Kaiserlich Geburtstag

Kaiserlich Geburtstag

At dawn the old German Imperial standard broke out from the flagstaff of House Doorn. As the morning advanced, Burgo master Baron Schimmelpenninck van der Roye arrived with a Dutch choir, proceeded to the Orangerie and staged a birthday serenade to Wilhelm II, 70. Clad in black fur-lined coat and astrakhan cap Wilhelm of Doom listened, seemed to especially enjoy a folk song called "The Bold Spinster." After thanking the choir and the Burgomaster Baron, he alluded to his famed hobby thus:

"What I like particularly about chopping wood is that this is not only a personal pleasure to me but that I am able to help Doom's poor by sending the results of my chopping to them."

As members of the Hohenzollern clan arrived, correspondents counted up all Wilhelm II's grandchildren (19), all his children (6), two of his sisters. His only brother, the "Sailor Prince," jovial Henry of Prussia, was down with influenza at Kiel. As the motor cars whirled up to House Doom, all the adult Princes except two covered their faces to avoid being photographed. The exceptions were Wilhelm's eldest son Wilhelm and his eldest son Wilhelm, sometimes called by jocular Germans "Wilhelm III" and "Wilhelm IV."

While cameras clicked, the onetime Crown Prince chatted amiably with reporters, who protested that they were being kept out of House Doom with such iron rigor that really it would be most difficult to write satisfactory stories. Taking the hint at once, "Wilhelm III" ran a rueful hand through his now pure white hair and promised to do what he could.

Prompt to the dot of 10 a. m., the one-time German Court Chaplain, Dr. Heinrich Vogel, preached a sermon extolling the "Christlike qualities of the Emperor." The text had been supplied by Wilhelm II (Roman, 1 :16):

"For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth: to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."

Cried Pastor Vogel:

"Half the world came in arms against the Emperor, and lies about him were circulated around the globe. The man who had already celebrated the quarter century jubilee of peace in Europe was said to be a mad instigator of war. Thousands of cannons boomed against him and millions of men were murdered.

"Alas! His enemies succeeded. But now the fraud is apparent to the whole world. Easter is coming. But only in deepest sadness can we think of our German people, who are externally enslaved and indebted and internally at the same time enslaved and lifeless and--this is the sad dest part--want to be slaves.

"But the masses don't count. They have never made world history or, for that matter, the history of the Kingdom of God either."

As the guests trooped in to dinner they found no place card laid for "the Empress Hermine," present consort of Wilhelm II. His 70th birthday was to have been the occasion for the first general recognition of her rank by the entire House of Hohenzollern. Poor Hermine! On the night before she had been stricken with chicken pox.

Present at table was Friedrich August III, deposed King of Saxony, and he with a solemn flourish proposed the principal toast: "Your Imperial Majesty's health and happiness." Obsequiously seated some distance from the head of the table was Herr von Berg, shrewd lawyer, who recovered from the German Republic and the State of Prussia over $3,000,000 for onetime Kaiser Wilhelm. Though correspondents were not admitted to any of these functions, most of them curbed their tempers well, took only the smallest revenge by ferreting out the fact that each guest received a handsomely engraved:

"Program for the seventieth birthday of the All-Highest--His Majesty, the Kaiser and King."*

*Correspondent Wythe Williams of New York's potent Times seemed the most irked at having to stand shivering all day without the gates. He alone reported that the arriving princes "primped" themselves before entering House Doom. And no one else seemed to find in the birthday press handout a passage which quoted Wilhelm II as exclaiming:

"Gott strafe Versailles!"