The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-09-10
GENERAL JOE WHEELER
 FORMS A PILGRIM CLUB

10 nOlQ aI Inc Cdrllon. lue CommandeE- in-chief was told that the banquet would be held on any day convenient for him. General Wheeler wrote rom the Carlton hotel, but. by some mistake, Lord Rob- erts reply was directed to the Carlton club, which is quite another matter. Hence much delay In the delivery of the letter. In the meantime General Wheeler had gone eff to Paris, intending to go still further south. Lord Roberts letter, forwarded to the Carlton, was reforwarded to the general in Paris. 'Bobs' set August for the banquet and General Wheeler got his note on August T.
 Of course if the eommancer-Yn-chief was to be entertained 1t meant a rush back to London on the part of General Wheeler; but rushes are nothing to a hero of the civil and Cuban wars. To MT Brit tain' secretary of the Pilgrim club the general sent a lengthy wire" announc- ing his return. and next morning bright and early the Wheeler party were hustled into London again. and General "Joes was ready to make arrangements for a banquet.
 How the general and MT. Britain dug mp representative Anglo-saxons enough to give the Pilgrim club fitting send-off was told me between reminiscent chuckles, by the latter yesterday.
 'The general" he said. met me, and after telegraphing to a whole lot of Americans and Englishmen, we got a cab and started out looking for others. A few we picked up at the houses or commons and lords, and the rest we ran to earth at all points of the compass. And really it was treat to see the indefatigable en- ergy of the general I suppose we two must have covered, in all, thirty miles in that cab. At the end of our ride I was simply a wreck, but the general was as fresh as paint, and just as ready as not to do the whole thing over agaIn. A good many of the men we wanted we couldn't set. Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, high commissioner of Canada, was driv- ing with the Duke of Connaught; Pier pont Morgan was giving a dinner of his own; Lord Grenfell was dining with tho colonial premiers, and Sir Thomas Lipton was engaged. too. All of those gentle men, however, sent the kindest sort of telegrams of regret, and all nave since taken an interest in the Pilgrim club.
 The invitations which were sent out to prominent Engishmen for the Pilgrim clubs first banquet called forth several unusually warm responses. Among others who wrote feelingly on the subject of Anglo-American good-fellowship were Sir Henry Irving, Lord Rothschild and Lord taf
 more hearty message than that sent by R. H. Dunbar, who is the editor of the Sheffield Daily Telegraph. perhaps the leading prominent English newspaper outside of London. Mir. Dunbar, who is we'll known both as an orator and a writer, wrote: "I have long had the idea and taken every opportunity of ex- pressing 1t, that the welfare of the country. as well as the United States de- bends very largely on the strengthening of good feeling betwixt the two nations which are in blood and language one peo- pie. l am sure also that the deepening of this feeling would make for the good of the world. Was 1t not John Bright who said long ago that if the Anglo
 
 pronounced against war no power would dare to break the peace? These may not be the exact words, but they certainly contain the idea that was in the mind of the great tribute of the people. It has been a great pleasure to all think ing people to observe the growth of the good feeling betwixt English and Amer f0an Inc
 leans express toward this country on the death of our good Queen Victoria, and in the sudden illness of our King Edward went straight to the national heart and will never be forgotten.
 "I earnestly trust that the project upon which you are now working may have wide and far-reaching results, for have always held the view, and hold it more strongly every day, that the Englshman or the American, who utters word or who does an act which causes i'll feeling between our peoples is the enemy of both"
 Of course the programme of the Pill grim club will not bring the new organi- zation into conflict or even rivalry with the American society in London of which D. c. Haldeman of the Mutual Life Insurance company has been elect ed president recently The American so- ciety entertains distinguished Americans who visit London and makes a practice of giving banquet on every American holiday. Its membership which is made up entirely of prominent American bus mess men in London, is now just short of 200 and is increasing fast. The soci- ety has for years carried on a charitable work in London on behalf of it's fellow countrymen and it has helped many a 'busted' American to a passage home.