The Washington herald., 1919-10-06
Empire S Sun Not Yet Set,
Cry German Monarchists
Enlarge Army and Drill It While Await
ing New War Against Bolshevism.
Dy MACMILLAN HARDENJ

tDy "A2AA"1AA1AN hAkDENsl
Berlin. Oct 6-Tacitus. the discov-
erer of Germania. tells Of the journeys
Of the Goddess Erda Hertha). who Is
honored as embodiment and generative
source Of all earth-forces.
island In the Northern Ocean she
often travels in her sacred car, drawn
by two cows, to visit the homes of
men far and near. Wherever she
stops on. festival time begins; no feud
is fought out; all iron tools are locked
up and the face of the earth II
smoothed out in peaceful quiet. This
lasts until the goddess wakes weary
of her intercourse with men and re-
turns into her loneliness
Before starting for home, she bathes
in a lake. which thereby becomes holy
and in which, under the eyes of .
priest brought along, the car. the COW
ers and the cows are washed, which
then drink up everything as II in one
swallow.
True Germans Are Monarehlsts.
And Immediately after Erda's de-
parture the old life awakens in new
wildness. Swords are sharpened; all
forces are hardened for the next war
campaign. for the next booty expedi-
ton. In this strange land the youths
may only brush their hair away from
their foreheads after they have shed
enemy blood and captured arms; only
when he has killed an enemy Is the
iron ring freed from the arm Of q
man
He who In . fght survives his
chief is publicly exhibited, to his
shame and disgrace; he who Is
proved to have been battfe-shy or
covardly is sunk In . grave of mud
and nnire. As soon as the -Barditus,-
the rough roaring battfe-chant.
sounds out Of the curving shield
held IN front Of the mouth the whole
people rejoice, and from nov on
awaits the celebration Of victory,
whose principal part is the only
show In which these tribes rejoice
the leap of naked youths into the
forest of spears and swords.
Sour milk is dipped out Of broad
saucers; deep bumpers Of beer are
drunk. (-Whoever would furnish
enough booze to the drunkenness of
these peoples could conquer them
even more easily than with arms"
Tacitus sayA) And the dice cup
circles around. Here war is not
necessity, not horror. but an oc-
cupation; dicing Is not gambling. but
business. If all a mans possessions
have been thrown away with the
dice, he stakes himself. his bodily
strength and freedom on the last
throw. soverly. not in drunkenness,
m order to TRY his luck once more"
Erda Likes the Chazkes.
The courage of these men Is heroic:
their sexual customs clean; their
womenfoIk chaste. But Mercury, the
spirit Of trade, is their highest god.
ranking higher even than Mars; and
Hertha-Erda, who blesses every
threshold with fruitfulness and all
souls with peace. leaves only for
short trips her island sanctuary.
rooted over with green treetops.
Only into one region inhabited by
Germania does she occasionally come
for a longer stay-fnto the Wesser
marshes of the Chaukes. This tribe
too Is strong-has men, horses, arms.
and can set up q powerful army.
Nevertheless 1t stands pat on what
it has earned. and never was it ac-
cused Of booty expedition, pfunder-
ing or gesture melting to war.
For the Chaukes, honest peace is
the goal of highest fame. justice the
noblest virtue: they strive after a
finer morality toward . spiritually en-
nobled order of community life, and
do not fall victims to the lure of the
Tempter who, from a mountain peak,
shows them the power and the glory
Of the earth, and knows how to slyly
tickle awake greed and lust for pow
er. The pride of the Chaukes, which
never grows overload. is rooted in the
realization that they never have
achieved the least thing through an
injustice imposed on other people.
And only~on the soil of this tribe
does Erda, the bringer Of life, feel
herself at home.
The Myth stn Alive.
Thousands Of years passed; and
even today are the two Germanies
which Tacitus divided stiIl recognize
BILE to the eye piercing under the sur
face. and their numerical ratio is still
approximately the same as it was in
gray antiquity. Christianizationh here
has never pressed down into the deep
est layer of the nature of this people:
the Anglo-Saxon winfried, who, as
bishop. was called Boniface. owes his
fame with posterity to very efficient
organization of the church. and not to
the intensity and depth of his mis-
sionary endeavors.
And in the land which gave birth to
the most effective Of all reformers.
Luther. the completer and over-shad-
over of Wycliff. the North-German
spirit OF the Erda myth remained
alive. the whi1es from an pufpits was
preaced the teachings OF the Galilean
Brave in battle, without scruples Of
conscience IN striving after conquer
or's oooty. industrious and fresh" IN
business. with Mars and Mercury as
gods. and war. gambling, beer for rec
reatfon-from these hints the very
children the world over today would
known that one is talking about Ger
mans.
Deeds OF Arms Open vaIhaIln.
Many a friend of my home makes
the qualifications: About Pan-Ger- |
mans" But he. too. must. il he |
knows New-Germany and wants to !
be just. admit that the number of peo-
pie who think and feel thus Is much !
greater than the members, in the party |
sense. of the Pan-German League. |
These people do not long to enter into |
the light circle of the Sermon on the |
Mount and the consciousness of hu-
manity. They feel themselves only as
Germans and want to remain like !
their ancestors, who believed in the |
Alli-Father and Sword-Swfnger Wotan !
and who believed that only by con-
tinued deeds OF arms could they buy
their way into varhaIla.
Their Christ wore the red beard Of !
the Thunder God and carried in his !
mailed first under wotan's sky-blue !
cloak the hammer of Thor; and not |
only Columba's mild eye saw bap- !