Chapter I: Front Matter

TWENTY YEARS IN EUROPE.

Twenty Years in Europe

A CONSUL-GENERAL’S MEMORIES
OF NOTED PEOPLE, WITH LETTERS
FROM GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN

BY

S. H. M. BYERS,
_U. S. Consul-General to Switzerland and Italy_,

AUTHOR OF

“SHERMAN’S MARCH TO THE SEA,” “THE HAPPY ISLES,”
“SWITZERLAND AND THE SWISS,” ETC.

_PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED._

CHICAGO AND NEW YORK:
RAND, McNALLY & COMPANY,
PUBLISHERS.

Copyright, 1900, by Rand, McNally & Co.

INSCRIBED
TO
MARGARET GILMOUR BYERS.

Time robs us all of some things we would keep,
And favoring winds to-morrow may forsake;
But, joyous thought--O! Future! Smile or weep,
The happy years behind us none can take!

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR.

While staying in Switzerland and Italy as a consular officer, during a period of well on to twenty years, I kept a diary of my life. Without being a copy of the diary, this book is made up from its pages and from my own recollections of men, scenes, and events. It was during an interesting period, too. There were stirring times in Europe. Two great wars took place; one great empire was born; another became a republic; and the country of Victor Emmanuel changed from a lot of petty dukedoms to a free Italy. It seemed a great period everywhere, and everything of men and events jotted down at such a time would of necessity have its interest. This book is not a history--only some recollections and some letters.

Among the letters are some fifty from General Sherman, whose intimate friendship I enjoyed from the war times till the day of his death. They are printed with permission of those now interested, and they may be regarded as in a way supplementary to the series of more public letters of General Sherman printed by me in the North American Review during his lifetime. They possess the added interest that must attach to the intimate letters of friendship coming from a brilliant mind. Their publication can only help to lift the veil a little from a life that was as true and good in private as it was noble in public.

S. H. M. BYERS.

ST. HELENS, DES MOINES.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

1869. PAGE.

A Little White Card with President Grant’s Name on It--A
Voyage to Europe--An English Inn--Hear Gladstone Speak--
John Bright and Disraeli. 15

CHAPTER II.

1869.

In Switzerland--The Alps--Embarrassment in Not Knowing
the Language--Celebrated Exiles Meet in a Certain Café--
Brentano--Wagner--Kinkel--Scherr--Keller and Others. 20

CHAPTER III.

1870.

In the Orsini Café--Great News from France--What the Exiles
Think--Letter from General Sherman--I Get Permission to Go
and Look at the War--In the Snow of the Juras--Arrested--
The Surrender of the 80,000--Zurich in the Hands of a Mob--
Friendly Hint. 27

CHAPTER IV.

1871.

The Paris Horrors--Some Excursions with Literary People--Beer
Gardens--A Characteristic Funeral--Funeral of a Poet’s
Child--Caroline Bauer, the Actress--A Polish Patriot--
Celebrating the Fourth of July at Castle Rapperschwyl--The
St. Bernard--The Mules and Dogs--On a Swiss Farm--For
Burning Chicago. 34

CHAPTER V.

1872.

Louis Blanc, the Statesman--His Novel Courtship--His
Appearance--Invites Us to Paris--Just Miss Victor Hugo--
His Speech at Madame Blanc’s Grave--Letter from Louis
Blanc--Alabama Arbitrators--See Gambetta and Jules Favre. 42

CHAPTER VI.

1872.

William Tell--The Rigi in the Good Old Times--Pilatus--Rose
Bushes for Fuel. 48

CHAPTER VII.

1872.

General Sherman Visits Us at Zurich--Letters from Him--Swiss
Officers Entertain Him--His Lake Excursion--He Explains His
Greatest Campaign to Them--He is Entertained at the Swiss
Capital--Letter from General Dufour. 52

CHAPTER VIII.

1872.

Letter from General Sherman--Visit America--Sands of Bremen--
Storms at Sea--Elihu Washburne--Banquet to Him on Ship--
I am a Guest at the Sherman Home--Mrs. Sherman--Arrange
to Take Miss Sherman to Europe--Meet Mr. Blaine--My Song
Sung in the Sherman Home--Conversations with Sherman--Meet
President Grant--How I Happened to Be in the Rebel Army
Once--Letters from General Sherman. 61

CHAPTER IX.

1873.

Letter from General Sherman--Loss of the “Atlantic”--The
Boyhood Home of Napoleon III and of His Mother, Queen
Hortense--A Companion Tells of the Prince’s Pranks and
Studies--Josephine’s Harp--Arenaberg Full of Napoleon
Relics--We Have a Long Interview with the Ex-Empress
Eugenie--Letter from Sherman--Speaks of Thiers. 77

CHAPTER X.

