The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-09-20
sr1RzT or THE PRESS.
Editorial Opinions the Leading Journals
upon Current Topios-CompiIed Every
Day for the Evening Telegraph.
THE MOURNING IN GERMANY.

THE MOURNING IN GERMANY.
From the N. 7. Herald.
The great victories won by German arms,
and the almost miraculous prostration of
GerMany's most powerful and most dangerous
foe, have sent thrill of national exultation
through the pulses of Fatherland. Bonfres,
illuminations, triumphal professions, public
meetings, and congratulatory addresses have
not been wanting in any of the large cities
that dot the broad region extending from the
Rhine to the borders of Russia. The echo
of these iubiations comes to us across the
Atlantic, and it is SO loud and hearty as to
drown the cries of grief and anguish which
ascend along with it from thousands and
thousands of homes made desolate by the
curse of this dreadful war. In fact, there
is a determined effort and, under the cir
cumstances, not an unwise one, on the part
of the German authorities to suppress the
true details of the carnage inflicted on their
troops. The story would be so appall-
ing were it all frankly told at this juno
tnre, as to awaken all over Germany
voice for instant peace that could not be re-
sisted. Hence, the most is made of the sue
cesses gained and as little as possible is said
of their frightful cost. However, King Will
liam himself has, once or twice, involuntarily
given glimpse behind the bloody scenes. In
his famous despatch to Queen Augusta from
the battle fields in the neighborhood of Metz
he admitted that it sickened him to think of
his losses, and all correspondents agree in
representing the slaughter of the Germans in
nearly every engagement fought since the
beginning of the war as two-fold that of their
antagonists. At the battle of Gravelotte the
German dead lay heaped upon the heights
whence the French had been dislodged
towards the close of the action Sin swathes
and winrows, like grain in a densely planted
and well-mown field, and the distress of the
royal commander-in-c at the almost utter
annihation of his splendid Guards-the
pride of the Prussian army-is described as
having been extreme.
Again, the peculiar system of recruiting
and organization pursued for the German
service is such that in many cases a large
proportion of the able-bodied men of whole
villages and small towns are enrolled together
in the same companies and regiments with
the idea that their conduct will be benef-
cially influenced by the additional esprit de
corps thus preserved, and by the fact that
every man will be fighting under the eyes
of his own neighbors and early companions.
Consequently, the slaughter of these recent
battles has thrown whole communities into
mourning, and, as the South Germans have
really done some of the severest work, there
are districts in Baden and Bavaria where
almost every family has lost father,
brother, OF son. saxony, too, has been
literally decimated by the wholesale destruc-
tion of her best troops. 1t is one popularity
of the German soldier that he is more likely
to have O wife and family at home than is
the more volatile and tickle Frenchman; and,
hence, his death is not simply the passing
away of a unit from among the multitude,
but involves the immediate suffering of seve-
raj persons. This fact has been very touch
ingly illustrated upon many occasions during
the struggle. The fierce Uhlans scouting in
the neighborhood of the Alsatian towns re-
peatedly exhibited great emotion when ca
ressing the children of the villagers upon
whom they made their acquisitions, and,
when questioned as to the cause of their ag-
tation, replied that they, too, had wives and
families at home.
no class in the German armies has been
spared. At Sedan there was an absolute
bdttue of titled officers and long lists of
counts, barons and gentry of distinguished
name and social position figure among the
slain in the statements of the press in Aus
tria where the careful restrictions imposed
upon the North German editors are not en-
forced. In one word, the domestic heart of
Fatherland is lacerated as it has never been
before Her homes-grand and humble
alike-are wrapped in gloom. Men whose
own hearths are in safety, on this side of the
Atlantic and elsewhere, at wide distances
from the actual scene of sorrow, may hold
war meetings and pass ferocious resolutions;
but the afflicted people of Germany, in all
her cities and in all her fields of rustic
poverty and labor, pray that this riot of blood
may be stayed and that their stricken hearts
may be no longer torn by the fangs of mill
tary ambition