THE TWO GERMANIES.

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Marvellous the utter transformation

Of the spirit of the German nation!

Once the land of poets, seers and sages,

Who enchant us in their deathless pages,

Holding high the torch of Truth, and earning

Endless honour by their zeal for learning.

Such the land that in an age uncouther

Bred the soul-emancipating Luther.

Such the land that made our debt the greater

By the gift of Faust and Struwwelpeter.


Now the creed of Nietzsche, base, unholy,

Guides the nation's brain and guides it solely.

Now Mozart's serene and joyous magic

Yields to Richard Strauss, the hÆmorrhagic. [1]

Now the eagle changing to the vulture

Preaches rapine in the name of culture.

Now the Prussian Junker, blind with fury,

Claims to be God's counsel, judge and jury.

While the authentic German genius slumbers,

Cast into the limbo of back numbers.

Footnote 1: (return)

Great play is made in Strauss's Elektra with the "slippery blood" motive.


The Late "Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse."

First Student of the War. Why did they call it "Kaiser William the Grocer?"
Second Student. Don't know. I should have described him as a Butcher.

"PETROGRAD.

New Name for the Russian Capital.
Petrograud (St. Petersburg), Tuesday.
By Imperial order, the city of St. Petersburg will henceforth be known as Petrograu."

Evening Standard.

It looks more like three new names.

Q. I hear the Sugar Refiners are raising cane?
A. That's because they haven't yet got the German beet.
[Awarded Gold Medal and Banana Skin for worst joke of the war.]

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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