Lest We Forget Part 18

When Bismarck was Prussian amba.s.sador at the court of Tsar Alexander II, he was invited by the Tsar to take part in a great hunt, a dozen or more miles out of the capital.

Bismarck started with his own horses and sledge but soon met with a serious accident, and was obliged to call upon the Russian peasants, or _moos.h.i.+ki_, to help him by providing a horse, sledge, and driver. Soon a peasant appeared with a very small and raw-boned horse attached to a sledge that seemed about ready to fall to pieces.

"That looks more like a rat than a horse," growled Bismarck, but he got into the sledge.

The peasant answered but one word, "_Nitchevo._"

Soon the horse was flying over the snow at a great rate of speed. There was no road to be seen and the peasant was heading for the woods. "Look out!" yelled Bismarck. "You will throw me out!" But the peasant replied, "_Nitchevo._"

In a moment they were among the trees and were turning, now this way, now that, to avoid hitting them. The raw-boned horse had not lessened his speed in the least. Suddenly there was a crash. The sledge had skidded and struck a tree. The peasant and his pa.s.senger were thrown out headlong.

Bismarck was a man of fiery temper. When he had picked himself up, he rushed up to the peasant, who was trying to stop his bleeding nose, and yelled, "I will kill you." The _moos.h.i.+k_ did not seem at all frightened or troubled, and answered simply, "_Nitchevo._" He drew a piece of rope from the sledge and began to tie the broken parts together.

"I shall be late at the hunt," yelled the angry Bismarck.

"_Nitchevo_," replied the peasant.

While the sledge was being repaired, Bismarck noticed a small piece of iron broken from the runner and lying on the snow. He picked it up and put it in his pocket.

The _moos.h.i.+k_ soon had the sledge ready for them, and this time he reached the hunting lodge with his distinguished pa.s.senger without further accident or delay.

The Tsar and his companions laughed heartily at the story, as related by Bismarck, and then explained to the Prussian that by _nitchevo_ the _moos.h.i.+k_ meant that nothing mattered, that they would get where they had started for, if they did not let accidents or circ.u.mstances turn them from it.

When Bismarck returned to the capital he had a ring made from the piece of iron, and on the inside of it he had inscribed the word _nitchevo_.

The Russian _moos.h.i.+k_ of to-day is the same in character and belief as the _moos.h.i.+k_ that replied "_Nitchevo_" to Bismarck. To Germany, to the Kaiser, to the world, the Russians, amid all their sorrows and troubles, are saying "_Nitchevo._" They will reach their goal at length, for they look upon the dangers and delays as nothing.

The Russian word _Bolsheviki_, used to designate the revolutionary party which was in power in Russia in 1918, is composed of two words: _bolsh_, meaning many; and _vik_, meaning most. _Bolsheviki_ means the greatest number, or the common people, as compared with the few, or the aristocracy. _Bolshevik_, with the accent on the first syllable, is the singular and means one of the greatest number. _Bolsheviki_, with accents on the second and on the last syllables, is the plural.

Similarly _moos.h.i.+k_ means a peasant, and _moos.h.i.+ki_ means peasants.

A BALLAD OF FRENCH RIVERS[6]

Of streams that men take honor in The Frenchman looks to three, And each one has for origin The hills of Burgundy; And each has known the quivers Of blood and tears and pain-- O gallant bleeding rivers, The Marne, the Meuse, the Aisne.

Says Marne: "My poplar fringes Have felt the Prussian tread, The blood of brave men tinges My banks with lasting red; Let others ask due credit, But France has me to thank; Von Kluck himself has said it: I turned the Boche's flank!"

Says Meuse: "I claim no winning, No glory on the stage; Save that, in the beginning I strove to save Liege.

Alas! that Frankish rivers Should share such shame as mine-- In spite of all endeavors I flow to join the Rhine!"

Says Aisne: "My silver shallows Are salter than the sea, The woe of Rheims still hallows My endless tragedy.

