AN UNCENSORED DIARY—FROM THE CENTRAL EMPIRES

By Ernesta Drinker Bullitt, An American Woman in the Diplomatic Circles in Germany and Austria

This is one of the most delightfully interesting narratives in the entire War. It is the diary of an American woman with a charming sense of humor. Mrs. Bullitt accompanied her husband on his interviews with the diplomatists as special correspondent with the Philadelphia Public Ledger. Her conversations with historical personages give one an intimate acquaintanceship with the great characters in the world's tragedy. This American woman tells how she dined with von Bissing, Governor of Belgium; Zimmerman, "the busiest man in the German Empire," discussed the War with her; Countess von Bernstorff and Baroness von Bissing asked her to tea; ambassadors and statesmen parleyed with her. She recorded her daily experiences without any thought of their future publication. It stands unique as a record written entirely within the lines of the Central Empires. Brilliant sketches from this diary are here reprinted by the authority of the publishers: Doubleday, Page and Company: Copyright 1917.

I—WITH LETTERS FROM COUNT BERNSTORFF

Copenhagen, May 14, 1916.

Once upon a time ... before the war, one went abroad with no more preparation than a steamer ticket and an American Express check or two. Two days ago, we undertook to go from Holland to Denmark, via Germany. Before daring to approach Bentheim, the German frontier, we were equipped with passports, thrice viséd; a special letter of identification from the Department of State, birth certificates, letters to the frontier authorities from Count Bernstorff and the German Minister at The Hague, eighty-seven other letters of introduction, two letters of credit, and a Philadelphia police card....

II—AT THE AMERICAN EMBASSY IN COPENHAGEN

May 23d.

Denmark is hospitable, inexpensive, and friendly. We have seen the Egans frequently. They have been more than kind. Mr. Egan has been in Denmark eleven years—a longer period than any other diplomat in our service to-day has held a post. By common consent, he is the most popular diplomat in Denmark. The other Ministers keep dashing in and out, getting advice from Mr. Egan....

Among the other qualities of a perfect diplomat which Mr. and Mrs. Egan possess, they have that of never making a "break." Therefore, they gave us (principally me) what we needed—advice as to caution in speech, behavior, facial expression, and etiquette, also warning us against writing anything down on paper. It's going to be hard on me. I never was born to be indefinite. I am practising conversing diplomatically.

"Mrs. Bullitt, Verdun has been taken and Paris is about to surrender."

"Really? How curious. Battles are so interesting, aren't they?"

"Mrs. Bullitt, if it were not for American ammunition, the war would have ended in six months."

"Yes, battles are dangerous, aren't they?" Whereas, I might mention our Spanish war and certain famous German munition factories. So, the crest of idiotic amiability being reached, we move on to the weather.

Count Szechenyi, the Austro-Hungarian Minister, thinks it would be a good plan for us to go to Vienna and Pest, as so little has been seen of them during the war. He has very kindly written to people there that we are coming. I played tennis with him this afternoon at the club, he in his suspenders and monocle, and I in street clothes, with a pair of borrowed tennis shoes two inches too long on my feet, and a racket like a spoon, as a means of defence, in my hand....

III—WITH AMBASSADOR GERARD IN BERLIN

Hotel Esplanade, Berlin, May 29th.

We got to Berlin. I must say I should have liked to wrap up in the American flag and sleep on Mr. Gerard's doorstep myself. The inspection this time was really too disgusting to repeat. I decided that, if I ever again heard any one say: "It's our orders," I should kill him. Orders apparently mean: Be as nasty to the man who can't hit you back as your imagination will allow....

We lunched at the Embassy the day after we got here. Mrs. Gerard is charming and Mr. Gerard one of the most amusing men I ever met. Brusque, frank, quick-witted, a typically judicial mind, and a typically undiplomatic manner, he is the last person in the world a German would understand. His dry, slangy, American humor, his sudden lapses into the comic in moments of solemnity, his irreverence for the great, shock the worthy German. That he treats the Emperor in any other way than as a business acquaintance is most unlikely....

The Embassy is filled with Harvard secretaries, whose lips, as Mr. Egan says, are still wet with the milk of Groton. The ballroom is bulging with stenographers. Never did the world see its few remaining diplomats so overworked. Instead of coming down and reading the papers for two hours a day, they now all work mornings, afternoons, and sometimes evenings.

IV—AT TEA WITH BARON ROEDER

June 3d.

