The same spirit that had led the Poles to impress so forcibly upon the traveler the fact that the city in which he had just arrived was now called Poznan (pronounced Poznánya) had manifested itself in a thousand other changes. In so far as time had permitted, every official signboard had already been rendered into Polish and the detested1 German ones cast into outer darkness. Only those familiar with the Slavic tongue of the new rulers could have guessed what all those glitteringly new enameled2 placards that adorned3 the still Boche-featured station were commanding them to do or not to do. Every street in town had been baptized into the new faith and gaily4 boasted that fact on every corner. For a time the names had been announced in both languages, as in Metz; but a month or so before my arrival the radicals5 had prevailed and the older placards had been abolished. True, in most cases the new ones were merely translations of the old. But what did it help the German resident who had neglected to learn Polish to know that the “Alte Markt” was still the “Old Market” so long as he could not recognize it under the new designation of “Stary Rynek”? Imagine, if you can, the sensation of waking up some morning to find that Main Street has become Ulica Glòwna, or to discover that the street-car you had always taken no longer runs to Forest Park but to Ogrott Lass.
220Nothing but the few things that defied quick change, such as post-boxes or names deeply cut into stone fa?ades, had escaped the all-embracing renovation7. Indeed, many of these had been deliberately8 defaced. The cast-iron “Haltestelle der Strassenbahn” high up on the trolley-supports had been daubed with red paint, though they were still recognizable to motormen and would-be passengers. Many business houses had followed the official lead, and private signs were more apt than not to have the German words that had once called attention to the excellence9 of the wares10 within crudely effaced11 or changed to the new tongue. Sometimes it was not merely the language that had been altered, but the whole tenor12 of the proprietor’s allegiance. A popular underground beer-hall in the heart of town was no longer the “Bismarck Tunnel,” but the “Tunel Wilsona.” German trucks thundering by on their iron tires bore the white eagle of Poland instead of the black Prussian bird of prey13. German newspapers were still published, but as the streets they mentioned were nowhere to be found in all Poznan, their advertisements and much of their news were rather pointless. It gave me a curiously14 helpless feeling to find myself for the first time in years unable to guess a word of the language about me. Fortunately all Poznan still spoke15 German. Only once during my stay there did I find myself hampered16 by my ignorance of Polish—when a theater-ticket office proved to be in charge of a pair recently arrived from Warsaw. On more than one occasion my advances were received coldly, sometimes with scowls17. But a reply was always forthcoming, and whenever I announced myself an American, who spoke the less welcome of the two tongues by necessity rather than by choice, apology and friendly overtures18 immediately followed.
Having effaced the lingual20 reminders21 of their late oppressors, the Poznanians had proceeded to pay their respects 221to the bronze heroes they had left behind. The Germans, as is their custom, had littered the public squares with statues of their chief sword-brandishers, in gigantic size—tender reminders to the conquered people of the blessings22 that had been forced upon them. The downfall of these had been sudden and unceremonious. Some had descended23 so hastily that the allegorical figures at their feet had suffered the fate so often overtaking faithful henchmen of the fallen mighty24. The stone image of an old woman representing “Sorrow” looked doubly sorrowful with broken nose, legs, and fingers. Kaiser Friedrich, Doctor Bismarck with his panacea25 of “blood and iron,” the world-famed Wilhelm, had all left behind them imposing26 pedestals, like university chairs awaiting exponents27 of newer and more lasting28 doctrines29. Here and there a statue had remained, because it was Polish, but these were few and small and tucked away into the more obscure corners.
Next to its change of tongue the most striking feature of the new Poznan was its military aspect. The streets swarmed31 with soldiers even during the day; in the evening the chief gathering32-places became pulsating33 seas of field gray. For it was still the garb34 of their former servitude that clothed the vast majority of these warriors35 of the reborn nation. The silver double-eagle on his service-faded cap was all that was needed to turn a wearer of the German uniform into a soldier of Poland. Many still wore their “Gott mit uns” belt-buckles and their Prussian buttons. A scattering36 minority, officers for the most part, were conspicuous37 in the full new Polish uniform—double-breasted, with a forest-green tinge38. The high, square cap, distinctive39 only of the province of Poznan, was more widely in evidence; the less cumbersome40 headgear of military visitors from Warsaw or Galizia now and then broke the red-banded monotony. But the only universal sign of new fealty41 was the silver double-eagle. This gleamed everywhere. 222Men in civilian42 garb wore it on their hats or in their coat lapels; women adorned their bodices with it; boys and girls proudly displayed it in some conspicuous position. It fluttered on a thousand banners; it bedecked every Polish shop-front; it stared from the covers of newly appeared books, pamphlets, music-sheets in the popular tongue; the very church spires43 had replaced their crosses with it. One could buy the resurrected insignia, of any size or material, in almost any shop—providing one could produce “legitimation papers” or other proof that it would not be used to disguise a German as a Pole.
An over-abundance of swords tended to give the new army a comic-opera aspect, but this detail was offset44 by the genuine military bearing of all but a few of the multitude in uniform. The great majority, of course, had had German training. Now, however, they put the “pep” of a new game into the old forms of soldierly etiquette45. Their two-finger salute46 was rendered with the precision of ambitious recruits and at the same time with the exactitude of “old-timers.” They sprang unfailingly to attention at sight of a superior officer and stood like automatons47 until he turned away. Yet there seemed to be an un-German comradeship between the rank and file and the commissioned personnel, a democracy of endeavor, a feeling that they were all embarked48 together on the same big new adventure. There were, to be sure, some officers and a few men whose sidewalk manners suggested that they had learned Prussian ways a bit too thoroughly49, but they were lost in a mass that had something of the easy-going temperament50 of the East or the South.
All classes of the Polish population were represented in the new army from the bulking countryman who ran after me to say that the photograph I had just taken of him would not be a success because he had not been looking at the lens during the operation to the major who granted 223me special permission to use my kodak in spite of military rules. This officer had been late in reaching his office, and I passed the time in his anteroom in conversation with his sergeant51-major. When he entered at last the entire office force sprang to its feet with what in an older army would have been an exaggeration of discipline. The sergeant-major, his middle finger glued to the seams of his trousers, explained my presence and request. The major asked several questions in Polish, which the sergeant repeated to me in German, relaying my replies back to the major in his native tongue. When the latter had nodded his approval and disappeared, and the office force had relaxed into mere6 human beings, I expressed my surprise that an officer of such high rank knew no German.
“Knows no German!” cried the sergeant-major, bursting into laughter. “The major was for nine years a captain in the German army. He is a graduate of the War College in Berlin and was a member of Hindenburg’s staff. But he never lets a word of the accursed tongue pass his lips if he can possibly avoid it.”
