of the Balkan States will now side with Germany brought to bay is slight, while Rumania and Italy seem to be trembling on the verge of a decision to go in and get their immediate share in the promised dismemberment of Austria and Turkey.

A QUAINT PREDICTION

Apropos of Turkey's future, a friend has called my attention to a prophecy in regard thereto contained in an old book of prophecies said to have been published in 1453, and reprinted in "Isis Unveiled," a Theosophical work written thirty years ago by Mme. H. P. Blavatsky, then Corresponding Secretary of the Theosophical Society. Here is the prophecy: "In twice two hundred years, the Bear The Crescent will assail;

But if the Cock and Bull unite,

The Bear will not prevail.

In twice ten years again

Let Islam know and fear

The Cross shall stand, the Crescent wane,
Dissolve and disappear."

"Twice two hundred years" from 1453 brings us to the date of the outbreak of the Crimean War, when Russia attacked Turkey, which was saved thanks to the united efforts of France (the Cock) and England (the Bull). "Twice ten years " from the close of the Crimean War brings us to 1876, when friction developed between the Sultan and the Czar, which culminated in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-8. Since then Turkey has lost everything in Europe but a mere footholdthe Crescent has undoubtedly been on the wane; and even though we may have little faith in the occult and in the rather remarkable prophecy above quoted, may we not well believe that the celestial symbol of Islam is about to "dissolve and disappear" from world politics?

TENACITY IN THE WEST

The armies in Flanders and northern France continue to be fog-bound and mudstalled. The most significant news bearing on the situation in this quarter is a despatch from Holland saying that Germany is bringing to the western battle-line new troopsprobably the first of the hastily trained men of the Ersatz-the Replacement Reserve. Germany can hardly bring up enough men to offset the force of from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 soldiers which Lord Curzon the other day intimated would be ready before summer, together with those which Russia would bring

up. The English are terribly earnest and practical in the way they are handling this war. An illustration of this spirit was the delightfully Spartan reply attributed to Lord Kitchener recently when some one asked him when the war would end.

"I don't know when it will end," England's foremost soldier is reported to have said, "but it will begin in May.'

That is the spirit of the cruelly tenacious method which enabled the hero of Khartum to crush the brave Boers by persistent use of sheer weight and numbers, and which carried the steam-roller of Ulysses S. Grant over the similarly valiant and futile resistance of the South in the American Civil War. is the method of a long-winded boxer opposed to a less enduring but heavy-hitting antagonist, making no effort to score a knockout until the same antagonist has worn himself out by his own efforts.

In Alsace the French won a few yards near Altkirch, and held their important gain of the preceding week, but their most interesting feat was a successful charge on skis down the sloping snow carpet at Bonhomme, on the Alsatian frontier-as picturesque a bit of warfare as the combined sea and air attack on Cuxhaven the other day, and the sort of thing that will live in the literature and legend of the great war as Thermopyla, Balaklava, and Paul Revere's Ride live in the literature

of other wars. While the Germans, on the mountain slope, were engaging French infantry below them, a detachment of French Alpine troops coasted down upon their flank from the heights above, careering into them at tremendous speed and completely demoralizing the phlegmatic Germans. If some one would invent a pedal attachment that would carry men over the Flanders mud as skis bear them over the Alsatian snow, his fortune would be made and the end of the war much hastened.

POLAND A SHAMBLES

In the east, with really admirable persistence, the Germans have been making slow progress toward Warsaw, continuing to throw away lives as freely as if the Fatherland's population were as irreducible as the heads of the Hydra. Mr. Stanley Washburn, of the London " Times," who is one of the few writers at the front who have succeeded in getting real war correspondence of the oldfashioned colorful kind that flourished when MacGahan, Steevens, and Archibald Forbes.

With

of German and Austrian statesmen. Rumania under arms, Austria would find herself attacked along her northern, eastern, and southern frontiers, all the way from Cracow to the Adriatic. This might be the beginning of the end, for Germany would have to come strongly to her ally's assistance, and thereby weaken her own lines of defense in France, Belgium, and Poland. Indeed, as we go to press it is reported that Germany is massing several army corps in Austria, some to be used in aiding the Hapsburgs' soldiers in a new lunge at Servia, others to help against the "barbarian hordes" that are overrunning Hungary from the north.

