Consular reminiscences

Front matter

¥WS J'

A r"V

V*

Chapter II

Authenticating invoices — Consul to know the price of everything — Notarial business — Executing the first commission — Reports to Department of State — Reports to Treasury Department — Reports to appraisers — General reports — At seaport places still more to write on — Saluting consul by squadron — Circulars from Department — Mrs. Pardiggle — Like school compositions — Rinderpest, and report on the same — The story of two wild Indians . . 24

Chapter III

Bamums abroad — Zulu chieftain — Bedouin trapeze artist — American Hercules — Egyptians with learned frogs — Colonel Sellers — Complaints of minister to Spain — Multifarious correspondence — Inquiries in regard to Munich — Man who practises animal magnetism — Prices of living in various Gorman cities — Labor, wages, and condition of working class — Artificial breeding of fish — Tobacco — Wants to be made a member of Statistical Society — Hops — Bread — Telegraphs — Railroads — Railroad brakes — Oiling ciirwheels — Fire departments — Sugar-refineries — Nickel-plating —

V

Vi CONTENTS,

Audience of the king : does he speak English — Ladies attending court ball — Newspapers in Bavaria — Statistics of mortality — Slaughter-houses — Selling lands in United States — To write art articles for newspapers — Preserved milk — Categorical questions — Fire-extinguishers — Platform scales — Lithographic stones — Quarries at Soluhofen — Opening for improved coflBns — Drunkenness — Where to hire a piano — Where to buy a parasol — Where to get milk from ** one cow" .60

Chapter IV

Something about fiddles — How many fiddles in the United States — Mittenwald — Jacob Stainer — Andreas Hofer and Stainer — Matthias Klotz — Neuner <fe Hornsteiner, Baader & Co. — Difference in build of violins — Origin of the violin — Zithers — Concert at Mittenwald — " Isar rolling rapidly" 60

Chapter V

Descriptions of person on passports — Noses described on passports, oblong — Costume of a sculpturing woman — Wanting to make a bust of the king — Consul to write to the king — Kaulbach and Achenbach, how pronounced — Consuls* titles — Jokes on consul's title — Contents of letters, funny — Samples of German-English letters — Queer titles and headings in German letters — Pasting holy pictures in letters — Begging letters — Long letters about nothing from Americans — A rounded letter, fish-hooks — The consul a little postmaster — Telegrams coming at all times of the night — " Try Munich" — Dead letters — Startling letter, " I have to be executed here to-morrow" 74

CHAPTER YI.

The guillotine — Hanging — Best method of inflicting capital punishment — Last execution by sword in Munich — Public execution by guillotine — History of the guillotine — Plea for other method than hanging — Executions should not be public — Can a clergyman vote or hold office? — "I was ever of opinion :" subject of a bet — A letter of Washington — Two Barons Washington living in Bavaria — Washington's letter — James Washington — Our flag : its origin — Our flag : when displayed — Our flag has further uses : Fourth of July speeches 87

Chapter VII

Consul like the American eagle — American eagle : its origin — Our arms — Eagle on the coinage — What our eagle looks like — Consular arms furnished by the Department — President of Ornithological Society — Sign of a poultry dealer — The " Adlerwirth" — State arms — Hunting up family arms — Hunting up genealogies — Smith family — Hunting up lost trunks — So many lost trunks — Two American ladies lose trunks — Railroad director loses trunks — Wants to sue the company — Trunks at forwarding agent's — Wanting consul to call on Sunday — Cases where consul must go to par-

CONTENTS. vii ties — Attacking the consul at the opera — Engaging rooms — Meeting lady with baby and nurse — Travelling companions for ladies — §uch requests not«from acquaintances — Consul to bargain for a painting — Newspapers received in a torn state — Work on Faust : no old fogy — Bill of glassware : where's the punch-bowl? — Consul to collect debts — Young Americans not writing home — To hunt up a sister — Wanting situations as clerks, etc. — Wanted, an artist to show strangers around the galleries — Tramps — Free railroad tickets — Tickets to New York, to Milan — Shooting the judge at Thulba — Violent sailor — French woman with baby — Parties coming in the evening to private lodging — Even tramps not the most formidable people — Making a living time-table of the consul — Armed with a circular letter of introduction — Putting one's knowledge of geography to the test — Which is the best route to Suez ? — First class from Munich to Verona — When do trains leave Munich for Paris ? .99

