The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-06-18
Germans Will Celebrate the Centenary
 of Waterloo Today

German soldiers will be in sole charge today of the celebration of the centenary of the final crushing defeat of Napoleon at WaterIop. In this Belgium, which is now, as it was a hundred years ago, the cockpit of Eu- rope.
 A year ago the Belgian government was planning an observance of the Waterloo centennial to which all the nations of Europe were invited. The Belgians hoped to make the occasion a festival of peace, when the French and their former enemies would join hands over the graves of their dead. A monument to mark the last resting place of the warriors fallen in battle, and statues of Wellington, Butcher, Napoleon and the Prince of Orange, were to be dedicated.
 At Quatre-Bras, before Waterloo, the Belgians, in the words of Sir Wall ter Scott, stdied bravely for a cause foreign to them.'' That-such is the bitter irony of fate-is also their lot today-to die bravely for a cause foreign to them.
 Although scores of battles more terrible than Waterloo have been likely that they will ever gain the hold upon the worlds imagination that has been maintained by Water loo for a hundred years. The great generals of today wholly lack the ap- peal of the little Corsican- In his last great struggle for supremacy Ma poleon stood --as the typical abstrac- ton of the tragedy of humanity.''
 The We11ington-BIucher contro- versy is waging more nerceIy than ever, now that Britain and Germany are sworn foes British and Ameri- French auth critics, have awarded to Wellington the credit for being the conqueror of Napoleon, but this claim is denied by the Germans all of whom agree that Butcher was the. hero of Belle AI1iance-the Prussian term for peror William sought to end the old controversy by declaring that the Prusstans saved the British from an initiation at Waterloo.
 At Waterloo nature fought on the side of the allies. The torrentia1 rain that fell on the night preceding the battle, turning that part of Belgium into g, sea of mud, prevented the movement of the French artillery. Except for that, Wellington might have been beaten long before noon, and in that event Butcher would have been easily disposed of.
 Age, ill health, and the effects of a too strenuous life, also robbed Ma po1eon of his former ability for mak- ing swift and sure deductions He
 
 ment he had shown in former battles, and at times he seemed dazed and un- decided. According to the late Field Marshal Lord Wo1sley, NapoIeon's de- feat was largely due to the fact that his brain was c1ouded. He suffered from attacks of mental stupor, and one of these unfortunately came on at the critical moment of his life. He had been in the saddle for eighteen hours, and nature refused to his l weary brain the capacity for further effort
 The battlefield of Waterloo is now a suburb of Brussels, and all the his toric landmarks are threatened with foot of the Lion Mound, the British monument, and many small houses have been erected in the vicinity A portion of the actual battlefield has l been parcelled into building lots. The Be1gians were planning to save the historic sit from dissertation when the war and the German occupation put an end to the movement