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diff --git a/31110-8.txt b/31110-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2a0ce8d --- /dev/null +++ b/31110-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3923 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of My Impresssions of America, by Margot Asquith + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: My Impresssions of America + +Author: Margot Asquith + +Release Date: January 28, 2010 [EBook #31110] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY IMPRESSSIONS OF AMERICA *** + + + + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by the +Digital & Multimedia Center, Michigan State University +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + +MY IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA + +MARGOT ASQUITH + +[Illustration: _Copyright by Harris and Ewing_ + +MARGOT ASQUITH + +Returning from her visit to the White House.] + + + + +MY IMPRESSIONS +OF AMERICA + +BY + +MARGOT ASQUITH + +AUTHOR OF "MARGOT ASQUITH: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY," ETC. + +NEW YORK +GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY + +COPYRIGHT, 1922, +BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY. + +MY IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA. I +PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA + + + + +CONTENTS + + +I: ABOARD THE _CARMANIA_ + PAGE +MARGOT NOT A NATURAL TOURIST; LACKS +CURIOSITY--HEADLINES IN LONDON COMPARED +WITH HEADLINES IN NEW YORK--AMERICAN +WOMEN WORLDLY--AMERICAN +MEN THE GENUINE ARTICLE 11 + + +II: ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK + +REPORTERS LACKING IN AWE--SPLENDOURS OF +HOTEL LIFE--FIRST LECTURE A FAILURE +AS RESULT OF SEA-SICKNESS--THRILLED +BY NEW YORK'S ARCHITECTURE 21 + + +III: BOSTON AND WORCESTER + +DISCOMFORT OF TRAVEL IN AMERICA--STAGE +FRIGHT IN BOSTON--BOSTONIANS INTELLIGENT +AND COURTEOUS--JOHN SARGENT'S +FRESCOES IN THE MUSEUM 29 + + +IV: UNRESPONSIVE PHILADELPHIA + +SERMON ON LIFE AS A TRAINING SCHOOL--MARGOT'S +ENGLISH NOT UNDERSTOOD IN PHILADELPHIA--MRS. +CORNELIUS VANDERBILT'S +BAL POUDRÉ--PRAISE FROM HEYWOOD +BROUN 41 + + +V: THE WHITE HOUSE AND WASHINGTON + +PRESIDENT HARDING EASY TO TALK TO--MARGOT +EXPLAINS ENGLISH POLITICS--CHATS +WITH WOODROW WILSON--IMPRESSED BY +AMBASSADOR JUSSERAND 57 + + +VI: DETROIT AND CHICAGO + +GUEST OF WOMEN'S CLUB--VISITS FORD WORKS--LOVELY +MRS. MINOTTO--BONUS AND +DISABLED SOLDIERS 71 + + +VII: PITTSBURGH AND ROCHESTER + +MEETS AN INTERESTING REPORTER--COMPLIMENTS +FROM DR. HOLLAND--PULLMAN +CAR INCONVENIENCES--MARGOT SEES HER +FIRST FLAPPER 81 + + +VIII: TORONTO AND MONTREAL + +MARGOT TELLS A MARK TWAIN STORY--CAPTURES +TORONTO AUDIENCE; KISSES CHARWOMAN--MONTREAL +LADIES QUELLING +AND CRITICAL 95 + + +IX: IN CANADA'S CAPITAL + +APATHY AND BREEDING OF OTTAWA'S AUDIENCE--INTIMATE +TALK WITH PREMIER MACKENZIE +KING--THE STATUE OF "SIR GALAHAD" +AND ITS STORY 105 + + +X: REFLECTIONS AT LARGE + +DRAWBACKS OF AMERICAN JOURNALISM--SENSATIONAL +HEADLINES; FEAR OF THE PRESS--CONTROVERSY +ON PROHIBITION WITH +LORD LEE--IMPRESSIONS OF U. S. SENATE 115 + + +XI: SYRACUSE AND BUFFALO + +CITY OF CULTURE AND BEAUTY--NIAGARA'S +NATURAL BEAUTY MARRED BY BILLBOARDS--MARGOT +READS ABOUT HERSELF 135 + + +XII: INTERESTING ST. LOUIS + +MET BY THE MAYOR--ANOTHER INTELLIGENT +REPORTER--NEWS FROM HOME AND VIEWS +THEREON--LUNCHEON AT WOMEN'S CLUB 147 + + +XIII: KANSAS CITY AND OMAHA + +AMERICAN VOICES RARELY MUSICAL--SEES +LOVELY COUNTRY HOME--DISCUSSION ON +CHARACTER BUILDING--MARGOT PREDICTS +GREAT FUTURE FOR GOVERNOR ALLEN 155 + + +XIV: THE WAR AND PROHIBITION + +HEATED DISCUSSION ON ENGLAND'S ENTRY INTO +THE WAR--OUR GERMAN FRIENDS--AMERICAN +VITALITY--MISQUOTED ON PROHIBITION 165 + + +XV: NEW YORK IDEAL CITY + +LIFE AND AIR AND GAIETY IN NEW YORK--LETTER +FROM GOVERNOR ALLEN--MARGOT +MEETS ARTHUR BRISBANE--PRINCESS BIBESCO'S +BOOK 177 + + +XVI: CRITICISM AND FAREWELL + +DOLL SALESMAN TALKS ON PROHIBITION--PERILS +OF COMMERCIALISM AND MATERIALISM +IN AMERICA--PLEA FOR LOVE AND +FRIENDSHIP 189 + + +XVII: THINKING IT OVER IN ENGLAND + +AMERICANS FRIENDLY BUT VAIN--THE LAND +OF THE REFORMER--INTEREST IN EUROPE'S +ARISTOCRACY--NEWSPAPERS PANDER TO +VULGAR CURIOSITY--PLEA FOR ANGLO-AMERICAN +FRIENDSHIP 199 + + +INDEX 211 + + + + +MY IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA + + + + +I: ABOARD THE CARMANIA + +ABOARD THE _CARMANIA_ + + MARGOT NOT A NATURAL TOURIST; LACKS CURIOSITY--HEADLINES IN LONDON + COMPARED WITH HEADLINES IN NEW YORK--AMERICAN WOMEN + WORLDLY--AMERICAN MEN THE GENUINE ARTICLE + + +I motored to Southampton on Saturday, the 21st of January, this year, +and after saying good-bye to my husband and my son, retired to my berth +on the _Carmania_. I am a bad traveller, and had been laid up with a +sort of influenza until the day before I left London. + +Kindly press people tempted me to confide in them on the ship. They +asked me if I would be back in time for Princess Mary's wedding; where +I was going when I arrived in America, and if I looked forward to my +trip. I sometimes wonder what questions I would put if I were obliged to +interview a traveller. I would ask with reluctance where they were +going, but never what they had seen, because I know I could not listen +to their answers. Everyone knows what you are likely to see if you go +for any length of time to London, Rome, Athens or the United States; and +is there a person living whose impressions you would care to hear either +upon the Coliseum, Niagara Falls, or any other of the great works of art +or of nature? On such subjects the remarks of the cleverest and +stupidest are equally inadequate and the superb vocabulary of a Ruskin +will probably not be more illuminating than what the school-boy writes +in the Visitors' Book at Niagara, "Uncle and all very much pleased." + +I am inclined to think it is a mild form of vanity that makes a certain +type of rich person travel every year. I have heard these say that for +all the interest we who are left behind take in what they have seen and +heard, they might as well have remained at Brighton. Nevertheless, the +world is full of tourists; and there are a number of people who like to +pick up pieces of unimportant information without effort. The foolish +majority of these read the _Daily Mail_; the political, the _Manchester +Guardian_; the Liberals, the _Westminster Gazette_; the intellectual, +the _New Statesman_; and to pass the time on Sundays there are always +the long columns of the _Observer_ or for the credulous, the "Secret +History of the Week." + +After glancing at the leading articles, the City man turns to "Round the +Markets: Home Railways firm. The Chilian Scrip reacted to 1-1/4 premium +and Norway sixes give way to ninety-five." They then read: "By the +Silver Sea, the Sunny South, or Glowing East"; ponder over lists of +those who are going to Egypt, America, or the Riviera; and end by +learning that the site of the old General Post Office was in St. +Martins-le-Grand. + +In America it is rather different. On the front page of one of the most +important papers you read: + +"Kardos has hopes of father's aid," "Men faint in public and lose +$153,000," "Death note writer caught in Capital," "Losses of women duped +by Lindsay," "Iceland cabinet falls," "Tokio diet in uproar over snake +on floor," "Saddle horse from Firestone, Harding's favourite mount," and +short notices on Ireland, Paris and London; you are encouraged to turn +to page 6, column five or column 8, page 5 and finish with "Dazzling +display of Princess Mary's lingerie." + +It is difficult to say why most travellers are uninteresting. I do not +think it is because they have been to wonderful places, but because the +average man has not the power to assimilate or interpret what he has +seen; and they enlarge on their own sensations with such a lack of +humour and proportion, that you feel as if they were not only rebuffing +you, but claiming part of the credit of the master works themselves. +When told at a party that you ought to meet Mr. So-and-So, as he has +just come back from the Far East, Southwest, or North Pole, you cling +to the nearest door post, and make your escape while the hero is being +traced in the crowd. I like what I have thought out for myself better +than what I discover; and conclusions arrived at after careful +reflection are more enlarging than what is pointed out to you by +inquisitive spectators. + +I am not a natural tourist, and Napoleon's shaving soap will never +interest me as much as the smallest light upon his mind or character. +There is a difference between curiosity and interest, and I regret to +say I am not curious. + +I have come to the United States for the first time, not in a missionary +spirit or to study anything or anybody, but to see my daughter and to +enjoy myself. + +In a rash moment, however, I promised to write my impressions of the +United States and Canada, and this may give rise to false hopes. + +Lord Acton wrote in a letter to Mrs. Drew, "One touch of ill nature +makes the whole world kin," and I must make an effort not to disappoint +my thoughtful critics. I have been accused of failing to appreciate the +society of brilliant American women whether in Italy, Paris or London; +but it could be added with truth that brilliance, while stimulating most +people, has always exhausted me. I prefer the clumsiest thought to the +most finished phrase, and am so slow, that the mildest complication may +make me miss the point. "General and prolonged laughter" is a faculty I +have never been able to acquire, and sudden explosions over anything I +have said usually convince me that I had better have held my tongue. + +To an outsider who has only known European Americans, the most +noticeable thing about American women is their freedom from native soil. +They are equally well equipped whether their nationality is transferred +from Russia to Rome, Vienna, Roumania or Paris. No blank cheque could be +more adequately filled in, and I never cease wondering what can be the +secret of their perfect social mechanism. + +Beautiful to look at and elegantly dressed, with an open mind upon +whatever topic is discussed, adaptable, available, rich and +good-humoured, the American woman as I know her is the last word in +worldiness and fashion. In my own country she is not only a popular, but +a privileged person, and having started by being what is called +"natural," she becomes more and more so every day. + +The husbands of these ladies, when not of needy foreign aristocracy, are +usually divorced, discharged or disposed of in some way or other; and, +even if they are of the same nationality, are quite unlike the American +man as I have known him. + +He is seldom fashionable and never leisured; he has a passion for +learning all that there is to be known, and holds vigorous views upon +most things. If a little copious in narrative, he is never mechanical, +but an absolutely genuine article; spontaneous, friendly, hospitable and +keen. He appears to treat his women folk with the patience and +indulgence you extend to spoilt children, never attempting to discuss +matters, either literary or political, with them, and is agreeably +surprised if you show an interest in Wall Street or the White House. + +I am jotting down these preliminary impressions, any one of which +may--and probably will--have to be revised during the course of my +travels. + + + + +II: ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK + +ARRIVAL IN NEW YORK + + REPORTERS LACKING IN AWE--SPLENDOURS OF HOTEL LIFE--FIRST LECTURE A + FAILURE AS RESULT OF SEA-SICKNESS--THRILLED BY NEW YORK'S + ARCHITECTURE + + +After an abominable voyage during which the ship rolled and rocked, +groaned and shuddered, and the sea did precisely what it liked with us, +we arrived a day and a half late, and surrounded by press-men I +feather-stitched on to American soil. + +If the reporters are a little lacking in awe, they make up for it by the +intelligent interest they take in everything connected with one; and +after being asked what I thought of "flappers" and what Mr. Lloyd George +thought of me, I was allowed to go to the Ambassador Hotel. I could not +have been greeted with more courtesy had I arrived at Windsor Castle, +nor have I ever stayed in a better hotel. + +My son-in-law Prince Bibesco, my daughter Elizabeth, and my cousin Miss +Tennant (whose brother is Sir Auckland Geddes's private secretary), +showed me the airy bedrooms and beautiful bathrooms which the manager of +the hotel had chosen for us. I sat down completely exhausted when +suddenly the door opened and my sitting room was flooded with male and +female reporters. Having been seasick and without solid food for a week, +the carpet and ceiling were still nodding at me, and I regret to confess +that I said nothing very striking; but they were welcoming and friendly; +and after a somewhat dislocated conversation I staggered off to bed. + +I was introduced the next day by my cicerone, Mr. Lee Keedick, to the +New Amsterdam Theatre, where scouts were placed in distant galleries to +try my voice. I had no difficulty in making myself heard, but I felt +terribly ill and more than inadequate as I made my first appearance at +3.30 in the well filled theatre. Dr. Murray Butler introduced me in a +courteous speech and explained that after such an unusually rough +crossing I would be obliged to sit down throughout the performance, +which I much regretted. + +I opened with a spirited account of an Irish horse dealer, which, I +could see at a glance, interested nobody. Whether I was speaking Irish +or English, it might have been Walloon for all the audience cared. My +heart faded, my voice sank, and I knew that many could not hear; some +were not listening, and my friends were watching me with apprehension, +charity and cheers. More dead than alive I was relieved when an +enterprising lady shouted from the gallery: + +"You've got my money for nothing--Good-bye, I've had enough of you!" + +This informal greeting stirred the kindness of my listeners to a +protest, and as soon as I could, I changed to other subjects. With the +fall of the curtain many old friends came on to the stage, and +presenting me with roses, assured me that I had won the hearts of my +audience, after which I left the theatre. + +Driving home, I opened all the taxi windows and was struck with the +architectural beauties of the streets. With the exception of Munich I +have never seen a modern town comparable to New York. The colour of the +stone and lightness of the air would put vitality into a corpse; and in +spite of a haunting recollection that the lady in the gallery had had +enough of me, I returned to the Ambassador happy though exhausted. + +My daughter took me in the evening to a wonderful party given by Miss +Mabel Gerry. We wore our best clothes, but our taxi driver did not seem +satisfied, and before turning in to the magnificent court-yard, he +stopped, opened the door, and enquired rather sceptically if this was +where we were expected; concealing our mortification we urged him to +drive on. + +There was something for every taste at Miss Gerry's beautiful house. I +started by sitting next to my dear old friend Mr. Harry White, and a +brilliant stranger Mr. Thomas Ridgeway; went on to play bridge, listened +to a fluent pianist, and finished by dancing unknown steps to a +wonderful band. + +I am enunciating a platitude when I say the Americans are the finest +dancers in the world. + + + + +III: BOSTON AND WORCESTER + +BOSTON AND WORCESTER + + DISCOMFORT OF TRAVEL IN AMERICA--STAGE FRIGHT IN BOSTON--BOSTONIANS + INTELLIGENT AND COURTEOUS--JOHN SARGENT'S FRESCOES IN THE MUSEUM + + +On the 2nd of February, next morning, my friend and secretary Mr. +Horton, myself and maid arrived in Boston City after a comfortable +journey in a private compartment given to us by the courtesy of our +guard. I do not wish to say anything disagreeable, but except for the +beauty of the railway stations, the travelling arrangements in America +are far inferior to ours. Sitting erect on revolving chairs in public, +is a trial not lessened by an atmosphere in which you could force +pineapples. We were greeted upon our arrival by reporters and cameras. +It distresses me to stand blinking at the sun; as not being a beauty, I +know that my nose will always be more of a limb than a feature, and +trying to look pleasant results in my teeth coming out like tombstones +in the morning papers. + +Left to ourselves, we went to examine the Symphony Hall, where I was to +speak that night. Arriving on the stage, I stood appalled. Feeling like +a midge upon a dreadnought, I looked at the largest hall I have ever +seen, except the one in London erected to the sacred memory of good +Prince Albert. + +"This is a practical joke of the worst kind!" I exclaimed to the +gentlemen in attendance, "and not for a million dollars would I insult +the Boston people by making myself ridiculous here to-night. I have not +been in prison, or divorced; nor have I been to the North or South Pole, +or climbed mountains and Matterhorns; I have nothing wonderful to tell +about, and instead of one woman shouting, 'Give me back my money--I've +had enough of you,' the whole audience will rise to their feet. This is +not a hall, it's a railway tunnel! I cannot see the end of it: it's +made for engines or aeroplanes"; and I trembled with rage and +apprehension. + +"It's a concert hall, madam, built for oratorios," they replied, +pointing to a vast organ decorating the wall behind me. + +"No doubt drums, trumpets, or opera singers could make themselves heard, +but a shrimp of a female standing alone here would make the gods laugh, +and nothing will induce me to speak!" + +"But, dear madam, all Boston is coming to hear you." + +Mr. Horton put his arm through mine, saying soothingly, "You are tired; +let us go back to the hotel." + +Visibly distressed, the gentlemen of the hall assured me that men of +meagre voice had lectured many times and been perfectly heard; and as I +walked away I saw through the corner of my eyes that my angelic +secretary was nodding to assure them that I would keep my contract. + +Alone in the taxi I burst into tears, asking what I had done to be so +punished; I said that the front rows would be deafened, the centre +bewildered, and the balconies indignant. He assured me I had a beautiful +voice, an interesting personality and a plucky nature, etc., and that I +must certainly go through with it as every seat had been sold. + +I dressed with streaming eyes and a scarlet nose, and in snow and +silence we drove to the Symphony Hall. The platform and auditorium were +crowded, and blind with fear, I walked on to the front of the stage. My +chairman, Mr. Arthur Hill (Corporation Counsel of the City of Boston), +in introducing me spoke with the greatest ease, and I observed that +every word he said was heard; but it was obvious from the perfection of +his speech that he had addressed a thousand audiences before and this +was only my