36 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
A SHORT SKETCH 
OP 
THE RHINE FORTRESSES AND METZ. 
BY 
LIEUT. F. W. J. BARKER, R.A. 
In bringing forward these few experiences, obtained during a short sojourn 
in Germany, I cannot hope to produce anything either very new or very 
original; I trust, however, that what I am about to write may prove of 
interest to some who have not yet had opportunities of seeing the routine 
and drills of German soldiers, and of visiting one of the finest lines of 
fortresses in the world. 
Having made Bonn my head-quarters, I went down the Rhine to Deutz 
and Cologne, and afterwards returning through Bonn, visited the works of 
Ehrenbreitstein, Coblentz, Kastel, Mayence, Strasbourg, and Metz, seeing 
what I could, of the soldiers in each of these fortresses. Before leaving 
Bonn I was asked to visit the Lazareth, which was occupied by wounded 
men. On entering the hospital I was unexpectedly brought face to face 
with some of the results of war, when the romance was gone and the excite¬ 
ment was over. The large, clean, and well-ventilated room was occupied 
by patients, many of whom had been crippled for nearly a year, and they 
were having their wounds dressed when I entered. As I passed through 
the wards and saw the poor fellows who had been reduced by one blow to 
a shattered existence and painful after-life, their patient and even hopeful 
endurance brought home to one a lesson in fortitude not easily to be 
forgotten. One man in particular, named Matheos Sohltz, was pointed out 
to me as remarkable even here for fortitude. This man had lost both feet 
just a year before, and hospital gangrene had set in; the diseased wounds 
had to be cauterised with irons heated to a white heat, and chloroform could 
not be used. One of those who saw the operation being performed, told me 
that the man submitted without a groan to the cruel tortures that caused 
even the practised attendants looking on to shudder, and the only evidence 
of his suffering was his putting the hospital blanket in his mouth and 
