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 poudre_, 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
Calve, 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