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Show jj S I The Kaiser as I Knew Him j I for Fourteen Years j $j By ARTHUR N. DAVIS. D. D. S j (Copyright, 1918, by the McClure Newspaper Syndicate.) CHAPTER XI Continued. We accordingly entered a very large sitting room. The empr -.s, In a nogli-gee nogli-gee of her favorite royal purple, entered en-tered anil shook hands with me cordially. cor-dially. She looked very worn, and it was plain that she had been suffering considerable pain and loss of sleep. She had a handsome figure and was stately In her carriage, but her crowning crown-ing glory was a profusion of white hair. She was then fifty-four years old, but her hair had turned white many years before. It was said, Indeed, that the change had been brought about rather suddenly sudden-ly ns a result of certain drugs she had taken In an effort to avert a tendency to avoirdupois which had developed. I know the kaiser loathed fat women. wom-en. On more than one occasion he had said to me as he bade me farewell fare-well : "Well, Davis, you have kept me here talking so long you have almost spoiled n:y morning walk, but I'll take a walk through the Tiergarten just the same," and then he would add disgustedly, disgust-edly, "where I presume I will have to greet all the fat Jewesses in the park !" But to return to the kaiserin : The kaiserin's physician joined us; and there were several maids very superior supe-rior young women in attendance upon their royal mistress. After I had examined the empress and had given my advice, the physician physi-cian explained to me in a low voice that it was necessary to be cautious and not do much, as he was afraid of her physical condition. "Anything you do for her majesty," he explained, "would require giving an anaesthetic. She is not in condition to stand pain without. The only anaesthetic anaes-thetic her majesty will take is chloroform. chloro-form. I've administered it to her eleven times and I know just what it means. I'm afraid of her heart at this time. Indeed, just as soon as I can get her int condition I want her to go to Nauheim for the cure." His alarming words caused quite a flurry among the maids and they crowded around the empress and begged her to have nothing done that day but to endure her suffering a little longer in the hope that relief vTould come without the necessity of an operation oper-ation at that time. Their pleadings prevailed upon the patient to postpone the treatment. This made the kaiser very angry and he walked up and down the room impatiently. im-patiently. "Here," he said, "I've got Doctor Davis to come in on a Sunday afternoon, after-noon, and you want to be in shape for the ball on Tuesday, and now you won't have anything done ! That's the way with the women!" Then he turned to me and said : "Well, Davis, I'm sorry to have spoiled your day." And he dashed out of the room, apparently much provoked. I felt I had almost witnessed a family quarrel, but the incident indicated to me that whatever hopes the kaiser might entertain of one day dominating dominat-ing the world, he had not yet acquired undisputed dominion in his own household house-hold ! I did not see the kaiserin again for nearly a year, when she came to my office with a lady-in-walting. She arrived in her own car. Its approach ap-proach was heralded by the imperial "Tadi-Tada" without the concluding "Ta-Ta," which latter was reserved exclusively for the kaiser, and not even the kaiserin was allowed to use it. The kaiser's "Tadi-Tada-Ta-Ta" was tl.e subject of much sarcasm among tiie proletariat, who satirically pur it to the words : "Celerie-Salat-Ta-Ta," an allusion to the luxuries of the royal table which contrasted most unfavorably unfavor-ably with the simple meals to which they were accustomed ; while the socialists so-cialists showed their sentiments very plainly by improvising the words : "Von Unsern Geld-Ta-Ta," meaning, "From our money-ta-ta," referring to the royal immunity from taxation which was one of their bitterest pills. It was not long after I had known the kaiserin before she made clear to me that she possessed a most dictatorial dicta-torial manner, which was quite in contrast con-trast with that of the kaiser, at least when he was in my oilice. She objected strenuously to removing remov-ing her hat and she usually wore a large one with a veil but finally yielded yield-ed when I explained that I could not accomplish my work satisfactorily unless un-less she did. When I placed cotton-rolls cotton-rolls in her mouth, she insisted that as She did not like the sensation of the cotton against her lips or tongue, I would have to encase the cotton in rubber. I told her politely but firmly that my work would be done in my own way, a-id she finally acquiesced, adding: '"Yell, if you make such a point of it, doctor, I sui'pose I shall have to let you have your way." From that time on the kaiserin came to me more or less regularly. Her lackey usually followed her into the house carrying an artistic ltnich box or bag containing sandwiches and bouillon, bouil-lon, cf which the empress partook in my ofSce Ttw Vriocess