Harrisburg telegraph. (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, March 04, 1919, Page 8, Image 8
8 The Private Life of the Kaiser FROM THE PAPERS AND DIARIES OF THE BARONESS VON LARISCH-REDDERN The Kaiser and Kaiserin's Late Major Donio, Chief of the Royal Household at Berlin and Potsdam Baroness von Larisch-Reddern is the TRUE name of the Berlin Court Lady who gave the story of the Kaiser to Henry William Fisher, Ursula, Countess von Eppinghoven being a nom dc guerre, heretofore used to shield Iter VV : J How the Inside Story of the Kaiser's and Kaiserin's Life Was Written. The Chance Meeting at Moscow Be tween the Baroness von Larisch and the American Newspaper Man. Some Interesting Side Lights on Pseudo-biographers. The Story Up to December, 1918. The Kaiser's Birth and What Happened on That Occasion. Kaiser Was .Beaten Into Life With a Wet Towel. His Rage When After His Father's Death He Found Queen Victoria's Telegram Asking Whether He "Was a Fine Boy." The Doctors Were Late in Discover ing the Royal Baby's Deformed Arm and Hand. Nature of the Deformity, Which Kaiser Tries to Hide. AH Sorts of Man euvrcs. Kaiser's Morbid Fear of Illness. Has Always Been Ailing More or Less. A Grave Trial to His Valets. Hear ing of Death in Neighbor's House. He Ran Away From Home and Hid in the Apartments. Haunted by the White Lady. Fear of Illness Causes Him to Maltreat Ser vants. Even His Lady Loves Suffer When Someone Has a Cold in the Family NOTE —The real name of the Lady of the Berlin Court who gave the Information embodied in these absorbing mernoim was for; merly withheld and a pseudonym, that of ITRSLLA COUNTESS i EPPINGHOVEN, substituted. As our informant was killed during the Berlin riots in December last, we are now at liberty to give tne true name. BARONESS VON LARISCH-REDDERN. and her gen uine office at court: Chief-of-the-Imperial-Household. Some notes about the Baroness' personality, how and where Mr. Fisher met her and how these memoirs were written and brought up to December 191S, are appended in the statement below. Mr. Fisher's Statement: I have been asked how I came to gather the information Tor the three volume history of the Kaiser nnd Kaiserin: "Private Lives of Kaiser William II and His Consort and Secret History of the Court of Berlin. That is quite a story and I will relate it as briefly as possible. 1 happened to be one of four American correspondents at the Corona tion of the late Czar Nicholas at Moscow, in the early summer of 18S. \t one of the court balls, to which we were bidden, Lord 14. the son of li Hun"- Chang the famous Chinese Viceroy, called the Bismarck of the j i'Lvthe name of a tall, distinguished looking lady who ap- Snd tt in of Princes.; Henry of Prussia. Lord 14 said Ins fM^ a Uvl made > Tiaste to find ont. and a Russian Chamberlain was aoi? enough to formally introduce me after previously volunteering a s . of me ladv. The Baroness von Larisch-Redderu, I learned, had been for ten vears, chief of Ue Kaiser's household,—tliat is she liad X diemost CONFIDENTIAL POST' AT THE BERLIN COURT, a por tion tliat brought her in daily, almost hourly, contact with Wilhelm, the Empress Agusto Victoria, Uie Royal children, the courtiers, and all who visited the Kaiser's court, royal relatives and native and foreign royalties, distinguished Germans and ditto visitors to Berlin, —in short with every one worth knowing. At the time of our meetiflg at Moscow, the Baroness was Maid of Honor to Princess Henry, a sister of the Czarina, crowned a day before The Baroness asked me many ques tions about America, and as, owing to the hubbub around us, it was im possible to talk connectedly, I prom ised to visit her next afternoon at her lodgings in the Kremlin. But by the time I saw her again, her Ladyship, womanlike, had forgotten all about her interests in the States and during our two hours' chat she talked of nobody and nothing but William Hohenzollern. I had once spent half a day with the Kaiser when acting as assistant to Mr. Russel, the famous London Photographer, who went to Berlin to take the Kaiser's picture for the Marine Exhibition; as Berlin cor respondent for English, French and American newspapers. X had had the Kaiser under less close observa tion time and again. I had read all the books, magazine and newspaper articles and pamphlets printed about William; I had talked to dozens of people supposed to be in the inner circle of his confidence, masters and mistresses of court gos sip; X had a thousand scandals con nected with the Berlin court at my lingers' ends—but the sayings of the Baroness took my breath away. Here, at last, was the real Wil liam, the William in dressing gown and pajamas; here was an empress, shorn of state and crown—a mere peevish and petty, and entirely wom anlike woman. I had thought Rus sel a great photographer; the Bar oness was a better one; I had thought Pepys the most wonderful retailer of small talk, but Madame von Larisch beat the famed chron icler of Charles ll's Court and times. "Mercy!" I cried, "if I had a mem ory as large as the Spbynx's head, 1 couldn't remember half of what you said." "Then X will write it for you," quoth the Baroness. "Ail you have told me?" "Yes, and a thousand times more." "But how can I ask for such a sacrifice of time on your part?" "Oh! I am not as disinterested as I seem", replied the Baroness, "first of all: I want to let the world know what kind of man William is, and secondly, I want you to do me a ser vice." X would have promised her the Town and County of Jerusalem, if she had asked for them, and X cer tainly made it clear to Madame that X would do anything within reason or even a few foolish things, if she insisted. But what she asked for was quite easy. "This oard," she said, handing me a pasteboard, "will admit you to the banquet of German Princes to be held at the Crown Chambers to night. At this gathering you shall act as my reporter, —you shall put doWn for me everything said and done, no, not those cut and dried speeches, court marshalls and sec retraies concoct, only the impromp tu sayings and actions, things not on the program." "But suppose nothing happens, suppose they act just like junior princes usually do?" "They won't," said the Baroness, with a sinister emphasis on the last word. "I am sure there will be trouble of some sort, and you will tell me all about It, won't you?" "I sure will", f affirmed in true western style, and when, at 1 o'clock in the morning I was ushered into her Ladyship's parlor a second, time, the Russian servant, guarding the threshold of her private rooms, seemed to have expected me, for he rushed off into an inner chamt^r ' I TUESDAY EVENING, as soon as he heard my name, aiVl the Baroness followed close upon his heels, dragging an enormous court train, partly detached, after her. "What has happened," she cried. "My princess (referring to Princess Henry of Prussia) is in tears, but won't say a word. 