son for anxiety on
account of the alleged poisoning and infection of rivers, water supplies
and springs which have been reported unauthoritatively from all parts of
the country, and published in the Press. These rumours, which have
caused grave anxiety, on closer investigation have all proved to be
utterly unfounded."[52]

[Footnote 52: _Leipziger Volkszeitung_, August 27th.]

The war had lasted for four weeks, and although no rivers had been
poisoned, the same could not be said of the currents of popular opinion.

"While I was walking down a street in Breslau a tram suddenly stopped,
loud cries proceeding from within it. The occupants had discovered a
Russian, dragged him out and handed him over to a policeman who led the
man away. But the official was unable to protect him, and blows with
fists and sticks literally rained on the defenceless fellow. The couple,
surrounded by a howling crowd, had just moved away, when a nun attracted
the attention of the crowd. On account of a report that a Russian spy
disguised as a nun had been arrested the same morning, the people
imagined the nun to be a man in disguise.

"Smiling at the ridiculous supposition and the maddened howls of the
ever-increasing throng, the lady endeavoured to enter a tram. Men placed
themselves in front of the car, others dragged the frightened woman out
again and with blows and kicks she was driven before them to the next
police station. But the saddest part of these excesses--and I am only
describing a few of which I was accidentally a witness--is that members
of the so-called educated classes participated in them."[53]

[Footnote 53: A special correspondent in the _Frankfurter Zeitung_,
August 7th.]

"On one of the most frequented open places in Breslau a soldier
approached a lady and looked searchingly into her face. She understood
him, and remarked with a smile: 'I am not a spy!' The man replied: 'But
you have short hair. I am sorry, you must come with me.'

"She at once recognized that the wisest plan was to accompany him, and
turned to do so. The movement worked like a signal; the bystanders
immediately threw themselves in blind rage upon the defenceless woman.
In vain the single soldier tried to protect her, and equally in vain was
the assistance of two policemen who had come up. Her cries to be taken
into a neighbouring house for safety met with no response.

"Her garments were literally torn from her body, a spectacle which
finally prov