From The Cornhill Magazine. COMMISSIONS IN THE GERMAN ARMY. brew, mathematics, physics, history, and geography, and the standard is so To the Teutonic youth whose aspira-high that very few but university stutions are fixed on the military red dents attain it. For the general run of collar, which is the distinguishing candidates a special literary test, known mark of a German officer, various paths as the Fähnrichs (ensign) examination, lie open for the gratification of his am- is imposed, and this is by far the most bition, all of which differ materially popular door of admission. It very from those in vogue in our own ser- much resembles our own army envice. With us in England, except in trance, and, as in England, so also in a very few instances, admission lies Germany, there is a host of crammers, through a competitive examination, all of whom profess to offer the best and it would perhaps be difficult to possible advantages and to have won devise any other scheme to meet the more successes than any of their rivals. necessities of our peculiar position. The business is supposed to be lucraHaving but a small army compared tive, though we are not prepared to with Continental forces, we require suggest that the profits rise to the level only a very limited number of officers, of those of our own English army whereas there is always forthcoming tutors. The Berlin crammer must be an unlimited supply of young men of satisfied with moderate fees, but his means ambitious of holding her Maj- teaching is nevertheless methodical esty's commission. In Germany the and expeditious. He seldom finds it conditions are reversed, and the de- necessary to spend more than three mand being in excess of the supply, months on the preparation of a candino resort need be had to competition. date. But this is not altogether due to Again, with the single exception of the the excellence of his system, for admisman who rises from the ranks, no Brit-sion to the examination is conditional ish officer is obliged to have any per- on the production of a certificate of sonal experience of service therein. having reached the head class in a The reverse is the rule in Germany. The youth who has finally decided on a military career must, first and foremost, look out for a regimental commander willing to accept him, and it behoves him to be early in so doing. Notwithstanding the dearth of applicants, it is by no means a matter of Once the date of the examination is course that every application will be fixed, the candidate receives from his granted. A wide discretion is left to regiment a notification of the time commanding officers, and social rela- when he has to present himself before tions and family antecedents are strictly the Military Examination Commission inquired into. There is, besides, a in Berlin. This is almost invariably searching medical examination. The at twelve o'clock on a Sunday. On army candidate, having found a regi- his arrival, which must be punctual, ment, is not permitted to join it imme- he is introduced along with the other diately, unless he is fortunate enough candidates, of whom there are about to hold a certificate of having stood the thirty, to the president of the commis test of the Abiturienten examination. sion. From this moment he is treated This is the term applied to the final as a soldier, and instructions are given passing-out examination at one of the to him which he has to obey to the recognized public schools, which must letter. During the examination he rebe passed by all students prior to their sides, under military supervision, on admission to a university. The exami- the premises where it is held; and nation embraces theology, German, when it is over, and he is discharged, Latin, Greek, French, English, He- he is obliged forthwith to quit the city. public school, which is a guarantee of a high standard of previous knowledge. It is true that this certificate may be dispensed with by the special permission of the emperor, but such exemptions are the exception and not the rule. The examination begins on Monday | embraces physical, political, and mathemorning at 8 A.M., when the candidates matical geography, and the examinaappear in evening dress and white tion takes place on the same lines as in gloves, invariably the attire worn at all history. There is in addition an examimportant public examinations in Ger- ination in a third modern language, many. The event is regarded as sol- chemistry, physics, or drawing, at the emn, and on all such occasions the choice of the candidate. The highest swallow-tail is indispensable. By mark in each subject is nine; the lowWednesday evening the written exam-est is one. The marks obtained in the ination is generally over, and the viva chief subjects (German, mathematics, voce test begins. This lasts till Friday and Latin) are multiplied by five; those evening, and immediately upon its obtained in the other obligatory subclose the result is communicated to jects (French, Greek, or English, hiseach candidate. He who has been tory, and geography) are multiplied by lucky enough to pass, receives a mili- three, while those of the last category tary railway ticket to the garrison remain as they stand, except that to where his regiment is stationed. Here count at least five must be scored. The we will leave him for the present while pass mark is one hundred and twentywe endeavor more fully to describe the six, but the candidate is nevertheless Fähnrichs examination, and to indicate disqualified who fails to make more the requisite standard of knowledge in than three in German a result which the various subjects which it em- orthographical mistakes entail. Those braces. who fail are put back for three, five, seven, etc., months, depending on the number of marks short of the pass standard. A candidate is then examined only in those subjects in which he has failed to obtain five, and it rarely happens that he is disqualified a second time. A third examination is only allowed by special permission. The examination in mathematics is confined to geometry, about equal to the first six books of Euclid; algebra up to geometrical progression, and very elementary plane trigonometry. In German two essays are set, and an accurate acquaintance with the history of the literature of the country, as well as of grammar and prosody, is re- We return to the candidate who, quired; obligatory Latin does not reach having