 The True Story of Mary Pickford's Beginning, from Photo Play Magazine, July 1923, by Terry Ramsey. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The True Story of Mary Pickford's Beginning A little miss in a gray jacket, with curls down her back and an earnest, wistful face, stepped off a streetcar at Fifth Avenue and went walking slowly along 14th Street looking up at the house numbers. This was in early May of 1909, only 14 years ago by the calendars, but a century ago in the affairs of the motion picture. The little girl was on her way to see if by chance there might be a place for her in biograph pictures. She jingled a couple of stray pennies in her pocket to remind her that her last nickel had gone for car fare. And, if she did not get the job that she hoped for, there would be a long walk back to the boarding house way uptown in 37th Street. No one gave special notice to this rather unimportant little person of 16, except perhaps the passing glance of approval that youth and a pretty face always get in New York. She was just one of the crowd that is always passing in the busy forenoon in 14th Street. But if it were announced today that this same little girl would walk along that same path and that same street, the police reserves would have to be called to keep back the crowds and business would stop as proprietors, clerks and customers rushed to the doorways. The girl was Mary Pickford, the Cinderella queen-to-be of the motion picture. In just six years more, the amazing day was to come when the little girl with the curl could smile into the face of an anxious motion picture magnet and say, in all seriousness, no, I really cannot afford to work for only 10,000 a week. That last five cent piece invested in a car ride to 14th Street was the beginning of a remarkable journey. But back of that day in 1909, Mary Pickford had a life experience on the other side of the picture, worthy of recording here by way of contrast and for those who may have seen her successes of today through the eyes of Envy. At 16, Mary had been at work for 11 hard years. She was already old with experience of the stern realities of this work-a-day world. She was born into the most humble circumstances of life and lived close to the shadow of want. Miss Pickford was Gladys Smith, an infant of four when her father died in Toronto, leaving his widow nothing except a family of three, with Gladys the oldest. That morning when one of the neighbors came and took Gladys away for the day, the little girl knew that in the darkened best room her father lay dead, with candles burning about the crucifix that stood at his head. She knew too that things were going to be harder now for her mother. In a vague childish way she wanted to help. There were many other tragedies after that. The slender capital of the family was invested in a little candy shop that shared half of a fish store. The candy counter did a small business, selling gumdrops at a penny each to the passing school children, but it sufficed for the time. Then came the ill-fated day when baby Jack was left alone in the store with the family's pet dog. Jack found that the dog liked candy and fed him the entire stock of the establishment. The dog died, Jack was spanked, and the candy store was bankrupt. Gladys' mother went out to look for work. The little girl was old enough to go along with her mother when she went to interview the manager of the Valentine's Stock Company of Toronto. And it was ambitious little Gladys herself who suggested that she might have the baby part in the production under rehearsal. The amused director tried her, found that Gladys could act, and promptly engaged her for the part. From that day on Gladys Smith was on the stage. The next season she played in The Little Red Schoolhouse, and not long thereafter appeared in the cast of that sterling melodrama entitled The Fatal Wedding. Many other melodramas followed. Then came an engagement for the whole Smith family, Mother, Lottie and Jack, with Chauncey Allcott in Edmund Burke. Jack, by the way, was cast as a little girl in a frilly dress to the extreme unhappiness of the young man. In the course of this engagement the mother decided to put away the popular but unromantic name of Smith for the purposes of the stage and took for the family name Pickford, the name of her paternal grandmother. Gladys Pickford did not ring right to her ears, and so Gladys was changed to Mary, the most glorious name in all Ireland. Mary shared with her mother the burdens and responsibilities of the family as best she could and developed an initiative of her own. She strived mightily in her way, trooping with the roadshows and living the often precarious life of the wandering player. She was of those itinerant folk of the roadshow melodramas who call Broadway home, but seldom see it except in those unhappy idol days when they are resting while at liberty. Mary was on her way up in the world if she could find that way. She learned to read and write on the road and between scenes backstage, under the tutorship of the female heavy of a melodrama company. Meanwhile, Mary listened and learned of the world about her. She heard a very great deal of the chesty gossip of mellow actors discussing when I was with Belasco, and came to learn that on this wonderful Broadway, Belasco was master. This established she made her decision. She would play with Belasco. One day when the company was called for rehearsal for a change of bill over in a little New Jersey opera house, Miss Mary Pickford was missing. Over in New York, Mary was storming the stage door of Belasco's theater, demanding audience with him. But he won't see nobody at all. He's rehearsing the company right now. The guardian of the stage door thought that ought to be enough and final. I don't care if he is. I cut a rehearsal over in Jersey to come and he's going to see me. Mary Pickford charged past the astonished dormant in a gust of mingled rage and determination. He followed on tiptoe, prayerfully hoping that this slip would not bring down on him the wrath of Belasco and the loss of his job. The dormant was just in time to see Mary dash into the center of the stage where a company was rehearsing the warrens of Virginia. Belasco was in a bad humor over the play. It was going all awry, mostly because of an unsatisfactory child part. The abrupt appearance of little Mary, projecting herself into the middle of his troubles, struck Belasco with the full force of its drama. He stopped, waved the company to silence, and smiled down on his collar. She was breathless and odd, but she had yet the courage of her sensational entrance. Ten