NEWS FROM BERLIN.

Gisborne Times, Volume VIII, Issue 707, 31 December 1902, Page 1

NEWS FROM BERLIN.

Berlin, Nov. 1. \ Emperor William and Joseph Lauff, his court poet, have been collaborating on a drama entitled “ Under the Helmet.” The hero is the Great Elector, Frederick William of Brandenburg, who died in 1688. Laut'f, however, has only contributed the mechanical part. The plot and the story have been worked up by the Ernperor. , , . ~T . The play will be produced soon in Wiesbaden. It deals with the invasion of Brandenburg in 1675 by the Swedes, and their repulse, and also with the events which led to the Great Elector becoming the undisputed master of Pomerania. There are some prodigiously long speeches about the glory and grandeur of members of the House of Hohenzollern and their mission in the world. A soothsayer is made to prophesy greatness for the “ House in the coming years, and the hint that Emperor William will be the dominating power in Europe. Baron Tszinski, of Lemberg, cashier of the State Railway, being unable to live on a large scale with his salary, diverted into his own pocket considerable sums, which he is said to have spent m high living. When left with only .£lO he bought a ticket for Monte Carlo and won j£30,000. Then he sent £3,000 to Lemberg with a note explaining tkG situation. His shortage only amounted to £B,OOO but he said ho sent the extra thousand for tho Lemberg poor. Mormon apostles are busy in Westphalia, one of the chief manufacturing centres of Germany. Their success has been such that tho pastors of the national oburoh are indignant at having doctrines taught from pulpits which they stigmatise as false. The Mormon agitators have opened a chapel in Bielofielk, the capital of i W r estphalia, within a month, and have made 500 converts. The police are watching them narrowly, ready to pounce 1 on them at the first opportunity, Federal postal department has called tenders for a daily steamer service to carry mails between TdSlFMiia and Victoria; this is a point on which Senator Keating has pesistently agitated. A reQuest that the service snail be exclusively a Commonwealth one has been made ; if agreed to it would bar out the Union S.S. Co. of Maoriland, which holds the trade just now-—Bulletin.