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 a
 
 THE GERMAN DANGER
 
 the Same flutbor 
 
 DARAB'S WINE-CUP 
 
 THE WANDERING ROMANOFF 
 
 A MAN ADRIFT 
 
 A SAILOR TRAMP 
 
 LONDON IN SHADOW 
 
 A TRAMP IN SPAIN 
 
 SLAVERY 
 
 THE GREEN SPHINX 
 
 A TRAMP CAMP 
 
 WANDER PICTURES
 
 THE 
 
 GERMAN DANGER 
 
 BY 
 
 BART KENNEDY 
 
 LONDON 
 
 COLLIER 6? CO. 
 
 1907
 
 PRINTED BY 
 
 WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 LONDON AND BECCLES.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. COLOGNE i 
 
 II. BONN ii 
 
 III. A HARTZ TOWN 21 
 
 IV. THE BROCKEN 30 
 
 V. THE PRUSSIAN DANGER .... 48 
 
 VI. BERLIN 57 
 
 VII. Music 66 
 
 VIII. THE REICHSTAG 75 
 
 IX. POSEN 85 
 
 X. THE KNEIPE 95 
 
 XL THE STUDENTS 104 
 
 XII. THE HIRSCHGASSE . . . . .113 
 
 XIII. THE SCHLOSS . . . . . .122 
 
 XIV. BADEN-BADEN 132 
 
 XV. LOST IN THE FOREST 142 
 
 XVI. SAND 152 
 
 XVII. THROUGH THE FOREST . . . .161 
 
 XVIII. DIE FORELLE . . . . . .171 
 
 XIX. LEAVING EXACTITUDE . .180 
 
 XX. Two PEOPLES I9 1
 
 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 I. COLOGNE 
 I 
 
 DID the golden glorious bells of Cologne 
 send forth a message on this Easter 
 morning the like of which would be but 
 fully grasped by man in the far time to 
 come ? Did these clear, wondrous sounds 
 mean that the time would come when peace 
 would reign in the world ? 
 
 Golden bells ringing out over the calm- 
 flowing Rhine. Out over the beautiful town 
 and the beautiful waters. Out over grim 
 forts of destruction. They rang out over 
 glinting murder-steel, over great, dark 
 engines of death.
 
 2 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 These glorious cathedral bells were carry- 
 ing a message to a people armed to the 
 teeth. For this strangely beautiful land of 
 the Rhine was a land ripe with the powers 
 of death and evil. From day into dark men 
 marched and drilled and broke themselves 
 to the use of weapons of murder. Soldiers 
 were everywhere. This beautiful Rhine- 
 land had become a menacing volcano that 
 at a moment might burst out and rive and 
 rend Europe. At the bidding of a knot 
 of sinister men who could be counted on 
 the fingers of the hand armed millions 
 would be sent forth to slay and to ravage. 
 Men would be taken from the broad, beauti- 
 ful fields, from the plough, from the villages, 
 from the towns, from the workshops. Peace- 
 ful, kindly men would be torn from their 
 families and the daily pursuit of their avoca- 
 tions and sent out to commit deeds of vio- 
 lence and blood upon men and people such 
 as themselves. And those in whom lay the
 
 COLOGNE 3 
 
 power to loose these fires of Hell could be 
 counted upon the fingers of the hand. Upon 
 the fingers of the hand! It was a strange 
 thing. This small knot of sinister figures 
 controlled hosts the killing power of which 
 was undreamed of even by the Hun, Attila. 
 
 And so it was well that the golden 
 glorious bells rang out on this Easter 
 Sunday morning. 
 
 There was need for the message coming 
 from the wonderful cathedral. 
 
 II 
 
 How joyful and triumphant were the 
 sounds of these glorious bells. Bells the 
 like of which were not in the whole world. 
 They were telling of the time when Christ 
 would come into the world arrayed in splen- 
 dour and brilliance unimaginable. Christ 
 would come again arrayed in the glory and 
 sublimity of Godhead.
 
 4 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 And there were meanings in these glorious 
 bells past human imaginings. As if voices 
 of beings were speaking from the future. 
 Voices it might be of glorified men to come. 
 Voices of those whose time had not yet 
 come to dwell in the world. 
 
 Mysterious, super-mortal notes ringing 
 through the soft sunlit air of the vague and 
 beautiful town. For though the impress 
 of the armed camp was upon the town, it 
 still was as if over all were a spirit and 
 atmosphere at once vague and tender and 
 full of charm. As if the genius of these 
 kindly people lay not in the hard stress 
 of war but in the glorious realm of art 
 and thought and imagination. Surely these 
 people held within them the genius of true 
 civilization. Surely they were wandering 
 from their true path which was not to crush 
 but to help in the raising of humanity. 
 
 The real expression of their genius lay 
 in this beautiful cathedral where rang the
 
 COLOGNE 5 
 
 bells. It lay not in the malign and sinister 
 preparation for the slaying of their fellow- 
 men. 
 
 It lay in thought. It lay in the heaven- 
 magic of music and art. 
 
 Ill 
 
 This cathedral of Cologne whence rang 
 the golden, glorious Easter bells ! To see 
 so beautiful, so sublime, and so reverend a 
 place was to feel that God indeed lived in 
 the soul and mind of man. To be within 
 this sacred and splendid place was to feel 
 that the prophecy would come true that 
 man would emerge from the present half 
 darkness into the full light. For man had 
 reared up this place. It was the glorious 
 triumph of centuries of labour. The hands 
 ot men had set in place the walls and the 
 arches, the great columns and the altars, 
 the roof the dome and the golden bells
 
 6 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 that now rang out over the town and the 
 flowing Rhine. Did it come in the reach 
 of time that Cologne passed away, it would 
 be well did this place of wonder still remain. 
 Did even men pass away, and did it come 
 to pass that higher and grander beings 
 reigned in the world, the sight of this place 
 of wonder and beauty would show these 
 beings that the man-race that had gone to 
 the dust was a race within whom had lived 
 a splendid and magical light. 
 
 ***** 
 The light softly burned and shone in the 
 windows of the cathedral. 
 
 And the golden bells were stilled in the 
 dome above and the splendid ritual was 
 living before the great altar. And the 
 people knelt as the sonorous Latin words of 
 the rite came through the distance. 
 
 Easter morning. 
 
 On this day Christ had risen from the 
 dead.
 
 COLOGNE 7 
 
 Through the cathedral rolled great organ- 
 tones. And voices clear and fresh as the 
 morning came forth. 
 
 And high above the light was burning 
 and shining in the wonderful windows. And 
 the sounds of the voices and organ-tones 
 softened and rose and rose till they had 
 passed into and were blended with the far 
 light above. 
 
 ***** 
 
 These strangely radiant wonderful win- 
 dows. In them lived and moved the light 
 of the day. High up yonder a blue en- 
 chanting radiance streamed into the cathe- 
 dral. And past the blue there streamed a 
 radiance again. A radiance red and gold. 
 And yonder again was a radiance. One 
 was in the midst of a place of unimaginably 
 beautiful light. Light ever changing and 
 strangely dissolving. The cathedral was 
 living in the midst of moving, wondrous- 
 coloured light. The colours of all the
 
 8 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 beautiful flowers of the whole world were 
 in this light that was streaming into this 
 sacred place. Soft radiance fell through the 
 curve of yonder far arch. And through the 
 great window in the east the light fell gently 
 into the cathedral nave. And far off and 
 high through a distant window was shining 
 a radiance brilliant and strange. Here were 
 all the lights of all the world. And the 
 shining colours of all the world. Here 
 were all the lights and beautiful colours 
 seen in dreams. And here were lights and 
 colours past even the power of imagination 
 to picture. This strangely glorious shining 
 cathedral. 
 
 This inspired place. 
 
 IV 
 
 As one knelt here strange images and 
 thoughts passed through the mind. And 
 the eyes of the soul became opened. One
 
 COLOGNE 9 
 
 saw that man could alone attain to his full 
 self in the midst of harmony. Hate and 
 strife and disaccord were things of darkness. 
 Man would never attain to his splendid 
 destiny under their reign. He would have 
 to arise and shake from him their power. 
 Man could grow but in the midst of harmony 
 and peace. 
 
 He would have to put hate and strife and 
 disaccord and their signs and pomps behind 
 him. 
 
 These thoughts came to the mind in 
 kneeling here in this cathedral. The eyes 
 of the soul became opened as one knelt 
 within this splendid symbol of Infinity. 
 
 This symbol was the realising of man's 
 most glorious dream. It was a sign of the 
 height to which he would attain. With his 
 hand he had raised it. It was of him. This 
 place of wonderful radiance was the realising 
 of the light that lived with him.
 
 io THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 And again rang the golden, glorious bells 
 of the cathedral. Again they carried the 
 message. On this day Christ had risen from 
 the dead. 
 
 They rang out over the town. 
 
 Out over the calm-flowing Rhine.
 
 II. BONN. 
 
 I 
 
 THIS German had never even heard of the 
 name of Beethoven. My friend had asked 
 him if he could direct us to the street 
 where the great musician was born, and 
 he was shaking his head in a way at once 
 puzzled and polite. 
 
 He was a waiter here at a little hotel 
 in the Market Place in Bonn, the birth- 
 place of Beethoven. 
 
 He called his fellow- waiter to his aid 
 a little Jew with a long nose, cunning, 
 near-together eyes, and the assured, know- 
 all air of his race. But the Jew waiter 
 was also unable to shed any light upon 
 the problem. 
 
 ii
 
 12 THE GERMAN DANGER . 
 
 " Beethoven ! Beethoven ! Ich habe ja 
 niemals von ihm gehort!" (I have never 
 heard of him !) exclaimed the Jew. 
 
 And then the two waiters went off a 
 few tables from us and conferred together 
 while we were finishing our meal. And 
 now and then could be heard the half- 
 whispered word " Beethoven." Here in 
 his birthplace the world-musician was an 
 unknown quantity both to a Jew and a 
 Gentile. 
 
 And then it was that I began for the 
 first time to feel really at home in Germany. 
 The Germans were after all as human a 
 people as ourselves, the English. This 
 small touch of dense ignorance seemed to 
 bring the two nations together. I had 
 always heard that the Germans were the 
 most well-informed and knowledgeable 
 people in the world. It is a fearsome and 
 awful reputation to possess, and I was 
 pleased to find that the calumny was
 
 BONN 13 
 
 disproved. On occasion they could be as 
 ignorant as ourselves. 
 
 II 
 
 How quaint was this old Rhine-town. 
 It preserved its mediaeval aspect even in 
 spite of the hideous tramcars. Why are 
 these old, delightful German towns spoiled 
 by such malign expressions of modern 
 alleged progress ? The tramcar especially 
 the electric tramcar is a very much dis- 
 guised blessing indeed. It is dangerous, 
 and its noise is horrible and hideous, and 
 it dwarfs and stunts man by encouraging 
 him to shirk his proper exercise. 
 
 ***** 
 
 It was plain to be seen that the Germans 
 here in Bonn took life with the easy, 
 happy-go-lucky spirit that belongs to the 
 truly wise. The tramcar had not as yet 
 got in its corrupting influence upon them.
 
 H THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 They stood on the corners smoking and 
 discussing with calmness what I am sure 
 must have been the deepest of deep philo- 
 sophy. One might have been in a town 
 in the south of Spain. The difference, 
 however, was that these delightful Germans 
 of the Rhine loafed and lazed about in what 
 might be called an earnest manner. You 
 felt that likely enough something of value 
 would come forth from their meditations. 
 
 Along the streets curiously - capped 
 students were easily walking. And there 
 were stout men, smoking the great long 
 pipes that one hears of. 
 
 Altogether, I was much taken with the 
 look of Bonn. And if the people could 
 have been persuaded to abolish the tram- 
 cars and to hang the makers of them, 
 I am sure that I would have entertained 
 serious intentions of mastering German 
 and settling down in Bonn. 
 
 A beautiful quaint old town of the Rhine.
 
 BONN 15 
 
 It belonged to the past when the Germans 
 were wiser than they are now to the time 
 when they had not got militarism on the 
 brain. This militarism, however, had been 
 forced upon them. It was alien to the 
 nature of these kindly, comfortable, well- 
 disposed people. For the last generation 
 they had been cowed and coerced by a 
 gang of Prussian Huns madmen, whose 
 chief ambition was to disturb the world's 
 peace so that they could show off the effect 
 of a big conscript army. It is well to tell 
 'the English people the plain truth about 
 this matter. The policy of the ostrich is 
 the policy of death. There is danger from 
 Germany. Not because of the people. 
 The Germans in themselves do not want 
 war. But the idea of discipline is so in- 
 grained in them that all that the military 
 party^ would have to do would be to say 
 the word, and Europe woulcT~be~~libtc[ze. 
 They would obey the Huns in high places
 
 16 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 as the electric bell obeys the touch on the 
 button. 
 
 Perhaps you are a stay-at-home English- 
 man who does not believe this ! If so, I 
 am sorry. And all I can say to you is 
 that if you travelled through Germany you 
 would be blind indeed did you not see that 
 the Germans are absolutely in the grip of 
 the military party. Military officers are 
 everything and the rest of Germany is 
 nothing. I am not saying that there are 
 not Germans who resent this state of things. 
 There are. But the danger to the peace 
 of Europe lies in the fact that, practically, 
 the German has no say in the governing of 
 his country. And, as I said, he obeys 
 unquestioningly. 
 
 He has been turned into a machine by 
 Bismarck. 
 
 And Europe will be in danger till he finds 
 his soul again.
 
 BONN 17 
 
 III 
 
 Here we were in the Bonngasse a small, 
 narrow street, where was born that wondrous 
 world-man that glorious and stupendous 
 man of genius, Beethoven. 
 
 He was born in a little back room in a 
 house in this Bonngasse. This great man 
 had been ushered into the world in the 
 midst of poverty. His father was but a 
 choir-singer. There was no thunder of 
 guns, there were no vast and splendid cele- 
 brations to announce to the world that 
 Beethoven had come. This greatest of all 
 the Germans came from the people. And 
 the greatest of all the German Emperors 
 would, indeed, be well honoured were he 
 but allowed to tie the latchets of the shoes 
 of this Beethoven. 
 
 And he was born in this little back room 
 
 c
 
 in this house in the narrow street here in 
 Bonn. 
 
 This man gathered the music and the 
 harmony that lives in the world and the 
 heavens, and he wove this music into im- 
 mense, immortal tone -pictures. He was 
 the god of the harmony that will in the 
 end unite mankind. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Germans ! Talk not of the splendour of 
 the feats of your Huns whose statues rise 
 high in Berlin. Talk not of the deeds of 
 your liberty-crushing men of evil whose 
 memory is enshrined in boastful pomp in 
 your great town of the north. Raise up 
 your statues to the crushers of our common 
 race ! But forget not that by these 
 men of darkness and blood Beethoven was 
 an archangel of light. Your Beethoven 
 stood for the unifying of humanity. He 
 stood for the fraternity that in time will 
 bind us all, whatever be the nation that
 
 BONN 19 
 
 claims us. Progress is a strange word. It 
 has often been used to designate the push- 
 ing of man back again into the mud and 
 the darkness. But your Beethoven was a 
 herald of true progress. He lit the way for 
 the march of humanity to heights splendid 
 and undreamed of. This genius of the 
 wondrous world-voice ! You need not shrine 
 him high in boastful stone, for he lives 
 of himself. You had the honour of his 
 coming from your midst. But he belonged 
 to us all. This mighty poet, with the 
 magical all-voice. This great-browed angel 
 of inspiration. He is, indeed, worthy of 
 your deepest reverence. Nor can you at 
 once reverence him and reverence those 
 whose statues rise in boastful pomp in 
 Berlin. It is not meet that light may be 
 spoken of in the one breath with darkness. 
 And all the feats of your arms, and all the 
 death-power that may lie in your arms, and 
 all your kings and emperors are as nothing
 
 20 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 compared with the fact that Beethoven 
 came from your midst. 
 
 That he was born here in your town on 
 the Rhine.
 
 III. A HARTZ TOWN 
 
 I 
 
 HERE was Goslar a town in the moun- 
 tains of the Hartz. It was small and ancient 
 and compact, and free from the blight of 
 the tramcar. The carts rumbled over the 
 cobble-stones of the narrow streets much in 
 the way they had rumbled hundreds of 
 years before. It was difficult to believe 
 that such a quiet, reposeful town belonged 
 to pushful Prussia. And it almost seemed 
 as if its atmosphere had a chastening effect 
 upon the German officers who swanked 
 and swaggered about and along the quiet 
 streets. 
 
 I stopped at the Zum Achtermann, an 
 
 21
 
 22 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 old, quaint hotel. The roof of the dining 
 room was heavily and curiously raftered, 
 after the old, beautiful fashion. A place 
 adorned with odd, mysterious carvings in 
 wood. 
 
 This old hotel had once been a strong 
 castle. The dining-room was enclosed in a 
 vast circular tower, with immensely thick 
 walls. There was a dais in this old dining- 
 room where the officers sat when they 
 honoured the Zum Achtermann with their 
 presence. They had a great table on this 
 dais all to themselves. Were an ignorant 
 stranger to go and take a seat at this table, 
 it was the duty of the head waiter to tell 
 him to shift. This table was situated in by 
 far the best part of the dining-room, and it 
 was reserved for the officers, and no lowly 
 civilian was allowed to sit there, even if all 
 the seats at it were empty. The place of the 
 lowly civilian was in the body of the dining- 
 room, where it was comparatively dark.
 
 A HARTZ TOWN 23 
 
 It was instructive to sit down in the com- 
 parative darkness of the lower part of the 
 dining-room and gaze reverentially up at the 
 modern German war gods while they were 
 quaffing beer from immense long glasses. 
 One felt as if one were a retainer of the 
 time gone by centuries. For this floor of 
 the great, vast circular tower was most 
 likely a dining place in the days when the 
 German war gods did something more than 
 swank and clank around with an earth- 
 owning air. 
 
 I used to sit and watch the officers 
 reverentially by the hour. It was after all 
 a privilege to be living in the Middle Ages. 
 
 Let it not be thought for a moment that 
 I have the least intention of being rude to 
 the delightful German people. They must 
 like their swanking, clanking officers, or they 
 would not have them. No nation has any- 
 thing that it really does not want. It is 
 therefore most likely that these spectacularly
 
 24 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 clothed young men appeal to the German 
 sense of decorative art. And I must hasten 
 to say that these German officers look most 
 picturesque and beautiful as they go along 
 the German streets. What matters it if 
 they take the best places to sit in, and if 
 they may kill and injure people with im- 
 punity ? What matters it ? One must pay 
 for the artistic and the truly beautiful. 
 
 Here, on the raised dais of the dining- 
 room of the Zum Achtermann, they sat 
 gently absorbing beer while they gazed 
 down upon the German people. 
 
 They were embodied expressions of the 
 heights to which human dignity can arise. 
 
 II 
 
 This dear, delightful old town of the 
 mountains of the Hartz ! 
 
 A town with an atmosphere, old and 
 vague and strange. I tried to picture to my- 
 self what it was like when emperors held
 
 A HARTZ TOWN 25 
 
 their court here. Surely it was much like 
 what it was now. It might, perhaps, have 
 worn a busier air. Hard-faced men-at-arms 
 pressed through its narrow streets girt with 
 their great swords. And there came knights. 
 And lo ! here was the Emperor ! Surely 
 was this Goslar now all but as it was in those 
 old fine days, when fighting men were 
 fighting men. Above it rose the Rammels- 
 berg, as it rose above it now in the high, 
 clear air. 
 
