The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1918-12-19

| prince again professionally until 1915,
the crown princess came to me in
1913. and from that time on psId me
more or less regular visits. She was
woman of great charm and intelIi-
gence, and although she was more
Russian than German in her ideas, and
for some time after her marriage was
rather generally criticized on that &C
count she soon became extremely
popular and today is very much ad-
mired by the German people.
She was one of the most democratic
and informal OF my royal patients I
remember one day when I was work
ing on Princess Hatfield, we heard a
loud "Hoo-hoo'' from the anteroom.
The crown princess had heard that
| the Princess Hatfield, who was a
| great chum Of hers, was in my Office
and had followed her into my place
unannOunced.
The Princess Hatfield, 1 may men
ton, was an extremely intelligent and
beautiful young woman, and because
of her intimacy with the crown prin-
cess, 1 took a keen interest in the
views she expressed from time to time.
Her mother was an American.
When she called on me on one Occa-
sion after the war had started, 1 re-
peated to her the gist of a converse
ton had had few days before with
her father, Excellenz Won Stumm. He
Informed me that he had been trying
| to convince all Germans of influence
that it would be q serious mistake to
annex Belgium.
From morning to night have been
trying to teach our people some sense"
he had declared. with the history of
Poland and Alsace-Lorraine in mind,
why should we take more responsible
tiles on our shoulders by retaining
Belgium? The Lord only knows we
have our hands full as it is. l don't
see and 1 never have seen how Ger
many can possibly win this war;
your father seemed to be very pes
simistic regarding the outlook" 1 told
her.
1.-THE sad thing about it." she re-
piled, 'is that father is always right !
never knew him to make a mistake
in judgment"
When the crown prince called to see
me again I was surprised to find a
| considerable change in his general ap-
pearance. Although, of course, he was
ten years older, he had aged more
than 1 would have expected. There
were lines on his face which made him
look older than his thirty-three years.
In the outer world he was generally
believed to be one of the leading spir-
its of the military party in Germany,
but among his own people he was not
credited with sufficient ability or in
| fluence to be much of a factor. In
deed, within the past year he had been
criticized rather severely in army cir
cles for his Indifference to the crisis
in which his country was involved and
| for not taking the war seriously
enough, and from all 1 was able to
observe of him during the visits he
| paid me after the resumption of our
relations, these criticisms were well
founded. The newspapers, however,
which were naturally inspired, always
| brought his name to the front when
ever the army he was accredited to
made any successful showing just as
they did in the case of the kaiser.
During his various visits to me I
tried to draw him out a little on diff
| ferent aspects of the international sit
uatiOn, but the ideas he expressed
were not of much moment.
1.-THE allies think we will run short
of man-power," he said on one occa-
sion, "but we've got 100000 youths
growing up and Wen soon be able to
put them in the war. There's no dam
ger of our running short of men, but,
really, I wish it were all over This
war is lot of damned nonsense, you
know" He talked as If the two mil
lion growing-up youths of Germany
were created for the HohenzolIerns to
use as they pleased.
Another remark he made which in
dicated how sadly he misconstrued the
epOch-making significance OF the great
war in which the whole world was
involved was quite characteristic.
with so many men at the front, -
he said, "the men at home ought to be
having a fine time with the women,
eh, what? Do you see many good
looking girls in Berlin now?''
In this connection I may mention
that many of the more sober officers
told me that they were Disguised with
the manner in which the crown prince
was acting at his headquarters. 1T is
really a disgrace" they complained.
''for the crown prince to have so many
| questionable women visiting him. 1t
certainly doesn't set much of an ex-
ample for the rest Of the staff"
The whole situation appeared to the
crown prince very much in the light
of joke.
"Pve just come from the western
'front.'" he told me. MY men are up
! to their knees in water and mud.
We've been having lots of fun pump
ing the water out of our trenches into
| the French trenches"
"Well, 1 suppose the French pump
it right back again, don't they?"
You're quite right, quite right.
That's exactly what they do. Really,
it's a great lark"
Remarks of this kind rather sickened
me of this self-satisfied young man.
1 realized, of course, that his part in
the war was played at such a safe
distance from the front lines that he
was probably not familiar with all the