Seen in Germany . ot Germany necessarily meansmuch disorder, drunkenness, and immorality, butnever was there anything further from the truth. Itis a rare thing to see a drunken German soldier; andas for fighting, a single Irish regiment would keep thewhole German army well supplied and have a goodmany broken heads left over. The fact is, the Ger-man soldier is worked up to the limit of his strength,and when he is through with a days exercises he isquite willing to roll into his bunk. Most of thesoldiers are poor, with no monev to spend on dissi-pation and all of them have their ambitions for a
Seen in Germany . ot Germany necessarily meansmuch disorder, drunkenness, and immorality, butnever was there anything further from the truth. Itis a rare thing to see a drunken German soldier; andas for fighting, a single Irish regiment would keep thewhole German army well supplied and have a goodmany broken heads left over. The fact is, the Ger-man soldier is worked up to the limit of his strength,and when he is through with a days exercises he isquite willing to roll into his bunk. Most of thesoldiers are poor, with no monev to spend on dissi-pation and all of them have their ambitions for acivil career as soon as they are through with theirservice. Moreover, it is not in the nature of theGerman to go to wild excesses in anything. Asa consequence, wherever you find him, the Germansoldier is well-behaved, and apparently always under 90 Seen in Germany discipline. He usually has an hour or two off inthe afternoon or evening, and after chapel service heis usually free on Sunday, and you see him neat and. The Soldier s Hour Off clean, though often awkward and clumsy, paradingabout the street, frequently holding the hand of arosy-cheeked girl or sitting in the park, unabashed,with his arm around her. He lacks the inimitable The German Private Soldier 91 jauntiness of the English red-coat with his little capcocked over his ear, and he has none of the activityand sprightliness of the gay-clad French soldier, butthere he stands solidly in his big, coarse boots, a seri-ous and simple-minded fellow, intent on doing hisduty, slow and clumsy, it is true, but with strengthand determination — a soldier every inch of is not good in initiative; his whole training,indeed, the whole life of the German empire, tends tocrush out individuality, to train him that he is nothing,and that his company and his regiment and his em-peror are everything, that he must obey present Kaiser, in an address to his soldiers, oncesaid: — The soldier should not have a will of
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectgermany, bookyear1902