GERMANY AND HER ALLIES

Germany must by this time be disgusted with the inefficiency of her Teutonic ally. An amusing and apparently veracious report reaches me of discord and jealousy between German and Austrian prisoners in Russia. So black is the feeling between them, it is said, that the Russians have been obliged to place them in separate trains when taking them across country to the prison camps in Siberia-where there are already 170,000 Austrians alone. The Germans, it seems, taunt the Austrians with charges of cowardice and ineptness for modern warfare, blaming them for Germany's failure to triumph decisively in the eastern war zone. The Austrians, on the other hand, call the Germans cocky, conceited, and overbearing, and lament that the German idea of the alliance with Austria is that of a union between a lion and a mouse, with Germany in the lion's part.

In the early days of the war German statesmen predicted that there would soon be discord among the Allies of to-day, as there was among the Allies who fought Napoleon. Thus far, however, the only signs of dissension are between Germany and her allies. They are naturally irked by her assumption of supreme importance in the Dreibund, while she, fully as naturally, is fretted by the evident inferiority of the Ottoman and Hapsburg arms to the arms of the Kaiser. The alliance between England, France, Russia, and Japan is an alliance among military equals; the union of Germany, Austria, and Turkey is a federation of disproportionate and badly matched elements, and therein lies its weakness.

The afternoon papers of January 13 reported that two German submarines had been sunk by British land batteries in a com

bined sea and air attack on Dover harbor. If this be true, it will greatly cheer the inhabitants of the British coast towns, who have

come to consider the German submarines as almost invincible.

New York City, January 13, 1915.

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N the historic "war session" of the Russian Duma, August 8, 1914, when the representatives of the various nationalities and political parties of Russia were given an opportunity to express their feelings with regard to the Government and the war, Deputy Friedman, from the province of Kovno, spoke in behalf of the Russian Jews as follows:

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"Members of the Imperial Duma: Upon has been conferred the high honor of giving expression at this historic moment to the feelings that inspire the Jewish people. In the great spiritual uplift which has come to the nation the Jews fully participate, and they will go to the field of battle shoulder to shoulder with the other nationalities of the Empire. Although we Jews have long suffered, and are still suffering, from grievous civil disabilities, we feel, nevertheless, that we are Russian citizens and faithful sons of our Fatherland. Nothing will ever alienate us from our country, nor separate us from the land to which for so many centuries we have been attached. In defending Russia against foreign invasion we are actuated not only by a sense of duty, but by a feeling of profound devotion. In this hour of trial, and in obedience to the summons from the Throne, we Russian Jews will take our stand under the Russian banner and repulse the enemy with all our strength. The Jewish people will do their duty to the end." (Storms of applause and cries of "Bravo!" from the Right, the Center, and the Left.) 1

Five months have passed since Deputy Friedman expressed the devotion of the Russian Jews to their country, and promised that they would " go to the field of battle shoulder to shoulder with the other nationalities of the Empire." Has that devotion been shown in deeds, and has that promise been faithfully kept?

If anything stands out clearly on the pages of recent Russian history, it is the

'Stenographic report of the proceedings of the Duma, August 8, 1914.

magnanimity and patriotism of the Jews. Denied many of the rights of citizenship, forced to live in a great national ghetto, restricted in the learned professions, limited to a small quota of students in the universities and schools, crowded into cities within the Pale and expelled from cities without the Pale, insulted constantly by the reactionary press, accused of "ritual murder in the courts, and beaten to death by pogrom rioters in the streets, the unfortunate Jews would seem to have little reason for loyalty or patriotic feeling; and yet since the war began they have subordinated personal resentment to a higher sense of duty, and, for the sake of "the Fatherland,” have done all that the most ardent patriots could do to support the monarch who has oppressed them and to defend the State that has discriminated against them.

