the French. The German plan, based upon a project of Moltke's made in the winter of 1868 and 1869, was a simpler one than that of Napoleon III, who commanded the French army. It was to push westward into France, and, by manœuvering around the French right, force it northward against the neutral territory of Belgium, where it would have to surrender, or drive it into that territory, where it would have to lay down its arms or suffer such losses as the Germans suffered in this war in forcing their way through Belgium.

If the French evaded this by moving southward, the Germans would direct their march upon Paris. On account of the centralization of the French Government, the command of Paris meant the control of France.

In the Franco-German War the order to mobilize was issued in Berlin on the fifteenth of July, 1870; the mobilization of 850,000 men and the concentration of 450,000 of them were completed by the second of August. This was the day settled upon in the French army for a reconnaissance at Saarbrücken, on the German border east of Metz. MacMahon's command, which was to have split northern and southern Germany apart, was not ready for active operations. On the second the Germans met the French forces in an affair at Saarbrücken; on the fourth and sixth they attacked and defeated them at Weissenburg and Wörth, driving MacMahon in the direction of Châlon, and on the sixteenth and eighteenth, at Marsla-Tour and Gravelotte, throwing Bazaine back upon Metz, where he was later invested. MacMahon undertook, with the main French army, to go to the relief of Bazaine. He was intercepted, and surrounded at Sedan; the emperor, being with the army, was compelled to surrender with it on the second of September, two months to a day after the first encounter. This caused the fall of his dynasty, terminating the war against the empire. The war against the republic consisted mainly in the siege of Paris, and may be considered as ending with the conclusion of the preliminaries of peace on the twenty-sixth of February, 1871. But it was not until the sixteenth of September, 1873, that the last German soldier was withdrawn from French territory.

The fighting had been followed by two and a half years of occupation as a guaranty for the collection of the war indemnity of five milliards of francs.

In the present war, the contending coalitions are composed of Russia, France, Servia, Montenegro, Great Britain, Belgium, and Japan, against Germany and Austria-Hungary.

Other things being equal, a single nation is more formidable as a military power than a coalition, and a coalition of two or three powers more formidable than one of six or seven. This should be borne in mind in comparing the German army with the joint force of France and Belgium or of France, Belgium, and Great Britain, or the German coalition with the Austrian. But the advantage of the German coalition lies not wholly in its relatively small membership. It consists also in its comparative homogeneity of population, similarity of language, government, traditions, etc.; in its geographical compactness, the countries adjoining each other; in its lying between its two strongest opponents, thus hindering their cooperation and commanding interior lines. for operation against them. It may be assumed that the German coalition has an advantage over the Russian which the South had over the North in our Civil War, of having for a longer time foreseen and anticipated the irrepressible conflict, of being better prepared with plans, methods, and resources to meet the novel, unprecedented contingencies as they arise. All this points to better leadership and greater endurance. The French have been credited with superior armament, especially in their artillery, and better aviation, but history has shown that success in war is due less to military technology than to leadership and endurance. The great advantage of the Russian coalition lies in its command of the sea. Will the British and allied navies, acting on the precedent set by Germany in Belgium and Luxemburg, violate the rights of neutrals so far as that may be necessary, and effectually blockade the German coalition? And if they do, will that prove decisive of the war? In our Civil War it was the blockade that broke the strength of the Confederacy, but it took us two years to make the blockade effective, and two years more to overcome the starving,

ragged armies of the South. The forces which each of the European coalitions is capable of putting in the field cannot be stated with accuracy, and at this stage of the war are immaterial. It may be assumed that the Russian side can muster about twice as many men as the German. But the important thing to know is what forces are in or near the principal theater of war for the time being. This we shall rarely learn.

In the Franco-German War the German field army was divided into three minor armies, the first, second, and third, commanded respectively by General Von Steinmetz, Prince Frederick Charles, and the Crown Prince Frederick William. These armies were marshaled from north to south in the order named, all under command of King William of Prussia.

