The Washington herald., 1914-05-31

was resting on its laurels by the Prus
sian border, like a crouching lion read.
to spring! What IL IL was Commando
oy the mafchless conqueror Of the armies
yet to meet the invincible army of Fred
erfck the. Great. oficered by the heir,
OF Frederick's lieutenants, carpet knight,
VINO nattered themselves that they hat
| the castles of their sires
Members Of the Noble Guard whette,
| their blades on the stone steps of tn
French Embassy in Berlin and Napoleoi
their defiance: The insolent braggart
shall soon learn that our weapons neet
no sharpening"
Death of, John Palm.
While the Prussian nobility were In tn,
transports OF an unreasoning rage and .
blind self-assurance, Napoleon himself
suddenly aroused the fury Of the middI,
cases throughoot Germany. Some anti
French pamphlets appearing in the con
federation, he ordered that their editor,
be brought before q military commissior
| and shot within twenty-four hours. Ir
accordance with that sentence the sol
diery went to Nuremberg, seized Johr
Palm. a bookseller, stood him AGAINST :
wall and shot him.
By shooting that bookseller, Napoleon
gave the democracy q martyr as he had
already given a martyr to the aristoc.
racy when he ordered the shooting OF
the Duke d'Enghein in the moat at Win.
cennes. And the house of John Palm
which Nuremberg cherishes within its
old walls Is one Of the first houses on
1t deserves at the same time to be ven
Grated among the earliest shrines OF
United Germany. ror perhaps the death
Of the bookseller Of Nuremberg was the
public opinion among the German peo.
pie. His fate contributed a Sentiment
an element Of moral indignation to the
war toward which Prussia was hasten
ing headlong.
Preparing for War.
Although Napoleon neglected no detail
In his preparations for the war he could
not believe the plain signs Of coming
hostilitfes. As late as the middle of Sep
tember he said: The idea that Prussia
Will attack me single handed is so ab-
sIrd that it does not deserve notice"
The two powers were most unequaIly
matched. Prussia had only 900 peo-
pie against five times that number under
Napoleon's sway. She could not hope
promptly to bring In the field as many
men as he already had under arms in
all 100000 troops were upholding his
eagles In q long battle line that stretched
from the dykes Of Holland to the Straits
OF Messina-
As always with Napoleon's foes, the
Prussians fancied they could fool him.
The king. although he had reopened- the
port of Bremen to British commerce and
his troops already were on the march,
congratulated himself in a letter to the
car In the first week OF September that
bonaparte has left me at my ease"
But while Napoleon was leaving Freder-
lex William at his ease he was loading
down the beams Of light with semaphore
teiegrams to his army. Possessing the
only optical telegraphic system. he could
SEND an order from Paris to the Rhine
IN half an hour. a distance that the
post required four days to cover.
At last In early October Prussia deliv-
cred her ultimatum. which. when re-
cetved, left Napoleon only one day to
quit German soil. Already, however, his
vanguard was across the Bavarian from
tier ana moving toward the enemy.
The. War Rewuu