HENDRICKS, SHERMAN, BANCROFT-1884-1891 219 



Butler of South Carolina said: "No more secession for 

 me." To this, Senator Gibson, who also had been a brig- 

 adier-general in the Confederate service, and had seen 

 much hard fighting, said, i ' And no more for me. ' ' Butler 

 rejoined, " We may have to help in preventing others from 

 seceding one of these days. ' ' I was glad to note that both 

 Butler and Gibson spoke thoroughly well of their former 

 arch-enemy, General Grant. 



Very interesting was it to meet again Mr. George Ban- 

 croft. He referred to his long service as minister at 

 Berlin, expressed his surprise that Bismarck, whom he 

 remembered as fat, had become bony, and was very severe 

 against both clericals and liberals who had voted against 

 allowing aid to Bismarck in the time of his country's 

 greatest necessity. 



I also met my Cornell colleague Goldwin Smith, the 

 former Oxford professor and historian, who expressed his 

 surprise and delight at the perfect order and decorum of 

 tlie crowd, numbering nearly five thousand persons, at the 

 presidential levee the night before. In order to under- 

 stand what an American crowd was like, instead of going 

 into the White House by the easier way, as he was entitled 

 by his invitation to do, he had taken his place in the long 

 procession far outside the gate and gradually moved 

 through the grounds into the presidential presence, taking 

 about an hour for the purpose. He said that there was 

 never any pressing, crowding, or impatience, and he com- 

 pared the crowd most favorably with any similar body in 

 a London street. 



Chief Justice Waite I also found a very substantial, 

 interesting man; but especially fascinating was General 

 Sheridan, who, at a dinner given by my Berlin predeces- 

 sor, Mr. Bancroft Davis, described the scene at the battle 

 of Gravelotte when, owing to a rush by the French, the 

 Emperor of Germany was for a time in real danger and 

 was reluctantly obliged to fall back. He said that during 

 the panic and retreat toward Thionville he saw the Em- 

 peror halt from time to time to scold soldiers who threw 



