Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-03-25


nothing of affairs within the last few
years, which might incriminate many
living personages. Let us begin at
the beginning. What was the iuu-
damental conception of moral opH-
cations with which William Hoheh-
Zollern began life? And What wa"
the nature of this moral deVeiop-
ment? .ho
was told when I entered the
Court that as young prince aiIUue r.n
men of his own caste ana ase,
liam had but one intimate. the laeo
Rudolph of Austria; but the pleas
ant relations between these young
men, based upon mutual nkes anu anu
dislikes, came to an abrupt end some
four wears previous to the Arch-
dukes awful death, discord arising
when Prince and Princess Wllllant
were spending several weeks at tnelr
| Imperial Highnesses country-place
Inear Vienna. From this outing the
Princess returned all of a sudden
and post-haste to Potsdam, Whiie
iher husband went on an impromptl
tour of military inspections In the
iprovinces.
Il And the reason?
Princess Philip of Coburg, sister
of the Archduchcss Stephanie, told
me that William, returning In her
brother-in-laws's company from
stag party late one evening, propos'
ed a game, which, Her Royal High
ness insists, is quite common
among German officers.
(Deleted by the editors).
Next morning the young wives
got together; but as each charged
the others husband with instigating
the devilish plot, the happy family
party was bound to break up, ana
the worthy of each others separteu
without saying goodbye. Such' at
least, was common report at the
Court of Empress Augusta in COB
lentz, where 1 happened to be at
the time.
AS for the rest, it will probably
never be known which of the royal
gentlemen melted the act; maybe
both were drunk and agreed upon
the dictum of Prussian army men:
Among pals it's all the same" as
good joke.
!. Accusations in Diplomatic Record
(This testimony of the next episode
is related here also with apologies;
!, 1t becomes essential, however, to
, give history its correct judgment.
My next experience in the EN-
perors Court was when the house,
, hold was upset by the receipt of an
anonymous letter, written to the
Empress. / will tell more about
these anonymous letter scandals
iIater-but here let me mention this
one:
Madame" wrote the anonymous
correspondent, do you know what
is the difference between you and Ma
ria Leczinska? Her children died
while Louis the Fiftcenth's illegiti-
mate offspring hourished. Today
the Kaiser's Vienna baby is dead.
wonder if for the same reason which
the physician of His Most Christian
Majesty assigned for the demise OF
the Queens children?"
That cruel letter. cruel, yet con-
solng in more than one way, ar
rived when the anonymous letter
scandal was at it's height and the
little waif was about twelve months
old.
Her mother was a beauteous vi
ennese, Fraulein Caroline Seiffert,
one of the late Crown Prince Ru-
dolph's set.
Madame Won Kotze insisted that
: it was a spite baby. Il will tell you
more about Madam Won kotze later. }
"And what on earth is a spite
baby?" I inquired.
"They had been making fun OF
Caroline-His Majesty, then Prince
, William, and the Prince Imperial
. as a little idiot, who didn't know
enough to have child; but
like the first Napoleon's love, Mar
guerite Bellisle (the girl General
Bonaparte had with him in Egypt,
= or rather took away from one of his
officers there), the Vienna beauty
said: L will show them who the
idiot is
Her child was born, two or three
weeks after Eitel Fritz, the Kaiser's
second son, saw the light at the
Marble Palace.
l remembered the circumstances
perfectly, and my question to Mad
anne Won Kotze was merely asked to
help clear up, if possible, the au-
thorship Of the unsigned communi-
cations that had kept their Majcs-
ties and the Court in a turmoil for
two years. I was one of many in
the royal service and society gener-
ally who did not believe the KotZes
, guilty, and have never had occasion
to change this opinion. Jealousy
was alleged to be the handspring OF
the scandal,-Madame Won KotZe's
jealousy of Countess Fritz Hohe-
nau's ascendency over the Kaiser,
l put the question to disabuse my
mind of any suspicious of that sort
The Man Who Caused the World War
To return to Williams infatuation
for Mademoiselle Seiffert. That story
was we'll known to the intimates OF
the late Crown Princes circle. (Af-
terward Emperor Frederick.)
"Unser Fritz" did not mind II
| ~
hand by his "Vicky" all through life,
suspect he even took some mis-
chievous delight in his sons escn-
pade, as his visit to the Court of the
late Alphonso XII, so rich in adven-
ture, proved.
But in the Princess Imperial's eyes
a liasion was little short of crime.
Pictures of the fourth George and
Mrs. Fitz-Herbert, she told me once,
arose before her mental eyes every
time she thought of the matter. At
that period, be it remembered, the
history of Prince and Princess Will
liam's marriage was as fresh in
everybody's memory as it is now
obscure,-as fresh as were the incl
dents attending Georges courtship
with Caroline of Brunswick during
the first ten years after Europe's
gentleman par excellence had reeled
into the Chapel Royal and hic-
coughed out his vows of fidelity.
Auguste Victoria was much
lnI \