A VOICE FROM THE UNITED STATES.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") Sin,—I have just read the words of Ambassador Gerard, detail- ing the sights he saw with his own eyes in the land of Kultur, and I thank God my country is at last ranged on the side of the Allies. I turned from Gerard's account of men and women punished for giving cold water to thirsty Canadian troops who were prisoners, of dogs trained to bite Allied men, of boys shoot- ing nail-headed arrows into the flesh of men in prison camps, with my heart filled with rage. I went through the horrors of war with the Sioux Indians, when they tortured every captive. I have known men who had been half killed by them and escaped. I knew one who was wounded and his scalp half torn off before his chum shot the savage. I have known 1.f skinning the soles of the feet and compelling the man so skinned to walk for miles. I have known of many other and equally horrible tortures perpetrated by savages, but I had never supposed that the nation that claims the highest seat in civilization could rival these savages. I repeat, I am glad we are in it at last. I hope we will stay in and do our bit. I hope our men will fight shoulder to shoulder with England and France till the German monster is smashed. I am glad our President has said we want nothing for ourselves. Could I lop off twenty years from my age I would be at the front, "somewhere in France," just as quickly as steam could get me there. I am too old, but I can do a bit right here at home in helping to furnish your needs, and I can help to handle the infernal band that is forming just over the border in Mexico. My rifle is close at hand, stacks of shell-boxes are beside it, and my name is down on the Hat of those who have volunteered for the defence of our State. You have been fighting for us, just as much as you have for 3-ourselves. I have felt it from the first. Now, if we do not do our utmost to hold up our end, if we do not give food and arms and treasure and blood, call us a nation of slackers, a nation of fat, lazy, selfish swine, and tell the unadulterated truth. I have two sons, and they are both trained men. Both are ready for the call. If the war takes them I shall be sure they died on the side of righteousness. I want to live to see the menace of the world, Germany, made to disinte- grate, to break into fragments. I want to see it made sub- servient to the nations who do not punish a woman for being ef another nation or one of their own for giving a cup of cold eater in the name of Christ. I want to see her made to give up her power to be brutal for ever. Again I say, thank God we are
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