xii INTRODUCTION 



practical affair of daily life, and I entered with pride 

 and gratitude into my inheritance as a citizen of no 

 mean city. 



The second slight shock came from the overwhelm- 

 ing presence of soldiers. The army I knew as a 

 remote part of the organization of our Empire, but 

 soldiers were tucked away in barracks or walked out 

 with the housemaids on Sundays. I don't suppose 

 I had ever spoken to an officer, and certainly had 

 never seen one in uniform except with his regiment. 

 But Berlin was an armed camp. Regiments marched 

 through the streets, interrupting the traffic ; the 

 windows shook with the rush of artillery ; the pale 

 old King was driven swiftly in the middle of a 

 glittering cohort ; officers unhooked their belts and 

 hung their swords on the coat-stands of the res- 

 taurants and strode through the rooms taking, 

 rather than being given, precedence. It was new to 

 me to find soldiering the urgent business of a State. 



In early summer I paid a visit to a German country 

 house near the Baltic coast, in response to an invi- 

 tation that came through Scotch relations. I spent 

 some time in various houses in Pomerania and West 

 Prussia, for I was handed on as a guest from house- 

 hold to household. There, in the real Prussian 

 country, among the almost feudal Prussian gentry, 

 the dominance of militarism leapt to the eye. The 

 heads of the houses were retired officers, the sons 

 were active officers, the men-servants were old 

 soldiers, the coachmen and gardeners, the peasants 

 in the fields stood at attention as we came near them. 

 In all classes, there was as much difference between 

 the well-groomed and soldierly males and the 



