Part 2 (2/2)
MWAW drew himself up, stiff as steel. His eyes blazed through their slits like coals of fire.
”Right!” he cried. ”Right at last. That is the great argument. Use it.
WE are the Chosen of G.o.d. WE are his weapon, his vicegerent. Whatever WE do is a brave act and a good deed. Woe to the disobedient!”
He held out his hand and lifted the professor to his feet.
”Stand up, Schmuck. You are forgiven. Take more beer. To-night I follow biological necessity. More work to do. But you go and tell people the truth.”
So Schmuck went. Whether he told the truth or not is uncertain. At all events, it was in different words. And the Werwolfery continued.
Chapter III
THE WERWOLF AT LARGE
I
In the days immediately before and after the breaking of the war-tempest, the servants of the United States Government in Europe were suddenly overwhelmed by a flood of work and care. The strenuous, incessant toil in the consulates, legations, and emba.s.sies acted somewhat as a narcotic. There was so much to do that there was no time to worry.
The sense of an unmeasured calamity was present in the background of our thoughts from the very beginning. But it was not until later that the nature of the disaster grew clear and poignant. As month after month hammered swiftly by, the meaning and portent of the catastrophe emerged more sharply and penetrated our minds more deeply, stinging us awake.
A mighty nation which ”rejected the dream of universal peace throughout the world as non-German” (the Crown Prince, Germany in Arms); a nation trained for war as a ”biological necessity in which Might proves itself the supreme Right” (Bernhardi, Germany and the Next War); a nation which had been taught that ”frightfulness” is a lawful and essential weapon in war (Von Clausewitz); and whose generals said, ”Frankly, we are and must be barbarians” (Von Diefurth, Hamburger Nachrichten), while their philosophers declared that ”The German is the superior type of the species h.o.m.o sapiens” (Woltmann); a nation whose Imperial Head commended to his soldiers the example of the Huns, and proclaimed, ”It is to the empire of the world that the German genius aspires” (Kaiser Wilhelm, Speech at Aix-la-Chapelle, June 20, 1902)--a nation thus armed, instructed, disciplined, and demoralized had broken loose. Another Attila had come, with a new horde behind him to devastate and change the face of the world. In the tumult and darkness which enfolded Europe, the Werwolf was at large. We could hear his ululations in the forest. The cries of his victims grew louder, piercing our hearts with pity and just wrath.
II
But even when the most dreadful things are happening around you, the regular and necessary work of the world must be carried on. Your own particular ”ch.o.r.e” must be done as well as you can do it.
As the trouble drew near and suddenly fell upon the world, the burden of enormously increased and varied duties pressed heavily upon the American representatives abroad. The first thing that we had to do was to make provision for taking care of our own people in Europe who were caught out in the storm and the danger.
That was a practical job with unlimited requirements. No one, except those who had the distracting privilege of being in the American diplomatic and consular service in the summer of 1914, knows how much work and how many kinds of work rushed down upon us in a moment.
Banking, postal, and telegraph service, transportation, hotel and boarding-house business, baggage express, the recovery of missing articles and persons, the reunion of curiously separated families, confidential inquiries, medical service (mainly mind-healing), and free consultation on every subject under the sun--all these different occupations, trades, and professions were not set down in our programme when we came to Europe, nor covered by the slim calf-bound volume of Instructions to Diplomatic Officers which was our only guide-book. But we had to learn them at short notice and practise them as best we could.
No doubt we often acted in a way that was not strictly protocolaire.
Certainly we made mistakes. But it was better to do that than to sit like b.u.mps on a log doing nothing. The immediate affair in hand was to help our own folks who were in distress and difficulty and who wanted to get home as quickly and as safely as possible. So we tried to do it, making use of the best means available, and praying that heaven and our diplomatic colleagues would forgive any errors or gaffes that we might make. We preserved a profound respect for etiquette and regularity. But our predominant anxiety was to get the things done that had to be done.
Take an ill.u.s.tration. Excuse the personal references in it.
From the very beginning it seemed clear to me that one of the greatest difficulties in the first days of war would be to secure a supply of ready money for American travellers in flight. As a rule they carried little hard cash with them. Paper money would be at a discount; checks and drafts difficult, if not impossible, to negotiate in Holland.
Moratoriums were falling everywhere as thick as leaves in Vallombrosa.
So I went directly to my friend Foreign Minister Loudon, and asked him a plain question.
”Would your Government be willing to help us in getting American travellers' checks and drafts on letters of credit cashed if I should indorse them as American Minister?”
He answered as promptly as if the suggestion had already been formed in his own mind--as perhaps it had.
”Certainly, and gladly! Those pieces of paper would be the best securities in the world--short-term notes of the American Government. If you will get the authority from Was.h.i.+ngton to indorse, the Bank of the Netherlands will honor the checks and drafts; and if the Bank hesitates the National Treasury will cash them.”
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