THE KAISER AT HOME

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2301, 7 November 1914, Page 4

THE KAISER AT HOME

A PEN PORTRAIT-" WARTS AND ALL" (By Liber.) I can recall the reading of a goodly host of books in which the mental and moral weaknesses of royalties have- been, set forth. Pepj's and Gmmmout gossiped, indiscreetly' tat inost entertainingly upon the court of "Tile Merry , Monarch".; Wraxall, Walpole, and ] Gronow and THackeray cast curio-us and not always edifying side-lights upon the ( family and Court life of the four Georges, and still later we have had the Greyille and Creevy "Memoirs" to astonish and amuse us with their indiscretions. The inner history of the Court of the Second Empire has been .set forth by M. Lolice mid the Countess Larisoh and many others have been responsible for "scandalous ohronicles" in which certain members of the ■ House of Hapsburg have figured. I have read most of these books, but I confess I never really knew what depths of scandalmonging. about European Royalty could be 1 reached until I came across the other day a little shilling book/entitled "Th 6 Secret History of the Court of Berlin; or the Private Lives of the Kaiser and His Consort." This book was, I believe, first published in a much more expensive form, two or three years ago. It purports to be. founded upon "the papers and diaries of a lady-in-waiting on Her. Majesty the Empress Queen of Germany," the editor being a Mr..Henry W. Fischer, and the pub-1 lisher'^pf. the edition, -under., notice), 'Mr.'John. Long.; The author.disclaims any, personal; enmity.!a.gainst the Kaiser, in. the service''of whose wife she tomained for'.nearly'nine years.in ."the big, groy Schloss oh the Spree,". 1 but there, is an all-pervading .tone of. snbacidity,.in;the:pages; in.'her-book.which is difficult'to account for save by the exjstence of some personal grievance or spite. Bethai asij may, and due allowance .: being.made : for it, the book none the less contains so much that has received outside verification that it cannot be dismissed as a mere chroniqne soandaleuse, written and published from a purely selfish motive. ;Tbe author deals.in great detail with the daily 'life of the" German Emperor and hie wife and family. 'We are told bow the Kaiser's ''lamei hand' f . cripples many of his physical energies and of how the worst features of more" than one physical and, nervous malady from which he is a frequent sufferer . are carefully, but not always : successfully hidden from public knowledge. Truth to tell, this personal portrait of the.Kaiser —"warts and-all"—to use the time-worn Cromwellian simile, is th.o very reverse of pleasing. The great ''War Lord" stands forth in these pages as the personification of egotism, selfishness, parsimony, unbounded self-conceit, studied rudeness, and consummate treachery. He began-his Imperial career by insulting and ill-treating • his British-born mother. He dismissed Bismarck because the older and more experienced man dared to question the wisdom of his policy. _ He quarrelled in turn with Herbert Bismarck,, with Capriyi, with Hohenlohe, for the same reasons.. Each and every phase of his career as an Imperial diplomatist has been parked by egregious self-conoeit and grievous lack of perception >as to the ultimate 'conse-; quences of his policy; '■'.■'"■':;. '■ How He Apes the Creat Frederick./ One peculiarly ridiculous feature of tha megolomania by which the Kaiser is afflicted is his..desperate, desire to make his subjects perceive in him" a resemblance to Frederick the Great.- "1 ain a composer like Frederick." "Like the great Frederick, I; never.wear any-, thing But uniform." "My hatred of.Eng-' 1 land is only*-'equalled by the contempt Frederick the-Great.bore. -to.;.the nation ,of (-thieves and . Such are'. some of .'.the' expressions credited to the War Lord by. the author,' who gives many 'amusing instances , of /the Kaiser's •■monomania .that .ho is "/the twentieth century pro.toltype.of , the grim old:autocrat.of whom Carlyle drew so marvellously- lifelike a portrait. . ~'. ■•■

