Evening star., 1939-10-15
Fifty Years Ago
In The Star
The following letter from a London

Prince ~ re Ts. oss'sio1 s.os ~ aatesas sptesas
Bismarck -, 1889:
ToIiin9 Prince Bismarck is in
appearance now feeble old gentleman.
Measured by that of some of his great
contemporaries, his is not so very ad-
vanced an age. He will not be IS until
next April Fools Day. which means
that he is nearly Is years younger than
Count Won Moltke, who is still hale and
vigorous. Bismarck, too, is years
younger than Gladstone, younger than
Cardinal Manning, S younger than
Leo XIII, and 10 years younger than
Prince Gortchakof was when he died.
But he is not robust at all, and believe
that he frets great deal over the fear
that he may not last much longer.
His face is waxen and fabby and his
hands are those of very old man
yellow and swollen In the joints and
marked with unnatural big blue veins
He is once more becoming very fat
abdominally and DR.. Schweninger is at
his wits end to keep this flesh down this
time, for Bismarck is no longer able to
walk much. To please his physician he
tries from time to time, but his legs hurt
him too much to make this form of exer-
else possible. All this tends to depress
him, and the further fact that his fam
lily have not been long-lived race serves
to deepen his conviction that his days
are numbered.
'This gloom, which has colored his
mind for years, but now increases al
most by months, turns, of course, upon
his forebodings for Germany's future.
All that lay within man of his aristo-
cratic limitations to do, he has done to
avert the catastrophe which he fears
may come after his death. Especially
he has trained his son Herbert in all
the inner mysteries and traditions of the
German foreign Office, and secured to
MN as well as he could the succession
to the chancellorship. Herbert is not
great man, but he Is intelligent and
plodd1ng, and has so thoroughly imbibed
the spirit Of his illustrious fathers policy
that he fairly exudes it at the pores.
$50 far as can be seen now. there
would be no opposition to his succeeding
his father, If only for the reason that
nobody else knows anything about the
inside workings of the German foreign
office. But there are no signs that he
would exert any marked personal influ-
ence upon the kaiser and his court. and
there are In the court many covert and
some few avowed enemies of the Bis
marck dynasty idea. How the young
kaiser himself stands on this question is
not known. but it is evident enough that
those closest to him are least in SYM
pathy with the Bismarckian circle, and
this is what the old chancellor fears
above all else"
East Washington's new post Office was
completed half century ago, as noted
New Post Office tonsr to anH 's 1sss ,sao ., ~ ~,
for Eost ,ows. " -00'' ~ ava
washington Capitol Hill brags
of new post Office, having got ahead
of the city as a'whole in this particular
The new building, at the northeast cor
ner of Fourth and East Capitol streets,
is now occupied by the Government.
This structure, though erected by pri-
vate means, was intended for a post
office and was constructed on plans ap-
proved by the post Office authorities.
The excavation was commenced on the
5th of July last and from that time the
work was energetically pushed forward
to completion, Notwithstanding the bad
weather. The building has frontage
of 81 feet and depth Of so feet, and is
very substantially constructed, the walls
being 30 inches thick for foundation
and carried the entire height Of the
building - inches thick. AL the doors
arc laid on subdoors Of hemlock."