Horses, too, are called in in great numbers as soon as mobilization is ordered. In time of peace the twenty-five army corps, each numbering about forty thousand men, require 157,000 horses; in time of war the demand, of course, will be much larger, and this is provided for by instant requisition. But not at random. A list or census is regularly kept of practically all the horses in the country; it is revised at stated intervals and commissioners note the adaptability of every animal to this or that purpose. In times of mobilization the animals are brought before final commissions, consisting partly of military, partly of civilian members, who appraise their value and declare them confiscate. The transferring of horses to the rallying centers is one of the chief difficulties of the railroads, which, as is well known, belong to the state and are altogether closed to general traffic during the mobilization period. [Illustration: Uhlans Crossing River] [Illustration: Patrol of Uhlans] [Illustration: Uhlans Fording River] [Illustration: Easily Upset] Germany is putting, so it is estimated, some four million men into the field. And behind them, should the war last long, are nearly a million boys who belong to the Prussian _Jung Deutschland_ and to the Bavarian _Wehrkraftverein_. Boy scouts, we should call them in our country, but in Germany they are regularly trained by officers in the army—an occupation of these sinecure-holders that I omitted to mention. They are taken in squads on long tramps, are trained to use their eyes and ears and enjoy the life of the hills and woods. They carry their cooking utensils and prepare their own meals. The government encourages the institution by large grants and often places barracks and tents at the disposal of the boys for longer expeditions. Public and private generosity, too, has provided homes in out-of-the-way places where the boys can take shelter over night. How deadly an instrument for war is the German army remains to be seen. That it has already accomplished many fine things in time of peace is undoubted. Not the least of these is the spread of hygienic knowledge and the encouragement of manliness. By the terms of the German constitution the Kaiser is head and chief of the whole German army and, notwithstanding concessions made to Bavaria, Württemberg and Saxony for the period when it remains on a peace-footing, is absolute commander in time of war. Whether he will personally take the field or not is another question. If he does he will be upheld by an enormous wave of loyalty, but, on the other hand, the presence of a monarch in camp is often a hindrance to the operations. His own great-grandfather, and at the same time the Austrian emperor, made life very bitter for Blücher and the other real fighters in 1814.