The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1909-03-12
TALES OF
AN OBEDIENT ARMY.

uG uOClllly anu VI
/ the German soldier have long been
| an object of comment The Germans
themselves recognize that it some
| times goes so far as to be absurd.
| An Englishman, writing in the Lol-
! don Times, describes an amusing in
cident which occurred after he had
/ spent a day tramping about the bat
/ tlefie1d of Worth He was dressed, it
should be noted, in regular civilian
clothes, and carried an umbrella.
/ Emerging from wood, l came
upon a plot of grass where about a
dozen German soldiers were resting.
The spirit moved me to stop and
speak to these men-emphasizing my
meaning by signs when my scant Ger
man vocabulary failed me.
asked, Are you Prussians?" The
indignant answer, in chorus, was,
mo. Saxons!"
oh" said I, wishing to conciliate,
Il 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 min
utes' standing that | had made the
grand tour of the battlefield on foot,
/ and had been walking since 9 o'clock
in the morning, it then being in the
afternoon.
/ Quite casually, I remarked that
although mot military, but a naval
officer" the study of battlefields in
terested me.
At the mention of the word "offi-
cer' all the men sat up, buttoned
their tunics and buttoned on their
swords, or bayonets-I forget which.
/ Are you going to Neiderbronn?
was my next question.
/ Yes" the replied, 1--WE are going
to walk to Niederbronn, and there
take the train to Bitsch."
What evil genius prompted me to
make the next remark l cannot tell,
but although uttered in joke, its con-
sequeces were perfectly astounding.
Il, too, am going to Niederbronn.
You are my regiment. l am your
colonel"
Up they sprang to their feet, fell in
two deep, and kept quite silent, as if
on parade. Right turn!" and off we
marched, carrying my umbrella as
If it were a sword.
/ Breasting grassy slope, we
marched up to the top at swinging
pace, still observing perfect silence,
and in step. A short distance off was
a solitary soldier, of the same regi-
ment, lying at full length on bench
near the entrance to the wood-tunic
unbuttoned, sword unbuckled, and so
forth.
On catching sight of the approach
ing squad, up he jumped, buttoned
his tunic, buckled on his weapon,
stood rigidly at attention, and when
the regiment" came by, tailed on, -
as if it was the most natural thing in
the world to do.
Please note that not a word passed
between the main body and the re-en-
forcement. On entering the wood the
leading file began to sing marching
song, the others joining in chorus.
BY this time we were nearing Nieder-
bronn, and passed a man and his wife,
who evidently were much astonished
to see a disciplined body of men,
marching in strict military fashion,
under the command of a foreigner
armed with an umbrella-not even a
silk one!
A disconcerting thought arose.
"What will happen if we chance
across a German officer-and how, in
my broken German, can l ever hope
to explain this extraordinary assump-
tion of command of the forces of the
Kaiser?" So, without moment S
further delay, I said to the men, 81
must go to my hotel, which is over
! there" and bade them good-by.
These docile and amiable Saxons
| with one accord, taking time by the
/ leading file, saluted, and I, having
returned their salute, got out of sight
as rapidly as possible. On peeping
round the corner of q /house, there
was my late regiment" still march
ing with the regularity of clockwork