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 THE GERMAN EMPEROR 
 
-fiction, -fact, anfo Jancg Sevica. 
 
 • ♦ • 
 
 MERRY TALES. 
 
 By Mark Twain. 
 
 THE GERMAN EMPEROR AND HIS EASTERN 
 NEIGHBORS. 
 
 BY POULTNEY BlGELOW. 
 
 SELECTED POEMS. 
 
 By Walt Whitman. 
 
 DON FINIMONDONE : CALABRIAN 
 SKETCHES. 
 
 By Elisabeth Cavazza. 
 
 Other Volumes to be Announced. 
 
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The German Emperor 
 
 AND 
 
 HIS EASTERN NEIGHBORS 
 
 7 
 
 POULTNET BIGELOW 
 
 5Jn» IJork 
 
 CHARLES L. WEBSTER & CO. 
 1892 
 
$ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 Copyright, 1892, 
 CHARLES L. WEBSTER & CO. 
 
 (A// rights reserved.) 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 Jenkins & McCowan, 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
EDITOR'S NOTE. 
 
 The hostile criticism evoked by the aggressive deeds 
 and words of the German Emperor is the natural result 
 of a sudden change in political conditions. It is long 
 since a young ruler has come to the throne in Europe, 
 ready to think and act for himself, and with undoubted 
 ability to do so. However far behind this century Wil- 
 liam II. may be in his ideas of the royal prerogative, it 
 cannot be questioned that in other respects he is fully 
 abreast of his contemporaries. More than this — he has 
 adopted a system of applying new methods of treatment 
 to ancient abuses which might well be followed by older 
 and more mechanical statesmen. The world has been 
 so busy picking flaws in his after-dinner speeches, that 
 it has lost sight of the practical results of his short reign. 
 It is safe to declare that these exceed what Bismarck 
 accomplished in the previous ten years. The Emperor 
 has aimed high, and has invariably hit something — per- 
 haps all he intended to hit. At the same time, in mat- 
 ters requiring diplomacy, he has worked quietly and 
 well. His settlement of the Guelph affair is a striking 
 example of this. 
 
 One phase of the German question has been entirely 
 overlooked. It is that the Emperor is the very last 
 flower and fruit of the national system. He is more 
 German than the Germans, and herein lies his greatest 
 strength. The recent allusion to "slippered grum- 
 blers," and his suggestion that those who were not 
 
vi editor's note. 
 
 pleased with his government might leave the country, 
 are distinctly German in character, and must have 
 appealed strongly to the national feeling. 
 
 Mr. Bigelow's sturdy republicanism has not blinded 
 him to the ability of his old playmate. There are few 
 who have been allowed to enter so completely into the 
 Emperor's plans and aspirations; and knowledge of 
 these has been used with advantage in the following 
 pages. An extended tour through the Danubian prov- 
 inces and Western Russia has also enabled Mr. Bige- 
 low to record his personal observation of the state of 
 affairs in the debatable ground of Europe. The chap- 
 ter describing the fighting forces of Germany supplies 
 an interesting account of the best-equipped army in the 
 world. 
 
 Credit is due the " Cosmopolitan Magazine" the " Cen- 
 tury Magazine" the "Forum" the London " Speaker" 
 and the " New Review "for chapters of this book which 
 have bee7i reprinted from their pages \ 
 
DEDICATED 
 
 TO 
 
 MY DEAR FRIEND AND EXCELLENT TEACHER, 
 
 Jlrofcsaov lltcl)art Scljtllbacl), 
 
 OF POTSDAM. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Personal Notes of the Emperor's Boyhood i i 
 
 The First Years of His Reign 29 
 
 His Army 53 
 
 Germans in Russia 87 
 
 A Polish Point of View 93 
 
 The Russian Censor 107 
 
 The Roumanian Peasant 115 
 
 A First Impression 124 
 
 Russian Priests in Roumania 131 
 
 Crossing the Russian Frontier on Foot . 140 
 
 War and Famine 152 
 
 A Commercial Forecast 161 
 
THE GERMAN EMPEROR. 
 
 PERSONAL NOTES OF HIS BOYHOOD. 
 
 r 1 ^HE accession of William II. to the leader- 
 ■*■ ship of the German Empire,* more than 
 three years ago, was the signal for an outburst 
 of party passion that did not confine itself to 
 the Fatherland. The English Press welcomed 
 the event with ominous growls; and it was not 
 long before every paper in North America, 
 not to speak of Australia, was enlisted in the 
 circulation of paragraphs illustrative of the 
 new Kaiser's thirst for war and lack of filial 
 piety. 
 
 The German Press, at least that portion of 
 it which stands in close relations to throne and 
 altar — and the Chancellor — f poured forth day 
 after day the stereotyped form of praise sup- 
 
 *The present Emperor William II., succeeded his father, 
 Frederick III., June 15, 1888. 
 f Bismarck did not retire from office until March 17, 1S90. 
 
12 HIS BOYHOOD. 
 
 posed to be adapted to the ears of a new sov- 
 ereign, but with so little discrimination that no 
 one could have relished it less than the man they 
 pretended to honor. Liberty of speech and Press 
 being, in Berlin at that time, imaginative concep- 
 tions, it was the hard task of the new Emperor 
 to seize the reins of government without hav- 
 ing had the opportunity, so richly enjoyed by 
 his illustrious father, of creating for himself a 
 strong and warm body of political and per- 
 sonal supporters. The great historic figure of 
 his grandfather had passed away but ninety- 
 nine days before that of Frederick III. His 
 elevation came at a time when all the world 
 was contemplating the two great sovereigns of 
 the century, the heroes of Sadowa and Worth, 
 the builders of United Germany. Before such 
 men all popular feeling bowed cheerfully, as 
 under a debt of gratitude from which death 
 alone could liberate them. The present Em- 
 peror, who was but twelve years old when 
 Sedan fell, has a new empire to create for him- 
 self, and even Germans ask themselves — will 
 he succeed ? 
 
HIS BOYHOOD. 1 3 
 
 In force of character and intellectual power 
 the present Emperor surpasses any of his 
 predecessors, certainly up to the time of the 
 Great Frederick. There are but few who 
 know him well, but amongst those this sweep- 
 ing statement will be recognized as within the 
 truth, and moreover one that might have been 
 made of him from his schoolboy years up. He 
 thinks for himself, thinks logically, and, like 
 many logical people on the threshold of life, 
 follows a logical conclusion to a point that 
 might alarm a practical politician. His edu- 
 cation for the ten years prior to attending the 
 University in 1877 was entrusted principally 
 to one of the most conscientious, most exact- 
 ing, and, at the same time, most winning of 
 academic spirits, the learned Dr. Hinzpeter. 
 
 In the topmost story of Frederick the 
 Great's " New Palace," near Potsdam, in what 
 we may vulgarly term the attic, were the quar- 
 ters occupied by the preceptors of the then 
 Prince William, and his brother the sailor, 
 Prince Henry. To one accustomed to the 
 luxury of American and English houses, the 
 
14 HIS BOYHOOD. 
 
 bareness, not to say bleakness, of the upper 
 story of this famous palace was striking, par- 
 ticularly so in contrast to the innumerable 
 gorgeous flunkeys who guarded the state 
 saloons below. But it was ample in space and 
 a foretaste of the barrack life that should seem 
 comfort to a Hohenzollern. In wet weather 
 the great attic made a capital play-ground, 
 and many an Imperial pane of glass was 
 smashed by the blundering aim of one of the 
 youngsters. In such romps the Princes entered 
 heart and soul, giving and taking like the 
 manly little fellows that they were. The good 
 Dr. Hinzpeter would repeatedly whisper to me 
 to take care and not hurt the Prince's left arm, 
 a warning apt to be forgotten, particularly 
 with one who was so clever with his right. 
 
 As to the Emperor's imperfect arm, it is ex- 
 traordinary that the life which has largely left 
 it should have apparently been utilized in the 
 strengthening of his right. Any one who has 
 shaken it feels as though Goetz von Berlich- 
 ingen had given him the grip. As a fencer, it 
 was to be expected that he should develop the 
 
HIS BOYHOOD. 1 5 
 
 proficiency which characterized him at Bonn, 
 but it was little thought that he would have the 
 patience and energy requisite to becoming an 
 expert shot, a good swimmer, and a capital 
 oar. In the saddle he manages to hold his 
 reins with his left, in order to have his sword 
 arm free, and I have many times seen him ride 
 across country taking obstacles which some of 
 his officers have refused. And the moral cour- 
 age, the persistency, the sense of duty, the 
 pluck, which overcame the impediments to 
 physical development, were constantly at work 
 in other parts of his education. 
 
 In the park of Sans Souci, near the Palace, 
 were planted the masts and rigging of a ship, 
 where Prince Henry received practical instruc- 
 tion in sailoring, and which became a favorite 
 romping place. Netting was stretched over the 
 lower space, and we were occasionally turned 
 loose to scramble about the rigging, some of us 
 playing at pirates making chase after a crew 
 that had taken refuge aloft. Or, what was 
 better still, we sometimes took a cruise about 
 the neighboring lakes on the miniature frigate* 
 
l6 HIS BOYHOOD. 
 
 a craft that looks very portentous at a distance, 
 with its scowling ports and man-o'-war yards, 
 but in reality, when on board, seems little 
 larger than a good-sized ship's cutter." The 
 cruise on the frigate was always considered 
 the greatest treat of all, and no doubt to the 
 pleasure derived then is due the fact that the 
 Emperor to-day is a devoted patron of yacht- 
 ing, and sails his toy frigate on the Havel 
 whenever opportunity offers. 
 
 When the day's romp was over, we had tea 
 before going home, always out-of-doors in fair 
 weather. The late Emperor Frederick and 
 his devoted wife never failed to appear on 
 these occasions, to say a few words to each of 
 us, asking after our families, or about the 
 sports of the day. The Empress in particular, 
 then Crown Princess, always examined our 
 
 * This little frigate was a present from George IV. to the 
 Emperor's granduncle, Frederick William IV., and is to-day 
 the favorite yacht. At Potsdam the Emperor keeps also a 
 little steam yacht, whose most important function now is 
 to be ready to tow the frigate home should the wind fail. 
 A detachment of blue-jackets is on duty at Potsdam for 
 the purpose of looking after the Liliputian frigate and its 
 auxiliary tender. 
 
HIS BOYHOOD. IJ 
 
 food to see that it was wholesome, and saw 
 that her little sons and daughters, as well as 
 their guests, had their napkins properly tucked 
 beneath their chins. The food was, it is need- 
 less to say, of the plainest and most wholesome. 
 Bread or toast, fresh milk from the Crown 
 Prince's model farm at Bornstedt, and some 
 simple bread-cake, with big raisins in it, per- 
 haps. When the Crown Princess and her hus- 
 band made their appearance, no face lighted 
 up with more pleasure than that of Prince 
 William, for the relation of parent and child 
 could not be conceived in more happy form 
 than in those days in the park of Sans Souci. 
 I remember once — it was at tea on the steam 
 yacht, some anniversary, I believe — Prince 
 William whispered to me a fact in which he 
 took enormous pride, that the cake had been 
 made by his mother. 
 
 Of course, at these romps, the idea of expect- 
 ing etiquette to be observed would have been 
 absurd; Dr. Hinzepeter would have none of it, 
 the Royal parents held it in horror, and no one 
 despised servility more than their eldest son. 
 
18 HIS BOYHOOD. 
 
 Occasionally, there came into these hilarious 
 play-ground meetings some youngster, no 
 doubt the son of a highly placed official, who 
 Jiad been carefully drilled at home to show 
 proper deference in the presence of the blood 
 •Royal. Such a poor wretch lived in momen- 
 tary dread of violating some imaginary rule, 
 and moved about morbidly conscious of his 
 courtly role. Prince William, celebrated as he 
 justly is for tact, could with difficulty conceal 
 his contempt for the little flunkeys that now 
 and then were forced upon him. 
 
 Not that he ridiculed their shyness; on the 
 contrary, it was he who invariably set the new 
 arrivals at their ease, discovered their leading 
 tastes and suggested the sport that would 
 please the larger number. And when sport 
 was once under way it would have been a keen 
 observer indeed who could have said that 
 either Prince relied upon anything beyond his 
 own head and hands to make the day success- 
 ful. It was my fortune, as an American, to be 
 credited with an intimate acquaintance with the 
 red savages of the Wild West, and this repu- 
 
HIS BOYHOOD. 19 
 
 tation I could in no way shake off, in spite of 
 the fact that at that time I had not even seen 
 one. In consequence of this alleged knowl- 
 edge I was frequently called upon to give de- 
 tails as to Indian warfare which I should deep- 
 ly regret to see reproduced. Prince William 
 knew Cooper from beginning to end, and, for 
 that matter, I was not far behind him, so that 
 our Indian studies usually resolved themselves 
 into impersonating some Leather-stocking he- 
 roes, arming ourselves as fantastically as possi- 
 ble, and then crawling flat on our stomachs 
 through the underbrush, for the purpose of cap- 
 turing some other party impersonating either a 
 hostile tribe or a party of pale-faces. 
 
 But I have said enough to illustrate his 
 character as a plucky, hearty, unaffected lad, 
 affectionate towards his parents, and full of 
 consideration for the youngsters of his own 
 age with whom he was brought into contact. 
 In 1874 Prince William and his brother went 
 to a common public school, with uncommonly 
 hard benches, amidst a lot of the odds and 
 ends of German social life invariably to be 
 
20 HIS BOYHOOD. 
 
 found in the national "Gymnasium." Let no 
 one imagine this to be like attending Eton, 
 where the expensive life limits the pupils to 
 sons of comparatively rich people, and where 
 an English prince can pass his time in luxury 
 and comparative idleness. The schools of 
 Germany are as inexorable in their require- 
 ments as any other branch of its public ser- 
 vice, and when Prince William took his seat 
 amidst the German burghers' children at the 
 public school it was with the understanding 
 that he should submit to the same discipline 
 as the rest, and receive his graduating diploma 
 only upon the conscientious fulfilment of the 
 prescribed course. 
 
 Dr. Hinzpeter selected his school after hav- 
 ing visited the head masters of many others, 
 and found most of them completely unnerved 
 at the idea of having a live prince amongst 
 them. Cassel is about eight hours by rail 
 from Berlin, a distance that meant a great 
 deal to the Princes and their parents. The 
 Court was incensed at the idea of the heir to 
 the throne consorting with ordinary boys; Dr. 
 
HIS BOYHOOD. 21 
 
 Hinzpeter was accused of introducing - revolu- 
 tionary ideas into the educational curriculum 
 of the Hohenzollerns; the old Emperor Wil- 
 liam did not disguise his displeasure, and even 
 the parents gave little more encouragement 
 than their bare consent that the experiment 
 should be tried. It was a bold game that Dr. 
 Hinzpeter was playing; no Royal prince had 
 ever been educated in a popular atmosphere, 
 and nobody at Court wished him well in the 
 undertaking. His reputation was at stake, for 
 while in the event of failure every voice would 
 cry out, "I told you so," even successfully 
 carried out there would be little to show for 
 his labor. The tutor held that for once in a 
 lifetime, at least, a prince should feel what his 
 subjects do; that he should share the school- 
 boy interests of the every-day German and 
 absorb the set of ideas that may enable him to 
 strike the popular keynote when he sits upon 
 the throne. For three years Prince William sat 
 on the Cassel benches, i.e., until he successfully 
 passed his final examination and was declared 
 ripe for matriculation at the University. 
 
22 HIS BOYHOOD. 
 
 These three years were years of torture to 
 the tutor. He lived with them, but could not 
 actively assist their studies, for that would 
 have been unfair to the other boys. Teachers 
 would rush to him in desperation to report this 
 and that of their Royal pupil — what should they 
 do ? They dared not reprimand the Lord's 
 anointed ! Hinzpeter had to strengthen them, 
 to encourage the Prince to more complete 
 application. Those were days of tension when 
 any moment might witness the destruction 
 of the result hoped for. The Princes went 
 to school and returned unattended. What 
 if something happened to them on the way ? — 
 a schoolboy quarrel, a blow, an "injury? — even 
 so small a thing as that would have called the 
 boys back to Berlin. What if a teacher had 
 lost his head and a prince have raised rebellion 
 in the schoolroom ? None of these things 
 happened, but nothing seemed more likely to 
 those who did not understand the precocious 
 nature of Prince William's character and the 
 devotion with which he pursued that which he 
 considered his duty. And what this amounted 
 
HIS BOYHOOD. 23 
 
 to may be measured by the fact that before 
 entering upon his three years' school course 
 he had to pass an examination far beyond that 
 required for admission to Oxford or Cam- 
 bridge, and that parallel to his daily tasks on 
 the ''Gymnasium" benches were a series of 
 special labors peculiar to the education of 
 one soon destined to play a conspicuous part 
 at a military Court — possibly to be its leader. 
 
 The career of the Prince upon leaving Cas- 
 sel in 1877 offers less of the exceptional and 
 striking than when Dr. Hinzpeter guided his 
 work, for upon entering the University he put 
 off the habits of youth, said good-bye to his 
 old tutor, and at once entered a field where 
 all that met him were of a kind to force upon 
 him the feeling that he was first a prince and 
 lastly a student. For in Germany the avenue 
 to most public employment and nearly all 
 professional advancement lies through the Uni- 
 versity, and consequently no class of people 
 have a more sensitive nose for the Royal 
 aroma than the gentlemen who boast loyalty 
 only to the Muses. In Bonn he had the at- 
 
24 HIS BOYHOOD. 
 
 tendance of a military aide, with whom he was 
 on excellent terms, and who did probably but 
 little to heighten the Prince's interest in the 
 purely peaceful phases of national develop- 
 ment. We may reasonably suppose that the 
 enormous military energy which the Emperor 
 developed shortly after leaving the academic 
 groves partook somewhat of the nature of re- 
 action from the constant contemplation of 
 economic industry, a reaction that might be 
 expected from one whose whole framework 
 tingles with exhilaration in the idea of active, 
 daring sport. 
 
 The years that elapsed between" leaving Bonn 
 and entering upon the responsibilities of gov- 
 ernment, afforded him the opportunity of at- 
 tending a series of lectures on modern history 
 and the art of government such as falls to the 
 lot of few of us, for the professors to whom he 
 listened were William I., who had helped make 
 modern history since the Battle of Waterloo, 
 and Bismarck, the prince of modern statecraft. 
 
 The venerable grandfather reviewed his his- 
 toric past before the eager boy who was soon 
 
HIS BOYHOOD. 25 
 
 to be his successor. Day after day the lectures 
 succeeded one another, lectures of absorbing 
 interest to the solitary student — and well noted 
 down. Here he learned what motives had in- 
 spired the elder William in the various critical 
 moments of modern Prussian history; how in his 
 youth he had been flushed with hope of consti- 
 tutional liberty for Germany; how these hopes 
 had been wrecked upon the incapacity of the 
 people to control themselves; in the stormy 
 days of 1848 he had bowed before all but uni- 
 versal hatred and taken refuge in London; the 
 same people that would have stoned him then 
 made an idol of the hero of Sadowa in 1866. 
 In all the phases of popular passion through 
 which he had passed, one truth had been am- 
 ply vindicated, namely, that fidelity to*Hohen- 
 zollern tradition, uncompromising devotion to 
 duty — these attributes of Royalty could not 
 lead astray. That young William found in this 
 lecture-room little sympathy for the teachings 
 of Cobden or Benjamin Franklin may be read- 
 ily imagined — the monarch who had ruled four 
 years without Parliament, when Parliament 
 
26 HIS BOYHOOD. 
 
 disobeyed his wishes, was not exactly suited to 
 inoculate the young Imperial candidate with 
 the principles of civil liberty, let alone free- 
 trade and small armies. 
 
 To secure the services of Professor Bismarck 
 was not easy, for the Iron Chancellor felt him- 
 self far too busy in adjusting the foreign rela- 
 tions of Europe, and discovering Colonial land 
 titles, to willingly enter the academic cathedra 
 in favor of a prince who then had little pros- 
 pect of ascending the throne of the Holy Ro- 
 man Empire — at least until the lecturer should 
 have lain many years in his vault. But the 
 grandfather finally had his way, and day after 
 day found these two closeted like little Lord 
 Fauntleroy and the savage Earl, the Chancel- 
 lor rapidly melting before the manifest capacity 
 of the pupil to appreciate his epigrammatic 
 sentences, and finally coming to relish the 
 hour of instruction more, if possible, than his 
 Royal student. Here, again, our young Em- 
 peror learned at first-hand how to deal with 
 obstinate Parliamentary segments, we cannot 
 call them parties; how to measure public opin- 
 
HIS BOYHOOD. 27 
 
 ion; how to influence foreign Cabinets; how 
 this and that difficulty in the past were over- 
 come, and what troubles may be looked for in the 
 future. It is not to be expected that the Em- 
 peror graduated in this course with any latent 
 disposition to underestimate the value of bayo- 
 nets in the economic evolution of the Empire. 
 That the peaceful teachings of the scholarly 
 Dr. Hinzpeter have been lost is too much to 
 say, for the public utterances of the Emperor 
 show that he remembers well the days spent 
 in the contemplation of industrial institutions 
 and museums. As a Hohenzollern Emperor, 
 however, he recognizes completely that his 
 Empire to-day amounts to no more than a roll 
 of parchment unless he is prepared to fight 
 any two enemies who may unite against him. 
 Germany has fought her way up through 
 bloody battles; and can only hope to maintain 
 her present position by readiness to accept 
 any challenge from the nations that snarl 
 about her. Even members of her own house- 
 hold have been in the field against Prussia, 
 and the task of reconciling domestic political 
 
28 HIS BOYHOOD. 
 
 differences is scarcely less than that of prepar- 
 ing to meet a national war. 
 
