Such letters as this are easily answered. During this first
sojourn of mine at Berlin as minister, I caused a circular, going over
the whole ground, to be carefully prepared and to be forwarded to
applicants. In this occur the following words: "We have yearly, from
various parts of the United States, a large number of applications for
information or aid regarding great estates in Germany supposed to be
awaiting heirs. They are all more or less indefinite, many sad, and
some ludicrous. . . . There are in Germany no large estates, awaiting
distribution to unknown heirs, in the hands of the government or of
anybody, and all efforts to discover such estates that the legation
has ever made or heard of have proved fruitless.''
Among the many odd applications received at that period, one
revealed an American superstition by no means unusual. The
circumstances which led to it were as follows:
An ample fund, said to be forty or fifty thousand dollars, had
been brought together in Philadelphia for the erection of an
equestrian statue to Washington, and it had been finally decided to
intrust the commission to Professor Siemering, one of the most eminent
of modern Ger-man sculptors. One day there came to me a letter from
an American gentleman whom I had met occasionally many years before,
asking me to furnish him with a full statement regarding Professor
Siemering's works and reputation. As a result, I made inquiries among
the leading authorities on modern art, and, everything being most
favorable, I at last visited his studio, and found a large number of
designs and models of works on which he
was then engaged,—two or three being of the highest importance, among
them the great war monument at Leipsic.
I also found that, although he had executed and was executing
important works for various other parts of Germany, he had not yet put
up any great permanent work in Berlin, though the designs of the
admirable temporary statues and decorations on the return of the troops
from the Franco-Prussian War to the metropolis had been intrusted
largely to him.
These facts I stated to my correspondent in a letter, and in
due time received an answer in substance as follows:
