Class _iXIaL£. Book '^ 2s.^ Copyright N"_. CQEXRIGHT DEPOSir. mmm- 'r^ ^*3 THE SUMMER OF 1919 BY MAY DuPONT SAULSBURY PRIVATELY PRINTED NEW YORK 1920 :pcs8 Copyright, 1921, by May duPont Saulsbwry APR 15 1921 g)Cl.A6ilG43 TO MY HUSBAND WITH WHOM ONLY THE EXPERIENCES OF THIS TRIP WERE POSSIBLE FOREWORD NOT long after our return, I was telling a friend some of our experiences in France, and she begged me to write an account of the summer while it was fresh in my mind. I did so with no idea of having it published, intending to have it typewritten as a surprise for Willard, and to preserve what had been a wonderfully inter- esting experience, one that we could not have had at any other time nor under any other circumstances. Willard found the story interesting, and suggested that I have it printed for private distribution. I apologize to those friends and relatives whom I have put in a book without their permission, my excuse being that I did not know it was going to be a book; and without them there would be very little interest in my story. May, 1920. THE SUMMER OF 1919 CHAPTER I WILLARD was very tired after long years of work. He had not been able to take any holidays, for his position as Presi- dent pro tempore of the Senate obliged him to be in the Senate when the Vice-President was away. Two years ago, the serious illness of Mrs. Marshall had made it necessary for him to stay in Washington all summer. The following year, the Vice-President, after taking a vacation in July, had a slight sunstroke which prevented his going to work again during the heat, and consequently Willard could not have a holiday. He had wanted to go off on a long sea voyage immediately after the 4th of March, but was so worn out that he felt unable even to prepare to go, and decided on a trip to Augusta for some golf first, where he stayed for a month. His plan was to go to Australia, but I was very anxious to go to France, where 1:3] THE SUMMER OF I919 all our thoughts had been since the beginning of the war in 1914. All my friends said it would be very sad and very uncomfortable, but I wanted to go, and he gave way to my wishes on the subject. Owing to his position, he was able to get diplo- matic passports, which were a great help and convenience to us all the way through, and the position which he had held made it easier for us to do many things which we could not other- wise have done. We decided to take a chauffeur, intending to buy a car in France and sell it when we left. This proved to be a very unsatisfactory ar- rangement, as we arrived in France just as the French government had forbidden the sale of American cars, and we sent our chauffeur home, after he had seen something of Paris and taken a short trip in the devastated country. When Willard made up his mind to go, he was anxious to sail at once ; but I wanted to wait for a good ship, which delayed us a little longer. We succeeded in getting passage on the Rotter- dam, sailing on the 12th of June. Just at that time they were having a strike in the express company, and we left Wilmington on the loth, n43 THE SUMMER OF I919 having sent on our baggage two days before, hoping to find it on our arrival in New York. In spite of a great deal of help from the Cus- toms people, we had difficulty in collecting our trunks, ending by going to the baggage rooms of the railroad company, and finding it ourselves. What a difference there was in the appear- ance of the docks from that of our previous sail- ings ! Only those people who were going to sail were allowed on the boat. Before going on board, we were obliged to have our passports viseed, and we went up one by one, showing our papers to the man at the foot of the gangway. Usually at the sailing of a large boat there are messenger boys with boxes of flowers and baskets of fruit, and telegrams, as well as many people on board seeing their friends off. Stew- ards go about calling, "All persons who are not sailing please leave the boat," and you can scarcely move, there is such a crowd. On this occasion there was nothing. The decks were empty, all the passengers had gone to their staterooms to settle themselves and arrange their belongings. We started oft in silence, with no waving of hands nor demonstrations from the shore. D3 THE SUMMER OF 1919 I was delighted with my stateroom. It was the most comfortable I had ever had, large, with a very good bath, comfortable chairs, and altogether extremely nice; in fact, I liked the Rotterdam more even than the Olympic, which was, up to that time, the finest boat I had ever sailed on. We hoped that an old friend. Captain Simp- son, would be able to sail with us, and had ordered a chair next to ours on the deck for him, as well as a seat at the table; and just at the last moment, he arrived. (He had been ordered to England on a special mission, which he carried through satisfactorily, and was pro- moted to be an admiral before he reached America again.) His being with us added very much to the pleasure of our voyage, the more because there were no other passengers on board whom we knew. There were few Americans, excepting those who were going for some special reason in connection with the war. The passengers were from all over the world, many being from Java now taking the first chance to go home to Holland. The boat was slow, and we arrived at Boulogne in ten days. 1:6: THE SUMMER OF 1919 Willard had written to our Ambassador in Paris, asking him to reserve hotel accommoda- tions for us, and expected an answer at Fal- mouth ; but was disappointed. He sent a wire- less from there, and should have had a reply at Boulogne, but none came. On the day of our arrival in Boulogne we were routed out early in the morning, ate an early breakfast, and then prepared to show our passports. We stood about and waited until we were tired. The first thing to be done was to be investigated by the quarantine officers. After that we stood in line, and, one by one, were obliged to go before the officials who ex- amined our passports. Even the babies and little children had to do this, and it was very tiresome. It was quite late in the morning before we landed at Boulogne, and there was a great rush for seats in the special boat train. We suc- ceeded in getting two seats in a car in which there were a young American lady with her French husband, and a Red Cross American man. The train should have taken four hours to go to Paris, but we were held up all along the road by trains of soldiers. They were evi- [7] THE SUMMER OF 1919 dently young English boys going or return- ing from a leave. We were ten hours going from Boulogne to Paris. I had noth- ing to eat or drink, from seven in the morning until half past ten that night except a small package of caramels which the Red Cross man very kindly gave me, as I did not like the looks of some bread Willard was able to get. The journey did not seem long to me, as I was so much interested in what I saw. Very soon we began to see the effects of shell-fire, although nothing to compare to that which we were to see later, and we saw graveyards along the road with little white crosses, and the pop- pies were blooming, reminding us of "In Flanders Fields" — "In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place ; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly, Scarce heard amidst the guns below. We are the dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow. Loved and were loved — and now we lie In Flanders fields. THE SUMMER OF I919 Take up our quarrel with the foe! To }'^ou, from falling hands, we throw The torch. Be yours to hold it high ; If ye break faith with us who die, We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields." The train was held up at Amiens for quite a little while, and from there on we saw a good deal of the destruction caused by shell-fire, and one pleasant sight, that of trains and trains of German freight cars, the names of German towns on each one. We had heard that it was almost impossible to get accommodations in Paris, because the Allied Governments had taken the hotels for their offices, and hundreds of persons working on the Peace Treaty who were in Paris had taken some of the hotels; so that we were very anxious to hear from the American Embassy about our rooms. As it was, we arrived in Paris at ten o'clock at night, without any reservations. We decided to try the Hotel Plaza-Athenee, where I had stayed six years before. It is not a very large hotel, and we had little hopes, the American lady In the car, of whom I spoke, telling me that It was a good THE SUMMER OF 1919 place to stay, but she did not think we could get in. Instead of the great number of porters whom one usually finds in foreign stations, there were very few. We secured one, how- ever, but at that moment Miss Betty Adler, a newspaper correspondent who had a letter of introduction to Willard, rushed up and said she would go with us (her relatives not having met her), making it necessary for our porter to go for a barrow for the baggage. He disappeared behind the train, and as he reappeared he was seized upon by an Ameri- can, who, although I said to him, "This is our porter," threw his baggage on the barrow. The porter did not know what to do. Fortu- nately at this moment there arrived a com- panion of this man with a barrow of his own, and we succeeded in getting rid of the unman- nerly creature. We and our baggage at last ar- rived at the street. This delay caused us great difficulty in finding a taxi, several refusing to go as far as the Champs Elysees, which is very unlike the usual conditions in Paris. It was a poor little taxi and I feared would not hold all our baggage and ourselves, but we crowded in THE SUMMER OF I919 and at last drove up in front of the Plaza- Athenee Hotel. To my great delight, I recognized the man- ager of the hotel standing at the front door. I rushed up to him, and said, "I am Mrs. Saulsbury. I stayed here six years ago. Do you remember me?" He said, "Oh, yes, Mrs. Saulsbury, I remember you very well," which Willard says was only his French politeness. He said they would take care of us, and I can assure you it was a great relief. They gave us comfortable rooms, and promised better ones in a few days, and also gave us some supper, although the cook had gone home and everything was closed up in the dining-room. The next morning we had to sign certain papers, in order that the hotel be allowed food for us. The manager, Mr. Ambrewster, who had lost one of his two sons in the war, showed the effects of his anxieties and sorrow, look- ing much older and not so erect as when I had seen him last. He told us that when the Germans were so close to Paris, arrangements were made to burn the great department stores, like the Louvre, Galleries LaFayette, Bon THE SUMMER OF 1919 Marche and others, in order to prevent their contents falling into the hands of the Germans. He decided, on account of his daughters, to leave Paris, had taken his bonds from the bank and such things as he could carry in an auto- mobile, and with his family was prepared to leave as soon as he could get permission to do so. At last word came that a gate would be open for fifteen minutes at a certain hour, and they rushed off. He had hardly time to reach the gate. They fled to Orleans, but were unable to get shelter, as it was already full of refugees, and they drove from town to town for several days, sleeping at night by the road- side, before they were able to find quarters. One of the elevator boys, and he was really a boy, had lost one arm. He was still in uni- form and wore several decorations. The head waiter had taught our soldiers artillery prac- tice, and I suppose all the men in the hotel had war records, but they did not speak of them. The first thing we did was to go to the Em- bassy, where we found that Willard's letter had not reached them until a short time before, his wireless not at all. They had reserved rooms THE SUMMER OF I919 for us at the Ritz, but as the management of the Plaza had been so polite and nice to us, we decided to remain there. The next thing that we had to do was to register at Police Quarters for permission to stay in Paris. After some difficulty, we found the place, which was a small temporary build- ing. It was filled with people patiently or im- patiently awaiting their turn. We sat there until we were tired, and the office hours were nearly over. I had noticed a couple of girls in uniform who looked to me like Americans, and I thought perhaps they knew the ropes, so I went up to them and said, *'Are you Ameri- cans?" They replied, "We are English." I said, "We have diplomatic passports," which they thought would help. So I put my head in the door of the room into which I had noticed people going, and caught the eye of an official there, and said, "We have diplomatic passports." She looked at me and made some motion that gave me the idea to go in. So I beckoned to Willard, and we both entered, and waited until she had finished with the person on whom she was waiting. She then took down D33 THE SUMMER OF I919 our data, asking us all sorts of questions. We also had to leave our photographs with her. That ended our formalities with the Police Department, after which we had no trouble in staying in Paris. Ch] CHAPTER II I HAVE French cousins. We are distantly related, having to go back to my great- great-grandfather for a common ancestor (the Marquis de Pelleport), but we are the nearest relations they have on their father's side, and consequently they are more interested in us than they would otherwise be. As I heard Pierre explain to his brother-in-law, '*Les plus proches parents de mon pere." His father was my friend, and died a hero of the war. Pierre de Pelleport was married in June, 19 14, and after a short honeymoon joined his regiment in the mountains of France. He was a second lieutenant, having graduated from a French military school. His bride went to stay in a little village near where his regiment was, so that she might see him occasionally, and they had expected to have been ordered to Paris in September; but on the ist of August the war broke out. [15] THE SUMMER OF I919 He was at the front during the entire war, at Rheims, Soissons, Verdun, and so forth, but was only once wounded. He was promoted on the field of battle, is Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, and was a captain at the close of the war, although for a time he did the work of a colonel. His regiment was ordered to Paris just before we came to France. In the meantime, he had occasionally seen his wife, but for only a few days' leave at a time, though after a severe illness from influenza he had a little longer leave. All in all, they had seen very little of each other since they were mar- ried. They had three children, two pretty little girls and a boy, the youngest a baby of three months when we arrived; the most fascinating baby I have ever known and whom I call my beloved Kiki. They had bought a small house, 5 Square du Ranelagh, which had a little gar- den and summer-house, in order that the chil- dren might have more freedom than in an apartment. It was furnished very attractively with antique furniture (Empire) from Guille- mette's home. Imagine what it meant to this charming young couple, after the cruel separa- [16] THE SUMMER OF 1919 tion during five dreadful years, to have a house of their own for the first time since their mar- riage in June, 1914. They welcomed us by sending me a beautiful basket of roses, and then telephoned to make an appointment to come to see us. I had never seen Pierre's wife, and it was a great pleasure to find her very sweet and pretty, very intelli- gent and companionable. Pierre himself is very tall, over six feet, and she is a little thing. He looked stunning in his uniform, and they made a very good-looking couple. Rather to my disappointment, the French officers do not wear their uniforms excepting on duty, so that on social occasions he was dressed in civilian clothes. I would like to have shown him off to my American friends in his uniform. A few days after our arrival. Secretary of State and Mrs. Lansing invited us to dine with them at the de Crillon Hotel, which had been taken by the American Peace Commission. It is in a beautiful situation on the Place de la Concorde. We enjoyed the evening very much. The French Ambassador and Madame Jusserand were there, whom we had seen just THE SUMMER OF 1919 before we left Washington at a reception at the French Embassy in celebration of the changing of the clock at Strasbourg to French time. On this occasion, Madame Jusserand wore her jewels for the first time since the war began, and looked so happy. She holds a unique position in Washington society, and is, I believe, the most popular woman there, com- bining a charming personality with intelligence and kindness of heart to a remarkable degree. The President and Mrs. Wilson were present, the former making a speech in which he re- ferred to the return to France of the lost provinces, Alsace and Lorraine, as having been his hope since boyhood. The guests were mostly from the Legations. We considered ourselves very lucky to have been invited to such a memorable event. We were told that it is etiquette when the ruler of a country is to visit a foreign nation for the ambassador from that country to be there to receive him. It had caused quite a sensation in Washington to hear, one after another, that the ambassadors were leaving, and we thought that they were all resigning, and would not re- turn, so were relieved to hear that they were THE SUMMER OF I919 only going in order to be in their own countries when the President arrived. At the Lansing dinner also were Colonel and Mrs. House, our Minister to Switzerland, and Mr. Hugh Gibson, who is now Minister to Poland. Just after we arrived in Paris, the news came that the Germans had accepted the Peace terms, and we heard the sirens which had been used to warn of air raids and had caused people to fly to the cellars for safety now sounded to express the joy of the people at the end of the war. The news came a day ahead of time, so there were two celebrations; just what happened in America on the acceptance of the Armistice. On the first evening, we went out in an auto- mobile to see the celebration in the streets. There were great crowds in the boulevards, but by that time there was doubt as to the news being true, and the excitement was not very great. The next night, when the news had been confirmed, we went out again. The con- cierge had warned us not to go into the boule- vards, saying that there would be no police, and it would be better for us to keep out of i:'93 THE SUMMER OF 1919 the crowds. He also told the chauffeur, but in some way we did get into a very great crowd at the front of the Opera. Some boys climbed on the top of the car, and rocked it, and some people called to us in French, saying we were lazy and should walk. They were justly pro- voked to have a car try to get through that crowd. Willard had at the last moment brought a small American flag with him, and he put it out of the window and waved it. Whether that had anything to do with the re- sult or not, I do not know, but we were allowed to go through. We then went into the quieter streets, where we saw people dancing in the street. Very late that night, Willard heard a great voice coming up the avenue and passing our hotel, singing, "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here!" I fear that one American at least had celebrated a little too much. One morning not long after our arrival in Paris we waited for our breakfast, which was always served at nine o'clock in our drawing- room, and usually arrived punctually. At last I rang; no reply, and after several efforts to get a waiter, I went on an expedition of THE SUMMER OF 1919 discovery into the hall. No one in sight. At last an elevator boy told me there was a strike of all the waiters in Paris and that the other servants had gone out in sympathy. However, we found a long table in the dining-room, where the head waiter and several of the men from the office were serving bread, butter, and coffee to the guests. After breakfast, I returned to our apart- ment, made the beds and straightened up the rooms a little, and we then went out and pur- chased a stock of provisions, such as chocolate, sardines, canned tongue, biscuits, etc., and pre- pared for a siege. After all, the cook remained faithful and served a very nice dinner, simple but enough, and most of the waiters returned and waited on table dressed in their everyday clothes. One would scarcely have recognized this motley crew to be the same men who usu- ally served us "spick-and-span" in their evening dress. I understood that the manager was very popular and good to his employees, and the waiters were anxious to help. When we came in late that afternoon, the men were putting up large iron gates at the entrance and said they feared a riot that night and the glass THE SUMMER OF 1919 might be broken. However, nothing happened. A meeting of the hotel managers was held that evening and the strike called off next day. One of the demands made by the waiters was to be allowed to wear moustaches. In the morning, the chambermaid, valet, and waiter walked in and without a word about their absence the day before went to work as usual. This was the first time in my life that I had made a bed and I felt rather proud of myself. I am now going to leave France and go back to Washington to recall some of our ex- periences there in relation to the war. l^^l CHAPTER III EARLY in the spring of 19 17 came the rumor that Marshal Joffre was coming to Washington, but we heard nothing very definite. I remember one day in the latter part of March being down town in the morning doing some shopping, when my chauffeur told me there was a rumor that Marshal Joffre was to reach Washington about noon, and he asked if he should try to find a place from which we could see him. We were fortunate in find- ing a good place for my car on Sixteenth Street, and very soon we commenced to see a few per- sons gathering, watching and looking down the street. Evidently the great event was not gen- erally known for there was no crowd, just the gradual increase of people looking about as if they were expecting someone. Ladies came out on the steps of their houses on Sixteenth Street, which, as you know, is one of the most 1:23] THE SUMMER OF 1919 fashionable dwelling-house streets in Wash- ington. After a time we heard them com- ing. People left their cars and stood at the curb. At last they came. An escort of cavalry first, and then, in a red and gold cap, with smiling face, came the Marshal. It seemed al- most incredible that I was actually seeing with my own eyes the hero of the Marne. Beside him was sitting a "Blue Devil," a very hand- some young fellow, and there were other Frenchmen following in carriages, all escorted by American officials. He was to be the guest of Mr, Henry White in his beautiful house, 1 624 Crescent Place. Mr. White had been our Ambassador to France, and was a good French scholar. Everyone of course in Washington was very anxious to see Marshal Joffre, and we were very much pleased to be invited to meet him at dinner at Secretary and Mrs. Lansing's. Before I went to dinner, I thought of something to say to him in French, but of course forgot it when the moment came. I had, as I have often had in Washington, the feeling that people expected me to speak French, and that I was a disap- THE SUMMER OF 1919 pointment to my host and hostess in that re- spect. Marshal Joffre was so much of a hero at that time that I have forgotten to speak of Monsieur Viviani, who really outranked the Marshal, and who sat at the right of Mrs. Lansing at dinner. My recollection is that the French Ambassador sat on her left. I sat on the Ambassador's left, so was very close to M. Viviani. I regretted very much that as he neither spoke nor understood English, I could not talk to him. He is an unusually handsome man, and looked very much like the Italian Ambassador. I spoke of this likeness to Wil- lard, who did not agree with me; but at a reception given by Mrs. Dimock to the Italian Prince, Willard said to me, "Who is that man who looks so much like M. Viviani?" and I said, "Why, that is the Italian Ambassador." To return to the dinner, every time I had a chance I looked at the Marshal, who was sit- ting far down at the other end of the table, and found that he was almost exclusively devot- ing himself to his dinner. The ladies sitting on either side of him were good French scholars, so that it was not because he did not 1:253 THE SUMMER OF I919 have pleasant people to talk to. One of his suite, the Admiral, spoke English very well, and he acted as an interpreter when it was nec- essary to have one. A few days afterwards, Willard was invited to dine at Mr. Henry White's to meet Marshal Joffre. There were present a few of the most prominent members of the Senate and House, I think possibly eight or ten of each. The Marshal was expected at a ball at one of the large houses in Washington, but he remained at Mr. White's, sitting by a big open fire talk- ing to the men until late that night. We were told that the ball was not a success because the great man did not come. The hostess' eyes were fixed on the door, and so were those of the guests, watching