this
invitation; and it is an impressive fact that his final written word
should have dealt with the subject that had been so close to his heart
for the preceding five years.

_To Harry L. Davis, Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio_

I deeply regret my health will not permit me to attend any public
function for some time to come; for I deeply appreciate your
invitation on behalf of the City of Cleveland for the meeting on
December 7th, and have a profound sympathy with its purpose to
bring the two great English-speaking worlds as close together as
possible, so that each shall thoroughly understand the courage and
sacrifice and ideals of the other. This is the greatest political
task of the future. For such a complete and lasting understanding
is the only basis for the continued, progress of civilization. I
am proud to be associated in your thought, Mr. Mayor, with so
fitting and happy an occasion, and only physical inability could
cause absence.

Sincerely,
WALTER H. PAGE.

Page's improvement was only temporary; a day or two after this letter
was written he began to sink rapidly; it was therefore decided to grant
his strongest wish and take him to North Carolina. He arrived in
Pinehurst on December 12th, so weak that his son Frank had to carry him
in his arms from the train.

"Well, Frank," said Page, with a slightly triumphant smile, "I did get
here after all, didn't I?"

He lingered for a few days and died, at eight o'clock in the evening, on
December 21st, in his sixty-fourth year. He suffered no pain. He was
buried in the Page family plot in the Bethesda Cemetery near Aberdeen.

He was as much of a war casualty as was his nephew Allison Page, who
lost his life with his face to the German machine guns in Belleau Wood.

THE END

APPENDIX

SCRAPS FROM UNFINISHED DIARIES

Page was not methodical in keeping diaries. His documents, however,
reveal that he took many praiseworthy resolutions in this direction.
They include a large number of bulky books, each labelled "Diary" and
inscribed with the year whose events were to be recorded. The outlook is
a promising one; but when the books are opened they reveal only
fragmentary good intentions. Entries are kept up for a few days, and
then the work comes to an end. These volumes contain many scraps of
interesting writing, however, which are worth preserving; some of them
are herewith prese