ore the collision. If such gross negligence as this was
possible, I advised those people who bought a ticket for Europe on the
White Star, the Cunard, the Hamburg, or other steamship lines, to secure
at the same time a ticket for Heaven. What a difference in the ocean
ferry-boat of to-day!

Scarcely had the submarine telegraph closed this chapter of sea horror
than it clicked the information that the beautiful Princess Alice had
died in Germany. Only a few days later, in America, we were in mood of
mourning for Bayard Taylor, our Minister Plenipotentiary to Germany. In
the death of Princess Alice we felt chiefly a sympathy for Queen
Victoria, who had not then, and never did, overcome her grief at the
loss of Prince Albert. In the decease of Bayard Taylor we remembered
with pride that he was a self-made gentleman of a school for which there
is no known system of education. Regarded as a dreamy, unpractical boy,
nothing much was ever expected of him. When he was seventeen he set type
in a printing office in Westchester. It was Bayard Taylor who exploded
the idea that only the rich could afford to go to Europe, when on less
than a thousand dollars he spent two years amid the palaces and temples,
telling of his adventures in a way that contributed classic literature
to our book-shelves. He worked hard--wrote thirty-five books. There is
genius in hard work alone. I have often thought that women pursue more
of it than men. They work night and day, year in and year out, from
kitchen to parlour, from parlour to kitchen.

There was some strong legislative effort made in our country about this
time to exclude the Chinese. I opposed this legislation with all the
voice and ability I had, because I felt not merely the injustice of such
contradiction of all our national institutions, but I saw its political
folly. I saw that the nation that would be the most friendly to China,
and could get on the inside track of her commerce, would be the first
nation of the world. The legislature seemed particularly angry with the
Chinese immigrants in this country because they would not allow
themselves to be buried here. They were angry with the Chinese then
because they would not intermarry. They were angry with the Chinese
because they invested their money in China. They did not think they were
handsome enough for this country. We even wanted a monopoly of good
looks in those days.

I was particularly friendly to the Chinese. My brother, John