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Under Four Administrations, from Cleveland to Taft

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Title: Under Four Administrations, from Cleveland to Taft

Author: Oscar S. Straus


        
Release date: March 14, 2012 [eBook #39144]

Language: English

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Credits: Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Julia Neeufeld and the
        Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDER FOUR ADMINISTRATIONS, FROM CLEVELAND TO TAFT ***




Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Julia Neeufeld and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net





Transcriber's note:

Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).

Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.

The carat character in Nov. 1^{st} indicates that the following letters
inside the curly brackets are superscripted.


       *       *       *       *       *


[Illustration: Oscar S. Straus with signature]

  Under Four Administrations

  FROM CLEVELAND TO TAFT

  RECOLLECTIONS OF OSCAR S. STRAUS, LITT.D., LL.D.

  _Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague
  Three Times Minister and Ambassador to Turkey

  Former Secretary of Commerce and Labor_

  WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

  [Illustration: Publisher's Mark]

  Boston and New York
  HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
  The Riverside Press Cambridge

  COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY OSCAR S. STRAUS

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  SECOND IMPRESSION

  The Riverside Press
  CAMBRIDGE.MASSACHUSETTS
  PRINTED IN THE U.S.A




  DEDICATED TO
  MY GRANDCHILDREN
  AND THEIR CONTEMPORARIES
  OF EVERY RACE AND CREED




PREFACE


I am drawing these memories to a close in my log cabin in the primitive
Maine woods, where my wife and I have been coming for rest and for
fishing for the past twenty years. Here we renew our youth, and far from
tumult and crowds, near to nature, we realize anew how little is
required in order to be contented and happy. Here I am taken back to the
memories of my childhood in the little town in Georgia where too our
home was a log house, but for appearances had the luxurious outer and
inner dressing of clap-boarding painted white. The logs of the upper
story where we children played and slept had no covering, which pleased
us all the more.

In a highly organized society, we are often attracted by pomp and
circumstance, rather than by qualities of heart and mind, which after
all are the true measure of enlightenment. Here in these woods, fair
dealings and human relations are not regulated by statutes, but by the
golden rule of conduct. We need not hide our possessions behind locked
doors, honesty is the accepted rule of life; there are no treasures to
hide and no bars to break.

It has been permitted me to do useful work and to have interesting
experiences. Privileged opportunities have been afforded me for public
service. Of these I write.

Perhaps in chronicling the experiences of a life which at many points
touched vital affairs and the most interesting personalities, I may be
able to add something to the record of men, movements, and events during
those decades still absorbing to us because they are so near.

The story is one of service at home and abroad, of personal relations
with six of our Presidents, with diplomats, labor leaders, foreign
rulers, leaders of industry, and some plain unticketed citizens who were
the salt of the earth and certainly not the least of those whom it was a
pleasure to know.

To write of one's self requires a certain amount of egotism. The
autobiographer usually tries to justify this vanity by explaining it as
a desire to gratify his children and kinsmen, or as a yielding to the
urgent request of his friends. Benjamin Franklin, whose autobiography,
incomplete though it be, is one of the most human in our language,
frankly conceded that he was prompted by the weakness of praise. He
says: "I may as well confess it, since my denial of it will be believed
by nobody, perhaps I shall a good deal gratify my own vanity."

I do not wish to conceal from those who may from interest or curiosity
read what I write, that I am not entirely free from that vanity, even
though it be my chief aim and purpose to cast some additional light upon
our country's development and upon events in which, in public and
private life, I have been permitted to take part. Having held official
positions at home and abroad under four administrations, and having come
in close relationship with many of the statesmen and others of
distinction in this and foreign countries, perhaps my narrative will
serve to give more intimate knowledge and truer appreciation of their
personal traits and their exceptional qualities.

I have also been influenced by a desire to bring a message of
encouragement to the youth of our country, especially to those who may
be conscious of handicaps in the race, not to lose heart, but to be
patient, considerate, and tactful, and not to withhold the saving extra
ounce of effort which often spells the difference between failure and
success.

So long as our democracy remains true to its basic principles and
jealously guards the highways of opportunity, the golden age will not be
in the past, but ever in the future. In externals the age in which we
live has changed, but the qualities of effort, of industry, and the will
to succeed which were required when I was a boy, have not changed; they
lead to the same goals now as then, with this difference: that the boy
of to-day has greater advantages, better educational facilities, and
more avenues of advancement than the boy of two generations ago. There
never was a time in our history when more men of humble origin have
attained commanding positions in industry, in commerce, and in public
affairs than now. While our American system is not without fault, the
fact that an enlightened public is ever watchful to maintain our
democratic principles and to correct abuses is convincing proof of our
country's wholesome development in conformity with the changing
conditions of modern life.

I desire to make acknowledgment to my long-time and esteemed friend, Mr.
Lawrence Abbott, the President of "The Outlook," who encouraged and
advised me to write these memoirs and even outlined the chapter plan
which I have largely followed.




CONTENTS


  I. ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS                 1

  II. LAW, BUSINESS, AND LETTERS             30

  III. ENTERING DIPLOMACY                    50

  IV. FIRST TURKISH MISSION                  70

  V. HARRISON, CLEVELAND, AND MCKINLEY      105

  VI. MY SECOND MISSION TO TURKEY           130

  VII. THEODORE ROOSEVELT                   163

  VIII. INDUSTRIAL DIPLOMACY                194

  IX. IN THE CABINET                        207

  X. THE TAFT CAMPAIGN OF 1908              248

  XI. MY THIRD MISSION TO TURKEY            271

  XII.  THE PROGRESSIVES                    307

  XIII. THREATENING CLOUDS OF WAR           327

  XIV. PERSONAL VIGNETTES                   343

  XV. THE WORLD WAR                         370

  XVI. PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE               396

  INDEX                                     431




ILLUSTRATIONS


  OSCAR S. STRAUS                          _Frontispiece_
  Photograph by the Campbell Studios, New York

  MOTHER AND FATHER OF OSCAR S. STRAUS                  2

  BIRTHPLACE OF OSCAR S. STRAUS, OTTERBERG, RHENISH
  BAVARIA                                               8

  CHAPEL AND SCHOOLHOUSE, COLLINSWORTH INSTITUTE,
  TALBOTTON, GEORGIA                                    8

  OSCAR S. STRAUS AT SIX                               12

  OSCAR S. STRAUS AT THE TIME OF HIS GRADUATION        28

  LETTER OF HENRY WARD BEECHER TO PRESIDENT
  CLEVELAND                                            46

  MRS. STRAUS IN TURKEY                                62

  TESTIMONIAL GIVEN TO MR. STRAUS IN JERUSALEM IN
  APPRECIATION OF THE RELEASE OF SEVERAL HUNDRED
  PRISONERS                                            84

  OSCAR S. STRAUS, CONSTANTINOPLE, 1888                96

  PRESIDENT MCKINLEY SENDING THE AUTHOR TO TURKEY
  ON HIS SECOND MISSION, 1898                         124

  MEMBERS OF THE RAILWAY BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION      200

  THE ROOSEVELT CABINET                               216

  MRS. OSCAR S. STRAUS                                246

  NATHAN, OSCAR, AND ISIDOR STRAUS                    312
  Photograph by Pirie MacDonald, New York, 1912

  ROGER W. STRAUS                                     392




Under Four Administrations




CHAPTER I

ANCESTRY AND EARLY YEARS

     Napoleonic Era: the Sanhedrin--A forefather in Napoleon's
     councils--My father and the German Revolution of 1848--My father
     emigrates to America--My father starts business in Talbotton,
     Georgia--My mother and her children arrive, 1854--We attend the
     Baptist Church--My early schooling--Deacons duel with
     knives--Household slaves--Life in a small Southern town--Frugal and
     ingenious housekeeping--Outbreak of the Civil War--Our family moves
     to Columbus, Georgia--First lessons in oratory--General Wilson's
     capture of the city--The town is looted--Our family moves North
     --My father surprises Northern creditor by insisting upon paying
     his debts in full--I attend Columbia Grammar School in New York
     City--My accidental schoolroom glory before Morse, the inventor--I
     enter Columbia College in 1867 with Brander Matthews, Stuyvesant
     Fish, and other distinguished classmates--My classroom debut in
     diplomacy--Poetic ambitions--Military aspirations and an interview
     with President Grant--Choosing law as a career.


My ancestors, on both my father's and my mother's side, were natives of
the Palatinate of Bavaria, of the town of Otterberg and immediate
vicinity. Up to the time of Napoleon's taking possession of that part of
the country the Jews of the Palatinate had not adopted family names.
This they did later, beginning in 1808, when, under Napoleon, the
Palatinate became the Department of Mont Tennerre and part of France. My
great-grandfather, for instance, before adopting the family name of
Straus, was known as Jacob Lazar, from Jacob ben Lazarus, or Jacob son
of Lazarus, as in biblical times.

Jacob Lazar, afterwards Jacob Straus, had three sons: Jacob, Lazarus,
and Salomon. My father, Lazarus Straus, born April 25, 1809, was the son
of the eldest, Jacob; and my mother, Sara Straus, born January 14,
1823, was the daughter of the youngest, Salomon. My paternal grandfather
died when my father was a young man, but my grandfather Salomon Straus
and his brother Lazarus were known to us as children, particularly to my
eldest brother, Isidor, who knew them quite well. They were men of
culture and education, landowners who sent their crops--mainly wheat,
oats, clover and clover seed--and those of their neighbors to the
markets of Kaiserslautern and Mannheim, the chief commercial towns of
the section. They spoke German and French fluently, and had also, of
course, been thoroughly educated in the Hebrew language and literature.

The name of Straus was well known among the Jews of Bavaria, and both my
great-grandfather and my father contributed to its prominence. During
1806 a spirit of reaction, political and religious, swept over France,
making itself especially troublesome in Alsace and in the German
departments of the upper and lower Rhine. Exceptionable and restrictive
laws were advocated to deprive the Jews there of rights they were
enjoying throughout France. As had happened often before, and not
unknown since, the reactionaries fanned the hatred against Jews, making
them the scapegoats in their campaign against the advancing spirit of
liberalism. Thus the cause of the Jews was linked with the cause of
liberty itself.

[Illustration: MOTHER AND FATHER OF OSCAR S. STRAUS]

Napoleon himself was at first prejudiced against the Jews, regarding
them as usurers and extortioners. He soon realized, however, that the
characteristics which confronted him could not be imputed to Judaism,
but were due rather to the restricted civil and industrial rights of the
Jews and to their general unhappy condition. It was made manifest to him
that in Bordeaux, Marseilles, and the Italian cities of France, as
well as in Holland, some of the most useful and patriotic citizens were
Jews. Napoleon always had an eye on his historical reputation, and
desiring to do nothing that would obscure his fame, he decided to
convene a council of representative Jews from the various provinces.
Accordingly, on May 30, 1806, he issued his decree, famous in the annals
of the Jews in modern times, summoning the Assembly of Notables of the
Jewish nation to meet in Paris the following July. The prefects in the
various provinces were required to aid in the selection of the most
distinguished men from among the rabbis and the laity.

The deputies came to Paris from all parts of the French Empire. They
numbered one hundred and eleven in all, and spoke French, German, and
Italian. Many of them were themselves well known, others achieved a
posthumous glamour in the deeds of descendants who have since won
distinction in European history and in the annals of Jewry. There were
Joseph Sinzheim, first rabbi of Strasbourg, foremost Talmudist and
considered the most scholarly member of the Assembly, who was made
president of the Assembly and later chairman of the Great Sanhedrin;
Michel Berr, afterwards the first French Jew to practice at the bar;
Abraham Furtado, son of a marano or crypto-Jewish Portuguese family from
which was also descended the wife of the first Benjamin D'Israeli and
Sir John Simon; Isaac Samuel d'Avigdor of Nice, grandfather of Jules
d'Avigdor who was a member of the Piedmont Parliament; Israel
Ottolenghi, an ancestor of Italy's late Minister of War; Abraham de
Cologna, rabbi of Mantua, a great political leader and reformer; and
many others of equal rank and caliber. Their task was a monumental one,
for it was nothing less than to justify Judaism and Jewry to the world;
and they assembled with a full consciousness of their responsibility.

At this Assembly my great-grandfather represented the Department of Mont
Tennerre. He evidently played an important part in the diplomacy which
this unprecedented council involved, for he was a member of the
sub-committee of fifteen delegated to meet the commissioners appointed
by Napoleon, also a member of the committee to which the Assembly gave
the delicate work of preparing the groundwork for discussion with the
commissioners. Subsequently he was appointed to the committee of nine of
the Great Sanhedrin which the following year presented to Napoleon's
committee the conclusions formulated and agreed upon by the Assembly,
and which helped to bring about their adoption.

       *       *       *       *       *

My father, in turn, was active in the revolutionary movement in 1848.
This was an heroic effort on the part of the liberal forces of Europe to
achieve constitutional government, and when it failed many of those who
had borne a conspicuous part fled to other countries. Thus it was that
Generals Sigel, Schurz, Stahl, and others, who later were prominent in
our Civil War, came to America. These men and their immediate followers
constitute one of the most valuable groups of immigrants that have come
to these shores since our government was organized. In the land of their
birth they had already made sacrifices for constitutionalism and
democracy, and basically they had made them for American principles.
They were Americans in spirit, therefore, even before they arrived.

Having been active only locally in the revolutionary movement, my father
was not prosecuted. He was made aware, however, of the suspicions of the
authorities and was subjected to all those petty annoyances and
discriminations which a reactionary government never fails to lay upon
people who have revolted, and revolted in vain. My father decided, in
consequence, to emigrate. This purpose he did not carry into effect
until the spring of 1852. He had many ties, which it was difficult to
break at once. He had been in comfortable circumstances, like his father
and grandfather a landowner and dealer on a large scale in farm
products, principally grains. The revolution left him reduced in
circumstances and even to some extent in debt. He had four children, of
whom I was the youngest, being then less than a year and a half old.
Therefore, like the prudent man he was, he waited, and then came to
America alone with the purpose of establishing himself in some small way
before allowing his family to exchange the comparative security of their
familiar surroundings for the insecurity of an unknown land.

He landed at Philadelphia, where he met a number of former acquaintances
who had preceded him to America, some of whom were already established
in business. They advised him to go South. Acting on this suggestion he
went on to Oglethorpe, Georgia, where he met some more acquaintances
from the old country. Through them he made a connection with two
brothers Kaufman, who plied the peddler's trade. They owned a peddler's
wagon with which they dispensed through the several counties of the
State an assortment of dry goods and what was known as "Yankee notions."

For my father this was indeed a pioneer business in a pioneer country,
yet it was not like the peddling of to-day. In the fifties the
population of the whole State of Georgia was only about nine hundred
thousand. Because of the existence of slavery there were on the large
plantations often more colored people than there were whites living in
the near-by villages. The itinerant merchant, therefore, filled a real
want, and his vocation was looked upon as quite dignified. Indeed, he
was treated by the owners of the plantations with a spirit of equality
that it is hard to appreciate to-day. Then, too, the existence of
slavery drew a distinct line of demarcation between the white and black
races. This gave to the white visitor a status of equality that probably
otherwise he would not have enjoyed to such a degree.

Provided only, therefore, that the peddler proved himself an honorable,
upright man, who conscientiously treated his customers with fairness and
made no misrepresentations regarding his wares, he was treated as an
honored guest by the plantation owners--certainly a spirit of true
democracy. The visits were made periodically and were quite looked
forward to by the plantation owners. The peddler usually stayed one
night at the house of his customer and took his meals with the family.
Another ideally democratic feature about these sojourns was that spirit
of Southern hospitality which, even in the relationship between the
wealthiest, most aristocratic family and the humble peddler, permitted
no pay for board and lodging, and only a small charge for feed for the
horses. The peddler in turn usually made a gift to either the lady or
her daughter. Often he provided himself with articles for this purpose,
but usually on one visit he would find out what might be welcome and on
the next visit bring it. The bonds of friendship thus made are, I
venture to say, hardly understandable in our day.

       *       *       *       *       *

In the course of these wanderings my father came to Talbotton, a town of
some eight or nine hundred inhabitants, the county seat of Talbot
County, and about forty miles east of the Alabama boundary. Talbotton
immediately impressed him so favorably that he selected it as the next
home for his family. It had an air of refinement that pleased him; there
were gardens with nicely cultivated flowers and shrubbery, and houses
that were neat, well kept, and properly painted. Upon inquiry he found
further that there were splendid schools for both boys and girls.

There was another factor which doubtless caused father to be favorably
impressed with Talbotton; it was court week when he arrived, at which
time a town has a more or less festive appearance and is at its best so
far as activity is concerned. Then there was a third factor that
influenced him to settle there. Before doing business in any county,
peddlers were required to go to the county seat to buy a license. At
Talbotton this license was very high, and my father doubted that his
business in Talbot County would warrant the expense. The idea occurred
to him to utilize the presence of the many strangers in town to test the
possibilities of the place by unpacking and displaying his goods in a
store. An interview with Captain Curley, the only tailor in the town,
developed the fact that the store he occupied was too large for his
needs and he would be willing to share it with my father. So this
arrangement was promptly made, and at a cost less than the expense of
the county license for itinerant merchandising.

The experiment proved most satisfactory. In a few weeks the stock was so
depleted that my father proposed to his partner that they rent a store
and settle in Talbotton. This they did. My father then prepared to go to
Philadelphia to get a stock of goods. His partner counseled against
this. There was a merchant in Oglethorpe who, up to this point, had
supplied them with all their merchandise; they would need to refer to
him for credit, and they were still indebted to him for the stock in
hand; also, he would probably not approve of their settling down in a
store instead of peddling. The new store offered large display space in
comparison with the wagon, and the partner doubted my father's ability
to get enough credit in Philadelphia to make a proper display. Still
another obstacle. The line of merchandise that was to constitute most of
their stock was what was then known as dry goods and domestics. This
business was entirely in the hands of the Yankees and the most difficult
one in which to gain a foothold, especially for a German immigrant
without capital.

However, in the end my father did go to Philadelphia. He had found
several acquaintances in that city, as I have already said, who had been
resident in his neighborhood in the old country. These people were
established in several of the wholesale houses in the different lines of
merchandise he required, except the dry goods. And solely on the
strength of his character and the reputation he had had in Europe he was
able to establish with them the necessary credit, which neither his
capital nor his business experience in a new field and a strange country
warranted. In fact, their faith in him was so strong that one of them
gladly introduced him to the wholesale dry goods merchants, and he was
able to accomplish the full purpose of his mission, to the great
amazement of his partner.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Illustration: BIRTHPLACE OF OSCAR S. STRAUS OTTERBERG, RHENISH BAVARIA]

[Illustration: CHAPEL AND SCHOOLHOUSE COLLINSWORTH INSTITUTE, TALBOTTON,
GEORGIA]

That was in 1853, and marked the beginning of my family's history in
this country. This bit of success encouraged my father to write home
that he might be able to have us join him the following year.
Accordingly, on August 24, 1854, our little party left Otterberg. It
was a journey that required no little courage and resourcefulness. My
mother had three years before suffered a paralytic stroke, and of her
four children the eldest, my brother Isidor, was only nine years old. My
sister Hermina was a year and a half younger, Nathan was six, and I was
only three and a half. My mother's father accompanied us from Otterberg
to Kaiserslautern, he on horseback and the rest of us with our nursemaid
in a carriage; we then took the train to Forbach, a French frontier
town, where we remained overnight. The next morning we left for Paris.
There we stayed until August 29th, when we started for Havre to board
the steamer St. Louis on her maiden voyage. As our boat was being docked
in New York on September 12th, my mother recognized my father
energetically pacing the wharf. Minutes seemed like hours.

