Year: 1878

bAshufck rs seen Oy HAs BOSWELL
It is not surprising that Bismarck should
have found his Boswell in the person of one
of his trusted secretaries, DR.. Moritz Busch,
who has just published work at Leipsic--
Count Bismarck and His Men During the
War with France" Therein we find the
talks 'nt the wings" and in the greenroom,
as it were, when the Man Of Blood and Iron
had come momentarily off the great stage
of European politics, in 1870, only in an
instant to 60 on again. These talks do not
throw any new light on his character but
here and there fash gleam upon events
which must be seen from every side before
taking their proper relations in history.
Upon the men who acted with him or
against him lie was unsparing Of comment,
and he judged them by a severe stand
ard. We know him in craftsmanship
as at once the shrewdest and most daring
character in the history of the last thirty
years-a man who went to his purposes
with frankness almost brutal, cynicism
that laughed at the professions or scruples
of others, that cared nothing for consist
ency man that respected only what
could thwart him. AS he has been little
thwarted he has few to respect When he
sneers at Napoleon for dull sluggard who
wrapped himself in reserve that had the
appearance Of cunning and forethought, or
calls him stupid and sentimental; when he
launches his sarcasms at Jules Favre's tears
and pallor in the negotiations for peace, say
ing that Favre did not weep, but tried and
put white paint on his face to make him look
pale; WHEN he says Theirs had no talent
for diplomacy, being far too sentim entail
and "without gumption enough for horse
dealer" we see not merely how pitiless the
man is, but how, glosting in the success Of
his own methods, he Gisbelieves utterly in
any other What blessing for humanity,
after all, that men like him and the First
Napoleon are SO seldom born into the
world, with their ideas of nations ruled by
armed bullies and cheating horse dealers,
albeit on Titanic scale! He was play
ing billiards once, in 1864, with the
Duke Of Augustenburg, whose claim to
Schleswig-Holstein kept the German
question boiling in the diplomatic
pot until the war with Denmark put that
little principality out of the way. The
Duke was intractable to Bismarck's argu-
ments. First Bismarck called the Duke
"Your Highness," then came down to
'Your Serenity, and lastly told him that
there was nothing to prevent Prussia wiring
ing the neck Of the chicken she had hatched


And when the time came he was as good as his
D.:t ,x,h- Ill.
Napoleon's letter of surrender at Sedan, said
to Bismarck that sooner than accept severe
terms the French army would blow itself
up, the Count replied, "Faifes saeter: that
is your affair" What could be more grim and
yet what more natural in man who respected
force alone and despised all sentiment,
real or theatrical. in politics? OF his
German colleagues also he seems little
sparing. BY the side of his latest
achievements in making on empire there
is strange interest in the story of his first
cigar at the German Diet in 184S, where.
until he lit it, no one dared smoke but
Austria. Since then he has put out
Austria's pipe in German affairs effcctually.
In these talks about others where those he
has been able to fling at his feet are held
vi, to scorn and ridicule, he illustrates an
egotism SO savage that it cannot be viewed
with pleasure. Never was there great
man who revelled more in his strength. We
can see the force in one of his statements
that he has no time to make himself be-
loved. What wonder, when he has spent
and still spends SO many hours in making
himself feared.