Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/808

 WORLD OF WOMEN 780 '^^i^m^^ ^!B'' "-WORLD - no. 2 -CDC German empress By SARAH A. TOOLEY '•iP:! No simple Gretchen of the Fatherland was ever chosen by her lover under more romantic circumstances than was the Kaiserin by her Imperial husband. One summer afternoon, the Princess Augusta-Victoria, eldest daughter of the Grand Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonder- burg-Austenburg, fell asleep while reading in a hammock in her father's garden at Coburg. It chanced that Prince William of Prussia passed that way. Being at the im- pressionable age when a young man " lightly turn to thoughts of love," he received the first of Cupid's darts at sight of the charming vision. She was indeed fair to. look upon, with pretty brown hair, and a rose- leaf complexion, and a sunny smile upon her face. Perhaps she, too, was dreaming of a possible Prince Charming. The Betrothal Long ago our young King, George III., had chosen as his bride the daughter of a German House, because she had written a sensible girlish epistle condemning the horrors of war, and extolling the virtue of peace. He had never seen the Princess Charlotte, and though their union proved a happy one, he winced at the rather homely appearance of the bride when she arrived for her nuptials. Certainly his great-great-grandson had the advantage in choosing from observation. At that time Prince William's settlement in marriage was the great concern of his parents, the Crown Prince and Princess, and nis grandfather the Emperor William. A brilliant alliance was anticipated for the heir- presumptive. But Prince William had received without enthusiasm the suggested names of eligible princesses. With the Im- perial spirit which marked the coming man, he had told his equally autocratic grand- father that he claimed the right of every man to choose his wife for himself. He gained the day, and his nuptials with the Princess Augusta- Victoria were celebrated with becoming splendour in Berlin, Feb- ruary 27th, 1 88 1. The bride was of ancient German lineage, as proud of the Fatherland as the old Emperor William himself. She had been most carefully reared and educated ; had lived a very simple life in her father's castle, and had been required to learn and practise the domestic arts like all young ladies in Germany. She was a good musician, and artistic in her tastes, but above everything she brought her husband the dower of a loving heart and complete devotion to her home. His " Jewel," the Kaiser calls her, and he valued the jewel all the more because he had found it himself. The Three K's His Majesty has extolled the virtues of his Consort throughout the length and breadth of the Fatherland, and one memor- able utterance has become the maxim of his people to express feminine excellence : " I could wish no better for the men of my nation," he said, " than that they should find among the girls of Germany wives who would follow the example of their Empress, and devote their lives, as she has done, to the study of the three ' K's ' — kirche, kinder, and kochen." (Church, children, cookery.) On another occasion, in the privacy of the palace, he said, " I do not want my wife to have views." And Bismarck chuckled, for the ever-masterful Chancellor had been non-plussed occasionally by Royal ladies who " had views." As a young wife the Empress was scarcely heard of in Europe. The canvas of German Court life was amply filled by the stately and benign Empress Augusta, the clever and talented Crown Princess (our own Princess Royal), and the philanthropic Grand Duchess of Baden, the old Emperor's daughter, and the friend of Florence Nightingale. Those who knew the Empress when she was simply the Princess William, speak of her as a bright, merry, and altogether charming young mother. She would sometimes bathe and and dress the latest baby herself, and was constantly to be seen with the children and their nurses in the Imperial gardens. She superintended their lessons herself, and later, as one after another of the young princes left home for the University or military training, she remained their best friend and comrade. The Crown Prince was quite his mother's boy both in appear- ance and tastes.