The new Polish government had established a conscription act as drastic as if it had been taken bodily from the old German statute-books. All males between the ages of seventeen and forty-five were liable to service. Those between eighteen and thirty had already been called to the colors, though thus far German residents had been tacitly exempted52. Every afternoon of my stay in Poznan a hundred or two of recruits, flower-bedecked and carrying each his carton of travel rations53, marched in column of squads54 from the railway station to what had once been the Kaiser’s barracks, singing as they went some rousing Polish song of the olden days. At least half of them wore more or less complete German uniforms. Some were so under-sized that a rifle in their hands would have resembled a machine-gun. But with few exceptions their military bearing 224testified to previous training under the exacting55 drill-sergeants of their former rulers. Watching this new addition each day to the hordes56 in uniform that already crowded the city, one could not but wonder whether the new Poland was not giving refuge, perhaps unconsciously, to the discredited57 spirit of militarism that had so recently been expelled from its German Fatherland.
The “revolution,” or “Putsch,” as the Poles call it, that brought about all this new state of affairs had been brief and to the point. Paderewski, relying, perhaps, on Germany’s promise to help re-establish the ancient Polish Kingdom, had come to Posen for the Christmas holidays. The hotel he occupied had been decorated with the flags of the Allies. It is scarcely surprising that the Germans proceeded to tear them down in spite of the armistice58 that had recently been concluded. According to several observers, they might even have “got away with” this had they not persisted in their Prussian aggressiveness. On December 27th a Polish youth paused to ask another for a light from his cigarette. Matches had long been precious things in Posen. A German officer pounced59 upon the pair and demanded to know what conspiracy60 they were hatching together. The Polish youths quite properly knocked him down. Their companions joined in the fracas61. The Polish turnvereins had long had everything prepared for just such an eventuality. Word swept like prairie fire through the city. French and Italian prisoners of war sprang to such arms as they could lay hands on and added their assistance. The soldiers of the garrison63, being chiefly Poles or of Polish sympathies, walked out almost in a body and joined the revolt. It raged for twenty-four hours. In the words of the sergeant-major already introduced: “It was a busy day from four in the morning until the following dawn. At least sixty ribs64 were broken—mostly German ones.” There have been bloodier65 revolutions, 225however, for the number killed is set at ten. The Polish leaders were soon masters of the situation. In three days they had established order. Their search for arms was thorough and included Polish as well as German houses. The government they had already established in secret soon tautened the reins62 that had been struck from the hands of the Germans, and by New Year’s Day Poznan had already settled down to peace and to a contentment it had not known in more than a century.
As far, at least, as outward appearances go, there was nothing particularly oppressive about the new rule. Civilians66 were not permitted on the streets after midnight, but those with any legitimate67 excuse for night-hawking were granted special passes. The Poles showed a tendency to meet half-way their next-door neighbor and late oppressor. With the exception of a few “Polen-fresser,” German residents were not driven out, as in Metz and Strassburg. Boche merchants continued to do business at the old stand. Newspapers published in Germany were refused admittance, but that was a fair retaliation68 for similar action by the new authorities of the late Empire. Even the detested statues were not overthrown69 until March, when the Germans declined to give the Poles port facilities at Danzig. The language of the schools, as well as of government offices, was changed to Polish; but as soon as Berlin consented to a reciprocal arrangement, German was restored to the curriculum, though it was taught only a few hours a week, as a foreign tongue. In short, the conditions of Bromberg had been nicely reversed in Poznan. It must, to be sure, have been rather a tough life for the town braggart70 who had always espoused71 the German cause; but there was apparently72 nothing to be feared by those who know how to hold their tongues and confine their attention to their own affairs—and the German is a past-master at lying low when it is to his interest to do so. His native tongue was almost 226never heard on the streets, such arrogance73 as existed was confined now to the Poles, and the just-let-us-alone-and-we’ll-be-good r?le had been assumed by the Teutons.
There were suggestions, however, that the Poles were not yet adepts74 at governing, nor likely soon to establish a modern Utopia. Already they had succeeded in encumbering75 themselves with fully76 as much red-tape as the French. A musician as national leader and rallying-point seemed to be in keeping with the Polish temperament. There was a lack of practical directness in their methods, a tendency toward the erratic77, at the expense of orderly progress. One of their foremost business men turned high official, to whom I applied78 for a signature and the imprint79 of a government stamp, received me with a protest that he was “too busy to breathe”—and spent two hours reciting Polish poetry to me and demonstrating how he had succeeded in photographing every secret document that had reached Posen during the war without being once suspected by the Germans. “I am not experienced in this business of government,” he apologized, when I succeeded at last in taking my leave, “but I am ready to sacrifice myself and all I have to the new Poland.”
The statement rang true in his case, but there were others whose repetition of it would have raised grave suspicions that they were putting the cart before the horse. The rush for government jobs under the new régime had in it something of the attitude of the faithful henchmen toward the periodical return to power of their beloved Tammany. There were tender reminiscences of the A. E. F. in the flocks of incompetent80 pretty girls who encumbered81 government offices, dipping their charming noses into everything except that which concerned them, as there was in the tendency on the part of both sexes to consider government transportation synonymous with opportunity for “joy-riding.” It will be strange if the Polish servant-girls and 227factory hands who come to us in the future bring with them the accept-anything spirit of the past, at least after the period of orientation82 to their new environment is over. They are “feeling their oats” at home now and will be apt to set their worth and their rights to full equality correspondingly higher.
The Poles, evidently, are not by nature a frolicsome83 people, but they seemed to have thrown away the “lid” in Poznan and given free play to all the joy within them. Pianos were more in evidence than they had been during all the twenty months I had spent in war-torn Europe. Children appeared to have taken on a new gaiety. Night life was almost Parisian, except in the more reprehensible84 features of the “City of Light.” It may have been due only to a temporary difference of mood in the two races, but Polish Poznan struck me as a far more livable place than German Berlin. Evidently the people of the provinces were not letting this new attractiveness of the restored city escape them; the newspapers bristled85 with offers of reward for any one giving information of apartments or houses for rent. Underneath86 their merriness, however, the religious current of the race still ran strong and swift. The churches discharged multitudes daily at the end of morning mass; no male, be he coachman, policeman, soldier, or newsboy, ever passed the crucifix at the end of the principal bridge without reverently87 raising his hat. There are Protestant Poles, but they apparently do not live in Poznan. Now and again, too, there were episodes quite the opposite of gay to give the city pause in the midst of its revelry—the drunken sots in uniform, for instance, who canvassed88 the shops demanding alms and prophesying89 the firing-squad for those who declined to contribute. Were they not perhaps the outposts of Bolshevism? But all this was immersed in the general gaiety, tinged90 with a mild Orientalism that showed itself not only in the architecture, 228but in such leisurely91 customs as closing shops and offices from one to three, in defiance92 of nearly a century and a half of the sterner German influence.
