AS AMBASSADOR TO GERMANY -1897-1903 149 



to welcome us ; and that there was not the slightest shadow 

 of reason for the statement. As an example of the genius 

 shown in some of these telegrams, another may be men 

 tioned. A very charming American lady, niece of a mem 

 ber of Mr. McKinley s cabinet, having arrived on the 

 Norwegian coast, her children were taken on board the 

 yacht of the Emperor, who was then cruising in those re 

 gions; and later, on their arrival at Berlin, they with 

 their father and mother were asked by him to the palace 

 to meet his own wife and children. A few days afterward 

 a telegram was published in America to the effect that the 

 Emperor, in speaking to Mrs. White and myself regard 

 ing the children, had said that he was especially surprised, 

 because he had always understood that American children 

 were badly brought up and had very bad manners. The 

 simple fact was that, while he spoke of the children with 

 praise, the rest of the story was merely a sensational 

 invention. One of the marvels of American life is the 

 toleration by decent fathers and mothers of sensational 

 newspapers in their households. Of all the demoralizing 

 influences upon our people, and especially upon our 

 young people, they are the most steadily and pervasively 

 degrading. Horace Greeley once published a tractate 

 entitled, &quot;New Themes for the Clergy, &quot; and I would 

 suggest the evil influence of sensation newsmongering as 

 a most fruitful theme for the exhortations of all Ameri 

 can clergymen to their flocks, whether Catholic, Jewish, 

 or Protestant. May we not hope, also, that Mr. Pulitzer s 

 new College of Journalism will give careful attention to 

 this subject! 



As to public questions then demanding attention, the 

 first which I now recall was a bit of international comedy, 

 serving as a prelude to more important matters, and 

 worth mentioning here only as showing a misconception 

 very absurd, yet not without dangers. 



One morning, as I had just sat down to my office work, 

 there was ushered in, with due ceremony, a young gentle 

 man of light color, Parisian to the tips of his fingers, 



