Page:Works of Tagore from the Modern Review, 1909-24 Segment 1.pdf/64

Rh interesting a newspaper is in our good country of Germany! The Prince has made his entry in such and such town, and so on."

Nowadays, however, the journals speak out their minds quite frankly, and discuss everything. The most striking example of this change has been given by the campaign of the Zukumft of Maximilien Harden, who brought about the downfall of Prince Phillippe Eulenburg and the discomfiture of the too famous camarilla, in the wake of the scandals provoked by the revelations of the singular practices of the 'Round Table' at the Castle of Liebenberg.

He held there among intimates a court on a small scale, and there were hatched the intrigues which had their inevitable effect on the internal and external politics of the country. It was here that the downfall of the Chancellor Caprivi was decreed, on the 27th of October, 1894, because he had inspired an article, written by Herr Fischer, Judicial Councillor, against Count Eulenburg, the president of the Council of Ministers. And the pitiless campaign carried on by Harden in his weekly Review, The Future, brought in its train the ruin of that ultra-smart set, by showing it to the world in its true colours.

Harden—his real name is Wittkowsky—has become famous in the Press since he took upon himself with ardour, the defence of Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor, after his fall.

Afterwards he contributed to the columns of the Gegenwart and in 1892, founded Die Zukunft. This weekly sheet at once made its mark by its copious and reliable news on matters political, economical, and financial. Harden maintains excellent relations with the Rathenaus. The latter are in close and intimate alliance with the powerful Israelite Banker, Carl Furstenburg, the master of the "Commercial Society of Berlin" (Berliner Handelsgesellschaft), which has a capital of one hundred million marks; and with Ballin. A brother of Harden, the Government Councillor Witting, is the Director of the National Bank of Germany, and Witting was an intimate friend and confidant of Bulow. The Director of the Zukunft is therefore one of the best informed men in Germany, on all topics of the day, as well as those of tomorrow.

The most curious thing is that Harden lives in a very retired fashion in his villa at Grunewald. He himself goes out very little, but those who want to speak to him call on him at his residence. Parliamentarians, financiers and diplomats visit him when it suits their interests to do so, that is to say, very often. Except in his home, Maximilien Harden scarcely, if ever, makes his appearance in Berlin Society. The attachés at the Embassies, who go everywhere, must have attended hundreds of dinners in the worlds of high Finance, and Politics, without meeting once the celebrated publicist and polemic. He hardly shows himself in public. He generally prefers his own company. He allows his pen to speak or that of his colleagues, which latter, however, he inspires and even takes care to edit before publication.

K. K..

OETHE, the master-poet of Europe, has summed up his criticism of Sakuntala in a single quatrain; he has not taken the poem to pieces. This quatrain seems to be a small thing like the flame of a candle, but it lights up the whole drama in an instant and reveals its inner nature. In Goethe's words, Sakuntala blends together the young year's blossoms and the fruits of its maturity; it combines heaven and earth in one.

We are apt to pass over this eulogy lightly as a mere poetical outburst. We are apt