The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1917-08-18

outside the court circle at Pots
dam. She was indeed a queer
parsonage, "onIy less Of u parsonage
than his majesty" as Prince Bulow
declared to me one day as we sat to-
gether in my room in the Berlin
Schloss.
Frau Kleist was the court dancing
mistress, whose fastidious judgment
had to be satisfied by any young debu-
tante or officer before they presumed
to dance before royalty at the state
balls. Perhaps she was seventy. Her
real age I never knew.
Truly Frau Kleist, with her neat
waist and thin, refined face, was a
very striking figure at the Berlin
court. The intricacies of the minuet
and gavotte, as well as those of the
old-wOrld dances in which she delight
ed, were taught by the old lady to
Prince Joachim and Princess Victoria
Luise, 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
who 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
Shp was m pYno1-t
The old woman lived in considerable
style in a fine house close to the
Glienicke bridge at Potsdam, beneath
the Babelsberg, power to be reckoned
with by all who desired to enter the
court circle.
Regarding her, many strange stories
were afloat. 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 q
mystery were her antecedents that no.
body knew anything for certain, save
that. at the age of nearly seventy, she
had access at any hour to the kaiser's
private cabinet. I have often seen he1
whisper TO his majesty strange secrets
which she had picked up here and
there-secrets that were often trans
ferred to certain confidential quarters
Those at court who secured the be-
nignant smiles of Frau Kleist knew
that 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 upoI
the secret money payments she re
ceived from those who for value
begged her favors. With many younI
officers the payment to Frau Kleis
was to open the back door TO the EN-
peror's favor.
We in the Neues Palais New Pal
ace) knew it. But surely it did no
concern US, for all of US looked askanc,
at those who strove so strenuously anC
eagerly for commands" to court func
lions, and really we were secretly glaC
If the parvenus Of both sexes were vel
bled before they were permitted b.
Frau Erna to make their Obeisance be
fore royalty.
11O paldCe WORTH aI every european
court is a narrow little world of it
own, unknown and unsupported by tn
man IN the street. There one sees tn
worst side of human nature withou
any leaven of the best or even noble
side. The salary grabber, the miIitar,
adventurer, the pinchbeck diplomat
the commercial parvenu. and the scien
fist, together with their jewel-bedecke,
womenfolk, elbow each other in orde
to secure the notice OF the all-highes
one, who. in that green-upholStere
private room wherein I worked wit
him, often smiled at the unseemly bus
tie while ne calmly discriminate
among men and women according t
their merits.
It is in that calm discretion that tn
emperor excels. possessing almost III
canny foresight.
81 know Frau Kleist has told me
were the words his majesty used O
many occasions when I had venture
perhaps to express doubt regardin
come scandalous story or serious all,