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diff --git a/old/alrhd10.txt b/old/alrhd10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d641272 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/alrhd10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13479 @@ +**The Project Gutenberg Etext of Adventures and Letters of RHD** +#5 in our series by Richard Harding Davis + +[I suggest Peter Pan fans do a search for "Peter Pan."] + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association / Illinois + Benedictine College" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Illinois Benedictine College". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was prepared with the use of Calera WordScan Plus 2.0 + + + +ADVENTURES AND LETTERS +OF +RICHARD HARDING DAVIS + + +EDITED BY +CHARLES BELMONT DAVIS + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER +I. THE EARLY DAYS +II. COLLEGE DAYS +III. FIRST NEWSPAPER EXPERIENCES +IV. NEW YORK +V. FIRST TRAVEL ARTICLES +VI. THE MEDITERRANEAN AND PARIS +VII. FIRST PLAYS +VIII. CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA +IX. MOSCOW, BUDAPEST, LONDON +X. CAMPAIGNING IN CUBA, AND GREECE +XI. THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR +XII. THE BOER WAR +XIII. THE SPANISH AND ENGLISH CORONATIONS +XIV. THE JAPANESE-RUSSIAN WAR +XV. MOUNT KISCO +XVI. THE CONGO +XVII. A LONDON WINTER +XVIII. MILITARY MANOEUVRES +XIX. VERA CRUZ AND THE GREAT WAR +XX. THE LAST DAYS + + +CHAPTER I + +THE EARLY DAYS + +Richard Harding Davis was born in Philadelphia on April +18, 1864, but, so far as memory serves me, his life and mine +began together several years later in the three-story brick +house on South Twenty-first Street, to which we had just +moved. For more than forty years this was our home in all +that the word implies, and I do not believe that there was +ever a moment when it was not the predominating influence in +Richard's life and in his work. As I learned in later years, +the house had come into the possession of my father and mother +after a period on their part of hard endeavor and unusual +sacrifice. It was their ambition to add to this home not only +the comforts and the beautiful inanimate things of life, but +to create an atmosphere which would prove a constant help to +those who lived under its roof--an inspiration to their +children that should endure so long as they lived. At the +time of my brother's death the fact was frequently commented +upon that, unlike most literary folk, he had never known what +it was to be poor and to suffer the pangs of hunger and +failure. That he never suffered from the lack of a home was +certainly as true as that in his work he knew but little of +failure, for the first stories he wrote for the magazines +brought him into a prominence and popularity that lasted until +the end. But if Richard gained his success early in life and +was blessed with a very lovely home to which he could always +return, he was not brought up in a manner which in any way could +be called lavish. Lavish he may have been in later years, but if +he was it was with the money for which those who knew him best +knew how very hard he had worked. + +In a general way, I cannot remember that our life as boys +differed in any essential from that of other boys. My brother +went to the Episcopal Academy and his weekly report never +failed to fill the whole house with an impenetrable gloom and +ever-increasing fears as to the possibilities of his future. +At school and at college Richard was, to say the least, an +indifferent student. And what made this undeniable fact so +annoying, particularly to his teachers, was that morally he +stood so very high. To "crib," to lie, or in any way to cheat +or to do any unworthy act was, I believe, quite beyond his +understanding. Therefore, while his constant lack of interest +in his studies goaded his teachers to despair, when it came to +a question of stamping out wrongdoing on the part of the +student body he was invariably found aligned on the side of +the faculty. Not that Richard in any way resembled a prig or +was even, so far as I know, ever so considered by the most +reprehensible of his fellow students. He was altogether too +red-blooded for that, and I believe the students whom he +antagonized rather admired his chivalric point of honor even +if they failed to imitate it. As a schoolboy he was +aggressive, radical, outspoken, fearless, usually of the +opposition and, indeed, often the sole member of his own +party. Among the students at the several schools he attended +he had but few intimate friends; but of the various little +groups of which he happened to be a member his aggressiveness +and his imagination usually made him the leader. As far back +as I can remember, Richard was always starting something--usually +a new club or a violent reform movement. And in school or +college, as in all the other walks of life, the reformer must, +of necessity, lead a somewhat tempestuous, if happy, +existence. The following letter, written to his father when +Richard was a student at Swarthmore, and about fifteen, will +give an idea of his conception of the ethics in the case: + + +SWARTHMORE--1880. +DEAR PAPA: + + +I am quite on the Potomac. I with all the boys at our table +were called up, there is seven of us, before Prex. for +stealing sugar-bowls and things off the table. All the youths +said, "O President, I didn't do it." When it came my turn I +merely smiled gravely, and he passed on to the last. Then he +said, "The only boy that doesn't deny it is Davis. Davis, you +are excused. I wish to talk to the rest of them." That all +goes to show he can be a gentleman if he would only try. I am +a natural born philosopher so I thought this idea is too +idiotic for me to converse about so I recommend silence and I +also argued that to deny you must necessarily be accused and +to be accused of stealing would of course cause me to bid +Prex. good-by, so the only way was, taking these two +considerations with each other, to deny nothing but let the +good-natured old duffer see how silly it was by retaining a +placid silence and so crushing his base but thoughtless +behavior and machinations. + +DICK. + + +In the early days at home--that is, when the sun shone--we +played cricket and baseball and football +in our very spacious back yard, and the programme of our +sports was always subject to Richard's change without notice. +When it rained we adjourned to the third-story front, where we +played melodrama of simple plot but many thrills, and it was +always Richard who wrote the plays, produced them, and played +the principal part. As I recall these dramas of my early +youth, the action was almost endless and, although the company +comprised two charming misses (at least I know that they +eventually grew into two very lovely women), there was no time +wasted over anything so sentimental or futile as love-scenes. +But whatever else the play contained in the way of great +scenes, there was always a mountain pass--the mountains being +composed of a chair and two tables--and Richard was forever +leading his little band over the pass while the band, wholly +indifferent as to whether the road led to honor, glory, or +total annihilation, meekly followed its leader. For some +reason, probably on account of my early admiration for Richard +and being only too willing to obey his command, I was +invariably cast for the villain in these early dramas, and the +end of the play always ended in a hand-to-hand conflict +between the hero and myself. As Richard, naturally, was the +hero and incidentally the stronger of the two, it can readily +be imagined that the fight always ended in my complete +undoing. Strangulation was the method usually employed to +finish me, and, whatever else Richard was at that tender age, +I can testify to his extraordinary ability as a choker. + +But these early days in the city were not at all the happiest +days of that period in Richard's life. He took but little +interest even in the social or the athletic side of his school +life, and his failures in his studies +troubled him sorely, only I fear, however, because it troubled +his mother and father. The great day of the year to us was +the day our schools closed and we started for our summer +vacation. When Richard was less than a year old my mother and +father, who at the time was convalescing from a long illness, +had left Philadelphia on a search for a complete rest in the +country. Their travels, which it seems were undertaken in the +spirit of a voyage of discovery and adventure, finally led +them to the old Curtis House at Point Pleasant on the New +Jersey coast. But the Point Pleasant of that time had very +little in common with the present well-known summer resort. +In those days the place was reached after a long journey by +rail followed by a three hours' drive in a rickety stagecoach +over deep sandy roads, albeit the roads did lead through +silent, sweet-smelling pine forests. Point Pleasant itself +was then a collection of half a dozen big farms which +stretched from the Manasquan River to the ocean half a mile +distant. Nothing could have been more primitive or as I +remember it in its pastoral loveliness much more beautiful. +Just beyond our cottage the river ran its silent, lazy course +to the sea. With the exception of several farmhouses, its +banks were then unsullied by human habitation of any sort, and +on either side beyond the low green banks lay fields of wheat +and corn, and dense groves of pine and oak and chestnut trees. +Between us and the ocean were more waving fields of corn, +broken by little clumps of trees, and beyond these damp +Nile-green pasture meadows, and then salty marshes that led to +the glistening, white sand-dunes, and the great silver semi- +circle of foaming breakers, and the broad, blue sea. On all +the land that lay between us and the ocean, where +the town of Point Pleasant now stands, I think there were but +four farmhouses, and these in no way interfered with the +landscape or the life of the primitive world in which we +played. + +Whatever the mental stimulus my brother derived from his home +in Philadelphia, the foundation of the physical strength that +stood him in such good stead in the campaigns of his later +years he derived from those early days at Point Pleasant. The +cottage we lived in was an old two-story frame building, to +which my father had added two small sleeping-rooms. Outside +there was a vine-covered porch and within a great stone +fireplace flanked by cupboards, from which during those happy +days I know Richard and I, openly and covertly, must have +extracted tons of hardtack and cake. The little house was +called "Vagabond's Rest," and a haven of rest and peace and +content it certainly proved for many years to the Davis +family. From here it was that my father started forth in the +early mornings on his all-day fishing excursions, while my +mother sat on the sunlit porch and wrote novels and mended the +badly rent garments of her very active sons. After a +seven-o'clock breakfast at the Curtis House our energies never +ceased until night closed in on us and from sheer exhaustion +we dropped unconscious into our patch-quilted cots. All day +long we swam or rowed, or sailed, or played ball, or camped +out, or ate enormous meals--anything so long as our activities +were ceaseless and our breathing apparatus given no rest. +About a mile up the river there was an island--it's a very +small, prettily wooded, sandy-beached little place, but it +seemed big enough in those days. Robert Louis Stevenson made +it famous by rechristening it Treasure Island, and writing the +new name and his own on a bulkhead that had been built to +shore up one of its fast disappearing sandy banks. But that +is very modern history and to us it has always been "The +Island." In our day, long before Stevenson had ever heard of +the Manasquan, Richard and I had discovered this tight little +piece of land, found great treasures there, and, hand in hand, +had slept in a six-by-six tent while the lions and tigers +growled at us from the surrounding forests. + +As I recall these days of my boyhood I find the recollections +of our life at Point Pleasant much more distinct than those we +spent in Philadelphia. For Richard these days were especially +welcome. They meant a respite from the studies which were a +constant menace to himself and his parents; and the freedom of +the open country, the ocean, the many sports on land and on +the river gave his body the constant exercise his constitution +seemed to demand, and a broad field for an imagination which +was even then very keen, certainly keen enough to make the +rest of us his followers. + +In an extremely sympathetic appreciation which Irvin S. Cobb +wrote about my brother at the time of his death, he says that +he doubts if there is such a thing as a born author. +Personally it so happened that I never grew up with any one, +except my brother, who ever became an author, certainly an +author of fiction, and so I cannot speak on the subject with +authority. But in the case of Richard, if he was not born an +author, certainly no other career was ever considered. So far +as I know he never even wanted to go to sea or to be a +bareback rider in a circus. A boy, if he loves his father, +usually wants to follow in his professional footsteps, and in +the case of Richard, he had the double inspiration of following +both in the footsteps of his father and in those of his mother. +For years before Richard's birth his father had been a newspaper +editor and a well-known writer of stories and his mother a +novelist and short-story writer of great distinction. Of those +times at Point Pleasant I fear I can remember but a few of our +elders. There were George Lambdin, Margaret Ruff, and Milne +Ramsay, all painters of some note; a strange couple, Colonel +Olcott and the afterward famous Madam Blavatsky, trying to +start a Buddhist cult in this country; Mrs. Frances Hodgson +Burnett, with her foot on the first rung of the ladder of +fame, who at the time loved much millinery finery. One day my +father took her out sailing and, much to the lady's +discomfiture and greatly to Richard's and my delight, upset +the famous authoress. At a later period the Joseph Jeffersons +used to visit us; Horace Howard Furness, one of my father's +oldest friends, built a summer home very near us on the river, +and Mrs. John Drew and her daughter Georgie Barrymore spent +their summers in a near-by hostelry. I can remember Mrs. +Barrymore at that time very well---wonderfully handsome and a +marvellously cheery manner. Richard and I both loved her +greatly, even though it were in secret. Her daughter Ethel I +remember best as she appeared on the beach, a sweet, +long-legged child in a scarlet bathing-suit running toward the +breakers and then dashing madly back to her mother's open +arms. A pretty figure of a child, but much too young for +Richard to notice at that time. In after-years the child in +the scarlet bathing-suit and he became great pals. Indeed, +during the latter half of his life, through the good days and +the bad, there were very few friends who held so close a place in +his sympathy and his affections as Ethel Barrymore. + +Until the summer of 1880 my brother continued on at the +Episcopal Academy. For some reason I was sent to a different +school, but outside of our supposed hours of learning we were +never apart. With less than two years' difference in our ages +our interests were much the same, and I fear our interests of +those days were largely limited to out-of-door sports and the +theatre. We must have been very young indeed when my father +first led us by the hand to see our first play. On Saturday +afternoons Richard and I, unattended but not wholly unalarmed, +would set forth from our home on this thrilling weekly +adventure. Having joined our father at his office, he would +invariably take us to a chop-house situated at the end of a +blind alley which lay concealed somewhere in the neighborhood +of Walnut and Third Streets, and where we ate a most wonderful +luncheon of English chops and apple pie. As the luncheon drew +to its close I remember how Richard and I used to fret and +fume while my father in a most leisurely manner used to finish +off his mug of musty ale. But at last the three of us, hand +in hand, my father between us, were walking briskly toward our +happy destination. At that time there were only a few +first-class theatres in Philadelphia--the Arch Street Theatre, +owned by Mrs. John Drew; the Chestnut Street, and the Walnut +Street--all of which had stock companies, but which on the +occasion of a visiting star acted as the supporting company. +These were the days of Booth, Jefferson, Adelaide Neilson, +Charles Fletcher, Lotta, John McCullough, John Sleeper Clark, +and the elder Sothern. And how Richard and I worshipped them +all--not only these but every small-bit actor in every stock +company in town. Indeed, so many favorites of the stage did my +brother and I admire that ordinary frames would not begin to hold +them all, and to overcome this defect we had our bedroom entirely +redecorated. The new scheme called for a gray wallpaper +supported by a maroon dado. At the top of the latter ran two +parallel black picture mouldings between which we could easily +insert cabinet photographs of the actors and actresses which +for the moment we thought most worthy of a place in our +collection. As the room was fairly large and as the mouldings +ran entirely around it, we had plenty of space for even our +very elastic love for the heroes and heroines of the footlights. + +Edwin Forrest ended his stage career just before our time, but +I know that Richard at least saw him and heard that wonderful +voice of thunder. It seems that one day, while my mother and +Richard were returning home, they got on a street-car which +already held the great tragedian. At the moment Forrest was +suffering severely from gout and had his bad leg stretched +well out before him. My brother, being very young at the time +and never very much of a respecter of persons, promptly fell +over the great man's gouty foot. Whereat (according to my +mother, who was always a most truthful narrator) Forrest broke +forth in a volcano of oaths and for blocks continued to hurl +thunderous broadsides at Richard, which my mother insisted +included the curse of Rome and every other famous tirade in +the tragedian's repertory which in any way fitted the occasion. +Nearly forty years later my father became the president of the +Edwin Forrest Home, the greatest charity ever founded by an actor +for actors, and I am sure by his efforts of years on behalf of +the institution did much to atone for Richard's early unhappy +meeting with the greatest of all the famous leather-lunged +tragedians. + +From his youth my father had always been a close student of +the classic and modern drama, and throughout his life numbered +among his friends many of the celebrated actors and actresses +of his time. In those early days Booth used to come to rather +formal luncheons, and at all such functions Richard and I ate +our luncheon in the pantry, and when the great meal was nearly +over in the dining-room we were allowed to come in in time for +the ice-cream and to sit, figuratively, at the feet of the +honored guest and generally, literally, on his or her knees. +Young as I was in those days I can readily recall one of those +lunch-parties when the contrast between Booth and Dion +Boucicault struck my youthful mind most forcibly. Booth, with +his deep-set, big black eyes, shaggy hair, and lank figure, +his wonderfully modulated voice, rolled out his theories of +acting, while the bald-headed, rotund Boucicault, his +twinkling eyes snapping like a fox-terrier's, interrupted the +sonorous speeches of the tragedian with crisp, witty +criticisms or "asides" that made the rest of the company laugh +and even brought a smile to the heavy, tragic features of +Booth himself. But there was nothing formal about our +relations with John Sleeper Clark and the Jefferson family. +They were real "home folks" and often occupied our spare room, +and when they were with us Richard and I were allowed to come +to all the meals, and, even if unsolicited, freely express our +views on the modern drama. + +In later years to our Philadelphia home came Henry Irving and +his fellow player Ellen Terry and Augustin Daly and that +wonderful quartet, Ada Rehan, Mrs. Gilbert, James Lewis, and +our own John Drew. Sir Henry I always recall by the first +picture I had of him in our dining-room, sitting far away from +the table, his long legs stretched before him, peering +curiously at Richard and myself over black-rimmed glasses and +then, with equal interest, turning back to the ash of a long +cigar and talking drama with the famous jerky, nasal voice but +always with a marvellous poise and convincing authority. He +took a great liking to Richard in those days, sent him a +church-warden's pipe that he had used as Corporal Brewster, +and made much of him later when my brother was in London. +Miss Terry was a much less formal and forbidding guest, +rushing into the house like a whirlwind and filling the place +with the sunshine and happiness that seemed to fairly exude +from her beautiful magnetic presence. Augustin Daly usually +came with at least three of the stars of his company which I +have already mentioned, but even the beautiful Rehan and the +nice old Mrs. Gilbert seemed thoroughly awed in the presence +of "the Guv'nor." He was a most crusty, dictatorial party, as +I remember him with his searching eyes and raven locks, always +dressed in black and always failing to find virtue in any +actor or actress not a member of his own company. I remember +one particularly acrid discussion between him and my father in +regard to Julia Marlowe, who was then making her first bow to +the public. Daly contended that in a few years the lady would +be absolutely unheard of and backed his opinion by betting a +dinner for those present with my father that his judgment would +prove correct. However, he was very kind to Richard and myself +and frequently allowed us to play about behind the scenes, which +was a privilege I imagine he granted to very few of his +friends' children. One night, long after this, when Richard +was a reporter in New York, he and Miss Rehan were burlesquing +a scene from a play on which the last curtain had just fallen. +It was on the stage of Daly's theatre at Thirtieth Street and +Broadway, and from his velvet box at the prompt-entrance Daly +stood gloomily watching their fooling. When they had finished +the mock scene Richard went over to Daly and said, "How bad do +you think I am as an actor, Mr. Daly?" and greatly to my +brother's delight the greatest manager of them all of those +days grumbled back at him: "You're so bad, Richard, that I'll +give you a hundred dollars a week, and you can sign the +contract whenever you're ready." Although that was much more +than my brother was making in his chosen profession at the +time, and in spite of the intense interest he had in the +theatre, he never considered the offer seriously. As a matter +of fact, Richard had many natural qualifications that fitted +him for the stage, and in after-years, when he was rehearsing +one of his own plays, he could and frequently would go up on +the stage and read almost any part better than the actor +employed to do it. Of course, he lacked the ease of gesture +and the art of timing which can only be attained after sound +experience, but his reading of lines and his knowledge of +characterization was quite unusual. In proof of this I know +of at least two managers who, when Richard wanted to sell them +plays, refused to have him read them the manuscript on the +ground that his reading gave the dialogue a value it did not +really possess. + +In the spring of 1880 Richard left the Episcopal Academy, and +the following September went to Swarthmore College, situated +just outside of Philadelphia. I fear, however, the change was +anything but a success. The life of the big coeducational +school did not appeal to him at all and, in spite of two or +three friendships he made among the girls and boys, he +depended for amusement almost wholly on his own resources. In +the afternoons and on holidays he took long walks over the +country roads and in search of adventure visited many +farmhouses. His excuse for these calls was that he was +looking for old furniture and china, and he frequently +remained long enough to make sketches of such objects as he +pretended had struck his artistic fancy. Of these adventures +he wrote at great length to his mother and father, and the +letters were usually profusely decorated with illustrations of +the most striking incidents of the various escapades. Several +of these Swarthmore experiences he used afterward in short +stories, and both the letters and sketches he sent to his +parents at the time he regarded in the light of preparation +for his future work. In his studies he was perhaps less +successful than he had been at the Episcopal Academy, and +although he played football and took part in the track sports +he was really but little interested in either. There were +half-holidays on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and when my brother +did not come to town I went to Swarthmore and we spent the +afternoons in first cooking our lunch in a hospitable woods +and then playing some games in the open that Richard had +devised. But as I recall these outings they were not very +joyous occasions, as Richard was extremely unhappy over his +failures at school and greatly depressed about the prospects for +the future. + +He finished the college year at Swarthmore, but so unhappy had +he been there that there was no thought in his mind or in that +of his parents of his returning. At that time my uncle, H. +Wilson Harding, was a professor at Lehigh University, and it +was arranged that Richard should go to Bethlehem the following +fall, live with his uncle, and continue his studies at +Ulrich's Preparatory School, which made a specialty of +preparing boys for Lehigh. My uncle lived in a charming old +house on Market Street in Bethlehem, quite near the Moravian +settlement and across the river from the university and the +iron mills. He was a bachelor, but of a most gregarious and +hospitable disposition, and Richard therefore found himself +largely his own master, in a big, roomy house which was almost +constantly filled with the most charming and cultivated +people. There my uncle and Richard, practically of about the +same age so far as their viewpoint of life was concerned, kept +open house, and if it had not been for the occasional qualms +his innate hatred of mathematics caused him, I think my +brother would have been completely happy. Even studies no +longer worried him particularly and he at once started in to +make friendships, many of which lasted throughout his life. +As is usual with young men of seventeen, most of these men and +women friends were several times Richard's age, but at the +period Richard was a particularly precocious and amusing youth +and a difference of a few decades made but little +difference--certainly not to Richard. Finley Peter Dunne once +wrote of my brother that he "probably knew more waiters, +generals, actors, and princes than any man +who lived," and I think it was during the first year of his +life at Bethlehem that he began the foundation for the +remarkable collection of friends, both as to numbers and +variety, of which he died possessed. Although a "prep," he +made many friends among the undergraduates of Lehigh. He made +friends with the friends of his uncle and many friends in both +of the Bethlehems of which his uncle had probably never heard. +Even at that early age he counted among his intimates William +W. Thurston, who was president of the Bethlehem Iron Company, +and J. Davis Brodhead, one of Pennsylvania's most conspicuous +Democratic congressmen and attorneys. Those who knew him at +that time can easily understand why Richard attracted men and +women so much older than himself. He was brimming over with +physical health and animal spirits and took the keenest +interest in every one he met and in everything that was going +on about him. And in the broadest sense he saw to it then, as +he did throughout his life, that he always did his share. + +During those early days at Bethlehem his letters to his family +were full of his social activities, with occasional references +to his work at school. He was always going to dinners or +dances, entertaining members of visiting theatrical companies; +and on Friday night my mother usually received a telegram, +saying that he would arrive the next day with a party of +friends whom he had inadvertently asked to lunch and a +matinee. It was after one of these weekly visits that my +mother wrote Richard the following: + + +Monday Night. +MY DARLING Boy: + + +You went off in such a hurry that it took my breath at the +last. You say coming down helps you. It +certainly does me. It brings a real sunshine to Papa and me. +He was saying that to-day. I gave Nolly a sort of holiday +after her miseries last night. We went down street and got +Papa a present for our wedding day, a picture, after all, and +then I took Miss Baker some tickets for a concert. I saw her +father who said he "must speak about my noble looking boy." I +always thought him a genius but now I think him a man of +penetration as well. Then Nolly and I went over to see the +Russians. But they are closely boxed up and not allowed +to-day to see visitors. So we came home cross and hungry. +All evening I have been writing business letters. + +Papa has gone to a reception and Charley is hard at work at +his desk. + +I answered Mr. Allen's letter this morning, dear, and told him +you would talk to him. When you do, dear, talk freely to him +as to me. You will not perhaps agree with all he says. But +your own thoughts will be healthier for bringing them--as I +might say, out of doors. You saw how it was by coming down +here. Love of Christ is not a melancholy nor a morbid thing, +dear love, but ought to make one more social and cheerful and +alive. + +I wish you could come home oftener. Try and get ahead with +lessons so that you can come oftener. And when you feel as if +prayer was a burden, stop praying and go out and try to put +your Christianity into real action by doing some +kindness--even speaking in a friendly way to somebody. Bring +yourself into contact with new people--not John, Hugh, Uncle +and Grandma, and try to act to them as Christ would have you +act, and my word for it, you will go home with a new light on +your own relations to Him and a new meaning for your prayers. +You remember the prayer "give me a great thought to refresh me." +I think you will find some great thoughts in human beings--they +will help you to understand yourself and God, when you try to +help them God makes you happy my darling. + +MAMA. + + +It was in this year that Richard enjoyed the thrill of seeing +in print his first contribution to a periodical. The date of +this important event, important, at least, to my brother, was +February 1, the fortunate publication was Judge, and the +effusion was entitled "The Hat and Its Inmate." Its purport +was an overheard conversation between two young ladies at a +matinee and the editors thought so well of it that for the +privilege of printing the article they gave Richard a year's +subscription to Judge. His scrap-book of that time shows +that in 1884 Life published a short burlesque on George W. +Cable's novel, "Dr. Sevier," and in the same year The +Evening Post paid him $1.05 for an article about "The New +Year at Lehigh." It was also in the spring of 1884 that +Richard published his first book, "The Adventures of My +Freshman," a neat little paper-covered volume including half a +dozen of the short stories that had already appeared in The +Lehigh Burr. In writing in a copy of this book in later +years, Richard said: "This is a copy of the first book of +mine published. My family paid to have it printed and finding +no one else was buying it, bought up the entire edition. +Finding the first edition had gone so quickly, I urged them to +finance a second one, and when they were unenthusiastic I was +hurt. Several years later when I found the entire edition in +our attic, I understood their reluctance. The reason the book +did not sell is, I think, because some one must have read it." + +In the summer of 1882 Richard went to Boston, and in the +following letter unhesitatingly expressed his opinion of that +city and its people. + + +BOSTON, Wednesday. + +July 1882. +DEAR FAMILY:-- + + +I left Newport last night or rather this morning. I stopped +at Beverly and called on Dr. Holmes. He talked a great deal +about mama and about a great many other things equally lovely +in a very easy, charming way. All I had to do was to listen +and I was only too willing to do that. We got along splendidly. +He asked me to stay to dinner but I refused with +thanks, as I had only come to pay my respects and put off to +Dr. Bartol's. Dr. Holmes accompanied me to the depot and saw +me safely off. Of all the lovely men I ever saw Dr. Bartol is +the one. He lives in a great, many roomed with as many +gables, house. Elizabethan, of course, with immense +fireplaces, brass and dark woods, etchings and engravings, +with the sea and rocks immediately under the window and the +ocean stretching out for miles, lighthouses and more Elizabethan +houses half hid on the bank, and ships and small boats +pushing by within a hundred rods of the windows. I stayed to +dinner there and we had a very jolly time. There were two +other young men and another maiden besides Miss Bartol. They +talked principally about the stage; that is, the Boston Stock +Company, which is their sole thought and knowledge of the +drama. The Dr. would strike off now and then to +philosophizing and moralizing but his daughter +would immediately sit upon him, much to my disgust but to the +evident relief of the rest. His wife is as lovely as he is +but I can't give it to you all now. Wait until I get home. + +The young lady, the youths and myself came up to Boston +together and had as pleasant a ride, as the heat would allow. +I left them at the depot and went up to the Parker House and +then to the Art Museum. The statuary is plaster, the coins +are copies, and by the way, I found one exactly like mine, +which, if it is genuine is worth, "well considerable", as the +personage in charge remarked. The pictures were simply vile, +only two or three that I recognized and principally Millet and +some charcoal sketches of Hunt's, who is the Apostle of Art +here. The china was very fine but they had a collection of +old furniture and armor which was better than anything else. +Fresh from or rather musty from these antiques, who should I +meet but the cheerful Dixey and Powers. We had a very jolly +talk and I enjoyed it immensely, not only myself but all the +surrounding populace, as Dixey would persist in showing the +youthful some new "gag," and would break into a clog or +dialect much to the delectation of the admiring Bostonians. I +am stranded here for to night and will push on to Newport +to-morrow. I'll go see the "babes" to night, as there is +nothing else in the city that is worth seeing that I haven't +investigated. I left the Newburyportians in grief with +regret. I met lots of nice people and every one was so very +kind to me, from the authoresses to the serving maids. +Good-bye. + +DICK. + + + +CHAPTER II + +COLLEGE DAYS + + +In the fall of 1882 Richard entered Lehigh, but the first year +of his college life varied very little from the one he had +spent in the preparatory school. During that year he had met +most of the upper classmen, and the only difference was that +he could now take an active instead of a friendly interest in +the life and the sports of the college. Also he had formed +certain theories which he promptly proceeded to put into +practical effect. Perhaps the most conspicuous of these was +his belief that cane-rushes and hazing were wholly unnecessary +and barbarous customs, and should have no place in the college +of his day. Against the former he spoke at college meetings, +and wrote long letters to the local papers decrying the +custom. His stand against hazing was equally vehement, and he +worked hand in hand with the faculty to eradicate it entirely +from the college life. That his stand was purely for a +principle and not from any fear of personal injury, I think +the following letter to his father will show: + + +BETHLEHEM, February 1882. +DEAR DAD: + +You may remember a conversation we had at Squan about hazing +in which you said it was a very black-guardly thing and a +cowardly thing. I didn't agree with you, but when I saw how +it really was and how silly and undignified it was, besides +being brutal, I thought it over and changed my mind completely, +agreeing with you in every respect. A large number of our class +have been hazed, taking it as a good joke, and have been laughed +at by the whole college. I talked to the boys about it, and said +what I would do and so on, without much effect. Wednesday a +junior came to me, and told me I was to be hazed as I left the +Opera House Friday night. After that a great many came to me +and advised and warned me as to what I should do. I decided +to get about fifty of our class outside and then fight it out; +that was before I changed my mind. As soon as I did I +regretted it very much, but, as it turned out, the class +didn't come, so I was alone, as I wished to be. You see, I'd +not a very good place here; the fellows looked on me as a sort +of special object of ridicule, on account of the hat and cane, +walk, and so on, though I thought I'd got over that by this +time. The Opera House was partly filled with college men, a +large number of sophomores and a few upper class men. It was +pretty generally known I was going to have a row, and that +brought them as much as the show. Poor Ruff was in agony all +day. He supposed I'd get into the fight, and he knew he'd get +in, too, sooner or later. If he did he'd be held and not be +able to do anything, and then the next day be blamed by the +whole college for interfering in a class matter. He hadn't +any money to get into the show, and so wandered around outside +in the rain in a great deal more excited state than I was. +Howe went all over town after putting on his old clothes, in +case of personal damage, in search of freshmen who were at +home out of the wet. As I left the building a man grabbed me +by my arm, and the rest, with the seniors gathered around; the +only freshman present, who was half scared to death, clung as +near to me as possible. I withdrew my arm and faced them. "If +this means hazing," I said, "I'm not with you. There's not +enough men here to haze me, but there's enough to thrash me, and +I'd rather be thrashed than hazed." You see, I wanted them to +understand exactly how I looked at it, and they wouldn't think +I was simply hotheaded and stubborn. I was very cool about it +all. They broke in with all sorts of explanations; hazing was +the last thing they had thought of. No, indeed, Davis, old +fellow, you're mistaken. I told them if that was so, all +right, I was going home. I saw several of my friends in the +crowd waiting for me, but as I didn't want them to interfere, +I said nothing, and they did not recognize me. When among the +crowd of sophomores, the poor freshman made a last effort, he +pulled me by the coat and begged me to come with him. I said +no, I was going home. When I reached the next corner I +stopped. "I gave you fair warning, keep off. I tell you I'll +strike the first man, the first one, that touches me." Then +the four who had been appointed to seize me jumped on me, and +I only got one good blow in before they had me down in the +gutter and were beating me on the face and head. I put my +hands across my face, and so did not get any hard blows +directly in the face. They slipped back in a moment, and when +I was ready I scrambled up pretty wet and muddy, and with my +face stinging where they had struck. It had all been done so +quickly, and there was such a large crowd coming from the +theatre, that, of course, no one saw it. When I got up there +was a circle all around me. They hadn't intended to go so +far. The men, except those four who had beaten me, were +rather ashamed and wished they were out of it. I turned to +Emmerich, a postgraduate, and told him to give me room. "Now," I +said, "you're not able to haze me, and I can't thrash twelve of +you, but I'll fight any one man you bring out." I asked for the +man that struck me, and named another, but there was no response. + +The upper classmen, who had just arrived, called out that was +fair, and they'd see it fair. Goodnough, Purnell and Douglas, +who don't like me much, either. Ruff was beside me by this time. + +He hadn't seen anything of it, and did not get there until he +heard me calling for a fair chance and challenging the class +for a man. I called out again, the second time, and still no +one came, so I took occasion to let them know why I had done +as I did in a short speech to the crowd. I said I was a +peaceable fellow, thought hazing silly, and as I never +intended to haze myself, I didn't intend any one to haze me. +Then I said again, "This is the third time, will one of your +men fight this fair? I can't fight twelve of you." Just then +two officers who had called on some mill-hands, who are always +dying for a fight, and a citizen to help them, burst into the +crowd of students, shouldering them around like sheep until +they got to me, when one of them put his arm around me, and +said, "I don't know anything about this crowd, but I'll see +you're protected, sir. I'll give 'em fair play." One officer +got hold of Ruff and pretty near shook him to pieces until I +had to interfere and explain. They were for forming a +body-guard, and were loud in their denunciations of the +college, and declaring they'd see me through if I was a +stranger to 'em. + +Two or three of the sophomores, when they saw how things were +going, set up a yell, but Griffin struck out +and sent one of them flying one way and his hat another, so +the yells ended. Howe and Murray Stuart took me up to their +rooms, and Ruff went off for beefsteak for my eye, and treated +the crowd who had come to the rescue, at Dixon's, to beer. +The next day was Saturday, and as there was to be a meeting of +the Athletic Association, of course, I wanted to show up. The +fellows all looked at my eye pretty hard and said nothing. I +felt pretty sure that the sympathy was all with me. + +Four men are elected from the college to be on the athletic +committee. They can be nominated by any one, though generally +it is done by a man in their own class. We had agreed the day +before to vote for Tolman for our class, so when the president +announced nominations were in order for the freshmen class, +Tolman was instantly nominated. At the same time one of the +leading sophomores jumped up and nominated Mr. Davis, and a +number of men from the same class seconded it. I knew every +one in the college knew of what had happened, and especially +the sophomores, so I was, of course, very much surprised. I +looked unconscious, though, and waited. One of the seniors +asked that the nominees should stand up, as they didn't know +their names only their faces. As each man rose he was hissed +and groaned down again. When I stood up the sophomores burst +into a yell and clapped and stamped, yelling, "Davis! Davis! +vote for D!" until I sat down. As I had already decided to +nominate Tolman, I withdrew my name from the nominees, a +movement which was received by loud cries of "No! No!" from +the sophs. So, you see, Dad, I did as you said, as I thought +was right, and came out well indeed. You see, I am now the +hero of the hour, every one in town knows it, and every one +congratulates me, and, "Well done, me boy," as Morrow '83 said, +seems to be the idea, one gets taken care of in this world if you +do what's the right thing, if it is only a street fight. In +fact, as one of the seniors said, I've made five friends where +I had one before. The sophs are ashamed and sorry, as their +conduct in chapel, which was more marked, than I made it, +shows. I've nothing to show for it but a red mark under the +eye, and so it is the best thing that could possibly have +happened. Poor Ruff hugged me all the way home, and I've +started out well in a good way, I think, though not a very +logical one. + +Uncle says to tell you that my conduct has his approval throughout. + +DICK. + +To which letter my father promptly replied: + +PHILADELPHIA. February 25th, 1882. +DEAR OLD BOY: + +I'm glad the affair ended so well. I don't want you to fight, +but if you have to fight a cuss like that do it with all your +might, and don't insist that either party shall too strictly +observe the Markis O' Queensbury rules. Hit first and hardest +so that thine adversary shall beware of you. + +DAD. + + +At that time the secret societies played a very important part +in the college life at Lehigh, and while I do not believe that +Richard shared the theory of some of the students that they +were a serious menace to the social fabric, he was quite firm +in his belief that it was inadvisable to be a member of any +fraternity. In a general way he did not like the idea of secrecy +even in its mildest form, and then, as throughout his life, he +refused to join any body that would in any way limit his complete +independence of word or action. In connection with this phase +of his college life I quote from an appreciation which M. A. +De W. Howe, one of Richard's best friends both at college and +in after-life, wrote for The Lehigh Burr at the time of my +brother's death: + +"To the credit of the perceptive faculty of undergraduates, it +ought to be said that the classmates and contemporaries of +Richard Harding Davis knew perfectly well, while he and they +were young together, that in him Lehigh had a son so marked in +his individuality, so endowed with talents and character that +he stood quite apart from the other collegians of his day. +Prophets were as rare in the eighties as they have always +been, before and since, and nobody could have foreseen that +the name and work of Dick Davis would long before his untimely +death, indeed within a few years from leaving college, be +better known throughout the world than those of any other +Lehigh man. We who knew him in his college days could not +feel the smallest surprise that he won himself quickly a +brilliant name, and kept a firm hold upon it to the last. + +"What was it that made him so early a marked man? I think it +was the spirit of confidence and enthusiasm which turned every +enterprise he undertook into an adventure,--the brave and +humorous playing of the game of life, the true heart, the +wholesome body and soul of my friend and classmate. He did +not excel in studies or greatly, in athletics. But in his own +field, that of writing, he was so much better than the rest of +us that no one of his fellow-editors of the Epitome or +Burr needed to be considered in comparison with +him. No less, in spite of his voluntary nonmembership in the +fraternities of his day, was he a leader in the social +activities of the University. The `Arcadian Club' devoted in +its beginnings to the `pipes, books, beer and gingeralia' of +Davis's song about it and the `Mustard and Cheese' were his +creations. In all his personal relationships he was the most +amusing and stimulating of companions. With garb and ways of +unique picturesqueness, rarer even in college communities a +generation ago than at present, it was inevitable that he +sometimes got himself laughed at as well as with. But what +did it all matter, even then? To-day it adds a glow of color +to what would be in any case a vivid, deeply valued memory. + +"It is hard to foresee in youth what will come most sharply +and permanently in the long run. After all these years it is +good to find that Davis and what his companionship gave one +hold their place with the strongest influences of Lehigh." + +But Richard was naturally gregarious and at heart had a great +fondness for clubs and social gatherings. Therefore, having +refused the offer of several fraternities that did him the +honor to ask him to become a member, it was necessary for him +to form a few clubs that held meetings, but no secrets. +Perhaps the most successful of these were "The Mustard and +Cheese," a dramatic club devoted to the presentation of farces +and musical comedies, and The Arcadia Club, to the fortnightly +meetings of which he devoted much time and thought. The +following letter to his father will give some idea of the +scope of the club, which, as in the case of "The Mustard and +Cheese," gained a permanent and important place in the social +life of Lehigh. + +DEAR DAD: + +We have started the best sort of a club up here which I am +anxious to tell you of. It consists of a spread, net price of +which will be about 30 cents each, every two or three weeks. +Only six fellows belong and those the best of the College. +Purnell, Haines and myself founded it. I chose Charley, +Purnell, Reeves, Haines and Howe. We will meet Saturday +nights at 9 so as not to interfere with our work, and sing, +read, eat and box until midnight. It is called the "Pipe and +Bowl," and is meant to take the place that The Hasty Pudding, +Hammer and Tongs and Mermaid do at other colleges. Two of us +are to invite two outsiders in turn each meeting. We will +hope to have Dad a member, honorary, of course, when we can +persuade him to give us a night off with his company. We want +to combine a literary feature and so will have selected readings +to provoke discussions after the pipes are lit. The men +are very enthusiastic about it and want to invite Mr. Allen +and you and every one that they can make an honorary member of +immediately. + + +It was first as an associate editor and afterward as +editor-in-chief of the college paper, The Lehigh Burr, that +Richard found his greatest pleasure and interest during his +three years at Lehigh. In addition to his editorial duties he +wrote a very great part of every issue of the paper, and his +contributions included short stories, reports of news events, +editorials, and numerous poems. + +As, after his life at college, Richard dropped verse as a mode +of expression, I reprint two of the poems which show him in +the lighter vein of those early days. + +A COMMENCEMENT IDYL + + "I'm a Freshman who has ended his first year, + But I'm new; + And I do whate'er the Juniors, whom I fear, + Bid me do. + Under sudden showers I thrive; + To be bad and bold I strive, + But they ask--`Is it alive?' + So they do. + + I'm a Sophomore who has passed off his exams, + Let me loose! + With a mark as high as any other man's, + As obtuse + I'm fraternal. I am Jolly. + I am seldom melancholy + And to bone I think is folly, + What's the use? + + +I'm a Junior whom exams. have left forlorn, + Flunked me dead; +So I'll keep the town awake 'till early morn; + Paint it red. + At class-meetings I'm a kicker, + Take no water with my liquor, + And a dumb-bell's not thicker + Than my head. + +I'm a Senior whose diploma's within reach, + Eighty-four. +On Commencement Day you'll hear my maiden-speech; + I will soar! + I got through without condition; + I'm a mass of erudition; + Do you know of a position!" + + + + OUR STREET + + + "Our street is still and silent, + Grass grows from curb to curb, + + No baker's bells + With jangling knells + Our studious minds disturb. + No organ grinders ever call, + No hucksters mar our peace; + For traffic shuns our neighborhood + And leaves us to our ease. + + + But now it lives and brightens, + Assumes a livelier hue; + The pavements wide, + On either side, + Would seem to feel it too. + You might not note the difference, + The change from grave to gay, + But I can tell, and know full well, + Priscilla walks our way." + + + +Shortly after his return to college Richard celebrated his +nineteenth birthday, and received these letters from his +father and mother: + +April 17th, 1883. +MY DEAR BOY: + +When I was thinking what I could give to you to-morrow, I +remembered the story of Herder, who when he was old and weak +and they brought him food and wine asked for "a great thought +to quicken him." + +So I have written some old sayings for you that have helped +me. Maybe, this year, or some other year, when I am not with +you, they may give you, sometimes, comfort and strength. + +God bless you my son-- + +YOUR OLD MOTHER + +who loves you dearly--dearly. + + +THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER +PHILADELPHIA, April 17th, 1883. + +MY DEAR BOY: + +You are to be nineteen years old on Wednesday. After two +years more you will be a man. You are so manly and good a boy +that I could not wish you to change in any serious or great +thing. You have made us very happy through being what you +have been, what you are. You fill us with hope of your future +virtue and usefulness. + +To be good is the best thing of all; it counts for more than +anything else in the world. We are very grateful that you +have even in youth been wise enough to choose the right road. +You will find it not easy to keep upon it always, but remember +if you do get off struggle back to it. I do not know but I +think God loves the effort to do as well as the act done. + +I congratulate you my dear son, on your new birthday. I wish +you health, happiness and God's loving care. May he bless you +my son forever. I enclose a trifle for your pleasure. My +love to you always, but God bless you dear Dick. + +DAD. + + +In the fall of 1885, Richard decided to leave Lehigh and go to +John Hopkins University, where he took a special course in +such studies as would best benefit him in the career which he +had now carefully planned. During this year in Baltimore +Richard's letters show that he paid considerable attention to +such important subjects as political economy and our own labor +problems, but they also show that he did not neglect football +or the lighter social diversions. In a short space of time he +had made many friends, was very busy going to dinners and dances, +and had fallen in love with an entirely new set of maids and +matrons. Richard had already begun to send contributions to the +magazines, and an occasional acceptance caused him the +satisfaction common to all beginners. It was in regard to one of +these early contributions that my mother wrote Richard the +following letter: + + +PHILADELPHIA + +January 1887. +DEAR BOY: + +What has become of The Current? It has not come yet. If it +has suspended publication be sure and get your article back. +You must not destroy a single page you write. You will find +every idea of use to you hereafter. + +Sometimes I am afraid you think I don't take interest enough +in your immediate success now with the articles you send. But +I've had thirty years experience and I know how much that sort +of success depends on the articles suiting the present needs +of the magazine, and also on the mood of the editor when he +reads it. + +Besides--except for your own disappointment--I know it would +be better if you would not publish under your own name for a +little while. Dr. Holland--who had lots of literary +shrewdness both as writer and publisher--used to say for a +young man or woman to rush into print was sure ruin to their +lasting fame. They either compromised their reputations by +inferior work or they made a great hit and never played up to +it, afterwards, in public opinion. + +Now my dear old man this sounds like awfully cold comfort. +But it is the wisest idea your mother has +got. I confess I have GREAT faith in you--and I try to +judge you as if you were not my son. I think you are going to +take a high place among American authors, but I do not think +you are going to do it by articles like that you sent to The +Current. The qualities which I think will bring it to you, +you don't seem to value at all. They are your dramatic eye. +I mean your quick perception of character and of the way +character shows itself in looks, tones, dress, etc., and in +your keen sympathy--with all kinds of people--Now, these are +the requisites for a novelist. Added to that your humour. + +You ought to make a novelist of the first class. But you must +not expect to do it this week or next. A lasting, real +success takes time, and patient, steady work. Read Boz's +first sketches of "London Life" and compare them with "Sydney +Carton" or "David Copperfield" and you will see what time and +hard work will do to develop genius. + +I suppose you will wonder why I am moved to say all this? It +is, I think, because of your saying "the article sent to St. +Nicholas was the best you would be able to do for years to +come" and I saw you were going to make it a crucial test of +your ability. That is, forgive me, nothing but nonsense. +Whatever the article may be, you may write one infinitely +superior to it next week or month. Just in proportion as you +feel more deeply, or notice more keenly, and as you acquire +the faculty of expressing your feelings or observations more +delicately and powerfully which faculty must come into +practice. It is not inspiration--it never was that--without +practice, with any writer from Shakespeare down. + +me. I don't say, like Papa, stop writing. God +forbid. I would almost as soon say stop breathing, +for it is pretty much the same thing. But only to remember +that you have not yet conquered your art. You are a +journeyman not a master workman, so if you don't succeed, it +does not count. The future is what I look to, for you. I had +to stop my work to say all this, so good-bye dear old chum. + +Yours, + +MOTHER. + + +If anything worried Richard at all at this period, I think it +was his desire to get down to steady newspaper work, or indeed +any kind of work that would act as the first step of his +career and by which he could pay his own way in the world. It +was with this idea uppermost in his mind in the late spring of +1886, and without any particular regret for the ending of his +college career, that he left Baltimore and, returning to his +home in Philadelphia, determined to accept the first position +that presented itself. But instead of going to work at once, +he once more changed his plans and decided to sail for +Santiago de Cuba with his friend William W. Thurston, who as +president of the Bethlehem Steel Company, was deeply +interested in the iron mines of that region. Here and then it +was that Richard first fell in love with Cuba--a love which in +later years became almost an obsession with him. Throughout +his life whenever it was possible, and sometimes when it +seemed practically impossible, my brother would listen to the +call of his beloved tropics and, casting aside all +responsibilities, would set sail for Santiago. After all it +was quite natural that he should feel as he did about this +little Cuban coast town, for apart from its lazy life, spicy +smells, waving palms and Spanish cooking, it was here that he +found the material for his first novel and greatest monetary +success, "Soldiers of Fortune." Apart from the many purely +pleasure trips he made to Santiago, twice he returned there to +work--once as a correspondent during the Spanish-American War, +and again when he went with Augustus Thomas to assist in the +latter's film version of the play which years before Thomas +had made from the novel. + + + +CHAPTER III +FIRST NEWSPAPER EXPERIENCES + + +In the late summer of 1886 Richard returned from Cuba and +settled down in Philadelphia to write an article about his +experiences at Santiago and to look for regular newspaper +work. Early in September he wrote his mother: + + +September, 1886. +DEAR MOTHER: + +I saw the Record people to-day. They said there was not an +opening but could give me "chance" work, that is, I was to +report each day at one and get what was left over. I said I +would take it as I would have my mornings free to write the +article and what afternoons I did not have newspaper work +besides. This is satisfactory. They are either doing all +they can to oblige Dad or else giving me a trial trip before +making an opening. The article is progressing but slowly. To +paraphrase Talleyrand, what's done is but little and that +little is not good. However, since your last letter full of +such excellent "tips" I have rewritten it and think it is much +improved. I will write to Thurston concerning the artist +to-morrow. He is away from B. at present. On the whole the +article is not bad. + + +Your boy, +DICK. + + +Richard's stay on The Record, however, was short-lived. His +excuse for the brevity of the experience was given in an +interview some years later. "My City Editor didn't like me +because on cold days I wore gloves. +But he was determined to make me work, and gave me about +eighteen assignments a day, and paid me $7. a week. At the +end of three months he discharged me as incompetent." + +From The Record Richard went to The Press, which was much +more to his liking, and, indeed it was here that he did his +first real work and showed his first promise. For nearly +three years he did general reporting and during this time +gained a great deal more personal success than comes to most +members of that usually anonymous profession. His big chance +came with the Johnstown flood, and the news stories he wired +to his paper showed the first glimpse of his ability as a +correspondent. Later on, disguised as a crook, he joined a +gang of yeggmen, lived with them in the worst dives of the +city, and eventually gained their good opinion to the extent +of being allowed to assist in planning a burglary. But before +the actual robbery took place, Richard had obtained enough +evidence against his crook companions to turn them over to the +police and eventually land them in prison. It was during +these days that he wrote his first story for a magazine, and +the following letter shows that it was something of a +milestone in his career. + +PHILADELPHIA. + +August, 1888. +DEAR FAMILY: + +The St. Nicholas people sent me a check for $50 for the +"pirate" story. It would be insupportable affectation to say +that I was not delighted. Jennings Crute and I were waiting +for breakfast when I found the letter. I opened it very +slowly, for I feared they would bluff me with some letter +about illustrations or revision, or offering me a reduced +subscription to the magazine. There was a letter inside and a +check. I read the letter before I looked at the check, which I +supposed would be for $30, as the other story was valued at $20. +The note said that a perfect gentleman named Chichester would be +pleased if I would find enclosed a check for $50. I looked at +Jenny helplessly, and said, "It's for fifty, Jenny." Crute had +an insane look in his eyes as he murmured "half a hundred +dollars, and on your day off, too." Then I sat down suddenly and +wondered what I would buy first, and Crute sat in a dazed +condition, and abstractedly took a handful of segars out of +the box dear old Dad gave me. As I didn't say anything, he +took another handful, and then sat down and gazed at the check +for five minutes in awe. After breakfast I calculated how +much I would have after I paid my debts. I still owe say $23, +and I have some shoes to pay for and my hair to cut. I had a +wild idea of going over to New York and buying some stocks, +but I guess I'll go to Bond's and Baker's instead. + +I'm going down street now to see if Drexel wants to borrow any +ready money-on the way down I will make purchases and pay +bills so that my march will be a triumphal procession. + +I got a story on the front page this morning about an +explosion at Columbia Avenue Station--I went out on it with +another man my senior in years and experience, whom Watrous +expected to write the story while I hustled for facts. When +we got back I had all the facts, and what little he had was +incorrect--so I said I would dispense with his services and +write the story myself. I did it very politely, but it +queered the man before the men, and Watrous grew very +sarcastic at his expense. Next time Andy will know better and +let me get my own stories alone. + +Your Millionaire Son, + +DICK. + +I'm still the "same old Dick"; not proud a bit. + +This was my mother's reply: + + +Thursday. +August 1888. +DEAR DICK: + +Your letter has just come and we are all delighted. Well done +for old St. Nicholas! I thought they meant to wait till the +story was published. It took me back to the day when I got +$50. for "Life in the Iron Mills." I carried the letter half +a day before opening it, being so sure that it was a refusal. + +I had a great mind to read the letter to Davis and Cecile who +were on the porch but was afraid you would not like it. + +I did read them an extremely impertinent enclosure which was +so like the letter I sent yesterday. That I think you got it +before writing this. + +. . . Well I am glad about that cheque! Have you done +anything on Gallagher? That is by far the best work you've +done--oh, by far--Send that to Gilder. In old times The +Century would not print the word "brandy." But those days +are over. + +Two more days--dear boy-- + +MOTHER. + + +In addition to his work on The Press, Richard also found +time to assist his friend, Morton McMichael, 3d, in the +editing of a weekly publication called The +Stage. In fact with the exception of the services of an +office boy, McMichael and Richard were The Stage. Between +them they wrote the editorials, criticisms, the London and +Paris special correspondence, solicited the advertisements, +and frequently assisted in the wrapping and mailing of the +copies sent to their extremely limited list of subscribers. +During this time, however, Richard was establishing himself as +a star reporter on The Press, and was already known as a +clever news-gatherer and interviewer. It was in reply to a +letter that Richard wrote to Robert Louis Stevenson enclosing +an interview he had had with Walt Whitman, that Stevenson +wrote the following letter--which my brother always regarded +as one of his greatest treasures: + + +Why, thank you so much for your frank, agreeable and natural +letter. It is certainly very pleasant that all you young +fellows should enjoy my work and get some good out of it and +it was very kind in you to write and tell me so. The tale of +the suicide is excellently droll, and your letter, you may be +sure, will be preserved. If you are to escape unhurt out of +your present business you must be very careful, and you must +find in your heart much constancy. The swiftly done work of +the journalist and the cheap finish and ready made methods to +which it leads, you must try to counteract in private by +writing with the most considerate slowness and on the most +ambitious models. And when I say "writing"--O, believe me, it +is rewriting that I have chiefly in mind. If you will do this +I hope to hear of you some day. + +Please excuse this sermon from + +Your obliged + +ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. + + +In the spring of 1889 Richard as the correspondent of the +Philadelphia Telegraph, accompanied a team of Philadelphia +cricketers on a tour of Ireland and England, but as it was +necessary for him to spend most of his time reporting the +matches played in small university towns, he saw only enough +of London to give him a great longing to return as soon as the +chance offered. Late that summer he resumed his work on The +Press, but Richard was not at all satisfied with his +journalistic progress, and for long his eyes had been turned +toward New York. There he knew that there was not only a +broader field for such talent as he might possess, but that +the chance for adventure was much greater, and it was this +hope and love of adventure that kept Richard moving on all of +his life. + +On a morning late in September, 1889, he started for New York +to look for a position as reporter on one of the metropolitan +newspapers. I do not know whether he carried with him any +letters or that he had any acquaintances in the journalistic +world on whose influence he counted, but, in any case, he visited +a number of offices without any success whatever. +Indeed, he had given up the day as wasted, and was on his way +to take the train back to Philadelphia. Tired and +discouraged, he sat down on a bench in City Hall Park, and +mentally shook his fist at the newspaper offices on Park Row +that had given him so cold a reception. At this all-important +moment along came Arthur Brisbane, whom Richard had met in +London when the former was the English correspondent of The +Sun. Brisbane had recently been appointed editor of The +Evening Sun, and had already met with a rather spectacular +success. On hearing the object of Richard's visit to New +York, he promptly offered him a position on his staff and +Richard as promptly accepted. I remember that the joyous +telegram he sent to my mother, telling of his success, and +demanding that the fatted calf be killed for dinner that night +was not received with unalloyed happiness. To my mother and +father it meant that their first-born was leaving home to seek +his fortune, and that without Richard's love and sympathy the +home could never be quite the same. But the fatted calf was +killed, every one pretended to be just as elated as Richard was +over his good fortune, and in two days he left us for his first +adventure. + +The following note to his mother Richard scribbled off in +pencil at the railway-station on his way to New York: + + +I am not surprised that you were sad if you thought I was +going away for good. I could not think of it myself. I am +only going to make a little reputation and to learn enough of +the business to enable me to live at home in the centre of the +universe with you. That is truth. God bless you. + +DICK. