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About Crook County journal. (Prineville, Or.) 189?-1921 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 19, 1918)
CROOK OOCNTY JOinNAL KKI'TKMIIKK lit, ItHW The Kaiser as I Knew Him for Fourteen Years By ARTHUR N. DAVIS. D. D. S. (Copyright. WIS. fcy Um McCtnr NampaPM SyndlcatO suThofTOesliafl Belayed action Because f the fact that I resided In an enemy country. On the 28th I received a letter from the court chamberlain stating that the p resilient of police had made It knowu to the kaiser that I had applied for a pass to America and demanding an ex planation as to why I had told the kai ser that I had planned to go to Copen hagen and had not mentioned Amer ica. I at once replied that It was Indeed my Intention, a I had told the kaiser, to go to Copenhagen, but that I had applied for the pass to America be cause I wanted to be In a position to go there If my patent affairs demand ed it and I expressed the hope that nothing would be done to Interfere with the pass which had been prom ised me for the 30th. Nevertheless, the 30th came around and the pass didn't, and the boat which ailed from Copenhagen on December i afoaok. Teas gifts "he "could bestow. 1 remem ber his donating one of thera to an American charity -baxaar In Berlin tc be auctioned off. He thought that th fact that the card came from his Im perial majesty gave It a value which could not be measured In dollars and cents. A piece of Jewelry or a sum of money might have been duplicated or even excelled by gift of similar character from any American million aire for whose wealth the kaiser fre quently expressed the utmost contempt but what could surpass the value of an autograph of the kaiser 1 No doubt the royal banquets were prepared much upon the same prin ciple, for It was a common saying among the German aristocracy that one had better feel well before going to a banquet at the palace. I happened to mention to the kaiser the reputation his banquets held among ; his people. Be was not at all taken 7, which I had planned to take, sailed without me. Again the weary weeks followed each other without the slightest inti mation from anyone that I would ever be allowed to leave. Indeed, I had "That's good !" he commented. "The Germans are too fat, anyway. The ma jority of the people eat too much." Long after antomobillng became more or less general, the kaiser still ri r il r-rw1 a hnMA u r-i 4 v.-, ) A , fully made up my miud that the au-, thorlties had decided to keep me In nci, - .. . V. i . Berlin for reasons of their own and " uL7kr. .Jk., . . ,j A u a iv. tances. When, however, the relchstag that nothing I could d6 could mend the compelling royalty to pa situation, when, early In January, Ire-., ... t J j' celved the Joyous tidings that I could leave January 21-23. I left on the 22d, and as far as I have since been able to ascertain I was the last Amer ican male to leave Germany with the consent of the officials. CHAPTER III. The Kaiser's Dual Personality. If I had cohie away from Germany In January, 1914, Instead of, In January, 1918, and had written the Impression I had gained of the kaiser m the ten years I had known him, what a false picture I would have painted of the man as he really 1st It would have been a picture of a man who In general appearance and bearing was every inch an emperor and for their railroad travel, the kaiser took to automobiles. They charged him 11,000 marks, be told me, for the use of a train on one of his shooting trips, and that apparently was more than he could stand. "Autos are expensive," he declared, "but they don't cost me that much I" The kaiser speaks English with but the slightest trace of a foreign accent His diction Is perfect, lie speaks French, too, very fluently, and, I be lieve, Italian. He Is widely read on almost all subjects and knows the lit erature of England, France and Amer ica as well as that of Germany. Mark Twain was one of his favorite Amer ican authors and Longfellow his choice of American poets. He prides himself on his acquain tance with history and has little re spect for the political opinions of oth- yet who could exhibit all the courtesy. affability and gentleness f the most l"e P' opinions or ow- democrattc gentleman, a Tian soft of : er w1hse owW of history is less ye and kindly in expression, a man of , cop' ' .... Vide reading and attainments-perhaps L Sno f after 5arnee nBd the most versatile man In the world, a j fhTe 11,111100 m"ka Germany to fur- man who possessed a most alert mind. fT, wfUJe 1 "PP remarkable memory and the keenest kaer f Amer la mU- , ' h Uonalres and the steelmaster was erous in nature and yet was at times considerate of others ; a man of charm uld have shown a man of unpar- j T; condescendingly, "but he is to- mentioned. . "Of course, Carnegie Is a nice old man and means well," remarked the tally Ignorant of world history. He's Just advanced ns five million for world-peace. We accepted It naturally, but, of course, we Intend to continue alleled egotism, a man who was Im patient of correction and who would brook no opposition. There might have IWkn In tltn a an (Ttrnollnn rt iYitk dire lengths to which the man would ."" policy of maintaining our army and go to have his way, but It would have "7, " been only a suggestion. er 3 haf? 