minutes later, Miss Mary Pickford was rehearsing in the warrens of Virginia under the eyes of the great Belasco. She had come to Broadway in one. For three seasons, until she had outgrown her part, Mary played in this production. With the courage of this conquest behind her, it is easy to see how it came that Mary was willing to toss her last nickel for car fare on a long chance that she might get into the pictures with Biograph. That was her way. She decided what to do and forthwith did it. When Mary came that June morning to No. 11 East 14th Street and turned up the steps to the Biograph studio, she was faced with even less promise than the day she applied at Belasco's stage door. The reception room at Biograph was presided over by a secretary whose disposition had been written off as a total loss years before. Her slender patience had been worn away by the abundant annoyances of the motion picture business. Her words were sharp and few. Mary tiptoed up. I want to see Mr. Griffith. Mr. Griffith is busy. He will not see anybody. Then the secretary looked up and into the wistful smile of Mary. Griffith, with his mind bent on his work in the studio above, was passing at the moment. He stopped abruptly when he heard an amazing change of tone come into the voice of the woman behind the desk, still addressing the caller. But he might take time to see you, my dear. Griffith wheeled about. Who in thunder could this be that the reception room clerk would address so tenderly? What miracle had been wrought? Then Griffith saw Mary. Together they went up the big staircase to the studio, the same romantic stairway that had felt the tread of many a grand dame and many a figure in the making of the nation's history back in the days when the room where the Cooper Hewitts cast their eerie green glow had been the grand ballroom of the Martin Van Buren mansion. The Lonely Villa was in the making. It was a typical Griffith drama of the day, a biograph feature to be one whole reel in length, twice as long as the skits and comedies that made up the staple film output of the trade. Mary and Leonard was the leading woman in the Lonely Villa. Robbers were trying to break into the villa while the wife, with her children clutching at her skirts in terror, frantically tried to telephone for help. Her message of dire distress was but half told to her husband miles away. Mary Pickford was put into play the part of one of the children, imperiled while the robbers battered at the door. That afternoon at quitting time, Mary got a handsome blue ticket and enabled her to draw $5 at the cashier's window in payment for her first day's work in motion pictures. Her last nickel had been returned to her a hundred fold and, although she did not suspect it, she had entered upon a career that was in time to make her the most famous woman in the world and endow her with the wealth beyond her most ambitious fancy. Griffith had a bit of difficulty in this complicated drama of the Lonely Villa. The robbers were expected to batter away at the door of the villa while the rescuing husband with reinforcements was on the way, arriving at last in the well-known nick of time, winning against all obstacles, including motor trouble and a hoarseless carriage. The work of the robbers at the door was just a shade unconvincing. Griffith was not satisfied and decided on a retake, which was considered rather a wasteful procedure in the motion picture practice of the day. While the remaking of these scenes was in progress, a stranger found his way as far as the studio door. It was James Kirkwood, just off the road from playing in The Great Divide with Henry Miller and, by the by, with Henry Walthall, a fellow member of the company. Kirkwood had wandered into Biograph, looking for his friend Harry Salter, who had become an assistant to Griffith. Salter introduced Kirkwood to Griffith. Griffith sized up Kirkwood at a glance. Here, put on a beard and get into the scene as one of the robbers. Kirkwood had heard of these motion picture things, but he had the standard and orthodox actors suspicious contempt for them. No, no, I can't do that. Yes, you can, and you'll fit the part fine. Griffith and Salter would have their way. If I wear a beard, nobody will know me anyway. Here goes, Kirkwood decided. He went on. Kirkwood joined the mob of robbers smashing in the villa door. He remained with Biograph the rest of the year, and presently Henry Walthall, who had been with him in The Great Divide, came down to join the company. The lonely villa, aside from its historic service as the vehicle of the introduction to the screen of Mary Pickford and James Kirkwood, is worthy of remembrance because of the durability of the plot. It has lived in Griffith's memory ever since, and in 1922 it came to flower again as a pretentious feature drama, somewhat modernized and revamped, under the title of One Exciting Night. The basic elements of the two stories are well near identical. Mary's appearance in that small part in The Lonely Villa was enough to show Griffith something of the screen value of her winsome face. She was cast for the part of Giannina in The Violin Maker of Cremona. The hero role was played by David Miles, an actor from the stage who had been added to the Biograph stock by Griffith. The Violin Maker of Cremona was released by Biograph, June 7, 1909, in 936 feet, subject number 3575, as may be seen in the old catalogs of the period. There was joy in the Pickford family at Mary's success and the prospect of steady employment through the summer. Even in 1909, the Peepshow Machines, which readers of earlier chapters will recall as the foundation of Biograph's beginnings, were still widely in service in penny arcades, and at odd moments between more pretentious subjects, the Biograph studio turned out the little one-minute dramas and farces for the mutascopes. Lottie and Jack Pickford made their first appearances before the motion picture camera for these mutascope subjects, through arrangements made by Mary, who let no opportunity for the family pass untried. Griffith delegated the direction of these mutascope pictures as much as possible to budding directorial material in his company. Many of these reels were directed by Eddie Dillon and Harry Salter. And the little card-wheel pictures of the Peepshows contain casts with now-famous names that no feature drama of the screen has ever brought together. Mary Pickford played bits too in those days, one-reel dramas, split-reel comedies, and Peepshow pictures, all the grist of the Biograph mill. Mary was soon an established member of the Biograph family. They gathered at lunch