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AMERICANS IN 
 EUROPE 
 
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COPTKIGHT, 1893, BY 
 TAIT, SONS & COMPANY 
 
 THE LIBRARTi 
 OF CONGRESS 
 
 WASHINGTOHl 
 
 
 TROW DIRECTORY 
 
 PRINTINQ AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 
 
 NEW YOKK 
 
OONTEE'TS. 
 
 PAGZ: 
 
 I, Introduction, 1 
 
 II. Americans in Paris, . . . . . 11 
 
 III. The American Dentist, . ». . . .23 
 
 IV. A Heroic Minister Plenipotentiary, . 29 
 V. American Editors in Paris, . . . .37 
 
 VI. The American Church in Paris, . . 41 
 
 VII. American Artists in Paris, . . . .50 
 
 VIII. The American Girl in Paris, ... 54 
 
 IX. American Students in Paris, . . , .62 
 X. Protestant Missions in Paris, ... 68 
 
 XI. Americans in London, 70 
 
 XII. The American Minister at the Court of 
 
 St. James, . . . . . . .88 
 
 XIII. Pensions, 124 
 
 XIV. Americans in Rome, 147 
 
 XV. Florence, 191 
 
 XVI. Americans on the Riviera, . . , .211 
 iii 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The exceptional opportunities I have had for 
 observing" and studying the life and character 
 of " Americans in Europe " have forced upon 
 me a feeling of fiduciary responsibility. That 
 is to say, seeing what I have seen, and know- 
 ing what I know, I feel that I have no right to 
 be silent, and am consequently impelled, by a 
 keen sense of duty, to speak out with no un- 
 certain voice and in no ambiguous words. But 
 it is useless for me to speak unless I can make 
 myself heard, and when facts have a most res- 
 onant voice of their, own, it seems to me a pity 
 to weaken that voice and the lesson it would 
 teach by any dulness or feebleness of utter- 
 ance. 
 
 I believe that this book will be of value — not 
 only to '^Americans in Europe," but to my com- 
 patriots at home and to society in general, and 
 I wish very much that it may be as widely read 
 as possible, to insure which I have first of all 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 endeavored to make it as readable as possible. 
 Dulness is quite enougb nowadays to damn 
 anybody or anything. It is the most hopeless, 
 most fatal, verdict that can be passed upon any 
 book. The public plainly tells the author that 
 it will forgive his ignorance, his inaccuracy, his 
 want of high purpose — or any purpose for that 
 matter — if he be only readable, that is, if he be 
 not dull. In meeting this public demand facts 
 are often regarded as being more of a hinder- 
 ance than of a help ; and serious thought, if 
 there be any such, must needs be served in very 
 small quantities or very carefully disguised. 
 
 Whatever is now offered to the intellectual 
 palate must be highly spiced and tasty. We 
 no longer relish the natural juices and simple 
 flavors of plain natural and moral food, and we 
 call in the French literary cook with his pun- 
 gent sauces to tempt our jaded and indifferent 
 appetites. 
 
 We read a little of everything and not much 
 of anything, and what we do read must be 
 served to us in large type and in small quanti- 
 ties. We take our general literature in para- 
 graphs and epigrams, our history in the faint- 
 est outlines ; and if we were to act upon Shake- 
 speare's advice and study only what we most 
 
 vi 
 
PREFAOE. 
 
 affect, I fear that Shakespeare himself would 
 be left unread. 
 
 It is quite useless to cry out against this 
 state of things — we must accept the fact and 
 write accordingly, if we can. After all, I do 
 not see why goodness and dulness should go 
 together, and as a simple matter of fact they do 
 not go together. If there is one thing that 
 this present generation will not stand, it is the 
 masquerading of ignorance, of stupidity, and 
 hypocrisy, under the guise of dignity, earnest- 
 ness, and piety. 
 
 The remarkable thing is that dulness has 
 succeeded so long in forcing the world to take 
 it at its own enormous intellectual and moral 
 estimate. 
 
 At the head and front of almost every profes- 
 sion has stood some blatant pedagogue who 
 has persuaded mankind to take his dulness 
 for depth. This pedant is still heard from the 
 pulpit, from the superior law courts, and from 
 the learned (*?) reviews. The libraries of the 
 world are full of his unreadable volumes. 
 There is but one place, so far as I know, where 
 he does not and cannot flourish, namely in 
 journalism. It is quite impossible for him to 
 secure, or at all events to hold, a position on 
 
 vii 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 a daily paper. He, therefore, denounces the 
 daily press from the pulpit, the bar, or the 
 columns of some " weekly " or " monthly." 
 
 The truth is, as I know from experience, it 
 is much easier to get an article inserted in 
 a "weekly" or "monthly" journal than in a 
 "daily," for the best writing to-day is to be 
 found in the leading columns of the Daily 
 Press. I would much rather trust to the fair- 
 ness of the daily paper than to that of the 
 religious weekly, or to the utterances of the 
 " prominent individuals " who are invited to air 
 their opinions in the " monthly." 
 
 I cannot follow the Daily Press in all its 
 methods of procuring and distributing news, 
 nor can I agree that everything which happens 
 in this complex world of ours is a proper sub- 
 ject for publication and comment; but upon 
 the whole I go with it fully in the publicity it 
 gives to the equivocal sayings and doings of 
 public men, and to the strong search -light 
 which it throws upon the crooked paths of peo- 
 ple, male or female, who in any way occupy the 
 position of leaders. The daily paper is as near 
 a truthful picture of the actual world as can 
 be made, and I quite believe that this daily 
 picture of the world's sayings and doings is 
 
 vm 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 one of the greatest blessings of our modern 
 times. 
 
 I have taken my cue then from the daily 
 papers. I have tried not to be dull ; but above 
 all I have tried to present a true picture of the 
 life and character of " Americans in Europe." 
 
 It has been necessary for me to speak of in- 
 dividual persons, but I have not written in a 
 spirit of idle or vicious gossip. I have set down 
 naught in malice, and if I have sometimes used 
 ridicule and some measure of sarcasm, in deal- 
 ing with certain persons and things, it is be- 
 cause ridicule and sarcasm are the only in- 
 struments I can command to accomplish the 
 purpose I have in view. That I really have 
 some purpose much higher than mere amuse- 
 ment in view, I will leave the discriminating 
 reader to judge. 
 
 The Authoe. 
 
INTKODUCTION. 
 
 To the world at large Americans are an inter- 
 esting people ; tlie most interesting indeed of 
 all the peoples of the earth ; and this it is prob- 
 ably safe to say they will continue to be for 
 centuries to come. America represents a new 
 life and a new world; an entirely new order 
 and method of things political, industrial, and 
 social. 
 
 The success of the American nation is unpar- 
 alleled in the history of nations, and the influ- 
 ence of the American life and character is 
 to-day the dominant influence of the world. 
 This influence is confined to no special domain, 
 but is everywhere present, and everywhere po- 
 tent, transforming and revolutionizing all the 
 social, political, industrial, and commercial in- 
 stitutions of the globe. 
 
 Not only this, but in matters purely intellect- 
 ual, the mind and thought of the world are fast 
 becoming Americanized. 
 
 The American daily paper, with its head-line 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 system, is now the model paper of the journal- 
 istic world. Even The Times and Saturday 
 Hevieiv — conservative organs, which stood 
 out so long and seemed so resolute — have at 
 last surrendered, and raised the once offending 
 head-lines upon the very forefront of their con- 
 servative pages. 
 
 The American illustrated magazine is an- 
 other instance in the same direction ; for are not 
 the nations of Europe copying this " Yankee 
 notion ? " The Public, or Free School, system 
 of America is now being almost universally 
 adopted by the Old World ; and it will not, it 
 cannot, be many years before " Greek " is made 
 an *' extra " or " option " in Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge, as it now is at Harvard. 
 
 The truth of the matter is, the political, so- 
 cial, industrial, and educational games of the 
 Old World are effete things, and a new shuffle 
 and a new cut of the cards have been made. 
 The United States of America have dealt a new 
 hand all round the international board, and 
 each nation is obliged to accept the trump and 
 follow her lead, or drop out of the game alto- 
 gether. 
 
 What is true of America as a nation, is also 
 true of Americans as individuals. They are the 
 
INTBODUGTION. 
 
 most interesting' people of this century. They 
 may not be so well — that is so artificially — 
 bred, nor so highly — that is technically — cul- 
 tivated as the people of Europe ; but they are 
 more interesting, for novelty is always inter- 
 esting", and Americans are original if nothing 
 more. 
 
 One never can tell what an American (I mean 
 a genuine American) may say or do under any 
 given conditions or circumstances. He is frank 
 and impulsive, good-natured and fearless ; and 
 these qualities cover a multitude of deficien- 
 cies, and all manner of social sins. He is not 
 the glass of fashion, nor the mould of social 
 form, and yet, he — and especially she — is per- 
 haps the most welcome of all the guests received 
 in the salons and drawing-rooms of Europe. 
 
 The American can go from one round of the 
 social ladder to the other, and he is the only 
 person who can. He dines one day with a 
 "tradesman" and the next with a duke, and 
 nothing is thought of it. Everything is ex- 
 plained by the fact of his being an American. 
 An Englishmen, a German, a Frenchman, or 
 any other European, must give credentials of 
 birth and position, and can be received only 
 by the class to which he properly belongs. 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 Not SO the American ; he can go anywhere and 
 everywhere, without a question being asked as 
 to his family or his social rank. For, the truth 
 is, he is supposed to have neither — at least, in 
 the European sense. These things, which are 
 so necessary to a European, and so all-power- 
 ful in determining his position and his career, 
 are never thought of in connection with an 
 American. The really knowing Americans see 
 and understand this peculiar fact, and are si- 
 lent or evasive on the subject. 
 
 No wise American ever prides himself upon 
 his family, in Europe. Not that he may not 
 belong to a family with a history, and a good 
 one, too — better perhaps than the best in Eu- 
 rope — ^but he knows, if he is not a fool, that 
 such claims are worthless in the Old World. 
 They are more than that, they are worse than 
 worthless, for measured by European stand- 
 ards they would be not only of no value what- 
 ever, but the person presenting them would 
 lose the peculiar and enormous advantages of 
 his nationality. 
 
 The abolition, or rather the non-existence, of 
 social titles, is not only a very wise, but a very 
 shrewd, feature of the American Commonwealth. 
 A titled American could have no status in Eu- 
 
INTBOBUGTION, 
 
 ropean society, would in truth be nobody at all, 
 among the nobility of the Old World, while 
 a plain American citizen may be the peer of 
 anybody. Again, an American citizen has a 
 representative character, which cannot attach 
 to any European of whatever rank or station. 
 
 A European can represent only his rank or 
 his class— never his nation. This is as true of 
 the republics of Europe as of the monarchical 
 forms of government. The European Democ- 
 racies are an "evolution," or a "devolution" 
 from some other form of government. The 
 American Eepublic is a government de novo. 
 There is absolutely nothing behind or beneath 
 it, no class names or distinctions in the back- 
 ground to cast their lights or their shadows 
 upon the social and political life and character 
 of the nation. 
 
 There are professional titles in America, but 
 no class distinctions, and there never were. 
 This cannot be said of any other civilized nation 
 now existing. The enormous advantage which 
 this fact gave to the New World and her repre- 
 sentatives at the very beginning is beyond all 
 reckoning. Franklin was received in France, 
 and I may say throughout Europe, as the per- 
 sonification of the American people en bloc, and 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 was on that account easily the first and the 
 most important personage at the French Court. 
 Other ministers and ambassadors, titled or 
 otherwise, represented some section or phase of 
 their national life and character. 
 
 Franklin spoke and acted and thought for 
 the whole people of America. No minister- 
 plenipotentiary to any nation at any period in 
 the world's history has ever held the command- 
 ing position which Franklin held in Europe, as 
 the E-epresentative of the United States of 
 America, a nation just born. He was the most 
 honored, and the most powerful, personage in 
 Europe; so powerful, in fact, that the King of 
 France, who recognized in him — that is in the 
 principle he represented — his greatest foe, his 
 natural enemy, was compelled to receive him in 
 his own house and treat him as his best friend. 
 
 And who was Franklin "? He was simply an 
 American citizen; a self-taught man without 
 family, rank, or fortune; a printer by trade. 
 This was the individiial whose name and fame, 
 as the Representative of the American E-epub- 
 lic, shone far above those of any other person 
 upon the political horizon of his day and gener- 
 ation. So deep was the impression this great 
 American made upon the French people, that 
 
INTRODUCTION, 
 
 to this day lie is looked upon by a certain class 
 of Frenchmen — and I may add the best class — 
 as the typical American character. "Would that 
 he were ! But American Ministers to European 
 Courts nowadays try to play the games of the 
 Old World, and are easily beaten. There are 
 some exceptions, but there are not many. 
 
 We laugh at the un-Europeanized American 
 who plumes himself upon his sovereign charac- 
 ter as an American citizen ; but, laugh as we 
 may, it is a veritable fact, and if he is to be 
 classed at all — a thing which never suggests 
 itself to him at home— his place is properly 
 among the royalties, and not among the nobili- 
 ties, of the Old World — just where Franklin's 
 was, and was acknowledged by all to be. Every 
 American-born citizen is Heir- Apparent to the 
 Presidency of the United States, a position of 
 more absolute governing authority and power 
 than that of any king or emperor of Europe. 
 
 I have said that there are absolutely no class- 
 distinctions in the United States of America. 
 Who ever heard of the American peasant ? The 
 word is unknown in America. Again who ever 
 heard of the upper class, or the middle class ? 
 No one hears such words in America as class- 
 distinctions except perhaps among the " Four 
 
AMERICAIS'S IN EUROPE. 
 
 Hundred" — snobs — of New York. One does 
 hear these things sometimes from Americans 
 in Europe. And this brings me to my subject. 
 I repeat, there is no character so interesting to 
 the world just now as the American character. 
 But it must be the genuine thing, without 
 apology or pretence, or it is nothing worth. 
 An American who tries to be somebody else, or 
 who is always apologizing for hfs country and 
 his countrymen, is the most contemptible creat- 
 ure on the face of the earth. 
 
 I once met a young American who had been 
 to Eton and to Oxford, and was travelling on 
 the Continent with an elderly uncle. I saw at 
 once that the young man was very English, the 
 old man very American. The young man talked 
 like an English " swell " — that is, he talked al- 
 most nothing but the most insipid and mean- 
 ingless slang and with an affected accent. The 
 old man talked like a man of sense, who was 
 proud of his nationality, but to the evident an- 
 noyance of the young Oxonian ; who finally 
 said in an undertone — " Don't give yourself aivay, 
 uncle, they take me for an Englishman." 
 " Then you're a fool, and have given yourself 
 away in no figurative but in a very real sense," 
 retorted the disgusted uncle. 
 
 8 
 
INTEODUGTION, 
 
 Now, this Oxonian represents a very large 
 class of Americans in Europe — old and young, 
 male and female — ^who give themselves aivay to 
 the English and get nothing in return but con- 
 tempt or patronage. There are a few Ameri- 
 cans in Europe of a somewhat different type, 
 who have sense enough to be proud of their 
 country, if they do not choose to live in it. 
 
 I know an American who had the great hon- 
 or of being presented to Mr. Buskin. Almost 
 the first thing this eminent man of letters said 
 was, " A Yankee with an English accent : how 
 does that happen ? " To this very polite re- 
 mark the American replied, *'I had the misfor- 
 tune to be educated in England." 
 
 On another occasion a great English lady said 
 to this gentleman, " Do you know, I should have 
 taken you for an Englishman." " I am very sor- 
 ry, madam, that I do not appear to be what I 
 really am," was the answer. " Oh ! of course," 
 said the grand lady, " you are quite right, but 
 I thought our young American cousins did not 
 mind a little resemblance to the old folks on 
 this side of the water." " They certainly do not 
 mind the natural family resemblance, and one of 
 the strongest features of the Anglo-Saxon race 
 is self-respect," said the American. "Yes, I 
 
AMERICANS IN EVROPE. 
 
 suppose it is just as well for people to be what 
 they are," rejoined the British matron. And 
 this lady spoke the mind of the English people. 
 There is something very solid and real about 
 the Englishman, whoever he is or whatever he 
 is. It doesn't much matter what an Englishman 
 is, so that he is what he is, without pretence or 
 apology. Lord Salisbury is a conservative, a 
 churchman, and an aristocrat — ^there is no pos- 
 sibility of doubt on these points — and the 
 English people respect him. Mr. Bradlaugh 
 was just as manifestly a radical and a free- 
 thinker, and the English people respected 
 him. Tennyson was a poet ennobled, and the 
 English admired and venerated him. "William 
 Morris is a poet and a communist, and the 
 people admire him. "Wellington and Palmers- 
 ton, Disraeli and Gladstone, the classical Lord 
 Derby and the homely John Bright, are types 
 of character which John Bull loves to honor 
 and reward; but the Chamberlains and the 
 Churchills he will never seriously press to his 
 broad and manly bosom with any great feel- 
 ing of paternal pride or affection. Moral — in- 
 tended especially for Americans visiting Eng- 
 land with social ambitions— if you wish to be 
 anybody in England, be American. 
 
 10 
 
11. 
 
 AMEEIOANS IN PAEIS. 
 
 THEIE FONDNESS FOR FOREIGN TITLES. 
 
 One bright May day I was driving in the 
 Bois de Boulogne with an English baronet, now 
 deceased, who was for many years a conspicu- 
 ous figure at the French capital, conspicuous 
 more on account of his great wealth and munif- 
 icent charity than for his social doings. In fact, 
 he went little into society, for the reason that 
 he was somewhat of an invalid during the last 
 years of his life, and had neither the strength 
 nor the patience to endure society bores. But 
 for all that his social prestige was very great, 
 and he was much sought after by the fashion- 
 able world ; all the more so, indeed, because 
 he was seldom seen anywhere, when he might 
 have gone everywhere. That is the sort of 
 personage who fills the breast of the social 
 small fry with an envy which might be great, if 
 these people were capable of experiencing any 
 
 11 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 great emotion of whatever nature, good or 
 bad. 
 
 Everybody knew about the wealthy baronet, 
 about his great London Art Gallery — the great- 
 est private collection perhaps in the world — 
 and most people had heard something about 
 his large charities in Paris. And then there 
 were some peculiar circumstances concerning 
 his birth and parentage which gave a very pun- 
 gent flavor to the general interest attaching 
 to this Englishman. Very well, then, it was 
 with this distinguished gentlemen that I had 
 the honor to drive. The day was perfect, it 
 was the fashionable hour and all the great 
 world was in the Bois. My beautiful com- 
 patriots were out in great force, and I was ob- 
 served by all, and recognized by many, in a 
 most pronounced manner. The baronet was a 
 little surprised by the large number of my ac- 
 quaintances ; and in truth so was I, for I was 
 favored with bows from many ladies with whom 
 I was totally unacquainted. 
 
 I was myself pretty well known by sight and 
 reputation, and was, I think I may say, known 
 to be a perfectly respectable bachelor. But, 
 to be frank, I was not a very distinguished 
 member of the American colony in Paris. 
 
 12 
 
AMERICANS IM PARIS. 
 
 More than this, it was by the merest chance 
 that I happened to be driving with this great 
 person. I had written something on a social 
 subject which interested the baronet, and he 
 sent me a note asking me to call and talk over 
 the matter with him. My visit, by good luck, 
 fell just as he was going out for a drive, and I 
 was invited to take a seat in his carriage, " and 
 our talk will thus be free from interruptions," 
 observed my host. 
 
 I had visited Paris often, and for a stretch of 
 several months at a time, and yet I knew very 
 few of my country -people. But things changed 
 very quickly after my now memorable drive 
 with the baronet in the Bois. In a few days 
 my table was covered with " At Home " cards 
 brought by the hands of liveried servants, and 
 I was soon in the full swim of the gay world. I 
 was invited almost everywhere, for those who 
 had not seen me in the carriage of the great 
 baronet saw me in leading salons, and the two 
 together gave me the entrance everywhere, even 
 into the most exclusive circles. 
 
 For a while I thought it best to keep myself 
 671 evidence, but having once firmly established 
 myself in the social world, I could of course 
 afford to be, or pretend to be, independent and 
 
 13 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 only went when I chose and where I chose; 
 hence, I soon found it necessary to drop some 
 unimportant families from my list, as it com- 
 prised enough of the ultra-fashionable set to 
 fully occupy my time. 
 
 From Paris and London I was passed on to 
 all the English and American colonies on the 
 C9ntinent — ^to Rome, Florence, the Riviera, 
 etc., and it was in this way that I came to know 
 " Americans in Europe " while I have remained 
 myself almost entirely unknown. 
 
 The colony in Paris is by far the largest 
 American community in Europe. This colony 
 was founded under the most favorable auspices. 
 France had been the only European friend of 
 America during the War of Independence. The 
 French really looked upon the United States 
 as being, to a great extent, the work of their 
 own hands. Lafayette had not only fought 
 but had given his money to establish the 
 American Republic, and De Tocqueville had 
 expounded and glorified the constitution and 
 commonwealth of America to the French peo- 
 ple in a book which is still almost the best 
 thing that has been written on America, not- 
 withstanding the elaborate compilation of Pro- 
 fessor Bryce. 
 
 14 
 
AMERICANS IN PARIS. 
 
 But of course the most important influence 
 brought to bear upon the French people in 
 favor of America and Americans was that of 
 Franklin, which has already been noticed. Of 
 the minor influences the marriage of the great 
 Napoleon's brother, Jerome Bonaparte, with an 
 American lady was of no slight importance, es- 
 pecially in the social world, and records the 
 first of the many victories which the Ameri- 
 can woman has gained in Europe. It was a 
 splendid advertisement of the American girls' 
 beauty — for in this case at least it was beauty 
 and beauty alone, unaided by wealth, that made 
 the capture, and it was a veritable capture. 
 Moreover, Miss Patterson had but one day and 
 one night in which to plan and execute her ac- 
 tion against the heart of a king. The encounter 
 was short and sharp. The Baltimore beauty 
 staked everything upon her personal — and I 
 may say her physical — charms, for she dis- 
 carded all ornaments, and the upper part of 
 her person was draped with but a single gar- 
 ment and that of a texture so thin as to be 
 hardly perceptible. Bonaparte came and saw 
 and was conquered. 
 
 This I believe to be one of the most splen- 
 did victories that womanly beauty has ever won 
 
 15 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 since tlie days of Queen Esther, or of King* 
 Cophetua and the Beggar Maid. And take 
 note of this, ye corset-wearing maidens : Miss 
 Patterson's victory was due to the fact that she 
 engaged the enemy in the open — scorning all 
 art, either to conceal or to heighten her charms. 
 
 Since this very notable victory of Miss Pat- 
 terson's the beauty of the Baltimore ladies goes 
 without saying. But beauty is not enough in 
 these degenerate days, and a Baltimore girl 
 without a million or so as a background to her 
 charms — be they never so great — cannot hope 
 to win against her New York or San Francisco 
 rival who pays her money and takes her choice 
 of all the old and worn-out and worthless titles 
 of Europe. 
 
 Is it any wonder that Americans worship the 
 almighty dollar (if they do) when they find that 
 it is the almighty power in the Old World? 
 And which one, I should like to know, is the 
 better character : the one who buys or the 
 one who is bought? For everything can be 
 bought in Europe — even the marbles of the 
 Parthenon, which are supposed to be the work 
 of a Grecian sculptor by the name of Phidias, 
 but which in this commercial age and in shop- 
 keeping England very properly bear the name 
 
 16 
 
AMERICANS IN PARIS. 
 
 of Elgin, tlie person who bought them with 
 English gold. 
 
 Everything, I say, can be bought in Europe, 
 from the Frieze of the Parthenon down to the 
 trumpery and generally disreputable designa- 
 tions of Prince or Princess, Count or Countess, 
 Baron or Baroness, and even of " My Lord " and 
 *'My Lady," for have not the money-lenders of 
 London bought their way even into the proud 
 English Peerage? And then the people of 
 Europe talk of Americans worshipping the Al- 
 mighty Dollar ! "Worship it ? Why they care 
 so little for it that they throw it away upon the 
 trumpery gewgaws of Europe. They show 
 bad taste — ^very bad taste, I will allow, and even 
 worse commercial judgment — for titles that can- 
 be bought and sold are badges of shame and 
 not of honor, and the parties to such dealings 
 not only belittle themselves but degrade social 
 rank and vulgarize wealth. The rank that can 
 be bought is the lowest of all ranks, and the 
 money that will buy it is the most debased of 
 all currency. 
 
 I say once for all that there is not a titled 
 American woman in Europe who has not lost 
 something in real social dignity by the wholly 
 incongruous position she occupies. It has 
 
 17 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 really come to this, that if one speaks now of an 
 American Princess, Countess, or Baroness, it is 
 absolutely necessary to explain at once what 
 her social position was in America — if she had 
 one — otherwise, even the respectability of her 
 birth and bringing up will be questioned. For 
 no American women of the best sort have ever 
 desired to wear a European title, which as a 
 social ornament is so wholly unbecoming to 
 their birth and nationality. 
 
 I am willing to admit, however, that, on the 
 first blush, titles sound very tempting to an 
 American ear ; more tempting to an American 
 ear, perhaps, than to any other ear; and the 
 reason is not far to seek. First, there is the 
 general interest of novelty. Americans, home- 
 bred, know little or nothing of the actual people 
 who wear these titles. They have seen them 
 only through the magnifying glass of their 
 mind's eye ; have met them only in poetry, in 
 novels, and now and then in history. 
 
 In fiction, titled people are always made to 
 play the leading roles, and then if they are not 
 always the wisest and the handsomest, the brav- 
 est and the best, they are at least the most dis- 
 tinguished, in some way or other. Again, there 
 is no use denying the fact that the very sound 
 
 18 
 
AMERICANS IN PARIS. 
 
 of a title carries an idea of superiority witli it. 
 In this matter, as usual, " John Bull " hit upon 
 exactly the right thing, and has the advantage 
 over all his European rivals. "My Lord" car- 
 ries more distinction and more weight with it 
 than any other title in Europe. Now these 
 mere titles of nobility stand for real nobility 
 of character to the unsophisticated American 
 mind : hence the glamour and the temptation. 
 
 Of course, one who has been in Europe long 
 enough to learn the truth about these things 
 knows that the facts are just the reverse of our 
 childish ideals. We know that a title of nobil- 
 ity is often the badge of an idle, ignorant, vi- 
 cious, and cowardly blackguard ; and this knowl- 
 edge — thanks to the law courts and the daily 
 paper — ^is no longer the property of a few. 
 There are some notable, but not very many, ex- 
 ceptions. The late Lord Houghton once said 
 td Lord Stanhope in the House of Lords, " You 
 and I, Stanhope, are the only men in this place 
 who can read and write." " Pardon me," said 
 Lord Stanhope, " you forget Lord Lytton." 
 
 It has been for some time an unwritten rule 
 in the Lower House — ^the House of Commons — 
 that if a member becomes insufferably dull the 
 way to get rid of him is to kick him down (I 
 
 19 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 suppose I should say up) into the House of 
 Lords. Nothing is so sure a mark of impotency 
 in a politician as to be created a peer. The 
 House of Lords is not, therefore, wholly useless. 
 But for the House of Lords what in the world 
 could be done with such a politician as the late 
 Sir Eichard, and the present Lord, Cross ? Let 
 Mr. Labouchere, and those of his kidney, ponder 
 this matter well before abolishing the " Upper 
 House." So much for the brains of the noble 
 peers. If dulness were, however, the only dis- 
 tinction of the "nobility " one could suffer it to 
 pass, but the cry goes up from the Divorce 
 Courts, from Libel Courts, from Baccarat Courts, 
 and from all sorts of Criminal Courts ; from 
 London and Paris, from Berlin and Yienna, and 
 even from India, "How long, oh Lord, how 
 long, wilt Thou suffer them to encumber and 
 pollute the earth ! " 
 
 There is some excuse for the rich and ignorant 
 American woman who wishes to exchange her 
 dollars for a title. But to know the facts — as 
 almost everybody must know them by this time 
 —and then to barter for those base wares is 
 simple infamy, and richly deserves, what almost 
 invariably follows, disease and misery. But 
 titled Americans in Europe are not much worse 
 
 20 
 
AMERICANS IN PARIS. 
 
 than some other kinds I shall mention, as I pro- 
 ceed in my self-appointed, albeit patriotic, duty. 
 
 Talleyrand tells of an American he met, some- 
 where in Pennsylvania, who had no desire to 
 see General Washington, but was very anxious 
 to see Mr. Bingham, " the man, they say, who is 
 so rich." And the brilliant French diplomat 
 gives this as an example of the vulgarizing in- 
 fluence of mere money, at the very beginning of 
 the American national life. However true this 
 may be — and I am sure it is less true of the be- 
 ginnings of the American nation than of the be- 
 ginnings of any European State — however true 
 this may be, I am sorry to say that the Ameri- 
 can colony in Paris is, and has always been, for 
 the most part, made up of people who prefer 
 the " Binghams " to the " Washingtons." 
 
 The very rich and the very hospitable lady 
 who used to reside in her great palace near the 
 Arc de Triomphe is to the Parisian the typical » 
 American to-day, as Franklin was a hundred 
 years ago. Nor need we express astonishment 
 at this, for the lady in question is as much 
 above the average American in Paris now as 
 Franklin was above the average in his time. 
 So, whenever you see Americans in Paris 
 turning up their noses at the mention of this 
 
 21 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE, 
 
 lady's name, know that they would gladly turn 
 down their cards at her house if they could. Of 
 course there are a few Americans in Paris who 
 do not care for that sort of society, and who 
 have no interest in this lady and her doings, 
 but they keep their noses in their proper places, 
 and never indulge in envious sneers at this 
 
 millionaire. But Mrs. M has transferred 
 
 her court to London, where we shall hope to 
 meet her in due course. 
 
 23 
 
III. 
 
 THE AMEKICAN DENTIST. 
 
 The first American in Paris one would natu- 
 rally suppose to be the Minister Plenipotentiary. 
 But this is not so. The first American in Paris 
 is a dentist. I know very well that this state- 
 ment will be received in the American quarter 
 —and especially in the American Church, Ave- 
 nue de I'Alma — with scorn and derision. I shall 
 not pause, however, just now to argue the ques- 
 tion, but if you will take the trouble to stop the 
 first Frenchman you meet in the "Champs 
 Ely sees " and ask him who is the most distin- 
 guished American in Paris, or in Europe, he, I 
 am quite sure, will give you the name of this 
 dentist. And he deserves his great eminence, 
 for he, like the very rich lady, is a true type, if 
 not the best type, of a genuine American. First 
 of all he is a self-made and a well-made man, if 
 the making of a great fortune counts for any- 
 thing ; and do we not all know that it counts for 
 everything? 
 
 03 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 This gentleman was born in a little village in 
 the State of Pennsylvania. His father, I be- 
 lieve, was a poor farmer and the boy had no 
 schooling to speak of. I do not know the par- 
 ticulars of his early life, nor how he got a start 
 in his profession. By some means, however, he 
 made his way to Philadelphia and managed to 
 get employment there with a dentist. Soon af- 
 ter his arrival in the City of Brotherly Love he 
 sent to some sort of exhibition a set of hand- 
 some artificial teeth. These false teeth caught 
 the artistic eye of a distinguished American 
 dentist who lived in Paris. This gentleman 
 made inquiries, found the young dental artist, 
 and carried him off to Paris as his assistant. 
 Now this American dentist had no less a per- 
 sonage than the Emperor of All the French 
 among his clients. 
 
 The dentist had, I am sorry to say, his 
 failings — as who of us has not? Y/ell, it so 
 happened that on one occasion when he was 
 unfortunately under the influence of one of 
 these failings, the Emperor chanced to be af- 
 flicted with a toothache or something, and de- 
 manded — or, as is the way with such person- 
 ages, commanded — the services of his dentist. 
 To obey, in person, this Imperial command, 
 
 34 
 
THE AMERICAN DENTIST. 
 
 was, at tlie moment, beyond the power of the 
 poor dentist; and he was obliged to send a 
 note by the hand of his assistant, pleading ill- 
 ness as an excuse. But the Emperor, like or- 
 dinary mortals, was not disposed to suffer even 
 a toothache, if it could be avoided, and in his 
 extremity asked the young assistant if he 
 could give him any relief. Now, it may seem 
 strange that this young American, fresh from 
 his native Democratic soil, was not completely 
 overawed by the presence of a live emperor. 
 Such, however, was the case, and, moreover, 
 he had nerve enough to do his work — whatever 
 it was — in such a manner as to win, at once and 
 forever, the confidence and the friendship of 
 Napoleon III. 
 
 This one patient made the boy's fortune, 
 and since then this dentist's career is as well 
 known in Europe as Bismarck's or Gladstone's. 
 And the secret of it all is that he has never 
 tried to be anything but a dentist — that is 
 to say, he has never been above his profession 
 — ^lias gloried in it, and has got more glory out 
 of it than he could have got out of all the titles 
 in Europe. He was the trusted friend and con- 
 fidant of the Imperial family, and the Empress 
 —as everybody knows — went to this American 
 
 35 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 dentist in the hour of her great misfortune and 
 peril, and he shielded her from the mob and 
 conducted her in safety beyond the French bor- 
 der. Nor is it the least to his credit to say 
 that he performed this great service with a skill 
 and a daring worthy of a Knight of the Bound 
 Table, or, as we should prefer to put it, worthy 
 of a true-born American citizen. Again, when 
 her son, the unfortunate Prince Imperial, lost 
 his life in the Zulu war, the heart-broken 
 mother called upon the American dentist to 
 identify the body. 
 