'State secrets,' she vows. And the Prinde is writ ing like mad, keeping our whole cypher brigade, going full tilt. He is telegraphing to—whom?" "To the Kaiser, most likely," I answered her questioning eyes. "I thought so," cried the Baroness "Now report, sir." Here is the story I told her; it seemed singularly tame to me at the time. "At the gathering of the German ! princes, there was much eating, drinking, coughing, gtlrgling, and picking of teeth, nothing remark able or unusual in that. And the speeches were a continuous flow of platitudes, and imbecilities the Kaiser had set the fashion in that line, you know. The last official ad dress had been entrusted to a dis tinguished Russian-German of high position in Moscow society. He spoke in German, but not in the choicest and right at the opening of his speech, he put his foot in it. "Thrice welcome," he shouted, "to the great German Princes that came here in the suite of the Kaiser's brother—" He didn't get any further for as he pronounced the word "suite," Prince Louis of Bavaria (the heir to the crown who subsequently became king) rose heavily and, smashing the table in front of him with his clenched fist, cried, "To the devil with your suite. We German Princes are not traveling in anybody's suite. We came here on our own account to represent our Kingdoms, Grand Duchies and Principalities, even as Henry came to represent his brother, the Kaiser. Prince Henry is one of us, but no over-lord by any means. As to the Kaiserehimself, as Royal Personages we are his equals in alj respects. What do your Royal Highnesses say? Am I stating the case correctly?" Before Louis had half finished, all the guests, save Henry of Prus sia, were on their feet, shouting and gesticulating to show their complete agreement with the royal spokes man of Bavaria. The turmoil lasted five or six minutes and the banquet was as good as broken up, for the ITinces were so excited they paid no further attention to the program, talked among themselves and drank each other's health in such quick succes sion that the majority got tipsy. Poor Prince Henry, the innocent cause of the trouble. Bat like a whipped dog, and it was a great relief to him when one of his gen tlemen came, bringing him a dis patch. Upon this, he rose abruptly, and bowing all around, hastily left the banquet room. The Baroness listened with every evidence of excitement. But she didn't seem surprised and my priv ate opinion is that Louis's outburst, aimed at the Kaiser, had been pre arranged and that Madame the Bar oness was perhaps privy to the plot. As soon as I finished* my story she rose, shook hands with me, thanked me profusely, and said, "X am oft to wire the Kaiser. He will have my story hours before Prince Hen ry's comes limping in. I know the Russian chief censor, and I am afraid Henry won't have much luck with his cypher dispatch. First it will have to be deciphered, and then they will take their time thinking whether it should be sent or not Next day I met the Baroness by appointment for the. third time, and we agteed upon the plan of the I book in embryo. As r was due to return to New Tork within three months, she promised to begin writ ing at once and by the time I ar rived in the States, she would have sent fifty or sixty thousand words to my New York address. That promise her Ladyship faithfully kept and every two weeks after wards 1 received further packets of her Ms. until I had about 200,000 words or more. I have given you a page of the Baroness, Ms. As you perceive, there is not a break or paragraph in it. Neither was there a break or paragraph in the entire 200,000 words. That was my greatest trouble:—study out and disentangle sentences and chapters and sections ih "the awful German tongue," as Mark Twain put it. For the rest, I was able to verify nearly every one of the statements made by the chief of the imperial and royal household. Where I failed, the failure was due to the fact that her Ladyship had been the sole eyewitness. I made two differ ent trips to Germany to clear up sev eral mysteries in the copy and on these trips gathered much additional evidence as to the Kaiser's private life and life at the German Court. * * Within a week or ten days after the signing of the armistice a cour ier or King's Messenger attached to one of the minor legations at the Court of St. James, came to seo me at my lodgings in London, bringing the first news of the Baroness since July and August 1914. "Her Ladyship you to know that, while not officially connected with the Court, she is a constant vis itor at the Schloss and Palace and is keeping a close watch on her old Master and Mistress, and everything and everybody connected with the Court. As soon as it will be per missablo to send uncensored mail matter from Germany, you will re ceive a budget of news from her dealing with the Kaiser during the war". I immediately went to the War Office and inquired when the cen sorship was likely to be raised. "It has been decided to raise it on January 6, 1919," I was told. And the Steamship Lapland, on which I had engaged passage after much trouble, was due to sail a day later, January Tth. So I went to the Legation and told my troubles to the King's Messenger. "Don't worry," he said, "I just received orders to go North tonight, I am leaving on a British torpedo boat, and will be back in London before