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Show .Miscellany The Malignant Kaiser. J The fact that fie kaier was destin-d j to play the role of the morWn Attlia 1 ami become the scourge of Kurort was i phophesied nearly thirty years aKO in : a re m a rk.-. b': article published In the , Xe.v York Timps in Aprij. by Harold Frederic, the limous novelist and I I correspondent. i At that drue. of course, tiie kaiser was i still Crown Prince of Prussia, and Mr. i Frederic, who was in Berlin on behalf 1 o;" his newspnper. bad many oppor'uni- . ties o? corning in contact with. him. "One s'iu.'.-.:crs." Harold Frederic! wro'e. "r.J one P"''s rhe n:iid. con rem- ' pia ; i he. d of : .ie hiocd ' lour-d. sieiy bc-'-au-1 -f the ?'or;i- ' .ia; h:-tve bt-ii ioi of the t-rr:b!c feror-ty wit!-:h lurks undi?r this sleek and cent'"3 exterior. "In : the gjirpi-- wiy you inok into the f;ice of i :his you:1. ir heir of the Hoher.zol'erns and remember with wondering1 resen ations I the ma-huum tales wrich have been told j of hi inner nature by those who know it best. I "Their df s lii s if c h. rrj . -T-Vr. 2.-f, genrral conception of his character. This' view is that he Is utterly colS, entirely en-tirely selfish, wantonly cruel, a young man without conscience or compassion, or any softening virtues whatever. He is saturated -with all the instincts and deas which have raised this Parvenu Prussia to its present eminence, and his character is the crown and flower of two remuries of might and ruthlessness and spoliation exalted into a creed "On the other hand, his mother is the best roval product of a totally and fundamentally different .vilition Prince William habitually speaks of. his mother to his associates and familiars as "he Englishwoman.' He ostentattous-! ostentattous-! lv addresses her in German. al-thouah al-thouah he knows English perfectly, and she has always made a point of having her children speak English in the famib C'We all know that it is a mere matter of months before he will be the autocratic auto-cratic master of 2,000,000 armed men The question is. What will he do? The most common answer is that he will overrun over-run Europe. It seems very probable that some future Taine. a century hence Perhaps, will write to show that William of Prussia and the German empire was a mvsterious belated surviva of the ante-med'leval Goths and Vandals-an Attila born a thousand and more years after his time. ... , . ,,yA "Nobodv with eyes in his head could have passed the week .last ended in Berlin Ber-lin without recognizing that if a firebrand fire-brand comes to the throne the materials are close-crowded upon him for a terrible ter-rible conflagration. ir, "Even now, when I go downstairs in this hotel to eat my dinner, one-half tne men at the tables are officers in uniform The elevator boy touches hlB cap to me with a military salute. The waiters when thev receive my order turn on their I hee's like fusiliers under tne eve or a ! drill sergeant. The military spirit per-' per-' vades everything and everybody ! "What this means Is that the arm, ! here in Germany will utterly swamp what organized pacific instincts there are , In the empire the moment a young fist t-i t-i insc kaiser draws his sword and cries lout, 'Who will follow me?' "The military class is all-powerful in ! all the upper, middle and higher grades of orietv. Little of provocation, of the I popular "appeals to national feeling. : would make It master of nine-tent.ns of the German people. Kaiser hhelm II, in the glamour of his youthful distinction dis-tinction of face and figure, of his deep Teutonic prejudices, of his all-controlling belief In himself and his race and his dtstinv. could hurl a pracLically 1 united Germany east, west or south a month after he had ascended the Hohen-Z'M'.em Hohen-Z'M'.em throne. "This is not a pleasant or humane conclusion, but it is a necessary one. The lesson taught by Prussia's success, bv the rise cf the Hohenzollem dynasty. pn oh.iect lecson in bloo-1 and iron which has not been lost on any German mind." I: is amazing to reflect mat al this was written nearly thirty years ago. |