The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1918-11-08


1 ~rssm wwwsvy, II "A
mend, and. before the war, he was
liberal Ia his praise of many of our
qualities end achievements.
He was very much Interested. for
instance, Ia the experiments and dis
coveries OF Luther Burbank. To make
Germany seIfSupporting as far as
food resources were concerned was one
Of his dearest ambitions. He realized
that In the event OF a world war his
people would probably suffer more
from lack OF food than they would
from hostile bullets. and he was hoping
that he would be able TO obylate that
condition before his country was put
70 the test. He was constantly preach
Ing sImplfied diet and the conserya-
ton Of food reserves, and he had great
hopes that much could be done in
scientific way to help solve general
food problems. When attending din
ners given him by his officers, his
wishes respecting simple menus were
always carefully followed.
The kaiser enjoyed American hui
NOR. He was very fond OF Mark
TWIN, and be followed one or two Of
the American nonthlies and weekIles
more or less regularly. He told me
that, one evening while IN his sitting
room In the Berlin palace, reading
something In mn American magazine,
he ran across story which caused
him to laugh so much and so loud that
the ladies OF the court, who heard him
In an adjacent room, came running In
with their knitting to see what the
matter was.
The kaiser had little respect for our
architecture He thought our sky
scrapers, OF which he had seen illus
trations, were hldeous.
''IIow terrible 10 desecrate the land
senpe with such tall buildings" he
commented. "They hurt the eye. How
can people live in them2'
explained that most of the build
ings to which he referred were office
buildings, but that we did have four
teen and fifteen-story apartment houses
and hotels, and even higher ones, In
which the upper doors were used for
living purposes just the same as the |
lower ones. He couldn't believe 1t |
possible that people would consent to |
live so far above the ground, and from |
his own aversion to visit a place that |
was even one story above the ground |
floor, rather got the idea that he was
afraid OF height. Under the building |
laws prevailing in Germany no build
Ing of more than five stories may be
erected.
Perhaps the quality that he envied
most Ia MS was our inventive genius.
When 0rvilIe Wright was flying at
Field, In Berlin, In the
narly days OF aviation, the kaiser
could not restrain his admiration.
II wish could encourage my people
10 become great inventors, such as
has produced" he declared,
rather hopelessly. II admire your
wonderful inventive genius"
The kaiser objected very much to the
fact that many Of the foreign opera
singers were attracted to New York |
by reason of the fabulous sums paid |
them at the Metropolitan opera house.
Despite the fact that the kaiser &C
cused us Of spending our money too
lavishly. he repeatedly charged the
English as well as ourselves with be-
ing moncy-worshlpers.
'The Anglo-Saxons worship NAM
mon, and they try to gloss u all over
with a show OF religion" he said.
"Your rich Americans have so much
money, Davis, that they really don't
know what 10 do with H. Why, re-
Gently one of your millionaires saw
my castle at Corfu and sent one of his
Representatives TO the court with the
presumptuous message. please tell the
kaiser that ] win buy his castle at
Corfu. and ask him what's his pricer
had word sent back that the castle
was not for sale. The American then
told my representative that he wouldn't
take no for an answer. The cheek Of
the mani He said he didn't care how
much II cost. ] sent word back to
that man that there were not enough
| dollars IN the world to buy that castle.
There are some things that your dol
lars won't buy. Davis. and one OF them
is my beautiful castle at Corfu"