Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-04-19


lngroom, where Ranch'S statue of Vic
tory Casting Wreaths is set up. After
having sat silent for awhile. gazing
before him and feeding the
nre, now and anon, with fir cones, he /
suddenly began to complain that his /
political activity had brought him but /
little satisfaction and few friends.
Nobody loved him for what he had /
done He had never made ANYBODY |
happy thereby, he said: not himself. /
or his family, or any one else. Some
ct those present would not admit this. /
and suggested that he had made n /
great nation happy. But he cou-
tinued, how many have l made I'M /
happy! But for me, three great wars
would never have been fought: 10000
men would not have persisted: parents,
brothers, sisters and widows would not
have been bereaved and plunged into
mourning. That matter how
ever, | have settled with God But
have had little or no joy from all my
Notwithstanding but veXation.
care and trouble"
This was after he had become the
greatest man in Europe and Busch
tells Us that such has been his frequent
tone of conversation in the later years.
When Otto Won Bismarck first came
into public life, in 1910, he was, it is
said, ''mOre royaIist than the king"
Certainly he was the great bulwark
of the PruSSian throne as against the
representatives of the people. He held
that the PrTlssian constitution did not
deprive the king of his royal power,
and that the history of Prussia showed
that its cause would have been re-
peatedly lowered if the king had not
been able to act on his own initiative.
The expression he then gave to the
doctrine of the personal rule of the
king ought to we'll suit the present en-
peror, for the full ideal of the war
lord was embodied in his speeches.
This was the attitude which Bismarck
maintained in respect to the royal pre-
rogative, and which he insisted on
as the same for the emperor of Ger
many as for the king of Prussia. Of
course he has constantly opposed the
onset of democracy, and he also op-
posed the raising of the Jews to full
citizenship, although he utterly disap-
proved of the Judenlfetze Bismarck s
career was continuous from his first
start in the diet until his dismissal by
the present emperor. He was a factor
in every advance of Prussia, and he
was ever preparing the way for the
unity of Germany, which early became
his dream. Disraeli, by the way, spoke
of his plan as 1.-THE mere moonshine of
a German baron" Nevertheless the
moon shine became very plain daylight
in only 10 years after Disraeli's con-
temptuous sarcasm. The part which
Bismarck played in the war of 1866
with Austria, and in the FrancO-PruS-
sian war which resulted in the full
filment of his "moonshine," need not
be recalled iii detail. It is enough to
say that united and imperial Germany
could not have been save for Otto Won
Bismarck, and that the greatest in
stance Of ingratitJIde in modern times
is the dismissal of this great man to
private life by the present German
emperor:
OF the man himself there are anec-
dotes without number to be told He
has been as mercilessfy shown in his
private life and habits as Martin
Luther was, and he is in many respects
quite like his great countryman. A
strong, resolute, deep-thinl<ing, high
purpoSing man, he has something
coarse and common in his nature
which has often exhibited itself. That
was also true of Martin luther.
Mighty forces both, eminently and
representatively German, in their
virtues and their faults,-and none of
their faults was a weakness. That
qualification is never to be applied
to either one. It is interesting to read
the stories that are told of Bismarck.
They are not all consistent with each
other. He held with Emerson, whose
writings he knew we'll, that opinions
are Developments, and it was not nee
essaly to stick to what one thought
20 years before; as DR.. Holmes
wrote
Don't be consistent, but be simply
true"
When Bismarck was faced with
changes Of his opinions, in 1881, he
replied: "Well, I am certainly not
one of those who have ever believed,
or now believe, that they have nothing
to learn; and if anybody says to me,
Twenty years ago you and I were
of one mind; today I hold the same
opinions as I did then, and you ex-
actly the opposite I shall answer
him, Aye; twenty years ago I was as
wise as you are today; now I am
wiser, for I have learned something in
the meantime But I will not attempt
to excuse myself thus. For me only
one compass, one polar star, has ever
existed, by which I have steered my
course, and this is, salus pulica"
What is the best thing for my coun-
try? was the question he asked, as
Mr. Gladstone has asked himself at
every stage Of his great career, which
has 50 closely accompanied Bismarck's,
and has been more often accused Of in
consistency.
When there was complaint in 1870
that he was treating the captive en-
peror of the French too we'll, he said,
the question was (Which of the two
will be most useful to us-a badly
used Napoleon or a well-used Napo-
1eon?'
When in the same year an agitator
was imprisoned in Berlin, he said: II
am not at all glad of it. A mere party