Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1914-10-21
GERMAN SINGING GOT ON
DEPARTING EMBELLISHMENTS NERVES
Robert Crozier Long Graphic ally Describes Intense War
Spirit of all Classes and Parties in the Empire-Hasty We'd
dings Feature Departing Sc enes.
written in the Ambassadors train Be.
tween Oidenzaai and the Hook of
Holland, by Robert Crozier

written IN the AMBASSADOR tTdlO DC.
tween Oidenzaal and the Hook of
Holland, by Robert Crozier
Long.)
The most awful thing in war Is the
singing" I'm Krieg man singt; das
list der schrecklichste der Schrecken.'
So wrote the dead novelist, Pau Heyse.
Having reached the Dutch frontier,
after % hours railroad travelling
through Il tempest of war songs l say
that Heyse is right. / heard how seven
Russians of the frontier patrol were
burnt to death near WirbaIlen: and it
made no impression on me. Nor will.
/ believe, the inevitable "five-million
battle" But 1 shall remember to my
dying day how Germans sang their war
songs while the train of Ambassador
Goschen, the leader of their foes,
steamed slowly toward the neutral
frontier of Holland.
This is the most marvellous thing of
the Armageddon. For six hours after
leaving Berlin i saw signs of war. l
saw at Doeberitz 20 %aeroplane frames,
without motors OF wings, heaped by
the depot. They looked like rocs' skel-
etons. i saw trains of ununiformed re-
servists steaming east. The trains were
adorned with green branches and white
deriSive descriptions. The soldiers had
LII on the doors their views Of
France and Russia. Imagine" said
the Belgian Minister Beyens, "a Ger
man who chalked anything on Il rail-
road car in peace timer" Wa brings
liberty.
Singing the British Out.
1 first believed that there was no
VA when the Germans began to sing.
They sang first, ! think, at Hanover.
Our train drew up at "A platform crowd
ed with reservists in civilian clothes.
Each man carried a neat cardboard box
with his effects m food.
h news spread like fire that here
was the British ambassador. der Bot
schaffer Goschen!" the envoy of Ger
many's latest, greatest. most memorable
foe. Then the r~eservists, pale faced
shopmen and clerks, began to sing as
only sing. A few mace
They sang "The Watch on the Rhine"
the most terrible of war songs, which to
FRANCES "Marseillaise" is as a steel bar
is to a rapier. After Hanover, Germans
sang all h way. AT Wunstorf, our
by Red Cross girls. This was more ter
rlble still. 1t was pitch a Behind
the barrier inclosing the platform
crowded the whole Wunstorf popula-
ton. On h platform, SO close that
they breathed against the windows,
was dining with the STANDARD" corre-
spondent stopped opposite the middle
of h singing group. At first the girls
made no demonstration. Then d
whisper passed round. der englische
Botschaffer!" ("The English ambas-
The girls began to sing. For half an
hour they sang. Germany, Germany
Over All" to Haydn's Understanding
music. Plain repetition without taking
breath. They. changed to The Watch
on the Rhine" n sang it thrice. Then
u train left. The girls waved their
hands ironically. They kept perfect or
der. But the drilled singing, the spite
full, sardonic faces, and the last con-
temptuous movement of the hands,! /
shan't forget it. All that night, when
ever we stopped at wayside stations. we
heard rom disciplined threats that
Germany would be over all in the
world" and that 1.-THE Watch on the
Rhine" was honest and true." Enrich
und treu! I began to wish that the
train. But every half hour instead rang
out the tremendous singing. The ex-
ception was the las station we passed
before the Dutch frontier. Here there
was hardly a soul in sight. Only a
sentry, a station master and n small
boy. A little ~attenuated, spiderlike boy
swinging a vast wooden sword, on his
head a ridiculous toy Pickelhaube helm.
The boy looked al us. asked the sentry
q question n began to cry. hen for
a momen he Strengthened himself, held
out his sword n began In the thin
Watch on tho Rhine" After the martial
chanting through the black Of the past
night. 1t seemed a whimsical imp's
mockery. So we were sung out of Ger
many.
Overnight Socialists Become Patriotic
I left Berlin after nearly six years
residence as correspondent OF the Lon
don cVVEQfmfn2fnf GaV0tfo - and nfhnr
journals and reviews. Our train carried
of the British ambassador. Sir Edward
Goschen. with STAFF, the Belgian min
lister with staff, about 10 newspaper
correspondents. and a few lucky Brit
ons who managed to get German for
eign Office passes. I had arrived in
Berlin from Saarow by the Lake OF
Scharmuetzel or the day of Franz Fer
dtnand's assassination. So I witnessed
The whole preliminaries OF Europe's
social sides of which I shall now de-
scribe.
The war made Germany united.
unanimous n resolute. This moment
Gus fact traNscends all controversies as
to historic and diplomatic origins. The
first effect was the death Of interna-
ttonalism. Internationalist social de-
mocracy with Its 2,5O0.O 900 registered
adherents and its 4,25O.O9O reichstag
voters vowed to a man to support the
kalSerS pollcy. IN the re1cnstag on Au
gust s. the red deputy. Haase. declared
that internationalism admitted the
right of every nation to self defense.
The reds would support 10 war OF rom
quest. They desired peace whenever
the foe wanted il. But they voted as a
man the war credit OF $780, 900, 900.
When Haase, n OF the reddest of So
cial democrats, made this historic DEM
o~nstiatfon, the whole ~rcichstag app
plauded. Even the tough junker con-
servative leader, Heydebrand und der
Lase, o demOnStratiyely from his