Page:Women Wanted.djvu/21

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GLIMPSING THE WORLD WAR
15

I began to be written down in the great books of judgment which the chancelleries of the nations keep to-day. Hear the leaves rustle as the pages chronicle my record in full. I must clear myself of the charge of even a German relative-in-law. I must be able to tell accurately, say, how many blocks intervene between the Baptist Church and the city hall in the town where I was born. They want to know the colour of my husband's eyes. They will ask for all that is on my grandfather's tombstone. They must have my genealogy through all my greatest ancestors. I have learned it that I may tell it glibly. For I shall scarcely be able to go round the block in Europe, you see, without meeting some military person who must know.

Even in New York, every consul of the countries to which I wish to proceed, puts these inquiries before my passport gets his visé. It is the British consul who is holding his in abeyance. He fixes me with a look, and he charges: "You're not a suffragist, are you? Well," he goes on severely, "they don't want any trouble over there. I don't know what they'll do about you over there." And his voice rises with his disapproval: "I don't at all know that I ought to let you go."

But finally he does. And he leans across his desk and passes me the pen with which to "sign on the dotted line." It is the required documentary evidence. He feels reasonably sure now that the Kaiser and I wouldn't speak if we passed by. And for the rest? Well, all governments demand to know very