--My Stay in Chicago and
Washington--Paris and Versailles--Rome--Naples--Pompeii--From Naples
to Alexandria--Interesting Acquaintances on the Voyage--The First
Impressions in Egypt.

In the morning papers of July 2, 1881, a telegram from Washington
announced that President Garfield had appointed me consul-general to
India, in the cabinet meeting of the previous evening. The same telegram
also announced that the president had left Washington for New England,
where he intended to spend his summer vacation in the country. It was
with mingled feelings of satisfaction and misgiving that I faced the
opportunity to satisfy my longing to see the wonderful Orient,
especially India, in which country the missionary Dr. Fjellstedt had
aroused my childish interest, as stated in the beginning of these
reminiscences. After consulting wife and children concerning this, to
us, important news, I walked down town, receiving congratulations from
friends and acquaintances on the way, and, arriving at one of the
newspaper offices, I found a large crowd of people eagerly reading on a
bulletin-board a dispatch to the effect that President Garfield had been
shot by Guiteau. The news caused an excitement and consternation almost
as intense as that produced by the assassination of Lincoln. Telegrams
were received from Washington continually, and outside the newspaper
offices were placed bulletins describing the condition of the wounded
president, who was very popular with the American people. The last
telegram of that day announced that he was very low, and would probably
die before morning. The next morning the dispatches announced that the
president was still living, and that on the previous evening, believing
that he had only a few more hours to live, he had caused to be made out
my own and four other commissions and had signed them with his dying
hand. I feel justified in narrating this in detail, inasmuch as I am in
possession of the document which contains the last official signature of
our second martyred president, and which is a very dear treasure to me.
Believing that it will interest the reader to see the last signature of
President Garfield, I submit a photographic fac-simile of the same.

[Illustration: GARFIELD'S SIGNATURE.]

I had only one month to prepare for the journey, and on account of the
long and expensive voyage, it was decided, in family council, that I
should go alone, leaving wife and children in Minneapolis. I