second public appearance. + +I stood up with my knees knocking together as I looked at the sea of +expectant faces below me. + +Heaven forefend that I should repeat what I said, but for one hour and +twenty minutes I did the best I could; beginning with my pleasure at +being in America, I continued with stories of my native land, and ended +with an account of Windsor Castle and the Disarmament Conference. + +No president or prime minister could have had a more intelligent, +friendly, courteous and responsive audience than the people of Boston. +Aching from my ankles to my temples, I bowed to their repeated cheers +as, humble and happy, I retired from the stage. + +Enthusiastic hearers pressed into the green room where I had sunk into a +chair as immovable as the mangle. Mr. Horton, who had sat among the +statues on the sky line, assured me he had heard every syllable. Eager +reporters began to ask what I thought of Boston, but dumb and exhausted +I bundled into my cloak. Crowds of men and women were waiting in the +street, and as I motored away I gathered I had been a success. + +The next day Lieutenant Governor Alvin Fuller and his wife--who were +among those who had congratulated me in the green room the night +before--gave us lunch and took us in their motor to the two great Boston +sights: the Public Library and the Fine Arts Museum. + +The Library is a magnificent building, founded in 1852, containing over +two million volumes, half of which are lent out for daily use at home. +The architects of the building were McKim, Mead, & White of New York, +but most of the design was the work of Charles Follen McKim. The mural +decorations were painted by Puvis de Chavannes, Edwin Austin Abbey, and +John Singer Sargent. As my time was limited I concentrated on the works +of my friend Mr. Sargent. + +It would be as impossible as it would be pretentious to attempt to +describe the beauty of the Sargent Hall. It represents thirty years of +thought and labour, and has a majesty of design, glory of drawing, and +originality of conception unequalled by anything in Europe. + +The "Hand-Maid of the Lord" on the east wall, holding the Divine Child +in her arms, and "Our Lady of Sorrows," which faces it, fill your heart +with wonder and your eyes with tears. + +In the first, the Blessed Virgin is rising from a throne with her baby +in her arms. You realise in looking at this Child that He is the Mighty +God and Everlasting Father; and the expression on the face of the +Virgin--more than of any other Madonna that I have ever seen--convinces +you that she was not only the Mother of the Counsellor upon whose +shoulders the Government would fall, but the Mother of the Prince of +Peace. + +The Virgin in "Our Lady of Sorrows" stands upon the crescent moon behind +a row of lighted candles raised in relief of white, gold and silver. Her +little face with wide-set eyes looks down upon you from an elaborate +silver crown set against a radiant halo of fine and illusive design, and +her two beautiful hands clasp to her heart the shining swords that +typify the Seven Sorrows. The dignity of her pose, the submission and +pathos of her haunting eyes waken you to a new sense of the majesty of +pain. I felt, as I looked up, that I was sharing a common gratitude that +such subjects should have captured the genius of the greatest living +artist. + +We went on from the Library to the Museum, where the decorations of the +dome of the rotunda, to say nothing of the exterior of the buildings, +are magnificent. Here Mr. John Sargent has surpassed himself. + +I have heard critics, for want of something better to say, express the +opinion that he is a finer painter than artist. If they have any doubt +upon the subject, let them go to Boston, and if teachable, they will +learn there that Sargent is not only a rare artist, but a poet and an +architect. + +Before leaving Boston City I received a call from Mrs. Bancroft, an old +lady of eighty, with whom I made friends. She was extremely clever, and +when she said I had both grace and genius I thought her an excellent +judge! She told me I looked tired, and when we said good-bye, she gave +me a bunch of wonderful flowers. + +We motored from Boston to Worcester in the Fullers' car, and dined with +Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Thayer, and after an excellent dinner in good +company, I delivered a lecture in the private house of Mr. and Mrs. +Washburn, at which there were no reporters. Having implored my fellow +guests at dinner to interrupt me in the drawing room--as I had never +addressed this kind of party before--we opened a sort of debate which I +thoroughly enjoyed. I doubt if any English audience, unless of old +friends, would have asked such clever and amusing questions, and I knew +as I answered back, by the feeling of life and laughter, that it had +been a success, and went to bed without remembering the New York lady +who had had enough of me. + + + + +IV: UNRESPONSIVE PHILADELPHIA + +UNRESPONSIVE PHILADELPHIA + + SERMON ON LIFE AS A TRAINING SCHOOL--MARGOT'S ENGLISH NOT + UNDERSTOOD IN PHILADELPHIA--MRS. CORNELIUS VANDERBILT'S BAL + POUDRÉ--PRAISE FROM HEYWOOD BROUN + + +On Sunday, the 15th of February, Mr. and Mrs. Harry White took me to St. +Bartholomew's, a modern church of great beauty. Dr. Parkes, a man of +authority and eloquence, preached from the fourth chapter of Galatians, +verse 6: + +"And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into +your hearts." + +I did not need to be a Scotch woman to listen to the sermon that he +preached. He said that we were fellow students graduating from a great +university, joined in the son-ship of Christ, and that we should +cultivate a spiritual fellowship with man, since the highest +personality could never develop by itself. That our names were entered +at our baptism; we received our first diplomas at our confirmation; and +the object and mission of the Church was to guide or coach us for the +various tests that life would demand from us; and that we should always +do what we could to help one another. + +As I listened to the rector, knowing how easy I had found it in life to +love and care for other people, I wondered how many things I had left +undone, and what examination I could pass if suddenly called upon to +compete. Haunted from early youth by the transitoriness and pathos of +life, I was aware that it was not enough to say, "I am doing no harm," I +ought to be testing myself daily, and asking what I was really +achieving. + +My attention having strayed from the sermon, I was glad to have it +recalled by hearing Dr. Parkes say that most people preferred the jazz, +the vaudeville, or the movies to the Church. + +He said that he would step down for a moment into the pews and ask the +pulpit why the services were conventional, monotonous and uninspiring; +why the clergy gave unsuitable moral advice, warning the congregation of +dangers to which they were not exposed; expressing opinions on politics +which they did not share; and convincing them at the end of a tedious +service that under no circumstances would they go oftener to church than +they could possibly help. + +"I will now return to the pulpit," he said; and I listened with close +attention. + +It was true, the Church was often dull; but the attitude of the +congregation was wrong. They ought not to depend upon perpetual +entertainment. People went to church for various reasons. Some from +habit, some to set a good example, and a few with a yearning hope that +they might hear something to heal their tortured minds; something to +reassure them that since Jesus wept, He could not be far from those who +mourned. Few men were orators, and what filled the churches were the +sermons. People would tell you the service was enough, but it obviously +was not; or the churches would be crowded every Sunday. + +"I have no doubt," he continued, "that I could entertain you for a time; +so could the choir and the fine organ, but I feel this would be wrong; +it would be taking away from the meaning of the service, and the +spiritual fellowship of man. Everyone ought to go to church, as +otherwise the churches would cease to exist, and the most irreligious of +men could hardly desire this. One day some young prophet or great +disciple of Christ might come among us and find no place from where he +could speak to the people, and no assemblage that he could address." + +I went back to the hotel profoundly impressed by what I had heard and +not in the humour to be interviewed by a Philadelphian reporter who was +waiting to see me; but I found Mr. V. Hostetter both understanding and +intelligent. + + * * * * * + +The next day I went to Philadelphia. The unresponsiveness of my large +audience was more than made up for by the kindness of my chairman, Mr. +George Gibbs, the hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Ridgeway, and the +friendliness of the reporters. I doubt if my English was understood, in +spite of being informed that I could be heard plainly from the gallery. +Except at my first lecture--when I could not stand--I have had no +difficulty in making myself heard. + + * * * * * + +On my return to New York, after dining in bed, I joined my daughter at a +_bal poudré_ given by Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, a clever New York +hostess who thinks nothing of entertaining a hundred and fifty people at +lunch, tea or dinner. + +One of the noticeable differences between fashion in England and +America, is that what might appear to the uninitiated as an almost +exaggerated display of hospitality, is as _chic_ here as it might be +thought over-done in London. American hostesses are also very +particular as to precedence: who sits next to whom, or goes in first, +second or third. I must confess to being remiss in these ways, and when +an American lady at one of these dinners asked me if I minded my +daughter, Elizabeth Bibesco, going in or out--I forget which it was--in +front of me, I imagined she was joking. I disconcerted a reporter when +he asked me if I knew all the British aristocracy, by saying that alas! +I did not, but that my maid did. + +Nothing could have been prettier than the Vanderbilt ball. I look +forward to seeing the house of my kind hosts under more normal +conditions, but I could see at a glance that it is not only full of rare +and valuable objects, but is really striking. The reception rooms, +concert hall, and ballrooms were crowded with fashion and beauty. I +gazed about to see if I could find anyone I knew. My eye fell upon my +daughter Elizabeth, who in her black velvet Aubrey Beardsley dress was +among the prettiest women in the room. + +After trying unsuccessfully to detain my beloved friend Colonel +House--who hates parties--I caught sight of Mr. Balfour looking young +and happy. In spite of the admiring throng by whom he was surrounded I +skirmished through, and, taking him by the arm, engaged him in private +conversation. Being incapable of flattery, I told him with what +extraordinary ability he had represented Great Britain at the Washington +Conference; how glad we all were that he had been selected; and how +enchanted I was to see him. With the dazzling charm that never deserts +him he asked me searching questions as to how my lectures were +progressing, and implored me not to tire myself. + +I answered that I was always over-tired, but said with truth that +neither he nor I would ever grow old. + +No one can say that Mr. Balfour does not care for power and politics, +but a certain detachment has prevented him from growing old, and by what +means I cannot discover, he never appears to be bored in society; it is +this, I think, that keeps him young. + +I know something about youth, as the Tennants are a race apart; not +because we are specially clever, learned, famous, or amusing, but +because we have no age. I have been told by gypsies, palmists, +phrenologists and other swindlers many senseless and incompatible +things, but upon two matters they all agreed. They said I would always +be young enough to make love and inspire it, and that I was unmercenary +and of a kindly disposition. + +In these ways I resemble my father. Sleepless, irritable, impatient, and +interested, he could skip and dance at the age of sixty better than most +young men in their teens, and his last beautiful daughter was born when +he was eighty. This is not entirely physical: it comes no doubt from +vitality, but it is also a mixture of moral and intellectual +temperament, and, above all things, the power to admire, without which +Wordsworth says we cannot live. + +After talking to Mr. Balfour, my host Mr. Vanderbilt--a man of +character, who cares little for entertainments--showed me his bedroom +and his library. + +The morning after the ball I contracted a chill which filled me with +despair. Having to lecture that afternoon (my fifth in America and +second in New York), it was vital to remove the unfortunate impression +that sitting down and reading about horses had created upon my first +appearance. Unless my secretary cuts out and pins upon my letters press +criticisms of myself, I do not look at them, and I had hardly been aware +of the severity with which I had been taken to task the day after my +first lecture. People are too strong and busy in New York City to notice +if you are ill or not; they have paid their dollars and are not likely +to listen to what bores them; they wanted a little local gossip about my +husband, Mr. Lloyd George, or Princess Mary's trousseau. I did not mind +the abuse as I am press-proof, but I did not want to disappoint my +manager, Mr. Lee Keedick, a competent, kind man, quite unmercenary, and +interested in his client's success, as much from an artistic as a +business point of view; or my secretary, Mr. Horton, with whom I have +contracted a lasting friendship. + +Knowing that I had to speak not only that afternoon but the next night +at Brooklyn, I reassured them by saying that in spite of my chill I was +going to stand, walk about and amuse the audience by stories of +Gladstone, Tennyson, Kitchener, politics, duels and drink. I did not add +that I was so nervous that I would have to hold my head up high as, if I +dropped it, I would certainly collapse. + +My dear friend, Mr. Paul Cravath, in introducing me, made an admirable +speech and was more than helpful and encouraging. + +I wish I could remember and write down what my chairmen say of me or of +my husband, but I am far too anxious to listen, and a cannon ball going +off would not prevent me from struggling to remember my speech, in spite +of knowing that "Ladies and Gentlemen" will be as far as my memory will +take me. + +When I stood up, after bowing with challenging languor, I spoke in a +slow and deliberate manner which seemed as if it came from another +person. I never looked at my notes until the end of the lecture, and +after I sat down the audience was enthusiastic. My son-in-law, Prince +Bibesco, a man of acute and artistic observation, congratulated me +warmly, and speechless with exhaustion I went to bed. + +The next morning my chairman sent me the following review out of the +_World_: "It Seems to Me," by HEYWOOD BROUN. + +"The platform manner of Margot Asquith fills us with envy. We wish we +could talk as she does, casually leaning against a table. We must +confess to a limitless admiration for her technique. No visiting English +author in many seasons has seemed to us so entirely at home as was Mrs. +Asquith yesterday afternoon on the stage of the New Amsterdam Theatre. +Her utterance is crisp and clear, she is never under the necessity of +digging in her heels and shouting. As her point approaches she swings +into it, facing the audience square and standing straight. We admired +her versatility of delivery. There ought to be many clients eager to be +tutored by Mrs. Asquith in the art of public speaking." + + * * * * * + +If I could have met Mr. Broun that day my gratitude might have made me +feel well, but I had a temperature and my daughter having contracted +influenza, we were kept in bed and a trained nurse was sent to us by Dr. +Eglee. + + * * * * * + +On the eighth I spoke in Brooklyn, where, wrapped up in blankets, I was +accompanied in the motor by my doctor. I remained in bed until the 12th, +when I made my last appearance in New York. By then I had become quite +fashionable, and largely thanks to Mr. Heywood Broun, I received over +eighty letters a day, flowers, music, books, and poems. My daughter +Elizabeth's illness took away all my joy, and had it not been for her +husband and my cousin, Nan Tennant, illness and exhaustion would have +tempted me to break my contract. + + + + +V: THE WHITE HOUSE AND WASHINGTON + +THE WHITE HOUSE AND WASHINGTON + + PRESIDENT HARDING EASY TO TALK TO--MARGOT EXPLAINS ENGLISH + POLITICS--CHATS WITH WOODROW WILSON--IMPRESSED BY AMBASSADOR + JUSSERAND + + +I arrived at Washington on the 13th alone and spoke the same afternoon. + +A Washington audience does not deafen you with applause, but Mr. Thomas +Hard, my chairman, was so appreciative that he seemed to set the fashion +to laugh and cheer and all went well. + +On the following morning I went by appointment at 10.30 to see President +Harding. After driving to several wrong doors at the White House I was +shown into an ante-room full of press-men talking and smoking round an +open fire. The President's secretary was extremely courteous, and I was +not kept waiting. Ushered into Mr. Harding's fine circular room we shook +hands and sat down. A large black and tan Airedale terrier sniffed round +my skirts, and was ordered to sit in a chair by his master. President +Harding has a large bold head with well-cut features and an honest, +fearless address. He is tall, perfectly simple, and extraordinarily easy +and pleasant to talk to. He told me he also had lectured and gave me an +account of how lecturing had first started in America. There was a sort +of club or society which began round Lake Chautauqua and spread all over +the country. It was the only way that either pleasure or information +could reach distant and dreary little towns inhabited by thousands of +men and women who had neither the fortune or opportunity to meet famous +people. While he was telling me this I looked at the big writing table +in front of him. I noticed a faded photograph of an extremely pretty, +refined, middle-aged woman, and a framed engraving of George +Washington; on the top of a book case I observed an interesting print of +Abraham Lincoln. A fire in an open grate and large windows looking out +upon a garden with trees completed the room. + +Our talk was interrupted by a secretary asking the President to speak on +the telephone, and he left me after a courteous apology. + +On his return he found me looking at the photograph on his table, and +informed me that it was his mother. We spoke of Arthur Balfour and I +told him how pleased my husband and all of us in England were that he +had been able to go to Washington; that his quick mind, fine +intellectual manners, and lack of