A great deal has been said about the firing lines of the different European countries, but little is known of the war lords at close range. Though I have never hobnobbed with royalty I have lived for long stretches of time in the different capitals and cities of Europe, especially in Berlin. There I have seen the Emperor and most of his family.

I have seen William II driving through the Brandenburger gate hurrying from his city. I have seen him taking five-o'clock tea with his wife, his sons and their wives at Sans Souci, in Potsdam. I have seen him addressing his people out on the balcony of his palace after war had been declared.

In these three instances I saw three different types of man; the statesman, the father of a happy home, and the war lord.

He is more than average tall and well built, still in the prime of life. His strong body and healthy color mark him as a man alive with energy.

He stands for the famous Hohenzollern, challenging eyes, full lips, retroussÉ mustache and imperious air. Still, as I looked at him more closely, I noticed that his left arm is withered—almost of no use. In spite of this hindrance he is an excellent, easy horseman, as much at home in the saddle as are his great generals. When at manoeuvres he has been known to sit nine hours at a time without any feeling of exhaustion. He proves himself no less energetic when hunting, which has been a favorite pastime for years. He has made a record of shooting for hours at a time without feeling much fatigue, even when bringing-down game two a minute.

He has made hundreds of speeches on all subjects, that showed a gift of natural eloquence as well as a keen and impetuous nature. He believes in the divine mission of the Hohenzollern. As he expresses it: "It is a tradition in our house to consider ourselves as designed by God to govern the people over which it is given us to reign. Every day I think of ways of helping you, but you must help me, not by means of the opposition parties that you have so often rightly combated, but by explaining to your sovereign and having confidence in him."

Bismark disputed the Emperor's right to act directly with his ministerial colleagues, citing a decree attributing to the Prime Minister alone the responsibility for official acts and prescribing that no important measure should be adopted without prior submission to him.

It is to his army that he looked for greatest strength and support. "In my army we are made one for the other, and we shall remain closely bound whether God gives us war or peace. It is the soldier and the army, not majorities and parliamentary decisions, that have forged the unity of the German Empire."

He has a thorough knowledge of engineering and electricity, paints pictures, plays chess, and he does all this with the use of his one hand. He feels that all these things are his avocations, an outlet for his energy. With his great talent for organization, he realized that a country to be prosperous needs factories and plenty of trade schools. He was absorbed in the trade and commercial schools along with the school of forestry, which have had an international and enviable reputation, and which has made Germany one of the great industrial powers of modern times. He gave every incentive to have his men stay at home in encouraging all kinds of factories, lake, and water ways, the building of canals, ocean liners and merchant marine. For it was the increasing of the numbers of ocean liners and merchant marine that made German merchandise popular and well-known in most of the ports of the world.

He has kept abreast of the times regarding the manufactures in England and the United States. He has always taken an active interest in the machinery and electrical contrivances used in American factories and in the home.

Every year he sent many men to this country to study the methods employed in our shoe factories, tanneries, cotton mills, our electrical appliances and telephone services. As a result many of the German factories have the best of American machinery, American mechanics at the head, and they have worked out their telephone service, typewriters, adding machines and cash registers after our designs. Though the Emperor spent much of his time enlarging the army and navy, he considered these as a safeguard to his country, but it is the commercial interests of Germany he has at heart most.

He loved to read about the Panama Canal and to hear people discuss it, for he recognized it as the great engineering feat of the century. He would rather had it said that Germany had built the Panama Canal than that she had organized the largest and strongest army in Europe. So eager was he to know all these things that he mastered six languages fluently. He began his day's work at seven and continued it until five, with a short interval for his noonday meal and afternoon drive. Though he often had a few intimate friends to supper, his evenings usually finished with work which lapsed way into midnight.

Though the Emperor is often blamed as having precipitated the war, the point is overlooked that Servia, backed by Russia, was trying her utmost to disintegrate Austria. When Austria made war on Servia without consulting Germany, it was the war party in Germany that held it was up to Germany to help her ally. The Emperor of Germany was lukewarm in this matter. He felt that the war should be confined to Austria and Servia. He was surprised and grief-stricken when he returned to Berlin and learned what had happened. It was only after he learned that England and France were backing Russia that he considered the war justifiable.

As he said, when he made his speech from the balcony, he hoped that German swords should only be drawn to protect the fatherland. But after war was once declared he showed, by the way he talked and discussed war matters with his generals, that he was a worthy pupil of the great Von Moltke, and a firsthand strategist. For he had not forgotten Von Bulow's plea to his countrymen, that under no circumstance would France pardon or forget the seizure of Alsace Lorraine by the victorious Germans of 1870. On this head he writes:

"When we consider our relations with France, we must not forget that she is unappeased. So far as man can tell, the ultimate aim of French policy for many years to come will be to create necessary conditions which to-day are still wanting for a settlement with Germany, with good prospects of success."

Of Anglo-German relations Bismark wrote: "England is certainly disquieted by our rising power at sea and our competition which incommodes her at many points. Without doubt there are still Englishmen who think that if the troublesome German would disappear from the face of the earth England would only gain by it. But, between such sentiments in England and the fundamental feeling in France, there is a marked difference which finds corresponding expression in politics. France would attack us if she were strong enough. England would only do so if she thought she could not defend her vital economic and political interests except by force."

Though Europe was on the brink of war time and again during the twenty-six years of his reign, the Emperor always cast his vote for peace, as one of our great statesmen, William H. Taft, said on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Emperor's reign: "The proof of the pudding is in the eating. When the German Emperor went upon the throne and developed his independence of Bismark and his intention to exercise his own will in the discharge of his high functions, there were many prophecies that this meant disturbance of the peace of Europe. Instead of that the truth of history requires the verdict, that considering the critically important part which has been his among the nations, he has been for the last quarter of a century the greatest single individual force in the practical maintenance of peace in the world."

