Face to Face with Kaiserism Part 30

After leaving Ploen the Crown Prince entered Bonn University, and there became a member of the "Borussia" student corps.

I never heard that he took part in the corps duels. His face is not scarred, so I imagine as heir to the throne he was excused from a custom in which other corps members are compelled by public sentiment to take part. From photographs I have seen and from what I have heard I believe that the Crown Prince entered cheerfully into the student life of the place and lived on terms of college equality with his brothers of the "Borussia" corps.

These corps members, however, hold themselves aloof from other students.

The Crown Prince attended the Technical High School of Charlottenburg, that large building just across the ca.n.a.l which separates Berlin from Charlottenburg. Here he gained some knowledge of machinery, chemistry, etc. In 1909, he went to work in the Ministry of the Interior, where he learned something of government administration, how to manage the constabulary and their activities,--something quite necessary for an absolute ruler in a country where every citizen's acts is noted in the copy books of the police.

Meantime, his military activities continued. He was gradually promoted and finally, in 1911, became Colonel in command of the Dantzig Black Hussars. This regiment owes its black uniform and white death's heads to the thrift of Friedrich II who utilised the black funeral hangings at the elaborate funeral of his father to make uniforms for this regiment. It has been in existence about 175 years. The white death's heads and bones which appeared in the funeral trappings were used to make ornaments for the front of the regimental headgear.

While stationed at Dantzig the Prince was taught agriculture so as to understand the needs of the Prussian Junkers. He even studied the methods of brewing beer in the Dantzig brewery. His education has been strenuous. He has not been coddled or spoiled and is far better fitted for the battle of life than most graduates of our colleges.

The father of the Crown Princess was a Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and her mother a Russian Grand d.u.c.h.ess. In appearance the Crown Princess is very attractive, her face rather Russian, with an expression of good nature and cleverness.

Although the Crown Prince is tall (about five feet ten), the Crown Princess overtops him, and on occasions when they appear together she wears shoes with very low heels and keeps her head bowed.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE CROWN PRINCE AND CROWN PRINCESS. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN IN THEIR PALACE ON THE NIGHT OF A FANCY DRESS BALL. THE CROWN PRINCESS IS IN RUSSIAN COSTUME, AND THE CROWN PRINCE WEARS A UNIFORM OF ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO OF HIS REGIMENT, THE DEATH'S HEAD HUSSARS]

The marriage took place in 1905 and was undoubtedly a love match, the young couple having met in 1904 and become devotedly attached to each other.

There is only one defect in the character of the Crown Prince and that is his fondness for war, his regard for war not as a horror, but as a necessity, an honourable and desirable state.

I have long been apprehensive that when he came to the throne the world might again be hurried into a universal conflict and that vast military preparations would burden every State.

The Crown Prince and I often talked over shooting in various parts of the world. He wishes to see America and especially to kill game in Alaska where the heavily horned heads and enormous bears make such magnificent trophies. When I told him once how my friend, Paul Rainey, had killed seventy-four lions in Africa he could talk of nothing else at that interview.

The Crown Prince has been pictured as a libertine and a pillager.

His face has been caricatured so often that people have the cartooned impression of him and believe him to be a sort of monstrous idiot.

On the contrary, he is a good sport, a clever man, a charming companion, but the shadow of military ambition hangs over all and I doubt if the effect of his infernal military education, commencing when he was a child, can be entirely removed.

If some day he learns the idiocy of war, if he recognises that the world has progressed, and allows the people some share in their own government, he will make a splendid const.i.tutional ruler of Prussia and the German Empire.

Should the German people fail to take unto themselves the war-making power, they will, before long, be decimated again for the amus.e.m.e.nt of the Crown Prince, or as he once put it, "for his fun."

The favourite son of the Kaiser is presumed to be Prince Eitel Friedrich. A large, fat, healthy, good natured young man, married to the daughter of the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, a rather pretty but discontented looking Princess. It is said of him that he has shown not only great bravery in this war but real military capacity. Ridiculous scandals have been circulated about him in Berlin, but this is only the usual gossip circulated about persons in prominent positions.

Adalbert, the sailor Prince, is now married to a German Princess.

He is the best looking of the Kaiser's sons, possessing all the charm, and vivacity of manners of the Crown Prince, but is without that Prince's absurd ideas about the necessity of war.

Any one of those three sons of the Kaiser can give yards to any other young Royalty in Germany and win easily in capacity for administration and the King business.

Certainly if the German people insist on being ruled by some one and on being occasionally dragged out to be shot or maimed in an unnecessary war, they could not find more capable rulers than the Hohenzollerns.

