Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-02-14


 station to the village occupies eight or ten minutes, and the fine old mansion stands at the edge of the village, or rather the lat ter is at the gates of the former. The first structure known to have been erected on the site of the present Schoenhausen was put up somewhere near the year 1900 It was probably convent, but whatever it was it was utterly destroyed during the thirty years war; and it has been rebuilt in whole or in part many times since that destruction.
 The present house dates from the latter end of the seventeeth century, though parts are supposed to be much older. It is not feudal castle nor even a great mansion. It is simply designed stone house, with i'm mensely thick walls and an air of great so- lidity and age. It is now the home of the princess son, Count Herbert Bismarck, to whom it was given by his father, not as wedding president, as has somewhere been stated, but some time previous to his mar riage, and not in celebration of any event in the lives of either.
 Near stream which runs through marshy ground not far from the house is a moss grown old gray statue peppered with bull lets. In days gone by Bismarck the elder used this statue target, and it's present condition testities to his excellent marks manship. Scattered about the grounds are many interesting relics, among them a number of cannon taken from the French at StraSburg and elsewhere, but the relics ill the museum within the house are more interesting still. The museum is in the strictest sense Bismarck museum, inas- much as the articles preserved are almost all mememtos of various events in his life.
 There is one thing, however, that is of special interest to Americans, and that is T T < {l,, sat when he wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence. It was sent to the prince by an American admirer and bears card whereOn is inscribed a guaran- tee of it's gcnuineness, signed by a Mir. Coo lidge tis of mahogany, not above l5inches square, and has every appearance of being genuine. Among the hundreds of statu- cites and busts of the eX-chancellor there is but one good one. The most pathetic arti- cle in the house probably is the rush bot toned chair in which Napoleon III sat on the morning after he had decided to sur render to the victorious TeutOnS at Sedan.
 The house at 16 Wilhelmstrasse, ill this city-the reichskanzler' palace, it is called in which Bismarck lived during the years of his greatest power, is not more distin- guished in appearance than is Schoenhau- sen. Bismarck occupied it from 1862 to 1S7S first as prime minister to the king of Prussia and later as premier of the Ger man empire.
 It has not the spaciousness or the nobil- ity of architectural design that would seem to have been fitting in a house chosen for the residence of him who was during that residence the most powerful man in Flu rope. At the present time there is an air of poverty and neglect about the premises that is almost pathetic.
 Eria6ripbSrr RiSnoarply 'S hoD,o though larger house than the one at Schoenhausen, is not an elegant structure by any means. But it is a memorial of the unifiers great achievement in that it was presented to him in 1871 by Emperor Will liam 1 in token of his services in re-estab- fishing the empire, as the estate at Narzin was given to him in 1866 in reward for his work in the war with Austria. The fur nishing of the rooms at Friedrichsruh, es- pecally those used by the prince himself, partakes of that inharmOnious character, that mingling of the learned and the agri- cultural. to be found in the houses of most German landed proprietors who have re- ceived the training of some university.
 The library is evidently that of man too busy to read much or deeply. The study of the eN-chancellor is fitted up with sev- eral massive mahogany tables, which are borne down by great quantities of docu ments and manuscripts, and the writing desk is an enormous one. The princes chair has no back and is of course uncom- fortablc. His pens are all of quill and he cuts them himself. He uses no plotting paper which he detests as much as he does steel pens, but the old fashioned box of blue sand for drying freshly written ink is aprominent object on his desk. The princess bedroom is simple in its furnishings to the point of discomfort, and the interior walls of all the rooms are whitewashed, giving the entire place a cold and cheerless look. The house, which stands near the railroad station, is surrounded by a we'll kept lawn, which in turn is encompassed by an irregu- lar and almost ugly red brick wall
 G. P. HOFFMAN.