The Washington herald., 1915-03-21

air. But the kaiSerin'S benign counteS
nance beamed only on the back of the
served an equal ObliviousneSS to me
eager. enthusiastic crowds that lined
his helmet or Glancing to the right or
to the left. His face and figure were
as still as those of his forefathers in
the Sieges Alice. They fit all the bet
ter, therefore. in the family album.
He appeared younger ana SUMMER
that morning than he is commonly
portrayed. Although no doubt he has
his share of the traditional HohenZol-
that the angry passions indelibly pen
Gil on the face. Indeed. If his mus
tache had been turned down instead
of up. he might not have looked the
war lord at all That adventurous
touch of the barber saved the picture,
and il must he worth at least a reCi-
ment or two on the battlefield.
Along the Front Path.
Berlin herself bristles like the
kaiSer's mustaChC. She is 4 martial
city. vast garrison. Even in the still
recent but swiftly vanished days of
an armed peace. the nU=les and the
tramp of marching soldiers rose clear
and distinct among her ciamorous
notes, and ZeppcliHS seemed to be for
ever lowering above her domes.
Inter den Linden. running from
west to east across the heart of the
big town. really is the front path thay
leads up to the home u. the Hohen-
zOllerns. Enter the path 1t the Bran
denburE Gate and You pass beneath 4
bronze chariot with its hOrs, s. Thence
forth the street is much like an aIsre
in Il military museum.
If you CraVenly revOil and retreat
into the galleries by the way, war stil
will lower upon you from the pedestals
and CanvaSeS there. Stay in the pain
and on every hand you are menaced
by prancing war horses and sculptured
warriors Grasping their swords.
Ghe Great ElgCtOr and tNraHa ripi-
the Great are there in their saddles.
stu riding down their foes. Even
ph1egmatic. unmarital Frederick Will
lam II! sits his charger. though he
rode him faster and farther while
fleeing from Napoleon than ever he
spurred him to battle. The pacific
Emperor Frederick. whose somewhat
pale cast of thought his son appears
never to have condoned. is modelled as
Mars, while Victory has her stecri0
hand on the bride of the old Kaiser
and craven lions snarl all about him
as they crouch for spring from the
cannon beneath their savage paws
quite upsettinG to see, as | did, two
doorkeepers standing on either hand
with mustaches that bristled up Just
like the Kaiser,'s and just like the art
of Inter den Linden.
On a Little Island.
The Kaiser lives on an island in the
Spree. where that little river bends its
II.
When the Hohenzollerns first moved
into town from the country. now moro
than $50 years ago, it was still a timo
when man could not be too careful
where he built his house. The top OF
a high. steep hill or an island offered
the safest and most desirable building
site. The Hohenzollerns, therefore. like
the Capets in the midst of the Seine
at Paris, prudently put half the river
between them and their predatory
neighbors on either side,
And there Frederick Ironteeth erect
ed his castle, which remains today. a
part of the big. brown barrack-iike
schloss of the Kaiser. How well he
chose his vantage point IN the Spre.
and how firmly the foundations OF the
castle were laid, We may Judge by the
unique circumstance that the throne
of the Hohenzollerns has stood there
for half millennium. BY comparison,
the Romanoffs began TO reign only
yesterday.
In all those SEQ years. with the
doubtful exception of the revolution OF
ls4S, this throne had stood unassailed
and unchallenged by it's subjects. In
the same period three or four Haps-
burgs have fallen OF the rocking
throne OF Vienna: England has de
throned five or six of her Kings and
twice changed her dynasties. while the
French have slain no less than three
of their sovereigns and changed their
allegiance nine times
Thus, a little island in a little river
in a little town has become the moor
ing of the greatest OF the nations OF
Europe
Copyright. 1915, by James Mcrsan1