IMPERIAL ROMANCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 307, 23 December 1908, Page 4

IMPERIAL ROMANCE.

WEDDING OF THE KAISERS FOURTH SON.

BRIDE'S STATE ENTRY. PICTURESQUE SCENES IX BERLIN. BERLIN, October 24. To-day commenced, with all the picturesque pageantry enjoined by tradition the ceremonies for the nuptial of Prince August Wilhelm, fourth son of the German Emperor, and Princess Alexandra Victoria of Schleswig-llols-tcin-Sondeburg-Glucksburg. The great interest taken by tile public in I the event arises not so much from any dynastic importance it might possess, or from the two personalities of the

two chief participants, as from the fact that the betrothal of the bridal pair was the result of unprompted and spontaneous inclinations on both sides. Not only that, but they had been playninl s from their earliest days of childhood. For the bride's mother, a Princess of the Augusleiiburg branch of the llolslein family, is a younger sister of the Empress, and her Majesty's daughter-in-law elect has ever been a great favorite, and cim-'eqiiently a frequent guest in the palaces of Potsdam and Berlin These visits afforded an opportunity for the childish comradeship of the cousins to develop into something stronger ami deeper, and a couple of years ago Prince August Wilhelm surprised his parents by demanding from them as a Christinas gift their consent to the marriage. As both the young people were then

only nineteen years of age, the pareutial sanction was only given on condition that the wedding should he postponed for two years, and until the Prince had completed his studies. Of the genuineness of the affection between the Prince and his bride the picture post-cards which have to-day been selling like hot cakes hi Unter don Linden would convince the most sceptical. It is not so much that they have been photographed a dozen times with their anus linked, or he with his round her waist, as that their faces radiate with felicity in one another which even the bighest histrionic art could not simulate. So far as knowledge of their characters has penetrated to the public they are admirably suited to one another. Prince August Wilhelm, unlike his elder brothers, the Crown Prince, who is a keen sportsman of varied accomplishments, and Prince Eitel Friedrich and Adelbert, who are respectively devoted to their military and naval duties, has always shown a preference

for retiring, studious, mid artistic occupations. His recent graduation at Strassburg University, over which there lias been considerable controversy, may have been carried out under conditions less exacting than those to which the ordinary student lias to submit, but it was, at any rate, the result of serious and concentrated work. He lias shown his love for pictures by spending holidays,' touring round tlie famous galleries of. Europe. Jn the simplicity of hrt tastes and pursuits lie is well mated by his fair-haired, blue-eyed bride, whose home in the castles of Glucksburg and Grunholz presents an unpretentious and harmonious family life, of which the chief object is the culture of the Muses. She lierself is never happy when parted from her paint-box, and lias probably bad much to do with his recent enthusiasm for art.

This afternoon, in accordance with old custom, the Princess was ceremoniously escorted into Berlin from Schloss Bellevue, at present the residence of Prince EiteJ Friedrieh. In a carriage drawn by plumed and caprisoncd horses, and manned by gorgeously attired outriders and .footmen, and in the midst of a forest of the dancing pennons of an escort of Lancers, the Princess, clad in her bridal white, passed in state along the broad, straight road that leads through tlie Thiergarteii. beneath the Brandonburger Tlior. and along TJntcr den Linden to the Schloss. In serried ranks on both sides of the entire route were drawn up members of the guilds, veterans' associations, and academic corporations, in all more than (il)IIO strong, with their multiform and multicolored banners, and with bands which, with more regard to quantity than quality of sound, took up the strains of the Holstehi Hymn one after another in an unbroken figure of discords. Behind was arrayed a vast host of spectators, who, in spite of the frosty winds of the coldest October of which there is any record in Berlin, had been obliged, iii consequence of the strange police regulations, to take ii]) their places three" or four hours before the procession came by As the squadron of mounted trumpeters of the second Dragoons of the Guards, blowing a lively fanfare on their horns, which headed the pageant, debouched through the Brandenburg Rate into the long vista of fluttering flags that decorated the Linden, the clash of military music was mingled with the clanging of church bells and the boom of the artillery salute, fired in the Lustgarten. opposite the Schloss. _ After a short halt to receive the felicitations of the magistracy, and the flowers presented by a body' of 38 maids honor, the Princess continued her drive down the gay thoroughfare, to the Schloss. where the. wedding ceremony will be celebrated to-morrow as a family festival. The honevmoon in accordance with another 'llohenzolleni custom, will lie spent at the hunting box of ilubortusstock, a simple chalet, as modest in its dimensions as in its' furnishings, erected on the shores of a beautiful lake, about thirty miles north of Berlin surrounded by measureless forests of oak, birch, beech, and pin-:, beneath those branches 3000 head of deer await their destiny from tlie Imperial rifle.

Wll "h regard to the future of the bridal couple, it may be stated that Prince August Wilhelm is mentioned with some confidence ill connection with tire Slatthalstership of Alsace-Lorraine, and that there are even voices which predict for him and his posterity a still closer connection with the R'eichslaud.