A few specially enthusiastic souls even put a table with inkstands and pens out on the pavement, and called to the passers-by to sign the paper.

Paul was among the first to fulfill this duty of citizenship, and then handed the pen to his friend.

But Wilhelm laid it down on the table, took Paul's arm, and drew him out of the crowd into the quiet of the Friedrichstrasse.
"Are you a Prussian ?" cried Paul angrily.
"I am as good a Prussian as you are," said Wilhelm quietly, "and ready to do my duty again, as I have done it before, but these silly effusions don't affect me at all." "Such a manifesto gives the government the moral force for the sternest fulfillment of duty." "I hope you are not in earnest when you say that, my dear Paul.

The government does what it has to do without troubling itself about our manifestoes.

It is repugnant to me to have my approval of the war dragged from me without being asked for it.