The Washington times., 1902-10-10
COURTS AND CAPITALS
OF THE OLD WORLD.


Emperor William. before the depar-
ture from Berlin of the American gen.
erals and officers who had been his
guests during the maneuvers OF his
army. presented to each of them hand
gsrd. He offered them decorations and
intimated his desire to confer the Grand
| Cross of the Order of the Crown upon
General Corbin. and the first class OF
the same order upon Generals Young and
Wood. but was informed by the officers
In question that inasmuch as they were
In Federal service they would be un-
able to accept or wear any such deco
rations.
So the Kaiser contented himself with
presenting them with souvenirs instead.
General Corbin receiving bust Of the
Emperor. General Young and General
Wood large portraits of their imperial
host In jeweled frames, while the other
officers received gold cigarette cases
with the imperial cipher in gems.
Field Marshal Lord Roberts, the COM
mander-in chief Of the English army,
who was also present at the maneuvers,
being already decorated with the Order
of the Black Eagle, the highest distinc-
tion Of that kind in Prussia, received
statuette of the Emperor, while Mr..
Brodrick, the secretary of state for war.
and Gen. Sir John French, who achieved
such fame as cavalry leader in South
Africa, received the Grand Cross of the
Order Of the Red Eagle, Gen. Sir Ian
Hamilton being decorated with the first
class Of the Order of the Crown.
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the Canadian
premier, has given great offense In
government circles at Rome by his def
erence to that strict rule made by the
Vatican to receive no Roman Catholic
parsonage who had held any intercourse
with the Kings officials. Although it
was reported in all the italian papers
that the object of Sir Wilfrid's visit to
Rome was for the purpose of confer
ring with the Italian minister OF foreign
alters on the question of Italian emf
grafton to Canada and of discussing the
tariff, with the object of increasing
Canadian exports to Italy, and although
the minister awaited Sir Wilfrid, the
latter never went near him, and, in
deed. the only notice that Signor Pri-
netti and the Italian government received
that Sir Wilfrid had been in Rome at all
was an announcement in the official or
gans of the Vatican to the effect that Sir
Wilfrid and Lady Laurier had been re.
ceived by the Pope and by Cardinal
Rampolla, the papal secretary of state.
1t seems that the Italian government
made Representations about the mat
ter to the English embassy and was in
formed by the latter that it had been
In Ignorance of Sir Wilfrid's stay in
Rome, and that he had never gone near
the embassy. AS some 4s per cent of
the population Of Canada are members
of the Church Of Rome, Sir Wilfrids |
action in pleasing the Vatican by point |
edly ignoring the Italian government |
was perhaps good policy from a Cana
dian point of view. But understand |
that it has created some annoyance in
England. where just at present the gov
ernment is particularly anxious to re-
main on friendly terms with Italy.
Count Robert de Montesquien. who,
according to the cable dispatches from
Paris, is about to sail for the United
States with the object Of delivering a
series of lectures here, is In some re-
spects-at any rate, in an esthetic
sense-the Gallo counterpart of Oscar
Wilde. He is the apostle OF the es-
thetic cult in France, and distinguished,
like Wilde, by much paradoxicaI ex-
He Is not fat, as was his
English prototype. but very thin, aris-
tocratic and distinguished looking as
may be gathered from his portrait
painted by the celebrated Anglo -Ameri-
can artist. Jimmie Whistler Until
about three or four years ago he in
dulged in the luxury of enjoying an ar
tistic reputation without ever having
done anything to deserve it except by
calling public attention to his eccen-
tricities. Thus he had a series of
rooms, each one draped in a different
tone, in one of which he read only
French, in another only German and in
another only Latin. He is known to
have gilded the back of tortoise and
then to have inlaid it with jewels, so
that 1t might crawl over the carpet in
rabesques of living color. He in
vented an orchestra Of perfume, and an
orchestra of iiqueurs. on which he
could play the most subtle harmonies
on the senses.
Three years ago the count brought out
his first volume of poems in huge
book OF 500 pages. and Immediately be-
gan to solicit press notices. to button
hole critics. to pay actresses to recite
lis poems. and to give receptions at his
pavilion" at Versailles. where his lu-
,ubrations were recited among es-
hetic surroundings. {
The book may be described as night ]
mare in print. Probably nothing more
,almly crazy has ever been written. For
{ has all the disorder without any of
he delirium of madness. The poss!bili- &
les Of verse for the expression OF fluent. ,
and interminable nonsense l
,aye never been more cogently demon