The Elbert County tribune., 1916-10-06

pendence. could not s.ay his further
progress
At the beginning Of the war he was
beaten. as he had foreseen. for he had
been ordered to hold the line that was
untenable. When he had been sew
eral times seriously defeated. he In
formed the general staff that he re-
quired no further instructions. but
would fight In accordance with his own
plans II was then that he began tt
clear the province, and finally, by the
crushing defeat at the Masurian lakes
he smashed Kussia's military actlvit,
for at least twelve months
Gets Crown Princes Supplies.
He has never bowed the knee TO Toe
Camarilla. According to the calcula-
tions of the general staff. the German
troops were to hibernate in the large
cities of Russia, but their winter quar-
ters proved to be the frozen fields No
provision for skin coats had been
made. and, In spite of the heavy de.
liveries that were being sent to the
Camarilla generals on the western
front, Hindenburg obtained no salts
factory answer to his repeated reQvl.
sitions.
He went in person to Berlin, and III
tie store depot he found a large con.
signment which he ordered to be
rallied to his supply headquarters
which were then at Thorn. The horri.
fed official informed him that the
skins were for the army of the crown
prince, and therefore could not be
taken away. Hindenburg swore
volume of oaths. and In the end oh
tanned them.
Some of the great character trait
Of Hindenburg are HIS piety, his love
for the fatherland and his faithful.
ness to the kaiser. When he was a
young lieutenant he used to carry the
New Testament In his breast pocket.
This saved his life during the Franco
German war. A bullet struck the book
but did not penetrate all the pages.
1t is a weil-known fact that In the
church of Glauwitz Hindenburg prayed
aloud for victory. Hindenburg's pri-
vate life is absolutely clean. He new.
er played cards or drank excessively
and he hardly ever smoked.
Hindenburg never speaks of fate or
luck. He does not talk about genius,
but he believes that God helped him.
God helped me to gain victory, and
the kniser gave me the soldiers, he
made me commander, he trusted me
Be grateful to God and the kaiser
do not thank me-" Is what he told the
people of East Prussia when they
came to thank and praise him as their
deliverer.
As professor of the "Krieys Asa.
demie" (sent there by the order Of the
general stafI) Hindenburg found the
best occasion TO educate the young
officers In the most important sub
ject-"applied military tactics" Fred,
erick the Great invented for the bene-
| fit of his army officers the "Krlegs
Spiel" (war game) and Hindenburg
followed In the footsteps of the P1us-
sian king by improving this wss game.
Cut Imposing Figure.
When Hindenburg was studying In
the "Kriegs-Akademie" (1S73-76), he
became pupil of Prof. Pochhammer,
who tells us that Hindenburg cut an
imposing figure. He called this soldier,
over six feet tall. with broad shoul-
tache, broad forehead. "the living per-
sonification of the war god" When
Professor Pochhammer in his lectures
became tedious and tiresome linden
denburg used to take out his maps,
| pencils and compass and commence
| to work on plan for an imaginary
battle, without paying any attention
| to the professor.
In 1870 he fought against the French
in the battles of st. Privat and Sedan
and wns decorated with the order of
the Red Cross and the Iron Cross.
In 1911 he retired from active serv-
ice until the war of 1914 broke out,
when he again returned to the army
and was appointed commander in the
East.
Of Ludendorff even Germans today
know little. But high army officers
say he deserves large share of Hin
denburg's fame. He has been Hin
denburg's chief of staff since August,
| 1914, and has worked out the splendid
bits of strategy which time and again
have baffied the Russian hordes
Now that Hindenburg has become
chief of the great general staff and
only second to the kaiser. Ludendorif
has been made quarterinaster general.
His name is signed to the brief daily
official bulletins in which the general
staff chronicles the progress of the
war. And his is the first name that
has been appended to them.
He is the friend, adviser and con-
stant companion of Hindenburg. and
they are said to work together like
two parts of a smooth-running ma
chine.
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