confidence in the people of the United States, who, having come into the war, were going to see it through.

On April 29 the British and French commissions visited Mount Vernon, where the flags of Great Britain, France, and the United States were hoisted over the tomb of Washington. Nature on that spring day was in her best garb. The evergreens before the tomb stood out boldly in the new life just blossoming. About five hundred persons stood with bared heads in a semi-circle when, without formality, Secretary Daniels bowed to M. Viviani, who advanced slowly into the center of the open space, and delivered an address. Spectators, altho most of them could not understand French, caught the supprest fire of the orator, and followed his words spellbound. Apart from M. Viviani's voice not a sound could be heard. Mr. Balfour then stept forward. For a moment he stood in silence, a tall, erect, kindly figure. Abandoning his previous decision not to speak, he gave expression to a few vital sentences that evidently came straight from the heart.

Two French officers now advanced with a bronze wreath, the highest mark of honor which the French accord to dead soldiers. Bending low the Marshal passed through the narrow entrance and solemnly placed this wreath upon the stone coffin and stood there silently at salute. As he passed back among the spectators, Mr. Balfour came forward with his wreath of lilies and oak leaves, tied with the colors of the three allied nations. He, too, entered the tomb, and placed the British token beside the French, while Lieutenant General Bridges stood outside at salute. There was neither music nor applause. Except for the words of the speakers, the silence and peace of the place had not been broken. The little gathering looked on with emotions too varied and profound for expression. The visiting statesmen afterward passed in and out of several rooms at the old Mount Vernon mansion, examining heirlooms and looking curiously at the key of the Bastile, which Lafayette had presented to Washington. Mr. Balfour was the last to go. Seldom, it seemed to the small group of men and women, had there been a more impressive scene on American soil, the more notable because of its simplicity. It was the second time that the

memory of Washington had thus been honored by a Briton. The first was in 1860, when King Edward as Prince of Wales visited Mount Vernon. But it was the first time that a British flag had been raised over Washington's tomb. M. Viviani's eloquent speech made a deep impression, not only on the company gathered at the tomb, but on the whole country, as widely printed in the newspapers.

On May 1 the ceiling of the Senate Chamber at the Capitol re-echoed to shouts of welcome for M. Viviani and Marshal Joffre, who went there by prearrangement. Rules for

MR. BALFOUR SPEAKING AT WASHINGTON'S TOMB M. Viviani made a more formal and very eloquent speech, after which Joffre placed a bronze wreath inside the tomb. Above the tomb were floating American, British and French Flags

bade applause; technically, they forbade Joffre's admission to the floor, but no one thought of challenging either him or any of the visitors, including several foreign journalists, who entered the Chamber with the guests. M. Viviani, who was known as the most eloquent man in France, made an address in French that thrilled his audience, who accorded him tumultuous applause. Shouts of "Joffre! Joffre! Joffre!" which Senators started, and which were taken up by the topmost tiers of the gallery, induced the hero of

the Marne to turn as he was leaving the Chamber and make the shortest speech ever heard in that home of unlimited debate. "I do not speak English," he said, with a benignant smile, and then raising his great right hand, called out "Vivent les États-Unis!" After a military salute he was gone. The shout that rose and fell and rose again as he went away became the climax of the visit. The Senate forgot its rules and all its august solemnity and yelled like college boys at a football-game. Marshal Joffre fairly shot himself down from the rostrum like an abashed boy who had just spoken his piece on the last day of school. Half a dozen strides took him to the door. He went directly from the Senate Chamber to the office of Vice-President Marshall and there spent a few minutes chatting with Senators in French. Dozens of men and women, unable to crowd into the galleries and waiting in the corridors, prest forward to shake his hand. Over the hand of a little old woman with gray hair, who came forward, he bowed low. To an aged doorkeeper he raised his hand in a military salute. On May 2, while standing on the Speaker's rostrum in the House, behind which hang large portraits of Washington and Lafayette, M. Viviani and Marshal Joffre received another remarkable ovation. The entire membership of the House and the crowded galleries rose and applauded them. When M. Viviani spoke, the House displayed high enthusiasm. When Marshal Joffre, averse to talking even in French, rose and saluted the House, members gave him an ovation never excelled in the history of the lower House of Congress.

