Uncle Sam is no longer the simple New England farmer of a century ago.
He is rich beyond calculation. His family is more numerous than that of
any European country save Russia. His interests are world-wide, his
trade tremendous, his industry complex, his finance fabulous. Above all,
his family is no longer of one race. The hatreds of Europe are not
echoed in his house; they are shared and reverberate through his
corridors. It is difficult, then, for him to take the simple views of
right and wrong, of justice and humanity, that he took a century ago. He
is tempted to balance a hundred sophistries against the principles of
freedom and good faith that yet burn strongly within him. He is driven
to temporize with the evil thing he hates, because he fears, if he does
not, that his household will be split, and thus the greater evil befall
him. But those that personify the evil may goad him once too often.
Dumba the lesser criminal--as also the less dexterous--has betrayed
himself and is expelled. When will Bernstorff's turn come? That it will
come, indeed _must_ come, is self-evident. The artist sees things too
clearly as they are not to see also what they will be. He therefore
skips the ignoble interlude of prevarication, quibble, and intrigue, and
gives us Uncle Sam happy at last in his recovered simplicity. So we see
him here, enjoying himself, as only a white man can, in a wholehearted
spurning of lies, cruelty, and murder.
Note that Bernstorff--the victim of a gesture "fortunately rare amongst
gentlemen"--is already in full flight through the air, while Uncle Sam's
left foot has still fifteen inches to travel. The promise of an added
velocity indicates that the flight of the unmasked diplomatist will be
far. The sketched vista of descending steps gives us the satisfaction of
knowing that the drop at the end will be deep. Every muscle of our
sinewy relative is tense, limp, and projectile--the mouthpiece of
Prussia goes to his inevitable end. There is no need of a sequel to show
him shattered and crumpled at the bottom of the stairway.