 The Emperor holds the future of Europe in 
 his right hand — and how many are trying to 
 peep through those strong fingers ! He is the 
 head of the largest, the strongest, and the 
 most intelligently guided army in the world, 
 and is himself one of the most highly instruct- 
 ed in that army. His mind is original, receiv- 
 ing ideas from every quarter, allowing them to 
 modify his views, but never to displace them. 
 Many of the harsh opinions passed upon him 
 shortly before ascending the throne would 
 have been sensibly tempered had their authors 
 known how completely did his political sense 
 of duty to Germany dominate every personal 
 consideration. 
 
THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 
 
 \T WILLIAM II. has been for three years 
 
 * * emperor, and in this time has succeeded 
 not only in winning the respect of foreign cab- 
 inets but in strengthening himself at home.* 
 He succeeded a father idolized by all who came 
 within the sphere of his gentle and generous 
 nature; his grandfather left behind a warlike 
 
 * A press association furnished to the American papers 
 of February 21, iSgi.a charge of intoxication at the dinner 
 in his honor given by the Brandenburg Diet. This article 
 was fabricated either in London or in New York, though 
 headed Berlin. 
 
 Such lies do more mischief than at first glance might be 
 supposed, because, while a private man may occasionally 
 venture to bring a libel action against an editor, the Ger- 
 man Emperor has no such redress against the abuse of in- 
 ternational courtesy. 
 
 I may add that I have seen the Emperor on a dozen or 
 more convivial occasions when, if ever, he might with im- 
 punity have indulged the taste attributed to him by this ill- 
 informed and poison-spirited scribe, and that on no occasion 
 has he given grounds for such statements. 
 
 29 
 
30 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 
 
 fame so great that only the age of Frederick 
 II. can afford a parallel. The present Emperor 
 has had, therefore, no easy task before him, for 
 it has been necessary for him both to remove 
 prejudice and to give the country confidence in 
 his intentions as well as in his abilities. 
 
 The secret of the Emperor's power with his 
 own people arises mainly from three causes: 
 
 First. He has courage. 
 
 Second. He is honest. 
 
 Third. He is a thorough German. 
 
 If the whole country had to vote to-morrow 
 for a leader embodying the qualities they most 
 desired, their choice would fall unquestionably 
 on their present constitutional ruler. Perhaps 
 the virtues I have specified appear common- 
 place, and will be taken for granted by the 
 reader; but an emperor must be compared 
 with others in the same trade. 
 
 His honesty has been the cause of nearly all 
 the malevolent criticism that outside papers 
 have accorded him. for he has said freely what 
 older or more politic people might have placed 
 in a different way. He has made many minor 
 
THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 3 1 
 
 mistakes from acting upon the impulse of the 
 moment, but these mistakes have never be- 
 trayed to his people a want of sympathy with 
 their development. He has made his share of 
 minor blunders in handling large masses of 
 troops at the grand manoeuvers, but the army 
 would be happy to see him make a thousand 
 times as many rather than to miss the active 
 interest he takes in keeping the military ma- 
 chine in working order. 
 
 Since Frederick the Great no king of Prus- 
 sia has understood his business like this em- 
 peror. He knows the routine of the public 
 offices from having sat upon office stools. He 
 knows what material development means from 
 a practical inspection of foundries, mills, ship- 
 yards, irrigating-works, canals, factories, and 
 the rest of the places where the strength of a 
 nation largely displays itself. He knows the 
 army from having carried a knapsack, obeyed 
 his superiors, and worked his way up like the 
 every-day Prussian. If a new ship is to make 
 a trial trip, he goes in person to learn some- 
 thing new in naval construction. He has trav- 
 
32 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 
 
 eled in the most intelligent way the principal 
 countries of the Old World, has come in con- 
 tact with the men responsible for the state of 
 affairs in Europe, and does not need to be 
 prompted when a new ambassador presents his 
 credentials. 
 
 From a child he has been noted for his love 
 of outdoor sport, and as emperor has directed 
 the taste of the growing generation away 
 from pipes and beer-pots and has led them 
 to seek their pleasures in more manly recre- 
 ation. 
 
 The Emperor believes in force, and with 
 good reason. Prussia has fought her way into 
 the family of European nations at the point of 
 the bayonet; it has taken her about 250 years 
 of drilling and fighting to make Europe under- 
 stand that she has come to stay: and the habits 
 engendered by generations of barrack-room 
 education cannot be altered in a few years. 
 Not only does the Emperor believe in force, 
 but his Germans almost to a man hold the 
 same creed. The people of the fatherland all 
 serve in the ranks, not merely because their 
 
THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 33 
 
 Kaiser wishes it but because they themselves 
 are convinced that this sacrifice is the only 
 one that can guarantee them against invasion. 
 The universal service is to-day the most pop- 
 ular institution in Germany; and while outcry 
 is made against particular abuses in the army, 
 and many desire to have the term of service 
 reduced, no government could live a day that 
 attempted to abolish it altogether. The pub- 
 lie language, therefore, which the Emperor 
 uses, sounds strangely autocratic when read 
 in the columns of one of our dailies, but calls 
 forth no such reflection in Berlin. 
 
 No man in his position has in so short a time 
 expressed himself so freely on so many im- 
 portant topics as he, and if I have convinced 
 the reader that his words are those of an honest 
 and fearless man, I need offer no apology for 
 quoting some of his own language as evidence 
 that he is not devoid of judgment. 
 
 On the 15th of June, 1888, William II. suc- 
 ceeded to the throne as German Emperor 
 and King of Prussia. On the 25th he met the 
 
34 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 
 
 members of the imperial parliament, and gave 
 them the assurance that he meant to govern 
 according to the constitution, and to carry out 
 vigorously all engagements, at home or 
 abroad, connected with the welfare of the 
 country. On the 27th he met the Prussian 
 house of representatives, and, as King of 
 Prussia, defined his position as head of the 
 state more clearly still. 
 
 " I am far," said he, " from wishing to disturb 
 the faith of the people in the permanency of 
 our constitutional position by efforts to enlarge 
 the royal prerogative. The present rights of 
 the crown, so long as they are not invaded, 
 are sufficient to assure the amount of monarch- 
 ical influence required by Prussia, according to 
 the present state of things, according to its 
 position in the Empire, and according to the 
 feelings and associations of the people. It is 
 my opinion that our constitution contains a 
 just and useful distribution of the cooperation 
 of the different political forces, and I shall on 
 that account, and not merely because of my 
 oath of office, maintain and protect it." 
 
THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 35 
 
 Opinions differ, even in Germany, as to the 
 best distribution of political forces, but every 
 Prussian, and every German as well, breathed 
 more freely when their emperor had spoken 
 the blunt words I have translated. The peo- 
 ple were already beginning to feel that while 
 they had to deal with a man who could. fight for 
 his own, he was, at least, not disposed to claim 
 more than was his by law. The whole of that 
 address is instinct with individual conviction, 
 but much of its force was lost to the outside 
 world because few knew how much of it was 
 meant. When, for instance, he closes by 
 promising to be the " first servant of the state," 
 it was looked upon as a conventional figure of 
 speech, such as even a Prince of Wales 
 might use. How few then thought that he 
 would work with an energy and persistence 
 that would wear out any two ordinary ser- 
 vants; that he would have his study lamp burn- 
 ing long before the kitchen-maids of Berlin 
 yawned themselves out of bed; that he would 
 in person wait upon the drill-grounds of his 
 regiments to see that punctuality was ob- 
 
36 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 
 
 served; that he would be accessible to every 
 complaint, whether from a day laborer or cabi- 
 net minister. 
 
 Like others in commanding positions, he is 
 taxed heavily for all that he utters in public, 
 but no one tells us of what he is in private. Be- 
 cause as head of the army he draws his sword 
 he is charged with warlike ambition; if on the 
 other hand he looks into the troubles of the 
 day laborers he is attacked as a socialist in dis- 
 guise; if he travels to visit his neighbors the 
 paragraphers make merry over his perpetual 
 junketing. The papers of England have hard- 
 ly yet forgiven him for the crimes they imagine 
 he committed while his father was at San 
 Remo, though it has been abundantly proved 
 that he acted as a loyal son and subject. 
 
 On the 16th of August, 1888, he made a few 
 remarks at Frankfort on the Oder that set all 
 tongues wagging as though he had already 
 signed a declaration of war. 
 
 "Let me add one thing more," said he. 
 "Gentlemen, there are people so weak as to 
 say that my father thought of giving back what 
 
THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 37 
 
 we conquered with the sword. We knew him 
 all too well to accept coolly such a slander up- 
 on his memory. He was with us in thinking 
 that nothing secured by the mighty efforts of 
 those times should be given up. 
 
 " I believe that we of the Third Army 
 Corps, as well as the whole army, know that 
 on this subject there is but one voice : let us 
 rather lose our eighteen army corps and forty- 
 two million inhabitants on the field than give 
 up a single stone of that which my father and 
 Prince Frederick Charles have won." 
 
 This is not pleasant reading in Paris, but it 
 is the kind of language I should expect to hear 
 in New York if any philanthropic movement 
 was on foot to hand Texas or Arizona back 
 to Mexico. It is just the language that would 
 be heard in London if an attempt were made 
 to restore to France, not Alsace-Lorraine, but 
 the Channel Islands. 
 
 Shortly after this much-abused speech came 
 the great autumn manceuvers, at which two 
 corps of about 30,000 men each, equipped as 
 for real war, were made to fight one against 
 
38 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 
 
 the other, and to solve in an unknown coun- 
 try all the difficulties of a real campaign. Un- 
 der the old Emperor William these manceu- 
 vers had of late years become rather perfunc- 
 tory, because of his advanced years and his 
 indisposition to make radical changes. The 
 Emperor Frederick was of course too feeble to 
 make any personal impression on the army dur- 
 ing his three months of office, and all Ger- 
 many looked with eagerness to see what their 
 new emperor would do when commanding 
 large bodies for the first time, and under con- 
 ditions that would test in some degree his abil- 
 ity to command in real war. He had of course 
 in the field veteran generals of three great 
 wars, and a man of less courage could have 
 readily found an excuse for taking a merely 
 conventional part in these operations. But the 
 Emperor dreamed of nothing less than this. 
 From the beginning to the end of the seven- 
 days' fighting I was able to watch him closely, 
 and even a layman in warfare could note the 
 extraordinary independence with which he 
 made his dispositions, the coolness with which 
 
THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 39 
 
 he met sudden emergencies, the attention he 
 was able to give to detail, and the energy with 
 which he appeared at every point of difficulty. 
 Did he make any mistakes ? I presume so; 
 I hope so, at least. And every soldier who 
 saw him in those days blessed him for making 
 them there rather than in the presence of a 
 real enemy. He was learning to use his great 
 military machine, and every German felt better 
 at hearing that their Kaiser showed talent for 
 his work. What if he did miscalculate the ex- 
 act front that a division should occupy in an 
 attack ? what if he did bring his cavalry a bit 
 too soon upon the enemy's infantry ? The 
 very fact of his doing so on this occasion was 
 the best assurance that it would not happen in 
 real war. 
 
 On the 14th of May, 1889, before he had been 
 a year on the throne, he received a deputation 
 of dissatisfied workmen, and, two days later, a 
 similar body of employers. He spoke to each 
 practically, briefly, sharply. He did not pat 
 the employers on the back and order the work- 
 
40 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 
 
 ingmen 'about their business, nor did .he seek 
 to curry favor with the mob by using the de- 
 lusive phrases so common with politicians on 
 the eve of political elections. What he said to 
 each gave no pleasure to either, but, spoken as 
 it was, honestly and for the good. of both, it has 
 given workmen and their employers through- 
 out Germany a feeling of confidence in the 
 Government as a judge in matters industrial. 
 
 To the workmen he said : 
 
 " Every subject who has a desire to express 
 has of course the ear of his emperor. I have 
 shown this in giving you permission to come 
 here and tell your wants personally. But you 
 have put yourselves in the wrong; your move- 
 ment is against law, if only because you have 
 not abided by the fourteen-days' notice re- 
 quired to be given before striking. You have 
 therefore broken your contract. Naturally this 
 breaking of your engagement has irritated the 
 employers, and does them a wrong. Further- 
 more, workmen who did not desire to strike 
 have been prevented from working either by 
 violence or threats." 
 
THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 41 
 
 He summed up the wrong they had done, 
 but nevertheless promised to have the matter 
 thoroughly investigated. It is needless to say 
 that he kept his word. When the employers 
 came before him, no doubt expecting sympa- 
 thy as against strikers, they were taken to task 
 more cuttingly still for their selfishness. " I 
 beg of you," said the emperor, " take pains to 
 give workingmen a chance to present their 
 grievances in a formal manner. ... It is nat- 
 ural and human that each one should seek to 
 better himself. Workmen read newspapers 
 and know the relation that their wages bear to 
 the profits of the company. It is obvious that 
 they should desire to have some share of this." 
 
 Were these utterances the dictation of a po- 
 litical economist paid for jogging the imperial 
 elbow in matters industrial they would deserve 
 only the attention accorded to official papers 
 read from the throne. But when they reflect 
 the convictions of a ruler bent upon solving 
 questions that are tormenting every industrial 
 community, they are remarkable. 
 
 During the grand manceuvers of 1889 he re- 
 
42 TllE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 
 
 ceived a delegation of university professors and 
 took the occasion to set the country thinking 
 as to whether the present system of education 
 could not be improved. " The more thorough- 
 ly and energetically the people understand his- 
 tory," said he, " the more clearly will they un- 
 derstand their position; and in this way they 
 will be trained to united feeling in the presence 
 of great undertakings." The language is not 
 obscure to a German, who remembers the pe- 
 riod of oppression under Napoleon I. and the 
 many years that had to pass before the people 
 educated themselves to act and to think as one 
 man in the struggle for unity. The Emperor 
 has since taken means to put into practice the 
 ideas he expressed to the professors of Gottin- 
 gen, and Germans must thank him that the 
 rising generation are permitted to form their 
 ideals not merely from Greeks and Romans of 
 very shadowy interest but from the flesh-and- 
 blood patriots of these days — the Scharnhorsts, 
 the Bluchers, the Gneisenaus, the Steins, the 
 Colombs, Liitzows, and other heroes of the 
 great war of liberation. 
 
THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 43 
 
 Shortly after the manceuvers of 1889 he re- 
 ceived our minister, William Walter Phelps, in 
 a manner more than complimentary, saying, 
 among other things: " From childhood I have 
 admired the great and expanding community 
 you represent; and the study of your history, 
 both in peace and war, has given me particular 
 pleasure. Among the many conspicuous char- 
 acteristics of your fellow citizens the world ad- 
 mires in particular their spirit of enterprise, 
 their respect for law, and their inventiveness. 
 Germans feel themselves the more drawn to 
 the people of the United States because of the 
 many ties that inevitably accompany kinship 
 of blood. The feeling which both countries 
 entertain most strongly is that of relationship 
 and friendship of long standing; and the fu- 
 ture can only strengthen the heartiness of our 
 relations." 
 
 This, I venture to say, is the most friendly 
 language ever used by a German ruler or cabi- 
 net towards the United States, and it gains the 
 more in value by coming from the mouth of a 
 man who would not have said anything that he 
 
44 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 
 
 did not fully mean. The personal regard en- 
 tertained for Mr. Phelps made the Emperor's 
 language perhaps more easy for him; but in 
 addition to that, I am sure that few Germans 
 who have not traveled in America are better in- 
 formed of our conditions, our history, our re- 
 sources, and our literature than he. When 
 " Battles and Leaders of the Civil War" ap- 
 peared, it was read by him with interest; as an 
 officer in the army he attended courses of lec- 
 tures on our principal military operations; and 
 only within the past few months he was discuss- 
 ing with an American George Ken nan's work 
 on the treatment of Siberian exiles. 
 
 In February, 1890, he issued an order the 
 gist of which is in these words: " In my army 
 each individual soldier shall receive lawful, 
 just, and humane treatment." This order was 
 unexpected, for the army did not appear at the 
 time to suffer more than ordinarily from the 
 excesses of non-commissioned officers or even 
 of commissioned officers. But it is the Em- 
 peror's habit to find out for himself what is go- 
 ing on in barrack-yards as well as in the cabi- 
 
THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 45 
 
 net. He does not wait until official red tape 
 has permitted the Government to notice an 
 abuse, or until dissatisfaction has spread. His 
 language in this order has not made men more 
 humane, but it has certainly made the brutal 
 more cautious about venting their brutality, 
 and this is as much as human law can hope 
 for. 
 
 In the same month he calls together a con- 
 gress of interested nations to see if something 
 cannot be done to avoid the increasing friction 
 between wage-payers and wage-earners. This 
 congress may or may not achieve all that some 
 have hoped for it. The Emperor himself did 
 not offer to solve any question of social phi- 
 losophy; his attitude was strictly that of an in- 
 quirer. He virtually said to the delegates: 
 " Gentlemen, the industrial situation of Europe 
 is critical. Let us discuss it calmly, let us offer 
 suggestions, let us see if the question is ca- 
 pable of simpler definition." 
 
 Whether anything comes of this effort, the 
 fact is remarkable that the most conspicuous 
 public effort of a young and powerful emperor 
 
46 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 
 
 has been to interfere in behalf of the daily la- 
 borers. 
 
 On the 20th of March, 1890, Bismarck left 
 his office of Prime, or rather sole, Minister. I 
 do not wish to enter upon this question here, 
 except to point out that he left office imme- 
 diately after a popular election which resulted 
 in more votes for socialist candidates than were 
 ever before cast in the history of the empire. 
 He was in a hopeless minority in the Reichs- 
 tag, and had proved to the satisfaction of his 
 countrymen that, whatever his merits were as 
 a foreign minister, they dwindled painfully 
 when it came to treating the more delicate 
 questions of finance, socialism, press laws, and 
 internal improvement. 
 
 During the labor conference the Emperor 
 showed marked civilities to the French dele- 
 gate, Jules Simon, and afterward sent him as a 
 present the musical works of Frederick the 
 Great, accompanied by a most cordial letter. 
 This was an opportunity offered to France to 
 say something that might be regarded as a 
 harbinger of peace; to cease the snarling over 
 
THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 47 
 
 Alsace-Lorraine that has been kept up for 
 twenty years, and promises to continue until 
 after the next war. Germany was disappointed 
 in the result, for France showed that she has 
 now only one political faith, the basis of which 
 is hate. From the salons of the Faubourg St. 
 Germain to the attics of Montmartre, there is 
 but one feeling — France has had her vanity 
 wounded; therefore Europe must expect no 
 rest until she has had her revenge. 
 
 In 1890, on the 9th of August, Heligoland 
 was added to the Empire without a blow or 
 even an angry word. What Gibraltar is to 
 Spain, that and much more was this little isl- 
 and at the mouth of her principal seaport to 
 Germany. The peaceful accomplishment of so 
 important an object is not so much an evidence 
 of his desire to strengthen his coast-line as of 
 the fact that England and Germany are to-day 
 united in a friendship unknown since the year 
 when Bliicher and Wellington fought the 
 French at Waterloo. 
 
 I have not spoken of the Emperor's travels 
 in detail, for want of space. In general it may 
 
48 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 
 
 be said that no ruler of modern times has seen 
 so much of the world, and made the fruit of his 
 travels so directly profitable to his people. 
 He has not merely traveled to distant coun- 
 tries, from the North Cape to the Golden 
 Horn, and from the Thames to the Gulf of Fin- 
 land. His acquaintance with his own country 
 is no less thorough. He masters readily the 
 industrial features of every neighborhood that 
 he visits, and it is rare for him to meet a man 
 with whom he cannot talk instructively on the 
 country or town that he represents. He does 
 not waste time in these travels, "but has a rail- 
 way train fitted somewhat after the pattern of 
 the Chicago limited vestibule. On the way he 
 despatches state business, and discusses, as he 
 flies along, any proposition requiring signature. 
 His yacht serves him when afloat as conven- 
 iently as his train ashore, and both are so well 
 used as to be always in the best working con- 
 dition. 
 