 This American citizen, the son of a poor 
 farmer, has known, and known intimately, more 
 kings and queens, emperors and empresses — 
 not to mention anyone of lower rank and sta- 
 tion — than any man in Europe, and it has not 
 weakened in any way his American character. 
 When the late Emperor Frederick was so ill at 
 San Remo, the American dentist rendered him 
 a most delicate and valuable service, which did 
 more to relieve the Imperial sufferer than the 
 physic of both the Scotch and the German doc- 
 tors. And, after the Emperor's death, the 
 American dentist had the good taste and the 
 decency not to write a book about what he did, 
 nor to advertise himself over the Emperor's 
 
 26 
 
THE AMEniGAIT DENTIST. 
 
 grave, as the Scotch and German physicians 
 saw fit to do. The American was too well 
 known to require such an advertisement. He 
 is now one of the richest and most famous 
 men in Paris; but he is still a dentist and 
 works at his profession, and has never forgot- 
 ten that he is an American citizen. Were he 
 an Englishman, he would long before this have 
 been created a baronet, and, were he a French- 
 man, he could have had, at least during the 
 Emperor's lifetime, almost any title he may 
 have fancied. He has, however, accepted only 
 the badges of scientific distinction properly 
 belonging to his profession. 
 
 This very distinguished American had a 
 brother and a nephew in Paris who were both 
 dentists. The brother married a rich and beau- 
 tiful lady — the daughter of a famous New York 
 hotel-keeper — and, retiring from his profession 
 soon after his marriage, gave the most of his 
 time to the American church, cultivated " nice 
 people," and was, of course, quite a superior 
 person to his brother, the dentist, as his rector 
 would doubtless testify. But this well-dis- 
 posed, harmless man, has now joined the ma- 
 jority, and I have no further comment to make 
 upon him. The nephew, however, got to be a 
 
 37 
 
AMEUICANS IN EUROPE, 
 
 marquis, in some way or other, and was im- 
 mediately, and very properly, kicked out of the 
 family — which he had disgraced — by his fa- 
 mous uncle. 
 
 Who will say that Americans are not inter- 
 esting people, when three varieties such as 
 these can be found in one family % 
 
IV. 
 AMEEICAN EDITOKS IN PAKIS. 
 
 TWO REPBESENTATIVE JOURNALISTS. 
 
 Next to the American dentist comes the 
 American editor, and hero again you will find a 
 true type. Like all real Americans, editors 
 stand first in whatever circle they choose to 
 mix with. Usually, an editor has more brains 
 and more real manhood in his composition 
 than any dozen titled Europeans to be found 
 within a year's search. One of those I have 
 in my mind's eye is the proprietor and abso- 
 lute manager of one of the greatest daily pa- 
 pers in the world. If you have any doubt of 
 his being the real manager of the New York 
 Herald, consult some one employed on the 
 journal in question and your doubts will be 
 removed. Besides his editorial work, this 
 man is a great yachtsman, a great whip, a 
 master of the hounds, and was at one time a 
 great polo player. 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 Englishmen pride themselves on being 
 sportsmen, but this editor can beat any of them 
 at a half dozen things and superintend his 
 paper at the same time. Regarded simply as 
 a sportsman, he is one of the most successful 
 men living. He was the first " gentleman " to 
 sail a pleasure yacht across the ocean. With- 
 out any training, he defeated a champion pro- 
 fessional walker. He was the champion polo 
 player in America as long as he chose to play. 
 As a whip he has few equals, and as the Master 
 of the Pau Hounds, he has won the good opin- 
 ion of the best horsemen. 
 
 There are not a half dozen Americans in 
 Europe who have the ability or the manhood of 
 this editor, whom I have mentioned, not because 
 I wanted to praise him, but because he is first 
 and last and always an American, without pre- 
 tence or apology. 
 
 I have now named the two most typical 
 and most important Americans in Paris — the 
 dentist and the editor — and perhaps it is just 
 as well to add that I have not the honor of 
 knowing either of these gentlemen personally. 
 
 There is another American journalist who 
 has recently taken up his residence in Paris 
 
 30 
 
AMERICAN' EDITORS IN PARIS. 
 
 whose career might have furnished one of the 
 best tales of the Arabian Nights' Entertain- 
 ments. This man is not more than forty-five 
 years old, and has already retired with his 
 *'pile," and the biggest "pile" I venture to say 
 that has ever been made in journalism, or in 
 anything else, in so short a time. His wife, a 
 niece of the late ex-President of the ex-South- 
 ern Confederacy, delights to tell the story of 
 her husband's marvellous success, of which I 
 can only give the merest sketch. He is a Hun- 
 garian by birth, and on his arrival in America, 
 at the age of about twenty -two, he did not pos- 
 sess money enough to pay for a night's lodging, 
 but slept his first night's sleep in the Great Ke- 
 public on the soft side of a stone bench in Union 
 Square, New York. Now twenty -two from forty- 
 five leaves twenty-three — the number of years 
 covering the career of this millionaire journal- 
 ist. But more remarkable still, this man's vast 
 fortune has been made really within the last 
 ten years. 
 
 About ten years ago this journalist bought 
 the New York World, a daily paper which had, 
 under the masterly editorship of the Kev. W, 
 H. Hurlbert, decreased in circulation until it no 
 longer paid anything but the editor's salary. In 
 
 31 
 
AMERICANS JiY EUROPE. 
 
 less than five years after the change of manage- 
 ment the New York World had the largest circu- 
 lation — so it was said — of any paper in America. 
 "Within the past two years it has been turned 
 into a joint stock company, and capitalized, if 
 that is the term, at ten million dollars. In 
 other words, these figures tell the marvellous 
 story of a journalist making ten million dollars 
 in ten years. 
 
 No wonder the wife is proud to relate, es- 
 pecially in the company — so I hear— of Amer- 
 ican baronesses, countesses, and princesses, the 
 fairy tale of her husband's unparalleled career. 
 The wife and the husband are worthy of each 
 other. There are of course hundreds of my 
 country people in Paris more or less interest- 
 ing, in one way or another, but no one person, 
 it seems to the present writer, stands out from 
 the others in such a way as to warrant any ex- 
 tended personal notice. 
 
 82 
 
A HEEOIC MINISTEE PLENIPOTEN- 
 TIAEY. 
 
 THE LATE GOYERNOR WASHBURNE. 
 
 I DID not meaB to speak with any want of re- 
 spect concerning the American Minister Pleni- 
 potentiary as an institution, but I am writing 
 about interesting people, and he — well he may 
 be very worthy and all that, and usually is, I 
 believe, but he can't be said to be interesting. 
 His efforts to appear like his colleagues in the 
 diplomatic circle are sometimes amusing, I 
 grant ; but they are generally too pitiful to be 
 interesting. Poor man, he does not know what 
 to do, or say. If he would only do and say 
 what good Americans are expected to do and 
 say, all would be well with him. But no, he 
 must needs try to be a European — and he ends 
 by being nothing. He is generally some third- 
 rate politician who is not strong enough to be 
 of any real service to his party at home, and is 
 
 33 
 
AMERIGAK8 IN EUROPE. 
 
 yet too strong — for mischief — to be passed over 
 in the division of the spoils. So he is got rid 
 of by sending him to Europe. This, I think, 
 applies with some modifying circumstances 
 and considerations to almost all Americaji Min- 
 isters at European Courts. Now and then, 
 however, a real live American is given this post, 
 as in the case of the late Governor Washburne, 
 Minister to France. 
 
 Our late Minister at Paris, I hasten to say, 
 was also a genuine American of decided abil- 
 ity, with sense enough to see that he could not 
 shine as a diplomat — as no American can. Mr. 
 Eeid is a good type, one of the best types iia- 
 deed, of a self-made American. As I have said, 
 he was Yankee enough to see that he couldn't 
 play the European game of diplomacy, and 
 he didn't try. But the late Governor Wash- 
 burne deserves some further notice. For the 
 first twenty or perhaps fifty years of the Ameri- 
 can Eepublic her Representative in France 
 was a person of importance. But this is not so 
 now, and why ? The United States of America 
 have grown enormously during the last half 
 century, and it seems natural that the influence 
 of the nation's representatives should increase 
 in a corresponding ratio. But it has not, and 
 
 34 
 
A HEROIC MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY. 
 
 why not? For the simple reason that our 
 representatives are not what they were fifty 
 years ago. They used to represent American 
 thought and life and progress; they now, 
 for the most part, try to imitate European life 
 and character. The American Minister loses 
 his head on entering Paris, and never finds 
 it again till some one else equally silly sup- 
 plants him. 
 
 The first thing, and the best thing, for a man 
 to do when he finds himself in a strange place 
 among unfamiliar customs and things and 
 surrounded hj unknown people is to make 
 sure of himself. If he will but stick to himself 
 everything and everybody will come round to 
 him and explain themselves to him. First, let 
 the American Minister understand, if he has 
 any sense at all, that he cannot hope to shine 
 as a diplomat, a man of fashion, or in any 
 sense as a man of the world, according to Eu- 
 ropean acceptation. These are Old- World char- 
 acters, which he cannot possibly assume with 
 the smallest success. They are arts that can 
 be studied only in Europe. They are strictly 
 European, Old-World games, at which the 
 American should never suffer himself to hazard 
 the slightest word or act, for the cards are all 
 
 35 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 marked and the dice are loaded against him. 
 If, however, he will calmly and resolutely hold 
 on to himself, and to his character as the Eep- 
 resentative of the New World, he will in time 
 force these card sharpers to play his game — 
 that is the American game — at which he will 
 always win. 
 
 One European diplomat is usually a match 
 for another, and in the end there is very little 
 lost, and nothing gained, on either side, for di- 
 plomacy is one of the " played-out " games. Let 
 America keep out of it! Nations nowadays 
 do not trust any real interest to a diplomatic 
 sleight-of-hand performer. There is little scope 
 at the present time for such a career — such an 
 unworthy career — as that of a Talleyrand. The 
 Metternichs and the Castlereaghs are also left 
 without an occupation. 
 
 Diplomacy represents the old regime of false- 
 hood, intrigue, and corruption. Let America, 
 I repeat, keep out of it ! The diplomat has 
 still some little power for mischief, but not 
 much. His occupation has gone or is fast 
 going. The United States have no compli- 
 cated diplomatic relations with the Old World, 
 simply from the fact that the United States 
 have no diplomats. As lawyers make lawsuits, 
 
 36 
 
A HEROIG MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY, 
 
 SO diplomats make diplomatic muddles. Let 
 America keep out of such entanglements ! 
 
 There have been complaints recently, from 
 Eome, and Paris, and London, that the delicate 
 questions of diplomacy can no longer be kept 
 a secret, but are known and discussed by all 
 men. This is as it should and always must 
 be. No man in the future will be able to play 
 the game of diplomacy in secret. Every diplo- 
 matic card that is played, and every move that 
 is made, is closely watched by the whole 
 world ; or, more properly speaking, the so- 
 called diplomat can only plaj^ the cards or 
 make the moves that he is ordered to make by 
 the Sovereign People of the nation whose ser- 
 vant he henceforth is, in the proper and real 
 sense. 
 
 But I set out to speak of the late Governor 
 Washburne, American Minister to France dur- 
 ing the Franco-German War. If you were to 
 mention this gentleman's name in the Ameri- 
 can Colony in Paris you would probably hear 
 such exclamations as these, " Such a mistake," 
 "An impossible man," "It is a great pity that 
 our Government should send such men to Eu- 
 rope," " Why, he could not speak one word of 
 French," " Knew nothing about society," etc. 
 
 37 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 These are some of the expressions which I have 
 heard about this particular minister. True he 
 did not speak French and did not try to shine 
 as a man of fashion, in any sense. But when 
 the war broke out, when the gayest and the 
 most beautiful of all the capitals of the world 
 was harassed on the outside and rent inter- 
 nally ; when hunger and starvation within and 
 a hostile army without laid the gay and proud 
 city in the dust ; when the French-speaking 
 compatriots and the elegant diplomatic col- 
 leagues of this " impossible man " had hurried 
 off to places of safety and comfort ; then it was 
 that the American character in the minister as- 
 serted itself j then it was that all things came 
 round to this man; and he who had sense 
 enough and strength enough to hold on to 
 himself, that is, to his national character, in the 
 face of European diplomacy and Parisian so- 
 ciety, now had the courage to cling to his post, 
 when all of his colleagues, without a single ex- 
 ception, had deserted theirs. 
 
 Could anything better illustrate the difference 
 between the Old and the New World character '? 
 This man was a true representative of America. 
 He represented her kindliness, her sympathy 
 for humanity, and her courage. 
 
 38 
 
A HEROIO MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY. 
 
 Mr. Washburne remained in the doomed 
 city and won a great and a good name by his 
 kindliness and his humanity in giving protec- 
 tion to the unfortunates of all nationalities shut 
 up in the besieged city. Can we compare, for 
 one moment, the typical European diplomat 
 with such a man ? 
 
 There are very few principalities or duke- 
 doms founded upon conduct so glorious, or that 
 owe their origin to a character so truly heroic. 
 After the war-cloud had rolled by it was very 
 natural that the new-born French Eepublic 
 should wish to give some token of its apprecia- 
 tion to this great representative of a sister 
 Eepublic. The French Government expressed 
 such a wish, but their generous action was op- 
 posed, and by whom ? By one of the literary, 
 Europeanized American " diplomats," who had 
 misrepresented the United States at two or 
 three European Courts. Both of these men, 
 the literary diplomat and the true American 
 representative, have now crossed the river, 
 and I venture to think that the true and kind- 
 hearted "Western Man" will be remembered 
 long after the historian and his unreadable, 
 though I daresay very learned, volumes are 
 forgotten — save perhaps by the antiquarian. 
 
 39 
 
AMERIOANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 Americans in Paris would make a knowledge 
 of the French language indispensable to the 
 post of minister. That it would be most con- 
 venient for the minister to know French, no 
 one is such a fool as to deny ; but there are per- 
 haps not a dozen men of real ability in the 
 United States, outside literary and educational 
 circles, who can speak French ; and to make a 
 knowledge of French an essential qualification 
 for the ministership would be to surrender 
 the post entirely into the hands of the snoboc- 
 racy of America. If we must have ministers at 
 the Courts of Europe — the necessity of which I 
 do not see — let them be Americans of the genu- 
 ine type, and not the half-and-half European 
 breed. 
 
 40 
 
YI. 
 
 THE AMEEICAN CHUKCH IN PAKIS. 
 
 CLERICAL ANGLOMANIA.. 
 
 The beautiful American church in the Ave- 
 nue de I'Alma is the centre around which the 
 American Colony revolves. There is another 
 American church (Presbyterian) in the rue de 
 Berri, but all the fashionable Americans, 
 whether they be Episcopalian or non-Episco- 
 palian, have seats in the Avenue de I'Alma 
 church, as it is quite the thing to do. This is 
 by far the most expensive church edifice, and 
 altogether the best equipped church, of all the 
 English and American churches on the Conti- 
 nent of Europe. The vestries are magnificent, 
 the finest I have ever seen anywhere. There 
 are also splendid rooms for the various church 
 guilds, which do a large amount of good work 
 for the poor of Paris, especially the poor chil- 
 dren. 
 
 There is a surpliced professional choir, of 
 
 41 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 about thirty men and boys, and a choral service 
 is performed every day in the year. These 
 men and boys, as well as the organist, are all 
 imported from London, the precentor and the 
 choir-master being the only Americans. 
 
 The rector is an American by birth, which of 
 course was no fault of his, and he does every- 
 thing in his power to make amends for the pa- 
 ternal sin. Should you, therefore, see anything 
 in his church or its services to remind you of 
 America I am sure the rector is not to blame. 
 For example, the officiating clergyman in the 
 American Episcopal Church is given the op- 
 tion, I believe, at the evening service of using 
 one of the Ten Selections of Psalms, in place of 
 the regular psalm or psalms for the day. I 
 never knew an American church in which this 
 was not done some time or other ; but I have 
 never known it to be done in the Paris church. 
 And why ? It is not so ordered in the English 
 Book of Common Prayer, and the English peo- 
 ple are very conservative, you know, and don't 
 like changes. 
 
 But let me tell this very considerate rector 
 that the English people do like changes outside 
 of their own country and their own National 
 Church, and if he is setting his net for them the 
 
 43 
 
THE AMERIGAIJ- CHUBGE IN PABI8. 
 
 best thing is to give them the American service, 
 pure and simple. It is a shorter service and a 
 prettier service, and the slight changes are all 
 for the better, and the English clergy see it and 
 know it and like it. The rector has worked hard 
 to get his fine church, and he can point with 
 just pride to the splendid edifice he has built as 
 the work of his own hands, for the glory of his 
 — God, let us hope. 
 
 While I am on this subject, the case of an 
 American church in Paris occurs to me, which 
 has given occasion for much clerical heart- 
 burning, and I am induced to refer to it, as it 
 illustrates, in a concrete manner, the evils of 
 this clerical Anglomania, of which I have been 
 speaking. The assistant in the church is an 
 Englishman, but whether he has taken English 
 or American orders is a question. His name 
 does not appear in the English Clergy List, and 
 yet, as he has never lived in America, I cannot 
 understand how he can be in American orders. 
 The following interesting account of this assist- 
 ant was given me by a clergyman, who vouches 
 for its truth. It appears that this Englishman 
 came to Paris as a tutor, and having a voice 
 he sought an engagement as choir-singer, which 
 he obtained in the American church. He was, 
 
 43 
 
AMEBIGANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 however, soon promoted to the position of 
 reader, an office he discharged with great satis- 
 faction to the rector, and the congregation as 
 well. But how he has been transformed into a 
 "priest," as he calls himself, is the curious 
 thing. He was not ordained in Paris ; he was 
 not ordained in England. As he has never had 
 a residence in America, how could he receive 
 his ordination there? These are questions 
 which are troubling the mind of my clerical in- 
 formant. Perhaps the rector and his vestry- 
 will arise and explain. Not that the general 
 public are much interested, but the American 
 clergy are. I have not the slightest doubt that 
 the ordination took place ; but how, and where, 
 and when, are the questions I am instructed to 
 ask on behalf of the canons and constitution of 
 the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United 
 States of America. 
 
 Let the rector have an English assistant, by 
 all means, and one to his own liking, but not one 
 of his own making ! So say the American clergy, 
 or, at least, so says one of them. 
 
 Before this English assistant came to stay, a 
 number of American, English, and even Scotch 
 parsons came and went, and sometimes in rath- 
 er quick succession. One or two of these gen- 
 
 44 
 
THE AMERICAN CHUROH IN PARIS. 
 
 tlemen were good preachers, which the rector 
 unfortunately is not, and one may thus account 
 for their short stay. But the worst of the thing- 
 is that they have all, or nearly all, had some 
 trouble or other with the rector, and not one 
 word of praise will they bestow upon this man 
 of God. 
 
 For some years the church I am referring to 
 was a friend and supporter of Pere Hyacinthe 
 and the "Galilean," or Old Catholic, church. 
 But this is all changed now, and the good pere 
 and his work get no help, but a great deal of 
 hinderance, from his quondam ally. 
 
 There are a few people in the church I am 
 speaking of who are still friendly to the Old 
 Catholic movement, and the rector, so the gos- 
 sips say, makes these innocent souls believe 
 that he would like to help the cause, but that 
 his vestry oppose it, and that he is compelled 
 in the interests of peace and harmony to with- 
 draw his official and public support. Now, the 
 vestry, or at least some members of that body, 
 tell an equally pretty though a somewhat differ- 
 ent story. 
 
 There is also a gray -bearded Scotch clergy- 
 man — a chieftain, I believe — ^who was once the 
 assistant-minister of the church and who has 
 
 45 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 the prettiest of all stories to tell. It is, in brief, 
 something like the following. This Scotch 
 clergyman was for several years the chaplain 
 of the English church in the Eue Marboeuf. 
 The lot upon which his church once stood was 
 required by the municipal authorities and the 
 building was taken down. The reverend rec- 
 tor and his flock were thus without a place of 
 worship. It was resolved at once to erect an- 
 other church building, and, in the meantime, 
 the chaplain was persuaded to unite with the 
 American church in a joint service. This union 
 was maintained for two or three years, when the 
 Scotch clergyman was induced — so he says — by 
 the rector and vestry of the American church 
 to go to America on a mission in behalf of Pere 
 Hyacinthe and the Old Catholic church, the 
 rector and vestry promising — so the story goes 
 — to provide one thousand dollars toward the 
 expenses of his journey. He went to America, 
 where he remained for two years, doing what he 
 could to collect money for the object of his mis- 
 sion. He received no compensation for his ser- 
 vices, and all his expenses were paid out of his 
 own pocket. He did not get — so he affirms — 
 the money pledged him by the rector and ves- 
 try of the American church in Paris. He wrote 
 
 46 
 
THE AMERIGAN GHURGH IN PARIS. 
 
 frequently reminding them of their promise, and 
 on his return to Paris made a formal demand 
 for one thousand dollars from the rector and 
 vestry, and they as formally denied his claim. 
 Now, the Scotch chieftain has the fighting blood 
 of the Highlander in his veins, and I shall not 
 wonder if we hear something more about this 
 matter. In the meantime, the attitude of the 
 American church, its rector and vestry, toward 
 the Old Catholic church needs some explana- 
 tion. 
 
 The American church in the rue de Berri is 
 very American, too American in fact, in some 
 respects, as it has introduced in gay and giddy 
 Paris methods and customs suited only to the 
 innocent village life of the United States. The 
 American Sunday-school system does not appear 
 to me to be perfectly adapted to Parisian life and 
 character. Its chief value in America is the 
 opportunity it offers for innocent love-making, 
 from which little or no harm ever results. In 
 many villages and towns in the United States 
 the Sunday-school is almost the only place 
 where the boys and girls, the young men and 
 young women, have a chance to meet and amuse 
 one another, and young people are never thrown 
 together in that promiscuous way without more 
 
 47 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 or less love-making going on. Many an Ameri- 
 can husband and wife met for the first time in 
 the Sunday-school room as teacher and pupil. 
 Of course there are many Sunday-school flirta- 
 tions which do not result in matrimony. I 
 myself remember one in particular — but the 
 number of those which do is quite sufficient to 
 justify the existence of this distinctly Ameri- 
 can institution. But it cannot be transplanted 
 into the impure atmosphere of the Old World, 
 and especially into the peculiar atmosphere of 
 Paris, without great risk. 
 
 It is all very well for the Sunday-school teach- 
 er, somewhere in Western New York or Ohio, 
 to make love to the prettiest girl in his class. 
 He is probably a young doctor, or a lawyer, or 
 a dry-goods clerk, whose habits are well known 
 to everybody. He means no harm and could 
 do no harm if he did mean it. But it is a very 
 different thing for painters and sculptors in 
 Paris to make love to their pretty pupils, as has 
 sometimes been done, so I hear. They are all 
 Americans, to be sure, but the American artist 
 or art student in Paris is a very different person 
 from the American village doctor, or lawyer, or 
 schoolmaster, or clerk, or farmer. 
 
 I think, therefore, that upon the whole it is 
 
 48 
 
THE AMERICAN CHURCH IN PARIS. 
 
 just as well for American sculptors and paint- 
 , ers to stick to their professions, and not to as- 
 sume the role of Sunday-school or any other 
 kind of biblical or religious teacher in Paris ; 
 especially so if their studios should not hap- 
 pen to have the reputation of being the whole- 
 somest and purest places on earth. 
 
 And now that I am upon this subject I would 
 take the liberty of advising American mothers 
 with pretty daughters in their teens — or out of 
 them, for the matter of that — to attend to their 
 Bible instruction at home, and never by any 
 chance to send them to the American Sunday- 
 school in Paris. These suggestions are found- 
 ed upon some knowledge of human nature, as 
 well as upon special observation, and they are 
 offered to parents and pastors gratuitously, and 
 from the most disinterested motives. 
 
 49 
 
vn. 
 
 AMEEICAN AETISTS IN PAEIS. 
 
 A SENSUAL ATMOSPHERE; GOOD PAINTING; POOR 
 SCULPTURE. 
 
 Someone has said that if a young' man 
 spends his days in gloating- over nude models, 
 and his nights in carousing with them, he is 
 called an art student in Paris. It may not be 
 quite so bad as that, but I am not in a position 
 to make a flat denial of this statement. Paris is 
 undoubtedly a good place to study the science 
 of the Fine Arts — that is, the technique — but it 
 is not a good place to practise it, unless a man 
 be happily married. Let Americans get what 
 they can out of the art treasures and training 
 of the Old World, but when they have got 
 these things let them go home and use the 
 knowledge and the training to some real artis- 
 tic purpose. If they can't do this, they are not, 
 and never could be, artists. 
 
 The real artist must have a mind and thought 
 
 50 
 
AMERICAN ARTISTS IN PARIS, 
 
 of his own, and liis native soil is always tlie 
 best place for him to do his work. But, and if 
 the so-called artist has no mind or thought of 
 his own he had better stop in the Old World, 
 for it is much the best place for copyists and 
 imitators of all kinds. Of course there are 
 some extenuating" circumstances which one 
 should consider in passing judgment upon 
 American artists in Europe. First of all, it is 
 much cheaper living in Europe, which is no 
 trifling matter to many artists just beginning 
 their profession. But if there is ever to be an 
 American master, in the fullest and widest sense, 
 he will have to do his work on American soil, 
 and under the influences of the New-World 
 thought and feeling and aspiration, and not in 
 the wholly sensual atmosphere of Paris, or in 
 the graveyards of Eome. 
 
 There are some very able American painters 
 in Paris. This was clearly shown by the Ameri- 
 can Art display at the Universal Exhibition. 
 The average quality of the American work was 
 surprisingly high, next in value, so it was 
 thought by many, to the French. And there 
 were two or three American painters who actu- 
 ally excelled all others in some features of their 
 art. 
 
 51 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE, 
 
 The American exhibit was very weak in sculp- 
 ture — ^in fact, the whole world is growing weak 
 in sculpture, and must continue to grow weak in 
 sculpture, until sculptors return to the old and 
 honest way of being what their name implies — 
 or should imply — a carver in stone, etc. They 
 are at present simply modellers in clay. Few 
 of them ever use a chisel, nor can they use a 
 chisel. 
 
 There is but one American sculptor in Europe, 
 so far as I know, who actually " sculpts " his own 
 work. I have heard that there is an American 
 in Paris who gives out that he always finishes 
 his own marbles. I have made careful examina- 
 tion of this story, and am sorry to say that I am 
 not prepared to vouch for its truthfulness. 
 That he has unfinished work in his studio is 
 true; true it is, also, that he has the tools of the 
 " sculptor's art '* on exhibition ; but as to his 
 using these tools with his own hands on works 
 of art in any serious way I will not affirm. 
 
 There are perhaps a dozen well-known 
 American painters in Paris — ^too well known, in 
 fact, to add to the novelty or interest of these 
 
 pages. Mr. B was for several years the 
 
 acknowledged head and front of American art 
 in Paris. But he has at last fallen from his 
 
 52 
 
AMERICAN ARTISTS IN PARIS. 
 
 high estate ; or, to speak more correctly, others 
 have surpassed him, and at present the leader- 
 ship cannot be awarded to anybody without a 
 very close examination of comparative merits, 
 which I am not prepared to make. If Mr. Sar- 
 gent were still in Paris, the position would prob- 
 ably be conceded to him by his fellow paint- 
 ers. 
 
 53 
 
YIII. 
 THE AMEEICAN GIEL IN PAKIS. 
 
 I AM fully aware ttiat the American Girl (God 
 bless her!) has furnished "copy" for many a 
 needy penman and penwoman, so that I can- 
 not hope to add novelty to her many other 
 charms. Still, I shall venture upon an observa- 
 tion or two, for it would be an unpardonable 
 offence to write about "Americans in Europe" 
 with the American Girl left out. 
 
 I was about to say something concerning* the 
 play of Hamlet, with Hamlet left out, but it is 
 just as well to give old and faithful servants a 
 rest now and then. Besides, I think European 
 penmen should be allowed a full copyright on 
 all these old and trite sayings, for without them 
 they would be almost destitiite. 
 
 I well remember the first large morning {i.e., 
 afternoon) reception I attended after my drive 
 with the Baronet. It was in the Avenue Mon- 
 
 54 
 
THE AMBBIGAJSr GIEL IN PARIS. 
 
 taigne. On entering the salon I was greeted 
 by my beautiful compatriots with a volley of 
 smiles, from black eyes and blue eyes, brown 
 eyes and gray eyes, for American women have 
 great variety of orbs. I say a volley of smiles, 
 and I think I use the word "volley" advisedly, 
 for my countrywomen fire their smiles point 
 blank at their victims. This is peculiar to them. 
 The French and Italian beauties shoot from 
 the corners of their eyes, and seemingly at no 
 definite mark. Not so the practical American. 
 Having once chosen her game, she takes good 
 aim and fires straight at him, and he knows it — 
 cannot help knowing it — and she seldom misses 
 the bull's-eye. Her English (elder) cousin does 
 not proceed either with the directness of her 
 American cousin, or the indirectness of her 
 Continental rivals. Her smile is ambiguous, 
 and generally misleading. It is sometimes hard 
 to tell whether it is subjective or objective; i.e., 
 whether it is intended for you or for some ideal 
 person within her maiden bosom. To say the 
 least, it is not so frank as the American, nor so 
 bantering as the Continental smile, and it is apt 
 to be rather lofty or patronizing. But then it 
 is always a well-bred smile — the best bred smile 
 in the world. But this apart. 
 
 55 
 
AMEBIGAN8 IN EUROPE, 
 
 After receiving' volley after volley with mod- 
 est bravery, and returning the attack with some 
 little show of sport and some slight execu- 
 tion, let me hope, I settled down in a still 
 corner with a quiet English girl, where a hand- 
 to-hand, as well as an eye-to-eye, encounter was 
 waged for the rest of the day. For, let me say, 
 in justice to our fair British cousin, that when 
 you once get past the outer battlements of her 
 cold reserve you will find the Albion beauty the 
 most sympathetic of all maidens. But you 
 must be quiet about it, very quiet, you know, if 
 you wish to tame the British girl. The Ameri- 
 can girl is very disappointing in this particular, 
 for she is the hardest of all to tame — it is, in 
 fact, quite impossible to subdue her wild spirit. 
 She tempts one in all sorts of ways in the pres- 
 ence of others, and seems the easiest possible 
 game, but, sad to say, when alone she is the 
 most unsympathetic of female mortals. But I 
 must say something about this, my first, recep- 
 tion, which may be taken as a typical "At 
 Home." 
 
 The first thing on the programme was a pi- 
 ano solo by a professional, then a recitation in 
 French by an American girl. Next a farce, acted 
 by two members of the Comedie Frangaise. 
 
 56 
 
THE AMERIGAN GIRL IN PARIS, 
 
 Then a well-known American lady — amateur — 
 sang. Some pupils of the principal singing* 
 teachers in Paris came next, and one of the 
 great masters of the violin journeyed all the 
 way from London for the special purpose of 
 playing at this "At Home." A great ex-star of 
 the operatic stage closed the programme, which 
 was excellent, much better, indeed, than nine- 
 tenths of the public concerts. 
 
 And now a word as to the personnel of this 
 reception. There were American Baronesses, 
 Countesses, and even a Princess. I saw here, 
 for the first time, the American Baroness whose 
 wretched daughter is now undergoing a life- 
 sentence for the murder of her husband. I met 
 this lady in many other salons in Paris, but 
 since her great sorrow and shame I have found 
 but one lady who ever knew her. Curious, is it 
 not? 
 
 Conspicuous at this reception were the mag- 
 nificently beautiful daughters of a late Amer- 
 ican banker in Paris. Why these remarkably 
 fine girls do not marry is one of the mysteries 
 of Paris. One thing is certain, they do not 
 want titled husbands, for, if they did, they have 
 the money to pay for them, and that down " on 
 the nail," if necessary. Altogether, I should say 
 
 57 
 
AMEBIGANS IJSf EUROPE. 
 
 they were of a mucli superior type to tlie title- 
 L.unting' American women. But these ladies 
 are young and rich and beautiful, and can well 
 afford to wait until the proper men — and let 
 us hope they may be Americans ! — shall turn 
 up.* 
 
 There were other pretty unmarried American 
 girls present, among them a blue-eyed damsel, 
 who is to be seen almost every day driving a 
 pretty pair of ponies in the Bois. I cannot 
 understand how this young lady has — thus far 
 — shielded her heart from the darts of the 
 Baby-boy. She, also, I hope, is not a title- 
 hunter. 
 
 There was another young lady at the recep- 
 tion worthy of notice. She was the daughter of 
 a distinguished American painter in Paris, 
 and the sister of another. This lady has since 
 married. Her father is a rich man and had a 
 large " dot " for his only daughter, but upon 
 the one condition that it was not to be given 
 in exchange for a titled husband. In fact, un- 
 der no conditions would this stern parent ac- 
 cept a titled son-in-law. His daughter married 
 
 * Since the above was written, one of these happy men 
 has turned up, and is — as I thought he would have to be — 
 an American author. 
 
 53 
 
THE AMEBIGAN GIRL IN PARIS. 
 
 a Protestant banker — a gentleman without a 
 title. May they live long- and prosper ! 
 
 There was also present at this " At Home " 
 the daughter of a very distinguished American 
 poet and her cousins. The French art-world 
 was represented by Carolus Duran, and the 
 American art circle by Mr. Stewart, Mr. Alex- 
 ander Harrison, and Mr. Dyer. The late English 
 chaplain of the D'Aguesseau Church, with his 
 wife and daughters, and some of his parish- 
 ioners, represented the English colony. There 
 was a slight sprinkling of French society 
 people, but very slight, for Americans have 
 hardly succeeded in getting into the real Pa- 
 risian social world. 
 
 A few Americans have married into the 
 Faubourg St. Germain circle, but they have 
 not the power, if they had the wish, to lift 
 any of their compatriots up to their exalted 
 sphere. But, the truth is, they have no such 
 wish. As soon as one American woman as- 
 cends a step above her associates, she looks 
 down upon them with lofty pride and superior- 
 ity, and would be the last person in the world 
 to give any of them " a hand up." 
 