It is quite possible that the increased liveliness of the Poznanians was as much due to the fact that they had plenty to eat as to their release from Teutonic bondage93. The two things had come together. Being perhaps the richest agricultural district of the late Empire, the province of Posen was quick to recover its alimentary94 footing, once its frontiers had been closed against the all-devouring German. With the exception of potatoes, of which the supply was well in excess of local needs, the exportation of foodstuffs95 toward the hungry West had absolutely ceased. The result was more than noticeable in Poznan; it was conspicuous, all but overpowering, particularly to those arriving from famished96 Germany. Street after street was lined with a constant tantalization97 to the new-comer from the West, arousing his resentment98 at the appetite that was so easily satisfied after its constant vociferations in days gone by—and still to come. Butcher shops displayed an abundance of everything from frankfurters to sides of beef. Cheese, butter, eggs by the bushel, candy, sugar, sweetmeats were heaped high behind glass fronts that would have been slight protection for them in Berlin. In what were now known as “restauracya” one might order a breakfast of eggs, bacon, milk, butter, and all the other things the mere mention of which would have turned a German Wirt livid with rage, without so much as exciting a ripple99 on the waiter’s brow. At the rathskeller of Poznan’s artistic100 old city hall a “steak and everything,” such a steak as not even a war-profiteer could command anywhere in Germany, cost a mere seven marks, including the inevitable101 mug of beer and the “10 per cent. for service” that was exacted here also by the Kellners’ union. With the low rate of exchange—for Poznan was still using German 229money—the price was considerably102 less than it would have been in New York at the same date. Far from being short of fats, the Poles were overgenerous with their grease and gravies103. Bacon could be had in any quantity at six marks a pound; eggs at thirty pfennigs each. Bread, brown but excellent, was unlimited104. Food-tickets, unknown in hotels and restaurants, were theoretically required for a few of the principal articles in the shops, but there was little difficulty in purchasing without them, at least with the payment of a slight “premium105.” On market-days the immense square allotted106 to them was densely107 crowded from corner to corner by curiously garbed108 female hawkers and countrymen offering every conceivable product of their farms and gardens. Poznan still consumed a few things that do not appear on the American bill of fare, such as doves, gull109 eggs, and various species of weeds and grasses; but the fact remains110 that the well-to-do could get anything their appetites craved111, and the poor were immensely better off than in any city of Germany. There was only one shortage that irked the popular soul. Expression of it rang incessantly112 in my ears—“Please tell America to send us tobacco!” The queues before tobacconists’ shops were as long and as persistent113 as in Germany. Ragged114 men of the street eagerly parted with a precious fifty-pfennig “shin-plaster” for a miserable115 “cigarette” filled for only half its length with an unsuccessful imitation of tobacco. The principal café, having husbanded its supply of the genuine article, placed a thousand of them on sale each evening at eight, “as a special favor to our clients.” By that hour entrance was quite impossible, and though only two were allowed each purchaser, there was nothing but the empty box left five minutes later.
Unselfishness is not one of mankind’s chief virtues116, particularly in that chaos117 of conflicting interests known to the world as central Europe. In view of all they had won in 230so short a time, and amid the German shrieks118 of protest, it was disconcerting to find that the Poles were far from satisfied with what had been granted them by the Peace Conference. From high government officials to the man in the street they deluged119 me with their complaints, often na?vely implying that I had personally had some hand in framing the terms of the proposed treaty, or at least the power to have them altered before it was too late. They were dissatisfied with the western frontier that had been set for them, especially in West Prussia; they were particularly disgruntled because they had not been given Danzig outright121. A nation of thirty million people should have a harbor of its own. Danzig was essentially122 Polish in its sympathies, in spite of the deliberate Germanization that had been practised upon it. Strangely enough they accused America of having blocked their aspirations123 in that particular. They blamed Wilson personally for having shut them out of Danzig, as well as for the annoying delay in drawing up the treaty. The Germans had “got at him” through the Jews. The latter had far too much power in the American government, as well as in American finances. The impression was wide-spread in Poznan that Mrs. Wilson is Jewish. The Germans and the Jews had always stuck together. Poland had always been far too lenient124 with the Jews. She had let them in too easily; had granted them citizenship125 too readily. As they spoke either Yiddish, an offshoot of German, or Russian, they had always lined up with the enemies of Poland. Half the German spies, every one of the Russian spies with whom Polish territory had been flooded during the war, had been Jews. The Poles in America had gathered money for the alleviation126 of suffering in their home-land, and had given it to Jews, Germans, and Poles, irrespective of race. The Jews in America had collected similar funds and had expended128 them only among the Jews. From whatever point of view one approached 231him, the resident of Poznan had nothing good to say of the Chosen People.
The story of Posen’s existence under German rule, now happily ended, was largely a repetition of what had already been told me in Bromberg. In some ways this region had been even more harshly treated, if my informants were trustworthy. Polish skilled workmen “clear down to button-makers” had been driven out of the province. Great numbers had been more or less forcibly compelled to migrate into Germany. There were at least four hundred thousand Poles in the mines and factories of Westphalia. Saxony was half Polish; the district between Hamburg and Bremen was almost entirely129 Slavish in population. The Ansiedler—the German settlers whom the government had brought to Posen—had acquired all the best land. On the other hand, German Catholics were not allowed to establish themselves in the province of Posen, lest they join their coreligionists against the Protestant oppressors. Perhaps the thing that rankled130 most was the banishment131 of the Polish language from the schools. One could scarcely speak it with one’s children at home, for fear of their using it before the teacher. Many of the youngsters had never more than half learned it. In twenty years more no one would have dared speak Polish in public. Men had been given three, and even four, months in prison for privately132 teaching their children Polish history. The schools were hopelessly Prussianized; the German teachers received a special premium of one thousand marks or more a year over the regular salaries. All railway jobs went to Germans, except those of section men at two marks a day. There had been Polish newspapers and theaters, but they had never been allowed any freedom of thought or action.
“The trouble with the German, or at least the Prussian,” one new official put in, “is that it is his nature to get things by force. He was born that way. Why, the Prussians 232stole even their name; it was originally Barrusen, as the little corner of Russia was called where the robbers first banded together. They marauded their way westward133 and southward, treading first little people and then little nations under their iron heels. The very word the German uses for “get” or “obtain” tells his history. It is kriegen, to win by war—krieg. You seldom hear him use the gentler bekommen. Everything he possesses he has gekriegt. Then he is such a hypocrite! In 1916, when we Poles first began to suffer seriously from hunger, some German officers came with baskets of fruit and sandwiches, gathered a group of Polish urchins134, filled their hands with the food, and had themselves photographed with them, to show the world how generous and kind-hearted they were. But they did not tell the world that the moment the photographs had been taken the food was snatched away from the hungry children again, some of the officers boxing their ears, and sent back to the German barracks. How do you think the Poles who have been crippled for life fighting for the ‘Fatherland’ feel as they hobble about our streets? What would you say to serving five years in the German army only to be interned135 as a dangerous enemy alien at the end of it, as is the case with thousands of our sons who were not able to get across the frontier in time? No, the Germans in Poznan are not oppressed as our people were under their rule. We are altogether too soft-hearted with them.”