for the Marshal. There were so many other distinguished Frenchmen there belonging to the Mission, that it seemed as if the ball could have been a success even without the Marshal; but appar- ently the hostess was unable to turn either her thoughts or those of her guests away from the hope of seeing him. This meeting at Mr. Henry White's was of very great importance. He realized that Mar- THE SUMMER OF 1919 shal Joffre did not come to America for social reasons. It was a very serious period, and extremely important that he should make the leaders in Congress realize conditions in France. I understand that his object was to get our Government to send over as quickly as possible even a few of our soldiers, to encour- age the soldiers who had been fighting so long. There was a tense feeling in the air which we had never felt before, and everyone realized that the situation was serious, and I believe it was owing to his representations that the send- ing over of American soldiers was hurried up. Up to that time, we had thought that the Navy would be of more assistance to the Allies than our Army, and few believed that we would ever send a great army to France. The French Mission was received in the Senate. Willard had two tickets, which he gave to me, and I took Mrs. Bayard with me. The galleries were packed. The Vice-Presi- dent named a Committee to meet the French Mission, and to escort them in. M. Viviani and Marshal Joffre were seated next to the Vice-President, and the others had chairs on the floor nearby. M. Viviani spoke in French. THE SUMMER OF 1919 He made a very beautiful speech, and even the people who could not speak French seemed to understand him. There was con- siderable applause, and at the right moment, which surprised me because I did not realize there were so many people there who would have understood him. There were calls for the Marshal to make a speech. The Marshal hesitated, and then stood up and said, "I-do- not-speak-English. Vive la France! Vive les Etats Unisf" I am under the impression that this was the first occasion on which a foreigner had made a speech in the Senate. After this, all the Senators came up in suc- cession and were introduced to the Mission, followed by the clerks and last of all the pages. Imagine the delight of these boys at having the honor of shaking hands with the great General! When it was all over, Mrs. Bayard turned to me and said, "What did the Marshal say?" I said, "He said, 'Vive les Etats Unisf " As we were going out of the building, an acquaint- ance repeated Mrs. Bayard's question, and I said, "He said, 'Vive les Etats Unisf " We were all expecting to hear, ''Vive I'Ameriqitef but afterwards it was recognized that he had THE SUMMER OF 1919 said, ^^Five les Etats Unis.'' We Americans are modest, we only claim the hemisphere. Apropos of Marshal Joffre having said, ^^Vive les Etats Unis" when everyone expected, "Five VAmeriquer^ It is true that we call ourselves Americans. There are Canadians, Brazilians, Argentines, Mexicans, Peruvians, etc., etc., and even South Americans, but Amer- icans pure and simple mean the inhabitants of the United States. Even in Canada one sees in the shops of Montreal and Quebec adver- tisements of "American fashions," meaning those of New York. One reads In English novels of the Ameri- can woman married to a British lord, who speaks of "The States." I have never in my life heard this abbreviation of the United States used by an American. Washington had at that time commenced to hunt for flags, and many houses were decorated with those of the French, British and American flags. I had ordered some, and had gone away to Philadelphia for the day; when I returned I found the three flags hanging over our front door, and noticed that that of the French was on the right. In most instances, the British THE SUMMER OF 1919 flag was on the right, but Willard told me that he had heard from his chauffeur that there had been a discussion among the maids as to how the flags should hang. Jeannette, the waitress, being an Irish girl, said that the British flag should go on the right, but it was at last decided that as I was of French descent, and as I, as Willard put it, "was the boss," the French flag should go on the right. On our car we always carried five flags, — American, French, British, Italian and Bel- gian, — and I understood afterwards that the Italians had felt rather badly that so few peo- ple had used their flag. Of course there was great care taken to guard the Foreign Missions. No one knew when Marshal Joffre left Washington. My impression is that he had been four days at sea before it was generally known that he had left the country. We had a butler who always came to us to help out at our dinners, who was a Frenchman, and had been a butler at the Marquis de Cham- brun's. He told me with tears in his eyes that he had been sent to Mr. Henry White's to help. The Marquis de Chambrun was one of [30] THE SUMMER OF 1919 the Mission who came over, the son of a former Ambassador from France, and had recognized him at once, and had said, "Oh, Carre!" and kissed him. They had then taken this man to watch. When they were telephon- ing he would stand in the next room and keep guard, and when the Marshal was going to leave Washington, they had him tell people who inquired, that the Marshal had gone to the White House; whereas in reality he had taken an unusual route to the station, sailing that night. This precaution was on account of danger from submarines. I was taking Mrs. Bayard for a little motor ride the afternoon that Mr. Balfour and the British Mission arrived. She was in a great state of excitement because there was a feeling at that time that it was very unsafe for these distinguished people to cross the ocean. She suggested that we pass the Breckinridge Long house, where they were going to stay, to see if the flag was out. We saw the big British flag flying, and she exclaimed, "Oh, he is safe, he is here safe!" Mr. Breckinridge Long is Third Assistant Secretary of State, and had rented this very D'3 THE SUMMER OF 1919 large but hideous house, which he loaned to the Government for the British Mission. It was understood that Mr. Balfour did not care for social entertainment. Willard, having seen the good results of Mr. Henry White's bringing together Marshal Joffre and the important men of Congress, thought it would be well for him to arrange to have the Senate meet Mr. Balfour informally. He was the proper person to do it, being Presi- dent pro tempore of the Senate. On finding that it would be agreeable to Mr. Balfour, Willard had this small reception at our house. The invitation read, "In honor of the Right Honorable Arthur James Balfour, Mr. Saulsbury requests the pleasure of the company of on Thursday evening, May the sev- enteenth, at nine o'clock." I invited Mrs. Bayard, the widow of our first Ambassador to England, and Miss Squire, my secretary, to help me, but no other ladies. The Vice-President, the members of the Senate, and the Secretary of State were the only guests. We had heard that although Mr. Balfour played golf, he disliked very much being THE SUMMER OF 1919 obliged to stand, and we arranged that very soon after his arrival he should be taken to what we called my morning-room, which was back of the dining-room, where he could sit down, and a few men at a time be introduced to him by Willard. Mrs. Bayard, Miss Squire and myself were interested to see that our plan seemed to be working out very well, as we noticed a group of Senators who were on the Naval Committee clustered around the British Admiral, who came with Mr. Balfour. In this way most of the Senators had an opportunity to talk to our distinguished guest, and we had the feeling that our attempt to establish pleas- ant relations between them had been of some use. Willard had always felt that it helped the members of the Senate to carry through their work to be on pleasant social terms with each other, and for that reason each year, while we were in Washington, we had given an evening reception to the Senators and their wives. This same plan seemed to have proved true in re- gard to the helping of the success of the British '^ and the French Missions. While I am speaking of important events 1:333 THE SUMMER OF 1919 in Washington, I will skip over to the Easter Sunday of the following year. The whole country at that time was terribly depressed. The British line had broken, the Allies were falling back and the Germans were advancing all along the front. The Archbishop of York arrived in Wash- ington. We had gone to church in the morn- ing, and the Rev. Cotton Smith had preached a very good sermon, in which he said the whole world should be on its knees, which we felt to be true. In the afternoon we went again to St. John's Church to hear the Archbishop speak. He looked like a very old man, and we knew that he had lost his only son in the war. We were surprised to hear afterwards that he was not an old man at all. He simply had suffered. We had been invited by the British Ambas- sador and Lady Reading to meet the Arch- bishop at luncheon on Easter Monday. The invitation read: "To meet His Grace the Lord Archbishop of York, the British Ambassador and the Countess of Reading request the pleasure of the company of the Honorable Willard and Mrs. Willard Saulsbury at luncheon on Monday, April thirteenth, 1918, at 12.30 o'clock." D43 THE SUMMER OF I919 We supposed that this would be a large standing luncheon, and were surprised to find very few persons were present. There were seventeen in all, the guests being, beside the Archbishop and his Chaplain, the French Ambassador and Madame Jusserand, Secretary and Mrs. Houston, Secretary and Mrs. Daniels, Mrs. Baker, wife of the Secretary of War, Mrs. Crozier, wife of General Crozier, Miss Ernst, the Aide to the British Ambassador, Major Crawford Stuart, and another English- man. As I have said before, the war news was most depressing, and the British particularly must have been almost desperate. We were feeling very sorry that the Ambassador was obliged to entertain any one that day. It seemed as if it were a terrible effort to keep up. I did not have an opportunity to really con- verse with the Archbishop, as he sat some distance away from me. He had a very gentle, pleasant face, and was very gracious and simple in his manner. The luncheon passed off very well, and the gentlemen went out to smoke. During that time C353 THE SUMMER OF 1919 I was talking to Madame Jusserand, of course about the war. She was very much depressed, and so was I. The men came back, with the exception of the French Ambassador, and we were just thinking that it was time to go, when M. Jusserand came into the room, smiling, and carrying some papers in his hand. He had been called out to receive some despatches from his Government, which contained the first good news since the German drive began. He stood in the middle of the room, and we all crowded around him, listening, as he read this long despatch. It was to the effect that they were holding the Germans, and giving quite a number of details in regard to the different regiments which were engaged, and so on. His face was wreathed in smiles, and there was a tremendous feeling of relief. When the wife of the French Ambassador, who was the person to "make the move" to go, shook hands with me, her hands were cold and trembling. I am sure we all left the Embassy feeling much hap- pier than we did when we entered it. The Archbishop had made a formal call upon Willard, who was at the time, in the absence of the Vice-President, presiding over the Senate, 1:36] THE SUMMER OF 1919 and Willard had invited him to open one of the Senate sessions with prayer, which of course he graciously did. Another similar occasion was when the Duke of Devonshire, then Governor-General of Canada, came to visit Washington. The Vice- President was away, and he called upon Wil- lard as President pro tempore of the Senate, who received him in the Vice-President's chamber. After a few minutes' conversation Willard took him into the Senate, which he could do, as the Duke is, of course, a member of the House of Lords, and gave him a seat on the floor. He then introduced several of the Senators to him. The same day Willard went to the British Embassy, where the Duke was staying, and returned his call. The Serbian Mission came to Washington and were to be received in the Senate. I was invited to lunch by the Vice-President and Mrs. Marshall to meet them in the Vice-President's room in the Capitol after the reception. I thought that as I was going to meet them at luncheon, I had better go to hear M. Vesnitch, the head of the Mission, speak in the Senate, D73 THE SUMMER OF 1919 which I did. He made a good speech. The Vice-President replied, and all the usual formali- ties were observed. As I left the Senate gallery, I was putting on a pair of white gloves, and one of the Senators' wives said to me, "Oh, you are going to the Vice-President's luncheon. I know why you are invited — it is because you speak French." So I went in with the usual guilty feeling that I could not live up to the expectations of my friends. However, as I had heard that most of these men did not speak English at all, I determined to do my best. I was taken out to luncheon by a distinguished Serbian, considered one of the very brilliant men of Serbia, who had lost everything he pos- sessed in the war. I was seated at the left of the Vice-President, and on my left was my Serbian, who spoke only a few words of English. We talked, however, all through the luncheon, he speaking a mixture of English and French, and I a mixture of the same. I could not under- stand his French or his English much, nor, I am sure, could he understand me. However, whenever he looked pleased I laughed, and I suppose he did the same. He was deaf in the THE SUMMER OF I919 ear towards me, and he had to turn his head around so that I could talk into the other ear. On his other side there was a lady whom I imagined was speaking very good French, and undoubtedly she did very much better than I could. The Vice-President, when the Serbian was talking to the other lady, asked me how I was getting along, and I told him. He said that the day before at luncheon at the White House Willard and he were seated with this gentle- man between them. He said to Willard, "How are you getting on?" Willard replied, "He is deaf on my side," and the Vice-President replied, "He is dumb on mine!" The Vice- President cannot understand or speak a word of French and Willard is not much better. When we rose from the luncheon, I said to the young lady who sat on the other side of the Serbian, "I was so glad you could not hear my French." She said, "I was glad you could not hear mine." Mr. William Phillips, Assistant Secretary of State, who speaks French very well, was sitting opposite me, and we had exchanged amused glances during the luncheon, I said the same thing to him, "I am glad that you could 1:39] THE SUMMER OF 1919 not hear me." He replied, "Well, never mind, you made the dear old gentleman happy. I have not seen him look so pleased since he came!" Very kind of Mr. Phillips, was it not? I was very sorry to have been away from Washington when the Japanese Mission came, as since our visit to Japan I had been much interested in the Japanese, and also because the Vice-President was away and Willard, as Presi- dent pro tempore of the Senate, took his place and received the Mission on the occasion of their visit to the Senate. I have asked him to let me include a descrip- tion of the ceremonies, in order to round out the story of the coming of the foreign missions to Washington when we entered the war. The ceremonies at the Senate were a repeti- tion of those for the other foreign missions. Special Ambassador Ishii, accompanied by all his suite, had called on Willard in the Vice- President's Chamber, and Willard returned his call at the Belmont house which had been lent by Mr. Belmont for the use of the Japanese Mission. The time was then fixed when the Senate would receive the Mission. 1:40] THE SUMMER OF 1919 Willard was In the chair. The members of the Mission were escorted In by a number of Senators who had been selected by the presid- ing officer for this honor. Special Ambassa- dor Ishli was seated at the right of the chair, Ambassador Sato at the left, and the others, Japanese generals, admirals and diplomats, were seated in chairs In front of the Senators' desks facing the chair. Willard made the speech of welcome, which I insert, as I think It Is a gem and want to preserve it. RECEPTION OF THE JAPANESE MISSION {From Congressional Record) The President />ro tempore (Mr. Saulsbury) said: Senators, we are highly honored to-day by the pres- ence of these distinguished guests, who come to us repre- senting the most ancient and powerful Empire of the world. We have met here before and welcomed the distinguished missions from other great nations. Heroic Belgium, historic Italy, great Russia, beloved France, and democratic Britain have sent to us of their best, but to none have we extended a more cordial welcome than to-day we give to the representatives of great Nippon, that beautiful land of ancient tradition and passionate patriotism. [Applause.^ A mighty nation is the ancient Empire of Japan. Its youth renewed, it joins our great young Nation in C40 THE SUMMER OF I919 pledging anew a continuance of our old friendship, which the trouble-maker of the earth has tried so hard to interrupt. We now know how industriously in- sidious attempts have been made by the Prussian mas- ters of the German people to bring about distrust and hatred in the world. We know what evil attempts they have made to breed hatred and distrust of us among our friends, and we welcome this opportunity to heartily congratulate our old friends who honor us to-day that by the capture of Tsing Tau and the Ger- man islands in the Pacific Japan has completely re- moved from the Far Eastern world the only threat, as we believe, to peace and prosperity, the only threat to lasting peace in eastern Asia. [Jpplause.'\ Within the memory of living man Prussians have provoked four wars for conquest and in three suc- ceeded. Their fourth attempt has roused the world to unified, concerted action. The yellow peril was made in Germany, and Shang- tung was seized ; the Slav peril was made in Germany, and Serbia was overwhelmed and Russia was invaded ; but the thick-witted, smug, self-centered supermen of Germany entering their last attempt at conquest have roused a real peril — a real peril to themselves — and the free nations that believe in international honor, in the binding force of treaties, and in the pledged word are grimly though so sorrowfully engaged in creating, per- fecting, and bringing to successful issue an alliance for the benefit of all earth's people, which will protect the rights of nations, small and great, and enable them to THE SUMMER OF 1919 lead their lives in peace, and lead them unafraid. This alliance we and the other free nations of the earth are creating to control the disturbers of the peace of the world, and it is now succeeding. The alliance we create is based on the brotherhood of man, the equal rights of men and nations. It is based on the universal kindly instincts of the human heart, no matter whether that heart beats in an eastern or a western breast, no matter where free men live, in America or Asia, in South Africa, in Europe, or in South America. The alliance we create is directed against and threatens only wrong, inhumanity, and injustice. It threatens only rapacity, greed, hypocrisy, and nationalized brutality. It threatens only military autocracy and the violators of treaties who disregard the pledged honor of nations. Our alliance is indeed a peril, but only to the new pirates of the seas, to the assassins of the air; to those who violate international decency and fair dealing, who misuse the forces of developed science and distort the teachings of philosophy, who would destroy civiliza- tion itself in the effort to accomplish world domination. This peril our alliance has created is the peril to the central European powers, but it bears no color label. It is and will be in the future the common glory of all true men of all free nations everywhere to have joined in its creation and success. It is an Anglo-French- Slav-Italian-Japanese-American peril to the misdemean- ant of the world. [Jpplause.l Allies in East and West are joined together to bring back lasting peace to a disordered and war-sick world. Let us renew our [43] THE SUMMER OF I919 time-honored friendship with clasped hands and good wishes for the peaceful, friendly development of both our Nations and assure poor, stricken Europe that this western Republic and eastern Empire, together in friendly accord, will work for the good of all humanity. [Applause.^ This Congress has pledged all the resources of our great country to our common cause, the curbing of in- ternational rapacity and hate and barbarism. Senators, I have never believed there was more than a jingling rhyme in the phrase that East is East and West is West and never the two shall meet, and we are happy to-day, while honoring our distinguished guests, to demonstrate to the world that there is no East and there is no West when strong men come to- gether as friends, though they come from the ends of the earth, determined in friendly alliance to work out right and justice for themselves and all earth's peoples. [Applause.] Let us never permit hereafter that evil tongues or wicked propaganda shall cause even the simplest minded among our people to forget the ancient friendship of our Nations or weaken the ties of mutual respect and regard in which we hold each other. This meeting to- day symbolizes complete international fraternity which common consciousness of international honor has brought about. Let it be eternal! I have the honor of presenting to the Senators of the United States the most distinguished of our visitors, [44] THE SUMMER OF 1919 his excellencj' Viscount Ishii, chief of the mission from Imperial Japan. \^Great applause.