After the Whirlwind; A Book of Reconstruction and Profitable Thanksgiving

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1919. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VI THE TRUE STORY OF A NATIONAL TARANTELLE On the night of July 24, 1914, and on every night for more than a week thereafter, crowds filled the streets of Berlin, marched up and down Unter den Linden, cheered, shouted and sang; on each succeeding night larger crowds and a more liberal manifestation of joy. Austria's ultimatum to Serbia had been sent on July 23. The forty-eight hours allowed for unconditional surrender expired at 6 o'clock on July 25. On the morning of July 28 Austria declared war on Serbia. It was these developments that the crowds were cheering. Every wise man in Europe knew that the torch had been lighted for the general conflagration. It was this, too, that the crowds were cheering, whether they knew it or not, --the universal conflagration almost at hand. They cheered for war, they cheered the Austrian embassy and Austrian flag, they cheered the war office, they cheered the Kaiser's palace, the Crown Prince, all the other princes, the chancellor, the assistant chancellor, the army, the navy. The Kaiser they could not cheer in person. He was out of the country. They cheered his bedroom and his grandfather's statue. Also Der Tag. It is but fair to believe and just to assgverate that there were in Germany on those nights many men that had no disposition to cheer but only to sit and gaze with inward shivers on the horrible thing that was being conjured up. It is but fair to assert this, although they have left little record, such men; even the fulness of post helium confessions and candors has not revealed them. We may know well enough that not all minds could have followed the majority into the shrieking precincts of acute mania, but their voices, if they had been raised, would have been unheard in that din of thundering delight. ...