Victoria Louise, the kaiser's only daughter, I may mention, usually came similarly provided. No German ever lets anything any-thing interfere with his second breakfast. break-fast. The empress never spoke on political politi-cal subjects. She was not particularly brilliant and evidenced some reluctance reluc-tance to air her views on international affairs, as though she were not quite sure of herself. Certainly, she was not nearly as talkative as the kaiser. When she did unburden herself, it was usually in connection with domestic subjects. It was said in Germany that her only interest in life was represented represent-ed by the "three K's," Kinder, Kirche and Kuche children, church and kitchen and there is no question about it that she seldom spoke on other subjects sub-jects when talking with me. The kaiserin came to me after the war with America started, but apparently appar-ently she had felt some hesitation about doing so, because the kaiser told me shortly before her visit that she intended coming, but pointed out that she had decided to do so only' upon his recommendation. In June, 1917, I received a letter from the kaiserin's physician inclosing inclos-ing one which he said had been written writ-ten by the kaiserin, but which was both unsigned and unaddressed. It requested me to visit the royal palace at Homburg v. d. Hohe, which, in conjunction con-junction with the adjoining town of Kreuznuch, was then the location of the great army headquarters. During the time I was there I could not help observing how extremely timid tim-id the servants seemed to be of the kaiserin. One expected to find the utmost servility among the kaiser's underlings, but I confess it came rather rath-er as a shock to me to see the maids walking so timidly and talking so fearfully fear-fully when in the presence of their white-haired royal mistress. I noted particularly how very gently they knocked at the door before entering and how, after knocking, they immediately immedi-ately placed their heads against the panel that they might catch the kaiserin's low command to enter the first time, and so make it unnecessary unneces-sary for her to repeat it. Their demeanor de-meanor was particularly noticeable because be-cause the kaiserin never seemed to 'display the slightest impatience or ill-temper ill-temper when dealing with her servants. serv-ants. Indeed, she seemed to me to act no differently from the humblest haus-frau haus-frau in the country. Before I left Homburg, she asked me whether I was comfortably situated and if everything was all right for me. I told her that everything was quite satisfactory and mentioned particularly particular-ly how nice it was to have food exactly as we had had it before the war. "Yes," she replied, "we have everything. every-thing. I am very careful what I eat. I watch my health very closely." I remarked, too, how wonderful it must be to have sixty palaces like the Homburg establishment, the beauties ; of which had deeply impressed me, adding: "His majesty, I understand, has sixty of them, has he not?" "Not quite sixty," she corrected. "Between "Be-tween fifty and sixty." Between fifty and sixty palaces 1 I could not help thinking of the remark re-mark the kaiser once made to me when talking of the manner in which American Amer-ican millionaires made their fortunes : "It breeds socialism !" When the time came for me to return re-turn to Berlin, the kaiserin bade me adieu, but uttered not a word of thanks for my having given up my practice for three days to work exclusively for her. CHAPTER XII. The Crown Prince and Others. I first saw the crown prince professionally profes-sionally in the spring of 1005, a few months before his marriage. He was then twenty-three years oia. He was in the uniform of a German army officer offi-cer but looked more like a corps student stu-dent except for the fact that his face was not marked with a scar from duelling, duel-ling, as is usually the case with most members of the German fraternities. He had a habit of placing his hands on his hips and his coats were always flared in at the waist which, with the spoity angle at which he wore his cap, gave him a swagger which was quite foreign to the rest of the oflicers of the army. He was of slender figure, which was accentuated by his height. He was nearly six feet tall. He came into my oilice, I remember, wKh a copy of Life in his pocket. He took it out and opened it and showed me a cartoon of himself which apparently appar-ently caused him considerable amusement amuse-ment and which, he said, he intended showing his family. There were two beautiful rings on his left hand and he wore a wrist-watch, wrist-watch, although at that time wrist-watches wrist-watches were used almost exclusively by women. He seemed to he bright and quick, but by no means brilliant. Perhaps the quality exhibited by him that impressed me most on that first occasion was his excessive nervousness. He trembled all over. It was plain to see he was dreadfully afraid of pain, and he evidently realized that I had noticed his condition. "1 suppose the crown prince and the futnre ruler of