EUROPE'S MADMAN.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 188, 9 August 1924, Page 11

EUROPE'S MADMAN.

TALES OF THE EX-KAISER. | A NOBLE'S REVELATIONS. GEMSRAL IN BALLFT SKIRTS. i I Count Robert Zedlitztrutzschler"s ; 'Twelve Years at the Imperial Court" is i probjihlv the most interesting book on j the ex-Kaiser that, has yet appeared. As ' it. is hv a Prussian noble who from 1903 to 1910 was Controller of the Household, its authenticity is beyond dispute. It has been fiercely attacked by the militarists in Germany because nf the pitiful picture which it gives of the exEmperor. William IT. is contrasted with Ed- ' want VIT. thus: — in ti'i. nun side the man nf the ■•••■' -r- iirr,,,, trie-] in the furnace, who had every move in the game at his If. _.<■ i" p.-. and had trodden every bypath. On the other, the idealistic bis chilei who had grown up with none but flatterers about him. in ignorance of the world. The approach of catastrophe, Count Zedlitz insist?, was discerned "many years before" by "a i'qw clear-sighted individuals." But no man could speak the truth to the Emperor; he would listen only to the servile. His mother, the Empress Frederick, had said of him:— 'Tray do not believe for a moment that my son ever does anything for any other reason but vanity." His Court was a strange one and he had a likinir for rough practical jokes. Thus on a hunting expedition: — t * Vulgar Wilhelm. "His Majesty held down Colonel yon B, who was in command of a. cavalry regiment, for a Ions; time in the snow, and to the great delight of all the spectators, rubbed snow all over him, just in i the way a school bully would treat a weaker boy.'' If there wa? no real friendship beI tween Edward VIL, the Czar, nnd the King of Italy on the one hand, and William on the othe.r. '"it is very largely J due to the fiu-t that the Emperof has often, both by word of mouth and in I writing, expressed himself, when he thought it was safe, quite without ! restraint, not to say vulgarly, about I their Majesties, and this naturally has ! come to their ears." One of the most extraordinary episodes in the book is the death of ! Count Hulsen-Hacseler, before the I Kaiser nt an entertainment given by i the Furstenbcrgs;— "The exceptionally smart and brilliant company assembled after dinner in the beautiful great hall of the castle, with a band playing on the staircase. I Suddenly Count Hulsen-Haeseler appeared in ballet-skirts —not for the first ' i imc—and began to dance to the music. ] Everybody found it most entertaining, j for the count danced beautifully, and 'it is an unusual experience to see a j Chief of the Military Cabinet capering ! about in the costume of a lady of the ! ballet." J ' He Thought it Funny. | ; Just as the performance ended a i i heavy crash was heard and Count Hul- ' I sen was found lying on the ground [ dying. Doctors arrived and, while the I band continued playing, strove to restore him, but nothing could be done. As a specimen of William 11. 's humour this riddle is given: ] "What is the difference between a mother-in-law and a good Havana cigar?" Naturally nobody knew the answer, and he said: "In the ease of a good cigar we prefer the first breath we draw, but in the case of a mother- i in-law it is the hist breath she draws that we like best." This, he professed, was telegraphed to him from London by a former British military attache.