A Book About Bismarck.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 217, 13 September 1890, Page 4 (Supplement)

A Book About Bismarck.

The following are extracts from ' Bismarck Intime,' a gossipy volume about the exChancellor, published by Messrs Dean & Son, of London. The book is written by an old fellow student, and translated by Mr Henry Hayward. BISJIAKCK AND THE BAGMAN. Bismarck waa a first-rate horseman when a young man, and gained quite a reputation by the long rides he took on the back Oi. his tall mare Caleb. She carried him once from Polzin, a little watering-place in Pomerania, as far as Koiliu, near Stargard and Stettin, the distance between the two places being over fifty miles. When he was about halfway, Bismarck, dying of hunger and thirst, stopped at a roadside tavern in a little village through which he passed. The landlord set before him plenty of good food co satisfy his hunger, bub his wine was hardly fit to drink, and his beer detestable. There happened to be stopping at the same inn a traveller in the wine trade, with samples of his liquors. Bismarck asked to taste his samples, the traveller consented, and in an incredibly short time every bottle was emptied, and Bismarck walked away, warmly thanking the man for his kindness. As soon as the traveller realised that all his stock waa gone he became dreadfully excited, bub was unable at first to form a correct idea of the loss he had sustained through his liberality to the thirsty etranger. However, he soon came to himself, and saw what a folly he bad committed. The landlord came up to him jusb in time to prevent him from tearing his hair out; he gave him a note from Horr yon Bismarck containing a heavy order for wine, and the commercial traveller did nob lose by the occurrence after all. Bismarck, in the meantime, was jogging along on his journey, enjoying the joke immensely. Superstition and a Mystic Number. Bismarck is superstitious beyond all description. The number thirteen has a very deep meaning for him. He will never sib down to table where he will make the thirteenth. Count Bismarck-Bohlen narrates that one day in 1870, at Rheims, when the Chancellor gave a dinner, one of the invitations had to be countermanded, because otherwise there would have been thirteen at table. General Boyer, Bazaine's envoy, arrived at the German headquarters in Versailles on Friday, October 14, bub Bismarck would nob see him till the next day, saying that he would never do anything of importance on any Friday, much less on a Friday the date of which coincided with the anniversary of Hochkircb, Jena, and Auersbadb. He was talking one day of a defeat the Germans had experienced in the course of the campaign of 1870. 'I beg of you to observe, gentlemen, , he said, ' that that happened on a Friday. , Bismarck does not believe in a lucky or unlucky star, bub is convinced thab his life is seriously influenced by a certain mystic number. A Novel Birthday Present. At the time when enthusiasm raged round the celebration of Bismarck's seventieth birthday, a workman of Cologne, a sorb of wharf-labourer, a poor wretch whom everybody knew nob to be possessed of a brass fathing, pub down his name for twenby marks (£1) on a subscription lisb going round the town. Now this poor fellow was receiving a monthly allowance from the public relief-fund, and the overseer of his parish, seeing his name on the subscripbionlisb, sent for him and said, 'Well, now, whab is the meaning of this? You get parish pay, don'b you ?' 'Yes, sir.' ' Then just explain to me how you are able to pub down twenby marks for the testimonial to Prince Bismarck.' ' I don't intend to pub them down, sir, by your leave/ 'Whab do you mean ?' • I haven't paid anybhing, and when they come for the money I shall ask bhem to ieb me off wibh so many days in gaol.' 'Oh, bhab's it* 13 ib ?' answered the functionary. ' I understand. Bub that can't be done, you know, unfortunately. , ' Well, then, you must jusb ecratch out my name,' said the man. He badnodoubb bad some experience of bhab kind of thing before bhe magistrate— * So many shillings or so many days !' Bismarck's Oratorical Baritone. Bismarck cannot claim to be a Brutus. Indeed, the Chancellor's speeches are much better when read in print; he is not what one might call an orator, and does not even want to be one. This is what he once said of himself in the Reichstag—'l am no orator; I have nob the gift of influencing your minds, nor of obscuring the real meaning of things by a cloud of words. My discourse is simple and clear A good orator is seldom a statesman.' He hates professional talkers too ; and one day he said—' When a man is too fluentof speech he talks too long and too frequently.' . . His voice astonishes those who hear it for the first time. One expects to hear a kind of thunder issue from that capacious chest, bub insbead of thab ib is a biny baritone, very agreeable and very pleasant to listen to ab first, bub after a few fits of coughing ib gets stronger. And then each word is accompanied by a movement of the body which seems to facilitate its utterance. When he arrives ab bhe end of a period his words bread on each other's heels in their impatience to break forth, and now, they are no longer accompanied by inarticulate sounds, and coughings, and clearings of the throab ; the idea is plainly there, lucid and mature, and yeb another is waiting in bhe background to take its place. His speech is clear, with a somewhat antiquated accenb, and his final r'a are not pronounced strongly. His tone is never solemn, and never pathic, even when he is deeply moved, or when he is talking of his great age, of his Majesby the Emperor, or of his country. It is quite in the style of a drawing-room chat, addressed to bhe deputies seabed near him.