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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Blood and Iron, by John Hubert Greusel
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Blood and Iron
+       Origin of German Empire As Revealed by Character of Its
+       Founder, Bismarck
+
+Author: John Hubert Greusel
+
+Release Date: July 21, 2009 [EBook #29473]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BLOOD AND IRON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Markus Brenner, Irma Spehar and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+                            BLOOD and IRON
+
+                       _Origin of German Empire
+                       As Revealed by Character
+                       of Its Founder, Bismarck_
+
+                                  BY
+
+                          JOHN HUBERT GREUSEL
+
+                         THE SHAKESPEARE PRESS
+                          114-116 E. 28th St.
+                               New York
+                                 1915
+
+
+                 Copyright, 1915, John Hubert Greusel
+
+
+                     _Dedicated to Stella My Wife_
+
+
+
+
+                               CONTENTS
+
+
+BOOK THE FIRST: BISMARCK'S HUMAN ESSENCE
+
+Chapter I--The Man Himself
+  1. The Giant's Ponderous Hammer
+  2. Grossly Human Is Our Bismarck
+  3. Despite Political Bogs
+  4. Genius Combined with Foibles
+
+Chapter II--Blood Will Tell
+  5. Iron-headed Ancestry
+  6. Animal Basis of Rise to Power
+  7. "The Wooden Donkey Dies Today!"
+
+Chapter III--The Gothic Cradle
+  8. The Child of Destiny
+  9. Soft Carl, Spartan Louise
+
+Chapter IV--Sunshine and Shadow
+  10. Amazing Powers of Hereditary Traits
+  11. The Wolf's Breed
+  12. Twenty-eight Duels!
+  13. Fizzle of First Official Service
+
+
+BOOK THE SECOND: THE GERMAN NATIONAL PROBLEM
+
+Chapter V--The Great Sorrow
+  14. The German Crazy Quilt
+  15. The Diamond Necklace
+
+Chapter VI--Prussia's De Profundis
+  16. The Lash and the Kiss
+  17. The Prussian Downfall
+  18. Prussia Becomes Germany
+  19. Kingcraft Comes Upon Evil Days
+  20. The Star of Hope
+  21. The King Keeps Reading His Bible
+  22. The Deluge
+
+
+BOOK THE THIRD: BISMARCK SUPPORTS HIS KING
+
+Chapter VII--Fighting Fire with Fire
+  23. Voice in the Wilderness
+  24. The Young Giant
+  25. Speechless for One Whole Month
+  26. Bellowing His Defiance
+
+Chapter VIII--Bismarck Suffers a Great Shock
+  27. Bismarck Scorns French Political Millennium
+  28. Militarism as National Salvation
+  29. King Marches with Mob!
+
+Chapter IX--So Much the Worse for Zeitgeist
+  30. Not Politics--Human Nature
+  31. Setting Back the Century Clock
+  32. The Master at Work
+  33. Bismarck Nudges His King
+  34. Mystical High-flown Speeches
+
+
+BOOK THE FOURTH: BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER
+
+Chapter X--Socrates in Politics
+  35. The Frankfort School of Intrigue
+  36. Preparing for German Unity
+  37. Tyrants Are Necessary
+  38. Bismarck, in Naked Realism
+
+Chapter XI--The Mailed Fist
+  39. Democracy Stems from Aristocracy
+  40. Parallel Elements of Power
+
+Chapter XII--By Blood and Iron!
+  41. The Man of the Hour
+  42. Rough and Tumble
+  43. On Comes the Storm
+  44. Bismarck Decides to Rule Alone
+
+Chapter XIII--The Dream of Empire
+  45. Bismarck Tricks Them All
+  46. Prussian Domination Essential
+  47. By Faith Ye Shall Conquer
+  48. Was Bismarck a Beast?
+
+
+BOOK THE FIFTH: THE GERMAN PEOPLE ARE ONE AND UNITED
+
+Chapter XIV--Windrows of Corpses
+  49. Devil or Saint, Which?
+  50. Sleeping Beside the Dead
+  51. The Rejected Stone
+  52. His Ikon?
+  53. "The Dying Warrior"
+  54. Sadowa Summed Up
+  55. Manure
+
+Chapter XV--The Great Year, 1870
+  56. "These Poor Times"
+  57. The Bugle Blast
+  58. Bismarck's Ironical Revenge
+  59. The Weaver's Hut
+  60. Zenith!
+
+Chapter XVI--The Versailles Masterpiece
+  61. The Kaiser's Crown
+  62. Divine-right, a Politico-Military Fact
+
+
+BOOK THE SIXTH: ONCE A MAN AND TWICE A CHILD
+
+Chapter XVII--The Downfall
+  63. Bismarck's Secret Discontent
+  64. "Who Made United Germany?"
+  65. The Irony of Fate
+  66. Last Illusion Dispelled
+  67. Binding Up the Old Man's Wounds
+  68. Awaiting the Call
+  69. Refuses to Pass Under the Yoke
+  70. Glory Turns to Ashes
+
+Chapter XVIII--Hail and Farewell
+  71. His Final and Most Glorious Decoration
+  72. "As One Asleep"
+
+
+
+
+                            BOOK THE FIRST
+
+                       Bismarck's Human Essence
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I
+
+                            The Man Himself
+
+
+                                   1
+
+  Hark, Hark! The giant's ponderous hammer rings on the anvil
+  of destiny. Enter, thou massive figure, Bismarck, and in
+  deadly earnest take thy place before Time's forge.
+
+¶ It is, it must be, a large story--big with destiny! The details
+often bore with their monotony; they do not at all times march on;
+they drag, but they do indeed never halt permanently; ahead always is
+the great German glory.
+
+¶ Forward march, under Prince Bismarck. He is our grim blacksmith,
+looming through the encircling dark, massive figure before Time's
+forge.
+
+The sparks fly, the air rings with the rain of blows: he is in deadly
+earnest, this half-naked, brawny Prussian giant; magnificent in his
+Olympian mien; his bellows cracking, his shop aglow with
+cheery-colored sparks as the heavy hammer falls on the unshapen ores
+on the big black anvil.
+
+¶ Thus, toiling hour after hour in the heat and sweat, our Pomeranian
+smith with ponderous hammer beats and batters the stubborn German iron
+into a noble plan--for a great Nation!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ From a human point, we do not always see the ultimate glory.
+
+For that is obscured by dark clouds of party strife, extending over
+years, the caprices of men and the interplay of ambitions both within
+and without the distracted German lands. Russia, Austria, Italy, Great
+Britain, France, Spain, have their spies engaged in all the under-play
+of political intrigue; there are a thousand enemies at home and
+abroad, in camp, court and peasant's cottage.
+
+¶ And at times, weary of it all, we throw down the book convinced
+that, in a welter of sordid ends, the cause is lost in shame.
+
+But, somehow, some way, Germany does in truth ultimately emerge
+triumphant, in spite of her amazing errors and the endless plots of
+enemies.
+
+She does indeed justify her manhood--and thus the Bismarck story is of
+imperishable glory.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ We say that Bismarck had to re-inspire the Germans to be a fighting
+nation.
+
+What we mean is that the spirit of the ancient Teutons had to be
+aroused; for though it slumbered for centuries, it never died.
+
+Rome found that out when she was still in her infancy; the Germans
+burnt the town by the Tiber; and the fearsome struggle between the
+Romans and the Germanic tribesmen lasted almost unbroken for nearly
+five centuries.
+
+¶ The Romans regarded the Germans as the bravest people in the world.
+
+The migrations of the Cimbri and Teutones, and the frightful struggles
+in which after superhuman endeavors the Roman Marius destroyed his
+German enemies is one of the heroic pages of all history. It was a
+hand-to-hand contest, and torrents of human blood ran that day. Menzel
+tells us, (Germany, p. 85), that the place of battle enriched by a
+deluge of blood and ultimately fertilized by heaps of the slain,
+became in after years the site of vineyards whose wines were eagerly
+sought by connoisseurs.
+
+¶ The Cimbri were drawn up in a solid square, each side of which
+measured 7,000 paces. The foremost ranks were fastened together with
+chains, that the enemy might not readily break through. Even the
+German dogs that guarded the baggage train fought with animal
+ferocity. The battle went against the Germans and the slaughter was
+frightful. When all was lost, the Germans killed their women and
+children, rather than see them fall into the hands of the Romans.
+German courage inspired terror and created foreboding throughout the
+Roman world. It is a heroic story and sustains the German tradition
+that Germans born free under their ancient oaks never will be slaves,
+though the whole world is against them.
+
+The success varied, but the Germans conquered, even in death, becoming
+lineal descendants of the Empire. And on the ruins were builded the
+German nation, as the successor of the old Holy Roman Empire.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ We picture to you these shadowy glimpses of remote battle-scenes to
+show you that Germans were ever fighting men, who preferred death to
+loss of liberty.
+
+On the ruins of Roman imperial glory, Teutonic conquerors founded an
+Empire that defied time and chance for upwards of 1,000 years; then
+there crept in a peculiar dry rot. The ancient German oak died at the
+top. Along came Napoleon, hacking away the limbs and scarring the
+gnarled trunk with fire and sword. The ruin seemed complete. Dead at
+the top, dead at the root, men said. And what men say is true. There
+is no longer a Germany, except as a mere geographical designation;
+when you speak of the German Empire you recall merely the echo of a
+once mighty name.
+
+It now becomes Bismarck's solemn duty, fortified by a noble
+appreciation of the ancient legend, to make the German oak green again
+in its immortal youth. And he watered the roots with blood.
+
+¶ We cannot tell you the great story in a few baby-sentences; you must
+read and grasp the broad spirit as it gradually unfolds. Bismarck in
+the crudity of his early inspiration scarcely finds himself for years.
+But all the while he is holding fast to the idea that the Fatherland
+should under God be free and united, sustained by the ancient Teutonic
+brotherhood in arms.
+
+We present him in part as a tyrant, a wild, intolerant spirit, working
+his own plans to be sure, but those plans in the end are to redound to
+the good of the nation he long and unselfishly serves.
+
+We ask you to see him in his weakness and we hope with some of his
+strength, always with his high purpose.
+
+We ask you to behold him as a man with all a strong man's frailties
+and faults. We do not spare him. We paint him black, now and then,
+deliberately, that you may know how very small ofttimes are the very
+great; also to realize that if we are to wait for perfect human beings
+to front our reforms then those reforms will never be made.
+
+Bismarck is too great a man to be belittled by the glamour of spurious
+praise for spurious virtues.
+
+It was not necessary for him to cease to be a human being in order to
+carry out his work. He remained, to the end, grossly human, for which
+the gods be praised.
+
+
+                                   2
+
+  Grossly human is our Bismarck, whose lust for control is
+  idiomatic; let us get this clearly, first of all.
+
+¶ Did you ever see a bulldog battle with one of his kind? The
+startling fact is this: The dog suddenly develops magnificent reserve
+force, making his battling blood leap; is transformed into a catapult,
+bearing down his adversary or by him borne down--it matters not
+which!--for the joy of battle. To fight is the realization of his
+utmost being.
+
+¶ A peculiar fact known to all admirers of a fighting bulldog is this:
+The dog during the fight, looks now and then at his master near-by, as
+much as to say, "See how well I fight!"
+
+¶ Thus Bismarck looked at his King.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The nature of the pit bulldog is seen in Bismarck's head. His surly
+face inspires a sense of dread. There is that in his physiognomy that
+shows his ugly disposition, when aroused. If you saw that moody face
+in the crowd, one glance would be sufficient to make you feel how
+vituperative, short, sharp, murderous the unknown man could be, on
+occasion.
+
+¶ Yet the fear stirred by the sight of a pit bulldog is ofttimes
+largely illusionary. The dog at heart is genial in a brute way, and
+never a more loyal servant than the bulldog to his friends--devoted
+even to death, to his master.
+
+¶ It is the sense of dread in the bulldog's head that strikes home! So
+with Bismarck's physiognomy. The Iron Chancellor had but to come into
+the room to make his onlookers experience uneasiness. There was an
+ever-present suggestion of pent-up power, that could in an instant be
+turned upon men's lives, to their destruction!
+
+¶ It is true that Bismarck had his genial side, but it cannot be said
+that he drew and held men to him. He had thousands of admirers to one
+friend. During the greater part of his life he was either hated or
+feared--at best, misunderstood. Like the pit bulldog, Bismarck was
+born to rule other lives--and he fulfilled his mission.
+
+¶ The element of absolutism in the man, his uncompromising severity,
+his command of the situation regardless of cost, sorrow or suffering
+to other men, is seen in his realistic physiognomy. We study these
+facts more and more, as we go along.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ There was always something imperious about this great man. He
+brooked no interference. His excessive dignity compelled respect. He
+never allowed familiarities; you could not safely presume on his good
+nature. He never permitted you to get too near. This abnormal
+self-confidence conveyed the idea that this giant in physique and in
+intellectual power was truly cut out for greatness.
+
+One of his favorite pranks, as a boy, was to amuse himself making
+faces at his sister; he could frighten her by his queer grimaces.
+
+From early youth, he was accustomed to take himself very seriously,
+and by his offensive manners conveyed an immediate impression of the
+ironical indifference in which he held humanity, in the mass.
+
+¶ He was a born aristocrat, in a sense of high, offensive
+partisanship.
+
+¶ Men shrank from him, cursed him, reviled his name; but they
+respected his intellect, even in the early days when he used his
+power in an undisciplined way; yes, was painfully learning the
+business of mastering human lives.
+
+¶ The brute in the man loomed large; the unreasoning but magnificent
+audacity of the bulldog expressed itself in scars, wounds,
+deep-drinking bouts, fisticuffs, and in twenty-eight duels.
+
+¶ But he had another kind of courage, greater in import than that
+expressed by physical combat.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ When we say Bismarck's work is a revelation of his will to power, we
+emphasize again how unnecessary it is to make him either less or more
+than a human being. There is a school of writers that never mentions
+his name except with upturned eyes, as though he were a demigod. The
+tendency of human nature is to idealize such as Bismarck out of all
+semblance to the original, creating wax figures where once were men of
+flesh and blood.
+
+¶ Men rise to power largely in uniform ways; that psychic foundation
+on which they draw is always grossly human, rather dull when you
+understand it, always conventional;--and the great Bismarck himself is
+no exception.
+
+¶ In doing his work, Bismarck is following the psychic necessities of
+his character; is acting in a very personal way, upheld always by the
+soldier's virtue, ambition. There is also a large element of
+self-love. His idiomatic lust for control is to be accepted as a
+root-fact of his peculiar type of being. And while on the whole his
+ambition is exercised for the good of his country, herein he is
+acting, in addition, under the ardent appetite, in his case a passion,
+to dominate millions of lives; urged not perhaps so much from a
+preconceived desire to dominate as from an inherent call to exercise
+his innate capacity for leadership.
+
+¶ Making allowance for the idea that Bismarck is a devoted servant of
+the King of Prussia, it is not necessary to believe that Bismarck
+poses as the Savior of his country. In fact, he distinctly disavows
+this sacrifice, has too much sense to regard himself from this absurd
+point of view.
+
+¶ The words carved on Bismarck's tomb at his own request, "A Faithful
+German Servant of Emperor William I," show that however much other men
+were unable to comprehend the baffling Bismarckian character, the Iron
+Chancellor himself had no vain illusions.
+
+¶ When he was 83 and about to die, the old man taking a final sweep of
+his long and turbulent life, asked himself solemnly: "How will I be
+known in time to come?"
+
+¶ Fame replied: "You have been a great Prince; an invincible maker of
+Empire, you have held in your hand the globe of this earth; call
+yourself what you will, and I will write a sermon in brass on your
+tomb."
+
+¶ But the Iron Chancellor, after mature reflection, decided that his
+entire career, with all its high lights and its deep shadows, could be
+expressed in four simple words, "A Faithful German Servant." He knew
+exactly what he was, and how he would ultimately be represented in
+history.
+
+¶ Think what this means. On those supreme questions of Life and Time
+involving the interpretation of Destiny--a problem hopelessly obscure
+to the average man--Bismarck brought a massive mind charged with a
+peculiar clairvoyance; often, his fore-knowledge seemed well-nigh
+uncanny in its exact realism; and if you doubt this assertion, all we
+ask is that you withhold your verdict till you have read Bismarck's
+story, herein set forth in intimate detail.
+
+¶ How clear the old man's vision to discern behind all his Bismarckian
+pomp and majesty, in camp, court and combat, only the rôle of faithful
+servant.
+
+¶ The phrase on his tomb proclaims the man's great mind. His
+overbrooding silence, as it were, is more eloquent than sermons in
+brass.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ In studying Bismarck, the man, we merge his identity in the events
+of his time; but we must sharply differentiate between the events and
+the man. We incline to the belief that hereditary tendencies explain
+him more than does environment. It is Bismarck as a human being, and
+not the tremendous panorama of incidents leading to German sovereignty
+that always holds our interest. Life is life, and is intensely
+interesting, for its own sake.
+
+Thus, we are at once freed from a common fallacy of biographical
+writing--that vicious mental attitude, as vain as it is egotistical on
+part of the over-partial historian, who would warp some manifest
+destiny on human life.
+
+¶ Bismarck needs no historical explanation, no reference to hackneyed
+categories in the card-index of Time. Whether his plan was dedicated
+to this world or to the glory of some invisible God, you may debate as
+you will, but Bismarck will be neither greater nor less because of
+flights of your imagination.
+
+¶ He is a great man in the sense that he did large things, but this
+does not make him other than he is, nor does his story lose because we
+know him to be grossly human in his aims. His life does not borrow
+anything because a certain type of mind professes to see behind
+Bismarck's history, as indeed behind the careers of all great men,
+some mysterious purpose apart and beyond human nature's daily needs.
+It was not necessary for Bismarck to cease to be a human being, to
+accomplish what he accomplished.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Also, for the reason that Bismarck was a genius, he is an exception
+to conventional rules covering the limitations of little men.
+
+¶ Bismarck was a born revolutionist. Look at his terrible jaw, which,
+like the jaws of the bulldog, when once shut down never lets go till
+that object is in shreds.
+
+¶ He was a true bulldog in this that, like the thoroughbred bulldog,
+Bismarck favored one feed a day. He took a light breakfast, no second
+breakfast, but at night would eat one enormous meal.
+
+The bulldog follows a similar practice, when eating never looks from
+the plate, and the water fairly runs from his eyes, with animal
+satisfaction.
+
+¶ Bismarck compelled men to do his bidding--as the wind drives the
+clouds and asks not when or why. It is enough to know that that is the
+wind's way!
+
+He knew the coward, the thief, the soldier, the priest, the citizen,
+the king, and the peasant.
+
+He knew how to betray an enemy with a Judas kiss; how to smite him
+when he was down; how to dig pitfalls for his feet; how to ply him
+with champagne and learn his secrets; how to permit him to win money
+at cards, and then get him to sign papers; how to remember old
+obligations or to forget new favors; how to read a document in more
+than one way; how to turn historical parallels upside down; how to
+urge today what he refused to entertain a year ago; how to put the
+best face on a losing situation; and how to shuffle, cut and stack the
+cards, or at times how to play in the open.
+
+¶ He was not a humanitarian with conceptions of world peace or world
+benevolences. He was for himself and his own ends, which were tied to
+his political conception of a new Germany.
+
+¶ And all the time he was helped out by his extraordinary vital
+powers, his ability to work all night like a horse week after week; go
+to bed at dawn and sleep till afternoon; then drive a staff of
+secretaries frantic with his insistent demands.
+
+¶ Likewise, he was helped out by his remarkable personality. Actor
+that he was, he sometimes gained his point by his frankness, knowing
+that when he told the exact truth he would not be believed.
+
+¶ Also, he could bluff and swagger, or he could speak in the polite
+accents of the distinguished gentleman; he could gulp a quart of
+champagne without taking the silver tankard from his lips; in younger
+years he used to eat from four to eleven eggs at a meal, besides
+vegetables, cakes, beer, game and three or four kinds of meats; his
+favorite drink was a mixture of champagne and porter.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ He was a chain-smoker, lighted one cigar with another, often smoked
+ten or twelve hours at a stretch. His huge pipes, in the drawing room;
+his beer, in the salons of Berlin; his irritability, his bilious
+streaks, his flashes of temper; his superstition about the number 13;
+his strange mixing of God with all his despotic conduct; his fondness
+for mastiffs; his attacks of jaundice; his volcanic outbursts; his
+belief in ghosts, in the influence of the moon to make the hair grow;
+his mystical something about seven and combinations of seven; his
+incessant repetition of the formula that he was obeying his God--were
+but human weaknesses that showed he had a side like an everyday common
+man.
+
+¶ On top of it all he was great, because he knew how to manage men
+either with or without their consent; but he always studied to place
+himself in a strategic position from which he could insist on his
+demand for his pound of flesh.
+
+¶ Sometimes, it took years before he could lull to sleep, buy, bribe
+or win over the men he needed; again when the game was short and
+sharp, he kicked some men out of his path contemptuously, others he
+parleyed with, still others he thundered against and defied; but
+always at the right time, won his own way.
+
+¶ Yes, even Bismarck's card-playing is subordinated to the shrewd ends
+of diplomacy. Dr. Busch, the press-agent of Bismarck during the
+Franco-Prussian war, tells us that Bismarck once made this frank
+confession:
+
+¶ "In the summer of 1865 when I concluded the Convention of Gastein
+with Blome (the Austrian), I went in for quinze so madly that the rest
+could not help wondering at me. But I knew what I was about. Blome had
+heard that this game gave the best possible opportunity for
+discovering a man's real nature, and wanted to try it on with me. So I
+thought to myself, here's for you then, and away went a few hundred
+thalers, which I really might have charged as spent in His Majesty's
+service. But at least I thus put Blome off the scent, so he thought me
+a reckless fellow and gave way."
+
+
+                                   3
+
+  Despite vast areas of political bogs, quaking under foot,
+  that one must traverse, our Otto is not inaccessible!
+
+¶ For many years they hate him like hell-fire itself, this Otto von
+Bismarck. The Prussians hate him, the Austrians, the Bavarians, to say
+nothing of the intervening rabble; but our tyrant is strong enough, in
+the end, to win foreign wars, and then the haters veer about, almost
+in a night, come up on bended knees and kiss the hand that
+smites--that hand of Bismarck, at once the best-beloved and the
+most-hated hand of his time. What more pray do you ask of human
+nature?
+
+¶ Now here is a strange reality: If you look at the general outlines
+of the German map in 1815, you will see that the frontiers trace in a
+startling way the scowling outlines of Frederick the Great, "Old
+Fritz," who first dreamed this German unity idea.
+
+But mighty Frederick is in the royal tomb these many years; and a new
+Frederick in spirit is rapidly learning the business of king-maker and
+empire-builder.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Behind the name Bismarck is a story extraordinary, compounded of the
+intrigues, blood and passions of Austria, Russia, Italy, France,
+Belgium, Bavaria, Spain, and England.
+
+Volumes would not suffice to give you the bewildering details;
+mountains of diplomatic letters, orders, telegrams, truths,
+half-truths, shuffling, cutting and stacking; you go confusedly from
+palace to people, prince to pauper, university to prison pen--all the
+way from Waterloo to Versailles, where William I received at last his
+great glory, German Emperor.
+
+¶ Bismarck's story is best told in flashes of lightning--as you try to
+picture a bolt from the black skies.
+
+By the patience of the methodical historian who laboriously examines
+each document in the National archives, one fills soon enough a
+ten-volume account--with a swamp of cross-references, footnotes to
+each paragraph, and with notes to the footnotes.
+
+¶ Yet this Bismarck is not inaccessible if we get at his inner side,
+grasp the man's essence.
+
+Strong arm and tireless brain Time asked;--a man who could neither be
+bent, broken nor brow-beaten; a man who would for 40 years follow a
+plan by no means clear; often had to go out in the dark and find his
+way, all old landmarks lost, and no pole-star in sight.
+
+¶ I dwell on one outstanding fact, all down through his career: I
+mean Bismarck's power to conceal pain. Hurricanes of insulting
+criticisms swept around his head, year after year, but on the whole
+Otto's attitude was that of the mountain that defies the storm. He
+would never give in that, as it seemed to onlookers, a shaft of
+disagreeable truth had struck home; that a soft-nosed bullet, well
+aimed, had torn his flesh or broken a bone; or that a dagger-thrust,
+going directly through his coat of the White Cuirassier had pierced
+his heart.
+
+¶ Even in his bitter defeats, he had a peculiar idiomatic way of
+making out that the result was exactly what he desired. It was of
+course only an adroit explanation to protect his pride; the brazen
+invention of a nature that would not acknowledge itself in error. Here
+is Bismarck, to the core.
+
+¶ For a long and turbulent life-time Bismarck's soul was tried by the
+very tortures of the damned!
+
+
+                                   4
+
+  Wherein it is set forth that Otto von Bismarck's massive
+  political genius, combined with his personal foibles, mark him
+  as a heroic figure, side by side with Frederick the Great.
+
+¶ In attempting to depict a consistent Bismarck, we find that his life
+has been as much misinterpreted through the carping need of envious
+political critics as through the bad art of historically well-disposed
+friends.
+
+The perplexing problem is to blend his massive mental grasp, side by
+side with his strange fits of irritability, his turbulence, his
+deep-drinking, his gluttony, his wild pranks.
+
+About him at all times, whether expressed or concealed, there floated
+an ironic derision of the littleness of the average man, whom at heart
+Bismarck despised.
+
+While the eyes of detractors are everywhere, the voice of hero-worship
+has likewise conspired to make an impossible idol of a man with very
+human and ofttimes crying frailties; the biographic truth is to be
+found somewhere between these two extremes; but even with this clear
+clue in mind, it is often difficult to reconcile amazing personal and
+diplomatic inconsistencies with which his career abounds.
+
+¶ Then, too, there is something that strikes like the irony of
+Socrates, only bitter instead of light; and Bismarck reveals now and
+then a touch remindful of that Rabelaisian hero whose enormous
+capacity could only be quenched by draining the river dry. To tell
+Bismarck's inner life-story, in a large way, one must often deal with
+a series of pictures akin to the gods and devils in Dore's
+delineations for Dante's "Inferno."
+
+It often seems as though every important act of this great man's life
+was charged with the significance of Destiny, stands forth vividly
+against a background of intrigue, superstition, personal follies, the
+smoke and flame of battle--a heroic figure side by side with such
+master-spirits as Frederick the Great.
+
+Like Frederick the Severe, this Bismarck is very human indeed, and has
+his crying weaknesses, and his enemies, God knows, tried for forty
+years to get rid of him by intrigue, often by assassination; yet until
+his great duty is done he must hold firmly to his place, must do the
+work which brings him no peace, or rest, only trouble year after year.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Throughout the amazing story, no matter which way we travel, we
+always return to a profound sense of this giant's will and his massive
+knowledge of human life, expressed in his ability to force the
+shrewdest men in Europe to do his bidding.
+
+His sense of power is so supreme that sometimes it really seems that,
+as Bismarck himself often sets forth, his authority fell from heaven.
+
+Here, there is a direct harking back to the ancient days in the Alt
+Mark, to the Circle of Stendal with its little town of Bismarck, on
+the Biese, where stands the ancient masonry dating from 1203, and
+known as the "Bismarck Louse."
+
+¶ The strange legend of the Bismarck Louse tells worlds of the ancient
+Bismarck power, in those far-off times, helps us in the year 1915 to
+grasp certain obscure phases of the Bismarck racial strength,
+inherited by Otto von Bismarck.
+
+¶ This medieval Bismarck Tower received its name from a gigantic louse
+which inhabited this place, and had to be fed and appeased; therefore,
+every day the superstitious peasants of the district brought huge
+quantities of meat and drink, for the monster's food. It is needless
+to add that these visits were encouraged by the Bismarck lord of the
+soil, in Alt Mark;--and here you see already the cunning in managing
+human nature so characteristic of the Bismarck genius.
+
+¶ The purely social application of this gossip may, however, be eyed
+with suspicion, as a French canard. It was so easy for "Figaro" to
+libel the Bismarck of 1871, whereupon the whole French press followed
+and barked at the Iron Chancellor's heels.
+
+He was caricatured, spit at, reviled, depicted as the beast-man in
+Europe.
+
+¶ For one thing, Bismarck knew France was the richest nation in
+Europe, also that she had ambition for the left bank of the Rhine; and
+to General Sheridan, who chanced to be at Sedan and Gravelotte on
+official business, Bismarck said, "The only way to keep France from
+waging war in the near future is to empty her pockets."
+
+¶ French newspaper editors lashed themselves into insanity trying to
+invent new names for the man who had brought the downfall of the
+Empire, at Sedan; the man who at Versailles was arranging the hardest
+terms of peace ever conceived by a diplomatic Shylock, bent on having
+his pound of flesh.
+
+¶ Paris journalists called him "the incarnation of the evil spirit,"
+"the Antichrist," "the shrewd barbarian," "crime-stained ogre, who was
+always thrashing his wife with a dog-whip," "he kept a harem, from
+which no Berlin shopkeeper's daughter was safe;" "once he became
+enamored of a nun and hired ruffians to kidnap her and bear her away
+to his castle;" "he is the father of many illegitimate children, in
+Berlin some say as many as fifty;" "he once lashed one of his Russian
+mistresses over the bare shoulders because he suspected her of looking
+at another admirer;" "he uses his confidential diplomatic knowledge to
+add to his huge private fortune by gambling on every Bourse in
+Europe."
+
+¶ How magnificent--if it were indeed only true! What a relief that
+would be over the tame details of average human life, and what a boon
+to biographers this grand wickedness! Alas, the tales are only
+important as specimens of French drawing room gossip of 1871!
+
+¶ The fables never bothered Bismarck a moment. When he was ready, he
+repaid them in his own splendid coin; and certainly he was past-master
+of the gentle art of putting a razor-edge on an insult!
+
+¶ Bismarck had his vituperative side. Egged on by his wife and his
+son, Bismarck became at times verbally ferocious. His wife, a
+descendant of those terrible Frankish women-warriors, stemming from
+barbarian times, could under stress exercise a barbarian's stark
+freedom of speech; and when Bismarck, furious at some insult, was
+replying with a political cannonade, she would infuriate him to still
+greater exertions by suggesting:
+
+¶ "Bismarck, hiss a little! Hiss a little!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ And after seven hundred years, the Bismarck psychology behind the
+old Tower's superstitious appeal remains substantially the same. We
+shall see at times as we sketch for you the life portrait of Otto von
+Bismarck a mysterious atavism; the self-same mental astuteness that
+stood his ancestors in such good stead, enabling them to frighten the
+peasants into providing the corn.
+
+¶ Yes, blood will tell--and the Bismarck blood is rare juice!
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER II
+
+                            Blood Will Tell
+
+
+                                   5
+
+  Battle-born, Bismarck's genius springs from the very fire and
+  sword of human nature--resembling definitely his iron-headed
+  barbarian ancestry, whose freedom remained unconquered through
+  the centuries.
+
+¶ We cannot hope to trace Bismarck to any complete legal basis--any
+more than we can defend the complete legitimacy of France, Belgium, or
+the United States, countries avowedly harking back to revolutionary
+origin. Bismarck's life, likewise, presents unquestioned elements of
+anarchistic root. Inherited from battle-born Bismarcks are forces
+peculiar to himself, free, and individualistic, profoundly expressive
+wherein Mother Nature summoning her ultimate powers endows a colossal
+courage in a colossal mind and body.
+
+¶ As far as the Thirteenth Century, the name Bismarck, then styled
+Bishofsmarck or Biscopesmarck, is associated with the little river
+Biese; but whence the original stock is for antiquarians to debate.
+
+Believe the Bismarcks to be of Bohemian, of Frankish or of Jewish
+origin, or of Slavic if you will, you find bespectacled, scholastic
+authorities who will open the musty pages and display to you the
+truth.
+
+¶ Herbort of Biese became in due course Herbort von Bismarck. The
+"von" was unquestionably a mark of geographical origin, rather than a
+sign of nobility. The name is borne by other families from Biese; but
+the important part is not the name but the men behind that name, what
+that name stood for.
+
+¶ Herbort von Bismarck's name is enrolled in the guild papers as
+master of the merchant tailors of Stendal, in the old Mark of
+Brandenburg; a "Mark" being somewhat equivalent to an English "shire."
+
+¶ But this fact about the tailor-ancestor must not be pressed too
+far. Some antiquarian of the year 2700 A. D., let us say, might argue
+that President Taft was a steam-shoveler, because the name is found
+recorded among the laborers who helped dig the Panama Canal; whereas,
+the fact is that the President was enrolled as an honorary member of
+one of the labor unions.
+
+Also, after Waterloo, when the British nation was running wild trying
+to imagine some distinction that as yet had not been bestowed on
+Wellington, the London tailors in a moment of inspiration added the
+Iron Duke's name to the great roll of scissor-snippers!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Beginning with Herbort's son, four Bismarcks, in three generations,
+were social lepers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Klaus von Bismarck died about the year 1385, outside the holy favor
+of the church--as his father had died before him, and as did two sons,
+in their turn. But Klaus, ever shrewd in a worldly way, recommended
+himself as a king's fighting man; led the robber gang off with the
+loot in the name of his merry monarch, the Margrave of Bavaria.
+
+¶ For this most excellent service as a professional man-killer, Klaus
+was rewarded with a knight's fee of forest land, at Burgstal, an
+estate that remained in the family for two hundred years. There were
+deer, wild boar, wolves and bear in the Bismarck forest, and one day
+Conrad of Hohenzollern came that way on a royal hunting expedition.
+
+¶ Conrad could have stolen the Bismarck petty title outright, but
+while he confiscated Burgstal forest, he offered Schoenhausen, on the
+Elbe, in exchange. However, Schoenhausen did not compare with the
+estate that the envious monarch took by force. The Burgstal forest is
+to this day one of the great game preserves of the German Emperor.
+
+¶ The Bismarcks also received in the exchange farming land known as
+Crevisse, lately confiscated by the Hohenzollerns from the nuns; and
+one of the conditions of the transfer to the Bismarcks was that these
+nuns should be supported.
+
+
+                                   6
+
+  Strong animal basis of Bismarck's rise to Power--The story is
+  always the same, "Fight, or die like a dog!"
+
+¶ Thus, from time immemorial, the fighting Bismarcks wrote their title
+to a share of this earth with the sword, which in spite of all Hague
+Conferences remains the best sort of title man has been able to
+devise.
+
+As time sped and what is called Civilization grew somewhat, men took
+on chicken-hearted ways; and in every pinch appealed to courts for
+decisions formerly decided by individual brawn; till finally, as in
+these latter degenerate days, if a fight becomes necessary, society
+hires policemen to stop the row.
+
+¶ Klaus von Bismarck preferred to do his own murdering, and
+consequently, Klaus stood first in the eyes of honest men of his own
+generation; but in this Twentieth Century, instead of putting
+incompetents to the test of the sword, society, committed to the soft
+doctrine that all life is sacred, burdens itself with lengthening the
+days of the daft. A far cry that from the ideals of the early
+Bismarcks! It is well to keep these facts in mind, in contemplating
+the extraordinary career of the great Otto von Bismarck, king-maker
+and unifier of Germany.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Modern timid-hearted folk, reading of the desperate makeshifts of
+the old Bismarcks to get on in the world, would say off-hand, "There
+must be a strain of madness in the Bismarck brain?"
+
+¶ Unquestionably! This fighting family in each generation had its born
+revolutionists, its enormous egotists, its men who lived what orthodox
+opinion calls "godless lives"--although in their own philosophy the
+Bismarcks are always preaching that God is on their side. When the
+Elector decided to steal Burgstal forest, the Bismarcks set up this
+pious plea: "We wish to remain in the pleasant place assigned to us by
+the Almighty." Four hundred years later we find Otto von Bismarck
+using again and again this peculiar reasoning, to justify, at least
+to explain, his own career: "If I were not a Christian, I would not
+continue to serve the King another moment. Did I not obey my God and
+count on Him, I should certainly take no account of earthly masters."
+
+¶ In three great wars of ambition in which 80,000 perished, he
+repeated this solemn formula about God; he repeated it on the
+blood-drenched field of Koeniggraetz; he repeated it in the Holstein
+war, and he repeated it again at Sedan and at Gravelotte.
+
+¶ Bismarck persisted in this peculiar conception of life, down to the
+last. While in retirement, after his downfall, one day the bloody past
+rose before him like a dream, and he exclaimed to Dr. Busch: "Politics
+has brought me vexation, anxiety and trouble; made no one happy, me,
+my family nor anyone else, but many unhappy. Had it not been for me,
+there would have been three great wars less; the lives of 80,000 would
+not have been sacrificed; and many parents, brothers, sisters and
+wives would not now be mourners. That, however, I have settled with my
+Maker!" Now, once and for all, what we understand this to mean is
+merely this: a super-abundance of faith. Many great leaders have had
+it--David, Cromwell, Bismarck.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ In seeking biographic clues, through hereditary influences, we are
+impressed with the astounding animal-basis of strength behind the
+Bismarcks, from earliest recorded history. They were a deep-drinking,
+prolific gormandizing race, and every mother's son had to do battle by
+brawn backed by the sword, or die like a dog! This bred high tempers,
+turbulent manners and contempt for the weak.
+
+¶ Soldiers, diplomatists, brow-beaters, characterized the Bismarck
+clan down through centuries. Stormy and adventurous Bismarcks fought
+for the sheer delight of doing battle;--it mattered not, whether
+against the Turks or against some near-by king whose lands the German
+robber-knights lusted for and wished to annex by appeal to the sword.
+
+¶ There is a story of a garrison brawl in which a Bismarck slew his
+companion in drink, then fled to Russia, then on to Siberia; soldier
+of fortune, he fights under any flag that promises a gay life and
+plenty of loot. Three hundred years later--how the wheel turns
+round!--Otto von Bismarck, as Russian Ambassador to the King of
+Prussia, engaged in intrigues for the same old lust of land, the same
+old nefarious business, but this time sprayed over by the
+high-sounding name, diplomacy.
+
+¶ Dr. Busch, the Saxon press-agent for Prince Bismarck, repeats the
+old tale of the winning of Alsace by the French king, through the aid
+of Otto von Bismarck's great-great-grandfather, a mercenary soldier;
+adding that while one Bismarck helped take Alsace away, another of
+that redoubtable family brought it back many years later, with the
+added joy of the prodigious money-fine of five billions of francs!
+
+
+                                   7
+
+  Boisterous Col. Bismarck, of the Dragoons; "The Wooden Donkey
+  dies today!" French Cavalier Bismarck and his mushy
+  prose-poems.
+
+¶ Burly strength and horse-play, rather than diplomacy, were always
+distinctive traits of that part of the Bismarck family immediately
+surrounding Otto von Bismarck; and in Otto's case, although the years
+gradually taught him that there are more ways of stopping a man's
+mouth than by cutting off his head, on the whole we seek in vain,
+among ancestral Bismarcks, for any striking characteristics in which
+the point does not turn either on gluttony or on deep-drinking.
+
+¶ They were enormous eaters. Bread and meat were not enough. They must
+have game, fish, cake, wines, and plenty of each. Hunger put them in a
+rage. They were iron men, with stomachs of pigs.
+
+¶ They were unbrooked master spirits, followed the hounds, fought
+duels, had noisy tongues, and gloried in personal independence.
+
+When they loved they loved madly; when they hated it was the same.
+They drank all night and were out again at dawn.
+
+¶ Yet in their way, they were high-minded gentlemen, devoted
+themselves industriously to their duties; and it may be that the
+turbulence of their lives borrowed something from the rude clash of
+opinion that often divided the best friends, during the stormy periods
+of history in which they fought as soldiers of fortune.
+
+¶ Otto von Bismarck's great-grandfather, Augustus, calling his cronies
+of the barracks around him, was wont to add zest to the carousal by
+introducing the trumpet call after each toast; to heighten the
+infernal racket, the boisterous colonel of dragoons ordered a volley
+fired in the drink-hall.
+
+¶ This terrible dragoon, master of the hounds, guzzler, companion and
+leader in all revels, was generally voted one of the amiable men in
+army circles. He was a noted shot. In one year of record his score was
+154 red deer and 100 stag.
+
+¶ At the Ihna bridge was a ducking stool, for army punishments; it
+took the amusing style of a wooden donkey, and was so called by the
+dragoons as a rude joke.
+
+After one of his hard drinking bouts, it was often the colonel's
+amusing habit to order his men to march to the bridge; on arriving the
+band struck up and the wooden donkey was thrown into the stream. "All
+offenders of my regiment are forgiven," Bismarck would bawl, "the
+donkey dies today!"
+
+Then with all manner of opera bouffe the offending donkey would be put
+overboard--only to be brought out next morning, ready for official
+business.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ But our fun-loving colonel's good times were now over. As commander
+of the gallant Anspach-Bayreuth dragoons, Augustus fought for
+Frederick the Great and was severely wounded at Czaslau. Austrian
+hussars surprised the transport wagons carrying the wounded to the
+rear, and with brutality common to the soldier-business of that rude
+day killed the defenseless Prussians, among whom was our Colonel von
+Bismarck.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Bismarck's grandfather, Karl Alexander, leaned toward the
+namby-pamby intellectual rather than to the social and convivial. He
+is remembered for his affected poetical style. Karl, brave soldier,
+attracted the eye of no less a judge of valor than the Great
+Frederick, who appointed this Karl Alexander von Bismarck an attache
+of the Prussian embassy at Vienna.
+
+¶ Karl, like other Germans of the sentimental period, aped the French
+poets; but when a German is sentimental, the mush-pots boil over.
+Karl's writings show that peculiar over-inflated quality,
+"sentimentality," so much admired in the rococo period.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Karl William Ferd., Otto's father, and Louise Wilhelmina, Otto's
+mother, born Mencken, lived at Schoenhausen in troublous French times.
+Oct. 14th, 1806, the terrible defeat at Jena put Prussia in the hands
+of the enemy.
+
+Fortresses surrendered without firing a shot, and the panic-stricken
+king fled to the far eastern side of his domains, near Russia.
+
+All this took place within three months after the marriage of Karl and
+Louise, who had now set up housekeeping at Schoenhausen.
+
+¶ The Bismarcks tried to escape in a coach, but the French
+unexpectedly appeared and ordered Karl back to the house. The French
+ransacked every room; Louise fled to the library and locked the
+massive oak door; to this day it bears the marks of French bayonets;
+the Bismarcks then hid in the forest where they remained all night
+with panic-stricken neighbors; at dawn Karl and Louise ventured out,
+to find Schoenhausen a scene of destruction.
+
+¶ The one galling fact that Karl could not overlook, in Marshal
+Soult's raid, was the desecration of the genealogical tree. This huge
+painting with its shields of the Bismarck descent was slashed from end
+to end, with bayonets!
+
+¶ Oh, Otto von Bismarck remembered this many, many years later, in
+making terms with the French after Sedan--do not for a moment forget
+that! Such is the amazing power of hereditary loves and hates;--and
+certainly the Bismarcks had no reason to admire the French.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III
+
+                           The Gothic Cradle
+
+
+                                   8
+
+  Idyl of the child Otto, in his huge Gothic cradle at
+  Schoenhausen; wonders that gather 'round his destiny, a
+  forecast and a reality.
+
+
+¶ Otto Edward Leopold von Bismarck, the great central figure in our
+story, was the fourth of six children, three dying in infancy. He was
+born April 1, 1815, but a few months before the crowning defeat at
+Waterloo--that year big with the hammer-blows of Destiny!
+
+¶ In lonesome Schoenhausen on the Elbe, the village lately devastated
+by Marshal Soult and his plundering soldiers, the infant Otto sleeps
+peacefully in his oak-carved Gothic cradle. A century later, we still
+see that huge cradle as one of the souvenirs in the famous Bismarck
+museum at Schoenhausen.
+
+¶ Schoenhausen house is one of those thick-walled monuments of
+medićval masonry.
+
+There is, to be sure, something out of drawing about the antiquated
+three-story house; and we survey with respect for the past the queer
+courtyard, leaded panes, park with the artificial island, wooded
+byways, and old forest, and not far away is the village church with
+the square stone tower; hard by, also, the kattenwinkel, or Katte's
+corner, at the confluence of the Havel and the Elbe; and on the house
+is the Katte's coat-of-arms, a cat watching a mouse, the mark of the
+sturdy 17th century builder, Katte, who to honor his wife, Dorothea
+Sophia Katte, added her name to his builder's sign over the lintel.
+
+¶ In this historical 1815, seed-time and harvest strangely blend, yet
+are years apart.
+
+For, while the child sleeps in his Gothic cradle, the Congress of
+Vienna meets to redistribute among the hungry kings the old domains
+stolen as prizes in the long Napoleonic wars; and in turn, after
+incredible political adventures, running over years, the child before
+us, grown to be a man, will smash the rulings of Vienna and will
+build an empire stronger far than that of imperial France, now dying
+at Waterloo.
+
+¶ All these wonders gather 'round the destiny of the child in the big
+Gothic cradle, before which we now tiptoe at Schoenhausen, lest we
+awaken the baby and he cry.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ When the French overrun Prussian territory the old land-owning
+military aristocracy was reduced to bankruptcy. Mortgages falling due
+could not be paid; the king extended credit for four years; and in the
+interim Prussians were forced to use depreciated rag-money; all the
+gold and silver had been confiscated by the French invaders.
+
+¶ Great dissatisfaction followed. The farms had been tilled by
+feudal-laborers, practically slaves; these oppressed peasants now flew
+to arms.
+
+Schoenhausen was a dreary place indeed; while the Bismarcks were
+better off than their neighbors, still the times were out of joint and
+ruin fell over the broad acres.
+
+¶ Then came an unexpected change. Along about 1816, Karl inherited
+Kneiphof, Kuelz and Jarchelin estates from his cousin, moved to
+Kneiphof, just east of the hamlet of Naugard.
+
+The house was exceeding modest; a brook, the Zampel, ran near by; and
+there was a carp pond. Karl was fond of hunting in the old beech
+forest. Such were the unsettled conditions in the Bismarck family, up
+to Otto's sixth year.
+
+
+                                   9
+
+  Soft-hearted Karl and Spartan Mother Louise; her rigid
+  character, its good and its bad side; her extreme punctilio and
+  her pistol-shooting, to steady her sight.
+
+¶ Otto von Bismarck inherited his tall form from his father, Karl
+William. This unusual type of cavalry captain subscribed for French
+journals and ate off silver plate. Karl's regiment was known as the
+"White and Blue," and one of his duties was to get up at 4 in the
+morning and measure corn for horses. At one time the captain lived in
+Berlin, but he soon tired of the capital and gladly returned to the
+country where he passed his days as squire. To the end of his life, he
+was fond of horseback riding and hunting; and he brought his sons up
+to ride like centaurs.
+
+¶ Bismarck's mother, Louise Wilhelmina Mencken, married at the age of
+sixteen; her husband Karl was nineteen years her senior.
+
+¶ In the family circle, the father was known as the heart, the mother
+as the brains; but in Louise's case it might well read "ambition." She
+wished to see Otto von Bismarck, her youngest son, become a
+diplomatist--a judgment that in the light of after years seems almost
+uncanny.
+
+Later, at the full tide of the Chancellor's great glory, frequently
+his earliest friends used to say, "Bismarck, had your mother only
+survived to see this day!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The wife's leading trait was her inflexible resolution, the will to
+rulership;--and rule she certainly did, always.
+
+For one thing, she steadied her nerves and schooled her sharp eyes by
+practising pistol shooting.
+
+There was Spartan courage about her decisions! Frau Bismarck's
+irritability had been growing of late; Karl was too soft with Otto.
+She was angered to think that her husband might spoil Otto, by too
+much coddling. The domestic climax came.
+
+¶ That day at table, Otto with childish impatience, began swinging his
+legs like a pendulum. The good-natured Karl hadn't it in his heart to
+correct the child, but instead began making excuses for Otto's
+conduct. This aroused Louise's ire. To smooth matters Karl said, "See,
+Minchen, how the boy is sitting there dangling his little legs!"
+
+¶ Louise then and there read her ultimatum. She would not have her son
+spoiled by the foolishness of his soft father--not at all! She would
+send her beloved son away, first. At the time, Otto was only six years
+old.
+
+And she thereupon proceeded to keep her decision--acting with all the
+aggressiveness for which in later life Otto von Bismarck was himself
+celebrated.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IV
+
+                          Sunshine and Shadow
+
+
+                                  10
+
+  Wherein is shown the amazing power of hereditary traits;
+  history repeats itself.
+
+¶ It was from his mother that Prince Bismarck, the future ruler of
+Germany, received his endowment of dauntless audacity, his gift of
+trenchant argument, his bursts of ironical laughter, his power of
+instant decisions, his scolding, and his bitter wrath. All these
+qualities shone in the parliamentary fight before the Austrian war,
+when for three years he defied the country, and raised the Prussian
+war-funds by extortion!
+
+¶ In one sense, he was always stacking the cards! And what chance has
+the fellow-player against the dealer with the marked deck? Bismarck's
+life abounds with episodes showing this astonishing readiness. In
+love, in laughter and in intrigue, it was ever the same. Bismarck's
+use of human nature, constructively, at the precise psychological
+moment, redounding to his self-interest, is supreme.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ At the wedding of his friend Blankenburg to Fraulein
+Thadden-Triglaff, the bridesmaid was Fraulein Johanna von Puttkammer.
+Bismarck saw, admired and decided. Soon after in a Hartz journey, with
+the Blankenburgs, Otto had a brief opportunity to favor energetic
+measures. He wasted no time, Johanna must become his wife! He wrote
+direct to the young lady's parents, with whom he was not acquainted. A
+flying visit followed to the home of his intended father-in-law. The
+Puttkammers were surprised at the suitor's impetuous love-making, also
+were shocked by the reputation Bismarck had for fast living.
+
+The moment he saw parents and daughter he forced the situation.
+Throwing his arms around his sweetheart, Bismarck embraced her,
+vigorously. And thus he won his bride even before an unwilling father
+and mother; for Bismarck carried them off their feet by the very
+audacity of his wooing.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ During the Franco-Prussian war, coming to the Rothschild château,
+Bismarck found 17,000 bottles of wines in the cellar, under lock and
+key; and the keeper was determined that Bismarck should not use the
+master's champagnes.
+
+It took Bismarck only a few minutes to change all that. Soon he was
+comfortably settled in the Baron's private chambers, reached by a
+grand winding staircase; here the Chancellor proceeded to make himself
+at home in dressing gown and slippers.
+
+¶ He rang for the butler, ordered wine for himself and suite. The
+keeper of the cellar still refused--and Bismarck's black ire rose. In
+a voice of thunder he cried, "If you do not open that cellar door by
+the time I count five, you will be trussed on a spit, like a fowl!"
+
+¶ After that, the Prussians had what they wanted, made merry on the
+rare wines of Baron Rothschild, who was known as a hater of Prussia
+and an admirer of Austria.
+
+¶ Bismarck now decided to try various gastronomic oddities; ordered
+his staff to shoot pheasants from the Baron's preserves, and commanded
+the cook to stew the birds in champagne!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ When Napoleon wrote his famous note, at Sedan, "Not having been able
+to die in the midst of my troops, there is nothing left for me but to
+place my troops in your Majesty's hands," Bismarck saw the human
+nature side at a glance! He urged peace, then and there, with the
+Prince Imperial on the throne, and "under German influence," which
+would thus give to Prussia the whip hand. General Sheridan tells the
+story.
+
+It was an instantaneous look into the far future, and although it did
+not prevail, for certain important reasons, the Chancellor caught the
+human side of the combination, with the clarity of a dramatist
+constructing a plot.
+
+¶ On his mother's side, Otto von Bismarck comes of hunting, fighting
+and farming stock.
+
+Shrewd, wise, ambitious, and haughty--with these traits she richly
+endowed her son. His father was handsome, bright, solid,
+emphatic-looking, but with a yielding disposition; the iron will and
+sharp tongue of the wife overawed the husband. The shrewish frau had
+things largely her own way, was able to read a lecture like the wrath
+of God. However, on the whole, the couple got along passably well--for
+Karl never took Louise too seriously! When Frau Louise's efforts to
+make a lackey of him got on his nerves, Karl called his cronies and
+away they went fox-hunting.
+
+
+                                  11
+
+  At the tender age of six, already is Otto forced out of the
+  family circle; the wolf's breed shows its teeth.
+
+¶ Well, the incensed Louise, weary of the softness of Karl, and
+fearing lest Karl would spoil Otto by too much petting, packed the
+child off to Plamann Institute, Berlin, a school of the Squeers type.
+
+Otto remained in this Spartan school-prison for nearly six years, and
+to the end of his life carried unpleasant memories. Plamann Institute
+idea was to harden lads, but instead of hardening the practices there
+embittered.
+
+¶ The half-starved boys were up at 6; breakfast of bread and milk;
+religious exercises at 7; at 10, luncheon of bread and salt; then, a
+run in the garden; at noon, dinner from the hands of Frau Plamann; and
+if a lad wanted a second plate, and couldn't eat it all, he was
+punished by being sent to the garden, there to remain till he had
+gulped down the last morsel, even though he fairly choked; at teatime,
+bread and salt, or warm beer and slices of bread; all day, studies of
+interminable length and dullness;--but, best of all, fencing exercises
+wound up the day.
+
+¶ In the school yard was a lone lime-tree, and here the boys came
+running as a goal for their sports. Using this lime-tree as a pulpit,
+Otto used to read to his companions chapters from Becker's stories
+about giants.
+
+¶ There was a pond near Schoenberg where the pupils used to go
+bathing. Otto's chum was Ernest Kriger.
+
+¶ After six years of this life on salt and potatoes, Otto was
+transferred to Dr. Bonnell's Frdk-Wm. Gymnasium, Berlin, and in
+another year to Grey Friars' Gymnasium. Soon after Dr. Schleiermacher
+confirmed Otto, at Trinity Protestant church.
