I must confess that we looked forward to our jaunt across the water so eagerly that the events of the preceding months did not seem very important.  With Dr. Talmage I went on his usual lecture trip West, stopping in Chicago, where the Doctor preached in his son’s church.  Everywhere we were invited to be the guests of some prominent resident of the town we were in.  It had been so with Dr. Talmage for years.  He always refused, however, because he felt that his time was too imperative a taskmaster.  For thirty years he had never visited anyone over night, until he went to my brother’s house in Pittsburg.  But we were constantly meeting old friends of his, friends of many years, in every stopping place of our journeys.  I remember particularly one of these characteristic meetings which took place in New York, where the Doctor, had gone to preach one Sunday.  We had just entered the Waldorf Hotel, where we were stopping, when a little man stepped up to the Doctor and began picking money off his coat.  He seemed to find it all over him.  Dr. Talmage laughed, and introduced me to Marshall P. Wilder.

“Dr. Talmage started me in life,” said Mr. Wilder, and proceeded to tell me how the Doctor had filled him with optimism and success.  He was always doing this, gripping young men by the shoulders and shaking them into healthful life.  And then men of political or national prominence were always seeking him out, to gain a little dynamic energy and balance from the Doctor’s storehouse of experience and philosophy.  He was a giant of helpfulness and inspiration, to everyone who came into contact with him.

In January we dined with Governor Stone at the executive mansion in Harrisburg, where Dr. Talmage went to preach, and on our return from Europe Governor Stone insisted upon giving us a great reception and welcome.  Of course, those years were stirring and enjoyable, and never to be forgotten.  The reflected glory is a personal pleasure after all.

In April, 1900, we sailed on the “Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse” bound for London.  The two points of interest the Doctor insisted upon making in Europe were the North Cape, to see the Midnight Sun, and the Passion Play at Ober-Ammergau.  Hundreds of invitations had been sent to him to preach abroad, many of which he accepted, but he could not be persuaded to lecture.

There was never a jollier, more electric companion de voyage than Dr. Talmage during the whole of his trip.  He was the life of the party, which included his daughter, Miss Maud Talmage, and my daughter, Miss Rebekah Collier.

On a very stormy Sunday, on board ship going over, Dr. Talmage preached, holding on to a pillar in the cabin.  There were some who wondered how he escaped the tortures of mal-de-mer, from which he had always suffered.  It was a family secret.  Once, when crossing with Mrs. Vanderbilt, she had given Dr. Talmage an opium plaster, which was absolute proof against the disagreeable consequences of ocean