New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-11-01
MOMMSEN STILL ALIVE.
Not Yet Conscious Incidents of
His ActiCe Life.

Berlin. Oct. 31.-Professor Mommsen. the his
torian who suffered n severe apoplectic stroke
yesterday. is still unconscious His bed has been
moved to his workroom, adjoining, the library. be-
cause It is Of the largest rooms in the house
and furthest from the bedroom Of his wife, who
Is dying from dropsy. Her Illness in recent weeks
severely affected the professors general health
She has borne him twelve children. and their mod
est house is scarcely large enough to contain their
children grandchildren and great-grandchildren,
who gathering to-day to see the patriarch once
more in life
On the professors table lies a half filed page of
manuscript OF the unfinished Lives of the Roman
Emperors." which he was working before ne
suffered from the apoplectc stroke. His power for
steady and accurate work continued until that
moment. although the quantity of his output was
restricted to inconsiderable fraction OF the
prodigious results of his middle life. He wrote
thrty-fve works. His great one, Corpus Inscrlp-
tonum Latnarum.' which alone comprised fifteen
volumes, issued by the Berlin Academy In the
course of thirty years ending in 1899. Momnsen
was assisted in this by other scholars, but nearly
the whole text was in his handwriting lie
never dictated and never used a typewriter Thus
the mere penmanship OF his writings an enor-
nous task. A friend given figures looked over
a hundred-odd volumes of which Mommsen Is the
author. and told him that they contained twenty
four million words
II did know I wretchedly VERBOSE
replied the professor. IL am person has
ever read them ALL At another time he remarked
that he scarcely expected any one 70 read much
of what he had written. and that his incentive
had been the pleasure OF production. the joy OF
understanding and of expressing.
Professor Mommsen. the time Of the Spanish
American war. wrote an article intended for a
magazine which then appearing in French.
German and English in London in which ne al
tackled the United States. saying his faith was de-
stroyed in the republic the leader of the world
humanitarian movements and adding that he had
lost his belief in Americans las a race Of freenen
too just and too proud to their power Tor
Selling what belonged to others He asserted
that the United States had become robber power
a pratical power" and that by pouring its IN
comparable resources into military designs might
menace the worlds quiet, and might, like Rome,
carry forays into every continent"
DR.. Barth, the Radical-LiberaI leader, and Editor
Of THE Nation" to whom Mommsen sent the
proofs of this article. showed them to Andrew D.
White. then American Ambassador here. and MI
White handed them back to Dr. Barth. saying the
article would not hurt the United states and might
hurt Professor Mommsen with the people who are
Barth advised Professor Mommsen not to have the
aFtcie PRINCE PINS On ne Gita safes and Ger
many unpleasanty, and Professor Mommsen Re-
called the article. He afterward said he was glad
he did So
Professor Mommsen was a notable figure at the
farewell dinner given TO Mr.. White standing at the
ambassadors side while the latter spoke Of Amer
lean idealism, and nodding approval of each sen
tence the need of good relations between the
United States and Germany.
indvidusist. democrat and free trader, was COM
monty opposed once called the professor one OF
the gories of Germany" and he is generally so re-
garded his political ideas being treated the lido
syncrasies of great scholar MOmmsens stormy
feelings caused him at times irnmoderate Ian
guage few days ago, in article on the recon
citation between Great Britain and Germany, he
called the Pan-Germans national fools" Had he
been a younger man. Mommsen would probably
have been challenged to fight duel by one OF the
offended leaders, and would certainly have declined
70 fight. as he considered duerg TO be childish
Mommsen's political heat found ample employ
ment from the short time he Editor Of the
''Schleswg Holstein Zeitung. in the revolutionary
year lS4S. His expulsion from prOfesSorship at
the University of Leipsc took place in the same
year, through long succession Of incidents. or
which the most notable was the prosecution Prince
Bismarck brought against him for SANDER, which
ended with Mommsen's vindication.
Professor Mommsen conducted his political con-
troverses by letter and rarely made speeches in
his ten years in the Prussian Diet and three years
in the Reichstag. His most recent activity in do
mestic politics before the general election Of
June. when he advised his party, the Radical Lib
erals. cooperate with the Socialists in forming
a great Liberal party He believed. with DR.. Earth
that events in Germany tended to bring about a
union of the Socialists and all the Liberal groups
against the Conservatives and members Of the
Centre party.