The record-union., 1898-04-12
THE GERMAN EMPEROR.
A Side of His Personality Not Gem
orally Known

we nave IeCcHlIy u6dTQ dDOut
the German Emperor, but the informa-
ton we have acquired is monotonous.
His majesty has a side to his character
which has not been presented. Granted
that his speeches are not in the best
taste, sounding perhaps to English ears
trifie profane, and that the rhodo-
montade about the mailed fist was silly
and premature, we ought to remember
that they were addressed to Germany,
and that, for all we with our insular
prejudice know, they may have suited
their audience. Now, although our
press follows the public movements of
Emperor William almost, if not quite,
as closely as it does the movements
of our own royal family and public
men, the information it vouchsafes
about his private movements, his taste
and his encourage is meager in the eX-
treme. What is the result? The Eng
lish public, the most newspaper-read-
ing public in the world, except the
American form their ideas of one of
the most prominent figures of the day
entirely from one side of his charac-
ter, and that the least attractive side.
If the principal English journals had
been able to send correspondents to
Kiel last summer about the time of the
Queens Jubilee, and these correspond
ents had faithfully transmitted all
that they saw and heard, they would
have done much to clear away miscon-
ceptions concerning the Emperors feel
ing toward the English
The Kiel regatta, which has now
been instituted for some years, comes
off w fONK a,6 tlA of Inn
and last year his majesty, with the
twofold object of giving a flip to the
regatta-it is a great scheme of his
to make it approximate in some de-
gree to our Cowes week-and of doing
honor to our Queens Jubilee, announc-
ed his intention of giving a prize to
be competed for by English yachts on
ly, the course to be from Dover to Hell
igoland. From the moment the first
English yacht hove in sight the Emper-
or was on the alert to show the compet-
itorS and their friends every politeness
in his power 1t is no easy matter to
make fifteen or twenty Englishmen-
most of whom know not a single Ger
man present, and the majority of whom
had never seen each other before-feel
at home in a strange land; but the Ger
man Emperor did it, and that quick
ly. He gave no one any time to adopt
the usual "noli me tangere" attitude
which is so easy to assume and so
hard to shake off That attitude would
be absurd in the presence of Emperor
William when he has thrown off his
official encourage and is enjoying a
well-earned rest on his own yacht. He
is so alive his laugh is even catching;
and the small jokes thrown in from
time to time all combine to make the
ordinary mortal abandon whatever re-
serve he has come prepared with.
His majesty, knowing that the COM
petitOrs had either missed altogether or
curtailed to a great extent their par
ticipation in the jubilee celebrations in
England, most kindly gave a large
State dinner party on his yacht, the
Hohenzolern, in honor of her majesty's
jubilee, to which he invited all the Eng
lishmen who had sailed over the course
for his cup. Next day there We're races
in the Baltic, for which his majesty
had entered his own yacht, with spec
ial prizes, as they were all cruisers, and
could not compete with the modern rae
ing yachts. In the evening his majesty
!
drinking, which was held at restaur-
ant at a village on the Baltic, where
all the Englishmen were again made
welcome, and special attention was
shown them. Not only were all the en-
tertainment arrangements carried out
in the most elaborate and successful
manner, but also all details about tugs
to tow the yachts, moorings and such
|
a yachtsman We're thought out before
hand, down to the slightest particulars;
and these arrangements, I believe, all
emanated from the German Emperor
himself.
/ have given this very slight sketch
of the German Emperor's reception Of
contingent of English yachtsmen at
Kiel merely in order to point out that
there is a side to his majesty's charac-
ter of which we at home hear and see
too little We have got rather into the
habit of thinking that the Emperor is
always either sending kilograms on
| matters which do not concern him.
on purpose to rouse up friendly nations.
or else dispatching ironelads. with no
definite object, amidst a shower of
winged words of questionable taste. We
do not realize the intense vitality of
the Emperor, his eagerness to be up
and doing, participating in some way
in every event of Importance Nobody
complained when his majesty tele-
graphed to the oxford crew on their
winning the boat race, yet surely Cam
bridge might have felt aggrieved had
/ they not realized that it was the ex-
uberant delight of a good sportsman
over a good crew winning a good race.
| SO long as we only have an opportun-
| ity of judging the German Emperor
from his action and his speeches as re-
! ported in our newspapers, so long, I am
afraid, will he remain more or less un-
popular in this country. His actions
and his words are there, and they do
not please US; but the man is not there
to impress himself upon US The vital
| ity which prompts his actions and the
love of excitement which is response
bic for those speeches. are hidden
from US; we are distrustful. we don't
exactly know what of, but we are dis
| trustful; so we shake our insular heads
and say, "We do not like the German
Emperor" We should, perhaps. be less
far wrong if we rushed to the opposite
extreme.-Lord Osborne. in Saturday
Review.
Mr.. Gladstone's price for review is
| 81 600
ILLn1A7>97 Do e S