Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1882-02-18
Bismarck.
How His Power Was Gained In the Ger
man Government.


Herbert futile in February AtlanticI
One secret of Bismarck's power of fasei-
nation over the German people lies without
doubt in the intellectual sympathy which
was established between them after 1866. Up
to that time he had been judged OF ly by the
outward, superficial and transient aspects of
his policy, without reference tO-for the
greater part even in igoranee Gifts ulti-
mate aims; and this is equally true of Con-
servatives and of Liberals. The ConserYs-
tives saw him trampling the constitution of
Prussia under his feet, and that act of de-
struction seemed so praiseworthy that they
refused to search into his motives. The Lib
erals saw only an arbitrary, violent, reckless
course, which the laws did not permit, which
no public programme made clear, and which
no prospect of success encouraged; they
condemned what they could not understand.
But Sadowa changed that as by touch of
magic. All parties hastened to embrace and
applaud the successful man; the Liberals
because he had achieved their purpose the
Conservatives because he had achieved it
with their means. The greatest statesman of
the age, he was also recognized rs the most
characteristic of Germans-the type as well
as hero of the nation-a combination of
Luther. Gotz Won Berlichingen, and Marshal
Yorwarts; a brawny, staggering giant, fond
of eating, drinking and fighting gifted with
a coarse, telling humor, ready with the L.
tin of q "corps'' student, yet with serious
purpose beneath the noise of spurs and beer
glasses, beneath Billingsgate doggerel and In
science, and will which admirably served
his purpose. No such picturesque character
has appeared in Germany since Frederick the
Great, and in some respects he understands
his countrymen better than ever the hero of
Sans Soici did. He has never, for instance,
shocked their religious sense by his own
indifference. He is blunt, stern, almost
brutal nationalist, while Frederick, except in
war, showed strong taste for foppish, sem
timental and fantastic methods. 1t is impos-
sible to imagine Bismarck playing an unskill-
full flute, or composing French ballads, like
a love-sick school-boy. The deadly foe of
everything like dilettanteism, he saw at once
through the shallowness and insufficiency of
the Liberal plan; fought out the battles of
his generation with 'blood and iron, not
with parliamentary speeches." and restored
the medieVal brigands to the place which
had SO long been usurped by race of dys-
peptic philosophers. Nay, he even confirm
ed in startling way one of the favorite
theories of the philosophers themselves.
They had long taught, some of them, that
civilization was but an unsubstantial polish,
beneath which was hidden the savage man in
all his picturesque uginess. Bismarck rub
bed off this polish, and presented the original,
uHcOITupVeo OSEHudu -DEdHuuS ffOOPcfi
equipped for desperate work fighting with
Barbarossa robbing with Carl Moor, burning
towns with lilly, saying mass with priest
before sscking his church, and drinking with
the landlord before robbing his till strange
compound of frankness and ferocity, of de-
pravity and superstition, of barbarian mo-
rails and barbarian valor. This parsonage,
little changed by time, with more decorum,
indeed, but less humor, more method but
less generosity, he called forth to compile to
the task on which poets pedagogues and
barristers had spent their feeble strength.
1t was hazardous game, and confident of
success, the bold gambler did not neglect to
provide for failure. Apopular legend cred
its him with the intention of blowing out his
brains on the battle field if Sadowa had been
lost. The plan was worthy of him, and is
not improbable but it has, been stated by
the prince himself that his more reasonable
purpose was to flee to America, in case of
disaster, and found new existence this side
of the Atlantic. What a field of speculation
is opened by the thought of SO illustrious an
exile What a commotion would have been
caused among the crude trifere of American
politics if this martial figure had stalked upon
the scene with helmet and sabre and .caval ry
boots