Twenty Years in Europe: A Consul-General's Memories of Noted People, with Letters From General W. T. ShermanByers, S. H. M. (Samuel Hawkins Marshall)
History
Twenty Years in Europe: A Consul-General's Memories of Noted People, with Letters From General W. T. Sherman
Byers, S. H. M. (Samuel Hawkins Marshall)
Europe -- Description and travel
Our conductor let me have a candle that burned above the coffin. I
thought of the time when Napoleon stood in this little dark chamber by
the body of one as great in Germany as he himself was in France. But
both the great men did their countries more harm than good.
Mr. Sargent gave one or two large dinners while we were at his house.
There was little talk of interest, but plenty of good music, and
plenty of good wine, which in a German company, might have stimulated
to notable sayings. Perhaps there were too many American teetotalers
present for a good time. I notice a few turn their glasses upside down,
in a sort of “I am better than you” fashion. Had they quietly allowed
their glasses to be filled, nobody would have asked why they did not
empty them. I have noticed always at German and Swiss dinners how the
talk sparkled with the wine, and how the witty things said were in some
way a test of the quality of the stuff in the decanter.
We went with the Sargents to the circus and saw the Crown Prince
Frederick and his boys and girls in a box. The Prince had a singular
and delicate way of applauding softly, with the palm of one gloved hand
on the back of the other. His children were all glee at the antics of
the performers, and expressed their joy in a much more boisterous way.
An enormous closed cage of wild lions was hauled into the arena, and
when the boards were let down and they saw the blinding lights and the
crowds of people their roaring was terrific.
A big African armed with a shotgun was let into the cage from an iron
hood suspended against the doors. There was the greatest excitement.
Many people instantly rose and left, fearing to see the man killed
before their eyes. We kept our seats. There was no performing with the
lions; it was simply a dare-devil venture to go among them, for they
were absolutely untamed. The African had serious difficulty in getting
back into his hood. It was his last act but one; the next night he was
torn in pieces.
In one of the public halls of Berlin, we recognized to our surprise a
party of American Indians performing war dances. They were the same
Indians who had been at Zurich and whom I had helped out of serious
difficulties, as their manager, it was claimed, had broken his contract
and left the poor barbarians stranded. They said then they would never
forget me. On seeing my wife and myself in the Berlin hall, they
suddenly stopped their dancing and to the astonishment of the assembled
spectators leaped from the platform, grasped me by the hand and called
to each other: “It is Mr. Byers! It is Mr. Byers!” They were overjoyed
at seeing some one in all Europe who had been kind to them.
A little later, in March, these Indians took passage home on the
steamer from Bremen. The vessel was wrecked, still in sight of land,
and every soul of them drowned. I, too, had engaged passage on the
steamer, but business detained me in Zurich till the next boat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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