 For a thousand years men had mined out 
 copper and lead and silver from this 
 mountain. Pale-faced men of labour such 
 as were passing now had passed through 
 these streets in the time of the Crusades. 
 The lapse of the centuries had changed none 
 of the circumstances of their lot. In the 
 times long gone in Goslar they had been 
 called, perhaps, slaves or prisoners. But 
 their faces were as pale now, and the droop 
 was in their bodies and limbs, even as
 
 26 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 it was then. Words were the only things 
 that had changed for these men of labour 
 here in this Goslar. 
 
 Immutable is man. A thousand years 
 come and are gone. And lo! men are as 
 they are ! It is as if the vast time-lapse had 
 passed in a flash. In it have lived un- 
 countable myriads of figures. And among 
 these figures vivid figures have stood. 
 Figures called great conquerors, and great 
 men of the mind, and great men of 
 administration. They have appeared in the 
 midst of these uncountable myriads of 
 figures as the thousand years were flashing 
 past. And they are gone, meaning nothing. 
 Conquerors and thinkers all. They fcave 
 come and gone, meaning nothing. It is as 
 if man had but turned in his sleep. 
 
 To be in Goslar was to feel that time was, 
 after all, but a concept that had grown out of 
 man's imagination. And was this time- 
 concept in accord with the law governing
 
 A HARTZ TOWN 27 
 
 the existence of the vast scheme of suns and 
 worlds and stars ? Men peered with little 
 instruments into corners of this immeasur- 
 ably stupendous scheme, and they made 
 little marks, and said that the immeasurable 
 world-scheme lived in accordance with these 
 little marks. And they had made things 
 that they called clocks and records. And 
 they had invented three strange words 
 past, present, and future. But did their 
 clocks and their records and their three 
 strange words mean anything save a stick 
 for them to lean on ? Who was to tell ? 
 Might not the past and the present and 
 the future be but three different words 
 expressing ignorance of the life-mystery ? 
 Might it not be that the past and the present 
 and the future were one and indivisible ? 
 Might it not be that man had conceived the 
 idea, Time, because he was half-blind, and 
 unable to see the whole of the mystery of 
 existence ?
 
 28 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 A thousand years had passed in this 
 town of the Hartz, and still it was as it 
 was. Life moved now as it did then. 
 
 Here were the people, here was the 
 town, yonder was the Rammelsberg rising 
 in the clear air. 
 
 A place vague and still and strange. 
 
 Ill 
 
 I wandered about this old, serene town, 
 watching the calm flow of life in the narrow 
 streets. And to me it was as if the faces 
 of the people were wiser of look than the 
 faces of the people in great, bustling capitals. 
 Man grows best in leisurely and quiet places. 
 Great, bustling capitals burn men up instead 
 of developing them. 
 
 I stayed here in this town of the Hartz 
 five days. And I grew to know it well. 
 Indeed, in the end it came to be as if I had 
 been there for years as if I had been there
 
 A HARTZ TOWN 29 
 
 all my life. I used to walk through the 
 quaint old streets between the Zum Achter- 
 mann and the Kaiserhaus, a strong palace 
 built up on the slope of a mountain. And 
 from the Kaiserhaus I would walk back 
 through the Platz, where were drilled the 
 soldiers, and on again through the old 
 streets, and back to the Zum Achtermann. 
 
 Goslar was quiet and beautiful and old- 
 world. A place of strange grey old houses, 
 with red towers. A place of a sky beautiful 
 and blue, and of clear air. 
 
 A place strange and wise and old. Of 
 narrow streets and of people with calm faces. 
 Life in it had moved as a quiet stream 
 through a thousand years. And life in it 
 had changed no more than changes quiet, 
 flowing waters. 
 
 A town of the mountains, still and calm.
 
 IV. THE BROCKEN 
 
 I 
 
 THE old woman in Ilsenburg was very much 
 against our making the ascent of the 
 Brocken. She said that it was not the 
 season that no one ever went up at that 
 time of year that the snow on the road 
 near the top was high, very high ! 
 
 She was an old peasant woman of the 
 Hartz, of whom a question had been asked 
 as to the direction to take for the ascending 
 of the mountain, and along with the 
 answering of the question she was volun- 
 teering a mass of most uncomfortable 
 information. An old woman, with a shrewd 
 strong face. 
 
 We did put it off for that day, and back 
 3
 
 THE BROCKEN 31 
 
 we went to Goslar. But four days after- 
 wards we were again in Ilsenburg, 
 adventuring along in the Ilse-Tal a most 
 beautiful valley. We were determined to 
 ascend the Brocken, season or no season, 
 snow or no snow. 
 
 I must confess, however, that our ad- 
 venture hardly wore a hazardous air for 
 the Brocken was only 3, 745ft. above the 
 level of the sea, and there was a carriage- 
 way right up to its summit. True, carriages 
 were not running now. But the fact of 
 there being a carriage way at all was enough 
 to inspire confidence, even in the heaviest 
 and most timid mountaineer. 
 
 The day was glorious. It was deliciously 
 warm. And the warmth was tempered by 
 a breeze coming through the pines. 
 
 How shall one describe this valley of the 
 pines, through which sang the River Use ? 
 It was as one of the most beautiful valleys 
 in the mountains of Scotland, coloured with
 
 32 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 the warm shades and tones ol the South. 
 The blue of the sky appeared through the 
 tops of the tall pines. There were magical, 
 arching, far effects of blue. It was surely 
 from a valley such as this that man first 
 got his idea of the wonderful Gothic 
 effects. 
 
 And the life-giving aroma of the pines. 
 To be walking along in this valley was to 
 feel that one was adding to the length of 
 one's days. The road was by the side ol 
 the beautiful Use, that sang its way down 
 from the mountains. Brown, and green, 
 and dark, and gold, and arching far blue. 
 And a river singing. And shafts of light 
 piercing into shadows. The effect was 
 magical. 
 
 Yonder to the east arose the Ilsenstein, 
 a vast buttress of granite, rising hundreds 
 of feet above the valley. And crowning 
 the Ilsenstein was an iron cross. 
 
 From Ilsenburg to the summit of the
 
 THE BROCKEN 33 
 
 Brocken was only a matter of twelve kilo- 
 metres. And here let me give all thanks 
 and praise to the German makers of the 
 delightful carriage-road. For not only was 
 every kilometre marked with great distinct- 
 ness. There was a stone to mark even 
 every tenth of a kilometre. And so one 
 felt that one was really accomplishing some- 
 thing in the way of covering distance. 
 There is nothing so harassing to the foot 
 traveller as to walk for hours without 
 knowing the exact distance he has travelled. 
 Weariness is largely a matter of the mind, 
 and he becomes tired before his time. And 
 it was therefore absolutely refreshing to be 
 passing along this well-marked German 
 road. One felt that one could go along it 
 for ever. Were not the stones marking 
 the distance continually passing behind 
 one ? You saw one, and you were up with 
 it and past it before you knew it. What 
 mattered it if the stone only recorded the 
 
 D
 
 34 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 fact that you had walked but the tenth of a 
 kilometre ? That was nothing. You were 
 doing something. You were annihilating 
 distance with magnificent ease. And, to 
 tell the truth, I felt personally as if I were 
 passing milestones. 
 
 A woman was gathering herbs shaped like 
 cress by the side of the road. She said that 
 they were for making tea, and she claimed 
 for them many and varied qualities of heal- 
 ing. I tasted the herbs and reflected upon 
 the fact that the way to health lay, in this 
 instance, through a most unpleasant gate. 
 
 We were still in the pine forest, and I was 
 beginning to think that the ascent of the 
 Brocken would turn out to be no ascent after 
 all, when suddenly the road turned, and up 
 before us lay a sharp incline. By the time 
 I had reached the top of that incline I began 
 to feel that I was somewhat of a mountaineer. 
 It was that most fatiguing kind of an incline 
 straight, even, and well graded and as I
 
 THE BROCKEN 35 
 
 was the mule of the party (the one who 
 carried on my back all the necessary belong- 
 ings) it began to tell on me. Just here the 
 forest had become thick and dark, and there 
 was no breeze. 
 
 At last we were out of the forest and at 
 the top of the incline. We had come exactly 
 seven kilometres from Ilsenburg. We were 
 sitting down near to the stone that marked 
 the distance, and I was hoping that there 
 were not too many of these inclines on the 
 way up to the Brocken. 
 
 Again we were plodding along. It was 
 a most lonesome and silent mountain-road. 
 We had not seen a soul since we had got up 
 out of the valley. And there was no sign of 
 any kind of habitation. There were marks 
 of the work of wood-cutters, and nothing 
 more. 
 
 However, it would have been impossible 
 to get lost there, for at every twist and turn 
 of the road there were sign-posts telling one
 
 36 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 all manner of things concerning the direction. 
 And there were arrow-heads and pointing 
 fingers for the benefit of the one unacquainted 
 with the language. Never in my experience 
 had I seen a mountain or, indeed, even 
 a highroad so well provided for in this 
 respect. The Germans had evidently in- 
 tended that no one should get lost in the 
 ascending of their Brocken. They even 
 went to the extent of providing you with a 
 selection of roads and paths. There was the 
 bequemer Weg (comfortable way), and there 
 was the quick short cut, where you had 
 (probably) to keep your eyes open. Though 
 how anyone could by any manner of means 
 fall off the Brocken is a mystery to me. It 
 is the safest and most undangerous mountain 
 to navigate in the width of the world. 
 
 But where were the vast depths of snow 
 that one had to wade through ? The road 
 was as clean and as dry as could be. We 
 had by this time passed the stone marking
 
 THE BROCKEN 37 
 
 the ninth kilometre, and I was beginning to 
 think that the old peasant woman down in 
 the valley was a lady who possessed the gift 
 of imagination. The only danger that 
 seemed possible to me was the danger of 
 wolves. It was hard to think, however, that 
 self-respecting wolves would come to a place 
 so stocked with sign-posts. But for all that 
 the scene wore a most lonesome and 
 uninhabited air. 
 
 Here at a turn of the road stood an 
 absolute regiment of sign-posts. You were 
 at the parting of the ways. You could 
 either go to a village called Schierke, or 
 you could still persist in adventuring up 
 the unadventurous Brocken. This regiment 
 of sign-posts told you everything you could 
 possibly want to know about both 
 adventures. You were confronted with all 
 manner of directions and advices and 
 suggestions. 
 
 We turned to the right, and lo ! there
 
 38 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 occurred a most extraordinary thing. The 
 tenth-kilometre stones disappeared from the 
 road. Or rather, to be exact, the tenth - 
 kilometre stones that had guided us from 
 Ilsenburg disappeared. There were other 
 tenth-kilometre stones, but they were the 
 guides and friends of travellers bound on 
 another direction and adventure. 
 
 The paternal German Government had at 
 last left us to ourselves. There was nothing 
 now to cheer us on our way. All that we 
 were told was that we were going on our 
 way up to the Brocken. And I began to 
 feel weary. 
 
 And here was the snow. It had drifted 
 up right across the road. It lay in places 
 five or six feet high. The old woman of 
 Ilsenburg had turned out to be a rigid dealer 
 in facts. 
 
 For half a mile the road was choked with 
 snow. But walking upon it was a matter of 
 comparative ease. There was a narrow,
 
 THE BROCKEN 39 
 
 hardened path in the middle of it that had 
 been made by the tramping of adventurous 
 persons who had braved the perils of the 
 Brocken but a short time before us. 
 
 II 
 
 We passed a small, narrow-gauge railway 
 track. This, too, ran up from the valley to 
 the summit of the Brocken. It was for the 
 benefit of the tourists who desire to perform 
 doughty and hazardous deeds in absolute 
 comfort and safety. Trains were not 
 running over it now because of the snow that 
 had drifted across the track. 
 
 And at last I began to feel the hero's halo 
 encircling my brow. For here was I 
 actually walking up this mountain while 
 others of a less hardy calibre either drove 
 up it or took the train. And I was walking 
 up it when the snow lay on the ground to 
 boot!
 
 40 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 The German Government had deserted us 
 by taking away the tenth-kilometre marks 
 that had cheered us on our way from 
 Ilsenburg. But Providence had balanced 
 this disaster by suddenly becoming kind to 
 us in the matter of the formation of the 
 mountain. For the road was now taking a 
 slightly downward dip. And but for the 
 fact of knowing that the Germans were 
 above such a thing as making a- mistake in 
 the matter of directions, I would have 
 thought that I was on my way down back 
 again to the valley. 
 
 Here we were at last. We came to a 
 narrow path to the left a path guarded by 
 an immense sign which bore upon it the 
 pithy legend, " Zum Brockenhaus." The 
 meaning of the legend was that we were 
 nearing the hotel on the summit. 
 
 I paused and looked up along this 
 narrow path, and to my astonished 
 eyes there appeared a sight incredible.
 
 THE BROCKEN 41 
 
 There were positively stones upon this 
 path! 
 
 And then something real happened. I 
 stepped upon snow, and I actually sank 
 suddenly down past my knee. I had had 
 the luck to meet with an adventure after all. 
 And I felt much as a Heidelberg student 
 must feel when in a duel he receives a 
 wound a wound that will develop into a 
 fine, sightly scar. There would, of course, 
 be no sign for me to show as proof of the 
 adventure. But I was glad to think that I 
 would now be able to write and tell the 
 people at home of my adventure. 
 
 And the Brockenhaus now loomed up 
 nobly on the summit of the Brocken. And 
 yonder was the observatory, where the 
 German star-gazers kept a hard and close 
 watch upon the military designs of Mars. 
 
 No there was no spectre. I should 
 think that the combination of railroad and 
 roads and paths and sign-posts had laid it.
 
 42 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 There was, to be sure, a mist. But who 
 ever climbed a mountain yet that was not 
 rewarded for toil by the sight of a mist 
 obscuring the wonders of the view ? 
 
 The hotel was low, and it had a flat roof. 
 There were times, it seemed, when the 
 Brocken woke up. And in these times the 
 roof of the hotel was apt to be blown off. 
 To the casual observer it hardly seemed 
 that the Brocken could behave in such a 
 way. It appeared to be a most mild-man- 
 nered kind of mountain. But things are 
 not always what they seem in this odd 
 world, and the owner of the hotel had 
 taken the precaution of building it so 
 that the wind could get as little hold on 
 it as possible. 
 
 Mighty oaks grow from little acorns. 
 And this Brocken showed to the full the 
 illuminating and wonderful genius of Goethe. 
 It was, to say the least, a most stable and 
 solid foundation for his Brocken scene. It
 
 THE BROCKEN 43 
 
 is a well-known fact, however, that the 
 true poet often derives inspiration from 
 things that are in themselves not too im- 
 pressive. 
 
 The waiter who was in charge at the 
 Brockenhaus was one who was given to 
 silence. He had been here for seven years. 
 He had never seen the spectre! And I 
 did not wonder at it. 
 
 The roof of the hotel, however, had been 
 blown from over his head. And this, I 
 suppose, was something to be thankful 
 for. There are times when a man hungers 
 for a little colourful incident to brighten 
 him up. 
 
 It had taken us four hours to climb the 
 Brocken from Ilsenburg. A person who 
 climbs mountains for the sake of climbing 
 mountains would probably have done it in 
 two hours. But we had taken our good 
 and easy time about it. We had started 
 at one that afternoon, and it was now five.
 
 44 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 The waiter informed us that the great 
 thing about the Brocken was the seeing 
 the sun rise from it. It was to rise at 
 something before five the next morning, 
 and if there were no mist about he said 
 that he would ring a big bell. 
 
 The hotel had a strong, prison-like air 
 about it, but there was something that I 
 liked about it. The wine was good. 
 
 A young man came hurriedly in. He 
 also was an adventurer from out of the 
 depths of some valley or another, and he 
 immediately sat down at the writing-table 
 in the dining-room and began to write post- 
 cards to those who were interested in him, 
 to let them know I presume that he had 
 arrived safely. He wrote quite a number 
 of cards and then wrote his name in the 
 visitors' book and bowed to us and 
 departed. The waiter gave us to under- 
 stand that he was one who was connected 
 with the law. He was a curious-looking
 
 THE BROCKEN 45 
 
 young man, with an awkward air, and I 
 felt relieved when he was gone. There 
 was too much hurry and business about 
 him for a place like the Brocken. 
 
 The visitors' book was a study. One 
 visitor an Englishman had written one 
 of Kipling's poems on a whole page. 
 Another visitor had used a page to set a 
 German poem to music, while another had 
 drawn a picture alongside his autograph. 
 The Brocken-climbers seemed generally to 
 be people of a literary and artistic turn. 
 ***** 
 
 Wernigerode. It was flashing off yonder 
 as a jewel. A little town of the mountains. 
 The Brocken had now become impressive 
 and beautiful. The moon was shining 
 above the snow and the quietude. 
 
 The lights of Wernigerode flashed 
 strangely out. And under the flashing of 
 the lights were places of snow. It seemed 
 as if the town were set up high in some
 
 46 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 place above the world in some place 
 of shadows and whiteness and darkness. 
 The look of the mountains had changed 
 magically. They were cold and serene and 
 mysterious. 
 
 Mountains in silence. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 And here was the grey of the dawn. 
 And soon the edge of the sun was coming 
 up in the clear soft morning light. A 
 red-gold, glowing rim. Up it came, glowing 
 the snow and the tops of the pines down in 
 the valleys. 
 
 A light coming up in silence. 
 
 And the light was changing from its red 
 softness to a piercing, streaming brilliance. 
 And the sun was now full up over the edge 
 of the mountain. 
 
 And valleys and mountains and pines 
 and snow were now bathed in wonderful 
 light. Far up above was a pale, clear, 
 bright blue.
 
 THE BROCKEN 47 
 
 The sun was a soaring brilliance. And 
 round in the mountains could be seen the 
 little towns. The light flashed upon the 
 far, red roofs. Off yonder were pine forests 
 in the shades of deep valleys. 
 
 The sun ! Well might man fall and adore 
 the god of unimaginable splendour. This 
 soaring immenseness of light. 
 
 And the silence was gone from the 
 mountains around. It was as if the 
 Brocken lay in the midst of far surround- 
 ing sound.
 
 V. THE PRUSSIAN DANGER 
 
 I 
 
 " YOUR name ! " he demanded authoritatively 
 as he thrust a yellow paper in front of 
 me. 
 
 I looked at him in astonishment. He was 
 a squat Prussian of powerful build. 
 
 " Your full name and address ! " he 
 demanded again, tapping the yellow paper 
 significantly. " It is for die police." 
 
 I shivered. At last Nemesis had 
 overtaken me. I was to be hauled up for 
 one of the many and various crimes and 
 misdemeanours that I had committed in 
 different parts of the world. True, my chal- 
 lenger was only the porter of an hotel near 
 the Friedrich-strasse in Berlin. But he had 
 
 48
 
 THE PRUSSIAN DANGER 49 
 
 the eye of the person who detects crime and 
 criminals at a glance. And his manner had 
 the simple directness of the manner of a 
 police-inspector interrogating a suspected 
 person. 
 
