The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-11-11
CRUEL TO HIS MOTHER
At His Fathers Bier William Ordered
Widows Arrest.


Widows Arrest.
The kaiser's mother was Victoria,
princess royal of England a daughter
of Queen Victoria and woman of
considerable will and intellectual pre-
tensions. But for her insistence it is
probable Frederick Williams father
never would have mounted the throne.
He was known to be incurably at
flicted with cancer and to have only
a short term of life before him. He
had expressed an intention to pass the
scepter Of old William on to young
William and to die in peace without
the burdens Of empire upon his
shoulders To this plan young William
mother objected. She wanted to be
empress. and Frederick yielded. He
| took the crown and wore it three
! months. With his death the empress
became her sons subject and did not
find the position a happy one.
The following account of how the
| kaiser imprisoned his mother is from
| Octave Mirbeau's pen portrait of him
written two years before the begin
/ ming of the war:
1 am going to be indiscreet enough
to tell you a little anecdote about Will
/ liam. 1t was told me one night at
Friedrichsruhe by the late Bismarck,
| who had been drinking.
To begin with you probably already
know of the feYerish anxiety. he showed
| when as son of the heir apparent he
watched the progress of his fathers
| illness at San Reno, while the old
grandfather was slowly petrifying on
the throne. You have heard. too. OF
his paricidal fever during the 100 days
reign of his poor, cancerous father
| Frederick.
| Bismarck never cared for the En-
peror Frederick. who he thought
wished to change the order of things
her because of her English ideas and
referred to her as 1.-THE stranger" He
devoted himself to filling William with
| the appetite for power, taught him tc
| criticize evaSy written and spoken
word of his father and to believe thai
the influence of his English mother
was antinationa1 and therefore dan
gerous But Bismarck, shrewd as he
was, could not foresee how far the
young mans love of power would lead
him. The relations between the EN-
press Frederick and her son became
at last SO bitter that William placed
spies about her-eveh in the bedroom
| Of his invaded father.
Thru ore of these spies William
| learned of the existence Of a journa
which his father had kept for son.t
years. Frederick had a taste for writ
ing. and the fact that there was cold
ness between him and his son. lee
William to fear that this secret jour
nal might contain some criticism O.
his conduct The fear OF it. haunted
him and he bent all his thoughts t.
obtaining possession of>it. The en-
press. however, was clever enough tt
conceal the diary before her husba nd
death. Eluding the surveillance %
her son, she sent the papers to he
mother. Queen Victoria, or to he
brother. then Prince of WalesEI dom
remember which. Hardly had hi
father drawn his last breath whel
william, over the dead body. per
formed, his first official act. 1t wa
to demand of his widowed mother tn,
journal, which he termed a ''memor
ial.'
The empress feigned ignorance. VIII
liam insisted. He spoke as master
giving his mother the order to obey
q She persisted in declaring that sh
knew nothing of the paper. Her Sol
menaced her brutally with his wrath
ITO his dry eyes her tears were onl.