Part 36 (1/2)

His brother, Prince Joachim Albrecht, is also a very good musician, but differs radically from Prince Wilhelm. He plays the violoncello very well, and favors modern music. He composes ballads, and leads his own regimental orchestra. He is as jolly and unconventional as his brother is reserved and grave. When he dines with us he brings his violoncello, and I accompany him on my piano. He composed two very pretty and successful ballets, both given for charity. The first one was danced by Frederikke and two other girls and three young officers.

It was called ”_La Lecon de Danse_.” On the top of the program, instead of the English device, ”_Honi soit qui mal y pense_,” I put ”_Honi soit qui mal y danse_” in the same s.h.i.+eld. Hardly any one in the German audience saw the joke--nothing more than that it was a _druckfehler_ (printer's error). The rehearsals were in my _salon_, and we had great amus.e.m.e.nt over them. The second ballet was more pretentious, and was danced in one of the largest theaters in Berlin.

It was called the ”Enchanted Castle.” A parvenu buys an ancestral castle, and on his arrival there falls asleep in the great hall, filled with the portraits of ancestors and knights in armor. The ladies, in their old-fas.h.i.+oned dresses, step out from their frames, and with the knights in armor move in a stately quadrille. After they return to their frames, thirty young couples dance a ballet, and when they finish, the parvenu wakes up. It was very pretty and brought in a lot of money, and there was a question of its being repeated for the Emperor, but this was not done.

_February, 1908._

Dear L.,--The Crown Prince and the Crown Princess gave a small _bal-costume_. It was their first entertainment of any importance, though there were very few people invited. As Frederikke is a dancing young person, we were invited, enabling me to take many girls under my protecting wing. The Emperor was dressed as the Grand Elector of Brandenburg. The Empress had copied an old family portrait at San Souci. She had a voluminous blond peruke and a flowing blue dress. She looked very handsome. The Princes were generally dressed as their ancestors and looked very familiar, as almost all of them stand in the _Sieges Allee_. I learned much of German history that evening. The Emperor was very kind and gave me a spirited and concise history of those whom his six sons represented. No one except the Kaiser would ever have had the persistency to stay booted and spurred during the whole evening without a murmur, though he must have suffered from the heat and been uncomfortable to a great degree. He had thick, brown curls which hung close about his ears; thick, high, and hot leather boots; and heavy leather gloves which he conscientiously kept on till the very end.

The Kaiser is a wonderful personality. The more I see him the more I admire him. He impresses you as having a great sense of power and true and sound judgment. And then he is kind and good. I do not think him capable of doing a mean or small action.

Mrs. Vanderbilt drove me out to Potsdam in her motor, and, going through the forest, we pa.s.sed in our hurried flight an automobile which we did not have time to remark upon. That evening there was a ball at court. When the Emperor spoke to me he said: ”You flew by the Empress and me like lightning this afternoon when we were walking in the forest.”

”Was that your Majesty's motor?” I asked. ”We went so fast that I did little else than hold on to my seat. It must have seemed ill-mannered to have flown by like that.”

There is to-night a _Gesinde Ball_ to which we are going. I know that you have no idea as to what a _Gesinde Ball_ is, so I will tell you that it is a ball given at some kind house by a kind lady. People dress themselves up as servants. It is our wildest dream, and we are never so happy as when we are gotten up to look like ladies' maids. I can tell you how some of them will look--self-made and to the manner born. I am going, since commands from superior quarters make it imperative, as a giddy old housekeeper or a care (worn) taker who has taken a smart gown from her mistress's wardrobe on the sly.

Several evenings later I heard your _prima donna_ with patience (because you sent her), but not with enthusiasm. She is like a hundred other would-be _prima donnas_ who cannot sing now and never can. These flock to Berlin, study with all their might for two or three years, and sing worse each year. Then they give a concert, for which they give away the tickets. They say they must have the Berlin criticism.

In the mean time their families are eating dry bread and their friends are squeezed like lemons. They get their criticism in some paper, cut it out, stick it on a nice piece of paper, and send it to their countrymen, who are out of pocket for a thousand marks or so. Then they go back to their homesteads, discouraged and unhappy, and sing for nothing in the village choir for the rest of their lives.

Our winters are very much alike--always the same routine. The season commences with the reception of the _grande maitresse_, then comes the _Schleppenkur_, the _Ordensfest_, and after that the Emperor's birthday, with a gala opera in the evening; then the first, second, and third b.a.l.l.s at court, and the gala performances at the Opera when any sovereign comes to Berlin on a visit. In Lent there is always one entertainment at court. After Easter every one disappears and all the blinds are pulled down. Those who remain in Berlin pretend they are away.

The Emperor speaks French and English with equal ease, but he likes best to speak English. He can be very lively at times, and then the next moment just as serious again. While talking to you he never takes his eyes off your face. He is seemingly all attention. Sometimes when the diplomatic ladies stand side by side he glances to the next lady, evidently making up his mind about what he will talk with her. His voice is singularly clear, and what he says is straight to the point.

He has the rare gift of making the person to whom he is talking appear at his very best. The life in Potsdam is, I have been told, very home-like and cozy. The Emperor often spends the evening reading aloud, while the Empress sits near with her knitting. They love to be in the Neues Palais and stay there until after Christmas. Their Christmas festivities must be worth seeing. Each prince has a Christmas tree and a table of his own, makes his own choice of presents, and ties up his own packages--as it were--and lights the Christmas candles. These festivals are held in the mussel-room, on the ground floor, original if not pretty--a combination of sh.e.l.ls, mother-of-pearl, and gla.s.s stone, which must be very effective in the brilliantly lighted room.

The Empress is very fond of riding, but often drives a little pony-carriage with two English ”high-steppers.” Once when the Shah of Persia was spending the day at Potsdam the Empress offered to take him out for a drive in the park. Half-way to their destination the lively pace of the horses alarmed the Shah. He put his hand over hers, which held the reins, and said in his pigeon-French, ”_Vous-mourir seule_”

and got out and walked back.

The Emperor said to me, ”Do you know Mr. Carnegie?”

I said that I did not.

”He is a clever gentleman,” continued the Emperor. ”Can you guess what he said to me?”

I shook my head.

The Emperor then quoted Mr. Carnegie: ”You and Mr. Roosevelt would make a nice tandem.”

”That shows tact and discrimination,” I remarked.

The Emperor laughed. ”I asked him which he thought would be the wheel-horse?”

”What did he answer to that?” said I.

”I am afraid Mr. Carnegie did not find anything to answer just then.

He has not your talent for repartee.”

”In this case,” I a.s.sured his Majesty, ”I should not have answered at all, for I have no idea what a wheel-horse is. If it is the horse which makes all the wheels turn, then it must be your Majesty.”

”You see!” said the Emperor, shaking his finger and laughing.

We had the great pleasure of welcoming Prince Hans (King Christian's brother). Johan was with him in Greece many years ago and has never ceased to love him. He is the most polite gentleman I ever saw; he almost begs your pardon for being kind to you. He dined with us yesterday. We invited to meet him Prince Albert Schleswig-Holstein (his nephew) and Prince and Princess Wied[3]. This young couple are delightfully charming. The Prince has the most catching smile. It is impossible not to be in good spirits when you are with him. We sat out on the balcony after dinner and took our coffee and looked out into the brilliantly lighted square of Brandenburger Tor with its network of trams. I think our apartment is the most beautifully situated in all Berlin.