know that a long while before the war the eyes of the Hun, the bird of
prey, had been fixed upon us as a juicy morsel. He had written it, he had
said it. Since August, 1914, these Pan-German schemes had been leaking
out for all who chose to understand them. A great many did not so choose.
The Hun had wanted us and planned to get us, and now more than ever
before, because he intended that we should pay his war bills. Let him
once get by England, and his sword would cut through our fat, defenseless
carcass like a knife through cheese.

A voice arrested my reverie, a voice close by in the crowd. It said,
"Well, I like the French. But I'll not cry much if England gets hers.
What's England done in this war, anyway?"

"Her fleet's keeping the Kaiser out of your front yard, for one thing,"
retorted another voice.

With assurance slightly wobbling and a touch of the nasal whine, the
first speaker protested, "Well, look what George III done to us. Bad as
any Kaiser."

"Aw, get your facts straight!" It was said with scornful force. "Don't
you know George III was a German? Don't you know it was Hessians--
they're Germans--he hired to come over here and kill Americans and do his
dirty work for him? And his Germans did the same dirty work the Kaiser's
are doing now. We've got a letter written after the battle of Long Island
by a member of our family they took prisoner there. And they stripped him
and they stole his things and they beat him down with the butts of their
guns--after he had surrendered, mind--when he was surrendered and naked,
and when he was down they beat him some more. That's Germans for you.
Only they've been getting worse while the rest of the world's been