~\ The Special Ambassador replied and this was followed by the presentation of the Sena- tors, who all shook hands with the distinguished guests. A few days after Willard gave a dinner to Ambassador Ishii and the members of the Mis- sion at the Metropolitan Club. Ambassador Ishii sat on Willard's right and Ambassador Sato was on his left. The Speaker of the House (Champ Clark) sat at the foot of the table, with the Secretary of State (Mr. Lansing) on his right, and the Councillor of the Japanese Embassy on his left. At one L of the table sat Admiral Benson, with the Japanese Admiral on his right. On the other L was General Weaver, the Japanese General on his right. [;453 CHAPTER IV I WILL now return to Paris. We decided to have a little dinner for Secretary and Mrs. Lansing, who were soon to return to America. The hotel in which we were staying is in a very pleasant part of Paris on the Avenue Montaigne, and we had quite comfortable apartments, consisting of two rather large bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a small but pretty drawing-room. We did not like to have this dinner in the regular dining-room of the hotel, and after consulting with the manager, we decided to have it in a small drawing-room which opened into the larger drawing-room of the hotel. We felt that we would like to take these friends to our own little drawing-room after dinner, and had asked the housekeeper to give us a few more chairs, which we moved around and around, trying to have a few feet of rug show between the chairs, and at the same time to allow our friends to sit down. It was rather small, but 1:473 THE SUMMER OF I919 would answer under the circumstances, as we were not entirely responsible for the conditions. We had a few vases of flowers, and altogether the room looked rather cosy and pretty. We received our guests In the large drawing- room downstairs, as we did not want to have them go upstairs twice In the elevator. In addition to Secretary and Mrs. Lansing, we had Colonel Delano, a man of probably over fifty, who had been the president of a rail- road before taking the position of a member of the Federal Reserve Board in Washington. He volunteered for war service, and had been training for a year before, so that he might be able to serve when the time came, as he was sure It would, that America would declare war. He was put In charge of important engineering work, distinguished himself, and was decorated for his services. His sister, Mrs. Forbes, who lived in Paris, and whom I had known quite well for many years, was also one of the guests; Mrs. Stet- tinius, wife of the banker (a member of the Morgan firm, who had been for a time one of the dollar-a-year men in Washington, and was made Assistant Secretary of War) ; Mr. Henry [48] THE SUMMER OF I919 White, a member of the Peace Mission, who had been Ambassador to France at one time; my cousins, the Marquis and Marquise de Pelle- port; Mr. Robert Woods Bliss, counselor of the American Embassy; Monsieur and Madame Simon; and Mr. Herbert Hoover. We received our guests in the drawing-room. When dinner was announced, we went to the smaller drawing-room where dinner was served, and it all passed off very well indeed. The ladies went upstairs before the coffee, leaving the men to smoke. Guillemette de Pelleport helped serve the coffee to the ladies in our drawing-room. After a while the men came up. The room was not quite so full that we all had to stand up or sit down at once, and altogether we felt it was a very informal and pleasant little dinner. While the ladies were alone talking after the dinner at Mrs. Lansing's, Mrs. Lansing, Mrs. House and Madame Jusserand were discussing the question as to whether they would be allowed to see the signing of the Peace Treaty, which was going to take place in the course of two or three days, and I thought, if they were doubtful, there certainly would be no chance for 1:49: THE SUMMER OF 1919 me. Of course the Congress was very large, representing a great many different countries, and there would be the members of the Press, and the notables, and although the Salle des Glaces at Versailles is a very large room, it would not be reasonable to expect that they would ask many people. Willard had held, a short time before, the highest position under the constitution of anyone then present in Paris excepting the President, and we hoped that it might be possible for him to be present at the signing of the Treaty. We were very much pleased when he received an invitation. This was only the day before the event took place. The morning of the signing, Willard told me that he felt very mean, going off to such a won- derful sight when I could not go, but I felt perfectly satisfied and only too pleased that he had the opportunity. Among the gentlemen who came over with Marshal Joffre was M. Joseph Simon, as Director of Finances for the French Mission. His wife spoke very little English, but like most foreigners she improved very rapidly, and I grew to know her quite well, and liked her very much. The following summer, owing cson THE SUMMER OF I919 to the fact that I was going to the Samoset, Rockland, Maine, she, with her husband and her little boy, Marco, came to the hotel and stayed two or three weeks, so that I felt that we knew each other very intimately. She had returned to France before we left Washington, and was living on the Avenue Matignon, Champs Elysees, only about three blocks from the Plaza Athenee, our hotel. From the moment of our arrival in Paris she showed me all sorts of little attentions. After Willard had left the hotel to go to see the signing of the Treaty, I had told our chauf- feur that I would not want him before two o'clock, and at one o'clock was eating my lunch alone, when in rushed Madame Simon all in a flutter. She said, "Go and get your hat on, and get your car ! I have cards for la Terrasse ! Mrs. Stettinius and her daughter are going with us! She can't get her car, and I have no car, and we will all go in yours!" I exclaimed, "My car won't be here until two o'clock!" I rushed to the concierge, who tried to call it, but was unable to find the chauffeur. In the meanwhile, Madame Simon was frantically telephoning Mrs. Stettinius, and I was putting DO THE SUMMER OF 1919 on a hat and veil. Mrs. Stettinius could not find her chauffeur, so then we tried to get a taxi. There were comparatively few in Paris, and on that day, by that time, there were almost none to be had. At last the porter stopped a very poor shabby old taxi, with the funniest old Frenchman for a chauffeur. He wore a long grey coat down to his feet, and, as Mrs. Stet- tinius said, he reminded her of one of the char- acters in Balzac's novels. At last we started off, little Miss Stet- tinius sitting on the floor of the taxi. Every time we came to a little upgrade, the car would very nearly stop, and we would be in the great- est state of excitement, because we had no time to lose. We really had a great deal of fun going out, and at last arrived in time. The old taxi man evidently "knew the ropes." Of course we had to show our cards from time to time, and all along the road people were lined up, watching the cars going out to see the show. We alighted from the taxi at one of the avenues leading directly up to the Terrace. Mrs. Stettinius told the taxi man that if he would wait for us she would give him one hundred francs. THE SUMMER OF 1919 The Terrace at Versailles is always very beautiful. That day there was a row of soldiers keeping the people back a certain distance from the Chateau. The room in which the Treaty was being signed was one which faced the Terrace, and it was thrilling to feel the impor- tance of what was going on there, although we were unable to see it. There were many officers in different uniforms on the terrace, and ladies in afternoon dress. You could imagine it as the occasion of a very beautiful garden party. It was not by any means crowded, and we walked about, meeting a number of acquaintances. It seemed strange to me to find so many people I knew there, French ladies whom I had met in Washington, and their husbands, and Madame Simon of course saw many acquaintances, whom she would stop to speak to, and introduce to us, and Mrs. Stettinius met a young cousin with an army car and several young friends. She immediately said, "We will go back with them." These young men and the Stettinius young girl were with us all the afternoon. Of course we knew nothing of what was going on inside, but when the Treaty was [53] THE SUMMER OF 1919 actually signed a volley was fired by the soldiers, and the fountains began to play, the airplanes circled around overhead, and the knowledge of what it all meant made it a very thrilling occasion, as well as a beautiful sight. Then came the question of how to find our chauffeur. Mrs. Stettinius and Madame Simon both were sure they knew the road. In the meantime, we had all packed into the army car, and we made various attempts to find the avenue in which we left the man. At last we found him, leaning against a tree, a perfect figure of patience. We recognized him immedi- ately by his long grey coat. Mrs. Stettinius paid him the hundred francs, and we returned to Paris in great comfort in a very good Cadil- lac limousine. I arrived at our hotel, went up to our apart- ment, and found Willard already there. I was in quite a state of excitement after the pleasant afternoon, and he was pleased to think I did not have to stay at home and see nothing of the great event which Willard describes as follows : "May has asked me to give an account of the "actual signing of peace, so that she may add it "to her story of the summer's experience. 1:543 THE SUMMER OF 1919 "There was a tremendous effort to get places "in the Hall of Mirrors where the Peace Con- "ference sat, on the day when the Germans "were to appear to complete the formalities by "actually signing the Treaty which, the pre- "vious Monday, they had agreed to sign. "I was furnished with a ticket of admission "on which was the number of my seat in the "Hall of Mirrors, and I reported at the Hotel "de Crillon where the Peace Commissioners "and the invited guests were to assemble and "go in more or less a processional way to Ver- "sailles. We were furnished with one of the "army cars, which was marked with an official "circular target, red, white and blue, showing "that we were entitled to pass into the Place "d'Honneur of the Chateau, and we left the de "Crillon, there being in our car Ambassador "and Mrs. Morgenthau, a military officer or "two, and myself. "We went to Versailles by way of the "Champs Elysees and through the park of "Saint-Cloud, the whole route, excepting "through the park, being lined by cheering "crowds, waving flags; chiefly French, of "course, but many of them American and THE SUMMER OF 1919 "British, and here and there the other Allies' "flags were seen. "When a number of the official cars were "passing a point closely together, where there "were large crowds, the enthusiasm became in- "tense. One time, when the crowds looking at "the procession were shouting their loudest, I "turned to Morgenthau, and asked him how "they managed to find that he was coming along "at that particular time. "French soldiers were everywhere in their "brilliant and striking uniforms. Through the "Park of Saint-Cloud a very striking efFect was "produced by stationing soldiers or gendarmes "at the turns of the road, and sometimes in "short spaces along a long stretch of road, to "signal the official cars with red flags which they "waved, and with which they pointed in the "direction we were to go. "As we reached Versailles, and neared the "Place d'Armes, the sight was most beautiful. "French soldiers, infantry and cavalry, pro- "tected the passageway from the encroach- "ments of the sight-seers, who were present in "thousands, while the automobiles containing "the plenipotentiaries and the invited guests THE SUMMER OF 1919 came through the Avenue de Paris, the Place d'Armes, and the Court d'Honneur to the marble vestibule, from which you ascend the marble staircase to the Royal Apartments of olden time, and thus enter the Hall of Mir- rors. "The whole scene was most impressive. One passed by heroic statues to mingle with the great ministers of great nations and the great ministers of small nations, saluted by the won- derful soldiers of France at every point and turn, and then ascended this beautiful and his- toric staircase between lines of the republican guard at salute, to enter the hall where, less than fifty years before, the German Empire had been born, to witness the final scene of the necessary curbing of the military ambition of the Teutonic nations, which had been made a part of their personal as well as national life for two generations. The act soon to be wit- nessed would destroy, as all truly civilized men hoped, the horrible ambitions of the former rulers of this people. "There was no precedence in the arrival of the plenipotentiaries and the invited guests, all of whom descended from their automobiles at D73 THE SUMMER OF 1919 the door of the marble vestibule and staircase, and straggled into the Hall of Mirrors, many stopping in one of the vestibules to chat with friends, renewing, in some cases (as I did), acquaintances which had some years ago commenced, but had been interrupted by the war. "Just before the sitting began, each of the guests was given what in our legislative bodies would be called a calendar, in British assem- blies agenda, in the French, ordre du jour. It was of course very simple for this sitting and indicated the business to be the Signature of the Treaty of Peace between the Allies and Associated Powers, and Germany. The copy given me I have had framed with my invitation and card of admission to the hall and the ticket marking my seat. I think probably as curiosi- ties they may be very interesting in the com- ing years. "The plenipotentiaries and guests gradually assembled, each of the delegates, of course, having a seat at the tables in the center of the hall, the invited guests occupying about one quarter of the space on the left of Clemenceau, the President of the Congress, and the press C58] THE SUMMER OF 1919 "occupying about the same space on the right "hand of the hall, they having entered through "the Salon de la Guerre, the guests and pleni- "potentiaries having entered through the Salon "de la Paix. "When the representatives of the Allies had "assembled and taken their places, the German "plenipotentiaries were announced, and as they "approached through the same way we had "entered, absolute and unbroken silence suc- "ceeded the cheerful buzz of conversation and "rejoicing which had marked the occasion since "the delegates and guests began to arrive. "I was sitting on the third or fourth bench, or "settle, from the front, with General Pershing "and Henry Morgenthau. Just ahead of us, I "recall, were Mrs. Wilson, Miss Margaret Wil- "son, Mrs. Lansing, Mrs. House, Mr. and Mrs. "Scott. I was seated next but one to the aisle "through which all the plenipotentiaries and "guests came. I could readily have touched the "German delegates with my hand as they "passed, and I looked particularly to discover, "if I could, any emotion on their faces. They "were absolutely impassive, not a sign of color "in their faces could be detected; they seemed to THE SUMMER OF 1919 "be of graven stone, the Secretaries they "brought with them, as well as the Commis- "sioners, Dr. Mueller and Mr. Bell. One could "imagine what a terrific strain they were under- "going, compelled by the force of military "power, which had been the ideal and prac- "tically the god of German ideas for half a "century, to bear this humiliation, and agree to "destroy all possibility of military dominance of "their country in Europe for at least some gen- "erations. "One touch to the scene which I have not "seen mentioned anywhere made one realize "what tremendous feeling existed between the "French and Germans. Two republican guards "at salute had stood at the head of the passage "where the seats for the guests ended and those "of the delegates began, and between them thus "saluting passed the delegates of the Allies. "When the German delegates were announced, "these two guards, who were standing almost "near enough for me to touch them, with em- "phasis lowered their swords, returned them to "their scabbards with a clang, and, turning their "backs, marched to either side of the hall, with "a grim smile of satisfaction on their faces, in- 160-2 THE SUMMER OF 1919 "dicating how pleased they were that they need "not salute the hated Germans. "I forgot to mention one of the most interest- *'Ing features of the gathering. In the em- "brasures of the windows, from which you "overlooked the terrace and fountains of Ver- "sailles, were gathered probably twenty soldiers "of the French, British and American armies "who had been wounded after some especial "bravery shown in action. They had been espe- "cially selected and given the honor of being "present, as representing their comrades, at the "final and formal act of making peace; and one "of the touching things in the whole wonderful "scene was Clemenceau greeting the French "mutilees individually, and saying to each, " 'You have suffered; but here is your reward.' "When the Germans had taken their seats, "Clemenceau, known as 'the Old Tiger,' "declared the sitting open, announced its object, "and invited the Germans to advance to the "table whereon the official copy of the Treaty "lay, and sign it; which they did. The hall "was absolutely silent. "The Germans having returned to their "seats, the Allied and Associated Nations, C60 THE SUMMER OF 1919 "through their representatives, beginning with "President Wilson and the American delega- "tion, followed by Lloyd George with the "British delegates, affixed their signatures to "the Treaty. The signing, I believe, as well as "the order of the wonderful military parade on "Bastille Day, was supposed to be fixed in "alphabetical order, using the French language, "and it was the compliment of France and her "Allies to the United States which caused them "to use in official language the word 'Amerique' "instead of 'Etats Unis,' in this manner placing "American plenipotentiaries first in line of "precedence. "All the Allies and Associated Nations were "represented at Versailles on June 28th except "the Chinese, who refused to sign the Treaty "which contained the provisions against which "they had protested concerning Shantung. We "were sorry the Chinese were not there, be- "cause the Chinese minister at Washington, Dr. "Koo, whom I had first met in Peking, was a "very charming and delightful friend, as well "as an able man. He was one of the Chinese "plenipotentiaries at Paris, having left Wash- "ington to act in that capacity. 1:62] THE SUMMER OF 1919 "As the signing of the Treaty proceeded, requiring of necessity considerable time, the buzz of conversation recommenced, and con- tinued until Clemenceau announced the final signature, and declared the sitting of the Con- gress suspended. "It would be making a list of the statesmen of the world to attempt to name the delegates present at this Congress. Twenty-seven nations were represented. All, so far as they could, had participated in military operations against the Central Empires and their Allies. Millions of men wearing uniforms had met death in the field; more millions of civilians, men, women, and children, had suffered death from want and privation, malnutrition and the maladies and evils which accompany war. These delegates had made it possible to banish war from civilized lands forever. "Some of the smaller countries who had most greatly suffered in the war were represented by men whose names are now well known throughout the world. Some of them were well known before the war, but not as states- men. Paderewski was the great representa- tive of Poland re-born, Masaryk of Czecho- THE SUMMER OF I919 "Slovakia, Vesnitch of Serbia, — these I had "known in Washington, but Venizelos, the man **who practically saved Greece from self- -destruction under the influence of a Hohen- "zollern queen, takes high place, and I had the "honor of meeting him on this day for the first "time. "When the final signature was placed on the "Treaty and the Annexes to the Treaty, upon "the announcement of Clemenceau as President "of the Congress, one heard the salvos of artil- "lery which had in a less strenuous way cele- "brated the announcement of the Germans six "days previously that this great historical spec- "tacle would occur, the Signing of Peace. "The fountains of the park played, aero- "planes whirled and circled, Paris again gave "itself up to rejoicing — rejoicing which had "started six days before, and would not stop "entirely until after the 14th of July, when the "friends of France among all the nations of the "world would join her in that great rejoicing, "and their soldiers march with hers under the "Arch of Triumph, which has been closed for "fifty years to victorious processions. 1:64] THE SUMMER OF I919 "Congratulations, hand-shaking, and tears of "joy in the eyes of many concluded the occasion. "The German delegates retired inconspicu- "ously through the guests immediately the "announcement of the signing had been made. "Some of the plenipotentiaries went to the "Terrace, where a large number of invited "guests were assembled, and where we from "the windows of the Hall of Mirrors could see "them surrounded and almost mobbed in a "friendly way. The guests mingled with the "plenipotentiaries, and passed out in the way "they had arrived, regaining their automobiles "as best they could, and returned to Paris "through the scenes of rejoicing they had wit- "nessed on their way to Versailles. "The officer who had charge of our automo- "bile dropped me at my hotel, and I was soon "glad to know that May, returning from her "trip to Versailles with Mrs. Stettinius and "Madame Simon, had so greatly enjoyed the "pageant from that viewpoint." C6S] CHAPTER V THEN came the celebration of the Fourth of July. We had tickets to see the parade, sent from the Embassy, and asked Mr. and Mrs. Bellamy Storer to go with us. They had come over on the Rotterdam. We had thought them very pleasant, and they had rooms just above us in our hotel. Mr. Storer had been our Ambassador to Austria, and Mrs. Storer had been known as "Dear Maria" from letters written to her by Theodore Roosevelt, who wanted her influence with the Pope to have Bishop Ireland made a Cardinal. We sat quite near them in the dining-room, and had little talks from time to time, which we enjoyed. To return to the parade. There was quite a crowd, of course. Many houses were dec- orated with American flags, and we had a fairly good view of the parade, but I was obliged to stand on a chair in order to see through the crowd. [673 THE SUMMER OF 1919 The American flag was displayed every- where. The avenues were crowded, and doubt- less I would look back on this as one of the great days of my life if it were not that the celebration of the Fourteenth of July so far surpassed it. But the marching of the Ameri- can troops was very fine, and everyone spoke of it. Immediately after the parade passed, and we had found our car, we started to see the ceremonies at LaFayette's tomb. I thought we certainly ought to have an American flag on our car, and suggested that we buy one, not realizing how crowded the streets were; although our chauffeur went a long way around, we had some difficulty in getting through, and Willard was very much afraid we would be delayed too long, and miss the cere- monies. However, we succeeded in getting a couple of little flags, which the chauffeur fast- ened to the front of the car, and he drove through some out-of-the-way streets and made pretty good time, and at last we arrived at the cemetery (Picpus). The chauffeur evidently knew the best place to take us, and we drove up to an entrance where there were absolutely no other cars in sight, but a group of men were THE SUMMER OF 1919 waiting at the gate, to receive the President of the Republic and other distinguished guests. As I got out of the car, these gentlemen all came forward to speak to me. I knew them all. There was the Secretary of State, the American Ambassador, General Pershing, Mr. Henry White, General Harts, General Bliss and Mon- sieur Andre Tardieu. This amused Willard very much, because it looked as if they were all waiting there to receive us. We then went into the cemetery. The LaFayette Tomb is in a corner near the wall, and when we arrived, there were a number of people standing about, principally, I think, the members of the LaFayette family. I felt very much impressed because of the connection between General LaFayette and my family. It had always seemed a romantic thing that Gen- eral LaFayette had given away my grandmother when she was married. He had been a friend of my great-grandfather in France, and this friendship continued during his life. In spite of this, I had never thought of going to his tomb when I had been in Paris before. Standing right in front of us were two young American girls in uniform, very ordinary look- 1:693 THE SUMMER OF I919 ing young persons, and we afterwards saw the same girls at Belleau Woods, but do not know who they were. At last the procession came in, headed by the President of the Republic. There were some ladies — Mrs. Wallace and others — in the group. A wreath was placed by President Poincare on the tomb, and our Ambassador made a little speech which was very timely and good. They left the cemetery soon after, but we stayed a little while, looking at the tomb and the tomb- stones nearby. Do] CHAPTER VI ALTHOUGH the season is over in Paris by . the end of June, le beau monde was still in town on account of the coming celebration. The first thing we did on our arrival in Paris was to call at the American Embassy, after find- ing on what day Mrs. Wallace would be re- ceiving, and we met there a few American, Eng- lish and French ladies. There were very few men present. Mrs. Wallace looked tired, but is a very gracious hostess. The house was the same as that occupied by our former Ambassador. It is large and handsome, with a very pretty garden. It seemed bare and cold to me, as there was almost nothing on the walls — possibly one handsome painting in each room. I said to a lady whom I met there that it looked cold to me — there should be tapestries or pictures on the walls. She said in a scornful way that if you had very handsome tapestries it was all very well, but otherwise it was customary to have these bare walls in Paris. DO THE SUMMER OF I919 I should have called on Mrs. Wallace on the Fourth of July, as it is customary for all Americans to call at our Embassy at that date, but I was tired after standing so long watching the parade, and did not go. Willard, however, went, and enjoyed the afternoon very much, meeting many Americans and a few foreigners. The garden being used on that occasion added to the beauty of the entertainment. Willard had gone to a luncheon at the Embassy a day or two before, and found it very pleasant, meeting a number of distinguished men, and a few days later Mrs. Wallace invited me to lunch. There were, I think, about twenty- four ladies, and as we sat around the table I noticed that I was the only one present wear- ing colors. They were not in mourning, but everyone dressed in black. My recollection is that practically everyone present was American born, or English. I think some of the ladies were the wives of men attached to the foreign legations, and I heard a considerable amount of French spoken. I sat between an American and an Englishwoman. Hers was the only name I remember. It was Lady Waterloo, and she told me that our Ambassador in London was THE SUMMER OF 1919 living In her house. She hoped very much that our government would buy it for an Embassy. After seeing all these ladies in black who were not French, I was impressed by the fact that Madame Simon, who had lost a brother in the war, was wearing colors, and my de Pelle- port relations, who had also lost very near mem- bers of their family, were not dressed in black. On former visits to Paris, I had felt reason- ably up to date in regard to clothes, but this year I was certainly much behind the times, and suppose it was because our dressmakers had not been able to go abroad. I remember that in August, '14, my dressmaker was crossing the Atlantic on her way to Paris, when one evening her steward told her to pack up, as she would be in New York In the morning. The ship had turned