Christmas. When I touch land, I will get the Baroness on the long distance, and if you don't grudge the expense, I will get the information you are after from her own lips." The courier did even better. While waiting at Copenhagen to re turn to he received a thirty page letter from tha Baroness, dated Berlin December Ist, which detailed the news I was so anxious to pro cure. According to plan, the courier read Madame von Larisch's state ment over several times, committing it to memory for his memory is simply phenominal. So, when his minister of Foreign Affairs ordered him to show the contents of his mail pouch before departing for London, he cheerfully handed over the Larisch documents, as all papers not strictly appertaining to govern ment busipess were taboo. Before embarking for England, the courier called up the house near the Puppenbrucke, Berlin, where the Baroness had a flat. The man ager of the apartment house answered the call; "I am sorry to* announce", he said, "that her Lady ship is no more. Like so many other good people belonging to the court and society, she was killed a few days ago during the bombard ment of the Royal Stable buildings and the neighborhood of the Schloss." Further details are missing, but the courier, upon his arrival in London. detailed the contents of Baroness von Larisch's last letter to me, and knowing her copy as I do. it sounded to me as if he were voicing her very own words. "Mine is a phonograph memory," said the courier promptly. • " * * It seems scarcely necessary to in sist ttiat the Baroness Larisch's Memoirs of the Kaiser's Court con tain all and everything of non-poli tical, but personal moment. Since these Memoirs wer e first published several other books dealing with the Kaiser have seen the light Most of them were based on the disclos ures previously made and published by the Baroness. I might almost say all of them, with the exception of the books dealing chieflv with politics published by the former American Ambassador in Berlin and by the Kaiser's doctor. That fact was franklv recog nised by one English publisher, at least, who offered to give me credit for the, chapters, stories and inci dents boldly taken from my three volumes—if there was a second edi tion of the printed book. But there was none, for obvious reasons The latest book on the Ex-Kais er's secret life, just published by Grant Richards, London, makes the usual liberal raids on my literary property, but for originality's sake, I presume, exploits In addition some of the Countess Wedell's ill-balanced vaporings of twenty or more years Mr. Richards' anonymous author —he has every reason for wishing to be nameless assumes that the Countess Wedell was not only the Kaiser's mistress, but somebody. Let me quote Baroness Larisch re this person: "This Countess Wedell," she told me, "was a ballet girl at the Impe rial Opera House like her mother be fore her. The mother became a c-hance mistress of the Kaiser's grandfather, William I, and the present Countess Wedell claims to have been the offspring of their temporary liaison. Despite this fact, she sought to ensnare William when a young prince. "She succeeded, according to her own uncorroborated story. It hap pened, I understand, in the Kaiser's student days when, according to his Court Marshall, he never had twenty marks in hie pocket, and when all his disbursements were made by the Court Marshall's office. If there had been an attachment, longer than momentary, between the two grand children of the firs': William, the SLOIRISBURG YELEGKXra Court Marshall would have known, and the Court Marshall does not know. "But in later years the girl had the effrontery to use this more than doubtful episode in her and Wil liam's young life as a club. The club was suspended, but not entire ly turned away, when the young woman married an impecunious Army Officer, named Count Wedell. Of course, she did not marry him because he was practically without funds. She married him for the title, and once in possession of that title she used it freely to give more momentum to the club she was wielding in the direction of the Kaiser's treasury. "Time and again, it seems, she succeeded in squeezing a thousand marks, or thereabout, out of her ex lover, but as the income thus gained was insufficient to support her, she became housekeeper fcr the Persian Ambassador in Berlin. "At that Juncture the President of the Berlin Police took a hand in the game, her husband divorced her, and She entered more and more on a life of adventure. i "As to her claims regarding her I financial successes with the Kaiser, T know nothing. That she ever had the entree at court or was recog nized as a lady of station by society, or even by the Police, she herse'tf does not claim. "As a matter of tact, the Court never, heard of this woman, even by name. Her very existence wonnl ! still be a mystery to me and other members of the Berlin Court if some penny dreadful had not printed extracts from a book of heis published by a small firm in Stvitz cr'and." • On another occasion the Baron less Larisch spoke to me about some accounts in French pamphlets, deal ing with the secret loves of the j Kaiser. "These stories of French I girls visiting the Ka'str at Court or | at his hunting boxes are as absurd las can be," she said. "1 have jpen | Coned by name evety woman in ; whom the Kaiser was ever inter ! ested —there were r.o interlopers of | any kind. Nor was William in the habit or assaulting those, that dis agreed with him, with fist , cuffs. The only bodily assault in which he was ever concerned happened to be forced upon him by a Naval Lieutenant on the man-of-war litis, and in that case the Kaiser did not even defend himself". "What about the affair with painter Pape, whom the Kaiser is said to have kicked in the stom j ach'?" "Penny-a-liner nonsense." the in vention of some French Pamphle ; teer," said her Ladyship. "William was vulgar enough, God knows, but his vulgarity did not go such lengths Pape is still our Court painter and has a studio, by the Kaiser's grace, ; in the German Reichstag building." Henry William Fisher. XHK LIFE OF THE KAISER , T "Is It a Fine