The German residents themselves, as was to be expected, took a different view of the situation. When the Polish authorities had decorated my passport with permission to return to Berlin, I took no chances of being held up by the cantankerous136 dyspeptic at Kreuz and applied for a new visé by the German Volksrat of Posen. It occupied a modest little dwelling-house on the wide, curving avenue no longer recognizable under its former title of “Kaiser Wilhelm Ring.” Barely had I established my identity 233when the gloomy Germans took me to their bosom137. Had I been fully informed of their side of the situation? Would I not do them the kindness to return at eleven, when they would see to it that men of high standing138 were there to give me the real facts of the case? My impressions of Posen would be wholly false if I left it after having consorted139 only with Poles.
As a matter of fact I had already “consorted” with no small number of German residents, chiefly of the small-merchant class. Those I had found somewhat mixed in their minds. A few still prophesied140 a “peasants’ war” in the territory allotted to Poland; a number of them shivered with apprehension141 of a “general Bolshevist uprising.” But fully as many pooh-poohed both those cheerful bogies. One thing only was certain—that without exception they were doing business as usual and would continue to do so as long as the Poles permitted it. The feeling for the “Fatherland” did not seem strong enough among the overwhelming majority of them to stand the strain of personal sacrifice.
When I returned at eleven the Volksrat had been convoked142 in unofficial special session. A half-dozen of the men who had formerly143 held high places in the Municipal Council rose ostentatiously to their feet as I was ushered144 into the chief sanctum, and did not sit down again until I had been comfortably seated. The chief spokesman had long been something corresponding to chairman of the Board of Aldermen. His close-cropped head glistened145 in the sunshine that entered through the window at his elbow, and his little ferret-like eyes alternately sought to bore their way into my mental processes and to light up with a winsome146 na?veté which he did not really possess. Most of the words I set down here are his, though some of them were now and then thrown in by his subservient147 but approving companions.
234“With us Germans,” he began, “it has become a case of ‘Vogel friss oder starb’—eat crow or die. We are forced, for the time at least, to accept what the Poles see fit to allow us. The German residents of Posen are not exactly oppressed, but our lives are hemmed148 in by a thousand petty annoyances149, some of them highly discouraging. Take, for instance, this matter of the street names. Granted that the Poles had the right to put them up in their own language. It was certainly a sign of fanaticism150 to tear down the German names. More than a fourth of the residents of Posen cannot read the new street placards. There is not a Polish map of the city in existence. When the province of Posen came back to us the Polish street names were allowed to remain until 1879—for more than a hundred years. It is a sign of childishness, of retarded151 mentality152, to daub with red paint all the German signs they cannot remove! It isn’t much more than that to have forbidden the use of our tongue in governmental affairs. We Germans used both languages officially clear up to 1876. We even had the old Prussian laws translated into Polish. It is only during the last ten years that nothing but German was permitted in the public schools; and there have always been plenty of Polish private schools. I am still technically153 a member of the Municipal Council, but I cannot understand a word of the proceedings154, because they are in Polish. Our lawyers cannot practise unless they use that language, although the judges, who pretend not to know German, speak it as readily as you or I. Yet these same lawyers cannot get back into Germany. At least give us time to learn Polish before abolishing German! Many a man born here cannot speak it. There are German children of eighteen or twenty, who have never been outside the province, who are now learning Polish—that is, to write and speak it correctly.
“Oh yes, to be sure, we can most of us get permission in 235three or four weeks to leave the province, but only by abandoning most of our possessions and taking an oath never to return. No wonder so many Germans become Poles overnight. You can hardly expect otherwise, when they have lived here all their lives and have all their property and friends and interests here. No, military service is not required of Germans, even if they were born here; but many of our youths have voluntarily become Polish soldiers, for the same reason that their parents have suddenly turned Poles. Naturally, there is fighting along the boundary of the province. The Poles want to fight, so they can have an excuse to keep their men under arms, and what can Germany do but protect herself? Poland is planning to become an aggressive, militaristic nation, as was falsely charged against the Fatherland by her enemies.
“The complaints of the Poles at our rule were ridiculous. We paid German teachers a premium because they had harder work in teaching German to Polish children and in seeing that they did not speak the language that was unwisely used at home. Railroad jobs, except common labor155, were given to Germans because they were more efficient and trustworthy. Besides, does not Germany own the railroads? They complain that the best land was taken by German settlers; but the Poles were only too glad to sell to our Ansiedler—at high prices. Now they are attacking us with a fanaticism of the Middle Ages. Eighteen hundred German teachers, men who have been educating the Poles for twenty or twenty-five years, have suddenly been discharged and ordered to vacate government property within four weeks—yet they are not allowed to go back to Germany. The Pole is still part barbarian156; he is more heartless than his cousin the Russian.
“Seventy per cent. of the taxes in the province of Posen are paid by Germans. Yet no German who was not born here can vote, though Poles who were not can. I know a 236village where there are seventy Germans and five Poles—and the five Poles run things to suit themselves. Husbands, wives, and sons often have different rights of suffrage157. The family of Baron158 X has lived here for a hundred and fifty years. The baron himself happens to have been born in Berlin, because his mother went there to see a doctor. So he cannot vote, though his Polish coachman, who has not been here ten years, has all the rights of citizenship. The result is that government affairs are getting into a hopeless muddle159. An ignorant fellow by the name of Korfanti—a Polish ‘German-eater’—has now the chief voice in the Municipal Council. The Poles boycott160 German merchants. They deluge120 the city with placards and appeals not to buy of Germans. For a long time they refused to trade even a miserable little Polish theater for our splendid big Stadttheater. When the director of that finally got permission to take over the wholly inadequate161 little playhouse for next season he had to advertise in order to find out how many Germans intend to stay in Posen—as you have seen in our German paper. What can the Poles do with our magnificent Stadttheater? They have no classics to give in it, nor people of sufficient culture to make up an audience. We are still allowed to give German opera, because they know they cannot run that themselves, and a few of the more educated Poles like it. But our splendid spoken classics seem to be doomed162.
“Then there is their ridiculous hatred163 of the Jews. The race may have its faults, but the five or six thousand Jews of Posen province play a most important business and financial r?le. They have always understood the advantages of German Kultur far better than the Poles. There is a Jewish Volksrat here that tries to keep independent of both the other elements of the population; but the great majority of the Jews stand with the Germans. They have no use for this new Zionism—except for the other fellow—unless 237you take seriously the aspirations of a few impractical164 young idealists”—a statement, by the way, which I heard from Jews of all classes in various parts of Germany.
