Uncle Sam is no longer the simple New England farmer of a century ago. He is rich beyond calculation. His family is more numerous than that of any European country save Russia. His interests are world-wide, his trade tremendous, his industry complex, his finance fabulous. Above all, his family is no longer of one race. The hatreds of Europe are not echoed in his house; they are shared and reverberate through his corridors. It is difficult, then, for him to take the simple views of right and wrong, of justice and humanity, that he took a century ago. He is tempted to balance a hundred sophistries against the principles of freedom and good faith that yet burn strongly within him. He is driven to temporize with the evil thing he hates, because he fears, if he does not, that his household will be split, and thus the greater evil befall him. But those that personify the evil may goad him once too often. Dumba the lesser criminal--as also the less dexterous--has betrayed himself and is expelled. When will Bernstorff's turn come? That it will come, indeed _must_ come, is self-evident. The artist sees things too clearly as they are not to see also what they will be. He therefore skips the ignoble interlude of prevarication, quibble, and intrigue, and gives us Uncle Sam happy at last in his recovered simplicity. So we see him here, enjoying himself, as only a white man can, in a wholehearted spurning of lies, cruelty, and murder. Note that Bernstorff--the victim of a gesture "fortunately rare amongst gentlemen"--is already in full flight through the air, while Uncle Sam's left foot has still fifteen inches to travel. The promise of an added velocity indicates that the flight of the unmasked diplomatist will be far. The sketched vista of descending steps gives us the satisfaction of knowing that the drop at the end will be deep. Every muscle of our sinewy relative is tense, limp, and projectile--the mouthpiece of Prussia goes to his inevitable end. There is no need of a sequel to show him shattered and crumpled at the bottom of the stairway. ARTHUR POLLEN. [Illustration: THE NEXT TO BE KICKED OUT--DUMBA'S MASTER] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- THE FRIENDLY VISITOR Raemaekers is never false, and he never works for effect alone. That is what makes him so terrible to the people he criticises, and so effective. When he wants to depict the sturdy Dutch soul he draws a sturdy Dutch Body--ready to defend her home. No flags, no highfalutin, no symbolical figure posed for show; just cleanliness, determination, and good sense facing bestiality and oppression. The figure that stands for the Freedom of the Home opposed to the figure that stands for the Freedom of the Seas. Many an Englishman might take this picture to heart. H. DE VERE STACPOOLE. [Illustration: THE FRIENDLY VISITOR