514 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-IV 



At one of our sessions a curious difficulty arose. The 

 committee on the award of these foremost prizes for ad 

 vanced work in electricity brought in their report, and, to 

 my amazement, made no award to my compatriot Edison, 

 who was then at the height of his reputation. Presently 

 Tresca, who read the report, and who really lamented the 

 omission, whispered to me the reason of it. Through the 

 negligence of persons representing Edison, no proper ex 

 hibition of his inventions had been made to the committee. 

 They had learned that his agent was employed in showing 

 the phonograph in a distant hall on the boulevards to 

 an audience who paid an admission fee ; but, although they 

 had tried two or three times to have his apparatus shown 

 them, they had been unsuccessful, until at last, from a 

 feeling of what was due their own self-respect, they passed 

 the matter over entirely. Of course my duty was to do 

 what was possible in rectifying this omission, and in as 

 good French as I could muster I made a speech in Edi 

 son s behalf, describing his career, outlining his work, 

 and saying that I should really be ashamed to return to 

 America without some recognition of him and of his in 

 ventions. This was listened to most courteously, but my 

 success was insured by a remark of a less serious char 

 acter, which was that if Edison had not yet made a suffi 

 cient number of inventions to entitle him to a grand prize, 

 he would certainly, at the rate he was going on, have done 

 so before the close of the exposition. At this there was a 

 laugh, and my amendment was unanimously carried. 



Many features in my work interested me, but one had 

 a melancholy tinge. One afternoon, having been sum 

 moned to pass upon certain competing works in sculp 

 ture, we finally stood before the great bronze entrance- 

 doors of the Cathedral of Strasburg, which, having been 

 designed before the Franco-Prussian War, had but just 

 been finished. They were very beautiful ; but I could see 

 that my French associates felt deeply the changed situa 

 tion of affairs which this exhibit brought to their minds. 



In order to promote the social relations which go for 



