CHAPTER IX
Although Germany's young crown prince has until now been more or less of a stranger to court functions and gaieties at Berlin, his time being absorbed by his studies at the military academy of Plön, and his holidays spent in travel and Alpine expeditions, yet, as he is about to celebrate his majority, and has passed from the stages of boyhood to those of manhood, he will be from henceforth a personage of the utmost importance—second only in rank to the emperor.
Destined, in course of time, to succeed to the throne and to the immense responsibilities of his father, and to become virtually the autocratic ruler of a nation of fifty million people, as well as the absolute master of the greatest military power on the face of the globe, every scrap of information concerning this youth must naturally be of vast interest, not only to his future subjects, but also to the entire civilized world. Under the circumstances, therefore, it is satisfactory to be able to say truthfully that Germany's future kaiser is a fine, healthy-minded, healthy-bodied lad, disposed to take an extremely serious view of his duties and his obligations, and who, thanks to the excellent education which he has received both from his parents and his teachers, seems destined to prove a wise as well as a popular monarch.
It seems but the other day that the young crown prince, as a chubby ten-year-old lad, was being introduced by his father to the officers and men of the first regiment of Foot Guards at Potsdam, to which, in accordance with traditional usage, he was appointed on his tenth birthday as lieutenant. There may be some of my readers who were present on that occasion, and who may remember the spectacle presented by the little fellow, vainly endeavoring to keep step with the giant strides of these huge grenadiers, the tallest men in the German army, during the march-past that followed the ceremony. Since then there have been so many portraits of the crown prince published, as he appeared at that time, that this taken in conjunction with the rapid flight of years, renders it difficult to realize that he is now no longer a little boy, but a youth considerably taller and almost as broad and stalwart as his father, whose best friend he has become.
William and his eldest boy are fondly devoted to each other. To the crown prince, his father is in every sense of the word "William second to none;" while the kaiser himself is entirely wrapped up in his heir. For the last few years the emperor has given every spare moment that he could snatch away from his multifarious occupations to the task of instilling his ideas and views into the crown prince. In talking and reasoning with him, he has treated the lad as far older than his years, has discussed with him, in fact, as if he were a man; and it is due to this that Germany's future emperor is at the present moment remarkably mature for his age, and really in a position to view matters with a degree of experience and knowledge that are unrivalled in so young a man. As a general rule, young people are unwilling to accept the advice of their elders, or to benefit by their experience, convinced that their seniors are behind the spirit of the age, and in no sense of the word up to date. But with the German crown prince this is different: he is so imbued with the idea that his father is wiser and better than anyone else in the world, that he is willing and glad to accept the paternal recommendations and to benefit by paternal advice.
Yet with all this the lad is not a prig, nor is he forward or presumptuous. True, he has a keen sense of his own dignity, but it takes the form of an extreme simplicity, and of an absolute lack of affectation, since he is intelligent enough to realize that his rank and position are sufficiently assured to render it unnecessary that he should call attention thereto either by his manner or by his speech. He is modest too, very frank, particularly courteous to old people, boyishly chivalrous to women, and firmly convinced that there is no member of the fair sex in the entire world who is so ideally perfect in appearance, as well as in character, as his mother.
I would not for all the world that this description of the crown prince should in any way convey the impression to my readers that he is a milksop or an overgrown child! Devoted to every form of sport, a splendid gymnast, a clever oarsman, a skilful driver and a bold rider, an excellent shot, he is in every sense of the word a manly young fellow, who, however, has been kept free from all contact with the darker sides of life, and who still retains, therefore, mingled with the experience of a grown man, much of the innocence and freshness of mind of a mere boy. Indeed, he is a son of whom any father and mother might well be proud!
Fair-haired and blue-eyed, with the down of a blond moustache upon his upper lip, the young prince is a typical Hohenzollern, and resembles his grandfather, Emperor Frederick, more than he does his father. He is passionately devoted to everything military, and keenly relishes the idea that the six months following the attainment of his majority are to be devoted to military duties at Potsdam, for although he has held a commission of lieutenant of the first regiment of Foot Guards since his tenth year, he is only now about to be called upon to fulfil the duties of his rank with the regiment.
It will be in every sense of the word an arduous training, for the first regiment of Guards being considered all the world over as the crack corps of the German army, and as the embodiment of military perfection in every sense of the word, its officers, realizing that it is, so to speak, the star phalanx of Germany, are engaged, morning, noon and night, in maintaining it at its proper standard, and there are no officers anywhere in Europe who are so hard worked as those of the first regiment of Prussian Guards;—that regiment which in the days of Frederick the Great's father was composed entirely of giants, recruited, or rather purchased often, at a cost of several thousand dollars apiece, from all parts of the world!
