Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-05-18
SOLDIERS,
An Illustration of Military Discl-
 pline In Germany.
A JOKE TAKEN IN EARNEST.

The Story an Enslishman Tells of an
 Amusing Incident In Which He Par
 .ticipated During visit to the Bat
 tIefisld of Worth.
 Tho dociiity and blind obedience of the German soldier have long been an object of comment. The. Germans themselves recognize that 1t sometimes goes so far as to be absurd. An Eng lishman, writing in the London Times, describes an amusing incident which occurred after he had spent q day tramping about the battlefield of Worth. He was dressed, 1t should be noted, in regular civilian clothes and carried an umbrella:
 Emerging from wood, came upon a plot of grass where about dozen German soldiers were resting. The spirit moved me to stop and speak to these men-emphasizing my mean ing by signs when my scant German vocabulary failed me.
 I asked, ''Are you PrussiansT' The indignant answer, in chorus. was: 'NO! Saxonsr'
 "oh." said I, wishing to conciliate. T am Anglo-Saxon."
 Much to my astonishment, one of them got up and shook me warmly by the hand. Pointing to my dusty boots and flannel shirt, unbuttoned at the neck, then, in vile German. explained to my friends of five minutes standing that had made the grand tour of the battlefield on foot md had been walk ing since Q o'clock in the morning, 1t then being in the afternoon. Quite casually remarked that al- though mot military, but naval of- flcer," the study of battlehelds inter ested me.
 At the mention of the word officer all the men sat up. buttoned their tu- nics and buckled on their swords or bayonets-l forget which.
 "Are you going to Niederbronn 1" was my next question.
 "Yes," they replied: i've are going to walk to Niederbronn and there take the train to Bitsch,"
 What evil genius prompted me to make the next remark cannot tell, but although uttered in joke its con- sequences were perfectly astounding.
 q, too, am going to Niederbronn You are my regiment. am your colo nel,"a
 Up they sprang to their feet. fell in two deep and kept quite silent as If on parade. "Right turnr' and of we marched. I carrying my umbrella as fl | 1t were sword
 Ereasting grassy slope. we marched np to the top at u swinging pace, still observing perfect silence and in step A short distance cfr was solitary sol dier of the same regiment lying at full length on q bench near the en trance to a wood--tunic unbuttoned sword unbuckled. and so forth. On catching sight of the approaching squad up he jumped. buttoned his tunic. buckled on his weapon, stood rigidly at attention and when the "reg iment" came by tailed on" as if il was the most natural thing in the world to do.
 Please note that not a word passed between the main body and the re enforcement. On entering the wood the leading file began to sing march ing song, the others joining in chorus By this time we were nearing Nieder bronn and passed man and his wife who were evidently much astonished to see disciplined body of men marching in strict military. fashion un der the command of foreigner armed with an umbreila--not even silk one A disconcerting thought arose What will happen if we chance across a German officer. and how, In my broken German. can ever hope to ex plain this extraordinary assumption of command of the forces of the kaiser? So without moments further delay I said to the men, q must go to my hotel. which is over there," and bade them goodby.
 These docile and. amiable Saxonf with one accord. taking time by the leading file, saluted, and I. having re turned their salute. got out of sight as rapidly as possible. On peeping round the corner of house there was my latc regiment" still marching with