The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-29
GERMAN CONSTANCY.
lie london Spectator.

GERMAN CONSTANCY.
From tie London Spectator.
There is one quality in this German army,
this marvellous weapon which the Hohen-
zolerns have forged and reforged for hundred
years till it is to other armies what Damascus
scimitar is to regulation sword, which has
scarcely yet received the admiration it deserves,
and that is its constancy. 1t Is quality other
than courage, quality which supplements
German leaders rely when, as at
Speicheren, they order charges by
comparatively small forces, because the cou-
slant renewal of attack bewilders and daunts
the most determined foe. Such tactics in
French army would be Iuinous, aud with any
army except the German they would be full of
risk. 1t would be dangerous with other troops
to order, as has been done before Paris, that
the men first attacked shall retreat on the main
body, or, as before Metz, that regiment shall
hold its position, whatever happens, until sup
ports arrive. Nothing but absolute confidence
in the cOnstancy of the men thus devoted, GER
tainty that they will not yield until they are
dead, could make it safe, or wise or even pos
eible to invest Metz or Paris as Won Moltke has
had the daring to do-to surround ten men
in n clump, it were, by ten men
in a line. Even with such men as the Germans
the arrangement shows trace of contempt for
the enemy, and with soldiers less constant it
would be ruInous. We venture to say in no
spirit of boastfulness, that if the men inside
Metz or Paris we're Englishmen or Americans
men. that is, of the Teutonlc merits and de-
merits, or lrlSnmen-JnaC Is, men VINO once In
action rise out of themselves into higher beings,
Won Moltke's daring would yet be condemned
by. the event. AS it was, when at Graudes Tap
pes the French for once exhibited the Old furia
FrdnceSe-the terrible passion for victory
which has built up French reputation-the Kum-
mer Brigade had to place their
backs to the wall, accept the situation, and die
| these, to save the besiegers from great dis
aster. They did it; and we question If any other
| troops would, unless clearly aware, and indeed
clearly told, that they were fighting as forlorn
| hope-were to die for great end. The Hohen-
zollerns seem to have brigades in which each
man shows the forlorn-hope spirit which is in
| its essence not courage, Tor the man may be
despairing, but constancy in its highest military
development. The quality has been still more
effectively though less strikingly shown in the
entire conduct of the siege Of Metz. Rarely
| in history has there been such scene
as the letters from the besiegers lines
reveal. Whatever intrigues may have been
| going on in the cloudy regions of diplomacy,
the army eIcamped round Metz only knew
that it was enclosing by circle of encamp-
ments each comparatively weak an army nearly
! with determined daring, and which occupied
an absolutely impregnable position, 1t knew
that at any hour of any night it might be
forced to fight for existence, as the Hummer
| Brigade had done 1t had no clear theory as to
the duration of the siege, and it was, and knew
it was, enduring heavier privations than the
enemy. The German plan of camping in
the open, without tents tents tells heavily
numbers were no doubt housed
in the villages about, but for the majority the
| only protection was a hut OF straw, peryious,
| after a time, to the rain, which for large part
| of the siege fell in torrents. The food, though
it never failed, was never plentiful, and never
Luxurious enough, wine and beer whether
bad or good IN themselves, being, next TO
minute doses of morphia or great doses of
quinine, the best preservatlves against malaria.
The ground was sea of mud covered with
ordure and rottiRg carcases. The Germans
either do not understand or despise sanitary ar
rangemeDts, and at one moment there was fear
of an outbreak of cholera Typhus did break
out but the grand foe of the army was dysen-
terry, perhaps of all non-infectious diseases
the one which most rapidly tends to
destroy spirit SO terrific were the ravages of
this disease in places where the men were COM
PEELED to drink Moselle water, that single COM
pany, $50 men, invalided SO, and the rate of In
ValidiDg rose for weeks to 800 day, and during
one week to S00-a fact we give on the authority
+ of a surgeon and an English member of Parlia-
ment present on the spot. The Germans dread
death by disease even more than most men,
their intense domesticity increasing the natural
| depression which every surrounding circum-
stance tended to deepen. Il must admit,
writes to us a correspondent who knows Ger
mans and Germany as few men know them
my decided Impression, first
arrival before Metz, was that l bad
gotnto an army in course of destruction by dis
ease; heard of nothing but dysentery and
typhus amongst men-but rinderpest amongst
the countless herds of cattle driven together
from the uttermost corners of Europe TO give
food to this great German host. more
utterly plague-strieken spectacle it is not within
human Imagination TO conceive than that pre-
sented at first sight, with rain pouring down il
torrents, by Remilly; its streets one slough o
thick chocOlate-colored sush reaching owe
the ankle. one ambulance after th'
! other with sick and wounded beine
dragged slowly by exhausted horses
through the ruts of impossible roads, dea'
COW fetid with the exhalations of distempe
; before the doorstep OF your quarters, aud th
atmosphere Tedolent with combined stencil o
putrid miasma and carbOlic acid The plac
l seemed one cesspool and one pest house. How
ever the COW WAS removed, a fresh expendi
ture of caTbolic acid was made in the den allol
] ted by the Etape COmmandant and | have spen
; several nights with impuuity-I can't say com
/ ! fort where at fret / shuddered to put a foot