Los Angeles herald., 1910-06-01
THE KAISER
TN the glittering array of mourners
who will follow the coffin of King

who will follow the coffin of King
n Edward through the streets of
London on Friday two figures Will
stand apart from the rest. The repre-
sentatives of Great Brltain's two great
commercial rivals, the German empire
and the North American republic, nave
qualities that mark them as men apart
i'm the modern world.
Both the kaiser and Theodore Roose-
welt are strenuous, PERSONAL emphatic,
self-assured fighters, both almost with
out humor They are oddly alike in
character. They stand in dramatic con-
trast to the king whose death they
mourn-that great, modern king who
conquered the world with smile and
buttressed the greatness of his country
with consideration for others and a
supreme appreciation of humor and
proportion.
The kaiser is one of those rulers of
men of whom it is safe to say that he
would have made a stir in the world,
no matter in what rank he had been
born. Picture him as an office boy at
TO- and it is impossible not to see him
at the head of the firm at 40.
Wilhelm II has Unsuitable ambition
and indomitable energy. a brilliant in
tellect and a wonderful memory These
The kaisers vigor, energy, hustle
call it what one willis astounding.
Physically, he is not robust; yet he
seems to be endowed with a stamina
that enables him to do in one day an
amount of work which the average
busy man would be quite satisfied to
spread over three But the mere guam
tity of his work is as nothing compared
to the variety of it,
Of EoiGpr
verbal. All Europe knows how, in his
leisure time, he paints pictures, writes
poetry. Composes music, conducts or
chestras, stage-manages plays, writes
sermons and breaches them, or trans
forms himself at a moments notice
from a genuinely hard working naval
officer to an accomplished and tireless
hunter or marksman in the imperial
forests.
But these are largely the occupations
of his lighter moments. The kaiser at
work is just as versatile, and twice as
strenuous Thorough in everything he
does. he is accurate in the minutest de-
tails He makes a point for instance,
of receiving each member of the diplo-
matte corps in a uniform belonging TO
the country which he represents. In
this way the kaiser will change his uni
form eight or ten times in the course OF
day. and the royal Wallets complain
that they are the hardest worked mon
in Germany-after the kaiser himself.
The kaiser has innumerable nick
names. The most popular is Wilhelm
der Plotzliche. 1t may be Translated
into English as william the sudden,
and 1t is undoubtedly the name which
fits him best. \ monarch who will put
a cavalry corps through complicated
maneuVers i'm the early morning, ap-
pear Unexpectedly at a civic function at
noon, and lay the foundation stone of a
new school eighty miles away before
evening is rightly looked upon by ms
subjects as one whose comings and go
ings no man can foreseo.
1t is well known that he loves best to
work in his special train while travelling
across his dominions at the rate OF
sixty miles an hour because then he
cannot be interrupted by important
people who want audiences with him.
The German emperor's correspondence
is probably larger than that of any
other monarch. Yet, unlike every other
ruler. his majesty does the work of
sorting and going through his letters
personally: and it is his boast that
there is no single Communication ad-
dressed to him through the post with
the nature of which he is not ac-
quainted.
He pays surprise visits to the various
barracks near the palace, to foreign
ambassadors, or to his own ministers
after this. The houses of all the great
government officials are connected by
telephone with the palace; and there Is
no one who can be sure that he may
not at a moments notice be visited by
or summoned to the presence of VIII
liam the Sudden.
Yet with all his haste and his sum
mary manner of dealing with all sub
iects. the kaiser is the last man in the
world who would ever be guilty of slip
shod or sloVenly work. 1t has been said
that it is impossible to surprise him
into a hasty decision His startling
kilograms, announcements, changes of
policy, which the world has chosen to
consider evidences of ill-regulated i'm
pulse, are nearly always the outcome of
deliberation.
His surprises are theatrical, designed
to astonish and to impress He believes
as firmly as Cromwell believed in the
rule of the strong man. He believes as
sincerely as Charles | believed in the
divine appointment Of kings to their
high place. But he realizes that in
these days the people must be placated,
and that the power of the emperor de-
mands the backing of popular approval.
He has, accordingly, nowadays frank
ly accepted the position of constitu-
tional monarchy. 1t must be remem-
bered that the kaiser is, above all
things, a patriot. He believes in Ger
many, and if he believes in himself, it
is as an agent in the building of Ger
Tn1 1nNy'C