The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-04-16

almost wish that he would be less pacific.
If he would be moro respectful OF pariia-
mentsry usage. in his language"
France is in the direction OF war Is seen
every day in the elusive sentimentality OF
the nation toward Russia. The Russian
royalties are the biggest lions the COS
m0Dolltan city ever entertains, and the
Russian flag is seen SO often in loving com
pany with the t%ricolor. that you could al
most imagine the two flags were one, with
but q single thought. That the Russian
bear and the Republican LIANT shouio Dc on
terms of such gushing affection Is q
singular spectacle. and there can be only
one explanation of it.
WILLING TO PA FOR 1T.
Another warlike symptom il The great
popularity of the army and the compare
tive cheerfulness with which the nation.
at enormous expense. has resolved itself
within o few years into q universal mill
tary camp. Germany submits to new ex-
actions with reluctance: she ohafes and
kicks under o military system which would
have to be far more severe than it IL to tax
the nation either In pocket or per-
son as the French are taxed. In Germany
at present the contribution per head
for national defense is only abous two
thirds as much as the people of France are
paying, and general taxation thore does
not amount per head to even One-half what
it Is here. The fact IS. no people in Europe
are taxed as the French are. and the re8-
son they submit with so good q grace is I'M.
doubtedly because their feelings are
aroused. They have q great loss to retrieve
and o wounded spirit to revenge, n the
way In which at present they pay out their
earnest of how, when the need arises, they
will pour out their blood in this cause.
~Paradoxicel as 1t may seem, the least
warlike of all the things one sees in France
10 Yha nhUatpnA nf fha Eronnh
soldier. You meet plenty OF military men
on the etreets of Paris. but one could hardly
be afraid of them. They look decidedly
pretty, but not at all formidable. There
general run of these soldier boys are
boyish looking in the extreme. W it'll
short. emf frames. and with hardly
enough masCulinity in hem-s 1t would
seem-to bristle out into even Q vigorous
looking military mustache. As regards
officers, the specimens you see OF the
streets of Berlin are a race of giants in
comparison with those who trip daintily
along the boulevsrds of Paris Man to
man; the French b., would surely rave no
be one Of strategy and science. not
one of brute force. The fighting
will be lone by machines and
brains, and if the French are superior to
the m in their possession of these
requisites they may come of victorious in
spite of their disproportionate stature; es-
pecially if their army shall retain until
that time Its present numerical 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 conld be struck with
tho certainty of success. and should
then proceed to strike 1t. winning
back the two lamented provinces and treat
ing tine Germans as the French themselves
were treated n couple of decades ago, il
would not be asked again-certainly not
for many years-whether she republic had
come to stay. Such q victory would do
more to establish the existing form of gov
ernment than could be done in twenty
years of peace. even If those years were
unvaryingiy prosperous. The test OF war
has yet to come to this regenerated 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 de-
feat, and in the event of q repetition of the
disaster of 1871 it Is .dificult to believe,
after all we know of the French tempera-
ment and of French history, that the Re-
publican government. as il exists to-day.
would faro any better than the government
Of Napoleon did. But as TO this. If we live
long enough we shall see for ourselves.
HENRY