Evening journal., 1913-09-26
GOSSIP OFTHE COURTS


Emperor's accession to the German
throne.
The battle monument stands above
Leipzig plains where French and Ger
mans and the allies of both fought.
Leipzig long since has reached out to
the battlefield, suburbs stand on what
the maps indicate as the French and
German positions, and only here and
there are to be seen fields like those
that the combatants traversed. Tour
lists have TO hunt out now the stone
that marked the place where Napoleon
watched and ordered the contest a
little block of granite. weather-worn.
with a folded cock hat and sword
carved on the top OF Il. Il is the me-
mortal of the defeated while nearby
is the mammoth monument that the
victorious nation has erected. The
centennial exhibition. with which
Leipzig is signalling the anniversary
stretches almost up TO both me-
mOrials
The German people have paid for
the monument, though not without
some urging during the years of the
collection of the funds, therefore it
deserves its name "Voelke- -Schlacht-
Denkmal' memorial of the battle Of
the people, The monument is finish
cd now, all but the mirror of water
in front of H. that is to reflect IL and
all the trees that are to soften the
bare outline of green terraces about
il. II is built Of dark, rough stone,
hewn in huge blocks.
II is a cyclOpean monument in the
fashion that Prussian architecture af-
fects for all its out-of-door me-
morials: thick. square and solid, in
tended to impress by mass and
strength. Terraces mount to it; on
/ the base is carved a colossal figure of
! ST. Michael, the warrior archangel.
For the Germans. like the English,
are convinced that the celestial pow
ers are on their side To the right
and left of the warrior archangel the
stone is carved to represent a battle
! field strewn with the agonizing dead.
while down upon ii look divinities of
war. Then rises the solid trunk of
the monument. Beneath the top a
square block of stone, with a ring of
/ IL
strength of the people.
Until last year the Napoleonic cen
tenarios that had been coming thick and
fast for a decade i'm Europe went almost
uncommemoiated France, for obvious
reasons. did not care to celebrate even
those which are of its greatest glories
In 1912 the Russians set about the com.
memoation of the battles that drove
the French Emperor from their country
Russians say that common national
impulse prompted those celebrations, and
not a command from the authorities
Similarly, in Germany this year, th,
commemoration Of "the iron year. o.
the war in which the Germans regaine,
their independence and first asserted
their unity is a celebration from popu
lar, rather than official, Impulse spring
from the whole people. with emotions
stirred and imaginations touched,
The historical truth is that the Prus
sian court of 1913 and the bureaucrac,
followed the revolt of the people against
the French rather than led it. The he
roes of 1913 Nere soldiers like Blnechc
and York: leaders of the people lilSi
koerner; commoners, who also wer
statesmen. like Stein. II was the Ger
man people, by a common upspringlna
and uniting of the national will, that
drove the French out of Germany and
reccnquered their Independence. Ther
and there German unity began, and tho
source of il was not the government MOI
the army, but the people.
The national popular impulse of lsl'
seems reborn in the commemoration o
1918. II is not. the government nor thu
federated states that are most ardent
! for it; IT is the commou people who fioel
by hundreds 10 see the battle monu
ment and who buy most of the souve
{ Mrs of 1913 who have fought anc
! achieved the gospel Of German civic free