St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-08-12
How the Emperor's Eyes We're
Opened---Work OF the
Women'S Alliance.
An American Woman in
League With Expresses for
Bismarck's Overthrow.
The Chancellop's Violence---
He Laughs Best Who
Laughs Last.

cuSses in recent communication the
causes which led the young emperor of
Germany to renounce the Bismarcks
and rule for himself. Not the least
among these causes was WOmen'S
alliance, headed by the American
Countess Waldersee. Bismarck's IN
aterable foe. How she conquered the
Iron Chancellor at last becomes evident
through the following extracts:
The opening month Of 1889 was mo-
mentous period in the history of the
young kaiser. The decoration of Putt
kamer, who stood in all eyes as a type
of the late kaiser's bitterest and most
malignant foes, put the finishing touch
to the demonStrative untilial stage of
Williams career. Men had been
brought by this deed to think as badly
of him as they could-When 10! the
whole situation suddenly changed.
This browning act of atfront to his
fathers memory was also the last.
who presents himself for consideration.
1t is not possible to put the finger
upon any one special cause for the
change in the kaiSer's views and feel
ingS which from this time began to
manifest itself. There were in truth
many reasons working together to effect
this alteration, at once so subtle and so
swift.
In its essence the abrupt new depart
ure was due to the awakened conscious
ness in Williams mind that the Bis
marckS had been making fool of him.
Royalty can bear any calamity better
than this. The saying aScribed to Louis
XVIII, For the love of God do not
render me ridiculous" puts into words
the thought that has lain closest to
every monarch's heart since kings were
invented. And it was in Williams nat
ure to regard himself and his position
with exceptional seriousness.
There were not wanting in Berlin
clever people ready to take advantage
of the foolish excuses of the arrogant
and overconfident Bismarcks. Their
arbitrary and despotic courses had
offended many beside those who would
naturally he opposed to them politically,
and there now sprang up as out of the
earth singular combination of the most
diverse political elements. united only
in their hatred for the Bismarcks. In
this incOngrGouS alliance Radicals and
Jew-baiters joined hands. and ultra
Conservatives stood side by side with
the Empress Frederick'S Liberal fac
combination were at the residence Of
Alfred Count Won Waldersee.
The New Leader.
This powerful parsonage, who for
years, as qnartermaster general, was in
training as Moltke's visible heir, and is
now at the head of the greatest fighting
machine the human race ever saw, is
still but little known to the general
public. This is because press popular
ity and interesting personal qualities
and connections have nothing what
ever to do with mans pro-
Heroic actions on the field advance
him 10 more than does he adj
vertising faculty in times of peace. He
rises to each place because he is judged
to be fittest for that particular post, and
this judgment sternly sets aside all con-
siderations not Immediately concerned
with the duties of that post. Thus it
happens that of Count Won WalderSee,
the most important military officer in
the world, not much is known, save that
he is now gray and bald and has for his
wife an astute and influential American
lady.
Twenty-siX years ago an elderly prince
of the Schleswlg-Holstein family pro-
duced temporary sensation by re-
nouncing his ancestral rank in order to
marry a beautiful young Miss Lee,
whom he had met at Paris. He was
then Just the age of the century, sixty
four, and the bride, who, with true
American courage. states the year OF
her birth Ill the Almanach de Gotha,
was twenty-siX. Less than year later
the bridegroom, who had been given
the title of Prince de Noer at the Aus
trian court, died in Syria. Nine years
afterward, i'll 1874. his widow married
Count WalderSee and went to Berlin to
live.
1t happened in 1881 that young Prince
William of Prussia was welded to
Schleswig-Holstein princess, to whom
the Countess WalderSee, by her first
marriage, stood in the relation of great
aunt. Young William and Waldersee
tween their wives led to closer in
timaey-the results of which have been
tremendous in Germany.
America Victrix.
have said that the home of the Wal
dersees now became the center of the
rising opposition to the Blsmarcks.
Count Waldersee himself represented
the ancient Prussian mobiles traditions
of an absolute monarchy and a Hohen-
zollern's unlimited kingly power-tra-
ditions which were all at war with this
Bsmarkian usurpation of author
ity. The Countess Waldersee, with
the privilege of an American,
was able to gather into associa-
ton with this aristocratic conservatism
many elements III German political life
which under any other roof than hers
would have been antagoniStic. Here it
was that the women'S conclave was
formed. with the young Empress Vlcto-
ria and her widowed mother-in-law, the
Empress Frederick. joining hands with
the Countess Waldersee-with the
blessing of the aged Empress Augusta.
who all her life long had hated Bis
marck, resting upon their work.
Bismarck had been supreme for so
many years and had put so many of
these feminine cabals under his feet in
bygone days that he failed to recognize
the deadly peril which confronted him
in this newly unmaSked battery. He
proceeded to charge upon it with all his
old reckleSSnesS of confidence, and
with his accustomed weapons of news
paper insults, personal brOwbeatings,
and threats to resign. To his great be-
Wllderment nothing gave gave way. He
had come at last upon force greater
than himself. He maintained the strug-
gle for over year-Scornfully at first,
and later with despairing tenacity as
pitiful as it was undignified, until at
ash he was fairly cudgeIed off the field.
This was the trick of it: Bismarck,
in all his extended series of conquests
over previous attacks by the women of
the court, had had the king at his back.
He was supported by old William in his
long campaign against the old empress
and the English crown princess. He
had had the sanction of young William
i'll his warfare upon the Empress Fred
erick. 1t had been with royal consent
that he bore himself like the foremost
man in Prussia, and he had allowed
himself to forget the Importance of this
fact The tables were completely turned
upon him the instant these adroit and
sagacious women whispered in young
Williams ear: ''Why not be foremost
man in Prussia yourself?"
The New Regime.
1,r ~