{"product_id":"2940013684904","title":"The Terror","description":"After two years we are turning once more to the morning's news with a\u003cbr\u003esense of appetite and glad expectation. There were thrills at the\u003cbr\u003ebeginning of the war: the thrill of horror and of a doom that seemed at\u003cbr\u003eonce incredible and certain; this was when Namur fell and the German\u003cbr\u003ehost swelled like a flood over the French fields, and drew very near to\u003cbr\u003ethe walls of Paris. Then we felt the thrill of exultation when the good\u003cbr\u003enews came that the awful tide had been turned back, that Paris and the\u003cbr\u003eworld were safe; for awhile at all events.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen for days we hoped for more news as good as this or better. Has von\u003cbr\u003eKluck been surrounded? Not to-day, but perhaps he will be surrounded\u003cbr\u003eto-morrow. But the days became weeks, the weeks drew out to months; the\u003cbr\u003ebattle in the west seemed frozen. Now and again things were done that\u003cbr\u003eseemed hopeful, with promise of events still better. But Neuve Chapelle\u003cbr\u003eand Loos dwindled into disappointments as their tale was told fully; the\u003cbr\u003elines in the west remained, for all practical purposes of victory,\u003cbr\u003eimmobile. Nothing seemed to happen, there was nothing to read save the\u003cbr\u003erecord of operations that were clearly trifling and insignificant.\u003cbr\u003ePeople speculated as to the reason of this inaction; the hopeful said\u003cbr\u003ethat Joffre had a plan, that he was \"nibbling,\" others declared that we\u003cbr\u003ewere short of munitions, others again that the new levies were not yet\u003cbr\u003eripe for battle. So the months went by, and almost two years of war had\u003cbr\u003ebeen completed before the motionless English line began to stir and\u003cbr\u003equiver as if it awoke from a long sleep, and began to roll onward,\u003cbr\u003eoverwhelming the enemy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe secret of the long inaction of the British armies has been well\u003cbr\u003ekept. On the one hand it was rigorously protected by the censorshop,\u003cbr\u003ewhich severe, and sometimes severe to the point of absurdity--\"the\u003cbr\u003ecaptains and the ... depart,\" for instance--became in this\u003cbr\u003eparticular matter ferocious. As soon as the real significance of that\u003cbr\u003ewhich was happening, or beginning to happen, was perceived by the\u003cbr\u003eauthorities, an underlined circular was issued to the newspaper\u003cbr\u003eproprietors of Great Britain and Ireland. It warned each proprietor that\u003cbr\u003ehe might impart the contents of this circular to one other person only,\u003cbr\u003esuch person being the responsible editor of his paper, who was to keep\u003cbr\u003ethe communication secret under the severest penalties. The circular\u003cbr\u003eforbade any mention of certain events that had taken place, that might\u003cbr\u003etake place; it forbade any kind of allusion to these events or any hint\u003cbr\u003eof their existence, or of the possibility of their existence, not only\u003cbr\u003ein the press, but in any form whatever. The subject was not to be\u003cbr\u003ealluded to in conversation, it was not to be hinted at, however\u003cbr\u003eobscurely, in letters; the very existence of the circular, its subject\u003cbr\u003eapart, was to be a dead secret.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese measures were successful. A wealthy newspaper proprietor of the\u003cbr\u003enorth, warmed a little at the end of the Throwsters' Feast (which was\u003cbr\u003eheld as usual, it will be remembered), ventured to say to the man next\u003cbr\u003eto him: \"How awful it would be, wouldn't it, if....\" His words were\u003cbr\u003erepeated, as proof, one regrets to say, that it was time for \"old\u003cbr\u003eArnold\" to \"pull himself together\"; and he was fined a thousand pounds.\u003cbr\u003eThen, there was the case of an obscure weekly paper published in the\u003cbr\u003ecounty town of an agricultural district in Wales. The Meiros Observer\u003cbr\u003e(we will call it) was issued from a stationer's back premises, and\u003cbr\u003efilled its four pages with accounts of local flower shows, fancy fairs\u003cbr\u003eat vicarages, reports of parish councils, and rare bathing fatalities.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt also issued a visitors' list, which has been known to contain six\u003cbr\u003enames.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis enlightened organ printed a paragraph, which nobody noticed, which\u003cbr\u003ewas very like paragraphs that small country newspapers have long been in\u003cbr\u003ethe habit of printing, which could hardly give so much as a hint to any\u003cbr\u003eone--to any one, that is, who was not fully instructed in the\u003cbr\u003esecret. As a matter of fact, this piece of intelligence got into the\u003cbr\u003epaper because the proprietor, who was also the editor, incautiously left\u003cbr\u003ethe last processes of this particular issue to the staff, who was the\u003cbr\u003eLord-High-Everything-Else of the establishment; and the staff put in a\u003cbr\u003ebit of gossip he had heard in the market to fill up two inches on the\u003cbr\u003eback page. But the result was that the Meiros Observer ceased to appear,\u003cbr\u003eowing to \"untoward circumstances,\" as the proprietor said; and he would\u003cbr\u003esay no more. No more, that is, by way of explanation, but a great deal\u003cbr\u003emore by way of execration of \"damned, prying busybodies.\"","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070200627440,"sku":"2940013684904","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013684904","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}