Dem Grafen von Bismarck soll es verleiber
So Lang sie vom Horste die Reiher nicht trieben—
Or, “The Counts Bismarck shall reign at Varzin as long as the herons are not driven from their ancient haunts”; in rude rhyme:
“The Bismarcks shall hold their domain till the day
When they from their haunts drive the herons away.”
¶ You see, the old man’s mind was wandering, and now and then he saw the future, as in a strange dream.
¶ He watched the crows and jackdaws gather over the fields and at the rookeries, and he said one day, “They have their joys and sorrows like human beings.”
¶ He recited Shakespeare, thinking of the olden times when he went roaring up and down the land! “Let me play the lion, too! I will roar that it will do any man’s heart good to hear me. I will that I can make the Duke say, ‘Let him roar again, let him roar again!’”
¶ Trifles annoyed the aged Bismarck, as might be expected; such things as changing the clocks to introduce “standard time,” as it is called. “I do not like this ‘standard time’; here I get up half an hour too early and go to bed half an hour too soon,” was the octogenarian’s crabbed comment.
¶ Day by day, crowds came to see him—children, students, laborers, artists, musicians, politicians, writers—all visited the sage in his retirement.
Levi, the Wagnerian Kappelmeister, journeyed from Munich to Friedrichsruh to beg the honor of owning, as a souvenir, one of Bismarck’s old hats.