d their feet washed and wiped by nobility. And
that bein' done, the Emperor, Crown Prince, and all the arch dukes,
etc., havin' riz up from their knees, the Grand Chamberlain poured
some water on the Emperor's hands, who dried 'em on a napkin, and all
the rest of the nobility done the same.

Then a court officer come in bringin' twelve black bags of money
containing each thirty silver florins. They had long black cords
attached, and the Emperor fastened the bags around the necks of each
of the old men by putting the cords round their necks. Then the
Emperor and nobility left the hall.

All durin' this ceremony a priest and twenty assistants read and
intoned beautiful extracts from the Gospel, showin' how the Lord
washed the disciples' feet. Then all the food and plates and foot
cushions wuz packed into baskets and sent to the houses of these old
men, and I wuz glad to hear that, for I thought how they must have
felt to have such tasty food put before 'em and took away agin for
good and all.

When the Empress wuz alive she did the same to twelve old wimmen--good
creetur! Wuzn't it discouragin' to wash the feet of the poorer classes
every year of her life, and then be shot down by one on 'em? How Fritz
must have felt a-thinkin' on't! If he'd been revengeful, I felt that
he might have gin their feet a real vicious rub--kinder dug into 'em
real savage; but he didn't; he washed and wiped 'em honorable, from
what I've hearn.

I always thought that that wuz a noble thing for the Emperor to do. I
d'no as our presidents would be willin' to do it, and I d'no as they
wouldn't. I don't believe the question has ever been put to 'em. I
guess Washington and Lincoln would anyway, and I don't believe that
they would have shrunk back if the feet wuz real dirty; they went
through worse things than that.

But to resoom: Robert Strong's description of this seen made me set
more store by Fritz Joseph than I had sot. And I wanted dretfully to
meet him and condole with him and congratulate him, but didn't know as
I should have a chance. But to my great satisfaction we wuz all
invited to the palace to a big informal reception. I wuz tickled
enough.

I spoze it wuz on Robert Strong's account that we wuz invited to the
Emperor's palace, though Josiah thought it wuz on his account. Sez
he:

"Fritz is a educated man and reads about foreign affairs; of course,
he has hearn of Jonesville and knows that I am one of its leadin' men,
and wiel