about a rough table in the basement of the Old Mansion at 11 East 14th Street to eat sandwiches rustled from an adjacent saloon lunch counter by Bobby Herron, custodian of properties, general utility person, and errand boy at large. A considerable part of the art of the motion picture was evolved in the lunch table discussion between the actors, camera men, and Griffith, the experimenting director. The talk was pictures, pictures, ever-lastingly pictures. Everything was new then, and many, many things had yet to be tried. There were debates about close-ups and cutbacks and all of those bits of camera technique that had been evolved by the pioneers and that Griffith was now making a part of the art of telling a dramatic story on the screen. Griffith's pictures were conspicuous for the way in which he brought the action up close to the camera, frequently cutting off the actors' feet at the bottom of the pictures. This was considered by many of his critics as a terrible piece of barbarity. No doubt some of the more conservative producers felt that it was waste of good money to hire an actor and then not photograph all of him in the picture. The very simplest elements of motion picture storytelling and the evolution of the use of the camera as an instrument of expression rather than of mere record all had to be tediously established and some of the old fetishes of early-day motion picture superstitions still survive. As late as 1922, one of the leading English producers informed the writer that he held it a serious mistake to have any character appear on the screen without entering the scene full-length, feet and all. In these early experimental days, Max Senate was an untiring student of picture technique following every step that Griffith took. When no better provocation offered, he carried the camera to be among those present. When the supply of scenarios to his liking failed, Griffith often called for suggestions from the company. $15 for the best split-reel comedy idea was a welcome announcement. With pencils and paper twisting their tongues and scratching their heads like schoolboys laboring over a slate, the biograph actors could be found in all corners of the studio trying to erupt with screen ideas. Just one thing was inevitable in these sessions. Max Senate would come forward with a policeman scenario. It is not on record that Senate ever sold one to Griffith, but he persisted with a patience that made Senate's policeman comedy scenario the best standing joke of the studio. Laugh at my comedy if you want to, but I'm going to make the policeman famous, Senate insisted, and all who remember the Keystone cops that eventually came forth under Senate's direction some years later will admit that Max made good on his threat. It would seem probable that the extreme violence of Senate's Keystone cop comedy resulted from his early repressions and discouragements at Biograph. But Mary Pickford was a rather more successful contributor of scenarios. She was the author of a surprising number of the early Griffith Biograph pictures. Among Mary's scenarios were several which will perhaps linger in the memory of some of the old followers of the screen, including The Awakening featuring Arthur Johnson, Getting Even with James Kirkwood, Cotton the Act, Lena in the Geese, The Alien, Granny in which Lottie Pickford played, Fates Decree, and The Girl of Yesterday. Doubtless the rich eventfulness of Mary Pickford's experience in Roadshow melodrama gave her a fund of that special sort of material which Griffith desired. In this wonderful school of the motion picture, Mary grew up with the art of picture making itself, learning it as fast as it evolved, and herself contributing to its evolution. The world prefers to think of Miss Pickford as the pretty little girl with the curl, pursuing a dramatic pictorial destiny through a Pollyanna world of just so arrangements. But in point of truth she is as diligent a student of her business as any office-prisoned executive, dower with the weight of his responsibilities. No doubt the world prefers to believe that Mary Pickford's success has been a resultant of luck, curls, and cunning, sweet girl ways. But half a hundred girls with more beauty, just as much luck, and equally cunning ways, have striven in vain for a share in Mary's niche of fame. There must be something to credit to that famous old formula of some brains and a lot of hard work. End of The True Story of Mary Pickford's Beginning from Photo Play Magazine July 1923 by Terry Ramsey. Read by Andrea Kotzer. The Truth About Grace by G. F. Abbott. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Truth About Grace. 1. The Greco-Servian Treaty The military treaty between Greece and Serbia signed on May 19, 1913, before the Second Balkan War, was based on a state of things which was naturally altered by the results of that war. This changes led the authorities at Athens to the opinion that it was necessary, in accordance with Article VI of the treaty, that the two General Staffs should consult together in order to arrange a plan of future cooperation. Up to a certain time, this opinion appears to have been shared by the authorities at Belgrade. 4. On March 21, 1914, the Greek minister in the Serbian capital informed his government that the Serbian government asked for a Greek officer to be sent to Belgrade to discuss with Voivode Putnik, chief of the Serbian General Staff, the terms of a new agreement, and in May, Colonel Vlahopoulos was dispatched by the Hellenic government to open the negotiations. Immediately on his arrival at Belgrade, the Colonel called on the Voivode and was told that he would be invited to a discussion at the proper moment. After waiting ten days in vain, the Greek officer reminded the Serbian minister of war and the Premier, M. Passage, of the object of his mission. But even after this step, he failed to obtain an answer. His impatience can easily be imagined for the relations between Greece and Turkey at the time, owing to Turkey's refusal to recognize the claim of Greece to the islands ceded to her by the Treaty of Bucharest, were very strained. And everything pointed to the probability that in the event of a Greco-Turkish rupture, Bulgaria would not remain passive. In other words, there was reason to fear the very crisis which the Greco-Servian alliance had been formed to meet. But Serbia had small comforts to give the Greek emissary. On the contrary, on June the 1st, at an audience with a crown prince at which he explained, at his royal highness' request, the point which the Greco-Turkish dispute had been reached. He was told that, as Serbia