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +NEW YORK + + +Of the many completely happy periods of Richard's life there +were few more joyous than the first years he spent as a +reporter in New York. For the first time he was completely +his own master and paying his own way--a condition which +afforded him infinite satisfaction. He was greatly attached +to Brisbane and as devoted to the interests of The Evening +Sun as if he had been the editor and publisher. In return +Brisbane gave him a free rein and allowed him to write very +much what and as he chose. The two men were constantly +together, in and out of office hours, and planned many of the +leading features of the paper which on account of the +brilliancy of its news stories and special articles was at +that time attracting an extraordinary amount of attention. +Richard divided his working hours between reporting important +news events, writing specials (principally about theatrical +people), and the Van Bibber stories, nearly all of which were +published for the first time in The Evening Sun. These +short tales of New York life soon made a distinct hit, and, +while they appeared anonymously, it was generally known that +Richard was their author. In addition to his newspaper work +my brother was also working on short stories for the +magazines, and in 1890 scored his first real success in this +field, with "Gallegher," which appeared in Scribner's. This +was shortly followed by "The Other Woman," "Miss +Catherwaite's Understudy," "A Walk up the Avenue," "My +Disreputable Friend, Mr. Raegen," "An Unfinished Story," and +other stories that soon gave him an established reputation as +a writer of fiction. But while Richard's success was attained +in a remarkably short space of time and at an extremely early +age, it was not accomplished without an enormous amount of +hard work and considerable privation. When he first went to +New York his salary was but thirty dollars a week, and while +he remained on The Evening Sun never over fifty dollars, and +the prices he received for his first short stories were +extremely meagre. During the early days on The Evening Sun +he had a room in a little house at 108 Waverly Place, and took +his meals in the neighborhood where he happened to find +himself and where they were cheapest. He usually spent his +week-ends in Philadelphia, but his greatest pleasure was when +he could induce some member of his family to visit him in New +York. I fear I was the one who most often accepted his +hospitality, and wonderful visits they were, certainly to me, +and I think to Richard as well. The great event was our +Saturday-night dinner, when we always went to a little +restaurant on Sixth Avenue. I do not imagine the fifty-cent +table d'hote (vin compris) the genial Mr. Jauss served us +was any better than most fifty-cent table-d'hote dinners, but +the place was quaint and redolent of strange smells of cooking +as well as of a true bohemian atmosphere. Those were the days +when the Broadway Theatre was given over to the comic operas +in which Francis Wilson and De Wolfe Hopper were the stars, +and as both of the comedians were firm friends of Richard, we +invariably ended our evening at the Broadway. Sometimes we +occupied a box as the guests of the management, and at other +times we went behind the scenes and sat in the star's +dressing-room. I think I liked it best when Hopper was playing, +because during Wilson's regime the big dressing-room was a rather +solemn sort of place, but when Hopper ruled, the room was filled +with pretty girls and he treated us to fine cigars and champagne. + +Halcyon nights those, and then on Sunday morning we always +breakfasted at old Martin's on University Place eggs a la +Martin and that wonderful coffee and pain de menage. And what +a wrench it was when I tore myself away from the delights of +the great city and scurried back to my desk in sleepy +Philadelphia. Had I been a prince royal Richard could not +have planned more carefully than he did for these visits, and +to meet the expense was no easy matter for him. Indeed, I +know that to pay for all our gayeties he usually had to carry +his guitar to a neighboring pawn-broker where the instrument +was always good for an eight-dollar loan. But from the time +Richard first began to make his own living one of the great +pleasures of his life was to celebrate, or as he called it, to +"have a party." Whenever he had finished a short story he had +a party, and when the story had been accepted there was +another party, and, of course, the real party was when he +received the check. And so it was throughout his life, giving +a party to some one whom a party would help, buying a picture +for which he had no use to help a struggling artist, sending a +few tons of coal to an old lady who was not quite warm enough, +always writing a letter or a check for some one of his own +craft who had been less fortunate than he--giving to every +beggar that he met, fearing that among all the thousand fakers +he might refuse one worthy case. I think this habit of giving +Richard must have inherited from his father, who gave out of all +proportion to his means, and with never too close a scrutiny to +the worthiness of the cause. Both men were too intensely human +to do that, but if this great desire on the part of my father and +brother to help others gave the recipients pleasure I'm sure +that it caused in the hearts of the givers an even greater +happiness. The following letters were chosen from a great +number which Richard wrote to his family, telling of his first +days on The Evening Sun, and of his life in New York. + + +YORK Evening Sun--1890 +DEAR MOTHER: + +Today is as lovely and fresh as the morning, a real spring +day, and I feel good in consequence. I have just come from a +couple of raids, where we had a very lively time, and some of +them had to pull their guns. I found it necessary to punch a +few sports myself. The old sergeant from headquarters treats +me like a son and takes the greatest pride in whatever I do or +write. He regularly assigns me now to certain doors, and I +always obey orders like the little gentleman that I am. +Instead of making me unpopular, I find it helps me with the +sports, though it hurts my chances professionally, as so many +of them know me now that I am no use in some districts. For +instance, in Mott and Pell streets, or in the Bowery, I am as +safe as any precinct detective. I tell you this to keep you +from worrying. They won't touch a man whom they think is an +agent or an officer. Only it spoils my chances of doing +reportorial-detective work. For instance, the captain of the +Bowery district refused me a detective the other morning to +take the Shippens around the Chinese and the tougher quarters +because he said they were as safe with me as with any of the +other men whose faces are as well known. To-night I am going to +take a party to the headquarters of the fire department, where I +have a cinch on the captain, a very nice fellow, who is unusually +grateful for something I wrote about him and his men. They are +going to do the Still Alarm act for me. + +These clippings all came out in to-day's paper. The ladies in +the Tombs were the Shippens, of course; and Mamie Blake is a +real girl, and the story is true from start to finish. I +think it is a pathetic little history. + +Give my love to all. I will bring on the story I have +finished and get you to make some suggestions. It is quite +short. Since Scribner's have been so civil, I think I will +give them a chance at the great prize. I am writing a comic +guide book and a history of the Haymarket for the paper; both +are rich in opportunities. This weather makes me feel like +another person. I will be so glad to get home. With lots of +love and kisses for you and Nora. + +DICK-O. + + +NEW YORK--1890. +DEAR CHAS: + +Brisbane has suggested to me that the Bradley story would lead +anyone to suppose that my evenings were spent in the boudoirs +of the horizontales of 34th Street and has scared me somewhat +in consequence. If it strikes you and Dad the same way don't +show it to Mother. Dad made one mistake by thinking I wrote a +gambling story which has made me nervous. It is hardly the +fair thing to suppose that a man must have an intimate +acquaintance with whatever he writes of intimately. A lot of +hunting people, for instance, would not believe that I had +written the "Traver's Only Ride" story because they knew I did +not hunt. Don't either you or Dad make any mistake about this. + +DICK. + +As a matter of fact they would not let me in the room, and I +don't know whether it abounded in signed etchings or +Bougereau's nymphs. + + +NEW YORK--1890. +DEAR FAMILY: + +Today has been more or less feverish. In the morning's mail I +received a letter from Berlin asking permission to translate +"Gallegher" into German, and a proof of a paragraph from The +Critic on my burlesque of Rudyard Kipling, which was meant to +please but which bored me. Then the "Raegen" story came in, +making nine pages of the Scribner's, which at ten dollars a +page ought to be $90. Pretty good pay for three weeks' work, +and it is a good story. Then at twelve a young man came +bustling into the office, stuck his card down on the desk and +said, "I am S. S. McClure. I have sent my London representative +to Berlin and my New York man to London. Will you take +charge of my New York end?" + +If he thought to rattle me he was very much out of it, for I +said in his same tone and manner, "Bring your New York +representative back and send me to London, and I'll consider +it. As long as I am in New York I will not leave The Evening +Sun." + +"Edmund Gosse is my London representative," he said; "you can +have the same work here. Come out and take lunch." +I said, "Thank you, I can't; I'll see you on Tuesday." + +"All right," he said. "I'll come for you. Think of what I +say. I'll make your fortune. Bradford Merrill told me to get +you. You won't have anything to do but ask people to write +novels and edit them. I'll send you abroad later if you don't +like New York. Can you write any children's stories for me?" + +"No," I said, "see you Tuesday." + +This is a verbal report of all and everything that was said. +I consider it a curious interview. It will raise my salary +here or I go. What do YOU think? +DICK. + + + +NEW YORK--1890. +DEAR FAMILY: + +The more I thought of the McClure offer the less I thought of +it. So I told him last night I was satisfied where I was, and +that the $75 he offered me was no inducement. Brisbane says I +will get $50 about the first of October, which is plenty and +enough for a young man who intends to be good to his folks. I +cannot do better than stay where I am, for it is understood +between Brisbane and Laffan that in the event of the former's +going into politics I shall take his place, which will suit +very well until something better turns up. Then there is the +chance of White's coming back and my going to Lunnon, which +would please me now more for what I think I could make of it +than what I think others have made of it. If I had gone to +McClure I would have been shelved and side-tracked, and I am +still in the running, and learning every day. +Brisbane and I have had our first serious difficulty +over Mrs. R----, who is staying with Mrs. "Bill." There is at +present the most desperate rivalry, and we discuss each +other's chances with great anger. He counts on his +transcontinental knowledge, but my short stories hit very +hard, and he is not in it when I sing "Thy Face Will Lead Me +On" and "When Kerrigan Struck High C." She has a fatal +fondness for Sullivan, which is most unfortunate, as Brisbane +can and does tell her about him by the half hour. Yesterday +we both tried to impress her by riding down in front of the +porch and showing off the horses and ourselves. Brisbane came +off best, though I came off quickest, for my horse put his +foot in a hole and went down on his knees, while I went over +his head like the White Knight in "Alice." I would think +nothing of sliding off a roof now. But I made up for this +mishap by coming back in my grey suit and having it compared +with the picture in The Century. It is a very close fight, +and, while Brisbane is chasing over town for photographs of +Sullivan, I am buying books of verses of which she seems to be +fond. As soon as she gets her divorce one of us is going to +marry her. We don't know which. She is about as beautiful a +woman as I ever saw, and very witty and well-informed, but it +would cost a good deal to keep her in diamonds. She wears +some the Queen gave her, but she wants more. + +DICK. + + +NEW YORK--1890. +DEAR MOTHER (LATE MA): + +I am well and with lots to do. I went up to see Hopper the +other night, which was the first time in three months that I +have been back of a theater, and it was like going home. +There is a smell about the painty and gassy and dusty place that +I love as much as fresh earth and newly cut hay, and the girls +look so pretty and bold lying around on the sets, and the men so +out of focus and with such startling cheeks and lips. They were +very glad to see me and made a great fuss. Then I've been to see +Carmencita dance, which I enjoyed remarkably, and I have been +reading Rudyard Kipling's short stories, and I think it is +disgusting that a boy like that should write such stories. He +hasn't left himself anything to do when he gets old. He reminds +me of Bret Harte and not a bit of Stevenson, to whom some of them +compare him. + +I am very glad you liked the lady in mid-air story so much, +but it wasn't a bit necessary to add the MORAL from a +MOTHER. I saw it coming up before I had read two lines; and +a very good moral it is, too, with which I agree heartily. +But, of course, you know it is not a new idea to me. Anything +as good and true as that moral cannot be new at this late +date. I went to the Brooklyn Handicap race yesterday. It is +one of the three biggest races of the year, and a man stood in +front of me in the paddock in a white hat. Another man asked +him what he was "playing." + +"Well," he said, "I fancy Fides myself." + +"Fides!" said his friend, "why, she ain't in it. She won't +see home. Raceland's the horse for your money; she's +favorite, and there isn't any second choice. But Fides! Why, +she's simply impossible. Raceland beat HER last Suburban." + +"Yes, I remember," said the man in the white hat, "but I fancy +Fides." + +Then another chap said to him, "Fides is all good enough on a +dust track on a sunny, pleasant day, but she can't ran in the +mud. She hasn't got the staying powers. She's a pretty one to +look at, but she's just a `grandstand' ladies' choice. She ain't +in it with Raceland or Erica. The horse YOU want is not a +pretty, dainty flyer, but a stayer, that is sure and that brings +in good money, not big odds, but good money. Why, I can name you +a dozen better'n Fides." + +"Still, somehow, I like Fides best," said the obstinate man in +the white hat. + +"But Fides will take the bit in her mouth and run away, or +throw the jock or break into the fence. She isn't steady. +She's all right to have a little bet on, just enough for a +flyer, but she's not the horse to plunge on. If you're a +millionaire with money to throw away, why, you might put some +of it up on her, but, as it is, you want to put your money +where it will be sure of a `place,' anyway. Now, let me mark +your card for you?" + +"No," said the man, "what you all say is reasonable, I see +that; but, somehow, I rather fancy Fides best." + +I've forgotten now whether Fides won or not, and whether she +landed the man who just fancied her without knowing why a +winner or sent him home broke. But, in any event, that is +quite immaterial, the story simply shows how obstinate some +men are as regards horses and--other uncertain critters. I +have no doubt but that the Methodist minister's daughter would +have made Hiram happy if he had loved her, but he didn't. No +doubt Anne ----, Nan ----, Katy ---- and Maude ---- would have +made me happy if they would have consented to have me and I +had happened to love them, but I fancied Fides. + +But now since I have scared you sufficiently, let me add for +your peace of mind that I've not enough +money to back any horses just at present, and before I put any +money up on any one of them for the Matrimonial stakes, I will +ask you first to look over the card and give me a few +pointers. I mayn't follow them, you know, but I'll give you a +fair warning, at any rate. + +"You're my sweetheart, I'm your beau." +DICK. + + +NEW YORK, May 29, 1890. + +This is just a little good night note to say how I wish I was +with you down at that dear old place and how much I love you +and Nora who is getting lovelier and sweeter and prettier +everyday and I know a pretty girl when I see 'em, Fides, for +instance. But I won't tease you about that any more. + +I finished a short silly story to night which I am in doubt +whether to send off or not. I think I will keep it until I +read it to you and learn what you think. + +Mr. Gilder has asked me to stay with them at Marion, and to go +to Cambridge with Mrs. Gilder and dear Mrs. Cleveland and +Grover Cleveland, when he reads the poem before D. K. E. + +I have bought a book on decorations, colored, and I am +choosing what I want, like a boy with a new pair of boots. + +Good-night, my dearest Mama. + +DICK. + + +In addition to his regular work on The Evening Sun, my +brother, as I have already said, was devoting a great part, of +his leisure moments to the writing of short stories, and had +made a tentative agreement with a well-known magazine to do a +series of short sketches of New York types. Evidently fearful +that Richard was writing too much and with a view to pecuniary +gain, my mother wrote the following note of warning: + + +PHILADELPHIA, 1890. +DEAR DICK: + +I wouldn't undertake the "types." For one thing, you will +lose prestige writing for ----'s paper. For another, I dread +beyond everything your beginning to do hack work for money. +It is the beginning of decadence both in work and reputation +for you. I know by my own and a thousand other people. Begin +to write because it "is a lot of money" and you stop doing +your best work. You make your work common and your prices +will soon go down. George Lewes managed George Eliot wisely. + +He stopped her hack work. Kept her at writing novels and soon +one each year brought her $40,000. I am taking a purely +mercenary view of the thing. There is another which you +understand better than I-- Mind your Mother's advice to +you--now and all the time is "do only your best work--even if +you starve doing it." But you won't starve. You'll get your +dinner at Martin's instead of Delmonico's, which won't hurt +you in the long run. Anyhow, $1000. for 12,500 words is not a +great price. + +That was a fine tea you gave. I should like to have heard the +good talk. It was like the regiment of brigadier generals +with no privates. + +Your + +MOTHER. + + +This is a letter written by my father after the publication of +Richard's story "A Walk up the Avenue." Richard frequently spoke +of his father as his "kindest and severest critic." + + +PHILADELPHIA, July 22nd, 1890. + +10.30 P. M. +MY DEAR Boy: + +You can do it; you have done it; it is all right. I have read +A Walk up the Avenue. It is far and away the best thing you +have ever done--Full of fine subtle thought, of rare, manly +feeling. + +I am not afraid of Dick the author. He's all right. I shall +only be afraid--when I am afraid--that Dick the man will not +live up to the other fellow, that he may forget how much the +good Lord has given him, and how responsible to the good Lord +and to himself he is and will be for it. A man entrusted with +such talent should carry himself straighter than others to +whom it is denied. He has great duties to do; he owes tribute +to the giver. + +Don't let the world's temptations in any of its forms come +between you and your work. Make your life worthy of your +talent, and humbly by day and by night ask God to help you to +do it. + +I am very proud of this work. It is good work, with brain, +bone, nerve, muscle in it. It is human, with healthy pulse +and heartsome glow in it. Remember, hereafter, you have by it +put on the bars against yourself preventing you doing any work +less good. You have yourself made your record, you can't +lower it. You can only beat it. + +Lovingly, +DAD. + + +In the latter part of December, 1890, Richard left The +Evening Sun to become the managing editor of +Harper's Weekly. George William Curtis was then its +editor, and at this time no periodical had a broader or +greater influence for the welfare of the country. As Richard +was then but twenty-six, his appointment to his new editorial +duties came as a distinct honor. The two years that Richard +had spent on The Evening Sun had been probably the happiest +he had ever known. He really loved New York, and at this time +Paris and London held no such place in his affections as they +did in later years. And indeed there was small reason why +these should not have been happy years for any young man. At +twenty-six Richard had already accomplished much, and his name +had become a familiar one not only to New Yorkers but +throughout the country. Youth and health he had, and many +friends, and a talent that promised to carry him far in the +profession he loved. His new position paid him a salary +considerably larger than he had received heretofore, and he +now demanded and received much higher terms for his stories. +All of which was well for Richard because as his income grew +so grew his tastes. I have known few men who cared less for +money than did my brother, and I have known few who cared more +for what it could buy for his friends and for himself. Money +to him, and, during his life he made very large sums of it, he +always chose to regard as income but never capital. A bond or +a share of stock meant to him what it would bring that day on +the Stock Exchange. The rainy day which is the bugaboo for +the most of us, never seemed to show on his horizon. For a +man whose livelihood depended on the lasting quality of his +creative faculties he had an infinite faith in the future, and +indeed his own experience seemed to show that he was +justified in this belief. It could not have been very long +after his start as a fiction writer that he received +as high a price for his work as any of his contemporaries; +and just previous to his death, more than twenty years +later, he signed a contract to write six stories +at a figure which, so far as I know, was the highest ever +offered an American author. In any case, money or the lack of +it certainly never caused Richard any worriment during the +early days of which I write. For what he made he worked +extremely hard, but the reputation and the spending of the money +that this same hard work brought him caused him infinite +happiness. He enjoyed the reputation he had won and the +friends that such a reputation helped him to make; he enjoyed +entertaining and being entertained, and he enjoyed pretty much +all of the good things of life. And all of this he enjoyed +with the naive, almost boyish enthusiasm that only one could +to whom it had all been made possible at twenty-six. Of these +happy days Booth Tarkington wrote at the time of my brother's +death: + +"To the college boy of the early nineties Richard Harding +Davis was the `beau ideal of jeunesse doree,' a +sophisticated heart of gold. He was of that college boy's own +age, but already an editor--already publishing books! His +stalwart good looks were as familiar to us as were those of +our own football captain; we knew his face as we knew the face +of the President of the United States, but we infinitely +preferred Davis's. When the Waldorf was wondrously completed, +and we cut an exam. in Cuneiform Inscriptions for an excursion +to see the world at lunch in its new magnificence, and Richard +Harding Davis came into the Palm Room--then, oh, then, our day +was radiant! That was the top of our fortune; we could never +have hoped for so much. Of all the great people of every +continent, this was the one we most desired to see." + +Richard's intimate friends of these days were Charles Dana +Gibson, who illustrated a number of my brother's stories, +Robert Howard Russell, Albert La Montagne, Helen Benedict, now +Mrs. Thomas Hastings, Ethel Barrymore, Maude Adams, E. H. +Sothern, his brother, Sam, and Arthur Brisbane. None of this +little circle was married at the time, its various members +were seldom apart, and they extracted an enormous amount of +fun out of life. I had recently settled in New York, and we +had rooms at 10 East Twenty-eighth Street, where we lived very +comfortably for many years. Indeed Richard did not leave them +until his marriage in the summer of 1899. They were very +pleasant, sunny rooms, and in the sitting-room, which Richard +had made quite attractive, we gave many teas and +supper-parties. But of all the happy incidents I can recall +at the Twenty-eighth Street house, the one I remember most +distinctly took place in the hallway the night that Richard +received the first statement and check for his first book of +short stories, and before the money had begun to come in as +fast as it did afterward. We were on our way to dinner at +some modest resort when we saw and at once recognized the long +envelope on the mantel. Richard guessed it would be for one +hundred and ninety dollars, but with a rather doubting heart I +raised my guess to three hundred. And when, with trembling +fingers, Richard had finally torn open the envelope and found +a check for nine hundred and odd dollars, what a wild dance we +did about the hall-table, and what a dinner we had that night! +Not at the modest restaurant as originally intended, but at +Delmonico's! It was during these days that Seymour Hicks and his +lovely wife Ellaline Terriss first visited America, and they and +Richard formed a mutual attachment that lasted until his death. + +Richard had always taken an intense interest in the drama, and +at the time he was managing editor of Harper's Weekly had +made his first efforts as a playwright. Robert Hilliard did a +one-act version of Richard's short story, "Her First +Appearance," which under the title of "The Littlest Girl" he +played in vaudeville for many years. E. H. Sothern and +Richard had many schemes for writing a play together, but the +only actual result they ever attained was a one-act version +Sothern did at the old Lyceum of my brother's story, "The +Disreputable Mr. Raegen." It was an extremely tense and +absorbing drama, and Sothern was very fine in the part of +Raegen, but for the forty-five minutes the playlet lasted +Sothern had to hold the stage continuously alone, and as it +preceded a play of the regulation length, the effort proved +too much for the actor's strength, and after a few +performances it was taken off. Although it was several years +after this that my brother's first long play was produced he +never lost interest in the craft of playwriting, and only +waited for the time and means to really devote himself to it. + + + +BOSTON, January 22nd, 1891. +DEAR FAMILY:-- + +This is just to say that I am alive and sleepy, and that my +head is still its normal size, although I have at last found +one man in Boston who has read one of my stories, and that was +Barrymore from New York. The Fairchilds' dinner was a +tremendous affair, and I was conquered absolutely by Mr. +Howells, who went far, far out of his way to be as kind and +charming as an old man could be. Yesterday Mrs. Whitman gave a +tea in her studio. I thought she meant to have a half dozen +young people to drink a cup with her, and I sauntered in in the +most nonchalant manner to find that about everybody had been +asked to meet me. And everybody came, principally owing to the +"Harding Davis" part of the name for they all spoke of mother +and so very dearly that it made me pretty near weep. +Everybody came from old Dr. Holmes who never goes any place, +to Mrs. "Jack" Gardner and all the debutantes. "I was on in +that scene." In the evening I went with the Fairchilds to +Mrs. Julia Ward Howe's to meet the S----s but made a point not +to as he was talking like a cad when I heard him and Mrs. +Fairchild and I agreed to be the only people in Boston who had +not clasped his hand. There were only a few people present +and Mrs. Howe recited the Battle Hymn of the Republic, which I +thought very characteristic of the city. To-day I posed again +and Cumnock took me over Cambridge and into all of the Clubs +where I met some very nice boys and felt very old. Then we +went to a tea Cushing gave in his rooms and to night I go to +Mrs. Deland's. But the mornings with the Fairchilds are the +best. +DICK. + + +In the spring of 1891 my mother and sister, Nora, went abroad +for the summer, and the following note was written to Richard +just before my mother sailed: + +DEAR DICK: + +This is just to give my dearest love to you my darling. Some +day at sea when I cannot hear you nor see you, +whenever it is that you get it--night or morning---you may be +sure that we are all loving and thinking of you. + +Keep close to the Lord. Your Lord who never has refused to +hear a prayer of yours. + +Just think that I have kissed you a thousand times. + +MOTHER. + + + +FRANKLIN SQUARE, NEW YORK. + +June, 1891. + +DEAR MOTHER: + +Your letters are a great delight to me but I think you are +going entirely too quickly. You do not feel it now but you +are simply hurrying through the courses of your long dinner so +rapidly that when dessert comes you will not be up to it. A +day or two's rest and less greed to see many things would be +much more fun I should think, and you will enjoy those days +more to look back to when you wandered around some little town +by yourselves and made discoveries than those you spent doing +what you feel you ought to do. Excuse this lecture but I know +that when I got to Paris I wanted to do nothing but sit still +and read and let "sights" go-- You will soon learn not to +duplicate and that one cathedral will answer for a dozen. And +I am disappointed in your mad desire to get to Edinboro to get +letters from home, as though you couldn't get letters from me +every day of your life and as if there were not enough of you +together to keep from getting homesick. I am ashamed of you. +But that is all the scolding I have to do for I do not know +what has given me more pleasure than your letters and Nora's +especially. They tell me the best news in the world and that +is, that you are all getting as much happiness out of it as I +have prayed you would. I may go over in September myself. +But I would only go to London. Now, then for Home news. +I have sold the "Reporter Who Made Himself King" to +McClure's for $300. to be published in the syndicate in +August. I have finished "Her First Appearance" and Gibson +is doing the illustrations, three. I got $175. for it. + +I am now at work on a story about Arthur Cumnock, Harvard's +football captain who was the hero of Class Day. It will come +out this week and will match Lieut. Grant's chance. In July +I begin a story called the "Traveller's Tale" which will be +used in the November Harper. That is all _I_ am doing. + +So far the notices of "Gallegher" have been very good, I mean +the English ones. + +I went up to Class Day on Friday and spent the day with Miss +Fairchild and Miss Howells and with Mr. H. for chaperone. He +is getting old and says he never deserved the fuss they made +over him. We had a pretty perfect day although it threatened +rain most of the time. We wandered around from one spread to +another meeting beautifully dressed girls everywhere and +"lions" and celebrities. Then the fight for the roses around +the tree was very interesting and picturesque and arena like +and the best of all was sitting in the broad window seats of +the dormitories with a Girl or two, generally "a" girl and +listening to the glee club sing and watching the lanterns and +the crowds of people as beautiful as Redfern could make them. + +Half of Seabright was burnt down last week but not my half, +although the fire destroyed all the stores and fishermen's +houses and stopped only one house away +from Pannachi's, where I will put up. I am very well and +content and look forward to much pleasure this summer at +Seabright and much work. I find I have seldom been so happy +as when working hard and fast as I have been forced to do +these last two weeks and so I will keep it up. Not in such a +way as to hurt me but just enough to keep me happy. +DICK. + + +NEW YORK, August 1891. +From The Pall Mall Budget Gazette. + +"The Americans are saying, by the way, that they have +discovered a Rudyard Kipling of their own. This is Mr. +Richard Harding Davis, a volume of whose stories has been +published this week by Mr. Osgood. Mr. Davis is only +twenty-six, was for sometime on the staff of the New York +Evening Sun. He is now the editor of Harper's Weekly." + +That is me. I have also a mother and sister who once went to +London and what do you think they first went to see, in +London, mind you. They got into a four wheeler and they said +"cabby drive as fast as you can," not knowing that four +wheelers never go faster than a dead march--" to--" where do +you think? St. Paul's, the Temple, the Abbey, their lodgings, +the Houses of Parliament--the Pavilion Music Hall--the +Tower--no to none of these--"To the Post Office." That is +what my mother and sister did! After this when they hint that +they would like to go again and say "these muffins are not +English muffins" and "do you remember the little Inn at +Chester, ah, those were happy days," I will say, "And do you +remember the Post Office in Edinburgh and London. We have none +such in America." And as they only go abroad to get letters they +will hereafter go to Rittenhouse Square and I will write letters +to them from London. All this shows that a simple hurriedly +written letter from Richard Harding Davis is of more value than +all the show places of London. It makes me quite PROUD. And so +does this: + +"`Gallegher' is as good as anything of Bret Harte's, although +it is in Mr. Davis's own vein, not in the borrowed vein of +Bret Harte or anybody else. `The Cynical Miss Catherwaight' +is very good, too, and `Mr. Raegen' is still better." + +But on the other hand, it makes me tired, and so does this: + +"`The Other Woman' is a story which offends good taste in more +than one way. It is a blunder to have written it, a greater +blunder to have published it, and a greater blunder STILL to +have republished it." + +I suppose now that Dad has crossed with Prince George and Nora +has seen the Emperor, that you will be proud too. But you +will be prouder of your darling boy Charles, even though he +does get wiped out at Seabright next week and you will be even +prouder when he writes great stories for The Evening Sun. + +RICHARD. + + +The Players, + +16 Gramercy Park. + +24th, 1891. +DEAR FAMILY: + +I had a great day at the game and going there and coming back. +I met a great many old football men and almost all of them +spoke of the "Out of the Game" story. Cumnock, Camp, Poe, +Terry and lots more whose names mean nothing to you, so +ignorant are you, were there and we had long talks. +I went to see Cleveland yesterday about a thing of which I +have thought much and talked less and that was going into +politics in this country. To say he discouraged me in so +doing would be saying the rain is wet. He seemed to think +breaking stones as a means of getting fame and fortune was +quicker and more genteel. I also saw her and the BABY. She +explained why she had not written you and also incidentally +why she HAD written Childs. I do not know as what Cleveland +said made much impression upon me--although I found out what I +could expect from him--that is nothing here but apparently a +place abroad if I wanted it. But he thought Congress was +perfectly feasible but the greatest folly to go there. +DICK. + + + +CHAPTER V +FIRST TRAVEL ARTICLES + + +For Richard these first years in New York were filled to +overflowing with many varied interests, quite enough to +satisfy most young men of twenty-seven. He had come and seen +and to a degree, so far as the limitation of his work would +permit, had conquered New York, but Richard thoroughly +realized that New York was not only a very small part of the +world but of his own country, and that to write about his own +people and his own country and other people and other lands he +must start his travels at an early age, and go on travelling +until the end. And for the twenty-five years that followed +that was what Richard did. Even when he was not on his +travels but working on a novel or a play at Marion or later on +at Mount Kisco, so far as it was possible he kept in touch +with events that were happening and the friends that he had +made all over the globe. He subscribed to most of the English +and French illustrated periodicals and to one London daily +newspaper which every day he read with the same interest that +he read half a dozen New York newspapers and the interest was +always that of the trained editor at work. Richard was not +only physically restless but his mind practically never +relaxed. When others, tired after a hard day's work or +play, would devote the evening to cards or billiards +or chatter, Richard would write letters or pore over +some strange foreign magazine, consult maps, make notes, or +read the stories of his contemporaries. He practically read +every American magazine from cover to cover--advertisements +were a delight to him, and the finding of a new writer gave +him as much pleasure as if he had been the fiction editor who +had accepted the first story by the embryo genius. The +official organs of our army and navy he found of particular +interest. Not only did he thus follow the movements of his +friends in these branches of the service but if he read of a +case wherein he thought a sailor or a soldier had been done an +injustice he would promptly take the matter up with the +authorities at Washington, and the results he obtained were +often not only extremely gratifying to the wronged party but +caused Richard no end of pleasure. + +According to my brother's arrangement with the Harpers, he was +to devote a certain number of months of every year to the +editing of The Weekly, and the remainder to travel and the +writing of his experiences for Harper's Monthly. He started +on the first of these trips in January, 1892, and the result +was a series of articles which afterward appeared under the +title of "The West from a Car Window." + +January, 1892. +(Some place in Texas) + +I left St. Louis last night, Wednesday, and went to bed and +slept for twelve hours. To-day has been most trying and I +shall be very glad to get on dry land again. The snow has +ceased although the papers say this is the coldest snap they +have had in San Antonio in ten years. It might have waited a +month for me I think. It has been a most dreary trip from +a car window point of view. Now that the snow has gone, there +is mud and ice and pine trees and colored people, but no +cowboys as yet. They talk nothing but Chili and war and they +make such funny mistakes. We have a G. A. R. excursion on the +train, consisting of one fat and prosperous G. A. R., the rest +of the excursion having backed out on account of Garza who the +salient warriors imagine as a roaring lion seeking whom he may +devour. One old chap with white hair came on board at a +desolate station and asked for "the boys in blue" and was very +much disgusted when he found that "that grasshopper Garza" had +scared them away-- He had tramped five miles through the mud +to greet a possible comrade and was much chagrined. The +excursion shook hands with him and they took a drink together. +The excursion tells me he is a glass manufacturer, an owner of +a slate quarry and the best embalmer of bodies in the country. +He says he can keep them four years and does so "for +specimens" those that are left on his hands and others he +purchases from the morgue. He has a son who is an actor and +he fills me full of the most harrowing tales of Indian warfare +and the details of the undertaking business. He is SO funny +about the latter that I weep with laughter and he cannot see +why-- Joe Jefferson and I went to a matinee on Wednesday and +saw Robson in "She stoops to Conquer." The house was +absolutely packed and when Joe came in the box they yelled and +applauded and he nodded to them in the most fatherly, friendly +way as though to say "How are you, I don't just remember your +name but I'm glad to see you--" It was so much sweeter than if +he had got up and bowed as I would have done. + + +SAN ANTONIO + +I knew more about Texas than the Texans and when they told me +I would find summer here I smiled knowingly-- That is all the +smiling I have done---Did you ever see a stage set for a +garden or wood scene by daylight or Coney Island in +March--that is what the glorious, beautiful baking city of San +Antonio is like. There is mud and mud and mud--in cans, in +the gardens of the Mexicans and snow around the palms and +palmettos-- Does the sun shine anywhere? Are people ever +warm-- It is raw, ugly and muddy, the Mexicans are merely +dirty and not picturesque. I am greatly disappointed. But I +have set my teeth hard and I will go on and see it through to +the bitter end-- But I will not write anything for publication +until I can take a more cheerful view of it. I already have +reached the stage where I admit the laugh is on me-- But there +is still London to look forward to and this may get better +when the sun comes out---I went to the fort to-day and was +most courteously received. But they told me I should go on to +Laredo, if I expected to see any campaigning-- There is no +fighting nor is any expected but they say they will give me a +horse and I can ride around the chaparral as long as I want. +I will write you from Laredo, where I go to-morrow, Saturday-- + +DICK. + + +At Laredo Richard left the beaten track of the traveller, and +with Trooper Tyler, who acted as his guide, joined Captain +Hardie in his search for Garza. The famous revolutionist was +supposed to be in hiding this side of the border, and the +Mexican Government had asked the United States to find him and +return him to the officials of his own country. + + +In Camp, February 2nd. +DEAR MOTHER:-- + +We have stopped by the side of a trail for a while and I will +take the chance it gives me to tell you what I have been +doing. After Tyler and I returned to camp, we had a day of +rest before Captain Hardie arrived. He is a young, +red-moustached, pointed-bearded chap with light blue eyes, +rough with living in the West but most kind hearted and +enthusiastic. He treats me as though I were his son which is +rather absurd as he is only up to my shoulder. It is so hot I +cannot make the words go straight and you must not mind if I +wander. We are hugging a fence for all the shade there is and +the horses and men have all crawled to the dark side of it and +are sleeping or swearing at the sun. It is about two o'clock +and we have been riding since half-past seven. I have had a +first rate time but I do not see that there has been much in +it to interest any one but myself and where Harper Brothers +or the "gentle reader" comes in, I am afraid I cannot see, and +if I cannot see it I fear he will be in a bad way. It has +pleased and interested me to see how I could get along under +difficult circumstances and with so much discomfort but as I +say I was not sent out here to improve my temper or my health +or to make me more content with my good things in the East. +If we could have a fight or something that would excuse and +make a climax for all this marching and reconnoitering and +discomfort the story would have a suitable finale and a raison +d'etre. However, I may get something out of it if only to abuse +the Government for their stupidity in chasing a jack rabbit with +a brass band or by praising the men for doing their duty when +they know there is no duty to be done. This country is more +like the ocean than anything else and drives one crazy with +its monotony and desolation. And to think we went to war with +Mexico for it-- To-day is my tenth day with the troops in the +camp and in the field and I will leave them as soon as this +scout is over which will be in three days at the most. Then I +will go to Corpus Christi and from there to the ranches but I +will wait until I get baths, hair cuts and a dinner and cool +things to drink-- One thing has pleased me very much and that +is that I, with Tyler and the Mexican Scout made the second +best riding record of the troop since they have been in the +field this winter. The others rode 115 miles in 32 hours, +four of them under the first Sergeant, after revolutionists, +and we made 110 miles in 33 hours. The rest of the detachment +made 90 miles and our having the extra thirty to our credit +was an accident. On the 31st Hardie sent out the scout and +two troopers, of which Tyler was one, to get a trail and as I +had been resting and loafing for three days, I went out with +them. We left at eight after breakfast and returned at seven, +having made thirty miles. When we got in we found that a +detachment was going out on information sent in while we were +out. Tyler was in it and so we got fresh horses and put out +at nine o'clock by moonlight. That was to keep the people in +the ranch from knowing we were going out. We rode until +half-past three in the morning and then camped at the side of +the road until half--past six, when we rode on until five in +the afternoon. The men who were watching to see me give up grew +more and more interested as the miles rolled out and the First +Sergeant was very fearful for his record for which he has been +recommended for the certificate of merit. The Captain was +very much pleased and all the men came and spoke to me. It +must have been a good ride for Tyler who is a fifth year man +was so tired that he paid a man to do his sentry duty. We +slept at Captain Hunter's camp that last night and we both +came on this morning, riding thirty miles up to two o'clock +to-day. From here we go on into the brush again. I am very +proud of that riding record and of my beard which is fine. I +will finish this when we get near a post-office. + +DICK. + + +February 4th-- We rode forty miles through the brush but saw +nothing of Garza, who was supposed to be in it. But we +captured 3 revolutionists, one of whom ran away but the scout +got him. Hardie, Tyler, who is his orderly, and the scout and +I took them in because the rest of the column was lagging in +the rear and the Lieutenant got bally hooly for it. Tyler +disarmed one and I took away the other chaps things. Then we +took a fourth in and let them all go for want of evidence and +after some of the ranch men had identified them. + + +CORPUS CHRISTI, February 6. + +We ended our scout yesterday, and camped at Captain Hunter's +last night-- Mother can now rest her soul in peace as I have +done with scoutings and have replaced the free and easy belt +and revolver for the black silk suspenders and the fire badge +of civilization. I am still covered with 11 days dirt but +will get lots of good things to eat and drink and smoke +at Corpus Christi to night, where I will stay for two days. I +am writing this on the car and a ranger is shooting splinters +out of the telegraph poles from the window in front and has a +New York drummer in a state of absolute nervous prostration. +I met the Rangers last night as we came into camp and find +them quite the most interesting things yet. They are just +what I expected to find here and have not disappointed me. +Everything else is either what we know it to be and know all +about or else is disappointingly commonplace. I mean we know +certain things are picturesque and I find them so but they +have been "done" to death and new material seems so scarce. I +am sometimes very fearful of the success of the letters-- +However, the Rangers I simply loved. They were gentle voiced +and did not swear as the soldiers do and some of them were as +handsome men as I ever saw and SO BIG. And such children. +They showed me all their tricks at the request of the Adjutant +General, who looks upon them as his special property. They +shot four shots into a tree with a revolver, going at full +gallop, hit a mark with both hands at once, shot with the +pistol upside down and the Captain put eight shots into a +board with a Winchester, while I was putting two into the +field around it. We got along very well indeed and they were +quite keen for me to go back and chase Garza. They are sure +they have him now. I gave the Captain permission to put four +shots into my white helmet. He only put two and the rest of +the company thinking their reputations were at stake whipped +out their guns and snatched up their rifles and blazed away +until they danced the hat all over the ranch. Then remorse +overcame them and they proposed taking up a collection to get me +a sombrero, which I stopped. So Nora's hat is gone but I am +going to get another and save myself from sunstroke again. The +last part of the ride was enlivened by the presence of three +Mexican murderers handcuffed and chained with iron bands around +the neck, that is Texas civilization isn't it-- + +I have had my dinner and a fine dinner it was with fresh fish +and duck and oysters and segars which I have not had for a +week. I am finishing this at Constantine's and will be here +for two days to write things and will then go on to King's +ranch and from there to San Antonio, where I will also rest a +week. I will just about get through my schedule in the ten +weeks at this rate. I had a good time in the bush and am +enjoying it very much though it is lonely now and then-- +Still, it is very interesting and if the stories amount to +anything I will be pleased but I am constantly wondering how +on earth Chas stood it as he did. He is a hero to me for I +have some hope of getting back and he had not-- He is a +sport-- How I will sleep to night--a real bed and sheets and +pajamas, after the ground and the same clothes for eleven +days. + +of love. + +DICK. + + +While Richard was travelling in the West, his second volume of +short stories, "Van Bibber and Others," was published. The +volume was dedicated to my father, who wrote Richard the +following letter: + + +PHILADELPHIA, February 15, 1892. +MY DEAR OWN DICK: + +I have not been the complete letter writer I should have been, +as I told you on Saturday, but I know you +will understand. Your two good letters came this evening, +one to Mamma and one to Nora. They were a good deal to us +all, most, of course, to your dear mother and sister, who have +a fond, foolish fancy or love for you--strange--isn't it? +Yes, dear boy, I liked the new story very, very much. It was +in your best book and in fine spirit, and I liked, too, the +dedication of the book--its meaning and its manner. I am glad +to be associated with my dear boy and with his work even in +that brief way. You may not yet thought about it after this +fashion, but I have thought a good deal about it. Reports +come to me of you from many sources, and they are all good, +and they all reflect honor upon me-- Upon me as I'm getting +ready to salute the world, as our French friends say. It is +very pleasant to me as I think it over to feel and to know +that my boy has honored my name, that he has done something +good and useful in the world and for the world. I have +something more than pride in you. I am grateful to you. If +this is a little prosie, dear old fellow, forgive it. It is +late at night and I am a little tired, and being tired stupid. +You saw The Atlantic notice of your work. I wish you could +have heard Nora on the author of it, who would not have been +happy in his mind if he had unhappily heard her. She went for +that Heathen Chinee like a wild cat. No disrespect to her, +but, all the same, like a wild cat. To me it was interesting. +I did not agree with it, but here and there I saw the flash of +truth even in the adverse praise. I should have had more +respect for the author's opinion if he had liked that vital +speck, Raegen. If he could not see the divine, human spark in +that--a flash from Calvary, what is the use of considering +him? My greatest pride in you, that which has added some +sweetness and joy to my life, has been the recognition that +something of the divine element was given you, and that your +voice rang out sweet and pure at a time when other voices were +sounding the fascinations of impurity. That, like Christ, you +taught humanity. Don't be afraid of being thought "fresh," fear +to be thought "knowing." Life isn't much worth at best,--it is +worth nothing at all unless some good be done in it---the more, +the better. Don't make it too serious either. Enjoy it as you +go, but after a fashion that will bring no reproach to your +manhood. Don't be afraid to preach the truth and above all the +religion of humanity. Good night, dear boy. I'm a little tired +to night. +With great love, + +DAD. + + +ANADARKO-February 26th, 1892. +DEAR FAMILY:-- + +I could not write you before as I have been traveling from +pillars to posts, (a joke), in a stage, night and day. I went +to Fort Reno from Oklahoma City where they drove me crazy +almost with town lots and lot sites and homestead holdings. +It was all raw and mean, and greedy for money and a man is +much better off in every way in a tenement on Second Avenue +than the "owner of his own home" in one of these mushroom +cities-- So I think. I went to Fort Reno by stage and it +seemed to me that I was really in the West for the first time-- +The rest has been as much like the oil towns around Pittsburgh +as anything else. But here there are rolling prairie lands with +millions of prairie dogs and deep canons and bluffs of red clay +that stand out as clear as a razor hollowed and carved +away by the water long ago. And the grass is as high as a +stirrup and the trees very plentiful after the plains of +Texas. The men at Fort Reno were the best I have met, indeed +I am just a little tired of trying to talk of things of +interest to the Second Lieutenant's intellect. But I had to +leave there because I had missed the beef issue and had to see +it and as it was due here I pushed on. This post is very +beautiful but the men are very young and civil appointments +mainly, which means that they have not been to West Point but +had fathers and have friends with influence and they are +fresh. But the scenery around the post is delightfully wild +and big and there is an Indian camp at the foot of the hill on +which the fort is stuck. Mother, instead of going to Europe, +should come here and see her Indians. Only if she did she +would bring a dozen or more of the children back with her. +They are the brightest spot in my trip and I spend the +mornings and afternoons trying to get them to play with me. +They are very shy and pretty and beautifully barbaric and wear +the most gorgeous trappings. The women, the older ones, are +the ugliest women I ever saw. But the men are fine. I never +saw such color as they give to the landscape and one always +thinks they have dressed up just to please you. I have spent +most of my time and money in buying things from them but they +are very dear because the Indians take long to make them and +do not like to part with them. I have had rough times lately +but I think I would be content to remain in the west six +months if I could. It is the necessity of leaving places I +like and pushing on to places I don't, I dislike. Reno was +fine with a band and lots of fine fellows. This post is not +so queer but they are so young-- It makes a great bit of color +though with the yellow capes of the cavalry and the soldiers +wig--waging red and white flags at other soldiers eight miles +away on other mountains and the Indians in yellow buckskin and +blankets and their faces painted too. I went to the beef +issue to-day--it was not a pretty sight and most barbarous and +cruel. I also went to a council at which the chiefs were +protesting against the cutting down of their rations which is +Commissioner Morgan's doing and which it is expected will lead +to war-- We went in out of curiosity and without knowing it +was a Council and were very much ashamed when one of the +Chiefs rose and said he was glad to see the officers present +as they were the best friends the Indians had and the only men +they could respect in times of peace as a friend, or in times +of war as an enemy. At which we took off our hats and sat it +through. Mother's blood would rise if she could hear the +stories they tell, and they are so dignified and polite. They +have an Indian troop here, like the one described in The +Weekly, which you should read and the Captain told them I was +a great Chief from the East, whereat all the soldiers who were +of noble lineage claimed their privilege of shaking hands with +me, which had a demoralizing effect upon the formation and the +white privates were either convulsed with mirth or red with +indignation. But you cannot treat them like white men who do +not know their ancestors-- Dad's letter was the best I have +ever got from him and he had always better write when he is +tired. I will always keep it. + +DICK. + + +DENVER--March 7, 1892. +DEAR FAMILY: + +I arrived in Denver Friday night and realized that I was +in a city again where the more you order people +about the more they do for you, being civilized and so +understanding that you mean to tip them. I found my first +letter on the newsstand and was very much pleased with it, and +with the way they put it out. The proof was perfect and if +there had been more pictures I would have been entirely +satisfied, as it was I was very much pleased. My baggage had +not come, so covered with mud and dust and straw from the +stages and generally disreputable I went to see a burlesque, +and said "Front row, end seat," just as naturally as though I +was in evening dress and high hat--and then I sank into a +beautiful deep velvet chair and saw Amazon marches and ladies +in tights and heard the old old jokes and the old old songs we +know so well and sing so badly. The next morning I went for +my mail and the entire post office came out to see me get it. +It took me until seven in the evening to finish it, and I do +not know that it will ever be answered. The best of it was +that you were all pleased with my letters. That put my mind +at rest. Then there was news of deaths and marriages and +engagements and the same people doing the same things they did +when I went away. I did not intend to present any letters as +I was going away that night to Creede, but I found I could not +get any money unless some one identified me so I presented one +to a Mr. Jerome who all the bankers said they would be only +too happy to oblige. After one has been variously taken for a +drummer, photographer and has been offered so much a line to +"write up" booming towns, it is a relief to get back to a +place where people know you.--I told Mr. Jerome I had a letter +of introduction and that I was Mr. Davis and he shook hands +and then looked at the letter and said "Good Heavens are you +that Mr. Davis" and then rushed off and brought back the entire +establishment brokers, bankers and mine owners and they all sat +around and told me funny stories and planned more things for me +to do and eat than I could dispose of in a month. + +I am now en route to Creede. Creede when you first see it in +print looks like creede but after you have been in Denver or +Colorado even for one day it reads like C R E E D E. All the +men on this car think they are going to make their fortunes, +and toward that end they have on new boots and flannel shirts, +and some of them seeing my beautiful clothing and careful +array came over and confided to me that they were really not +so tough as they looked and had never worn a flannel shirt +before. This car is typical of what they told me I would find +at Creede. There are rich mine owners who are pointed out by +the conductor as the fifth part owner of the "Pot Luck" mine, +and dudes in astrakan fur coats over top boots and new flannel +shirts, and hardened old timers with their bedding and tin +pans, who have prospected all over the state and women who are +smoking and drinking. + +I feel awfully selfish whenever I look out of the car window. +Switzerland which I have never seen is a spot on the map +compared to this. The mountains go up with snow on one side +and black rows of trees and rocks on the other, and the clouds +seem packed down between them. The sun on the snow and the +peaks peering above the clouds is all new to me and so very +beautiful that I would like to buy a mountain and call it +after my best girl. I will finish this when I get to Creede. +I expect to make my fortune there. +DICK. + +CREEDE, March 7. + +A young man in a sweater and top boots met me at the depot and +said that I was Mr. Davis and that he was a young man whose +life I had written in "There was 90 and 9." He was from +Buffalo and was editing a paper in Creede. He said I was to +stop with him-- Creede is built of new pine boards and lies +between two immense mountains covered with pines and snow. +The town is built in the gulley and when the spring freshets +come will be a second Johnstown. Faber, the young man, took +me to the Grub State Cabin where I found two most amusing +dudes and thoroughbred sports from Boston, Harvard men living +in a cabin ten by eight with four bunks and a stove, two +banjos and H O P E. They own numerous silver mines, lots, and +shares, but I do not believe they have five dollars in cash +amongst them. They have a large picture of myself for one of +the ORNAMENTS and are great good fellows. We sat up in our +bunks until two this morning talking and are planning to go to +Africa and Mexico and Asia Minor together.