To-day, the flags are all out for the naval victory, even the trams and buses are decorated. The Germans didn't wish to celebrate until they were quite sure. They've made one or two mistakes, so they were cautious this time. The school-children take a real interest in German victories. They get a holiday on the strength of one, and they measure the victory only by the length of their holiday. The joy is slightly adulterated by having to go to school first and listen to a careful explanation of what they are about to celebrate. Their fondness for Hindenburg is quite immoderate. In the eyes of German children, a campaign against the Russians is a most praiseworthy undertaking.

The great wooden statue of Hindenburg, encased in geranium plants and scaffolding, had many nails driven into it to-day. The statue is an unsightly thing, but it seems to appeal to the Berliners to buy a nail for the benefit of the Red Cross, climb the scaffolding, and hammer it in....

Lunched with the Jacksons. Mr. Jackson was Secretary of the Embassy here for years. The Germans trust him, Baron von Mumm told me. Baron and Baroness Roeder were there and Countess Götzen. I asked Baron Roeder what he did and he said he was Master of Ceremonies at Court, and official introducer, and a lot of other things. He is about seventy-five, but he says he is going to the front if the war keeps up much longer. Already he has offered himself three times. His chief irritation against England is being cut off from his London tailor. Every German I meet out of uniform tells the same sad tale. The old gentleman said he thought the naval victory was due principally to Zeppelins. The Blüchers joined us for coffee. Count Blücher looks like the pictures of his famous grandparent. Princess —— said that his father is a dreadful old gentleman, fights with everyone, his son included, all the time. As the old Prince is eighty-five, the relations had better run around and turn the other cheek before it's too late.

V—COUNTESS —— AND HER DAUGHTER

June 4th.

We staggered in to Countess ——'s tea late in the afternoon. She told me how she brought up Hilda, her daughter. Hilda is a little matter of six feet high. Her mother was afraid to ever let her daughter go up in the hotel lift alone for fear something will happen to her. As her last offence was to refuse to let the Kaiser kiss her—he being her godfather and claiming parental privileges—it would seem she could take care of herself.

VI—DINNER WITH COUNTESS GOTZEN

June 8th.

I met Countess Blücher talking to that mad Irish-American, John Gaffney. He was removed from his consulship at Munich for being un-neutral, so now he is in a white rage at the President. He says he is the only American who has been fair to the Germans and that he never was un-neutral. Both Countess Blücher and Gaffney were in a great state of mind over Casement. Gaffney says he is a hero who sacrificed himself for his country, and Countess Blücher that he is a lifelong friend and therefore must be got off from hanging, whatever he has done. She has written a letter to England, saying Casement is mad, in hope that it may help to save him.

"I don't fancy he will like that—coming from me," she said, "but it was the only thing I could think of doing."

I asked Count Blücher when he thought the war would end, and he said: "When Russia is spent." I said that sounded rather pessimistic.

"No," he said. "I think we can wear her out and then get a port on the Baltic...."

Dined last night with Countess Götzen. I sat between a Spaniard and Prince Christian of Hesse. The Spaniard was a detestable little thing, and Prince Christian had tonsilitis and thought he was going to die, so I didn't get much entertainment out of him, either. Later on we changed seats and I drew a fat and pleasant Bavarian, who had known my aunt in America. I asked him what his name was and he said they called him "Booby." I said I might get to that in time but I had to have something else to tide me over. After a few Christian names, I ran him down to his visiting card and Baron von Papius.

Had tea with Countess Sehr-Thoss, an American. She is charming. When I admired an old painting on her drawing-room wall, she said: "Yes. I bought that with 2,000 marks sent me by my old uncle to buy eggs. He wrote he heard in America we were paying five dollars apiece for eggs and thought I might not be able to afford them!"

The Duchess of Croy came bounding in, looking most exuberant and American. I liked her, she is so unaffected....

VII—WHEN THE CZARINA BURST INTO TEARS

June 10th.

Saw Fräulein Marelle and Fräulein Schulhoff, of the Lyceum Club, this morning. They were telling us stories of the invasion of East Prussia.... One lady, whom Fräulein Marelle knows, a Frau von Bieberstein, had her château cut to ribbons. Her tapestry chairs were sliced up with knives, her china and mirrors broken, her beautiful chapel knocked to pieces, her bed ripped up and the feathers scattered from garret to cellar. It was rather queer to hear this tale from a German woman after Mme. Huard's tale of the wreck of her château in northern France by the Germans.

