MY RECOLLECTIONS OF WILLIAM 11-1879-1903 231 



fluence lie has exerted on the great adornments of his 

 capital city. The position and character of various mon 

 uments on which he has impressed his ideas, and the lay 

 ing out and decoration of sundry streets and parks, do 

 credit not merely to his artistic sense, but to his fore 

 sight. 



This prompt yet wise intervention, actuated by a public 

 spirit not only strong but intelligent, is seen, in various 

 other parts of the empire, in the preservation and restora 

 tion of its architectural glories. When he announced to 

 me at Potsdam his intention to present specimens rep 

 resentative of German architecture and sculpture to the 

 Germanic Museum at Harvard, he showed, in enumerating 

 and discussing the restorations at Marienburg and Naum- 

 burg, the bas-reliefs at Halberstadt, the masks and statues 

 of Andreas Schliiter at Berlin, and the Renaissance and 

 rococo work at Liibeck and Danzig, a knowledge and ap 

 preciation worthy of a trained architect and archaeologist. 



As to his feeling for literature, his addresses on various 

 occasions show amply that he has read to good pur 

 pose, not only in the best authors of his own, but of other 

 countries. While there is not the slightest tinge of pedan 

 try in his speeches or talk, there crop out in them evi 

 dences of a curious breadth and universality in his read 

 ing. His line of reading for amusement was touched when, 

 at the close of an hour of serious official business, an il 

 lustration of mine from Rudyard Kipling led him to re 

 call many of that author s most striking situations, into 

 which he entered with great zest; and at various other 

 times he cited sayings of Mark Twain which he seemed 

 especially to enjoy. Here it may be mentioned that one 

 may note the same breadth in his love for art; for not 

 only does he rejoice in the higher achievements of archi 

 tecture, sculpture, and painting, but he takes pleasure in 

 lighter work, and an American may note that he is greatly 

 interested in the popular illustrations of Gibson. 



I once asked some of the leading people nearest him 

 how he found time to observe so wide a range, and re- 



