Life and Death is a Fiction Short Story Book. The book says that "Is He the Dearest One?" was produced under the following circumstances: About fourteen years ago there was a famine, or at least hunger, in Silesia. Though that land is a German possession at present, it was once a part of the Polish Commonwealth, and there are many un Germanized Poles in it yet. The mother in this sketch is Poland. Yasko, the most unfortunate of her sons, is Silesia. Poor, ill fated, he neglects his own language, forgets his mother; but she does not forget him, as was shown on the occasion of that hunger in Silesia. The Poles of Russian Poland collected one million marks and sent them to Yasko.