 As an after-dinner speaker the Emperor has 
 no superior in Germany. He speaks readily 
 without notes, expresses himself with vigor, 
 
THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 49 
 
 never descends to conventional commonplaces, 
 and, above all, gives the very best assurance 
 that his words are not prepared for him. I 
 have heard conspicuous speakers in England 
 and in our own country, and, if comparisons 
 are not in this case invidious, I should say that 
 the German Emperor need not fear to meet 
 such an audience as even a New England So- 
 ciety dinner assembles. One of the prettiest 
 speeches I have listened to was delivered by 
 the Emperor in answering the toast to his wife 
 in the province where she was born. It was 
 during the great combined naval and military 
 manceuvers of 1890, at which the United States 
 was represented by Commander Ward, and 
 Great Britain by Admiral Hornby. 
 
 The Emperor's words were : " I desire to 
 express to you, my dearest sir, the gratitude 
 felt by the Empress and myself for the kind 
 words we have just heard; at the same time 
 our thanks to the whole for the day we have 
 passed and for the reception which the prov- 
 ince has prepared for us. This day was, how- 
 ever, not needed in order to assure us of the 
 
50 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 
 
 warm friendship we have found here. The 
 bond that unites me to this province, and 
 chains me to her in a manner different from all 
 others of my Empire, is the jewel that sparkles 
 at my side, her Majesty the Empress. Sprung 
 from this soil, the type of the various virtues 
 of a German princess, it is to her that I owe it 
 if I am able to meet the severe labors of my 
 office with a happy spirit, and make head 
 against them." 
 
 The words of the Emperor were unexpected, 
 and to no one more so than to his wife, whose 
 face beamed with happiness at the compliment 
 she so publicly received. Nor did any one 
 who listened to the speaker at that dinner 
 think to question the spontaneity and honesty 
 of the language. 
 
 In spite of the pomp that custom demands 
 of an imperial court, the German Emperor is a 
 man of singularly simple and healthy tastes. 
 When he is out of office-hours his recreation is 
 largely taken with his children in their nur- 
 sery, or dropping in at the house of a personal 
 friend and begging a cup of tea and a cozy 
 
THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 5 1 
 
 chat. He knows the value of knowledge, and 
 while the machinery of his Government pro- 
 vides him with elaborate reports on every sub- 
 ject and from every corner of the world, he 
 still prefers to study his people at first-hand, and 
 never loses an opportunity of seeing for himself 
 what is going on about him. He reads, of course, 
 all the new books of importance; sees the good 
 plays, and assists in bringing forward such as 
 have merit; he takes pleasure in running into 
 artists' workshops at unexpected hours; is ready 
 to meet any one who has an idea of interest. 
 
 When I think of him as the business man- 
 ager of a practical political corporation, I am 
 constantly inclined to look for the key to his 
 success and popularity in Germany by quoting 
 the laconic opinion of him expressed by an 
 American officer who was presented to him for 
 the first time at the Baltic manceuvers in 1890. 
 He came away from his audience flushed with 
 excitement, and I expected a vigorous report 
 from the fact that this officer had been drawing 
 his impressions of Germany principally from 
 Paris and St. Petersburg. 
 
52 THE FIRST YEARS OF HIS REIGN. 
 
 " What do you think of him now ? " I said. 
 "Immense; he has a genuine Yankee head 
 
 on him." 
 
 It only need be added that this compliment 
 was the highest in the court vocabulary of my 
 fellow countryman. 
 
HIS ARMY. 
 
 /^ ERMANY awaits from day to day the 
 ^--* signal to mobilize her troops and march 
 to the frontiers. The signal has been success- 
 fully postponed through great efforts of great 
 men; but great men grow old and do not 
 always leave behind them successors equal to 
 their tasks. Bismarck has labored in the 
 cause of peace until even he will be forced 
 to admit that Imperial kisses, like promissory 
 notes, can not always be taken at their face 
 value. France had to fight Germany alone in 
 1870; this time she is counting on a Muscovite 
 ally. Germany has prepared herself, there- 
 fore, to send part of her army against Moscow, 
 another part against Paris, and the balance to 
 keep the Danes from interference or watch the 
 Socialists at home. The first cost of putting 
 the nation on a war footing will be met by the 
 
 coin treasure stored in the vaults of the Span- 
 
 53 
 
54 HIS ARMY. 
 
 dau citadel, close to Berlin, a treasure, by the 
 way, largely paid over by France as indemnity 
 for the last war. 
 
 To reduce wearisome figures to their least 
 objectionable proportions, the active war 
 strength of Germany means: 
 
 Officers 48,122 
 
 Medical officers 7,602 
 
 Miscellaneous officials 12,957 
 
 Non-com. officers and men . . . .2,165,950 
 
 Making a total of 2,234,631 
 
 of all ranks. 
 
 To which we can add: 
 
 Horses 439759 
 
 Field guns 3,558 
 
 Siege guns I ,75 2 
 
 Other carriages 58,316 
 
 The above figures do not include the staffs 
 and personnel of the stay-at-home army es- 
 tablishments, the seven hundred thousand 
 trained men of the Second Reserves, called 
 Landsturm, and the railway staff, made up 
 largely of old soldiers, amounting to about 
 
HIS ARMY. 55 
 
 three hundred thousand men — for I have not 
 
 been able to get official figures on this matter. 
 
 We may analyze Germany's war strength in 
 
 this way — and these figures, I may add, are 
 
 not merely on paper as they were once in 
 
 France, to her cost. 
 
 551 Battalions ) 
 
 > of Infantry and Rifles. 
 31 Companies ) 
 
 573 Squadrons of Cavalry. 
 
 593 Batteries. 
 
 74-i- Battalions of foot Artillery. 
 
 208 Companies of Pioneers. 
 
 37 Companies of railway troops. 
 
 341 Ammunition columns. 
 
 55 Divisional bridge trains. 
 
 19 Corps bridge trains. 
 
 25 Telegraph sections. 
 
 287 Commissariat columns. 
 
 For such as wish more detailed information on this sub- 
 ject I cannot too highly recommend " The War Strength of 
 Germany," by Captain Grierson, of the Royal Artillery, 
 an officer who is regarded in Germany, and at home, as an 
 authority of the first rank in military matters, and to whom 
 I am glad to acknowledge my indebtedness for the verifica- 
 tion of nearly all the statements not coming within my per- 
 sonal experience. — P. B. 
 
56 HIS ARMY. 
 
 94 Bearer columns. 
 
 41 Bakery columns and detachments. 
 
 19 Horse depots. 
 341 Field hospitals. 
 
 19 Depot Abtheihingen. 
 The Recruit. — Every German is bound to 
 assist in the defence of his fatherland, not 
 merely by the payment of taxes, which we all 
 do, but by qualifying himself to take his place 
 in the ranks and spill his blood, like any other 
 soldier, when war breaks out. We all recog- 
 nize the propriety of a free man defending his 
 person, his family and his house from attack; 
 but Germany is the first nation of modern 
 times that has carried this view to its logical 
 conclusion, and organized the whole people in 
 the manner most likely to protect it against 
 assault from all quarters. The burden is 
 heavy, but appears to Germans less grievous 
 than to us, for they have faith in the good 
 which results from their sacrifice; they know 
 that the weight falls on all, rich and poor 
 alike; their fathers consented to it because in 
 that way only could they resist the tyranny of 
 
HIS ARMY. 57 
 
 the first Napoleon, and it is not fair for the 
 men of to-day to complain when they remem- 
 ber the wonders they did in the war against 
 Napoleon III. 
 
 From his 17th to 25th year the army has a 
 lien on every German — during these years he 
 cannot emigrate without special permission — 
 and that this permission is difficult to procure 
 may be inferred from the fact that in the re- 
 cruiting returns of 1885, no less than 18,000 
 were noted as having escaped their obligations 
 by clandestine emigration. 
 
 The ordinary man has to serve three years 
 with the colors, as that time is considered nec- 
 essary in order to make a real soldier of the 
 average country lad. Those, however, who 
 have passed high academical examinations, 
 and show that they are of superior mental ca- 
 pacity can be free at the end of one year, al- 
 though for this privilege they have to clothe 
 themselves and take care of themselves as well. 
 Of course good physical health and build are 
 assumed. No soldier is accepted less than 5 
 feet x /> inches high, and the crack regiments 
 
58 HIS ARMY. 
 
 make 5 feet 6 T V inches their minimum, except- 
 ing for light cavalry, where weight is limited 
 to 142 lbs., the heavy cavalry allowing up to 
 153 lbs. Such as do not come up to the 
 "fighting requirements " are relegated to gar- 
 rison work of practical if not glorious char- 
 acter. 
 
 Exemptions. — Special reasons sometimes 
 release a German from serving in the army — 
 or at least obtain for him a postponement of 
 service — as, for instance, if he is: 
 
 1. The only son of destitute parents. 
 
 2. The son of a farmer or manufacturer who 
 , would be unable to superintend his work 
 
 without his son's services. . 
 
 3. The next eldest brother to one killed in war, 
 
 or of one who has lost health while on 
 duty, if by such postponement the lot of 
 the latter is ameliorated, 
 
 4. Those engaged in the study of art as a pro- 
 
 fession, whose career would suffer damage 
 if such studies were interrupted. 
 
 And one or two others in the same spirit. 
 
 The State, in other words, recognizes no 
 
HIS ARMY. 59 
 
 distinction between rich and poor, noble and 
 peasant, in the matter of defending the com- 
 mon fatherland; and where an exception is 
 made, it is obviously on the principle that no 
 man should be withdrawn from industrial work 
 if the community in general is to be a sufferer 
 in consequence. No man in Germany is rich 
 enough to buy a substitute, or too poor to 
 claim immunity if he shows legal ground. 
 
 Rfxruit Education. — The German mili- 
 tary year closes with the last day of the grand 
 fall manceuvers, when the soldiers who have 
 completed their period of service return to 
 their homes, and the recruits of the y*ear are 
 called in to fill their places. Patiently and 
 slowly they are taken in hand and taught the 
 elements of their profession, their instructors 
 knowing well the importance of what they are 
 about, and the searching inspection they will 
 have to stand when the new men are passed 
 as fit to march in the ranks. All of the winter 
 up to March of the following year is given to 
 individual and elementary instruction. March 
 and April are devoted to company drills, bat- 
 
60 HIS ARMY. 
 
 talion drill coming in May. June and July 
 give the recruits a chance to see field service. 
 In August come regimental and brigade work, 
 and last of all, September, they take part in 
 their first grand manceuvers. 
 
 The great importance which the Germans 
 attach to the education of their soldiers must 
 be my excuse for dwelling a little on this 
 point. To begin with, then, the raw recruits 
 are distributed fifty to a company, and placed 
 under the entire charge of a specially selected 
 officer, who has under him four or five under- 
 officers and the same number of lance cor- 
 porals *as assistant instructors. Each under- 
 officer gets from ten to thirteen men to instruct. 
 Whoever has seen West Point cadets drilling 
 the freshly arrived " plebes," can form a picture 
 of what constitutes most of the early training 
 of the German recruit. 
 
 His work commences light, but is soon in- 
 creased to three hours in the forenoon (8-u) 
 and two hours (2-4) in the afternoon, the even- 
 ing being devoted to an hour's theoretical 
 instruction. As at West Point and Annapolis, 
 
HIS ARMY. 6l 
 
 the most important early work consists in 
 making the muscles supple by a variety of 
 gymnastic movements, with the rifle as a club. 
 
 The third week brings promotion to the use 
 of gymnastic appliances, such as the vaulting 
 horse, parallel and horizontal bars, poles, lad- 
 ders and ropes; and these exercises are also 
 applied to real war by making the men climb 
 walls, vault ditches, and work their way up 
 difficult slopes — in all these exercises the in- 
 structor setting the men an example, a good 
 rule always observed at West Point. 
 
 The rifle is given to the recruit in the fourth 
 week, and the manual commences and con- 
 tinues until, in March, the new men are con- 
 sidered fit for inspection, which is always an 
 occasion for some festivity, when the captain 
 of the company presents the newly trained 
 men to the regimental commander in the 
 presence of the officer who has had them un- 
 der his special care. Each man is put through 
 his drill, the whole squad then march past, 
 are drilled together, the commander makes a 
 short, encouraging speech to them, and they 
 
62 HIS ARMY. 
 
 are placed formally in the ranks of the 
 company. 
 
 By the time summer comes around they are 
 taken on long tramps into the country, are 
 taught to choose their ground with judgment, 
 to throw up earthworks, build a camp, skir- 
 mish, do outpost duty and reconnoitre. Every 
 man is taught to swim, and gymnastics are 
 not neglected. 
 
 Much importance is attached to the verbal 
 explanations which officers are expected to 
 give their men in regard to that which they 
 are learning in the field. When a boy I re- 
 member well seeing in the fields about Pots- 
 dam the troops incessantly drilling, and par- 
 ticularly the little groups of soldiers about 
 their officer, who, with some rude tracings in 
 the sand, was illustrating a short lecture on 
 field fortifications. 
 
 Thus the education of the soldier goes on 
 hour by hour, step by step, until the fall of the 
 year comes around once more, and with it the 
 field exercises on a large scale, which imitate 
 real war in many respects, and inure the men 
 
HIS ARMY. 63 
 
 to the work of forced marches, camping out 
 in all weathers and overcoming real ob- 
 stacles.* 
 
 The German Emperor, as actual Command- 
 er-in-Chief, takes active part in these mimic 
 wars, sometimes commands a division of cav- 
 alry, sometimes a complete army corps. He 
 is the first on the field, the stimulus to all ex- 
 ertion throughout the day, and the last to rest. 
 He is never satisfied with what has been, real- 
 izing that new inventions in war are as much 
 to be taken into account as any other force, 
 
 * German infantry quick step is .8 metres (31)^ inches), 
 and the time 112 to the minute. 
 
 Cavalry traverse in a minute at a walk 125 paces (of .8 
 metres or 31^ inches each); at a trot 300, and at a gallop 
 500 paces. 
 
 Infantry march four abreast. 
 
 Cavalry " three do. 
 
 An infantry division with its first line baggage occupies 
 about five miles of road, and with its second line about 
 seven and a half miles. Including its trains (one artillery 
 and one infantry ammunition column, one provision column, 
 one wagon park column and two field hospitals), it occupies 
 twelve miles of road; an army corps with its columns and 
 trains complete, 32 miles of road — let us say from City 
 Hall to Sing Sing. 
 
 Under favorable circumstances, a large mixed body of 
 troops make a kilometer (^m.) in twelve minutes. 
 
64 HIS ARMY. 
 
 and that to have the best army in Europe he 
 must have also the most enterprising body of 
 officers. At the 1889 manceuvers, for example, 
 he ordered experiments with smokeless powder 
 and portable steel forts, the latter by no 
 means a welcome innovation to .the average 
 artillerist. 
 
 Soldier Pay. — The army is not, in Ger- 
 many, a career of pecuniary profit. The rate 
 of wages per month is, for a 
 
 Sergeant-Major $15 00 
 
 Sergeant 9 00 
 
 Musician 4 00 
 
 Private 2 50 
 
 The private is allowed usually about four 
 cents a day for mess, in addition to one pound 
 ten and two-thirds ounces of coarse bread. To 
 this is added about three cents more, which is 
 deducted from his monthly pay, and on this 
 combination, which is managed with scrupu- 
 lous economy, he manages to look well fed at 
 least, and to do a good deal of hard work. The 
 decorations which a German soldier earns 
 mean cash to him also, for they carry with them 
 
HIS ARMY. 65 
 
 usually monthly allowances ranging from sev- 
 enty-five cents to two dollars and twenty-five 
 cents, in addition to his regular pay. 
 
 A great inducement offered to soldiers for 
 good conduct is the prospect that, if they re- 
 enlist and are thereafter discharged honorably 
 the Government provides for them by holding 
 open official positions worth from ten dollars 
 a month in the case of a private to twenty-five 
 dollars a month in the case of a sergeant-major. 
 Non - commissioned officers who have had 
 twelve years of active service, and behaved 
 well, become entitled to employment as State 
 officials. 
 
 This is an arrangement most excellent for 
 the discharged soldier, but of questionable value 
 to some branches of the public service. Per- 
 haps the inefficiency of the German railway 
 system, for instance, as compared with that of 
 the United States and England, is partially 
 traceable to this arrangement, by which rail- 
 road men are extemporized from ex-sergeants 
 and corporals. 
 
 As to clothing, the Kaiser treats his men 
 
66 HIS ARMY. 
 
 right royally by giving them five suits apiece, 
 two of which the soldier has with him, the oth- 
 er three being kept in the company stores for 
 extraordinary occasions like a grand review, 
 or Sunday in town. When the soldier marches 
 to war he has on his back the very best of 
 these five suits. About his neck he carries a 
 tin tag for purposes of identification. In the 
 skirt of his tunic is sewed a roll of antiseptic 
 bandage and in his knapsack a hymn book. 
 His load, including everything, represents 64 
 lbs. 4 oz., a figure that makes me stagger as I 
 write. 
 
 Special Branches. — The American civil 
 war first taught Europe the practical value of 
 railways as facilitating military operations, and 
 no nation has taken this lesson more seri- 
 ously to itself than Germany, which now has 
 special troops drilled for this work alone. In 
 fact she has a railway running 30 miles out of 
 Berlin, built and operated entirely by soldiers. 
 It has four stations; crosses sixteen masonry 
 bridges, three iron bridges and six culverts. 
 The traffic manager is a field officer, who is 
 
HIS ARMY. 67 
 
 assisted by three lieutenants. The engine staff 
 is composed of nine under officers as engine 
 drivers and eighteen privates as stokers. The 
 train staff comprises twenty-four under officers 
 as conductors and forty-eight privates as brake- 
 men. 
 
 One company at a time is employed on this 
 line, the captain acting as traffic inspector; the 
 other officers as line inspectors and under offic- 
 ers as station masters. 
 
 I might never have seen this railway but for 
 a canoe cruise which brought me one fine after- 
 noon under a railway culvert of which my map 
 gave no satisfactory information. To satisfy 
 myself on this point I left my boat, climbed up 
 a steep embankment, and to my surprise saw a 
 soldier close to me, but with his back turned — 
 whose attention by the way I took good care 
 not to attract, for I had no mind to be stopped 
 for a spy or dynamiter at this place. So I slip- 
 ped back to my canoe as quietly as possible 
 and paddled noiselessly down the narrow 
 stream until, at a safe distance from uniforms I 
 was able to learn that I had just passed under 
 
68 HIS ARMY. 
 
 the military railway leading from the Capital 
 to an artillery testing ground called Kummers- 
 dorf — a terminus that completely excludes any 
 idea that this road might earn dividends by 
 passenger traffic. 
 
 The drill of railway troops includes of course 
 construction and demolition, and the Govern- 
 ment does not stint them for the requisite ma- 
 terial. Entire companies are also employed 
 under their own officers in constructing and 
 repairing lines for the State. In 1882, for in- 
 stance, a detachment constructed the new line 
 between Hirschberg and Schmiedberg in Si- 
 lesia, and they are frequently employed in 
 repairing embankments and bridges damaged 
 by floods or accidents. Every year a detach- 
 ment goes to the military riding school at 
 Hanover to give the officers there special in- 
 structions in the art of repairing and demolish- 
 ing railways and telegraphs, and at the grand 
 manceuvers they are called upon to give an 
 illustration of what they can accomplish in a 
 short time in the way of entraining horses and 
 men, or constructing short lines. 
 
HIS ARMY. 69 
 
 The railway authorities in the German war 
 department are constantly seeking the means 
 of forwarding men and material with greater 
 rapidity, for at present much remains to be 
 done in this department. Infantry are allowed, 
 officially, one hour to entrain; cavalry and 
 field artillery, two; and columns, say baggage 
 and ammunition trains, three hours. The 
 normal speed of German military trains is only 
 fifteen miles an hour, allowing from 100 to no 
 axles to the train. For war purposes it is ex- 
 pected that one axle will represent a load 
 equivalent to twelve officers, or sixteen men, or 
 three horses with one man, or one light car- 
 riage, or half a heavy carriage. The tyvo axled 
 third class carriages hold forty men; officers' 
 horses go six; troops' horse, eight to the car. 
 On the official basis, one German military train 
 will carry: 
 
 One infantry battalion, with regimental or 
 brigade staff; or, one rifle battalion; or, one 
 squadron, with regimental or brigade staff; or, 
 one and one-half squadrons; or, one field bat- 
 tery, with regimental or Abtheilung staff; five- 
 
JO HIS ARMY. 
 
 sixths a horse battery; one and one-half pio- 
 neer companies, with a divisional bridge train. 
 It will give some idea of the amount of 
 railroading the Germans look for in the next 
 war, if we put together the number of railway 
 trains required to transport one army corps 
 alone — say 30,003 men — of which there are now 
 twenty. 
 
