The National tribune., 1908-01-02

City. which is conveniently near, will
probably become a Gretna Green. as a
two days residence there is all that is
required for license.
We read and hear a good deal about
a real English Christmas and a real
Southern Christmas but it is doubtful
If any people equal the Germans in the
possession of the genuine, pure Christ
mas spirit or get as much delight out of
the holiday season as they. From the
| Emperor GOWN to his humblest subject,
the people enter into the celebration of
the day with all the innocent enjoy
ment of little children, and gifts, gen.
orally simple, are bestowed. not from
any sense of duty or in the hope of re-
ceiving something in return, but from
the pure joy of giving. The Kaiser spent
his Christmas this year in his new pal
ace at Potsdam, where in one of its
rooms 13 Christmas trees were placed,
| two large trees in the center for the
Emperor and Empress, with five small
er ones on one side and six on the other
for the other members of the imperial
| family. The EH1peror's Christmas be-
gan the day before, when, according to
custom, he walked thru the grand park,
Sans Souci, distributing freshly-coined
marks, a mark being worth about 25
cents in our money, 10 all the poor peO-
pie he met, after which he continued
his walk to the barracks to attend the
| Christmas celebration of the so-called
Life Company" of which he was Cap
tain when Crown Prince. Every COM
pany in the German army has its Christ
mas tree. At 6 o'clock on Christmas
evening the imperial family gathered
for the stripping of their trees, and the
Emperor entered into the spirit of the
occasion, as he always does, with the
enthusiasm of boy. The imperial
| family do not receive gifts from the
official members of their household
imagine the state of mind of those gen.
T, tlemen and ladies' for weeks preceding
Christmas if they did-but very beauti-
! full and frequently costly gifts are be-
slowed upon them by the Emperor and
Empress. A favorite gift of the En-
peror to the men of his household is 4
picture of himself, richly framed and
autographed, while to the women he
often gives jewel box. Germanys
Kaiser has a very interesting personal
ity. Even his bitter enemies admit that
| his personal magnetism is very great.
His character is most contradictory, one
moment apparently filled with a colos-
sal self-conceit, proclaiming his divine
ly-appointed autocracy to the world,
and the next moment slapping an old
soldier on the back, linking arms with
a former brother officer or exchanging
jokes at an officers mess. At times he
seems to love to forget he is the great
Emperor, and becomes instead one of
the most delightful of comrades. An
other charming trait of the Kaiser is
| that he never forgets an old friend or
| fails to greet him in the kindest and
friendliest manner possible when they
meet, frequently himself pushing thru
q crowd to do so. No matter if he has
not seen the person in years, the En-
peror never forgets him. Altho very
simple in many of his tastes, no one
loves fine feathers more than the kais-
er, and it is said he has a wardrobe
worth 100000, and a dozen Wallets to
take care of it and him, sometimes
changing his dress more frequently dur
ing the day than a fashionable woman
guest at smart house party. Yet or
ldnarily he wears the plainest of clothes,
and the story goes that on one occasion,
returning from long tramp in the
suburbs of Berlin, a farmer refused to
give him a lift, he looked so shabby
and disreputable. We are told that
altho he can hardly count his splendid
palaces, furnished, of course, as BELTS
royalty, he generally sleeps on a regu-
lation camp bed, such as are used by
the junior officers in his army, in a
room fitted out with solderly severe
ness and simplicity. Just why the Eng
| lish people dislike the Kaiser so much
J is not very clear, for England has no
better friend in Germany than he. In
fact, his German subjects complain that
he is too pronounced in his British