Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-28
Pleasing Personality Of Our Minister
to Germany and q Side
Light on Mark Twain.
HOW TIE HUKORIsT WRITES
he Germans Can Give % Pointers On
House Heating and Their
Stoves Are Artistic.
rHK1R BIDS ARE no GOOD, THOUGH,
Climbing statr b the Fourth and HfsA sssries Ii .
National Habit
rwzrrrKN FoR THE DIsrAfoAI
LETTER NO. 8.

The icy Elhe led the way to Dresden, and
. city of many lights and spires was duly
evolved. Dresden is famous for her picture
gallery and her museum, the Green Vault;
the latter has been for long time undergo
ing repairs and reorganization, and the
astonishing array of curiosities are invisi-
bic. The glorious galleryis open, however.
They say in Florence that, after Florence,
Dresden takes precedence in her art treas
ures; but should think Rome, Venice and
Vienna were strong competitors The
Dresden gallery is. however, remarkable for
the variety of splendid examples it con-
tains, the most famous of which is the Ma
donna of Raphael, distinguished by the ex-
ouisite cherub faces To this great picture
is assigned an apartment The only work
of art in sight, as one looks upon the happy
face of the mother and the divine innocence
of the child, is bust of Raphael. This
room is temple where the worship of art
is carried on.
had the pleasure of meeting in Dresden
the Hon. William Walter Phelps, Minister
of the United States to the Imperial Court
of Germany, on his way to Egypt, not SO
which he studied ten years ago, as to give
attention to flaw in his health which has
snnoved him for several months While he
has not been quite well, he is looking better
than when his friends in America last saw
him. The improvement is in fullness of
the lower part of his face which brings it
into harmony with the upper part. If one
may be minute in such matter, his broad
brow has too much overshadowed his cheeks,
and now the outlines are rounder.
In the Highest Sense Persona Grata.
The countrymen of MI. Phelps are well
aware that his public services in the German
mission have been quite important; that the
treaty he has been foremost in negotiating
is one of exceptional interest and value;
that it was q work of real difficulty and
delicacy; that Germany, while most friendly
to the United States, still is steadfast in
self-assertion, and must be assured that at
each step her own dignity and honor are
absolutely safe from the suggestion of the
slightest friction Mr. Phelps, as Minister
to Austria and Samoan Commissioner, had
diplomatic training, and his keen faculties
and conciliating courtesies of manner, and
deftness in methods, have furnished an ad-
mirsble equipment, without which the
clever work he has done would have been
impracticable.
The United States has had no more popu-
lar representative at Berlin, no one in q
higher sense persona grata, than Mr.. Phelps,
and the list includes, in later days. George
Bancroft, Bayard Taylor, Davis, Kasson,
White and Pendleton. There is not a poor
American boy or girl pursuing studies in
Berlin-and they are often with resources
slender in comparison with their ambition
who is not sure of a good friend in Mr..
Phelps; and he is hospitable, abroad or at
home. Mr.. Phelps in Dresden gave his aid
to a reading BY MARK Twain" on behalf of
an American charitable enterprise. Mr.
Clemens, with his wife and daughters, are
spending some time abroad. His primary
object is to rid his right arm Of the rheuma-
tism which has become quite bore; and the
public interest IN this scheme is consider
able, for he has not been able to train him
self to dictate, and his rheumatic arm grows
weary and rebellious when he has been at
work little while-say half an hour.
How Mark Twain Writes.
He does not do the writing himself exact
" His pen does it He sits down and
takes his pen in hand, and as he proceeds
the pen gets the pull on him, and he just
lets it go and the work is done. When this
is interfered with by muscular rheumatism,
o source of supply of that which the public
has learned to prize is cut of, and hence the
relation of this case of rheumatism to mat
tiers and things in general The treatment
that Mr. Clemens would be most likely to
bestow upon his rheumatism is the smoking
of cob pipe; but that has not as vet done
its perfect work. I suppose may say
without offending any susceptibility that
Mr.. Clemens never looked so picturesquely
handsome, never offered such blandish-
men.s to artists in his personal appearance,
never looked SO intellectual, sagacious, and
Ehrewd, and gracious as now; and if he
could be followed up by a photographer
there would be no complaint of an omission
to produce good things, for they abound in
his speech in greater measure than of old.
Perhaps the rheumatism NAV be prepar-
ing the way for even better things. There
has been gentleness, sweetness and refine
ment and genial philosophy in some of his
recent writings that speak of the influences
of the happy life andcharming surroundings
that are the brighter part of his good for
tunes. No literary man ever had more
fattering reception than he enjoyed in
Dresden. 1t was an ovation, and the
amount of money gained for charity was
astonishing OF course the English and
American colony in Dresden turned out in
force; but the most impressive testimonial
was in the throng of Germans who crowded
TO see the man. The works of Mark Twain
have been translated into German-some of
them several times-and they have had i'm
mense circulation. He is a celebrity in his
own right among the lovers of literature in
Germany, and one of the lions of the i'm
perial city. That confounded rheumatism,
however, takes him away for . time, and
there is grief that he is going
BerIin's Real Estate Booms.
Berlin is devouring territory in her i'm
perial growth like New York, London and
Chicago, and the Providence that has been
said to provide great rivers for the great
cities has neglected her She does the ut
most with her small streams, and have not
managed all the time to tell among the
wafer courses which is the river and which
the canal The country is fat and sandy,
and seems well adapted to the growth of
pine and white birch trees 1 trust the
drainage question will be competently han
died in the administration of this great
CITY. It is all-important. The water sup
are fond OF water may p2rtake of it without
peril of fever.
have spprehensions that such is the de-
mand for more houses that the construction
is not in all cases as solld as it should be.
The cheap and rapid methods are, of course,
not the most substantial, and hear of thin
partitions and houses that shake. Still, the
material is good. The habit In the new part
of the city is to build with rough brick, and
plaster externally with cement that soon
becomes almost as good as stone, quite as
good as much of our sandstone, and that
lends itself to a style of decoration that is,