Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-03-24
Empress of Germany Recover
ing Her Health Under
Changed Conditions.
MARRIAGE OF PRINCESS
SCHEDULED FOR MAY "a
Berliners Take Steps. to Abate
Noises Which Have Made
City Notorious.
Foreign Correspondence of The Star.


Foreign Correspondence OF The Star.
BERLIN, March TO- 1913. |
The reconciliation between her husband, |
the kaiser, and her eldest son. Crown |
Prince Wilhelm, who has always been her
favorite boy. followed by the engage |
ment of Princess Victoria Louise to the |
man of her own heart, has done the |
kaiserin more good than all the visits
to German health resorts. and when she
was seen the other day driving through
the Thiergarten she looked at least ten
years younger than she did year ago. |
The color has come back to her kind, /
motherly face and she had pleasant
smile and a friendly nod for the thou
sands of people who saluted her respect
fully as she passed in her open carriage. |
The whole imperial family are going
to spend the Easter holidays together
quietly and quite en- famile and imme-
diately after Easter the empress will
personally take charge of the prepare
tons for the wedding of her only daugh-
ter which is to take place May "a. The
wedding date was originally fixed for Oc-
tober "a. the birthday of the empress,
but was changed partly because she
thinks that long engagements are nul-
sance and partly because, like most Ger
mans, the empress believes in the month
of May as the lucky month for weddings
The trousseau of the young princess
will, as far possible, be of, German
make, though the wedding gown itself
and some of the evening toilets and court
robes will be made in Paris.
Instructed in Housekeeping.
Princess Victoria Louise, who is already
quite an expert on matters of domestic
economy, is to go through special post
graduate term Of housekeeping after
Easter under the personal guidance Of
the empress.
The kaiser, too, has had something add
ed to his usual work by the coming we'd
ding, for he is even now engaged in
making his personal wedding gift to his
daughter with his own hands. 1t consists
of book dealing with the history of the
Hohenzollern family, bound by the kaiser
himself, who is a skilled bookbinder. and
who has also composed and fooled the
special artistic cover of the book. If it
were necessary he would even be able
to make all the furniture for the young
joiner. having, like all Hohenzollern
princes, learned to make a living by the
work of his hands. if any unforeseen ca
lamity should make such a thing neces-
sary.
After the wedding Princess Victoria
Louise and Prince Ernst will leave for a
short wedding trip. no one knows where,
| though it is thought likely that they may
choose the idyllic and romantic little
palace of Achilleion, on Corfu, as their
| first temporary home, exchanging it about
month later for a quiet hunting lodge
somewhere in the mountains in Germany
or possibly In one of those charming lit
tie country residences owned by the
bridegroom's father, the Duke of Cum
berland.
At Permanent Home in Autumn.
Toward autumn they will move to their
permanent home at Rathenow, rather
provincial and oldfashioned place, where
| Prince Ernst's regiment, the famous lie
then Hussars. is stationed Their resi-
dence will be a very modest one, with
| nothing palatial about it. It is just a
moderate sized villa, far inferior to any
OF the splendid millionaire mansions on
Riverside Drive, in New York, for in
fstance. But the princess is delighted
| with it. having always held the opinion
that it is next to impossible to make a
real home in big palace, and her fu-
ture husband, who is q man of very
simple tastes, thoroughly agrees with
her.
The people of Berlin will feel the loss
of the princess very keenly, for. like her
brother, the crown prince, she has al
ways been a general favorite with all
classes of people from the very day
when she was first allowed to leave the
private grounds of the palace and drive
her little pony carriage, gift from Sui
tan Abdul Hamid, through Thiergarten.
Later on she was seen almost every day
riding through this park on her beauti-
| full, spirited thoroughbred. which she
rides with the dash and fearlessness Of
| a cavalry officer.
Berlin Noisy City.
| Berlin is undoubtedly the most noisy
city in Europe. though it has compare
lively few factories and river traf-
| fic to fill the air with strident whistling
and footing. Most of its noise, in fact,
| is made by lung and hand power, the
| first being the result partly of the lusty
cries of street peddlers and the contin-
uous barking of an unusual number OF
dogs-for Berlin is. after ConstantinOple,
| the most dog-ridden city in the world
and the latter emanating from hundreds
| of thousands of pianos which are bella
bored by more or less skillfu fingers
about eighteen hours out OF every tWen-
| ty-four
Some time ago the Berlners made the
alarming discovery that they were devel-
oping nerves, which is anything but a
common German complaint, and they be-
gan to wonder why. AS for that part of
| the Berliners who are in the habit of
making night into day and spending the
| hours between 10 in the evening and 4
| in the morning in the cafes, cabarets,
vaudeville theaters and dance halls of
Friedrichstrasse and neighboring streets
! the cause was plain enough, bit the large
majority of residents. who never indulge
| in these excuses, were unable to under
stand why they should be nervous and
fdgety until DR.. Siegmund Auerbach
who has long been engaged in the study
| of noises and their effect on health, In
| formed them that it was the unnecessary
din of their beloved city that made them
jumpy.
Take Steps to Apply Remedy.
When the explanation had been found
the Berliners, with their Usual resolute-
ness, Immediately formed an Anti-Noise
Society, which has now begun a fierce
campaign against unnecessary noises.
and which has offered a reward for the
invention of noise meter. or whatever
you may call it, to measure noises and
when this instrument has been invented
a certain point of the scale will mark
the boundary between noises which are
harmful to the health and which are not,
for Germans are nothing il not sys-
tematic and scientific in their methods
AS a particular Berlin noise DR.. Auer-
bach names the beating Of rugs and car
pets, which is bound to make itself felt |
In a city of fats, where every single fiat |
has its special carpet-beating balcony en-
rolled on the list of modern improve |
ments. German housewives are bitter |
enemies of dust in the rooms. and at |
least twice a week all carpets. rugs, cur |
tains and portieres are beaten into a |
state of absolute dustlessness on the |