Several letters discuss the proposed canal across Nicaragua, and though relations between Americans and Germans were not entirely friendly, there were a good many exchanges of ideas. Among the Americans visiting Germany were a woman representing New York State institutions for the insane, and a man sent from the U. S. State Department to look into the organization and training methods of the German Army. Theodore Ayrault Dodge wrote the first of May about a revision of his work on Frederick the Great, Sousa's band performed in Berlin in May, and White took a large party to see the Barnum and Bailey Circus. President Wheeler of the University of California sent the Emperor, whom he greatly admired, a copy of his new book about Alexander, and a former German citizen had sent several chests of Grapenuts to the Emperor, and made a 100-dollar wager with C. W. Post of Battle Creek that His Majesty would accept the cereal and write an acknowledgement of the gift. Holls wrote that White was strongly proposed as a running mate for McKinley, but on May 19 White listed his many reservations regarding the proposal. From Syracuse came word of a strike by milkmen opposing the tuberculin test, and there were several letters about a proposed Hamilton S. White memorial. A family letter from Ithaca reported that in a lecture Holls brought down the house by calling White the foremost diplomat since Franklin.