4 DECEMBER 1915, Page 26

" OUTCLASSED."

[TO TUB EDITOR OF THIS " SPECTATOR."1

was born in Shrewsbury and educated in Shrewsbury School, and although for many years an American citLen and a graduate of Princeton University, my sympathies are, together with thousands of -native-born Americans, absolutely with the Allies. We believe over here that the fight of the Allies is our fight too, and against the barbaric Kultur of the Hohenzollerns and Hapsburgs we utter loud and repeated protests. A propos of this, the following from an American Socialist paper, the Rip-Saw, may interest your readers, among whom in this far- away land I count myself. The doggerel is entitled " Out- classed." One or two lines are not in the original rhyme :-

" The Devil sat by the Lake of Fire on a pile of sulphur kegs ;

His head was bowed upon his breast, his tail between his legs ; A look of shame was on his face, the sparks dripped from his eyes-- Ho had sent his resignation to the throne up in the skies I'm down and out, the Devil said—ho said it with a sob-

' There are others that.outelass mo and I want to quit my job.

Hell isn't in it with the land that lies along the Rhine ; I'm old and out-of-date and therefore I resign ;

One Knipp-munition maker, with his bloody shot and shell, i

Knows more about damnation than all the imps of Hell.

Give my job to Kaiser Bill or to Ferdinand the Czar, Or to Sultan Abdul Hamid, or some such man of war.

I hate to leave the old home, the spot I love so well, But I feel that I'm not up-to-date in the art of running Hell.' And the Devil spat a squirt of steam at a brimstone bumblebee, And muttered : I'm outclassed by Hohenzollern Deviltry.' " The Presbyterian Manse, Findlay, Ohio, U.S.A.