BISMARCK'S FIRST DECORATION.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7743, 14 May 1887, Page 5

BISMARCK'S FIRST DECORATION.

Ex-Mini3ter Ki.sson gives, in the ' Koi'lh AiiiiTtcaii lltokte, this interest- ' ing stOTy ol; lihmaruk'sj " first deco- ' ration" : " While he was serving in the Uhlan ' cavalry, i:i IS 12, his groom, who waa the son of a torcsLur ou hia estate, rode ' into the lako to give hi.s horse a buth. Missing his footing, tho rider wan ( thrown and disappeared in tho water. Bisuiiiick waa stunning with a group of offior:ra on the bridge aiM saw his ] sinking grooui. Iv an instant his sword aud uniform were on tho ground, and ho leaped into thu hike. lie fouud tho HtriiKHiing man aud f-eizud him. c i But iv tho blind agony of a drowning i man tie cluug so tightly lo his master ) that Bismarck, helpless, was obli[,'«d a todivoMilli his bur.lun tj looaeu his hold. It summed both were lost. But, v toon ufier bubbles roue to tho surface, \ followed by Bismarck, who in tho \ depths had dotuolicd tho grip of tho 0 iniiu und now appeared dragging his v giooin with him, and swam to the c shuro. The inaniumto form was restored v

i life, und tho following day to duty, wi 'or this act he afterwarda received the vt 'russi'in uie.lnl for "Rescue from ■eiil," which was his first decoration ; sv nd he proudly wore it when he had tl o other. Nor has he siuce abandoned r 3 t, for it finds its place still amid the T Jghest orders which European mon- w rcha have since showered upon his ti >reitat. His friends are fond of telling g lis answer to a much docorated dip- h omntist who, seeing this lonely medal t >n his young colleague's coat, inquired s ,vhat decoration it was. Herr von Bis- 1! nurck, who at that timo had earned no b :ourtly decoration, looked him hard in s ihe eye and aaid— " lam in the habit c somotimes of saving a man's life.