insularity gave him an unrivalled +understanding. The President responded with genuine warmth. + +"I am very glad," he said, "that he attended our Conference. As you are +aware, Mrs. Asquith, he was known and liked here before the Conference, +and I can only say that he has added two hundred per cent to his former +popularity by the patience, tact, straightforwardness and ability he +showed throughout our proceedings." + +He talked to me about the political situation in England, and asked when +I thought there would be a general election. I told him that the +Coalition Liberals were the ambitious, paying guests in a Conservative +Palace (or words to that effect); that in their recent attempt to force +a general election they had tried to purchase the Palace, but that to +their surprise and annoyance Sir George Younger--the keeper of the Tory +purse, and manager of their party--had, with a courage undreamt of by +his flock, put a veto upon this; and in a polite and public letter given +the Coalition Liberals notice to quit. This independent action upset the +influential Downing Street press, entertained the Free Liberals, and +bewildered the docile Conservatives. The latter having no Prime Minister +of their own, are not only deeply indebted to Mr. Lloyd George for all +he has done for them, but are committed to his leadership by the mutual +bargain of the Kaiser-coupon election. + +I told him I had no notion when the election might be sprung upon us, +nor could anyone foresee its result, but that if there were many Sir +George Youngers in the Conservative Party it was just possible that the +Coalition might collapse. + +We spoke of the Genoa Conference. I said that frankly I was tired of +Government by conference: that, starting from the fatal one at +Versailles, to the futile one at Cannes, they had been a source of +mischief, misunderstanding and recrimination; and that the only one at +which the truth had been faced, discussed and spread was his own at +Washington. I tried to give him some idea of the effect that Mr. +Hughes's opening speech upon disarmament had produced in our country, +adding how profoundly sorry I felt for France. Our "Hang-the-Kaiser," +"Search the German pockets," election of 1918, backed as it was by the +whole Conservative party, had taken in the French public; and added that +half the irascibility, temper and suspicion which we were witnessing in +Paris to-day arose from a feeling that they had been cheated. I said +with all the earnestness that I could command that neither the Liberal +party, my husband, or anyone else in England intended to quarrel with +France; that it was equally clear that this view was held in America, +and therefore vital for the peace of the world that we should try and +understand one another and keep together. + +He was eloquent in his agreement, told me how devoted he was to the +French people; and added that he felt quite sure the misunderstandings +would gradually pass away. + +After signing and giving me a facsimile copy of the message which he had +delivered at the close of the Washington Conference, we parted. + +I went to the Rock Creek Cemetery with my cousin, Nan Tennant, to see +the Adams tomb by St. Gaudens. It is a great work, and clutches at your +heart. I sat for some time on the circular marble seat and looked at +the beautiful bronze statue. It reminded me of the lines in Richard II: + + "Oh! but they say the tongues of dying men + Enforce attention, like deep harmony." + +Although the hooded and austere figure takes you far away from all that +moves, and is an emblem of Death, the deep and pitying eyes speak to +those who will listen both of Love and of Hope. I thought as I looked at +it, what a transfiguring effect a statue like that might have, could it +be removed to Paris or Berlin. + +In the afternoon I visited ex-President Wilson. His wife greeted me with +kindness and affection, and immediately showed me into the library where +her husband was sitting erect upon a chair near the bookshelves. His eye +was bright, his mind clear, and no one looking at his distinguished face +could have imagined that he was ill. I could not conceal my emotion when +I told him how often we had thought of him. He seemed hopeful about +himself, and said he had still much to do, as there was a stern fight in +front of him. He asked me if I did not think things were looking better +for my husband and "your great party"; adding how closely, and with what +hope he and others were watching the present political situation in +England. I told him that he had had the one fine idea, and that all the +world was fumbling to follow in its track; adding that the League of +Nations was applauded upon every Liberal platform. He made me promise to +go and see him on my return to Washington, and after a short +conversation about nothing in particular, the fear of tiring him made me +get up and say good-bye. + +I went on to the French Embassy where I spent over an hour with my old +friend M. Jusserand. I found him very unhappy: and when he discussed +with frankness and without exaggeration the feelings that were animating +Paris, I thought he made out an excellent case for what appears, for the +moment, to be a lack of reason in his compatriots. He showed me what +Lord Lee had said on Naval Limitation in December at Washington, where +he misquoted from Captain Castex's French articles on submarine +warfare, actually omitting from the context "_ainsi raisonnent les +Allemands_", which surprised me very much. + +I said I was quite sure that there had been some mistake, and that our +Admiralty would instantly offer a public apology if the affair could be +brought to their notice; he said that on January 7 the Quai d'Orsay had +explained, but that nothing further had passed. That in the same article +of which Lord Lee had reversed the meaning, Captain Castex had made +pointed allusion "_au rôle de salubrité politique, sauvant la liberté du +monde, joué par la Grande Bretagne pendant la guerre_". + +I told him that we were too far away to know what was happening, and +that it was more than probable that Lord Lee had already apologised; +that it was a deplorable blunder as the desire of the French to increase +their submarines was understood by the average Englishman to be a menace +against Great Britain, as presumably his country would never fight +Germany on the sea. + +He said that every nation would have to maintain for itself some reserve +of force since they had agreed to a large diminution of their armies. I +begged him to be patient, and to remember that the 1918 election--so +painfully encouraging to the natural desire on the part of the French to +pursue a policy of revenge--was not a true reflection of British public +opinion; that perhaps we were lacking in imagination but we would never +believe in crushing a defeated foe, or trying to keep him down forever. +That since no one could get rid of the German race, and France had to +remain their neighbour, it appeared to be more sensible to try and +discourage hate which was unproductive; and that there was little choice +for them unless their intention was to prepare slowly and steadily for +another war. He disclaimed all idea of revenge, pointing out that we +were an island without frontiers, and that twice within the recollection +of one generation their industrious and arrogant neighbour had not only +killed their people, but laid waste their territory, and added that he +and his compatriots did not feel their moral and financial sufferings +had been treated either with sufficient sympathy or justice. + +He argued extremely well, and I felt as I left him that we ought to do +everything possible to remove the suspicions, and heal the wounds, of a +country at whose side we have fought and died. + +I dined that night in a company of fifty at the British Embassy and had +some talk with our Ambassador, Sir Auckland Geddes. + + + + +VI: DETROIT AND CHICAGO + +DETROIT AND CHICAGO + + GUEST OF WOMEN'S CLUB--VISITS FORD WORKS--LOVELY MRS. + MINOTTO--BONUS AND DISABLED SOLDIERS + + +The next morning we left Washington for Detroit, where I met with a warm +welcome and lectured with success. I was entertained by the Women's City +Club, at whose original invitation I had gone to Detroit. They were +interesting women who all had some work of their own to do, and talked +to me about serious matters with keenness and freedom. I told them, in +saying good-bye, that I had been honoured by meeting them at lunch, and +hoped some of them would write when they had time and tell me a little +more about their lives. + +After lunch we motored in a beautiful Hudson car--lent to us through the +kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Chapin who had been introduced to me by my +artist friend Nellie Komroff--to the great Ford works at Highland Park. +I regret to say I have never understood machinery, and the deafening +noise, smell of oil, and endless walking exhausted me. I was also +unlucky in finding Mr. Ford away, as I would have much liked to have met +him. He is a man who has rendered a great service to his country, as he +has put at the disposal of nearly everybody automobiles of low price and +high quality. + + * * * * * + +We travelled that night to Columbus in the same sort of horrible +train--shaky, hot, and stopping outside before jerking into the +stations. Upon our arrival, a stranger came up to us on the platform and +said he hoped we would let him take us and our luggage to any place we +liked; that he had loved my book and was going to hear my lecture. We +were delighted to accept his invitation and were whizzed off to the +hotel. Mr. Jeffries, the owner of the motor, was more than kind and +enthusiastic. I tried to distinguish his handsome face in a ballroom +where I spoke in the evening, but he was in the gallery, and I was too +nervous to look much about me. + +Ex-Governor Campbell made a witty introductory speech and encouraged my +listeners to ask me questions. When it was all over, I was surrounded by +various ladies and gentlemen of the audience who introduced themselves +and each other to me and asked if I would not eat ices and drink punch, +but I was dropping with fatigue and even my handsome friend who was full +of congratulations, could not prevent me from staggering off to bed. + +I had received a wire from my manager begging me to go by the 7 a.m. +train next morning to Chicago in time to see the reporters in the +evening. The prospect of this gave me a sleepless night, especially as I +was disturbed, first at midnight by a messenger boy with an album which +he wished me to sign, and again at two in the morning by the night +watchman who said I had neglected to lock my door. I used +un-parliamentary language, telling him that nothing would induce me to +lock my door, and after an unsuccessful attempt to settle down, I turned +on the light and read "If Winter Comes." + +The originality and pathos of this wonderful study reduced me to tears +and, more dead than alive, at 5.30 a.m. I told my maid I would have my +bath. + +The reporters at Chicago were very civil and, interspersed with +flash-lights, I got through the interviews as well as I could. One of +the young ladies, following me to the lift, said: + +"I wish you hadn't been so charming and polite. I would like you to have +just rushed at me and pulled my hair out so that I could have got the +story." + +I looked at her in surprise and disgust as Mr. Horton elbowed me into +the lift. + +I dined that night with a very old friend of mine, Count Minotto, and +met the first woman of real beauty that I have seen since I came here. +Mrs. Minotto walked into the room with long white arms and a +transparently pale face; her dark hair brushed in waves off her +forehead was knotted loosely at the back of her neck, and her beautiful +eyes glowed with welcome. We talked _ŕ trois_ for three hours and before +going away she took me into her night nursery. The nurse woke up, but +her lady told her not to move, and after looking at a handsome little +boy, she glided to the side of a white cradle. Very tall, in a clinging +black crepe dress, I was struck by the beauty of her attitude, and the +tenderness of her expression as, leaning across the cot, she removed the +coverlet for me to see her little sleeping baby. + +I lectured the next night to the biggest and most intelligent audience I +had faced since Boston, and when it was over people came on to the stage +to congratulate me and ask for my autograph. + +On the morning of the 22nd, having asked to see the big Military +Hospital, a friend of Mr. Horton's--who had been his secretary during +his Foreign Office work in Paris--took us out to see the Speedway +Hospital. + +We had a long and adventurous drive, skidding in circles on the ice, +although we went at an almost funereal pace. Puffs of steam came up from +my feet which seemed to emerge from a furnace. Mr. Horton insisted on +stopping at a garage for fear the car would catch fire, and our +chauffeur in a rough-and-ready manner poured cans of water down the +window spaces to do what he could to cool the car. + +On arriving at the hospital we were greeted by interviewers and doctors +(the latter in khaki),--we had taken with us Miss Allard, a lady +reporter of first rate intelligence and fine manners,--and we started to +walk round. The military doctor wanted naturally enough to show me the +hospital, which I should imagine to be the largest and most perfectly +equipped in the world. This solid building extends for over half a mile, +and is several storeys high; but I wanted to see the patients, and I +loathe long passages and operating paraphernalia. With difficulty I was +finally permitted to see the wounded. + +It is difficult to make conversation with tired men acclimatized to pain +and bed, but I was glad to meet and talk to them. + +I have a feeling, which may be wrong, that they are not getting the +attention they deserve in this country of money and movies, but the +hospital was magnificent, and there at any rate, they are treated with +efficiency and understanding. + +Perhaps I am not competent to judge, but from what I have observed, the +men who fought in the war--many of whom have been either permanently +disabled or financially handicapped--are in danger of being forgotten, +not by the Government either in the States or any other part of the +world, but by the private individual. + +The bonus over here, even if it passes, can never be an excuse for the +rich and leisured not to go among the wounded either at their homes or +in the hospitals. Gassed, crippled and shell-shocked, their outlook at +the best can but be forlorn, and I am haunted by a fear that in the +hustle of life and what is erroneously called the "return to +normality," the crippled and wounded are neglected. It is understandable +that men in business should want to make money, but business principles +should not be mainly the reflection of personal interests and you may +pay too high a price for making your fortune. + +Excepting for myself I saw no stranger in the crowded wards of this +immense hospital, and from answers to my questions, I do not think it is +the practice among women over here to visit them. + + + + +VII: PITTSBURGH AND ROCHESTER + +PITTSBURGH AND ROCHESTER + + MEETS AN INTERESTING REPORTER--COMPLIMENTS FROM DR. + HOLLAND--PULLMAN CAR INCONVENIENCES--MARGOT SEES HER FIRST FLAPPER + + +After travelling all night in a train that would not be tolerated for a +day in England, we jolted into Pittsburgh at 6.30 a.m. on the morning of +the 23rd. Reporters and photographers waited in the sitting room to see +me after breakfast and, giddy from the journey, I put my feet upon a +sofa and awaited their intelligent questions. + +I spoke to three women and one man. The women asked me if I did not +think they were advancing rapidly as a nation; I answered that no doubt +interest in international politics was making them less provincial, and +with their vitality, intelligence, and resources, their country was +bound to exercise enormous political influence in the future, if it was +not already doing so. I observed the male reporter demurred to this; he +said that the men of ideas and captains of industry were fighting each +other all the time, and that the American press pandered to the public +taste by keeping them in ignorance of the truth. The ladies challenged +this and, addressing him as "Bruce," asked if he thought they did not +revere their great men and all that was worth while; adding that they +were a young and free nation and, if anything, going far too fast. + +Appealing to me, I felt obliged to say I thought they were the most +genuine and hospitable of people, but that in spite of being always in a +hurry I had found them slow; nor could I honestly say I thought them a +free nation. I was heartily supported by the solitary man, who asked the +ladies where they had observed either the great men, or the reverence; +he said that materialism was sapping the soul of America, that their men +of intellect were choked out, and in an aside to me in French, while +the photographers were taking flash-lights, begged me to let him stay on +after the ladies had departed. I assented, and when the oft repeated +enquiry as to what I thought of "flappers" came up, I listened with +absent mind and without committing myself to a subject that, while +disturbing to the morals of the female questioners, bores me to such an +extent that I almost scream when it is mentioned. + +After the ladies had gone Mr. Horton returned with "Bruce." He was the +most interesting reporter that I have met up till now. + +He said he did not know what had happened to the spirit of his +fellow-countrymen. Whether it was from temporary restlessness--following +the chaos of present conditions--or from a native and ingrained lack of +reflection, but that jazz, hustle and headlines were killing the soul of +the American people. + +"There is a perpetual antagonism between the machine, the press, the +money makers, and those who are groping in the darkness to be free. +When they see the Light, and know the Truth, it will be as bad over here +as it is in Russia to-day, and, Mrs. Asquith," he added, "why should +this be? We have men of ideas, and are young and keen; why must what is +fine be inarticulate? You won't believe me, but in this very hotel I +heard one man say to another: + +"'I never read a line that is not going to profit me in commerce.' + +"Imagine, after these five years of anguish all over the world, that +such a thing could be said! I'm a poor man, never likely to arrive, but +I would rather starve than say a thing like that." + +"Have you read 'If Winter Comes'?" I asked. + +He answered that he had, and told me he had been deeply moved over it; +but did I believe that such a man as Mark Sabre could ever exist; did I +not think he had emanated from a sensitive and creative power, but was +not quite a real being. I replied that it was just because Mark Sabre +was so human, and made by God as well as Hutchinson, that the