The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-10-15
(Continued.0

While there is still chance of blowing them to dust? The power of destruc ton which had once been the ultimate privilege of government was now the only power left in the world-and if thoughtful men during that phase of blazing waste who did not pass through such moods of despair as Bar net describes and declare with him: -sThis is the end.''
 And all the while Leblanc was going to and fro with gl1tterfng glasses and an inexhaustibIe persuasiveness. urg- ing the manifest reasonableness of his view upon ears that ceased presently to be inattentive.t Never at any lime did he betray doubt that all this cha otic conflict would end No nurse dur ing nursery uproar was ever so cer- tain of the inevitable ultimate peace. From being treated as an annfab dreamer he came by insensible de grees to be regarded as an extrava- gant possibility. Then he began to seem even practicable. The people who listened to him in 1858 with q smiling impotence were eager before 1859 was four months old to know just exactly what he thought might be done. He answered with the pa- dence of a philosopher and the Iucfdi- ty of Frenchman. He began to re- ceive responses of more and moro hopeful type He went across the At lantic to Italy, and there he gathered in the promises for this congress He chose those high meadows above Brfs- sago for the reasons we have stated. s eve must get away" he said, .sfrom old associations.'s He set to work requisitioning material for his confer ence with an assurance that was jus tffed by the replies. With a slight in-. creduIity the conference which was to begin new order in the world gath cred itself together. Leblanc summon ed it without arrogance. He control led it by virtue of an infinite humility. Men appeared upon those upland slopes with the apparatus for wireless Eelegraphy; others followed with tents and provisions; little cable was flung down to convenient point upon the Locarno road below Leblanc arrived, sedulousIy directing every detail that would affect the tone of the assembly. He might have been courier in ad- vance rather than the originator of the gathering And then there arriv- ed, some by cable car, most by aero plane, few in other fashions, the men who had been called together to confer upon the state of the world. It was to be conference without name. Nine monarchs, the presidents of four republics, number of minis ters and ambassadors, powerful jour nalists and such like prominent and Influential men took part in it. There were even scientific men, and that T1r@T--l with the others to contribute his anna tellr statecraft to the desperate prob lem of the age Only Leblanc would have dared so to summon fgureheads and powers and lntelligences or have had the courage to hope for their agreement.
 And one at least of those who were called to this conference of govern ments came to it on foot. This was King Egbert, young king of the most venerable kingdom in Europe. He was a rebel and had always been of deIib- crate choice-a rebel against the mag nificence of his position. He affected long pedestrian tours and disposition to sleep in the open air. He came now over the pass of Ste. Maria Maggiore and by boat up the lake to Brissago. Thence he walked up the mountain. plea sant path set with oaks and sweet chestnut For provision on the walk. for he did not want to hurry, he carried with him pocketful of bread and cheese. 4 certain small retinue that was necessary for his comfort and dig nity upon occasions of state he sent on by the cable car, and with him walked his private secretary, F1rmln, man who had thrown up the professorship
 -TeL .LE-- CS,I,1. -zT of Sociology, Economies and Political Science to take up these duties. Fir min was a man of strong rather than rapid thought He had anticipated great influence in this new position, and after some years he was still only beginning to apprehend how largely his function was to listen. Originally he had been something of a thinker upon international politics, an authority upon tariffs and strategy and valued contributor to various Of the higher or gans of public opinion, but the atomic bombs had taken him by surprise, and he had still to recover completely from his preatonnic opinions and the silenc- ing effect of those sustained explo- SiveS.
 The kings freedom from the tram mels of etiquette was very complete. In theory-and ne abounded In theory his manners were purely democratic. It was by sheer habit and inadvert- ency that he permitted Ftrmin, who had discovered a rucksack in a small shop in the town below, to carry both bottles of beer. The king had never, as a matter of fact, carried anything for himself in his life, and he had never noted that he did not do so.
 we will have nobody with us,'' he said, "at all We will be perfectly simple
 So Firnnin carried the beer.