I am reprinting here, in response to requests, certain recent
experiences in Great Britain and France. These were selected in the hope
of conveying to American readers some idea of the atmosphere, of "what
it is like" in these countries under the immediate shadow of the battle
clouds. It was what I myself most wished to know. My idea was first to
send home my impressions while they were fresh, and to refrain as far as
possible from comment and judgment until I should have had time to make
a fuller survey. Hence I chose as a title for these articles,--intended
to be preliminary, "A Traveller in War-Time." I tried to banish from my
mind all previous impressions gained from reading. I wished to be free
for the moment to accept and record the chance invitation or adventure,
wherever met with, at the Front, in the streets of Paris, in Ireland, or
on the London omnibus. Later on, I hoped to write a book summarizing the
changing social conditions as I had found them.