We did not go directly to Talbotton. Yellow fever was raging in
Savannah, and as we had to go through that port _en route_ to Talbotton,
we waited in Philadelphia for a few weeks, until the danger was
considered over. Even then we avoided entering the city until it was
time to board the train for Geneva, where we were to take the
stage-coach for the remaining seven miles to Talbotton. The boat docked
at Savannah in the morning, and we spent the day until evening in the
small shanty that was called the station. When finally we reached
Talbotton we found a very comfortable home ready for us. My precocious
brother Isidor immediately inspected the whole and thought it odd to be
in a house built on stilts, as he called it. The house, typical of that
locality, had no cellar, but was supported by an open foundation of
wooden pillars about twenty-five feet apart.

Our family was received with kindness and hospitality, so that in a
very few years our parents were made to feel much at home. My mother,
who had considerable experience in the cultivation of flowers and
vegetables, soon had a garden which was very helpful and instructive to
her circle of neighbors and friends. My father, always a student and
well versed in biblical literature and the Bible, which he read in the
original, was much sought by the ministers of the various denominations,
several of whom habitually dined at our house when in Talbotton on their
circuit. At such times the discussion usually ran along theological
lines. One of my earliest recollections is hearing my father take
passages from the Old Testament and translate them literally for the
information of these ministers.

We were the only Jewish family in the town. This at first aroused some
curiosity among those who had never met persons of our race or religion
before. I remember hearing some one doubt that we were Jews and
remarking to my father, who had very blond hair and blue eyes, that he
thought all Jews had black hair and dark complexion.

       *       *       *       *       *

My brother Isidor and my sister were immediately sent to school, and my
second brother and I were sent as soon as we arrived at school age. I
was seven years old when I began learning my letters.

My main religious instruction came from conversations with my father and
from the discussions the ministers of various denominations had with
him, which I always followed with great interest. When my brother Nathan
and I were respectively about eleven and eight and a half years old, we
were sent to the Baptist Sunday school upon the persuasion of the
Baptist minister, who had become an intimate friend of my father's.
There we heard the Bible read and were taught principally from the Old
Testament. Our teacher was a gunsmith who had more piety than knowledge,
and what he lacked in erudition he made up by good intentions which,
after all, had a cultural value. We continued our attendance some two
years.

At eleven I entered Collinsworth Institute, a higher school for boys,
about a mile outside of Talbotton. Isidor had been there, and Nathan was
there then. It was not a large school, though it was the best of its
kind in our vicinity. The recitation hall or chapel was a little frame
building standing in a square, and around that were eight or ten
one-story frame houses where boys coming from a distance lived. The
pupils ranged in age from about ten to eighteen, and there were three
teachers. We were taught the three R's, and the advanced pupils studied
the classics.

In our small town, being the county seat, we had gala days each month
when the court convened and people came from the surrounding districts
as for a holiday. There was much drinking of gin and whiskey by the
young country squires, which frequently ended up in some fighting where
pistols and knives were freely used. This all left a deep impression on
my young mind and made me a prohibitionist long before I knew the
meaning of the word. In the North when boys got to fighting they used
their fists; in the South they used, besides their fists, sticks and
stones, and consequently it was a more serious and dangerous affair. If
in the North one boy cursed another or called him a liar, it would not
necessarily lead to a fist fight; in fact, it usually stopped at
recrimination. In the South that kind of quarreling meant a serious
fight. I think because of these facts the Southern boys were much more
guarded and polite to each other in speech than was customary among
Northern boys. Perhaps much of the so-called Southern politeness had
its roots in the use, in boyhood, of milder terms in case of
disagreement. I recall one fight between two of the leading men of
Talbotton, both deacons in the same church. One took out his pocket
knife and cut the other's throat, and he died. After considerable delay
the murderer was tried, but because of his high standing in the
community he was acquitted, doubtless on the plea of self-defense, and
he got off scot-free.

As a boy brought up in the South I never questioned the rights or wrongs
of slavery. Its existence I regarded as matter of course, as most other
customs or institutions. The grown people of the South, whatever they
thought about it, would not, except in rare instances, speak against it;
and even then in the most private and guarded manner. To do otherwise
would subject one to social ostracism. We heard it defended in the
pulpit and justified on biblical grounds by leading ministers. With my
father it was different. I frequently heard him discuss the subject with
the ministers who came to our house, and he would point out to them that
the Bible must be read with discrimination and in relation to the period
to which the chapters refer; and it must not be forgotten that it is the
history of a people covering more than a thousand years; and that even
then there had been no such thing as perpetual bondage, as all slaves
were declared free in the year of jubilee.

[Illustration: OSCAR S. STRAUS AT SIX]

Looking backward and making comparisons between my observations as a boy
in the South and later in the North, I find there was much more freedom
of expression in the North than in the South. Few people in the South
would venture to express themselves against the current of dominant
opinion upon matters of sectional importance. The institution of slavery
with all that it implied seemed to have had the effect of enslaving,
or, to use a milder term, checking, freedom of expression on the part of
the master class only in lesser degree than among the slaves themselves.

       *       *       *       *       *

In our town, as in all Southern communities, the better families were
kind, especially to their household slaves, whom they regarded as
members of the family requiring guardianship and protection, in a degree
as if they were children. And the slaves addressed their masters by
their first names and their mistresses as "miss." My mother, for
instance, was "Miss Sara." I recall one of our servants pleading with my
mother: "Miss Sara, won't you buy me, I want to stay here. I love you
and the white folks here, and I am afraid my master will hire me out or
sell me to some one else." At that time we hired our servants from their
masters, whom we paid an agreed price. But as the result of such
constant pleadings my father purchased household slaves one by one from
their masters, although neither he nor my mother believed in slavery. If
we children spoke to the slaves harshly or disregarded their feelings,
we were promptly checked and reprimanded by our parents. My father also
saw to it that our two men servants learned a trade; the one learned
tailoring and the other how to make shoes, though it was regarded
disloyal, at any rate looked upon with suspicion, if a master permitted
a slave boy or girl to be taught even reading and writing. When later we
came North we took with us the two youngest servants, one a boy about my
age, and the other a girl a little older. They were too young to look
out for themselves, and so far as they knew they had no relatives. We
kept them with us until they grew up and could look out for themselves.

The people throughout the South, with the exception of the richer
plantation owners, lived simply. In our household, for instance, we
always lived well, but economically. My mother was very systematic and
frugal. She had an allowance of twenty dollars a month, and my brother
Isidor has well said that she would have managed to save something even
if it had been smaller. It was her pleasure to be her own financier, and
small as her allowance sounds now, she was able in the course of two or
three years to save enough to buy a piano for my sister. This she felt
to be an expense with which my father's exchequer should not be taxed.

We raised our own vegetables and chickens. Fresh meat, except pork,
might have been termed a luxury. Many of the families had their own
smokehouses, as we did, which were filled once a year, at the
hog-killing season. There was no such thing as a butcher in our little
town. When a farmer in the country round wanted to slaughter an ox or a
sheep, he would do so and bring it to town, exhibit it in the public
square in a shanty called the market (used for that particular occasion
and at other times empty), toll the bell that was there, and in that way
announce that some fresh meat was on sale. This procedure never occurred
oftener than once in two or three weeks during the cold weather.

Ice was another luxury in that community. It had to be shipped many
miles and was therefore brought in only occasionally, mainly for a
confectioner who at times offered ice cream to the people.

There was no gas lighting. Oil lamps were used, but to a larger extent
candles, which were manufactured in each household, of fat and bees'
wax. In that process we children all helped.

Indeed, with a small business in a small town in those days it was
possible for a man to accumulate a surplus only through the practice of
the strictest economy by his family as well as by himself, an economy
almost bordering parsimony. There were no public or free schools in that
part of the South; every textbook had to be bought and tuition paid for;
and there were four of us.

       *       *       *       *       *

When the war broke out new economies were called for. A simple life has
its advantages; it is conducive to self-help, also to the ability to do
without things and meet emergencies without unhappiness. My father's
partner joined the Fourth Georgia Regiment, and my brother Isidor, then
sixteen, was withdrawn from Collinsworth Institute to take up work with
my father. He had gained some experience in carrying on the business by
helping father evenings, for our store was open until nine-thirty. It
was closed during the supper hour, but reopened thereafter.

In that part of the country coffee became unobtainable except when now
and then a few bags arrived on a ship that had run the blockade. Our
mothers learned to give us an acceptable substitute by cutting sweet
potatoes into little cubes, drying them in the sun, then roasting and
grinding them, together with grains of wheat, like the ordinary bean.
This made a hot and palatable drink having the color of coffee without
the harmful stimulus of its caffeine.

Salt also became scarce. It was difficult and at times impossible to
obtain enough to cure our pork. Some one discovered that the earthen
floors of the smokehouses were impregnated with considerable salt from
previous curings, so a method was invented for recovering it from that
source.

In the later years of the war, when railway transportation was very poor
and in many localities interrupted, we did not suffer for food, because,
as I have said, most households in the small towns and in the country
raised the major part of their food supplies; they had their own
chickens, eggs, milk, butter, garden provisions. Children of my age
lived largely on corn bread and molasses, of which there was an
ever-plentiful amount.

During the second year of the war my father's partner was discharged
from his regiment for physical disability. My father, always insistent
upon the best possible education for us all, therefore urged my brother
Isidor to continue his studies. Most of the high schools and colleges,
however, had been suspended because the teachers, as well as many of the
senior scholars, had joined the army. On the other hand, the war had
fired the whole South with the military spirit, and as was natural for a
young man barely seventeen, my brother chose to attend the Georgia
Military Academy at Marietta, which was running full blast. Earlier in
the war, when the Fourth Georgia Regiment, taking practically all the
able-bodied men of the town, had left for the front, the boys of
Talbotton organized a company of which Isidor was elected first
lieutenant. They had offered their services to the governor of the
State, but he replied that there were not enough arms to equip all the
men, so that equipping boys was out of the question. All these incidents
had influenced my brother in his choice, and he left quite
enthusiastically for the Georgia Military Academy to take his entrance
examinations. When he returned, however, his mood was much different.
Upon his arrival at Marietta he had about an hour's waiting before he
could see the proper person. Some acquaintances whom he met on the
campus invited him to visit their living quarters meanwhile. As he
entered one of the rooms the door stood ajar. Without noticing this he
gave the door a push, resulting in his being drenched to the skin by a
bucket of water that had been balanced over the door and held there by
the position of the door when ajar. He had to return to the hotel to
change his entire apparel. He had not heard of hazing before, and the
incident disgusted him so that he never returned to the academy. He
embarked upon his career as a merchant the very next morning.

       *       *       *       *       *

In 1863 our family moved to Columbus, Georgia. It was a much larger
place than Talbotton, having a population of about twelve thousand,
offered more opportunities, and, too, my brother Isidor had already
found employment there. With its broad main street and brick residences
it looked like a great city to me.

As in Talbotton, there were no public schools in Columbus, so I was sent
to a private school kept by an Irish master named Flynn, who did not act
on the pedagogical principle, "Spare the rod and spoil the child." By
him I was taught the three R's and began Latin. I also experienced my
first stage-fright at Master Flynn's, when my turn came to speak a piece
before the entire school. In all Southern schools much emphasis was
placed upon elocution. I well remember practicing before a mirror and
reciting under the trees in stentorian voice with dramatic gesture the
great oration put into John Adams's mouth by Daniel Webster, beginning:
"Sink or swim, live or die, survive or perish, I give my hand and my
heart to this vote."

After another year this school was discontinued and I was sent to one
kept by a Dr. Dews. He was a teacher trained in the classics and far
less severe than Flynn, more sympathetic and cultured. Under him I
began Virgil and afterwards Horace. It was not customary to teach
English grammar; we derived that from our laborious drilling in Latin
grammar.

There were no public libraries, and few families, other than those of
professional men, had many books. The standard assortment consisted of
the Bible, Josephus, Burns; some had Shakespeare's works. I do not
recall at this period reading any book outside of those we had for study
at school. Boys of my age led an outdoor life, indulging in seasonable
sports which rotated from top-spinning to marbles, to ball-playing,
principally a game called town-ball. We all had shot-guns, so that in
season and out we went bird-hunting and rabbit-hunting.

We went barefooted nine months of the year, both for comfort and
economy. As in Talbotton we lived most economically. We were not poor in
the sense of being needy; we never felt in any way dependent. Our home
was comfortable, wholesome, full of sunshine and good cheer, and always
hospitable to friends. Our wants were few and simple, so we had plenty,
and I felt as independent as any child of the rich.

We were now in the midst of the Civil War, and money, measured in gold,
was worth about five cents per dollar. My brother Nathan seemed to be
affected by this into constant scheming for making pocket money. He was
fifteen years old, and out of school hours helped father in the store;
but he seemed to be in need of more pin-money. He finally hit on a plan
that proved quite lucrative. He collected or bought up pieces of hemp
rope and sold them to a manufacturer. Hemp was very scarce and much
needed. With the proceeds he bought a beautiful bay pony, which he and I
prized more than any possession we have ever had, before or since.

       *       *       *       *       *

On the 16th of April, 1865, after a feeble skirmish on the part of the
citizen soldiers, mainly superannuated men and schoolboys, Columbus was
captured by General James H. Wilson at the head of a cavalry corps of
fifteen thousand men. The war had practically ended seven days before,
as Lee surrendered on the 9th at Appomattox Court House in Virginia; but
as telegraph and railroad communication had been disrupted, this fact
was not yet known in our part of Georgia. As soon as Wilson's army took
possession of our debilitated city general confusion reigned. Looting
began by the town rabble, led by several drunken Federal soldiers;
cotton warehouses were burned, the contents of which represented the
savings of many, including most of my father's; all horses were seized,
and among them our little pony, which I never saw again, though I still
retain a vivid picture of him in my mind's eye. Frequently since, when I
have met that fine and accomplished old veteran, General Wilson, who is
still among the living, hale and hearty, I have jestingly reproached him
for taking from me the most treasured possession I ever had.

This incident and others served to give me a most vivid impression of
the closing years of the Civil War. Another very vivid impression that
occurred shortly before the beginning of the war clings to my memory.
Robert Toombs, one of Georgia's most conspicuous United States Senators,
was making a speech at the Masonic Temple in Columbus, Georgia. It was a
hot summer day. Toombs was a short, thick, heavy-set man of the
Websterian type, and one of the South's most picturesque orators. After
the election of Lincoln, however, Toombs advocated secession and
resigned from the Senate, was talked of for the Confederate presidency,
did become Confederate Secretary of State, and was later commissioned a
brigadier-general, and commanded with distinction in numerous battles of
the Civil War. During the speech I heard him make, he drew a large white
handkerchief from his pocket with a flourish, and pausing before mopping
his perspiring forehead, he exclaimed:

"The Yankees will not and can not fight! I will guarantee to wipe up
with this handkerchief every drop of blood that is spilt."

Neither he nor the audience foresaw what was coming. The Civil War was a
family affair, yet the hostility it engendered and the misconception it
brought in its train regarding the valor, and even the standards of
civilization, of the enemy, were as extreme and virulent as in a war
between nations of different continents and races. Such are the
brutalizing passions war arouses in banishing from the individual mind
the most elementary ideas of brotherhood.

When the war ended my father had to begin life anew, and because of the
discouraging prospects and conditions of the South he decided to move
North. In the North, too, he could more readily dispose of the remainder
of his cotton, his chief asset, to pay off debts which he owed in New
York and Philadelphia for goods purchased before the war. With the few
thousand dollars remaining after paying these debts, and with good
credit, he thought he could begin some new business in a small way.

Simultaneously with our arrival in Philadelphia my brother Isidor
arrived in New York from Europe, where he had gone two years before as
secretary of a commission to buy supplies for the State of Georgia. The
blockade of the Southern ports became so effective that ships could not
get through, so that he did not succeed in getting over the supplies;
but he made several thousand dollars in the sale of Confederate bonds.
Upon learning in New York that we were in Philadelphia, he immediately
came there to find out my father's plans. He persuaded father that New
York, as the chief market, was preferable to Philadelphia as a secondary
one. Consequently we moved to New York, and father and Isidor, together
with Nathan, planned to establish themselves in the wholesale crockery
business. Isidor, twenty years old, first used part of his fortune to
buy for my mother a high-stoop, three-story brick house at 220 West
Forty-Ninth Street, now long since torn down, but which we occupied for
over eighteen years.

It was fully six months before the new business venture was launched. My
father depended for his part of the capital upon the sale of the
remainder of his cotton, which had been shipped to Liverpool, and this
was not effected until early in 1866. In the intervening months he
visited his creditors in New York to arrange for paying his debts. In
this connection I remember one significant incident: His principal New
York creditor was the dry goods house of George Bliss & Co., to whom he
owed an amount between four and five thousand dollars. (Bliss afterward
became a member of the banking firm of Morton, Bliss & Co.) When he
called regarding the payment of this, Mr. Bliss asked how old he was,
what family he had, and what he intended doing. My father answered that
he was fifty-seven, that he had a wife and four children, and that he
hoped to make a new start in the wholesale crockery business. "I don't
think you are fair to your family and yourself," said Mr. Bliss, "to
deprive yourself of the slender means you tell me you possess by paying
out your available resources. I will compromise with you for less than
the full amount in view of the hardships of the war and your family
obligations."

My father had a very high sense of honor and was always more concerned
in maintaining it beyond possible reproach than in making money. Some
parents forget that they cannot successfully live by one standard
outside and another inside the home, and many never realize that
children are influenced not so much by the preaching as by the true and
real spirit of their parents. My father believed that "a good name is
better than riches," and within the home or without he lived up to that
standard. I clearly remember the impression I received of his integrity
at the time of this Bliss incident, and of a certain feeling of
compunction on the part of his creditor, as though he had expected
something different. Most Southern merchants regarded themselves morally
freed from paying Northern creditors because the Confederate government
had confiscated such debts and compelled the debtors to pay the amounts
to the government. But my father held true to his standard, and I well
remember his parting words to Bliss that day: "I propose to pay my debts
in full and leave to my children a good name even if I should leave them
nothing else."

       *       *       *       *       *

My brother Isidor, always my guide, philosopher, and friend, now
arranged for my schooling. In my geography textbook was a picture of
Columbia College, and I had the fixed idea that when we came to New York
I wanted to go there. On inquiry we learned that I was too young, for I
was only fourteen and a half, and that I had not the requirements for
admission. So in the autumn of 1865 Isidor had me enter Columbia Grammar
School, then one of the best schools in the city. It was my first
experience in a really first-rate school, and the teaching was so much
more thorough and exact than my previous training had been that it
seemed to me I had to learn everything anew. The tuition fee and the
cost of books was considerable, in view of the modest income of the
family; but my father, economical in all other respects, was liberal
beyond his means where the education of his children was concerned. My
brother, moreover, was desirous that I should have the advantages of the
college training which circumstances, notably the war, had withheld from
him.

I appreciated to the full the privileges I was permitted to enjoy and
studied with all my might. The school regulations required that parents
fill out a blank each week stating, among other things, the number of
hours we studied at home. The average number of hours daily reported
were three or four, and as my record was fully double that, I felt
rather ashamed to give the true number, so I always gave less. The
school was on Fourth Avenue and Twenty-Seventh Street, and our home on
Forty-Ninth Street was near Eighth Avenue. I invariably walked both
ways, saving car fares and at the same time conserving my health, for
aside from a half-hour of gymnastics twice a week in school I had
neither time nor opportunity otherwise to get the exercise my body
required.

Owing to the careless preparation I had received at the schools in the
South, I made a poor showing in spite of my hard work now, though on one
occasion I shone with accidental glory. It was the custom for the
instructor to put the same question to pupil after pupil, and to elevate
the one who gave the correct answer to the head of the class. In this
instance, it so happened that I gave the fortunate answer and thus
qualified for the seat of scholastic eminence. As I sat there enjoying a
near view of the teacher's countenance, I wondered how long I should
remain thus distinguished, and was unable to resist the impulse to cast
an occasional backward glance at the rows of seats in the rear.

