... We're in danger of being feminized and fad-ridden--grape juice
(God knows water's good enough: why grape juice?); pensions;
Christian Science; peace cranks; efficiency-correspondence schools;
aid-your-memory; women's clubs; co-this and co-t'other and coddling
in general; Billy Sunday; petticoats where breeches ought to be and
breeches where petticoats ought to be; white livers and soft heads
and milk-and-water;--I don't want war: nobody knows its horrors or
its degradations or its cost. But to get rid of hyphenated
degenerates perhaps it's worth while, and to free us from 'isms and
soft folk. That's the domestic view of it. As for being kicked by a
sauerkraut caste--O Lord, give us backbone!

Heartily yours,
W.H.P.

In the bottom of this note, Page has cut a notch in the paper and
against it he has written: "This notch is the place to apply a match to
this letter."

* * * * *

"Again and ever I am reminded," Page also wrote in reference to Bryan's
resignation, "of the danger of having to do with cranks. A certain
orderliness of mind and conduct seems essential for safety in this short
life. Spiritualists, bone-rubbers, anti-vivisectionists, all sort of
anti's in fact, those who have fads about education or fads against it,
Perfectionists, Daughters of the Dove of Peace, Sons of the Roaring
Torrent, itinerant peace-mongers--all these may have a real genius
among them once in forty years; but to look for an exception to the