Soon after the war began the Jews in Petrograd, Moscow, Odessa, and many other Russian cities began to hold meetings in their synagogues to pray for the health and safety of the Czar, and for the success of the Russian armies in the field. At the same time hundreds of young Jews in the universities and higher technical schools who were not liable to conscription volunteered for active service and were sent to the front. Even Jews who were awaiting trial on political charges or who were already suffering imprisonment for political offenses offered to enlist as volunteers, and promised that, if they should still be alive at the end of the war, they would give themselves up for trial or go back to prison and serve out the unexpired term of their sentences. cannot bear, they said in their petition, "to sit idle in prison cells while our comrades are fighting for their country and ours." (Russkoe Bogatstvo," September 14, 1914, p. 316.)

"We

As the war proceeded, and the Czar began to go back and forth through Russia on his way to and from the front, Jewish delegations in all the larger towns where he stopped came to him with plates of bread and salt

(the Russian emblems of.hospitality and good will) and presented him with addresses breathing the most ardent spirit of loyalty and patriotism. In one such address they said:

"It gives us great happiness to know that our brothers and sons are shedding their blood for the sake of their monarch, for the honor of the country that is so dear to them, and for the cause of right and justice with which your Imperial Majesty's name will forever be gloriously associated. We beg you, O Gossudar, to receive this assurance of loyalty from your faithful subjects who are followers of the Mosaic law.".

In places which the Czar did not visit or in which he did not stop the Jews went with patriotic addresses to the highest local representatives of the Church or the State; and this they did even in towns where at the hands of Church or State they had suffered most injustice. If there be in all Russia a city where the Jews might naturally regard the Russians with enmity and the Government with resentment, it is the city of Kishinef-the scene of the bloodiest anti-Jewish pogrom that has ever blackened the history of the Empire. But even in Kishinef the Jews hastened to show that their consciousness of civic duty was stronger than their sense of injustice. They could not get access to the Czar, so they went with bread, salt, and assurances of loyalty to Archbishop Platon, the local representative of the Holy Orthodox Church. The high ecclesiastical dignitary received them with as much courtesy as could have been expected, and said, in reply to their patriotic address:

"The Jews are completely united with us and they have proved their loyalty. I am personally aware of the fact that they have contributed large sums to the Red Cross and other organizations for the relief of our wounded. Their devotion to the country is beyond question."

In almost every city and large town in Russia delegations of Jews have called on the civil or ecclesiastical authorities and presented addresses confirming or repeating the assurances of loyalty given in their behalf by Deputy Friedman in the Duma.

"But," it may be said, "it is easy enough to pray in the synagogues and make professions of loyalty in patriotic addresses. Have the Russian Jews done anything else?"

If the Russian newspapers are to be believed, they certainly have. A recent number of the Petrograd "Reitch" contained an

article on this subject in which the writer said:

"This fact" (that the Jews have actively participated in the war) "does not admit of the slightest doubt. Not only have they made enormous pecuniary contributions, but as soldiers they have shown miraculous courage on the field of battle, and many of them have received military decorations. Such behavior on their part, however, is not to be regarded as especially meritorious. It is only the performance of a sacred duty to their country, and Russian Jews could not act otherwise."

The same paper publishes also an article commenting upon the fact that in the lists of killed and wounded telegraphed from the front there are Russian names, Polish names, Tartar names, and Armenian names, but not a single name that can be recognized as Jewish. The paper explains, however, that the absence of Jewish names is due to racial discrimination. "Only casualties to officers are reported by telegraph, and no Jew is permitted to become an officer. If deaths and injuries of private soldiers were telegraphed, the lists would be thickly sprinkled with Jewish names. The Jews share in the work of the nation on the battlefield as well as at home. Wherever national help is needed, there they participate with contributions and work."

But even racial discrimination fails to exclude Jewish names wholly from the newspapers. They may not become officers, but the Russian generals who command them insist that they shall have crosses of honor for gallantry in action, and then their names are telegraphed and published. The highest military decoration that is given in Russia is the Cross of St. George, which corresponds with the Iron Cross of Germany and the Victoria Cross of Great Britain. Every few weeks a common Jewish soldier distinguishes himself so greatly that he is awarded this coveted honor, and not long ago a Jew won two of these decorations in a single week. The latest case that has come to my attention is that of Mendel Glückman, who received the Cross of St. George about a month ago for a whole series of daring exploits under the walls of Przemysl. (Petrograd "Reitch," November 22, 1914.)

