CHAPTER XXIX 



AS COMMISSIONER TO THE PARIS EXPOSITION OF 1878 



MY next experience was of a quasi-diplomatic sort, in 

 connection with the Paris Exposition of 1878, and 

 it needs some preface. 



During the Centennial Exposition of 1876 at Philadel- 

 phia, I had heen appointed upon the educational jury, and, 

 as the main part of the work came during the university 

 long vacation, had devoted myself to it, and had thus been 

 brought into relations with some very interesting men. 



Of these may be named, at the outset, the Emperor Dom 

 Pedro of Brazil. I first saw him in a somewhat curious 

 way. He had landed at New York in the morning, and 

 early in the afternoon he appeared with the Empress and 

 their gentlemen and ladies in waiting at Booth's Theater. 

 The attraction was Shakspere 's * ' Henry V, ' ' and no sooner 

 was he seated in his box than he had his Shakspere open 

 before him. Being in an orchestra stall, I naturally ob- 

 served him from time to time, and at one passage light 

 was thrown upon his idea of his duties as a monarch. The 

 play was given finely, by the best American company of 

 recent years, and he was deeply absorbed in it. But pres- 

 ently there came the words of King Henry the noted 

 passage : 



" And what have kings, that privates have not too, 

 Save ceremony, save general ceremony ? 

 And what art thou, thou idol ceremony ? " 



Whereupon the Emperor and Empress, evidently moved 

 by the same impression, turned their heads from the stage, 



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