New-York tribune., 1904-09-23
IN THE GERMAN EMPIRE.
AuspiciOus Outlook for Union of
Cro5Cn Prince and Duchess Cecilia.
Berlin, September s.


/ the imperial German throne. aad Duchess Ce-
ella of Mecklenburg- -Schwerin has been re-
ceived with satisfaction throughout Germany.
They will be a very young couple The we'd
ding is to take place next winter. and the bride
will then be only eighteen and the bridegroom
Twenty-Five He looks still decidedly boyish'
with his sparsely sprouting mustache, his
smooth round checks and his frank, ingenious
expression, while she has positively childish
appearance. and it IS said in schwerin that
few months ago she still took decided interest
/ in dolls.
But early marriages have ever been Hohen-
zollern characteristic, and 1t is prooapiy III no
small measure due to this that (with but one
single and short lived exception, that Of Fred
! erick William IL 17sG-'97) the Prussan court
has an along been morally the cleanest in Eu-
! rope even during the long reigns OF Louis NV
! and Louis XIV Of France when everywhere the
! dissoIute lives of these monarchs were saaihe-
/ lessly initiated at the duodecimO capitals OF the
/ petty German sOvereiGns.
Speal1ine only Of the three last generations II
will be found that the unions Of William ana
Augusta IA daughter of the high minded patron
of Goethe. Schiller Herder and Wlelahu, tne
Grand Duke OF Saxe-Weimar)' OF FreuerlcA ~
and Victoria once Princess Royal OF EnsiaAu'
and of William II and Augusta victoria, nee
Princess of schles wig -Holstein, have all been'
IN a sense model ones And all three were con-
cIuded at an early age. Only the one between
Frederick and Queen Victorias eldest daushler'
however was. properly speaking "Ve
match" the other two having been dictated
more or less pronouncedly by state ana uynaS''0
reasons. The pathetic love story OF old kaiser
William-his strong passion for the u''
gentle and highly accomplished Poiisn princess
Elisabeth Radziwill. and his remuneration IN
~ FoF
WuIiau III-wil be remembered 1t IS said
that the Empress Augusta. though she led
calm and p'acidIy happy married life at WIZ
,ar,,s side for sixty years, never IN her heaFt
really forgave her husband for his early IN
fa+ua+ion That was womanlike. and II WeS
Tnanlike for him to always be more conciia'ory
and induIgent to her on that account
His sons union with Princess Victoria was
the only real love match Of the three All
the more tragic is the fact that the people Oh
Prussia--in fact, the whole German naSoh-
never really approved of this marriaSe IL was
the only one which. within historic times,
f,,tpra ruler of Prussia concluded with for
eigner and. It is safe to say. the example viii
not readily be initiated. The Crown Princess
Frederick" Cas she was called by far the larger
part o. her life) was never popular IN the coun-
try OF her adoption. Her fate in this respect
curiously resembles that OF her father. Prince
Albert. in England Later English historians
and biogra pliers have done tardy justice 10 the
Prince Consort but in his lifetime he was. IL is
not too much 10 say, intensely unpopular, and
even involved the Queen in his unpopularity;
and IN both cases the reason was the same: the
English people never could forgive Prince Al
bert being a German and showing In his char
acter and manner many OF the German-there-
fore un-English-traits, and his daughter was
4or English The Grown
Princess" was. despite her half German blood.
typically British. with all that that implies.
both good and bad. and that was the sum Of her
SHINING No authoritative life Of her has yet
been written. but when IL VIII be the Ger
man people viii probably experience the same
sense Of half-shame that has meanwhile over
taken their British cousins because Of their un-
Just and ungenerous treatment OF the Prince
-Consort-
For there much more 20 the Grown
Princess Frederick than she has thus far pop
ularly had credit for. It IS true. she felt her
self an Englishwoman through life and in many
ways she was unreasonably prejudlced. She
could never see that German customs the Ger
man type OF civiliza ton German political evo-
luton, etc. had their raison d'etre as much as
have British ones. and that It would not do to
SIMPLY transplant the latter. Although a
hrainy and liberal minded woman. she could not
be made to see. or at least acknowledge. this |
But Notwithstanding this grave shortconing
for shortconing II was. from the German ma |
tional point of view-she did a world Of good |
in Germany. Just to mention az random few |
Of these: She was the handspring for what |
now has turned out a healthy and promising /
revival OF German applied art and artistic /
craftsmanship What Kensington has done for |
England. the Gewerbe Museum In Berlin. her |
creation, has done for Germany She efgact- |
ually counteracted the overwhelming reaction |
ism in Prussia in the COS. and again in the 7O's
throughout the empire, and curbed Bisrnarclx's |
illiberal tendencies in internal politics II lib-
eralism has at all survived that period n ia /
mainly due 70 her.
So far as human eye can see, the union he
tween the young Crown Prince and the Duchess
Cecilia will be advantageous TO nation and |
dynasty, and It is, primarily considered for
these dual reasons that the match is here an |
plauded. Probably these two young peopla ,ytn |
feel the marital yoke lightly, and perhans tbe |
bride will make good a wife and mother as |
the present Empress. Hereafter the Crown |
Prince VIII be known as William like his father
and he has. indeed. good deal Of 'the old man,
in his makeup. mental and physical He is i'm
pressionable, impulsve and fond Of the other
sex. clever woman with these cards could
establish her influence firmly; and though as
yet a child. Cecilia is clever clever Ike her |
mother once the Grand Duchess Anastasia Of
Russia She IS sprghtly vlvacious a bright
conversationalist. talented musician Cboth vo |
cal and instrumentaD, an accomplished In
guist She has. besides that greatest .-ift for |
a wOnlan-charm, and bewitches everv ono wifi |
whom she comes in contact Even as a small |
girl she was quite irresistible Besides al |
though she Is not precisely a heautv (tho,,, |