Blood and Iron Part 33

Alas, poor human nature! The rejected stone now becomes the foundation of the palace wall! Otto von Bismarck is justified at last.

-- It goes to show that the right man can bring about any idea, whether to do it makes it necessary to turn Time's clock backward or forward.

Bismarck is magnificent because his extraordinary political work inspired and carried a new National faith that forced men to bow, often against their will, to the logic of his own gigantic mind.

Bismarck is magnificent because, too, when the tiger strife was ended, he who had been despised as the arch tyrant of his time, was now seen to be the one strong man of his land, who had brought an unwilling people peace, happiness and prosperity.

-- After the Austrian war the deputies whom Bismarck had fought granted immunity to Bismarck for those four turbulent years of unconst.i.tutional rule; the overjoyed people readily forgave him for exacting 12,000,000 thalers for the secret war chest.

-- The millions who had looked on him as a madman now hailed him as little under the stature of a demiG.o.d, loaded him with estates, gold, diamonds, medals, stocked his cellars with the choicest vintages, sent him train-loads of presents, thousands of felicitations on parchments done up with blue ribbons, threw up their hats in frenzy only to see his rattling old coach pa.s.s along the streets of Berlin; and in the National excitement to do something or say something that n.o.body had ever thought of, became as children to the extent of offering presents to Bismarck's dogs.

Also, in the grand distribution of Austrian prize money, Bismarck was awarded $300,000. With this unexpected good fortune he bought Varzin estate in Pomerania.

-- Of late years, his unpopularity has been made clear in a thousand ways, some harmless, others bloodthirsty; his very life was demanded more than once, by a.s.sa.s.sins. But now all had changed.

-- It is related that a German professor, in Greece, caught out after dark was beset by bandits.

-- "Who are you?" they inquired menacingly.

-- "I am a German."

-- "Who is your king?"

-- "The King of Prussia!"

-- "Ah! Then you are Bismarck!"

-- And the robbers pulled off their hats and ran headlong in the night.

-- In America, shops sold Bismarck pipes, Bismarck cravats, Bismarck hairbrushes, and one came across such advertis.e.m.e.nts as this: "What is the difference between Jones' paste and Prince Bismarck? Answer, there is no difference, because each sticks so fast that once either gets a hold it is impossible to get away from it."

-- After Koeniggraetz, the growing sense of German nationality impressed itself in a thousand joyful ways.

In Spain, lucifer matches bore on the boxes this doggerel:

Als Wilhelm wirkt und Bismarck span Gott hatte seine Freude dran.

Or, "As William worked and Bismarck spun, G.o.d had his joy thereon."

The fashionable world dressed in Bismarck brown; ironclads bore his name; in Paraguay the "Citizen Bismarck" ran up and down the river; Bismarck, South Dakota; Bismarck and von Moltke streets; huge Bismarck strawberries--and what more you please.

-- The Brandenburg Cuira.s.siers made him drink out of a silver tankard, holding a level quart of champagne; Bismarck, at the officers' revel, put the goblet to his lips and drained the draught in a few long gulps.

-- "Another!" cried the National hero.

-- "Alas," sighed a dyspeptic Frenchman, who heard of it, "champagne and smoke agree with him--happy man!"

-- Whenever the Chancellor was out, on foot or on horseback, the news ran like wildfire through Berlin! Offices were emptied, clerks stood in windows, the public uncovered and cheered.

-- The German colony of Constantinople sent him a sword of honor; thousands begged his photograph, autograph, or lock of his hair; brewer George Pschorr, at great cost, sent thirty-three gallons of beer in a carved cask weighing 500 pounds, with solid silver tankards--veritable gems of art.

-- Carried away by the general excitement, an inmate of the almshouse put his name down for $5, on a public list, and when confronted with his utter inability to pay, replied:

-- "When the time comes for paying I shall ask them to let me off with so many days in jail! So many marks, so many days!"

-- A little town in the Black Forest offered a huge patriotic scroll composed of bottles of raspberry brandy, with handsome labels, bordered with the German colors, red, white and black; a Bavarian organ builder forwarded a huge organ; the inhabitants of Stanaitschen, a gigantic whip; plovers' eggs came from the people of Jever; the King of Prussia made Bismarck a Count, presented him with a rich domain; and in the general excitement, the Chancellor's famous dog Tyras was honored with a magnificent blanket with his initials worked in gold, in the four corners, costly collars to match--and a sofa;--also this explanatory poem:

"Tyras, sei huebsch, artig und gut, Sei es by Tag, sei es by Nacht!

Bewache unsern Kanzler gut: Dan wird als Praeset dir dies Kanape gebracht."

Or, "Tyras, be good, gentle and kind; all day long and through the night watch over our Chancellor faithfully;--and this gift of a sofa you'll receive."

-- But this was only the beginning. At the Universal Exposition in the jewelers' section, one day a tall stranger was inspecting the beautiful display, and one of the exhibitors, bowing politely, asked the stranger to accept a magnificent diamond ring. "Your Highness knows very well that he cannot deceive me! I respect your Highness'

desire to remain incognito, but your fame has preceded you!"

In vain the stranger protested. The ring was pa.s.sed, the exhibitor was highly pleased, the stranger offered a card, "Alexander Schnabel, Bavaria." The exhibitor still smiled, saying, "I respect your Highness' incognito!" The stranger then quickly disappeared in the crowd. What is that shouting over yonder? "Hurrah for Count Bismarck!

He comes! He comes!" In a moment, the diamond merchant saw it all. He had been cruelly deceived, and furthermore had deceived himself!

52

Strange superst.i.tion ingrained in this Bismarck mind; what ikon do you believe in, as you urge to duty and glory?

-- In this life, each man has, secretly or openly, some ikon against which to charge, by way of explanation, his personal history.

In the story of Bismarck many ikons have been used by many writers, to account for the puzzle of this great man's complex career.

Some call it ambition; others will power; others destiny. Certainly, in his long and adventurous career Bismarck was often close to death.

-- Now Bismarck himself always had his own peculiar ikon. He called it G.o.d. His speeches for many years before Sadowa, his protests in behalf of his King, as against the rising tide of Liberalism, always contained amidst thunders of political consequence, the name G.o.d as the one explanation of Bismarck's history and Bismarck's ultimate victory.

-- If that be true--and it is not for us to say yes or no, for we are reporting the man as he is and not the way we think he should be--then G.o.d was at the b.l.o.o.d.y field of Sadowa, on the side of the 221,000 Germans, armed with needle-guns, and not on the side of the 224,000 Austrians, armed with old-fashioned muzzle-loaders;--and the clash of 445,000 men with tens of thousands left dead on the field, was the final expression of the will of G.o.d.

-- Thus reasoned Bismarck, and surely he should be the best authority on the conclusions of his own mind? As a matter of fact, Bismarck's profound belief that G.o.d was on his side but shows Bismarck's excess of faith--the faith that moves mountains.

-- It has been said by eminent historians that Bismarck as the Unifier of Germany had in his mind's eye, for many years, the dream of Empire; and the statement is either true or false.

-- These writers call Bismarck the man with the vision, the seer, the German patriot who saw in an early dream the stirring plan to which he was to devote his long and arduous life.

-- You are familiar with the painting by LaFarge, depicting the boy Napoleon, in the school yard at Brien, walking to one side, by himself? On his youthful brow is already an air of strange preoccupation, that cloud of ambition, as an outward sign that the boy's imagination is bodying forth the heroic deeds of the man, many years hence.