in mid-ocean on the news of war, and the passengers did not know it. A day or two later we went to dine Informally with Mrs. Forbes, which we enjoyed very much. Her brother, Colonel Delano, whom we knew very well in Washington, was there, and Madame Waddlngton, the authoress; also a French duke, who was a nephew of Mrs. Forbes, and several others. C73] THE SUMMER OF 1919 Then we dined with Mr. and Mrs. Stettinlus to meet General Henderson, a distinguished British soldier. It was a small dinner, but very pleasant. I wore a last year's gown, and Mrs. Stettinius, walking behind as we went out to dinner, said, "American dresses are prettier than French," which made me feel that it was quite conspicuous that my dress was not a new one. Nevertheless it was very pretty, silver cloth under a bright though dark blue net, trimmed with silver lace, the train being of black and silver brocade. I am still wearing it. I sat on Mr. Stettinius' right at dinner, and found him very interesting. He told me that he had been in the dugout of one of the German princes, where the fittings were quite as fine as those in the dining-room in which we were sitting — beautiful woodwork and flooring, stolen, I suppose, from some French chateau. A day or two before we had gone to a dinner at the American Embassy. As we came up the large stairway, we saw ranged across the hall a row of footmen, stretching from one end of it to the other, which looked quite imposing. The first person introduced to me was la Duchesse . I thought, "That is a very fine name," 1:74] THE SUMMER OF 1919 but after a few minutes' conversation with the lady I said to myself, "I have my doubts," and felt perfectly sure that she was an American. I was amused to find out afterwards that she had been the widow of an American manu- facturer whose factories were in Wilmington, and that Willard had represented them. She had had the German name of her first husband's son anglicized. I was taken out to dinner by a foreign Min- ister, and on the other side was an American oflUcer, Colonel Mott. I enjoyed the dinner very much. My Minister, whoever he was, spoke English. After dinner, I had a pleasant con- versation with two American girls. One, Mme. Brambilla, was the daughter of Mr. Myer, who was Secretary of the Navy; she had married an Italian attache who was very pleasant. The other, Mme. Caromilas, the wife of the Greek Minister, was a daughter of Senator Cockrell. About this time we also went to various teas, at the de Pelleports, at Madame Simon's, and at the Marquise de Chambrun's. The Marquis had met me thirty-five years before, after the celebration of the Battle of Yorktown, to which he was a delegate, being a great-grandson of THE SUMMER OF 1919 LaFayette. The Marquise is a daughter of the Bellamy Storers. At that tea we met the wife of the first Polish Minister to the United States, Princess Lubomirska, a very handsome and attractive woman, who, I am sure, will make herself popular in Washington. Willard was amused by having her say to him that she was glad they were going to Washington at a time when they would have only one presenta- tion. He did not understand at first what she meant, and she explained Newport and Wash- ington. He told her that she would find that Newport is as far from Washington as it is from Paris. Speaking of Madame Simon, I must mention that her apartment was filled with beautiful things which she had collected from the foreign countries in which she and her husband had been stationed. While in Mexico, M. Simon had been put in prison for twenty-four hours because he would not give up to the Mexicans money belonging to the French government. All the foreign Ambassadors and Ministers came to the prison and called on him, after which demon- stration the Mexicans released him. About a week before the fourteenth, Paris THE SUMMER OF 1919 commenced to prepare for the celebration. All along the Champs Elysees they were building scaffolding for seating people, not as high as we have seen them in this country, but quite deep. There was such a demand for seats that we heard it would cost us a thousand dollars to get a window or balcony from which to see the parade. About this time the newspapers were filled with protests against the erection of these seats — tribunes, as they call them — the argument being that nothing should be done to prevent the people of all classes from seeing the parade. It was one of the great examples shown us in Paris of the power of public opinion, that all these seats were taken away before the day of the parade. There was another very remark- able example of the power of the Press. The unions had threatened a twenty-four-hour strike of all transportation in France, to show what they could do, and the date was given some time in advance. Two or three days before, a very prominent physician in Paris published in the newspapers an appeal to the unions against it, made on the ground of the suffering to children, the sick, and the old, and illustrating the diffi- 11773 THE SUMMER OF 1919 culty of feeding children and the poor, and the impossibility of getting patients to hospitals, or administering any relief to people in need of care from physicians, etc. The next day the strike was called off. DS] CHAPTER VII OUR friends told us we had better go as soon as possible to see the devastation caused by the war, because the fields were rap- Idly growing up, sometimes weeds, but also crops, covering the effects of the shells. Madame Simon had said that she would like to go with us when we went to Rhelms. We started off one morning punctually at nine o'clock, picking her up at her apartment a few blocks away. After finding that we could not buy an Ameri- can car, we had made arrangements for getting a French automobile through the concierge at the hotel. He succeeded In finding for us a chauffeur who owned his own car. It was new, and although Wlllard and myself did not think much of It at first, because It did not compare with our own cars at home, so many people said to us, "Where did you get such a nice car?" 1:79] THE SUMMER OF 1919 that we soon came to the conclusion that we were very lucky, and were more than confirmed in that view after using it the entire time that we were in France. Not once was it out of commission, although at times we went over some very rough roads. The chauffeur was in every way satisfactory. This trip to Rheims was the first ride of any length which we had then taken. We went by way of Meaux, which recalled the anxiety we had felt when we heard that the Germans had reached that point, which was so close to Paris. The roads were good, and with the exception of seeing airdromes and the absence of people and live stock, the country looked about as usual to me. We lunched at Epernay, and that town seemed to be in very good condition, but soon we began to go through little villages which had been almost demolished. In that part of France, in fact I think in a great deal of France, the people who farm the land live in villages. I was told that they live where they can get good water. Also the laws of France oblige parents to divide their property in a certain way among their children, with the result that THE SUMMER OF 1919 there are narrow strips of land side by side each farmed by a different man. In speaking to my cousins of this difference from our farms, where there is a farmhouse in which the farmer lives, and perhaps one or two smaller houses on each farm, while the villages with us consist of the post-office and the blacksmith's shop, the doctor, and perhaps a few laborers and other people; and that in France they all live in the village and go out every morning to attend to their strip of land, and return to their houses when their work is over; I was told by Pierre de Pelleport that the French plan is not an economic one, because they often do not plant on their land the most suitable crop. A man will want to have his wheat made into his own bread, and his land may not be suitable for growing wheat. The effect of the devastation was that you saw occasionally a house by itself in the country which was apparently not injured, whereas the nearest village would be entirely destroyed, and the consequence was that those who tilled the land had no place to live. In most of the villages which we went through we would see possibly half a dozen houses habit- THE SUMMER OF 1919 able in which the owners had put paper in the windows in place of the broken glass, and also temporary roofs of paper, and a few people were living there. Half a dozen people might be walking about, always some children. Other villages would be entirely destroyed, nobody visible. Still the fields were green, and it really looked as if they had been planted and that there was a chance of crops. When we arrived at Chateau-Thierry we felt very much thrilled because our soldiers had been victorious there. Although a great deal injured, business was still going on in the town, and it was not entirely demolished by any means. We crossed the river on a temporary bridge. Conditions seemed much alike every- where, the same story over and over, until we arrived at Rheims. Madame Simon evidently was afraid the chauffeur would lose his way, and every once in a while would call through the telephone, "Om sommes nous? Ou sommes nous?" When we arrived at Rheims, which before the war was a town of about one hundred and ten thousand people, I was very much surprised to see the streets apparently clear. The Ger- [82] THE SUMMER OF 1919 man prisoners had been made to clear the stones out of the streets and from the pave- ments and pile them back against the houses, so that it was perfectly easy to drive through the town. It seemed strange to see the houses all de- molished, and yet be able to reach them so easily. I heard that 12,000 people were then living in Rheims, and there were many houses patched up with paper, but we saw very few, I cannot remember any, that were in perfect condition. That might be accounted for by the route which we took, as the cathedral was our main object. When we reached the cathedral, we left the car and spent a long time walking around and looking at it. One was not allowed to go very close on account of the danger of walls falling. From a distance, the west front of the cathedral looked fairly well, and you did not realize that it was only the general effect, and that although the outlines were there, the build- ing was only a shell and the beautiful stonework was terribly defaced. I was fortunate enough to have seen the cathedral before, and to have seen it with a young Frenchman, the Count de 1:83: THE SUMMER OF 1919 Choiseul. His aunt, Mrs. Forbes, and Miss Bramwell, were talking together, so I walked around with the young Frenchman, and I was very glad to have done so, because he showed so much feeling of affection and admiration for it. We studied the beautiful rose windows, and he called my attention to a number of the beauti- ful effects of the interior. When I first heard that the cathedral had been bombarded I felt in a rage about it, and I realized from the feeling shown by this young man what it must mean to the French people, as well as all civilized people in the world. I heard from two equally good authorities re- ports about the glass, one that the windows had been taken out before they were ruined, and the other that they were completely de- stroyed. All agreed that the cathedral would be rebuilt, but it would of course be absolutely impossible to restore the glass, as the modern glass does not compare with the old. I do not believe that it would be possible to restore a great deal of the stonework, because we no longer have the artisans who do such beautiful work. A great many of the people who were in 1:843 THE SUMMER OF 1919 Rhelms were French working people, who had taken a day off to come to see the cathedral, as it was Sunday. We drove through a great many streets. One was a repetition of another. The houses of course are all built of stone, and are hundreds of years old. One realized that the destruction would be very much harder to repair than the same number of houses de- stroyed in one of our towns here. As a rule the front walls of the houses were standing, but no roofs, and nothing back of the front walls, just ghosts of homes. We did not stay very long at Rheims, for we had a long trip to make and wanted to return by the way of Belleau Woods. We motored through just about the same kind of country for many miles, and at last arrived at our desti- nation. On the way, our chauffeur suggested that we get out and look at a trench. I did not go, but Willard went. He said nothing when he returned to the car, but later told me that they found there the skeleton of a French soldier. We also saw a great many piles of ammunition and barbed wire, and we saw many graves along the roads. At the suggestion of Madame Simon, we 1:853 THE SUMMER OF 1919 gathered up a few of the shells to take home as souvenirs, and Willard bought two bayonets from a wounded soldier seated on the ground at the foot of Belleau Woods. A party of young men from the Y. M. C. A. arrived at Belleau Woods just as we did, and we had the advantage of hearing the lecture delivered to them. Strange to relate, the two young girls in uniform whom we had seen at Picpus Ceme- tery were there also. This hill is so steep that we could not imagine how a charge could have been made up its side. We did not attempt to walk up. After the lec- ture was over, we went to the cemetery, where several thousand American soldiers were buried. A very large American flag was flying. They were just completing the final inter- ment of these soldiers when we arrived there. Each grave had a cross at its head, and the name of the soldier, his regiment and rank. Some negro soldiers were at work, and one of them complained to Willard about having been given that work to do. By that time it was getting late and we started off on our return trip to Paris, which we reached about ten o'clock at night. As we came into Paris, I said THE SUMMER OF 1919 to Madame Simon something about the queer little houses that we saw, and how quaint Paris seemed to me; and she said, "You must remem- ber that Paris was here when Caesar came." A few days after that we made a trip to Soissons, Willard and myself alone. I do not feel sure that Soissons was not in a worse state of devastation than Rheims. Perhaps as it was a smaller place, and there was less of it remaining, it seemed very dreadful. The cathe- dral was a complete wreck, and it was all so desolate. As we were going to look at the cathedral, three middle-class French people came toward us and said in French, "German prisoners are in there, pretending to be asleep. Just lazy." We saw so many German prisoners afterwards that it seems strange now to think that we were so excited and went to take a look at them. They were lying in the grass, and had evidently had luncheon and were resting. After driving through the town of Soissons, we went on to the Chemin des Dames, from where we were told you could get a better effect of the ravages to the country itself than you could from any other point so near Paris. It CSvD THE SUMMER OF 1919 was interesting to see as we went along the roads many women with little barrows filled with grain which they had evidently cut from the roadsides, and had apparently grown up there like weeds. I saw a good many people in Soissons, and in other towns and villages quite a number of women, and none of them had hats, but they had on clean calico dresses, their hair was neatly brushed, and I wondered where they could find any place to sleep, or how they pos- sibly could have clean clothes or brush their hair or wash their faces. In looking at their houses, there seemed to be no place to find any privacy or any implements to do anything with. The road was very rough going up to the Chemin des Dames, and gave us some tremen- dous bumps. We carried some sardines and crackers and chocolate, and had luncheon in the car. Just as we finished we saw a very nice-looking woman with her barrow and her young son walking up a steep hill, and we de- cided to give them the remains of our luncheon, which we did. She thanked us very pleasantly and politely, of course in French, and said, "You have made us happy." CSS] THE SUMMER OF 1919 From the top of the hill we had a magnificent view of the country, and saw the way the Ger- mans had dug in and lived in caves. We came back by way of Chantilly, and were very much disappointed to find that we could not go into the chateau because Marshal Foch had taken it for his headquarters, nor into the fine res- taurant where I had lunched years ago. We had a bad supper at a small hotel, and strange to relate, a cross, disagreeable land- lady. Our chauffeur refused to eat there, and said he would never take anyone there again. We made another trip about this time to Orleans, taking Major Ruffin with us. We went there to see a French soldier who had brought with him to America an introduction to me from la Marquise de Pelleport. He was a man thirty-six years old, a vicomte, and the son of a rich lace manufacturer near Roubaix; he had a wife and three young children, the youngest a baby when war was declared. He volunteered as a private, was taken prisoner at Lille, and escaped from his guards. Lille being a French town, he was able to get some civilian clothes, and after three days, in which he hid in haystacks and so forth, and [89] THE SUMMER OF 1919 three nights, during which he crawled, he at last arrived In the British lines, his clothes in rags, where he was taken for a German spy, and only escaped being shot because there was some- one there who recognized him as a Frenchman. He had been very badly wounded at Verdun, had lost the sight of one eye, and had many other wounds. He had twice been in the hos- pital for six months, and had been sent to America to teach our soldiers machine-gun fir- ing. He was then after all those years of ser- vice an upper sergeant, but had received a number of decorations, six, I think. Among them was one for having escaped when he was a prisoner; another, la Croix de Guerre Beige avec Palme, which is the highest decoration for the battle of Ypres; and he told me that he preferred service to rank. He told Willard and myself in Washington that he had lost everything that he had in the world, but that he was better. He said, "I had had everything I wanted. I had never suffered. Now I have suffered, and I know how to sympathize with the sufferings of others." He said that nothing mattered, if only he could find his wife and children again. n9o:] THE SUMMER OF I919 He had not heard from them since the begin- ning of the war, but had heard of them through refugees, and knew they were alive, and that his father was held as a hostage by the Ger- mans. I realized that he was suffering terribly from loneliness. Although a gentleman and a highly educated man, having no rank he had no congenial companions. Willard liked him very much, but had difficulty in understanding him. I could understand his French and he could understand my way of speaking French, and he also understood some English, so I spoke a combination of French and English, and we talked for hours. I became very much interested in him, and had heard from him after he had returned to France, that his wife and children had been repatriated through Switzer- land. His mother-in-law died very soon afterwards from the effects of her hardships, and his wife and children were all sick, but he was happy to have them. They were living in two small rooms in Orleans. He was still in the service and stationed there. We left Major Ruffin at the hotel, and went to the house in which they lived on the second floor, and they gave us a THE SUMMER OF 1919 very good luncheon, his wife and the VIcomte waiting on table. The three little children, pretty little things, but small and thin for their ages, looked very delicate. Jean, the little boy, nine years old, had con- fided to his father that when he grows up he intends to be a nouveau-riche, and pastry cook; that he will have twenty-three children, twenty sons, soldiers for France, and three daughters. He will not have a wife, because wives are sick and suffer, which is sad. His mother had been desperately ill, and one realizes how natural these wishes were to a child who had gone through such experiences. It seems to me that the twenty sons to be soldiers for France is particularly pathetic coming from a tiny child who had lived behind the German lines. We came home by way of Chartres. There we found workmen putting back the glass in the windows of the cathedral, which is noted for its beauty. I had seen it before, but Willard had never been there, nor had Major Ruffin. Although I enjoyed very much seeing the beau- tiful glass again, I was even more impressed by the wonderful stonework, which really was lace made of stone. It seemed incredible that THE SUMMER OF I919 it could be made to look so much like lace. When we had been in Chartres before, we went especially to see the glass, and I cannot remem- ber paying any special attention to this beautiful stonework. I could scarcely tear myself away, I wanted to go back and look at it over and over again. We had much better roads from Orleans to Chartres, and decided that we would stop at Rambouillet. The old fifteenth-century chateau is used now as a residence for the President of the Republic, when he comes to see the mili- tary school there. The chateau is partly fur- nished in the style of Napoleon, partly modern, and did not compare with a great many cha- teaux I have seen, but the effect of the landscape gardening is very beautiful, and somewhat like that of Versailles. There were a great many beautiful flowers, and we wandered about in the gardens. It was nearly sundown, and very peaceful — a pleasant change — and seemed re- mote from the horrors of war. 1931 CHAPTER VIII WHEN I think of describing the 14th of July, although it is all very vivid in my mind, I feel so inadequate to the occasion that I scarcely know how to begin. "The evening of July the 13th was conse- crated to the memory of the dead, — the heroic victims whose blood redeemed the recovered provinces and paid the price of liberty for their country and the world." A great monument, called a Cenotaph, had been erected under the Arc de Triomphe. We had watched them build this, and had wondered what it was going to be. As we were living not far from the Arc de Triomphe, we passed the Cenotaph every day. It was an enormous thing, and almost filled the arch. We did not go out on the evening of the 13th of July, and it would have been almost impossible for us to have seen anything, as an enormous crowd had gathered to attend the opening of the exercises. [1953 THE SUMMER OF I919 First the President of the Republic placed a wreath at the foot of the Cenotaph, then Clemenceau came and a great many of the dignitaries of France, all bearing flowers. All through the evening, and until very late at night, people came to pay homage to the dead. It was considered a marvelous thing to be able to move that great monument out from under the arch that night and place it beside the Arc de Triomphe in the course of a few hours. It was under the management of the army en- gineers. The day after the 14th everyone was al- lowed to visit the Cenotaph, and each person might bring one flower, to be placed at its foot. Late at night on the 13th crowds began to arrive in the streets where the parade was to pass, and it was said that the population of Paris was doubled that day. It was a marvel that they were able to feed all those people, and many of them slept in the streets. They came carrying ladders and folding-chairs. The crowd was very considerate and good-natured. At eight o'clock on the morning of the 14th there were some ceremonies at the Hotel de Ville, the giving of decorations, but we did 1:963 THE SUMMER OF 1919 not see it. The great event was the parade, and that was what everybody was looking for- ward to. M. Clemenceau wrote to Marshal Petain, "Qui de nous a vu ce jour a vecu!