The Spectator., 1915-03-26
"AD|EU" |S TAB00EO
God Punish England" Is Now
 Germans Good-Day.
French Farewell Gives Way to Hate Revealing Curse-Few Outward Signs of Great War-BIame
 for Americans.
By OSWALD F. ScHUETTE.

Correspondent of the Chicago News.
 Berlin, Germany.-In Cologne the other day l found that the tabooed "adieu u'-which is French-is being re- placed by God punish England" The newspapers are combating this fare we'll curse" but it is terrible to note how deeply rooted it has become To hear such words from white-haired motherly woman as you bid her good by leaves a scar in the memory. And such hatred must leave a scar on the nation that cherishes it. But, then, this war will leave many scars, not only here but throughout the world.
 Into Cologne, while I was there, came a gray-bearded Bavarian profes- His son was an officer in another regi- ment. By the magic power of influ ence he had been able to get himself enrolled as private! He threw a vivid light also on the German hatred of England.
 My only prayer" he said. lis that God will grant me three weeks in Eng land. Then I am ready to die"
 Does it sound blasphemous? We'll you must remember that these people are all under a terrific strain. It is cruel to judge them harshly in the calmness of an American home Everywhere I find this same hatred For the French there is nothing but sympathy; for the Russians pity. But for the English-almost every German I have talked to has given utterance to this hate.
 When you go back to your hotel for dinner and the first four women who enter the dining room are in deepest mourning it all comes home to you with choking heart throbs. Now they add new and bitter complaint. It is hard to listen if you are an American. They tell you that the war would be over if only America did not sell arms and ammunition to the enemies of Germany Nor is 1t easy to answer with statement about the strict right of neutral states to sell whatever and to whenever they please-espe-
 
 is a mother-or was the mother-of son who sleeps with an American bull let in his heart.
 It is great tragic drama, this strug- gle of nation for its life. Yet the outward signs of war are few. There there were in peace, Some of them are wounded. but the number you see is so slight that it demonstrates noth- ing.
 As far as the people themselves are concerned there is no sign to show that the nation is battling for its life. The theaters have marked no. decrease in attendance. All the great opera houses of Germany are filled as be. fore.
 Travel is as great as ever Trains in every direction are filled as heavily as they were in times of peace.
 Sometimes think the people of Germany do not realize enough that we really are at war;" said the editor of one of the most important German newspapers. Maybe the new order to conserve our bread supplies will re- mind them of it."
 But once you begin to meet people in their homes. away from the more formal etiquette of casual street intro auctions. you find soon enough that Germany realizes it is struggling for its national life. There is hardly family that has not helped to pay the terrible price. Father, or son. or brother. or husband. or cousin. or af fianced, lies dead in the fields of France or Belgium or Russia