he narration of their own stories; and, I
dare say, to the end of time, interest in one's self, and the mortal
desire to linger yet a little longer on the scene--now and again, as
in the case of General Grant, the assurance of honorable remuneration
making needful provision for others--will move those who have cut some
figure in the world to follow the wandering Celt in the wistful hope--

_Around my fire an evening group to draw,
And tell of all I felt and all I saw._

Something like this occurs to me upon a reperusal of the unfinished
memoirs of my old and dear friend, Carl Schurz. Assuredly few men had
better warrant for writing about themselves or a livelier tale to tell
than the famous German-American, who died leaving that tale unfinished.
No man in life was more misunderstood and maligned. There was nothing
either erratic or conceited about Schurz, nor was he more pragmatic than
is common to the possessor of positive opinions along with the power to
make their expression effectual.

The actual facts of his public life do not anywhere show that his
politics shifted with his own interests. On the contrary, he was
singularly regardless of his interests where his convictions interposed.
Though an alien, and always an alien, he possessed none of the shifty
traits of the soldier of fortune. Never in his career did he crook
the pregnant hinges of the knee before any worldly throne of grace or
flatter any mob that place might follow fawning. His great talents had
only to lend themselves to party uses to get their full requital. He
refused them equally to Grant in the White House and the multitude in
Missouri, going his own gait, which could be called erratic only by
the conventional, to whom regularity is everything and individuality
nothing.

Schurz was first of all and above all an orator. His achievements on
the platform and in the Senate were undeniable. He was unsurpassed in
debate. He had no need to exploit himself. The single chapter in his
life on which light was desirable was the military episode. The cruel
and false saying, "I fight mit Sigel und runs mit Schurz," obviously
the offspring of malignity, did mislead many people, reenforced by the
knowledge that Schurz was not an educated soldier. How thoroughly he
disposes of this calumny his memoirs attest. Fuller, more convincing
vindication could not be asked of any man; albeit by those familiar with
the man himself it could not be doubted that he had b