The empress is ever ready to help in every good work, and her private charities are very great, but she does not approve of the higher education or the emancipation of women, and entertains a holy horror of everything pertaining to the female suffrage movement. Women, according to her views, should remain in their own sphere, and should regard their duties to their husbands, their children, and their homes as their first and foremost obligations; the nursing of the sick, the training of young people, and the organization and direction of charitable institutions, affording plenty of scope for those members of the fair sex who have no domestic tasks to occupy their time.
[Illustration: AUGUSTE VICTORIA EMPRESS OF GERMANY] From Life
She claims that in this way a woman is able to exercise a far more important and beneficial influence than by endeavoring to supplant men in professions essentially masculine, and certainly she herself constitutes a striking illustration of the truth of her contention, for the influence of the present German empress is felt throughout the length and breadth of the land—a gracious womanly influence in every sense of the word.
Among the many philanthropic organizations which owe their origin to the empress, is the Central Association of German Actresses, which has of late years done more towards elevating the stage than has ever been accomplished by members of the aristocracy who have seen fit to join the dramatic profession with that avowed object in view. The work of this society is to enable actresses to provide themselves, at the lowest possible cost, with the costumes considered necessary by the managers of the theatres. It is well known that while in Germany the pieces are beautifully put on the stage, the salaries paid to the actresses do not in many cases cover the expenses of the stage dresses. The empress makes a point of giving all her court and evening gowns, which were formerly the perquisites of her dressers and maids, to the association, and has invited the ladies of the Court of Berlin to follow her example. Those ladies who feel that they cannot afford to give the dresses, are asked to sell them to the Association as cheaply as possible, and the latter then turns them over at a merely nominal cost to such ladies of the dramatic profession as are considered worthy of support and assistance.
This organization is managed entirely by great ladies, the empress herself acting as president, and in this manner they are brought into personal contact with actresses both of high and low degree. The intercourse thus established has been most beneficial, for it has not only helped to place the social status of the stage on a more agreeable basis, but it also constitutes an incentive to actresses to keep their names and reputations free from blemish, since they naturally understand that the empress and the great ladies of the aristocracy can only treat them as friends, so long as they live up to the same standard of respectability as that which prevails in the highest circles of society, and at court.
One of the most valuable qualities of Empress Augusta-Victoria is her extraordinary tact. It is due to this, more than anything else, that she has been able to retain, not only a hold upon the affection and regard of her impulsive and brilliant husband, but also an influence over him without his being aware of the fact. By the leading members of his court, and by his principal ministerial advisers, she is regarded not merely in the light of his guardian angel, but as his most sensible counsellor. She may be relied upon at all times to soothe his anger, soften any bitterness which he may entertain towards this or that person, and call forth at critical moments the most generous and chivalrous phases of his, on the whole, very attractive character.
She is claimed by those who know the true state of affairs to act in the capacity of a brake and a safety-valve to her husband, and it is no secret that both the classes and the masses feel an additional sense of security when they know their popular empress to be by the emperor's side; for every mistake that he has made since he ascended the throne has taken place during her absence, and he himself is the first to acknowledge that she is largely responsible for every success that he has achieved.
The sentiments of the empress towards Bismarck have been much misunderstood and misconstrued. It is perfectly true that she was brought up from her earliest childhood to regard him as the enemy of her house, the prince having, as I have already related, been the author of the indefensible act of spoliation, by means of which her father had been deprived of the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, now forming part of the kingdom of Prussia. The manner in which the Iron Chancellor was viewed in the home of the empress when a young girl, may best be gathered from the fact that whenever her nurses and governesses were desirous of putting a stop to her naughtiness and of frightening her into obedience, they would exclaim: "Bismarck's coming! wow! wow!" This childhood impression has continued so deep that even to this day, whenever the empress shows any signs of reluctance to comply with her husband's wishes, or betrays irritation, the kaiser is in the habit of springing upon her the familiar old cry of "Bismarck's coming! wow! wow!" which at first always makes her start as she did in infancy and girlhood, and then causes her to burst into laughter, and restores her to good humor.
These sentiments of aversion to Bismarck were to a great extent modified at the time of her marriage by the knowledge that it was the chancellor who had contributed more than anybody else to facilitate and bring about the match. The latter was opposed by many of Emperor William's kinsfolk, as well as by influential people at court, on the ground that her rank was inadequate to render her a suitable match for the heir to the throne of Germany. Bismarck, however, took the ground that a marriage between the heir presumptive and the eldest daughter of the de jure Duke of Schleswig-Holstein would go a long way to reconcile the inhabitants of the above-named duchies to their annexation by Prussia, while at the same time it would constitute the reparation of an act which he himself admitted was extremely unjust, but to which he was compelled by imperative considerations of policy.
Empress Augusta-Victoria has been so supremely happy in her married life that she has always felt a certain amount of gratitude to Bismarck, which tended to obliterate her childhood's impressions against him; and no more striking indication of her sentiments towards the famous statesman can be given than the fact that she travelled all the way to Friedrichsrüh at a moment when the sickness of her children demanded her presence by their bedside, in order to attend the private and home funeral of the man who had publicly described her father as the most stupid prince in all Europe; who had deprived him of his throne, and who had sent him to an early grave as a broken-spirited and thoroughly embittered man.