Boy?" "Victoria." But one person, Major von N'or mann, of the First Guards, was pres ent, when, on June 15, 1888, at noon scarcely an hour after Emperor Frederick had breathed his last, Kaiser Wilheim II drew the above dispatch from his father's papers. "What did His Majesty say on discovering the Queen's telegram?" I asked N'ormann at the late Em peror's funeral. "Sot a word; yet he turned a shade paler, while his left hand convulsively closed around the hilt of his sabre." When a Prussian King Dies Every time a Prussian King dies, a spirit of unspeakable savagry takes hold of his lawful successor. The Empress ' Frederick, her daughters, the members of her Court, her physician, friends, and servants, were prisoners for many hours, beginning at five minutes past eleven o'clock, on June 15, 1888. Until he.' son and heir had con cluded his investigations and made all arrangements he intended to ef fect, no living soul was allowed to leave Castle Friedrichskron; senti nels with loaded rifles stood over the telegraph operators to prevent communication with the outer world, and the telephone was sim ilarly guarded. That upon the heel of these meas ures the newly-made Kaiser invited N'ormann to attend him in his search for state papers and other docu ments, of which the one mentioned, while not the most valuable, was certainly not the least interesting shows the extent of his confidence in this man, then este&ned as a strict disciplinarian, but in no other way distinguished. I would not like to assert that the imperial proclamations to the army and navy, dated June 15, 1888, were composed with von Normann's as sistance while impatient crowds sur rounded the palace, demanding news of the king whom they vaguely sup posed to be dead;—but these papers are so full of barrack bravado and contempt for everything not mili tary as to strongly suggest some such influence. "Thus wc belong to each other, I and the army,—thus we were born for each other, and thus we will stick to each other forever, be there peace or storm, as God wills it." And while the army was honored and exalted, the loyal taxpayers had to wait for the customary royal greeting and a word of information on the issues of the day. until the 18th of the month. Details of the Kateer's Birth But to return to Queen Victoria's telegram. It was dated January 28, 1859 twenty-four hours after the eldest son of Crown Prince and Crown Princess Frederick-William had seen the light. William was born quite economic ally, a midwife receiving him, and a Court physician, assisted by the then highly-reputed Berlin specialist for woman's diseases, the late Dr. Martin, looking gravely on after the manner of his kind. In Germany, you must know, a doctor thinks it beneath himself to take the child, and is supposed to act only in case grave complications arise; ine times out of ten he con tents himself by superintending the arrangements and in seeing that the sanitary laws are complied with in all minuteness; the midwife does the work. In the case of the Crown Princess of Prussia, a Miss Stahl acted as midwife; at the time of this writing she was a motherly woman, and still continued her visits to the pal- I ace; so I often had occasion to talk' ' with her about the great event tn her life. "Her poor Royal Highness." said the old woman, "was only two "•onths past eighteen years, and very weak and nervous. You see. with her It was not an ordinary case of first motherhood; politics were mixed up In It to a frightful degree, and the poor young thing felt the fate of Europe trembling in her lap. for our king Frederick Wil liam IV was as crazy as a March hare, and twenty-one years had pas sed since a midwife was called to the Prince Regent's house to bring into the world little Louise, now ( Grand Duchess of Baden. ! "Our work had been divided as follows. Dr. Martin was to have , special care of Her Royal Highness. I inasmuch as he was treating her for ! a nervous malady; the Court physi cian had his ordinary duties, while 1 was commanded to take the child. But the moment the little one was born a despairing moan from the mother all these tine dis positions. "Still Born, by Heaven" 'The Crown Princess is dying" whispered the doctors, while work ing with blanched faces over Vic toria's prostrate body. Of course, 1 had to abandon the child mo mentarily to help them, and when —the Crown Princess having re vived after a while—l knelt down before the couch on which our heir rested, imagine my fright: he had not yet uttered a cry, nor did he move a muscle. 'Still-born, by Heaven!' I thought. A gesture brought Dr. Martin to my side, and together we labored over the newly born. 1 do not know how'long, ex hausting successively every means ordained by medical books, or prac ticed in the nursery, to bring the child to life." 1 will state here, that Miss Stahl was a very dignified woman, broad and short, and, of an excessively grumpy disposition. Very seldom i did she smile. The old dame re ' counted her story to the point given, always with the dignity becoming to a person of her worth; but. as she continued, her face broadened with merriment, and her famous basso resounded through the room with a break here and there that came very near a laugh. Spanked into Mfc "When everything had been done that in decency could be done," so ran her narrative. "I took that roy al youngster under my left arm. and, grabbing a wet towel in my right began to belabor him in good home ly fashion, though the doctors groaned and everybody in the room looked horrified. 