The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-06-30
THE KAISER AND HIS WIFE


before the astonished eyes of the foreign
attaches.
| But the kaiser is no toy soldier 1t is
true he revels in military peacocking, In
| the spectacular and elaborated scenes
that minister to his vanity, in the cere-
monies that furnish him with themes for
martial eloquence But his interest in the
army is far from being confined to the
rhetoric and drama to be extracted from
lit. His house made the Prussian army,
and the Prussian army made his house;
and If he claims much from it, he never
forgets that he owes much to it.
No professional soldier ever showed
himself more earnest in his duties, moro
jealous for the tone of his regiment, or
a stricter disciplinarian than has the
kaiser, from the first days of his lieu
tenancy He studied strategy at the feet
of Moltke, and tactics on the field itself;
he carried his researches far enough into
military history to feel warranted in leo
turing on Roman tactics; he made him.
self a dashing cavalry officer; nothing
has been too large and nothing too small
schemes remodelng the whole organiza-
ton of the army, and has severely
trounced the Reichstag for rejecting them
and he has equally concerned himself
not by deputy, but in person-with the
thousand and one details of armament
and equipment-with smokeless powder
and quick-firing guns, with bayonets ana
hoII r,ft !, wi
uniforms and spurs. Even now, at the
annual maneuvers, he will often sit for
fifteen hours in the saddle noting, ques-
tioning, criticizing, free with curt words
of praise or blame 1t is indeed one of
the characteristics of the kaiser that
though a man of large vision and ora
torieal and emotional temperament, he
finds an inexhaustible pleasure in the
mnutiae Of whatever subject he takes
up.
| | do not say that all of his military re-
forms have been judicious, or that az .
commander in the field, while alert and
full or daring and resource, he would not
also be capable of prodigious plumbers, Or
THAT his overfondness for pageantry and
massed effects has not hindered technical
progress. But I do say that he has
fought favoritism and weeded out incom-
petents and set his face against extra
VACANT living with merciless ardor; and
that he has done as much as any Of his
predecessors to bind up the army to his
throne and person with the strong links
|of reciprocal interest and devotion.
Every soldier is made to feel that the
imperial eye is upon him; that his SOW
ereign is the fount of honors, orders,
decorations and promotions; and that.
through his secret Military Cabinet"
there is little about the personal and
professional life of each officer, and the
spirit and efficiency of each regiment.
that the kaiser does not know. Evoyy
soldier knows, too, that William II, q
not only his king. but his active con-
mander-in-chief, imbued to the full with
the military caste spirit, jealous to up
hold the social and official superiority Of
the uniformed over the un-uniformed,
sharing all the prejudices of his Officers
(there prejudice, for instance. in favor
Of the duel, and against the admission
LOT Jews into the corpse and continually
by word and deed, procaiming the in
feriority of all civilians and the special
and irrefragable ties that knit the army
Ito the fortunes of his house.