Prince August Wilhelm is of a milder character. He, of course, wears the uniform of an officer, but has entered the civil service of the government. He is now a landrat or government official, and some day will be given charge of one of the provinces of Prussia such as Silesia or Posen. He is married to his first cousin, a niece of the Empress, the Princess Alexandria Victoria, daughter of H. H. Frederick Ferdinand, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg. They have one son, a fine healthy specimen. The August Wilhelms live very simply in a palace in the Wilhelmstra.s.se, very plainly furnished. They are fond of amus.e.m.e.nts, riding, theatres and dancing. August Wilhelm has none of that desire of war so characteristic of the Crown Prince.

Of Princes Oscar and Joachim, little is known. Oscar, during the war, married Countess Ba.s.sewitz, who has been a Maid of Honour in the Palace. The marriage was of course morganatic, and on marrying the young Countess was given the t.i.tle of Countess Ruppin. Her children will be Count and Countess Ruppin and cannot inherit in any contingency, the Kingdom of Prussia.

Adalbert had no resting place in Berlin, but perhaps now that he is married a palace may be a.s.signed to him. Eitel Fritz and his wife occupy the Bellevue Chateau between the Tiergarten and the River Spree. His wife is childless.

The Kaiser, the Crown Prince or some of the numerous Princes of Prussia are always rushing about the streets in motors, each one heralded by a blast on the cornet. Beside the chauffeur on each royal motor sits a horn player who plays the particular few notes of music a.s.signed to that Prince. The Kaiser's call goes well to the words fitted to it by the Berliners, "celeri salade" (celery salad) and has quite a cheerful sound.

On days of an outdoor function the streets ring with these calls as the royal automobiles whizz back and forth. It is forbidden by law for any one other than royalty to announce his coming by more than one note on a Gabriel horn, or other device. I do not know whether out of town or suburban royalties from Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Strelitz, Lippe, etc., are allowed this privilege when in Berlin; I think not, and that is perhaps one reason why they so consistently shun the capital of Prussia.

When the Kaiser motors to Potsdam he usually sits in one of three motors which travel very fast, one behind the other. I do not know whether this is by design or not, but of course, it makes an attempt on his life more difficult.

I used one of the Kaiser's motors in occupied France--a large Mercedes, run by a skilful driver at a great rate of speed.

The Crown Prince is especially fond of horses and if he succeeds to the throne will undoubtedly keep up the Royal stable or Marstall. This is situated on the bank of the Spree across the square from the Royal Schloss in Berlin. There are kept the carriages of state, those sent to bring Amba.s.sadors to the Palace when they first present their letters, two hundred splendid saddle and driving horses, with modern carriages, four-in-hand coaches, dog carts, etc. Most of the Foreign Amba.s.sadors use state carriages for great occasions, with bewigged coachmen and standing footmen. I think Amba.s.sador White was the last American who indulged in the luxury of a state carriage. As a plain dress suit did not exactly fit with a Cinderella coach, I went to functions, such as the Emperor's birthday reception, in a large automobile, retaining only of the former state the necessary body huntsman who acted as footman on these occasions and who wore a livery of hunting green, a c.o.c.ked hat, with red, white and blue plumes and a long hunting dagger in his belt.

Out of consideration for the feelings of others I retained the porter in his old finery, a Berlin inst.i.tution. At state dinners the porter of a Royalty or Amba.s.sador stands at the house entrance, clad in a long coat, wearing a silver belt diagonally across his chest, and crowned by an enormous c.o.c.ked hat worn sideways. The porter carries also a great silver headed staff, like a drum major's baton, and when guests of particular importance arrive he pounds this stick three times on the pavement.

It used to amuse the Berlin crowd lining Unter den Linden to see the Amba.s.sadors and Ministers leave the Palace or Cathedral on the Kaiser's birthday, New Year's day, etc., to see the state carriages of the other Amba.s.sadors overtaken by the modern automobile from America.

The Berlin lower cla.s.ses are renowned for their dry wit and they find much to amuse them in the tasteless statues and monuments of Berlin.

In the square outside our house was a statue of one of Friedrich the Great's generals which seemed to afford the boys great fun.

The General is shown in the act of reflectively feeling his chin and by chance is gazing uncertainly at the barber shop of the neighbouring hotel Kaiserhof.

n.o.body knows, of course, whether the present Crown Prince will succeed Emperor William--n.o.body knows the fortunes of war or the fate that this war has in store for the Hohenzollerns but while I personally like the Crown Prince, admire his skill in sports, his amiable ways, his smiles to the crowd, I know also of his crazy belief in war. And so long as a ruler persists in this, he is as dangerous to the peace of the world as a man with a plague to the health of a small community.

