. . and who knows but they may even
prove sympathetic!"
According to Tchernoff, there was not in existence to-day a more
dangerous nation. Its political organization was converting it into a
warrior horde, educated by kicks and submitted to continual humiliations
in order that the willpower which always resists discipline might be
completely nullified.
"It is a nation where all receive blows and desire to give them to those
lower down. The kick that the Kaiser gives is transmitted from back to
back down to the lowest rung of the social ladder. The blows begin
in the school and are continued in the barracks, forming part of the
education. The apprenticeship of the Prussian Crown Princes has always
consisted in receiving fisticuffs and cowhidings from their progenitor,
the king. The Kaiser beats his children, the officer his soldiers, the
father his wife and children, the schoolmaster his pupils, and when the
superior is not able to give blows, he subjects those under him to the
torment of moral insult."
On this account, when they abandoned their ordinary avocations, taking
up arms in order to fall upon another human group, they did so with
implacable ferocity.
"Each one of them," continued the Russian, "carries on his back the
marks of kicks, and when his turn comes, he seeks consolation in passing
them on to the unhappy creatures whom war puts into his power.
Pages:
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518