'To the devil with etiquette,' I thought, seeing their grimaces; 'this is a matter of life or death.' So I spanked away, now lighter, now j harder, slap, slap, slap, until the cannons announcing the birth had half finished their official quota of a hundred and one shots—until at last a faint cry broke from the young one's lips. -"He was alive! X had snatched our Prince from the grave for which he seemed destined. The rest was easy sailing; the doctors again had their innings, and the simple mid wife was shoved aside." Discovery of the Withered Arm "But what about the deformed hand and arm?" "That was discovered only the third or fourth day after.'" replied Miss Stahl; "you see, at first we were all so busy keeping life in the Prince, after I put it there, that no one thought of examining his I limbs. Even when, on January 28, the late Crown Prince showed his son to his relatives, friends, and the household, no one observed that anything was wrong. But on the last, or the last but one day of the month, it was noticed that the child did not move his left arm: an in vestigation was made, and, in the course of it, the surgeons discovered 'that the elbow Joint was dislocated. That is nothing serious in a healthy child. However, in the case of our PrifWo, the surrounding soft parts were so injured, and the muscles attached in such a condition, that no one dared attempt to set the bone then and there, as should be done In all cases." Miss Stahl concluded her remarks tvitli the statement: "I am well aware that the present condition of the Kaiser's arm is attributed to a mistake made by the persons offlciat ing at the birth; but." and saying this, the old maid's face assumed its most determined look, "if that were not a falsehood, agreeable to the Kaiser, do you suppose for one mo ment that 1 should be in this palace now to cripple more Hohenzollerns? Saying this. Miss Stahl used to bring down her fist forcibly and concluded: "My opinion has always been that the child's left (forearm was not properly made up by nature, as, in deed. Ills whole left side was weak, and is weak to this day. "Everyone in the palace knows that, though 'his walk Is brisk, it is his ever alert exertion that makes it so: if, at any time, the Kaiser ceased thinking of his shortcomings for only a moment, you would see his left leg drag. All his aches and pains, too, locate in his left ear and the whole left side of his head. Now remember what I told you about the Crown Princess's condition. She was agitated by fears and depressed in spirits; great responsibilities weighed upon her mind. Is it to be wondered at, that her child was affected? The mother, poor girl! trans fused her nervous ailments into the child she was carrying, and all concentrated In Its left side. That myself and the doctors were un able to prevent or forsee; besides we were, as stated, far too busy completing nature's handiwork by inflating and keeping the Prince's respiratory organs going, to test the inferior parts of his body separately If, on the other hand, the Prince had been a lusty boy, the dislocated joint would, undoubtedly, have been promptly discovered and nothing would have stood in the way of its Immediate correction." So the chances are that Queen Victoria's telegram was answered in the affirmative. The Doctor Lied In the Babel of contradictory statements Miss Stahl's observa tions have the grateful ring of ver acity. Surely, Miss Stahl was not to blame, If it were otherwise, would the Kaiser have tolerated her in the Palace? William was a hard master, and as for suffering in his service a per son having blasted his life by cruel neglect, that is as entirely out of the question as the idea I heard ad vanced oft and on, that he is in sensitive to his disablement. That incubus, on the contrary, was forever In his thoughts, and his' apparent unmindfulness of the fact a clever affectation. He wanted others to forget that he Is a cripple and therefore ignored his short com ings. But. with all that, he was sure to be found napping occasionally; i can very well imaging the Kaiser closing his hand nervously round the hilt of his sabre as he read that tell-tale despatch! Origin of Hatred of England "Is it a fine boy?" Ah. his grandmother had good reason for feeling anxious about this infant in whose veins coursed the blood of the four Georges! It was that Eng lish consanguinity which he loathed and abhored not the little woman I who received him in her arms al | ready tainted and marked for life, j That, despite bis perfect under standing of the case, he allowed bis 1 historians to abuse Slnhl, was but ! an instaneo of royal ingratitude dlc i tated by the same policy that, from the summer of 188/ to the close of the reign of one hundrel days, brand ed certain of liis father's physicians j liars and incompetents. In this particular instance it hnp ; pened, however, that the biter wus | bitten: at the time Indicated, Prince William would have gladly seen Mackenzie go to the devil; and the ; findings of his German colleagues, i that Frederick 111 suffered from can ' cer, a malady said to exclude its | victim from the throne, proclaimed from the housetops—but when he ! himself was king It was quite un j other matter. The world's eye. In stead of compassionately regarding the sickroom at San Remo, was 'riveted upon the stationary or float i ing or roiling hospitals in which lie | dwelled as In a glass house —hence ! the "remaking" of history, the dis i semination of historical untruths at I all hazards! But they must not be too replete with details. Thus T once heard the I Kaiser, in conversation with his wife, roundly abuse Hinzpeter | for saying in his book: "Tlie Prus sian army never admitted a young nutll physically so little lit to be come a brilliant and dashing caval ry officer as William." I The criticism was passed shortly i after the appearance of Hinzpeter's Kaiser William 11, a Sketch from Life," and the Emperor, after warn i ing his Augusta-against letting the 'volume fall into the children's I hands, meaning the elder boys, con- Itinued: "Our German philosophers I never know where to stop; whether j they write truths or lies, they are , bound to compromise and expose ; their betters without ever realizing | Devices For Concealing Deformity , His fateful left arm the Ka'se'r I hugs closely to his hotly, allowing | (he hand which is not .deformed, . but puny, like a child's, to rest I against his waist, or upon his hip, iif on horseback. The German pa j Pes issued bullous d'essai from time :to time to ascertain .sentiment in | respect to the introduction of a belt | for army officers. As the Empress j Eugenie re-established the crinoline j in the sixties to hide her interesting I condition, so William desires to ! change