Peace; World War, 1914-1918 -- Personal narratives
The most panicky and energetic got busy and left, but most of the
Americans tried to pull themselves together and to wait for further
developments. Our unsteady nerves and heavy hearts were reassured by the
articles in all the German dailies saying that they were doing their
level best to stay out of the fight and to keep the war confined to
Austria and Servia. The foreign diplomats, even of England, gave the
same reassuring reports. This promise of good faith and friendship was
given out on Saturday, so on Sunday when word came that Russia had been
mobilizing for three days to cross the German frontier, it came as a
shock. But Germany still tried to ward it off by granting Russia twelve
hours to give some sort of explanation for this work. This Russia did by
sending some of her forces across the German frontier.
By noon on Sunday our sanitarium was in a pandemonium of excitement, as
it became known that many German officers were being recalled and were
busy packing their trunks to catch the first afternoon train back to the
Prussian capital.
I tore down-stairs two steps at a time. In the hallway I met a German
countess weeping in real sorrow while her grandmother was trying to
console her. When I inquired the reason for all this grief the
grandmother said that her grandsons were officers and had been called to
their different regiments.
In the dining-room that noon there were one hundred and seventy-five
worried men and women of many different nationalities. They were
plotting and planning how they could escape the war, or at least get to
their homes. The Germans had soon decided to leave without any delay for
Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich and other German cities so they could tell
each other goodbye before the men started for war.
The Russian merchants and bankers were alarmed and they started for St.
Petersburg and Moscow to escape being made prisoners in Germany. There
were two Persian princes who hurried to the minister of war and obtained
permission to take out their auto-car and started for Lucerne that very
afternoon. Many Americans who had auto-cars with them made the same
move trying to get to Berlin, The Hague or London, but most of these
were shot at before they had gone very far. The two Persian princes
barely escaped being shot as Turkish spies.
In less than two hours only thirty-five guests were left in the
sanitarium; most of these were Americans and Russians who were wondering
if they had not made a mistake by staying. They were comforted when they
heard the next day that most of the people who had left had not gotten
very far.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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