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Show WELCOME TO MERCIER. Cardinal Mereier, primato of TVjI-; TVjI-; gium, has arrived in tho United States to thank the American people for what they have done for Ids country. coun-try. Tho aged prince of tho church is, physically frail but intellectually j and spiritually powerful. . lie will be j warmly welcomed wherever he appears on this side of tho ocean, for ,Ameri- j cans cannot help but admire men who j show contempt for death in the hour of trial. After the Germans invaded j Belgium and had obtained possession i of almost thin entire country, Cardinal! Mercicr issued a pastoral letter de- . nouncing tho ruthless invaders and urging the Belgian people to resist with j all their strong! h. Ho was arrested by j the order of the notorious Von Bissing i and .ordered to sign a retraction, which ! he refused to do. Not daring to put j tho old hero to death the Germans ro-leased ro-leased him with orders to maintain silence. si-lence. Theso orders he disobeyed and it is recorded that he remained a thorn in the side of the oppressors until the end. The Belgians are once more in possession pos-session of their native land and the power of the Hun to do evil has been broken forever or at least for genora-t genora-t ions to come. Cardinal Mercier, the heroic King Albert and the brave Owen Elizabeth have gathered their people together and the dove of peace has descended upon the country. Wreck and ruin are to be seen on every hand and the food supplies arc insufficient. The Belgians, however, are not dismayed dis-mayed and have begun the work of reconstruction, conscious of the fact that when tried in the fiery crucible they were not found wanting. They also know that they have the sympathy of the liberty-loving peoplo of the "United States and that they will be helped until they are ablo to stand alone. Cardinal Mercier is now with us. King Albert and Queen Elizabeth will come later in the year. These three exalted personages compose a triumvirate tri-umvirate which will be celebrated in song and story for all time to come. Their titles will not count in the final assay; their faith in God, their bravery and their willingness to die in a righteous right-eous cause will be the things romcm-hered romcm-hered to their credit. The glorious record rec-ord made in the last five years is their passport to the hearts of the American Ameri-can people, and Cardiual Mercier, the first to arrive, has already been enshrined. en-shrined. . Tho false-hearted former kaiser and the brutal German military chieftains who considered their armies invincible may well envy the frail old prelate who remained with the remnant of his flock when he could have sought refugo elsewhere and escaped the agonies ag-onies of five years of fiendish warfare. .H is now his day of triumph, their day of defeat and humiliation. Truth and justice have, prevailed and Belgium is free. Welcome to Mercier. |