Nov. 6.
It would be a very unchivalrous nature that did not thrill to the description, contained in _yester- mana have become day's telegrams, of the German rate national forces' gallant, fruitless fight along the river Lys. The Britich training. Pity te a word expe it vocabulary. That is why Soma hate the When the <i {formed Prosaians troops had advanced and driven, the enemy from his trenches; Enews a8 Ite and ites Germany" hed vdistag'* (Auge neceasi and the eye-witness at British headquarters continues Naa cou Geert Gore ieee be the German war attitude."
"Our artillery did great execution among the retreating Germans. The Of these two pictures we have corny retarned and made five desperate Ite. They no hesitation in saying that we Mingling, the" Wracht vain Rhein" bot prefer to dwell upon the former. a Pain Ha range aa holocaust of were easily repulsed. It was slaughter Yet that there is some foundation nal tore through the retreating new for the latter is indicated by such Incidentally, the statement is formation chapters in recent German history as the famous ''Zabern interesting as showing that Ger-incident'' and the utter failure of man generals still cling to the the Courts to afford any satis-idea that solid formation and faction for the outrageous be-mere weight of numbers will haviour of a petty lieutenant. avail against anything, that the Nor, indeed, might the one greatest storm of bullets can be picture be accurate without the turned by the dead mass of hu-counterpart of the other. man flesh. Along the Aisne, we Yet surely we must go deeper were told a day or two ago, they still to find the real mainspring have lately been showing' pre-of German self-immolation and ference for the splendid material German ruthlessness. The educa-at their command. But in Beltion of the drill sergeant might' gium, and with new armies to be certainly produce the type of sacrificed, the old principle clings conduct which the writer quoted tenaciously; and once again we in the last ph describes. must marvel at the strength of But would such education alone the discipline which can' carry drive men again and again to men through such deadly work. such slaughter as the German At Charleroi the corpses were attacks have cost? Patriotism wedged so tightly in the streets would lead them far. But true that many were found dead patriotism could never blind men standing upright. At Bakalarjevo so utterly to the difference be-the Russian riflemen could not tween truth and falsehood, hon-shoot for the piles of dead Ger-our and treachery as the German mans in front of their trenches. nation in the mass is at present At Lys it is still the same story blinded. The explanation lies in of slaughter, which it makes one the peculiar manner in which sick even dimly to imagine.
Germans for the past quarter of This is one aspect of Prussian a century have been persuaded discipline acting upon the select to think of the Emperor as of a German nature, and who will not being semi-divine. In many say that it is a noble product? ways William LI is distinctly Here, however, is another pic-mediocre. His versatility and ture, drawn from an article in the energy are beyond dispute, but "English Review" for September, those who know him intimately last, entitled Psychology snd say that he never goes deeply Motives into any subject.
Yet the at-jover Germany there is 0 "The effect of militarism upon modern tributes of royalty no man has other word for it—the brutalization of ever studied so deeply, and the the finer feelings of humanity. Based idea haa been strenuously en-on a misreading of Nietzsche, Stirer and agp-centre forced by those about him, who the general atiitade of the Germans has realized how potent this godlike drill sergeant. Dozens of German novels can moulded on the copy-book of the have described it. Draufschlagen* image might be when properly impressed upon the imagination a of the docile German a hundred different i this lo. In
image has been adorned and magnified. The most trivial acts of the Emperor have been reported by the official proso;]bureau of Germany as things of tremendous importance, in lange uage of deep veneration—as any casual reference to the columns of the "'Ostasiatischer Lloyd," always obedient to official inspiration, during the past few years will show. It is the old notion of Dicus Cesar, the semi-divinity of the emperor, on which the founders of the Roman Empire sought to solidify men's minds unsettled by waning belief in the old gods and dissatistaction with the State. Yet the wildest Cmsarian never pushed the notion of Dious Caesar to such lengths as it has been pushed in modern Germany. Some day the German people will awake from the stupefaction of long years of worshipping false gods. For the moment they go forward against shot and shell with a devotion worthy of nobler inspiration
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.