Christmas Eve: peace on earth and good will toward men. And all through
"the still night, the holy night," the sound that means killing goes
on almost continuously. How can any one say prayers for a world which
is at war, or for himself that is a part of it? May God, who knows
everything, help each of us to bear our part and not disgrace Him, and
make us instruments to the end that He wishes.
Christmas day I spent in the hospitals. In one ward, at a local
Austrian hospital, and full of wounded, I found that almost every one
of the line of patients was of a different nationality. Going round
the room, one found first a Pole of western Galicia, then a Russian
from the Urals, next a Ruthenian (Little Russian) from eastern Galicia,
next a Magyar from Hungary, and against the wall a young German from
Westphalia. After him came an Austrian-German from Salzburg, a Serbian
from southern Hungary, another Ruthenian, an Austrian-German from
Moravia, an Austrian-German from Bohemia, and a Moravian from Moravia.
I spent a couple of hours here, talking sometimes with each of the
patients, sometimes with all. The Pole knew only Polish and the
bearded Russian, who had a bad body wound, was too tired to talk much.
Of the Ruthenians one was a frail, white-faced boy from close to the
Russian frontier who seemed, like most of his people, subdued, and
confused with the strangeness of his position in fighting against his
own people; the other was a lumpish boy without much intelligence. The
thin, bearded Hungarian, who knew no German but a little Russian, was
mostly groaning or dozing. The Salzburg Austrian was dazed and drowsy,
but at intervals talked quietly of his pleasant homeland.
The German stood out from the rest. He was a bright, vigorous boy of
twenty, had gone as a volunteer and was tremendously proud of the
spirit of the German army. He had fought against the French during
four days of pouring rain, mostly in standing water. The Bavarians,
who seemed to have quarrelled with the other troops in that part, were
making war atrociously, he said, knifing the inhabitants, insulting the
women and destroying all that came in their way. He was later moved to
the Carpathians, where one German division fought between two Austrian
ones. They advanced in snow without field kitchens, and were not
allowed to touch the pigs and poultry that they passed. However, they
had enough to eat; and they were hoping to surprise their enemy, when
the Russians fell upon them and left only the remnants of a regiment,
many of the officers also falling. He himself was wounded in both legs,
and was brought here in a cart.
Every German soldier has a prayer-book and a song-book. They constantly
sing on the march, and find it a great remedy against fatigue. Songs of
Arndt and Körner are very popular, and there is a new version of an old
song, which is perhaps the greatest favorite; it begins--
"Oh Deutschland hoch an Ehren,
Du heil'ges Land der Treu."
and it goes on to speak of the new exploits in east and west. There are
any number of volunteers in Germany; the women are all joining the Red
Cross; and the population is busy with every kind of work for the army;
but when I asked whether the people were keen for the war, he answered
with astonishment, "The people? The people thought that the war was
not to be avoided; but that was at the start; now it is different."
He asked if there were many other Englishmen in Russia, and when I
answered that there were some, he said, to my surprise, "The English
are everywhere, they are a fine people--_nobel_." He also asked me on
the quiet whether, when he was well, he would be sent to Siberia. He
had been told that the Russians were terrible, but had written home to
say that he had found them nothing of the sort.
Much of our talk turned on the Austrian army. The German said that it
didn't stand firm "unless it was properly led, by Germans." In Bohemia
and Moravia the regiments were mixed, Slavs and Austrian-Germans, and
according to the Moravian soldiers, were constantly quarrelling; all
the officers were Austrian-Germans, and even some of the Hungarian
regiments seemed to be commanded by Germans. The young Serbian spoke
of frequent quarrels and even brawls between Serbian and Hungarian
fellow-soldiers. The great wish of all was that the war should end.
When I said that the end was not in sight, the German exclaimed,
"More misery, more misery;" a second said, "Oh, Jammer, Jammer"
(lamentation), and a third had tears in his eyes.
In another ward I heard more of the Bohemians. There Prussia is the
antipathy. There appear to be Czech officers only in the reserve.
After the outbreak of war, the Austrians made wholesale arrests
among the educated Czechs, quite apart from party politics, and
were particularly severe on the gymnastic volunteer organizations
(_sokols_), which are popular among all the Slav nationalities of
Austria. The Bohemians had not had time to find their legs under the
new possibilities created by the Russian successes, but the Russian
troops would be sure of a cordial welcome there. The whole of my
informant's regiment had surrendered _en masse_; and even in the
mobilization of 1914, a Prague regiment had refused to march against
Russia and several of the men had been shot. I was told that the
Austrian army was much weaker in reserves than the Russian.