military dress to lind a con- I venient resting place for bis poor | left band and arm, which. Jadng about six inches shorter than/ the I right, would attach to a belt unos t tentatiously. But, alas; the General j Stuff feigned to regard those recur ,ring proposals as maneuvers of army j contractors, and treated them with line scorn, so that William, unwill- I ing to own his secret reason for the 'innovation sought for, had to go i without relief. "Smashing Things" Those were gloomy days in the I palace when the pros and cons of 1 opinion on the subject were read by j the Emperor. They put him into the mood for smashing things, and his famous speech to the Branden burgers wus made under just such circumstances: "Those who will sup port me arc heartily welcome, who ever they are, hut those obstructing my policy I will smash to pieces." As intimated, the fingers of the crippled hand are movable, for, although the bead of the rudius of tlie forearm does not set properly into the condyles of the humerus, tlie limb is not altogether inert. There is consequently no reason for j doubting Mujor von Nermann's j assertion that the Kaiser clutch ed his sword with the left iiund. 1 have seen him do the same thing quite often when angry. But while he cun take hold of an article, he cannot for the life of him lift it. For instance, he holds the reins in his left hand, but is powerless to direct the horse except with his right or with his knees. Without exaggeration it may be said thai, next to.tlie stricken man. the five imperial valets, always on ! duty to dress, undress, and reuni ; form their master, suffer most on ac count of this infirmity. One of them, ! Her Majesty's valet Nolle, made my maid the confident of his troubles, i "We would not mind the work," I heard him say once, "would j not care if the Emperor changed his j uniform ten, instead of three or four times per day, it's the fear of In juring his lame hand that makes us nervous and gradually wears away our usefulness. And, besides, we must always be prepared to fore stall tlie .collapse of the All-highest j when he balances himself on liis left j foot, as is his wont sometimes when i lie is in a hurry to put on a different i pair of trousers." And, after think ing awhile, the man added: "If they would only introduce for all troops, horse, foot, and artillery, not excepting the navy, a uniform pair of pantaloons, one-half of our cares would be removed, but this endless variety is killing us." Kaiser's I'ridc in 11 is Strcngtlp William's right hand is mas sive and ugly in appearance, ugly, too, when clasping that of a friend. Before X was presented to him, Court-mursbal von Llebenun warned me against his mighty grip; but; though J went through the ordeal with teeth set, X could hardly sup press an outcry, which amused the Prince exceedingly". How proud the Emperor used to be of his personal strength was evi dent from the fact that he prompt ly adopted the simile suggested to him Several years ago, when a for eign cort-espondent likened his fist to the "terrible right" of the then champion of the world, John L. Sullivan, whereupon his sister of Meinjngen, who adores strong men, remarked: "I hope Sullivan has not the bad taste to wear as many rings as my big brother." This weakness is, however, to some extent excusable, as it Is thus the Kaiser tries to hide a number of nasty moles which disfigure his hand. In this he partly succeeds, while in spots ths glittering dia monds and rubies only tend to em phasize the blemishes. I dare say very few people have a correct notion of the Emperor's height, for, as he Is seldom seen without a helmet terminating in a point, the public Is mystified, and even close observers are apt to be deceived. In the palace this ques tion is never openly discussed, but I heard the Kaiserin overln quisltive Prince Eitel Fritz once or twice that his father measured five feet eight inches. That, I am sure, is a mistake; five feet five or six inches is the highest that, even Ad jutant Count Moltke, who has a very sure eye in such matters allows "'B r> it <1 t respectable enough figure, holding himself as straight as an arrow. His Constant Fear of Cancer The numerous newspaper persons who talk glibly about the Kaiser's "cancerous" ear trouble have, I im agine, information on the point that was inaccessible to those in dally at tendance upon His Majesty, for whether the dread malady has set tled In that organ or not. is on open question even with William's own physicians. Improbable It Is not. It was Queen Louise of Btrelitz, "sharing with Marie Antoinette the sad pre-eminence of beauty and mis fortune," who carried carcinoma in to the Prussian camp; the English escaped the doom only because eco nomical George 111 preferred Caro- MARCH 4, T9T9. line of Brunswick for 11is son, her i dowry being larger t.v a few thou j sum! Thulci a than the . lecklenbur ger's. Tne English Royal family escaped ; with u budget of vilo . andal —the | Pruas uus got the lesser dowry and ] the most awful d.sinso to boot — | haj'dluck or fate? A.t r the Four j Georges, England hi d a succession i of honest, decent, pcuc ,'ul kings, i All Queen Louise's . irtraits are , remarkable for u scarf the lady | invariably wears under her chin; ! even her oldest in i traits and ! busts exhibited in the licrlin Hohen zollern .Museum, no nuttier whether the Queen is In Couit dress or or- I dinarily gowned hate ,hts distinc ! tion. I This ornamented r.cai f was worn j to conceal the murks of an opera tion for swelling of the glands. That is undoubtedly authentic, but : it is also true thai in tliis very spot i the cancer thut killed her, eventual ly developed. 