* I wish that I could adequately describe the decorations, they were so wonderfully beauti- ful. Ulllustration says, "The best stereotypes would give one but a vague and incomplete idea of the grace and gayety of these long alignments of twin masts, adorned with wings of gold and with green laurel, united by long streamers of tricolored draperies. The masts were white, delicately outlined with gold. . . . At the Place de la Concorde, the masts, which rose to gigantic heights, were outlined in red and gold. The street lamps were covered with transparencies formed of little blue, red and white ribbons. . . . Never had this incompar- able frame received a more brilliant adornment, which embellished without detracting from it. The obelisk itself filled the office of a gigantic mast, 33 metres high. On this column worn by the ages audacious carpenters had attached garlands of golden foliage and supple electric bands, which sparkled in the evening in gar- 1:973 THE SUMMER OF 1919 lands of purple. The red color of the illu- minations formed a bond of union between the different designs, and brought the decorations into union." What the French called twin masts were ex- tremely tall, slight wooden poles, two placed about eighteen inches apart, joined together at a height of about twenty feet by different de- signs, an escutcheon, or a round design, with R. F. for Republique Frangaise. Just above were wings of gold and laurel, and from these were bands of tricolored ribbons or etamine stretched to the next mast, and then possibly ten or fifteen feet higher up a cord from which flew little pennants of different colors. The Arc de Triomphe was surrounded by two rows of large cannon captured from the Germans, facing outward from the arch. At Rond Point were four altars in honor of the martyred cities, Verdun, Rheims, Soissons and Arras. The two large parterres at this point were piled high with small cannon cap- tured from the Germans, on the top of one of which was a great victorious cock. These piles of cannon were festooned around with garlands of colored etamine. n983 THE SUMMER OF I919 Early in July seats had been erected In the streets and avenues along the line of the parade, but the newspapers were full of protests against them, and L' Illustration says, "Moved by a sentiment of equality and fairness, in order that the greatest number should see the parade, at the last moment the seats had been taken down, and for the whole length of the Champs Elysees as far as the Porte Maillot wooden rails were placed which reduced considerably the width of that magnificent avenue, and limited the space reserved for the parade, and prevented the crowding forward of spectators." We had almost given up hopes of seeing the parade, when an American friend of Willard's, Major Ruffin, stationed at his Paris head- quarters in the Champs Elysees Palace Hotel, told us that he had asked his colonel if we could come there, and he very kindly reserved a balcony for us. The morning of the 14th of July we rose early and had a light breakfast. A few other people were in the dining-room, among others the Colville Barclays (Counselor of the British Embassy at Washington) , whom we had known all the time that we were in Washington. He 1:99] THE SUMMER OF I919 had just been relieved and later made Minister to Sweden. Mrs. Barclay is a beauty, and very sweet. We were very much discouraged as we were starting off to see the parade to meet the Mar- quise de Chambrun and her young son coming to the hotel. Although they had any quantity of "permissions" to cross the streets, it had been absolutely impossible for her to cross the Champs Elysees, and she had given it up and had come to the hotel to see her parents. It seems as if the luck which had followed us throughout our trip was still with us, for we were able to go within a block of our destina- tion in our own car, and walked that block with no difficulty whatever. Of course the streets were very crowded, but the crowd was orderly. At the Elysees Palace Hotel we were met by Major Ruffin, who was very smiling, he was so pleased to have been able to do us this kind- ness. We walked up about four long flights of steps, and after passing through one or two rooms, were escorted out on a balcony on which there were not more than three or four other people, and from which we had a most magnifi- Cioo] THE SUMMER OF 1919 cent view. We were high enough to look over the tops of the trees. The avenue is so wide that the trees did not obstruct the view of the parade at all. To the left we had a clear view to the Arc de Triomphe, and to the right we had an absolutely unobstructed view as far as our eyes could see. I wish I could tell you how I felt during the parade. I never felt so awed and thrilled in my life, and I have come to the conclusion that in addition to the fact that anyone capable of sentiment would have been almost overpowered by such a display and an occasion that meant so much to France and to the entire world, my French blood also increased my enthusiasm. I have remembered that when the Bastille fell a number of my family were in Paris. My great- great-uncle, the Marquis de Pelleport, tried to save the life of Major Losme Solbay, one of the officers in command of the Bastille, who had been kind to him when he was imprisoned there. He was wounded and carried away after this officer had begged him to save himself. This is described in various accounts of the fall of the Bastille. My great-great-grandfather, duPont de Nemours, was there also, and took THE SUMMER OF I919 an active part in the government. He was also imprisoned later, and his life only saved by the death of Robespierre. My great-grandfather and grandmother were there, his brother, and doubtless other members of my family, and per- haps the very exciting times through which they lived may have made more of an impression on their descendants than would otherwise have been possible. My father had a very strong affection for the French, and felt the Franco-German War so much he would not have his children taught German. To go back to the balcony on the Champs Elysees Palace Hotel, we stood there for more than three hours, probably the most thrilling three hours that I have ever passed. From time to time officers strolled out on our balcony. Two young clerks nearly scared me to death by climbing over the railing and sitting on a pro- jection from the wall in order to see better. They probably had not enough rank to entitle them to a good view of the parade. We were not close enough to see the mutilees, but at a luncheon at the home of the Counselor of our Embassy and Mrs. Robert Bliss, when a THE SUMMER OF I919 lady spoke to me of seeing them, her voice broke and tears came into her eyes. I translate from L' Illustration, "A thousand mutilees headed the procession, a great, noble, touching idea. All hats were raised. An im- pressive silence fell. Some vague cries — 'This is too painful!' — voices choked. One would have liked to kneel, but there was the crowd, and whether or no for hours it was necessary to stand, propped up on all sides. Oh, what a group ! The first to strike the eye, a poor sublime invalid stretched on a carriage, and already half buried under flowers. Near him, in a rolling chair, another was being pushed. Then came the lame, leaning on canes, dragging their legs; masked men, scarred, disfigured, shapeless, so pitiful. . . . Now, the blind, wav- ing flags whose brilliant colors they will never see again, and who were led by the arm by comrades a little less unfortunate than them- selves. Touching brotherhood in misfortune! No, in truth, words cannot express our feelings at this moment; nothing can, but tears. **With scarcely enough time to recover from the emotion caused by the passing of the mutilees, with a flourish of trumpets, came the THE SUMMER OF I919 Garde Republique, which formed the escort of honor for the two marshals, Joffre at the left, at the right Foch, the commander-in-chief of the armies of the civilized world. The staffs of the inter-allied armies followed the flag of the commander-in-chief. Then for three hours the soldiers passed by, first the American Gen- eral Pershing and his battalion of soldiers, strong and supple, a cohort carefully chosen, marching elbow to elbow, with a regularity, a sort of automatism, worthy of those classic pictures of Epinal, who popularized with us the love of fine soldiers, and commenced our patri- otic education. . . . Then the sailors, pictur- esque, correct, with their funny little white caps, their grey gaiters and starred collars. . . . The Belgians followed, behind General Gillain. . . . Then came the British. This was the culminating moment of our dreams. At the head. Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, Sir Henry Rawlinson, Sir Julian Byng, General Curry in the Canadian Corps; then two hundred stand- ards, their silk bronzed by the sun. . . . Next comes General Montuori, leading the Italian army; Chinese, Japanese, Greeks, Poles, Portu- guese, Roumanians, Serbians, all that remained [1043 THE SUMMER OF I919 of a martyred people, and last of all, the Siamese, and the Czecho-Slovaks. A space, a silence — Here come the heroes of France! This was the moment for which we were wait- ing. First, the Marshal of France, Petain; then came Generals Castelnau, Gouraud, Hir- schauer, Humbert, Mangan, Maistre, Degoutte, Bayolle, and many others. "General Castelnau, superb in the saddle, had the place of honor, due to his great ser- vices and the sad tribute he had paid in the gift of his dear children to beloved France." We stood a few minutes after the parade had passed by, thanking the colonel for his courtesy, and said good-by. We soon found our car and returned to the hotel. We were feeling quite hungry, and went immediately to get some lunch. Of course everybody had been to see the parade, but the waiters were back again and the head waiter came up to us and said, "The American soldiers marched the best." We tried to be as modest about it as Americans can be, but could not help agreeing with him. This was absolutely conceded, their marching was marvelous. A lady who had seen them make the turn at the Place de la Concorde THE SUMMER OF I919 said that it was really wonderful. Looking at them after they had passed, they were just like a checkerboard, you saw the lines in every direc- tion absolutely perfect. Several Frenchmen said to us that their men were looking for their friends on the sidewalks, but the English, while wholly conceding to our men the best marching, explained it by saying that ours were picked men. In the evening we went out to see the illu- minations. We walked down to the Pont d'Alma, which was not far from the hotel. The streets were very quiet, and the people were watching the illumination. They were doubt- less tired out after the excitement of the past two days, and if there were any hilarious demonstrations we did not see them. The effect of the fireworks was very beautiful. We returned to the hotel, went up on the roof and stayed there for quite a long time, watching the far-off illuminations which we had not been able to see from the street. And so ended for us this wonderful day. 1:1063 CHAPTER IX WE were urged by a friend, Colonel Horton, to go as soon as possible to see the devastated regions, because Nature was so rapidly covering up the battlefields with wild growth. A young officer whose special work at that time was to make arrangements for Ameri- can officials to see the devastated regions, to make reservations for them, and to give them advice, came to see Willard and talked the matter over with him. This was a very great help to us, and we arranged to start off in a couple of days in our car. We were absent from Paris about fourteen days. I had been asked by a dressmaker who had worked for me for many years to try to visit the grave of her nephew who had been killed in the war, and I told her we would do so if it were possible. She gave us the name of the young man and of the cemetery where he was burled. We decided to make a visit to this spot at the first opportunity, and arranged to THE SUMMER OF 1919 spend the first night of our expedition at Chalons-sur-Marne, a third-century town. It is not very far from Paris, possibly fifty miles, and we reached there early in the afternoon. The hotel in which we stayed had no front wall, a shell having burst in the street and knocked down the front of the hotel and that of the house on the opposite side. It was boarded up, however, and the people who lived there did not even speak of it. We had two large rooms, no bath of course, but good beds, and in spite of the fact that the electric lights went out that night and we had nothing but candles, we were very comfortable and rather glad that the front of the house had been blown out, as it seemed a suitable beginning to our trip. As I said, we arrived there early in the after- noon, and at once went to a florist's and bought a pot of blooming flowers, pretty pink flowers, and also a little cross to put on the grave. The hospital in which the young man had died was not very far away from Chalons, a drive of three quarters of an hour, perhaps, and we had no difficulty in finding it. The hospitals were long rows of one-storied wooden buildings, many of them in the same enclosure. THE SUMMER OF I919 When we arrived, we were told that the car could not go inside because the hospital build- ings were filled with German prisoners, so we were obliged to walk what would probably be two or three of our town blocks, which brought us to a pine wood, fortunately very dense, as it began to pour rain, and we had no shelter or even umbrella. So we stayed under the pine trees and waited until the rain was over. The cemetery close beside this beautiful grove of pines was in perfect order. It had a wire fence around it, and on the opposite side from the wood one looked over a splendid stretch of beautiful country. It was really an ideal spot. Most of the graves were those of French soldiers, each having a black cross at the head. They were covered with wreaths and crosses, mostly of artificial flowers which the French use so much. There was a walk through the center of the cemetery and one diagonally nearer the upper end, making a cross, and at the farther end were a few rows of white crosses which marked the graves of the Americans, on each of which was a small American flag. With very little difficulty, as they were all numbered, we found the grave we were looking for. THE SUMMER OF 1919 Our French chauffeur had come with us, carrying the pot of flowers, and Willard carried the cross. With the reverence of all French people for the dead, our chauffeur had taken off his hat as we entered the graveyard, and stood with it in his hand all the time we were there. The American graves, as I said, had white crosses at the head and the French had black crosses. All the French graves had wreaths on them, showing that friends had been there to visit them. A black cross like those at the head of the French graves had been laid on those of the Americans, to keep them from looking bare and uncared for, as they would have done in comparison with those of the French. We put the pot of flowers at the foot of the boy's grave and the cross at the head, and stood there for a while, I thinking that his mother should feel proud and contented that her boy should be buried there, it was such a beautiful and peaceful spot. We went to bed soon after dinner, to prepare for an early start the next morning, and a long and somewhat hard ride to Verdun. Imagine how I felt — actually going to Ver- THE SUMMER OF 1919 dun — the place whrch for months had been in my thoughts every minute, hoping against hope that the French soldiers' vow, "They shall not pass," would prove true. We had good views of some of the battlegrounds, and it seemed almost impossible for the army ever to have held on, or to have scaled the heights of some of those mountainous places. We went through a great many destroyed villages like the ones we had already seen, just piles of stone. Some- times we would see a few people, sometimes none, and in one place, where I had not seen a single living soul, I saw two little boys of about ten years old playing see-saw. They had put a plank over an old stone wall which had been a house, and were apparently entirely alone in the village. We stopped at a temporary build- ing of a Y. M. C. A. to ask the way, and an extremely nice-looking young English girl came out and gave us the directions to Verdun. We lost our way several times, and on the worst roads you could imagine we retraced our steps three times. At one place I was thrown against the top of the car so hard that it hurt me very much, and I thought might have broken my neck. THE SUMMER OF I919 At that place there were a lot of German prisoners at work exhuming and gathering up the bodies of the dead, and we saw great piles of wooden coffins. I ask myself why I speak of this young girl. In former times when I had been in France the villages were full of people. One saw not only the villagers standing at their doors, and walking about the street, but many dogs and chickens, and going about through the country you saw all sorts of live things, cattle in the fields, and horses, and passed many conveyances of all kinds, the farmers going to their work, people motoring and driving and riding, but through all our rides this year we had seen no- body and nothing. Excepting the occasional few people in the villages, we saw no living crea- tures, and in the whole time that we were motoring through the devastated parts of France or around Paris, we did not pass, as I can remember, a single private motor. We saw many army cars and many trucks carrying sol- diers or perhaps German prisoners (and, by the way, we recognized the German prisoners by their green coats) . Generally these men looked very young, almost boys, fair, not bad-looking THE SUMMER OF I919 young fellows. We generally saw them coming home in bands from their work. They were employed in all sorts of ways, such as gathering up arms and bombs and clearing up the streets of the devastated villages and towns. In one place we were warned off of the road because they were going to blow up shells, and a few minutes after we heard great explosions, and saw smoke rise high in the air, not a great dis- tance away. At last we arrived at Verdun, and as we were driving across the little bridge at the entrance of the town I could scarcely believe that I was actually there at last. My impression was after seeing the town that, although there was a great deal of destruction, it was a place that would be rebuilt; there was business going on and people living there. It had an entirely different look from most of the towns or villages we had passed through — we wondered if they would ever be rebuilt, or if there was any particular reason why they should be. We left our car near the hotel, which was habitable although not in perfect condition. It had some guests, but I think only army officers, or people having some special work in Verdun, THE SUMMER OF I919 would have been received there. I heard after- wards that the newspaper correspondent of whom I spoke as having come over on the steamer with us, had made a trip to Verdun and had been obliged to spend the night under- ground in the Citadel — rather an uncomfortable experience, I should think. Speaking of Miss Adler suggests some things I have heard about the Y. M. C. A. and the Y. W. C. A. I had felt a good deal of inter- est in the criticism which was being made at home of the Y. M. C. A., and came over on the steamer with a Unitarian minister who was connected with an important New England newspaper, and who was sent over to investi- gate the Y. M. C. A. Afterwards I saw him in Paris and he was very happy in regard to the in- vestigations which he had made. He had met a great many people who could tell him about it, and he had a great many opportunities to learn what the Y. M. C. A. had accomplished abroad. He was convinced that they had done a great work, some of it very wonderful — actually hav- ing things made when they could not get them otherwise. My impression was that he was satisfied they had done the best that was pos- THE SUMMER OF 1919 sible under the circumstances; necessarily they had not the pick of the best men, as the best all-around men had gone into the active service. They had to be disquaUfied in some way to take that work — either too old, or not well, or something — and there was a tremen- dous number of them needed. In that number there were bound to be some who were not satisfactory, and in such a great work there would necessarily be some mistakes made. I did not hear a great deal about the Y. W. C. A., nor did I hear much about women's work in France, with the exception of nursing. Every- one who had occasion to speak of them was enthusiastic in regard to the work done by nurses. They thought nothing could be too good to say about them. My impression was that there was a difference of opinion in regard to the canteen; some thought that it was coddling the soldiers too much. I heard some things said very favorable to women's work in con- nection with the Y. M. C. A. In regard to the motor work, they said it was absolutely un- necessary, there were plenty of men to do that work. I have written nothing in regard to the THE SUMMER OF 1919 Y. W. C. A. because while in France I heard little about it, and that not particularly en- couraging, but am happy to say since my return I have met Admiral Wilson, who was in com- mand of the Navy Forces at Brest, and who spoke of their work for the sailors in the most complimentary way. To return to Verdun. We took a little walk about town. I was a little ahead of Willard, when I saw a very drunken Frenchman coming toward me, holding out his hand. I thought it best to shake hands with him, which amused Willard very much. Before coming up to me he had shaken hands with a German prisoner. Then we took our car again, and went in search of the Y. M. C. A. building, to find out what we had better see first. Nobody was visible but a child of about ten or twelve years old, who called a woman, who came forward; and there seemed to be a great deal of embar- rassment when we asked to see the superintend- ent. He was upstairs, they said, and would be down in a few minutes. Just then a great tall French officer came out, evidently under the weather from "looking on the wine when it was red." He bowed politely, and then passed on. THE SUMMER OF 1919 We then looked up and saw an American in uniform, evidently in the same condition, just staring down at us with a stupid expression. We decided to leave the building and look for information somewhere else. These were the only three intoxicated men we saw in all France. We then went to the Bishop's Palace, which had a beautiful view from its terrace, but was nearly destroyed by bombardment and fire. Many of its walls were down, and it was un- inhabitable at that time. Then we drove to the Citadel, and a French soldier was detailed to show us through. Most of it was under- ground, long passages perfectly dark. Our guide turned on electric lights so that we could see to walk around. These underground pas- sages accommodated many thousands of sol- diers. We were shown the sleeping-rooms, and where they dined, and where they could sit for recreation; of course these were all just long passages with arched roofs. (In one of them we met a soldier who had been polishing shells, and we bought two of them from him, as well as a little medal with "Verdun" on it.) The Citadel seemed very gloomy and very un- inviting, but I have no doubt when the town THE SUMMER OF I919 was being shelled it was very satisfactory to have a refuge of that kind. We then left Verdun, as it was necessary for us to reach Luxembourg that evening. The road was good, and we had a very comfortable ride. We were sometimes in doubt as to the direction, but there were many army cars pass- ing, and we occasionally asked our way. Soon after asking the direction from an officer who was standing on the road beside an army car (and these cars had passed us, being faster than we were) we found them waiting at the bottom of a hill to tell us what road to take, for they thought we might be in doubt, and they told us that just behind was the entrance to one of the Crown Prince's dugouts, and advised our going to see it, as it was a great curiosity. We were afraid to delay at all, and if we had known that we had just barely enough time to reach Luxembourg and be allowed to enter the city, we would have been more uneasy than we were. We arrived at the gate where the cus- toms officer met us a few minutes before seven, and heard that after seven we would not have been able to enter. We soon arrived at a very good hotel, where THE SUMMER OF I919 our young American officer had engaged rooms for us. Although we were only two days from Paris, we had seen so much desolation and misery we felt it was quite marvelous to go into a luxurious hotel, with big rooms, a fine bath- room, a good supper, and everything very pleas- ant and normal. The next day we drove through the town for an hour or more. We had never been there be- fore, and thought it a very beautiful place, very quaint and old, beautiful little views here and there, and handsome buildings — altogether we were quite charmed with it. [:"93 CHAPTER X WE then started off for Coblenz. Willard was sitting out with the chauffeur, as usual, and I was by myself. We drove along the banks of the Moselle for many miles, until I felt I simply must say something to Willard about it. I blew on the horn to attract his attention, and said, "Willard, I think this is one of the most beautiful rides I ever took in my life." He fully agreed with me. Both sides of the river were terraced all the way up to the top and planted with vines. Mountains on both sides, little villages here and there, all in per- fect condition, with little boxes of blooming geraniums at the windows. If we stopped a minute for any cause, the car would be sur- rounded by German children, which would have been a bad advertisement for the circulars beg- ging "milk for German babies" — all were fat and rosy. Early in the afternoon we stopped at a hotel THE SUMMER OF 1919 in Treves to get some lunch. It was an at- tractive place, where we had a good lunch and took a little walk afterwards along the river, before starting again for Coblenz. At one point we were obliged to cross the river on a raft, and had our first