At about this time, an elderly gentleman of distinguished appearance
entered the classroom. He was S. F. B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph.
Morse, whose grandson was in my class, knowing the custom and observing
me in the seat of honor, complimented me. He observed that I, like
himself, had a large head in comparison with the body, and remarked that
I must be a bright boy. But I felt embarrassed rather than gratified at
the praise, for I knew, and so did the rest, that I did not deserve it.
I still recall that scene, and see the venerable old man, then
seventy-five years old, with the long white beard that made him look
even older.

When the time came, in the spring of 1867, for our class to go up for
college examination, the Rev. Dr. Bacon, successor as principal of the
school to Charles Anthon, the distinguished classical scholar and editor
of classical works, called the boys of our class before him and gave us
each a blessing with some encouraging words. When my turn came he was
very kind, telling me he knew I had tried hard, but because of my early
training, or lack of it, he feared I might not pass. I saw my chances of
a college education go glimmering. There were, however, still two weeks
before the examinations, and I determined to use those for all they were
worth. I worked night and day, cramming with a vengeance. I felt I could
not expect my father to keep me in school another year when after two
years of preparation I had shown myself so deficient. That thought was
my spur, though in point of fact I am sure both my brother Isidor and my
father, realizing I had done the best I could, would have insisted upon
my taking another year for preparation.

The result of my entrance examinations was more favorable than I could
have hoped. It turned out that I was the only one from our grammar
school class to pass in all subjects without a single condition. It was
luck rather than brilliancy. The professor who examined my classmates in
ancient geography, being the author of the book upon which the
examination was held, was so meticulous that unless the student gave the
answer exactly as in the book he was marked deficient. By the time it
came my turn to be examined another and more generous-minded professor
had taken his place and passed me with the highest mark. The others, who
had all flunked, regarded me, in their own language, as "the lucky dog."

       *       *       *       *       *

My college course began on October 7, 1867. Here I did not find the
studies hard. I had ample leisure for reading and took full advantage of
the college library, from which we were free to select and take home
whatever books we desired. Then, as now, I cared little for fiction. To
me the literature of facts was more interesting and therefore lighter
reading, and I read much biography and history.

Our class matriculated fifty-two, but dwindled down to thirty-one by
graduation. In the class were Brander Matthews, now professor of
literature at Columbia as well as literary and dramatic critic; Robert
Fulton Cutting, financier and ideal citizen, descendant of an old and
famous New York family, as his name indicates; Stuyvesant Fish, banker,
also of a well-known New York family, whose father, Hamilton Fish, was
Secretary of State in the Grant Cabinet, and whose grandfather and
father both were among Columbia alumni; and Henry Van Rensselaer, who
became a Jesuit father and is now no longer among the living.

At the commemoration of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the
founding of the college three of us--Robert Fulton Cutting, Brander
Matthews, and myself--received the honorary degree of LL.D. At this
writing, fifty years after graduation, there are but ten of us
remaining.

The most coveted honors in those days were to be had for literary
achievement and class rank. Among the few prizes was one known as the
Alumni Prize, awarded to the most deserving student in the graduating
class. The college board nominated for that honor William Henry Sage,
now our class historian, Joseph Fenelon Vermilye, and myself; and the
class elected Vermilye for the prize.

Athletics had not attained the vogue it has in American universities
to-day, and was particularly absent in our college, confined then to a
city block. Doubtless due to this lack the boys of our class, on the
whole a spirited and boisterous lot, found self-expression in a
disregard for proper decorum in the lecture rooms. There was one period
where this was conspicuously the case. The subject was Evidences of
Christianity. It was compulsory and along denominational lines. It did
not interest many of the boys, and some of those who were not
Episcopalians even resented it; to boot, the professor, Rev. Dr.
McVickar, was a mild-mannered man, entirely unable to maintain
discipline. The result was frequent and various disturbances during the
sessions of his class, which often put the good-natured and
unsophisticated man at his wits' end. He complained to the college
board, and President Barnard took the matter up with some seriousness,
but no real appeasement.

I felt great sympathy for Dr. McVickar, for he was earnest and gentle,
and took much to heart the conduct of the men in his class. Of course,
in common with most of my classmates I strongly favored that the
subject be elective instead of compulsory; yet I realized that, as
colleges were then constituted, the original Columbia being largely an
Episcopalian foundation, there was a legal right, as distinguished from
reason, for the requirement that the course in Evidences of Christianity
be compulsory.

One day when the disturbances became most flagrant, and the poor
professor was really quite helpless, I ventured to point out to him how
he might bring about order. He received my suggestion most favorably, so
I asked him to let me take his chair for a few moments. I made a brief
appeal to the class, reminding them that we were now seniors, and that
there were some, especially those intending to study for the ministry,
who were interested in the subject and prevented from following it by
the boisterous behavior of the rest. I was jeeringly dubbed Professor
Straus, but I went right on. I said I knew there were a number who were
opposed to the study of Evidences of Christianity, and I proposed that
they rise. To those who got up I gave permission to leave the room, and
as I recall it, there were some eight or ten left. Then I turned to Dr.
McVickar and said, "Here is a class you can teach." And the session went
on smoothly enough. Subsequently a petition was drawn up and signed by a
large majority of the class, asking that we be excused from examinations
in this particular subject; but President Barnard replied that the
request could not be entertained.

       *       *       *       *       *

On the whole my four years at college were full of serious effort and
not altogether free from anxiety. I had a restless ambition to have a
useful career and it seemed difficult to discover for what I was best
fitted. For a while, in those dreamy days, I even believed I might
achieve some measure of success as a poet. I recall with a smile that
the choice for class poet at commencement lay between Brander Matthews,
whom we then knew as James Brander Matthews, and myself. And for some
reason, which posterity will doubtless find even more difficult to
fathom than I have, I was chosen. Matthews had already given evidence of
his literary talents; he contributed much to the college papers, and
wrote humorous poems. However, at our graduation exercises held in the
Academy of Music, Fourteenth Street and Irving Place, the city's largest
auditorium then, my class poem was well received by a capacity audience
of proud parents and sympathetic friends. I had gravely entitled it
"Truth and Error."

A more fervent aspiration held by me in those years was to devote my
life to the nation, and I could conceive no better way of doing so than
to enter the army. One day I saw an item in the press that President
Grant had several appointments to make to the United States Military
Academy. I consulted with Dr. F. A. P. Barnard, president of Columbia,
and he gave me a letter of introduction to Grant, highly commending me
for an appointment. When President Grant came to New York I called on
him. He received me very kindly, but informed me that he had only
something like eight appointments allowed him by law, and he had decided
to give them where possible to the sons of officers who had been killed
in the war; if, however, there were not enough such candidates he would
be glad to give me a chance. I told him I thoroughly agreed that his
decision was so appropriate that I would not even ask to be appointed
under the circumstances.

[Illustration: OSCAR S. STRAUS

At the time of his graduation]

During the second half of my senior year I finally chose the law as
my vocation. I preferred it to a business career because I disliked the
idea of devoting my life to mere money-making, as business appeared to
me then. My outlook was idealistic rather than practical, and to
harmonize it with the workaday world caused me much mental anguish and
struggle, as it does many a young man, even where affluent fortune has
smiled. However, my father and brother had begun to prosper and had no
need for my cooperation unless on my own account I chose to join them.
Besides, I was the youngest and had the benefit of the brotherly
interest and economic protection of Isidor and Nathan, should I need it.
This gave me a feeling of security, and encouraged me to put forth my
best efforts not only to succeed for myself, but to show my appreciation
to them. Where, under moderate circumstances, a family puts forth
cooperative effort in making its way forward, closer family ties result,
with the advantages of stimulating unselfishness and common devotion,
which in turn promote a happiness that members of richer families often
miss because of their more independent relations.

So I prepared to enter Columbia Law School in the fall of 1871.
Meanwhile that summer I took my first vacation since coming to New York.
I went to Wyoming Valley, near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, where I had a
good time despite the farmer with whom I boarded. Perhaps I had no right
to expect much for the five dollars a week I paid him; but whatever I
expected I know I got less. However, there were fish in the brooks and I
do not recall that I starved. I had spent other summers assisting in
some branch of my father's business, not because I relished work unduly,
but because I regarded it less as labor than as diversion. It was
interesting and useful activity which gave me an understanding of
business that was valuable later in following my chosen profession.




CHAPTER II

LAW, BUSINESS, AND LETTERS

     Columbia Law School--Impressions of the faculty--I begin law
     practice--Early partnerships--A $10,000 fee--Founding of the Young
     Men's Hebrew Association in 1874--The "dissipations" of a law
     partner--The Hepburn Committee on railway rates; my partner Simon
     Sterne represents the Chamber of Commerce--On the bridle-path with
     Joseph H. Choate--I become a member of L. Straus & Sons,
     manufacturers and importers--My marriage to Miss Sarah
     Lavanburg--My debut in politics--The Cleveland-Blaine campaign--The
     "rum, Romanism, and rebellion" episode--"Origin of the Republican
     Form of Government," my first book--Recommended as minister to
     Turkey; Henry Ward Beecher writes the President--Cleveland
     nominates me minister to Turkey.


Columbia Law School in 1871 was at Lafayette Place. The course covered
two years, at the end of which a successful examination entitled a
student to admission to the bar without a further State examination, and
for those who gave serious attention to the course it was an easy matter
to pass this finishing examination.

Particularly worthy of mention with regard to the school are Professors
Theodore W. Dwight and Francis Lieber. Professor Dwight, the able
director of the school at that time, well deserved his great reputation
as the most distinguished teacher of law in the country. He was not only
a master of his subject, but had a marvelous gift for imparting his
great knowledge.

Professor Lieber, whose lectures we attended once a week, taught us
political science. He was a Prussian veteran who fought in the Battle of
Waterloo. At the close of the Napoleonic Wars he had returned to his
studies in Berlin, and thereafter was arrested several times for his
outspoken liberal views. After frequent persecution and even
imprisonment, he fled to England, and in 1827 came to America.

He was author of many books on legal and political matters, among them
"Civil Liberty and Self-Government," which was adopted as a textbook in
several of our universities. In 1863 he prepared "Instructions for the
Government of Armies of the United States, in the Field," which Lincoln
promulgated as Order No. 100 of the War Department. It was a masterly
piece of work, embodying advanced humanitarian principles, and it later
formed the basis of several European codes.

As a rule, egotism and real merit negate one another rather than
cooerdinate; Lieber was the exception. He had both, and combined them to
a marked degree, sometimes in a manner that afforded amusement to his
students. For instance, he referred continuously to "my Civil Liberty"
as a book of extraordinary erudition, new in its field and the last word
on the matter. He was so full of his subject that he was apt to lose
himself and stray off, with his distinctly German accent, into the vast
field of his profound philosophical and historical knowledge. A
veritable encyclopaedia of information, he was really more of an
expounder than a teacher. As his course was optional, those who came to
listen came to learn, and we received a larger view of the function of
law in civil society than we derived from all our studies of municipal
law.

       *       *       *       *       *

I was graduated from law school in June, 1873, and immediately entered
the offices of Ward, Jones & Whitehead, one of New York's prominent
firms. John E. Ward, the senior member, who presided over the Democratic
National Convention that nominated Buchanan, and later served for two or
three years as Minister to China, was a friend of my brother's, and he
took me into his office largely out of friendship for Isidor.

I remained with this firm only a few months. Later in 1873 I formed a
partnership with James A. Hudson, a man about ten years older than I,
who had also been associated with the Ward firm. As Hudson & Straus we
opened offices on the fourth floor of 59 Wall Street.

On the same floor in this building was the office of Charles O'Conor,
then the acknowledged head of the American Bar. He had practically
retired, but retained a small office of one or two rooms, with one
clerk. He came in only two or three times a week. Often when he felt
fatigued he would rest on a lounge in a room set apart as library in our
office. For a young lawyer like myself it was an unusual privilege to
have such pleasant personal relations with so able and wise a leader in
the profession. Incidentally I think O'Conor was instrumental in sending
us our first important case, the collection of an old debt of
considerable size. We were so successful for our client that, of his own
accord, he sent us a check for ten thousand dollars, saying he would
make it larger if we regarded it insufficient. The fact was, the amount
was larger than we had thought of charging, and we frankly told him so.
With five thousand dollars in reserve I felt rich and independent. My
wants were naturally simple and our general practice was encouraging.

       *       *       *       *       *

At about this time I first became active in public-spirited
undertakings. The Young Men's Christian Association a few years before
had opened its Twenty-Third Street Branch at the corner of Fourth Avenue
and Twenty-Third Street, and the movement on the whole was getting much
publicity and proving very successful in its work among young men. But
it was an institution for Christians, and it occurred to several of
us--as I remember it, there were two of my fellow members of the bar,
Meyer S. Isaacs and Isaac S. Isaacs; Dr. Simeon N. Leo, Solomon B.
Solomon, and myself--that it would be a useful undertaking if we
organized a Young Men's Hebrew Association for the cultural and
intellectual advancement of Jewish young men. After a few preliminary
meetings we launched our project early in 1874. We rented a house in the
vicinity of Nineteenth or Twentieth Street and began in a very modest
way. Our first entertainment was of a purely literary nature, and I
recollect on that occasion addressing the members of the infant
enterprise on the subject of literary clubs, ancient and modern, from
the time of Socrates and Plato to the days of the coffee houses of
Addison, Steele, and Goldsmith. The Y.M.H.A. subsequently had its years
of struggle for existence, but to-day its place in our cities as an
influence for the development of culture and patriotism is assured, as
well as that of its sister organization of later birth, the Young
Women's Hebrew Association.

I had chosen the law as my profession, but I still wrote verse, and in
the decade following my graduation published several pieces. At one
memorable event I was invited to deliver an original poem. It was in
1875, at a large fair in Gilmore's Garden, the predecessor of the
present Madison Square Garden. The fair was held to raise funds toward
the erection of a new building for the Mount Sinai Hospital, and the
immense auditorium was crowded. Samuel J. Tilden, then Governor of New
York and also prospective Democratic nominee for President, made the
opening address. My poetic possibilities, however, rested more upon
aspiration than inspiration, and my craving for versification was but a
passing phase of my literary activities.

About 1876 we removed our office to the New York Life Building, then, as
now, at 346 Broadway, corner of Leonard Street. Our clientele was
mostly commercial and this neighborhood seemed more convenient. Our
neighbors at the new location were Chamberlain, Carter & Eaton, a
prominent commercial law firm of which Charles E. Hughes subsequently
became a member.

A few years later we took into our firm Simon Sterne, then one of the
brilliant younger members of the bar, and our firm became Sterne, Hudson
& Straus. But Hudson wanted to devote himself to patent law, in which he
had specialized somewhat, so the firm soon changed again to Sterne,
Straus & Thompson. Daniel G. Thompson had been our managing clerk. He
had an attractive personality and a philosophical temperament, but was
more a psychologist than a lawyer. He was author of several works on the
science and history of psychology which were favorably received and
commended by such men as Herbert Spencer and other high authorities in
both Europe and America. These qualities made him a target for the
sarcasm of Sterne, who, on the other hand, was thoroughly the lawyer. On
one occasion I remember Sterne asking me whether I knew Thompson was
dissipating. I expressed surprise, and Sterne went on: "Certainly he is,
for when he goes home he works till all hours of the night writing
psychology, and naturally next day he comes with an exhausted brain to
his legal work. He might better go on a spree, for one gets over that.
But when one buries one's self in such an exacting science he is lost
for the law, which is a jealous mistress and will not bear a rival."

       *       *       *       *       *

Under the name of Sterne, Straus & Thompson we had a practice that
ranged all the way from the collection of debts to questions affecting
street railways and public utilities. Our old firm had a business like
that of most young lawyers, but Sterne's practice was much more
important, his field being mainly banking and railroads. Sterne, in
fact, was rapidly achieving a reputation as an authority in the State on
railways and railway legislation. At that time there was no Interstate
Commerce Commission. Many New York merchants were complaining, through
the New York Chamber of Commerce and the New York Board of Trade and
Transportation, that the railroads were discriminating and giving to
certain shippers much lower rates than to others, also giving preference
to some in the moving of freight. In 1879 the Legislature finally
appointed a committee of eight men to investigate these charges. A.
Barton Hepburn, member of the Assembly from St. Lawrence County, was
made chairman, causing the committee always thereafter to be referred to
as the Hepburn Committee. Sterne represented the Chamber of Commerce and
the Board of Trade in this investigation.

The committee sat intermittently for about nine months. The railroads
had a brilliant array of legal talent, but Sterne elicited testimony
from them which proved the charges of the merchants. Sterne then drafted
the report of the committee, which included several recommendations for
legislation. It was the first impressive and well-directed attempt to
deal with the regulation of transportation companies, and resulted in
the passage, in 1880, of the bill creating the first Board of Railroad
Commissioners. Later, in 1887, the influence of this work was still
alive in connection with legislation for the creation of the Federal
Interstate Commerce Commission. The business of our firm did not exactly
benefit by this public service of Sterne. As a result of his public
activities and settlement of litigation, such railway clients as we had
were lost to us at about this time.

At this point in my career I have the fond recollection of a dear and
intimate friendship, which continued for several years, with Joseph H.
Choate, of the firm of Evarts, Southmayd & Choate. We used to ride
horseback together in the park before breakfast. This intimacy naturally
was very valuable to me. We discussed all manner of topics, not only
affecting our profession, but touching many public matters and the
philosophy of life and living in general. In these morning hours, with
the exhilaration of our ride, Mr. Choate was always full of fun and good
humor. He was the most sought after person for addressing all important
public functions, and frequently he would outline the substance of his
addresses. Speaking one day of the many demands upon him as a speaker,
he remarked that he appeared to be in the fashion just then, but, like
wall-paper, fashions change, and it was not likely to last long. In his
case, however, the fashion lasted, even increased, until his death in
1917.

My major law work was in the most exacting and nerve-racking branch, the
trying of cases. My general physical condition, though never robust, was
none the less good, but I had not learned what one is more apt to
acquire later in life: to conserve my energies. The result was that the
wear and tear of court work reduced my weight to one hundred and five
pounds. My physician strongly advised me to do less exacting work, and
especially to stop trying cases. As this branch of the law appealed to
me most, it was a grave disappointment to have to abandon it. Rather
than continue in the profession with such an inhibition, therefore, I
yielded to the advice of my father and brother to join their firm.

       *       *       *       *       *

I took a vacation of several months, and upon my return early in 1881 I
became a member of L. Straus & Sons, who had become large manufacturers
and importers of china and glassware. On account of the growing business
they really needed my services, and my transition from professional to
business man was made as acceptable and agreeable as possible. As was to
be expected, I continued for some time to long for "the fleshpots of
Egypt," for I was much attached to my profession. As a compensation, and
to satisfy my intellectual longings, I devoted my evenings and spare
time to historical reading and study.

Having embarked on a business career, I reversed a decision that I made
while practicing law. As a lawyer I had taken very seriously and
literally the saying that "the law is a jealous mistress." I was her
devoted slave, quite willingly so, and I determined never to marry. I
was economically independent as a single man and could devote my time to
the law for its own sake. This I preferred to do, as the idealist that I
was, rather than pursue the law for economic reasons first and for its
own sake as much as possible secondarily, which I felt would have to be
the case if I married. But as a business man things were different, and
I decided now to marry.

       *       *       *       *       *

On January 22, 1882, I became engaged to Sarah, only daughter of Louis
and Hannah Seller Lavanburg, and we were married on the 19th of April
following, at the home of her parents on West Forty-Sixth Street, near
Fifth Avenue. At the wedding dinner, to which had come hosts of our
friends and acquaintances, Joaquin Miller, poet of the Sierras, as he
was called, read a poem which he composed for the event. The manuscript
I think is still in my possession.

