CHAPTER XLIV 



MY RECOLLECTIONS OF WILLIAM II 1879-1903 



AT various times since my leaving the Berlin Embassy 

 JTJL various friends have said to me, t i Why not give us 

 something definite regarding the German Emperor !&quot; 

 And on my pleading sundry difficulties and objections, 

 some of my advisers have recalled many excellent pre 

 cedents, both American and foreign, and others have 

 cited the dictum, &quot;The man I don t like is the man I 

 don t know.&quot; 



The latter argument has some force with me. Much 

 ill feeling between the United States and Germany has 

 had its root in misunderstandings; and, as one of the 

 things nearest my heart since my student days has been a 

 closer moral and intellectual relation between the two 

 countries, there is, perhaps, a reason for throwing into 

 these misunderstandings some light from my own expe 

 rience. 



My first recollections of the present Emperor date from 

 the beginning of my stay as minister at Berlin, in 1879. 

 The official presentations to the Emperor and Empress of 

 that period having been made, there came in regular order 

 those to the crown prince and princess, and on my way 

 to them there fell into my hands a newspaper account 

 of the unveiling of the monument to the eminent painter 

 Cornelius, at Diisseldorf, the main personage in the cere 

 mony being the young Prince William, then a student at 

 Bonn. His speech was given at some length, and it im 

 pressed me. There was a certain reality of conviction 



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