Show EMPEROR PJIEDERICK Several Anecdotes Regarding the Crown Prince ol Germany The Crown Prince possessed a keen sense of humor and was addicted to good tempered practical joking which now and then resulted in complications requiring him to prove that he could take as well as give a rough jest Being himself one of the strongest and most expert swimmers in the German army he was in the habit during the summer months of taking a spell of exercise before breakfast every fine morning in the vast swimming bath specially appropriated to the use of tho Potsdam garrison Every now and anon when the school was full of huge guardsmen undergoing their acqualic drill ho would amuse himsalf by swimming up to some clumsy son of Anak seizing him by the back of the neck and ducking his head under water till he gasped again Un one occasion he had succeeded in submerging sub-merging two or three of the giant Grenadiers belonging to the Body Company Com-pany of the renowned First Foot in which he had served his own military apprenticeship and having had his fun in abundance called out at the top of his voice Now men you may try it on with me if you line one at a time of course He had hardly spoken when his neck was grasped from behind as in a vise and he found himself compelled to execute several involuntary dives so inconsiderately in-considerately prolonged that he presently fell short of breath and swallowed a considerable con-siderable quantity of liquid As soon as he could get his mouth above water he exclaimed thai he had had more than enough and his colossal immerser let him go The crown prince when j he had recovered his breath turned towards the Grenadier still in the waterand asked his name Schott Imperial Highness was the answer Whence do you come From Nimmersett a village on the distant frontier of East Prussia How long have you served I Two years Imperial Highness 7 Have vou had anv furlontrh vet No Imperial f Highness rn horne is too far off and the journey thither costs too much money Two days later Grenadier Schott was summoned to the office of his regimental i adjutant and there informed that a fortnights fort-nights leave having been granted to him II to visit his family he was ordered to apply for his traveling and diet expenses to the courtmarshal of his Imperial Highness the German Crown Prince One more storythe lastin illustration illustra-tion of tho inexhaustible kindheartedness that prompted Frederick III to perform generous actions without number Early in March 1881 he was walking towards to-wards she barracks of the Guard Lancers at Moabit when on the Fennbrucke his attention was attracted by a group of shabbily dressed persons consisting of a middleaged man and three strapping lads ranged in line on the curbstone and giving the regulation military salute He halted in front of the man saying |