Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-09-22
Culture and war.
THE PRUsSIAN PRIVATE.


The Nation holds that the secret of the
wonderful efficiency of the Prussian ar.
my is not to be found in the mechanism Of
the needle gun, nor yet in the military
system which makes every Prussian sol
der, but in the character of the troops
There have been no armies to compare
with those now man@uvering in France
except Cromwell's and the regiments
raised at the North during our rebellion
The Prussian private is a phenomenon
that will bear study, and the Nation pro.
ceeds to point out some of his character
istics, as follows:
OF course, the quality of the private
soldier has in all wars good deal to dc
with making or marring the fortunes OF
commanders; but it is safe to say that nc
strategists have ever owed so much to the
quality of their men as the Prussian STRAIT
egists. Their perfect handling of the
enormous masses which are now manoeuv-
ering in France has been made in large de-
gree possible by the intelligence of the
privates. To large numbers of people, the
Prussian type of character is not pleas
ing one, nor Prussian society an object of
unmixed admiration, and there is some
thing horrible in whole peoples passing
their best years learning how to kill. But
we cannot get over the fact that the Prus-
sian man is at this moment the foremost
man of our day-the one who is likely to
furnish, consciously or unconsciously, the
model to other civilized countries, until
such time as some other nation has so
successfully initiated him as to produce
his like.
Let us take look at him we of
the temperance movement and of the an
ti-tobacco movement and of the natural
rights movement" and we who believe, as
Mr.. Wendell Phillips pretends that he be-
lieves, that ''the best education a man can
get is what he gets in picking upa living"
and that universities are humbugs, and
that from the Tom-tom and lyceum lee
ture the citizen can always get as much
information on all subjects, human and
divine, as is good for him or the State-as
he marches past in his ill-ftting uniform
and his leather helmet. First of all, we
observe that he smokes great deal. Ac-
Cording to some of us, the tobacco dem
on" ought by this time to have left him a
thin, puny, hollow eyed fellow, with
trembling knees and palpitating heart and
listless gait, with shaking hands and an
intense craving for ardent spirits. on
perceive. however, that burlier, broader
shouldered, ruddier, brighter-eyed and
heartier looking man you never set eyes
on and as he swings along in column,
with his rifle, knapsack, seventy pounds
of ammunition, blanket and saucepan,
you must confess you cannot help ac-
! knowledging that you feel sorry for any
equal body of men in the world with which
! that column gets into ga difficulty" He
drinks, too, and drinks greal deal, both
of strong beer and strong wine, and has
ALWAYS done so, and all his family friends
do it. and have only heard of teeto-
tAlism through the newspaper, and, If
you asked him to oonfne himself to
water, would look on you as an amiable
idiot. Nevertheless, you never see him
drunk, nor does his beer produce on him
that utterly bemuddling or brain-paralyz-
ing effect which is so powerfully described
by our friend Mr.. James Parton as pro-
, duced on him by lager-beer, in that en-
quiry into the position of The Coming
Man" towards wine, some copies of which
we see, he is trying to distribute anon g
the field-officers. On the contrary, he Is
on the whole very sober man, and very
D powerful thinker and very extraordinary
r scholar. There is no field of human
! knowledge which be has not been amongst
the first TO explore no heights of specu
: lation which he has not scaled no pro
$ blem of the world over. which he is no
= fruitfully toiling. Moreover, his through
g 1nrE,1 ho ovl IDav,a5,
of the students of all other Countries
and his hatred of sham scholarship anC
7 slipshod generalization is so intense, tina
t we trast the Genial Critic" will get on
l. of the range of his saucepan before b.
passes in front of him.
Il But, what with the tobacco and beer
- and the scholarship and his university ed
= ucatiou, you might naturally infer tina
r. he must be kid glove soldier, and a lit
: tie too nice and dreamy and speculativ
for the actual work of life. Bless you
} You never were more mistaken. He
r leaving behind him some of the fines
l manufactures and best titled fields in tn
a world. Moreover, be is an admirabl
painter and, as AL the world knows, a
:, almost unequalled musician; or if yo
want proof OF his genius for business, loo
e at the speed and regularity with whic
J, he and his comrades have transporte
e themselves to the Rhine, and see the pei
! lection of all the arrangements of his reg
" ment. And now, if you think his ba
g habits, his daily violations of your notion
d of propriety, have diminished his powe
" of meeting death calmly-that noblest {
=, prod acts of culture-you have only TO fo
: low him up as far as Sedan and Sc
- whether be ever finches whether 20
Is have ever read or heard of soldier OF
of whom more marching and fighting an
! dying, and not Eighty, boisterous dyin
either, could be got.
z Now, we can very we'll understan
g why people should be unwilling to st
ID the Prusian military system spread int
70 other countries, or even preserved whel
a it is. 1t is a pitiful thing to have tt
! men of whole civilized nation spendin
n so much time out of the flower of the
g years learning to kill other men and ii
* lesson to be drawn from the recent Pru
ne sian successes is assuredlv not that ever
n. country ought to have an army like ii
:, Prussian army-though we confess tina
:, if great armies must be kept up, there
10 no better model than the Prussian III
q, lesson is that, whether you want him fl
70 war or peace, there is no way in whic
:, you can get so much out of man as /
e training him, and training him not
= pieces, but the whole of him; and TIL
the trained men, other things being equ
d are pretty sure in the long run to be tt