The prince must be on the drill grounds and the manoeuvre fields as early as four o'clock in the morning, returning for a sort of luncheon towards ten or eleven; he must devote his afternoon to military studies of one kind or another; while from four o'clock till seven his time will be taken up by barrack-room inspections, company reports, and the other thousand and one duties incidental to regimental life in Germany. In the case of the crown prince the work will be exceptionally heavy, as he is expected to acquire in the course of six months an experience which other subalterns take years to obtain. At the end of the term in question he is to go to Bonn, there to take his seat, like his father before him, on the benches of the celebrated university as an ordinary student.
From his eighteenth birthday the crown prince will have an establishment and a civil list of his own. He will have his court marshal, who will be at the same time the treasurer, governor, and chief officer of his household. He will have his aids-de-camp, who will, as far as possible, be young men of his own age and alive to the responsibilities of their office; he will also have a palace of his own, stables of his own, and his own shooting. Indeed the forest of Spandau has already been for some time past strictly preserved in view of his coming of age.
This particular forest has from time immemorial been assigned as the particular game-park of the heir to the crown. The crown prince is to make his home in the so-called "Stadtschloss" at Potsdam, where he will occupy the same suite of apartments that was tenanted by his parents during the alterations that recently took place at the "Neues Palais." This palace was erected at the close of the seventeenth century, and contains, among other objects of interest, the furniture used by Frederick the Great, the coverings of which were nearly all torn to shreds by the claws of his dog; his writing-table covered with ink-stains, his library filled with Trench books, music composed by himself, etc. The various halls and rooms are kept nearly in the same manner, indeed, as when he used them. Adjoining his bedroom there is a small cabinet, where he used to dine alone or with Voltaire, without attendants, everything coming through the floor on a dumbwaiter, the king himself placing the dishes on the table.
It is in this palace, haunted, one might almost say, at every point by memories and by the spirit of the most famous of Prussian kings, a monarch distinguished as a general, as an administrator and as a philosopher, that Germany's future emperor will from henceforth make his home until he in turn, on the death of his father, will migrate, as did the latter, from the so-called Stadtschloss to the "Neues Palais," two miles and a half distant. The crown prince is also to have a residence of his own at Berlin, where he is to occupy the Bellevue Palace during the court season.
Among other characteristics of the young crown prince is his fondness for animals, and the extraordinary influence which, even as a child, he has always seemed to exercise over them. He succeeded in training his ponies, his dogs and other domestic pets to perform such clever tricks that on several occasions he managed, with the assistance of his brothers, to organize very creditable circus performances, usually in honor of the birthday of his father or his mother. There was one instance especially that I may recall, which took place some years ago. This particular performance began in the afternoon at three, with a prologue spoken by Prince August William, in which he mentioned the different items of the programme. Then each of the royal lads led his pony in front of the box in which the imperial couple sat with their guests, and the crown prince put his horse "Daretz," through all kinds of tricks, of a high school character, winding up by making the horse kneel in token of salute before the emperor and empress. More trick riding on another horse named "Puck," belonging to the crown prince, followed, and thereupon there was a comical intermezzo, in which Prince Adalbert and Prince Eitel took the part of two clowns. Later on, the crown prince's dogs were brought on the scene, and his favorite "Tom" went through some extraordinary antics, walking about all over the ring on his hind legs, tolling bells, driving other of the prince's dogs with reins, and jumping through hoops covered with tissue paper. The whole affair lasted over two hours, was very entertaining, even to grown-up people who did not happen to be related to the organizers of the entertainment, and did great credit to the cleverness of the crown prince, and above all to the marvellous influence which he exercises over animals of every description.
Military tastes in the royal lad have been developed by the games and pastimes in which he and his brothers were encouraged to indulge; hence, in the grounds of the Bellevue Palace at Berlin, as well as in a corner of the great park of the Neues Palais at Potsdam, the boys constructed full-fledged forts with water-filled moats, and cleverly constructed bastions, which were stormed from time to time in due form, and being defended with the utmost tenacity, hard knocks were ofttimes given and received. The playmates of the crown prince and his brothers have been not merely the sons of nobles forming part of the imperial household and court, but likewise the children of employés of much less exalted rank, such as the sons of lodge-keepers, gardeners, game-keepers, etc., who all played and tumbled with the young princes on a footing of the most perfect equality, drubbing one another totally irrespective of rank. It is a pleasant thing to know that friendships thus formed subsist in after life; as an instance, when the kaiser's sister, now crown princess of Greece, sent to Germany some time ago for a nursery governess for her young children, she was able to acquire the services of her old girlhood playmate, the daughter of one of the gardeners employed at the "Neues Palais."
