acter and belief as the mooshik that replied "Nitchevo" to Bismarck. To Germany, to the Kaiser, to the world, the Russians, amid all their sorrows and troubles, are saying "Nitchevo." They will reach their goal at length, for they look upon the dangers and delays as nothing.

The Russian word Bolsheviki, used to designate the revolutionary party which was in power in Russia in 1918, is composed of two words: bolsh, meaning many; and vik, meaning most. Bolsheviki means the greatest number, or the common people, as compared with the few, or the aristocracy. Bolshevik, with the accent on the first syllable, is the singular and means one of the greatest number. Bolsheviki, with accents on the second and on the last syllables, is the plural. Similarly mooshik means a peasant, and mooshiki means peasants.

A BALLAD OF FRENCH RIVERS

F streams that men take honor in

The Frenchman looks to three,

And each one has for origin

The hills of Burgundy;

And each has known the quivers
Of blood and tears and pain -
O gallant bleeding rivers,

The Marne, the Meuse, the Aisne.

Says Marne: "My poplar fringes
Have felt the Prussian tread,
The blood of brave men tinges
My banks with lasting red;
Let others ask due credit,

But France has me to thank;
Von Kluck himself has said it:
I turned the Boche's flank !"

Says Meuse: "I claim no winning,
No glory on the stage;
Save that, in the beginning
I strove to save Liége.
Alas! that Frankish rivers

Should share such shame as mine

In spite of all endeavors

I flow to join the Rhine!"

COPYRIGHT BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

Says Aisne: "My silver shallows
Are salter than the sea,

The woe of Rheims still hallows

My endless tragedy.

Of rivers rich in story

That run through green Champagne,

In agony and glory,

The chief am I, the Aisne !"

Now there are greater waters

That Frenchmen all hold dear
The Rhone, with many daughters,
That runs so icy clear;
There's Moselle, deep and winy,

There's Loire, Garonne and Seine.

But O the valiant tiny

The Marne, the Meuse, the Aisne !

CHRISTOPHER MORLEY.

A river is the most human and companionable of all inanimate things. It has a life, a character, a voice of its own; and is as full of good-fellowship as a sugarmaple is of sap. It can talk in various tones, loud or low; and of many subjects, grave or gay.

HENRY VAN DYKE.

BACILLI AND BULLETS

IR WILLIAM OSLER, one of the greatest med

STR

ical men in the world, told the soldiers in the English training camps that he wanted to help them to get a true knowledge of their foes. The officers had impressed the soldiers with the truth that it was always necessary to find out where their enemies were and how many they were. But Sir William Osler told them of other invisible enemies which they should most fear, and fight against. "While the bullets from your foes are to be dreaded," he said, "the bacilli are far more dangerous." Indeed in the wars of the world, the two have been as Saul and David, the one slaying thousands, the other tens of thousands.

He continued, "I can never see a group of recruits marching to the depot without asking what percentage of these fine fellows will die from wounds, and what percentage will perish miserably from neglect of ordinary sanitary precautions. It is bitter enough to lose thousands of the best of our young men in a hideous war, but it adds terribly to the tragedy to think that more than one half of the losses may be

due to preventable disease. Typhus fever, malaria, cholera, enteric, and dysentery have won more victories than powder and shot. Some of the diseases need no longer be dreaded. Typhus and malaria, which one hundred years ago routed a great English army in the expedition against Antwerp, are no longer formidable foes. But enough such foes remain, as we found by sad experience in South Africa. Of the 22,000 lives lost in that war - can you believe it? the bullets accounted for only 8000, the bacilli for 14,000. In the long, hard campaign before us, more men will go into the field than ever before in the history of the Empire. Before it is too late, let us take every possible precaution to guard against a repetition of such disasters. I am here to warn you soldiers against enemies more subtle, more dangerous, and more fatal than the Germans, enemies against which no successful battle can be fought without your intelligent coöperation. So far the world. has only seen one great war waged with the weapons of science against these foes. Our allies, the Japanese, went into the Russian campaign prepared as fully against bacilli as against bullets, with the result that the percentage of deaths from disease was the lowest that has ever been attained in a great war. Which lesson shall we learn? Which example shall we follow, Japan, or Scuth Africa with its sad memories?