ornia, the English took all the oil-wells
in Central and South America and--"

"Good Lord!" said I, "do you and I prevent all these calamities? If
so, we don't get half the credit that is due us--do we?"

You could ask the same question about any group or profession of
men in the world; and on a scratch, I imagine that any of them
would be missed less than they think. But the realness and the
bigness of the job here in London is simply oppressive. We don't
even know what it is in the United States and, of course, we don't
go about doing it right. If we did, we shouldn't pick up a green
fellow on the plain of Long Island and send him here: we'd train
the most capable male babies we have from the cradle. But this
leads a long way.

As I look back over these six or seven months, from the pause that
has come this week, I'm bound to say (being frank, not to say vain)
that I had the good fortune to do one piece of work that was worth
the effort and worth coming to do--about that infernal Mexican
situation. An abler man would have done it better; but, as it was,
I did it; and I have a most appreciative letter about it from the
President.

By thunder, he's doing _his_ job, isn't he? Whether you like the
job or not, you've got to grant that. When I first came over here,
I found a mild curiosity about Wilson--only mild. But now they sit
up and listen and ask most eager questions. He has pressed his
personality most strongly on the governing class here.

Yours heartily,
W.H.P.

_To the President_

American Embassy, London
[May 11, 1914.]

DEAR MR. PRESIDENT:

The King of Denmark (I always think of Hamlet) having come to make
his royal kinsman of these Isles a visit, his royal kinsman
to-night gave a state dinner at the palace whereto the Ambassadors
of the eight Great Powers were, of course, invited. Now I don't
know how other kings do, but I'm willing to swear by King George
for a job of this sort. The splendour of the thing is truly regal
and the friendliness of it very real and human; and the company
most uncommon. Of course the Ambassadors and their wives were
there, the chief rulers of the Empire and men and women of
distinction and most of the royal family. The dinner and the music
and the plate and the decorat