CHAPTER XXIV

WHEN GERMANY WILL BREAK DOWN

I remember a picture exhibited in the Academy at London, some years ago, representing a custom of the wars of the Middle Ages.

A great fortress besieged, frowns down on the plain under the cold moonlight. From its towering walls the useless mouths are thrust forth--if refused food by the enemy, to die--the children, the maimed, the old, the halt, the blind, all those who cannot help in the defence, who consume food needed to strengthen the weakened garrison.

Every country of the world to-day is in a state of siege, is conserving food and materials, but not yet has Germany sent forth her useless mouths, to Holland, to Scandinavia and to Switzerland, a sign that not yet is the pinch of hunger in the Empire imperative.

Since I arrived in America in March, 1917, I have been like Ca.s.sandra, the prophetess fated to be right, but never believed.

I said then Germany would never break because of starvation, or fail because of revolution, and that her man-power was great.

We have not made sacrifices enough in this war, there are too many useless mouths. I believe that there are in the States of New York and Pennsylvania alone 175,000 professional chauffeurs, a great number of them employed on automobiles not used for business or trucking. And then think of the thousands of skilled mechanics employed in garages and factories repairing and making mere pleasure vehicles. If all these chauffeurs (nearly all with some knowledge of machinery) and mechanics were put at work building ships or making rifles there would be no loss to the country, but certain overfed women and their poodles would have to walk, greatly to the advantage of their health and figures.

Private automobiles disappeared very quickly in Germany. At first a man who could not reach his business in any other way was allowed to use his own automobile but even these soon went out of commission and then bicycles were forbidden except for rides to and from business, work or school. A few ramshackle taxicabs still survive in Berlin at the railway stations, driven by benzol instead of gasoline and shod with spring tires. No one can keep a taxi waiting, it is subject when waiting to be commandeered by the first comer.

Gradually as we realise the gravity of the conflict our lives will become more earnest and luxuries will be given up to meet the changed condition. There must be a committee who will tide over the workers in luxury industries and help them to learn new war trades. This was done in Germany by the great organisation of the Woman's Service. Already Fifth Avenue dressmakers have dismissed many of their workers, who, being without resources, should receive a.s.sistance and advice until they have learned other trades.

Our farmers are ent.i.tled to cheaper labour. Why should not enemy aliens work our farms? We do not propose to make the Austrian and German and Hungarian women agricultural slaves as the Germans made the Russian women caught by the war within the borders of Germany, nor have we the right, I believe, to force civilian prisoners to work. But we can give these civilian men instead of meat twice a day, now given them, the same food which the Germans give their prisoners, until the enemy aliens volunteer to work in our fields. They should, of course, work as in Germany under guard. They should be used also in mines, factories, etc. The sooner we use every ounce of war energy, the sooner we shall beat Germany and obtain a lasting peace.

Eventually forced by the hopelessness of the economic situation, the nerve of Germany will break. There is a suicide point in the German character. The German has been sustained since the war by victories somewhere. No defeats were brought home to the German people. Viewed from inside the German Empire what are the loss of a few villages on the West front or even of distant colonies compared to the conquest of Belgium, of the richest part of France, of thousands of square miles of Russia, of Roumania, Montenegro and Serbia? With the exception of a very small bit of Alsace the war is being fought far from German territory. The German can swagger down the streets of the capitals of his enemies, in Brussels, Belgrade, Bucharest, Warsaw and Cettinje and Prussian greed exacts tribute from rich cities from Lille on the West to Wilna far within the frontiers of Russia.

Our President has never faltered. He will convince the Germans at last that we are unfaltering, in the war, that nothing can swerve us from our goal,--the destruction of the autocracy which looks on war as good and seeks the dominion of the earth. When the Germans grasp that, then will come the suicide point.

There is nothing in the war for the German who is not a n.o.ble or a junker, an officer or an official. German victory will only bend the collar of caste and servitude, low wages and militarism tighter on the German neck. Sooner or later the deceived German will discover this; revolution will not come during the war, but after it, unless it closes with a German peace, or unless in antic.i.p.ation of revolt, rights are granted to the people.

We cannot stop, we cannot bear the burden of the debts of this war and at the same time burden ourselves with future military preparation to meet a confident conquering Germany ready to carry the sword into South America. Whatever the sacrifice, we must go on.