The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1919-02-17
LAST DAYS OF
KAISER AT SPA
Guard Tells Of the Escape of Ger
man Ex-RuIer.
QUITS A TRAIN FOR BERLIN
1t Stops in Open Country and the
Amazed Body-Guard See War Lord
Flee in ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS and
Seheidemann Treat William as a
Grown-up chiId-Mad Scramble to
Leave Spa When End Comes.


Some day the tragi-comedy of the
ex-kaiser's flight will assuredly be
known in all its details and will prove
n of the most humanity interesting,
If not n of the most edifying, cpl
sodes in history, writes Julian Grande
in New York Times. In all proba-
bility, however, many of those who
would find this narrative most absorb
ing will no longer be here to read 1t
when it appears. Any eyewitness ac-
count, therefore, of Williams last
hours as kaiser cannot but arouse at
t~ention, especially if 1t bear every
mark of veracity.
This particular eyewitness was a Ger
man acting color sergeant, who, with
his company, was on guard outside the
Belgian castle at Spa where William
H~ohenzollern had his quarters when
the ultimatum, concerning his abdica-
ton was delivered by Erzberger, Schei-
demann, and the rest.
One day this eyewitness noticed the
kaiser walking with some n else In
the grounds of his residence, and over
heard his majesty's companion saying
to him:
Seems 1S4S all over again, just the
same political c~onjuncture! But that's
not saying it'll end so tragically."
To which the kaiser replied fire.
quently, ia, ia"
This conversation took place on the
morning after the famous six motor
cars with Erzberger, Scheidemann and
company had returned from the French
front at IL p. m, bearing the armis-
tice conditions, which apparently were
not taken so very tragically, for these
gentry were heard laughing and crack
ing jokes about them with the kaiser.
Treat Kaiser as Child.
The interview of the kaiser with
Scheidemann, Erzberger and company
will perhaps one day be made known,
but one thing is certain. Even at that
hour William Hohenzollern seemed to
fail to realize the situation, and Err
berger and Scheidemann did not unde-
ceive him. In other words, they treat
ed him as a grown-up child.
On the day after the armistice terms
were made known to the kaiser, a
Thursday, the atmosphere In Spa must
have been exceedingly electric, for
our eyewitness tells us that his regi-
ment was fully armed and always on
picket duty, and that 1t was only be-
cause they were well provided with
hand grenades that any sort of order
was preserved.
Friday night was the last night that
the kaiser slept, or rather spent, at the
white castle or country house in which
he had installed himself In Spa. In
the town the excitement was at fever
heat. The battalion to which u eye
witness belonged was parading the
streets, fully armed, with fixed bay
onets and hand grenade bags full.
The next morning, Saturday. his
company was ordered to be at the rail
way station, where they were told
that a train was ready to take them
to Berlin. At the station they found
that the ex-kaiser was already in one
of the carriages, attended by a small
suite. The train left as usual, but
after two hours I'll 1T suddenly stop
ped, right In the open country, and
the ex-kaiser and his suite got out
and entered some motorcars which
were awaiting them. And away they
wentl To quote the color-sergeant's
own words: "The troops accompany.
ing him hung their amazed coun'
tenances out of the carriage windows
and spent the time on the return jour
ney discussing what had happened.
Every Man for Himself.
They went back to Spa, and 1t was
then a case of every man for himself
and the devil take the hindmost. OFF,
GERS fastened to get hold Of the first
available motorcar and secure as much
benzine or petrol as possible, filling
the cars with anything on which they
could lay hands. Whether It belonged
to them or not vas quite a secondary
consideration. And then of they went.
too. The grand general staff began
packing up, and that very morning
Hindenburg thought 1t prudent to is
sue an order to form soldiers councils.
Apparently the company to which
this eyewitness belonged must still
have been considered the most faith
full of all, for he himself left with the
same train that had Hindenburg on
board and what was left of the gen.
eral staff. Hindenburg apparently
kept his head, or rather tried to keep
1t, to the very end. II he had not is
sued orders for the formation Of sol.
diers' councils, however, he would
probably not have kept his head very
Iong--in the literal sense Of the phrase.
One thing is certain, Judging from
the statements of this eyewitness: 1t
was Foch's. Haig's and Pershing's hui
mainly and aversion to needless blood
shed which saved the whole German
army from complete capitulation. II
the allied generals had chosen to sac.
rifice another 10000 or $4,000 British,
French, American and Belgian lives,
they would have made prisoners the
entire German army and brought about
a military catastrophe such as the
world has never behold.