IN MEMORIAM EMPEROR WILLIAM I.—HOW HE FOUND GERMANIA, AND HOW HE LEAVES HER.
PUCK, March 21st, 1888.
“There was one King in Europe two weeks ago, one King worthy of the name, and there is none to-day. And in this fact there is much more significance than we of America are likely to note. To us a King is an anachronism. His name is something that belongs to the time of fable and fairy-story. We do not quite realize that he exists; that he is still a power. There is an intrinsic unreasonableness in the idea of his continuance, out of the world of fiction, that inclines us to disbelieve in his very existence. We can hardly conceive of him as anything more than a puppet—as a mere figure-head for a governing ministry.
“But the late Emperor of Germany was a King. He was King of Prussia before he was Emperor of Germany; and as King and Emperor he set up a standard of conduct by which few men would care to govern their lives. He tried to be a King, having a high conception of what a King should be, and, as far as in him lay the power, he was a King. At least, he was a mortal who strove hard to be more than other mortals, and who strove from a sense of duty. We may—and must—hold the effort futile; yet we may respect the spirit that prompted it. We Americans have no use for Kings; and we have ideas as to popular government that King Wilhelm of Prussia, later Emperor of Germany, would never understand. But let us consider that it would be well for us if we had a few statesmen, among those who are governing us on speculation, who would look on their responsibilities as this dead European monarch did on his. He knew that his place was greater than he was, and he tried to make himself fit for it. And, now that he is dead, his people mourn a brave man gone; if they are to have Kings or Emperors to rule them in the future, they will go far before they find a better man of his kind.”—Puck, March 21st, 1888.