“Theodore of the Lion’s Heart, the women of Rhode Island are praying for you.”
Called up Newport and Providence and asked for prayers. They were held at Trinity Church in Newport by the Reverend Stanley Hughes.
To-day the presentation of J.’s portrait of Mother to the Bostonian Society took place at the Old State House. The speakers were Governor Long, Mr. Mead, the president of the society and Mr. Wendte, the prime mover in the whole matter. Mr. Wendte played on a little ancient organ while a girl with a lovely voice sang the verses and we all sang the chorus of the “Battle Hymn.” Mr. Finlayson had sent in a beautiful votive wreath from Weld and there were other flowers. Rosalind Richards unveiled the portrait that had been draped with a flag. Mr. Downs delighted with the portrait. All agreed it is perfect as a late likeness. This interlude in the campaign has been most refreshing. Words are only hot air; art is more lasting and far more worth while.
October 16, 1912. Early to Providence where I spoke at the Congregational Church on the Missions in Europe and the East I have visited, the school at Assiout, Robert College at Beirut, the Gulick School in Madrid, the Gould Home in Rome and the Methodist Mission there. The meeting began, at my request, with silent prayer for Roosevelt.
October 18, 1912. Spoke for the Y. M. C. A. who are just completing a whirlwind campaign for three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. I was kindly received and showed the precious little gold purse with the gold pieces in it given to Mother on her eighty-fifth birthday. I gave one of them to the cause. I decided that we must take the splendid headquarters, which the Y. M. C. A. are just giving up, for the Progressive state headquarters till the end of the campaign. I consulted Mr. Ballou, who fell in with my views, and together we tackled Smith, the owner of the building, in his office. He was rather horrid. At first he set the rent at $400 for the remaining two weeks of the campaign and then raised it to $500. I called the League together and proposed to them our taking the headquarters. They all agreed. I got Newport on the ’phone and explained the financial situation to them. They reported one hundred and fifty dollars in the League treasury and agreed to mail a check to me to-night. With the advice of Mr. Ballou and Doctor Harris, the president of the League, decided to take the step I should have taken long ago,—make the Progressive League, the home of the Progressive Party, attractive and comfortable. At noon Mr. Ballou got the deal through. We had not been sure that Smith, even at that unholy rent, would give us the building. The men, all good Bull Moosers, worked like maniacs half the night, getting the place in order. At eight o’clock to speak at the Zion Baptist Church with Julius Mitchell, the colored member of our State Committee.
October 22, 1912. This day Winston Churchill came to speak for our Rhode Island League. We took “Churchill House”, a very elegant sort of a Club, and sold tickets at one dollar. A good audience about one half hostile to the cause, and interested only in hearing Churchill, the famous novelist. Professor Courtney Langdon of Brown University introduced Mr. Churchill who spoke for more than an hour, sanely, lucidly, and temperately. He told of his fight with the Boston and Maine Railroad in New Hampshire. We had worked very hard for this meeting and were thankful we came out of it so well. All expenses were paid and one hundred dollars clear profit. In the evening there came to our headquarters William Gillette, who made one of the great addresses of the campaign. The actor’s art, the reformer’s faith, and the Progressive’s fire made a combination not often met. This was a red-letter day full of high words and higher thoughts. The headquarters are grand and in full swing, with constant meetings and great enthusiasm. No time has been lost.
To dine with Dr. and Mrs. Terry. Large dinner, talk chiefly political. I had rather a disagreeable set-to with Professor —— who spoke insultingly of “Roosevelt and the rabble that follows him”, knowing quite well that I was one of the “rabble.”
A few days since I dictated to a reporter an article giving the reasons why we all owe a debt to Greece, and how we are morally bound to work for the Greeks in their efforts for complete national independence. Never saw the article but fancy it was not bad, for I get letters from Greeks every day, thanking me for what I said.
To Boston and to Mrs. Kehew’s to speak for the Progressives. A fine old house on Chestnut Street that used to be called the Bayley house and later belonged to Edwin Booth. Full of tender childhood memories for me of our own Chestnut Street days when I was discovered one morning with the largest nail brush in the family, scrubbing the white marble statue of a nymph in the garden that I greatly admired and thought in need of a spring cleaning. I had a splendid audience and was supposed to try and break the solid front of the Back Bay Roosevelt had warned me of. Fear I didn’t succeed. The audience was about half and half, for and against us; the “fors” applauded furiously, the faces of the “againsts” were grim and set! After the meeting, to Walpole with Mrs. Bird and then to Watertown, where I spoke for an hour, holding the rally till Arthur Hill and the other speakers should arrive. I find it hard to give two first-rate speeches of over an hour in one day, but they all say I am learning fast.
October 27, 1912. After dinner to the Teatro Verdi in Little Italy, where I gave the Italian speech I have been preparing. They asked me to read from the daily paper Wilson’s insulting remarks about the Italians, taken from a book of his. When I had finished I tore the paper in two and threw it on the ground. This coup de théâtre was much applauded and reminded me that I had once studied for the stage with Tommaso Salvini, that he had offered me a place in his company and drilled me in the part of Desdemona. The Italians gave me lovely yellow chrysanthemums tied with the national colors, red, white and green.