Lawyers and judges amount to little in Germany and we do not
find there a class of political lawyers who, in republics, always
seem to get the management of affairs in their own hands.
CHAPTER VIII
THE DAYS BEFORE THE WAR
After my return from Kiel to Berlin a period of calm ensued.
No one seemed to think that the murders at Sarajevo would have
any effect upon the world.
The Emperor had gone North on his yacht, but, as I believe, not
until a certain line of action had been agreed upon.
Most of the diplomats started on their vacations. Sir Edward
Goschen, British Ambassador, as well as the Russian Ambassador,
left Berlin. This shows, of course, how little war was expected
in diplomatic circles.
I went on two visits to German country-houses in Silesia, where
the richest estates are situated. One of these visits was to the
country-house of a Count, one of the wealthiest men in Germany,
possessed of a fortune of about twenty to thirty million dollars.
He has a great estate in Silesia, farmed, as I explained, not by
tenant farmers, but by his own superintendents.
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