CHAPTER XI

BIRTHDAY LETTER TO SUSIE OF ARIZONA

San Antonio^ Texas.

" One of the questions you asked during our
talk in the hotel lobby—for you must know, Susie,
there was a touch of the interviewing reporter
in the way you went on—was this: * How do the
young people in America compare with the young
people in England ?* That question had been
previously fired at me in eight cities by as many
reporters, some of them bright young women
about your age,

" Well, my acquaintance with the young people
of America, and with you and Elmer especially,
has confirmed a conviction which began among
the young people in England* In both countries
they are the victims of abominable misrepresen-
tation, and the wonder to my mind is that they
have refrained so long from rising en masse and
making a short end of their traducers. They
are currently reported to be in a state of * moral
chaos,* without standards of right and wrong, and
generally inclined to become disciples of the Devil
and the Scarlet Woman . To judge by the version
of youth given in popular novels and the picture

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