Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1918-09-04

tooth trouble removed as quickly as
possible.
II must go down to Italy, Davis"
he said, ito see what my noble troops
have accomplished. My gracious,
what we have done to them down
there! Our offensive at Riga was just
q feint. We had advertised our In
tended offensive in Italy 50 thoroughly
that the Italians thought We couldn't
possibly intend to carry 1t through.
For three months 1t was common talk
in Germany, you remember, that the
great offensive would start In October,
and so the Italians believed 1t was all
q bluff and when we advanced on Riga
they we're sure of 1t. They thought we
were so occupied there that we could
pay no attention to them. and 80 we
caught them napping"
The kaisers face fairly beamed a.
he dwelt on the strategy Of his gen.
erals and the successful outcome OF
their Italian campaign.
For months Italy had been engaged
in planting her big guns on the noun
tain-tops and gathering mountains of
ammunition and supplies and food and
hospital supplies In the valleys below,
In preparation for their twelfth 1sonso
offensive.
I'VE let them go ahead and waited
patiently for the right moment They
thought that their contemplated Often
sive must inevitably bring our weaker
neighbor TO her knees and force her 70
make q separate peacei" BY "our
weaker neighbor" the kaiser. Of course,
referred to Austria, and how accurate
was his information regarding 1talyS
expectations and how easily they
might have been realized were subse'
Quently revealed by the publication Of
that famous letter from Kaiser Karl
to Prince Sextus.
And then" the kaiser went on.
"when their great offensive was within
a week Of being launched we broke
through their lines on a slope 5000
feet high, covered with snow, where
they couldn't bring up their reserves
or new guns. and we surrounded
them!
I'VE took practically everything they
possessed-food enough to feed our
entire army without calling upon our
own supplies at all. Never before had
our armies seen such an accumulation
Of ammunition. I must certainly go
down to see it.
1--WE cut off their northern retreat
and, as they swung their army to the
south, we captured 10000 of them up
to their knees in the rice fields. One
of the great mistakes they made was
in carrying their civilian refugees with
them-clogg;ng their narrow roads and
impeding the retreat Of their soldiers.
We had taken possession of their most
productive regions, and their retreat
was through territory which yielded
them nothing. Just think of that re-
treating army thrown upon the already
impoverished inhabitants Of that sec
ton. Why. they'll starve to death!
Everywhere we went we found
their big guns abandoned. In one
small village we came upon a gun dec
GRATED with flowers and surmounted
with portrait Of Emperor Franz Jo-
SET. It had been put there by the ltal.
ian inhabitants of the village to show
their happiness at being released ut
last from the yoke of the intolerable
Italian lawyer government! How ter
ribly the Italians must have treated
! them! Italy will never get over this
defeat. This was real help from God
Now, we've got the allies!" and he
struck his left hand with his right with
great force to emphasize his apparent
conviction that the turning point In
the war had been reached with ltaly's
collapse.
That the kaiser now regarded him.
self and his armies as invincible felt.
and feared that the success in Italy
would be followed at the first favora'
BILE opportunity by gigantic offensive
on the western front.
Indeed, on subsequent occasion,
when he called at my office for further
treatment, and again referred to the
Italian triumph, he remarked: IF our
armies could capture 100000 Italians
and those 100000 might just as well be
| dead as far as Italy is Commemorative
can do the same thing against our
enemies on the west"
This was one of the interviews was
so anxious to report to the representa-
tives of the American intelligence de-
partment at our legation in Copen-
hagen ana. later on. when finally ar
rived In that city, related it in great
detail to them. 1 remained in Copen-
hagen eleven days and during the
greater part of that time was being
interviewed by one or another OF the
representatives of our intelligence de-
partment. Exactly two months later,
on March q, the western offensive
broke out as had feared.
I called at Potsdam day f two la
ter to attend the kaiser again, and
found him still in the same triumphant
mood, and so anxious was he to get
down to Italy that he called at my Of
fee three times that week to enable
me to complete my work on his affect
ed tooth.
On November &c the kaiser called ut
my Office for what proved to be his
last sitting. I had received word on
the Goth that my pass for America had
been granted and that I could leave
on the 3Oth, and accordingly told the
kaiser that 1t was my intention to leave
for Copenhagen on that day.