experience with German marks. Willard exchanged some French money with the Germans on the raft, and was aston- ished to get so many marks for his francs. Every mile of this ride from Luxembourg to Coblenz was beautiful, as beautiful as any I had ever taken in my life, perhaps excepting the ride to the Pah in Honolulu, and from Nice to Monte Carlo in France. We expected to stay with Colonel Holcomb, who won much distinction in fighting with the Marines at Chateau-Thierry and the other places where they did so well. We were to meet in Coblenz, and drove up to the American Headquarters. Willard went in to inquire where to find Colonel Holcomb. We knew that he was established in some old castle near the town. Willard was away quite a time, and when he returned he asked me to go in, and I was quite dismayed to hear that Colonel Hol- comb had been ordered home. Fortunately, [122] THE SUMMER OF I919 General Harts, whom we had known quite well in Washington, was there, and the commanding officer. General Allen, was very polite to us. They were both in the Headquarters at that time. I said to General Harts, "Is Mrs. Harts here? I suppose very few of the ladies have come over," and he said, "No, Mrs. Saulsbury, you are unique, you are the only one who is here." They told me that it was against the regulations, but they would make an exception in my favor, and take me in at Headquarters. After awhile the housekeeper came. She had found a room for us — a fine large room. I was feeling very uncomfortable, not for myself, but for fear I would be in the way; but just at that moment appeared the young officer who had arranged for our trip, bringing the good news that he had billeted us in a German castle. We walked with him and another officer over to this place, which was only a short distance. The building was the residence of the over- president of the province, and was where the Kaiser stayed when he came to Coblenz. It occupied an entire block. We went in and walked up the marble steps to the third floor, THE SUMMER OF I919 and were shown a number of large rooms. A young girl, the daughter of the over-president, appeared. She spoke English very well, and was polite. I chose two rooms and a bath- room. We stayed there for four days, had a dead-latch key and a special entrance. There were evidently a number of entrances, and we never saw anyone, excepting servants, other than this young lady and her sister, who ap- peared when we could not make our wants known to the maids, who did not understand any English. There was an electric elevator which we used, and which saved us the long walk up and down stairs, for the ceilings were very high. They told us the Kaiser occupied these rooms when he stayed there. We had no bad dreams, saw no ghosts. I was amused to imagine how furious he would be if he knew Americans were there under these circumstances. The rooms were very simply furnished, but large and comfortable. I said I was in the habit of taking a warm bath at night. We were told that they only had hot water in the bath- room in the morning, so I took my bath when I arose. One night I was awakened by a tre- THE SUMMER OF 1919 mendous noise; it sounded as if the walls were shaking, and I wakened Willard. We decided that it was probably an overheated boiler. So we opened the faucet in the bathroom, let the steam come out, and finally the noise stopped. I sent for the young lady in the morn- ing and learned that they had been having the water heated at night for me. I was sorry to have had them do this, as they were short of coal. The next day we went to Ehrenbreitstein. Willard had wanted to come to Coblenz espe- cially to see our flag flying over that great German fortress, and an enormous one it was. He also wanted to see the American soldiers in command of a German city. The colonel of the fort took us to the ramparts, from which we had a wonderful view. We walked partly around the fort — went inside, and saw a little of it. The colonel was very kind and polite. A lot of young men were taking lessons in firing from the ramparts. After that, we went to see the great statue of William I. This is an enormous equestrian statue on a point where the Moselle and the Rhine flow side by side. You can distinctly see THE SUMMER OF 1919 the water of the two rivers flowing side by side, one sand colored and the other blue. They say the waters of the French Moselle will not mix with the German Rhine. Altogether, Coblenz is a very attractive, handsome city. We went to the Y. M. C. A. building, and wandered about through the town. The next day, our kind young officer took us to Cologne in an army car, giving our chauffeur a chance to overhaul ours, which had gone over some pretty rough roads since we left Paris. Speaking of the chauffeur, I must explain that he was unable to get accommodations until he was billeted by our officer — or to get any ac- commodation for our car. It would have been absolutely impossible for us to have gone to Coblenz under any other circumstances. Before we reached Cologne, we were stopped by a British sentry, and had to get permission to go on into Cologne. The way to Cologne was very lovely, along the river, and a very good road. We reached there at lunch time, and lunched in the British officers' club, which was in a German club- house. Had a very good luncheon, and saw a number of English ladies with the British offi- THE SUMMER OF 1919 cers. After luncheon, we went to the cathedral, which we neither of us had ever seen, and were very much impressed by its size. I did not think It was as beautiful as the French cathe- drals in detail. Then we rode back again to Coblenz, seeing the beautiful scenery from an- other viewpoint. The following day we motored to Bad Ems, another very beautiful ride along the river and through the hills. This Is a fashionable Ger- man watering-place, which was then under the command of the French. We amused ourselves watching the French soldiers rowing on the river. Quite a number of the guests from the hotels were also amusing themselves rowing. This was the only occasion on which we saw ladies In summer gowns during the whole sum- mer. After a very delightful luncheon, we rode back to Coblenz late In the afternoon, the view being equally fine from that direction. One of the interesting things we saw In Coblenz while out walking was a regiment of French soldiers passing through the streets. They were unarmed, undoubtedly off for a little holiday. We stood on the edge of the pave- ment to watch them go by, and the expression [127] THE SUMMER OF I919 of their faces was very interesting under the circumstances. It was a modified expression of "the cat that swallowed the canary." The chil- dren stood on the sidewalks to see the soldiers go by, but the grown people pretended not to see them at all. Immediately before the arrival of our sol- diers at Coblenz, posters were placed every- where by the authorities warning the populace that American soldiers were coming and that they must be very careful not to provoke them in any way, and warned them that the results of any unpleasant behavior on their part would bring about very serious consequences. When the Germans found our soldiers perfectly well behaved and offering them no insults, they thought they were afraid of them and com- menced to be impertinent, and it was necessary for our men to give them a little setting down, which reduced them to their previous subser- viency. An interesting story was told us of our sol- diers' disapproval of the want of politeness shown by the German men to women. It Is. the custom for German women to give up their seats in the street cars to men, and our boys THE SUMMER OF I919 would rise and offer theirs to the women, who were beginning to demand the same courtesy from their mankind. It reminds me of the story told of some Germans traveling in this country with their wives, and one saying his wife did not like our sleeping cars because she objected to the upper berth. An American offered his lower berth to her, to which the husband objected, as "interfering with domestic discipline." While at Coblenz we lunched and dined at a hotel where we sat out-of-doors on a porch, and found things very good to eat, and very well served. We were surrounded by German people, men and women. We breakfasted in the officers' mess, where they were supposed to have American breakfasts, buckwheat cakes and syrup, fried eggs, bacon, and coffee or tea, also a cereal if you wanted it. The last day we were in Coblenz, Willard said to me, "You know these people think that we are Germans," meaning the Americans and the French, "be- cause we are the only people in Coblenz not in uniform excepting the Germans." I wore a pin of three small flags together, American, French and English, but it was very tiny, and I was 1:1293 THE SUMMER OF 1919 sorry that it was not three times as big, so that people could see it plainly. On the last morning, arriving for breakfast, we found a middle-aged American woman in uniform already in the dining-room. She called across the room to us, "Are you Americans?" I said, "Yes." Going over to her table, I told her what Willard had said about people think- ing we were Germans. She told me that she had been in Serbia for a couple of years and had come to Coblenz to see her son who was stationed there. It was very important for her to see him on account of some business, as well as for personal reasons, but the day before she arrived he had left, being ordered to America. She had agreed to serve six months longer in Serbia, and was obliged to return there, and was naturally very much disturbed and worried at missing her son after so long an absence, and at not having been able to arrange her business affairs with him. We talked a little across from our table to hers, and when she left she came over and said good-by. Her last words were, "It certainly has been a pleasure to see an American woman not in uniform I" CHAPTER XI EARLY the next morning we left for Liege. The road was very bad, and in some places really dangerous. They were making repairs, and it was very slippery and seemed unending. We rode for hours through a wood in the mud, and it was a great relief to me when we reached a dry road, for the one thing I am nervous about in motoring is skidding. I suppose about twelve o'clock that day we reached a point where we were stopped first by an English guard and then a Belgian, and we realized that we were in Belgium. Willard talked to an English soldier who was leaning out of a cottage window — a mere boy — whose hopes were centered on soon going home. Soon after we reached Spa. We left our car, and walked about the streets, bought some post- cards, and investigated the place. Spa is a very attractive watering-place, and seemed in per- fectly good shape, nothing injured about it. 1:131: THE SUMMER OF I919 Toward evening we reached Liege. There we had quarters in a hotel, not of the best, but comfortable enough, and after supper we went out and walked about through the streets. It is an interesting old place, appar- ently not injured at all by the war. I had the misfortune of losing a little pearl and diamond pin which I had brought with me as making a useful finish to my dress and suit- able to wear on almost any occasion, as I did not wish to carry much jewelry. I felt that I might have lost it at Spa or at Liege, but al- though we advertised in the papers, and offered a reward before leaving the hotel, and although the hotel keeper was very nice about it and afterwards wrote to us in Paris, I never heard anything of it again. The next morning we left for Brussels. We stopped for a time at Louvain to see the famous Town Hall and the ruins of the University and Library, the destruction of which had caused the amazement and hor- ror of the civilized world, which had not before that half believed the reports told of the Hun. After a very good ride and a pretty one, we reached Brussels in time for lunch. THE SUMMER OF 1919 Brussels looked just like Paris — not injured in any way, as far as we could see. We were surprised to find it in such perfect condition. We saw no signs of destruction, but we found afterwards that the Germans had stolen a great many things in Brussels. They had stolen all the brasses out of the houses, the doorknobs and kitchen utensils, and a great deal of ma- chinery out of the factories. Brussels had suffered very much, but not in a way that was visible to persons just arrived in the city. As the Germans had expected to keep Belgium, they did not destroy that portion of it. We went to the Palace Hotel in which rooms had been reserved for us. It was a large hand- some building, and we had two fine bedrooms, two bathrooms and a drawing-room. As soon as we had brushed up a little, we went down to get some lunch, and whom should we see in the hotel but Colonel Horton, whom we had known very well in Washington. He was going to leave for Paris that night, but said he would dine with us. This was very pleasant, and we en- joyed seeing him again, and hearing about his experiences. He was then making a trip of inspection to all the great cemeteries where THE SUMMER OF I919 Americans were buried, and told us that the Government expected to send photographs of graves wherever possible to the next of kin of the American soldiers. In the afternoon we drove about through the town and out into the country and returned to have another pleasant talk with Colonel Horton at dinner. He was leaving on the night train, so had to hurry away. We were interested and somewhat amused to see a group of East Indians sitting in the hall with their turbans, and dressed really like a lot of old women. If it had not been for their beards and boots, we might have thought they were women. We were told that they were very distinguished generals. The next morning Willard said he would leave cards at the legation. We had heard that Mr. Whitlock had left for America, but Willard thought he would go there neverthe- less. The entrance to the legation was inside of a courtyard. I sat in the car, waiting, when a gentleman came up, rested his elbows on the car window, looked in, and said, "How do you do?" I replied, "How do you do?" and he said, "I am Brand Whitlock." I exclaimed, THE SUMMER OF I919 "I thought you had gone to America!" He then explained that there was a strike on the boat on which he expected to sail (the sailors struck on account of something about the pota- toes served to them) and they had not been able to leave, but were all packed up, expecting to sail any day. Willard seemed to have dis- appeared, and Mr. Whitlock and I talked a few minutes, when he asked if we would not come back to lunch with them at one o'clock. I replied, "I am sure we would like to do so very much," but that I felt very travel-stained and not presentable. He replied that there was no one there but himself and Mrs. Whitlock, and he hoped we would come. So we returned at one o'clock. As I said before, the entrance to the house was in a courtyard, and the steps inside were all of stone, as houses in France and Belgium were apt to be, and the drawing- room was on the second floor. We thought the house very pretty and comfortable, and had a very pleasant lunch. After luncheon, I sat with Mrs. Whitlock on a sofa in the drawing-room, and Willard and Mr. Whitlock were talking together. I thought we were staying a long time, and tried to make the move a number of 1:135] THE SUMMER OF 1919 times, but Mr. Whitlock wanted to keep Wil- lard, as probably he had had no one to talk over things with for some time, and would not let us go. Mrs. Whitlock told me a number of interesting things she had done, and about what had happened during the war. They were both very kind and agreeable, and we enjoyed seeing them very much. One very good result of the Whitlocks hav- ing been still in Brussels was that when Willard told Mr. Whitlock that we were going to Malines to see Cardinal Mercier, he said he knew the Cardinal was in Brussels that day, and he would telephone and find out if we could not see him there. Willard would have liked very much to meet the King of Belgium, but he was away at that time. One of the things that Mrs. Whitlock told me that was interesting was about a luncheon she had had for the King and Queen of Bel- gium, to which she invited Cardinal Mercier. She was a little doubtful as to whether she could make a success of the entertainment, but she heard afterwards that the Cardinal had been very much pleased, and had enjoyed it. She also told me that the Queen of Belgium 1:1363 THE SUMMER OF 1919 always wore white. Like everyone else, they admired the royal pair extremely, especially the King, and that the Queen had been wonderful under the circumstances, she having the misfor- tune of being a German. She told us that the King was looking forward to his visit to Amer- ica with all the delight of a boy, and that he was so very energetic his escorts would have their hands full in keeping up with him. Willard had letters of introduction to Car- dinal Mercier from Cardinal Gibbons and from the Catholic Bishop here. At the appointed hour we arrived at the house in which he was staying. A number of priests were in the lower floor, and we were asked to go up one flight. We went up in an elevator, and then were asked to wait a few minutes in a reception room. In a very short time we were taken into the room where the Cardinal was. He is an absolutely stunning-looking man, very much younger and better-looking than his photo- graphs. He is very tall, majestic, with piercing eyes and heavy eyebrows, and with a good color. His photographs give you the impres- sion of a very old man, but he does not look so ; he looks vigorous, strong, kindly and very in- THE SUMMER OF I919 telligent. I have never met anyone who im- pressed me so much as he did, and it seemed quite wonderful to have the opportunity of sit- ting with him alone. We sat in front of him. He sat in a large chair and wore long black robes. We talked to him alone for fifteen or twenty minutes. He spoke very good English. Willard asked him to give him his photograph, which he promised to do, and sent it to us a few days later from Malines, writing on it that it was sent "To Senator and Mrs. Saulsbury." We told him that he would have a very warm reception in America. He seemed much inter- ested in his trip, had never crossed the ocean and it seemed a very long way to go. He wanted America to feel that he was coming just as much to the Protestants as to the Catholics, to thank them for the help of America to Bel- gium. We both realized what a privilege this visit to Cardinal Mercier was. I asked Mrs. Whitlock if there were any special places to go to buy lace. I thought as I was in Brussels I should buy a little as a souvenir, and she sent me to a person who made lace. It was not exactly a shop, it was more like a private house, and I bought a few THE SUMMER OF I919 little doilies and a centerpiece. The pro- prietress told me that she kept a list of the names of all the people to whom she sold lace in America, and I said, "Oh, I come from a very small town, I do not think it is likely that anyone from there would have bought lace from you." But she brought the book, and read out, "Mrs. Charles G. Rumford, and Mrs. E. T. Canby," both of whom I know very well. We had never been to Brussels before, and we were very much delighted with the Grand Place, where they have the flower markets and the wonderful old buildings on the different sides of the square, the town hall, and church. The following day we started off to continue our trip through the devastated regions. We lunched at Lille, and were interested to see, as we drove along, the various earthworks that had protected the city for a time, in those first days of the war, when we waited breathlessly for help to reach the French at that point. As we drove on, we saw signs on the different roads, saying, "This road leads to so and so." All the names were very familiar to us, on account of having been so deeply interested in them all through the war. At one place I saw the sign 1:1393 THE SUMMER OF 1919 "Roubaix," which was the large town near where "my French soldier" lived. At the be- ginning of the war I bought a small map of France, and was in the habit, whenever the Allies were winning, of marking their gains on this map with ink. I wore out a number of these little maps during the war, because when- ever the Germans were advancing I would pay no attention to it, and when they were retreat- ing I would get a new map and mark it again. I was in Maine when the battles of Chateau- Thierry and Belleau Woods were taking place, and had no one to talk to in whose opinion I had any special confidence, but I wrote to Willard several times (without getting any re- ply), asking if these were not really gains, and if it were not a really important advance, and at last he replied, saying that it was a great victory. Imagine my relief and delight. As we drove along through this country, every foot of which we had been interested in, I felt very oppressed. We were again going through village after village that had been en- tirely destroyed. Willard was sitting out in front, as usual, with the maps, so that I did not have anyone to talk to. As we drew near to 1:1403 THE SUMMER OF 1919 Lens, we commenced to see the awful devasta- tion of the country itself. All the trees were dead. Occasionally trees were standing, but they were dead. Generally they were either cut in half, or sometimes almost at the ground. There was nothing living in any of the fields, just great holes, and signs warning people from touching anything — "Danger of Death. Do not touch any projections. Danger of Death." There were great piles of barbed wire, bombs and shells. It was the most terribly desolated country that it is possible to imagine. I began to feel worse and worse. We reached Lens, which had been a town of 40,000 people. There was not a single house standing. Un- like the part of France where I had been be- fore, in which the cities were built of stone, the houses had been built of brick. The German prisoners had been made to clear the roads and pile up the bricks. There were great piles of bricks, but not a house. Occasionally one would see what had been the brick floor of a house, the roof of a cellar, and that people were liv- ing there. I saw a few people looking out of their cellars, and possibly a dozen people walk- ing in the town. CHI 3 THE SUMMER OF 1919 I saw two women with a little boy, and called to the chauffeur to stop. I said to Willard, "I will have to get out and give those people some money." Before I could stop the car and get out one of the women had turned back, but I gave something to the other woman, and asked her whether she lived there, and she said she did. She simply took the money, said "Thank you," and seemed surprised. She looked very neat and clean. A little further on we saw a little wooden building, which was evidently one of the relief stations, Red Cross or something of that nature. It was one of our great disappointments that we did not see Ypres. It was very near, but we were obliged to go to Amiens to spend the night, and could not go out of our way. An- other place which I would have liked very much to see was Stenay. My great-grandmother was born there, and Pierre de Pelleport had told me that the chateau in which she was born. Chateau Servisy, had not been disturbed. He said that it was no longer in the country, that the town had grown out around the chateau, but that it was intact and had been used by the THE SUMMER OF I919 Crown Prince as his headquarters when he was there. My great-great-grandfather, the Mar- quis de Pelleport, who was in the French army, was stationed at Stenay, and was living there at the time that my great-grandmother was born. She begins her memoirs by saying, "I was born at Chateau Servisy near Stenay." When I saw that the Germans were at Stenay, I supposed of course that the place was de- stroyed. I had been told that it was not at all a pretty place, but I had a curiosity to see it. As I have said before, we would drive all day without seeing another private car. This road was very good. We were stopped at a crossroads near a public house by a little group of people who were standing in the road mo- tioning to us to stop. The chauffeur went to speak to them, and Willard came back to the car, saying, "This young woman has just heard that her child has died at Amiens, and they want us to take her into the town, so that she can get there in time for his funeral. Have you any objections?" I said, "Why, of course not;" so she sat with me. She was a young woman who did not speak any English, dressed in black. She told me that she had two chil- CHS] THE SUMMER OF 1919 dren, and that one was a little boy four years old, who had died of meningitis at the convent. I supposed that she had gone back to her half- demolished house and sent her children to the convent, as so many people did. She looked as though she were the wife of a farmer or a store- keeper, a good class of countrywoman. She was crying half the time, and her handkerchief got so wet. She had a little black bag, and would take out her handkerchief and cry a little, and she evidently felt that she ought to talk to me. It was very pathetic. We were then about twenty-five miles from