--Lots of love. +DICK. + + +Very happy indeed to be back in his beloved town, Richard +returned to New York late in March, 1892, and resumed his +editorial duties. But on this occasion his stay was of +particularly short duration, and in May, he started for his +long-wished-for visit to London. The season there was not yet +in full swing, and after spending a few days in town, +journeyed to Oxford, where he settled down to amuse himself +and collect material for his first articles on English life as +he found it. In writing of this visit to Oxford, H. J. +Whigham, one of Richard's oldest friends, and who afterward +served with him in several campaigns, said: + +"When we first met Richard Harding Davis he was living, to all +practical purposes, the life of an undergraduate at Balliol +College, Oxford. Anyone at all conversant with the customs of +universities, especially with the idiosyncrasies of Oxford, +knows that for a person who is not an undergraduate to share +the life of undergraduates on equal terms, to take part in +their adventures, to be admitted to their confidence is more +difficult than it is for the camel to pass through the eye of +a needle or for the rich man to enter heaven. It was +characteristic of Davis that although he was a few years older +than the average university "man" and came from a strange +country and, moreover, had no official reason for being at +Oxford at all, he was accepted as one of themselves by the +Balliol undergraduates, in fact, lived in Balliol for at least +a college term, and happening to fall in with a somewhat +enterprising generation of Balliol men he took the lead in +several escapades which have been written into Oxford history. +There is in the makeup of the best type of college +undergraduate a wonderful spirit of adventure, an unprejudiced +view of life, an almost Quixotic feeling for romance, a +disdain of sordid or materialistic motives, which together +make the years spent at a great university the most golden of +the average man's career. These characteristics Davis was +fortunate enough to retain through all the years of his life. +The same spirit that took him out with a band of Oxford youths +to break down an iron barrier set by an insolent landowner +across the navigable waters of Shakespeare's Avon carried him, +in after years, to the battlefields where Greece fought +against the yoke of Turkey, to the insurrecto camps of Cuba, +to the dark horrors of the Congo, to Manchuria, where gallant +Japan beat back the overwhelming power of Russia, to Belgium, +where he saw the legions of Germany trampling over the +prostrate bodies of a small people. Romance was never dead +while Davis was alive." + +That Richard lost no time in making friends at Oxford as, +indeed, he never failed to do wherever he went, the following +letters to his mother would seem to show: + + +OXFORD--May, 1892. +DEAR FAMILY: + +I came down here on Saturday morning with the Peels, who gave +an enormous boating party and luncheon on a tiny little +island. The day was beautiful with a warm brilliant sun, and +the river was just as narrow and pretty as the head of the +Squan river, and with old walls and college buildings added. +We had the prettiest Mrs. Peel in our boat and Mrs. Joseph +Chamberlain, who was Miss Endicott and who is very sweet and +pretty. We raced the other punts and rowboats and soon, after +much splashing and exertion, reached the head of the river. +Then we went to, tea in New College and to see the sights of +the different colleges now on the Thames. The barges of the +colleges, painted different colors and gilded like circus +band-wagons and decorated with coats of arms and flying great +flags, lined the one shore for a quarter of a mile and were +covered by girls in pretty frocks and under-grads in blazers. +Then the boats came into sight one after another with the men +running alongside on the towpath. This was one of the most +remarkable sights of the country so far. There were over six +hundred men coming six abreast, falling and stumbling and +pushing, shouting and firing pistols. It sounded like a +cavalry charge and the line seemed endless. The whole thing +was most theatrical and effective. Then we went to the annual +dinner of the Palmerston Club, where I made a speech which was, +as there is no one else to tell you, well received, "being +frequently interrupted with applause," from both the diners and +the ladies in the gallery. It was about Free Trade and the way +America was misrepresented in the English papers, and composed +of funny stories which had nothing to do with the speech. I +did not know I was going to speak until I got there, and +considering the fact, as Wilson says, that your uncle was playing +on a strange table with a crooked cue he did very well. The +next morning we breakfasted with the Bursar of Trinity and had +luncheon with the Viscount St. Cyres to meet Lord and Lady +Coleridge. St. Cyres is very shy and well-bred, and we would +have had a good time had not the M. P.'s present been filled +with awe of the Lord Chief Justice and failed to draw him out. +As it was he told some very funny stories; then we went to tea +with Hubert Howard, in whose rooms I live and am now writing, +and met some stupid English women and shy girls. Then we +dined with the dons at New College, so--called because it is +eight hundred years old. We sat at a high table in a big hall +hung with pictures and lit by candles. The under-grads sat +beneath in gowns and rattled pewter mugs. We all wore evening +dress and those that had them red and white fur collars. +After dinner we left the room according to some process of +selection, carrying our napkins with us. We entered a room +called the Commons, where we drank wines and ate nuts and +raisins. It was all very solemn and dull and very dignified. +Outside it was quite light although nine o'clock. Then we +marched to another room where there were cigars and brandy +and soda, but Arthur Pollen and I had to go and take coffee +with the Master of Balliol, the only individual of whom Pollen +stands in the least awe. He was a dear old man who said, "O +yes, you're from India," and on my saying "No, from America"; +he said, "O yes, it's the other one." I found the other one +was an Indian princess in a cashmere cloak and diamonds, who +looked so proud and lovely and beautiful that I wanted to take +her out to one of the seats in the quadrangle and let her weep +on my shoulder. How she lives among these cold people I +cannot understand. We were all to go to a concert in the +chapel, and half of the party started off, but the Master's +wife said, "Oh, I am sure the Master expects them to wait for +him in the hall. It is always done." At which all the women +made fluttering remarks of sympathy and the men raced off to +bring the others back. Only the Indian girl and I remained +undisturbed and puzzled. The party came back, but the Master +saw them and said, "Well, it does not matter, but it is +generally done." At which we all felt guilty. When we got to +the chapel everybody stood up until the Master's party sat +down, but as it was broken in the middle of the procession, +they sat down, and then, seeing we had not all passed, got up +again, so that I felt like saying, "As you were, men," as they +do out West in the barracks. Then Lord Coleridge in taking +off his overcoat took off his undercoat, too, and stood +unconscious of the fact before the whole of Oxford. The faces +of the audience which packed the place were something +wonderful to see; their desire to laugh at a tall, red-faced +man who looks like a bucolic Bill Nye struggling into his +coat, and then horror at seeing the Chief Justice in his +shirt-sleeves, was a terrible effort--and no one would help him, +on the principle, I suppose, that the Queen of Spain has no legs. +He would have been struggling yet if I had not, after watching +him and Lady Coleridge struggling with him, for a full minute, +taken his coat and firmly pulled the old gentleman into it, at +which he turned his head and winked. + +I will go back to town by the first to see the Derby and will +get into lodgings there. I AM HAVING A VERY GOOD TIME AND AM +VERY WELL. The place is as beautiful as one expects and yet +all the time startling one with its beauty. + +DICK. + + +When the season at Oxford was over Richard returned to London +and took a big sunny suite of rooms in the Albany. Here he +settled down to learn all he could of London, its ways and its +people. In New York he had already met a number of English +men and women distinguished in various walks of life, and with +these as a nucleus he soon extended his circle of friends +until it became as large as it was varied. In his youth, and +indeed throughout his life, Richard had the greatest affection +for England and the English. No truer American ever lived, +but he thought the United States and Great Britain were bound +by ties that must endure always. He admired British habits, +their cosmopolitanism and the very simplicity of their mode of +living. He loved their country life, and the swirl of London +never failed to thrill him. During the last half of his life +Richard had perhaps as many intimate friends in London as in +New York. His fresh point of view, his very eagerness to +understand theirs, made them welcome him more as one of their +own people than as a stranger. + +LONDON, June 3, 1892. +DEAR FAMILY: + +I went out to the Derby on Wednesday and think it is the most +interesting thing I ever saw over here. It is SO like these +people never to have seen it. It seems to be chiefly composed +of costermongers and Americans. I got a box-seat on a public +coach and went out at ten. We rode for three hours in a +procession of donkey shays, omnibuses, coaches, carriages, +vans, advertising wagons; every sort of conveyance stretching +for sixteen miles, and with people lining the sides to look +on. I spent my time when I got there wandering around over +the grounds, which were like Barnum's circus multiplied by +thousands. It was a beautiful day and quite the most +remarkable sight of my life. Much more wonderful than +Johnstown, so you see it must have impressed me. We were five +hours getting back, the people singing all the way and pelting +one another and saying funny impudent things. + +My rooms are something gorgeous. They are on the first floor, +looking into Piccadilly from a court, and they are filled with +Hogarth's prints, old silver, blue and white china, Zulu +weapons and fur rugs, and easy chairs of India silk. You +never saw such rooms! And a very good servant, who cooks and +valets me and runs errands and takes such good care of me that +last night Cust and Balfour called at one to get some supper +and he would not let them in. Think of having the Leader of +the House of Commons come to ask you for food and having him +sent away. Burdett-Coutts heard of my being here in the +papers and wrote me to dine with him tonight. I lunched with +the Tennants today; no relation to Mrs. Stanley, and it was +informal and funny rather. The Earl of Spender was there and +Lord Pembroke and a lot of women. They got up and walked about +and changed places and seemed to know one another better than we +do at home. I think I will go down to Oxford for Whitsuntide, +which is a heathen institution here which sends everyone away +just as I want to meet them. + +I haven't written anything yet. I find it hard to do so. I +think I would rather wait until I get home for the most of it. +Chas. will be here in less than a week now and we will have a +good time. I have planned it out for days. He must go to +Oxford and meet those boys, and then, if he wishes, on to +Eastnor, which I learn since my return is one of the show +places of England. I am enjoying myself, it is needless to +say, very much, and am well and happy. + +DICK. + + +During these first days in England Richard spent much of his +time at Eastnor, Lady Brownlow's place in Lincolnshire, and +one of the most beautiful estates in England. Harry Cust, to +whom my brother frequently refers in his letters, was the +nephew of Lady Brownlow, and a great friend of Richard's. At +that time Cust was the Conservative nominee for Parliament +from Lincolnshire, and Richard took a most active part in the +campaign. Happily, we were both at Lady Brownlow's during its +last few tense days, as well as on the day the votes were +counted, and Cust was elected by a narrow margin. Of our +thrilling adventures Richard afterward wrote at great length +in "Our English Cousins." + + +LONDON, July 6, 1892. +DEAR MOTHER: + +On the Fourth of July, Lady Brownlow sent into town and +had a big American flag brought out and placed over +the house, which was a great compliment, as it was seen +and commented on for miles around. Cushing of Boston, a +very nice chap and awfully handsome, is there, too. The same +morning I went out to photograph the soldiers, and Lord +William Frederick, who is their colonel, charged them after me +whenever I appeared. It seems he has a sense of humor and +liked the idea of making an American run on the Fourth of July +from Red-coats. I doubt if the five hundred men who were not +on horseback thought it as funny. They chased me till I +thought I would die. The Conservative member for the county +got in last night and we rejoiced greatly, as the moral effect +will help Harry Cust greatly. His election takes place next +Monday. The men went in to hear the vote declared after +dinner, and so did two of the girls, who got Lady Brownlow's +consent at dinner, and then dashed off to change their gowns +before she could change her mind. As we were intent on seeing +the fun and didn't want them, we took them just where we would +have gone anyway, which was where the fighting was. And they +showed real sporting blood and saw the other real sort. There +were three of us to each girl, and it was most exciting, with +stones flying and windows crashing and cheers and groans. A +political meeting or election at home is an afternoon tea to +the English ones. When we came back the soldiers were leaving +the Park to stop the row, and as we flew past, the tenants ran +to the gate and cheered for the Tory victory in "good old +lopes." When we got to the house the servants ran cheering +all over the shop and rang the alarm bell and built fires, and +we had a supper at one-fifteen. What they will do on the +night of Cust's election, I cannot imagine-- +burn the house down probably. Cushing and I enjoy it +immensely. We know them well enough now to be as funny as we +like without having them stare. They are nice when you know +them, but you've GOT to know them first. I had a great +dinner at Farrar's. All the ecclesiastical lights of England +in knee-breeches were there, and the American Minister and +Phillips Brooks. It was quite novel and fun. Lots of love. +I have all the money I want. + + +DICK. + + +With Cust properly elected, Richard and I returned to the +Albany and settled down to enjoy London from many angles. +Although my brother had been there but a few weeks, his +acquaintances among the statesmen, artists, social +celebrities, and the prominent actors of the day was quite as +extraordinary as his geographical and historical knowledge of +the city. We gave many jolly parties, and on account of +Richard's quickly acquired popularity were constantly being +invited to dinners, dances, and less formal but most amusing +Bohemian supper-parties. During these days there was little +opportunity for my brother to do much writing, but he was very +busy making mental notes not only for his coming book on the +English people, but for a number of short stories which he +wrote afterward in less strenuous times. We returned to New +York in August, and Richard went to Marion to rest from his +social activities, and to work on his English articles. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE MEDITERRANEAN AND PARIS + +It was, I think, the year previous to this that my mother and +father had deserted Point Pleasant as a place to spend their +summer vacations in favor of Marion, on Cape Cod, and Richard +and I, as a matter of course, followed them there. At that +time Marion was a simple little fishing village where a few +very charming people came every summer and where the fishing +was of the best. In all ways the life was most primitive, and +happily continued so for many years. In, these early days +Grover Cleveland and his bride had a cottage there, and he and +Joseph Jefferson, who lived at Buzzard's Bay, and my father +went on daily fishing excursions. Richard Watson Gilder was +one of the earliest settlers of the summer colony, and many +distinguished members of the literary and kindred professions +came there to visit him. It was a rather drowsy life for +those who didn't fish--a great deal of sitting about on one's +neighbor's porch and discussion of the latest novel or the +newest art, or of one's soul, and speculating as to what would +probably become of it. From the first Richard formed a great +affection for the place, and after his marriage adopted it as +his winter as well as his summer home. As a workshop he had +two rooms in one of the natives' cottages, and two more +charming rooms it would be hard to imagine. The little +shingled cottage was literally covered with honeysuckle, +and inside there were the old wall-papers, the open +hearths, the mahogany furniture, and the many charming +things that had been there for generations, and all +of which helped to contribute to the quaint peaceful +atmosphere of the place. Dana Gibson had a cottage just +across the road, and around the corner Gouverneur Morris lived +with his family. At this time neither of these friends of +Richard, nor Richard himself, allied themselves very closely +to the literary colony and its high thoughts, but devoted most +of their time to sailing about Sippican Harbor, playing tennis +and contributing an occasional short story or an illustration +to a popular magazine. But after the colony had taken flight, +Richard often remained long into the fall, doing really +serious work and a great deal of it. At such times he had to +depend on a few friends who came to visit him, but principally +on the natives to many of whom he was greatly attached. It +was during these days that he first met his future wife, Cecil +Clark, whose father, John M. Clark of Chicago, was one of the +earliest of the summer colonists to build his own home at +Marion. A most charming and hospitable home it was, and it +was in this same house where we had all spent so many happy +hours that Richard was married and spent his honeymoon, and +for several years made his permanent home. Of the life of +Marion during this later period, he became an integral part, +and performed his duties as one of its leading citizens with +much credit to the town and its people. For Marion Richard +always retained a great affection, for there he had played and +worked many of his best years. He had learned to love +everything of which the quaint old town was possessed, animate +and inanimate, and had I needed any further proof of how +deeply the good people of Marion loved Richard, the letters I +received from many of them at the time of his death would show. + +In the early fall of 1892 Richard returned to his editorial +work on Harper's Weekly, and one of the first assignments he +gave was to despatch himself to Chicago to report the +Dedication Exercises of the World's Fair. That the trip at +least started out little to my brother's liking the following +seems to show. However, Richard's moods frequently changed +with the hour, and it is more than possible that before the +letter was sent he was enjoying himself hugely and regarding +Chicago with his usual kindly eyes. + +Chicago Club, +DEAR FAMILY: October 2, 1892. + + +Though lost to sight I am still thinking of you sadly. It +seems that I took a coupe after leaving you and after living +in it for a few years I grew tired and got out on the prairie +and walked along drinking in the pure air from the lakes and +reading Liebig's and Cooper's advs. After a brisk ten mile +walk I reentered my coupe and we in time drew up before a +large hotel inhabited by a clerk and a regular boarder. I am +on the seventh floor without a bathroom or electric button--I +merely made remarks and then returned to town in a railroad +train which runs conveniently near. After gaining +civilization I made my way through several parades or it may +have been the same one to the reviewing stand. My progress +was marked by mocking remarks by the police who asked of each +other to get on to my coat and on several occasions I was +mistaken by a crowd of some thousand people for the P----e of +W----s, and tumultuously cheered. At last I found an inspector +of police on horseback, who agreed to get me to the stand if it +took a leg. He accordingly charged about 300 women and clubbed +eight men--I counted them--and finally got me in. He was very +drunk but he was very good to me. + + + + +Once back from Chicago Richard divided his time between his +desk at Franklin Square, his rooms on Twenty-eighth Street, +and in quickly picking up the friendships and the social +activities his trip to England had temporarily broken off. +Much as he now loved London, he was still an enthusiastic New +Yorker, and the amount of work and play he accomplished was +quite extraordinary. Indeed it is difficult to understand +where he found the time to do so much. In addition to his +work on Harper's he wrote many short stories and special +articles, not only because he loved the mere writing of them, +but because he had come to so greatly enjoy the things he +could buy with the money his labors now brought him. His +pleasures had increased as steadily as the prices he could now +command for his stories, and in looking back on those days it +is rather remarkable when one considers his age, the +temptations that surrounded him, and his extraordinary +capacity for enjoyment, that he never seems to have forgotten +the balance between work and play, and stuck to both with an +unswerving and unceasing enthusiasm. However, after four +months of New York, he decided it was high time for him to be +off again, and he arranged with the Harpers to spend the late +winter and the spring in collecting material for the two sets +of articles which afterward appeared in book form under the +titles of "The Rulers of the Mediterranean" and "About Paris." +He set sail for Gibraltar the early part of February, 1893, and +the following letters describe his leisurely progress about the +Mediterranean ports. + + +NEW YORK, February 3, 1893. +DEAREST MOTHER: + +This is a little present for you and a goodby. Your +packing-case is what I need and what I shall want, and I love +it because you made it. But as YOU say, we understand and +do not have to write love letters; you have given me all that +is worth while in me, and I love you so that I look forward +already over miles and miles and days and months, and just see +us sitting together at Marion and telling each other how good +it is to be together again and holding each other's hands. I +don't believe you really know how HAPPY I am in loving you, +dear, and in having you say nice things about me. God bless +you, dearest, and may I never do anything to make you feel +less proud of your wicked son. + +DICK. + + +Off Gibraltar, +DEAR MOTHER: February 12, 1893. + +Today is Sunday. We arrive at Gibraltar at five tomorrow +morning and the boat lies there until nine o'clock. Unless +war and pestilence have broken out in other places, I shall go +over to Tangiers in a day or two, and from there continue on +my journey as mapped out when I left. I have had a most +delightful trip and the most enjoyable I have ever taken by +sea. These small boats are as different from the big +twin-screw steamers as a flat from a Broadway hotel. + +Everyone gets to know everything about everyone else, and it +has been more like a yacht than a passenger steamer. When I +first came on board I thought I would not find in any new old +country I was about to visit anything more foreign than the +people, and I was right, but they are most amusing and I have +learned a great deal. They are different from any people I +know, and are the Americans we were talking about. The ones +of whom I used to read in The Atlantic and Blackwood's, as +traveling always and sinking out of sight whenever they +reached home. They, with the exception of a Boston couple, +know none of my friends or my haunts, and I have learned a +great deal in meeting them. It has been most BROADENING and +the change has been SUCH a rest. I had no idea of how tired +I was of talking about the theater of Arts and Letters and +Miss Whitney's debut and my Soul. These people are simple and +unimaginative and bourgeois to a degree and as kind-hearted +and apparent as animal alphabets. I do not think I have had +such a complete change or rest in years, and I am sure I have +not laughed so much for as long. Of course, the idea of a six +months' holiday is enough to make anyone laugh at anything, +but I find that besides that I was a good deal harassed and +run down, and I am glad to cut off from everything and start +fresh. I feel miserably selfish about it all the time. + +These Germans run everything as though you were the owner of +the line. The discipline is like that of the German Army or +of a man-of-war, everything moves by the stroke of a bell, and +they have had dances and speeches and concerts and religious +services and lectures every other minute. Into all of these I +have gone with much enthusiasm. We have at the +captain's table Dr. Field, the editor of The Evangelist, +John Russell, a Boston Democrat, who was in Congress and who +has been in public life for over forty years. A Tammany +sachem, who looks like and worships Tweed, and who says what I +never heard an American off the stage say: "That's me. +That's what I do," he says. "When I have insomnia, I don't +believe in your sleeping draughts. I get up and go round to +Jake Stewart's on Fourteenth Street and eat a fry or a +porterhouse steak and then I sleep good---that's me." There +is also a lively lady from Albany next to me and her husband, +who tells anecdotes of the war just as though it had happened +yesterday. Indeed, they are all so much older than I that all +their talk is about things I never understood the truth about, +and it is most interesting. I really do not know when I have +enjoyed my meal time so much. The food is very good, although +queer and German, and we generally take two hours to each +sitting. Dr. Field is my especial prey and he makes me laugh +until I cry. He is just like James Lewis in "A Night Off," +and is always rubbing his hands and smacking his lips over his +own daring exploits. I twist everything he says into meaning +something dreadful, and he is instantly explaining he did not +really see a bullfight, but that he walked around the outside +of the building. I have promised to show him life with a +capital L, and he is afraid as death of me. But he got back +at me grandly last night when he presented a testimonial to +the captain, and referred to the captain's wife and boy whom +he is going to see after a two years' absence, at which the +captain wept and everybody else wept. And Field, seeing he +had made a point, waved his arms and cried, "I have never +known a man who amounted to anything who had not a good wife +to care for--except YOU--" he shouted, pointing at me, "and +no woman will ever save YOU." At which the passengers, who +fully appreciated how I had been worrying him, applauded +loudly, and the Doctor in his delight at having scored on me +forgot to give the captain his testimonial. + +There are two nice girls on board from Chicago and a queer +Southern girl who paints pictures and sings and writes poetry, +and who is traveling with an odd married woman who is an +invalid and who like everyone else on board has apparently +spent all her life away from home. I have spent my odd time +in writing the story I told Dad the night before I sailed and +I think it in some ways the best, quite the best, I have +written. I read it to the queer girl and her queer chaperon +and they weep whenever they speak of it, which they do every +half hour. All the passengers apparently laid in a stock of +"Gallegher" and "The West" before starting, and young women in +yachting caps are constantly holding me up for autographs and +favorite quotations. Yesterday we passed the Azores near +enough to see the windows in the houses, and we have seen +other islands at different times, which is quite refreshing. +Tomorrow I shall post this and the trip will be over. It has +been a most happy start. I am not going to write letters +often, but am going head over ears into this new life and let +the old one wait awhile. You cannot handle Africa and keep up +your fences in New York at the same time. I am now going out +to talk to the Boston couple, or to propose a lion hunt to Dr. +Field. + +Since I wrote that last I have seen Portugal. It made me +seem suddenly very far away from New York. Portugal is a high +hill with a white watch tower on it flying signal flags. It is +apparently inhabited by one man who lives in a long row of yellow +houses with red roofs, and populated by sheep who do grand acts +of balancing on the side of the hill. There is also a Navy of a +brown boat with a leg-of-mutton sail and a crew of three men in +the boat--not to speak of the dog. It is a great thing to have a +traveled son. None of you ever saw Portugal, yah! + +I am now in Gibraltar. It is a large place and there does not +seem to be room in this letter, in which to express my +feelings about Moors in bare legs and six thousand Red-coats +and to hear Englishmen speak again. When I woke up Gibraltar +was a black silhouette against the sky, but toward the south +there was a low line of mountains with a red sky behind them, +dim and mysterious and old, and that was Africa. Then Spain +turned up all amethyst and green, and the Mediterranean as +blue as they tell you it is. They wouldn't let me take my gun +into Gibraltar. +They know my reputation for war. + +DICK. + +GIBRALTAR. + +February 14th, 1893. +DEAR MOTHER: + +The luck of the British Army which I am modestly fond of +comparing with my own took a vacation yesterday as soon as I +had set foot on land. In the first place Egypt had settled +down to her sluggish Nile like calm and cholera had +quarantined the ship I wanted to take to Algiers, shutting off +Algiers and what was more important Tunis. The Governor was +ill shutting off things I wanted and his adjutant was boorish +and proud and haughty. Then I determined to go to Spain but +found I had arrived just one day too late for the last of the +three days of the Mardi Gras and too early for bull fights. Had +I taken Saavedra's letters I should have gone to Madrid and met +the Queen and other proud folks. So on the whole I was blue. +But I have now determined to take a boat for Tangier at once +where I have letters to the Duke de Tnas who is the Master of the +Hounds there and a great sport and they say it is very amusing +and exciting. In a fortnight I shall go to Malta. I called on +Harry Cust's brother and told him who I was and he took me in and +put me at the head of the table of young subalterns in grand +uniforms and we had marmalade and cold beef and beer and I was +happy to the verge of tears to hear English as she is spoke. +Then we went to a picnic and took tea in a smuggler's cave and +all the foxterriers ran over the table cloth and the Captain +spilt hot water over his white flannels and jumped around on one +leg. After which we played a handkerchief game sitting in a row +and pelting the girls with a knotted handkerchief and then +fighting for it-- During one of these scrimmages Mulvaney, two +others and Learoyd came by and with eyes front and hands at +their caps marched on with stolid countenances, but their +officers were embarrassed. It is hard to return a salute with +your face in the sand and a stout American sitting on your +neck and pulling your first lieutenant's leg. I am now deeply +engaged for dinners and dances and teas and rides and am +feeling very cheerful again. I am also very well thank +you and have no illnesses of any sort. You told me to be sure +and put that in-- As you see, I have cut out half of my trip +to avoid the cholera, so you need not worry about THAT. +To-day I am going over the ramparts as much as they will allow +and to-morrow I go to Tangier where I expect to have some boar +hunting. I would suggest your getting The Evangelist in a week +or two as Dr. Field's letters cover all I have seen. I do not +tell you anything about the place because you will read that in +the paper to the H. W. but I can assure you the girls are very +pretty and being garrison girls are not as shy as those at +home in England. I am the first American they ever met they +assure me every hour and we get on very well notwithstanding. + +You can imagine what it is like when Spaniards, Moors and +English Soldiers are all crowded into one long street with +donkeys and geese and priests and smugglers and men in polo +clothes and soldiers in football suits and sailors from the +man-of-war. Of course, the Rock is the best story of it all. +It is a fair green smiling hill not a fortress at all. No +more a fortress to look at than Fairmont Park water works, but +the joke of it is that under every bush there is a gun and +every gun is painted green and covered with hanging curtains +of moss and every promenade is undermined and the bleakest +face of the rock is tunnelled with rooms and halls. Every +night we are locked in and the soldiers carry the big iron +keys clanking through the streets. It is going to make +interesting reading. +DICK. + +GIBRALTAR. + +DEAR MOTHER: February 23rd, 1893. + +AEneas who "ran the round of so many chances" in this +neighborhood was a stationary stay at home to what I have to +do. If I ever get away from the Rock I shall be a traveller +of the greatest possible experience. + +I came here intending to stay a week and to write my letter on +Gib. and on Tangier quietly and peacefully like a gentleman +and then to go on to Malta. I love this place and there is +something to do and see every minute of the time but what +happened was this: All the boats that ever left here stopped +running, broke shafts, or went into quarantine or just sailed +by, and unless I want to spend two weeks on the sea in order +to have one at Malta, which is only a military station like +this, I must go off to-morrow with my articles unwritten, my +photos undeveloped and my dinner calls unpaid. I am now +waiting to hear if I can get to Algiers by changing twice from +one steamer to another along the coast of Spain. It will be a +great nuisance but I shall be able to see Algiers and Tunis +and Malta in the three weeks which would have otherwise been +given to Malta alone. And Tunis I am particularly keen to +see. While waiting for a telegram from Spain about the boats, +I shall tell you what I have been doing. Everybody was glad +to see me after my return from Tangier. I dined with the +Governor on Monday, in a fine large room lined with portraits +of all the old commanders and their coats-of-arms like a +little forest of flags and the Governor's daughter danced a +Spanish dance for us after it was over. Miss Buckle, Cust's +fiancee, dances almost as well as Carmencita, all the girls +here learn it as other girls do the piano. On Tuesday Cust +and Miss B. and another girl and I went over into Spain to see +the meet and we had a short run after a fox who went to earth, +much to my relief, in about three minutes and before I had +been thrown off. There are no fences but the ground is one +mass of rocks and cactus and ravines down which these English +go with an ease that makes me tremble with admiration. We had +not come out to follow, so we, being quite soaked through and +very hungry, went to an inn and it was such an inn as Don Quixote +used to stop at, with the dining-room over the stable and a lot +of drunken muleteers in the court and beautiful young women to +wait on us. It is a beautiful country Spain, with every sort of +green you ever dreamed of. We had omelettes and native wine and +black bread and got warm again and then trotted home in the +rain and got wet again, so we stopped at the guard house on +the outside of the rock and took tea with the officer in +charge and we all got down on our knees around his fire and he +hobbled around dropping his eyeglasses in his hot water and +very much honored and exceedingly embarrassed. I amused +myself by putting on all the uniforms he did not happen to +have on and the young ladies drank tea and thawed. This is +the most various place I ever came across. You have mountains +and seashore and allamandas like Monte Carlo in their tropical +beauty and soldiers day and night marching and drilling and +banging brass bands and tennis and guns firing so as to rattle +all the windows, and picnics and teas. I am engaged way ahead +now but I must get off tomorrow. On Washington's birthday I +gave a luncheon because it struck me as the most inappropriate +place in which one could celebrate the good man's memory and +the Governor would not think of coming at first, but I told +him I was not a British subject and that if I could go to his +dinner he could come to my lunch, so that, or the fact that +the beautiful Miss Buckle was coming decided him to waive +etiquette and he came with his A. D. C. and his daughter and +officers and girls came and I had American flags and English +flags and a portrait of Washington and of the Queen and I +ransacked the markets for violets and banked them all up in the +middle. It was fine. I turned the hotel upside down and all the +servants wore their best livery and everybody stood up in a row +and saluted His Excellency and I made a speech and so did his +Excellency and the chef did himself proud. I got it up in one +morning. Helen Benedict could not have done it better. + +I had a funny adventure the morning I left Tangier-- There was +a good deal of talk about Field (confound him) and my getting +into the prison and The Herald and Times correspondents +were rather blue about it and some of the English residents +said that I had not been shown the whole of the prison, that +the worst had been kept from us. Field who only got into the +prison because I had worked at it two days, said there was an +additional ward I had not seen. I went back into this while +he and the guard were getting the door open to go out and saw +nothing, but to make sure that the prison was as I believed an +absolute square, I went back on the morning of my departure +and climbed a wall and crawled over a house top and +photographed the top of the prison. Then a horrible doubt +came to me that this house upon which I was standing and which +adjoined the prison might be the addition of which the English +residents hinted. There was an old woman in the garden below +jumping up and down and to whom I had been shying money to +keep her quiet. I sent the guide around to ask her what was +the nature of the building upon which I had trespassed and +which seemed to worry her so much-- He came back to tell me +that I was on the top of a harem and the old woman thought I +was getting up a flirtation with the gentleman's wives. So I +dropped back again. + +It will be a couple of months at least before my first story +comes out in The Weekly. I cannot judge of them but I think +they are up to the average of the Western stories, the +material is much richer I know, but I am so much beset by the +new sights that I have not the patience or the leisure I had +in the West-- Then there were days in which writing was a +relief, now there is so much to see that it seems almost a +shame to waste it. + +By the grace of Providence I cannot leave here until the 28th, +much to my joy and I have found out that I can do better by +going direct to Malta and then to Tunis, leaving Algiers which +I did not want to see out of it-Hurrah. I shall now return to +the calm continuation of my story and to writing notes which +Chas will enjoy. + +DICK. + + +GIBRALTAR-February 1893. +DEAR MOTHER: + +Morocco as it is is a very fine place spoiled by civilization. +Not nice civilization but the dregs of it, the broken down +noblemen of Spain and cashiered captains of England and the +R---- L----'s of America. They hunt and play cricket and +gamble and do nothing to maintain what is best in the place or +to help what is worst. I love the Moors and the way they hate +the Christian and the scorn and pride they show. They seem to +carry all the mystery and dignity of Africa and of foreign +conquests about them, and they are wonderfully well made and +fine looking and self-respecting. The color is very +beautiful, but the foreign element spoils it at every turn. +One should really go inland but I shall not because I mean to +do that when I reach Cairo. Everybody goes inland from here +and Bonsal has covered it already. He is a great man here among +all classes. + +I have bought two long guns and three pistols three feet long +and a Moorish costume for afternoon teas. I shall look fine. +My guide's idea of pleasing me is to kick everybody out of the +way which always brings down curses on me so I have to go back +and give them money and am so gradually becoming popular and +much sought after by blind beggars. You can get three pounds +of copper for a franc and it lasts all day throwing it right +and left all the time. I made a great tear in Bonsal's record +today by refusing to pay a snake charmer all he wanted and +then when he protested I took one of the snakes out of his +hands and swung it around my head to the delight of the +people. I wanted to show him he was a fakir to want me to pay +for what I would do myself. It was a large snake about four +feet long. Then my horse and another horse got fighting in +the principal street in the city standing up on their hind +legs and boxing like men and biting and squealing. It was +awful and I got mine out of the way and was trod on and had my +arm nearly pulled off and the crowd applauded and asked my +guide whether I was American or English. They do not like the +English. So with the lower classes I may say that I am having +a social success. +DICK. + +Off Malta--March 1, 1893. +DEAR MOTHER: + +I have been having a delightful voyage with moonlight all +night and sunlight all day. Africa kept in sight most of the +time and before that we saw beautiful mountains in Spain +covered with snow and red in the sunset. There were a lot of +nice English people going out to India to meet their husbands and +we have "tiffin" and "choota" and "curry," so it really seemed +oriental. The third night out we saw Algiers sparkling like +Coney Island. I play games with myself and pretend I am at my +rooms reading a story which is very hard to pretend as I never +read in my rooms and then I look up and exclaim "Hello, I'm not +in New York, that's Algiers." The thing that has impressed me +most is how absolutely small the world is and how childishly easy +it is to go around it. You and Nora MUST take this trip; as for +me I think Willie Chanler is the most sensible individual I have +yet met. + +All the fascination of King Solomon's Mines seems to be behind +those great mountains and this I may add is a bit of advance +work for mother, an entering wedge to my disappearing from +sight for years and years in the Congo. Which, seriously, I +will not do; only it is disappointing to find the earth so +small and so easily encompassed that you want to go on where +it is older, and new. The worst of it is that it is hard +leaving all the nice people you meet and then must say +good-bye to. The young ladies and Capt. Buckle and Cust came +down to see me off and Buckle brought me a photo four feet +long of Gib, an official one which I had to smuggle out with a +great show of secrecy and now I shall be sorry to leave these +people. Just as I wrote that one of the officers going out to +join his regiment came to the door and blushing said the +passengers were getting up a round robin asking me to stop on +and go to Cairo. + +Since writing the above lots of things have happened. I bid +farewell to everyone at Malta and yet in four hours I was back +again bag and baggage and am now on my way to Cairo. Tunis and +the Bey are impossible. As soon as I landed at Malta I found +that though I could go to Tunis I could not go away without being +quarantined for ten days and if I remained in Malta I must stay a +week. On balancing a week of Egypt against a week of Malta I +could not do it so I put back to this steamer again and here I +am. Tomorrow we reach Brindisi and we have already passed Sicily +and had a glimpse of the toe of Italy and it is the coldest sunny +Italy that I ever imagined. I am bitterly disappointed about +Tunis. I have no letters to big people in Cairo only subalterns +but I shall probably get along. I always manage somehow with my +"artful little Ikey ways." It was most gratifying to mark my +return to this boat. One young woman danced a Kangaroo dance +and the Captain wept and all the stewards stood in a line and +grinned. I sing Chevalier's songs and they all sit in the +dining room below and forget to lay out the plates and last +night some of the Royal Berkshire with whom I dined at Malta +came on board and after hearing the Old Kent Road were on the +point of Mutiny and refused to return to barracks. Great is +the Power of Chevalier and great is his power for taking you +back to London with three opening bars. Malta was the +queerest place I ever got into. It was like a city, country +and island made of cheese, mouldy cheese, and fresh limburger +cheese with holes in it. You sailed right up to the front +door as it were and people were hanging out of the windows +smoking pipes and looking down on the deck as complacently as +though having an ocean steamer in the yard was as much a +matter of course as a perambulator. There were also women with +black hoods which they wear as a penance because long ago the +ladies of Malta got themselves talked about. I was on shore +about five hours and saw some interesting things and with that +and Brindisi and the voyage I can make a third letter but +Tunis is writ on my heart like Calais. + +Today Cleveland is inaugurated and I took all the passengers +down at the proper time and explained to them that at that +moment a great man was being made president and gave them each +an American cocktail to remember it by and in which to toast +him I am getting to be a great speech maker and if there are +any more anniversaries in America I shall be a second Depew. + +It is late but it is still the season here and it will be gay, +but what I want to do now is to go off on a little trip inland +although Cairo is the worst of all for it is surrounded by +deserts and nothing to shoot but antelope and foxes and those +I SCORN. I want Zulus and lions. I shall be greatly +disappointed if I do not have something to do outside of Cairo +for I have had no adventures at all. It is just as civilized +as Camden only more exciting and beautiful although Camden is +exciting when you have to get there and back in time for the +last edition. From what I have already seen I am ready to +spend a month in Cairo and then confess to knowing nothing of +it. But we shall see. There may be a W A R or a lion hunt or +something yet if there is not I shall come back here again. I +must fire that Winchester off at least once just for all the +trouble it has given me at custom houses. Something exciting +must happen or I shall lose faith in the luck of the British +army which marches shoulder to shoulder with mine. If I don't +have any adventures I shall write essays on art after this like +Mrs. Van. Love and lots of it. + +DICK. + + +CAIRO, March 11, 1893. +DEAR MOTHER: + +In a famous book this line occurs, "He determined to go to +that hotel in Cairo where they were to have spent their +honeymoon," or words like that. He is now at that hotel and +you can buy the famous book across the street. It is called +"Gallegher." So--in this way everything comes to him who +waits and he comes to it. "Gallegher" is not the only thing +you buy in Egypt. You ride to the Pyramids on a brake with a +man in a white felt hat blowing a horn, and the bugler of the +Army of Occupation is as much in evidence as the priest who +calls them to prayer from the minaret. I left the people I +liked on the Sultey last Thursday in the Suez Canal and came +on here in a special train. It is very cold here, and it is +not a place where the cold is in keeping with the surroundings. +You see people in white helmets and astrakan overcoats. +It is an immense city and intensely interesting, especially +the bazaars, but you feel so ignorant about it all that it +rather angers you. I wish I was not such a very bad hand at +languages. That is ONE THING I cannot do, that and ride. I +need it very much, traveling so much, and I shall study very +hard while I am in Paris. Our consul-general here is a very +young man, and he showed me a Kansas paper when I called on +him, which said that I was in the East and would probably call +on "Ed" L. He is very civil to me and gives me his carriages +and outriders with gold clothes and swords whenever I will +take them. + +It is so beastly cold here that it spoils a lot of things, and +there are a lot of Americans who say, "I had no idea you were +so young a man," and that, after being five years old for a +month and playing children's games with English people who +didn't know or care anything about you except that you made +them laugh, is rather trying. I am disappointed so far in the +trip because it has developed nothing new beyond the fact that +going around the world is of no more importance than going to +breakfast, and I am selfish in my sightseeing and want to see +things others do not. And if you even do see more than those +who are not so fortunate and who have to remain at home, still +you are so ignorant in comparison with those who have lived +here for years and to whom the whole of Africa is a +speculation in land or railroads, it makes you feel like such +a faker and as if it were better to turn correspondent for the +N. Y. Herald, Paris edition, and send back the names of +those who are staying at the hotels. That is really all you +can speak with authority about. When you have Gordon and +Stanley dishes on the bill-of-fare, you feel ashamed to say +you've been in Egypt. Anyway, I am a faker and I don't care, +and I proved it today by being photographed on a camel in +front of the Pyramids, and if that wasn't impertinence I do +not know its name. I accordingly went and bought a lot of +gold dresses for Nora as a penance. + +As a matter of fact, unless I get into the interior for a +month and see something new, I shall consider the trip a +failure, except as a most amusing holiday for one, and that +was not exactly what I wanted or all I wanted. After this I +shall go to big cities only and stay there. Everybody travels +and everybody sees as much as you do and says nothing of it, +certainly does not presume to write a book about it. Anyway, it +has been great fun, so I shall put it down to that and do some +serious work to make up for it. I'd rather have written a good +story about the Inauguration than about Cairo. + +I am well, as usual, and having a fine loaf, only I don't +think much of what I have written--that's all. + +DICK. + +CAIRO, March 19th, 1893. +DEAR MOTHER: + +I went up the Pyramids yesterday and I am very sore today. It +sounds easy because so many people do it, but they do it +because they don't know. I have been putting it off, and +putting it off, until I felt ashamed to such a degree that I +had to go. Little had never been either, so we went out +together and met Stanford White and the Emmetts there, and we +all went up. I would rather go into Central Africa than do it +again. I am getting fat and that's about it--and I had to +half pull a much fatter man than myself who pretended to help +me. I finally told them I'd go alone unless the fat man went +away, so the other two drove him off. Going down is worse. +It's like looking over a precipice all the time. I was so +glad when I got down that I sang with glee. I hate work like +that, and to make it worse I took everybody's picture on top +of the Pyramid, and forgot to have one of them take me, so +there is no way to prove I ever went up. Little and I hired +two donkeys and called them "Gallegher" and "Van Bibber" and +raced them. My donkey was so little that they couldn't see +him--only his ears. Gallegher won. The donkey-boys called it +Von Bebey, so I don't think it will help the sale of the book. + +Today we went to call on the Khedive. It was very informal +and too democratic to suit my tastes. We went through a line +of his bodyguard in the hall, and the master of ceremonies +took us up several low but wide stairways to a hall. In the +hall was a little fat young man in a frock coat and a fez, and +he shook hands with us, and walked into another room and we +all sat down on chairs covered with white muslin. I talked +and Little talked about me and the Khedive pretended to be +very much honored, and said the American who had come over +after our rebellion had done more for the officers in his army +than had anyone else, meaning the English. He did not say +that because we were Americans, but because he hates the +English. He struck me as being stubborn, which is one side of +stupidness and yet not stupid, and I occasionally woke him to +bursts of enthusiasm over the Soudanese. His bursts were +chiefly "Ali." Little seemed to amuse him very much, and +Little treated him exactly like a little boy who needed to be +cheered up. I think in one way it was the most curious +contrast I ever saw. "Ed" Little of Abilene, Kansas, telling +the ruler of Egypt not to worry, that he had plenty of years +in which to live and that he would get ahead of them all yet. +Those were not his words, but that was the tone, he was +perfectly friendly and sincere about it. + +This place appeals to me as about the best place with which to +get mixed up with that I know, and I've gone over a great many +maps since I left home and know just how small the world is. So, +I sent the Khedive my books after having asked his permission, +and received the most abject thanks. And as Cromer called on +me, I am going to drop around on him with a few of them. Some +day there will be fine things going on here, and there is only +one God, and Lord Cromer is his Prophet in this country. They +think that Mohammed is but they are wrong. He is a very big +man. The day he sent his ultimatum to the Khedive telling him +to dismiss Facta Pasha and put back Riaz Pasha, he went out in +full view of the Gezerik drive and played lawn tennis. Any +man who can cable for three thousand more troops to Malta and +stop a transport full of two thousand more at Aden with one +hand, and bang tennis balls about with the other, is going in +the long run to get ahead of a stout little boy in a red fez. +It is getting awfully hot here, almost hot enough for me, and +I can lay aside my overcoat by ten o'clock in the morning. +Everyone else has been in flannels and pith helmets, but as +they had to wear overcoats at night I could not see the +advantage of the costume. + +DICK. + + +I open this to say that ALL of your letters have just come, +so I have intoxicated myself with them for the last hour and +can go over them again tomorrow. I cannot tell you, dearest, +what a delight your letters are and how I enjoy the clippings. +I think of you all the time and how you would love this Bible +land and seeing the places where Pharaoh's daughter found +Moses, and hearing people talk of St. Paul and the plagues of +Egypt and Joseph and Mary just as though they had lived +yesterday. I have seen two St. Johns already, with long hair +and melancholy wild eyes and bare breasts and legs, with +sheepskin covering, eating figs and preaching their gospel. +Yesterday two men came running into town and told one of the +priests that they had seen the new moon in a certain well, and +the priest proclaimed a month of fasting, and the men who pulled +us up the Pyramid had to rest because they had not eaten or drunk +all day. At six a sheik called from the village and all the +donkey--boys and guides around the Sphinx ran to get water and +coffee and food. Think of that--of two men running through the +street to say that they had seen the new moon in a well, when +every shop sells Waterbury watches and the people who passed them +were driving dogcarts with English coachmen in top-boots behind. +Is there any other place as incongruous as this, as old and as +new? + +DICK. + + +ATHENS, March 30, 1893. +DEAR MOTHER: + +I am now in Athens, how I got here is immaterial. Suffice it +to say that never in all my life was I so ill as I was in the +two days crossing from Alexandria to Piraeus, which I did with +two other men in the same cabin more ill than I and praying +and swearing and groaning all the time. "It was awful." + + + "I have crossed in many ships upon the seas + And some of them were good and some were not; + In German, P & O's and Genoese, + But the Khedive's was the worst one of the lot. + We never got a moment's peace in her + For everybody'd howl or pray or bellow; + She threw us on our heads or on our knees, + And turned us all an unbecoming yellow." + + +Athens is a small town but fine. It is chiefly yellow houses +with red roofs, and mountains around it, which +remind you of pictures you have seen when a youth. Also olive +trees and straight black pines and the Acropolis. There is +not much of it left as far as I can see from the city, but +what there is is enough to make you wish you had brushed up +your Greek history. I have now reached the place where Pan +has a cave, where the man voted against Aristides because he +was humanly tired of hearing him called the Just and where the +Minotaur ate young women. + +What was in the Isle of Crete but the rock from which the +father of Theseus threw himself--is still here! Also the hill +upon which Paul stood and told the Athenians they were too +superstitious. You can imagine my feelings at finding all of +these things are true. After this I am going to the North +Pole to find Santa Claus and so renew my youth. + +I regret to say that it is raining very hard and Athens is not +set for a rainstorm. It is also cold but as I have not been +warm since I crossed the North River with Chas. amid cakes of +ice that is of no consequence. When I come here again I come +in the summer. The good old rule that it is cold in winter +and warm in summer is a good enough rule to follow. You have +only to travel to find out how universally cold winter is. +last night I was in Cairo, I got in a carriage and drove +out alone to the Pyramids. It was beautiful moonlight. I got +a donkey and rode up around them and then walked over to the +Sphinx. I had never understood or seen it before. It was the +creepiest and most impressive thing I ever had happen to me, I +do believe. There was no one except the two donkey-boys and +myself and the Sphinx. All about was the desert and above it +the purple sky and the white stars and the great negro's head +in front of you with its paws stretched out, and the moonlight +turning it into shadows and white lines. I think I stood there +so long that I got sort of dizzy. It was just as if I had been +the first man to stumble across it, and I felt that I was way +back thousands of years and that the ghosts of Caesar and +Napoleon and Cleopatra and the rest were in the air. That was +worth the entire trip to me. This place promises to be most +exciting, the New York artists are all here, they are the most +jauntily dull people I ever met. Do you know what I mean? They +are very nice but so stupid. I don't let them bother me. Who +was the chap who wrote about the bottle of Malvoisie? because I +got a bottle of it for BREAKFAST and it is NO GOOD. It is +like sweet port. But on account of the poem and its being +vin du pays I got it. + +Dear Mother, I wish you were here now and enjoying all these +beautiful things. I got you a present in Cairo that will +amuse you. Had I stayed on in Cairo I should have had much +and many marks of distinction from the English. Lady +Gower-Browne, who found out from them that I had called and +that they had done nothing except to be rude, raised a great +hue and cry and everything changed. What she said of me I +don't know but it made a most amusing difference. General +Walker galloped a half mile across the desert to give me his +own copy of the directions for the sham battle, and I was to +have met Cromer at dinner tete-a-tete, and General Kitchener +sent apologies by two other generals and all the subalterns +called on me in a body. That was the day before I left. I +don't know what Lady Gower-Browne said, but it made a change +which I am sorry I could not avail myself of as I want +politics as well as memories. + +The next time I come I shall go to even fewer places and see +more people. + +If the Harpers don't look out our interests will clash. I +look at it like this. I can always see the old historical +things and take my children up the Nile, but I want now to +make friends with the Mammon of unrighteousness and the men of +the hour. I may want to occupy an hour or two myself some day +and they can help me. If America starts in annexing islands +she will need people to tell her how it is generally done and +it is generally done, I find, by the English. I may give up +literature and start annexing things like Alexander and Caesar +and Napoleon. They say there will be another crisis in Cairo +in a month or so. If that be true I am all right and solid +with both parties. But it has got to be worth while of course +or I won't go back. There is a king living in a fine palace +across the square from my window, one of his officers is now +changing the guard in the rain. I hope to call on the king +because I like his guard. They wear petticoats and toes +turned up in front. Don't you mind what I say about liking +politics and don't think I am not enjoying the show things. I +have a capacity for both that is so far unsatisfied, and I am +now going out in the rain to try and find the post-office. +Lots of love. + + DICK. + +I am well and have been well (except sea sick) since February + +P. S.