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CHAPTER X

THE GREAT WAR

AUGUST, 1914-HIS HEALTH-HIS CONNECTION WITH CLUBS, MUSEUMS, AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS-MEETINGS, DINNERS, AND COMMITTEES A VISIT TO TORONTO-ELECTION-THINGS MOVE-WAR DECLARED WITH GERMANY-SPEECHES-THE VISITING COMMISSIONS -A HARD WEEK WITH THEM IN NEW YORK-THE END

All of a sudden, in the cheerful world in which Mr. Choate, improved in health, was concerned with manifold activities mostly agreeable, the tocsin sounded with a terrible and momentous clang, and hell began to break loose. He writes from Stockbridge about it to his daughter, in letters that run through the first half of August.

"DEAR MABEL:—

"Stockbridge, Mass. 2 August 1914.

"I suppose that like all the rest of the world, you have spent the afternoon in reading this terrible war news which is turning the whole world upside down. If we lived anywhere but in America, if we were Germans or Russians or Austrians or Frenchmen, I suppose that at this moment Jo and George and Arthur and the De Gersdorffs and all the rest of our young men friends would be shouldering their muskets and marching to the nearest rendezvous to join the army. For that is just what the horrid word 'mobilization' means. There is a capital cartoon in one of the papers today representing Youth strapped to the mouth of a cannon, to which the old

Austrian Emperor is just setting a flaming torch, and that is just what War means.

"I cannot help thinking, however, that when these great armies get face to face and begin to count the terrible cost, they will find some way out, and Peace will come again, which all the Nations so sorely need. *** ”

(August 3.) "We are still doing little but reading the war news which seems to me to be worse than ever this morning. Those Germans are a little too smart in trying to steal a march upon both France and England. But they will be come up with, I think, for they seem to be driving Great Britain, against her will almost, to side actively with France and Russia—to keep her promises to them, and when they find themselves really arrayed against the three great powers-Germany & Austria must give way and find some way out. The papers this morning say that Austria on Saturday expressed her willingness to accept Sir Edward Grey's proposal of a conference.

"You are so near to Hog Island now that you may possibly find out about the Choate Farm there,—who owns it and whether it is for sale. ***"

(August 5.) "Mama showed me your very nice letter received this morning giving an account of your various wanderings about the coasts of Massachusetts. You must have had a great frolic in spite of all these horrible wars. Now that England has fairly engaged with the rest of the Nations against Germany, I suppose it has got to be fought to a finish, and don't see what is to prevent a final stop being put to the arrogant pretensions of Germany which are always disturbing the world. But

perhaps now, finding pretty much all the rest of the world arrayed against her, she will call a halt. ***"

(August 6.) "We were much appalled this morning to read of the dying condition of Mrs. Wilson and that all his prodigious labors of the last few months have been done with this dreadful fate hanging over him. I hope he will be persuaded now to let Congress adjourn and take the real rest which he so much needs. *

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(August 7.) "Dr. Peterson came up today in spite of the heat and gave me a thorough overhauling. As I expected he pronounced me much better in all respects, and thought that after about three days more of rest, I could begin to move about and be practically well. **

"The war news is terrible and doubtless will be so for many days. The poor German people who do not want war at all are being sadly abused by their rulers who certainly have been behaving as badly as possible.

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(August 11.) "You say nothing about Essex or Hog Island or any of the Choates in that direction, so I suppose you haven't been there. I imagine that the Choate Farm on Hog Island remains much as it was a hundred years ago. Dr. Bentley who visited it in 1819 says in the Fourth Volume of his Diary which has just come out, 'Oct. 6. We went for amusement to Patch's beach. *** Here we had only low places on the Marshes. We reached Patch's Beach, having passed farms which were in the possession of the heirs of the Choate family, etc. Choate and two other farmers live on Hog Island, celebrated for its Mutton, Butter & Cheese beyond any land in Essex.' So I imagine you in your old age raising sheep on Hog

Island, and running a dairy farm, and I think Kitty would like to join you there. But I think you would have to give up a good many of your present amusements. ***”

(August 12.) *** I haven't got my freedom yet, for I suppose Dr. Southworth who was to call today is waiting to hear from Dr. Peterson who has apparently to decide. ***

(August 16.)

*** You press your inquiries about me. Well, at this moment I feel as well as ever I did, but expect ups and downs until this trouble is wholly cured. You know how long it took and how it tried our patience before, and I think it is sure to come all right before long. Yesterday I drove (in the Victoria) through the Warrin Woods-and it did me much good. So you see I am not quite such a close prisoner as I have been. FATHER."

*

To His Wife

"Metropolitan Club Nov. 6, 1914.

"Before going to the Round Table dinner I must give you an account of the last twenty-four hours.

"We arrived on time and I deposited myself at this Club, just in time to dress and go to the dinner and business meeting of the Board of Managers of the Century, from which I returned in time to go to bed at ten o'clock. This morning I called up Dr. Draper and proposed to come down to his office, but he had already left for an early call in 57th Street and from there came here to see me. He put me through the usual course of inspec

tion and inquiry and pronounced me splendidly well, and fully approved of my going through the program for which I came. Mr. Cunliffe Owen called at 12.30 in a taxicab to take me down to the meeting and lunch of the executive committee of the Pilgrims, where I spent a very pleasant hour, then to Wm. Wheelock's office to see about No. 10, which is in their hands for leasing."

In the letter above he speaks of two institutions that had been part of his life for many years, the Round Table and the Century Club. The Round Table was a dining club. There are few allusions to it in his letters because the Round Table dinners were in the winter and belonged to town life, of which the letters here quoted give a very brief record. The Century Association along with the Art Museum and the Natural History Museum, the Harvard Club and the Union League Club are included in the list given by Mr. Root in his address on Mr. Choate before the Bar Association of the City of New York. "At the age of thirty-five," Mr. Root said, "he was President of the New England Society in New York, the organization which for more than a century has done honor to the history and spirit of his race. At forty-one he was President of the Union League Club, that Institution created in the darkest days of the Civil War to promote, encourage, and sustain absolute and unqualified loyalty to the Government of the United States. He was President of the Harvard Club, of the Law School Association, of the Century Association. For forty years before his death he was a Governor of the New York Hospital. He was President of the New York Association for the Blind. He was President of the State Charities Aid Association. He was one of the incorporators

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