found it absolutely impossible to come to her allies' assistance, Greece should not push her differences with Turkey too far. The same advice was at the same time tendered to the Hellenic government by the Serbian government. This refusal of assistance constituted in itself a denunciation of the Greco-Servian Treaty. Nevertheless, the Greek general staff continued its efforts to open negotiations with the Serbian general staff, if not on the basis of the treaty, at least on the basis of the common interests of the two countries in view of the Bulgarian danger to which both alike were exposed. And on July the 30th, 1914, it demanded that the Hellenic government should sound the Serbian government if, in case Bulgaria ordered a general mobilization, Serbia would be disposed to bring part of her forces against her, so as to prevent the concentration of the Bulgarian forces and give the Greek army time to mobilize. The Serbian government, apparently, was then too engrossed by the outbreak of the European war to pay any attention to this communication. On receiving no answer, the Greek general staff telegraphed to Colonel Vahopoulos as follows, quote, should only Turkey attack Greece, the latter might, by making a supreme effort, bear the shock single-handed. But if Bulgaria joined in the attack, it would be indispensable for Serbia to oppose to her at least 100,000 men in order to prevent her concentration. It would be well for the Greek general staff to know the views of the Serbian general staff on the subject of eventual action, so that Greece might take her measures accordingly, end quote. Colonel Vahopoulos communicated this message to the Serbian headquarters and was informed by M. Passage that at a council in which the crown prince took part, it was decided that so long as there was no imminent danger from the side of Bulgaria, Serbia could not move troops from the Austrian to the Bulgarian frontier, first an account of the obligations she had contracted towards the Entente and secondly, because the Serbian army had already assumed the offensive on the Austrian front. M. Passage repeated this statement to the Greek minister at Niche, adding that in case of imminent danger from the side of Bulgaria, he intended to consult on the necessary measures first the powers of the Entente. The Hellenic government from these two statements drew the conclusion that Serbia, by her alliance with the Entente powers, had undertaken new obligations which deprived her of her freedom to fulfill her obligations towards Greece, even in the case of a Bulgarian attack. Thus stood matters from August, 1914 until March, 1915, when the Greek General Staff once more tried to get into touch with the Serbian General Staff in order to ascertain at least the forces available against Bulgaria and concert a plan of operations. To that end it called Colonel Verhopoulos to Athens and on April the 3rd gave him written instructions in which stress was laid on the necessity that Serbia should concentrate real forces on the Bulgarian Serbian frontier for it feared already some Bulgarian attack. Among other things it stated that the moment Bulgaria invaded Serbia the Bulgarian danger for the latter would be greater and more imminent than the Austrian. Bulgarian troops entering Serbia through the district of Egripalanka would render a retreat to the South impossible and the Serbian army would find itself pressed between the Austrians and the Bulgars. It went on to add If the Serbian General Staff concurred with these views it would be desirable that a consultation should at once take place between the two General Staffs in order to study in advance the conditions of a military cooperation in case Bulgaria abandoned her neutrality for any attempt at such an understanding that the moment of the attack would come too late. Colonel Verhopoulos on his return to Niche succeeded on April the 17th in abdaining from the Serbian authorities permission to go to Krajujevac to meet Voivode Putnik to whom he communicated the views and proposals of the Greek General Staff but the Voivode refused categorically to enter into any conversations whatever on the subject. For, he said, present military situation does not permit any thoughts in that direction. In spite of successive rebuffs the Greek General Staff once more in June approached the Serbian government with detailed proposals for common action against Bulgaria dwelling again on the necessity of a preliminary concentration of sufficient Serbian troops along the Bulgarian frontier to counterbalance the Bulgarian advantage in rapidity of mobilization. These fresh efforts at an understanding proved as fruitless as all the proceeding. It is probable that the Serbian General Staff felt convinced that even if Bulgaria attacked Greece she would not dare attack Serbia the ally of the Entente powers. But be the motive of Serbia's attitude what it may its meaning was unmistakable it meant that Serbia fettered by her new obligations towards the Entente as well as by her own new requirements took no longer any account of the Greco-Serbian Treaty. In the weeks that followed Bulgaria's attitude grew more and more menacing. The news of Bulgarian grand maneuvers and the raids of Bulgarian committages into Serbian territory it would seem ended by rousing Serbia to his sense of her danger. And on August the 2nd the Serbian Minister of War took the opportunity offered him by a visit from Colonel Vlahopoulos to mention the need of an understanding between the two General Staffs and of cooperation in case of a Bulgarian attack. Colonel Vlahopoulos told him that he had again and again endeavored to enter into negotiations on that subject and had never succeeded in obtaining a hearing. Eight days afterwards he had with Colonel Pavlovich chef de la sectione des opérations a conversation in which the Serbian officer stated that his country could not transport at the moment to the northern part of the Bulgarian frontier more than one or two divisions nor could it concentrate there the rest of its available forces except after a declaration of war. As to South Serbia she would have to be left with the eight regiments made up of the 1915 conscripts that is raw recruits. In return he demanded that Greece should mobilise very quickly attack Bulgaria and send a portion of her forces into Serbia to act against the Bulgars. Colonel Vlahopoulos carried these proposals to Athens in person for Serbia had a year since recalled her military at a share from the Hellenic capital and the transmission of such a delicate matter by telegraph at such a time was out of the question and submitted them