Of rivers rich in story That run through green Champagne, In agony and glory, The chief am I, the Aisne!"

Now there are greater waters That Frenchmen all hold dear-- The Rhone, with many daughters, That runs so icy clear; There's Moselle, deep and winy, There's Loire, Garonne and Seine.

But O the valiant tiny-- The Marne, the Meuse, the Aisne!

CHRISTOPHER MORLEY.

A river is the most human and companionable of all inanimate things. It has a life, a character, a voice of its own; and is as full of good-fellows.h.i.+p as a sugar-maple is of sap. It can talk in various tones, loud or low; and of many subjects, grave or gay.

HENRY VAN d.y.k.e.

FOOTNOTES:

[6] COPYRIGHT BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

BACILLI AND BULLETS

Sir William Osler, one of the greatest medical men in the world, told the soldiers in the English training camps that he wanted to help them to get a true knowledge of their foes. The officers had impressed the soldiers with the truth that it was always necessary to find out where their enemies were and how many they were. But Sir William Osier told them of other invisible enemies which they should most fear, and fight against. "While the bullets from your foes are to be dreaded," he said, "the bacilli are far more dangerous." Indeed in the wars of the world, the two have been as Saul and David,--the one slaying thousands, the other tens of thousands.

He continued, "I can never see a group of recruits marching to the depot without asking what percentage of these fine fellows will die from wounds, and what percentage will perish miserably from neglect of ordinary sanitary precautions. It is bitter enough to lose thousands of the best of our young men in a hideous war, but it adds terribly to the tragedy to think that more than one half of the losses may be due to preventable disease. Typhus fever, malaria, cholera, enteric, and dysentery have won more victories than powder and shot. Some of the diseases need no longer be dreaded. Typhus and malaria, which one hundred years ago routed a great English army in the expedition against Antwerp, are no longer formidable foes. But enough such foes remain, as we found by sad experience in South Africa. Of the 22,000 lives lost in that war--can you believe it?--the bullets accounted for only 8000, the bacilli for 14,000. In the long, hard campaign before us, more men will go into the field than ever before in the history of the Empire. Before it is too late, let us take every possible precaution to guard against a repet.i.tion of such disasters. I am here to warn you soldiers against enemies more subtle, more dangerous, and more fatal than the Germans, enemies against which no successful battle can be fought without your intelligent cooperation. So far the world has only seen one great war waged with the weapons of science against these foes. Our allies, the j.a.panese, went into the Russian campaign prepared as fully against bacilli as against bullets, with the result that the percentage of deaths from disease was the lowest that has ever been attained in a great war. Which lesson shall we learn? Which example shall we follow, j.a.pan, or South Africa with its sad memories?

"We are not likely to have to fight three scourges, typhus, malaria, and cholera, though the possibility of the last has to be considered.

But there remain dysentery, pneumonia, and enteric.

"Dysentery has been for centuries one of the most terrible of camp diseases, killing thousands, and, in its prolonged damage to health, it is one of the most fatal of foes to armies. So far as we know, it is conveyed by water, and only by carrying out strictly, under all circ.u.mstances, the directions about boiling water, can it be prevented.

It is a disease which, even under the best of circ.u.mstances, cannot always be prevented; but with care there should never again be widespread outbreaks in camps themselves.

"Pneumonia is a much more difficult disease to prevent. Many of us, unfortunately, carry the germ with us. In these bright days all goes well in a holiday camp like this; but when the cold and the rain come, and the long marches, the resisting forces of the body are lowered, the enemy, always on the watch, overpowers the guards, rushes the defenses, and attacks the lungs. Be careful not to neglect coughs and colds. A man in good condition should be able to withstand the wettings and exposures that lower the system, but in a winter campaign, pneumonia causes a large amount of sickness and is one of the serious enemies of the soldier.

