Hindenburg Off Parade

Waikato Times, Volume 113, Issue 18874, 18 February 1933, Page 11 (Supplement)

Hindenburg Off Parade

Flannel Nightshirt and Bed at Ten.

(By An Old Neighbour.)

I KNOW “OLD PAUL." I knew him as suoh long before he became President Von Hindenburg. My famhy lived for many years near his farmhouse home In Neudeo'k, Eastern Prussia. Frankly, I can’t say I like him. But as with most people, he has my respect, not that he cares a straw, anyway. A Hard Training. Old Paul hates crowds and applause, Just as he loves hard work. You would not say he had personality. A hard training In youth made him a dull dog. His father, a real old Junker, who boasted that the family name had been on the army roll for more than 300 years, taught Paul geography and history. Half his young life was drilling in a gymnasium, and then, at the ago of it, he was sent to a cadet school at Glogau. At home Paul and his two brothers clicked their heels befo-e they spoke to their parents. His sister would have died of fright had she been two minutes late at meal-time. Sohoolmasters said he was a good boy, but too talkative. Knowing his home environment, can you wonder he took a chance outside? No boy in the school looked less likely to achieve fame. Good-hearted he always was. His mother used to give him a roll of bread each day to take to a poor school chum. When Paul left school lie charged his brother Otto to deliver the rtfll. “On Tho Scrapheap.” “Slow-Coach" they called him at tho cadet, school. And it look him in years of steady war service to rise from Lieutenant to Brigadier-General. His marriage was colon-less. You would have'liked his wife, dead now some eleven vears. She was the daughter of a landowner living near Hanover. She had the German woman's passion for home, and she stayed there, bringing up her son and three daughters on strict Junker lines. Money was not plentiful. A group of landed gentry living around Neudeclc, his country home, stepped in and bought the farmhouse and 2000 acres of land, so that Hindenburg might keep the home that had been In his family for centuries. Paul cried when they handed him tho deeds Only once before had he cried. That was when, as a lad <>f 10, he first donned ]lls un iform. And he soon slopped "blubbing” when his fallier pointed to the tears dropping on his uniform. \t 07 he retired “on the scrapheap." He would sit in :« I‘lHe 11; '»over ™l'e. sipping his mug or beer —usually alone. Stopped tho Russian Steam Roller. Nineleen hundred and fourteen turned his *.]d upside down. His son had been called , n In a small command. He. 100. sought :‘‘ ork go Paul. Ihc on- e\-s.Mdier who denied least likely I" 1,111 ; va9 sent out lo slop "the Hussion steam roller.” lie did it.

In all his 45 years of service the Ka#ser had given him only the promotion age demanded and the minimum of second-olass decorations. After the victory of Tannenburg Hindenburg was told he could “have anything.” He chose to go home for a few r days. He had grand-children there. His three girls had married and were bringing up their children in the old tradition. Then came his call to the Western Front. His achievements brought him the respeot of his foes, and won him enduring fame in German history. He was nearly 80 when his oountry oalled him again. I saw him soon after It was known ho was President. He wasn’t surprised—only annoyed. His deep eyes sank back behind shaggy brows. He blew out his hanging cheeks. "I shan’t go to Berlin In a bath-chair; they needn’t fear that.” There he Is to-day. His cheeks still have a bloom of good health on them. The mug of beer Is not so much in evidence. A glass of good red wino suits him better. The President’s First Joke. The last time he went out shooting ohamois on the Bavarian Alps he oracked what I think must he nearly his first Joke. The talk was of another Presidential Election. The party was passing along a narrow path with a steep drop on one side. Paul peered over. “They wonder what step 1 will take, ©no step that, way and there will he another election, eh?” I.udendorff used to rhip him about his f'annel nightshirts. He still wears them. His father, grandfather, and forebears hundreds of years back had worn them. What was good enough for them Is good enough for Paul. Berlin cynics call him a "decrepit dodderer.” They never saw him as I did when ho had turned SO and yet could scale the highest slopes In tho Alps and get his quarry at long range. He has never had a serious Illness. Perhaps that's due to his regular mode of life. Off he goes to bed at ten o’olock every night. A hard pillow, no blankets or sheets, hut an old-fashioned eiderdown Induces him to "sleep like a log." His Sense of Duty. During those heotlo election days be kept to his bed-time. At ten o’clook one critical night you couldn’t tell which way things were going. But at ten o'clock Paul went to bed. When his present term of office ends he is going on a world tou-. He may be 00 llien, hut lie wauls to see “every country that has been friendly towards Germany during or since the war.” I leave you to guess (lie- places Tie will visit. The first wire of congratulation on his eigiilielli hirt lniny was from Ihc ex-Kaise-. lie treasures il. lieep in his heart, no doubt. lie- thinks regretfully of the Emperor he loved. But m> Monarchist movement will have him on its side. The sense of duly which called him from liis quiet home, lo a tiring life of public office is the guard against , that. *"