+
+In the light of subsequent history, it is significant, almost uncanny,
+to recall the life-text offered to Otto at this solemn moment by his
+pastor: "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not
+unto men." Many years later--just before his death--Bismarck ordered
+the motto to be carved on his tomb; all his life he had followed the
+text.
+
+¶ The lad was two years at Grey Friars' school. While there Otto's
+deep-seated hatred of the French is again visible for a decisive
+moment.
+
+In 1806 Marshal Soult had slashed the genealogical tree of the
+Bismarck family; and young Otto, who often heard the story, grew up
+with the idea that the French were ogres.
+
+The school schedule, among other studies, called for French, or
+English as an optional selection; although all Otto's chums decided
+for French, the lad flatly refused to follow and instead stood almost
+alone in the English class.
+
+¶ He is no longer a child when he says good-bye to Grey Friars; he is
+a young man of 17--and life is opening before him.
+
+Life! The joyous care-free life of youth and inexperience; with the
+world and its cares still seemingly far away!
+
+
+                                  12
+
+  At Goettingen, he joined the Hannovera Corps and his record is
+  twenty-eight duels; his face bore many scars, among them a long
+  cut from left jaw to corner of his mouth.
+
+¶ Otto's mother, who had strong social aspirations and held to the
+rigid exclusiveness of the upper classes, wished to send her son to an
+aristocratic university. So she selected Goettingen. Her ideas were
+to make her son a man of dignity and solid social qualities.
+
+Alas, he became but an indifferent student, excelling principally in
+dueling, beer-bouts in college taverns, dog-fighting, flirting, and
+general deviltries unnumbered, for which he spent considerable time in
+the college dungeon. Listen to this:
+
+¶ Many years ago, in his roaring student days, long before Otto von
+Bismarck was famous, he received an invitation to a ball, and went to
+the shoemaker to be measured for high-topped military boots, affected
+by the beaux of that day. Calling some days later, he was told that it
+would be impossible to get them finished in time; and he would
+therefore have to wear his old boots to the ball.
+
+¶ Bismarck scowled and going back to his rooms, whistled for his two
+ferocious dogs with which he was wont to trail around town; returning
+to the cobbler's the daring rascal said in a loud voice: "Mister
+bootmaker, at a signal from me the dogs will tear you to pieces! I am
+here to tell you, in the most friendly way in the world, that it is
+absolutely necessary to have my boots on time."
+
+¶ Bismarck then went away, but he hired a man to parade up and down in
+the vicinity of the shop with the two mastiffs; and now and then this
+man dropped in, and in a voice of sorrow, said to the cobbler: "My
+master has a terrible temper and I am sorry for you." At that, the
+shoemaker told his wife: "Frau, I am going to work all night, to get
+Herr Bismarck's boots finished in time for that ball!"
+
+¶ It is needless to add that young Bismarck had his boots on time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ In discussing Bismarck's life and personality many writers will tell
+you that the man is inconsistency itself; advocating now what in a
+year he will recant; that for this and other reasons it is baffling to
+try to make a picture many-sided enough to portray adequately his
+complex life.
+
+¶ On the contrary, Bismarck, once you get the biographic clue, is as
+open, free and direct as the light of the noonday sun. And the story
+of the poor cobbler and the boots is all there is to it!
+
+Repeat this story in a hundred and one forms, and the same man is
+always behind.
+
+¶ Among his cronies, he early gained the name "The Mad Bismarck." At
+Goettingen university, Otto fought 28 duels and his face bore his
+fighting scars.
+
+¶ To scare the girls and to make them shriek and lift their skirts, a
+sight that the rascal Otto enjoyed, one night at a dance he let loose
+a small fox in the ball room! And he had ridden like the devil, some
+30-odd miles to be at this dance.
+
+¶ As for drinking, no man could put him under the table. Later in
+life, he invented his own special draught, a combination of champagne
+and porter; ordinary men dropped under the deadly compound as from a
+dose of cyanide of potassium, but Otto could drain his quart without
+taking the tankard from his lips. He soon had all the company under
+the chairs, like dead soldiers.
+
+¶ Often, at country houses, he fired pistols to awaken guests in the
+morning.
+
+¶ His groom fell into the canal, the young giant Bismarck leaped in
+and dragged the drowning man to safety; for this heroic deed, Bismarck
+won his first medal.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Bismarck's student life was tempestuous. He was indeed full of the
+very devil.
+
+His every-day get-up comprised top boots, long hair flowing over the
+collar of his velveteen jacket; a big brass ring on the first finger
+of his left hand; two fierce mastiffs trotted sullenly at his side. He
+trailed around, smoking a long pipe.
+
+¶ The young man's high animal spirits broke all restraints; he smoked,
+he drank, he sang, he flirted, and he fought; but as for books, he did
+as little studying as he could.
+
+He was sent many times to the university "carcer" or prison; an
+interesting souvenir is still to be seen at Goettingen, the
+student-prison door, on which Bismarck carved his name in 1832, when
+he was "doing" ten days for acting as second in a pistol duel.
+
+¶ With a Mecklenburg student, Otto's great chum, a trip was made
+through the Hartz mountains, and on returning a wine dinner was
+offered to other students.
+
+All the fellows drank too much brandy. Bismarck made an inflammatory
+speech, at table, ending by showing his derision of scholasticism by
+hurling ink bottles out of the window. For this breach of the rules,
+he was hauled before the university court. Here, he appeared in
+outlandish get-up, jack boots, tall hat, long pipe, dressing gown--and
+coolly asked the proctor what 'twas all about. Bismarck's huge dogs,
+with which he was always accompanied, frightened the proctor half to
+death! Bismarck was promptly fined five thalers for his absurdities;
+he paid the fine and began studying up more deviltry.
+
+¶ Joining the Hannovera Corps of fighting men, Otto was soon known as
+"Achilles," leading the fellows in all sword-play. He fought duel
+after duel, and finally under the influence of Morley, an American
+student, decided to switch over from the Hannovera to the Brunswick
+corps--whereon every Jack in the Hannovera sent Otto a challenge.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ On a trip to Jena, the fellows decided on a riot, and were deep in
+their cups when the Goettingen proctor arrived to bring the runaway
+Bismarck back, and put him in the "carcer" till he cooled off. The
+Jena fellows carried on at a great rate to think that the beloved
+"Achilles" had to leave so unceremoniously, but at the last moment
+hitched up six horses and paraded Bismarck around town, as a
+demonstrative fare thee well!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The scene of many of his drinking bouts was "Crown" tavern, an
+ancient Goettingen resort, where the fellows sat on wooden benches in
+front of a long bar and drank till they felt like fighting cocks. By
+the way, it is a bit strange that Otto had such amazing capacity; for
+he was as thin as a knitting needle.
+
+Among the men Bismarck met at this bar was Albrecht von Roon, who many
+years later was to become the great Prussian military drill-master.
+
+¶ Bismarck finally left Goettingen in August, '33; his last duel was
+with an Englishman who had made fun of the German peasant, describing
+that worthy as "a dunce in a night cap, whose night-dress is made of
+39 rags." The 39 rags was an allusion to the 39 petty German states.
+Bismarck was already becoming imbued with the "national German faith,"
+as it was called, and could not let the insult go by.
+
+¶ As a rule, Bismarck was lucky in his sword play. The biggest slash
+he received was made by Biedenweg, whose sword broke and cut Otto from
+jaw to lip, on the left cheek--a scar that Bismarck carried to his
+grave.
+
+¶ Giesseler, the proctor, gave Bismarck a very doubtful letter of
+recommendation; the duelist and beer-drinker had asked for a transfer
+to Berlin university. Otto wanted to hear law lectures by Savigny.
+
+¶ He began his Berlin course in a mocking way. There was an unserved
+jail sentence hanging over Bismarck's head at Goettingen; and with
+sham seriousness, as though he were going to turn over a new leaf,
+Otto humbly set up that, to be strictly honest with the professors, to
+jail Otto must go and to jail they sent him! But no sooner was he out
+than he forgot all his good resolutions, and began his mad existence
+again.
+
+¶ Finally, in May, 1835, he passed his examination in law, or
+"advocate assistant," but not without hiring a professional "crammer"
+to drill him hours and hours--to make up for wasted weeks in beer
+cellars and with the pretty girls.
+
+
+                                  13
+
+  Deficient in discipline, young Otto makes a fizzle of his first
+  office-holding; his shocking conduct against his superior
+  officer; back to the old estates, he looks after the cattle,
+  dogs and horses.
+
+¶ Harum-scarum days are over--and now for the serious business of
+life. Years later, in the days of his great renown, Bismarck, thinking
+of his early preparation, always regretted, he said, that he did not
+join the army. As a matter of fact, he had no serious plans for years
+to come--and it would appear that, on the whole, his career was
+decided by accident. Of this more, at the right time, later.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ When Bismarck was 20, he served several months at Aix-la-Chapelle,
+in court work, then was transferred to Potsdam, to the administrative
+side.
+
+He soon showed himself deficient in discipline. An over-officer kept
+him waiting, and Bismarck took personal offense. At last Bismarck was
+admitted. The over-officer was sitting there, calmly killing time
+smoking a cigar. Bismarck leaned over and in his gruff way asked,
+"Give me a match!" This in itself was highly insolent, a violation of
+Prussian ideas of discipline. But the astonished over-officer
+complied. The young clerk thereupon sprawled in a chair and lighted
+his cigar.
+
+It was, you see, merely to show his independence. Also, it meant that
+he had to get out of the service.
+
+¶ Bismarck was glad to go; he hated intensely the clock-like
+regularity of the Prussian bureaucracy.
+
+¶ His mother died in 1839, at which time Otto was 24; and on the young
+chap now fell the management of the Pomeranian estates.
+
+¶ In 1844, Otto went to live with his father at Schoenhausen; here,
+Otto and his brother looked after the farms. Otto was later appointed
+Dyke-captain of the Elbe.
+
+¶ Along about this time, a religious revival swept through Prussia and
+Otto was carried away on the flood; also, he began showing himself a
+strong monarchical man.
+
+Always religious and always a King's man, at heart, Otto now seriously
+studied religion and state affairs. When the call came, he was not
+found wanting!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ We hasten along. In 1847, Otto's naturally deep religious
+convictions were strengthened by his wife's uncompromising orthodoxy.
+
+¶ It was in this year, also, that he made his entry into Prussian
+politics--to the study of which he was to devote his long life and his
+surprising genius. However, to present a clear idea of the work
+Bismarck was to do, it is necessary to return, briefly, to an earlier
+day, and to trace a complex historical movement through the past. We
+shall summarize, on broad lines, the problem presented by the question
+of German national unity. The German problem comprised a political,
+sociological and racial situation toward whose solution hundreds, if
+not thousands, of notable men and women, for several generations past,
+had sought in vain.
+
+¶ "Nothing," says Wilhelm Gorlach, "can more clearly prove Bismarck's
+historical importance than the fact that we are obliged to go back
+several centuries to understand the connection of his actions."
+
+
+
+
+                            BOOK THE SECOND
+
+                      The German National Problem
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V
+
+                           The Great Sorrow
+
+
+                                  14
+
+  The German crazy-quilt, of many hues and colors, and how this
+  blanket was patched and mended through the years.
+
+¶ From the 18th Century, and indeed before that time, to say nothing
+of years to come as late as 1871, there was in fact no Germany. The
+term was a mere geographical "designation." We shall hear more of
+this, as Bismarck assumes the stupendous task of German unity, in a
+real sense of the word; but we will never understand what Bismarck and
+other statesmen who hoped for German unity had to deal with, unless we
+take a broad survey of conditions in Germany from the year 1750; not
+only from the political but also from the social and domestic side, as
+represented in 300-odd German principalities that like a crazy-quilt
+were thrown helter-skelter from Hamburg on the North to Vienna on the
+South.
+
+¶ Many of the holdings were gained through musty papers from rulers of
+the ancient Holy Roman Empire, a nation Voltaire declared "neither
+holy, nor empire, nor Roman."
+
+¶ There were free cities, great landlords, and there were great
+robber-barons--thieves of high or low degree.
+
+¶ At Cologne, Treves and Mayence archbishops held the lower valley of
+the Moselle, also some of finest parts of the Rhein valley.
+
+¶ Next, came dukes, landgraves, margraves, cities of the Empire, and
+then still smaller, duchies in duodecimo, down through some 800 minor
+landlords who as the owners of some borough or village walked this
+earth genuine game cocks on their own dunghills. Political conditions
+were distressing; old feuds, old hates prevailed.
+
+There were restrictions on commerce, statute labor, barbarous penal
+laws, religious persecution and Jew-baiting.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ In short, to make 300-odd jealous princelings join hands in national
+brotherhood is the complex problem that goes down through the years;
+generation after generation; till at last the one strong man appears,
+Otto von Bismarck, who in his supreme rise to power sees clearly that
+the only hope for Germany is in a complete social and political
+revolution, in which the changes in the German mind concerning
+political unity in governmental affairs must be as unusual as the
+transformations in the German mode of life.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ During the early part of the 18th Century, of which we are now
+writing, a certain bold political doctrine still stood unchallenged.
+It had come out of the dim and hoary past, and in effect it proclaimed
+the power of the fist. For centuries unnumbered the idea prevailed
+that a state defends itself against foreign foes, and otherwise
+conserves its existence through the direct will of a strong ruler,
+preferably a king brought up in arms.
+
+Thus the "genius of the people" meant in effect the wisdom or the
+ignorance of the line of kings.
+
+Under this theory, Prussia by slow degrees and through many sacrifices
+of blood and treasure, had become a great power.
+
+¶ Fred: Wm. I., (1713-40), who was indeed a miser and a scoffer, freed
+little Prussia from debt and rebuilt cities ruined by the wars. He
+likewise established a system of compulsory education, made
+schoolmasters state officers, and contributed mightily to a higher
+standard.
+
+And he went further still: he welcomed religious exiles from other
+parts of Germany; he settled thousands of immigrants on the raw lands;
+he saved his money, economized to the last pfennig, was prudent in a
+worldly sense, and to the end of his life remained intolerable foe of
+idleness.
+
+¶ It was from this severe master that the Great Frederick (1740-86)
+learned the trick of laying his cane over the backs of peasants and
+crying out in rage: "Get to work!"
+
+¶ Old Fritz continued his line of battle from 1740 to 1763, in various
+unequal contests with the Allies. He fought Austria, France, Russia,
+Sweden, Saxony, and Poland, and for a while he fought their allied
+strength. The upshot was that Prussian enemies at home and abroad were
+defeated and Prussia won first rank as a military and political power.
+This idea of military discipline, united with large worldly sagacity
+in the management of state affairs, marks and explains Prussia's rise
+to power.
+
+¶ But the decline was equally manifest under Fr: Wm. II, the Great
+Frederick's nephew. Although he inherited a domain of six millions of
+people, banded under an excellent administrative system, sustained by
+the disciplined army of "Old Dessauer" (Prince Leopold), and although
+Fr: Wm. II found the huge sum of 40,000,000 thalers in his fighting
+uncle's treasure chest, yet within a few years all these splendid
+advantages were frittered away in idle dalliance and the weak king
+found himself twenty millions in debt.
+
+By the time he died, 1797, Prussia was riding to a fall; and
+disregarding plain measures for her own safety, she had reached the
+sad place where the sturdy old Prussian spirit of prudence and
+independence had become so compromised that Prussia almost deemed it
+unessential to preserve her own political life!
+
+¶ Thus, within three generations, Prussia repeated the old story of
+human life, wherein the weak descendant eats up the strong sire's
+goods. Frederick the Great died Aug. 17th, 1786. Within three years,
+France struck at the German lands; and within 20 years the old
+Constitution of the Empire was scoffed at by encircling enemies along
+the frontiers, led by France, while at home political disputants
+destroyed National spirit by exciting revolution after revolution.
+"Everywhere," says Zimmermann, (Germany, p. 1618), "one felt the
+morning breeze of the new dispensation." The cry of the people had to
+be answered, and the common man wanted to know not only "Why!" but
+"When!"
+
+¶ For the ensuing 85 years clamor, disruption and disunion continue
+often accompanied by bloodshed; till through Bismarck's great work
+over which he toiled for 40-odd years, came the final answer of the
+Imperial democracy, 1871.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ It is to be the labor of years with confusion worse confounded, as
+we go along. The Feudal system, with which Germany has been for
+centuries petrified, must be thrown off; the peasant laborers freed in
+some sort, whether social or political, the absurd restrictions of
+countless customs houses walling-in each petty principality, must be
+destroyed. Before a new Germany may emerge, if Germany is to emerge at
+all, a National faith must be stimulated, fighting blood stirred, wars
+waged. Then, and then only, may this idea of German Unity, long the
+puzzling mental preoccupation of the fathers, become a geographical
+actuality and a political fact.
+
+¶ The German peasants' sense of respect for vested authority, even
+when held by hated kings, made the common people of the various German
+states almost ox-like in their patience under harsh political
+conditions.
+
+Between the power of petty tyrants and of foreign despots, there was
+no freedom worthy of the name.
+
+The German lived for himself, aloof, suspicious, not caring
+particularly to change his condition.
+
+Compromise after compromise, failure after failure, sorrow after
+sorrow must be recorded in the great story; but do not despair. In
+amazing manner, through blood and iron, Otto von Bismarck, our blond
+Pomeranian giant, will face, fight and finally conquer the bewildering
+cross-forces of his time--till "German national faith" is supreme.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Paying no attention to its neighbor, each German state stood off by
+itself; each princeling had his army, in some instances only 25 men;
+each ruler had his castle, in imitation of Versailles; each state its
+custom house, its distinct court and rural costumes.
+
+To go ten miles north or south was to find yourself in a new world;
+you could scarcely understand the mush-talk of the peasants, whereas
+the various Liliputian courts chattered in mongrel French, aped from
+Versailles.
+
+¶ The minor courts of Germany imitated the excesses of Versailles;
+had dancing teachers from Paris, French barbers, French governesses,
+and French prostitutes.
+
+Every young man of wealth was sent to Paris to acquire what was called
+"bon ton," that is to say, familiarity with the vices of the day; the
+etiquette of the fan and the study of new ways to spend money wrung
+from over-taxed peasants of German provinces was also regarded as very
+important.
+
+Even to speak German was held a mark of vulgarity; and what more
+despicable than to be ashamed of one's ancestry?
+
+¶ Unmoved by the sufferings of the peasants, Augustus III of Saxony
+applied himself to grand operas, written by queens of French society.
+While the peasants were living like beasts, Frederick Augustus, the
+successor, spent his time hunting red deer. The dukes of Coburg and
+Hildburghausen were miserable bankrupts. As a result of social
+excesses, Charles VII of Bavaria left a debt of forty millions.
+Charles Theodore, in some respects an enlightened monarch, is
+particularly remembered for three strange facts: That he once gave an
+opera in German and not in French; that he tried to sell off Bavaria,
+his inheritance, and move to a more congenial locality; and third,
+that he hired Rumford, the great chemist, to invent a soup, at low
+cost, to feed the poor, whose miseries had been growing on account of
+the bad government.
+
+¶ Nor should we overlook the monarch at Zweibrucken, the Pfalzgraf
+Charles. His mania took the form of collecting pipes and toys, of
+which he had innumerable specimens from the ends of the earth. He kept
+also one thousand five hundred horses and a thousand dogs and cats.
+Every traveler had to take off his hat and bow at sight of the spire,
+on pain of being beaten by the Count's constable.
+
+¶ Charles Eugene, of Wuertemberg, slave to luxury, played pranks when
+he was not indulging in vices. He liked to alarm peasants at night
+with wild cries; and when a woman stuck her head out of the window,
+the monarch would throw a hoop and try to drag her outside. In a deep
+forest he built his castle "Solitude."
+
+¶ On his 50th birthday, he wrote to his subjects, promising to mend
+his life; the letter was read in all the churches. The people decided
+that he was in earnest, promised him more money, of which he was in
+sore need. His first step was to contract a left-handed marriage with
+Francisca von Bernedin, whom he raised to the rank of countess.
+
+¶ His next step was to build a queer bird-cage for his new mate.
+Menzel says of this episode: "Records of every clime and of every age
+were here collected. A Turkish mosque contrasted its splendid dome
+with the pillared Roman temple and the steepled Gothic church. The
+castled turret rose by the massive Roman tower; the low picturesque
+hut of the modern peasant stood beneath the shelter of the gigantesque
+remains of antiquity; and imitations of the pyramids of Cestius, of
+the baths of Diocletian, a Roman senate-house and Roman dungeons, met
+the astonished eye."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Another amiable peculiarity of French-mongering German princelings
+in their petty monarchies, was man-stealing. Hard-pressed for funds,
+the practice was to kidnap peasants and sell them into foreign
+military service. The vile trade was dignified by court authority;
+followers of the game were known as "man merchants."
+
+¶ The Wuertemberg monarch in order to raise funds to complete the
+absurd castle for his mistress, took it into his head to sell 1,000
+peasants to the Dutch, for the war in the Indies; and so deep lay the
+curse of tyranny that no public protest was raised. It is true that
+Schiller, the noble poet, who at this time was a student at Charles
+College, fled in disgust, but Schaubert, another poet, was not so
+fortunate; he was seized and imprisoned for ten years.
+
+¶ The vile practice of man-stealing from the wretched peasantry long
+continued as a monarchical privilege. The Landgrave Frederick of
+Hesse-Cassel, on one occasion sent 12,800 Hessians to the British, to
+fight in America. English commissioners came over and inspected the
+captive men as though picking out stock at a cattle show. Should a
+parent protest, a son, a wife or a widow, the answer was the lash.
+Hanau furnished 1200 of these slave-soldiers, Waldeck several hundred.
+Seume, who was himself a victim to the system, deported to America,
+tells us in his Memoirs: "No one was safe; every means was resorted
+to, fraud, cunning, trickery, violence. Foreigners were thrown into
+prison, and sold."
+
+"There is a Hessian prince of high distinction," says Huergelmer. "He
+has magnificent palaces, pheasant-preserves, at Wilhelmsbad, operas,
+mistresses, etc. These things cost money. He has, moreover, a hoard of
+debts, the result of the luxury of his sainted forefathers. What does
+the prince do in this dilemma? He seizes an unlucky fellow in the
+street, expends fifty dollars on his equipment, sends him out of the
+country, and gets a hundred dollars for him in exchange."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Frederick of Bayreuth expended all his revenues in building a grand
+opera house, for giving balls, parties, receptions and official
+functions to aristocrats. His successor Alexander fell under the sway
+of Lady Craven, a British adventuress, who led the peasants a merry
+chase for the cash; man-stealing was the old game; and one order alone
+from the British government called for 1,500 peasants.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ But why continue the recital of man's inhumanities?
+
+Charles of Brunswick, a spendthrift, who sold subjects into captivity,
+paid his ballet-master 30,000 a year. Frederick of Brunswick on one
+occasion sold 4,000 peasants to Britain, for the army.
+
+¶ The terrible famine of 1770-72 added to the discontent of the common
+man, throughout Germany; he began to feel that it was the duty of
+kings to feed the hungry; bark, grass, leaves, carrion were eaten;
+disease spread; emigrations depopulated the Rheinlands; 20,000 left
+Bavaria alone; while upwards of 180,000 Bavarians died of hunger; in
+Saxony, the number that starved to death is placed at 100,000. Other
+kingdoms suffered heavily.
+
+¶ In many of the provinces were laws to prevent immigration; those who
+tried to get Bavarians to leave the country were guilty of a crime,
+punishable by hanging. A similar punishment was exacted for marrying
+out of one's native province.
+
+¶ Also, the wretched condition of the roads added to the isolation of
+the various German provinces. Exacting customs' duties, military
+espionages, a weak postal system, contributed to keep Germans
+unacquainted, except with near neighbors. He, indeed, was a bold man
+who had gone over the mountains or beyond his native valley. Even a
+journey of two days caused grave anxieties; the carriage was almost
+certain to be overturned in some deep rut and the travelers injured or
+killed; robbers lay in wait in the mountains; protection was almost
+unheard of; life and property were insecure; every traveler had to be
+his own policeman, and never issued forth on a journey without dagger,
+pistol and sword.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Thus, 300 princelings, great or small, were determined to rule in
+their individual capacities; there was no Germany in fact, and that
+much of the German Empire that had outlived the gradual ruin of the
+old Holy Roman Empire, the great-ancestor of Germany, was now
+approaching complete dissolution.
+
+The power lay no more in states, but in 300-odd local political
+bureaus, scattered everywhere, dominated often enough by an ambitious
+French prostitute, or by some lucky ballet-master.
+
+¶ Then, there was August of Saxony, who is said to have been the
+father of 300 children. This foolish fellow's fetes cost thalers by
+the wagon-load; one set of Chinese porcelains ran into the millions,
+and it cost 6,000 thalers to gild the gondolas for a night in June, to
+say nothing of the fancy ball.
+
+¶ The Baden monarch, Charles William, built Carlsruhe in the deep
+forest, the better that his orgies be kept from prying eyes.
+
+¶ Eberhardt of Wuertemberg gave the whole conduct of his government
+over to women and Jews--and by the way the Jews were the only saving
+force. As for the Graevenitz woman, she was king in petticoats. She
+mortgaged crown lands and raised hell generally. One day in church she
+made a fuss about not being mentioned among royal rulers, and the
+pastor immediately replied: "Madam, we mention you daily in our
+prayers when we say: 'O Lord, deliver us from all evil!'" Once, in
+time of famine, Charles William scattered loaves of bread; the rabble
+maddened by hunger fought to the death for the dole!
+
+¶ Also, there were Ernest of Hanover and Tony of Brunswick, two
+precious rascals, with all their retinue of mistresses, mistresses'
+maids, mothers, hangers-on, and pimps. Carl Magnus had his Grehweiler
+palace costing 180,000 guelden. He grew so desperate that the Emperor
+sent him to a fortress for ten years' imprisonment, for forging
+documents to raise the wind. Count Limburg-Styrum was a princeling
+whose army consisted of one colonel, six officers and two privates!
+Count William of Bueckeburg had a fort with 300 guns, defending a
+cabbage patch. Count Frederick of Salm-Kyrburg swindled the churches;
+and in tiny Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, only 15 miles square, was a
+royal palace of 350 rooms with clocks of all sizes, great and small,
+in each apartment. This count went mad over clocks, but was popular
+with the working class; often he would take a man off a job in order
+to laugh and joke.
+
+Also, Frederick had original taste in military affairs; his army
+comprised 150 soldiers, with 28 guards on horseback. The prince prided
+himself on being a wrestler, and one day when a yokel threw the
+prince, the prince set up a great cry, "I slipped on a cherry
+stone!"--and this regardless of the fact that it was not the time of
+the year for cherries.
+
+¶ There was another local ruler, Ludwig Guenther, who was fond of
+painting horses, and on his death 246-odd horse pictures adorned the
+walls of his palace.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ "Show a German a door and tell him to go through, and he will try to
+break a hole in the wall."
+
+¶ "Here, every one lives apart in his own narrow corner, with his own
+opinions; his wife and children round him; ever suspicious of the
+Government, as of his neighbor; judging everything from his personal
+point of view, and never from general grounds."
+
+¶ "The sentiment of individualism and the necessity for contradiction
+are developed to an inconceivable degree in the German."
+
+¶ The problem of directing this intense individualism is the problem
+of German unity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ With rough manners, blunders, extravagances, absurdities, the
+hereditary princes continued to sponge on the peasants, generation
+after generation, till wretchedness spread far over the German lands.
+They had their châteaux, their dancing girls, their dogs, horses,
+cats, mistresses and their royal armies.
+
+¶ The misery of centuries of oppression existed; petty monarchs
+exercised powers of life and death.
+
+¶ The South German mocked the North German's pronunciation. One set
+vowed that the "g" in "goose" is hard, the other proclaimed that the
+"g" is soft. One side went about mumbling with hard "g's," "A
+well-baked goose is a gracious gift of God," whereupon the other side
+replied that all the "g's" are "j's," that the "gute ganz" is really
+"jute janz," and "Gottes" "Jottes." And duels were fought over it.
+
+¶ Nor was this all. An intense local pride expressed itself in
+grotesque dialects, unsoftened by intercourse with the outer world;
+also, there were outlandish fashions in dress and other domestic
+affairs.
+
+¶ In Brunswick the women wore green aprons, curious black caps, the
+men buff coats, red vests with four rows of buttons, caps with crazy
+pompons, buckled slippers and gay ribbon garters.
+
+¶ In lower Saxony the women wore flat straw hats, like a dinner plate,
+hair plastered down, head-dresses of gigantic black ribbons, aprons of
+gay stripes, and ten petticoats coming only a little below the knee.
+The men wore farce-comedy costumes, not unlike coachmen.
+
+¶ In Pomerania-Rugen the women admired scarlet petticoats,
+knee-length, capes like turko-rugs, black veils, green garters and
+blue stockings. The men wore aprons like butchers, caps and
+long-tailed coats.
+
+¶ The Hessian women preferred turbans of red, vestees of gay stuffs,
+blue, green or yellow knee-length skirts.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The Baden men folk liked reds, greens and yellows, vests adorned
+with many ribbons, top boots, high white collars and funny-looking
+black coats. The women had their green aprons, puffed sleeves, and ten
+short petticoats.
+
+¶ In East Prussia men wore double and triple vests. As for the women,
+they looked like animals in the zoo.
+
+¶ In Wuertemberg, a typical landlord wore a blue peajacket with two
+rows of large silver buttons, two vests of high contrasting colors, a
+black sash, salmon-colored trousers, polished boots;--and carried a
+meerschaum pipe.
+
+¶ In Bavaria one saw green vests, yodlers' hats with tiny feathers,
+green leggings, or military boots; and among the women gay vestees,
+bright shawls and white kerchiefs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Thus, the dead-weight of centuries still lay like a mountain on the
+various German states.
+
+¶ This dead-weight of olden times kept the German states bickering
+among themselves.
+
+For long years past, the people were divided by political brawls,
+altercations, affrays, squabbles, feuds, often with the loss of life.
+The general disposition was choleric, pugnacious, litigious.
+
+There was bad blood over principles and procedure, policies and plans.
+
+To transform aloofness to neighborliness, tumult to conciliation,
+quarreling to friendliness, hostility to good will, dissent must give
+way to assent, distrust to faith, denial to admission, misgiving to
+conviction, political atheism to political revelation.
+
+Such are some of the peculiarities of the human animal; and in
+political life human animals are prone to fight for self-interest,
+like dogs over a bone.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ We are not going to try to tell you of the many efforts by rash
+reformers, in the half-century of the dead-weight, leading to the rise
+of Prussia.
+
+Again and again, far-sighted Germans, sick unto death at the way
+things were going, urged equality for all men before the law, equal
+taxation, restriction of the power of the nobles.
+
+Strange as it may seem, the peasants themselves stood in the way. They
+did not care to change their condition, miserable as it was. They
+dreaded the future, preferred present miseries than to risk new ills.
+For example, on one occasion, a certain political idealist excited the
+peasants in revolt, assassinated 120 nobles, destroyed 264 castles.
+This was in the time of Joseph II, of Austria, the ruler filled with
+amazing ideas of equality. The peasants themselves were the first to
+protest, much as they detested the nobles; and the unsupported leaders
+died on the wheel, while 150 miserable followers were buried alive.
+
+And yet, at that very moment, the idealistic Joseph, who with an
+excess of zeal, tried for political equality, made enemies of his
+nobles, enemies of his peasants, likewise. The great reformer was held
+a fanatic, intent on destroying government. Too far ahead of his time,
+his plans for political semi-equality failed.
+
+¶ This monarch, thinking to make a lesson, had swindling nobles placed
+in the stocks, like common thieves.
+
+Joseph was one of the first great democrats, in the modern sense. To
+him, the cause of the common man was sacred. He believed in genuine
+equality, but alas, he did not know how to bring about the political
+Millennium.
+
+¶ He threw open the parks to the people; he proclaimed free speech and
+free thought; he abolished serfdom; he labored to construct a
+state-machine with one system of justice and one National plan.
+
+Joseph, though overbrimming with emotions for the common man's
+political salvation, failed to allow for the ignorance of his people,
+their stubborn avowal of local self-interests.
+
+¶ And it fell out that his people thought that Joseph was trying to
+enslave them the more; ingratitude and misapprehensions followed,
+destroying the liberal reformer's most cherished plans for his beloved
+Austria-Germany.
+
+The word was passed alone that Joseph was a tyrant. You see, as
+frequently happens, the people preferred old abuses to new ways. The
+general population hugged their chains and refused to be delivered.
+
+This singular belief in the past, rather than in the future, is indeed
+a human weakness and has checked and restrained the rise of
+intellectual freedom since the world began.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ It might all have been a good lesson to republicans, but the
+nobility assumed a threatening attitude and the peasants did not
+understand a monarch like Joseph.
+
+Their idea of a king was a man going upstairs on horseback and eating
+spiders. A king must have powers of life and death and bags of gold. A
+citizen king was absurd.
+
+The peasantry, on whom Joseph had endeavored to bestow many large
+democratic privileges, rose against him. He died Feb. 20, 1790, "a
+century too early," says Jellenz, and as Remer adds, "misunderstood by
+a people unworthy of such a sovereign."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Germany, in the sad period between 1750 and 1806 had long been a
+European political jest; these are hard words, but it is the language
+of truth.
+
+She had sunk so low that she saw no degradation in going off to fight
+French or British wars, while at home remaining a mere political
+nonentity.
+
+She had sunk so low, under French influences, and through her own lack
+of self-control, that she forgot her great ancestors and her noble
+traditions.
+
+She had sunk so low that her very children were brought up to despise
+the language of the Fatherland; the children scoffing at the parents,
+aped foreign ways rather than support German originality, strength and
+national genius; young men coming of age preferred to leave the land
+of their birth, mocked the simple German virtues, and occupied
+themselves in idle dalliance in Paris, or failing in this, set up
+imitations of French courts in the petty German monarchies.
+
+Thus, finally Germany became insensible, indifferent and debased by
+stupid and selfish ideals from beyond the Vosges; till at last Germany
+became, literally, a land without a people, a people without a land.
+
+¶ Worse still, the time came when, under these false teachings, a
+sense of shame no longer lived, to arouse great national interests and
+to recall degenerate sons to their solemn duties to their Fatherland.
+
+Hundreds of noble Germans, at one time or another, during these dark
+years, tried in vain by voice or pen to restore national
+consciousness, but failed. The problem of German liberty seemed
+incapable of solution; and as for the still larger problem of German
+unity--that became a mere dream.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ We glorify here and now, the genius and the manhood of Bismarck as
+the one man who had the strength of purpose to recall to Germans the
+heroic tale of a free and united Fatherland.
+
+It took him thirty years or more, through well-nigh superhuman
+striving; he preached, he cursed, he vilified, he used the iron rod.
+
+He would have absolutely nothing to do with the political ideas from
+over the Vosges; he knew too well the curse of olden times, and his
+one great central emotion was to end that condition--as he hoped
+forever.
+
+You are to read of the battles of a giant, filled with immense
+compassion for the follies and weaknesses of his misled countrymen,
+filled, too, with fanatical zeal to punish, that good might come of it
+at last.
+
+Bismarck used the strong military arm, the hell fires and the
+lightnings.
+
+His nature scorned any further mere palliation of the weaknesses of
+human nature. Like all supermen, Bismarck struck straight from the
+shoulder; in turn to be misunderstood, cursed and reviled by the very
+people he would serve; but in the end aroused German manhood to a just
+comprehension of the power and dignity of a free and united
+Fatherland.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ For upwards of 100 years before Bismarck's great hour, the French
+had been accustomed to exploit Germany. To fill the pocketbook, to
+provide soldiers for wars, or to afford opportunities for buccaneering
+expeditions, were all the same.
+
+We do not say this to bring up any "moral" issue, but we make the
+statement merely as one uses the word dung or manure.
+
+That is to say, certain historical facts stink to heaven.
+
+Annexations, concessions, raids, riots at the hands of the French
+conspired to keep Germany disunited, belligerent and mutinous; and as
+the years passed Germany, to a large extent, seduced by French ways,
+lost a sense of her dignity. France had looked to Germany to furnish
+allies to help fight Prussia, Austria or England; then England turned
+the trick against France. It is discouraging to add that even the
+great Goethe was so seduced by the glamour of Napoleon's genius that
+he wrote these strange words in praise of the French tyrant:
+
+    Doubts that have baffled thousands, he has solved:
+    Ideas o'er which centuries have brooded,
+    His giant mind intuitively compressed.
+
+¶ Thus, you have before you this spectacle: Germany's greatest
+poetical genius forgets the sad reality of his broken, dispirited and
+disrupted country and leaves her to her wretched fate; passing his
+time as a sentimental voluptuary in the splendor of the Weimar court,
+where he concerns himself with such works as "Elective Affinities," a
+frank endorsement of adultery.
+
+¶ On the other side, the noble Schiller, poet of the people, recalled
+to his fellow countrymen the faded glory of Germany. "Schiller stands
+forth," says Menzel, "as the champion of liberty, justice and his
+country."
+
+In a word, it took Germany 100 years to learn by suffering that if she
+is ever to regain her fallen prestige as a nation, she must fight her
+enemies at home and abroad; she must restore the military ideal of
+ancient times. And here, in a nutshell, is the very root of all this
+cry about militarism: The man who will not fight for what he regards
+as his political rights, remains a slave his whole life long; for it
+is the essential nature of man to exercise tyrannous power over human
+lives, whenever such practice holds out promise of advantage.
+
+Therefore, Bismarck again trained Germany to be a fighting nation; and
+if an ideal of a free and united people is no justification, then
+words have no meaning.
+
+
+                                  15
+
+  The French peasant's son, returning from the wars brings his
+  wife a diamond necklace.
+
+¶ The cross-angles of politics, for years, lead as far as one cares to
+go, in this German family fight. Each petty state has its intrigues
+and its grievances; you become befuddled; it is all weariness of the
+flesh.
+
+¶ However, behind all the political jargon, mighty forces are taking
+form; and little by little, certain outstanding facts come to view,
+involving every king, knight, bishop, prince and pauper on the German
+map, from the North Sea to the Black Sea.
+
+After 1789, the German was down with that new disease, French
+constitutionalism; liberty, fraternity and equality. No human being
+knew exactly what it meant. It was a political fever that had to be
+gone through with; and blood-letting was the only cure.
+
+Monarchs seemingly secure on their thrones from the days of old, now
+shivered like ghosts as the mobs marched the streets of Vienna and
+Berlin, waiving new flags and crying "Liberty!"
+
+¶ The word "liberty" went to the crook-backed German peasant's brain
+like wine; he grew mad with the idea of an impossible world, in which
+he could decree as he desired and all would bow to him, though he in
+return would bow to nobody; in short, liberty for him, but death to
+the others; and were it possible to confiscate the property of the
+princes and redistribute the loot among the peasants, so much the
+better.
+
+¶ Before we go into this thing, let us remember that as the French
+armies marched over Europe, the doom of kings had been cracking and
+rumbling.
+
+The soldiers carried everywhere the idea of French equality, that is
+to say, to the popular mind an opportunity to share the loot.
+Napoleon himself, reflecting on his own career and on the follies of
+the French revolution, said: "Let us now turn ourselves to something
+practical; the bombastic ideas of the Revolution have exhausted
+themselves in grotesque efforts at self-government. All the Revolution
+means is an opportunity for a man of talents to show what he can do."
+
+¶ And the French soldiers, returning from the wars, brought their
+wives and daughters gold rings, bracelets and diamond necklaces, the
+loot of the capitals of Europe.
+
+¶ As for Napoleon, he, of course, took the lion's share; but a diamond
+necklace to a soldier's wife is indeed a powerful argument on the
+importance of the new democratic era, in which peasants' sons wear
+gold lace and their womankind ride in carriages.
+
+Also, many of the generals of France were sons of peasants; and an
+account of Napoleon's marshals would show the humble origin of men of
+the hour, sons of soap boilers, tavern keepers, stable-bosses.
+
+¶ One may imagine the result of such surprising overturnings of caste,
+in old-world conditions. Henceforth the peasants of all lands will
+naturally regard their respective kings as so many dogs, to be shot to
+death at the first splendid opportunity! And Germany is no exception.
+
+¶ Forward march, ye sons of the soil, there are stormy days ahead for
+you, through your "new" ideas.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VI
+
+                        Prussia's De Profundis
+
+
+                                  16
+
+  Humiliations heaped upon her by France; the strange
+  combination, the lash and the kiss!
+
+¶ First, let us quote from Bismarck, who looking backward after his
+amazing politico-military triumph at Koeniggraetz, (1866), tells a
+French interviewer for "Le Siecle" this root-fact about Germans, their
+weakness and their power:
+
+¶ "No government, however it may act, will be popular in Prussia; the
+majority in the country will always be opposed to it; simply from its
+being the Government;--and holding authority over the individual, the
+central authority is always doomed to be constantly opposed by the
+moderates, and decried and despised by the ultras. This has been the
+common fate of all successive governments since the beginning of the
+dynasty. Neither liberal ministers, nor reactionary ministers have
+found favor with our Prussian politicians.
+
+¶ "Frederick William III, surnamed the Just, had succeeded as little
+as Frederick William IV in satisfying the Prussian nation.
+
+¶ "They shouted themselves hoarse at the victories of Frederick the
+Great, but at his death they rubbed their hands at the thought of
+being delivered from the tyrant! Despite this antagonism, there exists
+a deep attachment to the royal house. No sovereign or minister, no
+government, can win the favor of Prussian individualism. Yet all cry
+from the depths of their hearts, 'God save the King!' And they obey
+when the King commands."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ With this clue from the master before us, the thing to do is,
+clearly, to reach out after this German Unity idea in a broad way.
+
+¶ Napoleon's armies had marched everywhere, during all those
+victorious years, and each soldier had been a living exemplar of the
+power of National glory.
+
+This National spirit in his armies had helped Napoleon amazingly,
+despite his genius as a soldier. The great Prussian patriot, Stein,
+one of the leading men of his time and an early believer in the high
+destiny of his country, began studying some of the more obscure but
+vital forces behind Napoleon's career of glory. Stein finally read the
+secret and urged that as Napoleon had won by National spirit, so
+Napoleon could in the end be defeated by a similar National spirit
+when properly opposed to him; and Napoleon with one terrifying black
+look saw that von Stein had divined the real force of French
+solidarity, a proclamation was out for von Stein's head, and the
+patriot who dreamed of his Confederation of Germany, against the
+French, or any other foreign foe, was obliged to make his escape to
+the heart of the Bohemian mountains.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Fr: Wm. II (1797-1840), child of the Revolution, to his dying day
+remained untouched by the new political principles that had their
+origin beyond the Rhine. Compound of dreams and realities, William had
+led a repressed life; for one thing, he did not fight for his
+opinions; indeed his opinions were literary and artistic; a peculiar
+pietism bound him; he believed too much in man's natural goodness;
+being an honest man himself, he did not readily suspect others.
+
+¶ This Frederick was always thinking of a Germany built on the
+traditional order, with all intervening social grades, from peasant to
+king upon his throne, each bowing and scraping to the other; and
+Frederick, as the father of his kingdom, exercising a despotic
+paternalism.
+
+¶ Nor did he see that the French revolution had been fought and
+Napoleon's armies had carried afar if not the seeds of political
+equality, at least the glorious conception that "revolution means
+opportunity for men of talents, everywhere."
+
+¶ The pressure on the king was found in this: that under duress he had
+promised a written constitution.
+
+¶ And behold Frederick in these troublous times! For eleven long
+years, off and on, he tries to find a common ground of religious
+formulas for the united Lutheran and Reformed churches. He even
+attacks Rome on the question of mixed marriages. Of course, he failed
+utterly, this noble-minded Hohenzollern who believed too implicitly in
+the inherent goodness of mankind.
+
+¶ Repair then to your church windows and read your blackletter Bible,
+you dreaming Frederick; such is your story, in a few words.
+
+Gabble about your Gothic restorations as you will, and your correct
+revisions of the liturgy, Frederick, it remains for your Louise to do
+a man's work against French foes, and thus hasten the slow-coming of
+United Germany.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ In the meantime, Prussia is falling to pieces for lack of the mailed
+fist. Everything is going to rack and ruin; beloved Prussia
+repeatedly humiliated by French invaders; and had it not been for
+noble Queen Louise there might well be no Prussian glory at this hour
+to record.
+
+¶ Her lovely countenance, wreathed in smiles, is immortalized for us
+through the art of Joseph Grassi; and is to be seen in the
+Hohenzollern Museum.
+
+The artist depicts her with youthful charm, her fair brow adorned by
+her slender crown, whose weight, alas, although slight, gave her no
+rest till death.
+
+Her eyes are gentle, and about her face and form is the indefinable
+touch of ever-present girlishness, never to fade, even in the
+woman-grown.
+
+¶ It were nearer the truth to say Louise personifies Prussia's
+ambition to power.
+
+¶ This beautiful woman bore indeed a heavy burden; well she knew the
+dread and fear of kings and kingly office.
+
+¶ On the one side was the tyrant Napoleon, on the other Fr: Wilhelm,
+her kingly husband, without an idea outside of cathedral architecture
+and bishoprics in Jerusalem; yet Louise willed that Prussia should
+seize the reins of power, shake off the French yoke, and mount the
+heights of glory.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ As a foil to the ferocious Bismarck--himself a majestic
+king-maker--here we reveal to you a true creator of National honor, in
+the form of a frail, fair woman; showing thus how far the pendulum of
+Time and Chance often rocks in bringing about political changes.
+
+Though poles apart, the brutal Bismarck stands side by side with the
+lovely Louise; the blood and iron of the man were of no avail without
+the finesse of the woman.
+
+Thus this singular cross-fertilization, compounded of smiles and
+frowns--the kiss and the lash--the white jeweled hand and the mailed
+fist in the end makes it possible for humiliated Prussia to rise
+again--the late harvest of the years bringing the reality of our
+United Germany.
+
+¶ Bismarck's amazing story we spread before you in detail, but beside
+that frowning rock we stoop for a moment to pluck the modest violets
+clinging all unobserved in a gloomy place where the sun seldom comes;
+these flowers are Louise and their subtle perfume symbolizes the
+penetrating yet delicate incense of her pathetic life.
+
+¶ Without Louise, our story were soon ended. Otherwise Bismarck
+himself could not have come into the illustrious pages of history.
+Noble Prussian queen, heroine of Prussian glory, mother-consoler in
+the twilight, your gentle spirit hovers like some evening-star,
+luminous with hope.
+
+
+                                  17
+
+  Napoleon's hated Continental system of domination causes
+  Prussian downfall--The Queen decides to fight back.
+
+¶ The treaty of Luneville, February, 1801, now seemed to lend color to
+Napoleon's greatest delusion of grandeur; he would restore the ancient
+domain of Charlemagne, comprising France, Germany and Italy! Signing
+with Prussia and Bavaria, Napoleon confiscated broad Papal domains
+along the Rhine, lands that had been in possession of the church since
+Roman times. With this bribe for secular princes, as the price of the
+readjustment, exactly 112 Teutonic domains, petty in size but
+all-powerful with the prestige of centuries, vanished from the map.
+The holy Electors of Treves and Cologne, those empire-makers of
+ancient days, were stripped of their worldly possessions, and expelled
+from the Papal lands.
+
+¶ There were even rumors of a French-supported Emperor of
+Prussia--think of that!
+
+Francis of Austria, for reasons of policy, gave up the high-swelling
+title, "Holy Roman Emperor," and more modestly contented himself with
+"Emperor of Austria."
+
+¶ And now, when Napoleon's delusion--Charlemagne--seemed on the very
+point of realization, there came the third Coalition against him;
+Prussia joined against France; but Napoleon soon gained the most noted
+of his victories, Austerlitz; 15,000 prisoners, 12,000 dead on the
+field, represented Austria's loss alone, but this was not all.
+
+The victorious French pressed on to Vienna. By the treaty of
+Pressburg, Austria was excluded from Germany; Wuertemberg, Bavaria
+and the Rhinelands went over to the French, Napoleon setting himself
+up as Protector of the Rhine country, with his representative
+President Karl von Dalberg, former archbishop of Mainz.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Louise was high-spirited, impulsive, courageous, imaginative--the
+very foil of her slow-going Frederick, with his church restorations
+forevermore. The Queen, always for an aggressive policy, by her
+sympathy encouraged the Prussian war party; patriots, restive under
+the indecision of Frederick, were eager to shake off French
+domination. The appeal was to Militarism, but what would you? The Hun
+was not only "at the gate," but was inside the walls; and if a man
+will not fight for his fireside, then he must remain a slave. It was a
+virtuous cause.
+
+¶ The cabal at the Prussian court, secretly in opposition to the
+easy-going King, was aided by Louise. There were the King's brothers,
+the ambitious Hardenburg, the King's cousin, Ferdinand, the gifted
+Rahel Levin--and many others.
+
+These plots within the palace gave to Louise's life strange political
+aspects.
+
+¶ The Queen desired to strike.
+
+¶ By 1805 Austria, Russia and Great Britain were united, but Russia
+still wavered.
+
+¶ Louise's secret influence became a watchword for Prussian patriots,
+who despised French rule.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ After Austerlitz, Napoleon read Prussia his ultimatum: Shall it be
+war or peace? Peace and Hanover, or war with me?
+
+¶ A treaty was drawn giving to Napoleon control over Prussia; and this
+document Fr: William weakly signed. After that Napoleon simply ignored
+Prussia; made it so hot for Prussian ministers that they resigned when
+Paris frowned, or danced when Paris smiled. Napoleon set up his new
+Rhein Confederation without consulting Prussia; and Prussian patriots
+felt themselves mortified beyond endurance.
+
+¶ Young men in Berlin, by way of protest, made a demonstration. Going
+to the doorsteps of the French minister, they there sharpened their
+swords! Napoleon was furious; he sought out the bookseller circulating
+an anti-French pamphlet, "The Deepest Humiliation of Prussia," lured
+him across the frontier, and had him assassinated.
+
+¶ The Prussian patriotic party, begun as a court cabal secretly headed
+by Louise, decided on war.
+
+¶ The troops were drilled night and day in preparation for the great
+war of liberation. Never before had a downtrodden nation worked harder
+to win liberty through liberation from the French yoke. However, the
+immediate results were to be disastrous.
+
+¶ The Queen's dragoons went to the front; the Queen rode near by in
+her carriage; she wore a smart military coat, colors of her crack
+regiment; and General Kalkreuth, in a burst of enthusiasm, vowed that
+the Queen could herself win the war should she remain with the troops.
+
+¶ Yes, Louise was actually going out to fight Napoleon's veterans,
+Napoleon's famous marshals, Berthier, Murat and the others; and even
+the great Napoleon himself.
+
+The decisive struggle took place at Jena, October 16, 1806; Prussian
+forces were annihilated.
+
+¶ Napoleon came on to Berlin and housed himself in the Prussian
+palace. From here he now issued bulletins denouncing Louise as the
+cause of the war; he attacked her character, accusing her of a liaison
+with the handsome Alexander of Russia, and of still other intrigues
+with high army officers; he presented her as a compound of shameless
+camp-follower and dangerous woman, plotting against her own husband,
+thus bringing ruin to her native land.
+
+Napoleon even had Louise's apartments broken into and the Queen's
+papers seized, to see if incriminating evidence could not be
+uncovered. Ah, he knew all the tricks of love as well as of war!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ But Napoleon went too far. His cruel persecution caused Prussians to
+sympathize with their Queen, instead of reviling her.
+
+
+                                  18
+
+  Years before the great question is settled Prussia indeed
+  becomes Germany--in moody thoughtfulness--in stubborn
+  determination--in unflinching courage.
+
+¶ Louise now reveals herself a glorious National heroine. In spite of
+her animosity toward Napoleon for his atrocious slanders, the Queen
+decided to arrange an interview with the conqueror and beg favorable
+terms for her beloved Prussia.
+
+¶ The meeting took place July 6, 1807. Napoleon sent his coach, drawn
+by six white horses, to bring the Queen to the miller's house, where
+the interview was staged in an upper room. Louise had on her finest
+court robe, white crepe embroidered with silver, and wore her famous
+crown of pearls; her loveliness and her woman's wit were to be used in
+behalf of prostrate Prussia.
+
+¶ Napoleon rode up in great style, surrounded by his brilliant
+staff--Berthier, Murat and the others. Louise awaited him at the head
+of the rickety stairs. As he went up in the semi-darkness, he stumbled
+and fell.
+
+The Queen apologized that she was forced to meet the Emperor in so
+mean a place; but he immediately replied that to see so lovely a woman
+was well worth a few minor obstacles.
+
+¶ Louise now began pleading with Napoleon for leniency toward Prussia.
+What an interview that was!
+
+How eloquently she set forth her people's sufferings in the great
+French wars; she pictured the sorrows of Prussia so vividly that at
+last Napoleon became mightily interested. Finally he said:
+
+¶ "Ah, your Majesty asks very much indeed, but I am dreaming!" By this
+he meant, "I do not hear a word you say; I am looking at your
+beautiful eyes."
+
+¶ The clever Louise saw that she was progressing with her arguments,
+and undoubtedly had the Emperor under the spell of her fatal beauty;
+to oblige a grand lady in distress, he would be willing to concede
+much indeed, in his famous rôle of lady-killer and protector of
+feminine loveliness.
+
+But at that precise moment, who should enter the room but Fr: Wilhelm
+himself, the Queen's blundering husband!
+
+¶ Always in the way--mentally clumsy--he spoiled everything! The
+interview ended abruptly.
+
+¶ Louise, heartbroken, retired in utter despair. She had believed that
+the justice of her cause, her eloquence, her loyalty to her people
+would go far to soften Napoleon's wrath, but in all this she was
+cruelly disappointed. Next day the French tyrant announced his terms:
+Indemnity of 154,000,000 marks; one-third cash; one-third payable in
+lands; the final third "on time," in the interim he would garrison in
+five fortified towns 30,000 French troops and 10,000 French cavalry,
+whose support was at the expense of Prussia, till the debt was paid.
