and that this will probably show itself in extreme
panic conditions.

* * * * *

_Tuesday, September 1st._ Panic conditions of the most pronounced
order exist today. Everyone seems possessed with the single idea of
escaping from Paris. A million people must be madly trying to leave at
the present moment. There are runs on all the banks. The streets are
crowded with hurrying people whose faces wear expressions of nervous
fright. The railroad stations are packed with tightly jammed mobs in
which people and luggage form one inextricable, suffocating, hopeless
jumble.

Cabs are nearly unobtainable. When anyone is seen to alight from a
vehicle, a flock of men and women instantly gather round it like
vultures and there stand poised to see if the cabby is to be paid off.
If the "fare" makes a motion toward his pocket, the mob piles into the
carriage, swearing and scrambling. The matter is then arbitrated by
the driver who accepts as client the one who offers the largest
_pourboire_. In the Rue Condorcet today I saw such a dispute settled
with a twenty-franc tip. One of the defeated candidates was a poor
dejected woman who had fought like a tigress for the cab and had been
ejected with considerable force. She now wept copiously and
hopelessly. She explained that she had her baggage and three children
to take to the station and that she had been endlessly trying to get a
vehicle since the night before, and announced that this was the nine
hundredth vehicle "qu'on m'a vole." For one in her emergency I
considered this an excusable exaggeration, so I lent her my _cocher_,
Paul, and hurriedly went on foot to the Embassy. My faithful Paul does
not desert me, even now when the streets run gold for _cochers_. Last
evening an auto carried a family to Tours, returning this morning. For
this it received 1500 francs. Thousands upon thousands of refugees
from the north are fleeing across Paris by any and every means of
transportation left in the city.

* * * * *

Three days ago we doubted the possibility of a battle as near as
Compiegne. Today already we feel it quite possible that the Germans
will capture Paris, and that within a few days. It is almost certain
that our Embassy will have a tremendous part to play in the capture,
for Mr. Herrick will stay in Paris, come what may, unless Washington
orders him to leave. It is probable that France will turn over to him
her in