Adventures in Propaganda; Letters from an Intelligence Officer in France (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1919 edition. Excerpt: ... youths. A few days ago they were trying to kill Americans, and if I met them I should dutifully try to stick a bayonet in them, if able to. They are the enemy. They have delicate faces, clear skin and eyes. I used to see many of the like of them before me in schoolrooms. Take Herr Junkherr H. von B., aged twenty, of the Prussian Guards. "Papa," to whom he constantly refers, was Military Attache at Washington once. The boy speaks perfect English. He is slim, almost feminine in his manner, handsome. When brought before me he addresses me at once to prefer a request; "May I ask that my rank and name be not ignored? The French officer who interrogated me did not acknowledge the salute and left the room without speaking. In the German army officers always speak on leaving the room." All this most gently, like a child who was bewildered and must know at once whether he was to receive the treatment that he expected. A true stripling of his class, who stated his "social position" as if it were the same sort of fact as his name, place of residence, etc. He mentioned these things first because they seemed to him to be in peril, just as the herd asked first for food and blankets. I cut short his protests with a request to sit, an apology for the box that stood for a chair, and offered a cigarette. His questions were thus answered and then forgotten. We talked about the war and about America, which he had planned to visit, "but he was afraid now he never could see," and he asked if I knew Anne Morgan and Anita Stewart and Mrs. Vanderbilt, whom "Papa had talked of so much" The morning before he was directing a machine gun until the soldiers at his side were shot, one in the chest, and one killed outright....