Raemaekers in his
cartoon follows the conception of Gustave Dore rather than that of the
old fabulists. The modern Ahasuerus has no surety of an eventual peace.
We have seen the German War Lord flitting hungrily from Lorraine to
Poland, from Flanders to Nish, watching the failure of his troops before
Nancy and Ypres, inditing grandiose proclamations to Europe, prophesying
a peace which never comes. He is a figure worthy of Greek tragedy. The
[Greek: hubris] which defied the gods has put him outside the homely
consolations of mankind. He has devoted his people to the Dance of
Death, and himself, like some new Orestes, can find no solace though he
seek it wearily in the four corners of the world.
JOHN BUCHAN.
[Illustration: AHASUERUS RETURNS
"Once I drove the Christ out of my door, now I am doomed to walk from
the Northern Seas to the Southern, from the Western shores to the
Eastern mountains, asking for Peace, and none will give it to me."--From
the Legend of the "Wandering Jew"]
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OUR CANDID FRIEND
The position of Holland and Denmark is one of excruciating anxiety to
the citizens of those countries. They know that the Allies are fighting
the battle of their own political existence, but they are so hypnotized
with well-founded terror of the implacable tyrant on their flank that
they are not only bound to neutrality, but are afraid to express their
sympathies too plainly.
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