HOME LIFE OF THE KAISER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7587, 22 December 1902, Page 2

HOME LIFE OF THE KAISER.

A LONG DAY. (By CHARLES BENHAM, in the "Daily Mail.") In the neighbourhood of the Neues Palais at Potsdam the country people relate that the Emperor William is to be met riding in the woods, accompanied 1 by a single gentleman, at all hours from 5 a.m. to 8 at nighfr The present writer has seen his Imperial Majesty andi the Empress, absolutely unattended and! walking like the inost homely Berlin tradespeople, taking a brisk constitutional at' nine in the morning among the stunted fir trees which vary the suburbs of Berlin. The Emperor at home lives a. long day ; though there are indications that middle age is creeping on, and with age rather less strenuous hours. At Potsdam the old vigorous life of ten and twelve years-; ago \&9 continued longest. His Imperial Majesty rises with the lark, dons his riding clothes, then eits down to a preliminary breakfast calculated to appal less imperial constitutions. ! The ride done, the Emperor gets himself to letters andi State papers. and! interviews. In old' days hard work of this kind lasted ' without intermission until late into the afternoon, when came a second breakfast, taken with his wife and 1 family. Nowadays, however, this second breakfast comes nearer noon than half-past two. After that the Emperor may ride or walk, or attend! «ome outdoor engagement or get back to his desk and despatches. The big meal of the day, compared) .with English notions of ' what time late dinner should be, comes at an uncomfortably early hour. That done, the time is spent in the family circle, or more often at the theatre ; and it may be mentioned that the play in Germany does not interfere with the imperial habit of getting early to> bed. . . As befits so voracious a worker and 1 one who spares 'himself so little, Shis Majesty may be said to enjoy his took He has- increased in girth considerably of late years. He has not the seat on horsebaok that he had 1 , let us say, in 1895, while the contour of his chin has grown appreciably more rounded. POWER OF INSTANT APPLICATION. Oue useful quality which William 11., has to perfection j 5 the power of instant application. He can take up a piece of work and become immersed in it at a moment's notice. Certainly the faculty is one which no Emperor who has to travel about and show himself should be without. 'One tiny example of such concentration came under my notice. The Emperor toad: come over for a night at the opera at Wiesbaden from Mamz, Avhere he had spent the -day reviewing troops. He drove straight from the performance back to the railway station to catch the midnight train for Metz and more reviews. A few adventurous English visitors took up their stand at a, level crossing a mile out* of Wiesbaden, so as to get an. luiintearupted' view of the Royal train as it flashed by. Their curiosity was rewarded by a full view of t-he-Impenal saloon carriage, brilliantly lighted and the blinds undrawn. Only a mil© ouifa of Wiesbaden, with the' songs of the German primardojuia. not out of his earns— yet there sat tiie Emperor at his desik, writing as diligently as the most industrious and most inferior of novelists. His Imperial Majesty works to goods purpose. Naval construction, of course, is his particular hobby. At the time of thei last universal maritime conference held' a* Berlin one of» the principal officials of Lloyd's surveying staff, since dead, . had an audiemce of th© Emperor. The Englishman was shown some of the ship models in the Imperial study. He was not ai courtier, nor did he possess in «uny mart-feed degree the ability to- appreciate Tetrtonicr virtues. But he returned to London enthusiastic about William ll.— aw*,' be ifc J observed, in t«he laiter's capacity as a rulear,, j but as a. naval constructor of the soundest/ and mast learned type. AT PLAY. The EmpM-or at> play is an equally thoroughgoing person. All the world knows that he has acquired some of his mother's! artistic ability. He sketches, though: those who remember his allegorical draiw> ing emblematic of the Yellow Peril may be inclined to describe his pencil as somewhat feverish. He has written poetry, and help-i ed in the writing of a play, and givein. ideas for other plays. His la ( tesfc feaib hasbeen to supply Signer Leoncavallo with a Berlin plot for a new opera. Indeed,, the Emperor has a positive mania, for tihe theatre. Every spring he spends twelve days at Wiesbaden, and every night of hist stay (including Sunday) sees him a* the opera. The opera house in that foeautifuD city was one of his pet projects. Tha director, Herr von Hilaan, was a former | schoolfellow, and the performances aare arranged by his Majesty some weeks before) I his visit.* Out of doors the Emperor's chief relaxation is with the gun. Me has! always been an indefatigable hunter of wild things, from grouse to boars. A congenital' malformation of the left arm leaves iti use- i less for all purposes save to repose on his 1 gword hilt at his side. He takes aim a&d shoots with his right arm, alone. Yacflxt-' ing is his other love. He likes long voyages and the silent nights at sea under the stars. For the possessor of some fifty houses and palaces, and wardrobes in all of them, the Emperor is a man of estraordiftarily simple tastes. His bedroom at Potsdam, would not square with our potions of even modified West End magnificence. The. bathroom would not— in the matter of fit&ing^ and accessories— : be- up to the standard" of | a bathroom in a- suburban homo. Th© white paint on the outeide of the zinc tob dignified with the name of bath has been scratched and worn away. THE EMPEROR'S UNIFORMS. His Majesty has to have many clothes, and it must be confessed that he has a weakness for the most gorgeous uniform that he has a right to wear—the gleaming white of the Guards, topped by burnished helmet, topped in its turn by the poising figure of the Imperial eagle. "In that, costume," remarked a keen observer of him on one occasion, "he feels himself to be Germany— militant and ready to repel all corner^" Without endorsing so large a statement, it may be admitted that his Majesty looks wonderfully well in these white trappings; while hussax regimentals, for instance, do not add to the impressiveness of his appearance. It seems a contradiction to add that the German Court expenditure far exceeds today the expenditure of either the former Emperors. Frederick 11. was an invalid ; but William I. lived at a time no less splendid for the German Empire than now. But the old William and the young William mean different things. The old Emperor could never be got to see that Imperial duties included lavish entertainments given at tables groaning under barbaric goltl plate. When, he left his study to go to eat his modest (if copious) dinner, j at the famous old palace. Unter den Linden, he would turn down the lamp on his desk. Intimates wondered' at the habit, and now and then would remind him that such economy was not needed, and mads the room redolent of half-consumed oil. , But the old Emperor stuck to his little economies. • They had done it at Court in his dear mother's days — that beautiful Queen Louise who had suffered so much at the hands of Napoleon. Frugality had j been needed then, and) he saw no reaton for change. \ Hip grandson, on the contrary, prefers to keep his lamp burning.