This glaring broadside bore the following legend: "We are too proud to fight--Woodrow Wilson." The sight of that placard was Colonel House's first intimation that the President might not act vigorously.

He made no attempt to conceal from Page and other important men at the American Embassy the shock which it had given him.
Soon the whole of England was ringing with these six words; the newspapers were filled with stinging editorials and cartoons, and the music halls found in the Wilsonian phrase materials for their choicest jibes.

Even in more serious quarters America was the subject of the most severe denunciation.

No one felt these strictures more poignantly than President Wilson's closest confidant.

A day or two before sailing home he came into the Embassy greatly depressed at the prevailing revulsion against the United States.