--A funeral is just passing the window with the corpse +exposed to view as is the quaint custom here, to add to its +horror they rouge the face of the corpse and everybody kisses +it. In the Greek church they burn candles for people and the +number of candles I have burnt for you would light St. Paul's, +and you ought to be good with so much war being expended all over +Athens for you. You buy candles instead of tipping the verger or +putting it in the poor box, or because you are superstitious and +think it will do some good, as I do. + + +Orient Express. Somewhere in Bulgaria on the way to London. + +April 14th, 1893. +DEAR MOTHER: + +Tuesday I wrote you a letter in the club at Constantinople +telling you how glad I would be to get out of that City on +April 17th on the Orient Express which only leaves twice a +week on Thursdays and Mondays. So any one who travels by the +Orient is looked upon first as a millionaire and second, if he +does not break the journey at Vienna, as a greater traveller +than Col. Burnaby on his way to Khiva. Imagine a Kansas City +man breaking the journey to New York. After I wrote you that +letter I went in the next room and read of the Nile Expedition +in search of Gordon--this went through three volumes of The +Graphic and took some time, so that when I had reached the +picture which announced the death of Gordon it was half past +five and I had nothing more to do for four days-- It was +raining and cold and muddy and so I just made up my mind I +would get up and get out and I jumped about for one hour like +a kangaroo and by seven I was on the Orient with two Cook men +to help me and had shaken my fist at the last minaret light of +that awful city. So, now it is all over and it is done-- I +have learned a great deal in an imperfect way of the +juxtaposition of certain countries and of the ease with which one +can travel without speaking any known languages and of the +absolute necessity for speaking one, French. I am still +disappointed about the articles but selfishly I have made a lot +out of the trip. You have no idea how hard it is not to tell +about strange things and yet you know people do not care half as +much for them as things they know all about-- No matter, it is +done and with the exception of the last week it was F I N E. + + +"I'm going back to London, to `tea' and long frock coats + I'm done with Cook and seeing sights + I'm done with table d'hotes + So clear the track you signal man + From Sofia to Pless, I'm going straight for London + On the Orient Express. + +I'm going straight for London +O'er Bulgaria's heavy sands +To Rotten Row and muffins, soles, +Chevalier and Brass Bands +Ho' get away you bullock man +You've heard the whistle blowed +a locomotive coming down the Grand Trunk Road." + + +This is a great country and I want to ask all the natives if +they know "Stenie" Bonsal. They are all his friends and so +are the "Balkans," and all the little Balkans. Nobody wears +European clothes here. They are all as foreign and native and +picturesque as they can be, the women with big silver plates +over their stomachs and the men in sheepskin and tights and +the soldiers are grand. We have been passing all day between +snow covered mountains and between herds of cattle and red +roofed, mud villages and long lakes of ice and snow-- It is a +beautiful day and I am very happy. (Second day out) 15th---We are +now in Hungary and just outside of Buda Pesth "the wickedest city +in the world," still in spite of that fact I am going on. I am +very glad I came this way-- The peasants and soldiers are most +amusing and like German picture-papers with black letter +type-- I shall stop a day in Paris now that I have four extra +days. + +DICK. + + +In sight of Paris--April 16--1893. +DEAREST MOTHER: + +has been the most beautiful day since February 4th. +It is the first day in which I have been warm. All through I +have had a varnish of warmth every now and again but no real +actual internal warmth--I am now in sight of Paris and it is +the 16th of April, in the eleven weeks which have elapsed +since the 4th of February I have been in Spain, France, Italy, +Germany, Austria, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, +Egypt and Morocco. I have sat on the Rock of Gibraltar, +sailed on the Nile and the Suez Canal and crossed through the +Dardanelles, over the Balkans, the steppes of Hungary and the +Danube and Rhine. I have seen the sphinx by moonlight, the +Parthenon and the Eiffel Tower and in two days more I shall +have seen St. Paul's. What do you think I should like to see +best now? YOU. I have been worrying of late as to whether +or not I should not come home now and leave Paris for another +time because it seems so rough on you to leave you without +either of your younger sons for so long. But I have thought +it over a great deal and I think it better that I should do +Paris now and leave myself clear for the rest of the year. I +promise you one thing however that I shall not undertake to +stay away so long again; it is too long and one grows out of +things. But nothing I feel, will be so easy or so amusing as +Paris and I intend to get through with it soon and trot home +to you by the middle of August AT THE VERY LATEST. So, +please write me a deceitful letter and say you do not miss me +at all and that my being so near as Paris makes a great +difference and that I am better out of the way and if Chas +goes to London I shall be near him in case he forgets to put +on his overshoes or involves us in a war with G. B. Now, +mother dear, do write me a cheerful letter and say that you do +not mind waiting until the middle of August for me and when I +come back this time I shall make a long stay with you at +Marion and tell you lots of things I have not written you and +I shall not go away again for ever so long and if I do go I +shall only stay a little while. You have no idea how +interesting this rush across the continent has been. I +started in snow and through marshes covered with ice and long +horned cattle and now we are in such a beautiful clean green +land with green fields and green trees and flowering bushes +which you can smell as the train goes by. I now think that +instead of being a cafe-chantant singer I should rather be an +Austrian baron and own a castle on a hill with a red roofed +village around it. I have spent almost all of the trip +sitting on the platform and enjoying the sight of the queer +peasants and the soldiers and old villages. Tonight I shall +be in "Paris, France" as Morton used to say and I shall get +clean and put on my dress clothes but whether I shall go see +Yvette Guilbert or Rusticana again I do not know. Perhaps +I shall just paddle around the fountain in the Place de la +Concorde and make myself thoroughly at home. With a great +deal of love to Dad and Nora and Chas and all. + +DICK. + + +At the time that Richard's first travel articles appeared some +of his critics took umbrage at the fact that he was evidently +under the delusion that he had discovered London, Gibraltar, +Athens, Paris, and the other cities he had visited, and that +no one else had ever written about them. As a matter of fact +no one could have been more keenly conscious of what an +oft-told tale were the places that he had chosen to describe. +If Richard took it for granted that the reader was totally +unacquainted with the peoples of these cities and their ways, +it was because he believed that that was the best way to write +a descriptive article, always had believed it, and believed it +so long as he wrote. And whatever difference of opinion may +have existed among the critics and the public as to Richard's +fiction, I think it is safe to say that as a reporter his work +of nearly thirty years stood at least as high as that of any +of his contemporaries or perhaps as that of the reporters of +all time. As an editor, when he gave out an assignment to a +reporter to write an article on some well-worn subject and the +reporter protested, Richard's answer was the same: "You must +always remember that that story hasn't been written until +YOU write it." And when he suggested to an editor that he +would like to write an article on Broadway, or the Panama +Canal, or the ruins of Rome and the editor disapproved, Richard's +argument was: "It hasn't been done until _I_ do it." And it was +not because he believed for a moment that he could do it better +or as well as it had been done. It was simply because he knew +the old story was always a good story, that is, if it was seen +with new eyes and from a new standpoint. At twenty-eight he +had written a book about England and her people, and the book +had met with much success both in America and England. At +twenty-nine, equally unafraid, he had "covered" the ancient +cities that border the Mediterranean, and now Paris lay before +him! This thought--indeed few thoughts--troubled Richard very +much in those days of his early successes. He had youth, +friends, a marvellous spirit of adventure, and besides there +are many worse fates than being consigned to spending a few +months in Paris, having a thoroughly joyous time, taking a few +mental notes, and a little later on transferring them to paper +in the quiet of a peaceful summer home at Marion. + +Chief among his friends in Paris at this time was Charles Dana +Gibson, who was living in a charming old house in the Latin +Quarter, and where the artist did some of his best work and +made himself extremely popular with both the Parisians and the +American colony. In addition to Gibson there were Kenneth +Frazier, the portrait-painter, and Tina, Newton, and James +Eustis, the daughter and sons of James B. Eustis, who at that +time was our ambassador to France, a most genial and kindly +host, who made much of Richard and his young friends. + + +PARIS, May 5, 1893. +DEAR MOTHER: + +It is a narrow street with apartment houses of gray stone and +iron balconies along either side of it. The sun sets at one +end of the street at different times during the day and we all +lean out on the balconies to look. On the house, one below mine, +on the other side of our street, is a square sign that says: + +ALFRED DE MUSSET + +EST MORT DANS CETTE MAISON + + +A great many beautiful ladies with the fashionable red shade +of hair still call there, as they used to do when the proper +color was black and it was worn in a chignon and the Second +Empire had but just begun. While they wait they stretch out +in their carriages and gaze up at the balconies until they see +me, and as I wear a gold and pink silk wrapper and not much +else, they concentrate all their attention on the wrapper and +forget to drop a sigh for the poet. There are two young +people on the sixth floor opposite, who come out on the +balcony after dinner and hold on to each other and he tells +her all about the work of the day. Below there is a woman who +sews nothing but black dresses, and who does that all day and +all night by the light of a lamp. And below the concierge +stands all day in a lace cap and black gown and blue, and +looks up the street and down the street like the woman in +front of Hockley's. BUT on the floor opposite mine there is +a beautiful lady in a pink and white wrapper with long black +hair and sleepy black eyes. She does not take any interest in +my pink wrapper, but contents herself with passing cabs and +stray dogs and women with loaves of bread and bottles in their +hands who occasionally stray into our street. At six she +appears in another gown and little slippers and a butterfly +for a hat and says "Good-by" to the old concierge and trips +off to dinner. Lots of love to all. +DICK. + + +PARIS, May llth, 1893. +DEAR MOTHER: + +I am still somewhat tentative as regards my opinion of the +place, what it will bring me in the way of material I cannot +tell. So far, "Paris Decadent" would be a good title for +anything I should write of it. It is not that I have seen +only the worst side of it but that that seems to be so much +the most prominent. They worship the hideous Eiffel Tower and +they are a useless, flippant people who never sleep and yet do +nothing while awake. To-morrow I am going to a pretty inn +surrounded by vines and trees to see a prize fight with all +the silly young French men and their young friends in black +and white who ape the English manners and customs even to "la +box." To night at the Ambassadeurs the rejected lover of some +actress took a gang of bullies from Montmartre there and +hissed and stoned her. I turned up most innocently and +greatly bored in the midst of it but I was too far away to +pound anybody-- I collected two Englishmen and we went in +front to await her re-appearance but she had hysterics and +went off in a cab and so we were not given a second +opportunity of showing them they should play fair. It is a +typical incident of the Frenchman and has made me wrathy. The +women watching the prize fight will make a good story and so +will the arms of the red mill, "The Moulin Rouge" they keep +turning and turning and grinding out health and virtue and +souls. + +I dined to night with the C-----s and P----s, the Ex-Minister +and disagreed with everybody and found them all very middle +class as to intellect. An old English lady next to me said +apropos of something "that is because you are not clever like +Mr. ---- and do not have to work with your brains." To which I +said, I did not mind not being clever as my father was a many +times millionaire," at which she became abjectly polite. Young +Rothenstein is going to do a picture of me to-morrow morning. +There is nothing much more to tell except that a horse stood +on his fore legs in the Bois the other day and chucked me into +space. I was very sore but I went on going about as it was +the Varnishing day at the new salon and I wished to see it. I +am over my stiffness now and if "anybody wants to buy a +blooming bus" I have one for sale and five pairs of riding +breeches and two of ditto boots. No more riding for me--- The +boxing bag is in good order now and I do not need for +exercise. The lady across the street has a new wrapper in +which she is even more cold and haughty than before. "I sing +Tarrara boom deay and she keeps from liking me." + +DICK. + + +PARIS, May 14th, 1893. +DEAR NORA: + +Things are getting more interesting here and I shall probably +have something to write about after all, although I shall not +know the place as I did London. Will Rothenstein has drawn a +picture of me that I like very much and if mother likes it +VERY, VERY much she may have it as a loan but she may not +like it. I did not like to take it so I bought another +picture of him, one of Coquelin cadet and now I have two. +Coquelin gave him his first commission when he was nineteen, +two years ago, and then asked him to do two sketches. After +these were done Coquelin told him by letter that he would give +him half what they had agreed upon for the big picture for the +two sketches and begged the big picture as a gift. So +Rothenstein cut the head and shoulders out of the big one and +sent him the arms and legs. It is the head he cut out that I +have. When Rothenstein and I and Coquelin become famous, that +will make a good story. I have also indulged myself in the +purchase of several of Cherets works of art. They cost three +francs apiece. We have had some delightful lunches at the +Ambassadeurs with Cushing and other artists and last night I +went out into the Grande Monde to a bal masque for charity at +the palace of the Comtesse de la Ferrondeux. It was very +stupid and the men outnumbered the women 30 to 1, which are +interesting odds. To-day we went to Whistler's and sat out in +a garden with high walls about it and drank tea and laughed at +Rothenstein. The last thing he said was at the Ambassadeurs +when one of the students picking up a fork said, "These are +the same sort of forks I have." Rothenstein said "yes, I did +not know you dined here that often." Some one asked him why +he wore his hair long, "To test your manners" he answered. He +is a disciple of Whistler's and Wilde's and said "yes, I +defend them at the risk of their lives." Did I tell you of +his saying "It is much easier to love one's family than to +like them." And when some one said "Did you hear how Mrs. B. +treated Mr. C., (a man he dislikes) he said, "no, but I'm glad +she did." It was lovely at Whistler's and such a contrast to +the other American salon I went to last Sunday. It was so +quiet, and green and pretty and everybody was so unobtrusively +polite. + +Rothenstein wore my rosette and made a great sensation and I +was congratulated by Whistler and Abbey and Pennell. +Rothenstein said he was going to have a doublebreasted waistcoat +made with rosettes of decorations for buttons. Tomorrow Lord +Dufferin has asked me to breakfast at the Embassy. He was at the +masked ball last night and was very nice. He reminds me exactly +of Disraeli in appearance. It is awfully hot here and a Fair for +charity has asked me to put my name in "Gallegher" to have it +raffled for. "Dear" Bonsal arrives here next Sunday, so I am in +great anticipation. I am very well, tell mother, and amused. +Lots of love. + +DICK. + + +PARIS, June 13, 1893. +DEAR MOTHER: + +There is nothing much to say except that things still go on. +I feel like one of those little India rubber balls in the jet +of a fountain being turned and twisted and not allowed to +rest. Today I have been to hear Yvette Guilbert rehearse and +thought her all Chas thinks her only her songs this season are +beneath the morals of a medical student. It is very hot and +it is getting hotter. I had an amusing time at the Grand Prix +where Tina won a lot of money on a tip I gave her which I did +not back myself. In the evening Newton took me to dinner and +to the Jardin de Paris where they had 10 franc admittance and +where every thing went that wasn't nailed. The dudes put +candles on their high hats and the girls snuffed them out with +kicks and at one time the crowd mobbed the band stand and then +the stage and played on all the instruments. The men were all +swells in evening dress and the women in beautiful ball +dresses and it was a wonderful sight. It only happens once a +year like the Yale-Princeton night at Koster and Bials except +that the women are all very fine indeed. They rode +pig-a-back races and sang all the songs. I had dinner with +John Drew last night. I occasionally sleep and if Nora +doesn't come on time I shall be a skeleton and have no money +left. As a matter of fact I am fatter than ever and can eat +all sorts of impossible things here that I could never eat at +home. I lunch every day with the Eustises and we dine out +almost every night. I consort entirely with the poorest of +art students or the noblest of princesses and so far have kept +out of mischief, but you can never tell for this is a wicked +city they say, or it strikes me as most amusing at present +only I cannot see what Harper and Bros. are going to get out +of it. I said that of London so I suppose it will all +straighten out by the time I get back. + +DICK. + + + +CHAPTER VII + +FIRST PLAYS + +When the season in Paris had reached its end, Richard returned +to London and later on to Marion, where he spent the late +summer and early fall, working on his Mediterranean and Paris +articles, and completing his novel "Soldiers of Fortune." In +October he returned to New York and once more assumed his +editorial duties and took his usual active interest in the +winter's gayeties. + +The first of these letters refers to a dinner of welcome given +to Sir Henry Irving. The last two to books by my mother and +Richard, and which were published simultaneously. + + +NEW YORK, November 27, 1893. +DEAR MOTHER: + +The dinner was very fine. I was very glad I went. Whitelaw +Reid sat on one side of Sir Henry Irving and Horace Porter on +the other. Howells and Warner came next. John Russell Young +and Mark Twain, Millet, Palmer, Hutton, Gilder and a lot more +were there. There were no newspaper men, not even critics nor +actors there, which struck me as interesting. The men were +very nice to me. Especially Young, Reid, Irving and Howells. +Everybody said when I came in, "I used to know you when you +were a little boy," so that some one said finally, "What a +disagreeable little boy you MUST have been." I sat next a +chap from Brazil who told me lots of amusing things. One story +if it is good saves a whole day for me. One he told was of a +German explorer to whom Don Pedro gave an audience. The +Emperor asked him, with some touch of patronage, if he had +ever met a king before. "Yes," the German said thoughtfully; +"five, three wild and two tame." + +Mark Twain told some very funny stories, and captured me +because I never thought him funny before, and Irving told some +about Stanley, and everybody talked interestingly. Irving +said he was looking forward to seeing Dad when he reached +Philadelphia. "It is nice to have seen you," he said, "but I +have still to see your father," as though I was not enough. +DICK. + + +NEW YORK, 1893. +DEAREST MOTHER: + +I cannot tell you how touched and moved I was by the three +initials in the book. It was a genuine and complete surprise +and when I came across it while I was examining the +letterpress with critical approbation and with no idea of what +was to come, it left me quite breathless-- It was so sweet of +you-- You understand me and I understand you and you know how +much that counts to me-- I think the book is awfully pretty +and in such good taste-- It is quite a delight to the eye and +I am much more keen about it than over any of my own-- I have +sent it to some of my friends but I have not read it yet +myself, as I am waiting until I get on the boat where I shall +not be disturbed-- Then I shall write you again-- It was +awfully good of you, and I am so pleased to have it to give +away. I never had anything to show people when they asked for +one of your other books and this comes in such an unquestionable +form-- With lots of love. + +DICK. + + +NEW YORK, 1893. +DEAR MOTHER: + +I got your nice letter and one from Dad. Both calling me many +adjectives pleasing to hear although they do not happen to +fit. So you are in a third edition are you? These YOUNG +writers are crowding me to the wall. I feel thrills of pride +when I see us sitting cheek by jowl on the news-stands. +Lots of love. + + + + +In February, 1894, Richard was forced by a severe attack of +sciatica to give up temporarily the gayeties of New York and +for a cure he naturally chose our home in Philadelphia, where +he remained for many weeks. Although unable to leave his bed, +he continued to do a considerable amount of work, including +the novelette "The Princess Aline," in the writing of which I +believe my brother took more pleasure than in that of any +story or novel he ever wrote. The future Empress of Russia +was the heroine of the tale, and that she eventually read the +story and was apparently delighted with it caused Richard much +human happiness. + +PHILADELPHIA. + +March 5th. +DEAR CHAS: + +I am getting rapidly better owing to regular hours and light +literature and home comforts. I am not blue as I was and my +morbidness has gone and I only get depressed at times. I am +still however feeling tired and I think I will take quite a rest +before I venture across the seas. But across them I will come no +matter if all the nerves on earth jump and pull. Still, I think +it wiser for all concerned that I get thoroughly well so that +when I do come I won't have to be cutting back home again as I +did last time. We are young yet and the world's wide and there's +a new farce comedy written every minute and I have a great many +things to do myself so I intend to get strong and then do +them. I enclose two poems. I am going to have them printed +for my particular pals later. I am writing one to all of you +folks over there. + +DICK. + + +TAKE ME BACK TO BROADWAY, WHERE +THE ORCHIDS GROW + +WITH APOLOGIES TO THE WESTERN DIALECT POETS + +"I have wandered up and down somewhat in many different lands +I have been to Fort Worth, Texas, and I've tramped through Jersey sands, +I have seen Pike's Peak by Moonlight, and I've visited the Fair +And to save enumeration I've been nearly everywhere. +But no matter where I rested and no matter where I'd go, +I have longed to be on Broadway + + Where + the + Orchids + Grow. + +Some people love the lilies fair that hide in mossy dells +Some folks are fond of new mown hay, before the rainy spells +But give to me the orchids rare that hang in Thorley's store, +And in Fleischman's at the Hoffman, and in half a dozen more +And when I see them far from home they make my heart's blood glow + For they take me back to Broadway + + Where + the + Orchids + Grow. + +Let Paris boast of boulevards where one can sit and drink +There is no such chance on Broadway, at the Brower House, + `I don't think.' +And where else are there fair soubrettes in pipe clayed tennis shoes, +And boys in silken sashes promenading by in twos +Oh you can boast of any street of which you're proud to know +But give me sleepy Broadway + + Where + the + Orchids + Grow. + +Let poets sing of chiming bells and gently lowing kine +I like the clanging cable cars like fire engines in line +And I never miss the sunset and for moonlight never sigh +When `Swept by Ocean Breezes.' flashes out against the sky. +And when the Tenderloin awakes, and open theatres glow +I want to be on Broadway + + Where + the + Orchids + Grow." + + +A VOUS, JOHN DREW + +"John Drew, I am your debtor +For a very pleasant letter +And a lot of cabinet photos +Of the `Butterflies' and you +And I think it very kind +That you kept me so in mind +And pitied me in exile +So I do, John Drew. + + +2 + + +John Drew, 'twixt you and me +Precious little I can see +Of that good there is in Solitude +That poets say they view. +For _I_ hate to be in bed +With a candle at my head +Sitting vis a vis with Conscience. +So would you, John Drew. + +3 + + +John Drew, then promise me +That as soon as I am free +I may sit in the first entrance + +As Lamb always lets me do. +And watch you fume and fret +While the innocent soubrette +Takes the centre of the stage a-- +Way from you, John Drew." + + +R. H. D. + + +In the summer of 1894 Richard went to London for a purely +social visit, but while he was there President Carnot was +assassinated, and he went to Paris to write the "story" of the +funeral and of the election of the new President. + +VERSAILLES, June 24, 1894. + +I am out here to see the election of the new President. I +jumped on the mail coach and came off in a hurry without any +breakfast, but I had a pretty drive out, and the guard and I +talked of London. The palace is closed and no one is admitted +except by card, so I have seen only the outside of it. It is +most interesting. There is not a ribbon or a badge; not a +banner or a band. The town is as quiet as always, +and there are not 200 people gathered at the gate through +which the deputies pass. Compared to an election convention +in Chicago, it is most interesting. How lively it is inside +of the chamber where the thing is going on I cannot say. I +shall not wait to hear the result, but will return on the coach. + +Nothing could be more curious than the apparent indifference +of the people of Paris to the assassination of the President. +Two days after he died there was not a single flag at half +mast among the private residences. The Government buildings, +the hotels and the stores were all that advertised their +grief. I shall have an interesting story to write of it for +the Parisian series. Dana Gibson and I will wait until after +the funeral and then go to Andorra. If he does not go, I may +go alone, but perhaps I shall go back to London at once. This +has been an interesting time here, but only because it is so +different from what one would expect. It reads like a +burlesque to note the expressions of condolence from all over +the world, and to mark the self-satisfaction of the French at +attracting so much sympathy, and their absolute indifference +to the death of Carnot. It is most curious. We have an ideal +time. Never before have I had such jolly dinners, with such +good talk and such amusing companions. + +DICK. + + +LONDON, July 15, 1894. +DEAR MOTHER: + +Mr. Irving gave a supper last night to Mme. Bernhardt and Mme. +Rejane. There were about twenty people, and we ate in the +Beefsteak Room of the Lyceum Theater, which is so called after +the old Beefsteak Club which formerly met there. I had a most +delightful time, and talked to all the French women and to +Miss Terry, who sent her love to Dad. She said, "I did not +SEE him this last visit; that is, I saw him but I did not +see him." Her daughter is a very sweet girl, and the picture +Miss Terry made on her knees looking up at Bernhardt and +Rejane when they chattered in French was wonderful. Neither +she nor Irving could speak a word of French, and whenever any +one else tried, the crowd all stood in a circle and applauded +and guyed them. After it was over, at about three in the +morning, Miss Terry offered me a lift home in her open +carriage, so she and her daughter and I rode through the empty +streets in the gray light for miles and miles, as, of course, +I did not get out of such company any sooner than I had to do. +They had taken Irving's robe of cardinal red and made it into +cloaks, and they looked very odd and eerie with their yellow +hair and red capes, and talking as fast as they could. + +DICK. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA + + +About January 1, 1895, Richard accompanied by his friends +Somers Somerset and Lloyd C. Griscom, afterward our minister +to Tokio and ambassador to Brazil and Italy, started out on a +leisurely trip of South and Central America. With no very +definite itinerary, they sailed from New Orleans, bent on +having a good time, and as many adventures as possible, which +Richard was to describe in a series of articles. These +appeared later on in a volume entitled "Three Gringos in +Venezuela." + + +January, 1895. +DEAR FAM: + +On board Breakwater at anchor. You will be pleased to hear +that I am writing this in a fine state of perspiration in +spite of the fact that I have light weight flannels, no +underclothes and all the windows open. It is going to storm +and then it will be cooler. We have had a bully time so far +although the tough time is still to come, that will be going +from Puerto Cortez to Tegucigalpa. At Belize the Governor +treated us charmingly and gave us orderlies and launches and +lunches and advice and me a fine subject for a short story. +For nothing has struck me as so sad lately as did Sir Anthony +Moloney K. C. M. G. watching us go off laughing and joking in +his gilded barge to wherever we pleased and leaving him standing +alone on his lawn with some papers to sign and then a dinner +tete-a-tete with his Secretary and so on to the end of his +life. It was pathetic to hear him listen to all the gossip +from the outside world and to see how we pleased him when we +told him we were getting more bald than he was and that he +would make a fine appearance in the Row at his present weight. +He had not heard of Trilby!! + +We struck a beautiful place today called Livingston where we +went ashore and photographed the army in which there was no +boy older than eighteen and most of them under ten. It was +quite like Africa, the homes were all thatched and the +children all naked and the women mostly so. We took lots of +photographs and got on most excellently with the natives who +thought we were as funny as we thought them. Almost every +place we go word has been sent ahead and agents and consuls +and custom house chaps come out to meet me and ask what they +can do. This is very good and keeps Griscom and Somerset in a +proper frame of awe. But seriously I could not ask for better +companions, they are both enormously well informed and polite +and full of fun. The night the Governor asked Somers to +dinner and did not ask us we waited up for him and then hung +him out over the side of the boat above the sharks until he +swore he would never go away from us again. Griscom is more +aggravatingly leisurely but he has a most audacious humor and +talks to the natives in a way that fills them with pleasure +but which nearly makes Somers and I expose the whole party by +laughing. Today we lie here taking in banannas and tomorrow I +will see Conrad, Conrad, Conrad!! Send this to the Consul. +Lots of love. +DICK. + + +SAN PEDRO--SULA--February, 1895. +MY DEAR FAMILY: + +The afternoon of the day we were in Puerto Cortez the man of +war Atlanta steamed into the little harbor and we all +cheered and the lottery people ran up the American flag. Then +I and the others went out to her as fast as we could be rowed +and I went over the side and the surprise of the officers was +very great. They called Somers and Griscom to come up and we +spent the day there. They were a much younger and more +amusing lot of fellows than those on the Minneapolis and +treated us most kindly. It was a beautiful boat and each of +us confessed to feeling quite tempted to go back again to +civilization after one day on her. Their boat had touched at +Tangier and so they claimed that she was the one meant in the +Exiles. They told me that the guide Isaac Cohen whom I +mentioned in Harper's Weekly carries it around as an +advertisement and wanted to ship with them as cabin boy. We +left the next day on the railroad and the boys finding that +two negroes sat on the cowcatcher to throw sand on the rails +in slippery places bribed them for their places and I sat on +the sand box. I never took a more beautiful drive. We did +not go faster than an ordinary horse car but still it was +exciting and the views and vistas wonderful. Sometimes we +went for a half mile under arches of cocoanut palms and a +straight broad leafed palm called the manaca that rises in +separate leaves sixty feet from the ground. Imagine a palm +such as we put in pots at weddings and teas as high as Holy +Trinity Church and hundreds and hundreds of them. The country +is very like Cuba but more luxuriant in every way. There are +some trees with marble like trunks and great branches covered +with oriole nests and a hundred orioles flying in and out of them +or else plastered with orchids. If Billy Furness were to see in +what abundance they grew he would be quite mad. It is a great +pity he did not come with us. This little town is the terminus +of the railroad and we have been here four days while Jeffs the +American Colonel in the Hondurean Army is getting our outfit. +It has been very pleasant and we are in no hurry which is a +good thing for us. It is a most exciting country and as +despotic as all uncivilized and unstable governments must be. +But we have called on the Governor of the district with Jeffs +and he gave us a very fine letter to all civil and unmilitary +authorities in the district calling on them to aid and protect +us in every way. I am getting awfully good material for my +novel and for half a dozen stories to boot only I am surprised +to find how true my novel was to what really exists here. +About ten years ago ---- disappeared, having as I thought +drunk himself to death. He came up to me here on my arrival +with a lot of waybills in his hand and I learned that he had +been employed in this hole in the ground by a railroad for two +years. I remembered meeting him at Newport when I was still +at Lehigh, and last night he asked me to dinner and told me +what he had been doing which included everything from acting +in South America to blacking boots in Australia. His boss was +a Pittsburgh engineer who is apparently licking him into shape +and who told me to tell his father that he had stopped +drinking absolutely. His colored "missus" sat with us at the +table and played with a beetle during the three hours I stayed +there during which time he asked me about ---- who he said had +ruined him. He told me of how ---- had done and said this, and +the contrast to the thatched roof and the mud floor and the +Scotch American engineer and the mulatto girl was rather +striking. I never had more luck in any trip than I have had on +this one and the luck of R. H. D. of which I was fond of boasting +seems to hold good. That man of war, for instance, was the only +American one that had touched at Puerto Cortez in TEN years and +it came the day we did and left the day we did. We saw a big +lithograph of Eddie Sothern in a palm hut here so we went +before a notary and swore to it and had three seals put on the +paper and sent it him as a joke. We start tomorrow the 22nd +so you see we are behind our schedule and I suppose you people +are all worried to death about us. We will be much longer +than six days on our way to Tegucigalpa as we are going +shooting and also to pay our respects to Bogran the +ex-president and the man who is getting up the next +revolution. But we take care to tell everyone we are +travelling for pleasure and are great admirers of Bonilla the +present president. Somers and I are getting on famously. He +is a very fine boy with a great sense of humor and apparently +very fond of me. We had five men counting Jeffs who we call +our military attache and Charwood and four drivers and eleven +mules so it is quite an outfit. In Ecuador with one more man +it would constitute a revolution. + +DICK. + +DEAR FAM: SANTA BARBARA--January 25, 1895. + +We are not at Tegucigalpa as you observe but travelling in +this country. "As you see it on Broadway " and as you see it +here are two different things. We have had five days of it so +far and rested here today in order to pay our respects to General +Bogran the ex-president of the Republic. It is still six days to +Tegucigalpa. The trip across Central America will certainly +be one of the most interesting experiences of my life. It is +the most beautiful country I have seen and the most barbarous. +It is also the hottest and the most insect-ious and the +dirtiest. This latter seems a little view to take of it but +it means a great deal as the insects prevent your doing +anything in a natural way; as for instance sitting on the +grass or sleeping on the ground or hunting through the bushes. +It is pretty much as you imagine it is from what you have +read, that covers it, and I have discovered nothing new by +coming to see it. I only verify what others have seen. The +people are most uninteresting chiefly because they are surly +to Americans and do not make you feel welcome. I do not mean +that I did not do well to come for I am more glad that I did +than I can say only I have not, as I have been able to do +before, found something that others have not seen. I never +expect to see such a country again unless in Africa. If you +leave the path for ten yards you would never get back to it +except by accident and you could not get that far away unless +you cut yourself a trail. In some places the mail route which +we follow and over which the mail is carried on the backs of +runners is cut in the rock and we go down steps as even as +those of the City Hall and for hours we travel over rough +rocks and stones and a path so narrow that your knees catch in +the vines at the side. The mules are wonderfully sure footed +and never slip although they are very little, and I am pretty +heavy. The heat is something awful. It bakes you and will +dry your pith helmet in ten minutes after you have soaked it +in water. But the scenery is magnificent, sometimes we ride +above the clouds and look down into valleys stretching fifty +miles away and see the buzzards half a mile below us. Then we go +through forests of manaca palms that spread out on a single stem +sideways and form arches over our heads with the leaves hanging +in front of us like portiers or we cross great plains of grass +and cactus and rock. The best fun is the baths we take in the +mountain streams. They are almost as cool as one could wish and +we shoot the rapids and lie under the waterfalls and come out +with all the soreness rubbed out of us as though we had been +massaged. We went shooting for two days but as they had no +dogs we did not do much. I got the best shot of the trip and +missed it. It was a large wild cat and he turned his side full +on but I fired over him. Somers and I spent most of the time +firing chance shots at alligators, but they never gave us a +good chance as the birds warn them when they are in danger. +One old fellow fifteen feet long beat us for some time and +then Somers and I started across the river to catch him +asleep. It was like the taking of Lungtepen. We had our +money belts around our necks and our shoes in one hand and +rifles in the other. The rapids ran very fast and the last I +saw of Somerset he was sitting on the bank he had started from +counting out wet bank notes and blowing the water out of his +gun barrel. I got across all right by sticking my feet +between rocks and put on my shoes and crawled up on the old +Johnnie. He smelt of musk so strong that you could have found +him in the dark. I had, a beautiful shot at him at fifty +yards but I was too greedy and ran around some rocks to get +nearer and he heard me and dived. I shot a macaw, one of those +overgrown parrots with tail feathers three feet from tip to tip. +I got him with a rifle and as Griscom had got his with a shotgun +I came out all right as a marksman although I was very sore at +missing the wild cat. We sleep in hats and we sleep precious +little for the dogs and pigs and insects all help to keep us +awake and I cannot get used to a hammock. The native beds are +made of matting such as they put over tea chests, or bull's hide +stretched. Last night I slept in a hut with a woman and her +three daughters all over fifteen and they sat up and watched +me prepare for bed with great interest. I would not have +missed this trip for any other I know. I wanted to rough it +and we've roughed it and we will have another week of it too. +We have some remarkable photographs and the article ought to +be most interesting. Bogran proved to be a very handsome and +remarkable man and we had a very interesting talk with him. +From Tegucigalpa we will probably go directly to Venezuela +across the Isthmus of Panama and not visit another Republic. +We have all travelled too much to care to duplicate, and that +is what we would be doing by remaining longer in Central +America. A month of it will be enough of it and we will not +get away from Amapala before the first of February. We are +all well and happy and dirty and sing and laugh and tell +stories and listen to Griscom's anecdotes of the aristocracy +as we pick our way along. So goodbye and God bless you all. + +DICK. + + +TEGUCIGALPA, CENTRAL AMERICA. +February lst, 1895. + +4th, 1895. +DEAR FAMILY-- + +Here we are at last, the trip from Santa Barbara where I +last wrote you was made in six days. It was not so +interesting as the first part because it was very +high up and the tropical scenery gave way to immensely tall +pines and other trees that might have been in California, or +the Rockies. The Corderillas which is the name of the +mountains we crossed are a continuation, by the way, of the +Rockies, and the Andes but are not more than 4,000 feet high. +We had two very hot days of it in the plains of Comgaqua where +there was once a city of 60,000 founded by Cortez but where +there are not now more than 6,000. The heat was awful. We +peeled all over our faces and hands and dodged and ducked our +heads as though some one were biting at us. My saddle and +clothes were so hot that I could not place my hand on them. +At one village we heard that a bull fight was to be given at +the next fifteen miles away, so we rode on there and arrived +in time to take part. They had enclosed the plaza with a +barricade of logs seven feet high, bound together with vines. +They roped a big bull and lassoed him all over and then a man +got on his back with spurs on his bare feet and held on by the +ropes around the bull's body and by his toes and threw a cloak +over the bull's eyes when ever it got too near any one-- They +stuck it with spears until it was mad and then let the lassoes +slip and the bull started off to tear out the torreadors. I +thought it would be a great sporting act to kodak a bull while +it was charging you and so we all volunteered to act as +torreadors and it was most exciting and funny. It was rather +late to get good results but I got some pretty good pictures +of the bull coming at me with his head down and then I'd skip +into a hole in the wall. The best pictures I got were of +Somers and Griscom scrambling over the seven foot barriers with +the bull in hot chase. We all looked so funny in our high boots +and helmets and so much alike that the savages yelled with +delight and thought we had been engaged especially for their +pleasure. Our "mosers," or mule drivers treated us most +insolently but we could not do anything because Jeffs. had +engaged them and we did not want to interfere with his +authority but at a place the last day out one of them told +Jeffs. he lied and that we all lied. He had lost or stolen a +canteen of Griscom's and they had said we had not given it to +him. Jeffs. went at him right and left and knocked him all +over the shop. There were half a dozen drunken mule drivers +at the place and we thought they would take a hand but they +did not. That night Jeffs. thought to try us to see what we +would have done and left us bathing in a mountain stream and +rode on ahead and hid himself behind a rock in a canon and lay +in ambush for us. We were jogging along in the moonlight and +Somerset was reciting the "Walrus and the Carpenter," when +suddenly Jeffs. let out a series of yells in Spanish and +opened fire on us over our heads. Somerset was riding my mule +and I had no weapons, so I yelled at him to shoot and he fell +off his mule and ran to mine and let go at the rock behind +which Jeffs. was with the carbines. So that in about five +seconds Jeffs.' curiosity was perfectly satisfied as to what +we would do, and he shouted for mercy. We thought it was a +sentry or brigands and were greatly disappointed when it +turned out to be Jeffs. We got here last night and a dirtier +or more dismal place you never saw. We had telegraphed ahead +for rooms but nothing was in order and we were lodged much +worse than we had been several times in the interior where +there was occasionally a clean floor. This morning we wrote +direct to the President, asking for an interview +or audience and did not ask our Consul to help us because +Jeffs. had asked him in our presence to come meet us and he +said he would after he had done talking to some other men, but +he never came. Before we heard from Bonilla however, we +learned that the Vice-president who has the same name was to +be sworn in so we went to the palace along with the populace +in their bare feet. We sat out of sight but the English +Consul who was the finest looking person in the chamber--all +over gold lace--saw us and asked that we be given places in +front, which the minister of something asked us to take but we +objected on account of our clothes. Somers had on a flannel +suit that looked exactly like pajamas and lawn tennis shoes. +But as soon as the ceremony was over they insisted on our +going in to the banquet hall and in spite of our objections we +were there conveyed and presented to Bonilla who behaved very +well and after saying he had received our letters but had not +had time to read them left us and avoided us, which was what +we wanted for we looked like the devil. We met everybody else +though and took the English and Guatemalian Consuls back to +our rooms and gave them drinks and then we went to their +rooms, so the day went very pleasantly. The President sent us +a funny printed card appointing an audience at eleven +to-morrow. It is exactly what you would imagine it would be, +the soldiers are barefooted except about fifty and the +President leaned out of the window in his shirt sleeves after +the review and they have not plastered up the holes in his +palace that his cannon made in it just a year ago to-day, when +he was fighting Vasquez, and Vasquez was then on the inside +and Bonilla on the hills. I forgot to tell you +that this morning a boy about sixteen years old, with a +policeman's badge and club came to our window and talked +pleasantly with us or at us rather, while we shaved and guyed +him in English. Finally we found that he had come to arrest +Jeffs. so we told him where Jeffs. was but he preferred to +watch us shave and we finished it under his custody. Then we +went to the Commandante and found that the mosers had had +Jeffs. arrested for not paying them on their arrival at +Tegucigalpa, as we had distinctly told them we would not do +but at San Pedro from where we took them, on their return. It +was only a spite case suggested by Jeffs. thrashing their +leader. The Commandante gave them a scolding and we went out +in triumph. + +February 4th-- + +Your cable received all right. We were very glad to hear. We +have decided to go on by mules to Manaqua, the Capital of +Nicaragua, and from there either to Corinto or to Lemon on the +Atlantic side. We had to do this or wait here ten days for +the boat going south at Amapala. It is moonlight now so that +we can avoid the heat of the day. Yesterday we went out +riding with the President, who put a gold revolver in his hip +pocket before he started and made us feel that uneasy lies the +head that rules in this country. He had two horses that had +never been ridden before, as a compliment to our powers, the +result was that the Vice-president's horse almost killed him, +which I guess the President intended it should and the horse +Griscom rode backed all over the town. He was a stallion and +had never been ridden before that day. Mine was a gentle old +gee-gee and yet I felt good when we were all on the ground again. +The British consul gave Somers a fine reception and raised the +flag for him and had the band there to play "God Save the Queen," +which he had spent the whole morning in teaching them. Griscom +and I called on our Consul and played his guitar. We bought one +for ourselves for the rest of the trip. + +I want you to do something for me: keep all the unfavorable +notices you get. I know Mother won't do it, so I shall expect +Nora to make a point of saving them from the waste-paper +basket. If there is not a lot of them when I get back, I will +raise a row. + +DICK. + + +MANAQUA-NICARAGUA-February 13, 1895. +DEAR FAM: + +I had a great deal to tell you, but we have just received +copies of the Panama Star and have read of the trolley riots +in Brooklyn, a crisis in France, War in the Balkans, a +revolution in Honolulu and another in Colombia. The result is +that we feel we are not in it and we are all kicking and +growling and abusing our luck. How Claiborne and Russell will +delight over us and in telling how the militia fired on the +strikers and how Troop A fought nobly. Never mind our turn +will come someday and we may see something yet. We have had +the deuce of a time since we left Tegucigalpa. Now we are in +a land where there are bull hide beds and canvas cots instead +of hammocks and ice and railroads and direct communication +with steamship lines. Hereafter all will be merely a matter +of waiting until the boat sails or the train starts and the +uncertainties of mules and cat boats are at an end. It is +hard to explain about our difficulties after we left Tegucigalpa +but they were many. We gave up our idea of riding here direct +because they assured us we could get a steam launch from Amapala +to Corinto so we rode three days to San Lorenzo on the Pacific +side and took an open boat from there to Amapala. It was rowed +by four men who walked up a notched log and then fell back +dragging the sweeps back, with the weight of their bodies. + +It was a moonlight night and they looked very picturesque +rising and sinking back and outlined against the sky. They +were naked to the waist and rowed all night and I had a good +chance to see them as I had to lie on the bottom of the boat +on three mahogany logs. By ten the next day we were too +cramped to stand it, so we put ashore on a deserted island and +played Robinson Crusoe. We had two biscuits and a box of +sardines among five of us but we found oysters on the rocks +and knocked a lot off with clubs and stones and the butts of +our guns. They were very good. We also had a bath until a +fish ran into me about three feet long and cut two gashes in +my leg. We reached Amapala about four in the afternoon. It +was an awful place; dirt and filth and no room to move about, +so we chartered an open boat to sail or row to Corinto sixty +miles distant. You see, we could not go back to Tegucigalpa +until the steamer arrived which is to take us South of Panama +and we could not go to Manaqua either and for the same reason +that we had sent back our mule train and we would not wait in +Amapala partly because of fever which had been there and +partly because we wanted to get to Corinto where they have ice +and to see Manaqua. The boat was about as long as the +Vagabond and twice as deep and a foot or two more across her +beam. There were four of us, five of the crew and two natives +who wanted to make the trip and who we took with us. It was +pretty awful. The old tub rocked like a milk shake and I was +never so ill in my life, we all lay packed together on the ribs +of the boat and could not move and the waves splashed over us but +we were too ill to care. The next day the sun beat in on us and +roasted us like an open furnace. The boat was a pit of heat +and outside the swell of the Pacific rose and fell and +reflected the sun like copper. We reached Corinto in about +twenty four hours and I was never so glad to get any place +before. The town turned out to greet us and some Englishmen +ran to ask from what boat we had been ship wrecked. They +would not believe we had taken the trip for any other reason. +They helped us very kindly and would not let us drink all the +iced water we wanted and sent us in to bathe in a place +surrounded by piles to keep out the sharks and by a roof to +shelter one from the sun. Corinto proved to be all that +Amapala was not; clean, cool with very excellent food and +broad beds of matting. I liked it better than any place at +which we have been, we came on here the next day to see the +President and found the city hot, dusty and of no interest. +There is an excellent hotel however and we had a talk with the +President who was a much better chap than Bonilla being older +and more civilized. Of course there is absolutely no reason +or excuse for us if we do not get control of this canal. If +only that it would allow our ships of war to pass from Ocean +to Ocean instead of going around the horn. The women are +really beautiful but that has nothing to do with the canal. +Tomorrow morning we return to Corinto as Somers and +I like it best. Griscom would like to go on across by the +route of the canal which would be a good thing were we certain +of meeting a steamer at Simon or Greytown, but the Minister +who went last month that way had to wait there sixteen days. +So, we will probably leave Corinto on the 17th or 20th, there +are two steamers, one that stops at ports and one that does +not. They both arrive together. I do not know which we will +take but--this letter will go with me. Up to date I think the +trip will make a good story but it will have to be a personal +one about the three of us for the country as it stands is +uninteresting to the general reader for the reason that it +DUPLICATES itself in everything. But with our photographs +and a humorous story, it ought to be worth reading and I have +picked enough curious things to make it of some value. + +February 15,--Corinto. + +We are back here now and rid of that dusty, dirty city. You +would be amused if you saw this place and tried to understand +why we prefer it to any place we have seen. There is surf +bathing at a half mile distant and a good hotel with a great +bar where a Frenchman gives us ice and the sea captains and +agents for mines and plantations in the interior gather to +play billiards. Outside there are rows of handsome women with +decollete gowns and shining black hair and colored silk scarfs +selling fruit and down the one street which faces the bay are +a double row of palms and the store where two American boys +have a phonograph. They are the only Americans I have met who +have or are taking a dollar out of this country. They play +the guitar and banjo very well. One of them was on the +Princeton glee club and their stories of how they have toured +Central America are very amusing. Lots of Love. + +DICK. + + +S. S. Barracouta--Off San Juan + +February 21, 1895. +DEAR MOTHER: + +Today I believe is the 21st. We are out two days from Corinto +off San Juan on the boundary of Costa Rica and lie here some +hours. Then we go on without stopping to Panama arriving +there about the 25th. On the 28th we take the steamer to +Caracas. We will be at Caracas a week and then go straight +home. But in the meanwhile we will have got one mail at Colon +when we go there to take the boat for Caracas and glad I will +be to get it. We have had a summary of the news in the Panama +Star and a bundle of Worlds telling all about the trolley +strike and that is all except Dad's cable at Tegucigalpa that +we have heard in nearly two months. I am very sorry that the +distances have turned out so much longer than we expected and +that we had that unfortunate ten days wait for the steamer. I +know you want me home and I would like to be there but I do +not think I ought to go without seeing Caracas. It helps the +book so much too if one runs it into South America for no one +in the States thinks much of Central and does not want to read +about it. At least I know I never did. We have had a most +amusing time with the two phonograph chaps. One of them has +been an advertising agent and a deputy sheriff and chased +stage coach robbers and kept a hard-ware store and is only +twenty-five and the other has not had quite as much experience +but has been to Princeton, he is 23. The mixture of narratives +which change from tricks of the hard-ware trade to dances at +Buckingham Palace and anecdotes of Cliff House supper parties at +San Francisco are very interesting. I am going to write a book +for them and call it "Through Central America with a Phonograph" +or "Who We Did, and How We Done Them." We sing the most +beautiful medleys and contribute to the phonograph. I had to +protest against them announcing "Her Golden Hair was Hanging Down +her Back" by Richard Harding Davis and Somerset kicked at their +introducing "God Save the Queen" as sung by "His Grace the Duke +of Bedford" which they insist in thinking his real title and his +name; if he would only confess the truth. You cannot have any +idea of how glad I am that I took this trip, just this +particular trip, not for any interest it will be to the gentle +reader but for the benefit it has been to me. All the things +I was nervous about have been done and should I get nerves +again as I suppose I always will in one form or another I can +get rid of them by remembering how I got rid of them before +during this most peculiar excursion. For though I and we all +told the truth about being well, we were in a most trying +place at times and the ride we took and the sail to get away +from possible fever was very much of a strain. I do not see +how Griscom kept up as he did for he was an invalid and very +nervous when he started. But he showed great sporting blood. +It was much better having three than two and he furnished us +with much amusement at which he never complains. His +artlessness and his bad breaks which keep us filled with +terror make the most entertaining narratives and he tells them +on himself and then keeps on making new ones. One night Jeffs +came down with fever through bathing in the mountain streams, a +practice which did not hurt us but which natives of the country +cannot do in safety, and I confess I was scared. Jeffs pulled +through in a few days. It was odd that the man who had lived +here eleven years should have been the only one to give up +throughout the whole trip and he was a good sport, too. + +I will have the Central American stories all done or nearly so +by the time we reach New York which is one of the comforts of +this over abundance of sea voyages. I have the lottery story +nearly written and am wondering now if Bissell will let me +publish it. Would it not be a good idea to have Dad, if he +knows him, explain about how I went South to write it and just +what it is and get his official sanction or shall I write or +get the Harper's to write when I get back. The lottery people +in joke offered $10,000 if they could write the story +themselves. And sometimes I wish they would for it is the +hardest kind of work. I do not want to advertise their old +game and yet I cannot help doing it, in a way. We put in at +Punta Arenas and I found a woman looking at us with an opera +glass and shortly after she sent out to say she knew me and +that she wanted me to come up. It seemed I met her in +Elizabeth, New Jersey with Eddie Coward where she was playing +in private theatricals. Since then as a punishment no doubt +she has lived here and her husband is Minister of the Navy +with one gun boat. This trip is very hot and I sleep on deck +and look up at the stars and the light on the jib and the +smoke spoiling the firmament. It makes you feel terribly far +away from the centre of civilization in front of the fire and +you all trying to make out where we are at. I hope you know +more about it than we do. + +It is the worst country for getting about that I ever heard +of. It has revived my interest and belief in all such +beautiful things as buried treasures and hidden cities and +shooting men against stone walls and filibusters. There are +not many of these stories but every man tells them differently +so they have all the freshness of a new tale. There is no ice +on this boat or lemons or segars. It is the first time so +they say that it has happened in twelve months, but after this +it must be better. At Panama they fine the ice man $1000 +every day his machine breaks and so we have hopes. I feel so +very, very selfish off down here and leaving you all alone and +it makes me lose my temper more than usual when all these +delays occur but I promise to be good hereafter and we will be +together soon now by the end of March sure and I hope you will +not miss me too much, as much as I miss all of you. Sometimes +I wish you could see some of these islands and the long +shadowy sharks and the turtles, there are thousands of turtles +as big as tubs just floating around like empty bottles, but I +have never on the whole taken a trip when I so seldom wished +that the family were around to enjoy it. It used to hurt me +during the Mediterranean trip but there is not much that would +please you in this outfit. I like it because I am satisfied +to go dirty for weeks at a time and to talk to the engineer or +the queer passengers and to pick up stories and improve my +geography but I do not think the scenery would compensate +either Nora or you or Dad for the lack of necessities and +CLEANTH. When we were crossing the continent I don't +believe I had a spot on me as big as a nickel without three +bites on it, all sorts of bites, they just swarmed over you +all sizes, colors and varieties. They came from dogs, from +the sand, from trees, from the grass, from the air. +The worst were little red bugs that lay under the leaves +called carrapati's and that came off on you in a hundred at a +time. And there were also "jiggers" that get under your nails +and leave eggs there. Some times we could not sleep at all +for the bites and you had to carry a brush to brush the carripats +off every time you passed through bushes. It's the +damnedest country I was ever in now that I have time to think +of it. The other day I was going in to bathe and the sand was +so hot that I could not get to the breakers and so I went +yelling and jumping back to the grass and the grass was just +one mass of burrs, so I gave another yell and leaped on to a +big log and the log was full of thorns. That's the sort of +country it is. And then after you do make a dash for the surf +a shark makes a dash for you and you don't know what you are +here for anyway. It had its humorous side and it was very +funny, especially as it never turned out otherwise, to see the +men scamper when the sharks came in. They never scented us +for ten minutes or so and then they would swim up and we would +give a yell and all make for the shore head over heels and +splashing and shrieking and scared and excited. There would +always be one man who was further out than the rest and he +could not hear on account of the waves and we would all line +up on the beach and yell and dance up and down and try to +attract his attention. But you would see him go on diving and +playing along in horrible loneliness until he turned to speak +to some one and found the man gone and then he would look for +the others and when he saw us all on the shore he would give +one wild whoop out of him and go falling over himself with his +hair on end and his eyes and mouth wide open. I saw one shark +ten feet long but we would have died of the heat if we had not +bathed so we thought it was worth it. That's over now because +we cannot get any more sea bathing. Just around Panama. +Finest place seen yet. + +RICHARD. + +PANAMA, February 28th, 1895. +DEAR MOTHER: + +Griscom has awakened to the fact that he is a Press +correspondent and is interviewing rebels who come stealthily +by night followed by spies of the government and sit in +Griscom's room with the son of the Consul General, as +interpreter. Somerset and I refuse to be implicated and sit +in the plaza waiting for a file of soldiers to carry Griscom +off which is our cue for action. There is a man-of-war, the +Atlanta, the one we made friends with at Puerto Cortez, +lying at Colon and so we feel safe. We may now be said to be +absorbing local color. That is about all we have done since +we left Amapala. And if it were not that you are all alone up +there, I would not mind it. I would probably continue on. We +know it now as we do London or Paris. We can distinguish sea +captains, lawyers in politics, commandantes, oldest residents, +gentlemenly good for nothings, shipping agents and commission +dealers, coffee planters and men who are "on the beach" with +unerring eye. We know the story of each before he tells it, +or it is told by some one else. The Commandante shot a lot of +men by the side of a road during the last revolution, first +allowing them to dig their own graves and is here now so +that he can pay himself by stealing the custom dues, +the lawyer politician has been to Cornell and taken a medical +degree in Paris and aspires to be a deputy and only remembers +New York as the home of Lillian Russell. The commission +merchants are all Germans and the coffee planters are all +French. They point with pride to little bare-foot boys +selling sea shells and cocoanuts as their offspring, although +they cannot remember their names. The sea captains you can +tell by their ready made clothes of a material that would be +warm in Alaska and by them wearing Spanish dollars for watch +guards and by the walk which is rolling easily when sober and +pitching heavily toward the night. The oldest resident always +sits in front of the hotel and in the same seat, with a +tortoise shell cane and remembers when Vasquez or Mendoza or +Barrios, or Bonilla occupied the Cathedral and fired hot shot +into the Palace and everybody took refuge in the English +Consulate and he helped guard the bank all night with a +Springfield rifle. The men who are on the beach have just +come out of the hospital where they have had yellow fever and +they want food. This story is intended to induce you to get +rid of them hurriedly by a small token. Sometimes out of this +queer combination you will get a good story but generally they +want to show you a ruined abbey or a document as old as the +Spanish occupation or to make you acquainted with a man who +has pearls to sell, or a coffee plantation or a collection of +unused stamps which he stole while a post-office employee. +Our chief sport now is to go throw money at the prisoners who +are locked up in a row of dungeons underneath the sea wall. The +people walk and flirt and enjoy the sea breeze above them and the +convicts by holding a mirror between the bars of the dungeons can +see who is leaning over the parapet above them. Then they hold +out their hands and you drop nickels and they fail to catch +them and the sentry comes up and teases them by holding the +money a few inches beyond their reach. They climb all over +the crossbars in their anxiety to get the money and look like +great monkeys. At night it is perfectly tremendous for their +is only a light over their heads and they crawl all over the +bars beneath this, standing on each other's shoulders and +pushing and fighting and yelling half naked and wholey black +and covered with sweat. As a matter of fact they are better +content to stay in jail than out and when the British Consul +offered to send eight of them back to Jamaica they refused to +go and said they would rather serve out their sentence of +eight years. This is the way the place looks and I am going +to introduce it in a melodrama and have some one lower files +down to the prisoners. +DICK. + + +After some not very eventful or pleasant days at Caracas, +Richard sailed for home and from the steamer wrote the +following letter: + +March 26th--On board S. S. Caracas. + +DEAR CHAS: + +Off the coast of God's country. Hurrah! H---- did not come +near us until the morning of our departure when he arrived at +the Station trembling all over and in need of a shave. But in +the meanwhile the consul at Caracas picked Griscom and myself +up in the street and took us in to see Crespo who received us +with much dignity and politeness. So we met him after all and +helped the story out that much. + +There is not much more to tell except that I was never so glad +to set my face home as I am now and even the roughness of this +trip cannot squelch my joy. It seems to me as if years had +passed since we left and to think we are only three days off +from Sandy Hook seems much too wonderfully good to be +possible. Some day when we have dined alone together at +Laurent's I will tell you the long story of how Somers and Gris +came to be decorated with the Order of the Bust of Bolivar the +Liberator of Venezuela of the 4th class but at present I will +only say that there is a third class of the order still coming +to me in Caracas, as there is 20 minutes still coming to Kelly +in Brooklyn. It was a matter of either my getting the third +class, which I ought to have had anyway having the third class +of another order already, and THEIR GETTING NOTHING, or our +all getting the 4th or 5th class and of course I choose that +they should get something and so they did and for my aimable +unselfishness in the matter they have frequently drunken my +health. I was delighted when Somers got his for he was +happier over it than I have ever seen him over anything and +kept me awake nights talking about it. I consider it the +handsomest order there is after the Legion of Honor and I have +become so crazy about Bolivar who was a second Washington and +Napoleon that I am very glad to have it, although I still sigh +for the third class with its star and collar. + +The boys are especially glad because we have organized a +Traveller's Club of New York of which we expect great things +and they consider that it starts off well in having three of +the members possessors of a foreign order. We formed the club +while crossing Honduras in sight of the Pacific Ocean and its +object is to give each other dinners and to present a club +medal to people who have been nice to and who have +helped members of the club while they were in foreign parts. +It is my idea and I think a good one as there are lots of +things one wants to do for people who help you and this will +be as good as any. Members of the club are the only persons +not eligible to any medal bestowed by the club and the +eligibility for membership is determined by certain distances +which a man must have travelled. Although the idea really is +to keep it right down to our own crowd and make each man +justify the smallness of the club's membership by doing +something worth while. I am President. Bonsal is vice +president. Russell treasurer and Griscom Secretary. Somerset +is the solitary member. You and Sam and Helen and Elizabeth +Bisland are at present the only honorary members. We are also +giving gold medals to the two chaps who crossed Asia on +bicycles, to Willie Chanler and James Creelman, but that does +not make them members. It only shows we as a club think they +have done a sporting act. I hope you like the idea. We have +gone over it for a month and considered it in every way and I +think we are all well enough known to make anybody pleased to +have us recognize what they did whether it was for any of us +personally or for the public as explorers. On this trip for +instance we would probably send the club medals in silver to +Admiral Meade, to Kelly, to Royas the Venezuelan Minister for +the orders to the Governor of Belize, to the consul at La +Guayra and to one of the phonograph chaps. In the same way if +you would want to send a medal to any man or woman prince or +doctor who had been kind, courteous, hospitable or of official +service to you you would just send in a request to the +committee. Write me soon and with lots of love +DICK. + + +In April, 1895, Richard was back in New York, at work on his +South and Central American articles, and according to the +following letters, having a good time with his old friends. + + +NEW YORK, April 27, 1895. +DEAR CHAS: + +I read in the paper the other morning that John Drew was in +Harlem, so I sent him a telegram saying that I was organizing +a relief expedition, and would bring him out of the wilderness +in safety. At twelve I sent another reading, "Natives from +interior of Harlem report having seen Davis Relief +Expeditionary Force crossing Central Park, all well. Robert +Howard Russell." At two I got hold of Russell, and we +telegraphed "Relief reached Eighty-fifth street; natives +peacefully inclined, awaiting rear column, led by Griscom; +save your ammunition and provisions." Just before the curtain +fell we sent another, reading: "If you can hold the audience +at bay for another hour, we guarantee to rescue yourself and +company and bring you all back to the coast in safety. Do not +become disheartened." Then we started for Harlem in a cab +with George and another colored man dressed as African +warriors, with assegai daggers and robes of gold and high +turbans and sashes stuck full of swords. I wore my sombrero +and riding breeches, gauntlets and riding boots, with +cartridge belts full of bum cartridges over my shoulder and +around the waist. Russell had my pith helmet and a suit of +khaki and leggins. Griscom was in one of my coats of many +pockets, a helmet and boots. We all carried revolvers, +canteens and rifles. We sent George in with a note saying we +were outside the zareba and could not rescue him because the +man on watch objected to our guns. As soon as they saw George +they rushed out and brought us all in. Drew was on the stage, +so we tramped into the first entrance, followed by all the +grips, stage hands and members of the company. The old man +heard his cue just as I embraced him, and was so rattled that +when he got on the stage he could not say anything, and the +curtain went down without any one knowing what the plot was +about. When John came off, I walked up to him, followed by +the other four and the entire company, and said: "Mr. Drew, I +presume," and he said: "Mr. Davis, I believe. I am saved!" +Helen Benedict happened to be in Maude Adams' dressing-room, +and went off into a fit, and the company was delighted as John +would have been had he been quite sure we were not going on +the stage or into a box. We left them after we had had a +drink, although the company besought us to stay and protect +them, and got a supper ready in Russell's rooms, at which +Helen, Ethel Barrymore, John and Mrs. Drew, Maude Adams and +Griscom were present. + +DICK. + + +NEW YORK, November, 1895. +DEAR MOTHER:-- + +The china cups have arrived all right and are a beautiful +addition to my collection and to my room, in which Daphne +still holds first place. + +What do you think Sir Henry sent me? The medal and his little +black pipe in a green velvet box about as big as two bricks +laid side by side with a heavy glass top with bevelled edges +and the medal and pipe lying on a white satin bed, bound down +with silver--and a large gold plate with the inscription "To +Richard Harding Davis with the warmest greetings from Gregory +Brewster--1895"-- You have no idea how pretty it is, +Bailey, Banks and Biddle made it-- It is just like him to do +anything so sweet and thoughtful and it has attracted so many +people that I have had it locked up-- No Burden jewel robbers +here-- My friend, the Russian O---- lady still pursues me and +as she has no sense of humor and takes everything seriously, +she frightens me-- I am afraid she will move in at any +moment-- She has asked me to spend the summer with her at +Paris and Monte Carlo, and at her country place in Norfolk and +bombards me with invitations to suppers and things in the +meantime. She has just sent me a picture of herself two feet +by three, with writing all over it and at any moment, I expect +her to ring the bell and order her trunks taken up stairs-- I +am too attractive-- Last night I dined with Helen and Maude +Adams, who is staying with her. I want them to board me too. +Maude sang for us after dinner and then went off to see Yvette +Guilbert at a "sacred concert" to study her methods. I went +to N----'s box to hear Melba and we chatted to the +accompaniment of Melba, Nordica and Plancon in a trio--the +Ogre, wore fur, pearls, white satin and violets. It was a +pink silk box. Then I went down to a reception at Mrs. De +Koven's and found it was a play. Everybody was seated already +so I squatted down on the floor in front of Mrs. De Koven and +a tall woman in a brocade gown cut like a Japanese woman's-- +It was very dark where the audience was, so I could not see +her face but when the pantomime was over I looked up and saw +it was Yvette Guilbert. So I grabbed Mrs. De Koven and told +her to present me and Guilbert said in English-- "It is not +comfortable on the floor is it?" and I said, "I have been at +your feet for three years now, so I am quite used to it"--for +which I was much applauded-- Afterwards I told some one to tell +her in French that I had written a book about Paris and about her +and that I was going to mark it and send it and before the woman +could translate, Guilbert said, "No, send me the Van Bippere +book"-- So we asked her what she meant and she said, " M. Bourget +told me to meet you and to read your Van Bippere Book, you are +Mr. Davis, are you not?"