book was +great. + +"If we cared enough, we all have it in us to develop some of Sabre's +qualities, but we must be equally independent of public opinion, equally +tolerant and, above all, equally selfless and loving," I said. + +"You may be right, but what good, after all, did it do him?" + +"Of course," I replied, "if every time we do or say the right thing we +expect to succeed, matters would be very simple. It is because we are +always meeting with rebuffs that life is so complicated. We must peg +away doing what we can; fundamentally humble and despising popular +opinion. Believe me, you are not the only country exposed to the +temptations you speak of. We can only overcome these eternal +inequalities by pity and self-sacrifice, and of this we have been given +an immortal example." + +He got up, and, shaking me firmly by the hand, said: + +"It was just as well that Christ was crucified when He was, for He would +not long have survived the hate and antagonism that His ideas provoked +among the conventional, the successful, and the governing classes." + +In the afternoon I was taken over the Carnegie Buildings. By the +kindness of Mr. Church I was rolled about in a chair, and enjoyed the +most wonderful institution of its sort that exists. Dr. Holland, who +informed me that he was not only acquainted with all my literary friends +in England, but with most of the crowned heads of Europe, accompanied +us. Stuffed animals in huge glass cases do not usually attract me, but +at the Carnegie Institute they are presented with such life-like skill +that I begged to be introduced to the man who had arranged them. He was +brought down in a lift from his work, and after shaking him warmly by +the hand, I told him how proud I was to meet so great an artist. + +Dr. Holland, my chairman of that night, was kind enough to give me the +rough copy of his introductory speech: + +"Ladies and Gentlemen, neighbours, and friends," he said. + +"Written history has been called a 'tissue of lies.' Most historians, +like portrait painters, feel it to be their duty to impart to the +characters whom they are describing a glamour, which in many cases is +more or less superhuman or super-diabolical as the case may be, and to +represent circumstances as they happened in the light of the +preternatural. Now and then there arises a writer who is gifted with the +quality to see things as they really are, and who, to use a current +phrase, 'calls a spade a spade.' In an age of pretence, it is to many +more or less shocking to have such persons take up the pen and, with +frankness born of native honesty, tell the truth as he or she may +distinctly perceive it. Society is so used to 'diplomatic courtesies' +that when the truth-teller arrives, society 'takes a fit,' seeing its +illusions vanish. Its would-be idols which have been proclaimed as made +of pure gold, are found to be gilded clay, its devils not so devilish +after all, and the daring act of the truth-teller is vigorously +denounced by an age which calls for nothing but compliments. + +"We have all read, at least I have, with great appreciation, coupled +with no small degree of amusement, Mrs. Margot Asquith's +'Autobiography.' I particularly enjoyed it because it gave her +impressions of many people whom I have met and known. + +"Mrs. Asquith is the wife of the great man who was the prime minister of +England at the outbreak of the World War. She is here to-day in a city +which bears the name of that prime minister of England who held the helm +of state during the Napoleonic wars. + +"I have the honour of presenting Mrs. Margot Asquith, wife of the Right +Honourable Herbert Henry Asquith. She is one of the most famous women of +England." + + * * * * * + +Hampered by the knowledge that we were to catch the night train to +Rochester, and inexperienced in timing what I have to say, I found when +I sat down that I had cut my lecture short by half an hour. To make up +for this, and encouraged by people in the front row reaching up to shake +my hand, I invited them to come on to the platform. They trooped up in +large numbers and I held an informal reception which met with unexpected +success. + +We drove in silence to the station. I had a conviction which my +secretary did not attempt to contradict that I had been a failure. Mr. +Horton said he feared the news of my curtailed lecture might reach the +influential press and prejudice those who might want to hear me in the +towns in which I was booked to speak. Knowing in my heart that I had on +every occasion received more praise than I deserved, and being of a +temperament that is not knocked out by failure, I tried to cheer him up +while the nigger was arranging my bed, but without the smallest success. + +The trains, both in the States and in the Dominion, have every fault; +those in Canada being even worse than in the United States. If you +travel by day you are one of twenty-four men, women, and children who +sit on hard revolving chairs eyeing one another. You cannot stretch +your limbs, or smoke a cigarette, and while your ears are deafened by +shrieking babies, your legs are scorched by boiling pipes. If you are +rich enough, you may get a drawing room, but they do not have them on +every train. When you travel by night men and women are on top of one +another, buttoned behind an avenue of green cotton curtains. You cannot +get your hot water bottles filled, or have tea in the morning. While +staggering to your private berth between the leaps of the locomotive you +are lucky if you do not fall over the protruding feet of your fellow +travellers, or find yourself sitting on the face of a sleeping lady +lying _perdue_ behind the hangings. Privacy is unknown, and though I +have travelled for thousands of miles I have not yet met the train that, +unless you have the balance of a ballet girl, will not give you +concussion of the spine or brain. + +After a sleepless night we arrived at Rochester where I seized the +morning papers. Thanks to a charming reporter, Mr. C. M. Vining, who +had come a long way to hear me speak at Pittsburgh, I had an excellent +review. + +My stay was so short at Rochester, where I lectured under the auspices +of the Press Club, that I had no time to form any impressions of the +place, but the people were all very good to me. + +On the 26th we met Mr. Horton's mother at Buffalo, a refined, charming, +old lady, who travelled in the train to Toronto with us. + +Meeting Mr. Vining in the passage I thought if I brought him into our +drawing room it would give my secretary an opportunity of speaking to +his mother, and invited him to join us. We had an excellent talk and I +told him that, for the first time in my life, I had seen a "flapper." +While waiting in the sunny street outside Buffalo station, I had seen +two young, short-skirted giggling girls, walking with their admirers who +were armed with kodaks. One of the young men threw a girl over his +shoulder who stretched out her legs while the other photographed her. I +added that, while praying that I would never again be interviewed upon +the subject, I would be in a better position to answer my ardent +questioners in the future. + + + + +VIII: TORONTO AND MONTREAL + +TORONTO AND MONTREAL + + MARGOT TELLS A MARK TWAIN STORY--CAPTURES TORONTO AUDIENCE; KISSES + CHARWOMAN--MONTREAL LADIES QUELLING AND CRITICAL + + +That evening we arrived at Toronto and I lectured on the 29th. My +chairman, the Rev. Byron Stauffer, made a wonderful speech, and I was +listened to by an attentive and intelligent audience. + +I find Prohibition a fruitful topic of discussion. + +For the information of anyone who may think, as I did, that drink has +decreased, and that in consequence everyone over here is wise, sober and +happy, I can only say the reverse is the truth. + +I cannot write of the poorer classes, on whom, in any case, the law is +hard, but among the rich I do not suppose there was ever so much +alcohol concealed and enjoyed as at the present moment in America. Young +men and maidens, who before this exaggerated interference would have +been content with the lightest of wines, think it smart to break the law +every day and night of their lives. I related to my audience that Mr. +Clemens, (better known as Mark Twain), had taken me in to dinner many +years ago at the house of a namesake of mine (Mrs. Charles Tennant, +whose daughter Dorothy married Stanley) and had told me of a great +American temperance orator who, having exercised his voice too much, had +asked the chairman to provide milk instead of water at his meeting. +Turning to the Rev. Byron Stauffer, who is a great temperance +preacher--of which I was unaware--I said, + +"The chairman--probably a kind man like my own--put rum into the milk, +and when the orator, pausing in one of his most dramatic periods, +stopped to clear his throat, he drained the glass, and putting it down, +exclaimed, + +"Gosh! what cows!" + +I went on to tell of a lady who was letting her house, and, after +instructing the auctioneer as to the value of her chairs, furniture and +china, had left him in the dining room where the side-board had several +bottles of wine and whiskey on it. She waited for a long time hoping he +would return to show her the inventory, but as he did not appear she +went into the dining room where she found him drunk upon the floor. She +looked at the paper he held in his hand and read, + +"To one revolving carpet." + +Not wishing to repeat the mistake I had made in Pittsburgh, I spoke for +an hour and fifteen minutes, longer than which no one can be expected to +endure, and as we had some time before catching a midnight train, I +invited my audience on to the stage. At this the platform was stormed, +and I was seized by hands and arms, showered with compliments and, never +at any time a robust figure, so crowded and crushed that I felt +suffocated. My reverend chairman did his best, but it was not until Mr. +Horton, in a voice of thunder, begged them not to mob me as I had to +catch a train, that I was allowed to move. They all rushed to the stage +door shouting, + +"We think you are wonderful!" "Why can't you stay with us?" "You must +come back!" "You're perfectly lovely!" etc. + +We had to lock one of the doors of the green room, but while I was given +brandy, and congratulated by my chairman and his family, a very old +charwoman peeped in at another entrance, saying with emotional timidity, + +"Excuse me, but though I am only a poor old woman who sweeps the stage, +I would like to shake hands with you. The last famous person that I +spoke to was Mme. Calvé, over whom we were all crazy; I may say she let +me kiss her hand." + +I turned and kissed the old lady on both her wrinkled cheeks, at which +she blest me and burst into tears. I felt like doing the same, but was +steadied by the presence of my jolly chairman and his relations. It was +with a feeling of tense gratitude that I heard the announcement of our +car. Clinging to the arm of my secretary I swayed through an +enthusiastic crowd gathered on the pavement. They were cheering, waving +handkerchiefs, and throwing up their hats. Half of the audience appeared +to have waited and collected round our motor, and we had the greatest +difficulty in reaching it. Knowing that this sort of thing will probably +never happen to me again, and with a touch of vanity that I seldom feel, +I wished my husband had been there to witness my unexpected triumph. + +Upon our arrival in Montreal I saw the reporters, and in the afternoon I +made my speech. + +I was introduced at His Majesty's Theatre, by a delightful woman, a +relative of the well known Lady Drummond--Mrs. Huntley Drummond--and +spoke to a lady-like assemblage in a blizzard of draughts. To quote my +beloved and early friend, Mr. John Hay, "I chill like mutton gravy," and +had it not been for my chairwoman who left the stage to bring me my fur +boa, I must have contracted a permanent catarrh which would have reduced +my voice to a whisper. I was relieved--a feeling which I thought the +audience shared--when my lecture was over. + +His Majesty's Theatre is an odious place to speak in, and whether from +the fatigue of a night journey, or the refinement of my female +listeners, I formed an unfavourable impression of the intellectual +manners and vitality of Montreal. When I retired to the wings of the +stage I pointed out to Mrs. Drummond two women in the front row whose +attention and enthusiasm had made all the difference to me during the +lecture. One had a masculine face, with an earnest and beautiful +expression, and her neighbour was a lovely creature. + +"Those," she said, "are Mrs. Hayter Reed and Mrs, Lawford." + +Luckily for me they came up to the green room, accompanied by Oswald +Balfour--Military Secretary to the Governor General--followed by an old +man with a huge bag of golf clubs, and several other friendly people. +The old man showed me a photograph of my father given to him on the +links at Carnoustie, which touched me deeply; and my friends in the +front row, after embracing me on both cheeks, assured me they had been +thrilled by all that I had said, and only longed to see more of me. Mrs. +Drummond--a woman of rare intellect--joined in this praise, and after +Oswald--whose mother, Lady Francis Balfour, is the finest woman speaker +in England--said that my voice-production, general manner and delivery +were professional, I retired from a quelling and critical company. + +My host that night was Sir Frederick Taylor, and I met Lady Drummond and +Mr. Charles Hosmer in his beautiful house. He was more than kind to me, +and I found that they knew most of my personal friends. When Lady +Drummond said that I had a beautiful smile, and the papers that I had a +golden voice, I felt less exhausted on my journey to Ottawa. + +No one who has not been on tour in America can imagine the fatigue of +crowded elevators, shaky trains, and perpetual travelling. + + + + +IX: IN CANADA'S CAPITAL + +IN CANADA'S CAPITAL + + APATHY AND BREEDING OF OTTAWA'S AUDIENCE--INTIMATE TALK WITH + PREMIER MACKENZIE KING--THE STATUE OF "SIR GALAHAD" AND ITS STORY + + +We arrived at Ottawa on the first of March and lunched with Sir George +Perley and his wife (who had befriended me upon the _Carmania_). Lady +Perley is a treasure of kindness and understanding, and nothing I could +ever do will repay her. + +At lunch I met Mr. Meighen and the Canadian Premier. In inviting the +defeated Minister and Mr. MacKenzie King to meet each other, my hostess +reminded me of the early days where in my father's house Mr. Gladstone, +Lord Randolph Churchill, and other Cabinet Ministers of rival parties +met and discussed politics. + +I was grateful to Mr. Meighen for the cordiality with which he greeted +me, as the inventive Canadian press had added impromptu reflections of +their own to what I had said of him. I sat next to Mr. MacKenzie King, +but as we had no opportunity of private conversation, he invited me to +go to his house for supper after the lecture. + +The capital of the Dominion is a beautiful town, wonderfully situated, +and in spite of being covered with snow, was alive and radiant with +spangles and sunshine. + +A greater contrast to the audiences of New York, Boston, Chicago, +Rochester or Toronto, than the one I addressed in Ottawa could hardly be +imagined, and I recognised some of the apathy and breeding which had +characterised my listeners in Montreal. I was introduced to several +select and fashionable people and one gentleman gave me an inventory of +our British aristocracy, most of whom he had known and stayed with. I +felt like putting my arm on his shoulder and saying with sympathy, +"Never mind!" but refrained. When the lecture was over I motored to Mr. +King's private apartments. + +The Canadian Premier is a man after my own heart; shrewd, straight, +modest and cultured. I was surprised to find how much he knew, not only +of the political situation in England, but of the chief characters +concerned in it. After discussing Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. Churchill, Lord +Birkenhead, and Mr. Bonar Law's Canadian friend Lord Beaverbrook, we +talked of Sir Wilfred Laurier, President Harding, and Mr. Hughes. He +spoke with genuine admiration of Mr. Hughes's speech and the Washington +Conference and agreed with me in condemnation of the many futile +confabulations that had preceded it. + +He asked me about the Irish Free State and Labour conditions in England. +As he had settled most of the Canadian strikes he was interested in +unemployment. + +I told him the "land fit for heroes to live in" was a less fashionable +resort than was generally supposed; and that thanks to the policy of +"official reprisals" the ground had not been prepared in a manner to +encourage either Craig or Collins to place implicit confidence in the +Coalition. He told me that reprisals had come as a shock to all +thoughtful people; and, pointing to a fine Italian picture of Our Lord +hanging on the wall, asked me if His life had captivated me as much as +it had him. + +I said that following in His steps appeared to me to be the only chance +we could ever have of acquiring that purity of heart which would enable +us to see God; and walked up to examine the picture. + +It does not take a long sojourn in Canada to prophecy that Mr. MacKenzie +King will need all his courage and independence if he is to stand up to +the hostility of his Conservative and fashionable opponents; but if he +can make himself known to thinking men his administration ought to prove +successful. + +The next day I was again the guest of the premier, and met one of the +two sitting members for Ottawa,--Mr. Hal McGiverin; the Hon. Dr. Henri +Beland (Minister of Soldiers Civil Re-establishment), who had been a +distinguished physician in Belgium when the war broke out. He wrote "A +Thousand and One Days in a Berlin Prison" after having been taken +prisoner by the Germans and confined for over three years. During his +incarceration his wife died in Belgium, and he was not permitted to +attend her death-bed or her funeral. The Hon. George Graham, Minister of +Militia, whose only son was killed in the War; the Hon. Sir Lomar Gouin, +Minister of Justice, and the only other lady, Mrs. G. B. Kennedy, made +up our luncheon party. We had general conversation, which my stepson +Raymond once described as a series of "ugly rushes and awkward pauses", +but on this occasion it was successful, as we discussed among other +subjects politics and literature. + +I asked my neighbour what the statue was which commanded such a +wonderful view near the Houses of Parliament. He said it was "Sir +Galahad," and had been erected in memory of a deed of heroism, and had +no other inscription upon it. He told me a young man called Henry +Albert Harper was skating with a friend when he observed a couple in +front of him disappear into the river at a sudden break in the ice. He +sent his companion to the shore for help, and lying down, stretched out +his walking stick to see if the lady in the water, or her