The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-11-30
EMPEROR WILLIAM AT HOME.

Not that the German Emperor would De
commonplace anywhere. His mysterious
outbursts of rage, his officially contra
dicted illnesses, and his genius for sell
advertisement would bring him into
notice wherever he was. But though we
hear SO much about his love for show In
public, few people know how simple his
great deal of the solemn etiquette of the
ordinary court life has been done away
with, the staff reduced in several ways,
and there have even been economies in
the kitchen. The officers of the guard
have to put up with beer instead of cham
payne. 1t is true the menu at the En-
perors table must be in German now,
not French, but the aristocracy generally
have not followed suit. There are things
even German Emperor cannot do.
But any one who sees the royal palace
knows that the stories of extravaganza are
true. Resoring it was the work of three
months, and everything that the best OF
science and art and the taxpayers money
could do was done. Those three months
turned out palace that eclipses in splen-
dor almost any other in the world. Inc
apartments that the present Emperor uses
are those between the ''Pillar HALF and
the ''Star Hail. or "Star Chamber, ="
whichever we would call it in English,
only in this case the stars are in the cell,
ing. But perhaps the most magnificent
is the front hall, the Treppen Hall,
which faces the palace Square. A view
can be had without opening this doors for
they are each of one immense pane or
glass, and even in the daytime the white
and gray marble covering the walls is
effective AT night it is marvellous
sight, the electric light flooding the hall
The marble balustrades, and the red carpet
on the marble steps. You pass down
these, between colossal mirrors on either
hand, and the Star Hall is directly in
'front.' 1t is here the regimental colors are
USED as ornaments for the walls, on a
Dack ground of red damask. The panell-
ing is done in rich rocco work.
The Emperor's and Empress's private
apartments are near the Pillar Hall,
which also faces the Palace Square.
There Is private entrance and public
one for populations and so on. One gets
as good an idea of the general extrava-
gance from the Emperor's workshop, or
study, as anywhere else. True, there are
the writi1gtable, the leather covered
furniture. and the bookshelves, but the
ceiling is in splendid white and gold
rocco work-done in Frederick the
Greats time-and late improvements
have been made in the same style and
color. The walls are in dark olive and
gold brocade. Here the inventions are
made, pictures painted. dismissal of cahi-
nets signed and kilograms composed. 1t
will be an historic room The Empress s
pri vate rooms are also very fine. Her re-
cepbion room has more of the immense
mirrors, and the walls are panelled in
greenish-gray marble. Yet she herself is
the ordinary German Hausfrau, and is
what she has been from her girlhood-a
nonentity.
| A II these apartments have been lying
unused for many years-since the time of
Friedrich Wilhelm Ill, in fact. The
court life in public resemble that of most
other countries: the dinner is the most
noticeable difference. 1t lasts barely
| three-q uarters of an hour; courses come
and go like lightning, and, as at Napo.
Icons table, man who gives too much
time to talking may find himself extreme
| ly hungry when it is over. One of the
great entertainments is the time -honoretl
| ball at the end of the Carnival, where az
many as twelve hundred guests have been
dance, and the minuet was lately intro
duced. The Emperor and Empress just
| join in one quadrille, but the bail Is for
them more of big reception; they make
their rounds of the guests in the white
Hail. before dancing begins. -Westmin-
ster Gazette.