TWENTY YEARS IN EUROPE.

Heidelberg Castle.

Twenty Years in Europe

A CONSUL-GENERAL’S MEMORIES
OF NOTED PEOPLE, WITH LETTERS
FROM GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN

BY
S. H. M. BYERS,
U. S. Consul-General to Switzerland and Italy,
AUTHOR OF
“Sherman’s March to the Sea,” “The Happy Isles,”
“Switzerland and the Swiss,” ETC.

PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED.

Chicago and New York:
RAND, McNALLY & COMPANY,
PUBLISHERS.

Copyright, 1900, by Rand, McNally & Co.

7INSCRIBED
TO
MARGARET GILMOUR BYERS.

NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR.

While staying in Switzerland and Italy as a consularofficer, during a period of well on to twenty years, I kept adiary of my life. Without being a copy of the diary, thisbook is made up from its pages and from my own recollectionsof men, scenes, and events. It was during an interestingperiod, too. There were stirring times in Europe.Two great wars took place; one great empire was born;another became a republic; and the country of VictorEmmanuel changed from a lot of petty dukedoms to a freeItaly. It seemed a great period everywhere, and everythingof men and events jotted down at such a time wouldof necessity have its interest. This book is not a history​--​onlysome recollections and some letters.

Among the letters are some fifty from General Sherman,whose intimate friendship I enjoyed from the war times tillthe day of his death. They are printed with permission ofthose now interested, and they may be regarded as in away supplementary to the series of more public letters ofGeneral Sherman printed by me in the North AmericanReview during his lifetime. They possess the added interestthat must attach to the intimate letters of friendshipcoming from a brilliant mind. Their publication can onlyhelp to lift the veil a little from a life that was as true andgood in private as it was noble in public.

S. H. M. BYERS.

St. Helens, Des Moines.

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CONTENTS.