1 have this informa tion from descendants of old-time i royal servants In the employ of the I Emperor William. Louise's last 1 surviving son. That Emperor Frederick perished ; of cancer of the throat even Dr. MacKenzie had to admit. Therefore, ,if one may say so without offense, it would lie in the lino of natural ! development if William If, supposing ; he inherited the malady, were at i tacked by it in the neighborhood |of ids throat. But it must not be forgotten that cancer in thought by j some authorities to be untransmtssl- I hie. ' The on'y t'mo that His Majesty's 1 car trouble was mentioned in the na'acc was. as far as ' can remem j bpr, at "the dentil of 1 lenry XI of Reuss-Gerc. The little one died of | sen riot fever, we thought. and the ' Fmpress remarked: "I trust the i Kaiser will not hoar of the cause of j death, for it always makes him ' uneasy." , Tlic Scarlet Fever Myth "Why, lias His Majesty not had Iseurlet fever?" X inquired. • j "Of course," said the Kaiserln ! rather hesitatingly, "and in its most I malignant form, too. How could , you live here several years without hearing of it?" As Her Majesty's manner con ! \inced me that it would not be agree ■ able to her to go inio details, I 'curbed my curiosity until some time | after /I met fount Heckendorf, for I many y:nrs chamberlain to the Em ] press Frederick. "Your Ladyship did well not to i press the point." he said, "for the I Kaiser would he very angry if he I heard of any such discussion. As ] a matter of fact, that scarlet-fever • story is reserved for use in a con i tlngency that has not yet arisen, I J am happy to say." | 'You put me on the rack, Count-" "Others are there already and : dan not complain," replied the I chamberlain," on the rack of public I opinion, of the most cold-blooded I insinuation and of reproof direct. "Do you remember," he continued, i "when a certain august person {snubbed Emperor Frederick's Eng j lish physician because that gentle | man had refused to take his cue | from the seditious Bismarck and junker clique when reporting upon a disease that played such a part in a state tragedy, then on the boards? To-day, opposite views are trumps, and persons insisting that a speeitied malady involves the loss of the crown of Prussia are publicly disowned anil officially guillotined." "1 know, t know, but the scarlet favor story?" "As I have had the honor of al readv intimating: if the condition of Frederick's successor becomes alarming at any time in conse quence of his car trouble. Your Ladyship will see it in all the official papers." And it will read after this style: "When His Majesty, as a child was stricken with scarlet fever, his mother, the Empress Fred erick, insisted upon treating the patient after a custom prevailing in some parts of England. The fever- S ish hoy was subjected many times I daily to ice-cold ablutions, while his | body und bed linen were continually : changed, in consequence of which an acute cold settled in the left ear, which has ever since irritated the I youth anil man." I "Then." concluded the Count, I "will follow a learned treatise show | ing thut the Kaiser has water, not | tumors, on the brain." Apparatus For Care of the Ear | There is, 1 repeat it, as yet no j evidence to justify the worst suspi cions regarding Ihe Emperor's ear j trouble, bilt the fact that the organ ! is regularly treated with antoseptlcs to arrest fiiitrefaction Indicates tlic presence of gangrenous In flammation. Quite frequently the Kaiser attends to tliis himself, and if he has had a particularly bad day, the physician on duty or the body physieiun operates on him. But in the course of years the Empress, I likewise, lias become an adept at | bringing relief to her husband by | these means; she ulso handles an ap paratus for pumping air out of the sick ear. or clearing its passages by blowing air through them. This in strumint, which is fitted with a long rubber tube and a spiral trumpet, hangs at the side of the bedstead in their Majesties' Joint chamber and a duplicate is in the Kaiser's own toilet-room while a third forms part of the traveling equipage. The bed rooms on the yacht llohenzoliern and on the imperial salon trains are also fitted with ear-pumps. Ilarrnsscd in this wise by mala dies of Hie most serious character, the Emperor could not be blamed for tuking excessive precautions ugainst contagion. That he lives the greater part of the year in the inconveniently situated Neues Pal ais, which,, moreover, will never be a thoroughly modern residence for reasons that will be explained in an other chapter, is mainly due to its solitary position at the end of the town. At the Marble Palace, where the imperial couple used to spend the summer while waiting for Wil liam's patent of general and finally for the crown, it was quite differ ent. There they had neighbors, one of them the Hereditary Prince of Schoenburg, of the Guurd Hussars. Coming down to breakfast one morning, the Kaiser learned that Ills Grace had died of diphtheria a few hours before. Kaiser Flees From Disease "Diphtheria," cried William, turn ing a shade paler than is his wont in the morning,—"there seems to lie something unhealthy in the air hereabouts. Order the cham berlain on duty that m.v things must be packed und sent to Berlin at once." "But the residential quarters in the Schloss are far from finished," interposed Herr. von Liebenau. "Never mind, there will be some corner where I can sleep and eat without running the risk of infec tion. And seeing that the adjutant still waited, he added, anticipating a question which etiquette forbade to be asked: "All my things—l am going to move." That settled. His Majesty quieted down, and when, shortly afterward, the Empress arrived, he simply said: "Dona, lam going to Berlin and this house will see me no more." Auguste Victoria was thunderstruck, but seeing the husband determined, she dared not question him. So their meal passed in silence while visions of domestic storms, of irre parable displeasure, even of a malt resse en tttre, perhaps, chafed through Her Majesty's brain. And when, half an hour later, X entered her room to ask if the valets might go to the bed-chumber and remove the Kaiser's clothes —X found my mistress in teats, bewailing a fate that was as yet a mystery. "Do you know why the Kaiser Is going?" she said. X could not un derhand it at tlrst. "Of course," I repl d, "His Majesty has heard of the death across the way, and, be ing so near the Schoenburgs, he is atraitl thut diphtheria might break out in the palace." A sigh of relief escaped the periitl lady. She scarcely allowed me to iinish. "is the