THE KAISER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2097, 25 January 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE KAISER.

A VERSATILE. IXG^XDESCENT, AND MAGNETIC MAN.

The Kaiser is every inch a king. Divert him of his office -and lie would still be one man of the half-dozen most considerable men in -his Empire. When the British editor,. visited Germany last summer (write: a correspondent of the “Dail News”) they were brought- into intimate‘coni t-act with all the leaders of action and thought in the country, and I believe it is true to say that the Kaiser left the sharpest and mot vivid personal impression on the:;mind. It was the impression of enormou. energy and ment-il alertness, of power, wayward and uncertain, but l'us ed -with a spark of genius,, perameut of high nervous force® quickly responsive to every emotionial appeal. His laugh is as careless as a. boy’s but you -feel that it is_ -laughter that may turn to lightning at a word. The world distrusts the artistic temperament in affairs. It prefer;, the stolid man who thinks slow l - ana securely and acts with deliberation. It likes a man whose mental processes it can follow and understand, o man of the type of the Dube of Devonshire, a solid, substantial, and no, the least bit clever. _Theie is the root of the disquiet with which the Kaiser has been regarded for twenty years. He is a. man of moods and impulses, an artist- to bis finger tips, astonishing!? versatile, restless, and unnerving. Ml keeps his audiences in a state o' tense expectation. Any moment i; feels, -a spark from this incandesceim personality may drop into a powdermagazine. AN OLYMPIAN JOVE. He is full of dramatic- surprises, of sudden and shattering entrance:,, ef _ mysterious exits. He moves amidst alarms and excursions. And whenever lie goes the limelight follows him. He will have no rival near the throne. Does the mighty figure of Bismark tower to the heavens and divide the crown? Then Bismark must go back to liis -fields and woodlands at Friedrichsruhe. He will brook no interference, tolerates no counsel. ' Men talk of him in Germany or they do not_,ttflFof him at ajl, tor lese maieste is the cardirl a I sin,- and walls have ears ar * streets have spies. The old Emperor was loved. There at the paace m Berlin they show you the wiil dow at which he used to eit in- tbl mornings to see and be seen bv tbl crowd—an old familiar figure, hum a ami paternal, the father of his pc-d pie. His grandson is aloof and r<mote. He dwells on Qlvnmn-o arr~ sends his_ thunderbolts huiliiio- ov |N tlio astonished peojile. But though ho does not ask foaffcction, he commands respect. H : - people admire liis character. Them are proud of his clean, vigorous lifof his devotion to- his family, of lr • high sense of duty to the' Fathe - land. His life is a drama that neve • are a bore; or if you are out of favo, tellectuully on the move. What will happen next with this amazino- maid THINKS IN TELEGRAMS. No one can bo more fascinatin'* His smile is irresistabic. But if l C :i are a bore, or if you are out of a Volin's look ruiis you through like I sword. -His questions are rapped out liko musket shots. Tie <lod not listen to your answers, but piav. with -liis dogs. He is not -aw ire d you.

His actions are swift and unexpee; ed. The spur of the moment drive him. The telegram form is th. symbol of his mental processes. Impulsive, imperious, dramatic, militarist from his cradle, a state man trained in “the indirect, eixxi ed ways” of Bismark, governed : one passion, the pission to make J. land great and powerful, how can - cast his horoscope? Is he -a menace or a safeguar ' Let his past he his witness. T twenty years.he has had the peaof Europe in his keeping, -and f twenty years not- a German sold’ has fallen in war. “Wo are a irr' tary people,” said a Minister to rc in Berlin, “byt we are not -a walike people. It is you who are wrr like without being military.” A so we may say of +he Kaiser, j is a militarist, but he is not a wc rior. He keeps his powder dry and h" armour bright-. But lie stands f peace—peace -armed to the teeth is true; peace with the mailed fis but peace nevertheless.