My greatest happiness while in Russia was the magnificent sport. At Skiernievice I have shot fallow-deer for five hours, and then hunted hare; and in Finland, where we had superb sport, I have shot elk, bears, and wolves. There was an enormous quantity of blackcock and woodcock which the Fins and Samoyeds used to shoot with small rifles without ramrods, and with bad powder. It may seem an anomalous condition, but I was always well out in the cold air, which is not so bad, for every one is used to struggling with it; it was at the balls and theaters that I caught cold. The company at the house of the Archduchess Helena, who was a great wit, was most agreeable, but it was still more agreeable to go off on the big bearhunts wrapped in my furs, with high boots, and my big brown juff s leather cloak. We used to keep some young cubs in the house, among whom Mischka was the favorite, and he and some of my pet foxes used to walk about among the plates and glasses on the dinner-table, which amused our gues's but frightened the footmen, as they would get every now and again a nip in the calf of their legs."

Talking of all these savage conditions brought a gleam into Bismarck's eye, and I ventured to chaff him about his life as a diplomat; not, indeed, with fair ladies, for, with all the enmity and jealousy inspired among his enemies by his extraordinary career, the most ill-natured has not discovered a spot to point at on his moral horizon.

"Did you never hear it said," he laughingly asked, "that all Prussian Ambassadors die or go mad? I used to be as fearful of becoming a Minister as of taking a cold bath. But, my dear child, there has always been so much must in my life, and so much hard work, I was long ago weary; but God's will is like a great sea that always remains. All other things come and go: man's love and passion; avarice and ambition; war and peace, each its turn at the wheel, and God's ship rides on. Aus der Ewigkeit, zu der Ewigkeit hin. We should not demand too much, nor imagine that we have conquered the world be cause we have labored with tightened breath to accomplish our part. If we remain simple, we can hope for peace. The earth seems full of hypocrisy and jugglery. Who is not vain and malicious? I have often felt that so much depends upon how life ripens our nature, which is sometimes like a plank full of wormholes, and rotten, as some people

IN STUDENT DAYS

are, to the very bottom. No, no; the only way is to begin life with a purpose.

Since the begining of my career the north star to which I looked has been to accomplish the unification of Germany, and, that done, to create a constitution that would endure. It seems odd to me now that at Göttingen my whole attitude was opposition to the unity party; yet surely, though unrecognized then, the prophetic stirring must have possessed my soul of what I was later to do and dare. Since I first became a minister I have never belonged to any faction. Seeing only the end in view, I have plowed alike through friend and foe to obtain my purpose, and if it has been said that I sold my soul to the devil, it was at least a Teutonic one!

"I have been hated by all in turn, and have been liked by few. But I was spared the craving for the flower of popularity.

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Through every shadow of sorrow and bitterness I have preserved two articles of faith-belief in God and the final unification of the Fatherland. Why should I have disturbed myself and forced myself to incessant work-always the Thun und Treiben-if I had not been possessed with the thought that I must do my duty for Christ's sake? When I have felt as though I could throw off this life like a dirty shirt, the saving thought has always come that belief in God makes it worth while to live."

"What a pity it seems, Durchlaucht, that, since you speak English so admirably, you have not been in our country," I said, after a

PRINCE BISMARCK

From a photograph taken in 1885.

moment's pause; for I think every one of us at table felt subdued and impressed by the Prince's honest avowal of his Christian faith.

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Well, a bet very nearly carried me off to your country," Bismarck replied. "It was at Göttingen. I laid a wager with Amory Coffin, an American, for twenty-five bottles of champagne, the loser to cross the seas for it, that Germany would be united in twenty years. In 1873 I remembered the bet and intended going to America for it, but they wrote me that my poor college friend was dead.

"You know I have been in England, and although I spoke the language in my youth, that country was the high school where I perfected myself in English. The journey across the Channel was my first experience

in seasickness. The water was very rough and I was very miserable. I was tortured with the idea of being thrown into the Channel, among the currents, to be ground to pieces, and, sinking to the bottom, add to the corpses and wrecks which already strewed the bottom of the sea.

"I consider that a knowledge of English is now necessary to the conduct of the commerce of the civilized world. England has distrusted and disliked me, but I have always refrained from giving her advice, and have only restrained her at times in certain pretensions which were injurious to the legitimate interests of Germany. I was never a Colonnial Mensch, and I never disliked the nation, but if I had in the entire course of my life inflicted upon Germany half the ignominy and weakness which Mr. Gladstone managed to infl.ct in a few short years on England, I would not have had the courage to look my countrymen in the face again. This is particularly true with regard to English influence in Egypt, which I did everything possible to support. I hoped the British Government, by its interference in Egypt, would maintain order there as negotiorum gestor of European interests, and take a care of the finances, both in the interests of the country and of the bondholders; however, we did not realize our expectations. But the Lord knows how to turn even our errors to our advantage!"

"You give one the impression, Prince, of not greatly admiring our English cousins."

