offer the necessary funds, nor were the men arguing for the 
preservation of the room willing to contribute. 3ut at this 
time there disembarked at Liverpool an American - a scholarly- 
looking gentleman with quiet, unostentatious manners, and a 
Van Dyke beard. Although a millionaire many times over, he 
did not advertise the fact. He went quietly to London, qui¬ 
etly inspected the peacock room, quietly wrote out a check 
for <$63,000, and then quietly stole back to Liverpool again, 
and quietly set sail for America. 
By the time he was on the sea, art circles in England 
were stirred by such a storm as they had never before exper¬ 
ienced. England had been robbed of one of its greatest art 
treasures. The news was cabled all over the world, and incid¬ 
entally to Hew York. From Boston, Philadelphia and other large 
cities near the coast, newspaper men came to meet Mr. Freer. 
Coming across the sea the great collector had racked 
his brain to find a way in which he might escape the promised 
newspaper notoriety. He evolved a scheme. It was afternoon 
when the boat arrived, and Mr. Freer had the rumor spread 
that he was not feeling well, and would not land until morn¬ 
ing. The newspaper men dispersed to get their suppers and 
await the coming day. Then, very quietly, Mr. Freer walked 
down the gang-plank. quietly he entered a cab, drove to the 
railway station and bought a ticket for Detroit. And the 
next day Mr. Freer was many hundreds of miles away. And 
this is why, Mr. Freer now relates for the first time, there 
were no big newspaper stories about him at that time. 