 And then my wits came back to me. It 
 was all right. I was not going to be locked 
 up. 
 
 I was only in Prussia ! 
 
 Gone was pleasant and beautiful Cologne, 
 gone was go-easy Bonn, gone was Hanover, 
 delightful and brilliant and gay. I was here 
 in Berlin here in Prussia ! True, I had 
 had to sign papers before, but then they had 
 not been yellow, and they had not been 
 presented in such a manner. Besides I had 
 not been told that they were for the police. 
 The Oberkellner (head-waiter) usually 
 presented the paper after the manner of 
 one who desired a distinguished person's 
 autograph. 
 
 And the thought came hard upon me that 
 
 E
 
 50 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 I was now in a place where I would have to 
 toe the mark. So I set to work and wrote 
 what was required on the forbidding-looking 
 yellow paper. It was well to remember that 
 I was not now in the Germany of the south 
 or of the Rhine. This porter's style and 
 manner and voice forcibly reminded me that 
 I had entered the land of the mailed fist. 
 
 II 
 
 Let it not be forgotten that Prussia is by 
 no means the whole of Germany. It is, of 
 course, the part that we hear from the most. 
 From it come the telegrams. From it 
 comes the danger to the peace of Europe. 
 
 Prussia is the tail that wags the dog. 
 
 And that is the beginning and the end of 
 it. Germany is composed of a number of 
 States peopled by inhabitants of opposing 
 characteristics and temperaments, and 
 Prussia is but one of these States. And the
 
 THE PRUSSIAN DANGER 51 
 
 time may perhaps come when the dog will 
 have wisdom and courage enough not to 
 allow himself to be pushed and shoved and 
 whirled so strangely about by his tail. 
 
 Indeed, the Prussians are not typical 
 Germans at all. They are not comfortable 
 enough. That absolutely German word 
 " gemUthlich," which is untranslatable into 
 English, and which means a sort of easy, 
 serene, pleasant comfortableness, in no way 
 fits these quick, decided, forceful, arbitrary 
 people. If they are able, they mean to grip 
 the earth, as they have gripped Germany. 
 I admit that one nation has as much right 
 to grip everything in sight as another, but it 
 is apt to give one uncomfortable thoughts 
 when the nation that has the earth-gripping 
 mania is a nation that knows nothing of the 
 art of letting people alone. I mean, it is 
 uncomfortable to think that these Prussians 
 have the power to set Europe ablaze because 
 of the fact that Germany proper is at their
 
 52 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 beck and call. And let there be no beating 
 about the bush. These Prussians mean to 
 assail England at the first opportunity. 
 You say the Socialist Party would stop it? 
 Do not believe anything so foolish. The 
 Socialist Party has as much chance of 
 influencing Prussian adventure as a rabbit 
 would have of stopping an express. It is 
 therefore dangerous for us to pay any 
 attention to those who are befogged and 
 bamboozled into thinking that Germany 
 and England can be united in the bonds 
 of brotherly love through the medium of 
 high teas and tea-fights generally. 
 
 War is a horrible and dreadful thing for 
 everybody, and the only way for England 
 not to have war with Germany is for 
 England to get ready. Civility is a 
 beautiful idea, but when a man is getting 
 ready to knife you the best way to bring 
 him to a brotherly frame of mind is to 
 show him that you know what he is up
 
 THE PRUSSIAN DANGER 53 
 
 to, and that you are fully prepared for 
 him. 
 
 Never mind the English people who say 
 there is no danger of Prussia precipitating 
 Germany upon us. There is danger. And 
 every Englishman who lives in Germany 
 knows that there is danger. 
 
 The Socialists say that the German armed 
 millions could not be used by the military 
 party. But the merest tyro of a student of 
 humanity would know that this is nonsense. 
 In a country such as Germany, where 
 individuality has been systematically and 
 scientifically crushed, the masses have no 
 voice at all. 
 
 Prussia is the tail that wags the dog. 
 * * * * * 
 
 I may say here in explanation that I went 
 to Germany with a strong prepossession in 
 favour of the German people, and I still 
 have that prepossession. But it would be 
 an ill service did not one point out the
 
 54 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 danger to England of German militarism. 
 I had intended at first not to dwell upon 
 this point, but the evidence that the German 
 war party means to fight England for her 
 possessions is so overwhelming that one 
 cannot but speak. And it is wiser for the 
 English people to know of the danger that 
 threatens them. It is always safest to look 
 a fact square in the face. 
 
 Yes, the evidence of this danger is over- 
 whelming. 
 
 The English people must know. And 
 the English people must realise that the 
 vote- catching politicians of Westminster are 
 the unsafest of guides in this matter. In 
 the first place, Westminster is not here on 
 the spot. And politicians are too busy 
 either catching votes or getting in the lime- 
 light to know much that is of real value 
 to England. The real situation will have 
 to be explained in the Press. And the 
 Press, in this matter of Prussian design,
 
 THE PRUSSIAN DANGER 55 
 
 has done yeoman service before. It must 
 not be forgotten that the great journalist 
 Blowitz was largely instrumental in prevent- 
 ing Bismarck from forcing a bloody and 
 desolating war upon France. 
 
 No one will ever know the terrible humili- 
 ations that the men who have governed 
 France have had to endure in secret since 
 the war of 1870. I am not particularly in 
 sympathy with the people who govern, but 
 it must have been a hard thing for a 
 Frenchman to have held over him the 
 threat of drenching his country in blood 
 if he did not bend the knee before Prussia. 
 It must have been a dreadful thing. 
 
 I well know that there are weak-headed 
 Englishmen who will say that I am writing 
 mischievously in writing thus. But that 
 troubles me little. 
 
 England must realise her danger the 
 better to face it. And as for the English 
 friends of the enemy among us, we must
 
 56 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 let them and what they have to say pass. 
 We produce such people among us for 
 our sins. 
 
 Understand me. I am not blaming the 
 German people. I say this again and again. 
 I am only pointing out the fact that there 
 is the danger of a small knot of Prussians 
 forcing on one of the most horrible and 
 desolating wars to be known in the history 
 of mankind. And absolutely the only thing 
 to influence this knot of Huns is force. 
 They are amenable to no moral or intel- 
 lectual influence. This is a hard thing 
 to say. But it is true. 
 
 I am against all Huns, whatever be their 
 nationality. I am not saying that there 
 have not been English Huns. 
 
 But the danger now in Europe is from 
 the Huns that belong to Prussia. 
 
 We do not want war. 
 
 And the way for England not to have 
 war is to be fully prepared.
 
 VI. BERLIN 
 
 I 
 
 I KEPT continually getting lost in Berlin. 
 The streets are so square and even that 
 there is nothing in them particularly to catch 
 the eye of the lounging stranger. Another 
 thing. The Berlinese have a habit of 
 directing the lost without making gestures. 
 They tell you where the street is but they 
 do not point towards it. To know enough 
 German to be able to inquire for your lost 
 street, and to be told only in slurred, quick 
 words that mean nothing to you where 
 your offending street lies, is to endure an 
 experience most awkward. 
 
 When first I made inquiries I nursed the 
 hope that the Berlinese pedestrian would 
 
 57
 
 58 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 point towards the desired street while he 
 was telling me all about it. I knew I would 
 not be able to understand his words. I had 
 founded my hopes of enlightenment upon 
 the common and solid rock so to speak 
 of primitive gesture. But I was so often 
 doomed to disappointment that in the end 
 whenever I was lost I remained lost till 
 chance and plodding along brought me to 
 rights again. 
 
 Berlin is a town of right angles and statues 
 especially statues. And I hope that no 
 one will think I am rude when I say that 
 its general appearance is that of a fine and 
 splendid penal settlement. At least that 
 was how its general appearance struck me. 
 It has beautiful parks and fountains and 
 spaces, but all of these have an exact, clock- 
 work air. It is not an individual-looking 
 town. One place is too much like another 
 place. This, combined with the sharp 
 sounds coming from the square-cut masses
 
 BERLIN 59 
 
 of soldiers who are continually marching 
 through the streets, has the effect of making 
 you feel that you are in a place where exact 
 and strict behaviour is the order of the 
 day. I could not but feel that Berlin was 
 hardly the ideal stopping-place for an easy- 
 going, lounging person such as myself. 
 
 You can hardly turn your head without 
 seeing a statue. They are here, there, and 
 everywhere in beautiful, leafy, exact-look- 
 ing parks, in squares, on the corners of 
 streets, in the middle of streets, at the ends 
 and beginnings of streets everywhere. 
 Statues, statues everywhere. 
 
 And should you be walking and a picture 
 catches your eye in a shop-window, you will 
 find on looking that it is a picture of Kaiser 
 Wilhelm. Should you go into a restaurant 
 you will dine opposite a picture of Kaiser 
 Wilhelm. You will be sitting under a 
 picture of Kaiser Wilhelm as you are 
 taking nourishment. Everywhere you will
 
 60 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 see a picture of Kaiser Wilhelm. His eye 
 is on you at every turn. He is looking at 
 you from all kinds of guises and uniforms. 
 A ruler at once ubiquitous and popular and 
 stern is this Kaiser Wilhelm. I, who am 
 a person of an irreverent cast of mind, felt 
 my irreverence fall from me because of this 
 stern and you'11-have-to-toe-the-mark ex- 
 pression that loomed out from the imperial 
 eye. I will say this, however : I do 
 not think Kaiser Wilhelm would be half 
 a bad sort could he meet men and things 
 in a fair and square man-to-man manner. 
 
 One ought to try to be fair. And for me 
 the Kaiser has a face that shows acute 
 intelligence and bravery and resource and 
 readiness and great power. And there is a 
 look of nobility and loftiness in his face. I 
 do not think he is friendly to England, but 
 one must be fair. He looks generous and 
 straight. And he certainly looks like one 
 whom it would be all right to have with you
 
 BERLIN 61 
 
 in a tight, dangerous corner. I have seen 
 him passing along in England twice, besides 
 seeing him in the ubiquitous Berlin pictures. 
 And if I am any judge of faces his face is 
 that of a fine, straight, somewhat hard fellow, 
 who has been doomed by fate to live in a 
 position that is impossible and anomalous 
 when one has regard to the spirit of liberty 
 that is coming into the world. 
 
 It is a bad thing to owe money in Berlin, 
 for all that a creditor has to do is to pay 
 twenty-five pfennigs (about threepence) and 
 he can get your address at the Head Police 
 Office. Tailors may breathe easily and 
 freely. They may go to their beds with 
 easy minds, for the unfortunate men upon 
 whom they practise their art are but as flies 
 in the immense police web that chokes 
 Berlin.
 
 62 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 The police have sole and absolute power 
 over the ordering of the lives of the people 
 of this great town. The Socialists were 
 not allowed even to have a procession 
 on the first of May. And no reason was 
 given for the refusal. The police simply 
 refused permission, and that was the end 
 of it. 
 
 * # # * * 
 
 Berlin is a fine-looking, prosperous town. 
 It is exact and straight and unindividual, but 
 it is a place where life on the whole looks 
 comfortable. 
 
 It. has poverty, however, just as any 
 other great town, despite its well-ordered 
 appearance. 
 
 In Berlin sixty thousand people live down 
 in cellars. Sixty thousand people live in 
 misery and darkness. 
 
 In Berlin there are the people who fight 
 the life out to keep the life in just as there 
 are in London. There are the degraded
 
 BERLIN 63 
 
 and the unfortunate. There are the people 
 who never get a chance. 
 
 The fine, wide streets look imposing and 
 impressive from the outside. But turn 
 through one of the courts, and behind these 
 noble and impressive buildings you will find 
 slums just as you find them in Whitechapel. 
 You will find families living on the dread 
 hunger-line just as you will in London. I 
 saw a family of eight who had to live on 
 seven marks a week. The mother of this 
 family besides doing the house-work 
 worked as a seamstress. I saw the book in 
 which her earnings were marked down. 
 There was one week in which she had 
 earned four marks and twenty-eight pfennigs 
 (43. 3d.), and for this sum she had had to 
 work fifty hours. She earned on an 
 average between five or six marks a week. 
 With the family was a lodger, and so 
 it was that the income came up to about 
 seven marks a week. I might have been
 
 64 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 in the lowest part of the East End of 
 London. 
 
 The police of Berlin are only clever at 
 regulating the appearance of poverty. They 
 know how to drive their broken waifs over 
 to stupid England, who has allowed herself 
 to become the world's human rubbish heap. 
 And that is all. 
 
 I am not saying that Berlin has propor- 
 tionately as many very poor as we have 
 here in London. But I do say that it has 
 its degraded and starving under-world just 
 as any other great town. And, curiously 
 enough, Prussians in almost all cases seek 
 to deny this. They take a pride in mini- 
 mising the misery that exists in Berlin. 
 They will have it that they have no " East 
 End." These police-ridden people seem to 
 feel that their police-octopus has exorcised 
 starvation from Berlin. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Berlin is not as London. For in London
 
 BERLIN 65 
 
 there is no reticence. Things are as they 
 are. There is no veil drawn across the 
 dark, terrible places. 
 
 But in Berlin there is a sense of making 
 the best of appearances. And there is a 
 sense of strong reticence. 
 
 You feel that you are continually being 
 shown the polished side of the shield.
 
 VII. MUSIC 
 
 THE Germans have a real love and appre- 
 ciation of music. For them music is not 
 used to drown conversation. Say what 
 one will, a grand opera can never be 
 really given at its best in Covent Garden, 
 for the people who go there are not 
 people who genuinely care for music I 
 mean the people mainly responsible for 
 the giving of opera. They mostly go 
 there to talk and to display the wealth that 
 other people have earned. And this atti- 
 tude affects the artists, for art needs some- 
 thing more than money from its patrons. 
 It demands attention and appreciation if 
 it is to do its best work. You may have 
 the greatest singers and players the world 
 
 66
 
 MUSIC 67 
 
 possesses, but if you do not listen to 
 them they will be unable to do them- 
 selves justice. 
 
 How different is the Royal Opera 
 House of Berlin from Covent Garden in 
 London. It is not an effective place in 
 an architectural sense, but it is a place 
 where music is given for its own sake. 
 Were I a singer I would far rather sing 
 in Berlin than in London, even though 
 the reward in money was not nearly so 
 high. 
 
 I heard " Carmen " at the Royal Opera 
 House in Berlin. For a stall I paid eight 
 marks (not quite eight shillings). And 
 during the performance the audience kept 
 absolutely quiet. You did not lose a note 
 of the music. 
 
 After an act was over, and the applause 
 had died down, the people stood up and 
 waved their hands and bowed in recogni- 
 tion to their friends who were in other
 
 68 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 parts of the house. Here a man in the 
 stalls was waving his hand to a friend 
 up in the distant gallery. There was a 
 general air of unity and good fellowship 
 among the whole of the audience. Gallery 
 and stalls were as one family. 
 
 I must confess that in my view Germans 
 are hardly the people to play " Carmen." 
 An ideal cast would be a cast composed of 
 French artists. For the opera is French 
 in its essence. It has the devilry and the 
 gaiety and may I say it? the polished 
 hardness that lies in the French character. 
 But that is but its outer dress. It is a 
 great and universal tone-picture. Never- 
 theless, in my view, an ideal representation 
 of it could be given but by French artists. 
 A reckless and devil-may-care air should 
 pervade the whole performance. 
 
 But in some respects " Carmen " was 
 better given here in Berlin than it was when 
 I heard it in Paris. I mean it was given
 
 MUSIC 69 
 
 better in a musical sense even though the 
 Germans did not quite seem to catch the 
 spirit of Bizet's meaning. The orchestra 
 was far more in hand and the German 
 chorus was the best operatic chorus I 
 have heard. The stage-setting was also 
 more effective. 
 
 It may be a wrong impression I received, 
 but it seemed to me as if the demeanour 
 of this German audience was almost what 
 it would be in some place devoted to 
 religion. Their attitude towards the music 
 certainly had something of the reverential 
 in it as if they were assisting at some 
 serious ceremony. Germans listen to music 
 as no other people listen to it. And it 
 may be that this reverential attitude is 
 hardly the ideal attitude with which to 
 approach the music of " Carmen." 
 
 It is not the custom of the Germans to 
 destroy unity of effect by applauding in 
 between numbers that are related to each
 
 70 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 other. They wait for the end of the whole 
 movement. And so it is that one really 
 gets an understanding of the composer's 
 meaning. This attitude of the audience 
 is also favourable for the getting of the 
 best work from the artist. For it does 
 away with the temptation to over-emphasise 
 brilliant numbers for the sake of applause. 
 And so it is that there is got a unified 
 effect such as no individual artist, however 
 great, could get. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 In Cologne I heard Bach's " Matthaus 
 Passion " at the Giirzenich. And I must 
 say that never have I heard such effects 
 got as were got by this German chorus. 
 The principals were much as good principals 
 would be in England. Indeed, the tenor 
 who sang the music of the " Evangelist " 
 might have been better than he was. He 
 sang the music too carefully, and his high 
 notes were not free and ringing enough.
 
 MUSIC 71 
 
 The " Evangelist's " music should be given 
 forth with intenseness and vehemence. 
 
 There is such a thing, at times, as a 
 singer being too smooth and musical. If 
 I may put it in a way paradoxical, this 
 German tenor sang the music too artisti- 
 cally. He gave forth none of the fire and 
 spirit of evangelism. 
 
 But the work of the chorus was absolute 
 perfection. The effects got were beyond 
 belief. I have heard first-class choral work 
 in the north of England, but not work such 
 as this. The varied delicacy of tone, and 
 the tremendous power, and the absolute 
 singing together, came upon me as a 
 revelation. 
 
 The unusualness of their work was first 
 borne in upon me as they sang the un- 
 accompanied chorale, " Ich bin's, ich sollte 
 biissen." This chorus of repentance came 
 forth strangely through the hall. It 
 sounded at once as many voices and as one
 
 72 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 voice. As one voice of many and wonder- 
 ful tones charged with sorrow. Many were 
 singing, but you could not escape from the 
 effect that all these voices were absolutely 
 as one. Of all harmony there is no 
 harmony such as comes from human voices 
 singing together. These voices came forth 
 through the hall with profound effect. 
 
 After hearing this chorale the work of 
 the principals hardly interested me again. 
 I have always thought that supreme voice- 
 effects were to be got, not from soloists, but 
 from a chorus. And I was hearing these 
 effects here in Cologne. 
 
 And there came the dread and tremen- 
 dous tone-picture where the chorus invoke 
 the powers to avenge the betrayal of Jesus. 
 The voices thundered forth, denouncing the 
 world-crime. The voices cried out for the 
 lightning to avenge. 
 
 And then there came the mockery. 
 
 And the final chorus where leave is taken
 
 MUSIC 73 
 
 of the dead Christ. Is there anything in 
 music so poignant and touching as this ? 
 
 How rapt were the people as they 
 listened. They were at one with the 
 wonderful music that pictured the world- 
 crime. They were at one with the sorrows 
 of Him who will yet save the world 
 despite those who deny Him. They were 
 lost in this wonderful and tragical music 
 of the " Passion." 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Germany is indeed the land of music. 
 And it may well be that no one can really 
 know music without coming here. To be 
 at one with the soul of music, one must 
 come to the beautiful land of the Rhine. 
 
 For music is of the very life of the 
 people. 
 
