MARK TWAIN

183

It was a genuine Glorious Fourth, he said, and was
the first American celebration held on the summit
of the Brocken. Thus on this, the highest mountain
 peak of North Germany, the weird old associations
 of the Faust legends and the new ideas
of the young Western World crowded upon each
other. He spoke with all the enthusiasm of an
American boy rejoicing in the prospect of a “ glorious
Fourth.” Whence was this fire for the Republic of
the West, that burned in his heart and glowed in the
eye of the staid German pastor, kindled? “ Why,”
said he, “ we had Mark Twain and all his family
with us, and they taught us how we should observe
your great festival.” No wonder, then, that he had
received such impressions as he had, for surely it was
a privilege that many might envy to have Mark
Twain for a whole summer as an inmate of his home.
We promised to remember him, nor did we fail to
call the attention of American tourists in search of a
summer holiday to the comfortable home of a pastor
whose sympathies were so strongly American. In
1899 we greatly enjoyed a hurried trip to the beautiful
 town, and did not omit a visit to the long, low
structure of the Ilsenburg pastorage. Shortly after
this the good Dr. Ortmann was promoted to the office
of superintendent.
We found on an examination of the embassy register
 in Berlin the name of Samuel L. Clemens,
written in a clear and elegant hand, so different from
the strong, bold, careless penmanship of the usual
literary man, and utterly unlike the illegible signature