148 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE -XV 



under much provocation. Some of the American corre 

 spondents then in Germany showed wonderful skill in ma 

 lignant invention. My predecessors in the embassy had 

 suffered much from this cause. One of them, whom I had 

 known from his young manhood as a gentleman of refined 

 tastes and quiet habits, utterly incapable of rudeness of 

 any sort, was accused, in a sensational letter published in 

 various American journals, of having become so noisy and 

 boisterous at court that the Emperor was obliged to re 

 buke him. Various hints of a foul and scandalous char 

 acter were sent over and published. I escaped more easily, 

 but there were two or three examples which were both 

 vexatious and amusing. 



Shortly after my arrival at my post, letters and news 

 paper articles began coming deploring the conduct of the 

 Germans toward me, expressing deep sympathy with me, 

 exhorting me to &quot; stand firm,&quot; declaring that the Ameri 

 can people were behind me, etc., etc., all of which puzzled 

 me greatly until I found that some correspondent had sent 

 over a telegram to the effect that the feeling against 

 America had become so bitter that the Emperor himself 

 had been obliged to intervene and command the officials 

 of his empire to present themselves at my official recep 

 tion; and with this statement was coupled a declaration 

 that I had made the most earnest remonstrance to the Im 

 perial Government against such treatment. The simple 

 fact was that the notice was in the stereotyped form al 

 ways used when an ambassador arrives. On every such 

 occasion the proper authorities notify all the persons con 

 cerned, giving the time of his receptions, and this was sim 

 ply what was done in my case. On another occasion, tele 

 grams were sent over to American papers stating that the 

 first secretary of the embassy and myself, on visiting 

 Parliament to hear an important debate, had been grossly 

 insulted by various members. The fact was that we had 

 been received by everybody with the utmost kindness ; that 

 various members had saluted us in the most friendly man 

 ner from the floor or had come into the diplomatic gallery 



