Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1917-07-05


ser to me with a laugh, as
I sat one summers afternoon with him
In the business cabin aboard the Ho-
henzOllern.
We were going on our annual cruise
up the Norwegian fjOrds as far as
Hammerfest, and even farther north,
to the island of Spitzbergen, if weather
permitted.
1t is strange how often small things
occupy great minds. The reason of
the emperOr's good humOr that after
noon was because he had learned that
the cafe-restaurant in POtsdam of
which he was proprietor had paid a
handsome profit. The place is called
"The Historic Mill" and was and still
is managed by Herr Moritz, one of the
old stewards of the Neues Palais. The
emperor, on purchasing the place,
called old MOritz and ordered him to
serve the best coffee prOcurable in
POtsdam. And, even today, anybody
can go there and pay 80 pfennigs for
cup that is unequaled in all Germany.
In consequence, the place is well pat
ronized, and on many occasions his
majesty will halt upon his walks and
sample it.
A Mania for Travelling.
AT that moment the emperor was
busy making up his diary for the forth
coming month, a diary Of constant
travel. Such a mania has the kaiser
for travelling that upon occasions he
has been known to sleep in the impe-
rial railway saloon kept at the Wild
park station at POtsdam, ready for an
early journey next morning. On such
occasions the whole railway traffic is
disorganized, for express trains must
not run on that line. There must be
40 shunting or whistling lest it dis
turb the imperial sleep, and so on. In
deed, the socialists once made a pub
lie protest against the emperor's habit
of holding up traffic by preferring to
sleep in a railway car to reposing in
his own bed half a mile distant.
That summers afternoon as we
sat together and while he smoked his
very rank cigar, he dictated certain
entries into his private diary.
Suddenly he grUmbled about the ex-
penSes of a journey which he had to
make to Vienna to see the sovereign
whom he so openly ridiculed, Francis
Joseph.
II must be there on September the
eighteenth" he said. 'Even though
I hold the old idiot and his empire in
the hollow of my hand, [ suppose
must grace his capital with my pres
ence. But I begrudge the money, Relt-
zendorff. I have no further influence
to gain in Austria-Hungary. 1t is in
England that my future work lies. Ev-
cry mark spent there is to our advan-
tage. We shall have much yet to do
il Commanding Great Britain"
The kaiser and his imperial spouse
were a parSimOniOus pair in most di-
rectfons Only when it was in the in
terests of the empire were they lavish
in their expenditure: The German
public have never yet realized that
since William II assembled the throne
they have paid 1S0,000,000 marks into
the civil list, and of these 130,O0000O
have been expended upon a pageant Of
vaingIorious splendor, with a staff of
1850 persons, that goes to make the
aII-highest the great war lord.
The general public have no cOncep-
ton of the extent of the German i'm
perial court, the immense suite of la
dies and gentlemen in waiting, mar
shaIs, eQuerries, masters of the hunt,
chamberlains, treasurers, overseers of
the plate, gentlemen of the cellars,
gun chargers, chief chefs, with the
crowd Of footmen, coachmen, chauf-
feurs, grooms and imperial couriers.
And most of them were usually a
grumblin% crowd, being upon starva-