Page:Abroad with Mark Twain and Eugene Field.djvu/144

 GENIUS IN EXTREMIS

When we were about to pass the French Embassy in Berlin one afternoon, Mark dragged me across the street, saying:

"See those horses? That Kaiser is in there, making love to the Ambassador's wife. I don't want to meet him as he comes out or when he is thrown out, as he ought to be."

At that moment a very distinguished English-looking gentleman passed us in a cab, raising his hat to Mark.

"Do you know him?*' asked Mark.

"I have seen him in Fleet Street, I believe, but I don't know where to put him. As you know, my eyes don't travel far these days."

"Why," said Mark, "this is 'Labby' (Labouchere) of London 'Truth,' the Baron-maker. I call him that because he actually put hundreds of barons into the world, if not into the peerage—namely, when he acted as Secretary of the British Embassy in Paris and had the issuing of passports in hand. Suppose John Smith and Mary Smith, British subjects, toddled in and asked for their papers. Labby would look them over carefully and if their persons and address lent itself to the scheme, would make out the paper for 'Sir John' and 'Lady Mary.' Of course the people stuck to the title, acquired under the government seal, for the 140