1898–1908
LV
THE TSAR’S RESCRIPT
Arrival of the good tidings · Extracts from editorials in Die Waffen nieder · Congratulatory letters from Moritz Adler, Dr. Karl von Scherzer, Björnstjerne Björnson, Balduin Groller, Professor Martens, Prince Dolgorukof, Vice Admiral Semsey, Hedwig Pötting, Kemény, Novikof, Henri Dunant · Objections of opponents
I was sitting in the summerhouse one beautiful August day, waiting for the arrival of the mail. My Own was in the habit of going himself to the postman to get the letters and newspapers that he brought. This was to me always the most interesting hour of the day.
This time he came back with flying steps and shining face and shouted, while still at a distance, “I am bringing the most magnificent, the most surprising news to-day....”
“What is it? Have we made a ten-strike?”
“Almost—listen! This is what some one wrote in last evening’s paper.”
He sat down and read:
“‘The maintenance of general peace and a possible reduction of the excessive armaments which weigh upon all nations—’”
“That is what we are always saying,” I interrupted, “‘present themselves in the existing condition of the whole world as the ideal toward which the endeavors of all governments should be directed.’”