friend, could +catch hold of it. Seeing that this was impossible, as they neither of +them could reach it, he rose to his feet and took off his coat. The +other skaters implored him not to attempt to rescue them as it meant +certain death. + +"What else can I do?" said young Harper, and plunged into the icy +current. Their dead bodies were found the next morning. + +Hearing that Mr. MacKenzie King had written a memoir of Harper--who had +been his greatest friend--I begged him to give me a copy of it. He sent +it to me with his autograph in it, and asked me to sign his volume of my +own autobiography. I was truly sorry to say good-bye to the Canadian +Premier. + +We returned to Montreal the next morning where I found my room a garden +of flowers given to me by Mrs. Reed, Mrs. Lawford and Lady Drummond. I +addressed a ballroom that night full of empty chairs and chandeliers, +but was consoled by my flowers, and the ladies with whom I afterwards +went to supper; and I hope and think I have made lasting friendships +with Mrs. Hayter Reed and Mrs. Lawford. + +Mrs. Reed told me that the little son of friends of hers who had always +refused to meet a Jew, had disconcerted them, one day, by saying in a +reproachful voice, + +"Mother, you never told me Jesus Christ was a Jew." + +Seeing a distressed expression upon his mother's face, he added +consolingly: "But it doesn't matter, since God was a Presbyterian." + +Lying awake that night, I wondered what I would have felt had I married +a man who had consented to be either Governor General of Canada or +Viceroy of India. I can imagine no career, excepting perhaps that of a +minor royalty, that I would have minded as much. Not all the great +functions, personal prestige, wonderful scenery, pig-sticking in the +East, or skating in the Dominion, would make up to me for friendships +without intimacy, and grandeur without gaiety. I came to the conclusion +that only men of a certain kind of vanity and ambition, or animated by +the highest sense of public duty could ever be found to fill these +honourable positions. + + + + +X: REFLECTIONS AT LARGE + +REFLECTIONS AT LARGE + + DRAWBACKS OF AMERICAN JOURNALISM--SENSATIONAL HEADLINES; FEAR OF + THE PRESS--CONTROVERSY ON PROHIBITION WITH LORD LEE--IMPRESSIONS OF + U. S. SENATE + + +We breakfasted at 5.30 a.m. the next morning and arrived at New York at +ten that night, to be greeted by a room full of press men. When the +female reporters begin by saying to me: + +"What, Mrs. Asquith, do you think, with your close acquaintance with the +many trends of the working of a woman's mind, of the modern probability +etc., etc.," I am reminded of Sir Walter Raleigh's excellent phrase, +"Stumbling upwards into vacuity." + +One of these eager ladies, checking her more intelligent male +companions, said: + +"Tell me, Mrs. Asquith, is it not true that you are indifferent to the +opinion of any living person and enjoy saying smart and daring things?" +I replied: + +"Indeed no! I leave that to you." + +I told them about MacKenzie King, of whom they had never heard, and what +Mr. Horton and I had observed in our travels of the abominable +consequences of Prohibition. I said it was a measure of such exaggerated +interference with private liberty that no truthful person could call +America a free country. + +On my arrival I found many letters from England on the political crisis; +and if I can judge at such a distance, the Coalition seems doomed. + +Believing as I always have in party government as the best solution for +democracy, I think Sir George Younger deserves a Victoria Cross, and it +will be interesting to see how many of the timid Conservatives will +regain sufficient courage to follow him. The mischief that is being made +between my husband and Lord Grey leaves me cold. + +Their friendship is not of a kind to be easily severed, and the House of +Lords and the House of Commons are separate institutions. + +Trammelled as I have always been by an unfortunate combination of +truthfulness and impatience, and exhausted by the journey of eighteen +hours, I was afraid I had been neither genial nor informing to the +reporters upon my arrival in New York, but on looking at the papers next +morning I found they had treated me with friendliness and courtesy. + +Journalism over here is not only an obsession but a drawback that cannot +be over-rated. Politicians are frightened of the press, and in the same +way as bull-fighting has a brutalising effect upon Spain (of which she +is unconscious), headlines of murder, rape, and rubbish, excite and +demoralise the American public. + +I would like to make it clear that it is not the reporters but the +owners of the papers that should be censured. With the exception of a +few garrulous and gushing geese, who think it smart to ask pert and +meaningless questions, the male reporters that I have met have not only +been serious and intelligent, but men with whom I have discussed +literature, politics and religion; but it would not pay their editors, I +presume, to publish conversations of this character. On the front page +of even the best newspapers, paragraph after paragraph is taken up by +descriptions in poor English of devastating trivialities. Violent and +ignorant young men, or "flappers"--in whom the public here seem to take +an unnatural interest--might easily suppose that their best chance of +success in life lay in creating a sensation. Of what use can it be to +create a sensation? Who profits by it? What influence can this sort of +thing have upon the morals of a great and vital nation? If Christ with +His warnings against worldliness were to come down to-day, after giving +Him one hearing the crowd would not crucify Him, they would shoot Him at +sight. + +You have only to examine the newspaper comments upon Abraham Lincoln to +see that even in those days abuse and misrepresentation were popular. He +was persecuted and vilified every day of his life; but, like my husband, +he was press-proof. + +If editors would only realise it, following public opinion instead of +guiding it is ultimately dull, and makes monotonous reading. + +In England we are trying to raise our journalistic standards to the +level of the United States, but, without claiming undue superiority, I +do not think we shall succeed. There is enough common sense among our +people to mitigate against any such misfortune, and we have only to +recall the general election of 1905-6, when every morning paper in +London, except the _Daily News_, was against us, to realise the +impotence of the press. + +Fear is as unproductive as it is contemptible, and until some big man +has the courage to break the power of the press in America, progress +will always go beyond civilisation. + + * * * * * + +I motored in evening dress for three hours to a suburb of New York. I +am so tired of the abominable trains that an aeroplane or a perambulator +would be a relief, and the road to Montclair was full of interest. The +sky was throbbing with carmine and gold, and the varying lights of green +and white, reflected in a river sentinelled on either side by high black +buildings and pointed towers, left an impression on me of Whistler-like +beauty. + +We dined with excited and hospitable people and I lectured to an +enthusiastic audience. I do not know how it is with professional +speakers, but with the amateur the chairman and the audience make the +speech. The Rev. Swan Wiers introduced me in an address of eloquence for +which I thanked him warmly. + +I arrived in Providence next day to be interviewed by three young +ladies. After the usual questions upon Princess Mary's underwear and the +"flappers," one of them said she had come to ask me about England's +greatest man. I told her we had so many that I would be grateful if she +could indicate the one she meant. + +"Will you tell me who your great men are?" she answered. + +"Well," I said, "we have Hardy, Kipling, Lord Morley, Lord Grey, Lord +Buckmaster, and Mr. Balfour." + +"Oh, no!" she replied, "I want to hear all about Lloyd George." + +"I fear you will have to read about him yourself," I said, "and if you +can wade through the daily columns of films, flappers, murders and +headlines, over here, to our anonymous gossip about Downing Street in my +country, you may discover what you want to know." + +The other ladies intervened when she retorted: + +"Then you refuse to tell me?" and as--the electric light having gone out +all over the hotel--we were squinting at a single candle, I thought it +as well to put an end to their intelligent questions. + +The Providence audience consisted mostly of empty chairs, but it was an +enormous hall and when the lecture was over a few of the five hundred +listeners came up to ask me to sign my name in various albums and on +slips of paper. They said: + +"You have given us such a wonderful lecture to-night that you must come +back here." To which I replied smilingly: + +"Never in this world! To speak for an hour and fifteen minutes to people +who never clap is like hitting one's head against a wall." At which one +of the ladies said: + +"You are quite right, Mrs. Asquith, there is great apathy and lack of +manners in Providence." + +"Why should you clap," I said, "if you are not interested?" At this they +all protested. + +"We were afraid of missing a word of what we were enjoying," said one +charming woman, to which I replied: + +"I would have stood as still as a statue if one of you had thought of +cheering me!" + +We took the midnight train to New York where we arrived at six the next +morning, and I felt that I was returning home. + +On March 8, the _New York Times_ published on its front page: + + "LORD LEE DEFENDS AMERICAN YOUNG + WOMEN + + "Mrs. Asquith's Charges Cruel, Ludicrous, + and Untrue!" + +"Speaking at the English-speaking Union luncheon, Lord Lee said the +statement attributed to the famous country-woman of his now in the +United States was as cruel as it was ludicrous and untrue. He added that +he could testify from thirty years of personal observation in America, +and from reliable information from various quarters; and that he was +speaking seriously." + +Lord Lee has only got to travel over here for ten days to change his +opinion. I, also, am speaking seriously, and am strongly in favour of +temperance. Liquor control has been, among many other reforms, the +political ambition of my husband ever since he became a Cabinet +Minister, but as what is called "the Trade" has the votes and blessing +of the Conservative Party in England, all our bills to control it were +frustrated by the House of Lords. + +We drink less than our forbears, not because we are more moral, but for +reasons of health. Our people are fond of sport; and you neither shoot +or ride as straight if you indulge in champagne, port, liqueurs, +brandies, and other drinks over night. + +The first question I was asked when I landed upon American soil was +whether I approved of Prohibition. I said I thought it was a fine idea +and an example that would ultimately be followed by the whole world; I +presumed that light wines and beer would in time modify this somewhat +exaggerated measure; but as most of the men convicted of crimes of +violence had been proved to be under the influence of liquor, the +prisons and asylums would gradually be emptied. I added that many of the +famous, as well as young men of promise, and some of the best servants I +had known in my life had been ruined by drink, and that it was a subject +upon which I felt deeply. + +I could see at once that what I said was unpopular, but I repeated the +same opinion in all my early lectures, adding that gout, rheumatism, +arthritis, and other nervous diseases have been, if not contracted, +certainly assisted by alcoholic poisoning inherited from generations of +men who drank too much. + +A very short visit over here has convinced me that Prohibition, as at +present administered, is both "ludicrous and cruel." The well-to-do can +get the drinks they want. Young men and women, as well as adults, share +with their friends and admirers all the pleasures that go with defying +the law. I have no doubt from what I have been told that the power of +the Saloon League lobby had to be smashed, and that the men who +accomplished it deserve the highest praise, but can anyone truly say the +Prohibition law is kept? Are Mr. Volstead or Mr. Pussyfoot Johnson +satisfied with the present condition of things in their country? + +There is a text in St. John, + +"The Truth shall make you free." + +There is no lack of truth over here, but there is a lack of freedom, and +I think the press which is kept informed of what is going on might do +much more than it does with its powers upon this subject. + +It cannot be right for young people to see their parents and friends +cheating the law every day of their lives. And which of them think of +cheering up the poor, who presumably get as tired from their work as the +idle get from their pleasures! What I have said upon every platform and +which Lord Lee, in a generous desire to defend the youth of this +country, denies, is not "cruel, ludicrous, and untrue," but a platitude. + +I have received signed letters from every quarter of the country +thanking me for expressing my opinion, and will quote from one of them: + + "_New York City_, March 9, 1922. + + "MADAM, + +"If you wish for very substantial proof of the exactitude of your remark +that maidens get drunk at dances, all you have to do is to send +someone, unobtrusively, to [I am not going to give the name of the +place] to obtain from the waiters and waitresses an account of the +lamentable condition in which scores of the girls were taken home after +two recent balls held in the Hotel ----, one of the most fashionable +hotels in the suburbs of New York. + +"It was not the fault of the management, and I am told no more dances of +the sort will be permitted there. + +"I am a very disgusted sister of one of the young girls, and am trying +hard to dissuade her from accepting intoxicants at these parties. Yours, +etc." + +[I will not publish the signature.] + +This is only one of many letters I have received on the same subject. + +After the _New York Times_ had published Lord Lee's statement and I had +made my position perfectly clear, I was sent a press cutting, from what +paper I do not know. + +"Margot Lines Up with Foes of Prohibition: she has swung round to the +anti-prohibitionists." + +This is characteristic of the inaccuracy of the American press. Editors +do not distinguish between half notes and full shouts, but no one need +take this seriously as crime and headlines will soon make their readers +forget either what Lord Lee has said, or I have controverted. + +On the 10th my daughter Elizabeth took me to a fashionable charity fęte +in a large New York ballroom, where I heard my son-in-law speak for the +first time. I envied him his self-possession; for, though I am told that +my demeanor does not betray me, I am so nervous before the so-called +"lectures" that I eat nothing, and so exhausted after, that the mildest +meal gives me indigestion. + +Having suffered from audiences that, while more than appreciative, +seldom clap, Mrs. Frank Polk and I were determined that Antoine Bibesco +should not experience the same embarrassment. Our friendly intentions +were frustrated, however, as everything he said was received with +enthusiasm. His handsome face and fine manners, and the popularity of +his wife (though it is not usual to praise one's daughter) have made +them much loved in this hospitable country. + +On leaving the entertainment I was way-laid by a female reporter: + +"Is it not true that but for his Highness Prince Bibesco you would never +have published your diaries, Mrs. Asquith?" she asked. To which I +replied: + +"I have not published my diaries. I have written the first volume of my +autobiography, encouraged by some of my friends--but no one has +criticised my literary efforts with more perspicacity and insight than +my son-in-law." + +"Can you not give me a story for my paper?" she said. + +The gallantry of Mr. Nelson Cromwell, and presence of mind of Mrs. Frank +Polk rescued me from further conversation. + +Mr. Clarence Mackay invited me to a concert in his beautiful house after +dinner, where I met some of the American men that I am most devoted +to--Mr. Polk, our ex-Ambassador Mr. Davis, and Colonel House. I sat +next to the latter with whom I had a good talk and, what with hearing +Kreisler--the greatest living violinist--and being in a position to +observe the glowing enthusiasm of Elizabeth and the melancholy +expression of her husband, I was consoled for the midnight journey which +we took to Washington when the party was over. + +My love for my grand-baby, the titter of talk, the tissue paper of +unpacking outside my door, and the miawling of "Minnie" the cat, +prevented me from resting upon my arrival in the morning, and when I +went to the Senate after lunch I could hardly keep awake. The Four Power +Treaty was being discussed, but the debate was languid, and more seats +were unoccupied than Senators speaking. + +Except for a tribune, the Senate reminds me of the _Chambre_ in Paris. +Everyone walks about, and you cannot be sure that any of the Senators +will speak from the seat that they occupied the day before, which makes +it rather confusing to a stranger. + +At 4.30 I went to see Mr. Hughes in the Department of State. He is +remarkably handsome and has not only a striking intelligence, but +charming manners. We said nothing worth recording. I told him what, +alas! he must have heard a thousand times: the profound impression that +his opening speech on Disarmament at the Washington Conference had +created in my country, if not all over the world; and what perhaps he +did not know so well, that there never was a closer feeling than that +which exists between England and America to-day. + +When I say this with all the eloquence I can command at every lecture, +though it is always cheered, it is seldom reported, and I read in one of +the papers: + +"What Mrs. Margot Asquith said about the hand-clasp of Great Britain and +the United States is doubtful if not conventional," I am glad to be +called conventional, but what I say is not doubtful; it is true. + +I see that in one of Byron's recently published letters, he writes to +Lady Melbourne: + +"I wish that ... would not speak his speech at the Durham meeting above +once a week after its first delivery. + + "Ever yours most nepotically, + + "B." + +But in spite of Byron's wise warning I repeat the same thing in every +lecture, because I feel passionately that it is not only important that +the English-speaking nations should stand side by side, but vital to the +Peace of Europe, and I am far from original in thinking it. + + + + +XI: SYRACUSE AND BUFFALO + +SYRACUSE AND BUFFALO + + CITY OF CULTURE AND BEAUTY--NIAGARA'S NATURAL BEAUTY MARRED BY + BILLBOARDS--MARGOT READS ABOUT HERSELF + + +On March 13 my daughter and her husband motored me to Baltimore where, +after speaking to a responsive audience, we took the midnight train to +Utica, and went from there to the Onondaga Hotel at Syracuse. This is a +university city of culture and beauty, and I wished I had had time to +see more of it. + +I was introduced to my audience by Dean Richards, a lady of ability and +high standing in the college, and several people came up and spoke to me +behind the scenes when the lecture was over. + +I have received many remarkable letters and invitations in every city I +have visited, not only to lunch and dine, but even to stay in private +houses. Had I but realised the great distances over here when I left +England, I would have started earlier, and made a longer tour, but I am +going home for my son's Easter holidays and have therefore been obliged +to refuse much hospitality. In case anyone reads these impressions, I +would like them to know how deeply their spontaneous generosity has +touched me. I will quote a letter which was put into my hands at +Syracuse: + + March 13, 1922. + +"_Mrs. Asquith_, + +"DEAR MADAM, + +"When a person has bestowed upon another a gift--such as 'The Diary of +Margot Asquith'--ought not the favoured one to give an expression of +appreciation to the donor? I think so. And this conviction must be the +excuse for my making so bold as to address you, Mrs. Asquith, to thank +you for giving us--who live in so different a world to that of yours--a +glimpse of your spirit, so colorful, so vivid, so noble. And the charm +of it is that this color, vividness, verve, and charm is not carried +consciously and heavily--but is borne lightly, charmingly, like an +ornament,--a jewel. + +"I am not young, nor given to raptures; I am older than you, and I am +only thanking you for the radiance your writings have thrown upon my +life; and when to-morrow night I see and hear you at the Opera House in +Syracuse, you may perhaps care to know that one among many happy people +is enjoying a completeness she had not dreamed would come to her. + +"With all good wishes to Mrs. Asquith here on our shores, and beyond the +sea, I am, + + "Sincerely yours, + + "E. A. S----." + +There have been other letters I would like to quote, but for fear of +boring my readers I will end with the following, written from Chicago, + +"_To Margot Asquith_, + +"I read your volume a year ago and at once decided if it was a girl I +would call her 'Margot.' + +"Tuesday night at Orchestra Hall I heard and saw you. Your enthusiasm, +your zest for life, the airy grace of your movements, and the charm of +your smile will live in my memory always. + +"Here's hoping that some of the wealth of your qualities will go with +the name 'Margot' to my little one. + +"May you live long, Margot Asquith, is the wish of, + + "M. M. F.