I wrote to Mr. MacQueen lately for some of his press notices, and a few of the names which he called himself when I received his letters.

MY DEAR KATE SANBORN:—­Yours here and I hasten to reply.  Count Tolstoi remarked to me:  “Your travels have been so vast and you have been with so many peoples and races, that an account of them would constitute a philosophy in itself.”

Theodore Roosevelt said, “No other American has travelled over our new possessions more universally, nor observed the conditions in them so quickly and sanely.”

Kennan was persona non grata to the Russians, especially after his visit to Siberia, but Mr. MacQueen was most cordially welcomed.

What an odd scene at Tolstoi’s table!  The countess and her daughter in full evening dress with the display of jewels, and at the other end Tolstoi in the roughest sort of peasant dress and with bare feet.  At dinner Count Tolstoi said to Mr. MacQueen:  “If I had travelled as much as you have, I should today have had a broader philosophy.”

Mr. MacQueen says of Russia: 

During the past one hundred years the empire of the Czar has made slow progress; but great bodies move slowly, and Russia is colossal.  Two such republics as the United States with our great storm door called Alaska, could go into the Russian empire and yet leave room enough for Great Britain, Germany, and Austria.

Journeys taken by Mr. MacQueen: 

  1896—­to Athens and Greece.

  1897—­to Constantinople and Asia Minor.

  1898—­in the Santiago Campaign with the Rough
          Riders, and in Porto Rico with General
          Miles.

  1899—­with General Henry W. Lawton to the
          Philippines, returning through Japan.

  1900—­with DeWet, Delarey, and Botha in the
          Boer Army; met Oom Paul, etc.

  1901—­to Russia and Siberia on pass from the Czar,
          visiting Tolstoi, etc.

  1902—­to Venezuela, Panama, Cuba, and Porto
          Rico.

  1903—­to Turkey, Macedonia, Servia, Hungary,
          Austria, etc.

In the meantime Mr. MacQueen has visited every country in Europe, completing 240,000 miles in ten years, a distance equal to that which separates this earth from the moon.

Last winter he was four months in the war zone, narrowly escaping arrest several times, and other serious dangers, as they thought him a spy with his camera and pictures.  I gave a stag dinner for him just after his return from his war experiences, and the daily bulletins of war’s horrors seemed dull reading after his stories.

Here is an extract from a paper sent by Peter MacQueen from Iowa, where he long ago was in great demand as a lecturer, which contained several of the best anecdotes told by this irresistible raconteur, which may be new to you, if not, read them again and then tell them yourself.