The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1892-04-10
THE BABsLING BISMARCK.


Last Sunday was the seventy -seventh
birthday of the great chancellor Of Ger
many, Won BISMARCK 1t was expected |
that there would be overpowering demon
STATIONS Of fondness and veneration Tor
man who had served his country SO long !
and so well. The behavior of the young |
Emperor who petulsntly required him to
resign had been such that it was thought
the German people, menaced by France
and Russia would take this occasion to
show significant marks of feality TO the
iron prime minister in whom "Unser
FRITZ had manifested such faith and con-
fidence. But, unless the accounts by cable
have undergone supervision by agents Of
the kaiser, the celebration in the vicinity
of FREDERICKSBURG. where BISMARCK re-
sides, was very tame indeed. The
old veteran made an egotistical
speech to his nelghbors, which
is freely criticized by the Berlin press.
The German newspapers scoff at the idea
of his return to power, and one of them
declares that 1.-The whole civilized world
suffers from the results of his protectionist
system, and the consequent estrangement
|
Nevertheless, the German people are
still BIsMARCK's friends. They cherish
grateful recollection of the invaluable serv-
ices he rendered them. They have not for
gotten that the unity and harmony Of in
ternal affairs and the preservation of their
national dignity abroad in years past are
due to BIsMARcK's skill as a diplomatist.
Yet they are glad he is out. They feel
freer because of his retirement His
policy was harsh and arbitrary and
the end of it brought new
freedom from restraint They can do and
think as they never did before. What he
says is read eagerly, but they are not the
utterances OF the chancellor. On the
whole the people are glad he is powerless
and at Friederichsruhe
The picture of querulousness and garrul-
Gus helplessness presented by the prince
since mis- forced retirement from the ex-
allied position he held for thirty years, re-
minds the world how easy it is for a grea t
man to become small-and how few ''all
roundn great men there are to be found in
its list of potentates. The prince was
for many years the central figure in
Europe-statesman, minister, warrior aud
political economist-and the universe paid
him homage. Great assuredly he was. He
did great things. He wrested a valuable
province from Denmark humbIed Austria,
overthrow the French empire, established
German unity, and preserved the peace OF
Europe in the southeast. These will always
be accepted as proof of his greatness.
ll,,t@ ha u
him through his long official life left Bis
MARCK when, he was displaced from the po-
sition which he had come to imagine no one
but himself could tll-and he is fast sink
ing into the character of senlle and i'll
natured babbler The imam of blood anC
irion' has become toothless and harmless
lion. The lawful chancell orr as CAR
. LYsLE called him, is NOW ''the old man.
What he says is entertaining ant
Interesting, but it no longer make
Europe tremble. He is enraged to find his
s country is getting along pretty well with
= out him, and even the strict, punctiliou
s proprieties of long official career do no
restrain him from saying and doing som
very silly and spiteful things. His old an
: humbled enemy, LOUIS NAPOLEON, did bet
ter than this. 1t was pitiable spectacl
4 to see the French Emperor, after dictatn
h peace and war to Europe for eightee
years, surrendering his sword at Soda
:, and walking into German castle prison
but even the Inundated French Empero
knew how to keep his tongue still the res
OF his ife-and this, unfortunately, car
not be said of BISMARCK.