----." + +On the 16th we arrived at Buffalo, where, after seeing the usual army of +photographers and reporters, we motored twenty-five miles out to +Niagara. + +I had always imagined the drive to the Falls would have been long, slow, +dangerous, and steep; that this amazing spectacle must be situated in a +wild and lonely place, with possibly one romantic hotel encircled by +balconies for the convenience of tourists who had travelled from great +distances to see it; whereas it is approached by a straight, flat, and +crowded road, with tram-cars pursuing their steady course the whole way +from Buffalo City. The Niagara Falls, so far from being in a lonely +spot, are surrounded by gasometers, steel factories, and chimney pots. +Of their beauty and magnificence it would be as ridiculous as it would +be presumptuous for me to write, but when my maid said she had expected +them to be more "outlandish," I did not contradict her. + +Mr. Horton's brother told me of an Irishman who, on being asked to +express his opinion, answered, "I don't see what is to prevent the water +from going over," but I felt almost too depressed to laugh. + +You might have supposed that the whole neighbouring population would +have risen like an army to protest against a hideous city of smoke and +steel being erected round the glorious Falls of Niagara, and it was +characteristic of the population of Buffalo that our chauffeur did not +pull up at the Falls, but, upon our stopping him, said he had presumed +we wanted to go to the power station. + +If I ever return to America, I should not be surprised if a line of +safe-sailing steamships had been engineered to go down the Niagara +Falls. + +I do not think that in Scotland either the country of Scott or the +Ettrick shepherd, nor the passes of Killiecrankie or Glencoe, will ever +be deformed for commercial purposes. + +As a complete outsider with a short and hurried experience of the United +States, this has struck me more than anything else. Beauty, which is so +obvious in the architecture and other things, seems to be +underestimated, and where nature should dominate, I have been shocked on +every road that I have travelled by the huge billboards and +advertisements of the most flamboyant kind, which irritate the eye and +distort the vision of what otherwise would be unforgettable and +inspiring. It is much the same everywhere. In Chicago the Michigan +Boulevard, with the lovely lake on one side and grand buildings on the +other, running at enormous width for a long distance, is one of the +finest broadways in the world; but it is spoilt by a vulgar erection at +the end, advertising something or other against the sky, in electric +bulbs of rapid and changing colours. + +I found the people I met were chiefly interested in the following report +of indignation meetings: + +"Blame Girls for 'Snugglepupping' and 'Petting Parties' in Chicago." + +"Male 'Flappers' Parents hold Indignation Meeting." + +"Boys who don't follow Fair Companions' Pace called 'Sissies, Poor Boobs +and Flat Tires'." + +I have only seen two headings that have really interested me. One was: + +"A Good Name." + +The other: "Wanted, a Rare Man: aggressive yet industrious, fighting, +yet tactful and dignified. He must have a good education, and an +appearance which will give him an entrée into the best homes." + +I would much like to be presented to any of the men who will answer +these advertisements, though I have no doubt they are tumbling over one +another. + +From Buffalo we went on to Cincinnati where I read in one of the +newspapers: + + "MARGOT + +"Margot Asquith, wife of the former Prime Minister of England, is in +Cincinnati. + +"Men who like to believe that they know more than their wives would not +be happy with a woman like Margot for wife. She knows more than most +men, and there is scarcely anything she cannot or will not talk about. + +"She wrote a book that is an encyclopedia of the inside history of +British politics and history of her time. + +"There aren't many like Margot. Husbands who long after the honeymoon +like to be entertained will envy Asquith his Margot. It must be +pleasant to have a Margot in the house." + +I expect the writer was pulling my leg--to use a slang expression--or +possibly pitying my husband, but it amused me. + + + + +XII: INTERESTING ST. LOUIS + +INTERESTING ST. LOUIS + + MET BY THE MAYOR--ANOTHER INTELLIGENT REPORTER--NEWS FROM HOME AND + VIEWS THEREON--LUNCHEON AT WOMEN'S CLUB + + +We were met at St. Louis station by a vast crowd of photographers, +reporters--male and female--headed by the Mayor, a grand fellow called +Henry W. Kiel. He motored me to the Hotel Statler where my rooms were +full of roses and, in spite of an iron bed, we were more than +comfortable. I am like stuff that is guaranteed not to wash, so I sat +down at once to talk to the reporters, among whom I observed one man of +supreme intelligence. Caustic and bitter, he interrupted the females and +asked to be allowed to return to us after dinner. Mr. Paul Anderson and +I had a first rate discussion, while my secretary typed and telephoned +till, with his usual consideration, he came back to send me to bed, +where I remained like a trout on a bank with piles of old _Times's_ +which Mr. Anderson had brought me. + +I read details, for the first time, of Mr. Montague's resignation, and +smiled over the belated theory of the joint responsibility of our +British Cabinet. When one recalls the many conflicting opinions +expressed by every minister without rebuke, culminating in the Admiralty +note upon the Geddes Report, the Prime Minister's indignation is more +than droll. I presume the Conservative wing of the Coalition wanted to +get rid of Indian Reform as interpreted by the Viceroy and Mr. Montague, +and I shall watch with interest the action that Lord Reading will take +upon the matter. + +Arresting Ghandi was as unwise as stealing a cow from a temple; but from +such a distance political comment may be as belated as the theory of +cabinet responsibility; and the inspired agitator--beloved of his +people--may, for all I know, be governing India at the present moment. + +St. Louis is among the most interesting cities I have visited. The +Mississippi is commanded upon both its banks by huge buildings, and +spanned by grand bridges. There is a private park as large as the Bois +de Boulogne, and an open air theatre with oak trees on either side of +the stage. The school buildings and Washington College are of perfect +architecture, and I was grateful to Mrs. Moore--a woman of sympathy and +authority--for driving me out to a lovely club house for tea, which gave +me an opportunity of seeing the environment. + +I was entertained the next day at a private luncheon given by a ladies' +club and was glad to be sitting next to dear Mrs. Moore. Observing a +single gentleman seated among the company I asked in a whisper who he +was; upon being told he was a reporter I said, in an aside to my other +neighbour, that for the rest of the meal I would confine my remarks to: +"Yes," "No," or "I wonder!" and "How true!" Upon this the unfortunate +young man was conducted from the room. He had a peculiarly charming face +and when I saw what had happened I said I was afraid I also would have +to leave the table, as I could not allow any guest to be insulted for my +sake; at which he was allowed to return. I apologised to him, saying +that though I had imagined this to be an informal gathering at which no +newspapers would be represented, I did not wish him to be treated with +any lack of courtesy, and hoped he would not make copy out of any +foolish thing I might have said. He was particularly nice and, although +I shall probably never see what he has written about me, I am willing to +"take a chance"--as they express it over here. + +After signing my name twenty-three times--as flattering as it was +fatiguing--the Mayor came to fetch me away. Mrs. Moore and two other +ladies accompanied us on a motor drive to see the city. The Mayor--who +is a big man--sat rather uncomfortably between me and Mrs. Moore, and +said that, with the permission of the other two ladies he proposed to +put his arm round my waist as, being engaged to speak at a meeting of +the Boy Scouts, he would be unable to attend my lecture in the evening. +I told him that, after this, nothing but bribery and corruption could +re-elect him as the Mayor of St. Louis. + +"Then I shall return to my original occupation, Mrs. Asquith; I started +life as a bricklayer, and I have not forgotten my trade, at which I am +unrivalled." + +The ladies said he was much more likely to be returned as their +political representative, and after asking "Joe," his chauffeur, to stop +and enable him to buy me cigarettes, he took me back to the hotel. + +I found a beautiful bouquet of orchids on my table to which was pinned a +card from one of the ladies whom I had met at lunch: + +"From Mrs. Hocker, with best wishes for a successful evening at St. +Louis, to absolutely the most brilliant and interesting woman it has +been my privilege to meet either in America or Europe." + +I need hardly say that I clung to my bouquet that evening when I was +escorted upon the stage by Judge Henry Caulfield, the City Counsellor. + +Mr. Anderson of the St. Louis _Post-Dispatch_ returned to talk to us +after the meeting, and I can truly say that after "Bruce"--whose real +name I never discovered--I found him the most interesting press-man that +I have met. I wrote to his editor congratulating him on having such a +man upon his staff, and received a grateful reply. + +Never having been interviewed till I arrived in this country, I do not +know in what way reporters of intellect here would compare with ours, +but it passes my comprehension to understand why those that I have met +are content to write for papers that seldom print what is either +informing or interesting. + +One of them said to me: + +"We do not publish news, Mrs. Asquith, we concoct it." + + + + +XIII: KANSAS CITY AND OMAHA + +KANSAS CITY AND OMAHA + + AMERICAN VOICES RARELY MUSICAL--SEES LOVELY COUNTRY + HOME--DISCUSSION ON CHARACTER BUILDING--MARGOT PREDICTS GREAT + FUTURE FOR GOVERNOR ALLEN + + +We travelled to Kansas City the night of the lecture and were met upon +our arrival and taken to the country house of Mrs. Edwin Shields. + +After greeting her, I observed her fine tapestries, oriental china, +portraits (by Sir Joshua Reynolds), and other old masters, as well as +modern French pictures. We ate porridge, eggs and bacon and grapefruit +for breakfast, off an oak table with Irish linen napkins, and I observed +the refinement of my hostess's little face, and the pretty quality of +her voice. + +I do not think the voices here are generally musical; they are nasal and +a little loud and, though Americans have a great deal of geniality and +love of fun, I am so slow at picking up the language, that I probably +miss much of the irony and _finesse_ that characterises our better kind +of humour. The Canadians, who are of British stock, have a better sense +of humour; but it is always a dangerous subject to write about, and when +I remember the stupid things that evoke the laughter of the London +public in our theatres, I feel I had better walk warily. + +I am Scotch, and as a nation we have been accused of lack of humour; I +cannot be expected to agree with this, nevertheless I remember being +told in my youth of a man who had said: + +"Oh! aye; Jock undoubtedly jokes, but he jokes with facility. I joke +too, but with difficulty." + +The French have a far finer sense of humour than any other nation in the +world, and all they say is a constant source of delight to me. + +It is pardonable not to laugh at what is amusing, but sudden guffaws at +bad jokes is the test of a true sense of humour. + +After breakfasting with Mrs. Shields I asked her to show me over her +beautiful house. I was reminded of Glen by the freshness of the +chintzes, and general feeling of air and comfort which I saw wherever I +went. + +We started at midday for Omaha, where we arrived in the evening. I felt +less sad at parting with my hostess as I knew I was going to spend from +7 a.m. till midnight with her on the 24th. She is coming to Europe this +summer where I shall look forward to entertaining her in London, as well +as in the country. + +After leaving her, Mr. Horton told me she had said to him that till she +met me, she felt like a flower that had grown on clay soil, and that I +had helped her to break into the sunlight. I was deeply touched, and am +encouraged to hope that some day I may be worthy of so rare a +compliment. + +Upon our arrival at Omaha we were met by an open motor lent by Mrs. +Kountze, who had invited us to stay with her in her town house, but +fearing that three of us might be embarrassing, we decided to go to the +hotel. + +Omaha is a lovely city, with avenues of trees on either side of wide +boulevards, and within easy reach of stretches of wild and beautiful +country. As our hostess had been obliged to go to New York, her kind +relations conducted us to see the wonderful views surrounding the town. + +After speaking in the afternoon to an encouraging audience, with Mr. +Hall, the British Consul, as my chairman, I dined with Mr. and Mrs. Ward +Burgess. They were more than hospitable, and had it not been for the +severe figure of my secretary standing in the doorway, my jolly host, +who had entertained me for two hours at dinner, would have prevented me +from catching the midnight train. + +We returned to Kansas City early on the morning of the 24th. + +On being informed by Mrs. Shields's butler that her maid had already +called her, I had a bath and, dressing as quickly as I could, went +downstairs. + +Her sitting room was a garden of roses, lilies and antirrhinums and I +shall always remember our unforgettable _tęte-ŕ-tęte_. + +We started upon personality, and the difficulty of expressing what was +true without hurting anyone, or acquiring character without becoming a +character part. The difference between originality and eccentricity; +kindness and tenderness; sympathy and understanding; and the delicate +grades by which your attempts at goodness may either help or hamper your +fellow creatures. + +It is an eternal problem; and the morally lenient and socially severe is +what you encounter every day of your life. I confessed how much I +resented the shortness of life and urged her to realise this, as she +appeared to me, in spite of having a genius for friendship, to be +self-contained and lonely. She was responsive, and said many encouraging +things to me. I said that somewhere or other I had read that Marcus +Aurelius had begged us to keep our colour. I was not very sure of the +correct text; but that the idea was that some of us were born red, some +yellow, and others grey, but that however this might be, the point was +to keep it; not so much by contrast or conflict with the other person, +but to complement it. Great scientists, mathematicians or philosophers +may manage to develop their personality alone, but what they write will +not have the key that the writings of men who are nearer the earth are +able to present to ordinary human beings. + +At one of Abraham Lincoln's great meetings, he had to walk through the +crowd to reach the platform. He heard someone say as he passed: + +"Is _that_ President Lincoln? Why, what a common-looking fellow!" + +At which he turned round and said: + +"God likes common-looking fellows or he would not have made so many of +them." + +I told her how much I had been moved by her remark to my secretary that +our friendship would help her to emerge out of clay soil; adding that +the desire of my life was to replant myself in a bigger pot every year, +and that what she had said would encourage me to go on. After a certain +age we were liable to become stationary; and the ravages of war so far +from having regenerated, had retarded civilisation. + +We were interrupted by Mr. Henry J. Allen, a guest who arrived long +before the luncheon hour. + +The Governor of the State of Kansas is a man of authority--not only +intelligent but intellectual, always a rare combination, and it needs no +witch to predict a great future for him. He remained at Mrs. Shields's +lovely house in Cherry Street from 11.30 till 6 in the evening, in spite +of having an appointment