Room where the Great General Staff eats
together--an interesting sight, for it represents the round-up of the
brains of the German Army. Gen. von Wild, until his promotion, commanded
a division against the English at Ypres and spoke in generous terms of
his opponents.
"The English are excellent fighters," he said. "I have walked over many
of the battlefields in the North--gruesome sights, beyond words to
describe. From what I saw, I am convinced that the English losses have
been much heavier than ours."
Gen. von Wild said that a puzzling and unexplainable feature of these
battlefields was that so many of the dead were found lying on their
backs with rigid arms stretched straight up toward heaven--a ghastly
spectacle.
Here, too, was a German General who knew more about the American Army
than most Americans, the Bavarian General, Zoellner, the great General
Staff's specialist on Americana, and it was interesting to note that, in
spite of its own pressing problems, the General Staff is still taking a
keen interest in those of America and deriving valuable lessons.
"I have been particularly interested in the Mexican troubles," Gen.
Zoellner said. "To my mind, the lesson for America is the need of a
larger standing army. I was particularly impressed by the speed of your
mobilization and your dispatch in landing your expeditionary force at
Vera Cruz.
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