Notes

New Zealand Tablet, 13 May 1915, Page 35

Notes

Carlyle and the Mad Dog r . ~ u - The mad dog of Europe is the disrespectful title which has been of late to a prominent potentate, the latest to employ it, as per cable report, being no less distinguished a personage . than Lord Curzon. The phrase appears to have had its origin in a passage from Carlyle’s Sailor liesarius, in which Teufelsdrbckh thus soliloquises:—‘Well do I rember the red, sunny,, Whitsuntide morning, when, trotting full of hope by the side of Father Andreas, I entered the main street of the place, and saw a little mad dog rushing past, for some human imps had tied a tin-kettie to its tail; thus did the agonised creature, loud-jingling, career through the whole length of the borough, and become notable enough. Fit emblem of many a Conquering Hero, to whom Fate (Wedding Fantasy to - Sense, as it often elsewhere does) has malignantly appended a tin-kettle of Ambition, to chase him on, which the faster he runs, urges him the faster, the more " loudly and more foolishly!’ If the word ‘Europe’ be substituted for ‘ borough,’ the present maniacal outbreak is'not inaccurately foretold. Germany in America In view of the feeling said to have been aroused in . America by the Lusitania'outrage, the following figures with regard to the foreign-born population of the United States, which arc taken from the last census, will be of interest:—- N * Total population of the United States ... 91,972,266 -Born in the United States ' ... ... 59,728,884 Born elsewhere ... ... ... ... 32,243,382 91,972,266 Born in Germany ... ... ... ... 8,282,618 Born in Austria-Hungary ... ... ... 2,001,559 10,284,177 Others ‘foreign-born’ ... ... ... 21,960,205 Total ‘foreign-born’ ... ... ... 32,244,382 Of course, in estimating the German element in the United States there have to be added to the Germanborn the very large number of American-born lint of German descent who are resident under the Stars and . Stripes. The Waste of War Mr. Richard Harding Davis,, the American war correspondent, in his new hook,yWith the-Allies (Duck- . worth), gives a vivid and striking picture of the unceasing and relentless waste of war, apart, of course, from the actual loss of human life. He mentions especially the waste of horses and motor-cars; ‘ In - this war the waste of horses ‘is appalling. Those that first entered Brussels with .the German Army had been bred and trained for the purposes of war, and they were magnificent specimens. ’ Everyone who saw them exclaimed ungrudgingly in admiration. But by the time the army reached the approaches of Paris the forced marches had so depleted the stock of horses that fog remounts the Germans were seizing all they met. Those that could not keep up were shot. For miles along the road from Meaux to Soissons and Rheims their bodies tainted the air. They o had served their purposes, and after six weeks of campaigning the same animals that in times of peace would have proved faithful servants for many years were destroyed that they might not fall into the hands of the French. Just as - an artilleryman spikes his gun, the Germans on their retreat to the Aisne River left in their wake no horse that might assist in .their pursuit. As they withdrew they searched each stable yard and killed the horses.

in village after village I saw horses lying in the stalls or in the fields still wearing the harness ; of the plough, or in groups of three -or four in the. yard ■of a barn, each with a bullet-hole in its temple. They were killed for fear they might be useful. Waste can go no further. -''-;.. v - -" v - . ~;.:■■;- a* . - -„ . •*, - ~ • ' - -_. ; ■-■ 'Another example of waste were the motor-trucks and automobiles. When tho war. began the motor trucks of the big department stores and manufacturers and motor 'buses of London, Paris, and Berlin, were taken over by the different armies. They had cost them from two thousand to three thousand dollars each, and in times of peace, had they been used for the purposes for which they were built, would several times over have paid for themselves. But war gave them no time to pay even for their tyres. You saw them by the roadside, cast aside like empty cigarette-boxes. A few hours tinkering would have set them right. They were still good for years of service. But an army in retreat or in pursuit has no time to waste in repairing*motors. To waste the motor is cheaper.'