 No. of 
 Trains 
 
 Headquarters and details 2 
 
 2 divisional headquarters and field bak- 
 ery . 2 
 
 25 battalions of infantry, with brigade 
 
 regimental staffs 25 
 
 2 cavalry regiments (eight squadrons) 6 
 12 batteries divisional artillery ... 12 
 
 3 batteries corps artillery 3 
 
 2 batteries corps horse artillery . . . 2]/ 2 
 
 2 divisional bridge trains, with three 
 
 pioneer companies 2 
 
 3 sanitary detachments 1% 
 
 4 infantry and six artillery ammunition 
 
 columns 10 
 
 5 provision columns 5 
 
HIS ARMY. 71 
 
 No. of 
 Trains. 
 
 I corps bridge trains 2 
 
 1 horse depot 1 
 
 12 field hospitals 4 
 
 5 wagon park columns 15 
 
 4 trains with supplies for first needs . 4 
 
 Making a total of ninety-seven trains for only 
 one-twentieth of the army; or, for the whole 
 army, 1,940 trains, which would reach from 
 
 New York to , but I leave this calculation 
 
 for the experts in such matters."* 
 
 Germany's pioneer and railway troops com- 
 prise in time of peace: 
 
 19 Battalions of pioneers (4 companies to 
 
 battalion). 
 1 Company of telegraphists. 
 1 Railway regiment of 4 battalions. 
 1 Railway battalion of 2 companies. 
 1 Balloon detachment. 
 The balloon detachment is attached to the 
 
 *The reader who cares to pursue this subject with 
 special reference to American conditions should consult 
 chapter IV. of " Principles of Strategy," by Lieut. Bigelovv, 
 U. S. Calvary (Ed. 1891). The experience gained in our 
 civil war is there applied to modern requirements. 
 
J2 HIS ARMY. 
 
 railway regiment, and possesses all the estab- 
 lishments required for making and filling bal- 
 loons. A carrier pigeon establishment with 
 fifty birds is attached to the detachment sta- 
 tioned at Berlin — other stations for carrier 
 pigeons are at Cologne, Poser), Thorn, Wiirz- 
 burg, Mayence, Wilhelmshaven, Kiel, Danzig 
 and Tonning, with two hundred pigeons to the 
 station. Metz and Strasburg have each six 
 hundred pigeons. 
 
 Dogs are now also used to carry messages 
 from the outposts to the main body. 
 
 Each army corps has in its divisional and 
 corps bridge trains sufficient equipment to 
 throw a bridge from six hundred and thirty- 
 six to six hundred and seventy feet. As a 
 rule, half a day is reckoned upon as the time 
 required to throw a bridge with the bridge 
 trains of an army corps. 
 
 The outpost telegraph apparatus consists of 
 two Morse instruments, a battery of ten 
 Daniel's elements and two drums, each with 
 five hundred and fifty yards of cable. The 
 diameter of the cable is .117 and its weight 
 
HIS ARMY. 73 
 
 16.64 f° r the length of five hundred and fifty 
 yards — the weight in box 24.2 lbs. The 
 Morse instruments each weigh 10.45 l° s -> are 
 automatic, and adapted for continuous cur- 
 rents. 
 
 One non-commissioned officer and two men 
 suffice to work the outpost telegraph. One 
 man remains at the initial station with the 
 battery and one of the instruments, while the 
 other moves forward, paying out one cable 
 from a drum carried in his hands, with the 
 other drum on a special knapsack. The non- 
 commissioned officer accompanies the latter 
 man and carries the second instrument. The 
 two cables can be paid out and both stations 
 connected up in ten minutes, and fifteen to 
 twenty minutes are required to roll up again. 
 Of these outpost telegraphs Germany possess- 
 ed sixty sets in 1879. 
 
 In the army are also used movable electric 
 search lights and illuminating apparatus com- 
 posed of a Dolgoruki engine, a Hefner- Alte- 
 neck dynamo electric machine, and a Siemen's 
 reflector for use in siege or field warfare. This 
 
74 HIS ARMY. 
 
 is all in addition to the fixed electric light ap- 
 paratus or search light used in fortresses and 
 coast batteries. 
 
 German Officers. — All European armies 
 are beset by spies who are paid by the enemy 
 to discover improvements in methods and war 
 material. The German army can afford to be 
 the least anxious on this subject, for of all of 
 the military secrets she possesses, the only 
 one whose possession by the enemy can possi- 
 bly affect the course of the next war is the 
 composition and education of her large corps 
 of officers, and this secret no nation has yet 
 commenced to grasp. From the standpoint of 
 constitutional statesmanship, a large army is 
 not an unmixed blessing, but blessing or not, 
 Germany demands that her army should be 
 the best of its kind so long as she remains a 
 military government. 
 
 The German Emperor as leader of his army 
 appoints every officer in it, and exercises com- 
 plete control over the sort of man that shall be 
 deemed fit to wear his livery. His officers rep- 
 resent not merely the aristocracy of social 
 
HIS ARMY. 75 
 
 life and landed property in the country, but 
 also that of education. To enter the army, 
 even after passing all legal examinations, the 
 sub-lieutenant must be declared "worthy to 
 be received amongst them " by a majority of 
 the officers of his regiment — a German must 
 be elected into a regiment as though into an 
 exclusive social club, and this test has much 
 to do with the present character of the men 
 composing the officers of the Emperor. 
 
 In promotion, seniority alone is not re- 
 garded, but merit as well, and the Emperor 
 orders promotion either upon the result of ex- 
 aminations, as with the artillery and engineers, 
 or upon the reports of superior officers. The 
 German officer enjoys at home a degree of 
 social power incredible to one who has not 
 seen it, and everything is done by the Govern- 
 ment to enhance his importance in the eyes of 
 the people. He is always seen in uniform, 
 and this badge of power serves him as a pass- 
 port in the streets of the city quite as much as 
 in the salons of the fashionable. 
 
 The commandant of a military school looks 
 
y6 HIS ARMY. 
 
 into the qualifications of a proposed cadet 
 from the social as well as mental standpoint, 
 and if he is not satisfied with anything in re- 
 gard to the candidate's parentage or home 
 surroundings he simply rejects him. 
 
 Unlike the West Pointer, the cadet of Ger- 
 many pays for his education anywhere from 
 twenty dollars to three hundred dollars a year, 
 according to circumstances. The only cases 
 in which cadets get free instruction are where 
 their fathers have fallen in battle, or similar 
 strong reasons can be urged. The principal 
 military school for cadets is in the suburbs of 
 Berlin, at Lichterfelde; it accommodates 880, 
 and is a splendid pile of brick buildings. There 
 are eight others, which, with Lichterfelde, 
 make a total accommodation of about 2,500. 
 Pupils are admitted between ten and fifteen years 
 of age and given a liberal education. West 
 Point, as far as I know, is the only school of 
 its kind in the world where the Government 
 pays young men to come and get a good edu- 
 cation, an arrangement that may be popular 
 with the parents of the young men benefited 
 
HIS ARMY. yj 
 
 thereby, but is not in accordance with sound 
 principles of Government. Our lawyers, cler- 
 gymen, physicians and professional men gen- 
 erally do not ask the Government to pay for 
 their education — or, if they do, they deserve 
 the contempt of the community in which they 
 earn their bread. Why, then, should the pro- 
 fessional soldier and sailor form an exception? 
 The graduate of West Point steps immediately 
 into a salary that enables him to live in com- 
 fort and marry — if he can find a wife who can 
 be useful as well as ornamental. No other 
 profession can promise such sure pay as this, 
 or a position so secure for a lifetime. 
 
 If it is urged that young men will not enter 
 our army unless a premium of this nature is 
 offered, I must think such a thought insulting 
 to the intelligence and patriotism of the aver- 
 age American boy. The English lad pays 
 dearly for the privilege of entering Woolwich. 
 Saint Cyr is not free to Frenchmen, nor does 
 even the German emperor find difficulty in re- 
 cruiting his vast corps of officers in the present 
 way. And we are to be told that Americans 
 
yS HIS ARMY. 
 
 alone lack the patriotism and energy that 
 drives a man to the profession of arms ? 
 
 If anything makes the army distasteful to 
 our best officers, it is the introduction of poli- 
 tics there. The feeling that merit goes for 
 less than influence at Washington, and that 
 no room is made for the display of zeal and 
 ability — except by resigning. A very slight 
 acquaintance with our army will furnish abun- 
 dant illustrations of this state of things. 
 
 The so-called cadet schools of Germany are 
 not the only avenues to the army. They are 
 only one of many, and intended primarily to 
 educate children with an early taste for mili- 
 tary life. In fact, much dissatisfaction is heard 
 in Parliament in regard to them, on the ground 
 that the minds of children are too early di- 
 vorced from peaceful pursuits, and taught that 
 war is the principal object of the State. 
 
 The real military studies commence with 
 the so-called war schools, corresponding to 
 West Point more closely than the cadet 
 schools. To these schools admission is gained 
 only after proper examination, and when they 
 
HIS ARMY. 79 
 
 leave they must pass examinations before they 
 can be commissioned as officers. There are 
 nine of these institutions in Germany, averaging 
 about one hundred candidates for shoulder 
 straps in each. During his course at the war 
 school, the German sub-officer messes with 
 the older officers of the regiment he hopes to 
 join, and here he makes the acquaintance of 
 his future comrades. If these, however, do 
 not like him, for any reasons, he is given the 
 hint, and like a man of sense tries his chances 
 somewhere else. This rarely happens, for it 
 is always easy to find out beforehand if one's 
 presence in the regiment is likely to be 
 agreeable to the officers of it, and act accord- 
 ingly. 
 
 In the engineer and artillery branches the 
 course of study is more severe than in others. 
 Cadets must first serve one year and nine 
 months with their regiments as supernumerary 
 second lieutenants, after which they join the 
 artillery and engineer school at Berlin, where 
 artillerists are put through a nine and one-half 
 months' course; engineers twenty and one- 
 
80 HIS ARMY. 
 
 half months, before they can get a full rank in 
 the army. Of course, they have already passed 
 through the war-school course. 
 
 The West Pointer, fresh from the parade 
 ground and section room, is ordered to the 
 Mexican frontier or the far northwest, and 
 immediately put at the head of troops, each 
 man under him knowing vastly more of frontier 
 campaigning than is ever taught at West Point. 
 It would spare our young officers many a mor- 
 tification, and our brave soldiers many a hard 
 time, if we copied a little of Teutonic common 
 sense in the matter, and attached them as 
 supernumeraries to an active command, so 
 that they might learn something of cam- 
 paigning before actually getting a full com- 
 mission. 
 
 The ten months' course of the war school at 
 Berlin comprises tactics, artillery, including 
 the manufacture of ordnance, carriages and 
 ammunition; the theory of artillery and mus- 
 ketry; small arms; field and permanent forti- 
 fication and attack and defence of fortified 
 positions; military topography; army organ- 
 
HIS ARMY. 8l 
 
 ization and administration, and military cor- 
 respondence. 
 
 The practical course comprises tactical ex- 
 ercise on broken ground — a rare thing at West 
 Point — visits to the artillery ranges, to the 
 technical establishments, to the engineer drill 
 grounds and to fortresses; exercises in mak- 
 ing up infantry ammunition; gun drills, riding, 
 gymnastics, and musketry. 
 
 Higher still than the war school is the 
 Krieg's Akademie (war academy), where offi- 
 cers take advanced courses for special appoint- 
 ments on the staff, as some of ours do at Wil- 
 lett's Point and Fortress Monroe, and corres- 
 ponding somewhat to the English staff college. 
 German officers usually serve six years before 
 attempting this course, although three years is 
 enough to entitle them to the right of present- 
 ing themselves for examination. This course 
 is so important, and fits for such a variety of 
 delicate military missions, that every care is 
 taken to guard against any one's passing who 
 is not in all respects suitable. 
 
 First of all, therefore, the regimental com- 
 
82 HIS ARMY. 
 
 mander must back the application, and state 
 whether, in his opinion, the candidate has: 
 
 1. A thorough practical knowledge of his duties. 
 
 2. Inclination and aptitude for study. 
 
 3. Good health. 
 
 4. Good moral character. 
 
 5. Private means. 
 
 The paternal character of German military 
 government is apparent here, as elsewhere, in 
 direct contrast to our own. 
 
 Three years is the usual course here, and in- 
 cludes: 
 
 1. Reconnoissances near Berlin. 
 
 2. Visits to gun foundries, powder mills, artil- 
 
 lery workshops, the fortifications of Span- 
 dau, the fortress model-room at Berlin, 
 and the experimental ranges. 
 
 3. Practical surveying in the country. 
 
 4. A staff journey of twenty-one days, in the 
 
 course of which practical problems likely 
 to occur in war are solved. 
 
 5. In recess, between the first and second 
 
 years, infantry officers are attached to cav- 
 alry regiments; cavalry, artillery, and en- 
 
HIS ARMY. 83 
 
 gineer officers to infantry regiments; cav- 
 alry officers to field artillery; artillery and 
 engineer officers to cavalry regiments, for 
 the purpose of familiarizing them with 
 other branches than their own. 
 On leaving this school, forty of the best are 
 called to the great general staff, where they 
 are put on trial for two or three years, until 
 finally selected for the general staff — which in 
 Prussia includes fifty-four officers, Bavaria hav- 
 ing seven in hers. 
 
 Other special training schools there are for 
 medical officers and veterinary surgeons; for 
 cavalry; the military gymnastic normal school 
 at Berlin; the musketry school at Spandau; 
 the gunnery school at Berlin. The non-com- 
 missioned officers have a special school at 
 Potsdam, where pupils are sent from all over 
 Germany to be taught uniformity of drill and 
 instruction. 
 
 The monthly pay in the German Army is not 
 such as to raise a suspicion that officers enter 
 the service in the hope of high pecuniary re- 
 ward. 
 
84 HIS ARMY. 
 
 A Field Marshal receives each month . $245 
 The Commander of a Brigade or Reg- 
 iment 160 
 
 A Captain between . . $44 and . . 74 
 
 A First Lieutenant almost 22 
 
 And a Second Lieutenant 18 
 
 There is little in this tabulation to attract the 
 cupidity of a leading mechanic amongst us, and 
 two grades at least would discourage the ambi- 
 tion of most day laborers. Our own fledgling 
 lieutenants start off with at least $100 a month, 
 and must wonder how even the most frugal of 
 Germans can subsist on his scant pay. 
 
 The answer is easy — they dorit, and as corol- 
 lary to this, it is obviously important that every 
 would-be officer should give his chief satisfac- 
 tory proofs that he has something to live on 
 besides his pay — and that this something is a 
 sound investment as well. No officer can 
 marry without permission, and permission is 
 not granted to a subaltern unless he can show 
 that his proposed wife has a private income equal 
 to $625 a year; while a second-class captain's 
 wife must have about $375 a year. Married offi- 
 
HIS ARMY. 85 
 
 cers moreover must subscribe to the widow's 
 fund at such a rate as to secure to their widows 
 from $150 to $375 a year, according to their 
 rank. These paternal restraints may seem in- 
 tolerable to our officers, as they would be 
 equally to those of England; yet many a 
 scandal at our army posts would have been 
 avoided had the newly graduated bridegroom 
 been forced to submit to the wisdom of his 
 elders instead of enjoying the dangerous liberty 
 of rushing into matrimony without regard for 
 his own future or the feelings of the community 
 in which his lot is intimately cast. 
 
 The German officer has a servant allowed 
 him, which is not the case with us; he also 
 travels at lower rates than the ordinary public, 
 and can usually purchase theatre tickets at a 
 large discount. He is not amenable to the 
 ordinary civil tribunals of the country, but is 
 tried by a special military court. 
 
 Throughout the German Army are so-called 
 Courts of Honor, which determine disputes be- 
 tween officers, and take cognizance particularly 
 of such matters, which, while not strictly 
 
86 HIS ARMY. 
 
 against a law, are unworthy a gentleman. 
 Whether or not an officer may receive a chal- 
 lenge is determined by this tribunal, and its 
 judgment may compel an officer to leave the 
 army if he has been guilty of some breach of 
 morality, or in any way acted dishonorably. 
 
GERMANS IN RUSSIA. 
 
 I* T was in a third-class railway carriage tra- 
 -■- veiling through Bessarabia, from the 
 mouth of the Danube to Odessa, that I made 
 
 the acquaintance of (I had almost betrayed 
 
 him !). He was an old man, his features much 
 resembling those of the late Moltke, and with 
 him was a pretty little girl of about twelve. 
 They were obviously German, prosperous and 
 intelligent, and I seized the first opportunity 
 that offered itself of learning something more 
 about him. 
 
 The passengers in my car were about one- 
 third Jew, one-third Russian, and one-third 
 German, and as the journey lasted twenty-four 
 hours, and the train stopped at each station, 
 there were abundant opportunities for asking 
 questions, without exciting the suspicion of 
 any malicious officials. 
 
 The old man's tale is a short one — a pa- 
 thetic one: it is told so often in Russia that 
 
 87 
 
88 GERMANS IN RUSSIA. 
 
 people have become tired of hearing it, and 
 those who tell it almost wonder that it can stir 
 the indignation of an outsider. To me it was 
 not new; but the circumstances under which I 
 heard it are so fresh in my mind — I have veri- 
 fied it so completely since — and the tears in 
 the old man's voice were so real, that I repro- 
 duce some of it here as an illustration of what 
 Russia is doing to make her name hated by 
 free people. 
 
 My friend boarded the train not far from 
 Leipzig, a name I did not expect to find over 
 a Russian railway station fifty miles only from 
 the Black Sea. He was taking his grand- 
 daughter to visit her relatives not far off; and 
 as we conversed in German, it seemed hard to 
 realize that we were in Bessarabia, for he was 
 speaking his mother tongue and retained the 
 dress of a North German peasant. 
 
 After some talk of a general nature, and ap- 
 parently convincing him that I meant no 
 harm, he answered the questions I put him 
 touching his relations with the Russian Gov- 
 ernment. 
 
GERMANS IN RUSSIA. 89 
 
 " You see," said he, in the deliberate tone of 
 a man reconciled to misfortune, " Russia is not 
 quite fair with us Germans. There are many 
 of us whose ancestors came here in the last 
 century, like myself, Protestants and Germans. 
 We were induced to make this long journey 
 and break our dearest ties, by the promise, not 
 only of land to cultivate, but liberty to develop 
 according to our inherited traditions. We 
 have become good Russians; we do our mili- 
 tary service like the rest; we have improved 
 the land and pay our proportionate tax cheer- 
 fully — but still we are made to feel that we are 
 aliens." 
 
 Of course, I affected surprise at this. The 
 old man then went on in a patient, deliberate 
 manner, that was more impressive and touch- 
 ing than I can describe : 
 
 " The Russian officials have many, many 
 ways in which they can show their dislike to 
 us; and it has of recent years become so in- 
 tense as to appear deliberate persecution. Our 
 taxes are enormously increased, and we are 
 told that they are going to make us pay for 
 
90 GERMANS IN RUSSIA. 
 
 the land that was given to our ancestors. 
 They treat us as they treat the Jews — as peo- 
 ple not entitled to legal protection. They 
 want no one who is not of the Russian Greek 
 Church. They cannot feel for us as they do 
 for their own people. 
 
 " The officials control us completely, and if 
 they act unfairly we dare not complain, for to 
 whom can we complain ? We are now forced 
 to learn Russian in our schools, and much 
 difficulty is made when we try to engage a 
 German teacher for our own children. If we 
 want a teacher from Germany the officials are 
 very strict in seeing that he knows Russian, 
 but when they appoint a Russian they take 
 little pains to see that he knows any German. 
 
 " Whenever a difficulty is raised it is always 
 against a German; they will not allow a Ger- 
 man here to run a machine. The brother of a 
 neighbor of mine had a steam flour-mill; he is 
 now no longer allowed to run it, and it lies 
 idle and rusting. Yet that man was born in 
 Russia, but because he had lived a few years 
 in Roumania, and has thus forfeited his Rus- 
 
GERMANS IN RUSSIA. 91 
 
 sian rights, he is now cut off from working a 
 mill that was of great service to our commun- 
 ity. Our tailors must first join the Russian 
 Church before the police will allow them to 
 use a sewing machine. The officials seem de- 
 termined that no one but an orthodox Russian 
 shall earn a living here; and this we think is 
 unfair to us after having lived here so long 
 relying on the Czar's promises." 
 
 " But why don't you emigrate ? " said I. 
 
 " Because I am too old," answered he lacon- 
 ically and bitterly. " My life has been spent 
 here, my ancestors have improved our estates 
 here, all my friends are here, and many of my 
 kinspeople. Who would buy my farm ? No 
 German is allowed to buy land, and if I sold at 
 all it would be at a great sacrifice. 
 
 " Besides, the officials put great difficulties 
 in the way of those of us who seek to leave 
 the country. For instance, we often wish to 
 visit Roumania either on business or to pay 
 visits to our German friends; but such little 
 excursions cost us much money beside our 
 railway fare — we have to pay from twenty to 
 
92 GERMANS IN RUSSIA. 
 
 fifty roubles for a passport ($10 to $25). This 
 is not the cost of the fee, but we have to go 
 ourselves to the seat of Government, or send 
 someone, and it takes at least ten days before 
 we can get the permit." 
 