to the General Staff on August the 20th. Meanwhile the situation had grown worse and the fear which the Greek General Staff had expressed in the previous spring that it would be too late for an understanding had been fully realised. From every side came intelligence of the concentration of Austro-German forces towards the Danube. On September the 1st the Greek General Staff submitted to the Minister of War the report brought by Colonel Vlahopoulos and set forth its own views on the new state of things expressing the opinion that for Greece to participate with Serbia in a war against Bulgaria Austria and Germany as long as she was not assured of the cooperation of other Allied forces in sufficient number and in good time was stunned amount to courting annihilation. For the moment the Serbian Army found itself faced by a superior Austro-German army the Greeks would have to fight the Bulgers as well as in all probability the Turks alone. Towards the end of September the Serbian Colonel Milo Vanovic arrived at Athens to ask what was Greece going to do Colonel Metaxas of the Greek General Staff asked him in his turn what were France and England going to do. The Serb replied that he knew nothing about the Anglo-French forces. As to Serbia he was only able to supply information of a general character. Concerning the composition and the effective strength of the forces available against the Bulgers he could say no more than that the Serbian group to the south west of Agri-Palanka consisted of about 30 battalions made up of Serbo-Macedonian conscripts. Which was just why the Serbian General Staff had expressed the wish that two or three Greek Army Corps might be concentrated in that sector. Lieutenant Colonel Metaxas explained to him that it was impossible for Greece to leave against the strong Bulgarian contingents which threatened Greek Macedonia only two Army Corps so that she might reinforce with the rest of her army the Serbian right. For if these two Corps were beaten the whole of Eastern Macedonia and perhaps Salonica itself would fall into the hands of the Bulgers and the only lines of communication of the Greek Army which were also those of the Serbian Army would be cut. The visit of Colonel Milovanovich to Athens served only to turn the apprehensions of the Greek General Staff into certainty. It was now evident that if Greece entered into the war she would be left isolated. The Serbs did not want to concentrate in Serbian Macedonia other troops on those of inferior quality which were there already. The French and English in spite of their assurances having no available troops would be able to concentrate in Macedonia only by driplets. A strong Russian landing in Bulgaria the only operation which could influence that country seriously did not seem probable for the moment. Lastly Romania was no wise disposed to take part in the war. Under these circumstances Greece reasoned that it would be madness for her to plunge into a struggle in the course of which the Austrians and the Germans who could concentrate very easily superior forces to those of Serbia would succeed in crushing the latter while Bulgaria turning with nearly the whole of her army against isolated Greece would be able to inflict upon her an equally complete defeat. On the other hand, by holding aloof she would preserve her military resources intact while Bulgaria was using up hers. After glancing at the fact set forth above who could accuse Greece of having failed to do her duty by her ally for a whole year she strove to get into touch with Serbia and to concert in time a plan of mutual defence and all the time Serbia bound by her new ties to the powers of the Entente found herself absolutely unable to carry out her old obligations towards Greece or even to consult with her about a fresh agreement for the common action while Austrian Germany still had their hands full elsewhere. When she did offer to do so it was no longer a question of fighting the Balkan enemies in reference to whom alone the treaty had originally been concluded but of dragging Greece into the struggle of the Entente powers against the empires of central Europe allies a struggle which for Greece meant destruction in view of the positive the Entente forces in the east. These facts also supply the answer to a riddle that must have puzzled many newspaper reader why it was that while French and English onlookers have been reproaching Greece bitterly for her supposed desertion of Serbia the Serbs themselves have not uttered one word of complaint. 2. The landing at Salonica, a queer story Since 1915 British citizens throughout the Empire have been longing for an authoritative explanation of two of our failures the Gallipoli tragedy and its sequel the Greek tragicomedy. As to the first our desire was at last gratified a few days ago after a fashion by the publication of the Dardanelles report upon the second we are still waiting for the government to speak and are likely to be kept waiting such being the case I consider it no presumption on my part to offer the public a few facts viable in themselves and nonetheless interesting for being in the nature of revelations. When the Entente powers asked Greece to go to Serbia's assistance in case of a Bulgarian attack Monsieur Venizelos expressed himself willing to do so on certain conditions he stipulated first that the allies should send to the Balkan Peninsula 150,000 men Europeans not natives of Africa or Asia to take the place of the contingents which by the Greco-Servian treaty Serbia was bound to contribute in the event of joint action against Bulgaria he made this demand a sine qua non partly in order to remove the objection raised against the Greco-Servian alliance by the opponents of his policy that it had become known through Serbia's failure to discharge her obligations and partly because without such help it was physically impossible for Greece to enter the field secondly that so long as Greece was still technically neutral the landing of the allied forces at Salonika could not have the Hellenic government's official sanction her neutrality however benevolent towards the Entente made it imperative for Greece to lodge a formal protest after fulfilling that formality the Hellenic government would afford the allies the same facilities as at Lemnos but the matter was not so simple at Salonika as at Lemnos provision had to be made here for the smooth disarbarcation and journey to Serbia of a large army with all its impedimenta and moreover these measures had to be harmonized with the necessities of Greece's own mobilization the problem owing to the primitive character of transport