ld shrieks of a thousand sirens and the showers of
glittering white papers streaming from the windows of the skyscrapers,
preceded by the battleship _Pennsylvania_, flanked by destroyers, with
acrobatic airplanes and a stately dirigible overhead, external enthusiasm
was apparently at its height. But Wilson left behind him glowing embers
of intense opposition which, during the next six months, were to be
fanned into a dangerous flame.

CHAPTER X

WAYS OF THE PEACE CONFERENCE

On Friday, December 13, 1918, the _George Washington_ steamed slowly into
Brest harbor through a long double line of gray battleships and
destroyers, greeted by the thunder of presidential salutes and the blare
of marine bands. Europe thrilled with emotion, which was half curiosity
and half genuine enthusiasm: it was to see and applaud the man who during
the past eighteen months had crystallized in speech the undefined thought
of the Allied world, who represented (at least in European eyes) the
strength and idealism of America, and who stood, for the moment, as the
political Messiah to liberals in every country of the Old World, victors
or defeated. The intensity of the curiosity as well as the sincerity of
the enthusiasm was attested on the following day, when President Wilson
drove through the streets of Paris, welcomed by the vociferous plaudits
of the close-packed crowd. It was for him a public triumph, no greater
than that accorded to King Albert of Belgium and certainly less
demonstrative than the jubilations of armistice night, but nevertheless
undeniably sweet to the President, who looked to popular opinion as the
bulwark upon which he must rely during the difficult days ahead.

Further triumphs awaited him in his trips to England and to Italy. In
London and Rome, as in Paris, he was the object of demonstrations which
at times became almost delirious; more than once his admirers must have
been reminded of the Biblical phrase that alludes to the honor of a
prophet outside his own country. The emotion of Europe is not difficult
to understand. The man in the street was ready to shout, for the war was
finished and the miseries of the peace that was no peace were not yet
realized, Wilson stood for Justice above everything, and the people of
each country believed whole-heartedly that their particular demands were
just; the President, therefore, must stand with them. To Frenchmen it was
obvious that he must approve the "simple justice" o