 " But why don't you write ? " 
 
 " Oh, but I should not get an answer for six 
 months ; my letter would be pigeon-holed, 
 and left there until I went in person and bribed 
 someone to help me about it. Even for this 
 little excursion I am making with my grand- 
 daughter it is not always easy to get a pass." 
 
 " But why do the Russians hate the Ger- 
 mans ? " I asked. 
 
 " I don't know," said he pathetically. "We 
 do them no harm. Perhaps it is because we 
 have prospered more than our Russian neigh- 
 bors, and made them jealous. A German vil- 
 lage is clean and tidy; a Russian one is filthy 
 and poor. When a German peasant enters 
 the army he looks so well dressed in compari- 
 son with the Russians who come with him, 
 that he is commonly taken to be the son of a 
 landed proprietor." 
 
A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 T F I am to be exiled," said a Polish friend 
 
 -*- to me, " I would rather be sent to the 
 
 Rhine than to Siberia." Nor did it take many 
 
 hours of Warsaw to explain what this meant. 
 
 My passage through the country was purely 
 for pleasure; being on my way home after a 
 canoe voyage down the Danube. A brilliant 
 Russian lady who has written many books pro- 
 claiming the goodness of the Czar and the ex- 
 cellence of his government, has frequently said 
 to me that if I would only go and see for my- 
 self I would be satisfied that Russia was much 
 misunderstood. And here was another induce- 
 ment — I had almost said aa invitation. 
 
 Passing over the fact that I was treated like 
 a criminal at the frontier of Bessarabia, I was 
 surprised to find on purchasing a copy of the 
 Paris Temps, at the station, that all the news 
 about Russia had been blacked out by the Cen- 
 
 93 
 
94 A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 sor. In view of the very cordial relations be- 
 tween the two countries this seemed strange. 
 
 On reaching the hotel at Warsaw I was of 
 course required to give up my passport, and 
 had hardly got my head well dipped into the 
 wash-bowl when in came a sleek, soft, shiny, 
 black-coated, deacon-looking individual who 
 proceeded to offer me his services and indirect- 
 ly to pump me as to where I had been and 
 whither I was bound. He was one of the many 
 talebearers and spies who hope for a Govern- 
 ment post when they shall have proved their 
 capacity for dirty work. This Mr. Mulberry- 
 Stiggins was promptly told that he would be 
 kicked all the way down stairs if he did not 
 leave; and as soon as I had finished my work 
 in hand I strolled out and had the good for- 
 tune to meet an old friend who took me to see 
 "the sights." 
 
 We drifted to the Citadel, and I stopped op- 
 posite a long, yellow brick building with two 
 rows of windows so curiously ranged as to 
 cause me to stop and call my friend's attention 
 to them. The upper row was immediately un- 
 
A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 95 
 
 der the eaves, and the lower row higher than 
 usual from the ground. I had barely pointed 
 to this building when the sentinel made a sign 
 with his disengaged arm that I was to pass on. 
 But the subject interested me, and I doubted 
 that he would leave his beat to come after me; 
 so I continued my study, and was busy count- 
 ing the windows and calculating the amount 
 of space represented within the walls when out 
 sprang, not the sentinel, but another man in 
 uniform, who appeared in earnest. By this 
 time I had seen quite enough, turned my back, 
 and started in the opposite direction. 
 
 My venerable friend, a Polish manufacturer 
 of great social consideration, large fortune, and 
 excellent political judgment, now told me that 
 I had stopped in front of the prison for polit- 
 ical suspects; that the prison was as full as it 
 would hold; that there were three hundred 
 there at present all waiting to know whether 
 they were to be flogged, sent to Siberia, or 
 only kept a few weeks or months. 
 
 " But surely," I ventured to remark, " you 
 don't mean to say that you allow your political 
 
g6 A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 prisoners to be tortured before they are even 
 condemned." My friend smiled at my childish 
 naivete, and said : 
 
 "I was once suspected of being lukewarm in 
 my loyalty to Russia, and was locked up there 
 for six weeks, or until they could find the time 
 to investigate my case and find out that there 
 was no charge against me. My cell was in the 
 upper row you looked at, and you were struck 
 by the appearance of the building because the 
 windows are about ten feet from the floor, so 
 high, therefore, as to make it impossible for the 
 prisoner to look out. I was accused for noth- 
 ing in particular — merely arrested because 
 someone might have reported me as not Rus- 
 sian enough; perhaps I might have been seen 
 reading a liberal book; perhaps I might have 
 been overheard praising a Polish friend — there 
 are a dozen frivolous grounds that may have 
 occasioned my arrest, but I shall never know 
 why I was made prisoner. 
 
 " Below me was a room from which every 
 day emanated screams, groans, cursing, and 
 such sobbing as would melt the heart of a 
 
A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 97 
 
 criminal. In that room they were ' examining,' 
 as they call it, such of their victims as they 
 thought might be induced to implicate others. 
 Here they are flogged with pickled sticks un- 
 til human nature can stand it no longer, and 
 they either lose consciousness or give in. The 
 flogging is repeated at short intervals with par- 
 ticular reference to the creation of pain; and 
 the police rarely fail to force some kind of tes- 
 timony — for human reason weakens after a cer- 
 tain amount of physical torture, and a wretched 
 prisoner who has been flogged into semi-id- 
 iocy will say almost anything that promises 
 to end his pains. It was only a few years 
 ago that a worthy friend of mine, who had 
 entered this jail in the possession of all his 
 faculties, returned to his home deaf as a post 
 and much impaired intellectually." 
 
 As I passed a troop of Cossack horsemen my 
 attention was arrested by the extraordinary 
 type they represented; not the Russian by any 
 means, nothing that remotely suggested the 
 environs of the Black or Caspian Sea, These 
 men were the counterpart of the camel-driv- 
 
98 A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 ers I had passed along the great wall of 
 China; they were Mongols, Tartars — men of 
 an Esquimaux appearance, with small Chinese 
 eyes set very close together, with high cheek 
 bones, broad, flattened-out faces, little flat 
 noses, big ugly mouths, a mixture of China- 
 man, Laplander, and Apache Indian. " Are 
 there many of these savages in this neighbor- 
 hood ? " I asked. 
 
 " Oh, yes. You cannot take a walk on this 
 meridian between Prussia and Austria without 
 stumbling upon a Cossack post every few miles. 
 Every Pole who is called to arms is transported 
 to the extreme corners of the Empire — to Si- 
 beria, to the Caucasus, anywhere to be out of 
 the way of his own people. Their places are 
 taken by the most useful soldiers a Russian 
 could wish for, troops levied from the most re- 
 mote and least civilized sections of the Em- 
 pire." 
 
 From the Citadel to the town is only a few 
 hundred yards, a space that is kept clear in 
 the event of its being found de-sirable to bom- 
 bard the city; for, oddly enough, the Russians 
 
A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 99 
 
 have their guns here facing, not in the direc- 
 tion from which an enemy might be expected, 
 but full at the spires of one of the most impor- 
 tant towns of their vast Empire. 
 
 My venerable friend told me many things, 
 and others told me many things more. I. did 
 not look for information amongst the constitu- 
 tionally dissatisfied and revolutionary elements 
 of society, but exclusively among men of large 
 landed interest, of personal weight in the com- 
 munity, cautious men of affairs — yet men so 
 earnest in their belief that they were willing to 
 stake all they had for the sake of proclaiming 
 the misery under which they are forced to live 
 from day to day. The names of these men I 
 cannot give; I dare not even have correspond- 
 ence with them excepting through indirect 
 channels, but on the first sign of war these 
 men will march with hundreds of other patriots, 
 and they will be followed by every Polish 
 peasant who is still able to swing an axe or 
 pitchfork. The causes that have brought about 
 this result have been partially indicated. In 
 general they spring from the systematic perse- 
 
IOO A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 cution of everybody and everything that is not 
 orthodox Russian. The son of one of my 
 friends was dismissed from a high school be- 
 cause he had been overheard speaking his own 
 language, Polish, during play hours. This was 
 tantamount to an order of banishment, for no 
 other Warsaw school would admit him, and 
 the father had therefore to send him abroad 
 for an education. 
 
 Another friend is director in a vast trans- 
 portation enterprise; he cannot appoint a single 
 day-laborer in his own works without the 
 permission of Government. 
 
 No shop in Warsaw can do without at least 
 one Russian clerk on penalty of police prose- 
 cution; therefore, though the Russians are no- 
 toriously inferior, the Pole must have one of 
 his hated taskmasters about him all day. A 
 friend of mine was grossly insulted on the 
 platform of a railway station because he was 
 saying " good-bye " to a German friend in the 
 German language; nor did this Polish gentle- 
 man dare to resent such behavior. He no 
 doubt had in mind a notorious case in Poland 
 
A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. IOI 
 
 where a Polish nobleman boxed the ears of a 
 Russian official who had dared to insult his 
 wife, and in consequence was threatened not 
 only with Siberia, but the confiscation of his 
 estates; and he only managed to escape both 
 by paying an outrageously large bribe, the 
 money for which was raised spontaneously by 
 his many friends and a host of loyal peas- 
 ants. 
 
 My note-book is full of sickening details 
 such as these which I am forced to hint at 
 rather than relate for fear of unfortunate con- 
 sequences to innocent men. 
 
 The devilish refinement of Russian persecu- 
 tion lies in the fact that it is not carried out 
 according to any law, or even edict of the 
 Czar, but that it is produced by the license 
 permitted the officials who govern a district. 
 At any moment a Russian police force may 
 enter a man's premises, tell him that he has 
 been guilty of a wrong, that he must go before 
 the tribunal unless he chooses to pay a fine or 
 bribe. The bribe is, of course, paid; for even 
 though the man knows himself to be thorough- 
 
102 A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 ly innocent, he has no mind to sit six weeks 
 in jail while his case is undergoing scru- 
 tiny. . x 
 
 If a man wishes to make an improvement to 
 his house, to erect a new mill, to do any of the 
 hundred things that represent progress, he is 
 sure to have obstacles placed in his way for 
 the purpose of producing bribes — and it is 
 hardly worth pointing out that such a course of 
 administrative tyranny destroys a people com- 
 mercially, and saps every incentive to honest 
 dealing and municipal energy. 
 
 There was a time, and since 1863, that Poles 
 were divided in their allegiance, and many 
 hoped that incorporation with so vast a coun- 
 try as Russia would bring them material pros- 
 perity in exchange for political bankruptcy. 
 Warsaw was excellently situated to serve as a 
 great entrepot between the east and the west, 
 and her merchants were in a position to take 
 advantage of this happy position. But the 
 Government quickly put an end to this delu- 
 sion by every police interference that could 
 discourage Polish trade. Of course, what was 
 
A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. IO3 
 
 done as an imperial measure in closing the 
 Polish frontier against German and Austrian 
 goods was bad enough, but still might be re- 
 garded as a measure affecting all Russia. But 
 to-day it costs twice as much to send a bale of 
 goods from Poland to Russia as from Russia to 
 Poland. The railway tariff has been arranged 
 with a vievv to forcing Poland to consume only 
 Russian goods, and to make it impossible for 
 Poles to purchase such goods by sending in 
 exchange their own products. 
 
 In this case they are not merely dragged 
 down to the level of Russians, but are treated 
 even worse. 
 
 The Polish peasantry who belong to the 
 Greek Church, but not as orthodox members, 
 are harried in every way ; and the more they 
 are persecuted the more tenaciously do they 
 cultivate hatred for the Czar. The Polish 
 landowners and aristocracy have to submit to 
 innumerable vexatious enactments ; they can- 
 not sell a piece of land to one of their own peo- 
 ple ; they can sell only to a Russian. If a 
 landowner dies, his property is sold for the 
 
104 A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 benefit of his children, but as no Pole can buy 
 land in Poland, it follows that no one of this 
 man's children can buy back his father's land. 
 If he wishes to employ anyone to manage a 
 mill or machine for him, he will find the great- 
 est difficulty in doing so unless he bribes so 
 many officials as to make his enterprise a 
 financial failure. 
 
 No educated Pole can get employment in 
 his own country in any career directly or indi- 
 rectly depending on Government favor ; that 
 means, that as an engineer, a physician, a law- 
 yer, and more particularly as a candidate for 
 the army or the civil service, he is a hopeless 
 man, unless he is prepared to adopt the Greek 
 religion and forswear his nationality. Polish 
 officers are told frankly by their superiors that 
 it is useless for them to hope for advancement 
 while they remain in Poland. If they want to 
 get on in their career they must work their 
 way out to the Eastern frontiers — Caucasus, 
 Siberia, anywhere so long as it is far from their 
 home. 
 
 In view of the menacing movement which 
 
A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 105 
 
 Russia is making against Western Europe, the 
 attitude of Poland becomes interesting, not 
 merely through our sympathy with outraged 
 humanity, but as a factor in a possible war. It 
 is worth remembering that the Poland of 1891 
 is a vastly more mature and rational creature 
 than the Poland of 1863. The country has 
 been tried in a hard school ; it has learned to 
 give up political ambitions ; it has become a 
 unit through blood and iron, and stands now 
 before the world as a land where seven mil- 
 lions of Christians pray daily for deliverance 
 from the heel of a degrading tyrant. They have 
 hated the Germany of Bismarck because that 
 Government represented an intolerance little 
 short of the Czar's. They now pray for the 
 approach of a German army. They no longer 
 dream of a dynasty, a frontier, a national fu- 
 ture — they have learned to find happiness in 
 the idea of bare existence — in the mere cessa- 
 tion of persecution. " Let Europe do with us 
 what it will," is their cry ; " let it treat us se- 
 verely — harshly. We can still expect to live 
 and develop under its rule. But what can we 
 
106 A POLISH POINT OF VIEW. 
 
 expect from a continuance of Russian adminis- 
 tration ? Only moral degradation and beg- 
 gary." 
 
THE RUSSIAN CENSOR. 
 
 \li 7 HEN the curtain had fallen after the 
 " * last act of the play, a Polish one, pro- 
 duced for the first time in Warsaw, my friend 
 asked me what I thought of it. Now the play 
 was of a national character, as those of Wilden- 
 bruch are to Germany, or Boucicault's SJiangJi- 
 raun to an Irishman. I told him that I was 
 struck by the great enthusiasm shown in ap- 
 plauding a peasants' dance, and the compara- 
 tive indifference towards what one might con- 
 sider the more legitimate features of the play. 
 Had I been a spectator of it in any other place, 
 it would have been most puzzling to see a 
 large, intelligent audience going almost frantic 
 in their eagerness to applaud a very simple and 
 indifferently executed national dance. My 
 friend accepted this reflection of mine with a 
 
 sad, confirmatory nod, and said, "We are 
 
 107 
 
I08 THE RUSSIAN CENSOR. 
 
 lucky to have as much as this passed by the 
 censor." 
 
 In a few moments after this, I was so for- 
 tunate as to make the author's acquaintance. 
 
 I asked him if the censor had interfered with 
 him in the production of this play ? 
 
 He answered me: ''They have cut out just 
 about half of what I wrote, and forced me to 
 substitute what they consider less offensive 
 patriotism." To my expression of astonish- 
 ment that the applause of the dance should 
 have been so conspicuous, he said: " Yes. I 
 am almost at a loss to understand why they 
 allowed even that simple national dance; for 
 you see that anything that suggests nationality 
 to this people throws them into a transport of 
 patriotism. The very sight" of the national 
 dress, moving about joyously on the stage, 
 suggests to every Pole a longing for independ- 
 ence, and hatred of Russia." Perhaps I should 
 say, in parenthesis, that my informant was one 
 of the most popular writers of his country. 
 
 To my further inquiries as to his relations 
 with the censor, he said: " The matter is ex- 
 
THE RUSSIAN CENSOR. IO9 
 
 tremely simple — limited, in fact, to thirty 
 words, the use of which must be avoided. 
 For example, 'nation' must not be used; it 
 suggests Poland. ' King ' is objectionable, as 
 well as ' kingdom,' for both are in contrast to 
 the Czar and his empire. I must never use 
 the word ' Emperor '; it might imply that there 
 was an Austrian or a German Emperor; 
 whereas in Russia there is but the Czar. ' In- 
 dependence ' is of course insulting to the Gov- 
 ernment, so are ' freedom,' ' liberty,' ' constitu- 
 tion,' ' Parliament,' which are obviously in the 
 nature of Icsc-majcstc. We must not only 
 avoid the use of these bare words in any 
 sense, but we must most carefully avoid any 
 suggestion that might imply the existence of 
 such a thing as Poland. Polish history does 
 not exist in Russia; for how can there be a 
 history for a tract of land figuring only as a 
 province of the Czar ? The name of my coun- 
 try cannot be used, for officially we are not 
 Poles, but are only known to our masters as 
 inhabitants of the military department of the 
 Vistula." 
 
IIO THE RUSSIAN CENSOR. 
 
 Returning home that evening, I was too 
 much depressed by the words that I had heard 
 to be able to think of anything else, and fear- 
 ing lest those with whom I had talked might 
 have been guilty of exaggeration, I compared 
 notes with a gentleman of considerable impor- 
 tance in the country, not only as director in a 
 great transportation company, but also as a 
 landed proprietor and lawyer. He fully con- 
 firmed what I have quoted, and entertained me 
 by repeating instances of censorial interferences 
 whch occurred to him at the moment, and 
 which I made note of immediately afterwards. 
 To use his language, " Nothing can exceed the 
 stupidity of the average censor, except the 
 brutality with which he docs his work. A 
 newspaper received a telegram referring to the 
 Czar, in which his title was abbreviated in the 
 usual manner, as, for instance, ' H. R. H.' for 
 4 His Royal Highness.' Through a mistake of 
 the compositor or proof-reader, the Czar's name 
 appeared in print with only the abbreviated 
 title, for which offence the editor-in-chief was 
 curtly summoned to appear before a police offi- 
 
THE RUSSIAN CENSOR. Ill 
 
 cial, to whom he, of course, explained the mis- 
 take, and apologized most completely. The 
 surly blackguard dismissed the editor with 
 these words, ' If another time you fail to find 
 the space, I will find it for you — in Siberia.' " 
 My friend seemed to think that the insult lay, 
 not so much in what was said, as in the behavior 
 of the official, who acted as towards a con- 
 temptible slave, while in fact he was address- 
 ing a person vastly superior to him in birth, 
 breeding, and attainments. 
 
 Another editor sought to publish an article 
 by an art critic, in which it was necessary to 
 describe the decoration of a room as "style 
 Empire" This word "Empire," even in this 
 connection, was considered treasonable; but 
 the censor, being in a particularly amiable 
 mood, refrained from interdicting the whole 
 article. He crossed out the word "Empire" 
 and substituted " Russe" in its place, explain- 
 ing afterwards, on meeting the editor casually, 
 that, as there was but one Empire, and its 
 name was Russia, why use an expression 
 which might be misunderstood by the vulgar ? 
 
112 THE RUSSIAN CENSOR. 
 
 With such a man no argument was possible; 
 and there was no alternative but to submit. 
 "Another instance," continued my friend. 
 " Last winter, some snow fell off a roof and 
 killed a maid-servant who was passing below. 
 An illustrated paper had a sketch of the scene, 
 as the event appeared to excite interest. This 
 sketch was deemed offensive by the censors; 
 not because it was badly drawn, but because it 
 so happened that the police are responsible for 
 the condition of the roofs, and, therefore, that 
 the report of such a case was indirectly a crit- 
 icism on the efficiency of the Czar's Govern- 
 ment. Recently, at the very theatre you at- 
 tended this evening, a Polish singer rendered 
 a song in French that gave so much pleasure 
 as to produce an encore. He then sang a little 
 Polish ballad, one, by the way, which had 
 been passed by the censor; but, because he 
 had not obtained special permission to sing 
 this particular ballad as an encore on this par- 
 ticular occasion, he was fined fifteen hundred 
 roubles (about $750). Here is another pain- 
 ful illustration of how the so-called Gov- 
 
THE RUSSIAN CENSOR. 1 1 3 
 
 ernment of Russia hampers private enterprise. 
 One of the largest and most respectable busi- 
 ness houses in Warsaw undertook, last year, 
 to open a branch of their work elsewhere in 
 Poland. The police forbade it, giving no rea- 
 son except that in 1863 they had been entered 
 on the Government lists as suspected of liberal 
 ideas. 
 
 "The Government here — perhaps I should 
 say, the police of General Gourko — take great 
 pains that no favorable mention is ever made 
 of anything done or said by one who is not 
 orthodox Russian. The reason for this is, 
 perhaps, not obvious; but we know that Rus- 
 sians do not like to have it appear as though 
 the Polish nation was able to produce men of 
 intelligent capacity. One of our most brilliant 
 writers recently made a scientific voyage to a 
 distant country, and on his return was inter- 
 viewed as to his experiences. Not a line of it 
 was allowed to appear, the reason given being 
 that it was calculated to advertise him. Sub- 
 sequently the same author wrote a book of 
 travels, of which every line which related per- 
 
114 THE RUSSIAN CENSOR. 
 
 sonal experience was erased by the censor, 
 and only that portion permitted to remain 
 which dealt in geographical platitudes. One 
 paper here recently sought to publish an ex- 
 tract from an English review. It was from an 
 article discussing the German Emperor. Not 
 only was this completely suppressed by the 
 censor, but the editor-in-chief was ordered to 
 appear before him, there to be told with cyn- 
 ical frankness that loyal Russians did not wish 
 to hear praise of a German Emperor; if he 
 wished to praise the Emperor, he had better 
 get his information from St. Petersburg." 
 