+
+¶ This great Queen, after life's fever, sleeps enshrined in her snowy
+marble tomb at Charlottenburg.
+
+One day you will stand with uncovered head beside her royal grave, and
+recall her noble life. She deserves well of her country!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ But mark this well: out of Prussia's humiliations came her ultimate
+strength; the vanquished, as is often the story of human life, was
+strengthened more than the victors. Prussia, chastened by her severe
+lessons, henceforth proceeded to build herself up slowly till at last
+she was ready, many, many years later, to strike for German Unity that
+final blow at the palace of the French kings at Versailles.
+
+¶ In the wearisome stretch of time till that distant day of German
+glory, Prussia henceforth becomes Germany--in spirit--in moody
+thoughtfulness--in stubborn determination--yes, under God, by blood
+and iron! There float before us many noble names, poets, prophets,
+soldiers who aid in stimulating "German national faith"--Fichte,
+Arndt, Kleist, Roon, Moltke, Scharnhorst, Humboldt--and in the
+historical twilight big with mutterings and rumblings of the New Time
+to come with all its glory, taking the place of the Prussian ruin
+between 1806 and 1813, is Queen Louise, her gentle spirit a veritable
+evening-star, luminous with hope.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ By 1813, Fr: William III had been induced by the pressure of public
+opinion to join Russia to fight off the French. May 17, 1813,
+William's famous decree, "To My People!" called for help to expel
+invaders, thereby to recover Prussian independence; and Napoleon was
+totally defeated in the tremendous battle of Leipzig, October 16-19,
+or "Battle of the Nations," as the Germans call Prussia's return to
+power and glory.
+
+¶ It was this patriotic appeal "To My People," that made William's
+troubles; the Prussian Liberals felt that the Government owed the
+people a Liberal political Constitution, in return for Leipzig.
+
+¶ His Majesty grabbed on it, twice, and was at his wit's end to know
+how to keep his crown and his declaration of friendship for the
+people.
+
+In the meantime, twenty-three minor German states having adopted
+constitutions, more or less liberal, the growing demands of the common
+people for a share in Prussian government could be no longer denied.
+
+
+                                  19
+
+  Kingcraft comes upon evil days--in the rising tide of liberal
+  ideas, monarchies of old are all but swept away.
+
+¶ When the Napoleonic dynasty collapsed, after Waterloo, there were 39
+petty principalities in the German-speaking area grouped about Rhein,
+the Main, Neckar, Elbe; these knights' holdings, ecclesiastical
+strongholds, and domains of various descriptions became merged by
+cross-fighting throughout the Napoleonic era.
+
+¶ The Congress of Vienna (1815) deeming it advisable to set up a loose
+confederacy of the multitude of petty powers, founded a German
+Confederation, but whether it was geographical, racial or political no
+human being could say.
+
+The local German princes kept full sovereign powers, but gradually, as
+a matter of expediency, the various states grouped themselves around
+Prussia and Austria. As for the Nation, there was no German sovereign,
+no supreme court, no commercial or political relationship worthy of
+the name. Instead, on every hand was intense local hatred, aloofness
+and suspicion. This condition continued for very many years.
+
+¶ The plain fact was that the various princes did not want German
+National unity; for the reason that it is not human nature for men to
+give up an advantage for an uncertainty. Also, at this time, neither
+Prussia nor Austria was strong enough to impose her hegemony upon
+Germany. Austria's policy was for delay; and in Prussia the general
+belief existed for many years that Austrian domination was really
+essential to put down the rising spirit of Democracy.
+
+¶ The authority of the Congress set up a Bond of Confederation, ruled
+by a Diet or Bundestag, sitting at Frankfort-on-the-Main.
+
+¶ In the hurly-burly, certain centres, such as Saxony, Bavaria and
+Wuertemberg, were raised in rank from duchies to kingdoms, while still
+others, such as Westphalia, Grand Duchy of Warsaw, were dissolved. The
+free cities were reduced to four; caste declined in political
+importance. The Confederation of the Rhine was set aside.
+
+Thus the close of the Napoleonic period found German territory without
+political unity.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The last stand of kingly ultra-conservatism is the one great
+political feature of Europe, from the downfall of Napoleon, 1815, to
+the popular outbreaks of 1848. During this dark period the cause of
+constitutional liberty in Prussia made little progress. Old forms as
+well as new were under suspicion. On the one side were ultra-conservative
+conceptions of Divine-right, upheld by Metternich, and on the other
+side was the idea that sovereignty came not from heaven but from
+earth, making the will of the people the voice of God.
+
+¶ Prussia and Austria, as the representatives of Divine-right,
+closely watched these revolutionary tendencies, suppressed uprisings,
+muzzled the press, in an attempt to check the surging tide of
+liberalism.
+
+However much the kings had feared the wars of Napoleon, kingcraft was
+now confronted by an enemy more deadly. The babble of the bondsmen
+about to break their chains portended far greater disaster to
+dynasties than ever did bullets on the battlefield of Waterloo.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ With might and main, the monarchs, resisting the demands of the
+people for constitutional government, stamped out everything that
+looked like the first signs of National sentiment.
+
+¶ Nor was Germany alone in this reactionary attitude. The kingly side
+of all Europe stood shoulder to shoulder against new political
+experiments.
+
+In Italy, Greece, Spain, sovereigns applied the lash the harder, in an
+endeavor to suppress this new evil against kingcraft; nevertheless,
+among the common people there continued to grow consciousness of
+political rights.
+
+¶ "Napoleon in many of the lands he conquered," says Ffyfe, "set up
+many revolutionary ideas that sounded the death knell of the Feudal
+system. It was part of his administrative genius to take the lands
+from barons and their class, and turn them over to peasants; it
+happened in France with the lands of the ecclesiastical barons of the
+church; it happened in North Germany, in 1810, when the decree of
+administrative following the annexation of the North German Coast
+swept away with a few strokes of the pen, thirty-six forms of Feudal
+privileges."
+
+¶ And these could never be restored, even after the Congress of Vienna
+spent seven or eight months, after Waterloo, dividing the loot among
+the old royal houses.
+
+¶ The system of monarchical Absolutism maintained itself in one way or
+another for years, but the old-line conception of the political
+legitimacy of despotic rulers had been rudely shattered.
+
+¶ In spite of a brave show of gold cloth, diamonds, laces, jewels,
+swords, silk stockings, lackeys, grooms, guards and crowns, kingcraft
+was now placed on the defensive. The cry of the people, "Liberty!"
+filled many a market-place.
+
+¶ Forces of democracy were working everywhere, ill-directed to be
+sure, but never despairing of ultimate victory over kingcraft, which
+indeed had now come upon evil days. It is an undeniable fact that
+Bonaparte had purged the political ideas of French Revolution of many
+excesses, and had turned to practical account certain forms of
+liberty, for example, ridding captured lands, as Ffyfe tells us, of
+offensive special privileges, on part of irresponsible rulers of petty
+degree; but the danger was found in this: that a mere "desire" for
+political expediency, however surrounded by the halo of popular
+rights, avails nothing unless ultimately sustained by strong central
+authority; and it requires no profound knowledge of men's way to know
+that at no time in the history of the world has collective rulership
+been other than a theory. The excesses of the French Revolution were
+not readily overlooked by the conservative elements in Germany.
+
+
+                                  20
+
+  German hope of National Union gleams like a star.
+
+¶ There gradually grew throughout Germany a spirit of intense longing
+for country, and many a noble spirit had in a vision seen from afar
+the common Fatherland. Especially in the universities, the feeling was
+strong.
+
+The German universities were hotbeds of political excitement. For many
+years after Napoleon's downfall all manner of theories of government
+were strenuously debated, to the accompaniment of duels,
+beer-drinking, private feuds, and popular agitation, often ending in
+blood. The Burschenschaft, as the student brothers were called,
+finally formed themselves into a league comprising sixty schools; and
+held a famous meeting at Wartburg, 1817.
+
+¶ The patriots took Holy Communion, made impassioned speeches, built
+bonfires and cast into the flames hated books supporting Metternich's
+system of kingcraft. Also the patriots consigned to the fire an
+illiberal pamphlet by King Fr: Wilhelm III of Prussia.
+
+¶ Metternich became alarmed. Kotzebue, hated as a spy of Russia in
+Germany, was stabbed to the heart by Karl Sand. This gave to
+Metternich the desired opportunity, and he proceeded forthwith to
+impress on Fr: Wilhelm and the Czar the absurdity of toying longer
+with "Democratic ideas and paper constitutions."
+
+Then and there the Biblical phrases of democrat-mongering kings, under
+the Holy Alliance, ceased in the high courts of Russia and Prussia.
+Metternich got hold of Fr: Wilhelm, also the other political tools of
+the Frankfort Diet, and at Carlsbad decrees were issued sounding the
+doom of Liberalism and the return to power of the old-line kings.
+
+By gag-law and intimidation Metternich rushed the decrees through the
+Diet;--and for a generation "Carlsbad" signified the suppression of
+Democratic sentiments throughout Germany.
+
+¶ Metternich fought free speech, free parliaments and a free press.
+His iron laws were aimed to stifle democratic mutterings. Austrian
+spies were everywhere, searching out revolutionary societies.
+
+¶ The hope that Prussia might be the leader in the new German spirit
+of nationality now vanished. William III definitely withdrew his
+promise of a written Constitution, made in 1813, and reiterated in
+1815.
+
+Persecutions continued north and south; Prussia hounded Jahn for five
+long years, this Jahn whose gymnastic societies had been so helpful in
+hardening young men to Prussian army services; and the poet Arndt,
+whose impassioned verse intensified the National spirit of Germany,
+was shamefully treated, his papers scattered and the man driven from
+his university.
+
+¶ For many a long year the gloomy spirit of "Carlsbad" decrees hung
+over Germany.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ However, the Germans have an intensely practical side as well as a
+dreamy poetical side. It is not surprising, therefore, that the
+earliest steps in the direction of German unity (1818) came through
+Prussian customs house reforms under the patriot, Maassen.
+
+¶ There had been, as we explained heretofore, no freedom of trade
+throughout Germany; each of the petty thirty-nine states was
+surrounded by Chinese walls; for example, to send goods from Hamburg
+to Vienna, the shipper had to pay ten separate tolls.
+
+¶ Under the old Prussian system there were in vogue at one and the
+same time no less than sixty-seven conflicting tariff systems. All
+this tax oppression meant a harvest for smugglers. But Maassen, at a
+stroke, established a common tariff in Prussia; made the tax so low
+that smuggling became unprofitable. The other states protested
+vehemently at first, but one by one entered this new customs union.
+
+¶ And we may understand now certain sarcastic remarks sometimes made
+about Germany by her historical enemies: "Paper, cheese, sauerkraut,
+ham, and matches, served to unite German hearts more than political
+ties!"
+
+¶ This slur is ill-deserved; at best, it simply means that the
+advantages of the "Zollverein" were economic as well as political;
+and, in later years, the necessity for a common system of doing
+business played a deservedly important part in helping along
+Bismarck's plans.
+
+¶ The customs league, called the "Zollverein," is generally held to be
+the very beginning of practical unity for Germany.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ On the poetical side of German character, earliest appeals for the
+Fatherland--one and united!--were expressed down through the years;
+long indeed before actual political union was possible, Germany's
+bards, in their impassioned, semi-religious songs awakened in German
+hearts the spirit of intense longing for the common Fatherland, based
+on blood-brotherhood and language.
+
+¶ One of the famous types of this patriot-poet was Arndt, son of an
+emancipated slave. Arndt was a noble democrat; his history of slavery
+in Pomerania inspired Adolphus to abolish that evil, 1806; the
+Prussian aristocrats held Arndt a life-long grudge.
+
+"Spirit of the Times," his patriotic trumpet-call aroused Prussians to
+fight France. Napoleon tracked the lyric poet out; Arndt fled to
+Sweden; but continued to write for the cause. He returned to Germany,
+1809.
+
+¶ "Was ist des Deutschen Vaterland?" remains one of the great
+semi-religious songs of nations. Arndt asks what comprises the
+Fatherland? Surely not Prussia, not Swabia, nor this nor that, but all
+side by side comprise the German brotherhood of race and language.
+
+    Where is the German Fatherland?
+    Is't Swabia? Is't Prussia's land?
+    Is't where the grape glows on the Rhine,
+    Where sea-gulls skim the Baltic's brine?
+    Oh, no! more great, more grand
+    Must be the German Fatherland!
+
+¶ Here is a spirited verse from "The God That Lets the Iron Grow":
+
+    The God who made earth's iron hoard
+    Scorned to create a slave
+    Hence, unto man the spear and sword
+    In his right hand he gave!
+    Hence him with courage he imbued
+    Lent wrath to Freedom's voice--
+    That death or victory in the feud
+    Might be his only choice!
+
+¶ "Der Gott, der Eisen wachsen liess," "Was blasen die Trompeten,"
+were on all patriotic lips; at this, William III, mightily offended,
+had Arndt arrested and sent him into retirement for twenty years.
+
+¶ The old man lived to become a great National hero. He died January
+29, 1860, aged 91. It is pleasant to record that on his ninetieth
+birthday Germany united in good wishes for their national poet of the
+dark hours.
+
+The people built him a monument at the place of his birth, Schoritz,
+and another at Bonn, where for many years he had been professor of
+history.
+
+
+                                  21
+
+  It is not time, O William, to go to church but to go to war;
+  yet you and your son keep on reading your Gothic Bible.
+
+¶ Now comes the year 1840; William III goes to the tomb of his
+ancestors, and is succeeded by Fr: William IV, with whom began anew
+the long battle between the principle of Divine-right of kings and
+political democracy exercised by the masses. William IV, intensely
+addicted to Divine-right theories of government, was in the course of
+a turbulent reign forced to face great political agitators. However,
+the King had behind his throne, always, that conservative class (found
+in every country) that clings tenaciously to the past and dreads the
+future. The watchword of all William's enemies was "Liberty!" The cry,
+visionary as it was, served as a rallying point for those who favored
+some form of French constitutionalism; and while, as a whole, the
+so-called friends of Liberty were very impracticable, had no definite
+plan for relief, we find among the political agitators foremost in
+their discontent many of the brightest minds in Germany, college
+graduates, professional men, the clergy, and solid middle class
+merchants. All were zealous for immediate political reforms.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Consider the position of our Fr: William IV. He was a peculiar man,
+to begin with--and an irresolute man, to end with. He was not built
+for times of war. Yet he had to face cannon!
+
+Early in life, in impressionable years, through a court blunder, young
+William had had a tutor, Delbrueck, who poisoned his charge's mind
+against the Prussian military and bureaucratic system.
+
+The attitude of Delbrueck was certainly heresy as vile as though your
+own child's nurse should bring your boy up to fear and despise his own
+father. Surely, you would not like that?
+
+¶ Delbrueck was quickly given the sack; and it was well that he got
+off without a broken head!
+
+He was succeeded by a preacher, Ancillon, of renown in church affairs.
+This Ancillon started young William off on another track; antiques,
+church history, Bible study, architecture, the brotherhood of man, and
+the fatherhood of God.
+
+¶ Then William studied art under Rausen, and under Schinkel; and also
+the future king became absorbed in landscape gardening and in
+architecture.
+
+¶ William was presumed to be "liberal" in his views, that is to say,
+he was, in a sense, supposed to be a "democrat."
+
+¶ Of course, the Radicals at this hour knew nothing of Bismarck, who
+was to be the power behind the throne. They saw instead only a weak
+king; and history tells over and over again, down through time, what
+becomes of weak kings when the people are throwing up barricades in
+the streets and are tossing up their caps and crying "Liberty!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Under his royal nose the Liberals kept sticking his father's pledge
+of the glorious year, 1813. How about that long-promised Constitution,
+your Majesty? Thousands of deluded Prussians now believed that they
+could accurately define the peculiar word "Liberty!" It looked as
+though the people were bent on casting out a king. As yet there were
+in Prussia no organized party lines; the general situation was summed
+up in the growing hopes that the common people placed in French
+constitutionalism--wherever that might lead.
+
+¶ At any rate, the old régime must go.
+
+
+                                  22
+
+  Bad business, this promising a written Constitution--The deluge
+  breaks.
+
+¶ The Prussian nobility, always bound to the King by feelings of
+ardent loyalty, formed a military caste; the peasantry was
+industrious, thrifty and hard-working; the State officials were
+devoted to a spirit of discipline at once thorough and pedantic; the
+Prussian school-system was first in square-headed masters, who ruled
+with rods of iron. Thus, the Prussian National ideal was based on
+Discipline military in its severity, self-sacrifice and energy.
+"Throughout Prussia was a spirit of affirmation, expressive of the
+vigorous National egotism. As time passed, the machine men of olden
+Prussia were gradually replaced by free-willed, self-conscious
+citizens taking an enlightened interest in their country; the old-time
+tutelage headed by the monarchs underwent a transformation; and the
+trend was toward enlightened self-government; but many years were to
+pass before this ideal was reached."
+
+¶ William did indeed cherish, in a way, an idea of German Unity, and
+in this respect he was a democrat or a radical, whatever you wish to
+term him. Here, we must make one fact plain. It will make you smile at
+William's simplicity, will show you how utterly he was out of touch
+with the tendencies of the times; how good-natured he was; how honest
+he was. He believed that German Unity, if ever it came, should
+historically be an extension of the old Holy Roman Empire, through the
+illustrious House of Hapsburg!
+
+Which is equivalent to saying that your own family should advance by
+humbling itself before your own greatest rival; that you should bow to
+your political enemy and submit to being effaced, to heighten your
+rival's glory.
+
+Strauss calls William "A romanticist on the throne of the Cćsars!"
+This Fr: William IV wished to be an absolute monarch, after the
+traditional Hohenzollern style, yet he had so few soldierly instincts
+that the army hated him.
+
+¶ This political attitude with William was not a form of romantic
+idealism bordering on lunacy; it was instead a token of his blundering
+stupidity; also in a sense his four-square frankness in owning that
+Prussia was playing second fiddle to Austria, at this interesting
+moment. And, in truth, all that William thought was logical; the
+stream was tending that way; few denied it, except politicians
+interested in advancing their own fortunes by setting Austria back in
+the great game of grab. However, William, instead of loading cannon
+and turning them on the Radicals, now swarming around his palace, was
+much pleased to send a bishop to Jerusalem.
+
+¶ Nicholas of Russia warned William to beware of democrats, and to
+stand up for Divine-right of kings, but what is the use of advising a
+coward to be a hero, a fool to be a wise man? In the end, a man must
+go through life with the sort of head he has--round, square, flat, or
+mushy--is it not true? You are no exception, yourself; and our
+church-building William, in turn, was true to his own ćsthetic nature,
+regardless of bayonets poked under his nose.
+
+¶ Bad business this promising the people a written Constitution;
+ominous for the breed of kings; a situation, in short, not unlike that
+forced on the Grand Monarch at an earlier day, that is to say, no
+money without the States' General.
+
+¶ After 1840, Liberal opinions were directed against the King,
+personally, charging him with political reactionary tendencies. The
+course of popular liberty was taken by noted men, among them Arnold
+Ruge, Karl Marx, Feuerbach, Strauss, Bauer, Fallersleben, Dingelstedt,
+Meissner, Beck, Kinkel, and others. Also, when Ischech attempted to
+assassinate William IV, the dastardly act found supporters who gloried
+in the "patriot's" effort to rid the country of a "tyrant," even
+through cold-blooded murder.
+
+¶ Also, the very memory of the frightful excesses of the French
+Revolution still shocked the conservative political element of Europe.
+The land-owning classes of Prussia, backed by the Prussian army, stood
+shoulder to shoulder for their old titles. The new call of political
+liberalism was, therefore, in the view of Prussian conservatives, to
+be put down at all hazards. The position was, of course, largely
+selfish, but it was very human.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Matters came to a crisis in '47; King William IV needed money for a
+little railroad project in East Prussia. In his dilemma, he called his
+Baby Parliament, or Diet, April 11, 1847, and "deigned" to permit
+therein the right of petition; there were in truth no privileges of
+political significance, no real powers; it was a side-show, so far as
+the "people" were concerned--and for eleven weeks volleys of oratory
+crackled and thundered.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Here, we meet Bismarck face to face; and you should now be prepared,
+from what you have read, to understand the gigantic problem Bismarck
+was called upon to face--single-handed!
+
+¶ Furthermore, Bismarck's attitude was not, as has often been
+recorded, a case of "might is right." The French Revolution had proven
+conclusively that there can be no political "right" without a
+political "might." We should not forget this fact throughout the
+Bismarck story of Prussia's rise to power.
+
+
+
+
+                            BOOK THE THIRD
+
+                      Bismarck Supports His King
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII
+
+                        Fighting Fire With Fire
+
+
+                                  23
+
+  The voice in the Wilderness proclaims the God-given glory of
+  Kings, vicegerents of Christ on this earth.
+
+¶ The French Revolution brought to Paris adventurers and patriots from
+every part of Europe. Among these was a young Corsican who, with his
+mother and sisters, had been driven out of his native island. This
+man, Napoleon Bonaparte, was in the course of a few years to become
+Emperor of France and Master of Europe.
+
+¶ There is a classical picture of young Napoleon, at the time of the
+early riots in Paris.
+
+Standing on a curbstone, to one side, he watches the passing of
+liberty-crazed mobs, armed with pikes--the self-same common people on
+whose shoulders Napoleon himself was later to ride into amazing power.
+
+¶ Thus, likewise, in another time of political crisis, (1847-48) men
+were flocking to Berlin to debate anew the well-worn theme, "The
+Rights of Man."
+
+Quietly looking on was another man of destiny, Otto von Bismarck,
+burly dyke-captain of the Elbe, up to that time a farmer on his
+ancestral estates in Pomerania. What this young blond giant saw before
+him was somewhat of this extraordinary order:
+
+¶ The universal theme was once more "Liberty," and the din not only in
+Berlin but throughout German states, was ear-splitting. Of course,
+there were patriots who stood on broad National grounds, but the
+purely personal point of view was still very much in evidence.
+
+Every man had his say, often accompanied by brandishing of fists or
+the laying on of canes; all dignified by the name "patriotism," but in
+truth it exhibited the old struggle of human nature for supremacy.
+
+The masses were fighting to unseat kings, whose dogma of
+"Divine-right" had by the French Revolution been shown to be only
+insidious political quackery, in the past sustained largely by the
+sword. The common people were wrestling to grasp this monarchic sword
+away, and here and there had already seized the hilt or the blade--it
+mattered not which!--and the dynasties of Hohenzollern, Hapsburg,
+Wittelsbach, and all the lesser swarm, were suddenly put on the
+defensive. Hotly pursued sovereigns kept their heads only by some
+concession to popular fury; again, by flight. The people were
+intoxicated with the wine of their newly found power!
+
+¶ And what would they do with their new bauble, liberty, fraternity
+and equality? The centre of the stage was occupied by a struggling
+mass of kings, fighting not only for their crowns but for the very
+clothes on their backs! There were poets in fine frenzy declaiming;
+grenadiers firing muzzle-loaders; priests invoking the wrath of God;
+kings shouting out that they were the only accredited earthly
+representatives of Heaven; historians hotly insisting that all were in
+error, and that the scroll showed this or that; law-givers pleading
+for the old forms; lunatics laughing in demoniacal glee; peasants
+armed with pitchforks jabbing right and left; demagogues calling on
+Heaven to witness their lofty and disinterested leadership; while
+around the edges of the scene mountebanks, camp-followers, renegades,
+whores and political blacklegs, were waiting for their share of the
+plunder, let victory fall where it may.
+
+¶ What a magnificent scramble for place, pelf and power! It were
+blasphemy to call this riot the desire for progress for the masses. It
+were equal blasphemy to call it stupidity and reaction, on the part of
+the contending monarchs, as against crushing with iron heel the hopes
+of the people for political and intellectual life. Either one of these
+diagonally opposed interpretations of the time is too extreme. The
+truth is in neither view. As a matter of fact, behind the seething
+mass of human forms was the age-old motive of human selfishness; and
+while here and there some lofty soul may have glimpsed in his fervid
+imagination a United Germany, based on a "German national faith," in
+which the rights of each citizen should be no more or no less than the
+rights of all others, with each man working for all men and all men
+for each man, this poetical idea was only another evidence of how the
+noblest minds place the illusion and the dream before the appalling
+fact of human selfishness in the universal struggle for personal
+aggrandizement.
+
+¶ The merging of the various German states, or the transference of
+land from one German monarch to another, in the ensuing political
+struggle for power, is, after all, as nothing compared with the change
+in ideas, now close at hand; what may be called the "mind" of Germany
+was about to undergo a veritable French Revolution! However, it was
+not to be a French Revolution in the sense of mob-rule. We shall make
+this clear as we come more especially to tell you, in details, of a
+certain political millennium which Bismarck scorned, although
+courageously pressed upon him by leaders of the party of the people.
+
+¶ On the whole, however, the drift of events was toward "German
+national faith," bringing in turn some form of representative
+government, as against the doctrine of Divine-right of kings. The
+monarchs were placed more and more on the defensive; it was to be
+their last stand, not only for their crowns but for their very lives!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ And now face to face with the gigantic problem of a United Germany,
+again we study our last hope of kings--our Prussian Strafford von
+Bismarck. In some respects he is the historical foil of Strafford of
+Charles I, whose money-needs compelled the calling of the Long
+Parliament; and the help Strafford had given to the king in ruling
+without a parliament had mortally offended the Commons; Strafford was
+declared guilty of high treason--and despite Charles' efforts,
+Strafford went to the block!
+
+¶ Will Bismarck come to a similar end on the scaffold of the Prussian
+liberals?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ We see before us a giant in form and in mental strength; a monster
+of will-power, with the iron ambition to compel men to do his
+individual bidding; a political superman.
+
+¶ He had spent his time more with cattle, horses and dogs than he had
+with men.
+
+¶ His spirit was high, untrammelled, rebellious. He ironically
+despised the common people; the burden-bearers in all forms of
+government were in this giant's opinion not good enough to sit beside
+kings.
+
+¶ Morose, obstinate, self-opinionated, with an enormous capacity for
+liquor, Bismarck was an intellectual as well as physical glutton.
+
+¶ Most of all, this strange man, half-beast, half-seer, was to turn
+out to be the very voice of the old decaying kingcraft. He had an
+immovable belief in the Feudal right of royalty to rule over its
+subjects as it pleased; and by his amazing power of intrigue supported
+by supreme abilities exercised during the ensuing thirty years,
+Bismarck at last rose to a height that overshadowed the monarchs whom
+he served--and ruled!
+
+We wish to emphasize, again, that Bismarck's conception of kingcraft
+was no mere despotic thing. To him, a king was truly a man of great
+practical as well as moral responsibilities, akin to father, hence
+should be obeyed.
+
+
+                                  24
+
+  Our young blond giant appears at Third Estates' Assembly--The
+  King's predicament--Bismarck's opportunity.
+
+¶ Behold Otto Edward Leopold von Bismarck, the country squire,
+straight from his cow-sheds and his hunting dogs; a young blond German
+giant, 32 years old, in the very prime of his massive strength and
+endurance; plentiful hair cropped short, ruddy face, blond beard,
+bright blue eyes, big fists; high, shrill voice, strangely out of
+keeping with his physical bulk. For years afterward, this peculiar
+voice became the stock in trade of newspaper writers. However, it was
+what the giant said!
+
+¶ Bismarck wore a broad-brimmed slouch hat, military boots and his
+dykeman's overcoat. This rough, yellow-colored garment, for which he
+afterwards became famous, was long, baggy and loose. He used to wear
+it when floods were high along the River Elbe. In Berlin, at the time
+were only three notables who wore these yellow overcoats: the first,
+Bismarck; the second, the immortal Baron von Herteford, the last of
+his race, hereditary grand huntsman at Cleve, and the third was worn
+by Geo. Hesekiel, the German historian.
+
+¶ Bismarck, who was now to receive his first experience in handling
+men in political alignments, had inherited a country estate from the
+old family domains and was living the life of a squire; hunting foxes,
+with dogs and gay companions, passing nights in taverns, drinking
+heavily, eating like a glutton, amusing himself as he pleased; a giant
+in intellect and in stomach; turbulent, tempestuous, rough, a bad man
+to cross, believe me, but among his cronies voted a prince of good
+fellows. Such is our German hero as he comes upon the great stage of
+affairs.
+
+¶ When this burly Bismarck made his first entrance at the Diet, or
+Assembly of the Three Estates, held in the "White Saloon" of the Royal
+Palace at Coelin on the Spree, our future empire-maker and
+throne-overturner knew by practical experience absolutely nothing
+about the diagonal of political cross-purposes.
+
+However, he was now taking up his great life-study, entering all
+unknowingly upon a magnificent career leading in after years to his
+fair renown as Father of the German Empire.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ He had, as we have seen, thus far passed the time as a practical
+farmer; hale fellow well met, with upper-class leanings.
+
+After taking his doctor's degree at Goettingen, he had made a few
+journeys, one to Italy, another to the island of Heligoland, on a
+shooting trip; had crossed the English Channel, and had brought back
+with him a smattering of Shakespeare, which he afterwards improved by
+considerable study; and by the way throughout the crises in his
+career, Bismarck often found refuge in apt Shakespearian quotations.
+
+Then he had done a little governmental clerical work in the lower
+courts of his country, but his peculiar ideas of independence and his
+abruptness in speaking his mind unfitted him for this work. Glad to be
+rid of his job, he returned to the country. He knew nothing of
+administrative or executive life, and aside from the fact that he was
+a student of history, with a penchant for making historical parallels,
+there was nothing to show the bent of his powerful mind.
+
+¶ Yet, there is a great man before us! And since it is not based on
+his training, then it must come inherently from his natural endowment.
+
+His master-mind was to unseat and seat princes, kings and emperors, in
+the fullness of time, rearranging the map of Germany to suit himself;
+engaging in three wars of ambition, signally victorious in each; and
+winning for himself imperishable fame during his active career of
+forty years.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ By a singular turn, Bismarck knew or cared so little for politics,
+at this time, that his very entry into the "White Saloon," in which
+the Liberals decided to settle with this stubborn King Fr: Wm. IV, was
+wholly by accident.
+
+The Saxon Provincial Diet at Meresburg had chosen Dyke Captain von
+Brauchitsch of Scharteuke, in the Circle of Jerichow, as Deputy at the
+United Diet, and had selected Dyke Captain von Bismarck of
+Schoenhausen as his proxy. As Herr von Brauchitsch was very ill, his
+substitute was summoned.
+
+¶ Bismarck appeared as representative of the Knight's Estate of
+Jerichow, and vassal and chivalric servitor of the King. How go the
+Fates! If the eminent von Brauchitsch had not had the toothache, that
+day, there might not have been a United Germany--is it not true?
+
+¶ In the group that gathered in the "White Saloon" at Coelin on the
+Spree, Bismarck met many men whose opinions were well known to him;
+his brother, the Landrath, his cousins, the Counts von Bismarck-Bohlen
+and von Bismarck-Briest; his future father-in-law, Herr von
+Puttkammer; von Thadden, von Wedell, and many others. Says Hesekiel:
+
+¶ "Unfortunately these gentlemen in general, as Herr von Thadden once
+bluntly said of himself, were not even bad orators, but no orators at
+all. Nor could the two Freiherrs von Manteuffel contend in eloquence
+with the brilliant rhetorics of the Liberals, such as Freiherr von
+Vincke, Camphausen, Mevissen, Beckerath, and others.
+
+¶ "Few persons today can read those speeches of the First United Diet,
+once so celebrated, without a melancholy or satirical smile. Those
+were the blossom-days of liberal phraseology, causing an enthusiasm of
+which we cannot now form any adequate idea!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Troublous times indeed; and the King an autocrat of autocrats,
+forced by the liberal ideas of the hour, breaking everywhere. We can
+imagine William saying angrily:
+
+"Confound the impudence of the Liberals with their crazy liberty,
+fraternity and equality. We supposed that all this nonsense was blown
+to bits by the guns at Waterloo!"
+
+¶ The bedeviled King began to show a streak of Prussian stubbornness;
+in these angry words he incautiously addressed those delegates who had
+dared to ask for a Constitution:
+
+¶ "I refuse to allow to come between Almighty God in Heaven and this
+Prussian land so much as a blotted piece of parchment to rule us with
+paragraphs, and to replace thereby the sacred bond of ancient
+loyalty!"
+
+¶ The widening gulf between monarchy and French constitutionalism was
+now manifest to almost any thoughtful Prussian, but, like the ostrich,
+our timid William continued to hide his head under the sand and
+believed himself safe.
+
+
+                                  25
+
+  For one whole month, burly Bismarck sits with his mouth shut,
+  seemingly stricken dumb at the sacrilegious ideas of the
+  Democrats.
+
+¶ Now this giant dyke-captain, this lover of dogs, horses and cattle,
+sat for one whole month, stricken dumb it seemed by the political
+heresies that he heard. For one solid month, he never opened his
+mouth! Then he could stand it no longer. He pleaded vigorously for the
+Middle Ages feudal system, and for the right of his own aristocratic
+class! In truth, without knowing it, he was expressing the King's
+sentiments, was a genuine King's Man.
+
+¶ The future prince's first speech swept like a hurricane over a
+garden in June--withering, blasting, uprooting. He began by denying,
+absolutely, that the great victory of 1813 which expelled for Prussia
+the French invaders was based on so low a consideration as the promise
+of a paper Constitution. Not at all! It was an exhibition of pure
+patriotism. In his historical reference, Bismarck, in this instance,
+was in error. In no sense was "the people" to be credited with the
+great Prussian victory of 1813; it came about largely through military
+tactics, training and general preparedness, in which "the people" had
+no part except to do their plain duty.
+
+¶ For his remarkable utterance, Bismarck was promptly hissed down by
+the Liberal side. Undaunted, Bismarck loaded his heaviest guns against
+this thing called "Liberalism," with all its mock-heroics of liberty,
+fraternity and equality. Would it not endanger our King's sacred
+throne? That was enough for Herr Bismarck.
+
+¶ Thus the doughty Dyke-captain from the Elbe endeavored to perform a
+political miracle--new wine in old bottles--and as fast as the bottles
+popped, he put the wine in still other old bottles. Was there ever
+more folly? Did a young champion of the Crown ever make greater fool
+of himself?
+
+¶ And with all Europe bawling for liberty, fraternity and equality;
+with thrones tottering in every direction; with 23 of the 39 German
+states already joyously exhibiting their new Constitutions? Here was
+a voice in the wilderness crying for monarchy and the Divine-right of
+kings! And what's more, gentlemen, he has before him a 30-years'
+fight, but in the end will ram it down your throats.
+
+¶ His cry at this moment is that ancient Prussian slogan, "Mitt Gott
+fuer Koenig und Vaterland!" The question on the proposed
+Constitution--the right of petition and certain specified control over
+state finance by the people--simple as all this seems today, created a
+terrible storm! The nobility, led by the Dyke-captain, felt uneasy; a
+parliament of the people was indeed a needless concession. And were
+the people prepared by education for this great change? Was it not
+hasty?
+
+¶ Meantime, the King was in truth a sort of broken reed, stirred by
+every blast that swept from the "White Saloon."
+
+¶ Fr: Wm. IV was a "Hamlet-hesitating monarch," who had it not been
+for the burly giant Bismarck would have been swept into oblivion by
+the first whiff of gunpowder. A stickler for religious dogma, the
+pietists adored him, but the classes despised him; he was one of those
+men who discuss trifles with elegant ease, but who have no conception
+of what is behind this present widespread demand for a constitution.
+This King Fr.: Wm. IV lived in a mystic medićval dreamland; he
+restored the cathedral of Cologne; sent a missionary band to spread
+his beloved Lutheran doctrines to the Chinese, and established a
+Protestant bishop at Jerusalem. The political literature of the time
+is overwhelmingly against William. He did not understand the drift of
+events. Without Bismarck, the King's head would soon have rolled into
+the basket!
+
+
+                                  26
+
+  Bellowing his defiance, though the Liberals bring the rope--The
+  new man explains his novel position, not as a politician but as
+  a Prussian in deadly earnest--The Jew, and time's revenge.
+
+¶ There were three sessions of the Baby Parliament, and Bismarck was
+soon looked upon as the conservative leader. Perhaps conservative is
+not the word; reactionary would be closer. There was no Conservative
+party, nor a Liberal party for that matter. The obstinate fight with
+Bismarck was not because he wished to prevent the common people from
+having a share in their Prussian government, but because the change,
+if ever it came, would set up a peculiar type of Prussian government;
+a state-government, as it were, as against the old-time liege-lord
+master-and-servant conception of Hohenzollern "Divine-right" policy.
+
+¶ The very word "people" threw Herr Bismarck into hysterical frenzy!
+He determined upon resisting the heresy with all the virile courage of
+his colossal bulk.
+
+It had been his duty, as Elbe dyke-captain, to protect his country
+against torrential waters; now he would do similar service against the
+rising floods of revolution. He set up the historical agreement that
+the edifice of Prussia, under an aristocratic form of rulership, was
+firmer toward foreign foes, firmer than was possible under the leader
+rule of the people.
+
+¶ A conservative deputy from Pomerania, addressing the administration
+member for West Havelland, said: "We have conquered!"
+
+¶ "Not so!" replied Bismarck, coolly. "We have not conquered, but we
+have made an attack, which is the principal thing. Victory is yet to
+come, but it will take years!"
+
+¶ These words accurately convey the nature of the situation. Bismarck
+was master of short phrases in which complex situations are summed up.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ He had dog-like love for his master, the King: "No word," he
+exclaimed, "has been more wrongly used in the past year than the word
+'people.' Each man has held it to mean just what suits his individual
+view."
+
+¶ "We are Prussians," was his eternal keynote, "and Prussia is
+all-sufficient. Our hosts follow the Prussian flag and not the
+tricolor; under the black and white they joyfully die for their
+country. The tricolor has been, since the March riots, recognized as
+the color of their opponents. The accents of the Prussian National
+Anthem, the strains of the Dessau and Hohenfriedberg March are well
+known and beloved among them; but I have never yet heard a Prussian
+soldier sing, 'What is the German Fatherland?' The nation whence this
+army has sprung, and of which the army is the truest representative in
+the happy and accurate words of the president of the First Chamber,
+Rudolph von Auerswald, does not need to see the Prussian monarchy melt
+away in the filthy ferment of South German immorality. We are
+Prussians, and Prussians we desire to remain! I know that in these
+words I utter the creed of the Prussian army, the creed of the
+majority of my fellow-countrymen, and I hope to God that we shall
+continue Prussians, when this bit of paper is forgotten like the
+withered leaf of autumn!"
+
+¶ Yes, Bismarck, any day the mob may bring the rope; but you still
+bellow your defiance, your face of brass unabashed. Man among
+men--wrong though you be, Bismarck, you will have your say though the
+Heavens fall.
+
+¶ "I am proud to be a Prussian Junker, and feel honored by the
+appellation. Whigs and Tories were terms which once also had a very
+mean signification; and be assured, gentlemen, that we shall on our
+part bring Junkerdom to be regarded with honor and respect."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Aristocrats were delighted; von Thadden exclaimed: "I am
+enthusiastic over this man Bismarck!" Geo. v. Wincke, the Westphalian
+high official, short, fat, red-headed, never admired the burly giant
+Bismarck, smelling of the cow-sheds.
+
+¶ For twenty years, off and on, the testy v. Wincke indulged in
+invective, his theme ever being "The rule of law." This George v.
+Wincke in spite of his medals and his family tree was on the liberal
+side, bag and baggage.
+
+¶ There was a strain of bitter eloquence about this red-headed
+champion of the people's rights. He had read Guizot and talked much of
+Hampden, the Long Parliament, and all that. George had the legal side
+of the argument, especially since the French revolution had set
+liberty bells a-ringing everywhere, even in solemn old Prussia; but
+the doughty Bismarck would come thundering back with his "unlimited
+crown" and rulership over the people "by the grace of God," royal
+prerogative and general disdain for the masses;--as in the régime of
+Louis the Magnificent at Versailles, when the convicts worked to build
+the $200,000,000 palace to shelter art, wit and pretty women, while
+the people starved. How out of tune, Bismarck; how hopelessly
+reactionary!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Bismarck voted against every new privilege. His speeches read like
+reports of personal rows! He was frank, fearless and frenzied, and in
+turn his volleys excited groans and hisses.
+
+¶ Was ever mortal so utterly out of touch with the prevailing French
+conception of liberty, equality and fraternity? Here is the way he
+summed up political equality:
+
+¶ "The goosequill arguments of newspaper writers!" "Relics of
+pot-houses!" "The emancipation of the people does not mean progress!"
+"A royal word is more than volumes of law!" "The Prussian sovereigns
+are in possession of a crown by God's grace!" "The king has said he
+did not wish to be coerced or driven!" "Let there be a period of four
+years, at least, before another such stupid meeting as this is held."
+
+¶ It was a curious situation. Bismarck was both rude and crude!
+
+His style of delivery was lame, his voice improperly placed, his
+mannerisms grotesque. Despite his hobbling oratory, however, Bismarck
+was soon a marked man; he held his audience by his sensational ideas
+and his dogged courage!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Why did Bismarck vote against every new privilege? This may not be
+decently answered in a word; you must read on in detail; there was a
+great principle behind Bismarck's political attitude. True, it was
+crudely conceived and expressed, at this period; but he will improve
+with time.
+
+¶ Bismarck well remembered the excesses of German Jacobins, in the
+southwest, during the turbulent years of the French Revolution. Alsace
+and Lorraine had welcomed massacres as signs of political equality;
+mob leaders destroyed castles and monasteries; Jew-baiters went mad;
+Schneider, the tyrant of Strassburg, took charge of the guillotine,
+but not making enough blood flow, was soon aided by professional
+executioners, straight from Paris.
+
+¶ There was also the lunatic "Feast of Reason." Stark-mad Germans
+paraded with Marat's statue, attacked churches, wrecked altars, heaped
+up images of saints, crosses, pews, pulpits, and priests' garments,
+touched the match, and danced around the fire;--while Schneider
+harangued the mob on the joys of reason, as against revealed religion;
+solemnly assuring his thousands of listeners that Christianity was now
+a thing of the past.
+
+¶ Thus the mad war of liberty burst forth, accompanied by many
+extraordinary episodes. Nor were the followers confined exclusively to
+the rabble; we find many noted teachers, scholars and politicians
+endorsing the French guillotine as a remedy for all political
+ills--men like Blau, Wedekind, Hoffmann, Foster, Stamm, Dorsch, not
+overlooking the spectacular John Mueller, who in the cause of the
+people committed unheard-of follies with his pen, as a necessary
+support for the sword.
+
+¶ There was also a stark-mad leader named Cloots, who usually signed
+his bulletins "Cloots, Personal Enemy of Jesus of Nazareth." His
+object was the union of all mankind, literally speaking; no halfway
+measures for him, no long delays; he wanted his political salvation
+here and now.
+
+¶ So inflamed were the people that the discharge of a tailor's
+apprentice, in Breslau, precipitated a riot and the artillery was
+brought into play.
+
+¶ In Saxony, 18,000 peasants demanded a democratic constitution; but
+the authorities replied by sending the messenger to a mad-house.
+
+¶ Thus, in various directions, the crack-brained revolutionists played
+their parts; nor should history overlook the contribution of the
+learned Dr. Faust, of Buckelburg, whose profound treatise, "Origin of
+Trousers," was read in Paris as a sort of historical endorsement of
+the great democratic party that gloried in the equality, not to say
+liberty, exhibited by casting trousers aside.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Now what do you think? This King's Man, sprung up of a sudden,
+coming from his fox-hunting and his cow-sheds, hits right and left at
+the Jews! Yes, as against his "beloved Christians." Here is a new note
+indeed--old yet new.
+
+We had not supposed Jew-baiting a thing of the past; but in these
+tempestuous times it did seem that race-prejudice had no place in a
+plain attempt to keep a king's crown.
+
+¶ "I will pass," Bismarck thundered, "to the question itself. I am no
+enemy of Jews, and if they are enemies to me, I will forgive them.
+Under certain circumstances, I even love them. I would grant them
+every right--save that of holding superior office posts in a Christian
+country.
+
+¶ "I admit I am full of prejudices, sucked in with my mother's milk.
+If I think of a Jew, face to face with me as a representative of the
+king's sacred majesty, and have to obey him, I must confess that I
+should feel myself deeply broken and depressed. The sincere
+self-respect with which I now attempt to fulfil my duties toward the
+state would leave me! I share these feelings with the mass of large
+strata of people, and I am not ashamed of their society."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Thus, now at this supreme moment, when with voice of brass our
+Bismarck is making his entry into the world of affairs with his sharp
+words on Christians and Jews, and more especially with his
+uncompromising conception that kings are indeed the personal
+representatives of God on this earth, we do see that Bismarck stems
+from a fighting race. All his years, this Bismarck was a frightful
+hater.
+
+¶ With the sorry figure of the world-oppressed Jew in our eyes and the
+malignancy of this new Jew-baiter, it is well that at the very outset
+this be made clear: That whatever Bismarck was or was not, at least he
+was no hypocrite. His words always fall like the wrath of God.
+
+It is a solemn fact that he changed his point of view many, many
+times--even as you and I--but there is always the ring of sincerity
+about it that even the acid test of long time is unable to dissolve.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ It was this tremendous earnestness--this sincerity--that made
+Bismarck feared, hated and despised.
+
+Against your will, you are forced to believe what this giant says, no
+matter how mocking, how insolent, how absurd his charges!
+
+Some tell us that Bismarck's ancestry stems from Bohemia, others trace
+the Bismarcks to Russia, still others assert Jewish origin.
+
+This much is a fact: from a geographical point, the family name comes
+from the little river Biese, near Stendal.
+
+¶ Bismarck's passion and prejudice against Jews was proverbial. It did
+indeed often turn him, for the time being, into a mad dog!
+
+Near the close of life, in retirement at Friedrichsruh, some candid
+friend desecrated the great man's retirement by sending him a copy of
+a book by an anonymous writer, "Bismarck, the Jew."
+
+Ordinarily, Bismarck paid no attention to social lampoons, but on this
+day as he read the book aloud to guests, his anger became black and
+terrifying!
+
+¶ "I am determined to have the law on the audacious writer!"
+Bismarck's guests saw the old man in one of his moods of frightful
+rage.
+
+But next day something intervened--and Bismarck never brought suit for
+damages.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Here is one thing that you must never forget in studying great men:
+That it is possible, nay inevitable, for a man to be at once very
+great and very small.
+
+At the very beginning of his career, we find Bismarck ringing the
+solemn changes on "Christian," and we behold him in a characteristically
+unamiable mood over "Jews." Yet all the time he was endeavoring to lay
+down the dogma that the proper aim of the state is the realization of
+the Christian ideal!
+
+¶ If now you can understand this mental contradiction, you are in a
+position to grasp one of the strange paradoxes with which Bismarck's
+life is literally filled.
+
+You see here, at once, why he has been so often accused of
+double-dealing, of stacking the cards, of changing his mind, of going
+ahead by going backwards, winning ultimately by fair means or by foul.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ And now for the sequel. Many years later, Bismarck was exceedingly
+glad to be guided by the advice of Jews, more especially the Jewish
+banker Bleichroder.
+
+On one side of the table sits Bismarck, the Pomeranian Junker, and on
+the other side the sallow-faced, undersized Jew, Bleichroder.
+
+Great friends they are today, to be sure; and between them is a mound
+of treasury reports, telling in minute detail the financial resources
+of Louis the Little, now a helpless prisoner of war. France is at the
+Prussian's mercy, and a Jew is called in--a despised Jew!
+
+Bleichroder and Bismarck coolly examined the balance sheets of France,
+the present state of her debts.
+
+The money cost turns out to be the stupendous sum of five thousand
+millions of francs.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Literary and journalistic France, in book, editorial and oration
+made a great outcry at the moment, declaring dramatically that
+Prussian barbarians had decided "to bleed France white"--attributing
+to Bismarck a figure of speech borrowed from the butcher's block! Well
+and good, but France paid the indemnity in surprisingly short time;
+and had many millions left to go on her way rejoicing, had it not been
+for the miserable obsession, "Ravanche!" that kept her in hot water
+for years.
+
+¶ Bismarck was correctly quoted in this respect: That gold is as
+necessary in war as gunpowder; and the best way to keep a quarrelsome
+would-be Napoleon out of war is to empty his pockets.
+
+¶ The Jewish feature, however, shows Bismarck, through and through;
+and we could not present him without this surprising scene. Make the
+most of it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ "I do not much like the piety that proclaims itself," said Louis
+XIII. A similar remark may be made concerning Bismarck's life-long
+belief that the Lord was on Bismarck's side--Jew-baiter and all.
+
+¶ "The longer I work in politics," he once remarked, summing up his
+many political difficulties, "the smaller my belief in human
+calculation. I look at the affair according to my human understanding,
+but gratitude for God's assistance so far raises in me the confidence
+that the Lord is able to turn our errors to our own good; that I
+experience daily, to my wholesale humiliation."
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER VIII
+
+                    Bismarck Suffers a Great Shock
+
+
+                                  27
+
+  Wherein it is shown that Bismarck's protest against disrespect
+  for constituted authority was based on certain tragic
+  historical instances he would not repeat.
+
+¶ It is freely granted that ideas of "Liberty!" that many German
+patriots desired to see come to pass, in 1848, were not those of 1789;
+but elements of lawlessness, of mob-rule, of marchings to "Ca Ira!" of
+absurd glorification of the common man, and of snarlings at kings as
+kings, were largely in the spirit laid down by Robespierre, Danton,
+Marat and that crew, with their chosen gangsters of the guillotine.
+Bismarck would have none of it!
+
+True, many of the old-line excesses were no longer used for political
+purposes, but Bismarck was too well-balanced, had too much common
+sense, in short was too strongly aligned with landed interests to
+endorse "popular" government on the old type from over the Vosges. His
+protests were all in support of authority, discipline, duty, devotion
+to a deliberately chosen monarch, who ruled by the will of God.
+
+¶ In '48 the talk of the "Rights of Man" really meant the rights of
+individual men--the tailor, the barber, the shoemaker--each of whom
+felt that the time had now come to overturn the political system of
+kings and to bring on the rule of the common people.
+
+Old-line hatred of Napoleon had passed away. The French military
+despot of the early part of the century was now figured as a "great
+democrat," whose wars had "all" been in the interest of the people.
+Could anything have been more absurd? The literary speculations of
+Rousseau, as to the status of a new society (such, for example, as
+running naked in the grove and rolling on the grass) were now replaced
+by loud discussions not on the Rights of Man, as a form of idealism,
+but the rights of all manner of men, each of whom felt that, under the
+new dispensation, hastened if necessary by bomb, dagger and
+poison-cup, the human race was to rise to nobler political ideals. It
+is not difficult to see that political theories of this sort have been
+indulged, in one way or other, by every generation in revolt against
+the settled ways of the fathers.
+
+¶ Let us, therefore, go back to original sources and see for ourselves
+just what account the common people had given of themselves, in a
+political way, in France at the time of her so-called political
+millennium. We shall then be able to grasp Bismarck's position clearly
+and be able at least to understand, if we do not support, his attitude
+of uncompromising severity toward popular rule, as understood at this
+moment in the political evolution of Germany.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ If it be a mark of progress to call God a superstitious idol and to
+endeavor by the guillotine to enforce political rights, then the
+precious French key to the Door of Destiny for this human race should
+be duplicated and placed in the possession of nations, far and wide,
+as the final expression of man's best idea of himself, his wife, his
+child and his country.
+
+This 1789-93 return to National paganism, both political and social,
+is the mockery that Bismarck decided with all his almighty strength,
+nay his supreme rage, to set aside; and for him Prussian Militarism,
+which he so jealously set his heart on, against the rising tides of
+French constitutionalism, otherwise mob-rule, was at once to prove the
+sharp cure and the dreadful counter-blow.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ It was only after St. Helena that the Napoleonic legend, presenting
+Napoleon as the great democrat, was brought forward, to wit, that the
+Emperor's many brutal campaigns were in the interest of the "common
+people" instead of gratification of his obsession for wars.
+
+The transition came about in a simple way. The Emperor was dead and
+gone; his fate on a distant black rock added romantic interest to his
+lost cause; and the return of the old-line French kings after
+Waterloo, under the bayonets of Britain and the Allies, had proved a
+keen disappointment, politically, to France. It is conceded that
+Napoleon had promised and in many cases had applied liberal principles
+in his conquered domains; but now that the man was dead, agitators of
+many lands, including the 39 distracted German states, began to take
+literally what the Emperor had said in a sort of huge politico-military
+satire, to wit, that his blood-letting was truly in the interest of
+the masses.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Hence, between 1815 and 1848, agitators of Germany began ringing the
+changes on the glories of the French Revolution. True, the Emperor had
+been dead some 20-odd years; a new generation found surprising merits
+in his military plans, forgetful of the lure of loot that had been the
+foundation of it all; yes, for one thing the hungry desire of the
+landless for the lands of the Catholic church.
+
+¶ The exaggerated fact has been falsely set forth again and again that
+the French peasant of 1789 was down in the very mire of political
+despond, without a sou to his name; the cock called him to work at
+dawn, and all for the good of the aristocrats; he was penniless, he
+was an absurd figure, he was not a man but a beast;--hence his
+righteous revolt in the sacred name of Liberty.
+
+¶ The fact is that at this time the French peasant was in no worse
+condition than the working classes of other lands, including Britain,
+Italy and Germany. That the Revolution first broke out in France and
+not in the other countries named is to be traced to journalistic and
+oratorical agitators of the ward-politician type.
