380 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
March 9, 1918 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Talk It Ovicr.—I want you to come 
up to the fire tonight—lielp yourself to an 
apple or two and make yourself easy. 
I want to talk over an important matter. 
I have learned that in ease of any 
trouble or misunderstanding the best 
thing to do is to talk it right out 
I)romptly and clearly and have it done. 
If this does not settle it, you at least 
have done your share. Now you will re¬ 
member that three weeks ago I had some 
remarks headwl “Kaiser Bill.” They 
were i)rompted by a picture of the Kaiser 
which ('lierry-top drew on the black¬ 
board. I^et us take 
that for our text—so 
here it is engraved 
from a copy which 
the boy has made. I 
take it that the boy 
has put into this 
rude drawing an ex¬ 
pression of his hat¬ 
red for the group of 
autocratic war lords 
whose infamous pur¬ 
pose sent bis biajther 
into the Navy and 
more of our boys to 
the Army. This boy does not un¬ 
derstand the deej)er meaning of this 
war, but the Kaiser is the best 
target, and he gets the pencil point. 
My children walk up to this picture and 
shake theii- little fists at it. One of the 
older boys came home from the Army 
for a visit and I asked him what he 
would do if he ever got within 20 rods 
of the Kaiser. He put his hand on his 
revolver in a very suggestive way. Mr. 
Ilohenzollern is anything but popular at 
our house! 
A Surprise. —I thought I made it 
clear that the i-emarks about “Kaiser 
Rill” were merely intended as a text to 
illustrate how people may misjudge each 
other by spending their anger and hatred 
upon some person ivho merely represents 
a principle —when the principle behind 
the pei’son should receive their scorn and 
their blows. For example, I can conceive 
of my children shaking their little fists 
at the picture of “Kaiser Bill” and then 
giving a childish imitation of the cruel 
German war lords in their treatment of 
other and smaller kids. At any rate I 
he.ard from three people close together 
with remarks which may indicate the 
state of the public mind. One man gets 
m5' point and thanks me for it. He says 
we must get below the surface and i*ealize 
that we are not fighting any persons, but 
we are fighting .a hideous autocracy, and 
the sooner we forget personalities the 
better. Then comes a German who says 
it is wi’ong to insult the emperor by call¬ 
ing him “Kaiser Bill.” Then, to my 
astonishment, comes a man who calls me 
a pro-Gei’inan, an enemy of the country 
and everything short of a traitor, be¬ 
cause I stated what .Tames TV. Gerard 
appears to think of “that bloody-handed 
murdei'er of women and children, who has 
violated all the laws of God and man!” 
Making Goon.—The Hope Farm man 
has had a somewhat stormy life, and has 
met some startling situations, but he 
never was more astonished in his life 
than' he was when that letter came. Any 
man who starts out to prove me a traitor 
will have to come with a good pedigree 
and a better record. This fnan accuses 
me of referring to the “mui’derei'” affec¬ 
tionately as “Kaiser Bill,,” yet the Ger¬ 
man who hits me on the other side says 
this is a “crowning insult to royalty.” 
What he will think of my boy’s picture 
is another! I h.ave felt that tlerard’s 
book, “M'y Four Years in Germany,” is 
the most powei-ful argument against the 
German autocracy, because Gerard is so 
thoroughly fair. He says about this war 
and why we are fighting: 
“/t is hccaiise in the dark northern 
plains of German there lives on autocracy 
poisoning the minds of a great nation 
and teaching them the virtue and neces¬ 
sity of war, and until that autocracy is 
destroyed or rendered powerless there 
can he no peace on earth.''’ 
I feel like repeating that over and 
over, for it tells the whole story. I ivill 
put up all I have to fight that autocracy 
to the death, for unless we do kill it we 
might as well get off the earth. I want 
my people to understand that we must 
do more than curse the Kaiser and make 
faces at him. We must get at the au¬ 
tocracy and the hideous propaganda 
which he merely represents and fight it, 
not only in Germany but here, in public 
and in our own lives. 
