Brickbats for Hermin

The present consort of Wilhelm II is a healthy, good-humored woman with an easy stride, who does not take too seriously the pompous courtesy titles sometimes proclaimed at her approach by Netherlandic butlers in the vicinity of Doom. Example: "Her Imperial and Royal Highness, the German Empress Hermine, Queen of Prussia." Actually Princess Hermine is a strictly practical woman who stipulated in her marriage contract (1922) that she should be allowed every year a vacation away from the Netherlands--in Germany. Last week the period of this vacation was at hand, and with it, excitement. Rumor positively affirmed that this year the "Empress" will sojourn in Berlin at the onetime Palace of Wilhelm I, "Der Greise Kaiser" ("The Grand Old Emperor"). The Palace of Wilhelm I now belongs indisputably to Wilhelm II--having been awarded to him by the Republican courts of Prussia. Then why should not the owner's wife live there? Recently a bathroom has been installed--something of an innovation, for Der Greise Kaiser used to snort, "Let mollycoddles have their tubs! We shall go bathing when we want a bath." Now that the Palace stands ready for occupancy, there is no legal reason why Princess Hermine should not sit of an afternoon at the great window from which Wilhelm I used to review every morning his smartly goose-stepping Royal Guard. However Socialist Premier Otto Braun of the Prussian Republic thought that he saw a stout, practical reason why the new "Empress" should not take the place of the old Emperor. Mobs--Republican and Communist--were the reason. Too easily they could hurl jagged brickbats through the huge, defenseless window. Therefore, last week the Prussian Government ominously conveyed to Princess Hermine the information that if she occupies the Wilhelm I palace her personal safety "cannot be guaranteed." At Doorn, Prince Wilhelm, grandson of Wilhelm II, and son of one-time Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, celebrated his 21st birthday. Attentive, respectful, he listened to a "birthday oration" by Wilhelm II in which "the ancient glories of the Hohenzollerns" were thoroughly and appropriately reviewed.