his hoary head,
And sat on his throne with his nobles about,
And his captains raising the wild war-shout;
And asked himself, 'twixt a smile and a sigh,
"Was ever a Kaiser so great as I?"

From every jewel, from every gem
In that imperial diadem,
There came a voice and a whisper clear--
I heard it, and I still can hear--
Which said, "O Kaiser great and strong,
God's sword is double-edged and long!"

"Aye," said the emeralds, flashing green--
"The fruit shall be what the seed has been--
His realm shall reap what his hosts have sown;
Debt and misery, tear and groan,
Pang and sob, and grief and shame,
And rapine and consuming flame!"

"Aye," said the rubies, glowing red--
"There comes new life from life-blood shed;
And though the Goth o'erride the Gaul.
Eternal justice rides o'er all!
Might may be Right for its own short day,
But Right is Might forever and aye!"

"Aye," said the diamonds, tongued with fire;
"Grief tracks the pathways of desire.
Our Kaiser, on whose head we glow,
Takes little heed of his people's woe,
Or the deep, deep thoughts in the people's brain
That burn and throb like healing pain.

"Thinks not that Germany, joyous now,
Cares naught for the crown upon his brow,
But much for the Freedom--wooed, not won--
That must be hers ere all is done,--
That gleams, and floats, and shines afar,
A glorious and approaching star!"

"Aye!" said they all, with one accord,
"He is the Kaiser, King, and Lord;
But kings are small, the people great;
And Freedom cometh, sure, though late--
A stronger than he shall cast him down!"
This was my dream of the Kaiser's crown.

CHARLES MACKAY--1871.

THE QUALITY OF MERCY

There is an old saying, "Like king, like people," which means that the
king is usually not very different from the people whose executive he
is. If this is true of kings, it surely must be true of American
presidents. With this in mind, contrast the German Kaiser, William II,
with Abraham Lincoln. The first constantly talked of himself and God
as ruling the world. Boastfully declaring that he was the greatest of
all men and that he ruled by divine right, the former German emperor
brought upon the world the greatest evil that has ever befallen it
through selfish ambition for himself, his family, and for the German
autocracy; the other claiming to be a common man, a servant of men,
seeking no riches, n