Germany ought to be brave at all times," he remarked, "but I just hate to have to go to a dentist !" Ho aked me if I had seen any member mem-ber of the court lately, and I told him that the kaiser's court chamberlain, Count von Eulenburg, had been to see me the previous day. "I'm not surprised he has to go to the dentist; he eats too much!" the crown prince declared. "He can't expect ex-pect to have good teeth; he's always eating. As for myself, I eat very little. I want to remain thin. I hate fat people." peo-ple." The crown prince and I did not get along very well at that time. Apart from the fact he was such a physical coward that it was almost impossible to work on him satisfactorily, he seemed to have no idea of the meaning of an appointment. He would agree to be at my office at 9 :30 and I would plan my day accordingly. ac-cordingly. At about ten he was apt to call me up to say he would be on hand at eleven, and he would actually arrive about twelve. This happened several times, and I told him that I couldn't have my work broken up in that way. Although I did not see the crown prince again professionally until 1915, the crown princess came to me in 1913, and from that time on paid me more or less regular visits. She was a woman of great charm and intelligence, intelli-gence, and although she was more Russian than German in her ideas, and for some time after her marriage was rather generally criticized on that account, ac-count, she soon became extremely popular and today is very much admired ad-mired by the German people. She was one of the most democratic and informal of my royal patients. I remember one day when I was working work-ing on Princess Hatzfeld, we heard a loud "Hoo-hoo" from- the anteroom. The crowTn princess had heard that the Princess Hatzfeld, who was a great chum of hers, was in my office and had followed her into my place unannounced. The Princess Hatzfeld, I may mention, men-tion, was an extremely intelligent and beautiful young woman, and because of her intimacy with the crown princess, prin-cess, I took a keen interest in the views she expressed from time to time. Her mother was an American. When she called on me on one occasion occa-sion after the war had started, I repeated re-peated to her the gist of a conversation conversa-tion I had had a few days before with her father, Excellenz von Stnmm. He informed me that he had been trying to convince all Germans of Influence that it would be a serious mistake to annex Belgium. "From morning to night I have bees trying to teach our people some sense," he had declared. "With the history of Poland and Alsace-Lorraine in mind, why should we take more responsibilities responsibil-ities on our shoulders by retaining Belgium? The "Lord only knows we have our hands full as it is. I don't see and I never have seen how Germany Ger-many can possibly win this war!" "Tour father seemed to be very pessimistic pes-simistic regarding the outlook," I told her. "The sad thing about it," she replied, re-plied, "is that father is always right ! I never knew him to make a mistake in judgment." When the crown prince called to see me again I was surprised to find a considerable change in his general appearance. ap-pearance. Although, of course, he was ten years older, he had aged more than I would have expected. There Were lines on his face which made him look older than his thirty-three years. In the outer world he was generally believed to be one of the leading spirits spir-its of the military party in Germany, but among his own people he was not credited with sufficient ability or influence in-fluence to be much of a factor. Indeed, In-deed, within the past year he had been criticized rather severely in army circles cir-cles for his indifference to the crisis in which his country was involved and for not taking the war seriously enough, and from all I was able to observe of him during the visits he paid me after the resumption of our relations, these criticisms were well founded. The newspapers, however, which were naturally inspired, always brought his name to the front whenever when-ever the army he was accredited to made any successful showing just as they did in the case of the kaiser. During his various visits to me I tried to draw liim out a little on different dif-ferent aspects of the international situation, sit-uation, but the ideas he expressed were not of much moment. "The allies think we will run short of man-power," he said on one occasion, occa-sion, "but we've got 2,000,000 youths growing up and we'll soon be able to put them In the war. There's no danger dan-ger of our running short of men, but, really, I wish it were all over. This war is a lot of damned nonsense, yon know !" He talked as if the two million mil-lion growing-up youths of Germany were created for the Hohenzollcrns to use as they pleased. Another remark he made which indicated in-dicated how sadly he misconstrued the epoch-making significance of the great war in which the whole world was involved was quite characteristic. "With so many men at the front," he said, "the men ct home ought to he having a fine tiins with the