When the Kaiser motors to Potsdam he usually sits in one of three motors which travel very fast, one behind the other. I do not know whether this is by design or not, but of course, it makes an attempt on his life more difficult.
I used one of the Kaiser's motors in occupied France—a large Mercedes, run by a skilful driver at a great rate of speed.
The Crown Prince is especially fond of horses and if he succeeds to the throne will undoubtedly keep up the Royal stable or Marstall. This is situated on the bank of the Spree across the square from the Royal Schloss in Berlin. There are kept the carriages of state, those sent to bring Ambassadors to the Palace when they first present their letters, two hundred splendid saddle and driving horses, with modern carriages, four-in-hand coaches, dog carts, etc. Most of the Foreign Ambassadors use state carriages for great occasions, with bewigged coachmen and standing footmen. I think Ambassador White was the last American who indulged in the luxury of a state carriage. As a plain dress suit did not exactly fit with a Cinderella coach, I went to functions, such as the Emperor's birthday reception, in a large automobile, retaining only of the former state the necessary body huntsman who acted as footman on these occasions and who wore a livery of hunting green, a cocked hat, with red, white and blue plumes and a long hunting dagger in his belt.
Out of consideration for the feelings of others I retained the porter in his old finery, a Berlin institution. At state dinners the porter of a Royalty or Ambassador stands at the house entrance, clad in a long coat, wearing a silver belt diagonally across his chest, and crowned by an enormous cocked hat worn sideways. The porter carries also a great silver headed staff, like a drum major's baton, and when guests of particular importance arrive he pounds this stick three times on the pavement.
It used to amuse the Berlin crowd lining Unter den Linden to see the Ambassadors and Ministers leave the Palace or Cathedral on the Kaiser's birthday, New Year's day, etc., to see the state carriages of the other Ambassadors overtaken by the modern automobile from America.
The Berlin lower classes are renowned for their dry wit and they find much to amuse them in the tasteless statues and monuments of Berlin.
In the square outside our house was a statue of one of Friedrich the Great's generals which seemed to afford the boys great fun. The General is shown in the act of reflectively feeling his chin and by chance is gazing uncertainly at the barber shop of the neighbouring hotel Kaiserhof.
Nobody knows, of course, whether the present Crown Prince will succeed Emperor William—nobody knows the fortunes of war or the fate that this war has in store for the Hohenzollerns but while I personally like the Crown Prince, admire his skill in sports, his amiable ways, his smiles to the crowd, I know also of his crazy belief in war. And so long as a ruler persists in this, he is as dangerous to the peace of the world as a man with a plague to the health of a small community.