The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1914-08-23
GREATEST ARMY OF
MODERN times
At APoLEON opened his disastrous
Russian campaign in 1Sl2 with
brilliant pageant

N Russian campaign in 1si2 with a
brilliant pageant
WIN "a, me Empress seate6 S,, oes with his MS
court and his servants following MN, N
long procession of coaches, he LETT Paris
on beautiful May morning as Tor Z
fete- Crossing France and the Rhine, ne
entered Germany, where the princes o.
his allied states humbly stood oy the
roadside and waited TO MAKE =, tn ths
The King Of saxony came out TO greet
the master from whom ne mao receIve S
his kingly title and escort him 10 Ores
den, where the Emperor Of Austria, the
King of Prussia, the King OF Bavaria
and the rest Of the saraPs OF Europe
gathered to pay court TO the sovereign
II was Napoleon's first appearance
among them since ne had married into
the family of Kings. and he proudly
displayed Marie Louise, loaded down
with Jewels that dazzled and excited the
envy of the Queens and princesses OF
the subject and impoverished states
Some, indeed. felt that the young En-
press was overproud and too naughty
toward her less fortunate relations;
but with the Emperor's manners no fault
was found. When his father-in-law. the
Emperor Francis, made haste to tell him
the happy news that an antiquarian mac
were a royal family, Napoleon did not
laugh In his face Nor did he permit
the CLINT Of unconcealable hatred IN the
press Marie to discourage his kindly at
tention to her, and he interposed no OBJ
jections to her stripping Marie Louises
rich wardrobe and Jewel case OF every
thing she coveted
A BLUM that Was Called.
Not from idle vanity did Napoleon
stage at Dresden that last spectacle OF
pomp and splendor n the drama OF his
reign As he had gathered the Car ana
his other allies at Erfurt in 1905 10 over
awe Austria, he assembled the Emperor
of Austria and his allies in this second
congress Of kings to let the Car see that
for the war as well as their contingents
of soldiers in the great army which vas
already moving toward the Russian
frontier.
He was leaning strongly on the hops
that demonstration in force would br1ns
Alexander to terms and that the Russian
sovereign would not wait for him to invade
the soil Of his realm Alexander and l.
he said in his review OF the campaign,
were in the position OF. two boosters
sS EIfn9 10 f Eise e each h othsr But
when the Gar had disappointed him by
not showing any sign OF ninching. ne dis
missed his satellites and proceeded 10
Poland and East Prussia to place himself
at the head of his army.
The bottle is open" he said, and
the wine must be drunk How bitter
its dregs were to be no foretaste warned
him as he left the beautiful city by the
Elbe, into which, after seven months, ne
should silently steal back at night IN
sleigh, his army lost and with not even
a trooper for his escort.
The 100000.
The bayonets of more than 10000 men,
drawn from twenty nations, ran ike
hedge from the feet Of the Carpathian
Mountains TO the shores OF the BaIlc-
Coming from the dunes by that northern
sea- from the polders of the Netherlands,
from the plains of Lombardy, and from
the shores of Calabria- they formed the
hod a
the races of the Caucasian world were
in its ranks, and all the tongues OF
Christendom were heard in its camps.
Perhaps no more than a thro were
French Certainly more than a fourth
were Germans from the Rhine states
There were 5000 Austrians, under Prince
SchWarZenburg, and the Prussians num-
bered 10000 Prince Eugene, viceroy Of
italy, brought so. 900 Italians; Prince Po- |
niatowski had 81, 900 Poles. and there were
cohorts of Swiss, Dutch, Croatians, span |
iards and Portuguese.
No ties Of blood or language or nation |
ality, no sentiment of patriotism united |
them. No conscious purpose animated
them. They had not even been told
whom they were to hate and why they |
were to slay; and less than ten in 100 |
Knew Knew they y had been called out to fight
for Napoleon. His sword had drawn them |
together and II alone must hold them to- |
gether.
care and forethought in equipping and
provisioning an army. he had seen per- |
sonally even to the shirts the 10000 wore. |
These cost only 81 cents" he said OF the /
samples. They seem much finer than |
those of the Dutch, which cost Sl-3o." He |
bought 100000 pairs of boots and, by his
orders, the soldiers who had to walk
across Europe to Join his eagles received
four or FIVE pairs each, so that they VIII !
arrive on the Vistula with two pairs in
the knapsack and one pair on their feet.
Enormous supplies had been collected
by him at the headwaters Of the rivers
flowing into the theater OF the war. His
wagon trains numbered thousands of We
hicles and he had $4,000 horses, having
all but emptied the stables Of Europe and
deprived the farmers pillow Of its motive
power.
At the Gates of Russia.
The main body of the army moved
over the wide level fields by the River
Pregal upon which the traveller to St
Petersburg today looks from the car
window of his Berlin train while he APP
breaches the portals of the strange land
Of Muscovy. Although it is only an i'm
aginery line, no other frontier IN the |
world round so stirs the imaginings. One
looks in vain for visible signs OF it No
great military Notifications are TO be
seen frowning across the chalkline that
demarks the empire Of the kaisers from
squad Of German cavalry is disclosed
TO view as it gallops along like frieze
on the horizon.
The Occident does visibly thin out and
taper on through the closing hour of
the trip, but the last town in Germany
is as resolutely Germanic as any place
between the Rhine and the Niemen. Ger
man faces and German mustacheS, Ger
man caps and a German brewery still
boldly assert their nationality. But the
German stationmaster rings the warning
bell, and the train has hardly more than
pulled out Of that German station than
a little brook is crossed-and all things
change in q twinkling. 4
70 That little brook is the moat between L
Germany and Russia, between the Teu-
ton and the Muscovite, between the west
and the east By its farther bank man
standing to his knees in a pair Of big
boots stares vacantly up at the train. His
shaggy, tawny hair. scrambles out from
beneath a high peaked cap and his long
yellow, unkempt beard struggles over the
collar of a robe that is drawn in by
cord at the waist. There is no installing
him. Tolstoi has not only drawn his pic
ture true to life, but in his own GARD
he has impersonated him before the
world That Moujik on the shore OF Rus
STA is the brother Of 1oo,oOJOo0 Russian
peasants.
Everything in his background Is as
Russian as he For while the train was
crossing the brook. a lightning change
Of scene took place that would do credit ,
to the mechanism OF the theatrical stage. II
In the brief course Of journey Of only I