'ny J!bJect As far a. It nt, the picture would Zlt, ael a?y . , ... i. . , , ; vuuniiiciouio a I L'" 11 LI' III 111 WI11LU US doesn't regard himself as the final authority. have been accurate, but It would have been sadly Incomplete with all the lights worked In but lacking all the shadows. It took the war and Its attendant horrors to reveal the kaiser In bis true colors. The war did not change his character; It uncovered It Early In my practice I happened to mention to the kaiser that I appre- As an art collector and antiquarian he claims first place and be is rather inclined to feel that second place should be left vacant He aways re sented very much the acquisition by American millionaires of art treasures and antiquities which their wealth en abled them to buy, but which their dated the friendliness he showed me I limited acquaintance with history and In invariably waving his hand at me as he passed my window when walking along the Tiergarten. "It's a good advertisement for you, Davis," he said. "The people see me waving to you and they know you must be a good dentist or I wouldn't come to you. It will help your busi ness I" In every act, he was conscious Of the public. During that period of my career in Berlin, he showed the utmost Interest In my progress and frequently Inquired how my practice was developing. The first bill I rendered him, as I have mentioned, he doubled. On a number of subsequent occasions, he paid me more than my bill called for. These overpayments never amounted to very much, but they Impressed me because they were so out of keeping With the stinginess the kaiser' dis played in other directions. From time to time the kaiser sent or brought me autographed pictures of himself or others. At the time of the one hundredth anniversary of Fred erick the Great, he gave me a picture of that monarch. On another occasion, he presented me with a group picture of himself surrounded by bis family and dogs. I remenibpr his bringing to tne a large unfrumed picture In cele bration of his silver wedding. It wai about twenty-four by eighteen Inches In size. It showed the kalserin and himself In a sort of cloud floating abov a blrdseye view of Berlin, with thi palace and the cathedral dimly seer below. "I don't know just what this master piece was meant to signify, but I had II framed and placed it in my office. II evoked from a little boy who entered the room with his mother the follow ing astonished remark: "Oh, mother look at the kaiser in heaven!" A post-enrd picture of the kaiser signed by his own hand, was In his own estimation one of the most price- their lack of culture and refinement made them unable to appreciate in the kaiser s estimation. Of his own taste in art little need be said. The monuments which he caused to be erected to his ancestors and their advisors and which adorn the Sieges Allee, the street he had opened through the Tiergarten especially for them, aro at the same time a monument to the kaiser's Ideas of art They are the laughing-stock of the artistic world. They have been so frequently defaced by vandals whose artistic taste they offended that it was necessary to sta tion policemen in the Sieges Allee to guard them. Not long ago a burglary occurred in the vicinity. The burglars were observed while at work and a startled civilian rushed to the Sieges Allee to summon one of the officers who were known to be on guard there. "If you hurry," exclaimed the civil ian, excitedly, "you can catch these burglars red-handed." "I'm sorry," replied the policeman, "But I cannot leave the statues." Realism is the kaiser's Idea of what is most desirable In dramatic art. When he put on "Sardanapal," a Greek tragedy In pantomime, at the Berlin opera house, he sent professors to the British museum to secure the most detailed Information available regard ing the costumes of the period. Every utensil, every article of wearing ap parel, every button, every weapon, in fact, every property used in the play were to be faithfully reproduced, par ticular pains being taken to produce a most realistic1 effect In a funeral pyre tcene in which a king ended his life. The kaiser sent me tickets to see It King Edward attended the perform uice at the T-erlin Itoyal opera and I isked the kaiser how the king of Eng land enjoyed It '' ' "My gracious," the kaiser replied, unable to repress his satisfaction at the effect the pantomime had had on his royal uncle, "why, the king waa very much alarmed when the funeral pyre scene came on. He thought the whole orn nous wnn on tire!" Perhaps the kaiser's love for details might be attributed to his keen olmer it Hon. Nothing, no matter how triv ial, escaped his attention. A couple of years before the war I had the empire furniture In my watt ing room reupholstered. On- the very first occasion of the kaiser's calling at my office after the change he noticed It "My, my, how beautiful the chairs look !" he exclaimed. "Good enough for Napoleon himself," On another occasion, between two of the "kaiser's visits, I had had put up In the waiting room a new portrait of Mrs. Davis. The kaiser m tlced It the moment he came Into the room and made some complimentary remark about It. ' The kaiser frequently accused the Americans of being dollar-worshipers and the English of being ruled by Mammon, but that he himself was not totally unmindful of the value and power of money was clearly revealed by the manner In which he catered to people of wealth In recent years. The richest man In Berlin and one of the richest In Gennany