My Four Years in Germany | Page 3

PREPARED THE NATION FOR WAR. VI AT KIEL JUST BEFORE THE WAR. VII THE SYSTEM. VIII THE DAYS BEFORE THE WAR. IX THE AMERICANS AT THE OUTBREAK OF HOSTILITIES. X PRISONERS OF WAR. XI FIRST DAYS OF THE WAR: POLITICAL AND DIPLOMATIC. XII DIPLOMATIC NEGOTIATIONS. XIII MAINLY COMMERCIAL. XIV WORK FOR THE GERMANS. XV WAR CHARITIES. XVI HATE. XVII DIPLOMATIC NEGOTIATIONS. (Continued). XVIII LIBERALS AND REASONABLE MEN. XIX THE GERMAN PEOPLE IN WAR. XX LAST.

ILLUSTRATIONS
AMBASSADOR GERARD SAYING GOOD-BYE TO THE AMERICANS LEAVING ON A SPECIAL TRAIN, AUGUST, 1914. AMBASSADOR GERARD ON HIS WAY TO PRESENT HIS LETTERS OF CREDENCE TO THE EMPEROR. THE HOUSE RENTED FOR USE AS EMBASSY. A SALON IN THE EMBASSY. THE BALL-ROOM OF THE EMBASSY. PROGRAMME OF THE MUSIC AFTER DINNER AT THE ROYAL PALACE. THE ROYAL PALACE AT POTSDAM. DEMONSTRATION OF SYMPATHY FOR THE AMERICANS AT THE TOWN HALL, AUGUST, 1914. RACING YACHTS AT KIEL. THE KAISER'S YACHT, "HOHENZOLLERN". AMBASSADOR GERARD ON HIS WAY TO HIS SHOOTING PRESERVE. A KEEPER AND BEATERS ON THE SHOOTING PRESERVE. CROWDS IN FRONT OF THE EMBASSY, AUGUST, 1914. OUTSIDE THE EMBASSY IN THE EARLY DAYS OF THE WAR. AT WORK IN THE EMBASSY BALL-ROOM, AUGUST, 1914. AMBASSADOR GERARD AND HIS STAFF. COVER OF THE RUHLEBEN MONTHLY. SPECIMEN PAGE OF DRAWINGS FROM THE RUHLEBEN MONTHLY. ALLEGED DUM-DUM BULLETS. THE "LUSITANIA" MEDAL. PAGE FROM "FOR LIGHT AND TRUTH". AMBASSADOR GERARD AND PARTY IN SEDAN. IN FRONT OF THE COTTAGE AT BAZEILLES. FOOD ALLOTMENT POSTER FROM THE CHARLEVILLE DISTRICT. FAC-SIMILE REPRODUCTION OF THE KAISER'S PERSONAL TELEGRAM TO PRESIDENT WILSON. FAC-SIMILE OF SECRETARY OF STATE'S REQUEST TO AMBASSADOR GERARD TO CALL IN ORDER TO RECEIVE SUBMARINE ANNOUNCEMENT. THE REMODELLED DRAFT OF THE TREATY OF 1799. INSTRUCTIONS SENT TO THE GERMAN PRESS ON WRITING UP A ZEPPELIN RAID. PETITION CIRCULATED FOR SIGNATURE AMONG AMERICANS IN EUROPE. PAGE FROM LISSAUER'S PAMPHLET SHOWING "HYMN OF HATE". INSTRUCTIONS REGULATING APPEARANCE AT COURT. A BERLIN EXTRA.


CHAPTER I
MY FIRST YEAR IN GERMANY
The second day out on the Imperator, headed for a summer's vacation, a loud knocking woke me at seven A. M. The radio, handed in from a friend in New York, told me of my appointment as Ambassador to Germany.
Many friends were on the ship. Henry Morgenthau, later Ambassador to Turkey, Colonel George Harvey, Adolph Ochs and Louis Wiley of the _New_YorkTimes, Clarence Mackay, and others.
The Imperator is a marvellous ship of fifty-four thousand tons or more, and at times it is hard to believe that one is on the sea. In addition to the regular dining saloon, there is a grill room and Ritz restaurant with its palm garden, and, of course, an Hungarian Band. There are also a gymnasium and swimming pool, and, nightly, in the enormous ballroom dances are given, the women dressing in their best just as they do on shore.
Colonel Harvey and Clarence Mackay gave me a dinner of twenty-four covers, something of a record at sea. For long afterwards in Germany, I saw everywhere pictures of the Imperator including one of the tables set for this dinner. These were sent out over Germany as a sort of propaganda to induce the Germans to patronise their own ships and indulge in ocean travel. I wish that the propaganda had been earlier and more successful, because it is by travel that peoples learn to know each other, and consequently to abstain from war.
On the night of the usual ship concert, Henry Morgenthau translated a little speech for me into German, which I managed to get through after painfully learning it by heart. Now that I have a better knowledge of German, a cold sweat breaks out when I think of the awful German accent with which I delivered that address.
A flying trip to Berlin early in August to look into the house question followed, and then I returned to the United States.
In September I went to Washington to be "instructed," talked with the President and Secretary, and sat at the feet of the Assistant Secretary of State, Alvey A. Adee, the revered Sage of the Department of State.
On September ninth, 1913, having resigned as Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, I sailed for Germany, stopping on the way in London in order to make the acquaintance of Ambassador Page, certain wise people in Washington having expressed the belief that a personal acquaintance of our Ambassadors made it easier for them to work together.
Two cares assail a newly appointed Ambassador. He must first take thought of what he shall wear and where he shall live. All other nations have beautiful Embassies or Legations in Berlin, but I found that my two immediate predecessors had occupied a villa originally built as a two-family house, pleasantly enough situated, but two miles from the centre of Berlin and entirely unsuitable for an Embassy.
There