The St. Charles herald. [volume] (Hahnville, La.) 1873-1993, 1921-02-26

him were really very nasty"
Williams Vanity Wounded.
The chancellor derived great pleas.
ure from the incident, but William
was very hurt and angry, both at the
ear and ut Bismarck, because of the
situation in which he had found him
self placed and the wound to his van
ity. Shortly after this. while his rage
was still hot, he heard of some i'll
| founded report by an obscure German
consul in Russia which told of an al
| legged mobilization of the Russian
army. Bismarck had not thought il
worth calling to the kaisers attention.
as there were slight grounds for be-
lleving the report. But the kaiser be-
lleved every word of it. and wrote a
discdurteouS note 10 the chancellor
! asking why such important informa-
ton had been withheld from him. He
declared that the empire was threat
ened and that counter measures must
be taken at once against the threat
ened Russian menace
Bismarck's policy had been tradi-
tionally pro-RuSsian for 80 wears, and
he knew that there was no ground for
alarm. Action on the part of the Ger
man empire would have caused I'M
necessary complications and might
have ended in real trouble. Bismarck
won his point, but at the cost of great
II strained relations with the throne.
This quarrel soon merged into an
other. for Bismarck, who felt that he
was being supplanted by others in the
confidence of the kaiser, suddenly in
sisted on a constitutional clause. 40
years old. which forbade the ministers
to converse officially with the SOW
ereign except through the MEDIUM of
the premier. Bismarck WAS both
Prussian premier and imperial chan
cellor. and was determined to let no
one but himself exercise direct per-
sOnal influence On the monarch. The
kaiser. who liked to talk personally
with his ministers and who favored q
direct government policy. demanded
the abolition of the clause Bismarck
refused, but offered to resign.
The offer was n mere gesture. Bis
marck had rendered his resignation
many times before when he wished to
gain point, and had always won At
one time the kaiser had returned
written offer with the word Never"
scrubbed across 1t. But now he sent
the chief of the civil cabinet to call
for the offer Of resignation at Bis
marck's house. The chancellor refused
tc he hurried. Carefully anc slowly
he began the wording of the resigna-
ton. An afternoon and evening passed.
and the next morning the kaiser lost
patience and sent an adjutant with
the message:
His majesty will wait Until two
o'clock for the document"
Bismarck told the adjutant that he
was ready to sign his own resigna-
ton at any moment" but that he
needed time to write out his offer II
the tone was to befit the dignity of his
In his decision. Bismarck was dis
missed. In an effort to conciliate him
William conferred upon the outgoing
chancellor the title Of duke, but the
honor was not accepted.
General Caprivi was at once named
as his successor and as soon as his
resignation had been received Bis
marck was hurried out of the chan
cellor's palace with unseemly haste
He says that while his servants were
still packing up his possessions the
lackeys of his successor occupied the
stairs, doors and passages of the pal
ace" and part of the palace was al
ready taken possession of by General
Caprivi before Bismarck left.
In the third volume Bismarck. hav-
ing brought the story of his own po-
litical career to an end, adds mali
cious chapter of criticism of the
kaiser. He also attacks Caprivi for
exchanging Zanzibar for Heligoland
and for not renewing the treaty with
Russia. He closes with the prophecy
of ruin and catastrophe for the ma
lions of Europe.