Kultur in Cartoons: With accompanying notes by well-known English writersRaemaekers, Louis
History
Kultur in Cartoons: With accompanying notes by well-known English writers
Raemaekers, Louis
World War, 1914-1918 -- Caricatures and cartoons
Nothing should have more utterly “staggered humanity” in the conduct and
prosecution of a war that has been from first to last an exhibition of
Hunnish ferocity than the elasticity of the Hun “conscience.” The
Prussian, indeed, seems to have assembled in his person all the most
ignoble qualities of the untutored savage, and the most despicable vices
of the political and moral Chadband and Stiggins of common quotation.
Deeds which should have served to bring the whole neutral world actively
upon the side of the Allies, which should have called forth protests
that could not be misunderstood by the offenders, have been made even
more revolting and unforgivable by reason of the horrible association by
the Kaiser and his myrmidons of the Divine Being with them.
“Gott mit Uns” has not merely been adopted as a motto by a people who
have been guilty of atrocities which rank with those of Nero and Attila,
but has been used as a cloak for deeds of diabolism which have caused a
shudder to run through the civilized world. And in this cartoon the
artist has sought to depict an outraged conscience pointing the finger
of accusation at the world which has looked on, contenting itself with
mild protests. Grasped in the hand of this accusing figure is the Hun; a
dripping dagger, which has been used to assassinate innocent women,
children, and civilians is in one hand, and a bomb containing poison gas
in the other. A Hun with his favorite motto inscribed upon his belt.
Surely a sight to make angels weep, and the Recording Angel to seek to
veil her face.
The Hun at bay has added to the list of crimes to be ultimately laid at
his door that of slave-raider. And the tears of women and girls, and the
blood of the men who resisted the slave-raiders, cry aloud to Heaven
from the stricken land of Belgium and the conquered Provinces of France.
And the slave-raider’s cry is, “Gott mit Uns,” accompanied by the crack
of rifle, the agonized cry of mothers and daughters separated from their
men folk, and the wail of little children left to starve and die.
There is an old saying, “Whom the gods wish to destroy they first make
mad.” That madness, productive of diabolical wickedness, is eating into
the very brain and vitals of Germany. And like a mad dog she must, in
the persons of her responsible leaders, be destroyed utterly.
CLIVE HOLLAND.
[Illustration]
_Joan of Arc and St. George_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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