In the year of my marriage I also made my debut in politics. I was
secretary of the Executive Committee of an independent group organized
for the reelection of William R. Grace as mayor of New York. The
distinguished lawyer, Frederick R. Coudert, was chairman of that
committee. Grace had been a Tammany mayor and given the city a good
business administration--so good and so independent that Tammany refused
to nominate him for a second term. On the independent ticket Grace had a
large Republican as well as the independent Democratic support, and was
duly elected.

       *       *       *       *       *

I next took part in the Cleveland-Blaine campaign. In 1884 we formed in
New York City the Cleveland and Hendricks Merchants' and Business Men's
Association, of which I was secretary of the executive committee, and we
cooperated with the Democratic National Committee, Senator Arthur P.
Gorman, chairman, whose headquarters were at the old Fifth Avenue Hotel,
corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty-Third Street. We organized a parade
and marched forty thousand strong from lower Broadway to Thirty-Fourth
Street. It was the first time business men had ever been organized along
political lines.

All who remember this campaign know what an exciting and close battle it
was. The dramatic event which doubtless put the balance in Cleveland's
favor was the speech of the Rev. Dr. Samuel D. Burchard, a Presbyterian
minister of New York, at Republican headquarters. A few days before the
election the Republican managers had called what they termed a
ministers' meeting, to which came some six hundred clergymen of all
denominations to meet Mr. Blaine. Dr. Burchard, noted as an orator, was
to speak, followed by Mr. Blaine. In concluding his address, Dr.
Burchard evidently lost control of his dignity, for he stigmatized the
Democratic Party as the party of "rum, Romanism, and rebellion." In the
face of the great efforts the Republican Party had made, with some
measure of success, to secure the Roman Catholic vote, this denunciation
gave a big opportunity to the Democrats. Furthermore, Blaine, keen a
politician as he was, failed immediately to repudiate the remark.

I was present at Democratic headquarters when the reporter who had been
sent to this meeting returned. Senator Gorman asked him to read from his
shorthand notes, and when he came to the expression, "rum, Romanism, and
rebellion," Gorman at once said, "Write that out." The Democratic
managers saw their chance. Quickly the whole country was placarded with
posters headed "R.R.R.," with all sorts of variations and additions of
the original phrase. In the end it was the New York vote that determined
the victory for the Democrats, and doubtless because of the influence
the words of Dr. Burchard had had upon Roman Catholic voters.

When the election returns were in, Cleveland had won by only 1047 votes.
Because of the closeness of the vote in New York the Republicans did not
at first concede the victory. Among the Democrats, on the other hand,
there was a great feeling of bitterness and nervous apprehension lest an
effort be made to make it a Republican victory, as was the case in 1876
when the uncertain returns were decided by an electoral commission,
which, to the disappointment of many, made its decision on party lines.
Jay Gould, who controlled the telegraph lines, was accused by the
Democrats of holding back returns.

The Merchants' and Business Men's Association promptly organized a large
meeting in the Academy of Music, to proclaim and celebrate Cleveland's
election. August Belmont, Sr., as chairman, presided, and I, as
secretary, presented the resolutions. We had invited the most prominent
speakers we could get, and there were Henry Ward Beecher, Daniel
Dougherty of Philadelphia, Algernon S. Sullivan, among others. I
distinctly recall a humorous and cryptic remark of Beecher's address
that day: "If the chair is too small, make it larger"--referring to
Cleveland's avoirdupois and the claim that he did not fit in the
presidential chair. The note of victory, and the determination to stand
by that victory at all costs, had a reassuring effect throughout the
country.

When the campaign was over I was told by a member of the National
Committee that if there was any political office to which I aspired, the
Committee would be glad to further any ambition I might have; but I
replied my only wish was that Cleveland live up to the political
principles which had brought him the support of so many independent or
"mugwump" voters and so made possible his election.

       *       *       *       *       *

During the winter of 1883-84 the Young Men's Hebrew Association invited
me to speak in their course of lectures. I was to choose my own subject.
They had hired Chickering Hall, at Fifth Avenue and Fifteenth Street, a
large lecture hall in those days, and as great importance was being
attached to the occasion I naturally put my best foot forward in the
preparation of my material. I chose as my theme "The Origin of the
Republican Form of Government." In it I traced the rise of democracy, in
contradistinction to monarchy, from the Hebrew Commonwealth as expounded
in the Old Testament and interpreted by the early Puritans of New
England, especially in their "election sermons," which were of a
politico-religious character and were delivered annually before the
legislatures of the various New England colonies.

There was a huge audience, and the next morning the press gave very
generous reports of the address. It attracted the attention of various
ministers in Brooklyn, and subsequently I was asked to repeat it before
the Long Island Historical Society, in that city. There I had an amusing
experience. In the course of the talk I quoted ideas similar to mine
that had been advanced over a hundred years before by Thomas Paine in
his "Common Sense," and I referred to the high estimates of Paine held
by Washington, Monroe, Dr. Rush, and others of the time. I refrained
from expressing opinions of my own, contenting myself with a reference
to those of the fathers of the Republic. Suddenly, however, several
ministers left the hall, protesting that they had not come to hear a
eulogy on Paine.

Later I developed this address, under its original title, and published
it in book form. The first edition came out in 1885. The appearance of a
first book is quite an event in one's life, especially when it is well
received among critics and by the press. At any rate, it seemed like a
landmark in my own life. Historical writers referred to it as a distinct
contribution to our historical literature, and I felt that so far as the
pen was concerned I had discovered this branch of writing to be my forte
rather than poetry. After all, historical writing is no less imaginative
than poetry. Without the use of imagination history is lifeless and a
dry record of facts instead of literature.

A second impression of the book was issued in 1887, and in 1901 a second
and revised edition was published. A French edition had appeared
simultaneously in Paris and Brussels, 1890, translated by M. Emile de
Laveleye, eminent Belgian publicist and professor at the University of
Liege, and containing an introductory essay by him. This essay was
translated into English and embodied in the 1901 American edition. Since
then additional impressions of this revised edition have appeared. I
might mention that on the strength of this book I was admitted to
membership in the Authors' Club, in 1888.

       *       *       *       *       *

In the fall of the year following the original publication of my first
book I chanced to meet Senator Gorman of Maryland in the Palmer House,
Chicago, where we both happened to be stopping--he on his return from a
trip to the Far West, and I on an important business errand. He told me
he and his son had read my book on their trip, and that he had not in a
long time read a book with so much valuable information in it and giving
such a clear view of the sources and early growth of our form of
government. We naturally talked of matters political, and he reminded me
of an earlier conversation he had had with me since Cleveland's
election, stating that Mr. Cox--S.S. Cox--our minister to Turkey, had or
was about to resign, and that he would like to recommend me to President
Cleveland for appointment in Cox's place. He thought at the same time it
might enable me to make further studies along the lines of my book.

The idea was a complete surprise to me. As I have mentioned, I had no
thought of entering public life. My political activities had been
limited to the part I took in the re-election of Mayor Grace and the
Cleveland-Blaine, campaign. Even had I been ambitious for a political
position I should never have ventured application for a diplomatic post,
for I had never given much attention to our foreign relations. Besides,
I had been in business only a few years, I was married and had two small
daughters; everything considered, I felt I could not afford to leave my
affairs to go abroad.

Upon returning to New York I conferred with my father and brothers, and
their attitude changed my views somewhat. They generously offered to see
that my interests should not suffer, and gave me every encouragement to
entertain Senator Gorman's suggestion. I could not possibly have further
considered the subject without this generosity on their part. My
obligations to my family did not permit the expenditure of several times
my salary, required in a position of this kind. The salary of minister
to Turkey had been reduced to seven thousand five hundred dollars,
though it was subsequently restored to ten thousand; and in order to
live properly he had to rent a winter house in the capital and a summer
house outside, or live in hotels as Mr. Cox, and his predecessor,
General Lew Wallace, did. General Wallace was restricted to his salary
and felt compelled to decline the invitations of his colleagues because
he was not in position to reciprocate. (His "Ben Hur," by the way, he
had written before his sojourn in the East, and not afterward as is
often supposed.)

Senator Gorman was not finally able to make the recommendation he had
proposed. His relations with the President became strained, so that
recommendations for appointments coming from him were not regarded with
favor by Cleveland. Gorman told me as much when we met subsequently, but
advised me to use such influence as I might command in other directions.

I presently spoke of it to an old friend of my days in the law, B.
Franklin Einstein, who was counsel for the "New York Times" and the
personal adviser of George Jones, its proprietor. Einstein suggested
that I speak with Jones about it, and this I did. Jones encouraged me
and said he would be glad to help. He said he had read my book and felt
sure I would give a good account of myself and be a credit to the
administration; that he had never asked any favor of the administration
and felt justified in asking Cleveland to make the appointment. The
"Times" had been an independent Republican paper, but in the campaign of
1884 it came out for Cleveland.

I also conferred with Carl Schurz, with whom I stood on intimate terms,
and with John Foord, another friend. In the early eighties we used to
have a lunch club that met about once in two weeks at a little French
restaurant, August Sieghortner's, at 32 Lafayette Place, now Lafayette
Street, in a house that had been a former residence of one of the
Astors. We used to discuss various political and reform matters--the
"mugwump" movement, the Cleveland campaigns, or what not. There were ten
or twelve of us, and Carl Schurz was one; the late Charles R. Miller,
who was for many years the leading editorial writer of the "Times," was
another; and John Foord, whose death by accident occurred in Washington
only a few days ago as I write, was another. Foord was then
editor-in-chief of the "Times." He took up my appointment with both
President Cleveland and Secretary of State Bayard. Schurz encouraged me
and said he would speak to Oswald Ottendorfer about having me appointed.
Ottendorfer, proprietor of the "New Yorker Staatszeitung," was a client
of our law firm and knew me well. Subsequently I saw him and he wrote to
Cleveland strongly recommending the appointment.

Cleveland was favorably enough impressed, but he hesitated. He said our
chief concern in Turkey was the protection of American missionary
interests, and he would not like to appoint any one to this particular
mission who might be objected to by the two principal missionary
bodies--the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and the
Presbyterian Board of Missions.

It happened that on a return trip from Washington about this time my
brother Isidor met A. S. Barnes, prominent textbook publisher and a
member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, to
whom also I was quite well known. He had been in frequent consultation
with our law firm when we represented the City of Brooklyn in its suit
against the Atlantic Avenue Railroad to compel the road to sink its
tracks, in which suit, as one of Brooklyn's public-spirited citizens, he
was much interested. He was sympathetic toward me and brought the
subject of my appointment before his missionary board, with the result
that its Prudential Committee wrote a letter to the President expressing
fullest approval of my appointment, suggesting only that I be asked not
to hold receptions on the Sabbath, as one of my predecessors had done to
the great disapproval of the missionaries and all Protestant Christians
in Constantinople. Even without this intimation I would quite naturally
have refrained from offending the religious sensibilities of my
nationals at that post.

The representatives of all the Protestant churches who had interests in
Turkey were most generous in favoring the appointment when they learned
that I was being considered for that mission. The most admired and best
beloved American preacher of his time, Henry Ward Beecher, of Plymouth
Church, Brooklyn, heard of it through Mr. O. A. Gager, one of the
trustees of his church; also that there was some diffidence about my
actual selection because of my religion. He immediately wrote the
President a beautiful and characteristic letter, urging my appointment.
The original of this letter, now in my possession, was given to me by
Governor Porter, first assistant Secretary of State.

With my wife I had gone to Atlantic City for a few days, to recuperate
from a cold, when on March 24, 1887, I received telegrams from friends
all over the country congratulating me on my appointment as minister to
Turkey. The papers of the day announced it, and the "New York Times"
published the Beecher letter just referred to.

To the press of the country my appointment was of added interest because
of the Keiley incident of two years before. A. M. Keiley, of Virginia,
was nominated by Cleveland as minister to Austria-Hungary, but objected
to by that country because Mrs. Keiley, being of Jewish parentage, was
_persona non grata_. As a matter of fact this excuse for the rejection
of Keiley was supposedly made because the Austro-Hungarian Government
thought it might be acceptable to us in lieu of the truth.

The real reason lay much deeper. Keiley had earlier been nominated as
minister to Italy. The Italian Government, through its representative at
Washington, made known to our Department of State that Keiley would be
_persona non grata_ because it was remembered that in 1870 he had made a
public speech in Richmond violently denouncing King Victor Emmanuel for
his treatment of the Pope. The nomination was therefore withdrawn. And
when a few months later Keiley was appointed minister to
Austria-Hungary, that country, being a member with Italy in the Triple
Alliance, did not want to run the risk of displeasing Italy by accepting
a representative not satisfactory to her; but not wishing to admit this,
based its excuse on religious grounds.

[Illustration: Hand written letter page 1]

[Illustration: Hand written letter page 2]

[Illustration: Hand written letter page 3]

[Illustration: Hand written letter page 4]

This so incensed our Administration that Secretary Bayard rebuked the
Austro-Hungarian Government with the statement:

     It is not within the power of the President nor of the Congress,
     nor of any judicial tribunal in the United States, to take or even
     hear testimony, or in any mode to inquire into or decide upon the
     religious belief of any official, and the proposition to allow this
     to be done by any foreign Government is necessarily and _a
     fortiori_ inadmissible.

And Mr. Cleveland made reference to the episode in his First Annual
Message to Congress:

     The reasons advanced were such as could not be acquiesced in,
     without violation of my oath of office and the precepts of the
     Constitution, since they necessarily involved a limitation in favor
     of a foreign government upon the right of selection by the
     Executive, and required such an application of a religious test as
     a qualification for office under the United States as would have
     resulted in the practical disfranchisement of a large class of our
     citizens and the abandonment of a vital principle of our
     Government.

These statements contain a clear exposition of one of the fundamental
principles of our laws and system of government; they form one of the
most illuminating and inspiring chapters of our diplomatic literature.
Following the Keiley incident, my appointment was a silent but effective
protest against such illiberal views as those expressed by
Austria-Hungary; and to me personally it meant something to be sent as
the representative of my country to the power whose dominion extended
over the land that cradled my race, Palestine.

Leaving Atlantic City, we soon proceeded to Washington, where I called
on Secretary Bayard, who received me with characteristic cordiality and
referred me to John Bassett Moore, now our famous authority on
international law, compiler of the International Law Digest, American
judge of the Court of International Justice by vote of the Council and
Assembly of the League of Nations. At the time I met him, thirty-five
years ago, he was third assistant Secretary of State, and I could not
have wished for a better instructor in the intricate matters that
involved our relations with the Ottoman Empire.

Alvey A. Adee, veteran of our Foreign Office, then as now the second
assistant Secretary of State, was another man who gave me most helpful
advice. His encyclopaedic knowledge of our foreign relations for more
than forty years is remarkable, and our diplomatic appointees for years
have been indebted to him for much helpful guidance.

       *       *       *       *       *

Later in the day we called on the President. Our conversation during
this call was purely of a general nature, and as I was leaving Mr.
Cleveland expressed pleasure at my promptness in calling and hoped that
I would start for Turkey as soon as personal convenience permitted. When
I told him I hoped to sail at the end of a week, he answered, "That is
businesslike; I like that," and he asked me to call again before leaving
Washington.

Two days later, by appointment of Colonel Lamont, the President's
secretary, Mrs. Straus and I, accompanied by brother Isidor and E. G.
Dunnell, "New York Times" correspondent, called on Mrs. Cleveland in the
Green Room of the White House. I vividly recall this visit. Mrs.
Cleveland came into the room with a sprightly and unceremonious walk,
very friendly, with charm of manner and a sufficient familiarity to put
us entirely at our ease. She was a very handsome woman, with remarkable
sweetness of expression, and her appearance symbolized beauty and
simplicity.

What most impressed me about the Clevelands, after these two visits,
was the simple, unassuming manner that was so in keeping with the spirit
of our laws and the democracy of our institutions. Verily, I thought in
the words of Cleveland himself, "a public office is a public trust," and
while administering office we are indeed servants of the people.

Before leaving Washington we again called on the President as agreed.
His entire conversation and attitude showed satisfaction with my
appointment. He said he understood the missionaries were doing good
work, and he felt sure from what he had learned of me that they would
receive impartial and just treatment at my hands. He commented on the
fact that the press of the country had been so unanimously in favor of
my appointment. "I wished they would go for you a little; I have
something to give them," he said. From Mr. Dunnell later I learned the
meaning of this remark. He had received a letter from the Prudential
Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions,
highly approving of his appointing me as minister to Turkey and
endorsing me of their own accord in unqualified terms. This letter he
was holding to give to the press should any unfavorable comment be made
because a member of the Hebrew race was being sent to a post where the
Christian mission interests were so large. Mr. Cleveland's parting
remark to me was: "I know you will do well; I have no trepidation--none
at all."

On Saturday, April 9th, at 6 A.M., we--my wife, Aline, the younger of
our little daughters, and myself--sailed out of the harbor on the S.S.
Aurania. My one prayer in bidding farewell to my home was that I might
find no vacant seat at my table upon my return, and that I might
discharge my high trust with credit and honor. For this no sacrifice
would be too great.




CHAPTER III

ENTERING DIPLOMACY

     At sea--Our arrival in London--Concerning George Eliot and
     Lewes--At the banking house of Baron de Rothschild--In
     Paris--Boulanger's Napoleonic dreams; his suicide--Josef Hofmann as
     a boy pianist--The artist who painted "Christ before Pilate"; an
     extraordinary wife--Distinguished hosts and rich cooking--Vienna
     and the Balkans--Thoughts on passing through the
     Bosphorus--Constantinople, the city of picturesque dirt--Many
     delays obstruct my audience with the Sultan--The fast of
     Ramazan--Diplomatic garden parties--An ambassador's L300 Circassian
     slave-wife--The Sultan says his prayers--Advice from a seasoned
     diplomat--My address at Robert College commencement--In the
     Sultan's Palace.


Our voyage was not altogether a light one. We had found it expedient to
leave Mildred, our elder daughter, then four years old, with her Grandma
Lavanburg; and while she was in excellent hands my wife was naturally
heavy-hearted at the thought of traveling so far and for so long without
her. The weather on board ship was for the most part stormy. Our little
Aline and her nurse were so seasick that the child resented being on
board with all the force of age three. "Mama, this ship is nobody's
home; why did you bring me here? I shall write sister Milly never to go
on the ocean," she declared rebelliously.

Having reached London, however, things went more pleasantly. Our
minister there at the time--we did not yet appoint ambassadors--was
Edward J. Phelps, for many years Professor of International Law at Yale,
a scholarly gentleman. I called on him almost immediately on my arrival,
and subsequently Mrs. Straus and I dined at the legation to meet Rustem
Pasha, Turkish ambassador, veteran diplomat who had been in the service
for thirty-three years and was about twice as old. He was leading
Turkish representative at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, following the
Russo-Turkish War. He referred to the various questions pending between
his Government and mine--the interpretation of Article 4 of the Treaty
of 1830, signed only in Turkish; the proposed treaty of 1874, negotiated
by Minister Boker and not confirmed by the Senate, concerning
naturalized citizens of the United States returning to Turkey;
missionary matters; our refusal to negotiate a treaty for the
extradition of criminals. I had informed myself regarding all of these,
but I deemed it wise not to discuss them in detail; rather I chose to be
the listener and draw him out, assuring him that when I arrived at my
post all these subjects would have my very best attention. He was
particularly concerned with the treaty for the extradition of criminals,
but the so-called criminals that came to the United States at that
period, especially from Russia and Turkey, were with rare exception
political refugees, and it is provided in most of our extradition
treaties that political offenders are not to be delivered up.

