Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1879-10-25
BISMARCK AT HOME.
Glimpses of the Private Life and
Character of the Great Chanc-

ellOr.
Bismarck. ike Johnson, has his BOs-
well, having been sadly exaggerated, di-
versitied, and sometimes CailCatured by
gossip French and English writers, he
has requested his Boswell, who is Herr
MOritz Busch, already famous for his
sketch Of the political career Of the
Chancellor, 10 draw a plain, simple, I'M
adorned picture Of his home and home
lIfe. I'm other words he has sat for a
plain photograph, with instructions not
10 touch It up, but To present himself
Just a. he is Herr:Busch has done his
work i'm a blunt way that must have
suited so blunt a man as Bismarck, and
We get nearer To a true picture OF the
German Colossus than ever before.
He is an unhappy man. He has mo-
ments OF great remOrSe, showing that
conscience is active. At times he is re-
ported as lamenting his destiny. One
evening he said to Herr Busch:
"'In satisfying my ambition / nave
made nobody happy We all protested
No. He continued: And what
number Of people have cast into misery,
Without me three great wars would
have been avoided; $4,000 men-nay,
many mOre-wOuld not have been Kill
ed, and such numbers Of families, OF
fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and
wives, would not have been plunged in
TO mourning However, that account is
10 be settled between God and mys'lf
so far as the hereafter goes. What hap
piness / have derived from all my sue
cess? Little or none; and have reaped
endless worry, veXatlOn, hatred, pam,
grief, OyerwOrk and care.
The glimpses which Herr Busch thus
gives Us of Bismarck show us man
with a double nature. Ii We may put
any trust I'm them, the great German
Chancellor, undoubtedly the most intlu-
eutial, powerful, and intellectual of all
statesmen, a giant in st3tecrait, is a man
Of tender feelings, sympathetic tempera-
ment, religious nature, as has been
ShO IN I'm his letters to his son which
have been made public, impatient of all
society forms, lashed with remOrse and
tinged with melancholy, driven by Dies
tiny % acts which cOntravene all his ma
tive impulses, mOOdIly accepting the
harvest Of personal misery and pain
which he must ~ Ip from his own SOW
ing, and bearing the stings OF conscience
with the grim determination to leave the
account To be settled by higher Power.
The reflection is inevitable. What might
not this man have accomplished had he
enlisted his mighty intellectual powers
and iron energies in the services of hu-
manlty,
In his home life the man with the
iron helmet is not unlike other men.
Perhaps he Is even more simple in his
tastes, habits and notions than the aver
age Of men possessing wealth and infu-
ence. Herr Busch gives us a view Of
his house at Narzin. IL is situated very
pictureSQuely, but without ornament or
pretensiOn. Convenience and comfort
have been consulted rather than show.
Except in the apartments OF his wife and
daughters there is no attempt at decora-
ton Of sumptuOuS display of furniture
and hangings. Even these special apart
ments do not excel in lavish titting-up
and Ornamentation the rooms of many
of our milliOnaires. There are scarcely
any pictures, busts, or statues in the
house, but every outlook from the house
commands sofxtrordinary natural
beauty, so that We may regard the Prince,
Notwithstanding his sterness, and his
necessary devotion 10 cares of state, and
his overwhelming occupation with the
management Of European affairs, a. an
ardent lover of nature rather than art.
He seeks his comfort in numerous rock
ing chairs and spring arm-chairs, which
are profusely scattered over the house,
and huge stone fire-places warm him in
autumn,-ior, saws his biOgrapher, like
all nervous men who work with their
will-DOwer, he suffers greatly from cold.
His own apartments remind one OF the
halls ~ .EngLsk 's9uirss 50 often de-
s-r-T--'I mi 1-Il5TT. S0r1e- O is furniturs'
Is made OF deers' antlers. His walking
stick is a knotty black-thOrn cudgel, with
A fox-head handle. at lies, usually, on
A small dumb waiter, beside table near
which Bismarck reads and writes. The
floors are dotted over with spittoons.
Pipes and cigar-stands have a place on
buffet. and the walls are decorated with
panoplies OF serviceable arms and
| trophies Of the chase, of which there Is a
! fine'shOw in the halls and corridors.
| One would naturally suppose that the
favorite reading ofsuch man would be
/ historical in character, and that his iels-
ure would be spent in ransaeking the
literature Of philosophy, the economies,
mOralities and stAtecraft. Instead OF