THROUGH GERMAN EYES.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 145998, 3 December 1917, Page 7

THROUGH GERMAN EYES.

ROSY-CHEEKED KAISER. "LIKE AN AUTUMN DAY.” I - The telegraphed reports have done scant justice to the articles in which Herr Mas Fewer, suddenly presented to the Herman public as “the German poet,” has described his visit to German Headquarters and mooting mtu the Kaiser. , Herr Rower begins by lamenting that Goethe never wrote a personal description of Frederick the Groat, although he fully appreciated .Prussia, and telt prophetically that Prussia, would be the , vat-:o in which the German rose would develop in its full beauty.” Bower S ■ambition is to do for the Kaiser what Ooothc failed to do for Frederick. How much greater, moreover, is the_ opportunity ! For, whereas Frederick became ever more lonely, the Kaiser is surrounded by an over-growing “circle of heroes.” llorr Bewor puts the point inimitably: Huidcnliurg and Ludcndorff, Mackcnseii, and the Bavarian Lion of Arras, the heroes in the air and on the soa, ascended like a wreath of stars about our Kaiser's head. Whou i saw him at the Great Headquarters, be was oncircled by iron crosses and airmen’s ■crosses, dashing and scintillating on uniforms of lieki-grey and soa-biuo. Herr Bower observes that Goocho, Homer, the Northern Scalds and the Bible describe their heroes by similes from nature. Following these .precedents, he writes;

To look upon the Kaiser is like looking upon a wonderful-autmn day. Think or herds and woods in ail their brown fullness, while up above, on the tops of the mountains, tuerc is first bright, clean. ■ white snow, and above the snow the hashing, blue, sonny sky of a wonderful day. There, from tuo iuind of ■Nature, you have the laitnfnl picture of the Ivafser, as ho looks with Ins great, biue, Hushing, but -still goodnatured, eyes upon a. file that has ripened ru fullness of work, and loons blameless into the mists’of the war. But fieri - -Hewer is not content with “the hand of Nature,” and tides Ins oh n as follows ;

The lull snowy hair is parted boyishly; m freely curling’ wavc» it -moves as if the sea wind liom tho Kaiser’s cruises on tho-seas and at regattas were still playing in it. The forehead is broad, Ircc and high, and burnt in the held up to -a lino whore helmet and field ca.p have loft the lighter shading. Through the brown checks often pastes a healthy rosy colour. The lips aro fine and firm, not too full and not too thin, and the moustache is clipped-some-what shorter than in time of peace. Tjio powerful cut of tho cheeks and tho energetic chim adorned however with an attractive dimple, complete this Kaiser Tio-atl, '-beautiful as a picture, which, side by ‘side with tho patriarchal heads oI ■’Charles ■'the Great and Harbarossa, will preserve Tor over in German Kaiser history its Young-Gornianic typo. The brilliant table talk of Kaiser, Chancellor, and “pod'’ turned upon tho .superior “distinction” of'the German as compared with the -British .aristocracy, and a.-■remark -about the alleged beauty of .English-women caused them-to agree that •.-among 'these beautiful women is no Saint Elizabeth and no Queen Louise.” They then turned to tho “characteristic’' -indifference of tho -English to the pronunciation of foreign names. Tho Kaiser said that an Engffsii naval officer as Kid onco-asked him whether a particular German ship was tho “Bhitschcr.” and ho “humorously” replied that it'was tho “Bluchcr.” TienBower, who, apparently, docs not read Tho Times Literary Supplement, said that while the Gormans conscientiously disputewhotner thoy should write “Virgil."’ or “VcrgiJ,”. the English, “in plmology as m politics ruthlessly do violence to everyrhmg.'' The Imperial Chancellor, wiio lias presumably been taking lessons from Prince Bultnv, made tho-Emperor “laugh heartily ’ by saying that-on hoard an English ship ho was called “Mr. MeikeJcs."