“We Germans lifted the Poles out of their semi-savagery. We brought them Kultur. Do not be deceived by what you see in Posen. It is a magnificent city, is it not?—finer, perhaps, than you Americans found Coblenz? Yet everything that gives it magnificence was built by the Germans—the well-paved streets, the big, wide boulevards, the splendid parks, all the government buildings and the best of the private ones, the street-cars, the electric lights, even the higher state of civilization you find among the masses. There is not a Pole in the province of Posen who cannot read and write. Do not make the mistake of thinking all these things are Polish because the Poles have stolen them. Before you leave, go and compare Posen with the Polish cities outside Germany. That will tell the story. In non-German Poland you will be struck by the appalling165 lack of schools, roads, doctors, hospitals, education, culture, by the sad condition of the workmen and the peasants—all those things that are included in the German word Kultur. In Galizia, where Austria virtually allowed the Poles to run themselves, the houses are only six feet high, and you could walk all day without finding a man who can read and write, or who can even speak German. Their cities are sunk in a degradation166 of the Middle Ages. Posen will fall into the same state, if the present Municipal Council continues in power. There are already frontier troubles between German and Russian Poland, and quarrels between the different sections that confirm what we Germans have always known—that the Poles cannot govern themselves. Warsaw does not wish to keep up our splendid system of workmen and old-age insurance because there is none in Russian Poland. Galizia complains that farm land is several times higher in price 238in the province of Posen, without admitting that it is German railroads and German settlers that have made it so. That advantage will soon disappear. The Poles will make a mess of the whole province and will have it sunk into the degradation in which we found it by the time a real ruling nation takes charge of it again.”
Just how much truth there was mixed in with the considerable amount of patent nonsense in the ex-chairman’s declamation167 only a long stay in Poznan, or time itself, would show. The fact that the Poles allowed many of these statements, particularly the protests against the sudden change of language, to be published in the local German newspaper speaks at least for their spirit of tolerance168. Though the new government was visibly making mistakes, and had not yet settled down to the orderliness that should come from experience, no one but a prejudiced critic could have discovered immediate19 evidence that it was making any such complete “mess” of matters as the German Volksrat testified. Even if it had been, at least the mass of the population showed itself happy and contented169 with the change, and contentment, after all, may in time result in more genuine and lasting progress than that which comes from the forcible feeding of German Kultur.
I dropped in at the Teatro Apollo one evening, chiefly to find out how it feels to see a play without understanding a word of it. An immense barnlike building, that looked as if it had once been a skating-rink or a dancing-pavilion, was crowded to suffocation170 with Poles of every class and variety, from servant-girls in their curious leg-of-mutton sleeves to colonels in the latest cut of Polish uniform. The actors—if they could have been dignified171 with that title—had recently been imported from Warsaw, and the alleged172 play they perpetrated could scarcely have been equaled by our silliest rough-and-tumble “comedians.” The herd-like roar with which their inane173 sallies were unfailingly 239greeted testified that the audience found them entertaining. But it may be that Poznan was in a particularly simple-minded mood during its first months of relief from a century of bitter oppression. I hope so, for I should regret to find that the startling contrast between this Polish audience and the German one at the artistic Stadttheater the following evening fairly represented the difference between the two races. I believe I am not prejudiced by the fact that the Volksrat presented me with a free ticket when I say that the latter performance was one of which any manager might have been justly proud. The audience, too, resembled the other about as a gathering of college professors resembles a collection of factory hands. There was a well-bred solemnity about it that could not, in this case, have been due merely to hunger, for there was no munching174 whatever between the acts, none even under cover of the darkened house, except here and there of candy, a luxury so long since forgotten in Berlin that the happy possessor would never have dreamed of giving his attention at the same time to the merely esthetic175 appeal of the theater. There may have been Poles in the house, but at least the new army was conspicuous by its absence. Not a uniform was to be seen, with the exception of three scattered176 through the “peanut gallery.” Two crown boxes, destined177 only for Hohenzollern royalty178 or its representatives, sat empty, with something of the solemn demeanor179 of the vacant chair at the head of the table the day after the funeral. Who would occupy them when the Poles had taken over the playhouse? What, moreover, would they do toward maintaining the high standards of the stage before us? For the most indefatigable180 enemy of the Germans must have admitted that here was something that could ill be spared. If only they had been contented with bringing the masses these genuine benefits, without militarism, with more open competition, without so much appeal to the doctrine30 of 240force—but it has ever been Germany’s contention181 that only by force can the mass of mankind be lifted to higher levels; that only an army can protect the self-appointed missionaries182 of a loftier civilization.
Armed with what those who read Polish assured me was permission to do so, I set out on foot one morning to the eastward183. Beyond the last group of guards wearing the silver double-eagle on their threadbare German uniforms, I fell in with three barefooted Polish peasant women. They were barely thirty, yet all three were already well-nigh toothless, and their hardy184 forms and faces were plainly marked with the signs that testify to grueling labor and the constant bearing of children. The German they spoke was far superior to the dialects of many regions of purely185 Teutonic population. Their demeanor was cheerful, yet behind it one caught frequent glimpses of that background of patient, unquestioning acceptance of life as it is which distinguishes the country people of Europe.
The most energetic of the trio showed a willingness to enter into conversation; the others confined themselves to an occasional nod of approval, as if the exertion186 of keeping pace with us left them no strength to expend127 in mere words. It was plain from the beginning that they were not enthusiastic on the subject then uppermost in the city behind us. They greeted my first reference to it with expressions that might have been called indifferent, had they not been tinged with evidence of a mild resentment.
“What does it matter to us people of the fields,” retorted the less taciturn of the group, “whether Poles or Germans sit in the comfort of government offices, so long as they let us alone? Things were all right as they were, before the war came. Why trouble us with all these changes? Now they are breaking our backs with new burdens, as if we had not had enough of them for five years. First they take our men and leave us to do their work. I have not a 241male relative left, except my husband, and he is so sickly that he is no longer a man. He is paid twelve marks for eight hours’ work; fifteen for ten. But what help is that when he cannot work ten hours, or even eight? They offered him the iron cross. He told them he would rather have something to feed his family with at home. They asked him if he was not already getting forty marks a month for the support of his family. How could I feed four children, even after the other two had died, with forty marks a month? For three winters I had nothing but dried potatoes and salt. I could not have bread for myself because the flour for the children took all the tickets. Now the war is over, yet they are still taking away what we have left. The same soldiers come and drive off our horses—for the silver eagle on their caps has not changed their natures. Pay for them? Ach, what is eight hundred marks for a horse that is worth six thousand? And how can we cultivate our fields without them? Who started the war? Ach, they are all arguing. What does it matter, so long as they stop it? Will the Germans sign? They should, and have done with it. If they don’t, all the men over fifty, including the Germans and even the Jews”—there was a sneer187 in this last word, even in the country—“will be at it again. We have had enough of it. Yet if the soldiers come and tell my husband to go he must go, sick though he is.”
The basket each of the trio carried contained the midday lunch of her husband in the fields. I turned aside to the grassy188 slope on which two of the couples assembled. The men insisted that I share their meal with them. It was more nourishing than a ten-mark repast in a Berlin restaurant, but the absence of bread was significant. When I gave the men each a pinch of tobacco crumbs189 they announced themselves delighted at the exchange, and mumbled190 halting words about the well-known generosity191 of Americans. 242As I turned my kodak upon them they greeted it with a laughing “Oh, là là!” There was no need to ask where they had picked up that expression. It oriented their war experiences as definitely as it will distinguish for years to come the Americans, in whatever garb one finds them, who were members of the A. E. F. in France.
