Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1918-02-16
Omitted Press Staff Correspondent

in view. talked with Rouen citizeI
and found him anxious to correct one
impression | d brought from Paris.
eff you've been eating in Paris res
! taurants,'' he said, "please don I
think that is the way all France is
living. If it were it would be robbery
for France to accept food supplies from
| America or anywhere else. Something
ought to be done about the extrava
gance of Paris restaurants. 1t surely
gives American visitors the wrong
/ idea.
He said his own townspeople, while
not in actual want, seldom had an op-
portunity to forget the need for econ
omy.
"Of course" he said, ''France is in
better position to take care of herself
in the matter of food than some other
countries are-England, for instance
There is practically no land going un-
used in France"
An Australian officer standing by in
terpolated a remark.
"There's S plenty of it going to waste
in England" he declared "I'm wonder
ing when they III ever get around to
cutting up some of those sacred old es-
tates that are no good for anything
but hunting and golf.
Strolled around Havre with Conger,
who in his A. P. days helped Carl Ac-
herman and the Kaiser to keep Berlin
in the public eye. He's on his way home
to become q captain or major or some
thing.
We encountered Brand Whitlock,
minister to Belgium, just departing
from a pleasant old house IN an op-
scure street. The house proved TO pe
the temporary U. S. legation to Belgium
Whitlock somehow doesn't It look much
older than he did when mayor OF TO
ledo, and, for that matter, not a great
deal older than when secretary to Gov
ernor Altgeld of Illinois. His hair IS
quite grey, but there is still boylsh
LIGHT in his eyes and his smile is tne
same slow, easy smile of old and MS
figure is as straight and slim as that
of a Kuppenheimer hero. Still, no
ticed when bell at the gate rang sharp
lv he started as if from a physical
shock. Belgium perhaps did not leave
his nerves unimpaired.
Wanted to ask him what he thought
Of Gov. Altgeld's attitude would nave
been had he lived to see America $ pre-
sent fight with his fatherland; but Mrs.
Whitlock appeared all gloved and ready
70 escort him on the daily walk which
he said she enforced as a relle1 from
the considerable burden of his work.
London, Dec. Con the train COM
ing from Southampton today was a
New Zealander, lieutenant in the Royal
Naval Reserve. He was in a happy
frame of mind, having a two weeks
| leave on his hands after year and a
/ half at a Mediterranean station. HIS
plans for spending the two weeks IN
cluded getting married and having a
week IS honeymoon. The girl was wait,
ing in London, having come by way OF
the United States.
The lieutenant was nervous, but IL
WASH It because he was about to be mar
ried. Having been to war, marriage did
MT appear to frighten him. What Wor-
ried him was the fact that he had lost
his cap. He was wearing a civilian s
cap, but it seems that a naval officer
is absolutely nude in anything less than
the regulation uniform headdress. When
he got off the train at Waterloo sta
ton he put the civilian cap in his pocket
and started for the gate and his bride
to-be IS arms, bareheaded.
The London papers give great promin-
ence to the fact that Christmas ap-
proaches. The stores advertise every