women, eh, what? Do you see many good looking girls in Berlin now?" In this connection I may mention thbt mnny of the more sober oflicers told me that they were disgusted with the manner in which the crown prince was acting at his headquarters. "It is really a disgrace," they complained, "for the crown prince to have so many questionable women visiting him. It certainly doesn't set much of au ex-ftiiipt ex-ftiiipt for the runt of the slafi." The whole situation appeared to the crown prince very much In the light of a joke. "I've just come from the western front," he told me. "ily men are up to their knees in water and mud. We've been having lots of fun pumping pump-ing the water out of our trenches into the French trenches." "Well, I suppose the French pump vt right back again, don't they?" "You're quite right, quite right. That's exactly what they do. Really,' it's a great lark." Remarks of this kind rather sickened me of this self-satisfied young man. I realized, of course, that his part in the war was played at such a safe distance from the front lines that he was probably not familiar with all the horrors of trench warfare, and yet it could not be possible that he was unaware un-aware of the terrific loss of life and the untold agony and suffering which millions of his people had to endure while the "nonsensical" war continued. contin-ued. After diplomatic relations were broken off between America and Germany, Ger-many, the crown prince and his family fam-ily ceased coming to me. They were afraid, no doubt, of public criticism, although the kaiser was not. Of the kaiser's other children, Prince William Eltel Frederick and Prince Oscar were the only ones I never met. Prince Adelbert, the kaiser's third son, was a very handsome and charming charm-ing man. He always came to me attired at-tired in a naval officer's uniform. I saw him but a few times, as he was seldom in Berlin, and he never talked on matters of general importance. I never saw him after America entered the war. Prince August Wilhelm, the fourth son, was perhaps the most democratic of them all. He sometimes came to see me in an ordinary taxlcab and he was the only one of the kaiser's sons whom I ever saw in civilian dress. He tvas the first member of the royal family fam-ily to come to me after the murder of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and he was in mourning when he called. He looked very sad and dejected and gave me the first intimation that the tragedy of Sarajevo would almost inevitably in-evitably lead to a general war. In January, 191S, in speaking of the part that America would take in the war, he mentioned that his officers had told him that 60,000 Americans were on the western front. "We don't believe be-lieve it, however," he added. "How could they get there without our knowing know-ing it? Our U-boats would certainly have found it out. No, Davis, it's not true." Prince Joachim, the kaiser's youngest young-est son, and one of the last of the royal family to visit me, reminded me very much of his eldest brother, the crown prince. He was tall and slender and would have been good-looking but for a retreating chin which was very pronounced. He had as little respect for public opinion as the crown prince, and while the U-boat Deutschland was on Its way to America principally to bring back a cargo of rubber, the supply sup-ply of which was exhausted in Germany, Ger-many, this sixth son of the kaiser was driving around the country in a big car and using up enormous rubber tires, while rubber was worth its weight In gold and many cars for the army were supplied with plain iron wheels. This prince was the only member of the royal family to get near enough te the firing line to get shot. The injury, in-jury, which he received while at the western front, was only a slight flesh wound of the thigh, but it was enough to start him limping through' history. It was such a superficial wound that it couldn't have caused him one-half as much pain as it gave the whole royal family pleasure. The fact that one of the kaiser's own sons had actually been wounded and shed his royal blood in active service ser-vice was something that the inspired press will never stop crowing over, but by just what accident the prince happened to come within range of the bullet has never been disclosed. Nevertheless Nev-ertheless he received the Iron Cross of the first class, or, as some one who realized the significance of the Incident, Inci-dent, remarked, "A first-class iron cross for a second-class wound." As he limped into my office, the young prince he is now only twenty-eight twenty-eight remarked : "See what one of your damned American bullets did to me!" "How do you know it was an American Amer-ican bullet?" I asked. "The Russians hnre nothing else!" I told him on on occasion that the people were complaining of the food shortage. "They have food enough," he answered. an-swered. "The best thing they do is to complain 1 Don't they complain in America? The fact is they have too much to eat, anyway. They don't know what Uiey want." CHAPTER XIII. The Kaiser at Army Headquarters. To what extent