With all this experience, with all
this opportunity for observation at close range, I am hardly able to
recognize a single characteristic usually attributed to him by the
British and American press of today.
In the first place, the Emperor is an impressive man physically. He is
not a giant in stature, but a man of medium size, great strength and
endurance, and of agile and graceful movement. He looks every inch a
leader of men. His fine gray-blue eyes are peculiarly fascinating. I saw
him once seated beside his uncle, King Edward VII., and the contrast was
very striking, and greatly in his favor.
In the second place, the Emperor is an exceedingly intelligent and
highly cultivated man. His mental processes are swift, but they go also
very deep. He is a searching inquirer, and questions and listens more
than he talks. His fund of knowledge is immense and sometimes
astonishing. He manifests interest in everything, even to the smallest
detail, which can have any bearing upon human improvement. I remember a
half hour's conversation with him once over a cupping glass, which he
had gotten from an excavation in the Roman ruin called the Saalburg,
near Homburg.
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