-- So after that I owned the place and +refused to meet Mrs. Vanderbilt. + +Yvette has offered to teach me French, so I guess I won't go +to Somerset's wedding, unless O---- scares me out of the +country. I got my $2,000 check and have paid all my debts. +They were not a third as much as I thought they were, so +that's all right. + +Do come over mother, as soon as you can and we will meet at +Jersey City, and have a nice lunch and a good talk. Give my +bestest love to Dad and Nora. How would she like Yvette for a +sister-in-law? John Hare has sent me seats for to night-- He +is very nice-- I have begun the story of the "Servants' Ball" +and got well into it. + +and lots of love. + +DICK. + + + +The following letter was written to me at Florence. The novel +referred to was "Soldiers of Fortune," which eventually proved +the most successful book, commercially, my brother ever wrote. +Mrs. Hicks, to whom Richard frequently refers, is the +well-known English actress Ellaline Terriss, the wife of +Seymour Hicks. Somerset is Somers Somerset, the son of Lady +Henry Somerset, and the Frohman referred to is Daniel Frohman, +who was the manager of the old Lyceum Theatre. + +Early in November, William R. Hearst asked my brother to write +a description of the Yale-Princeton football game for The +Journal. Richard did not want to write the "story" and by +way of a polite refusal said he could not undertake it for +less than $500.00. Greatly to his surprise Hearst promptly +accepted the offer. At the time, I imagine this was by far +the largest sum ever paid a writer for reporting a single +event. + + +December 31st, 1895. +New York. +The Players. + +New Year's Eve. +DEAR CHAS: + +I am not much of a letter writer these days, but I have +finished the novel and that must make up for it. It goes to +the Scribners for $5,000 which is not as much as I think I +should have got for it. I am now lying around here until the +first of February, when I expect to sail to Somerset's +wedding, reaching you in little old Firenzi in March. We will +then paint it. After that I do not know what I shall do. +The Journal is after me to do almost anything I want at my +own figure, as a correspondent. They have made Ralph London +correspondent and their paper is the only one now to stick to. +They are trying to get all the well known men at big prices. + +I have had such a good time helping Mrs. Hicks in Seymour's +absence. She had about everything happen to her that is +possible and she is just the sort of little person you love to +do things for. She finally sailed and I am now able to attend +to my own family. + +The Central American and Venezuelan book comes out on February +lst. Several of the papers here jokingly alluded to the fact +that my article on the Venezuelan boundary had inspired the +President's message. Of course you get garbled ideas of things +over there and exaggerated ones, as for instance, on the Coxey +army. But you never saw anything like the country after that war +message. It was like living with a British fleet off Sandy Hook. +Everybody talked of it and of nothing else. I went to a +dinner of 300 men all of different callings and I do not +believe one of them spoke of anything else. Cabmen, car +conductors, barkeepers, beggars and policemen. All talked war +and Venezuela and the Doctrine of Mr. Monroe. In three days +the country lost one thousand of millions of dollars in +values, which gives you an idea how expensive war is. It is +worse than running a newspaper. Now, almost everyone is for +peace, peace at any price. I do not know of but one jingo +paper, The Sun, and war talk is greeted with jeers. It was +as if the people had suddenly had their eyes opened to what it +really meant and having seen were wiser and wanted no more of +it. Your brother, personally, looks at it like this. +Salisbury was to blame in the first place for being rude and +not offering to arbitrate as he had been asked to do. When he +said to Cleveland, "It's none of your business" the only +answer was "Well, I'll make it my business" but instead of +stopping there, Cleveland uttered a cast iron ultimatum +instead of leaving a loophole for diplomacy and a chance for +either or both to back out. That's where I blame him as does +every one else. + +Sam Sothern is in Chicago and we all wrote him guying letters +about the war. Helen said she was going to engage "The Heart +of Maryland" company to protect her front yard, while Russell +and I have engaged "The Girl I Left Behind Me" company with +Blanch Walsh and the original cast. + +We sent Somerset a picture of himself riddled with bullets. +And Mrs. Hicks made herself famous by asking if it was that +odious Dunraven they were going to war about. + +My article was a very lucky thing and is greatly quoted and in +social gatherings I am appealed to as a final authority. + +The football story, by the way, did me a heap of good with the +newspapers and the price was quoted as the highest ever paid +for a piece of reporting. People sent for it so that the +edition was exhausted. The Journal people were greatly pleased. + +Yvette Guilbert is at Hammerstein's and crowds the new music +hall nightly, at two dollars a seat. Irving and Miss Terry +have been most friendly to me and to the family. Frohman is +going to put "Zenda" on in New York because he has played a +failure, which will of course kill it for next year for Eddie, +when he comes out as a star. I have never seen such general +indignation over a private affair. Barrymore called it a case +of Ollaga Zenda. They even went to Brooklyn when Eddie was +playing there and asked him to stage the play for them and how +he made his changes and put on his whiskers. Poor Eddie, he +lacks a business head and a business manager--and Sam talks +and shakes his head but is little better. Lots of love and +best wishes for the New Year. + +DICK. + + + +CHAPTER IX + +MOSCOW, BUDAPEST, LONDON + + +The years 1896--1897 were probably the most active of +Richard's very active life. In the space of twelve months he +reported the Coronation at Moscow, the Millennial Celebration +at Budapest, the Spanish-Cuban War, the McKinley Inauguration, +the Greek-Turkish War and the Queen's Jubilee. Although this +required a great deal of time spent in travelling, Richard +still found opportunity to do considerable work on his novel +"Captain Macklin," to which he refers in one of his letters +from London. + +As correspondent of the New York American, then The +Journal, Richard went from Florence, where he was visiting +me, to Moscow. He was accompanied by Augustus Trowbridge, an +old friend of my brother's and a rarely good linguist. The +latter qualification proved of the greatest possible +assistance to Richard in his efforts to witness the actual +coronation ceremony. To have finally been admitted to the +Kremlin my brother always regarded as one of his greatest +successes as a correspondent. + + +En route--May 1896. +DEAR CHAS: + +The night is passed and with the day comes "a hope" but during +the blackness I had "a suffer"-- I read until two--five +hours--and then slept until five when the middle man who had +slept on my shoulder all night left the train and the second one +to whom Bernardi was so polite left me alone and had the porter +fit me up a bed so that I slept until seven again-- Then the +Guardian Angel returned for his traps and I bade him a sleepy +adieu and was startled to see two soldiers standing shading their +eyes in salute in the doorway and two gentlemen bowing to my kind +protector with the obsequiousness of servants-- He sort of +smiled back at me and walked away with the soldiers and 13 +porters carrying his traps. So I rung up the conductor and he +said it was the King's Minister with his eyes sticking out of his +head--the conductor's eyes--not the Minister's. I don't know +what a King's Minister is but he liked your whiskey-- I am now +passing through the Austrian Tyrol which pleases me so much +that I am chortling with joy-- None of the places for which my +ticket call are on any map--but don't you care, I don't care-- +I wish I could adequately describe last night with nothing but +tunnels hours in length so that you had to have all the +windows down and the room looked like a safe and full of +tobacco smoke and damp spongey smoke from the engine, and bad +air. That first compartment I went in was filled later with +German women who took off their skirts and the men took off +their shoes. Everybody in the rear of the car is filthy dirty +but I had a wash at the Custom house and now I am almost clean +and quite happy. The day is beautiful and the compartment is +all my own-- I am absolutely enchanted with the Tyrol-- I have +never seen such quaint picture book houses and mills with +wheels like that in the Good for Nothing and crucifixes +wonderfully carved and snow mountains and dark green forests-- +The sky is perfect and the air is filled with the sun and the +train moves so smoothly that I can see little blue flowers, baby +blue, Bavarian blue flowers, in the Spring grass. Such dear +old castles like birds nests and such homelike old mills and +red-faced millers with feathers in their caps you never saw +out of a comic opera-- The man in here with me now is a +Russian, of course, and saw the last Coronation and knows that +my suite is on the principal Street and attends to my changing +money and getting an omelette-- I can survive another night +now having had an omelette not so good as Madam Masi's but +still an omelette-- I have now left Munich and the Russian and +a conductor whom I mistook for a hereditary prince of Bavaria, +with tassels down his back, has assured me he is going to +Berlin, and that I am going to Berlin and much else to which I +smile knowingly and say mucho gracia, wee wee, ya ya, ich +ich limmer and other long speeches ending with "an er--" + +DICK. + + +May 15th, 1896. Moscow. +DEAR CHAS: + +We left Berlin Monday night at eleven and slept well in a +wagon-lit. That was the only night out of the five that I +spent in the cars that I had my clothes off, although I was +able to stretch out on the seats, so I am cramped and tired +now. At seven Monday morning the guard woke us and told us to +get ready for the Custom House and I looked out and saw a +melancholy country of green hills and black pines and with no +sign of human life. It was raining and dreary looking and +then I saw as we passed them a line of posts painted in black +and white stripes a half mile apart on each side of the train +and I knew we had crossed the boundary and that the line of +posts stretched from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea and from +the Pacific to the Caucasus Mountains and the Pamirs. It gave me +a great thrill but I have had so many to-day, that I had almost +forgotten that one. For two days we jogged along through a level +country with meanthatched huts and black crows flying continually +and peasants in sheepskin coats, full in the skirt and tight at +the waist, with boots or thongs of leather around their feet. +The women wore boots too and all the men who were not soldiers +had their hair cropped short like mops. We could not find any +one who understood any language, so as we never knew when we +would stop for food, we ate at every station and I am of the +opinion that for months I have been living on hot tea and caviar +and hash sandwiches. The snow fell an inch deep on Wednesday and +dried up again in an hour and the sun shone through it all. +So on the whole it was a good trip and most interesting. But +here we are now in a perfect pandemonium and the Czar has not +yet come nor one-fifth even of the notables. It is a great +city, immense and overpowering in its extent. The houses are +ugly low storied and in hideous colors except the churches +which are like mosques and painted every color. I confess I +feel beaten to night by the noise and rush and roar and by so +many strange figures and marvellous costumes. Our rooms are +perfect that is one thing and the situation is the very best. +If the main street were Fifth Avenue and Madison Square the +Governor's Square, his palace would be Delmonico's and our +rooms would be the corner rooms of the Brunswick, so you can +see how well we are placed. We can sit in our windows and +look down and up the main street and see every one who leaves +or calls upon the Governor. We are now going out for a dinner +and to one of many cafe-chantants and I will tell you the rest +to-morrow, when I get sleep, for after five nights of it I +feel done up, but I feel equally sure it is going to be a +great experience and I cannot tell you how glad 1 am that I +came. Love to you all and to dear Florence in which +Trowbridge, who is a brick, joins me. + +DICK. + +Moscow--May 1896. +DEAR CHAS: + +There was a great deal to tell when I shut down last night, +but I thought I would have had things settled by this time and +waited, but it looks now as though there was to be no rest for +the weary until the Czar has put his crown on his head. The +situation is this: there are ninety correspondents, and twelve +are to get into the coronation, two of these will be +Americans. There are five trying for it. + +Count Daschoff, the Minister of the Court, has the say as to +who gets in of those five. T. and I called on him with my +credentials just as he was going out. Never have I seen such +a swell. He made us feel like dudes from Paterson, New +Jersey. He had three diamond eagles in an astrakan cap, a +white cloak, a gray uniform, top boots and three rows of +medals. He spoke English perfectly, with the most politely +insolent manner that I have ever had to listen to; and eight +servants, each of whom we had, in turn, mistaken for a prince +royal, bowed at him all the brief time he talked over our +heads. He sent us to the bureau for correspondents, where +they gave me a badge and a pocketbook, with my photo in it. +They are good for nothing, except to get through the police +lines. No one at the bureau gave us the least encouragement as +to my getting in at the coronation. We were frantic, and I went +back to Breckenridge, our Minister, and wrote him a long +letter explaining what had happened, and that what I wrote +would "live," that I was advertised and had been advertised to +write this story for months. I dropped The Journal +altogether, and begged him to represent me as a literary light +of the finest color. This he did in a very strong letter to +Daschoff, and I presented it this morning, but the Minister, +like Edison, said he would let me know when he could see me. +Then I wrote Breck a letter of thanks so elegant and +complimentary that he answered with another, saying if his +first failed he would try again. That means he is for me, and +at the bureau they say whichever one he insists on will get +in, but they also say he is so good-natured that he helps +every one who comes. I told him this, and he has promised to +continue in my behalf as soon as we hear from Daschoff. + +The second thing of importance is the getting the story, IF +WE GET IT, on the wire. That, I am happy to say, we are as +assured of as I could hope to be. I own the head of the +Telegraph Bureau soul, body and mind. He loves the ground T. +and I spurn, and he sent out my first cable today, one of +interrogation merely, ahead of twelve others; he has also +given us the entree to a private door to his office, all the +other correspondents having to go to the press-rooms and +undergo a sort of press censorship, which entails on each man +the cutting up of his story into three parts, so as to give +all a chance. I gave T. three dictums to guide him; the first +was that we did not want a fair chance--we wanted an unfair +advantage over every one else. Second, to never accept a "No" +or a "Yes" from a subordinate, but to take everything from +head-quarters. Third, to use every mouse, and not to trust to +the lions. He had practise on the train. When he told me we +would be in Moscow in ten hours, I would say, "Who told you +that," and back he would go to the Herr Station Director in a +red gown, and return to say that we would get there in twenty +hours. By this time I will match him against any newspaper +correspondent on earth. He flatters, lies, threatens and +bribes with a skill and assurance that is simply beautiful, +and his languages and his manners pull me out of holes from +which I could never have risen. With it all he is as modest +as can be, and says I am the greatest diplomat out of office, +which I really think he believes, but I am only using old +reporters' ways and applying the things other men did first. + +My best stroke was to add to my cable to The Journal, +"Recommend ample recognition of special facilities afforded by +telegraph official"--and then get him to read it himself under +the pretext of wishing to learn if my writing was legible. He +grinned all over himself, and said it was. After my first +story is gone I will give him 200 roubles for himself in an +envelope and say Journal wired me to do it. That will fix +him for the coronation story, as it amounts to six months' +wages about. But, my dear brother, in your sweet and lovely +home, where the sun shines on the Cascine and the workmen +sleep on the bridges, and dear old ladies knit in the streets, +that is only one of the thousand things we have had to do. It +would take years to give you an account of what we have done +and why we do it. It is like a game of whist and poker +combined and we bluff on two flimsy fours, and crawl the next +minute to a man that holds a measly two-spot. There is not a +wire we have not pulled, or a leg, either, and +we go dashing about all day in a bath-chair, with a driver in +a bell hat and a blue nightgown, leaving cards and writing +notes and giving drinks and having secretaries to lunch and +buying flowers for wives and cigar boxes for husbands, and +threatening the Minister with Cleveland's name. + +John A. Logan, Jr., is coming dressed in a Russian Uniform, +and he wore it on the steamer, and says he is the special +guest of the Czar and the Secretary of the visiting mission. +Mrs. P. P. is paying $10,000 for a hotel for one week. That +is all the gossip there is. We lunched with the McCooks today +and enjoyed hearing American spoken, and they were apparently +very glad to have us, and made much of T. and of me. We only +hope they can help us; and I am telling the General the only +man to meet is Daschoff, and when he does I will tell him to +tell Daschoff I am the only man to be allowed in the +coronation. I wish I could tell you about the city, but we +see it only out of the corner of our eyes as we dash to bureau +after bureau and "excellency" and "royal highness" people, and +then dash off to strengthen other bridges and make new +friends. It is great fun, and I am very happy and T. is +having the time of his life. He told me he would rather be +with me on this trip than travel with the German Emperor, and +you will enjoy to hear that he wrote Sarah I was the most +"good-natured" man he ever met. God bless you all, and dear, +dear Florence. Lots of love. + +DICK. + +Moscow--May, 1896. +DEAR CHAS: + +I have just sent off my coronation story, and the strain of this +thing, which has really been on me for six months, is off. You +can imagine what a relief it is, or, rather, you cannot, for no +one who has not been with us these last ten days can know what we +have had to do. The story I sent is not a good one. It was +impossible to tell it by cable, and the first one on the entry +was a much better one. I do not care much, though; of course, I +do care, as I ought to have made a great hit with it, but there +was no time, and there was so much detail and minutia that I +could not treat it right. However, after the awful possibility, +or rather certainty, that we have had to face of not getting any +story at all, I am only too thankful. I would not do it again +for ten thousand dollars. Edwin Arnold, who did it for The +Telegraph, had $25,000, and if I told you of the way Hearst +acted and Ralph interfered with impertinent cables, you would +wonder I am sane. They never sent me a cent for the cables +until it was so late that I could not get it out of the bank, +and we have spent and borrowed every penny we have. Imagine +having to write a story and to fight to be allowed a chance to +write it, and at the same time to be pressed for money for +expenses and tolls so that you were worn out by that alone. +The brightest side of the whole thing was the way everybody in +this town was fighting for me. The entire town took sides, +and even men who disliked me, and who I certainly dislike, +like C. W. and R---- of the Paris Embassy, turned in and +fought for my getting in like relations. And the women--I had +grand dukes and ambassadors and princes, whom I do not know by +sight, moving every lever, and as Stanhope of The Herald, +testified "every man, woman and child in the visiting and +resident legation is crazy on the subject of getting Davis +into the coronation." They made it a personal matter, and +when I got my little blue badge, the women kissed me and each +other, and cheered, and the men came to congratulate me, and +acted exactly as though they had got it themselves. + +It was a beautiful sight; the Czarina much more beautiful and +more sad-looking than ever before. But it was not solemn +enough, and the priests groaned and wailed and chanted and +sang, and every one stood still and listened. All that the +Czar and Czarina did was over ten minutes after they entered +the chapel, and then for three hours the priests took the +center of the stage and groaned. I was there from seven until +one. Six solid hours standing and writing on my hat. It was +a fine hat, for we were in court costume, I being a +distinguished visitor, as well as a correspondent. That was +another thing that annoyed me, because Breckinridge, who has +acted like a brick, did not think he could put me on both +lists, so I chose the correspondents' list, of course, in +hopes of seeing the ceremony, but knowing all the time that +that meant no balls or functions, so that had I lost the +ceremony I would have had nothing; but he arranged it so that +I am on both lists. Not that I care now. For I am tired to +death; and Trowbridge did not get on either list, thanks to +the damned Journal and to his using all his friends to help +me, so that I guess I will get out and go to Buda Pest and +meet you in Paris. Do not consider this too seriously, for I +am writing it just after finishing my cable and having spent +the morning on my toes in the chapel. I will feel better +tomorrow. Anyway, it is done and I am glad, as it was the +sight of the century, and I was in it, and now I can spend my +good time and money in gay Paree. Love to all. + +DICK. + + +From Moscow Richard went direct to Buda Pest, where he wrote +an article on the Hungarian Millennial. + + + +BUDA PEST + +CHAS: May 8th, 1896. + +I have just returned from the procession of the Hungarian +Nobles. It was even more beautiful and more interesting than +the Czar's entry than which I would not have believed anything +could have been more impressive-- But the first was military, +except for the carriages, which were like something out of +fairyland--to-day, the costumes were all different and +mediaeval, some nine hundred years old and none nearer than +the 15th Century. The mis en scene was also much better. +Buda is a clean, old burgh, with yellow houses rising on a +steep green hill, red roofs and towers and domes, showing out +of the trees-- It is very high but very steep and the +procession wound in and out like a fairy picture-- I sat on +the top of the hill, looking down it to the Danube, which +separates Buda from Pest-- The Emperor sat across the square +about 75 yards from our tribune in the balcony of his palace. +We sat in the Palace yard and the procession passed and turned +in front of us-- There were about 1,500 nobles, each dressed +to suit himself, in costumes that had descended for +generations--of brocade, silk, fur, and gold and silver +cloth-- Each costume averaged, with the trappings of the +horse, 5,000 dollars. Some cost $1,000, some $15,000. Some +wore complete suits of chain armor, with bearskins and great +black eagle feathers on their spears just as they were when +they invaded Rome-- Others wore gold chain armor and +leopard or wolf skins and their horses were studded with +turquoises and trappings of gold and silver and smothered +in silver coins-- It would have been ridiculous if they had +not been the real thing in every detail and if you had not +known how terribly in earnest the men were. There is no other +country in the world where men change from the most blase and +correct of beings, to fairy princes in tights and feathers and +jewelled belts and satin coats-- They were an hour in passing +and each one seemed more beautiful than the others-- I am very +glad I came although I was disappointed at missing the +accident at Moscow. It must have been more terrible than +Johnstown. I found the ----s quite converted into the most +awful snobs but the people they worship are as simple and well +bred as all gentle people are and I have had the most +delightful time with them. It is so small and quiet after +Moscow, and instead of being lost in an avalanche of embassies +and suites and missions, I have a distinct personality, as +"the American," which I share with "the" Frenchman and four +Englishmen. We are the only six strangers and they give us +the run of all that is going on-- At night we dine at the most +remarkable club in the world, on the border of the Park, where +the best of all the Gypsey musicians plays for us-- The music +is alone worth having come to hear, and the dear souls who +play it, having been told that I like it follow me all around +the terrace and sit down three feet away and fix their eyes on +you, and then proceed to pull your nerves and heart out of you +for an hour at a time-- One night a man here dipped a ten +thousand franc note in his champagne and pasted it on the +leader's violin and bowed his thanks, and the leader bowed in +return and the next morning sent him the note back in an +envelope, saying that the compliment was worth more +than the money-- The leader's name is Berchey and the +Hungarians have never allowed him to leave the country for +fear he would not be allowed to come back-- He is a fat, half +drunken looking man, with his eyes full of tears half the time +he plays. He looks just like a setter dog and he is so +terribly in earnest that when he fixes me with his eyes and +plays at me, the court ladies all get up and move their chairs +out of his way just as though he were a somnambulist-- + +I leave here Wednesday and reach Paris Friday MORNING the +eleventh-- You must try to meet me at the Cafe de la Paix at +half past nine-- Wait in the corner room if you don't wish to +sit outside and as soon as I get washed I will join you for +coffee. It will be fine to see you again and to be done with +jumping about from hotel to hotel and to be able to read the +signs and to know how to ask for food. Russian, German and +Hungarian have made French seem like my mother tongue-- + +DICK. + + + +CHAPTER X + +CAMPAIGNING IN CUBA AND GREECE + + +In December, 1896, Richard and Frederic Remington, the artist, +were commissioned by the New York Journal to visit Cuba +which was then at war with Spain. It was their intention to +go from Key West in the Vamoose, a very fast but frail +steam-launch, and to make a landing at some uninhabited point +on the Cuban coast. After this their plans seem to have been +to trust to luck and the kindliness of the revolutionists. +After waiting for some time at Key West for favorable weather, +they at last started out on a dark night to make the crossing. +A few hours after the Vamoose had left Key West a heavy +storm arose--apparently much too violent for the slightly +built launch. The crew struck and the captain finally refused +to go on to Cuba and put back to Key West. Shortly after this +Remington and my brother reached Havana by a more simple and +ostentatious route. This was my brother's first effort as a +war correspondent, and I presume it was this fact and the very +indefiniteness of the original plan that caused his mother and +father so much uneasiness. And, indeed, it did prove +eventually a hazardous exploit. + + +way to Key West. +December 19, 1896. +DEAR MOTHER: + + +I hope you won't be cross with me for going off and not +letting you know, but I thought it was better +to do it that way as there was such delay in our getting +started. I am going to Cuba by way of Key West with Frederic +Remington and Michaelson, a correspondent who has been there +for six months. We are to be taken by the Vamoose the +fastest steam yacht made to Santa Clara province where the +Cubans will meet us and take us to Gomez. We will stay a +month with him, the yacht calling for copy and sketches once a +week, and finally for us in a month. I get all my expenses +and The Journal pays me $3,000 for the month's work. The +Harper's Magazine also takes a story at six hundred dollars +and Russell will reprint Remington's sketches and my story in +book form, so I shall probably clear $4,000 in the next month +or six weeks. I was a week in getting information on the +subject so I know all about it from the men who have just been +there and I want you to pay attention to what I tell you they +told me and not to listen to any stray visitor who comes in +for tea and talks without any tact or knowledge. There is no +danger in the trip except the problem of getting there and +getting away again, and that is now removed by The Journal's +yacht. I would have gone earlier had any of the periodicals +that asked me to go shown me any way to get there-- THERE IS +NO FEVER THIS TIME OF YEAR and as you know fever never +touches me. It got all the others in Central America and +never worried me at all. There is no danger of getting shot, +as the province into which we go, the Santa Clara province, is +owned and populated and patrolled by the Cubans. It is no +more Spanish than New Jersey and the Spaniards cannot get in +there. We have the strongest possible letters from the Junta, +and I have from Lamont, Bayard and Olney and credentials in +every language. We will sit around the Gomez camp and send +messengers back to the coast. It is a three days trip and as +Gomez may be moving from place to place you may not hear from us +for a month and we may not hear from you but remember it was a +much longer time than that before you heard from me when I went +to Honduras. Also keep in mind that I am going as a +correspondent only and must keep out of the way of fighting +and that I mean to do so, as Chamberlain says we want +descriptive stories not brave deeds-- Major Flint who has +arranged the trip for us was down there with Maceo as a +correspondent. He saw six fights and never shot off his gun +once because as he said it was not his business to kill people +and he has persuaded me that he is right, so I won't do +anything but look on-- I have bought at The Journal's +expense a fifty dollar field glass which is a new invention +and the best made. I have marked it so that you can see a man +five miles off and as soon as I see him I mean to begin to +ride or run the other way--no one loves himself more than I do +so you leave me to take care of myself. I wish I could give +you any idea of the contempt the four returned correspondents +who talked to me, have for the Spaniards. They have seen them +shoot 2,500 rounds without hitting men at 200 yards and they +run away if the enemy begins on them first. However, you +trust to Richard-- We have a fine escort arranged for us and +Michaelson speaks Spanish perfectly and has been six months +scouting over the country. + +DICK. + + +KEY West, December 26, 1896. +DEAR FAMILY: + +I got your letters late last night and they made me pretty +solemn. It is an awfully solemn thing to +have people care for you like that and to care for them as I +do. I can't tell you how much I love you. You don't know how +much the pain of worrying you for a month has meant to me, but +I have talked it all out with myself, and left it to God and I +am sure I am doing right. As Mrs. Crown said, "There's a +whole churchful up here praying for you," and I guess that +will pull me through. Of course, dear, dear Mother thought +she was cross with me. She could not be cross with me, and +her letter told me how much she cared, that was all, and made +me be extra careful. But I need not promise you to be +careful. You have an idea I am a wild, filibustering, +hot-headed young man. I am not. I gave the guides to +understand their duty was to keep us out of danger if we had +to walk miles to avoid it. We are men of peace, going in, as +real estate agents and coffee-planters and drummers are going +in on every steamer, to attend to our especial work and get +out again quick. I have just as strong a prejudice against +killing a man as I have against his killing me. + +Lots and lots of love. Don't get scared if you don't hear for +a month, although we will try to get our stories back once a +week, but you know we are at the convenience of the Cubans who +will pocket our despatches and money and not take the long +trip back. Thank dear Dad for his letter full of good advice. +It was excellent. Remington and Michelson are good men and I +like them immensely. Already we are firm friends. + +Love, + + + + +KEY WEST--January 1, 1897. +DEAR MOTHER: + +As you will know by my telegram we are either off on a safe +sea going boat or waiting for one. There is no turning back +from here and the only reason I thought of doing so was the +knowledge of the way you would suffer and worry. I argued it out +that it was selfish in me to weigh my getting laughed at and +paragraphed as the war correspondent that always Turned Back +against a month of uneasiness for you, but later I saw I could +not do it much as I love you for the element of danger to me is +non-existent; it is merely an exciting adventure and you will +have to believe me and not worry but be a Spartan mother. I +would not count being laughed at and the loss of my own self +respect if I really thought there was great danger, but I do not. +You will not lose me and if I go now I can sit still next time +and say "I have done better things than that." If I had not gone +it would have meant that I would have had to have done just that +much harder a stunt next time to make people forget that I had +failed in this one. Now do cheer up and believe in the luck +of Richard Harding Davis and the British Army. We have carte +blanche from The Journal to buy or lease any boat on the +coast and I rocked them for $1000 in advance payment because +of the delay over the Vamoose. + +I am so happy at thinking I am going, I could not have faced +anyone had I not, although we had nothing to do with the +failure, we tried to cross fairly in the damn tub and it was +her captain who put back. I lay out on the deck and cried +when he refused to go ahead, we had waited so long. The +Cubans and Remington and Michelson had put on all their riding +things but fortunately I had not and so was spared that +humiliation. What I don't know about the Fine Art of +Filibustering now is unnecessary. I find many friends of my +Captain Boynton or "Capt. Burke." Tonight the officers of the +Raleigh give me a grand dinner at which I wear a dress suit and +make speeches--they are the best chaps I ever met in the Navy. +Lots of love and best wishes to Dad and to Nora for a happy, +happy New Year. You know me and you know my conscience but it +would not let me go back in order to save you anxiety so you +won't think me selfish. God bless you. + +DICK. + + +KEY WEST, January 2nd, 1897. +DEAR FAMILY: + +I have learned here that the first quality needed to make a +great filibuster is Patience, it is not courage, or resources +or a knowledge of the Cuban Coast line, it is patience. +Anybody can run a boat into a dark bayou and dump rifles on +the beach and scurry away to sea again but only heroes can sit +for a month on a hotel porch or at the end of a wharf, and +wait. That is all we do and that is my life at Key West. I +get up and half dress and take a plunge in the bay and then +dress fully and have a greasy breakfast and then light a huge +Key West cigar, price three cents and sit on the hotel porch +with my feet on a rail-- Nothing happens after that except +getting one's boots polished as the two industries of this +place are blacking boots and driving cabs. I have two boys to +black mine at the same time every morning and pay the one who +does his the better of the two-- It generally ends in a fight +so that affords diversion-- Then a man comes along, any man, +and says, "Remmington's looking for you" and I get up and look +for Remington. There is only a triangle of streets where one +can find him and I call at "Josh" Curry's first and then at +Pendleton's News Store and read all the back numbers of +the Police Gazette for the hundredth time and then +call here at the Custom House and then look in at the Cable +office, where Michaelson lives sending telegrams about +anything or nothing and that brings me back to the hotel porch +again, where I have my boots shined once more and then go into +mid-day dinner. In the meanwhile Remington is looking for me +a hundred yards in the rear. He generally gets to "Josh's" as +I leave the Custom House-- In the afternoon I study Spanish +out of a text book and at three take a bicycle ride, at five I +call at the garrison to take tea with the doctor and his wife, +who is sweeter than angel's ever get to be with a miniature +angel of a baby called Martha. I wait until retreat is +sounded and the gun is fired at sunset and having commented +unfavorably on the way the soldiers let the flag drop on the +grass instead of catching it on the arms as a bluejacket does, +I ride off to the bay for another bath-- Then I take the +launch to the Raleigh and dine with the officers and rejoice +in the clean fresh paint and brass and decks and the lights +and black places of a great ship of war, than which nothing is +more splendid. We sit on the quarter-deck and smoke and play +the guitar and I go home again, in time for bed. I vary this +programme occasionally by spending the morning on the end of a +wharf watching another man fish and reading old novels and the +"Lives of Captain Walker" and "Captain Fry of the Virginius," +two great books from each of which I am going to write a short +story like the one of the Alamo or of the Jameson Raid-- The +life of Walker I found on the Raleigh and the life of +Captain Fry with all the old wood cuts and the newspaper +comments of the time at a book store here. I don't know when +we shall get away but it is no use kicking about it, Michaelson +is doing all he can and the new tug will be along in a week +anyway. I shall be so glad to get to Cuba that I will dance with +glee. +DICK. + + +MATANZAS, January 15th, 1897. +DEAR MOTHER: + +I sent you a note by Remington which he will mail in the +States-- From here I go to Sagua La Grande. It is on the +northern coast. I think from there I shall cross over to +Cienfuegos on the Southern coast and then if I can catch a +steamer go to Santiago to see my old friends, at the Juraqua +mines and MacWilliams' ore road and "the Palms"-- Everywhere I +am treated well on account of Weyler's order and I am learning +a great deal and talking very little, my Spanish being bad. +There is war here and no mistake and all the people in the +fields have been ordered in to the fortified towns where they +are starving and dying of disease. Yesterday I saw the houses +of these people burning on both sides of the track-- They gave +shelter to the insurgents and so very soon they found their +houses gone. I am so relieved at getting old Remington to go +as though I had won $5000. He was a splendid fellow but a +perfect kid and had to be humored and petted all the time. I +shall if I have luck be through with this in a few weeks but +it has had such a set back at the start that I am afraid it +can never make a book and I doubt if I can write a decent +article even. I am so anxious not to keep you worrying any +longer than is necessary and so I am hurrying along taking +only a car window view of things. Address me care of Consul +General Lee, Havana and confine your remarks to what is going +on at home. I know what is going on here. I don't believe half +I hear but I am being slowly converted. Remington is more +excitable than I am, so don't misunderstand if he starts in +violently. I am getting details and verifying things. He is +right on a big scale but every one has lied so about this island +that I do not want to say anything I do not believe is true. +This is a beautiful little city and after Jaruco, where we slept +two days ago, it is Paris. There we slept off the barnyard and +cows and chickens walked all over the floor and fleas all over +us. It was like Honduras only filthier. Speaking of Paris, tell +the Kid I expect to go over to him soon after I return to New +York. + +of love. + +DICK. + + +CARDENAS--North Coast of Cuba. + +January 16th, 1897. +DEAR MOTHER: + +It is very funny not knowing what sort of a place you are to +sleep in next and taking things out of a grab bag, as it +were-- In Europe you can always guess what the well known +towns will give you for you have a guide book, but here it is +all luck. Matanzas was a pretty city but the people were +awful, the hotel was Spanish and the proprietor insolent, +though I was spending more of Willie Hearst's money than all +of the officers spend in a week, the Consul could not talk +English or Spanish, he said he hadn't come there "to go to +school to no Spaniard" and he gloried in the fact he had been +there three years without knowing a word of the language. His +vice-Consul was worse and everything went wrong generally. +Every one I met was an Alarmist and that is polite for liar. +They asked Remington if he was the man who manufactured the +rifles and gave us the Iowa Democrat to read. To night I reached +here after a six hours ride through blazing fields of sugar cane +and stopped on my way to the hotel to ask the Consul when the +next boat went to Saqua la Grande-- I had no letter of +introduction to him as I had to the Matanzas consul, but as soon +as he saw my card he got out of his chair and shook hands again +and was as hearty and well bred and delightful as Charley himself +and unlike Chas he did not ask me 14 francs for looking on him. +He is out now chasing around to get me a train for to-morrow. +But I won't go to-morrow. My hotel looks on the plaza and the +proprietor and the whole suite of attendants are my slaves. It +is just as different as can be. My interpreter does it, he calls +himself MY VALET, although I point out to him that two +shirts and twelve collars do not constitute a wardrobe even +with a rubber coat thrown in. But he likes to play at my +being a distinguished stranger and I can't say I object. Only +when you remember the way I was invited to see Cuba and +expected to see it, and now the way I am seeing it from car +windows with A VALET. What would the new school of yellow +kid journalists say if they knew that. For the first time on +this trip I have wished you were both with me, that was to +night. I never see anything really beautiful but that it +instantly makes me feel selfish and wish you could see it too. +It has happened again and again and to night I wish you could +be here with me on this balcony. The town runs down a slope +to the bay and in the middle of it is the Plaza with me on the +balcony which lets out of my sleeping room-- "the room" so the +proprietor tells me, "reserved only for the Capitain General." +It is just like the description in that remarkable novel of +mine where Clay and Alice sit on the balcony of the restaurant. +I have the moonlight and the Cathedral with the open doors and +the bronze statue in the middle and the royal palms moving in the +breeze straight from the sea and the people walking around the +plaza below. If it was in any way as beautiful as this Clay and +Alice would have ended the novel that night. + +I got a grand lot of letters to-day which Otto, my interpreter +brought back from Havana after having conducted Remington +there in safety. I must say you are writing very cheerfully +now, but I don't wonder you worried at first but now that I am +a commercial traveller with an order from Weyler which does +everything when I find it necessary, you really must not worry +any more but just let me continue on my uneventful journey and +then come home. I shall have been gone so long and my +friends, judging from Russell and Dana and Irene's letters, +will be so glad to see me, that they will have forgotten I +went out to do other things than coast around in trains. As a +matter of fact this is a terribly big problem and most +difficult to get the truth of, I find myself growing to be the +opposite of the alarmist, whatever that is, although you would +think the picturesque and dramatic and exciting thing would be +the one I would rather believe because I want to believe it, +but I find that that is not so, I see a great deal on both +sides and I do not believe half I am told. As we used to say +at college, "it is against history," and it is against history +for men to act as I am told they are acting here-- They show +me the pueblo huddled together around the fortified towns, +living in palm huts but I know that they have always lived in +palm huts, the yellow kid reporters don't know that or +consider it, but send off word that the condition of the people +is terrible, that they have only leaves to cover them, and it +sounds very badly. That is an instance of what I mean. In a big +way there is no doubt that the process going on here is one of +extermination and ruin. Two years ago the amount of sugar +shipped from the port of Matanzas to the U. S. was valued at 11 +millions a year. This last year just over shows that sugar to +the amount of $800,000 was sent out. In '94, 154 vessels +touched at Matanzas on their way to America. In '95 there were +80 and in '96 there are 16. I always imagined that houses were +destroyed during a war because they got in the way of cannon +balls or they were burned because they might offer shelter to +the enemy, but here they are destroyed, with the purpose of +making the war horrible and hurrying up the end. The +insurgents began first by destroying the sugar mills, some of +which were worth millions of dollars in machinery, and now the +Spaniards are burning the homes of the people and herding them +in around the towns to starve out the insurgents and to leave +them without shelter or places to go for food or to hide the +wounded. So all day long where ever you look you see great +heavy columns of smoke rising into this beautiful sky above +the magnificent palms the most noble of all palms, almost of +all trees-- It is the most beautiful country I have ever +visited. I had no recollection of how beautiful it was or +else I had not the knowledge of other places with which to +compare it. Nothing out of the imagination can approach it in +its great waterfalls and mossy rocks and grand plains and +forests of white pillars with plumes waving above them. Only +man is vile here and it is cruel to see the walls of the +houses with blind eyes, with roofs gone and gardens burned, every +church but one that I have seen was a fortress with hammocks +swung from the altars and rude barricades thrown up around the +doorways-- If this is war I am of the opinion that it is a +senseless wicked institution made for soldiers, lovers and +correspondents for different reasons, and for no one else in the +world and it is too expensive for the others to keep it going to +entertain these few gentlemen-- I have seen very little of it yet +and I probably won't see much more, but I have seen all I want. +Remington had his mind satisfied even sooner--but then he is an +alarmist and exaggerates things-- The men who wear the red badge +of courage, I don't feel sorry for, they have their reward in +their bloody bandages and the little cross on their tunic but +those you meet coming back sick and dying with fever are the +ones that make fighting contemptible--poor little farmers, +poor little children with no interest in Cuba or Spain's right +to hold it, who have been sent out to die like ants before +they have learned to hold a mauser, and who are going back +again with the beards that have grown in the field hospitals +on their cheeks and their eyes hollow, and too weak to move or +speak. Six of them died while I was in Jaroco, a town as big +as Marion and that had been the average for two months, think +of that, six people dying in Marion every day through July and +August-- I didn't stay in that town any longer than the train +did-- Well I have been writing editorials here instead of +cheering you up but I guess I'm about right and when I see a +little more I'll tell it over again to The Journal-- It is +not as exciting reading as deeds of daring by our special +correspondent and I haven't changed my name or shaved my +eyebrows or done anything the other men have done but I believe I +am getting near the truth. They have shut off provisions going +or coming from the towns, they have huddled hundreds of people +who do not know what a bath means around these towns, and this is +going to happen-- As soon as the rains begin the yellow fever and +smallpox will set in and all vessels leaving Cuban ports will be +quarantined and the island will be one great plague spot. The +insurgents who are in the open fields will live and the soldiers +will die for their officers know nothing of sanitation or care +nothing. The little Consul has just been here to see me and we +have had a long talk and I got back at him. He told me he had +seen the Franco-German war as a correspondent of The Tribune and +Iasked him if he had ever met another correspondent of The +Tribune at that time a German student named Hans who cabled +the story of the battle of Gravellote and who Archibald Forbes +says was the first correspondent to use the cable. The Consul +who looks like William D. Howells wriggled around in his chair +and said "I guess you mean me but I was not a German student, +I was born and raised in Philadelphia and Forbes got my name +wrong, it is Hance." So then I got up and shook hands with +him in my turn and told him I had always wanted to meet that +correspondent and did not expect to do so in Cardenas, on the +coast of Cuba. + +Thank you all for your letters. I am glad you liked the +Jameson book. I thought you knew I was a F. R. G. S. It was +George Curzon proposed me and as he is a gold medallist of the +Society it was easy getting in. Lots of love. + +DICK. + + +Richard returned to New York from Cuba in February, 1897, but +the following month started for Florence to pay me a +long-promised visit. On his way he stopped for a few days in +London and Paris. + + + +ABASSADE DES ETATS-UNIS +59 Rue Galilee, +Paris, April 1st, 1897. +DEAR FAMILY: + +I got over here to-day after the heaviest weather I ever +tackled on this channel. Stephen Crane came with me. I gave +him a lunchon Wednesday. Anthony Hope, McCarthy, Harold +Frederic and Barrie came. Sir Evelyn Wood instead of coming +was detained at the war office and sent instead a lance +Sergeant on horseback with a huge envelope marked "On Her +Majesty's Service," which was to be delivered into my hands-- +The entire Savoy was upset and it was generally supposed that +war had been declared and that I was being ordered to the +front-- The whole hotel hung over us until I had receipted for +the package and the soldier had saluted and clanked away. I +gave Crane the letter as a souvenir. I also saw Seymour +Hicks' first night and recognized 15 American songs in it. + +The London Times offered me the position of correspondent on +the Greek frontier. Every one in London thought it an +enormous compliment and Harold Frederic, Ralph, Ballard Smith +and the rest were very envious. I told them I could not go, +but I was glad to have had the compliment paid me. Barrie has +made out a scenario of the "Soldiers" for dramatic purposes +and has asked the Haymarket management to consider it. So, +that I guess that it must be good-- + +So, I also guess I had better finish it-- I leave for Florence +to night. I am having a fine, fine time and I am so glad you +are all well. + +Lots of love, + +DICK. + + +Of the many happy days we have spent together, I do not +believe there were any much more happy than the three weeks +Richard remained with me. It was his first long visit to +Italy and from the day of his arrival he loved the old town +and its people who gave him a most friendly welcome. He had +come at a time when Florence was at its best, its narrow +quaint streets filled with sunshine and thronged with idling +natives and the scurrying tourists that always came with the +first days of spring. The Cascine and the pink-walled roads +of the environs were ablaze with wild roses and here, after +his rather strenuous experience in Cuba, Richard gave himself +up to long days of happy idleness. Together we took voyages +of discovery to many of the little walled and forgotten towns +where the tourists seldom set foot. Once we even wandered so +far as Monte Carlo, where my brother tried very hard to break +the bank and did not succeed. But the Richard Harding Davis +luck did not fail him completely and I remember I greatly +envied him the huge pile of gold and notes that represented +his winnings and which we did our very best to spend before we +left the land of the Prince of Monaco. However, having had +his first taste of war, Richard felt that he must leave the +peace and content of Florence to see how the Greeks, with whom +he had much sympathy, were faring with their enemies the +Turks. As it happened, this expedition proved but a short +interruption, and in less than a month he was once more back with +his new-found friends in Florence. + + +April 28, 1897 + +On the Way to Patras on a Steamer. +DEAR FAMILY: + +It has been a week since I wrote you last, when I sent you the +Inauguration article. Since then I have been having the best +time I ever had any place ALONE. I have had more fun with a +crowd, but never have been so happy by myself. What I would +have been had I taken some other chap with me I cannot +imagine. But the people of this part of Greece have been so +kind that I cannot say I have been alone. I never met with +strangers anywhere who were so hospitable, so confiding and +polite. After that slaughter-yard and pest place of Cuba, +which is much more terrible to me now than it was when I was +there, or before I had seen that war can be conducted like any +other evil of civilization, this opera bouffe warfare is like +a duel between two gentlemen in the Bois. Cuba is like a +slave-holder beating a slave's head in with a whip. I am a +war correspondent only by a great stretch of the imagination; +I am a peace correspondent really, and all the fighting I have +seen was by cannon at long range. (I was at long range, not +the cannon.) I am doing this campaign in a personally +conducted sense with no regard to the Powers or to the London +Times. I did send them an article called "The Piping Times +of War." If they do not use it I shall illustrate it with the +photos I have taken and sell it, for five times the sum they +would give, to the Harpers who are ever with us. As I once +said in a noted work, "Greece, Mrs. Morris, restores all your +lost illusions." For the last week I have been back in the days +of Conrad, the Corsair, and "Oh, Maid of Athens, ere We Part." I +have been riding over wind-swept hills and mountains topped with +snow, and with sheep and goats and wild flowers of every color +spreading for acres, and in a land where every man dresses by +choice like a grand opera brigand, and not only for +photographic purposes. I have been on the move all the time, +chasing in the rear of armies that turn back as soon as I +approach and apologize for disappointing me of a battle, or +riding to the scene of a battle that never comes off, or +hastening to a bombardment that turns out to be an attack on +an empty fort. + +I live on brown bread and cheese and goat's milk and sleep +like a log in shepherds' huts. It is so beautiful that I +almost grudge the night. Nora and Mother could take this trip +as safely as a regiment and would see things out of fairyland. +And such adventures! Late in life I am at last having +adventures and honors heaped upon me. I was elected a captain +of a band of brigands who had been watching a mountain pass +for a month, and as it showed no signs of running away had +taken to dancing on the green. I caught them at this innocent +pastime and they allowed me to photograph them and give them +wine at eight cents a quart which we drank out of a tin +stovepipe. They drank about four feet of stovepipe or +thirty-six cents' worth, then they danced and sang for me in a +circle, old men and boys, then drilled with their carbines, +and I showed them my revolver and field-glasses and themselves +in the finder of the camera; and when I had to go they took me +on their shoulders and marched me around waving their rifles. +Then the old men kissed me on the cheek and we all embraced and +they wept, and I felt as badly as though I were parting from +fifty friends. They told my guide that if I would come back they +would get fifty more "as brave as they" and I could be captain. +I could not begin to tell you all the amusing things that have +happened in this one week. I did not want to come at all, +only a stern sense of duty made me. For I wanted to write the +play in Charley's gilded halls and get to Paris and London. +But I can never cease rejoicing that I took this trip. And it +will make the book, "A Year from a Reporter's Diary," as +complete as it can be. That was why I came. Now I have the +Coronation of the Czar, the Millennial at Hungary, the +Inauguration at Washington, the Queen's Jubilee, the War in +Cuba, and the Greco-Turkish War. That is a good year's work +and I mean to loaf after it. You will laugh and say that that +is what I always say, but if you knew how I had to kick myself +out of Florence and the Cascine to come here you would believe +me. I want a rest and I am cutting this very short. + +Don't fail to cut anything Dad and Mother don't like out of +the Inauguration article. You will have me with you this +winter on my little bicycle and going to dances and not paying +board to anyone. Remember how I used to threaten to go to +Greece when the coffee was not good. It seems too funny now, +for I never was in a better place, or had more fun or saw less +of war or the signs of war. + +DICK. + + +May 7, 1897. +10 East Twenty-Eighth Street-NIT +Sponitza. +DEAR CHAS. + +This is one of the places out of Phroso, but as you never +read Phroso I will cut all that-- I hate to say it so +soon again but this is the most beautiful country to +travel over I have seen-- It is a fairy theatrical grand opera +country where everybody dresses in petticoats and gold braided +vests and carry carbines to tend sheep with-- I rode from +Santa Maura (see map) to a spot opposite Prevesa where they +said there was going to be bombarding-- There was not of +course but I had I think the most beautiful ride of my life. +I was absolutely happy--little lambs bleated and kids butted +each other and peasants in fur cloaks without sleeves and in +tights like princes sat on rocks and played pipes and the sky +was blue, the mountains covered with snow and the fields and +hills full of purple bushes and yellow and blue flowers and +sheep-- There was a cable station of yellow adobe. It was the +only building and it looked across at Prevesa but nobody +bombarded. The general gave me cognac and the cable operator +played a guitar for me and the preyor sang a fine bass, the +corporal not to be out done gave me chocolate and the army +stood around in the sun and joined in the conversation +correcting the general and each other and taking off their +hats to all the noble sentiments we toasted. It was just like +a comic opera. After a while when I had finished a fine hunck +of cheese and hard eggs and brown bread I took a photograph of +the General and the cable operator and the officer with the +bass voice and half of the army-- The other half was then sent +to escort me to this place. It walked and I rode and there +were many halts for drinks and cigarettes. They all ran after +a stray colt and were lost for some time but we re-mobilized +and advanced with great effect into this town. I was here +taken in charge by at least fifty sailors and as many soldiers +and comic opera brigands in drawers and white petticoats, +who conducted me to a house on the hill where the +innkeeper brought me a live chicken to approve of for dinner. +Then the mayor of the town turned up in gold clothes and +Barrison Sister skirts and said the General had telegraphed +about me and that I was his-- The innkeeper wept and said he +had seen me first and the chorus of soldiers, sailors and +brigands all joined in. I kept out of it but I knew the Mayor +would win and he did. Then we went out to a man-of-war the +size of the Vagabond and were solemnly assured there would +be bombarding of Prevesa to-morrow-- I go to sleep in that +hope. We leave here at seven crossing the river and ride +after the Greeks who are approaching Prevesa from the land +side while the men-of-war bombard it from the river. At least +that is what they say. I think it is the mildest war on both +sides I ever heard of and I certainly mean to be a Times +correspondent next time I play at going to war-- After being +insulted and frightened to death all over Cuba, this is the +pleasantest picnic I was ever on-- They seriously apologized +for not bombarding while I was there and I said not to mention +it-- With lots of love, old man, and to the family + +DICK. + + +FLORENCE +May 16, 1897. +DEAR FAMILY: + +Here I am safe and sound again in the old rooms in Florence. +I was gone twenty-three days and was traveling nineteen of +them, walking, riding; in sailboats, in the cars, and on +steamers. I have had more experiences and adventures than I +ever had before in three months and quite enough to last me +for years. + +After my happy ride through Turkey and the retreat of the +Greek army in Arta, of which I wrote you last, I have been in +Thessaly where I saw the two days' battle of Velestinos from +the beginning up to the end. It was the one real battle of +the war and the Greeks fought well from the first to the last. +I left Athens on the 29th of April with John Bass, a Harvard +graduate, and a most charming and attractive youth who is, or +was, in charge of the Journal men; Stephen Crane being among +the number. He seems a genius with no responsibilities of any +sort to anyone, and I and Bass left him at Velestinos after +traveling with him for four days. Crane went to Volo, as did +every other correspondent, leaving Bass and myself in +Velestinos. As the villagers had run away, we burglarized the +house of the mayor and made it our habitation while the +courier hunted for food. It was like "The Swiss Family +Robinson," and we rejoiced over the discovery of soap and +tablecloths and stray knives and forks, just as though we had +been cast on a desert island. Bass did the cooking and I laid +the table and washed up and made the beds, which were full of +fleas. But we had been sleeping on chairs and on the floor +for a week so we did not mind much. + +The second day we were awakened by cannon and you can imagine +our joy and excitement. We had it all to ourselves for eight +hours, as it took the other correspondents that long to +arrive. It was an artillery and infantry battle and about +20,000 men were engaged on both sides. The Greeks fought from +little trenches on the hills back of the town and the Turks +advanced across a great green prairie. It was very long +range and only twice did they get to within a quarter of +a mile of our trenches. Bass and I went all over the +Greek lines, for you were just as safe in one place as in +another, which means that it wasn't safe anywhere, so we gave +up considering that and followed the fight as best we could +from the first trench, which was the only one that gave an +uninterrupted view of the Turkish forces. It was a +brilliantly clear day but opened with a hail storm, which +enabled the Turks to crawl up half a mile in the sudden +darkness. It also gave me the worst attack of sciatica I ever +had. Fortunately, it did not come on badly until I reached +Volo, when it suddenly took hold of me so that I could not +walk. The trenches were wet with the rain and we had no +clothes to change to, and two more showers kept us