Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1906-09-05
LETTER FROM MUNICH.

LETTER FROM MUNICH.
Correspondence Of the Alexandria Gazette,
Munich, Aug. 81.
Next to Russia, Germany has the
largest standing army in the world.
This fact bears directly upon the school
conditions OF the country, as your cor
respondent will try to show. The COM
mon German soldier is a strapping, hsr-
dy, handsome fellow, in his red and blue
uniform, aud he is in many respects
privileged character. He is we'll clothed,
fe1 aud housed; his allowance in cash,
during his time of service, is fifteen
pieDnigs day, which would equal in
American money about four cents. That
supplies him with beer, tobacco, shoe
polish, etc., supposing always that he
receives no allowance from home.
"Children and military hali-fare" is q
familiar sign 10 plfces of.public amuse-
ment and onvey ance, and here, perhaps.
more than elsewhere, are special terms
and privileges accorded to the wesrer OF
a uniform.
Every boy of normal physique aud
understanding in the land, no matter
what bis rank may be, must serve his
time as q soldier. There Is no escape from
it, but be may choose between the age OF
Is and %, which year, or years, he will
devote to the service. Failing to reach
a certain standard in his. high school
work, his term OF service is three whole
years. Passing a satisfactory examina-
tion. bis term of service is only one
year.
When one considers that three years
NAV be taken out of boys life, just at
the time he is most likely to enter a
trade or profession, and that during
that time he is earning practically moth
ing, it will be readily understood that it
is matter of pride in all respectable
families, to get their sons through in one
year. With this object always before
them, the little German boy is Kept very
conscientiously with his nose to the
school grindstone. Failure to reach the
standard OF an "Einyshriger," or "One-
year-man," means expense to the parents,
delay in settling himself for life, and, in
a certain sense, disgrace and loss OF
standing.
And so there Is a second enormous
army, perhaps less conspicuous, but OF
even greater Importance, in Germany,
the army of school.boys, the scldiers Of
the uniformed thousands was once a boy,
so in the ordinary course of events, every
school-boy with his pack of books upon
bis back is destined to serve his time as
a soldier, and he is never SLOWED 10 lose
sight of that fact. All over Germany,
these two armies, the soldiers OF the
present and the soldiers of the future,
are much in evidence.
Uniformed men passing in and out OF
dingy barracks; nondescript boys pass
ing in and out of dipgy scheolrooms. As
the boys of the nation are educated and
disciplined, the standard of the army is
raised, and the army is the strength and
pride Of the nation.
Il has always appeared TO the writer
that the school children here we're over
worked, especially the boys, but when
one understands the conditions, 1t be-
comes apparent that there is nothing else
TO he dom. Out of theueIlittle grey-cloak-
ed lads, seen moving through the grey of
the early morning, toward the grim,
grey old school that seem to swallow
them up, there develop, in few years.
hardy, self reliant, disciplined men, clad
in bright colors, marching to military
music, exercising under the strictest re.
gime, in barrack-courts that blaze with
light and heat.
Many winter evening, after the
lights 10 the streets we're lit, have for
gotten this, and felt a sort of indignation
rise in me at meeting the stream of ssl.
low, nervous, spindle-legged, bespec-
tacled little boys on their homewsrd way,
loaded with exercises to be worked out
at home, under the severe eye OF
father whose boyhood was also sacrificed
to the ambition of an "Einyahriger."
No mother could restrain sort Of
crazy wish to pick up these over-worked
little bookworms, and, escaping with
them to America, to turn then loose at
a rough and tumble at football, on such
a green campus as that at the Episcopal
High School at Virginia, U. s. A. ! No
doubt it would do them good. "All
work and no play makes Jack dull
boy.' This simple old adage is proven
here; shy, nervous, gawky boys abound;
but it seems to come right in the end,
aud if 10 their childhood something Of
the sunshine and play OF life is lost to
them, they are perhaps compensated, in
that they have established a strong,
characteristic manhood, and having
learned to obey, have learned to com
msnd. 1t is thoroughly disciplined
nation. M. M. A.