A FiGUREnE-Mi.—That is what I take 
this Kaiser to be in reality. Not one of 
us ever talked with him or .saw him. I 
will turn my opportunity for meeting 
him over to the boy when he gets to 
Furope. Gerard has seen all the imperial 
family and has talked with them in¬ 
timately. He says he does not agree with 
the usual American estimate of the 
Ci-own Briuce. He thinks the Kaiser’s 
brother, Henry, hates the war and would 
gladly live the life of a fanner in Eng¬ 
land. Personally, I do not believe the 
Kaiser has half as much control over 
the war and its conduct in Germany as 
President Wilson has in this country. 
He is in no sense a great military despot 
like Napoleon, but a figurehead for the 
cursed war lords and junkers who make 
up the German military party. I may 
be wrong in that, and this is no defense 
or extenuation for the Kaiser. He is 
one of the war part.v, and if I had my 
way they would all be lined up to stop 
a bullet ov.be imt off on some desert 
island as safely kept as Napoleon was 
at St. Helena. I am in this war to that 
end, for I believe with Gerai'd that until 
that is done “there can he no peace on 
earth.” I go further than abuse of the 
Kaiser, and I will tight autocracy not 
only in Germany but here if it shows its 
head. < 
Personal Abuse.— That is a part of 
evei’y war or controversy. During our, 
Civii War a strong group of the English 
people attacked Abi’aham Eincoln in the' 
mo.st malignant and indecent manner. I 
have seen the pictui’es and what was 
written .about ' him—:they ai'e simply 
hideous—but the great majority of the 
plain English’ people saw beyond these, 
‘personalities and recognized the under-j 
lying pi'inciple. I lived in the South 
when Gen. IT. ^S. Grant died. A group 
of men spoke (ff him in the most insult¬ 
ing way, and I came near being shot 
for telling them what I thought of it! 
We once printed that beautiful poem, 
“The Blue and the Gray,” and an old 
soldier attacked me for being willing to 
show any tenderness toward a former 
foe! I frankly, s-siy that I do not know 
wdiat such undying hatred is, and I can¬ 
not grasp it. I like President Wilson s 
attitude bettei*. In Germany toilay the 
pictures of President Wilson, Col. Roose¬ 
velt and other Americans are awful, and 
the purpose- is to obscure the real argu- 
ments and the real issue at stake through 
these awful drawings.- It is, I presume, 
a part of war and perhaps as deadly in 
prolonging war as powder and shot are in 
ending it! While I doubt the wisdom of 
all this person.al abuse, I am told it is 
a necessary part of war. The wav has 
been called all sorts of names—none of 
them strong enough. It is concentrated 
hatred, and hati-ed, like virtue, must 
have a target. AVai* reaches out of the 
ti-enches and stretches an arm across the 
ocean to put its scarred and bloody hand* 
upon our farms and into oiir homes. It 
will beckon for more and more, and we 
must feed it. Its touch means hatred. 
We cannot help it. Many will heap that 
hatred upon the Kaiser. As for me, I 
regard him as a figurehead—a man pulled 
and hauled as a puppet of royalty by 
stronger and more cruel and malignant 
men. I think Hindenburg today the real 
ruler of Germany and most deserving 
our hatred. It seems to me that the 
Kaiser is something of a national scare¬ 
crow—a bluffer put up to keep the people 
“patriotic,” while the bloody-minded 
rascals behind him can-y on their ivork. 
If the Kaiser were killed tomorrow' I 
doubt if it would stop the w-ar. My 
hatred is against the Gei-man autocracy 
“poisoning the mind of a great nation.” 
I think the truest test of patriotism is 
not in our ability to curse the Kaiser, 
but it lies in giving our lives openly to 
the battle against autocracy—in Germany 
or out of it. I am not W’illing to admit 
that anyone will go further on that 
road than I will. 
Tree Damage. —As the snow goes we 
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.sort of vermin. Tlany of the young fruit 
trees are completely girdled by mice and 
rabbits. This awful Winter has kept 
these creatures from their food, and in 
some cases they have gnawed all the 
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