THE GERMAN RETURN HOME.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2632, 25 July 1871, Page 3

THE GERMAN RETURN HOME.

The Scotsman gives a translation as follows of a letter from a Prussian Landwehr officer to a relative in Edinburgh : - “Berlin, April 5, 1871. “ I wish you had been able to cast a look, on the morning of March the 21st, upon the large square close to the little manufacturing town of Burkan, by Magdeburg. There, to use the coirect technical expression, the battalion, having arrived duly by mail, was to be disembarked {atisijeschlJt). Strange to say, the city of Magdeburg had decided igainit any official reception of the battalion which bears the city’s name ; but the reception on the part of the population was all the more hearty and intensely joyous. From tho earliest dawn of day the square was crowded with people, chiefly women and children. They all had wreaths of flowers in their ham’s, and they all peered impatiently into the dim afar, waiting restlessly for the arrival of the train which bore so precious a burden. At la t, at last, four hours after the appointed time, the engine, festooned with garlands, comes up snorting and steaming. With tho loud and glad and triumphant strains of our military band there ming ed the joyful acclamations, repeated again and again, of the assembled multitude. After eight months of danger and privation they return, those brave, sturdy fellows, with their wcatherburnt faces ; after long and anxious watching and waiting they return to the embraces of their dear ones. There they stand, as proud and happy as possible ; many a one holds his child with one vigorous arm, while the oihe clasps the waist of bis radiantly joyous young wife. jO, the unut "erable bliss, the rapt enchantment of these meetings ! But here stands a weeping mother ; two well-beloved sons went forth from her homestead, one only returns to the mother who bore him. And here stands a pale young wife attired in black, two chubbyfaced little boys by her side; she has come out with the merry throng to welcome her brother home ; her husband, alas, sleeps the sleep that knows no waking under the blood red toil of France. The soldiers crowd around the mourners and tell them how good, how brave their fellow comrade was, how, when he sank on the ground to die, with his heart’s blood oozing from a deadly wound, his faltering lips feebly whispered the names of his wife, of his children, and how a smile, happy an innocent as that of a little child, lit up his pallid features. “ Madcburg— so strangely inhospitable on this occasion —was filled, even to overflowing, with French prisoners, and.our men were to be billeted on the farmers all around. But the loving wives would not let their newlyreturned husb mds go away by themselves, so they accompanied us m masse. It was a most marvellous marching order,’ I assure you—t!ie graceful, slender female figures side by side with the broad-shouldered, bearded, and buily men, tramping along gleefully and in wild exuberance of iho fair sex actually b»re along the heavy knapsack or the needle-gun of their well beloved husbands.

“ We all got into jolly good quarters out iu the country. I stayed with a prosperous farmer, and was lodged in a large and scrupulously olean room. My cheerful and goodhumored host has done his best to make my first home quarters right comfortable. A lain el wreath is placed along the edge of my plate, the bottle of good F.henish wine is festooned with laurel, and even the enormous roast fowl which is served up in honor of the occasion, ‘ squats,’ as it were, on a heap of laurel leaves. And now the evening has deepened into night. The sky is glorious with stais, and the .warm and balmy spring air comes pouring in by the open window. From afar off there comes a sound of mirth and music. The old patriotic songs res und ; but, 10, as I listen, gentle, tremulous female voices mingle sweetly with the deep chested tones I know and love so well, and right overhead the great German flag is rustling pleasantly in the midnight breeze, Involuntarily 1 fold my hands, and breadth forth an unspoken but heartfelt prayer of praise and thanksgiving. Yes, we are once more in the dear, thebeloved German Fatherland—home, again, home. Glory to God iu the highest! “On the following day th g Aunkkhluny (literally, undressing) commenced. On the first day the guns and swords were given up ; next day the cartridges, knapsacks, uniforms,. Ac. '1 he whole tiling is done in capital order, company by company marching up and laying down their accoutrements, Already the men are dressed in their everyday garb ; one wears the lung smoke-frock of the farmer, another the artisan’s blouse, a third the well-to-do citizen’s broadcloth and fine linen. And so away to the last act of duty. The men fprm into a iquarc ; we officers stand in the centre. ‘ Farewell, men uf the Garde Laudwchr,’ said the commanding officer. ‘ A good soldier will also be a good citizen. Farc-y c-'yrcU S V. >u are dismissed, to your homes,’ A thundering Iloch for the German Emperor follow s, then a Itvrh for the commander, and IJoc 7 is for all the officers of the battalion. Hitherto the discipline had not been loosened for a second, but now the ranks break up, and all uisli about in wild confusion ; every soldier is anxious to grasp his officer’s hand once more, and to exchange a kindly farewell. ‘Good-bye, my boys ! Good-bye ! Good-bye! We have passed through many a trying hour together. Think of all those days and nights of the fighting before Strasbnrg and before Paris. Think of our marches over wide plains covered with snow, over hill and dale. Think of tfie byaye comrades for whom we have dug quiet graves in far off France. In our recollections we shall be inseparably connected. Brethcren in arms ( U r cj}'i:n‘ ruder) fare-yc-well, fare-ye-well !’ An t thus the second battalion of the Second Garde Landwehr regiment was disbanded, and its component parts scattered to all the points of the compass. The officers met for the last time at a little farewell banquet; then, with a hearty shako of the hand, they, too, parted and every one of us sped quickly towards his own home.”