at 4, by which I inferred he could do what he +liked. + + + + +XIV: THE WAR AND PROHIBITION + +THE WAR AND PROHIBITION + + HEATED DISCUSSION ON ENGLAND'S ENTRY INTO THE WAR--OUR GERMAN + FRIENDS--AMERICAN VITALITY--MISQUOTED ON PROHIBITION + + +I sat next to Mr. Heath Moore at lunch and discussed many subjects; +among others, the motives that had brought Great Britain into the war. +He expressed himself with vigour and frankness, and said that nothing +would induce him to believe that our purpose had been moral. That our +trade was in danger of being out-rivalled, and the German navy had +developed into such a formidable menace, that after France had been +defeated, our own shores would have been immediately attacked by the +Germans; it was therefore humbug to suggest that our motive had not been +one of pure self defence. + +As this was the first anti-British note that I had heard since my +arrival, it interested me. + +I asked him where he imagined our ships would be when the German +dreadnoughts sailed into our harbours: and what sort of reception the +British people were likely to give the enemy crew, even supposing it +could land an army--never a very easy matter--and concluded by saying I +had not been kept awake by the fear that the Kaiser would succeed where +Napoleon had failed. He stuck to his point and said that but for the +violation of Belgium we would not have entered into the war. I answered +that no doubt this had made it easier for the party in power--of which +my husband was the head--because among the many convictions that divide +Liberals from Conservatives is that we believe in freedom, while they +believe in force: and that imperialism meant militarism against which we +would fight for ever. But, I added, no British Government of whatever +party would have watched with folded arms the whole German navy sail +down our coast to attack France. + +He inquired if my husband had felt any qualms _when he took upon his +shoulders this great decision_. I answered that our Foreign Secretary, +Sir Edward now Lord Grey, Lord Crewe, and others, had made up their +minds from the first moment; and that in one year--thanks to the +Committee of Defence, Lord Haldane and Lord Kitchener--we had produced a +large voluntary army; and had he been in England at the time, he would +have been struck by the pathos and silence with which men of every class +joined up to fight in a war which was not their own, against a foe for +whom they felt no hatred. + +He asked if England had been disappointed that America had come in so +late to help her, I confessed that in a moment of pique I had exclaimed +that had I been Christopher Columbus I would have said nothing about the +discovery, but that I doubted if Great Britain would have come in any +earlier to help the United States had they been in a similar quandary. + +Someone asked me privately if I had lost a child in the war. I said +that my little boy had been too young to fight, but that both my +sisters, my three brothers and my husband had lost their sons; that +living in Downing Street in the first years of the war had been an +anguish, the depth of which no one could realise. + +We had refused to drop any of our German friends in London, and in +consequence became targets for the abuse and calumny of our social and +political enemies. + +It is a subject that rouses me to undying indignation when I remember +the manner in which we were persecuted, not only by our opponents, but +by some of my personal friends even after we had been defeated in the +General Election of 1918. One of the candidates said that she had often +been to Downing Street on matters of vital importance during the war and +had been struck by the lack of feeling shown by myself and my husband. + +Mr. Heath Moore gave me an account of the savage manner with which the +German population over here had been treated when America joined the +Allies. He told me among other things, that one of his fellow-countrymen +in a great recruiting speech had been interrupted by a man in the +gallery who was understood to have shouted: "Hurrah for the Kaiser!" At +which he was kicked and beaten down the stairs to the street and, but +for the intervention of a policeman, would have been killed. When asked +what he had done, the unfortunate German said his only son had been +killed in the war and that he had shouted: "To hell with the Kaiser!" + +This was mild compared to some of the cruelties related. + +It is always dangerous to generalise, but the American people, while +infinitely generous, are a hard and strong race and, but for the few +cemeteries I have seen, I am inclined to think they never die. They +thrive in rooms as hot as conservatories, can sit up all night, eat +candy and ice-cream all day, and live to a great age upon either social +or commercial excitement without leisure. + +When I left the room to rest and think over my lecture, I was afraid I +had not shown sufficient consideration to Mr. Heath Moore or his +opinions, so that I was relieved on being informed that he had proposed +himself to return to dinner the same evening. I hope we shall meet each +other again, as he is a man of compassion. + +I lectured after dinner, and before I had finished I fixed my eyes upon +Mr. Heath Moore sitting next to Mrs. Shields and spoke of the moral +motives that had made Great Britain enter into the war, apart from her +friendship with France. I said that while the French had sacrificed +everything and fought magnificently, other countries had been animated +by the same motives, and in the end it had been won by a League of +Nations. + +I dwelt at length upon the cruelty with which the Germans had been +treated in the United States and at home, and was cheered when I said +that had Christ come down among the civilian population at any time +during the war His sense of justice and compassion would have earned +for Him the title of pro-German. + +We went back to Cherry Street before taking the midnight train. + +I was introduced to several people of the City of Kansas at supper, all +of whom I found interesting. One man said to me: + +"I knew you had charm and personality, Mrs. Asquith, but you must have +spoken on a hundred platforms to have acquired such courage and +eloquence." + +I gazed at him dumb with surprise. + +When I left I promised to write to my hostess and Mr. Moore. + + * * * * * + +We changed at St. Louis, on our way to Indianapolis, and were met there +at 7 a.m. the next morning by Mr. Paul Anderson; we all had breakfast at +the station together, and I was sorry to say good-bye to him. + +I read quoted from a London paper that Mr. Balfour--the greatest living +Commoner--had been made a Knight of the Garter. + +We were met upon our arrival in the afternoon at Indianapolis by Mr. +and Mrs. Sullivan, and accompanied to their house by a reporter, I was +surprised to see in the papers next day that I had said among other +things that in Scotland we were not only highly educated, but able to +study in our schools both the French and Spanish languages, and were I +the Queen of America I would restore drink. + +I began to fear that, though uncrowned, I must have in a fit of absence +usurped some of the powers I had indicated ought to be restored to the +United States. + +After travelling all day on the 26th, we arrived in sousing rain at +night to hear there were no porters at the station. On enquiring if they +were on strike, I was told that there never had been any porters at +Kalamazoo. + +Loaded with luggage, we paddled like ducks in the mud to an inferior +hotel. + +As we had lunched at midday and there was no dining car on the train, we +were annoyed to hear that no one could get any food after 8.30 p.m., but +luckily for us there were still ten minutes before the restaurant +closed, so we devoured what we could. On the next day I was told by +reporters and other people that an eminent divine had said in a sermon +that, thanks to my belief in intemperance, I was not a fit and proper +person to give a lecture, and in consequence, my audience of the evening +was not all that I could have desired. I had something to say about +bearing false witness against your neighbour, but the few that were +there were more than enthusiastic, and I was embraced by a woman from +Peebleshire. + +I was grateful to have the following cutting posted to me: + + "Can't stand the Tone of a Morning Contemporary + in Reporting Mrs. Asquith's Address, + +"_Editor, Evening Telegram_: + +"SIR,--I am a busy man, and have not much time to write letters, but I +can't stand the sneering, cheap remarks of the _Globe_ in their account +of Mrs. Asquith's summing up of 'prohibition.' + +"Mrs. Asquith did not give stories of a 'vulgar nature,' 'depicting an +individual half-stupid with drink.' Note the hard Pharisaical way in +which they gloat over the word 'drink.' Reminds me of the cheap +old-fashioned 'temperance' poems. Mrs. Asquith quite properly and +honestly called attention to the farce of prohibition laws, and merely +voiced the opinion of ninety per cent of all honest people when she +decried the unjust and unconstitutional 'blue laws' which the bigoted +and ignorant minority of the Canadian and American people are trying to +enact and enforce on the unwilling majorities--the real taxpayers. + +"Would to goodness we had more such women, fearlessly candid, +broadminded, and un-hypocritical like the same Margot Asquith. England, +with all her faults, will never pander to the few fanatics who are the +real oppressors, depressors and joy-killers. + + "F. J. Paget." + + + + +XV: NEW YORK IDEAL CITY + +NEW YORK IDEAL CITY + + LIFE AND AIR AND GAIETY IN NEW YORK--LETTER FROM GOVERNOR + ALLEN--MARGOT MEETS ARTHUR BRISBANE--PRINCESS BIBESCO'S BOOK + + +After travelling two days and a night we arrived in New York on the +evening of the 28th to find Elizabeth and her husband waiting for the +elevator to take them to a play; they were ready to throw this over but +I told them I was too exhausted to talk and only longed to get to bed. + +I have not been to San Francisco, but if I were an American I would live +in New York City. St. Louis, Syracuse, Omaha, Washington, are more +beautiful because of their environment; but there is life in the air, +and a general atmosphere of gaiety and movement which I find infinitely +stimulating in New York. + +We saw "The Truth about Blayds" and "Kiki," two plays that were +wonderfully acted; I enjoyed every moment of "Blayds," and the heroine +of "Kiki" would make her fortune in any play. + +On Sunday the 2nd of April I went to tea at the studio of my friend Mrs. +Komroff. I have known her for many years, when she was Nellie Barnard, +and I do not believe there is any artist living who can paint children +in water-colour in the manner she does. The room was crowded with +friends and artists and the portraits that were displayed filled us with +admiration. + +Together with many letters from home I received the following from +Governor Allen. + + "STATE OF KANSAS + + "OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR + + "TOPEKA + +"THE GOVERNOR. "March 30, 1922 + +"MY DEAR MRS. ASQUITH, + +"I am taking the liberty of sending you a copy of my book on the +industrial question. I hope you will forgive me for intruding it upon +you. I have so many delightful recollections of the keen and instructive +things you said at Mrs. Shields's house that I now find myself full of +regret that the conversation continually drifted into general +discussions which robbed us all of an opportunity to hear more of your +own conclusions. + +"Your generous comment upon Kansas City and the west has made us all +happy and as a citizen I want to express my hearty appreciation of your +compliments to this growing section of the country. + +"I do not wonder that you drew from my remarks the conclusion that I am +'illiberal.' I was stupid not to realise that your definition of the +word liberal is different from that which characterises it out here just +now. In your world, 'liberal' is an honourable word. Over here it has +come through misuse to denote a peculiar class whose reaction is +antigovernment. The anarchist, the socialist, the communist and the +bolshevist are all put down in one class, and the word liberal is +thundered at them by orators and editors. It isn't fair to the word. + +"If you have time, I'd be awfully glad if you would look over 'The Party +of the Third Part,' because it relates to a program of industrial peace +and justice which the President has recently indorsed in a message to +Congress and which New York is now trying to write into her state +legislation. Doubtless if the law is held to be constitutional by the +Supreme Court of the United States several States in the forthcoming +legislative sessions will adopt the principle of impartial adjudication +of labor quarrels when those quarrels occur in the essential industries +of food, fuel, clothing and transportation. + +"I am sincerely glad you came to the middle west and I am grateful to +Mrs. Shields for the delightful privilege of meeting you. I hope you +will have a safe and happy voyage and that some day you will come back +to America. + + "Yours sincerely, + + "HENRY J. ALLEN." + +I was proud and pleased to sit to Baron Meyer one morning, the greatest +photographer that ever lived--poor praise for an artist who can express +himself in whatever he touches. If I die on the _Mauretania_ going +home,--which is more than likely as the sea seldom forgives bad +sailors--I am certain of leaving something to my family that they can +look at without repugnance. + +On the 3rd of April we read in the papers "Balfour accepts Peerage: will +enter Lords as Earl." + +We were entertained at lunch by Mr. Arthur Brisbane, a famous journalist +and friend of Elizabeth's. I sat between him and Mr. Hapgood and had an +excellent conversation. They both spoke in high praise of "I Have Only +Myself to Blame." In connection with this I will quote an American +review out of the _New Republic_. + + "MODERN LOVE + +"'I Have Only Myself to Blame,' by Elizabeth Bibesco. + +"This book is a collection of pictorial sketches and stories. Its field +is restricted. It isn't about life in general. It leaves out religion +and science, and illness and wars, animals and politics, and business, +and children, and crime. It's only about lovers and loving. + +"It is an unsettling book. Just as you have privately made up your mind, +perhaps, to be sensible, and be satisfied with what you have--or +haven't--and to forget about a oneness with somebody, and are feeling +rich enough with much less, this book tells you a story which reaches +into some inner part of you that was getting dried up, and makes you +feel painfully aware of the things you are missing. + +"Here for instance is part of a letter that one woman writes: + +"'In a way I don't see why you should ever want to kiss me again. Do you +understand what I mean, that I feel so merged, so eternally in your arms +that I can hardly believe in the process of being taken into them again +and again? Oh my dear, do you notice how one never can use superlatives +when they really would mean something? They seem to slink away ashamed +of their loose lives. After all we can't "make love" to one another. We +both do it too well. This is not an incident, a game, an art; ours is +not a love affair, it is life.' + +"Another extract: 'I can't sleep. There is something oppressive in the +atmosphere.... There is always a tenseness when you are not there, a +cumulative unreality. I have felt it all day.... I seemed to be a ghost +wandering about in some meaningless void. It was not only that I +couldn't believe in the people, I could not even believe in the chairs +and tables; it was tiring. You know how in fairy tales the lovely +Princess is turned into a toad and has to wait for a kiss to release +her, that was what I felt like--that nothing but your touch could make +me into a human being again.' + +"Her trueness is so exquisite, it really doesn't need any plots. For +example, she is describing a man who has fallen in love, and who, though +he used to be talkative, can now only stammer. He wants to propose to a +beautiful girl but he can't. 'One day they were walking through a +bluebell wood.... "I must speak," he said to himself unhappily, while he +realised he was physically incapable of bringing out the most +common-place phrase....' + +"He decided to speak when he saw the next orchis. + +"He thought of a woman he had once imagined himself in love with. She +had had red hair and green eyes ... and red hair had seemed infinitely +wicked and alluring and adventurous.... + +"He saw an orchis and hastily averted his eyes. + +"He thought of a rocking horse he had had as a child, dappled grey with +a grey yellow tail and a scarlet saddle.... + +"Another orchis. He looked at her imploringly. + +"'What are you thinking about?' she responded to his appeal. + +"'Rocking horses,' he said. 'Will you marry me?' And then desperately, +'I know that's not the way to put it'; and then convulsively, 'I love +you.' + +"She waited till he had finished and then she said.... 