The questions were numerous but all practical,
and as unemotional as if they referred to outrages by a newly-discovered
race of fiends in human shape peopling Mars or Saturn. The First Lord,
equally undemonstrative, announced that the Board of Trade have ordered an
inquiry into the circumstances attending the disaster. Pending the result,
it would be premature to discuss the matter. Here we have the sublimation
of officialism and national phlegm. Of the 1,200 victims who went down in
this unarmed passenger ship about 200 were Americans. What will America say
or do?
[Illustration: AN OMEN OF 1908
Reproduced from "Christmas Cards for Celebrities," in _Mr. Punch's
Almanack_ of that year]
[Illustration: HAMLET U.S.A.
SCENE: The Ramparts of the White House.
PRESIDENT WILSON: "The time is out of joint, O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!"
VOICE OF ROOSEVELT (_off_): "That's so!"]
In silence you have looked on felon blows,
On butcher's work of which the waste lands reek!
Now in God's name, from Whom your greatness flows,
Sister, will you not speak?
Many unofficial voices have been raised in horror, indignation, and even in
loud calls for intervention. The leaven works, but President Wilson, though
not unmoved, gives little sign of abandoning his philosophic neutrality.
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