 These people have called forth the great 
 masters of sound. They have called forth 
 men of genius who have woven the strange 
 and mighty tone-pictures that thrill the
 
 74 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 world. They have evoked Bach, Handel, 
 Mozart, and the mighty Beethoven. 
 
 You hear music everywhere as you go 
 along over this land of wide-stretching 
 plains, and forests, and noble rivers. 
 
 Germany is a land of glorious and 
 beautiful sound. And how fine it is to 
 wander along, listening. To hear the 
 voices rising from the distance. 
 
 A land of song. 
 
 To this race has been entrusted the 
 message that music holds for mankind. 
 They have sent forth the glorious evangels 
 of Music.
 
 VIIL THE REICHSTAG 
 
 As a building the Reichstag is a magnificent 
 attempt to be impressive. 
 
 You are confronted with splendid gates 
 and columns and halls and of course 
 multitudinous statues, but your pulse 
 remains quiet. You are in no way thrilled. 
 And I cannot tell the reason why. Here 
 are beautiful frescoes, and the noblest of 
 noble statues, and imperial regality, and 
 everything calculated to fill you with awe 
 and wonder. But awe and wonder will not 
 come. You only feel bored that is, if 
 you stay within this architectural attempt 
 at magnificence long enough. 
 
 Tall, imposing, grenadier-looking attend- 
 ants stand in long, wondrous halls and look 
 
 75
 
 76 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 down upon you with lofty, questioning 
 glances. 
 
 ***** 
 
 I walked along a hall, spacious and 
 magnificent, and lo! there stalked across 
 this spacious and magnificent hall a much 
 be-haired member of the Reichstag. He 
 stalked as a statesman stalks when in deep 
 thought, and he looked like a person of 
 obvious genius. And still nothing happened 
 to me. I mean nothing happened to me 
 in the way of filling me with awe and 
 wonder. 
 
 The place, somehow, wore an unused 
 air. It seemed to have been built for 
 the sake of impressing the German people 
 with the dignity and weight and wisdom 
 and profoundness of those who conferred 
 upon them the inexpressible honour of 
 governing them. One could hardly imagine 
 a mere ordinary German coming here to 
 tell a member of the Reichstag a thing or
 
 THE REICHSTAG 77 
 
 two. For though the place missed the 
 awesome and impressive effect intended by 
 the architect, it nevertheless Wore a most 
 mailed-fisty air. It gave the impression 
 of being an edifice in which a man could 
 quite easily get six months' " hard " for 
 raising the simplest disturbance. 
 
 And now, at last, I am getting near to 
 the spirit of this remarkable place. It had 
 somewhat of the air of a magnificent lock- 
 up. I mean a spacious and grand and airy 
 lock-up. A beautiful lock-up. A place 
 where you had to mind your p's and q's. 
 
 It was the apotheosis of Berlin. 
 ***** 
 
 I was being piloted up steps and down 
 steps and past rooms and great spaces. I 
 was nearing the inner sanctum the place 
 wherein sat those who talked for the good 
 of the German race. 
 
 And this time a wave of real awe passed 
 over my irreverent spirit. I had not been
 
 78 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 impressed by the Reichstag itself, but I felt 
 that I was now coming to the sanctum of 
 the German talk -genius be-haired and 
 otherwise and I felt chastened. I had 
 never yet been impressed by those who talk 
 for the good of their respective countries, 
 but how was I to know that these German 
 talk-dealers were not superior to those 
 of my own dear old England ? I admit 
 that English members of Parliament look 
 singularly unimpressive when they are 
 saving England in Westminster. I admit 
 this. And I felt that the denizen of the 
 Reichstag would save, so to speak, the 
 situation. 
 
 It was therefore that I felt awe as I 
 stepped into the sacred chamber. 
 
 At last! 
 
 I was in a great, oblong, schoolroom- 
 looking chamber. Men were sitting at 
 desks. At first I thought that there was 
 some mistake that I had been ushered
 
 THE REICHSTAG 79 
 
 into the working room of some great bank. 
 But no. These men did not look industrious 
 enough for bank clerks. They had that 
 loafing, do-nothing air common to the legis- 
 lator when at work. 
 
 And I felt sad. The wave of real awe 
 that came upon me as I was about to 
 enter this great, oblong, schoolroom-looking 
 chamber faded from me. My hope that 
 the members of the Reichstag would re- 
 deem the singular unimpressiveness that 
 clothes the legislators of all nationalities 
 was blighted. For these talk-gentlemen 
 were, alas ! much like the talk-gentlemen 
 of other nations. Indeed, if possible, they 
 looked more unimpressive than usual. 
 
 I do not want to praise our House of 
 Commons, I do not want any German who 
 may chance to read these lines to think 
 for a moment, that I am discriminating in 
 favour of my native land, when I say that 
 our House of Commons puts up a better
 
 8o THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 performance than does the Reichstag. 
 But a stern regard for truth impels me to 
 state the fact that it does. I am well 
 aware that our talk-gentlemen do not wear 
 the look of dignity and wisdom that inno- 
 cent English people of the provinces 
 imagine them to wear. But truth is truth. 
 And one must be as fair to one's own as 
 to the stranger. And truth and fairness 
 force me to state that compared with the 
 members of the Reichstag, the members 
 of our House of Commons nearly look 
 dignified. You would not believe it, but 
 they do. Almost dignified. When one 
 looks down from the Strangers' Gallery 
 one at times at times, mind you, I only 
 say imagines that the members of the 
 House of Commons are really doing some- 
 thing. 
 
 How different is the effect produced 
 upon the mind when one looks down 
 from the gallery upon the members of
 
 THE REICHSTAG 81 
 
 the Reichstag. You would indeed have 
 to be a person of imagination to think 
 that these German talk-artists were work- 
 ing. You would have to be blind not 
 to see that they were obviously doing 
 nothing. They just sit and chatter among 
 themselves. They are doing nothing, and 
 they never intend to do anything else. This 
 is the impression they produce upon the 
 mind of the observer. 
 
 No as a legislative performance our 
 House of Commons beats the Reichstag. 
 Our Speaker alone if I may borrow a 
 circus simile is worth the price of admis- 
 sion. He throws dignity upon the legis- 
 lative scene. 
 
 When I got into the chamber of the 
 Reichstag, a deputy was up making a 
 speech. It seems that an Act was being 
 brought in for the protection of birds. 
 The youth of Germany had been following 
 the time-worn practice of stealing eggs 
 
 G
 
 82 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 from the nests of birds, and some of the 
 gentlemen of the Reichstag had come to 
 the conclusion that the time was ripe for 
 the stopping of this practice. And this 
 deputy was now on his feet telling his 
 fellow-deputies all about it But none of 
 them were listening to him. All were 
 talking one to the other. Even the 
 Speaker was not listening to the orator. 
 He himself was talking to a man in even- 
 ing dress who was standing beside him 
 an official, probably. 
 
 The deputy was talking in the midst of 
 surrounding talk. The whole of the cham- 
 ber was buzzing with the sound of con- 
 versation, and his voice was just slightly 
 above it. It was as if a solo singer were 
 being accompanied by a chorus. The 
 member on his feet was orating a solo, 
 accompanied by a buzz of surrounding 
 conversation. 
 
 But he did not seem to mind it in the
 
 THE REICHSTAG 83 
 
 least. He went sturdily on. And now 
 and then I could distinguish the word 
 "Voger (bird). 
 
 Suddenly all the deputies of the Reichs- 
 tag laughed loudly. It turned out that 
 the orator had made what might be called 
 a German Irish "bull." Even though his 
 fellow-deputies were not listening to him 
 they could still tell by virtue of a sixth 
 sense possessed by legislators when he put 
 what he was saying ridiculously. And so 
 they roared and rocked with laughter, in 
 which the orator himself joined. These 
 legislators, in common with all idle people 
 who must get through their time somehow, 
 were easily made to laugh. 
 
 At last the orator who had the interests 
 of the birds at heart sat down. And up 
 sprang another orator. He was ready to 
 earn his salary. He was ready also to 
 orate a solo to the accompaniment of a 
 surrounding buzz of conversation.
 
 84 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 But I had had enough. So I gathered 
 myself together and prepared to leave 
 this chamber of general conversation. 
 
 And out I walked by the doors and 
 the spaces. Out I walked through the 
 long hall, spacious and magnificent. I 
 passed by the multitudinous statues and 
 the immense columns. The tail of my eye 
 caught the beautiful frescoes. 
 
 And I passed out through the splendid 
 gate.
 
 IX. POSEN 
 
 I 
 
 POSEN is on the great plain that stretches 
 from Holland to Asia. You may travel in 
 the swiftest express over this plain for 
 days. And it is as if you moved not. 
 A sense comes upon you as of being 
 confronted with a distance immeasurable 
 a distance not to be grasped by the 
 mind. The horizon is at once fixed and 
 unreachable. You pass great towns. But 
 these are as specks on this boundless, 
 gigantic plain. Here on this outer im- 
 menseness man and his works are as 
 things not to be reckoned with. 
 
 A plain sinister and gigantic. Of silence 
 85
 
 86 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 and mystery and terror. For there were 
 the times when slowly up from it arose 
 hosts of devastation. Over it came the 
 strange fighting men from out of the far, 
 profound East. Slaying hordes with eyes 
 of imagination. For surely was it that 
 these men were drawn onward by the 
 mystery of the unreachable horizon. They 
 passed slowly over it to the setting sun. 
 For them this plain was as was the ocean 
 to the fair-haired Norse sons of the sword. 
 
 Of what manner of men were these 
 fighters from the East ? We see them 
 but as a long way off through dimness. 
 They are as shades appearing through a 
 reach of time profound and grey. 
 
 They come to the mind as one looks out 
 over this plain, surrounding and illimitable. 
 
 Strange-shouting, slaying hordes with 
 eyes of imagination.
 
 POSEN 87 
 
 II 
 
 Is it that Posen is silent? 
 
 For that is the impression that one gets 
 as one comes to it from over the great 
 plain. In it is the tramping of soldiery. 
 But Posen itself gives out the impression 
 of silence and greyness and sadness. 
 Soldiers are tramping and officers are 
 moving with clanking swords in the midst 
 of a greyness. 
 
 For Posen is not a German town. 
 Posen is a place kept under an iron heel. 
 A place crushed by a discipline terrible 
 and merciless. 
 
 Posen is a Polish town with Prussian 
 marks burned into it. 
 
 And that is all. It is the place of an 
 oppressed people. It is held in the grip 
 of an alien. But the influence of the alien 
 shows upon it but as a scar. As if flesh
 
 88 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 were struck with a whip. All the might 
 of Prussia shows but in a scar. 
 
 Posen is Polish. And Posen will remain 
 Polish. The whip of merciless repres- 
 sion is well, the bayonet is well but the 
 time comes when whips and bayonets 
 strike and plunge back. And remember 
 this. Whips and bayonets at best produce 
 but ineffaceable scars. 
 
 Posen is a Polish town, with Prussian 
 scars showing upon it. And that is all. 
 And not all the thunder of the Prussian 
 guns can say more. 
 
 The people of Posen pay no attention 
 to the soldiers who are for ever marching 
 through their streets. It is as if they did 
 not see them. 
 
 These Poles have faces that are at once 
 fine and subtle of expression. They are 
 quick of gesture and their voices are 
 musical. A people with brave faces. It 
 may be that there is about them some
 
 POSEN 89 
 
 look of the East. And how beautiful is 
 the sound of the language that they speak. 
 After listening to German it is refreshing 
 and pleasant to the ear. A language 
 flowing and smooth and still most indi- 
 vidual. The words come forth at once 
 complete and rounded and musical. 
 
 I went to the beautiful Polish theatre 
 to see a play. The play was taken from 
 a story by Sienkiewicz, and it pictured 
 scenes from the life of Poland when the 
 Poles were fighting the Cossacks. Through 
 it ran the story of the love of a Cossack 
 for a beautiful Polish woman. The name 
 of the Cossack was Azya. 
 
 Here on the stage lived a picture of a 
 life that was colourful and beautiful and 
 terrible. A life lived in the midst of 
 scenes of violence. As if a beautiful 
 picture were rounded with a frame of 
 horror. 
 
 The actors here in this theatre played
 
 90 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 their parts with all the skill and the power 
 that is at the command of the art of the 
 stage. Indeed, upon these fine artists there 
 rested an even greater responsibility than 
 the playing of the play. They were Poles 
 even before they were artists. For their 
 playing in this theatre meant that they were 
 keeping bright the flame of patriotism. 
 These Poles were playing for Poland. Here 
 in this theatre they were fighting a brutal 
 domination that rested but on the power of 
 the bullet and the bayonet. This theatre had 
 been built by the Poles here in their town of 
 Posen so that their hearts might be cheered. 
 And these actors were keeping alive the 
 spirit of liberty. These fine artists came 
 between their countrymen and the brutal 
 Prussian domination. There was more 
 magic in this little theatre than in all the 
 forts around this Polish town. For it is 
 written that there is a nobler destiny for man 
 than to be beaten and crushed into slavery.
 
 POSEN 91 
 
 III 
 
 Jan Kochanowski. 
 
 Only a Polish poet. Only a Polish man of 
 letters, but one whose power was greater 
 than the power of an emperor, even though 
 this power rested upon the might of millions 
 of armed slaves who were ready to slay at 
 the instant of his bidding. The name of this 
 man of letters was inscribed in this Polish 
 theatre. His name was here with the names 
 of other Polish men of letters and patriots. 
 
 These great Poles who were gone were 
 honoured here in Posen by no vast monu- 
 ments, boastful and ornate, as were honoured 
 those who had oppressed their fellow men. 
 But their names lived in the hearts of the 
 people. And they would live when brutal 
 despotism had fallen as it will fall of 
 itself.
 
 92 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 I crossed the bridge over the Warthe and 
 entered the Wallischei. Here was the place 
 where lived the poor of Posen. Little bare- 
 footed children were running about playing 
 the games variations of which are played by 
 children the world over. Here one heard not 
 even a word of German. Polish was used 
 everywhere. The only signs of German 
 were the German names that stood sharply 
 out on the sides of the streets. Polish 
 names were over the shops. 
 
 And here was the square, Am Dom, 
 where stood the cathedral. In front of the 
 cathedral was a small square column, on 
 which was a Polish inscription. On one of 
 the sides of the column was a medallion of 
 Jan Kochanowski. 
 
 And near by was a great fort. 
 
 I turned and walked back up the street to 
 the bridge, and suddenly there came into the 
 air the blare of a military band. And in the 
 midst of the blare of the band was the
 
 POSEN 93 
 
 irregular clamping of horses. Here was 
 passing a squadron of cavalry. The sun, 
 which was setting, threw a red glint on the 
 helmets of the men. The faces of the men 
 looked weary. They had gone through a 
 hard day. And there came the sound of the 
 rumbling and crunching of wheels ! It 
 mingled oddly with the quick music of the 
 band. Here was passing artillery. Each 
 gun was drawn by five horses three in front 
 and two behind. There were nine guns in 
 all. The faces of the men with the guns 
 were as the faces of the men who rode 
 the horses. They looked exhausted and 
 weary. They had been out since the early 
 morning. 
 
 The quick blaring sounds of the band, and 
 the irregular clamping of the horses, and the 
 crunching of the wheels of the guns, and the 
 tired faces of the men made a strange scene 
 in the Polish street. And over the scene 
 was the red shining of the setting sun.
 
 94 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 A scene that no one seemed to notice. 
 And the sounds and the soldiers dis- 
 appeared into the distance. 
 
 And it was as if they had not passed.
 
 X. THE KNEIPE 
 
 Munttr. 
 
 
 Ta -bak-bak-bak, Ta-bak-bak-bak, bei ei - ner pf eif Ta - bak ! . . 
 
 I HAD been invited to a Kneipe (beer-feast) 
 by some students in Heidelberg, and I was 
 here in their quarters holding I hope my 
 own at the feast. Between the drinks we 
 were singing songs from a book, the back 
 of which bore an inscription in Latin to the 
 effect that the time to enjoy one's self was 
 when one was young. And just at this 
 moment we were all singing in unison the 
 jolly and inspiring " Tabak." The music 
 of this fine and Bacchic song still rings in 
 my ears. 
 
 95
 
 96 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 I was able to read the music of the songs 
 from the book, and could therefore let out 
 my voice with the lustiest of them. 
 
 I must describe the look of the book from 
 which the students sang. It was green and 
 dark and golden of colour, and the edges of 
 the pages were red. Its general appear- 
 ance was solemn and Biblical. It had 
 the look of an over-grown prayer-book. 
 And on each side of the cover were four 
 somewhat high gilt knobs. These knobs 
 added to the solemnity of the book's ap- 
 pearance. But they were by no means put 
 there in the cause of chastened ornamen- 
 tation. They were put there so as not to 
 allow the cover of the song-book to become 
 beerstained when the student laid it down 
 on the table after singing. 
 
 The room presented a mediaeval and war- 
 like aspect. Swords were crossed on the 
 walls, and the roof of the room was low. 
 The room itself was odd-shaped. One
 
 THE KNEIPE 97 
 
 was living in the past. These fine and jovial 
 students who were sitting round the great, 
 long table were obeying all the rules and 
 traditions that had governed beer-feasts 
 through hundreds of years. Indeed, some 
 of the traditions were thousands of years 
 old, for they had been handed down from 
 the wild tribes who had lived in Germany 
 long before the Roman invasion. 
 
 This feast partook of the nature of some 
 strange ceremony, the rites of which had 
 at once sprung out of man's conceptions 
 of fraternity, and war, and religion. It 
 was the strangest function in which I had 
 ever taken a part. It had an odd sugges- 
 tion of the weird in it. And still, here was 
 magical youth overflowing and vital. In 
 the air were jollity and joviality and 
 fraternity. The students were letting them- 
 selves go. They adhered strictly with 
 the curious conservatism of youth to the 
 rules governing the Kneipe, but still they 
 
 H
 
 98 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 were letting themselves go. The scene 
 was fine and strange and inspiring. One 
 was present at a carouse, and still one was 
 present at a ceremony. 
 
 These fine young men ! It was glorious 
 to be here carousing with them. I, an old 
 wanderer and tramp, felt that I had indeed 
 reached the haven. These grand young 
 fellows were the wisest of philosophers, 
 for they had realised that men learn from 
 men and not from books. Books are, at 
 the very best, but musty and misleading 
 comments upon life. These fine young 
 fellows had realised this by instinct. They 
 had realised the truth that one beer-feast 
 was worth a thousand lectures as far as 
 the imparting of real knowledge was con- 
 cerned. You can only learn from the 
 meeting of your fellows man to man. And 
 I for absolutely the first time in my life 
 felt that my education had been neglected. 
 Why had I not the privilege of being a
 
 THE KNEIPE 99 
 
 beer - feasting, duel - fighting Heidelberg 
 student ? 
 
 A naked sword lay on the table. And 
 whenever the president of the beer-feast 
 wished for silence he brought down the 
 blade of the sword as hard as he could 
 upon the table. " Silentium ! " he would 
 roar at the top of his voice. Roar and 
 clash of sword-blade would come together. 
 And then he would give out the number of 
 the next song. And we would all open 
 our song-books and sing out lustily. 
 
 At the end of each song an attendant 
 filled up our beer-mugs to the brim with 
 delicious beer, the like of which is to be got 
 but in jolly old Heidelberg. A cask was 
 on tap in the room, and it was drawn in 
 the only way that beer ought to be drawn 
 from the wood. 
 
