To them is offered the parable which shows their relation to
their master.
A. SHADWELL.
[Illustration: HIS MASTER'S VOICE
The _Vlaamsche Stem_ (Flemish Voice), a Flemish paper, was bought by the
Germans, whereupon the whole staff resigned, as it no longer represented
its title.]
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HUN GENEROSITY
The All-Highest, so we are told, loves a joke at another's expense, a
trait in his character essentially barbaric. Raemaekers reproduces the
twinkle in the Imperial eye as William of Potsdam offers to a quondam
ally the foot which belongs to his senile and helpless brother of
Hapsburg. The roar of anguish from the prostrate octogenarian provokes,
as we see, not pity but a grim smile. Italy's monarch, we may imagine,
is muttering to himself:--
_Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes._
The bribe, wrenched from another, was, of course, indignantly rejected,
but one wonders what the secret feelings of the Hapsburgs may be toward
the Hohenzollerns. We know that the Turk cherishes no love for the Hun
who has beguiled him, but we cannot gauge as yet the real strength or
weakness of the bond between the Huns on the one hand and the Austrians
and Hungarians on the other. Raemaekers has portrayed Franz Josef flat
on his back. In the language of the ring he is "down and out." Possibly
it may have been so from the beginning. At any rate, in this country,
there is an amiable disposition to regard Franz Josef as a victim rather
than an accomplice, a weakling writhing beneath the jack-boot of
Prussia, impotent to hold his own.
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