Chapter VIII

Man with a balloon — Guardian and trustee for fatherless children — Not much luck in this respect — Chapman and Butler, arrest and trial — Lady in prison for debt 112

Chapter IX

A sweet subject — Sucking liquorice — Characteristics of the German — Essay on liquorice-culture in Bamberg — Bothersome to ask questions in Germany — Handshaking of German-Americans — Wanting to show off their English — " Hats off in front" — American manners — American tailor, so called — Man in the office keeping his hat on — One more case of the above — Professor of art school — How to manage an art school — Royal State Library at Munich — Lending books and manuscripts — Deaths of Americans — Suicides — Student making diagram of his brain — Franklin Webster — To look after graves of Americans — Curious affection of the mind in sorrow — ** Is that grave as deep as usual ?" — Talking politics on leaving the cemetery 126

Chapter X

The cemetery at Munich — Making the acquaintance of the dead — How the corpses are handled — Ring and bell attachment — Beautiful monuments — The first monument — A ghost story — Sending a corpse home — The right man in the right place — ^^Is Dr. Leberfleck more for the kidneys ?" etc 135

Chapter XI

Not knowing who people are — The lady and the bum-bailiff — Royal bronze foundry ; business there — Information sought on art matters — Casts of iEgina marbles — Stained-glass windows — Iron railing for church — Measuring picture-frames — Bequest for photographs of buildings — Request for photographs of Kaulliaoh's

Viii CONTENTS.

PAQE

drawings — Exact copy of photograph on porcelain — Pictures of old masters for sale — Requests for postage-stamps — Our newspapers instruct the people — " Lick, brothers, lick, oh, lick with care" — Franco-German war — Terrified lady and the flag — Letters : is it safe to be in Munich ? — Forlorn situation of group of ladies — Treatment of French prisoners — Return of troops; banquet — Trial of two Irish ladies for insulting a corporal 148

Chapter XII

Homesickness — Good square breakfast — Consul not allowed to marry parties — Lunatic setting his room on fire — Once an Englishman always an Englishman — Our common law based on English law — Right of expatriation — Few Americans become subjects of other countries — Foreigners received as American citizens — Naturalized citizens returning to their native country — Our naturalization treaties — Bancroft's merits — Treaty with England — Bancroft censured by Department of State — The Bavarian protocol — Mild rule in practice — Bavaria holds firmly to treaty — Minister must decide a man's nationality — Talk of withdrawing from the treaty — Germans the most cosmopolitan of people — No chance of getting a better treaty — Chief flaw in our treaty — Bavaria made a mess of it — A returned Bavarian neither one thing nor the other — Case of such a man dying — Naturalized citizens to enjoy the same rights as native citizens — Circular from the Legation — Naturalized German having no passport nor citizenship paper not to make application 163

Chapter XIII

Caught by a letter-box — Stehhalbe — Suspicion of passing counterfeit money — American swindlers — The circus-rider — Telegram, ** look out for swindler" — Telegram : lady swindler — Doctor of medicine-swindler — Anthony Sharp — Warlike tailor — Books with begging letters — Insurance companies — Schools and academies; references — American dentists — The flute — Boehni and the Boehm flute — Requests for music — Munich a musical city — International Peace Jubilee — Showing a friend around the city — Which is the gem of the collection ? — What kind of grease do they use for car-axles in this country? — General Grant in Munich — Circular of Department of State — " Put money in thy purse" — Preparations made at Munich — Description of personal appearance — Visit to court brewery — Letters of introduction — State Department letters of introduction — Circular in regard to letters of introduction — Very mean people in the world — Sending Confederate notes to relatives, etc. — *' I haven't brass enough for that" .... 182