are now classed among the lowest in
intelligence in the Christian and civilized world. I remember two
things about Naples, one that Mount Vesuvius was in partial action
during our stay, and that we had a full opportunity to explore the
ruins of Pompeii.

About this time there occurred an amusing incident growing out of
the ignorance of a common American phrase on the part of my courier.
Mr. Oates, of Alabama, a leading Member of the House of Representatives,
was traveling with his wife and friends on the same general route
that I was. We frequently met and had pleasant and friendly chats.
Eichmann noticed our intimacy and was very polite to Mr. Oates.
One day, as my party and I were about to enter a car, some one
said: "Is not that John Sherman?" Mr. Oates said, in the hearing
of Eichmann: "Yes, that is Sherman," and added as a compliment:
"He was a good watchdog in the treasury." Eichmann catching the
phrase "watchdog" applied to me regarded it as a gross insult. He
rushed into my car, his face aflame with passion and his English
more confused than usual, and said: "That man," pointing to Oates,
"was not your friend; he called you, sir, a watchdog; yes, sir, a
watchdog. He has but one arm, sir, one arm, or I would have
chastised him." I had great difficulty in persuading him what a
"watchdog" meant, that it was intended as a compliment, not as an
insult.

On the 31st we returned to Rome. During my stay there I had the
pleasure of meeting Mr. Porter, our minister to Rome. He was hardly
yet installed in his duties, as the king had been absent, but
returned from Germany the day I arrived. Porter and I had been in
Congress together, and boarded at the same house. He was not only
a man of ability, but of pleasing address and manners.

Everybody I saw in Rome was talking about the heat and moving out
of town. On June 1, I went to Florence. There we spent four days
very pleasantly. The hotel was good, the weather all we could
desire, and the people we met, looked contented and comfortable.
They were in striking contrast with their countrymen in Naples.
There was an air about the place that indicated prosperity. Florence
is an art gallery. Several of our countrymen, famous as artists,
of whom I can recall Powers, Meade and Turner, were not only
pursuing, but learning, their art. I was told that a considerable
part of the population were engaged in painting and sculpture. No
doubt their wages were smal