Mr. PUNCH'S
HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR
1919
| First | Impression | July 1919 |
| Second | " | July 1919 |
| Third | " | August 1919 |
| Fourth | " | August 1919 |
| Fifth | " | September 1919 |
| Sixth | " | October 1919 |
| Seventh | " | October 1919 |
PEACE--THE SOWER
TO THE READER
For whatsoever worth or wit appears
In this mixed record of five hectic years,
This tale of heroes, heroines--and others--
Thank first "O. S." and then his band of brothers
Who took their cue, with pencil and with pen,
From the gay courage of our fighting men.
Theirs be the praise, not his, who here supplies
Merely the editorial hooks and eyes
And, rich by proxy, prodigally spends
The largess of his colleagues and his friends.
C. L. G.
PROLOGUE
Though a lover of peace, Mr. Punch from his earliestdays has not been unfamiliar with war. He was bornduring the Afghan campaign; in his youth Englandfought side by side with the French in the Crimea; he sawthe old Queen bestow the first Victoria Crosses in 1857; hewas moved and stirred by the horrors and heroisms of theIndian Mutiny. A little later on, when our relations withFrance were strained by the Imperialism of Louis Napoleon,he had witnessed the rise of the volunteer movement and mademerry with the activities of the citizen soldier of Brook Green.Later on again he had watched, not without grave misgiving,the growth of the great Prussian war machine which crushedDenmark, overthrew Austria, and having isolated France,overwhelmed her heroic resistance by superior numbers andscience, and stripped her of Alsace-Lorraine.
In May, 1864, Mr. Punch presented the King of Prussiawith the "Order of St. Gibbet" for his treatment of Denmark.
In August of the same year he portrayed the brigandsdividing the spoil and Prussia grabbing the lion's share, thusforeshadowing the inevitable conflict with Austria.
In the war of 1870-1 he showed France on her knees butdefying the new Caesar, and arraigned Bismarck before thealtar of Justice for demanding exorbitant securities.
And in 1873, when the German occupation was ended bythe payment of the indemnity, in a flash of prophetic visionMr. Punch pictured France, vanquished but unsubdued, biddingher conqueror "Au revoir."
