A long letter from the Crown Prince of Sweden, the first I have
received since I got back from Russia. The first four pages are full
of reproach for having published the fact that I saw him when I passed
through Stockholm with Kameneff. He says that it is embarrassing for
him to be mentioned even indirectly in connection with “those people”
with whom I was travelling.
This means, I suppose, that his relations have abused him soundly for
even knowing me! He is wrong to think I could do him any harm; on the
contrary, his broad-mindedness could only win over radicals, and not
harm him with conservatives.
I expect the “early Christians”[2] were terribly scandalized, and have
been writing and telling him what they thought of it.
After lunching with Emil Fuchs, who is doing a wonderful head of Mr.
Cartier, the jeweler, looking like Rameses ... I took Dick up to the
Numismatic museum with his sledge, and he toboganned outside. Two
hundred people came to my exhibition to-day. It is very amusing, all
kinds of cranks introduce themselves to me ... some to say they are
Bolsheviks, or Communists, and they hand me literature which gives me
news of Moscow! Others who tell me how they hate the Bolsheviks, or the
Sinn Feiners, or the Knights of Columbus, and so on.
I am always amused by people who want to kill off all Bolsheviks,
all Sinn Feiners, all Germans and all Jews.... It would make for a
wonderfully emptier world. Perhaps it would be more peaceful! Anyway,
it is very emblematic of the Christian spirit of to-day!
Rather an amusing record has been kept for me of some of the remarks,
made by people who come, concerning the Russian busts:
“How ugly.”
“How wicked they look.”
“What noble looking men.”
“Lenin is my hero, I love him.”
“Zinoviev looks like a musician.”
“This is Russian propaganda----”
“This is the most perfect anti-Bolshevik propaganda,----”
“These are fine advertisements for the Bolsheviks--I’m one.”
“Lenin is not for sale, she made him to decorate her London studio.”
“I believe they look worse than she made them.”
“How did she ever escape alive from such awful looking men?”
“We have seen some of the men. These busts look just like them.”
“That’s fine of Trotzky!”
“They don’t look like bomb-throwers.”
“Lenin has a benevolent expression----”
“Trotzky looks like the devil.”
“Lenin is positively awful to look at.”
“Who is Mrs. Sheridan? The name seems familiar.”
“Is she a Russian?”
“Is she Jewess?”
“She is a wonder----”
“How tall is she?”
“Is she pretty?”
“She is a Bolshevik.”
“Is she a Bolshevik?”
“I bet she hates the Russians, she made them so ugly.”
“Did she study with Rodin?”
“Is she light or dark?”
“_That_ can’t be HER!”
“Is she from Chicago?”
“I’m glad she’s English.”
“I’m proud she has American blood in her veins.”
“So glad a woman, and not a man, did this wonderful work.”
“That’s Winston Churchill----What a contrast to the Russians.”
“That is what I call a good face.”
“He is the author of ‘Inside the Cup.’”
“Lady Randolph Churchill is his wife.”
“Shane Leslie is Irish.”
“He is the great English actor.”
“He is the man who was stood up and shot.”
“He looks sad because he is thinking of poor Ireland.”
“Who is Mademoiselle X?”
“Is she a nun?”
“Is her face china?”
“Is her face wax?”
“How did she get the face inside the bronze?”
“It is beautiful.”
“It is horrid.”
“She was a Russian spy.”
“She was a French war nurse.”
“I have read the book about her.”
“There was a play about her, I saw it.”
“She is Mrs. Sheridan’s sister.”
“‘John’ is Mrs. Sheridan’s baby. She sat up and modelled it in bed.”
“He is Shane Leslies’ baby.”
“It is a Russian baby.”
“That is Asquith. It was through his influence that Mrs. Sheridan got
in and out of Russia with safety.”
“Where is the Exhibition?” (Question asked by a lady after looking at
the things for half an hour.)
“I suppose she sold the mask for less because it was broken--I mean
that its head is not all there.”
“They all have souls--that are almost living.”
“This Hall looks like a funeral parlor.”
“If I had the money I would buy them all, so they could not be taken
out of America.”
“I do work just like that.”
“It’s simply wonderful.”
“A High-school girl can do it.”