 Delicious lager with not one headache 
 in a barrel of it. Good honest beer that 
 exhilarated without intoxicating. In drinking
 
 ioo THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 it one could feel that it was doing the 
 body good. 
 
 Nothing but beer was ever drunk at 
 a students' carouse neither wine nor 
 brandy nor anything really intoxicating. 
 And I must say here that the German 
 lager is not as alcoholic as many English 
 temperance drinks. The lager that the 
 students drink is a simple, healthful, 
 delicious beverage that it would be good 
 if it were possible to obtain here in 
 England. 
 
 Next to me sat a student with a heavily 
 scarred face. He was the Fox-major 
 the chief of the younger set of students 
 who were called foxes. These foxes 
 were the junior students, and they sat at 
 the foot of the table. The etiquette 
 regulating their conduct was calculated to 
 make them toe the line. They could only 
 address the president through the Fox- 
 major, who was at once their ruler and their
 
 THE KNEIPE 101 
 
 tutor. He was responsible for any sole- 
 cism that they might commit at the feast. 
 I may say here that every student 
 during the Kneipe was only allowed to 
 address another by his Kneipe name the 
 name which had been given him to be 
 used at the beer-feast and at the beer-feast 
 alone. Any breach of etiquette, or the 
 addressing of a student out of his Kneipe 
 name, was redressed by recourse to the 
 beer-duel. Glasses were filled up, and 
 at a word the beer-duellists who were 
 standing gulped down their glasses. And 
 the student who could first pronounce a 
 word, agreed on beforehand, after gulping 
 down his beer was accounted the victor. 
 
 The Burschen (fellows) sat toward the 
 head of the table near to the president. 
 And I may say here that the Fox-major 
 was the vice-president. 
 
 The Fox-major was a hard-looking, 
 black-haired student, who looked as if he
 
 102 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 would be worth his salt in the fighting 
 line. 
 
 I cannot, of course, describe the proce- 
 dure of the feast exactly. I remember that 
 we began it by hammering our beer-mugs 
 in a curious manner upon the table. And 
 I remember the sword of the president 
 clashing down on the table. Whether it 
 clashed before or after the hammering of 
 the beer-mugs I cannot quite say. I know, 
 however, that the feast was inaugurated in 
 a most warlike and impressive manner. 
 
 The whole of the first part of it was 
 what might be called a whirl of sword 
 and ceremony and song of laughing and 
 shouting and talking and drinking. A 
 carouse, curious and indescribable. And still 
 in the whole of the confusion there was a 
 sense of order and ceremonial. 
 
 And there came the lull. We left our 
 beer-mugs on the table and went out to 
 talk together on the terrace. One of the
 
 THE KNEIPE 103 
 
 students the one who had invited me to 
 the Kneipe was a Britisher, a Scotsman, 
 and besides this there were some of the 
 students who spoke English fairly well. 
 
 And it came to me that Heidelberg was 
 the absolute and real centre of Germany 
 in the intellectual sense. These students 
 were here to enjoy themselves while they 
 were young. Their guiding motto was 
 contained in the Latin inscription on the 
 covers of the song-books. They were 
 wise with that wisest wisdom the wisdom 
 that teaches us to grasp what lies in the 
 present. They knew more than the whole 
 of Germany's professors or, indeed, the 
 whole of the world's professors. They 
 knew more than the whole of Germany's 
 statesmen. 
 
 The glorious, magical wisdom of youth 
 enabled them to see what these people had 
 forgotten : That God had given life to 
 man for man to enjoy.
 
 XL THE STUDENTS 
 
 I 
 
 THE Fox-major told me a story of the 
 duelling of the old days a story that had 
 been handed down, and that reflected great 
 credit upon the sagacity of the foxes. 
 
 It seemed that a certain Emperor had 
 come to the conclusion that duelling inter- 
 fered somewhat with that calmness and 
 peace of mind so necessary for study, and 
 he forbade it. But it need hardly be said 
 that his edict only made the students see 
 that duelling was absolutely necessary for 
 the development of their physique, person- 
 ality, and intellect generally. And so duel- 
 ling went on more than ever under the 
 rose. The students became skilful in the 
 
 104
 
 THE STUDENTS 105 
 
 art of evading the police. Duels were 
 fought in all kinds of possible and impossible 
 places. 
 
 The Fox-major related to me how two 
 Burschen (fellows) had arranged to fight a 
 duel. The foxes were entrusted with the 
 Schlager (swords) and all the necessary 
 impedimenta. And they drove off in a 
 Droschke. Needless to say, the police 
 with that acumen common to police came 
 to the conclusion that these students were 
 up to something. And they followed them 
 also in a Droschke. On and on drove the 
 students. On and on followed the detectors 
 of crime. It was an exciting chase. 
 
 But in the end virtue I mean virtue in 
 its police garb triumphed. The students 
 were overhauled. But, alas ! alas ! where 
 were the Schlager and the rest of the duel- 
 ling impedimenta? They were not to be 
 found. Indeed, all that the Droschke con- 
 tained were some bottles of beer, two of
 
 1 06 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 which the students presented to the police 
 as the day was a hot day. The police felt 
 that they were somehow done, but they 
 swallowed the beer and departed with grace. 
 
 And they were done ! It seems that the 
 wily foxes had driven through a wood, 
 when the police were after them in full cry, 
 and they had pitched the duelling apparatus 
 quickly into a dark recess. 
 
 And here in this wood the duel between 
 the Burschen was fought out in peace. 
 ***** 
 
 At the Kneipe the Fox-major had himself 
 arrayed in his duelling garb for my edifica- 
 tion. He was a young man of a most 
 martial cast of mind one who took the 
 deepest interest in lethal weapons and the 
 using of them. The Stulpe was pulled up 
 over his right arm a long, padded armlet 
 to protect the arm from the stroke of the 
 sword. And then the Gelenkbinde a silk 
 handkerchief was wound around his wrist.
 
 THE STUDENTS 107 
 
 And the Axillaris was put round him to 
 protect the great veins under the armpit. 
 The thing to protect the eyes was called 
 the Paukbrillen. Glasses were fixed into 
 this, if a student were shortsighted. Over 
 all was put the Schurz fighting shirt. The 
 head and the temples and the cheeks and 
 lower part of the face were left bare. 
 
 When the Fox-major was fully arrayed 
 he looked like a cross between a diver and 
 an American football player. 
 
 Towards the end of the Kneipe a student 
 acted a tragic play all by himself. He 
 went round the whole company, getting 
 each one to tell him a word, and he intro- 
 duced these words in turn into the tragedy 
 he was acting. Every time he brought a 
 word in there was much applause. The 
 word I gave him was " Kneipe." 
 
 And old Walter, the flower seller, came 
 into the room. He had attended the beer- 
 feasts for years and years, and was one
 
 io8 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 of the institutions of Heidelberg a some- 
 what frail old man with a kind face. He 
 was induced by the students to make a 
 speech, which the Fox-major translated to 
 me somewhat disjointedly. This Fox-major 
 was a fine type of a devil-may-care student. 
 I liked him very much. He had a mediaeval 
 atmosphere about him. Indeed, he might 
 have stepped out of the Middle Ages out 
 of the times when men fought and drank 
 and knocked about like men. Twenty-one ! 
 He was at the golden age when most men 
 and, indeed, in my view, all men know 
 more than they will ever know again. 
 
 Never in the whole course of my wander- 
 ings have I met so fine a crowd as this 
 crowd of students. These lads with the 
 true wisdom and the true knowledge. And 
 I was pleased to think that they had 
 honoured me by allowing me the privilege 
 of coming to their Kneipe. I thought far 
 more of being here with these gay lads
 
 THE STUDENTS 109 
 
 than I would have thought of being with 
 those that the world alleges to be the 
 great and mighty. Youth ! We often decry 
 it, and say this and that about it. But 
 believe me that youth possesses the key 
 to everything that is worth possessing. 
 Experience! Bah! It is nothing. A man 
 learns less than nothing from it. All that 
 he acquires from experience is that most 
 parlous virtue that is far worse than a vice 
 caution. Youth is the only thing. Fine, 
 glorious, magical youth. 
 
 Well, the time came when the Kneipe 
 broke up. What time, you ask ? Ah, 
 well, I'm not for telling tales out of school. 
 It broke up at a proper and a good 
 and a reasonable time. A time of quiet. 
 Out we went into the Hauptstrasse and 
 made the sides of the shops resound with 
 " Tabak." Heidelberg belonged to us. 
 Or, perhaps, this is saying a little too 
 much. It belonged to us in common with
 
 no THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 other bands of students. We could hear 
 them singing in the distance as they roamed 
 about in other parts of the quiet town. 
 
 II 
 
 I lived at the Heidelberger Hof in the 
 Wredeplatz. Here to this Platz the 
 students of different corps and unions used 
 to come in the wee hours of the morning 
 to bring gaiety and freshness into the 
 stillness. People at the Heidelberger Hof 
 used to grumble now and then, but as far 
 as I am concerned I must confess that I 
 liked it. The songs of the students at once 
 calmed me and interested me. 
 
 Besides singing songs the students used 
 to practise fencing with their sticks. You 
 could hear the sharp clash of the sticks, and 
 now and then a dull thud as some student 
 forgot himself and struck the lad with whom 
 he was engaging over the sconce. This
 
 THE STUDENTS in 
 
 would continue till near to the dawn. 
 And then the students would gradually 
 melt off to prepare themselves for their 
 studies. 
 
 Officious policemen would now and then 
 interfere. But little did the students care 
 for policemen. They just shoved and rolled 
 the guardians of law and order about when 
 these guardians became obstreperous. But 
 here I must make haste to say that the 
 Heidelberg policemen are the most decent 
 police I ever met. I was astonished to 
 find such police in Germany. They know 
 the art of not irritating the public. Evi- 
 dently life with these delightful, devil-may- 
 care students has civilised them. 
 
 I was invited two or three times to the 
 Weisser Bock by the students who had 
 invited me to their Kneipe. The Weisser 
 Bock was an inn that one might say had 
 belonged to the students for hundreds of 
 years. It had been kept by the same
 
 ii2 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 family, uninterruptedly, since 1739. It was 
 the oldest students' inn in Heidelberg. 
 
 Several students' Verbindungen (unions) 
 patronised it. And each Verbindung had 
 its own table, and every member of the 
 Verbindung had his own place at the table 
 and his own beer-mug to drink from. All 
 the names of all the students who had ever 
 belonged to the Verbindung were cut into 
 the table. Students who had gone away 
 and students who were dead had their 
 names upon it. 
 
 Up on a shelf above were the mugs of 
 the students who would never again see 
 Heidelberg.
 
 XII. THE HIRSCHGASSE 
 
 I 
 
 THE student in Heidelberg who does not 
 belong to a duelling corps, or who does 
 not attend beer-feasts, is a student who 
 is in touch neither with the life nor the 
 atmosphere of this beautiful seat of learn- 
 ing. He is completely out of things, and 
 for all the good he gets out of the place, 
 he might just as well stop and swot at 
 books at home. 
 
 This is the way that the jolly students 
 look at the matter, and their opinion is 
 far more to the point than the opinion 
 of those who foolishly imagine that they 
 know life just because they have lived in 
 the world a fairish number of years. If 
 
 "3 I
 
 ii4 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 you send a lad to Heidelberg you must 
 reconcile yourself to the fact that the best 
 thing for him to do is to get into the 
 swim of the social life of the students. 
 Fighting a few duels and drinking the 
 harmless German lager will do him no 
 harm. Indeed, it will do him good. Be- 
 sides, if he wishes to prepare specially for 
 an examination, he can get himself put 
 on the inactive list of the corps or the 
 union to which he belongs. He will then 
 not have to attend the Kneipe or fight 
 duels. That is, he won't have to attend 
 them for the space of time during which 
 he is studying hard. 
 
 I, personally, am very much in favour 
 of duelling. My wanderings round have 
 made me see the truth that when men 
 are held responsible in person for their 
 behaviour they are apt to think more of 
 the feelings of other people. They see 
 that they cannot be rude with safety.
 
 THE HIRSCHGASSE 115 
 
 And so it is that the beauty of courtesy 
 dawns upon them. They think twice 
 before they offer people insult. I have 
 lived in places where men had to take 
 the chance of killing or being killed for 
 an insult, and I must say that a nicer or 
 more decent lot of fellows never existed, 
 even though they were what the world 
 would call hard and desperate men. And 
 the reason that we English have such 
 bad manners is because we may be rude 
 to each other with safety. Besides, duelling 
 takes the softness out of men. And soft- 
 ness will be the downfall of England, even 
 as it was of Rome. 
 
 No my jolly students of Heidelberg ! 
 Pay no attention to the weaklings and 
 the softies who talk or who write against 
 your fighting. Fight away, and good luck 
 to you. You are the finest lot of young 
 fellows I ever met. Attend your Kneipes 
 and fight your duels. And let books go
 
 n6 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 to the dogs. And all I can tell you is 
 that I am sorry we haven't a Heidelberg 
 here in England. And here let me whisper 
 a word to my English countrymen. It is 
 this : 
 
 One good, sound, athletic lad is worth 
 more to his country than fifty pale-faced 
 examination-passers ! 
 
 II 
 
 Here we were at the Hirschgasse the 
 inn over on the other side of the river, 
 where the students fought their duels. I 
 was being chaperoned by my friends the 
 Fox-major and the Scottish student. They 
 had called for me that morning at the 
 Heidelberger Hof. 
 
 We were now in the top part of the inn, 
 looking through a window at a duel that 
 was going on down on the floor of the 
 big room below. I could hear the shouts
 
 THE HIRSCHGASSE 117 
 
 and the clashing of the swords, but the 
 faces of the students who were fighting 
 were hidden from me by a festoon that 
 was strung across the room and that just 
 obstructed the line of sight. 
 
 When we had got to the inn the Fox- 
 major had done his best to get me on to 
 the actual floor where the fighting was going 
 on. But he had failed. The students of 
 the corps that were fighting absolutely 
 allowed no one on the floor. The inn was 
 theirs during the fighting, and the allowing 
 of strangers to look even through the 
 windows from above was regarded as an 
 act of grace. Even students of a corps 
 other than a corps actually fighting would 
 not be allowed on the floor. 
 
 But persistence has its uses, and I pre- 
 vailed upon the Fox-major to try again. 
 And lo! he was successful. He was not 
 a Fox-major for nothing, for he brought 
 a hard-faced student up from the floor below,
 
 ii8 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 who said that I might come down and see 
 the fighting. And down I went. My 
 friends remained in the room above. 
 
 I don't know the diplomatic yarn that 
 the Fox-major spun for the edification of 
 the fighters, but it was an effective yarn 
 anyway, for I was treated with marked 
 respect. And a lively young student who 
 knew English, and whose face was scarred 
 with the marks of many duels, came over 
 to me to explain the points of the fight. 
 
 The scene was business - like. Two 
 students were slashing away at each other 
 for all they were worth. And a doctor, 
 who was at once stout and nimble, was on 
 deck wearing an apron. He was there to 
 bind and stitch up the wounds of the 
 duellists, and to decide when it was too 
 dangerous to carry a fight further. 
 
 The lads who were fighting stood 
 perfectly still and slashed down at each 
 other's heads. The seconds stood by and
 
 THE HIRSCHGASSE 119 
 
 struck up the swords of the fighters at the 
 end of every fourth stroke. 
 
 The students stood around, watching the 
 fight eagerly. Many of them had patches 
 on their faces covering wounds that had 
 not yet healed. And two of them had 
 their heads swathed in bandages. 
 
 Perhaps for nervous people the scene 
 might have been disquieting, but we live 
 in a fighting age, and nervous people must 
 remember that if they won't do the fight- 
 ing someone must do it for them. 
 
 The strokes of the swords rang through 
 the room. One ! Two ! Three ! Four ! 
 Up flashed the swords of the seconds. 
 For an instant the four blades were rigid 
 in the air. A sharp word was given, and 
 the students again slashed down at each 
 other's bare heads and faces. No thrusting. 
 Simply slashing the whole of the time. 
 The wounds made though they looked 
 bad, and there was a good deal of blood
 
 120 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 were not dangerous. The whole of the 
 body and the neck was protected. Just 
 the head and part of the face were bare. 
 The sword-strokes were sounding through 
 the room. The faces of the two lads 
 fighting looked grim and set. They wore 
 that fine, hard look that comes into the 
 faces of those who are fighting a fair, 
 square, even fight. One ! Two ! Three ! 
 Four ! I would like to have got in and 
 taken a hand in the game myself. Surely 
 this was the game that would turn boys 
 into real men, who would be able to do 
 well by their country in a time of danger. 
 Four of the short four-stroke bouts made 
 what was called a fighting minute. This 
 minute, which might last to two or even 
 three minutes of actual time, was analogous 
 to a round in an English boxing match. 
 After the fighting minute a slight pause was 
 allowed. And then came the word again, 
 and the students were at each other, slashing.
 
 THE HIRSCHGASSE 121 
 
 To me it seemed impossible to avoid being 
 wounded. To the unused eye it seemed 
 as if no attempt were made at effective 
 guard. But the skilful fighter parried even 
 as he made his slashing, downward stroke. 
 He might parry even as he struck. This 
 was surely so, for in one fight a student 
 was untouched, while his opponent was cut 
 about a good deal. A duel went the length 
 of from twelve to fifteen fighting minutes. 
 In actual time this meant that the duel 
 lasted from twenty minutes to half an 
 hour. 
 
 A scene at once grim and fine. It was 
 a grand thing to watch these brave young 
 men fighting. It made one realise the 
 danger of the unmanly cant of those who 
 try to turn their faces away from the fact 
 that man is a fighter and that he can only 
 live in honour and safety as long as he 
 remains a fighter.
 
 XIII. THE SCHLOSS 
 
 I 
 
 OVER Heidelberg stood the Schloss. 
 
 A strong castle, with ramparts and 
 bastions and towers and great walls. From 
 here you could see out over the magical 
 plain of the calm-flowing Rhine. For the 
 strong castle was built high up over the 
 country and the town. It was a place of 
 arms from old fighting times. And it 
 stood now as it had stood then over this 
 Heidelberg. This shining town of wonder 
 and romance. 
 
 It was as if this strong castle of old were 
 in the midst of some dream wonder-place of 
 imagination. Some place of wonderful 
 beauty of golden light, of shining, flowing 
 
 122
 
 THE SCHLOSS 123 
 
 waters, of vague and winding valley stretch- 
 ing to a far, mysterious plain, of blue sky 
 and distant soft green. This castle of old 
 stood guarding the town in the midst of a 
 scene beautiful and vague. And the thought 
 came that you were looking upon some 
 vision that might in a moment fade and 
 pass. Could it be that a scene so beautiful 
 as this had lived in other days, in other 
 years? Could it be that eyes other than 
 your own had beheld it in the far past? 
 Had other eyes looked down from this 
 strong castle, upon this Heidelberg, beautiful 
 and strange and shining ? And was it so 
 that this vague and winding valley had 
 stretched into the far, mysterious plain a 
 thousand years ago, even as it was stretch- 
 ing now before your eyes in the wondrous 
 gold-shining of the sun? Blue sky, vague 
 and winding valley, distant soft green, calm 
 shining waters, golden light. How beautiful 
 was the world. How full it was of magic
 
 124 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 and romance. And you were here looking 
 upon Heidelberg. 
 