 The practical, business-like way in which the 
 American woman in '* high life " destroys her 
 
 59 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 old friends, and magnifies and fortifies her 
 own position, is a very pretty thing to see — or 
 rather it isn't. The national smartness and 
 keenness of the American mind, which have 
 made it such a power in the business, political, 
 and intellectual world, do not appear to the 
 best advantage in social matters. They jar, in 
 fact, upon our social nerves. Society does not 
 take kindly to smart, aggressive people. It is 
 compelled sometimes to tolerate, and even to 
 pay court, to them ; but it never loves them, and 
 if they once fall, they fall like Lucifer, " never 
 to hope again." Witness the Tranby Croft 
 incident ! 
 
 A smart, pushing person in the social world 
 seems out of harmony with the eternal fitness 
 of things. Now your American Countess, or 
 Princess, or whatever her title may be, is the 
 most enterprising social character in the whole 
 world. She has absolutely no repose of mind 
 or manner. She is always " on the go " and, 
 like her father, the Wall Street broker, or the 
 railroad wrecker, she wears herself out in a few 
 years. Her enterprise is really a good thing, 
 but it is in the wrong place. It was intended 
 for the development of a new world, for the 
 pine forests of Maine, and the gold diggings 
 
 60 
 
THE AMERICAN GIRL IN PARIS. 
 
 of California ; but it does not look well when 
 confined to the limited domain of Old World 
 salons. 
 
 There are a number of American families, 
 and detached individuals — bachelors, widows, 
 and spinsters — living- in Paris upon one pre- 
 tence or another; some on account of their 
 health, some on account of their wealth — or 
 want of it — and others on account of American 
 courts of law. I am a little sceptical as to the 
 plea of health, but I know perfectly well that 
 the plea of money or a want of money is a 
 valid one. One can live well in Paris on an 
 income that would not pay house rent in New 
 York. Then, again, the social inducement is 
 a very substantial one to a great many peo- 
 ple, for there are people in society in Paris 
 who would be in prison in America. There 
 are, however, some Americans, I am glad to 
 say, who frankly *' own up " and confess that 
 pleasure is their sole pursuit — and Paris is cer- 
 tainly the place for pleasure. Now let me say 
 a few words about American students of Art 
 and of Music, of both genders, in Paris. 
 
 61 
 
IX. 
 
 AMEEICAN STUDENTS IN PAEIS. 
 
 THE HOERIBLE DANGEES TO WHICH THEY AEE EX- 
 POSED. 
 
 Out of tlie hundreds of American students 
 who come to Paris every year, a great number 
 succeed in getting* back to their homes only 
 through aid supplied from the Fund for Dis- 
 tressed Americans, while many become, if not 
 objects of charity, objects of shame. The sad 
 story of the seduction and utter ruin of a 
 young American girl — an Art student — by one 
 of the well-known American painters in Paris, 
 is of too recent date to require any further ref- 
 erence. I may observe, however, that this man 
 — a married man — is still flourishing in Paris, 
 enjoying the fellowship of his brother artists, 
 while his poor victim has been sent back to her 
 heartbroken parents in the Far "West, in hope- 
 less sorrow and shame. 
 
 The fact is, that Americans and Englishmen 
 
 62 
 
AMERICAN STUDENTS IN PARIS. 
 
 in Paris are very much more given to that sort 
 of thing- than the average Frenchman. For the 
 Frenchman seldom deserts the woman he 
 wrongs, and it is never in his power to lead 
 astray a girl of respectable parentage. She is 
 too carefully guarded for such a thing ever to 
 occur. American and English girls do not 
 have the protection at home which French girls 
 have, and how, in the nature of things, can they 
 have it in Paris ? They are sent to some French 
 family, or pension ; to the care of some English 
 or American lady residing in her own apartment, 
 etc., etc., all of which simply signifies nothing 
 at all, so far as any real protection goes. 
 
 These girls are allowed to go out, at first in 
 twos and threes, but it is not long before they 
 are granted the liberty of walking out alone, 
 and soon, very soon, they have made the 
 chance acquaintance of a half dozen or more 
 of their male compatriots, who make it their 
 manly business to hunt down their pretty girl 
 compatriots. 
 
 More than this. These "French families" 
 and " English and American ladies " have been 
 known to help on these chance meetings, when 
 the man happened to possess a long purse and 
 showed a liberal hand. Once in a while the 
 
 63 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 public is startled by some such revelations as 
 the one I have mentioned ; and more recently 
 that of a well-known naval officer, who is also 
 an M.P., and heir to a baronetcy. But the 
 great majority of such cases never come to the 
 daylight, or are quietly hushed up, and the 
 victim disappears, while the betrayer is allowed 
 to go on the even tenor of his way. 
 
 But the demoralization of the male art- 
 student is even worse than the ruin of the girl 
 students. Many, perhaps the majority, of 
 these young men come froin pure and simple 
 homes and communities, where indecent fe- 
 males and nude models are unknown, and the 
 first thing they behold on entering a Paris 
 studio is a sight which covers them with con- 
 fusion, and which they would be ashamed to 
 mention to their fathers and brothers at 
 home ; to say nothing of their mothers and 
 sisters. 
 
 Now and then there is a young man with an 
 artistic feeling strong enough to carry him 
 through the dirt and the reeking filth of Paris 
 studios, without much of it sticking to him. 
 Such cases, however, are very rare. The great 
 majority of these young men are debauched, 
 fatally debauched, in thought and feeling, and 
 
 64 
 
AMERIGAN STUDENT8 IN PARIS. 
 
 never become anything more than imitators 
 and copyists of the very worst features of the 
 French school — ^which is nothing if not " nat- 
 ural," i.e., sensual and vulgar. 
 
 But I have a further observation to make in 
 regard to the " American Girl " who comes to 
 Paris to study music, for she, to my mind, is 
 the most pitiable object of them all. She is 
 often sent to Paris with money subscribed by 
 her neighbors and admirers, who think that she 
 certainly will become nothing less than a Patti. 
 Every American town has at least one girl who 
 gives some such promise of greatness on the 
 operatic stage or with the violin. I have seen 
 many of them on their arrival in Paris. They 
 are generally pretty, with a fresh natural voice 
 and manner, which are always charming. The 
 next time you see them, they tell you, with a 
 knowing air, that their teacher has forbidden 
 them to sing. A year or two passes before you 
 meet them again, and when you do, what a 
 change ! The freshness and naturalness both 
 of voice and manner are gone, never to return ; 
 and with them have departed all that was 
 pleasing; and you have instead something 
 they call *' method," which means something 
 very artificial and something very unmusical. 
 
 65 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 Now and then one of these girls preserves 
 her voice and becomes a good singer, in spite 
 of teachers and their " methods." But the 
 great majority succumb to the method and the 
 abuse of their teacher, and pass from the pub- 
 lic stage. The teachers will keep them just as 
 long as their money holds out ; but when that 
 is gone they suddenly discover that these girls 
 never had any voices, and it was quite impossi- 
 ble to make anything out of them. Not unfre- 
 quently they receive the most brutal treatment 
 at the hands of these teachers. I had the fol- 
 lowing story from a good and creditable source. 
 A young girl whose money was all spent went 
 to her teacher and said she could take no more 
 lessons. On giving her reasons, the teacher — a 
 woman — ^responded, *'You have a pretty face 
 and I see no reason why you should not have 
 all the money you require. Eich men are 
 plentiful in Paris." 
 
 On another occasion this same teacher told 
 one of her pupils — whose money was also gone 
 — that she would never make a singer, and the 
 best thing for her to do was to marry. " There 
 is a little chemist down there," said she, point- 
 ing across the street, " he has money and wants 
 a wife — or something — and I would advise you 
 
 66 
 
AMERICAN STUDENTS IN PARIS, 
 
 to make his acquaintance." One of these 
 teachers is growing rich upon her American 
 pupils. How much longer, I wonder, will 
 Americans continue to lay their dollars at the 
 feet of such creatures % 
 
 67 
 
X. 
 
 PEOTESTANT MISSIONS IN PABIS 
 
 AS CENTEES OF IMMOBALITY. 
 
 Theee has been a great deal of money given 
 in England and America for the support of a 
 certain well-known Protestant mission in Paris. 
 I have no doubt that many persons connected 
 with the administration of this mission act 
 from the very best motives. But I also know 
 that many of the people in charge of these 
 mission-stations are there for money, and are 
 wholly unworthy the support of Christian — 
 or any other — charity. These missions them- 
 selves are often, as I have good reason for 
 knowing, centres of immorality — in spite of the 
 good intentions of their promoters. 
 
 Night meetings in Paris, of such a free and 
 miscellaneous character, can never result in 
 good. I have heard of a number of cases of 
 working girls — French and English — who 
 meet their seducers at these meetings. And 
 
PROTESTANT MISSIONS IN PARIS. 
 
 some of these men have been their religious 
 teachers. These leaders at the night meetings 
 are not infrequently artists, who give their ser- 
 vices free of charge. 
 
 There is another institution not far from the 
 Arc de Triomphe, concerning which I should 
 like to say a few plain words, but as the 
 superintendent of this " Home " is now the 
 wife of a colonial bishop I shall forbear, hop- 
 ing that things may improve in many ways. 
 
 69 
 
XI. 
 
 AMEEICANS IN LONDON. 
 
 JOHN BULL TAKES THEM TO HIS BOSOM — FOE A 
 PERMANENCY. 
 
 Whilst Americans liave always been popular 
 in Paris, they have but recently — ^.e., within 
 the last ten or twenty years — come into vogue 
 in London. John Bull is not only the most 
 conservative individual in Europe, he is also 
 the most prejudiced. "Prejudice" and "con- 
 servatism," I am aware, are equivalent terms, 
 differing only in a very slight grammatical 
 sense. But the word *' Conservative," whilst 
 it includes all that can be meant by *' Preju- 
 dice," has perhaps a keener and more intense 
 signification. John Bull looks at but one side 
 of any question, old or new, until he is obliged 
 to look at the other. This is his conservative 
 character, his passive character, for the true 
 nature of the conservative principle is to ren- 
 der its victim passive and indifferent to what is 
 
 70 
 
AMERICAN'S IN LONDON, 
 
 going on in the world about him, so that his 
 personal quiet is not disturbed. 
 
 John Bull sits in his comfortable corner, 
 with his pipe and his mug, smoking and guz- 
 zling and dozing over his party paper, and the 
 only things that can arouse him is a cry of fire, 
 or a flood, or an earthquake. Now, fortunately 
 for John, there have been several such disturb- 
 ances in the commercial, social, and political 
 life of England during the last twenty-five 
 years. The truth is, John Bull's after-dinner 
 nap has been frequently disturbed of late. He 
 has been driven out of his corner and his arm- 
 chair, that is, out of his purely passive or con- 
 servative mood, more than once of late, and has 
 been compelled to assume an active mood now 
 and then. 
 
 Now your conservative is always moved by 
 prejudice, when he is moved at all, so that a 
 conservative in action is always a man of blind 
 prejudice. I suppose Brother Jonathan has 
 done more to disturb the quiet after-dinner 
 slumbers of John Bull than any other person. 
 He is such a nervous, restless, never- quiet sort 
 of individual, is Brother Jonathan. This activ- 
 ity is seen in all his ways, from the smallest to 
 the greatest. If he drinks or smokes — but the 
 
 71 
 
AMEBIGANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 truth is he indulges less in these forms of ex- 
 citement than any other Anglo-Saxon charac- 
 ter — I say, if he drinks or smokes at all, he 
 does it "on the go " — never sitting and dozing. 
 
 When John Bull does not take his '' toddy " 
 at his own fireside, he spends two or three 
 hours in the public-house over a '* twopenny 
 worth of half-and-half." Brother Jonathan 
 enters the American saloon, asks for a whiskey 
 or brandy straight (neat), tosses it off at one 
 swallow, throws a glass of ice- water after it, 
 rings down his quarter of a dollar on the 
 counter, and is gone like a shot. 
 
 John Bull looks on at such an extraordinary 
 performance with amazement and disgust. 
 But the worst of it is (for John Bull) the 
 Yankee carries this quick, restless movement 
 into everything commercial, political, and in- 
 tellectual ; and in order to keep up with him, 
 or somewhere near him, John Bull's after-din- 
 ner nap has had to be given up more than 
 once. He refused for a long time to have 
 this " Yankee " interfere with his slumbers, 
 and swore and kicked out at intervals in his 
 broken dreams with all the vigor of his deep 
 chest and stout legs. But it was all to no pur- 
 pose, for he could not sleep, and whenever he 
 
 72 
 
AMERICANS IN LONDON. 
 
 opened his heavy eyes, the tall, slight figure of 
 Brother Jonathan flitted before him like a 
 spectre, and the sharp, high-pitched, twanging 
 Puritanical tones of the Yankee voice sounded 
 unceasingly in the dull ears of the sleeper. 
 
 The American Civil War gave " John " a few 
 years of comparative peace and quiet, and he 
 hoped, did honest John in his heart of hearts, 
 that it was "all up " with this universal disturb- 
 er of his peace. But John was not wide-awake 
 enough to read correctly the signs of the times. 
 He made, in fact, one of those miscalculations 
 which are rare with him to be sure, but which 
 are very awkward when they do occur. The 
 Yankee nation did not go to pieces as " John 
 Bull " believed and fondly hoped it would. 
 On the contrary, it came out of its awful bap- 
 tism of blood stronger and steadier, with a 
 sober-mindedness, a seriousness of character, 
 which it had not before possessed, and which 
 was very much needed. And now with these 
 very dearly bought national qualities the Ee- 
 public of the United States of America has 
 come to stay, and must be reckoned with every- 
 where and at all times by the nations of the 
 world. 
 
 John Bull has at last waked up and sees this 
 
 73 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE, 
 
 clearly, and wlien lie does clearly see that a 
 thing is inevitable there is no further need of 
 exhortation ; he accepts it, adds it to his creed, 
 and acts upon it. The American ]pill was a 
 bitter, a very bitter one, for him to swallow, 
 fond as he is of pills. But John has swallowed 
 it at last, and there is the end of the matter. 
 
 Of course, it was never a very difficult thing 
 for him to swallow the American sugar-coated 
 female pellet. But now her father and brother, 
 and all the other male members of the family, 
 are taken down without a single wry face. And 
 thus it is that Americans have, by slow but 
 sure approaches, come to be almost as much 
 the vogue in London as the English are in New 
 York or Boston. John Bull is not fickle, and 
 London will continue to cultivate her trans- 
 atlantic kinsfolk of both sexes for centuries yet 
 to come. The most conspicuous American in 
 London is 
 
 A LADY WITHOUT A TITLE. 
 
 This lady was born and brought up in Bos- 
 ton, and from the age of sixteen, or thereabouts, 
 was subjected to the envious gossip of Boston's 
 very intellectual, though, truth to say, plain 
 
 74 
 
AMERICANS IN LONDON. 
 
 motliers and daughters. These Emersonian 
 females believed that there is no such thing as 
 beauty — save of the mind — and they could not 
 understand how this young lady, with her very 
 objectionable manners, could be countenanced 
 by nice people. In other and perhaps plainer 
 words, the strong minded " blue -stockings " 
 of Boston, who scorned all physical charms, 
 would not tolerate without protest the pop- 
 ularity of a very pretty and a marvellously 
 gifted young lady, who thought more of dress- 
 ing and dancing and flirting than she did of 
 Emerson or of Brook Farm or Bunker Hill 
 monument. So this young lady, with no lack 
 of brains, but with keen enjoyment of her flesh 
 and blood, was talked about by her bloodless 
 and fleshless townswomen. 
 
 But these mentors, or rather mentoresses, 
 were put to silence one fine day when one of 
 the grand dames of the " Hub," a lady of the 
 highest social rank, took this frivolous beau- 
 ty with her to Saratoga for a season. " How 
 
 could Mrs. O do such a thing," was all they 
 
 dared to whisper. Having once left Boston 
 and its cant, it was but natural that this young 
 lady should have no burning desire to return 
 to this intellectual centre of the universe; to 
 
 75 
 
AMEBI0AN8 IN EUROPE. 
 
 Parker, and Wendell Pliillips, and Mrs. Julia 
 "Ward Howe ; to bacon and beans ; to brown 
 bread and cod-fish balls; to plain living and 
 high, thinking. 
 
 This very pretty girl (who had, by the way, 
 more brains under her bonnet than any half 
 dozen of her strong-minded critics) further 
 outraged Boston culture by giving herself in 
 marriage to a New Yorker. Since that event, 
 no Bostonian could possibly speak well of this 
 lady, and the truth is they do not try to do so. 
 She was not long in Gotham without being 
 known. Soon after her arrival in America's 
 richest and most vulgar city, she gave a party 
 
 to the Marquis of H , who is now one of 
 
 England's greatest Dukes. At this party the 
 hostess created a sensation in the social world 
 by wearing a coronet of gas. 
 
 The noble marquis also created a sensation, 
 not only by the noble coronet he wore, but es- 
 pecially on account of a certain peculiar dec- 
 oration he wore in his buttonhole. It was 
 during the American War, and the Northern 
 sympathizers with the rebellion were called 
 " Butter-nuts," — I have not the slightest notion 
 why, but so it was. These sympathizers with 
 rebellion accepted this epithet, gloried in it, so 
 
 76 
 
AMERICANS IN LONDON 
 
 it seems, and had a scarf-pin made out of the 
 hull of this nut. 
 
 At this great party some fascinating" woman 
 — the hostess, I have little doubt — presented 
 the young and innocent English nobleman 
 with one of these badges of treason, which he 
 — innocent soul ! — wore in his buttonhole dur- 
 ing the evening. The American daily paper 
 was equal to the occasion, as it is to most occa- 
 sions, and this new lady's party and the great 
 nobleman's name were grappled together with 
 hooks of steel ever after. Was this gifted lady 
 a Southern sympathizer ? Not a bit of ifc. She 
 simply had the happy knack of turning all 
 things to her own social account. There was 
 no question of her social pre-eminence in New 
 York after the papers had finished discussing 
 her party and the butter-nut nobleman. 
 
 But American society is not quite suited to 
 a woman of this type. It is not centralized 
 enough ; it is broken up into too many circles 
 to give proper range to a woman of this calibre. 
 New York, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia, 
 Baltimore — and even Chicago — have their own 
 social world ; and no one lady can hope to 
 reign supreme in all, or indeed in more than 
 one, of these cities. Local prejudice and 
 
 77 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE, 
 
 democratic principles are very strong in eacli 
 one of these great centres, and the chief social 
 honors are always given to native talent. 
 
 The social rewards in America are not there- 
 fore sufficient to induce a lady of supreme abil- 
 ity to enter into the contest, or at least con- 
 tinue in it very long. Paris is France, London 
 is England, Yienna is Austria, Berlin is Ger- 
 many, St. Petersburg is Eussia, but New York 
 is not America. European society, like Euro- 
 pean politics, is centralized. This Boston girl 
 took in the situation, and it was not long be- 
 fore she turned her face toward Europe. 
 
 Paris was at that time the paradise of Ameri- 
 cans living, as it is now said to be of Ameri- 
 cans dead. To Paris this lady journeyed fresh 
 from her New York triumphs. But she en- 
 tered the "lists" at the French capital with- 
 out any of the advantages of her transatlantic 
 victories. The truth is, she entered the social 
 race — the social Grand Prix, if you please — 
 very heavily handicapped, and won her first 
 race under anything but favorable conditions. 
 She attended a masked ball at the "Tuileries" 
 and captured Napoleon III., as Miss Patterson 
 had captured his uncle Jerome, in one evening, 
 and that too without the aid of her face. 
 
 78 
 
AMERICANS IN LONDON. 
 
 It was in the character of "Punchinello" 
 that she appeared at the royal ball. The Em- 
 peror had no idea as to her identity, but sus- 
 pected her nationality and was determined to 
 know her. At the Imperial reception which 
 followed the ball, Napoleon was observed to 
 toy carelessly with a miniature bell. Lady 
 after lady was presented to the Emperor and 
 Empress when suddenly the Emperor bowed 
 low and offered the toy-bell to an American 
 lady saying", " This is your property, is it not, 
 madame % " Our Boston girl blushed becom- 
 ingly, admitted the soft impeachment, and 
 from that time she had the Emperor of the 
 French securely on her list. It is hardly nec- 
 essary for me to explain that the Emperor had 
 roguishly purloined this little trophy from the 
 costume of Punchinello on the night of the ball. 
 From Paris this lady moved onward and up- 
 ward, to London. I say upward, for several 
 good and sufficient reasons. I must first ad- 
 mit, however, that the brilliancy of the French 
 court at the height of Napoleon III.'s reign 
 surpassed, incomparably, that of any other Eu- 
 ropean capital ; while the English court — if court 
 it might be called — was the dullest of all the 
 great Powers. But— and it is these "buts" 
 
 79 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 after all that determine the relative value of 
 things — a woman may be very prominent, very 
 conspicuous, in official social circles in Paris, 
 without having any real power or influence. 
 For there are women in the great world of 
 Paris who are not and never can be of the great 
 world of Paris. 
 
 Certain things are taken for granted- as the 
 price paid by all women who become very con- 
 spicuous, in any way whatsoever, in Paris. In 
 Prance these official granddames are never the 
 subjects of gossip, for the simple reason that 
 their elevation is supposed to tell its own story 
 to anyone and everyone ; and what everybody 
 knows, or think they know, can never be an 
 interesting subject of gossip. Our Boston girl 
 had lived long enough in New England to have 
 her wits thoroughly about her. If she did not 
 know much or care much for the '* over-soul," 
 she knew enough not to overdo her part ; and 
 she soon saw that to hold her place in Paris, 
 and at the French court, was to lose what Cas- 
 sio prized above everything else — reputation. 
 She was not disposed to part with that com- 
 modity ; so she turned away from the intoxica- 
 tions of Parisian life, to the more sober atmos- 
 phere of London. 
 
 80 
 
AMERIGAN8 IN LOWDON. 
 
 Now, say what you will of John Bull's cant, 
 of his Sundaj'^s and psalm-singing, in spite of 
 these things he is at bottom — what Dr. John- 
 son said of someone, to the great amusement 
 of Hannah More — an honest and truly relig- 
 ious person ; and will not give the light of his 
 rather heavy countenance for long to women 
 who do not lead honest and respectable lives — 
 or, at least, who do not have the reputation of 
 leading honest and respectable lives. 
 
 Our heroine knew this peculiarity of the 
 British nation and did not stop too long in 
 Paris, but just long enough ; and then she 
 folded her tent, and, like the Arab, silently 
 stole away, to London town. She was not 
 wholly unknown in London, for, as we know, 
 she had once upon a time given a party in New 
 York to a distinguished British nobleman, heir 
 to one of the greatest dukedoms in England. 
 She had also met another Englishman — of 
 foreign extraction — Albert Edward, Prince of 
 "Wales. She had met this very august person- 
 age first in America in 1861 and afterward in 
 Paris, and, of course, had him securely on her 
 list. She thus entered the British capital and 
 began her career in London under the most 
 powerful patronage ; and she has never lost it. 
 
 81 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE, 
 
 For more tlian twenty years the Boston lady 
 without a title has been the most conspicuous 
 American woman in London. Many have been 
 the efforts to supplant her ; to weaken her in- 
 fluence; to destroy her commanding position 
 in the social world of London ; but these efforts 
 have thus far proved vain and impotent. At 
 first, almost every American girl who has hap- 
 pened to capture an English title makes a bold 
 effort to get on without knowing this Ameri- 
 can lady without a title — tries, in plain words, 
 to snub this lady ; but it doesn't pay ; and my 
 new lady comes round at last and eats some- 
 thing very like humble pie from this lady's 
 table. 
 
 I would therefore advise all newly crowned 
 American girls to make terms at once and at 
 any cost with this uncrowned queen of Ameri- 
 cans in London society. If they do not, they 
 will rue it ; mind my word! This lady is one 
 of the most accomplished women in either hem- 
 isphere. She sings well enough to have made 
 a great career on the operatic stage ; and she 
 plays as well as she sings. Add to these 
 accomplishments beauty, wit, and grace, and 
 you have the most powerful social force con- 
 ceivable. 
 
AMERICANS IN LONDON. 
 
 Unfortunately for me, I have heard this lady 
 sing but once ; and that, strange to relate, was 
 at a fashionable wedding at St. George's, Han- 
 over Square. We had been seated in the 
 church for some time after the appointed hour 
 for the marriage ceremony when the organ 
 sounded out the notes of the " Lost Chord," and, 
 to my amazement, instead of a wedding march, 
 we had this beautiful song arranged by Sir Ar- 
 thur Sullivan sung by a lady in a way I had 
 never heard it sung before nor since. The im- 
 provised singer proved to be the subject of our 
 sketch. 
 
 I afterward learned that a telegram had 
 been received which stated that the train carry- 
 ing some of the bridal party had been delayed, 
 and this lady held the wedding-guests with the 
 charm of her voice until the bridegroom ap- 
 peared. I do not believe there is another 
 woman within the United Kingdom of Great 
 Britain, Scotland, and Ireland, who would have, 
 or could have, dared to do such an extraor- 
 dinary thing. 
 
 Speaking of the " Lost Chord " and its au- 
 thor, reminds me that the musical knight is not 
 the least of this lady's admirers. He is accused 
 of being rather fickle in his worship of the fair 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE, 
 
 sex in general ; but as regards this lady in par- 
 ticular he is faithfulness itself in his admira- 
 tion, and she, I am told, prizes his devotion far 
 above her most notable triumphs. 
 
 There are numbers of American women in 
 London who have succeeded in capturing, or 
 buying, titles of various degrees, from a hum- 
 ble knight to a duke; but they lose interest 
 the moment they give up their simple American 
 character for an old-world mask of any descrip- 
 tion whatsoever. These titles cannot be any- 
 thing but masks, however skilfully or gracefully 
 they may be worn. 
 
 I am perfectly certain I can go into a draw- 
 ing-room or salon full of My Ladies, Countesses, 
 and Princesses, and pick out every American 
 woman at once ; and that before any of them 
 have spoken a word. The American woman is 
 «& always and everywhere acting a part ; she either 
 overdresses, or underdresses ; overacts, or un- 
 deracts her part ; she says too much, or too lit- 
 tle. You may know her also by what she leaves 
 unsaid, as well as by what she says ; by what she 
 does not, as well as by what she does, do. Thus 
 it is, that she is always under the cruel curse of 
 being obliged to reveal her national character, 
 and to declare herself a fraud. 
 
 84 
 
AMEItIGAN8 IN LONDON. 
 
 There is a certain very conspicuous Ameri- 
 can lady in London wlio married a lord, 
 the youngest son of a duke. She is very 
 beautiful, ver^ graceful, very gifted in every 
 way, and uncommonly popular, and deserves 
 to be. She wears the mask of nobility with 
 great art and distinction ; but there is no mis- 
 taking the fact that she was not to this manner 
 born; that she was to a very much better 
 manner born, I sincerely believe ; and I also 
 believe that this American would be a much 
 greater social force if she were not handi- 
 capped by " My Lady." 
 
 But London swarms with American ladies of 
 title, and I could not if I would — which, God 
 forbid ! — mention half of them ; for the truth is, 
 not one-fourth part of them is of any interest 
 to any mortal but to themselves. There are one 
 or two of the more recent Anglo-American 
 alliances, however, which call for some passing 
 notice. In one of these cases, there was, I am 
 happy to say, no money consideration on the 
 one hand, and no titular consideration on the 
 other. On the contrary, strange as it may seem, 
 the case I have in mind is that of an American 
 woman who without money captured, or rather 
 was caught by, an Englishman without a title. 
 
 85 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 The facts are interesting. The gentleman in 
 the case, a famous politician, went a-fishing 
 in the troubled international waters of England 
 and the United States and caught — well, if not 
 a satisfactory treaty, something much better — 
 a wife. He is, as I have said, without a title, 
 but his position is becoming more equivocal 
 every day as to this matter. That he is no 
 longer the powerful Kadical politician he once 
 was, or was thought to be, is now quite certain ; 
 and it is beginning to look very much as if he 
 were destined to be taken out of the company 
 of his equals into the society of his inferiors, 
 the House of Lords. How high he may be 
 forced to rise I know not, but I have little 
 doubt that he will some day attain the exalted 
 rank of "Lord Chamberlain." I acquit his 
 American wife, however, of all complicity in 
 the plot. 
 
 I must not forget to mention that a daughter 
 of Minister Motley married a man with a title, 
 although not much of a one ; and, barring this 
 slight titular disfigurement, her husband, Sir 
 William Yernon Harcourt, is, as an all-round 
 hand in Law, Literature, and Politics, the 
 cleverest man in England, — or anywhere else, 
 so far as I know. 
 
AMERIGAJSrS IN LONDON. 
 
 Concerning tlie rich American orphan who 
 threw her fortune and herself away upon one 
 of the blacksheep of the "Prince of Wales's 
 set," I have- little to say. That this baronet 
 and officer in Her Majesty's service — the rep- 
 resentative of one of the oldest families in 
 Scotland, and one of the most illustrious in 
 England — could have accepted, the day after 
 his conviction of having cheated and prevari- 
 cated, the sacrifice of a foolish and romantic 
 girl, is enough in itself to show to what depths 
 the so - called " nobility " of Great Britain has 
 sunk. 
 
 87 
 
xn. 
 
 THE AMEKICAN MINISTEK AT THE 
 COUKT OF ST. JAMES. 
 
 Many men, of many minds, have been sent, 
 first and last, to occupy this very honorable but 
 very useless post. Of these men New England 
 has had her share, perhaps more than her 
 share. This, the biggest and sweetest of all 
 the diplomatic plums, has fallen to her lot very 
 often. Everett, Bancroft, Adams — father and 
 son — Motley, Lowell, and Phelps are a few of 
 the New Englanders who have been sent by 
 the United States as Envoys-Extraordinary 
 and Ministers Plenipotentiary to the Court of 
 St. James. 
 
 With hardly a single exception, these New 
 Englanders have tried to play the game of 
 " Old England," and have been beaten hollow. 
 The first-mentioned gentleman was undoubt- 
 edly an accomplished scholar and orator, and, 
 when that is said, all the good is said that can 
 
 88 
 
THE AMERICAN MINISTER. 
 
 be said about this functionary. He it was who 
 began the toadyism to England and English 
 things which his successors have kept up so 
 well ever since. He is entitled — so I think — 
 to the distinction of being the first of a rather 
 lengthy line of New England snobs. Very 
 gentlemanly snobs, I grant you— very schol- 
 arly, refined, cultured snobs, it is true — but 
 snobs all the same, wanting, every man of 
 them, in that true dignity which attaches to 
 anyone and everyone who is an American citi- 
 zen, without explanation or apology, and who 
 will not pay court to empty pretence, to the 
 neglect of modest worth. 
 
 The would-be great men who carry the lofty 
 air of truculent apologists for their country are 
 infinitely inferior to any simple-minded honest- 
 hearted patriot, be he the humblest farmer or 
 artisan in any American community. 
 
 When the Civil War broke out, when men's 
 souls were tried as by fire, this ex-minister to 
 England could not make up his mind what to 
 do till it was too late to do anything. The 
 truth is, not one of these high-toned snobs 
 went into the war. No, they stayed in Boston 
 and criticized that first and greatest American, 
 Abraham Lincoln, one of the best and ablest 
 
 89 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 statesmen who has ever lived in any country or 
 at any period. 
 
 The second-named diplomat in my list was a 
 true Yankee — in one respect, but not in the best 
 respect. He always looked out for the main 
 chance. I do not think there is a politician of 
 this century who has thrived so well in office 
 as has this distinguished historian and diplo- 
 mat. He was always in office, and always in a 
 lucrative office. His retirement was voluntary, 
 but it was at a very advanced age, and after he 
 had acquired a very snug fortune — acquired in 
 an honest way, I have no doubt j but still while 
 in office. 
 
 The next minister on our list was the son of 
 one President and the grandson of another. I 
 have no special fault to find with this gentle- 
 man's conduct as our Minister to England dur- 
 ing the war. His services were respectable 
 enough, but by no means so brilliant as some 
 people would have us believe. It was after his 
 return to America from this post that he, too, 
 showed his narrow New England mind in not 
 being able to appreciate the character of Lin- 
 coln. This, in itself, is enough to damn 2jij 
 American. Still he and his presidential ances- 
 tors represent some of the best qualities of New 
 
 90 
 
THE AMEBIC AN MINISTER. 
 
 England life and character, which is now fast 
 degenerating into empty pretence on the one 
 hand, and snobbery on the other. 
 
 The Puritans were strong characters, and so 
 were many of their descendants — Emerson, for 
 example. But it has been a long time (except- 
 ing Emerson always) since any man of them 
 has done or said anything of first-rate impor- 
 tance. The war destroyed for ever the prestige 
 of New England. Since 1861 the guiding star 
 of the Eepublic has moved steadily westward, 
 and will move westward. Let the East study 
 the life and character of Lincoln, and the West 
 the life and writings of Emerson, and all will 
 go well with both sections — with all sections, 
 indeed — of the American Republic. These two 
 men are the true representative Americans of 
 this century. Their names stand for the typi- 
 cal national life and character of this country ; 
 they represent, under varying forms and cir- 
 cumstances, the New World with its new life, 
 its new hopes, and its new order and method 
 of saying and doing and living. 
 
 But these two great Americans, Lincoln and 
 Emerson, not only stand for the same national 
 life and thought : they also have a striking re- 
 semblance to each other in face and figure, and 
 
 91 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 in many purely personal traits ; and, if we mis- 
 take not, this has been seldom seen or re- 
 marked. In wit and humor, in originality, in 
 clearness of perception, in cheerfulness and 
 simplicity, these men constantly suggest one 
 another ; but especially are they alike — almost 
 identical, indeed — ^in their self-command, in 
 their splendid aplomb. 
 
 Neither of them could be hurried or bullied 
 into anything. They possessed a boundless 
 patience, which kept them cheerful under all 
 sorts of pressure, from within and without — 
 from friends as well as enemies. 
 
