The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1915-12-22

A chicago business man, lrlenQ OF
Hans Kohl, this city, writing from
Moose Jaw Junction, Canada, sent the
following excerpt from the Literary
Digest to the local insurance man:
Mark Twain is said to be popular
author at the German front. Not
Mark Twain In his Yankee vernacular,
but translated into tongue OF which
his own description Is. you dive
blindly In at the beginning of SEN
tence and come out at the other end
with q verb in your mouth In the
same medium soldiers fighting for
Germany read. we are told. an English
author, Baden -Powells Adventures OF
Spy" The German, of course, does
not neglect his own authors. Goethe,
says Gilbert Hirsch. writing in the
New Yorw Evening Past, Is perhaps
the most popular book In the German
army" Such a fact forces this writer
to the conclusion that to the question
so often heard in America, Where 1s
the old, simple Germany that loved
poety and philosophy" the answer Is
Eat the front. fighting in the trenches
in France; in the SHOWS OF Russia
He says:
II have read a letter from a high
school boy Of IS. lying in trench near
Arras, begging his parents to send
aim a copy Of the German Bible; a
letter from a lieutenant, half-trozen
IN the SHOWS of Karpath1an winter,
who, in the same sentence IN winch
he casually mentions having just shot
a Russian, tells Of his excitement and
admiration On re-reading the 'W1tcnes
Sabbath Scene and wondering what
Goethe would have thought about the
present war I have been told that
there have been numberless demands
from the front tor new brochure
Goethe and Aristotle! And every
bookseller to whom l have put the
question of what he sends to the front
rs sure, sooner or later, to say, Ana
OF course. there's Goethe.
The soldiers read no more about the
war. They are fed up" on that
theme. as the English would put 1t;
and request their friends to send Their
ANYTIME but war literature Hum
in Tornis.er" f"IIunor in the "
sack"l collection Of squibs thai 81.
peared in the comic Lustige Blatte
has gone into its 10th thousand,
must have found its way Into thf
knapsacks to which it was dedicated.
There are packages Of tiny, pink-coV-
cred German classics marked five
books for men at the front, already
known to American travellers as Re
clans Universal Bibliothek.' But. we
are told many a soldier has unblush-
ingly admitted that when piece OF
the worlds greatest literature quar-.
relied for that last vacant corner OF
his knapsack with the box OF cigars
Just arrived from the field post, the
book was unhesitatingly and cheerful
ly thrown into the nearest field De
tective stories or exciting novels OF
any sort are not much wanted either.
The soldier prefers solid. peaceful,
a somewhat tedious novels" We read
further:
Poets little known outside Of Ger
many, not writer's Of the first rank.
but men whose love of Germany far
outranked that OF Goethe. such as
Korner, the poet who fought in the
wars against Napoleon, and L1llen-
cron, author Of 'Soldatenlieder,' IRE
also to be found in the knapsack. One
hear sometimes OF Nietzsche's 'Zara'
thustra' being read at the front by the
more educated men--but hardly often
enough to lend support to that naive
belief that It was Nietzsche. with his
gospel of power. who was responsible
for this war. From all can gather,
Kant. the philosopher of duty. of ODE
diepco ia more often TO ba found in