 A place that was set in the midst of a 
 shining dream. 
 
 II 
 
 The garden of the Schloss. 
 
 Here you sat and dreamed while the 
 music lived in the midst of the surrounding 
 green of the trees that were filled with the 
 moving light of the vague, magical afternoon. 
 Here was living the overture to Weber's 
 immortal " Freischiitz." Or you were listen- 
 ing to a symphony from the mighty Beetho- 
 ven, who, gone from the world though he 
 was, still lived here in the garden on this 
 strange golden afternoon. How the immortal 
 harmonies and melodies were at one with 
 the soft blue of the sky above and the light 
 moving through the leaves ! Ah ! magical 
 and wonderful after all is the genius of man.
 
 THE SCHLOSS 125 
 
 Man had won from the inscrutable sound- 
 Sphinx her secret. This Beethoven spoke 
 forth the secret meaning that lies behind the 
 sounds of the wind and the waters and the 
 songs of the birds. The sound-Sphinx had 
 told to Beethoven her secret. For it is the 
 sound-Sphinx who holds the secret of that 
 unimaginable immenseness that is behind 
 life. And it had been given that she told 
 her secret to Beethoven, who had woven it 
 into pictures, glorious and immortal. 
 
 And these pictures lived in the garden of 
 the Schloss. 
 
 And as you sat and dreamed here in the 
 garden, there came the exquisite and tender 
 melodies of the Pole, Chopin music tender 
 and intimate and mysteriously haunting. 
 As a voice singing in a far, twilight, violet 
 forest. It mingled and blended with the 
 green and the moving sun-gold of the 
 garden. Strange music in which there was 
 at once regret and hope. Music filled with
 
 126 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 the sadness and the beauty of the past. 
 Music of revery. This intimate, strange- 
 coloured music stole forth here in the garden 
 of the Schloss. It brought up emotions that 
 had long lain buried. Violet - coloured, 
 mysterious, tender music. 
 
 And there came the gay, delightful music 
 of Offenbach. That fine music of the reveller 
 that brought up to the mind brilliant pictures 
 of the life that was lived for the moment. 
 It rang out in this magical place of green 
 and soft blue and gold. And here was music 
 alluring and still sad. Strange music that 
 gave forth divinely the beauty of movement. 
 One of the magical waltzes of Strauss. This 
 thrilling, lilting music that quickened the 
 senses, and that still was strangely sad. As 
 if the musician had grasped to the full the 
 truth that all life is lived under the sword 
 the sword that may in the next moment 
 fall. Strange is the music of Strauss. It 
 is not as the music of the Pole, Chopin,
 
 THE SCHLOSS 127 
 
 and still for me it is as if it were related 
 to it. How, it is impossible for me to 
 define. But I feel the relation, though the 
 power to express it is not given me. 
 
 The magical music that lived here in the 
 garden of the Schloss through the golden 
 afternoon ! It carried the mind and the 
 soul into realms mysterious and indescrib- 
 able. To listen to it in this place of 
 beauty was to live to the full the illumined, 
 inscrutable moment that is called life. 
 
 IH 
 
 This Schloss great and strong, with 
 ramparts and bastions and towers and 
 walls ! 
 
 To it came many people. Here were 
 those that wandered through the world. 
 The people who go from place to place 
 gleaning the subtle knowledge that no 
 books hold the knowledge that it is not
 
 128 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 given for man to tell man. For the world 
 holds, as a jewel, a wisdom for each being 
 that is but for him alone, and that may 
 be gleaned but by him. 
 
 Here sat these people listening to the 
 music. And here was youth. Here were 
 fine brave young men. They were living 
 in the glory of the morning of life. 
 Students who had come from all parts of 
 the world to this beautiful Heidelberg 
 this place for perfect growth. This splendid 
 place, where the young learned that highest 
 wisdom of all the wisdom of keeping 
 young. 
 
 These strange-capped students came here 
 to the Schloss and walked around, bearing 
 themselves with the divine and magical 
 insolence of youth. The divine and magical 
 insolence of youth 1 It is the most perfect 
 and glorious possession that comes in the 
 morning of life. For it means that man 
 feels to the full the wonder and genius that
 
 THE SCHLOSS 129 
 
 belong to the mighty and indomitable man- 
 race. The glorious and splendid race of 
 man. These fine-browed, wonderful beings. 
 They will emerge into the full light nay, 
 they are emerging now. Away with you; 
 you dark philosophers. Man has before 
 him a destiny of unimaginable splendour. 
 And men feel this when they are in the 
 morning of life. And so it is that they 
 bear themselves with so fine and so brave 
 an air. 
 
 This beautiful Heidelberg. Would that 
 all who were young could go to it. 
 
 IV 
 
 Ho ! Here in the Schloss was Perkeo's 
 cask. A great, mighty cask, that had 
 held myriads of thousands of dreams. For 
 wine is imprisoned light and life that holds 
 dreams. It holds dreams and magical 
 phantasies. 
 
 K
 
 130 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 This mighty cask that the dwarf, Perkeo, 
 had wished to drain. A vast, jovial 
 emblem, round and great and splendid. 
 
 And there fronting the cask was the 
 figure of Perkeo, the dwarf jester whose 
 wit had enlivened a Court that was now 
 dead and past and gone. How sad he 
 looked now. Could it be that he sorrowed 
 because the mighty cask lay here empty 
 in the Schloss ? Could it be that the 
 spirit of the jester hovered around this 
 place of dimness and age ? Perkeo, a man 
 of a jest and a joke who lived in the past. 
 His philosophy lay in the kernel of the free 
 jokes he cracked. This wit. This hero of 
 uncountable bumpers of Pfalz. This jester 
 whose words had flashed here in the old 
 Schloss. How fine a thing is a jest and a 
 ipke. How fine a thing is a hearty and 
 great laugh. It brings all men, high and 
 low, wise and foolish, staid and 'grave, 
 together.
 
 THE SCHLOSS 131 
 
 All hail, jester Perkeo ! Be not sad. 
 There are times when the world still 
 laughs. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 And so it was that over Heidelberg stood 
 the Schloss, great and strong, with its ram- 
 parts and bastions and towers and walls. 
 From it was to be seen the magical and 
 glorious valley that stretched out to a plain 
 in the far distance. A place of power and 
 beauty where came those who wandered. 
 Where the students bore themselves with 
 so fine and brave an air. 
 
 The Schloss. It stood on guard over 
 this Heidelberg this place beautiful as a 
 shining dream.
 
 XIV. -BADEN-BADEN 
 
 I 
 
 BADEN-BADEN is democratic. 
 
 Its waters are for everybody. You may 
 not have a stiver in your pocket, but you 
 are as welcome to them as if you were a 
 Rockefeller or a duke. They are there, 
 flowing briskly from fountains in the street, 
 and all you have to do is to go up and help 
 yourself. If you are a working man going 
 to or coming home from toil you may go 
 and refresh yourself, if you are a tramp you 
 may go and take a drink before you are 
 interviewed by the police. It is delightful. 
 I like Baden-Baden, and I take this 
 opportunity of giving it a free advertise- 
 ment. Go to Baden-Baden, everybody. 
 
 132
 
 BADEN-BADEN 133 
 
 There is, to be sure, the Trinkhalle and 
 the Friedrichs-Bad where you may go to 
 drink the waters should you hanker to rub 
 shoulders with the rich and great. But even 
 here you are only charged a penny for the 
 privilege. And you may, if I am not 
 mistaken, have four glasses of water for 
 this same penny. Baden-Baden is a place 
 that is all right. 
 
 I may say, however, that I, personally, 
 prefer the water that spouts democratically 
 from the fountains in the open streets. It 
 is hotter than the water at the Trinkhalle, 
 and for me it has a richer flavour. 
 
 The water itself tastes like delicious, light 
 Bouillon. I made my first acquaintance 
 with it at the fountain at the turning into 
 the Lange-Strasse. I saw a couple of 
 picturesquely attired countrymen sampling 
 it. And I followed suit. 
 
 Just like warm, delicious, light Bouillon. 
 How glorious it would have been to have
 
 134 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 come across such warm delicious satisfying 
 water in my old, tramping days. If I had, 
 I don't believe I ever would have left the 
 road. But, alas ! the world has but one 
 Baden-Baden. 
 
 I was under the impression that Baden- 
 Baden was a preserve for the great, and for 
 those who had stolen enormous sums of 
 money by the shady way of trade. But not 
 so. You may live very cheaply indeed in 
 this delightful watering place. You may 
 live in it far more cheaply than you can 
 live in London. You can get a good room 
 for two marks the night. And food is 
 correspondingly cheap. Taking it alto- 
 gether, you can live as well as you want 
 to live for ten shillings a day. English 
 watering and seaside places ! When I 
 think of them I am lost in admiration at 
 the English hotel keeper's genius for rob- 
 bery. For example, Brighton is, at the 
 very least, twice as expensive a place to
 
 BADEN-BADEN 135 
 
 live in as this famous and delightful Baden- 
 Baden. 
 
 How delightful and healing is the air. 
 You are in a town of the hills. In the 
 future, when man becomes more intelligent, 
 towns will be built as this Baden-Baden is 
 built. Man will manage to get at once the 
 effect of the country and the town, even as 
 it is got in this beautiful South German 
 watering place. He will learn to build small 
 towns that will have brilliant shops and 
 brisk traffic and that still will have pure, 
 fresh air. He will learn the value of making 
 a friend and confidant of nature of having 
 his towns made healthful by the medium 
 of wide spaces and trees and gardens. 
 
 II 
 
 If you want to do the heavy, Baden- 
 Baden will accommodate you just as it will 
 accommodate you if your purse is meagre
 
 136 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 and light. There is a certain place the name 
 of which I will not name where food and 
 drink is as dear as the heart of the most 
 flaunting spendthrift could desire. A place 
 where the waiters are cold-eyed and lofty 
 and superior and skilled in the waiter's art 
 of making the mere diner feel small. At 
 this place I was charged a mark and a half 
 for the Pilsener that I drank with my chop. 
 True, the Pilsener was served in a beau- 
 tifully cut glass jug, but not being a klep- 
 tomaniac I fail to see where the advantage 
 came in. And besides, the jug was rather 
 too large to carry off as a memento. I was 
 so chastened by the scene generally and by 
 the air of the cold-eyed, superior waiter that 
 I gave him a half a mark through fear 
 twice the usual tip. He took it as the 
 great take things w r ith calm condescension. 
 I had had my money's worth, however, for 
 had I not dined with the cream of Baden- 
 Baden's humanity? I had sat in the
 
 BADEN-BADEN 137 
 
 presence of the smart and great. I had 
 broken bread in company with the noble and 
 the successful. And to crown all I had 
 the honour of actually sitting next to a table 
 where sat three Jews. 
 
 A word about the Conversationhaus 
 where the people go to promenade and to 
 listen to the music. 
 
 I do not wish to carp at anything in this 
 ideal Baden-Baden, but frankly I must say 
 that in my view the music in the Con- 
 versationhaus is played in altogether too 
 ethereal and artistic a manner. The 
 conductor a distinguished, fine looking man 
 goes in too much for quiet, composed 
 effects. Subtle, pianissimo, string effects are 
 all very well in a concert room where every- 
 body is quiet, but they are apt to get lost in 
 a vast place like the Conversationhaus where 
 people are walking around, talking. A little 
 more of the brass, Herr Conductor, please, 
 and let there be more swing and lilt in the
 
 138 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 beat of your baton ! And let the strings 
 give out a tone more full and hard. And 
 the drums. Let the drummers earn their 
 salaries. And don't neglect the brass 
 effects. The promenaders can't hear the 
 music. I know your audience appreciates 
 art. But what is the good of a picture if its 
 lines are too delicate for you to get the 
 effect ? What is the good of an orator if you 
 don't hear what he is saying or a singer 
 with a beautiful voice that doesn't get over 
 the footlights, Let your band play out more, 
 Herr Conductor. We can't hear it? 
 
 Ill 
 
 How individual are the people who come 
 to this vast Conversationhaus. They come 
 from all quarters of the world, and they 
 lounge along the strangest and most 
 interesting crowd I have ever laid eyes on. 
 It is not that they have especially the look of
 
 BADEN-BADEN 139 
 
 belonging to the world's leisured class. It 
 is not as if you were looking upon the smart 
 set on some capital. They look too 
 cosmopolitan. And indeed, to be quite just, 
 they have not especially the look of the 
 class that dominates the world's affairs. I 
 do not mean, of course, that this crowd has 
 not the air of a crowd that holds the world's 
 affairs. It has. But what I mean is that 
 the units of this crowd are so different from 
 one another that the main impression they 
 give to the observer is of being a mass of 
 individuals who move and have their being 
 without any sense of cohesion one with 
 another. When you look upon a dominant 
 crowd of people say, as upon some crowd 
 of legislators you will note in them a 
 relation. They give you the sense of people 
 who work together for the same end. There 
 is a likeness in the expressions of their 
 faces. But these people who come to this 
 vast Conversationhaus here in Baden-Baden
 
 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 are typical of the indescribably complex 
 interweavings and mutations of life. All 
 sorts of faces from all sort of races, Pass- 
 ing and repassing slowly. Speaking all 
 sorts of languages. Dressed in all sorts 
 of ways. Well dressed, curiously dressed, 
 shabbily dressed. Here are the people who 
 have the air of having denied themselves 
 to come to this wonderful world-famous 
 Baden-Baden. People who have little 
 money who have just managed to get out 
 for a tardy holiday. You can tell them at 
 once by their manner. And here are the 
 people who move with the curious, subtle 
 insolence of bearing born of the possession 
 of money. And successful people. And 
 unsuccessful people. The people of birth, 
 and the people of trade. And here are 
 people who have about them the atmosphere 
 of power and authority. And people who 
 possess the fine power of command. And 
 able, clever people. You see men of art and
 
 BADEN-BADEN 141 
 
 thought, and men bearing themselves with 
 the firm, assured set of men of action. 
 And beautiful women and plain women and 
 girls. And the women of the strange half 
 world. This strange slow-moving crowd 
 expresses the mystery and wonder and com- 
 plex interweaving of life. How fine it is 
 to behold and to study it here in this magical 
 Baden-Baden !
 
 XV. LOST IN THE FOREST 
 
 ON this morning we set out from Baden- 
 Baden to walk through the immense Black 
 Forest to Freiburg which lay dead to the 
 south some ninety kilometres. It seemed to 
 me that we ought to make it in four days. 
 
 We started through the Lichtenthaler 
 Allee, which extended along by the side of 
 the Oos. The sun was shining full on the 
 river waters that were coming down from 
 the hills. 
 
 How beautiful is the Lichtenthaler Allee. 
 It is one of the most charming of the world's 
 gardens. Here nature and art magically 
 combine. River, clear air and sky, soft- 
 hued garden, and dim blue hills beyond 
 blend into a soft and beautiful scene. To 
 
 i 4 a
 
 LOST IN THE FOREST 143 
 
 walk in this garden is as if one were walking 
 to strange music. The voice of the river 
 lives deeply in the air. And far beyond are 
 the dark pines, marking the edge of the 
 great, mysterious forest. 
 
 We were now out of the garden and going 
 leisurely along the road. 
 
 ***** 
 
 We passed through the village, Lichtenthal, 
 and here by the side of the road was a cross. 
 It was adorned with flowers a roadside 
 shrine to which the people of the forest 
 turned to make reverence as they passed. 
 
 Here were three men of the forest. They 
 were middle-sized men, walking with the 
 peculiar sure step of men who are accus- 
 tomed to going where there are no roads. 
 They were unlike any people I had yet seen 
 in Germany. They did not greet us as we 
 passed, but just looked at us somewhat 
 grimly from out of the corners of their eyes. 
 They were people of the open air outside
 
 144 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 men. They had not the air of men who 
 farmed who worked the ground but rather 
 the air of mountaineers. 
 
 The road was now winding upwards, 
 and we were well into the first belt of 
 timber. 
 
 We were going by the side of a river that 
 foamed down from the heights beyond, and 
 from the distance there came the steady 
 voice of a waterfall. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 There were no birds in this forest. Or 
 rather, there were no birds that sang. It 
 was a place of the life of primal things of 
 trees, of air, of water. Just at this part, 
 however, it had no air of wildness. 
 ***** 
 
 Here was the waterfall of Gerolsau. And 
 down at the edge of the river, where the 
 water roared along, was a low, square wooden 
 house that turned out to be a place where 
 one could get coffee and kirschwasser
 
 LOST IN THE FOREST 145 
 
 cherry-water a colourless, delightful stimu- 
 lant distilled from cherries, which I am bound 
 to recommend to the traveller. It put me in 
 mind of the applejack whisky that I used to 
 get from the mountaineers when I was on 
 tramp in Kentucky. This kirschwasser was 
 somewhat strong, and caught you in the 
 throat, but it had a beautiful nutty flavour. 
 
 How pleasant it was to sit here in the inn 
 by the sounding, rushing water. And my 
 fancy pictured the glorious and delightful 
 time I would have getting down to Freiburg 
 through the great forest. 
 
 Out we were again on the road. And we 
 went on till we came to where the road 
 forked. My idea was to make Sand that 
 night. Sand lay twenty kilometres to the 
 south of Baden-Baden. It lay on the high- 
 road hohenweg that ran between Pforz- 
 heim and Basel. Baden lay off from this 
 highroad, and we were cutting through the 
 cross roads to get to it. Ordinarily I would 
 
 L
 
 146 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 not have done this, but my faith in German 
 directions was sure and strong after my 
 experience of climbing the Brocken. I felt 
 that as long as German sign-posts were 
 round I could not get lost if I tried. I had 
 therefore adventured out from Baden filled 
 with faith and hope. 
 
 Need I say that where the road forked the 
 sign-posts were heavy with directions. You 
 were told all about everything connected with 
 that part of the Black Forest. 
 
 After some deliberation we chose the road 
 going to the left, but we had not gone far 
 before we again came to a choice of roads. 
 I studied the map of the Black Forest that 
 I had bought in Heidelberg, but it had 
 nothing to say concerning this second fork- 
 ing of the road. 
 
 Here, also, were sign-posts telling one 
 everything that one could wish to know, and 
 after consulting them we came to the con- 
 clusion that we had done wrong in taking the
 
 LOST IN THE FOREST 147 
 
 road to the left in the first place. So back 
 we went and took the road to the right. 
 
 We had hardly gone half a mile when we 
 came again to a road with sign-posts, and 
 after studying it it seemed to us that we had 
 gone right in the first place. But this time 
 I refused to turn back. So I consulted the 
 compass, and finding that the new road bore 
 to the south I took it. 
 
 Again a road, and again plentiful direc- 
 tions. I paused and swore. And then 
 slowly, very slowly, it began to dawn upon 
 me that perhaps the directions here in the 
 forest were somewhat mismanaged. It is 
 possible to get too much of a good thing. 
 There were too many directions put up ! 
 But I thrust the base and ungrateful thought 
 away from me. My faith in the German 
 method of telling one the proper way to go 
 was not to be shaken in so easy a manner. 
 I thought of the Brocken. And I was filled 
 with remorse to think that I had doubted,
 
 148 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 even for an instant, the skill of the German 
 Government in showing the road even to the 
 blindest of men. It was I who was in fault. 
 I had muddled things up. 
 
