AS MINISTER TO GERMANY- 1879 -1881 543 



archives of our embassies and legations abroad. I have 

 found nowhere more elements of true comedy and even 

 broad farce than in some of the correspondence on this 

 subject there embalmed. 



But while this class of applicants is mainly made up of 

 women, fairness compels me to say that there is a similar 

 class of men. These are persons possessed of an insatiate 

 and at times almost insane desire to be able, on their re- 

 turn, to say that they have talked with a crowned head. 



Should the sovereign see one in ten of the persons from 

 foreign nations who thus seek him, he would have no time 

 for anything else. He therefore insists, like any private 

 person in any country, on his right not to give his time to 

 those who have no real claim upon him, and some very 

 good fellow-citizens of ours have seemed almost inclined 

 to make this feeling of his Majesty a cams belli. 



On the other hand there are large numbers of Americans 

 making demands, and often very serious demands, of time 

 and labor on their diplomatic representative which it is 

 an honor and pleasure to render. Of these are such as, 

 having gained a right to do so by excellent work in their 

 respective fields at home, come abroad, as legislators 

 or educators or scientific investigators or engineers or 

 scholars or managers of worthy business enterprises, to 

 extend their knowledge for the benefit of their country. 

 No work has been more satisfactory to my conscience than 

 the aid which I have been able to render to men and wo- 

 men of this sort. 



Still, one has to make discriminations. I remember es- 

 pecially a very charming young lady of, say, sixteen sum- 

 mers, who came to me saying that she had agreed to write 

 some letters for a Western newspaper, and that she wished 

 to visit all the leading prisons, reformatory institutions, 

 and asylums of Germany. I looked into her pretty face, 

 and soon showed her that the German Government would 

 never think of allowing a young lady like herself to in- 

 spect such places as those she had named, and that in my 

 opinion they were quite right; but I suggested a series 



