KAISER AS “DEVIL.”

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 19 July 1924, Page 16

KAISER AS “DEVIL.”

How the Kaiser was inadvertently identified with the devil—before the war— is amusingly described by Paymaster Rear-Admiral W. E. R. Martin in “Ihe Adventures of a Naval Paymaster.” The incident occurred in 1898, when the Emperor was a dinner guest in the British cruiser Raleigh, which met the German Imperial yacht Hohenzollern in a Norwegian fjord. Name-cards for the dinner-table were decorated with painted figures. ‘‘The commodore,” says Admiral Martin, “told me to write one out for the Emperor. I used the last one I had, being very much rushed, for time. ‘At dinner that night the Emperor took up his name-card and showed it to the commodore, who said something. They both looked' at me, and the Emperor, holding the card so that alt could see it, said: ‘Mr. Martin, you are pulling hi s Majesty’s leg; this is lese majeste. Am I like the devil? What!' ‘‘The figure on the card wa s of the devil, with horns, tail, and toastingfork, and in my neat copperplate hand, whs written: ‘His Maiesty the Emperor.’ “I stood up and stammered out the only excuse I could think of, that it was the. most artistic. The Emperor then raised hs glass to me and said: •Never mind: chin-chin!’ ”