Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 301, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1912 — MOLTKE ACCEPTED THE FEE [ARTICLE]

MOLTKE ACCEPTED THE FEE

Occasion When Great, Though Taciturn German Soldier, Must Have Felt Like Laughing. Sidney Whitman’s book, “German Memories,” Is full of Interesting stories about Prussian statesmen, soldiers, artiste and writers. Here are tyro: “Moltke paid repeated visits to his nephew’s villa, and it was there that a droll incident occurred under the chestnut trees of the picturesque garden. One day a stranger looking over the garden railing saw an old man, whose well worn stfaw hat seemed to betoken the gardener. ‘They say that Moltke Is on a visit here. Could you tell me, sir, whether it might be possible to catch sight of him?’ The old man replied that if the gentleman would come again In the course of the afternoon he might perhaps see Moltke in the garden. In his joy the stranger tendered a mark to the communicative ‘gardener,’ who promptly pocketed it. The stranger’s consternation may well be imagined when on his return in the afternoon he beheld the identical old ‘gardener’ walking arm in Major von Burt. Moltke waved a greeting, andjwith a smile called out to him: ‘I have still got your mark.’ “Any one who happened to be in Berlin at the beginning of the ’Bos and was in the habit of riding in the tramcar from the Brandenburg gate to Charlottenburg between six and eight o’clock of an evening might often have noticed an elderly gentleman of striking appearance among the passengers. He was of medium height, of slight figure, his face clean shaven and full of wrinkles, set off by a head full of long silvery hair. A pair of dark, illumlnatingly expressive eyes peered through his spectacles. On entering the tram he always looked out for a seat near the lamp at the back of the car, and.invariably succeeded In obtaining it. Thereupon the old gentleman would draw a newspaper from his pocket and soon be engrossed in its contents, notwithstanding the dimness of the light. When the tramcar stopped at Charlottenburg he had generally finished reading. He would get up and hurry to the March Strasse, in which his unpretentious house stood. This was Theodor Mommsen, the renowned historian of ‘Ancient Rome.’ ”