Los Angeles herald., 1891-08-18
is THE GERMAN EMPEROR INSANE-A
QUESTION OF HEREDITY.

of his condition have been discredited
because of the highly sensational French
accounts. These have been looked upon
as dictated by malice, and to certain
extent they undoubtedly have been.
But if man should fall and dislocate
his ankle, or break his neck even, his
enemy could report the facts correctly.
There has been much of the feverish
and theatrical in the young Emperor's
career, of late. Some of his speeches
have been of the most extraordinary
character, and no official surveillance
has availed to prevent their leaking out
even in the German press. That fine
autocratic declaration, 81 alone am mas
ter here, and will suffer no man to
stand before me-" would, as the HERALD
remarked at the time, suit the charac-
ter OF Charles MI. of Sweden and his
times. His peremptory dismissal of
Bismarck and his references to that
phenomenal statesman, who embodies
the genius and unity OF Germany, as an
"ungrateful vassal," are all of a piece
with an estimate of the emperor which
would suppose his intellect to be unbal-
anced, and this without denying him
the possession OF exceptional personal
gifts. Stupid people very rarely be-
come insane. The poets thought,
"Aye, faith, genius to madness is near
allied" has received many striking
combinations in all ages.
The Kaiser has been noted for an un-
intermitting and sporadic energy during
the past six months. He rises at all
hours. He is liable to rouse garrison
in the middle OF the night, and make
them 60 through the manual OF arms.
During his recent visit to England he
went through lightning changes of pro-
gramme, changing his uniform as often
as ten times day. The normal condi-
ton of his blood is kept up at fever heat
through his incessans activity. Can he
stand this? 1t is said of Charles XII
(probably a lie, but Monsieur de Voltaire
repeats it, that he could lie down on the
wet ground in midwinter and go to
sleep without injurious consequences.
Even if true, there has only been one
Charles XII.
Is there anything in the ancestry
and associations of William II. to war
rant the idea that he can stand the in
cessant strain to which he subjects him
self without disastrous results.
As to himself he was born with
shriveled left arm, and has developed
the most pronounced evidences of scro-
fula, having an abscess in the ear which
has been the occasion of acute agony to
himself and of great anxiety to his
physicians. His father, Emperor Fred
erick, died in what ought to have been
the prime of his life from what the
doctors politely called cancer. The
tainted blood of the Emperor Paul, of
Russia, who was a raving maniac when
he was assassinated, flows in his veins.
That blood of itself, inherited from
czarina who recalls the Empress Mes
salina of the old Roman days, was
enough to SOW the seed of death in any
race. 1t skipped the old Emperor Will
lam l., but got in it's work on his
brother, the king OF Prussia, for whom
William was for years regent. That in
sanity and mad impulses are very fire.
quent incidents in the reigning families
OF Europe is nothing new. Ludwig of
Bavaria, Prince Rudolph Of Austria, and
the ex-Empress Carlotta are all shining
and recent examples Of this fact.
Notwithstanding Carlyle's fopdness
for the father of Frederick the Great,
that old scoundrel was undoubtedly in
sane, and in the nineteenth century he
would have been put in straight
jacket. His eccentriclties took the
form Of genius in his son Frederick and
of madness in his daughter, Frederick
sister, who developed the most pro-
nounced form of nymphomania, and
who was confined for years in one of the
castles of the royal family. On the
Victim side of his family William is in
danger OF the fatal inheritance. George
the Third was as crazy as loon during
many years of his long and inglorious
reign.
AThere is, therefore, nothing strained
in the supposition that William may, in
truth, have the seeds OF insanity and
premature death in his system. The
statement in Partisan journal,
L'Eclair, that the emperor has shown
signs OF boisterous madness, and has
even been restrained by his physicians
and friends, is not inherently improb-
able.
1t may be remembered that, about
ten days ago, from English and German
sources, the statement was made that
Emperor William officiated at divine
services on board his flagship, reading
the formula himself. 1t is known that
his kneecap was broken in some man.
ner. This is as much as would be al
lowed to leak out through any German
source. 1t is known that there has been
great anxiety as to his condition
amongst the German physicians, and
that famous specialists hurried to his
side in England and to the feet at Kiel.
These are all violent presumptions
that something very grave is the matter
with the German kaiser. They lend a
gravity to the circumstantial narrative
of L'Eclair which it would not other