The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-05-27

er show to any one and of which he did
not like to speak; probably it was not
gentle.
In all her struggles with the autocratic
chancellor and with the malevolence of
the people she was morally sustained by
Frederick. The crown prince though
obliged for state reasons to keep on say
ing nothing, was much more liberal in his
ideas than either Bismarck or old Will
helm, and as far as possible he defended
his wife's ideas.
IT is a curious fact that it was her en-
ergy, determination and astuteneSs that
made him emperor for three months.
All the world remembers that when the
ole Emperor Wilhelm lay on his death
bed the crown prince was already af
fiicted with the virulent throat disease
which was to kill him. This was Bis
| marck's. chance Of gratifying his hate of
The English woman and preventing her
from mounting the imperial throne with
| power practically to govern the empire
in place of her sick husband. 1t was
the law in Germany that no prince can
| become king If afflicted with an incurable
! disease. The chancellor sought to have
the crown prince declared to be suffer-
ing from cancer, so that on the old en-
! perorS death the crown might fall to the
present kaiser instead of his father.
All the court physicians were Bis
marckS tools; if they could but be got
to see the sufferer and utter the word
cancer the chancellor would deprive
his enemy of her chance of grasping the
helm. But the crown princess resisted
every persuasion, every artifice. every
menace; she brought the English phYSi-
clan, Morell Mackenzie, over from Eng
land to treat her husband, and vigorously
barred every German doctor from the
| sickroom. 1t was like an Internal onaI
war, waged in the passage outside the
sick chamber, an imperial crown beng
the stake at issue. She won; Dr. Mack
rat hQ min oil
ady was not such to deprive him of
his right; and on the old Emperor's
death, the Princess Victoria became en-
press of Germany 1t must not be
thought that she had been fighting mere
ly for that title. Her deep love for her
husband was amply proved by her de-
Votlon to him all through that time of
deadly political intrigue. And she gave
incidentally at the same time proof of
her remarkable intellectual pow ers. For
curing the three months Of her husbands
reign she made a profound study of the
medical principles involved in his casa
for the sole purpose of Fastening the
recovery which never came. Sir MoreH
MackenZae afterwards wrote that the en-
press became so proficient in the matter
that doctor might have talked with
her about it for an hour at a time with
cut suspecting that she was a mere out.
slider. No wonder that King Edward
VII, when asked who was the cleyerest
woman he had known, answered without
hesitation:
MY sister, the doWager empress Of
Germany"
When after ninety-nine DAYS of ten
ure of the imperial throne Frederick
died there began the last dismal stage
OF the empress career. AS crown prin-
cess and as empress she had had trouble
unpopularity, the persistent abhorrence
OF the all-powerful iron chancellor, all
sorts OF lntrlgueS to fight against but
she mad had power and high place Now
she was to know the misery of obscurity
Few mothers have suffered more from
their children than this unhappy empress
from the kaiser l have heard a Ger
man o1l1cer relate favorite device of
Williams TO humilate his mother during
MS grandfatherS reign. The first EN-
peror Wilhelm, though not an unkind
old fellow in his way, was an autocratic
ruler of his household and even his
strong-willed daughter-in-law never
dreamed of resisting him. He would
sometimes send an order to the crown
princess by her son, young Wilhelm.
presence and, as if in his own name,
bid her to do the thing-perhaps to pre-
side at some function, perhaps to leave
BeTlm for brief visit to Potsdam.
Naturally resenting the young mans
lnsolent manners, the unhappy mother
would refuse to do as he desired. He
would let her commit herself definitely
to the refusal, often before other people
then would ask her with triumphant
sheer whether he was to bring the en-
peror word that the crown princess de-
spised the command of her sovereign.
The brutality cut the mother to tbs
quick; violent scenes constantly took
place, and the naughty woman, who
never feared to confront the stormy
rage Of the chancellor, would cry and
wiring her hands in despair over the con-
duct of her son.
Long after this masterful young man
had beco me emperor in his turn, and had
broken Bismarck, her lifelong enemy, he
still took a strange pleasure, if report
be true, In wounding and sighting his
mother in her lonely widowhood. Even
now he scarcely ever sees her; when he
does 1t is only for a formal visit of
few minutes, n concession to the OUT
ward decencies. After the death Of
her mother, Queen Victoria, he paid such
visit in company with his uncle, the
new king, and probably at his urgent
request. That formal call of coincidence
will likely be the last until he is sum-
moned to the death scene that may any
day take place.
the Main, where the most miserable of
royal ladies is fighting with DEATH The
house, though called a schloss, or castle,
is a dismal rgly building in the worst
less rooms are almost bare; there is no
sign of domestic comfort which one
would expect to find in the home Of an
English princess living in Germany, the
land OF good housewifely order. Except
iE the graver crises of her incurab1e
maldy, the empress spends most of her
time seated at a window in the big, bare
salon. gazing listlessly at the chimneys
very often found in tears, though she
does not like to have it noticed. She
reads little. but 1.-THE Imitation Of
Christ is always within reach of her
hand. Twice & week she has a visit
from her youngest daughter, the Prin-
cess of Hessee, who comes over from
Frankfort to pass the afternoon at tho
irg to q life which dawned SO brightly