Today -100: November 17, 1914: The Germans all boast of their culture

Russian troops may have set Cracow on fire.

Fog of War (Rumors, Propaganda and Just Plain Bullshit) of the Day -100: More Russian rumors about Austria: Austria is planning to seek a separate peace, independently of Germany;  Germany demanded that Austria fire 11 generals and the heir-apparent, Archduke Karl Franz Josef (as a field marshal; he can continue being heir-apparent); and have taken command of Cracow’s defenses away from the Austrians.

The war is costing Britain £1 million a day.

Germany is re-naming French cities it claims to have annexed: Calais will be Kales, Dunkirk Dünkirchen, Lille Ryssel, Boulogne Boonen, Nancy Nanzig, etc.

Pope Benedict urges peace.  He blames the war on materialism and lack of brotherly love.  “The spirit of Christ does not reign today,” he says.

Pancho Villa accepts Carranza’s offer that they both quit their positions and leave the country.  So we’re all agreed, and this will definitely happen, right?  Eulalio Gutiérrez certainly thinks it has, and has written to Woodrow Wilson, “president” to president, that “the time of dictatorships born of violence and personal ambitions has passed forever” in Mexico.  So that’s all good.

Name of the Day -100: Americans with German names are being warned by the State Department against traveling to countries at war with Germany after complaints from a George Rottweiler of Chicago about ill-treatment in France and Britain.

In the NYT letters pages appears what you didn’t even realize the war needed: a limerick.

The Germans all boast of their culture
In a way that would almost insult you;
But the wreckage at Rheims,
And the loot of Louvain
Show their “culture” develops a vulture!

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