 Lincoln would not suffer the anti-slavery agi- 
 tators to force his hand in the slightest degree, 
 but took his own time, and when he was ready, 
 or, in fitter words, when he knew the nation 
 was ready, he issued his Emancipation procla- 
 mation, and when he did so the country was 
 prepared to act. 
 
 Emerson always held on to his own individu- 
 ality, and never suffered himself to be run away 
 with, either by anti-slavery or temperance socie- 
 ties or by Brook Farm lunatics. Lincoln stands 
 for the rough, honest, strong, good sense and 
 mental sanity of the West ; Emerson stands, in 
 the fullest and highest sense, for the sanity of 
 
TEE AMERICAN MINISTER. 
 
 the East. They were both radical, in the true 
 sense ; they both went to the root of the mat- 
 ter ; and neither of them could be diverted from 
 his purpose nor hurried on to his object by the 
 clamor and noise of impatient, albeit earnest, 
 agitators. 
 
 Lincoln is America's hero statesman ; Emer- 
 son is America's hero thinker and writer. Kead 
 and study and know these two American citi- 
 zens, ye people of Europe, and then you will 
 be able to form some judgment of the sim- 
 plicity and beauty, the strength and grandeur, 
 of the true, the genuine. New "World character. 
 And let me say that Americans w^ho do not 
 know and reverence and love these two men, 
 are not worthy their great inheritance, and 
 have no right to the noblest of all titles, that 
 of American citizen. 
 
 But my subject compels me to turn away 
 from great statesmen and great thinkers to 
 pseudo-diplomats and litUrateurs ; from Lincoln 
 and Emerson to the Motleys and the Lowells 
 and such, of whom America has always had 
 enough and to spare. I do not doubt, nor 
 would I underrate, the very high wit and su- 
 perior intellectual ability of these literary gen- 
 tlemen. They play the literary game with 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 great skill, witli marvellous cleyerness, and with 
 most uncommon success. They never say the 
 wrong- thing ; in fact, they always say the right 
 thing, and in the right form. They know their 
 business thoroughly well. They have studied 
 their craft, and their workmanship is well nigh 
 perfect in technique. We admire it, but that is 
 all ; we can never love it. 
 
 The *' Dutch Republic" is a most readable 
 book; it contains many apt and brilliant ob- 
 servations, with just enough philosophical pad- 
 ding to give it proper body and weight. It de- 
 serves to rank high as historical literature ; but 
 that is all. There is something wanting to 
 make it a truly great work — and that some- 
 thing is sincerity. One cannot feel that this 
 historical essay came from the heart of a sin- 
 cere Republican. The case for the Republic is 
 put remarkably well — too well I think — but it 
 is put by the hand of a European litterateur^ 
 and does not come from the heart of an Ameri- 
 can citizen. But let that pass, and with it all 
 offence. 
 
 ' Mr. Motley's remarkable literary success 
 was a great surprise to his Boston associates. 
 He was thought by his friends to have a very 
 handsome, but a rather empty, head. He did 
 
 94 
 
THE AMERIOAN MINISTER. 
 
 not belong to a literary family, nor was he a 
 member of the literary set, and wliat business 
 had he to write books? It is true, he had 
 taken his degree at Harvard and studied in 
 Germany ; but that was the usual thing for 
 Bostonians to do, and caused no remark. 
 
 When he made his first effort as an author 
 the literary Bostonians laughed and said, " the 
 idea of a Motley being intellectual ! " and even 
 after his very notable book appeared some of 
 his friends at the Hub had their suspicions 
 about his being the real author, and intimated 
 that as his wife belonged to a literary family 
 she probably wrote the history. But the new- 
 comer held his own with the best of his towns- 
 men, and now stands admittedly in the front 
 rank of American and English men of letters. 
 
 This distinguished writer was sent to Lon- 
 don as American minister soon after the 
 War, in which, by the way, he had taken no 
 part. Here was his great chance. Here he 
 had the opportunity of showing to England 
 and the Old World a sample of the true repub- 
 lican character, about which he had written so 
 eloquently. But no ; instead of taking advan- 
 tage of this chance to illustrate democratic 
 principles, he wasted his time in cultivating 
 
 95 
 
AMERIOANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 the English nobility and in apologizing for the 
 shortcomings of his Yulgar countrymen. 
 
 He had the air of one who would say, " I am 
 very sorry that I represent such a crude nation, 
 but, ' gentlemen of the Old World,' I am sure 
 you will understand and appreciate my awk- 
 ward position. I know, of course, you are all 
 right, and we are all wrong, but what am I to 
 do ? I must pretend, of course, to believe the 
 contrary, but you must not take me seriously." 
 And these European gentlemen did not take 
 him seriously, but indulged and humored him 
 to the top of his bent ; still, he was perhaps the 
 most conspicuous foreign resident in London, 
 and one of the most accomplished. His close 
 personal friendship with Prince Bismarck was 
 very creditable to him, in many ways, and added 
 enormously to his influence in London — ^but 
 not as American minister. 
 
 The fact is, Mr. Motley considered himself, 
 and was considered by Europeans, to be of 
 much more importance than his office. He 
 was courted by people of the highest rank and 
 reputation, and his receptions were the most 
 brilliant, perhaps, ever given in London. The 
 grand way in which he received his illustrious 
 guests and placed them at table — calling each 
 
THE AMERICAN MimSTER. 
 
 by his appropriate title, and seating each in 
 his or her proper place, and strictly according 
 to their relative ranks — was remarkable. This 
 was the sort of thing, then, that Mr. Motley 
 prized above all other duties and honors. 
 
 At heart, this American representative loved 
 always and best the European game ; and, now 
 that he had a fine chance to play it, he did so 
 in a very superb manner, and apparently with 
 great success — certainly with great distinction. 
 The few Americans who were permitted to 
 approach this exalted personage gave the most 
 glowing accounts of his splendor and glory. 
 
 He shone — so they said — above all other 
 diplomats, and above all ranks and titles, at the 
 Court of St. James. But his secret love would 
 out. In spite of his protestations, his affection 
 for his native land was doubted, and this bright 
 particular star suddenly set to rise no more. 
 It was a plain, blunt soldier who did it, and 
 the wail which went up from ''Americans in 
 Europe " was long and loud and piteous. 
 They said, " The idea of a man like Grant re- 
 moving a gentleman like Mr. Motley!" It 
 was nothing short of a national disgrace. 
 " That is the way with these ignorant and vul- 
 gar men who rule our country; if they do 
 
 97 
 
AMEMIGAN8 IN EUROPE, 
 
 happen to get a distingnislied gentleman like 
 Mr. Motley to take a European post, they will 
 not let him stay." 
 
 So remarked these Americans in Europe ; and 
 the coarseness of General Grant, and the low 
 political condition of the American nation, were 
 the general topics of discussion among these 
 patriots. 
 
 It seemed at first a very improper thing that 
 the author of an essay entitled " Condescension 
 in Foreigners " should be sent to represent the 
 American Republic at the British Court; for, 
 of all cultivated men of Boston, this gentleman 
 had been the most severe critic upon what he 
 called the bullying and patronizing airs of 
 John Bull and his family. 
 
 I expected to hear a protest raised in Eng- 
 land and America against the indelicacy — not 
 to use a stronger word — of such an appoint- 
 ment. But not a bit of it ; the English knew 
 their man much better than I knew him. They 
 knew also that literary men should seldom or 
 never be taken seriously — especially this man. 
 They remembered their own Dickens, their own 
 Bulwer Lytton, their own Buskin, and their own 
 Carlyle — writers who sometimes denounced be- 
 fore the public the things they loved in private. 
 
THE AMEBIGAN MINI8TEB. 
 
 They — the hard-headed, practical Britons — 
 remembered these things, and welcomed this 
 distinguished American man of letters as 
 American minister with the most unfeigned 
 cordiality. He was their man, and they knew 
 it, and their confidence was fully rewarded. 
 But had he not written, " I think we are cleaner, 
 morally and physically, than the English ? " Oh, 
 yes, but in a Pickwickian sense. 
 
 Had he not said, " Nothing is more hateful to 
 God and men than a second-rate Englishman % " 
 I admit that too, but there are no second-rate 
 Englishmen, except in a merely abstract sense. 
 But how is the following to be explained? 
 " Though there is no thoughtful man in Amer- 
 ica who would not consider a war with Eng- 
 land the greatest of calamities, yet the feeling 
 towards her here is very far from being cord- 
 ial, whatever our Minister may say in the effusion 
 which comes after ample dining T Was not this 
 something very like a threat % Well, yes, it 
 might perhaps be so considered if it came from 
 a coarse man like Lincoln or Grant ; but coming 
 as it did from a highly cultivated and refined 
 literary gentleman, it meant nothing but 
 "copy." Just so, all of the very witty, very 
 clever, and very humorous things this literary 
 
 99 
 
AMEBIGANS IN EUROPE, 
 
 statesman had written were well known in Lon- 
 don — much better known, I imagine, than in 
 America — and far better appreciated for their 
 true literary worth. That they had any serious 
 political meaning was never thought of for one 
 moment in Great Britain. 
 
 The new American minister was, therefore, 
 accepted for what he was — viz., a man of re- 
 markable literary ability. In that character it 
 was, and that character only, that Mr. Lowell 
 soon became one of the social lions of London. 
 No function or ceremonial was complete with- 
 out the American Minister. He was equally in 
 demand, and equally at home, in all circles; 
 and he was, I think, unanimously considered to 
 be the best after-dinner speaker in England. 
 
 But then he had taught us not to put too 
 much faith in what our " Minister may say in 
 the effusion which comes after ample dining." 
 The brilliant social success of Mr. Lowell re- 
 called to Americans in London the glories of 
 the Motley period, and they were happy once 
 more. The special happiness of a certain 
 American newspaper correspondent knew no 
 bounds, and the minister and the journalist 
 became the closest friends. 
 
 Mr. Lowell, like his fellow-townsman, Mr. 
 
 100 
 
THE AMEBIOAN MINISTER. 
 
 Motley, was mucli above his office, to say noth- 
 ing of his party. That he was a greater man 
 than the President of the United States, went 
 in London without saying. I remember once 
 asking him something about President Garfield ; 
 and I remember also his calm, dignified, supe- 
 rior air when he replied, " I have no personal 
 acquaintance with the gentleman." How much 
 these words expressed ! Of course, the Presi- 
 dent knew Mr. Lowell, else how could he have 
 placed him at such an important post ? That 
 Mr. Lowell should know the President was a 
 very different matter. 
 
 This great man condescended now and then 
 to be seen by his country-people visiting 
 Europe, but he gave them all to understand 
 that his mission was to the English Court and 
 the English aristocracy, and that he was not 
 to be annoyed by the American democracy. 
 He made it a rule of office to see two, and 
 only two, classes of Americans — the highly 
 cultivated American gentleman and the unlet- 
 tered hind, or simple American farmer. The 
 hoard of vulgarians included between these 
 two extremes he would have naught to do 
 with. 
 
 But was this distinguished gentleman and 
 
 101 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 man of letters a diplomat ? Ask Mr. Gladstone 
 or the Marquis of Salisbury tlie question ; but 
 do not be surprised if a sly and roguisb wink 
 should be their only mode of reply. Yet this 
 minister was really liked in England by all 
 classes, from Her Gracious Majesty the Queen 
 down to the radicals of Birmingham ; and his 
 removal was more regretted than that of any 
 foreign minister or ambassador during the 
 present reign ; and I believe the Queen said as 
 much to the minister himself. 
 
 This most distinguished of men remained 
 true to his party, so long as his party remained 
 in power and he in office ; but when the party 
 suffered defeat he suddenly remembered his 
 previous role as a reformer, and at once de- 
 clared that the Kepublican party — the party 
 that had sent him as minister to Spain and to 
 England — ^was corrupt and no longer worthy his 
 support, which he immediately transferred to 
 the Democrats. I am not now speaking of the 
 comparative merits of the two parties, but sim- 
 ply wish to call attention to this great man's 
 great political purity. 
 
 I am sorry to say that since this was written 
 Mr. Lowell has passed away, deeply regretted 
 by all true lovers of good literature. I see no 
 
 102 
 
THE AMERICAN MINI8TEB. 
 
 reason, however, to claange one word of what I 
 have said. In almost every notice of his life and 
 writings which has appeared in the English 
 press since his death, it has been said that Mr. 
 Lowell was " an Englishman who happened to 
 be born in America." 
 
 The author of the "Biglow Papers" was a 
 very hard man to follow, and no one but a New 
 Englander could have been equal to this most 
 embarrassing situation. So another New Eng- 
 lander was brought forward ; and was found by 
 the English to be almost, if not quite, as able to 
 play their game as his distinguished predeces- 
 sor. He followed indeed so closely in the lines 
 of Mr. Lowell as to make any special notice of 
 his diplomatic career in London highly super- 
 fluous. 
 
 This gentleman had been a professor, or 
 something, at home, unknown beyond the col- 
 lege walls ; but the moment it transpired that 
 he had " caught on " to the English nobility, 
 he became a great personage in New York and 
 Boston, and all the little editors of all the big 
 journals struggled with each other to be the 
 first to get this new man's name upon their 
 title page, in the list of distinguished contribu- 
 tors. These editors dangled large checks be- 
 
 103 
 
AMEBIOANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 fore tills minister's eyes, and he proved not 
 to be above tbe allurements of these editorial 
 offers ; so, following in the wake of another 
 great man, he wrote in a very lofty, and, truth 
 to say, very wordy manner, upon the virtue of 
 keeping silence — or, to be more precise, *' The 
 Age of Words/' 
 
 In this paper the ex-minister, — who had 
 acquired what reputation he possessed as 
 a speaker, — showed beyond any reasonable 
 doubt that the most eloquent men of the world 
 were the men who said nothing. Now a cer- 
 tain man of letters, who has a realistic and very 
 American mind, and who edited a certain de- 
 partment in a certain magazine, took umbrage 
 at the noisy and rather personally offensive 
 way in which this silent ex-minister talked ; 
 and believing that this mighty man had his 
 eye fixed on his own dear loquacious country- 
 men, he — ^the editor — " went for " that ex-min- 
 ister in a manner that recalled most vividly 
 the little contest between Bill Nye and the 
 heathen Chinee. And when the editor had 
 finished with the ex-minister, I have little 
 doubt that His Excellency was convinced of 
 the truth of his own gospel of silence, and 
 wished in his great heart that he had practised 
 
 104 
 
THE AMERICAN MINISTER, 
 
 what he preached, — never, by the way, an easy 
 thing to do. 
 
 These ministers, whilst not very interesting 
 in themselves, may, perhaps, serve us as step- 
 ping - stones to higher things. And first 
 amongst these higher things is "G. W. S.," 
 American journalist to the Court of St. James. 
 Ministers may come, and ministers may go, but 
 G. W. S. stays on forever — or, if not forever, 
 unaffected, at least, by the chances and changes 
 of American political life. This distinguished 
 "Norfolk squire" and journalist is also a 
 New Englander by birth. He was educated at 
 Yale College, where he was known as a boat- 
 ing man. He began life as a war correspond- 
 ent and gained undoubted distinction in that 
 field. 
 
 Soon after the close of the American War he 
 went to England, and has stayed there ever 
 since as the correspondent of one of the fore- 
 most American daily journals. His success in 
 English society has been phenomenal. On 
 arriving in England he joined one of the best 
 and most repectable clubs, avoided all Radicals 
 and such, and has never been seen in any but 
 the best company and in the best houses. He 
 now and then sees an American, but his general 
 
 105 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 rule is to deny himself to all his countrymen, 
 except a select few, of whom the American 
 Minister is usually one. 
 
 You will have observed, if you are a reader 
 of the journal to which this gentleman con- 
 tributes, that he frequently dates his letters — 
 not exactly as Macaulay did, from Windsor 
 Castle, but at least from some of the most fa- 
 mous country houses in England and Scotland. 
 He was very kind to Minister Lowell, and 
 vouched for Mr. Phelps to the English aris- 
 tocracy. He is of course a Conservative in Eng- 
 lish politics — all Americans in England are — 
 but makes an honest effort, so I think, to give 
 impartial reports of both parties. He was for 
 some time a professed admirer of Mr. Glad- 
 stone, and not only lent that aged statesman 
 the aid of the powerful initial letters *' G. W. S.,'' 
 but encouraged him with his individual pres- 
 ence in one or two Midlothian campaigns ; 
 dating his letters, in fact, from Dalmeny Park, 
 and other great country houses, where the 
 member for Midlothian was a guest. But 
 since Mr. Gladstone's " Home Eule craze " this 
 distinguished journalist has ceased to en- 
 courage him by his presence or his pen, and 
 has left him entirely to his own devices. 
 
 106 
 
THE AMEEIGAJSr MimSTEB. 
 
 There is also a well-known ex- American ed- 
 itor in London society ; or at least there was, 
 until a very "uncommon" breach of promise 
 case in the law courts outraged his unsullied 
 mind, disturbed his literary quiet, and sent 
 him back to his native land in search of an in- 
 dividual — sometime secretary, it is believed, to 
 this innocent man of letters. Let uS hope that 
 the true identity of this peccant individual may 
 be clearly established ere long. This ex-editor 
 — ^I do not mean " the individual " — of a demo- 
 cratic journal came to London not only with 
 very pure aims and reputation, but with an 
 oiDen mind also ; and it was not long after he 
 had been received by the aristocracy before 
 he saw the error of his democratic ways. 
 
 After his political conversion he was soon 
 mustered into the army of Tory penmen, and 
 has written two very able Conservative books ; 
 one on the Irish question, and the other on the 
 failure of the French Bepublic. This gentle- 
 man had edited an unsuccessful party paper 
 in New York, and when that party came into 
 power, he hurried from London to Washing- 
 ton, to demand the post of Minister to Eng- 
 land, as the rev/ard of his editorial failures. 
 Not obtaining this prize, he took up his pen — 
 
 107 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE, 
 
 which he used with great skill — and stuck it 
 straight into the body (politic) of the Ameri- 
 can Secretary of State. He has now, I believe, 
 given up all political ambition. The great 
 wrong" which *'the individual" cited sought to 
 do this gentleman, appears all the more cruel 
 when we remember that the aforesaid editor 
 began public life as a minister of religion, and 
 is justly entitled to the prefix of " reverend " 
 before his name, if he cared to claim this hon- 
 orary title. 
 
 It is not my purpose to mention all, or nearly 
 all, of American writers in London : Mr. Henry 
 James and Mr. Bret Harte are there, as every- 
 body knows. Mr. James, to my mind, as critic 
 and novelist, is the finest literary artist of the 
 English language of this generation; but he 
 has ceased to be, if he ever was, a true in- 
 terpreter of American life and character. Mr. 
 Bret Harte, on the other hand, in spite of his 
 long residence in Europe, is still the most typi- 
 cal of all American writers, and is far and away 
 the most original, and the most powerful, liv- 
 ing writer of fiction that I know anything 
 about. 
 
 I may just mention in passing, that it was an 
 American journalist who discovered and re- 
 
 108 
 
THE AMERICAN MINISTER. 
 
 ported the '' Bulgarian atrocities ; " and was 
 thus the real author, if not the immediate 
 cause, of the Russo-Turkish war. It is also 
 true that the three American journalists, Mac- 
 Gahan, Grant, and Millet, were the only war 
 correspondents who kept the field from the be- 
 ginning to the close of the Busso - Turkish 
 war. 
 
 SOME DISTINGUISHED ENGLISHMEN WHO WERE 
 AMERICANS. 
 
 I wonder how many English people know 
 that they owe two of their most glorious insti- 
 tutions to Americans in London ? The " Royal 
 Society,'' and the " Royal Academy," were both 
 founded by Americans ; but I very much doubt 
 if there are one hundred of Her Gracious Maj- 
 esty's subjects who are aware of these rather 
 curious facts. 
 
 The Royal Society was founded by the Amer- 
 ican traitor, known in history as Count Rum- 
 ford ; and the Royal Academy was established 
 by Benjamin West, of Pennsylvania. 
 
 Another rather distinguished American was 
 the late Lord Chancellor, Lord Lyndhurst, son 
 of the eminent Boston painter Copley, whose 
 
 109 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 pictures are to be seen in tlie National Gallery. 
 I could mention others, but these will serve. 
 
 John Bull has a quiet way of appropriating, 
 or rather of absorbing, what suits him, without 
 so much as " by your leave." He might at least 
 give American quotation-marks now and then. 
 It would be quite impossible to convince the 
 British public that " Home, sweet Home " was 
 written by anybody but a Britisher. I have 
 made one or two attempts to persuade them to 
 the contrary, but in vain. Let me state the 
 facts once more, as a last desperate effort. 
 John Howard Payne, who wrote " Home, sweet 
 Home," was an American by birth, education, 
 and residence ; but I believe it is true that he 
 was in London, and was sighing for his Ameri- 
 can home, when he wrote this " British Air," as 
 it is now called. The English approve of this 
 song, and that of course settles its nationality. 
 
 The English are good enough to like Long- 
 fellow, and, strange as it may seem, not one in 
 ten — ^I think I should be justified in saying ten 
 thousand — knew at the time of his death, or at 
 least chose to believe, that he was an American. 
 That he lived at Cambridge, some of them had 
 heard ; and, of course, there can be but one 
 Canlbridge." But if you should succeed in con- 
 
 110 
 
THE AMEBIC AN MINISTER. 
 
 vincing' some uncommonly intelligent Britisher 
 that certain distinguished Englishmen were 
 really Americans, he calmly turns upon you 
 with the crushing rejoinder, that " all Ameri- 
 cans, of such and such times and places, were 
 really English, you know." They will tell 
 you, without the slightest suspicion of a joke, 
 that the American War of Independence was 
 fought by Englishmen on both sides. Hence 
 such a thing as the defeat of the British was 
 impossible. Quite so ; but according to this 
 British manner of reasoning there is no such 
 nation as America, and there are no siich peo- 
 ple as Americans. Against which conclusion I 
 modestly protest, on behalf of about sixty -five 
 millions of people. But passing from the re- 
 mote to the present time, I am sure I shall 
 shock a large number of British subjects when 
 I say that at this moment — I mean the moment 
 of writing — there are at least three Yankees in 
 the House of Commons. Think of that, now ! 
 
 In the present art world of London there are 
 to be found such American names as Whistler, 
 Sargent, Boughton, Millet, and Abbey ; whilst 
 Cambridge University (England) has, or had, 
 an American professor ; and we all know that 
 the late Mr. Lowell was offered a chair at Ox- 
 
 111 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 ford. But Mr. "Whistler deserves and shall 
 have a special notice in these pages. And first 
 of all let me say, in the most entire and em- 
 phatic way, that he is " our James," and not 
 "your James," Mr. John Bull. 
 
 If there is an American in Europe who has 
 not suffered contamination from the effete civ- 
 ilization of the Old World, that American is 
 James Whistler. Now whatever bad thing Mr. 
 Whistler may be, one thing he is not, viz., a 
 fool. Everybody will grant this, I presume, 
 without debate. British barristers were not 
 long in finding this out, and somewhat to their 
 confusion. He has his five senses well trained, 
 and always at command; and behind these 
 mere physical organs lies the keen perception, 
 and the practical judgment, of as " cute " a 
 Brother Jonathan as the present generation 
 affords. 
 
 Success, immediate tangible success, is sweet 
 to all of us. We all wish to reap with our own 
 hands the rewards of this present, actual, 
 carnal world. Yery well, Mr. Whistler is not 
 perhaps an exception to his fellow-mortals in 
 this respect. He wished to succeed in his 
 art, and cast about him for the most promis- 
 ing field and the most promising means of 
 
 112 
 
THE AMERICAN MINISTER. 
 
 success ; and he shrewdly hit upon England 
 and the English people. He saw that to 
 succeed in London was to succeed everywhere ; 
 and he saw also that the English public is the 
 easiest of all publics to handle, if one goes 
 about it in the right way. Hence, Mr. James 
 Whistler settled in London. But — and of this 
 " but " please take special notice — ^he did not 
 try to transform himself into a Britisher. 
 This particular Brother Jonathan was wide 
 awake, with his wits all about him, and he 
 read the signs of the times, did our James ; 
 and he saw that these signs clearly pointed to 
 America as the coming nation ; and the Ameri- 
 cans as the coming race. So he held on to 
 himself, i.e., to his nationality. Not only this, 
 but he held on to all the pronounced and pecu- 
 liar traits of the genuine American character. 
 
 He preserved, with care and affection, the 
 twanging accents of his Puritan ancestors; 
 exaggerated, in fact, everything that bespoke 
 the true Yankee. His sense of values, or it 
 may have been his feeling of patriotism, en- 
 abled him to see that nothing was to be won 
 but much to be lost, by any attempt to sup- 
 press, or disguise in any way, his American 
 birth and character. 
 
 113 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 I know of but one instance in whicli Mr. 
 "Whistler's nationality was a disadvantage to 
 him. This was in the celebrated case of 
 "Whistler v. Euskin." Had the plaintiff in 
 that case been a British subject, I feel quite 
 sure that substantial damages would have been 
 given him against the vulgar abuse and libel- 
 lous language of the British Saint Buskin. 
 But it is very hard for a British judge or jury 
 to deliberately take money out of an English 
 pocket and put it into a Yankee's. *' These 
 Yankees have enough and to spare," so the 
 British judge and jury apparently reason. 
 
 Of Mr. Whistler's peculiar ways and tricks 
 of drawing the public, I know little, and have 
 less to say. That he drew and is drawing the 
 British public most successfully, we all know. 
 But one thing I wish to remark. Beneath all 
 this novel show and outward seeming — posing, 
 if you prefer — there stands a man who is a 
 genuine artist in every muscle and fibre, in 
 every thought and feeling, of his being ; a man 
 who could not do an unartistic thing if he 
 tried. I therefore place Mr. James Whistler, 
 painter, on my list of Americans in Europe 
 who are somebodies. 
 
 I promised to say something m^ore about a 
 
 IH 
 
THE AMERICAN MINISTER. 
 
 certain great dame who has removed her court 
 from Paris to London. But I find that I have 
 really little more to communicate, except to 
 state that this lady gives a dinner now and 
 then to H. K. H. the Prince of Wales. 
 
 There have always been a few Americans 
 in London on business bent. The late Mr. 
 John Bright used to say that whenever, or 
 wherever, he met an American, he, Mr. Bright, 
 always asked him what patent-right he had 
 to sell? But the day of patent-rights has 
 passed; and the day of mines as well; and 
 I very much doubt if Brother Jonathan ever 
 got many pounds sterling out of John Bull's 
 pockets on either of these accounts. The busi- 
 ness methods of the two countries have little 
 or nothing in common ; and it has always 
 been a very difficult thing for an American 
 to sell anything in London, from a mine to a 
 mouse-trap. John Bull has a strong dislike 
 to Brother Jonathan's business ways — ^Ameri-' 
 cans can talk each other into almost anything ; 
 they can talk an Englishman out of almost 
 anything. The more an American talks of his 
 wares, the less the Englishman believes in 
 them. Englishmen are not good talkers them- 
 selves, and naturally mistrust those who are. 
 
 115 
 
AMEBIGAN8 IN EUROPE. 
 
 More than tliis, they hate people who have the 
 gift of the gab. 
 
 I know a man who came to London with a 
 mine to sell. He was provided with every- 
 thing necessary to prove the value of his 
 property. He had specimens of ore; certifi- 
 cates of assayers — English as well as Amer- 
 icans ; testimonials to his own character and 
 financial standing, etc. After remaining six 
 months in London he succeeded in getting a 
 city man to listen to him ; but not in business 
 hours. The American was invited to dine with 
 the Englishman at his home, and after dinner 
 he had a good opportunity of setting forth the 
 great value of his silver mine. His host lis- 
 tened for more than an hour to what he had to 
 say, without a single remark. 
 
 Some weeks after this, the American had a 
 note from this man asking him to call at his 
 office in the city. This seemed encouraging, 
 and he was promptly on hand at the appointed 
 hour. The Englishman was the first to speak 
 this time, and he began by saying : '* Come 
 now, have you really any mine at all ? " The 
 Yankee was speechless. After all his talk; 
 after all his printed and written documentary 
 evidence, which the Briton had thoroughly ex- 
 
 116 
 
THE AMEBIC AN MINISTER. 
 
 amined; after all lie himself had vouched for 
 as a well-known New York financier ; after six 
 months of patient waiting ; the question para- 
 lyzed him. But there sat the city man with 
 his cold blue eyes fixed upon the Yankee with- 
 out the slightest suspicion that he had said a 
 rude thing, or asked an unreasonable question. 
 The American got up, put on his hat, but- 
 toned up his coat very deliberately, and, in 
 
 turning to depart, said, " You can go to h , 
 
 sir, for an answer to your d d British inso- 
 lence ! " That sold the mine. For the Amer- 
 ican had one, and a good one too. 
 
 This is the only hond fide sale of an Amer- 
 ican mine by an American that has taken place 
 in London for many a day. American mines in 
 London are generally controlled by English 
 sharpers known as "promoters," who under- 
 stand perfectly the art of " doing " their confid- 
 ing country-people. The celebrated mine as- 
 sociated with the name of a certain American 
 Minister to London, and into which many inno- 
 cent Britons dropped many pounds sterling, 
 was wholly an English enterprise, owned and 
 managed by city men, or a city man. The 
 mine itself, as sold by the honest American 
 vendor, was all it had been represented to be ; 
 
 117 
 
AMEBIGANS IN EUROPE, 
 
 but these London "promoters" found that it 
 was more profitable to sell the stock than to 
 •work the mine. This somewhat unusual method 
 of doing business did not prove entirely satis- 
 factory to the general body of stockholders, 
 and it was in time abandoned. The fame, or 
 the infamy, as the case may be, of the mine in 
 question should properly attach to the titled 
 London promoter, and not to the untitled 
 American vendor. But it is hard for the Eng- 
 lish mind to appreciate the real merits of this 
 rather mixed transaction ; and the result has 
 been to weaken the confidence of the British 
 public in American mines and methods. 
 
 There are one or two other things which 
 have not helped American credit in London, 
 I refer to the American exchanges, reading- 
 rooms, and American agencies, which have 
 thriven for a time upon the innocency of the 
 American tourist, and have then suddenly de- 
 parted this life, leaving no wreck behind, in 
 the shape of assets. From such examples of 
 American men of business, and from the very 
 dubious sort of American bankers who have 
 haunted Charing Cross and vicinity, at one 
 time under the patronage and presidency of a 
 most potent, grave, and reverend American 
 
 118 
 
THE AMEBIGAN MINISTER. 
 
 Senator; from such object lessons, I say, in 
 American business methods, in London, the 
 stupid English have come to reckon all Yan- 
 kee dealings, and have decided to keep clear of 
 them. 
 
 At this point I shall give a free tip to my 
 beloved country -people who visit the English 
 metropolis. During your sojourn in London, 
 it is just as well to deprive yourself of the busi- 
 ness services of your compatriots who reside in 
 England, What you have to purchase, pur- 
 chase from honest John Bull, without any cards 
 or notes of introduction from anybody ; espe- 
 cially from your own people. These things are 
 always very expensive ; they mean at least ten 
 per cent, added to your bill. 
 
 One other suggestion. Because you have to 
 pay big prices in New York, do not therefore 
 conclude that you can get the same things for 
 nothing in London. English shopkeepers have 
 to live — or at least think they ought to be giv- 
 en a chance of life — as well as the New York 
 merchant. I have often wondered how it is 
 that an American will meekly endure all sorts of 
 impositions and extortions in his own country, 
 but explodes with indignation and rage if he is 
 asked to pay two shillings for a drive in London, 
 
 119 
 
AMEBIGAN8 IN EUROPE. 
 
 which wonld cost him two dollars in New York. 
 There is one more observation or query I should 
 lilce to make ; why is it that Americans ahvays 
 travel first-class in the United States and on 
 the Atlantic steamers, but in Europe generally 
 take second or third class ? 
 
 THE ANGLO-AMERICANS. 
 
 There are a few Americans who seem to divide 
 their time about equally between the two 
 countries. The most prominent member of 
 this class is a certain well-known Anglo-Scotch 
 American who seems to be altogether too large 
 for either Continent ; and can only get suffi- 
 cient scope for his mighty genius and his great 
 charities by taking England and Scotland into 
 his care and keeping, as well as the rather 
 biggish American Eepublic. 
 
 This gentleman divides his time, and his 
 millions, about equally between Great Britain 
 and the United States ; and the advantage of 
 this course, considered merely as an advertise- 
 ment, is enormous. In order that there might 
 be no mistake about the advertisement, he 
 bought up at one time in England a half dozen 
 or so provincial papers, and at least one metro- 
 
 130 
 
THE AMEBIGAN MINISTER, 
 
 politan evening journal. Tlie latter lie placed 
 in the safe and canny hands of a fellow-Scot, 
 and it was confidently believed that by the 
 careful editing of these multitudinous journals, 
 their owner might be able to take a seat in the 
 House of Commons, and lend his distinguished 
 support to the " Grand Old Man," and his grand 
 new schemes. But upon second thought, this 
 Parliamentary coup was not made ; and why ? 
 Because it would have shown, in the outward 
 seeming at least, a partiality for Great Britain, 
 as against the United States ; a preference for 
 the English Parliament over the United States 
 Congress. 
 
 This was not, however, true, as the million- 
 aire's object in entering Parliament was not 
 personal or selfish, in any respect. His motive 
 in seeking a Parliamentary career was obvious- 
 ly of the highest and purest sort ; nothing less, 
 in fact, than the Americanizing of the whole 
 British realm. But he was persuaded by Mr. 
 Gladstone, and others, that he could better 
 accomplish his great revolution by remaining 
 out of party politics ; and they also convinced 
 him that his millions and his pen were mightier 
 than his tongue. And so he has remained out 
 of Parliament, and out of office, and has em- 
 
 131 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 ployed his pen — or somebody's pen — in writing" 
 *' Triumphant Democracy," a work which shat- 
 tered, at once and forever, the frail monarch- 
 ical structures of the Old World. This book, 
 together with his very extensive philanthropic 
 schemes, were all the advertisement required, 
 and rendered his English journals a superfluous 
 expense. They were therefore disposed of, and 
 at a profit. 
 
