The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-11-08

smile, and / soon learned that this was
true. Hon, Andrew G. Curtin, of Penn
sylvania, was then minister from the
United States at the imperial court,
and there was nobody in whose society
the car took more satisfaction.
"Ill never forget the mysterious er
rand upon which l was dispatched one
cold and stormy night by, and l may
say, with General Curtin, as he was
universally called in St. Petersburg.
My entry into the emperor's secret ser
vice had by that time become an ac-
complished fact. [ had become a Rus
sian, had sworn allegiance to the car,
spiritual and temporal, and had been
entered on the official list of the chan
cellerie as Vasili Markoff. William F.
Mason Mccarthy ceased to exist from
that hour, at least in Russia. a mes
senger had come asking me to beat the
American legation at o'clock that
evening, without uniform These
words naturally excited my curiosity.
| wore the imperial crown on the collar
of my uniform coat. and in that dress
passed at will through the streets of
ST. Petersburg, by day or by night
For | was supposed to be all the while
on my imperial masters business.
LEARNED TO MAKE MINT JU-
LEPS.
when / got to the embassy | learned
to my intense surprise that the minis
ter and | were to visit the car incog-
nite.
General Curtin had parcel under
his arm when we reached the palace
and to my amazement he was promptly
admitted, without question, to the
cars private apartments. | followed
after him. The emperor at once dis
missed his attendants, gave us hearty
hand shakes and babe US be seated in
front of q CHEEKY coal fire in a large
comfortable looking sitting room. Gen
eral Curtin was evidently very much at
home there, and from the packet under
his arm he now produced a large black
bottle. A servant brought lemons,
cracked ice, a silver bowl containing a
magnificent bunch of mint, loaf sugar,
vermouth and brandy. And thereupon
in my presence the American minister
gave the car lessons in the art of
making mint juleps and whisky cock
tails.
1.-The whisky was old Monongahela
rye, sent to General Curtin from the
state of Pennsylvania, of which he had
been governor. His majesty said he
had never tasted anything as good in
his life as the juleps and he forthwith
commissioned General Curtin to order
for the imperial cellars large quantity
of the rye whisky, which he mad never
heard of until after the arrival of Cur
tin in ST. Petersburg. Ten barrels of
Monongahela rye We're actually shipped
from Pennsylvania not long afterwards
to the car. You'd never guess my part
in the festivities. 1t was nothing more
nor less than telling niger stories.
OF course | knew plenty of them, haV-
ing been brought up in the south in
ante-bellum days, and the car never
tired of hearing them. Folk lore tales.
and the quaint conversation between
'Brer' Rabbit and 'Brer' Bar delight
ed him. Afterwards at the cars re-
quest / sent to New York for all the
books of this description I could get
hold of.
General Curtin won the affection of
his majesty by his genial personality,
his fund of anecdotes and his unaffect-
ed sincerity. He would tell story after
story of American life and incident, at
manv of which Alexander laughed as