+
+¶ The special taxes of which the peasantry complained did not exceed
+two per cent of the products of the soil; and it is also a fact that
+France had a large and profitable foreign trade; but French political
+and journalistic agitators were afield, and the plain truth is that
+the landless desired to confiscate, and did confiscate, the titles of
+those in possession.
+
+No sooner was the gigantic confiscation of Catholic church lands,
+amounting to about one-third of the soil of France, or two billion
+five hundred million of francs in nominal value, ordered by Mirabeau,
+backed up by the Revolutionary tribunals, than the supposedly
+impecunious French peasants came forward and purchased to the extent
+of millions of francs; and it is a fact today (1915) that one of the
+secret dreads of the French peasantry is that some sensational
+political change may come in the stability of the French Government, a
+change that will forfeit these old land titles, based on confiscation
+in Revolutionary days.
+
+¶ The French peasantry wants no great National military hero to emerge
+from the war of 1915; and it is not unthinkable that should a very
+strong French general suddenly come forward, he would be removed by
+assassination; a thing that has happened at least once before, in
+latter-day French politics.
+
+This confession of politico-social fears on the part of the French
+peasantry explains why in France, take them as a group, the candidates
+invested with the honors of the Presidency are timid men, without
+ambitious political bias, and why, on the whole, the modern French
+National instinct lives in dread of a military hero, who with a turn
+of his wrist might on the vote of his soldiers declare himself, let us
+say, Emperor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Loaded down with debts incurred for various reasons, the French of
+1789 were on the verge of National bankruptcy.
+
+This condition has usually been charged up against the excesses of the
+French kings, such, for example, as expending some 200,000,000 francs
+for pleasure-palaces, for the pretty women around Louis XIV; but this
+charge will not bear the light of modern research.
+
+It is also a fact, on the practical side, that the much-boasted
+support given to America by the French in America's Revolutionary War,
+in a degree helped to bankrupt the French government; but Americans
+have forgotten or wink at this plain financial obligation.
+
+¶ Also, the French Revolution had promised in its every utterance the
+dawn of the political millennium, whereas instead it brought an era of
+blood, idol-worship and free-love. We are not discussing here those
+poetical French surveys of the Rights of Man. Every ward-politician in
+Paris had the list at his tongue's end. There was some truth, much
+truth, in many of these expressions, no doubt, as mere expressions of
+humane sentiments. That, however, is another story.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ One has but to read the Memoirs of President Bailly of the
+Revolutionary Assembly to find that mob-rule predominated from the
+first day of the supposed "Dawn of the political Millennium." The mob
+in the gallery hissed or applauded each speech, and deputies were
+intimidated.
+
+¶ Bismarck in his united Germany wanted no Jacobin Clubs, largely
+composed of ward-politicians, and Bismarck wanted no Marat with his
+vile newspaper, "Friend of the People," setting class against class.
+
+¶ He wanted no guillotine as the German symbol of political liberty.
+This political method of the guillotine was at best only a cowardly
+form of assassination, ineffectual, barbarous. First one side used it,
+then the other; then still another group; each set of French political
+assassins prating of Liberty had recourse to the guillotine to be well
+rid of rivals much as in Cćsar's time the women of Cćsar's family,
+that their own might be exalted, in turn proceeded to poison
+prospective collateral heirs to the Imperial throne.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Bismarck knew all about this dirty French mess, parading itself as
+the "voice of the people." He was a strong man himself and he was
+guilty of gross ambitions in his rise to power, but on the whole
+Bismarck stood for self-possession and for manly audacity, certainly
+not the French Revolution type of audacity. It is a fact that
+Bismarck, as a human being, was a vast egotist, and had his own,
+ofttimes unscrupulous, way of gaining his ends, but his conception of
+Militarism, the force he did eventually use, was at bottom a virtuous
+effort to support, liberate and unify the Fatherland, not drag it into
+the mire of idolatry and bestiality.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ We shall frequently say harsh things about Bismarck, in this book;
+we do not wish to follow French methods and endeavor to make an
+impossible hero of a man of clay. Bismarck, as a man and in the
+methods of his rise to great glory, had his gross faults, and we
+fearlessly point them out.
+
+¶ But here are some of the facts that Bismarck can never stand accused
+of, in the light of this much-boasted French political "Millennium" of
+1789-93, and here, likewise we find the real reasons why he did
+struggle with all his might against a reluctant people to enforce
+Militarism throughout the jealous clashing 39 German states; and if
+Bismarck's exercise of the strong hand, in the bosom of the German
+family was a fault, then at least it did not include these French
+conditions, set up to cause the world to gasp in admiration.
+
+¶ The bull-necked Danton, the Parisian ward-heeler, in control of
+public opinion, came on with his guillotine; and closed the city's
+gates against any man that had a dollar to pay his debts or buy a
+dinner.
+
+¶ The so-called "will of the people" was in short a spurious affair,
+unnaturally created by a political morphine that gave glorious dreams;
+and this wretched drug was supplied by the mob-leaders.
+
+All the blood-letting was represented as a harmless affair, tending
+toward liberty and equality; all the confiscations of church-lands and
+redistribution among the peasants was declared a "great" political
+triumph.
+
+Throughout even the loneliest country districts the word was passed
+that the political millennium was about to break.
+
+¶ The King was represented as a "monster fattening on crime." His wife
+was called an Austrian "panthress," and vile pamphlets were secretly
+passed around reflecting on her character. God was represented as
+judging the King, and the guillotine was awaiting Louis, by Heaven's
+decree.
+
+¶ The 26,000 priests who refused to take the oath of allegiance to the
+monstrous political farce were visited with all manner of
+persecutions; one section of Revolutionary opinion decreed that death
+was the just due of all offending pastors.
+
+¶ The assertion of kept-historians that there was "political
+justification" is at once spurious and an insult to common sense.
+
+¶ In justice to the better French element it is granted freely that
+the dreadful September massacres did not express the real beliefs of
+the great decent body of the French people; but the Nation was dragged
+through the mire and the Nation has for years been endeavoring to
+explain this political Millennium of riots, murders, midnight
+assassinations, despoilings of land titles.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Bismarck would have drained the poison cup rather than stand for
+such French Constitutional nonsense in his beloved Germany, the
+Germany of his dreams, the Germany for which he labored so many years,
+the Germany which he would save from itself, so to speak.
+
+He purposed to build up German political opinion, not through
+blatherskite ward-heelers, in Berlin, Frankfort or Hamburg, but by a
+manly appeal to German common sense and German sense of respect for
+authority; and if Bismarck overworked his idea of Divine-right of
+kings, then at least this may be said: that he issued no appeal to the
+German people "Who Laughs on Friday, Weeps on Sunday!" (The massacres
+had come between!) And as to Danton, who glories in being the
+immediate instigator of the massacres we have these, Danton's own
+words: "It was I who caused them. Rivers of blood had to flow between
+me and our enemies!" Finally, after these rivers of blood, the word
+was passed, "That the entire Nation will hasten to adopt this
+(guillotine) most-necessary means of public salvation."
+
+
+                                  28
+
+  Viewing at closer range the work of the legislators of the
+  great republic of liberty and equality; these facts Bismarck
+  well knew, explaining his belief in militarism.
+
+¶ After reading five hundred pamphlets on the Revolution (as she
+testified at her trial) Charlotte Corday struck down Marat with a
+dagger; and her act has been generally condoned by men with a sense of
+fair-play. It was indeed a bloody murder; but when a mad-dog is
+running wild, a beast fattening on human blood, one passion feeds on
+another--and Corday is no exception. (Henderson, Symbol and Satire of
+the French Revolution).
+
+Heroine or monster, take your choice; at least in her time such was
+the frenzy of the alleged political Millennium that Marat was soon
+worshipped as a martyr. This atrocious political quack, with all his
+daggers and his blackjacks, was likened to Jesus Christ; and among the
+sentiments of the hour we read, "A perfidious hand has snatched him
+away from his beloved people"; "To the immortal glory of Marat, the
+people's friend"; "Unable to corrupt me, they have assassinated me!"
+"Marat, rare and sublime soul, we will imitate thee; we swear it on
+thy bloody corpse."
+
+Such are some of the expressions of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity
+that followers of French Constitutionalism had years later decreed to
+re-enact in Germany; but Bismarck stood as a master with a rod of iron
+to lay over the backs of fanatical German Radicals, who would come on
+with their drunken calls of "Liberty!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ All this, however, is only the mild opening chapter of this much
+glorified French Constitutionalism. The French prisons soon held about
+all there was of French intelligence and moderation; the brains, the
+blood and the beauty. It is not necessary to mention names.
+
+If you wish to become hysterical, read your fill of this drunken era
+of French Constitutionalism.
+
+At the height of the Terror, there were 8,000 political prisoners in
+French dungeons; and the mobs still came on with their cries for fresh
+blood. One day, this expression was made: "The town of Lyons shall be
+destroyed; the name Lyons shall be effaced," etc. All this meant that
+Lyons, weary of blood, had decided on raising an army to beat back the
+sons of spurious liberty.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Any man who, in the Terror, dared disagree with the mob-rulers was
+called a "conspirator." In a letter from Herbois, we find this plain
+evidence of political lunacy masquerading as inspiration: "There are
+60,000 individuals here who will never make good republicans; we must
+have them sent away. I have new measures in mind, weighty and
+effectual,* * * Heads, more heads, heads every day! * * * How you
+would have enjoyed seeing National justice meted out to two hundred
+and nine rogues. What cement for the Republic! I say fete, yes,
+citizen president, fete is the right word. The guillotining and
+fusillading are not going badly!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The Queen, now in her dungeon, was treated with wretched dishonor.
+Even the petty expenses of bread and salt were begrudged: 15 francs a
+day for food; three francs and 18 sous for trimming a skirt, 18 sous
+for a ribbon and shoe-strings; three francs for a tooth wash;--all
+this was kept track of. Yet in years gone by France had allowed her
+four million francs of pin money, and the royal allowance was
+twenty-five millions of francs per annum.
+
+¶ "Through a small window in her cell comes the light of day. * * *
+She is accused of being a leech, a scourge, a harpy and a free-lover;
+she is condemned to death."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The political assassins, known as the Mountain, and that known as
+the Girondists, now began destroying each other; every patriotic
+action of the Girondists was set forth as having been instigated by
+love of vulgar applause. After some days, the Jacobin Club petitioned
+for freer trials, less hindered by legal formalities.
+
+¶ "Long live the Republic!" was the cry. "Perish all traitors!"
+Executions continued, day by day.
+
+¶ The poor king was long since dead and gone, yet his memory was
+detested.
+
+On a certain day of horrors, the tombs of his ancestors were broken
+open by the mob, and the bones scattered. One corpse (or what remained
+of it) was stood up against a wall and the beard hacked off by a
+patriot of the new Regime.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ All authority was now overthrown; and as one writer adds, "the most
+daring enterprise of the Revolution remains to be chronicled: the
+storming of Heaven!" (Henderson.)
+
+¶ The leaders decided next to attack God on His throne; God was
+officially declared a superstitious myth.
+
+The altars of France were hurled over; the Christian era was abolished
+by political decree; the Sabbath day was officially proclaimed done
+away with; Christ was to be henceforth banished, officially; churches
+closed, pagan rites substituted.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Bismarck, the thinker, Bismarck, the builder, with his dream of
+political responsibility, of vested Authority, stood for no such facts
+in his protests against the rising tide of Radicalism, in the German
+states.
+
+He knew his history too well; he knew the satire of the French
+Revolution, the folly of meeting it in any way except by the sword.
+
+¶ Yes, Bismarck believed strongly in what has since been called
+Militarism; but his idea was that power was needed for the liberation
+and the unification of his country; and he hated French
+Constitutionalism and fought by fair means and by foul all efforts to
+warp upon Germans the political ideals of the French Revolution. So
+you must here and now make up your mind whether or not Bismarck was a
+great statesman or a great fool.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The French Convention, weary of blood-letting, began maundering in
+the psychology of religion.
+
+It was officially set forth by one of the Deputies that, after all,
+the idea was to invent some new form of religion, without which the
+proposed political Millennium had fallen short.
+
+Marat was turned to, that choice spirit of the height of the era;
+though in his tomb, he was called upon in this strange language,
+despite his bringing in the Terror:
+
+¶ "O, heart of Jesus, O heart of Marat, you have an equal right to our
+homage!"
+
+¶ A New Era was now decreed, taken in the main from the paganism of
+early France. The four seasons were symbolized by the hunt of the man
+for his mate: he is afield in Autumn, on horseback; in Winter, he
+first finds his new mate; in the Spring, the maid watches her sheep
+feeding on the hills; and in Summertime, the man is seen leading his
+mate to a couch, his arms already around her waist.
+
+¶ One of the leading symbols was Reason, presented as a lady petting a
+lion; saints' days were replaced by days for animals, one for the cat,
+the dog, the sheep, and what you will; but no longer St. John's, St.
+James, St. Louis.
+
+Certain other days, dedicated to the "Spirit of the Revolution," were
+termed "Sans culotte," or without trousers, to wit, the French version
+of that great idol of the American yellow editor, who cries for
+justice in behalf of the man with the seat out of his trousers.
+
+¶ On a certain day, the Cathedral of Notre Dame was used as a
+background for the great French political drama; a mountain was
+erected, a figure known as Truth was present. The Goddess Reason was
+also carried to the Tuileries; and later as a report written at the
+time says, "The President of the Convention gave the Goddess a
+fraternal kiss, whereupon his secretaries asked and obtained a similar
+privilege."
+
+¶ At Rochefort the orator of the hour began, "Citizens, there is no
+future life!"
+
+¶ The images of saints were replaced by men of the stripe of Marat,
+Brutus and other tyrants.
+
+¶Also, an ass was dressed in pontifical robes at a sort of National
+fete, and a few days later at a public masquerade, the President
+replying to praises of the New Era explained himself as follows: "In
+one single instant you make vanish into nothingness the errors of
+eighteen centuries"; by which he meant to honor the paganism of the
+new French political Millennium.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Now comes that dangerous man, king of political charlatans,
+Robespierre, who offers a private religion of his own.
+
+¶ The queer thing about this Robespierre, the new dictator, is his
+belief that he and he alone is the fountain of all political virtues.
+One must be willing to sacrifice brothers, mother, sister, father to
+the guillotine--for the good of one's country.
+
+The Robespierre idea is that the supreme duty of a Nation is to
+repress "crime," as well as to uphold "virtue" and "crime" consists
+largely in not agreeing with the great central authority. He has had
+many followers since that day.
+
+¶ Robespierre was really a great man gone wrong; he had in many
+respects a brilliant mind; he was a profound orator; a born leader;
+but he was unsound at the core, like a rotten apple; taught bloodshed
+and violence, as expressions of National honor.
+
+¶ In one picture of the hour, he is represented as the Sun, rising
+over the Mountain, and Giving Light to the Universe.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The day dawns when Robespierre has his old friend and rival Danton
+on the scaffold. This was to be expected. Then followed many
+executions of Dantonists.
+
+¶ Robespierre now came on with his "new" religion; he boldly announced
+a Supreme Being and belief in immortality!
+
+¶ He applied the torch to the wooden images set up by his political
+predecessors. He made a speech that is unintelligible, all wind, sound
+and bombast, but was cheered to the echo.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Are you not growing weary of all these absurdities? Perhaps you
+think the details taken from the records of Bloomingdale Asylum?
+
+No; French Constitutionalism of 1789-93, the sort that the Radicals
+of Germany had in mind, (with some variations), and often extolled in
+fiery speeches of the German Liberal party that Bismarck decided to
+crush down, with a rod of iron. True, the old offensive historical
+details were kept out of sight and were not fresh in men's
+minds;--except reading men and thinking men, like Bismarck; men bold
+enough to stand out against mob-violence, called by whatever soft name
+you please.
+
+¶ A French cartoon of the Robespierre Regime made at the time by an
+admirer shows the earth around the guillotine heaped with heads, and
+at last the over-weary executioner, failing to find further victims,
+decides to execute himself! He is therefore seen lying under the axe,
+his head rolling on the floor.
+
+¶ Robespierre in the end went the way of all the other political
+fanatics; the day came when he was spat upon, struck, beaten by mobs,
+pricked with knives.
+
+According to his own theory, he needed no trial (said his new rivals
+and enemies in their lust for power), for he has by his acts shown
+himself to be an enemy of his country.
+
+They carried him down the great staircase; he fought back savagely,
+like the frightful animal that he was.
+
+¶ Eighty-two of his followers died that day, on the guillotine.
+
+¶ "Long live the Republic! Long live Liberty!" was the loud cry of the
+rabble.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Such is some of the work of the great legislators of the Republic of
+Equality as set forth by the various authors of the new French
+"political Millennium," during those terrible years 1789-93; we have
+seen their ideas on a grand scale; and it is for you to judge whether
+in setting himself squarely in favor of Discipline and respect for
+constituted Authority, as exemplified by the line of Prussian kings,
+and the Prussian system of education, Bismarck was to show himself a
+man or a mouse.
+
+¶ Bismarck, who was a deep reader on politics, knew well the frightful
+excesses of French mob-rule. He may also have recognized certain
+general excellent principles, but he would have nothing to do with
+the fungous growth. And as we follow his career, we see the virtue in
+his strong reliance on Militarism, as an arm to keep in check the
+turbulent German masses, also, later, this same Militarism to be used
+to do battle for the German Empire.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ For many years, all manner of rosy democratic plans had been voiced
+by the Liberals.
+
+The thing had been done to death. Every manner of political Utopia had
+been planned by theorists, but Bismarck met them all with his ironical
+speeches, and bided his time.
+
+¶ Bismarck's idea was that the only hope for German unity came through
+accepting the King of Prussia as ordained of heaven.
+
+In his arguments, he ignored the masses, the villagers, the workers,
+the busy-bees, the regard for individual rights.
+
+His whole programme seemed to the masses to be anti-Christ in
+conception, that is to say, it harked back to political paganism.
+
+¶ It is very difficult for an American to comprehend this Prussian
+conception of Divine-right, as a political principle--but it should
+not be difficult from the point of human experience. Bismarck had no
+illusions concerning the power of the average man, and he held that
+the phrase "the people" was used by every political quack in Europe
+for any one of a thousand selfish motives.
+
+Bismarck had absolutely no faith in the power of the average man to
+govern himself--much less to govern others!--or faith in the average
+man doing anything above the average, outside his own small trade or
+craft.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Americans are accustomed to make much of an alleged saying of
+Lincoln: "No man is good enough to govern another without that man's
+consent." It is all a beautiful dream, false in theory and false in
+fact, belied by every record since the Lord drove Adam and Eve out of
+the Garden of Eden.
+
+Beginning with that stupendous episode, certain it is that this act
+of government was not carried out with, but against the will of the
+ruled; and the point at issue was not the supreme goodness of the
+ruler, but the power to station an angel with a flaming sword at the
+gates, toward which Adam ever after looked backward with longing
+eyes--but looked in vain!
+
+¶ In the innumerable dynasties of Babylon, Nineveh, Egypt, Greece,
+Arabia, Armenia, what man ruled who did not force his leadership?
+
+It is not in the nature of human beings to accept new ideas without
+hostile objection.
+
+This holds true also in the evolution of governments, for all life is
+founded on struggle, and the man who would rule must force his
+leadership or remain unknown.
+
+¶ Lincoln is absolutely in error, and his much-quoted words are folly.
+It is not a question of goodness, or badness, or fitness, on part of
+the man who has the ambition to rule, but it is very much a question
+of his courage, his craft or his cunning in compelling others to do
+his bidding.
+
+Julius Cćsar was not selected to rule, but he selected himself; and so
+did Charlemagne, and Bismarck--and so Lincoln, himself.
+
+¶ If some concession to the democratic system is sought on the ground
+that the voice of the people loudly "called" Lincoln, then it is to be
+set up that Lincoln on his part was one of the shrewdest political
+log-rollers this nation has ever seen; and if he did not originate the
+canvass that busies itself kissing the babies, congratulating the
+wives and shaking hands with the farmers, then at least Lincoln was an
+apt pupil.
+
+It is inconceivable that, without his own high ambition, his long and
+painstaking endeavors to trim sail to every favoring gale (for example
+his shifting positions on the slavery question), he would have been
+nominated for President of these United States.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ It is an amiable conceit of human nature, looking backward, to
+profess to see what it blindly ignored, looking forward; and go to any
+penitentiary in America, ask the convicts, and you will find that,
+according to the stories, there are no guilty men behind the bars;
+invariably a peculiar complication of circumstances enabled the guilty
+man to escape, and justice was thereupon avenged by a human sacrifice;
+likewise in the United States Senate or in the House of
+Representatives, ask whom you please, "How came you to hold your
+seat?" and you will find no ambitious man. Some were forced to stand
+against their protests; others were away traveling when word was
+received, by telegraph, "You have been elected!" Still others appealed
+to the nominating committee, "For the love of God desist!"--but in
+vain.
+
+Thus, without raising a finger to direct the movement of events, our
+leaders were selected by an omnipotent democracy to occupy the seats
+of the mighty.
+
+¶ Truly, no man is good enough to rule another without that other
+man's consent! Recast in terms of human experience, it would mean that
+we would go unruled; for no man yet has willingly selected his ruler,
+but has had dominion over him thrust upon him--even as Bismarck
+expressed his right to rule, backed by blood and iron.
+
+Such is human nature since the world began; otherwise why was Christ,
+the gentlest ruler of all time, brought to the tree; Socrates forced
+to drink the hemlock by the very wise justice of his day; and Columbus
+called a madman because he wished to rule men's minds with a new
+truth, showing clearly that the world is not square or flat, but round
+like a ball?
+
+¶ Bismarck had the real clue--and forced his purpose through the power
+of his commanding personality.
+
+
+                                  29
+
+  In spite of the dyke-captain's denunciation of French
+  Constitutionalism, King Fr: Wm. IV marches with the Democrats!
+
+¶ The uprising of '48 was primarily a students' demonstration; the
+hot-bloods of the universities, aided by various political
+enthusiasts, were intent on doing something--and doing it right away.
+There had been a preliminary meeting at Heidelberg, and this led to
+the Frankfort Convention; 600 disputatious delegates were going to
+build a liberal German constitution--at last!
+
+¶ Thus, between 1815 and 1848 German Unity had been stimulated by a
+dozen causes, religious, commercial, literary, social--but the
+political lagged, for the fact is that about the last thing a man
+learns is to govern himself.
+
+There was a rising sense of National faith, as predicted by Arndt, the
+poet of German brotherhood; also the call of blood, based on language;
+likewise a deep yearning, as yet unsatisfied, for a constitutional
+form of government, as against the warring, insolent 39 states.
+
+¶ By 1848 there were Constitutions in 23 of the states; many of these
+documents illiberal to be sure; but nevertheless a step in
+representative government.
+
+¶ But the Germans are a peculiar people. They wish to refer everything
+to ultimate philosophical causes; hence the fruitless debates of the
+Frankfort Convention, in which all manner of prospective Constitutions
+were tried by the formal rules of philosophy and ethics. Such
+questions as "What is a Federal state?" were angrily debated, and the
+changes rung on "federation of states."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ After worlds of talking, unseen hands decided to offer to some
+powerful prince the German crown. How is that for democrats? William
+IV was the man selected.
+
+¶ Prodded by Bismarck, who was always explosive and satirical about
+democratic crowns, William spunkily refused to "pick a crown out of
+the gutter!" His dignity, as a Hohenzollern was offended; but Bismarck
+was playing for larger stakes. William now went about canvassing the
+German princes for a crown; twenty-eight replied, one way or another;
+others, sticking to selfish interests, made no acknowledgment.
+
+¶ Now Bismarck, bellowing like a mastiff, set up the cry that if
+William accepted that democratic crown out of the Frankfort gutter,
+Prussia would become involved in civil war. And it was a fact! The
+old-line Prussian military aristocracy wanted no "democratic gold,
+from the gutter, melted down with their old aristocratic gold of
+Frederick the Great"--and as a matter of fact, could you blame them?
+Were you there, at the time, and of the land-holding privileged class,
+you too would have been up in arms.
+
+¶ Get this straight: William's idea of "United Germany" simply meant
+that there should be a United Germany compounded of the thirty-nine
+clashing states, provided William's beloved Prussia and not the
+detested Austria could front the movement.
+
+¶ Despite all the noble souls who write poetry on brotherhood (and
+Germany has her patriots, God knows!), the irony of fate is such that
+all human alignments of a political nature must at some stage be
+spattered with mud.
+
+¶ You see, henceforth for a quarter of a century, the realization of
+this much-prized but elusive and seemingly impossible Unity was to
+become more and more a game of politics in which the stakes were
+kingdoms, principalities, riches and honors unnumbered. In all
+card-games the result is not known till the last card is played; and
+in the present case the game was to be protracted twenty-four years.
+Chips were flung about in huge stacks, now piled on the Austrian side,
+now on the Prussian; and finally, it was to break up in a fight, in
+which Prussia had to tip over the table, violently seize the spoils,
+batter heads right and left, and beat off rival players with
+needle-guns.
+
+¶ Come, come, there is no need of claiming too much for human nature.
+The grand prize was to be gained, ultimately, by seizure! Even the
+sober, common-sense William I, to whom it finally fell to be crowned
+German Emperor, saw the true situation early, after the
+church-building William IV had been gathered to his fathers. You will
+hear more of that as we go along.
+
+When all intriguing, all card-stacking, all smiling, all smooth
+speeches no longer serve to conceal the real end of this amazing game
+of international politics, as between Prussia and Austria, then the
+thing to do is to bring on "blood and iron." The very human end that
+Bismarck always had in mind was German liberation and Unity, by
+driving the Nation's enemies beyond the borders.
+
+¶ The best title to lands, the surest, the most incontrovertible--let
+purists and pietists rage as they may--is the sharp edge of the sword.
+
+We shall see all that more clearly as the bloody years go by.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ In the critical year '48, democratic mobs chased that old aristocrat
+and king-maker Metternich out of Vienna. Hungary, Bohemia and other
+intervening principalities went mad with excitement about "Liberty!"
+South Germany was in a turmoil.
+
+William IV had again practically promised a Constitution, and had
+ordered the troops from Berlin; he placed a sign on his castle
+"National Property." At this time the king let slip these fateful
+words, "Prussia is to be dissolved in Germany!" Bismarck, pained
+beyond expression, sent a letter to the King, full of expressions of
+loyalty. The King kept the letter on his desk all summer.
+
+¶ The giant continued to protest. He now first used a subsidized
+press, called well-known men to write for the "North Prussian
+Gazette."
+
+For all this, he was dubbed "Junker," "Hot Head," "Reactionary," but
+he thundered away like a battleship in action.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The King was in the hands of the Liberals. Bismarck regarded this as
+a frightful situation. Bismarck, of the Old Regime, stood by the
+landlords and the titled folk. He had prodigious pride of station,
+hated to see the King make a fool of himself about paper
+Constitutions.
+
+¶ In Berlin, along in March, there were amazing scenes. The democrats
+were crazy for blood; William shrank with horror against fighting his
+beloved Berliners. But this son, the future William I, who twenty-four
+years later was to gain the imperial German crown, was not so
+squeamish. The young prince gained the popular title "Cartridge-box
+prince," equivalent to saying that he was willing to blaze away at
+"beloved Berliners," or at any other citizens insane with political
+excitements hazardous to "Divine-right."
+
+¶ It is true that on March 18th this romantic William IV did indeed
+enter into negotiations with the insurgents; and--think of the
+mortification to one of Bismarck's upper-class leanings!--did indeed
+do no less than wrap the German tricolor around his body and heading a
+democratic procession march around the streets, even going so far as
+to make a foolish speech in which he extolled the glories of the
+German democratic revolution.
+
+¶ Here we might as well close the book, were it not for Bismarck. The
+surly dog of a king's man flatly refused to vote "Aye!" in the Diet,
+where the hot-heads were intent on passing resolutions "commending the
+King for his loyalty to democratic principles," in marching 'round
+town with the mob. Bismarck for the time being stood like a great
+mastiff at bay before wolves.
+
+His terrific speech upholding royal prerogative made his early and
+sudden fame.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ It is a fact that with all their political ambitions, and their
+solemn belief that Germany's political future was an open book, the
+Radicals in Prussia never guessed the way events were to turn out; nor
+for that matter the Radicals never desired the conquest of Germany by
+Prussia; therefore the subsequent astonishing rise of German
+Imperialism through Prussian domination, would have proved a most
+surprising revelation had the patriots of 1806 to 1848 returned from
+the other world, say in 1870, to view Prussia's rise to glory.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The political uprisings of 1848 had parallels in Italy, France,
+Spain, and Germany; and the excesses cleared the way for wiser action,
+in years to come.
+
+¶ "The frenzy was a sort of tottering bridge between the French
+1789-93 idea of democracy (that has to do with bloodshed and violence)
+and the purified conception expressed in modern constitutional
+democracy."
+
+¶ The German democratic uprisings of 1820, '30 and '48 were planned to
+win a certain type of civil liberty. They failed. The question was
+"equality," as well as popular "machinery" of representation. How was
+it to be brought about? Modern "parliamentarism" had not as yet been
+involved.
+
+¶ The patriots of '48 had their Jacobin clubs in mild imitation of the
+French Revolution. Baden alone had 400, with a membership of 20,000.
+"Every tavern and brewery, (Dahlinger, German Revolution of '49, p.
+33), became a seat of democratic propaganda."
+
+    See, there stands the mighty Hecker,
+    A feather in his hat,
+    There stands the friend of the people,
+    Yearning for the tyrants' blood;
+    Big boots with thick soles,
+    Sword and pistol by his side.
+
+¶ Copied from French models was the word "Citizen." We hear of Citizen
+Brentano, Citizen Franz Sigel, Citizen Ostenhaus, Citizen
+Schimmelpfennig; some of these leaders were extremely radical; but
+Brentano endeavored to keep the Revolution from becoming a record of
+lawlessness after the French Revolution type. (Dahlinger, p. 100).
+
+We cannot go into the various battles fought and lost. Many of the
+leaders were exiled, others shot. The patriots were as a rule young
+collegians, ambitious to rise in life, but sincerely holding to
+modified conceptions of French Constitutionalism. There were a large
+number of journalists in the thick of the struggle, also professors in
+high schools. These chosen leaders, by various oratorical tricks, drew
+political and social malcontents from every walk of life.
+
+¶ In the end, Prussian troops put down the patriots.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ In '48, all kings were under suspicion; it made no difference
+whether the king was a good king or a bad king; a king was a king, and
+all kings were bad.
+
+The younger generation, especially became morbid over the word
+"Liberty!" What it really meant, in '48, was that human nature should
+restrain itself, in order that all men might, immediately, enter into
+so-called God-given political rights.
+
+The situation was somewhat analogous to that created after the Civil
+War, in the United States. Certain political fanatics, weeping over
+the Negroes, now demanded universal suffrage, literally, for the
+slaves, and in secret saw that by controlling the South, a "Black
+Republic" might be set up, side by side with our "White Republic."
+
+¶ Fraternity and equality--that was the cry in '48--glossed over by
+politico-religious glamour, expressed in the idea that men "ought" do
+thus and so, and therefore "a people's king" was in order. The people
+were to crown themselves.
+
+For a thousand years the accepted political doctrine had been that
+kings held office by Divine-right, but now orators of the day
+harangued mobs proclaiming the literal belief that the voice of the
+people is the voice of God.
+
+While, thus, the new apostles ridiculed the old idea of Divine-right,
+as attached to the acts of monarch, leaders of the people saw no
+inconsistency in asserting attributes of political divinity in the
+doings of the common people. Thus, a species of nebulous
+politico-religious humanism was pictured as the highest expression of
+political philosophy.
+
+The individual wished to come into his own and the quicker the better.
+Reformers shocked landed proprietors, titled folk and office-holders
+under kings, by demanding unconditional surrender of the machinery of
+government; zealots urged revolts against all manner of constituted
+authority. The point was to gain for the barber, the tailor, the
+shoemaker and the blacksmith more life, more political experience,
+more freedom of choice--and right on the next tick of the clock!
+
+¶ There is this about it: that the Frankfort Convention offered to
+William IV the "People's Crown" as a direct symbol of belief in
+political idealism, not necessarily, however, the political idealism
+that tolerates a king but instead uses him as a popular signboard.
+
+The Convention held that German unity "ought by right" to be
+established; therefore "once the grand Idea was set afloat" the cause
+"must by moral right come to pass."
+
+¶ Probably never before in the world was there formulated an outright,
+widespread expression of greater political idealism by men who called
+themselves patriots. There is a noble side to the sentiment,
+heightened the more as we realize the inevitable delusion of it all,
+translated into terms of human selfishness.
+
+Germany, so the zealots proclaimed, should by blood and language be
+united; and in this respect orators of the hour were correct.
+
+Germany had a manifest destiny, the speakers continued, but in this
+respect they were guided by faith rather than by experience. At least,
+the momentary end of "manifest destiny" was clearly the political
+function; to be one and united.
+
+¶ So far good.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Then why "should not" this noble German Idea be "accepted"? The word
+Idea was usually presented with a capital letter, in form of
+personification, so real had the thing become to German political
+orators.
+
+Certainly every German was ready to testify that National Unity had
+been the one political dream of generations past and gone.
+
+Had not the old wandering minstrels sung of the Fatherland, alas, too
+long delayed by miserable human selfishness! German bull-headedness
+insisted on insularity, on individualism, on particularism, on
+standing each petty monarch in his corner, with farce-comedy courtiers
+bowing and scraping while the rights of the peasant were forgotten.
+Assuredly, the day had come for this folly to cease. Then in Heaven's
+name, why not a United Germany--here and now?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The petty passions of rival princes acted as a bar to the acceptance
+of the glorious National Idea, spelled with the big "I."
+
+Intense particularisms preferred loyalty to local princes, fashions,
+customs, dialects rather than to lose the old ways in the larger life
+of the German Nation.
+
+¶ But Bismarck did not lose heart.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER IX
+
+                    So Much the Worse for Zeitgeist
+
+
+                                  30
+
+  We will never get at Bismarck through a study of the interplay
+  of politics; suppose we state his case in terms of human
+  nature?
+
+¶ From this time on, the shelves are freighted with volume after
+volume of German political jargon, forming a bewildering diagonal of
+forces crossing and recrossing in thousands the tangled threads.
+Bismarck's presence runs throughout, but it is a long and complex
+story, hard to comprehend and difficult to compress without
+sacrificing important details.
+
+¶ We find "Grand Germans" against "Petty Germans"; Grimm, the
+philologist, has his say against Simson, the jurist; Arndt, the poet,
+against Welcker, the publicist; the Frankfort parliament offering its
+paper crown to the King of Prussia, imploring him to become a
+democratic liberator and unifier; and on the other hand we hear
+Bismarck in the Berlin Diet, urging the king to stand firm for the Old
+Regime; arks of free-speech from Polish insurgents, also ill-advised
+youth waving banners of blood; mobs in the Berlin streets, whiffs of
+grapeshot here and there to clear the air; John of Austria urging
+something and the Prince Consort of England advising, post-haste, the
+kings of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Wuertemberg; the Assembly
+manufacturing Magna Chartas, after noisy clashes of opinion.
+
+¶ "There is not enough practical sense behind all," says Bismarck, "to
+build a political chicken-coop, to say nothing of an empire." Then,
+the patriots, so-called, leave for America, worn out with waiting for
+some new freedom set down on paper; and of the motley crew, not one is
+sufficiently wise, or strong enough to make head or tail of the
+complex situation. Barricades are thrown up, artillery plays upon the
+mobs, and general blood-letting follows; thousands of lives are
+snuffed out, to be charged up as advance sacrifices for political
+cohesion. Hapsburger against Hohenzollern, Protestant against
+Catholic, Ultramontanes beholding the reign of Anti-Christ; Guelphs
+and Wittelsbachs, protesting their own peculiar and ancient lineage
+against self-seeking latter-day upstart aristocrats!
+
+¶ And the problem grew darker as the months went by.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ You may read till you are dizzy and then stand back and try to get a
+bird's-eye view of the complicated quarrels of the Diet; the vagaries
+of Frankfort or Berlin; the brawls of this poet, that student, editor,
+publicist, or princeling; with soldiers of fortune hovering around
+waiting, like vultures that have already a whiff of the carrion, from
+afar. Instead of a bird's-eye, the incoherent mass of details comes
+piecemeal, and you get the toad's-eye view;--till we apply the simple
+idea that behind it all is elemental human nature, with politics as a
+mere frame to the picture.
+
+¶ Look on Bismarck at this moment as one dealing with forces of human
+nature, the clash of many minds, ending by dominating over one and
+all, years hence, through his own inherent sagacity as a human being
+against other and weaker members of his kind--and we get at once a
+significant conception of the greatness of Bismarck's mentality, also
+of his innate craft, enabling him to triumph over a thousand oblique
+forces, many of them firmly entrenched, and from a logical point fully
+as defensible as were his own peculiar conceptions.
+
+¶ It was not, after all, what this man or that prince or some other
+ruler thought, but what Bismarck thought, that turned the balance.
+
+A hundred instances could be offered to show that the men Bismarck was
+fighting had the better part of the argument, as mere argument; but
+between opinion and making that opinion stick is a wide gulf--however
+logical may be the argument.
+
+¶ Bismarck was for the ensuing twenty years pictured as a noisy
+disturber, but he was shrewd, very shrewd. He could call a man "liar,"
+"thief," "scoundrel," "impostor," in virile speechmaking, or could
+pass him up with a shrug, all the while keeping a cold eye on the main
+chance, and in the end getting his own way because he was strong
+enough to get his way--and that is all the logic there is in the
+situation.
+
+
+                                  31
+
+  This miracle he did indeed perform; he turned back the
+  political clock to feudal days and gloriously set up
+  "Divine-right," in the face of the intensely modern cry, "Let
+  the People Rule!"
+
+¶ Bismarck's amazing career affords a classical instance of what a
+strong man can do, even against the very spirit of his time!
+
+So much the worse for that Zeitgeist! The jade had to come to him, at
+last, completely subdued, as in the "Taming of the Shrew."
+
+¶ As King's Man, Bismarck now preached "Divine-right" in an age of
+democratic ideas.
+
+Thrones were falling everywhere; the inflammatory ideas of the French
+Revolution had wrested from monarchs the form, if not the substance,
+of constitutional liberties for the masses.
+
+The people were clamoring for they knew not what; at any rate for some
+new experiment in the quest for happiness, which they believed could
+be attained through new forms of government. Bismarck fought the new
+order, and as late as A. D. 1870, restated the seemingly worn-out
+doctrine of "Divine-right." How did he accomplish this political
+miracle?
+
+¶ A strong leader, by tireless repetition of some idea, finally brings
+about faith in that idea. It does not follow that this leader must
+necessarily be wiser than the masses. It is always his will to power,
+rather than the inherent validity of his ideas.
+
+¶ First, he stands alone with his idea, whatever it may be. Finally,
+one person is convinced? This is the beginning. Well, if one, why not
+two, then ten, then a hundred, or a thousand, or ten thousand?
+
+¶ And so the wonder grows.
+
+¶ At last, our stubborn man with the idea is believed! He now has his
+long-awaited day to prove the force of his contribution to human
+welfare.
+
+¶ There is a species of religious glamour over the old man's basic
+conception of respect for kings. The word king, for Bismarck, spells
+faith in discipline, obedience, loyalty to chosen leader--as against
+excesses sure to follow in turning over the Government to the rabble,
+according to the idea of the French Revolution. There is this
+condition to be made here: that Bismarck undoubtedly leaned as far in
+one direction as the old-line French Revolutionists did in another;
+Bismarck was an extremist no less than Danton, Marat, Robespierre. But
+there is also this distinction, in Bismarck's favor: He was a great
+constructive statesman and the French agitators turned out to be but
+assassins and political fools.
+
+¶ We spare no one in this analysis, neither Bismarck nor Robespierre.
+Therefore, we boldly, here and now, call your attention to a certain
+strange fallacy in all political ideals.
+
+¶ The people expect some new form, or change of government, to make
+them happy and free. The machinery of legislation is the thing. It is
+proclaimed the great leveler.
+
+¶ Thus men eagerly try all manner of political enterprises, believing
+that ultimately in some plan of government, social equality will
+result. In the light of the anomaly that in spite of our efforts, we
+persist in reverence for "the good old" days, as against the
+iniquities of the moment, it is clear that either we deceive
+ourselves, or are forever wandering about in a fool's paradise.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Bismarck at least does not justify cynical damnation. He was
+intensely human, and so was the King of Prussia. It is playing with
+race prejudice to call Prussia, after the French fashion, "That robber
+Prussia."
+
+¶ Nations act as do men individually, are swayed by forms of pride,
+passion and prejudice. If every nation that robbed or stole should
+return its loot of land, to whom would it ultimately go?
+
+¶ The United States would not, at least, now be in possession of
+California. But for that matter, the Spaniards stole her from the
+Indians, and the Indians from the Aztecs, and the Aztecs from we know
+not whom. Always then, history justifies herself with the will to
+power--as manifested by the strongest!
+
+¶ Take it by and large, this miracle he did indeed perform: He turned
+back the political clock of Time to Feudal days, and gloriously set up
+"Divine-right," in the face of the intensely modern cry, "Let the
+people rule!"
+
+
+                                  32
+
+  Secret chamber in this strange man's heart; the master at work
+  for United Germany.
+
+¶ The great Bismarck, during his long and turbulent career, as a rule
+refused to remain loyal to party affiliations.
+
+The moment a party-theory no longer seemed expedient, the Prussian
+Junker reckoned neither on political friendship nor on political
+antipathy.
+
+His whole life, he was engaged in endeavoring to persuade others to
+adopt his policies, regardless of the fact that opposed policies might
+be supported by as much if not even by more logic. Bismarck always
+justified his opportunism by saying that his sense of duty was
+superior to his private feelings of love or hate; however, his
+attitude was uniformly directed for or against conditions in
+proportion as, to his mind, they were charged with good or evil for
+his beloved Prussia.
+
+Although one of the world's greatest among amiable despots, Bismarck
+always held himself to be at once free from prejudice and under the
+hand of God. Even on this high ground, it would still be easy to show
+(by many startling episodes in Bismarck's career) well-nigh
+innumerable changes of front that, to the average mind, must pass as
+inconsistencies.
+
+¶ Get clearly in mind, then, this giant's political attitudes of gross
+contradiction, as between promise and performance--otherwise we will
+miss the essence of Bismarck's genius as a statesman and his peculiar
+glory as a man large enough to stand beside Cćsar.
+
+¶ Now here is the master-key, unlocking every door in the secret
+chambers of his heart: Bismarck, all his long life, kept himself in
+power by his consummate knowledge of human nature.
+
+Shakespeare dealt with men, on paper, making them march this way or
+that at the behest of his immortal genius.
+
+Bismarck dealt with men in the open arena of life, had no way of
+controlling their actions except by the inspiration of his own
+practical, constructive genius.
+
+It is one thing to control a man's actions, on paper; wholly
+another--and a greater triumph, is it not?--to master man's ways in
+the market place, making those around you do not necessarily what they
+think they ought, but do what you wish.
+
+Thus in some senses Bismarck appears in the figure of the superman;
+for there is absolutely no question that on many occasions he forced
+strong men to do his bidding, squarely against their individual
+preferences!
+
+¶ This huge bulk, this deep-drinking, gluttonous Bismarck, this
+world-defying voice, raged and stormed through his eighty-three years
+of life--making little men's souls shrink in fear--and ever the
+essence of his genius was for alignments with men, or against them,
+using this human clay ultimately for his own peculiar ends, as the
+potter molds the mud. He knew too that despite the old German family
+and tribal feuds, the Germans are brothers; standing apart it is true
+at this hour, fighting each other; yet the day is to come when
+Bismarck will triumph in his Germany, one and united. It mattered not,
+he would make friends with his deadly enemy, if such a step seemed
+advisable to carry out that cherished plan for a free and united
+Germany.
+
+If he could not bend men to his will by logic, he tried flattery, and
+if that failed he threatened war, and the war came, too, but not till
+Bismarck was good and ready. He took his own time, made preparations
+that defied disaster, then moved forward and swept his enemies off the
+face of the earth.
+
+¶ Thus, there was always evidences of peculiar precaution, even in
+Bismarck's boldest strokes. He never forgot himself, never did things
+by halves. It might take a week or a year, or ten years, that mattered
+not to Bismarck; in the end, he would bring his wishes to pass. He
+never courted failure by hastening with some incomplete plan; but with
+the certainty of Fate, Bismarck abided his time. Obliged to surmount
+tremendous obstacles, often set back, in the end he carried everything
+by force before him.
+
+¶ We are here reminded of those vast fields of snow seemingly in a
+state of dead rest, in the higher Alps, through many winters still
+secretly gaining bulk and encroaching inch by inch all unobserved upon
+the doomed valley below; then, at the dropping of a mere pebble, the
+ice begins to slide, nor does the dread avalanche pause for the sobs
+of the dying. So behind Bismarck's amazing preparedness his ofttimes
+long deferred but inevitable destruction of his enemies seems to be
+something that he borrows from the avalanche. It is at once massive
+and inexorable, the power given to but few master-spirits in the
+history of the world.
+
+¶ In political acumen, in administrative and executive capacity
+Bismarck measures up with Cćsar. The smallest facts about such as
+Bismarck are of more than ordinary interest. Too much time cannot be
+spent on this great character, in an endeavor to understand the secret
+springs of his mighty powers.
+
+Aside from the mere biographic outlines of his career, the man
+presents, in himself, a study that deserves all the thought that can
+be put on it--in an effort to set forth the realism of his mighty
+life.
+
+
+                                  33
+
+  Bismarck shows himself master at quelling a meeting, checking a
+  mob, stamping out a rebellion, and heading off a king.
+
+¶ And after the Frankfort radicals found themselves unable to make
+Bismarck pick the German crown "out of the gutter," they turned and
+tried to establish--what do you think?--a republic!
+
+By Autumn, the forces of Revolution spent themselves and Metternich
+drove the rebels before him, as the hurricane blows chaff. Order was
+re-established in Vienna and in the Italian states.
+
+The uncompromising Metternich restored the "Old Diet," originally
+ordered by the Congress of Vienna, 1815, as the one authentic source
+of political legitimacy for the clashing German states. It was a
+clever Austrian by-play.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ We now return to Berlin. In May, the blood-letting was over, but no
+prospect of political reform seemed immediately possible.
+
+Bismarck began using what might be called underground methods to head
+off the demand for that long-promised democratic Constitution.
+
+¶ Already the King began to see more clearly. It struck him that this
+brazen-faced giant might be useful, later on. Had not Bismarck said in
+his now widely quoted speech: "Soon or late, the God who directs the
+battle will cast his iron dice!" It gave His Majesty courage!
+
+¶ The King looked to right and left, dissolved one Diet after the
+other, till he had one to suit him. Otto nudged his King. That
+momentary weakness of marching with the democrats was something His
+Majesty wished to forget!
+
+¶ Bismarck's position must be clearly set forth. He was no mere
+reactionary, brandishing his fists at new leaders, who favored the
+common people. He knew all about this liberty, equality and fraternity
+business, from across the Vosges--and he despised the cure-all.
+
+Here is the idea in a few words: Bismarck was not fighting political
+liberalism, as an end; instead, he protested with his giant's strength
+at the implied destruction of the Old Regime.
+
+¶ He laid the revolt largely to the bureaucratic system, which he
+characterized as "The animal with the pen!"
+
+He stood fast by his good old Prussian dogma, as outlined in "I am a
+Prussian!" paralleling "Rule Britannia," and other national hymns.
+
+The song is sung with wild martial vigor, akin to the furious appeal
+of ancient Polish melodies:
+
+    I am a Prussian! see my colors gleaming--
+      The black-white standard floats before me free;
+    For Freedom's rights, my fathers' heart-blood streaming,
+      Such, mark ye, mean the black and white to me!
+    Shall I then prove a coward? I'll e'er be marching forward!
+        Though day be dull, though sun shine bright on me,
+        I am a Prussian, will a Prussian be!
+
+Sixteen years later, when endeavoring with all his strength to bring
+about German National unity, his "Prussians we are and Prussians we
+will remain" was used against him with mocking effect.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ By October, nerves were steadied. The King sent Gen. Wangrel to
+occupy Berlin and disperse the radicals--with cannon, if necessary.
+
+That speech has the right sound; but William has before this veered
+around many times, like a weather-vane, and may he not shift again?
+
+For the instant, he stood for the Old Regime and Divine-right.
+
+¶ The following month William appointed Brandenberg, an old-line
+Prussian aristocrat, Prime Minister. The siege of Berlin was declared;
+the Assembly protested but finally gave in. Along in December, without
+consulting the Assembly, William invited the states to send delegates
+to Berlin and made an alliance of three kings--Prussia, Saxony and
+Hanover.
+
+¶ What is going to happen next?
+
+
+                                  34
+
+  At last the people have a share in their government, but
+  Bismarck sees to it that the radicals are not favored.
+
+¶ William's "Tri-regal alliance" failed as fail it must on account of
+jealousies. Then Wuertemberg replied with a "quadruple" affair,
+composed of herself, Hanover, Bavaria and Saxony, side by side, under
+a constitution acceptable to Austria. Quite a stroke, that.
+
+In turn, William set up his Erfurt parliament, March 20, 1850.
+Bismarck was fast becoming a "practical politician." Through deft
+stacking of the cards, the radical delegates drew only the low cards,
+and the Kreuz-Zeitung crowd and other ultra-conservatives were well
+supplied with aces and kings.
+
+Bismarck naturally urged more concessions to the Prussian spirit; he
+tried also to muzzle the press gallery, calling newspapers
+"fire-bellows of democracy."
+
+Later, he even started newspapers for his political purposes. In this
+he was not inconsistent, merely logical; his attitude was based on the
+fact that, at this particular time, he felt called on to fight hostile
+editors; but made terms wherever it seemed worth while. Such was the
+man's discriminating glance.
+
+¶ The Erfurt "tongue tournament" Bismarck called the whole affair. He
+did not oppose the King's position in this matter, because, as
+Bismarck said, "it makes no difference." He spoke contemptuously of
+the mystical high-flown speeches. Its "Constitution" was quickly
+forgotten!
+
+¶ Bismarck's course would have been made somewhat easier had he not
+openly refused to sit with President Simpson, at the Erfurt
+convention, denouncing the President as "a converted Jew!"
+
+¶ The convention broke up, to meet again in Berlin, where a Prussian
+Constitution was drawn up.
+
+¶ Events moved rapidly. Austria now stood forth for resumption of
+authority by the Old Diet, established by the Congress of Vienna,
+while from Berlin one heard of a plan for a "restricted union."
+
+Talk, talk, talk. Finally, in September, 1850, Austria invited Prussia
+to a seat in the Old Diet. Prussia refused, and the cat was out of the
+bag.
+
+It meant that German Unity must come through Prussian supremacy and
+Austrian humiliation--otherwise all might well be forgotten.
+
+But Austria was by no means so easily disposed of. There was much life
+and fighting blood in her yet!
+
+¶ Bismarck's opinions during his years of preparation were, on the
+whole, unchanging, though often presented in different dress. In 1848,
+he bitterly objected to the King's softness in recalling his troops
+from Berlin, instead of definitely crushing the March rebellions; in
+'49, he stood steadily beside the King in refusing the people's crown,
+from Frankfort; in 1850, he deplored the Prussian diplomatic defeat at
+Olmuetz, but swallowed his mortification because he saw that Prussia
+was not ready to strike; "and he thereon assisted in reconciling his
+party to a policy which he deplored."
+
+This situation convinced Bismarck that the first duty of a Prussian
+statesman is to strengthen the army, "that the King's opinions can be
+upheld at home; likewise backed by the mailed fist, Prussian authority
+will be respected abroad."
+
+¶ "My idea," he says in his Memoirs, "was that we ought to prepare for
+war, but at the same time to send an ultimatum to Austria, either to
+accept our conditions in the German question, or to look out for our
+attack."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Thus out of the Revolution of 1848, Prussia emerged with a written
+Constitution, establishing a legislative assembly and giving the
+people a share in their government.
+
+¶ Bismarck's inconsistencies? Yes, by the score, but he was playing a
+deep game of politics, for his King, and for his beloved German Unity.
+Always, you must understand that Bismarck scorned the political
+Millennium alleged to have been brought in by the French Revolution;
+with the political ideas from over the Vosges Bismarck would have
+nothing to do. That old war-cry "the people" made him sick! He
+believed in discipline and not in mob-rule. But he would not rush
+unprepared into the war.
+
+¶ It is a fact that, in 1850, Prussia had cause for war far more just
+than that on which she seized in 1866. But Bismarck made his famous
+anti-war speech!
+
+¶ "Woe to the statesman who does not look about for a reason for the
+war that will be valid, when the war is over!" were his astonishing
+sentiments.
+
+¶ What he really meant was that Prussia was not just then ready to
+fight; hence, he painted war as detestable; later on, however, we
+shall see how he looks upon war, when Prussia is ready!
+
+¶ Prussia, through her political endorsement of the people (1850) did
+not suddenly become a Parliamentary state, despite William's new
+Constitution. Broad privileges were granted, but Prussia remained an
+absolute monarchy. While there was henceforth to be a certain
+restricted cooperation between Crown and Crowd, the Divine-right
+theory that had come down through the ages was not weakened or its
+authority compromised; in short, by conciliating certain hostile
+popular elements, led by fire-breathing first-cousins of the French
+Revolutionists, a large part of the hated Liberal programme was done
+away with, in turn consolidating the power of the Prussian kings.
+
+¶ This situation also defines the political evolution essential before
+Germany could become a Nation. Despite various historians, Germany
+could not at this hour have proclaimed herself a Republic.
