Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-04-15


regimcntal wardrobe-master was
soon exhausted. Tailors demanding
! enormous profits as an offset against
the risks involved had to be en-
| ployed, and from them to the usurer
was but one step. According to this
! recipe, Count Won R, a dashing
! captain of the Body Hussars, was
ruined, and Herr Won L, of the
First Guards, kept him company,
with hundreds of others.
Herr Won LIS mother, widow
! of a privy councillor, who made
| her son a yearly allowance, besides
keeping a family of several unmar-
| ried daughters out of a pension of
| forty-five hundred marks, came to
me, requesting an audience of Her
Majesty. When, according to in
| structions. l inquired after the
nature of her business, she confess
cd, to my utter CONSERVATION, that
she intended 10 petition the Empress
to use her influence toward keeping
the Kaiser away from the military
! casinos.
| OF course, to let Madame Won
l. come near Auguste Victoria
! was entirely out of the question un-
| der the circumstances: but while,
as lady of the Court, did my best
| to dissuade her from her purpose,
as woman, | could not close my
ears to that poor mothers argu-
ments.
| "My sons pay" she said, "am mount-
! ed. as YOU probably know, to one
| hundred and seventy-five marks
! ($33.50) per month, of which all
! but forty marks ($10) were de-
Quoted for wardrobe account, repre-
sentation and benefit funds, board
and lodging, etc. Out of these forty
marks and half as much again
my own modest contribution-Wa
| ter had to pay for his suppers, his
| tobacco, his Car-farc, his amuSe-
ments and incidentals, and, though
| it was hard work, he managed to
| keep within his income until His
| Majesty began to invite himself to
the casino.
after the Kaiser's first visit" the
worried mother told me, my boy
had to contribute fifteen marks to-
ward the cost of the entertainment
and, to reimburse himself, borrowed
Il double gold crown from com
radc. In the course of the next
month, His Majesty repeated his
costly visit, and my hoy was blcd Il
| second time. Then, after paying his
comradC, he retained just five marks
out OF his pay. while II month OF
hunger and humiliation was staring
him i'm the face! Soon afterward
! Walter found himself struggling in
| the clutches of the usurer, and with
| in six months (they have not much
patience with us penniless bureau
| Crats) his disgrace was gaZetted.
And believe me-" added the
! broken-hearted mother, my son S
| iS - N nNpnniinnDl nt hnr
| promising young lives have been
wrecked in the same way, and the
ruin of hundreds of officers who
| Judge the commanding chief by his
! deeds rather than by his words is
! threatening.
For their sake, for the sake of
| their mothers and sisters concluded
Madame Won l., earnestly, Il am
| seeking audience with the Empress.
l want to throw myself at Her
Majestys feet, picturing to her the
pcrils to which our sons arc exposed
Ey coming into personal contact with
the Kaiser. l will say to her: His
Majesty is certainly actuated by the
highest motives, but the splcndor
of his presence, the gorgeousness of
the entertainments provided for
him, are apt to befool ambitious
young men by deceiving them as to
their own inSignficance, and by
tightening their sense of the respon-
Sibiltics they owe to themselves,
their family, and their country" &"
In this connection, an observation
by General Won Kessel, then COM
mander of the First Guards, de-
serves mention. IF His Majesty
wants to see his officers we'll dressed,
he should stop eating them out of
lot Nf,rnf at hnir sgsiF, rll1t.
cannot afford to play the host and
pay their tailors at the same time"
said the dashing adjutant.
Her Won KesScl referred to His
MajestY's criticism of the dress of
certain officers of the Breslau
Cuirassiers. body of troopers from
whom William demanded hospitality
on all occasions.
When London Rcjoiccd
In foggy London even the gloom
lest days of the war lost some of
their sombre hue with people i'm
the know" when it was telegraphed
from the front that the Kaiser in
tended to be a real war lord and
take command of an ensuing battle.
Good for our boys" the most
decent thing he ever contemplated"
said those English who remembered
the stories of the mimic battle man.
euvers, which William loved to
prepare in times of peace. and which
General Won Haeseler characterized
as magnificent, each ending like that
between the fabulous lions whose
tails alone remained on the field.
But as to the burial of the dead (sup-
posing the Kaiser's theories were fol-
lowe6, l cannot for the life of
me, conceive who would attend to
it. Let us assume, for arguments
sake, that the nations of the Triple
Alliance march into the field under
the chief war-lord's guidance, -
Germans and Austrians side by side,
Italians covering the rear.
Then let two or three battles be
fought, such as we experienced in
Bavaria: vast masses of foot
launched on top of each other.
tambour battant, horse and artillery
swallowing hailstorms of bullets
with gusto, as if they were soup!
Why unless our Peninsular friends
turned gravediggers, one and all,
peStilence would drive them back.
In his book, "The Blot Upon the
Brain" William w. Ireland, NJ. D.,
Edinburgh, says: "The power
drunk are easily beaten in the field
by generals who prefer what is es-
sential to what is superflous."
AS to the 'superfluous," - when
returning from n review, the war
lord seldom spoke of the success or
non-success of the exercises; that
he caught Lieutenant Won Y. Y.
wearing an overcoat an inch shorter
than the regulations stipulate, or
n SIIb- -nffipar ottiro1 tn