Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-02-07
BY OCTAVE MIRBEAU
and Arranged by Ada and
Julian Street

L ana py -AQd anu
Julian Street
One does not really feel the fatigue
OF ten hours run in a motorcar
until ones feet sink into the cream
and red roses OF hotel carpet. Then
things begin to whirl in a binding
sort of way. and one staggers.
This was my condition when, COM
ing into the corridor of a German
hotel. I encountered my friend Won
B, a German baron whom l have
often met in his own country, but
more frequently in Paris.
Il have Just come from Essen in
my motor" said Won B. Let's
dine together"
Twenty minutes after our meeting
We were at table.
I know no better companion than
Baron Won B. Not only is he par
ticularly we'll informed on German at
fairs, but he is able TO discuss them
in excellent French. After lecturing
on philosophy in famous university,
he has retired to practice it. He Is
young, shrewd. diplomatic, brilliant
and-what interests me particularly
he has access to the German Emperor.
I do not know whether il is his birth n
or his work which has given him this
privilege, though l think I have heard
him say he was Williams fellow stu
dent at the University of Bonn.
When | asked him to talk about the
Kaiser he drew from pail of ice a
bottle Of Moselle, in its dusty dress,
and nlled our glasses with the spark
ling wine. which makes a pretty little
noise in the mouth like the sea upon
pebbles.
The Kaiser?" he repeated. after a
v,,sN eli
barrassed about discussing him with
YOU. Don't you see one may think one
understands q man but one never
knows him mpletely-especially a
man of his Caliber and position-and
one always runs the risk Of being un-
just. and-oh. well-the devil"
He slipped his wine and presently
began:
Inflated With Success
In order TO understand our Emperor
one must remember that he dates from
the time of what we Germans call the
Gruenderzeit; that is, the period of the
founders, the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES me
of the Franco-Prussian war. But
though he dates from the Gruenderzeit
we no longer date from it: that is, not
all of us.
Our men left for the frontier poor
Prussians; they returned rich Ger
mans. The period Of multimillion-
aires dates from II; the very term
itself first came into our language
then. Germany began to be built up.
Inflated with success. We ate, drank
and built. We built forts and cannon:
ports, ships and cannon: roads. canals
and cannon; barracks. factories, pal
aces and always cannon.
Needing a capital for the empire we
had just given ourselves. we rebuilt
Berlin from end to end: and We have
kept on building ever since. The taste
for colossal statues. giant universities,
fortlike railway stations, cathedral
like shops, Nalhalla cafes-all this
hyperbolic recommendation - dates
from the Gruenderzeit. If the Gruen-
derzeit disappears, little by little from
the souls OF men. II still lives in the
souls of stones, and in the soul of
William II. who dates absolutely from
these years of megalomania. initiation.
uproar and cheap grandeur.
He was very young in 20, but one
keeps all the ideas that were put in
ones head before the age of 20, unless
one has in ones self the material for
the remoulding of those ideas.
William l, the ''unforgettable grand
father" had none OF this foolishness
about him. He was by taste a simple
country squire: by force of circum-
stances conqueror. In Bismarck.
servants who pressed him on. Did you
know that he crossed the Rhine
gloomily. and that it seemed to him
an outrage to lombard Paris? They
had to beg him; they even got out OF
him by trickery the order to fire the
first cannon. All. no. Poor old Will
liam never thought of multimillion-
aires! Success did not change him.
There are Srandfathers like him in a
good many families; grandfathers in
spite of themselves, continue to smoke
the same pipe and drink the same
beer that they loved before their de-
but.
Gives Father No Honor
Frederick never spoke of his
fathers campaigns. and the brawlers
of Il were always displeased with his
reticenee. AS for the present Will
liam. he gives his father scant honor.
pushing him outside of history as an
son sends his old mother to
her bedroom because he doesn't con-
slider her dressed we'll enough to be
seen. He reproaches his mother with
her English blood and his father with
his imprudence, besides which he re-
proaches them Jointly with the ricketts,.
an afflication which makes his pride
suffer cruelty.
! am going 10 be indiscreet enough
TO tell you a little anecdote about Will
liam. II was told to me one night at
F'riedrichsruhe by the late Bismarck,
who had been drinking. That is to say.
that it can be believed. for there was
never any one more brutally sincere
than he was under the influence of
wine.
Hardly had the old Chancellor told
me the story which | am going to re-
late than | seemed to read in his stern
face that he would have given anv-
thing TO have it unsaid. But he was
not the man to openly regret an act
even mistake-and he was too much
an enemy of useless words to ask.
after realizing his error. that l keep
the story secret. Nevertheless, each
time | have wanted to tell it / have
seemed to see his fiery eyes in their