Oct. 22.--It was hard to realize today that a great war was going on.
Every building in town occupied by the Germans was decorated with the
German flag in honor of the Kaiserin's birthday, and at night the
principal ones, including that occupied by the "War Cabinet," were
specially illuminated. All morning long, quantities of Generals came
rolling up in touring cars to the Kaiser's door to pay their homage and
offer congratulations. About noon the Crown Prince and staff arrived by
motor from the direction of the headquarters of his army. The Crown
Prince, who characteristically sat on the front seat next to the
chauffeur, looked as boyish and immature as his former pictures--his
military cap cocked slightly on one side. The responsibility of leading
an army had apparently not had a sobering effect on the Crown Prince as
yet, but I was told that the guiding brain and genius in the Crown
Prince's army headquarters was not that of the Crown Prince, but of his
chief adviser, Gen. von Haeseler, the brilliant cavalry leader of the
war of 1870 and now the "grand old man" of the German Army, sharing with
von Zeppelin the distinction of being the oldest living German Generals.
It seemed still harder to realize that men were fighting and dying not
fifty miles away when, after luncheon, Kaiser, Crown Prince, and staffs
went for a two hours' automobile ride, the Crown Prince leaving late in
the afternoon to rejoin his command.
The only warlike notes in the day's picture were a German military
aeroplane--one of the famous Taubes--that flew at a high altitude over
the Great Headquarters toward the enemies' lines; a battalion of Saxon
Landsturm that rested for an hour at the railroad station, then started
on the final hike for the front, refreshed by a glimpse of their
motoring Kaiser, and toward evening four automobile loads of wounded
German officers, who arrived from the direction of Rheims, where it was
rumored the French had made four desperate attempts to break through.
Here one gets more and more the impression that the Germans in their
war-making have learned a lesson from the hustling Americans--that they
have managed to graft American speed to their native thoroughness,
making a combination hard to beat. For instance, there is a regular
relay service of high-power racing motor cars between the Great
Headquarters and Berlin, the schedule calling for a total running time
of something under a day and a half, beating the best time at present
possible by train by four hours. One of the picked drivers, who has the
last lap--through France--said his running schedule required him to
average sixty miles an hour, and this running at night. A network of
fast relay automobile services is also run from the Great Headquarters,
through Belgium, linking up Brussels and Antwerp, and to the principal
points on the long line of battle.
How great a rôle the motor car plays among the Germans may be gathered
from an estimate made to the writer that 40,000 cars were in use for
military purposes. Many thousands of these are private automobiles
operated by their wealthy owners as members of the Volunteer War
Automobile Corps, of which Prince Waldemar, son of the sailor Prince
Henry, is chief. Their ranks include many big business men, captains of
industry, and men of social prominence and professional eminence.
They wear a distinctive uniform, that of an infantry officer, with a
collar of very dark red, and a short, purely ornamental sword or dagger.
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