The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1895-03-24

majesty, and thirfy-elxht OF these sixty
I'VE cases concern the Song OF Aegfr"
Fifteen social democratic musicians got
INTO trouble by saying that The score was
f1ai OK harmonic ches,nu:s. Five others
WOUNDED the crown prosecutor feelings
~ suggesting that Count Philip "a Eu-
ienosrg. the court troubadour composed
the Hbretro. and the emperor spproprt-
ated the credit Nine hurnorssts xishou.
political prejudice wrote pzroSies OF the
song. and two Dryasd1sts asserted the
enperor's mythology was weak and he
had addressed his song to the wrong rod-
TIE remaining seven offenders merely
cracked jokes az the ernperor's expense
as they sat over their beer ia a Behren
strasse saloon. One OF them Is said 10 be
cramaticc critic. who attacked another
dramatic critic for calling the song IAN
epoch-rnsktng composition" The latter
critic signed his fattering article y. l.
and his rival suggested In print that these
initials stood for boot licker. probable
result-3s marks or two months In the
Pioetzsn See prison or both
Little wonder that the Vorwaerts says:
The German people live under the sign
OF tese majestic paraphrase on the
snperors remark that they lived under
the sign OF trade and commerce Lese
majestic, or disrespect OF majesty. has
become a dragnet osenss. like cisorderly
L0HIGlk Ia america. anu II GAf1DFIS It's
victims by the hundred. II has turned
thousands OF Germans into spies On other
thousands; IL has been dragged into pFi-
vats life as the means OF enabling any
man 10 get revenge upon his enemy. 4,
In used for hlackmau and extortion.
Americans viii find IL hard TO belicve
that Iess majestic has been used even as
counter-charge In divorce case. but
such II the fact. On March ! William
Eckert began serving a six-nnonths' term
In the BresIau penitentIary TO atone for
writing disrespectfully OF the emperor in
letters 10 HIS wife. He left Germany for
Buenos Ayres tn 1882 TO superintend a
piece OF government engineering In Ar
gentina. He and his wife exchanged let
ters twice a week. Mrs. Eckert tried TO
keep him well informed in German poll
tics and consequently wrote much OF the
young ernperor's doings. Il was soon
after the emperor said his viii was su-
nreme law or wrote sic volo sic jubeo.
that Eckert became Disguised with Ger
man things I'm general and began one OF
his letters thus:
For Gods sake do not tell me any,
thing more about the emperors speeches.
He must be crazy-the devil take him.
A few months later Eckert learned that
his wife had several lovers. He sued for
divorce and got IL. despite Mrs. Eckert's
written warning that IL he divorced her
she would put him IN JAN. Sne maze
good her word. She laid before the crown
prosecutor in Breslau the letter calling
upon the devil 70 take his majesty.
she accusing Eckert OF treason, and
she put up in the divorce case the de-
fense that she could not regard herself
as bound 10 a man who would speak so
outrageously OF his sovereign. When
Eckert turned up In Breslau last month
a warrant was clapped on him. The
court could have sentenced him to nine
months Imprisonment but argued that
as he had been away from home so long
as 10 lose his grip on German loyalty. he
was entitled TO mercy and should be let
Off with only six months
II IS only a few weeks since an old
man brought a charge OF iese majestic
against his grandson. The disrespectful
words were uttered at the family break
fast table The young man was prose-
cuted. but escaped by technical flaw In
the case against him. In view or these
two cases, besides the revelations which
the sixty-eight trials in the Moabtt GRIM
inal court may bring forth. most persons
here think with the Peoples Gazette.
which says, under the head, "A Warn
ing:
1T will be advisable for every Germa n
10 give up the habit OF thinking aloud.
even IN the bosom OF his family. Other
wise he will run the constant risk OF
atoning for his frankness by sitting
months or years behind prison walls