Amiens. She told us where she wanted us to leave her in Amiens. The poor woman took some money out of her pocketbook, and I wondered what she was going to do with it. She made an at- tempt to give it to the chauffeur, but he de- clined. She thanked us, and walked away. We were a little anxious about our arrival at Amiens, for it was the first place where reser- vations had not been made for us by the officer. We had telegraphed from Brussels and also from Lille. Fortunately we had comfortable enough rooms, but it was not a very good hotel, though THE SUMMER OF 1919 there was a very pretty courtyard where the guests sat after their meals. My attempt to order breakfast at Amiens was rather amusing. We are both substantial breakfast eaters, and I went first to the dining-room, Willard to follow in a few minutes. I said to the waiter, "Deux peches, iin cafe." Off he ran. I called him back, "m« the deux omelettes un lard." He looked wild and ran off again. A British offi- cer sitting at a table near said to me very politely, "Perhaps I can help you." I declined and then the head waiter arrived and I added orange marmalade to the rest and explained that my husband would be down in a minute. He, though with veiled disapproval, understood that we were only hungry, not crazy. It was at this hotel that chicken was charged for at a rate that one chicken would cost twenty dollars. After supper, Willard and I took a little walk through the town. Although there were places in Amiens where there had been great destruc- tion, generally speaking the town was not in very bad condition. I was surprised to find the cathedral almost perfect. Marie Bramwell and I talked several times about going to see the cathedral at Amiens when we were in Paris, CHS] THE SUMMER OF I919 but had not done so, and we thought from the reports that we would never see the glass or see the cathedral in any sort of condition, but as it turned out we found it almost intact, and had the opportunity of seeing the means taken to protect it inside. They were putting the glass back. A great deal of it was in place. We did not know whether it had all been saved or not. In the cathedral, they had protected the chapels by placing railroad track rails slant- ing from the ground up to the wall at small intervals, and filling all the spaces between with sandbags, which were still there. The cathe- dral itself is very beautiful, but the spire is very inadequate, it seemed to us. It is very slender and very beautiful in itself, but it seemed to me as if there ought to be at least two of these and one larger in addition. I said something to Guillemette about it, and she said that she had spent a month at Amiens while Pierre was at the front, and had gone to the cathedral every day. I have no doubt that it was a great comfort to her at that time, and she would not hear of any criticism of it at all. From Amiens we went to Beauvais to luncheon. I had been anxious to go there to Ch6 3 THE SUMMER OF 1919 see the old tapestries. As good luck would have it, they were on exhibition at the cathedral that week, so that it was very convenient and easy to see them. After a very lovely and com- fortable ride in the afternoon, we reached Paris that evening. Ch?] CHAPTER XII THE next afternoon, Willard went with Ambassador Wallace to a tea given by Mrs. House, met Mr. Paderewski there, and had quite a talk with him on Poland. Willard thought it was the most marvelous thing, that anyone who had been a great pianist could prove himself a great statesman and leader of his country. Willard heard that Paderewski's wife tried to get him to play to divert his mind, but that it was absolutely impossible for him to play at all. All his thoughts and energies were directed to the one object, the welfare of his country. Soon after that, we went to a reception by Mrs. Lansing in the Hotel de Crillon and took Pierre and Guillemette de Pelleport with us. Mrs. Lansing wore a white gown, and looked very handsome. She is lovely in evening dress. The reception rooms at the Hotel de Crillon are very handsome, and it was a gay and attractive entertainment. I was busy intro- THE SUMMER OF I919 ducing Americans to my cousins. I knew, of course, a great many people there because they either were Americans or were foreigners whom I had met in Washington, among others the Belgian minister, M. de Cartier, whom I had seen just before I left Washington, and had jokingly said to him that I had found some- one whom I thought would be a very good match for him, a widow, very beautiful and very intelligent. Hearing from Willard that I was at the reception, he came to speak to me, evidently in a great hurry to get away, and said to me, "I have taken your advice." I felt dum- founded, because I took it literally. He saw that I was puzzled, and said, "I am going back as Ambassador." When I had an opportunity to speak to Willard, I told him about this, and about the possibility of his going to be married, and a day or two afterwards he met Willard at the Embassy and said to him, "I am going to be married in two days. You can tell Mrs. Sauls- bury, but nobody else." I saw Mr. Paderewski surrounded by a crowd waiting to shake hands with him. After speak- ing, I stood aside, and watched him for a few minutes, when Willard came along. As soon THE SUMMER OF I919 as he saw Willard, he just dropped everyone else, and went forward to meet him, and contin- ued talking with him in the most animated way. As we were leaving the hotel, Madame de Billy came in. I had met her and her husband in Washington. She is a very pretty young woman and her husband a distinguished man. I do not think she liked Washington, but when I saw her that afternoon in Paris she was looking so gay, happy and pretty that it was quite a shock to hear that her husband was killed either that afternoon or the next by being thrown from his horse and dragged by the stirrup. He had been in America on one of the missions, and was con- sidered a very able man, and was also very much liked by his friends. Justice Brandeis came to see us in Paris and I was so much interested in his description of his trip to Jerusalem, from which he had just returned, and in what he said relative to the return of the Jews to the "Promised Land." I cannot help thinking that it is a sentiment that is more fascinating as a dream than as a reality. Pierre's mother had been desperately ill just at the time we arrived in Paris, and we were i:'5i: THE SUMMER OF I919 not able for that reason to go to see her. She was at her home, at Chateau Champlevrier in the southeastern part of France, and her daughters had been taking turns being with her. After the death of her husband, who was killed in the first few days of the war, his daughter, Marie Louise, whose nickname is Poucette, had been writing to me in his place. I had grown very fond of her. When I stayed at Champlevrier, her father had put me in her care, and she had been very sweet, and during the years of the war had written me most re- markable letters. She had married under what would seem to us very romantic circumstances. A cousin of her sister-in-law had seen her at her brother's wedding and had admired her very much. Like all young Frenchmen, he had gone into the army, and later was ordered to Roumania. He asked to see Poucette before he went on this very dangerous mission. Her mother wrote me wondering if she had done right to allow Poucette to see him, under the circumstances. Poucette wrote me that she had not remembered him. They had letters from him for quite a long while, and then there was silence, and they were afraid that he had been THE SUMMER OF I919 killed. The mother was worried, fearing that Poucette had become interested in him, and would suffer if he did not return. To her sur- prise, he suddenly came back, and they decided that they would be married. They had eight days' honeymoon, and he went to the front again. Gabrielle wrote to me asking if I knew any American general well enough to ask him to ask for Henry de Sauzea. He spoke English and German fluently. It was soon after our entrance into the war, and the only general I could think of, whom I knew well enough, was General Gordon. He was a Major-General and was then in France. I wrote to Mrs. Gordon, sent her some of these letters and told her the history. Mrs. Gordon replied very kindly to me, saying that she had forwarded the letters to her husband, who was then at the front. I then received a letter from Poucette, saying that she had heard from her husband, who had written her saying that even if any general had written to him he would probably not receive the letter, since he had been moved several times. The next letter said that Henry found THE SUMMER OF I919 that he was actually in General Gordon's Divi- sion. Then came the news that General Gor- don had sent for him, asked him to supper and to spend the evening. They had talked about me and about Poucette, and although his colonel could not spare him then, it meant a great deal to him to know the Major-General. Then I had a letter from Mrs. Gordon, saying that her husband had written to her that he had seen the young officer, and was very much pleased with him. General Gordon wrote to me also. Poucette was living with the parents of her husband, and as soon as we came to Paris, she wrote asking us to come down at once, sending an invitation from her father-in-law and mother-in-law to visit them. We declined for the present, but hoped to come later. Poucette then decided to come up to see us in Paris, and soon after she and her husband arrived. She telephoned me on her arrival, and sent me a lovely bunch of roses. Guillemette telephoned asking us to come to them to lunch on Saturday — the de Sauzeas arrived on Saturday morning. So we went to Pierre's to meet them. I found Poucette very much changed; for a moment I scarcely recog- THE SUMMER OF 1919 nized her. When I had seen her before, she was just grown, and all she had suffered in these years had matured her very much. I had not realized that she was so tall. She is a beauty and just as sweet and dear and affection- ate as she can be. I learned for the first time that she had a very fine voice. We had a very pleasant luncheon. Another young couple was there, Henry, Poucette, Guillemette, Pierre and ourselves. The programme was that they should dine with us that evening, Pierre, Guillemette, Henry and Poucette, and we asked Major Rufiin and Miss Eleanor Brown. Eleanor Brown is a sister of Donaldson Brown, and was working in the Red Cross in Paris. Greta had asked me to look her up. We had a pleas- ant dinner, which I enjoyed very much. I sat between Henry and Pierre, and found Henry a very agreeable, sensible fellow. We both liked him very much. Major Rufiin was very much carried away by Poucette, and was sorry that he had met her "too late." I had a little fun that evening by sending Major Rufiin off with Miss Brown. Our car was to take her home, and I said to Major C155: THE SUMMER OF I919 Ruffin, "You can take Miss Brown home, and then our chauffeur can take you to your house." I knew that as far as Major Ruffin and Miss Brown were concerned, this was not only per- fectly proper, but a self-evident proposition, but that the young French people would con- sider it one of our curious customs. The next day, Sunday, we lunched with Pou- cette and Henry at their hotel, and enjoyed it very much. They had a delightful luncheon and it was pleasant in every way. At Guille- mette's, Poucette's and my plate there was a wonderful pink rose, which I have never seen before, and have not been able yet to find out its name. After having it in the sun all the afternoon, I carried it home, cut off a little bit of the stem, put it in water, and it lasted nearly a week. The stem was more like that of a peony than a rose. Pierre had told me that a de Pelleport ances- tor's portrait was in the Chateau of Versailles, and I suggested that we go there and he, Pierre, could show it to us. So we all went out and he showed us the picture in the Salle des Battailles. He did not know which of the men was our ancestor, but he knew it was one of them. Then c>56n THE SUMMER OF I919 in another gallery he showed us an ancestor of his mother's in the picture of a battle; there was a plan of the picture giving the names, and the name of his ancestor was there, although the only part of him that showed was his head as he fell in the battlefield. There was also a bust of the same man in the same gallery. It was very interesting wandering around with these young people during the afternoon, and we had a pleasant ride back to Paris. Pou- cette left Paris that night, for she had left her baby at home. I felt very glad to have had the opportunity to see her, especially as we after- wards gave up our plans for a trip to Switzer- land, and were not able to see her in her own home near Lyons. Ds?] CHAPTER XIII ON our return from the trip to the devas- tated regions, we tried to make plans by which we would spend two or three weeks longer on the continent, and had practically decided to go to Switzerland by motor, when we found that it would be almost impossible for us to get our baggage through in time to be of any use. There seemed to be so many difficulties in the way that we finally gave it up, and decided to go directly to England. In the meanwhile, we made various excur- sions from Paris. Willard had never seen Fontainebleau, and we rode out there one day, arriving about lunch time, and went to the very attractive Hotel France et Angleterre, which is just at the gates of the Chateau. We had lunch on the porch. There were very few guests, three or four officers, and two or three young women in uniform were lunching on the porch near us. We had a perfectly delicious luncheon and sat there for a while talking. THE SUMMER OF 1919 I went in to look at some pictures I had seen from the porch, and spoke to the proprietor about them. He immediately became very much interested, and explained how this great number of colored prints were collected by his father and mother. He then told me he would like to show me some furniture, and ended by taking me all over the house, room after room, filled with the most beautiful old French furni- ture that I have ever seen. This collection had been a hobby of his mother and father. The hotel was entirely furnished with it, very handsome clocks and vases and all sorts of beautiful things, much of it such as you would see in museums. The rooms were all arranged, the beds made, but I did not see any signs of guests. He was evidently pleased to show the house to someone who knew something of old furniture and was interested in it. I began to think that Willard would wonder what on earth had become of me. At last we returned, and found Willard patiently waiting. We then went over to the Chateau, and after waiting a few minutes, went through it with quite a party, some young American soldiers and a few French people. The guide described THE SUMMER OF I919 the rooms in French, and I translated what he said to Willard, not speaking very loud for fear the young Americans would think that I was showing off. There was one young American who evidently understood French about as well as I do, but after a while the guide asked him in perfectly good English whether he understood him, which amused me very much. I was glad to go through this Chateau again. After leaving the Chateau, we took a beauti- ful ride through the forests which are of course a wonderful feature of the place. We drove for quite a long time, met a few people walking, and I should think it would be a very pleasant place to stay for a while in the summer. Alto- gether, the peaceful quiet of this day made a pleasant change. We made several other excursions of that kind. One day we went to Saint-Germain, taking Major Ruffin with us. To our great dis- appointment, we found that we were not allowed to go into the Chateau, because the members of the Austrian Peace Mission were there; they were using the Chateau as their headquarters. It was all roped off, and we were not allowed to go near it, but we could go on the terrace, THE SUMMER OF I919 from which there is a very wonderful view of Paris. With that exception, this was not a very pleasant trip, as we could not get into the good restaurant, and were obliged to have a very simple meal in a not very attractive place, and a good deal of the road in and out was through the town. One afternoon we went to Saint-Denis. The road out there is not a pleasant one, being altogether through Paris, and not an attractive part of Paris ; but we had a very interesting time in the church itself. The last time I had been there, there had been quite a crowd, and we had had a bad guide; but this time the guide was a much better one, and as there were com- paratively few people we had a good oppor- tunity to look at the tombs and to see the church. We went to Notre Dame. It is always de- lightful to go there, one feels the charm of the place, both inside and out. We were also interested in the young Frenchmen who were coming into the church constantly to pray, and to give candles to be lighted in memory of their lost relatives. There were two things which we did nearly every day — visit the book stores and the fruit 1:162] THE SUMMER OF 1919 Stores. I would do the fruit buying, and bought peaches every day, and paid from two to four francs apiece for them. I also bought figs and some gooseberries, and other fruit. We seemed to have a craving for fruit, and could get very little of it. I think the French peaches are the best. They reminded me of the peaches I used to have when I was a child. They are grown on the walls of the gardens in France, and are very perfect and tender. I like them much better than the green-house peaches of England. These are too delicate. When we were in Eng- land, I used to buy peaches, and they cost about sixty cents apiece, some of them even much more than that. Usually we each had a peach at our breakfast. I used to enjoy the little French fruit shops, because the salesmen or women always talked to me, and seemed pleased if I said anything to them. It seemed strange to be in Paris and not to go near a dressmaker or to any of the big shops to buy the things in which women are usually interested when they are in Paris, but I was too much interested in other things. The day before I left Paris I bought myself two hats, thinking that I might possibly regret it if I did not; and THE SUMMER OF 1919 that only took me a few minutes, as I went to a French shop recommended by Guillemette de Pelleport and found the saleswoman who usu- ally waited on her, so that It did not keep me very long. We went to see quite a remarkable panorama of the war, and stopped for a minute to look at some photographs of soldiers which were in the hall, when a man came up to Willard and asked if he would go into a certain room, which we did. There he was asked to write his name in a book. We never could understand how they knew who Willard was. The panorama was very remarkable. There was a man to describe it and to tell who the people were, and one walked around a great big circle, and saw the pictures of different phases of the war, and of many distinguished people who acted in it, and especial events of the war were illustrated. One day we went to lunch with Mr. and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss. We knew Mr. Bliss's sister very well in Washington, Mrs. Charles Warren. Mrs. Bliss is very beautiful, really stunning, and very attractive. She distinguished herself in relief work during the war, and her picture was one of the very prominent ones in 1:164: THE SUMMER OF I919 the panorama of which I have just spoken. We spoke to her about it, and she disclaimed any knowledge of it, and evidently was not at all pleased to have it there. It had seemed to us a little unfortunate that she should have been dressed in semi-evening dress in the panorama picture ; evidently this was the only photograph they were able to find to work from. I think there was only one American at this luncheon besides ourselves. There were various distinguished foreigners, but I cannot recall who they were. One of the pleasant results of our journey for me was making the acquaintance of an Eng- lish lady to whom I had been writing for some years. From the beginning of the war I had been contributing to the LaFayette Fund, which sent comfort kits to French soldiers. Each one had a postcard addressed to the donor, and I had received many notes from these French- men. One day, several years before, I had received an extremely nice letter from a lady at Versailles, saying that a French soldier who had received a kit from me had asked her to write to me because he could not write English. She had told him that I had much rather hear from him. THE SUMMER OF I919 She went on to tell me something of this man, and also of the work that she had been doing, helping the families of these men, and also in sending packages to French soldiers, prisoners in Germany. I sent her some money to help her carry on this work, and in her letter of thanks she seemed very much astonished that I would send money without knowing anything about her. I had judged by her letter, and continued to send her money from time to time, and she would write telling me what she had done with it. She was an Englishwoman of about forty. In Paris and at Versailles one finds shops on the street, and in courtyards back private dwell- ings. Her apartment was arranged in that way. I went up a couple of flights of stairs, and rang a bell. She called to me to come in, and I found her very comfortably fixed, if she had been well. The rooms were comfortably furnished, but it seemed cheerless for one who was sick, as she was. She had some nervous trouble. While I was sitting there, two of her French friends came in, and Miss Woodbourne, the Englishwoman, introduced me as an Ameri- can, and they said, "Oh, is it the American THE SUMMER OF I919 lady?" and Miss Woodbourne said, "Yes, it is the American lady," at which title I felt very much flattered. One of our pleasant experiences at this time was at Pavilion d'Armenonville, Bois de Bou- logne, as guests of Major Ruffin, after a ride through the park. It was a delightful clear afternoon, and we sat under the trees and talked for an hour, after a very good dinner. I sup- pose in pre-war days this place would have been crowded; on that evening, it was quite peaceful and quiet. Since my return home, I have frequently heard reports that Paris was normal. Imagine normal Paris with not a single handsome turn- out on the Champs Elysees, and fashionable resorts like the Pre Catelan and d'Armenonville as quiet as a country village ! How can a country be normal so soon after it has lost four million men — besides countless women and children, who have died as the result of the war? We dined twice at the Pre Catelan. Once Major Ruffin was with us. The other time was just before leaving Paris for England, when we were the guests of the Under Secretary of THE SUMMER OF 1919 State and Mrs. Polk, General Bliss being the only other guest. The Polks had just arrived in Paris to take the place of the Lansings on the Peace Mission. We like and admire them both so much, I was glad to have been able to arrange that evening for Pierre and Guille- mette de Pelleport to meet them on the follow- ing day. Mrs. Polk told me that her little daughter had noticed the young couples walking in the streets of Paris, with arms around each other's shoulders and hand-in-hand, and she had ex- plained that it was a French custom, to which the child replied, "The American soldier seems to have taken it up." I had often wondered, when I had seen *' 'Arry and 'Arriet" in the parks of London and the lanes of England, as well as the young couples in the streets of Paris, why it is that, no matter how humble the class, this pubhc love- making is never seen in America. Since my return home I have heard so many people lament the coming physical degeneration of the French people, owing to the fearful loss of life during the war, and have replied, "If you had seen the handsome Frenchmen I saw THE SUMMER OF 1919 in France last summer you would change your mind." I confess that years before I had formed an opinion of French people from those I had seen in the streets of Paris and forgotten that "there are more Jews in New York than in Jerusalem." I have never seen anywhere such handsome, well-built men as the French soldiers. The blue uniform is, of course, very becoming, but the fact that the British soldiers, like our own, had been made "while you wait" and that every Frenchmen was a soldier before the war began was most apparent. The old rhyme, "Five skinny Frenchmen, nine Portuguese, One jolly EngHshman whip all these," is out of date. n'693 CHAPTER XIV AT the end of July we left Paris on our XjL way to England. Pierre de Pelleport said he would see us off at the train, and I was looking out of the window watching for him. Just a few minutes before the train pulled out he appeared, looking perfectly stunning. It was the first time I had seen him with his hat on; the French officer's hat of red and gold is very becoming. Willard said he had never seen anyone more well set up and fine-looking than he was that morning. He carried a bunch of roses which he brought me, the