We remained in London about ten days, calling on a number of interesting
people. We spent one pleasant evening with Dr. and Mrs. John Chapman, of
the "Westminster Review." My article on "The Development of Religious
Liberty in America" was appearing in a current number of the "Review."
The Chapmans were good friends of George Eliot and Professor Lewes. In
fact, the novelist and the professor first met at the Chapman home. Dr.
Chapman also told me he was the one who first employed George Eliot in
literary work. He became editor of the "Review" in 1851 and engaged her
as associate editor. When George Eliot resigned, Mrs. Chapman became the
associate editor. With us that evening, too, was Harold Frederic, London
correspondent of the "New York Times" and a novelist of some promise.

From Messrs. J. & W. Seligman of New York I had received a letter to the
Seligman banking house in London, at 3 Angel Court. Mr. Isaac Seligman
invited us to dine _en famille_, and arranged for me to call at Messrs.
N. M. Rothschild & Sons', where I was very pleasantly received by Baron
Alfred Charles de Rothschild, who showed me through his magnificent
banking establishment and offered to send me a letter to the Paris
Rothschild firm. The Baron was then about forty-four years old, very
agreeable, a polished gentleman of the best Jewish type.

       *       *       *       *       *

In Paris, our next stopping-place, we also had a very interesting time.
Of course we called on our minister, Robert M. McLane, then seventy-four
years old, but looking sixty. He was distinctly of the old school, with
all the grace of manner, combined with ability and wide experience in
public service--an excellent representative who was esteemed by the
French people quite as highly as by our own citizens in France. I speak
of this especially because in capitals like Paris it is not an easy task
to please both elements.

At dinner one evening in the home of my friend Adolphe Salmon, an
American merchant residing in Paris, we met Count Dillon and his wife,
most affable people to whom we felt ourselves immediately attracted. The
Count was a thorough Royalist, had been for many years in the army. At
this time he was managing director of the Mackay-Bennett Cable Company
and the leader of a movement, really anti-Republican intrigue, designed
to put General Boulanger, Minister of War, at the head of the State. The
Count was a close personal friend and schoolmate of Boulanger, then the
most extolled man in all France. The Count suggested that he arrange a
luncheon or dinner to have us meet the General, if that was agreeable to
us, for he felt sure the General would be pleased.

Consequently a few days later we lunched at Count Dillon's beautiful
villa some thirty minutes outside of Paris. It was an intimate two-hour
luncheon party, just Mr. and Mrs. Adolphe Salmon, the Count and Countess
Dillon, General Boulanger, Mrs. Straus, and myself. Boulanger was a
young-looking man for his fifty years, of medium height and weight,
wearing a closely trimmed beard; rather Anglo-American than French in
appearance, unassuming, of pleasant expression, and probably at the
height of his power. Five years before he had been Director of Infantry
in the War Office and made himself very popular as a military reformer.
In 1886, under the aegis of Clemenceau and the Radical Party which
brought Freycinet into power, Boulanger was made Minister of War. He was
noted for his fire-eating attitude toward Germany in connection with the
Schnaebele frontier incident, and because of this was hailed as the man
destined to give France her revenge for the disasters of 1870. In fact,
the masses looked upon him as a second Napoleon, "the man on horseback,"
and his picture on horseback was displayed in countless shop windows.

At our luncheon party he entertained us with many an interesting
anecdote, and I particularly recall his telling of coming to the
Yorktown Centennial Celebration and traveling as far as the Pacific
Coast in company with General Sherman to see our fortifications. "I was
asked what I thought of your American fortifications ["You know what
antiquated and insignificant things they are," in an aside to Mrs.
Straus], and I praised them and said I thought they were splendid, that
I had never seen any better ones because"--and here his eyes
twinkled--"no country has such nice ditches in front of its
fortifications," He meant, of course, the Atlantic and the Pacific.

When the champagne was being drunk and toasts were in order I turned to
the General, after drinking to the health of the company, and said: "May
you administer the War Department so successfully that posterity will
know you as the great preserver of peace." To this he responded that for
fifteen years France had always been on the defensive and permitted
insults rather than take offense, but that the time had come when she
could no longer do so and must be ready for the offensive. He evidently
had in mind that war was imminent. At a later meeting he asked me
whether, in case of war, I would be willing to take charge of French
interests in Turkey. I told him that while of course it would be
agreeable to me personally, such action could be taken only under the
authority of my government, which authority I would have to obtain
before giving an official answer.

The subsequent meteoric career of Boulanger is a matter of history. For
two years more his personality was one of the dominating factors of
French politics. I remember writing from Constantinople early in 1889:
"The most menacing condition exists in France, where, I am of opinion,
Boulanger will gain the presidency before many months and from that time
perhaps try to tread in the footprints of his Napoleonic ideal. If
so--alas, poor France, and alas the peace of Europe!" He had become an
open menace to the republic; and when Constans was Minister of the
Interior a prosecution was instituted against Boulanger and a warrant
signed for his arrest. He fled from Paris and was afterward tried and
condemned _in absentia_ for treason. In 1891 he committed suicide on the
grave of his mistress in a cemetery at Brussels.

We dined, on another evening in Paris, with Mr. and Mrs. William
Seligman, of the banking firm of Seligman Freres, the Paris branch of J.
& W. Seligman of New York and of the London Seligman establishment. This
dinner was a very large and elaborate affair, with many distinguished
guests present. After dinner we were entertained by the budding genius
of Josef Hofmann, then ten or eleven years old.

The noted Hungarian, Munkacsy, painter of "Last Day of a Condemned Man,"
"Christ before Pilate," "Christ on Calvary," and other celebrated works,
was also there with his wife. As a couple they presented a striking
contrast indeed. He was a silent man, talking very little and haltingly;
he impressed one as a refined artisan of some sort, perhaps a carpenter.
He was a large man of about five feet ten in height, with bushy hair
combed up, bushy beard and mustache, and small eyes which he screwed up
to almost nothing when observing something. His wife, on the other hand,
was as coarse-looking a woman as one might discover, with a loud,
raucous, almost masculine voice which, like a saw in action, rose above
every other sound. However, I have observed that these contraries in
personality in couples often make for happiness.

The artist seemed to take a keen interest in Mrs. Straus. He quite
embarrassed her by his constant staring, and after dinner sought an
introduction and sat next to her. Her plain hair-dress, smoothly brushed
back and rolled in a coil behind, fascinated him. He remarked how
natural and becoming it was and wanted to know whether she always wore
it that way; he wondered whether it would be as becoming any other way.
He wanted to know how long we should remain in Paris and expressed
regret when told we were leaving in three or four days. Mrs. Straus
felt he had studied her head long enough to paint it from memory. And
who knows, perhaps he has used it in some painting that we have not yet
discovered!

Another memorable dinner was at the home of Eli Lazard, of Lazard
Freres, bankers, where we met Judge Wilson and daughters, of Cincinnati.
All of these hospitalities were very pleasant, but personally I should
have been glad to escape them, for the late hours, together with the
rich cooking of Paris, were not in accord with my quiet habits and
simple tastes in food and drink.

In Vienna I called on our consul-general, Edmund Jussen, whose wife was
the sister of my esteemed friend Carl Schurz, which fact really prompted
me to make the call. Jussen himself was not very admirable. He had much
of the arrogance of a German official, so out of place in an American
representative. However, during our sojourn in the city he and his wife
exchanged several visits with us. Mrs. Jussen did not much resemble her
distinguished brother, except for an expression about the eyes. She was
a very amiable woman with a good face. She told me much of her brother's
childhood and school years--how he had to struggle hard for his
education. Their father was a small shopkeeper, but no business man, and
was never able to make money. Carl did not earn money, but always
applied himself diligently. This and much more that has since been
published about Schurz interested me greatly, of course.

We continued our journey to Varna on the Black Sea, there to take the
steamer for Constantinople. In those days there was no railway
connection with Constantinople. The Oriental Express went only to Varna,
by way of Bucharest. On that particular part of our journey we got our
first glimpses of the picturesque costumes of the Balkan district,
especially those of the men with their bare legs and flying shirts.

The trip from Varna to Constantinople was beautiful and inspiring. We
boarded the boat at about four in the afternoon and retired early so as
to be up by five or six next morning, when we passed through the
Bosphorus, round which clusters so much of classical memory. I suddenly
realized how much of my Homer I had forgotten--the Homer on whom I had
spent years of hard study. However, most of us meet so many new subjects
that have a more direct relation to our surroundings that it is next to
impossible to get that "elegant leisure" necessary for a continued
interest in the classics.

The effect of the trip through the Bosphorus is quite like a dream. The
high coast on both sides is covered with green, with here and there a
house or some large huts; on one side is Europe and on the other side
Asia, looking very much alike, bathed by the same sunshine, peaceful.

We sailed past Buyukdereh, Therapia, the summer residence of most of the
diplomats, about twelve miles from Constantinople, where the English,
French, Austrian, and Russian embassies had magnificent palaces and the
Germans were engaged in building; on past the lovely old towers of
Roumeli-Hissar, built eight hundred years before, when first the Turks
set foot in Europe, and back of this the tower of Robert College.

Suddenly my ever-smiling and happy wife spied a launch flying a large
United States flag at the stern. "It's our launch!" And sure enough,
when we waved our handkerchiefs we discovered the members of my official
family, who had come in the legation launch to meet us. There were
Pendleton King, acting charge d'affaires; Mr. Gargiulo, dragoman; J.
Lynch Pringle, consul-general; Mehmet, the _cavass_; and several clerks
of the consulate and legation.

The _cavass_, by the way, is a sort of bodyguard. He walks before the
minister, or rides on the box beside the driver, and serves the purpose
of designating that the minister or ambassador follows. He carries two
huge pistols and a sword suspended from a gold belt, and his coat,
sometimes red and sometimes blue, is much bebraided and embroidered. The
natives know each minister or ambassador by his _cavass_.

Our first impression from the windows of the Royal Hotel in
Constantinople was of picturesque dirt. As Mrs. Straus said at the time,
dirt not only on the hard earth roads and the people, but even on the
dogs. In time, however, one is less impressed by the dirt than by the
picturesqueness--the venders calling out their wares of fish, fruit,
meat, vegetables, all carried on the edges of baskets covered with
leaves; the water-carriers with their urns carried on yokes; and the
veiled women.

       *       *       *       *       *

Immediately upon my arrival, of course, I communicated with His
Excellency, Said Pasha, Minister of Foreign Affairs, to present my
credentials and arrange for an audience with His Majesty the Sultan,
Abdul Hamid. The Pasha replied at once, appointing a time two days
later, and accordingly I went to the Sublime Porte, as the Turkish
Government seat is called, in company with the charge and the dragoman
or interpreter. That was about May 26th. Not until June 6th, however,
did I receive a communication from Munir Pasha, Grand Master of
Ceremonies, that His Majesty had named June 8th for my audience. The
next evening I received a telegram postponing the audience to the 10th.
On the 9th I received another communication, postponing it _sine die_.
On the 15th a new appointment was made for the 17th; then, between
midnight and one o'clock on the night of June 16th-17th, the personal
secretary of the Sultan came knocking at the door of my apartment, and,
after apologizing for his arrival at that untimely hour, informed me
that he had come at the Sultan's special request to say that word had
come from the Porte that June 17th was a most sacred day, a fact just
determined by the phases of the moon, and the Sultan therefore was
constrained to postpone the audience again. The date was later set for
July 1st, when I finally had my audience.

It was a peculiarity of Abdul Hamid to delay audiences to new
representatives for weeks and sometimes months by these successive
appointments and postponements, to no other purpose than to impress the
agents of foreign governments with the importance of His Majesty. In my
case there was some added cause: it was the month of Ramazan, during
which only the most pressing official functions take place.

Ramazan, ninth month of the Turkish calendar, is a period of fasting.
For twenty-nine days every Mussulman abstains from food and water, and
even smoking, from sunrise to sunset; which the rich arrange
conveniently by sleeping all day and eating all night, while the poor
who have to work all day eat at sundown, at midnight, and very early in
the morning. The first meal after the fasting, at sunset, is called
_iltar_. The fast is broken with Ramazan bread, a cakelike bread,
circular in shape, which we saw much in evidence at a bazaar in the
courtyard of a mosque at Stamboul, the more Oriental part of
Constantinople, where the costumes of Greeks, Armenians, Turks, and
Arabs form a strange mixture indeed.

During Beiram, a three days' feasting following Ramazan, the mosques
are all illuminated at night, and the view over the water, with the
moving lights of boats in the foreground and the dimly lighted houses
beyond, interspersed with brightly illumined mosques, is quite like a
picture of some enchanted land.

       *       *       *       *       *

Because of the Sultan's peculiarities in receiving foreign
representatives, the custom in regard to official calls at
Constantinople is different from that at most capitals. Elsewhere calls
on colleagues are not made until after a minister or ambassador has had
his audience; but here usage dictated calling on one's colleagues as
soon as possible. Therefore I called first on Baron de Calice,
ambassador from Austria-Hungary and _doyen_ of the diplomatic corps. He
received me with great cordiality and kindness, and advised me fully
regarding diplomatic practices at Constantinople. And we were welcomed
by each and all of my colleagues in turn, so that I found these calls
very much less disagreeable than I had anticipated; I even enjoyed many
of them. At each visit coffee or tea was served, and generally
cigarettes too, as is customary with the Turks, which is wonderfully
effective in taking off the chill of diplomatic formalities. One soon
gets to expect these refreshments; it is a delightful custom that might
be adopted in other places to advantage.

Another reason why these formal calls were less formidable than they
might have been was that three days after our arrival at the capital we
were invited to a garden party given by Lady White, wife of the British
ambassador, Sir William A. White. This served to give us a prompt
introduction to all my colleagues. In fact, in the five weeks
intervening between our arrival and my audience, we had attended so many
garden parties and dinners given to us, that I found myself heartily
longing for respite. My natural inclination was to regard these social
gatherings in the light of idle frivolities, especially in the summer,
when one is supposed to be relatively free from functions of this kind;
and I was not alone among my colleagues in preferring more evenings at
home to the occasional headaches that it cost to continue the very late
hours these many engagements forced us to keep. Yet I could not
consistently decline invitations; such a course might have been
interpreted as a desire on my part to withdraw from the diplomatic
circle and would have interfered with the pleasant social relations it
was incumbent on me to cultivate. Attendance was really part of my duty,
and in time I found these functions distinctly advantageous.

We looked forward with more than usual interest to the evening of our
dinner at the Persian embassy. The Persian ambassador's wife had been a
Circassian slave, whom he was said to have bought for L300 with a horse
thrown into the bargain. The ambassador's wife was, of course, typically
Circassian; chalky white skin, soft black eyes, small features, an
unattractive figure unattractively dressed, with whom conversation was
almost nil because she knew only Persian.

The streets of Pera, the European part of Constantinople, are
exceedingly narrow and very hilly, for the city is built on several
hills, like ancient Rome; in addition they are poorly paved and dirty.
This makes driving dangerous and, as in mediaeval times, sedan chairs
were quite generally in use as a means of conveyance for the ladies of
the diplomatic corps and the wives of the higher Turkish officials,
especially at night to dinners and other official functions. Two sinewy
porters carry these chairs, one in front and the other behind, and they
shuffle along with considerable rapidity. Usually the lady is carried
while the gentleman, preceded by his _cavass_ in the case of a diplomat,
walks alongside, except in inclement weather when he follows also in a
chair. I am reminded of the wife of the German ambassador at the time, a
large, heavy woman, whom the porters quite justly charged double. She,
however, was entirely oblivious of her extra avoirdupois and always
complained of the injustice of these porters! The Austrian and Russian
embassies were particularly difficult of approach by conveyance other
than the sedan.

We certainly were living in a new sphere of life, in a strange land
among strange people, with customs and habits that brought to mind the
age of the patriarchs. There was much to see where some thirty
nationalities lived and did business as if in their own homes--much to
wonder at, much to deplore, much to praise and admire. The natives are a
peculiar people, with many admirable characteristics; they are kind and
hospitable, comparatively honest and reliable, especially the lower
classes, and they manifest a most sincere devotion to their religion.
The lower classes are poor, very poor; yet they are content and
reasonably happy because their wants are few. Their poverty is not a
suffering condition and they seemed to be better off than the poor
elsewhere. Their religion strictly interdicts the use of alcoholic
drinks, and as they are true to it and live faithfully up to its
principles, they are spared all the evils that fall in the train of
drunkenness.

[Illustration: MRS. STRAUS IN TURKEY]

During the weeks that I waited for my audience with the Sultan I devoted
my time to studying in detail the various questions in regard to our
diplomatic relations, so that I might be better informed when they came
up. This study was very interesting from an historical point of view,
for some of the questions were related to capitulations that dated as
far back as the fall of Constantinople in 1453. My legal training also
proved valuable in enabling me to understand and handle matters.

       *       *       *       *       *

On our first Friday in Constantinople we witnessed Selamlik, the
picturesque ceremony held with great pomp every Friday, attending the
Sultan's going to the mosque. The Sultan's mosque is on the top of a
hill commanding the most beautiful view of the city, from which can be
seen the Bosphorus and, farther on, the Sea of Marmora. On the roads
surrounding the mosque as far as the eye could see were ranged ten or
more regiments of infantry and cavalry, each dressed in glittering
uniforms according to the section of the empire from which they came,
the most resplendent being the Nubian and the Arabian. The Sultan
arrived in an open landau, and opposite him Osman Pasha, distinguished
soldier, hero of the Battle of Plevna in the Russo-Turkish War, and
Grand Marshal of the Palace. The coachman was magnificently dressed in
scarlet and gold, and following were the aides-de-camp, also beautifully
dressed, one, an Armenian, all in white and gold. As the Sultan entered
the mosque a priest chanted a call to prayer which sounded not unlike
the old Hebrew chants in some of our synagogues. The mosque was so
crowded that we could see many Moslems kneeling and salaaming on the
streets outside the doors. The service lasted about twenty minutes,
whereupon the bands played and the Sultan reviewed his troops from one
of the windows of the mosque. He then returned to the Palace in a
beautiful top phaeton drawn by two horses, which he drove himself, again
with Osman Pasha opposite, followed by his aides and the carriage that
had brought him. Usually several carriages, open and closed, also
several saddle horses, are brought from the royal stables to the
mosque, that the Sultan may take his choice for his return to the
Palace.

It is expected as a display of good will that the ministers and
ambassadors occasionally attend this ceremony. It was practically the
only occasion on which Abdul Hamid appeared in public, for he constantly
feared assassination, and his expression showed his timidity. Following
Selamlik he quite frequently arranged to receive in audience. In the
kiosque or small house beside the mosque, there is a special suite of
rooms reserved for the diplomatic corps. An aide informs the Sultan what
diplomatic representatives or other persons of distinction are at the
kiosque, to each of whom His Majesty then sends some gracious message.
While prayers are being said in the mosque, the guests at the kiosque
are served coffee and cigarettes.

       *       *       *       *       *

One of the persons whom I met shortly after my arrival in the city was
Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, who was in Constantinople as Britain's special
envoy to negotiate a convention regarding the withdrawal of British
troops from Egypt. He had a suite at our hotel where we saw each other
frequently and became very good friends. Drummond Wolff, as he was
usually spoken of to distinguish him from the several other prominent
Wolffs, was certainly a remarkable and clever man, and a great
_raconteur_. He was then in his late fifties, had had wide experience as
a diplomat, and was thoroughly familiar with the Turkish temperament. In
fact, he was at home in all that part of the world. He was born in
Malta, the son of the famous missionary, Rev. Joseph Wolff, a Jew who
became a convert first to Catholicism and then to Episcopalianism, being
ordained as priest in the Church of England. While in America he
received the degree of Doctor of Theology from the College of St.
John's, Annapolis, Maryland.

