Williams news., 1917-08-02
The Kaiser's Secret
 Trip to the Hague.

@ NE May morning in 1907 was
 walking on the terrace of the
 Castle of Halberg, at that time in the possession of the late Freiherr von Stumm, whom the emperor often visited.
 I think, however, that our host be- came secretly irritated at the frequent visits of his imperial guest, for certain ly what with the establishment of the special telegraph to Berlin and a spe- cial post office, and the finding of ac- commodation for the crowd of person. al attendants, each visit must have cost poor old Von Stumm consider able amount.
 had already been busy upstairs in the room allotted to me, and had come out to take a walk in the warm and welcome sunshine, when suddenly saw the emperor in a suit of brown civilian clothes striding towards me. He seemed to be in humorous mood and joked with me as I walked beside him.
 Suddenly he halted, as though re- collecting something and asked:
 "Heltzendorff, have you with you some of our paper for important docu- ments?
 Certainly" was my reply.
 "Ah! then please place some of 1t with envelopes upon my table, and also wire to Berlin to send here ten cou- riers.'
 'Ten couriersT echoed in surprise. -"Yes, ten. may want even twelve or more"
 Just before eight o'clock that night I was informed that the couriers were waiting below, and on descending found six of the imperial messengers and four from the ministry of foreign affairs, ready to travel anywhere, even to the uttermost ends of the earth.
 A Stupendous Hoax.
 On informing his majesty, the lat ter handed to me about thirty of the great blue envelopes containing "docu- ments of the highest importance" ad- dressed in his own hand to various of- ficers of state, princes, princesses, and other prominent people in all parts of the empire.
 "These are to be taken at once, Helt- zendorff," the emperor said. 1.-The mes sengers are to bring us replies"
 ''In every case?" asked.
 "Yes. In every case" he answered.
 Then I carried the batch of core spondence below, and much puzzled at the nature of this latest activity in private letter-writing, handed them to the couriers, who sorted them out and distributed them among them selves.
 Half an hour later the documents were being conveyed to various parts of the empire.
 When I returned to the study ] found the kaiser laughing quietly to himself, and wondered what could be the reason. He signed some docu ments read to him, but ever and amor a broad smile would cross his usually stern features.
 Until a week afterwards I did not learn the cause of the imperial merri ment, but when did burst into lout laughter myself.
 Those envelopes containing "docu ments of highest importance" each con tained only a comic postcard, whtcl the emperor had purchased during { visit to Saarbruck.
 The kaiser had played huge jok' upon those whom he despised, for tn delivery of these formidable imperia dispatches created a great stir in tn households of their recipients. Ol' princes were awakened in the middl of the night to be handed dispatcl from the emperor; old princesse jumped out of bed to receive an i'm perial communication officers tor open the envelopes eagerly expectin