The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-05-22

"Reminiscences Of Bismarck's Earlier

Years.
1t is a common error with the biographers
Of famous men TO trace back their established
supremacy to period when it had not yet
begun to exist and to torture every trivial
word or action of the hero's childhood into
a prophecy of his future greatness Is he
wild and reckless, il is the impetuosity OF
genius; Is he lazy and slovenly, it is the
scorn of great spirit for outward appear
ances- Every window that he breaks typi
fies his future conquests, every tree that he
climbs his ever mounting ambition. This is
himself had probably no thought of his
future greatness or, indeed, of
what career in life he should
adopt The keenest observer would
have seen in Otto Won Bismarck during his
pinafore days nothing more than bright
spirited, fearless boy, always ready for any
fun or mischief. Yet the surroundings of
his childhood might well seem to augur
some, at least, Of the greatest achievements
of his after life. In the great gate of his
ancestral home at Schonhausen were still to
be seen the marks of French bayOnets; and
the gray boards OF the estate coud point out
to their young master the path by which
the ''goadige Frau" his mother had fled
into the depths of the forest at midnight 10
escape the approaching enemy. Like other
old houses the chateau contained a haunted
room, in which the boy loved to sit, and
even 10 sleep at times out of sheer bravado;
and in after years, when the terror of
his name had gone abroad from one
end Of Europe to the other the supersti-
tious peasantry whispered among themselves
that spectre had appeared to him there in
the dead of night and foretold what he
should one day be. 1t is related-though the
anecdote has somewhat ex post facto
sound-that on one occasion the future
chancellor was playing about the park with a
new crossbow which had just been given to
him. and trying his skill upon every mark
that presented ITSELF till at length he sent
shot into the back of French statue OF Her
cues that stood beside one of the walks.
Wrong my boy, wrongm said an old friend
of the family, who had witnessed the ex-
plot; 'you should always strike en- enemy,
even French one, from the front" so l
will, some day." answered the child firmly.
Bsmarck's university career az Gottingen,
like THAT of another statesman of equal
renown, was only consistent in its inconsis
tency, and only regular i'm ITS irregularity."
He is said to have fought upward of twenty
duels, and to have scandalized the authOri-
ties, when summoned before them for some
breach of discipline, by appearing in
slouched hat and horsemsn's cape, with a
short pipe in his mouth. His constant
absence from the class room aroused the
wrath of his professor whom the future
diplomat skfllfully pacitied by suggesting
that among the countless hear re- whom the
Herr doctor fame was sure to attract, one
obscure student would never be miss ed" It
is interesting to know that his fellow-lodger
at Beelin was young American, by name
John Lothrop Motley, and the little that is
known of the future intimacy between the
future conqueror and the future historian
forms very pleasant little prologue to the
famous career that awaited both
1t was while Bismarck was still n young
clerk in the Berlin department of justice"
that the present sovereign, then Prince Will
liam of Prussia, first saw the man who was
one day To make him emperor of Germany
1t happened that fellow clerk, also above
six feet in height, was presented along with
him; and the prince, looking with an appre-
ciative smile at the two young giants re-
IN irked pleasantly, II see gentlemen that
Justice chooses her servants by the standard
of the guard" The boldness of the young
counts demeanor, and his naughty intoler-
ance of anything approaching to a slight
speedily made him conspicuous in the SER
vice. One may still hear some ell
derby Prussian official relate admir-
inglY how, when a superior to whom
Bismarck was reporting, went to the
window and drummed on the glass with his
fingers, the latter retorted by walking 10
the other widow and striking up a still louder
| tune upon it; or how, when CURLY asked by
the same magnate, after being kept wal ting for
an hour, what he wanted. Bismarck replied
Il came to ask for leave, but now / request
my dismissal" On another occasion The cool
effrontery of witness whose statement Bis
marck was taking down, provoked him to
start up and exclaim, IF you can't behave
properly I'll kick you out of the room. !"
Turning man out of the room is my
affair, interposed the chief of the depart
ment., you hear~ said Bismarck to the
witness; IF you don't behave properly I'll
make my chief kick you out"
This characteristic disregard of conse-
quences was even more strikingly exhibited
a few years later, when one of the habi tudes
Of a well known beer saloon began to speak
disrespectfully of the reigning family. Bis
marck. who was present. at once broke in
with, 'LeaYe the room, fellow IL you're not
gone 5vfore this glass is empty, I'll break it
over your head" A Babel OF outcries IN
stantly broke forth, but the uumoved count
quietly drained his glass. and then brought
it down so vigorously on the offenders pate
g. amply TO make good his words. As the
man rolled bleeding under the table. Bis
marck leaned back in his chair and cody
inquired, How much for the broken glass,
walter ?h
One of the great statesman's most charac-
teristic utterances was that of April, 1866,
when, learning that Austria seemed likely TO
concede at the last moment, the points at
issue between her and Prussia, he exclaimed,
with undisguised vexation: What! now
that we have brought the old horse up to the
fence, won't he take the leap after all?' The
ruthless cynicism of modern diplomacy has
seldom been more pointedly exemplifed;
and those who have seen the man of blood
and iron" in the retirement of his own
household, might we'll be surprised at the
kindly. and even tender, bearing of one who
could speak so lightly of cruel and
destructive war, and whom popular belief
represents as equally without fear, without
/ faith, and without mercy. A much more
creditable anecdOte is that which record:
how the prince, when asked which be priced
the amost among the countless orders that
/ glitterei on his broad breast, laid his finger
on plain bronze medal and answered EN-
phatically This" The medal was one
which had'rewsrded, years before, his rescue
of a drowning man at the risk of his owr
life; and the inquirer afterward learned thai
Bismarck, though twice 6rsgg FL down SC
deep that only the bubbles o,t the surface
told of the struggle below. never once re
1 lGXan an a af 1ad