but on the contrary—­to my surprise—­has mightily reinforced its eloquence and beauty.  Away back in the beginning—­to my mind—­their music made all other vocal music cheap; and that early notion is emphasized now.  It is utterly beautiful, to me; and it moves me infinitely more than any other music can.  I think that in the Jubilees and their songs America has produced the perfectest flower of the ages; and I wish it were a foreign product, so that she would worship it and lavish money on it and go properly crazy over it.

Now, these countries are different:  they would do all that, if it were native.  It is true they praise God, but that is merely a formality, and nothing in it; they open out their whole hearts to no foreigner.

The musical critics of the German press praise the Jubilees with great enthusiasm—­acquired technique etc, included.

One of the jubilee men is a son of General Joe Johnson, and was educated by him after the war.  The party came up to the house and we had a pleasant time.

This is paradise, here—­but of course we have got to leave it by and by. 
The 18th of August—­[Anniversary of Susy Clemens’s death.]—­has come and
gone, Joe—­and we still seem to live. 
                         With love from us all. 
          
                                        Mark.

Clemens declared he would as soon spend his life in Weggis “as anywhere else in the geography,” but October found them in Vienna for the winter, at the Hotel Metropole.  The Austrian capital was just then in a political turmoil, the character of which is hinted in the following: 

To Rev. J. H. Twichell, in Hartford: 

HotelMetropole,
Vienna, Oct. 23, ’97. 
Dear Joe,—­We are gradually getting settled down and wonted.  Vienna is not a cheap place to live in, but I have made one small arrangement which:  has a distinctly economical aspect.  The Vice Consul made the contract for me yesterday-to-wit:  a barber is to come every morning 8.30 and shave me and keep my hair trimmed for $2.50 a month.  I used to pay $1.50 per shave in our house in Hartford.

Does it suggest to you reflections when you reflect that this is the most important event which has happened to me in ten days—­unless I count—­in my handing a cabman over to the police day before yesterday, with the proper formalities, and promised to appear in court when his case comes up.

If I had time to run around and talk, I would do it; for there is much politics agoing, and it would be interesting if a body could get the hang of it.  It is Christian and Jew by the horns—­the advantage with the superior man, as usual—­the superior man being the Jew every time and in all countries.  Land, Joe, what chance would the Christian have in a country where there were 3 Jews to 10 Christians!  Oh, not the shade of a shadow of a chance.  The difference between the brain of the average Christian and that of the average Jew—­certainly in Europe—­is about the difference between a tadpole’s and an Archbishop’s.  It’s a marvelous, race—­by long odds the most marvelous that the world has produced, I suppose.