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


wise Anecdotes that Illustrate His
Character.
Prince Bismarck, the iron chancellor,
reyiyer of Prussia, uniter of the Ger
Nan states, builder of imperial Ger
many,-but now only a private gentle
man of VarZin, passed his 18th birth
day on April 1. and with so many and
so remarkable demonstrations of re-
Spect and affection that he did not
doubt his hold on the people Of all
classes of his cOunTymen.
When an heir was born to the old
Brandenburg family of Bismarck
CChOenhausen, April l, 1915, Napoleon,
escaped from Elba, was giving Europe
the brief terror Of the hundred days,
and Prussia, which the Corsican had
humbled, was one of the least infiGen-
tial states of Europe, while the future
Kaiser Wilhelm, who was to find the
babe then born his best servant and
friend, was a lad Of IS, getting ready
for confirmation. The Bismarcks of
Schoenhausen derived their name from
the fOrtalice and hamlet Of Bismarck,
for the &C. has come into the names
of the several Bismarck families with
out and definite authority This for
treSS tower was the old stronghold of
the Mark of Brandenburg, on the river
Biese,-a fort like that of Jedburg on
the Scottish marches, which are the
. ~ .
defense in old days of border fighting.
The family of SchOenhausen was
noble for several centuries, and the
princes father was soldier for a
while, and then a country gentleman,
who married Louise Wilhelmina Men
ken, daughter of privy councillor
! under Frederick the Great,-that is, Of
| the high rank which Goethe attained
! TO in Weimar,-a civil service clerk
Frau Louise Bismarck was remark
! able woman, as the mother should be
/ of a remarkable man. Otto Eduard
| Leopold Won Bismarck had an interest
| Ing and long distorted ancestry and a
/ good mother, but nothing he inherited
, could possibly foretell what he was
! to be.
The boy was educated on the Pesta-
l0Zzi system, which speaks well for his
! mothers sense; he was brought up to
| be proficient in many sports, in all
! sorts of gymnastics; he never knew
| what fear was, and placed his neck in
! jeopardy day after day, so that it
! fairly seems a marvel that he survived
the adventures and accidents of the
chase. He went to the university of
Gottingen in 1882, when he was II,
and the chief thing recorded of his
scholastic period there is that he
! fought % duefs, being victorious in all.
Yet he had some very intellectual
! friends there, among them the Ameri-
can historian, John Lothrop Motley,
with whom in those days he bet %
! hottles Of champagne that Germany
! would be united in 20 years Whether
he ever paid the bet is not recorded,
so far as we know. Bismarck did not
at this time connect himself with this
future of his country and his wager
might have seemed one of those vapOr-
ing utterances which were the subject
Of Heine's sarcasm at about that time.
Bismarck went to Berlin university
afterward, where he worked with a
will; perhaps at Gottingen he shared
! Heine's very depreciatOry estimate.
i He passed we'll his examination in law,
/ became law reporter to a Berlin court,
| and afterward had his term in the
! army and was quite content to settle
down in the old home and live the
! "Junker'S'' life. He therefore framed
| it and renowned it, in the most faith
! full manner; attending all the country
| side fairs, driving sharp bargains for
! his produce, collecting his rents; while
also he drank so hard, rode so hard
! and cut up so many madcap pranks
! that he was known as ''the mad Bis
| marck." In fact, the tremendous
| energies of his nature had no outlet
worthy of them, and these perform
ances of his were safety valves In
the same weeks when he was drinking
such astonishing compounds as bottle
of champagne poured into pint of
porter,-when he thought it a pretty
joke TO wake his guests in the morn
ing by firing off pistols close to their
ears,-he was also reading Machiavelli
on the one end and SpinoZa on the
other end of the philosophic order, and
was making himself master Of the
great German literature of the age of
Goethe and Schiller Leasing and Jean
Paul.
A great event happened to Bismarck
in 1917, when he was 80 years old.
He married, and chose well in this
important act His wife was Johanna
Won Putkamer, daughter Of parents
who had embraced pietism strongly
akin to the belief Of the Quakers, and
it was through a certain development
of melancholy in the young Junker,
with nothing to do that he felt worthy
Of his powers, that he fell so COM
pletely under her influence. A serious
man under all his wildness, that Sc
robustness was brought into discipline
and force by his happy alliance. He
became deeply religious, and felt the
deepest charm Of the faith Of Jesus
Christ. There is a letter to his wife,
quoted by DR.. MoritZ Busch in his
book. which shows how he had
changed. 1t was written four years
after his marriage, in 1851, and in it
he said "If it would only please God
to fill with his bright strong wine this
vessel, in which the champagne Of
youth frothed over so uselessly, leav-
ing only stale lees behind. L can
i l.