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                            BLOOD and IRON

                       _Origin of German Empire
                       As Revealed by Character
                       of Its Founder, Bismarck_

                                  BY

                          JOHN HUBERT GREUSEL

                         THE SHAKESPEARE PRESS
                          114-116 E. 28th St.
                               New York
                                 1915


                 Copyright, 1915, John Hubert Greusel


                     _Dedicated to Stella My Wife_




                               CONTENTS


BOOK THE FIRST: BISMARCK'S HUMAN ESSENCE

Chapter I--The Man Himself
  1. The Giant's Ponderous Hammer
  2. Grossly Human Is Our Bismarck
  3. Despite Political Bogs
  4. Genius Combined with Foibles

Chapter II--Blood Will Tell
  5. Iron-headed Ancestry
  6. Animal Basis of Rise to Power
  7. "The Wooden Donkey Dies Today!"

Chapter III--The Gothic Cradle
  8. The Child of Destiny
  9. Soft Carl, Spartan Louise

Chapter IV--Sunshine and Shadow
  10. Amazing Powers of Hereditary Traits
  11. The Wolf's Breed
  12. Twenty-eight Duels!
  13. Fizzle of First Official Service


BOOK THE SECOND: THE GERMAN NATIONAL PROBLEM

Chapter V--The Great Sorrow
  14. The German Crazy Quilt
  15. The Diamond Necklace

Chapter VI--Prussia's De Profundis
  16. The Lash and the Kiss
  17. The Prussian Downfall
  18. Prussia Becomes Germany
  19. Kingcraft Comes Upon Evil Days
  20. The Star of Hope
  21. The King Keeps Reading His Bible
  22. The Deluge


BOOK THE THIRD: BISMARCK SUPPORTS HIS KING

Chapter VII--Fighting Fire with Fire
  23. Voice in the Wilderness
  24. The Young Giant
  25. Speechless for One Whole Month
  26. Bellowing His Defiance

Chapter VIII--Bismarck Suffers a Great Shock
  27. Bismarck Scorns French Political Millennium
  28. Militarism as National Salvation
  29. King Marches with Mob!

Chapter IX--So Much the Worse for Zeitgeist
  30. Not Politics--Human Nature
  31. Setting Back the Century Clock
  32. The Master at Work
  33. Bismarck Nudges His King
  34. Mystical High-flown Speeches


BOOK THE FOURTH: BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER

Chapter X--Socrates in Politics
  35. The Frankfort School of Intrigue
  36. Preparing for German Unity
  37. Tyrants Are Necessary
  38. Bismarck, in Naked Realism

Chapter XI--The Mailed Fist
  39. Democracy Stems from Aristocracy
  40. Parallel Elements of Power

Chapter XII--By Blood and Iron!
  41. The Man of the Hour
  42. Rough and Tumble
  43. On Comes the Storm
  44. Bismarck Decides to Rule Alone

Chapter XIII--The Dream of Empire
  45. Bismarck Tricks Them All
  46. Prussian Domination Essential
  47. By Faith Ye Shall Conquer
  48. Was Bismarck a Beast?


BOOK THE FIFTH: THE GERMAN PEOPLE ARE ONE AND UNITED

Chapter XIV--Windrows of Corpses
  49. Devil or Saint, Which?
  50. Sleeping Beside the Dead
  51. The Rejected Stone
  52. His Ikon?
  53. "The Dying Warrior"
  54. Sadowa Summed Up
  55. Manure

Chapter XV--The Great Year, 1870
  56. "These Poor Times"
  57. The Bugle Blast
  58. Bismarck's Ironical Revenge
  59. The Weaver's Hut
  60. Zenith!

Chapter XVI--The Versailles Masterpiece
  61. The Kaiser's Crown
  62. Divine-right, a Politico-Military Fact


BOOK THE SIXTH: ONCE A MAN AND TWICE A CHILD

Chapter XVII--The Downfall
  63. Bismarck's Secret Discontent
  64. "Who Made United Germany?"
  65. The Irony of Fate
  66. Last Illusion Dispelled
  67. Binding Up the Old Man's Wounds
  68. Awaiting the Call
  69. Refuses to Pass Under the Yoke
  70. Glory Turns to Ashes

Chapter XVIII--Hail and Farewell
  71. His Final and Most Glorious Decoration
  72. "As One Asleep"




                            BOOK THE FIRST

                       Bismarck's Human Essence




                               CHAPTER I

                            The Man Himself


                                   1

  Hark, Hark! The giant's ponderous hammer rings on the anvil
  of destiny. Enter, thou massive figure, Bismarck, and in
  deadly earnest take thy place before Time's forge.

¶ It is, it must be, a large story--big with destiny! The details
often bore with their monotony; they do not at all times march on;
they drag, but they do indeed never halt permanently; ahead always is
the great German glory.

¶ Forward march, under Prince Bismarck. He is our grim blacksmith,
looming through the encircling dark, massive figure before Time's
forge.

The sparks fly, the air rings with the rain of blows: he is in deadly
earnest, this half-naked, brawny Prussian giant; magnificent in his
Olympian mien; his bellows cracking, his shop aglow with
cheery- sparks as the heavy hammer falls on the unshapen ores
on the big black anvil.

¶ Thus, toiling hour after hour in the heat and sweat, our Pomeranian
smith with ponderous hammer beats and batters the stubborn German iron
into a noble plan--for a great Nation!

       *       *       *       *       *

¶ From a human point, we do not always see the ultimate glory.

For that is obscured by dark clouds of party strife, extending over
years, the caprices of men and the interplay of ambitions both within
and without the distracted German lands. Russia, Austria, Italy, Great
Britain, France, Spain, have their spies engaged in all the under-play
of political intrigue; there are a thousand enemies at home and
abroad, in camp, court and peasant's cottage.

¶ And at times, weary of it all, we throw down the book convinced
that, in a welter of sordid ends, the cause is lost in shame.

But, somehow, some way, Germany does in truth ultimately emerge
triumphant, in spite of her amazing errors and the endless plots of
enemies.

She does indeed justify her manhood--and thus the Bismarck story is of
imperishable glory.

       *       *       *       *       *

¶ We say that Bismarck had to re-inspire the Germans to be a fighting
nation.

What we mean is that the spirit of the ancient Teutons had to be
aroused; for though it slumbered for centuries, it never died.

Rome found that out when she was still in her infancy; the Germans
burnt the town by the Tiber;