o guard houses painted with red-white-black
stripes flank the front door and give it a look of importance. The
street at either end is barred by red, white and black striped poles and
strapping grenadiers on guard are clustered thick about it. You don't
need to ask who lives there. The red brick house (it would not rent for
more than $100 a month in any New York suburb) is the present temporary
residence of the Over War Lord. Its great attraction for the Kaiser, I
am told, is the large, secluded garden in the rear where this other "man
of destiny" loves to walk and meditate or, more usually, talk--though
the few remaining French inhabitants could have a frequent opportunity
of seeing him walk in the little closed public park if they were
interested, but the natives seem outwardly utterly apathetic.

Several of the Kaiser's household, in green Jaeger uniforms, were
lounging around the door for an early morning airing, while secret
service men completed the picture by hovering in the immediate
neighborhood. You can tell that they are German secret service agents
because they all wear felt alpine hats, norfolk jackets, waterproof
cloth capes and a bored expression. They have been away from Berlin for
nearly three months now. About fifty of them constitute the "Secret
Field Police" and their station house is half a block away from the
Kaiser's residence.

Just around the corner from the Kaiser, within a stone's throw of his
back door, is another red-brick house with terra-cotta trimmings, rather
larger and more imposing. The names of its new residents, "Hahnke,"
"Caprivi," and "Graf von Moltke," are scrawled in white chalk on the
stone post of the gateway. Further up the same street another chalk
scrawl on a quite imposing mansion informed me that "The Imperial
Chancellor" and "The Foreign Office" had set up shop there. Near by were
Grand Admiral von Tirpitz's field quarters. A bank building on another
principal street bore the sign, "War Cabinet."

The Great General Staff occupies the quaint old Hotel de Ville. An
unmolested ramble showed that all the best residences and business
buildings in the heart of the town were required to house the members of
the Great Headquarters, who number, in addition to the Kaiser and his
personal entourage, thirty-six chiefs or department heads, including the
Imperial Chancellor, the War Minister, the Chief of the Great General
Staff, the Chief of the Naval General Staff, the Chief of the