The men were less indifferent to the recent change of government than their wives, but even they could not have been called enthusiastic. What struck one most was the wider outlook on life the Germans had been forced to give them in spite of themselves. Had they been left to till their farms, these plodding192 peasants would probably still have swallowed whole the specious193 propaganda of their erstwhile rulers. Now, after four years of military service that had carried them through all central Europe, they had developed the habit of forming their own opinions on all questions; they took any unverified statement, from whatever source, with more than a grain of salt. It would be a mistake nowadays to think of the European peasant as the prejudiced conservative, the plaything of deliberate misinformation, which he was five years ago. In the light of his new experiences he is in many cases doing more individual thinking than the average city resident.
Yet, I must admit, the conclusions of this well-traveled pair did not boil down into anything very different from the consensus194 of opinion, even though they reached them by their own peculiar195 trains of thought. Germany, they were convinced, had the full guilt196 of the war; not the Kaiser particularly—they call him “Wilhelm” in Posen province now, and even there one detects now and again a tendency toward the old idolatry he seems personally to have enjoyed throughout the whole Empire—but the military crowd, “and the capitalists.” They disclaimed197 any hatred of the Germans, “until they wanted to rule the earth” and sought to make the peasants the instruments of their ambition. 243They, too, charged Wilson personally with delaying the conclusion of peace—on the fate of Danzig they seemed to be supremely198 indifferent.
“It’s all politics, anyway,” concluded one of them. “They are all playing politics. If the Germans don’t sign they will be divided up as Poland was a hundred and forty years ago. But this new government in Posen is no better than the old. What we need is something entirely new—a government of the peasants and of the working-classes.”
The women had from the beginning tried to lead their husbands away from “arguing politics,” chiefly with ludicrously heavy attempts at coquetry, and at length they succeeded. I regained199 the highway. On either hand lay slightly rolling fields of fertile black soil, well cultivated as far as the eye could see, with only a scattering of trees. Miles away an abandoned Zeppelin hangar bulked into the sky. There were more women laborers200 than men; several gangs of them were working with picks and shovels201; another group was slowly but patiently loading bricks. Horses were to be seen here and there, but oxen were in the majority. Farm-houses showed a rough comfort and a tolerable cleanliness, villages a passable neatness that may or may not have been due to German influence. Certainly the architecture, the farming methods, the communal202 customs, were little different from those of Prussia or the Rhineland.
The dinner served me in the chief tavern203 of a village of some two thousand inhabitants was nothing to complain of, either in variety or price. A general-shop keeper stated that “with the exception of a few semi-luxuries, such as cocoa and toilet soap,” his grocery department could still meet the decreased demands made upon it. In the clothing lines everything was scarce or wholly lacking. Worst of all, there was nothing fit to drink or smoke. The strong spirits that had once been his chief trade had become so 244weak no one but boys would drink them. If only America would send concentrated alcohol they could doctor the stock of liquor they had on hand so that no one would know the difference. Then if they could only get some American tobacco! Life was not what it used to be, without a real cigarette from one month’s end to the other. The German rule, on the whole, had not been so bad as many of the Allies seemed to believe. They got along, though it was rather pleasant to be relieved of the arrogant204 fellows, or see them crawl into their shells. No German resident in the village had given any sign of intending to move away. The communal school was still teaching the German language—two or three hours a week now. No one had noticed any other change of any importance. The French prisoners confined in the province during the war had been brutally205 treated. There was no doubt about that; he had seen it himself. But on the whole the German authorities had not been much harder on the Polish population than upon their own people, in Prussia and elsewhere. It was all part of the war, and every one in the Empire had to bear his share of the burdens. Happily, it was over now, if only the new Polish government did not grow ambitious for military conquests also, with the millions of soldiers, some of them patriotic206 to the point of self-sacrifice, under its command.
My hope of walking out of Posen province suffered the same fate as my plan of tramping into it from Germany. In the end I was forced to return to Poznan and make my exit by train over the same route by which I had entered. In the third-class compartment207 I occupied there were five German residents who had renounced208 forever their right to return, for the privilege of leaving now with the more portable of their possessions. Two of them had been born in the amputated province; the others had lived there most of their lives. All spoke Polish as readily as German. 245One masterly, yet scholarly youth, who had served through the war as a lieutenant209, was a school-teacher by profession, as was the uncle who accompanied him. They had taught six and twenty-six years, respectively, but had been dispossessed of their positions and of their government dwellings210 by the new rulers. Up to the time we reached the frontier all five of my companions laid careful emphasis on the statement that they were going to seek re-establishment in their civilian professions in what was left of the Fatherland.
At Wronki the Polish authorities were far more inquisitive211 than they had been toward travelers from the other direction. One by one each compartment group was herded212 together, bag and baggage, and strained through the sieve213 of a careful search-and-questioning bureau. The soldier who examined my knapsack glared at the half-dozen precious American cigars I had left as if nothing but the presence of his superiors could have prevented him from confiscating214 them. Only sufficient food for the day’s journey was allowed to pass. In some cases this rule was interpreted rather liberally, but no one got through with more than ten or twelve pounds to the person. The amount that was confiscated215 easily sufficed to feed the garrison of Wronki for the twenty-four hours before the next westbound train was due. An old woman, riding fourth class, who resembled one of India’s famine victims, was despoiled216 of almost the entire contents of her trunk-sized chest—several sacks of flour, a dozen huge loaves of bread, and a generous supply of sausage. The fact that she spoke only Polish did not seem to impress the searchers in her favor, who silenced her wails217 at last by bundling her bodily back into the coach and tossing her empty coffer after her.
When at last we were under way again the Germans in my compartment took to comparing notes. One, a doctor, was bewailing the “plain theft” of a surgical218 appliance of 246rubber which the Poles had confiscated in spite of what seemed to be complete proof that it was his private property and not part of the German army supplies. A foxy-faced country youth, who had carefully changed from shoes to high boots just before the arrival at Wronki, changed back again now with the announcement that there were some four thousand marks concealed219 between the boot soles. The younger schoolmaster threw off the disguise with which he had covered his real thoughts and announced, vociferously220:
“You drive me out to work for my livelihood221! I will work for my Fatherland at the same time. I will go to Bromberg this very evening and join the army again. We shall see whether the Poles can keep Posen.”
The two other young men asserted that they, too, had left with exactly that intention. An indignation meeting against the Poles raged for an hour or more.
“I could have remained and kept my position,” went on the schoolmaster, “if I had wanted to turn Polack. Both my parents were Polish; I spoke it before I did German; but I shall always remain a true son of the Fatherland, no matter what happens to it.”
