CHAPTER XLIII 



BERLIN, YALE, OXFORD, AND ST. ANDREWS 1901-1903 



DARKEST of all hours during my embassy was that 

 which brought news of the assassination of Presi 

 dent McKinley. It was on the very day after his great 

 speech at Buffalo had gained for him the admiration and 

 good will of the world. Then came a week of anxiety of 

 hope alternating with fear ; I not hopeful : for there came 

 back to me memories of President Garfield s assassination 

 during my former official stay in Berlin, and of our hope 

 against hope during his struggle for life: all brought to 

 naught. Late in the evening of September 14 came news of 

 the President s death opening a new depth of sadness; 

 for I had come not merely to revere him as a patriot 

 and admire him as a statesman, but to love him as a 

 man. Few days have seemed more overcast than that 

 Sunday when, at the little American chapel in Berlin, 

 our colony held a simple service of mourning, the im 

 perial minister of foreign affairs and other represen 

 tatives of the government having quietly come to us. The 

 feeling of the German people awe, sadness, and even 

 sympathy was real. Formerly they had disliked and 

 distrusted the President as the author of the protective 

 policy which had cost their industries so dear; but now, 

 after his declaration favoring reciprocity, with his full 

 recognition of the brotherhood of nations, and in view 

 of this calamity, so sudden, so distressing, there had come 

 a revulsion of feeling. 

 To see one whom I so honored, and who had formerly 



197 