Moscow and Petrograd newspapers publish many letters from Russian officers describing the bravery of Jewish soldiers in action. In one of the most recent of them Lieutenant Gogulinski says:

"There were eight Jews in my company,

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and at the time when I was wounded only two of them were left alive. One hardly expects Jews to show fighting characteristics; but in my very first battle I became satisfied that the Jewish soldier is a real soldier, with plenty of daring, self-sacrifice, and indifference to death. Almost every one of them thinks first of his duty and his comrades. have witnessed their devotion to the wounded, and I have seen them climb out of the trenches at deadly risk and bring back through a storm of bullets men who had been disabled in a charge. One Jewish bugler, for example, left shelter in that way for the purpose of bringing in a wounded comrade who was slowly bleeding to death in the open.

He succeeded in crawling up to him, but before he could do anything more he himself was killed by a bullet in the spine. Then a second one made the attempt, and he succeeded in dragging the wounded man into the trenches. . . . After a bayonet attack in which many were killed or disabled I went with a couple of stretcher-bearers to a group of wounded, where, lying side by side, were a Russian and a Jew. A bullet had smashed the Russian's collar-bone and another had gone through his leg. I ordered the bearers to take up one of them, and they began to lift the Russian. He refused assistance and said: Take the Jew; he's hurt worse than I am.' The Jew's face was gray and blood was running out of his mouth; but he whispered faintly I've got only one wound; he has two. He's suffering the most-take him first.' How natural, but how fine!" In another letter Cernet Novikof, of a hussar regiment, writes:

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Meyer Lovinski, born in the village of White Church, dieď a hero's death on the 26th of August, near the forest of Lashchova. Disregarding a heavy fire, he rode constantly in advance, reconnoitering coolly the enemy's dispositions. But a bullet hurled the gallant scout from his saddle and he died heroically for his country, his Czar, and his people. On the following day we recovered his body and turned it over to the Jews in Lashchova, who buried it with all honors in the Jewish graveyard. May the kingdom of heaven receive my dear Lovinski-unforgetable comrade and fellow-soldier!"

In this last letter two things are particularly

! I witnessed a similar incident at the battle of San Juan Hill in Cuba, but in that case the wounded men were both of the same race, nationality, and religion.

noticeable: first, the tribute of a Russian to the coolness and gallantry of a Jew in action; and, second, the affection of a Russian for a Jew in an environment of danger and death. Cornet Novikof seems wholly to forget that the dead man was an alien and an unbeliever, and evidently hopes to meet his " dear, unforgetable comrade and fellow-soldier " in the kingdom of heaven.

But it is not only Russian lieutenants and cornets who speak well of the Jew. The Russkiya Vedomosti," of Moscow, published recently a letter from the well-known philanthropist N. A. Shakhof, pleading for justice to the Jew, and closing with the words: "One wants to believe that better days will come for Russia's stepson, and that he will be in future not the stepson but the real son of the Fatherland for which he is shedding his blood." A Russian general at the front read these lines a week or two later, and was so moved by them that he wrote an open letter to Mr. Shakhof over the signature "A General in Active Service,' in which he said:

"It is impossible to read your admirable letter and especially the part of it that refers to the Jews-without a feeling of approval and sympathy. The great and warm heart of the Russian people, like gold in the furnace, is only now showing its worth. Less and less frequently are heard expressions of intolerance and hatred, and more and more apparent become the virtues that lie in the depths of the Russian soul. I profoundly believe that a multitude of our people, whose consciences and Christian feelings have not been smothered by hatred, and whose common sense has not been eclipsed by prejudice, will join heartily in your hope that the Jew may soon become the real son, and not the stepson, of the Fatherland for which he is shedding his blood."

If the Russian Jew is thus regarded by "generals in active service;" if Russian archbishops declare that his "devotion to the country is beyond question;" if Russian commanders in the field recommend him for the Cross of St. George; and if his Russian leaders in battle refer to him when he is dead as their "dear and unforgetable comrade and fellow-soldier" and hope to meet him in the" kingdom of heaven,' who are his haters and persecutors ?

This question I shall try to answer in another article.