[Illustration]
_"WHEN I WAS A CHILD, IT WAS YOU WHO SAVED ME"_
* * * * *
Whether it is that an invigorating climate has given our Anglo-Saxon
blood a piquant Gallic flavor or because Europe sent us for ancestors
only those light-hearted and adventurous souls with a spirit akin to
that we admire in the French people, true it is that Americans have
always had an especial liking for France and the French. They were our
first allies as they are the latest. From Lafayette and Rochambeau to
Joffre and Viviani, a host of Frenchmen have won the affectionate regard
of Americans and are numbered with our national heroes.
With their French allies Americans can work in most cordial
understanding and sympathy. That subtle spirit of unselfish dedication
to country which has won for the French the admiration of the world
consecrates the alliance of the peoples who are giving their sons in
common sacrifice to save liberty to the world. Out of the heat and
turmoil of war bonds are being forged between the Allied nations which
time and circumstance can never sever. On that alliance the hope of
civilization depends; from it may come, in God's good time, some great
forward step in the march of progress which began at a manger in
Bethlehem.
MYRON T. HERRICK,
_Cleveland, Ohio, March, 1918_.
[Illustration]
_FOR MERIT_
* * * * *
If, as the artist suggests, and the plainest reading of the facts of the
fruitless Verdun assault seems to confirm, lives of men were squandered
in a reckless attempt to save the princeling's face (which was, in fact,
beyond saving), then does he richly deserve the grim decoration with
which in the name of infamy he is here invested--the Order of Butchery,
with knives. And you may view the crosses upon the pathetic mounds
before Verdun as so many entries in the Recording Angel's ledger.