The Ocean on the north, the Danube on the south, the Rhine on the west,
and the Sarmatian Provinces on the east, are the boundaries assigned by
Tacitus to Antient Germany. It formed the most extensive portion of the
territories of Charlemagne; descended, at his decease, to his son, Lewis
the Debonnaire; and, on the partition between his three sons, was
allotted to Lewis, his second son.
All the territories of Charlemagne were united in Charles the Fat; he
was deposed by his subjects, and his empire divided. Germany was
assigned to his third son, Charles the Brave. On his decease, it was
possessed by Arnold, a natural son of Carloman, the elder brother of
Charles: from him it descended to Hedwiges, the wife of Otho, Duke of
Saxony, and she transmitted it to their son Henry the Fowler, the first
emperor of that house.

Sku: thelifeofhugogrotius

Although art had, under French influence, become unnatural,
bombastical, in fine, exactly contrary to every rule of good taste,
the courts, vain of their collections of works of art, still emulated
each other in the patronage of the artists of the day, whose
creations, tasteless as they were, nevertheless afforded a species of
consolation to the people, by diverting their thoughts from the
miseries of daily existence.
Architecture degenerated in the greatest degree. Its sublimity was
gradually lost as the meaning of the Gothic style became less
understood, and a tasteless imitation of the Roman style, like that of
St. Peter’s at Rome, was brought into vogue by the Jesuits and by the
court architects, by whom the chateau of Versailles was deemed the
highest chef-d’oeuvre of art. This style of architecture was
accompanied by a style of sculpture equally unmeaning and forced;
saints and Pagan deities in theatrical attitudes, fat genii, and
coquettish nymphs peopled the roofs of the churches and palaces,
presided over bridges, fountains, etc.

Sku: germany

In ‘The Last Shot’, which appeared only a few months before the
Great War began, drawing from my experience in many wars, I
attempted to describe the character of a conflict between two great
European land-powers, such as France and Germany.
“You were wrong in some ways,” a friend writes to me, “but in other
ways it is almost as if you had written a play and they were following
your script and stage business.”
Wrong as to the duration of the struggle and its bitterness and the
atrocious disregard of treaties and the laws of war by one side; right
about the part which artillery would play; right in suggesting the
stalemate of intrenchments when vast masses of troops occupied the
length of a frontier.

Sku: yearofwar

All the patriotic sections of the German people were greatly excited
during the summer and autumn of 1911. The conviction lay heavy on all
hearts that in the settlement of the Morocco dispute no mere commercial
or colonial question of minor importance was being discussed, but that
the honour and future of the German nation were at stake. A deep rift
had opened between the feeling of the nation and the diplomatic action
of the Government. Public opinion, which was clearly in favour of
asserting ourselves, did not understand the dangers of our political
position, and the sacrifices which a boldly-outlined policy would have
demanded. I cannot say whether the nation, which undoubtedly in an
overwhelming majority would have gladly obeyed the call to arms, would
have been equally ready to bear permanent and heavy burdens of taxation.
Haggling about war contributions is as pronounced a characteristic of
the German Reichstag in modern Berlin as it was in medieval Regensburg.
These conditions have induced me to publish now the following pages,
which were partly written some time ago.

Sku: germanywar

In many quarters of the world, especially in certain sections of the
British public, people believed that the German nation was led blindly
into the World War by an unscrupulous military clique. Now, however,
there is ample evidence to prove that the entire nation was thoroughly
well informed of the course which events were taking, and also warned as
to the catastrophe to which the national course was certainly leading.

Sku: whatgermany

When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty’s field,
Thy youth’s proud livery so gazed on now,
Will be a tattered weed of small worth held:
Then being asked, where all thy beauty lies,
Where all the treasure of thy lusty days;
To say within thine own deep sunken eyes,
Were an all-eating shame, and thriftless praise.
How much more praise deserved thy beauty’s use,
If thou couldst answer ‘This fair child of mine
Shall sum my count, and make my old excuse’
Proving his beauty by succession thine.
This were to be new made when thou art old,
And see thy blood warm when thou feel’st it cold.
From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty’s rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed’st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel:
Thou that art now the world’s fresh ornament,
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
And tender churl mak’st waste in niggarding:
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world’s due, by the grave and thee.

