With the aid of Eve, I made a thorough study of the geography of social
customs. I learned the ways of Europe, of the Orient, and of South
America. It is easier to understand races if one understands the
psychology of their customs. I realized that social amenities are too
often neglected in America, and our manners sometimes truthfully called
crude. But I told myself with pride that our truly cultivated people
will not tolerate a social form that is not based on human, kindly
instincts. It was not until the World War flooded Europe with American
boys and girls that I realized the glory of our social standards and the
great need to have our own people understand those standards.




IV.

Fear is the destroyer of peace. I knew no peace until I learned not to
be afraid of conventions. The three most wretched years in my life
might easily have been avoided by a little training at home or at
school.

I realize now the unhappiness of those first years of my married life.
I was awkward and ill at ease in a world that valued social poise above
knowledge. From my childhood I had loved honest, sincere people. After
my marriage I met distinguished men and women, even a few who might be
called great; but they, too, had their affectations and petty vanities.
Being young, I judged them harshly because they set what I considered
too much store upon absurd conventions.

In the course of my travels since, I have come to realize that social