The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-08-18
PRINCE BISMARCK.
Incidents of His Youth and Early Manhood
The Child the Father to the Man.

London Standard.
When Otto Won Bismarck was six years of
age he was placed in tine school of Prof Pla-
mann, No. 100 Wilhelm strasse, Berlin, the
same street where the German Chancellor
has since achieved some of his greatest
diplomatic victories Six years later he was
transferred to the Frederick William Gym
nasium, though generally dwelling with his
parents, who had taken house in the Prus-
sian capital. His mother, while anxious
that he should follow diplomatic career,
and predicting for him future distinction,
seems to have been of the opinion of her
illustrious countryman, the author of
Faust" who says-though it is true he is
speaking rather Of the artist than Of the man
of affairs-that you cannot keep 1.-THE hull
round the young bud too long" She feared
lest her boys should become manly too soon;
and when the time came for Otto to be
sent TO some university or other she protest
ed against his going to Heidelberg-notwith-
standing that the young fellow himself was
anxious to go there-lest he should acquire
a habit Of beer-drnking
Instead of going to Heidelberg, then, Otto
Won Bismarck was sent to Gottingen, and
there it was that the incidents happened
which, doubtless passed across the mind like
spectre nuutSnen WDon ne caught Sl2OC OF
the "Hanoverlan" cap on the platform OF
the railway station. Owing to the assiduity
with which he had been kept from contami-
nation-in other words from everything but
home xperience-he was in certain senses
the freshest of freshmen, and it was, accord
ingly, rather by accident than from any ira
dition that, on arriving at Gottingen, he be-
came member of circle of Mecklenburg-
ers, and afterward, equally without particular
rhyme or reason, joined the 'Brunswickers."
One morning, after a somewhat stormy scene
with the Dean, in consequence of an up
roarious supper party that had taken place
at Bsmarck's roonlsi the young student was
walking homewatd with his dog, when four
students of the Hanover corps thought
proper to laugh as he passed them. Are
you laughing at, meY' asked Bismarck, al
ready not in the best of humors. The reply
was that he must be very blind if he did not
see that they were. He answered with the
''retort courteous" and challenged all four,
He had already fought one duel, his
first, with young Jew of the name Of
Wolff who wounded Bismarck in the leg
Bismarck retaliating by cutting off
VOLTS spectacles. But the duel with what
a popular female novelist would call the
Hanoverian ''quadrilatera" never came of.
for they saw what good student-stuff he was
made of, and instead of fighting him they
asked him to join their corps and become
member of their union. Bismarck con-
day, about the "Hanoverian cap 1 wore
fifty years ago." But the desertion by Bis
marck of the Brunswick corps for the Hano-
verian could be wiped out only with blood,
and he had to fight the senior BrunswIcker
instead of his four new chums. Bismarck is
reported to have received several harmless
fiat sword-strokes before he ran in" and cut
open his opponents face. After that a score
of duels are set down to his account in the
annals of Gottingen, in only one of which
Ire ever got a scratch, and then only through
the accident of his adversarys blade break
ing. Thereupon arose dispute as to whether
blood drawn in this way was really drawn"
at all according to the laws of the duello.
We do not know whether Deputy Biederwig.
who had the honor of being Bismarcks an
tagonist on that occasion, is still alive, BUTT
is not so many years since-in the White Sa-
loon at Berlir-he held an animated polemic
with Prince Bismarck on the subject, stoutly
maintaining that it was "a hit, palpable
hi" and that the sword-stroke was good"
Many another anecdote is related of his
Highness, appertaining to his university and
early days. and they all pointin the same di-
rection, and prove that never was there
more striking illustration of the correctness
of the saying of Wordsworth, that 1.-The child
is father to the man." Wordsworth was led
to make the observation by remarking that
his heart leaped up when be beheld rain
bow in the sky, in his mature in his
youthful days; and the heart of Bismarck
leaps up at the polychromatic lines on a
freshman's cheek, just as it did in the days
when he himself painted pictures of the
kind on the cheeks of his antagonist. He was
aighting youngster then, as he has been a
n combative person ever since. IF you don t
behave better 1 will kick you out" be once
exclaimed to rather impudent witness
when he himself was only clerk to the
officiating magistrate. The latter, greatly
amused, reminded his secretary that kick
ing belonged exclusively to himself Ten
| min utes later the witness again was offensive
IF you don't behave better" Numbered out
Bismarck this time, "the magistrate shall
kick YOU out" Here we have the same per-
son who has shown over and over again dur
ing recent years that he would greatly like
to 'kick OUT the German Parliament, and
| only refrains from doing so because be pc
riodieally persuades the superior magis-
trate," the Emperor, to perform that pro-
| cess and send the ReichStag about its BUSH
ness. 1t is the same man about whom, as a
student, his master wrote at Easter 1882:
"0ratio est lucida &C latina, sed non. salts
castigata.H Since then Bismarck has trouneed
his adversaries and gained the first prize for
doing so, in exceedingly lucid German, that
is not, however, his antagonists probably
think, "satis castigata," not oratory suffi-
GENTLY picked, chastened, and finished. Like
himself his speech is direct or courageous
| and he meets his parliamentary or European
rivals as he met his Gottingen ones. Count
Beust and poor Count Won Arnim
have Jared pretty much at his hands as did
young Wolff, whose spectacles he cut off, or
the Senior Brunswicksr, whose face he CASH
ed OPEN What crowd of memories must
have rushed through the Chaneellor's mind
as he sat in the railway carriage chatting
with the students at Gottingen, of whom
many, many years ago he also was one
How much has happened since them"
The breaking up of the German bund, the
invasion of the duchies, the battle of Sa-
dowa, the browning victory at Sedan, and the
restoration of German unity. Yet here was
the hero of all these great achievements the
foremost man of his age-worn out by anx-
ieties and broken down in years-looking