pressed, withdrew. In Rome McAllister found that the American
Minister was in the habit of inviting Italians to meet Italians, and
Americans to meet Americans. When asked the reason, he replied: "I have
the greatest admiration for my countrymen: they are enterprising,
money-getting, in fact, a wonderful nation, but there is not a gentleman
among them."

In reading the blasting comment I am moved to wonder what manner of man
the Minister was who took no shame in giving expression to such an
opinion of his brethren of the western world. "And then," Thackeray
might have written, "I sink another shaft, and come upon another rich
vein of Snob-ore. The Diplomatic Snob, etc." Yesterday Americans
travelling in other lands had every reason to resent a type of
representative that had been sent abroad to uphold the honour and
dignity of our flag; the uncouth manners, the shirt sleeves, the narrow
intolerance, that told all too plainly the story of party reward. Yet,
somehow, I rather prefer that man, unpleasant as he was, and humiliating
to patriotic pride as he was, to the dandy and ingrate of whom Mr.
McAllister told. I like to think that, however Europeans may have
laughed and wondered at the yokel out of place, for the sycophant
denying his compatriots was reserved the bitterest of their contempt.

From Italy McAllister went to spend the summer at Baden-Baden. The
Prince of Prussia, later the Emperor William, was there. It pained the
young American to find that the royal visitor was no connoisseur,
gulping his wine instead of sipping and lingering over it. But there is
haste to express intense admiration. "His habit of walking two hours
under the trees of the Allee Lichtenthal was also mine, and it was with
pleasure I bowed most respectfully to him day by day." The final touch
to the McAllister education came at Pau, where he passed the following
winter, and the winter after. He ran down to Bordeaux, made friends with
all the wine fraternity there, tasted and criticized, wormed himself
into the good graces of the owners of the enormous Bordeaux caves, and
learned there for the first time what claret was. "There I learned how
to give dinners; to esteem and value the Coq de Bruyere of the Pyrenees,
and the Pic de Mars."

Thus equipped for the serious business of life as he conceived it, he
returned home. He entertained old Commodore Vanderbilt at a dinner that
caused the ex-Staten Island ferryman to remark: "My young friend, i