menace. The price we pay in human life is +appallingly unfortunate. But the necessity for national organization +socializes the nation capable of it; or, to put the matter more truly, +if the socializing process had anticipated the war--as it had in Great +Britain--the ability to complete it under stress is the test of a +democratic nation; and hence the test of democracy, since the socializing +process becomes international. Britain has stood the test, even from the +old-fashioned militarist point of view, since it is apparent that no +democracy can wage a sustained great war unless it is socialized. After +the war she will probably lead all other countries in a sane and +scientific liberalization. The encouraging fact is that not in spite of +her liberalism, but because of it, she has met military Germany on her +own ground and, to use a vigorous expression, gone her one better. In +1914, as armies go today, the British Army was a mere handful of men +whose officers belonged to a military caste. Brave men and brave +officers, indeed! But at present it is a war organization of an +excellence which the Germans never surpassed. I have no space to enter +into a description of the amazing system, of the network of arteries +converging at the channel ports and spreading out until it feeds and +clothes every man of those millions, furnishes him with newspapers and +tobacco, and gives him the greatest contentment compatible with the +conditions under which he has to live. The number of shells flung at the +enemy is only limited by the lives of the guns that fire them. I should +like to tell with what swiftness, under the stress of battle, the wounded +are hurried back to the coast and even to England itself. I may not +state the thousands carried on leave every day across the channel and +back again--in spite of submarines. But I went one day through Saint +Omer, with its beautiful church and little blue chateau, past the rest- +camps of the big regiments of guards to a seaport on the downs, formerly +a quiet little French town, transformed now into an ordered Babel. The +term is paradoxical, but I let it stand. English, Irish, and Scotch from +the British Isles and the ends of the earth mingle there with Indians, +Egyptians, and the chattering Mongolians in queer fur caps who work in +the bakeries. + +I went through one of these bakeries, almost as large as an automobile +factory, fragrant with the aroma of two hundred thousand loaves of bread. +This bakery alone sends every day to the trenches two hundred thousand +loaves made from the wheat of western Canada! Of all sights to be seen +in this place, however, the reclamation "plant" is the most wonderful. +It covers acres. Everything which is broken in war, from a pair of +officer's field-glasses to a nine-inch howitzer carriage is mended here-- +if it can be mended. Here, when a battle-field is cleared, every article +that can possibly be used again is brought; and the manager pointed with +pride to the furnaces in his power-house, which formerly burned coal and +now are fed with refuse--broken wheels of gun-carriages, sawdust, and +even old shoes. Hundreds of French girls and even German prisoners are +resoling and patching shoes with the aid of American machinery, and even +the uppers of such as are otherwise hopeless are cut in spirals into +laces. Tunics, breeches, and overcoats are mended by tailors; rusty camp +cookers are retinned, and in the foundries the precious scraps of cast +iron are melted into braziers to keep Tommy in the trenches warm. In the +machine-shops the injured guns and cannon are repaired. German prisoners +are working there, too. At a distance, in their homely grey tunics, with +their bullet-shaped heads close-cropped and the hairs standing out like +the needles of a cylinder of a music-box, they had the appearance of hard +citizens who had become rather sullen convicts. Some wore spectacles. A +closer view revealed that most of them were contented, and some actually +cheerful. None, indeed, seemed more cheerful than a recently captured +group I saw later, who were actually building the barbed-wire fence that +was to confine them. + +My last visit in this town was to the tiny but on a "corner lot," in +which the Duchess of Sutherland has lived now for some years. As we had +tea she told me she was going on a fortnight's leave to England; and no +Tommy in the trenches could have been more excited over the prospect. +Her own hospital, which occupies the rest of the lot, is one of those +marvels which individual initiative and a strong social sense such as +hers has produced in this war. Special enterprise was required to save +such desperate cases as are made a specialty of here, and all that +medical and surgical science can do has been concentrated, with +extraordinary success, on the shattered men who are brought to her wards. +That most of the horrible fractures I saw are healed, and healed quickly +--thanks largely to the drainage system of our own Doctor Carrel--is not +the least of the wonders of the remarkable times in which we live. + +The next day, Sunday, I left for Paris, bidding farewell regretfully to +the last of my British-officer hosts. He seemed like an old, old friend +--though I had known him but a few days. I can see him now as he waved +me a good-bye from the platform in his Glengarry cap and short tunic and +plaid trousers. He is the owner of a castle and some seventy square +miles of land in Scotland alone. For the comfort of his nation's guests, +he toils like a hired courier. + + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +American religion as set forth by William James +Be useful! +Privilege of making blunders +Rising every time you fall (Confucius on greatness) +Sentimentalism, ignorance, close-mindedness, and cant +The English do not advertise their sorrows + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRAVELLER IN WAR-TIME, BY CHURCHILL *** + +************ This file should be named wc61w10.txt or wc61w10.zip ************ + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, wc61w11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, wc61w10a.txt + +This eBook was produced by David Widger <widger@cecomet.net> + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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