The Dutch were fighting for their liberty then. Great Britain is
fighting for liberty in Europe to-day--and for Dutch liberty to boot.
The enemy of all liberty uses Holland as a short cut whereby her pirates
of the air can get more quickly to their murder work in England. Would
the hero ancestors, of whom the Dutch so boast, have tolerated this
indignity? The artist seer supplies the answer.
Note the mixture of the ghostly and the real in this vivid and vivacious
drawing. But if it is easy to see through the faint outlines of the
sailor spirits, it is easier for these gallant ghosts to see through the
unrealities of their descendants' fears and hesitations. The anger of
the heroes is plainly too great for words. How compressed the lips! How
tense the attitude! The hands gripped in the angriest sort of
impatience! Mark the subtle mingling of seaman and burgher in the poise
and figures. Mark particularly Van Tromp's stiffened forefinger on his
staff.
Is the fate of L19 the fruit of our artist's stinging reminder that
Holland once had nobler spirits and braver days?
ARTHUR POLLEN.
[Illustration: VAN TROMP AND DE RUYTER
"So long as you permit Zeppelins to cross our land you surely should
cease to boast of our deeds."
Whenever a Dutchman wishes to speak of the great past of his country he
calls to mind the names of these heroes.]
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WAR AND CHRIST
The deliberate war made by Prussia in all those areas which she can
reach or occupy against the symbols and sacred objects of the Christian
faith is a phenomenon in every way worthy of consideration.
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