'Mr. Poultney Bigelow, whom you doubtless know, once said in conversation with the Kaiser, that his father would rather see him dead than a member of your diplomatic corps, and he was unusually well equipped for work of that kind. With few exceptions, as I have remarked, your service is pour rire. What can a man from one of your provincial towns know of anything but local politics and business?'
I laughed: 'But you are businesslike, too; I hear that, when the Kaiser speaks to Americans—at least they have told me so—it is generally on commercial subjects. He likes to know even how many vessels pass the locks every year at Sault Sainte Marie, and the amount of grain that can be stored in the Chicago elevators.'
'It is useful to us,' my acquaintance said. 'You would scarcely expect him to talk about things that do not exist in your country—music, art, literature, high diplomacy——'
My reply shall be buried in oblivion; it might sound too much like éloquence de l'escalier.
After an interval, not without words, I said:
'It is not necessary for a man to have lived in Washington or New York in order to have a grasp on American politics in relation to the foreign problem at the moment occupying the attention of the American people or the Department of State. Every country boy at home is a potential statesman and a politician. I recall the impression made on two visiting foreigners some years ago by the interest of our very young folk in politics. "Good heavens!" said the Marquis Moustier de Merinville, "these children of ten and twelve are monsters! They argue about Bryan and free silver! Such will make revolutions." "I cannot understand it," said Prince Adam Saphia. "Children ask one whether one is a Republican or Democrat."'
'That may be so,' he said. 'Your Presidents are not as a rule chosen from men who live in the great cities.'
'You forget that, while Paris is France, Berlin, Germany——'
'No, Berlin is Prussia,' he said, smiling; 'but London is England; Paris, France; and Vienna would be Austria if it were not for Budapest.'
'New York or Washington is not, as you seem to think, the United States.'