though immaterial, has
just been plunged suddenly into the abyss of things that are ended,
whose very memory will soon perish. The Great Barbarity has passed by,
the modern barbarism from beyond the Rhine, a thousand times worse
than the ancient, because it is stupidly and outrageously
self-satisfied, and, in consequence, fundamental, incurable,
final--destined, if it be not crushed, to throw a sinister night of
eclipse over the world....

Verily, this Jeanne d'Arc in the choir has very strangely remained,
untouched, immaculate, in the midst of the disorder, with not even the
slightest scratch on her dress....

The English Falsehood

By Sven Hedin

Early in the war Sven Hedin, the Swedish explorer and
writer, visited the German front to see the world-war at
first hand. "A People in Arms," published in Leipzig and
dedicated to the German soldiers, is the result. A preface
proclaims the author's neutrality as a Swede and announces
that he "swears before God that I have written not a line
which is not the truth and have depicted nothing which I
have not witnessed with my own eyes." This article is one of
his concluding sketches.

I should like to have seen how the troops of India stood the raw
autumn in Artois and Flanders. But the Indian prisoners at Lille were
transferred to the East in order to make room for fresh contingents.
I, myself, have experienced the difficulty of transplanting Indians to
a colder climate. On my last journey to Tibet I had two Kadschputs
from Cashmere with me. When we got into the mountains they nearly
froze to death, and my caravan leader, Muhamed Isa, declared they
would be about as useful as puppies. I had to send them back. The same
thing happened to me with my Indian cook; outside India he was
absolutely useless. In Tibet they live on meat, in India on
vegetables. How could he stand so sudden a change of both climate and
diet!

Now the press has been claiming that the English have ordered a full
contingent from India to Europe. I found it hard to believe but at the
front I learned that it was true. "How do you treat the Indian
soldiers?" I once asked a couple of officers. "We just arrest them,"
answered one, and the other added: "We don't need to do even that;
they will soon die in the trenches."

When I admit that I myself made a stupid blunder in thinking that
Indians could do service in Tibet, I am justified in claiming that