A NEW POSE

Otautau Standard and Wallace County Chronicle, Volume XI, Issue 552, 21 December 1915, Page 2

A NEW POSE

THE KAISER'S LATEST EFFORT. A mordant study of tho Kaiser at close range is contributed to the 'Pittsburg Dispatch' by Mr John L. Balderston, whose striking analysis of Germany's many war plans was printed recently. Mr Balderston "'» has been at the front for some months, and as representing a neutral nation has had many opportunities of making himself acquainted at first hand with the dominant characteristics of the Kaiser and his generals. The Kaiser's latest rolo, according to Mr Balderston, is that of the silent, abstracted man of mystery. He thus describes tlie contrast between the exuberant, spectacular Emperor at the outset of the war and th« present chastened mystic : — " The Kaiser got 'm bad ' at the beginning of this war. He tried to imitate the methods of old-time oonquerors and give an imitation of Achilles, Alexander, Caesar, Attila, Charlemagne, and Napoleon rolled into one. "Great crowds of officers followed him, troops of cavalry, retinues of household attendants. On the west front, where he spent most of his time, his comings and goings were heralded days m advance, so that his receptions might be worthy of so mighty a monarch. — Something Happened. — " At General Headquarters at Mezieres he presided at a great round table over ,the meetings of the Great General Staff, pored ever maps with serious mien, and m crisp, snappy sentences adopted or rejected plans that had taken great strategists weeks of study to work out. "When the drive on Paris . . . was beaten back . . . something happened. Perhaps it was the defeat of the. Marne and the feeling that his was the blame; perhaps the chastening effect of the famous and humiliating wait m the rain before Nancy, with a regiment of household cavalry m full-dress uniforms, their splendid plumes and pennants dropping and dripping. " For four hoi rs the Kaiser and his white Cuirassiers waited while the Bavarians, under Prince Kupprecht, stormed the lines of General De Gastelnau. Thousands fell, but the sacrifice did not avail. " The Kaiser did not mako his triumphal entry into Nancy at the time scheduled, or at any time, and the War Lord went away from there, after ordering his cavalry back into service uniforms and directing that the moving picture films taken of the cavalcade be destroyed. " A great change early m the winter became noticeable. The Kaiser was trying something new. He became a man of mystery. His Staffs were dismissed. "He made no more speeches, cast aside all the pomp and ceremony wliich enveloped lr-m m August. He travelled! constantly m a train of two cars, with no distinguishing niarks on it. — romp Discarded. — "He would appear at some point on the front, clad m service uniform, hurriedly inspect a few troops at their work, and disappear again, having said little or nothing. He cultivated a reserve hitherto unknown to him. Sometimes he attended the Geueral Staff meetings, but he would sit m absolute silence, his gaze fixed on the table, listening to everything, and perhaps leaving the room after an hour without saying a word. '' His appearance m tlie great cities of his Empire was not less carefully staged to show the great change. He is seen m the streets of Berlin,- now and then, sitting alone m a miliary motor car, with arms folded, clad m field 1 grey, with a cloth-covered helmet. " Even liis moustache has been trained. It no longer fiercely bristles. His eves are fixed on the far distance. His new role is that of a high priest. " The Kaiser," adds Mr Balderston, " nowadays keeps his fingers on the public pulse. He learns from his secretaries and from confidential advisers just what impression his conduct is making on his people, and moulds his behaviour accordingly."