 This great magnate is now occupied for the 
 most part in writing to the daily press and 
 monthly magazines concerning the great re- 
 sponsibility of his exalted position. He knows 
 — no one knows better than he— that the prin- 
 ciple of not letting your left hand know what 
 your right hand doeth, is wholly impracticable 
 in this age of keen competition. 
 
 AMERICAN ACTORS AND SINGERS IN LONDON. 
 
 It was a long time before the American actor 
 and actress were at all acceptable in London — 
 Sothern and Jefferson were exceptions, and 
 were always greatly admired. Lawrence Bar- 
 ret was a failure ; and Edwin Booth nearly so. 
 Booth was very much admired, when he acted 
 with Irving in 1881 ; but when he returned the 
 
 122 
 
THE AMERIGAJSr MINISTER. 
 
 next year and tried the public on his own 
 account, he hardly paid expenses, if indeed he 
 did that. 
 
 Miss Mary Anderson was almost the first 
 American actress who achieved an unqualified 
 success in England. Since then the "Daly 
 Company " has completely conquered the Brit- 
 ish public, and is by far the best " Comedy 
 Company" speaking the English language. 
 
 On the other hand, American singers and 
 fiddlers, and even whistlers, have had little 
 trouble in reaching the English ear, and win- 
 ning the English heart. Patti, Albani, Minnie 
 Hauk, Nordica, Antoinette Sterling, and Mrs. 
 Osgood are Americans, and are all much ad- 
 mired by the British public. Nettie Carpenter 
 drew her first bow to a London audience ; and 
 she has drawn the English public ever since. 
 And are not the notes of the great American 
 whistler still ringing in the ears of London 
 Society ? 
 
 123 
 
XIII. 
 PENSIONS. 
 
 AS MATRIMONIAL AGENCIES. 
 
 A HISTORY of pensions on the continent of 
 Europe would make interesting reading. I do 
 not mean to write it, but will give a few brief 
 sketches, which the future historian may pos- 
 sibly find of some help. And, first of all, it is 
 just as well to say that by pensions I do not 
 mean boarding-schools for girls or boys, but 
 boarding-houses for all sorts and conditions of 
 men and women, especially women. 
 
 These institutions are almost invariably kept 
 by people who have seen " better days." In 
 fact, it not infrequently happens that the host- 
 ess of a pension is the widow of a nobleman 
 or a " distinguished diplomat." If such dis- 
 tinction is not openly avowed in the advertise- 
 ment, one frequently hears mysterious hints 
 that Madame, Signora, or Frau, as the case may 
 be, could a tale unfold of proud family titles 
 
 124 
 
PENSIOirS. 
 
 worn by a long line of distinguislied ancestors. 
 But, alas ! present circumstances would render 
 such titles inappropriate. There remain, how- 
 ever, one or two old portraits emblazoned with 
 arms and decorations, which may be seen 
 hanging" about in rather conspicuous places, 
 and concerning which it is expected that the 
 guests will ask no direct questions, but tacitly 
 accept them as family heir-looms. No pension 
 is properly furnished without some such evi- 
 dence of past greatness. 
 
 There are shops called " Art Eooms " in 
 Paris, London, Berlin, Kome, Florence, and 
 other centres of fashion, which make a specialty 
 of furnishing portraits of ancestors for " noble- 
 men " and pension keepers. These shops keep 
 a curious variety of goods, and one can get a 
 count or a general, a bishop or a judge, for 
 the very reasonable sum of fifty francs, a little 
 less than ten dollars. I have seen a gallant 
 colonel covered with "decorations" maintain- 
 ing the ancestral honor of a " count " and two 
 pensions. 
 
 I lived for some months just opposite one of 
 these " Art Kooms," otherwise heir-loom manu- 
 factories, and dropped in now and then to have 
 a look around. The proprietor was a good- 
 
 125 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 natured little man, and talked very freely about 
 his business. He said, among other things, 
 that the sale of "episcopal" relations had 
 fallen off very greatly since His Holiness, the 
 Pope, suffered the loss of his temporal power, 
 and that the "military" heir-loom has been the 
 fashion since the unification of Italy. 
 
 He told me that a few years ago he had a 
 sudden and very unexpected "run," as we 
 should say, for several months on "feudal 
 barons,** and was compelled to employ an ad- 
 ditional artist and two extra models. He after- 
 ward learned that this " run " was caused by a 
 certain novel read very much by American 
 girls, in which the "feudal baronial " or brig- 
 and life was set forth in the most heroic and 
 picturesque manner, and during this exciting 
 period the American girl would listen to no 
 man who could not produce portraits of feudal 
 baronial ancestors. 
 
 Our conversation generally took place with 
 a counter between us, but one bright morning 
 I found my friend the art dealer in a very com- 
 municative and confidential mood, and I vent- 
 ured to ask if I might see " the studio." The 
 amiable little man looked at me for a moment 
 with a merry twinkle in his eye, and replied : 
 
 126 
 
PENSIONS, 
 
 " Signore, you would know my secret. You 
 would penetrate my mystery. Yery well then, 
 so you shall ; for I have sold several copies of 
 the old masters through your kindness." (I 
 wish here to explain that these '* Art Rooms " 
 always have copies of the old masters for sale, 
 and this shop usually had some very good 
 copies, which my friends sometimes carried 
 home with them.) 
 
 On entering the studio the " ancestral " 
 wardrobe was the first object of interest. This 
 wardrobe contained a full episcopal habit, the 
 complete antique uniform of a colonel and a 
 general; the court dress of the different ranks 
 of nobility, and the robes of the superior judi- 
 cial orders. 
 
 *' But where," I asked, " do you get the mod- 
 els for all these grand personages ? " 
 
 "There he is," said the jolly little Italian, 
 and looking round I saw a man sitting, like 
 a statue, in full court dress. 
 
 "There he is," repeated my genial friend, 
 " or rather there they are, for this man is the 
 colonel and the general, the bishop and the 
 judge, the count and the baron, or anything 
 you please." 
 
 An artist, with paint-brush in hand, now 
 
 127 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 made his appearance around a wing of the 
 studio, and with a bow, said : 
 
 " And now, Signore, what would you prefer 
 your great grandfather to h^-ve been — a gen- ., 
 eral, a baron, a bishop, or a judge ? You have * 
 only to say the word, and the thing is done." 
 
 The artist had overheard our conversation, 
 and with the quickness of the Italian had taken 
 in the situation and was disposed to have his 
 joke. But these little by-paths tempt one from 
 the main track of one's subject. 
 
 There are a ie^ pension keepers who make no 
 claim to title or other badges of distinction, 
 but, strange to say, depend upon the good 
 qualities of their board and lodgings, together 
 with the high character of their patrons, for 
 testimonials. George Eliot lived for many years 
 in a pension J where some of the most distin- 
 guished men of their time were now and then 
 entertained — men like Emerson and Dr. Porter, 
 late President of Yale University. Amongst 
 others, Hawthorne made his residence in a 
 pension when he was United States Consul to 
 Liverpool. 
 
 There are one or two pensions in London, 
 Paris, Berlin, Dresden, Rome, and perhaps in 
 some other Continental resorts, where travellers 
 
 128 
 
PENSION'S, 
 
 may go with tlie full assurance that they will 
 be made not only comfortable, but will be 
 pretty certain to meet none but respectable 
 people. They will also be protected from all 
 impostors. 
 
 But one needs to be very careful in selecting 
 a pension — a great deal more careful than in 
 choosing a hotel, for in a hotel one lives apart ; 
 in a pension one must live en famille with all 
 the pensionnaires, inmates, boarders, or what- 
 ever you choose to call them. 
 
 I may just say in passing that " private fami- 
 lies " who take " only a select few " are nothing 
 more nor less than pensions, and, as a rule, the 
 least desirable of them all. But why should 
 pensions be regarded with suspicion? I shall 
 try to answer this question by relating three or 
 four true stories of pension life. 
 
 In Paris, not far to the south side of the 
 Champs Ely sees, is a pension kept by " the widow 
 of a distinguished officer." A few years ago a 
 mother and daughter arrived at this pension 
 direct from America. " The widow of the dis- 
 tinguished officer " inspected these ladies and 
 their belongings very carefully, and made up 
 her mind to be very polite to them. But she 
 was more than polite, she was kind and solici- 
 
 129 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 tous, willing at all times to give them directions 
 about tlie city, to accompany tliem, in fact, on 
 siglit-seeing and shopping expeditions. 
 
 In this way it was not long before she got a 
 peep at their letter of credit, which was, as she 
 had at first expected, for a good round sum. 
 
 Soon after this discovery, Madame took the 
 Americans, mother and daughter, entirely into 
 her confidence, ?ind revealed to them the dis- 
 tinguished person that she was, or rather the 
 distinguished persons that her ancestors were. 
 She gave them to understand also that this 
 revelation was the very highest token of re- 
 spect that she could possibly pay them, as she 
 never had anything more to do with her guests 
 than her position required. *' But," she added, 
 "I was drawn to you, Madame and Mademoi- 
 selle, from the first moment I saw you. You, 
 Madame, have the unmistakable air of a grande 
 dame, and the Mademoiselle is so cMc." 
 
 She explained that many of the people whom 
 she had known in " high life " had, of course, 
 lost sight of her, now that she was compelled 
 to support herself; but she still had a few 
 good friends and true, whom misfortune could 
 not drive away from her. These friends, of 
 course, never met her guests, but she would be 
 
 130 
 
PENSIONS. 
 
 glad to make an exception in favor of Madame 
 and Mademoiselle, and when some of her dis- 
 tinguished friends made their next visit she 
 would be most happy to present them. 
 
 The American mother was very much flat- 
 tered by this great honor, and the daughter 
 was at least curious to see some of the real old 
 French aristocracy. Madame, in discussing 
 her friends, had been very liberal in the use of 
 titles, which did not lessen the American girl's 
 curiosity. 
 
 The first members of the French aristocracy 
 to drop in were Monsieur le Count Chenapan, 
 and his cousin, Madame la Baronne Declasse. 
 
 The Madame, in presenting the Americans, 
 mother and daughter, said that they were her 
 dear friends, and as she felt sure they were ac- 
 customed to the best society in their own coun- 
 try, she did not hesitate to present them to the 
 members of the best French society. 
 
 The Count did not seem to notice the daugh- 
 ter, but devoted himself entirely to the mother, 
 whilst his cousin, the Baronne, devoted herself 
 to Mademoiselle. They did not remain long ; 
 just long enough, in fact, to accomplish their 
 purpose, which was to flatter the mother and 
 daughter to the top of their bent. 
 
 131 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 After they had gone, Madame gave a short 
 sketch of each of them. The Count had been 
 an officer in the army, but was obliged to re- 
 sign on account of an affair he had with the 
 young wife of his Colonel. So French, so very 
 French, thought the American girl, and her in- 
 terest became more keen. 
 
 " How did it all end ? " she asked, in an ex- 
 cited manner. But Madame hesitated ; she had 
 intended to say nothing more and feared she 
 had already violated the code of true friendshijp 
 in mentioning at all the very sad romance of 
 her friend the Count. 
 
 "Please, Madame," pleaded the American 
 girl, and Madame, not willing to refuse the 
 charming Mademoiselle any reasonable thing, 
 consented and told how the gallant and im- 
 petuous young officer had eloped with the 
 Colonel's wife, and that they lived lovingly to- 
 gether until heo" death, which occurred five 
 years ago. 
 
 Since that time, since the sad ending of his 
 first and only love, the Count had looked with 
 the eye of love upon no other woman. The 
 Madame here apologized for the Count's lack 
 of attention to Mademoiselle. 
 
 The mother had noticed the sad expression 
 
 133 
 
PENSI0N8. 
 
 of the Count, and commented favorably upou 
 it. The Baroness had made an equally favor- 
 able impression upon the daughter, for when 
 she was not flattering her she was giving her 
 little glimpses of high life in the French capi- 
 tal. The Baronne was a widow, whose husband 
 had been killed in the Tonquin War. She 
 was almost thirty-two, somewhat made up, but 
 withal not bad looking, and had, as Madame 
 observed, the confident air of a woman of the 
 world. 
 
 The Count and the Baronne dropped in 
 quite often during the next two or three weeks, 
 and it always happened when Madame and 
 her American friends were alone. I must ex- 
 plain that the Count and his cousin did not 
 come together after the first visit, so they were 
 at liberty to praise each other behind each 
 other's back — a very amiable thing to do. 
 
 After the second visit the Count took some 
 little notice of the daughter, and from that 
 time did not try to disguise his admiration, 
 which soon ripened into an all-consuming 
 flame of love. The mother hesitated. The 
 daughter was not in love, but was very much 
 dazzled by the word Countess, which her lover 
 was constantly dangling before her eyes. 
 
 133 
 
AMEBIGANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 The Count was very frank and explained that 
 he was not a rich man. He had some estates 
 in Southern France, but he would be honest 
 and aclaiowledge that he did not have money 
 to keep them up. For himself, he cared little 
 or nothing for his title, his sole interest in it 
 was for his future Countess. He could wish 
 himself a thousand times more rich and honor- 
 able, but to support the honor of his title it 
 would be necessary to put his estates in order. 
 He only asked that a definite sum be settled 
 upon him before the wedding-, for that pur- 
 pose. Ten thousand francs a year — two thou- 
 sand dollars — would be quite enough for that 
 purpose, and for himself he asked nothing. 
 
 Madame was very much surprised when she 
 heard that the Count had offered himself to 
 Mademoiselle. She thought he was a con- 
 firmed bachelor. She hesitated about giving 
 advice on the matter, but she had an old 
 family friend who had known her all her life ; 
 she would call him in and get his counsel. He 
 was a learned Judge, upon whose judgment the 
 utmost confidence could be placed. 
 
 The Judge came and discussed the matter 
 with Madame and the American mother, but 
 went away without giving an opinion. 
 
 134 
 
When he came again he said that he had 
 looked Tip the Count's record, and that he had 
 found nothing against him excepting the un- 
 fortunate affair already mentioned, and but 
 for this affair he might now be holding high 
 rank in the army. He had allowed his estates 
 to fall into neglect, it was true, but a few thou- 
 sand francs would put them all right again, 
 and with his Countess at his side there was no 
 reason w^hy he should not take the exalted 
 place to which his rank entitled him in the 
 aristocratic world of Paris. 
 
 Madame said that she had only thought of 
 the happiness and social success of her dear 
 American friends, and these things being now 
 assured, she would not, she could not, offer any 
 further opposition to such a " brilliant alli- 
 ance." And, to do her justice, she not only 
 did not hinder this " brilliant alliance," but did 
 everything in her power to advance and con- 
 summate it ; so the marriage took place with 
 all the ceremonies of the Roman ritual. 
 
 It is, I am sure, quite unnecessary for me to 
 add that the American girl did not become a 
 French Countess, nor did she take an exalted 
 position in Parisian society. Moreover, she 
 never saw the Count's estates. The mother 
 
 135 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 began an action for frand, but i^ never came 
 into court. She could prove nothing ; Ma- 
 dame was the only witness, and she could not 
 say that the Count had ever made any serious 
 claims, either to titles or estates. 
 
 The Judge, whose wise advice Madame had 
 sought, turned out to be the father of Monsieur 
 le Count, and father and son were '^ Avocats,'' 
 who picked up a living in any way they could, 
 their only concern being to avoid a successful 
 criminal prosecution. 
 
 Madame la Baronne was, of course, the 
 Count's mistress. The pension was a,nd is a 
 matrimonial agency, and " Madame " receives 
 commissions on all business done. And here 
 my story ends. 
 
 A FLOEENTINE EOMANCE AND TRAGEDY. 
 
 There is, or was, a pension in Florence, which 
 for several years advertised a " weekly dance " 
 as its chief attraction, and one could plainly 
 read between the lines of this advertisement, 
 *' Handsome officers in uniform always in at- 
 tendance." 
 
 Italian officers are said to be the most famous 
 "lady-killers," perhaps I had better say "girl- 
 
 136 
 
PENSIONS. 
 
 killers," in Europe. They do their deadly work 
 almost entirely with their eyes. They are too 
 lazy even to talk, if they could; but the truth is 
 they could not talk if they would. One doesn't 
 look for marked intelligence in an officer, but 
 they are generally supplied with a small stock 
 of local gossip. Not so the Italian officer. He 
 swaggers and poses and looks ; and looks and 
 poses and swaggers. These three words sum 
 up his entire action and being. But it is 
 enough, it serves his purpose as a " girl-killer." 
 
 In the winter of '82, or thereabouts, an Amer- 
 ican lady, with a daughter and niece, took up 
 her residence in the "weekly dancing" pen- 
 sion. These people were from a small New 
 England town and had seen little or nothing of 
 the world, so that these weekly dances with the 
 gold-laced uniforms were to them very brilliant 
 social functions. The girls were of a suscep- 
 tible age and temperament, and it was not long 
 before they were both sorely smitten. The 
 daughter was too young to think of matri- 
 mony, but the niece was of age, an orphan, 
 and her own mistress. 
 
 This fact was soon known among the officers, 
 and they looked and swaggered accordingly. 
 It was not long before one of the handsom- 
 
 137 
 
AMEHIGANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 est of them was noticed to pay special court 
 to the niece. 
 
 Now it was well known in Florence that this 
 particular officer was looking about for an 
 American girl with a dot. He had nothing, of 
 course. He not only had no money, but he 
 had no family. That is to say, he was not a 
 gentleman, even in the European sense of that 
 misused word. The affair had advanced to a 
 critical stage before the Aunt seemed to be 
 aware that the flirtation had become a serious 
 matter. She then made arrangements for an 
 immediate departure from Florence, hoping 
 that a change of scene would bring about a 
 change of heart. 
 
 The niece made no complaint, but on the day 
 before the time fixed for the departure she dis- 
 appeared from the />e?^s^o?^ and was married to 
 the handsome officer. She was of age, her 
 own mistress, and what was done could not be 
 undone. Her Aunt returned to America with- 
 out her niece. This is the romance. 
 
 The tragedy is now to follow. This man was 
 too lazy even for the life of a soldier in time of 
 peace, and, as soon as he got complete control 
 of his wife's property, he left the army and be- 
 came a cafS lounger. The property his wife 
 
 138 
 
PENSIONS, 
 
 brought him would seem yery small to an 
 American, but it was a fortune to an Italian; 
 enough, in fact, to keep this officer's father and 
 mother and two or three brothers and sisters in 
 idleness. 
 
 After a certain sum had been settled on him- 
 self, he placed the rest in his mother's hands, 
 and his wife had to take her share with the 
 other members of the family, and to receive her 
 portion from the hands of the mother-in-law. 
 She soon had to leave Florence for a home in 
 the country, a few miles from Pisa, and the sor- 
 rowful life this New England girl lived in this 
 strange land, and among these strange people, 
 can be imagined only by those who have seen 
 the hard and dreary life that the Italian farmer 
 lives. 
 
 The house was situated at the base of Mont 
 Pisano, a verdureless range of mountains, and 
 there was nothing without or within it to re- 
 lieve the bareness or break the chilliness of the 
 cold graystones, of which all Italian houses 
 are made. 
 
 Fires were unknown ; carpets there were none. 
 Wlien it was warm enough the family sat out- 
 doors. When it was not, they sat in-doors 
 around a large scaldino. 
 
 Vi 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 Think wliat sucli a life must have been to 
 this New England girl, accustomed to a cheer- 
 ful carpeted house, with roaring hearth-fires! 
 The poor wife's husband lived in Florence and 
 was seldom with her. She was thus left all 
 alone with these people, with whom she had 
 nothing in common. Only with the greatest 
 difficulty could she understand what they said 
 to her, and any efforts to carry on a conversa- 
 tion was almost useless. She got on very little 
 better with her husband. His reading was 
 confined to a special column of the daily paj)er, 
 and as to general information, he had none. 
 
 One may get some idea of his intelligence 
 when I say — I am telling a true story, remem- 
 ber — that he was stationed for three or four 
 years in Florence, and during all that time it 
 never occurred to him to visit the " Uffizi " or 
 ''Pitti" Galleries. 
 
 The mother and other members of the hus- 
 band's family, who lived on his wife's money, 
 looked upon her as a curiosity, and did not 
 trouble themselves either to please or displease 
 her. Of course, the poor creature could not 
 stand this sort of life very long, and in less 
 than two years after her romantic marriage 
 she sickened and died of a broken heart. A 
 
 140 
 
PEJsrsioj^s. 
 
 few montlis before her death, an old friend of 
 her mother's visited her, and persuaded her 
 husband to let his wife try a change of air. 
 She was taken to Switzerland and breathed out 
 her sad, short life in Geneva, where her grave 
 is now to be seen, with both her American and 
 her Italian name inscribed in full upon her 
 tombstone. 
 
 There is a, pension in Rome which also adver- 
 tises weekly dances, and where the same sort 
 of romance and tragedy, as above set forth, may 
 occur, and doubtlessly has occurred. If these 
 pension keepers have sons, brothers, nephews, or 
 cousins, they are always brought to the front 
 and given the first chance and the best chance. 
 This sort of thing is a universal custom of pen- 
 sion keepers all over Europe. 
 
 Let me relate a case in point, concerning 
 which I speak with full knowledge of all the 
 facts. There is a good pension in one of the 
 most beautiful Italian cities, kept by two or 
 three sisters with two or three nephews. The 
 nephews have absolutely no means of sup- 
 port, and no kind of position in the social 
 world. 
 
 This pension is patronized by a very good 
 class of English people, who generally stay for 
 
 141 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE, 
 
 the season. Once a week there is given '* une 
 soiree musicale,'' which generally ends with a 
 dance. The nephews are put into evening dress 
 and always placed en evidence. They have the 
 good looks and pleasant manners which seem 
 to be the natural inheritance of all Italians, and 
 have very little trouble in making themselves 
 acceptable to fair English maidens. 
 
 Two years ago, one of these nephews married 
 an Australian lady, with the snug little income 
 of three thousand dollars a year, and the gen- 
 tleman may now be seen driving in the park 
 with the airs of a duke. This Australian lady 
 has a sister married to another penniless and 
 positionless Italian, whom she met at the same 
 pension. 
 
 I have personal knowledge of scores of such 
 marriages, in all parts of Europe, brought about 
 in pensio7is, and generally, almost invariably, 
 with the connivance — ^not to use a stronger 
 word — of the pension keeper. 
 
 Five years ago, a very intimate friend of mine 
 was travelling in Sicily, and when at Taormina 
 made the acquaintance, in a Hotel Pension, of 
 two English ladies of high social position. One 
 of these ladies confided to him the information 
 that her friend— and cousin, I believe — was en- 
 
 143 
 
g-agecl to be married to a Sicilian doctor, who 
 was a resident of Taormina. 
 
 She asked my friend, whose age and position 
 justified her confidence, to advise her what to 
 do. Her cousin was no longer young, and her 
 personal charms were not such as to warrant a 
 belief that the doctor was acting solely from the 
 sentiment of pure love. The lady had a large 
 fortune entirely within her own control, and was 
 it not possible that this might account, to some 
 extent at least, for the Sicilian's attachment ? 
 
 My friend thought it might. But he was a 
 man of the world, knew something about woman- 
 kind, and was cautious in giving advice. One 
 thing, however, he ventured to recommend, viz., 
 that the wedding should take place in England, 
 and that the money should be placed beyond 
 the control of the husband. The marriage took 
 place, but my friend's disinterested advice was 
 not followed in either particular. 
 
 There are many instances of Italian, German, 
 and French doctors marrying their English 
 and American patients ; but the world has lit- 
 tle sympathy to waste on such women. 
 
 There is a certain class of pensions which ap- 
 peal to a certain class of customers, and may be 
 known by the designation of *' free and easy." 
 
 143 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 These are the pensions where flirtations of the 
 most pronounced character are not only winked 
 at, but openly encouraged. The best known 
 Summer pension of this class that I now remem- 
 ber is at one of the principal resorts of Switzer- 
 land. It consists of a group of a half dozen or 
 more houses within their own grounds, and tho 
 grounds are very pretty and picturesquely rural. 
 From June till October these houses are always 
 full, with about an equal number of males and 
 females, of almost all ages. 
 
 This pension is a little community in itself, 
 and possesses a dance hall and theatre of its 
 own. There are, in fact, no pains spared for the 
 amusement of the guests. The kind of flirta- 
 tions for which this pension is particularly 
 suited, and for which it is somewhat noted, sel- 
 dom if ever results in marriage, but engage- 
 ments lasting for the season are very com- 
 mon. 
 
 But if the pension keeper be a respectable, 
 honest person, as is sometimes the case, one is 
 still subject to various kinds of imposition from 
 one's fellow-guests. Women, especially girls, 
 are in constant danger of being imposed upon. 
 There are numerous petty annoyances, which 
 may not be mentioned here ; but I will give ono 
 
 144 
 
PENSIOHS. 
 
 or two examples of the very serious nature of 
 some of these impositions. 
 
 In the winter of 1890 there turned up in a 
 pension at Mce an Englishman, who gave out 
 that he was a medical man seeking a little 
 change and rest. He was a very sociably dis- 
 posed individual, and was soon on familiar 
 terms with an American widow and her daugh- 
 ter, the latter a girl of seventeen. The doctor 
 took frequent walks with this pretty American 
 girl, and occasionally bought her some "sweets." 
 
 Once after partaking rather freely of the doc- 
 tor's sweets, the young lady was taken with a 
 sudden illness. The doctor was soon on hand, 
 made a most unnecessary and indecent exami- 
 nation and announced that it was a rather pain- 
 ful illness, but that he could cure her at once, 
 which he did by the use of some medicine which 
 he always carried with him. He would, of 
 course, accept no pay, and thus placed the 
 mother and daughter under obligations to him. 
 He soon won the confidence of the mother, 
 and she entrusted her daughter with him, with- 
 out any reservation, until she received a note 
 from her daughter one evening simply stating 
 that she loved the doctor and had eloped with 
 him. The alarm was immediately given, and the 
 
 145 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 runaways were overtaken in a day or too, when 
 it turned out that the man was not a doctor at 
 all. He was a husband, with a wife and several 
 children, one of whom was actually with him at 
 the time of the elopement. 
 
 Late in the summer of 1890 a jolly party of 
 Americans, men and women, were spending a 
 few weeks at a Hotel Pension in Geneva. One 
 evening", when they were amusing themselves in 
 the cafe, they were joined by a good-looking 
 Englishman. This addition did not quite suit 
 the men, but the ladies seemed to be rather 
 pleased than otherwise. The man pleaded lone- 
 liness as an excuse for his boldness, and the 
 ladies at once became sympathetic and were 
 somewhat annoyed at the evident suspicions of 
 the man by their friends. 
 
 The Englishman was included in all their ex- 
 cursions after this, until one day, at the races, 
 this gentleman was suddenly taken away from 
 the side of one of the most charming of the 
 ladies by two police officers, with gyves upon 
 his wrists. The handsome Englishman was a 
 noted pickpocket and hotel thief. 
 
 146 
 
XIV. 
 
 AMEEICANS IN EOME. 
 
 KoMA ! Eoma ! Citta Eterna ! 
 
 The American colony in Rome was founded 
 by artists — principally sculptors — of wliom 
 Crawford was the first, and easily the greatest, 
 and will I think always remain so. Had he 
 lived, his reputation would have overshadowed 
 that of all other American sculptors. But one's 
 reputation may be stolen as well as one's purse ; 
 and it is popularly believed that such an event 
 took place in Eome upon the death of this great 
 artist. However that may be, the theft, if 
 theft there were, is now known, and reputations 
 must hereafter stand upon their own legs — if 
 they have any. 
 
 In the early days of the American colony in 
 Rome, the distinction of any one member of the 
 artistic circle reflected upon all the other mem- 
 bers ; and upon the death of one of their num- 
 ber, whatever reputation he may have acquired 
 descended to the survivors as a national inher- 
 
 it? 
 
AMERIGANS IN EUROPE, 
 
 itance. So the tlieft, of which I have spoken, 
 was perhaps fictitious as regards any real guilt 
 of purpose; and maybe more properly called 
 an inheritance — whether lawful or unlawful, I 
 shall not take upon myself to decide. 
 
 The best — I mean the widest known — living 
 sculptor in Eome is the hero, or one of the 
 heroes, of Hawthorne's romaace, "The Mar- 
 ble Faun ; " or, as the English " pirate pub- 
 lisher" stupidly calls it, *' The Transformation." 
 The death of Crawford, and the publication of 
 Hawthorne's story, cleared the field of all 
 dangerous rivals, and the author of " Cleo- 
 patra" came at once to the fore as the most 
 conspicuous American artist in Europe. Every- 
 thing was in his favor, and all things seemed to 
 point to a most distinguished career. Emer- 
 son took him up, and predicted his brilliant 
 future. The poets Browning and Lord Hough- 
 ton were his friends and patrons. He made 
 a portrait - bust of the poetess, Mrs. Barrett 
 Browning, and through these names the Eng- 
 lish public was soon won. 
 
 The sculptor, in himself and family, apart 
 from his art, was a person of consequence. His 
 father was one of the most eminent judges in 
 America. The son has substituted "Justice" 
 
 148 
 
AMERICANS IN ROME. 
 
 for ''Judge," in conformity to English usage. 
 The son had taken a university degree, some- 
 thing very uncommon in the art world. He 
 was also educated in the law, and had actually 
 written an able book upon one branch of this 
 subject, before he became a sculptor. He was, 
 and is, a brilliant conversationalist, a man of 
 letters, and a poet. 
 
 But — oh, the cruelty of these "buts!" — he 
 has not fulfilled the great promise of his be- 
 ginnings, nor the prophecies of his friends and 
 patrons. He has tried to do everything, and 
 he has done what he tried to do with more or 
 less distinction, but not with first-rate ability. 
 " Cleopatra," which was almost his first, is per- 
 haps his best work. He is very clever and 
 remarkably versatile, but he is not a great 
 sculptor. 
 
 Had he given himself completely to Art or 
 to Literature, he might have won a great name 
 in either. And had he remained an American 
 in character and sympathy, he would, I think, 
 have succeeded in acquiring greater fame, and 
 a much greater fortune. As it is, however, 
 what with his art and his pen, he has done 
 very well indeed as regards the things that 
 perish. His salon — or rather his wife's — is one 
 
 149 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 of the largest and most brilliant of all the 
 American salons in Eome. This gentleman is 
 another of those *' Americans in Europe " who 
 can see nothing great or good in Lincoln or 
 Grant. His constant attitude towards his na- 
 tive land is that of a fault-finder; and the man 
 who can see nothing to praise and everything 
 to condemn in the land that gave him birth is 
 not, as we all know, the most delectable crea- 
 ture on the face of the earth. Had this dis- 
 tinguished man been made United States 
 Minister to Italy, it is just possible that he 
 would now look with a kindlier eye upon his 
 benighted country. 
 
 Of this sculptor's contemporaries, " Kogers " 
 and " Ives " are the oldest. These men have 
 worked long, and worked well, if we may trust 
 public judgment. Of the younger sculptors 
 Eeinhart was the most brilliant ; but he died 
 before he achieved any very notable work. 
 Simmons, the younger Story, and Ezekiel, are 
 all more or less clever. The younger Story 
 has a very rare conception of the beautiful, and 
 has good powers of expression. Simmons 
 works hard and conscientiously, and does some 
 good things. It has been said that the Jews 
 could not, if they would, break the second corn- 
 
 ISO 
 
AMERICANS IN ROME, 
 
 mandment ; for the reason that they have never 
 been able to make to themselves any graven 
 image. That there have been very few workers 
 in clay amongst the seed of Israel is true. Mr. 
 Ezekiel is therefore an exception — but not 
 much of a one. He has done one or two artis- 
 tic things; but his art, like himself, is too the- 
 atrical. 
 
 There is, or rather was, an American lady 
 sculptor in Eome. Her reputation went up 
 like a rocket and has come down in the prover- 
 bial manner, — that is, if we place reliance on 
 what one hears from this lady's dear friends in 
 Home. At any rate, I believe there is no mis- 
 take about the report that she has abandoned 
 Art for some patent-right mechanical money- 
 making contrivance. Sic transit gloria ! 
 
 AMERICAN PAINTERS IN ROME. 
 
 There are very few American painters left in 
 Eome. Mr. Terry, the oldest if not the best, 
 has ceased to be fashionable; but he could 
 give the younger men of the newer schools 
 many a valuable tip, if they had the modesty 
 and good sense to consult him. He inherited 
 Crawford's widow, as the sculptor inherited his 
 reputation ; and this beautiful inheritance has 
 
 151 
 
AMERICANS IN BTJBOPE. 
 
 been to him a constant source of peace and joy; 
 greater and more glorious, I should say, than 
 the thing called reputation could have brought 
 to him. Haseltine has a good eye for color. 
 Yedder, like Whistler, is peculiar, but an artist 
 all the same. 
 
 The late "W. A. Shade was little known in 
 the American colony, but his friends and ad- 
 mirers place him high in the Art world. 
 
 AMERICAN MINISTERS TO ROME. 
 
 The first American Minister to United Italy 
 was a scholar and a gentleman ; and this is 
 about the best thing that can be said of any- 
 body. Mr. Marsh was very acceptable to the 
 Italian Court, and, I believe, could almost be 
 called an intimate friend of the royal family. 
 But he did not furnish much amusement for the 
 American colony, and it was glad to get rid of 
 him. He was followed by a many times mill- 
 ionaire, and then the fun began. It began, 
 strange to say, over a mere matter of etiquette, 
 and in which only Americans were involved. 
 It may seem odd, perhaps, that these simple 
 democratic people should be disturbed by such 
 matters. Such, however, was the fact. 
 
