Download PDF - University of Idaho Library

"Ach, nein,"' she said, "the ship had ammunition that exploded. Germany
would not do so cruel a thing as sink a ship with helpless women
and children on it. They are lying about the Fatherland."
She heard about Belgium.
..It cannot be true. My people have suffered too much to treat others
that way."
But when two years had passed and these stories were augmented by
more grewosme ones, she sadly admitted:
"'My country is mad. The Kaiser has crushed all the feeling from Germany.
To think my little Karl must fight, and kill because the military
powers demand it. Mein Gott' Mein Sohn Karll \Vho knows. he may
now be-," but Frau Rosendorf could never say the word.
"No. no," she would declare to herself. "he is alive.-My son Karl would
not kill children and women. My boy.J are too good and tender·hearted.­
If he were only here'"
The time came when vague rumors broke into definite outbursts of public
sentiment. The time came when Frau Rosendorf heard a bugle sound its
call, and when John rushed home to put on his uniform of olive-drab before
reporting for duty. His mother could only look at him with terrified.
staring eyes.
"'\Ve are called, Mutterchen. I go with the rest of our men to strike Germany.
She has gone mad, and like a mad-dog must she be treated. You
remember the song says 'the land of the free and the home of the brave'.
That is the country we are fighting for."
She watched him hurry off to report.
"Yes," she whispered to herself. "my boy fights for the just cause. And
Karl
With a little moan Frau Rosendorf crumpled to the floor.
II.
Months passed. Spring had given way to summer; and summer to autumn.
John Rosendorf had been transported to France. December found
him in place in the AlTierican sector opposite the German lines. For daYll
they had waited. And acr01l8 a narrow 8trip of barbed wire entangled land
from which that nauseating stench ar08e the enemy was entrenched. The
Germans expected an attack, and were lying prepared. This perpetual vigl+
lance had made the soldiers beasts. Wading through thin yellow mud, beneath
their breaths they cursed their companions, their Colonel, their Kaiser.
There was no sleep. There was no food. If one tlackened for a moment
he wat in danger of death. The Colonel paced up and down. up and do~n
among the men. His eyes did not see the suffering they were going through.
Hit mustache bristled with scorn when he saw the least sign of weariness in