The crown prince may be said to have traveled over all Germany, and that, too, in the most democratic and sensible fashion. In Germany, and, in fact, all over the continent of Europe, a pedestrian tour, domestic and foreign, constitutes part and parcel of the education of every youth, especially those of the industrial classes. No apprenticeship is considered complete without the accomplishment of a trip of this kind, which is usually performed with a knapsack on the back, and in the most economical manner imaginable. This portion of the youth's life is known as his "wanderjahr" and the traveler is known by the name of "wanderbürsche" The trip serves to broaden the mind of the "bürsche," to render him self-reliant, and to give him a knowledge and experience of the world—aye, and of his craft as well—that he could never obtain if he remained at home. Emperor William, who in many things is so exceedingly reactionary, and so apparently assured that royalty is constructed of an entirely different clay than that used for ordinary folks, gave a manifestation of those democratic notions which constitute such a paradox to the remainder of his character by sending forth his three eldest boys each year during their holidays on a pedestrian tour through the length and breadth of his dominions, just as if they were the sons of artisans, and were compelled to learn a trade for a living. The crown prince and his brothers traveled, not in a palace-car, nor in carriages, but on foot, with knapsacks on their backs, and spending the nights at mere roadside inns. They had no servant with them, only their military governor, Colonel von Falkenheyn, and his assistant, the latter a lieutenant of the guards, and the name tinder which they journeyed was an incognito one; indeed, so cleverly did they manage to conceal their identity that it was hardly ever revealed.
It is difficult to imagine anything that appealed more to the masses in Germany than this manner adopted by the kaiser for making his sons acquainted with the world. It was felt that the royal lads, with their knapsacks on their backs, afoot, and with no indication of their rank, would obtain by actual experience a contact with the people and a knowledge which they could never hope to acquire if they had toured through the land in special trains, on horseback, or in splendidly-appointed carriages. Moreover, it makes every German youth, trudging along the dusty roads, and ignorant for the most part of where and how he is to sup and sleep that night, feel that after all his lot is not such a very unenviable one, since even his future monarch has been a "wanderbürsche," like himself.
It is probable that before the education of the crown prince is considered complete, he will be sent on a trip around the world, mainly with the object of endowing him with that breadth of mind which foreign travel alone can give, and partly also with the idea of reviving the dormant loyalty of Germans who have settled in foreign lands. Emperor William has frequently expressed the opinion that among the hitherto unused factors in German politics, are the Germans established in the United States, in Australia, and in other equally distant climes. While he does not in any way expect or imagine that Germans who have thus emigrated from the Fatherland, will render themselves guilty of any disloyalty to the land of their adoption, yet he believes that by keeping alive their memories of the old country, and their affection for its reigning house they may help Germany by using their political influence in their new home for the benefit of Germany. Thus William, in spite of all that has been said to the contrary, has in contemplation an eventual understanding if not an actual alliance with the United States; this result to be brought about largely through the influence of the immense and prosperous German population in America, and he believes that the project is likely to be promoted and fostered by a visit of his eldest son, the crown prince, to the United States for the purpose of making himself acquainted, not only with the country, but above all with its German inhabitants.
In making the grand tour of the world, the crown prince will be but following in the footsteps of the heirs to the thrones of Austria and Belgium, who have both visited the United States for the purpose of improving their minds, and of fitting themselves more thoroughly for their duties as twentieth century rulers. The present Emperor of Russia, and his younger brother, the late Czarevitch George, likewise started on a tour round the world, which in the case of George was cut short at Bombay by that sickness to which he subsequently succumbed, while the globe-trotting tour of Nicholas was brought to a sudden close through his attempted assassination in Japan.
No pen-sketch of the young Crown Prince of Germany would be complete without a reference to his remarkable skill as a violinist, an instrument which he has been studying steadily ever since his eighth year, under the direction of the Berlin court violinist Von Exner. He seems to have inherited all the musical talent for which the reigning house of Prussia is so celebrated, and to which I propose to devote at least a part of the following chapter.