 Another road, and more directions. I 
 went down that road on general principles. 
 And then I came to another. And here it 
 was that revolt took possession of me. I 
 had been loyal for a long time, but in the 
 end even a worm will turn. There were too 
 many directions altogether. The Germans 
 had made a muddle of these sign-posts. I 
 was sorry to be forced to think this. But 
 facts are stubborn things. And whilst I was 
 trying to think how so perfect a governing 
 machine as the German Government could 
 go wrong I came to another road. 
 
 In a word we were lost. The plenti- 
 fulness of the directions had undone us. 
 And I reviewed Prussia in language most 
 questionable. 
 
 Ah! I was not now in Prussia! It
 
 LOST IN THE FOREST 149 
 
 suddenly came to me that I was here in 
 the South in the Duchy of Baden. Had I 
 been in Prussia such a thing as getting lost 
 could not have happened. These South 
 Germans were a delightful people, but they 
 knew nothing about the proper directing of 
 the traveller. 
 
 Once the idea came to me to go back to 
 Baden-Baden. But that also was hopeless. 
 For the maze of directions would still con- 
 front us. 
 
 We had got turned round. And, added 
 to this, we had got away from the river. 
 The compass was now no good to me 
 either. I was entangled in a maze of 
 forest and roads and sign-posts and 
 directions. 
 
 There was no one about of whom we could 
 inquire. We seemed to have the forest to 
 ourselves. 
 
 When next we came to sign-posts we did 
 not even look at them.
 
 150 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 It was now getting well on in the after- 
 noon. And suddenly a change came into 
 the weather. It began to rain. 
 
 To be lost in a forest when it is raining is 
 an experience that is apt to induce feelings 
 of pessimism, and I began to wander how 
 on earth the ambition had been bred in me 
 to tramp from Baden-Baden to Freiburg. 
 If it had been possible for me to have 
 found my way back I would have renounced 
 the whole scheme there and then. But I 
 was in for it. I was committed to it. Or 
 rather I was committed to the floundering 
 about, lost, in this wet and desolate 
 forest. 
 
 We had been indeed killed through kind- 
 ness. We had lost our way through the 
 eagerness of the authorities to direct us. 
 
 I had been lost before in my wanderings 
 in different parts of the world. But never 
 in a forest. Being lost in mountains is 
 nothing, comparatively. If you keep your
 
 LOST IN THE FOREST 151 
 
 head it is all right. You can at least see 
 where you are. And if you find a water- 
 course you are sure to get right if you 
 follow it long enough.
 
 XVI. SAND 
 
 IT occurred to me that I would have to 
 use my own instinct and rough knowledge 
 that a man gets in wandering about. It 
 would not do for night to come upon us 
 here in the rain in this lonesome forest. 
 For that would mean having to stand in 
 one place till daylight came round again. 
 
 It was now five o'clock in the afternoon. 
 There was still three full hours of daylight 
 before us, and the thing was to get to 
 Sand before darkness came upon us. 
 
 When one is lost there come the 
 most odd sensations. The mind works 
 strangely. The pivot that it works upon 
 is gone, and so it is that there come 
 bewilderment and fear. This one must
 
 SAND 153 
 
 fight. If you allow fear to settle upon 
 you, you are undone. I have been lost 
 several times in lonesome places, and the 
 thing is, if possible, to make yourself 
 feel that you are not lost at all. You 
 must make yourself feel that your bearings 
 have only gone out of sight temporarily, 
 and you must search in your mind for 
 some other guide, or pivot, to work from 
 till they come in sight again. And there 
 is always something. For example, if 
 you are lost in mountains, never forget 
 that a water-course is an absolute guide. 
 If you follow it you are sure in time to 
 come up with someone. In the wildest 
 and most uninhabited place a water-course 
 is a highway. Never leave it under any 
 circumstances. If you are lost on a plain 
 or a prairie make always for one point 
 on the horizon. You will get this easily 
 from the sun even should you be without 
 a compass. And wait for daylight. Never
 
 154 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 go along in the darkness. If you are lost 
 in a forest always make for a rise in the 
 ground. And so in the end you must 
 come to a clearing. It is in clearings 
 where people live. People may live in 
 the forest itself, but the clearing is 
 necessary for the growing of food. Make 
 for the high ground, and in time you 
 must see one. The clearing in the dense 
 forest is as the oasis in the desert. 
 
 Of course our being lost in the Black 
 Forest was ridiculous. It had come about 
 through the multiplicity of directions. But 
 I knew Sand was up near to 3,000 ft., 
 and we were now in a valley. It would 
 be therefore somewhere up on the valley's 
 outer edge, and as it was only twenty 
 kilometres out from Baden-Baden the odds 
 were that I was but a comparatively short 
 distance from it. And getting up on to 
 the high ground would likely enough 
 enable me to see it. Even if I did not,
 
 SAND 155 
 
 I would in any case come across some 
 road with new footprints upon it. And 
 that in itself would be the best guide. 
 The thing, however, was to move quickly 
 whilst there was yet daylight. 
 
 I must confess that I was astonished 
 at the number of roads running through the 
 forest. And more than that they were roads 
 that had not been used for a long time. 
 They bore no marks of people having gone 
 along them. Many of them were rough, 
 and covered in places with weeds and grass. 
 
 We worked along, going up and up, 
 till we came to a sign-post that apprised 
 us of the alleged fact that if we went 
 along the road to the right we would 
 get to Sand. But I disregarded it. I 
 had had enough directions to last me for 
 as long as I was in the forest. Indeed, I 
 intended to leave it the next day. I like 
 when I'm tramping to find a good, straight 
 road that has no nonsense about it.
 
 156 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 So instead of taking the accredited 
 Government road I took a small path to 
 my left that ran through a dense part of 
 the forest. My reason for taking it was 
 because it ran upwards and there were 
 the marks in it of fresh footprints. The 
 broad road ran down into the valley 
 again, and besides I knew from experience 
 that if I did follow it I would soon reach 
 another sign-post that would send me up 
 the valley again. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Here was the clearing I had been 
 looking for. And soon there came a 
 big piece of cultivated land. And in 
 time a great house appeared. It was 
 Plattig. And Sand was but half an 
 hour's walk beyond it. 
 
 Sand! We were there at last. It 
 was not as I had thought, a small town. 
 It was simply a great hotel built up on
 
 SAND 157 
 
 the heights where people came to get the 
 benefit of the beautiful air and the aroma 
 of the pines. 
 
 And then the mystery, or some of the 
 mystery, of the puzzle of the forest paths 
 was explained. These people who kept 
 the hotels had the names of their different 
 hotels set up at the turnings of as many 
 roads as possible. Their ambition was to 
 guide people safely and surely to their 
 hotels, which was a very laudable and fine 
 business ambition, but unfortunately for 
 the innocent pedestrian every hotel-keeper 
 was fired with the same ambition, and the 
 result was that the pedestrian lost his 
 way and his temper, and likely enough 
 injured himself morally by giving way to 
 pithy and illumining language. 
 
 However, all was now well. We had 
 a good dinner, with Rhine wine, and 
 slowly but surely the ambition came back 
 to me again to go to Freiburg. It would
 
 158 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 be just as well for me to see what the 
 Black Forest really was like while I was 
 here, and I felt almost apologetic when I 
 thought of the way I had reviewed the 
 South German method of directing the 
 traveller. 
 
 There were not many people in the hotel, 
 as the season had not yet commenced. 
 # # # # * 
 
 The next morning was glorious and 
 beautiful. And I wondered how I could 
 possibly have thought of abandoning my 
 idea of tramping to Freiburg. In fact, 
 the experience of the day before appeared 
 to me now but in the light of some 
 hideous dream. And besides, here was 
 the hohenweg the absolute and real high- 
 road. The day befgce I had been flounder- 
 ing through the cross-roads from Baden- 
 Baden, and naturally enough one would 
 easily go wrong on them. I felt so cheered 
 and elated that the business habit of the
 
 SAND 159 
 
 hotel proprietors of trying to guide one 
 safely to their particular hotels faded from 
 my mind. 
 
 How splendid was the view here from 
 Sand. We were nearly 3,oooft. up above 
 the level of the sea in the midst of 
 rolling hills. The air was a joy to 
 breathe fresh, cool, stimulating air. And 
 on all sides were the pines of the immense, 
 surrounding forest. 
 
 And how inviting looked the highroad. 
 It stretched away from Sand into the 
 thick of the forest, and over yonder I 
 could see it winding sharp and white in 
 the sunshine. It was a road on which it 
 would be a joy to tramp. And far off 
 across a valley I could see it again. It 
 was a great distance off, but it looked so 
 clear and distinct that one would have 
 thought it no more than a mile away, 
 were it not for the hills and the valleys 
 lying in the space between.
 
 160 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 A road winding clear and sharp in the 
 light. It is a fine thing to look upon. 
 And a finer thing yet to tramp upon. 
 
 It lay before me.
 
 XVII. THROUGH THE 
 FOREST. 
 
 THE clerk of the hotel regaled me with 
 glowing accounts of the wonderful things 
 I would see on my journey through the 
 forest. All that I had to do was to 
 keep straight along on the highroad, and 
 the views would disclose themselves as a 
 magical panorama. True, he had never 
 seen these wonders himself. He admitted 
 that he had not much ambition for tramp- 
 ing. The wonders of the road through 
 the forest had been transmitted to him 
 by practical travellers. 
 
 He was a Swiss, and he flooded me 
 with all kinds of information in what 
 161 M
 
 162 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 might be called fluent, interpreter English. 
 Were there wolves in the forest? I asked 
 him. No, there were no wolves, he 
 answered and quickly and overwhelmingly 
 he let go a flood of information concerning 
 wolves and where they came from, and 
 where they did not come from, and how 
 and when and where they attacked people. 
 He was a great man, this clerk of the 
 hotel. A man who knew his business 
 which was to slake the all-devouring thirst 
 of the tourist for detailed information. 
 
 We started gaily along in the bracing 
 air. The informing and voluble clerk 
 had fired my imagination. I felt now 
 that I would be able to boast about having 
 tramped through the length and breadth 
 of the great forest when I got back to 
 England. 
 
 Hornisgrinde ! I would make Hornis- 
 grinde on the evening of that delightful 
 day. And at Hornisgrinde I would regale
 
 THROUGH THE FOREST 163 
 
 myself with a fine supper and a bottle of 
 the delicious German wine. Alas for human 
 calculations ! How on earth was I to 
 know that this same Hornisgrinde was 
 but a bleak mountain peak? It figured 
 on the map in print that to my eye could 
 but belong to a big and thriving town. 
 
 However, we went gaily along. And 
 then well, we came to a turn in the road. 
 And this turn led into a road that was even 
 more fine and beautiful than the highroad 
 itself. At the turn there were multitudes 
 of directions. We went along till we came 
 to another turn. Again directions. A turn 
 again, and more directions. On we went, 
 and 
 
 Well, the truth must be told. We were 
 lost once more. We had been basely 
 betrayed. These beautiful and wonderful 
 and fine highroads were as misleading as 
 the cross-roads out from Baden-Baden. 
 
 I sat down, overcome. The power even
 
 of vivid and luminous language was gone 
 from me. 
 
 And the ambition to penetrate through 
 this immense forest faded from me for 
 the second time. And this time it had 
 gone never to come back. My idea now 
 was to get out of it as quickly as I could. 
 But how ? 
 
 Bitterly I thought of the fluent and mis- 
 leading information of the clerk who lived 
 safely in Sand. His magical panorama 
 had missed fire. The only view that had 
 so far disclosed itself was a view of dark, 
 gloomy, countless pines. 
 
 The best thing to do was to just take a 
 road and go along it, trusting to chance. 
 In time we would come across someone 
 who would guide us out of the forest. 
 
 So we stopped discussing about the road. 
 We simply went along. 
 
 To us from the distance came the ringing 
 sound of an axe. And in time we came
 
 THROUGH THE FOREST 165 
 
 upon a party of the people of the forest 
 who were working clearing a space on the 
 shoulder of the mountain. An hotel, or 
 kurhaus, was to be erected here for the 
 benefit of those who could afford to pay 
 for the luxury of taking it easy up in the 
 beautiful air. 
 
 Women were working along with the 
 men powerful -looking women, with heavy, 
 simple faces. And there were children. 
 
 The man who had charge of the gang 
 was dressed with a rough picturesqueness. 
 It was a scene such as might have been 
 seen hundreds of years before. About 
 these people was the atmosphere of the 
 long ago past. These workers of the 
 great, silent forest ! They were as their 
 ancestors before them. The influence of 
 the vast, changing outer world had in no 
 way come into their lives. 
 
 It was the man in charge who made us 
 understand that Hornisgrinde was but a
 
 1 66 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 bare mountain summit. His German was 
 not as the German of Berlin, but it was 
 enough to make us understand that we 
 had wandered away from hotel comforts. 
 We were out in the sphere of the Spartan, 
 simple life. 
 
 And we dined with these simple people 
 of the forest. In a log hut near by we 
 sat down and ate black bread and raw 
 bacon and cheese of a somewhat weird 
 character. And we finished with a nip or 
 two of kirschwasser to put courage into us 
 for our journey to nowhere in particular. 
 For we were quite unable to understand 
 the directions of the picturesquely-attired 
 man in charge. At least we could under- 
 stand them no farther than the gripping 
 of the idea that whichever way we went 
 we would in the fulness of time get some- 
 where or another. 
 
 How we enjoyed that meal ! Provisions 
 taste never so nicely as they do at a time
 
 THROUGH THE FOREST 167 
 
 when there is^an uncertainty as to when 
 one will next come across them. The only 
 way to really enjoy a meal is not to know 
 where the next is coming from. This is 
 the reason why tramps possess such perfect 
 health. We had no idea when we would 
 eat next. True, we had money. But 
 money avails neither in desert islands nor 
 lone forests. 
 
 * * * * # 
 
 We were going down a valley that ran 
 to the east. We were taking the road 
 with such philosophy as we might. We 
 had no idea where we were going. 
 
 I had been in great forests before, but 
 never had I been in one so strange as this. 
 It was so bereft of life, so silent. Hardly 
 was there a bird in it. The forests through 
 which I had journeyed before had been 
 so inhabited, so full of sound and life. 
 
 But this immense place of dark pines 
 was as a place of mystery and death. How
 
 1 68 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 black it was ! Even the sun pierced not 
 through the gloom of the sinister trees. 
 We were walking through vast walls of 
 darkness. The light of the sun came 
 down to us a dull, leaden-grey light. 
 
 One could understand the idea of the 
 offering of human sacrifices coming to 
 people who dwelled within this place of 
 silence immense and black. For surely 
 must it have been borne in upon the soul 
 that powers and gods amorphous and 
 horrible existed within this surrounding, 
 sinister gloom. Spirits vague and dread 
 who demanded sacrifices. As the forest 
 men of old slept, must not these spirits 
 have appeared and issued dread mandates 
 to be carried out in waking hours ? This 
 place of mystery and secrecy and darkness. 
 This sinister, terrifying forest. 
 
 ***** 
 
 The sun came to us now, a pale, far- 
 away light of gold. We were out from
 
 THROUGH THE FOREST 169 
 
 the gloom of the trees. Out in a natural 
 clearing of the vast forest. 
 
 And there came the sound of a voice. 
 But no one was to be seen. And we 
 passed out of the clearing and were again 
 in the gloom. 
 
 * * * 
 
 Slowly the gloom was lightening, and 
 there came again the pale, far-away light 
 of gold. 
 
 And soon we were in a wide clearing 
 where the light of the sun came full down 
 to us. 
 
 Here were houses. We had got to 
 Hundsbach, a village of the forest. 
 
 We were in an oasis of the stretching 
 world of gloom and silence. By the side 
 of the road a brook sang along on its 
 way. How pleasant and delightful it was 
 to hear it ! A brook leaping and running 
 on its way to the far sea. It had come 
 forth from the darkness. A leaping,
 
 1 70 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 beautiful brook aglow with gold, and 
 singing softly. And there came the voices 
 of children. And yonder was a big house 
 where travellers might stop and rest. We 
 had reached a haven a stage in our 
 journey. We had come from shadows and 
 silence into light and sound and life. How 
 charming was this little village of the vast 
 forest ! This oasis !
 
 XVIIL DIE FORELLE 
 
 I 
 
 THIS far-away village in the heart of the 
 forest had a life that was sane and beauti- 
 ful. Day followed day in calm and peace. 
 The people in it knew not of, and recked 
 not of the life in the great towns of the 
 world that lay out in the unknown beyond. 
 They knew not of the horror and the stress 
 of the centres of chaos that are called great 
 cities these places wherein beings are 
 even denied the life-giving air. They 
 knew not of the roar and bustle and hurry 
 that kills. And who is there to say that 
 they possessed not a wisdom unknown to 
 the dwellers in the vast towns ? 
 
 171
 
 172 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 To him who had wandered over the face 
 of the world this village within the great, 
 dark mysterious forest might well be a 
 haven where he would wish to stay till 
 the end of all his days. What did it 
 matter even though he worked at rude 
 and simple labour for his bread? His life 
 would go on as a light, steady and clear 
 and beautiful, and it surely is that this is 
 the utmost blessing that can befall. Ambi- 
 tion for fame and power and the getting 
 of gold is a madness destructive and 
 horrible. When all is said and done, a man 
 can eat but bread, so that he may live. 
 All else is but a vanity and a disturbing 
 of the spirit. 
 
 It were better to be a labourer here in 
 this village than to be a king upon a 
 throne. 
 
 How green and soft and beautiful was 
 the grass. And how musical was the tinkle 
 of the bells as the cattle slowly moved.
 
 DIE FORELLE 173 
 
 And how wondrous the voice of the brook 
 as it ran on its way to the far sea. 
 
 II 
 
 The men who had been at work in the 
 depths of the forest came in to drink their 
 light red wine, for the day had come to a 
 close, and they might rest and talk. 
 
 Men of the open air who worked with 
 the hands. Their faces were simple and 
 contented - looking. They had worked 
 through the day and now they were taking 
 their ease. 
 
 Their faces were browned with the 
 healthful brown of the open air. And 
 perhaps it was that some of the mystery of 
 the immense surrounding forest was in 
 their eyes. 
 
 ***** 
 
 Supper! The woman who kept the 
 rough, simple village hotel brought it in
 
 174 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 to us. It was the most delightful supper 
 I had ever eaten. A great loaf of brown 
 bread was in the centre of the table. 
 And near it was a big bottle of light red 
 wine. How delicious was this wine. How 
 fine it was to take a huge draught of it. I 
 know of no grander drink in the world than 
 light red wine, that is if you have the luck 
 to drink it in the place to which it 
 belongs. 
 
 The butter of the village was delicious. 
 Fragrant, beautiful butter such as one gets 
 not in a town. 
 
 But I must tell of the forellen the trout. 
 They were caught in the brook and they were 
 kept alive till wanted in a covered-in place 
 on the side of the hill. Through this place 
 a stream of water ran down to the main 
 brook. And so it was that the trout lived 
 here in the darkness under the square, 
 wooden cover, as they would live in the 
 darkness cast by the great stones in their
 
 DIE FORELLE 175 
 
 natural home. It was a simple and odd 
 device. The trout were imprisoned in 
 darkness in running water. 
 
