As a complete outsider with a short and hurried experience of the United States, this has struck me more than anything else. Beauty, which is so obvious in the architecture and other things, seems to be underestimated, and where nature should dominate, I have been shocked on every road that I have travelled by the huge billboards and advertisements of the most flamboyant kind, which irritate the eye and distort the vision of what otherwise would be unforgettable and inspiring. It is much the same everywhere. In Chicago the Michigan Boulevard, with the lovely lake on one side and grand buildings on the other, running at enormous width for a long distance, is one of the finest broadways in the world; but it is spoilt by a vulgar erection at the end, advertising something or other against the sky, in electric bulbs of rapid and changing colours. I found the people I met were chiefly interested in the following report of indignation meetings: "Blame Girls for 'Snugglepupping' and 'Petting Parties' in Chicago." "Male 'Flappers' Parents hold Indignation Meeting." "Boys who don't follow Fair Companions' Pace called 'Sissies, Poor Boobs and Flat Tires'." I have only seen two headings that have really interested me. One was: "A Good Name." The other: "Wanted, a Rare Man: aggressive yet industrious, fighting, yet tactful and dignified. He must have a good education, and an appearance which will give him an entree into the best homes." I would much like to be presented to any of the men who will answer these advertisements, though I have no doubt they are tumbling over one another. From Buffalo we went on to Cincinnati where I read in one of the newspapers: "MARGOT "Margot Asquith, wife of the former Prime Minister of England, is in Cincinnati. "Men who like to believe that they know more than their wives would not be happy with a woman like Margot for wife. She knows more than most men, and there is scarcely anything she cannot or will not talk about. "She wrote a book that is an encyclopedia of the inside history of British politics and history of her time. "There aren't many like Margot. Husbands who long after the honeymoon like to be entertained will envy Asquith his Margot. It must be pleasant to have a Margot in the house." I expect the writer was pulling my leg--to use a slang expression--or possibly pitying my husband, but it amused me. XII: INTERESTING ST. LOUIS INTERESTING ST. LOUIS MET BY THE MAYOR--ANOTHER INTELLIGENT REPORTER--NEWS FROM HOME AND VIEWS THEREON--LUNCHEON AT WOMEN'S CLUB