The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-11-05
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

The diplomats are gathering for tour de force, for it begins to appear that before many moons the war game will be shifted from the battlefield to the diplomatic table and the soldier will be pushed in the background while the civilian struts across the stage
 
 It's going to be battle royal between the keenest minds in the warning coun- tries. but this time Germany will not have her Bismarck with his brutal frankness and power to play the game of brag and bluff with the threat of blood and iron
 The days of Versailles can never be repeated and France will arise from her humiliation to see the great war lord of the Hohenzollern begging for terms. l, for one, on account of the French, wish that the downfall of the Kaiser might be staged in Berlin in atonement for the day in which his grandsire was made Emperor of Germany almost in stones throw of Paris.
 
 For days the eyes of the world nave been turned to Versailles, not so much for what $ or has been but for the tremendou- ssues to result from the al- lied conference which holds the issues of peace or war in it's hands. It's pronounce ment will settle questions of world sig nificanee and so down in history as one of the most momentous sittings ever held.
 Versailles is just eleven miles south west of Paris. The town covers a large area and is well laid out, with long and straight streets, crossing at right angles. Louis XIV had dreams of and one was wrought out in his palatiai garden city idea worked out at Versailles. It formed a superb for the animated fetes and re- unions in which took part such a brilli- ant array of lords and ladies.
 The fashionable and courtiy life of the day, so far as It's open air aspect was concerned, centered around the stately gardens and wonderful parks of the great houses of royalty and the nobility. In it's magnificent regularity Versailles possesses admirable solemnity for the setting of such a scene as was housed in the palace last week.
  Some great exhibitions have been staged at Versailles. I can only mention ! few, passing by many interesting scenes in which royalty entertained and made French court life the gayest in Europe. With the advent of Louis XVI there came a contrast to the gayety and freedom of care in royal hearts and heads. for the King and his family had to hide themselves behind barred doors. A dramatic incident took place at tho palais Royal Camille Desmoulins, the intrepid young lawyer, rushing out of the Palais Royal sprang into a chair .and Addressed the excited throng, saying: Citizens. come from Versailles. It 'nly remains for us to choose our colors. What colors will you select? Green. fhe color of hope; or blue of Cincinnati, the color of American liberty and de- nocracy The day following, the Frenchman's glorious fourteenth" the people rose and the Bastile fell Strange, is it not. that in the whirl- agig of time with the passing of and a quarter. at Versailles is gathered convention in which democ- -acy has been made an assured fact among the great powers of the earth 70 say the last sad rites over dead and dying autocracy?-r Yes, thank God. America is present to pay back a long due debt of gratitude to France and show her love to the mother country by standing at her side as she fights % preserve the smaller nationalities.
  During my student days in Paris, ised to like to steal off for a day and make for Versailles. for it Is med ey of verdure. hierarchy of bronze and ! forest of marble Its waters. jets md cascades. it's monsters, its Tritons and valhallas of statues set off the artificial background in a way only to De compared to stage setting fit for lays when prince and princess, with ,loak and sword and robes of silk and velvet and gilded carriages. were in 'ogue A twentieth century begodEled