The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-11-24

generals and these .buresux' are. the birthplace of graft and pull (to use the American expfeasfon) and the tombs of all military reforms"
 The artillery is short of guns, both field guns and mitrailleuses and condi- Franco German frontier areAfndescrib-l able" ten his book not to create . senaation but to prove the necessits of . thor ough tnvestig igatiop before 1t is too late. / Coming at ., time when relevations concerning scandafouS dtttonE fu the German fortress of Nets has narrowly arerted the French book is being sold by the thousands of copies in Ger many.
 Speed Limit Reached.
 T do not think 1t possible to build faster boats propelled by steam than the ..Lusitanias and sMauretanfa," 1" Herr Balifn. President Of the Hamburg American, Line said in an interview just after his return from Engla nd. and our company is not thinking of win ming back the Atlantic championship people, but we will build larger, much larger boats. and build them So com fortable that all travellers with . ex- ception of the few American business men, to whom few hours gained are of importance. will prefer our boats to the latest greyhounds.'
 'aThe very fast boats must necessari- ly be run at a heavy loss and could not be run without subsidies from the government such as we cannot look for in Germany" '
 Criticized The Empress.
 A sentence of three months hard labor which had been passed on A Bohemian working man named Letter for speaking in a derogatory manner of the Empress Maria Theresa has been confirmed by the Court of Appeals in Vienna.
 Letter had declared in the course of a public house discussion that Maria Theresa. who died in 17S0, was the cause of the existing unesual incidents of the taxes in the monarchy.
 The extraordinary sentence Is based on Section 64 of the Austrian Criminal Law. which punishes as iese majeste insults directed -aFainst either living or dead members of the Imperial House
 To Fight of Nots
 To fight or not to fight, that is the question In the German army and navy. II you are ap officer in German naval or military service and somebody off, fends you. you are punished if you challenge the offender and fight a duel with him, because German law forbids dueling. but If you don't challenge. you are forced out of the service as a coward
 The case of Vice Admiral von Ahle- feldt who was unexpectedly retired immediately after having been made chief of the North Sea Naval station proves this.
 A certain naval architect named Arthur Mayer. who was lieutenant in the naval reserve, became embodied in dispute with Ernest steinhauer another lieutenant in the reserve at Wilhelmshaven. Two weeks later Steinhauer sent two seconds to chal- lenge Mayer to a duel, but Mayer re- fected the challenge on the ground that the code of honor required that Stein hauer should have challenged i'm mediately instead of allowing a fort night to elapse before doing SO.
 The question was referred to the off, ficers' court of honor. and this semi official tribunal decided that bofh Mayer and Steinhauer must be struck off the list of officers of the naval re- serve Steinhauer because he allowed a fortnight to pass before sending his challenge. and Mayer because he re- fused to fight.
 This was strange enough but a more strange sequel followed. When Vice. Admiral Ahlefeldt took common at Wilhelmshaven six month ago he paid the usual calls, including one to Naval Architest Mayer, who was attached to the staff of the Imperial dock-yard. The Vice-Admiral subsequently, learn ing that Mayer had been struck off the list of officers of the naval reserve by the Court of Honor. wrote him a note saying: Please consider the that my call was never made"
 Mayer thereupon sent two seconds to challenge the Admiral. who. however. declined to fight Mayer then Vice. Admiral Abelfeldt to the Court of Honor. which met and de- cided that the vice-Admiral acted fm- properly in rejecting Mayors challenge.
 vice-Admiral Ablefeldt immediately sent in his resignation. which was at once accepted and Mayer was trans ferred to the Imperial dock-yard at Kfel. s(