ourney, 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
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