 It came about in this way. It is the duty of 
 
 152 
 
AMEBIGANS IN ROME. 
 
 all diplomats accredited to tlie king to pay 
 their respects first to the royal family, and 
 then to all the members of the official, or im- 
 mediate Court circle. This the new Minister 
 did in due form and order. Now, amongst the 
 members of the inner Court circle is an Amer- 
 ican lady who wears, with rare dignity and 
 grace, the mask of Princess. This Princess is 
 very lovely, and stands very near Her Majesty 
 the Queen, in person as well as in position. 
 The Minister, of course, called upon the lady 
 and her husband. But it so happened that the 
 Princess lived with her American mother, and 
 in her mother's palace ; and the Minister knew, 
 none better than he, these domestic facts. Yet, 
 notwithstanding this knowledge, in calling 
 upon the Prince and Princess, he left no card 
 or other token of his respect for his compa- 
 triots and townspeople, the father and mother 
 of the Princess. 
 
 And now we shall see what a great matter 
 a little fire kindleth. There was hurrying to 
 and fro in the American colony ; and fear and 
 anxiety were written on almost every face. 
 What was to be done to prevent an open 
 rupture between an American millionaire and 
 an American Princess? It was a tra^^ical 
 
 153 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 case. Who could take sides against a million- 
 aire? Who could take sides against a Prin- 
 cess % But it had to be done ; and for a while 
 it seemed that this simple democratic colony- 
 would be rent asunder by the tremendous 
 question as to whether the American Minister 
 had left the proper number of cards at a cer- 
 tain address. There was some talk of submit- 
 ting the matter to the authorities at Washing- 
 ton. But better counsels prevailed, and the 
 colony at last decided almost unanimously 
 that " whereas the Minister is a very rich man, 
 lives in a great palace, and possesses the dis- 
 position, as w^l as the unbounded means, for 
 generous hospitality ; therefore we, the mem- 
 bers of the American colony in Bome, decide 
 that the aforesaid Minister did, at the time and 
 place (palace) in question, deliver the proper 
 number of pasteboards (with his name and 
 title thereon) ; no less and no more than the 
 exigencies of the case required." 
 
 This resolution was brought about, as I 
 understand, by the action of the American 
 rector, who is, at all times, a conspicuous 
 figure in Eome. It was a very delicate and 
 embarrassing duty for this gentleman to per- 
 form, as both the Princess and the Minister 
 
 154 
 
AMERICANS IN ROME. 
 
 were members of his flock. A less brave and 
 iudependent character would doubtless have 
 elected to keep out of the dispute ; claiming 
 that the functions of his office were spiritual, 
 and did not oblige him to settle questions of 
 court etiquette. But the Minister did not 
 remain wholly inactive in his own defence. 
 He referred the matter to the Italian State De- 
 partment in an elaborate letter, written in ex- 
 cellent French, and by his own Ministerial 
 hand. The Italian Government, as is the 
 merry nature of the race, laughed loud and 
 long over this letter ; but refused to act as 
 umpire in settling the social disputes of the 
 American colony in Eome. Like everything 
 else in this world, the social tempest at last 
 blew itself out. There were som^e wounds 
 left, however, that have not quite healed to 
 this day ; but they are not of a very painful 
 nature. 
 
 The millionaire Minister has returned long 
 since to Gotham, but the Princess and her 
 mother remain in the Eternal City, while the 
 bold rector was for some time rather cruelly 
 neglected by these quondam supporters of his 
 church. This breach is, however, now, to all 
 appearance, healed. The Princess and her 
 
 155 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 husband visited America in tlie year 1878 ; so 
 also did tlie rector. And did not the rector 
 remain in America a month or more, in order 
 to accompany the princely party to Eome ? 
 And did he not devote himself exclusively to 
 the Princess on board the steamer, taking* com- 
 plete charge of her wraps and things ? 
 
 THE JEFFERSONIAN MINISTEB. 
 
 The next American Minister to Eome seemed 
 to be all that the Democratic mind could wish 
 for, but, oddly enough, he did not rejoice the 
 heart of the American colony. He began with 
 Jeffersonian simplicity. He took a very modest 
 apartment in a back street, and performed the 
 duties, both of host and servant, in a most 
 democratic fashion; and when he took his 
 drives abroad, he did not scorn a box seat by 
 the side of the Eoman jeliu. This Minister 
 was consistent, carried his severe simplicity 
 into all matters, and seemed disposed to create 
 a general revolution against social etiquette 
 — ^the very thing his predecessor worshipped ! 
 But he didn't ; nor did he Americanize to any 
 extent the Eternal City. 
 
 There are various ways in which Americans 
 in Eome try to explain the failure of this 
 
 156 
 
AMERICANS IN ROME. 
 
 worthy man with worthy motives. First of 
 all, they said that he was not an American 
 at all, but a German emigrant. They also 
 said that when he was presented to Her 
 Majesty the Queen, he addressed Her Eoyal 
 Highness in German. This surprised and 
 annoyed the Queen, who replied in most ex- 
 cellent English, saying that she preferred to 
 speak to the American Minister in English, 
 if he did not choose to speak her own lan- 
 guage. But this ex-German, ex-priest, and 
 ex-judge, with his German birth and educa- 
 tion, and his American citizenship, aspired to 
 represent both America and Germany, and 
 ended by representing neither, and offending 
 both. The German colony was at first de- 
 lighted with the idea of having two represen- 
 tatives in Eome ; and it took up the American 
 Minister with great haste and enthusiasm — 
 and put him down again with equal fervor 
 and despatch. 
 
 It happened in this way. A German club, 
 or something of that sort, gave the American 
 Minister a reception, at which he made a 
 long speech. In the first half of his speech 
 he glorified Germany, and belittled America. 
 In the second half he belittled Germany, 
 
 157 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 and glorified America, and wound up with 
 the most unqualified praise of himself and 
 his opinions. This gentleman had the rarest 
 gift of saying the wrong thing to the wrong 
 person I ever knew. He would manage, in 
 five minutes' time, in a company of all na- 
 tionalities, to say something displeasing to 
 everybody present. He says all these dis- 
 agreeable things in what he, no doubt, con- 
 siders a spirit of pleasantry ; but his wit and 
 humor are not always appreciated. He talks 
 incessantly, without rhyme or reason — one 
 story following another without any interval, 
 all of which have but one theme — the speaker. 
 In all seriousness, I do not believe. that a 
 man less fitted for such a post could be found 
 in the wide territory of the American Repub- 
 lic. It was not only a colossal mistake in 
 the United States Government to send such 
 a man to occupy such a post, but it was also a 
 cruel shame to expose so good and so learned 
 a man to the ridicule of his inferiors; for he 
 was superior in real character and learning 
 to all his diplomatic colleagues, as well as 
 to his German and American compatriots — 
 who snubbed him so unmercifully. Moreover, 
 he was, and is, a kind, generous-hearted man 
 
 158 
 
AMERICANS IN ROME. 
 
 who loves America as truly as any one of 
 us. He is also a learned man, and has written 
 some books which give evidence of an ample 
 scholarship. I know of no one to whom I 
 would sooner appeal for help and charity, 
 were I in need of them, than to this same 
 ex-Minister to Eome. Many of the stories 
 told about him were utterly false, and I think 
 I can fairly say all of them were exaggerated. 
 Take, for example, the story of 
 
 The story goes that, at a dinner party given 
 in his honor, the Minister and his daughter 
 abruptly left the table and the house upon 
 the entrance of a certain Vatican ecclesiastic. 
 TThe truth, in brief, is, that the American 
 Minister accepted an invitation to dine with 
 an American lady, in the most informal and 
 quiet way, and with the special and distinct 
 understanding that he was to meet no repre- 
 sentative of the faction unfriendly to the Ital- 
 ian Government. This precaution and respect 
 he thought due to the Court to which he was 
 accredited, and to which, as yet, he had not 
 been presented. But the lady was determined 
 to make as much social capital out of the 
 
 159 
 
AMEBI0AN8 IN EUROPE, 
 
 new Minister as possible ; and slie, therefore, 
 invited several prominent persons — Americans 
 and Italians — to meet tlie American Minis- 
 ter. 
 
 On arriving at the house, the Minister was 
 met in the lobby by his hostess and by a 
 well-known American banker, who lives in 
 Eome, and was informed that a very conspic- 
 uous Vatican dignitary and anti-royalist had 
 unexpectedly turned up, and was at that mo- 
 ment in the drawing-room. The Minister 
 declined to meet the priest, and returned to 
 his home without having entered either draw- 
 ing-room or dining-room. This showed, I 
 grant, rather scant consideration for the lady 
 who gave the dinner; but the Minister was, 
 perhaps, right. The Americans in Eome re- 
 mained in sackcloth and ashes during this 
 gentleman's term of office ; for they had not 
 only to endure the blunders of the Minister, 
 but the worse than blunders of the Secretary 
 of Legation, who was everything that he 
 should not, and nothing that he should, have 
 been. To make bad worse, the Minister and 
 the Secretary quarrelled, and became the most 
 violent and open enemies, taking every op- 
 portunity of annoying and discrediting each 
 
 ICO 
 
AMETtlOANS IN ROME. 
 
 other. Thus things were altogether in a 
 pretty pickle. What special and enduring 
 advantage the United States Government de- 
 rived from these two diplomats, I have not 
 been able to discern. 
 
 THE LATE MINISTEE IN ROME. 
 
 The late American Minister to Eome was not a 
 linguist, and makes no claim to the character of 
 a diplomat, but his secretary was able and will- 
 ing to supply these deficiencies. This particu- 
 lar secretary is " decidedly some pumpkins," if 
 you please. He was educated " abroad," speaks 
 English with a French accent — so his lady ad- 
 mirers observe with great delight — and is al- 
 together "too awfully swell." As a social 
 grandee he will run the Secretary of Legation 
 in London a close race for the first place. And, 
 just here, I wish to remark, and my language 
 shall be plain, that of all the pretentious empty- 
 headed noodles this old round world has ever 
 known, commend me to the " secretaries " and 
 " attaches " who are pinned on to the social 
 skirts of the Embassies and Legations at Euro- 
 pean capitals. I have never seen one who made 
 the slightest approach to being a man. I am 
 
 161 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 quite willing to admit that this small diplo- 
 matic fly alv/ays draws me. 
 
 And now, having vented my spleen upon these 
 harmless insects, I return to the American Min- 
 ister at Kome in a calmer and, I trust, more ju- 
 dicial frame of mind. Ex-Governor Porter of 
 Indiana is a good type of an unpretentious 
 American gentleman. He showed consx)icuous 
 ability in his own State, and in the United 
 States, for that matter, as a lawyer and poli- 
 tician of the best class, and was one of the most 
 effective platform orators during a late Presi- 
 dential camioaign. He is a gentleman of the 
 old school ; very cordial and very genial, but 
 very dignified ; and not, by any means, the sort 
 of man that you would think of patting on the 
 back or puncliing familiarly in the ribs. 
 
 But all the good qualities of this genuine 
 American were hidden under the diplomatic 
 bushel. How such a man could accept siich a 
 post, I cannot imagine. I am told that he 
 might have exchanged it whenever he liked 
 for the iDOsition of Senator. If this be true, I 
 feel sure that the place that once knew him will 
 know him no more. He was for several years 
 the partner-in-law of an ex-President ; and it is 
 just possible, from what I heard, that the ex- 
 
 163 
 
AMERICANS IN ROME. 
 
 President preferred to have his old friend 
 and partner beyond the reach of conven- 
 tions and such things. Governor Porter was 
 much liked in Eome, and I heard nothing but 
 good of him and his amiable daughter. 
 
 TITLED AMERICANS IN EOME. 
 
 Of the titled Americans in Eome I have said 
 something, and now have something more to 
 say. The Princess, around whom the " card 
 war" waged so furiously, is, in her own and 
 proper person, one of the most amiable and 
 justly popular ladies in the Eternal City. She 
 is an only daughter of a wealthy New Yorker, 
 and was brought, when very young, to Europe 
 by her parents. She was pretty, had a decid- 
 edly nice " dot," and her parents had the pick 
 and choice of not a few of the Erench and Italian 
 titles. They chose, however, to reside in Italy, 
 and thought it more convenient to purchase a 
 title on the spot. But they drew the line at 
 the Vatican, and refused, point blank, to con- 
 sider Papal titles or to have any dealings what- 
 ever in that market. 
 
 These wise parents saw — what few Ameri- 
 cans have sense enough to see — that the Vati- 
 can titled wares are at a decided discount, and 
 
 163 
 
AMERIGANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 must in time altogether disappear from the 
 market. In other and plainer words, these 
 practical American parents saw clearly that the 
 Papacy was a thing of the past, and they would 
 have none of it. Italian unity, on the other 
 hand, they saw to be a thing of the present, 
 and of the future, and, as I believe, or at least 
 hope, a very brilliant future. 
 
 These level-headed Americans kept their 
 wits about them, and saw, and read, and pon- 
 dered the signs of the times. They, therefore, 
 determined to ally themselves and tkeir house 
 with the King and progressive Italy, rather 
 than with the Pope and the moribund E. C. 
 Hierarchy. They fixed upon a Neapolitan 
 prince, and he has turned out to be a very nice 
 fellow indeed, and is almost, if not quite, as 
 amiable and popular as his wife. They have 
 lived, and are living, a peaceful and happy life 
 under the roof of the American mother. Two 
 children have been born to them. The eldest, 
 a son, is a soldier. The daughter has her 
 mother's beautiful color, and her father's dark 
 eyes, and is just now 
 
 *' Standing with reluctant feet 
 Where the brook and river Hieet, 
 Womanhood and childhood fleet." 
 
 164 
 
AMERICANS IN ROME, 
 
 The Prince lias, or had, an elder brother, who 
 gave the American parents some uneasiness 
 concerning the validity of their daughter's 
 title of Princess. This elder brother married, 
 and with hardly sufficient means to support his 
 princely station. He therefore agreed, for a 
 substantial consideration, to resign in favor 
 of his younger brother. This was arranged, 
 and the marriage took place. But after the 
 marriage, this noble-minded prince thought to 
 squeeze another hundred thousand dollars or 
 so out of the Americans by resuming, or seek- 
 ing to resume, his princely character and title. 
 But the Americans were not to be " done " in 
 that unprincely fashion. They showed fight, 
 and took the matter into the law courts. In 
 the meantime, however, the King conferred 
 high rank upon his Neapolitan favorite, 
 which perfectly satisfied the democratic Ameri- 
 can parents, and they were happy once more. 
 It is a pleasure to have to relate, that, in the 
 course of time, the Italian Courts decided that 
 the abdication of the elder brother in favor 
 of the younger was legal and final ; so that 
 there are now titles enough and to spare in 
 this democratic family. 
 
 165 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 THE AMERICAN COUNTESS. 
 
 Next to the New York princess, in rank and 
 royal favor, stands a New York countess. 
 This lady's husband is first chamberlain, I be- 
 lieve, to His Eoyal Highness, the King ; in 
 other words, the Master of Royal Ceremonies. 
 This Count has a very handsome person, as be- 
 comes a man of his position ; is very popular, 
 very good-natured, and very fond of the ladies. 
 The last mentioned amiable trait of character 
 gets the upper hand now and then of the gal- 
 lant Count, but of the Countess never ; and she 
 is always able to pull up her too impetuous 
 husband, when she thinks it necessary to take 
 the reins in her own cool hands. 
 
 The Countess is said to be unlike her com- 
 patriots, in one respect at least. She thinks 
 more of American money than of European 
 titles. The great friendship which a late 
 American banker, in London, had for this lady 
 was known to all. She has recently taken up 
 an American lady — a very wealthy lady, so they 
 say — whose dollars aid her in the entertain- 
 ment of the impecunious Eoman aristocracy. 
 However this may be, I am quite certain that 
 
 166 
 
AMERICANS IN ROME. 
 
 this very good looking, and very clever, South- 
 ern lady gets more fun for her money than any 
 
 ern laay gets more lur 
 other person in Rome. 
 
 A LOVEE OF TITLES. 
 
 Next to the possession of titles comes the 
 love of titles, and of this large class the wife of 
 the American sculptor is, by far, the most dis- 
 tinguished. Many and curious are the stories 
 related which illustrate this lady's faithful 
 worship of " My Lords " temporal. But she has 
 the quick and well-trained eye of a genuine 
 connoisseur, and does not waste her time or 
 tea on pseudo-'FuenGh., German, and Italian 
 titles. She infinitely prefers the English brand 
 of nobility to any other in the market, and con- 
 fines her dealings almost exclusively to that 
 variety. 
 
 She knows that the English title can be easily 
 verified, and generally stands for some real dis- 
 tinction, of both wealth and station ; and she 
 knows, as well, on the other hand, that a 
 continental title, even if genuine, which one 
 can never be certain of, has come to signify, is 
 the equivalent term, in fact, for a penniless 
 French, German, or Italian adventurer. Again, 
 the value of an English title is heightened by 
 
 167 
 
AMEBIGAN8 IN EUROPE. 
 
 the fact that it is kept well in hand, and is not 
 allowed to spread itself over a whole generation 
 of people, with the most attenuated ties of con- 
 sanguinity. 
 
 In England the nephew or grandson of a 
 Duke is usually Mr.; whilst the nephew or 
 grandson of a continental Duke is a " Prince," 
 if you please ; and all the cousins, to the hun- 
 dredth or thousandth degree, are Marquises, or 
 Counts, or what you like. Nine-tenths of the 
 continental " brands " which my fair country- 
 women purchase — and at good prices, too — are 
 spurious, and the other tenth worthless. 
 
 If the rich American girl must have a title 
 and " won't be happy till she gets it," I recom- 
 mend her to deal almost exclusively in the 
 British market. The British handle to names 
 comes a bit high, I know ; but it is undoubtedly 
 a much superior article, and well worth the dif- 
 ference in price — I speak of the title, and not 
 of the man who goes with it ; for the latter, not 
 infrequently, is as inferior an article as is to be 
 found anywhere on this planet. 
 
 But to go back to the lady lover of titles. 
 Whilst she does not object to undoubted Ital- 
 ian titles, she prefers to cultivate the English 
 variety, and has done so with very great suc- 
 
 1G8 
 
AMERICANS IN ROME. 
 
 cess. During the last twenty -five years there 
 have been few Lords and Ladies who have vis- 
 ited the Eternal City without having been seen 
 in this lady's salon. She sometimes makes 
 mistakes — who does not ?— surrounded, as this 
 lady is, by all degrees of titles is it any wonder 
 that she should get them mixed now and then, 
 or make little slips, such as addressing an Eng- 
 lish Eoyal Princess as " my dear Marchioness." 
 This American lady, like her distinguished 
 husband, the sculptor, is not partial to her own 
 country people, unless, perchance, they are 
 very rich, with money to spend on works of 
 the sculptor's art. 
 
 At a reception once given by the American 
 Minister, Mr. Marsh, to General Grant, the wife 
 of the American sculptor was the only lady 
 who did not rise on the entrance of General and 
 Mrs. Grant ; and of this conduct she boasted 
 afterward. But let us consider this incident 
 for one moment. Who was General Grant ? 
 A private American citizen, received by all the 
 nations of the world with more honor, perhaps, 
 than any person had ever been received in the 
 history of the world. And who was the lady 
 who made herself so conspicuous by her rude- 
 ness ? A woman whose mind was evidently too 
 
 169 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 full of '' My Lords " and " My Ladies" to enable 
 her to recognize a supremely great man. We 
 can only pity and forgive. 
 
 This grand dame's only daughter married an 
 Italian, strange to say, without a title, but with 
 a most illustrious Tuscan name. This gentle- 
 man belongs to the Court circle ; is in great 
 favor with the king, and could, if he would, be 
 made a Count or something for the mere ask- 
 ing. But he has too much sense to cover up 
 a good and honorable name under the dubi- 
 ous outward badge of nobility. For this real 
 Italian gentleman knows that, in these days, 
 such things as titles of nobility are decidedly 
 below par, whilst a truly good name is always 
 at a premium. 
 
 There are a number of other titled American 
 ladies in Rome, but I now call to mind no one 
 of special interest, save, perhaps, a certain Mar- 
 chesa, who has the proud and exceptional dis- 
 tinction of winning her title by her personal 
 charms, and without the aid of the almighty 
 dollar. This beautiful and most amiable lady 
 was very ill for a year or more, and her friends 
 despaired of her life ; but she is now, I am happy 
 to say, restored to health. The daughter of the 
 Silver Queen, who bought her way into an old 
 
 ITO 
 
AMERICANS IN ROME. 
 
 Italian family of very high rank, is not very 
 conspicuous, for some reason or other, in Eoman 
 society. 
 
 I had almost forgotten to mention the New 
 York princess, whose ancestors on her moth- 
 er's side were honest tobacco merchants, but 
 who has, unfortunately, as I think, allied her- 
 self with a family made famous, or infamous, 
 as you please, by the semi-mythical story of 
 " Beatrice Cenci." 
 
 THE BALTIMOKE LADY. 
 
 During the season of '89-90 a certain Balti- 
 more lady arrived in Bome with a daughter and 
 a purse. She was taken up at once by the 
 American Countess who values dollars above 
 titles, and in an amazingly short time the Bal- 
 timore lady had " painted the town red." This 
 lady is good-looking, bright, and very rich, 
 and, let us hope, that having had her Boman 
 fling, she will now shake the dust of the Eter- 
 nal City, with its eternal adventures, from off 
 her golden slippers, and return with her daugh- 
 ter to "the land of the free and the home 
 of the brave." But it has been whispered 
 recently that this lady's only remaining daugh- 
 ter thinks of entering the Boman Catholic 
 
 171 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 Church. I believe the report to be false. 
 Eome has also the great honor of being the 
 place of residence of the only American who 
 has ever married a British lady of title. But 
 this title, I hear, is causing some heart-burn- 
 ings, for the European courts will not recog- 
 nize a title of nobility in the wife of an Ameri- 
 can citizen. This is a truly sad state of things, 
 but I think I can assure my conspicuous com- 
 patriot that he has the profound sympathy of 
 the whole American nation. 
 
 THE HOLY BOMAN FEVER. 
 
 There is a disease in Eome almost, if not 
 quite, as fatal to American women as the title- 
 complaint, viz., the "Holy Roman Fever." The 
 title-complaint, for the most part, attacks the 
 young, the pretty, and the rich, whilst the Holy 
 Roman Fever attacks all sorts and conditions 
 of women — seldom, if ever, men. The American 
 man may be inferior, as everybody says he is, 
 to his sisters and his cousins and his aunts ; 
 in the languages, in art, in general culture and 
 that ; but he is seldom, if ever, an unmitigated, 
 hopeless fool, and can't be drawn by the old 
 and faded properties of the Vatican comedy. 
 
 173 
 
AMERIOANS IN ROME, 
 
 This thing was " played out " long ago, and ho 
 has native gumption enough to see and fully 
 understand that historical fact. He will, to be 
 sure, go about with his impressionable female 
 relatives and witness the "lovely services.'* 
 He will procure tickets of his bankers to see 
 His Holiness. He will go to see the heads of 
 St. Peter and St. Paul ; the true cradle of the 
 Christ ; the chains which bound St. Peter when 
 he was in Kome (if he were ever in Eome). Ho 
 can see what is to be seen and hear what is to 
 be heard ; but, however he may be exposed to 
 the damp and the mould of fraudulent relics, 
 and to the altogether sickly atmosphere of tho 
 Holy Church and her Holy Priests, he seldom 
 catches the Holy Roman Fever ; and he leaves 
 with a feeling of great relief, heartily glad to 
 get away from the Eternal City, with its ever- 
 lasting fraud and falsehood, trickery and cor- 
 ruption, which established, and tries to per- 
 petuate, the Roman Church. 
 
 After being in Rome for a winter, and having 
 visited the places which " Hare " and the rest 
 of the old ladies rave about, one almost feels 
 one's self a party to these silly frauds. But look 
 at the Vatican, with its divine claims of infalli- 
 bility, and then at Rom© and Italy ; at the 
 
 173 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 moral and spiritual results of a thousand years 
 and more of this infallibility ; and you will be 
 convinced. And if by chance, during your visit 
 to Rome and Florence, you have read Benvenuto 
 Cellini, Machiavelli, or any other book giving 
 an honest account of such beauties as Alexan- 
 der YI., Clement YII., Paul III.— I take this 
 batch of worthies as they happen to stand to- 
 gether — if, I say, in addition to your own ob- 
 servation and your own American gumption, 
 you should read a little true history, then you 
 will not only turn away from Rome with con- 
 tempt, but with, it may be, a burning indigna- 
 tion at the emptiness of her pretence and the 
 foulness of her real character — that is, if you 
 think it worth the trouble to treat it seriously. 
 I am, of course, speaking to men of sense. 
 Now, women (bless them !) only see things in 
 spots and patches, and they seldom look be- 
 neath the surface, being quite content with the 
 outward show, whatever it may pretend to be. 
 They either have not the power or the dis- 
 position to connect things according to their 
 natural and vital relations. They are said to 
 be without the faculty of ratiocination ; and 
 then — and this to their very great credit — they 
 are certainly more credulous than their brothers, 
 
 174 
 
AMEBIGAN8 IN ROME, 
 
 especially in matters of sentiment. But there 
 is such a thing- as a false sentiment, is there 
 not? And the sentiment which goes out to 
 false relics, false history, and false holiness, is 
 not the highest expression, either of the poeti- 
 cal or of the spiritual life. 
 
 A CERTAIN NOTABLE AMERICAN AUTHOR. 
 
 But there have been one or two male victims 
 of this Holy Eoman Fever in the American col- 
 ony, and a celebrated American-Italian author 
 is perhaps the most notable one. He was born 
 in Eome, and is the son, as we all know, of an 
 eminent American sculptor. Our author was 
 educated in Eome, America, England, and Ger- 
 many, and has picked up a good deal of infor- 
 mation of one sort or another, as his numer- 
 ous books give evidence. That he has never 
 studied anything profoundly, or thought seri- 
 ously on any great subject, his books give equal 
 testimony. One thing may be said, however, 
 without qualification — he is an exceptionally 
 clever linguist. 
 
 The story of this novelist's reputation and 
 brilliant career is perhaps worth telling. He 
 had been given all the educational advantages 
 that the four above-mentioned nations could 
 
 175 
 
AMEIITGANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 furnish him, and at the age of thirty years, or 
 thereabout, he found himself without money, 
 without a profession, or even an occupation. His 
 mother had lost her fortune, or the greater part 
 of it, and was unable to support any longer her 
 *' white elephant," as she called her handsome 
 and athletic son. He was thus forced to seek 
 employment, and the future author worked for 
 a while as clerk in the office of the United 
 States Consulate in Eome. I have even heard 
 it said that he thought at one time of enlisting 
 as a common soldier. However this may be, 
 his unusual knowledge of languages suggested 
 to him at last the profession of a teacher, and a 
 teacher he decided to be. He bought a San- 
 skrit Grammar and spent one summer in its 
 study among the Alban Mountains. 
 
 Having mastered his subject, he determined 
 to go to America and seek a professorship. Be- 
 fore this time, however, he had been to India as 
 the editor or assistant editor of a weekly Eng- 
 lish journal, and it was in India that he met 
 the individual who furnished him the material 
 of his chief story. On his way to America he 
 told the story to his uncle — the famous Uncle 
 Sam — who knew this world as well as the 
 next one, and saw at once that his handsome 
 
 176 
 
AMERICANS IN ROME, 
 
 nephew had something to say that the world 
 would be glad to hear. On reaching New York, 
 he (the uncle) compelled the nephew to sit down 
 at once and write out the story just as he had 
 told it. This was done in two or three weeks, 
 and our author awoke one fine morning to find 
 himself famous. 
 
 But how did he happen to get the Holy Eo- 
 man Fever ? Well, this is not the least strange 
 incident in the rather strange history of this 
 popular writer. It sometimes happens, so the 
 doctors say, that one may contract a fever 
 which will remain undeveloped in the system 
 for weeks and months, and it maj^ be years, and 
 then suddenly break out, at a time and in a 
 place where and when it is least suspected. 
 This was true in our author's case. He had 
 been born in Eome, and had been exposed from 
 infancy to the foul atmosphere of this disease 
 of the mind, but had never suffered a day's ill- 
 ness, so far as was known, until he went to In- 
 dia ; and it was there, strange to say, that he 
 succumbed to the complaint, which doubtless 
 had been in his system for years without any 
 of his friends ever suspecting it. He has sense 
 enough to see the absurdity of the thing now, 
 and he never could have been overcome by this 
 
 177 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 disorder had he remained in Rome, face to face 
 with the fraud and corruption of the Holy- 
 Roman Church. The words " fraud " and " cor- 
 rui^fcion" are, I believe, interpolations upon the 
 original text; but they do not, I think, very 
 seriously misrepresent the state of this gentle- 
 man's real mind. He has, however, stuck to 
 his guns with a great deal of heroism, and 
 tries, in a fictitious way, to bolster up what 
 Macaulay termed "an old and august super- 
 stition." 
 
 He says, or has said, so much about the Church 
 and her priests in his books as to awaken in 
 some minds a suspicion of his pen being subsi- 
 dized. But this is wholly groundless. He is 
 simply trying to write himself into a belief of 
 something wholly unbelievable, and, methinks, 
 he protests too much to be sincere. Some of 
 his books have been rather heavily handicapped 
 by that sort of thing, and the sooner he real- 
 izes this fact the better for his reputation and 
 the sale of his books. For an author who tries 
 to belittle Garibaldi and the work he did, and 
 to glorify Cardinal Antonelli, is surely par- 
 ti-colored and wholly out of joint with the 
 times, and discounts enormously his own judg- 
 ment and common sense. Our author tells 
 
 178 
 
AMERICANS IN ROME, 
 
 some very good stories ; he knows something 
 about Italian life and character ; but his air of 
 exclusive knowledge on these subjects causes 
 him to make many an awkward blunder. 
 
 THE MAN WITH THE LIBEAEY. 
 
 There is another American of the male gen- 
 der who has also succumbed to the religious ma- 
 laria of Rome. This is the man with the library, 
 who lives in an old palace near the Yatican. This 
 gentleman is of New England birth ; was edu- 
 cated at Harvard, and brought up in the faith 
 — if faith it may be called — of the Unitarian 
 sect. He started out in life as a New York law- 
 yer, but his marriage with a rich Philadelphia 
 widow relieved him from the drudgery of a pro- 
 fessional life and set his pen free to follow the 
 leadings of the "muse." But the muse has not 
 been always kind, and has led this poet's pen 
 through some very dry and barren fields. But 
 the true glory of this man is to be found in his 
 library. There he sits — or used to sit — sur- 
 rounded by the greatest number of the best 
 bound volumes to be seen in any private library 
 in Rome, and the library room is as splendid 
 as the books and their bindings. 
 
 179 
 
AMEBIGANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 The poet has himself a magisterial air and 
 manner well becoming his library. His palace 
 and his library are both the material and the 
 spiritual outposts of the Vatican ; the last 
 stages in the journey from Christianity to Pa- 
 ganism — I mean, Eomanism. The mere sight of 
 this great man, seated in his spacious library, 
 is quite enough to do the business for most 
 of his impressionable countrywomen. But 
 if anything else should be needed, the flut- 
 ter of a Monsignore's petticoat, or the splen- 
 dor of a Cardinal's cap, one or other of which 
 is always in attendance, ends the matter; and 
 the big toe of His Holiness is adoringly kissed 
 as a token of the absolute surrender — of a fool 
 to a fraud. By fraud I mean, of course, the in- 
 fallible pretensions of the Pontiff, and not his 
 personal character. 
 
 Now and then, however, the game escapes 
 their wily snares. For example, a very short 
 time since two travellers arrived at this outpost 
 seeking rest. They were priests of the English 
 Catholic Church ; but called themselves Cowley 
 Brothers, or Fathers. The one was Father Eiv- 
 ington, the other Father Maturin. Father Kiv- 
 ington found what he sought and passed on to 
 the Vatican. But Father Maturin was not sat- 
 
 180 
 
AMEBIGAN8 IN ROME. 
 
 isfied and turned him back again to the beg- 
 garly elements of the English Church. 
 
 This was a sore disappointment both to the 
 man in his library and the Pope in the Yatican ; 
 for I happen to know that they counted so surely 
 upon this victim that they arranged an apart- 
 ment, not only for his temporary lodgment in 
 the palace of the poet, but for his residence in 
 the Yatican. But whilst the poet and his wife 
 " — both of whom had forsaken the faith of their 
 fathers — were spending their time and tlieir 
 substance in trying to persuade others to fol- 
 low their examples; whilst, I say, these per- 
 verts were hobnobbing with Yatican priests and 
 giving themselves up to making converts to the 
 Holy Eoman Church, they neglected to pro- 
 vide, so it seems, spiritual or even moral food 
 for those of their own, and especially for her 
 of their own household ; and must now eat in 
 shame and sorrow the bitter fruit of their own 
 folly. I pity them, but I cannot spare them, 
 for their sad case points a moral which I would 
 have my beloved country people know and 
 ponder. 
 
 181 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 THE AMERICAN WIDOW AND SON. 
 
 I do not just now remember any other nota- 
 ble male converts in the American colony. Of 
 the numerous American women who have for- 
 saken the faith of their fathers, I shall have lit- 
 tle to say. I cannot pass from this subject, 
 however, without an observation or two con- 
 cerning a lady convert who is somewhat promi- 
 nent in the social life of Eome. This lady is of 
 New England birth, and, like the man with the 
 library, was brought up on the rather thin gruel 
 of Unitarianism. She visited Eome and caught 
 the "holy fever" early in life. At her mar- 
 riage, however, with a rich American widower, 
 she recanted and returned to the Protestant 
 fold, but not to her Unitarian gruel. Her hus- 
 band was a member of the Astor family and an 
 author of some merit. On his death he left his 
 property to his widow, in custody for his only 
 son, with the solemn pledge from his wife — so I 
 am told — that she would remain a Protestant 
 and bring their son up in that faith. But im- 
 mediately on the death of the father the widow 
 had the son baptized into the Holy Eoman 
 Church, and he has now some honorary posi- 
 
 183 
 
AMERICANS IN ROME. 
 
 tion in the Yatican, being attached, I believe, to 
 the Pope's household, in some way or other. 
 The lady's salon is always full of priests, mon- 
 signores, cardinals, etc., some of whom do not 
 bear very savory reputations. This lady once 
 had a violent quarrel with one of these holy 
 men, but I believe it is all made up now. Said 
 a man of the world to me the other day : '' I 
 never hear of an American or English woman 
 going over to Eome without wondering what 
 naughty thing she has been up to, or intends 
 to be up to." Exactly so. I cannot conceive 
 how it is possible for any strong-minded, earn- 
 est-hearted person to change his or her relig- 
 ion, whatever it may be. 
 
