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Show Frederick the Great Knew How To Rebuke a Grumbling Officer It is a story they tell of Frederick Fred-erick the Great, how at one of his levees toward the end of his reign an old field orticer came up and praved a word with his majesty. Whv not?" says Frederick, who loved his soldiers. "Step over to the window with me, good Herr Oberst. You were saying" "Majesty," says the Oberst, I have spent my life in your service. My hair has grown gray, following follow-ing your standard. My health is broken, my old body is covered with wounds, from your campaigns cam-paigns and your battles. And Majesty, Maj-esty, all these hard years, all this toil, all these battles and marches count as nothing when I see youn-kers youn-kers promoted over my head chil- dren who were cadets when I led a company in your grenadiers. Look at so and so, look at that one -lieutenant generals, and I am still a major. Majesty I grow to the end of my mortal term. For all my years of service, if for nothing noth-ing eNe. grant me promotion. The Prussian king took his arm and pointed to the window, where a picket line of artillery mules munched their straw. "Major, you see those mules? you see the old flea-bitten mule at this end? They have made many campaigns; the old one, this way has made 20 campaigns. But, my good Herr Oberst, they are still mules!"-John W. Thomason Jr. in American Mercury. |
