to the groom. Otto, however, tore off his
coat and sword, and plunged in. The man caught at him, and clung to him
so tightly that it looked as though Otto would be pulled down with him.
Once both disappeared entirely under water, but Otto's great strength
saved him, and after a short time he was able to drag the groom to
shore.

Great events call for great men, and usually find them. The adventures
of his college life had never found the Prussian boy wanting in nerve or
courage; he had always seized his chance and made the most of it. He did
the same thing as he grew into manhood, and tried for a time life in the
army, then on his father's farmland, and then in Parliament.

Great changes were coming over Europe as Otto grew to manhood; old
countries were falling apart, and new ones being formed, and there was
need of strong men to advise and to check the people. Especially was
this true of Germany, which was then a collection of small kingdoms
loosely joined together. When these kingdoms needed a man to steer them
through the troubled waters that were gathering around them Otto von
Bismarck saw his opportunity and took it.

He became the great statesman of Germany, the "Iron Chancellor" as he
was often called, the man who built the present German Empire, and gave
its crown to his own sovereign, William I, of Prussia. He was a man of
tremendous power, aggressive, fearless, masterful, showing the same
sturdy traits that had made him in his youth the most feared and admired
schlaeger-fighter in all Goettingen.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORIC BOYHOODS***

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