Sir Henry advised me in dealing with the Turkish authorities always to
be patient, pleasant, persistent. He also impressed upon me the
importance of maintaining the most cordial relations with my colleagues
and of returning all hospitalities; that a well-disposed colleague can
often be of incalculable assistance in inducing the authorities to
accede to any proper demand one might have to make. However, his own
relations with the British ambassador, Sir William White, were not so
friendly. The estrangement between them was quite evident, caused no
doubt by personal jealousy, which is so likely to result between a
special envoy and the regularly accredited representative of the same
country in a given territory.

We stayed at the Royal only about ten days, and then moved to summer
quarters in a hotel at Therapia, a name given to the district some three
thousand years ago by the Greeks because of its healthful and balmy
climate. Here, too, Drummond Wolff had a neighboring suite, and later,
when by reason of a longer stay than anticipated he was obliged to give
up his apartment before he was ready, we put a portion of ours at his
disposal, which he much appreciated. It was a very pleasant arrangement,
and diplomatically no less profitable. We dined together every evening,
and often in our party were also Prince Ghika, Roumanian charge, and the
Princess; Baron Van Tetz, Dutch minister, and the Baroness. The Baron
was later accredited to Berlin, and then made Minister of Foreign
Affairs in his own country. He has now retired and at this writing he
and the Baroness still live at The Hague. They are charming people.

On June 21, 1887, the entire diplomatic corps was present in official
dress at services in the English chapel, in honor of the Queen's
Jubilee. The chaplain of the English embassy, the Reverend George
Washington, officiated. He said he was of the same family as our own
George Washington.

       *       *       *       *       *

The day before my audience I presided at the commencement exercises of
Robert College at Roumeli-Hissar, by invitation of the venerable
president, Dr. George Washburn. The college in 1887 had about one
hundred and eighty students, mainly Bulgarians, Greeks, and Armenians,
with two or three Turks. The commencement was quite similar to those at
home, except that the orations were delivered in the various languages
of the East as well as in French and English.

I took this first occasion to refer in a larger way to the aims and
purposes of Robert College and similar American institutions. The Turks
had not been able to understand the benevolence that prompted the
establishment of schools and colleges by Americans throughout the
empire. They were suspicious, and their attitude was founded on
experiences with various institutions and societies of several of the
other nations, notably the Greeks, who, under guise of scientific and
benevolent activity, had fostered political design. The Turks believed
that behind our institutions lay a purpose inimical to the sovereignty
of Turkey, a belief stimulated by Russia and by some of the French
Catholics, who were opposed to the extended use of the English language
and the influence of Protestant English and American ideas in the East.
This gave rise to many of the vexatious questions that the legation had
to solve. By way of throwing some oil upon these troubled waters,
therefore, I said, during my address:

     For centuries the tide of progress and civilization has been making
     its way toward the West. Its course has been marked by blood and
     carnage. The history of the Middle Ages and of modern times
     chronicles the nations and empires that have sunk in this mighty
     current, and the new life and new civilization that have sprung up
     over the ruins of the old. That flood tide, pushing its
     irresistible course onward, still swept on, until in our day it
     mingled its waters with the Great Pacific Ocean. The Ultima Thule
     having at last been reached, the great ebb-tide began to course its
     way backward; and America, the youngest of nations, in gratitude
     for all the past, as a token of her amity and her friendship, has
     sent back on the advance current of this return tide not ships of
     war nor armed troops, but her most cherished institutions, a fully
     equipped American college.

     So that here, to-day, on the beautiful and picturesque shores of
     the classic Bosphorus, on the very spot where the nations of the
     East four and a half centuries ago erected and left the
     well-preserved monument of their passage to the West, stands Robert
     College. What a tale and what a history! Robert College here and
     the Towers of Roumeli-Hissar there! The one the fortified remains
     of bygone wars, the other the tranquil emblem of returning peace.
     What a double tale do these two institutions speak to one another!
     The tie that unites them is one of love and peace, a league more
     puissant than army or navy for the welfare and happiness of
     nations. When centuries shall have rolled by and another Gibbon
     shall come to write of empires, may it be his privilege to record
     no longer the decline and fall, but the rise and rejuvenation of
     this Orient to which we look with affection.

And now that I had been received and entertained by about everybody in
Constantinople, it was time for my audience with the Sultan, who came
last like the prima donna. Official functions at Yildis Palace, as the
Sultan's residence is called (Yildis meaning star), were always most
dignified and punctilious. Royal carriages were sent from the Palace
with escorts for myself and staff. At the entrance to the Palace we were
met by the Introducer of Ambassadors; then we proceeded to the salon of
the Grand Master of Ceremonies, where I was met by the Minister of
Foreign Affairs and conducted by Osman Pasha, Grand Marshal, into the
presence of His Majesty.

The Sultan was standing ready to receive me. He was a small man, of
rather spare frame, sallow complexion, dark eyes that sparkled with a
furtive expression, prominent aquiline nose, and short full black beard
which later, when it turned gray, he dyed reddish with henna. He had on
a black frock coat that buttoned to the neck.

According to custom I handed him the letters of recall of my
predecessor, then presented my credentials, and made a brief address, a
copy of which in writing I left with him. It read as follows:

     The President of the United States has been pleased to charge me
     with the distinguished honor and agreeable duty of cultivating to
     the fullest extent the friendship which has so happily subsisted
     between the two Governments, and of conveying to Your Imperial
     Majesty the assurances of his best wishes for the welfare of Your
     Imperial Majesty and for the prosperity of Turkey.

     As the faithful representative of my Government, charged with the
     duty of protecting the interests of her citizens, permit me to
     express the hope that Your Imperial Majesty's Government will lend
     me its kindly aid in the efforts I shall at all times make to
     maintain and further cement a good understanding for the
     development of the relations of amity and friendship between the
     two Governments, and that the same courtesy and cordiality may be
     shown me which were so generously accorded to my honored
     predecessors.

     The time has at last come, through the progress of science, when
     all nations by reason of the facility and rapidity of communication
     have been brought nearer together, so that their mutual interests
     and relations verily entitle them to be called one great family.

     In the spirit of that relationship I have come to dwell near the
     Government of Your Imperial Majesty, and to greet you in behalf of
     and in the words of our Chief Magistrate as his "Great and Good
     Friend," with the hope "that God may have Your Imperial Majesty in
     His wise keeping."

Which is the customary language of such documents, with the exception of
the third paragraph. His Majesty replied in a brief address, expressing
his pleasure in receiving me. He then sat down and bade me do likewise,
whereupon we were served with cigarettes and Turkish coffee, the latter
in egg-shaped cups resting in jewel-studded holders. The Sultan speaks
only Turkish, and I spoke English, so we understood one another by means
of the dragoman, Mr. Gargiulo, who had been for twenty years the very
able Turkish adviser and interpreter of the legation and remained at
that post for ten years thereafter.

The audience concluded, we returned to the legation in the same stately
fashion we had come, following which we gave a reception to the American
colony, composed almost exclusively of the missionaries resident in
Constantinople, together with the president and faculty of Robert
College and of the Home School for Girls, then located at Scutari,
across the Bosphorus. I was now ready for the official business of my
mission.




CHAPTER IV

FIRST TURKISH MISSION

     Turkey's jealousy of foreigners--My protest against the closing of
     American mission schools--Diplomacy prevents drastic regulations
     proposed by Turkey--The schools are reopened--Defending the sale of
     the Bible--A cargo of missionaries and rum--Robert College--A visit
     to Cairo--"Bombe a la Lincoln"--Governmental reforms in Egypt--My
     protest against persecution of Jews in flight from Russia and
     Roumania--At Jerusalem--Huge delegation of Jews pleads with me for
     release of imprisoned relatives--I make drastic demands, and
     prisoners are promptly released--Their grateful memorial to
     me--Rights of American citizens on Turkish soil--Disputes regarding
     our Treaty of 1830--Uncle Sam gives $10,800 worth of presents to
     Turkish officials, on conclusion of a treaty--Diplomatic tangles;
     United States left without Treaty of Naturalization with
     Turkey--Baron de Hirsch, international celebrity--I am invited to
     arbitrate his dispute with the Sultan, and am offered an honorarium
     of 1,000,000 francs--I decline honorarium, but offer to
     mediate--Baroness de Hirsch's philanthropies--American capitalists
     consider Turkish railway concessions--Sultan grants permission for
     American excavation in Babylon--My resignation in 1888--The
     Sultan's farewell.


For several years the Turks had been very jealous of foreigners,
especially in Asia Minor, and the result was many restrictions which
manifested themselves in a variety of relations. The growth of the
mission schools and their increase in number quite naturally enhanced
the suspicion of the authorities, with the help, as I have mentioned, of
those whose interests were served in helping the Turks to see danger in
this growth of our institutions.

At the legation the interests of the American missionaries with regard
to their schools and their printed matter formed the major portion of
the affairs requiring my immediate attention. About four hundred schools
had been established in Turkey by the Presbyterian and Congregational
missionary boards. Beginning with the winter of 1885, upon one pretext
or another, thirty of these schools in Syria were closed, many of the
teachers arrested and forbidden ever to teach in the country again,
while the parents were threatened with fine and imprisonment if they
continued to send their children to American schools. With few
exceptions all the teachers and parents were natives and Turkish
subjects. The official reason given for the closing of these schools was
that their boards had not complied with the Turkish law requiring that
textbooks, curriculums, and certificates of the teachers be submitted to
the authorities for examination; although the missionary representatives
gave assurance that these requirements had been met.

Soon after my audience with the Sultan I took up the subject of these
schools with the Grand Vizier, Kiamil Pasha, who was perhaps the most
enlightened statesman of the Turkish Empire. Mr. King, while acting
charge, had made an agreement with the Minister of Public Instruction
whereby the missionaries at these schools were to submit the textbooks
and other documentary equipment to the local authorities. I protested to
the Grand Vizier against the closing of the schools, and after some
weeks we reached an understanding: he was to telegraph the vali or
governor-general at Syria that the schools were to be allowed to reopen
upon their compliance with the law, according to an arrangement between
himself and myself. The outcome looked hopeful, though months dragged
along without further result.

Meanwhile, and quite by accident, I learned that the Porte had
formulated proposed additional regulations concerning all foreign
schools, and that these regulations were about to be submitted to the
Council of Ministers to be made law. I immediately requested a copy from
the Grand Vizier. I found, to my surprise, that the regulations were
calculated to place insuperable obstacles in the way of every foreign
school in the empire. Among other things, in addition to the requirement
that textbooks, curriculums, and teachers' certificates be submitted for
examination, all schools were to obtain an irade or express sanction of
the Sultan in order to function. Failing to receive that irade within
six months from the date of the law embodying the new regulations, the
authorities in the several provinces were commanded to close such
schools.

I communicated my discovery to those of my colleagues who were
interested with me in this dispute: Count de Montebello, French
ambassador; Baron Blanc, Italian ambassador; and Sir William White,
British ambassador. At the same time I submitted copies of the proposed
regulations to the Reverend Doctor Isaac Bliss and the Reverend Henry O.
Dwight, of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in
Western Turkey. They all viewed the matter as I did.

The following day I again called on the Grand Vizier, informing him that
I looked upon these regulations as seriously infringing upon the rights
of American citizens in Turkey, and pointing out my objections in
detail. The three colleagues just referred to did the same on behalf of
their respective subjects who had mission or other schools in the
empire. We succeeded in impressing the Grand Vizier with the force and
validity of our objections, for he requested us to put them in writing
and forward them to the Porte. With the aid of Drs. Bliss and Dwight I
prepared such a document, and I am glad to be able to say that our
protests came in time and were sufficiently forceful to prove effective
in preventing this new legislation.

As I had now been negotiating for several months with reference to the
Syrian schools, I decided that the most efficient way of translating
into concrete result the repeated promises in regard to them was to
visit some of our missionary schools throughout the empire. I obtained
the necessary permission from Washington and took a journey to Cairo,
Jaffa, Jerusalem, Beirut, Mersina, and Smyrna, where I conferred with
our missionaries, with our several consuls, as well as with the
respective governors and governor-generals. I found the relations
between the local authorities and our consuls, and between the
authorities and the missionary representatives, quite friendly, in some
places indifferent, but nowhere hostile.

I had instructed the missionaries to get ready for the opening of the
schools, and I planned the trip so as to be in Beirut about the time my
order for the reopening was to be put in force. My plan had the desired
effect. In anticipation of my arrival at Beirut, fifteen of the schools
were reopened; and while I was there five or six more. That was about as
many of the total thirty as the missionaries cared to or were in a
position to reopen then. For the time being I felt satisfied that I had
sufficiently reversed the Government policy to check the progressive
closing of the schools which, if continued, would seriously have
threatened the existence of all American schools in Turkey.

I must here express my appreciation of the assistance given me by Erhard
Bissinger, our consul at Beirut. He was an earnest, sincere man,
formerly a New York merchant. Although his health was frail he worked
with unremitting zeal and efficiency, discharging his official duties
with rare judgment and tact. I could always rely on the correctness of
his reports respecting the many difficulties as they arose, and I could
always feel assured that in each instance he would apply every effort to
bring about an adjustment with the local authorities, by whom he was as
highly esteemed as by the missionaries.

       *       *       *       *       *

Another expression of the Government's enmity toward the activities of
our missionaries was the treatment being accorded the colporteurs, or
persons who went about selling Bible tracts. The agents of the American
as well as the British Bible Society were constantly and arbitrarily
being arrested. They were charged with plying their trade without
license, yet when they made application they were never able to get
license. From time to time I protested against these arrests and secured
the release of one after another of the agents; but the thing to be done
was to prevent arrests.

The fact was they were being made without real cause. Before these
tracts or any other material could be printed a permit had to be
obtained from the Ottoman Government. The material had to pass
censorship before it was allowed to be printed, so that the very fact of
its appearing in print was proof of the authorization of the censors. I
held that, once printed, to prohibit the sale of these tracts was in
restraint of commerce; that there was no reason why book hawkers should
be under different regulations from hawkers of any other wares.

I prepared an argument along these lines, which I presented to the Grand
Vizier, and he agreed with my conclusions. He forthwith gave orders for
the release of all colporteurs and that no further arrests were to be
made. The British Bible Society, of course, benefited equally with our
own by these orders, and I received their grateful appreciation through
my colleague, Sir William White.

All this hostility toward the missionaries and their work might be
construed to be founded upon an objection by the Government to having
its subjects converted to Christianity. But it was rather foreign
influence as a whole that was being fought, and religion was simply the
convenient peg. Conversions from Mohammedanism were few and far between,
and for the number of Mohammedans turned Christian in the course of a
year there were as many Christians turned Mohammedan. The Mohammedans
are intensely and sincerely devoted to their faith. On the whole they
are convinced that their religion is the only true one and that
Christianity is inferior and less rational. Such converts as the
missionaries do make come almost exclusively from among the Armenians,
Syrians, Greeks, Maronites, and other Christian sects whose form of
Christianity is of a mediaeval character. The chief missionary work in
Turkey is educational, carried forward in a religious spirit. At the
time of my visit to the various vilayets, the Presbyterian Board alone
had over one hundred schools throughout Syria, all located in places
where previously there had been no schools at all.

       *       *       *       *       *

Many of the men who carried forward missionary work had consecrated
their whole lives to it. Chief among these were Rev. Henry H. Jessup,
venerable patriarch of the Presbyterian missionaries; Rev. Daniel Bliss,
president of the Syrian Protestant College; and Dr. George Washburn,
president of Robert College.

Dr. Jessup and Dr. Bliss had started for the field together in 1856,
when, in bleak December, they both left Boston in the sailing vessel
Sultana, which, according to Dr. Jessup's autobiography, "Fifty-Three
Years in Syria," carried in addition to nine or ten missionaries a cargo
of New England rum to Smyrna--a cargo spirited no less than spiritual.

Dr. Bliss was succeeded in 1902 by his distinguished son, Rev. Howard S.
Bliss, who conducted with renewed vigor the work of his father,
enlarging the scope and curriculum of the college so that through its
thousands of graduates in the arts, in science, and in medicine it
became a potent force throughout the whole Near East. During my
subsequent missions to Turkey I became very intimate with the younger
Bliss, and during the Peace Conference in 1919, when he was in Paris in
behalf of Syria, I was able to continue this intimacy. Unfortunately in
Paris he was already suffering from a serious malady which resulted in
his death in America the year following. He was honored, respected, and
beloved in both the old world and the new.

Dr. Washburn was a man of statesmanship as well as erudition. His book
of recollections, "Fifty Years in Constantinople," is valuable for the
light it throws on political issues in Turkey no less than on questions
educational and religious. He was recognized as an authority on Turkish
and Balkan affairs, and the influence of the college was by no means
limited to the Turkish Empire; it was felt quite as much throughout the
Balkan States. Bulgaria at one period was largely governed by officials
who had been graduated from Robert College, and they looked to Dr.
Washburn as their chief adviser. The British ambassador at
Constantinople frequently consulted him and was swayed by his advice,
for Dr. Washburn understood the Turks and spoke their language. He was
the second president of the college, having succeeded his father-in-law,
the Reverend Cyrus Hamlin, D.D.

On the faculty of Robert College were a number of other very able men:
Dr. Albert L. Long, Professor of Natural Science, distinguished as an
archaeologist as well, was a man of engaging personality. He had a large
acquaintance among the learned Turks, whose estimate of our country was
materially influenced for the good by their association with him. Then
there was Dr. Edwin A. Grosvenor, Professor of Latin and History, who
resigned shortly afterward to accept a professorship at Amherst. He was
then at work on his scholarly "History of Constantinople," which I
consider the best and most reliable work on that subject.

In 1888 I secured for Robert College, after arduous negotiation,
permission for the erection of two new buildings, one a house for the
president and the other an addition to the college itself. When the
permits came through there was no mention of the addition to the
college, and as work on it meanwhile had been begun, no little anxiety
ensued. It developed that some one on the staff of the Grand Vizier had
been bribed by an enemy of the college to tamper with the permits.
However, because of the good relationship between Kiamil Pasha and
myself, he acknowledged this bit of chicanery and duly rectified it.

I might add that in numerous instances I was able to arrange
unofficially with the Grand Vizier matters which threatened to become
more or less troublesome. This method of negotiating was peculiarly
advantageous at the Porte, where delays were proverbial and so
frequently defeated official action. Again, some of the difficulty
experienced by my colleagues in getting proper redress for violations,
even gross violations, was due to the fact that the Porte was not always
able to control the governor-generals of the provinces.

       *       *       *       *       *

I have said that my trip among our missionary schools included a visit
to Cairo. At that time Egypt was still under Turkish sovereignty and
questions of larger importance had to be taken up with the Sublime
Porte. Thus American questions came under my jurisdiction as envoy
extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the empire. Our
representative at Cairo, John Cardwell, had the title of consul-general
and diplomatic agent, and had to receive his exequatur from the Sublime
Porte. He was a conscientious and capable official who had been there
since the beginning of the first Cleveland Administration.

On this trip also I saw much of Anthony M. Keiley and his charming wife;
I have spoken of him in a previous chapter as having been rejected for
the post of United States minister by Austria-Hungary. Keiley was
serving as one of the American judges of the Mixed or Reform Tribunal at
Cairo and was highly respected for his ability at this international
court.

Mohammed Tewfik, son of the extravagant Ismail of Suez Canal fame, whom
he succeeded, was Khedive of Egypt and entertained us during our visit.
He was only thirty-six years old, and without his fez might have been
taken for an Englishman. He spoke fluent English and his conversation
showed him to be well informed regarding the governments and peoples of
Europe. Within an hour after my first call upon him he called with his
aide-de-camp upon me at the Hotel Shepheard. He wanted to decorate me,
but I informed his aide that under our system we did not permit
diplomatic representatives to accept such distinctions; so the next day
he sent a lesser decoration to the manager of the hotel, which, it was
said, he did in my honor.