 A Pole complains not so much of the hard- 
 ship of laws, as of the absence of law; not so 
 much against a censorship, as against the 
 brutal caprice of the censor. -Is it strange that 
 they should turn their eyes towards Berlin, 
 and pray, not for freedom, but for any govern- 
 ment that lifts them above barbarism ? 
 
THE ROUMANIAN PEASANT ON THE 
 RUSSIAN BORDER. 
 
 r I ^HE visit I paid to the farm of my Rou- 
 •*- manian friend interested me chiefly be- 
 cause his estate lay close to the Russian bor- 
 der; and as newspapers told me that famine 
 was staring the population of that country in 
 the face, it was naturally of interest to note 
 how far the same conditions prevailed in a 
 country with about the same soil and climate. 
 My host, moreover, was a man of wide travel 
 and broad sympathies, conversant with his 
 country's needs, and ready to enlighten my 
 ignorance. To assure me, however, against 
 possible error, we went together to call upon 
 his farmer, and secure his company for a drive 
 over the estate. The farmer was intelligent, 
 well dressed, and living in a house furnished as 
 comfortably as that of any farmer in England 
 or America. While the horses were being - 
 
 o 
 "5 
 
Il6 THE ROUMANIAN PEASANT. 
 
 harnessed I asked the prices of various things, 
 and noted the following: 
 
 His yoke of ordinary mountain oxen cost $30. 
 
 His best yoke of oxen, of the plains, cost $60. 
 
 His four-wheeled ox wagon, with pole like 
 ours, but no iron tires, cost $25. 
 
 His best farm wagon, made all by hand in 
 his village, and one that struck me as very 
 strong, light, and useful, and which I was told 
 carried 2,650 kilogrammes (5,830 pounds), cost 
 him $60. 
 
 His pair of ordinary but useful horses cost 
 $100. 
 
 His best pair of very strong, swift, and hand- 
 some Bessarabian horses cost him $200 — a pair 
 that would have excited envy in any stable. 
 
 He pays his men two francs a day (40 cents) 
 during harvest, and half that amount in the 
 winter-time, in addition to their food and 
 lodging. 
 
 Such items as I jotted down in this farm- 
 yard refer only to what an individual farmer 
 did on a Roumanian farm in the autumn of 
 1 891, and can only serve as the basis for gen- 
 
THE ROUMANIAN PEASANT. I 1 7 
 
 eralization in so far as his experience is that of 
 other farmers of the country — which I am as- 
 sured is the case. The prices I mention are 
 low, but the cost of living is in correspond- 
 ence; and my host can give an able-bodied 
 man all he can consume, including a reason- 
 able amount of wine, for sixty centimes, or 
 less than 12 cents a day. The laborers and 
 peasants that I met in the fields and about the 
 roadways looked well fed, hardy, and indus- 
 trious; their cottages clean and commodious. 
 
 "But what of the Russians?" I asked. 
 " Are they not starving over there, while you 
 are rolling in plenty?" 
 
 " That," answered my host, " is ' Protection ! ' 
 We are glad to pay for their horses and oxen, 
 and no doubt some of them would like to have 
 our corn; but, as matters stand, you could not 
 induce one of my peasants to cross the Rus- 
 sian frontier." 
 
 On my journey down the Danube I coasted 
 the whole southern frontier of Roumania, and 
 was struck by the large quantity of English 
 steamers taking in cargoes of grain — not to 
 
Il8 THE ROUMANIAN PEASANT. 
 
 speak of craft of other countries. In view of 
 the alleged famine in Russia it was reasonable 
 to assume that most of this food-stuff was des- 
 tined to relieve the distress within the Czar's 
 dominions, but such was not the case I discov- 
 ered. It was intended mainly for western Eu- 
 rope. My host subsequently prepared for me 
 a statistical table of Roumanian trade for the 
 five years preceding 1889, the average of which 
 showed the strange fact — 
 
 1st. That nine-tenths of it was with western 
 Europe — England, Austria, Belgium, Switzer- 
 land, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Spain, 
 Sweden, and Norway. 
 
 2d. That only one-tenth of it was with the 
 East; and 
 
 3d. That in this one-tenth, two-thirds is 
 represented by Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece, and 
 Turkey; 
 
 4th. That only one-third of this tenth repre- 
 sents the trade carried on with her nearest 
 neighbor — Russia. 
 
 In view of this it seems strange that Eng- 
 land, America and the rest of the world should 
 
THE ROUMANIAN PEASANT. 1 19 
 
 be called upon to assist a people who, 
 while reported as starving, refuse to satisfy 
 their needs by trading with their neighbors 
 who are more than willing to satisfy their 
 wants. 
 
 We drove many miles by the side of splen- 
 did fields of maize, wheat, and oats — all testi- 
 fying to the bounty of the Almighty, for not in 
 many years has such a splendid harvest been 
 known. I have inspected many fields ripe for 
 harvest in Manitoba and Minnesota, but never 
 saw anything to surpass the grain harvested 
 this year along the Russian side of Roumania. 
 When we came to where the steam-threshers 
 were puffing and shaking the hard red berries 
 from the wheat stalks, we found a number of 
 Greek grain buyers, who had come here from 
 the Danube to bargain for their principals, 
 coming directly to the farmer with bags and 
 carts, in order to lose no time. The wheat in 
 question was finding ready sale, although the 
 price had risen since last year in the ratio of 9 
 francs to 14 francs the sack. 
 
 The land question in Roumania appears to 
 
120 THE ROUMANIAN PEASANT. 
 
 have been settled tolerably, for to my ques- 
 tions on this subject I received the following 
 answers : 
 
 " Up to 1866 the relation of peasants to pro- 
 prietors was feudal and unsatisfactory. The 
 peasants were bound to give twenty-two days 
 of their labor out of every year to the lord of 
 the land, who, naturally, selected the days 
 that suited him best, and who also took as tri- 
 bute one-third of all that the peasant raised 
 upon his land. Under this system the owner 
 worked his estate for nothing, and was only 
 too glad to let his peasants have all the land 
 they could cultivate. 
 
 " But that system had this drawback — that 
 the peasants did not feel any particular alle- 
 giance to the soil of the landlord, and were con- 
 stantly shifting from one estate to another, 
 much as sailors go from ship to ship, hunting 
 for an easy forecastle. 
 
 "The rural law passed in 1866 forced every 
 estate to transfer to each peasant upon it eleven 
 pogons (about twelve acres) in fee simple; 
 thus at one stroke abolishing serfdom in the 
 
THE ROUMANIAN PEASANT. 121 
 
 kingdom. In addition, the State made a pres- 
 ent of eleven additional pogons to each peas- 
 ant who married, making him, not merely a 
 free man, but one fairly started in the line of 
 prosperity. So far the scheme worked well. 
 The estates thus transferred were declared in- 
 alienable for at least fifty years, so as to pre- 
 vent the former masters buying back the land 
 they had been forced to part with. My es- 
 tate," continued my host, " brings me in thirty 
 thousand francs a year, of which ten per cent., 
 or three thousand francs, goes to the Govern- 
 ment as tax. The peasant, however, has to 
 pay double the tax, or twenty per cent. — not 
 only the ten per cent, that I pay, but ten per 
 cent, additional as the interest on the money 
 which the State devoted in 1866 to buying the 
 land from his former master. As a landlord I 
 do not object to the burdens which others bear 
 on my account; but as a man I feel that the 
 peasants have some cause to grumble." 
 
 There is reason to fear that the double 
 burden of taxation now resting upon the Rou- 
 manian peasant represents a grievance which 
 
122 THE ROUMANIAN PEASANT. 
 
 the politician of a certain class is never slow 
 to utilize for the sake of posing as the people's 
 tribune, and that the landlords themselves 
 would have been wise in their generation had 
 they asked no price for the few acres each was 
 made to surrender in 1866. But many as must 
 be the faults of any measure so sweeping as 
 the Roumanian rural law, it has done the coun- 
 try good, and raised the peasants infinitely be- 
 yond the level of their fellow-creatures on the 
 Russian side of the frontier. They are now 
 free men before the law; their property is 
 secured to them ; and they are sure that 
 though the present generation bears a heavy 
 burden, it is leaving a precious heritage to the 
 next. From what I learned on this Roumanian 
 farm, and from conversation with capable peo- 
 ple of that country, I feel justified in conclud- 
 ing that the Roumanian peasants may be 
 counted upon to resist aggression on the part 
 of Russia; not so much from sentimental re- 
 gard for the parties to the Triple Alliance, as 
 from the conviction that their material pros- 
 perity is vastly greater than that of their neigh- 
 
THE ROUMANIAN PEASANT. 123 
 
 bors across the Pruth, and they have every- 
 thing to lose by becoming tributary to Holy 
 Russia. 
 
A FIRST IMPRESSION ON THE ROU- 
 MANIAN FRONTIER. 
 
 \ T 7 HEN it became so dark that I could not 
 * * plainly distinguish objects on either 
 bank of the Danube, which here was a couple 
 of miles wide, I lowered my two sails and pad- 
 dled for Roumania. It would have been no 
 further to the Bulgarian shore, but sentiment 
 guided my canoe to the other side, where I 
 had some friends to whom I thought I might 
 turn in case of difficulty. 
 
 The Roumanian frontier was guarded here, 
 as elsewhere, by a series of square huts placed 
 within sight one of the other, each hut contain- 
 ing five soldiers, one of whom did sentry while 
 the rest seemed generally occupied over a fire 
 or washing clothes. Between two of these 
 guard-houses I ran my keel ashore, quickly 
 hauled my boat high and dry, propped her on 
 
 either side by means of spare hatches, rigged 
 
 124 
 
A FIRST IMPRESSION. I25 
 
 my tent over the well, took a swim, changed 
 into my night rig, put my soup over a spirit 
 stove, and commenced to muse over the pleas- 
 ures of solitude — but not for long. One of the 
 guard had spied me and came to investigate; 
 soon came a second, and lastly, one with a 
 breech-loading rifle. The rifleman made trou- 
 ble in a language I could not understand, and 
 I protested as vigorously in four equally un- 
 known tongues. It was clear, however, that I 
 was regarded as a trespasser, and was to be 
 sent off. I therefore commenced by offering 
 them some soup, which they devoured after 
 the manner of men on half rations; then I 
 shared a bottle of local wine, and after that the 
 rifleman took a long drink from the supply of 
 methylated spirits which did my cooking when 
 no drift-wood was at hand. 
 
 All this while they talked to me and I back 
 at them — they in their native tongue and I in 
 mine — until one of them attempted to examine 
 my paddle. I told him not to, but he insisted, 
 so I jumped to my feet with a knife in one 
 hand, pretending anger, though my real feelings 
 
126 A FIRST IMPRESSION. 
 
 < 
 
 were quite opposite, and I was at the moment 
 wondering how this scrape would end. For- 
 tunately, the man dropped the paddle, and the 
 others vociferously talked, as though they in- 
 tended no harm. At this I pantomimed that I 
 was going to bed and waved them in the direc- 
 tion of their quarters, saying good-night in 
 every language I knew. They left, and I was 
 soon sound asleep. 
 
 The banging of a musket-butt against the 
 stern of Caribee awaked me. I peered through 
 my mosquito curtains and saw a long, hungry- 
 looking Roumanian private standing in the 
 moonlight with his right index finger on the 
 trigger of his piece, and his attitude suggesting 
 either the tendency to charge or to aim. He 
 stood at a respectful distance, ignorant, per- 
 haps, of my armament, and savagely harang- 
 ued me as one who had been guilty of a 
 grave crime. He pointed up, he pointed down, 
 he pointed at the Bulgarians, and aimed in 
 that direction; he evidently resented the com- 
 forts I was enjoying on Roumanian soil, and 
 threatened to shoot if I did not move on. But 
 
A FIRST IMPRESSION. \2J 
 
 I knew that innocent fishermen were some- 
 times shot at in boats — to say nothing of 
 smugglers — and that frontier guards aim 
 very carelessly in the moonlight, particularly 
 where there is no one to call them to ac- 
 count. So I concluded not to move, and be- 
 gan, therefore, to abuse my ferocious frontiers- 
 man in robust English, accusing him of base 
 extraction and flagrant sins, watching care- 
 fully the while his face and hands. I shook in 
 the air my passport, maps, and other loose 
 papers, and interlarded my opprobrious words 
 with every military title that could appeal to 
 the senses of a semi-civilized private. The 
 moon told me that I was not to be shot — on 
 the spot, at least; but she also told me that my 
 trigger-touching terror insisted that I should 
 uncoil myself from out of my snug canoe and 
 go with him to some remote guard-house for 
 examination. This I strenuously objected to; 
 but, in my most violent paroxysm, fumbled in 
 my stern locker for a bottle of excellent liquor 
 known as Schlivovitz, and at the climax of my 
 discourse drew the cork and reached the bottle 
 
128 A FIRST IMPRESSION. 
 
 towards him. Without undue self-adulation, I 
 may here remark that never, on the stump or 
 in festive gatherings, have I so completely 
 realized the satisfaction of oratorical success as 
 on this chilly moonlight night on the banks of 
 the tortuous swamp-spreading Danube, as I 
 listened to the contents of my best bottle dis- 
 appearing down the thirsty recesses of that 
 ruffian. 
 
 He, too, disappeared, grinning horribly, 
 swinging his musket — a drunken pendulum, 
 zigzagging along a deceptive path of moon- 
 light. 
 
 The sun awoke me next. I did not wait for 
 breakfast, but stowed my gear, pulled my boat 
 to the water, jumped aboard, hoisted sail, and 
 munched a crust of bread with a piece of choc- 
 olate while I made notes and wondered how 
 much salary a man ought to get who did this 
 sort of thing for a living. 
 
 My experience is worth telling only because 
 it illustrates the semi-civilized condition of 
 frontier life, not merely in Roumania, but also 
 in Servia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and, above all, 
 
A FIRST IMPRESSION. 129 
 
 Russia — wherever the Danube forms the bound- 
 ary. The trade of this great river is absurdly 
 small compared with the wealth along its 
 banks, and can never be much better so long 
 as its trade is regulated by Governments whose 
 maxims are similar to those of the robber 
 knights who built castles in the middle ages 
 for the purpose of levying tribute from passing 
 ships. To-day no one can pass from one side 
 of the Lower Danube to the other without vex- 
 atious delay, expense, annoyance — often dan- 
 ger of life or liberty. Each country of this 
 neighborhood seeks to discourage the trade of 
 every other, and the great steamship company 
 that runs its boats the whole length of the 
 stream has difficulty in paying its way, owing 
 to the multiplicity of fines, bribes, and taxes it 
 has to meet in its course from Regensburg to 
 Sulina. The ideal of the protectionist is real- 
 ized in these Danube principalities — the ideal 
 of the Chinaman — no trade, no intercourse with 
 fellow-man. Would that my protectionist 
 friends would canoe on the edges of Bulgaria 
 and Roumania, and Russia ; they would come 
 
130 A FIRST IMPRESSION. 
 
 back Free Traders, or, if not quite so regener- 
 ate as that, would at least pray that one fron- 
 tier should include the Danube and all its nav- 
 igable tributaries, so that the blessings of Free 
 Trade might be felt, at least partially, by 
 States that now are ruining themselves in 
 frantic efforts to get rich by imitating the 
 methods of the gentleman who framed the 
 McKinley Bill. 
 
RUSSIAN PRIESTS IN ROUMANIA. 
 
 ' I "'HE farm of my Roumanian friend lay 
 ■*■ somewhere between Bucharest and 
 Jassy on the foothills of the Carpathians, and 
 not more than two days' military marching 
 from the Russian frontier. He wished me to 
 pay him a visit in a part of his country which 
 had lain in the path of the Russian advance in 
 1877, and which would suffer most in the event 
 of another war. 
 
 When I had provided safe quarters for my 
 canoe, which was to me more precious than 
 all the Balkan States, I purchased a third- 
 class ticket, by dint of pantomime mingled 
 with transatlantic Latin, and found that it en- 
 titled me to ride for six hours in a wooden box 
 on wheels with a lively assortment of Jews, 
 long-haired peasants, shepherds with tall 
 lamb's-wool hats, Turks with red sashes, and 
 some handsome lasses who wore a single gar- 
 
 131 
 
132 RUSSIAN PRIESTS IN ROUMANIA. 
 
 ment. The day was violently hot, but not 
 hot enough to discourage me from enjoying 
 the society of my box-load, which behaved, 
 by the way, with more courtesy one to another 
 than many a compartment of higher grade in 
 countries that consider themselves more civil- 
 ized. Two priests of the Greek Church sat 
 near and sought to converse with me. My 
 dress was much the worse for hard service, 
 and as I carried a sailor's kit bag, they took 
 me, of course, for a bankrupt mechanic or 
 sailor sent home by his consul. These priests 
 wore robes of majestic dignity, the effect of 
 which was, however, spoiled by the amount of 
 grease and other filth that had accumulated 
 all over them. They were, like those I sub- 
 sequently saw, handsome .men, with long 
 beards and hair reaching to the shoulder. 
 Each carried a dirty bundle under his arm — 
 from the corner of one I noticed the end of a 
 loaf of coarse bread protruding. It was some 
 time before either of these priests could find a 
 seat, as no passenger rose to offer his. And 
 yet this was just the sort of passengers of 
 
RUSSIAN PRIESTS IN ROUMANIA. 1 33 
 
 whom, in any other country, such a courtesy 
 might have been expected. What is more, 
 the priests themselves did not act as though 
 they expected any more consideration than 
 other peasants. 
 
 However, I was anxious to talk with them, 
 and as they spoke no modern language save 
 their own, I called to a half-drunken man, 
 who had been raising much merriment at their 
 expense, and asked him to interpret for me. 
 This man I had, some minutes before, pushed 
 off the bench in front of me because his be- 
 havior annoyed a little girl next to him, but 
 he bore no malice and spoke to me in pretty 
 fair German. 
 
 "Where do you come from?" I asked. 
 
 "Nowhere! lama Pole," was his laconic 
 but sad answer. Instead of acting as inter- 
 preter, however — for I asked him if the priests 
 spoke Latin — he took his battered hat from 
 his head, shook it at arm's length in the faces 
 of the clerical gentlemen, and said : 
 
 "Is there anything inside of that hat?" 
 
 "No," was my answer. 
 
134 RUSSIAN PRIESTS IN ROUMANIA. 
 
 "Well, there is just so much in the heads of 
 those dirty pigs ! " 
 
 The reverend gentlemen thus referred to 
 obviously failed to understand what my Polish 
 informant said; though, from the way in which 
 the people in general treated them, I doubt 
 whether anyone in the car would have much 
 resented the language used. 
 
 My Roumanian friend had prepared a wel- 
 come for me in the shape of a peasant dance, 
 to which had been invited all the young people 
 of his village, as well as the parents. The 
 dancing was upon the lawn in front of the high 
 verandah. Wine and cake were dispensed 
 without stint; the young lads and lasses danced 
 with wonderful grace and vigor; the maidens 
 were pretty and very active; the old people 
 had seats brought out for them by the servants 
 of the house; and nothing was lacking to form 
 a picture of Arcadian contentment. Soon, 
 too, arrived the village priest, his long grey 
 locks flowing in waves upon his shoulders, and 
 with a beard to make the fortune of a prophet. 
 
 No one paid more attention to him than to 
 
RUSSIAN PRIESTS IN ROUMANIA. I35 
 
 another, and it did not occur to anyone to in- 
 vite him into the house or even to sit upon the 
 verandah. He came, however, without being 
 asked; stopped a few moments to partake of 
 refreshments; then, receiving no encourage- 
 ment to continue his visit, rose and went again 
 to where the gipsy band was putting life into 
 the frisky feet of the peasants. As his form 
 reached a safe distance, I heard something- 
 like " Damn his impudence ! " from more than 
 one upon the verandah, and this gave rise in 
 me to the suspicion that my long-robed friends 
 of the third-class compartment were, after all, 
 not such bad specimens of the priestly craft in 
 this part of the world. I took the first oppor- 
 tunity of comparing notes on this subject with 
 not merely my host, but others in his station, 
 who know their country well and what they 
 have to hope and fear from their priesthood. 
 To put their many statements into a concrete 
 form would make one somewhat like this : 
 
 " The Roumanian priest is educated for the 
 most part in Russia, and as the little he knows 
 comes from such places as Kieff, it is natural 
 
136 RUSSIAN PRIESTS IN ROUMANIA. 
 
 that our priests in general look to Petersburg 
 for guidance much as the Roman Catholics of 
 London and New York turn to Rome. I can- 
 not deny that they are a power — a great power; 
 but they are far from being the greatest. If 
 they were well educated they would be dan- 
 gerous, but they are as a rule so stupid, and so 
 little beyond the peasant with whom they con- 
 sort, that they lose much of the opportunity 
 offered them." 
 
