Judsonia weekly advance., 1918-12-11
CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER VIII.
The kaiser's Confidence of Victory.
About twelve years ago l attended
the German military maneuvcrs at
Liegnitz in Silesia, having been in
vited by some journalistic friends of
mine to accompany them in the motor
allowed the press. The military repre-
sentatives of England, France, Amer
lea and other countries were there
with the kaiSer'S staff to witness the
| display of Germany's military power
Apparently they were very much i'm
pressed, for / heard afterwards that
one of the French officers who had
been present had written a book in
which he said: "With such an army,
Germany could annex France in six
months!''
l happened to mention this fact to
the kaiser shortly afterwards and his
significant comment was:
six monthsl I should hope so. 1t
wouldn't take that long!"
The confident belief that when 'sDer
Tag"-"the day"--finally arrived, Ger
many would crush her enemies and ac-
complish her object within few
months at the outside was held not
only by the kaiser but by the people
generally and their conduct when the
war broke out clearly disclosed 1t.
When Germany's man power was
modified. no one in Germany believed
it would be very long before they
oII ho orv ofc
made to make their few weeks of ac-
tive service as little irksome as pos
sible. "Liebesgaben," gifts of love,
consisting of clothing and food of
every uasrr4 7tEioml1; 1;a .,.-.erded to
them by their relatives and friends II
the most lavish manner, although. Of
course, at that time the German com
missary was able to satisfy all the sol
dicrs' requirements.
One of my patients told me that sht
had sent seventeen hundred pounds Of
sausages to one regiment within {
week, and when l asked her why she
mad been so generous she replied thai
her chauffeur was a member of the
regiment!
The extent to which the cOuntry's
resources were squandered in those
early months is evidenced by the fac
that the soldiers had such an excess
OF ill-fitting wooden wearing apparel
that they used many of the knitted ar
ticles as earpieces and covers for Their
horses. No one had the slightest idea
that the time might come when the
whole nation would be clothed in pa.
per!
At this late day it can hardly be
necessary to establish how thoroughly
prepared the Germans were for the
war, but an incident which occurred in
the early days of the conflict may not
be out of place to show the self-satis-
fed and confident attitude which all
the Germans assumed.
Two officers sitting at a table in an
out-of-dOor cafe shortly after the war
began overheard one of several ladies
who were passing remark: Look ut
those officers sitting there drinking.
Why are they not at the front fight
| ing?" Cae Of the officers got up and,
approaching the ladies, said: "Our
work was completed months ago. We
worked from early morning till late at
night on plans which our armies are
now carrying out. 1t is our time to
rest"
The resistance that France would be
able to put up was always very lightly
estimated, and if the Intervention of
England was at all taken into consid-
GRAFTON, the comparatively small army
she could place in the field was re-
garded as but drop in the bucket CON-
pared with the well-trained German
horde that was ready to sweep across
the border. How could England's $4,000
men cope with Won Kluck's 100000 or
the hastily modified French armies re-
sist the thoroughly prepared, equipped
and well-disciplined German warriors?
1t Is really not to be wondered at
that the Germans firmly believed that
they would bring the allies to their
knees within comparatively few
weeks and that the conquering Ger
man armies would celebrate Sedan
day, September 2, in Paris. What ac-
tually happened is, of course, too well
known here to require recital, but l |
know that the Germans were kept In |
absolute ignorance of the marvellous |
resistance the allies were able to put
up in those critical days of August and