Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-03-23
reign Correspondence of the Boston Journal
Berlin In War Times.
BERLIN. Febrnarx 81

: BERLIN, February 81, 1871.
q Immediately after the breaking out o
the present war many Germans doini
! business in Paris abandoned their posi-
!, tions and returned to Germany, with tn
J intention of taking service in the armie
of their country. One party of them, upol
arriving in Berlin, formed procession
and marched along the Lindens to th'
3 royal palace with banner bearing th'
words, familiar to those who have had oc
, casion to use the railroad between her,
, and the French capital, "From Paris t.
) Berlin and back" Jealous foreigners may
, have received and taken this remark seri
| ously, as a new sample of the self-conoei
of Prussia in regard to her military sys
} TEN, but it is doubtful whether the mos
| sanguine among the Germans themselves
if we except that shrewd calculator, Gen
, eral Moltke had the slightest expectation
, that this pleasantly would turn into {
, reality in so wonderful manner. Tht
J members of the American colony never
took into consideration the possibility o.
the Prussians arriving before Paris We
thought that the theatre of war would be
much nearer, near enough, perhaps, to be
within reach of the curious, and the
heartless readiness of Americans abroad
to sacrifice often better feeling to the
love of sight seeing, caused many to re-
gard with pleasure the probability of wit
Messing, if not grand battle, at least
some of the less important scenes cennect
ed with the terrible drama of European
war. But all such anticipations have been
disappointed we have been left in al.
most uninterrupted repose, the conflict
haa taIy ,1taaa Gal6 for
from the Prussian capital, and instead OF
the grand panorama which was to be un.
folded before our eyes, the sightseeing
American in Berlin has had to content
himself with a few street scenes, and the
fainter sighs and the more remote Incl
dents of the contest.
At the beginning Of the war it seemed
impossible that the mobilization of such
immense armies could take place without
more or less commotion at the centre of
operations; but, in fact, there was very
little that forced itself upon the attention.
The officers who, in time of peace, are
met with everywhere, and seem to be en-
ioying life of elegant leisure, gradually
decreased in number, and two weeks
after the declaration of war had almost
entirely disappeared. One by one the
regiments filed out of the huge careens
which are scattered over the city, looking
very bright in their new uniforms, and
fully equipped, as if just about to move
on to the battlefield they marched in
one long column, four abreast, those near.
est the band keeping step, those farther
behind not troubling themselves much
about marking the time. Civilians walked
beside their friends and relations in the
ranka, often carrying the guns, and there
was not the slightest sign of that stiff
| Prussian' appearance which the pictures
and the books present. Along the line of
the belt railroad, which connects all the
roads radiating from Berlin, crowds of the
curious used to collect and stand the en-
tire day, in order to see the trains, with
troops from the North and East, pass by !;
the soldiers crowded to the narrow doors
of the baggage and freight cars in which
they were being transported, to get @
glimpse of the great city of Berlin in
passing through, and they also were sing.
ing to the full power of their lungs, until
their faces seemed ready to burst, appsr-
emily urged by the fear that their senti-
ments in regard to the French and the
"deutsche vaterland" might be misunder-
stood Such sights as these were common
enough, and yet the actual movement in
the military department did not seem at
all to correspond to the greatness of the
impending crisis; the work of prepsra-
ton was gone through with so orderly
and quietly that we saw only casually
anything of it, and the 10000 troops,
which are said to form the garrison at
Berlin, and the many thousand more
which arrived from the Provinces, were
Eo~rouIoJ 30 4lo Ph,na With hnt liff1a
more to the disturbances to the ordinary
appearance of things in the city, than
that occasioned by procession in New
York.
Among the inhabitants of Berlin the
greatest enthusiasm manifested Itself, at
least during the first weeks of the war.
The people assembled in masses in front
of the Kings palace and around the monu-
ment of Frederick the Great there they
would stand singing over and over again
all the national airs, and cheering the
King, Moltke, Bismarck, and all the other
great men of Germany. What brought
them together was partly, no doubt, the
expectation of new tidings of victory from
the Rhine then the Queen often appeared
on the balcony, accompanied by an officer
who read the dispatch. Much more, how
ever, these masses collected under the in
fuenoe of pure enthusiasm, they came as
if with one accord into one place, solely
to give expression to their patriotic feel
ings. Had they only organized, chosen
officers and called for speech, they would
have resembled an English or American
mass meeting. AS the intelligence of each
of the astonishing series of victory arrived
similar demonstrations of joy and exult-
alton followed, noisy yet orderly crowds
marched through the streets, the city as
sumed very gay appearance with its i'm
mense variety of flags, one saw the black,
white and black flag of Prussia, the black,
white and red banner of the North Ger
man Confederation, the colors Of the vari-
GUS other German States, and often the
black, red and gold of the old German
Empire. In the evening the houses on
principal streets were illuminated, the en-
tire population seemed to turn out on the
Lindens, not forgetting Young Germany
with his pistol, and there was uproar
enough for respectfully large Paris revo-
luton. But no disorder took place, and
the few mounted policemen were present
to keep the carriages in order and to pro-
tect the multitude, rather than to per.
iOIH tAclI usudl bubh VI h66piuR Lu0
people moving and preventing anything |
like the formation of crowd.
These exciting and interesting times
lasted until the surrender of Napoleon and
his last army at Sedan, the rejoicing over
this unexampled victory having passed, it
became suddenly very quiet, and Berlin
returned to its staid, serious self. Up to
this point all else had been forgotten in
the glory of the German arms. The mag
nitude of their successes had for time
concealed the magnitude of their losses.
But now the elimination of these sue.
cesses was reached, the character of the
campaign changed, and admitted more
reflection. The period of the striking,
soul inspiring actions of the field was not
indeed past, but the interest centered
more and more around the tedious, anxi.
GUS operations Of the siege. The extent
OF the losses began to make itself felt, the
faarfuI aacrifsno of Efo 70 oknv, o-o,. .oo,n1