Life — November 7, 1912 — page 15: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

MORE HISTORY the attention to which her years and social position entitle her. But things are happening in Europe. The Pank- hursts have declared war again on property. “Incite this meeting to re- bellion,” said Mrs. P. at Albert Hall (October 17th). “It is through prop- erty that we shall attack the enemy, and what sacrifice of, and injury to, property accrues, will not be our fault, but that of the government.” Which were very much the sentiments of Guy Fawkes when he put gunpowder under the Parliament houses, and of the Brothers McNamara when they planned and operated the simplifica- tion of labor questions by the use of dynamite. And Christabel telegraphs from Paris, “We must fight as never before and give no quarter to the en- emy.” So if we wait attentively, no doubt we shall hear something drop in England, but it is to remember that Guy Fawkes, great as is his fame, died untimely, and that the McNamaras are in jail, and even our Becker trial and 2135 its admirable jury, have given no great encouragement to folks to do their will reckless of law. WE know the Pankhursts. They have been here. Some of us have sat under them while they stirred our women folks to revolt, and we have all read their discourses and seen their pictures in the paper. So they and their rebellions are real to us, and we are ready to be interested. But not many of us have more than a far away, your-name-sounds-familiar ac- quaintance with the Balkans, and it takes some effort to be excited about their war. We only get excited about people whom we know, or whose des- tinies we can somehow connect with our own, Our connection with the Balkans is remote and has to be studied up. The gist of it is that the Balkan people and we are fellow travelers up the long hill of Christian civilization. They have been retarded in their progress by adherence of their men to the fashion of wearing skirts, and by having to stop at comparati ly short intervals and pick a fight with the Turks, This war that is now pro- ceeding is one of the routine Balkan wars of which the purpose is to get some more territory away from Tur- key, and enable another large batch of turbulent Christians to disengage themselves from the civilization of Mahomet. So there is lots of bad blood in Southeastern Europe, and the war now proceeding is booked to be a cruel and vindictive proceeding, the details of which will make very bad reading if we get them. They say we won't, and that the day of the war corre- spondent is over, but the moving-pic- ture men have gone to the front, and there may be some proceeds of this conflict which the Western mind can assimilate without a geography. Mean- while, while the allies are fighting Turkey, hoping to fetch loose Mace- donia and other territory, the rest of the Continent is looking on in agita- tion for fear the glue will come loose in the peace of Europe. comicbooks.com