Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-09-11
KA|SER1NFER|ORMAN
TO "F|ODL|NG" NERO
The Two Are Much Alike; Both
Victims of Their Egotism;
Both Cruel Failures.

recalling that when the kaiser, soon after
his accession. visited Oscar III of Sweden,
and that shrewd and observant king was
aetcd what he Thought OF Nliiiam,
oscar replied: The kaiser Is another
\tro' If hasty readers passed TINS oy
- mcrey another cpithet applied TO one
has since been like ned to Attla ana
,,ncbis Khan they were mistaken;
tbis was early in Williams reign, and
nobodv could foresee IN him the world
devastator of 1914 Ii was no eplthct
II was n character sketch in n phrase
and il is we'll worth thinking about when
we come 10 place the responsibility tor
the worlds innumcrable woes III the last
four years.
Renan. in his ''Antichrist," calls Nero
not the maddest or most wicked, hut
the vainest and most ridiculous SOW
ereicn whom ever the hazard OF events
has brought nto the foreground oil his
torv" He was a minor poet, bad
actor. an amateur artist of every kind,
thc very prototype of William Ill. The
word has waited nearly nineteen CEN
tur;es for the character TO be completely
rcnroducrd Ii learned nineteen centuries
aro that such qualities in n powerful
monarch result IN disaster; IT is learning
tho lesson over again, though the dis
astcrs arc different Hear Rcnan on
the Nero Kaiser type:
..In Nero there was something at once
terrifying and grotesque, grandioSe and
absurd The fantasies of all
centuries were iostled cha
oticalN together in his brain, the feeble
BRAIN Of mediocre but sell suihcicnt
artist To whom chance had granted
tbe mower 10 realize AL his widest
dreams Imagine a man with almost
rs much intelligence rs one OF the ne
rocs of NJ. Victor Hugo, ii Shrove Tues
day merry andrew, a mixture OF lunatlc,
lackev and actor. invested with universal
mower and charged with the task OF
governing the world.
He had not the black WlckcdneSS OF
Domjtian. love of evil for the sake Of
evil nor was he an cXtravagant prod;
ical of Cahgula's type; nc was q CON
sricntious romantIclSt, an emperor OF
comic opera, mcomanlac trembling
for the applausc of the gallery and
making the gallery trcmble.
The desnots OF the east terrible and
grave had not these debauchcS OF per
I,nrse asthcticiSln. II was not
enough for him 10 drive chauots IN the
circus "a hawI himself hoarSc IN pubhc,
To tour the provinces rs singer
4 few wears ago Mr. { hCSterton, IN
= defense Of the kaiser's Nero like post
,,r nos III, rnust now be heartily ashamed
of what nc then wrote declared that
..+hc German Emperor is a poet and,
therefore. he succeeds. but admitted;
at Is true, If the matter is at all mn
portant. that the German Emperor Is
not good poet rs German
that IS in question, IN almost every
one of the artistic occupations TO which
ne addresses himself: He Is neither a
frst-rate critic, nor frst-ratc musician,
nor a first-rste painter, nor hrst-rate
Now it turns out that the matter was
indeed important The mania q
vanity is important when the mad
man. Nero or William. sits on throne.
OF both of them it NAV be said. rs Renan
said Of one Of them the demon Of per
verted histrionisn had taken possession
of him. The first years Of William ;
reign did not foreShadow the apotheosls
Of this mad vanity, but neither dId the
first years OF Nero : After playing be
fore the world in comedies for 50 long.
the swollen vanity If each demanded
tragedy on the same stage.
Nero enjovcd the last year OF ms hfe
more than any; he toured the Greek
cities. singing in each and getting all tie
nrIzes. though Athens revolted AT the
nrofanation and made him keep away.
He rode into Rome in the chariot IN
which Aug,lstus-who supplied the same
nIace in bis mind that ''0ur old Fritz
does in William s-had ridden IN
triunnh. and then bis people revOltcd.
1T Is one Of the glorles OF Gaul, says
Renan, that the downfall Of such
tyrant should have been her work. It Is
another of the giorIes OF Gaul that tins
reincarnation OF Nero should fall by her
hand too. Driven to the wall on the eve
OF deposition and violent death, he
tried 10 think out a way OF falling with
djonitv. but he could not. because
''be did not possess an idea that was
not nueriIe. The sham world Of ART
IN winch he dwelt had made the veri-
est fool OF him He dreamed
that MS musical talent might give him
livelihood. and this possibility, which
would be the best proof of his merit
caused him 10 cherish 2 secret Joy
Then he consoled himself with htera-
ture DointIng out how unique was his
position, how unprecedented all that
was happening TO him-never had a
prince lost In his lifetime 50 mighty an
empire
Will that be the consolation Of his sue
cessor? Such minds, as We have seen,
IN the same Cildililel Al WIS d.
sured beforehand that nature which
was vain. cunning, filed with desire
for the immense. the infinite, but lack
ing all Judgment, would meet with de-
plorable shipwreck Renan says that
lie was far from being void OF all good
qualities this poor young man, intox-
icated with bad literature, drunken
with stage rhetoric who, however,
never dreamed Of anything so banal as
having Kari Rosner follow him around
watching him pick violets from battle
fields lie died quoting Homer, and
there was a popular story that amoment
before his death THE earth trembled, as
if II were rent open, and the souls of
all those whom he had slain came and
hurled themselves upon him When
the life that parallels bis so closely shall
come TO It's end. what an endless process
sion of ghosts will arise, if that last
parallel is maintained New York Times.
IInnfE EDANE stEET.EA,. fvnYy.vrpx,