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STRATAGEM TO ESCAPE ENEMIES
One of his (the fox’s) favorite tricks is to cross over deep water on thin ice just strong enough to bear him, knowing that in all probability the hounds will break through, and perhaps be swept under the ice if the current is strong enough. More than one valuable dog has been drowned in this manner, but I have never known a fox to miscalculate the strength of the ice and break through himself. If the stream is not wholly frozen over, he runs along at the very edge of the deep water, where the ice is thin and treacherous, until he comes to a place where he can jump across to the thin ice that reaches out from the opposite bank.—Witmer Stone and William Everett Cram, “American Animals.”
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STRATEGY
The best strategy in life is frequently to take advantage of an enemy’s mistakes.
In Mark Twain’s “Autobiography,” in the North American Review, is General Grant’s own opinion in regard to the inception of Sherman’s march to the sea.
“Neither of us originated the idea of Sherman’s march to the sea. The enemy did it,” said Grant.
He went on to say that the enemy necessarily originated a great many of the plans that the general on the opposite side gets the credit for. In this case, Sherman had a plan all thought out, of course. He meant to destroy the two remaining railroads in that part of the country, and that would finish up that region. But General Hood made a dive at Chattanooga. This left the march to the sea open to Sherman, and so, after sending part of his army to defend and hold what he had acquired in the Chattanooga region, he was perfectly free to proceed with the rest of it through Georgia. He saw the opportunity, and he would not have been fit for his place if he had not seized it.
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