¶ His temper few men could curb, much less sit calmly by and receive without retiring in bad order. Incident after incident at Frankfort might be cited, but what is the use? ¶ With fiendish earnestness Bismarck plotted to break the bones of two democratic editors whose writings threw the Prussian mastiff into periodical black rages. Bismarck justified his cruelty by insisting that "bounds must be set for these infamous press scribblings." He means that attacks on the Divine-right of kings must at all hazards be choked off. He always hated journalists, called the press "a poisoned well," and as for himself he is on record to this effect: "I always approached the ink-bottle with great caution." ¶ But mark this well: Our Otto, in his turn, craftily used the press to present the smooth side of his own political intriguing; indeed he had his very valuable Prussian press bureau; and we have authority for the statement that the Bismarckian idea of journalism was to have "hireling scribes well in hand, men who stabbed like masked assassins and mined like mobs." ¶ During the decade we call Bismarck's apprenticeship, 1851-'61, he was thus engaged: 1851, envoy at Frankfort Diet; 1852, Prussian ambassador at Vienna, during the illness of Count Arnim; St. Petersburg, 1859; Paris, 1862. Thus, he had an opportunity to get acquainted with all the leading diplomatists on the European chessboard, to study them in their own haunts, and to perfect himself in playing with pitch without blackening his hands. ¶ Bismarck told Francis Joseph, "I am firm to put an end to the attacks on Prussia in the Austrian press!" This boldness won the Emperor, and in confidence he remarked to a friend: "Ah, that I had a man of Bismarck's audacity." ¶ Also, he told Joseph, "Prussia will never yield in the matter of the commercial union, with Austria." The Emperor remarked on Bismarck's youth--37 years--and was much impressed. "Bismarck had the wisdom of a man of 70!" was Joseph's comment. * * * * * ¶ You begin to get a clearer idea of what this thing called patriotism means? Nay, do not scoff at our Otto; he is only carrying on the old, old game called reaching out after place and power; is doing exactly what you would do yourself, if you had the will to rise to the mountain-tops where live the Bismarcks and the Cæsars. Mask after mask Bismarck used to cover his real intent, from 1847 to 1870, the long years he was scheming to establish a German Empire; and he did his work well; more than that cannot be said of any man. Therefore, his fame is secure in the Valhalla of Mankind. * * * * *