MY RECOLLECTIONS OF WILLIAM 11-1879-1903 239 



might seem to be the result of a momentary impulse, but 

 which reveals sober contemplation of problems looming 

 large before the United States as well as Germany, I might 

 cite a remark made last year to an American eminent in 

 public affairs. He said, &quot;You in America may do what 

 you please, but I will not suffer capitalists in Germany 

 to suck the life out of the workingmen and then fling them 

 like squeezed lemon-skins into the gutter. &quot; 



Any one who runs through the printed volume of his 

 speeches will see that he is fertile in ideas on many sub 

 jects, and knows how to impress them upon his audiences. 

 His voice and manner are good, and at times there are 

 evidences of deep feeling, showing the man beneath the 

 garb of the sovereign. This was especially the case in 

 his speech at the coming of age of his son. The audience 

 was noteworthy, there being present the Austrian Em 

 peror, members of all the great ruling houses of Europe, 

 the foremost men in contemporary German history, and 

 the diplomatic representatives of foreign powers an au 

 dience representing wide differences in points of view and 

 in lines of thought, yet no one of them could fail to be 

 impressed by sundry references to the significance of 

 the occasion. 



Even the most rapid sketch of the Emperor would be 

 inadequate without some reference to his religious views. 

 It is curious to note that while Frederick the Great is 

 one of the gods of his idolatry, the two monarchs are 

 separated by a whole orb of thought in their religious 

 theories and feelings. While a philosophical observer 

 may see in this the result of careful training in view of 

 the evident interests of the monarchy in these days, he 

 must none the less acknowledge the reality and depth of 

 those feelings in the present sovereign. No one who has 

 observed his conduct and utterances, and especially no 

 one who has read his sermon and prayer on the deck of 

 one of his war-ships just at the beginning of the Chinese 

 war, can doubt that there is in his thinking a genuine sub 

 stratum of religious feeling. It is true that at times one is 



