The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-12-19
Princes Work Seriously
in the German Way
to Keep From Being
Bored by Idleness
By RAYMOND SWING.

Special Correspondence of THE NEW, YoRE
HERALD
Copyright, 1920. ty THE NEW York HERALD.
New York Herald Bureau, |
Berlin, Dec. I.
TN Berlin two Germans are attending the
State Agricultural College, their brother
is assistant in a private bank. and in the
Taurus Mountains is another brother en-
gagged in administering the famous Bad
Homburg. Though such occupations are not
of themselves remarkable these warrant
notice, for they are the employment Of four
disappointed princes. sons Of the deposed
Kaiser of Germany.
The two students are none other than
the former regimental idols, Eitel Friedrich
and Oskar, now committing like any patient
straphangers who travel from suburb to city.
The royal banker is the effete August, Will
helm; the h0telier is the sailor Adalbert.
The simmer Of court and military life is
gone for them all. The revolution. whatever
else it achieved, made a job Of il in setting
down these princes to common civilian
status.
Not that they are forced to study farming.
administer pleasure palaces or sell stocks
end bonds. for they are sons of a father who
before the war was the second richest man
in Germany and who stands in fair way
Of saving as plain William Won Hohenzollern
the personal estates accumulated by his
shrewd forebears and by his own business
activity.
Working to Avoid Ennuras
Seriously as They Were Princes
The princes. are working because life
would be intolerable otherwise. They had
inherited the usual Hohenzollern trait OF
taking themselves as princes fairly seri-
ously. They had clnked their spurs in the
satin walled galleries of fathers imperial
palace in Berlin. They had been feted gal
lsnts in a circuit of gilded salons. Thei'
automobiles had raced through the streets
Of the capital, a lackey beside the chauffeur
bugling out winnings to fathers" gapins
subjects They had been heralded and ap
plauded in all obeisance.
And then a saddler, as President, was
housed in their oldest brothers palace. and
his wife, the first lady of the land" in
stalled sewing machines in their sisters
royal boudoir The royal guards of the Pots
dam barracks were disbanded The salons
of the nobility were tuned to lamentations.
Fathers palace became a fine arts mu-
-seum, and "father's' former subjects them
selves could shuttle through its satin walled
galleries.
Friedrich wilhelm, once Crown Prince.
has suffered the most from the revolution.
He is represented by his Berlin friends as
dolefuliy writing his memoirs playing his
fiddle or painting in the prison OF the fisher
hut on the Isle of Wieringen. A dingy
cabin, they say it is He has no comrades
beside the parish pastor, no games, no
sports, no circle of enthusiasts to indulge
his moods. His boys are growing up and
he cannot share their boyhood. His wife
comes to Holland only rarely He is the
mournfulest of exiles. a dettanteS with 81
pen. violin and painters kit-and with
Il parson for a chum.
Held the Family Together by
Her Display of Good Sense
His wife is commonly conceded to have
played the fine part for the royal family
after the revolution she broke down, 1t is
said. for half an hour, and then wiped her
eyes to take the changed prospect into ac-
count. She was the first of the Potsdam col
ony to accept facts as facts, and when revo-
lutionary soldiers councils visited Cecilien-
hof her Potsdam palace, she had the tact
20 receive them aniably In person.
She had counsel for her brothers-in-law
and reinsurance for their wives. She trans
posed the pitch of her own habits to q key