CHAPTER XXXII 



MY RECOLLECTIONS OF BISMARCK 1879-1881 



MY first glimpse of Bismarck was obtained during one 

 of my journeys through middle Germany, about the 

 time, I think, of the Franco-Prussian War. Arriving at 

 the Kissingen junction, we found a crowd gathered out 

 side the barriers, and all gazing at a railway-carriage 

 about to be attached to our train. Looking toward this, I 

 recognized the face and form of the great North-German 

 statesman. He was in the prime of life sturdy, hearty, 

 and happy in the presence of his wife and children. The 

 people at the station evidently knew what was needed ; for 

 hardly had he arrived when waiters appeared, bearing 

 salvers covered with huge mugs of foaming beer. There 

 upon Bismarck took two of the mugs in immediate succes 

 sion ; poured their contents down his throat, evidently with 

 great gusto ; and a burly peasant just back of me, unable 

 longer to restrain his admiration, soliloquized in a deep, 

 slow, guttural, reverberating rumble: &quot;A-a-a-ber er sieht 

 sehr-r-r gut aus.&quot; So it struck me also; the waters of 

 Kissingen had evidently restored the great man, and he 

 looked like a Titan ready for battle. 



My personal intercourse with him began in 1879, when, 

 as chancellor of the German Empire, he received me 

 as minister of the United States. On my entering his 

 workroom, he rose; and it seemed to me that I had 

 never seen another man so towering save Abraham 

 Lincoln. On either side of him were his two big, black 

 dogs, the Reichshunde; and, as he put out his hand 



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