Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1920-02-12
Frenehman Makes Prayer for Kaiser

D
lowing prayer as coming from William
Hohenzollern, the former Kaiser, con-
Tossing his misdeeds and barring his
soul TO his Maker
WILLIAM of Hohenzollen opens a
box of precious wood and lifts the
great mantle of white cloth with
clasps of gold, a mantle cut for
triumphal entries, ready now as a
shroud. He lifts the mantle and
throws it about his shoulders.
From a table he seizes a pen cut
from the wing of an eagle and sent
him by the lattery of his vassal of
Bavaria. He kneels and he writes.
He writes TO God:
God OF Kings, no longer believe
in myself and | doubt you. COM
mitted blasphemy in praying to you.
wished to make you in my image.
ask now that you receive my con-
fession. In your holy justice compen-
safe my lack of glory by a surcease
from sorrow. Vanquished as | am, |
ask you to end it all.
For | have lived without religion.
| have never warmed myself in your
sun of eternity, which shines in
beauty, nobleness, and heroism. |
have never had pure thought. am
unworthy of going to heaven.
go used the magic power of my
sceptre only to satisfy personal ambi-
ton.
81 lied in appealing to my country;
| thought only of myself. lied in
praising my race; loved only my
self. lied in proclaimng legitimate
love; was an adulterer. deserve
the punishment you mete to par
ricideS; for | wished for the death of
my father. For | prosecuted my mo-
| Their.
"'Goa ease my dizziness. For my
life is dark dunghill from which
spreads odors of death.
GAS a young man plunged BY
beardless lips into the cup or orgy AS
an cid man, have tried to forget my
wrinkles by drinking from the same
cup. tried to believe that YOU would
sustain me with ysur arms and that
| your angels would cover me with their
/ wings. | tried to be an Emperor
without an equal. In 1889 | had the
son of an Emperor assassinated be-
cause he was my rival. In 1914 ar
ranged the incident out of which the
world war grew.
1.-The stars of the August sky were
for me tapers of evil on the altar
night. And now the leaves of the
Book of War are turned and bloc,
tows from the seals which | placed
there. Death is on every page where
| wrote. put mystic fillet of pride
upon my brow and my dream ended
in murder. | envy the dead loved bv
you, dead men whom killed, in
nocents whose tombs upon fields of
battle are lighted each morning by
the sunbeams the better to show my
! infamy.
"'Crush my avarice, o God of
Purest Treasures. For | have wasted
the blood of peoples. But guard
my own blood Carefully have saved
my limbs from harm. | deserve the
punishment which time holds for
towards. For | trembled when saw
the first defeat of my armies on the
hills of Nancy. | was afraid when |
lost the road to Paris, Paris hated
and adored.
Finally fled for | did not know
how to die when | saw defeat gallon
ing behind me. Now still am afraid,
and hide behind a woman's skirts
from the tribunal of men.
God of Beauty, deserve only
hell, for love uglness and | practice
horror. Your flowers blush before
me, red tulips close their petals when
] pass by and the narcissuses hold
back their perfume and the irises
bend their tall heads. Men spit on
my footsteps and mothers weep. I
know that for ages to GENE people
viii curse the stone of my tomb. Bu'
! have not the courage 10 flee in death
God of Justice, let your just
anger take its course. Place me
quickly in the cemetery of history
Receive me into infinite time. Blu,
let me no longer hear the cry against
me OF the long procession of the peo-
Piles of the world. In your mercy.
let little orphans learn to wished to
forget my name, that name which |
write upon the clouds of heaven. To