The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1870-07-29
THE FRANCO-PRUS>IAN WAR-A
PROPHECY.

From the New York Commercial Adrertiser1
One hot afternoon in the month of
August. 1867, three men sat around a
table in private parlor, at the Hotel
DarmsIadt, in Ems, Germany, taking
such comfort as they could derive from
the juice of Rhenish grapes and pack
of cards. The most conspicuous figure
of the group was a large man with
bald head, grayish-blue eyes, heavy,
light colored moustache, and an air
about him that would have done honor
to the imperial purple. This parsonage
had even then achieved some fame, and
was tolerably well known to reading
people by the name of Bismarck. Next
TO him sat another bald headed individ-
ual, inferior to Bismarck in stature,
with border of black hair about the
base of his skull that looked like the
rim of an old felt hat, rnthlessly robbed
of its crown, condemned TO remain there
as q permanent fixture. During the
Crimean war, the fatIierof this man fig
ured at the cabinet councils in st. Pc
tersburg, as Count Nesselrode, but the
son was only known as a clever game
ster, and an hdbiLBe OF tie fashionable
European watering places. The third
member of the party wasa little fellow,
so little that his feet scarcely touched
the floor. with dark, piercing ewes
half dozen ordinary men. AT the
Time of which we speak he was the
French Consul at SiuIgardt. All of
them had been partaking freely OF wine,
and each. in turn, shufiied the cards, with
a vim that The generous grape iniparts
even TO the most phiegmatic tempera-
ment. The Frenchman, in the inter-
ludes of the play, kept upa running fire
of conversation, skipping from topic to
topic with facility which only French
men enjoy, until, warming as he went
on, he ventured the declaration that
France would one day mark her bound
AIRY by the Rhine from Basic to the sea.
"a hundred fredericks 10 fifty," ex-
claimed Nesselrode, shat she won't"
Done" rejoined the Frenehman,
'Eand let the game be the fortune-teIler."
They sbuffied the cards and the
Frenchman lost.
with d glance at Bismarck, who eyed his
two companions calmly, though never
utteriBg single word. Another wa
geri Two hundred and fifty that with
in five years France and Prussia meas
ure swords, and that France yields
Alsace and the whole disputed border
"C'est impossiblep' excitedIy respond
ed the Consul.
Again the cards were shuffied. At the
IOufiH pay bisHdFck anu sfie FFeDen-
man had each taken two tricks. 1t was
the Russians lead. He threw the queen
of clubs upon the table.
"Kingi" shouted The Frenchman in
triumph, as he covered Nesselrode's
card.
Not so fast" coolIy remarked the
Prussian premier, Il believe the game is
mine," and casting the ace. he leaned
back in his chair and laughed heartily.
''NoR Diea ~ shouted the discomfitted
PLAYER, "but cards always were liars"
and unable to conceal the chagrin and
excitement that overmasfefed him, be
rose from the table and quilted the room.
Three years have scarcely elapsed
since the little incident here related Gan
incident which Nesseirode told with
hearty satisfaction in the Ems cnfssthat
summary, and now the big cloud of war
that hoyers over Europe may burst to
prove that cards are not such liars after
all 3ssffss