The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-08-17

yearning for alien trousers. Mr.. BlgeloW
was the owner of a priceless miniature
2 of the famous Queen Louise, which he
valued all the more because it was gift
to him from the venerable Queen Of Han
over, whose blind husband had been de-
throned by William l. in 1866 although
the Hanoverians defeated the Prussians
In an important battle in the war OF that
wear. William II. manifested such an in
tense interest in this. miniature that Mr..
Bigelow let him have it to look at, men
tioning how much he valued it on account
of the circumstances under which he had
acquired it. ''Never was that miniature
handed back to me-" says Mr.. Bigelow,
although 1 spoke of it earnestly to the
Emperor's principal aide-de-canp, the
late Gen. Won Zitzewitz. Not only did
William rob me of that precious portrait,
but his eourtiers looked at one another
with stupefactiOn when l made so strange
a claim upon one who was evidently not
accustomed to restoring what had once
come under his all coveting hand
III.
Almost as bitterly does Mr.. BigelOw
bemoan the Kaiser's appropriation of his
American cruising canoe, the Caribee, IN
which he made ], 800 mile voyage down
the Danube and was the first vOyager to
pass through the Iron Gates in so fragile
! craft. William ii. borrowed this costly
canoe from its owner on the pretence
that he wanted it for the use of his SIX
sons in learning TO be expert canoelsts.
awhile / have lost my matchless Caribee,"
says Mr. Bigelow, ''the Kaiser has broken
his word for when visited her In 1913,
she was hidden away amid other dust
covered nautical curios in an obscure
corner of his boathouse at Potsdam. The
old guardian did not know who | was and
| stayed but long enough to learn that my
canoe had never been used and that l had
been the victim of a Prussian promise"
The Kaiser's foreign acquaintance were
constrained at considerable expense to
become members of a yacht club which
was a German imitation of the Royal
Yacht Squadron of England. 1t was a
sham, except for officers of the Germany
navy At the festival of the opening
of the Kiel Canal in 1895, Mr.. Bigelow
was harshly challenged by a sentry for
attempting to go ashore at the landing
stage of this yacht club-in which he en-
joyed membership, but nothing else, for
a period of twenty-five years. The SEN
try had been ordered to shoot any person
attempting to land there unless he was in
uniforml In 1914, the German members
began to fiji the visitors book with car
toons depicting imaginary victories of the
German feet over the navies of France,
Italy and England. Mr.. Bigelow' remon-
strated at this unsportsmanlike perform
ance and was thereupOn promptly ex-
PEELED from the club, which, however, re-
tanned his money. 1t is to this incident
that he refers when he says, "Wilhelm
also owes me money" He does not ex-
pect to get any money back; but now that
there is a republic on the banks of the
Havel, he lives in the hope that he may
some day recover his miniature OF Queen
Louise and his Rob Roy canoe, the
Caribee.
The Kaiser continually sought to emu
late the spirit of the English and Amer
leans in international yachting; yet here
also he failed In 1912, Lieut.. Robert E.
Tod of the United States Navy did much
to revive deep sea yachting by arranging
an international yacht race from Sandy
Hook to the Lizard "The yachts were
all either English or American and there
was originally not the slightest idea or
desire that Germany should be in any way
mixed up in the matter" The German
Emperor, however, projected his person.
atty into the contest by announcing that
he would assume the patronage thereof
and would bestow a costly prize upon the
winner and autographed photographs