“It is not only a crime, but it was a military error, for to-day Germany has 600 miles of front to defend, 300 east and 300 west, and her losses have been enormous.  At Liege 7000 Germans went down in a single day’s fighting.  One man I met assisted to bury 500 Germans in front of a single trench.

“I do not believe Brussels is mined; but if ever the Germans got into Paris they would destroy the whole city before they left.

“I shudder to think what the Germans will suffer at the hands of the Belgians when once the rout of the Germans has been begun by the Allies.  The Belgians are unreconciled, and if they ever get weapons in their hands—­well, I will not predict, I will just tell you one fact:  I traveled the length and breadth of the land, saw the women and the children sitting by their ruined hearthstones, but I never saw a tear on the cheek of a Belgian.”

CHAPTER IX

RUSSIA AND THE RUSSIANS

Russian Reforms—­A United Russia—­Russian Armaments—­The Greatest Future—­Two Water Outlets—­The Slav Invasion Bugaboo.

Russia also is likely to bring forth some notable men who have not previously been heard of before the world.  General Evanoff is the idol of the Russian army.  He is the strategist who plans the movements against Austria and Germany in the East, who surrounds Przemysl and says, “Now, we can take it when we please, but we will not sacrifice Russian troops to take it now; Cracow is more important.  Lodz is not important from a military standpoint.  We will surround it later.”

Evanoff orders his men to keep out of the valleys and engage the Germans in the open plain, where their own numbers will count in action; for in the valleys the German big guns have the advantage.

Russia has been at work steadily since the Japanese war reforming her army within and without.  More than one third of her officers were dismissed after that war.  The Russian officials now say that the Japanese war was to Russia most providential.  It showed the lines of Russian weakness, inefficiency, and graft, which could flourish at a distance from St. Petersburg but became exposed when war put the Russian organization to the test.  Steadily every year Russia has been systematically and thoroughly routing out graft and inefficiency.  When Russia starts to do a thing she does it thoroughly.

It was because Russia was rebuilding, reorganizing, and was indulging in criticism and putting its mind on the weak spots, that Russian confidential papers stolen in the interest of Germany misled both Berlin and Vienna as to the possibility of Russia going to war to defend Servia in the year 1914.