THE WHITE LADY.

North Otago Times, Volume CVI, Issue 13975, 12 September 1917, Page 8

THE WHITE LADY.

/( 1 — THE SUPERSTITION OP THE j < lIOHENZOLLERNS.

"Through the undergrowth of a Si lesian wood stumbled au unkopt man A glanng led dawn, spiending like disastei from up ovei Russia's plains, uinneieifiilly lighted his pile, tned face iSpurred with gold, nbsentl) flicking the bushes with a stubby field mulslial's baton, his giej Piussiau military cape toiji twigs, his riding boots splasheo. with mud, the ordeis on his breast half torn off, his helmet teetering cuml) over one eai, whilst moistuie gatheied at the coinei of his lips, a stiange look in his ejes, he stumbled on " All this, Edwaid Lycll Pox admits, "reads like the opening of a fiction story," . It never happened—hasn't j.happened yet. "But,- inquires Mr Pox, in his admirable book, "Wilhelm

Hohenzollcrn.and Co.,'' just published, "have you ever heard'of the White Lady?".

. A Linoage of Madness. ;. "For these," he says, ."are the Hohenzollerns." '' Friedrieh William I. worked himself into such terrible tempers that he impulsively dismissed overyonc around j.lii'm. Frederick the Great was eceenI trie. His sister, the Margravine of Frederick Wiilielm IV., who. wont to his 'old German God' quite mad, This monarch had a brother XVilhelhi, who had a daughter who became Queen of Bavaria. She left : two sons, Ludwig 11. and.Otto. The two sons died mad. There, came Wilhelm 1,, grandfather of the present Kaiser. His wife, tho, Empress Augusta, came down from Paul I. of Russia, .who died mad. His son died of.cancer of the throat. Which brings us to Wilhelm 11. of Holienzollem:

"But the Whito Lady?. .. , Dorothea of Brandenburg, wife of the Great Elector, attended the funeral of her 'husband in 1688, She was dressed all in white, her face covered with a white veil, her hand in a white muff. Whence comes the superstition of the llohcnzollerns: that the appearance- of a woman in white means death ami disaster. Often, so they say, the White Lady lias been seen, Napoleon refused lo sleep in the palace of Bayreuth because the White Lady walked there, Prussian lore has.it that in 1799' a taitry on guard at the gate to the palace in Berlin saw her one night. And, of course; Prussian lore attributed the conquest 'of the country by Napoleon to hcr\ coming,

Should Wilhelm See tte White Lady-! "As yet during this war no one has said he has seen the White Lady, Ido Imot profess to know whether the Kaiser 'believes he lias seen her or not, And Wilhelm 11. is mythical, But the Duke of Cumberland disappeared in November of 1915 after .speaking of iho White | Lady, He was found some weeks later wandering babbling, insane. He is

descended in the fourth line from au English king who died a drivelling

! idiot. The Kaiser is descended in the 'fifth line from this same king, ..... Who can tell/ They found the Duke ■of Cumberland wandering, a mad man. Who knows what may, come, true? 'Should Wilhelm 11. see the White Lady, might there not come a day when the men described in the opening lines could be seen stumbling out through the Silcsian woods, facing the Russian dawn -Such things may be written. V

"The dire portents of the Hapsburgs is the flock of black ravens.' When they fly, croaking, from their ancient casile, there comes disaster in AustriaHungary. Legend, says that; and brings proofs. And the portent of the Holieiizollerns is the White Lady. •When by night she glides along, there conies national disaster—so the story goes. Do yon remember in Ibsen's ' Rosmcrsholm '—' the while horses/ symbol of death']

Instruments of God, "About Wilhelm Ilohcnzollern there is feudal mystery and mysticism, .... But let us consider how men who believed themselves' instruments of God 'have drenched the world in blood. ,There was Moses, who,brought a century and a-half of warfare to the' Hebrews, who made the Red Sea a

'Masurian Lakes. There was Tamerlane, killing and,pillaging in the name

"of the Almighty, There was Mahomet,

['another representative of (lod on earth, : aml who soaked it in blood. And there "is Wilhelm 11. of Germany, who said, 'Remember that von are the chosen

'people,' even as Moses said it. 'The I spirit of the Lord has descended upon imc because I am the German Emperor,' "The things that were written cen-> times ago, some of them, are very strange. There is the Book of Rcvela--1 tioiiSj which says, 'Let him that hath 'understanding co.unt Ihc number of flic beast; for it is tjie number of a man; and his number is ( six hundred <, three score and six.'

"Now tho,'beast' meant a monarch who drenched the world with war.

"A dealer in prophecies has analysed his statement of St. John's. - He-offers, Six hundred and sixty-six years is not the age of a man. Six hundred, and sixty-six weeks is the age of a boy. Six hundred and sixty-six months is the age of a man, or fifty-five and one-half years.'

"Emperor Wilheln? I, was exactly six hundred ■ and sixty-six months old the day war began. / "'Let him thafhnth understanding eouiit the number of 3he beast, for it is the number of a man; and his number is six hundredf and sixty-six,'"