For the true Germany--we have today the sad but immovable conviction of this--was never that of Goethe, of Beethoven, nor of Heine. It was that of implacable Landgraves and fierce soldiers. For thousands of years Germany has let loose its hordes upon Europe; Vandals, Visigoths, Alains, Franks, Herules. Germany continues to do this at the present day. It is Germany's terrible and sinister function. Only let us not deceive ourselves as to this point in future, Germany is the dangerous nation because it is the uncivilizable nation, because its castles, its fields, and its barracks have remained the inexhausted, and perhaps the inexhaustible, reservoirs of human ferocity. EMILE VERHAEREN. Retreat in the Rain. By O.C.A. CHILD. Those Uhlans now are working in too near, Their carbines crackle louder every shot. I say! our chaps a-plodding in the rear Are getting it--and most uncommon hot! It's not much fun retreating in the night, Through all this mess of rain and reeking slime-- It seems to me this boot's infernal tight! I must have hurt me when I slipped that time. Whew! that was close and there's a fellow gone! I know too well that heavy, sickening thud; It's bitter hard that we must keep right on And leave our wounded helpless in the mud. My foot hurts so that I can hardly see-- I'll have to stop for just a breathing space. What's that? It's blood!--those fiends have got me now! It's double time and I can't stand the pace! I'll use my rifle as a crutch. But, no! I'll stand and fight; they have me sure as day! It's death for death--then I will meet it so And make a Uhlan pay the price I pay. And here they come! Great God, they're coming fast-- Are almost on me! Ah, I got that one! Just one more shot--a good one for the last! Those iron hoofs have crushed me--I am done! War a Game for Love and Honor By Jerome K. Jerome The chivalrous spirit of the present conflict informs this article, which appeared originally in The London Daily News under the title "The Greatest Game of All: The True Spirit of War," and is here reproduced by special permission of Mr. Jerome. War has been described as the greatest of games. I am not going to quarrel with the definition. I am going to accept it. From that point of view there is something to be said for it. As a game it can be respectable; as a business it is contemptible. Wars for profit--for gold mines, for mere extension of territory, for markets--degrade a people. It is like playing cricket for money. A gentleman--man or nation--does not do such things. But war for love--for love of the barren hillside, for love of the tattered flag, for love of the far-off dream--played for a hope, a vision, a faith, with life and death as the stakes! Yes, there is something to be said for it.