The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-12-13
BY S. d. WEYER

/ BY -. u. " Il E6
Berlin, Dec. 13.-The human tri-
angle being no respector of persons,
! bobbed up one day at Castle Doom,
entered without knocking and rudely
broke up the secret romance in the
4 life of Wilhelm HohenzolIern. former
German emperor And then it began
1 to play its old heartiess- game entitled
the woman pays.nt
The woman who, in this case, paid
and paid and paid-and is still paying
/ in heart blood, in friendship, In re-
spect and in social prestige, is Frau
Gabrielle Won Rochow, who for six
months was secretly engaged to marry
wilhelm HohenzoIern-.
She broke ca the engagement after
the kaiser's camarilla" Gas Wilhelm's
encourage at Doom ts now known)
| had alta cked her for two reasons.
Firstly, while she belongs to the 50,
called "radel,'' which is the oldest and
proudest aristocracy In the empire
her fo-ebearers were knights in
Brandenburg long before the advent
of the Roh5nzcnern-she is not OF
royal blood; therefore, It would have
been a mes alliance IL the form er
kaiser had ever been returned r. che
German throne.
Secondly, the members of the
kaiser's camarilla disapproved of any
remarriage. preferring to keep the ex-
He'd monarch under their own sway
without Interference of a wife who
might look into the cardS.
Strange as 1t may seem, these two
women-Frau Won Rochow, who lost,
lapd Princess Hern1ine of Reuss, who |
won in the game of love-have one
common emotion and uttered it to me |
in almost identical words. 1t is the |
most bitter. undying hatred against |
the members of the former kaiser's /
encourage at the house of Doom.
Right here it should be said that |
Frau Won Rochow has not the slight
1nnGU
the woman who won and who was led /
to the altar. On the contrary, she al
ways speaks of Princess Hermine |
(now known in the HohenzoIlern |
household as Kaiserin Hermine) in |
the kindest and most cordial terms.
The grievance lies elsewhere. Some |
one once said that mans meanness
may turn a woman into a tigeress."
Frau Won Rochow has not reached /
that stage, but she has arrived at the
point she demands satisfaction from
her calumniators.
Today she took the first legal step.
The whole affair now threatens to
branch out into a public scandal. The
facts of this, story have been in the |
correspondents possession for three
months, but he was able to publish
them because of the other woman"
Kaiser Was On His Knees.
While she poured out her soul and
told the story of her romance in all
its intimate details-sometimes amidi
tears-Frau- Won Roshow was abso-
lutely loyal to the former kaiser and
begged the writer not to paint him in
his true light, namely "aS a coward
and a cad;'- who. after impIoring her |
upon his knees to marry him and fl
nally winning her consent with the
plea that he could not live without
her, listened to the whispers of the
"camarilla."
These whispers appealed to his
vanity as emperor and they persuad-
his affianced sweetheart in cold blood
after. having details of the wedding
plans prepared for the German press.
Then the ex-kaiser blamed it upon
his aides.
But that was only the first drop of
Frau Won Rochow's cup of bitterness
and suffering. After that followed a
systematic campaign sighting and dis
Princess IIermine had appeared upon
the scene. With the curiosity which is
the perogative of a bride-Hermine
began to ask questions regarding Will
helms relations with Frau Won
Rochow. whose two extended visits to
Doom were common knowledge. /
Called Her ''Housekeeper'
1t was then that the campaign of
intrigue and calumny was driven into
Frau Won Rochow's heart by a printed
story-inspired from Doorn-that Ga
briele had been only the housekeeper
at Castle Doom. This story stands to-
day unchallenged and undenied by any
members of the ex-kaiser's encourage
or by the former kaiser himself.
When the correspondent first talked
with Gabrielle she magnanimously
waived off the slight suspicion. This
was an impartial abb for the intended
wife-for Hermine had not yet mar
ried Wilhelm Hohenzollern when this
statement was made II
But even then doubt nagged at
Frau Won Rochow's heart. Day after
day she waited patiently for one slight
gesture from Doom which would put
stop to the vicious version that she
who had been Wi1heIn1's intimate
friend for twenty years, and who, for
six months, had been his homely be-
-rothed fiancee, was merely a house
keeper" at Doom.
Not a. single word has come from
to set her straight in her
social stratum, where the very word
housekeeper" means social death.
Wife's Arms Like 'sHers."
Instead. Wilhelm has written her