THE WOMAN WHO SWAYS THE KAISER.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 January 1917, Page 8

THE WOMAN WHO SWAYS THE KAISER.

AN AMAZING ROMANCE OF A GROCER'S DAUGHTER. (Pearsons's Weekly), When Esther Lea first opened her eyes on the world in New York more than seventy years ago he would have been a very hold prophet who had predicted that the infant so modestly cradled won'd one day be a Princess iii her own right; that she would have an Empress for grand-niece, and that, far more than any other woman of her she would 'mould the. history of the world in her clever hands.

Such a prophet would, indeed, have been laughed to scorn; for Esther's father was then serving customers behind the counter of his modest grocer's shop iin Front Street, New York; and had only just been able to move his family I from its upper rooms to :i more comfortable home in College Place.

Esther had thus neither birth nor wealth to start her on Kny career of ambition; she seemed, indeed., as far removed from the glittering circle of Eoyal Courts as from the planet Mars. But the child had the still more valuable dower of beauty and a clever brain, [which has carried many a child, even more obscurely born, to the dizziest heights of power. Before Esth'er had turned her back on her schoolbooks her beauty and her charm had drawn many a lover to her feet; but the grocer's daughter wouid have nothing to say to any of the prosperous yc ling business men who would so glad'ly have made her wife. She had already set her heart on a very different sphere, and would say jokingly to her mother: "J shall be a groat lady some day." A MINCE AS HJSBAND. She had just reached the verge of young womanhood when her father, having accumulated a small fortune, died, and his widow carried off iiei three beautiful girls and her son to Stuttgart to complete their education—thus unconsciously playing into the hands of Fate. In the YVurtemberg eap'ta-1 the arrival of the three ' American beauties" caused no little sensation; and it was not long bciore the eldest of them found a husband in Baron von Waechter, a handsome and court!} diplomatist, who, within a few months of his wedding day was scut as Ambassador to l'aris, to which city, Mrs. Lea and the rest of her small family quickly followed lit-r :on-in-iav,\ Tims Esther's opportunity had come at last. She was now in the first radiant bloom of hei beauty—"a tall figure of mingled statcliness and grace; a little head, with a coronal of glorious brown hair; eyes blue as violets and dancing v. ith the joy of life, illuminating ar. oval face with the daintiest features, dimpled checks, and a rosebud of a mouth."

Such is the enthusiastic picture drawn o ; her at this time; and one cannot wonder that _eycn in Paris, that city of fair women, the American girl should be hailed as a new revelation of female lousiness. Nor was it lo?ig before her retinue of lovers included the Prince of Schles-vig-Holslein, who, altho.igh a widower who had seen more than 'ji.vty years, was a strikingly handsome- man, and still so susceptible to the charm of beauty that ho lost his heart at first sight of 'Esther'.-, loveliness and gave her no poacp until he had made her his morganatic wife.

The grocer's (laughter, although she was but the "left-handed" wife of a Piinee, had thus early found entrance to the closely guarded inner circle of Courts: and as Countess von Noer (a title conferred on her by her husband), was welcomed by the highest society of the .Continent. But the Prince was not long destined to enjoy his newfound happiness. Indeed within a year lie left his wife a widow and hit entire fortune. For a time the Countess made her home 'in Vienna, where she became so popular with Franz Josef and his Court that he created her Princess von Ncer in her own-bright. It was not likely, though, that a woman so lovely, bo gifted, and so well gilded should long remain unclaimed and almost before she had discarded her weeds we find her standing again at the altar —this time with the young and handsome Count von Waldcrsee, a soldier of considerable gifts and charm who stood high in the favour of the Emperor William and BUniarck.

ARRANGED THE KAISER'S MARRIAGE. The grocer's daughter had now the hall of Fortune at her feet. She had become a power—in a position, through the old Emperor's admiration of, and affection for her, to influence Prussia's policy at home and abroad. In order to make her position unassailably strong she now set to work (.a arrange a marriage between the young Prince William (the Kaiser of to-day) and the Princess , Augusta Victoria of Sehleswig-Holsccin, grandniece of her first husband, a girl to whom she had been more than a mother. And so cleverly did she "pull the strings" that one day in ls-'SI she saw hei devoted "child" (as she called her) blossom into a future Empress at the altar. ,S?he had already succeeded well iii winning the devotion of Prince William that he invariably addressed her a: : - Tjnte (aunt). Now that he was, in fact, her nephew, wedded to a wife who was passionately attached to iier tlr- future Emperor became, still more devoted to her.

"It is really absurd," wrote a lady of the Court at this time, "to sen what a fuss Prince William makes of the American Countess. He is her shadow, often spends several hours daily in her company; and I really believe consults heir as to what he shall wear, eat and drink!" But it was when William came to liia throne in ISSS that the Countess's power reached its full scope. Her influence over the. young couple was lo great that it- alarmed William's Ministers, and drove his mother, the Empress Frederick, to despair. "1 can do nothing," she wrote, 'William is the veriest puppet in the hands of his clever ami dciigain!; American woman. He takes no step without consulting her first; and he follows her advice rather than that of his wisest Ministers. What is worse from my point of view, she estranges my son' more and more from me and makes him oppose my slightest wishes." RESPONSIBLE FOR aHE WAR. To his subjects his slavish devotion to the Countess, was for years an, unfailing cause of amusement; and at

oiii? time, "I must ask Aunt Esther," was a catch phrase throughout Germany. It is said by those who profess In know that over since his accession to the throne the Kaiser's policy has been inspired and directed wore by the grocer's daughter than by all his Ministers combined. It was she who counselled the daring and historic step of "dropping the Pilot" —dismissing Bismarck and taking the reins of Government into his own hands. With the "man of iron" out of the way she could rule the Emperor as she willed—he had been her only rival and obstacle. It is she who has invariably encouraged his autocratic rule; has fed his vanity until it has turned his brain; and has jrtiflamod the hatred of England which has culminated in the most devastating war of all time. Apart from the political mischief-mak-ing, however, the Countess is a lovable woman, with a large hear: aikl .1 boundless charity; and she has never lost her affection for the land which gave her her obscure birth. , She still retains traces of the beauty which once dazzled Europe; and .1though her hair is white as driven snow, her figure is as erect ami qiwenly, and her complexion almost as clear and br 1liant as when, at first sight of her loveliness, the princely widower ln:..c both l'.ea:l and heart half a century and more