Who cannot see the cruel drama played out in that Paris street? The artist has assembled for us in a few living figures all the actors. The dead woman; the orphaned child, as yet scarcely realising her loss; the bereaved workman, calling down the vengeance of Heaven upon the murderers from the air; the stern faces of the _sergents de ville_, evidently feeling keenly their impotence to protect; and in the background other _sergents_, the lines of whose bent backs convey in a marvellous manner and with a touch of real genius the impression of tender solicitude for the injured they are tending. And faintly indicated, further still in the background, the crowd that differs little, whether it be French or English, in its deeper emotions. CLIVE HOLLAND [Illustration: THE WONDERS OF CULTURE] “Folk Who Do Not Understand Them” How often have I been asked by sorrow-stricken mothers and wives: “Why does not Providence intervene either to stop, this war, or at least to check its cruelties and horrors?” If for many amongst us not yet bereaved this European massacre is a puzzle, it should not cause us dismay or surprise if the widow or son-bereaved mother lifts up her hands exclaiming: “Why did not God save him? Why did He let him be shot down by those Huns?” Truth to tell, God has, so to speak, tied up His own hands in setting ours free. When He placed the human race upon the surface of this planet He dowered them with freedom, giving to each man self-determining force, by the exercise of which he was to become better than a man or worse than a beast. Good and evil, like wheat and cockle, grow together in the same field. The winnowing is at harvest-time, not before. Meanwhile, we ourselves have lived to see the fairest portions of this fair creation of God changed from a garden into a desert--pillaged, ravaged, and brought to utter ruin by shot and shell, sword and fire. When I have said this, I have but uttered a foreword to the hideous story, spoken the prologue only of the “frightful” tragedy. We are all familiar with at least some of the revolting facts and details with which the German soldiery has been found charged and convicted by Commissions appointed to investigate the crimes and atrocities adduced against them. The verdicts of French, Belgian, and English tribunals are unanimous. They all agree that Germany has been caught red-handed in her work of dyeing the map of Europe red with innocent blood.