A few days later we were invited to lunch with him, and there were also
present a number of higher officials. The menu consisted of dishes with
such improvised names as "crevettes a l'Americaine," "bombe a la
Lincoln," etc. One dish that made a deep impression upon my
none-too-keen gastronomic memory was the delicious Egyptian quail, which
is larger and plumper than our own. In season the birds migrate from the
north and are trapped in great numbers. They could be bought in the
markets for a piaster, or less than five cents.

I had frequent conferences with Nubar Pasha, Egypt's foremost statesman.
He was an Armenian educated by Jesuits in France. His knowledge was
extensive, and he combined the enlightened viewpoint of a European
statesman of the first rank with all the subtlety of an Oriental. It was
he who conceived the plan of introducing a legal system and good
government in Egypt, and creating the mixed tribunals or international
law courts. In the reorganization of Egypt he acted in sympathy with
Lord Dufferin's programme and consequently was highly regarded by the
British.

With Sir Evelyn Baring, British agent and consul-general in Egypt,
afterwards Lord Cromer, I had a pleasant conversation. He was then at
the height of his power in the reconstruction of Egypt. Major-General
Sir Francis Grenfell, sirdar or commanding general of the Egyptian army,
is another memory in connection with that visit.

I regretted that time did not permit my going up the Nile; but like
every one with an historical imagination I was immensely impressed with
the grandeur and massive beauty of the pyramids and the classic ruins of
ancient Egypt, which with their five thousand or more years of existence
have outdistanced all other relics in bringing the handiwork of man down
through ages of devastating time.

       *       *       *       *       *

There was a matter pending at Jerusalem regarding which our Secretary of
State had instructed me, and which I thought best to look into
personally while on this trip. Foreign Jews were being expelled simply
because of their race, and American Jews were being discriminated
against along with those of other nations. In the background of this
action by Turkey were Russia and Roumania, for since the days of the
Spanish Inquisition the Ottoman authorities, with rare exceptions, had
been not only tolerant but hospitable to Jewish immigrants. Roumania,
contrary to express provisions of the Treaty of Berlin guaranteeing
equal political and civil rights to all subjects in this newly created
principality, placed restrictions upon her Jewish subjects, causing a
large number to emigrate. And from Russia, following the enforcement of
the Ignatieff laws of 1882 (some of them laws that had been on the
statute books unenforced for years), there was also a wholesale exodus
of persecuted Jews. Most of these people went to America, but some to
other countries, including Palestine.

It was the irony of persecution that the Russians who came to Turkey
were claimed as subjects by Russia, which entered a protest at the Porte
against making them Ottoman subjects. On the other hand, the Russian
Patriarch in Turkey and the dignitaries of the Roman Church objected to
the settlement of foreign Jews in Palestine. This pressure from powers
that Turkey wished to please brought forth the promulgation of a law
interdicting all Jews from coming to Palestine for permanent residence.
Besides those from Russia and Roumania, there were a few Jews coming
from England and France. And there were a very few coming from
America--naturalized citizens.

At the Porte I had taken this matter up with the Grand Vizier. He told
me that a regulation was communicated to the Imperial authorities at
Jerusalem limiting the stay of foreign Jews there to one month. Later he
told me that the Council of Ministers was about to change this limit to
three months. He gave as reasons for the existence of any such
regulations, first, that at certain times of the year, Easter, for
example, religious fanaticism was at so high a pitch that Jews had to
remain in their houses to escape attack and perhaps murder at the hands
of the Christians. In the second place, it had been reported that the
Jews of all the world were planning to strengthen themselves in and
around Jerusalem with a view to re-establishing their ancient kingdom at
some future time.

I answered that of course the first reason could be done away with by a
strong force of police. As for the second, if the Porte would make
inquiry it could satisfy itself that there was no such plan among the
Jews of the world, that the immigration was caused by the persecution in
Russia and Roumania. (This was nine years before the publication of the
pamphlet, in 1896, by Dr. Hertzl, from which generated modern Zionism. I
shall speak of Dr. Hertzl later.) So far as the American Jews were
concerned, I informed the Grand Vizier that it was a fundamental
principle of our Government to make no distinction of race or creed
among our citizens, and that we had consistently denied to foreign
nations that right over our citizens, as the provisions in our treaties
with the Ottoman Empire showed. To all of this the Grand Vizier replied
simply that should any American be expelled he would carefully consider
my arguments and give instructions accordingly.

On communicating with our consul-general at Jerusalem, Henry Gillman, I
learned that he had taken the same position, and that to date no
American citizen had been expelled; also that the American consulate was
the only one which had refused aid to the authorities in the expulsion
of foreign Jews, and our representative was not being made very
comfortable for this non-cooperation with the local government. Here the
matter stood when I left Constantinople.

There were a number of other vexatious questions pending between the
vali at Jerusalem and Mr. Gillman, and I deemed it good policy to show
my resentment to the vali for his arbitrary methods. I declined the
courtesy of the official conveyance with which he sent one of his aides
to Jaffa to meet me and my family and take us to Jerusalem. We took a
Cook's conveyance, stopped overnight at Ramleh, and next day drove over
the hills of Judea to Jerusalem, where Mr. Gillman conducted us to
comfortable quarters at a hotel outside the walls.

       *       *       *       *       *

Scarcely had I arrived at the hotel when a huge delegation of Jews, men
and women, some with infants in their arms, came to plead with me to
obtain the release of relatives and friends who had been put in prison
by the vali or governor because they had come to settle there. I had
known of the troubled conditions in Jerusalem because of the immigration
of the Jews; but until my arrival there I was not aware of the
imprisonment of these people. More than four hundred of them were being
held in prison awaiting deportation.

Instead of calling on the vali as ordinarily would have been proper, I
sent a note to him through the consul demanding the immediate release of
the immigrants who, I claimed, were being imprisoned contrary to our
treaty as well as the treaties of Great Britain, France, and other
powers; I said that I should decline to call upon him until this
injustice was righted by such release; and that, further, unless my
request was promptly complied with I should appeal to the Sublime Porte
for his removal.

I felt authorized to take so drastic a step by reason of the
negotiations I had had with the Grand Vizier and in view of our treaty
and the treaties of several of the powers I have referred to. I obtained
the desired result. The vali communicated my message to the Porte, and
the Grand Vizier instructed him to comply with my request. Within
twenty-four hours all the prisoners were released.

The following morning there was a delegation of several thousand people
outside my hotel, who had come to express their gratitude. They
presented me with a beautifully embossed memorial, the text of which,
translated, reads:

     With delight of soul we bring to thee, O Sir, glory of our people,
     the blessing of our community, the congregations of Israel dwelling
     in Zion and in all the cities of the Holy Land,

                            THE BLESSING OF MAZZOL TOV
                                       (good fortune)

     because the Lord God of Israel has raised thee to fame and glory
     and has given to thee a seat of honor among the mighty of the
     earth. And we lift our hands to the Holy Sanctuary (praying) that
     thy horn be exalted with honor and splendor, and that thou be given
     the strength and the power to exalt the horn of Israel, thy people,
     to speak in their favor before the throne of the Government--may
     its glory increase!--and that thou continue in thy honored office
     for many days, until he (the messiah) shall come unto Shiloh "and
     unto him shall the obedience of the people be"--soon, in our days,
     amen!

     Such is the blessing of those who respect and honor thee in
     accordance with thy high and exalted station.

     The leaders of the Jews in Jerusalem--may it be built and
     established in our days!

It is signed with the seals and signatures of Rafail Meir Panisel (Haham
Bashi), chief rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews in Jerusalem, and
Samuel Salant, chief rabbi of the Ashkenazim, Perushim, and Hasidim in
Jerusalem.

Now I called upon the vali, who received me very graciously and with
great courtesy. I thanked him for his prompt compliance with my request,
and expressed the hope that, inasmuch as I had an understanding with the
Porte that no discrimination was to be made against Jewish immigrants to
Jerusalem, I should not in future have to complain of any infringement
upon this understanding, otherwise I should again be compelled to take
drastic action. I called his attention to the treaties referred to, of
which he had had no previous knowledge.

I stopped to make some official calls, accompanied by the consul and his
staff. As is customary when high officials go through the streets of the
Holy City, several halberdiers of the vali preceded, to give distinction
to the party as well as protection and a clear passage through the
crowds. I could remain in Jerusalem only three or four days, however,
for I had to catch the steamer that stopped at Alexandretta and Smyrna,
where I wanted to confer with our consuls.

Upon my return to Constantinople my French and British colleagues were
much pleased at my having secured the release of the Jewish immigrants
in Palestine. They had received, through their foreign offices,
expressions of appreciation and grateful acknowledgment from such
organizations as the Anglo-Jewish Association of London, and the
Alliance Israelite of Paris.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Illustration: TESTIMONIAL GIVEN TO MR. STRAUS IN JERUSALEM IN
APPRECIATION OF THE RELEASE OF SEVERAL HUNDRED PRISONERS]

The next step in the development of this question was a communication
received by our State Department from Mavroyeni Bey, Turkish minister at
Washington, informing the Department of a change, indeed, of the time
limit from one month to three for the sojourn of Jews in Jerusalem, with
the proviso, however, "that they are going to Jerusalem in the
performance of a pilgrimage, and not for the purpose of engaging in
commerce or taking up their residence there."

This communication was received while I was on my trip, and Secretary
Bayard forwarded it to me with the instruction that I take up the
subject with the Ottoman Government as follows:

     To require of applicants for passports, which under our laws are
     issued to all citizens upon the sole evidence of their citizenship,
     any announcement of their religious faith or declaration of their
     personal motives in seeking such passports, would be utterly
     repugnant to the spirit of our institutions and to the intent of
     the solemn proscription forever by the Constitution of any
     religious test as a qualification of the relations of the citizen
     to the Government, and would, moreover, assume an inquisitorial
     function in respect of the personal affairs of the individual,
     which this Government can not exert for its own purposes, and could
     still less assume to exercise with the object of aiding a foreign
     Government in the enforcement of an objectionable and arbitrary
     discrimination against certain of our citizens.

     Our adherence to these principles has been unwavering since the
     foundation of our Government, and you will be at no loss to cite
     pertinent examples of our consistent defense of religious liberty,
     which, as I said in my note to Baron Schaeffer of May 18, 1885, in
     relation to the Keiley episode at Vienna, "is the chief
     corner-stone of the American system of Government, and provisions
     for its security are embedded in the written charter and interwoven
     in the moral fabric of its laws."

I received this upon my return. Secretary Bayard asked me also to
ascertain the views of my colleagues respecting this irade, and I found
them willing and ready to take it up with the Porte in a manner similar
to the instructions I had received.

I called on Said Pasha and left with him a note in accordance with my
instructions, and I sent a copy of this note to the French and British
ambassadors. They in turn each advised the Ministry that they could not
admit of regulations prejudicial to the existing rights of their
subjects as secured by treaties. And here for a time the matter rested.

Several months later three American Jews were expelled from Jerusalem
because they had not left the city at the expiration of three months,
and again the question had to be taken up with the Porte. This time Said
Pasha replied that the restrictions with regard to the three Americans
had been ordered withdrawn, "the Sublime Porte having lately decided
that the measure concerning the Israelites going to Palestine shall not
be applied but to those who emigrate in number (_en nombre_), and that
no obstacle shall be opposed to the sojourn of those who are not in this
class."

This, like most other questions that arose between the Ottoman
Government and our own, could not be settled for any length of time by
principle, law, or treaty. Such documents might be used as reminders of
agreements once reached, but in Turkey they do not of themselves direct
policies or action. Drummond Wolff had advised being "patient, pleasant,
persistent," to which I would add: eternally vigilant.

       *       *       *       *       *

On the whole, the interests of the United States throughout the Ottoman
Empire were peculiar, in that the majority of the complaints related to
personal, as distinct from commercial, rights. I have said in an earlier
chapter that some of the questions at issue, especially those involving
extraterritoriality, grew out of capitulations dating back over four
hundred years, to the conquest of Constantinople by the Moslems in 1453.
The terms of these capitulations or "privileges" were made originally
between the Greeks and the various Italian city republics--Pisa, Genoa,
Venice. The Moslems later embodied them in revised capitulations with
France in 1535, 1604, 1673, and 1740; with England in 1583 and 1675;
with Holland in 1680; with Austria in 1718; and with Russia in 1783. On
these later European capitulations was based our own first treaty with
the Sublime Porte in 1830. Practically speaking, therefore, consular
jurisdiction in Turkey was then not very different from what it was in
the fifteenth century.

When I took office one of the vexatious questions to be settled was the
interpretation of Clause IV of the Treaty of 1830. This treaty was
negotiated by Charles Rhind, as American commissioner, with Reis
Effendi, Turkish representative. Rhind had prepared it, with the help of
dragoman Navoni, in French and in Turkish, and when it was finally drawn
up, according to Rhind's own report, Reis Effendi "signed and sealed the
treaty in Turkish and I did the same with the French translation, and we
exchanged them." Thereupon the original Turkish version, together with a
copy of the French translation as signed by the American
commissioners--President Jackson had appointed Captain James Biddle and
David Offley together with Rhind--and several English translations were
transmitted to Washington. The treaty actually approved by the Senate
was one of the English versions.

Before the ratifications were exchanged the American charge d'affaires
at Constantinople, David Porter, received word that the French version
was not exactly in agreement with the Turkish. Porter's simple method of
correcting this discrepancy was to sign a document, also in the Turkish
language, accepting the Turkish version of the treaty without reserve;
and when the translation of this document reached Washington nothing
further was said.

Indeed, the treaty rested in peace until 1868, when the American
minister, acting according to the English version, clashed with the
Turkish authorities in the interpretation of Clause IV, regarding
jurisdiction over American citizens--in this case two who had been
arrested and imprisoned for alleged offenses against the Turkish
Government. The English version read:

     Citizens of the United States of America, quietly pursuing their
     commerce, and not being charged or convicted of any crime or
     offence, shall not be molested; and even when they may have
     committed some offence they shall not be arrested and put in
     prison, by the local authorities, but they shall be tried by their
     Minister or Consul, and punished according to their offence,
     following, in this respect, the usage observed towards other
     Franks.

When our Government proceeded to obtain exact translations of this
clause, it was found that the Turkish version did not contain the words
"arrested" or "tried," although the phraseology made clear that American
citizens were not to be imprisoned in Turkish prisons, but punished
through their minister or consul. Consequently, the Turkish authorities
could arrest but not imprison, could try but not inflict punishment.

The Turkish Government would not recognize as accurate any of the
translations the United States presented. When asked to present a
translation of its own, however, the matter was gradually put in
abeyance.

       *       *       *       *       *

In 1862 our minister, E. J. Morris, concluded another treaty with the
Porte, entitled, as was the first one, "A Treaty of Commerce and
Navigation," which, by its Article XX, was to remain in force
twenty-eight years unless either party saw fit to abrogate at the end of
fourteen or twenty-one years. In January, 1874, the Turkish Government
gave notice to our Department of State of its desire to terminate the
treaty, following this notice up with another communication to the same
effect in September, 1875. Although by the terms of the treaty such
notice was to be permissible not earlier than June, 1876, nothing was
said in Washington regarding the untimeliness of these communications,
and in his Annual Message of December, 1876, President Grant announced:
"Under this notice the treaty terminated upon the fifth day of June
1876." President Cleveland, on the other hand, in his first Annual
Message nine years later, questioned the official termination, but
added: "As the commercial rights of our citizens in Turkey come under
the favored-nation guarantee of the prior treaty of 1830 ... no
inconvenience can result" from our agreeing to the abrogation. Thus
questions of jurisdiction and commercial rights were thrown back for
settlement under the Treaty of 1830, the translation of which was and
has remained in dispute.

Much of this confusion was due, again, to the slight actual regard, on
the part of the Ottoman Empire, for the terms of treaties. In this
attitude they had been encouraged by some of the European nations--most
of all Russia in its more powerful days--who, in return for other
advantages, were not insistent upon their claims under the
capitulations, especially the claims of jurisdiction over nationals. So
far as concerned the United States, this loose effectiveness of treaties
caused constant misunderstanding with regard to the handling of cases
arising under them.

With every question that came up under the disputed Clause IV, for
instance, the Turks would controvert the right of our consuls to try,
and we would insist on that right. The battle then would be won after a
fashion by the side with the most persistence. During my administration
I happened to be the winner much of the time, although my winning merely
released a possibly innocent person; for while we argued about a trial
for the suspect he lingered in jail, and after I got his release the
Turks would refuse to acknowledge our jurisdiction and not prosecute.
Innocent and guilty alike were made to suffer in jail, and alike were
set scot-free upon release. Not only that, but whenever an American
citizen committed, or was alleged to have committed, a crime and was
arrested by the Turkish authorities, it created irritation and a strain
of our relationship.

       *       *       *       *       *

The only other treaty then negotiated between the Ottoman Government and
our own--the Treaty of Naturalization and Extradition--had also been a
subject for discussion and dispute ever since it was signed by Minister
George H. Boker in 1874. When it was concluded, the Senate refused to
confirm it because under it American citizenship was forfeited _ipso
facto_ by the return of the naturalized citizen to his native land and
his remaining there two years; but the Senate amended this treaty by
changing the phraseology of the clause containing the two-year
reference. The Sublime Porte accepted the amendment by a declaration of
what it understood to be its intent and significance, which
interpretation our Government, in turn, would not accept.

And there that treaty was hung in 1875, although our Government that
year made an appropriation of ten thousand eight hundred dollars for
presents to Turkish officials, which was then customary on concluding a
treaty with the Porte.

As the conditions which had called forth the treaty continued to exist,
I was instructed to renew negotiations in the matter. A number of
Christian subjects of the Porte--some Greeks and some Syrians, but
principally Armenians--in order to free themselves from Turkish
jurisdiction had fled to the United States. Here they remained long
enough to become citizens, and from time to time they came back to
Turkey, where they were charged with being involved in alleged
conspiracies against the Turkish Government. Such cases arose
frequently, and it was felt that the Treaty of Naturalization and
Extradition with the two-year clause, similar to the one we have with
many other nations, would prevent citizens of the Porte from using
naturalization in America as a means of escaping liability as subjects
of Turkey upon their return there.

I addressed myself to bringing about an adjustment of these
difficulties, either by securing a new treaty or having the one of 1874
accepted as amended. A long and tedious exchange of notes on the subject
ensued. Finally the Porte agreed to accept the Treaty of 1874 as
amended.

Of course I was elated, and the State Department was pleased. That the
treaty was one very much desired by our Government was clear. I received
a long, flattering cable of congratulation from Mr. Bayard, and a letter
in similar vein from Mr. Adee, saying in part:

     Whatever may be the outcome of these negotiations, you are to be
     congratulated without stint on having achieved a decided diplomatic
     success by causing the Government of the Porte to recede from the
     position which it took in 1875, with respect to the Senate
     amendments, and to which it has so pertinaciously adhered ever
     since, until you wrought a change of heart and induced it to take a
     more rational view of the subject. This makes it far easier for us
     to deal with the question now as justice and equity and due respect
     for the rights and privileges attaching to American nationality may
     demand.

Then the bubble burst! Under my instructions I had assured the Turkish
authorities that with their acceptance of the amendments of our Senate
the negotiations in the matter would be concluded, and all that would be
necessary to give effect to the treaty was the proclamation of the
President. Instead, however, it was thought best again to submit the
terms to the Senate, as fourteen years had elapsed since the negotiation
of the original treaty. Thereupon some of our leading missionaries, at
the instigation of prominent Armenians who had been naturalized in
America and returned to Turkey, opposed ratification, and no further
action was taken. It was a very discouraging situation, for many
annoying cases constantly came up, some of a rather serious nature.