 Conversions from one christian church to 
 another christian church are not pretty things 
 to behold. There may be some cases in which 
 they are pardonable. For example, where an 
 American woman buys a European title, it is 
 but proper, I suppose, that she should take the 
 religious " creed " that goes with it. And, as a 
 matter of fact, it is not often that an American 
 woman will suffer a mere question of religion 
 to stand in the way of a title, or that a Euro- 
 pean fortune-hunter will allow it to interpose 
 between himself and the American dollar. Now 
 
 183 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 and then, however, such matters do intrude 
 themselves, and I remember at least one case of 
 this kind. In the winter of '88-'89 a very rich 
 American family visited Rome, with an only 
 child, a daughter, who was sole heir to at least 
 ^NQ millions of dollars. The parents were ac- 
 quainted with nobody in Eome ; but their wealth 
 and their pretty daughter soon made them 
 known, and the fortune-hunters were on hand 
 in great abundance. 
 
 Amongst this numerous class was a certain 
 notorious man about town, whose father and 
 elder brother were papal princes. Well, this 
 so-called prince had just played for the hand 
 of a "Washington heiress, of his own religious 
 communion, and had lost. But there was game 
 still worth two or three of the other. Here 
 was youth (the child was but sixteen), beauty, 
 and a fortune three or four times as large as 
 the lost prize. The American family had been 
 in Eome just long enough for the story of their 
 great wealth to reach the eager sons of every 
 noble Roman beggar, when this prince in 
 question gave out that he had fallen madly in 
 love with an unknown American girl, and only 
 wanted a chance to throw his princely person 
 (with his princely debts) at her feet. Now, 
 
 184 
 
AMERICANS IN ROME. 
 
 strange to say, it turned out that this unknown 
 beauty was the well-known heiress. What a 
 cruel fate ! The prince was so sad and disap- 
 pointed ; for as he had just failed in the hot 
 chase of one American heiress, how could he 
 turn so quickly to the pursuit of another ? His 
 case was hopeless. He would be accused of 
 seeking" her fortune, and not her heart, which 
 of course was far from his thoughts. He there- 
 fore determined to suffer in silence. But one 
 day whilst in the company of a well-known 
 American author, the prince grew confidential, 
 and unburdened his woe to this Roman-Amer- 
 ican. But our author, having a more sanguine 
 temperament, was not so sure of the hopeless- 
 ness of the prince's love; he counselled him 
 to take heart, and promised that he, the au- 
 thor, would see what could be done. For had 
 he not solved worse difficulties than this in his 
 books ? 
 
 Not many days afterward, all Eome knew the 
 " romance " of the proud prince and his hope- 
 less love ; and this sad and pathetic story 
 checked, for a time let us hope, the wild gaiety 
 of frivolous Rome. The parents of the heiress 
 heard it ; the heiress herself heard it, and it 
 made of course a deep impression upon this 
 
 185 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 democratic family. But apart from the ques- 
 tion of money, which could not even be thought 
 of in connection with so simple-minded and 
 true-hearted a prince, there was, to the mother, 
 at least, the very serious question of religion. 
 
 The mother of the heiress was a Presby- 
 terian ; she knew nothing of the Roman Catho- 
 lic Church, but had heard that the priests 
 during certain ceremonies eat babies ; and she 
 could not therefore under any circumstances 
 give her daughter in marriage to a member of 
 that Church. Several members of the Ameri- 
 can colony — not unwilling to oblige a prince 
 — ^used all their persuasive powers to change 
 the mind of the obdurate mother. The Ameri- 
 can rector, for a wonder, did not know the 
 prince, and was therefore opposed to the 
 match. The prince hearing of this opposition, 
 paid a visit to this distinguished gentleman, 
 and all opposition from that quarter was si- 
 lenced. The child herself, in spite of all the in- 
 decent noise about the affair and the unseemly 
 notoriety which it forced upon her, was not 
 seriously smitten with, truth to say, the rather 
 plain person of the prince. But hearing such 
 a commotion made around and about herself 
 and a prince, she was naturally flattered, and 
 
 186 
 
AMERICANS IN ROME. 
 
 might have consented to sacrifice her youth to 
 a man more than twice her age, and her inno- 
 cency to a notorious rake. The father was 
 open to conviction, but the mother was not. 
 After the excitement had lasted for several 
 weeks, it was thought that a change of air 
 would be good for the young girl, who was not 
 in robust health. The mother and daughter 
 were invited by the aforementioned author to 
 visit him in his beautiful home at Sorrento; 
 and, strange to relate, the prince *' happened " 
 to pay a visit to our author at the same time. 
 A curious coincidence, was it not? Yet, in 
 spite of all this trickery and wire-pulling, the 
 wedding did not come off. The mother's 
 prejudices against the baby-eating priests, and 
 the child's indifference, could not be overcome. 
 After leaving Eome the family visited Ger- 
 many — the father's native land — and the daugh- 
 ter was there betrothed to a German prince. 
 But the poor child never recovered from the 
 Eoman fever, and died in Paris in the month of 
 June, 1889. The body was taken to America for 
 interment, and the Koman prince had the good 
 sense, or it may have been the good heart, to 
 accompany the sorrowful parents to their home, 
 and was present at the funeral. He thus played 
 
 187 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 the rSle of true lover to the end. It is said that 
 the American author positively insisted upon 
 the prince taking this trip to America, in order 
 that he, the author, might be justified of the 
 world. But how people do talk ! 
 
 A RECENT EVENT — ^MATRIMONIAL. 
 
 For several years a certain Scandinavian, with 
 one or two noble titles — given him by the 
 Pope — ^had been hanging about the skirts of 
 the American colony in Kome on the look-out 
 for an heiress. A knowing man was this same 
 Scandinavian ; and among the many things that 
 he knew was the fact that rich American 
 fathers do not always give large " dots " to 
 their pretty daughters. He therefore decided 
 to take no chances with prospective heiresses, 
 if he could secure a wife who was in actual pos- 
 session. He waited patiently and long, and his 
 wisdom and perseverance were at last jus- 
 tified. In the flowery month of May (1891) he 
 was united in holy matrimony to a New York 
 lady with at least fifteen thousand dollars a 
 year. This sum, it is true, is not "so deep as a 
 well nor so wide as a church door," but 'tis 
 enough ; it will serve the immediate necessities 
 
 188 
 
AMERICANS IN ROME. 
 
 of this penniless papal count. The merit of 
 this snug- little sum is its actuality; its free- 
 dom from all restraints of father or mother — or 
 aunt. The fact that the wife is a few years 
 older than the husband does not signify ; for it 
 was a genuine love affair — so the senior lady of 
 the American colony certifies ; and this good 
 soul, knowing the facts, did all in her power to 
 bring about the union of these two happy 
 hearts. True, the man was a papist and the 
 maid was a Protestant, but this kind-hearted 
 lady — herself a Protestant, — was not so bigoted 
 as to withhold her motherly aid and advice to 
 this motherless countrywoman in a strange 
 land. So the American lady became a Holy 
 Eoman but a few days before she became a 
 papal countess. The kindly services of this 
 well-known lady have been rather severely 
 criticised by some unsympathetic persons, who 
 say that she would have better shown her kind- 
 ness to her countrywoman by making some 
 careful inquiries concerning the character of 
 the man who sought the hand of this orphan- 
 heiress. The bride belongs to a good family ; 
 her brother married a daughter of a certain 
 American bishop. If she is wise enough to 
 hold fast to her purse-strings, she may not have 
 
 189 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE, 
 
 to ask charity from her relations for some time 
 to come. 
 
 There are, I am glad to say, a few Americans 
 in Rome whose manner of life is, so far as I 
 know, wholly blameless, and of whom I have no 
 right to speak in these pages. There are, how- 
 ever, a few semi-public characters that may be 
 mentioned, I feel sure, without offence. Fore- 
 most among these is the correspondent of the 
 London Times, with his beautiful Greek wife 
 and his Greco-American daughters, who have 
 returned to Rome after an absence of some 
 years. And then there is an American banker 
 in Rome, who has been there nearly half a 
 century, and who could tell some interesting 
 stories, I doubt not, of Americans he has known 
 in the Eternal City. 
 
 190 
 
XV. 
 
 FLOEEKCE. 
 
 Of all Italians the Tuscans are the most 
 amiable, the most intelligent, and the least 
 given to idolatry. The Italian language was 
 born in Florence. The Renaissance began and 
 ended in Florence ; and it has left its mark to 
 this day upon the Tuscan life and character. 
 The greatest scholar, the greatest artist, and the 
 greatest preacher of the fifteenth century were 
 all essentially Florentine. Pico della Miran- 
 dola, Buonarroti, and Savonarola were the most 
 conspicuous figures of the Eenaissance. Flor- 
 ence was the centre and inspiration of that new 
 and complex life and thought which liberated 
 Italy from a tyrannical and vicious Papacy; 
 and the Vatican has never regained its lost 
 power in Tuscany. 
 
 The Tuscans are always Italians first and 
 Catholics afterwards; and they have at last 
 taught the lesson to all Italy. The Romans 
 
 191 
 
AMERIGAJSfS IN EUROPE. 
 
 always demanded a formula and a tyrant. The 
 Florentines were never tolerant of either. Flor- 
 ence loved and followed Savonarola as its 
 spiritual master and guide ; but when he would 
 become its political tyrant it destroyed him. In 
 Rome they do not ask w^hy you are a heretic, 
 but are you one. If you are not, it makes no 
 difference what you do, all is well ; if you are, 
 do what you will, there is no hope for you. In 
 Florence such questions are never raised. 
 
 The Renaissance, from first to last, had little 
 or no influence upon Rome. By Rome I mean, 
 of course. Papal Rome; it never produced a 
 real master in Art, or Literature, or Science. 
 She has employed some masters in art, it is 
 true; but they have been employed for the 
 glory of the Papacy, and not for the enlighten- 
 ment of the nation. 
 
 Rome is the graveyard of twenty centuries ; 
 Florence is the Renaissance, the new birth, of 
 modern Italy. Nothing strong, or healthy, or 
 beautiful, can come out of the buried, decayed 
 and putrid past. Graveyards can give no new 
 inspiration, no live impulse, no healthy senti- 
 ment, to the mind and heart. If you wish to 
 write, or paint, or think, or love, get out and 
 away from the damp and the death, the char- 
 
 193 
 
 I 
 
FLORENCE. 
 
 nel-liouse atmosphere, of Eome. Nothing good 
 or pure has come out of her for fifteen hundred 
 years or more. 
 
 Go to the Catacombs if you would know what 
 Eome means. These are the true symbols of 
 this " citta eterna," an Eternal City of the Dead 
 and not of the Living. Flee from it ; and shake 
 its dust, the dust of the Caesars and the Popes, 
 from off your feet, for Kome is the tomb of both. 
 The broken and defaced emblems of the Forum 
 and the Palaces of the Caesars are worth a visit ; 
 but it is worse than midsummer madness to 
 take up your residence there. Eome is only 
 fit for the abode of rats and bats, of rooks and 
 crows, of toads and lizards. These things are 
 the true, the natural, inhabitants, of this city 
 of darkness and foulness, of death and decay. 
 Let us have done with those silly vaporings, 
 those mawkish, sickly, ignorant sentimentaliz- 
 ings about this sepulchre of the dead. 
 
 Eome represents all that is bad in Italy; 
 Florence all that is good. Florence has given 
 to the world two of the greatest masters 
 that ever lived — Dante, and Michael Angelo. 
 Eome has imprisoned and tortured in all ages 
 every great and good man she could lay her 
 hands on; and would do so to-day if ehe 
 
 193 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 could, for she is still the same old mouse- 
 trap. 
 
 These things are patent to everybody of any 
 discrimination. But the most astounding thing 
 is the fact that there are actually people, born 
 in America, who are fools enough to be im- 
 posed upon by the sublime pretensions of this 
 " Infallible Yicar of God ! " I am willing to 
 confess that I lose my temper sometimes over 
 this subject ; and it is because my country- 
 women have eyes, and see not ; ears, and hear 
 not that the Papacy, like the Nobility, is a 
 thing of the past. 
 
 Europe has quite done with both of these 
 unclean and worn-out garments, and is laugh- 
 ing in her sleeve at the simple-minded Yan- 
 kee's wish to robe himself — or rather her- 
 self — in the cast-off vestments of the Old 
 World. 
 
 I have no fault to find with the Catholic 
 Church in America, for I know perfectly well 
 that at heart she hates Rome, as much as I do ; 
 and I believe, also, that erelong she will take 
 the brave step of freeing herself from the doc- 
 trines of Ultramontanism, and from all tem- 
 poral allegiance to the Bishop of Rome. 
 
 Let but the Roman Catholic Church in the 
 
 194 
 
FLORENCE. 
 
 United States of America declare herself a free 
 and independent National Church, owning no 
 temporal or political allegiance to any power 
 outside of the American Republic, and her influ- 
 ence and power in the United States will be 
 increased at once a hundredfold. Who will be 
 the leader in this truly Christian, as well as 
 patriotic, movement % The bishop who shall 
 lead his Church to such a strong position will 
 have a greater, a more glorious, name in his- 
 tory than any Eoman Catholic prelate since 
 Leo the Great. 
 
 Florence has always attracted people of su- 
 perior intelligence and taste. The English, the 
 German, and the American residents in Flor- 
 ence have always included some people of dis- 
 tinction. The graves of Walter Savage Lan- 
 dor, Mrs. Browning, Theodore Parker, and 
 Hiram Powers are in the little Protestant cem- 
 etery at Florence. At the present time, how- 
 ever, there are but few foreigners of distinc- 
 tion residing in Florence. *' Ouida " is almost 
 the only English author of note who now has 
 a residence there. But I must crave pardon 
 for mentioning " Ouida," the worst of English 
 writers, in connection with Mrs. Browning, the 
 best of English writers. 
 
 195 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 Artists are also growing" fewer and fewer in 
 number each year. Hiram Powers was the 
 first American sculptor to establish himself 
 here. This was about fifty years ago. Since 
 his death, two of his sons carry on the business, 
 one in Florence, the other in America. Mr. 
 Thomas Ball is the best known living American 
 sculptor in Florence, and is one of the best stat- 
 uaries, all things considered, that our country 
 has produced. His son-in-law, Mr. Cooper, is 
 also an artist of ability. Mr. Mead has some 
 merit, I hear, but in his case I cannot speak 
 from personal knowledge. 
 
 There are three or four other American stat- 
 uaries, among them a lady, Miss Freebourne. 
 The oldest American painter now living in 
 Florence is Mr. Gould. Then follow in the 
 order of residence Mr. Craig, Miss Alexander,, 
 whom Euskin so much admires, Mr. Turner, 
 Mr. Freeman, and Mr. Lowring. Mr. Meeks 
 has, I understand, exchanged the studio for 
 the shop ; and is now more of a " dealer " 
 than a painter. I may also mention that Mr. 
 Sargent was born in Florence. 
 
 I have said that the only Americans of im- 
 portance in Florence are artists ; and they are 
 a diminishing quantity. 
 
 196 
 
FLORENCE. 
 Of course Florence is not without its 
 
 AMEEICAN CONTESSA AND MAECHESA, 
 
 and these ladies doubtless consider themselves 
 by far the most important personages in this 
 beautiful Tuscan city. And this brings me to 
 American society in Florence, which has al- 
 ways been, I am sorry to say, just a little 
 " fishy." But let that pass. Florence society 
 at its best, however, has always had more ijre- 
 tensions and less distinction than any Ameri- 
 can colony in Europe. It has few things to rec- 
 ommend it — ^not even money. Still it struggles 
 hard, very hard, to make believe something or 
 other. 
 
 To begin with — and not a good beginning 
 either — the Americans who are, or think them- 
 selves, society people in Florence, will be Eng- 
 lish, or perish in the attempt. This is the 
 common, the glorious, ambition of every man 
 and woman — I mean every male and female — 
 of them. I once said to a prominent (male) 
 member of this Anglo-American colony, that I 
 took him for an Englishman. This was a 
 "whopper," I confess, but I had strong rea- 
 sons for committing this sin, and hope I have 
 been forgiven. It worked beautifully, for it 
 
 197 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 won his miglity heart at once. He explained to 
 me, however, with a very modest air, that he 
 was not exactly an Englishman ; that his great- 
 great-grandfather, or somebody, was ; and that 
 he himself was quite " English, you know," in 
 his tastes. He admired the English nation, 
 of course above all others, and made some 
 very impartial criticisms upon his own vulgar 
 country people. That little white lie — as all 
 whoppers are — ^procured for me many a lit- 
 tle courtesy from this '^ man without a coun- 
 try." 
 
 There is an American church in Florence, the i^ 
 oldest one, I believe, on the Continent of Eu- 
 rope ; but of course this " gentleman " and his 
 equally noble-minded compatriots, prefer the 
 British church, with its prayers for the health 
 and wealth of the Queen, and of Albert Edward, 
 Prince of Wales. There is an ex-American 
 Minister to Greece, an ex-American Minister to 
 Borne, an ex-professor of an American college, 
 and several other ex-Americans of one kind and 
 another, residing in Florence. Among these 
 there is a fussy little man who puts " Oxon." 
 after his name and sets up for a lawyer. But 
 nobody takes him seriously, for he spends half 
 of his time in trying to make people believe he 
 
 198 
 
FLORENCE, 
 
 is doing something, and the other half in try- 
 ing to disguise his nationality — in which latter 
 ambition I am sure all good Americans will 
 pray for his success. 
 
 At the head and front of the Anglo-American 
 social world is a most tremendous swell, who 
 writes ** Cav." before his name ; keeps a car- 
 riage and a dairy, and the keys of the kingdom 
 of Florence snobdom. That there may be no 
 mistake as to what I mean by the word " snob,'* 
 I think it wise to insert the following defini- 
 tions : "A snob," says Thackeray, " is that man 
 or woman who is always pretending to be some- 
 thing better, especially richer or more fashion- 
 able, than other people are." Lever defines a 
 snob as "a fellow who wants to be taken for 
 better or richer, or cleverer, or more influen- 
 tial, than he really is." This American " Cav." 
 has a Franco-Dutch name, an English wife, 
 and is altogether a person of the first impor- 
 tance — ^in the kingdom above mentioned. 
 
 The United States Consul in Florence (at the 
 time of this writing) is an elderly man ; a re- 
 spectable man, and a decidedly handsome man ; 
 with long white hair and beard and a most 
 dignified bearing. He is, I believe, from Penn- 
 sylvania. A change in the personnel of the 
 
 199 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 Consulate was long the desire of every decent 
 American in Florence. 
 
 As I have already intimated, the Florentines 
 bother their heads very little about *' priests in 
 petticoats." There are few Church dignitaries 
 en evidence in this Tuscan city, and my fair 
 compatriots have, therefore, for the most part, 
 escaped the Holy Roman fever. There have 
 really not been, so far as I know, more than a 
 half dozen fatal cases within as many years, 
 and in each case the holy fever has been com- 
 plicated by the title- complaint. 
 
 TITLED AMERICANS IN ELORENCE. 
 
 It would be unpardonable in me not to men- 
 tion that a certain mademoiselle resident in 
 Florence has become an honorary Contessa, 
 and has actually entertained — at her mother's 
 residence — a young gentleman who has lodg- 
 ings at the " Palazzo Pitti," and who is known 
 as the " Duke d'Aosto." A Miss F •, of Bal- 
 timore, I think, has been transformed into an 
 honorary Marchesa. You will be kind enough 
 to observe that few, verj^- few, of our beloved 
 compatriots get hold of first-class, or even 
 bona fide, titles. In the two cases just noticed 
 
 SOO 
 
FLOREJSfGE, 
 
 the honorary (?) badges are the merest shadows 
 of the real substance. 
 
 It is, however, astonishing how much sub- 
 stantial glory the American girl can extract 
 from these unsubstantial titles. For example, 
 how often have I seen this Contessa's carriage 
 singled out in the Cascine for special observa- 
 tion, admiration, and inquiry ! It is very gen- 
 erally mistaken by strangers for a royal coach. 
 Could anything be more glorious ? An Ameri- 
 can girl taken for a royal personage ! Every- 
 thing about this lady's " turn-out " is most 
 pronounced. The coachman and footman are 
 powdered and corded and laced. But above 
 everything else shines resplendent the symbol 
 of the " Gheradescas," painted in uncommonly 
 large characters upon the carriage-doors, where 
 one cannot choose but see. 
 
 The Conte and the Contessa, I am pained to 
 relate, have not always hit it off together after 
 the most approved conjugal fashion. The 
 Conte, who is a handsome man, is somewhat of 
 a Lothario, and his promiscuous gallantry — or 
 rather his special devotion to another — awak- 
 ened at one time the green-eyed monster within 
 the breast of his Vvife, which resulted in a sejoa- 
 ration. But a reunion has taken place, and let 
 
 201 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 US hope that peace and contentment again 
 reign within their breasts. 
 
 " The Marchesa " married into a typical 
 patriarchal Italian family, and one which would 
 delight the heart of Mr. F. Marion Crawford, for 
 I feel certain that this author could get mate- 
 rial and local color enough out of this family 
 for half a dozen or so of " Saracinescas." To 
 prevent wrong impressions, let me hasten to 
 say that this family is a good one, as well as a 
 large one, and a rich one — as riches go in Italy. 
 
 The Torrigiani possess the largest and most 
 beautiful garden, and the most valuable private 
 picture-gallery, in Florence. The sons are all 
 married, and have brought their wives to the 
 patriarchal palace, where each one has lodg- 
 ings assigned her by the real and only genuine 
 " Marchesa," the mother of the family. There 
 are at least four sons, with their wives and 
 children, living together under one paternal 
 roof and one maternal suj)ervision. At present, 
 it is said, there are twenty-six covers regularly 
 laid for dinner at this family board, and grand- 
 children will continue to arrive, we may suj)- 
 pose, for the next twentj^ years, which repre- 
 sents a potentiality for increase beyond the 
 flight of the wildest fancy. Each one of the 
 
 202 
 
FLORENCE. 
 
 four wives, according' to " Saracinesca," must 
 receive her pin-money, and everything" she eats 
 and wears, directly from the hand of the very 
 maternal " Marchesa." If a wife takes one 
 lump of sugar to-day more than her share, she 
 must take one lump less than her share to- 
 morrow. 
 
 These are only a few of the important facts 
 concerning" Italian family life that the author 
 of *' Saracinesca " has revealed to a curious 
 world, and upon which he very naturally 
 founds his claim to exclusive knowledge of all 
 things Italian. The American wife, in this 
 community of wives, had it directly stipulated 
 in the marriage contract that she was to be al- 
 lowed her own private carriage. And it is just 
 possible also that she may have something be- 
 sides her regular portion of the maternal allow- 
 ance, as she has a very rich and very indulgent 
 grandma living near at hand in the Via de Mal- 
 contenti, 1 have every reason to think that this 
 American "honorary Marchesa" is happily 
 married, as far as the husband has to do with 
 it. But how an American girl, accustomed to 
 the free and joyful life of her own country, can 
 be really and truly happy under such circum- 
 stances, is a mystery. She has not, she cannot 
 
 203 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE, 
 
 have, many thing's in common with the other 
 members of the family. They may all be very 
 amiable and kind, as the Italians usually are ; 
 but there is a gulf in thought and sentiment 
 between them, which cannot be bridged. I can 
 fancy that hardly a day passes without a sigh 
 from the American v/ife for her American life — 
 for the cheerful and cosy American home, with 
 the hundred little comforts, amusements, and 
 privileges, which sweet memory brings back 
 from her far-away native land. 
 
 Of course, there are several other American 
 wives with Florentine husbands. The richest 
 and most important of these was the widow of 
 an American consul who died here. This lady 
 is now the wife of an Italian, who served her 
 first husband as vice-consul. She has, I fancy 
 the biggest purse of any American woman in 
 Florence, and has also the reputation of using 
 it in a kind and generous way. Just as I write, 
 news of three American weddings comes to 
 me from Florence, and a " uniform " figures in 
 ^each one of them. 
 
 This is not the first time that the eldest of 
 these brides has tried her luck in the military 
 market. Some two or three years ago she took 
 a fancy to a particular uniform, and expressed 
 
 204 
 
FLORENCE. 
 
 her wish to buy iL But there was some mis- 
 understanding at the last moment about the 
 price, and the uniform was never delivered. 
 The second of these new brides is an American 
 by birth only. Her family is Italian, but her 
 fortune is American made. The last of the 
 three is a niece of a distinguished rector in 
 New York. The marriage is said to be a little 
 better than such alliances usually are. The 
 bridegroom, for a wonder, is a Protestant, and 
 it is called a love-match. But the uniform had 
 to be paid for all the same, for no officer in the 
 Italian army can be permitted to marry unless 
 the sum of at least fifty thousand lire be paid 
 down before the marriage takes place ; and 
 there is jDerhaps not one officer in a thousand 
 who has fifty cents beyond his very small salary. 
 A captain, for examiole, does not get quite fifty 
 dollars a month. Yery few of these officers 
 are gentlemen born (to use the cant society 
 phrase) ; so that the uniform is really all the 
 American and English girls get for their 
 money. But a great many of these officers re- 
 sign as soon as they marrj^, so that the poor 
 girl is even cheated out of her uniform. 
 
 205 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 A MAN IN LOVE WITH HIS HORSES. 
 
 About thirty-five years ago, as near as I can 
 hit it by a guess, a very handsome man came to 
 Florence as secretary to the American Lega- 
 tion. He was a member of a Washington Square 
 family in New York. He was amiable, well- 
 mannered, and rich. From such a man the so- 
 cial world naturally expected great things. But 
 it was sadly disappointed, for this gentleman, 
 who might have been the beau of Florence, be- 
 came her " whip," and devoted himself, not to 
 the cultivation of fair women, but of fine horses. 
 So long as he remained Secretary of Legation 
 there were certain official and social duties 
 which he was obliged to perform. But when 
 the Italian Court left Florence he resigned his 
 office, and remained behind, true to his love — 
 for his horses. Since then he has been seen 
 by Florentine society only on the box of his 
 coach. For a number of years this gentleman 
 flrove — ^not four — but fourteen-in-hand along 
 tlie - Lung Arno " and through the Cascine, to 
 the i^jninent peril of the Florentine public. 
 There "vypr^ several runaways and smash-ups 
 from time to time, till the authorities concluded 
 
FLORENCE. 
 
 tliat they were paying- too dear for their Ameri- 
 can whistle, and passed a law reducing the 
 fourteen — which were not always " in hand " — 
 to six. The gentleman in question was until 
 very lately to be seen behind this modest team, 
 seated upon the box, but not holding the " rib- 
 bons." 
 
 THE AMERICAN CHURCH IN FLORENCE. 
 
 There have been a number of American rec- 
 tors in Florence — good, bad, and indifferent ; 
 but they come and go at such short intervals, 
 that I have not been able to get a good sitting 
 from any one of them. The Church itself is rath- 
 er pretty — the prettiest and most Church-like 
 building of any of the Protestant places of wor- 
 ship in Florence. 
 
 But I had forgotten that Americans and 
 English alike on the Continent never say 
 " Protestant " any more. The curious; thing 
 about this Church is the fact that it is a part 
 of one of the celebrated Eoman Catholic 
 churches of Florence — the Church of the Car- 
 mine. How the American Episcopal Church 
 happened to get possession of this part of a 
 venerable Eoman Catholic edifice, would make 
 
 207 
 
AMEBI0AN3 IN EUROPE. 
 
 a page or so of very interesting- Church his- 
 tory. I have heard the following improbable 
 story, which I give for what it is worth : 
 
 The first American rector in Florence had a 
 somewhat strange ecclesiastical history. He 
 started in his ministerial career as a clergyman 
 of the American Protestant Episcopal Church. 
 After a few years' service in this Church, he 
 changed and w^ent to Eome — both in the geo- 
 graphical and religious sense. He became a 
 great favorite at the Vatican, was a pan ©f 
 marked ability, and might have attained to a 
 seat in the College of Cardinals, so it is said ; 
 but, just as the red cap was about to be offered 
 him, he recanted and came back to the church 
 of his first love. This somewhat complicated 
 matters ; for in the mean time his wife had 
 become the Mother Superior of a Convent, 
 and the children, a son and a daughter, were 
 farmed out, so to speak. When he returned to 
 his Mother Church he took his children with 
 him, but not his wife. She refused to travel 
 any farther in the journey of life with such an 
 erratic lord and master, and she lived and died 
 a Lady Superior in the Holy Koman Church. 
 The husband came to Florence and began to 
 hold services according? to "the Kilual of the 
 
FLORENCE. 
 
 Protestant Episcopal Church of America." 
 These services were at first held in private 
 houses. He was a man, however, who attracted 
 to himself troops of friends, and by their aid 
 was soon able to establish himself in a per- 
 manent place of worship. It was through him 
 that the Church in question was secured. He 
 acted as rector for several years, with great 
 ability, if not to the universal satisfaction. 
 
 But the strangest part of this story is to come. 
 I have been told by some of the gossips in 
 Florence — and there are more of these crea- 
 tures in this city, to the square inch, than in 
 any other place on earth — that this clergyman 
 was in reality a Jesuit priest in the employ of 
 the Vatican ; and that is why he got possession 
 of a part of this venerable Eoman Catholic 
 Church edifice. However this may be, one 
 thing is certain, the Church property is left in 
 the hands of the trustees of the Protestant 
 Episcopal Church of America, who are not, I 
 suppose, Jesuits. The son and daughter of 
 this mysterious clergyman still reside in Flor- 
 ence, and are safe within the fold, of the Holy 
 Eoman Church. The present American rector 
 has been in Florence but a short time, and I 
 know nothing concerning him and his doings 
 
AMERICANS IN EUUOPE. 
 
 worthy of notice in these pages, except this 
 that he has not, as yet, " caught on " to the 
 American colony in Florence. 
 
 And now I have finished my brief remarks 
 about Americans in Kome and Florence. There 
 are some American women of uncertain ages 
 living about in different parts of Italy, away 
 from these two centres, but they are few and far 
 between, and wholly unavailable for the pur- 
 poses of this book. 
 
 I shall therefore notice only one lady who 
 was for several years a well-known character in 
 Eome, and who has taken up her abode in the 
 beautiful old mediaeval town of Siena, away 
 from all social wars and rumors of wars. She 
 must find the quiet retreat a very great change 
 from the exciting life she once lived "by the 
 Tiber." And now — 
 
 Addioj Bella Italia. 
 
 210 
 
XVI. 
 AMEKICANS ON THE EIVIERA. 
 
 NICE. 
 
 Nice is the centre around which Americans 
 flock on the Eiviera. And they show their good 
 sense, too, by preferring it to any of the other 
 neighboring places of winter resort. Nice is a 
 well-bnilt, well-paved, and well-regulated town, 
 with all the advantages of country and climate, 
 and without the very serious disadvantages of 
 narrow streets, bad roads, and bad municipal 
 governments, such, I mean, as are to be found 
 not a thousand miles on either side of this 
 metropolis of the Eiviera. 
 
 The Eiviera as a place of sojourn has one 
 great advantage — there are no churches, no 
 pictures, no ruins, no dug-ups, no sights of any 
 kind to weary the legs and addle the brains of 
 my inquiring country people. If, therefore, you 
 are seen in Nice or at any other place along 
 the French Mediterranean seaboard, the best 
 
 211 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 thing is to confess at once that you are there 
 for pleasure, and for no other purpose whatso- 
 ever — ^that is, unless you are so unfortunate as 
 to be an invalid. In that case your proper 
 place is at home. You can invent nothing 
 which will serve you as any sort of a pretence 
 for living on the Eiviera ; and it is best to " ac- 
 knowledge the corn," and own that you are on 
 pleasure bent. 
 
 In London or Paris, in Eome or Florence, you 
 can hide your real purpose behind churches 
 and picture-galleries, antiquities and ruins, and 
 a hundred other little devices and hypocrisies. 
 But in Nice, or Cannes, or Mentone, you are out 
 in the open, without any cover or shield or 
 other means of defence — I mean, disguise. So 
 it is better not to struggle to keep up an ap- 
 pearance of sober-mindedness. 
 
 I advise you, therefore, to throw off all make- 
 believes, and do at once what you are expected 
 to do, and what you most certainly will do, 
 whatever your innocent little pretence may 
 be. You will walk in the "Promenade des 
 Anglais ; " drive to " Yillefranche " and Monte 
 Carlo ; dance at the Circle de la Mediteranoe, 
 and go to the American Church on Sundaj^ 
 Yes, to the American Church, and for the rea- 
 
 212 
 
AMERICANS ON THE BIVIEBA. 
 
 son that this is the fashionable church of Nice. 
 The edifice itself makes a very pretty little 
 picture, with its cold gray stone and graceful 
 spire. The rectory is a very cosy building", 
 has a reputation for hospitality, and is the chief 
 centre of the American colony. The rector has 
 been in Nice for about fifteen years. He is a 
 rich man, entertains a great deal, and is very 
 popular as a man and a pastor — ^but not, I 
 think, as a reader or preacher. He is an Ameri- 
 can, and there is no mistaking the fact. He 
 looks and talks and acts as though he had 
 just arrived from California, v/here he spent 
 several years as a missionary. 
 
