BISMARCK AND VON MOLTKE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1876, 25 June 1888, Page 3

BISMARCK AND VON MOLTKE

APPEARANCE OF UEKMANY'S TWO GREAT MEN IN THE REICHSTAG. While the President, who has tha air of a man about to doliver a sermon, is conversing aedately with a group of deputies on the steps of his pulpit, ft dark one man enters at his right from a door m the rear, end lays a large red portfolio oa the shelf m front of the ministerial Beat nearest the tribune. Jußt between stands a tall man of slender balld, m an undress uniform of dark blue snd red, his smooth-shaven face soored ail over with fine lines, the nose aquiline and thin, eyes sunken, forehead lofty and broad and deeply thoughtful, a palpable brown wig on his head ; the whole figure slightly stooping ; an air of refiuemmt and delioate firmness mtrklng him out among; the sturdy personages neat him. That is the first soldier of Europe, Count Von Moltke, and the Beat below whioh he stands is that of Prinoe Bismarck, who enters a moment later. It was all bat twc-ind. twenty years since I had eeen Prinoe Biemarck, In ' 1866 he was fifty-one ; ha is now seventythree, wanting some days, and they are years that make a difference. They have left a mark even on thin man of iron Ha is greyer and stouter ; and the lines m hia face are as if burnt in — the soars that corroding time haa left, They aro visible even m hh photograph?. His scorn of insincerities is fsr too deep for such flatteries as artlets m black and white are wont to practice. They are visible even from the box where I sit, bs the light from the ceiling falls full on his upturned face. He Btrideß heavily In; m ; it is but a step from the door to the epot where the scarlet portfolio is waiting for him but the weight of the Btep ia what first strikes you. It is not lassitude ; it Is sheer physical bulk. He stands six feet two, and bia frame is the frame of a giant. He is broad and square io the shoulders and deep chested ; the anna are big ; the legs are big ; and that part of the body which Is intermediate between legs and cheat la big, yet not gross* Fe Is ea heorio m the physical proportions aa m his oharaoter. The head is set on the shoulders and almost inco them with a singular solidity and cloßeneßß. The man i» all of a pieoe — body and mind, a3 it were, fused and welded together. Faithful as eie many of the photographs, I remember none which brings out strongly the helmetahape of tbe head, It Is the head of Pericles ; dome like it is amplitude as wol! as m its curve, with a breadth of the temples which its towering height cannot disguise { and far overhanging the steel* grey eyes, which look out aa from caverns, deep fringed with grey eyebrows There is no regalarlty of feature or of oontour. The nose Is short and carelessly moulded ; the mouth you must imagine, for a grey moustaohe shades it ; the jaw is the jaw — well, of Prinoe Blemarok, and of him alone. The stamp of power of irresistible force }b on face and figure ; luto this one ha man form has Nature for once ooiloctod all her irrepreaaible energies, and aubdued them to his overmastering will, The impression I get as I gaza from a distance orly recalls the impression of twenty years ago, when I sat fn his study and listened to him till long past midnight, and mentally noted down features and the flioting, flashing expressions that lighted them up. The changes are many and they are scathing ; age has brought with it increase of strength ; ho lookß more like a giant than he did then. Ho is In uniform, but not ill the white of the culrasseers, which ia still, I believe, bi3 favorite coßtume. He wears a singlebreasted dark blue frocV ? reaching half way from the waist tp the knees, silverbuttoned to the throat ' pollar and deep cuffs of what, from this distance, looks like tarnished silver lace, grey m tone, with broad edges of bright yellow. The star of the Black Eagle glitters on the blue coat, and a whole tier of other orders stretched clear across the breast As he opens with his right hand the portfolio, which contains the royal mes^ sage, the left rests on his swordhilt— an attitude that givea rise to reflections. Never, that I heard of, did the Chancellor enter Reichstag or Landtag m any but a soldier's dress ; once, at least, I saw him arrive m jack boots, and even to-day he wears spurs. It is for the Chancellor that the House had been waiting. As soon as he was m his place the President rang his bell, Some brief formality were briefly gone through, and Prince Bismarck was at once on his feet. A murmur of cheers greeted him. With a bow to hiß audience and another to the President, he began reading, holding the message on a folio sheet m his hand. He re^d m a strong voice, 'audible' everywhero, I judged, throughout Ihe hall, deliberately, with marked emphasis on somo sentences. It was the Emperor's first message to the Imperial Parliament '-the h,aiid o£ the Chanoellor f -who countersigned and now delivered it to ifa deßtina.tioD, visible m every line, What could be more Hire him than fcheße thanks— '< Imperial thanks "—offered In the name of the late Emperor to the Relchotag, which had voted thofe laat millions of money and men while the Emperor was still living ? The voice rang out qloareat of all m the final words, <( Trusting m the tried loye of tbe whole people and their representative* for t^ie Fatherland, we leave the Empire's future m God's hand." Oromwellian hypocrisy J OromwelHan if you like, but hypocrisy, no. For if anything be true cf this stern statesman, as of his dead m&Bter, It is that both of them ever had a simple faith m God of whom they avowedly stand In fear. "We Germans fear God, and nothing else m the world beeldo.' 1 The oonfeßßlon, and > perhaps alao tho boast, Beera to belong to a past age, but of the genuineness of both I, for my part, have no donbt, The message ended, the scene changed, Prinoe Blßmarok sat down and, tho President rooe ; the deputies still all upstanding j&b while tho Imperial message was reading The Prinoe sprang up, too, and the President apoko briefly. All at oqce, m the mlddla of his epeeohj aa ho rrioutloned the Emperor, there' came a ory from the body of the hall whicn seemed like a signal. ' The President took it up and called, German fashion, for oheorjf. The whole assembly, raising cash man his right arm to Ita fuU length, should out the deep, guttural " hocb," which does duty for our hurrah. '.' Again," cried the President, and then " again,' 1 bo that the fchrea cheery were duly given, and given with & solid heartiness of voioa and manner that befitted the place and oooaalon — German to the pore. X cannot remomber to have looked down before on a Parliament thae expressing Itself In cheers, still loss with these strange but fine salutes.— Berlin Correspondent "N.Y, Trlbacor Kirch, 19,