Likewise Theodore Roosevelt says of him, he was "The one man outside this country from whom I obtained help in bringing about the Peace of Portsmouth, was his Majesty William II. From no other nation did I receive any assistance, but the Emperor personally and through his Embassador in St. Petersburg, was of real aid in helping to induce Russia to face the accomplished fact and come to an agreement with Japan—an agreement the justice of which to both sides was conclusively shown by the fact that neither side was satisfied with it.

"This was a real help to the cause of international peace, a contribution that far outweighed any amount of mere talk about it in the abstract, for in this, as in all other matters an ounce of performance is worth a ton of promise."

Though Emperor William has been accused of having precipitated the war, he was off on his yacht taking a vacation when the murder of the Austrian nobles took place, and Germany faced the question of war through her alliance. It is said that the Emperor broke down and sobbed like a child when he met his sons in his study after war had been declared.

As Andrew Carnegie recently explained: "The Kaiser himself is a marvelous man, possessed of wonderful ingenuity. He has done more good for Germany than any other man before him. He has built up a great foreign commerce and a marvelous internal business."

The trouble was started by the German military caste that rules the country. They are responsible for the war. The Kaiser gathered around him a group of men who, unknown to him, acted in concert, and in his absence took the action that could not be altered.

The Kaiser has always been devoted to his home and his children. He has given much time to their education, for he believes firmly, "Spare the rod and spoil the child." Though he has the reputation of being severe, he is far more lenient with other people's children than his own.

His sons were trained to serve in the army quite like the sons of the poorest peasants, and when the war broke out they were the first to hurry to their regiments. Though one of his sons had just been married, he had to leave his bride like all other young lovers.

The Empress has been a splendid check on the Kaiser's strong and determined nature, for though she is submissive and tender, she has great poise and is extremely restful. She has never worried him about her domestic affairs and still she has taken a keen interest in all his doings.

The Crown Prince is different from his father in build, as he is in all other respects. He is tall and slight, good-looking and gracious, and acceptable to his people. Next to taking an active interest in his wife and children, America appeals to him most.

Though he is much more of a soldier than a diplomat or statesman, he is more democratic than his father, and he is tremendously popular with his people on that account. This he has shown to his men ever since he went to the front; the comfort of his soldiers is constantly before him. He makes it a point to see that his men are provided with socks and shoes. When a student at the University of Bonn he had the reputation of being a good mixer. In spite of his fair hair and blue eyes he has always been closer to the war party than has his father. He is a fearless horseman and has a deep knowledge of military tactics. The Crown Prince received his first military training when he was hardly large enough to mount a horse. He and all his brothers have continued this training all through their boyhood. First the Crown Prince went to the Prince's Academy Military School at Ploen, and completed this work at Danzig. Though a severe leader, he has always been the idol of his regiment, for he never asks his people to do the things he is unwilling to undertake himself.

He has always been as popular with women as with his soldiers. He is exceedingly fond of American women and has been admired by many an attractive American girl. Several times he had his heart set on taking one for a wife, but his father showed him the impracticability of such a venture. But he is extremely fond of his home and devoted to his wife and four lovely boys. They are splendid comrades, much more so than the average German woman is with her husband. When the war broke out Princess Cecilie said that she would join her husband at the front just as soon as she could. One of the dispatches sent by way of The Hague from Berlin says that Cecilie, the German Crown Princess, accompanied by her two eldest sons, left Berlin to join her husband at his headquarters in France. She proposed personally to bestow decorations upon officers of her dragoon regiment. Though the Crown Princess is naturally delicate, having inherited tubercular tendencies from her father, she and her husband, along with the children, devote much of their time at winter sports in Switzerland. She and her children toboggan, ski, skate on the ice, and partake of all winter sports. She is so fond of exercise that she sometimes neglects the question of handsome costumes. On more than one state occasion she has had to devise something in a hurry because her wardrobe had run low. She takes more pains selecting her sporting costumes than her evening toilettes. The first time the Emperor laid eyes on her he was charmed by her beauty and grace; as he told one of his friends, "I might look the kingdom over and I could not find a lovelier wife for my son."

She is no less beloved by her mother-in-law, the Empress. When she should come to the throne the Empress imagined she would be spoiled, as she was used to having her own way. To her surprise she found the Crown Princess a capable home-maker and an ideal mother. She loves to ride and romp with her four children, and she is the liveliest of the number. From the time the war broke out until the present moment she has never shown the least sorrow at being alone with her children. Her one great ambition has been to allay the suffering of her people. She is a great favorite with her brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law. When the young Princess Victoria Louise fell in love with Prince Ernst, the Duke of Braunschweig, the young girl confided the secret to her sister-in-law, who did more than her share to bring the romance to a happy issue. When one of the Crown Prince's brothers fell in love with one of his mother's ladies in waiting, the Crown Princess took her under her wing and thus allayed the Emperor's displeasure. Though Prince Eilet's wife has the name of being haughty, she has never shown that disposition with the Crown Princess, with whom she is on friendly terms.

The Emperor hates pomp and display, and all his family follow his precepts in enjoying a simple home life. They are seen to best advantage in their lovely gardens at Potsdam, having five-o'clock tea on the lawn, happy and care-free away from the pomp of the court.

He is equally proud and happy with his other children, August Wilhelm, Oscar, Adelbert and Joachim. Like the patriarchs of old he takes himself seriously, too seriously, happy in devoting his whole energy and intelligence to his people.

KING GEORGE V HEAD OF THE ALLIES