hope. The time of illusion is past. French parents of children born
since the war had to decide whether their sons are to become Prussian or
French citizens. After the age of sixteen a lad's fate is no longer in
their hands; he must don the uniform so odious in French eyes, and
renounce the cherished _patrie_ and _tricolor_ for ever.


The enforced military service, necessitated, perhaps, by the new order of
things, is the bitterest drop in the cup of the Alsatians. Only the
poorest, and those who are too much hampered by circumstances to evade
it, resign themselves to the enrolment of their sons in the German army.
For this reason well-to-do parents, and even many in the humbler ranks of
life, are quitting the country in much larger numbers than is taken
account of, whilst all who can possibly afford it send their young sons
across the frontier for the purpose of giving them a French education.
The prohibition of French in the public schools and colleges is another
grievous condition of annexation. Alsatians of all ranks are therefore
under the necessity of providing private masters for their children,
unless they would let them grow up in ignorance of their mother tongue.
And here a word of explanation may be necessary. Let no strangers in
Alsace take it for granted that because a great part of the rural
population speak a _patois_ made up of bad German and equally bad
French, they are any more German at heart for all that. Some of the most
patriotic French inhabitants of Alsace can only express themselves in
this dialect, a fact that should not surprise us, seeing the amalgamation
of races that has been going on for many generations.

Physically speaking, so far the result has been satisfactory. In
Alsace-Lorraine no one can help being struck with the fine appearance of
the people. The men are tall, handsome, and well made, the women