I might add that ten years later, when I was again minister to Turkey, I
was instructed to renew negotiations, but the Ottoman Government was now
unwilling to negotiate at all on this subject, and we were left without
any treaty of naturalization.

       *       *       *       *       *

There were one or two interesting special matters that came up during
this mission. Toward the end of 1887 Baron Maurice de Hirsch came to
Constantinople to adjust some financial differences with the Turkish
Government. His railway, connecting Constantinople with European cities,
was about completed. The Turkish Government claimed that he owed it
132,000,000 francs, a claim growing out of kilometric guarantees and
other concessions.

One day while I was calling on the Grand Vizier, Kiamil Pasha, he asked
to introduce some one to me, and forthwith I met a tall and slender man
in his fifties, dark eyes sparkling with spirit and energy, clean-shaven
except for a full black mustache, dressed rather dudishly in a cutaway
coat, white vest and white spats--Baron de Hirsch. I was glad of this
opportunity, for I had often heard of him and his great philanthropic
activities. We had a pleasant conversation about things in general.

A few days later I took dinner with the Sultan. He spoke to me about
Baron de Hirsch and the claim of Turkey against him. The Turkish
Government was hard-pressed for funds--its chronic condition. The Sultan
explained that for some time efforts had been made to arrive at some
settlement, and that it was now proposed to arbitrate. The Baron had
suggested first the French and then the Austrian ambassador as
arbitrator, but neither was satisfactory to His Majesty; he, however,
had much confidence in my judgment and impartiality, so that he had
counter-suggested my name to the Baron, which was satisfactory to the
latter; and they had agreed to pay me an honorarium of one million
francs.

I assured the Sultan that I was much complimented by his request, but I
would have to consult the Secretary of State. He told me he had already
requested the Turkish minister at Washington to inquire the views of the
Department, and that Mr. Bayard had said there was no objection to my
acting as arbitrator. But I said I would have to communicate with Mr.
Bayard personally and would let His Majesty hear from me in the course
of a few days.

I cabled Mr. Bayard and learned, as the Sultan had said, that there was
no objection to my acceding to the latter's wishes and accepting the
honorarium if it appeared to me advisable. Upon giving the proposal
careful consideration, however, I felt it would not be wise for me to
comply with the Sultan's request, much as I should have liked to please
him. Any transaction with the Turkish Government involving money was
open to suspicion of improper methods and bribery. Had I as arbitrator
made a decision disappointing to the Turkish Government, I should
certainly have fallen under such suspicion, and I deemed it improper to
assume an obligation which might throw the American legation into a
false light.

I advised Secretary Bayard accordingly and frankly told the Sultan I
could not accept. I added, however, that while I would not accept an
honorarium, I should be glad to act as mediator to see whether a
satisfactory adjustment could not be brought about between the Baron and
the Grand Vizier, which offer the Sultan accepted.

As the negotiations went forward, the Baron and the Grand Vizier had
frequent disagreements and altercations. Each of them would come to me
with his grievance, and I would give my opinion and bring them together
again. Finally there arose a legal question, and this was submitted to
Professor Gneist, the famous German authority on international law. Upon
his decision the Baron finally paid the Turkish Government 22,000,000
francs.

       *       *       *       *       *

During these negotiations, which lasted several months, an intimate
friendship developed between the Baron and his wife and Mrs. Straus and
myself. They often took family dinner with us. They were declining
official invitations because of the recent death of their only child,
Lucien. The Baroness was an exceptionally fine woman, learned and able,
whose principal aim in life seemed to be to find ways of being most
helpful to others. In the quarters of the poor, both Jew and Gentile,
her short, trim figure, dressed in deep mourning, was familiar. Her face
had an attractively benign expression. A story regarding her activities
in connection with the construction of her husband's railroad was
characteristic of her.

In a village near Constantinople a number of houses belonging to the
poor had to be torn down to make way for the railway station. The work
was to be done with the understanding that the Turkish Government would
compensate these people, but evidently no such consideration was
forthcoming. A number of those thus dispossessed came to the Baron to
complain, but he answered that it was the Government's responsibility,
not his. On hearing of this the Baroness informed her husband that she
did not propose to let the railroad cause unhappiness to people, that it
would probably be a long time before the Government paid the
compensation, if ever, and that she insisted on paying these people out
of her own private fortune so they could at once build new houses and be
happy. Then and there she carried out that programme.

       *       *       *       *       *

The Baron spoke to me of his own benefactions and said he purposed
during his lifetime to devote his fortune to benevolent causes. His
philanthropy up to that time had been bestowed mainly in Russia, but he
was desirous of doing something for the Russians who, because of the
oppression resultant from the Ignatieff laws, were emigrating to
America. They had been persecuted and were poor, and he wanted to enable
them to reestablish themselves.

I was familiar with the conditions of these Russian immigrants, because
prior to my coming to Turkey I had been in close relationship for
several years with Michael Heilprin, author of a number of scholarly
works and one of the chief editors of Appleton's Encyclopaedia. He worked
untiringly on behalf of these new arrivals, collecting money for them
and aiding them personally in numerous ways. I think his untimely death
was due primarily to his generous expenditure of energy in this way. I
mentioned Heilprin to the Baron and said I would write him for
suggestions how best the immigrants might be helped.

When I heard from Heilprin I forwarded the letter to the Baron, together
with a list of men who had done most in the way of benevolent work for
the Jews of New York. Prominent on that list were Meyer S. Isaacs,
president of the United Hebrew Congregations; Jesse Seligman, president
of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum; Jacob H. Schiff, who was connected with a
number of our charitable enterprises; and my brother Isidor. The Baron
subsequently communicated with Mr. Isaacs and some others, and out of
their arrangements grew the Baron de Hirsch Fund and the Baron de Hirsch
Trade School. Later the Baroness, upon conferring with Mrs. Straus,
endowed the Clara de Hirsch Home for Working Girls.

Neither my wife nor I wish to claim any credit for the founding of the
de Hirsch benevolent institutions. We were simply the medium through
which these came into being. We never even suggested the nature of them.
We only gave the requested information regarding the need for such
institutions.

       *       *       *       *       *

[Illustration: OSCAR S. STRAUS

Constantinople, 1888]

But to come back to Constantinople and its railroads. During 1888 the
question of a railroad from Constantinople to the Persian Gulf was much
agitated, especially by the Germans. The Grand Vizier several times
brought up the subject in conversation with me, asking me to help him
get in communication with some reliable American railroad builders. He
assured me that the Turkish Government would give more favorable terms
to a group of Americans because the project would then be free from the
political complications that might ensue if a road through the heart
of the empire were controlled by Germany or any other European power.

William K. Vanderbilt was in Constantinople at the time. He had arrived
in his yacht, which was larger than most yachts that came through the
Dardanelles, so it was stopped until I could procure for him a special
permit from the Sultan to proceed. At the Sultan's request, I spoke to
Vanderbilt about the railroad and introduced him to the Grand Vizier.
But he was on pleasure bent and not inclined to take up the cares and
burdens involved in such an undertaking.

Of course it was apparent that if American capitalists and railroad
builders with their vast experience would take up the construction of
this road it would put tremendous power and prestige into American
hands. I suggested that Carl Schurz and Henry Villard might be the
proper persons to undertake this gigantic work. Villard's name had
figured prominently in the completion of the Northern Pacific; he was
close to Schurz, and they each enjoyed a high reputation. Soon
thereafter the Porte submitted the matter to a syndicate of German,
British, and French bankers, and the famous Bagdad Railroad was not
built by Americans.

Early in 1888 I received a letter from an old friend, the Reverend
William Hayes Ward, eminent Assyriologist and scholarly editor of the
"Independent," respecting an expedition for excavating in Babylonia
which the Reverend John P. Peters, of the University of Pennsylvania,
contemplated. Under Dr. William Pepper, provost of the university, Dr.
Peters was organizing the Babylon Exploration Fund, which would base its
work on the recommendations made in 1884-85 by the Wolfe expedition
headed by Dr. Ward himself. The Wolfe expedition, financed by Miss
Catherine L. Wolfe, of New York City, had been limited to
reconnoissance and exploration. Shortly thereafter the subject was
brought to my attention officially by Mr. Adee, of the Department of
State, who wrote me:

     We find ourselves between two fires,--on one hand is the
     Philadelphia organization under the lead of Dr. Peters, which has
     the money, and on the other is the Johns Hopkins enterprise, which
     has the most solid ballasting of Assyriological talent, but,
     unfortunately, its dollars are limited. As the Johns Hopkins people
     deposit all their collections in the National Museum, Professor
     Langley feels kindly disposed towards them.... We shall probably
     have to look to you as the _deus ex machina_ to prescribe a
     solution.

I conferred unofficially with Hamdy Bey, director of the Imperial Museum
at Stamboul, himself a very competent scientist and in charge of all
excavations in Turkey, who informed me fully regarding the Turkish law
governing excavations, among other things that a permit for making them
had to be obtained from the Ministry of Public Instruction (and these
permits were not easily obtained); and that all objects discovered were
the property of the Turkish Government, the excavator being permitted
only moulds or drawings thereof, except possibly in the case of certain
duplicates.

To save time in the matter, I brought it before the Grand Vizier, who
promised support in laying the project before His Majesty the Sultan,
with the view possibly of getting an irade to export at least a portion,
if not half, of the objects discovered. I suggested to our State
Department that the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins work
together and operate as one body, so that an irade, should it be
obtainable, might serve for the benefit of all concerned.

While _en route_ to the United States on a short leave of absence I met
Dr. Peters in London. He handed me a letter of introduction from
President Cleveland asking my good offices. The proposed excavations
interested me very much, and I promised Dr. Peters I would give the
subject immediate attention upon returning to my post. Meanwhile I
instructed the charge, Mr. King, how to proceed in my absence.

Early in November when I got back to Constantinople I asked for an
audience with the Sultan to explain the purposes of the exploration
fund, the interest of the various universities and scientific societies
in it, adding that I had received a personal letter from the President
in regard to it, and that if he would give the permit to excavate it
would meet with high appreciation in my country.

It was the custom for ministers, as distinct from ambassadors, to
dismount at the Palace gate and proceed to the Palace on foot. For this
occasion, however, orders had been given for our coming in at the Palace
door. Here I was met by His Highness, the Grand Vizier; the Minister of
Foreign Affairs; and the Grand Master of Ceremonies. After some fifteen
minutes the Grand Vizier and the Grand Master of Ceremonies ushered me
into the presence of His Majesty. A private audience took place, wherein
the Sultan seemed very affable indeed. He said he was happy to welcome
me back to my post and hoped that Mrs. Straus and I had had a pleasant
trip.

His Majesty then led the way to the brilliantly illuminated dining-hall,
where a military orchestra of about thirty members was playing. I was
seated at His Majesty's right, with the dragoman next to me, and the
Grand Vizier was at the left; down both sides sat the pashas, their
breasts sparkling with diamond orders. The dinner was served on gold and
silver plates, and the menu was excellent and not overburdened. The
Sultan conversed freely, cheerfully, and apparently without reserve.

After dinner we went with him to a play in the little theater on the
Palace grounds. At an opportune moment between the acts, while His
Majesty questioned me regarding some matters in the United States, I
referred to the excavations, and to the fact that several
representatives of the universities were awaiting his decision. He
graciously stated that permission would be granted, and it was given a
very few days thereafter.

Though we were all somewhat disappointed because the permit was more
restricted than we had been led to expect, it enabled Dr. Peters and his
party to go ahead with their work. Dr. Peters has left a full account of
the explorations and the objects discovered, some of them dating back
earlier than 4000 B.C., in his two volumes entitled "Nippur," which form
a lasting memorial to his services in the cause of archaeology.

Unfavorable as we thought the permit was, I was accused by Theodore
Bent, British archaeologist, writing in the "Contemporary Review," of
bribing Hamdy Bey to obtain a favorable firman. He himself had dug at
Thasos the previous year and had run into difficulties with the Turkish
authorities, resulting in the seizure of his findings. He still felt
revengeful toward Hamdy Bey, and the knowledge of our negotiations for a
permit afforded him ground for a scurrilous attack on the director of
the museum, who was, nevertheless, a man of fine character and high
repute.

The fact really was that the Sultan felt somewhat under obligations to
me because of my services in another matter. There were in the Ottoman
Empire a million or more Persians, mainly rug dealers. Many of them had
married Turkish women. The Sultan claimed that when a Persian in Turkey
married a Turkish subject his nationality followed that of his wife. The
controversy had gone so far that the Shah of Persia was about to recall
his ambassador, and they finally agreed to submit the matter to me for
decision.

I took the subject under advisement and wrote an opinion in accordance
with the universally accepted doctrine of nationality under such
conditions, namely, that upon marriage nationality followed that of the
husband. But instead of rendering my decision, I advised the Sultan what
it would be and suggested that it would probably make for better
relationship if he would anticipate my decision by agreeing with the
Shah's contention. This he appreciated. At the same time it relieved me
from the necessity of deciding against the sovereign to whom I was
accredited.

Of course the Shah's ambassador, Mohsin Khan, who was practically
viceroy in the Ottoman Empire, desired to confer upon me Persia's
decoration, the Lion and the Sun, set in costly brilliants, and once
more I had to explain our custom in regard to such things. It is indeed
a wise provision of our Constitution which prohibits American officials
from accepting "any present, emolument, office or title of any kind
whatever" without the consent of Congress.

       *       *       *       *       *

The election of 1888 having resulted in a Republican victory, I tendered
my resignation to the new President upon his taking office, as is
customary for heads of missions when there has been a change in the
administration. I was unofficially informed that numerous letters and
memorials had been received in Washington from individuals and
missionary and church bodies, asking that I be retained at my post; Dr.
Pepper, of the University of Pennsylvania, and several other university
heads also joined in urging my retention. But I wrote Dr. Pepper not to
push the request, as I could no longer absent myself from my private
affairs. The main matters of difference between the two Governments had
been settled, and I felt justified in resigning, even had Cleveland been
reelected, for I could not afford to stay on except under pressure of
patriotic necessity.

The salary at the Porte barely covered my house rent. I had secured the
best available house with facilities for entertaining and the returning
of hospitalities, and, as I have mentioned before, such functions are
essential for the proper relations with one's colleagues and the
government to which one is accredited. Besides, it is important to be
able to show to one's nationals the hospitality they expect from their
diplomatic representatives, especially in the case of prominent visitors
who bring letters from high officials at home.

Again, "noblesse oblige" has its widest and most emphatic application in
diplomacy. Americans are supposed to be rich, and if an American
diplomat does not show the usual hospitalities he is charged with
penuriousness, for it is understood that a man who is not able to live
according to his station would not be chosen to head a mission. That his
pay may be inadequate for the discharge of his social duties is not
generally known. When I was in Washington during my leave of absence Mr.
Cleveland asked me how I got along on my salary, and I told him then
that I could have got along fairly well on four times the amount, for I
had spent between thirty-five and forty thousand dollars a year.

A few days prior to leaving my post in June, 1889, I again dined with
the Sultan. I had often done so during my stay, but this time he was
especially gracious and unreserved. He expressed great regret at my
going, saying that at no time during his reign had the relations of our
countries been more agreeable, and that he and his minister had had
every confidence in my candor and fairness. What seemed to have
impressed him most was my handling of a large claim by an American which
was being urged through the legation. I carefully examined this claim
and found it to be justified neither in morals nor in law, and I
informed the Turkish Government accordingly that I had withdrawn it. The
Porte was not accustomed to such fair treatment! Of course, ever
afterward when I presented a matter it was believed to be justified.

       *       *       *       *       *

The Sultan held the government pretty firmly in his own hands--too much
so in fact--and kept himself very well informed regarding all manner of
things. On this evening he said he had heard of the great disaster and
loss of lives caused by the Johnstown flood and he desired to transmit
through me two hundred pounds to be used for relief work. I cabled the
amount to the Secretary of State on the following day and communicated
to His Majesty our Government's acknowledgment:

     Express grateful appreciation of the President and the Government
     of the United States for the Sultan's generous relief for flood
     sufferers.

When it became known that I was about to leave my post I received many
communications expressing regret. These were a great satisfaction,
especially one beautiful letter from the missionaries of Constantinople,
signed by Edwin E. Bliss, I. F. Pettibone, Joseph K. Greene, H. S.
Barnum, Charles A. S. Dwight, Henry O. Dwight, and William G. Bliss.

After we had boarded the steamer to Varna, homeward bound, a royal
caique--a rowboat of the graceful lines of a Venetian gondola and manned
by six oarsmen--came alongside our ship and one of the Sultan's aides
came aboard to present to Mrs. Straus the highest order of the Shefekat
decoration, a star set in brilliants, with the special request of His
Majesty that she accept it as a token of his esteem and regard. As the
regulations prohibiting me from accepting such honors did not apply to
my wife, she graciously accepted this parting gift from Abdul Hamid.

And so farewell to Pera and the beautiful Bosphorus!




CHAPTER V

HARRISON, CLEVELAND, AND McKINLEY

     One function of ex-diplomats--Russian refugees in flight to
     America--President Harrison remonstrates with Czar against
     persecutions--"A decree to leave one country is an order to enter
     another"--Grover Cleveland's fight for sound money--His letters to
     me--"The Little White House"--Cleveland under fire for Van Alen
     appointment--Cleveland's theatrical tastes--A midnight supper of
     delicatessen and beer--Cleveland's first meeting with Charles F.
     Murphy, of Tammany Hall--The final confidences of an
     ex-President--A pilgrimage in England to the school attended by
     Roger Williams--I join the fight for election reforms--President
     McKinley summons me to Washington to discuss plan to avert war with
     Spain--A proposal to "rattle the Sultan's windows"--McKinley urges
     me to again accept the Turkish post--"Secretary of State for
     Turkey."


Had diplomacy been a career, nothing would have pleased me more than to
continue in such service of my country. On the whole I cannot say that I
advocate changing our system as to a more permanent service for the
heads of missions. Our President is now unhampered to select men who are
best qualified to deal with the problems in hand at the various posts.
This is an advantage over a system that tends to keep in office
ministers and ambassadors who are ill equipped to bring statesmanlike
qualities to their work, though they may be past-masters in routine and
social requirements. But it would be well if, on a change of
administration, removals of heads of missions were the exception rather
than the rule. Of course, after four or eight years, the return of our
diplomatic chiefs from foreign fields to the various parts of our
country has the advantage of enabling these men, by reason of their
experience and standing, to inform and in a measure guide public opinion
on questions concerning international affairs.

On my return to New York I reentered business, but continued to take a
deep and active interest in public affairs. I spent much of my spare
time lecturing on public questions and historical matters.

       *       *       *       *       *

Waves of Russian-Jewish immigrants were pounding our shores in the
spring of 1891. In Russia, pogroms and other forms of mob persecution
had become so persistent that refugees were arriving in pitiful droves
at our ports. Sinister circumstance had hurled them from one country
into another. Many had been compelled to abandon their employment or
even their own established businesses in Russia, owing to the
enforcement of the Ignatieff laws and the consequent prohibitions,
restrictions, and persecutions.

Determined to make a strenuous protest, a small committee was formed of
prominent Jews from New York, Cincinnati, and Chicago, to lay before
President Harrison the pitiable conditions day by day presented by the
arriving refugees, many of whom had been stripped of all their
possessions.

Our committee was headed by Jesse Seligman, and among the others I
recall Jacob H. Schiff, of New York, and General Lewis Seasongood, of
Cincinnati, besides myself. The President listened to our story with
sympathetic interest, and then turned to me and asked what, in the light
of my international and diplomatic experience, I thought should be done.
I 

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