Morning journal and courier., 1893-04-10

ers, and with q passion for military olorv
such as no other of the great powers Of
Europe has shown, 1t was hardly to be ex-
pected that they would accept German
domination as a permanency without at
least one effort 10 rid themselves Of a.
And, of course, their partial dismsmber- |
msnt by the annexation to Germany of Al |
ssce and Lorraine, made this additionally
unlikely. That Russian diplomat who. AZ |
ter the treaty of Frankfort, conpratulsted |
the Iron Chancellor upon having anne1ed |
an open wound, did not miss the marx
very far. The annexed provinces are
wounds indeed, and they have any amount |
of proud flesh In them. An index of |
French feeling on the subject is afforded
constantly In the Place de la Concorde.
where the statue of Strassburg is almost
always decorated with emblems of nation
al mourning, and what Ia still more sug-
gestve, you can zee In some of the shop
windows q photograph of this statue,
with the inscription beneath it-'sTaken
by the Germans 1870; retAken by the
French 1S9-.n
These are only straws. to be sure, but
they show plainly enough In what dIreo-
tion the popular feeling is SET Recently,
too, Was French sensitiveness on this SUBJ
ject put to a rather severe strain, the Of
Tending party being, unfortunately, the
German chancellor, Count Won Capriyi.
His great army bill speech Was In one view
decidedly fsttering to French vanity. 1t
is quite certain that ordinarily the French
would not object to hear their cspItal
spoken Of as "a fortified city such as the
world has never known before" or to be
reminded that their forts are equipped
with all the strength Of modern science"
and that they have "army corps which are
very different FROM those of 1870" Such
sayings would make sweet mus!s In French
ears, assuming their source to be sgreea-
bic and their motive above suspicion But
when Caprivi says these things for The
purpose of converting the Germans TO his
own view of their enhanced military re-
quiTenents, and when, In saying them, be
takes the Germany army Across the west
ern frontier and in thought piants 1t once
more before the walls uf Paris, the cAse 10
SO altered that compliments become almost
as stinging as bullets would be.
French feeling was deeply touched by
this speech-"Peace Was the pretext," said
q member Of the cabinet, commenting
upon 1t, "but war was the subject II de
Csprivi not only says publicly that war is
possible, but he even dEells lovingly upon
the spectacle which the German army
would witness were Il to enter French ter
ritory. / an well aware that NJ. de Capri
vi ia q general, and that this sort Of talk
lie also an imperial chancellor, upon whom
depend the diplomatic relations between
his country and other powers, and be as
suredly ought not to speak In that style.
Under the circumstances we could almost
wish that he would be less pacific, II he
would be more respectful of parliamentA-
~ usage in his lsngusge."
A very pslpsble proof that the bent of
France is In the direction of war is seen
every day in the effusive sentimentslity of
the nation toward Russia. The Russian
royalties are the biggest lions this cosmo-
politsn city ever entertains, and the Rus
sian fsg Is seen so often in loving oomps-
ny with the rri-color that you could almost
imagine the two flags were one, with but q
single thought. That the Russian bear
and the republican lamb should be on
terms of such gushing affection is a singu-
lar spectacle, and there can be only one
explanation of 1t.
Another wsrlike symptom is the great
popularity of the army and the compare
tive cheerfulness with which the nation, at
enormous expense, has resolved itself with
in few years into q universal military
camp. Germany submits to new exact
ions with reluctance; she chafes and kicks
under g military system which would have
to be far more severe than it is to tax the
nation either In pocket or person as the
French are taxed. In Germany at present
the contribution per head for national de-
fence is only about two-thirds as much as
the people of France are paying, and gene
raj taxation there does not amount per
head to even one-half what 1t is here
The fact is no people in Europe are taxed
as the French are, and the reason thsy
submit with 80 good grace is undoubted-
ly because their feelings are aroused.
They have q great loss to retrieve and q
wounded spirit to svenge, and the way In
which at present they pay out their money
in taxes is only too palpsble sn earnest of
how, when the need arises, they will pour
out their blood In this cause.
Psrsdoxiosl as 1t may seem, the least
war-like OF all the things one eees In
France Ia the physique of the average
French soldier. You meet plenty of mill
tary men on the streets of Paris, but one
could hardly be afraid of them. They look
decidedly pretty, but not at sll formids-
BILE. There are many exceptions, of course,
but the general run of these soldier boys"
are boyish looking In the extreme. with
/ short, slender frames, and with hardly
/ enough mssculinity in them-so 1t would
seem-to bristle out into even q vigorous
looking military moustsche. As regards
officers, the specimens you see on the
streets of Berlin are q race of giants In
III
along the boulevards of Paris. Man to
man, the French would surely have no
i chance, But the coming war will be one
/ of strategy and science, not one of brute
force. The fighting viii bs done by ms-
chimes and brains, and IL the French are
superior to the Germans in their posses
sion of these requisites, they may come
i off victorious In spite of their dispropor-
tionate stature; especially If their army
II II. III -.xg- IL Al. 81
Il merical supremacy.
| This question of peace or war is linked
In France to another grave question. If
those in power should discern the time
/ when q blow could be struck with the GER
tsinty of success, and should then proceed
to strike 1t, winning back the two lAmented
provinces and treating the Germans as the
French themselves were treated a couple
of decades ago, 1t would not be asked
again-certainly not for many years
whether the republic had come to stay.
Such victory would do more to establish
the existing form of government than could
be done In twenty yesrs of peace, even II
these years were unvaryiDglF prosperous.
The test of war has yet to come to this re-
generated nation, and until that has been
reached and safely passed, the man who
should say that the republic is necessarily
permanent would either be very rAsh or
very ignorant The French people become
desperate under defeat, and In the event
of a repetition of the disaster of II, Ii lie
difficult to believe, after all we know Of
the French temperament and Of French
history, that the republican government,
as 1t exists to-day, would fare any better
than the government of Napoleon did.
But as to this, If we live long enough we
shsll see for ourselves. II. T.
Do not be hoodwinked. Use no '.iust
as good" Salvation OIL is what you want