Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1915-03-25
'AD|EU' IS TABOOED
"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.

Correspondent of the Chicago News.
Berlin, Germany.-In Cologne the
| other day l found that the tabooed
adieu''-which is French-is being re-
placed by God punish England" The
newspapers are combating this fare
well curse" but it is terrible to note
how deeply rooted it has become To
hear such words from a 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 1 was there,
came a gray-bearded BaVarian profess
scr. He was driving a supply wagon.
His son was an officer in another regi-
ment. BY the magic power of infiu-
ence he had been able to get himself
enrolled as a private! He threw a
vivid light also on the German hatred
Of England.
"My only prayer" he said, sis that
God will grant me three weeks in Eng
Does it sound blasphemous? Well,
you must remember that these people
are all under a terrific strain. 1t is
cruel to judge them harshly in the
ca1mness of an American home.
Everywhere I find this same hatred.
For the French there is nothing but
sympathy; for the Russians pity. But
fa, oh n
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 1t 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 it easy to answer
with a statement about the strict
right of neutral states to sell whatever
and to whomever they please-espe-
cially If the one to whom you speak
is mother-or was the plother-of a
son who sleeps with an American bull
let in his heart.
1t is a great tragic drama, this strug-
gle of nation for it's life. Yet the
outward signs of war are few. There
are soldiers in the streets. But so
there were in peace. Some of them
are wounded, but the number you see
is so slight that it demonstrates moth
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 filed 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 l 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 it's national life. There is hardly a
family that has not helped to pay the
for rrio
brother, or husband, or cousin, or af-
famed, lies dead in the fields of
France or Belgium or Russia