disdains to acquire. All that is youthful finds favour in his eyes, with
the sole exception of a class of youth with which he is disposed to deal
severely, viz. the _souteneurs_. Against them the _summus episcopus_ is
extremely wroth. Here the virtue of chaste Germany is at stake, and he
proposes to cauterise the disease with a red-hot iron. For the future,
the scandalous discussion of these things will be forbidden to the Press,
and thus, even if private morals continue the same, public morality will
not be offended. Hypocrisy, at least, will be saved.

There is much talk at Vienna of a plan whispered at headquarters in
Berlin, which has to do with converting the capital of Austria into an
entrenched camp, so that an army driven back from the Austro-Russian
frontiers might there be re-formed. William means to throw Austria
against Russia, and to take his precautions in case of defeat,
precautions which would at the same time, safeguard the rear of the
German Empire.



November 29, 1891.

Germany is becoming uneasy; she has heard the rustling of the wings of
defeat. Accustomed to victory, she is suffering, as rich people suffer
under the least of privations. Bankruptcies, one after another, are
spreading ruin in Berlin. Bismarck and William, united in a very
touching manner on this subject, conceived the idea of bringing about
Russia's financial ruin, and of importing into the Prussian capital the
vitality of the Paris market. The fall in Russian securities was unlucky
for the German Bank, and all the scrip that the Berlin Bourse so greedily
devoured, for the sole purpose of preventing Paris from getting it, does