EX-KAISER’S ENGAGEMENT.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 785, 17 November 1922, Page 7

EX-KAISER’S ENGAGEMENT.

A LONELY AND MONOTONOUS LIFE. The Monarchist newspaper in Berlin, the Lokalanzeiger, explains that, the decision of the ex-Kaiser Ito marry again is the result of the loneliness and monoto »y of the life to which he is condemned in Docitn. The ex-Kaiser had wished that his marriage should be announced to the world through the German press, but as indiscreet statements of his friends resulted in the publication of his intention, in America, there was no longer any reason to keep the matter secret. It had been stated in German newspapers that; the ex-Kaiser’s children and relatives were opposed to lryarriage on easily comprehensible grounds, which were srengthened by the fact that the funeral of the Kaiserin at Potsdam IS months ago was made the occasion for a demonstration of national mourning. The Lokanlanzeiger denies the suggestion that the younger representatives of the Hohenzollern family oppose the marriage, pointing out that -‘Princes and Princesses of the Hohenzoiiern House have almost ail learned through personal observation how tenfible is the isolation ini which the ex-Kaiser is forced to live in Doom, In the narrow limits of the estate his life llppeats itself daily in exhausting monotony., He has no opportunity of forming new impressions. That in such circumstances he feels the need of a companion in whom he can place entire confidence, and who exists only for him, is humanly so obvious that the Imperial family thoroughly understands the ex-Kaiser’s decision.”

The newspaper adds that the Grown Prince and at least another Hohenzolliern Prince will attend the wedding. The explanation, while sufficient, is hardly flattering to Princess Hermine von SchonaichCarolath the lady on whom the exKaiser’s choice has fallen. The bride elect is a widow with five children.

The ex-Kaiser, writes the Londoner., is marrying in his own class, in the tribe of wandering princes who, in the almanacs of eight years ago, were Sovereign prinices kings and dukes_ (The most romantically-mind-ed journalist cannot give the word romantic to t,his match with an exprincess of Reuss There were two princely houses of Reuss, even as there were once two kings in Brentford., Reuss of the Elder Line and Reuss of the Younger Line The widow liady comes of the Elder Line who ruled over principality very much smaller than Rutland, But the little principalities raised a fair crop of princes and princesses who came handily in when kings and kaisers had to make a marriage for a niece or a nephew who could look for nothing better; there was always a Reuss. To be given in marrXage was the trade of the Reuss. That, was all the history of this family of princely nobodies. As though it were to put away from a Reuss any hope of being; aught but a bridegroom and nothing more, each man of them was christened Henry. Ages ago an Emperor ,Henry had been kind patron of the house ; for his sake the grateful princes would! have no name but his. You might say, therefore, that a Reuss had no name but on&y a number. For Reuss of the; Younger Linethe first baby born in the century was Henry J , and so unt.il the century ended, * Reuss of the Elder Line began with a Henry I and went on counting up to [Henry the Hundredth. The editor of the red German almanac of soverign houses and he alone, knew one Henry from another, could give him his right number and add,; without erring, Younger Line or Elder Line. There was a Prince Henry of Reuss who had been a Consul-Gener-al of India. Cast out of his employment by the war, he became a brigand in Persia. This should have made him illustrious beyond all his race; a Reuss whose doings strayed into the newspaper beyond the column of marriage. But, alas, he is lost among so many JHenrys who ar econtent to sit waiting for an ex-princess, who will never be brigands. The Reuss widow who is to cheer the solitude of Doom is of the Elder Line and a sister of an ex. Highprincely Transparency, of a Henry whose number .does not matter to anybody since he was put away out of sight* an incapable whose affairs were managed l by a cousinly Henry _