Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-04-10
ITO BE Continued.)


helped to re-cement the bonds be-
tween king and people.
"Will it please Your Majesty to
go on your usual Santa-Claus eX-
pedition this evening before the
trees are lit?" asked Court-marshal
Count Eulenburg at second break
fast on the day preceding Christmas.
Most certainly" replied the
Kaiser. "and, by the way, direct
Miessner to furnish me with silver
coins, instead of gold, this time
fourteen Thalers and three or four
1ive-mark pieces. You see," he add
ed, addressing himself to the En-
press, II have been thinking about
this giving away of gold; some poor
devil, whom L try to benefit, might
arouse suspicion when he offers my
Christmas present in payment. That
element of distrust and danger 1
will circumvent by spending only
Thalers among my needy friends
hereafter"
How thoughtful of you," lisped
the Empress, deVouring her husband
with admiring glances.
When "the Poor Arc in Luck
Your Majesty thinks of every
thing" said the Countesses Won
Brockdorff and Won Bassewitz. And
"of everything, particularly his
pocket" whispered my neighbor.
When the Kaiser came to take
leave of Her Majesty that evening
he drew from his overcoat pocket
the shabby little amount he had de-
cided to spend, fifty-seVen marks in
all.
"The poor are in luck tonight"
lie said. "Miessner selected the
brightest Thalers in his treasury,
they are really very pretty" and
the Kaiser laughed as the hapless
Princess Lamballe may have laugh
ed as she exclaimed:
IF the poor have no bread, let
'em eat cake"
Maybe the practice of bringing up
German princes in complete lgno-
rance of money-matters was respon-
sible.
Royal parents seemed to think
that to deprive their sons up to the
day of their majority of a decent
amount of pocket-money was the
surest and the only way to keep
their boys from becoming spend
thrifts.
In Prussia, the princely youth was
allowed q few Thalers .($2 to $2.5O)
per week, of which the minutest
accounting is demanded, and which
and that is the worst feature-he
may not even manage in person,
that privilege being reserved for his
governor. The practice has worked
havoc immeasurable with us, as
we'll as with others.
True, young Hohenzollerns are
not liable to be flogged nowadays
for spending a few coppers unnec-
essarily, as Crown Prince Frederick
(known as Frederick the Great)
was when he gave a royal servant
15 cents for bringing his dog from
Potsdam to Wusterhausen, dis
tance of twenty miles (his father
beat him for having no more
sense than to pay a man who merely
did his damned duty'D; but even
Wilhelm's parents insisted upon
bringing up the heir to the throne
without giving him a chance to ac-
quaint himself with the power, the
temptation, the misery, and the joy
that the possession of ready money
gives.
As the holes in the Greek phiIo-
Sopher'S toga denoted vanity rather
than contempt of worldly opinion, so
the patches on youthful Hohcnzol-
lcrn's trousers Indicate not Spartan
frugality, but a false notion of the
principles of economies.
The Kaiser's sons were not taught
that it was necessary to economiZe
in order to be liberal they were
merely deprived of things they liked
good clothes and cash in obed-
ience to a hoary delusion that has
peopled the thrones of Europe with
spendthrifts or niggards for CEN
turtles.
I have heard the former Court
marshal Won Lebenau say that Will
liam, when at college, never had
copper over and above his expenses,
all of which were disbursed by him,
Liebenau.
Stingincss Hohcnzollcrn Char
acteristic
when he entered active service,
that old bane-penury - lowered
over the lieutenant, captain, and
colonel; his entire income was made
ever to me every month, and as it
was always spoken for in advance,
my young master even aspired in
vain for pocket-piece, a double
gold crown" ($5).
Wilhelm. having been unable to
acquire intimate acquaintance with
money, almost showed child
ish attitude toward financial queS-
ton, and, having all his own wants
attended to as matter of course,
failed TO understand or appreciate
NIItJ WIS uuc to OtIlcTS.
And what was sauce for the
Prussian gander was gravy for the
Bavarian goose as we'll The reader
will recollect some of the vagaries
of Louis of Bavaria, whose wild ex-
travagance and contempt for the
science of addition and subtraction
led to his committing murder and
suicide. When Louis was 16, his
mother wrote to Queen Augusta:
Il am in despair and hardly know
where to turn. l cannot conscien-
tiously oppose the Kings methods,
still it is hard to see my children
suffer under a system that robs
them of all the little joys of life.
The King will not allow our boys
to have more than eight Groschens
(15 cents) pocket money per week
ridiculous amount.
Yesterday 1 learned that Ludwig
had contracted with a dentist to
have two of his sound molar teeth
pulled, for which the boy was to
get twenty forins. The Prince had
given a fictitious name, and the
dentist heard only by the merest
accident, and at the last moment,
whom he had before him. OF course
he quailed on learning the truth,
and very properly informed our
Court-marshal, who in turn ac-
quainted me with the facts. l for
Want 1c k>ow why
I'm always so cheS-
fsiI2 He