The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-04-02
Ambassador, Dead in Paris,
Did Monumental Work
for His Country.
PLAYER SAVIOR ROLE
War Correspondent Tells
of Splendid Service
by Envoy.
BY WILLIAM PHILIP SIMMs

WASHINGTON, April place:
Paris during the first weeks OF the
World war.
Scene: The dimly lighted ro-
tunda Of the famous military prison
of the Cherche-NIidi, left bank OF
the Seine.
Time: About 3 a. m.
In a growing huddle in the mid
die Of the stone-fagged floor stood
a group of weary war correspond
entS, waiting While some of the
prisoners OF the already over
crowded bastile could be doubled up
to provide cells to accommodate
them.
There we're Richard Harding
Davis, Sir Ashmead Bartlett, Wythe
Williams, Granville Fortesque, the
writer and two or three others. We
had been arrested at the front, near
Rheims, whittier we separately had
gone to get the story of the bonn
parchment and burning of the re-
noWned cathedral.
Treated Like Spies
The prison governor, a French
colonel. was very gruf. He treated
us as if we were spies caught red
handed-as, indeed, the kissing
populace had called US, as, between
armed guards, we had motored in
from Rheims.
without a bite to eat since break
fast of the preceding day-and then
only bareback softened in what, in
war, passes for Coffee--We loudly
demanded food. The governor
laughed diSagreeably. Such a joke.
Il Say!" exclaimed Sid Ashmead.
his British wrath boiling over,
they can't keep us in this placer
Did you hear those heavy steel
doors clang shut after us?" asked
Davis. They held Captain Alfred
Dreyfus and they can hold US
The minutes dragged on Mill
tary orderlies came and went,
scoWling. We were putting them to
a lot of trouble.
A bell tingled. An orderly &p-
peared and Saluted the governor
Mon colonel he reported, the
telephone"
The Scene Changes
The governor disappeared into
his Office. The murmur of his voice
could be heard and presently 1t
seemed excited. Suddenly another
bell sounded. Immediately orderles
responded as if answering a riot
call.
Bring chairs" briskly ordered
! the governor. Bring tables. Bring
dishes. Bring a. menu. Bring food.
Bring anything the gentlemen mere
desire
Something had happened. A mo-
ment before, in his eyes, we had
been cattle. Now We we're gentle
men.
What that something was We aft
erWards found out. Ambassador
Myron T. Herrick had turned the
trick, at about 4 o'clock in the
morning. The French military
authorities did not welcome corre-
spondents in those days and they
had intended making an example of
us.
Their plan was to intern us in
| the fortress of ToUl until the war
was over. but the ambassador. hear
| ing what was on foot, left his bed
in the small hours of the night to
ring up the foreign minister al
fight it out with IN. Nobody
could treat his people like that.
Herrick Was Nobleman
And We weren't interned. Instead,
the cooks of the Hotel Lutetia near
by were routed out of their sleep to
cook for us such a breakfast as, 1t
seemed to us, We never had eaten
/ before.
The incident depicts Herrick.
France never had better friend
from America and Americans never
had a stauncher representative in
France.
During the first chaotic days of
the war, tens Of thousands of Amer
leans we're stranded in Europe.
Herrick vaw to it that they were
| housed, <ed, furnished trains to the
ports, and ships from the ports
home. Out of his own pocket he
loaned more than 100000 to people
he had never seen nor heard of be-
fore in his life. They had all be-
come his folks"
Afterwards I asked him how much
he had lost out Of his loans.
Hardly dollar ne replied.
Folks are mighty honest. Then he
added You know, the few didn't
hear from, they weren't dishonest,
I'm sure. My idea is, something
happened to them; maybe they
died"
Always Generous to Others
That was Herrick again. He was
SO fine himself that no room was
left inside for a single ungenerous
thought.
Today Ambassador Herrick lies
dead at his embassy in Paris. He
can not be replaced. Other splen-
did Americans there are, of course,
but there was only one Eerrick.
Both the French and the Americans
who knew him intimately say so.
Neither France nor America
should grieve too deeply over his
death. He lived a wonderful life
and died as he would have died
at his post in France. which couri-
try, after his own, he loved best.