and universal mediatrix of the Christian
Commonwealth.

The present letter shall be read on the following dates: On the first
day of the year and on the Sundays following the day on which it shall
severally reach you.

Accept, my dearest brethren, my wishes and prayers for you and for the
happiness of your families, and receive, I pray you, my paternal
benediction.

D.J. CARDINAL MERCIER,

Archbishop of Malines.

APPEAL TO AMERICA FOR BELGIUM.

By THOMAS HARDY.

Seven millions stand
Emaciate, in that ancient Delta-land:
We here, full charged with our own maimed and dead,
And coiled in throbbing conflicts slow and sore,
Can soothe how slight these ails unmerited
Of souls forlorn upon the facing shore!
Where naked, gaunt, in endless band on band
Seven millions stand.

No man can say
To your great country that, with scant delay,
You must, perforce, ease them in their sore need:
We know that nearer first your duty lies;
But--is it much to ask that you let plead
Your loving kindness with you--wooing wise--
Albeit that aught you owe and must repay
No man can say?

With the German Army

By Cyril Brown.

[Staff Correspondent of THE NEW YORK TIMES.]

I.

GERMAN GREAT HEADQUARTERS IN FRANCE, Dec. 1.--There is a certain
monotony about the "scientific murder" of the firing line--a routine
repetition of artillery duels, alarums, and excursions which can be (and
are being) vividly described by "war correspondents" from the safe
vantage ground of comfortable cafes miles away. The real human interest
end of this ultra-modern war is to be gleaned from rambling around the
operating zone in a thoroughly irresponsible American manner, trusting
in Providence and the red American eagle sealed on your emergency
passport and a letter from Charles Lesimple, the genial Consul at
Cologne, to keep you from being shot.

For instance, you get some interesting first-hand knowledge as to how
spies can "get away with it," in spite of the perfect German military
system of controls and passes. There is no "spy hysteria" in Germany as
there apparently is in England, judging from the London papers, but none
the less the German authorities know perfectly well that there are
swarms of spies in their midst and are hunting them down with quiet,
typically Teutonic thoroughness.

But the very perfection of the Ge