The Wichita daily eagle., 1894-02-13


birthplace its name. The drive from the
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. 1t
was probably a 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 1t is not
feudal castle nor even great mansion. 1t
Is simply designed stone house, with i'm
mensely thick walls and an air of great So
lidity and age. 1t is now the home of the
princes son, Count Herbert Bismarck, to
whom 1t 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 as a target, and its present
condition testifies 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
IL the museum within the house are more
interesting still. The museum is in the
strictest sense q Bismarck museum, mas
much as the articles preserved are almost
ell mememtos of various events in his life
There is one thing. however, that is of
special interest to Americans, and that is
desk said to be the one at which Jefferson
sat when he wrote the first draft of the
Declaration of Independence. 1t was sent
to the prince by an American admirer and
bears a card whereon is inscribed guaran-
tee of its geruineness, signed by a Mr.. Coo
lidge. 1t is of mahogany, not above Is inches
square. and has every appearance of being
genuine. Amcng the hundreds of statu-
cites and busts of the chancellor there is
but one good one. The most pathetic arti-
Gle 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 rs Wilhelmstrasse, in this
sity-the reichskanzler's palace, it is called
lin 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
1873, first as prime minister to the king Of
Prussia and later as premier of the Ger
man empire.
1t has not the spaciousness or the nobil-
ity of architectural design that would seem
to have been fitting in house chosen for
q Ia ,,eb -tn, J,,r
residence the most powerful man in Eu-
rope. At the present time there is an air
OF poverty and neglect about the premises
that is almost pathetic.
Friedrichsruh, Rismarck's present home,
though larger house than the one at
Schoenhausen, is not an elegant structure
by any means. But it is q memorial of the
unifier's great achievement in that it was
presented to him in 1871 by Emperor Viii
liam | in token of his services in re-estab-
fishing the empire, as the estate at Verzin
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-
pecially 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-
celyed the training OF some university.
The library is evidently that of man too
busy to read much or deeply. The study
of the eX-chancellor is fitted up with sew
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-
Portable. His pens are all of quill, and he
cuts them himself He uses NJ blotting
paper, which he detests as much as he does
steel pens, but the old fashioned tox Of
blue sand for drying freshly written ink is
Appointment object on his desk, The princes
bedroom is simple in Its Furnishings to the
point of discomfort, and the interior walls
of all the rooms are whirewashed, giving
the entire place cold aud cherries look.
The house, which stands near the railroad
station, is surrounded by we'll kept lawn.
which in turn is encompassed by an irregu-
lar and almost ugly red brick wall.
u. T. HOFFMAN