Berlin was still without any but the most meager news of the revolution Friday. The papers complained of an even more narrow-minded and arbitrary censorship by the new government than that under the old regime. The press was on the whole restricted to printing official reports, although some of them added a few paragraphs of explanatory comment. An inspired report that the excesses in the northwest bore no political character was contradicted by the _Vorwaerts_, which declared that they had a "liberty seeking socialistic character everywhere." Unimportant disturbances took place during the day in Rosenthalerstrasse, in the old city, and a few arrests were made, but the day passed quietly on the whole. Crowds stood in front of the bulletin boards of the various newspapers all day, waiting for news from Grand Headquarters. Would the Kaiser abdicate? The term of the Socialist ultimatum expired. Scheidemann gave notice that the party would wait another twenty-four hours, and a few hours later the term was extended until after the decision regarding the armistice, the terms of which were expected to reach Berlin on Saturday. The government, weak, irresolute, inexperienced, faced a situation which would have confounded stronger men. A day earlier they had consented to summon from Kiel and Hamburg about a thousand marines who were supposed to be devoted to Noske. This attempt to cast out the Devil with Beelzebub indicates in some degree the desperateness of the situation. More troops were brought to the capital on Friday. They were the Naumburg _Jaeger_ (sharpshooters) and the Luebben _Jaeger_, excellent troops, who had been in the Finland contingent, had distinguished themselves by patriotic daring and exemplary discipline, and who were considered absolutely reliable. These men, about four thousand in all, were in part quartered in different large restaurants and in part in the barracks of the Alexander Regiment. It was in these barracks that (ironic coincidence!) Kaiser Wilhelm made his well-known speech on March 28, 1901, in which he asserted his confidence that, if the Berliners should again become "insolent and disobedient" (_frech und unbotmaessig_) as in 1848, his troops would know how to protect their imperial master. In all there were perhaps twenty thousand soldiers in Berlin at this time, including several regiments of the Prussian Guard.