Ambassador Leishman and other members of the American
Embassy were particularly interested in hearing about Major
"Archie" Butt, who passed through Berlin, less than a month
before the disaster, en route from Russia and the Far East.
Vice-president John B. Thayer and family, of Philadelphia,
were also in Berlin a fortnight ago and were guests of the
American Consul General and Mrs. Thackara. A score of
other lesser known passengers had recently stayed in Berlin
hotels, and it was local friends or kinsmen of theirs who were
in a state of distressing unrest over their fate.
Their anxiety was aggravated by the old-fogey methods of
the German newspapers, which are invariably twelve or fifteen
hours later than journals elsewhere in Europe on world news
events. Although New York, London and Paris had the
cruel truth with their morning papers on Tuesday, it was
not until the middle of the forenoon that "extras" made the
facts public in Berlin.
William T. Stead was well and favorably known in Germany,
and his fate was keenly and particularly mourned.
Germans have also noted that many Americans of direct
Teutonic ancestry or origin were among the shining
marks in the death list. Colonel John Jacob Astor is claimed
as of German, extraction, as well as Isidor Straus, Benjamin
Guggenheim, Washington Roebling and Henry B.
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