"No, Doctor," said I, "read your
letters first, which I am sure you must be impatient to read."
"Ah," said he, "I have waited years for letters, and I have been
taught patience. I can surely afford to wait a few hours longer.
No, tell me the general news: how is the world getting along?
"You probably know much already. Do you know that the Suez Canal
is a fact - is opened, and a regular trade carried on between Europe
and India through it?"
"I did not hear about the opening of it. Well, that is grand news!
What else?"
Shortly I found myself enacting the part of an annual periodical
to him. There was no need of exaggeration of any penny-a-line
news, or of any sensationalism. The world had witnessed and
experienced much the last few years. The Pacific Railroad had been
completed <1869>; Grant had been elected President of the United States;
Egypt had been flooded with savans: the Cretan rebellion had
terminated <1866-1868>; a Spanish revolution had driven Isabella
from the throne of Spain, and a Regent had been appointed: General
Prim was assassinated; a Castelar had electrified Europe with his
advanced ideas upon the liberty of worship; Prussia had humbled Denmark,
and annexed Schleswig-Holstein <1864>, and her armies were now around
Paris; the "Man of Destiny" was a prisoner at Wilhelmshohe;
the Queen of Fashion and the Empress of the French was a fugitive;
and the child born in the purple had lost for ever the Imperial
crown intended for his head; the Napoleon dynasty was extinguished
by the Prussians, Bismarck and Von Moltke; and France, the proud
empire, was humbled to the dust.
