Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-09-09
THE KAISER AS | KNEW
HIM FOR FOURTEEN YEARS
By ARTHUR N. DAVIS, D. s.
Copyright 1918. Newspaper syndicate>

I told him that the scene was too
beautiful for description, but l did
not tell him what was really in my
thoughts. I was thinking of what
my laboratory assistant had said
when he returned from the western
front on a furlough: IF the ones
who started the war could be where
! was just one hour, they would be
willing to make peace Immediately"
Did you have any trouble in
reaching Pless?" the Kaiser asked.
"On the contrary, I got in about
! four hours ahead of time, your Maj
esty," I said. and l explained to him
| how it happened.
We'll, it speaks we'll for our rail-
| way system in wartime, doesn't it?
Who ever heard of a train getting
in ahead of time these days?"
! During the course of my work one
of his private secretaries came in
/ repeatedly with telegrams and mes
sages for the Kaiser. and he would
! usually excuse himself to read them.
/ Sometimes he would be summoned
outside to consult with important
! persons who were there to see him,
but he was never gone more than
ten minutes at a time.
! did not think he looked eXcep-
tionally well. He seemed to be very
/ tired and he had very little to say
in itself an indication that he was
not exactly normal.
! When my work for the morning
was over and his valet, who had as
sisted me, had been excused, the
/ Kaiser gazed at me for a moment
i burst out with the rather remarka-
BILE comment: The man who
brought this catastrophe on the
world, Davis. should be strung up
by the neck, and that man is not l.
as the world seems to think. The
Car of Russia and the King OF
England. when they were at the
wedding of my daughter-guests at
my own house, mind you, and my
blood relatives-hatched this plot
against me. They were envious of
my power, but they will now learn
what that power is"
In the same breath almost he
imade the inconsistent remark: Eng
land will never be able to raise an
efficient army; it took Germany one
hundred years to accomplish what
she has done" How ridiculous ii
was to suppose that the Car of
| Russia and the King of England
could have Matched a plot which
neither of them was the least pre-
pared to carry out and which Ger
many was apparently powerful
enough to foil
| Some time after this, one of the
biggest merchants in Berlin told me
that he had heard on the Stock Ex-
change that the Kaiser had made
the remark that the King and Car
had Matched the plot against him.
and as I had repeated the Kaiser S
statement to no one, I realized that
he must have told the same thing
to others. If this version of the
starting of the war was put into
circulation with the idea of absolv-
ing the Kaiser. it certainly didn't
carry conviction even among the
Germans themselves. The merchant
who spoke to me about it, at any
rate, made fun of the idea, and I
never heard the point seriously
raised by anyone else of influence.
Before I left the. Kaiser that
morning he spoke of the Anglo
French loan which had beeen float
ed in America and condemned us
severely for countenancing it. When
I told him that Germany had also
fioated a loan in America, he re-
piled: But ours was only 10000
900. while theirs is $500. 600. .0OO"
, to which / naturally re1oined tnat
the size of the loan could certainly
not affect the question of our neu-
trality in floating it.
! He criticised our bankers who
(. handled the loan, and when I asked
him If he had ever seen the number
of German names that appeared on
F., the list of bankers who were inter-
ested in it. he said he hadn't read
( the list, but he was quite sure there
was one bank in New York which
wouldn't touch it. That bank
wouldn't touch anything that would
be detrimental to Germany" he
added.
In the afternoon. after the Kaiser
had had his invariable afternoon
nap. I attended him again, and that
night I returned to Berlin. It was
with regret that left such beauti-
full, restful place, for although Ber-
| lin in wartimes. was almost death
like in its quietness. it couldn't excel
| the Army Headquarters for restful-
ness.
Several months later was called
to Pless again and the place was
Just as peaceful as 1t had been en-
I 20 -Ia