was a He brew, coal magnate named Fried- lander. The kaiser ennobled him and made him Von Friedlander-Fiild. An--other wealthy Hebrew to whom the kaiser catered was Srhwahaeh, head of the Blelchroeder bauk, one of the strongest private banks In Germany, and he, too, was ennobled, becoming Von Schwubach. A nn'mher of other wealthy nebrews In Germany were also honored by the kaiser In another way. Although he was averse to visiting the homes of private individuals who larked soclnl standing, he departed from his rule In their favor and vUlted their mansions ostensibly to view their art collections, but actually to tickle their vanity. Shortly after Lelshman became am bassador to Gennany, the kaiser called on me. "Tonr new ambassador's daughter la the best looking young lady who has attended our court In many a day," he declared. "Half a dozen of my young staff officers are very anxious to marry her. Can you tell me, Davis, whether these Lelshmans have moneyf If the kaiser despised the American propensity for money-making, he was certainly not averse to acquiring American dollars. He told me once that every trip the Hamburg-American liner Amerika made from New York to Hamburg re sulted in transferring $150,000 from American to German pockets, and added : "We're mighty glad to get some of your American money, I can tell you." Of the kaiser's versatility I bad convincing evidence. In his conversa tions with me we usually wandered from subject to subject In the most haphazard manner, and he Invariably displayed a surprising store of Infor mation on every topic we touched, and I am not vain enough to believe that he was so anxious .o make s favorable impression upon me that he prepared for these discussions In advance. Indeed, the kaiser discussed so free ly almost every subject that suggested Itself that I often wondered what his advisors would have said had they overheard our conversations. His read iness to talk to me was undoubtedly due to a tendency he bad to trust every one with whom he came In inti mate contact For a man who was apt to have so many enemies, he was less suspicious than anyone I had ever met He seemed to trust every one, and his sense of security unloosened bis tongue and made him more talkative, perhaps, than was always discreet The kaiser was very fond of listen ing to and telling stories with a point and would frequently invite me to tell him any new one that I might havo heard. Some of the stories we ex changed were more or less risque and would be out of place in these pages, but I do not mean to Intimate that there was anything very much amiss with them. They always amused him very much and he was quick to catch the point The kaiser's sense of humor fre quently exhibited itself. He told me of a conference between representa tives of all the powers regarding the selection of a king for Albania after the Balkan war. Some of those present thought the Incumbent ought to be a Catholic, others insisted that a Greek catnoiic was essential, still others maintained that a Mohammedan would be most logical It seemed quite Impossible to come to any agreement as to Just what re ligion the king of Albania should pro fess, and the kaiser had ended the dis cussion, he said, with the suggestion: "Well, gentlemen, if a Protestant won't do, and a Roman Catholic won't do, and a Buddhist is out of the ques tion, why not select a Jew and call him Jacob the First? He'll have his throat cut, anyway, in three months I" The powers did not select a Jew, but the prince of Wled, the kaiser's nomi nee, was puf on the throne, and within a month or two afterwards hud to flee for bis life. In referring to Roosevelt's patriotic offer to lead an army In France, the kaiser declared that he admired him for bis courage and zeal. "I hear," he said, "that he Is now on his way to Italy. It is too bad we did not postpone our offensive there. Per haps we might have captured him. Wouldn't Teddy look funny in a gus mask?" Shortly after the U-boat Deutsch land made its successful trip to Amer ica, the kaiser called on ine, and he was in a very Jocular frame of mind. I happened to mention- to him that I planned to go to America tha following summer In connection with the porce lain tooth I had patented. "Well. It won't h necemwry now, lavK" he commented. "We cun send the Ivutschland over and bring back a boatload of teeth!" Tlx my teeth well. Davis," be de clared on another oecunlou, "mo that I can bite. There are lots of people I would like to bite!" and he mapped his Jaws together in a way that would have boded ill for the victims he bad In mind, although his remark was evi dently more facetious than vicious. The courtesy and affability which the kaiser almoin invariably displayed In bis relations with me did not pre vent him on one occasion from show ing his Indlguatlon when I touched him Uhu what waa evidently a very sore point the part that America was go ing to play in the war, although he al ways claimed to be unperturbed about th ' American situation. He had pointed out that America at that time had only 30,000 men In France and he believed that the U boats would effectively prevent any rreat addition to our forces abroad, If, Indeed, they ever left our shores. "As a matter of fact, however," he added, "your countrymen would be , very .willing, no doubt, to fight for their country to prutect It from Invasion, but I don't believe you'll ever get many of