“Yes, and you’ll get up when I want you to, I’ll give you my word for that,” returned Bismarck, and then went to sleep himself. At half-past six in the morning, the Chancellor knocked at Kleist-Retzow’s door and as it was not opened, he called to him to get up. The Count had not the slightest intention of doing so, and Bismarck assured him again that he would be out of his bed by seven. Kleist-Retzow lay still and paid no attention to him. Bismarck took his shotgun, went into the yard, stood before the window of his friend’s bedroom and shot through it into the ceiling, so that the plaster fell down upon the Count’s head. Kleist-Retzow, very much frightened, jumped up at once and went to the window to see what had happened. Seeing nobody, he quickly put on his clothes and hurried down-stairs. Bismarck came to meet him, greeted him, and without changing a muscle, said: “I hope you have rested well; it is just seven o’clock!”
A Novel Signal
In 1871, while Bismarck, as Ambassador of the Confederation, lived at Frankfort, he occupied rooms in a private house. There was no bell in his study with which to call his valet from his room on the floor above, so he requested his landlord to have one put in. That gentleman, who was not a friend of “that Prussian,” declined to do so, saying, that his tenants always had done things of that sort at their own expense, and he didn’t see why he should make an exception now.
Some time later in the day a pistol-shot rang through the house. Very much frightened, the landlord ran through all the rooms until he came to Bismarck’s study, where the still smoking pistol lay on the table, and the smoking Bismarck sat quietly at work.
“For heaven’s sake, what has happened?” cried the landlord.
“Nothing at all,” said Bismarck, “that you need worry about. I just signaled to my valet that I want him. It is a perfectly harmless signal. I hope you will soon get used to it.”
It is hardly necessary to add that Bismarck got his bell in short order.
Despatch Sending Without Suspicion
One day, while the peace negotiations were in progress, the representative from Hanover asked Bismarck how he managed to get his despatches through the mails unopened. Bismarck, for answer, asked him to take a walk with him. He took him to the poor district of Frankfort, to a narrow street where only small stores were to be found. Arrived before a little grocery, Bismarck, to his companion’s surprise, put on gloves and then entered the store. His first question to the clerk was: “Do you keep soap?”
“Yes sir.”