' ,\Vlieii, ; (says.;the :'author), in the ' beginhufe of/October,: 1897,,-Prince Hphenlohe;. by •'■ threat ,of. resigna-- ■ tion, prevented the Kaiser from offering, armed, resistance to. the ■ Queen of Spain (to counteract .the possible in Cuban af- . / fairs .by the. United. States)' 1 His ■ Majesty talked for three days incessantly ;of Frederick, who was ' his own/ chancellor and parliament, and of- the "living puissant Ho.henzollern- initiative,'always setting the dogs 1 of war loose before his enemies had time to get over their surprise,"' - !"But Frederick is, not dead (striking his breast), ;, and his' mailed fist will clutch somebody's throat sooner or later," and so on, ad irifinitum: -Perhaps it- will.'. But when: ! it : does' a "paranoia"'verdipt, such'as that which discrowned-: Your/Majesty's'-grand ■ uncle, in Octob'er, 1857, and.;your : cousin, in , June, 1866, will assuredly stalk in the wake of that act. ..'.The reference in the last;few v line's of ■tho 'above paragraph, is to the madness of the late King Ludwig of Bavaria, and .his'equally unlucky eon.

The Kaiser and the Turks. The author's references to the Kaiser's curious pro-Turkish policy in the 'nineties, are of special interest at the present moment, when t'be Teuton monarch and the Padishah-are open, allies. What can our brother admire, in that wretched Sultan? asked, the Crown Princess Sophie of her sister of Lippe, at th'e family meeting in Fnederichshoff, in June, 1894. Victoria, not a very bright , person, passed the query on to her ..; husband. '"He must, know; the Kaiser tells him everything." "Wil- ■ liam says he likes the Sultan, as, the'embodiment of resolution,..as a , ruler'prepared to rule at the cost . of seeing one-half of his people : !".-dead oh the ground, that the other . t half ■ may learn to obey," spoke ■ ■•'Adolpli impressively. "He has told me that a dozen times." "If.lPred- ., p erick William IV had possessed . but a spark of the /spirit that lives in-.. the so-called 'Sick Man' of Europe," he once said,. "I should bo monarch' in the-true sense of ■ the word to-day, ihough Berlin . ,gutters might, have ..run.with blood j 'for'■'weeks'.in'•■'succession 7 'during : ; March,. 1848.": - > (•■.•':■.;'

;•. That;Trinco/.Adolph correctly ..iriteh jprpted.the Kaiseip's sentiments,with re:spect,to ideal idußship. was dembnstratled ■ three : years after the family rejunion.: above-mentioned,- :■ when, ■••in ■; the of 1896, the War Lord presented "Abdul 1 . Hie Damned," *•.as the 'British poet, William Watson; styled tho Sultan, in his famous sonnet, witli*' a', coloured photograph of the Germap' Imperial -family-.as.a.mark teem, ' ' . ! '.':■' for living up to Lie (the Kaiser's) conception of "rule by tho. graced of God." "My Master," the, German Ambassador, Preilicrr:' -vori'" ; Sailrma, was ordered to say; in • ; ! ' placing the picture in the bands • •'which ."were red -witV Uood v of- : forty thmisand murdered' -Chris- : - tians," "hopes that tlio. simple, souvenir may be acceptable "ic Your Majesty as a token of liis afl'ec-"• tiou and eternal friendship," massacres or no massacres. ■■!'''■ ''■'*' ■r.; All 'the :..sa'm6,,; whin , 'tlio ' Young /Turis's * •uepqsed* tne .recipient nf- the/ jKaiser's present, and Abrtul ' Ilaniidivas threatened'witli dontii; the pi-olFeror (at Berlin); of "."oteniul friendship , '' 'never lifted a-hand to protect him, reserving his pro-Turkish sympa'ihies for active and concrete atpression Lu thoiso

