Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 March 1918 — Had Been Through Hell. [ARTICLE]

Had Been Through Hell.

Louis Raemaekers, the famous Dutch cartoonist, now in this country, whom the London Times has called “the only great genius brought out by the war,” was unheard of before the war began. On August L 1914, he was living quietly with his family, contentedly painting-the tulip fields, waterways, cattle and windmills of his native Holland. Four days later he drew the first cartoon, “Christendom After Twenty Centuries,” of a series that was to reveal him as a champion of civilization and make his name a household word in every country. Raemaekers personally investigated the Belgian horror, and though a hundred of his early cartoons bear witness to the burning impression made upon his mind, he has only once brought himself to speak publicly of ,this experience. It was at a dinner given the artist at the Savage club, London, and, pointing to the portraits of Peary, Shott, Nansen and Shackleton, Raemaekers said: “L too, have been an explorer, gentlemen. I have explored a hell, and it was terror unspeakable.” Raemaekers is in bis for-ty-eighth year.