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 Cæsar, 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!