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Show The 'D d Dutchmen-' as they Are. Mr. Halstead writes : "Perhaps it would do some of our American Know-Nothings the parties wi:h slim legs, who are fond of distinguishing all Germans as 'd d Dutchmen' a j deal of good to look upon two or three , hundred thousand of those German soldiers. There is not the k o'i of our conventional or stage Dutchman about one in ten thousand of them. Nearly all the officers and a great many of the private i-oldiers have highly intelligent faces. More fine specimens of splendid splen-did manliness six-footers, every joint in the right place, coat and breeches full of good muscle can be selected from a regiment of these soldiers than from a like number of any soldiers I have seen, with, perhaps, the exception excep-tion of Sherman's army as it marched through Washington after the surrender surren-der of Lee. About the German officers offi-cers of the line there is a good deal of the German students' style. They have not been campaigning yet long enough to be thoroughly sunburnt, and many of them wear spectacles or eyeglasses, eye-glasses, and their clothes are cut with that precision for which Parisian tailors have a reputation unwarranted by their achievements. They are young men, well made hundreds of them would be sensations in a ballroom. ball-room. Each of them carries ( I speak, of course, of the officers on foot ) an oilskin knapsack, a flask, and a water-proof coat. In this rig, with their swords in their hands, as the music struck up on the march through Pont a Mousson, they walked proudly beside the big boys who carried the needle-guns, stepping in perfect time with the music, which was often as magnificent and thrilling as was ever blown through the horns of war, joining join-ing the soldiers in their triumphant singing. There are sad faces among the soldiers, and rathos in their thougtfulness, when the flurries of excitement ex-citement are over, but the prevailing expression is one of the most serious and dangerous resolution. They are stalwart and hardy, round heads, eyes far apart, cheeks tawny and full, mouths square and rugged with teeth sufficient for all the hard bread that can be baked by the contractors of Germany. They not only outnumber the French, but are taller and stronger, and have a more dealy purpose. |