The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1888-03-17
WILLIAM |. OF GERMANY.


III L. VI ubhuhN
From the New York Herald
As by II commercial
cable dispatch, Frederick William
Louis of Germany has passed into
history. Not one page, nor yet two,
will suffice for the record Of his lite and
OF the changes which have occurred
since October ~, 1861, when he took
the crown from the bearer, placed il
upon his head, saving Good gives it"
Queen Louisa wrote i'll the spring of
1868: -s'Our son William will turn out,
if am not much mistaken, like his
father, simple, honest II intelligent"
Europe knows how perfectly he has
fulfilled the prophecy at II mother who
for her many virtues has been ldcalized
and worshipped by the German people.
His cradle was rocked at the close Of
the eighteenth century his grave ~ dug
neal the close OF the nineteenth cell
fury. His earlier memories were Of
his royal mother in tears. Alter the
disastrous battle of Jena, when NapO-
leon approached his victim with the
stealthy tread OF a panther, then
bounced on him with irresistible
strength, the troops were denoralIZed,
and the queen wrote with u trembling
hand, awe have fallen asleep on the
%laurels of Frederick the Great II she
could have witnessed the scene in the
Hall of Mirrors at Versailles in 1917,
when her son was proclaimed emperor
OF United Germany, she would have
wept again, but this time with pride.
NapSleon cut Prussia in halves at the
peace of Tilsit. The country vas eX-
hausted by his ravages, but he lett
there Ill army of one hundred and fifty
thousand men, with fifty thousand
horses, to be supported till he chose to
withdraw them. He further demanded
a war indemnity OF n hundred and
forty million francs. The people were
disheartened, the throne was lettering,
the royal family were fugitives. Such
were the scenes which Prince William
looked upon when he was only ten
years old. His mother, always devout,
wrote cit may be good for our
children that they have 50 early learned
to look at life from it's serious side.'
The young prince was naturally
impatient to test his own mettle under
fire, and this impatience was gratified
at Bar-sur-Aube in 1914. Ordered to
''ride back and ascertain the exact
condition of the regiment" he was in a
few minutes exposed to a shower of
French bullets. When he returned to
make his report his riddled cap and
cloak bore ample testimony to his
courage, and he received from the
Emperor Alexander the Order of ST.
George "for valor." He was born
with the sound of a moving army in his
ears, with the smoke of war in his
nostrils. He was on the field from his
boyhood SO. continuously that when he
was reused by the French call to arms
in 1870 he put his hand to his head and
cried, "Must | in nv old age again go
to WARP" and tears ran down his
cheeks.
The march from Ems to Sedan and
from Sedan to Paris was not a march
against the true France, the France of
history, but against France democrat
lied by the selfishness and Vaccinations
Of Napoleon Ill. The throne was a
stolen throne, and theft became fash
ionable and rampant everywhere. The
elan OF the army had disappeared, it's
patriotism was asleep, It's wonderful
energy was paralyZed. The conscious.
ness that their emperor know more OF
intrigue than of fighting made the
nation timid. And when at last he
gave up his sword without having |
struck u blow and surrendered nearly a
hundred thousand strong and able
bodied men France was choked with
horror and helpless with despair.
During the winter of 1871, when the
pre!iminaries of peace were signed at
Versailles, King William recalled the
scenes of his boyhood, the ravages OF
the first Napoleon and the tax which
he had imposed upon an Impoverished
country. II was II bitter memory.
Times. however, had changed. Then
Prince William fed from Berlin for
safety. Now King William held Paris
in his grasp. The French nation was
at his feet. The Arc de TriOmphe was
a SARCASM. Germany paid Tor the
INVASION OF the great Napoleon. France
should pay for the military bombast OF
the little Napoleon. Five thousand
million francs was the fine imposed,
and then the last OF the German troops
recrOssed the Rhine.
While at Versailles a remarkable
event occurred. Germany buried for
a time her differences for the accom- |
plishment of a victory over the French. |
When the victory had been won she
determined to bury these differences
tor all time. The North German con- |
federation and the South German
states made Il compact and King Will
liam was proclaimed emperor.
And NOW this illustrious son of the
Hohenzollern family, after having
passed through extraordinary changes
in the history of Europe, effccring some
of them himself. has gone to the grave.
a costly monument may be placed over
the spot where he will rest, but his
best monument will be the love of his
people. 1t is high praise to say of any
ruler that he loved his country rather
than himself, but that and more can be
said of the Emperor William, who nov
sleeps the sleep of death.