Chapter 31

May 29--Federal Court at Milwaukee dismisses the action brought by General Samuel Pearson, former Boer commander, in which he sought to restrain the Allis-Chalmers Company and others from manufacturing shrapnel shells, which, it was alleged, were being shipped to the Allies; the court holds that the relief sought by the plaintiff is political rather than legal.

June 2--The Allies have assured the State Department that Dr. Dernburg will be given safe conduct if he wishes to return to Germany.

June 4--Germany in a note expresses regret for the torpedoing of the Gulflight, which is stated to have been due to a mistake, and offers to pay for the damage.

June 5--German war bonds are being sold in this country, and German-Americans are buying them readily.

June 8--There are persistent rumors that German interests are trying to buy American ammunition factories so as to stop shipments to the Allies.

June 10--In a new note on the William P. Frye case Germany insists that the case go before a prize court, and puts forth the contention that she has the right to destroy any American ship carrying contraband, the contention being based on the American-Prussian Treaty of 1799.

June 12--Dr. Dernburg sails for Bergen on the Norwegian America liner Bergensfjord.

RELIEF.

May 15--A national Polish relief association is being organized in the United States; Paderewski, now in New York in the interests of relief, estimates the losses of his compatriots by the war at $2,500,000,000; he says that an area has been laid waste equal in size to New York and Pennsylvania; that 7,500 villages have been completely ruined; that thousands of persons are hiding in the woods and feeding on roots.

May 16--The American Commission for Relief in Belgium has now got a financial system working in Belgium by which the great bulk of food needed is being supplied indirectly by the Belgians themselves through their own energies and resources; 75 per cent. of the Belgian people are being supplied with food through the arrangements made by the commission, without recourse to charity.

May 20--England has asked American surgeons to man her newest and largest field hospital; as a result, the medical schools of Harvard, Columbia, and Johns Hopkins will send thirty-two surgeons and physicians and seventy-five nurses; the universities will bear the expenses of the corps.

May 21--Carleton Gibson of the Commission for relief of Poland sends a report to New York stating that in that part of Russian Poland within the Austro-German lines conditions are much worse than in the worst parts of Belgium and France, and that the population is now actually starving.

May 22--The Commission for Relief in Belgium states that about 1,500,000 persons are now destitute in Belgium through unemployment; the monthly food requirements of the Belgians involve an expenditure of between $7,000,000 and $8,000,000.

To the Captain of the U----.

By HARRY VARLEY.

You have drunk your toast to "the Day" that came; The Cross is won, for you did not fail. Do you thrill with joy at your deathless fame? Your hand is trembling, your lips are pale! Ah! you drink again--but the wine is spilled, A crimson stain on the snowy white. Is it wine--or blood of the children killed? Captain! what of the night?

When the black night comes and the Day is done, You sleep, and dream of the things that float In a misty sea where a blood-red sun Lights up the dead in a drifting boat. Will you see a face in the waves that swell-- A baby's face that is cold and white? Will your sleep be sweet or a glimpse of Hell? Captain! what of the night?

Will you see the stare of the small blue eyes, The tiny fingers of whitest wax That will point at you, or the wound that lies, A clot of red in her fairy flax? Will the beads that burst on your brows be hot As mothers' tears that are newly shed? Will each sear and burn like a blazing dot That eats its way through your tortured head?

Will you see the ship as it onward sped-- The Thing that flew at your fatal word? Will the dripping ghosts be around your bed-- The screams of the dying still be heard? When the Big Night calls--and you must obey-- Will _your_ soul shrink in its awful fright? You have lived your life, you have had your Day, But, Captain! what of the night?