Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-02-06
LETTER From WAGNER
WRITES OF Hs IMPRESSIONS OF
AMERfcA.
Carried Home ascolsssal Mass of New
Ideas -apilates Upon the
American Ideal"

| The following open letter was written for
| the New York World by Pastor Charles
| Wagner. author lof 1.-THE Simple Life" in
which he amply testlfes to many delightful
experiences He says in part:
ut seems to me difficult for man to be
received by an entire people as I was re-
ceived by the American people. And all
! because of a book which, before my COM
| ing, had penetrated to thousands Of fire.
| sides and become the friend of thousands of
souls The Simple Life had received the
personal appreciation Of the President, and
as the entire American people loves it's
| President. it had wished to know the book.
Soon. quite simply, legions of hearts were
| opened to 1t. The man who had written
The Simple Life coming to sit as a guest
| at a table at which perhaps the family had
| read the book together was not a stranger.
| In every city. in every school. in, every club,
in every church, it was the same"
| 81 have been warmed, strengthened.
stepped in the springs of an affection ever
new and which filled my passage with most
| touching tokens"
| Friends who visited the United States
| before me had said: You will breathe so
| freely over there that when you return to
| France you will feel youself oppressed. like
| those who from the open air penetrate a
closed ROOM I-could not believe this pre-
| diction. However, have experienced some
| thing similar"
| when I went to the school Tin paris) my
| son attends and watched the children come
| out they appeared wan by comparison with
the full and rosy cheeks I had observed in
| the American schools
| Zone of the immediate results of my trip
| will be to learn to know the American col
| ony In Paris
| 'When 1 visited President Roosevelt at
| the White House saw two charming little
boys Of nine and eleven enter. 1 said to
1 - " Fri dtr
you serious question When you sleep do
you keep your bands wide open your
fists clinched?' The child thought. and
| then said energetically: L can't tell, be-
| cause am asleep. The President laughed
heartily
| "I was greatly impressed by President
! Roosevelt's personality. He is one Of those
| men who are on an equality with everybody
! because they are Of all heights; close to
the humblest, equal to the greatest
Taking the "Sympathy Cure"
| Keenly sensible to friendship. to the
| usages of cordality. 1 took in the course
of my ten weeks stay in the United States
| a vertable sympathy cure" I have been
| warmed, strengthened, stepped in the
| springs of an affection ever new and which
| filled my passage with most touching
tokens. I have seen so many schools of
| youths and girls 1 have had before me
| so many Juvenile assemblages, that they
remain before my eyes like a dazzle OF
| youth and freshness. i have stored away
| a simply colossal mass of new ideas. col
| lected in my memory views of country. of
| geographic characters. physiognomies Of
/ towns and faces of men.
| Life has appeared to me in novel forms.
1 carry an American Ideal with me, an
American seen and studied FOR months. IL
| is yet but corner of the real country. and
| l hope to go to- see 1t again in order to
| turn other leaves Of that book so rich in
| diverse pages and surprises. But OF my
T ato{,
| preston that will ever be sacred. 1 want
| to fix it, to condense 1t into a well medi-
| tated and entirely personal creation
| wish to evoke from my memory the image
| Of a country 1 have seen, to make this
| country as 1t appeared to me known to my
| French fellow citizens, and to offer this
| image homage of very great affection
| to America, which has received me at its
! flresides with such splendid hospitality"
Took Home a Veritable "Soul- Capital"
| After this marvellous plunge into Aneri-
| can life, where is all that is highest in
| thought in sentiment, in ideals Of action.
| have returned to my own country. My
absence has lasted altogether only three
| months, but If we measure the place in
our life taken by these days with the rich
ness of life that they contain these ninety
days fill an enormous place In the en-
| semble of my spiritual patrimony they con-
stitute a new and very important fact OF
| back a verltable soul-capital, and every
moment l notice new ideas evoked in my
self by the men and the things that sur
round me. Friends who had visited the
United States before me had said: you
| will breathe so freely over there that when
you return to France you will feel yourself
oppressed, like those who from the open
air penetrate a closed room" l could not
believe this prediction; however. 1 have ex-
perienced something similar.
The Moral Effect Of America
Morally, felt an analogous effect in those
months. The daily preoccupations of our
politics, problems such as our public life
imposes upon US, receded into the distance.
had scarcely time to think Of them. Ev-
ing among you 1 habituated myself to the
problems of America, which are very great
and very burning. 1 took part in them by
sympathy and entered. so to speak. into
your difficulties. But all that embarrasS-
ment in the midst of which your wise men
and your statesmen seek their way had for
me the exciting charm of novelty. l found
myself in the presence OF questions 50 m
teresting that the anguish they might
awaken was allayed by the degree of sur
prise they caused me. Here, on the con-
| trary 1 find myself in the midst Of the old
have seen, such as they are, for a long time.
Here nothing is unexpected; only the an
guish which they cause you Is ever new.
France Seems No Longer the Same.
Not only do find the ordinary checker
board Of political and social life, but fall
again a prey to the customary train of our
cheap publicity. / see again the same pa
pers saying the same things over and over
again, or telling news so like the trash OF
days gone by that it seems only warmed
| over stew This is not an experience sin
gular to a Frenchman returning home The
same thing must occur to every man re-
turning from foreign voyage He Is
| a bird returning to his cage after having
spread his wings in wide space.
1t is no less true that the psychological
condition into which such experiences put
you involve a certain uneasness. I saw
France again with. the Joy at man ex-
pected by his friends. his family, his work
But would you believe me that from the
moment Of reaching LIE Havre was struck
by many pitiful contrractsF
Told President Loubet Of His Visit.
Last week at ths Eysee I saw President
Loubet and transmitted to him the personal