A few hundred yards from Kreuz station our train halted for more than an hour and gave us the pleasure of watching the Berlin express go on without us. Though it would have been a matter of twenty seconds to have sprinted222 across the delta223 between the two lines, armed boy soldiers prevented any one from leaving his compartment. To all appearances it was a case of “pure meanness” on the part of the German authorities. Our wrath224 at being forced to wait a half-day for a dawdling225 local train was soon appeased226, however, by the announcement that we were the last travelers who would be allowed to enter Germany from the province of Posen “until the war was over.” The frontier had been closed by orders from Berlin. It is a long way round from 247Poland to Holland, and amid the turmoil227 of gloomy men, disheveled women, and squalling children who had been turned back with their goal so near I found cause to be personally thankful, particularly as I succeeded in eluding228 during all the afternoon the glassy eye of the cantankerous dyspeptic, who buffeted229 his way now and then through the throng230.
Some things are still cheap in Germany. A twelve-word telegram from Kreuz to Berlin cost me nine cents—and it was delivered in telegraphic haste. The hungry passengers from farther east with whom I shared a compartment that evening eyed me greedily as I supped on the supplies I had brought from Posen. One man wearing several diamonds leaned toward me as I was cutting my coffee-brown loaf and sighed, reminiscently, “What beautiful white bread!” When I offered to share it with him, however, he refused vigorously, as if his pride would not permit him to accept what his appetite was so loudly demanding. Unable to find a place in the section to which my third-class ticket entitled me, I was riding second-class. The train-guard on his rounds confiscated my ticket and ignored my offer to pay the difference, with a stern, “It is unlawful to ride in a higher class.” On the Friedrichstrasse platform, however, instead of conducting me to his superiors, he sidled up to me in the darkness and murmured, “If you have a five-mark note with you it will be all right.” Germany is changing indeed if her very railway employees are taking on these Latin characteristics.
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1
detested
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| v.憎恶，嫌恶，痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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2
enameled
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| 涂瓷釉于，给…上瓷漆，给…上彩饰( enamel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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3
adorned
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| [计]被修饰的 | |
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gaily
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| adv.欢乐地，高兴地 | |
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radicals
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| n.激进分子( radical的名词复数 )；根基；基本原理；[数学]根数 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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renovation
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| n.革新，整修 | |
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8
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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wares
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| n. 货物, 商品 | |
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11
effaced
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| v.擦掉( efface的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；超越；使黯然失色 | |
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12
tenor
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| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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14
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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15
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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16
hampered
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| 妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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17
scowls
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| 不悦之色，怒容( scowl的名词复数 ) | |
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overtures
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| n.主动的表示，提议；（向某人做出的）友好表示、姿态或提议( overture的名词复数 )；（歌剧、芭蕾舞、音乐剧等的）序曲，前奏曲 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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lingual
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| adj.语言的；舌的 | |
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reminders
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| n.令人回忆起…的东西( reminder的名词复数 )；提醒…的东西；（告知该做某事的）通知单；提示信 | |
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22
blessings
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| n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福 | |
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23
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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panacea
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| n.万灵药；治百病的灵药 | |
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imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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exponents
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| n.倡导者( exponent的名词复数 )；说明者；指数；能手 | |
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lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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doctrines
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| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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31
swarmed
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| 密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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32
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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33
pulsating
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| adj.搏动的，脉冲的v.有节奏地舒张及收缩( pulsate的现在分词 )；跳动；脉动；受（激情）震动 | |
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garb
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| n.服装，装束 | |
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warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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scattering
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| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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37
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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38
tinge
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| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
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39
distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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40
cumbersome
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| adj.笨重的，不便携带的 | |
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41
fealty
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| n.忠贞，忠节 | |
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42
civilian
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| adj.平民的，民用的，民众的 | |
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43
spires
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| n.（教堂的） 塔尖，尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
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offset
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| n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿 | |
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45
etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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46
salute
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| vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮 | |
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47
automatons
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| n.自动机，机器人( automaton的名词复数 ) | |
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48
embarked
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| 乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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49
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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50
temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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51
sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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52
exempted
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| 使免除[豁免]( exempt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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53
rations
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| 定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量 | |
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54
squads
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| n.（军队中的）班( squad的名词复数 )；（暗杀）小组；体育运动的运动（代表）队；（对付某类犯罪活动的）警察队伍 | |
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55
exacting
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| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
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56
hordes
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| n.移动着的一大群( horde的名词复数 )；部落 | |
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57
discredited
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| 不足信的，不名誉的 | |
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58
armistice
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| n.休战，停战协定 | |
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59
pounced
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| v.突然袭击( pounce的过去式和过去分词 )；猛扑；一眼看出；抓住机会（进行抨击） | |
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60
conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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61
fracas
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| n.打架；吵闹 | |
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62
reins
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| 感情，激情； 缰( rein的名词复数 )； 控制手段； 掌管； （成人带着幼儿走路以防其走失时用的）保护带 | |
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63
garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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64
ribs
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| n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹 | |
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65
bloodier
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| adj.血污的( bloody的比较级 )；流血的；屠杀的；残忍的 | |
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66
civilians
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| 平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓 | |
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67
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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68
retaliation
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| n.报复，反击 | |
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69
overthrown
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| adj. 打翻的，推倒的，倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词 | |
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70
braggart
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| n.吹牛者；adj.吹牛的，自夸的 | |
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71
espoused
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| v.（决定）支持，拥护（目标、主张等）( espouse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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72
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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73
arrogance
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| n.傲慢，自大 | |
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74
adepts
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| n.专家，能手( adept的名词复数 ) | |
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75
encumbering
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| v.妨碍，阻碍，拖累( encumber的现在分词 ) | |
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76
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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77
erratic
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| adj.古怪的，反复无常的，不稳定的 | |
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78
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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79
imprint
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| n.印痕，痕迹；深刻的印象；vt.压印，牢记 | |
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80
incompetent
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| adj.无能力的，不能胜任的 | |
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81
encumbered
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| v.妨碍，阻碍，拖累( encumber的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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82
orientation
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| n.方向，目标；熟悉，适应，情况介绍 | |
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83
frolicsome
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| adj.嬉戏的，闹着玩的 | |
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84
reprehensible
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| adj.该受责备的 | |
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85
bristled
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| adj. 直立的，多刺毛的 动词bristle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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86
underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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87
reverently
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| adv.虔诚地 | |
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88
canvassed
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| v.（在政治方面）游说( canvass的过去式和过去分词 )；调查（如选举前选民的）意见；为讨论而提出（意见等）；详细检查 | |
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89
prophesying
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| v.预告，预言( prophesy的现在分词 ) | |
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90
tinged
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| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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91
leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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92
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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93
bondage
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| n.奴役，束缚 | |
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94
alimentary
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| adj.饮食的，营养的 | |
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95
foodstuffs
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| 食物，食品( foodstuff的名词复数 ) | |
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96
famished
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| adj.饥饿的 | |
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97
tantalization
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| n.逗弄，使干着急 | |
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98
resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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99
ripple
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| n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进 | |
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100
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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101
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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102
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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103
gravies
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| n.肉汁( gravy的名词复数 )；肉卤；意外之财；飞来福 | |
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104
unlimited
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| adj.无限的，不受控制的，无条件的 | |
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105
premium
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| n.加付款；赠品；adj.高级的；售价高的 | |
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106
allotted
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| 分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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107
densely
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| ad.密集地；浓厚地 | |
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108
garbed
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| v.（尤指某类人穿的特定）服装，衣服，制服( garb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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109
gull
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| n.鸥；受骗的人；v.欺诈 | |
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110