liereditary Prince dead."' she exclaimed, with almost a joyful ring in her volo*. T nen changing her attitude, she adA ®,.t '/ U > have 1 not been informed! of this'. X might have been spared an unhappy half-hour, and, besides I should have sent my condolence* to Princess Lucie." William was as good as his word; lils stuto lutpers published thut very clay wore dated "Sellloss, Berlin," etc.. and ever since the Marble Pal ace lias ceased, as it were, to figure in contcmpoi ary history. No Sanitary Arrangciiicnts Kalser was right in surmising that ids thousand-windowed palace in the capital would afford him lodoingH ot some soft; but as his own apartments, as well as the majority or the other suites, were undergoing alterations, he was obliged to make his quarters in the so-called von Kleist chambers, said to have been onco inhabited by Princess Amalia's first lady-in waiting, companion and confidante, the Haroncss von Kleist. They are exceedingly beautiful, fur more so than any of the gilded mod ern rooms that latter-day Berlin taste has furnished, yet at the same lime lack even the most ordinary conveniences. Tlu White Lady—"Xo lady" I was at the Meiningen Villa, in the Thiergarten, on some business of Xier Majesty's, when the Princess brought the news. M I have just come front my big brother,"—she always speaks of the Kaiser thus, —"and what do you think? I found him installed in the Kleist apartments,— at the Kleist rooms, which the White Lady is said to haunt." "'X am glad Auguste had her baby' I the Kaiser," continued Princess Charlotte, "for, as you know, von Kleist's child born in this apartment was disfigured by a terrible birth-mark on the nose, the broom of 'The Sweeper'." k "And what may that be. Your Royal Highness?" "Thd White Lady, of course, who used to announce her coming by vigorously sweeping the corridors. On that account, Frederick the Great dubbeil her 'the sweeper,' or, in his beloved French, La Balayeuse. And that," continued the Princess with a loud laugh, as if some hilar ious bon mot had just seen the light in her luminous brain, —"that was, after all, a iitting designation, for, sub rosu, the White Lady of the Hohenzollerns is no lady at all. have just inspected her favorite abode, and. X assure you, there is neither a bath-tub nor a toilet to be found there." Although the Empress knew of the objectionable features of her husband's temporary abode, she in sisted upon following William with in twice twenty-four hours. But the Emperor, pretending to be very busy with his speech for the opening of the Reichstag on November 22, would not see her until the follow ing day. Now everybody knows that speeches from the throne are com posed by the Chancellor—hence it was clear that William had some other reason for absenting himself. As a matter of fact, he had heard that Frau'gin von Gersdorff, Dame of the was suffering from a sore throat, and though her quar ters were not in the Marble Palace, but in the gentlewomen's pavilion, situated in the park, he evidently feared that Hep Majesty might have come in contact with her. And not until he was reassured by myself, did lie emerge from his seclusion. After I had withdrawn. C.ourt marslial von Liebeau was sum moned. Kaiser's Indifference to Others "No more cases of diphtheria in Potsdam, I hope?" said the Kaiser, in his most imperious style. "None that I know of. Your Ma jesty." "That you know of? My dear sir, that means cither that you arc out of toucli wiili your department or that cases of illness are secreted. At any rate, you will be good enough to telegraph to the Marble Palace that all persons of the suite, or in the royal service, who show any signs of throat trouble must be re moved to a hospital at once, without the slightest delay. These are my strictest orders." One of the Empress's favorite wardrobewomen, Mrs. Schnase, fell a victim, to William's relentless an xiety on'that occasion. Not being on duty, for several days, she had re mained in Potsdam, and, by the Court physician's advice, had taken a perspiratory treatment to reduce a swelling of the glands, very com mon among certain classes in Ger many, so that at XI o'clock that night she was in the midst of a healthy sweat and sound sleep, when the Major-domo awakened her to say that by "all-highest order" she must leave. Protest being out of the question, a four-wheeler was procured, and the shivering patient was rolled off to the nearest hospital through the wintry streets. "No room," reported the night watch, when the driver summoned him. "But she is one of Her Majesty's personal attendants." Of course that made a difference, and, after some more discussion, Mrs. Schnase was given a cot in ths pauper's ward, third class, next to one in which a poor creature was just receiving extreme unction. The Queen's wardrobewoman was a healthy girl, and recovered not only from the hofrors of her un usual experience, but likewise from an illness she caught while exposed to the deadly exhalations of th* sorry environment forced upon her. After a month or so, she was baot at but, daring to com plain of the treatment that had been meted out to her, such biting sar casm and contempt were heaped upon poor Schnase that she prefer red to resign. Assuredly, no one blamed the Kaiser for postponing maneuvers when cholera was raging. On such and similar occasions all royal ser vants were treated to unsugared test es the standing beverage, which caused not a little indignation in the palace, the ftunkieß and maids In sisting that the Emperor should make the tea palatable, if he fog-' bade them to drink anything els*. ' Kalserin Initiates 'Husband's Laiyt The Empress, who faithfully coyi. les all her husband's fads, either cause she admires them or becaugk she fears his displeasure, is as bah as he. Her Majesty frequently causes the discharge of servants for neglecting to report some trifling sickness in the family; and mem bers of the royal household not liv ing in the castle can enjoy a holi day at any time by simply furnish ing a doctor's certificate stating that somebody with.whom they are domi ciled in the city is ill. This applies £ Continued on Pace 18,]