The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1896-04-11
WlLLFUL WILLIAM.
The AutoerA&io Methods of. fhs
German Emperor.
His Passion for Saying and Dolng Thin3l
In . Sensational 1[anner-He Utterly
Ignores tho Makers Of
the Empire.

The most interesting figure il Europe
at present is the young German em.
peror. He is the last of the kings
among men who 60 to the housetop to
priclaim that in their sacred persons
the sovereign rules by s'divine right, y
and that king is still 'sthe Lords
anointed." Like to Webster's old soldier
he is a ruler that has come down to us
from former generation, or rather q
former age, the dark or the middle one
when there was no pretension that
royalty might not aspire to which was
not readily acknowledged by the
popular mind. The elder king might
and did claim that a divinity did hedge
him about, and that the leper who
touched only the hem of the royal
mantle would depart whole and clean
and his claims to anything, natural OF
supernatural, were conceded to be good
'The king can do no wrong" is still q
pleasant legal fiction, but it was once
matter of popular belief. Nobody
really believes it now,. but the young
emperor tries to make it appear as If
everybody believes it., and he has no
doubt convinced himself that he does.
How he can do so in view of the criti-
cisms made upon him and his conduct
by even part of the press of his own
country and the caricature and ridicule
of the foreign newspapers, especially of
the London Punch, seems incomprehen-
sible. That he is not at all like one of
the old kings of the middle ages. as he
pretends to be, who ruled absolutely,
whose will or whim was the only law of
his subjects, is easily demonstrated.
not only by the fact that the people
have their representative legislature,
who make the laws, impose taxes, and
make or refuse to make appropriations,
but that his old chancellor, banished
and stripped of all authority, can and
does arraign and defy him and his pol
icy, and cannot be silenced or punished
for his obduracy.
The truth is that Emperor William is
really malle-believe survivor of the old
sort of kings who ruled automatically,
absolutely, and, as was contended, were
kings by divine right. He does the most
extraordinary things and says them,
and all the world. even in Berlin, looks
on at the spectacle and laughs as if the
kaiser were a king of sprjghtly bur-
lesque set before them on the stage. He
is always in evidence in one way or an
other, and always suggesting an elder
sort of royalty. At the banquet of the
Brandenburg diet. speaking apropos OF
the silver jubilee of the empire, he made
a number of exceedingly florid and SEN
timental references to the special grace
of Heaven to him and his house since he
has been emperor. He exalted king
ship and his grandfather directly, and
thereby, indirectly, himself. "What
have we witnessed" he said, "and what
has been effected, we owe solely to the
great Emperor William and his trust
in God. The entire celebrations of the
victories of the German arms, which
were held in 1896, eliminated in the
glorifcation of his personality, which
has become nothing less. than holy to
u.s." Not a word about the old chan
cellor, who was not royal except in his
majesty of mind and purpose; but who
was the master of William and who
really won all those victories and out OF
them constructed the mighty German
empire, with comparatively insignif-
cant Prussia as a nucleus, and out of its
king created an emperor, and gave this
brash young swashbucker a chance to
make himself SO interesting and pictur-
esque parsonage.
Referring further to his grandfather,
and as if to wholly obliterate Bismarck
and what he had done, the emperor
said: "It is our sacred duty to preserve
his personality and hallowed memory
against all comers," including, OF
course, Bismarck and all that group OF
great statesmen and soldiers who
planned and fought with him for the
making of the empire, and who gave
William III. the opportunity he is now
enjoying of posing as an old-time king,
to the great amusement of the 10th
century. The cZar of Russia is a real
autocrat, but even he is an up-to-date
monarch. He does not send hysterical
messages to Mr.. Kruger, write songs
or paint allegorical pictures, make ri
diculous speeches or pretend TO be alb
solute with the Reichstag saying nay
to his schemes of education, taxation,
or militarism. The young emperor is
source Of universal interest, not only
because of what he does, but of the ex-
pectation of the more extraordinary or
ridiculous things he may do next. He
keeps alive, by his prancing and posing,
memories of a royalty that is forever
past, and suggests, not what king is,
butwhat king would be if 18th century
civilization and political progress would
let him disport himself to the top OF
his bent. Nobody except England and
Bismarck gets really angry with him,