Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-02-21
EX KA|5E.: 4 4
AFRA|L) Of
WHITE LADY
IS FAMOUS GHOST
Former Emperor Lives in
Terror of Spook That
Haunts Teuton Royal
Family

duuluS
the troubles of William Hohenzol-
lern? There are rumors from .Hol-
land and France that the famous
ghost of the Prussian clan is one
or the causes OF the worry that is
aging the former kaiser.
A recent letter from Miss
Louise Arden, Red Cross nurse
and music student, to New York
friends, tells of the white
Lady's" temperance as the YER
sion has reached Paris.
THE story that the kaiser is
losing his mind through fear of
the White Lady is common talk
in Paris. They tell it here in the
most matter of fact way to ex-
plain the report that the kaiser is
becoming unbalanced" she wrote.
The legend of the white
Lady, is centuries older than was
the empire. She is supposed to
appear shortly before the death Of
one of the house of Hohenzollern.
Many stories are told of her ap-
pearances before the passing of
rulers of Prussia and there are,
too, various and different stories
of her origin.
The more widely credited story
is that the white Lady was
Cunigunda, Countess Won Plassen-
burg. When but a girl she was
married against her will to the old
count, Sigmund Won PIassenburg
A few years later he died, leaving
her rich, beautiful and the mother
Of two children. She fell in love
with Albert, burgrave of Nurem-
burg and one of the ancestors Of
the HohenZollerns. But he did not
reciprocate her affection. She
even proposed marriage to him but
he took refuge in. the fact that his
parents did not approve of her
and returned the cryptic answer
that -four eyes now in existence
prevent"
The countess assumed that he
hated the two children of the old
Count Won Plassenburg and that
he referred to them. So she had
the burgrave Albert tell him what
she had done.
'The four eyes that troubled are
troublesome no longer" the le-
gend makes her say. $50 now let
us be we'd"
But the burgraVe, who seems to
lack the full flavor Of the kultur
attained by later day Hohenzol-
lerns, had her seized, tried and
condemned for the murder of her
children.
CURSED FAMILY FOREVER
When she came to die, she
paused on her way to the block
LONG enough to curse the bur-
grave, "his friends and relatives
and children forever and ever"
When you come to die I shall be
there, and no member of your
family but shall know me before
their race is rum" she is said to
have declared.
John George, elector of Bran
denburg in 1898, is the first of
the Hohenzollerns reputed to
have seen the ghostly nemesis. He
died at his dinner table soon aft
err. She appeared before Freder-
lex William, father of Frederick
the Great. He was an old man
then, i'll and half mad. Turning
in his bed, he saw tall figure in
white, with arm outstretched. He
died two days later.
Frederick the Great is reputed
to have scoffed at the superstition
and to have declared that he
would have liked to see the
white Lady" He had his wish
gratified, so the tale runs, for the
white Lady" came upon him one
day as he was playing a flute. He
heard the swish of garments be-
hind, turned and beheld woman
of unearthly beauty, clad all in
white. The king advanced to-
ward her, but she eluded him.. He
pursued her from room to room
of the castle till at last she YAM
ished. Four days later he died.
A whole detachment Of the pal
ace guard is said to have seen
the ''White Lady, in 1910, few
days before King Frederick Will
liam died.
EX-KAISER'S FATHER SAW 1T
The apparition is said to have
come into the presence OF both the
grandfather and father Of the
kaiser. and servants and guards
men alike assert they saw the ap-
partition just before old William |
died.
The last of the HohenzoIlerns
is declared to have always enter
tanned a secret dread Of the fam
ily ghost. Little given to myS-
ticism in other ways, he is said to
have believed firmly in the exist
ence of the white shrouded meme
sis. Perhaps q fear of the doom
that it's coming will signify is
Tightening the many terrors OF
Tho nnisera HE man at AmerOngen.