1 91 33 Battlefields of h,orraine 



into an almost continuous graveyard. In the shallow 

 ravine of Gravelotte where military blundering 

 turned a prospective victory into a disastrous rout, 

 we saw a company of German soldiers to whom the 

 field of glory was being exhibited. I ventured to 

 speak to one young fellow but soon found that no 

 intercourse of soldiers with civilians was allowed. 

 He ventured, however, casually to whisper that he 

 came from Rheinland. From Gravelotte we went 

 northward to the bleak fields of Ste. Marie aux 

 Chenes and St. Hubert, thence to the great road 

 running out of Metz toward Toul and Verdun, past 

 Rezonville and Vionville to Mars-la-Tour. Return- 

 ing farther to the southward, we traversed villages 

 engulfed in Bazaine's futile sorties. 



Leaving Metz, our course led by rail through Za- 

 bern to Strasbourg, the chief town of Alsace. Here 

 we again interviewed several people, the first being 

 Leon Boll, the able and courageous editor of the Boii 

 Journal d' Alsace-Lorraine^ who conversed freely and 

 interestingly. 



Dr. Karl W. Mandel, the German under-secretary, Mandei 

 actual ruler of Alsace-Lorraine, represented a good 

 type of German official, well educated, capable of 

 gracious generosity but blindly detested by most of 

 the Alsatians. To us he seemed to be as considerate 

 and thoughtful as his position would permit. After 

 the Zabern aff^air both he and Von Wedel, the gov- 

 ernor, resigned, being unwilling to go further in impos- 

 ing Prussian discipline on a reluctant people. Under 

 Dalwitz, his successor, the government of Alsace- 

 Lorraine immediately took on a darker cast. 



Mandel explained that the governmental sys- 

 tem, like that of the other German states, though 



i 505 : 



