kill and patience with which these two Secretaries
trained them for the work of the various departments to which they
were assigned, and prevented any divergence from correct diplomatic
methods. It is most fortunate that our foolish American habit of
replacing Ambassadors whenever some one else has a stronger political
"pull" does not extend to our first and second secretaries.

Five of the younger men of the Embassy have formed a little luncheon
club for the purpose of exchanging news and discussing and studying
the military situation. They are Lieut. Boyd of the Cavalry, Lieut.
Hunnicutt of the Artillery, Harry Dodge, the Ambassador's private
Secretary, Lieut. Donait of the Infantry and Ordnance Departments, and
myself. We meet each noon at a little pension near the Embassy and
there we argue and debate for an hour or more. These daily conferences
give us a much better comprehension of the war as a whole and a more
exact knowledge of its important details. We have all been more or
less at the front and usually some one of us has just returned with
first-hand data as to what is going on at the moment. Whenever any
outsider is discovered who has recent war news of value, we invite him
to luncheon and proceed to cross-question him in general and in
particular.

* * * * *

_Wednesday, September 23d._ A little sadly I took supper this evening
at the Cafe du Commerce where the members of the atelier used to meet
in the days of student life. As I was eating, who should walk in and
sit down beside me but my friend Daumal, _sous-massier_ of the atelier
when war broke out, whom I had not seen since he departed for the
front as a private.

He is now Sergeant Daumal of the First Line Regiment, wounded at
Longwy and just out of the hospital, homeward bound on a two weeks'
convalescent leave. As he described it, "une de ces marmites a
28-centimetres" had exploded a little distance from him. Although he
had not been struck by any fragments, the shock had rendered him so
thoroughly unconscious that for a day he had been passed over by the
ambulance orderlies as dead and had finally been discovered by a
burying squad to be not in need of a grave but of a hospital.

* * * * *

The bombardment of Rheims Cathedral has stirred France to indignation,
but apparently not nearly as much as it has stirred the outside world.
The capacity of the French for being "stirred to ind