rfere with the more important trade. It
seemed dangerous to trifle with an apparently increasing prosperity, and
Clemens was willing enough to agree with this view.

Clemens had still another letter to write for Laffan and McClure, and he
made a pretty careful study of Berlin with that end in view. But his arm
kept him from any regular work. He made notes, however. Once he wrote:

The first gospel of all monarchies should be Rebellion; the second
should be Rebellion; and the third and all gospels, and the only
gospel of any monarchy, should be Rebellion--against Church and
State.

And again:

I wrote a chapter on this language 13 years ago and tried my level
best to improve it and simplify it for these people, and this is the
result--a word of thirty-nine letters. It merely concentrates the
alphabet with a shovel. It hurts me to know that that chapter is
not in any of their text-books and they don't use it in the
university.

Socially, that winter in Berlin was eventful enough. William Walter
Phelps, of New Jersey (Clemens had known him in America), was United
States minister at the German capital, while at the Emperor's court
there was a cousin, Frau von Versen, nee Clemens, one of the St. Louis
family. She had married a young German officer who had risen to the rank
of a full general. Mark Twain and his family were welcome guests at
all the diplomatic events--often brilliant levees, gatherings of
distinguished men and women from every circle of achievement.
Labouchere of 'Truth' was there, De Blowitz of the 'Times', and authors,
ambassadors, and scientists of rank. Clemens became immediately a
distinguished figure at these assemblies. His popularity in Germany was
openly manifested. At any gathering he was surrounded by a brilliant
company, eager to do him honor. He was recognized whenever he appeared
on the street, and saluted, though in his notes he says he was sometimes
mistaken for the historian Mommsen, whom he resembled in hair and
features. His books were displayed for sale everywhere, and a special
cheap edition of them was issued at a few cents per copy.

Captain Bingham (later General Bingham, Commissioner of Police in New
York City) and John Jackson were attaches of the legation, both of them
popular with the public in general, and especially so with the Clemens
family. Susy Clemens, writing to her father during a temporary absence,
tells of a party at Mrs. Jac