+
+¶ Bismarck realized more and more, as he grew in experience and power,
+that the Germans were sick unto death of political experiments; they
+wanted unity, as a matter of course, but by unity they really meant a
+head to the National house; a strong father, to advise, protect and
+punish his children. The parallel extends to the German idea of
+National rule; thoroughness, efficiency, discipline take the place of
+political expediency, job-holding for the mere sake of job-holding; in
+church, in state and in family life the idea of a great central
+Authority alone satisfies the German mind.
+
+¶ Thus, the German conception of a Nation is intensely practical; the
+state is not merely an aggregation of office-holders, but the state is
+primarily a vast institution, efficiently administered by the best
+minds, and these servants of the people are instantly responsible to
+the great central authority, whose power of removal for cause may be
+exercised as the father corrects his children, for the good of the
+family.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ To these fundamental ideas, based on the soul of the German people,
+Bismarck now addressed himself for many years to come. He knew what
+the German race demands; his analysis was psychologically correct,
+although few patriots of '48 could see it that way.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ As his years of apprenticeship pass, Bismarck carries on his mission
+in a new way: is decided to lead Prussia to the conquest of Germany;
+is done with political platform-making except in so far as the
+alignments of politics lend themselves to his final purpose.
+
+¶ With political instinct for gigantic projects carried out with
+realism, the King's Man now determined the bold outlines of his
+National policy.
+
+He did not worry about details: these he would fill in, as time
+passed; but he would on one side hold fast to German National unity
+and on the other side would sustain Prussian kingcraft as the very
+voice of God for Germany; one of Bismarck's strongest ideas was that
+the King of Prussia was the vicegerent of Christ on this earth. In
+short, Germany must come through Prussian supremacy, and incidentally
+exalt Prussian supremacy, otherwise it might not come at all.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ To clear William's Divine-right once for all, so far as our story
+goes, let it be known that German historians have always laid stress
+on the respect of Teutonic tribesmen, from ancient days, for the
+leadership of a strong fighting man. Tacitus, the earliest writer of
+importance, detailing the lives of Teutonic tribes, sets forth that it
+was the custom of the German warriors in times of crises to select
+their strong man and endow him with the power of rulership; looking to
+him in turn to lead the tribe to war against the common enemy. This
+reliance upon kings who were also powerful war lords continuing
+through the centuries, satisfied the fundamental aspirations of the
+Germans in their will to military power; but as the generations passed
+the old story of human nature was proved anew, that is to say, what
+begins as a "privilege" ends as a "demanded right." On the side of the
+kings, was now proclaimed more loftily than ever that monarchy is the
+voice of God.
+
+
+
+
+                            BOOK THE FOURTH
+
+                      Blood is Thicker than Water
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER X
+
+                         Socrates in Politics
+
+
+                                  35
+
+  Perfecting himself in political intrigue and in vituperative
+  debating, also in caustic letter-writing; all is necessary
+  grist for the Bismarck mill.
+
+¶ We come now to the year 1851.
+
+¶ The entrance of Emperor Francis Joseph, at this time, on the
+politico-military stage of Austria was followed by still another era
+of political reaction; the Liberal Austrian constitution, wrested
+during the riots, was revoked; as were also those Democratic
+constitutions pledged for almost every German state.
+
+¶ The Germanic Confederation, with political legitimacy vested in the
+curious Frankfort Parliament, again took the field. It was an Austrian
+plan to get the advantage of Prussia.
+
+¶ "If I do not do well, you can recall me," Bismarck told William. The
+King decided in his extremity to hazard the appointment of the unknown
+Bismarck, as Prussian delegate to Frankfort. William remembered those
+bold "White Saloon" speeches.
+
+¶ Now get this straight: Bismarck was a land-owner of ancient days;
+estates won by the sword had been in the Bismarck family for 600
+years; nay, the Bismarcks traced their knighthood to the far-distant
+year 1200. The force of this appeal in the blood was at once profound
+and irresistible.
+
+¶ Bismarck to the day he died was always an Alt Mark vassal to his
+liege lord and master, the Margrave of Brandenburg, the King of
+Prussia. So much is clear.
+
+Bismarck was also much more than this. We repeat, he was a leader of
+men. The King of Prussia could command old families in scores if not
+in hundreds, to support the Ancient Regime, socially and politically,
+but where find that rare man, a born leader for the cause?
+
+¶ Duty and self-interest prompted Bismarck to hold up the royal hand,
+but after all is said, the vital force of Bismarck's endorsement was
+found in the man's genius for leadership. It was not so much the cause
+as it was the man. For had Bismarck gone over to the other side the
+history of Germany would have been vastly different.
+
+¶ This Frankfort parliament, a hydra-headed political creation
+dedicated to liberty, was in secret doing the purposes of Austrian
+plutocracy and reaction; it was to be the last stand of the Old
+Regime, against Democracy.
+
+But it was necessary to move with cautious foot. The sappers were at
+work under the thrones, and at any instant the mines might be touched
+off.
+
+¶ Bismarck thus, quite by accident, finds himself the representative
+of William IV, in Frankfort Diet or Bundestag, the political Punch and
+Judy show originally set up by Metternich, in 1815, to rule the
+quarreling thirty-nine German states. Their intense individualism was
+such that Metternich, who dominated at the Congress of Vienna, after
+the downfall of Napoleon, did not know what was best.
+
+All other parts of Europe, and even the islands of the seas had been
+reassigned, but no human being could tell what to do with the
+turbulent thirty-nine German states.
+
+¶ "Here, then, was a mysterious 'Court of Chance,' where things
+dragged on for years, a political circumlocution office, hopelessly
+bound by its own interminable seals, parchments and red tape."
+
+The secret object was to do nothing that would not favor Austria; with
+the idea that, in the end, the devious course of politics would bring
+Austria final control of the German lands, everywhere.
+
+¶ It was in this absurd Parliament that Bismarck was to perfect
+himself in political intrigue. Frankfort made no organic laws; these
+were mysteriously settled at Vienna; the meetings of the Diet were
+held in secret; at best, the voting was along lines that gave to
+Austria and not to Prussia the deciding voice.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ It did not take Bismarck long to find that at Frankfort the King of
+Prussia was but a cipher. Furthermore, what raised Bismarck's ire was
+the impotence of the Parliament. Frankfort had been unable to put down
+the blood-letting of '48, and Bismarck detested weakness of any kind,
+mental, physical or spiritual.
+
+He was, and always remained, a profound extremist; but his position
+was tempered by massive common sense.
+
+¶ The world dearly loves a flunkey--and flunkeyism was universal at
+Frankfort.
+
+The many members fluttered about in gay military dress, wore stars of
+sham authority, gold crosses, medals dangling from bright ribbons.
+
+Names prefixed by count, duke, margrave--crests on the coach door and
+Latin mottoes--hyphenated family names, indicated all manner of
+political marriages de convenience. Bestarred gentlemen, one and all,
+if you please!
+
+¶ Bismarck wrote home soon enough, for he was choking with anger, not
+on account of the aristocratic airs of Frankfort (for Bismarck dearly
+loved a title), but choking with anger because his beloved King of
+Prussia was a Nobody in this crazy Parliament. "I find them a drowsy,
+insipid set of creatures, only endurable when I appear among them as
+so much pepper," are his sarcastic words.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Had Bismarck not been a diplomat, he might have made his mark as a
+radical writer. His letters very often show almost anarchistic
+dissent. At vulgar characterization, no man could outsnarl Bismarck.
+
+Also this Pomeranian giant's correspondence at times fairly stinks
+with frightful smells. When in these black moods, he released nasty
+fumes around the heads of rivals.
+
+We are surprised, likewise, to find growing in the mire of his
+thoughts, here and there, violets worthy of the poet Freiligrath. The
+man's power to be poetical or insulting, as he willed, is indeed as
+strange as it is rare.
+
+¶ Bismarck's pen pictures of fellow ambassadors--how they flirted,
+danced, drank to excess, their maudlin ideas of government, although
+regarding themselves as veritable political seers--show the powerful
+satirical and analytical side of Bismarck's brain.
+
+And although Bismarck mocked with sardonic immensity his colleagues,
+yet with an under-play worthy of the Devil, our Otto proceeded to make
+these owlish and absurd gentlemen puppets in the hands of Prussia.
+
+¶ Alas, time does not permit us to set forth the charming letters
+Bismarck writes home. There is that moonlight swim in the Danube; the
+interview with Metternich, the old war-horse of kings; the gypsy ball
+and the weird fiddling gypsies; his visits to robber-infested parts of
+Hungary, making the trip in part in a peasant's cart, "loaded pistols
+in the straw at our feet, and near by a company of lanciers carrying
+cocked carbines, against the imminent visits of robber bands."
+
+He describes how he visited Ostend, going sea-bathing at that famous
+resort; rambling on through Holland, smoking a long clay pipe; then on
+to Sweden for the shooting; next to Russia for wild boars.
+
+¶ His letters often have a lyrical quality, telling of waterfalls of
+the Pyrenees, the fascinating fairyland of Mendelssohn, dark-eyed
+Spanish beauties, open-air concerts, London garroters, old musty
+houses with peculiar smells, or what you will. Bismarck dwells often
+on eating and drinking; and in one letter from Paris speaks of a
+dinner at which he drank St. Julien, Lafitte Branne, Mouton, Pichon,
+Larose, Latour, Margaux, and Arneillac!
+
+¶ These, and hundreds of other letters comprise charming interludes
+between black moods of political intrigue, wherein he used his
+vitriolic pen to lampoon his beribboned, bejeweled farce-comedy
+fellow-ambassadors.
+
+¶ "Germany is tied together with red tape," writes Bismarck at this
+stage of his political apprenticeship, at Frankfort; and he hit the
+nail on the head.
+
+¶ Promise yourself a delightful month reading Bismarck's four octavo
+volumes telling of his change of heart toward Austria, as shown little
+by little in Frankfort dispatches, documents and proceedings,
+interspersed with satirical stories in Bismarck's extremely
+individualistic style. Throughout, you receive glimpses of the man's
+great mind. No less an authority than the Herr Prof. von Sybel tells
+us of these Bismarck writings, bearing on the formation of the German
+Empire: "They possess a classic worth, unsurpassed by the best German
+prose writers of any age."
+
+
+                                  36
+
+  Applying Socratic methods to game of politics; Bismarck's bold
+  and masterful preparations for German unity.
+
+¶ Now then, during these years 1851-'61, Bismarck was doing two
+things: Perfecting himself in the dastardly art of political intrigue;
+likewise, he was going about like a modern Socrates, talking with men
+of high or low degree everywhere; studying what might be called the
+human nature side of the German problem of unity and nationality;
+studying it, not in an aimless way, but to mould men to his own
+gigantic political ends, when the right time arrived.
+
+¶ Thus, with the stiff wind of adverse political affairs straight in
+his teeth, remember that Bismarck's great strength was always his
+knowledge of men.
+
+During the years of which we now write he made it his business to
+visit the various petty German courts, to gaze on princelings who
+would be kings; busied himself with court gossip till he found out the
+inner political jealousies.
+
+Thus fortified, Bismarck knew the one man or woman to touch in the
+various parts of Germany, to help along Prussian ambition--when the
+supreme moment to strike had come at last.
+
+¶ This supreme moment he awaited with diabolical patience through the
+slow-going years.
+
+No human being could hasten or retard Bismarck's ultimate victory; for
+he remained the one truly masterful man in Europe.
+
+He sat at gambling tables, he wheedled secrets from the prostitutes of
+princes; he stood by and egged on human dog-fights; he took part in
+church-rows about doctrines; he had inside glimpses of the venality of
+Austrian kept-press-writers, "the scum of the earth," he calls them,
+"who sell opinions as the petty merchant sells butter and eggs."
+Bismarck seemed to be the only man in Europe who really was able to
+grasp the solution of the German problem.
+
+¶ Also, the granite soil of his heart is shown again and again. What a
+hater he was!
+
+For example, refusing to go to Mass for the repose of Schwarzenberg's
+soul, Bismarck gave the reason: "He is the man who said: 'I will abuse
+Prussia and then abolish her.'"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ You see, our Otto is one of those uncomfortable Germans who in his
+own amazing personality expresses the National ideal of earnestness;
+Otto is frightfully in earnest in his cups, or over his half dozen
+eggs for breakfast--as you please. He frightens timid souls.
+
+¶ His temper few men could curb, much less sit calmly by and receive
+without retiring in bad order. Incident after incident at Frankfort
+might be cited, but what is the use?
+
+¶ With fiendish earnestness Bismarck plotted to break the bones of two
+democratic editors whose writings threw the Prussian mastiff into
+periodical black rages. Bismarck justified his cruelty by insisting
+that "bounds must be set for these infamous press scribblings." He
+means that attacks on the Divine-right of kings must at all hazards be
+choked off. He always hated journalists, called the press "a poisoned
+well," and as for himself he is on record to this effect: "I always
+approached the ink-bottle with great caution."
+
+¶ But mark this well: Our Otto, in his turn, craftily used the press
+to present the smooth side of his own political intriguing; indeed he
+had his very valuable Prussian press bureau; and we have authority for
+the statement that the Bismarckian idea of journalism was to have
+"hireling scribes well in hand, men who stabbed like masked assassins
+and mined like mobs."
+
+¶ During the decade we call Bismarck's apprenticeship, 1851-'61, he
+was thus engaged: 1851, envoy at Frankfort Diet; 1852, Prussian
+ambassador at Vienna, during the illness of Count Arnim; St.
+Petersburg, 1859; Paris, 1862.
+
+Thus, he had an opportunity to get acquainted with all the leading
+diplomatists on the European chessboard, to study them in their own
+haunts, and to perfect himself in playing with pitch without
+blackening his hands.
+
+¶ Bismarck told Francis Joseph, "I am firm to put an end to the
+attacks on Prussia in the Austrian press!"
+
+This boldness won the Emperor, and in confidence he remarked to a
+friend: "Ah, that I had a man of Bismarck's audacity."
+
+¶ Also, he told Joseph, "Prussia will never yield in the matter of the
+commercial union, with Austria."
+
+The Emperor remarked on Bismarck's youth--37 years--and was much
+impressed. "Bismarck had the wisdom of a man of 70!" was Joseph's
+comment.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ You begin to get a clearer idea of what this thing called patriotism
+means? Nay, do not scoff at our Otto; he is only carrying on the old,
+old game called reaching out after place and power; is doing exactly
+what you would do yourself, if you had the will to rise to the
+mountain-tops where live the Bismarcks and the Cćsars.
+
+Mask after mask Bismarck used to cover his real intent, from 1847 to
+1870, the long years he was scheming to establish a German Empire; and
+he did his work well; more than that cannot be said of any man.
+Therefore, his fame is secure in the Valhalla of Mankind.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Here is an amusing bit, showing the craft and cunning of our master:
+When Napoleon the Little, through his coup d'etat made himself Emperor
+of France, December 2, 1851, and while Frankfort's Parliament was
+trying to decide "what" to say about it, officially, a French journal
+in Frankfort printed an enthusiastic endorsement of the new Emperor.
+
+Bismarck suspected that it came straight from Prussia's hated rival.
+Seeking out the proprietor of the newspaper Bismarck congratulated
+him "on close relations with Napoleon." The owner, taken off his
+guard, replied: "You are wrong; it came from Vienna!" This was exactly
+what Bismarck wished to ascertain, and his suspicions were verified.
+
+To make assurance doubly sure, Bismarck leaving the journalist, did a
+little detective work. In the garden, from a secret place, he could
+see the French minister's house. In half an hour, he spied the
+journalist ringing the French minister's doorbell.
+
+"Ah, ha!" was Bismarck's comment.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ What did this giant not do to help his beloved Prussia, and to
+humiliate his detested Austria?
+
+One day, he found a fiery anti-Prussian review in an Austrian member's
+desk. He thought nothing of ransacking a desk. Richelieu had a system
+of espionage unrivaled in history. Bismarck in this respect is the
+Cardinal's close second. Each man regarded himself as a patriot.
+Bismarck was obstinately loyal to Prussia. Her aggrandizement became
+henceforth his life's passion. Nay, Bismarck did not ask that the
+member be dismissed! That would be punishment too coarse. Instead,
+Bismarck decided that the best revenge would be to print the address
+piecemeal and thus keep the member in suspense;--something like
+twisting the cords a little each day till the victim meets
+strangulation in frightful form.
+
+¶ During the eight years that Bismarck was a member of the freakish
+Frankfort Diet set up by Austria to "rule" the quarreling thirty-nine
+German states, Bismarck, the Prussian giant, came to see the necessity
+of controlling the press.
+
+¶ Frankfort stupidities decided Bismarck to appeal directly to the
+common people (whom also he politically despised!) and hence we find
+that he now meets Austria's hired journalists by urging the utmost
+press-freedom. "In this," says Lowe, "Bismarck was an opportunist," as
+he often was. "I learned something," he used to say when his enemies
+accused him of shifting ground.
+
+¶ Bismarck now demanded "open discussion" of German policies; saw that
+hired press agents vigorously set forth the Prussian side. In this
+connection it is interesting to draw a parallel between Bismarck's
+ideas of journalism, in 1852, and the American conception (1915).
+
+¶ "In the press, truth will not come to light through the mists
+conjured into life by the mendacity of subsidized newspapers, until
+the material wherewith to oppose all the mysteries of the Bund
+(Frankfort) shall be supplied to the Prussian press, with unrestricted
+liberty to use it."
+
+¶ This idea is precisely what extremists like Roosevelt set up (1915),
+battling against "trusts," endeavoring to make them audit their books
+on the curbstone! So, what is new under the sun?
+
+
+                                  37
+
+  Ox-like patience of Prussian peasantry sorely tried--The
+  incessant call for the strong man to end political miseries.
+
+¶ As the result of all this deep study, Bismarck came to the
+conclusion that Prussia in the great moral idea of a United Germany
+could win, only by fighting Austria. We might as well get at the core
+of this thing, in short order. The complications are amazing; but the
+more we probe into Bismarck's gigantic problem, the larger grows the
+stature of our modern German giant.
+
+¶ From this time till the hour of his death, many years later,
+Bismarck remains the one great central will power of Germany, the
+source of political legitimacy, dealing out with his brawny hands
+favors where they would do the most good, setting men up or casting
+them down; and in the end, through a series of profound political
+combinations the inner currents of which to this hour no human being
+has been able to chart and classify, our strong man at last is to set
+up his United Germany, placing the imperial crown on William's head in
+the palace of the French kings, at Versailles.
+
+¶ Oh, how unforgivable all this is to the French. Not only that defeat
+should come in '70, but that the palace of the Bourbons, costing some
+$200,000,000, should be used in solemn mockery by the super-man
+Bismarck, as the stage-setting whereby to complete the imperial
+German holiday! Centuries must pass before this, the profound
+mortification to French feelings, is forgotten. That is to say, the
+worst thing you can do to a man is to hurt his pride. Had the German
+Empire come to pass without wounding French pride (not to add the
+French pocketbook) the French would long since have gone on their way
+in peace, rejoicing in German prosperity. Why not? The French are
+Christians, not the slightest doubt of that; and as Christians do not
+envy the German ox, ass or maid-servant. Indeed, that is as it should
+be in a Christian world.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ At home, up in Prussia, Bismarck's sullen glances surveyed Europe
+afar, and in the '50's, of which we are writing, this is his problem:
+
+He sees Germany still a mere crazy-quilt of clashing states. There are
+warring ecclesiastical barons, free cities, petty princelings;
+Catholic Bavaria against Protestant Prussia; nobles against the
+people; the people against themselves, divided by God knows what
+controversies, sane or insane; poets writing their hymns of liberty
+then dying unheroically by a brickbat flung wildly in some street
+brawl; jurists trying to hammer together some constitution that will
+not be blown to pieces by the first explosion of gunpowder;--and all
+failing! With pugnacious Prussia on the North, with rapacious Austria
+on the South, with insolent Bavaria hanging off on the Southwest, and
+the others fighting tooth and nail for the land, that will eventually
+fall to the strongest--the German problem became an exhibition over
+many years of the noblest, likewise of the darkest, passions of the
+human breast.
+
+Three dreadful wars were to be fought, 80,000 lives were to be
+sacrificed, during twenty years of turbulence; and in the
+blood-drenched interim various monarchs are to make a plaything of the
+thirty-nine disunited German states.
+
+¶ But the thing had to be gone through with. The historical evolution
+could not be hastened, although it was often set back. Sick Germany
+had many a hideous nightmare before the fever passed.
+
+Convention after convention, diet after diet, contending monarchs
+using any plea that will give the upper hand to Prussia or to Austria,
+or over princes and whimsical knights, from the one who holds his
+sovereignty because his ancestor had been a king's barber, to another
+who in a lucky moment had found the queen's lace handkerchief, and
+after that lived like a parasite on the land;--all these high
+contracting parties must be sent to the dump heap and the soil
+sprinkled with precious German brothers' blood, mingling freely with
+vile blood, before the new political crop can grow.
+
+¶ Between 1750 and 1870 the German problem had been settled over and
+over again, but was not finally settled till by Bismarck's blood and
+iron. This means in Frederick the Great's own obstinate way!
+
+¶ We have heard from political fanatics, poets, lawyers, kings,
+thieves, church-people; all manner of men and not a few women have
+babbled and cackled; and there has been blood-letting, generation
+after generation, all up and down the Rhine, the Main, the Spree and
+the Elbe; then there would follow a lull brought about by some great
+Charter of Liberty framed by the Liberals, at their latest conference;
+and when it all went up in smoke, we would hear again that the
+Prussian government had its own plan, which, quite naturally Austria
+would never consent to advance.
+
+¶ Indeed, the ox-like patience of the German people, with their great
+moral dream of "German National faith," was strongly tried.
+
+¶ It remained for the obstinate spirit of Frederick, through Bismarck,
+to find the only way, by blood and iron. Sentimentalists should not
+shed tears. It is no less an authority than Marshal Davout, the great
+French soldier who had for his watchword, "The world belongs to the
+obstinate."
+
+Was not the Great Frederick, in his youth, an idealist, and did he not
+write a touching essay on the evils of absolutism? But he ended by
+embracing the tyranny of kings--even as you and I, if we have the
+power.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ At the very outset, then, let it be made clear that it is
+short-sighted to call Bismarck Prussian tyrant. What would you,
+please? Cakes for the child, when the child cries? That has often been
+tried, and always in vain.
+
+Next time, the child wants two cakes instead of one. It will not do.
+
+Frederick was dubbed the "last of the tyrants." We are sorry if this
+were true.
+
+Tyrants are exceedingly useful. Nay, we are glad to report that
+Frederick is not the last.
+
+They still exist in every family, village, city, state, and nation.
+
+For the most part, they exercise their tyranny in petty exactions,
+with no big plan such as distinguishes the dominating man from the
+little fellow with the mean temper and his childish ambition to rule,
+let us say, his dog or his wife.
+
+¶ There is something pathetic in the incessant call this earth has for
+a strong man. It was so in Germany, and Bismarck was that man.
+
+Cćsar was assassinated because he was said to be a tyrant, yet after
+his death for 400 years Rome sought in vain for a man strong enough to
+hold the Empire from going to pieces.
+
+¶ Is there not something puzzling in the devotion of a people to their
+amiable oppressor? They may rebel against absolutism, as Bavarian
+hates Prussian, but if the political despot is strong enough to win
+against foreign foes, as Bismarck did at Koeniggraetz, Sedan and
+Gravelotte, the people kiss the hand that smites. What greater tests
+of loyalty do you ask of human nature?
+
+¶ Before 1866, he was without doubt the "best-hated" man in Europe,
+lampooned, ridiculed, even the victim of attempted assassinations.
+
+At Frankfort mothers sang their children to sleep by the following
+ditty:
+
+    Sleep, darling, sleep,
+    Be always gentle and good,
+    Or Vogel von Falkenstein will come
+    And carry you away in a sack;
+    Bismarck too will come after him,
+    And he eats up little children.
+
+¶ Yet within a few years, in his character as Prussian Prime Minister,
+who against the will of the people achieved the greatness of Prussia,
+and thereby made possible United Germany, no adulation was too great
+for our self-same Bismarck, formerly sneered at, despised, vilified,
+and stoned.
+
+So much for the value of public opinion. What then does it all mean?
+
+Bismarck made his 30-years' battle against the people and won; and the
+people, strange to say, turned a mental somersault and now saw no
+inconsistency in cheering Bismarck, as liberator.
+
+¶ How strange this sounds!
+
+
+                                  38
+
+  Here is the Man of the Hour, depicted in all his naked realism.
+
+¶ This amazing German problem called for a wise despot, to confront
+and overawe weak men, gathered in German parliaments in which there
+were worlds of cackling, but no wisdom.
+
+The curse of Germany had been too much speechmaking, too much poetry,
+too much dreaming. The babble went on from 1815 to 1866, at
+least--fifty years!
+
+¶ The times called for a hard-headed, dogmatic, tyrannical man with a
+plan large enough to subdue the thirty-nine warring parts, and weld
+the whole into a mighty Empire.
+
+This meant a tyrant of the massive Frederick the Great type. It called
+for a man erect and proud, keen of speech, with absolute
+self-confidence, who in a pinch was master at underhand dealing, and
+who could deliberately use harshness and malice.
+
+The man had to understand the delicate art of flattery, and at other
+times be blustering and outspoken.
+
+The roar of cannon should make him as cold as ice, but underneath his
+frozen exterior he should have a fiery nature, full of craft and
+guile, like a Gascon.
+
+He should have a torrent of cutting words, his eyes should flash and
+his blood should boil, yet he should be able to wage a secret war,
+masked under compliments, or draw his dagger and strike for the heart.
+
+He should have thousands of enemies and prevail over them all.
+
+He should have boundless ambition; action should be the zest of his
+life, and at crucial times he should display an uncontrollable temper.
+
+He should seek the path of glory; a man of fiery enthusiasm, who never
+forgives an enemy; has fits of rage; is jealous; a great swordsman,
+fights duels; a master horseman, able to ride day and night without
+fatigue.
+
+He should be at once cautious and headlong, realizing that in the end
+it is the bold play that wins. He should be able to live down public
+utterances that would cause other men years of disgrace. He should be
+able to quell a mutiny, check a mob or stamp out a rebellion. And,
+above all, whether admired or detested, he should justify his career
+by succeeding in what he started to do.
+
+¶ In other words, he must be Bismarck, the greatest empire-builder
+since Cćsar's day--yes, not even barring Napoleon, for Napoleon's
+empire crumbled to dust, yet Bismarck's, fresh with youth, still lives
+on!
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XI
+
+                            The Mailed Fist
+
+
+                                  39
+
+  Supporting Bismarck's idea of the mailed fist; Democracy stems
+  from and is supported by aristocracy.
+
+¶ Why is it that, in the American Republic, there is aversion to
+acknowledging the services of men sprung from aristocracy, like
+Bismarck? Are the facts unrecognized, or is the silence only another
+form of political quackery?
+
+¶ To bring the matter home, let us ask, "How is it in the United
+States?" Washington was an aristocrat of fortune, one of the richest
+men of his time, dispassionate, cold, aloof; Hamilton, an aristocrat
+of breeding, contributing his quota to democracy, as he saw it;
+Lafayette, an aristocrat of birth, helped us gain our liberty; and
+certainly Jefferson, an aristocrat of intellect as well as of fortune,
+the owner of 185 slaves, and the gifted author of the Declaration of
+Independence, offered inestimable services to the common people.
+
+¶ Off-hand, the average biographer records this: "Bismarck had no
+confidence in the common people. He fought a written Constitution. He
+did not wish to see his King yield an inch to the masses. It was the
+Crown against the Crowd. Violently reactionary, he blocked
+progress--for there can be no progress without change. He was trying
+to force the stream of time backward, instead of going with the tide."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ An American who for the first time follows the history of the
+Unifier of Germany begins very early in the investigation to have a
+feeling of apprehension. He is sure that Bismarck is a reactionary;
+his ideas are so out of "harmony" with the spirit of the times, the
+air full of the "liberty, equality and fraternity."
+
+Bismarck's attempt to sustain the monarchial system, especially the
+idiotic conception of "Divine-right" of kings, as against the rising
+tide of "confidence in the people," has about as much chance for
+success as that the slavery system could be re-introduced into the
+United States, after that question had been settled by five years'
+war. Thus you conclude, from the American view!
+
+¶ As you read on and on, you feel that on the very next page, Bismarck
+will surely go to the scaffold, or will fall by the dagger of some
+"friend of the people," a thug ever after regarded as the veritable
+Savior of his country for the assassination of the enemy of the common
+people.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The much ridiculed "Divine-right" of kings is cognizable as a right
+based on the survival of the fittest, backed by the sword; filled
+with human weaknesses and shortcomings, but defensible as a system,
+withal; just as the real intent of the words "captain of industry"
+should mean one whose fatherly care over his laborers, his judgment,
+his risk of capital, his foresight in weathering bad times--redounds
+to the immediate prosperity of the workers with whom he can have no
+quarrel.
+
+¶ To those who make light of Bismarck's theory of blood and iron, in
+government, it should be pointed out that all governments that endure,
+regardless of what theory you may work under, in the end fall to the
+strongest;--just as in a family fight the estate goes to the
+strongest, or in a partnership fight, or in religion, science, social
+affairs, love or war, the strong man has his way over the weak; and it
+is still to be proven that the American democracy, which at best is
+only another of manifold experiments in self-government, is to survive
+as long as have in the past royalist ideas--already that have
+persisted for thousands of years.
+
+¶ So, we have invented Democracy out of a thousand costly expenditures
+of blood and treasure. We protest that this latest experiment in
+government is to endure forever more, but not one man in a thousand
+has any real conception of the Democracy in which all men shall work
+for a common National end.
+
+Thus, Democracy is fully as large an experiment as any other in the
+Halls of Time; and today we are still nursing childish ideals,
+attempting to level men by legislation, and incidentally taking
+satisfaction in stoning our public servants, decrying wealth, and
+robbing the individual of any broad conception of responsibility.
+
+
+                                  40
+
+  Parallel elements that make for power in America and Germany.
+
+¶ It is difficult for a certain type of American mind to get
+Bismarck's point of view. This is because of the failure to recognize
+that in whatever respect Absolutism and Republicanism may differ, as
+forms of government, the fact remains that it is society, and not
+human nature, that has been transformed. The old motives, ambition,
+love, war, marriage, pride, prejudice, still sum up underlying
+conditions, however firmly any government may seem to be established,
+called by whatever name, and led by Crown or Crowd. In addition, all
+history forecasts the ultimate ruin of any régime founded on human
+nature.
+
+¶ As between the share which belongs to each man, and the share which
+does not belong to him but to the body politic, expressed in a
+reciprocal concession, upon each side, for the good of the state--that
+dream of governmental idealism has never yet been attained, even in
+free America, to say nothing of Germany, France, England or Russia,
+and men will continue to annex the spoils to their private estates as
+long as men are what they are, at heart.
+
+¶ The elements that make for a desire to grasp power, in free America,
+are essentially the same, though in a different dress, as they were in
+Prussia, in Bismarck's day.
+
+We are wont to dismiss this matter with a shrug and charge all the
+turmoil up to a senseless desire on the part of the King of Prussia to
+force, for his own aggrandizement, his rule on an unwilling people,
+and we therefore call Bismarck a tyrant, as though in this conclusion
+we thus elevated our own virtues by a shuddering "May-God-forbid!"
+sort of recognition of Bismarck's political vices.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The old man had a grand idea just the same; he devoted his life to
+building up a free and united Germany. His intense belief in German
+virtues made his task sacred. He met the desire for a National cause
+and for greater freedom. He had to carry men by storm.
+
+¶ However offensive, politically speaking, may seem in democratic
+America Prussia's "Divine-right" theory, it is a fact that we, also,
+appeal to the god of battles just as Bismarck did. We open our
+Congress with prayers often couched in conceited belief that God is on
+our side; while our historians have repeatedly dwelt on the fact that
+America has a "manifest destiny," a phrase reiterated by editors the
+land over till it has sunk deep into the public conscience. Therefore,
+in democratic America, we avow that we are in the hands of the Lord;
+an idea secretly nourished by millions of Americans who would publicly
+deny that any such Feudal conception as Divine-right of kings could
+possibly exist in related form, in the United States.
+
+Surely we cannot mean that Divinity has anything to do with the
+majorities in an American election?
+
+¶ Then this "manifest destiny" must refer to the ultimate fact that,
+however we may blunder along, in times of crisis the Lord comes forth,
+to lead us out of the wilderness.
+
+It is a familiar line of thought to find Grant, Sherman, and Lincoln
+and others, deified in the American press, as men "miraculously risen"
+in storm and stress to preserve the "manifest destiny" of our Nation.
+
+If there be any logical distinction between this hope on the part of
+millions of loyal Americans, expressing their patriotism in terms of
+Heaven's protective policy, and the attitude of Bismarck in regard to
+his King, as ordained of God, to rule over the Prussian people, then
+it would require a high-power microscope to detect any essential
+variation.
+
+¶ Meantime, we go on building dreadnaughts and inscribe on our coins,
+"In God We Trust."
+
+King William in Bismarck's day refused the people's paper crown of the
+Frankfort assembly, but plotted to have one offered to him by the
+princes of Germany. Was he, logically, any more inconsistent than is
+our own "manifest destiny" conception of America?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ For it is ever the way with strong men to believe themselves the
+Lord's anointed, likewise with strong nations--and democratic America
+is no exception.
+
+"Chinese" Gordon carried with him wood of the real Cross, as he
+believed, and read his Bible day by day, up to the last, confident
+that he was in the charge of some unseen power for good, as against
+the destroying African tribes around Khartum.
+
+Henry M. Stanley's books are honeycombed with appeals to God as his
+guide and protector; he believed that God was with him in "Darkest
+Africa," would see him through at the price of how many negro murders
+it mattered not, warding off fever, discouragement, starvation, and
+standing ever on the white man's side.
+
+In America, where the "Divine-right" of kings is a subject of
+political ridicule, it is a fact that in the courts we raise our right
+hand and swear to tell the whole truth; our marriage ceremonies are
+consecrated; and the last word at the grave is that God is our refuge;
+we have our chaplains who speak of God on our battleships, and in our
+armies; in the Autumn the President of the United States invokes a
+blessing for bountiful crops, and returns the Nation's thanks to God
+for these favors.
+
+¶ All this is no more illogical than that Bismarck should insist that
+the Hohenzollerns, his masters, obtained their right to rule as a
+direct dispensation from high heaven, as against the Hapsburgs, who
+were Prussia's rivals. Bismarck preached his theological-political
+dogma with intense earnestness during his long life; and at last the
+people must have been impressed with his arguments--or was it that he
+forced them to his way of thinking?
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XII
+
+                           By Blood and Iron
+
+
+                                  41
+
+  William I writes his abdication, and is about to quit in
+  disgust; Bismarck says, "Tear that letter up!"
+
+¶ Along about 1857, our poor William IV lost his mind; for four years
+he continued a nervous wreck; his brother, William I, was the sick
+man's representative as Prussian king; and in '61, when William IV
+died, William I became sovereign ruler of pugnacious Prussia.
+
+¶ The common people welcomed William I with open arms, that is to say,
+adoring a fighting man, and long disappointed by the timidity and
+vacillation of kind-hearted William IV, with his church-building plans
+and his Jerusalem bishoprics, it seemed as though the reactionary
+character of Prussian political life might now come to an end.
+
+Frederick's many-sidedness was in sharp contrast to William's
+one-sidedness; Frederick's unfixed decision is now expressed by
+William's unvarying will. Where Frederick had been brilliant and
+imaginative, William was cold and solid.
+
+¶ William was now over sixty, at which age men's lives, as a rule, are
+in eclipse.
+
+Yet this man of destiny had still in store the making of a modern
+Cćsar. He was to become king of kings, ruler of an empire whose
+individual units were commanded not by democrats trying new ambitions;
+but instead, many monarchs were to proclaim, "William, Emperor of
+United Germany!"
+
+¶ This son of Queen Louise, mother of Prussia, was now to justify the
+sacrifices of the great German foster-mother; for as she had labored
+with Scharnhorst to perfect the Prussian military, and in the hour of
+Prussia's extremity dared to confront even the great Napoleon himself,
+likewise her son William was now to complete, years later, the
+mother's ideals.
+
+Where she scattered seed on fallow ground, the son was to reap his
+abundant harvest of Prussian glory.
+
+¶ "Whoever wishes to rule Germany must conquer it; and that cannot be
+done with phrases," wrote William, 22 years before he was crowned at
+Versailles.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ We have seen all manner of Hohenzollerns--robber-knight
+Hohenzollerns--landscape-gardening Hohenzollerns--church-building
+Hohenzollerns--and Hohenzollerns tied to a woman's apron string.
+
+A brave, practical, common-sense Hohenzollern is now head of the
+distinguished Prussian house.
+
+William I is flatly opposed to Liberalism, but is shrewd enough to
+have a moderate Liberal among his kingly advisers; for William
+realizes the political weakness of further constitution-tinkering.
+
+¶ Finally, we have before us a man as obstinate as Bismarck, but
+without Bismarck's creative imagination; a Prussian King reared in the
+army, who loved the army, who understood the army;--even as Bismarck
+understood political intrigue. The combination was unique!
+
+Also, we have here a William of enormous ambition, little suspected
+under his rather conventional innocent-appearing German mask.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ We come now to a place where furious political torrents begin
+beating down the ancestral forests of Germany; torn by flashes of
+lightning and the ominous roll of thunders, the air is filled with
+broken boughs, flying leaves and clouds of dust.
+
+Bismarck, god of thunder, rides upon the furious storm.
+
+Let us closely follow the general track of the hurricane now raging in
+Prussia, more especially in the Prussian Chamber.
+
+¶ In '59, William had appointed von Roon Minister of War; the people
+objected, declaring it another evidence of William's reactionary
+principles. The plan was to increase the army from 130,000 in peace
+and 215,000 in war to 190,000 in peace and 450,000 in war.
+
+It really meant universal military service for Prussia, with 63,000
+recruits each year, practically doubling the service, making it
+possible within a decade to call possibly 1,200,000 soldiers!
+
+¶ The Chamber of Deputies opposed the plan, vigorously. However, the
+Chamber in a patriotic moment had voted army money on condition that
+the increase was only incidental, but William while saying little of
+his plans acted as though his army appropriations were to be
+permanent, henceforth.
+
+¶ Over this question, a bitter controversy! The King took the ground
+that it was the duty of the Deputies to raise the cash in such sums as
+were required for state purposes--whatever these might be, in the
+opinion of the King.
+
+It was conceded that, in military matters, William's judgment was
+good, but the Liberals did not much like these great military
+expenses.
+
+William even thought of breaking the deadlock by abolishing parliament
+and ruling alone, or abdicating his throne!
+
+He had already written out his abdication, so the story goes, and it
+was lying on his desk, all signed, awaiting the moment of
+proclamation.
+
+¶ At the eleventh hour, William bethought himself of an invincible
+fighting man, Otto von Bismarck, widely known for boldness and
+independence.
+
+¶ "I am willing to carry out your policy, whether Parliament is agreed
+or not! I will rather perish with my King than forsake Your Majesty in
+the contest with Parliamentary government!"
+
+¶ And William tore up the abdication paper and replied, "Let's get
+down to business!"
+
+
+                                  42
+
+  The four years' conflict era--Here Bismarck is at last revealed
+  in his true character--King's Man supreme!
+
+¶ Ten years of rough-and-tumble fighting in the blind alleys of
+political intrigue have now prepared Otto von Bismarck for great
+things. In the solemn years to come, all is yet to be dignified by the
+formation of an Empire, through blood and iron.
+
+¶ The King's ambition grew on what it fed upon--a desire for Prussian
+aggrandizement, at all hazards, and the ultimate solution of the
+German problem through Prussian power of arms. He made up his mind,
+accordingly, that he ought to reorganize the army; for this purpose he
+had asked the Chamber for 12,000,000 thalers.
+
+The cat slipped out of the bag, in spite of precautions. This
+12,000,000 thalers was to be used to buy needle-guns and powder, in
+the oncoming War of the Brothers.
+
+¶ Our William I, whatever he might be, was at least no namby-pamby
+sentimentalist. That honest German face, those kindly blue eyes, his
+high complexion, made him look as guileless as a happy school boy; but
+he had his deep desire for place and power, side by side with
+Bismarck.
+
+¶ It was a most fortunate day for this hard-headed unimaginative
+William that Otto von Bismarck, in the Autumn of 1862, accepted the
+Portfolio of Prussian Minister. William wanted a strong man to fight
+the hostile radical deputies for that 12,000,000 thalers, for the
+war-chest.
+
+There is no use casting about for fair words to butter parsnips. The
+long-deferred irrepressible War of the Brothers was determined upon;
+and the Prussian dynasty was to wade through seas of blood to the
+heights of glory; and the purpose was ever to end this age-old German
+family strife.
+
+¶ William I is deservedly a great German national hero. He is the true
+father of his country.
+
+¶ We see nothing to criticise. The situation is very human; and the
+leading actors play their difficult parts with discrimination. In your
+own life's conquests, do you do any more, and often do you not do
+less? Is it not true in your own life that you have to fight for what
+you achieve? Truly, the world belongs to him who seizes it. William
+knew this; Bismarck certainly knew it; and in this respect the two
+great men were agreed. So far, good. In broad outline the plan was to
+make the Prussian dynastic government rule over territorial United
+Germany; but it must come with the consent of the rulers of the
+independent German states and not through decrees of people's
+parliaments or the howlings of mobs.
+
+¶ As for Bismarck, he was the one man of the hour for black
+situations. His schooling in human nature had progressed amazingly.
+For the past ten years, at Frankfort, at St. Petersburg, at Paris, at
+Vienna, Bismarck had fallen afoul of all leading political strategists
+of Europe, men gloating over the problem of annexing to their private
+estates the divided German thirty-nine states: Bismarck had studied
+the individual line of battle of Frenchman, Russian, Italian, Dane,
+Briton, to say nothing of the ambitions of princelings, counts,
+deputies, margraves, prelates, poets, and political hen-coop
+makers;--knew too, how at the critical moment to block their
+individual games and just when to give his own deadly knockout--either
+above or below the belt!
+
+¶ During his period of preparation, as we have seen, for twenty years
+Bismarck had consistently preached "Divine-right," stood for what he
+called "Christian monarchy."
+
+For years, also, it appeared that the thing was for Prussia to enter
+into a close political union with Austria, but now Bismarck was
+convinced that he must fight Austria. Fight or shake hands were the
+same to the giant Otto; the thing was to win, if not in one way then
+in another! Otto, after his Frankfort experiences saw clearly
+Austria's under-play to dominate the political situation; and in turn
+felt himself called upon to check Austrian ambition in favor of his
+liege lord, the Margrave of Brandenburg, the King of Prussia.
+
+¶ Finally, Bismarck's great chance came. William asked Bismarck to
+force the army bill.
+
+Now indeed will the giant rage, snapping his teeth in the face of the
+hurricane,--yes, four long years he is to rule without color of law.
+
+
+                                  43
+
+  On comes the storm--Not by speechmaking but by blood and iron
+  are the great questions to be decided, says Bismarck!
+
+¶ At least, we admit that William I was a thoroughbred Hohenzollern in
+innate admiration of the iron fist!
+
+Now this was the situation: The secret war-chest against Austria had
+to be filled in one way or another; but the difficulty was found in
+the fact that the common people, acting under a mysterious instinct
+not to be explained but very real withal, had already begun to show
+unrest about an approaching War of the Brothers, as the
+sentimentalists called the irrepressible conflict between Austria and
+Prussia. The upshot was that Bismarck's political secrets while not
+definitely understood in detail, were quite generally divined by close
+students of the German problem. The Liberals were intent on their own
+interests, in Prussia, and believed that their political solution
+depended on hampering the King, regardless of his cause. Hence the
+Liberal deputies of the Chamber spunkily stood out against William's
+heavy demands for cannon and gunpowder.
+
+¶ Bismarck, as King's Minister, had to face the political storm. He
+did not dare to say that he wanted the money for war; he wanted the
+money--was not that enough?
+
+Thereupon, Bismarck proceeded to domineer over the delegates.
+
+The Chamber was willing to do something, but how about the rumor that
+these huge appropriations are to be hereafter a permanent item in the
+budget? Bismarck would not make the delegates' minds easy; he wanted
+money, much money, 12,000,000 thalers in fact, for the army--and the
+least the delegates could do was to vote the funds. If they did not
+give the cash gracefully, why he would coerce the deputies--that was
+all!
+
+¶ "It is not by speechifying and majorities," he thundered, "that the
+great questions of the time will be decided--that was the great
+mistake in '48 and in '49,--BUT BY BLOOD AND IRON."
+
+¶ Members of the Chamber shrank in horror.
+
+There were extremely powerful and learned men there, to combat
+Bismarck's point of view, and our political conspirator on his
+emperor-hunt had to listen to some of the most merciless rebukes he
+was ever to hear, during his long and highly exciting career. But he
+took them all, without a whimper.
+
+¶ "We have too many Catalines existing among us that have an interest
+in social uprisings," Bismarck thundered. "Germany considers not the
+Liberalists of Prussia, but her own power. Bavaria, Wuertemberg and
+Baden may flirt with liberalism, but no German would think on that
+account of asking them to assume the rôle of Prussia. Prussia must
+brace herself, for the fitter moment. Prussia's borders are not
+favorable to the development of a healthy state."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The giant Pomeranian King's Man with his turbulent support of his
+monarch, now advanced reasons to show his side, and concluded by
+mocking his hearers to do their worst.
+
+¶ "What matter if they hang me, provided the rope binds this new
+Germany more firmly to the throne?"
+
+¶ A few days after this sensational defiance of Democratic leaders,
+Bismarck announced his decision: "We shall carry on the finances of
+the state without the conditions provided for in the Constitution."
+
+¶ Bismarck was not surprised at the storms of protest. "Some
+progressive journals hope to see me picking oakum for the benefit of
+the state." The comic newspapers pictured Bismarck as a ballet dancer,
+pirouetting over eggs marked Right, Law, Order, Reform, Constitution.
+
+¶ The King became alarmed.
+
+¶ "I see how this will end," said the King. "Over there, near the
+opera house, in front of my windows, they will cut off your head, and
+mine a little afterwards."
+
+¶ "And after that, sire?" asked Bismarck spunkily.
+
+¶ "After that, why we shall be dead!"
+
+¶ "Oh, well, all must die," cut in Bismarck indifferently, "and the
+question is can a man die more honorably than for his country? I am
+fighting for your cause, and you are sealing with your own blood your
+rights as King, by the grace of God.
+
+¶ "Your Majesty is bound to fight! You cannot capitulate! You must,
+even at the risk of bodily danger, go forth to meet any attempt at
+coercion!"
+
+¶ As Bismarck spoke, the King grew more and more animated. "He began
+to assume the part of one fighting for kingdom and fatherland," wrote
+Bismarck, in explaining the situation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The giant's very soul glowed with fiery indignation. It was not in
+his nature to hesitate, as to means. He wanted these 12,000,000
+thalers for the army--and was not that enough? True, he could not say
+in the open that he wished to expel Austria--but must an elephant step
+on your foot?
+
+¶ He had no scruples, moral or material; such are for lesser men.
+Hamlet-questioning princes, if you please, may soliloquize on life and
+its inner meaning; but not your Otto von Bismarck, with his clear
+view of the little lives of men and with his correct conviction that
+if the intervening thirty-nine German states are to be made a unit in
+a German Empire, then under Heaven or under Hell, the thirty-nine
+states must be seized, even in a hurricane of bullets if necessary.
+Could anything be simpler? Had not the "German problem," as it was
+called, been talked to death generation after generation, and had not
+lawyers, poets, preachers, philosophers and petty princes unnumbered
+come and gone with their impossible enterprises looking to National
+glory and political legitimacy?
+
+¶ Bismarck was, as usual, everlastingly correct in his political
+instincts; and furthermore he had the iron will to power to support
+him in this great Prussian conflict; yes, and the wizardry in
+manipulating human nature that, in the end, would cause even
+obstinate, opposed political leaders to do our giant's bidding.
+
+¶ What he demanded was absolute, blind, unquestioning obedience from
+this Assembly; then, the Prussian army must fight like fiends; and
+lastly, he would take personal responsibility for the issue. Mahommet
+himself never urged war on Christian dogs with more zeal than did this
+fiery Bismarck, battling with his own German kind. To shame them, to
+beat them over their backs with hot irons if necessary--anything would
+he do to force Prussia to fight Austria, and arouse thus with a sense
+of blood-brotherhood the thirty-nine states, for Germany's great
+glory. This was his religion--and do you now get the man behind it?
+
+¶ Of course, it was all cleverly masked under the plea of Prussian
+army reforms, pure and simple, and in general the fight between
+Bismarck and the Chamber seemed to turn on the right of a Minister to
+force appropriations for the support of the government, regardless of
+parliamentary unwillingness. Bismarck held to his general principle
+that the Deputies had no authority to refuse the King funds to enlarge
+the army. The deputies were pledged to support the government, not to
+starve or ignore it, was Bismarck's contention.
+
+¶ The Liberals raged and stormed, called him "demented Bismarck,"
+"Napoleon worshiper," "hollow braggart," "a country gentleman of
+moderate political training, inconsistent, nonchalant, insolent to a
+degree;--pray when did Bismarck ever express a political thought?"
+
+King William's choice was exceedingly unpopular, but between Von Roon
+and Bismarck there was now to be set up the most efficient military
+instrument known to history; that is to say, an all-powerful Prussian
+army of gigantic proportions, armed with the newly-invented
+needle-guns. Such was to be Von Roon's contribution. Bismarck's was to
+arouse at home the slumbering great "German National sentiment" that
+made failure impossible, at the front. Under God, Bismarck believed in
+the justness of his cause.
+
+¶ In the interim, before the first cannon was to roar, Bismarck, the
+political wizard, was to tie the hands of every other European
+monarch--either by bribes, idle promises or what you will--that the
+war might be fought to a finish without hazard of Allies coming to the
+rescue of the Emperor on the South.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The parliamentary debaters who thundered against Bismarck came on
+with all manner of attacks. The learned v. Sybel, the great authority
+on the French revolution, cried out his many historical warnings; Dr.
+Virchow, known for his work on skeletons of the mammoth, battled along
+other historical lines; Dr. Gneist, the very learned member, exclaimed
+in a burst of moral indignation, "This army reorganization of yours
+has the marks of Cain on its brow!" And to this insulting speech, von
+Roon immediately replied, "That speech of yours bears the stamp of
+arrogance and impudence!" Virchow challenged Bismarck to a duel, for
+defamatory remarks on the doctor's scientific attainments. To this
+Bismarck replied:
+
+¶ "I am past the time of life when one takes advice from flesh and
+blood, in such things as now confront us. When I stake my life for a
+matter, I do so in that faith which I have strengthened by long and
+severe struggling--but also in honest and humble prayer to God, a
+faith which no word of man, even that of friend in Christ and servant
+of his church, can overthrow!"
+
+¶ Magnificent, magnificent you are, at this supreme moment, you big
+bull-dog Bismarck, and you can whip them three to one, when the great
+day comes.
+
+¶ Bismarck gained in power as he exercised his strength. He kept
+Prussia steady during the perilous times of the Crimean war; even
+urged an alliance with the French--think of that!--to gain secret ends
+for Prussia; but the Prussian king, who hated rulers of revolutionary
+origin, was opposed to Bismarck's master-scheme; that is to say,
+William held in contempt Napoleon III, hero of the trick, known as the
+coup d'etat, which won a crown. But Bismarck had no such scruples.
+
+At St. Petersburg, Bismarck won the Czar--for which the liberals hated
+Otto the more. His arts of diplomacy were expanding in all directions.
+
+Foreshadowing the war with Austria, Bismarck planned to keep Italy,
+France, Russia, England and Belgium quiet by various intrigues of
+politics--and how well he succeeded we shall learn later on.
+
+
+                                  44
+
+  The storm increases--Bismarck decides to defy the Chamber and
+  rule alone!
+
+¶ In the general turmoil, along comes a fanatic named Cohen, who
+attempts to kill Bismarck.
+
+This was in May, 1866. The war broke within thirty days! Cohen fired
+point-blank three shots, and there was a personal struggle. The giant
+coolly handed the would-be murderer over to the guards, then went
+home. His greeting to his wife was characteristic. "They have tried
+even to kill me, my dear, but do not mind, no harm has been done. Let
+us go out to dinner."
+
+It was a time of assassins and their plots follow. Struck down by the
+police, Ferd Cohen, step-son of Karl Blind, meets in the eyes of the
+Democrats a martyr's death; his body is crowned with flowers, as
+though the corpse were a consecration of Prussian Liberalism on the
+altar of liberty.
+
+The frenzy takes still other forms; suicide cults become notorious;
+here and there, we read that some lunatic patriot "seeks voluntary
+death, for the sacred cause of the people."
+
+¶ And as for Cohen, ladies of high degree bring flowers, soldiers of
+the common cause wear on their coats his picture crowned with oak
+leaves. The cult of murder, with Bismarck as the arch enemy in the
+centre of the picture, was indulged to prevent what was termed the War
+of the Brothers.
+
+¶ "I believe," rumbled the granite rock Bismarck, with frowning clouds
+around his brow, "I do solemnly believe in victory--whether or not I
+shall live to see it!" This speech was regarded as little short of
+blasphemy!
+
+¶ Bismarck now spoke more than ever of God, and of high German
+convictions. There was always grave danger of ingratitude, of
+insufficiency of time and place, but he certainly thought God on his
+side.
+
+¶ What lashed Bismarck into fury was the contention that the Crown and
+the two Chambers were equal, in political legitimacy.
