McKINLEY AND ROOSEVELT -1891-1904 247 



But alas! the triumph was short-lived. One morning 

 in September, while I was slowly recovering from two of 

 the greatest bereavements which have ever befallen me, 

 came the frightful news of his assassination. Shortly 

 afterward, for family and business reasons, I went for a 

 few weeks to the United States, and, in the course of my 

 visit, conferred with the new President three times first 

 at the Yale bicentennial celebration, afterward in his pri- 

 vate office, and finally at his table in the White House. 

 Hard indeed was it for me to realize what had taken place 

 -that President McKinley,whom I had so recently seen in 

 his chair at the head of the cabinet table, was gone forever ; 

 that in those rooms, where I had, at four different times, 

 chatted pleasantly with him, he was never to be seen 

 more ; and that here, in that same seat, was sitting my old 

 friend and co-laborer. Hard was it to realize that the last 

 time I had met Mr. Roosevelt in that same room was when 

 we besought President Harrison to extend the civil ser- 

 vice. Interesting as the new President's conversation was, 

 there was constantly in my mind, whether in his office or 

 his parlors or the dining-room at the White House, one 

 deep undertone. It was like the pedal bass of an organ, 

 steadily giving the ground tone of a requiem the vanity 

 and evanescence of all things earthly. There had I seen, 

 in the midst of their jubilant supporters, Pierce, Lincoln, 

 Grant, Hayes, Garfield, Cleveland, Harrison, and, finally, 

 so short a time before, McKinley. It seemed all a dream. 

 In his conversations the new President showed the same 

 qualities that I had before known in him earnestness, 

 vigor, integrity, fearlessness, and, at times, a sense of 

 humor, blending playfully with his greater qualities. The 

 message he gave me to the Emperor William was charac- 

 teristic. I was naturally charged to assure the Emperor of 

 the President's kind feeling; but to this was added, in a 

 tone of unmistakable truth: "Tell him that when I say 

 this, I mean it. I have been brought up to admire and 

 respect Germany. My life in that country and my reading 

 since have steadily increased this respect and admiration." 



