598 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-VII 



the end of his life, characterized the position taken by 

 Mr. Cleveland regarding European acquisition of South 

 American territory as something utterly new and unheard 

 of. To this, Poschinger, the eminent Bismarck biogra 

 pher, has replied in a way which increases my admiration 

 for the German Foreign Office; for it would appear that 

 he found in the archives of that department a most exact 

 statement of the conversation between Bucher and myself, 

 and of the action which followed it. So precise was his 

 account that it even recalled phrases and other minutiae 

 of the conversation which I had forgotten, but which I at 

 once recognized as exact when thus reminded of them. 

 The existence of such a record really revives one s child 

 like faith in the opening of the Great Book of human deeds 

 and utterances at the last day. 



Perhaps the most interesting phase of Bismarck s life 

 which a stranger could observe was his activity in the 

 imperial parliament. 



That body sits in a large hall, the representatives of the 

 people at large occupying seats in front of the president s 

 desk, and the delegates from the various states known 

 as the Imperial Council being seated upon an elevated 

 platform at the side of the room, right and left of the 

 president s chair. At the right of the president, some dis 

 tance removed, sits the chancellor, and at his right hand 

 the imperial ministry; while in front of the president s 

 chair, on a lower stage of the platform, is the tribune from 

 which, as a rule, members of the lower house address the 

 whole body. 



It was my good fortune to hear Bismarck publicly dis 

 cuss many important questions, and his way of speaking 

 was not like that of any other man I have ever heard. He 

 was always clothed in the undress uniform of a Prussian 

 general; and, as he rose, his bulk made him imposing. 

 His first utterances were disappointing. He seemed 

 wheezy, rambling, incoherent, with a sort of burdensome 

 self-consciousness checking his ideas and clogging his 

 words. His manner was fidgety, his arms being thrown 



