Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-05-25
KAISER'S ODD ACTIONS'
Apprehensions Excited by Viii
liam IFS Recent Outbreaks.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES

DIOrOse For Days, Then Suddenly Gay.
Rarely Quite sober While at Bonn,
md Gossip Says His Increased LIIS-
ing For Beer and Wine Has Led to
IndIscretion.
Not a great deal has happened in
Germany during the past few weeks,
for the parliamentarianS and other per-
sons of public note have been off OH
flying trips. leaving behind them Ber-
lin dull as death itself. But the kaiser
usually manages to stir up matters, no
matter where he happeIts to be. With
one of those chameleonlike changes in
which he eXcels he suddenly stopped
talking wildly and spoke nationally,
even impressively, on topics always
popular in Germany-universities and
student life, art, science and ideals
vaunting religion as the sole panacea
for our disturbed and troublous mate
rial life. writes the Berlin special cor
respondent of the New York Evening
Post
He took his eldest son and successor
to college, presented him TO his rector
and professors and fellow students and
on three successive nights presided at
Pine 'kneiperi," at the ''commers,"
fiourished the glittering ''schlager."
commanded the rubbing" of any num-
Der of '-salamanders," gave out patri-
otto or love songs to accompany the
deep rotations from the 'commers-
buch" and initiated his young son of 10
into the picturesque but rough and
hard guzzling life of a German student
n flx- ohaPl- from homo
The applause with which these actions
of the kaiser were greeted throughout
Germany was by no means universal
1t is a mistake TO believe that the
"Bruder studio" of the Fliegende Blat-
ter is still in the majority at German
universities-him, 1 mean. of the long
pipe with the tassels. with the fero-
cious ''renommirhund." the perennial
"katzenjammer" and the unquencha-
BILE thirst for beer.
True, there are still enough and to
spare of this old fashioned kind of Ger
man university men, and the corps
into which the young and serious mind
ed crown prince has just, like his IA
Their before him. found admission as
n Fuchs is. of all the student asso-
Citations. one OF the purest remnants of
the past. IL is Il "hOchfeudales" corps,
where n monthly paternal check OF at
least one or two thousands must be
pledged to the presiding officers before
the idea of admission can be at all EN-
tertained, where the noble art OF bar
en- anbinden" still fiourishes, where the
venerable amusement of beating the
night Waterman Is still practiced and
where the scientific treatment of gap
ing 'schIager' cuts so as to leave
lifelong scar still survives, where ev-
erything about the corps life Is so ar
ranged, from the "Fruhschoppen" IN
til the "Spatschoppen," that little time
is left to the member for studying or
hearing lectures. And this noble Corps
Borussia in Bonn the kaiser picked out
for his son. His action is by no means
approved by everybody in Berlin. but
the exclusive character of the organ
ization, whose members nearly all be-
long to the oldest and wealthiest Prus-
sian nobility and furnish the men who
later become Prussian ministers, par
Iiamentary leaders, generals. etc, de-
termfned the kaiser in his choice.
He had before made a number of ar
rangements to protect his boy on step
ping first into the world from the level
ing tendencies of the age and to inocu-
late him with that brand of principles
which finds imperial approval. The
most notorious of these steps was per-
haps the enforced transfer Of Professor
Zorn from Konigsberg university to
Bonn. Not that the transfer was
unpleasant to Zorn. who intrigued
to bring it about. Zorn is that pro-
lessor of national economy and inter
national law who some years ago dis
tinguished himself by taking openly
and fiercely the kaiser's side in that
quarrel with the prince regent of Lip
pe-Detmold and was appointed by the
kaiser as one OF his main representa-
tiyes at The Hague conference, where
he took the extreme side, poohpoohing
all ideas of international peace. He
has since published n series OF essays
attempting to justify his course at The
Hague. The great majority OF German
scientists do not regard him as shin
ing light, but as n man full or selfish
ambition and intrigue. Against Gus
tom and the rights which Prussia
grants to the governing body OF each
university. the kaiser, without consult
ing the faculty, transferred Zorn to
Bonn. where he is to inoculate the
crown prince with the kaiser's own
views regarding constitutions" "reso-
lutions," street fights" rights OF the
crown" etc This is bad. because with
this and few similar teachers and the
influence of his ''hochfeudales" corps
the young crown prince. who up to the
present has shown himself a youth OF
great promise. in character not unlike
his mother. OF a singularly modest. self
possessed and calmly reasoning mind
and of totally unaffected bearing. Is
almost sure to be Influenced greatly for
the worse during his brief university
term. And that would indeed be
nitv. not only for his own sake. but
for GermaDy's.
AS for the kaiser himself. some facts