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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111
craved
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| 渴望，热望( crave的过去式 )； 恳求，请求 | |
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112
incessantly
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| ad.不停地 | |
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113
persistent
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| adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的 | |
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114
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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115
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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116
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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117
chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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118
shrieks
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| n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 ) | |
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119
deluged
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| v.使淹没( deluge的过去式和过去分词 )；淹没；被洪水般涌来的事物所淹没；穷于应付 | |
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120
deluge
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| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
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121
outright
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| adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的 | |
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122
essentially
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| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
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123
aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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124
lenient
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| adj.宽大的，仁慈的 | |
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125
citizenship
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| n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份) | |
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126
alleviation
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| n. 减轻，缓和，解痛物 | |
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127
expend
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| vt.花费，消费，消耗 | |
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128
expended
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| v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 )；使用（钱等）做某事；用光；耗尽 | |
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129
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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130
rankled
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| v.（使）痛苦不已，（使）怨恨不已( rankle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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131
banishment
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| n.放逐，驱逐 | |
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132
privately
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| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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133
westward
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| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
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134
urchins
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| n.顽童( urchin的名词复数 )；淘气鬼；猬；海胆 | |
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135
interned
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| v.拘留，关押( intern的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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136
cantankerous
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| adj.爱争吵的，脾气不好的 | |
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137
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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138
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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139
consorted
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| v.结伴( consort的过去式和过去分词 )；交往；相称；调和 | |
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140
prophesied
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| v.预告，预言( prophesy的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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141
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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142
convoked
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| v.召集，召开（会议）( convoke的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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143
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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144
ushered
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| v.引，领，陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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145
glistened
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| v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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146
winsome
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| n.迷人的，漂亮的 | |
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147
subservient
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| adj.卑屈的，阿谀的 | |
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148
hemmed
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| 缝…的褶边( hem的过去式和过去分词 )； 包围 | |
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149
annoyances
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| n.恼怒( annoyance的名词复数 )；烦恼；打扰；使人烦恼的事 | |
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150
fanaticism
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| n.狂热，盲信 | |
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151
retarded
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| a.智力迟钝的，智力发育迟缓的 | |
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152
mentality
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| n.心理，思想，脑力 | |
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153
technically
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| adv.专门地，技术上地 | |
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154
proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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155
labor
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| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
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156
barbarian
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| n.野蛮人；adj.野蛮(人)的；未开化的 | |
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157
suffrage
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| n.投票，选举权，参政权 | |
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158
baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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159
muddle
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| n.困惑，混浊状态；vt.使混乱，使糊涂，使惊呆；vi.胡乱应付，混乱 | |
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160
boycott
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| n./v.(联合)抵制，拒绝参与 | |
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161
inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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162
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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163
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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164
impractical
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| adj.不现实的，不实用的，不切实际的 | |
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165
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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166
degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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167
declamation
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| n. 雄辩，高调 | |
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168
tolerance
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| n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差 | |
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169
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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170
suffocation
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| n.窒息 | |
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171
dignified
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| a.可敬的，高贵的 | |
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172
alleged
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| a.被指控的，嫌疑的 | |
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173
inane
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| adj.空虚的，愚蠢的，空洞的 | |
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174
munching
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| v.用力咀嚼（某物），大嚼( munch的现在分词 ) | |
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175
esthetic
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| adj.美学的，审美的；悦目的，雅致的 | |
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176
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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177
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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178
royalty
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| n.皇家，皇族 | |
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179
demeanor
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| n.行为；风度 | |
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indefatigable
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| adj.不知疲倦的，不屈不挠的 | |
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181
contention
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| n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张 | |
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182
missionaries
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| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
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183
eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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184
hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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185
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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186
exertion
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| n.尽力，努力 | |
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187
sneer
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| v.轻蔑；嘲笑；n.嘲笑，讥讽的言语 | |
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188
grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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189
crumbs
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| int. (表示惊讶)哎呀 n. 碎屑 名词crumb的复数形式 | |
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190
mumbled
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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191
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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192
plodding
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| a.proceeding in a slow or dull way | |
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193
specious
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| adj.似是而非的；adv.似是而非地 | |
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194
consensus
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| n.(意见等的)一致，一致同意，共识 | |
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195
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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196
guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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197
disclaimed
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| v.否认( disclaim的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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198
supremely
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| adv.无上地，崇高地 | |
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199
regained
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| 复得( regain的过去式和过去分词 )； 赢回； 重回； 复至某地 | |
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laborers
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| n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工 | |
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201
shovels
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| n.铲子( shovel的名词复数 )；锹；推土机、挖土机等的)铲；铲形部份v.铲子( shovel的第三人称单数 )；锹；推土机、挖土机等的)铲；铲形部份 | |
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202
communal
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| adj.公有的，公共的，公社的，公社制的 | |
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203
tavern
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| n.小旅馆，客栈；小酒店 | |
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204
arrogant
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的 | |
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brutally
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| adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地 | |
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patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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207
compartment
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| n.卧车包房，隔间；分隔的空间 | |
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208
renounced
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| v.声明放弃( renounce的过去式和过去分词 )；宣布放弃；宣布与…决裂；宣布摒弃 | |
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209
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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210
dwellings
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| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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211
inquisitive
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| adj.求知欲强的，好奇的，好寻根究底的 | |
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herded
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| 群集，纠结( herd的过去式和过去分词 )； 放牧； （使）向…移动 | |
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213
sieve
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| n.筛，滤器，漏勺 | |
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214
confiscating
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| 没收（confiscate的现在分词形式） | |
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confiscated
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| 没收，充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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216
despoiled
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| v.掠夺，抢劫( despoil的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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wails
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| 痛哭，哭声( wail的名词复数 ) | |
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218
surgical
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| adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的 | |
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219
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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220
vociferously
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| adv.喊叫地，吵闹地 | |
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221
livelihood
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| n.生计，谋生之道 | |
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222
sprinted
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| v.短距离疾跑( sprint的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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223
delta
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| n.（流的）角洲 | |
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224
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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225
dawdling
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| adj.闲逛的，懒散的v.混（时间）( dawdle的现在分词 ) | |
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226
appeased
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| 安抚，抚慰( appease的过去式和过去分词 )； 绥靖（满足另一国的要求以避免战争） | |
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227
turmoil
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| n.骚乱，混乱，动乱 | |
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228
eluding
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| v.（尤指机敏地）避开( elude的现在分词 )；逃避；躲避；使达不到 | |
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229
buffeted
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| 反复敲打( buffet的过去式和过去分词 )； 连续猛击； 打来打去； 推来搡去 | |
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230
throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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