'That's a very +nice way to put it.'" + +"This seems to one reader at least one of the best proposals in fiction. + +"Perhaps these stories are not classics. But they are of the very best +of to-day's. They are not only charming, and fresh, but they have a +nobility; they are seriously concerned with our lonely emotional needs. + +"And there are things in them that touch the very core of one's heart. +Things a reader is startled to find in print--things he had supposed not +expressible. Secret things that make him whisper, 'Why I thought no one +knew that but myself.' + + Clarence Day, Jr." + +In answer to a letter of thanks from Elizabeth he wrote: + +"It made me so sad to read some of the reviews of your book. I knew of +course how few people appreciated fine writing, but now I know how few +people have ever been in love." + + * * * * * + +Mr. Heath Moore put this review into my hands before we parted and I +thought it was clever of him to know the pleasure it would give me. + + + + +XVI: CRITICISM AND FAREWELL + +CRITICISM AND FAREWELL + + DOLL SALESMAN TALKS ON PROHIBITION--PERILS OF COMMERCIALISM AND + MATERIALISM IN AMERICA--PLEA FOR LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP + + +On April 3--the day before I sailed for England--I went out early to buy +toys to entertain my grand-baby on our voyage in the _Mauretania_; and +had an interesting talk with one of the many civil salesmen that I have +met all over the United States in their beautiful shops. He said he +regretted that he would not be able to attend my last lecture although +he had been to the other three in New York, because he feared the +daughter of a friend of his was dying. She was a little girl living in a +suburb who had fainted some weeks before. Her mother had given her the +only stimulant they had in the house; since when she had suffered from +blood-poisoning and was lying in a critical condition. + +"I do hope, madam, you will deal to-night with the abominable law of +Prohibition. It has encouraged this country to manufacture liquors of +the most dangerous kind," he said. + +I told him I heard the same complaint wherever I had been and, while +sympathising deeply with him, feared I could do no more, as I had dealt +freely and at length with the subject. + +I was advertised by the following card to make my last speech. + + FAREWELL LECTURE + under the auspices of + THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS OF + ROUMANIA + + Founded under the August Patronage of + Her Majesty Queen Marie of Roumania + + MARGOT ASQUITH + + will close her brilliant and successful tour by + delivering a lecture entitled + + IMPRESSIONS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA + +I put on my best dress and, armed with a bouquet of rare orchids given +to me by my chairman, made my final public appearance in this country. + +As Mr. Nelson Cromwell, who introduced me, is a fluent orator and had a +great deal to say while paying a fine tribute to my husband--and knowing +that I was to hold a reception afterwards--I cut my lecture as short as +I could. + +Among other subjects, I dealt with the exaggerated belief over here in +commercial success; and the dangerous self-interest and lack of leisure +which was encouraging not only this but every nation to materialism. + +I had read in the morning papers a typical example of what I meant. + +"First have what people want. + +"Then let them know it. + +"_Thorough advertising_ is the Secret of Success. + +"The old way was to let the people find it out gradually and slowly, in +time for your grandson to get rich. The modern way is to have it +TO-DAY, and make everybody know it TO-MORROW, or, if possible, THIS +AFTERNOON." + +I told them what I had observed at the Niagara Falls, and spoke of the +many hideous bill boards and advertisements that desecrated the scenery +wherever I had been, and pausing over the one among others that had +really interested me, "A GOOD NAME", was interrupted by my chairman who +exclaimed in a clear voice: + +"ASQUITH!" + +This met with immense success. + +I ended by saying that few countries really cared for one another. It +was not rivalry or jealousy that produced this indifference, but a +certain blindness of heart. That we were part of the same family, if we +would only realise it, and had had a terrible object lesson in imagining +that any of us, however much we prepared or tried, could succeed in +crushing the other. We had seen enough hate, and enough death; and that +I passionately hoped the English-speaking nations all the world over +would try a new departure, and do what they could to promote friendship +and love. + + * * * * * + +The next day we sailed for England in the _Mauretania_. + +If I were to finish without criticism, it might be said that these pages +should not have been called "Impressions," but "Experiences"; and +against this I have not only been warned, but adjured. + +Nevertheless it is difficult, without appearing unfriendly, to write +with candour upon matters that have moved me in my American tour. + +It must be said that the architecture, regulations of street-traffic, +arrangement of flower-shops, plumbing, and telephone service are +infinitely superior to our own, but these are not criticisms, they are +facts, the truth of which is not disputed. + +I realise that there is not a nation in the world that extends such a +generous welcome to the many strangers that go there as the United +States. But admiration for my husband, and the publication of the first +volume of my autobiography--which aroused both favourable and +unfavourable comment--prevented me at the outset from being a complete +stranger. Indeed many of the people who attended my lectures seemed to +know all about me; and I was surprised when crowding on to the stage +they sometimes exclaimed: + +"But you are so different to what we expected you would be! And you +haven't told us what you think of us." + +I begged them to be frank, and tell me without fear of offence what they +had imagined I would be like; but they could only repeat: + +"I don't know! But somehow we thought you would be the very opposite of +what you are." + +When I tried a little clumsy chaff by saying: "I am sorry to have +disappointed you!" it was always met with a protest; and on one occasion +I heard a man say to the woman who was with him: + +"There you are! I told you all along; but you wouldn't read the book!" +at which the woman grasped me by the hand and said: + +"You are writing another volume of your life aren't you, Mrs. Asquith, +in which you will tell us everything you think about us." + +I explained that I was writing an article on my Impressions of America +for immediate publication and the second and final volume of my life +which would come out in winter. + +Flattering cuttings were sent to me from papers, as: "The Margot myth." +And others, which said it was abundantly clear that I was in a chastened +humour and, by guarding myself from my critics, was exercising a caution +that deprived me of all spontaneity; or words to this effect. + +These remarks are of little interest, but they tend to show how much +some people and nations depend on the approbation of others and are the +reason why I am going to finish with a short summing-up. + + + + +XVII: THINKING IT OVER IN ENGLAND + +THINKING IT OVER IN ENGLAND + + AMERICANS FRIENDLY BUT VAIN--THE LAND OF THE REFORMER--INTEREST IN + EUROPE'S ARISTOCRACY--NEWSPAPERS PANDER TO VULGAR CURIOSITY--PLEA + FOR ANGLO-AMERICAN FRIENDSHIP + + +It is probably wiser in writing impressions to keep the conclusions you +arrive at secret; and many may ask--and with justice--: + +"What can a woman know who arrived on the 30th of January, and left on +the 4th of April, of America or her people?" In answer to this I can +only say that in those nine weeks I saw and talked to more varied types +of persons than I could have done had I remained in either New York, +Chicago or Washington for as many months. I met and conversed with +senators and niggers, farmers and reporters, judges and preachers, +hotel proprietors, mayors, solicitors, soldiers, shopmen, doctors, men +of science and commerce, and a few of the rarer class of both the +fashionable and the leisured. During this experience there are certain +things I observed that I shall take the risk of writing down. + +The Americans, while the most friendly people in the world, are too much +concerned about each other; and, though not personally, they are +nationally vain. They would rather hear themselves abused than +undiscussed; which inclines one to imagine that they are suffering from +the uneasiness of the _nouveaux riches_. + +What do you think of us? or, how do you compare our men and women and +their clothes and customs with your own? was the substance of every +question that was put to me. + +There are things of surpassing interest in this country, but have any of +us heard an English man or woman ask a foreigner what he thought of us? +Or, if they were silly enough to do so, who would be interested in the +reply? + +Some will say that this comes from pride, or insularity; but they would +be wrong. We are not obsessed by the desire to interfere with our +neighbour that is noticeable all over America. + +In spite of true generosity and kindliness, I was aware of an +undercurrent of illiberalism and violence which amazed me. + +In every city that I have visited there are clubs, both male and female, +to forbid or promote some harmless triviality and until these are +ridiculed they will prevent the United States from ever becoming what we +should call a free country. + +Because there is little gallantry and no reserve, people do not +necessarily become of one class. We cannot regulate equality, since we +are born with different brains, natures, and environment, and so far +from being equal, there is such a rigid regard for precedence in America +that you are even congratulated after a dinner party because you have +been seated "one off Mrs. ----". + +While more than severe on anyone who accepts a title, there was no +detail too insignificant about our Court or aristocracy that did not +excite an almost emotional interest in my audiences. Every day of my +tour I received letters begging me to tell them more about the life and +habits of our upper classes or anything that I could "about Princess +Mary's underwear." + +If these letters had been merely the cackle of the feminine goose who +likes writing to an advertised person, I would have torn them up, but +they were sometimes signed by men, and often expressed the opinions of +important local editors. + +One night after I was in bed, having had a long talk with an +intellectual reporter upon the dearth of great literature in his +country, he rang me up to say his paper was annoyed that he had not +brought back an accurate description of my hat and dress. + +He apologised profusely, but said that that was what the public really +cared for: that none of our discussion upon Lincoln, Edgar Allan Poe or +William James's fine style, or anything else of interest would be +printed in the morning paper. But what I had said to one of the lady +reporters, when we were left to ourselves, about Princess Mary's +marriage being one of love, would probably be enlarged by headlines into +a paragraph. I said I forgave him for waking me up, but was quite +unaware that I had even mentioned our royal family. + +The next day I read that I had said I was: + +"On smoking terms with Queen Mary." + +You may say that certain journalism of a similar kind panders to the +same curiosity in what is low and vulgar over here, but it is more +harmful in the States because the press has more power. + +So far from guiding public opinion, the papers in America stimulate all +that is worthless and credulous; and you may search in vain to find +careful criticism either upon art, music or international affairs. + +England has been called a nation of shop-keepers, but I think we spend +as much time upon the moors and playing fields as Americans do in +elevators and offices. + +Perhaps we waste too much time on grass and games; but it has encouraged +a certain aloofness and leisure, which produces a quiet mind. + +Whether it is from the difficulties of the climate and the overheated +rooms, the voices of even the nicest people appeared to me to be loud, +and however generously you may have been entertained, you are left with +a sense of suffocation, which it would be difficult to explain. + +The excuse of being a young country will not continue to cover the rush +and noise and lack of privacy that prevail; and the number of small +children that I have seen in hotels, shops and restaurants that go to +bed at midnight after sucking candy between enormous meals, is not +promising for a nation which is always growing up. + +The ingrained idea that, because there is no king and they despise +titles, the Americans are a free people is pathetically untrue; and you +have only to watch the working of the Prohibition law to see the dangers +of repressive legislation. There is a perpetual interference with +personal liberty over there that would not be tolerated in England for a +week. + +It is probably due to our passion for understatement and that we have +inherited wise and tested regulations that the British are a law abiding +race; but I think if the Americans were given a chance they would be the +same. I can only say, if they are not, Democracy will prove as great a +failure as Czardom. + +It is enormously to the credit of the American public that they have +never chosen a bad character in their presidents and have produced, in +Abraham Lincoln, a man of genius, ability and courage who will live for +ever in the hearts and minds of every country in the world. Nor must we +forget that he dominated the people in spite of a campaign of calumny by +the press only equalled by the one to which my husband was subjected in +the latter days of the war. + +Men at the head of affairs must be independent of public opinion if they +wish to achieve anything and never try to conciliate a press that, in +all fairness, it must be said,--with a few exceptions--does not attempt +to guide, for more than a transitory moment, anyone to any goal. + +The present Government in America from all I heard--some of its heads I +had the honour to meet--seems to be an admirable one, and working +smoothly in times of exceptional difficulty. President Harding has had +the wisdom to get good men round him and is a man of open mind and wide +views himself. + +With some of the faults I have found during my tour I am told that "The +American Credo"[*] (given to me by my friend Mr. Anderson of the St. +Louis _Dispatch_) deals with searching fidelity. I daresay when I read +it I shall learn where I have been wrong; but in criticising as I have, +I am merely fulfilling the promise I made to write my impressions which +at best can be but superficial. + +[*] By G. J. Nathan and H. L. Mencken. + +Among thoughtful people there is a great deal of pro-American propaganda +going on in this country, and in conclusion I would like to say that +there is so much that is fine and keen in the American race, so much +that is disarming and lovable, that if I have written anything +exaggerated or erroneous, I should feel of all people the most +ungrateful. + +I can only plead to be forgiven where I have erred, as I was not only +shown unforgettable courtesy and friendship, but I feel it is vital to +the peace of the world that our people and those of the United States +should understand and care for one another. + +THE END + + + + +INDEX + + +A + +Acton, Lord, 15 + +Adams, tomb, 62 + +Allard, Miss, 76 + +Allen, Henry J, 161, 178, 180 + +America, 9 + dancers, 24 + man, 17 + press, 83 + race, 207 + women, 16 + +Americans, 200 + +Anderson, Paul, 147, 152, 171, 206 + +Aurelius, Marcus, 159 + + +B + +Balfour, Lady Francis, 101 + +Balfour, Mr, 47, 59, 170, 181 + +Balfour, Oswald, 100 + +_bal poudré_, 45 + +Baltimore, 135 + +Bancroft, Mrs, 36 + +Barnard, Nellie, 178 + +Beland, Dr. Henri, 108 + +Bibesco, Antoine, 128 + +Bibesco, Elizabeth, 46, 181 + +Bibesco, Prince, 22, 51 + +bolshevist, 179 + +Bonus, The, 77 + +Boston, 29 + Fine Arts Museum, 84 + Public Library, 34 + Sargent Hall, 34, 35 + Symphony Hall, 30 + +Brisbane, Arthur, 181 + +Brooklyn, 50 + +Broun, Heywood, 51, 52 + +"Bruce", 82, 83, 152 + +Buffalo, 73, 112, 139 + +Burgess, Mr. and Mrs. Ward, 158 + +Butler, Dr. Murray, 23 + + +C + +Calvé, Mme, 98 + +Campbell, Ex-Governor, 73 + +Cannes Conference, 61 + +Castex, Captain, 65 + +Caulfield, Judge Henry, 152 + +Chapin, Mr. and Mrs., 72 + +Charwoman, 98 + +Chicago, 73, 137 + Michigan Boulevard, 140, 141 + reporters, 74 + +Church, Mr, 86 + +Cincinnati, 142 + +Coalition, 148 + +Columbus, 72 + +Columbus, Christopher, 167 + +Communist, 179 + +Conservative Party, 61, 116, 124, 148, 166 + +Cravath, Paul, 50 + +Crewe, Lord, 167 + +Cromwell, Nelson, 129, 191 + + +D + +Davis, Ex-Ambassador, 129 + +Day, Clarence, Jr, 185 + +Detroit, 71 + Highland Park, 73 + +Downing Street, 168 + +Drew, Mrs, 15 + +Drummond, Mrs. Huntley, 99, 111 + + +E + +E. A. S----, 137 + +Eglee, Dr, 52 + + +F + +flappers, 21, 83, 91, 118, 120, 141 + +Ford, Henry, 72 + +Fuller, Alvin, Lieutenant Governor, 33, 34 + + +G + +Galahad, Sir--statue, 109 + +Geddes, Sir Auckland, 22, 67 + +Genoa Conference, 61 + +German race, 66 + +Gerry, Miss Mabel, 24 + +Ghandi, 148 + +Gibbs, George, 45 + +Gouin, Sir Lomar, 109 + +Governor General of Canada, 111 + +Graham, Hon. George, 109 + +Grey, Lord, 116, 157 + + +H + +Hall, Mr, 158 + +Hapgood, Mr, 181 + +Hard, Thomas, 57 + +Harding, President, 57, 58, 206 + +Harper, Henry Albert, 110 + +Hill, Mr. Arthur, 32 + +Hocker, Mrs, 151 + +Holland, Dr, 86 + +Hosmer, Charles, 101 + +Hostetter, V, 44 + +House, Colonel, 47, 129 + +Hughes, Mr, 61, 107, 130 + + +I + +_If Winter Comes_, 74, 84 + +India, 148 + +influenza, 11 + +Intemperance, 173 + +International politics, 81 + +Irish Free State, 107 + + +J + +Jeffries, Mr, 72 + +Johnson, Pussyfoot, Mr, 125 + +Jusserand, M, 64 + + +K + +Kalamazoo, 172 + +Kansas City, 155, 158, 171, 179 + +Keedick, Mr. Lee, 22, 49 + +Kennedy, Mrs. G. B, 109 + +Kiel, Henry W, 147 + +"Kiki", 178 + +King, MacKenzie, 105, 106, 116 + +Komroff, Nellie, 72, 178 + +Kountze, Mrs, 158 + +Kreisler, 130 + + +L + +Labor, 107 + +Lake Chautauqua, 58 + +Laughter, 16 + +Lawford, Mrs, 100, 111 + +Lee, Lord, 65, 123, 126, 127 + +Liberal Party, 49, 166 + +Lincoln, Abraham, 119, 160, 205 + +Lloyd George, Mr, 49, 60, 121 + +Lords, House of, 124 + + +M + +Mackay, Clarence, 129 + +Margot myth, 195 + +Meighen, Mr 105, 106 + +Meyer, Baron 181 + +Military doctor 76 + +Minotto, Count, 74 + +Minotto, Mrs 74, 75 + +M. M. F 138 + +Montclair, 120 + +Montreal 99, 111 + +Moore, Heath 165, 168, 170, 186 + +Moore, Mrs, 149, 150 + +McGiverin, Hal, 108 + + +N + +New Republic 181 + +New York 177, 189 + Architecture 24 + female reporters 115 + +Niagara, 138 + +Niagara Falls 12, 139, 140 + + +O + +"Official Reprisals", 107 + +Omaha 157, 158, 177 + +Onondaga Hotel, 135 + +Ottawa, 105, 106, 108 + + +P + +Paget, F. J, 174 + +Parkes, Dr, 41 + +Perley, Sir George, 105 + +Petting Parties, 141 + +Pittsburgh, 81, 91, 96 + +Polk, Mrs. Frank 128, 129 + +Prince Bibesco, 22, 51 + +Princess Mary 12, 14, 120, 202 + +Prohibition, 95, 116, 124, 125, 127, 174, 190, 204 + +Providence, 120, 121 + + +Q + +Queen Mary, 203 + + +R + +Railway Stations 29, 30 + +Reading, Lord 148 + +Reed, Mrs. Hayter 100, 111 + +Reporters 21, 81, 117, 173 + +Richards, Dean 135 + +Ridgeway, Mr. Thomas 24, 45 + +Rochester 89 + +Rock Creek Cemetery 62 + + +S + +Sabre, Mark 84 + +St. Louis 147, 149, 171 + +Salesmen 189 + +Saloon League 125 + +San Francisco 177 + +Sargent, John Singer 34 + +Senate 130 + +Shell-shocked 77 + +Shields, Mrs. Edward 155, 158, 161, 170, 179 + +Smugglepupping 141 + +Speedway Hospital 75, 76 + +State, Department of 131 + +States, The 77 + +Stauffer, Rev. Byron, chairman 95, 96 + +Sullivan, Mr. and Mrs 172 + +Syracuse 135, 136, 177 + + +T + +Taylor, Sir Frederick 101 + +Tennant, Miss 22, 53, 62 + +Tennants 48 + +Thayer, Charles M 37 + +Toronto 91, 95 + +Trains 89, 90 + +Twain, Mark 96 + + +U + +Utica, 135 + + +V + +Vanderbilt, Mrs. Cornelius, 45 + +Versailles Conference, 61 + +Vining, Mr. C. M, 91 + +Volstead, Mr, 125 + + +W + +Washburn, Mr. and Mrs. W, 37 + +Washington, 130, 177 + +White, Mr. Harry, 24, 41 + +Wiers, Rev. Swan, 120 + +Wilson, Ex-President, 63 + + +Y + +Younger, Sir George, 60, 61, 116 + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's My Impresssions of America, by Margot Asquith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY IMPRESSSIONS OF AMERICA *** + +***** This file should be named 31110-8.txt or 31110-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/1/1/31110/ + +Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by the +Digital & Multimedia Center, Michigan State University +Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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