The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-07-31
TWENTY PAGES.
SUNDAY. JULY 81. 1898.
OTTO Won BISMARCK.

April. in the year 1916. witnessed the
birth of Otto Edward Won Bismarck.
June in h year brought to Napoleon
/. defeat on the field Of Waterloo. Mo-
vember In the same year finished the
work Of the Vienna ongress which, I'M
der the guidance of Prince Metternich,
lately arrived TO power as Austria's
prime minister, dictated terms TO
France and spoke peace 10 Europe.
Through the lives of these three men
runs the thread which, starting with
Prussia's baneful experiences in the
century's first decade. guides those
who trace It up to the s~plendors of the
empire on which yesterday the man
who laid its wide foundations closed
his eyes forever.
III Jared the land OF Bismarck's birth
during the years OF French a~scendency;
but tbs his mind was bent on grsnder
conquests. Napoleon would a
crushed the kingdom. Chapter after
chapter. the history of Prussia for the
period is the story of disaster-the in
vader's decisive triumph at Jena; the
realm under the heel of a naughty en-
envy French officers stalking through
royal residences at Berlin: the
shame OF foreign occupations; the
burden of impoverishing tribute;
harsh terms of peace at Tilsit;
provinces lost and boundaries
49, -.... a.. --Lg-. -,
tyrant; an army a~nnihilated; Prussia's
queen facing the coarse C~orsican's in
eulting talk, OF seeking safety in flight.
or enduring privations that were
shared by a child. her son. who knew,
not the Significance of what was ans
piring. but who. in the fullness of time,
stood. bronzed and gray. amid the gilt
ter OF Napoleon's own palace at YER
saiiles-as II the place itself were a re-
quital-and listened there while Bis
marck proclaimed him emperor.
Napoleon had said; 1T is an EVIL
dence OF the weakness of the human
understanding for anyone TO dream of
resisting me-" Waterloo made a mock
cry of those words. Then Europe's
center of diplomacy was transferred,
but not 20 Berlin: II went TO Vienna,
and the Austrian chancellor. Prince
Metternich. who had patiently bided
his time. became the instrument in Eu-
ropes hand for the overturning OF that
which the infatuated French adven-
turer had built up. Thenceforth. till
toward the middle OF the century. Eu-
rope had It's seat Of statecraft at Wien
ma. and there Metternich was supreme.
Whether he was a clever statesman or.
during q third of a century. a titled
cad under lucky stars. depends on how
You read history and adtudge IT, The
career OF Metternich is of incidental
sccount IN a sketch OF Bismarck be-
cause he was a connecting link, be-
cause the thread that leads from EN-
pirs to empire does not run direct
from France ~northward to Prussia but
from Pars by way of Vienna to Berlin.
Craving no military conquests. loath-
ing war. Metternich's ambition was TO
languid emperor permitted 1t. Meter
Mich laid the heavy hand of imperial
power on every popular movement that
threatened TO be progressive. To his
notion a ~well-dehned round of duties
devolved on his masters subjects. but
no rights were vested in the masses.
Prussia prospered during the thirty
d years that messur Metternich's
supremscy-it moved away steadily
from the influences he sought to make
potent. Population doubled; the army
regained Its prestige; industrial life was
quickened and-what was Of highest
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. was given to an
intellectual awakening which proved to
be one of the crowning glories Of the
century.
In time. especially In North Germany,
the conviction fixed Itself In the minds
of thoughtful men that the reactionary
policy OF their rulers was not to be
borne in patience. These misgoverned
men discerned only In hazy outline at
first the civil and political rights
which they knew ought TO be theirs.
Unfortunately for them. they were not
" the lineage that could be traced back