 Not all the gold of all the world could 
 get you these trout if you were off in one 
 of the world's great towns. For, if you 
 are to eat trout in their perfection, they 
 must be taken from the running water 
 where they live, and they must be cooked 
 at once. If they are carried off to a 
 distance they lose their flavour. So nothing 
 could have got you these trout but a journey 
 here to this village in the great forest. 
 
 Never have I tasted anything like these 
 trout, and I suppose I never will again. 
 They were fried, and it was my idea to 
 have with them a side dish of grilled ham. 
 Trout and grilled ham and draughts of 
 light red wine and slices of brown bread 
 and delightful fragrant butter. A feast 
 simple and beautiful fit for the gods.
 
 176 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 How beautiful was the morning here in 
 the village ! The sun burned gloriously 
 in the life-giving, wine-like air. And afar 
 from the depths of the great forest came 
 faint axe-ringings. Men from the village 
 were off doing the work of the day. 
 
 The woman of the hotel told us of her 
 eldest son, who had been taken off to be 
 a soldier. Her face saddened as she 
 spoke of him. She longed for the time 
 when he would be back here again with 
 her. 
 
 She was a gnarled, plain-looking woman 
 with a kind face. She had never seen the 
 world that lay outside the depths of the 
 great surrounding forest, and she had no 
 desire to see it. She thought of it in the 
 vague way that one might think of some 
 other world. 
 
 Her father, who lived at the end of the 
 village, was a hale, sound old man of over 
 ninety. His eyes were blue and clear
 
 DIE FORELLE 177 
 
 almost as the eyes of youth, and the life- 
 flame still burned bright within him. It 
 was not that he was really old. Rather 
 was he as one who arrives with powers 
 all but unimpaired near to the end of a 
 journey. His face was brown and wrinkled, 
 and his figure was erect and alert looking. 
 When he spoke there was power and 
 resonance in his voice. This man of the 
 forest gave no impression of age as it is 
 commonly understood by those who live 
 unhealthy lives. There was no suggestion 
 of weakness about him. He would retain 
 his powers till the time came for him to 
 lie in his long sleep. Through the whole 
 of his life he had enjoyed that truest 
 happiness of all the happiness coming 
 from the perfect bodily balance that is 
 called health. This fine old Karl ! Surely 
 he had had more out of life than the 
 greatest king or emperor. 
 
 N
 
 178 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 III 
 
 Through the day we wandered through 
 the village, going here and there. We 
 went into the little school, where were 
 taught the children. And there was the 
 little chapel, surmounted with a cross 
 shining in the sun. And the shrines 
 before which the people made reverence 
 as they passed. These simple people 
 reverenced religion as all who are truly 
 wise reverence it. 
 
 And here was the place where lay those 
 of the forest who were dead. 
 
 How beautiful and clear were the sounds 
 of the bell of the little chapel as it called 
 the people of the village to meditation and 
 to prayer ! The sounds floated out and 
 out till they reached the great surrounding 
 forest darkness. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Another day had come and we were out
 
 DIE FORELLE 179 
 
 on our way from the village. We passed 
 by the school and the little chapel with 
 its beautiful shining cross for the last time. 
 On and on, through the soft greenness, 
 passing by houses quaint and strange. We 
 went on by the side of the brook that 
 was now becoming bigger and steadier. 
 On and on. And lo ! here again was 
 the gloom and darkness of the vast forest. 
 Behind us we could hear faintly the life 
 of the village. We turned, but the village 
 was gone ! 
 
 On we went with our guide through 
 the silence and the gloom and the shadows. 
 And we passed up on our way to the 
 shoulder of a mountain that was shrouded 
 with immense pines. And the guide 
 pointed to the distance down in the far 
 valley, and left us. 
 
 On we went, going down and down.
 
 XIX. LEAVING EXACTITUDE 
 
 I 
 
 You can tell when you get out of 
 Germany. Things do not look so exact. 
 You lose sight of the eternal square and 
 parallelogram. In Germany even the 
 animals act as if they were obeying strict 
 orders. 
 
 Holland is an exact enough place, but its 
 exactitude is almost disorder when com- 
 pared with the exactitude of Germany. 
 Things in Germany are absolutely on 
 mathematical lines. Even Nature itself 
 must so to speak toe the mark. The 
 very trees look like soldiers standing at 
 attention. 
 
 An earthquake is a most irresponsible and 
 1 80
 
 LEAVING EXACTITUDE 181 
 
 irreverent phenomenon. It is at once 
 irregular and sudden and most impolite. It 
 bursts up into the most respectable and well- 
 ordered places without warning. But I 
 should say that even an earthquake would 
 think twice before playing its pranks in 
 Germany. I have not at hand a record of 
 German earthquake visits, but I am willing to 
 chance the laying of long odds that they 
 have been few and far between. At least 
 they must have been few and far between 
 since the time of Bismarck. And during the 
 time of the Kaiser they must have been 
 altogether quiescent. 
 
 If I am wrong as to this, I ask pardon. 
 
 But I have the evidence of my own senses 
 to back up the stating of the fact that 
 Germany is in itself absolutely the most 
 exact and well-ordered place on the planet. 
 At least, it is the most exact and well-ordered 
 place I have ever had the pleasure of being 
 in. The place where discipline is spelt with
 
 182 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 a capital D. Why, even the dogs bark in a 
 methodical and exact manner. And, as I 
 suggested above, it looks as if Nature 
 itself had to toe the mark. And who is it 
 that will have the courage to say that it is 
 not within the bounds of reasonable assertion 
 to assert that should Germany ever rule the 
 waves, the waves themselves will not have 
 the free and easy time that they at present 
 have under the rule of England? 
 
 I hope no one will think that I am saying 
 these things in a carping spirit. For I am 
 not. I am saying them but as I would say 
 that the national manners of the people of 
 England have not quite the highest and most 
 brilliant shine upon them. Ah ! now I 
 have put my foot into it altogether. For I 
 don't mean at all that it is not a most noble 
 and beautiful thing to be exact in everything. 
 
 I ought not to speak of this German 
 virtue of correctitude in the same breath 
 with the rough-hewn manners of my beloved
 
 LEAVING EXACTITUDE 183 
 
 countrymen. For to be exact and correct 
 in everything is a virtue of the highest of 
 absolutely the very highest ilk. 
 
 No, I wish it to be understood that I am 
 speaking of Germany in an admiring sense. 
 Patriotism here might very well impel me 
 to urge my countrymen to endeavour to 
 copy this German virtue. But, alas, such 
 a thing would be hopeless. You might as 
 well ask a tortoise to model himself upon a 
 lightning flash. The poor old English will 
 therefore have to blunder on as they have 
 blundered on heretofore. 
 
 The world is full of mysteries. And one 
 of the deepest of these mysteries is the 
 mystery of how the dunderheaded, stupid, 
 foolish, obstinate, blundering English could 
 ever have done anything in this world. 
 How did these wrongheaded, numb-skulled, 
 topsy-turvy people come to get the plums? 
 How did they do it? How ?
 
 1 84 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 II 
 
 I was being rushed along in the express 
 and I was looking through the window of 
 the carriage, taking in the hurrying picture 
 of the landscape. I was admiring the 
 exactitude of the beautifully laid- out fields 
 and the far trees that were standing ex- 
 actly at the same distance the trees that 
 were exactly the same height, the same 
 everything. 
 
 Now and then there flashed upon the 
 quick-moving picture the figure of a cow. 
 And once there came upon the picture the 
 figures of many cows. And believe me 
 when I tell you that they were all standing 
 in the same way and at the same distance 
 from one another. 
 
 The train was going fast and the picture 
 flashed quickly by, but nevertheless it was 
 clear. And the impression came upon me
 
 LEAVING EXACTITUDE 185 
 
 that I was being rushed along one of the 
 sides of a place formed on the principle of 
 a chessboard. 
 
 Need I tell you that the rushing express 
 was rushing through Germany ? I need not, 
 for you have guessed it already. 
 
 I was looking through the window of the 
 train, taking it all admiringly in, when all 
 at once there came a change. I rubbed 
 my eyes to make sure that I had not fallen 
 asleep. I wanted to make sure that I was 
 not dreaming. For the change was a most 
 incomprehensible change. 
 
 No, it was all right. I was not asleep. 
 I was awake. 
 
 But there was a change. And then it 
 occurred to me that perhaps my mind was 
 going wrong, for there actually before my 
 eyes the exact chessboard lines of the 
 country were vanishing. They were break- 
 ing up one into another becoming irregular, 
 in fact, waving about disappearing.
 
 i86 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 I put my hand to my brow, and then 
 slowly the solution of the mystery came to 
 me. This was not Germany I was gazing 
 upon at all. It was Holland ! 
 
 We had left Cleve, and had come to and 
 passed the frontier without my thinking of 
 it. I had passed from absolute exactitude 
 to comparative inexactitude. Nature was 
 now having something of her own way 
 again. The roads and streams were wind- 
 ing deviously after the manner of roads and 
 streams in ordinary countries. One tree 
 was actually unlike another tree. 
 
 I must confess, however, that the change 
 came to me as a shock. My sojourn in 
 Germany had made my eyes used to the 
 seeing of life and nature and things gene- 
 rally being set out upon the chessboard 
 pattern. I had become Germanised. That 
 is, I had become as Germanised as far as it 
 is possible for a careless lounger. 
 
 Would you believe it ?
 
 LEAVING EXACTITUDE 187 
 
 The cows that now appeared upon the 
 passing landscape wore a frisky air. Frisky 
 is hardly the word that would usually apply 
 to these solemn and useful animals. But 
 I assure you that the cattle of Holland were 
 most gay and sporty in demeanour when 
 one compared them with their German 
 relatives. They were whisking their tails 
 and moving about as though there was 
 no such thing as order in the world ! No 
 longer were they in even rows standing at 
 attention. 
 
 I sighed. 
 
 For it is a sad thing to be forced to leave 
 perfection. 
 
 Ill 
 
 But worse was to follow. I will say 
 nothing of the reckless way that the boat 
 tossed and tumbled in the choppy sea. 
 That I was prepared for, being an old 
 sailor.
 
 i88 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 But a sense of justice and duty compels 
 me to speak of the way things were managed 
 at Harwich. I am not going to dwell upon 
 the merits or the demerits of Custom House 
 officers, for they all are but what one 
 might call denationalised nuisances. They 
 belong to no nation. Indeed, I seriously 
 think they are not human at all. We will 
 pass them by. 
 
 But really I must speak of the English 
 railway ticket-inspectors. They positively 
 asked you for your ticket as though they 
 actually didn't much care whether you had 
 a ticket upon you or not. And when you 
 did show it to them they barely glanced 
 at it. 
 
 How different were they from the fine, 
 dignified German ticket-inspectors. When 
 they asked you for your ticket you felt that 
 you were being interviewed by the whole 
 German Empire. You were in the presence 
 of the truly great. And how careful they
 
 LEAVING EXACTITUDE 189 
 
 were. They examined not only the ticket, 
 but all the words on the ticket, and all the 
 letters in the words. True, you trembled. 
 For if there happened to be a misprint 
 on your ticket, you would certainly be 
 bounced from the train. But what of that ? 
 You were in the presence of a grand dig- 
 nitary, who was doing his duty in a grand 
 and dignified manner. You were receiving 
 a lesson. 
 
 But the English ticket- inspectors, they 
 well, I won't pursue a painful subject 
 further. 
 
 And the English landscape. I was 
 indeed shocked. It seemed positively 
 yes, it seemed positively to be going 
 along without the slightest reference to 
 discipline. 
 
 It was the same way with everything 
 else. There seemed to be no great guiding 
 hand. Everything seemed to be going 
 according to some obscure law of its own.
 
 i9o THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 And to my horror and amazement I felt 
 a base feeling of relief creep over me. I 
 somehow felt glad to be getting back into 
 the midst of this indiscipline. Why, I don't 
 know unless it can be attributed to the 
 natural depravity of human nature.
 
 XX. TWO PEOPLES 
 
 I 
 
 IT would be idle to deny that the 
 Germans in a material sense get more 
 out of life than do the English. It is 
 neither wise nor effective to go against 
 facts. And the fact is that there is more 
 beauty in German life than in English life. 
 Art has a larger share in the disposing 
 of things. Things are better ordered. 
 More is made out of possibilities. 
 
 I can well understand an Englishman 
 coming to Germany for the first time 
 and feeling that England was very much 
 behind indeed when compared with this 
 land of beautiful, well-ordered cities, and 
 grand shining rivers, and fruitful plains. 
 
 191
 
 192 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 I can understand him feeling that his 
 own people were woefully behind the 
 Germans that the Germans had attained 
 to a higher plane of civilization. It would 
 at once strike him that they were better 
 off than his own people. 
 
 And so they are in a material sense. 
 
 The Germans glean the fruit of a 
 discipline that is at once absolute and 
 effective. And the advantages of this 
 iron and absolute discipline are the first 
 things that strike the eye of the one 
 from England. He comes from a place 
 of disorder and haphazard to a place that 
 is swept and garnished. 
 
 As an Englishman and as one who 
 believes fully and firmly in the glorious 
 possibilities of his country I am not 
 going to deny for a moment the fact that 
 the German is better off than the English- 
 man. 
 
 He is better off. But the law of life
 
 TWO PEOPLES 193 
 
 has it that a price must be paid for all 
 things. And the German has had to pay 
 a price for his prosperity. 
 
 He has had to give his liberty for it. 
 
 He has had to put himself within the 
 grip of the most perfect and ruthless 
 government-machine the world has known. 
 He has had to become a slave so that 
 he might live fatly and well. He has had 
 to fall down and worship. He has had 
 to be silent to be respectful to salute 
 to bow his head to give up his son to 
 be struck with blows. 
 
 And I an Englishman say that he 
 has paid too heavy a price for his material 
 prosperity. And I go further and say 
 that I would sooner see England swept 
 from existence than see her pay the 
 German price for such prosperity. 
 
 Germany, in its government, presents 
 the strangest paradox the world has known. 
 
 It is a Socialistic State presided over 
 
 o
 
 194 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 by an autocrat. It is, in a measure, a 
 sinister realising of the half-truths of Karl 
 Marx that thinker at once dangerous and 
 blind, who imagined that man could be 
 squared and ruled and defined into hap- 
 piness. Here in a sense is his glorious 
 State. Here is his set of guided and ruled 
 human beings. 
 
 Here are his machines. 
 ***** 
 
 Let me make it clear that I am in no 
 sense against the German people as a 
 people. They are a kindly, well-disposed, 
 good-hearted race. This cannot be said 
 too often. I know something of them, for 
 I knew them for a long time in America. 
 They are peaceably inclined and generous. 
 But they have been policemanised and 
 militarised into puppets. 
 
 However, it is only fair to say that 
 those who control them, and who will 
 use them against the world's peace when
 
 TWO PEOPLES 195 
 
 the time is ripe have done their best 
 by them. The clique that controls this 
 immense nation have been honest accord- 
 ing to their lights. They have turned 
 this fine people into slaves so that they 
 could do well by them. 
 
 But there is a grander and more 
 glorious destiny for this great nation than 
 any slavery, however comfortable and 
 polished it may be. 
 
 Golden chains are still chains. 
 
 II 
 
 The English when compared with the 
 Germans are not ruled at all. They are 
 as free as it is possible for human beings 
 to be free. I mean they possess the 
 greatest amount of freedom possible in a 
 State that is governed by a central 
 authority. The world's present idea of a 
 State is an aggregation of human beings
 
 196 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 controlled and ordered by a few who make 
 a profession of governing. In some of the 
 world's States a pretence is made of giving 
 the people the power of selecting who 
 shall govern. But in actual practice the 
 governing power is always held by virtually 
 the same people. 
 
 Such is the world's present idea of a 
 State. 
 
 And the English people have as much 
 freedom as it is possible for them to have 
 with regard to this idea. 
 
 England is by far the freest country in 
 the world. 
 
 Indeed, to such lengths does this idea 
 of individual freedom go that there are 
 times when it becomes a danger to the 
 position of England as a State. 
 
 I do not wish to be misunderstood here. 
 For me, individual freedom is man's most 
 sacred and glorious possession. In the 
 end all mankind will attain to it.
 
 TWO PEOPLES 197 
 
 I mean this : When England has to 
 live in a world of slave States where 
 millions are broken to the art of war 
 millions that may be loosed upon England 
 at the bidding of one or a few men 
 this idea of individual liberty becomes a 
 danger where it prevents the people from 
 adequately preparing for this dreadful 
 eventuality. 
 
 ***** 
 
 No I do not mean conscription. I 
 do not mean compulsory military service. 
 Conscription is a curse. And the State 
 that has it is a slave State however fair 
 may look its outside prosperity. 
 
 I mean that Englishmen must of 
 their own volition and free will prepare 
 themselves so as to be ready in case these 
 hordes of conscripted slaves are precipitated 
 upon them. 
 
 There is no need for conscription. 
 
 Let all Englishmen learn the use of
 
 198 THE GERMAN DANGER 
 
 the rifle. Let all English boys learn the 
 use of the rifle. The rifle is the weapon 
 of weapons. And let him be considered 
 an unworthy Englishman who cannot 
 use it. 
 
 There is another thing to be considered. 
 It is well to remember that events have 
 by no means proved that the professional 
 soldier is the best fighter. The man 
 fighting for his country has always proved 
 to be worth more man for man than 
 those sent against him. 
 
 We don't want our sons to be herded 
 and beaten in barracks, as they are in 
 Germany. It is not necessary. Conscrip- 
 tion is a curse. 
 
 But we want our sons to know how to 
 use the rifle, so that they can prove them- 
 selves to be good men and true when 
 the conscripted hordes are loosed upon 
 them.
 
 TWO PEOPLES 199 
 
 It would be a bad day for the progress 
 of liberty were England crushed and broken. 
 
 I am not going to say that England 
 is not a robber. She is. She possesses 
 a genius for robbery just as other nations 
 possess an instinct for robbery. But she 
 also possesses the idea of liberty. 
 
 Let this be weighed against her crimes. 
 ***** 
 
 The price that the English pay for 
 their liberty is comparative disorder and 
 haphazard and confusion. The most is 
 not made out of things because of the 
 difficulty of working together and for a 
 common end. Englishmen won't stand 
 to be ordered or shoved about by any 
 one. They will do as they like even 
 when it would be to their advantage to 
 be amenable to discipline. 
 
 And so, compared with Germany, things 
 are mixed up and often absurd and topsy- 
 turvy. Life is not so comfortable as it
 
 2OO 
 
 might be. There is no good in denying this. 
 And England is not as safe as she might be. 
 
 All this is true. The English pay a 
 high price for their liberty. 
 
 But liberty is cheap at any price. 
 
 England is the only country in the 
 world that is moving along the right 
 direction towards that finest human ideal 
 the ideal that all human beings shall be 
 masters of themselves. What matters it 
 if the road be rough and hard ? What 
 matters it if the road be dangerous ? What 
 matters it if the clothes become ragged 
 and torn in the arduous, steep journey ? 
 What matters anything as long as the 
 goal be freedom? 
 
 Mankind must be free whatever the cost. 
 
 And better death and extinction than 
 any slavery, however fair and shining it 
 may appear to the eye. 
 
 PRINTED by WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED. LONDON AND BECCLES. 
 
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