 " What is their social position ? " was a ques- 
 tion I put my host — rather a superfluous one 
 after what I had witnessed. 
 
 "They are dirty brutes; no one will have 
 them in their house. This one you saw comes 
 here once a month to scatter holy water about 
 and frighten away the devil, for which I have to 
 give him a few francs so as not to make him 
 my enemy. He goes about doing this sort of 
 thing all over the district, squeezing coppers 
 wherever he can. He had the impudence to 
 come up here to-day because he wanted to see 
 you and find out something about you; but we 
 never dream of having him inside of the house 
 
RUSSIAN PRIESTS IN ROUMANIA. 1 37 
 
 as a guest. Why I don't believe he ever used 
 a fork in his life ! " 
 
 " Are they then so poor ? " 
 
 " Not a bit of it. They are much better off 
 than the priests in Greece, and even in Russia. 
 Each of them has sixteen pogons of land — 
 about sixteen acres — and they get in addition a 
 sack of wheat once a year from each one of 
 their peasants, and on top of this they get a 
 State bounty, for here everyone must pay 
 taxes to support the Established Church, no 
 matter whether he is Jew or Protestant. 
 
 " Moreover, as in the Anglican Church, the 
 bishops sit in Parliament and influence legisla- 
 tion. The bishops, however, in Roumania are 
 drawn from religious orders whose members 
 are not allowed to marry, whereas the parish 
 priests must marry. The class from which 
 bishops are created is also much superior in 
 intelligence and breed to that from which par- 
 ish priests are recruited. The bishops are 
 nominated by the Synod, but are selected by a 
 joint vote of both Houses before the names can 
 be submitted to the King for approval. So far, 
 
138 RUSSIAN PRIESTS IN ROUMANIA. 
 
 it is taken for granted that names submitted to 
 the King will always be approved." 
 
 As to their relations in the event of war I 
 received no encouraging answer. 
 
 " The Roumanian priests are the most dan- 
 gerous enemies we have. They are pretty 
 much all under Russian influence, and cannot 
 conceive of anything good emanating else- 
 where than from KiefT or Moscow. The Rus- 
 sians are massing troops against us all along 
 their Bessarabian frontier, and none of us are 
 simple enough to suppose that those troops 
 are there for ornamental purposes." 
 
 " What is to be the result then ? " 
 
 " The patriotism of the people will carry 
 the day the moment war is declared. The 
 priests may do their worst; but they can 
 never make us forget what we did for Russia in 
 1877, how cruelly we have suffered at Russian 
 hands since then, and how much worse things 
 are in store for us if Russian troops again 
 march across our territory. Make no mistake, 
 Roumania realizes what Russian friendship 
 means; and that is why we are preparing for a 
 
RUSSIAN PRIESTS IN ROUMANIA. 1 39 
 
 fight to the last man when the signal is made 
 in Berlin." 
 
 I need only add that my friends were all 
 orthodox members of the Greek communion. 
 
CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER 
 ON FOOT. 
 
 T NSTE AD of returning home from Galatz by 
 •*~ the quickest way, I thought it might be 
 instructive to run over to Odessa, and from 
 there by easy stages reach the Baltic and 
 the Channel. My canoe, which had carried me 
 from the sources of the Danube as far as Bul- 
 garia, I saw safely stowed upon a steamer 
 bound up the river, and with it I sent all lug- 
 gage that might possibly cause delay at the 
 frontier. Then I looked about for a vehicle to 
 carry me from this easternmost town of Rou- 
 mania to the nearest railway station on Russian 
 soil. Murray's guide to Russia, as well as the 
 principal atlases, both English and German, 
 indicated a railway between Galatz and Reni, 
 but this was a mistake, as I quickly discovered. 
 The distance to the Russian frontier is called 
 
 ten miles, and thence to the Russian railway 
 
 140 
 
CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. 141 
 
 at Reni is at least five more. I offered much 
 money, but could find no driver in Galatz bold 
 enough to take me amongst the Russians. I 
 offered to procure a passport for them from the 
 Russian consul, but this they assured me would 
 not be respected; they might be kidnapped 
 into the army, clapped ofT to Siberia, sent to 
 jail — they were not sure what shape their pun- 
 ishment might take, but they one and all de- 
 clined, through fear of bodily harm. This 
 proves nothing except the confidence inspired 
 by the officials across the Pruth. 
 
 The only thing for me to do, therefore, was 
 to drive as far as the boundary and then take 
 my chance. My baggage consisted of a water- 
 proof sailor's bag containing the remnants of 
 my camping wardrobe — mostly books and 
 maps, and a large ulster that I used sometimes 
 as a makeshift bed. The road to the Pruth lay 
 for the most part along the edge of a vast la- 
 goon of the Danube, the river itself being hid 
 from me by low marshy tracts covered with 
 reeds. Water-fowl of many kinds were abun- 
 dant, herons, flamingoes, ducks, and sea-gulls. 
 
142 CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. 
 
 But it was the savage lonesomeness of the 
 stretch that made most impression upon me. 
 But for the telegraph poles, supporting a single 
 wire, there was scarcely a sign of civilization 
 between the important town I had left and the 
 railway terminus I was seeking. The road was 
 more like a dirt track than a commercial high- 
 way, and would be difficult to find in thick 
 weather were it not for the telegraph poles. 
 After a journey of more than an hour of rough 
 jolting we drew up at a shabby house, from 
 which emerged a Roumanian, who demanded 
 my passport, which, as he could not understand 
 it, he handed back with much grumbling. 
 
 The Pruth, which here separates Russia from 
 Roumania, is no larger than the Thames at Ox- 
 ford, and I expected to find at least a bridge, 
 possibly a cab, for this is the shortest route be- 
 tween Galatz and Odessa. There was no bridge, 
 however, so I procured a man to paddle me 
 across in a native dug-out canoe, reminding 
 me of those in use by the natives of Florida 
 and British Guiana. This man had, apparent- 
 ly, a dread of Russia as genuine as that of the 
 
CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. 143 
 
 Galatz drivers, for he would not carry my bag 
 up to the Customs House, but dumped it on the 
 mud bank of the stream, and hurried back to 
 Roumania. At each end of this little ferry 
 stood a soldier, forming a link in a vast chain 
 of frontier guards— 5,000 on the Roumanian 
 and 25,000 on the Russian side, who are night 
 and day vigilantly on the look-out for a smug- 
 gler, a suspect, or a Jew. A villainous-looking 
 official slouched down to the Russian sentry- 
 box as I climbed up the river bank and ordered 
 me into the only house to be seen, where sat 
 another of the same type, who was soon joined 
 by several fellows stamped with official sav- 
 agery. George Kennan has described this type 
 in the language he uses about one he met with 
 in Kachinski — an inspector of police — " an evil- 
 looking miscreant with green, shifty feline eyes, 
 who, without his uniform, would have been 
 taken anywhere for a particularly bad type of 
 common convict." The moment I looked at 
 these men I began to wish myself back, even 
 in Roumania. 
 
 My passport was, of course, immediately de- 
 
144 CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. 
 
 manded in an insolent manner, and while three 
 looked on, the fourth attempted to examine it 
 critically and write down my name. As, how- 
 ever, no one of them knew French, German, or 
 Latin, our attempts at an understanding proved 
 abortive, and as none of them understood a 
 word of my passport, they concluded that my 
 name must be the first word that was in script, 
 which happened to be the word Plenipoten- 
 tiary. My name is therefore to-day entered in 
 the police chronicle of Bessarabia as Mr. Pleni- 
 potentiary, my Christian name being put down 
 as Minister. Much shaking of heads occurred 
 over the fact that the passport was dated Lon- 
 don, while the superscription was that of the 
 American State Department, they evidently 
 » regarding this as an evidence of sharp practice 
 of some kind. They asked me many questions 
 in a very rough manner, but as I made all my 
 answers in English, they finally gave me up, 
 and proceeded to rummage my sailor's bag. I 
 happened to have* the last number of the 
 Speaker, a copy of Punchy and a large work in 
 German on the lower Danube. All my notes 
 
CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. I45 
 
 I had carefully concealed next to my skin. 
 Punch and the Speaker they studied carefully 
 and at length, but the work that disturbed them 
 most was the tamest of all books, Heck's Dan- 
 ube, in German, with many illustrations. This 
 they fumbled page for page while I stared at a 
 large chromo of the Czar, which occupied 
 nearly all of one side of the room. As it took 
 me more than an hour to pass this frontier with 
 only a boat-bag for luggage, I calculated that 
 at this rate not more than twelve people could 
 conveniently run the gauntlet in any one day. 
 It is needless to say that my boat-bag was com- 
 pletely turned inside out and every article ex- 
 amined to the smallest, and that no effort was 
 made to assist me in putting the articles back 
 again. I was treated exactly as though I had 
 been found guilty of a gross offence and was 
 before particularly offensive judges. 
 
 At last I was permitted to leave. I asked 
 no questions, but taking the points of the com- 
 pass by the sun, struck a trail which I judged 
 would bring me to Reni in a couple of hours; 
 and it did. But my tramp was made on the 
 
I46 CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. 
 
 hottest day of a hot and dry season, and my 
 boat-bag and ulster weighed very much before 
 I had gone the full five miles. I took off my 
 coat, rolled up my sleeves, and trudged along 
 in the dust, grateful only that I had passed the 
 customs without having been locked up pend- 
 ing examination. Half-way on my tramp, as 
 nearly as I could calculate, I passed several 
 earthworks well situated to command the 
 Danube against a descending flotilla, and ready 
 to receive three batteries at least. Shortly be- 
 yond these I found a little tree, in the shade of 
 which I sat down to cool off and make a few 
 notes. My tramp had been along the edge of 
 a swamp on one side and a bare prairie on the 
 other; and only one peasant cart passed me as 
 I trudged in the dust and heat. Near the earth- 
 works were two large compounds formed by 
 four brick walls thick enough to resist old-fash- 
 ioned light artillery, about fourteen feet high 
 and, from my estimate, four hundred feet long 
 in each direction. In the midst of each com- 
 pound was a building of brick at which men 
 were busy repairing the roofs and making the 
 
CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. 1 47 
 
 windows smaller. The casual passer would 
 have said that it was being arranged as a store 
 house for war material. It did not invite a 
 nearer inspection, as many of the busy people 
 wore uniform hats. 
 
 And so I sweated along to Reni, which is, 
 after seeing many villages of Holy Russia, per- 
 haps the dirtiest, shabbiest hole that is at pres- 
 ent used for human habitation outside of China. 
 The principal industry of the town appeared to 
 be the filling of magazines with grain, and as 
 the English papers were then full of accounts 
 of a famine all over the country, I could not 
 but be surprised that it should be stored here 
 on the very frontier of Roumania, and that the 
 people who did the storing appeared all to 
 wear official caps. Had this grain been intend- 
 ed for the famishing millions of the Czar's peo- 
 ple, it would have been taken to the railway or 
 to the boats in the river, and thence shipped to 
 the points of distress; but here it seemed to be 
 stored up in order to feed any troops that might 
 be needed at this particular point of the fron- 
 tier. What I saw was so highly suggestive of 
 
143 CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. 
 
 various things, that I paused a few moments to 
 think it over — and that was wrong I discovered, 
 for an official of the type described by Kennan 
 came up to me, and in a snarling tone of voice 
 snapped out the ominous word "Pass." 
 
 I was not sketching, was not making notes, 
 had committed no crime, beyond appearing to 
 be a foreigner, and for this was treated in the 
 open highway as though I had come to rob a 
 Russian hen-roost. Of course I pulled out my 
 document, and though this brute, like the oth- 
 ers, could understand nothing of its contents, 
 he commenced to mutter at me, indicating that 
 it was not in order, and that I must come with 
 him. Now this was the last thing that I had a 
 mind to do, and I was saved by the lucky acci- 
 dent of a crowd collecting about me, and with 
 it a physician who spoke French fluently, and 
 who offered to interpret for me. This gentle- 
 man explained the passport to the feline, tal- 
 low-skinned, pink-eyed official, who was thus 
 robbed of an excuse for making some money 
 out of me, and I was allowed to walk on. The 
 physician saluted me coldly as we separated on 
 
CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. I49 
 
 the street, and I regretted it, as he appeared to 
 be of superior breeding. The explanation came 
 soon, however, for when we met by accident in 
 the dirty hotel of Reni, the manner of the man 
 was quite changed. He was cordiality itself, 
 but gave me to understand that it would not 
 do for him to appear to have any sympathy 
 whatever with an outsider. He was a Greek, 
 he said, who was resident here when the coun- 
 try was Roumanian, and after it passed under 
 Russian rule he had secured a small official 
 post in connection with his profession. He was 
 going back to Athens in a few weeks, however, 
 as life in Russia was becoming daily more in- 
 tolerable to a man of education or liberal ideas, 
 particularly if he was not Russian in every re- 
 spect. He had come to this hotel to see a pa- 
 tient, he said; shook me warmly by the hand, 
 as no one was watching us, and we parted. He 
 is now safely over the frontier, or I should not 
 dare mention this. 
 
 Reni is a ragged, dirty village, with broad, 
 unmade streets choking with dust, and rough 
 peasant houses, or rather cabins. I made my 
 
150 CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. 
 
 way to the railway station, and found here a 
 terminus fit for a metropolis. No one here 
 could speak anything but Russian, and only by 
 pantomime did I discover that there was no 
 train for Odessa until the day following. So I 
 strolled about the place, and wondered why 
 they needed so much railway terminus for a 
 place that connected nothing but a swamp 
 and a rolling, naked prairie. Here are three 
 well-made side tracks, one a thousand, a sec- 
 ond nine hundred, and the last eight hundred 
 yards long. These tracks are surrounded by 
 a palisade of wooden planks steeped in tar; and 
 as the arrangements cannot have been made 
 with any reference to the commercial require- 
 ments of this dirty village, and the grass and 
 weeds have grown up luxuriantly between 
 the tracks, the casual stroller is inclined to 
 think that this elaborate station was made so 
 as to be handy when it is determined to seize 
 the mouth of the Danube. 
 
 When I boarded my train on the morning 
 following, I counted six passengers distributed 
 amongst six railway carriages, and twelve men 
 
CROSSING THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER. 1 5 1 
 
 in uniform, who seemed to belong in some way 
 to the train. The locomotive was made at 
 Chemnitz in Germany, and pulled us along a 
 very rough road at the rate of fourteen and a 
 half miles an hour to Bender, where I changed 
 to another road for Odessa. The first thing I 
 did on arrival was to hunt up the best book 
 shop, kept by a German, and try to get some 
 works on Russia. " There is only one good 
 book on Russia," said the head of the house, 
 " and that I cannot give you. It is by George 
 Kennan." 
 
RUSSIA, WAR, AND FAMINE. 
 
 rHE German Emperor has as late as last 
 
 A November assured at least one personal 
 
 friend that he will not attack Russia, that his 
 
 country is in need of peace, and that so far as 
 
 in him lies he will maintain it. 
 
 Whatever hostile criticism this ruler may 
 have drawn upon himself through too frank 
 utterances in after-dinner speeches, or in con- 
 tributions to the birthday albums of his inti- 
 mates, not even a Russian can charge him with 
 hypocrisy, or its twin-sister, fear. His recent 
 action against prostitution ; .his interference 
 for the more humane treatment of soldiers by 
 officers and non - commissioned officers ; his 
 decrees in favor of freeing the poor book-rid- 
 den school children from the short-sighted 
 though well-meant tyranny of the professors ; 
 his treatment of the Poles in his Eastern prov- 
 
RUSSIA, WAR, AND FAMINE. 1 53 
 
 inces, differing so widely from what they had 
 been led by Bismarck to expect ; his efforts to 
 establish the principle of arbitration in the 
 quarrels between employers and employed — 
 these and other measures associated with his 
 name are not, as in some monarchies, merely 
 the productions of boards and commissions, 
 but are, in his case, the very reflection of his 
 personal study and sympathies. And these 
 measures owe a very large share of their effi- 
 ciency to the vigor with which he enforces 
 their execution. 
 
 Within the last few days the correspondents 
 of foreign papers in Russia have felt them- 
 selves compelled to publish as news that there 
 was in Berlin a war party ; that Russia had 
 reason to fear that this war party would be too 
 strong for the German Government, and would 
 impel Germany to attack Russia at a time 
 when, as she wishes the world to believe, her 
 resources are greatly diminished by famine. 
 She is assiduously seeking to create the im- 
 pression abroad that she is the friend of peace, 
 that she is doing nothing to provoke her neigh- 
 
154 RUSSIA, WAR, AND FAMINE. 
 
 bors, but is so fearful of their sudden incursion 
 across her borders that she must appeal to the 
 rest of the world to recognize the innocenee of 
 her position. 
 
 In view of what Russia is doing in this re- 
 spect, even to the extent of having the Czar's 
 picture published in an English review as the 
 11 Peace-keeper of Europe," and particu- 
 larly by way of marginal reference to more 
 matter of the same kind, no doubt now on its 
 way from St. Petersburg, let me mention one 
 or two reasons for thinking that Russia's pro- 
 fessed desire for peace is not above suspicion. 
 
 The Czar, as we all know, spent part of last 
 year in Denmark. On his return to Russia it 
 was expected that he would make an effort to 
 return the visit which he owed the German 
 Emperor. He did nothing of the kind, al- 
 though in returning to his home he made use 
 of German railways to transport him, of Ger- 
 man regiments to line the railway tracks, and 
 of German officials, who were paraded upon 
 the platforms in his honor. 
 
 It might have been expected that he would 
 
RUSSIA, WAR, AND FAMINE. 1 55 
 
 have observed such common forms of cere- 
 mony as prevail when one gentleman tres- 
 passes upon the estate of another. In other 
 words, Germans had reason to think that, in 
 case extreme urgency called him to his home, 
 he would at least have sent a message to that 
 effect, and, in a measure, have excused himself. 
 He did not, however, so much as send a ser- 
 vant to leave his pasteboard upon the front 
 steps of his neighbor's house, while himself 
 making a short cut over that neighbor's lawn. 
 Whether he is responsible for this or his Min- 
 isters, matters little, for the effect is the same 
 in either case. 
 
 The Russian papers promptly made specious 
 explanations in regard to the circumstance, 
 but is it not strange that no explanation was 
 made to the one person against whom the 
 rudeness was directed ? Russia is in a posi- 
 tion to say to her friends in the banking-houses 
 of Paris : "You see that our Czar has offered 
 Germany an insult ; how can you doubt our 
 devotion for you, and how can you hesitate to 
 furnish us with all the money we need ? " 
 
156 RUSSIA, WAR, AND FAMINE. 
 
 The German Emperor himself can, of course, 
 take no notice of this piece of gross incivility, 
 and the press at large accepts what is tele- 
 graphed from St. Petersburg as though it did 
 not know that all such utterances were care- 
 fully edited by Government officials. 
 
 The famine has been carefully exploited un- 
 til, at last, some of the truth has leaked out. I 
 believe the truth is what I was told on excel- 
 lent authority, in Russia, six months ago. 
 There is famine in Russia somewhere almost 
 every year, just as there is on the North-Amer- 
 ican Continent, in the sense that the harvest is 
 not a success at all points in the same season. 
 The calamity from which Russians suffer this 
 year over a small part of their vast country is 
 not so much famine as an oppressive number 
 of very ignorant, very brutal, and very immor- 
 al officials, who prevent the people from doing 
 anything for themselves, and prevent the Gov- 
 ernment from knowing what it ought to do, 
 even assuming that there was a Czar who 
 wished that Government to act for the benefit 
 of his people. 
 
RUSSIA, WAR, AND FAMINE. 1 57 
 
 While the columns of English papers were 
 telling the world that whole districts were 
 starving, I was traveling from the Black Sea 
 to the Baltic by way of Kieffand Warsaw, in 
 the midst of every indication of good harvests; 
 and hearing from merchants that the alleged 
 famine need not occasion the smallest disturb- 
 ance in Russian minds. Not only was the har- 
 vest good over a large part of Russia, but the 
 grain-producing countries along the Danube 
 were supplying fleet upon fleet of merchant- 
 men with abundant cargoes of wheat and 
 maize. Then, too, in the midst of this alleged 
 distress, did the Russian Government do any- 
 thing beyond discussing it in the papers ? We 
 certainly have no evidence that it did. On the 
 contrary, the great transportation lines of the 
 country have been utilized in these critical times, 
 not in conveying food to famishing villages, or 
 bringing peasants and their cattle away from 
 farms which could not sustain them. In my 
 journey along the western frontier, it seemed 
 as though Russian railways had no freight to 
 carry, save infantry, cavalry, and artillery. 
 
