The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-03-02

these little rsunions arc held, they must
represent the simplest and happiest mo-
msnts which this TREMENDOUS worker allows
himself.
1t 10 at dinner and supper that the varied
play Of q many-sded mind scintillates
from every facet. Tho Emperor 10 dis
tinguished among Germans by his quick
meas Of repartee. but his conversations
powers are In every sense striking. Out Of
the fulness Of his thought and knowledge
he discourses with u~nhesitating and vivid
fuency. But In the desire Of his endlessly
receptive and assimilative mind for fresh
Information he questions like Napoleon.
Human he is, In the old phrase, and nothing
human can be foreign TO him.
When the cigars and Munich beer are
handed round, or when he takes an excep-
tlonally interesting visitor aside. he reveals
the life Of his Imagination without restraint,
never failing to learn something new from
any one who has a genuine idea OF fresh
fact to impart, but always exchanging full
value from his own mental fund. No cold
translation OF the mere ext Of the Emperor's
speeches can do justice to the warm and
magnetic influence Of his oratory. IL was a
French critic who once described its Cicer-
oman -sonorousness and flow Of diction, the
strong music Of the voice and the thrill Of
the cadences. All these things run through
the kaiser's conversation, and no one who
has once listened to 1t forgets the expert
ence.
As in the case Of Napoleon. Emperor
William fills and refreshes his mind by in
terrogating the living encyclopedias which
ha ~ an around hip, Not ho0ka
but men, are his works Of reference
When he wants to learn anything no sends
for the expert who knows, and in trenchant
cross-examination he goes rapidly to the
root Of the matter. He has the excep-
tional memory which enables him to make
the best use OF this method, for he rarely
forgets a fact and never a face. 1t will be
easily gathered that for general reading
the German Emperor has next to no leisure.
He glances through the newspaper cuttings
prepared for him. He keeps abreast with
the latest and best in military and naval
literature.
When he picks up a novel he prefers
some historical romance, and long ago
In a talk which fascinated the veteran NJ.
Jules Simon, he denounced lola for all the
squalid, dull, base atmosphere Of that wri-
ter's pages as vigorously as he condemned
the other day the dismal school of painting.
When the long day is over the electric
lamps upon the Kaiser's writing table burn
far into the night. He reads often by a
shaded light till slumber comes, and II no
wakes with a valuable thought 1t is fixed
there and then, for paper and pencil are
always at his bedside. What may still lie
before him upon his forty-third birthday
is written in the book Of the future, that VOL
ume which Is also sealed with seven SEALS
as Goethe declared the real spirit Of the
historic past to be. But in any event, the
place of this gifted and indefatigable per-
sonality already stands out with the incom-
parable figures in all the marvellous line
Of German Sovereigns-with Barbarossa,
the mighty. generous, and wise; with Fred
erick H., that Teutonic Sicilian, subtle,
splendid. enigmatioal. and with that later
Frederick. called the Great as Carlyle
says. who was no more the stay Of his nation
In the pitch Of crisis than his ~reigning de-
scendant would be in equal emergency.
For of thist there Is no doubt-that if in the
time of Kaiser Wilhelm the hour OF Germany
should strike, it will at least find the man.