The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1918-09-24

| ing of the kind is ever heard"
The kaiser was very much interested
| in our negro problem. 1t seemed to
have a great fascination for him, and
he frequently referred to it. He told
me that he understood there were
10000 negroes in this country, but
they were dying off in great numbers
through consumption and other dis
eases to which they offered but poor
resistance.
1.-The negro will always be a great
problem in your country, however" he
added. ''They don't mix socially with
the whites, and there will be constant
friction. My brother prince Henry,
when he returned from his visit to
America, told me lot about these
negroes. Indeed, one of the most i'm
pressive things he heard there was q
choir of negro voices. He said they
sang some wonderful melodies. and
their voices were as clear as bells"
After the war started, the kaiser
referred to the negroes again. "Now
is your chance to settle your negro
| problem" he declared, half facetiously,
of course. 'If America insists upon
coming into the war, why doesn't she
send her negroes across and let US
! shoot them DOWN."
When a feet Of our battleships Wis
tied Kiel some six years ago the kaiser
paid them visit and was very much
interested. When he called to see me
| shortly afterward he told me of his
| experience.
81 went over the ships from top to
| bottom" he declared. 'They are ex-
cellent vessels, every one of them, and
l was very much impressed with the
| way they are manned and Offered.
| have only one criticism-the lattice
/ work coming towers, or fighting
masts. The only possible use / can
| see in them would be to train vines on
| them and install an elevator inside,
| and serve tea in the afternoon to the
| ladies on top-the most beautiful place
| for serving afternoon tea can imag-
inc.
"But, seriously speaking" he went
| on, 81 can't see that these masts have
any practical value. On the contrary
1 can see very serious disadvantages
| in them. No matter what nation you
might be fighting, your enemy would
| always be able to recognize you at a
| distance, before you could identify
| him, because the warships of all other
| nations look very much alike at dis
| lance.
'"They say these coming towers are
| armed" he went on, "but you would
never get close enough to your enemy
| to use such small guns. Again, if one
| of those masts were hit it would send
| shower of steel about the heads of
| the men on board, and would not only
| put many of them out of action, but
V Juld be in the way. Suppose, too,
| the mast were struck down and hung
over the side? 1t would drag through
the water, and would not only serious
iy impede the vessel, but it would
| cause the ship to list and expose a
larger area on one side than would be
| safe. No, Davis, your fighting masts,
as l have said, might answer first-rate
for serving tea, but l don't think much
| of them for active service"
| But if the kaiser saw much in
| American ways and customs to con-
| mend, and, before the war, he was
liberal in his praise of many Of our
| qualities and achievements.
| He was very much interested, for
| instance, in the experiments and dis
| coveries of Luther Burbank. To make
Germany seIf-supporting as far as
| food resources were concerned was one
| of his dearest ambitions. He realized
that in the event of a world war his
eople would probably suffer more
| from lack of food than they would
from hostile bullets, and he was hoping
that he would be able to obviate that
condition before his country was put
to the test. He was constantly preach
| ing simplified diet and the conserva-
ton of food reserves, and he had great
| hopes that much could be done in a
scientific way to help solve general
food problems. When attending din
wishes respecting simple menus were
always carefully followed.
The kaiser enjoyed American hui
NOR. He was very FOND of Mark
| Twain, and ne followed one or two of
| the American mOnthlies and weeklies
| more or less regularly. He told me
/ that, one evening while In his sitting
room in the Berlin palace, reading
something in an American magazine,
he ran across a 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 hideous.
How terrible to desecrate the land
scape with such tall buildings" he
commented. "They hurt the eye. How
can people live in themY
| / explained that most of the build
ings to which he referred were office
| buildings, but that we did have four
] teen and fiffeen-StOry aDartment houses