The Great War is over, though the Versailles Treaty will not be concluded until June 1919 and made effective in January 1920.

I have spent four years writing this monthly history of the Great War, some 100,000 words in all. It has been fun and informative, but it has eaten up most of my writing time, keeping me from contemporary affairs. And contemporary affairs these days are hot, given that we have a President, who is far worse than any of the political leaders during the War, including Czar Nicholas II.

I would like to thank the tiny audience that has followed these Reports. Nice to know that there are some curious and literate people out there.

A. E. Housman 1859-1936

Think no more, lad; laugh, be jolly:
Why should men make haste to die?
Empty heads and tongues a-talking
Make the rough road easy walking,
And the feather pate of folly
Bears the falling sky.

Oh, ’tis jesting, dancing, drinking
Spins the heavy world around.
If young hearts were not so clever,
Oh, they would be young for ever:
Think no more; ’tis only thinking
Lays lads underground.                                                                               A Shropshire Lad xlix, 1896

Oh stay at home, my lad, and plough
The land and not the sea,
And leave the soldiers at their drill,
And all about the idle hill
Shepherd your sheep with me.

Oh stay with company and mirth
And daylight and the air;
Too full already is the grave
Of fellows that were good and brave
And died because they were.
          Last Poems xxxviii, 1922