They told me, too, of a nurse, a friend of theirs, who had gone to Russia. There she found, among other things, a carload of children, eighty in number, all dead of starvation. The Russians had put them in the car, sidetracked it, and forgotten it. Some other cars were found containing 200 people, all dead but one child in its mother's arms. The nurse saw the Czarina and told her of these, and many other things, and she said the Empress burst into tears. Well she might!

The Germans are told that if the Russians get into East Prussia again, they are to send the women away immediately—those who stay are all outraged.

VIII—A VISIT WITH ZIMMERMANN

June 12th.

Agatha Grabish called this morning. She has been to East Prussia. One old woman she talked to said she had stayed for the first Russian invasion.

"Why?" Agatha asked her.

"Well," she said, "my bread was baking when the others started to go, and I didn't want to leave it. But I might just as well have," she added, "because the Russians came in and ate it all up as soon as I took it out of the oven."

Billy (the author's husband) and I went to see Zimmermann in the Foreign Office. He, with Von Bethmann-Hollweg, Von Jagow, Helfferich, and Falkenhayn, are running Germany. Zimmermann is a large, blond man. His forehead is exceptionally high and his cheeks much scarred by sword slashes. He is genial, calm, and although the busiest man in the Empire, quite unhurried.

"I have just been seeing some bankers," said he. "We are negotiating another loan for our Turkish friends. Those people are always in need of money."

Billy said it was a great imposition for us to take up his time, as he was probably very busy. He laughed and declared he was glad to see us. I told him he was like Disraeli, who said he was not "unusually busy to-day" but "usually busy."...

We asked him whether Germany looked for a long peace after the war, and whether it would be on the grounds of great military strength and strong boundaries, or on the basis of an international conciliatory body, or a treaty?

He answered that nothing short of a United States of Europe would amount to anything, and seemed to possess the usual German skepticism of treaties.

"We will have to have a United States of Europe some day, to enable us to compete economically with America. That may come in eighty or one hundred years, but not in our lifetime. If you would really develop your natural resources, we in Europe would be helpless...."

IX—TEA WITH BARONESS VON BISSING

June 27th.

I went to Baroness von Bissing's to tea. Oh, welcome was the hour and her comfortable chair! She is small, with finely chiselled features; her movements are quick, like those of a highly bred animal, and she is rather excitable.

We sat down to tea and cherry tarts and I asked her when she was next going to Belgium. She can, of course, go whenever she likes, but is never there officially, as no German officer may take his wife to Belgium. The General, being so strict a gentleman, will not break the rule even for himself, and so Baroness von Bissing and her children must live alone in Germany, and he with his 150 aides-de-camp in his palace in Brussels.

"It is very hard to be without my husband and my eldest son," she said.

"Where is your boy?" I asked.

"He was taken prisoner by the French, wounded in six places. When he got well, they took him to prison and put him in solitary confinement in a little tiny cell with no work to do and no one with whom he can speak. He may not even look out of the cell window, for they painted it white. Twice a day he is taken for a walk by his guards—and this all because the French thought we did not treat Delcassé's son properly. Now, because they took my boy, and another, we have put six of their men in solitary confinement. We will see where these reprisals will bring us; I am sorry they must be, but we have more captured men than they."

"Why did they put Delcassé's son in prison in the first place?" I asked.

"Because he was an impertinent boy and called his officers 'dirty dogs of Prussians,'" she answered....

"Serbia and Montenegro are full of people that need to be punished, but Italy—Italy!"—said Frau von Bissing, with her pretty nose in the air—"is a nasty little dog that has done something dirty and must be kicked out!"...

"England is a disgusting hypocrite," said my hostess emphatically. "France is not so bad; we do not hate her, but England is in this war solely for money. It is a pleasant little joke of theirs, about our invading Belgium first, but I know that the English and French were there before us."

Now, if the wife of the Governor of Belgium believes this so earnestly, one may imagine how firmly the rest of Germany believes it....

X—AT THE CLUB WITH BARON VON MUMM

July 1st.

Went to the Von Gwinners' to lunch. It was Von Gwinner who put through the Bagdad Railway scheme. The house is large, but there is a life-size marble statue of a woman playing a violin in the drawing-room. He has a beautiful garden.

Von Gwinner said the victor in this war would be the nation which declared bankruptcy two weeks after all the rest. He expects they will all be taxed to the verge of poverty when the war is over, but believes Germany can hold out the longest.

