Splendid! But
let him tell us so himself! I confess that such a document would
interest me far more than all that I have published on the subject!
May not the explanation of King Leopold's journey be, that William II
would like a mobilisation in Belgium just as he wants one in Italy? M.
Bleichroder will supply the cash. He has already got his bargain
money, viz. Pastor Stoecker in disgrace, and the repudiation of
anti-Semitism by its ex-partisan, William II.
November 27, 1890. [16]
How can one avoid taking an interest in William II of Hohenzollern? He
is one of those people who, by every means and in every way, insist on
being noticed. This up-to-date Emperor is obsessed by the idea of
making profit, for purposes of advertisement, out of every sensation;
he loves to upset calculations and produce every kind of astonishment.
He believes that he has not fulfilled his part, until he has made a
number of people lift their arms to heaven at least once a day and
exclaim: "William is marvellous!" He wants to hear this cry arise from
the humblest and the highest, from the miner's gallery and the palace
of his "august confederates," from the workman's cottage and the homes
of the middle-class, from the officers' club, from church and chapel,
from the Parliament of the Empire and the House of Peers.
Being _blase_ himself, it pleases him to tickle public opinion with
spicy fare; his lack of mental balance compels him to these endless and
senseless choppings and changes, to all these schemes projected,
proclaimed and cast aside.
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