El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-01-27

T1ODAY is the birthday anniversary
of William II, king of Prussia
and emperor Of Germany. Though
Tor nearly quarter of a century the
kaiser has stood at the head of the
great German nation, he is still young,
as men go. He is just 50, and if he lives
TO the allotted age of three score and
10. he viii have is years more to reign
Who can tell what strange mutations
may be in store for the German people
and their ruler in that space of time?
OF all the worlds rulers, its kings
and emperors, its potentates and pres
idents, there is none other on whom
the eyes of the nations are so persist
emily fastened as on the German en-
peror he is the great war lord whom
Europe fears. Before the sun goes
down, he could set in motion forces
that would upset the peace of civiliZa-
ton and bring on the great cataclysm
OF arms of which every nation III Eu-
rope lives in dread, and the shadow
Of which is never entirely lifted from
the enlightened peoples of either hem
isphere.
The Land and Its Ruler.
To speak of the many sided emperor
OF Germany is to speak Of Germany it.
self The German empire would be
great without William H. but it is
nevertheless true that no small meas
ure of the high standing to which il
has attained is due to the untirfng and
res1stless energy Of the kaiser and his
sleepless devotion to the people whom
he rules. Marvellous in his versatility,
there Is almost no field Of activity with
which he is not familiar. He knows the
navy as well as he knows the army.
He understands the practical problems
OF statecraft and diplomacy. He is a
student an artist and preacher. He
knows deeply all phases of German
commerce and business affairs, Ger
man agriculture and German science
He eau tell the German hausfrau her
duties as easily as he can reprove
laundering colonel. He can lecture
university student on the evils of
drink, direct an orchestra, command an
army corps or paint a picture. He can
compose song If need be, or stir up
the apprehensions of Europe by dilat-
ing on the Yellow Peril He is as YER
satile as Roosevelt and more autocratic
than Frederick the Great.
Back Through the Centuries.
To understand the position OF Ger
many and the ruler of the Germans. one
must bark back a few centuries and
cast over the progress of this giant
among the nations. The house of Ho-
henzollern to which William belongs
goes back a thousand years through a
long line of the able and the weak, the
sickly and the strong, the mean and
the great. But little more than 200
years ago, the chiefs of the house of
Hohenzollern were among the despised
OF the royalty Of Europe. The mar
quisate of Brandenburg had been given
the family by Sigismund- The king of
Poland gave it the duchy of Prussia.
They were a rough lot, these old Ho-
henzollerns. The country about Ber-
lin aud Potsdam was like desert, and
the deep sand could barely be forced to
yield thin crops of rye and oats. Where
there was no sand, there were ancient
forests or insalubrious marshes The
great eiector, Frederic William. ex-
tended the family possessions and got
the rich city and district of Magde-
burg. His son, Frederic. assumed the
dignity of king of Prussia in 100, but
even then he was despised among the
rest of kings.
It is a far cry from the Prussia of