Private Peat by Harold R. Peat
page 62 of 159 (38%)
page 62 of 159 (38%)
|
cripples.
I am asked, "How did you live? How did you 'carry on'?" Many a time I have said to myself in thinking of the enemy: "Why don't they come on--why don't the fools strike now? There's no earthly reason why they should not defeat us, and roll on triumphantly to Paris, to Calais, to London, to New York, and so realize their original intention." There was no _earthly_ reason. No. The Kaiser had talked in lordly voice of "ME and God." The Kaiser has manufactured a God of his own fancy, a God of blood and iron. There is no such God for us. For us, there was always that Unseen Hand which held back the enemy in his might. The All Highest who is not on the side of blood and murder and pillage and outrage and violation; the Almighty, who, crudely though I may express it, is with those who fight for the Right and on the square. And that is why we were not driven back to the sea. That is why we stood the test. That is why we, the Allied Nations, shall win. Again, if the German hordes, with their iron power behind them, had had five per cent. of the Anglo-Saxon sporting blood in their veins, they could have licked us long ago. They did not. They have not. They are poor sports. They have eliminated the individuality of "sport" for the efficiency of machinery, and they can not lick us. Who started the war? The War Machine that had the preparation of half a century, or the peace-loving peoples who, at a day's notice, took their stand for humanity? |
|