"Above all others one disease has proved most fatal in modern warfare--enteric, or typhoid fever. Over and over again it has killed thousands before they ever reached the fighting line. The United States troops had a terrible experience in the Spanish-American War. In six months, between June and November, among 107,973 officers and men in 92 volunteer regiments, 20,738, practically one fifth of the entire number, had typhoid fever, and 1580 died. The danger is chiefly from persons who have already had the disease and who carry the germs in their intestines, harmless to them, but capable of infecting barracks or camps. It was probably by flies and by dust carrying the germs that the bacilli were so fatal in South Africa. Take to heart these figures: there were 57,684 cases of typhoid fever, of which 19,454 were invalided, and 8022 died. More died from the bacilli of this disease than from the bullets of the Boers. Do let this terrible record impress upon you the importance of carrying out with religious care the sanitary regulations.

"One great advance in connection with typhoid fever has been made of late years, and of this I am come specially to ask you to take advantage. An attack of an infectious disease so alters the body that it is no longer susceptible to another attack of the same disease; once a person has had scarlet fever, smallpox, or chicken pox, he is not likely to have a second attack. He is immune. When bacilli make a successful entry into our bodies, they overcome the forces that naturally protect the system, and grow; but the body puts up a strong fight, all sorts of anti-bodies are formed in the blood, and if recovery takes place, the patient is safe for a few years at least against that disease.

"It was an Englishman, Jenner, who, in 1798, found that it was possible to produce this immunity by giving a person a mild attack of the disease, or of one very much like it. Against smallpox all of you have been vaccinated--a harmless, safe, and effective measure. Let me give you a war ill.u.s.tration. General Wood of the United States Army told me that, when he was at Santiago, reports came that in villages not far distant smallpox was raging, and the people were without help of any kind. He called for volunteers, all men who showed scars of satisfactory vaccination. Groups of these soldiers went into the villages, took care of the smallpox patients, cleaned up the houses, stayed there until the epidemic was over, and not one of them took the disease. Had not those men been vaccinated, at least 99 per cent of them would have taken smallpox.

"Now what I wish to ask you is to take advantage of the knowledge that the human body can be protected by vaccination against typhoid.

Discovered through the researches of Sir Almroth Wright, this measure has been introduced successfully into our own regular army, into the armies of France, the United States, j.a.pan, and Germany. I told you a few minutes ago about the great number of cases of typhoid fever in the volunteer troops in America during the Spanish-American War. That resulted largely from the wide prevalence of the disease in country districts, so that the camps became infected; and we did not then know the importance of the fly as a carrier. But in the regular army in the United States, where inoculation has been practiced now for several years, the number of cases has fallen from 3.53 per thousand men to practically nil. In a strength of 90,646 there were, in 1913, only three cases of typhoid fever. In France the typhoid rate among the unvaccinated was 168.44 per thousand, and among the vaccinated .18 per thousand. In India, where the disease has been very prevalent, the success of the measure has been remarkable.

"In the United States, and in France, and in some other countries, this vaccination against the disease is compulsory. It is not a serious matter; you may feel badly for twenty-four hours, and the place of inoculation will be tender, but I hope I have said enough to convince you that, in the interests of the cause, you should gladly put up with this temporary inconvenience. If the lessons of past experience count, any expeditionary force on the Continent has much more to fear from the bacillus of typhoid fever than from bullets and bayonets. Think again of South Africa, with its 57,000 cases of typhoid fever! With a million of men in the field, their efficiency will be increased one third if we can prevent typhoid. It can be prevented, it must be prevented; but meanwhile the decision is in your hands, and I know it will be in favor of your King and Country."

The soldiers in the American army are also inoculated against measles, scarlet fever, and the pneumonia germ.

Teta.n.u.s, or lockjaw, is one of the grave dangers faced by the wounded soldiers; for the germ of this disease has its home in the earth, and during a battle, soldiers with open wounds often lie for hours in the fields and trenches. Ant.i.toxin treatment has reduced the death-rate.