The Savannah morning news., 1903-02-01

ment was unveiled to Lutzow and
jam, the heroes of the war of liberia
ton.
1t is not possible to open German
Illustrated paper, daily. weekly or
monthly, without finding the picture
of some projected or completed mon
ument of this nature. Nor is it pos
sible to open any of these papers with
out finding pictures of military SUBJ
Jects. The soldier-officer or private
lis the prominent figure.
A Land of Fortresses.
Besides all this, the country still is
full of fortresses. Some of them date
back to past centuries. Others are
so modern as the date when stone
forts were useful.
Big cities have been found as with
an iron band by the Notifications that
surround them, preventing any
growth. 1t is only recently that the
government has begun the work of
demollshing some of the mighty walls
and bastions, and razing the deep
gates and trenches that hold many of
the famous German cities in a me-
dieaval frame.
Now Magdeburg, Nets, Strassburg
and other fortified cities are to get
their chance to expand and spread out
into the rich plains around them.
Among the walls that are to go are
some historical ones. whose history
thrills German hearts deeply, as~may
be learned from the inscription on the
stones. Such as these are the walls
of Mainz or Mavence. the old city of
the Archbishops of Mavence. In the
gate of the citadel are corner-stones
from the ancient Roman walls. The
date over this gate is 1860 Another
beautiful and impressive gate is the
Rhine Gate, which is being torn down
now. kastel, too, is to be freed from
its belt of forts With this, there will
go the famous gate with its noble COL
umns and it's grand sculptured lion,
which was built by the Deutsche Bund
in 1882. -.
In and out of the cities. old and
new, march the soldiers. Never is
there day without military OPERA
tons of some kind in Germany. Conn
panieS or regiments are out, here in
practice marches, there in firing drill.
The practice marches are serious.
There are casualties. The German Of
f1cer is not content with mere practice,
He feels impelled to harden his men
to the conditions of real war as nearly
as may be.
Therefore we hear of killings when
an artillery battery dashes out to
make time to a point that is to be
held against an imaginary enemy We
see tremendous charges of cavarly-
such fierce charges as the famous one
of few years ago when two bodies
OF cavalry rode into each other so
desperately that the ensuing collision
caused heavy loss of life.
Many ingenious and costly contriv-
ances are used to perfect the shooting
and fighting qualities of the men. The
German army has immensely heavy
swinging mannikins now, mounted on
rockers. These. are charged by In
fantry with dubbed musket, bayonet
and sword and each soldier must
down the mapnikin engaged by him.
AS the stability of the things is dis
heartentngly great, the men learn to
thrust and strike with strength and
skill that should overpowerl mere HUI
man enemies with ease.
Desperate Artillery Drill.
The artillery has, had to fire at
wooden figures of mounted men which
are drawn rapidly across the field Of
fire from one masking copse or other
cover to another. The battery must
gallop into position, wheel and deliver
its fire during the extremely short in
terval while the figures are in sight.
There is a savage rivalry between bat
teries, and they rush like madmen to
get into position and get their shots in.
To test the new infantry rife 9S, as
well as the firing abilities of the SOL
diers dead horses are suspended on
wire cables and whisked swiftly across
the plain. The chief object is to per-
feet the power of a body of infantry
to ward off the attack from charging
cavalry by shooting it down before
it can possibly reach the men, even
though the mounted force should
burst out of ambush and have only
a short distance to charge
This new infantry arm is somewhat
larger in calibre than most of the new
arms used in European armies, and
the Germans believe that they will
stop an enemy better than the smalles
bullets that may pierce man without
checking his rush.
The German navy has had the SO
model rifles for some time. When the
army is supplied completely, the Ger
mans will have the great advantage
of requiring only one uniform type of
ammunition for small arms for both
sea and land service.
The German navy, while not so
potent in the daily life of the Ger
man people, still shares in the results
of the great national spirit. A few
years ago the men who chose sea duty
to fulfill their obligations to the state
were mostly jewellers on the north
coast. Now the fleet contains 5000
men who dwelled inland, most of
whom never saw the ocean till their
time came to enter the military serv-
ice. A remarkable fact is that out of
this number of 1900, the largest pro-
portion, LOO, are from Alsace-Lor-
raine, the land that was taken from
France after the Franco-Prussian war.
Like Real War.
AS solemnly in earnest as the land
maneuvers are the sea maneuvers of
the Germans. This race, whose eth
biological and historical character is
the reverse of reckless, drives its ships
with calm contemplation as fercely
in practice evofutions as If the work
were being done under fire. In other
words, ships appear to be risked with
a set, measured, deliberate purpose.
The recent German naval calami-
ties cannot we'll be explained in any
other way, for the German sea officer
in navy or merchant marine is as fine
and careful a sailor as there is afloat.
But in drill he is different crea-
ture He drives a torpedo boat in
mock fight as If he swere driving 1t
into a marine Balaclava. He steams
through maneuvers with his big battle
ships as he would in a battle where the
issue meant the extinction or preser-
walton of the empire.
The naval records shows ii.
On Sept 4, 1901. the German cruiser
Wacht was on the port flank of the
port column in the feet maneuver. The
speed of the ships was nine knots. The
Wacht had to pass between the great
Saehsen and Weissenburg. The two
big ships were only 900 feet apart, and
none of the ships tried to decrease
snaad Orders were orders and they