Villa Elsa. Stuart Oliver Henry

Elsa is but Germany in miniature. In the significant character, habits and activities of this household may be found the true pith and essence of real Germanism as normally developed. This Germanism appears ready to continue after the War to be the malignant and would-be assassin of other civilizations. It is, therefore, tragically important to find and act on the right answer to the question:

      Is there any possible way to make the Germans become true, peace-loving friends with us—with the rest of mankind?

CHAPTER		PAGE
	Forward	vii
I.	Triumphant Germany in 1913	1
II.	Deutschland ueber Alles	6
III.	Gard Kirtley	11
IV.	Villa Elsa	19
V.	Family Life	29
VI.	The Home	36
VII.	German Loving	46
VIII.	German Courtship	54
IX.	A Journalist	64
X.	Spies and War	71
XI.	German Ways	78
XII.	Habits and Children	86
XIII.	Down with America!	94
XIV.	Aftermath	106
XV.	Military Blockheads	113
XVI.	A Lively Musician	120
XVII.	Immorality and Obscenity	125
XVIII.	The Naked Cult	134
XIX.	Jim Deming of Erie, Pay	145
XX.	An American Victory	152
XXI.	A People Peculiar or Pagan?	160
XXII.	Making for War	168
XXIII.	Social Etiquette	178
XXIV.	The Court Ball	186
XXV.	Fritzi and Another Conversation	192
XXVI.	Some of the Less Known Efficiency	200
XXVII.	The Imperial Secret Service	210
XXVIII.	Jim Deming's Fate	218
XXIX.	Winter and Spring	229
XXX.	Villa Elsa Outdoors	238
XXXI.	A Casual Tragedy	247
XXXII.	A German Marriage Proposal	256
XXXIII.	A Waitress Dance	263
XXXIV.	Champagne	272
XXXV.	Recuperation	279
XXXVI.	The German Problem. An Answer	285
XXXVII.	A German "Gott Be with Ye"	294
XXXVIII.	A Journey	302
XXXIX.	The Tomb of Charlemagne	313
XL.	The End of a Little Game	323
XLI.	Are They Huns	329
XLII.	The Anti-Christians	336
XLIII.	The Teuton Problem. A Solution	347

VILLA ELSA

       Table of Contents

CHAPTER I

       Table of Contents

Triumphant Germany in 1913

       Table of Contents

      IN the late summer of 1913 a quiet American college man of twenty-three, tall, lean, somewhat listless in bearing, who had been idling on a trip in Germany without a thought of adventure, was observing, without being able to define or understand, one of the most remarkable conditions of national and racial exhilaration that ever blessed a country in time of ripest peace.

      He had never been out of America, and supposed his Yankee people, with all their wide liberty, contemplated life with as much enjoyment as any other. But in that land which is governed with iron, where (as Bismarck said) a man cannot even get up out of his bed and walk to a window without breaking a law, Gard Kirtley was finding something different, strange, wonderful, in the way of marked happiness. It pulsated everywhere, in every man, woman and child. It seemed to be a sensation of victory, yet there had been no victory. It appeared to reflect some mighty distinctive human achievement or event of which a whole race could be proud in unison. There had been nothing of the sort.

      And yet it was there, a certain exuberance. The people, with heads carried high, quickly moving feet and pockets full of money, were enlivened by a public joyousness because they were humans and, above all, because they were Germans. It seemed a joy of human prestige, of wholesale well-being, of an assuredly auspicious future. Multitudes of toasts were being drunk. The marching and counter-marching of soldiers looked excessive even for Germany. A season of patriotic holidays was apparently at hand. Festivals, public rites, celebrated the widespread exultation. The whole country conducted itself as on parade, en fête.

      Wages were higher and comforts greater than ever known there. For