On our boat coming home there were a number of destitute cases, men and women without a dollar to their name. After a few days a committee of wealthy men got up a fund to help them out. The day before our boat landed a New York Citizens' Club sent word to our captain that they should look up the destitute cases and they should be provided with money when they reached New York. Among the cases presented some were worthy and some were not. One woman made her plea that she had been separated from her husband a few years before, as a reason for getting money, though she had plenty to take her home. The American women had been made destitute by losing all their baggage and can count their material wealth in dress-suitcases. The first time I decided to start for Holland the railroads were allowing tourists to take their trunks with them, but two weeks later they said they would not be responsible for any baggage taken. The most daring took a chance, only to leave their luggage in the stations. I saw stations that were piled high with five thousand and more American trunks. Some of the people were fortunate to get their trunks to the frontier, only to lose them on the boundary line. My mother and I left eight trunks on the other side. These are divided between France and Germany. Still we are glad that they are distributed in this way, for however the war goes, we ought to get some of our belongings. On our boat I heard that there are nearly a hundred thousand American trunks in Paris and the same number in London. Unless these trunks are regained, many a woman will have to content herself with two dresses and one hat this winter. On our boat many a woman bewailed the loss of her trunks, as she said, "Just to think, this is my first trip to Europe and I haven't got one thing to show for it. It has been the dream of my life to say I owned a Paris dress and hat. A hundred dollars is a good deal to pay for a hat and a dress, but certainly they were worth it, if I only had something to show for it. "I didn't mind for myself, but it doesn't seem like being away unless you have presents for the family at home. I had bought my sisters each a handsome evening bag, mother a handsome scarf and father a beautiful amber pipe." These hard straits are in marked contrast with the luxurious way in which Americans have been traveling and living abroad the last ten years. Our steamers have reached a point where they were perfect ocean palaces, comparable with the finest New York hotels. The hotels in Europe have been transformed from simple boarding houses to marble palaces, equipped with every luxury and comfort. A room and bath in any first-class hotel brought seven dollars a day and a suite of rooms at thirty was not considered extreme. Many of the restaurants were so fine and fashionable that they didn't even print prices on their bills of fare.