Sku: worksshakespeare

The old maxim, that “Knowledge is power,” is a true one, but there
is still a greater truth: “KNOWLEDGE IS SAFETY.” Safety amid physical
ills that beset mankind, and safety amid the moral pitfalls that
surround so many young people, is the great crying demand of the age.
2. CRITICISM.–This work, though plain and to some extent startling,
is chaste, practical and to the point, and will be a boon and a
blessing to thousands who consult its pages. The world is full of
ignorance, and the ignorant will always criticise, because they live
to suffer ills, for they know no better. New light is fast falling
upon the dark corners, and the eyes of many are being opened.
3. RESEARCHES OF SCIENCE.–The researches of science in the past few
years have thrown light on many facts relating to the physiology
of man and woman, and the diseases to which they are subject, and
consequently many reformations have taken place in the treatment and
prevention of diseases peculiar to the sexes.
4. LOCK AND KEY.–Any information bearing upon the diseases of mankind
should not be kept under lock and key. The physician is frequently
called upon to speak in plain language to his patients upon some
private and startling disease contracted on account of ignorance. The
better plan, however, is to so educate and enlighten old and young
upon the important subjects of health, so that the necessity to call a
physician may occur less frequently.
5. PROGRESSION.–A large, respectable, though diminishing class in
every community, maintain that nothing that relates exclusively to
either sex should become the subject of popular medical instruction.
But such an opinion is radically wrong; ignorance is no more the
mother of purity than it is of religion. Enlightenment can never work
injustice to him who investigates.

Sku: searchlightsonhealth

The Haupttelegraphenamt (the Chief Telegraph Office) in Berlin is the
centre of the entire telegraph system of Germany. It is a large, brick
building in the Franzoesischestrasse guarded, day and night, by
soldiers. The sidewalks outside the building are barricaded. Without
a pass no one can enter. Foreign correspondents in Berlin, when they
had telegrams to send to their newspapers, frequently took them from
the Foreign Office to the Chief Telegraph Office personally in order to
speed them on their way to the outside world. The censored despatches
were sealed in a Foreign Office envelope. With this credential
correspondents were permitted to enter the building and the room where
all telegrams are passed by the military authorities.

CONTENTS

I.   MOBILIZATION OF PUBLIC OPINION
II.  ”PIRATES SINK ANOTHER NEUTRAL SHIP”
III.  THE GULF BETWEEN KIEL AND BERLIN
IV. THE HATE CAMPAIGN AGAINST AMERICA
V.  THE DOWNFALL OF VON TIRPITZ AND VON FALKENHAYN
VI. THE PERIOD OF NEW ORIENTATION
VII. THE BUBBLING ECONOMIC VOLCANO
VIII.THE PEACE DRIVE OF DECEMBER 12TH
IX.  THE BERNHARDI OF THE SEAS
X.   THE OUTLAWED NATION
XI.  THE UNITED STATES AT WAR
XII. PRESIDENT WILSON

Sku: nextrepublic

Very little is known concerning the life of Tacitus, the historian, except
that which he tells us in his own writings and those incidents which are
related of him by his contemporary, Pliny.
His full name was Caius Cornelius Tacitus. The date of his birth can only
be arrived at by conjecture, and then only approximately. The younger
Pliny speaks of him as _prope modum aequales_, about the same age. Pliny
was born in 61. Tacitus, however, occupied the office of quaestor under
Vespasian in 78 A.D., at which time he must, therefore, have been at least
twenty-five years of age. This would fix the date of his birth not later
than 53 A.D. It is probable, therefore, that Tacitus was Pliny’s senior by
several years.
His parentage is also a matter of pure conjecture. The name Cornelius was
a common one among the Romans, so that from it we can draw no inference.
The fact that at an early age he occupied a prominent public office
indicates that he was born of good family, and it is not impossible that
his father was a certain Cornelius Tacitus, a Roman knight, who was
procurator in Belgic Gaul, and whom the elder Pliny speaks of in his
“Natural History.

Sku: agricolaOftacitus

“I tell you, Bart, I don’t like the looks of things,” remarked
Frank Sheldon to his chum, Bart Raymond, as the two stood on a
corner in the German city of Coblenz on the Rhine.
“What’s on your mind?” inquired Bart, as he drew the collar of his
raincoat more snugly around his neck and turned his back to the
sleet-laden wind that was fairly blowing a gale. “I don’t see
anything to get stirred up about except this abominable weather.
It’s all I can do to keep my feet.”
“It is a pretty tough night to be out on patrol duty,” agreed
Frank. “But it wasn’t that I was thinking about. It’s the way
these Huns have been acting lately.”
“Are you thinking of that sergeant of ours that was found stabbed
to death the other night?” asked Bart, with quickened interest.

Sku: germansoil

THE LINE
Form a line!
Get in line!
From the time that I enlisted
And since Jerry armististed
I’ve been standing, kidding, cussing,
I’ve been waiting, fuming, fussing,
In a line.
I have stood in line in mud and slime and sleet,
With the dirty water oozing from my feet,
I have soaked and slid and slipped,
While my tacky slicker dripped,
And I wondered what they’d hand me out to eat.

Sku: iwastherewiththeyanks1

How delicious to escape from the fever heat and turmoil of Paris during
the Exhibition to the green banks and sheltered ways of the gently
undulating Marne! With what delight we wake up in the morning to the
noise, if noise it can be called, of the mower’s scythe, the rustle of
acacia leaves, and the notes of the stock-dove, looking back as upon a
nightmare to the horn of the tramway conductor, and the perpetual grind
of the stone-mason’s saw. Yes! to quit Paris at a time of tropic heat,
and nestle down in some country resort is, indeed, like exchanging
Dante’s lower circle for Paradise. The heat has followed us here, but
with a screen of luxuriant foliage ever between us and the burning blue
sky, and with a breeze rippling the leaves always, no one need complain.