 There is less European varnish on this man 
 than on any American I have ever seen. I 
 have never met a man with a less assuming or 
 a more modest air. His abilities are very 
 modest, too, I grant ; but his genuine Ameri- 
 can character covers, in my mind, a multitude 
 of deficiencies. Like all good Americans, this 
 gentleman is much given to story-telling ; but 
 he should remember that after the same person 
 has heard the same story, say for the twelfth 
 time, it is quite possible that a slight feeling of 
 monotony, and it may be melancholia, is liable 
 to steal over his patriotic soul. 
 
 213 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 Barring this very inconsiderable item of com- 
 plaint, the American rector in Nice is a real 
 brick from the genuine American mould. The 
 wife of the rector is, I believe, a Swede, and is 
 every bit as popular— with some people — as 
 the rector himself. This lady's weekly recep- 
 tions are the most popular *'At Homes " in Nice. 
 But one word more concerning the rector. He 
 remained a bachelor in Nice for several years, 
 and played a very practical and most cruel joke 
 upon Nice society. I have the story from one 
 of his brother parsons, and therefore feel per- 
 fectly safe in giving it just as I heard it. 
 
 As I have already intimated, this clergyman 
 came to Nice from the far Western States of 
 America, and there was nothing in his manner 
 or habits of life to indicate money. On the 
 contrary, everything seemed to point to a short 
 check-book. This being the case, ambitious 
 mothers seldom looked at the American rector 
 a second time. It became gradually known, 
 however, that the Western air was assumed, or 
 at least acquired, and that he was a New Yorker 
 by birth and training. His name, or something 
 like it, was also known by well-informed peo- 
 ple, to be associated with one or two Gotham 
 -millionaires. But no one seemed to have the 
 
 !14 
 
AMERICANS ON THE RIVIERA, 
 
 wit to connect these facts in any logical se- 
 quence; for no one could have supposed for 
 one moment that this quiet parson possessed 
 either means or expectations ; and when it was 
 known that he had been quietly married in Lon- 
 don to a Swedish widow, the mothers and the 
 daughters merely smiled a good-natured smile 
 at each other and said : " Well, she has got a 
 good enough amiable husband, but that is all." 
 
 But it was not all, by a long shot ; for the 
 knowing Swedish v/idow had married a rich 
 man, as well as an amiable man, and one, it is 
 said, who will be much richer by-and-by. When 
 this important fact was fully knov/n in society, 
 the mothers looked " sold " at their daughters, 
 the daughters looked "blank" at their mothers, 
 and the more mature spinsters good-naturedly 
 remarked that the widow's conduct had been 
 most shameful. They all joined in one loud 
 and long " Did you ever ? " And as no one had 
 ever seen or heard of such a strange man be- 
 fore, all agreed to make the best of it, and are 
 now often to be met around the hospitable 
 board of the American rectory. 
 
 I have come across at least three ladies in 
 Nice who modestly intimated that they might 
 have been the wife of the rector, a,nd would 
 
 215 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 have been, too, had they known all. But I have 
 always had mj^ own private opinion upon this 
 subject. 
 
 One good story suggests another, and some- 
 times a better. There is a Russo-American 
 Countess in Nice who, in spite of her title, has 
 a very interesting and romantic history. She 
 was the daughter of a New Jersey gentleman. 
 Her father was not a rich man, but he had a 
 good enough income, and his family held a good 
 position in the best society. His daughters 
 were pretty — at least the subject of the romance 
 was — but they had no " dot," a fact v/hich was 
 not generally known. Well, it so happened 
 that a Russian nobleman, secretary of the 
 Russian embassy at Washington, asked this 
 daughter in marriage ; to which proposition the 
 American father answered : " You doubtless 
 think, Count, from the position we hold in 
 society and the manner in which we live, that 
 I am a rich man and can give my daughter a 
 large marriage dowry. But this is a mistake ; 
 I can give no marriage settlement whatever with 
 my daughter's hand." To all of which the true 
 lover made answer : " It is your daughter, sir, 
 and not your money, that I am in love with." 
 And the wedding-bells rang right merrily when 
 
 216 
 
AMERICANS ON THE RIVIERA, 
 
 the New Jersey " lily " became a Russian Coun- 
 tess. The husband was the eldest son, and had 
 a very considerable property; but it was en- 
 tailed, and at his death must pass on to the 
 next in line. Knowing-, therefore, that, in the 
 event of his being taken off, his widow would 
 be left unprovided for, tliis noble-minded Count 
 used all possible economy in his manner of life, 
 and at his death he had saved enough from his 
 annual income to leave his widow a sufficient 
 fortune. 
 
 This man deserved his American wife, in spite 
 of his title, and I have no special objections to 
 offer against this lady's holding on to the title 
 of such a husband. The Countess has a pretty 
 home in Nice, and is easily the first American 
 lady on the Riviera. 
 
 There are at least two more American Coun- 
 tesses and as many Baronesses living at Nice. 
 One of the Countesses married a nice Scotch- 
 Italian lad, and since his marriage he has 
 grown up to be a well-behaved religious man. 
 This young Count is one of the officers of the 
 American church. The other Countess is the 
 step -daughter of one of the second generation 
 of Vanderbilts. She married a rather elderly 
 Frenchman, whose title is purely a compliment- 
 
 317 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE, 
 
 ary matter. The Baronesses I know nothing" 
 about. The oldest American resident in Nice 
 is, or is said to be, a lady of some importance. 
 She was a Miss L., of "Washington Square, 
 New York, and married at an early age a gen- 
 tleman holding a high position at the Court of 
 the Netherlands. She is herself out of the 
 society hunt, but her daughter-in-law, a very 
 pretty Dutch lady, has taken her place. 
 
 ANOTHER MAN AND HIS HOESES. 
 
 Perhaps the most devoted friend and admirer 
 of our Countess is Mr. Charles K., of Philadel- 
 phia, who, like Mr. L. in Florence, is " a man- 
 in-love-with-his-horses." But, unlike the New 
 Yorker, the Philadelphian never allows his 
 " cattle," as he calls them, to interfere with his 
 social duties, or, I should say, his pleasures. On 
 the contrary, his horses have contributed very 
 much toward his reputation as a beau, and a 
 beau he most certainly is — perhaps the greatest 
 American beau who has lived on the Continent 
 of Europe during the last twenty-five years. 
 
 He married the daughter of a well-known 
 American publicist, and came with his wife to 
 Europe soon after the American Civil War. 
 
 218 
 
AMERICANS ON THE RIVIERA. 
 
 His wife died in Florence, and he has remained 
 a widower, but not an entirely disconsolate one. 
 Mr. K. does not drink ; he does not play : but 
 he does love the dear ladies ; and everybody 
 loves a lover. As a squire of dames, his horses 
 have helped him not a little ; and many a 
 mother (generally with a pretty daughter) has 
 he driven along the " Promenade des Anglais " 
 and to " Yillefranche." But the French mother 
 and daughter, who appeared with him on the 
 box-seat so frequently for two or three seasons, 
 have not been seen of late. 
 
 This American has the ready entrance to 
 what is called the best society in France and 
 Italy ; yet, in spite of this fact, he is at all times 
 and under all circumstances a gentleman. 
 
 Not far from Madame B.'s house on the 
 " Promenade des Anglais " is another handsome 
 villa occupied by a rich elderly American and 
 his daughter. They are very nice quiet people, 
 and the daughter, I have no doubt, has declined 
 many of the impecunious titled gentry of 
 France, and has shown her good sense in so do- 
 ing. There are only one or two American fami- 
 lies in Nice who go to the English Church, and 
 try to be British; but they do not succeed. 
 There is always an American belle or two in 
 
 219 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE, 
 
 Nice for the season, but I have never heard of 
 any of them making* any purchases in the way 
 of husbands. 
 
 One season, not many years ago, there was a 
 pretty little fair-haired lady, the daughter of a 
 United States senator, who made not a little 
 sensation ; but she returned to her native land 
 without having made a purchase — not that she 
 could not be suited, but her grave and reserved 
 senatorial father would not produce the dollars. 
 The next season there were two pretty dark- 
 eyed New York sisters, and they also were 
 " given strength to resist temptation." 
 
 There was a certain Canadian-American girl 
 who cut a very wide, I mean, a very broad, 
 swath in Nice for a few months in the winter of 
 '89-'90, and ended her escapade by purchasing, 
 in the Paris market, the younger son of a Bel- 
 gian Papal prince. This girl — she was not 
 seventeen years old — was the daughter of a 
 Western man of a rather unsavory reputation. 
 The girl herself had no sort of bringing up, and 
 was completely beyond her weak mother's con- 
 trol. She was engaged to a German officer — 
 through the kindly offices of her governess and 
 a joe7^s^09^-keeper — before she was sixteen years 
 old. She flirted with any good-looking man in 
 
 220 
 
amehigans on the rivieba. 
 
 Nice wlio chose to notice her, and gave her 
 photograiohs right and left to every man who 
 asked for them. 
 
 This young and giddy girl was not long in 
 Paris before she was *' spotted," in a public 
 dining-room, by a younger son of a Papal 
 prince, who soon verified the reports he had 
 heard about her great fortune ; and in less than 
 sixty days he succeeded in transferring her and 
 it— especially it — to his own account. This, I 
 imagine, beats the record for hasty weddings. 
 
 While at Nice, as I have said, this young lady 
 gave away her photographs to all sorts and 
 conditions of men, and with a generosity which 
 she very much regretted when she began ne- 
 gotiations for the son of a Papal prince. It 
 seemed for a while, in fact, as though these 
 counterfeit presentments of the prospective 
 princess, which had been scattered right and 
 left in great quantities, might mar the wed- 
 ding feast. Great efforts were therefore made, 
 especially by the mother, to get back these 
 tell-tale bits of cardboard. But this was found 
 rather difficult, as no record had been taken of 
 them. Of course, many of the holders were 
 known; but these gentlemen (?), for the most 
 part, had a very keen sense of the enhanced 
 
 221 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 commercial value of their iDroperty, and were 
 not disposed to part with it without a proper 
 consideration. 
 
 The larg-est collection of these pictures of 
 the princess was owned by a little fair-haired 
 Frenchman in Nice, who went about unkicked, 
 I am sorry to say, bragging of his possessions. 
 Whether this creature has returned his valu- 
 able collection to the donor, for a proper con- 
 sideration, or not, I am nnable to say. And 
 this is the kind of man, let me remark, that our 
 American girls meet at hotel dances, etc., on 
 the Continent of Europe. 
 
 THE BAVAEIAN BREWEE-PRINCE. 
 
 Nice is -also celebrated as being the scene 
 where the Philadelphia girl got her first view 
 of the Bavarian Brewer-Prince, whom she after- 
 ward bought, and at a very moderate price, I 
 will allow. It is not often, however, that these 
 noble Counts, Princes, Barons, etc., can be seen 
 " off the premises," as very few of them pos- 
 sess the wherewithal nfecessary for the con- 
 veyance of their princely persons any great 
 distance from their "ancestral estates." But 
 if the mountain will not come to Mohammed, 
 
AMERICANS ON THE RIVIERA. 
 
 Mohammed must go to the mountain; or, in 
 less figurative language, the purchaser of a 
 Prince is compelled to go to him, as he cannot 
 come to her. The Brewer-Prince, however, 
 was an exception to this almost universal law 
 of gravity. 
 
 CANNES. 
 
 There are two or three American families 
 who pass the winter at Cannes ; but they, at 
 least one of them, will, I suspect, be sorry to 
 have his real nationality exposed, for did he 
 not, once upon a time, entertain H. R. H. the 
 Prince of Wales ? Since that stupendous social 
 event, this gentleman has never been known to 
 take the slightest interest in anybody or any- 
 thing not English. This is a pity, for his name 
 is a household, I may even say a nursery, w^ord 
 in the land of his birth. 
 
 There are few of us who have not, in our in- 
 fantile days, been often hushed to gentle sleep 
 with a bottle of " Mrs. Winslow's Soothing 
 Syrup." I don't know whether this nursery 
 goddess was the mother or aunt or cousin of 
 Master Dick. But whatever the ties of con- 
 sanguinity may be, "Dick" is entitled to his 
 full share of the credit of the name as well as 
 
 233 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 to the profits of the business. But I am pained 
 to hear that he is now engaged in a law-suit 
 with a prince who has not treated him — so 
 he says — in a very princely fashion. Of the 
 merits of the case it does not become me to 
 speak, as the matter is still under judicial con- 
 sideration. One little word of advice, however, 
 I venture to give to " Master Dick." If he in- 
 tends to live in Europe, as seems probable, it 
 is much better for him to cultivate the favor 
 of princes than to go to law with them. 
 
 Speaking of Dick's quarrel with the prince — 
 who, by the way, I believe is a duke — reminds 
 me of a little incident I once witnessed at 
 Cannes. It was in mid -Lent, and at the 
 " Battle of Flowers," when everybody who kept 
 a carriage and could turn out did so — the Eng- 
 lish, of course, being very strong. I took up my 
 position at one of the grand-stands, in the 
 midst of a large company of Britons, some of 
 them residents, others " voyageurs." The resi- 
 dents acted as interpreters, and pointed out to 
 the visitors the carriages containing the notabil- 
 ities of Cannes. " There," said a pretty English 
 girl, " comes the carriage of the duke." 
 " Where is the duke ? " anxiously inquired her 
 innocent companion, evidently unable to think 
 
 234 
 
AMERICANS ON THE RIVIERA, 
 
 of but one "duke." *'0h! I didn't mean our 
 ' Duke of Cambridge,' but tlie Duke of Cannes 
 — that is to say, the Duke of 'Yallombrosa.'" 
 " Oh ! " said the young Saxon, " that is quite 
 another thing, you know." "Yes, of course," 
 responded the maiden, with some little irrita- 
 tion, I thought ; *' but you should remember, 
 now and then, that you are not in England." 
 " All right, but don't get cross. Where is your 
 bloomin' duke, then ? " *' The carriage which 
 has just passed is his." " That one there ? " 
 inquired the youth. "Well, the lady looks 
 well enough for a duchess, I must say. She is 
 uncommonly handsome. What beautiful gray 
 hair ! " " Oh ! you silly boy ; I don't mean that 
 carriage ; that is an American dentist and his 
 wife." " Well, then, dentist or no dentist, they 
 are the nicest looking people I have seen." 
 And the young English tourist was quite right. 
 This lady, the daughter of the New York hotel- 
 keeper and the wife, now the widow, I am sorry 
 to say, of a retired dentist, could pass anywhere 
 for what she really is — one of the most beautiful 
 women of her age to be seen anywhere, and 
 one of the most perfect ladies as well. 
 
 Let me give another case, pointing the same 
 moral. I was one day in the club at Nice wit- 
 
 235 
 
AMERIGANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 nessing a game of billiards between an Ameri- 
 can tailor and an English nobleman, when 
 some one at my back remarked that " that man 
 is not a gentleman ; he is nobody but a tailor." 
 " AVhich one ? " asked his neighbor. Just so, 
 for the fact was the tailor was the gentleman. 
 There is, at least, one American lady of the 
 genuine type living at Cannes. She was a 
 Miss E., of New York, and married a gen- 
 tleman, some time French minister at Wash- 
 ington, and as fine a type of a Frenchman as 
 can be seen anywhere. They have two sons and 
 one pretty daughter, and are a very happy 
 family. There are no American families resid- 
 ing at Mentone, so far as I know. The same is 
 true of Monte Carlo, San E-emo, and Bordi- 
 gliera. These places are mostly frequented by 
 Germans and English. 
 
 so:me general observations. 
 
 I have said nothing of Americans in Ger- 
 many, for the simple reason that I know less 
 about Germany and the Germans than of any 
 other nation in Europe. The Germans, I must 
 be frank, do not interest me, and their cooking 
 gives me indigestion ; so I keep away from 
 
 226 
 
AMERICANS ON THE RIVIERA. 
 
 these big, fat, sentimental creatures as much as 
 possible. Their persistent efforts to learn Eng- 
 lish at the expense of every English-speaking 
 traveller they can lay their hands on is an im- 
 position which should be put down by interna- 
 tional law. 
 
 My impressionable country people went mad 
 some years ago over German scholarship, and 
 especially German philoso]3hy, and they have 
 not quite recovered their senses yet. I am 
 not such a fool as to deny that the Germans 
 are scholars — perhaps the best that are going 
 just now — but I do not admire their scholar- 
 ship, all the same. It is very deep, I have 
 no doubt, but very muddy. I must own, how- 
 ever, to a rather keen relish for their phi- 
 losophizing; especially do I enjoy Spinoza, 
 Hegel, and Schopenhauer. But they all, every 
 man of them — Kant among the rest — with the 
 single exception of Spinoza, got their ideas 
 from two Englishmen, Bacon and Hume. Bead 
 these English masters, and you have the es- 
 sence of all the German philosophy which has 
 made such a hubbub in the world of late. 
 
 Kant acknowledges that Hume touched him 
 ojff. But I think Hume furnished the powder 
 as well as the flint. The same thing is true in 
 
 327 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 the domain of science. Newton and Darwin 
 are to German science what Bacon and Hume 
 are to German philosophy. And then there is 
 Shakespeare. But let that pass. "What I wish 
 to impress upon the very impressionable folk 
 at Harvard, and Yale, and Johns Hopkins, and 
 the rest, is this : that if they will but take the 
 trouble to read and understand the English 
 masters, such as I have mentioned, they will 
 have little or no need to visit Germany, or to 
 bother their heads over the heavy and hazy 
 Germans. 
 
 Then it is impossible to keep track of these 
 prodigiously industrious muddlers. Every 
 German has his own private theory of the uni- 
 verse, which he evolves by the aid of his pipe 
 and his mug out of his inner consciousness. 
 Of course, no two German's theories agree, and 
 no school of criticism lasts more than a dozen 
 years. Read Eichter, and Lessing, Goethe, 
 and Novalis, and let the others alone. I have 
 made this slight excursion into German litera- 
 ture because most of my compatriots in Ger- 
 many pretend to be there for the study of 
 something or other, and they are probably 
 honest about it, as they certainly would not go 
 to Germany for pleasure. If, then, they are 
 
 228 
 
AMEBIGAN8 OK THE RIVIEBA. 
 
 earnest seekers after knowledge, I advise tliem 
 to keep at home, where people know what they 
 are talking- about ; keep at home, and study the 
 actual problems of modern life as they are be- 
 ing developed and must be solved in America. 
 
 As I have already said, I know little about 
 the Germans, and less of the Americans in Ger- 
 many. If I were content to take my knowledge 
 at second-hand, I might multiply my pages and 
 furnish some savory dishes of gossip at second- 
 hand. But this would be a departure from my 
 fixed purpose, which is to speak only of what 
 I know at first hand. Of course, I feel at lib- 
 erty to deal with a few glittering generalities 
 now and then, concerning which I do not pre- 
 tend to any exact knowledge or special inspira- 
 tion. But people of sense will know how to 
 discriminate, and I do not write for fools. 
 
 The American Minister recently accredited to 
 Berlin is rich and worldly and hospitable, and 
 that such a man is a favorite goes without say- 
 ing. He gives two or three big dinners to his 
 compatriots every year, which are known and 
 read of all men ; but the amount of quiet feed- 
 ing which goes on under the ministerial roof, 
 and of which no public record is made, is enor- 
 mous. This gentleman is considered an old 
 
 229 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 ministerial hand, for he once held the post of 
 Minister at the Austrian capital, and the Aus- 
 trian, you know, is considered the most aristo- 
 cratic court in Europe. 
 
 There is a Union American Church in Berlin, 
 yet none but the Dissenters attend this place of i 
 worship. I say Dissenters, for you must know 
 that the American Episcopalians residing* in 
 Europe use this British word to designate their 
 Presbyterian, Baptist, Congregational, Wes- 
 leyan, and other Christian brethren, who are 
 not Episcopalians. 
 
 The word *' Dissenter " has a proper his- 
 torical significance in England, but it has no 
 meaning whatever when applied to Americans. 
 This is another illustration of the fact that 
 Americans who copy the English never get 
 things right. " Dissenter," indeed ! as though 
 the overwhelming majority of American citi- 
 zens would ever take the trouble to dissent 
 from so small a body as the Protestant Episco- 
 pal Church of America. And then, of course, 
 there can be no Dissent where there is no 
 Establishment ; and the Protestant Episcopal 
 communion is not yet the Established Church 
 of America, nor is she likely to be, as she has a 
 rather dubious record on questions of loyalty 
 
 230 
 
AMERICANS ON THE RIVIERA. 
 
 and patriotism. But the Episcopalians are 
 nothing if not English, and they include 
 within their little fold almost all the Anglo- 
 maniacs to be found on either side of the 
 Great Water. 
 
 The last general convention but one of the 
 Protestant Episcopal Church of America had 
 the English fever very badly ; and the com- 
 plaint has now spread from the bishops to the 
 other clergy ; so that one seldom sees a priest 
 of the Protestant Episcopal Church who does 
 not show some symptoms of this mental mal- 
 ady. But the " parish priests," as these rever- 
 end gentlemen now call themselves, furnish but 
 poor amusement compared with the American 
 bishop. It is absolutely side-splitting to see 
 one of these " Fathers in God " rigged out in 
 full episcopal habit, with ribbon-tied hat, 
 knee-breeches, silk apron, and the rest of it. 
 But the fun is not at the highest until, thus 
 arrayed, one hears him addressed as *'My 
 Lord," and witnesses the glow of inward satis- 
 faction which diffuses itself out and over the 
 episcopal countenance. 
 
 An American clergyman, with some sense of 
 the humorous, told me this little tale : He was 
 dining at a house in Paris where bishops most 
 
 231 
 
AMERICANS IN EUBOPE. 
 
 do, or did, congregate, in company with his 
 
 Father in God — ^the Eight Eeverend . Now 
 
 it so happened that my clerical friend had a lit- 
 tle axe which he desired to have ground by epis- 
 copal hands. He knew very little of his bishop, 
 and had reason to believe that " His Lordship " 
 did not regard him with any great degree of 
 favor. More than this, he was placed at a dis- 
 advantage, in being seated at the bottom of the 
 table, whilst the bishop, of course, was at the 
 top. The distance, therefore, between the 
 Eight Eeverend and the reverend gentleman 
 was too great for conversational purposes. 
 But my designing friend bided his time till 
 there was a lull in the sound of voices above 
 him, when suddenly the words "My Lord" 
 rose loud and clear from the bottom of the 
 table. All eyes were fixed on the speaker, and 
 his eyes were fixed on the bishop; so there 
 could be no mistake as to who was addressed. 
 " My Lord," repeated the reverend speaker, 
 "Miss Smith has asked me a very important 
 question, which I have referred to Your Lord- 
 ship." This did the business for my crafty 
 friend, and he has nov/ the place he coveted. 
 
 But, seriously, what has the Protestant Epis- 
 copal Church in America done to warrant all 
 
 233 
 
AMBEIGAW3 ON THE RIVIERA. 
 
 its pretence of superiority'? Has tlie Churcli 
 produced greater saints, greater scholars, 
 greater preachers, greater patriots, or better 
 men, in any respect, than its sister Churches ? 
 
 The Episcopal Church in America has not 
 been distinguished for either scholarship or 
 eloquence. The great Boston preacher who has 
 lately passed away, was, of course, an exception, 
 and this one great and good man has done 
 more to recommend the episcopal service to 
 Americans than all the habited and be-stock- 
 inged bishops from Maine to Oregon. The 
 Episcopal Church, if wisely administered, is 
 certain to become the Church of America — as, 
 perhaps, it deserves to be ; but it must not in 
 the future tolerate snobbery and treason, as 
 it has in the past. 
 
 One word more upon this subject. My ob- 
 servations of Americans in Europe have con- 
 vinced me that episcopalians think less of their 
 national traditions than any other class of my 
 country people ; this is especially notable on 
 the Sunday. They live the Continental life on 
 this day more than any other Americans. Now 
 I have nothing to say in the way of criticism of 
 the manner in which the French or the Ger- 
 mans choose to spend their Sundays. They 
 
 233 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 act according to their traditions, and their con- 
 duct is becoming to them. But the Continental 
 Sunday is not according to American tra- 
 ditions, and does not become Americans ; hence 
 they lose in dignity and character by frequent- 
 ing theatres and race-courses, on a day which 
 in America is given up to religious duties. I 
 am not speaking now from a religious, but 
 from a moral and national, standpoint. A man 
 of true dignity of character respects the cus- 
 toms and traditions of his native land, whether 
 he believes in them or not ; and everybody re- 
 spects him for doing so. 
 
 Americans who pride themselves on living, 
 to the full, the Continental life, always and 
 everywhere, lose the respect, more or less, of 
 the people they imitate. "When you are in 
 Kome do as the Romans do." Yes, but a prov- 
 erb in the mouth of a fool is always a dangerous 
 thing. When the Bishop of Milan (St. Am- 
 brose) wrote that epigram, he little thought of 
 the base uses to which it would be put. I well 
 remember an American family who came to 
 Paris some years ago, and plunged at once in- 
 to the Continental life. They were " at home 
 on Sundays ; " they went to the theatres on Sun- 
 days ; they, in fact, did everything on Sunday 
 
 234 
 
AMERICANS ON THE RIVIERA. 
 
 in Paris which they would not have done in 
 New York. They were rich people, and nice peo- 
 ple, in many ways, but I felt certain they would 
 come to grief ; and they did come to grief. 
 
 The French don't like that sbrt of thing in 
 Americans. They knew perfectly well that 
 these Americans were violating the customs 
 and traditions of their own country, and con- 
 cluded, very properly too, that they were not 
 the best sort of Americans. 
 
 But at the bottom of this question will be 
 found an unmistakably moral element. When 
 a Frenchman witnesses a horse-race, or a the- 
 atrical play, on Sunday, his moral nature is 
 not excited in any way. These things, to his 
 mind, have no more to do with religion than 
 they have with politics or literature; which 
 means nothing at all. Not so the American — 
 that is, if he be a real Anglo-Saxon American. 
 Sunday, to all such Americans, of whatever 
 creed, has moral and religious restraints and 
 associations, which are more or less sacred, 
 and which cannot be violated without doing 
 positive evil — moral and religious evil — to their 
 character. 
 
 So that, viewed in every way, the American 
 who lives the Continental life seven days in 
 
 235 
 
AMEmVANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 tli8 week, is, to say the least, not tlie wisest nor 
 the best representative of American character. 
 More than this : I am fully persuaded that a 
 prolonged residence on the Continent, under 
 the most favorable circumstances, is always de- 
 moralizing to Americans ; and fatally so, if they 
 cut entirely loose from the Church, the social 
 restraints and the traditions of their native 
 land. This applies to the English as well. 
 Still, they are somewhat better in this respect 
 than the Americans. Their thorough training 
 in Church-going bears its fruit everywhere. 
 When the Sunday comes round Her Majesty's 
 loyal subjects, whoever or wherever they may 
 be, look up the English Chaplaincy — and there 
 is one in every little nook and corner on the 
 Continent — and go and say their prayers in the 
 quiet manner so characteristic of everything 
 they do. Now, when one thinks of what these 
 Continental chaplaincies, for the most part, 
 are, one cannot help admiring the self-sacrific- 
 ing devotion of the British foreign resident. 
 
 Say what you will about the hypocrisy of 
 John Bull, his religious training is a good thing, 
 a very good thing, and furnishes him, and 
 especially her, with a weekly anchorage which 
 has often saved him from moral wreck and 
 
 S36 
 
AMERICANS ON THE RIVIERA. 
 
 ruin. There are, perhaps, more than three hun- 
 dred English Churches — Chaplaincies, as they 
 are called — on the Continent of Europe; and 
 how many of them are supported, is, I suppose, 
 one of the mysteries of Godliness. There are 
 only six or seven American Churches all told. 
 If the American Church be the fashionable 
 Church, the Americans all go to it. If it be 
 not, they go to the English Church, or do not 
 go at all. Yery many of the English chaplain- 
 cies could not possibly exist but for the support 
 they receive from Americans. But who ever 
 heard of John Bull giving anything for the 
 maintenance of Brother Jonathan's house of 
 worship ? The plain truth of the matter is that 
 the American has his pocket picked by every- 
 body in Europe ; and he gets nothing in return 
 but patronage, and not always that. This to 
 me seems strange — ^passing strange ; for Amer- 
 ica is not generally supposed to be a nation of 
 idiots. And yet these Americans in Europe 
 appear to enjoy this sort of thing. This matter 
 has cost me many a sleepless night, and I have 
 at last come to the conclusion that Europe is 
 the asylum for American fools. 
 
 237 
 
AMERICANS IN EUROPE. 
 
 A WOKD TO MOTHERS. 
 
 There is one thing about which I wish to say 
 a very plain and direct word to American 
 mothers. The practice, which is fast increas- 
 ing, of American parents sending their daugh- 
 ters to Europe to be educated is little less 
 than criminal. It may be very well for a young 
 lady to know French and German, if she can 
 learn these languages in the proper and natural 
 course of her studies at home, and by her 
 mother's side. But for her parents to send her 
 thousands of miles off for these questionable 
 accomplishments, is simply monstrous. These 
 girls get no real mental training, and the best 
 of them even suffer a demoralization whose 
 effects can never be wholly effaced. 
 
 The change from American to Continental 
 civilization is enough in itself to demoralize a 
 young girl who is just at the most susceptible 
 period in her life. If they must learn French, 
 let them do so in the nursery ; and if they must 
 go to Europe — the necessity of which I cannot 
 see — let them do so as the wives of honest 
 American men. 
 
 If I were made the Dictator of the United 
 
 238 
 
AMERICANS ON THE EIYIERA. 
 
 States of America, my first act would be to 
 issue an edict prohibiting all American women 
 unmarried, and under thirty years of age, visit- 
 ing Europe under any pretence whatever. And 
 I should make thirty -five the prohibiting age 
 for men. Furthermore, I should prohibit the 
 study of French, and every other foreign lan- 
 guage, until the English tongue was thor- 
 oughly mastered by my people. 
 
 The Greeks still hold their place, I believe, 
 as the masters of the world in Philosophy, 
 Literature, and Art ; and the Greeks knew no 
 tongue but their own. One can be well taught 
 in no language, that is, through the medium of 
 no language, but that of his mother tongue. 
 The ignorance of American boys and girls who 
 have been " educated abroad " is stupendous. A 
 European education is simply fatal to the career 
 of any American. It unfits him for everything 
 in America ; it fits him for nothing in Europe; 
 and he is henceforth an alien and a failure on 
 the face of the earth, with no country and no 
 vocation which he can call his own. 
 
 But a further word about " the languages : " 
 if to know French and German, and perhaps 
 Italian, is to be accomplished, then the hotel 
 porter and the hotel waiter will always be your 
 
 239 
 
AMERIGAN8 IN EUROPE. 
 
 superiors in point of culture. I do not mean to 
 underrate the great convenience of knowing* 
 more languages than one's own ; but the knowl- 
 edge of a language signifies very little if one 
 knows nothing of consequence to say in it. 
 
 The most ignorant bores I have ever met have 
 been men — and v/omen, too — ^who could expose 
 their ignorance and fatuity in two or three 
 languages. A knowledge of two or more lan- 
 guages gives a tremendous advantage to dul- 
 ness, as Lowell very wittily said in his review 
 of that linguistic ass, Percival, who could bray, 
 I believe, in six or seven tongues. 
 
 Let American parents keep their sons and 
 daughters at home, and teach them Yankee 
 gumption, and let the French and the Italian 
 alone. Home-bred culture, be it never so 
 homely, is infinitely better than European paste 
 and varnish. If the Anglo-Saxon race keeps 
 the upper hand of things on the American Con- 
 tinent, it must stay at home and learn its lessons 
 on American soil. No really great American 
 was ever educated in Europe. This applies not 
 only to statesmen and warriors, and men of 
 business, but to scholars; to men of letters 
 and men of science ; to Channing and Edwards ; 
 to Franklin and Edison ; to Grant and Sher- 
 
 240 
 
AMERICANS ON THE RIVIERA. 
 
 man ; to Lincoln and Emerson. This will hold 
 good in Art, too. If we are ever to have a 
 supreme master in American Art, he will not 
 be evolved from a Paris studio, or from the 
 Roman catacombs ; but from the pure air and 
 light of his native land and virgin soil. Let the 
 dead nations of Europe bury their dead; but 
 go thou, America, and preach the New Gospel 
 of the Kingdom of God to a New World. 
 
 END. 
 
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 By Edgar Fawcett, author of "An Ambitious Woman," 
 " The House at High Bridge," etc. i2mo, cloth, 
 gilt, $1.25. 
 
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 Christine. 
 
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 Tait, Sons & Company, Publishers, New York. 
 
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 Alfred, Lord Tennyson. 
 
 A Study of his Life and Work. By Arthur Waugh, 
 B.A. (Oxon.) With portraits and 21 illustrations from 
 photographs specially taken for this work. One volume, 
 8vo, cloth, gilt top, uncut edges, $3.00. 
 
 " Mr. Waugh has performed his task with admirably good taste, and has let the 
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 more detailed, and more accurate than any at present in the possession of the 
 public." — Boston Literary World, 
 
 The Parsifal of Richard Wagner. 
 
 Translated from the French of Maurice Kufferath. 
 Exquisitely illustrated. i2mo, cloth, ornamental, $1.25. 
 
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 and welcome contribution to the critical literature of a period rich in musical 
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 Of Australian Life. By C. Haddon Chambers, 
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 A Republic Without a President. 
 
 By Herbert D. Ward, author of *' The Master of the 
 Magicians," "The New Senior at Andover." i2mo, 
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 Who is the Man ? 
 
 By J. Selwin Tait, author of **My Friend Pasquale," 
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 The Diary of Nobody. 
 
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 Life and Sylvia. 
 
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 When I Lived in Bohemia. 
 
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 A Battle and a Boy. 
 
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 The Last Confession 
 
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 ' The Blind Mother ' there is more pathos, though hardly less tragedy : soul and 
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 — Boston Times. 
 
 The Secret of Narcisse. 
 
 A Romance. By Edmund Gosse, author of "Gossip 
 in a Library," "On Viol and Flute," etc. i2mo, cloth, 
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 terpiece." — New York Times. 
 
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