UNDER THE IRON HEEL.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9668, 5 March 1897, Page 7

UNDER THE IRON HEEL.

CIVILIAN LIFE IN GERMANY AND • ITS GRIEVANCES.

ffgE Policy of Cct-and-Ruk as Improved by tiik Lieutenants on Germans inCivil Live—Casks in Which Officers Stormed and Civilians Apologized and Fled.

The Bruesewitz affair has come to be -r.gan.cd apparently as one of the crowning atrocities of German Militarism. The spectacle of an armed officer assassinating on the gpot an unarmed civilian whose original offence was to bump chairs with him accidentally in a restaurant has been held up to view by the press of all civilized lands as illustration of what the German people must suffer at the hands of their own standing army. The man who knows not Germany and the Germans would be quite likely to think) after reading of this assassination .*

*£he brutality of othcer toward civilian could go no farther ; no more striking example of jnilitary oppression in times of peace could he given by a highly civilized people. Yet anybody who has lived in Germany in recent years knows that it is not the Bruesewit'-.es who do most in that empire to annoy and torment the civilian subjects of the flohenzollerns. It is not the officers "■tempi- about with drawn swords and furious threats in the saloons, nor yet those ever ready with their cards to demand meetings with swords or pistols, w ho make the self-respecting civilian : long for other lands and less tempestuous j scenes. Such men of action are rare j in tho German army, or, if not rare, take pains to hide their true natures. It is not the military assassin's stab nor the military bully's challenge that harrasses the ordinary civilian in Germany. It is rather the load of class contempt which the officers' j corps puts upon the backs of the rest of the nation. That is the burden that kills. You ! nmy resent the insult of any one man in i Germany. If you are a German, you at least can fight a duel and save your self-respect at the expense of a doctor's bill. If you are an | American, you can thrash your antagonist to your own satisfaction, even though your Style of revenge does not suit anybody else. But who can face and demolish the front of a whole army corps ? Who can stand out against the thousands of commissioned officers, entrenched in the vested privileges of active service and reinforced by tens of thousands who have gone into tlie reserves with the same iclea3 of position and prerogative? It is like trying to upset centuries of Prussian military tradition and to revolutionize with ono man's strength the whole political and social fabric of the German empire. From the present point of view tho effort is hopeless. Moat German civilians, outside of the titled class, must compromise with self -respect and take things as they come. Most foreigners must choose between a similar course and helpingthemselvesfromdifficultytodifficulty, until the neighbourhood becomes too hot for them and they move on to France or England to escaoe a series of duels or a pariah life, far even from the civilian's smile. The aim of the writer of this article is to give a few instances of what civilians in Germany bear, how some bear it and others do not, and why a man who intends to become acclimated anywhere between the Vosges and the Vistula must prepare for occasional crises in _is continental career, especially if he be an American with the temperament and temper that an American usually is born with. As the intention is not to illustrate the tragic side of the subject, the doings of Bruesewitz and his fellow assassins will not be considered ; only the unhoroic, every-day side of the everlasting conflict will be touched. Early in this month tho Berlin newspapers published a brief narrative, which, on account of its familiar incidents, is well calculated to define the principal features of an encounter between a German reserve Lieutenant and a German civilian. The two ■saw each other for the first time during the dinner hour on tho fast express between Dresden and Berlin. The civilian was a Chemnitz merchant of considerable property —one who, in New York, would paß3 as an influential business man, and would sit on platforms to lend dignity to political demonstrations. He finished his meal in the dining car before the Lieutenant reached the dessert. Ho threw bock his coat front, lighted hia cigar,'and leaned back to puff it, at peace with hia soul. The Lieutenant laid down knife and fork and looked at him. The merchant blew out smoky rings, all unconscious of the brewing stora, and apparently did not know there was an officer in the car. Several of his fellow travellers became uneasy. They feared trouble was coming. They saw that the Lieutenant had "fixed" (fixirt) the merchant, that is, had fastened his eyes upon him so intently as to give cause for the fateful question, " Why do you stare at mc?" &0., to the fighting point. They tried to warn the merchant of his danger, to j motion to him that he was offending the Lieutenant and would do well to cease smoking for tbe time being, but in vain. , The merchant smoked on in serene oblivious-1 ness, and the Lieutenant stared on with growing wrath. After five minutes' suspense the Lieutenant broke the painful j silence with the sharp, rising, nasal tone which 1b used by Lieutenants to betoken anger. He brought the waiter to his side j with a call that roused even the merchant from Chemnitz. Pointing at the merchant he demanded:

" What kind of a creature is that with a tagar.' The waiter shook his head in dumb trepidation. Then the Lieutenant shouted—the words are quoted literally: "Anyhow, you go and tell that follow ahead there that he must take that stinker {ttmker) out of his mouth." *-> If an unacclimated American had been present he might have prepared to move out of the way of trouble; he probably would have hauled his hand luggage into a remote corner j he doubtless would have remarked teat the merchant, though a little heavy, onght to carry all the money and win the contest in style. A Frenchman would nave expected a blow and an exchange °L_*_*"- 8 * A Russian would have expected anythuig from coffee cups to pistols on the spot or later, and a German—well a berman would have expected just what nappened. The Chemnitz merchant took •*••*■ «gar from his mouth and remarked courteously that he had not intended to folate any rule against smoking. He added teat he did not smoke "stinkers," and that M regarded it as rather discourteous to call S?A" fel!ow -'' Up jumped the Lieutenant ««_*k * m& r *- Be *-i> an " roared : , n « Jon don't get out of hero instantly, I Will put a leg on you that will help you run. xoo would not be the first person of your »nd that I have put legs on." That was the last word in the scene, the vhemnite merchant turned and fled to the wart compartment, as he said afterward, for few that ho might be sacrificed on the spot as was Bra_sewit-_*B victim. The eight civilians Who had witnessed the provocation, apology, menace and flight jumped up, brimful of tod.gnatoon, but like the proper German oyibans they were, they Sid not let any indignation spiU over in the Lieutenant*, presence; that might have consequences, fco instead, they preserved their peace until they were alone with the Chemnitz j-J-a-hant-, when they advised him to make » warm for the Lieutenant in one way or Mother that would not involve personal

•_?/-_* r xa "ttle-narratrveof the merchant Lieutenant has moved along con-v-entootial lines, but the rest of it is a little •!? * Whon *he train reached ~' Anhalt station in Berlin the Chemnitz •mensbant, encouraged and supported by the *»ght other civilians, took steps to learn who the reserve Lieutenant was, and to com|w«n of hhn to the military authorities. VOite unexpectedly this brought the young man to terms, and he made a grumbling excuse for his conduct, and requested the merchant to let the matter drop. This exceptional outcome of the scene on the train » given merely for the record; it has no »gnific_nce as regards the essential features *» mmpuses of this class. The features are that the German officer opens hostilities by grossly insulting the civilian and continues them by refusing to accept any apology that the civilian may offer for being present or being alive, by threatening to thrash or stab we civilian, and finally by putting the ttviliau to flight. That a civilian should ■fttn to save his skin from an army officer's attack is a tradition that seems to bring no •ham© with it in Germany. Men tell of their "running to escape the military bully as •frankly as they might tell of running from a Swpernatural monster whom it posseth the power of man to resist.

Persons acquainted with the Bruesewita tose will remember that the liautenaatgav*