Dined with Baron von Mumm Tuesday night at the Automobile Club. He is a fraud, and Count Montjelas with him, and I hope to see them both soon to tell them so. There was a crowd in the Leipziger Platz when I got there, and the two men were standing at the window. I asked what it was and they said: "Nothing, nothing, only the usual people going home from work." Now, whether they knew or not, I am not sure, but it really was the Socialists publicly demonstrating their disapproval of the imprisonment of Liebknecht for two years and a half. That shows what a Berlin riot is. I looked on and never knew it!

We've heard from Freiherr von B—— that there was a really recognizable one in Düsseldorf. All the women went to the City Hall and demanded more meat and potatoes. The Mayor stuck his shaved head out of the window and tried to calm them with tales of beans and peas, but they shouted they did not want them, they wanted potatoes and, when he said he hadn't any, they smashed all the windows that couldn't resist brick.

"That's just like the poor," said Von B——, "they won't eat anything except potatoes."

Baron Böcklin showed us pictures he'd taken on the front. In one little house in Belgium, which he'd made his headquarters, a woman sneaked in on him one night when he was sleeping. He heard her and, jumping up, caught her by the throat. She had a long knife in her hand. As Böcklin was taking it from her, a man crawled out from under his bed with a gun, but was covered by the sergeant who came to Böcklin's rescue. The Baron let both assassins go, instead of having them shot as he had the right to do. Böcklin's mother was an American, and his grandmother an Englishwoman....

Heard a delightful story about Mr. Gerard from Mrs. ——. She said that to tease Countess B—— he asked her why she hadn't married some nice stockbroker in New York, who could have provided her with much better-looking clothes, and more of them, than Count B——. She went home in a rage and told the Count, who also became furious and they both told all Berlin that Mr. Gerard was so anti-German that he disapproved of German-American marriages. Mrs. Gerard implores her husband to save his jokes for those who have a sense of humor but he says, no matter what resolutions he makes, Countess B—— is more than he can resist, and his remarks grow always worse instead of better.

XI—GUEST OF WARBURG, GERMAN BANKER

July 6th.

That night we went to the Max Warburgs' to dine. They are very delightful people; their house is large and nice, their sense of humor a joy to find, and besides that, Mrs. Warburg was well dressed and wore—oh, wonder of wonders in a German woman—silk stockings. Mr. Warburg is one of the biggest bankers of Germany, and is certainly the nicest. He declared American business men and American financiers to be the most charming and the most uninformed men in the world.

"They know nothing of international affairs, not one thing," said he. "And they do not even know their own country thoroughly. We wonder over here how they can possibly get along with such little knowledge of the affairs of the world." He said he told his brother, Mr. Paul Warburg, that it's easy enough for him to be a big man in America, where there is so little competition, but just let him come to Germany and try it. One may think America is work-mad, but it seems a shiftless, lazy place after Germany....

XII—TALK WITH COUNT BLUCHER

July 13th.

Lunched at the Lays'. They had a party for Prince Christian of Hesse and his wife, and Mr. and Mrs. Roger's mother and father. The Blüchers were to have been there, but old Count Blücher chose this morning to drop dead off his horse. He must have been a charming old man. Most of his life he spent trying to evade his German taxes. He had an island off the coast of England, on which he kept a great many kangaroos. Perhaps he thought they added a touch of British atmosphere to his estate. He wished to know if he couldn't come to America and live there about a week, in order to become an American citizen, as he found his island didn't get him out of paying his German taxes, but when told it would take even longer than a week to become an American citizen, he gave up that idea. He was much interested in America but said he thought it must be dangerous to have so many buffaloes around. And, when he heard of the lynchings our peace-loving citizens occasionally like to indulge in, he suggested we let our wild Indians out to subdue the lynchers. "That would soon put a stop to such riots," said the old gentleman.

XIII—AT THE AMERICAN EMBASSY IN BRUSSELS

July 31st.

Upon Billy's appealing to Count Harrach, we were allowed to go to tea with the Whitlocks. Diplomatic life in Belgium to-day is one of the experiences it is no harm to omit. If the American Diplomats attempt to be tactful with Belgians about the Germans, and say that they really are a nice lot after all, Belgian doors close and hats are not lifted in the street. Yet if they refused to see Germans or avoided them they would shortly be requested to leave on the grounds of being anti-German. Tact and diplomacy have a hard life in Belgium now....

Philip Platt, who was also at lunch, had, as his chief worry that day, the knowledge that the three young Princesses de Ligne, who are ardently working for their country, were feeding the children in the Petites Abeilles so fast that they nearly choked them. The question which bothered him sorely was, who to get to tell the three noble ladies that their attentions would be more appreciated if they were less violent.

