Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1875 — A Review at Berlin. [ARTICLE]

A Review at Berlin.

The Berlin correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette, writing of the fetes attendant on the King of Sweden, says: The" 1 parade on Saturday was wonderfully glancing and brilliant, but the maneuvers or sham battle on Monday was much more interesting and exciting, and gave one a fair idea of a real battle-field, without the horrors of the killed and wounded. Tlux infantry, curaissiers and flying artillery Were engaged in the fight. The advance-guard or skirmishers commenced the firing, the infantry advanced steadily until in -proper position, then dropped on one knee, and poured forth a continuous fire that sounded like reverberating thunder. After the order was given to retreat the opposing regiments advanced and kept up a perfect fusilade. In the meantime the cannon were belching away naught but flame and smoke, but adding to the din and noise. The officers oft'duty, wlio were. cavorting on their fine horses round the wall of carriages, were perfectly beside themselves with joy. Some of them said: “ I have been on several bat-tle-fields, hut I never have heard such perfect firing as that. Then away they would go and leap a high thorm hedge, landing in somebody’s oat-field, leap ,out again, and canter hack to the scene of action. When the order was given for the cavalry to charge, a long redline, like a flame ot lightning, came toward us so swiftly and so close that it fanned us like the breath of a whirlwind. I involuntarily closed my eyes. When I opened them there was nothing to be seen hut a cloud of dust so thick I could scarce distinguish my nearest companion. There was the sound of horses’ feet, but when the dust rolled away not a vestige of a soldier was to be seen on our side of the battle-field. The Emperor and King, with their suites’, were riding from one point of the field to another inspecting the soldiers. The tall figure of the "King, with his waving orange plume, made him a conspicuous figure from all sides. After a second attack was made the first clear glimpse we had was a dense, queer-shaped black mass flying in the distance, which I afterward found was the artillery. Where the permission came from or who gave it 1 don’t know, but we soon found ourselves with hundreds of other carriages tearing directly across the battle-field like so many wild Indians. When we had landed all safe without any overthrow or broken bones I asked what it all meant, and learned that the Emperor would now review the troops, and everyone was seeking a favorable position. We were fortunate enough to get into the midst of the suite and had a most excellent view of the soldiers and the King, who touched his hat very gracefully to each banner as it passed before him. The exciting scene was now at an end, and we were soon driving home in a strange and unaccountable humor, which resolved itself into the not particularly brilliant speech: Why couldn’t I have been a man and a soldier?