Events are coming to light which may place a new construction on the causes leading to the assassination at Sarajevo.  It was undoubtedly the pretext sought by Germany for starting the great war.  Whether it may not have been carefully planned to serve that object and the Serbian Prinzip, employed as a tool to bring it about, is not so certain.

Several years prior to the war, the celebrated Russian, Tolstoy, gave utterance to a remarkable prophecy.  Tolstoy was a mystic, and it was not unusual for him to go into a semi-trance state in which he professed to peer far into the future and obtain visions of things beyond the ken of average men.  The Russian czar was superstitious and it is said that the German emperor had a strong leaning towards the mystic and psychic.  In fact, it has been stated that the Kaiser’s claim to a partnership with The Almighty was the result of delusions formed in his consultations with mediums—­the modern descendants of the soothsayers of olden times.

Tolstoy stated that both the Czar and the Kaiser desired to consult with him and test his powers of divination.  The three had a memorable sitting.  Some time afterwards the results were given to the world.  Tolstoy predicted the great war, and he stated his belief that the torch which would start the conflagration would be lighted in the Balkans about 1913.

Tolstoy was not a friend of either Russian or German autocracy, hence his seance may have been but a clever ruse to discover what was in the minds of the two rulers.  Germany probably was not ready to start the war in 1913, but there is abundant warrant for the belief that she was trimming the torch at that time, and, who knows, the deluded Prinzip may have been the torch.

The old dotard Francis Joseph who occupied the throne of Austria-Hungary, was completely under the domination of the Germans.  He could be relied upon to further any designs which the Kaiser and the German war lords might have.

The younger man, Francis Ferdinand, was not so easy to handle as his aged uncle.  Accounts agree that he was arrogant, ambitious and had a will of his own.  He was unpopular in his country and probably unpopular with the Germans.  Being of the disposition he was, it is very likely that the Kaiser found it difficult to bend him completely to his will.  Being a stumbling block in the way of German aims, is it not reasonably probable that Germany desired to get rid of him, thus leaving Austria-Hungary completely in the power of its tool and puppet, Francis Joseph, and in the event of his death, in the power of the young and suppliant Karl; another instrument easily bent to the German will?