same variety of pink roses that Poucette had at her luncheon. After the long journey to England, I cut the stems off and put them in water, and they kept fresh for days. The last words Pierre said to us, after send- ing messages to his cousins here, were, "When you come back next year I will speak English perfectly." He had been given a week to study English when it became necessary for him to [■70 THE SUMMER OF I919 know something about it during the war. We Americans are so stupid about foreign languages we marvel at the ease with which the French acquire ours. Just as we were starting off, an officer came into the compartment, and as there did not seem to be quite room for his bags, I tried to tell him in French that he could move some of our things that were in the way. He replied that if I would speak English he thought he would understand me better. He spoke perfect Eng- lish. Willard could hardly contain his joy at this little setting down which I received. We had a smooth passage and no occasion for being seasick. The only trouble we had was after our arrival at Folkestone, when we lost our handbags. We were in a great state of excitement over losing them. I had my little bag, but the others seemed to have been lost somewhere in the excitement. After allow- ing several trains to go on to London we lost our seats, but fortunately found others, and had a very comfortable trip up to London, arriving at about nine or ten o'clock in the evening. We were met by the porter from the hotel. I took a seat in the bus, and Willard and the porter 1:172] THE SUMMER OF I919 went on to the baggage-room to see if our hand- bags were there. As I was looking out of the window of the bus, I saw our bags on a little wheelbarrow going along the platform. I jumped out of the bus, and ran down the plat- form, and said, "That is our baggage!" After talking to the porter and the captain of the car for a few minutes, I persuaded them to wait, and presently Willard and the porter of the hotel came along, and we captured the bags and started to the hotel. As a matter of fact, it actually came on the same train that we did. We suppose that the steward, to whom Willard had given quite an extra fee, had not taken it to the customs at all, but put it on the train, so that the whole trouble was caused by his being in a hurry to get some more baggage and get some extra tips. However, it ended well, and we found our- selves at Brown's Hotel, to which I had declared I would never return, as it gives me the blues. But under the circumstances, we considered our- selves very lucky. We had gone to Brown's because we thought it was more likely that we could get rooms at a place where we had stayed before. THE SUMMER OF 1919 In English hotels everything is arranged to make it impossible to put anything in the ward- robes. The rooms are filled with enormous pieces of furniture which nobody but an English- man knows what to do with. Even if you have a bathroom, they have a washstand in your bed- room, with all sorts of pitchers and basins on it, taking up a lot of room. They have ward- robes with lots of drawers but no place to hang anything. Everything seems to work back- ward, and on top of this the bedrooms are dark. They seem to think that the most important thing is to have a large sitting-room, which is always placed where you can get plenty of light and air, and is generally very comfortable and attractive. The guests always sit in their rooms, and you never see them except at meal times, and according to my idea it is very dull for people from America, accustomed to music and some general gathering-place where people meet. The last time I was in England, it made me so depressed that I persuaded Willard to go to the Hyde Park Hotel ; but they gave us such a kind welcome at Brown's we stayed on there. The day after I arrived, I went on a trip of investigation and found a suite which had a 1:1743 THE SUMMER OF 1919 modern wardrobe with hangers, and was lighter than the one that they had given us, and also had a maid's room in which we could put some of our trunks; and we settled down there for the rest of our stay. Some years before, we had gone to Brown's and I had said that I hated to go there because we did not see anyone we knew, and the day after we arrived, in going out of the dining- room to the room where they take coffee after dinner, we met Judge Gray, Mrs. Gray, and Miss Nannie Gray, two or three people we knew from Baltimore, some cousins of the Forbes', and two or three other Americans. We filled up almost the entire room in a few minutes with Americans. They then came up to our sitting-room and filled it up. It seemed rather absurd, after saying that we never saw anybody. Even on this occasion we did see a few Americans. General Sharp (who had been sent over by the Government on some war business) , whom we knew in Washington, and who was there for a few days, dined with us once, and spent the evening with us several times. We also had known Judge Alton B. Parker, who had been a candidate for the presidency a few THE SUMMER OF I919 years ago. He had come to England to present the statue of Lincoln by Barnard to the City of Manchester. It was very pleasant to see him. He also came up to our sitting-room and spent one or two evenings with us. The season was over in London, and we knew that the Davises had gone to the country, but we called at the Embassy and left cards. We left London to spend a few days at Bath, having secured a fairly good car, in fact the use of two. When we went on long trips we had one, and when we went about in London we had another, not quite so comfortable, but with a fairly good engine. Motoring in England I think is very dangerous, owing to the narrow roads, high hedges and bad curves. We came within an ace of a bad accident near Wells. We spent a few pleasant days at Bath. They have a very good hotel, and the country about is pretty and interesting. We went to Wells from there, and made various other trips. In the drawing-room of the hotel at Bath is a clock hanging on the wall, almost exactly like one that we have. I asked a clerk at the office if she knew the history of it. She said that it had come from the restaurant of the Criterion THE SUiMMER OF I919 Theatre in London. They had been offered £200 for it, and had refused it. I do not know where mine came from. I bought it at an antique shop in Washington from an English- man, but it had been a long time in this country. I have since learned it is called a Marie Antoi- nette clock. When we returned to London, we found a very nice note from Mrs. Davis, inviting us to dinner a few days before. I wrote to her imme- diately, and sent it to her house, saying that we were so sorry, but that we had been away. She happened to be in London that day, and tele- phoned and asked if we would not come around to tea, which we did. We met there a judge and his wife from Washington and a gentleman and his wife who were attached to the Paris Embassy. I think they were on their way to America. I think I mentioned that the house of the Ambassador was owned by a lady who sat next me at lunch at the Wallaces' in Paris, Lady Waterloo. It is in a good part of London, a gentleman's house, nothing very remarkable about it, but very suitable and dignified, but how different from that of Mr. Whitelaw Reld, who was in London when we were there before. THE SUMMER OF 1919 Mr. Davis often came to London to attend to business and several times he and Willard went out to play golf together. Once Willard took him in his car and the car broke down about two miles from the golf links. The chauffeur said he would try to pick up a car to take them on. He succeeded in stopping a small car with two men in it, who said they would take them on to the golf course. As they approached their destination Willard saw the Ambassador take some change out of his pocket. Willard said to him, "You had better go slow about that," and so he put the money back into his pocket. They simply thanked the men and Willard said, "You may be interested to know that this gentleman is the American Ambassa- dor." The man immediately said, "Oh, won't he write his name in my book?" which the Ambassador did, and said to the man, "This is Senator Saulsbury, who was President pro tempore of the Senate," and the man asked him also to write his name in his book. He was a collector of autographs, and it seemed strange that they could give him something that he really wanted, in exchange for his kindness. Sometimes Willard played golf with Mr. THE SUMMER OF I919 Wright, who was Counselor of the Embassy. Mrs. Wright called on me, but I missed her both then and when I returned the call. Sev- eral times she went out to the golf course, thinking I would be there. The afternoon before we left London, Willard came in at about seven o'clock in the evening. I had dressed, expecting to remain in the hotel, in a semi-evening dress. Willard said, "The Wrights want us to come right around to din- ner." I said, "I can't go in this gown," and he said, "Yes, you are just right, no one Is to be there but the Ambassador." Willard had to rush and take a bath and change, for we had only half an hour. We took a taxi and went around to the Wrights' and had an extremely pleasant evening. After as good a dinner as you can have with English food, we talked till quite late In the evening. I had met Mr. Davis often In Washington, and had sat next to him at din- ners, but it was not quite the same as being so far away from home, and just five Americans talk- ing together. He Is not only a very good-look- ing man, but very agreeable, and I think a very satisfactory Ambassador to have In England at this time. Mrs. Davis Is a very pretty and 1:1793 THE SUMMER OF 1919 attractive woman, and I think will be a social success there. Mrs. Wright told me that housekeeping in London was very easy. You had a number of maids, each one doing only her special work, and it was much better if you did not give many directions. You were not supposed to say any- thing at all to the "tweeny." I was disappointed not to see Lady Reading, whom I knew very well In Washington. She had had a severe operation, and was at the seashore. The Colville Barclays were In London also at that time. We exchanged calls, but were not at home. Willard saw Mr. Barclay for a few minutes In the RItz. They were about to start for Sweden and were very busy. I went to see Mary Hounsfield, who had been living In London since the beginning of the war, and also went out to Oxhey Hall to see the other Hounsfields. We had tea with them, and a very pleasant afternoon. Almost every day we made some excursion into the country, lunch- ing at one place or another. One day we rode down to Canterbury to renew our acquaintance with the Cathedral. [180] THE SUMMER OF I919 We went to Salisbury on our way back to London from Bath. Willard had seen the Cathedral alone, and I had been anxious to see it ever since. If I lived abroad, I would spend a great deal of time in the cathedrals. Each has its peculiar charm, and the more one sees the more beautiful and interesting they appear. When the time for sailing came near, Colonel House told Willard that he and Mrs. House were expecting to sail on the Mauretania, and asked if he would not change his plans (we had passage on the Baltic) and sail on that boat. Lord Grey and his suite would be there, which would be pleasant, and if we were willing he would see that we got passage through the Brit- ish Foreign Office. As it turned out. Colonel House was called back to Paris, and was unable to sail on the Mauretania. In the meantime, the Ambassador had invited Willard to dine to meet Lord Grey, and he had also been at a large luncheon at which Lord Grey was the guest of honor. I had forgotten to say that we frequently went to the theatre in the evenings. It was rather disappointing that most of the plays were [•8.] THE SUMMER OF I919 those which we had seen In New York. I think the most remarkable thing we saw was the "General Allenby in Palestine" moving picture show. We scarcely thought, as Colonel and Mrs. House would not sail on the Mauretania, that we would see very much of the Grey party, but were agreeably disappointed. We sailed on Saturday afternoon and on Sunday morning Major Stuart came and asked us if we would lunch with Lord Grey that afternoon, which we did. The two young attaches, Stuart and Campbell, took our little table, and we went to Lord Grey's table. There were five of us; Sir William Tyrrell and Colonel Murray were the other two. Lord Grey told me that he would not be able to recognize me on the deck. I asked if he had had his teeth X-rayed, and he said that he had had his whole head X-rayed, found noth- ing wrong, and that the treatment for his eyes at that time was giving them exercise, trying to improve them in that way. I suggested to him that as Dr. Wilmer was supposed to be the greatest oculist in the world, he should consult him while in Washington. He replied that he THE SUMMER OF 1919 already intended to do so. As it turned out, Dr. Wilmer had Lord Grey's teeth X-rayed, the trouble was discovered, and he has been assured that his eyesight would certainly be no worse and probably better. It must have been worth while to have come to America for that alone. The next day Major Stuart asked Willard if he would play bridge with Lord Grey in his suite. The party consisted, in addition to Lord Grey, of Sir William Tyrrell and Mr. Strong of New York, who was the Governor of the Federal Reserve Bank there, Willard making the fourth. The following night, Tuesday, an entertain- ment was given for the benefit of widows and children of British sailors, which they always have on these steamers. Lord Grey presided. Sir Arthur Whiten-Brown gave an account of his flight from America to Europe. He was the American aviator with Alcock, the English avia- tor, who made the first trip across. We had heard from the American Ambassador in Lon- don that this young man had consulted him about the honor of being knighted for his ser- vices, as to whether it would affect his American citizenship, as he would not accept it if it did. [■83] THE SUMMER OF I919 The Ambassador told him that it would not have any effect on it. Willard, requested to do so by the manage- ment, made a speech thanking Lord Grey for having presided. He spoke of the friendship between England and America and said that Lord Grey at the outbreak of the war had so superbly managed the foreign affairs of Great Britain that our two countries came inevitably to fight under our united flags — thus realizing the hope of Thomas Jefferson for the complete rapprochement of the English-speaking races of the world. Wednesday he was again asked to play bridge with Lord Grey, the same party. Thursday he received the same invitation, and Friday evening about six o'clock we landed. Lord Grey told him jokingly that he was thinking of telling the captain that Sir William Tyrrell had the bubonic plague, to keep them on board another night, so that they could have another game of bridge. I had imagined Lord Grey very old, I sup- pose because he was such a great man, and was surprised to find him quite the reverse. He is unusually tall, has not a grey hair in his head, 1:184] THE SUMMER OF I919 and his whole appearance expresses character, strength and kindliness. Sir William Tyrrell is short and jolly, a polished man of the world, very amusing and interesting. I believe he has a lot of good common sense. In fact, though a contrast to each other, they are both most agreeable. I had a little talk one day with an Australian captain who had been two years in a Turkish prison, and had given an account of it one even- ing in the drawing-room of the steamer. He was on his way home. He told me that he did not think that the Turks especially meant to be cruel, they were naturally cruel, did not care whether their own soldiers lived or died. I am afraid to say positively, but it is my impres- sion that he said out of ten thousand prisoners about eight thousand died. You can hardly imagine how anybody could have lived through the experiences he had had in escaping. He spent hours of each day for several weeks hid- den in a pipe on the steamer on which he eventually sailed. The whole story was more exciting than an Oppenheim novel. Apropos of this, a few days before we left Paris we were lunching at a table next to the THE SUMMER OF I919 one at which General Harbord was sitting with several other officers, and he came to say a few words to us before leaving. He was just start- ing for Armenia to investigate for the Ameri- can Government the condition of the Armenians. It almost seems incredible that there can be any Armenians, there have been so many massacres. He has just returned to this country with a report on the situation. To return to the Mauretania. While Wil- lard was playing bridge with Lord Grey, I spent my evenings with Colonel and Mrs. Colin Campbell. Mrs. Campbell was a Miss Leiter, a sister of the well-known Lady Curzon. I found her a very sweet and agreeable compan- ion. Her husband usually sat with us in the drawing-room of the steamer and read, while we talked. We just happened to meet again in the Pullman coming down from New York (she was on her way to Washington), so I had another long talk with her, and liked her very much. We heard afterwards that Colonel Campbell was going to become an American citizen owing to the tremendous taxation on in- comes. In some instances, when an American heiress had married an Englishman, between 1:1863 THE SUMMER OF I919 the American and the English income taxes the tax was greater than the income. We landed late in the evening, and owing to the scarcity of men to handle the baggage we sat for hours on the dock. I would sit on the only trunk we had found, and then wander away for a while, hunting for the others, and then Willard would do the same. As time went on we were the last people on the dock. Several of Lord Grey's suite came out and sat on the trunks with us, and wandered about for a while. They spent the night on the boat, and I hope found their trunks with less trouble. D87: CHAPTER XV WE arrived home the last of September, after having had the most wonderful trip, full of so much interest and pleasure. Not long after our return, the Prince of Wales came to Washington. The Vice-Presi- dent and Mrs. Marshall sent us an invitation to meet him at the Congressional Library, which invitation arrived the day after the entertain- ment; but we received one in time from Lord Grey, which read in this way: "To have the honor to meet His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales the British Ambassador requests the honor of the company of Senator and Mrs. Saulsbury on Thursday evening, November the thirteenth." Our reply was worded: "To have the honor to meet His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales Mr. and Mrs. Saulsbury have the honor of accepting the kind invitation of the British Ambassador to a reception on Thursday evening, No- vember the thirteenth." 1:189] THE SUMMER OF I919 The reception at the British Embassy was not a crowded one by any means. It seemed as if we knew everybody there, and as I had not been in Washington for some time, everyone was extremely cordial and seemed glad to see us again. We had a delightful evening. The Prince of Wales was standing in the front drawing-room with a very tall member of his suite, I have forgotten who he was, who intro- duced us. He replied very pleasantly to my greeting, and smiled. He looked extremely young, but had a very pleasant, bright face. Later in the evening. Sir William Tyrrell took Willard back to have a few minutes' conversa- tion with him. I was told that Mrs. Gillett was going to have a dance for him that evening at the Country Club, and I was very glad to hear it, he looked such a boy. He must have been bored to meet so many older people, and I thought he would enjoy dancing with the American girls. Mr. Gillett is now the Speaker of the House, and he and his wife are both very attractive people. Lord Grey asked Willard to dine and play bridge once or twice after that, and he was able to go one evening to bridge, although he did not 1:190: THE SUMMER OF 1919 get there in time for dinner. He had gone down to Washington in his car, and said to Sir William Tyrrell, "Won't you get your bag and come up with me for the ride, and to spend the night?" He said that he could not do so, as he had an engagement, but intimated that he thought Lord Grey would like to come up some time. When Willard told me this, I said, "But what on earth shall we do to make it pleasant for him?" But it seemed only polite to invite him, and Willard wrote asking if he and Sir William Tyrrell would come up on Saturday afternoon two weeks later, and stay until Mon- day. Sir William wrote to Willard saying that it would be impossible for them to come, and ended up his note by saying, "Give us another chance." But that evening, Willard being in New York, I received a telegram for him from Lord Grey, saying that they were going to the Gridiron dinner on Saturday night, but if con- venient they would come on Sunday morning and stay over night. I tried to catch Willard by telephone. I was not able to catch him, so I telegraphed myself to Lord Grey, saying that Willard was in New York, but that we would be delighted to have them on that Sunday. [■90 THE SUMMER OF I919 We went over various plans of what would be agreeable. We knew that he did not care to meet a large number of people, but thought that it would be pleasant for him to meet somebody. We thought of various friends we would have liked to ask to meet him, but it was so very difficult to draw a line. We ended by asking General Wilson and Judge Grubb to lunch. General Wilson had represented this country at the coronation of King Edward, and Judge Grubb had traveled a great deal in India and abroad. Lord Grey and Sir William had to leave Washington at nine o'clock in the morning in order to get a good train, and as they were up very late the night before at the Gridiron din- ner, it really seemed very good of them to make the effort. When I came back from church that day I found General Wilson and Judge Grubb had already arrived, and they were all sitting in our library talking. I had decided to have all sorts of American food for them to eat, and they certainly should have enjoyed it, as Amanda, is a very good cook, and our food is so much better than English food. We had terrapin for lunch, which I 1:192] THE SUMMER OF I919 think they liked well enough, although not at all enthusiastic about it. We had an old Vir- ginia ham, which they actually did like. When Lord Grey saw it coming, he said, "Oh, I like that!" I had told General Wilson and Judge Grubb that they were going out very soon after lunch, so they left early, and Willard took the Am- bassador and Sir William Tyrrell for a ride in my car as far as Chadd's Ford, that being an historic spot. They came back from there about four o'clock. We had invited about twelve men in to tea at half past four. Sophie and Bruce Ford were in Wilmington at a dance the night before, and I asked Sophie to help me at the tea. She was the only woman whom I asked. As relatives, we had LeRoy Harvey and Bruce Ford and Donaldson Brown, and we asked Judge Woolley, Chancellor Curtis, Judge Mor- ris, Irenee duPont as President of E. I. duPont de Nemours & Company, Colonel Jer- vey in charge of Rivers and Harbors, Colonel Campbell from Fort duPont, Mr. Kirkus, our rector, and Gamble Latrobe, as the head of the Pennsylvania Railroad Division. Mr. Curtis, who is the owner of the Saturday Evening Post, 1:1933 THE SUMMER OF 1919 the Ledger, and the Ladies' Home Journal, also came to tea. Colonel House had told him that Lord Grey would be here, and he was anxious to see him. That evening we had Tom Bayard to dinner and play bridge, as his father had been our first Ambassador to England, and we thought it was appropriate. They played in the west library, and I believe had a very pleasant game, as it lasted until one o'clock. They had to leave early the next morning. I forgot to say that we had hominy for dinner, which Lord Grey liked and Sir William Tyrrell did not like. We had turkey, which they both liked. In the morning, we had buckwheat cakes. Amanda makes the best buckwheat cakes in the world. I do not think they particularly enjoyed her cakes, which showed the perversity of the British mind and taste. After breakfast there were a few minutes to spare, and Lord Grey and I walked around the garden; Lord Grey noticed the different trees — the jinko trees and others on the lawn — ^which showed that he could see quite a good deal. Speaking of his sight, I said to him, "I asked you on the Mauretania whether your teeth had [194] THE SUMMER OF 1919 been X-rayed." He replied, "Oh, yes, but your X-rays are better here." As I walked around the garden with him, I thought, what a wonderful thing this is! I remembered how the whole civilized world had been in suspense as to what he would do on the 1st of August, 19 14, and what a relief it was when he said that England would go into the war. It seemed the most absolutely unlikely thing in the world that could happen would be that he should be staying with us in Wilming- ton, and walking around our garden with me, in 1919. imi