Out of my life Vol 1 & 2

8 December , 2010

OUT OF MY LIFE

CHAPTER I MY YOUTH

ONE spring evening in the year 1859, when I

was a boy of eleven, I said good-by to my

father at the gate of the Cadets' Academy at

Wahlstatt, in Silesia. I was bidding farewell not

to my dear father only, but to my whole past life.

Overwhelmed by that feeling, I could not prevent

the tears from stealing from my eyes. I watched

them fall on my uniform. "A man can't be weak

and cry in this garb," was the thought that shot

through my head. I wrenched myself free from

my boyish anguish and mingled, not without a

certain apprehension, among my new comrades.

That I should be a soldier was not the result of a

special decision. It was a matter of course.

Whenever I had had to choose a profession, in

boys' games or even in thought, it had always

been the military profession. The profession of

arms in the service of king and Fatherland was an

old tradition in our family.

Mike

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