IN GERMANY.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 19 June 1917, Page 3

IN GERMANY.

THE MAKING OF A HUN.

PRUSSIAN SCHOOLBOYS TAUGHT TO BE BULLIES. The inculcation of the whole essence of the Prussian military spirit is the work of a lifetime, the lifetime of every Prussian boy. His tuition from the time he is ten is preparatory for a military life, and for the military point of view. This is made clear in an article by Countess von Krockow in the New York Independent. The tutors of boys in country families are generally selected primarily for the "soundness of their views," which is to say, for their subserviency to the views of the ruling caste. When the preparation at home comes to an end in the boy's fifteenth i year, he goes to a college to be fitted for the university, or to a Government military school if his father can obtain a nomination from the Emperor on the strength of the family claims to recognition. Then the boy goes to the cadet school at Gross Lichterfelder, where he undergoes a physical examination, and if he is accepted his father has the satisfaction of knowing 'that the boy's education will be paid for by .the taxpayers, and that at the end of his school tie he will be in the profession that enjoys the most prestige throughout the Empire. He dons a uniform, and lessons fill every hour of his day, lessons from books and lessons from drill instructors.. He lives in military surroundings,-.. with disciplinary regulations minute and numberless. The principal to the school are persons with, shining helmets, flashing decorations,, 'and swords. B 3& •<■ 3 uy -> h &■ ■■ ■ • "'•; !«p "DIET." tQ -'■ "- F 5p i m t ,his instructors and ..the older boyfialje .imbibes a sentiment of con'tempt for, all men who have not the privilege of wearing uniform. His tiferoes among the boys are those who' havfecseized opportunities to stand and affront- such men. He nurses a pet ambition, the chance of dressing down jfpn&fc seivilian <"dart' ?i,; likfe* 'a .guatfdYfar failing to salute him, or of ~#nubbiiig' brutally and drastically some-clerk or professor for daring to • address him informally. ,i r Later he will rise to the heights of ( speaking generically of the men in the yanks' as "fellows," and individually jss "numskulls, pig-dogs, and "devil's churls." At the end of the course in the'"cadet school he enters the war school as a candidate for a commission,' and he passes out with the rank jOf Second lieutenant and a handsome .coat.' 1 He is a fully-fledged militarist.

HaMship is to be borne from earliest Touth. Little boys of ten have to practise standing absolutely motionless for at least two hours'at a time. At Court functions, the countess says, she saw lads, very picturesque in their page's costumes, swoon away while standing thus motionless behind the,, phairs of royal princesses on whom they were in attendance. They have to stand all through the long 'Courts, state confcerts, and other functions. If they faint they are car'ried"away swiftly and noiselessly by lackeys who are on the look-out for ; 'such 'incidents, and another page takes' the vacant place.

"Meanwhile," continues Countess von Krockow, "the thing has been dori.e; the (of a|l youjkjh (have been saturated with the same class and.ideals. If they marry, these ideas and., ideals find their identical, if softer, .copy in the souls of their mates. A new, family is created, and is put through the same stamping processes, and, so on from generation to generation.,^,,: WORSE THAN CRIME. .'" "j&y variant from the type, any •youth or girl whose spirit is resistant to ftp caste mould, i s married into itor, that resource failing, is perforce allowed to slip down to another social plane, while any man who liberates himself mentally, which is to say, becomes mordern ana democratic in his opinions is ostracised

I "Countess zu D came visiting old famifly friends by herself. 'Of course, we can't but receive her, poor creature,' I heard the friends remark. For a long time I asked no questions taking for granted that a crime had I been committed bv the Count zu D—— whose estate, with its splendid old castle, was among the great ones of the province. One day it occured to me to inquire of my husband what the berime had been.

M 'What the heavens put it into your head that D i s a criminal?' he exclaimed. 'Why, nobody seems to receive him; and the ladies are always expressing pity for the Countess. 'Well he said he, stjernly, 'for (the

count is worse than a criminal. Ho is a Liberal/ ~. " 'But. he goes to the Golden Star in town,,' ; l persisted, after a moment of silence needed to recover from my surprise, and recalling that I had seen the count alight at that weekly rendezvous of the country sqircarchy. " 'The Star, yes; a man can't be prohibited access to a public tavern. And some of the gentlemen who are wont to dispute ■ and drink with him. But they are not the men I can tell you, who are dependent on the grace of Berlin. What sort of a man is it,' he went on, in a tone of indignant reflection, 'that will risk the future careers of his sons for the satisfaction of airing a batch of doctrines picked up travelling in England, the land of parliamentary government and hypocrisy?' " Such is the Prussian of "noblesse oblige."