Volume 153 — TO THE GERMAN PEOPLE.

Each to his taste: if you prefer The KAISER'S whip across your flanks; If you enjoy the bloody spur That rips your cannon-fodder's ranks; If to his boots you still adhere, Kissing 'em as you've always kissed 'em, Why, who are we to interfere With your internal Teuton system? If from your bonds you know quite well You might, this moment, find release, Changing, at will, your present hell For Liberty's heaven of lasting peace; If yet, for habit's sake, you choose This reign of steel, this rule of terror, It's not for us to push our views And point you out your silly error. Herein I speak as I am taught— That your affairs are yours alone, Though, for myself, I should have thought They had a bearing on my own; Have I no right to interpose, Urging on you a free autonomy, Just as your U-boats shove their nose In my interior economy? I'm told we have no quarrel, none, With you as Germans. That's absurd. Myself, I hate all sorts of Hun, Yet will I say one kindly word: If, still refusing Freedom's part, You keep the old Potsdam connection, With all my sympathetic heart I wish you joy of that selection. O.S.