After the German fashion the diners will eat slowly and heavily; and afterward they will sit in clusters of three or four, drinking mugs of Munich or Pilsner, and talking deliberately.  At the Crown Prince there will be dancing, and at two or three other places there will be music and maybe singing; but at the Kaiserhof, where I shall dine, there is nothing more exciting than beer and conversation.  It was there, two nights ago, I met at the same time three Germans representing three dominant classes in the life of their country, and had from each of them the viewpoint of his class toward the war.  They were, respectively, a business man, a scientist, and a soldier.  The business man belongs to a firm of brothers which ranks almost with the Krupps in commercial importance.  It has branches in many cities and agencies and plants in half a dozen countries.  He said: 

“We had not our daily victory to-day, eh?  Well, so it goes; we must not expect to win always.  We must have reverses, and heavy ones too; but in the end we must win.  To lose now would mean national extinction.  To win means Germany’s commercial and military preeminence in this hemisphere.

“There can be but one outcome of this war—­either Germany, as an empire, will cease to exist, or she will emerge the greatest Power, except the United States, on the face of the earth.  And so sure are we of the result that to-day my brothers and I bought ground for doubling the size and capacity of our largest plant.

“In six weeks from now we shall have beaten France; in six months we shall have driven Russia to cover.  For England it will take a year—­ perhaps longer.  And then, as in all games, big and little, the losers will pay.  France will be made to pay an indemnity from which she will never recover.

“Of Belgium I think we shall take a slice of seacoast; Germany needs ports on the English Channel.  Russia will be so humbled that no longer will the Muscovite peril threaten Europe.  Great Britain we shall crush utterly.  She shall be shorn of her navy and she shall lose her colonies—­certainly she shall lose India and Egypt.  She will become a third-class Power and she will stay a third-class Power.  Forget Japan—­ Germany will punish Japan in due season.

“Within five years from now I predict there will be an offensive and defensive alliance of all the Teutonic and all the Scandinavian races of Europe, with Bulgaria included, holding absolute dominion over this continent and stretching in an unbroken line from the North Sea to the Adriatic and the Black Sea.

“Europe is to have a new map, my friends, and Germany will be in the middle of that map.  When this has been accomplished we shall talk about disarmament—­not before.  And first, we shall disarm our enemies who forced this war on us.”

The scientist spoke next.  He is a tall, spectacled, earnest Westphalian, who has invented and patented over a hundred separate devices used in electric-lighting properties, and, in between, has found time to travel round the world several times and write a book or two.