means in Macedonia presented no end of difficulties requiring careful handling by experts therefore Mr. Venizelos stipulated thirdly that Greece should have at least 24 hours notice all these conditions were accepted by the Entente with one exception the British government did not want Greece to protest against the landing lest her protest, though merely formal should give Germany chance to say that the allies did to Greece what she herself had done to Belgium why, said the Foreign Office protested all since the landing would be affected with your collaboration however, Mr. Venizelos insisted the question was at that stage still under discussion when suddenly on September the 29th 1915 without a word of warning to the Hellenic government the French consul at Salonika was handed by the captain of a French man of war and two officers from the Dardanelles called on General Moshopoulos the military governor of Salonika and informed him that in pursuance of the understanding arrived at between the Greek premier and the French minister at Athens they were going to arrange for the landing of French troops and to provide for the defense of Salonika against hostile submarines at the same time Sir Ian Hamilton arrived at Salonika with his staff and informed the governor that the allies were going to occupy part of the town and port and put them in a state of defense preparatory to the landing of the forces I do not know how a British governor would have behaved in a similar position but the Greek replied with absolute politeness and no less firmness that without orders from his government it would be his painful duty to oppose any violation of Greek territory as soon as a report of this singular proceeding reached him Monsieur Venizelos drew up a vigorous protest in which after recapitulating the negotiations between himself and the entente powers he pointed out to them that their contemplated action so far from being in accordance with an understanding was calculated to create a very serious misunderstanding between Greece and the allies such action, he declared could not be carried out until after Greece had lodged the formal protest and even then the Hellenic government reserved to itself the right to decide without foreign interference to what extent its port and its rail ways should be used by the allies its decision being guided by its regard for the requirements of its own army then in course of mobilization the protest of Monsieur Venizelos I can affirm without fear of contradiction was not a mere matter of form it breathed the spirit of indignation such as no subsequent Greek premier has ventured to display in his protests against the encroachments of France and England upon the sovereignty of the Hellenic kingdom Monsieur Venizelos bitterly resented the action of the allies as an unwarrantable attempt to rush him into a compromising position to commit Greece before France and England had bound themselves by a definite agreement who was responsible for this grave misdemeanor the first of the many performances which little by little converted the love of the Greek nation for us into something different does the credit for this masterly ineptitude belong to the man in Downing Street the man in the Kiddurse or the man in the Dardanelles the question is worth asking I hope some member of parliament will ask it and get an answer a true answer if possible meanwhile the reflection forces itself upon one how could we have hoped to see Greek statesmen of the school of Monsieur Scouloudis gained over by a diplomacy which managed so successfully to goad even Monsieur Venizelos its wholehearted partisan into angry protests needless to say that the premier by protesting voiced the resentment of the whole Greek nation the action of the allies would have irritated the Greeks in any circumstances but the circumstances under which it took place were of a nature to deepen irritation into alarm just the day before September the 28th Sir Edward Gray had stated in the House of Commons amid the loud hear hear of his audience not only is there no hostility in this country to Bulgaria but there is traditionally a warm feeling of sympathy and to emphasize once more the Balkan policy of the unturned powers our policy has been to secure agreement between the Balkan states which would assure to each of them not only independence but a brilliant future based as a general principle on the territorial and political union of kindred nationalities to secure this agreement we have recognized that the legitimate aspirations of all Balkan states must define satisfaction to understand the full effect of this statement upon the Greek and Serbian minds it is necessary to note two things first neither Greece nor Serbia had consented to endorse the policy it describes for neither recognized the Bulgarian aspirations as legitimate holding on the contrary that on the principle of nationality the parts of Macedonia which Bulgaria claimed were respectively Serbian and in 1913 they had fought Bulgaria to vindicate their rights the utmost that the unturned had got Greece and Serbia to consent to was to yield some of the territories in question to Bulgaria if with her cooperation they succeeded in compensating themselves at the expense of Turkey and Austria Bulgaria had refused to cooperate on those terms demanding that the territory she coveted should be handed over to her at once in face of this not two courses were open to the entente either to coerce Greece and Serbia into a concession to Bulgaria or to support them against her if the latter showed any hostile inclinations towards them the entente so far had restrained from committing itself definitely to either course its diplomacy being simply one of wait and see after waiting for nearly a year our diplomatists had now an opportunity of seeing this brings me to the second point when Sir Edward Gray made his statement Bulgaria had already mobilized her forces after having received from Germany guns, money and even military officers and no doubt could any longer be entertained by any sane mind as to her intention to join in the Austro-German attack on Serbia the Greeks who know the Bulgars had refused to be deluded by the Sofia government's official announcement of armed neutrality and had replied by immediately beginning to mobilize their own forces September the 23rd in order to go with the cooperation of the entente powers to Serbia's assistance such were the ideas with which the Hellenic government had carried on the negotiations already described nor could they suppose the British and French governments blind to a situation which was so