more or +less wet all day. We had a fine view of everything and I +learned a lot. + +We were under a heavy fire for thirteen hours and certainly +had some very close escapes. At times the firing was so +fierce that if you had raised your arm above your head, the +hand would have been instantly torn off. We had to lie on our +stomachs with our chins in the dirt and not so much as budge. +This was when the Turkish fire happened to be directed on our +trench. At such times all the other trenches would fire so as +to draw the attack away, and we would have to wait until it +was over. The shells sounded like the jarring sound of +telegraph wires when one hits the pole they hang from with a +stone; and when the shells were close they sounded like the +noise made by two trains passing in opposite directions when +the wind is driven between the cars. The bullets were much +worse than the shells as you could always hear them coming, +and the bullets slipped up and passed you in a sneaking way +with a noise like rustling silk, or if some one had torn a +silk handkerchief with a sharp pull. One shell struck +three feet from me and knocked me over with the dirt +and stones and filled my nose and mouth with pebbles. I went +back and dug it out of the ground while it was still hot and +have it as a souvenir. I swore terribly at the bullets and +Bass used to grin in a sickly way. It made your hair creep +when they came very close. One man next me got a shot through +the breast while he was ramming his cleaner down the barrel, +and there were three killed within the limits of our fifty +yards. We could not get back because there was a cross fire +that swept a place we had to pass through, just about the way +the wind comes around the City Hall in the times of a +blizzard. We called it Dead Man's Curve, after that at +Fourteenth Street and Union Square, because it was sprinkled +with dead ammunition, mules and soldiers. We came through it +the first time without knowing what we were getting into and +we had no desire to go back again. So we waited until the sun +set. I took some of the finest photographs and probably the +only ones ever taken of a battle at such close range. +Whenever the men fired, I would shoot off the camera and I +expect I have some pretty great pictures. Bass took some of +me so if there is any question as to whether I was at the +Coronation, there will be none as to whether I was at Velestinos. + +Our house was hit with two shells and bullets fell like the +gentle rain from heaven all over the courtyard, so we would +have been no safer there than behind the trenches. We sent +off the first account of the battle written by anybody by +midday, and stayed on until the next day at four when the +place was evacuated in good order because, as usual, the +Crown Prince was running away--from Pharsalia this time. + +They say in Greece "Lewes, the peasant, won the race from +Marathon, but Constantine the prince, won the race from +Larissa." + +I was all right until I got to Volo when my right leg refused +absolutely to do its act and I had to be carried on a donkey. +A Greek thought I looked funny sitting groaning on the little +donkey; which I did--I looked ridiculous. So he laughed, and +Bass and a French journalist batted him over the face and left +me clinging to the donkey's neck and howling to them to come +back and hold me up. But they preferred to fight, and a +policeman came along and arrested the unhappy Greek and beat +him over the head, just for luck, and marched him off to jail, +just for laughing. + +They took me to the hospital ship which was starting, and I +came to Athens that way with one hundred and sixteen wounded; +the man on my right had his ankles gone and the man on the +left had a bullet in his side. They groaned all night and so +did I. Then when the sun rose they sang, which was worse. I +never saw anything more beautiful than the red-cross nurses, +and I guess that is the most beautiful picture I shall ever +see--those sweet-faced girls in blue and white bending over +the dirty frightened little peasant boys and taking care of +their wounds. I made love to all of them and asked three to +marry me. I was in bed for two days after I got to Athens but +had a fine time, as all the officers from the San Francisco, +from the admiral down, came to see me, and the minister, +consul and the rest did all that could have been done. I am +now all right and was bicycling in the dear old Cascine this +morning. On the whole it was a most successful trip. +Sylvester Scovel and Phillips of The World arrived just as +it was all over, and so Bass and I are about the only two +Americans who were in it. + +The train from Brindisi stopped at Rome on the way back and I +went to see the Pages. They took me out and showed me Rome by +moonlight in one hour. It was like a cinematograph. They are +here now and coming to dinner tonight. Last night the consul +had all our friends to dinner to welcome me back, and maybe I +was not glad. I had been living on cheese and brown bread and +cold lamb for two weeks, with no tobacco, and sleeping five +hours a night on floors and sofas. Sometimes the officers and +men fought for food, and we never got anything warm to eat +except occasionally tinned things which we cooked in my kit. +It was the most satisfactory trip all round I ever had. I +have been twenty years trying to be in a battle and it will be +twenty years more before I will want to be in another. + +On the eighteenth I start for London, stopping one day in +Paris to see the Clarks and Eustises. It is going to be +bigger than the Coronation for crowds, and Mother need not +worry, I shall keep out of it. The Minister to Russia sent me +word that the Czar's prime minister has given him my article +and that the Czar said thank him very much. So that is all +right. Also Hay is to present me to the Prince at the levee +on the 3tst of May, and I shall send him a copy, too. I am +looking forward to London with such joy. Tell Mother to send +me the Bookbuyer with her article in it. I have only read +the reviews of it, and they are so enthusiastic that I must +have the whole thing quick. It was such a fine thing to do +about Poe, and to give those other two fetishes the coup de +grace. It reads splendidly and I want it all. What did Dad +think of the Inauguration article? I send you all my dearest +love and will have lots to tell you when I get back this time. + +God bless you all. +DICK. + + +Richard left Florence the latter part of May, and went to +London where he had made arrangements to report the Queen's +Jubilee. He began his round of gayeties by being presented at +Court. The Miss Groves and Miss Wather to whom he refers in +the following letter were the clerks at Cox's hotel. + + +LONDON, June 2nd, 1897. +DEAR FAMILY: + +I was a beautiful sight at the Levee. I wore a velvet suit +made especially for me but no dearer for that and steel +buttons and a beautiful steel sword and a court hat with +silver on the side and silk stockings that I wore at Moscow +and pumps with great buckles. I was too magnificent for words +and so you would have said. I waited a long time in a long +hall crowded with generals and sea captains and highlanders +and volunteers and cavalry men and judges and finally was +admitted past a rope and then past another rope and then +rushed along into the throne room where I saw beefeaters and +life guardsmen and chamberlains with white wands and I gave +one my card and he read out "R. H. D. of the United States by +the American Ambassador" and then I bowed to the Prince and +Duke of York, Connaught and Edinburgh and to the American +Ambassador and then Henry White and Spencer Eddy, the two +Secretaries and the naval attache all shook hands with me and +I went around in a hansom in the bright sunshine in hopes of +finding some one who would know me. But no one did so I went to +Cox's Hotel and showed myself to Miss Groves and Miss Wather. I +went on the Terrace yesterday with the Leiters and at O'Connor's +invitation brought them to tea. Labouchere was there and +Dillon just out of jail and it was most interesting. I am +very, very busy doing nothing and having a fine time-- + +DICK. + + +LONDON, June 21, 1897. +DEAR MOTHER: + +Words cannot tell at least not unless I am well paid for it +what London is like to-day. In the first place it is so +jammed that no one can move and it is hung with decorations so +that no one can see. Royal carriages get stuck just as do the +humble drayman or Pickford's Van and royalties are lodging in +cheap hotels with nothing but a couple of Grenadier's in +sentry boxes to show they are any better blooded than the rest +of the lodgers. I also added to the confusion by giving a +lunch to the Ambassador and Miss Hay in return for the +presentation. Lady Henry and Mrs. Asquith sat on either side +of him and Mrs. Clark had Asquith and Lord Basil Blackwood to +talk to-- There was also Anthony Hope, the beautiful Julia +Neilson and her husband Fred Terry and Lady Edward Cecil and +Lord Lester-- It went off fine and the Savoy people sent in an +American Eagle of ice, decorated with American flags and +dripping icy tears from its beak. It cost me five shillings a +head and looked as though it cost that in pounds-- To night I +dine with the Goulds and then go to a musical where Melba +sings, Padewreski plays and then walk the streets if I can +until daybreak as I think of making the night before +the procession the greater part of the story. I send you a +plan showing my seat which cost me twenty-five dollars, the +advertised price being $125. but there has been a terrible +slump in seats. Love to dear Dad and Nora. + +DICK. + + + +LONDON. +89 Jermyn Street, +June 25th, 1897. +DEAR MOTHER: + +The Jubilee turned out to be the easiest spectacle to get at +and to get away from that I ever witnessed. Experience in +choosing a place and police regulations made it so simple that +we went straight to our seats and got away again without as +much trouble as it would have taken to have gone to a matinee. +The stage management of the thing almost impressed me more +than anything else. For grandeur and show it about equalled +the procession of the Czar and in many ways it was more +interesting because it was concerned with our own people and +with our own part of the world. Next to the Queen, Lord +Roberts got all of the applause. He rode a little white pony +that had been with him in six campaigns and had carried him on +his march to Candahar. It had all the campaign medals +presented to it by the War Department and wore them in a line +on its forehead, and walked just as though he knew what a +great occasion it was. After Roberts came in popularity a +Col. Maurice Clifford with the Rhodesian Horse in sombrero's +and cartridge belts and khaki suits. He had lost his arm and +was easily recognized. Wilfred Laurier the French Premier of +Canada and the Lord Mayor were the other favourites. The scene +in front of St. Paul's was ab solutely magnificent with the sooty +pillars behind the groups of diplomats, bishops and choir boys in +white, University men in pink silk gowns, and soldiers, beef +eaters, gentlemen at arms and the two Archbishops. The best +moment was when the collected troops; negroes, Chinamen, East +Indians, West Indians, African troopers, Canadian Mounted Police, +Australians, Borneo police and English Grenadiers all sang the +doxology together in the beautiful sunshine and under the +shadow of that great facade of black and white marble. Also +when the Archbishop of Canterbury without any warning suddenly +after kissing the Queen's hand threw up his arm and cried out +so that you could have heard him a hundred yards off "Three +Cheers for Her Majesty" and the diplomats, and foreign rajahs +and bishops and Salvation Army captains waved their hats and +mortar boards and the soldiers ran their bearskins and helmets +on their bayonets and spun them around in the air. The +weather was absolutely perfect and there were no accidents. +Last night the carriages were allowed to parade the streets +and for hours the route was blocked with omnibuses hired by +private parties, coster carts, private carriages, court +carriages and the hansoms. The procession formed by these was +two hours in going one mile. They passed my windows in Jermyn +Street for three hours and a party of us sat inside and guyed +the life out of them until one in the morning. We got very +clever at it finally and very impudent and as the people were +only two yards from us my windows being on a level with the +tops of the buses and as we had a flaring illumination that +lit up the street completely we had lots of fun with them +especially with the busses, as we pretended to believe that +the advertisements referred to the people on the top, and we +would ask anxiously which lady was "Lottie Collins" and which +gentleman had been brought up on " Mellin's Food"-- We had even +more fun with the swells coming home from the Gala night at the +opera and hemmed in between costers and Pickford's vans loaded +down with women and children. + +They called on us for speeches and matches and segars and we +kept the procession supplied with food and drink. Nobody got +mad and they answered back but we were prepared with numerous +repartees and they were apparently so surprised by finding a +party of ladies and gentlemen engaged in chaffing court +officials that they would forget to reply until they had moved +on. One bus driver said "Oh, you can larff, cause your at +'ome. We are 'unting for Jensen on a North Pole Expedition. +We won't be home for three years yet--" Charley seems very +happy and he got a most hearty welcome. I shall follow him +over. I do not think I shall go when he does as that would +mean seeing people and getting settled and I must get the +Greek war done by the 12th of July and the Jubilee by the 15th +of August. I know you will not mind, but I have been terribly +interrupted by the Jubilee and by so many visitors. They are +running in all the time, so I shall try to get the Greek war +article done before I sail and also have a little peaceful +view of London. I have seen nothing of it really yet. It has +been like living in a circus, and moving about on an election +night. I am well as can be except for occasional twinges of +sciatica but I have not had to go to bed with it and some +times it disappears for a week. A little less rain and more +sun will stop it. I hope you do not mind my not returning but +we will all be together for many months this Fall and I really +feel that I have not had a quiet moment here for pleasure and +work. It has been such a rush. I do wish to see dear Dad. I am +so very sorry about his being ill, and I hope he is having lots +of fishing. Love to all at Marion--and God bless you. + +RICHARD. + + +LONDON +July 13, 1897. +DEAR MOTHER: + +Today Barrie gave a copyright performance of "The Little +Minister" which Maude Adams is to play in the States. It was +advertised by a single bill in front of the Haymarket Theater +and the price of admission was five guineas. We took in +fifteen guineas, the audience being Charley Frohman, Lady +Craig and a man. Cyril Maude played the hero and Brandon +Thomas and Barrie the two low comedy parts--two Scotchmen of +Thrums. I started to play one of them, but as I insisted on +making it an aged negro with songs, Barrie and Frohman got +discouraged and let me play the villain, Lord Rintoul, in +which character I was great. Maude played his part in five +different ways and dialects so as to see which he liked best, +he said. It was a bit confusing. Then one of the actors went +up in the gallery and pretended to be a journalist critic who +had sneaked in, and he abused the play and the actors with the +exception of the man who played Whamond (himself) whom he said +he thought showed great promise. Maude pretended not to know +who he was and it fooled everybody. Mrs. Barrie played the +gipsy and danced most of the time, which she said was her +conception of the part as it was in the book. Her husband +explained that this was a play, not a book, but she did not care +and danced on and off. She played my daughter, and I had a great +scene in which I cursed her, which got rounds of applause. Lady +Lewis's daughters in beautiful Paquin dresses played Scotch +lassies, and giggled in all the sad parts, and one actress who +had made a great success as one of the "Two Vagabonds" made +everybody weep by really trying to act. At one time there were +five men on the stage all talking Scotch dialect and imitating +Irving at the same time. It was a truly remarkable performance. +Ethel Barrymore goes back on Saturday with Drew to play a +French maid in "A Marriage of Convenience." She is announced +to be engaged to Hope, I see by the papers. They are not +engaged, of course, but the papers love to make matches. Look +for me as sailing either on the 31st on the St. Louis or a +week later. With lots and lots of love. + +DICK. + + +In the late summer Richard returned to Marion and from there +went to New York. However, at this time, the lure of England +was very strong with my brother, and early December found him +back in London. + + +LONDON, December 29th, 1897. +DEAR MOTHER:-- + +I had a most exciting Christmas, most of which I spent in +Whitechapel in the London Hospital. I lunched with the +Spenders and then went down with them carrying large packages +for distribution to the sick. I expected to be terribly +bored, but thought I would feel so virtuous that I would the +better enjoy my dinner which I had promised to take with the +McCarthys-- On the contrary, I had the most amusing time and +much more fun than I had later. The patients seemed only to +be playing sick, and some of them were very humorous and +others very pathetic and I played tin soldiers with some, and +distributed rich gifts, other people had paid for, with a +lavish hand. I also sat on a little girl's cot and played +dolls for an hour. She had something wrong with her spine and +I wept most of the time, chiefly because she smiled all the +time. She went asleep holding on to my middle finger like the +baby in "The Luck of Roaring Camp." There were eighty babies +in red flannel nightgowns buttoned up the back who had pillow +fights in honor of the day and took turns in playing on a +barrel organ, those that were strong and tall enough. In the +next ward another baby in white was dying-- Its mother was a +coster girl, seventeen years old, with a big hat and plumes +like those the flower girls wear at Piccadilly Circus. The +baby was yellow like old ivory and its teeth and gums were +blue and it died while we were watching it. The mother girl +was drinking tea and crying into it out of red swollen eyes, +and twenty feet off one of the red nightgowned kids was +playing "Louisiana Lou" on the barrel organ. The nurse put +the baby's arms under the sheets and then pulled one up over +its face and took the teacup away from the mother who didn't +see what had happened and I came away while three young nurses +were comforting the girl. Most of the nurses were very +beautiful, and I neglected my duties as Santa Claus to talk to +them. They would stop talking to get down on their knees and +dust up the floor, which was most embarrassing, you couldn't +very well ask to be let to help. There was one coster who had +his broken leg in a cage which moved with the leg no matter how +much he tossed. He was like the man "who sat in jail without his +boots, admiring how the world was made," he spent all his waking +hours in wrapt admiration of the cage-- He said to me "I've been +here a fortnight now, come Monday, and I can't break my leg no +how. Yer can't do it, that's all-- Yer can twist, and kick, and +toss, and it don't do no good. Yer jest can't do it-- Now you +take notice." Then he would kick violently and the cage would +run around on trolleys and keep the broken limb straight. +"See!" he would exclaim, "Wot did I tell you-- Its no use of +trying, yer just can't do it. 'ere I've been ten days a +trying and it can't be done." + +We had a very fine Christmas dinner just Ethel, the McCarthy's +and I. Fanny, tell Charles, brought in the plum pudding with +a sprig of holly in it and blazing, and after dinner I read +them the Jackall-- About eleven I started to take Ethel to +Miss Terry's, who lives miles beyond Kensington. There was a +light fog. I said that all sorts of things ought to happen in +a fog but that no one ever did have adventures nowadays. At +that we rode straight into a bank of fog that makes those on +the fishing banks look like Spring sunshine. You could not +see the houses, nor the street, nor the horse, not even his +tail. All you could see were gas jets, but not the iron that +supported them. The cabman discovered the fact that he was +lost and turned around in circles and the horse slipped on the +asphalt which was thick with frost, and then we backed into +lamp-posts and curbs until Ethel got so scared she bit her +under lip until it bled. You could not tell whether you were +going into a house or over a precipice or into a sea. The +horse finally backed up a flight of steps, and rubbed the cabby +against a front door, and jabbed the wheels into an area railing +and fell down. That, I thought, was our cue to get out, so we +slipped into a well of yellow mist and felt around for each +'other until a square block of light suddenly opened in mid air +and four terrified women appeared in the doorway of the house +through which the cabman was endeavoring to butt himself. +They begged us to come in, and we did-- Being Christmas and +because the McCarthy's always call me "King" I had put on all +my decorations and the tin star and I also wore my beautiful +fur coat, to which I have treated myself, and a grand good +thing it is, too-- I took this off because the room was very +hot, forgetting about the decorations and remarked in the same +time to Ethel that it would be folly to try and get to +Barkston Gardens, and that we must go back to the "Duchess's" +for the night. At this Ethel answered calmly "yes, Duke," and +I became conscious of the fact that the eyes of the four women +were riveted on my fur coat and decorations. At the word +"Duke" delivered by a very pretty girl in an evening frock and +with nothing on her hair the four women disappeared and +brought back the children, the servants, and the men, who were +so overcome with awe and excitement and Christmas cheer that +they all but got down on their knees in a circle. So, we fled +out into the night followed by minute directions as to where +"Your Grace" and "Your Ladyship" should turn. For years, no +doubt, on a Christmas Day the story will be told in that +house, wherever it may be in the millions of other houses of +London, how a beautiful Countess and a wicked Duke were +pitched into their front door out of a hansom cab, and after +having partaken of their Christmas supper, disappeared again into +a sea of fog. The only direction Ethel and I could remember was +that we were to go to the right when we came to a Church, so when +by feeling our way by the walls we finally reached a church we +continued going on around it until we had encircled it five times +or it had encircled us, we were not sure which. After the fifth +lap we gave up and sat down on the steps. Ethel had on low +slippers and was shivering and coughing but intensely amused +and only scared for fear she would lose her voice for the +first night of "Peter"-- We could hear voices sometimes, like +people talking in a dream, and sometimes the sound of dance +music, and a man's voice calling "Perlice" in a discouraged +way as if he didn't much care whether the police came or not, +but regularly like a fog siren-- I don't know how long we sat +there or how long we might have sat there had not a man with a +bicycle lamp loomed up out of the mist and rescued us. He had +his mother with him and she said with great pride that her boy +could find his way anywhere. So, we clung to her boy and +followed. A cabman passed leading his horse with one of his +lamps in his other hand and I turned for an instant to speak +to him and Ethel and her friends disappeared exactly as though +the earth had opened. So, I yelled after them, and Ethel said +"Here, I am," at my elbow. It was like the chesire cat that +kept appearing and disappearing until he made Alice dizzy. We +finally found a link-boy and he finally found the McCarthy's +house, and I left them giving Ethel quinine and whiskey. They +wanted me to stay, but I could not face dressing, in the +morning. So I felt my way home and only got lost twice. The +Arch on Constitution Hill gave me much trouble. I thought it +was the Marble Arch, and hence-- In Jermyn Street I saw two +lamps burning dimly and a voice said, hearing my +footsteps "where am I? I don't know where I am no more than +nothing--" I told him he was in Jermyn Street with his horse's +head about twenty feet from St. James-- There was a long +dramatic silence and then the voice said-- "Well, I be blowed +I thought I was in Pimlico!!!" + +This has been such a long letter that I shall have to skip any +more. I have NO sciatica chiefly because of the fur coat, I +think, and I got two Christmas presents, one from Margaret +Fraser and one from the Duchess of Sutherland-- Boxing Day I +took Margaret to the matinee of the Pantomine and it lasted +five hours, until six twenty, then I dressed and dined with +the Hay's and went with them to the Barnum circus which began +at eight and lasted until twelve. It was a busy day. + +Lots of love. DICK. + + + +LONDON, March 20, 1898. +DEAR MOTHER: + +The Nellie Farren benefit was the finest thing I have seen +this year past. It was more remarkable than the Coronation, +or the Jubilee. It began at twelve o'clock on Thursday, but +at ten o'clock Wednesday night, the crowd began to gather +around Drury Lane, and spent the night on the sidewalk playing +cards and reading and sleeping. Ten hours later they were +admitted, or a few of them were, as many as the galleries +would hold. Arthur Collins, the manager of the Drury Lane and +the man who organized the benefit, could not get a stall for +his mother the day before the benefit. They were then not to +be had, the last having sold for twelve guineas. I got TWO +the morning of the benefit for three pounds each, and now +people believe that I did get into the Coronation! The people +who had stalls got there at ten o'clock, and the streets were +blocked for "blocks" up to Covent Garden with hansoms and +royal carriages and holders of tickets at fifty dollars +apiece. It lasted six hours and brought in thirty thousand +dollars. Kate Vaughan came back and danced after an absence +from the stage of twelve years. Irving recited The Dream of +Eugene Aram, Terry played Ophelia, Chevalier sang Mrs. +Hawkins, Dan Leno gave Hamlet, Marie Tempest sang The Jewel of +Asia and Hayden Coffin sang Tommy Atkins, the audience of +three thousand people joining in the chorus, and for an encore +singing "Oh, Nellie, Nellie Farren, may your love be ever +faithful, may your pals be ever true, so God bless you Nellie +Farren, here's the best of luck to you." In Trial by Jury, +Gilbert played an associate judge; the barristers were all +playwrights, the jury the principal comedians, the chorus +girls were real chorus girls from the Gaiety mixed in with +leading ladies like Miss Jeffries and Miss Hanbury, who could +not keep in step. But the best part of it was the pantomime. +Ellaline came up a trap with a diamond dress and her hair down +her back and electric lights all over her, and said, "I am the +Fairy Queen," and waved her wand, at which the "First Boy" in +the pantomime said, "Go long, now, do, we know your tricks, +you're Ellaline Terriss"; and the clown said, "You're wrong, +she's not, she's Mrs. Seymour Hicks." Then Letty Lind came on +as Columbine in black tulle, and Arthur Roberts as the +policeman, and Eddy Payne as the clown and Storey as Pantaloon. + +The rest of it brought on everybody. Sam Sothern played a +"swell" and stole a fish. Louis Freear, a housemaid, and all +the leading men appeared as policemen. No one had more than a +line to speak which just gave the audience time to recognize him +or her. The composers and orchestra leaders came on as a German +band, each playing an instrument, and they got half through the +Washington Post before the policemen beat them off. Then Marie +Lloyd and all the Music Hall stars appeared as street girls and +danced to the music of a hand-organ. Hayden Coffin, Plunkett +Greene and Ben Davies sang as street musicians and the clown beat +them with stuffed bricks. After that there was a revue of all +the burlesques and comic operas, then the curtain was raised from +the middle of the stage, and Nellie Farren was discovered +seated at a table on a high stage with all the "legitimates" +in frock-coats and walking dresses rising on benches around her. + +The set was a beautiful wood scene well lighted. Wyndham +stood on one side of her, and he said the yell that went up +when the curtain rose was worse than the rebel yell he had +heard in battles. In front of her, below the stage, were all +the people who had taken part in the revue, forming a most +interesting picture. There was no one in the group who had +not been known for a year by posters or photographs: Letty +Lind as the Geisha, Arthur Roberts as Dandy Dan. The French +Girl and all the officers from The Geisha, the ballet girls +from the pantomime, the bareback-riders from The Circus Girl; +the Empire costumes and the monks from La Poupee, and all the +Chinese and Japanese costumes from The Geisha. Everybody on +the stage cried and all the old rounders in the boxes cried. + +It was really a wonderfully dramatic spectacle to see the +clown and officers and Geisha girls weeping down their grease +paint. Nellie Farren's great song was one about a street Arab +with the words: "Let me hold your, nag, sir, carry your little +bag, sir, anything you please to give--thank'ee, sir!" She used +to close her hand, then open it and look at the palm, then touch +her cap with a very wonderful smile, and laugh when she said, +"Thank'ee, sir!" This song was reproduced for weeks before the +benefit, and played all over London, and when the curtain rose on +her, the orchestra struck into it and the people shouted as +though it was the national anthem. Wyndham made a very good +address and so did Terry, then Wyndham said he would try to get +her to speak. She has lost the use of her hands and legs and can +only walk with crutches, so he put his arm around her and her +son lifted her from the other side and then brought her to her +feet, both crying like children. You could hear the people +sobbing, it was so still. She said, "Ladies and Gentleman," +looking at the stalls and boxes, then she turned her head to +the people on the stage below her and said, "Brothers and +Sisters," then she stood looking for a long time at the +gallery gods who had been waiting there twenty hours. You +could hear a long "Ah" from the gallery when she looked up +there, and then a "hush" from all over it and there was +absolute silence. Then she smiled and raised her finger to +her bonnet and said, "Thank'ee, sir," and sank back in her +chair. It was the most dramatic thing I ever saw on a stage. +The orchestra struck up "Auld Lang Syne" and they gave three +cheers on the stage and in the house. The papers got out +special editions, and said it was the greatest theatrical +event there had ever been in London. +DICK. + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR + + +When the news reached Richard that the Spanish-American War +seemed inevitable he returned at once to New York. Here he +spent a few days in arranging to act as correspondent for the +New York Herald, the London Times, and Scribner's +Magazine, and then started for Key West. + + +Off Key West--April 24th, 1898. +On Board Smith, Herald Yacht. +DEAR MOTHER: + +I wrote you such a cross gloomy letter that I must drop you +another to make up for it. Since I wrote that an hour ago we +have received word that war is declared and I am now on board +the Smith. She is a really fine vessel as big as Benedict's +yacht with plenty of deck room and big bunks. I have +everything I want on board and The Herald men are two old +Press men so we are good friends. If I had had another hour I +believe I could have got a berth on the flag ship for +Roosevelt telegraphed me the longest and strongest letter on +the subject a man could write instructing the Admiral to take +me on as I was writing history. Chadwick seemed willing but +then the signal to set sail came and we had to stampede. All +the ships have their sailing pennants up. It is as calm as a +mirror thank goodness but as hot as hell. We expect to be off +Havana tomorrow at sunset. Then what we do +no one knows. The crew is on strike above and the mate is +wrestling with them but as it seems to be only a question of a +few dollars it will come out all right. We expect to be back +here on Sunday but may stay out later. Don't worry if you +don't hear. It is grand to see the line of battleships five +miles out like dogs in a leash puffing and straining. Thank +God they'll let them slip any minute now. I don't know where +"Stenie" is. I am now going to take a nap while the smooth +water lasts. + +DICK. + +--Flagship New York-- +Off Havana, + +April 26, 1898. +DEAR FAMILY: + +I left Key West on the morning of the 24th in the Dolphin +with the idea of trying to get on board the flagship on the +strength of Roosevelt's letter. Stenie Bonsal got on just +before she sailed, not as a correspondent, but as a +magazine-writer for McClure's, who have given him a +commission, and because he could act as interpreter. I left +the flagship the morning of the day I arrived. The captain of +the Dolphin apologized to his officers while we were at +anchor in the harbor of Key West, because his was a "cabin" +and not a "gun" ship, and because he had to deliver the mails +at once on board the flagship and not turn out of his course +for anything, no matter how tempting a prize it might appear +to be. He then proceeded to chase every sail and column of +smoke on the horizon, so that the course was like a cat's +cradle. We first headed for a big steamer and sounded +"general quarters." It was fine to see the faces of the +apprentices as they ran to get their cutlasses and revolvers, +their eyes open and their hair on end, with the hope that they +were to board a Spanish battleship. But at the first gun she +ran up an American flag, and on getting nearer we saw she was +a Mallory steamer. An hour later we chased another steamer, +but she was already a prize, with a prize crew on board. Then +we had a chase for three hours at night; after what we +believed was the Panama, but she ran away from us. We fired +three shells after her, and she still ran and got away. The +next morning I went on board the New York with Zogbaum, the +artist. Admiral Sampson is a fine man; he impressed me very +much. He was very much bothered at the order forbidding +correspondents on the ship, but I talked like a father to him, +and he finally gave in, and was very nice about the way he did +it. Since then I have had the most interesting time and the +most novel experience of my life. We have been lying from +three to ten miles off shore. We can see Morro Castle and +houses and palms plainly without a glass, and with one we can +distinguish men and women in the villages. It is, or was, +frightfully hot, and you had to keep moving all the time to +get out of the sun. I mess with the officers, but the other +correspondents, the Associated Press and Ralph Paine of The +World and Press of Philadelphia, with the middies. Paine +got on because Scovel of The World has done so much secret +service work for the admiral, running in at night and taking +soundings, and by day making photographs of the coast, also +carrying messages to the insurgents. + +It is a wonderful ship, like a village, and as big as the +Paris. We drift around in the sun or the moonlight, and +when we see a light, chase after it. There is a band on board +that plays twice a day. It is like a luxurious yacht, with none +of the ennui of a yacht. The other night, when we were heading +off a steamer and firing six-pounders across her bows, the band +was playing the "star" song from the Meistersinger. Wagner and +War struck me as the most fin de siecle idea of war that I had +ever heard of. The nights have been perfectly beautiful, full of +moonlight, when we sit on deck and smoke. It is like looking +down from the roof of a high building. Yesterday they brought a +Spanish officer on board, he had been picked up in a schooner +with his orderly. I was in Captain Chadwick's cabin when he was +brought in, and Scovel interpreted for the captain, who was +more courteous than any Spanish Don that breathes. The +officer said he had been on his way to see his wife and newly +born baby at Matanzas, and had no knowledge that war had been +declared. I must say it did me good to see him. I remembered +the way the Spanish officers used to insult me in a language +which I, fortunately for me, could not understand, and how I +hated the sight of them, and I enjoyed seeing his red and +yellow cockade on the table before me, while I sat in a big +armchair and smoked and was in hearing of the marines drilling +on the upper deck. He was invited to go to breakfast with the +officers, and I sat next to him, and as it happened to be my +turn to treat, I had the satisfaction of pouring drinks down +his throat. I told stories about Spanish officers all the +time to the rest of the mess, pretending I was telling them +something else by making drawings on the tablecloth, so that +the unhappy officer on his other side, who was talking Spanish +to him, had a hard time not to laugh. I told Zogbaum he ought +to draw a picture of him at the mess to show how we treated +prisoners, and a companion one of the captain of the Compeliton, +who came over with us on the Dolphin, and who showed us the marks +of the ropes on his wrists and arms the Spaniards had bound him +with when he was in Cabanas for nine months. The orderly messed +with the bluejackets, who treated him in the most hospitable +manner. He was a poor little peasant boy, half starved and +hollow-eyed, and so scared that he could hardly stand, but +they took great pride in the fact that they had made him eat +three times of everything. They are, without prejudice, the +finest body of men and boys you would care to see, and as +humorous and polite and keen as any class of men I ever met. + +The war could be ended in a month so far as the island of Cuba +is concerned, if the troops were ready and brought over here. +The coast to Havana for ten miles is broad enough for them to +march along it, and the heights above could be covered the +entire time by the fleet, so that it would be absolutely +impossible for any force to withstand the awful hailstorm they +would play on it. Transports carrying the provisions would be +protected by the ships on the gulf side, and the guns at Morro +could be shut up in twenty-four hours. This is not a dream, +but the most obvious and feasible plan, and it is a disgrace +if the Washington politicians delay. As to health, this is +the healthiest part of the coast. The trade winds blow every +day of the year, and the fever talk is all nonsense. The army +certainly has delayed most scandalously in mobilizing. This +talk of waiting a month is suicide. It is a terrible expense. +It keeps the people on a strain, destroys business, and the +health of the troops at Tampa is, to my mind, in much greater +danger than it would be on the hills around Havana, where, as +Scovel says, there is as much yellow fever as there is snow. +Tell Dad to urge them to act promptly. In the meanwhile I am +having a magnificent time. I am burned and hungry and losing +about a ton of fat a day, and I sleep finely. The other night +the Porter held us up, but it was a story that never got +into the papers. I haven't missed a trick so far except not +getting on the flagship from the first, but that does not +count now since I am on board. + +I haven't written anything yet, but I am going to begin soon. +I expect to make myself rich on this campaign. I get ten +cents a word from Scribner's for everything I send them, if +it is only a thousand words, and I get four hundred dollars a +week salary from The Times, and all my expenses. I haven't +had any yet, but when I go back and join the army, I am going +to travel en suite with an assistant and the best and gentlest +ponies; a courier and a servant, a tent and a secretary and a +typewriter, so that Miles will look like a second lieutenant. + +When I came out here on the Dolphin I said I was going to +Tampa, lying just on the principle that it is no other +newspaper-man's business where you are going. So, The +Herald man at Key West, hearing this, and not knowing I WAS +GOING TO THE FLAGSHIP, called Long, making a strong kick +about the correspondents, Bonsal, Remington and Paine, who +are, or were, with the squadron. Stenie left two days ago, +hoping to get a commission on the staff of General Lee. So +yesterday Scovel told me Long had cabled in answer to The +Herald's protests to the admiral as follows: "Complaints +have been received that correspondents Paine, Remington and +Bonsal are with the squadron. Send them ashore at once. +There must be no favoritism." + +Scovel got the admiral at once to cable Long on his behalf +because of his services as a spy, but as Roosevelt had done so +much for me, I would not appeal over him, and this morning I +sent in word to the admiral that I was leaving the ship and +would like to pay my respects. Sampson is a thin man with a +gray beard. He looks like a college professor and has very +fine, gentle eyes. He asked me why I meant to leave the ship, +and I said I had heard one of the torpedo boats was going to +Key West, and I thought I would go with her if he would allow +it. He asked if I had seen the cable from Long, and I said I +had heard of it, and that I was really going so as not to +embarrass him with my presence. He said, "I have received +three different orders from the Secretary, one of them telling +me I could have such correspondents on board as were agreeable +to me. He now tells me that they must all go. You can do as +you wish. You are perfectly welcome to remain until the +conflict of orders is cleared up." I saw he was mad and that +he wanted me to stay, or at least not to go of my own wish, so +that he could have a grievance out of it--if he had to send me +away after having been told he could have those with him who +were agreeable to him. Captain Chadwick was in the cabin, and +said, "Perhaps Mr. Davis had better remain another twenty-four +hours." The admiral added, "Ships are going to Key West +daily." Then Chadwick repeated that he thought I had better +stay another day, and made a motion to me to do so. So I said +I would, and now I am waiting to see what is going to happen. +Outside, Chadwick told me that something in the way of an +experience would probably come off, so I have hopes. By this +time, of course, you know all about it. I shall finish this +later. + +We began bombarding Matanzas twenty minutes after I wrote the +above. It was great. I guess I got a beat, as The Herald +tug is the only one in sight. + +DICK. + +Flagship-Off Havana +April 30th, 1898. +DEAR FAMILY: + +You must not mind if I don't write often, but I feel that you +see The Herald every day and that tells you of what I am +seeing and doing, and I am writing so much, and what with +keeping notes and all, I haven't much time-- What you probably +want to know is that I am well and that my sciatica is not +troubling me at all--Mother always wants to know that. On the +other hand I am on the best ship from which to see things and +on the safest, as she can move quicker and is more heavily +armored than any save the battleships-- The fact that the +admiral is on board and that she is the flagship is also a +guarantee that she will not be allowed to expose herself. I +was very badly scared when I first came to Key West for fear I +should be left especially when I didn't make the flagship-- +But I have not missed a single trick so far-- Bonsal missed +the bombardment and so did Stephen Crane-- All the press boats +were away except The Herald's. I had to write the story in +fifteen minutes, so it was no good except that we had it +exclusively-- + +I am sending a short story of the first shot fired to the +Scribner's and am arranging with them to bring out a book on +the Campaign. I have asked them to announce it as it will +help me immensely here for it is as an historian and not as a +correspondent that I get on over those men who are correspondents +for papers only. I have made I think my position here very +strong and the admiral is very much my friend as are also his +staff. Crane on the other hand took the place of Paine who was +exceedingly popular with every one and it has made it hard for +Crane to get into things-- I am having a really royal time, it +is so beautiful by both night and day and there is always +color and movement and the most rigid discipline with the most +hearty good feeling-- I get on very well with the crew too, +one of them got shot by a revolver's going off and I asked the +surgeon if I might not help at the operation so that I might +learn to be useful, and to get accustomed to the sight of +wounds and surgery-- It was a wonderful thing to see, and I +was confused as to whether I admired the human body more or +the way the surgeon's understood and mastered it-- The sailor +would not give way to the ether and I had to hold him for an +hour while they took out his whole insides and laid them on +the table and felt around inside of him as though he were a +hollow watermelon. Then they put his stomach back and sewed +it in and then sewed up his skin and he was just as good as +new. We carried him over to a cot and he came to, and looked +up at us. We were all bare-armed and covered with his blood, +and then over at the operating table, which was also covered +with his blood. He was gray under his tan and his lips were +purple and his eyes were still drunk with the ether-- But he +looked at our sanguinary hands and shook his head sideways on +the pillow and smiled-- "You'se can't kill me," he said, "I'm +a New Yorker, by God--you'se can't kill me." The Herald +cabled for a story as to how the crew of the New York +behaved in action. I think I shall send them that although +there are a few things the people had better take for +granted-- Of course, we haven't been "in action" yet +but the first bombardment made me nervous until it got +well started. I think every one was rather nervous and it +was chiefly to show them there was nothing to worry about that +we fired off the U. S. guns. They talk like veterans now-- It +was much less of a strain than I had expected, there was no +standing on your toes nor keeping your mouth open or putting +wadding in your ears. I took photographs most of the time, +and they ought to be excellent--what happened was that you +were thrown up off the deck just as you are when an elevator +starts with a sharp jerk and there was an awful noise like the +worst clap of thunder you ever heard close to your ears, then +the smoke covered everything and you could hear the shot going +through the air like a giant rocket-- The shots they fired at +us did not cut any ice except a shrapnel that broke just over +the main mast and which reminded me of Greece-- The other +shots fell short-- The best thing was to see the Captains of +the Puritan and Cincinnati frantically signalling to be +allowed to fire too-- A little fort had opened on us from the +left so they plugged at that, it was a wonderful sight, the +Monitor was swept with waves and the guns seemed to come out +of the water. The Cincinnati did the best of all. Her guns +were as fast as the reports of a revolver, a self-cocking +revolver, when one holds the trigger for the whole six. We +got some copies of The Lucha on the Panama and their +accounts of what was going on in Havana were the best reading +I ever saw-- They probably reported the Matanzas bombardment +as a Spanish victory-- The firing yesterday was very tame. We +all sat about on deck and the band played all the time-- We +didn't even send the men to quarters-- I do not believe the army +intends to move for two weeks yet, so I shall stay here. They +seem to want me to do so, and I certainly want to-- But that +army is too slow for words, and we love the "Notes from the +Front" in The Tribune, telling about the troops at +Chickamauga-- I believe what will happen is that a chance shot +will kill some of our men, and the Admiral won't do a thing +but knock hell out of whatever fort does it and land a party +of marines and bluejackets-- Even if they only occupy the +place for 24 hours, it will beat that army out and that's what +I want. They'll get second money in the Campaign if they get +any, unless they brace up and come over-- I have the very luck +of the British Army, I walked into an open hatch today and +didn't stop until I caught by my arms and the back of my neck. +It was very dark and they had opened it while I was in a +cabin. The Jackie whose business it was to watch it was worse +scared than I was, and I looked up at him while still hanging +to the edges with my neck and arms and said "why didn't you +tell me?" He shook his head and said, "that's so, Sir, I +certainly should have told you, I certainly should"-- They're +exactly like children and the reason is, I think, because they +are so shut off from the contamination of the world. One of +these ships is like living in a monastery, and they are as +disciplined and gentle as monks, and as reckless as cowboys. +When I go forward and speak to one of them they all gather +round and sit on the deck in circles and we talk and they +listen and make the most interesting comments-- The middy who +fired the first gun at Matanzas is a modest alert boy about 18 +years old and crazy about his work-- So, the Captain selected +him for the honor and also because there is such jealousy between +the bow and stern guns that he decided not to risk feelings being +hurt by giving it to either-- So, Boone who was at Annapolis a +month ago was told to fire the shot-- We all took his name and he +has grown about three inches. We told him all of the United +States and England would be ringing with his name-- When I was +alone he came and sat down on a gull beside me and told me he +was very glad they had let him fire that first gun because his +mother was an invalid and he had gone into the navy against +her wish and he hoped now that she would be satisfied when she +saw his name in the papers. He was too sweet and boyish about +it for words and I am going to take a snapshot at him and put +his picture in Scribner's--"he only stands about so high--" + +DICK. + + +I enclose a souvenir of the bombardment. Please keep it +carefully for me-- It was the first shot "in anger" in thirty +years. + + +TAMPA, May 3rd, 1898. +DEAR NORA: + +We are still here and probably will be. It is a merry war, if +there were only some girls here the place would be perfect. I +don't know what's the matter with the American girl--here am +I--and Stenie and Willie Chanler and Frederick Remington and +all the boy officers of the army and not one solitary, ugly, +plain, pretty, or beautiful girl. I bought a fine pony +to-day, her name was Ellaline but I thought that was too much +glory for Ellaline so I diffused it over the whole company by +re-christening her Gaiety Girl, because she is so quiet, all +the Gaiety Girls I know are quiet. + +She never does what I tell her anyway, so it doesn't matter +what I call her. But when this cruel war is over ($6 a day +with bath room adjoining) I am going to have an oil painting +of her labelled "Gaiety Girl the Kentucky Mare that carried +the news of the fall of Havana to Matanzas, fifty miles under +fire and Richard Harding Davis." To-morrow I am going to buy +a saddle and a servant. War is a cruel thing especially to +army officers. They have to wear uniforms and are not allowed +to take off their trousers to keep cool-- They take off +everything else except their hats and sit in the dining room +without their coats or collars-- That's because it is war +time. They are terrible brave--you can see it by the way they +wear bouquets on their tunics and cigarette badges and Cuban +flags and by not saluting their officers. One General counted +today and forty enlisted men passed him without saluting. The +army will have to do a lot of fighting to make itself solid +with me. They are mounted police. We have a sentry here, he +sits in a rocking chair. Imagine one of Sampson's or Dewey's +bluejackets sitting down even on a gun carriage. Wait till I +write my book. I wouldn't say a word now but when I write +that book I'll give them large space rates. I am writing it +now, the first batch comes out in Scribner's in July. + +to you all. + +DICK. + + +During the early days of the war, Richard received the +appointment of a captaincy, but on the advice of his friends +that his services were more valuable as a correspondent, he +refused the commission. The following letter shows that at +least at the time my brother regretted the decision, but as +events turned out he succeeded in rendering splendid service not +only as a correspondent but in the field. + + +TAMPA--May 14, 1898. +DEAR CHAS. + +On reflection I am greatly troubled that I declined the +captaincy. It is unfortunate that I had not time to consider +it. We shall not have another war and I can always be a war +correspondent in other countries but never again have a chance +to serve in my own. The people here think it was the right +thing to do but the outside people won't. Not that I care +about that, but I think I was weak not to chance it. I don't +know exactly what I ought to do. When I see all these kid +militia men enlisted it makes me feel like the devil. I've no +doubt many of them look upon it as a sort of a holiday and an +outing and like it for the excitement, but it would bore me to +death. The whole thing would bore me if I thought I had to +keep at it for a year or more. That is the fault of my having +had too much excitement and freedom. It spoils me to make +sacrifices that other men can make. Whichever way it comes +out I shall be sorry and feel I did not do the right thing. +Lying around this hotel is enough to demoralize anybody. We +are much more out of it than you are, and one gets cynical and +loses interest. On the other hand I would be miserable to go +back and have done nothing. It is a question of character +entirely and I don't feel I've played the part at all. It's +all very well to say you are doing more by writing, but are +you? It's an easy game to look on and pat the other chaps on +the back with a few paragraphs, that is cheap patriotism. +They're taking chances and you're not and when the war's over +they'll be happy and I won't. The man that enlists or volunteers +even if he doesn't get further than Chickamauga or Gretna Green +and the man who doesn't enlist at all but minds his own business +is much better off than I will be writing about what other men +do and not doing it myself, especially as I had a chance of a +life time, and declined it. I'll always feel I lost in +character by not sticking to it whether I had to go to Arizona +or Governor's Island. I was unfortunate in having Lee and +Remington to advise me. We talked for two hours in Fred's +bedroom and they were both dead against it and Lee composed my +telegram to the president. Now, I feel sure I did wrong. +Shafter did not care and the other officers were delighted and +said it was very honorable and manly giving me credit for +motives I didn't have. I just didn't think it was good enough +although I wanted it too and I missed something I can never +get again. I am very sad about it. I know all the arguments +for not taking it but as a matter of fact I should have done +so. I would have made a good aide, and had I got a chance I +certainly would have won out and been promoted. That there +are fools appointed with me is no answer. I wouldn't have +stayed in their class long. + +DICK. + +TAMPA, May 29, 1898. +DEAR CHAS.: + + +The cigars came; they are O. K. and a great treat after Tampa +products. Captain Lee and I went out to the volunteer camps +today: Florida, Alabama, Ohio and Michigan, General Lee's +push, and it has depressed me very much. I have been so right +about so many things these last five years, and was laughed at +for making much of them. Now all I urged is proved to be +correct; nothing our men wear is right. The shoes, the hats, the +coats, all are dangerous to health and comfort; one-third of +the men cannot wear the regulation shoe because it cuts the +instep, and buy their own, and the volunteers are like the +Cuban army in appearance. The Greek army, at which I made +such sport, is a fine organization in comparison as far as +outfit goes; of course, there is no comparison in the spirit +of the men. One colonel of the Florida regiment told us that +one-third of his men had never fired a gun. They live on the +ground; there are no rain trenches around the tents, or +gutters along the company streets; the latrines are dug to +windward of the camp, and all the refuse is burned to +WINDWARD. + +Half of the men have no uniforms nor shoes. I pointed out +some of the unnecessary discomforts the men were undergoing +through ignorance, and one colonel, a Michigan politician, +said, "Oh, well, they'll learn. It will be a good lesson for +them." Instead of telling them, or telling their captains, he +thinks it best that they should find things out by suffering. +I cannot decide whether to write anything about it or not. I +cannot see where it could do any good, for it is the system +that is wrong--the whole volunteer system, I mean. Captain +Lee happened to be in Washington when the first Manila outfit +was starting from San Francisco, and it was on his +representations that they gave the men hammocks, and took a +store of Mexican dollars. They did not know that Mexican +dollars are the only currency of the East, and were expecting +to pay the men in drafts on New York. + +Isn't that a pitiable situation when a captain of an English +company happens to stray into the war office, and happens to +have a good heart and busies himself to see that our own men +are supplied with hammocks and spending money. None of our +officers had ever seen khaki until they saw Lee's, nor a cork +helmet until they saw mine and his; now, naturally, they won't +have anything else, and there is not another one in the +country. The helmets our troops wear would be smashed in one +tropical storm, and they are so light that the sun beats +through them. They are also a glaring white, and are cheap +and nasty and made of pasteboard. The felt hats are just as +bad; the brim is not broad enough to protect them from the sun +or to keep the rain off their necks, and they are made of such +cheap cotton stuff that they grow hard when they are wet and +heavy, instead of shedding the rain as good felt would do. +They have always urged that our uniforms, though not smart nor +"for show," were for use. The truth is, as they all admit, +that for the tropics they are worse than useless, and that in +any climate they are cheap and poor. + +I could go on for pages, but it has to be written later; now +they would only think it was an attack on the army. But it is +sickening to see men being sacrificed as these men will be. +This is the worst season of all in the Philippines. The +season of typhoons and rainstorms and hurricanes, and they +would have sent the men off without anything to sleep on but +the wet ground and a wet blanket. It has been a great lesson +for me, and I have rubber tents, rubber blankets, rubber coats +and hammocks enough for an army corps. I have written nothing +for the paper, because, if I started to tell the truth at all, it +would do no good, and it would open up a hell of an outcry from +all the families of the boys who have volunteered. Of course, +the only answer is a standing army of a hundred thousand, and no +more calling on the patriotism of men unfitted and untrained. +It is the sacrifice of the innocents. The incompetence and, +unreadiness of the French in 1870 was no worse than our own is +now. It is a terrible and pathetic spectacle, and the +readiness of the volunteers to be sacrificed is all the more +pathetic. It seems almost providential that we had this +false-alarm call with Spain to show the people how utterly +helpless they are. + +love, + +DICK. + + +TAMPA, June 9th, 1898. + +Well, here we are again. Talk of the "Retreat from Ottawa" +I've retreated more in this war than the Greeks did. If they +don't brace up soon, I'll go North and refuse to "recognize" +the war. I feel I deserve a pension and a medal as it is. We +had everything on board and our cabins assigned us and our +"war kits" in which we set forth taken off, and were in +yachting flannels ready for the five days cruise. I had the +devil of a time getting out to the flagship, as they call the +headquarters boat. I went out early in the morning of the +night when I last wrote you. I stayed up all that night +watching troops arrive and lending a helping hand and a word +of cheer to dispirited mules and men, also segars and cool +drinks, none of them had had food for twenty-four hours and +the yellow Florida people having robbed them all day had shut +up and wouldn't open their miserable shops. They even put +sentries over the drinking water of the express company which is +only making about a million a day out of the soldiers. So their +soldiers slept along the platform and trucks rolled by them all +night, shaking the boards on which they lay by an inch or two. +About four we heard that Shafter was coming and an officer +arrived to have his luggage placed on the Seguranca. I left them +all on the pier carrying their own baggage and sweating and +dripping and no one having slept. Their special train had been +three hours in coming nine miles. I hired a small boat and went +off to the flagship alone but the small boat began to leak and I +bailed and the colored boy pulled and the men on the +transports cheered us on. Just at the sinking point I hailed +a catboat and we transferred the Admiral's flag to her and +also my luggage. The rest of the day we spent on the +transport. We left it this morning. Some are still on it but +as they are unloading all the horses and mules from the other +transports fifteen having died from the heat below deck and as +they cannot put them on again under a day, I am up here to get +cool and to stretch my legs. The transport is all right if it +were not so awfully crowded. I am glad I held out to go with +the Headquarter staff. I would have died on the regular press +boat, as it is the men are interesting on our boat. We have +all the military attaches and Lee, Remington, Whitney and +Bonsal. The reason we did not go was because last night the +Eagle and Resolute saw two Spanish cruisers and two +torpedo boats laying for us outside, only five miles away. +What they need with fourteen ships of war to guard a bottled +up fleet and by leaving twenty-six transports some of them +with 1,400 men on them without any protection but a small +cruiser and one gun boat is beyond me. The whole thing is +beyond me. It is the most awful picnic that +ever happened, you wouldn't credit the mistakes that are made. +It is worse than the French at Sedan a million times. We are +just amateurs at war and about like the Indians Columbus +discovered. I am exceedingly pleased with myself at taking it +so good naturedly. I would have thought I would have gone mad +or gone home long ago. Bonsal and Remington threaten to go +every minute. Miles tells me we shall have to wait until +those cruisers are located or bottled up. I'm tired of +bottling up fleets. I like the way Dewey bottles them. What +a story that would have made. Twenty-six transports with as +many thousand men sunk five miles out and two-thirds of them +drowned. Remember the Maine indeed! they'd better remember +the Main and brace up. If we wait until they catch those +boats I may be here for another month as we cannot dare go +away for long or far. If we decide to go with a convoy which +is what we ought to do, we may start in a day or two. Nothing +you read in the papers is correct. Did I tell you that Miles +sent Dorst after me the other night and made me a long speech, +saying he thought I had done so well in refusing the +commission. I was glad he felt that way about it. Well, lots +of love. I'm now going to take a bath. God bless you, this +is a "merry war." + +RICHARD. + + +In sight of Santiago-- +June 26th, 1898. +DEAR CHAS.: + +We have come to a halt here in a camp along the trail to +Santiago. You can see it by climbing a hill. Instead of +which I am now sitting by a fine stream on a cool rock. I +have discovered that you really enjoy things more when you are +not getting many comforts than you do when you have all you +want. That sounds dull but it is most consoling. I had a bath +this morning in these rocks that I would not have given up for +all the good dinners I ever had at the Waldorf, or the Savoy. It +just went up and down my spine and sent thrills all over me. It +is most interesting now and all the troubles of the dull days of +waiting at Tampa and that awful time on the troopship are +over. The army is stretched out along the trail from the +coast for six miles. Santiago lies about five miles ahead of +us. I am very happy and content and the book for Scribners +ought to be an interesting one. It is really very hard that +my despatches are limited to 100 words for there are lots of +chances. The fault lies with the army people at Washington, +who give credentials to any one who asks. To The +Independent and other periodicals--in no sense newspapers, +and they give seven to one paper, consequently we as a class +are a pest to the officers and to each other. Fortunately, +the survival of the fittest is the test and only the best men +in every sense get to the front. There are fifty others at +the base who keep the wire loaded with rumors, so when after +great difficulty we get the correct news back to Daiquire a +Siboney there is no room for it. Some of the "war +correspondents" have absolutely nothing but the clothes they +stand in, and the others had to take up subscriptions for +them. They gambled all the time on the transports and are +ensconced now at the base with cards and counters and nothing +else. Whitney has turned out great at the work and I am glad +he is not on a daily paper or he would share everything with +me. John Fox, Whitney and I are living on Wood's rough +riders. We are very welcome and Roosevelt has us at +Headquarters but, of course, we see the men we know all the time. +You get more news with the other regiments but the +officers, even the Generals, are such narrow minded +slipshod men that we only visit them to pick up information. +Whitney and I were the only correspondents that saw the fight +at Guasimas. He was with the regulars but I had the luck to +be with Roosevelt. He is sore but still he saw more than any +one else and is proportionally happy. Still he naturally +would have liked to have been with our push. We were within +thirty yards of the Spaniards and his crowd were not nearer +than a quarter of a mile which was near enough as they had +nearly as many killed. Gen. Chaffee told me to-day that it +was Wood's charge that won the day, without it the tenth could +not have driven the Spaniards