178 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-XVI 



a tirade from which I took refuge in a totally different 

 discussion. 



Some days later came another evidence of his feeling. 

 Meeting an eminent leader in political, and especially in 

 journalistic, circles, I was shown the corrected proof- 

 sheets of an &quot; interview &quot; on the conduct of the United 

 States toward Spain, given by Mommsen. It was even 

 more acrid than his previous utterances, and exhibited 

 sharply and at great length our alleged sins and short 

 comings. Certainly a representative of the American peo 

 ple was not bound to make supplication, in such a matter, 

 even to so eminent a scholar and leader of thought, and 

 my comment was simply as follows : * 1 1 have no request 

 to make in the premises of Mommsen or of anybody. 

 The article will of course have no effect on the war; of 

 that there can be but one result : the triumph of the United 

 States and the liberation of the Spanish islands of the 

 West Indies; but may there not be some considerations 

 of a very different order as regards Mommsen himself? 

 Why not ask him, simply, where his friends are ; his read 

 ers, his old students, his disciples? Why not ask him 

 whether he finds fewer clouds over the policy of Spain 

 than over that of the United States; of which country, 

 despite all its faults, he has most hope; and for which, 

 in his heart, he has the greater feeling of brotherhood ! &quot; 



How far this answer influenced him I know not, but 

 the article was never published; and thenceforth there 

 seemed some revival of the older kindly feeling. At my 

 own table and elsewhere he more than once became, in a 

 measure, like the Mommsen of old. One utterance of his 

 amused me much. My wife happening, in a talk with him, 

 to speak of a certain personage as hardly an ideal man,&quot; 

 he retorted: &quot;Madam, is it possible that you have been 

 married some years and still believe in the ideal man?&quot; 



His old better feeling toward America came out espe 

 cially when I next called upon him with congratulations 

 upon his birthday his last, alas! But heartiest of all 

 was he during the dinner given at my departure. My 