latter days, the days when two of the War. Lord's warships turned tail and rah for shelter into the Dardanelles. The Lese Majeste Prosecutions. Some quite astounding examples are giveii in this astounding little book of the semi-insane wrath into which the War Lord is thrown by any bolittlomeni; of his'dignity. The Kaiser's excessive vanity and egomania are quite markedly exhibited in. the number and character of the prosecutions for tlie iideous crime of making fun 'of His Majesty or daring to question "his supreme talente as ruler,' poet, diplomat, shipbuilder, orchestra, leader, sportsman, painter, strategist, novel writer, circus director, lawgiver, as advocate of duellos, stage manager, playwright, huntsman, or maid of all work." Here are some examples of the severity with which such diro misdemeanours are punished: The wife of a feudal landowner in Pomerauia was sentenced to nine months' imprisonment for having .remarked, possibly- with vulgarity, but as a mere jocularity, that the Emperor "might kiss ■her i foot." Another lady, a popular miisic-teacher, Fraulein Jaede, of Stettin, was sentenced in September, 1897, to three months in gaol for having —twp, years previously!—dared to allude, to the Imperial, composition, the egregious "Song to Aeg'ir," as "a piece of rubbish." This poor creature appealed to the Empress to pet her pardoned, but even that lady did not dare to approach the War Lord personally on such a matter. So'she got'Herr von Leyetzow, a former President of the Reichstag, to use his good offices. The following'-is alleged by the author to have hecn the Empress's report of the interview with" the.Kaiser:— ••■■ j Herr von Levetzow had ho sooner •

i broached the case'than the Emperior interrupted him. "You think ■] the laws against lese majeste are tod,' . f.' rigidly enforced," he cried. "Why, "you astonish me! That there aro . too many prosecutions only prove. ■ that the sentences imposed are much too light. If they were not, those outcasts who dare to point the finger of scorn at God's Anoint- : ed would be afraid to open their . mouths. Believe me, as soon as I find a man, a real man, to take charge of my Chancellor's office I will have him prepare a Bill increasj ing the punishment for traitors of ' this sort. . " ' The'author points out that Ludwig.tho Second "proposed a similar course of action only during the"-hist two years of his lunacy"! Another point)of resemblance between the Kaiser and his insane grand-uncle is stated to be the truculent behaviour which both exhibited to their ■ servants. It is, needless to quote certain of the ways in which Ludwig displayed his hatred of the poor devils whose unhappy lot it was to wait upon him._ The Kaiser invariably addresses his man or woman ■' servants, 'You-there." As to the meanness with , ' which they are paid and the parsimony which the Kaiser exacts in the Imperial household generally the author tells quite a number of curious. s,tories: If half of them be.true, the War Lord must be as mean a master as he is almost unspeakably tyrannous and personally brutal:

The Story of a Cigar Stump, In 1896 His Majesty actually called the Empress entourage together and solemnly warned them against "the pilforjng lot of hirelings that infest the palace." It appeared that on "the Sunday night His Majesty put the stump' of an echte (a real) Havana cigar jntb an ashtraj\in his small toilet room! On Wednesday, when he f wanted to it, it, had gone.? , : A rigid inquiry was held, lasting- three/days. All to no result. "Theri;" says the author,-"the corpus delicta was found —ruined beyond all hope of" retrieval—at'the'bottoni df. a refuse barrel," , A chamherraaid explainep; "The"Stummel looked'so ;, shrunk' up," said- the reckless'--': hussy,''"! thought His Majesty did'not want it" any more, and fearing- a' blowing up for allowing rubbish to lie. around, I.putit into my pail and cleared the ash tray." What was' : the' girl's, punishment, the author unfortuhately : {ails to record. No. doubt', had the War- Lord given .practical .;.expression to his wrath'j' "something'with boiling in it" wouldj-hn've been the Imperial advice td the, Public Prosecutor. ■•:■', '..•'

' Although, as was remarked at the outset of this article, there are many gross lapses from good taste,. almost ordinary decency, in this extraordinary book, there can be no tmestion as to it 3 internet' , and value at tile present time. It affords the world an explanation of. maiiv of tne , foolish and wicked acts of .which; the' German Emporor'\ v h'!is been guilty, Mid presents,unassailnble proof of the danger, not.'"only to Great Britain.' but ;.to nil-Europe, which must continue .to. wrist/so Ions: as tl»e■perniinsnne War Lord remains at the head of the Genrtan nation, .nominally', a constitutional ruler, actually a yulear egoistic'and. tvrnnnoiis. despot'. .whose power and ambition alike constitute-the >pravest of menaces' to the whole civilis-ed-world. ' . //-'■ .•:■•.■•.-■ ■'V'".-- '