Middletown transcript. [volume] (Middletown, Del.) 1868-current, 1917-08-18
THE MYSTERIES
OF FRAU KLEIST

outside the court circle at Pots
dam She was indeed queer
parsonage, "only less of Il parsonage
than his majesty" as Prince Bulow
secared to me one day as we sat to-
sether in my room in the Berlin
SchloSS.
Frau Kieist was the court dancing
mistress, whose fastidious judgment
had to be satisfied by any young debu-
tante or officer before they presumed
70 siance before royalty at the state
balls. Perhaps she was seventy. Her
REAL age l never knew.
Truly Frau Kleist, with her neat
waist and thin, refined face, was
very striking figure at the Berlin
court. The intricacieS of the minuet
and gavotte, us well as those of the
aid-werld dances in which she delight
ed, were taught by the old lady TO
Prince Joachim and Princess Victoria
E.uise, both of whom always went in
deadly fear of her caustic tongue and
overbearing manner.
The emperor never permitted any
dancing at court which was not up TO
a high standard of excellence, and all
Sho sought to dance were compelled
to pass before the critical eye of the
sharp tongued old lady in her stiff
silken gown.
Whence she had come or who had
been responsible for her appointment
nobody knew. One thing was quite
certain, that though at an age when
usually rheumatism prevents agility
ret she was an expert dancer.
The old woman lived in considerable
style in Il fine house close to the
GIenicke bridge at Potsdan, beneath
the Babelsberg, Il power to be reckOned
with by all who desired to enter the
court circle.
Regarding her, many strange stories
gere ailoat. One was that she was an
ex-dancer, the mother of the famous
MademOiselle "Clo-Clo" Durand, pre-
miere danseuSe of the Paris opera. and
another was that she had been mis-
treSs of the ballet at the Imperial
opera in Petrograd in the days of the
Emperor Alexander. But so great a
mystery were her antecedents that no
body knew anything for certain. save
that, ut the aye of nearly seventy, she
had access at any hour to the kaiser 5
private cabinet. / have often seen her
whisper 10 his majesty strange secrets
which she had picked up here and
there-secrets that We're often trans
ferred to certain confidential quarters
Those at court who secured the be-
Hignant smiles of Frau KleiSt knew
shat their future path in life would be
full Of sunshine, but woe betide those
upon whom she knit her brOws in dis
approval. Frau Kleist kept her pretty
house and her big Mercedes car upon
the secret money payments she re-
reiyed from those who 'fOr value
negged her favors. With many young
officers the payment to Frau Kleist
was to open the back door to the en-
per0r'S favor.
We in the Neues Palais New Pal
acp} knew it, But surely it did not
concern US, for all of us looked askance
ut those who StrOve so StrcnuOuSly anG
eagerly for commands" to court func
tfOnS, and really we were secretly glad
ii the parvenus of both sexes were well
blei before they were permitted by
Frau Erna to make their obeisance be
fore royalty.
The palace world at every European
court is narrow little world of its
own, unknown and unsupported by the
man in the street There one sees the
worst side Of human nature without
Rny heaven of the best or even noblel
eide. The salary grabber, the military
adyenturer, the pinchbeck diplomat
the commercial parvenu, and the Scien
fist, together with their iewel-bedeckeC
womenfolk, elbow each other in order
TO secure the notice of the all-higheSt
sne, who, in that Green-uphOlsteret
private room wherein l worked will
him, often smiled at the unSeemly bus
tie while he calmly Disseminated
among men and women according t
their merits.
1t is in that calm discretion that the
emperor excels, possessing almost I'M
eunny foresight.
II know! Frau Kleist has told me y
were the words his, majesty used or
many occasions when I had ventureG
perhaps to express doubt regarding
eOme scandalous story or serious allie