A Journalist's Diplomatic Mission: Ray Stannard Baker's World War I Diary

26. Wilson as a Story Teller

429 26 Wilson as a Story Teller. Trip with the President to Belgium and Dinner with the King. Still Fearful the Germans Will Not Sign the Treaty. JUNE 17 I am going to Belgium tonight with the President. We leave at 10:30 p.m. and visit the devastated regions in the morning, accompanied, as I understand , by the King and Queen of Belgium. The President was in the most sanguine mood I’ve seen him recently. He feels more hopeful of the German signing; and there are plain signs, as in a hot editorial in the Journal des Debats,149 that there is a change coming in the hostile attitude toward him over here—as the French begin to see that the attacks in the American Senate upon him may endanger the treaty. He told me this evening the Four had worked hard all day on the Austrian treaty. While he was talking he fingered one button of his coat, and suddenly becoming conscious of what he was doing, spoke of it laughingly. “Did you ever know Laurence Hutton?150 Laurence used to tell a story of how a Scotsman proved to him that he was not real Scotch. He offered Laurence his snuffbox; Laurence had never taken snuff before in his life, but he took a pinch according to the best stage practice, as he had seen it done, but he was at once caught up by the Scotsman. “I see yer no Scot.” “How is that?” “You have na fingered yer button first.” Laurence asked him to explain this mystery in the taking of snuff and the Scotsman at once pinched his button—the President illustrated with his 149. This was a now-defunct daily newspaper in Paris. 150. Laurence Hutton (1843–1904) was an American essayist and travel guidebook author. 430 | The Paris Peace Conference thumb and finger—and exhibited the two little creases left by the pressure, in which he could take up a little more of the snuff. I responded with the story of the boy in the Hoosier Schoolmaster,151 who was a champion speller when he could finger his button, but who lost the match when one of his companions clipped the button off. JUNE 20 We returned this morning from the trip to Belgium—one of the hardest I ever made—and one of the most interesting. I have not time to begin to describe it here. Wednesday was devoted to an all-day motor ride over dusty and often badly broken roads through the battlefields and ruined cities of Flanders, including a most interesting visit to Zeebrugge harbor, where we were escorted by British naval officers, who showed us how the gallant British naval contingent had blocked the harbor. At Nieuwpoort and along the Iser Canal we covered the same territory that I visited less than a year ago in the midst of the war. Then shells were singing overhead, and it was death to move one’s head above the trenches. We arrived at Brussels Wednesday night about 9:30 and rode through crowded streets. I was up half the night seeing that our communications were open and the dispatches of the correspondents moving properly. Tuesday—yesterday—was devoted to a paralyzing program of trips, receptions , a big luncheon, and a bigger dinner. Here is the program: 9:00 a.m. Depart for Charleroi to see factories from which the Germans stole the machinery. 12:30 p.m. Luncheon with Brand Whitlock. 1:30 p.m. Reception, American colony, at the Legation. 2:00 p.m. Reception of Belgians at Legation. 2:30 p.m. Great reception in the Chamber of Deputies, with a speech by M. Hymans and a return by President Wilson, this being the great speech of the day. The King, Queen, and all the members of the Belgian government and Parliament were there. It was a most imposing affair. We rode to the meeting in state in our high hats and long coats, and I was placed just behind the Queen and Mrs. Wilson. 151. This is an 1871 novel by Edward Eggleston about a first-year schoolmaster in a fictional Indiana community. Wilson as a Story Teller | 431 3:30–6:00 p.m. Trip to Leuven, where a degree was bestowed on the President in the ruins of the university, then to Malines to call on Cardinal Mercier. 6:00...