back-- Wood is a great young +man, he has only one idea or rather all his ideas run in one +direction, his regiment, he eats and talks nothing else. He +never sleeps more than four hours and all the rest of the time +he is moving about among the tents-- Between you and me and +the policeman, it was a very hot time-- Maybe if I drew you a +map you would understand why. + +Wood and Gen. Young, by agreement the night before and without +orders from anybody decided to advance at daybreak and +dislodge the Spaniards from Las Guasimas. They went by two +narrow trails single file, the two trails were along the +crests of a line of hills with a valley between. The dotted +line is the trail we should have taken had the Cubans told us +it existed, if we had done so we would have had the Spaniards +in the frontband rear as General Young would have caught them +where they expected him to come, and we would have caught them +where they were not looking for us. Of course, the Cubans who +are worthless in every way never told us of this trail until +we had had the meeting. No one knew we were near Spaniards +until both columns were on the place where the two trails +meet. Then our scouts came back and reported them and the +companies were scattered out as you see them in the little +dots. The Spaniards were absolutely hidden not over 25 per +cent of the men saw one of them for two hours-- I ran out with +the company on the right of the dotted line, marked "our +position." I thought it was a false alarm and none of us +believed there were any Spaniards this side of Santiago. The +ground was covered with high grass and cactus and vines so +that you could not see twenty feet ahead, the men had to beat +the vines with their carbines to get through them. We had not +run fifty yards through the jungle before they opened on us +with a quick firing gun at a hundred yards. I saw the enemy +on the hill across the valley and got six sharp shooters and +began on them, then the fire got so hot that we had to lie on +our faces and crawl back to the rear. I had a wounded man to +carry and was in a very bad way because I had sciatica, +Two of his men took him off while I stopped to help a worse +wounded trooper, but I found he was dead. When I had come +back for him in an hour, the vultures had eaten out his eyes +and lips. In the meanwhile a trooper stood up on the crest +with a guidon and waved it at the opposite trail to find out +if the firing there was from Spaniards or Len Young's negroes. +He was hit in three places but established the fact that Young +was up on the trail on our right across the valley for they +cheered. He was a man who had run on the Gold Ticket for +Congress in Arizona, and consequently, as some one said, +naturally should have led a forlorn hope. A blackguard had +just run past telling them that Wood was killed and that he +had been ordered to Siboney for reinforcements. That was how +the report spread that we were cut to pieces-- A reporter who +ran away from Young's column was responsible for the story +that I was killed. He meant Marshall who was on the left of +the line and who was shot through the spine-- There was a lot +of wounded at the base and the fighting in front was fearful +to hear. It was as fast as a hard football match and you must +remember it lasted two full hours; during that time the men +were on their feet all the time or crawling on their hands-- +Not one of them, with the exception of ----, and a Sergeant +who threw away his gun and ran, went a step back. It was like +playing blindman's buff and you were it. I got separated once +and was scared until I saw the line again, as my leg was very +bad and I could not get about over the rough ground. I went +down the trail and I found Capron dying and the whole place +littered with discarded blankets and haversacks. I also found +Fish and pulled him under cover--he was quite dead-- Then I +borrowed a carbine and joined Capron's troop, a second +lieutenant and his Sergeant were in command. The man next me +in line got a bullet through his sleeve and one through his +shirt and you could see where it went in and came out without +touching the skin. The firing was very high and we were in no +danger so I told the lieutenant to let us charge across an +open place and take a tin shack which was held by the +Spaniards' rear guard, for they were open in retreat. +Roosevelt ordered his men to do the same thing and we ran +forward cheering across the open and then dropped in the grass +and fired. I guess I fired about twenty rounds and then +formed into a strategy board and went off down the trail to +scout. I got lonely and was coming back when I met another +trooper who sat down and said he was too hot to run in any +direction Spaniard or no Spaniard. So we sat down and panted. +At last he asked me if I was R. H. D. and I said I was and he +said "I'm Dean, I met you in Harvard in the racquet court." +Then we embraced--the tenth came up then and it was all over. +My leg, thank goodness, is all right again and has been so for +three days. It was only the running about that caused it. I +won't have to run again as I have a horse now and there will +be no more ambushes and moreover we have 12,000 men around +us-- Being together that way in a tight place has made us all +friends and I guess I'll stick to the regiment. Send this to +dear Mother and tell her I was not born to be killed. I ought +to tell you more of the charming side of the life--we are all +dirty and hungry and sleep on the ground and have grand talks +on every subject around the headquarters tent. I was never +more happy and content and never so well. It is hot but at +night it is quite cool and there has been no rain only a few +showers. `No one is ill and there have been no cases of fever. I +have not heard from you or any one since the 14th, which is not +really long but so much goes on that it seems so. Lots of +love to you all. + +DICK. + + +After reading this over I ought perhaps to say that the +position of the real correspondents is absolutely the very +best. No one confounds us with the men at the base, and +nothing they have they deny us. We are treated immeasurably +better than the poor attaches who are still on the ship and +who if they were spies could not be treated worse. But for +Whitney, Remington and myself nothing is too good. Generals +fight to have us on their staffs and all that sort of thing, +so I really cannot complain, except about the fact that our +real news is crowded out by the faker in the rear. + + +SANTIAGO. + +Headquarters +Cavalry Division, U. S. Army. +Headqrs. Wood's Rough Riders. + +June 29th, 1898. +DEAR DAD: + +I suppose you are back from Marion now and I have missed you. +I can't tell you how sorry I am. I wanted to see you coming +up the street this summer in your knickerbockers and with no +fish, but still happy. Never mind, we shall do the theatres +this Fall, and have good walks downtown. I hope Mother will +come up and visit me this September, at Marion and sit on +Allen's and on the Clarks' porch and we can have Chas. too. I +suppose he will have had his holiday but he can come up for a +Sunday. We expect to move up on Santiago the day after +to-morrow, and it's about time, for the trail will not be +passable much longer. It rains every day at three o'clock for an +hour and such rain you never guessed. It is three inches high +for an hour. Then we all go out naked and dig trenches to get it +out of the way. It is very rough living. I have to confess that +I never knew how well off I was until I got to smoking Durham +tobacco and I've only half a bag of that left. The enlisted men +are smoking dried horse droppings, grass, roots and tea. Some of +them can't sleep they are so nervous for the want of it, but +to-day a lot came up and all will be well for them. I've had a +steady ration of coffee, bacon and hard tack for a week and +one mango, to night we had beans. Of course, what they ought +to serve is rice and beans as fried bacon is impossible in +this heat. Still, every one is well. This is the best crowd +to be with--they are so well educated and so interesting. The +regular army men are very dull and narrow and would bore one +to death. We have Wood, Roosevelt, Lee, the British Attache, +Whitney and a Doctor Church, a friend of mine from Princeton, +who is quite the most cheerful soul and the funniest I ever +met. He carried four men from the firing line the other day +back half a mile to the hospital tent. He spends most of his +time coming around headquarters in an undershirt of mine and a +gold bracelet fighting tarantulas. I woke up the other +morning with one seven inches long and as hairy as your head +reposing on my pillow. My sciatica bothers me but has not +prevented me seeing everything and I can dig rain gutters and +cut wood with any of them. It is very funny to see Larned, the +tennis champion, whose every movement at Newport was applauded by +hundreds of young women, marching up and down in the wet +grass. Whitney and I guy him. To-day a sentry on post was +reading "As You Like It" and whenever I go down the line half +the men want to know who won the boat race-- To-day Wood sent +me out with a detail on a pretense of scouting but really to +give them a chance to see the country. They were all college +boys, with Willie Tiffany as sergeant and we had a fine time +and could see the Spanish sentries quite plainly without a +glass. I hope you will not worry over this long separation. +I don't know of any experience I have had which has done me so +much good, and being with such a fine lot of fellows is a +great pleasure. The scenery is very beautiful when it is not +raining. I have a cot raised off the ground in the Colonel's +tent and am very well off. If Chaffee or Lawton, who are the +finest type of officers I ever saw, were in command, we would +have been fighting every day and would probably have been in +by this time. This weather shows that Havana must be put off +after Porto Rico. They cannot campaign in this mud. + +DICK. + + +SANTIAGO, July 1898. +DEAR FAMILY: + +This is just to reassure you that I am all right. I and +Marshall were the only correspondents with Roosevelt. We were +caught in a clear case of ambush. Every precaution had been +taken, but the natives knew the ground and our men did not. +It was the hottest, nastiest fight I ever imagined. We never +saw the enemy except glimpses. Our men fell all over the +place, shouting to the others not to mind them, but +to go on. I got excited and took a carbine and charged the +sugar house, which was what is called the key to the position. +If the men had been regulars I would have sat in the rear as +B---- did, but I knew every other one of them, had played +football, and all that sort of thing, with them, so I thought +as an American I ought to help. The officers were falling all +over the shop, and after it was all over Roosevelt made me a +long speech before some of the men, and offered me a captaincy +in the regiment any time I wanted it. He told the Associated +Press man that there was no officer in his regiment who had +"been of more help or shown more courage" than your humble +servant, so that's all right. After this I keep quiet. I +promise I keep quiet. Love to you all. + +RICHARD. + + +From Cuba Richard sailed with our forces to Porto Rico, where +his experiences in the Spanish-American war came to an end, +and he returned to Marion. He spent the fall in New York, and +early in 1899 went to London. + +One of the most interesting, certainly the most widely talked +of, "sporting events" for which Richard was responsible was +the sending of an English district-messenger boy from London +to Chicago. The idea was inspired by my brother's general +admiration of the London messenger service and his particular +belief in one William Thomas Jaggers, a fourteen-year-old lad +whom Richard had frequently employed to carry notes and run +errands. One day, during a casual luncheon conversation at +the Savoy with his friend Somers Somerset, Richard said that he +believed that if Jaggers were asked to carry a message to New +York that he could not only do it but would express no surprise +at the commission. This conversation resulted in the bet +described in the following letters. The boy slipped quietly +away from London, but a few days later the bet became public +and the newspapers were filled with speculation as to whether +Jaggers could beat the mails. The messenger carried three +letters, one to my sister, one to Miss Cecil Clark of Chicago, +whom Richard married a few months later, and one to myself. +As a matter of fact, Jaggers delivered his notes several hours +before letters travelling by the same boat reached the same +destinations. The newspapers not only printed long accounts +of Jaggers's triumphal progress from New York to Chicago and +back again, but used the success of his undertaking as a text +for many editorials against the dilatory methods of our +foreign-mail service. Jaggers left London on March 11, 1899, +and was back again on the 29th, having travelled nearly +eighty-four hundred miles in eighteen days. On his return he +was received literally by a crowd of thousands, and his feat +was given official recognition by a gold medal pinned on his +youthful chest by the Duchess of Rutland. Also, later on, at +a garden fete he was presented to the Queen, and incidentally, +still later, returned to the United States as "buttons" to my +brother's household. + + +Bachelors' Club, +Piccadilly, W. +March 15th, 1899. +DEAR CHAS. + +I hope you are not annoyed about Jaggers. When he started no +one knew of it but three people and I had no idea anyone else +would, but the company sent it to The Mail without my name +but describing me as "an American gentleman"-- Instantly the +foreign correspondents went to them to find out who I was and to +whom I was sending the letter-- I told the company it was none of +their damned business--that I employed the boy by the week and +that I could send him where-ever I chose. Then the boy's father +got proud and wrote to The Mail about his age and so they got the +boy's name. Mine, however, is still out of it, but in America +they are sure to know as the people on the steamer are crazy +about him and Kinsey the Purser knows he is sent by me. After +he gets back from Chicago and Philadelphia, you can do with +him as you like until the steamer sails. If the thing is +taken up as it is here and the fat is in the fire, then you +can do as you please-- I mean you can tell the papers about it +or not-- Somerset holds one end of the bets and I the other. +There are two bets: one that he will beat the mail to Chicago, +Somerset agreeing to consider the letter you give him to +Bruce, as equivalent to one coming from here. The other bet +is that he will deliver and get receipts from you, Nora and +Bruce, and return here by the 5th of April-- You and Bobby +ought to be able to do well by him if it becomes, as I say, so +far public that there is no possibility of further +concealment-- You have my permission to do what you please-- +He is coming into my employ as soon as he gets back and as +soon as the company give him a medal. + +Over here there is the greatest possible interest in the +matter-- At the Clubs I go to, the waiters all wait on me in +order to have the latest developments and when it was cabled +over here that the Customs' people intended stopping him, +indignation raged at the Foreign office. + +of love, + +DICK. + + +89 Jermyn Street, S. W. + +March--1899 +DEAR NORA: + +This is to be handed to you by my special messenger, who is to +assure you that I am in the best of health and spirits-- Keep +him for a few hours and then send him on to Chicago-- As he is +doing this on a bet, do not give him any written instructions +only verbal ones. I am very well and happy and send you all +my love-- Jaggers has been running errands for me ever since I +came here, and a most loyal servitor when I was ill-- On his +return I want to keep him on as a buttons. See that he gets +plenty to eat-- If he comes back alive he will have broken the +messenger boy service record by three thousand miles. +Personally, it does not cost me anything to speak of. The +dramatization of the Soldiers continues briskly, and Maude is +sending Grundy back the Jackal, to have a second go at it. +Maude insists on its being done--so I stand to win a lot. +RICHARD. + + +Beefsteak Club, 9, Green Street, +Leicester Square, W. C. Tuesday. +March--1899. +DEAR MOTHER:-- + +The faithful Jaggers should have arrived to-day, or will do so +this evening-- I am sure you will make the poor little chap +comfortable-- I do regret having sent him on such a journey +especially since the papers here made such an infernal row +over it-- However, neither of us will lose by it in the end-- + +I dined with Lady Clarke last night and met Lord Castleton +there and he invited me up to Dublin for the Punchtown Races-- +I have a great mind to go and write a story on them-- Castleton +is a great sport and very popular at home and in England and it +would be a pleasant experience. Kuhne Beveridge is doing a bust +of me in khaki outfit for the Academy and also for a private +exhibition of her own works, which includes the Prince of Wales, +and the Little Queen of Holland. + +Hays Hammond has invited me down to South Africa again, with a +promise of making my fortune, but I am not going as it takes +too long. +DICK. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE BOER WAR + + +On May 4, 1899, at Marion, Massachusetts, Richard was married +to Cecil Clark, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John M. Clark of +Chicago. After the marriage Richard and his wife spent a few +weeks in Marion and the remainder of the summer in London and +Aix-les-Bains. + + +MARION, May 28th, 1899. +DEAR MOTHER: + +You sent me such a good letter about the visit of the three +selected chorus girls. But what was best, was about your +wishing to see me. Of course, you know that I feel that too. +I would have it so that we all lived here, so that Dad could +fish, and Nora and Cecil could discuss life, and you and I +could just take walks and chat. But because that cannot be, +we are no further away than we ever were and when the pain to +see you comes, I don't let it hurt and I don't kill it either +for it is the sweetest pain I can feel. If sons will go off +and marry, or be war-correspondents, or managers, it does not +mean that Home is any the less Home. You can't wipe out +history by changing the name of a boulevard, as somebody said +of the French, and if I were able to be in two places at once, +I know in which two places I would be here with Cecil at +Marion, and at Home in the Library with you and Dad and The +Evening Telegraph, and Nora and Van Bibber. You will never +know how much I love you all and you must never give up trying to +comprehend it. God bless you and keep you, and my love to you +every minute and always. + +DICK. + + +Late in January, 1900, Richard and his wife started on their +first great adventure together to the Boer War. Arriving at +Cape Town, Richard left his wife there and, acting as +correspondent with the British forces for the New York +Herald and London Mail, saw the relief of Ladysmith. +After this he returned to Cape Town, with the intention of +joining Lord Roberts in his advance on Pretoria. But on +arriving at Cape Town he learned that Lord Roberts did not +intend to move for three weeks, and so decided to say farewell +to the British army and to return to London in a leisurely and +sightseeing fashion along the east coast. It was after they +were well started on this return voyage that Richard conceived +the idea of leaving the ship at Durban, going to Pretoria, +and, as he expressed it, "watch the Boers fighting the same +men I had just seen fighting them." + + +R. M. S. Scot +February 4th, 1900. +DEAR MOTHER: + +A great change has come since I wrote you from Madeira. We +are now on Summer seas and have regulated the days so that +they pass very pleasantly--not that we do not want to be on +land-- I never so much wanted it-- Somers is with us and is +such a comfort. He is even younger than he used to be and so +quick and courteous and good tempered. He is like a boy off +on a holiday-- I think he is very much in love +with his wife, but in spite of himself he is glad to get a +holiday, and like all of us he will be so much more glad when +he is homeward bound. They threatened to shut us out of our +only chance of putting foot on land at Madeira-- In the first +place, we were so delayed by the storm that we arrived at +eight o'clock at night, so that we missed seeing it in its +beauty of flowers and palms. And then it was so rough that +they said it was most unsafe for us to attempt to go ashore. +It was a great disappointment but I urged that every one loved +his own life, and if the natives were willing to risk theirs +to sell us photographs and wicker baskets it was probably +safer than it looked-- So we agreed to die together, and with +Somers got our rain coats, and the three of us leaped into a +row boat pulled by two Portugese pirates and started off +toward a row of lamps on a quay that seemed much lower than +the waves. The remainder on the ship watched us disappear +with ominus warnings-- We really had a most adventurous +passage--towards shore the waves tossed us about like a +lobster pot and we just missed being run down by a coal barge +and escaped an upset over the bow anchor chain of a ship. It +was so close that both Somers and I had our coats off and I +told Cecil to grab the chain-- But we weathered it and landed +at a high gangway cut in the solid rock the first three steps +of which were swamped by the waves. A rope and chain hung +from the top of the wharf and a man swung his weight on this +and yanked us out to the steps as the boat was on the wave. +The rain beat and the wind roared and beautiful palms lashed +the air with their fronds-- It was grand to get on shore once +again-- At the end of the wharf we were hustled into a sled on +steel runners, like a hearse with curtains around it and drawn by +bullocks-- The streets were all of mosaic, thousands of little +stones being packed together like corn on a cob. Over this the +heavy sledge was drawn by the bullocks while a small boy ran +ahead through the narrow streets to clear the way-- He had a +feather duster made of horse's tail as a badge of authority and +he yelled some strange cry at the empty streets and closed +houses. Another little boy in a striped jersey ran beside and +assured us he was a guide. It was like a page out of a fairy +story. The strange cart sliding and slipping over the stones +which were as smooth as ice, and the colored house fronts and the +palms and strange plants. The darkness made it all the more +unreal-- There was a governor's palace buttressed and guarded +by sentinels in a strange uniform and queer little cafe's +under vines--and terraces of cannon, and at last a funny, +pathetic little casino. It was such a queer imitation of Aix +and Monte Carlo-- There were chasseurs and footmen in +magnificent livery and stucco white walls ornamented with silk +SHAWLS. Also a very good band and a new roulette table-- +Coming in out of the night and the rain it was like a theatre +after the "dark scene" has just passed-- There were some most +dignified croupiers and three English women and a few sad +English men and some very wicked looking natives in diamonds +and white waistcoats. We had only fifteen minutes to spare so +we began playing briskly with two shilling pieces Cecil with +indifferent fortune and Somers losing-- But I won every time +and the croupiers gave me strange notes of the Bonco de +Portugal which I put back on the board only to get more of a +larger number-- I felt greatly embarrassed as I was not a real +member of the club and I hated to blow in out of a hurricane +and take their money and sail away again-- So I appealed to +one of the sad eyed Englishmen and he assured me it was all +right, that they welcomed the people from the passing steamers +who generally left a few pounds each with the bank. But the +more I spread the money the more I won until finally the whole +room gathered around. Then I sent out and ordered champagne +for everybody and spare gold to all the waiters and still +cashed in seventy-five dollars in English money. It was +pretty good for fifteen minutes and we went out leaving the +people open-eyed, and hitting the champagne bottles-- It was +all a part of the fun especially as with all our gold we could +get nothing for supper but "huevos frite" which was all the +Spanish I could remember and which meant fried eggs-- But we +were very wet and hungry and we got the eggs and some fruit +and real Madeira wine and then rowed out again rejoicing. The +pirates demanded their pay half way to the boat while we were +on the high seas but they had struck the very wrong men, and I +never saw a mutiny quelled so abruptly-- Somers and I told +them we'd throw them overboard and row ourselves and they +understood remarkably well-- The next day we were the admired +and envied of those who had not had the nerve "to dare to +attempt." It was one of the best experiences altogether we +ever had and I shall certainly put Madeira on my silver cup. + +RICHARD. + + +After their arrival at Cape Town, where Richard arranged for +his wife to stay during his absence at the British front, he +started for Ladysmith, sailing on the same vessel on which he +had left England. + + +February 18th, 1900 +board Scot. +DEAR MOTHER: + +I got off yesterday and am hoping to get to Buller before +Ladysmith is relieved. I could not get to go with Roberts +because Ralph has been here four months and has borne the heat +and burden of the day, so although I only came in order to be +with Roberts and Kitchener I could not ask to have Ralph +recalled-- They wanted me with Roberts and I wanted it but +none of us could make up our minds to turn down Ralph. So I +am going up on this side track on the chance of seeing +Ladysmith relieved and of joining Roberts with Buller later. +I shall be satisfied if I see Ladysmith fall. Fortunately I +am to do a great deal of cabling for The Mail every day and +that counts much more with the reading public than letters-- + +Cape Town is a dusty, wind ridden western town with a mountain +back of it which one man said was a badly painted back drop-- +The only attractive thing about the town is this mountain and +a hotel situated at its base in perfectly beautiful gardens. +Here Cecil is settled. I got her a sitting room and a big +bedroom and The Mail agent or Pryor pays her $150 a week and +will take good care of her. It really is a beautiful and +comfortable hotel and grounds and she has made many friends, +and also I forced a pitch battle with a woman who was rude to +her when we visited the hospital-- So, as the hospital people +were very keen to have me see and praise their hospital they +have taken up arms against the unfortunate little bounder and +championed Cecil and me. Cecil had really nothing to do with +it as you can imagine-- She only laughed but I gave the lady +lots to remember. + +On the other hand every one is as kind and interested in Cecil +as can be. Mrs. Waldron whose son is Secretary to Milner and +his secretary were more than polite to each of us. Milner +spent the whole evening we were there talking to Cecil and not +to the lady we had had the row with, which was a pleasing +triumph. He sent me unsolicited a most flattering personal +letter to the Governor of Natal, saying that I had come to him +with my strong letters but that he had so enjoyed meeting me +that he wished to pass me on on his own account. Cecil asked +me what it was I had talked so much to him about and I asked +her if it were possible she couldn't guess that of course I +would be telling him how to run the colony. My advice was to +bombard Cape Town and make martial law, for the Cape Towners +are the most rotten, cowardly lot of rebels I ever imagined as +being possible. He seemed so glad to find any one who +appreciated that it was a queen's colony in name only and +said, "Mr. Davis, it is as bad as this--I can take a stroll +with you from these gardens (we were at the back of the +Government House) and at the end of our stroll we will be in +hostile territory." + +We spent the last day after I had got my orders to join Buller +(who seemed very pleased to have me) calling on the officials +for passes together and they were in a great state falling +into their coats and dressing guard for her and were all so +friendly and hearty. The Censor seems to think I am a sort of +Matthew Arnold and should be wrapped in cotton, so does Pryor +The Mail agent who apologizes for asking me to cable, which +is just what I want to do. They are very generous and are +spending money like fresh air. I am to cable letters to Cape +Town, only to save three days. So, now all that is needed is for +something to happen. Everything else is arranged. All I want is +to see three or four good fights and a big story like the relief +of Ladysmith and I am ready and anxious to get home. I shall +observe them from behind an ant hill--I don't say this to please +you but because I mean it. This is not my war and all I want is +to earn the very generous sums I have been offered and get home. +We are just off Port Elizabeth. I will go on shore and post +this there. With all love. +DICK. + + +Deal's Central Hotel, East London. +February 20th, 1900. +DEAR MOTHER: + +We are stopping at every port now, as though the Scot were a +ferry boat. We came over the side to get here in baskets with +a neat door in the side and were bumped to the deck of the +tender in all untenderness. This is more like Africa than any +place I have seen. The cactus and palms abound and the +Kaffirs wear brass anklets and bracelets. A man at lunch at +this hotel asked me if I was R. H. D. and said he was an +American who had got a commission in Brabants horse-- He gave +me the grandest sort of a segar and apparently on his +representation the hotel brought me two books to sign, marked +"Autographs of Celebrities of the Boer War." It seemed in my +case at least to be premature and hopeful. + +Good luck and God bless you. This will be the last letter you +will get for ten days or two weeks, as I am now going directly +away from steamers. This one reaches you by a spy gentleman +who is to give it to Rene Bull of The Graphic and who will +post it in Cape Town-- He and all the other correspondents are +abandoning Buller for Roberts. Let 'em all go. The fewer the +better, I say. My luck will keep I hope. +DICK. + + +Imperial Hotel, +Maritzburg, Natal. +Feb. 23rd, 1900. +DEAR MOTHER:-- + +I reached Durban yesterday. They paraded the band in my +honour and played Yankee Doodle indefinitely-- I had corrupted +them by giving them drinks to play the "Belle of New York" +nightly. The English officers thought Yankee Doodle was our +national anthem and stood with their hats off in a hurricane +balancing on the deck of the tender on one foot-- The city of +Durban is the best I have seen. It was as picturesque as the +Midway at the Fair-- There were Persians, Malay, Hindoo, +Babu's Kaffirs, Zulu's and soldiers and sailors. I went on +board the Maine to see the American doctors--one of them +said he had met me on Walnut Street, when he had nearly run me +down with his ambulance from the Penna Hospital. Lady +Randolph took me over the ship and was very much puzzled when +all the hospital stewards called me by name and made +complimentary remarks. It impressed her so much apparently +that she and the American nurses I hadn't met on board came to +see me off at the station, which was very friendly. I have +had a horrible day here and got up against the British officer +in uniform and on duty bent-- The chief trouble was that none +of them knew what authority he had to do anything--and I had +to sit down and tell them. I wonder with intelligence like +theirs that their Intelligence Department did not tell them the +Boers fought with war clubs and spears. I bought a ripping pony +and my plan is to cut away from all my magnificent equipment and +try to overtake Buller before he reaches Ladysmith and send +back for the heavy things later. It is just a question of +minutes really and it seems hard to have come 1500 miles and +then to miss it by an hour-- I arrive at Chievely tomorrow at +five--that is only ten miles from where Buller is to night, so +were it not for their d----d regulations I could ride across +country and join them by midday but I bet they won't let me +and I also bet I'll get there in time. Of course you'll, know +before you see this. Marelsburg is the capital and its chief +industry is rickshaw's pulled by wild Kaffi's, with beads and +snake skins around them and holes in their ears into which +they stick segars and horn spoons for dipping snuff. The +women wear less than the men and have their hair done up in +red fungus. + +Well, love to you all, to Nora and Dad and Chas, +and God bless you. + +DICK. + + +1900. +DEAR DEAR MOTHER:-- + +I am here at last and counting the days when I shall get away. +War does not soothe my savage breast. I find I want Cecil, +and Jaggers, and Macklin to write, and plays to rehearse. +Without Cecil bored to death at Cape Town, I would not mind it +at all. I know how to be comfortable and on my second day I +beat all these men who have been here three months in getting +my news on the wire. For I am a news man now, and have to +collect horrid facts and hosts of casualties and to find out +whether it was the Dubblins +or the Durbans that did it and what it was they did. I was in +terrible fear that I would be too late to see the relief of +Ladysmith but I was well in time and saw a fight the first few +hours I arrived. It is terribly big and overwhelming like +eighty of Barnum circuses all going at once in eighty rings +and very hard to understand the geography. The Tugela is like +a snake and crosses itself every three feet so that you never +know whether you have crossed it yourself or not. Every one +is most kind and I am as comfortable as can be. Indeed I like +my tent so much that I am going to take it to Marion. It has +windows in it and the most amusing trap doors and pockets in +the walls and clothes lines and hooks and ventilators-- It is +colored a lovely green-- I have also two chairs that fold up +and a table that does nothing else and a bed and two lanterns, +3 ponies, one a Boer pony I bought for $12. from a Tommy who +had stolen it. I had to pay $125 each for the other two and +one had a sore back and the other gets lost in my saddle. But +war as these people do it bores one to destruction. They are +terribly dull souls. They cannot give an order intelligently. +The real test of a soldier is the way he gives an order. I +heard a Colonel with eight ribbons for eight campaigns scold a +private for five minutes because he could not see a signal +flag, and no one else could. It is not becoming that a +Colonel should scold for five minutes. Friday they charged a +hill with one of their "frontal" attacks and lost three +Colonels and 500 men. In the morning--it was a night +attack--when the roll was called only five officers answered. +The proper number is 24. A Captain now commands the regiment. +It is sheer straight waste of life through dogged stupidity. +I haven't seen a Boer yet except some poor devils of prisoners +but you can see every English who is on a hill. They walk along +the skyline like ships on the horizon. It must be said for them +that it is the most awful country to attack in the world. It is +impossible to give any idea of its difficulties. However I can +tell you that when I get back to the center of civilization. Do +you know I haven't heard from you since I left New York on the +St. Louis. All your letters to London went astray. What +lots you will have to tell me but don't let Charley worry. I +won't talk about the war this time. I never want to hear of +it again. + +DICK. + + +LADYSMITH. March 1st, 1899. +DEAR CHAS: + +This is just a line to say I got in here with the first after +a gallop of twelve miles. Keep this for me and the envelope. +With my love and best wishes-- + +DICK. + + +LADYSMITH, March 3, 1900. +DEAR MOTHER: + +The column came into town today, 2200 men, guns, cavalry, +ambulances, lancers, navy guns and oxen. It was a most cruel +assault upon one's feelings. The garrison lined the streets +as a saluting guard of honor but only one regiment could stand +it and the others all sat down on the curb only rising to +cheer the head of each new regiment. They are yellow with +fever, their teeth protruding and the skin drawn tight over +their skeletons. The incoming army had had fourteen days hard +fighting at the end of three months campaigning but were +robust and tanned ragged and caked with mud. As they came in +they cheered and the garrison tried to cheer back but it was like +a whisper. + +Winston Churchill and I stood in front of Gen. White and cried +for an hour. For the time you forgot Boers and the cause, or +the lack of cause of it all, and saw only the side of it that +was before you, the starving garrison relieved by men who had +lost almost one out of every three in trying to help them. I +was rather too previous in getting in and like every-one else +who came from outside gave away everything I had so that now +I'm as badly off as the rest of them. Yesterday my rations +for the day were four biscuits and an ounce of coffee and of +tea, with corn which they call mealies which I could not eat +but which saved my horse's life. He is a Boer pony I bought +from a Tommy for two pounds ten and he's worth both of the +other two for which I paid $125 a piece. Tomorrow the wagon +carrying my supplies will be in and I can get millions of +things. It almost apalls me to think how many. Especially +clean clothes. I've slept in these for four days. I got off +some stories which I hope will read well. I can't complain +now that I saw the raising of this siege. But I hope we don't +stay still. I want to see a lot quickly and get out. This is +very safe warfare. You sit on a hill and the army does the +rest. My sciatica is not troubling me at all. Love to you +all and God bless you. + +DICK. + + +LADYSMITH, March 4th, 1900. +DEAR, DEAR MOTHER: + +Today I got the first letter I have had from you since we left +home. It was such happiness to see your dear sweet handwriting +again. It was just like seeing you for a glimpse, or hearing you +speak. I am so hungry for news of Nora and Chas and you all. I +know you've written, but the letters have missed somehow. I sent +yours right back to Cecil who is very lonely at present. +Somerset has gone to the front and Jim--home--Blessed word! A +little middy rode up to me today and began by saying "I'm going +home. I'm ORDERED there. Home-- To England!" He seemed to +think I would not understand. He prattled on like a child saying +what luck he had had, that he had been besieged in Ladysmith and +seen lots of fighting and would get a medal and all the while he +was "just a middy." "But isn't it awful to think of our chaps +that were left on the ship" he said quite miserably. It is a +beastly dull war. The whole thing is so "class" and full of +"form" and tradition and worrying over "putties" and etiquette +and rank. It is the most wonderful organization I ever +imagined but it is like a beautiful locomotive without an +engineer. + +The Boers outplay them in intelligence every day. The whole +army is officered by one class and that the dull one. It is +like the House of Peers. You would not believe the mistakes +they make, the awful way in which they sacrifice the lives of +officers and men. And they let the Boers escape. I watched +the Boers for four hours the other day escaping after the +battle of Pieters and I asked, not because I wanted them +captured but just as a military proposition "Why don't you +send out your cavalry and light artillery and take those +wagons?" The staff officer giggled and said "They might kill +us." I don't know what he meant; neither did he. However, +I'm sick of it but there's nothing else to talk of. I hate +all the people about me and this dirty town and I wish I was +back. And I'm going too. I'll have started by the time you get +this. + +I mean to cut out of this soon but don't imagine I'm in any +danger. I'm taking d---d good care to keep out of danger. No +one is more determined on that than I am. Dear Mother, this +is such a dull letter but you must forgive me. I was never so +homesick and bored in my life. It will be better when I go +out tomorrow in my green tent and leave this beastly hole. I +like the tent life, and the horses and being clean. I've +really starved here for four days and haven't had a clean +thing on me. God bless you all and dear Nora God bless her +and Chas and the Lone Fisherman. + +DICK. + + +Outside Ladysmith. +5th March, 1900. +DEAREST MOTHER: + +I was a brute to write as I did last night. But I was so blue +in that miserable town!!! It was so foul and dirty. The town +smelt as bad as Johnstown. My room in the so called hotel +stunk, the dirt was all over the floor and the servants had to +be paid to do everything even to bring you a towel--and then I +had no place to write or be alone, and nothing to eat-- The +poor souls at my table who had been in the siege, when they +got a little bit of sugar or a can of condensed milk would +carry it off from the table as though it were a diamond +diadem-- I did the same thing myself for I couldn't eat what +they gave me and so I corrupted the canteen dealer and bought +tin things-- I've really never wanted tobacco so much +and food as I have here--to give away I mean, for it was +something wonderful to see what it meant to them. Three +troopers came into the dining room yesterday and asked if they +could buy some tea and were turned out so rudely that it +seemed to hurt them much more than the fact that they were +hungry: I followed them out and begged them to come back to +my verandah and have tea with me but they at first would not +because they knew I had witnessed what had happened in the +hotel. They belonged to a very good regiment and they had +been starved for four months. But in spite of their +independence I got them to my porch. I had just purchased at +awful prices a few delicacies like sugar and tobacco, +marmalade and a bottle of whiskey. So I gave them to them and +I never enjoyed anything so much-- The poor yellow faced +skeletons ate in absolute silence still fighting with their +pride until I told them I was an American and was a canteen +contractor's friend-- Then I gave them segars and it was too +pitiful-- In our column, if you give a man something extra he +says a lot and swears it's the best drink or the best segar or +that you're the best chap he ever met-- Just as I say it to +them when they give me things. But these starved bodies tried +to be very polite and conversational on every subject except +food--when I offered them the segars which could only be got +then at a dollar twenty-five a piece (they had not cost me +that as I had bought them in Cape Town for two cents apiece!) +What has Dad to say to that for economy? They accepted them +quite as though it was in Havana--and then leaned back and +went off into opium dreams-- Imagine the first segar after +three months. I am out here now on a bluff, with two trees in +front and great hills with names historical of the +siege of Ladysmith--names which I refuse to learn or +remember--I am perfectly comfortable and were it not +for Cecil perfectly content-- If she were only here it would +be perfectly magnificent-- I have a retinue that would do +credit to the Warringtons in the Virginians-- Three Kaffir +boys who refuse to yield to my sense of the picturesque and go +naked like their less effete brothers, two oxen and three +ponies, a little puppy I found starved in Ladysmith and fed on +compressed beef tablets. I call her Ladysmith and she sleeps +beside my cot and in my lap when I am reading--I have also a +beautiful tent with tape window panes, ventilators, pockets +inside, doors that loop up and red knobs; also, it is green so +that the ants won't eat it. Also two tables, two chairs, a +bath tub, two lanterns, and a cape cart--and a folding bed-- +In Cuba I had two saddle bags and was just as clean and just +as happy. One boy does nothing but polish my boots and +gaiters and harness, so that I look as well as the officers +who are not much good at anything but that. I must tell you +what I think is the saddest story of the siege-- They could +not feed the horses, so they kept part of them for scouting, +part to eat and drove 3,000 of them towards the Boers. Being, +well trained cavalry horses, they did not know how to eat +grass, so at bugle call the whole 3,000 came trotting back +again and sentries were placed at every street to stampede +them back into the veldt-- One horse from one battery met out +in the prairie another horse that had been its gun mate in an +artillery regiment five years before in India and the two poor +things came galloping back side by side and passed the +sentries and into the lines and drew up beside their battery. +Another horse found its rider acting as sentry and +when the man tried to drive it away it thought he was playing +with it and kept coming back and finally the man brought it in +to the colonel and cried and asked if it might have half of +his rations of corn. Good night and God bless you all with +all my love. +DICK. + + +March 15th, 1900. +DEAR MOTHER: + +I am on my way back to Cape Town. This seemed better than +staying with Buller who will not move for two or three weeks. +I shall either go straight up to Roberts, or we will return to +London. I have seen the relief of Ladysmith and got a very +good idea of it all, and I do not know but what I shall quit +now. I started in too late to do much with it and as it is I +have seen a great deal. It is neither an interesting country +nor an interesting war. But I don't have to stay here to +oblige anybody. If I do go up to Roberts it will only be to +stay for three weeks at the most and only then if there is +fighting. I won't go if he is resting as Buller is. So this +will explain why we start home so soon. I am very glad I +came. I would have been very sorry always if I had not, but +my heart is not in it as, of course, it was in our war. +Sometimes they fight all day using seven or eight regiments +and kill a terrible lot of fine soldiers and capture forty +Boer farmers and two women. It is not the kind of war I care +to report. "Nor mean to!" I cannot make a book out of what +little I've seen but I will come out about even. It has been +very rough on Cecil. Today I went to the Maine and asked +Lady Randolph to give me a lift down to Cape Town as +the ship gets there two days ahead of the Castle Steamer. +So, they were apparently very glad to have me and I +am going on Saturday. I like it on the ship where I have been +spending the day as it is fun taking care of the wounded and +listening to their stories. I am to write an article for her +next Anglo Saxon magazine on the Passing of the War +Correspondent. The idea is that he must either disappear +altogether like the Vivandiere or be allowed to do his work. +As it is now the Government forces him upon the Generals +against their will and so they get back by taking it out of +him. Either they should persuade the Government that their +objections to him are weighty and suppress him altogether, or +recognize him as a part of the outfit. I don't much care +which as I certainly would never again go with an English +army. I am sorry the letters home have been so dull but I +have had rather hard luck straight through, and the distances +are so very great and the time spent in covering them seems +very wasteful. I shall be glad I saw it because it is the +biggest thing as to scale that I ever saw of the sort, and I +could not have afforded to have missed being in it. It is the +first big modern war and all the conditions and weapons are +new. I don't think the English have learned anything by it, +because the fault lies entirely with their officers who are +all or nearly all of one class. + +DICK. + + +March 25th, 1900. +Cape Town. + +This is just to explain our plans and as they take a bit of +explaining this is meant for the Houses of Clark and of Davis. +So, pass it on-- After Ladysmith was relieved Buller decided +he would not move for a month, so I came back to join Roberts. I +could not do that on first arriving because there was a Mail man +with him. I meant to do it later as a Herald man, and to let +The Mail go. But on arriving here, having spent a week in +coming and having sold all my outfit at a loss, I found that +Roberts did not intend to move for three weeks either. So I +decided I had seen enough to justify my returning. There were +other reasons, the chief one being that the English irritated +me and I had so little sympathy with them that I could not +write with any pleasure of their work. My sporting blood +refused to boil at the spectacle of such a monster Empire +getting the worst of it from an untrained band of farmers-- I +found I admired the farmers. So we decided to chuck it and go +to London. I would not have missed it for anything. I would +never have been satisfied, if we had not come. I have seen +much of the country and the people, and of the army and its +wonderful organization and discipline. I enjoyed two +battles--and the relief of Ladysmith is one of the things to +have seen, almost the best, if not the best. Every officer +and correspondent agrees that I got the pick of the fighting +and the "best story." By the way, I beat all the London +papers in getting out the news by one day. At least, so +Pryor, The Mail manager tells me. The paper was very much +pleased. We have now decided to come home by the East Coast. +It was Cecil's idea and wish and I was only too glad to do it. +She says we certainly will never come to this country again. +God help us if we do--and that it would be criminal to spend +seventeen blank days on the West coast when we could fill in +the entire trip North on the East Coast at many ports. It is +a rather complicated trip as one has to change frequently but +it will be a great thing to have seen. Cecil has really seen +nothing at Cape Town and on this trip she will be paid for all +the boredom that has gone before. I have been over part of it +and am sure. Durban alone is one of the most curious cities I +ever saw. It is like the Midway at the Fair. I want her to +have some fun out of this. She has been so unselfish and fine +all through and I hope I can make the rest of the adventure to +her liking-- It is sure to be for after Delagoa Bay it is all +real Africa not the shoddy "colonial" shopkeepers' paradise +that we have here. And we are going to stop off at Zanzibar +for some time where we have letters to everybody and where +Cecil is to draw the Sultan and I am to play him the "Typical +Tune of Zanzibar." You will see by our route that we spend +two days or a day at many places and so shall get a good idea +of the country. The Konig is a 5,000 ton ship and we have +two cabins-- From Port Said we will run up to Cairo to get a +dinner and then over to Constantinople to see Lloyd Griscom +and the city which Cecil has never visited. Then to Paris by +way of the Orient Express. Then London and back with Charley +to Aix. I feel sure that one more course there will cure my +leg for always. As it is it has not touched me once even +during the campaign when I was wet and had to climb hills, and +at Ladysmith, where I had no food for a week. Of course, if +we get tired on the way up we may go straight on from Port +Said to Marseilles and so to London. It seems funny to look +upon Port Said as being at home, but from this distance it +seems as near New York as Boston-- You will get this when we +reach Zanzibar or later and we will cable when we can. + +DICK. + + +It was said at the time that Richard left the British forces +because the censors would not permit him to send out the truth +about Buller's advance, and that the English officials +resented his going to report the war from the Boer side. The +first statement my brother flatly denied, and the fact that it +was through the direct intervention of Sir Alfred Milner, +assisted by the efforts of our consul Adelbert S. Hay at +Pretoria, that Richard was enabled to reach the Boer capital +seems to prove the latter charge equally false. Although +throughout the war my brother's sympathies were with the +Boers, and in spite of the fact that the papers he represented +wanted him to report the war from the Boer side, he persisted +in going at first with the British forces. His reasons were +that he wished to see a great army, with all modern equipment +in action, and that practically all of his English friends +were with the British army. "My only reason for leaving it", +he wrote, "was the fact that I found myself facing a month of +idleness. Had General Buller continued his advance +immediately after his relief of Ladysmith I would have gone +with his column and would probably have never seen a Boer, +except a Boer prisoner." + +Royal Hotel, + + +Durban, Natal. +April 5th, 1900. +DEAR MOTHER: + +We arrived here to-day and got off in a special tug together. +We did the basket trick all right, although the next time it +came down a swell raised the tug and fractured every one in +the basket except Sangree and Rogers, the two New York +correspondents who were hanging on by the upper edges. Cecil +loved the place which is the Midway Plaisance of cities and we +had a good lunch and managed to get into the hotel where there +are over twenty cots in the reading room, and hall. The +Commandant objected to our going to Praetoria and seemed inclined +to refuse us passes to leave Durban for Delagoa Bay. He also was +rather fresh to Cecil, so I called him down very hard, and +told him if he couldn't make up his mind whether we would go +or not, I'd wire to some others who would help him to make up +his mind quickly. He said I was at liberty to do that, so I +went out and burned wires over all of South Africa. As he +reads all the telegrams he naturally read mine and the next +morning he was as humble and white as a head waiter. But by +ten o'clock my wires began to bear fruit and he began to catch +it. Milner wired him to send us on at once and apologized to +us by another wire so all is well and we go vouched for by the +High Commissioner. + +DICK. + + +PRETORIA, May 18th, 1900. + +DEAR DAD--AND OTHERS OF THE CLARK AND DAVIS FAMILIES: + +I have not had time to write such a long letter as this one +must be, as I have been working on my Ledger and Scribner +stories. + +Cecil and I started to the "front," which was then May 4th, at +Brandfort with Captain Von Loosberg, a German baron who +married in New Orleans and became an American citizen and who +is now in command of Loosberg's Artillery in the Free State. +The night we left, the English took Brandfort, so we decided +to go only as far as Winburg. The next morning +the train despatcher informed us Winburg was taken, so we +decided to go to Smalldeel, but that went during the +afternoon, so we stopped at Kronstad. From there, after a +day's rest, we went to Ventersberg station, and rode across to +Ventersberg town, about two hours away, and put up in Jones's +Hotel. The next day we went down to the Boer laagers on the +Sand river and met President Steyn on the way. He got out of +his Cape Cart and gave Cecil a rose and Loosberg his field +glasses, which Cecil took from Loosberg in exchange for her +own Zeiss glass, and he gave me a drink and an interview. He +also gave us a letter to St. Reid, who had established an +ambulance base on Cronje's farm, telling him to give Cecil +something to sleep upon. The, Boers were very polite to Cecil +and as she rode through the different camps every man took off +his hat. We went back to Ventersberg that night and about two +o'clock Cecil came to my room and woke me up with the +intelligence that the British were only two hours away. She +had heard the commandant informing the landlady, a grand low +comedy character from Brooklyn, who had the room next to +Cecil's. I interviewed the landlady who was sitting up in bed +in curl papers, and with a Webley revolver. She was quite +hysterical so I aroused Loosberg who was too sleepy to +understand. The commandant could be heard in the distance +offering his kingdom for a horse and a Cape cart. Cecil and I +decided our horses were done up and that we were too ignorant +of the trail to know where to run. So we decided to go to +sleep. In the morning we confessed that each had been afraid +the other would want to escape, and each wanted only to be +allowed to go to sleep again. Loosberg's Cape Cart and five +mules having arrived we packed our things on it and started again +for the Sand River where we spent the night on Cronje's farm. +Mrs. Cronje had taken away all the bedding but Dr. Reid gave +Cecil his field mattress and I made one out of rugs and piano +covers. In the morning I found that the iron straps of the +mattress had marked me for life like a grilled beefsteak. There +were only Reid and his assistant surgeon in the farmhouse and +they were greatly excited at having a woman to look after. + +We bade farewell to Loosberg who had found his artillery push, +and started off in his Cape Cart which he wished us to use and +take back for him for safety to Del Hay at Pretoria. Our +objective point was the railroad bridge over the sand. The +Boers were on one bank, the British about seven miles back on +the other, the trail ran along the British side of the river +which was sad of it. However, we drove on, I riding and Cecil +and Christian, the Kaffir, in the Cart. We saw no one for +several hours except some Kaffir Kraals and we almost ran into +two herds of deer. I counted twenty-six in one herd, they +were about a quarter of a mile away. We came to a cross road +and I decided to put back as we had lost track of the river +and were bearing straight into the English lines. Just as we +found the river again and had got across a drift cannon opened +on our right. We then knew we were in between the Boers and +the English but we had no other knowledge of our geographical +position. Such being the case we decided to outspan and lunch. +Out-spanning is setting the mules and horses at liberty, +in-spanning trying to catch them again. It takes five minutes to +out-span, and three hours to in-span. We had Armour's corned +beef and Libby's canned bacon. Cecil cooked the bacon on a stick +and we ate it with biscuits captured by our Boer friends at +Cronje's farm from the English Tommies. About three o'clock we +started off again, and were captured by three Boers. I was +riding behind the cart and threw up my hands "that quick," but +Cecil could not hear me yelling at her to stop on account of the +noise of the cart. I knew if I rode after her they would +shoot at me, and that if she didn't stop, as they were +shouting at her to do, they would shoot her. Under these +trying circumstances I sat still. It caused quite a coolness +on Cecil's part. However the Boers could see I was trying to +get her to halt so they only rode around and headed her off. +We were so glad to see them that they could not be suspicious. +Still, as we had come directly from the English lines they had +doubts. We told them we had lost ourselves and the more they +threatened to take us to the commandant the more satisfied we +were. I insisted on taking photos of them reading Cecil's +passport. It annoyed them that we refused to be serious, we +assured them we had never met anyone we were so glad to see. +They finally believed us, and our passports which describe +Cecil as my "frau," and artist of Harper's Weekly, an idea +of Loosberg's. We all smoked and then shook hands and they +went back to their positions. We next met Christian De Vet +one of the two big generals who is a grand character. Nothing +could match the wonderful picturesqueness of his camp spread +out over the side of a hill with the bearded fine featured old +Van Dyck and Hugonot heads under great sombreros. De Vet made +us a long speech saying it was only to be expected that the +Great Republic would send men to help the little Republics, +but he had not hoped that the women would show their sympathy +by coming too. All this with the most simple earnest courtesy. +He said "No English woman would dare do what you are doing." He +showed us a farin house on a kopje about five miles off where he +said we could get shelter and where we would be near the fighting +on the morrow. We rode in the moonlight for some time but when +we reached the house it was filthy and the people were in such +terror that we decided to camp out in the veldt. We found a +grove of trees near by and a stream of water running beside it so +we made a fire there. We had only one biscuit left but several +cans of bacon and tea. It was great fun and we sat up as late as +we could around the fire on account of the cold. We could see +the Boer fires in the moonlight on the hills and across the +Sand, the English flashlights signalling all night. We put a +rubber blanket on the grass and wrapped up in steamer rugs but +both of us died several times of cold and even sitting on the +fire failed to warm me. We were awakened out of a cold +storage sort of sleep by pom-poms going off right over our +They sounded just as disturbing I found from the rear +as when you are in front of them. They are the most effective +of all the small guns for causing your nerves to riot. We +climbed up the hill and saw the English coming in their usual +solid formation stretching out for three miles. We went back +and got the cart and drove to a nearer kopje, but just as we +reached it the Boers abandoned it. Roberts's column was now +much nearer. We then drove on still further in the direction +of the bridge. I kept telling Cecil that the firing was all +from the Boers as I did not want Christian to bolt and run +away with the cart and mules. But Cecil remembered the +pictures in Harper's Weekly showing the shrapnel smoke +making rings in the air and as she saw these floating over our +head, she knew the English were firing on us, but said nothing +for fear of scaring Christian. I had promised to get her under +fire which was her one wish so I said that she was now well under +fire for the first and the last time. To which she replied +"Pshaw!" I never saw any one show such self possession. We +halted the cart behind a deserted farm house, and saddled her +pony. The shells were now falling all over the shop, and I +was scared to distraction. But she took about five minutes to +see that her saddle was properly tightened and then we rode up +to the hill. Again the Boers were leaving and only a few +remained. They warned her to keep back but we dismounted and +walked up to the hill. It was a very hot place but Cecil was +quite unmoved. We showed her the shells striking back of her +and around her but she refused to be impressed with the +danger. She went among the Boers begging them to make a stand +very quietly and like one man to another and they took it just +in that way and said "But we are very tired. We have been +driven back for three days. We are only a thousand, they are +twenty thousand." Some of them only sat still too proud to +run, too sick to fight! When the British got within five +hundred yards of the artillery I told her she must run. At +the same moment Botha's men a mile on our right broke away in +a mad gallop, as though the lancers were after them. I +finally got her on her pony and we raced for Ventersberg with +Christian a good first. He had lost all desire to out-span. + +At Ventersberg we found every one harnessing up in the street +and abandoning everything. We again felt this untimely desire +for food, and had lunch at Jones's hotel on scraps and Cecil went +off to see if she could loot the cook, as everyone but her had +left the hotel and as we needed one in Pretoria. A +despatch-rider came running to me as I was smoking in the garden +and shouted that the "Roinekes" were coming in force over the +hill. I ran out in the street and saw their shells falling all +over the edge of the village. They were only a quarter of an +hour behind us. I yelled for Cecil who was helping the looted +cook pack up her own things and anyone else's she could find in a +sheet. I gathered up a dog and a kitten Cecil wanted and left a +note for the next English officer who occupied my room with the +inscription "I'd leave my happy home for you." We then put +the cook, the kitten, the dog and Cecil in the cart and I got +on the horse and we let out for Kronstad at a gallop. We +raced the thirty miles in five hours without one halt. That +was not our cruelty to animals but Christian's who whenever I +ordered him to halt and let us rest, yelled that the Englesses +were after us and galloped on. The retreat was a terribly +pathetic spectacle; for hours we passed through group after +group of the broken and dispirited Boers. At Kronstad +President Steyn whom I went to see on arriving ordered a +special car for me, and sent us off at once. We reached here +the next morning, Christian arriving a day later having killed +one mule and one pony in his eagerness to escape. We are +going back again as soon as Roberts reaches the Vaal. There +there must be a stand. Love and best wishes to you all---- + +DICK. + + +June 8th, 1900. +On board the Kausler. +DEAR MOTHER: + +We engaged our passage on this ship some weeks ago not +thinking we would have the English near Pretoria until +August. But as it happened they came so near +that we did not know whether or not to wait over and see them +enter the capital. I decided not, first, because after that +one event, there would be nothing for us to see or do. We +could not leave until the 2nd of July and a month under +British martial law was very distasteful to me. Besides I did +not care much to see them enter, or to be forced to witness +their rejoicing. As soon as we got under way and about half +the distance to the coast, it is a two days' trip. We heard +so many rumors of Roberts's communication having been cut off +and that the war was not over, that we thought perhaps we +ought to go back-- As we have no news since except that the +British are in Pretoria we still do not know what to think. +Personally I am glad I came away as I can do just as much for +the Boers at home now as there where the British censor would +have shut me off from cabling and mails are so slow. With the +local knowledge I have, I hope to keep at it until it is over. +But when I consider the magnitude of the misrepresentation +about the burghers I feel appalled at the idea of going up +against it. One is really afraid to tell all the truth about +the Boer because no one would believe you-- It is almost +better to go mildly and then you may have some chance. But +personally I know no class of men I admire as much or who +to-day preserve the best and oldest ideas of charity, fairness +and good-will to men. + +DICK. + + +June 29th, 1900. +DEAR MOTHER: + +We are now just off Crete, and our next sight of the blue land +will be Europe. It means so many things; being alone with +Cecil again, instead of on a raft touching elbows with so +many strangers, and it means a shop where +you can buy collars, and where they put starch in your linen. +Also many beautiful ladies one does not know and men in +evening dress one does not know and green tables covered with +gold and little green and red bits of ivory where one passes +among the tables and wonders what they would think if they +knew we two had found our greatest friends in the Boer +farmers, in Dutch Station Masters who gave us a corner under +the telegraph table in which to sleep, with Nelson who kept +the Transvaal Steam Laundry, Col. Lynch of the steerage who +comes to the dividing line to beg French books from Cecil, and +that we had cooked our food on sticks, drunk out of the same +cups with Kaffir servants and slept on the ground when there +was frost on it. It will be so strange to find that there are +millions of people who do not know Komali poort, who have +thought of anything else except burghers and roor-i-neks-- It +seems almost disloyal to the Boers to be glad to see +newspapers only an hour old instead of six weeks old, and to +welcome all the tyranny of collar buttons, scarf pins, watch +chains, walking sticks and gloves even. I love them both and +I can hardly believe it is true that we are to go to a real +hotel with a lift and a chasseur, where you cannot smoke in +the dining-room. As for Aix, that I cannot believe will ever +happen-- It was just a part of one's honeymoon and I refuse to +cheat myself into thinking that within a week I will be riding +through the lanes of the little villages, drinking red wine at +Burget, watching Chas spread cheese over great hunks of bread +and listening to three bands at one time. And then the joy to +follow of Home and America and all that is American. Even the +Custom House holds nothing but joy for me--and then "mine own +people!" It has been six weeks since we have heard from you +or longer, nearly two months and how I miss you and want you. +It will be a happy day when Dad meets me at the wharf and I +can see his blue and white tie again and his dear face under +the white hat--where you and Nora will be I cannot tell, but I +will seek you out. We will be happy together--so happy-- It +has been the longest separation we have known and such a lot +of things have happened. It will be such peace to see you and +hold you once again. + +DICK. + + +AIX--LES--BAINS. +July 6th, 1900. +DEAR FAMILY: + +Cecil and I arrived last night tired and about worn out--we +had had a month on board ship and two days in the cars and +when we got out at Aix and found our rooms ready and Francois +waiting, we shouted and cheered. It was never so beautiful as +it looked in the moonlight and we walked all over it, through +the silent streets chortling with glee. They could not give +us our same rooms but we got the suite just above them, which +is just as good. They were so extremely friendly and glad to +see us and had flowers in all the rooms. We have not heard a +word about Chas yet, as our mail has not arrived from Paris, +but I will cable in a minute and hear. We cannot wait any +longer for news of him. I got up at seven this morning so +excited that I could not sleep and have been to the baths, +where I was received like the President of the Republic. In +fact everybody seems to have only the kindest recollections of +us and to be glad to have us back. + +Such a rest as it is and so clean and bright and good--Only I +have absolutely nothing to wear except a two pound flannel +suit I bought at Lorenzo Marquez until I get some built by a +French tailor. I must wear a bath robe or a bicycle suit +until evening. We have not been to the haunts of evil yet but +we are dining there to night and all will be well. Cecil +sends her love to you all-- Goodbye and God bless you. + + + + +Richard and his wife returned to America in the early fall of +1900 and, after a visit to Mr. and Mrs. Clark at Marion, +settled for the winter in New York. They took a house in East +Fifty-eighth Street where they did much entertaining and lived +a very social existence, but I do not imagine that either of +them regarded the winter as a success. Richard was unable to +do his usual amount of work, and both he and his wife were too +fond of the country to enjoy an entire winter in town. In the +spring they went back to Marion. + + +MARION, +MASSACHUSETTS. May, 1901. + + +We arrived here last night in a glowing sunset which was +followed by a grand moon. The house was warm and clean and +bright, with red curtains and open fires and everything was +just as we had left it, so that it seemed as though we had +just come out of a tortuous bad dream of asphalt and L. roads +and bad air. I was never so glad to get away from New York. + +Outside it is brisk and fine and smells of earth and melting +snow and there is a grand breeze from the bay. We took a long +walk to-day, with the three dogs, and it was pitiful to +see how glad they were to be free of the cellar +and a back yard and at large among grass and rocks and roots +of trees. I wanted to bottle up some of the air and send it +to all of my friends in New York. It is so much better to +smell than hot-house violets. Seaton came on with us to +handle the dogs and to unpack and so to-day we are nearly +settled already with silver, pictures, clothes and easels and +writing things all in place. The gramophone is whirling madly +and all is well-- Lots and lots of love. + +DICK. + + +The following was written by Richard to his mother on her birthday: + +MARION, MASSACHUSFTTS. +June 27th, 1901. +DEAR MOTHER: + +In those wonderful years of yours you never thought of the +blessing you were to us, only of what good you could find in +us. All that time, you were helping us and others, and making +us better, happier, even nobler people. From the day you +struck the first blow for labor, in The Iron Mills on to the +editorials in The Tribune, The Youth's Companion and The +Independent, with all the good the novels, the stories +brought to people, you were always year after year making the +ways straighter, lifting up people, making them happier and +better. No woman ever did better for her time than you and no +shrieking suffragette will ever understand the influence you +wielded, greater than hundreds of thousands of women's votes. + +We love you dear, dear mother, and we KNOW you and may your +coming years be many and as full of happiness for yourself as +they are for us. + +RICHARD. