Herr von Wiegand has sent to the New York World
an account of a visit to the German Fleet. Although Germans are notoriously not gifted with humour, we venture to suggest that he does the German sailors less than justice in repro- ducing as characteristic sayings which show them to be more incredibly destitute of humour than any human beings that ever existed. Even a baby of a few weeks old smiles, and thus differentiates the human from all the rest of the animal creation. If the German sailors can smile, as we suppose they can, they will surely smile now. Herr von Wiegand writes ; " Do you think that the English will ever come?' is the question that has been fired at me from the stokers deep down in the bowels of the 'Moltke,' and from men in destroyers and despatch-boats to the highest officers." Again, he says that the table-talk of German officers consists of invocations to the British Navy to come out of hidhig and fight. These challenges from a fleet which has been swept from the seas, has lost its colonies and nearly all its overseas commerce, and now shelters in circumscribed waters behind a serried minefield and under powerful land guns, are really delightful.
Previous page
