Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-04-18
CORRESPONDENTS
AT PEACE MEETING
AREPOPULARPETS
Attentions ShoWered Upon
Them Would Make a Mil
Iionaire Debutante Turn
Green With Envy

PARIS. March 17.-(Correspond-
ence of the Associated Press.)-
Newspaper correspondents accredited
popular than beautiful millionaire
debutanteS in their first season.
Queens, counts, princes, lords,
ladies, ambassadors, ministers, pre-
miers, presidents, would-be presi-
dents, peace delegates and plain
mere messieurs shower the CORES
pondents with invitations to teas,
titfins, dinners and occasionally to
audiences which have no social dis
guise.
American correspondents are in
Americas ear. Three social secre-
taries and squad of motor dis
patchers would be required to avoid
social errors and land a corresponds
ent promptly at all the functions
to which he is invited. And he
prosaic as the plenary sessions of
the peace conference.
Every thing from Belshazzar to the
Bolsheviki is discussed at these So
cia! functions. Correspondents are
whisked from New Guinea to Nova
Zembla without warning. Ptolemy
and Pompey are resurrected and
discussed at such length that, one
might suspect they narrowly missed
being selected as delegates to the
Paris conference.
Ancient Greece and Rome no long
er seem ancient. Philip Of Macedon
suddenly becomes modern Persian
poets sing of their country's proper
boundaries with all the charm of
Omar Khayyam. The Old Testament
is introduced as modern bit of lit
erature designed to establish certain
territorial claims
Countries and peoples ave discov-
cred at these conferences which
American school geographers appar-
emily hadn't heard of; and even the
geographical specialists employed by
the various missions to the Paris
conference are myStified.
It's a rare occasion when a dele
cation deScendS to a period as mod
ern as that Of Charlemagne or Pepin
the Great in making claims for the
right of self-determination.
Sanskrit and Arabic are revived
g1ibly in an effort to establish the
consanguinity of certain peoples
Ancient philosophers are quoted in
their original tongues. Anglo-Saxons
are reminded of the perfect civiliza-
ton which existed in the Orient five
thousand years before the Christian
era. Names which the raw civiliza-
ton" of Western Europe never heard
of are rolled off glibly-names which
the Americans trying TO make lne
world safe for democracy and thai
speedily, don't want to hear.
Such claims as that of Belgium
for a readjustment of her relations
with Holland come as a real re.
lief to dazed newspaper men anC
weary delegates. That controversy
only dates back to 1881, to the serar
of paper which Germany probably
wouldn't ear up so ruthlessly if she
could live the last five years over
again.
Discussions of the Near Eastern
questions are much the same, wheth
er they be in the drawing room o
! the Prince of Hedjaz or the meeting
of the Big Five at the Qual d'Orsay
They are reminiscent of weary class
room days with Homer, Herodotu
and Virgil. Efforts to interest bus!
men in antiquity seem futile: Dele
gates doze through the exposition o
ancient history and correspondent
long for brief statements throwing
light upon the recent history anC
aspirations of the various people:
who have lived in such 1iscord TO
centuries along the shorts of thu