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Show fe German Crown Princess Routed by Prussian Court Dames I Kp . ! Kaiser's Merry Grandchildren Placed Under Military Discipline I Wjjo . I BY HERBERT BATEMAN. ' J 17. Spccl.il Cable to The Tribune. J BERLIN. Aug. Timos have ;$ changed for tlie grandchildren of the 1 ! l knisor. From now on there is to bo 1 ' raoro Prussian -militarism and disniplino around them less freedom, fresh air , and simplicity. Iu that, the crown jr prmcosa has been routed by the old- i W fashioned court dames,, backed by the ft' cmporor himself. V . When tho Duchess Cccilo of Mocklen- f.. burgh becamo tlio wife of the heir to ,ih tho throne in 1 005 there was plenty of shaking of heads among the staid Prus- sians. She was light hearted, had trav- clod abroad and was understood Xo have m( j.r modern " notions" quite subversive to rlV established traditions in Prussia. Jr Before long their worst foars were $ ; ronhzed. Prince William was born four i fC 3'oars ago and tho crown princess set t (' about training the future ruler of Ger- ' ; many in hor own way. Her life in France in her girlhood had convinced ' her strength eamo from rational Hv- i ":. with plenty of light and air. The ti empress, whose will in roval nursery . mattors had hitherto been unchallenged, ji; .. was not altogether in -svmpathv with ( , daughter-in-lav's ideas but slie ;f found them backed by sucli cogent rca- V soiling that she gavo way. Tlie crown princess doclared thore J was more in life than was embraced' rl m the phrase "a good Prussian," Her children, she was determined, should bo trainod in the atmosphere of freedom and commonsensc moro comparable to the conditions under which young Americans Amer-icans are reared than obtain in high German circles. Model Nurserios. So in her marble palace she set up nurseries that were very beautiful but ctremcly simple. Open air and cold water are cardinal principlcswith her. jjk. As soon as possible Prince William i (,.' was introduced to a daily cold tub and V Prince Louis Ferdinand, now 3 years if - " . old, was submitted to tho same proc- t- ess. The' were also clad as lightly and rationally as possible and turned out. into the garden or park for tho r greater part of tho day. Prince Hu I ; . bertus, who will celebrate his first I birthday next month, would have fol- fv . lowcd the same courso if events had J" not interrupted tho regime of his f. ' mother. ' :'. . To sec to it that icr schomo of life was carried out the crown princess f imported an English governess, Miss A l ' Perkins, whose credentials proved her to be export in the management of chil- dren on principles of sweetness and flight. Carpets and heavy curtains, dear to tho heart of German women, were cleared out of the nurseries; the floors were covered with linoleum and only the lightest and daintiest window hangings wero admitted. Gradually tho empress becamo converted to her daughter-in-law's theories, for sho doted on her grandchildren and each day when she visited them sho found them moro full of glee and rudd- health than before. be-fore. Indoors thc3 were allowed to romp as freely as'thcy liked without fear of damaging anything, while .outside .out-side they were encouraged to ride their Shetland ponies, drive their toy automobile, auto-mobile, plaj' at soldiers or sport thoir model yachts on the ornamontal lakes. Contrary to Tradition. But such a training was absolutely contrary to all tho traditions of tho German court. From time immemorial tho babies of the house of Hohenzol-larn Hohenzol-larn had been surrounded bj military pomp and ceremony. From their natal hour they were brought up in a kind of social and intellectual glass house. To impartial observers tho results havo not been happy. lien red as hothouse hot-house plants, the Ifohenr.ollerns have been more or less incapablo of facing the more bracing atmosphere of the every day lifo of tho practical, working work-ing nation over which they havo beon called to reign. The training has not boon helpful to tho Prussian mouarchs and it has boon positively injurious to the best interests of the German empire. em-pire. Kaiser Wilholm, himself energetic ener-getic and able as he is, has had to learn a good deal about lifo and conditions by hard oxperieneo that would have been spared him had ho come under the guidance in his carry 3'oars of m somo-bqdv somo-bqdv like the present crown princess. His impulsiveness and most of his blazing blaz-ing indiscretions are traceable to the atmosphere of adnlation and pomposity in which ho was roared. But when tho crown princess started the new order of things the court circle were too insular to see the benefit; she was conferring on the Hohenzollerns. They opposed the English regimen, but, secure iu the knowledge that she was going on tho right lines, the imperial mother faced their hidebound hostility with perfect composure, and for a long time resisted all attempts to impose on her children the old system of Prussian military drill for infants. Unfortunately, Unfortunate-ly, in her absence, her second sou, Prince Louis Ferdinand, caught a cold, and the critical courtiers seized on the opportunity oppor-tunity to proclaim tho methods of the English governess absolutely dangerous to the health of tho tender royal children. Tho crown princess flow back to her offspring and defendod her system 4of training. But tho matter was carried to tho emperor, who -went into tho inquiry in-quiry -with, a good stock of inherited pre.iudices in his head on tho sido of tho Prussian dames. His decision was not altogether favorable to tho crown princess, and the empress, in view of the illness of tho little princo, was shaken in her support of tho open-air theory. The result: is that the' crown princess has had to give way. From now on she will havo to sharo the supervision super-vision of hor children with an aristo cratic lndy appointed by tho kaiser to co-operate with Miss Perkins in the care of his grandchildren. Prince "William and his younger brother, Prince Louis, now quite recovered, re-covered, have l)ccn removed from Potsdam Pots-dam to a little village in Mccklenburgh, thore to be permeated with the prin-. ciples of Prussian militarism and disci-' phne, and shorn of much of tho freedom permitted up to now. Tho. ciown princess has done her best to stay the alteration; now she has resigned re-signed herself to tho attempt to lessen the austerit3' of the Prussian training as much as possible. Prince William is not a bit upset by the change.- The village lifo suits him, for he is already a cuts rider, and his hereditary bent is siillicicntlj- military to make playing at' soldiering a delight. The empress continues con-tinues to be the children's greatest friond after their mother. They have shortened the German "grossmama" to "oma," and thus t'he3' salute her lustily when the vigilance of their Prussian mentors pormits such vivacity. Evidently they share their father's opinion of the ompross, expressed when ho was a little boy. "All pco'- arc sinners," said tho court chaplain in the courso of religious instruction. "Oh, no!" cried the crown prince, "father ma' bo what you say, but 1 know mother is not." Havo a Good Time. The young princes are full of natural spirits, and, discipline notwithstanding, they manage to got lots of fun. They inherit mischief from the crown prince. It is recorded that there w,as a confer-pneo confer-pneo botweeu the kaiser" and his ministers min-isters one day. The ministers left their hats in the anteroom. Presently the kaiser stopped out to sco his six sons each standing before a silk hat. Th. crown prince, at the head of the line cried: "When I count three we'll all H sit' down,'' and before the emperor could interfere tho Hue hats were ruined, As for the crown princess, she bides i H her time. "Presently," sho says, "it H will be seen that while Friedrich Wil- H helm is emperor of Germany, I shall ba impress of my own nurseries." |