The Washington herald., 1915-03-14

In the opening fortnight of the struggle
a revision of opinion became necessary
sigh the conclusion that Germany had
been Prussianized.
When Germans Look Back.
Whether the Germans have been Prus.
sianiZed is in the first instance ques-
ton of terms. That they have been uni
fed for the purposes of the war thus far
seems 10 have been placed beyond all
question.
A nation. like a man. is the product of
its experience. 1t is a part of all II has
seen and been. The crossing Of the sea,
the struggle with the savage wilderness,
the Declaration of Independence. the
ever in the background Of the American
PEOPLE. In every trial, in every crisis.
instinctively they look back upon those
scenes through which they have passed
and try to draw from them a lesson for
the occasion.
Some one has said truly that national
ity consists Of memories OF the past and
mans look back over their history what
do they see?
More than twenty centuries Of disun-
ion and subjugation and forty-five years
of union and prosperity. The lesson Is
terribly plain.
In most Of the 200 years since a Greek
explorer discovered and reported some
savage jewellers on the amber coast of
the bdlClC. the nave Deen Ill
vided against themselves and Germany
has been the hunting ground of alien
armies. As one journeys about the coun-
try he is continually coming upon bat
tlegrounds where foreigners fought out
their Quarrels on German soil while they
chased one another over helpless and
PROSTATE Germany.
Small respect did German neutrality
command as the warning strangers filed
the land with devastation. 60 down the
valley of the Danube across South Ger
many and there is an almost unbroken
chain of backgrounds. such as Blen-
English. French or Austrian history, but
where Germany was only the innocent
hvstander who was trampled BEN
the Needless feet OF victor and van
Germans and Romans.
The Emperor Tiberius told the Ro-
mans that it was unnecessary for Rome
to send out her legions to subdue Ger
many since the Germans, if let alone,
would exhaust themselves in fighting one
another. That dictum, laid down in the
infancy Of the Christian era remained
true. almost without exception. until the
year 1870. Caesar himself had already
adopted the policy long before Tiberius
enunciated it. For, after throwing his
celebrated bridge over the Rhine. the
conqueror of Gaul hardly ventured be-
yond the farther bank of that river.
them alone. the greasy. seven-foot
giants" as the dappcr little men from
the Tiber called the big warriors from
alone. With the still more savage Slavs
forever pressing upon them from the
eastern horizon. the Germans left their
bleak and sterile shore and poured over
fertilize with their bones the sunny vine
Yards of the south. For when their
white-robed priesteSses and their singing
women. who always marched to war.
g. xF4-x
their children and then themselves with
in the squares formed by the wagons of
the invading army.
The Teutons. however. remained un-
seventy years Rome warred in vain to
=ubiugate them. The last and decisive
battle was fought above DetmOld where
today a great statue of Arminius, the
German victor. may be seen many miles
away on the plains of Westphalia.
There Varus. a Roman consul. threw
himself upon his sword he saw his
legions slaughtered by the barbarians
mountain. Whereat Augustus in his
place on the Roman Palatine cried, 20
Earus. Farus, give me back my leSions"
Nor did the Emperor cut his hair or
his shaggy locks and bearded face had
oetokened the bitterness Of the imperial
humiliation which the Germans had
brought upon his eagles in the wilds of
he TeutOburGian forest.
Thenceforth the Romans hearkened tot
the wisdom of Tibcrius and left the vic
torious TCutons to their internecine
strife shutting them i'm behind a great
wall whose ruins still may be seen here
and there where il stretched from Rats
hon TO Cologne. from the Danube to the
Rhine. For two centuries and more the
people on the other side OF that wall
were abandoned to the fury of their own |
tribal wars. the syharites of degencr |
atinE Rome content enough II they
could obtain for their feasts an occa-
sional bunch of German aspara gus or !
conlh OF German honey.
4 World Conquest.
While the empire was sinking in sloth |
and ease. the German tribes were MAIN |
tanning themselves in an admirable state /
n military preparedness by continuous |
warfare with one another At length. |
n the latter quarter of the third CEN
ury. they began TO trickle over the dam
Tho Romans had reared TO restrain Them
and soon. as Goth and Nandals, Franks
and Saxons. they flooded Southern Eu-
OF" from the Straits of Gibraltar 10
the Caspian Sea.
Mighty Rome herself fell prey to the
,i"rnan warriors. To Alaric. a chieftain
n the NlsiGoths. remained the distinc- r
ti"n of dealing the deathblow to her i'm
rerial pride. when he lightly remarked
as he assail"d and sacked the still popu-
lous city of the Caesars. THE thicker the
grass. the better the moving"
In the end the Ostrogoths the Go;hsi
flowed eastward. met their fate at
tho hands of the Huns as that fierce ma
ton emerged 10 the view OF history.
while the Nisigoths. the western Goths
trooped into Southern France to crowd
upon and quarrel with another German
tribe. the Franks. Thence they royed
over the Pyrenees and established their
kingdom in Spain. pushing back there a
pioneer tribe of their Tcutonic brethren.
he Nandals, who in their new southern
home gave their eternally evil name
minus the V. to Andalusia. !