The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-08-04
WILLIAM THE SECOND.
Youths Companion.

It very rarely happens that three rulers have occupied the throne of a great European state within the brief period of four months.
 On the first of March last the En- peror William the First was still reigning at Berlin, at nearly ninety one years of age. Then his successor, Frederick the Third, held the reins of power for fourteen weeks. And now the third German emperor, William the Second, wears the crown of his grandfather and father.
 Instead of an aged monarch, or of a monarch stricken with mortal disease, Germany is now under the rule of a vigorous and sturdy young man, who has not yet celebrated his thirtieth birthday.
 In character, too, the young empe- TOT differs much from his two prede- cessors. He inherits, indeed, the war like ardor of his grandfather, and per- haps the warlike talents of his father ; but, unlike both, he has 8 stern temper and an austere spirit. He is likely to be far less popular than either of his predecessors.
 William the Second is the eldest son of the Emperor Frederick, and of Vic toria, the eldest child of the queen of England. He was born in Berlin on January 27, 1859, and is therefore midway in his thirtieth year. His wife, the new empress, Augusta Vic- toria, is daughter of the late Duke Frederick of Schleswig. Holstein. It will be noticed that she combines in her own name the names of both the surviving, or dowager, expresses of Germany.
 The new emperor and empress have four sons. The eldest of these sons, Frederick William, who is now crown prince, is six years of age.
 It is traditional custom in the family of Hohenzollern, of which the emperor is the head, that each eldest son, when he becomes ten years of age, shall enter the Prussian army, with an officers rank and commission.
 Both the late emperors, on their tenth birthday, were thus admitted into the military service, and the same custom was followed in the case of the present emperor. At the age of ten he was commissioned as a lieutenant in the first regiment of Prussian foot guards, in which his father and grand father had also served.
 Besides very strict military train- ing William received thorough gen. eral education. He studied mathe- matics, political economy. natural sci ence, and law, at the famous univer- sity of Bonn, on the Rhine. He showed special quickness in the study of languages, and easily became 8 good French and English scholar. On leaving the university he spent some months in studying the practi- cal operation of the Prussian civil ser- vice.
 Bat Williams taste was above all for 8 military life. He hastened, after the conclusion of his studies, to re- sume his place in the splendid army of the fatherland; and has ever since devoted himself, with absorbing zeal, to his military tasks.
 He is believed to be more warlike than either of his predecessors, and to be even eager to win laurels upon the battlefield. He is also supposed to have not much good will toward Eng. land and the English; but the evil dence on this point is not very con- vincing.
 On his accession to the throne, his first thought seems to have been of the army, which he addressed in a ringing proclamation. In this he said {: "I promise always to bear in mind ] that the eyes of my predecessors in the other world look down upon me, and that I must one day render an account to them for the fame and honor of the army"
 While it might be feared that so ambitious and warlike young prince, called to rule mighty nation and an unparalleled army, would be likely to plunge Europe into war, this is made less probable by the fact that Prince Bismarck, the wisest and war fest of statesmen, is at the young em- peror's elbow.
 It is known that William has long regarded the veteran chancellor with veneration and confidence: that he learned from him sage maxims or pol itics and policy and that he has hith- erto been guided by Bismarck's advice. So long, therefore, as Bismarck lives, the attitude and course of Germany are apt to remain very much as during the reigns of the two preceding empe- TOTS, whose strong wish was that Europe should remain at peace.