Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-09-23
PITIABLE IS THE LOT OF
GERMANY'S IMPERIAL BABY

not he trained hapha card, dependent upon a
mothers love and care. but his education Is
state and public affair, to be regulated ac
cording to the traditions of Prussian bu-
reaucracy. Poor little princel
The most tragic feature of it all Is the
ortificial element which is impaired into
the princes life. The method of his up
bringing, although theoretically perfect and
logically exact. will be unnatural and there
fore unhealthy In his childhood he cannot
pick and choose playmates of his own age
and CT his own taste. The heir to the Ger
man throne cannot play with many children
without perpetrating act derogatory to
his inn erial dignity. Playmates of suitable
position aid sufficiently good birth will be
chosen for him on precise, scientific lines
based on genealogical researches, and he
n asst accept them companions or have
ECne at all. AS he grows up this process Of
keeping apart from the common type of nu-
manity will be pursued with unrclentirg
severity. When he becomes student at
Bonn University. in accordance WITH the
traditional custom Of his imperial family.
he must limit his intercourse to those stu
Cer-ts who are fit and proper comrades for
his eAalted and august person.
This process OF severance from the world
Is a fatal policy. because 1t renders the
prince absolutely Incapable of properly dis
charging his monarchical duties. The ruler
of strenuous. modern. pushing country Of
intelligent. wide-awake people like Germany
ought to be pre-eminently man thorough
/ ly familiar with all sorts and conditions of
men. He ought to be versed in the COM
mon. everyday affairs Of life and to have
insight into all branches of practical bust
ness. How Is 1t possible for a prince
brought UP as this latest little Hohenzollern
is to be brought up to acquire that wide
knowledge of men and affairs which is so
essential to his success in his imperial posi-
ton? Instead of preparing him for his oner
Gus duties this system Of training cuts him
off from humanity and transforms him into
product of dry-as-dust professors and
cut-and-dried rules and regulations. His
mental horizon will be limited and his judg-
ment therefore extremely faulty. He might
as well live in a glass case in some mu-
scum as be educated behind the palace
walls which separate him from all the rest
of the world.
Equally tragic is the persistent way in
which the idea Will be instilled into Hohen-
zollern junior that he is a parsonage apart
from and superior to the rest of mankind.
AS babe. his nurses and domesticS ad-
dress him as your imperial highness," and
treat him with devout homage. AS he
grows older. all the grown-up men and
women in his circle bow and scrape before
him as though he were worthy of adora-
ton. His playmates will bow down before
him, and at the same time great states
men and distinguished generals and ad-
mirals will kiss his hand
~
The prince cannot possibly avoid being
spoiled by this process of adulation. When
he goes out riding driving motoring
the people in the street will doff their hats
to him. and if possible pursue him in order
to get passing glimpse of his face. At
the theater hundreds of opera glasses will
be pointed at him continuously. that he
will be made to feel that he is the center
of much popular interest His friends will
fiatter him In order to secure profitable
posts for themselves some other reward
in the shape of political power personal
influence when he ascends the throne Of his
fathers.
He will be pampered. petted, fattered
fawned on, worshiped. adored from his
earliest childhood till manhood. Human ma
ture is not proof against such tests of char
| acter. The little Hohenzollern will grow up
in the belief that he Is little god, a sort
of earthly representative of the Almighty.
Adapted to practical affairs. this means
that he will believe in the divine right of
kings to rule absolutely over their subjects
according to their own personal whims and
wishes 1t Is strange that the present
kaiser, with all his astuteness does not
perceive that it is almost suicidal from the
monarchical point of view to train his
grandson on these lines. considering that
the infants reign will. in the natural
course of events. take place when the
world is half a century more enlightened
than at present.
When the time comes for him to marry
the greatest tragedy of his life will be en-
acted. He will not be permitted to choose
the girl of his heart. but he will be forced
to wed a woman for reasons of state His
matrimonial affairs Will be arranged for
him by statesmen and diplomats on the
same precise scientific system as his whole
career The cOnsort selected for him may
be ugly, unsympathetic. ill-natured ill-tenn-
pered, a veTitable vixen. but he must marry
her as a matter of policy He will then go
through life without the supreme happiness
of virtuous love and without those exquisite
joys of peaceful home life in the compan-
ionship OF consort chosen solely according
to the dictates of the heart Instead he
will be chained in loveless wedlock to a
woman whom he detests, but with whom
he must appear in public with a smile on
his lips and whom he must designate his
beloved and gracious queen" all for
reasons of state.