The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1914-10-23
Writes Interestingly to Miss
Hattie Jahnke of Scenes in
Berlin.
BELIEVES GERMANS
WILL WIN IN WAR
Declares Patriotism of People
Was Impressive and That
Berlin Is Safe Place.

Writing to her friend, Miss Hattie
Jahnke Of 521 Beech street, Virginia,
Miss Florence Grayling, who who has
just returned to New York from Ber-
lin, and other points on the continent,
where she has been studying music,
gives a graphic description of the
scenes in Berlin following the decla-
ration of war. Miss Grayling's letter
was written on board the Royal Mail
Steamer Adriatic on Oct. 18 and was
received in Virginia yesterday. In
part it is as follows:
"When l left Paris paper money
was not accepted as exchange. l went
through Liege and Namur in Belgium.
I found Berlin very interesting and
was downtown very often to get re-
ports. l sat a whole day in front Of
the Schloss the day war was declared.
War was declared at 6 o'clock p. m.
and a prayer service was held in the
Dom church. The entire royal fami-
ly was there except the kaiser. The
crowds were very large. The whole
Inter Den Linden was one mass Of
people. heard the prayer service and
it was beautiful.
Impressive Talk of Minister.
"The minister said the country was
about to engage in war such as had
never before been known in history
and prayed that God would direct the
German arms. The patriotism OF
the people was very impressive. They
tried to show the kaiser their loyalty
by singing and cheering before the
palace. Sometimes they would cry
out: eve want to- see. our kaiser" The
kaiser and the kaiserin came out on
the balcony of the palace and thanked
the people for their loyalty. The
crowd was just as large before the
palace Of the crown prince. Those
days nobody remained at home. Every
body was down town. One day Is
airships passed over Berlin. Then the
mobilization took place and Berlin was
cleared of foreigners. We all had to
carry our passports all the time.
81 was never taken for anything but
an American. l could hear the people
say: What is she?' and then someone
would answer An American Later
we all wore American flags. They
we're suspicious Of spys. Some Of them
were caught wearing the German
military uniform.
"Really the way Germany has handl-
ed the war is wonderful. Everything
was attended to at once. There was
no panic, no shortage of food or any
thing of that kind.
Sympathy With Germany.
81 am all in sympathy with Ger
many in this war. They are just fight
ing to protect themselves and did
everything possible to prevent war.
I would have stayed there if l had
been certain of getting my money. |
believe it is perfectly safe there and
safer to have remained in Berlin than
to have undertaken the trip home.
Americans get all their news through
France and England. Their reports
are terribly false. When l left Ger
many there wasn't a French, Russian
or English soldier on German soil,
except those who were prisoners.
surely think Germany will be victor
ious as they deserve to be. l went
through Holland to London and was
glad to leave there The newspapers
told such lies I couldn't stand to read
them. For instance they declared there
was a famine in Germany and they
were cooking little children to feed
the soldiers etc. They also declared
there was a pest outbreak in Berlin
because the little school children had
to clean the streets. Every day they
had extras out announcing the cap
ture of large numbers of guns anc
once they declared that 100000 pris.
oners had been taken. l feel much
safer on American soil.