plain to themselves they believed that London and Paris were as well informed about the significance of the Bulgarian movements as was Athens and they had been hourly expecting to see the entente powers drop their blindishments towards Bulgaria and treat with her according to her conduct they expected that the list the entente powers could do would be to declare that the offers of Greek and Serbian territory of the King Ferdinand would be withdrawn if within so many days he did not either disarm or side with the entente instead of such a declaration the Greeks heard Ser Edward Grey assuring the Bulgars of his warm sympathy with their legitimate aspirations what could this expression of British goodwill towards Bulgaria at such a moment mean had Ser Edward Grey gone mad or was he talking in his sleep the Greeks including Monsieur Venizeles and the government over which he presided were still wondering when a few hours after the report of the Grey statement reached Athens there came the news of the Anglo-French step at Salonica to turn their mystification into consternation the inference which they drew from this sequence of events was to put it briefly and bluntly that the most powers harbored the sinister design to use the expedition dispatch to the relief of Serbia as a means for dispoiling both Greece and Serbia on behalf of the Bulgars that they intended to try to buy King Ferdinand at the last moment by handing over to him the portions of Macedonia which they had tried in vain to induce Greece and Serbia to yield to Bulgaria it may be added that the Greek suspicions were fully shared by the Serbs we of course are bound to believe that neither our government nor those of our allies are capable of a dishonorable motive but strangers knowing nothing about our motives are apt to judge us only by our actions and it must be confessed the allies action following a Ponser Edward Grey's speech did look suspicious if the intentions of the allies were pure their motive procedure by whatever standard it may be judged certainly was peculiar so peculiar indeed that even Monsieur Venizelos and his government despite their ardent desire to serve the cause of the entente were forced to protest whether the Greek or Serbian interpretation of the Anglo-French step was correct or not is a question which cannot be decided until the correspondence between the two foreign offices and their diplomatic agents abroad is submitted to impartial examination and this will not happen in our time all that we can say at present is that it was an interpretation based upon the knowledge of England's long cherished bias for Bulgaria ever since 1885 it has been the British government's idea that the solution of the Balkan problem lay in the realization of the Bulgarian dream of supremacy for 30 years the British government had worked towards that end with unwearyed persistence under ruthless disregard of both Greek and Serbian interests hitherto its efforts had been frustrated by Russia's bias for Serbia and France's bias for Greece now however in obedience to the given take principle without which the Anglo-Franco-Russian alliance would have fallen to pieces the Greek Prime Minister and Petrograd had given London a free hand as is clearly proved by the grey statement hence the alarm which inspired the protest of Mr. Venizelos the Greek Premier in order to set the public mind as well as his own at rest and to avert any deplorable complications for be it remembered though its mobilization was not yet completed the Greek nation was already in arms in a state of alarm about its dearest interests is prone to kick over the traces asked the entrant powers to hasten to announce plainly and solemnly that the promises they had made to Bulgaria no longer held and to give a pledge that the dispatch of an expedition to Serbia would under no circumstances entail any peril to Greek and Serbian territorial integrity unless that was done he declared that the Greek government could have a hand in the landing of international troops at Salonica unfortunately the time for words had passed no statement could at that moment alter the course of events destiny moved too fast for diplomacy Mr. Venizelos uttered his warning on October the 1st on the 2nd the Bulgarian forces began to mass on the Serbian frontier while simultaneously the Austro-German battalions went away across the Danube on the 4th Russia launched her ultimatum on Bulgaria the tsar's minister was to leave Sofia if King Ferdinand did not within 24 hours openly break with the enemies of the Slav cause and expel all German and Austrian officers the rapid fulfilment of their own prognostications roused the Greeks to the highest pitch of excitement but all faith in the entrant on the very day on which the Petrograd cabinet delivered its stardy and ineffective ultimatum at Sofia in Athens the chamber held a historic debate which ended with a vote of confidence in Mr. Venizelos's policy of going to Serbia's assistance the vote was passed in the belief that the allies would keep the promise they had made to the Greek premier to send to Serbia 150,000 men when next day on October 5th the allied forces turned up at Salonika Mr. Venizelos, his king and his people had the mortification defined that they amounted to blank nor did they approach the stipulated figure for months after Serbia's fate had been sealed to the feeling of confidence which had prompted that vote immediately succeeded a feeling of panic what cried everybody in Athens to take our liberty our national existence on such a chance say at a maximum 350,000 Greeks plus 250,000 half exhausted Serbs plus blank allies against at a minimum 500,000 Austro-Germans plus 400,000 fresh Bulgars plus 100,000 fresh Turks nay if the English and the French love gambling we don't we cannot afford the luxury Venizelos has allowed himself to be duped faced with such a crisis Mr. Venizelos did the only thing he could do he resigned October 6th and his country faced with the abyss did the only thing it could do it shrunk back on to the solid ground of neutrality from that fateful day Mr. Venizelos has been held by the bulk of the Greek nation accountable for all the sorrows they have experienced at the hands of the Entente all these calamities are traced back to his unfortunate negotiations I cannot share this view his policy in itself was sound enough and the only fault I can find with the way in which he carried it on is that it lacked the element of skepticism the Times said the other day Mr. Abbott is sometimes less than fair to Mr. Venizelos that is less than fair to me I have the greatest possible respect