The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-31
WITHOUT LESE MAJESTE,
or THE ART OF INSULTING PRINCES
WITH IMPUNIIT.

court. answering tho familiar charge OF in.
sultinE a Prince.
You arc tho responsible editor OF the Tolks.
esitunD % asked the presiding Judge.
81 am"
And as such you are named in every issue of
che PoksseitunD,l"
81 am"
Did you write tho article which gave rise to
Nhis actioni'
81 did not"
"What class OF articles do You writeI"
II do not writo any articles"
"What, then, are your duticsf"
81 sweep the office and receive the cards OF
persons who wish to see tho editors
what elsei"
them going
as that allf'
mo. I dust the desks and see that each gentle
man has his paper and ink ready for work, and
scour tho windows and sometimes help dis.
tribute tho papers"
Anything elsel"
why your Honor. what do you expect for
60 marks 1851 q month";
The koctnischc Zcitung. which reported the
trial, cut short at this point its account of the
examination of tho Voiks.citung's responsible
editor. and fell to moralizing on the deccp.
tions and tricks which laws regarding insult of
majesty, otherwise known as mdjcstuetsbclic.
digung. or lesc majestic, had forced upon tho
German press. or course, the editor on trial
was no editor at all, except in name. lie re.
ceived his $15 n month merely as ~janitor.
Though he was announced, to satisfy the law,
in every issue Of tho Tolks=citung, as the re-
sponsible editor. he never had pcnned a line for
its columns. For this very reason he had been
selected to bear the legal responsibility for tho
men who wrote the newspaper. If arrested.
tried, and imprisoned, he never would be
missed. The TotkS=ctung would take on an
other janitor from its waiting list, for even in
over.educatcd Germany janitors are much
more abundant than editors.
Such is the institution of the Jail editor in
Germany. 1t is calculated solely TO thwart
by a trick the oppressive provisions of the press
law and to fortify the newspaper business
against the periodical onslaughts OF crown
prosecutors. Without it only the dycd.in-thc.
wool monarchist would be able to publish con.
tinuously n daily newspaper. for the law is I'M
bending, the crown lawyers arc fanatically
jealous, and tho complaints from Berlin tiutter
down like the leaves of autumn.
But the fiction OF the responsible editor is
only one of several means by which tho law for
the protection of royal regulations is thwarted.
1t belongs to the daily and weekly press. The
pamphletecrs. who appeal to a class of higher
average intelligence, have a better trick. 1t
Is that of the historical parallel. The most
celebrated example of this style of literature in
recent times is "Caligula, written by the south
German" Prof. Quidde. 'Caligula' was
aimed directly at the throne. 1t was intended
TO tell the German people that their Emperor
was Of the type Of the old Roman monster, that
his mind was OF the same calibrc and his i'm.
pulses of the same nature, that he was passing
through the same course OF development and
that he promised to bring up in the same sink
Of iniquity, cruelty and madness. The early
promise that Caligrla gave ot.bettcrthings the
dismissal of tried statesmen, the growing love
OF display that distinguished his reign and his
waxing eccentricity and final madness were de.
picted by Quidde with a painstaking use OF
modern political phrases and current German
idions. Where Roman history threatened to
mar the parallel between the monstrous Caesar
and the reigning Hohepzollcrn, Quidde bent it
forcibly into line. So. without once mention
ing an event Of the last thousand years and
without once limiting at nineteenth century
man, he accused William H. OF about every
enormity that a human being can conceive.
Quidde's position was absolutely impregnable,
although his onslaught on the throne was as
vicious and direct as it could be made, and his
pamphlet was sold up to the twentieth edition.
There was not n sentence on which a crown
prosecutor could hang n complaint. The whole
Empire rang with the scandal OF the insult,
AMI dire wrath reigncd supreme in Bcrlin's
Did castle and Potsdam's new palace, yet Quidde
was ms safe from the clutches OF the law as if
he had been in Timbuctoo or Chicago. Ca
ligula" was a delicate and poisonous piece of
work. 1t has probably only one superior in the
literary products OF the lese majestic paragraph.
and that one is in another class.
In general that other class is lower in tone
than the Quidde pamphlet. 1t includes rcvela-
tions of royal scandals, notably youthful mis-
deeds in money and love. The scenes of these
scandals are laid in the present usually, but the
names OF the actors are omitted or given only in
distorted form. Most OF the books, pamphlets,
and daily newspaper articles regarding the
Kotze scandal belonged in this class. For in
stance, in 1.-THE Secret of the Master of Ccrcmo-
mics" Zurich. 1896. in which Emperor Will
liam is brought to book for some of his love
affairs under the name of King Victor, Baron
kotze is mentioned as Baron Speiers, Countess
Hohenau appears as Countess Hohenhorst, and
the chief of the Political Police, Major Won
Psusch, who then was in difficulties and there
fore a safe subject, WAS disguised but thinly
as Herr Won Rausch. All this may seem rather
clumsy. but 1t was in this class OF trickcry,
nevertheless, that the lese majestic paragraph
and other provisions of its kind have been
cheated most cleverly in recent times.
One instance is worth telling in some detail,
not only because of the light it throws on the
straits OF German newspapers. but also because
VI ~ ~ VI III Emperor 3 DfOlllpr-
in'law, Duke Ernst Gunther OF SchIcswig-
H~olstein, This famboyant gentleman has been
The subject OF much Anonymous and semi.
anonymous literature, for when not engaged
in some abandoned spree, he has been SET uu by
the Emperor under the halo Of divine right 10
lecture the nobulty on its duties To munklnd.
AZ "A nrst'class capacity at the VINE that is
rcl.at the table thaL IS green, and at the chastity
that Is stained, Ernst Glnther has been a sight
Tor Kings and noblencn during his periodical APP
pehrances in The role OF moral prcccptor. in
TACT, his lectures on moderation ana duty have
Deeh resented by the nobility, ana not IA Few OF
Inc newspaper attacks Oh him have been III
tpired by, The Counts and Barons whom he
mas ,ofeiided, Thus i came That when the
royal -hke's hetroIAal to the young Princess
Dorotl:ca OF Coburg. Cohary was announced
early iast summer, The masked batteries were
opened OH him.
Inc most cunning and at the same time most
DARING attack caiuc from Il Berlin journal, ne
pdt am -hontdg ilhe Word on Monday whose
maine. In view OF tho provcrbinl blIencs5 OF
monday, may be intended TO CXplaln It's period.
heal publication OF very blue stories. 1hu
writer TOOK oslensibly as his subject u man Who
WAS prosecuted by the political police, told MS
story III All easy, careless manner, ana brought