1873.

The Source of the Rhine--Strange Villages There--A Republic
Four Hundred Years Old--The “Gray League”--“The League of
the House of God”--Louis Philippe’s Hiding Place--A Tour in
the Valley of the Inn--Letter from General Sherman--Regrets
His Career Seems Over. 86

CHAPTER XI.

1874.

Sherman on Cuba--Visit Italy--Garibaldi’s Wonderful Reception
at Rome--The Artist Freeman--First American Painter to
Live in Rome--Rome in 1840--See Victor Emmanuel--Joaquin
Miller--His Conversation and Appearance--New Swiss
Constitution--More Letters from General Sherman--Too Many
Commanders in Washington for Him--Will Go to St. Louis--His
Views of War Histories. 95

CHAPTER XII.

1875.

Letters from Mrs. Sherman and the General--He Tells Me He
is Writing His Life--The Negro Question--A Chateau by
Lake Zurich--I Write a Book on Switzerland--Also Write a
Play--A City of Dead Kings--Go to London--Meet Colonel
Forney--Dinner at George W. Smalley’s--Kate Field--Visit
Boucicault--Conversations with the Newer Shakespeare--The
Beautiful Minnie Walton--Breakfast at Her Home--Professor
Fick--His Home Built in the Old Roman Wall--Lectures--
Holidays at the Consulate--Mrs. Congressman Kelley--A
Student Commerz--Beer Drinking--Dukes of the Republic--
Duels--Letter from General Sherman--Prussian Army
Maneuvers. 104

CHAPTER XIII.

1876.

Storm in the Alps--Mr. Benjamin--Kate Sherwood Bonner--
Icebergs--A Scotch Poet--Horatio King’s Literary Evenings--
Colonel Forney--Mr. Robert--A New York Millionaire’s Home--
A Christmas Night Hurricane at Sea--The Tilden-Hayes Fight--
Civil War Feared in Washington--Dennison, the Inventor--A
Strange Murder--The Wreck of the Schiller and Loss of Miss
Dimmick. 119

CHAPTER XIV.

1877.

General Grant Visits Lake Luzern--Conversations with Him--
How I Brought the Good News of Sherman’s Successes in the
Carolinas to General Grant at Richmond--Grant’s Simplicity
in His Travels--A Strange Experience on the Rigi--London
Papers Amazed at the Population of the United States--First
Telephone. 128

CHAPTER XV.

1877.

General Grant and the Swiss President--Banquet to Grant at
Bern--Good Roads--Am Chargé d’Affaires for Switzerland--
Writing for the Magazines. 134

CHAPTER XVI.

1877.

Franz Liszt at Zurich--Swiss Great Lovers of Music--Wagner
Once Lived Here--His Singular Ways--Dr. Willi--Madame
Lucca’s Villa--Liszt’s Kissing Bees--Jefferson Davis’
Daughter--A Laughable Mistake. 140

CHAPTER XVII.

1878.

Some Recollections of Mine about General Grant in the War--
Grant at Champion Hills--Sherman’s Letter on Confiscation by
Taxation in America--Grant at Ragatz--I Give a Banquet in
His Honor at Zurich. 145

CHAPTER XVIII.

1878.

The St. Gothard Tunnel--I Describe It for Harper’s Magazine--
Its Cost--A Great Scare in the Tunnel. 153

CHAPTER XIX.

1879.

American Artists at Munich--I Meet Mark Twain--Take Him to
an Artists’ Club--Conversations with Him--Beer Drinking--
He Reads the Original of “What I Know about the German
Language”--We Entertain the Americans at Zurich--A Letter
from General Sherman--Confederates More Popular than Union
Men--Sherman Ready to Surrender 157

CHAPTER XX.

1879.

A Trip Through the Black Forest--Stein on the Rhine--A Famous
Castle--“All Blown Up”--Good Roads--Fox Hunting. 165

CHAPTER XXI.

1879.

Bret Harte--Letters from Him--Visits Us--Stay at Bocken--
Conversations--Mrs. Senator Sherman--Evenings at Bocken--
We All Go to the Rigi--How We Got the “Prince’s” Rooms--
Harte Goes with Us to Obstalden in the Alps--Very Simple
Life--A Strange Funeral--Harte Finds His Stories in a
Village Inn--More Letters--We Visit the Moselle River--
Finer than the Rhine--A Wonderful Castle of the Middle
Ages--All Furnished and Fresh as When New--The French Did
Not Find It When They Were Demolishing German Castles--An
Exquisite Gothic Church Five Hundred Years Old--Wonderful
Roman Ruins at Treves--More Letters from Bret Harte--A
Happy Man. 170