the mortal thrust as the machinist fled after vainly offering an apology. So, too, in the case of Lieutenant Baron Salisch and the young shopkeeper Weymann in Coblenz. Salisch reproached Weymann for flirting with a waitress with whom Salisch had flirted first. Salisch threatened and cowed Weymann, and frightened him into the usual flight. He pursued the fleeing man to the middle of the Rhine River bridge, reviled him, refused to accept his apologies, and eventually chased him some 200 or 300 feet and ran him through with his sword. A rather bumptious young man from Cm cinnati had doubts when he reached Heidel berg that the policy of cut-and-run was so common among German civilians under military stress of circumstances. He was a stalwart German-American, who was the soul of honour and courtesy under ordinary conditions, but pugnacious to tbe last degree when he thought anybody wss trying to curtail a single one of his inborn rights and privileges. While American from scalp to sole, he took considerable pride in his mother's family, which was fine old professional stock in Goettingen. He therefore was reluctant to believe that humiliation could be an established and undisputed custom between two equally intelligent classes in Germany. He was sc.ptical for several weeks, then something happened which not only changed his views but also led to a 3eries of interesting incidents. In the same house with us there lived the most prosperous haberdasher in Heidelberg, about forty years old, well built, muscular, active, business-like, and agreeable. Twice a week he came in to drink punch and smoke with us, and improve our German by conversation. One Wednesday night he did not come at 8 o'clock, the appointed hour. Half an hour passed, and the Cincinnati man remarked that Hansen must have stayed unusually late at Haeberlein's, and probably would not come at all.

A moment later, however, the door burst open, and in hurried Hansen —not, howe*»er, the sleek, affable, dignified Hansen of former evenings, but a dishevelled, white-faced, rumpled, and exhausted Hansen, looking as if he might have slid in from the towering Gaisberg at our doors. His story was soon told. He had run foul of a Lieutenant. He was playing his regular game of billiards at Haeberlein's when three young army officers entered. All the tables were full; excepting Hansen and his friend, however, the players were Saxo-Borussens, who," though only corps students,. are rather , pugnacious in their way, aud, if put to it, Will fight about anybody with about any weapons. Two of tho Lieutenants wished to play billiards, and they apparently decided to obtain a table by strategy. Naturally their plan did not involve a Saxo-Borussen table, for the students might make trouble ; they therefore drifted on to the table at which Hansen and his friend were playing. First they stared the- two civilians out of countenance, then they began criticising the shots. Still Hansen and his friend stuck to their guns. Then one lieutenant laid his hands on the cushion just as Hansen drove the cue ball round the table. The ball struck the lieutenant's fingers. «• Thunder and lightning, you blockhead, didn't you ever have any bringing np?" shouted the lieutenant, advancing on Hansen, while his companion encouraged him to "teach the shameless fellow some manners."

** But you put your fingers there after I shot," protested Hansen. "Blockhead, hold your tongue before I give you a lesson 1" The Lieutenant put his hand on his Bword hilt and Hansen ran. There was a table in the 3vay, and Hansen fell over it. There w&s a chair, too, and he stumbled on it. He grasped his hat and coat, fled with them to the street, put them on as he ran, and did not stop running until he turned into the Gaisberg strasse. He closed his narrative with 'the question : '' Did you ever hear of such rude behaviour ?. Is it not a shame for an officer to attack a peaceable man in this way ? " The Cincinnati, young man eyed the stalwart German angrily.^ " What did you run for ?" he asked. "What did I run for?" reiterated the haberdasher. " What did Iran for ? . Why, the man might have killed mc if I hadn't run. ' You don't know how crazy those fellows are when they are provoked. He would have run mc through with his sword." f-*Why didn't you hit him in the jaw? He wouldn't remember long about his sword if you landed once with that right of yours." The suggestion seemed to daze Hansen. After a little meditation he replied, however, with a mixture of awe, pride, and con-, tempt: "That would cause a great scandal. We do not do such things in Germany. You may in America, but here we don't punch like rowdies."

This reply put the whole thing in a nutshell ; it was the proper thing; according to the customs of the country, for a civilian to run from an army officer; it was the improper thing to return a blow for an insult, or to knock down a lieutenant before he could draw his sword to. run you through. This view did not appeal to .the Cincinnati man's sense of propriety, however; in fact,. Hansen's development of it roused his ire. Thereby hangs a sequence of tales which iB calculated to teach a lesson to foreigners ambitious to.demonstrate their superiority to the tradition of militarism in Germany. {To be continued.)

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