The Columbus journal. (Columbus, Neb.) 1874-1911, 1909-06-16

of England greeted the first gentle
man of America.
Your majesty" the president be-
gan, 1.-The time is at hand when the
United States has no further object in
cOncealing the power at her com.
mand: the sole cause of cOncealment
that of meeting the Chinese fleet. hav.
ing been nullified by the action of that
country itself. China has broken her
alliance with Japan. is ready to make
such overtuTes as We wish for peace
and is dispensing her fleet
The president paused for a moment
and looked at those around him. The
king, steadily watching him, was i'm
pressed with his simple dignity, and
read Alright the great and high pur.
pose that shone in his eyes. Once
more he resumed:
1T has. come to this issue, your
majesty. much sooner than l had ex'
pected: but events which make for
war and peace move fast. They are
in the hands of God Almighty, and
not of rulers. l desired this inter.
view. because you can assist me in
what | have to do, and for which
believe I am mere instrument in the
hands of a power before whom all
must bow"
And I am honored." the sovereign
instantly responded.
With his officials he was conducted
to the presidents private apartments,
where they were followed by the Sec
rotary of state and the secretary OF
the navy.
The king looked round the room,
which he had entered on but one
other occasion, long years before,
when as 4 prince and without hope OF
throne he had been received by a
former president of the United States.
How many men had occupied it since
then, and how few of them had left
any great individual mark on the
worlds history, He took the
proffered seat and waited for the pres.
ident to speak, only half compre.
hending that he was entering upon
one of the most important conferences
that the world had ever known.
Your majesty and gentlemen" the
president began in his low, finely
modulated voice, Il told you | wished
your assistance. l need more than
that: l want your advice. have been
man with a dream, and that you
may know how much it has meant to
me, l must tell you something of my.
self. / come of race that for genera.
lions has given its blood for country.
1t was almost obliterated in the wars
of the revolution and of 1912. In the
great civil war there were five men
in my family. a father and four older
brothers, the youngest a mere lad,
who went to war as volunteers. Some
of them never returned. My father
was brought back shattered by sui.
fering to die in my mothers arms.
The lad that had gone out with his
drum came back to drag out only a
few wretched months of suffering.
MY home was on the bOrderland
where men fought backward and for.
ward across our fields He paused
for a moment as if the memory of his
childhood was too bitter for recapitu
lation, then went bravely on: In
those years the sight of CHASTITY
wounds and cruel death was before
me sometimes daily, but never far re-
moved. When peace came there was
nothing left to my mother but her
ravaged farm, her bitter poverty, and
her one boy Oh. it was nightmare,
gentlemen, that never dimmed. II
was a memory that never left me. as
hard working, poorly clad and some
times hungry. grew to manhood
My mother went, as did thousands OF
other widows made by war, to an