+
+¶ "All constitutional life," roared Bismarck, "is based on
+constitutional compromises."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Day after day, Bismarck, the Prussian bull-dog, and von Roon, the
+terrifying drill-master, would appear at the Chamber, on the oak bench
+in full view of the angry deputies. Time and again, through political
+jugglery, angry members attempted to oust the Minister, but Bismarck
+was equal to every occasion. He actually ruled for four years without
+a legal budget. He conceded that point, too. He set up that it was his
+solemn sworn duty to support his King, and since the Chamber refused
+to vote the 12,000,000 thalers, why, it became the Minister's duty to
+get the money, by fair means or by foul.
+
+¶ And get it, he did!
+
+It was all wretchedly unconstitutional--of this there is no doubt.
+Bismarck never made any pretenses on that score. After the Austrian
+war, an act of "immunity" was passed, in his behalf.
+
+¶ From quarreling about the secret war-chest, the disputants next
+began a mighty wrangling about rules. Bismarck's points were always
+ingenious. He averred that, as King's Minister, he was "in" the
+parliament but not "of" it. "Ministers must always be listened to with
+respect," he contended. Thus, he forced the unwilling Radicals to
+listen to his bellowing, in behalf of the Brothers' War.
+
+¶ Bismarck construed in his own favor every blessed rule brought up to
+oust him. The Minister was exempt from the Chamber's dominations, he
+insisted in a hundred ways.
+
+Violent scenes followed. The King sent long messages endorsing his
+fighting man; the Liberal press took up the cry, in support of
+Parliament; and thereupon Bismarck promptly muzzled the press.
+
+¶ Our Otto is now becoming the best-hated man not only in Prussia but
+in all Europe.
+
+The deputies were brow-beaten, legislative officials intimidated with
+threats.
+
+¶ The climax came on that day of hubbub when angry members, swarming
+around Bismarck and von Roon, were sent back by von Roon's thunderous
+defiance. Pointing to the gangway before his bench, he hissed, "Thus
+far and no farther!"
+
+¶ The real reason why Bismarck fought the Chamber for four long years
+so desperately for the 12,000,000 thalers, to be used against Austria,
+was this: On one hand he wished to nullify the importance of the
+Prussian Parliament, and especially in the matter of dictation to the
+King, either under the Constitution or not; also, to thrust at the
+same time, Austria out of the German body of the nation.
+
+¶ He became a fanatic on the subject of expelling Austria from
+Germany! He had no scruples, stopped at nothing, paused at nothing;
+and at the right moment defied the Chamber, smashed the Prussian
+Constitution that would restrain the King's action in peace or
+war--and ruled alone!
+
+¶ There are few parallels in history of a stronger man.
+
+¶ Looked at in a large way, we are forced to conclude that the German
+masses were not ready to believe, at this moment, in Bismarck's Old
+Testament faith in a God of Battles. To fulfil the Bismarckian
+political ideal, there was essential an implied humility on part of
+the people; and this attitude of submission and renunciation was a sin
+against the spirit of '48. Bismarck's idea of political efficiency was
+also by no means worked out in detail; it had yet to find a place for
+the tailor, the shoemaker and the barber, side by side with the King
+of Prussia; even that miracle was ultimately accomplished, but at the
+present hour the street-bred people felt it their solemn duty to get
+up and howl, and to profess to know nothing of political efficiency,
+wherever kings were concerned.
+
+¶ At all times, the speeches of the crowd in the market-place were
+blatant enough, but there was also an unrecognized undercurrent of
+courage and patriotism passing with the flood that was to mean much to
+Germany, in days to come. The cause of the crowd was really an early
+form of our vital modernist democratic movement, not to be put down
+nor yet shut out; all political life was to be revalued, also all new
+ideas of political happiness were to be henceforth tested by their
+virility and actuality, cutting away completely bookish ideals.
+
+¶ The part that lagged was this: leaders of the people were soon
+over-engaged, so to say, with the many-sided aspects and problems of
+the new political leadership; the German compatriots failed at this
+time to realize their obligations to a German Empire, to be; the
+people's politicians were still insular with little or no
+consciousness of the great German National destiny just around the
+bend of the road. Thus, Bismarck's function was to force the people to
+join the National movement--do so as it were in spite of themselves;
+and when Bismarck fought back and called the people fools, he did not
+pause there, but stopped at nothing to lead a hitherto indifferent
+people to warlike patriotism over the Austrian question--over which
+they had gabbled and slept for years. Bismarck's unity of purpose for
+the Fatherland deftly combined sordid as well as exalted motives.
+
+¶ And the demands Bismarck finally made on German character were not
+in vain. For years, however, he was looked upon as an ogre in the eyes
+of the masses, who misread his patriotism for jingoism in behalf of
+the King of Prussia.
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XIII
+
+                          The Dream of Empire
+
+
+                                  45
+
+  Bismarck tricks them all--and by under-play matches King
+  against King.
+
+¶ Von Roon had the soldiers up at 4 o'clock in the morning,
+incessantly drilling for the oncoming War of the Brothers. The deadly
+needle-guns--von Roon's secret--were relied on to do superior work in
+the impending great crisis.
+
+¶ Blood and iron--yes, that is the thing!
+
+¶ About this time, Bismarck executes another master-stroke. He decides
+to intervene in Poland, in favor of Russia; and certainly he has now
+to face a "word of wrath."
+
+England sets up a cry, "Stop thief!" Exeter Hall statesmen,
+"brotherhood of man" type, begin tearful whinings.
+
+¶ Louis Napoleon tries to form an alliance between England and
+Austria, and England offers gold for a copy of the Russo-Prussian
+agreement, affecting Poland. Spies were everywhere.
+
+¶ Well, 10,000 Poles perish in the sacred cause of liberty, but mark:
+That in helping Russia Bismarck is laying the foundation for Russia's
+neutrality in the coming master-stroke against Austria. What do the
+lives of 10,000 Poles weigh in the balance beside the great strategic
+necessities to encompass Bismarck's idea of a United Germany? We do
+believe that Bismarck has the only practical solution, let nominal
+Christians say what they will.
+
+¶ The next step, to bribe France, is brought about craftily, through a
+customs' arrangement; and when some of the German states object,
+Bismarck replies: "You go my way or go your own way, alone!"
+
+Also, Italy has to be quieted by soothing promises!
+
+¶ Austria now sets up more wind-baggery and gold lace, in the form of
+a new parliament, but Bismarck counters with a "proposed German
+parliament"--a spurious affair to be sure, but the scare has its
+weight.
+
+¶ Dark and intricate diplomacy here passes before the eyes. Austria
+fails in her Congress of Sovereigns, and is anxious likewise to
+retrieve her losses in the Italian war. Bismarck at least knows that
+Austria henceforth is powerless to inflame German states against
+Prussia, also that the growth of Liberalism, within Austria's own
+domains, is again keeping her very busy.
+
+¶ Cast your eyes toward Paris. Louis the Little is secretly plotting
+with both sides--Bismarck's spies tell all to the old man up in
+Berlin! Secretly, Louis feels that Prussia will be defeated; the
+French Emperor aims at what he calls the balance of power--by which he
+means that while the two big dogs are fighting, he will slip in and
+steal the bone? Exactly that!
+
+¶ Many years later, Bismarck writing of this period, makes this
+confession:
+
+¶ "Napoleon secretly thought that if Austria and Prussia clashed,
+Austria would win and then France would step in and 'protect' Prussia;
+later on, in return for the price of her French favor, Napoleon III
+believed he could make such terms as he wished with our Prussia."
+
+¶ Thus, up to the decisive battle of Sadowa, or Koeniggraetz, France
+remains politely bowing and scraping to both sides--while having her
+understanding with each side.
+
+Napoleon feels that he will in time be asked to intervene, and for his
+help he will take a slice of the Rhineland.
+
+Bismarck did not undeceive France--mark that well! Later in life, the
+Man of Blood and Iron, taunted with the charge of attempting to give
+away German territory, made a strong "diplomatic" defense. He
+fearlessly produced the draft of a proposed treaty showing that France
+was conniving to acquire Belgium, through the under-play of politics,
+aided by Bismarck.
+
+The amusing part was Bismarck's solemn reply, "The treaty was drawn up
+by Napoleon himself, and was offered to me for signature!"
+
+Also, to show that he is disinterested, Napoleon now proposes that the
+"differences" between Prussia and Austria be settled by a European
+congress. Austria hangs back, although England and Russia join to ask
+for the Congress of Settlement.
+
+
+                                  46
+
+  1864-1866--Prussian domination essential in all Bismarck's
+  plans--Consistent in his inconsistencies.
+
+¶ The difficulties of Bismarck's position are not to be ascribed to
+the fact that, first and foremost, he desired to re-establish
+confidence in the Feudal theory of Divine-right of kings. His
+life-long plans had to do with increasing the power of Prussia and he
+preached the legitimacy of his loyal master's house as an American
+politician is wont to eulogize the services of the "grand old
+Republican party," or "the great principles of Jefferson," or boasts
+that he is "progressive and independent," whatever that may mean.
+
+In each case, the appeal is to a given audience, with the hope of
+adding to the following.
+
+¶ The logic of hereditary influences placed Bismarck squarely in line
+as King's Man; and to his credit be it said that he consistently
+preached one gospel throughout his long political life.
+
+But his alignment with kings was more than mere opportunism, as too
+often is the case in America, among the "people's" leaders.
+
+Bismarck honestly believed that the logic of events precluded any
+change in rulership over the Prussian people; and in his larger view
+Prussian domination must eventually spread over the German states,
+uniting them in one country--as they were already united by blood and
+by languages.
+
+¶ That he battled with Austria, the rival for the good will of the
+German states, is easily explained. It is not human nature for any
+man to yield what to him promises to turn out an advantage.
+
+That the sovereigns of Prussia held their crown upon the principle of
+Divine-right, was construed also to impose obligations; and it was
+part of the theory that the King and his advisers must see to it that
+the land is used for the common good. The King of Prussia swore to
+"Divine-right to the soil; swore to defend it; swore to improve it,
+for the benefit of all."
+
+¶ Furthermore, the old-time German political idealism in which brother
+was supposed to shake hands with brother, sung by the poet Arndt, in
+his romantic semi-religious lyrics of liberty, was through the recent
+German revolution (1848) replaced by a new type of positivist German,
+intent on money-success, business affairs, economic achievements.
+
+The century-long dreams of National unity based on idealistic
+speeches, poetry, romantic phrase-mongering, was now slowly to yield
+to a new spirit; and believers in German Unity came to see that
+Prussian supremacy held all there was, in a practical way, of possible
+German centralization. Bismarck certainly saw it very clearly and
+acted accordingly in his future political appeals and alignments.
+
+¶ Prussia had early led in the practical business of clearing the
+Chinese-walls that had bound many of the petty states; the Zollverein
+or customs' union, begun in 1818, as heretofore explained, grew in
+power with the extension of Prussian railroads and telegraphs; the
+Prussian capitalistic middle-classes, intent on building up the family
+fortunes, had prospered in proportion as the customs' union had been
+extended, under Prussian domination; and accordingly in 1849 Bismarck,
+as soon as Prussia had been placed herself at the head of this
+Business Union, began scheming as never before to win German Unity
+through economic as well as patriotic arguments.
+
+For one thing, Bismarck henceforth studied to put himself on even
+terms with the commercial interests in the 39 jealous states. The
+leaders of Liberalism were, as a rule, men of theoretical rather than
+practical ideas; essentially a cultured élite, as it were, engaged in
+babbling about German Constitutions, German fraternal alignments and
+impossible German peace-parliaments.
+
+¶ True, the good faith of patriots opposed to Bismarck is undisputed;
+but the King's Man was a man with an exceedingly strong will and with
+immense practical common sense to support his own ideas; a man who to
+bring about his beneficent plan of German Unity followed his flag even
+through three great wars.
+
+This will of iron was exercised for the National good; and on the
+whole exercised wisely. He went on with his schemings for many years,
+from day to day making the best use of the material at hand; with
+well-nigh infallible instinct seizing on the very forces that were
+essential in years to come to the realization of his ultimate dream.
+
+¶ Little by little he set aside the professorial class, and the
+cultured élite politicians, and the theoretical constitution-makers;
+in their places he brought forward hard-headed middle-class
+capitalists, on one side, and the supreme military and landed Prussian
+aristocracy, on the other side; and after overcoming gigantic
+obstacles made clear to the average German peasant that both wealth
+and authority were to be properly sustained in the old thorough-going
+German fashion only by having no more to do with semi-spiritual,
+politico-idealistic aims and purposes; also, that through Bismarck's
+proposed new type of Unity the peasant on one side and the King on the
+other could rise to even higher worldly positions without setting
+aside safe old lines of respect for authority through a Divine-right
+king, at the same time sharing the royal power with a great and
+essentially democratic public opinion. Thus, Bismarck's German
+National enterprise, although not thoroughly understood for many
+years, was found at last to support in every particular the ancient
+German tradition of a strong fighting man, as leader of a free people.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ That Bismarck was proud and old-fashioned he made his boast, his
+joy, his strength.
+
+Opponents held him up to obloquy, picturing his ideas as prehistoric,
+even antediluvian; but Bismarck stood the prick of honor; as King's
+Man he insisted in numberless arguments, far and wide, that behind the
+Divine-right idea was not only a sentimental but a practical side. At
+any rate, the King's Man was everlastingly against any movement that
+looked like French mob-rule.
+
+¶ As time passed, Bismarck learned gradually that he need not hesitate
+to throw himself fearlessly forward, with this Divine-right as a
+leverage, to express the legitimacy of the royal house for which he
+battled.
+
+In the final analysis he was secretly fortified by his instinctive
+knowledge of the peculiar political idiosyncrasies of Prussians; how
+dog-like in the final analysis is their submission to the political
+conception of the Over-man who rules by Divine-right.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ It was to this National faith that Bismarck was constantly
+addressing himself--this loyalty to a paternalistic idea--and his
+attitude was much the same as that of the Chinese in their worship of
+ancestors, or of an American who preserves his family record.
+
+Bismarck was urging family unity among quarreling German sons and
+daughters; and as is the case in all family feuds, the intrinsic
+merits of the controversy were often overlooked and the time taken in
+an endeavor to inflict personal humiliations.
+
+¶ Bismarck was essentially appealing to National honor, which he
+placed higher than absolutism or republicanism, tyranny or democracy.
+By National honor, he meant the German conception of an over-lord for
+a ruler, preferably one with a strong military record.
+
+Herein, we touch the core of Bismarck's strength, the measure of his
+greatness.
+
+When a man fights, on honor, for institutions which his forefathers
+slowly fostered and sustained through six hundred years of strife, the
+question of his rights or his wrongs is merged into the larger
+question of chivalry.
+
+¶ If there were no other gift which might be set up to justify for
+Bismarck a commanding position among the world's great figures, his
+conception of National honor, based on powerful personal convictions,
+his inheritance, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh--utterly apart
+from the French mob-rule idea of liberty expressed in license--Bismarck's
+plea for the National honor of Prussia, as the custodian of ancient
+German traditions, suffices to stamp Bismarck as the true custodian of
+German political tradition of his age.
+
+¶ To this might reasonably be added another claim which in our broad
+view of Bismarck's character we here demand for him as one of the
+world's great men--courage of the bull-dog type, not altogether
+unselfish, but courage and remarkable consistency; standing the acid
+test of self-sacrifice during thirty-odd years' vexatious delays in
+attaining his goal; a period of probation certainly long enough to try
+the stoutest heart.
+
+¶ With qualities of this supreme order, far outside average human
+nature, Bismarck at last prepared himself to win his surprising fight
+for a United Germany; incidentally stamping himself, his power and his
+purpose high among the great Germans of all time, from Charlemagne
+down.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ To understand these ideas, let us for the moment look forward as
+well as backward. Let us speak in general terms, along the lines of
+the realistic politics, that Bismarck was maturing, as against the
+old-time German sentimental idealism, once the political hope of
+Unity.
+
+
+                                  47
+
+  Bismarck's whole message turns on the urgency of faith among
+  the German people; his idea, that United Germany must be
+  achieved by faith, alone!
+
+¶ Bismarck had the well-nigh impossible task of organizing and
+inspiring a common political faith in 25,000,000 people, divided by
+religious, climatic and personal differences. That at times he utterly
+failed to meet the situation except by political hypocrisy, is merely
+to say that in addition to being a warrior and ultimately the
+conqueror of a continent, he always kept within hailing distance of
+human nature; for when he could not win his way with a kiss, he gained
+it with a curse.
+
+¶ In the final analysis he won, largely because of stirring faith in
+the German states.
+
+With faith, what can a nation not do: If the United States, today, had
+deathless belief in the destiny of the Republic that Americans
+emphasize in their worship of the Golden Calf, a bloodless revolution
+for a higher standard of political thought would take place over
+night.
+
+The difficulty is that with the average American National faith is
+dead.
+
+He has come to the conclusion that he has no stake in the Government,
+that in short he is a victim to the machinations of plutocrats.
+
+To read the American point of view, (1915) we, today, no less than the
+Prussians and the Austrians, in Bismarck's time, are also about to
+spring at each other's throats! There is little sentiment for National
+unity; it is the East against the West, in Congress, and in the
+newspapers it is the people against the plutocrats.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Bismarck's career affords a classical instance, in these poor times,
+of what a strong man, with faith in himself and his cause, can do
+against all manner of obstacles.
+
+Faith in himself was the essence of his power. Over and over, he made
+clear that he regarded himself in God's hands, doing God's work, but
+on what specific evidence he based this profound conclusion no human
+being knows beyond Bismarck's own assertion. However, that power urged
+him on. Naturally, in turn, the fire kindled by faith in himself at
+last stimulated faith in a people, numbering some twenty-five
+millions; a people who in the main had up to this time been political
+atheists to Bismarck's dogma of a United Germany. This idea of faith
+is a fact of such vast import that we dare not pass it lightly by.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ By an almighty wave of faith in themselves the German people ceased
+playing the political craven; came out boldly for what they hold to be
+their too long deferred birthright!
+
+Here, the mental attitude of the German people passes beyond the
+dogmas of politics or social intercourse whatsoever; it merges into a
+mysterious world of reality, close and near yet baffling to describe;
+expressing itself in an invincible National faith, now about to burst
+forth, at last, and sweep all before it!
+
+¶ This mental phenomenon exists in various forms, but the animating
+impulse is ever the same.
+
+The hymn-singing of Charles and John Wesley, whose appeals to
+religious emotionalism filled the fields of England with tens of
+thousands of weeping, shouting men and women, vastly excited as to the
+state of their souls, is a type of faith beginning in a small way and
+attaining National proportions. No historian could write adequately
+the history of England without crediting great changes to the work of
+the Wesley psalm-singers; women tearing off their jewels; men rising
+in the multitude and calling on God to witness that henceforth their
+lives would be pure and unsullied by sin; while under the excitement
+murderers came forward and confessed crimes known only to themselves.
+
+¶ Oh, this German National faith that Frederick the Great so
+gloriously began; that Louise fostered and sustained; that the poet
+Arndt set to hymns; that the great von Humboldt in his own peculiar
+way saw from afar; that the German students apostrophied; that William
+III figured to himself in his church-building; that von Stein
+discerned vaguely; that William I emphasized in his cold-blooded,
+clear-eyed manner of the soldier; that von Sybel fought for; that
+scores, nay, hundreds and thousands of noble men and women, utterly
+apart from political chicanery, did indeed long for with all the
+fervor of their earnest God-fearing German nature; Bismarck stands in
+the centre, here and now!
+
+¶ It is true that he is not as yet accepted, but he is biding his
+time; he is looked on with suspicion, but he fronts the scorn of the
+rabble, in the end to beat the doubters into submission, against their
+own will.
+
+¶ This newly awakened German National faith was really a very old
+German faith that had never died, although for years forgotten; the
+longing for the Fatherland was always there.
+
+¶ Through love of home, through worship of ancestry and through
+respect for constituted authority in church and state, that is by
+"German national faith," Bismarck touched the chord that made his
+life-work possible. The stimulus of three great wars, presented by
+Bismarck as sanctified by God, finally did the business.
+
+¶ He knew that in all Germans is a certain generosity of character
+which when appealed to in the right way made them eager to take the
+chance of death on the battlefield.
+
+¶ Bismarck played the positive as well as the negative side of this
+psychological fact. On the negative side, he stirred men with the idea
+that social ostracism rests on the man who in times of National danger
+tries to avoid the draft.
+
+¶ Bismarck's work thus shows him to be the great constructive poet of
+his time. He placed war before his fellow man in such a way that it
+was held a sweet privilege to die for one's land, which interpreted
+means Bismarck's idea of a new territorial arrangement of the map of
+Europe.
+
+¶ There was race prejudice behind his deeper plans. He made much of
+the fact that within a given area the German language was spoken,
+whereas while there were millions of German-speaking people in Austria
+there were also Slavs, Czechs, Bohemians and mongrel races.
+
+¶ The idea of brotherhood based on blood and language finally
+prevailed over the idea of the confraternity of races. Make as much
+out of this as you will, but the basic fact is incontestible.
+
+¶ Some 80,000 men perished to sustain Bismarck's peculiar conception
+of United Germany. Through the turmoil and misery of these three wars
+he had his way, and being at last successful, he suddenly became the
+most popular man in Europe, idolized by the millions who a little
+while before had reviled his name as the enemy of the Democrats.
+
+¶ Such is human nature.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Perhaps, after all, German National faith is only another name for
+the tremendous earnestness that set the whole land ablaze with
+singleness of purpose, consecrated to a high cause.
+
+Bismarck in a very real sense because of faith in himself and in his
+ultimate cause, directed this National faith in the Fatherland and won
+thereby a magnificent United Germany. If we do not grasp the
+significance of this unseen but gigantic National German faith, as
+expressed in the increasing unity of will of the whole people, harked
+on by Prussia, we might as well close the book on Bismarck--and know
+him not.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ To comprehend, somewhat, the firm roots of racial strength, as
+expressed by German National faith, let us for the moment pass from
+the 1840's, '50's and '60's, which we are now endeavoring to present
+with their psychological message of faith, and turn our eyes to the
+year 1914, when Germany and Austria, no longer enemies, now battle
+side by side, against armed forces of the world--British, Russian,
+Italian, Servian, French, Australian, East Indian, African, Belgian,
+Canadian, and Japanese!
+
+The sustaining spirit in this life-and-death struggle, as in the wars
+that made Germany an empire, is bulwarked on German National faith.
+
+¶ For Germans are no longer soft-hearted heroes of lyrical poetry, as
+depicted by Arndt! They are men of blood and iron.
+
+¶ Bismarck's mother threw her wedding ring into the public melting pot
+for the benefit of the War Fund of 1813 and received in exchange a
+ring of iron; and thousands of German women did the same; and
+Bismarck's wife exchanged her gold ring for one of iron, for the War
+Fund of '66. Tens of thousands of German women did likewise, not only
+in Germany, but in foreign lands, wherever hearts beat for the
+Fatherland.
+
+They did it in 1813, and in 1864, and in 1866, and in 1870;--and again
+in 1914!
+
+¶ For example, in the great war of 1914, Baroness von Ropp,
+granddaughter of Geo. Ebers, Germany's most foremost woman novelist,
+cries out for her country in the accents of true German nationality,
+the self-same spirit which Arndt stimulated in days of French and
+Austrian domination. And since it is this elusive spirit that we are
+endeavoring to bring home to you, in grasping the higher significance
+of Bismarck's work, and its true inner meaning, we quote freely from a
+private letter penned by the Baroness, from Magdeburg, August, 1914.
+
+Ilse Hahn-Ropp did not write for publication, and therefore her words
+have the more weight.
+
+¶ "On the first day of mobilization I traveled to Magdeburg to say
+farewell to my husband, who was leaving for France. I had three hours;
+then I had to take the last train out of town. From that time only
+military trains were running. Shall I ever forget that ride? It was as
+though we were living in another world. People were standing in the
+cars closely packed together; but not a word of complaint. Each one
+felt he was no longer an individual--but a German! Rich and poor,
+nobles and peasants, talked together as brothers. Each had the deep
+conviction that this war had been forced upon us, and that every one
+must throw his whole strength into the scales, for victory.
+
+¶ "Ceaselessly, military trains roll by, crowded with soldiers in gala
+uniforms, burning to reach the enemy. I hear them all night long from
+my parents' home--those wheels rolling, rolling westward; no hurry, no
+confusion; the mighty machine moves majestically on its way. Show us
+another nation which could duplicate that spectacle!
+
+¶ "And then, from a thousand throats, rose 'Die Wacht am Rhein.' It
+was overpowering--irresistible. This mighty anthem, from the lips of
+soldiers going out to battle!
+
+¶ "It was thus that both my brothers left us. I shall never, never
+forget. Every one gives his all gladly. I could not keep my husband
+with me, although exempt through his profession from military duty. He
+went as a volunteer, and I would not have held him if I could, though
+you can guess the cost of that parting!
+
+¶ "One hears not a single complaint from the women of the Fatherland.
+We are all too thoroughly roused over the insults offered our loved
+country. Working each waiting moment for our wounded--for our
+soldiers--we have no time for tears.
+
+¶ "We will not give in until all are defeated, even though we women
+should have to take up the sword to defend the Fatherland. Were it not
+for my baby daughter I should be with my husband, as a nurse.
+
+¶ "You cannot picture how great, how noble, how grave this time is.
+Human nature is transfigured. Individual fate is lost, in the fate of
+the Nation.
+
+¶ "I am at home with my parents. Scarcely a year has passed since my
+happy, peaceful wedding day. And now my home is bare and desolate, and
+I am again the daughter of my father--I can write no more. My feelings
+are stifling me. The bells are ringing a new victory. Unfurl the
+black-white-red banner. Always lovingly yours,
+
+     ILSE."
+
+A postscript reads:
+
+"Oct. 6.--For six weeks I have been trying to send this letter--in
+vain. In the meantime both my brothers have died fighting for the
+Fatherland. My husband still lives, but--we must, we shall and must
+win!"
+
+
+                                  48
+
+  Bismarck balances between tempestuous outbursts and inscrutable
+  silence; biding his time in the great game of German Unity.
+
+¶ In the gigantic project of creating an Empire for a king who
+solemnly protested that he was directly accountable to God for the
+throne, "and would never consent to have so much as a sheet of paper
+(constitution) between my people and my Maker." Bismarck was under
+tremendous nervous pressure for years; and he meant that his political
+secrets for United Germany should not become too early known. Not only
+were the people as yet unwilling to help, but Austria was watching
+with jealous eyes the possibility of plunder for herself;--for where
+the carrion is there will the vultures wheel.
+
+¶ Bismarck's ambition bit him by day and by night, and there was for
+him no rest; he required a continent to turn 'round in, and nothing
+less would suffice. It was now only a question of waiting for the
+psychological moment to electrify the inert mass of the people to
+rally to his cause.
+
+¶ Naturally you ask, "Was this Bismarck then a beast?" Not at all. He
+was merely a human being who wanted a continent to turn around in.
+
+In the gigantic project, Bismarck was exercising his own peculiar
+gifts in his own way--for none stood ready to give him what he wanted,
+without fighting for it--even as you or I lay out lesser plans to beg,
+or coax, or force the world to give us not what we think we need but
+what we are strong enough to obtain.
+
+¶ In this attitude, Bismarck needs neither apology nor defense--for,
+after all, he is Bismarck.
+
+Through thirty-odd years of din and roar and battle largely of his own
+making Bismarck knew neither rest nor peace; returning again and again
+to the attack and wearing down his enemies by the sheer brute force of
+courage. His idea was United Germany, through Prussian military power;
+at the same time, Prussia must hold her dynastic over-lordship, and
+must yield it finally only in a territorial German Empire.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Unquestionably there was, incidentally, a large element of injustice
+in his plans and purposes, but what of it? Is there not such in your
+own life, and do you know any man whose career is not based on
+injustice either in some coarse, obvious or in some subtle way?
+
+The world belongs only to those who do battle, and there is absolutely
+no chance for the man who will not fight!
+
+All government is based on some form of injustice, all land tenure is
+stained with the sword, all "putting up" of one family, or individual,
+is based on "taking" something from some other family or individual.
+
+Nor am I excepting the conquests of love itself, from time immemorial
+presented as a token of man's romantic, softer side. For, if the hero
+does not "save" the heroine from the villain, to take her for himself,
+then for whom does he save her?
+
+¶ The Bismarck struggle and the Bismarck triumph are as old as
+history--and as new as the career of the man of today who has achieved
+his heart's desire.
+
+The empire-maker Bismarck had his way because he was strong enough to
+have his way, and while cruelties in various forms, for the ends of
+statecraft, coexisted in him with many fine qualities, after all that
+simply means that he was a human being with impulses of various
+kinds--good and less good--in one heart. It is also an undeniable fact
+that as late as 1862 Bismarck was by the common crowd in Prussia hated
+and feared, regarded as Germany's ogre of disaster.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Here then is the whole thing in a nutshell: His strong conservative,
+not to say reactionary, sentiments did not blind him to the fact that
+he could do nothing without the "people," whom politically he ignored
+in so far as their fitness for constructive government was concerned;
+but it was the "people," and the "people" only, who could bring United
+Germany.
+
+He realized the present impracticability of such a Union as he had in
+mind for his master, the King of Prussia; that to urge it too soon
+would simply bring a new revolution, and God knows there had been
+enough blood-letting for the sake of power in and around Prussia for
+lo! these one hundred years gone by.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The only thing for him to do, then, was to keep his ambition to
+himself and his own crowd, and to bide his time to strike--for time
+makes all things right for him who can wait.
+
+And at waiting and at concealing Bismarck was past master. While
+usually figured as a blunt, bold, tyrannical man, there was also a
+side of inscrutable reticence.
+
+¶ Thus finally between outbursts of temper in which he attacked his
+enemies with the power of a battleship in action, followed by periods
+of silence after the storm, Bismarck remained master of the diplomatic
+situation, playing his waiting game.
+
+¶ And did his stern face never break into an ironical smile? Did he
+never betray himself?
+
+It was impossible to preserve his great political secret from the
+intuitions of other and lesser minds.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ You see, men have various ways of getting their will. Some fight,
+others play, still others threaten suicide if the money is not
+forthcoming. It is all a matter of temperament and peculiar style of
+doing battle.
+
+With some, a curse will bring what a kiss will not; with others a club
+is more useful than a loving word. With Bismarck, the first instinct
+was to do battle by fire and sword, and this explains why his career
+is filled with broken wine bottles, fist cuffs, sword thrusts, and his
+"sic 'em!" to the big dogs that trailed around with him.
+
+¶ Once, during the crisis of which we now write, on going into a
+saloon for a glass of beer, some table talk on politics offended him.
+He ordered the man to stop, then and there, "or I will smash a beer
+glass over your head!"
+
+The man went on talking; Bismarck drank, turned around and said, "That
+for you!" smashed the tankard on the offending head, and coolly walked
+out!
+
+
+
+
+                            BOOK THE FIFTH
+
+                 The German People Are One and United
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIV
+
+                          Windrows of Corpses
+
+
+                                  49
+
+  He is no longer the roaring delegate of the "White Saloon," but
+  has developed the astuteness of the devil, the open sincerity
+  of a saint.
+
+¶ Fight, fight, fight! Nothing but fight! And all this trying time,
+Bismarck suffered excruciating pains from his old rheumatic complaint.
+
+He was irritable, melancholy and jaundiced; sat up all night
+half-buried in his mounds of state papers; dictating telegrams,
+quarreling with callers, denouncing, adjusting, scheming; four o'clock
+found him in bed; he tossed about till seven, when he managed to get
+to sleep; and was not seen again till late in the afternoon. The
+situation was getting on the master's nerves.
+
+¶ Enemies in the house of his friends spied on Bismarck, endeavored to
+poison the King against the doughty Minister. The Crown Prince,
+especially, who always had an aversion to Bismarck, despite the
+war-dog's inestimable services to the House of Hohenzollern, now tried
+to pull the Pomeranian giant down.
+
+To this end, the Prince dissassociated himself from Bismarck's policy,
+avoided the great man at court. The situation passed rapidly from
+political to social objections on part of the Prince, who spread
+before the King the ruin of Hohenzollern if Bismarckian policies were
+longer pursued.
+
+¶ But the King would not give Bismarck up. In this regard, William was
+as cold as ice. He saw that should Bismarck be asked to go, at that
+time, the Liberals would be irresistibly strengthened. The recoil of
+the mighty wave against kingcraft might even end by forcing abdication
+for the Prussian monarch.
+
+¶ Instead of fearing the Liberal leaders, Bismarck despised their
+plots. The master knew enough of human nature to see clearly one great
+central fact. The fire-breathing Democrats would, at the hour of
+Prussia's peril, join with the hated system of Bismarck and march to
+glory. In defense of Prussia, Liberals, Socialists and political
+nonconformists of every description, would be carried off their feet.
+Then, Bismarck would be able to call on his very enemies to come
+forward and help him win the day.
+
+¶ And the old man, as usual, was absolutely correct. In the hour of
+danger how the Prussian Liberals fought! Like fiends they stood, took
+the murderous fire and went to their death singing, "I am a Prussian,
+will a Prussian be!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The opportunity to test German National faith first came through the
+Holstein war, precipitated by Bismarck's clever manipulation of
+events.
+
+¶ As well ask from what quarters of the globe the hurricane came which
+last night tore up the old oak tree. You can read a dozen fat volumes
+on the Holstein problem, and still you will not be convinced.
+Schleswig-Holsteiners in their rock-grit lands on the North Sea had
+their political troubles about the right of succession, and that sort
+of thing; the spit of land up there was aflame with war talk.
+
+¶ The Germans, as a people, wished Schleswig attached as a
+principality of the German Confederation, but Bismarck's secret plan
+was to seize the territory for the gain of Prussia, a clean political
+theft of a huge estate. By pushing the Danes out of the Frankfort
+Diet--that antiquated political stuffed-club of Austria--the Emperor
+of the South would also be forced out of German affairs. In a few
+words, that was the play.
+
+¶ Opposition? Why, Bismarck lived by opposition, grew fat on
+opposition. He is no longer the old roaring delegate of the "White
+Saloon," in his blossom time. He has developed the astuteness of the
+devil, the open sincerity of a saint. As a matter of fact, he now
+invited Austria "to co-operate," in settling the complex Danish
+question; and the unsuspecting Emperor of the South, who was also
+playing a deep game of his own, decided to take a hand.
+
+¶ Throughout his long career, Bismarck was everlastingly trading in
+political advantages. Often there was a large element of imagination
+in his promises to pay, but he gained his point in the Holstein
+problem. He had to face: Dissension between the Prussian Chamber and
+the Government; the feeling in rival German states; the general
+distrust of Prussia and the hostility of Austria; finally, the
+jealousy of other powers.
+
+¶ Volumes have been written, learned decisions handed down on the
+complex rights of the warring houses of Schleswig-Holstein. There were
+mountains of precedents on this side or that, as you pleased.
+Bismarck's plan was to annex the domain to Prussia and seize the
+harbor of Kiel, with all the accrued advantages to the Prussian
+monarch; and while the talk went on Bismarck manoeuvered to enlist
+his old enemy, Austria, to make common cause in a clear way of
+plunder, if ever there was one. Then, they swept the country with fire
+and sword, took it by the "divine right" of the strongest; and it fell
+out that Bismarck stacked the cards against Austria, as a gambler
+stacks them against the man on the other side of the table who is
+supposed to be his friend, in a gentleman's game. Bismarck at a stroke
+thus won away Austria's share.
+
+¶ After the conquest of the Holstein duchies, King William became more
+ambitious; henceforth the object of his life was the aggrandizement of
+Prussia, in Germany. Bismarck had given the King the taste of blood.
+The Iron Chancellor admits the fact. Here are Bismarck's exact words,
+from his interviews with Dr. Busch: "The King's frame of mind
+underwent a psychological change; he developed a taste for conquest."
+
+¶ Bismarck laid the foundation in this way: He reminded the reluctant
+William of the glories of Hohenzollern; how each Hohenzollern had
+added to the common family fortunes, ever-widening estates and power.
+He told William how King Fr: Wm. IV had acquired Hohenzollern and the
+Jande District; Fr: Wm. III, the Rhine Province; Fr: Wm. II, Poland;
+Fr: II, Silesia; Fr: Wm. I, Old Hinter Pomerania; the Great Elector,
+Further Pomerania, etc.; "and I encouraged the King to do likewise."
+
+¶ Is it too much to say that in this great National crisis, Bismarck
+was more than servant of the King? In many respects Bismarck was the
+King's master. "If you only knew how I had to struggle to make the
+King go to war with Austria!" is a significant comment Bismarck once
+made in a moment of confidence.
+
+It is a question whether he loved the King more, or himself less.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ "My party consisted solely of the King and myself," wrote Bismarck
+many years later, "and my only aim was the restoration and
+aggrandizement of the German Empire and the defense of monarchial
+authority."
+
+¶ He always had a contempt for parliaments and for parties. This fact
+is so clear that we pass it without further comment. In short,
+Bismarck measures up to these lines in Tennyson:
+
+    "Ah, God! for a man with heart, head, hand
+    Like some of the simple great ones gone
+    Forever and ever by;
+    One still strong man in a blatant land,
+    Whatever they call him, what care I,
+    Aristocrat, democrat, autocrat--"
+
+¶ However, in this world all things are relative; the finest coat has
+its reverse side, where the ugly seams show; and Bismarck is no
+exception. He has all the strong man's virtues, and vices. Make the
+most of it.
+
+It is a solemn fact that, in his unfailing loyalty to his country,
+Bismarck showed little consideration for men who chanced to oppose
+his own principles--but what would you, pray?
+
+Man at best is a curious animal; he indulges in great wars and he is
+capable of great mercies; he is all things by turn and nothing long;
+on the same day he loves and he hates, he commits crimes and he goes
+to church; he has his way and having it, is still dissatisfied.
+
+¶ And Bismarck was no exception.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ He always expected absolute obedience. "My ambassadors," he once
+said to one of them, "must wheel round like non-commissioned officers,
+at a word of command, without knowing why."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ "There are indeed," says Sir Spencer Walpole, "few things more
+remarkable in modern history than Bismarck's determined disregard,
+from 1863 to 1866 of the decisions of Parliament and his readiness to
+stake his own life and that of his sovereign on the issue of the
+contest."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ This Holstein raid was justified as "statecraft," but the gambler's
+nerve and the gambler's methods were behind it, from end to end; and
+Bismarck shuffled and cut and stacked, and if now and then some shrewd
+player caught the sleight of hand and protested, Bismarck coolly
+banged him over the head with a chair or flung a wine bottle at his
+head and threw him into the street to make off as best he might,
+smarting for revenge but not daring to raise a hand; for in his heart
+the defeated player realized that in a game of this kind the only
+thing to do is to take one's medicine, "put up, pay up and shut
+up"--like the lesser known but equally discerning gamblers of old
+Mississippi steamboat days.
+
+¶ What were they fighting about in Holstein? Alas, who knows, except
+that Bismarck had his great German enterprise well under way. It was
+said, at the time, that Disraeli was "the only man in Europe who
+really understood the Holstein question," but Disraeli was a British
+cynic on all things German, and his explanations must be taken with a
+grain of salt. However, Disraeli used Bismarck as "Count Ferroll" in
+"Endymion."
+
+
+                                  50
+
+  Bismarck sleeps surrounded by windrows of the dead; it was the
+  moment he had awaited, all these years.
+
+¶ One fact should never be overlooked. Whether Bismarck talks to his
+countrymen of patriotism or of religious duties, through it all and
+behind it all, while framing constitutions and putting the ballot in
+every man's hand, Bismarck always had something to draw to--and this
+something was the invincible Prussian army.
+
+This Prussian army, together with Prussian dog-like discipline, made
+Bismarck's plans possible.
+
+¶ Also, he everlastingly kept the substance of power for himself and
+his King; for, however much Bismarck from time to time made
+concessions to the Liberal side, Bismarck always nourished sentiments
+of royalty, in the end deftly substituted the mailed fist for his
+talks on religious faith.
+
+¶ His war-dramas are always rich in strife; but somehow, he makes them
+conclude in joy.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Realizing that the Austrian war could not much longer be put off,
+Bismarck's great care was that there should be no powerful coalitions
+against Prussia.
+
+¶ We have spoken before of his closeness to Russia, and the means
+whereby Bismarck secured the Czar's neutrality in the oncoming
+Austrian war. The King's man next settled with Italy, behind the
+screen. He knew that she longed to come into possession of Venetian
+powers, held by Austria; Bismarck got after the Italian minister,
+Lamarmora; the bargain was this: A secret treaty promising Venetia to
+Italy; no separate peace to be made with Austria; the treaty not to be
+binding unless Prussia declared war within three months.
+
+¶ Then Bismarck crossed over and proposed to Austria that Frankfort
+"reform" the Confederation. The lure to the Liberals was the promise
+of a National Convention elected by the people, to decide on a new
+Constitution; the solution carried the Holstein question, Bismarck
+averred, "not as a piece of monarchial greed but as a National
+affair."
+
+¶ Bavaria agreed provided Austria and Prussia would not attack each
+other.
+
+¶ At this, Bismarck promised to give to Italy the Venetian provinces,
+by peaceful arrangement--war or no war. But Italy wavered; she was
+afraid of Bismarck's behind-the-screen policies.
+
+Austria decided to increase her Venetian armaments, and Bismarck,
+quick as a cat, seized on this move of his old enemy as an act of
+"insincerity" in regard to peace.
+
+¶ Austria now replied by urging that the Holstein question be left to
+the Diet, despite the fact that Prussia had expressly denied the
+competency of Frankfort to settle questions affecting Prussia.
+
+¶ From this point events moved with rapidity toward war. Troops under
+Manteuffel marched into Holstein, alleging the Gastein treaty broken;
+Austrians retired, but under protest, alleging that Prussia had
+violated Section 11 of the Acts of Confederation, which provided that
+members could not make war against each other; and Austria moved that
+the Confederation be mobilized, except Prussia. Bismarck thereupon
+played his trump card. "The Confederation is dissolved!" he thundered,
+and submitted a new draft of articles, leaving Austria out.
+
+¶ Germany was now in two hostile camps; on came the war.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Thus stood matters on the fateful June 1st, 1866, when the critical
+situation in the Danish country offered the match to touch off the
+powder magazines against Austria; startled Austria immediately called
+upon her beribboned, bejeweled Frankfort Parliament to declare war on
+Prussia for insolence; and this is exactly what Bismarck wished to
+bring to pass; it was the moment he had awaited all these long years.
+
+¶ Hanover and two other states were asked by telegraph to declare
+their intentions. The replies being unsatisfactory, Bismarck, with
+supreme daring worthy of Frederick the Great, orders von Roon and
+Moltke's iron men forward. They poured like fiends into the surprised
+territories, overran them in a night, compelling the flight or capture
+of three kings.
+
+¶ "With God for King and Fatherland!" That old cry is again heard
+throughout the Prussian North country. Austria reckoned stupidly; she
+had thought Bismarck's internal political dissensions would make it
+impossible for Prussia to rally her iron men in good order; but
+Bismarck knew that while Liberal leaders quarreled like dogs and cats
+over Prussian policies, still when beloved Prussia was in danger, all
+differences would be forgotten--and Prussia in a night would become an
+armed camp.
+
+¶ Bismarck, that memorable Thursday night, June 14th, 1866, spent the
+long hours pacing up and down under the oaks in the beautiful garden
+of the Minister of Foreign Affairs; in deep thought, he awaited the
+mobilization order from the King.
+
+Von Moltke, old Roon and Bismarck hold whispered consultations in
+which Bismarck is so sure of himself that his mind at times wanders
+off war to chatty anecdotes. "This afternoon, in the antechamber of
+the King," says Bismarck, "I was so weary I fell asleep on the sofa.
+Is not this garden fine? Suppose we take a look at the old trees in
+the park, behind the palace?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Berlin rang with the patriotic "I am a Prussian, know'st thou not my
+colors?" and in unnumbered thousands the multitudes pressed around the
+palace. On the night of the 29th came the news by telegraph--"First
+blood for Prussia!" Berlin goes fairly insane with patriotic joy.
+
+Bismarck leaves the palace at two in the morning; his stern expression
+contrasts strangely with the frenzied faces in the crowd; never did
+the great man's inherent poise show more clearly, by contrast. The
+crowds are singing Luther's hymn, "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott"--"A
+fortress firm in our God." The King comes out on the balcony and
+returns thanks. Never-ending cries of triumph force Bismarck to say a
+few words from the window of his hotel in the Wilhelms-strasse. It is
+a squally, rain-bespattered night, with the tempest near at hand, but
+the mobs will not go home. Suddenly, Bismarck raises his hand, shouts
+congratulations, ends by inviting a salute for the King and Prussia.
+
+That very instant a peal of thunder rumbles over the city, and a trail
+of forked lightning splits the midnight skies. "The very heavens
+salute Prussia!" cries Bismarck--and the mobs go wild again.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Bismarck and his King are off to the front. At Sichrow they see the
+corpse-strewn field of glory; 5,000 bodies in all the agonizing
+attitudes of sudden death are there before the master.
+
+William and Otto pass to the field hospital. The wounded beg for
+cigars, and Bismarck writes his wife, "Send cigars by the thousand, by
+each courier; also forward copies of the 'Kreutzzeitung.'" This is the
+official Bismarckian political organ. So you see, he spreads his
+political propaganda, even in the face of death.
+
+¶ Otto winds up his letter with this surprising request, under date,
+July 2, Jitschen, "Send me a French novel to read, but only one at a
+time."
+
+¶ Then came Sadowa, July 3d. The "Red" Prince Charles assigns his
+troops to battle line at dawn, amidst fog and rain. At 9, the King and
+Bismarck appear on the bloody field. Bismarck rides his tall roan mare
+"Verada," rechristened "Sadowa."
+
+In thunder and smoke the battle goes burning on. For hours the result
+is in doubt. All depends on the second battle line, but where is the
+Crown Prince? Will he arrive in time?
+
+¶ The vast artillery duel began early and lasted many hours. At the
+height of the battle, old King William asked for a cigar, and when the
+box was brought took a long time to select one, to his fancy. Bismarck
+regarded it as a good sign! "If he can bother about the best cigar,
+the battle cannot be lost," was Bismarck's mental comment.
+
+¶ At last, the Austrians began giving way.
+
+¶ In joy, the King took from his neck his own Iron Cross and hung it
+on Bismarck's neck.
+
+¶ Moltke came up, bright and happy, with these words: "Your Majesty
+has not only won the battle, but the whole campaign."
+
+¶ It was true; the great Austrian war was practically now won, and in
+three short weeks!
+
+¶ Sadowa, or Koeniggraetz as the Germans call it, is one of the great
+battles of history. There were 445,000 men engaged; Austria lost
+30,000 and 1,147 officers.
+
+¶ Bismarck, on his tall roan, was eighteen hours in the saddle;
+neither man nor faithful beast had food or drink, except that the
+horse, standing now and again among the windrows of corpses, ate
+corn-tops and nibbled at leaves. That night, Bismarck slept by the
+roadside, without straw, a carriage cushion under his head. The rain
+beat down in a drizzle, and for miles the smoke hung like a pall.
+Bismarck's rheumatic pains, his weakness from loss of food, wore him
+down.
+
+¶ At last, the course of nature can no farther go; and the master
+falls into a deep sleep--surrounded by windrows of the dead.
+
+¶ At dawn, as he stood up, half-dead from exhaustion, against the
+lowering skies he saw the vultures ready to pick the bones that Glory
+had provided in this phase of the terrifying story of German Unity.
+
+¶ The hour of victory again proved Bismarck's astuteness. The
+fire-breathers around the King urged that the Prussians march on
+Vienna and lay the city in waste; Austria could not prevent; she was
+prostrate; but Bismarck said no; and as usual, he had an object. Part
+of his far-seeing plan was to take advantage of this psychological
+moment to conclude secret treaties with the smaller states, as allies
+of Prussia, in case of future wars. It was the forerunner of his last
+great work, many years later, the Triple Alliance.
+
+
+                                  51
+
+  Alas, poor human nature! The rejected stone now becomes the
+  foundation of the palace wall! Otto von Bismarck is justified
+  at last.
+
+¶ It goes to show that the right man can bring about any idea, whether
+to do it makes it necessary to turn Time's clock backward or forward.
+
+Bismarck is magnificent because his extraordinary political work
+inspired and carried a new National faith that forced men to bow,
+often against their will, to the logic of his own gigantic mind.
+
+Bismarck is magnificent because, too, when the tiger strife was ended,
+he who had been despised as the arch tyrant of his time, was now seen
+to be the one strong man of his land, who had brought an unwilling
+people peace, happiness and prosperity.
+
+¶ After the Austrian war the deputies whom Bismarck had fought granted
+immunity to Bismarck for those four turbulent years of unconstitutional
+rule; the overjoyed people readily forgave him for exacting 12,000,000
+thalers for the secret war chest.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The millions who had looked on him as a madman now hailed him as
+little under the stature of a demigod, loaded him with estates, gold,
+diamonds, medals, stocked his cellars with the choicest vintages, sent
+him train-loads of presents, thousands of felicitations on parchments
+done up with blue ribbons, threw up their hats in frenzy only to see
+his rattling old coach pass along the streets of Berlin; and in the
+National excitement to do something or say something that nobody had
+ever thought of, became as children to the extent of offering presents
+to Bismarck's dogs.
+
+Also, in the grand distribution of Austrian prize money, Bismarck was
+awarded $300,000. With this unexpected good fortune he bought Varzin
+estate in Pomerania.
+
+¶ Of late years, his unpopularity has been made clear in a thousand
+ways, some harmless, others bloodthirsty; his very life was demanded
+more than once, by assassins. But now all had changed.
+
+¶ It is related that a German professor, in Greece, caught out after
+dark was beset by bandits.
+
+¶ "Who are you?" they inquired menacingly.
+
+¶ "I am a German."
+
+¶ "Who is your king?"
+
+¶ "The King of Prussia!"
+
+¶ "Ah! Then you are Bismarck!"
+
+¶ And the robbers pulled off their hats and ran headlong in the night.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ In America, shops sold Bismarck pipes, Bismarck cravats, Bismarck
+hairbrushes, and one came across such advertisements as this: "What is
+the difference between Jones' paste and Prince Bismarck? Answer, there
+is no difference, because each sticks so fast that once either gets a
+hold it is impossible to get away from it."
+
+¶ After Koeniggraetz, the growing sense of German nationality
+impressed itself in a thousand joyful ways.
+
+In Spain, lucifer matches bore on the boxes this doggerel:
+
+    Als Wilhelm wirkt und Bismarck span
+    Gott hatte seine Freude dran.
+
+Or, "As William worked and Bismarck spun, God had his joy thereon."
+
+The fashionable world dressed in Bismarck brown; ironclads bore his
+name; in Paraguay the "Citizen Bismarck" ran up and down the river;
+Bismarck, South Dakota; Bismarck and von Moltke streets; huge Bismarck
+strawberries--and what more you please.
+
+¶ The Brandenburg Cuirassiers made him drink out of a silver tankard,
+holding a level quart of champagne; Bismarck, at the officers' revel,
+put the goblet to his lips and drained the draught in a few long
+gulps.
+
+¶ "Another!" cried the National hero.
+
+¶ "Alas," sighed a dyspeptic Frenchman, who heard of it, "champagne
+and smoke agree with him--happy man!"
+
+¶ Whenever the Chancellor was out, on foot or on horseback, the news
+ran like wildfire through Berlin! Offices were emptied, clerks stood
+in windows, the public uncovered and cheered.
+
+¶ The German colony of Constantinople sent him a sword of honor;
+thousands begged his photograph, autograph, or lock of his hair;
+brewer George Pschorr, at great cost, sent thirty-three gallons of
+beer in a carved cask weighing 500 pounds, with solid silver
+tankards--veritable gems of art.
+
+¶ Carried away by the general excitement, an inmate of the almshouse
+put his name down for $5, on a public list, and when confronted with
+his utter inability to pay, replied:
+
+¶ "When the time comes for paying I shall ask them to let me off with
+so many days in jail! So many marks, so many days!"
+
+¶ A little town in the Black Forest offered a huge patriotic scroll
+composed of bottles of raspberry brandy, with handsome labels,
+bordered with the German colors, red, white and black; a Bavarian
+organ builder forwarded a huge organ; the inhabitants of Stanaitschen,
+a gigantic whip; plovers' eggs came from the people of Jever; the King
+of Prussia made Bismarck a Count, presented him with a rich domain;
+and in the general excitement, the Chancellor's famous dog Tyras was
+honored with a magnificent blanket with his initials worked in gold,
+in the four corners, costly collars to match--and a sofa;--also this
+explanatory poem:
+
+    "Tyras, sei huebsch, artig und gut,
+    Sei es by Tag, sei es by Nacht!
+    Bewache unsern Kanzler gut:
+    Dan wird als Praeset dir dies Kanapé gebracht."
+
+Or, "Tyras, be good, gentle and kind; all day long and through the
+night watch over our Chancellor faithfully;--and this gift of a sofa
+you'll receive."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ But this was only the beginning. At the Universal Exposition in the
+jewelers' section, one day a tall stranger was inspecting the
+beautiful display, and one of the exhibitors, bowing politely, asked
+the stranger to accept a magnificent diamond ring. "Your Highness
+knows very well that he cannot deceive me! I respect your Highness'
+desire to remain incognito, but your fame has preceded you!"
+
+In vain the stranger protested. The ring was passed, the exhibitor was
+highly pleased, the stranger offered a card, "Alexander Schnabel,
+Bavaria." The exhibitor still smiled, saying, "I respect your
+Highness' incognito!" The stranger then quickly disappeared in the
+crowd. What is that shouting over yonder? "Hurrah for Count Bismarck!
+He comes! He comes!" In a moment, the diamond merchant saw it all. He
+had been cruelly deceived, and furthermore had deceived himself!
+
+
+                                  52
+
+  Strange superstition ingrained in this Bismarck mind; what ikon
+  do you believe in, as you urge to duty and glory?
