Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1915-09-09
For The Register.)
BENTHEIM, 1915.

scient as the Encyclopedia Britannica,
and as far as the writer is concerned, this
omission is in no danger OF being recti-
fled. For he has seen Bentheim, and il
pleased him not. He and what his pass
port described as lone member of family"
passed Bentheim once, and that once will
suffice.
In peace times, this is little town be-
tween Osnabruck and the Dutch frontier,
and it is here that travellers have their
baggage examined before entering or
leaving Germany, as the case might be.
II is prosaic little German railroad sta
ton, with few houses around, and a
beautiful forest coming right up to the
tracks. In war times. il is the innermost
OF the seven circles OF purgatory and is
presided over by lineal descendants o.
Spanish Inquisitors. All of which car
be best explained by saying that the gov
eminent has decreed that no written Of
printed matter shall leave German terri
tory, and that The guardians there are
German, which means literal-minded and
painstaking. And "painstaking" in Ger
many, | have found, means painSgiving
also. Twas the recipient. know where
OF speak.
The two OF us, and lone member o.
family" left Leipsic at I. 40 on the evening
OF August 18th, preceded 20 minutes by
troop train OF about 1000 men, headed
for the western front. They were mer
who had been home on the one furlough
allowed them during the war, and finer
looking set OF men have never seen.
won't use superlatiyes in describing them
because reading various newspapers in
the last nine months has badly mixed me
as to the meaning and function OF SUI
perlative. have read in English news
papers that the French army is the fines
in the world. Just as | was getting &C
cuStomed TO this idea, the same papers
spoke OF the Russian army as the fines
in the world, and while in the throeS o.
unravelling this puzzle (which was ar
English puzzle, ard perhaps unavailable
the same papers mentioned, casually bu
firmly, that the English army was the
best in the world. The French and Rus
sian papers have been equally impartial
and so have renowned superlative. A
German would perhaps find no difficulty
in assimilating this mass of superlatiyes
because he has six degrees ofcompariSon
Positive, comparative, superlative, wun-
derbar, kolossal, pyramidal. But then
am no German.
All of which simply means that whether
superlative or not, these men looked tit
and would much rather have them fight
ing with me than against me. | am moi
very exacting in such matters, anyhow
In times OF war, can see many very fine
features in the Quaker persuasion; and
the Salvation Army is as far as care tc
90 in the military line.
Be that as it may, they slipped out o.
the station, as many OF them as could gel
there hanging out OF the windows, and
singing back little war-songs and waving
handkerchiefs. II was an incongruous
sight, such as war most frequently pre-
Sents, these men, as hard as nails, and in
few hours to be offered up as cannon
fodder, now singing foolish little songs,
and waving flowers stuck in rifle barrels
We saw them slip away, and little by lit
tie the songs died out, and all that was
left to remind one OF them was an old
man and an old woman standing hand ir
hand on the very end OF the platform, and
looking down the track. Vale !
On our train, too, were many cars full
ofsoldiers going the same way, and as We
stopped from time TO time, others climbed
aboard, until when we got to Hanover
there must have been | 200 men aboard
Here the station was fairly alive with
soldiers. One is always aptto exaggerate
numbers, and so am willing to believe
am over stating it; but there were no
many less than $500 men waiting TO be
taken burned, hard-muscled
men, averaging "a years, should say
and fully equipped, from the flower
crowned rifle to the harmless shaving
brush sticking out from under the flarine
coat. A long train slid in, there was
much the same scramble for seats as
on an American suburban train at the
rush hours, not little chatting and SHOW
ing; "auf wiedersehen, and it too Slit
out. saw the boards along the sides OIL
the cars: they announced simply Han
over-Lille, much as if it had been Shep-
herdstown-Hagerstown, and if one didn't
know that Lille right now is He'll, with
battle and murder and sudden death every
minute, one could almost have said this
train was an excursion going off for
pleasant day in the country.
So we slid on through the night, and
though did my best TO 60 to sleep,
found that sleep was as far offas America
which didn't seem 10 be on the same
planet. Some time during the early
morning we changed at Munster and
about so | managed TO get to sleep.
II wasn't for long. Indistinctly, | heard
an animated conversation, and little by
little it developed that Bentheim was the
subject OF conversation. Bentheim, il
seemed, was no bed of roses, baggage
was inspected most conscientiously, and
at that groaned within myself, for had
illuminating experience with the Teutonic
idea OF what is conscientious, also, there
was a personal search, if the passenger
seemed suspect. No letters, books, pa
pers, cards, maps and so forth, down a
most disconcerting list, were allowed
IN mace Thror,oh half 0nened aveIidc