Evening star., 1923-09-18
Ex-Kaiser's Stepson Has Crazy
Ancestors In German Kingdom
BY THE MARaUIsE DE FoNTENoY.

BY THE MARQUIsE DE FONTENOf.
. Germany's republican government
owes a debt of gratitude to Gen. Eric
Won Ludendorff, for he has created
perfectly brand-new and totally unex-
pected subject of disunion and interne-
icine strife among the monarchistsr
whose dissensions constitute the most
insuperable obstacle to the SUCCESS OF
their intrigues against the Berlin gov
ernment. For he had the amazing
stupidity to seize upon'th occasion of
the monarchists' mass meeting at Nu-
remburg last month to hail the six
| teen-year-ol stepson of the former
kaiser as emperor, and to address him
as Your Majesty" This astonishing
break on the part of one who assumes
to be the leader of the monarehists,
which amazed and startled most of
those present, has excited extraordi-
nary indignation among. the rnunsraRs
adherents of the formerly sovereign
dynasties of Bavaria, of 'Hehenzoll lepns
Saxony wurtenberg. and among all
the houses of the great nobility. They
are unanimous in the expression of
the opinion that Ludendorff, who
showed himself quite as inept in mat
ters of statecraft and policy during
the war as he did as commander in
the field, and who bore large share
of responsibility for the disasters of
his native land in 1918, must have
been either drunk or crazy when he
took upon himself to hail this cal-
low lad of barely sixteen, Prince John
of Carolath- -Beuthen, as German em-
peror and as the hope of the mon
archist party.
death, the head Of one of the junior
branches of one of the houses of the
SiIesian nobility, which had to con-
tent itself with the title of count
until it's members were raised to the
rank of Prussian "fuersts," or
princes of the lower grade, by Fred
erick the Great.
rs members never did anything
particular to distinguish themselves,
and the two principal occasions when
the family came into the limelfght
and attracted public attention were
when the beautiful Princess Elizabeth
Carofatl. wife of the head OF the
house, eIoped. some forty years ago,
with Prince. Herbert Bismarck, who,
after a few. months publicly. spent
with herat Venice, deserted her in the
there, without resources, at the per-
emptory demand of his father, the
Iron Chancellor. The second bid for
the limeliglit was when Princess
Hermine, the widow of Prince John
of Cafolatt. the insignificant cadet
second wife of the, ex-kaiser at Doom
before the period of mourning. for his
devoted first wife, the late Empress
Augusta, had elapsed. G
X X X X
It has been asserted that there is
Hohenzoiierns. which ma nifes sted itself If
in King Frederick William w of
Prussia, grand-uncle of the ex-kaiser,
who died insane. and in the late
Prince Alexander Of Prussia, who was
afflicted with imbeciIity and spent
much of his life under restraint, and
also in the ex-kaiser, whose reason
has long been regarded, alike by his
fellow countrymen and by foreign
nations, as abnormal. Still, some oe
hereditary taint, among them the
eldest son of the ex-crown prince of
Germany, who is now a promising lad
of seventeen, who has been admirably
brought up by his mother, the ex-
crown princess, woman who enjoys
the respect OF all, and especially of
the present republican government at
Berlin.
But, whatever may be said about
the Hohenzollens, the house of Reuss
to which the present ambitious con-
sort of the ex-kaiser belong by birth
is renowned, throughout Europe for
the extraordinary number of lunatics
and imbeciies that it has furnished to
the petty, sovereign dynasties of the
old world. Thus, her only brother
Henry XIV of Reuss. former SOW
ereign rule OF that principality, is
deaf dumb. imbecife and blind, the
latter affifction having been brought
about in a particularly tragic man
ner: AS an only son, in spite of his
being deaf and dumb. he was idolized
by his. mother. And. when, as a young
boy, IL was decided to, submit him to an
operation to cure some defect in his
eye--a squint, or something of that
kind his mother insisted on hold
ing him on her knees while it was
being performed. At the most criti-
cal moment of the operation her ter
ror and grief at the sight of the cut
ting which was being done, caused
her to make a sudden movement of
horror and dread, which had the EFF
feet of driving the occulist's lance
deep in the eve in such a. manner as
to blind ;. the child and injuEe his
brain. As for Princess Hermine.s
father-that is to say, the grand
father of the lad who was publicity
peror by Ludendorff-he was so crazy
that, had it. not been for5the hatred
which his subjects entertained for
Prussia whom he abhorred, they
would have removed him from the
throne. Among other of his un-
wholesome alterations was his insist
enee upon personally administering