Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/811

 783 WORLD OF WOMEN hospital, and a touching incident occurred. In one of the wards lay a young woman, Frieda Baumgart, in the last stage of con- sumi:)tion, but hearing that the Empress was going round the hospital, she said that she would so like to speak to her. The Matron, Sister Elise, communicated the request to the Empress, who at once hastened to the dying woman's bed, and spent some time in kindly talk with her. The Empress has paid great attention to the study of sick nursing and is also a student of medicine. When there is illness in her family, she always helps in the nursing herself ; particularly was this the case during the serious illness of Prince Eitel- Fritz. During the two months' sojourn of the Imperial family at their country villa at Cadinen, the* Empress, freed from Court ceremonial, is able to indulge her house- wifely instincts and to train her young daughter in domestic matters. Together they cook and dust, feed the poultry, and watch the dairy work. They also visit in the cottages of the work-people engaged at the porcelain factory, and pay special atten- tion to the sick. The Empress is greatly loved by the people for her simple, womanly goodness. The Empress is a charming mixture of the woman and the Imperial lady. Nothing which adds to the well-being of her husband and children is beneath her concern. In simple morning gown she will prepare the Emperor's coffee, and in the evening, attired with taste and magnificence and full of gracious manners she is every inch an Em- press. She invariably wears in her hair a large, single diamond which once adorned the cocked hat of Napoleon, and is seldom seen without the diamond and enamelled bracelet which bears inset likenesses of her seven children, and a heart-shaped open locket with a portrait of her hu.sband. Her most cherished Order is the Hohen- zollern Swan, founded by Frederick II. in the fifteenth century. It is only allowed to be worn by the consorts of the Kaisers. In appearance the Empress is tall, of good presence, comely in face, and generally smiling, while her laugh is rippling and contagious. She is sweet and placid in nature, leaves politics severely alone, but is much interested in social reforms. In short, the German Empress must have been the selected of the gods as helpmate for the clever, strenuous Kaiser. The Berlin Home of the Kaiser. A View of the Royal Castle