them to leave home to fight abroad. America will really be a very small factor in the war, Davis I" "Your majesty la underestimating the power of America I" I replied. He turned to me Indignantly, and In bla most Imperious manner exclaimed : "We underestimate no onel We know exactly what we are doing I" How seriously he was mistaken In this respect has slue been sufficiently proved. No matter hv gloomy the outlook for Germany, the kulser seldom allow ed concern. It Is true that whenever things were going wrong, as when the Russians In the eurly part of the war were sweeping everything before them In their advance ou the CurputhlanH, he and the rest of the royal family kept as far In the background as pos sible, whereas when the German cause was triumphant, as In the case of the offensive against Italy, he could not make himself too conspicuous at the front But even when Germany's adversity was greatest the kulser always put on a brave front At such times I have seen him stop In the street, after leav ing my office, and before the hundreds of people waiting outsle to greet him, ostentatiously put a cigarette In his mouth and light It, that everyone might notice how steady his hand was and how little he was worried by the turn things were taking. At the same time, on one or two oc casions after the war started, I noticed that be acted differently when in the dental chair than had been hi custom when everything was serene. The kaiser once boasted to me that not a building was erected in Germany, not a bridge built, not a street opened, not a park laid out, hut what the proj ect was first submitted to him. He kept posted on everything that was going on, not only in Germany, but in the world at large, and, as fur as he was able, be endeavored to have his finger in every development of world wide Importance. I cannot Imagine that he was less Interested In what his countrymen were doing In connection with the war thun he was in their achievements In time of peace. I If he did not actually order the sink-1 Ing of the Lusitunla, therefore, I am convinced that be was thoroughly aware of the plan to blow It up and sanctioned it. That he could have averted It If he hud been prompted to to do so is clearly indlcuted by another incident which left a very deep Im pression upon me. I was Informed by one of the Ger man aviators that plans had been made to drop gas bombs on London which contained a deadly gas which would penetrate the cellars of houses In which civilians were In the habit of hiding during air raids. Shortly before this hideous Idea was to be put into effect the papers an nounced that booms of this character had been dropped by the allies on Baden-Baden, but that, fortunately, they had fallen In a clump of woods In the center of the town and had full ed to explode, which had given the Germans an opportunity to take them apart and ascertuln their nature. The purpose of this announcement, of course, was to forestall the storm of condemnation which the Germans knew would follow their use of the bombs on London a ruse which they bud invariably employed whenever they contemplated some fresh violation of the rules of international law and the dictates of bumunity. It happened tbut one of my patients who resided In Baden-Baden called to , see me the day after the bombs bad ' been dropped on her town, and she told me all about It ; "The airplanes which dropped the bombs had been flying over the city all the morning," she declared. "We thought they were our own machines out for practice and paid no particular attention to thern. Then they dropped the bombs and they landed In the woods, and we knew we had been at tacked. What a dreadful thing for them to do!" What a foolish thing for allied air planes to do to spend a whole morn ing studying the layout of the town and then to drop those deadly- bombs on a clump of woods where they could . not possibly hurt anyone,, and how careless of the Germans not to molest them while they were engaged In their . devilish work I , But the point I wanted to bring ont ( was this : these gas bombs were never used on London I j "Just as everything was in readiness 150 Tons of Hay Good outside range and good watering place, 2 teams, modern bungalow and other . buildings, 320 acre ranch with water charge of one dollar per year, well fenced and cross fenced, daily mail to door. Will tell for $15,000, $7,000 down, balance to suit at 7 per cent. Ochoco Realty Company Prineville, Oregon FIFTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL STATE FAIR Salem, September 23-28 Daily lectures and demonstration on food production and conservation; , more and better exhibits; high- class amusements, attractions and enter tainments; an excellent racing card; ideal camping grounds, and the best of accommodations for both exhibit ors and visitors. A. H. LEA, Secretary, Salem, Or. STOP LOOK LISTEN The Hamilton Barn is the place to put your horses, where they will be fed. Horses and cattle sold by private sale or auction. Heavy truck hauling. Grain and Baled Hay fcr sale. Leave orders with J. E. CAMPBELL Phone Black 21 Let Colgate's Me chanics' Soap Paste remove that grease and grime from your hands. Convenient both forshopandhome use. 3X3 D. P. Adamson & Co. Druggists i i MIKE TRAPMAN Home Builder and Cabinet Maker ALL CABINET WORK MADE IN . MY OWN SHOP WITH . MACHINERY, Shop on East Sixth Street PRINEVILLE, OREGON (To be continued)
