Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-07-27

around the back room OF this little
German cafe, leaning on the table,
half-lying in chairs, hunqhed on the
floor in corners while the oil lamp
swinging from the ceiling burned up
unnoticed with a black smoke, and
the curly-h3ired German musical
prodigy played The Barcarolle."
Ripping brooks in New England.
the old canoe floating up the Poto-
mac toward a red Sunday sunset,
moonlight on the upper deck!
With a swift change of mood the
boy struck up Die Yacht Am
Rhcin" and the shaven-headed old
lad who had been tending bar came
Waiting in. waving his long pipe
and roaring the song. The dough-
boys looked at him and grinned a
plying sort of grin. but Mike. the
Italian attache, glowered.
Steve" he whispered to the wait
er for the casual officers mess,
Steve. you crown him for me, will
you; | amt got the heart =
Around the kitchen stoves of the
former Imperial Germany the great
est of the Rainbow's indoor sports
nowadays was "cussing' the kaiser.
well, what dye think O the kais-
er now?" The doughboys would
drawl, by way of starting the con-
yVersation, as, they hitched UP the
kitchen chairs of all evening and Of
fered the cigarets to Mein Herr and
Meme Frau and all the little hairs"
and "frows,"' who are numerous even
as the sands of the sea, and that is
no joke. | thought long and deeply
for some way to tell briefly what
great number of little children there
were in Germany, but it was all a
waste of time, because just as soon
as decided upon nice. high sound
ing set of words, along came new,
incredible droves of children and the
nice words weren't fit to describe the
size of the seventh grades attend
ance on the morning of circus day.
Mein Herr, listening keenly to the
doughboy, because he wanted to be
friendly, would catch the word
kaiser" The rest of the sentence
didn't mean anything to him at all,
but that word kaiser" was enough
of cue. There was the place for
the entering wedge. There was the
chance to drive home the big idea
the biggest idea that this part of
Germany seemed to have just then.
All "Cuss" the Kaiser.
"Achw snarled Mein Herr. ZACH!
Kaiser ~Kaputl Finish Kaiser! Ka-
putw
We'll, well!' says the doughboy,
some what surprised and somewhat |
pleased, too,, for this attitude of the |
owner of his billet upon the subject |
Of the kaiser sort of put common
understanding between him and the |
old man. why, maybe he'll come
across with some eggs for lunch or
dinner tonight, and maybe the old |
woman will trot out some honey!
So they proceeded> with words
stilted monosyllabic words of
English and German, with
now and then, on the part of the
a little of the hard-won
French that is too good to go en-
tirely to waste-to vie with each
other at drawing and quartering the
kaiser.
The hatred of the American SOL
der for the thingsNhe kaiser repre-
sents, or represented, needs no in
PRODUCTION, but this hatred on the
part of the German people in the
through which the American
army was passing probably does
need an introduction. 1t was then
so new that the German people had
not had time to take down the pic
lures of the kaiser and Hindenburg
ind Ludendorff and Bismarck and
he crown prince which hung over
heir heads on the kitchen and din
ng room walls even as they hailed
curses and "kupts." They still dec
grated their walls with likenesses of
he heroes they protested to hate.
(To Be Concluded Next Sunday.)