On the Fringe of the Great Fight

R DAYS I

, buildings and squares, were plastered with recruiting posters, the chief ones reading "Your King and Country need you" and "Enlist to-day." Afte

squares and circuses, which in other times were most brilliantly illuminated, now were darker than the streets, the contrast making them, to

of thousands of physically fit men walking about in civilian clothes. Nobody seemed particularly disturbed about the war. Kitchener was raising his army, and "the Navy,

to run an expensive car, give expensive dinners and get into trouble-the upper class drone-that he was among the first to volunteer and get into active service. Perhaps all he could do was drive a car; if so he did it-drove a London bus out at the front, or a wagon; or did a

hysterical; they were not effective: London, with more posters per head of populati

id the readers thereof conclude that England was doing well, and they "supposed that she would bungle through." No man of prophetic foresight had yet risen to say "This is a life and death struggle for us; we need every man in the country, and every shilling to win the war." The common talk was that we had stepped in to keep

nsiderable amount of space in the newspapers. Of course the theatres kept open, German music was played, and horse racing continued: A large section of the public had to be amused, and the livelihood of the actors and actres

siness as usual" was the slogan, for the ordinary business man rather fancied that he belonged to

uncture Sir Sam Hughes, Minister of Militia for Canada, arrived in London and put up at the Savoy; other officers came to see him and stayed there a

for much inferior accommodation. The Savoy Hotel, warm, comfortable and American like, located at the heart of things, close to the theatre district and the War Office,

me through those revolving doors some time during the day. In that rotunda I met men whom I went to school with, men who lived in my own city, but whom I had not seen fo

real tragedies to think about, and the old threadbare, domestic triangle disappeared from the boards. Revues and musical comedies succeeded, and "The Man Who Stayed at Home" a war spy play was a treme

great poetry. Monographs on special phases of German character, thought and culture, were p

al Anthem being played on every possible occasion. At the Christmas season not a seat was empty at any of the presentations of the Messiah at Albert Hall. Yet curiously enough England ha

al. In the theatre district at night, particularly on the Strand, Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus, crowds o

ping into its vortex tens and hundreds of thousands of boys and girls, who, but for it, might and probably would escape. In war time when soldier

The ulcer is there still for the knife of some strong man to excise, for there is little doubt that though

rm seemed to be the signal for increased prices in the shops, particularly in the smaller ones. A London physician, an officer, to

ten cents a day, whereas the British Tommy received only 25 cents, and it was assumed that officers were correspondingly better paid than the British officer, while as a matter of fact, we received less, rank fo

e the price of some article. The youngster called up stairs and the answer came back

ionary Force," it was called. The very name did not seem even to suggest a nation in arms. And yet away down underneath it all England was uneasy. Well-informed people whose sons were at the front knew the seriousness of the whole business. Casualties had returned in large numbers, and the rolls

ealize that the control of the oceans of the earth was a big undertaking. The rallying of the colonies to his assistance touched him gr

e approved of his socialistic ideas or not. Englishmen I talked to, even in France later on, fairly foamed at the mouth when the little Welshman's name was mentioned, and refused to read the "Times" which they said was

of women, young and old, waiting for news of son or husband, wounded or killed. The looks on their faces were sufficient evidence of tragedies which were increasing from day to day, and which would eventually waken England. Inside the door was a reception room where tho

way as far as the enlisting of recruits was concerned but already had 800,000 men in

ay it was interesting to learn that our contingent had probably been more quickly outfit

of seeing this phase of life in London in war time. One night at the "Carlton" there were not twenty others present; even the waiters seemed to be dejected, probably at the falling off of their revenue from

ened to was the London Symphony Orchestra's rendering of The Russian National Anthem one Monday night with Safanoff conducting; it was sublime. I had heard the same number on the preceding day in the same hall by another orchestra

iscussing the plays and the music of the day seemed strange indeed. It must have made the men in the trenches nearly mad to realize that while they were figh

ores had been invaded by William the Conqueror. 30,000 men could watch a football match at the very moment the British line in Flanders was actually so thin that if the German

to the country as Kitchener's statement in the house of Lords the day before had been in regard to the Army. Mr. Bonar Law was the smoothest of the speakers; Churchill gave one the impression

three weeks' session in war time and after the raising of billions of dollars of war loan by public subscription was remarkable for

n of not fifty yards in width separated the building from the embankment, the fog was thick enough to make the people as indistinct as though they had been

some with umbrellas up to protect them from the fine drizzle. Not a hundred yards away Cleopatra's needle stood like a tall sentinel in the mist, and one wondered what tales of battle and heroic deeds

he heavy air; sadder than ever before they seemed to me, and yet, too, more dignified than ever before. Then along the em

ms reversed, the brass butts of the guns visible before the

roops with strangely-laden mules, guns; then, more cavalry. The horses s

ame into my throat as I realized that this was all that remained of the great little soldier, whose motor car not three weeks before at Salisbury Plain

orse, with boots reversed in t

er. Squadron after squadron of cavalry filed past two and two, until one felt the procession was never going to end. The fog t

; and the cortege of one of the greatest British generals passed on to St. P

rts had been warning the nation about the great need of being prepared for a war that was bound to come; he had tried by every possible means to wake it from its sleep and had failed; and when the great war came as he said it would, he offered no word in the way of reproach or self g