Nothing in the world
can describe the tremendous enthusiasm of that night! I shall
never forget the moment when Peter came to the front of the stage
and asked the audience if we believed in fairies. I am happy to
say that I was actually the first to respond. Leaping at once out
of my seat, I shouted "Yes--Yes!" To my intense pleasure the
whole house almost instantly followed my example, with the
exception of one man. This man was sitting directly in front of
me. His lack of enthusiasm was to me incredible. I pounded him
on the back and shouted, "Great God, man, are you alive! Wake up!
Hurrah for the fairies! Hurrah!" Finally he uttered a rather
feeble "Hurrah!" Childe Roland to the dark tower came.
That was my first meeting with that admirable statesman Woodrow
Wilson, and I am happy to state that from that night we became
firm friends. When Mr. Wilson was inaugurated in 1913 I called on
him at the White House, taking with me some members of my Yale
drama class. Each one of us had an edition of the president's
admirable "History of the American People", and I am glad to say
that he was kind enough to autograph each of the ten volumes for
all of us.
Early in Mr. Wilson's second term as president, just before the
break with Germany, I was sitting in the quiet of my library
rereading Browning's "Cristina".
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