Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-19
Elements Of Greatness In the Iron
ChancellOr's Character.
AGOOD ODNEWSPAPERPARAGRAPHER
How His Vivid Phrases Affected English
and French Politics.
HIS RELATIONS TO EMPEROR WILLIAM
rwR1rTEN FOR THE DrsPArcH,J

i his dismissal from the German Governments
and his attitude toward the Empire, that
certain glimpses of the man, as saw him
in Germany, with some notes of his char
acter and career, may be timely. asso-
| ciate Bismarck with an event not withoub
| interest to American journalists, the adj
vent of George W. Smalley, the famous Lon
don correspondent of the New York Tr6uas.
I can hardly call it an advent because
Smalley had done good work, and great
deal of it, as far back as Antietam days.
A notable article which he wrote in 1866,
called, if I remember, an Afternoon with
Count Bismarck" F" was the virtual introduce
ton of the Prince to the American world.
1t was q masterful, prophetic article, and
led the Tribune management to confds to
Mr. Smalley the trust in which he has won
so enviable fame. The estimate then
formed of Bismarck has since been justified
by his transcendent career. Even now in
retirement, and under the clouds of imperial
disfayor, there is no history which may be
studied with more advantage than that Of
the Great Chancellor
Kept Peace by Making News.
One of Bismarck's warmest friends once
described him to me as the most successful
journalist of the century. The Prince,
was told, had mastered the science which
may be rudely described as that of working
the public" This science, which has its
own audacious piratical laws, as those of US
who have been in the rougher departments Of
journalism have realized, Bismarck had ap-
piled to craftsmanship. How to be talked
about, and how to have people say, whether
good or evil, just what one wished said Bis
narck assuredly had this power.
1t was the observation of London Journal
lists that when the Chancellor wanted one
species Of news in circulation he would tap
the Times; when he desired another, it would
be the Telegraph or the Pail Hall Gazstta u
was easier, cheaper. more humane to supply
the English journals with news than to fghs
England-a lesson which if Napoleon earlier
in the century had learned, there would
have been no rupture of the treaty Of
Amiens But in Napoleon's day journalism
was a struggling influence, and not thab
mighty power which now claims to be one
of the estates Of the realm. Recognizing
this mastery of the science Of working the
public as attained by Bismarck, never
read stories about him without askinsil
What was the Prince to gain by having this
said7 To the mind accustomed to this
process of inquiry the Bismarck stories be-
come literature Of their own.
Working France With Paragraphs.
With an antagonist like the sensitive,
gifted, impressionable French, diplomacy
BY paragraphs has its advantages. If de-
bate ran beyond bounds in the Corps Legis.!
latif, or the policy of revenge became
truculent, qulet allusion in the Times to
certain conversations in official circles In
Rome looking toward the restoration OF
Savoy to Italy, or the amount of indemnity
France with her increased wealth could
bear, OF the importance of the Pyrenees to-
Spain and the peace of Europe, would have
an instant effect. !
This diplomacy by paragraphs when sp-
piled to French public opinion was salutary.a
When applied to the internal affairs of Ger
many it was an irritant. The evaporation
in German official circles toward Bismarck,
unintelligible to those who see him as a re-
tired country nobleman, managing his
forests and his breweries, is the outcome Of
the stream of paragraphs which came as
surely from the Chancellor's mind as il
himself were the editor on duty. A Bis
marck paragraph is as much a note of art as
an engraving of Albert Durer, or @ carving
by Benyenuto Cellini. The student will
b.
The innuendo, the humor, the daring peril
phrasis, the homely, fierce application, one
could no more mistake it than mistake @
Lincoln story. OF the art of putting things
to suit ones purposes the century has seen
two masters, the President who parried
Emancipation by his famous illustration OF
the Pope's bull against the comet, and tbs
Chancellor who destroyed the effect of the
eloquence Jules Favre's pleas for France,
L AhaE %ho
had been whitening his face as actors do
when they would depict human suffering.
Bismarok's Terse, Vivid Sentence.
When I saw Bismarck and had the privi.
lege of sharing in some, to me, ever memor.
able conversations, this editorial faculty.
the way of putting things, the terse, vivid
sentence, the wayward humor, gave power
and charm to what he said. 1t was like
taking up Swift or Voltaire after a course
of summer reading of domestic fiction How
he sent some tremendous minor potentats
of the governing class, quarterings going
back to Charlemagne, whirling into space
with the remark: "You see he was not q
republican like you and l. but some mere
ordinary, incurable fool of a prince" 7
never open the Almanac de Gotha without
looking out this transhxed and transfgured
potentate and seeing him pierced and
WTlBBlIlR uuOCI tlC OlS4AIdACh LAuy
q fearful power, and must have made this
Chancellor terrible eomrads in imperial
councils.
His answer to the Emperor's patent ele-
waiting him to the DukedOm of Lauenberg
is masterpiece of contempt. at will be
useful" he said, "when travel ineognito
in Italy" The superb insolenee and humoY
of the Responses great Emperor faneying
he was comforting splendid fief, dignity
of medieval splendor, and to have it tossed
aside as if the Prince were giving castoR
garment to his courier. L can well UNDER
stand the chagrin of the Emperor. A less
patient sovereign would have resented an
arrogance worthy of Wolsey and Beckett.
Bayard Taylor's Meeting With Grant.
There is a bit of personal history in con-
nection with my meeting Prince bismarck
that comes back to me as concerning q
man. had gone to Gotha to
visit DR.. Peterman, the geographer, return
ing by way of Berlin to join General Grant.
Bayard Taylor was Minister. 1 had known
him long and well, but found him perturbed
over the idea of the Generals coming.
Taylor was an exuberant, manly, innocent
character Grant had been President. Tay-
lor, as an editor of the Iri6anse, had written
against his reelection in prose and verse,
and with some vehemence. Now Grant
was coming to Berlin, and Taylor as Min