+
+¶ In this life, each man has, secretly or openly, some ikon against
+which to charge, by way of explanation, his personal history.
+
+In the story of Bismarck many ikons have been used by many writers, to
+account for the puzzle of this great man's complex career.
+
+Some call it ambition; others will power; others destiny. Certainly,
+in his long and adventurous career Bismarck was often close to death.
+
+¶ Now Bismarck himself always had his own peculiar ikon. He called it
+God. His speeches for many years before Sadowa, his protests in behalf
+of his King, as against the rising tide of Liberalism, always
+contained amidst thunders of political consequence, the name God as
+the one explanation of Bismarck's history and Bismarck's ultimate
+victory.
+
+¶ If that be true--and it is not for us to say yes or no, for we are
+reporting the man as he is and not the way we think he should be--then
+God was at the bloody field of Sadowa, on the side of the 221,000
+Germans, armed with needle-guns, and not on the side of the 224,000
+Austrians, armed with old-fashioned muzzle-loaders;--and the clash of
+445,000 men with tens of thousands left dead on the field, was the
+final expression of the will of God.
+
+¶ Thus reasoned Bismarck, and surely he should be the best authority
+on the conclusions of his own mind? As a matter of fact, Bismarck's
+profound belief that God was on his side but shows Bismarck's excess
+of faith--the faith that moves mountains.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ It has been said by eminent historians that Bismarck as the Unifier
+of Germany had in his mind's eye, for many years, the dream of Empire;
+and the statement is either true or false.
+
+¶ These writers call Bismarck the man with the vision, the seer, the
+German patriot who saw in an early dream the stirring plan to which he
+was to devote his long and arduous life.
+
+¶ You are familiar with the painting by LaFarge, depicting the boy
+Napoleon, in the school yard at Brien, walking to one side, by
+himself? On his youthful brow is already an air of strange
+preoccupation, that cloud of ambition, as an outward sign that the
+boy's imagination is bodying forth the heroic deeds of the man, many
+years hence.
+
+¶ Do not believe it! It is only a poetic fancy, not human life. Plans
+such as Bismarck met and carried forth, empires such as Napoleon
+founded are not placed constructively before one in a vision, nor are
+the complex ramifications attendant upon their ultimate achievement a
+matter of pre-vision.
+
+It is only the small mind that plans down to the hair's breadth. Your
+truly great man, like Bismarck or Napoleon, takes up life as he finds
+it, and little by little learns the business of compelling other men
+to do his bidding; and always in this there is a large element left to
+the hazard of the die; or to use Bismarck's own phrase just before
+Sadowa, "Now we shall see how the god of battle rolls the iron dice!"
+Your great man rides forth to the battle, prepared to take instant
+advantage of circumstances as they may rise.
+
+¶ Bismarck's idea of United Germany, at least the idea he always gave
+to the public, was that the thing might be done, with and through the
+power of God.
+
+The word God appears and reappears in connection with his plan; in
+his messages, speeches, dispatches, and in his private letters, he
+calls on God. I am not here to say that Bismarck had religious
+visions. I take it that he never heard mysterious voices or saw
+ghostly forms, but instead was an intensely human man who fought out
+his life even as you fight out yours--with the powers with which you
+are endowed, and for such ends as seem worth the price, to you. The
+religious faith learned at his mother's knee, made Bismarck's
+life-work a sacred vocation. He believed that he was chosen by God to
+educate, guide and discipline the German people.
+
+
+                                  53
+
+  "My dear professor, whoever has once looked into the breaking
+  eye of a dying warrior on the battlefield, will pause ere he
+  begins war."
+
+¶ And now we meet Bismarck back in Berlin wearing his Koeniggraetz
+military cross, suspended by a ribbon around the collar of his plain
+blue Prussian uniform. But the great strain of the years is beginning
+to show. For one thing Bismarck's eyes are failing; he uses a glass as
+he muses over his mounds of state papers; his face is lined with deep
+marks; care has done its work; our Otto is now bald, obese and
+stiff-jointed, much more so than his 54 years might seem to call for.
+In making speeches he does not speak as boldly, as directly as in days
+of yore. He stops, hesitates, stammers, but manages to hold the crowd.
+
+¶ You see he has a world of things on his mind; the under-play of the
+great political game absorbs his very life. What, pray, about this
+subconscious impression, that everybody has about an impending war
+with France? Bismarck, as deep as the sea, is still seemingly as open
+as a child.
+
+One day, a famous professor made the fateful inquiry as had hundreds
+of journalists--and this time Bismarck replied, "My dear professor,
+whoever has once looked into the breaking eye of a dying warrior on
+the battlefield, will pause ere he begins a war."
+
+¶ So much for the astuteness of the man with the iron cross. He is
+indeed no longer learning the game.
+
+¶ Already Bismarck was thinking of great armaments against France; for
+she was now demanding territorial compensations, as between Prussia
+and Austria. We find in the "Revue Modern," August, 1865, this
+striking interview with Bismarck, by the French writer, Vilbort:
+
+¶ "About 10 p. m. we were in the study of the Premier, when M.
+Benedette, the French Ambassador, is announced. 'Will you take a cup
+of tea in the salon?' M. de Bismarck said to me, 'I will be yours in a
+moment.' Two hours passed away; midnight struck; one o'clock. Some
+twenty persons, his family and intimate friends, awaited their host.
+
+¶ "The tiny cloud on the horizon as yet had no name, but this cloud
+hung to the west across the Rhine.
+
+¶ "At last he appeared, with a cheerful face and a smile upon his
+lips. Tea was taken; there was smoking and beer, in German fashion.
+Conversation turned, pleasantly or seriously, on Germany, Italy and
+France. Rumors of a war with France were then current for the tenth
+time in Berlin. At the moment of my departure, I said: 'M. le
+Ministre, will you pardon me a very indiscreet question? Do I take war
+or peace with me back to Paris?' M. de Bismarck replied, with
+animation: 'Friendship, a lasting friendship with France! I entertain
+the firmest hope that France and Prussia, in the future, will
+represent the dualism of intelligence and progress.' Nevertheless, it
+seemed to us that at these words we surprised a singular smile on the
+lips of a man who is destined to play a distinguished part in Prussian
+politics, the Privy Councillor Baron von ----. We visited him the next
+morning, and admitted to him how much reflection this smile had caused
+us. 'You leave for France tonight,' he replied; 'well, give me your
+word of honor to preserve the secret I am about to confide to you
+until you reach Paris? Ere a fortnight is past we shall have war on
+the Rhine, if France insists upon her territorial demands. She asks of
+us what we neither will nor can give. Prussia will not cede an inch of
+German soil; we cannot do so without raising the whole of Germany
+against us, and, if it be necessary, let it rise against France rather
+than ourselves.'"
+
+¶ The treasonable speech of the Baron did not, however, bear fruit
+"in a fortnight," but Bismarck knew the great political game well, and
+everything served him in his German undertakings. We shall see.
+
+
+                                  54
+
+  The curtain falls in triumph on another spirited act in the
+  great drama "Germania."
+
+¶ The political fruits of Sadowa may be summed up in a few sentences.
+We clear the air for the grand finale, at the palace of the French
+kings at Versailles, four years later.
+
+¶ By the Prague treaty, August 23, 1866, Austria consented to the
+reconstruction of the Federation and retired from the scene.
+
+Bismarck saw that the large states beyond the River Main,--Bavaria,
+Wuertemberg, Baden and South-Hesse, were not yet ready for his new
+North German Confederation; but he would bring them in--somehow--later!
+As for Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, Frankfort, and Schleswig-Holstein, they
+were now mapped with Prussia, their crime being this, that they had
+opposed Prussia in a half-hearted way, before Sadowa.
+
+¶ Bismarck now set up his popular Prussian Constitution. Wonder of
+wonders! Really, it differed not in essentials from the hated Liberal
+Constitution that he had assailed so vigorously in 1848. Also, up to
+1866, the Unifier of Germany had as we have seen always appeared as an
+opponent of the National German party. When, however, he had become
+its leader, through the great politico-military struggle, he brought
+about the results vainly fought for by the patriots in the revolution
+of 1848. The distinction was that in the Revolutionary days, the King
+would have been obliged to stoop to the gutter for a "people's crown,"
+whereas now he need do no such humiliating thing. The two wars had
+proven William monarch "by Divine right."
+
+¶ However, a blaze of aristocratic honors at the hands of King William
+pleased Bismarck more than he was willing to admit. Count Bismarck,
+one night, when the people came with the torchlights, sounded the old
+German keynote in a new way, as follows:
+
+¶ "We have always belonged to each other as Germans--we have ever been
+brothers--but we were unconscious of it. In this country, too, there
+were different races: Schleswigers, Holsteiners, and Lauenburgers; as,
+also, Mecklenburgers, Hanoverians, Luebeckers, and Hamburgers exist,
+and they are free to remain what they are, in the knowledge that they
+are Germans--that they are brothers. And here in the North we should
+be doubly aware of it, with our Platt Deutsch, which stretches from
+Holland to the Polish frontier; we were also conscious of it, but have
+not proclaimed it until now. But that we have again so joyfully and
+vividly been able to recognize our German descent and solidarity--for
+that we must thank the man whose wisdom and energy have rendered this
+consciousness a truth and a fact, in bringing our King and Lord a
+hearty cheer. Long live His Majesty, our most gracious King and
+Sovereign, William the First!"
+
+¶ A cheer resounded throughout the castle-yard.
+
+¶ The new Constitution gave to the people manhood suffrage and a
+popular Assembly. The King of Prussia was made President of the new
+Federation, but not its sovereign. Prussia ruled in her own way,
+henceforth, but the fiction of the King, as President, served to
+steady the minor disgruntled German princelings, who were led to
+believe that their councils were still reckoned with in great affairs.
+However, the voting was so arranged that Prussia controlled, off-hand,
+17 out of 48 units in the new political Confederation--and in a pinch
+Bismarck could rely on having the desired majority.
+
+¶ Some say that Bismarck was influenced by the socialist Lasalle to
+make concessions to the people, of a piece with the concessions which
+in '48 Bismarck had fought because they sprang from revolutionists;
+but the liberal aspects of the new Constitution served to place the
+great dream of German Unity on a firmer basis than would otherwise
+have been possible. Bismarck was learning this: To try to choke the
+current of public opinion is folly; the wise man, instead, aims to
+direct the waters to his own advantage.
+
+¶ The North German Confederation comprised 22 states and Bismarck was
+made Chancellor. The Constitution was adopted February 24th, 1867.
+For all practical purposes, the German Empire was now a fact.
+
+¶ But more work was still to be done, by way of bloody Gravelotte,
+Metz, Mar-la-Tour, St. Privat, Woerth, Spichern Heights, Sedan, and
+the Siege of Paris.
+
+¶ Corpses, corpses everywhere, lying in windrows miles long!
+
+
+                                  55
+
+  The master uses the masses as the gardener utilizes
+  manure--fertilizing the soil with blood and bones!
+
+¶ Bismarck knows that to demand in an emphatic way is the surest way
+of receiving. He is always studying men, looking ahead to the time of
+the inevitable French war. He is asking himself, concerning various
+monarchs of adjacent nations, opposed to Prussia: "On which side will
+he be?" "Is he weak?" "Can he be relied on to stand on my side?" "Is
+he dangerous?" "Will he take a bribe?" "At any rate, give him what he
+wants--but let me do it in such a way that he thinks he is forcing us
+to do what he wants, whereas we know how to make him actually demand
+our own terms!"
+
+¶ Thus Bismarck without histronic talent, with his piping voice and
+his prohibitory bulk for heroic theater-roles, is at heart the great
+actor-manager of his time. Instead of creating parts, he deals them
+out.
+
+¶ He goes through this world during these trying times finding the
+best men to do his own bidding in the coming war. And when he is
+hissed down by those who will not acknowledge his right he breaks
+their power by defying them--as the hurricane scatters the clouds, nor
+asks permission.
+
+¶ They say that had he lost the Austrian war, he would have gone to
+the gallows. Can a Man of Destiny lose?
+
+¶ A new era is dawning. The old worn-out system for a disunited
+Germany of 39 jealous states is to be swept away.
+
+¶ For thirty years he dreamed of the inevitable German Union, had his
+visions of that glory. He was greater than himself in those black
+hours before the Parliament, for four long years thundering for his
+side;--with public opinion flat against him, and with mutterings on
+part of angry mobs that would bring the rope and hang Bismarck to the
+highest tree.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Throughout Germany, distressed as her people had been for years past
+by political and social miseries, a growing consciousness of
+brotherhood, blood and language was at last about to be politically
+realized.
+
+Even Napoleon the Little, political fool that he was in many respects,
+at least had one idea that showed his common sense. However, in his
+day he was laughed out of court for his "theory of nationality," that
+is to say, he believed that people speaking a common language and
+living in contiguous territory, have an inalienable right to a common
+flag.
+
+¶ Now that is precisely what German poets had in mind, in their
+romantic way, when for well-nigh 100 years past they had been dreaming
+of a united Fatherland--
+
+    Fuer Heim und Herd, fuer Weib und Kind
+    Fuer jedes treue Gut--
+
+Or, in other words, a man's house is his castle and if men will not
+fight for their hearthstones, then they will soon have no
+hearthstones.
+
+    For home and hearth, for wife and child--
+    These things we prize the most;
+    And fight to keep them undefiled
+    By foreign ruffian host.
+    For German Right, for German Speech,
+    For German household ways,
+    For German homesteads, all and each
+    Strike men, through battle's blaze!
+        Hurrah! Hurrah!
+        Hurrah, Germania!
+
+¶ The words, "Auf, Deutschland, auf, und Gott mit dir!"--"To arms,
+Germany, and God be with thee!" is a National hymn breathing the
+solemn thought that Germans are not slaves--
+
+    Old feuds, old hates are dashed aside
+    All Germany is one!
+
+¶ Bismarck's work, raw as it may seem in many respects, was
+consecrated to the great central idea that the German race is one, or
+as the poet Freiligrath puts it in one of his stirring lines, "Das
+deutsche Volk ist Eins!"
+
+¶ The whole thing comes down to the inner meaning of the word
+"patriotism." Tolstoi calls patriotism a frightful vice; Washington
+regarded patriotism as a virtue of virtues.
+
+¶ Take your choice.
+
+¶ He is even now brooding over the element necessary for the
+perpetuation of a free and United Germany. He reads his Bible and
+prepares for the French war.
+
+¶ Bismarck used the masses as the gardener uses manure. The blood of
+the peasantry manured the ground, out of which was to grow the
+harvest.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XV
+
+                         The Great Year, 1870
+
+
+                                  56
+
+  Bismarck and Von Moltke, over a bowl of sherry punch, discuss
+  "these poor times"--The Emperor-hunt begins.
+
+¶ Volumes have been written to explain the origin of the
+Franco-Prussian war, and the intricate and inter-related facts are
+gone over again and again, now with emphasis here, again on the other
+side.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ It is trite to say that Bismarck foresaw that a war with France was
+inevitable. Behind this simple statement is a world of intrigue and
+ambition. The French still hold that the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine
+was the price not of war but of Bismarck's brigandage. The French also
+believe that the candidacy of Prince Leopold Hohenzollern for the
+Spanish throne was a Prussian intrigue against France. The controversy
+on these points will never be settled, till the Doomsday Book is
+opened.
+
+¶ When Bismarck sees that his work of unifying Germany cannot be
+completed without another war, the war comes!
+
+His amazing insight into complex political, military and historical
+situations, in which with a few words he is able to divert public
+opinion to his own peculiar view, has been shown never with more
+diabolical cunning than at the time of the breaking out of the
+Franco-Prussian war. We refer here to the "Ems dispatch," that played
+a startling part in bringing on the war; but the telegram, in itself,
+was really a simple thing.
+
+¶ For four years, Germany had been increasing her military power by
+ten-fold. The greatest military martinet of all time, Von Roon, had
+the men up at three and four in the morning drilling them as human
+beings were never drilled before. Von Moltke, "with the battle
+pictures in his brain," was planning every detail against France.
+
+¶ The preparations were now complete. The Germans were thoroughly
+organized, led by generals guided by a single brain, von Moltke,
+master of tactics and strategy.
+
+¶ Just the day the war broke out von Moltke, who was always as
+taciturn as the Sphinx, "and in times of peace ugly and crabbed," was
+sitting in his garden moodily declaiming against these poor
+times--with no war in sight!
+
+Bismarck greeted his compatriot, bravely. Von Moltke ordered sherry
+punch and the two cronies began drinking each other's health.
+
+¶ "You are not looking well, Chief?" began Bismarck.
+
+¶ "No, I have not been well, lately!"
+
+¶ "But you must cheer up. War is your business and you will now
+quickly mend. I remember when the Spanish war was the burning question
+you looked at least ten years younger. When I told you that the
+Hohenzollern prince gave the thing up, you became at once ten years
+older. This time, the French have made difficulties, and you look
+fresh and younger by ten years."
+
+¶ In this light-hearted way Bismarck spoke of the oncoming strife--up
+to the year 1914 the bloodiest in the history of the world.
+
+
+                                  57
+
+  The bugle blast "For God and Fatherland!" again resounds
+  throughout Germany--The great host crosses the Rhine.
+
+¶ Up to 1914, there never was such a disciplined army since the world
+began! Neither Napoleon, Cćsar nor Alexander ever had a power like the
+United German swarm, now numbering 1,200,000 men, counting advance and
+reserve; however, the total strength was never called, as the war was
+practically over in seven weeks.
+
+The hosts of Germany, 800,000 strong, helmeted, machine-like, moved
+silently and swiftly toward the Rhine, carrying their trusty
+needle-guns which had done such destruction at Koeniggraetz. As they
+marched they sang the war songs of their race, and swore to guard the
+Rhine.
+
+    Zum Rhine, zum Rhine, zum Deutchen Rhine,
+    Wir alle wollen Hueter sein;
+    Lieb Vaterland magst ruhig sein,
+    Fest steht und treu die Wacht am Rhine!
+
+¶ The King immediately left for the seat of war, Mayennce being the
+first headquarters of the royal party. Bismarck was always close to
+the King.
+
+¶ Bismarck had been only a few days in the field when his health began
+to improve. Like von Moltke, Bismarck looked ten years younger.
+
+The old-time biliousness and vein-swelling from which he suffered, now
+passed away; the irritability vanished; he was cool and collected.
+
+¶ He was attended throughout the war by a corps of cipherers,
+decipherers, cooks, privy counsellors, secretaries, and couriers.
+Faithful Dr. Busch, head of the Bismarck press-agency, was one of the
+busiest men of the hour. Bismarck, who learned the power of the press
+in shaping public opinion, kept Busch constantly employed sending out
+telegrams, giving the German side of the war.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The Chancellor wore the white uniform of Heavy Landwehr Cavalry,
+with white cap and top boots.
+
+¶ Bismarck and his staff camped along the line of advance, wherever
+night fell--sometimes in the château of a French nobleman, again in
+the hut of a French peasant. The company ate at a common table, and
+had the same fare. Bismarck was called "Chief."
+
+¶ Often the table was made by taking doors off their hinges and
+placing them on barrels or boxes; then waiters spread the cloth and
+brought out pewter plates and huge tumblers of a silver-like metal,
+lined with gilt.
+
+Candles were stuck in empty wine bottles. Thus the great man worked
+during the war, week after week.
+
+Dr. Busch, although a very busy man, managed to gather two volumes of
+table talk, minute details of what Bismarck said, ate, drank,
+preached, the whole set forth in spirited style, affording an intimate
+picture of the Iron Chancellor to which all historians are henceforth
+under obligations.
+
+¶ Firing was going on around the royal party, often dangerously near
+by, and now and then a battle would take place close to where the King
+was encamped, with his faithful minister. They would ride out, to see
+the fight. Bismarck read dispatches, made notes, talked to His
+Majesty, gave instructions on state matters, counseled with von Moltke
+on military matters, received visits, and studied maps. This continued
+all day and sometimes all night.
+
+
+                                  58
+
+  Germans drink 2,500,000 bottles of champagne at
+  Rheims--Bismarck's ironical revenge!
+
+¶ The high tension of war was relieved by amusing episodes, from day
+to day. In the evening of the arrival at Rheims, Bismarck humored
+himself trying various brands of champagne. Word was brought that the
+day before a squadron of Prussian hussars had been fired on from a
+leading hotel. Bismarck ordered that the house should at once be torn
+down and the landlord sent to prison; but when it was explained that
+none had been injured, Bismarck waggishly decided to let the landlord
+off if he would give 2,500 bottles of champagne to the squadron--an
+obligation which the man quickly proceeded to settle.
+
+¶ The Prussians drank, in and around Rheims, some 2,500,000 bottles of
+champagne; and, for that matter, the highways all the way to Paris
+were marked with long lines of empty bottles!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Thus Bismarck had his ironical revenge on France; took his cherry
+brandy or his champagne as he pleased, while the great war waged.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ "Verily, in all history," wrote Carlyle to the London Times, "there
+is no instance of an insolent unjust neighbor that ever got so
+complete, instantaneous and ignominious a smashing down, as France now
+got from Germany." The whole civilized world looked on in amazement.
+
+¶ France had declared war July 15th, and the crushing defeat at Sedan
+came September 1.
+
+However, it took seven months before Bismarck was satisfied that the
+final papers were drawn to his satisfaction.
+
+Louis Napoleon being a prisoner of war, had lost his throne; and
+consequently Bismarck insisted that any peace made with France would
+have to be ratified by some central authority. It is a long,
+interesting story, but Bismarck finally won his point.
+
+
+                                  59
+
+  Sedan and the Belgian weaver's hut; the highways to Paris are
+  strewn with wine bottles; death drinks a toast to "German
+  Unity."
+
+¶ As it had been the Iron Chancellor's fortune to be present at the
+crowning victory of Koeniggraetz, in the Austrian war, likewise it was
+now his destiny to be a spectator at the two battles that decided the
+issue of the French war, Gravelotte and Sedan.
+
+The spoils were immense, the glory set Germany in flames. Bismarck,
+von Roon and von Moltke were held to be the greatest men of all time.
+
+¶ Gravelotte, the bloodiest battle of the campaign, engaged 333,000
+men and 1,362 cannon. The King commanded in person, on the right, and
+Bismarck was with him.
+
+The carnage was frightful. Bismarck busied himself carrying water to
+the wounded. When the sun went down, German victory was complete, at
+the loss of every tenth man!
+
+¶ That night, Bismarck bivouacked on the battlefield, amidst serried
+ranks of the dead. Says one who saw the terrifying scene: "Anon, the
+watchfires of the Prussians blazed round about; and worn out by
+incredible exertions at last Bismarck fell asleep, among the living
+and the dead. He was now to have evidence of the result of his
+life-long ambition; he had plunged his country into three great wars,
+with all their dreadful toll of human life; but he slept that night
+the sleep of the just--because he saw, in the complex blending of his
+ideas, no inconsistency in paying any price for the glory of his
+country."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The whole bloody day at Gravelotte Bismarck had nothing to eat.
+Finally, he found a hen's nest with five eggs; giving three to
+half-starving soldiers near by, Bismarck with his sword broke the
+shells of the two remaining and sucked the eggs.
+
+Next morning he had some sausage soup, the first warm food that had
+passed his lips for 36 hours.
+
+¶ While he was standing dismounted, a concealed French battery began a
+tremendous cannonade; the shells dropping all around, exploded, and
+plowed up the ground.
+
+¶ Night again. Nothing to eat. A sutler had some miserable rum and
+wine. Bismarck took that, at once, but there was not a morsel to eat.
+In the village, a few cutlets were found after a hard search, just
+enough for the King.
+
+His Majesty decided not to bivouac among the dead again, but took
+shelter at a little public house.
+
+¶ Bismarck with General Sheridan set off to find a sleeping place.
+House after house was filled with the wounded.
+
+Finally they found three empty beds with straw mattresses. Here
+Bismarck and General Sheridan took up their quarters and slept
+capitally.
+
+Sheridan was present as official observer for the United States Army.
+In his life, he had seen many great battles, including Gettysburg and
+Sedan.
+
+¶ Bismarck talked to Sheridan in English; and at dinner they drank
+champagne and porter, Bismarck's favorite beverage.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ With tens of thousands of Cuirassiers as companions the King and
+Bismarck rode down the broad highways, toward Paris; Bismarck wore his
+famous big top-boots.
+
+What a picture the King, Bismarck and von Moltke marching down the
+highways of France, at their back their almighty army, up to 1914 the
+greatest in all history, its fighting strength 600,000 men, perfectly
+drilled and armed with deadly needle-guns. In puffs of smoke the reign
+of Napoleon the Little was ending; and it is now curious to recall
+that, 50 years before, as a young lieutenant, the present King of
+Prussia had traversed almost the identical route with the Allies, to
+help defeat Napoleon the Great!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The iron heel of war was grinding men's lives into the dust, setting
+fire to the country, and leaving a trail of destruction.
+
+France looked along the German route as though a cyclone had
+devastated the face of nature.
+
+¶ Past cities, towns, vineyards, châteaux, the tramp, tramp, tramp;
+the roll of the war drums; the rumbling of wheels--so the terrible
+Prussians marched on!
+
+¶ "Summer was passing," says Lowe, "Autumn was coming fast; France had
+turned from the sap green of the vineyards to the golden hues of the
+harvest; but it was the harvest of Death."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Now came a gigantic cavalry movement, to the right, a prodigious
+wheel, to round-up the French MacMahon, who had dodged and doubled in
+the basin of the Meuse. "The chase," said Bismarck, "reminds me of a
+wolf hunt in the Ardennes, but when we arrived, the wolf had
+vanished!"
+
+To make common ground with Bazaine, MacMahon concentrated his troops,
+with the idea of breaking the siege of Metz, where 175,000 French
+soldiers were undergoing the horrors of starvation.
+
+The Germans outwitted MacMahon, who finally decided to make a last
+stand around the frontier fortress of Sedan.
+
+¶ On the night of August 31, the Germans closed in on him, in what
+proved to be one of the momentous battles in the world's history.
+
+Von Roon and Moltke had 121,000 infantry and 618 cannon, the French
+70,000 of all arms, 320 cannon and 70 Mitrailleuses.
+
+On the slopes of Frenois, the Prussian King, Bismarck and a brilliant
+retinue witnessed for ten hours the dreadful carnage reddening the
+fields.
+
+¶ "More artillery!" cried the King, surprised that the French would
+not yield.
+
+In the King's retinue stood Bismarck, a crowd of princes, dukes,
+aide-de-camps, marshals, besides army attaches of Russia, England and
+America.
+
+¶ On the King's order, 600 German guns began drawing the most terrific
+artillery fire in the history of battles, concentrating an
+ever-narrowing circle of flame and shell around the doomed place. It
+was too much for flesh and blood; a white flag was hoisted.
+
+The Prussian flag of truce to inquire for the commander, was led into
+the presence of Napoleon, trapped at Sedan!
+
+¶ Moltke's terms were short; the whole French army was to surrender as
+prisoners of war.
+
+The French regarded this as too severe after their heroism, but the
+Prussians were inexorable; an armistice left the final decision till
+daylight.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Bismarck passed the night at the house of Dr. Jeanpot, at Donchery,
+a few miles from the bloody field of Sedan.
+
+Along about daybreak, a servant awakened Bismarck, telling him a
+French general was at the door. It was Reille, Napoleon's messenger,
+saying "Napoleon is on the way over to see the King of Prussia!"
+
+¶ What a moment! How Bismarck's pride must have risen; how he must
+have gritted his wolf's teeth and felt his gorge rise as he realized
+that the hour of his life-long revenge was at hand, against his old
+enemy.
+
+¶ And yet, that night, he had been reading in his room after the
+dreadful Sedan carnage--what do you think? Human inconsistency! "Daily
+Refreshment for Believing Christians," by the Moravian brotherhood.
+
+¶ Unwashed, breakfastless, Bismarck immediately set out, his revolver
+in his belt; down the road Napoleon's carriage, "evidently a hired
+one," said Bismarck afterwards, recounting the scene, "came into view;
+the Emperor was escorted by a handful of officers; Napoleon had on his
+military uniform, wore white kid gloves, and was smoking a cigarette!"
+
+¶ Bowing and asking His Majesty's pleasure, Napoleon asks Bismarck, "I
+wish to meet the King of Prussia." Bismarck replies, "Unfortunately
+impossible; the King is quartered some fifteen miles away." However,
+it is only a trick to gain time. Bismarck has certain powerful reasons
+why he does not desire, just then, that Napoleon and William should
+meet. We shall see, presently.
+
+¶ Napoleon drives slowly onward, but nearing Donchery hesitates on
+account of the crowd; and spying a solitary cottage near by, asks if
+he could not remain there.
+
+¶ It is the hut of a weaver of Donchery--a mean, dirty place--and
+stands about fifteen paces from the high-road, which is lined with
+poplars; the house is one-story, yellow, with four windows, and has a
+slate roof.
+
+¶ Bismarck and Napoleon ascend a rickety, narrow staircase giving
+entrance to a gloomy chamber, in which are a deal table and two
+rush-bottomed chairs. Here the two men sit alone for an hour. What a
+moment in history!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Only a few years before, that is to say, in October, 1865, Bismarck
+had sought out Napoleon III, or "Napoleon the Little," and had held a
+famous political interview; the meeting at Biarritz found Napoleon
+filled with ambitions to emulate the illustrious career of his uncle,
+Napoleon Bonaparte; but the secret although well kept did not escape
+the vision of Bismarck.
+
+¶ The Iron Chancellor came as a friend, on a pleasant exchange of
+diplomatic courtesies, but in secret he was sounding Napoleon's
+possible attitude in the oncoming Prussian war, against Austria. The
+Emperor was completely tricked. Bismarck talked frankly of the
+necessity of "reform" in the German Confederation, and Napoleon, whose
+hobby was that peoples speaking the same language should be under one
+rule, fell in quite naturally with the plan to "reform" Prussia. The
+Emperor thought that Bismarck had in mind only certain constitutional
+changes in Prussia, not dynastic changes, destroying the European
+balance of power and preparing the way for German Unity.
+
+¶ Bismarck made clear to the Emperor that, in return for keeping out
+of any impending Austrian clash, France would be rewarded by enlarged
+boundaries. As an enlightened egotist, Bismarck felt that it was "only
+fair" to acknowledge French help with the left bank of the Rhine. It
+was all a bluff. But Napoleon, with his hunger to enlarge French
+territory, and to appear before France as a sort of second Napoleon
+the Great, fell in with the conspiracy. Herein, the Bismarckian skill
+at stacking the cards reaches its height.
+
+¶ And now to think that the next meeting of the French lamb and the
+Prussian wolf should take place in a weaver's hut, Napoleon stripped
+of glory and power by the man who was to "give" great lands to France.
+
+¶ The Emperor had been caught in his own trap; his armies had been
+crushed; his government destroyed by Bismarck's genius for political
+intrigue. The rise to power of Prussia over Austria, against which
+Napoleon had been tricked not to protest, was a turning point in the
+history of modern Europe. Hence we say that these two contrasted
+interviews, the one of glory, the other of the downfall, Biarritz and
+the Weaver's Hut, show our Otto von Bismarck as the supreme
+politico-military genius of his time.
+
+¶ A curious sidelight on the famous interview at Biarritz is supplied
+by Bismarck's writings. "Napoleon said things could not go on as they
+had been doing, in Prussia," wrote Bismarck, "otherwise there would
+soon be an uprising in Berlin and a revolution in the whole country. I
+told him that the people of our country were not barricade-builders,
+and that in Prussia revolutions were made only by the kings. If the
+King could stand the strain on him for three or four years he would
+certainly win the game. Unless he got tired and left me, I would not
+fail him. The Emperor at that time said of me, 'Ce n'est pas un homme
+serieux,' (Bismarck is not a serious man), a mot of which I did not
+think myself at liberty to remind him, in the weaver's hut, at
+Donchery."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Bismarck exercised all his mighty ingenuity to keep Napoleon from
+urging too far that the King of Prussia be brought forward. Bismarck
+knew that King William was tender-hearted, and, tempted by the
+disaster that had come to Napoleon, would in consequence be inclined
+to deal leniently with the Emperor.
+
+¶ Bismarck, setting his iron jaws hard, determined then and there to
+keep the Prussian King out of it till the terms of peace had been
+arranged.
+
+¶ Come, come, are we not justified in our character study of Bismarck?
+Who now is master, who now servant? Who now is shown to be the real
+power behind the throne? And if Bismarck did not actually bring on
+this awful war, then he well knew the art of making other nations
+declare war. Oh, he has learned a thing or two in his long and
+eventful life; and he is now about to create his diplomatic
+masterpiece--in the Belgian weaver's hut.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Sedan surrendered 40 generals, 2,825 various other officers, 83,000
+prisoners of war, 184 pieces of artillery, 350 field guns, 70
+Mitrailleuses, 12,000 horses, and enormous quantities of military
+stores.
+
+¶ The broken-hearted Emperor was sent away to the castle at
+Wilhelmshoehe, near Cassel.
+
+And the King of Prussia opened the champagne at his royal headquarters
+at Vendresse, and toasted von Roon, Moltke and Bismarck: "You, General
+von Roon, whetted our sword; you General von Moltke, wielded it; and
+you, Count Bismarck, have brought Prussia to its present prominence by
+the way in which you have directed its policy for several years."
+
+
+                                  60
+
+  In which Bismarck reaches the zenith of his stupendous career;
+  diplomatist, ministerial Cćsar, unifier of his country.
+
+¶ The Iron Chancellor held firmly to his plan to strip France of her
+last franc.
+
+The siege of Paris continued, with Bismarck and the King of Prussia
+installed at Versailles, within the shadow of the stately palace of
+the Kings of France.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ It is a long, vivid story leading to the 5,000,000,000 francs
+indemnity, and the cessation of Alsace-Lorraine.
+
+M. Thiers treated in vain to get softer terms; but Bismarck kept the
+King out of it and stuck to his hard bargaining.
+
+¶ "This is not war, it is confiscation!" Thiers exclaimed one day in
+terrible anger, and eloquently he parleyed to have the amount reduced.
+
+¶ Bismarck thereupon began to talk in German!
+
+¶ "I have not enough French to answer such a charge as you have just
+made!" he thundered. "Henceforth, we carry on our affairs in German."
+
+¶ M. Thiers threatened to appeal to Europe to intervene, but at this
+Bismarck broke into a hoarse laugh.
+
+He knew that he had in his pocket a secret quit-claim from Russia and
+Italy, Denmark and Belgium were tied in another way, Spain was hostile
+to the French, and as for England--he snapped his fingers!
+
+¶ "Defy me, and I tell you what I will do! We have in Germany about
+100,000 excellent French troops, captured at Metz, who are still
+wholly devoted to the old Imperial cause. I will release them and
+bring back the Bonapartists! I care not who is in power so long as the
+proper sovereign government of France signs our peace demands for
+indemnity. Napoleon cannot do it, as his throne is in ruins; and even
+if he did, the next party in power would probably set it aside. So
+part of my duty is not only to demand for my King the just rewards of
+our victory, but to start France again with some new form of
+government."
+
+¶ Going behind this stern diplomatic language, what Bismarck really
+meant was this: "The longer the French Assembly hesitates to call an
+election the more we will starve the city into submission. Live on
+horseflesh, stale bread, cats and dogs!--die of fever and
+pestilence!--the sooner it is over! Our siege guns will continue to
+bark night and day, Paris will be reduced to ashes, crumble to ruins,
+but the demands of the Prussian King must be obeyed. No power on this
+earth can turn me from my project. I am resolved to wage a war of
+extermination--and I have spoken!"
+
+¶ "Very well, then!" exclaimed M. Thiers, "M. le Comte, as you will!
+Rob us of our homes!--provinces!--burn down our homes!--strangle our
+peaceful inhabitants!--in a word, complete your work! We shall fight
+you as long as our breath remains. Perhaps we shall die--but we shall
+never be dishonored."
+
+¶ Bismarck seemed touched, but said all he had to do was to obey the
+orders of the King.
+
+Meantime he went out and was closeted again with Moltke and His
+Majesty.
+
+¶ "I do not believe," said M. Favre, "that any criminal ever waited
+for the judgment with more feverish anxiety. Motionless, we followed
+with bewildered gaze the hands of the clock.
+
+¶ "The door opened; Bismarck stood on the threshold, announcing that
+he would not insist on the German troops entering Paris--provided we
+gave up Belfort!
+
+¶ "There was a moment of inexpressible agony, but an exchange of
+glances sufficed. 'We should be wanting in patriotism if we
+accepted!' exclaimed M. Thiers. The door closed and Bismarck
+disappeared again.
+
+¶ "At eight o'clock, M. Thiers had reaped the reward of his heroic
+endeavors. He had saved Belfort, but in all other respects he had
+absolutely failed to move the man of blood and iron. For five fearful
+days they had wrestled with the problem of the 5,000,000,000--and had
+lost! Bismarck had his own banker, the Jew Bleichroder, to show that
+after all the indemnity would be adding 'only about one-fourth' to
+France's national debt."
+
+¶ On Sunday, February 26, the preliminaries of peace were signed. As
+Thiers signed, Bismarck took him by the hand, saying, "You are the
+last who ought to have been burdened by France with this sorrow--for
+of all Frenchmen you have the least deserved it!"
+
+¶ Bismarck, radiant with joy, signed the papers with a new golden pen
+sent him for this express purpose by the ladies of the German town of
+Pforsheim.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Said M. Favre: "The countenance of M. de Bismarck was most happy.
+With theatrical pomp, he sent for a golden pen.... M. Thiers
+approached the little table on which lay the documents; he wrote his
+name without betraying the feelings that tortured him. I tried to
+imitate him, and we withdrew. The sacrifice was accomplished.
+
+¶ "As a special understanding, it was agreed that the siege should be
+lifted that morning at four o'clock and that France should fire the
+last shot.
+
+¶ "What sentiment in this, for Paris! Along then, in the deep night
+that precedes the dawn, with the sky illuminated by occasional flashes
+of the siege guns, at last the fire lessened, slackened gradually, and
+then solemn silence fell. Suddenly, through the night, a loud report
+was heard from the Paris ramparts, followed by a path of fire through
+the sky; this immediately died away, and deep silence, now unbroken,
+continued.
+
+¶ "The long siege was over!"
+
+¶ On the third day after signing the hard conditions, 30,000 German
+troops made their triumphal entry into Paris, after being reviewed on
+the plain of Longchamps.
+
+With the victorious Prussians, Bismarck rode as far as the Arc de
+Triomphe.
+
+¶ It was one of the greatest incidents of his eventful life.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+We have transposed to the last an episode that took place January
+18th, 1871, the anniversary of the day on which the first King of
+Prussia had himself crowned at Koenigsberg, 1701.
+
+In the Hall of Mirrors, at Versailles, King William I of Prussia was
+crowned German Emperor, amidst a clash of arms, martial music, hymns
+of praise, and the felicitations of a brilliant throng.
+
+In the semi-circle stood princes, grand dukes, dukes, crown princes,
+hereditary princes, generals, ministers, military and political
+figures, against a background of Prussian hussars.
+
+¶ The Hall of Mirrors at Versailles had seen many astonishing sights
+in the centuries gone by; and doubtless that night the shades of
+Richelieu, Louis XIV, Napoleon, Marie Antoinette, Marie Theresa, Madam
+Pompadour, looked down on one of the strangest incidents in all
+history, a German Emperor receiving his crown in the very palace of
+the old French kings, who in their turn, had waged some twenty hard
+wars upon Germany, and more than once had placed some part of German
+soil in pawn. Who read the proclamation to the assembled company
+expressing the new dignity of the sovereign over United Germany?
+
+¶ The Man of Blood and Iron, Otto von Bismarck, at last had
+demonstrated the dream of his life, that is to say, he had in truth
+not only long been King's Man, but also long had upheld the King his
+master; had unified Germany;--and now had made his master more than
+king, as William I, German Emperor.
+
+¶ Bismarck's life work was now practically over; however, he was a
+busy man for twenty years to come, trying to settle Germany's
+perplexing internal problems; but in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles
+he reached the zenith of his stupendous career as unifier of his
+country.
+
+¶ In this magnificent state apartment of Louis XIV are seventeen
+arcades of looking-glass, corresponding to the seventeen large
+windows; the ceiling by Lebrun shows thirty incidents in the life of
+Louis the Magnificent, each painting bordered by rich gilded
+sculptures.
+
+The entire gallery is decorated with marbles and grand trophies of
+gilded copper, by Coysevox.
+
+In Louis's time, the gallery was hung in white damask brocaded with
+gold; there were orange trees in rare boxes; the great central
+chandelier of gilded silver was by famous smiths; priceless Savonnerie
+carpets muffled the lightest foot-fall; round about were silver
+stools, with green velvet coverings surrounded by bands of gold
+brocade. Later, the silver was melted down, on Louis's order, and the
+money squandered.
+
+¶ These great artists worked in the Hall of Mirrors and neighboring
+apartments: Berain, Monsart, Lebrun, Lenotre, Grissey, Vigarani,
+Audran, Baptiste, Coustau, Coypel, Van Cleve, Taffieri, Taupin,
+Tempore, Temporiti, numbering among them painters, sculptors,
+designers, architects, wood carvers, silversmiths and lockmakers
+extraordinary.
+
+¶ Here, Louis, surrounded by some 1,500 flatterers of all degree, high
+and low, kept his court of pleasure bestowing ribbons, favors,
+dinners, golden swords for the men, diamond necklaces for the women.
+
+¶ However, 1789 ended all that; the mob stormed into imperial chambers
+and through the apartments of the old aristocratic French courtesans;
+and with clubs, axes and fires laid in ruin art treasures that stood
+unmatched through centuries.
+
+¶ To this Versailles come now the Prussian soldiers to proclaim their
+German Emperor; in this palace, where the Bourbons had expended some
+200,000,000 francs, as money is reckoned today; to say nothing of the
+free labor of thousands of convicts.
+
+No record tells what Louis spent on the place, but in August, 1684,
+8,000 horses and 20,000 convicts were working there, and in 1685 at
+one time as many as 36,000 convicts, in charge of soldiers, added
+their vast free labor to heighten the peculiar glory of the great
+French monarchs, as the sublime representatives of kingcraft--in its
+splendor and in its downfall.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ All hail, William I, German Emperor! All hail, Bismarck! All hail,
+United Germany!
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVI
+
+                      The Versailles Masterpiece
+
+
+                                  61
+
+  The Kaiser's crown at last, and how and why; herein, we sum up
+  the very flower of our great man's genius; and mark it well!
+
+¶ The very name "Kaiser" brings up memories of the Middle Ages, thence
+backward to the days of imperial Cćsar. Kaiser, at best, is but Cćsar,
+rewritten.
+
+Yet Bismarck was at great pains to make clear that the substitution of
+Kaiser for King of Prussia involved no restoration of ancient imperial
+institutions.
+
+¶ The use of Kaiser, as the title for the new monarch, had behind it a
+deep, almost religious purpose, in conformity with the sense of
+nationality and brotherhood to which through long and painful
+development the German states had at last attained. Bismarck calls the
+return of the title "a political necessity, making for unity and
+centralization."
+
+¶ "I was convinced," he says, "that the pressure solidifying our
+imperial institutions would be more permanent the more the Prussian
+wearer of the imperial title should himself avoid that dangerous
+striving on the part of our dynasty to flaunt its own pre-eminence in
+the face of other dynasties. King William I was not free from this
+inclination ... to call forth a recognition of the superior prestige
+of Prussia's crown, over the Kaiser's title."
+
+¶ The Kaiser idea is simple: He is the sworn servant "of" the people,
+but his terms are his own, viz., all is "for" the people, but not
+"through" the people.
+
+Such in a few words is the Bismarckian conception of a strong ruler.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ It was not, then, to be "an expanded Prussia," but a German Empire.
+And the Kaiser's powers are hence the legal functions of an imperial
+organ, attached by the organic law of the Empire to the Prussian
+crown.
+
+Thus Germany is a true state, but not a monarchy; sovereignty does not
+rest with the Kaiser, but with the totality of the allied governments.
+And in turn the old states became provinces of the Empire; and the
+Kaiser exercises his powers in the name of the Empire.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ However, it must be recalled that Bismarck always detested political
+and social conformity, trampled conformity under foot, and with wild
+voice ridiculed conformity--especially when conformity meant to yield
+to the peasants a constructive share in the governments of the
+thirty-nine clashing German states. That is to say, his idea of
+freedom was to make the State paramount, guiding, directing and if
+need be disciplining the people.
+
+¶ Memories fasten themselves on us, at this moment, memories of the
+old days of struggle for nationality.
+
+It was on Bismarck's advice that, although Frederick William IV was
+bitten by the ambition to become ruler of United Germany, yet when the
+democratic Frankfort Diet offered him the crown, he did indignantly
+refuse; and many years later, his successor--that old man with the
+wonderful history!--William I, after the victories of Sedan and
+Gravelotte, was mightily afraid that the Berlin Parliament,
+representing democratic conformity, would offer him the honor of
+Emperor before that gift could be bestowed by the princes themselves.
+
+¶ Ludwig of Bavaria in his letter to William, urging the imperial
+title, Kaiser, or German Emperor, uses these words: "I have proposed
+to the German princes to join me in urging Your Majesty to assume the
+title, German Emperor, in connection with the exercise of the prćdial
+rights of the Federation." But it was Bismarck's masterpiece of
+politics, equal to his stroke of Holstein, that sent to the King of
+Bavaria the proper diplomatic advices, to be acted upon by the South
+German princes and returned to the supposedly surprised William,
+urging on him to become German Emperor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ In spite of Bismarck's fine hand, Bavaria at first refused to accept
+the Iron Chancellor's advices. There is light on this topic in Herr
+Ottokar Lorenz's "Foundation of the German Empire," making clear among
+other facts that "the German eagle had a narrow escape from dying in
+the egg." Twice negotiations were broken off; finally, when the King
+of Bavaria tried to get his countrymen behind him in the plan to
+proclaim William of Prussia, German Emperor, at Versailles, "it was
+only after some hesitation and much regret."
+
+It took the Bavarian Landtag a month to make up its mind! To read the
+heated discussions is to destroy the legend that the proclamation of
+the Kaiser was by spontaneous demand.
+
+¶ But we must not press these things too far. The fact that King
+William had to fight for the magnificent honor he had won for himself
+and his country, is merely to say that men are men; nor should we ever
+forget that nothing creates so much jealousy as prosperity.
+
+¶ Herr Bismarck had the cleverness to win, at last, and after that
+there is little to be added.
+
+For that matter, the much-lauded revolt of the American colonists
+against Britain was originally not endorsed by over one-third of the
+inhabitants. Yet, with the final victory, like a pack the colonists
+went over to the winning side, saying, "We told you so."
+
+¶ We have nothing but praise for the way in which Bismarck created his
+Versailles masterpiece. That there was a political squabble behind the
+curtain, in Bavaria, was to be expected.
+
+¶ Tell me, did you ever achieve any success that you did not have to
+go out and fight for?
+
+It is an amiable fiction that men "recognize" each other's work, in
+politics, and "urge" on them rulership over nations. They, too, have
+to get out and fight for it!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ This necessity for turbulent striving to carry out political ideas
+was especially true of Germany during the period of which we write.
+Complex conditions long made National Unity a profound problem, not
+only in politics but in human nature.
+
+¶ All manner of blacklegs were at work with here and there an honest
+man; national oratory was at once visionary, ludicrous and tragical;
+fanatics of the bomb, the knife and the poison-cup for years were
+abroad in the land. These situations, growing from times past, compel
+you to hold with Bismarck that ultimate appeal to the sword was after
+all the only hope for a new Germany.
+
+¶ Bismarck did it grossly, but at least he went through with it--call
+it militarism or what you please.
+
+¶ For that matter, neither Britain, France, Belgium, (nor the United
+States with her 186-odd variants of Christianity in her 186-odd
+religious sects), grew out of political cynicism, least of all out of
+some aloof system of esoteric idealism.
+
+¶ The King of Britain owes his crown to the sword; the President of
+France his high office to the sword; the Belgian King traces his
+legitimacy to revolution; likewise, to revolution the President of the
+United States owes his right to rule during his brief hour of official
+authority.
+
+¶ But what would you in this imperfect world?
+
+German Unity sprang from the needs of human hearts--fighting bravely
+for what they hold important!--even as you fight for your rights, or
+consent to remain a slave. And Germans never will be slaves.
+
+¶ Therefore, know it now and be done with it, or make the most of it
+if you are inclined to snarl at realities: The Kaiser's crown came by
+the sword. Surely, you did not expect that it fell from Heaven? As
+long as men are men, they must fight for what they achieve; and the
+German Empire is no exception;--nor is there any good reason to expect
+that history can possibly be other than the record of human nature, in
+action.
+
+¶ Up to his downfall in 1890, Bismarck was an uncompromising Royalist,
+scoffed at the common people as a source of political sovereignty.
+
+¶ No man knows what is, ultimately, for the glory of God; but when in
+bitter retirement, thrown off by the grandson of William I, Bismarck,
+replying to the old dispute about the interior causes of the
+Franco-Prussian war, to which William owes his title German Emperor,
+it is a fact that Bismarck proceeded to weaken the royalist tradition
+by forcing the government to produce the Ems dispatch; and it was then
+made clear to the common people that there was behind it all the
+under-play of politics, thus dispelling the religious and patriotic
+glamour that the war had been entered upon to protect the Fatherland
+against the land-lust of Napoleon the Little.
+
+Had now the military right been used not to express the will of God,
+but the ends of human expediency?
+
+¶ Bismarck certainly knew all this before the great war, but for
+reasons of political expediency suppressed the facts till in a moment
+of indignation he dropped the mask and called on all honest men to
+know the truth.
+
+Bismarck, twenty years before, had with equal indignation set up
+before the Prussians that their King had been grossly insulted, and
+that Napoleon wanted the left bank of the Rhine.
+
+¶ But let us forget all this, in a broad acknowledgment of the fact
+that human beings at various times, for their own ends, do indeed wear
+various masks; and let us not keep up the fight forevermore;--but here
+and now let us grant to Bismarck final absolution, not claiming for
+him the perfection of the demigod.
+
+¶ After all is said, history is not the record of some far-off
+manifest destiny, but instead is merely the sordid story of human
+nature in action, reciting at best the littleness that appertains to
+men's ways, with now and then the unrealized expression of some
+fleeting larger hope.
+
+
+                                  62
+
+  His Versailles masterpiece reduced to its final analysis, in
+  terms of human nature; wherein it is made clear that Bismarck
+  knew his German peasant as well as his Prussian King.
+
+¶ The core of human interest around which Bismarck shaped his
+stupendous politico-military drama, in order that, in the end, William
+might become German Emperor, was neither an appeal to parliaments nor
+to armies, but a reply to a peculiar psychological something in the
+Teuton character that makes respect for the strong hand.
+
+It is only in the largest way that this fact may be made clear. It
+escapes categorical statement;--and can best be glimpsed behind the
+history of events, from the psychological rather than the physical
+side.
+
+¶ Bismarck manipulated an invisible but very real human force, made it
+the breath of life for his plans!
+
+¶ That he warped on the Nineteenth Century the old Holy Roman Empire
+conception of Divine-right is an amazing politico-military fact.
+
+It was only after many brilliant achievements that, at the height of
+his power, Cćsar linked himself with the gods. Cćsar's earlier life
+knew no such pretensions, but as he climbed the dizzy heights of fame,
+at last the day came when his kinship with the immortal gods
+themselves alone satisfied his inordinate ambitions; and from that
+time forth Divine-right became an established fact in the
+theological-political code of kings; and thus on, down through the
+Middle Ages, until the French Revolution destroyed confidence in the
+old-line absolute monarch, as vicegerent of Christ on this earth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ However, that Otto von Bismarck, the blond Pomeranian giant, warped
+on the Nineteenth Century the Imperial Cćsarian idea of the
+Divine-right of kings is not the final fact of his work. The inner
+fact is that he urged the King's authority as a foil against the
+mob-idea of the French Revolution. The liberty-crazed masses needed a
+strong hand at this time.
+
+¶ What made possible the coming of the Empire was not, after all,
+traceable entirely to the political side of Bismarck's hotly contested
+struggles.
+
+The innate craving of the German people for a strong ruler has a
+subtle inner meaning, too easily overlooked.
+
+¶ In the final analysis, Bismarck's position expresses Prussian sense
+of National security in a powerful war lord, rather than supports the
+conception of master and man. His was not the position of lord and
+servant; rather it means a manly, intelligent admission of the
+necessity of a strong central authority in the nation.
+
+¶ By the force of years of tedious repetitions, building on the plain
+laws of mental suggestion, Bismarck at last created certain dominating
+ideas; but the germ of these ideas already existed in Prussia's
+consciousness.
+
+The Prussian character supporting Divine-right represents a singular
+compound of cadet, blind confidence in aristocratic leadership,
+religious radicalism, worship of ancestors approximating the Chinese
+sentiment, and finally, a racial psychology of rulership, based on the
+rattan of Frederick the Great. On this total combination, the astute
+Bismarck played for thirty long years, warring for his lord and
+master, the Hohenzollerns.
+
+A careful reading of Bismarck's speeches, letters, dispatches, will
+show that whatever political expediency he may at various times have
+followed, and however often he may have changed front, there is still
+in his great labor a tireless repetition of ideas commanding respect
+for vested authority, for ancestry, for a ruling class as against the
+ruled, and always for absolute dog-like obedience to some central
+commanding power.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The psychological something on which Bismarck builded his German
+Empire is Bismarck's recognition of the peculiarities of his German
+peasant, as well as of his Prussian King. We come now to some great
+central racial facts.
+
+Bismarck's unending eulogies of military glory, now extolled in the
+high language of a victorious commander-in-chief, again as a
+drill-sergeant sharply criticising the squad, are not to be dismissed
+as the expressions of one in large authority, speaking from the steps
+of the throne.
