Chapter LV: Mexico, California, Scandinavia, Russia, Italy,

LONDON, AND BERLIN--1892-1897

My stay of two years in America. Lectures at the University of Pennsylvania. Archbishop Ryan's Latin pun. The Mohonk Conference and President Hayes. Excursion with Andrew Carnegie to Mexico, California, and Oregon. Meetings with Cornell students. Cathedral of Mexico. Our reception by President Porfirio Diaz and his ministers. Beauty of California in spring. Its two universities. My relations with Stanford; pleasure in this visit to it; character of its buildings; my lectures there. Visit to Salt Lake City. To the Chicago Exposition buildings. The University of Chicago and its work. My appointment as minister to St. Petersburg. My arrival there on November 4, 1892. A vacation visit to the Scandinavian countries. The University and Cathedral of Upsala. Journey through the Swedish canals and lakes. Gothenburg. Swedish system of dealing with the sale of intoxicating liquors; its happy results. Throndheim; cathedral; evidences of mediaeval piety and fraud. Impression made by Sweden and Norway New evolution of human folly in Norway. The Ethnographic Museum at Copenhagen. Moscow revisited. Muscovite ideas of trade. My visit to Tolstoi. Resignation of my legation at St. Petersburg. Italy revisited. Stay in Palermo The Church of St. Josaphat; identity of this saint with Buddha; my talk regarding him with the Commendatore Marzo. Visit to the Cathedral of Monreale. The media val idea of creation as revealed in its mosaics. The earthquake at Florence; our experiences of it; its effects in the town. Return to America. Conversation with Holman Hunt in London. Visits to sundry American universities; my addresses before their students; reasons for publicly discussing "The Problem of High Crime" in our country. The Venezuelan Commission. My appointment in May, 1897, as ambassador to Germany.

PART VII-MISCELLANEOUS RECOLLECTIONS

CHAPTER LVI. THE CARDIFF GIANT: A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF HUMAN FOLLY--1869-1870

Twofold characteristics of the central route from New York to Niagara. The lake country of western New York. The Onondaga Valley; characteristics of its people; their agitation in the autumn of 1869. Discovery of the "petrified giant." My visit to it; my skepticism; its causes. Evolution of myth and legend. General joy in believing in the marvelous origin of the statue. Gradual growth of a skeptical view. Confirmation of suspicions. Desperate efforts to resist skepticism. Clear proofs of a swindle. Attempted revival of belief in it. Alexander McWhorter; he declares the statue a Phenician idol, and detects a Phenician inscription upon it. View of Dr. Schlottmann, Instructor in Hebrew at Leipsic. My answer to his inquiry. Be persists in his belief. Final acknowledgment and explanation of the whole thing as a swindle. Sundry later efforts to imitate it.