So in the present war the German army is fractioned apparently in three masses, one moving through Belgium, one through Luxemburg, and one through Alsace. Liège corresponds in this war to Metz in the Franco-German War. Even its unexpected resistance, if it was unexpected, may be paralleled by the unlooked for tenacity of General Bazaine for Metz. The Germans expected Metz to be abandoned, as it should have been, when the Germans manoeuvered to cut it off from Paris. They had a special force ready to garrison it. But they had to lay siege to it and construct a railroad to turn it. Will they do something like this at Liège?

The Franco-German campaign is likely to be short and sharp, but may not decide the war, and in that case may be followed by a comparatively long tussle on Russian or German territory or both.

The advance of Austria into Servia is apparently abandoned, Austria giving her attention to France and Russia. How different from the conditions in 1870, when Austria, far from being a help, was a cause of anxiety to Germany? Her neutrality then was due to three causes: the early successes of the German arms in France; the consideration shown by Prussia to Austria in 1866 in abstaining after Sadowa from marching upon Vienna; an understanding between Russia and Prussia that, in case Austria violated her neutrality, Russia would immediately proceed to paralyze her by moving an army of

300,000 men into Galicia, where she is now operating against Germany.

Russia, the best friend that Germany had in 1870, is her most formidable enemy in 1914.

WILL THE WAR BE SHORT? PREDICTIONS that the war will be a short one are apparently based on expectations. of lack of food or lack of money. It is hard to see how either side can suffer greatly from lack of food if it has command of the sea or communicates through neutral territory with over-sea countries. The Russian coalition has both, the German coalition has the latter means of supply. As long as the rights of neutral nations under so-called international law are respected, food supplies may go to Germany and Austria through Holland, Italy, Albania, Greece, and Bulgaria.

The lack of money will not be felt while there is credit, and whether there is credit will depend largely on the fortune of war: it will be a matter mainly of military success or failure. As a sinew of war, money is not of such importance as is commonly thought. The financing of a modern war takes place before and after rather than during its occurrence, especially if it is a short one. But assuming this to be a long one and that funds and credit run low or give out, does an army stop fighting from lack of money, of equipment, of transportation, even of ammunition, as it does from lack of food? Nothing will take the fight out of it as that does, except lack of success, hopelessness, which comes only from conscious inferiority to the enemy. Despite a dearth of money, the war will go on, provided the dearth is not all on one side, or that both sides are about equally straitened.

As friends of both, having on one side our mother-country in alliance with the country that sent us Lafayette and fought by land and sea for our independence and the one that befriended us in our struggle against disunion; and on the other side the people that gave us Steuben, Kalb, and the thousands of kindred spirits that have helped to make and preserve our nation and to furnish it ideals of art, literature, trade, and citizenship, we cannot afford to identify ourselves with either.

tion are steadily making their way. Nearly every one now acknowledges that the school-room should be primarily a place of entertainment, that the true voIcation of the teacher is to amuse in an instructive manner, and that study is really a scientific form of play. Also, it is quite generally admitted that methods which involve mental effort on the part of the child are not to be tolerated.

So much progress has already been made. But now there has just appeared a book which bids fair to carry the educational advance as far ahead again. This book, entitled "A Base-ball Primer of French," substitutes for the conventional pedantry of conjugations, syntax, etc., a vivid account in French of an imaginary world's series. Any boy who studies it will understand it instinctively; for if the foreign text prove obscure, he has only to read the English translation underneath.

The author, Frank Scrimmel,-who, it

college nine,-shows a profound knowledge of base-ball. Indeed, it is on account of his ability as athletic coach that he holds his position of instructor in French at the Crampton Academy for boys.

The following extract gives an inkling of the rare pedagogical value of the book:

Dans le dixième point, avec deux In the tenth period, with two hommes sur bases et un sorti, Harburg

bases and one out, Harburg

landed

on it

an

a

spit-ball:

strike

rent encore deux bals.

two more balls.

The count was

now

into

over

left field.

far

It was a bird d'une frappe. Dugan entailla, et puis Dugan scored, and then Bill, gaiement circlant les sacs, glissa sauf Bill, gaily circling the bags, slid safe chez soi, pendant que les blanchisseurs

home,

as