+
+Bismarck's work would have failed had he not linked it to some secret
+craving of the Teutonic heart, far deeper than conquering the
+jealousies, intrigues and selfishness that compose the long story of
+the rise of the German Empire.
+
+¶ Historians may talk as much as they please about Bismarck's
+executive and administrative genius, but these, great as they are, are
+overshadowed by his power of political spirit-healing, as it were;
+through practice of his peculiar psychotherapy he cured sick Germany
+of many of her ills; at the same time bringing about German
+brotherhood in a way that added to the great glory of Prussia.
+
+¶ Appealing to the solemn religious side of Prussian character that
+expresses itself in upholding authority, in church or state, Bismarck
+incessantly lauds the descendants of noble families, and sets up that
+Prussian military aristocracy alone reared up Prussian political
+legitimacy.
+
+He presents likewise the idea that the supreme quality of German
+manhood is courage; and to Bismarck's mind the sovereign German virtue
+is revealed in strong-willed eager soldiers.
+
+While in these lofty moods, Bismarck displays enormous family pride
+for his beloved aristocrats of Brandenburg, is never weary of telling
+of their military prowess.
+
+He avows on many occasions his life-long regret that he did not enter
+the army as a career, instead of taking up the civil service; he digs
+into his family records and proudly numbers each Bismarck who carried
+arms, even down to distant cousins, and is never so happy as when
+telling of Bismarcks on many blood-drenched fields.
+
+Above all else, he everlastingly insists that behind his demands for
+his King is the direct will of God.
+
+¶ There is not the slightest doubt that as time passed and Bismarck
+kept telling over and over for years that the King represented God's
+will on this earth, true Prussians came at last to believe it more and
+more; for the reason that it was in their blood to believe, as it is
+the nature of a bull-dog to fight, a glutton to eat, a thief to steal,
+the sun to shine.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Bismarck called on heaven to send its avenging lightnings on the
+heads of those who deserted their monarch, to their perpetual
+dishonor; could think of no crime more monstrous than ingratitude to
+his King, especially to a king by the grace of God.
+
+And Bismarck declared again and again, as his deepest conviction, that
+the Prussian crown was encircled by a heavenly aureole. In short,
+Bismarck revived in its purest and most uncompromising form the
+doctrine of Divine-right.
+
+¶ In an age seemingly out of touch with this iron-bound mold of the
+Feudal past, Bismarck would have failed miserably were it not that he
+touched a responsive side of Prussian character--dog-like loyalty to
+authority, compounded of military glory and a pale shimmering ghost of
+religious aspiration.
+
+The governing fact of the whole situation was psychological rather
+than physical; and all this stupendous cannonading at Gravelotte,
+Sedan, Koeniggraetz, and the magnificent drama in the Hall of Mirrors,
+were after all merely so many evidences that Bismarck better than all
+the tribe of his objectors knew the psychological core of Prussian
+character.
+
+¶ Bismarck brought down the wrath of God on those rival leaders who
+dared to be disloyal to his Divine-right King, and flew into frenzy at
+the very thought that a genuine Prussian should expect wisdom from the
+common people. Behind all this, was always the solid appeal to
+Prussian military-cadet idea of loyalty and strong politico-religious
+instincts.
+
+¶ Manipulating this psychological side, invisible yet very real,
+Bismarck shows his genius as a constructive statesman. Without this
+intuitive touch of Prussian consciousness, all the lustre that
+Bismarck ultimately shed on the Imperial crown would have been
+impossible.
+
+¶ Thus, we behold Otto von Bismarck, the rude, blond, Pomeranian
+giant--in spite of his coarse speeches, his brawls, his political
+card-stacking, his enormous egotism, his passionate seeking after
+power--play with Shakespearian subtlety on the strings of human
+passion.
+
+There is no larger character-side to our Bismarck; so study it well
+and reflect on its wide meaning.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ We are not here to say what Bismarck should or should not have done,
+but we make up our mind about him by what he did do.
+
+¶ He had peculiar ideas of religion, pleasure, duty, and certainly he
+had his own idea of what was best for Prussia, and finally for
+Germany.
+
+¶ He bartered his immortal time for a King's crown and an Emperor's
+glory, guns, swords, forts, marchings up and down the land.
+
+¶ He bartered his time in angry disputes with his fellow-man, for
+prisons, broken homes, murders, tears for 80,000 widows and orphans.
+
+¶ He bartered his time for magnificent spectacles such as the
+coronation of William I in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, a palace
+outrivaling any creation of man since the days of Nebuchadnezzar.
+
+¶ He bartered his time for grand balls for aristocrats in silk coats
+and ladies in diamonds and satin gowns.
+
+¶ He bartered his time that a certain space in Europe be made over to
+his own liking. Other kings and emperors with equal logic wished to
+have this space made over in a way that seemed as good as the one
+Bismarck had in mind, but Bismarck regarding it as a calamity that
+other plans should come to pass, fought bitterly with sword and cannon
+to back his individual opinion against all who disputed with him.
+
+¶ He bartered his time that a certain part of the map be marked with
+one name instead of thirty-nine names, as had been the case when he
+came to power as a young man in the politics of Prussia.
+
+¶ And finally he bartered his immortal time in a thirty-years'
+gladiatorial fight that in the end millions of Germans might feel the
+tingle of blood-brotherhood. How he faced the long, heart-breaking
+battle, therein we find the true measure of our great Bismarck! Thus
+his work, as an individual, is absorbed in the larger life of the
+German Empire. These National services make Bismarck one of the
+immortals; and his name will be remembered affectionately by Germans
+for thousands of years.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The present review of German origins, through Bismarckian genius, is
+concerned largely with the form of government established.
+
+The collective efficiency of the Bismarckian idea, as worked out in
+the German Constitution, promptly ascertains the will of the people,
+and carries out that will.
+
+¶ The Kaiser, through the Chancellor, has the selection of all
+important public officials, and as King of Prussia appoints Prussian
+administrative officials; and in turn, the various kings choose the
+various public servants in their respective kingdoms. All hold office
+during good behavior, or for life; instantly responsive to the will of
+the Kaiser, or to the Bundesrath. The state officials are thus "the
+fingers of the Kaiser," working the duties of the Empire, free from
+the petty molestations that assail even the most trustworthy and
+patriotic American office-holders.
+
+¶ In simple terms of parallel, the much-lauded American Commission
+System, for the government of cities, was borrowed from the Kaiser.
+
+The Commission System delegates the power to a committee of five, who
+pass and execute the laws.
+
+This is precisely the principle laid down by the Bundesrath, in which
+body is united executive, legislative and judicial functions. It is a
+fact that the cities most efficiently managed, in the United States
+(1915), are under the Commission System, that is to say, the German
+conception of responsible politico-civic authority.
+
+¶ German thoroughness, as well as German discipline, unite to make the
+German system a brilliant success; but in America the German
+collective idea is politically offensive because of our superstition
+that the way of Liberty lies through incessant political changes. The
+American has confidence in the wisdom of large numbers, believes that
+by dividing the functions of government the people may be saved from
+themselves. One-man power is (theoretically) greatly feared, in
+America. Despite the fact that in all great industrial undertakings
+Americans appreciate the part played by personal responsibility, they
+are loath to admit that the principle makes for National political
+efficiency.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ One final word: Revolution means change; and in this sense the
+French Revolution is important. In some respects, it is still going
+forward. However, in 1848 the practical side of the Revolution was not
+understood, was therefore decried by conservative thinkers who saw in
+the excesses of the Commune little that heralded a better day.
+
+¶ In France, thousands of men misinterpreted emotional zeal for human
+brotherhood for fitness to govern. It is the old, old story.
+
+To come at once to the point: You must judge a nation as you do a man,
+not by what that man says, but by what he does. Hence, from Bismarck's
+point of view, it was time to be done with the bursting of blood
+vessels in a frenzy about equality, and to come down to the essential
+facts of human nature; or if you like the words better, human ways.
+
+It is not necessarily a mark of wisdom to issue "manifestoes against
+special privileges" and to set up that "all" the people are fit to
+rule an empire.
+
+The very reverse is the proof of history; few men indeed there are who
+have the patience, the discretion and the prudence to rule over other
+lives.
+
+Also, the German race asks no upstart rulers; the idea of father and
+child, duty, discipline and personal responsibility is deeply grounded
+in the German conception of an adequate State.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ There is small profit in using precious time denouncing Bismarck's
+protest against French Constitutionalism. Let us, instead, try to
+understand why the old ways were cherished. And always bear in mind
+that the Past holds mankind in a tighter grip than the Radicals are
+willing to concede! There is no such thing as wiping off the slate
+and starting with a "new" set of ideas. The wisest man in the world
+cannot do that. At best, he recognizes the past, with here and there a
+slight variation.
+
+Such, in short, was Bismarck's broad and true idea of human necessity.
+And he planned his German Empire accordingly.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Bismarck was faced by these facts: the idiomatic ways in which
+German people thought and acted; their tastes and ideals, not only in
+politics but in society, law, religion;--nay, their very dreams.
+Throughout, there is always a profound sense of personal
+responsibility to the State. The State is not to be forgotten for some
+spurious personal individuality.
+
+And mark this: that for generations "events" in Germany all gave
+expression to certain racial habits of thought, against which all
+manner of Communistic uprisings were anathema.
+
+German sense of discipline, duty and personal responsibility, in State
+affairs, is grounded on a high consciousness that is not satisfied
+with half-measures, bungling, waste, cheap politicians, and freakish
+legislation. The German takes himself too seriously to permit a
+bunko-politician to come on with faking, as a substitute for the
+National ideal of government.
+
+¶ Hence, Bismarck's Imperial democracy, with the Kaiser at its head.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ As between the inevitable contest between the Crowd and the Crown,
+springing from the inflammatory ideas of French Constitutionalism,
+Bismarck did not shrink; but fought it out in his own way. Our Man of
+Blood and Iron desired the blessings of liberty for Germany with all
+the strength of his powerful being; but he could not stultify his
+common sense by meekly conceding no essential distinction between men,
+in their capacity for leadership. He was, then, intent on bringing out
+of the German political chaos a type of democracy that may be termed
+Imperial as well as representative, in which the people are accorded
+their share, as he saw it, but always under the guidance of a strong
+central authority.
+
+¶ And after all said in glorification of any special type of
+government, the stubborn fact remains that absolute equality, from a
+representative point of view, is a fiction unsupported by fact. The
+notorious incapacity and apathy of the masses is always, in the end,
+directed by central powers, exercised insidiously or openly as you
+please, but exercised nevertheless. In every political party we find a
+coterie, men of little wisdom it may be but leaders of the crowd; in
+every city commission is always one masterful man to whom the other
+members defer; in every banking house, one deciding voice; every
+religious organization must have a head, regardless of the number of
+counsellors; every ship a captain; every army a general; and, finally,
+in every family there should be the guidance and direction of a strong
+father.
+
+¶ Is there not a ring of sincerity in Bismarck's manly acknowledgment
+of the inevitable equalities in the human stuff of which governments
+are composed? He saw only common sense in openly protesting that in
+any German government big enough and enduring enough to satisfy the
+German conception of responsibility, in a word German thoroughness,
+there must be, somewhere, a master-mind.
+
+¶ For many years, and even today, Bismarck is in some quarters
+regarded as the arch-enemy of the common people, but his great work
+has stood the acid test of time. The German Empire, builded under
+Bismarck's broad ideas may be likened unto a wonderful watch, in which
+each part does its peculiar work without even a gambler's chance of
+going wrong.
+
+
+
+
+                            BOOK THE SIXTH
+
+                     Once a Man and Twice a Child
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVII
+
+                             The Downfall
+
+
+                                  63
+
+  The secret discontent of the man who believed himself sole
+  founder of the German Empire.
+
+¶ When the Kaiser, on that eventful day in March, 1890, turned and
+told the old man to go, Bismarck received the heart-breaking sentence
+without a sign of protest.
+
+¶ To a friend who called he told the news in a calm voice, a smile on
+his lips, congratulating himself on being able to resume his country
+life, of which he was so fond, of visiting again the forests on his
+estates, and "belonging to himself" in the few years that were yet
+left.
+
+¶ "I'll soon be gone," he said, "and it is time I should take a rest."
+
+¶ The story is long and complex, but we will give you the large
+details, only. The day comes when Bismarck's old friend, Emperor
+William I, passes from this earthly scene; his son, Frederick III,
+reigns three months and is carried off by cancer of the throat. The
+doom of Bismarck is now sealed! Emperor William I was the firm
+foundation of Bismarck's strength, but the son did not like the Iron
+Chancellor, and within the three brief months of power before death
+called, Frederick III let it be known that Bismarck was marked for
+retirement. Frederick's one act leveled against the Bismarck
+family-dynasty was to dismiss von Puttkammer, Minister of the
+Interior.
+
+¶ Now enters William II, aged 29, a mighty man in the making, a
+sleepless man, one who in his time was to become the standard by which
+henceforth all German institutions are to be measured. His first
+address to the army; his second, to the navy; his third, three days
+later, to the citizens.
+
+¶ Did he not ask old von Moltke to resign? Yes, and others. It was
+not, as many historians set up, that Emperor William II was jealous of
+Bismarck, nor was it a case of "crabbed age and youth cannot live
+together."
+
+¶ The Emperor, with firm feeling in his will to Imperial power, wishes
+to develop Germany along lines of world-wide importance. Bismarck was
+of the past; William of the future. The blow fell March 28th, 1890.
+
+¶ The world gave a gasp of astonishment; it seemed impossible that
+Bismarck, the master-mind of United Germany, should be unceremoniously
+shuffled out of sight.
+
+Political writers the world around become involved in spirited
+controversies, on the whole supporting the old man and denouncing what
+seemed like ingratitude on the part of the new Emperor. It was pointed
+out that Bismarck himself, speaking to the Czar, had only a short time
+before declared, "I hope to die in office, always a good friend of
+Russia." Also that William II had on New Year's telegraphed to
+Bismarck, "That I may long be permitted to work with you, for the
+welfare and greatness of the Fatherland!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ If Bismarck was not made by a King's breath, at least a breath
+destroyed Bismarck's control of the situation.
+
+Bismarck had long ruled the lives of millions; but when Wm. II snapped
+his fingers and said "Finis!" the old Chancellor had to go. The loss
+of Bismarck's influence was as complete as though instead of being the
+foremost man of his time in the diplomatic world, he was instead only
+a clerk discharged by his superior.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ In listing the elements on which Bismarck builded there is always
+one often overlooked, yet at the very foundation, the bottom stone in
+the wall. That one was the favorable attitude of King William I.
+Without the King's consent, Bismarck's career would have been
+impossible! Herein, we find a classic illustration of how
+interdependent are men's lives; what small causes sustain or defeat
+great careers.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ But first we wish to tell you something of his honors during the
+past few years, also of the munificent patronage of the Kaiser, going
+far to refute the libel that the Kaiser was ungrateful. The patient
+Kaiser in truth dealt nobly with the moody old man.
+
+On the old man's 70th birthday (1885), the people of Germany offered a
+gift of $1,350,000, one-half of which Bismarck used to repurchase the
+ancestral estate, Schoenhausen, which he had sold in his impecunious
+years; and now, thanks to the gratitude of the German nation, the old
+place, mightily enlarged and improved, passed again into Bismarck's
+hands.
+
+The other half of the $1,350,000 Bismarck set aside as an endowment
+fund for school teachers.
+
+¶ Even Victor Hugo added his hero-worship, in this curious letter:
+"The giant salutes the giant! The enemy salutes the enemy! The friend
+sends the greeting of a friend!
+
+¶ "I hate you, cruelly, for you have humiliated France; I love you
+because I am greater than you.
+
+¶ "You kept silence when my eighty years sounded from the belfry of my
+glory; but I speak now because the stolen clock which stands upon your
+desk, refuses to announce to you that your 70th birthday has come.
+
+¶ "If you and I were united in one person, the history of the world
+would have been ended.... But you are great because you know not what
+fear is. Therefore, I, the poet, offer my hand to you, the great man."
+
+¶ The Prince, thunderstruck, wrote in reply two words, "Otto--Adieu!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Nor was this all. The Pope bestowed upon Bismarck the Order of
+Christ, for ameliorating the last of certain hard conditions against
+the Church, dating from the culture-struggle of years gone by.
+
+¶ In 1871, Emperor William I had invested Bismarck with the hereditary
+dignity of Prince, and William II conferred on Bismarck, at the time
+of dismissal (1890), the title Duke of Lauenburg, together with a
+larger share of the Duchy of Lauenburg, an estate on which the Emperor
+expended $1,000,000.
+
+¶ The old man's income was now said to be in excess of $100,000 a
+year; in addition he received unnumbered gifts of a princely nature,
+as well as priceless tokens of sentimental esteem, from patriotic
+Germans the world around.
+
+¶ It was a relief to Bismarck, in his old age, to know that his family
+would be rich and famous. He had been deeply engrossed in politics for
+years, and all his ambitions had been exhausted on his beloved
+Germany; he not only had no time to make money, but was heavily in
+debt; his interest account, for loans, was said to have been, for many
+years, $30,000 per annum.
+
+How he managed to keep his head above water (with all the distractions
+of statesmanship, to say nothing of the burdens of three great wars,
+and the embarrassments of his private finances) shows the man's iron
+constitution as well as his sagacity in practical affairs.
+
+¶ In all, Bismarck received forty-eight orders of distinction, at the
+hands of monarchs; also a long list of university degrees, medals and
+golden keys bestowing the freedom of German cities.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The immediate cause of Bismarck's dismissal had to do with an old
+"Order in Council," 1852, to the effect that the Prime Minister, as
+head of the Prussian Cabinet, had autocratic powers.
+
+This order the Kaiser now abruptly countermanded. The decision was
+made following an interview between Bismarck and Dr. Windhorst, at
+Bismarck's house.
+
+William II did not much like this political jockeying on the part of
+Bismarck; Windhorst was an enemy of the established order; therefore,
+that the Prussian Chancellor should hold a secret caucus with a
+politician objectionable to the Emperor created a crisis.
+
+The Kaiser, who lived in a wire-hung whispering gallery, knew at once
+that Bismarck and Windhorst had been in conference; and early on the
+day following, William abruptly appeared at Bismarck's and asked to
+see the Chancellor.
+
+Bismarck came down in morning gown and slippers, for he had been
+summoned from his bed!
+
+¶ "What is the meaning of this Windhorst interview?" inquired the
+Kaiser sharply.
+
+Bismarck replied with spirit. The breach widened. Bismarck took the
+ground that it was none of the Kaiser's business who called at the
+Bismarck house.
+
+¶ The Kaiser then insisted that in the future he should be notified in
+advance of prospective political interviews, that, if he so desired,
+he might send a personal representative, to report the drift of the
+talk.
+
+This made Bismarck furious; the old man rebelled, flatly!
+
+¶ It was a sharp, short, painful scene; by no means a ceremonious
+discussion of constitutional prerogatives, or the amicable
+rearrangement of methods of transacting state business. Instead, it
+was the parting of the ways, the breaking of old ties;--and after all
+these long years!
+
+¶ "Then I understand, Your Majesty, that I am in your way?"
+
+¶ "Yes!"
+
+¶ "Enough!"
+
+¶ "Haste!" rejoined the Kaiser; and thus, in few words, the celebrated
+interview came to an end.
+
+¶ In parting with the Chancellor, the Kaiser made Bismarck Prince of
+Lauenburg and gave him a very valuable country estate, and added also
+the rank of Field Marshal. The princes of Germany joined in good
+wishes for the old man's peace and happiness, for his declining days.
+
+¶ Peace and happiness--what a satire!
+
+
+                                  64
+
+  And Bismarck was intensely human! "Who made United Germany?" is
+  his question.
+
+¶ The women of his household did not take the news quietly.
+
+¶ The imperial messenger arrived with the Kaiser's portrait, as a
+farewell souvenir to Prince Bismarck. His wife exclaimed: "Take it to
+Friedrichsruh and let it be placed in the stable!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ At the depot, a great crowd came to see the old man depart for the
+country, but the Kaiser was not there.
+
+Bismarck's hoary age, his great dignity, his known services to
+Germany, were now dear to the heart of Germans; thousands gathered, in
+spontaneous farewell, crowding around the old man and kissing his
+hand.
+
+¶ Now let us face the facts.
+
+To a man of Bismarck's iron mold, the exercise of power is the breath
+of life; this made it a tragedy for the aged Bismarck to withdraw.
+
+It was but natural for him, as time passed and his ambition grew, that
+he should believe himself the sole founder of the German Empire. His
+constant utterances after his downfall bear out this idea. The
+composite victory of scores of minds merged in his imagination and now
+crystallized in his own soul victory. Such is human nature, and so we
+say "Wellington won the Battle of Waterloo," but is this strictly
+true? True or false, such is human habit of thought, and Bismarck was
+also now shown to be human enough to claim it all for himself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The story of Wolsey over again; our old counsellor of state thrown
+off in his declining years; and we can almost hear Bismarck in his
+great bitterness repeat the tragic words:
+
+    Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal
+    I serv'd my King, he would not in my age
+    Have left me naked to mine enemies!
+
+¶ Bismarck's further official presence was irksome to the new master.
+With the iron decision characteristic of Hohenzollern, William II
+ended the situation, with a stroke of his imperial will. In this
+attitude William not only acted wisely, but showed himself every inch
+a Kaiser.
+
+¶ Besides, Bismarck was plotting in a very human way to support and
+advance the rising fortunes of the Bismarck family. Would you not have
+done as much, or even more?
+
+In his princely office, Bismarck thought to found a diplomatic dynasty
+of his own, wherein the servant becomes the master; he made his son,
+young Count Herbert, Minister of Foreign Affairs, a rise in life
+prodigiously fast for one who used to fill the function of holding his
+father's dispatch bag in the Parliament, when the old man made
+speeches, supported by incessant drinking of brandy.
+
+Bismarck, himself, was Chancellor, Minister-President, Foreign
+Minister; his cousin, Minister of the Interior; and there were many
+other Bismarcks in state service, trained to know the old man's
+policy. Constructive governmental work was all in Bismarck's
+power;--and he meant to keep it there.
+
+¶ These many acts of family favoritism, arousing the indignation of
+the new Emperor, played an important part in determining the old man's
+dismissal. The King was offended by Bismarck's many acts of nepotism,
+"the greatest," he secretly declared, "which politics have ever
+recorded."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ A high official said to Bismarck after Koeniggraetz: "You should be
+well satisfied;--it made you a Prince!"
+
+¶ "It made me a Prince," mused Bismarck, with a sudden and
+unaccountable show of irony. Then, pointing to the map of United
+Germany, he replied with deep-rooted conviction that revealed how the
+fires of ambition were consuming his very soul: "A Prince, did you
+say? Yes, there is my principality!"
+
+¶ From that hour, the suspicious and irrascible side of Bismarck's
+mind continued to expand. Some of us quarrel with our family, our
+partners, or our political party, asking who was responsible for the
+disaster, but the most deadly disputes are those called forth by
+ambition to decide not who was responsible for the loss, but who made
+the success.
+
+¶ Small cause; great effect.
+
+¶ And Bismarck was intensely human!
+
+
+                                  65
+
+  The elements of his greatness number three--Here read two, but
+  the third and greatest is yet to come.
+
+¶ Now you ought to begin to understand the man in his naked reality;
+his elements of greatness compounded with crying frailties--but his
+very faults endear him to us the more, because they show him brother
+to the weak.
+
+¶ Threefold a great man, great in ambition and courage; greater in
+compelling victory through years of patient and moody planning; but
+greatest of all in his downfall, when turning his back upon the blaze
+of glory, he retires to the country to view the mighty forests, and to
+take long walks with his dogs over the fields, communing with himself,
+the winds of heaven, and the immortal stars.
+
+¶ His time is now very short; the sands have all but run out of the
+glass. For the first time in many, many years, he now belongs to
+himself once more--on the very edge of the tomb--before the sun is to
+go out forever--and the long night settles down.
+
+¶ Does he still believe in his old ikon? In the secret chamber of his
+heart does he still believe that God was behind it all, on the side of
+the needle-guns of Sadowa?
+
+¶ The justifications of earth ofttimes betray themselves in strange
+superstitions, and there always was a large strain of superstition
+compounded in the great mind of this great man; not unlike the
+superstitions of a brother conqueror, Julius Cćsar, who was wont to
+crawl on his belly to the Temple, there to return thanks to the
+immortal gods for success in battle.
+
+¶ To his dying day, Otto von Bismarck held fast that he was the
+instrument of God, and that God did it all, through him. Flesh and
+blood needs some explanation for its ways--and it may be that one
+interpretation is on the whole as good as another. With Bismarck the
+ikon was God.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ On his part, as a human being, for many years Bismarck nursed his
+seemingly impossible dream of expelling Austria from the German
+states and binding up thirty-nine principalities in one grand Empire.
+This ambition he pursued incessantly, and ultimately succeeded in
+reaching by his genius in manipulating the human nature side of the
+men around him. He worked for himself, for his King and for his ideal
+of a United Germany. He gave to the seemingly hopeless cause all his
+time, strength, nay, his very soul.
+
+¶ His was also now the secret discontent of a man who thought himself
+the sole founder of the German Empire. It was so understood by Kaiser
+William. For the time being, then, the patient Kaiser, averse to
+wounding the pride of a true German servant of the Empire, permitted
+the overleaping ambition of his great Minister of State to have sway;
+but William knew that, soon or late, the break must come; and in his
+own mind had already decided on the man who was to take Bismarck's
+place.
+
+¶ Little by little threats came; men in high office secretly inveighed
+against Bismarck's new ambitions; it did not escape the attention of
+the Emperor's intriguers, who now worked against the old man's family
+aspirations; then came more resolute attitudes on Bismarck's part,
+egged on by his wife and by his son, who each had grown prodigiously
+ambitious.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Enter General Caprivi!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Before the will of the Kaiser, Bismarck must bow; and now behold how
+the mighty has fallen! We must henceforth seek him not in the splendid
+halls of state, but among simple rural scenes in Schoenhausen, where
+he was born, where he lived as a child; and to these quiet shades
+under the oaks and elms he now returns at the last remove of life; a
+broken, world-weary man, full of honors it is true, but by the irony
+of fate come back to die stripped of worldly grandeur, and to ponder
+the vanity of all earthly ambitions.
+
+
+                                  66
+
+  Bismarck inveighs against the ingratitude of kings--A fighter
+  to the end.
+
+¶ Did he take kindly to his enforced retirement? Far from it. With all
+the querulous impatience of an octogenarian, full of whims, sick in
+soul and body, suspicious, irritable, dying inch by inch, a prey to
+insomnia, his neuralgic pains, his swollen veins, in short, a crabbed
+old man, awaiting the call--behold now our great Otto von Bismarck,
+and mark well to what narrow limits his power has shrunk.
+
+¶ On one occasion he moodily replied to a question: "Who are the
+Hohenzollerns? My family is as good as theirs!" And the old man meant
+it, every word of it.
+
+¶ He began bombarding the newspapers with bitter reviews, criticising
+the Government, the affairs of the day. The African treaty he
+dissected, to Caprivi's disadvantage. "I never would have signed it!"
+wrote Bismarck, and the press took up the cry. Any utterance from the
+old political sage was welcomed, the more caustic the criticism the
+better it read, all to the disadvantage of the Emperor and the new
+advisers.
+
+¶ Many newspaper reporters called at Bismarck's country retreat; the
+old man would tell them strong truths against the Government. Here and
+there, a newspaper came out as Bismarck's official spokesman!
+
+¶ It did seem as though nothing Caprivi did ever pleased the old man.
+
+The curious fact was this: that Bismarck in his own time had always
+held as an inviolable principle, "No criticism of the Government in
+foreign affairs," but now he claimed a privilege he had never granted
+to another.
+
+¶ One of his many startling confessions of state secrets was that the
+Franco-Prussian war never would have taken place but for the garbled
+Ems dispatch. Instead of being a "holy war," to support the very life
+of the Fatherland, it was now made clear that the old Divine-right
+idea had been but the stage-play of a political minister, for his
+imperial sovereign's march to glory.
+
+¶ The last illusion was now dispelled.
+
+Caprivi was obliged to issue a circular-letter to Germany's diplomatic
+corps, everywhere, "Do not mind Bismarck's utterances; take no stock
+in them!"
+
+¶ Even when Bismarck's old friend, von Moltke, died, the Man of Iron
+refused to go to the funeral; he did not care to take a chance of
+meeting the Emperor, there!
+
+¶ Querulous, iron-willed--such he is to remain. No giving up, no
+softening, no forgiveness; but blood and iron to the end. We must
+present him thus, our sad-hearted, irritable old master, proclaiming
+against the vanity of earthly glories, and like Wolsey wondering on
+the frailties and ingratitude of kings, whose memories are indeed no
+longer than the going down of the sun.
+
+¶ Thus for two long weary years the bitter fight went on.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The old man now went on a trip to Vienna, to see his son Herbert
+married, but ahead of him the Government had telegraphed, "No official
+welcome for Bismarck!"
+
+The German ambassador, under instructions from Berlin, did not dare
+attend the wedding, refused to notice Bismarck's presence in Vienna,
+officially.
+
+¶ This was the last straw; it worked revulsion of popular feeling; the
+common people of Germany, the self-same people that Bismarck had so
+long doubted, now took up arms for fair play for the old man; and
+Caprivi, made the scapegoat, was forced to resign. He was succeeded by
+Hohenlohe, Bismarck's friend, and leader in the Bavarian National
+party.
+
+¶ On Bismarck's eightieth birthday, the Emperor came in person, and
+with military honors presented the old man with a magnificent sword;
+but on Bismarck's part the reconciliation was not sincere, you may
+well imagine that.
+
+
+                                  67
+
+  Wherein, at last, abandoned by his King, the plain people, whom
+  the great Bismarck so long politically ignored, now do indeed
+  bind up the old man's wounds.
+
+¶ Bismarck's mighty nature never softened, but remained bitter to the
+day of his death, with fire and sword pursuing his enemies; broken by
+Fate, his power gone, Bismarck still continued consistent to the last;
+true to his iron nature, he returned the hatred of enemies with his
+own arrogant contempt.
+
+¶ As the years of his downfall passed and men came to comprehend
+somewhat his extraordinary combination of overshadowing political
+genius in administrative and executive life, side by side with his
+strange superstitions and his many weaknesses of a grand order, this
+awe-inspiring man became beloved for his frailties by the very common
+people whom all his life long he had held under suspicion. The people
+rallied to his defense when kings quitted his side; they took up his
+cause because the old man had been outraged in his sensibilities,
+rather than because he was right; they sent him thousands of
+sympathetic letters, telegrams, presents; thousands of students,
+business men, women and children, visited him in his retirement; and
+by that touch of human nature that proves the world kin, took the
+embittered old man to their hearts in the name of the United Germany
+that he had created with toil so infinite and battlings so long and
+blood-stained;--and they disarmed Bismarck by honoring the name of
+their old enemy.
+
+¶ It is a wonderful story of human nature, this story of how the
+German people rallied to Bismarck's side; a story that reaffirms how
+slender after all is the space between the pomp of kings and the
+obscure destiny of the shepherd on the hills.
+
+The proud figure of the grand old man who was not too high to fall
+from power stands side by side with Marius at the ruins of Carthage.
+
+¶ Finally, as between the kings whom Bismarck served so faithfully
+and who abandoned him at last, and the people whom he despised but who
+rallied to his side and bound up his wounds, this courageous giant,
+who during the long years in which he fronted the seemingly forlorn
+struggle for United Germany, had been so conscientious in the
+discharge of his unpleasant duties, came at last to his peculiar
+eminence as one of the world's greatest characters.
+
+¶ When he came to die, full of years and honors, although he had no
+National funeral like the magnificent outpouring that marked the
+return of Napoleon's body to the banks of the River Seine, yet in the
+hearts of the German people Otto von Bismarck was accorded the
+grandest funeral of modern times, if not of all time.
+
+That was many years ago; but his unapproachable memory still lives, as
+Father of United Germany--and his fame goes marching on.
+
+
+                                  68
+
+  The old man's strange fancies as he passes the time awaiting
+  his final call.
+
+¶ Behold our old master in retirement, as obscure as a simple country
+squire; and he reads again--what do you think? The Book of Job,
+Bismarck's last reading, reminds him of the evanescence of all earthly
+glory, which passes away like the grass that is cut down by the mower.
+
+¶ Brave old fighter, with your show of dauntless spirit, down to the
+very end, we know that you are grown weary of it all, and in truth, in
+silent moments of self-communion, you do not care when the end may
+come, nor may it come too soon for you.
+
+¶ He is worried all the time, now; worried about his son's health;
+worried about the death of his brother; broken over the death of his
+wife; distressed by the death of favorite dogs and horses. Also, he
+recalls a gypsy saying having to do with the end of the Bismarck
+family, under strange conditions, in these mystical words:
+
+    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.
+
+¶ Lenbach, the renowned artist, came to paint Bismarck's picture; and
+noted the curious fact that although Mecklenburgers have the largest
+German skulls, "Bismarck's is larger still."
+
+¶ Bad nights, neuralgia, insomnia became his companions; but still
+ambition, the one supreme infirmity of his majestic mind, gives him no
+peace.
+
+What would future generations say of Bismarck's work? And of the
+immediate present, has Caprivi helped it any? Was the repeal of my
+Iron Laws against Socialism wise? Why did not Caprivi follow my plan
+of making the Government the arbiter of German conscience? Why did not
+Caprivi carry the Army Bill? I fought for four years, once, to get
+army money for King William--and won over all obstacles!
+
+¶ Schaffer came to make the Bismarck bust; it shows the Chancellor
+with high-cut nostrils, heavy jaws, scowling brows.
+
+The old man likes it, because it presents him as a soldier; he is
+proud that he is a Field Marshal, prouder still of the Bismarcks in
+the old wars, proud also that he is a Prussian General of Cavalry.
+
+¶ Then he scolds again about Caprivi's treaty with Austria, says it
+will cost fifty million marks a year and nothing gained.
+
+¶ Often in deep fits of melancholy, Bismarck thinks that Germany is
+ungrateful. For one thing, the Government ought to recognize my son
+Herbert; why, England saw in Pitt the son of his father, a chip of the
+old block; and why not one Bismarck after another, eh?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Maybe Dr. Schweninger could do me some good, what do you think? This
+doctor is from South Germany--and a very determined fellow with a jet
+black, piratical beard; he gives orders like a military man, is a
+believer in diet, and all that sort of thing.
+
+Twenty years before, when Bismarck's weight was 247, this South German
+Dr. Schweninger put Bismarck through a course of "banting," and the
+Chancellor rewarded the doctor with a chair in Berlin, against the
+united protests of the faculty! Why, yes, bring up Dr. Schweninger; he
+can make me well, I am sure.
+
+¶ "I can make you live to be ninety, Prince!"
+
+¶ "Then get to work; spare no time; I am in bad shape!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Letters, telegrams, felicitations in the form of magnificently
+embossed diplomas, continue to come, day after day; Bismarck is given
+the freedom of cities; he is enrolled among engineers, carpenters,
+brewers, ship-masters, tailors; each guild demands that the Iron
+Chancellor's name head the list of honorary officers of the Grand
+Lodge.
+
+In one year the record shows 650,000 letters and 10,000 telegrams; and
+among these are begging letters asking a total of $2,500,000!
+
+¶ Bismarck often grows tired of seeing visitors; he has built himself
+a secret spiral staircase, hidden in an unexpected place; and uses it
+against unwelcome callers.
+
+Now and then, when his health permits, he is at his editorial work
+again, laboriously issuing his proclamations to the German people; he
+writes with a quill pen, and for a blotter prefers the old-time box of
+blue sand.
+
+For scribbling hasty notes, he prefers huge lead pencils, such as he
+favored in parliamentary days; pencils 15 inches long, similar to
+those used by German carpenters.
+
+He sits at an immense oak table, and his chair seems uncomfortable; it
+has no back.
+
+At his side is his porcelain tobacco jar, two feet tall, and on the
+stand are innumerable pipes, which in turn are filled and smoked, all
+day long. He holds a sort of tobacco parliament every day. Visitors
+must smoke a pipe or cigars, drink wine, meet the dogs, and hear the
+old man inveigh against these degenerate times.
+
+¶ Those big Ulmar dogs are always around him. At meal times, no matter
+how fashionable the company, Bismarck pauses at the end of the dinner
+to throw "Sultana" or "Cyrus" a biscuit!
+
+Sometimes he wears his Cuirassier's uniform, this broad-shouldered
+giant with the thick neck and the grizzled mustache; his eyes glower
+under his thick white brows, and in the depths of his faded blue eyes
+is the old look of determination.
+
+The old man's face is ashen grey, but he still has the stamp of
+immense dignity, a colossal personality, unquestionably representing
+the first public man of his time.
+
+Folks bow to him, and he is master to the end; men are his servants,
+not his companions.
+
+¶ He is always very deliberate; he has a peculiar way of stopping in
+the middle of a sentence to seek out in a moment of silence the exact
+word he needs.
+
+¶ In the morning, he usually takes a stroll with his big dogs. It was
+a shock when "Old William" died, and the Emperor then gave Bismarck
+"Cyrus"; the Prince also had "Rebecca" and "Sultana."
+
+The Ulmar dogs, following the old giant, resemble tigers in their
+powerful slouching gait.
+
+At night they sleep in his bedroom.
+
+
+                                  69
+
+  Bismarck refuses to pass under the yoke--the octogenarian's
+  last struggle of ambition.
+
+¶ He has his superstitions to the end; about the number 13, about the
+number 7; and he believes that the moon has power to make human hair
+grow. "It is best," he says, "not to make scoff of such matters."
+
+¶ Sometimes he goes over his orders of honor, forty-eight in all, and
+of great distinction; also, his learned degrees. University of Halle
+made him Doctor of Philosophy; Erlangen, Doctor of Law; Tuebingen,
+Doctor of Political Science; Giessen, Doctor of Theology, and Jena,
+Six-fold Doctor, that is to say Doctor of Medicine; and Goettingen,
+Doctor of Law.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ They bring him a joint of wild boar, shot in Varzin forest, and he
+has a feast. His fondness for game he never gives up. Also, to the
+last he has his champagne. After the Franco-Prussian war Bismarck
+refused to drink German champagne, and told the Emperor, quite
+plainly, "Your Majesty, my patriotism stops with my stomach; I simply
+must stick to French champagnes."
+
+¶ He tells how he used to drink Affenthaler and Merkgraefler, years
+before at Frankfort; these were first-rate, at one florin a bottle, or
+wholesale, the old man explains; by the 100 liters, only 14 kreutzers
+(8 cents) a bottle.
+
+¶ "Red wine is for children, champagne for ladies, and schnapps for
+generals," is one of his drinking mottoes, but he tells that he
+himself prefers his old-line invention, the Bismarck champagne and
+porter, a most powerful decoction, putting ordinary mortals under the
+table very early in the evening--but not the Iron Chancellor, not at
+all!
+
+¶ He recalls amusing stories of his ancestors. "One ancestor put pigs'
+ears in pea soup and made a gastronomic hit."
+
+¶ Bismarck's eyes water one day and he explains, "The wine my
+ancestors drank to excess comes back in punishment for their sins."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ What do you think? Bismarck's old enemy, Herr von Sybel, the eminent
+author of the ponderous "History of Prussia," called today, and
+Bismarck was glad to see Sybel, and they chatted a long time. As he
+and Sybel talked of history, Bismarck had moments when he held himself
+the one authentic builder of the German Empire.
+
+¶ Gradually, he came to think that he alone of his own unaided might
+did the work.
+
+¶ Last scene of all in this great drama of Bismarck! The octogenarian,
+in his downfall, is bitterly storming against his enemies.
+
+Consistent to the end, he never weakened. He did not pass under the
+yoke of defeat by revealing any of those soft virtues that writers who
+make a wax doll of this mighty man would have us believe.
+
+He raged and stormed impotently in his retirement at Friedrichsruh,
+and by every loud and insulting means in his power--by voice, pen, by
+special interviews, in his private letters, in his telegraphic
+dispatches, in his talks with the old friends or new callers, and to
+the last scratch of his Memoirs--Bismarck remains unrepentant,
+turbulent, to the end fighting bitterly against the Fate to which he
+could not and would not submit.
+
+Temperamentally and psychologically, it was impossible for him to act
+in any way other than that in which he did act--even as you, in your
+own life, are true to yourself in storm and sunshine, following some
+unformulated but idiomatic law of your being.
+
+Bismarck believed himself a chosen instrument in the hands of God and
+tenaciously clung to the dominant idea that the Bismarck work
+comprised all the raw materials of German history, affecting the
+German Empire.
+
+
+                                  70
+
+  His face is ashen, his grizzled mustache, eyebrows and hair
+  white as the driven snow.
+
+¶ On the whole, the old man is interested in events not in persons; he
+does not keep track of individuals; but he studies their work and its
+effects.
+
+So, in his retirement he talks of big events, mostly; all the while
+suffers from fits of depression and exhibits a growing moroseness, a
+peculiar characteristic of highly developed German character.
+
+He calls for Kant, Hegel, Christ; and reads them, deeply. He likes
+Hegel's idea that the history of the world shows "rational order,"
+conceals a "manifest destiny."
+
+¶ But the old man's one consolation is the Book of Job.
+
+He lays awake o' nights, unable to sleep, he says, "and it seems as
+though there were a mountain on my chest."
+
+¶ He does not think much of Gladstone's "Home Rule" ideas; this "let
+the people" rule is bad business, is the old man's comment.
+
+¶ He is invited out a great deal, but always makes the same excuse, "I
+do not sleep well anywhere except in my own four-post bed. My
+traveling days are over, thank you."
+
+¶ One day in the park, the ladies kissed his hand, but he replied by
+kissing their cheeks, and he made a little speech as though he were in
+parliament.
+
+¶ He studies the thick walls of Schoenhausen mansion and examines the
+old French cannon of '71 scattered around the yard, as souvenirs.
+
+¶ He superintends the planting of trees; and rules over his estate
+with all the old family dignity and unshaken firmness of soul. He asks
+his secretary to count the telegrams that came this past year and in
+round numbers there are 10,000. The old man takes a notion to send
+each inquirer after his health a Bismarck autograph. So each day, from
+April to August, he spends part of his time writing over and over in
+great scrawling letters, at the bottom of a printed card of thanks,
+the huge signature, "Bismarck."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Little things are beginning to bother the old man. He comes in today
+from a short walk and says he hates crows, because they are the enemy
+of the singing birds.
+
+¶ Neuralgia is tormenting him, day and night, and he is very
+irritable.
+
+School children come with teachers and after the children sing the old
+man bows and says, "Children, I thank you."
+
+¶ And this Dr. Schweninger, who promised Bismarck ninety years of
+life, is always hovering about, like a military doctor, giving express
+orders to eat this, to get up at such an hour, to go to bed at such an
+hour, and to take a nap at such an hour.
+
+The old man obeys like a child.
+
+¶ Strangers wait at the village bridge to see Bismarck and his dogs
+pass by; week after week delegations of working-men, lawyers,
+students, come to the house.
+
+Schweninger orders him to take longer naps, not worry about politics
+and not to meet strangers. The old saying, "Once a man and twice a
+child" is coming to pass; Otto von Bismarck is no longer the stubborn,
+dogmatic fellow that he was, even a few years ago. But he still
+scolds, fights and has his way with all--except the doctor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Tomorrow, April 1, 1898, Bismarck will be 83; however, he does not
+seem to be failing much; but his face is ashen, his grizzled mustache,
+eyebrows and hair are as white as the driven snow.
+
+¶ Gardeners write to him that they have named their choicest new
+variety of rose, the Bismarck; and cigarmakers have the Bismarck
+shape, cutlers the Bismarck dinner knife, a thick, sharp blade that
+will carve a duck's neck in a twinkling.
+
+¶ However, the old man is growing weary of it all; and he hears with
+no great show of interest that the people are planning monuments
+everywhere. There is going to be an equestrian, helmeted statue in the
+market place at Leipzig; at Weringrode, a heroic-sized Bismarck will
+lean upon a sword; there will be a column in Hartzburg, Victory with a
+lyre and another Victory with a wreath; there is to be a statue at
+Kissingen; a helmeted-heroic figure at Freiberg; a column at
+Charlotte-springs; a column at Meiszen; at Cologne, a heroic figure
+with a sword; a heroic "Tyras and Bismarck," dog and man, at Leipzig;
+allegorical figures, "Glory and War," for Berlin; at Wiesbaden, a
+statue symbolizing the Bismarck National victory; a bust at
+Heidelberg; at Kreuznach; a heroic figure with helmet and sword, with
+"Glory" at his feet; at Zwickau, an allegorical memorial of noble
+proportions; a tower in the Black Forest; and still another at Altona.
+
+¶ No; it is no use! As we said before, the old man is growing very
+weary of it all; and now along comes Arthur Mendell, who paints for
+posterity that remarkable Bismarck in which you see only the blazing
+eyes and the shining silver helmet--the Bismarck of the brave days of
+'66 and '70, when the German hosts carrying their deadly needle-guns,
+marched over the Rhine--at Bismarck's word!
+
+¶ Dear Old Bismarck, these wreaths of immortelles come to you in your
+retirement, but you have reached the time when the grasshopper has
+become a burden, and when you have but one wish left in this
+world--and that wish is to go in peace to your long sleep.
+
+¶ Coming, Bismarck--coming very soon now, Old Soldier; and we know
+well how courageously you will answer up, when the invisible Skeleton
+in Armor calls your imperial name!
+
+
+
+
+                             CHAPTER XVIII
+
+                           Hail and Farewell
+
+
+                                  71
+
+  Prince Otto V. Bismarck receives his final and his one glorious
+  decoration; and here we leave him, his fame secure among
+  Germany's immortals.
+
+¶ The game is now all but played out. The last phase is to be the
+noblest expression.
+
+In his prime, Bismarck was of massive proportions in mind and body;
+but of his moral nature both friends and enemies had often been in
+doubt for many years. Now, even that was revealed to be in concord
+with his herculean bulk.
+
+¶ The old glory passed from him, like a dream. He committed his soul
+to his God; and he heard again voices of Nature that had been
+inaudible to him, during his many years of intriguing diplomacy.
+
+These voices spoke to him of the vanity and emptiness of human life,
+of the worthless baubles for which men exchange all they have, that is
+to say, their immortal gift of time, which soon passes away and is no
+more.
+
+The musings of the Prince on the follies, inconsistencies and
+ambitions of life conspire to create a heroic figure like King
+Solomon. All is vanity! The conqueror of a continent has so declared.
+He had held the world in his hand, and had found that the sphere is
+hollow.
+
+So go the fates of men.
+
+¶ The great Prince Bismarck has now become as a beggar at the city's
+gates.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Over his grand spectacle of human pomp and power, contrasted with
+his final self-abnegation, shining forth we see the heights and depths
+of human life; but in this case the end was greater than the
+beginning; the defeat than the victory; the downfall than the glory;
+and the disillusion than the dream.
+
+¶ Prince Bismarck in his long career as friend and confidant of the
+kings of this earth, had been honored with forty-eight orders of
+distinction. It is needless to mention them all, but they included the
+Iron Cross and the Order of Merit, the one entitling him to sit with
+kings, the other to command an army corps.
+
+¶ But the greatest decoration of all was the one he now wore, his high
+tide of glory gone.
+
+It is the Decoration of the Order of the Disillusioned, bestowed upon
+himself by his own soul.
+
+Soon or late, prince or pauper, and you and I, wear this Order as at
+last we sit and wonder at the years gone by.
+
+¶ Let us silently pass on, leaving Bismarck here, in the one solemn
+moment of his life; when he attains to real grandeur, stamps himself
+as greater than when he sat before kings.
+
+For now he possesses his own soul, in peace.
+
+And in this last picture, the end is greater than the beginning; the
+defeat than the victory; the downfall than the glory; and the
+disillusion than the dream.
+
+¶ His final consolation was the Book of Job; and he read therein these
+strange and solemn words:
+
+¶ What is my strength, that I should hope? and what is mine end, that
+I should prolong my life?
+
+Is my strength the strength of stones, or is my flesh of brass?
+
+¶ So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are
+appointed to me.
+
+When I lie down, I say, when shall I arise, and the night be gone? and
+I am full of tossings to and fro, unto the dawning of the day.
+
+My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle, and are spent without
+hope.
+
+¶ Yea, man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward. I would
+seek unto God and unto God would I commit my cause;
+
+Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvelous things without
+number;
+
+Who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields;
+
+To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be
+exalted to safety.
+
+He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot
+perform their enterprise.
+
+¶ Behold happy is the man whom God correcteth; therefore despise not
+thou the chastening of the Almighty;
+
+For he maketh sore and bindeth up; he woundeth and his hands make
+whole.
+
+He shall deliver thee in six troubles; yea, in seven there shall be no
+evil touch thee.
+
+In famine, he shall redeem thee from death; and in war from the power
+of the sword ... neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it
+cometh.
+
+
+                                  72
+
+  "As One Asleep"
+
+¶ On July 30, 1898, just before midnight, Otto Edward Leopold von
+Bismarck, Prince of Lauenburg and former Imperial Chancellor of the
+German Empire, died peacefully in the old homestead of his ancestors.
+
+The immediate cause of death was congestion of the lungs.
+
+¶ "Ich danke Dir, mein Kind," were his last words, addressed to his
+daughter, who had stooped to wipe the moisture from his pale brow.
+
+¶ As late as the day he died, he had read the newspapers and talked
+politics.
+
+His final remarks were on the relations of Germany and Russia, at all
+times a subject of deep concern to him.
+
+¶ Dr. Schweninger had promised to bring him to 90--and was seven years
+short.
+
+But the Bismarck of retirement was not unhappy in the taking off; he
+had grown tired of it all; and it is pleasant to record that his last
+hours were without pain.
+
+¶ A few days before, he had had his champagne, and had smoked five
+pipes in succession; also the day before he died, he had asked an
+attendant to "color" two new meerschaums, gifts of friends. Toward the
+last, he had used an invalid's chair for breakfast, but otherwise he
+seemed as well as could be expected.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ The windows looking upon the garden were opened, early next morning,
+and the servants of the household gathered there to look at the
+master, at rest.
+
+He was seemingly asleep in his four-poster bed, his head slightly
+inclined to the left; his expression was that of one gently dreaming;
+his arms were resting over the coverlet, and in his left hand he held
+one white and three red roses, a last love-token from an Austrian
+lady.
+
+¶ The expression of his features was, at the end, proud and noble; but
+the face was as grey as ashes; for the fire of life was out at last!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Later, came two Cuirassiers, in white, with drawn swords; and these
+massive figures stood there by the bedside, and by and by kept solemn
+guard beside the coffin; also, near by were two Foresters, in green.
+
+¶ Books, papers, telegrams and a laurel wreath were in the death
+chamber, where the master had worked to the end.
+
+Not far away was his favorite chessboard, also, within touch the
+Emperor's last present, a fac-simile of Frederick the Great's great
+crook-headed gold cane; a step the other way the globe of the earth
+that Bismarck used to roll over with his big hand, when he studied his
+endless foreign political combinations.
+
+¶ Later, came the magnificent funeral with the high military, and all
+the rest; but we think we shall take leave of him in his old room with
+these simple objects around him, his tools of work, his big oak desk,
+his mounds of state papers, his writings, his quill pens, his box of
+blue sand, his pipes, steins and champagne glasses, his letters, his
+telegrams, his great heaps of books, his immense correspondence on the
+affairs of nations, his diplomas from universities, his degrees of
+law, philosophy and letters, and finally, his big Ulmar dogs.
+
+¶ Here we leave him as one asleep, reminded of his final words,
+uttered when the master was breaking fast with the infirmities of his
+eighty-three years:
+
+¶ "There is only one happy day left for me. It is the one on which I
+shall not wake again."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ His son refused the request that a death-mask be made of the noble
+old face, but Lenbach's famous painting will recall the stern head for
+years to come.
+
+¶ Bismarck's coffin was of polished dark oak, with eight silver
+handles in the shape of lion's paws; candles burned around his coffin,
+the pale lights softened by veils of black and silver gauze that
+ornamented the silver candelabra. The floor was literally covered with
+wreaths, many bearing cards of sympathy in gold letters, from various
+eminent personages throughout the world.
+
+¶ The Kaiser heard the funeral services.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+¶ Bismarck's mausoleum rests on a spot Bismarck selected for himself;
+a plain Romanesque House of Death against a background of trees; and
+to the right still may be seen his favorite bench where he used to
+sit, under the shade of spreading oaks.
+
+The sarcophagus of yellow marble bears this inscription, selected by
+Bismarck himself:
+
+                               Here Lies
+                            PRINCE BISMARCK
+                       A Faithful German Servant
+                         of Emperor William I.
+
+¶ Hostile critics of Germany, brought forth by the great war of 1914,
+profess to believe that this inscription on Bismarck's tomb shows that
+Bismarck did not wish his work to be associated with the future of the
+Empire, but with its past.
+
+Instead, it really proclaims the man's great mind, his clairvoyant
+historical vision. He could have said many things about himself,
+touching the great part he played in sustaining the pomp and majesty
+of kings; but his simple acknowledgment of the rôle of faithful
+servant, is more eloquent than sermons in brass.
+
+¶ Finally, a small altar to the right of the porch carries this text
+from Colossians iii:23, the motto given to Bismarck many, many years
+before by Rev. Schliermacher, the pastor who confirmed the boy Otto;
+and that motto became indeed Bismarck's guiding star through life, as
+now well you do know, balancing his record with the solemn Biblical
+injunction you read here beside the master's tomb:
+
+¶ "And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto
+men."
+
+
+                                THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blood and Iron, by John Hubert Greusel
+
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