As it does to many men, a 42nd birthday came to Benito Mussolini, Premier of Italy. The War Department, of which the Premier is chief, marked the event by presenting Signor Mussolini with a large-calibre shell case, handsomely engraved. One engraving depicted the Premier as a corporal of the bersaglieri (sharpshooters) in the trenches. Another pictured him as a wounded soldier. A third, as Minister of War.
But the life of Benito Mussolini can be thrown into greater antitheses. Born in the town of Forli (some accounts say Varano di Costa), he heard his...