Sku: holidaysineasternfrance

Louis XVIII. in 1815 returned to his throne, borne on the shoulders
of foreign soldiers, after the fight at Waterloo. The allied armies
had a second time entered France to make her pass under the saws
and harrows of humiliation. Paris was gay, for money was spent
freely by the invading strangers. Sacrifices on the altar of the
Emperor were over; enthusiasm for the extension of the great ideas
of the Revolution had passed away; a new generation had been born
which cared more for material prosperity than for such ideas; the
foundation of many fortunes had been laid; mothers who dreaded
the conscription, and men weary of war and politics, drew a long
breath, and did not regret the loss of that which had animated
a preceding generation, in a view of a peace which was to bring
wealth, comfort, and tranquillity into their own homes.

Sku: franceinthenineteenthcentury2

Louis XVIII. in 1815 returned to his throne, borne on the shoulders
of foreign soldiers, after the fight at Waterloo. The allied armies
had a second time entered France to make her pass under the saws
and harrows of humiliation. Paris was gay, for money was spent
freely by the invading strangers. Sacrifices on the altar of the
Emperor were over; enthusiasm for the extension of the great ideas
of the Revolution had passed away; a new generation had been born
which cared more for material prosperity than for such ideas; the
foundation of many fortunes had been laid; mothers who dreaded
the conscription, and men weary of war and politics, drew a long
breath, and did not regret the loss of that which had animated
a preceding generation, in a view of a peace which was to bring
wealth, comfort, and tranquillity into their own homes.

Sku: franceinthenineteenthcentury1

France, when she undertook the creation of a Bourbon empire beyond the
seas, was the first nation of Europe. Her population was larger than
that of Spain, and three times that of England. Her army in the days
of Louis Quatorze, numbering nearly a half-million in all ranks, was
larger than that of Rome at the height of the imperial power. No
nation since the fall of Roman supremacy had possessed such resources
for conquering and colonizing new lands. By the middle of the
seventeenth century Spain had ceased to be a dangerous rival; Germany
and Italy were at the time little more than geographical expressions,
while England was in the throes of the Puritan Revolution.

Sku: crusadersofnewfrance

My first experience of country life in France, about thirty years ago,
was in a fine old chateau standing high in pretty, undulating, wooded
country close to the forest of Villers-Cotterets, and overlooking the
great plains of the Oise–big green fields stretching away to the
sky-line, broken occasionally by little clumps of wood, with steeples
rising out of the green, marking the villages and hamlets which, at
intervals, are scattered over the plains, and in the distance the blue
line of the forest. The chateau was a long, perfectly simple, white
stone building. When I first saw it, one bright November afternoon, I
said to my husband as we drove up, “What a charming old wooden house!”
which remark so astonished him that he could hardly explain that it
was all stone, and that no big houses (nor small, either) in France
were built of wood. I, having been born in a large white wooden house
in America, couldn’t understand why he was so horrified at my
ignorance of French architecture.

Sku: chateauandcountry1

The death of the Prince of Conde, which occurred in the spring of
1588, by depriving me of my only patron, reduced me to such
straits that the winter of that year, which saw the King of
Navarre come to spend his Christmas at St. Jean d’Angely, saw
also the nadir of my fortunes. I did not know at this time–I
may confess it to-day without shame–wither to turn for a gold
crown or a new scabbard, and neither had nor discerned any hope
of employment. The peace lately patched up at Blois between the
King of France and the League persuaded many of the Huguenots
that their final ruin was at hand; but it could not fill their
exhausted treasury or enable them to put fresh troops into the
field.

Sku: agentlemanoffrance1

Powerful story in a 110 page novel that you can print out & enjoy. Only $1!

Marie Gessler, known as Marie Chaumontel, Jeanne d’Avrechy, the Countess
d’Aurillac, was German. Her father, who served through the
Franco-Prussian War, was a German spy. It was from her mother she
learned to speak French sufficiently well to satisfy even an Academician
and, among Parisians, to pass as one. Both her parents were dead. Before
they departed, knowing they could leave their daughter nothing save
their debts, they had had her trained as a nurse. But when they were
gone, Marie in the Berlin hospitals played politics, intrigued,
indiscriminately misused the appealing, violet eyes. There was a
scandal; several scandals. At the age of twenty-five she was dismissed
from the Municipal Hospital, and as now–save for the violet eyes–she
was without resources, as a _compagnon de voyage_ with a German doctor
she travelled to Monte Carlo. There she abandoned the doctor for Henri
Ravignac, a captain in the French Aviation Corps, who, when his leave
ended, escorted her to Paris.

110 pages of goodness!

Sku: somewhereinfrance1