s 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"We do not publish news, Mrs.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

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