A BENEFACTOR IN DISGUISE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXII, Issue 95, 19 October 1906, Page 4

A BENEFACTOR IN DISGUISE.

"All Berlin is laughing" — i in its sleeve : it might be dangerous to laugh too openly. Though there is not this time a cable message to inform tho world of the fact, we may assume that the Kaiser is an angry man. He will not share in the mirth which is rippling through his Empire, nnd the undulations of which, unrestrained, will exlend throughout Europe and beyond the seas to Tokyo and the islands of the south. Had the audacious "confidence trick" 6o successfully worked at Kopenick been the leading item of a. novelette or comic operetta, it would have been rated as extravaganza ; but fact sometimes exceeds the limits of sober fiction. Terrorists in distracted Russia have repeatedly plundered official safes and robbed banks, but they have resorted to the ancient methods of force of arms and numbers. Here, howevei, in the vicinity of a quiet and thriving manufacturing Brandenburg town, only eight miles from the Prussian capital, a daring operator, with no other "properties" than a, captain's uniform and sword and an official-looking paper places! himeelf in charge of a dozen Guardsmen carrying dispatches, marches t'*orn eight miles, takes possession of the Town Hall and nearly £200 in cash, places the outraged Mayor under arrest, and despatches him and his wife to Berlin to be further dealt with by the Kaiser. The local police, instead of protecting the Chief Magistrate and the public property under his charge, seem actually to have assisted the robber by preventing 'the indignant citizens from interposing in his behalf. Two hundred pounds seems rather an inadequate result for so brilliant and perilous an exploit, but only accident prevented a return more in proportion to the risk. From the Municipal Savings Bank the robber demanded something like £200,000, and it really seems that "the terrified officials" would have complied but for the fortunate absenco of the cashier with the key of tho safe. In fairy tales of old one reads of wonders wrought by wishing caps, magic horns, or enchanters' wands. Here we^ have a -twentieth-century' miracle accomplished by the simple apparatus of a captain's regimentals — an incident that would have delighted the author of "Sartor- Resartus." We could almost hope that the ingenious rascal m«y (for this time only) evade detection, for should he be capturod his penalty will in all probability be greatly in "excess of hi 3 deserts. He has touched the War Lord of Germany on a very tender point. There aro na- 1 tional evils of the most portentous kind, threatening even the very existence of a pcoplo, that seem impervious uo direct attack. Moralist and satirist alike are baffled. But somo unlooked-for incident happens that oxposes them to universal ridicule, and thoir hold is weakened — is may bo boyond recovery. A Berlin paper has the courage now to write of "the uniform fetish," and say that the incident could not have happened had not Prussian soldiors been "systematically broken of thinking." The world, however, when it has ceased laughing, will think, and think hard. It has had an object-losson of triumphant militarism and its effects on society that is worth a hundred discourses. Tho strengthening of the army and tho consolidation of its privileges has been the Kaiser's life-work. Everywhere tho uniform has precedence, everywhere tha military command carries unquestioned authority. The officer must have the pavement, though tho lady is thereby compelled to walk in the muddy street. The vulgar tradesman who would not give the path to an officer some years J ago was promptly run through, and military authorities held the homicide justifiable. Tho crime caused some smothered indignation, but nothing was done. Recent novels, alleged to bo true to life, have pictured the corruption of public morals by_ an idle military caste, trained in anti-social ideals ; but though these things aro borno in mind by the growing "social democracy," the evil, grows apaje. ■ Whero trdgody has failed to make an impression, farce may have better success. A more effectual presentation of tho. blighting effects of militarism on a free people it would bo difficult to imagine— it could have been possible only whero civil interests and authority aro subordinated to military. In a British community tho impostor would havo been promptly hunded over to tho polko as a criminal or a lunatic. Tho lesson should not bo lost in thoso free countries whero tho civil authority is supromo, and whero militarism persistently strives to obtain control. When an army gains supremo power, loyalty and patriotism are in danger of boing forgotton. Thackeray's "Old Pierre" drummed impartially for Louis, for the Republic, and for Bonaparte : "He cares not what tho causo may be, He is not nico for wrong or right ; But show him whero's tho enemy, He only asks to drum and fight." This exaltation of tho sword, the drum, and the uniform is really an indication of national weakness and decline. Germany would do well to put her present "fetish" in its right place if aho would avoid a cataclysm. It will not suit the Emperor, but it would be best for him as well as for his people. The very army in which ho putu nis trust might quite conceivably prove his own undoing.. And .if the exploit of the unknown roguo who placed the Mayor of Kopenick under arrest should have any effect in bringing about bo desirable a result, the masquerader will have proved Jl bfinefactflfi tfl GftrjnfißSfe