The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-05-29
AMERICANS LAMPOONED.
Reply OF the Deutscher Kriegerbund
TO Coghlan's Satire.

q 1okh AtoS
Painful as the duty will be to the am.
bassador of the United States at Berlin.
We fear that 1T ,devolves upon our gov
eminent to make representations and
demand explanations concerning some
essential majestats beleidigung on the part
Of the Deutscher Kriegebund. II there must
be calls and correspondence when one Amer
lean captain recites a gentle satire on the
Kaiser, what must there be when a whole
association of German warriors (Deutscher
gramme of their fest a violent iampoon on
the Yankee Nation, tapering of in an APP
parent threat of its determination.
to call the German governments attention
to this typically refined ot Of German
humor:
"A smart man is the Yankee man,
Still smarter is his lady,;
Fen though her stockings have a hole
She always is all ready"
Here is the question raised of comparative
social codes. Had American humor run in
German channels and Captain -Coghlan's
song contained a reference to the wardrobe
Of her Majesty the German Empress. DR..
Won Holleben would promptly have asked
for his passports. For, of course. the Kaiser
would resent an insult to his august spouse
The Yankee LADY,. e.. the typical Amer
lean woman the Kreigerbund bard depicts
as a ~slattern. is the American Empress
that is TO say, the feminine portion OF the
sovereign people. AS we pointed out In the
earlier stages of this controversy, this coun-
try has quite as much right TO enforce it's
SteS OL ohAAtC eROh III ca 90 Stl
has to enforce its own upon this country.
The final stanzas of the song bring up to
the comparative status OF the offenders
Captain Coghlan and the Kriegerbund:
What says the Deutscher Kriegerbund
To Coghlan's foolish jabber?
Has not each man, from habit. put
His right hand to his saber?
as not each waiting the command,
The Satchword of the night
Forward We German soldiery'7
Coghlan The devil bitei"
From this ii appears that these Teu-
tonic knights are on a footing far more
warlike than was the American officer at
the time of his return from Manila. They
have sabers; they have hands on them:
they call themselves German soldiery: they
threaten 10 make Coghlan bite the devil,
or the devil bite Coghlan, which is not quite
clear. owing 10 the somewhat involved nat
ture of German literary construction. But
such is the impetuosity of the German SOL
diery (see history Of Eleventh Corps at
charlottesville and Gettysburg) that we
! career after Coghlan bites the devil. Surely
the part of Harlem surrounding the bier
halle or weinhandlung in which this lied Is
nightly surg must approach a state OF war
every tine the devil bites Coghlan. The
text, therefore. we think. settles the ques-
ton of responsibility. The members Of the
Kriegerbund are veterans Of the Franco
Prussian war, prepared. when
'Holleben joins the dance"
as the song elsewhere says, TO engage in
a German-American war. The Kriegerbund
Is plainly amenable TO the discipline of the
German army. We must insist at least on a
reprimand. We think, too, hat the German
consul should stop their local tick for Frank
furter and kartoffel salad-all OF which II
as sensible and serious an argument as that
attention when 2~ropounded by DR.. Won Hol-
leben.