osition
professed a willingness to grant for three years but not for seven, he
said, "Three years hence, I may hope to be here; in seven, I shall be
above all this misery." The three years have not yet passed. For the
glory of Germany, many will hope that twice seven may find the name of
Bismarck still inspiring with dread the enemies of his country.

* * * * *

General Von Moltke, the Grant of Germany, might often be seen, by
those who knew when and where to look for him, in plain dress, walking
along Unter den Linden, or through the city edge of the Thiergarten,
near the building of the General Staff, of which he was long the Chief
and where he lives. This most eminent student of the art of war lives
a seemingly lonely life since the death of his wife, whose portrait is
said to be the chief adornment of his private room. He is fond of
music, and an open piano is his close companion in hours of leisure.
His plain carriage is seen but seldom by sojourners in Berlin. His
words need not to be many to be weighty, and his influence was great
with Emperor William I. and Crown Prince Frederick, whose tutor he had
been. No scene after the death of Frederick III. was more affecting
than Von Moltke in tears over his bier. "Never before," said an
officer who had long known the great general, "have I seen Von Moltke
so broken up."

* * * * *

General Von Waldersee has, by the recent retirement of Von Moltke,
become Chief of the German Army Staff. The Countess Von Waldersee,
closely related by her first marriage to the present Empress, is a
devout Christian lady, an American by birth, and has much influence in
the German Court. Her most romantic history is known to many since,
the daughter of a wealthy New York merchant, she went abroad some
twenty-five years ago, met and married a wealthy Schleswig-Holstein
baron, by which marriage she became related to more than one royal
house in Europe; was soon left a youthful widow with great wealth, and
after a few years, in which she maintained the estate and title of an
Austrian Princess also bequeathed her by her first husband, married
the German nobleman who is now the head of the German army. She is
devoted to her home, her husband and children, and to quiet ways of
doing good. Her dazzling history is her least claim on the interest of
American women. A noble character, devoted consistently in her high
station to the ser