The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1899-06-24
l3ERMANY'S ALERT ARMY
THIRTY THOUSAND MEN READY TO
MARCH IN THIRTY MINUTES.


AS all the world knows, Metz and .
strasburg, the outposts of the Ger y
man army, face watchfully toward the q
west, SAYS q correspondent of the Lon =
don Mail. From the gates Of Metz the +
roads to Paris taper through wall after Il
wall of entertainments, which ends IN :,
the heights above the stricken field OF Il
Gravelotte. Thence to the frontier OF q
France is only short walk across the =
erave-covered ground, q walk that in 9
the course of some investigation for
the Daily Mail I have lately made.
When you have been half an hour in ;
Metz and Strasburg you see that you !,
are in the entrenched camp of an army
ready for war. Infantry, cavalry, ar
tillery and the rest of two complete
army corps are all equipped as II for
instant active service. What General
Lebeuf untruthfully said of France in
1870 is true of Germany in 1888
| ssNot shoelace is wanting"
Touch the right button in Berlin,
and in half an hour 80, 900 men will be
marching from Metz, and within
twelve hours 100, 900 men-the from
tier field force of Alsace-Lorraine-
will be crossing the border; while the
system in accordance with which the
railroads tap all the great environments
of Germany, and then converge on to
the frontier, will land half a million |
men near Metz in three days. In a
week two and half million men will
he ON hand beyond the frontier; IN a
week four million Germans will be I'M
der arms. -
| In Metz and Strasburg stores and
food and fodder lie ready in the maya
zines, the transport animals stand
har aessed by the wagons. All the ap-
alliances and munitions of modern war
are to hand, and would be on the road
in a few minutes. When the troops
90 "route marching" they carry with
them three days. food and three days
ammunition; their clothes are in their
knapsacks. They can carry no more
in war.
The German army is ready for de-
, fence, too. Metz and Strasburg are
really nothing more than comfortable
!. European "zarebas" (stockades). On
three sides of both are the most per-
fecfed of entrenched works, ending
everywhere in glacis Ia gentle slope,
smooth and tended as q lawn, gently
sloping downwards towards the west;
while on the fourth side is river
and in reserve, in rear of both camps,
!, is a third modified army corps across
the Rhine; and in rear of that all the
organized resources of the Fatherland
. stand unobtrusively ready. The out
y side circle Of defence at Metzis chair
;; of forts, some of them ell but invisi
u BILE. These are armed with none
know how many heavy guns-for non,
- may enter but the great staff itself
This circle is three miles from tn
y city, its centre; the forts are abou
:, three miles apart, and so the fire from
u each would cover the space which lie
II between them. That is to say, ex
n cent YOU pass through the fre-zone o
a smash one of the links Of the chat
~ you can assuredly not enter to attac
- Metz itself.
10 No enemy can approach with
:, four miles of the chain Of forts unles
~ he first demolishes the forts, and 9
40 these are dug from the inside OF th
~ hills and offer no broader target tina
70 the muzzles of their guns you wi
no conclude that Metz is practically in
10 pregnable. I approached one of the'
or forts as closely as sentry would allo
10 me. The garrison of two regimen
:. of infantry and one regiment of arti
. 20 lery live in an excavated barrack whit
lio is entirely underneath the surface
'w the ground and completely hidde
from view. As seen from the Fren'
NO side, nothing whatever shows exec
- one long mound, from which protru
Ivy rows of loopholes of various size
no Even as seen from the rear You G
WI get no more idea of what is with
On than you know what are the confer
;, of q coal mine when you have OF
O. stood above the shaft.
Surprising that you are an invad
and that you have passed this chain
to forts, you find yourself in space
100 open ground some two miles brol
cry Even then you are only on anoti
the glacis, for you are now within the d
big zone of the batteries in the first i
hat of the entrenched works, which
The mediately surround the city itself.
of, the front lines Of these works are,
800 Strasburg, the heavy siege guns
feared to ask how many; the gum
are live within the earthworks themsely
the while on either flank and immediat
are in rear are entertainments and inf
rom try lines; in rear again, more
ious trenchments, and the lines OF cava
lied and field artillery. Close to each
lrse, their several magazines, which
lied tain all they need, while in rear OF
tor are the engineers, with their dc
rally and park" the commissariat
to telegraph and hospital corps, '
chor their depots, the artillery werksh'
. not In Strasburg lie the stores and
pedimenta of two army corps for
an years. And thus, in the midst OF
an circle Of rifles and cannon. the
/, and ilian element-copsiderable at 81
,ping burg, small at Metz-pursues its
mar the shopkeepers and merchants
with about their work in the old FRI
An cities. But if you, among the 81
been of Strasburg, are ever inclined to
g for that you are in a camp Of troops