Some Peculiarities of the Kaiser.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIV, Issue 7692, 8 December 1899, Page 4

Some Peculiarities of the Kaiser.

" William 11. IB (says M.A.P.) in most things an exception to all his subjecta— and, indeed, to all mankind as well for the matter of that—so, also, he shares not their horror of soap, water, and rough towels. For the first thing ho does every morning is to jump out of hia bed into a cold bath," writes a correspondent who knows the personality of the Kaiser intimately. " And syne, like the French king immortalised in Bon Gaultier's ballad, he ' warslea on his clae3.' This ' warsling on' of his clothes is au operation all the moro difficult, as the Kaiser, like Nelaon, is practioilly a one-armed man, his lefb hand having been paralysed since his birth, owing to the bundling of tho German doctor who presided thereat. But one would never think so from seeing the Emperor standing or riding, for he has a habit of letting his withered hand fall with a natural grace on the hilb of his sword—the proper place for the hand of such a military monarch. The consequence is that when he draws hia sword, in leading troops past and the like, ho muat hook hia reins on to tho pommel of his saddle, care being taken by his Master of the Horse to mount him only on such chargers as have had more than a circus training in docility of movement.

" For the same reasons his Majesty, like the old hero of Trafalgar, has to eab at table wibh a combination knife and fork, which ho always takes with hitn wherever he goes; and he has one of the heartiest appetites in a nation of huge eaters, though he ia very sparing with his drinks, like his grandfather before him. His favorite wine •ia hock or moselle—two very different things, though they are often confounded — and these he generally mixe3 with mineral water. When the hottest fit of Chauvinism was on him after ascending the throne, he forbade tho use nob only of French words on his menu, bub alse of French wines. " Bub the Kaiaer has now become lesa exclusive in the wines he offers his guests, having perceived thab the boycotting of French champagne would only tend to exacerbate the feelingß of a vanquished nation and retard its reconciliation to the accomplished facts of IS7O-71. At the same time, though occasionally admitting French wines to his table, he still rigidly excludes French words from his bill of fare, so that his foreign guests are offered ' Fleischsuppe' when they expect ' bouillon,' and are supplied with ' Rinderbraten nach Englischer Art' in lieu of ' Bceuf roti a I'Anglaise.' Bub though the French may have lost a couple of provinces, they still retain their sovereignty over the stomachs of men and monarchs, and there is a French chef in the Imperial kitchen at Berlin. •• Their Majesties rarely or never lunch or dine without several guests, and these are of a far more varied and miscellaneous order than aro ever admitted to the table of tho Queen. The Kaiser has little time for readiog books, but he is a great reader of mindß, a diligent picker of the brains of men. His Majesty possesses—even Bismarck admitted this—a remarkable faculty of assimilation, and he is the greatest questioner of hia time. Bub, though alao one oi the beat bilkers of hiß time, he is, nevertheless, a wonderfully good listener, which is one of the rarest qualities of clever men, not to say geniuses; and to this category of talent we certainly muat assign the Kaiser, who has already proved himself to be by far the most capable monarch thab has occupied the throne of Prussia since Frederick the Great, " William 11. does nob smoke to the extent that waß done by one of his ancesters, Frederick William, the kidnapper of giants. But he, too, holds an occasional tobacco Parliament of an evening, when he puffs away at a penny cigar of very light brand, and entertainß his guests to sandwiches and boka of Munich Hofbrau."