The most noteworthy thing was the earnest quietness with which the gigantic gathering proceeded.  Not a city, not a village reported unrest or even an untoward incident.  The separation was hard for many a soldier.  Many a volunteer tore himself away from his dear ones with bleeding heart, but with face beaming with the light of one who looks forward to victory.  Following the Kaiser’s wish, those who remained behind filled the churches and, kneeling, prayed to God for victory for the just German cause.  The folk-war, brought on by the wantonness of the opponents, in itself brought peace and order, safety and discipline.  Never, probably, have the police had fewer excesses to deal with than in the days of the mobilization, although great crowds gathered constantly in every city.

The best criterion of the enthusiasm of the people is without doubt the number of volunteers.  More than 1,000,000 of these, a number greater than that of the standing army, presented themselves within a few days.  They came from all classes.  There were sons of the nobility, university students, farmers, merchants, common laborers.  No calling hung back.  Every young man sorrowed when he was rejected.  No section of the Fatherland was unrepresented, not even the Reichsland Alsace-Lorraine, where, indeed, the number of volunteers was conspicuously great.  When the lists in various cities had to be closed, the young men who had not been accepted turned away with tears in their eyes, and telegraphed from regiment to regiment, hoping to find one where there were still vacancies.  Where the sons of the wealthy renounced the pleasures of youth and the comforts of their homes to accept the hardships of war in serving the Fatherland, the poor and the poorest appeared in like degree.  In families having four or five sons subject to military duty a youngest son, not yet liable for service, volunteered.  The year 1870, truly a proud year in our history, saw nothing like this.

A thing that raised the national enthusiasm still higher was the appearance of the troops in brand-new uniforms, complete from head to foot.  The first sight of these new uniforms of modest field gray, faultlessly made, evoked everywhere the question:  Where did they come from?  On the first day of mobilization dozens of cloth manufacturers appeared at the War Ministry with offers of the new material.  “We don’t need any,” was the astonishing reply.  Equal amazement was caused by the faultless new boots and shoes of the troops, especially in view of the recent famous “boot speech” of the French Senator Humbert.

Small arms, cannons, and ammunition are so plentiful that they have merely to be unpacked.  In view of all this, it is no wonder that the regiments marching in were everywhere greeted with jubilation, and that those marching out took leave of their garrisons with joyful songs.  No one thinks of death and destruction, every one of victory and a happy reunion.  German discipline, once so slandered, now celebrates its triumph.