olding
my little girl by the hand, he paused, looked at the child's bright
face, and taking a rose-bud from his button-hole, he presented it to her
with a manner so graceful, and a smile so benignant, as to show that
under the dingy blue uniform there beat the heart of a gentleman. He
kept a keen eye on current events, and sometimes expressed his views
with great sagacity. One day he stopped me on the street, saying:

"I have just read the report of the political sermon of Dr.--(giving
the name of a noted sensational preacher, who was in the habit, at
times, of discussing politics from his pulpit). I disapprove
political-preaching. What do you think?"

I expressed my cordial concurrence.

"I will put a stop to it. The preachers must stop preaching politics, or
they must all come into one State Church. I will at once issue a decree
to that effect."

For some unknown reason, that decree never was promulgated.

After the war, he took a deep interest in the reconstruction of the
Southern States. I met him one day on Montgomery street, when he asked
me in a tone and with a look of earnest solicitude:

"Do you hear any complaint or dissatisfaction concerning me from the
South?"

I gravely answered in the negative.

"I was for keeping the country undivided, but I have the kindest feeling
for the Southern people, and will see that they are protected in all
their rights. Perhaps if I were to go among them in person, it might
have a good effect. What do you think?"

I looked at him keenly as I made some suitable reply, but could see
nothing in his expression but simple sincerity. He seemed to feel that
he was indeed the father of his people. George Washington himself could
not have adopted a more paternal tone.

Walking along the street behind the Emperor one day, my curiosity was a
little excited by seeing him thrust his hand into the hip-pocket of his
blue trousers with sudden energy. The hip-pocket, by the way, is a
modern American stupidity, associated in the popular mind with rowdyism,
pistol shooting, and murder. Hip-pockets should be abolished wherever
there are courts of law and civilized men and women. But what was the
Emperor after? Withdrawing his hand just as I overtook him, the mystery
was revealed--it grasped a thick Bologna sausage, which he began to eat
with unroyal relish. It gave me a shock, but he was not the first royal
personage who has exhibited low tastes and carnal hankerings.

He was seldom