for Mr. Venizelos both as a man and as a statesman but I cannot be blind to his defects he is too apt to credit others with his own condor a most immeable defect and one that captivated me by its charming unexpectedness from the first moment now eight years ago I had the pleasure of meeting him but nonetheless a defect considering the sort of world in which we live on the other hand his protest shows that he had not carried his credulity to the length of committing Greece irrevocably to the allies he had pledged her only on certain definite conditions conditions which the allies had accepted it would be very unjust to blame him for other people's failure to fulfill their engagements such then to conclude was the part of the greek premier in proceedings which we have been assured were carried out at his invitation if these proceedings were the work of private individuals and not of states the only term applicable to them would be one that courtacy forbids me to employ in the absence of a code of international morality it is difficult to suggest a phrase the reader of this queer story will naturally ask is it true I answer to the best of my knowledge and belief every syllable of it in proof I challenged the foreign office to publish the documents solemnly promising on my part to withdraw and apologize for any statement of fact that is not confirmed by documentary evidence three the expedition to Serbia and its results note we regret to disappoint those readers who have been following with great interest Mr. G. F. Abbott's articles entitled the truth about Greece Sir E. T. Cook the director of the press bureau considers the publication of these articles entirely contrary to the national interest and the publication of the above article would be he says very undesirable we dutifully bend the knee to the chief censor and in the national interest suppress Mr. Abbott's third and remaining articles the editor and of the truth about Greece by G. F. Abbott women's press club by Montwell this is a lip box recording all lip box recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit lipbox.org read by Chad Horner the New York women's press club gave a T in Carnegie Hall Mr. Clemens was the guest of honour if I were asked an opinion I would call this an ungrammatical nation there is no such thing as perfect grammar and I don't always speak good grammar myself but I have been more gathering for the past few days with professors of American universities and I've heard them all say things like this he don't like to do it there was a stir oh you'll hear that tonight if you listen or you would have liked to have done it you'll catch some educated Americans saying that when these men take pen in hand they write with as good grammar as any but the moment they throw the pen aside they throw grammatical morals aside with them to illustrate the desirability and possibility of concentration I must tell you a story of my little six year old daughter the governess have been teaching her about the reindeer and as the custom was she related it to the family she would just the history of that reindeer to two or three sentences when the governess could not have put it into a page she said the reindeer is a very swift animal a reindeer once drew a sled 400 miles in two hours she appended the comment this was regarded as extraordinary I concluded when that reindeer was done drawing that sled 400 miles in two hours it died as a final instance of the force of limitations in the development of concentration I must mention that beautiful creature Helen Keller whom I have known for these many years I am filled with the wonder of her knowledge acquired because shut out from all distraction if I could have been deaf dumb and blind I also might have arrived at something and of Woman's Press Club I'm Mark Twain Woman's Problems by Janet Mackenzie Hill this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Woman's Problems the franchise for women in the United States is coming that it has not been granted more speedily is a matter of surprise for in general the men of this country are inclined to give their women whatever they ask for we might say everything they take a fancy to in some states what is called machine politics is largely at fault for the continued rebuff of petitions for women's suffrage in other states notably Massachusetts the spirit of conservatism which has fastened itself on both men and women is cause of the backwardness in accepting or adopting this destined reform but with the possession of the ballot not all of women's problems will be solved suffrage for women will not usher in a millennium of peace and leisure housework and housekeeping must go on just the same and yet time be found to aid in the conduct of affairs of town and state women of means whose children based in life may find pleasure and profit to themselves and in a measure be useful to the state by entering upon these larger fields of activity but how about the wife of the young man and the professional man with salaries of less than $2,000 a year to get rid of the drudgery of housework is the cry of many women today is not the teaching of children as monotonous as housework does not teaching keep both the men engaged in it as tied down and unable to take part in the things that are thought to give a broader view of life as does housekeeping or home making there is one phase of this revolt from the kitchen that is not yet been fully presented it is well known that bread, meat, delicatessen supplies, etc. provided from outside of the home cost about twice as much as the same items prepared in the home and at the same time the former are rarely equal to the latter in nutritive value and flavor how is this discrepancy to be made good more families are living on $2,000 per year or less than on incomes above that figure not every young woman can earn the difference in cost of food cooked at home and cooked food bought outside the home French women it is said take hold enthusiastically and become co-workers with their husbands in the conduct of their business knowing full well that co-partnership is needful to support a family the time is rapidly approaching in this country even if it be not already here when women in some way must help either in keeping down the expenses of the household or in adding to the income of the family natural fitness should decide which procedure is best adapted to each individual case and besides the time has not come when all women are desirous of throwing overboard the responsibilities of individual homemaking J.M.H. End of Women's Problems by Janet Mackenzie Hill read by Betty B