the kaiser is responsible respon-sible for the failures and entitled to credit for the successes of his armies in the present war, I am not In a position po-sition to say, but if he did not actually direct the military policy, he at least kept closely in touch with everything that was going on. From the very beginning be-ginning of hostilities he lived the major ma-jor part of the time at the great army headquarters and was in constant consultation con-sultation with his military leaders. I had several opportunities to see the kaiser while he was at the various great army headquarters. In the spring of 1910 I received a long-distance telephone message from ! the great army hendquartars, which 1 w:is tln'U In the palace of the Prince i vim I'ti-s.; at I'less, to the effect that the k.iihir wiintoU ue to go there. During the course of my work ons of his private secretaries came in re- ' peatedly with telegrams and messages for the kaiser, and he would usually excuse himself and read them. Sometimes Some-times he would be summoned outside to consult with important persons who were there to see him, but he' was never gone more than ten minutes at a time. I did not think he looked exceptionally exception-ally well. He seemed to be very tired and he had very little to say in Itself an indication that he was not exactly normal. When my work for the morning was over aud his valet, who had assisted me, had been excused, the kaiser gazed at me for a moment or two and then, apropos of nothing, burst out with the rather remarkable announcement announce-ment : "The man who brought this catastrophe on the world, Davis, should be strung up by the neck, and that man is not I, as the world seems to think ! The czar of Russia and the king of England, when they were at the wedding of my daughter guests at my own house, mind you, and my blood relatives hatched this plot against me. They were envious of my power, but they will now learn what that power is." In the same breath almost he made the inconsistent remark : "England will never be able to raise an efficient army; it took Germany one hundred years to accomplish what she has done !" Some time after this, one of the biggest big-gest merchants in Berlin told me that he had heard on the stock exchange that the kaiser had made the remark that the king and czar had hatched the plot against him, and as I had repeated the kaiser's statement to no one, I realized that he must have told the same thing to others. If this version ver-sion of the starting of the war was put into circulation with the idea of absolving ab-solving the kaiser, it certainly didn't carry conviction evvu among the Germans Ger-mans themselves. The merchant who spoke to me abo-.it it, at any rate, made fun of the ides, and I never heard the point serioufiy raised by anyone else of influence. Before I left the kaiser that morn-Lig morn-Lig he spoke of the Anglo-French loan which had been floated in America and condemned us severely for countenancing coun-tenancing it. When I told him that Germany had also floated a loan in America, he replied: "But ours was only $10,000,000, while theirs is $500,-000,000 $500,-000,000 !" to which I naturally rejoined that the size of the loan could certainly cer-tainly not affect the question of our neutrality in floating It. He criticized our bankers who han died the loan, and when I asked him i he had ever seen the number of Ger-man Ger-man names that appeared on the list of bankers who were interested in It, he said he hadn't read the list, but he wns quite sure there was one bank In New York which wouldn't touch it "That bank wouldn't touch anything that would be detrimental to Germany Ger-many !" he added. Several months later I was called to Pless again and was shown to the same room I had visited on the former occasion. When the kaiser entered he stood erect, with his hands to his side, clicked his heels together and saluted me as a soldier salutes a superior officer, offi-cer, smiling as he did so, and I knew he was in good humor. Nevertheless he had but little to say. His criticism of Mr. Wilson on this occasion oc-casion I have recorded elsewhere in these pages. In June of 1917, after the great army headquarters had been removed to-Homburg to-Homburg v. d. Hohe, and Krenznacb (two neighboring villages) I was called there to see the kaiserin, and three weeks later I went there again to 6ee the kaiser. I noticed at the station the kaiser's private train composed of five dark green cars upon each of which was plainly marked the imperial coat of arms. The cars had special folding ' steps. Two rooms were assigned to me on one of the upper floors of the palace and my meals consisted of the same kind of food as I had always had before be-fore the war, although the hunger epidemic epi-demic was raging throughout the country. coun-try. It was almost worth the trip foi the sake of the meals alone. After I had treated the kaiser in the morning I went to my rooms, as I knew it would be three o'clock before he would be ready for me again. He never allowed anything to interfere with his after-dinner nap. (TO BE CONTINUED.) |