The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-05-31
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s-G-< self between the allies and their base One plan was as good as the other all things being equal; but they were not equal.
 Most of the Prussians who were challenging the veterans of Austerlitz. never had been in battle and none ever had tasted victory. Moreover. although Napoleon and his commanders had been campaigning almost constantly for a dozen years or more. all but two among them were well under 40. On the other hand the Prussian general in chief the Duke of Brunswick, was 70. and no longer able to sit a horse, one of his marshals was so; nearly half the col onels were more than 50: third of the majors were past 55 and the rest were past 50. And no one in the army ever had held a command in a successful campaign.
 There was another significant differ ence. French officers had all risen by merit, mostly from the peasantry or from the bottom of the middle class. while the Prussian officers owed their positions to aristocratic birth, having been chosen in accordance with Fred erick the Greats dictum: "Nobles only possess in general the sense of honor."
 Still another fatal difference between the armies lay in the seeming paradox that the shorter legged Frenchmen
  longer legged Germans. Where each army was marching to cut the others communications tho one that cut first would surely win The tradition had come down to the Prussians that from 12 to 15 miles was a long enough march for an army to make in day The French under Lannes, however marched 65 miles in 50 hours. Berna- dotte marched his men 75 miles in 69 hours and Lefebres command made AZ miles in one day.
 And the French had another cruel advantage. They had better maps of Germany than the Germans
 The<climax of the enemy's disadvan- tages was the presence with the allied army of the vacilating and unwar- like King, whose hesftancy was too heavily overbalanced by the impetuos- ity of Queen Louise. Napoleon. quite ungallantly made Louise the target of his paper bullets, some of which were tipped with poison. But this early reference to her was not illnatured: "As they say there is beautiful Queen who wishes to see a battle. let uss be courteous and let us march with out resting"
 of God affairs will take very terrible character in a fewe days. I think. for the poor King of Prussia, whom I per sonally pity because he is good. The Queen Is at Erfurt with the King. If she wishes to see battle she shall have that cruel pleasure"
 Paralyzing the Foe
 The French pressed forward in as thin wedge as Napoleon could comfortably compress so great an army, its front be- ing no more than 40 miles wide. The Prussian- Saxon front. on the other hand, with only half as many men be- hind 1t. was spread out in thin line 50 miles.
 leon was until suddenly they were made painfully aware of his presence behind them on their lines, and then their army turned as involuntarily, as instinctively as dog when caught by the tail. An armys lines of supply have been called its muscles; when they are cut, the military body is paralyzed Paralysis seized upon the brain of the allied army when its leaders realized that Napoleon, instead of being in front of them was behind them. Confusion reigned in their councils and confidence forsook the conceit of the aristocratic officers. The commissary was demor- alized and the poor soldiers. without rations, were marched and counter marched in a tangle of contradictory plans.
 Having paralyzed the head of the allied army and spread consternation through it's ranks, Napoleon's next ob- ject was to fall upon the bewildered foe and annihilate him. While the Prus- sians and Saxons were hurriedly falling back in an effort to repair their com muifications. he struck one division of them, as much to his own surprise as to theirs. on lofty plateau above Jena.
 A Strange Battlefield
 The scholastic repose of that ancient and celebrated university town is guard ed by two towering sentinel nights. one the Bismarkturn and the other the Landgrafenberg. whose topmost night is called the Napoleonstein. For it is there on that brow of the Landgrafen- berg that Napoleon pitched his bivouac in q waning October day. and there in the dawn of the following day he opened the famous battle of Jena.
 The landscape of the plateau Is de- IA .