lonies. This is the first and
only time that Germans have ever carried arms against Americans. These
Hessians were splendid, sturdy soldiers and would have been almost
invincible if fighting to protect their homes, but in America they were
only half-hearted.

The bones of many of these poor fellows were scattered through New
Jersey and Pennsylvania, and most of those who survived until Cornwallis
offered his sword to Washington--and had it refused--settled down and
became good Pennsylvania Dutch.

Around Reading and Lancaster are various worthy Daughters of the
Revolution, whose credential is that their grandsires fought with
Washington. The fact that the grandsires aforesaid were from Hesse,
sold at so much a head by a Governor in need of ready cash, need not
weigh in the scale. A woman's a woman for a' that.

The amount of money which the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel received from
the English Government for the use of his twelve thousand men was six
hundred thousand thalers; and while a thaler is equivalent to only about
seventy-five cents, it was then worth as much as an American dollar is
worth now.

These six hundred thousand thalers were a straight bonus, for the
English Government agreed to pay the Hessian soldiers the same as they
paid their own English soldiers, and to treat them in all other ways as
their own.

A second division of four thousand men was afterward supplied, for which
the Landgrave of Hesse was paid two hundred thousand thalers.

Alluring tales of loot were held out to the soldiers, also educational
advantages, somewhat after the style of the recruiting-posters in this
Year of Grace, Nineteen Hundred Thirteen, that seek to lead and lure the
lusty youth of America to enlist in the cause of Mars.

Of course the common people knew nothing of the details of this deal of
Hesse with England. The Americans were represented to them as savages
who had arisen against their masters, and were massacring men, women and
children.

To stop this bloodshed was looked upon as a duty for the sake of
humanity. Let it be stated that these Hessian soldiers were not sent to
America against their will. They voted by regiments to go to the defense
of their English Cousins. All of the officers were given a month's pay
as a bonus, and this no doubt helped their zeal. The soldiers were to go
simply until the war was over, which, it was represented, would be in
one year, or possibly less.

The money came so easily