"Don't be frightened," said another, "she will want to keep too many soldiers at home to defend her own coasts. I think the danger is now on the eastern side, and that we had better go ahead there as far as possible; who knows if we leave the Russians alone, how many men they will concentrate there?"
"Well, I only hope it will soon be over, otherwise we shall all be ruined," said an old man, evidently belonging to the shopkeeper class.
"You are wrong, it will be over in four months. The war cannot last more than that; the Tribunal of Brunswick having to call a witness in a case, and the witness being at the front, decided that the witness being detained by an engagement of uncertain duration, the cause should be called again in four months. Evidently the war cannot last longer than that."
Everybody laughed at this typically German joke, but I am afraid the Brunswick magistrate will have to adjourn the case for many a four months, even if the Court has not to renounce the witness completely.
The night life of Berlin, which had struck me so much ten weeks ago, may be considered now as dead. The cabarets are closed, not by the police, but from the lack of male customers. Of the theatres only the Lessing, the Schiller, and the Neues Schauspielhaus are still open; the music-halls have reduced their prices and are arranging special patriotic shows to attract the public, but their efforts do not seem to have succeeded, and almost every week some of them close to reopen no more.
The great amusement of Berlin is the cinema, where really wonderful pictures are shown. Most of the pictures are faked; but they are so cleverly done that the public does not doubt for a second that it is seeing real battles, and tries to pick out relatives amongst the soldiers in the pictures represented as fighting at the front.
There are wonderful dramas full of English and French spies, traitors, and rascals, and of German heroes--all very much appreciated.
The show is generally closed by slides showing, under the title "What We Have Achieved," photos of Brussels occupied by the Germans, of the ruins of French and Belgian towns, of destroyed bridges and shelled cathedrals. The audience cheer loudly at each picture.