_Saturday, August 1, 1914_


This war comes like the traditional "Bolt from the Blue!" I had made
arrangements to retire from active journalism and relinquish the duties
of Paris correspondent of the _New York Tribune_, which I had
fulfilled for sixteen consecutive years. In reply to a request from Mr.
Ogden Reid, I had expressed willingness to remain at my post in Paris
until the early autumn, inasmuch as "a quiet summer was expected."
Spring was a busy time for newspaper men. There had been the sensational
assassination of Gaston Calmette, editor of the _Figaro_, by Mme.
Caillaux, wife of the cabinet minister. Then there was the "caving-in"
of the streets of Paris, owing to the effect of storms on the thin
surface left by the underground tunnelling for the electric tramways,
and for the new metropolitan "tubes." The big prize fight between Jack
Johnson and Frank Moran for the heavy-weight championship of the world
followed. Next came the trial of Mme. Caillaux and her acquittal. Then
followed the newspaper campaign of the brothers, MM. Paul and Guy de
Cassagnac, against German newspaper correspondents in Paris. The
Cassagnacs demanded that certain German correspondents should quit
French territory within twenty-four hours. As several German
correspondents were members of the "Association of the Foreign Press,"
of which I happen to be president, I was able to smooth matters over a
little. Although my personal sympathies were strongly with the
Cassagnacs, who are editors of _L'Autorite_, especially in their
condemnation of the severity of the German Government in regard to
"Hansi," the Alsatian caricaturist and author of _Mon Village_, I
managed with the help of some of my Russian, Italian, English, and
Spanish colleagues to avoid needless duels and quarrels between French
and German journalists. Finally, the day of the "Grand Prix de Paris"