Beyond Thirty

Since earliest childhood I have been strangely fascinated by the mystery surrounding the history of the last days of twentieth century Europe. My interest is keenest, perhaps, not so much in relation to known facts as to speculation upon the unknowable of the two centuries that have rolled by since human intercourse between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres ceased — the mystery of Europe's state following the termination of the Great War — provided, of course, that the war had been terminated. From out of the meagerness of our censored histories we learned that for fifteen years after the cessation of diplomatic relations between the United States of North America and the belligerent nations of the Old World, news of more or less doubtful authenticity filtered,... into the Western Hemisphere from the Eastern. Then came the fruition of that historic propaganda which is best described by its own slogan: "The East for the East — the West for the West," and all further intercourse was stopped by statute.