The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1913-12-23

2 Goethe sad: DUTY is the demand
Of the passing hour" and the whole
teaching of his wilhelm Meister" is
do the duty which lies nearest thee"
In DO other Germans has this high
virtue been better exemplified than in
the great Field Marshal Helmuth Won
Moltke and his good wife. Moltke had
a miserable youth, according to his
confession in his letter to Mary Burt,
a young girl who was to be his wife.
BE persuaded. dear Mary" he wrote,
that kindness to every one Is the first
rule of life and saves people whom
you do not like without insincerity or
want Of good faith. The natural friend
Illness of kind heart Is true courtesy
and the finest polish. In my case a bad
bringing up and a youth Of privations
checked it's utterance, and so now |
have acquired coldness and naughty
courtesy, which seldom attracts any
one"
Leaves Home Early.
At the age of II years Moltke left
n home Of privations and harshness
and entered military service, and re-
manned soldier UP to his ninety-first
year. BY a faithful adherence to plain
duties he became one of the worlds
greatest commanders. His rise was
slow and plodding for a while, but at
last came rapid. At every step he was
fully prepared for the next.
When the war between Germany
and France came, in 1870, Moltke had
his plans and details of army organi-
zation so perfected that every guard,
or company, or regiment, or battalion
and corps moved as smoothly and &C
.curately as the parts in the most ex
A.. ,ot~ ohI III &c,
faithful performance of former duties
showed him now that the fall of
France was the inevitable result of
those duties performed The very mo-
ment the German command of For
ward, march," was given the French
Empire was doomed. He knew, and the
German people knew that he knew.
This certainty and precision were as
tonishing. There was not a brook,
lane. a mill, a bridge or farmhouse in
all France that was not marked on his
war maps.
AS early as 1889 he began a thor
ough organization of the Prussian ar
my. France was defeated years before
the Franco-Prussian war broke out.
This great strategist could move his
batallions as easily as he could chess
men on the board. In his campaign
against Denmark in 1866, the efficien-
cy Of the Prussian army made the
whole Of Europe sit up and take no.
tice. A man of simple duty had risen
to great power.
Soldier Is Lover.
Now. it Is pleasant to see another
side of this soldier as revealed in his
beautiful letters to the only woman he
ever loved. This was Mary Burt of
Holstein. When she and Moltke were
betrothed he was a stern soldier, Al
years of age, and she a plain little
German maid of Is. She was an unaf-
fected girl, with a remarkable sweet
classic face. She was unconscious of
her personal charms. She disdained
the arts of the toilet and was so free
from vanity that it never entered her
little head to wish for new dress or
an ornament of any kind. She was as
pure and sweet and simple as Goethe's
Margaret.
When they were married he was 43
and she II. 1t was a wonderfully hap
by marriage. The stern and tacituru
man of war was all tenderness and
simplicity in his love for her. See how
the man of iron wrote to this beauti-
full, tender flower:
My little Mary, many years of OPP
pTeSSlpH Ill "ulSh gre" up pei
nently injured my character, suppress
ed my true feelings and stifled all true
and proper pride. Do help me from
now on to improve myself. I dare say
you have noticed that I am sometimes
moody. Just leave me alone on these
occasions. l shall come back to you.
| will take pains to improve. Some one
has said that there are only two kinds
of marriages--those in which the hus-
band is under petticoat rule, the others
are unhappy unions. l desire nothing
better than to be at your mercy, and
it will be your part to bring me to that
point by your gentleness, compliance
and kindness. | am sure that / shall
often fall short of other men whom
you will see. At every ball you will
find some who dance and dress better
than I. and at every party some whose
conversation is brighter and who are
better tempered than l."
Prepares For Wife.
But Mary the betrothed rapidly pre-
pared herself for her position as
German housewife, in cooking, sew
ing and the management of household
accounts. She also studied English,
French and Russian, and absorbed his
tory and biography. She pledged her
self. to duty as a fit companion for
strong man, and from the day when
sunbeam lighted her face as her
father placed her hand In that OF Mott