The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-04-13
Prince Bismsrck ~ Home and ION
Lenve.o

The charming story told in our Paris
despatch giving some details OF the pro-
fessional meetings Of an American painter
with the great architect Of the German En-
pire, Prince Bismarck, will be found Of pecu-
liar interest at this moment when the builder
in ''blood and iron" has shaken, for a time
at least the dust of Office from his feet.
The condolences of the busy moments before
the easel or the plastic clay are among the
rare privileges Of the artist, and in giving
us such glimpses of the home life of the
great statesman as he could not put on the
canvas Mr.. Hcaly has confined himself to
such only rs would not be improper in an
honored guest. BY the light of the
artists story we can see how heavy the
yoke was which Prince Bismarck bore |;
how such life of incessant toll was met
by the reserve force of magnificent ply
sique. and what strong grounds the wear
and tear of such watchful days and sleepless
nights would give to the great Chancel-
lors demand for release whenever he
chose to lay his labors by. There is pecu-
liar fascination in reading of the home life
of great men for in subtle way it comforts
mediocre humanity to find that the demigods
OF thought and action have their feet in the
clay of social habits and their thoughts at
times in the domestic lines which common
mortals seldom associate with the idea of
greatness.
The sittings in the wing Of the palace, with
the Prince as firm in his position Of Chan
callor NJ tha Garman Eyp Miro nc tho 1;pac of
the face on the canvas before him, forms for
the moment q startling contrast to the pic
ture of the Empire without Bismarck. Yet
to-day he is out of his place, out of harness,
away from the obligations of great duties and
the pride Of great ambitions, on 'leave of
absence" till August leave likely to prove
indefinite at last Precisely what the phrase
leave of absence means in his case is not
yet known. Until the time when we shall
become acquainted with the whole story, of
which the few facts known are the surface
Indications, there will be room for doubt
whether Bismarck left or was put out. In
one sense, Of course he left. That is to say,
nobody exacted his Office Of him. But there
may have been in the highest quarters such
an abandonment of him, such a connivance
with his opponents, such consent to poll
ces opposed to his, that self-defcnce and
self-assertion could assume no other form
than the surrender Of his Office. Men of his
nature do not brood morbidly over small
discontents. They do not magnify little in
dignities in q peevish spirit of personal
pique. Therefore they do not leave great
place until sure that the power which sus-
tanned them there is no longer in sympathy
with their purposes, and then they do not
stay to be told that they are not wanted.
How will it be with the Prussian presidency
and with the new German Empire without
this towering, dominant, capable spirit
Bismarck did not create the political condi-
ton of Germany, because no man can be
said to create that which is result Of nat
ural causes but he is the only man known
to his generation who could have taken the
advantage he did take of the facts that in
their coincidence rendered possible the or
ganization Of q new German Empire and
gave Germany that pre-eminence in Europe
which is tho just consequence of the possess
sion Of the greatest people and the greatest
opportunities. without this one man Ger
many would be now what she was twenty
years ago, and between the Germany
of twenty years ago and the Ger
many Of to-day there is as much
difference as between Mexico and the
United States. But the world of common
place men, whether they be princes or ward
politicians, revolts against the notion that
any particular person is indispensable, +"
and this is felt in Germany as everywhere
else Bismarck will not be indispensable,
because they will get on without him. But
for the judgment as to whether any man is
indispensable" it is not only necessary to
know that they will get on, but how they
will get on. Emperors, kings and persons
of that order seem sometimes to take PLEAS
ure in the slight they put upon genius
when they fill it's place with a pigmy and
seem to say that one is rs good rs the other.
But the history of States that 60 successfully
through great crises when the genius
guides, and that fall into confusion and
decay and perish disastrously when rulers
have indulged their whlm Of governing by
means of drivellers and dolts, presents the
other part Of that picture. Germany, in the
reconstruction Of Europe under Bismarck,
has gone through oil the facts that stood in
the way like q reaper through the ripe
corn ; but Germany, without Bismarck. with
the Eastern crisis imminent, the Church
trouble in allegiance only, and a formidable
issue of State rights in an explosive condi-
ton, may find itself presently more like 0
deer entangled in the impenctrable thicket
Albany Lcgislates--Ncw York Suffers
We do not want our legislators at Albany
to prescribe for our Street Cleaning Bureau