The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1875-11-07
PruSSianism.

an article which we publish in another
column taken from the London Saturday
! Revier, of a recent date, treating of the
present condition of Germany. II givee
both sides of the picture. Ga the one
hand, it finds great progress in that country
since the war in one respect and some pro-
gress in another. The first respect is that
of readiness for war. Its military power
has been greatly increased by organization
of its male population and improvement of
the material of war. The most magnificent
Notifications have been made regardless Of
expense, and military weapons brought to
spect in which it is only somewhat better
off, is, in the opinion of the Rerie,c, the
spirit of unifcation. 1t considers that even
in Alsace the people are Germanizing, and
that they are growing resigned in Bavaria.
The religious question it thinks has not
created and will not create much trouble,
because the Germans are disinclined to
ecclesiastical martyrdom.
On the other hand, the RevieW does not
find everything couleur de rose in the Ger
man Empire. Poverty and hard times
have settled down upon the people like a
! 1et blanket, quenching the ardor of their
Ii to military enthusiasm in very matter
of-fact way. Most of them attribute it all
to the war, notwithstanding the enormous
French indemnity. II is the old story.
Every body had plenty of money, specula-
| ton followed, extravaganza became fash
| ionable, credit was overstrained and gave
way; then came tho collapse. When there
is too much credit people buy q great deal
that they don't need, they remit their ex
ertions, living to some extent without
labor, and invest easily borrowed capital in
barren enterprises. They may do other
foolish things with the means put in their
hands by the magician, Credit, but these
three are enough to bankrupt them-ex-
travagance, laziness and improbable in
vestment. The stimulus of q great war
produced in this country exactly the same
chain of results that similar cause appear
to have created for the German people.
But the Saturday RerieW speaks of other
things that can not be traced directly to the
war, and may be called Prussianism it
speaks of general tendency to brutality
and despotism. The chivalric delicacy
which characterizes gentlemen in their re.
latons with the weaker sex has given way
to brutal sensuality, while government
crushes out all individuality of thought,
80 far as it can, by complete gag of the
press thorough system of domestic spies.
What becomes of a people if they lose the
characteristics of gentlemen and freemen
|
soldiers of the highest type. Iron cast in a
rigid mould can never make such a weapon
as tempered steel which has an elasticity of
/ it's own. Heroism is never the creature of
artificial constraint it is the projections of
| a natural growth. Man may make machine
very perfectly, but 1t is great mistake to
consider the soldier machine. His eff
cheney depends on his energy, his enthnsi-
asm, his herOism. Discipline sufices for
ordinary duties, but emergencies come
when the strong will must sustain the
strong arm, when military duty can claim
no more, yet personal devotion volunteers
to labors that could not be compelled, when
discipline itself is routed and honor alone
scorns the frenzied impulse of self preserva-
ton, when the soldier is forgotten and
individual manhood awaits the foe.
We know not if there be recognized
test by which the untried soldier may be
approved, but for us there is one. 1t is his
respectful consideration for the female sex.
Man is made to protect woman, and if he
| hold her in the proper esteem, he will do
it at the expense of his life if necessary.
| This feeling is called chivalry, very much to
the amusement of communities where it is
lacking, but, nevertheless, it is aliving force
before which, in the hearts of striplings and
raw recruits, armies of veterans melt like
snow. Go TO the community where woman is
treated with the greatest Difference and the
mOst genuine courtesy, and you will find
It's men the httest material for military
achievements. The gentlest to the weak
are the most infexible before the strong.