passed his Fähnrichs examinafarther than Cæsar and Livy, the latter tion, has been sent to his regiment. with the assistance of a dictionary, He is now a common soldier, and is with easy questions on grammar and obliged to live in barracks, where his syntax, but the candidate is permitted treatment differs in no respect from to offer Cicero and Horace in addition. that of the other privates, except, perIn French two passages for translation haps, that he is allowed to pay a comare given, one from French into Ger- rade to perform for him the more man and the other vice versâ, and ques- menial part of his duties. After a few tions on grammar are asked. Great weeks' experience of barrack life he is importance is attached to correct pro- permitted to take private lodgings, and nunciation, and above all to fluency in in due course is promoted to corporal. conversation. English alternates with After five months' service he applies Greek, the standard in the former being for a certificate of efficiency in practical about the same as in French, and in soldiering, and if this, which must be the latter the same as in Latin. His- signed by the commander and officers tory includes (1) that of Greece and of the regiment, is granted, the title Rome; (2) that of the Middle Ages; of "Fähurich, or, more properly, (3) modern history, English, French, "Portepeefähnrich," is conferred on German, and Russian; (4) Prussian him by an imperial order. As Fähnrich history. In each division two parallel he ranks between corporal and serquestions are set, one of which must geant, and receives an increase of pay. be correctly answered. Geography When he has completed a period of six months' service in the ranks, the the regiment to which they are apFähnrich removes to a military college. pointed. Those who do not pass out Here he is instructed in tactics, army among the first hundred at Lichterfelde organization, the military epistolatory are distributed as common soldiers style, the use of arms, fortification, through different regiments, and eventetc.; he is taught gymnastics, fencing, ually become officers by the same steps. riding, and swimming, and he receives as those who enter through the Fähnlessons in Russian and French. The richs examination. We have seen that course lasts thirty-six weeks, and at its those cadets who pass out high are close the Fähnrich is eligible to present relieved of service in the ranks, but himself for examination in the mili- there is not, so far as we are aware, tary subjects included within it. Should any other gate by which this may be he be successful, he returns to his regi- avoided with the following exception : ment, whereupon he must undergo the Young men who hold a certificate of ordeal of an election or rejection, as having passed the Abiturienten examthe case may be, by the officers of the ination, already referred to, and who same. The youngest records his vote have studied at least a year at a Gerfirst, the commander last, no ballot man university, technical high school, being employed. Should the result or forest academy, may be admitted give a unanimous vote in favor of the Fähnrich, he is declared elected, and in due time receives the emperor's commission. An unfavorable minority are obliged to state the grounds of their objection. These are referred to the emperor, and on his decision as to their validity depends the result. Rejection by a majority is final; no reasons are assigned, and the rejected candidate will find it a difficult task to procure admission into any other regi ment. to the examination in military subjects without having either served in the ranks or studied at a military college. The general effect, therefore, of the regulations on this point is to render it obligatory on all military candidates, with the exception of those who are decidedly above the average in respect of education, to submit to a short probationary training on equal terms with the men whom they are afterwards destined to command. As it is the fashion to take the GerAnother common way of entering the man army as the type of military excelarmy is through a cadet school. They lence, it is interesting to note how are mainly intended for the education totally their system of admission differs of officers' sons, but to the extent of from our own. We have already rethe available accommodation they are marked on the variation in the matter open to others. The programme of of competition and of service in the study is identical with that in the lower ranks, but the comparison may be forms at public schools, the work of pursued into the nature of the entrance the higher forms being pursued at the examinations. So far as mathematics chief cadet school at Lichterfelde. The or the dead languages are concerned cadets who are successful at the final there is no great difference beyond passing-out examination are divided this, that the English standard is deinto two groups. The first hundred, cidedly higher. In history the contrast or thereabouts, are granted exemption is more apparent. The German authorfrom service in the ranks and are notities consider it essential to the educaobliged to study at a military college. tion of an officer that he should be well In lieu thereof they remain a year up in the history of the chief European longer at Lichterfelde, which is de- nations as well as in that of the Middle voted to preparation for the examina- Ages, and of ancient Greece and Rome, tion in military subjects, at which they whereas a general knowledge of his then eligible themselves. They own is deemed enough for a British afterwards receive their commissions officer, and not even this is comwithout an election by the officers of pulsory. The difference of opinion are with his own eyes Boh Paw and a hundred men marching south, that is towards Sanwah village. between the English and German com- the village that morning, had been missioners on the relative importance hailed by some men passing down in a of the literature of their own aud of boat; these told him that a woman, an other countries is very remarkable, the hour higher up the stream, had bid latter subjecting their candidates to a them take care of themselves, for her searching examination on the history brother-in-law's father had just seen of literature, the grammar and the prosody of their own language, whereas the former regard German etymology and the rules of French