XIV—DINNER WITH GENERAL VON BISSING

Berlin, August 2d.

Our last night in Brussels we dined with General von Bissing. The dinner, for some peculiar reason, was given for us.

The hall was filled with officers. One very glorious-looking person took me in charge and introduced each man to me. They clicked their booted heels together and kissed my hand. This audience over, the Governor appeared. He is seventy-two and looks sixty. His face is stern yet not unkind....

I asked Von Bissing if he approved of suffrage, and he said: "Never! It is something terrible for women."...

XV—THE KAISER AND VON HINDENBURG

Berlin, Aug. 4th.

Hindenburg has been given charge of the eastern front, proving that Austria must have been feeling rather dejected. He was in command almost two weeks before the news came out. It must be a great blow to the Austrian pride.

I wonder if he will drive the Russians back a second time. When Hindenburg won the battle of Tannenberg and drove the Russians out of East Prussia, he was executing in reality what he had lectured the military students about for twenty years. In his lecture course he had called it the "Battle of the Masurian Lakes," and none in the world knew so well what to do in just the situation which arose as did the retired general. He had been refused, at the beginning of the war, as too old, and was obliged to sit at home helpless, and read about the Russians swarming into his country. At this point, the Kaiser remembered Hindenburg. In the middle of the night orders arrived that the General in command of the eastern front had been deposed and Hindenburg put in his place. A special train was waiting and Hindenburg started at two in the morning and worked out his plans as he sped towards the advancing Russian army. In three days the enemy was in retreat and Germany was saved. Is it a wonder the people call him: Unser Hindenburg? The story goes that the General who was in command sent word to the Kaiser that he must retreat behind the Oder. The Kaiser sent word back: "Retire behind the Oder, but without the army," and immediately sent for old Hindenburg. The General never plays politics. A few years ago, when there was a general inspection of troops, they conducted a sham battle. General Von Moltke managed to get a very strong position; then the Kaiser, as a grand finale, led an immense cavalry charge down a plain and exposed his troops to fire from three sides. As a grandstand play, it was magnificent. Triumphant, the Kaiser rode up to General Hindenburg, the referee.

"How was that, General?" he demanded, proudly.

The General saluted.

"All dead but one, Sir," he said.

XVI—TEA WITH COUNTESS BERNSTORFF

August 13th.

Had tea with Constance Minot and Countess Bernstorff the other day. Just now she is in a great state of nerves over the thought of going to America to join the Ambassador. She declared she knew the English had been lying in wait for her for two years and were going to be as disagreeable as possible.

"They will search everything I have, I know," said she. "They will wash my back with acid and they will rip the lining out of everything, and I shall never be fit to be seen again."

In vain Constance and I assured her that she would be treated with great respect. I told her we had had no trouble at all, and she said: "What did you do?" I answered that we made love to the English inspection officer and asked him to dinner, and asked her why she shouldn't do the same.

"I suppose that would be the best way," she answered. Another real grievance was that everyone had tried to give her things to bring to friends and relatives in America.

"One woman gave me a large box. I opened it and found a toy Zeppelin. Imagine if the English had found that in my trunk! They would have taken me off the boat and hanged me, surely!" she said, with a laugh.

XVII—A WALK WITH AMBASSADOR GERARD

August 15th.

Went to Herringsdorf on the one o'clock train Saturday with Lithgow Osborne and Christian Herter. The Ambassador was in Herringsdorf with Aileen and Lanier Winslow....

After dinner we went for a walk on the pier. I was with the Ambassador, who kept making his dry, humorous remarks about everyone. Soon a guard turned us back.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"You are in Germany," replied Mr. Gerard. "Don't forget that. They wait until they find out that people like to do a thing, and then at once they forbid it."

"What I'd like best, Mr. Gerard," said I, "would be to hear you talk to the powers that be in Germany. It must be rather difficult for them to understand all your jokes."

"It is," he replied. "They can't make me out at all here."

He makes the most glorious remarks to every one. I heard that, apropos of the Lusitania, the Ambassador said to the Chancellor:

"Your argument about the Lusitania amounts to just this. If I were to write a note to your sister and say: 'If you go out on the Wilhelm Platz, I will shoot you!' and if she did go out on the Wilhelm Platz and I shot her—that would be her fault, wouldn't it?"

And one day when Zimmerman remarked: "The United States couldn't go to war with us, because we have 500,000 trained Germans in the United States," the Ambassador replied: "You may have 500,000 trained Germans in the United States, but don't forget that we have 500,001 lamp-posts."