The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-07-14
KOCH DER KAISER.

1t was said of Napoleon that such
medley of contradictions and at the same
time such an individual consistency were
never united in the same character. This
may have been true during Napoleons
time, but it is exclusively true of Ma
poIeon no longer. Emperor William II.
of Germany is fully as interesting from
that viewpoint as was Napoleon.
William is a great man; he is great
ruler. He is every inch an emperor. For
all these things the world aduoires him.
1t admires him also for his capacity fcr
work, for his Spartan discipline applied
not only to his subjects, but to his fam
lily and to himself. 1t ad2nires him for
his manysldedness. Yet with ali this ad-
miration the world smiles at his mock
heroics, his pue~ile vanity, his turkey
cock struttings
He is a statesman, scholar, an artist.
a poet and a dramatist. Also he is a
soldier, a sailor a musician and a man
of affairs. Added to this he is a bufToon
whenever he comes to speak of himself
or of his destiny. William Is strenuous
with his mouth. We all remember the
mailed fist and the kill and spare
not" yet We think, had the martial en-
peror been talking to a few soldiers
and not in the hearing of the en-
tire world he would have been quite SEN
sible. 1t is the inordinate desire to oc-
ha
German emperor to strut and utter such
impossible things. He is one of those
players who will so outside the score. and
interject irrelevant matter to keep the
ear of the audience
The humorist who wrote 'TIoch der
Kaiser" with the refrain, ''Meinself und
Colt" the reciting of which by Opt.
Coghlan at that New York dinner, came
very near causing international diplo-
matte complications, illustrated as with
cartoon the salient point of the en-
perors public character. "Hoch der
Kaiser was humorous because it was so
nearly true. That was why the admirers
of the emperor did not like the perform
ance of Capt. Coghlan. 1t may have been
an indiscreet thing for the captain to do,
but the whole nation forgave him, the
speech with the recitation was so pat.
A few days ago the emperor addressed
his son on his duties upon entering the
Prussian guards. It was an important
day for the lad and well did his sire i'm
press the Importance upon him.
you are responsible only to your God
and your father" said the German en-
peror. This is pretty rank Only to God
and the emperor. 1t is wonder that
William did not place himself first in this
duo, Possibly he had read 'Hoch Ger
Kaiser" in the original, or mayhap it
has been translated into German, printed
on vellum and presented to him Maybe
he had read this in connection with the
Ccughlan episode and learned discretion
of experience.
Aside from its personal aspect-its
nauseating egotism-it stil1es us over
here that the young son of the German
emperor is responsible to God and society
in which he lives and of which he forms
part. Should the young scion of the
Hohenzollerns chance to get beyond the
borders of his fatherland, and there
chance to overstep the laws he would find
that third party was added to the two
to whom he is responsible 1t would be
God, his father and the foreign law,
these three and the greatest of these 50
far as the boy would be concerned is the
law
After all we like this pyrotechnic ruler
of the Rhine.