138 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-XV 



Germans whom I knew in my Berlin-University days, all 

 the sins of the period, political and religious, seemed to 

 be traced to the influence of Queen Elizabeth, the consort 

 of the reigning King Frederick William IV; and that, 

 during my first official stay in the same capital as minis 

 ter, a similar feeling was shown toward the Empress 

 Augusta, in spite of her most kindly qualities and her 

 devotion to every sort of charitable work; and that the 

 crown princess, afterward the Empress Frederick, in 

 spite of all her endowments of head and heart, was appa 

 rently more unpopular than either of her two predeces 

 sors. But the present Empress seems to have changed 

 all this, and, doubtless, mainly by her devotion to her 

 husband and her children, which apparently excludes 

 from her mind all care for the great problems of the 

 universe outside her family. So strong is this feeling 

 of kindness toward her that it was comical to see, at 

 one period during my stay, when she had been brought 

 perilously near a most unpopular course of action, that 

 everybody turned at once upon her agent in the matter, 

 saying nothing about her, but belaboring him unmerci 

 fully, though he was one of the most attractive of men. 



These presentations being finished, our return to the 

 Kaiserhof Hotel was made with the same ceremony as 

 that with which we had come to the palace, and happy was 

 I when all was over. 



Of the other official visits at this time, foremost in im 

 portance was that to the chancellor of the empire, Prince 

 Hohenlohe. Although he was then nearly eighty years old 

 and bent with age, his mind in discussing public matters 

 was entirely clear. Various later conversations with him 

 also come back to me one, especially, at a dinner he gave 

 at the chancellor s palace to President Harrison. On my 

 recalling the fact that we were in the room where I had 

 first dined with Bismarck, Prince Hohenlohe gave a series 

 of reminiscences of his great predecessor, some of them 

 throwing a strong light upon his ideas and methods. On 

 one occasion, at my own table, he spoke very thoughtfully 



