New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1911-10-08
CXL.

an extraordinary being. He was born at
Tihis. but describes himself as, on his
fathers side, descendant Of Dutch emf
grants TO Russia. No doubt but. as usual,
1t is to the mother we must look for a
male child's essential characteristics, and
his mother was not Dutch, but of the
Caucasus. He had an almost childlike
openness Of manner and behind Il an
impenetrable reserve. You never were
sure that you had got inside his mind.
He had the true Oriental subtlety. Tar
tar or slav or whatever else, all Rus
slams have this Oriental stamp upon
them: this aloofness from the Western
world. I knew Count Whites history,
knew him as man Of the people, who
had grown from nothing, highly edu-
Gated, but as a boy a railway servant.
like Carnegie: and In him a giant bust
ness capacity. also like Carnegie. He
rose high in railway management, then
passed into the government service, came
10 be Railway Director in the Ministry
of Finance. then Minister and remained
Minister for ten years. During that time
he restored the railway and other fnan-
ces of Russia, put finance on gold
coinage basis. created State monopoly in,
I think, spirits and tobacco, at any rate
in something, restored her credit and
recognized the service. A great piece
Of work by a great Minister, and all in
ten years.
Everybody on the ship OF course knew
Count Witte by sight and I suppose
few persons knew that I was the Times
representative and had a curiosity TO
see the meeting between the two. A lit
tie group collected. Said Count Witte:
you represent The Times in Wash
ington."
Eyes"
Your dispatches. or some Of them,
have not been friendly to Russia"
IF you would say they had been
friendly to Japan. 1 should agree. But
American friendship to Russia is tradi-
tional and older than to Japan"
This olive branch he accepted, and
looking at the company surrounding us,
said:
Don't you think we could talk better
if we walked the deck a little?"
Thus began the first of many. many
interesting and often engrossing con-
versations. He started warily enough;
by no means putting off all his sus-
picions at once. He sought neutral
ground. But before the day was over he
ha so far relaxed as TO say:
you are going to Portsmouth and YOU
will want 10 know what happens.
Whenever you will come to see me
shall be happy to tell you what can"
lie kept his word. So long as we were
on the Atlantic he talked mostly OF
other subjects He was bent on finding
out how matters stood in the United
States and what Americans thought
about the relations between Russia and
japan. He was curious concerning
President Roosevelt and hearing that 1
had long known him, said:
81 don't wish to ask you any ques-
tIons you are not quite willing to answer
, but II is your President who has set this
Conference going. and anything you viii
tell me about him will be Of great in
terest. He has brought us a long way
but the Japanese have had longer
tourney still, so we don't complain"
II was easy TO see what a burden OF
anxiety he bore. 1t could not be other
wise. He did not complain of that
either. II was inevitable. The fortune
of peace or war, perhaps the whole
future Of Russia, lay in his hand. Yet
he bore himself light-heartedly enough.
Fe gave all his thoughts to the subject
of the moment, whatever IT was, and put
bis mind TO that. When once 1t was
understood that we were not to discuss
the work of the Conference, the rest
was easy.
or eaev with one exception. All our
talk was In French. Count Witte hau
no English and had no Russian. French
he spoke huently, inaccurately, with
roval contempt for grammar and gen.
ders and with an accent which he may
have brought with him from the eau
Icasus. The words tumbled over each
other ont Of his mouth. The FTenchmen
themselves hardly speak their own IAN
puare with such rapidity. To add to the
diAicuItv q cigarette was always IN MS
Inns At Portsmouth It was worse, Tor
there we walked up and down forever
on a wooden piazza, and the noise or
two pairs Of feet was one confusion the
more. Sometimes asked him to repeat
q sentence. He did it at first suspi-
c,ouslv. as If he thought l. had another
, active. but when told him I could not
a,vavs understand, he laughed and SAID:
"True, it's not my language nor
yours" .,..,o
He had. moreover, the dplomatists
, habit Of eeneralities. He liked being
little vague when handling delicate
matter. Yet for his own purposes ne had
suficient mastery of this tongue when
, VAS not his own, and you could not az
, ford "a miss a word. often the balance
., his thought and the expression OF II
, sonarded on shade. But he thought
~ oIoarlv and the force of his mind was
snoh that IL he had spoken Choctaw his
, leaning would somehow have found It's
way to your mind W.
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