WHY GERMANY WON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 49, 11 September 1891, Page 31

WHY GERMANY WON.

(St. Louis Globe- Democrat.) " I WAS lieutenant of engineers under Von Moltke," said Paul Wolff of Washington. " Let me give you a chapter from my personal ex perience to show how thoroughly the German war department pre- | pa>**d for emergencies. One day a message came to me at the Sj£»/ackß b ; dding me report in civilian dress at the railroad station and receive orders. I went to the station. A man approached and addressed me as Meyer. I said, "My name is Wolff." " No," said he, " your name is Meyer. Here is your bag of samples. You are selling whiskey. lam sailing wine. We will go to such a city and call on Mr So-and-So and Mr So-and-So and try to sell them goods." "We went, and I made an effort to sell the whiskey by the sample, but didn't sell any of course. Then we proceeded to another city and tried to sell the goods there. After we had visited several merchants and had returned to the hotel my companion said to me : "We will take a walk and go across the bridge. We will not return together. On your way back you will pace the bridge, and going and coming you will keep your eyes open to observe all of the points you can about the bridge." Then, for the firßt time, I began to have a suspicion of what was really wanted. I strolled down to the bridge, and leaned over the edge, looking at some workmen who were making abutments. I observed the plan of construction from various points and then went on across the stream. After a while I started back and on my way I paced the bridge arch by arch. In the engineer corps we all trained to pace distances with great exactness. 11 1 can walk a block and tell the length of it within six inches. I returned to my hotel without having made a note but with my head full of the plan of construction. My companion joined me. " Now," said he, " you will return to the place from which we started and you will make as complete a description of that bridge as you can and turn it in. " I carried out the order and heard no more of the expedition. A considerable time after that war came and the German army marched over to the frontier. As the advance drew near, that bridge I had reported upon was blown up and fell in a mass of ruin. The army baited. A train of freight cars came forward and from those cars wa9 taken the prepared material with which a new bridge was put together in a few hours and the army marched over the river and into the enemy's country. Every timber and every metal was ready for immediate use. A new bridge had been constructed throughout for that particular crossing, based upon my report."