Serbia has suffered the fate of Belgium. Germany and Austria, with
Bulgaria’s aid, have plunged another little country “in blood and
destruction.” Another “bleeding piece of earth” bears witness to the
recrudescence of the ancient barbarism of the Huns. Serbia’s wounds,
“Like dumb mouths,
Do ope their ruby lips,”
to beg for vengeance on “these butchers.” Turkey, whom the artist
portrays as a hound lapping up the victim’s blood, is fated to share
the punishment for the crime. But the prime instigator is the German
Emperor, whose Chancellor, with bitter irony, claims for his master
the title of protector of the small nationalities of Europe. Herr von
Bethmann-Hollweg can on occasion affect the mincing accents of the wolf
when that beast seeks to lull the cries of the lamb in its clutches.
The German method of waging war has rendered “dreadful objects so
familiar” that the essential brutality of the enemy’s activities
runs a risk of escaping at times the strenuous denunciation which
Justice demands. But the searching pencil of Mr. Raemaekers brings
home to every seeing eye the true and unvarying character of Teutonic
“frightfulness.” All instincts of humanity are cynically defied on the
specious ground of military necessity. Mr. Raemaekers is at one with
Milton in repudiating the worthless plea:
“So spake the fiend, and with necessity,
The tyrant’s plea, excused his devilish deeds.”