"Not at all; they are a great people. Summing up the experiences of a lifetime, I believe that people are rewarded with success according to the amount of Teutonic blood in their veins, and only just so long as they preserve the peculiarities of this race. The English are a striking sample of the judicious mixture of races to get the thor

oughbred article, be it man or beast. How ever, they were only a truly great nation while drinking was fashionable among them. Germany could have adopted for her own good many English ways-English fear of God and English respect for the law. The Kaiser has endeavored to introduce the English observance of Sunday among us, but a Sunday spent in England is one of my saddest recollections. Being young then and just arrived, I set about whistling, when a pious neighbor informed me it was not permitted a man to whistle in London on the Lord's day; and this so angered me that I left at once, for I did not enjoy having my liberty restrained. However, in Frankfort, when I was less particular than I am now, we always ate very plain food on Sundays, and I never used the carriage on that day on account of the I recall a funny experience with an English family when I was a youthful Jähriger. It happened one day that I was obliged to go, all dusty and dirty, straight from duty to the hotel where I took my meals. Chance placed me alongside people who had just arrived, and who, puzzled by my not immaculate appearance, began to discuss me. One of the ladies considered it impossible that I was an officer, and yet she said I had not the hands of a private. I listened in

servants

silence to the discussion. Suddenly the lady reached for the mustard-pot, but failed to get it; whereupon I handed it to her, saying in my best English, It is empty, but if you wish for some I will call the waiter to bring you another' Tableau!"

Although nearly four hours had elapsed since we first sat down at table, I have no recollection of the dishes served by the retinue of servants or the butler, a complacentlooking Teuton whose seventeen years of service gave him the privilege of wearing a blue serge sack-coat and a large gold chain over his ample breast. There was a momentary interruption as the coffee and liqueurs were placed on the board, cigars were handed to the gentlemen, the Countess lit a cigarette and the Prince, who had been drinking various wines, champagne, and beer, began on a fresh quart bot.le of extra dry, while he puffed away at the first of three great porcelain pipes with enormous stems which stood erect in an umbrella-jar now placed beside his chair by the attentive butler.

The visitor's book with pen and ink were put before me, while the Prince took up some photographs of himself, one with arms crossed over his breast exciting his displeasure. Why was I photographed in such a position?" he exclaimed. "I never assume it;

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my arms are much too short to cross. I am not a poseur. No, you must not carry that thing off. You wish me to select for you the photograph I prefer? It is the one, I believe, in the soft slouch hat. [A reproduction of this photograph may be found in The Outlook for August 6.—THE EDITORS.] I like soft hats and pliable cravats in my old age, and unstarched cuffs to my shirts. And now, dear child, this is the first time I have written my name this year [January 13]," he said, handing me the photograph, on which it had given him some trouble to inscribe the name and date.

"I live here a hermit in my last days," Bismarck said presently; "it fatigues me to see people; but to-day has been a great happiness to me. I have liked several of your countrymen. There was Motley, and Bancroft. Bancroft always struck me as the ideal American Ambassador. His scholastic sedateness was all the more agreeable in contrast with the annoyance which the wife of one of his predecessors caused me. This lady considered herself specially privileged. At the receptions of the diplomatic corps she invariably stood in the open space through which their Majesties were to pass. Like a field-marshal in front of his armies, she stood before the diplomatic array; one after another the chamberlains attempted to remove her, but it took an army of them to get her back in line. I can comprehend all races and nations, even the Irish, who are an effeminate people with small brains and immense sentimentality, but I cannot overcome my aversion to the negroes; to me they appear like a caricature of the white man. Hence my great interest in the United States, where they enter with such momentum into the racial question. It does not astonish me that Social Democracy plays no important rôle in America, appearing only in the great centers, where it is readily suppressed, for the population is spread over such tremendous areas. This hot-house plant of our civilization only flourishes with you where the people are closely packed together. It appears to me that both England and America are displaying warlike tendencies; the Chino-Japanese conflict has ushered in this general desire to clash arms. I am astonished by the energy of the Japanese in contrast with the lethargy of the Chinese.

'Some people see in the Chinese a menace to Europe; but the quiescent state of these people for centuries past shows this to be a groundless fear. It is far more probable that Japan must be considered in relation to the injury she will cause our mercantile relations than that China will ever enter the lists as a political power. How man and the hour change! Our century has accomplished much, but not everything; yet what tremendous progress I see in looking back over my life! The change in our ideas, in my own estimate of conditions, is marvelous. For instance, in my youth the Seven Years' War and the War of Freedom appeared very close together, and yet there was an interval of fifty-two years between them.

"What a long time I have lived! I could have seen Napoleon I. Fortunately, fate permitted us to accomplish our work at different epochs. I had a sufficiency with old Nap the Third !

Later we came together into the great drawing-room, cozy and old-fashioned, with sofas and arm-chairs dressed in chintz, the lamps burning brightly, and the samovar already steaming in preparation for the tea.

The sculptor, radiant, and seeing visions of a new statue beatified, said he had caught a softened look on the face of his Serene Highness unknown to the fraternity; and the Countess exclaimed in English as in perfect adoration she gazed at her father, "I have never seen papa in a more amiable mood than he is to-day." Then the Great Dane woke from his sleep as we heard the whistle of the approaching train which was to carry me away, Prince Bismarck rose from his seat, and, followed by the dog, we linked hands like little children and in silence walked together to the door.