versification as more important than the literature of the English language. The value at tached to a colloquial knowledge of modern languages affords, perhaps, a still more striking contrast. It is true that under the German scheme such knowledge is not obligatory, but, in the words of a well-known German crammer, even a modest attempt at conversation always insures a high mark. One-tenth of the possible total in either language is all that our own civil service commissioners assign to proficiency in conversation. What lent significance to an otherwise commonplace report was the fact that this very morning Anness-lee Thekin, the young English assistant superintendent of police, with ten of the little strangers from the West called Goo-kha, had unexpectedly arrived at Sanwah and were even now resting at the dâk bungalow just outside the village. Moreover, Mr. Annesley immediately on his arrival had sent for Ko Shway Ghine as headman to ask for news of Boh Paw, saying he was told the dacoit chief was in that neighborhood. Ko Shway Ghine had no news to give then; but now he rose from his mat, and bade Oo Pyat follow him to repeat his story to the English officer. There is, moreover, a wide divergence in the rules of the two countries which fix the age at which a candidate is admissible to the literary test, the Sanwah consisted of two rows of German being eligible up to the age dingy brown and yellow huts stragof twenty-three, whereas the English gling along either side of a wide weedmaximum is nineteen. The English grown street, down whose centre an service is open to all comers of un- uneven brick pavement stood up like blemished character, but the discretion a red backbone. Before it reached the possessed by regimental commanders | end of the village, this pavement broke in the admission of military students, off in scattered bricks, giving place to and the subsequent election which a rough cart-track which meandered places it in the power of a single officer to raise an objection which may prove fatal, practically closes the German army to all but members of that class with which militarism is a profession, and from which officers have been for generations almost exclusively re-ing house; a shallow story of three cruited. From Macmillan's Magazine. AN UNFINISHED RUBBER. along the margin of the paddy-fields to the forest beyond. The dâk bungalow stood back from the cart-track in a ragged compound, whose boundaries lingered in a few clumps of untrimmed, bamboo hedge. It was a forlorn-look rooms and a verandah, gloomy in the shade of the low-pitched roof, and elevated on twelve-foot piles. Every one of the Venetian blinds, which did duty as doors and windows, had battens missing; the dust lay thick on the IN ordinary circumstances Ko Shway | stairs, and the bamboo lattice-work, Ghine would scarcely have given Oo which ought to have been holding Pyat's story a second thought; ground- down the thatch, had slipped limply less rumors of dacoits had been so very over the eaves. Ramasawmy, the Mafrequent lately. Oo Pyat, while cut-dras man who had charge of the bunting bamboos on the river bank above galow, lived with his Burmese wife behind it; but Ramasawmy never even | limbs as though he had just forded had the rooms swept until a guest was the river. actually in sight. "I'm afraid I've taken the coolest room," said Annesley. "I did not know any one else was coming; but I'll move out at once." For Masters was his senior both in years and service. "Pray don't move; I'll take the other. Very glad to find a white man here; I haven't spoken English for six weeks. Police, I see," glancing at the Goorkhas below. Ko Shway Ghine and Oo Pyat passed through the ant-eaten shells of gateposts, and were graciously allowed by Ramasawmy to go up-stairs. It was one of those intensely hot, close days October brings after the rains, and Mr. Annesley reclined in the wreck of a long-armed chair, undressed in white drill trousers, sleeveless vest, and straw slippers. Shway Ghine, crouching before him, repeated Oo Pyat's story They told each other their names with the trifling alterations required to and what they were doing; and Masmake it worthy the attention of an ters, having shouted orders to his serEnglish officer. That is to say, he vants, who sat under a pink umbrella represented that Oo Pyat had been one among the baggage on the elephantof the boatmen, and that the woman pad, went in to bathe and change. had herself seen the dacoits. Omission Annesley leaned over the verandah of the remaining links, in his judg-watching the men relieve the kneeling ment, merely lent the narrative the beast of a confusion of boxes, bundles, point and finish essential to ensure it fair hearing. Told with pedantic regard for accuracy of detail, it might, he felt, be dismissed as aligah, - mere nonsense. Mr. Annesley listened to the story with an indifference which, if disappointing, was at least reassuring. He asked one or two questions, announced his intention of remaining that night at Sanwah, and, having offered the visitors this crumb of comfort, told them they had leave to go. Then he took up the letter he had laid aside when they came in, and began to read again. Oo Pyat's tale, even as edited by Shway Ghine, bore too striking a family resemblance to the wind-borne fictions brought him everywhere to impress him as important. He was still reading his letter when Ramasawmy came to tell him that another gentleman was coming; he thought it was Mr. Masters, the Forests gentleman, because there was an elephant with the baggage. Annesley did not know Masters; but in the jungle all men are friends, and he got up to meet the new arrival. He was a stout, sun-browned man of about thirty; he walked alone in front of his elephant and followers, and his thin white trousers clung about his He A cooking utensils, and gun-cases. "Hallo, Colville !" called Annesley, as the new-comer thus discovered himself. "What brings you here?" "Ah, Annesley! Got an appointment with Boh Paw ?” "Well, hoping for it; I'm only stopping the night. And you?" "I'm camped on the line about fifteen miles out. I got a touch of fever sleeping out last night, so came in to roost under cover. If I had known it was twice the distance my men said, I shouldn't have come. How that wretched pony has galled me! He won't walk; dances along like a tipsy ballet-girl. That your hathi ?" 66 • No; Masters of the Forests. He |