158 RUSSIA, WAR, AND FAMINE. 
 
 The sidings were occupied for the most part 
 by long lines of goods-trains, moving more 
 troops up to the borders of Austria and Ger- 
 many. Already, at that time, nine-tenths of 
 the whole peace establishment of Russia was 
 mobilized along this line, but that has not pre- 
 vented the westward movement from continu- 
 ing in the same menacing manner. Germany 
 does not threaten Russia. Her frontiers are 
 open to the inspection of every tourist. He 
 can stroll past every picket from Memel to 
 Metz, without fear of discourtesy, much less ar- 
 rest. He will find the German troops in their 
 proper garrisons as they are marked off on the 
 ordinary military maps for sale everywhere, in 
 glaring contrast to Russia, whose savages from 
 the frontiers of Mongolia are now patrolling the 
 banks of the Narew and the-Niemen. 
 
 If Russia says that Austria is a menace, the 
 plea is still feebler than the one she puts for- 
 ward in regard to Germany. The Austrian 
 Emperor has had great misfortunes in the 
 course of a long reign. His warlike ventures 
 have been unsuccessful; his empire is com- 
 
RUSSIA, WAR, AND FAMINE. 1 59 
 
 posed of states animated by a strange hatred 
 one for the other. He is a conscientious man, 
 and in an eminent degree deserves to be called 
 a gentleman. He makes few promises and 
 breaks none. The Magyar may hate the Czech; 
 the Serb and the Roumanian may come to 
 blows; Austria may be attacked by all four, 
 but not one has any feeling for Franz Joseph 
 save esteem, if not love. He has won the 
 hearts of his people in a more than convention- 
 al manner, and is loved most sincerely by the 
 very Hungarians who fought him hardest in 
 the days of '48. 
 
 This monarch has need of all his tact and 
 the strength of every department of his State 
 machinery to develop harmoniously the great 
 resources of the country. He does not wish 
 for war. He has said it, and he means it; and 
 no one who knows him can suspect that his 
 statement is any less genuine than that of his 
 ally in Berlin. 
 
 If he is made to seem warlike, it is because 
 Russia has the clearly defined purpose of con- 
 quering the countries that border the Lower 
 
l6o RUSSIA, WAR, AND FAMINE. 
 
 Danube, and bringing under her barbarous 
 rule a vast territory lying in the path of Eu- 
 rope's commerce and civilization. Russia 
 means to cross the Pruth, to annex Roumania 
 as a matter of course; and whatever she may 
 do with Constantinople, she at least means that 
 the Danube shall be Russian and not Euro- 
 pean. The wealth which this stream repre- 
 sents is as yet hardly suspected by the most 
 visionary political speculators, although it is 
 to-day a stream comparatively insignificant, 
 owing to the antiquated semi-civilized com- 
 mercial legislation adopted by the feeble coun- 
 tries along its lower reaches — a legislation eu- 
 phemistically called Protectionism. 
 
 Russia at this point has her hand raised to 
 strike, and when she does, it will not be in 
 the interest of European commerce or civili- 
 zation. 
 
A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 
 
 |"N the summer of 1891 I had been enabled, 
 -*- through a series of happy combinations, to 
 undertake a consecutive voyage down the 
 Danube from the Black Forest to the Black 
 Sea. For about 1,500 miles of the river my 
 only means of progress was a canoe weighing 
 eighty pounds net, in which I slept at night 
 and made notes by day — sometimes paddling, 
 but more frequently using my two sails. Prog- 
 ress under such conditions was comparatively 
 slow — fifty miles a day was considered a good 
 day's work — but it was none too slow for one 
 looking at men and things from a canoe deck. 
 The commercial or economic feature of this 
 cruise was an object lesson on the blessings of 
 free trade. In Germany the Danube passes 
 Baden, Bavaria, Wurtemburg, Prussia, states 
 
 which now trade freely one with the other, but 
 
 161 
 
162 A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 
 
 which, before the imperial federation, support- 
 ed four sets of customs officials in order to pre- 
 vent the people from seeking their natural 
 market. 
 
 At the Austrian frontier a tax was demanded 
 and our passport examined. Here the ques- 
 tion rose naturally: If it is well for Austria to 
 shut out the commerce of Germany, is it not 
 equally well that the States of the Mississippi 
 Valley act in the same spirit, and that Louisi- 
 ana protect itself against Illinois, Kentucky 
 against Iowa ? We settled that question long 
 ago, and we hope forever. Europe has a river 
 that is in many respects like the " Father of 
 Waters," in that it forms a great and natural 
 commercial path across Europe. Many inde- 
 pendent states are along its banks, each 
 strangely jealous of the other, and to-day each 
 seeks to restrict rather than increase her com- 
 merce with the other river neighbors. Russia, 
 Roumania, Servia, Bulgaria, and Hungary each 
 acts toward the rest as though commerce were 
 an evil instead of a blessing. 
 
 Thanks to my method of progression and to 
 
A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 163 
 
 many other facilities of social intercourse, I 
 was much struck by the extent to which the 
 German language was used, as compared with 
 the French. Many of my friends who had vis- 
 ited the lower Danube some ten years before 
 assured me that I should find German of scant 
 use after leaving Austria proper, and that if I 
 did not learn the languages in current use I 
 had better try French. 
 
 The German language in Hungary, as is 
 well known, was boycotted after the revolu- 
 tion of '48, and there is still the same popular 
 distrust of Austria's language amongst the 
 Magyars of to-day as there is of "British free 
 trade" amongst Irish- Americans. In spite of 
 this, however, considerations of trade have 
 prevailed; and as Germans are the best cus- 
 tomers within reach of the Magyars, the trad- 
 ing class, at least, realize that their children 
 must speak that tongue, as well as their own. 
 Hence it is that on the Danube I never found 
 myself in a place so small that I could not 
 hold conversation in German, nor did I ever 
 find a boat, a raft, or a dock that was not 
 
164 A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 
 
 managed by some one speaking the tongue of 
 "the fatherland." 
 
 From Hungary to the Black Sea the Ger- 
 man tongue fluctuated according to the vol- 
 ume of trade done with western Europe and 
 the intelligence of the individual. Even the 
 proprietor of a water-mill in Bulgaria talked 
 German with me, though his business was not 
 one that brought him in contact with any but 
 his own peasantry. 
 
 When Spaniards, French, English, and In- 
 dians contested for the Mississippi basin at the 
 beginning of this century, the result was one 
 which helps us to realize the deplorable con- 
 sequences to commerce from division of con- 
 trol over such territory. 
 
 The Danube must soon fall to the control of 
 one power, the one whose language is most 
 general, whose administration is most re- 
 spected, whose civilization promises the great- 
 est material development, whose government 
 gives the fullest guaranty of stability and force. 
 To-day nearly every enterprise on the Danube 
 is managed or owned by Germans, from the 
 
A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 165 
 
 floating bath at Galatz to the great engineering 
 works at the Iron Gates. 
 
 German capital is seeking investment along 
 this line as fast as the conditions of the coun- 
 try promise security; the trading community 
 is ready for closer communion with the west; 
 and there is in every class a growing feeling 
 that the prosperity of the Danube countries 
 depends not merely upon the Austro-Hungar- 
 ian, but is bound up with the commercial 
 policy of the German empire. 
 
 At this moment, therefore, it is not strange 
 that from Vienna to Sulina anxious eyes 
 should be directed towards Berlin — eager to 
 know if the Emperor takes much interest in 
 the problem of "Greater Germany" from a 
 commercial standpoint. 
 
 Bismarck instructed William II. in polit- 
 ical economy, and it is not too much to say 
 that no politician of modern times has had 
 a better opportunity of influencing the spread 
 of protectionism than the late Chancellor of the 
 German Empire. His instruction was given at 
 the particular request of the pupil's venerable 
 
l66 A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 
 
 grandfather, the late William L, and it is fair to 
 add that it was begun with genuine reluctance 
 on the tutor's part — for the Chancellor was very 
 busy, the pupil very young, and considering 
 the then magnificent health of the Crown 
 Prince Frederick, there was no reason to think 
 that the present Emperor would come into 
 power until far into the next century. The 
 young prince enjoyed his course hugely — as 
 who would not with such a teacher ! Youth 
 admires the didactic professor, and the man 
 who for a quarter of a century had by turns 
 cajoled or bullied nearly every cabinet in Eu- 
 rope seemed eminently suited to impress the 
 imagination of a youth strong in enthusiasm, 
 but lacking the experience on which strong 
 purposes are based. 
 
 The Crown Prince's tutor before attending 
 the course of " Professor" Bismarck was a 
 gentleman universally respected for the purity 
 of his character and the many philanthropic 
 efforts associated with his name. Of course, I 
 refer to Dr. Hinzpeter. One day the doctor 
 was kindly showing me over a most interesting 
 
A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 167 
 
 charitable institution and incidentally dwelt 
 upon the force of great ideas in producing no- 
 ble results. He deplored the money-making 
 tendency of America and asserted, much to my 
 amazement, that my country had not furnished 
 a single idea of value to humanity. Of course 
 I protested — thinking immediately of Franklin, 
 Fulton, Morse, and Edison, to say nothing of 
 several men of letters and statesmen whom I 
 had been taught to venerate. Before I could 
 formulate a reply, however, Dr. Hinzpeter 
 halted and said: "Stop. Yes, you have pro- 
 duced one great man — one grand idea — Carey !" 
 At this unexpected proposition I looked close- 
 ly at the learned doctor to discover if he was 
 perpetrating a joke at so serious a moment. I 
 satisfied myself that he was not, and that he 
 referred to the late Henry Charles Carey, of 
 Philadelphia, the so-called Father of American 
 Protectionism, and the author of many works, 
 none of which has ever been regarded as a con- 
 tribution to political science by any economist 
 of repute. 
 
 When the present Emperor came to the 
 
1 68 A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 
 
 throne it was almost a criminal offence to ques- 
 tion Bismarckism in any form. George von 
 Bunsen had been prosecuted for venturing to 
 make a speech to his constituents in opposition 
 to the tax on breadstuffs; a law was in exist- 
 ence giving the police extraordinary powers of 
 search and arrest, nominally to overawe social- 
 ists, but practically to intimidate all who were 
 not Bismarckian; the very universities had be- 
 come so infected with a nondescript doctrine 
 of Bismarckian state socialism and paternal 
 protectionism that it is no exaggeration to say 
 that political economy as a science had ceased 
 to exist in Germany. The personal power of 
 Bismarck had reached such proportions that 
 questions of every kind, from theology to pork- 
 packing, were solved by a determination of 
 what was or was not Bismarckian. The ad- 
 vancement of every man in Germany seemed 
 to depend upon loyalty to Bismarck's teach- 
 ing — whether that man was a preacher, a 
 jurist, a teacher, an engineer, a soldier, or an 
 official. In a country where beneficiaries of 
 the government represent nearly ten per cent. 
 
A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 169 
 
 of the population, a prime minister is sure of a 
 strong vote of support; but in the case of Bis- 
 marck he had not only this, but also an enor- 
 mous prestige from the boldness with which he 
 had caused himself to be regarded as the 
 author of the German Empire. 
 
 The new Emperor on mounting the throne 
 was, of course, expected to sustain the policy 
 of a minister whom his grandfather had hon- 
 ored with every mark that a loyal subject or 
 even a money-making one could ask. The 
 reign of Frederick III., less than an hundred 
 days, had been too short and too full of physi- 
 cal suffering to let the world know the strength 
 and breadth of the ruler whom Bismarck next 
 appeared to represent. In his successor the 
 Germans have an Emperor who has not only 
 abundant physical energy and endurance, but 
 has along with it a contempt for humbug, so- 
 cialism, and the crooked police methods that 
 always suggest a feeble or rotten executive. 
 He is a practical manager and does not pre- 
 tend to be a savior of society. He has no 
 quack nostrum for poverty, crime, prostitution, 
 
170 A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 
 
 or the discontent that sets class against class. 
 His business is to see that the government ma- 
 chine runs smoothly, that competent men are 
 employed, that the people's taxes are spent for 
 the public good, that the law is administered 
 without favor, and that reforms are inquired in- 
 to. He has the mind of a Yankee; he loves 
 experiment; his methods are direct. He is the 
 sort of man that forges to the front in a new 
 country — the enterprising pioneer. We can 
 imagine him learning his trade in some ma- 
 chine-shop, then rapidly rising to a position 
 where inventive talent, thoroughness, patience, 
 and, above all, honesty tell — say, at the head 
 of some great manufacturing or ship-building 
 enterprise. 
 
 On his succession to power, 1888, he did 
 what most intelligent young men do when sud- 
 denly placed in charge of an estate. He in- 
 quired how the previous manager had done his 
 work; he examined personally into cases of al- 
 leged wrong; he noted carefully the testimony 
 of qualified observers; his eyes were opened to 
 the need of reform in many directions; he sug- 
 
A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 171 
 
 gested these reforms to his manager; the man- 
 ager did not agree with the master; the man- 
 ager resigned and now spends his time in em- 
 barrassing as far as he can the movements of 
 the manager who has superseded him. The 
 immediate cause of Bismarck's resignation will 
 be known when the Emperor chooses to 
 make the matter public. To-day we can 
 regard only the official acts of the minister, 
 and from these infer what reason there was for 
 his being retired from office. Let us suppose 
 Bismarck in soliloquy when he is frank with 
 himself. Would he not say something like 
 this ? "I have ruled the people of Germany 
 for twenty years. I have taught them that pro- 
 tectionism is the right policy, and I have tried 
 to lock up all who disagreed with me. 
 I have increased the cost of the workingman's 
 food in order to benefit the landed proprietor 
 who wants high prices for his wheat and hogs. 
 I, too, am a landed proprietor, but that is im- 
 material. My protectionism has been logical. 
 When the working people grumbled because I 
 taxed their dinners I told them that the Gov- 
 
172 A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 
 
 ernment would provide for them in old age 
 and help them when they were hurt. Strange 
 to say, the people were not even then satisfied 
 because they found that I had docked their 
 wages in order to create my insurance fund, 
 and they preferred their own private and inde- 
 pendent insurance to the one associated with 
 Bismarckian methods. 
 
 "Socialism has constantly increased since 
 I have been in power. At the first imperial 
 election the socialist votes cast were only about 
 100,000, and at the last they were over 1,000,- 
 000. That is odd, for I have set the police on 
 the discontented as severely as possible. I 
 have broken up meetings, confiscated printing 
 presses, imprisoned agitators, and done every- 
 thing in my power to protect the country from 
 heresy. 
 
 " I am also mortified to note that my stern 
 measures on the French frontier have not made 
 those people love me. I have done my best to 
 harass the people in the Polish part of Prus- 
 sia, but even they detest me and grow more 
 Polish every day. It is, besides, painful to no- 
 
A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 173 
 
 tice that while I have always tried to snub 
 Austria and England and make friends with 
 Russia, the Czar is constantly moving his 
 troops against the German frontier and evi- 
 dently means war. In short, I have made 
 rather a mess of my stewardship." 
 
 Bismarck, of course, did not use this lan- 
 guage, and perhaps never will. But recent 
 events indicate that the Emperor is not blind 
 to the dangers into which Bismarckism with 
 its socialistic protectionism has been hurrying 
 the country. When he ascended the throne 
 one of his first acts was to drop the policy of 
 hounding the socialists. He recognized in 
 socialism the manifestations of a discontented 
 and cranky state of mind which could be cured, 
 not so much by police bludgeons as by public 
 sentiment and healthy discussion. It is grati- 
 fying to note that with the dismissal of Bis- 
 marck socialism appears to have lost half its 
 vitality. 
 
 Socialism and protectionism spring from the 
 notion that the state understands the manage- 
 ment of private affairs better than the individ- 
 
174 A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 
 
 uals immediately concerned, and it is rare for 
 a man to absorb one heresy without soon tol- 
 erating the other. This is illustrated by the 
 hatred with which the socialists in Germany 
 regard the " Freisinnige " party and its organ 
 Die Nation, mainly because they are op- 
 posed to protection. The same hatred is here 
 shown towards Henry George by trades- 
 unions, protectionists, socialists, and other 
 visionary or selfish people who dream of a 
 community happy in its power to shut out all 
 but their fortunate selves. 
 
 The Emperor has given the protectionists of 
 his country much offence by insisting that the 
 burden of taxation shall be equally distributed, 
 that the people in one industry shall not be 
 protected at the expense of another. He has 
 broken through a thick cloud of prejudice 
 created by almost unanimous academic and 
 official efforts, and has led the way towards 
 closer commercial relations with his neighbors. 
 
 The friendship which he feels for America 
 is well known and springs from intimate ac- 
 quaintance with our best workers; in almost 
 
A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 175 
 
 every field — literary, military, and scientific — 
 we have to thank this feeling and not the spirit 
 of protectionism for the fact that to-day Ger- 
 many admits American pork into the country 
 — a food product which Bismarck was the 
 means of excluding. He has reached out the 
 hand of friendship and commerce to his coun- 
 try's traditional enemy, Austria; he has broken 
 down the barriers of prejudice which have 
 separated these countries for centuries, and 
 has, contrary to the teachings of his late chan- 
 cellor, made of these two Empires a friendly 
 federation of sovereign states. It is too much 
 to say that Austria and Germany trade as free- 
 ly as two States of our country; but I do not 
 hesitate to assert that the manner in which the 
 German Emperor has inaugurated and carried 
 forward the present commercial policy towards 
 Austria and Italy will not only extend the 
 blessings of comparative free trade over a 
 larger area than it has ever before covered in 
 Europe, but that this move represents the first 
 honest step towards making disarmament pos- 
 sible. He has drawn together by bonds more 
 
176 A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 
 
 sure than dynastic affinities at least three coun- 
 tries. These countries will find, as do our 
 States, that the freer the trade with one an- 
 other the better for all concerned, and that the 
 best guarantee of peace is community of in- 
 terest. 
 
 The Emperor has brought into one friendly 
 federation more than half a million square 
 miles of country, and over one hundred mill- 
 ions of people. He has encouraged commer- 
 cial intercourse between the semi-tropical 
 groves of Sicily and the amber coasts of the 
 Baltic; from the iron mines of Westphalia to 
 the cattle ranges of the Magyar kingdom. 
 Nor can we think that his great economic re- 
 form can stop here. Between Hungary and 
 the Black Sea are three agricultural countries, 
 Roumania, Servia, and Bulgaria, with over 
 100,000 square miles of territory and more than 
 10,000,000 industrious people. They want to 
 sell their farm products and need manufactured 
 goods in return. The great Danube is a nat- 
 ural highway connecting them with Germany 
 and civilization; the trade along this stream 
 
A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 1 77 
 
 is largely done by Germans, and would soon 
 swell to respectable proportions if any govern- 
 ment could promise them security. But satis- 
 factory commercial progress is out of the ques- 
 tion, in a country where the government can- 
 not command the respect of its neighbors; and 
 so long as it is doubtful whether Russia is to 
 have Constantinople, so long will the states of 
 the lower Danube remain a comparative wil- 
 derness. 
 
 Roumanians and Bulgarians expect a Rus- 
 sian advance across their territories, and are 
 turning tentatively towards Germany for as- 
 sistance. The Danube in Europe is what the 
 Mississippi was to us in 1803. We could not 
 permit Napoleon to hold the mouth of that 
 stream even then when her commerce was a 
 mere trifle. We would assuredly have fought 
 for its possession had France declined to part 
 with it peacefully. 
 
 The benefits that may be expected to result 
 from the Emperor's new commercial policy will 
 in time become so apparent that the states of 
 the lower Danube will seek to share them. 
 
178 A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 
 
 The effect of this will be to draw together, I 
 hope forever, all the people along the 1,800 
 miles of that great river, from the Black Forest 
 to the Black Sea, a dozen states whose alliance 
 would be as close as that of our people between 
 Minneapolis and New Orleans. That will be a 
 fitting time to give Russia a distinct notice that 
 her road to Constantinople cannot cross the 
 German's Mississippi. 
 
 The Eastern question has so long been ac- 
 cepted, like the Irish, as incapable of solu- 
 tion, that to apply to it a little dose from the 
 pharmacopoeia of Cobden may seem at first 
 sight Utopian. But homoeopathic doses have 
 done wonders in many obstinate cases; kind- 
 ness combined with firmness has done in two 
 years what Bismarck has failed to do in twenty. 
 And who can say that the generous commer- 
 cial policy now uniting Austria and Germany 
 will not animate in the near future other states 
 as well, and hasten the day of " Peace, good 
 will, free trade, amongst nations ? " But what- 
 ever the result may be, let us at least be grate- \ 
 ful to William II., for being the first to reject 
 
A COMMERCIAL FORECAST. 179 
 
 the mediaeval doctrine that nations prosper in 
 proportion to the harm they inflict upon their 
 neighbors. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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 In Beaver Cove and Elsewhere.— Octavo, about 350 
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 PRESS OPINIONS. 
 
 "A writer who has quickly won wide recognition by short 
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 This volume contains all of Miss Crim's most famous 
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