The Days of a Man t;i 9 i 4 



on the mediate ports, it being arranged that I should leave 

 "Kinst" h er at Colombo, Ceylon, and ten days later take a 

 sister ship, the Friedrich der Grosse of the Sydney run. 

 The extreme care for the comfort of patrons shown at 

 that time by officials of these German steamers ex- 

 plained their popularity with people traveling to the 

 Indies and Australia. But in 1897, when I first went 

 to Europe on the Oder of the same line, the petty 

 officers seemed to have had their training in Prussian 

 barracks. 



On the Kleist were several interesting people, among 

 them Consul Anton Mohr of Bergen with his wife 

 and son, frank and charming Norwegian folks. An- 

 other companionable man was Herman T. Koerner of 

 Buffalo, then on the way round the world with his 

 wife. Koerner is the son of an intimate associate of 

 Carl Schurz. Possessed of literary and musical taste, 

 he later set a half dozen of my lyric verses to graceful 

 music. Germany was represented by varying types. 

 One Prussian impressed us with the fact of his being a 

 privy councillor, "Geheimrat" but other Germans 

 persisted in calling him "Gemeinrat" "vulgar" 

 councillor! The Geheimrat was something of a musi- 

 cian, though Mohr and Koerner held his attainments 

 in scorn, and Mohr told a story of once playing an 

 etude by his friend Grieg in the composer's presence. 

 Said Grieg: " Besser falsch ah halbfalsch" (Better 

 false than half false). 



Arrived at Naples, some of us went over to Pompeii, 

 which I had not seen since 1881. I also naturally 

 visited the Marine Station, where I hoped to meet 

 our Dr. Walter K. Fisher, then going around the 

 world but expecting to study for a time at the Naples 

 station. At the office they said Dr. Fisher - - as I 



C 56o ] 



