August 26 Monday – QC passengers, including Sam, visited Czar Aleksandr II and family. We had spent the best part of half a day in the home of royalty, and had been as cheerful and comfortable all the time as we could have been in the ship. I would as soon have thought of being cheerful in Abraham’s bosom as in the palace of an Emperor. I supposed that Emperors were terrible people. I thought they never did any thing but wear magnificent crowns and red velvet dressing gowns with dabs of wool sewed on them in spots, and sit on thrones and scowl at the flunkies and the people in the parquette, and order Dukes and Duchesses off to execution. I find, however, that when one is so fortunate as to get behind the scenes and see them at home and in the privacy of their firesides, they are strangely like common mortals [IA Ch. 37]. Sam wrote from Yalta to his mother and family describing the visit to the Czar.

Dear Folks—
We have been representing the United States all we knew how, to-day. We went to Sebastopol, after we got tired of Constantinople (got your letter there, & one at Naples,) & there the Commandant & the whole town came aboard & were as jolly & sociable as old friends. They said the Emperor of Russia was at Yalta, 30 miles or 40 away, & urged us to go there with the ship & visit him—promised us a cordial welcome. They insisted on sending a telegram to the Emperor, & also a courier overland to announce our coming. But we knew that a great English excursion party, & also the Viceroy of Egypt, in his splendid yacht, had been refused an audience within the last fortnight, & so we thought it not safe to try it. They said, no difference—the Emperor would hardly visit our ship, because that be a most extraordinary favor & one which he uniformly refuses to accord under any circumstances, but he would certainly receive us at his palace. We still declined. But we had to go to Odessa, 250 miles away, & there the Governor General urged us, & sent a telegram to the Emperor, which we hardly expected to be answered, but it was, & promptly. So we sailed back to Yalta. We all went to the palace at noon, to-day, (3 miles,) in carriages & on horses sent by the Emperor, & we had a jolly time. Instead of the usual formal audience of 15 minutes, we staid 4 hours & were made a good deal more at home than we could have been in a New York drawing-room. The whole tribe turned out to receive our party —Emperor, Empress, the eldest daughter (Grand-Duchess Marie, a pretty girl of 14,) a little Grand Duke her brother, & a platoon of Admirals, Princes, Peers of the Empire, &c., & in a little while an aid-de camp arrived with a request from the Grand Duke Michael, the Emperor’s brother, that we would visit his palace & breakfast with him. The Emperor also invited us, on behalf of his absent eldest son & heir (aged 22,) to visit his palace & consider it a visit to him. They all talk English & they were all very neatly but very plainly dressed. You all dress a good deal finer than they were dressed. The Emperor & his family threw off all reserve & showed us all over the palace themselves. It is very rich & very elegant, but in no way gaudy. I had been appointed chairman of a committee to draught an address to the Emperor on behalf of the passengers, & as I fully expected, & as they fully intended, I had to write the address myself. I didn’t mind it, because I have no modesty & would as soon write an Emperor as to anybody else—but considering that there were 5 on the committee I thought they might have contributed one paragraph among them, anyway. They wanted me to read it to him, too, but I declined that honor—not because I hadn’t cheek enough (& some to spare,) but because our Consul at Odessa was along, & also the Secretary of our Legation at St Petersburgh, & of course one of those ought to read it. The Emperor (thanked us for) the address (it was his business to do it,) & so many others have praised it warmly that I begin to imagine it must be a wonderful sort of document & herewith send you the original draught of it, to be put into alcohol & preserved forever like a curious reptile. They live right well at the Grand Duke Michael’s—their breakfasts are not gorgeous but very excellent —& if Mike were to say the word I would go there & breakfast with him tomorrow.

Ys aff
Sam.
[written across previous paragraphs:]
They told us it would be polite to invite the Emperor to visit the ship, though he would not be likely to do it. But he dint give us a chance—he has requested permission to come on board with his family & all his relations to-morrow & take a sail, in case it is calm weather. I can entertain them. My hand is in, now, & if you want any more emperors feted in style, trot them out [MTL 2: 80-85].