. Germany;. boundaries,open to attack from every point of the compass,and with so many powerful neighbours, it is wellfor Germany that it is the most powerful militarynation in the world. Since 1891, when EmperorWilliam uttered the word: Our future lies onthe water, Germany has developed its navalstrength with such rapidity that Britain andAmerica look on with astonishment and wonder. Its manufacturing industries, its trade and com-merce, its means of transportation by water and byland have increased since 1871 in a similar propor-tion. Progress and prosperity greet us whereverwe go. If German
. Germany;. boundaries,open to attack from every point of the compass,and with so many powerful neighbours, it is wellfor Germany that it is the most powerful militarynation in the world. Since 1891, when EmperorWilliam uttered the word: Our future lies onthe water, Germany has developed its navalstrength with such rapidity that Britain andAmerica look on with astonishment and wonder. Its manufacturing industries, its trade and com-merce, its means of transportation by water and byland have increased since 1871 in a similar propor-tion. Progress and prosperity greet us whereverwe go. If Germany at the close of the ThirtyYears War had sunk so low that even those wholoved her most despaired of her future, she hasrisen from her ashes, and now at last has takenher place among the nations that dominate theworld. Where shall we begin our pilgrimage throughher borders ? Let us suppose that we are journey-ing from Paris, and, passing through Alsace andLorraine, enter by way of Strasburg. It would be METZ. STRASBURG AND THE BLACK FOREST 5 well for us, if time permitted, to visit the battle-fields of Metz and Worth and St. Privat, and goup and down those regions made classic by theErckmann-Chatrian tales, and climb some of theblue Alsatian Mountains that keep watch andward alway. Time fails and we must on. For some years after the war of 1870 theFrench Railway carried you only to FrenchAvricourt, where you were left standing till theGerman locomotive came to carry you into whathad now become part of the new German neutrality, if not hostility, filled theatmosphere. French Avricourt looked askanceat German Avricourt, and German Avricourtanswered with an air triumphant. Time hashealed the old wounds in great measure, andthe traveller no longer suffers the long detention,nor is the air so full of the electricity of aversionas it was forty years ago. As we enter Strasburg, having passed some ofthe great outer forts that are the new fine ofdefence, we sing, O Strasbur
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