MILITARY PREPAREDNESS AND 

 UNPREPAREDNESS 



PUBLISHED IN THE "CENTURY," NOVEMBER, 1899 



AT the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, 

 M. Pierre Loti, member of the French Academy 

 and cultivated exponent of the hopes and beliefs of 

 the average citizen of Continental Europe in regard 

 to the contest, was at Madrid. Dewey's victory 

 caused him grief; but he consoled himself, after 

 watching a parade of the Spanish troops, by remark 

 ing: "They are indeed still the solid and splendid 

 Spanish troops, heroic in every epoch it needs only 

 to look at them to divine the woe that awaits the 

 American shopkeepers when brought face to face with 

 such soldiers." The excellent M. Loti had already 

 explained Manila by vague references to American 

 bombs loaded with petroleum, and to a devilish me 

 chanical ingenuity wholly unaccompanied by either 

 humanity or courage, and he still allowed himself 

 to dwell on the hope that there were reserved for 

 America des surprises sanglantes. 



M. Loti's views on military matters need not de 

 tain us, for his attitude toward the war was merely 

 (138) 