On May 4, to the surprize of the House, President Wilson appeared in the gallery to join in a demonstration accorded to Mr. Balfour. Precedents of a century and a half were broken. It was the first time in American history that a British official had been invited to address the House, and the first time that a President of the United States had sat in the gallery. The welcome to Mr. Balfour and his associates equaled, if it did not surpass, the demonstration which had greeted M. Viviani and Marshal Joffre a few days earlier. Applause swept the floor and galleries for several minutes, subsiding only to start with a new outburst

when the Speaker introduced Mr. Balfour. Two or three times Mr. Balfour hesitated for a word, which seemed to emphasize the sincerity of his address and the cordiality and sympathy with which his audience listened. Through all the cheering the President joined vigorously. When Mr. Balfour had finished and was standing below the rostrum with General Bridges, Admiral de Chair, and the British Ambassador, and shaking hands with members as they filed past, Mr. Wilson again surprized every one by slipping downstairs quietly and taking his place in the line with the Congressmen, to greet Mr. Balfour. The galleries were packed, and a large crowd was waiting outside. On May 8 Mr. Balfour and his colleagues paid a visit to the Senate, and were received with an enthusiasm which, with the welcome accorded by the same body to the French Mission, stood out in high relief above the ordinarily staid minutes of the Senate. Mr. Balfour's speech lasted almost twenty-five minutes and promised to be remembered as one of the great official utterances of the war.

The visits of the Italians, Russians, Belgians, and Japanese were attended by ceremony and greetings that were almost exact reproductions of those which had been bestowed upon the British and French. Each mission was taken down to Mount Vernon and there deposited floral offerings on Washington's tomb, and each was formally received in the Senate and House, where great enthusiasm was displayed and speeches made. Only when the Japanese Commission came was a new feature introduced into the greetings. This was a social reception and garden party at the Pan-American Union Building given by the Secretary of State and Mrs. Lansing on August 29, and attended by the President and Mrs. Wilson. It was declared to be the most elaborate affair of its kind ever given in the national capital. The most distinguished society of the country was in attendance, the beautiful Pan-American buildings, brilliantly illuminated and decorated, and the Aztec Garden and Venetian Pool of the grounds adorned with varicolored lights casting rainbows across the water, with the gardens hung with rows of Japanese lanterns, outside stairways to the garden having green. feathery foliage, with tall bunches of white hydrangea in

graceful baskets hanging from balustrades. Small tables were set on the terrace overlooking the Aztec Garden. A military band played and the weather was ideal. Diplomats of all nations, high officials, Senators, and Representatives, members of the numerous war-boards and their wives, passed through the patio to the gardens, where supper was served. All the public utterances made by Viscount Ishii were so sympathetic and noble in character that none of the visitors seemed to have been more fortunate in their spokesmen. There was something French in his lucidity, something of Burke in his philosophical eloquence.

M. Viviani and Marshal Joffre left Washington by special train on May 3 for a tour of Middle Western States, extending over 3,200 miles, with Chicago the first place visited. The half-day that followed their arrival there was crowded with patriotic outbursts, beginning with a motor-ride from the station through deep-canyoned city streets overhung with the tricolor of France, the Stars and Stripes, and the British flag. Women, equally with men, formed vast crowds. Children not infrequently saluted the hero of the Marne with a shrill, "Vive la France!" which brought always a smile and a salute from the great soldier. At a meeting in the Auditorium pandemonium for a time reigned, and it was with great difficulty that the crowd was subdued, as was again the case in the evening, when a dinner took place in the goldroom of the Congress Hotel. M. Viviani referred to the first onrush of the German army almost to the door of Paris, and the order of General Joffre to the French army to take the historic offensive that drove the Germans back thirty miles an eloquent narrative which made the hero of the Marne brush tears away with his clenched fist and rise impulsively to embrace the orator. Marshal Joffre urged by repeated and vociferous demands, then made his first speech in America, and brought cheering throngs to their feet amid waving flags. Among the others cities visited were Kansas City, St. Louis, and Springfield. The Italian and Belgian Commissioners also made a tour in the West.

At Springfield Marshal Joffre and M. Viviani, with bowed and uncovered heads, filed into the tomb of Lincoln with military and civil officials, deposited a wreath and left with