The Savannah morning news., 1903-01-18
NEW YORK TOPICS
VIEWS AND UNDERCURRENTs OF
THE METROPOLIS.

Won HoIIeben's Lack of Tact and His
WILLINGNESS to Preach-HOyv, on
One Occasion, He Opened His
nouth only to Put His Foot in Ii
on So Innocuous a Subject as Art.
The Reading Railroad, Russell
S0re and A. A. Mcleod, the Promo
..rVanderbiIt Homes and the
xaxv House to be Put Up by Willie
Jr. u. j. Hill and the Erie
pailrond-The Hill Family and So
ciety
New York, Jan. 17.-This town knew
Won Holleben, the recalled German am
bassador, pretty well, as, indeed, did
most of the big cities within twenty
four hours of Washington by rail.
And New York has wondered-or at
,east some New Workers. who had the
onnortunity of meeting him have Won
dared-how it was that he was ever
chosen ambassador to the oldest re-
Duhlic by the autocrat of the young
est great empire. For, while Won Hol-
,aben is a man of wide information,
of some polish and of undoubtedly good
Intentions, he lacks some of the quail
ties which, in the view of the simple
minded American, would seem essen
+aI TO the successful diplomatist.
For one thing he is short on tact
and long on preaching.
ION one OCCASION" said we'll in
formed New Yorker yesterday, "Von
Holleben was made the guest of honor
of a club, the function of the evening
being semi-public, in that, though the
public was not admitted, many guests
we're invited and the newspapers were
allowed to make reports of whatever
was said and done. In the course OF
the evening Won Holleben had to make
a speech or reply to a toast or some
thing of the sort-anyway, he had
chance to open his mouth.
"You wouldn't have expected the
ambassador to put his foot in it, in the
circumstances, since the subject chosen
for him was of the most innocuous
type and there was no burning ques-
ton before the world just then that
demanded an expression of personal
views.
But he discarded the assigned topic
after the first half-dozen sentences
and took up the broad and comprehen-
sive subject of art, with big A. Now
it might be handled readily in America
by a German ambassador without rul-
fling the most sensit0;e among his au-
ditors, but that was not Won Holle-
ben's way, evidently.
THE walls of the room in which he
spoke were pretty well hung with pic
lures, most of them by American, some
by English and many by French art
lists There were few or no canVasses
that had been made in Germany
This astounding fact had no sooner
been assimilated by the Won Holleben
mind apparently, than he decided that
it was his duty to deliver a sermon on
art, the crudities of American taste
and the essential flimsiness of painting
&C practiced by most Gallo brushes.
His audience was well bred, and So,
of course, his somewhat hating talk
only amused those who heard it, but
1t was different the next day, when
the newspaper reports were printed.
ut is rarely possible to print the
whole of such a speech as the ambas-
sadOr got off that night, and never to
give, through cold type, any notion
of the speakers personality. So, while
most of his criticisms of French pict-
ures and American rawnesS were pal
lated somewhat, for those who heard
him. by his genial smiles and many
qualifying, if clumsy phrases, the
newspaper reports necessarily exhib-
tied him solely as a faultfinder of his
hosts, as one who could see nothing
but bad taste and Philistinism among
American art collectors and childish
jealousy of French picture makers.
He thought that in his twenty
minutes talk he had enlightened a
lot of ignorant Americans tremend-
ously, and at the same time had dem
onstrated his artistic taste and his
scholarship, while, in fact, he had only
amused and bored those who heard
him and run the risk of annoying
those who read the printed remarks.
i am not surprised that his efforts
III Washington to promote cordial re-
lations between Germany and Amer
lea and to keep his royal master well
informed were not more successful
than they were. And 1 am surprised
that the said royal master did not
sooner decide to recall him."
The permanent passing of the Phil
adelphia and Reading Railway into
the control of the two great railroad
forces represented by the Pennsyl-
Vania Railroad and the Vanderbilt
family, recall the days when a certain
adventurous person, A. A. Mcleod, by
name, was striving to rehabilitate the
heading property and at the same
time put himself to the front as a
railroad magnate.
Mcleod struggled against big odds
ana failed at last, but there was
pref space during which it seemed
nKely that he might win out. 1t
followed his recognition as a man of
promise by Russell Sage, and there is
Httle story OF a newspaper beat"
Oehlnd this statement.
one morning there appeared in one
Vi the big morning papers here two
or three line item saying that "Mr.
cage is said to approve McLeods plans
tor reorganizing the Reading property,
ouI the street does not place much
NIEuence in the statement"
Inc correspondent of certain news
paper published in the interior was
very short of ideas for his regular wire
r Igo.er that day, apd this statement
mdIranted a call at Mr.. Sage's office
and an interview with the aged f1nan-
tIeT' The latter was very willing to
AK AK; IN fact, he declared that he had
nApected calls from a young army of
se"spaper men, whereas the CORE
poHuent in question was the only
ny ny VINO had thought it worth while to
Ne any notice at all of the matter.
a. 5" Iar as Mr.. Mcleod was concern
w. MI Says said, he was one of the
,,.shtest soundest, most level-headed
1g railroad financiers he had ever
bn ana he (Mr. Sage had no doubt
"e would succeed.
tau why said Sage, at the end of the
from, \ have learned more in one day