still asleep to the real meaning of events, but it had begun to stir in
its dreams, as if some prescience, some premonition had begun to reach
it even in its slumbers.

Finally the first big event occurred--the tragedy that was not intended
to accomplish as much, but which hastened the dawn of the day in which
began the Spiritual Emancipation of the governments of earth. The
Archduke Francis Ferdinand, nephew of the emperor of Austria, heir to
the throne of Austria-Hungary and commander in chief of its army, and
his wife the duchess of Hohenburg, were assassinated June 28, 1914, by a
Serbian student, Gavrio Prinzip. The assassination occurred at Sarajevo
in Bosnia, a dependency, or rather, a Slavic state that had been seized
by Austria. It was the lightning flash that preceeded the thunder's
mighty crash.

Much has been written of the causes which led to the tragedy. Prinzip
may have been a fanatic, but he was undoubtedly aided in his act by a
number of others. The natural inference immediately formed was that the
murder was the outcome of years of ill feeling between Serbia and
Austria-Hungary, due to the belief of the people in the smaller state,
that their aspirations as a nation were hampered and blocked by the
German element in the Austrian empire. The countries had been on the
verge of war several years before over the seizure of Bosnia and
Herzegovina by Austria, and later over the disposition of Scutari and
certain Albanian territory conquered in the Balkan-Turkish struggle.

Events are coming to light which may place a new construction on the
causes leading to the assassination at Sarajevo. It was undoubtedly the
pretext sought by Germany for starting the great war. Whether it may not
have been carefully planned to serve that object and the Serbian