New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-06-20
BISMARCK.
Curious Souvenirs Of the Iron Chancellor From
Count Won Buast's Memoirs.

Curious Souvenirs Of the Iron Chancellor From
Count Won Quests Memoirs.
Translated from the Figaro for the New
Orleans Times Democrat.
Our political understanding with
the German empire having become
more satisfactory after the close OF
1870, / deemed it well to renew With
Herr Won Bismarck the relations
which had ceased after 1856, and left
for Gastein.
The three weeks which passed
there with him form one of the most
agreeable souvenirs ofmy existence. we
lived together at the Straublnger
Hotel, and passed the time IN each
others company. When one IS on
good terms with Bismarck, he is the
most agreeable, the most amlable man
possible to imagine. The originality
of his ideas is surpassed only by the
originality of the expressions which he
uses. He is good-natured, and his
good-natured manner somewhat SOFT
ems the bitterness of the opinions
which he utters. One of his favorite
expressions is; He's an idiot" c'est
I'm imbecile) but he does not intend
to hurt ones feelings.
One day he said to me- "What do
you do, when things don't go as you
want them to? you should never lose
your temper as I do. / am an
gered with men for their wickedness,
never for their stupidity. Do you
never find a real pleasure in breaking
something on such occasions? With
the IDEAS you have, you would smash
all the furniture in the house if you
were In my place.
I went once to see him one day."
continued Bismarck. pointing, as he
spoke, to the windows of the Emperor
William, ssbut I got into an internal
passion. [ banged the door withs
violence that the door-knob came off
in my hand. / went into Lehndorf's,
and / slammed the door-knob into
the wash-basin, breaking it into a.
thousand pieces. Are you sick?'
Lenhdorf asked me- No said I, but
/ was And, indeed, my anger was
over"
He talked to me great deal about
the war of 1870, and his negotiations
with Jules Favre and Theirs. ssThe
time OF the expiration of the arms
tice was nearly over" Bismarck said
to me one day, sand I said to Theirs,
Listen, Monsieur Theirs, / have born
your eloquence for a whole hour, and
we must have an end Of it. [ give
you warning now that / won't talk
French any more; shall only talk
German But, monsieur, said Theirs,
we do not understand word of Ger
man.. THAT makes no difference to me;
Ishall speak nothing but German
Then and there Theirs delivered me a
suberb address, in five parts, which
listened to, smiling, and [ answered
him In German. Favre and he remain
ed there halfa hour lnsilence; but an
hour after they had signed the proto-
col. Then | at once began to talk to
them in French.'
Bismarck told me all this in lust
such a tone as one ordinarily uses In
telling a hunting-story. He did not
seem to have the least idea of the
mental fortunes which thetwo wretch
ed French delegates must have passed
through during that half-hour.
He also told me one day that after
the review held by the Emperor Will
lam upon the Longchamps race. course,
man in a blouse came up to him
and said to him: q Bismarck, ties une
canalllen' bismarck, you're a vii
lain!) Il could have had him shot, !"
continued Bismarck; but his courage
made an Impression on me-"
Another time he told me that he
had been very mnch opposed to the
annexation OF Metz.
81 only yielded to the military par
ty," said he, "who claimed that Metz
was worth a hundred thousand men
to US. Oh! if Bazaine had been able
to hold out four weeks longer at Metz
we would have been obliged to raise
the siege OF Paris"
Otherwise it is very difficult to put
confidence In Bismarck. One day
when we were talking about the Ger
man provinces of Austria / asked him
If he had never thought of annexing
them. S'That would be a very stupid
thing to do, he replied. "The popu-
latlon is Catholic. 1t would form an
opposition center. 1t would be a,
great deal better to annex Holland. ,,
Several months later I was an am
bassador at London. The Dutch
charge d'afaires, who had just ar
rived from Berlin, told me by chance
that one evening when he had asked
Herr Won Bismarck whether it was
true that Germany thought OF annex
ing Holland, the chancellor had an
sWered him: ''That would be stu
pid thing to do! It would only make
an opposition center. 1t would be
mucn better to annex Austria!''
i had another example OF this du-
pllclty In the negotiations which en-
sued after sadowa, Bismarck kept
perpetually talking about his love for
Austria, for Vienna and his wish to
spare the Viennese the humiliation of
an occupation. One day Git was at
Gasteln) a certain Henry Christ, a,
good Frankfort bourgeois, who used to
know Bismarck in the times OF the
Diet, asked him in my presence: sTeu
me your highness why did younote enter
Vienna in 1856? You used alMaus 70