MY SECOND YEAR OF THE WAR




I

BACK TO THE FRONT

How America fails to realize the war--Difficulties of
realization--Uncle Sam is sound at heart--In London again--A Chief of
Staff who has risen from the ranks--Sir William Robertson takes time
to think--At the front--Kitchener's mob the new army--A quiet
headquarters--Sir Douglas Haig--His office a clearing house of
ideas--His business to deal in blows--"The Spirit that quickeneth."


"I've never kept up my interest so long in anything as in this war,"
said a woman who sat beside me at dinner when I was home from the front
in the winter of 1915-16. Since then I have wondered if my reply,
"Admirable mental concentration!" was not ironic at the expense of
manners and philosophy. In view of the thousands who were dying in
battle every day, her remark seemed as heartless as it was superficial
and in keeping with the riotous joy of living and prosperity which
strikes every returned American with its contrast to Europe's
self-denial, emphasized by such details gained by glimpses in the shop