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE SPANISH AND ENGLISH CORONATIONS + +Interrupted by frequent brief visits to New York Philadelphia, +and Boston, Richard and his wife remained in Marion from May, +1901, until the early spring of 1902. During this year +Richard accomplished a great deal of work and lived an ideal +existence. In the summer months there were golf and tennis +and an army of visitors, and during the winter many of their +friends came from New York to enjoy a most charming +hospitality and the best of duck shooting and all kinds of +winter sports. + +Late in April, they sailed for Gibraltar on their way to +Madrid, where Richard was to report the coronation ceremonies, +and from Madrid they went to Paris and then to London to see +the coronation of King Edward. It was while on a visit to the +Rudyard Kiplings that they heard the news that Edward had been +suddenly stricken with a serious illness and that the ceremony +had been postponed. + + +11, St. James's Place, +St. James's Street, S. W. +London. +June, 1902. +DEAR MOTHER:-- + +This is only to say that at the Kipling's we heard the news, +and being two newspaper men, refused to believe it and went to +the postoffice of the little village to call up Brighton on +the 'phone. It was very dramatic, the real laureate of the +British Empire asking if the King were really in such danger that +he could not be crowned, while the small boy in charge of the +grocery shop, where the postoffice was, wept with his elbows on +the counter. They sent me my ticket--unasked--for the Abbey, +early this morning, and while I was undecided whether to keep +it--or send it back, this came. So, now, I shall frame it as a +souvenir of one of the most unhappy occasions I ever witnessed. +You can form no idea of what a change it has made. It really +seems to have stunned every one--that is the usual and accepted +word, but this time it describes it perfectly. + +Goodbye, + +DICK. + + +During the summer of 1903 my mother and father occupied a +cottage at Marion, and every morning Richard started the day +by a visit to them. My brother had already bought his +Crossroads Farm at Mount Kisco, and the new house was one of +the favorite topics of their talk. The following letter was +written by my mother to Richard, after her return to Philadelphia. + + +September, 1903. + +Here we are in the old library and breakfast over. There +seemed an awful blank in the world as I sat down just now, and +I said to Dad "Its Dick--he must come THIS morning." + +You don't know how my heart used to give a thump when you and +Bob came in that old door. It has been such a good +month--everybody was so friendly--and Dad was so well and +happy--but your visits were the core of it all. And our good +drives! Well we'll have lots of drives at the Crossroads. +You'll call at our cottage every morning and I'm going to train +the peacocks to run before the trap and I'll be just like Juno. + +There isn't a scrap of news. It is delightfully cool here. + +M. + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE JAPANESE-RUSSIAN WAR + + +During the fall and early winter of 1903 Richard and his wife +lingered on in Marion, but came to New York after the +Christmas holidays. The success of his farce "The Dictator" +had been a source of the greatest pleasure to Richard, and he +settled down to playwriting with the same intense zeal he put +into all of his work. However, for several years Robert J. +Collier and my brother had been very close friends, and +Richard had written many articles and stories for Collier's +Weekly, so that when Collier urged my brother to go to the +Japanese-Russian War as correspondent with the Japanese +forces, Richard promptly gave up his playwriting and returned +to his old love--the role of reporter. Accompanied by his +wife, Richard left New York for San Francisco in February. + + +February, 1904. +DEAR MOTHER: + +We are really off on the "long trail" bound for the boundless +East. We have a charming drawing-room, a sympathetic porter +and a courtly conductor descended from one of the first +Spanish conquerors of California. We arranged the being late +for lunch problem by having dinner at five and cutting the +lunch out. Bruce and Nan came over for dinner and we had a +very jolly time. They all asked after you all, and drank to +our re-union at Marion in July. Later they all tried to +come with us on the train. It looked so attractive with +electric lights in each seat, and observation car and library. +A reporter interviewed us and Mr. Clark gave us a box of +segars and a bottle of whiskey. But they will not last, as +will Dad's razors and your housewife. I've used Dad's razors +twice a day, and they still are perfect. It's snowing again, +but we don't care. They all came to the station to see us off +but no one cried this time as they did when we went to South +Africa. Somehow we cannot take this trip seriously. It is +such a holiday trip all through not grim and human like the +Boer war. Just quaint and queer. A trip of cherry blossoms +and Geisha girls. I send all my love to you. + +DICK. + + +SAN FRANCISCO, February 26th. +DEAR MOTHER: + +We got in here last night at midnight just as easily as though +we were coming into Jersey City. Before we knew it we had +seen the Golden Gate, and were snug in this hotel. Today as +soon as we learned we could not sail we started in to see +sights and we made a record and hung it up high. We went to +the Cliff House and saw the seals on the rocks below, to the +Park, the military reservation, Chinatown, and the Poodle Dog +Restaurant. We also saw the Lotta monument, the Stevenson +monument, the Spreckles band stand, the place where the +Vigilance Committee hung the unruly, and tonight I went to a +dinner the Bohemian Club gave to the War correspondents. I +made a darned good speech. Think of ME making a speech of +any sort, but I did, and I had sense enough not to talk about +the war but the "glorious climate of +California" instead and of all the wonders of Frisco. So, I +made a great hit. It certainly is one of the few cities that +lives up to it's reputation in every way. I should call it +the most interesting city, with more character back of it than +any city on this continent. There are only four deck rooms +and we each have one. The boat is small, but in spite of the +crowd that is going on her, will I think be comfortable. I +know it will be that, and it may be luxurious. + +DICK. + + +On way to Japan. +March 13th, 1904. + +About four this afternoon we saw an irregular line of purple +mountains against a yellow sky, and it was Japan. In spite of +the Sunday papers, and the interminable talk on board, the +guide books and maps which had made Japan nauseous to me, I +saw the land of the Rising Sun with just as much of a shock +and thrill as I first saw the coast of Africa. We forgot +entirely we had been twenty days at sea and remembered only +that we were ten miles from Japan, only as far as New Bedford +is from Marion. We are at anchor now, waiting to go in in the +morning. Were it not for war we could go in now but we must +wait to be piloted over the sunken mines. That and the +flashlights moving from the cruisers ten miles away gave us +our first idea of war. To-morrow early we will be off for +Tokio, as it is only forty miles from Yokohama. Of course, I +may get all sorts of news before we land, but that is what we +expect to do. It will be good to feel solid earth, and to see +the kimonos and temples and geishas and cherry blossoms. I am +almost hoping the Government won't let us go to the +front and that for a week at least Cecil and I can sit in tea +houses with our shoes off while the nesans bring us tea and +the geishas rub their knees and make bows to us. I am sending +you through Harper's, a book on Hawaii and one of Japan that I +have read and like and which I think will help you to keep in +touch with the wanderers. With all my love to all. + +DICK. + + +TOKYO, March 22nd, 1904. +DEAR MOTHER: + +The "situation" here continues to remain in such doubt that I +cannot tell of it, as it changes hourly. There are three +"columns," so far existing only in imagination. That is, so +far as they concern the correspondents. The first lot have +chosen themselves, and so have the second lot. But the first +lot are no nearer starting than they were two weeks ago. I +may be kept waiting here for weeks and weeks. I do not like +to turn out Palmer, although I very much want to go with the +first bunch. On the other hand I am paid pretty well to get +to the front, and I am uncertain as to what I ought to do. If +the second column were to start immediately after the first, +we then would have two men in the field, but if it does not, +then Collier will be paying $1000. a week for stories of tea +houses and "festivals." Palmer threatens to resign if I take +his place in the first column and that would be a loss to the +paper that I do not feel I could make up. If it gets any more +complicated I'll wire Collier to decide. + +Meanwhile, we are going out to dinners and festivals and we +ride. I have a good pony the paper paid for Cecil has hired +another and we find it delightful to scamper out into the +country. We have three rooms in a row. One we use for a sitting +room. They look very welland as it is still cold we keep them +cheerful with open fires. We have a table in the dining-room to +ourselves and to which we can ask our friends. The food is +extremely good. Griscom and the Secretaries have all called and +sent pots of flowers, and we are dining out every other night. +In the day we shop and ride. But all day and all night we the +correspondents plot and slave and intrigue over the places on the +columns. I got mine on the second column all right but no one +knows if it ever will move. So, naturally, I want to be on the +first. The rows are so engrossing that I have not enjoyed the +country as I expected. Still, I am everlastingly glad we came. +It is an entirely new life and aspect. It completes so much that +we have read and seen. In spite of the bother over the war +passes I learn things daily and we see beautiful and curious +things, and are educated as to the East, as no books could +have done it for us. John Bass who was my comrade in arms in +Greece and his wife are here. They are the very best. Also +we see Lloyd daily, and the hotel is full of amusing men, who +are trying to get to the front. Of course, we know less of +the war than you do. None of the news from Cheefoo, none of +the "unauthorized" news reaches us. Were it not for our own +squabbles we would not know not only that the country was at +war but not even that war existed ANYWHERE in the world. We +are here entirely en tourist and it cannot be helped. The men +who tried to go with the Russians are equally unfortunate. +Think of us as wandering around each with a copy of Murray +seeing sights. That is all we really do, All my love. + +DICK. + + +YOKOHAMA--April 2, 1904. +DEAR MOTHER: + +I just got your letter dated the 28th of February and the days +following in which you worried over me in the ice coated +trenches of Korea. I read it in a rickshaw in a warm sun on +my way to buy favors for a dinner to Griscom. We have had +three warm days and no doubt the sun will be out soon. The +loss of the sun, though, is no great one. We have lots of +pleasures and lots of troubles in spite of the Sun. Yesterday +the first batch of correspondents were sent on their way. I +doubt if they will get any further than Chemulpo but their +going cheered the atmosphere like a storm in summer. The +diplomats and Japanese were glad to get rid of them, they were +delighted to be off. Some had been here 58 days, and we all +looked at it as a good sign as it now puts us "next." But +after they had gone it was pretty blue for some of them were +as good friends as I want. I know few men I like as well as I +do John Bass. Many of them were intensely interesting. It +was, by all odds, the crowd one would have wished to go with. +As it is, I suspect we all will meet again and that the two +columns will be merged on the Yalu. None of the attaches have +been allowed to go, so it really is great luck for the +correspondents. Tell Chas I still am buying my Kit. It's +pretty nearly ready now. I began in New York and kept on in +Boston, San Francisco, and here. It always was my boast that +I had the most complete kit in the world, and in spite of +Charley's jeers at my lack of preparedness everybody here +voted it the greatest ever seen. For the last ten days all +the Jap saddlers, tent makers and tinsmiths have been copying it. + +DICK. + + +TOKIO--May 2, 1904. +DEAR MOTHER: + +Today, we walked into our new house and tomorrow we will +settle down there. We rented the furniture for the two +unfurnished rooms; knives, forks, spoons, china for the table +and extras for 35 dollars gold for two months. It took six +men to bring the things in carts. They got nothing. +Yesterday, I took two rickshaw men from half past twelve to +half past five. Out of that time they ran and pushed me for +two solid hours. Their price for the five hours was eighty +cents gold. What you would pay a cabman to drive you from the +Waldorf to Martin's. I wish you could see our menage. Such +beautiful persons in grey silk kimonos who bow, and bow and +slip and slide in spotless torn white stockings with one big +toe. They make you ashamed of yourself for walking on your +own carpet in your own shoes. Today we got the first news of +the battle on the Yalu, the battle of April 26-30th. I +suppose Palmer and Bass saw it; and I try to be glad I did +what was right by Collier's instead of for myself. But I +don't want to love another paper. I suppose there will be +other fights but that one was the first, and it must have been +wonderful. On the 4th we expect to be on our way to Kioto +with Lloyd and his wife and John Fox. By that time we expect +to be settled in the new house. + +DICK. + + +TOKIO, May 22nd, 1904. +DEAR MOTHER: + +You will be glad to hear that the correspondents at the front +are not allowed within two and a half miles of the firing line. +This I am sure you will approve. Their tales of woe have just +been received here, and they certainly are having a hard time. +The one thing they all hope for is that the Japs will order them +home. My temper is vile to-day, as I cannot enjoy the gentle +pleasures of this town any longer and with this long trip to +Port Arthur before I can turn towards home. I am as cross as +a sick bear. We were at Yokohama when your last letters came +and they were a great pleasure. I got splendid news of The +Dictator. Yesterday we all went to Yokohama. There are four +wild American boys here just out of Harvard who started the +cry of "Ping Yang" for the "Ping Yannigans" they being the +"Yannigans." They help to make things very lively and are +affectionately regarded by all classes. Yesterday, they and +Fox and Cecil and I went to the races, with five ricksha boys +each, and everybody lost his money except myself. But it was +great fun. It rained like a seive, and all the gentlemen +riders fell off, and every time we won money our thirty +ricksha men who would tell when we won by watching at which +window we had bet, would cheer us and salaam until to save our +faces we had to scatter largesses. Egan turned up in the +evening and dined with John and Cecil and me in the Grand +Hotel and told us first of all the story the correspondents +had brought back to Kobbe for which every one from the +Government down has been waiting. It would make lively +reading if any of us dared to write it. To-day he made his +protests to Fukushima as we mapped them out last night and the +second lot will I expect be treated better. But, as the first +lot were the important men representing the important +syndicates the harm, for the Japs, has been done. Of course, +much they do is through not knowing our points of view. To +them none of us is of any consequence except that he is a +nuisance, and while they are conversationally perfect in +politeness, the regulations they inflict are too insulting. +However, you don't care about that, and neither do I. I am going +to earn my money if I possibly can, and come home. + +DICK. + + +TOKIO, June 13th, 1904. +DEAR MOTHER: + +We gave a farewell dinner last night to the Ping Yannigans two +of whom left on the Navy expedition and another one to-morrow +for God's country. There were eight men and we had new +lanterns painted with the arms of Corea and the motto of the +Ping Yannigans. Also many flags. All but the Japanese flag. +One of them with a side glance at the servants said, "Gentle- + +man and Lady: I propose a toast, Japan for the Japanese and +the Japanese for Japan." We all knew what he meant but the +servants were greatly pleased. Jack London turned up to-day +on his way home. I liked him very much. He is very simple +and modest and gave you a tremendous impression of vitality +and power. He is very bitter against the wonderful little +people and says he carries away with him only a feeling of +irritation. But I told him that probably would soon wear off +and he would remember only the pleasant things. I did envy +him so, going home after having seen a fight and I not yet +started. Still THIS TIME we may get off. Yokoyama the +contractor takes our stuff on the 16th, and so we feel it is +encouraging to have our luggage at the front even if we are +here. + +DICK. + + +YOKOHAMA, July 26th, 1904. +DEAR MOTHER: + +We gave in our passes to-day, and sail to-morrow at five. +They say we are not to see Port Arthur fall but are to be +taken up to Oku's army. That means we miss the "popular" +story, and may have to wait around several weeks before we see +the other big fight. They promised us Port Arthur but that is +reason enough for believing they do not intend we shall see it +at all. John and I are here at a Japanese hotel, the one Li +Hung Chang occupied when he came over to arrange the treaty +between China and Japan. It is a very beautiful house, the +best I have seen of real Japanese and the garden and view of +the harbor is magnificent. I wish Cecil could see it too, but +I know she would not care for a room which is as free to the +public view as the porch at Marion. It has 48 mats and as a +mat is 3 x 5 you can work it out. We eat, sleep and dress in +this room and it is like trying to be at home on top of a +Chickering Grand. But it is very beautiful and the moonlight +is fine and saddening. No one of us has the least interest in +the war or in what we may see or be kept from seeing. We have +been "over trained" and not even a siege of London could hold +our thoughts from home. I have just missed the mail which +would have told me you were at Marion. I should so love to +have heard from you from there. I do not think you will find +the Church house uncomfortable; and you can always run across +the road when the traffic is not too great, and chat with +Benjamin. I do hope that Dad will have got such good health +from Marion and such lashers of fish. I got a good letter +from Charles and I certainly feel guilty at putting extra work +on a man as busy as he. Had I known he was the real judge of +those prize stories I would have sent him one myself and given +him the name of it. Well, goodbye for a little time. We go on +board in a few hours, and after that everything I write you is +read by the Censor so I shall not say anything that would gratify +their curiosity. They think it is unmanly to write from the +field to one's family and the young princes forbade their +imperial spouses from writing them until the war is over. +However, not being an imperial Samaari but a home loving, family +loving American, I shall miss not hearing very much, and not +being able to tell you all how I love you. + +DICK. + + + +DALNY, July 27th, 1904. +DEAR MOTHER: + + +We left Shimonoseki three days ago and have had very pleasant +going on the Heijo Maru a small but well run ship of 1,500 +tons. Fox and I got one of the two best rooms and I have been +very comfortable. We are at anchor now at a place of no +interest except for its sunsets. + +We have just been told as the anchor is being lowered that we +can send letters back by the Island, so I can just dash this +off before leaving. We have reached Dalny and I have just +heard the first shot fired which was to send me home. All the +others came and bid John and me a farewell as soon as we were +sure it was the sound of cannon. However, as it is 20 miles +away I'll have to hang on until I get a little nearer. We +have had a very pleasant trip even though we were delayed two +days by fog and a slow convoy. Now we are here at Dalny. It +looks not at all like its pictures, which, as I remember them +were all taken in winter. It is a perfectly new, good brick +barracks-like town. I am landing now. The two servants seem very +satisfactory and I am in excellent health. Today Cecil has been +four days at Hong Kong. Please send the gist of this letter dull +as it is to Mrs. Clark. When I began it I thought I would have +plenty of time to finish it on shore. Of course, after this all +I write and this too, I suppose will be censored. So, there +will not be much liveliness. I have no taste to expose my +affections to the Japanese staff. So, goodbye. + +R. + + + +July 31st, 1904. +DEAR MOTHER: + +We have been met here with a bitter disappointment. We are +all to be sent north, although only 18 hours away. We can +hear the guns at Port Arthur the fall of which they promised +us we would see. To night we are camping out in one of the +Russian barracks. To-morrow we go, partly by horse and partly +by train. A week must elapse before we can get near +headquarters. And then we have no guarantee that we will see +any fighting. This means for me a long delay. It is very +disappointing and the worst of the many we have suffered in +the last four months. I have written Cecil asking her to +seriously think of going home but I am afraid she will not. +Were it not for that and the disappointment one feels in +travelling a week's journey away from the sound of guns I +would be content. My horse is well and so am I. It is good +to get back to drawing water, and carrying baggage and +skirmishing about for yourself. The contractor gave us a good +meal and the servants are efficient but I like doing things +myself and skirmishing for them. We make a short ride this +morning of six miles to Kin Chow and then 30 miles by rail. +"Headquarters" is about a five days ride distant. Tell Chas my +outfit seems nearly complete. Maybe I can buy a few things I +forgot in Boston at Kin Chow. Fox and I will get out just as +soon as we see fighting but before you get this you will probably +hear by cable from me. If not, it will mean we still are waiting +for a fight. The only mistake I made was in not going home the +first time they deceived us instead of waiting for this and +worst of all. + +to you all. + +DICK. + + +MANCHURIA, August 14, 1904. + +We have been riding through Manchuria for eleven days. Nine +days we rode then two days we rested. By losing the trail we +managed to average about 20 miles a day. I kept well and +enjoyed it very much. As I had to leave my servant behind +with a sick horse, I had to take care of my mule and pony +myself and hunt fodder for them, so I was pretty busy. Saiki +did all he could, but he is not a servant and sooner than ask +him I did things myself. We passed through a very beautiful +country, sleeping at railway stations and saw two battle +fields of recent fights. Now we are in a Chinese City and +waiting to see what should be the biggest fight since Sedan. +The Russians are about ten miles from us, so we are not +allowed outside the gates of the city without a guide. Of +course, we have none of that freedom we have enjoyed in other +wars, but apart from that they treat us very well indeed. And +in a day or two they promise us much fighting, which we will +be allowed to witness from a hill. This is a +very queer old city but the towns and country are all very +primitive and we depend upon ourselves for our entertainment. +I expect soon to see you at home. In three more days I shall +have been out here five months and that is too long. Good +luck to you all. + +R. H. D. + + +MANCHURIA, August 18th, 1904. + + +We still are inside this old Chinese town. It has rained for +five days, and this one is the first in which we could go +abroad. Unless you swim very well it is not safe to cross one +of these streets. We have found an old temple and some of us +are in it now. It is such a relief to escape from that +compound and the rain. This place is full of weeds and pine +trees, cooing doves and butterflies. The temples are closed +and no one is in charge but an aged Chinaman. We did not come +here to sit in temples, so John and I will leave in a week, +battle or no battle. The argument that having waited so long +one might as well wait a little longer does not touch us. It +was that argument that kept us in Tokio when we knew we were +being deceived weekly, and the same man who deceived us there, +is in charge here. It is impossible to believe anything he +tells his subordinates to tell us, so, we will be on our way +back when you get this. I am well, and only disappointed. +Had they not broken faith with us about Port Arthur we would +by now have seen fighting. As it is we will have wasted six +months. + +Love to Dad, and Chas and Nora and you. + +DICK. + + In writing of his decision to leave the Japanese army, +Richard, after his return to the United States, said: + +"On the receipt of Oku's answer to the Correspondents we left +the army. Other correspondents would have quit then, as most +of them did ten days later, but that their work and Kuroki, so +far from being fifty miles north toward Mukden, as Okabe said +he was, was twenty miles to the east on our right preparing +for the, closing-in movement which was just about to begin. +Three days after we had left the army, the greatest battle +since Sedan was waged for six days. + +"So, our half-year of time and money, of dreary waiting, of +daily humiliations at the hands of officers with minds +diseased by suspicion, all of which would have been made up to +us by the sight of this one great spectacle, was to the end +absolutely lost to us. Perhaps we made a mistake in judgment. +As the cards fell we certainly did. + +"The only proposition before us was this: There was small +chance of any immediate fighting. If there were fighting we +would not see it. Confronted with the same conditions again, +I would decide in exactly the same manner. Our misfortune lay +in the fact that our experience with other armies had led us +to believe that officers and gentlemen speak the truth, that +men with titles of nobility, and with the higher titles of +General and Major-General, do not lie. In that we were +mistaken." + +Greatly disappointed at his failure to see really anything of +the war, much embittered at the Japanese over their treatment +of the correspondents, Richard reached Vancouver in October. +As my father was seriously ill he came to Philadelphia at once +and divided the next two months between our old home and +Marion. + +On December 14, 1904, my father died, and it was +the first tragedy that had come into Richard's life, as it was +in that of my sister or myself. As an editorial writer, most +of my father's work had been anonymous, but his influence had +been as far-reaching as it had been ever for all that was just +and fine. All of his life he had worked unremittingly for +good causes and, in spite of the heavy burdens which of his +own will he had taken upon his none too strong shoulders, I +have never met with a nature so calm , so simple, so +sympathetic with those who were weak--weak in body or soul. +As all newspaper men must, he had been brought in constant +contact with the worst elements of machine politics, as indeed +he had with the lowest strata of the life common to any great +city. But in his own life he was as unsophisticated; his +ideals of high living, his belief in the possibilities of good +in all men and in all women, remained as unruffled as if he +had never left his father's farm where he had spent his +childhood. When my father died Richard lost his "kindest and +severest critic" as he also lost one of his very closest +friends and companions. + +During the short illness that preceded my brother's death, +although quite unconscious that the end was so near, his +thoughts constantly turned back to the days of his home in +Philadelphia, and he got out the letters which as a boy and as +a young man he had written to his family. After reading a +number of them he said: "I know now why we were such a happy +It was because we were always, all of us, of the same age." + + + +CHAPTER XV + +MOUNT KISCO + + +During my brother's life there were four centres from which he +set forth on his travels and to which he returned to finish +the articles for which he had collected the material, or +perhaps to write a novel, a few short stories, or occasionally +a play, but unlike most of the followers of his craft, never +to rest. Indeed during the last twenty-five years of his life +I do not recall two consecutive days when Richard did not +devote a number of hours to literary work. The centres of +which I speak were first Philadelphia, then New York, then +Marion, and lastly Mount Kisco. Happy as Richard had been at +Marion, the quaint little village, especially in winter, was +rather inaccessible, and he realized that to be in touch with +the numerous affairs in which he was interested that his +headquarters should be in or near New York. In addition to +this he had for long wanted a home of his very own, and so +located that he could have his family and his friends +constantly about him. Some years, however, elapsed between +this dream and its realization. In 1903 he took the first +step by purchasing a farm situated in the Westchester Hills, +five miles from Mount Kisco, New York. He began by building a +lake at the foot of the hill on which the home was to stand, +then a water-tower, and finally the house itself. The plans +to the minutest detail had been laid out on the lawn at Marion +and, as the architect himself said, there was nothing left for +him to do but to design the cellar. + +Richard and his wife moved into their new home in July, 1905, +and called it Crossroads Farm, keeping the original name of +the place. In later years Richard added various adjoining +parcels of land to his first purchase, and the property +eventually included nearly three hundred acres. The house +itself was very large, very comfortable, and there were many +guest-rooms which every week-end for long were filled by the +jolliest of house-parties. In his novel "The Blind Spot," +Justus Miles Forman gives the following very charming picture +of the place: + +"It was a broad terrace paved with red brick that was stained +and a little mossy, so that it looked much older than it had +any right to, and along its outer border there were bay-trees +set in big Italian terracotta jars; but the bay-trees were +placed far apart so that they should not mask the view, and +that was wise, for it was a fine view. It is rugged country +in that part of Westchester County--like a choppy sea: all +broken, twisted ridges, and abrupt little hills, and piled-up +boulders, and hollow, cup-like depressions among them. The +Grey house sat, as it were, upon the lip of a cup, and from +the southward terrace you looked across a mile or two of +hollow bottom, with a little lake at your feet, to sloping +pastures where there were cattle browsing, and to the far, +high hills beyond. + +"There was no magnificence about the outlook--nothing to make +you catch your breath; but it was a good view with plenty of +elbow room and no sign of a neighbor--no huddling--only the +water of the little lake, the brown November hillsides, and +the clean blue sky above. The distant cattle looked like scenic +cattle painted on their green-bronze pasture to give an aspect +of husbandry to the scene." + +Although Richard was now comfortably settled, he had of late +years acquired a great dread of cold weather. As soon as +winter set in his mind turned to the tropics, and whenever it +was possible he went to Cuba or some other land where he was +sure of plenty of heat and sunshine. The early part of 1906 +found him at Havana, this time on a visit to the Hon. E. V. +Morgan, who was then our minister to Cuba. From Havana he +went to the Isle of Pines. + + +ISLE OF PINES, March 26th, 1906. +DEAR MOTHER:-- + +We are just returning from the Isle of Pines. We reached +there after a day on the water at about six on Wednesday, +22nd. They dropped us at a woodshed in a mangrove swamp, +where a Mr. Mason met us with two mules. I must have said I +was going to the island because every one was expecting me. +Until the night before we had really no idea when we would go, +so, to be welcomed wherever we went, was confusing. For four +days we were cut off from the world, and in that time, five +days in all, we covered the entire island pretty thoroughly-- +It was one of the most interesting trips I ever took and Cecil +enjoyed it as much as I did. The island is a curious mixture +of palm and pines, one minute it looks like Venezuela and the +next like Florida and Lakewood. It is divided into two +parties of Americans, the "moderates" and the +"revolutionists." The Cubans are very few and are all +employed by the Americans, who own nine-tenths of the Island. +Of course, they all want the U. S. to take it, they differ +only as to how to persuade the senators +to do it. I had to change all my opinions about the +situation. I thought it was owned by land speculators +who did not live there, nor wish to live there, but instead I +found every one I met had built a home and was cultivating the +land. We gave each land company a turn at me, and we had to +admire orange groves and pineapples, grapefruit and coffee +until we cried for help. With all this was the most romantic +history of the island before the "gringos" came. It was a +famous place for pirates and buried treasures and slave pens. +It was a sort of clearing house for slaves where they were +fattened. I do not believe people take much interest in or +know anything about it, but I am going to try and make an +interesting story of it for Collier. It was queer to be so +completely cut off from the world. There was a wireless but +they would not let me use it. It is not yet opened to the +public. I talked to every one I met and saw much that was +pathetic and human. It was the first pioneer settlement Cecil +had ever seen and the American making the ways straight is +very curious. He certainly does not adorn whatever he +touches. But never have I met so many enthusiastics and such +pride in locality. To-night we reach the Hotel Louvre, thank +heaven! where I can get Spanish food again, and not American +ginger bread, and, "the pie like mother used to make." We now +are on a wretched Spanish tug boat with every one, myself +included, very seasick and babies howling and roosters +crowing. But soon that will be over, and, after a short ride +of thirty miles through a beautiful part of the island, we +will be in Havana in time for a fine dinner, with ice. What +next we will do I am not sure. After living in that beautiful +palace of Morgan's, it just needed five days of the "Pinero's" +to make us enjoy life at a hotel-- If we can make connections, I +think I will go over to Santo Domingo, and study up that subject, +too. But, even if we go no where else the trip to the I. of P. +was alone well worth our long journey. I don't know when I have +seen anything as curious, and as complicated a political +existence. Love to all of you dear ones. + +DICK. + + +HAVANA--April 9, 1906. +ARTHUR BARTLETT MAURICE, ESQ. +MY DEAR MAURICE: + +I have just read about myself, in the April Bookman, which I +would be very ungrateful if I did not write and tell you how +much it pleased me. That sounds as though what pleased me +was, obviously, that what you said was so kind. But what I +really mean, and that for which I thank you, was your picking +out things that I myself liked, and that I would like to think +others liked. I know that the men make "breaks," and am sorry +for it, but, I forget to be sorry when you please me by +pointing out the good qualities in "Laquerre," and the bull +terrier. Nothing ever hurt me so much as the line used by +many reviewers of "Macklin" that "Mr. Davis' hero is a cad, +and Mr. Davis cannot see it." Macklin I always thought was +the best thing I ever did, and it was the one over which I +took the most time and care. Its failure was what as Maggie +Cline used to say, "drove me into this business" of play +writing. All that ever was said of it was that it was "A book +to read on railroad trains and in a hammock." That was the +verdict as delivered to me by Romeike from 300 reviewers, and +it drove me to farces. So, I was especially glad +when you liked "Royal Macklin." I tried to make a "hero" who +was vain, theatrical, boasting and selfconscious, but, still +likable. But, I did not succeed in making him of interest, +and it always has hurt me. Also, your liking the "Derelict" +and the "Fever Ship" gave me much pleasure. You see what I +mean, it was your selecting the things upon which I had +worked, and with which I had made every effort, that has both +encouraged and delighted me. Being entirely unprejudiced, I +think it is a fine article, and as soon as I stamp this, I +will read it over again. So, thank you very much, indeed, for +to say what you did seriously, over your own name, took a lot +of courage, and for that daring, and for liking the same +things I do, I thank you many times. + +Sincerely yours, + +RICHARD HARDING DAVIS. + + +In reading this over, I find all I seem to have done in it is +to complain because no one, but yourself and myself liked +"Macklin." What I wanted to say is, that I am very grateful +for the article, for the appreciation, although I don't +deserve it, and for your temerity in saying so many kind +things. Nothing that has been written about what I have +written has ever pleased me so much. + +R. H. D. + + +In the spring of 1906 while Richard was on a visit to +Providence, R. I., Henry W. Savage produced a play by Jesse +Lynch Williams and my brother was asked to assist at +rehearsals, a pastime in which he found an enormous amount of +pleasure. The "McCloy" mentioned in the following letter was +the city editor of The Evening Sun when my brother first joined +the staff of that paper as a reporter. + + +NEW YORK, May 4,1906. +DEAR NORA: + +I left Providence Tuesday night and came on to New York +yesterday. Savage and Williams and all were very nice about +the help they said I had given them, and I had as much fun as +though it had been a success I had made myself, and I didn't +have to make a speech, either. + +Yesterday I spent in the newspaper offices gathering material +from their envelopes on Winston Churchill, M. P. who is to be +one of my real Soldiers of Fortune. He will make a splendid +one, in four wars, twice made a question; before he was 21 +years old, in Parliament, and a leader in BOTH parties +before he was 36. In the newspaper offices they had a lot of +fun with me. When I came into the city room of The Eve. +Sun, McCloy was at his desk in his shirt spiking copy. He +just raised his eyes and went on with his blue pencil. I said +"There's nothing in that story, sir, the man will get well, +and the woman is his wife." + +"Make two sticks of it," said McCloy, "and then go back to the +Jefferson police court." + +When I sat down at my old desk, and began to write the copy +boy came and stood beside me and when I had finished the first +page, snatched it. I had to explain I was only taking notes. + +At The Journal, Sam Chamberlain who used to pay me $500 a +story, touched me on the shoulder as I was scribbling down +notes, and said "Hearst says to take you back at $17 a week." +I said "I'm worth $18 and I can't come for less." +So he brought up the business manager and had a long wrangle +with him as to whether I should get $18. The business +manager, a Jew gentleman, didn't know me from Adam, and +seriously tried to save the paper a dollar a week. When the +reporters and typewriter girls began to laugh, he got very +mad. It was very funny how soothing was the noise of the +presses, and the bells and typewriters and men yelling "Copy!" +and "Damn the boy!" I could write better than if I had been in +the silence of the farm. It was like being able to sleep as +soon as the screw starts. + +DICK. + + + +CHAPTER XVI +THE CONGO + +During the winter of 1907 the world rang with the reports of +the atrocities in the Congo, and Robert J. Collier, of Collier's +Weekly, asked Richard to go to the Congo and make +an investigation. I do not believe that my brother was ever +in much sympathy with the commission, as he did not feel that +he could afford the time that a thorough investigation demanded. +However, with his wife he sailed for Liverpool on +January 5, 1907, and three weeks later started for Africa. +Regarding this trip, in addition to the letters he wrote to +his family, I also quote from a diary which he had just +started and which he conscientiously continued until his death. + + +From diary of January 24th, 1907. +Last day in London. Margaret Frazer offered me gun from a +Captain Jenkins of Nigeria. Instead bought Winchester +repeating, hoping, if need it, get one coast. Lunched +Savoy-Lynch, Mrs. Lynch, her sister--very beautiful girl. In +afternoon Sam Sothern and Margaret came in to say "Good bye." +Dined at Anthony Hope's--Barrie and Mrs. Barrie and Jim +Whigham. Mrs. Barrie looking very well, Barrie not so well. +As silent as ever, only talked once during dinner when he told +us about the first of his series of cricket matches between +authors and artists. Did not have eleven authors, so going +along road picked up utter strangers one a soldier in front of +embracing two girls. Said he would come if girls came +too--all put in brake. Mrs. Barrie said the Llewellen Davis' +were the originals for the Darlings and their children in Peter +Pan. They played a strange game of billiards suggested by Barrie +who won as no one else knew the rules and they claimed he +invented them to suit his case. Sat up until three writing +and packing. The dinner was best have had this trip in London. + + +Compagnie Belge Maritime Du Congo. + +S. S. February 11th, 1907. + + +To-morrow, we will be in Banana, which is the first port in +the Congo. When I remember how far away the Congo seemed from +New York and London, it is impossible to believe we are less +than a day from it. I am so very glad I came. The people who +have lived here for years agree about it in no one fact, so, +it is a go-as-you-please for any one so far as accurate +information is concerned, and I am as likely to be right as +any one else. It has been a pleasant trip and for us will not +be over until some days, for at Matadi, which is up the river, +we will probably live on the steamer as the shore does not +sound attractive. Then I shall probably go on up the river +and after a month or six weeks come back again. At Boma I am +to see the Governor, one of the inspectors on board is to +introduce me, and I have an idea they will make me as +comfortable as possible, so that I may not see anything. Not +that I would be likely to see anything hidden under a year. +Yesterday was the crossing of the Equator. The night before +Neptune, one of the crew, and his wife, the ship's butcher, and a +kroo boy, as black as coal for the heir apparent came over the +side and proclaimed that those who never before had crossed +the Equator must be baptized. We had crossed but I was +perfectly willing to go through it for the fun. The Belgians +went at it as seriously as children, and worked up a grand +succession of events. First we had gymkana races among the +kroo boys. The most remarkable was their placing franc pieces +in tubs of white and red flour, for which the boys dived, they +then dug for more money into a big basket fitted with feathers +and when they came out they were the most awful sights +imaginable. You can picture their naked black bodies and +faces spotted with white and pink and stuck like chickens with +feathers. Then the next day we were all hauled before a court +and judged, and having all been found guilty were condemned to +be shaved and bathed publicly at four. Meantime the Italians, +is it not the picture of them, had organized a revolution +against the Tribunal, with the object of ducking them. They +went into this as though it were a real conspiracy and had +signs and passwords. At four o'clock, in turn they sat us on +the edge of the great tank on the well deck and splashed us +over with paste and then tilted us in. I tried to carry the +Frenchman who was acting as barber, with me but only got him +half in. But Milani, one of the Italians, swung him over his +head plumb into the water. The Frenchman is a rich elephant +hunter who is not very popular. When the revolution broke +loose we all yelled "A bas le Tribunal" "Vivela Revolution"! +and there was awful rough house. I made for the Frenchman and +went in with him and nearly drowned him, and everybody was +being thrown into the tank or held in front of a fire cross. +After dinner there was a grand ceremony, the fourth, in which +certificates were presented by an Inspecteur d'Etat who is on +board, and is a Deputy Governor of a district. Then there was +much champagne and a concert and Cecil and I sat with the +Captain, the Bishop, in his robes and berretta and the two +inspectors and they were very charming to both of us. + +DICK. + + + +Compagnie Belge Maritime Du Congo. +S. S. February 13th, 1907. +DEAR MOTHER: + +We reached Banana yesterday morning, and the mouth of the +Congo, and as the soldier said when he reached the top of San +Juan Hill, "Hell! well here we are!" Banana looks like one of +the dozen little islands in the West Indies, where we would +stop to take on some "brands of bananas," instead of the port +to a country as big as Europe. We went ashore and wandered +around under the palm trees, and took photos, and watched some +men fishing in the lagoons, and we saw a strange fish that +leaps on the top of the water just as a frog jumps on land. +It is certainly hot. Milani and I went in swimming in the +ocean, and got finely cool. Then we paddled the canoe back to +the ship to show the blacks how good we were, and got very +hot, and the blacks charged us a franc for the voyage. +To-morrow we will be in Boma, the capital, which is much of a +place with shops and a lawn tennis court. + + +BOMA, February 15th. + +Boma is more or less laid out and contains the official +residences of the Government. I walked all over it in an +hour, and here you walk very slow. There are +three or four big trading stores AND a tennis court. It is, +however, a dreary place. We called on the missionary and his +wife, but she does not speak English and their point of view +of everything was not cheerful or instructive. Cecil plans to +remain on board while at Matadi and return with this same +boat to Boma. I want her to go home in this boat or in some +other, as I believe Boma most unhealthy and I know it to be +most uncomfortable. She would have to go to a hotel which is +very hot and rough, although it is clean and well run. I am +undecided whether to go up the river for ten days, to where it +crosses the equator, or to leave the upper Congo and go up the +Kasai river. This is off the beaten track, and one may see +something of interest. I will know better what I will do in +an hour, when I get to Matadi. + + +MATADI--Feby. 21. + +We are now at Matadi. The Captain invited us to stop on board +and it is well he did. We dine on deck where the wind blows +but the rest of the ship is being cleaned and painted for the +trip North. Four hatches are discharging cargo all at once, +from four in the morning until midnight. Officers and kroo +boys get four hours sleep out of the twenty-four, but I sleep +right through it, so does Cecil. Sometimes they take out iron +rails and then zinc roofs and steel boats, 6000 cases of gin +and 1000 tons of coal. Still, it is much better than in the +Hotel Africa on shore. Matadi is a hill of red iron and the +heat is grand. Everything in this country is grand. The +river is, in places, seven miles wide, the sunsets are like +nothing earthly, and the black people are like brooding +shadows of lost souls, that is, if souls have shadows. Most +of the blacks in this town are "prisoners" with a steel ring +around the neck, and chained in long lines. I leave on the 23d +to go up the Kasai River, because that is where the atrocities +come from and up there there are many missionaries. I don't want +you to think I say this to "calm your fears," but I say it +because it is as true of this place as of every other one in +the world, and that is, that it is as easy to get about here +as it is in Rhode Island. It is not half as dangerous as +automobiling. I have not even felt feverish, neither has +Cecil. I never felt better. Cecil stays on board and goes +back to Boma. There she stops a week and then takes another +ship back to London. She will not wait at Boma for me, at +least, I hope not and cannot imagine her doing so. In any +event, after I start, there will be no way for us to +communicate, and I will act on the understanding that she has +started North. + +I have two very good boys and both speak English, and are from +Sierra Leone. I take a two-day trip of 200 miles by rail, +then four days by boat up the Kasai and then I may come back +by boat or walk. It depends on how I like it, how long I +stay, for I can hope to see very little, as under a year it +would be impossible to write with authority of this country. +But I'll see more of it than some at home, and I'll hear what +those who have lived here for years have to say. It is +awfully interesting, absolutely different and more uncivilized +than anything I ever saw. But all the time you are depressed +with how little you know and can know of it. I will be here +six weeks or two months and then should get up the coast to +London about the middle of May or sooner. + +DICK. + + +From diary of February 22nd, 1907. + +Spent about the worst night of my life. No mattress, no +pillow. Not space enough for my own cot. Every insect in the +world ate me. After a bath and coffee felt better. It rained +heavily until three P. M. Read Pendennis, and loved it. The +picture of life at Clavering and Fairoaks, and Dr. Portman and +Foker are wonderful. I do not know when I have enjoyed and +admired a work so much. For some reason it is all entirely +new again. I will read them all now in turn. After rain +cleared took my slaves and went after "supplies." Met a King. +I thought he was a witch doctor, and the boys said he was a +dancing man. All his suite, wives and subjects followed, +singing a song that made your flesh creep. At Hatton and +Cookson's bought "plenty chop" for "boys" who were much +pleased. Also a sparklet bottle, some whiskey and two pints +of champagne at 7 francs the pint. Blush to own it was demi +Sec. Also bacon, jam, milk, envelopes, a pillow. Saw some +ivory State had seized and returned. 15 Kilo's. Some taken +from Gomez across street not returned until he gave up half. +No reason given Taylor agent H. & C. why returned Apparently +when called will come down on the ivory question. Cuthbert +Malet, coffee planter, came call on me. Only Englishman still +in Service State. Had much to say which did not want printed +until he out of country which will be in month or two. +Anstrossi has given me side of cabin where there is room for +my cot, so expect to sleep. + + +STANLEY POOL, Feb. 22nd, 1907. +DEAR MOTHER: + +When you get this, I will be on my way to London. +The rest of my stay here will be on board two boats, +touching at the banks of the Kasai river. One I now am on +takes me up and another takes me down. I will see a great +deal that is strange and it is very interesting. Yesterday, +for example, only an hour before our train reached Gongolo +Station, there were three elephants that wandered across the +track. We were very disappointed not to have seen them. At +the mission house on the way up, I brought the first ice the +mission boys had seen and when I put a piece in the hand of +one, he yelled and danced about as though it were a coal. The +higher up you go the tougher it gets. Back in the jungle, one +can only imagine what it is like. Here all the white men have +black wives, and the way the whip is used on the men is very +different from the lower congo. The boat is about as large as +a touring car, with all the machinery exposed. I am very +comfortable though, with my bed and camp chair, and, books to +read, when one gets tired of this great, dirty river. I, +expect to see hippopotamuses and many crocodiles and to learn +something of the "atrocities" by hearsay. To see for oneself, +would take months. I return from the Kasai district by a boat +like this one, burning wood and with a stern wheel, reaching +Leopoldville, this place, about the 12th of March, and sailing +on the Albertville for Southampton on the 19th of March. So +I should be in London and so very near you by the 8th of +April. Of course, if I take a later boat from here, I will be +just that much later. I am perfectly well, never better. No +fever, no "tired feeling" good appetite, in spite of awful +tough food. From this place money cannot be used and I carry +a bag of salt and rolls of cloth. For a bottle of salt you +get a fowl or a turkey, for a tablespoonful an egg, or a bunch +of fruit. When you write be sure and tell me +ALL your plans for the summer; that is, after you have been +to see us. My dearest love to you all. + +DICK. + + +From diary of February 27th, 1907. + +Saw two hippos. Thought Anstrossi said they were buffalo. So +was glad when I found out what they were. I did not want to +go home without having seen only two dead ones. In a few +minutes I saw two more. Anstrossi fired at them but I did +not, as thought it not the game when one could not recover +them. Before noon saw six in a bunch--and then what I thought +was a spit of rock with a hippo lying on the end of it, turned +out to be fifteen hippos in a line! Burnham has told he had +seen eleven in the Volta in one day. Before one o'clock, I +had seen twenty-six, and, later in the day Anstrossi fired at +another, and shot a hole in the awning. That made +twenty-seven in one day. Also some monkeys. +The hippos were delightful. They seemed so aristocratic, like +gouty old gentlemen, puffing and blowing and yawning, as +though everything bored them. + +From diary of February 28th, 1907. + +When just going up for coffee, saw what was so big, looking at +it against horizon, thought it must be an elephant. Was a +young hippo. Captain Jensen brought boat within eighty yards +of him, and both Anstrossi and I fired, apparently knocking +him off his legs, for he rolled on his side as though his back +was broken. I missed him the second shot, which struck the +water just in front of him. The other three shots caught him +in the head, in the mouth and ear. He +lay quite still, and the boys rushed out a gang plank and +surrounded him singing and shouting and cutting his tail to +make him bleed and weaken him. They don't die for an hour but +he seemed dead enough, so I went to my cabin to re-load my gun +and my camera. In three minutes I came out, and found the +hippo still quiet. Then he began to toss his head and I shot +him again, to put him out of pain. In return for which he +rolled over into the water and got away. I was mad. Later +saw four more. Just at sunset while taking bath another was +seen on shore. We got within sixty yards of him and all of us +missed him or at least did not hurt him. He then trotted for +the river with his head up and again I must have missed, +although at one place he was but fifty yards away, when he +entered the water, a hundred. I stepped it off later in the +sand. I followed him up and hit him or some one of us hit him +and he stood up on his hind legs. But he put back to land for +the third time. Captain said wait until moon came out. But +though we hunted up to our waists saw none. One came quite +close at dinner. Seven on the day. + + +CONGO RIVER--March 1, 1907. +DEAR MOTHER: + +I have been up the Congo as far as the Kasai river, and up +that to a place called Dima. There I found myself in a sort +of cul de sac. I found that the rubber plantations I had come +to see, were nine days journey distant. In this land where +time and distance are so differently regarded than with us, a +man tells you to go to Dima to see rubber. He means after +getting to Dima, you must catch a steamer that leaves every +two weeks and travel for five days. But he forgets that +that fact is important to visitors. As he is under contract +to stay here three years, it does not much matter to him how +he spends a month, or so. Dima was two hundred yards square, +and then the jungle. In half an hour, I saw it all, and met +every one in it. They gave me a grand reception, but I could +not spend ten days in Dima. The only other thing I could do +was to take a canoe to the Jesuit Mission where the Fathers +promised me shooting, or, try to catch the boat back to +England that stops at interesting ports. Sooner than stop in +Boma, I urged Cecil to take that boat. So, if I catch it, we +will return together. It is a five weeks journey, and rather +long to spend alone. In any event my letters will go by a +faster boat. I have had a most wonderfully interesting visit, +at least, to me. I hope I can make it readable. But, much of +its pleasure was personal. + +I have just had to stop writing this, for what when I get back +to New York will seem a perfectly good reason for interrupting +a letter to even you. A large hippopotamus has just pushed +past us with five baby hippos in front of her. She is shoving +them up stream, and the papa hippo is in the wake puffing and +blowing. They are very plenty here and on the way up stream, +I saw a great many, and every morning and evening went hunting +for them on shore. I wanted the head of a hippopotamus +awfully keenly for the farm. But of the only two I saw on +land, both got away from me. I did not shoot at any I saw in +the water, although the other idiot on board did, because if +you kill them, you cannot recover them, and it seems most +unsportsmanlike. Besides, I was so grateful to them for being +so proud and pompous, and real aristocrats dating back from +the flood. But I was terribly disappointed at losing both of +those I saw on land. One I dropped at the first shot, and the +other I missed, as he was running, to get back into the water. +The one I shot, and that everyone thought was dead, AFTER THE +"BOYS" BEGAN TO CUT HIM UP, decided he was not going to stand for +that, and to our helpless dismay suddenly rolled himself into the +water. If that is not hard luck, I don't know it. All I got was +a bad photograph of him, and I had already decided where I would +hang his head, and how much I would tip the crew for cutting +him up. It was a really wonderful journey. I loved every +minute of it and never was I in better health. + +If I only could have known that you knew that I was all right, +but instead you were worrying. The nights were bright +moonlight, and the days were beautiful; full of strange people +and animals, birds and views. We three sat in the little +bridge of the tinpot boat, and smoked pipes and watched the +great muddy river rushing between wonderful banks. There was +the Danish Captain, an Italian officer and the engineer was +from Finland. The Italian spoke French and the two others +English, and I acted as interpreter!! Can you imagine it? I +am now really a daring French linguist. People who understand +me, get quick promotion. If I only could have been able to +tell you all was well and not to be worried. At Kwarmouth I +have just received a wire from Cecil saying she expects to +leave by the slow boat but will stay if I wish it. So, now we +can both go by the slow boat if I can catch it. I hope so. +must have found Boma as bad as it looked. God bless you all. + +DICK. + + + +On April 13, Richard was back in London and in his diary of +that date he writes, "Never so glad to get anywhere. Went to +sleep to the music of motorcars. Nothing ever made me feel so +content and comfortable and secure as their `honk, honk.'" + +From diary of April 22nd, 1907. + +A blackmailer named H---- called, with photos of atrocities +and letters and films. He wanted 30 Pounds for the lot. I +gave him 3 Pounds for three photos. One letter he showed me +signed Bullinger, an Englishman, said he had put the fear of +God in their hearts by sticking up the chief's head on a pole, +and saying, "Now, make rubber, or you will look like that." +Went to lunch with Pearson but it was the wrong day, and so +missed getting a free feed. Thinking he would turn up, I +ordered a most expensive lunch. I paid for it. Evening went +Patience, which liked immensely and then Duchess of +Sutherland's party to Premiers. Saw Churchill and each +explained his share of the Real Soldiers row. + + +From diary of April 28th, 1907. + +We went down by train to Cliveden going by Taplow to +Maidenhead where Astor had sent his car to meet us. It is a +wonderful place and the view of the Thames is a beautiful one. +They had been making alterations, bathrooms, and putting white +enamel tiles throughout the dungeons. If Dukes lived no more +comfortably than those who owned Cliveden, I am glad I was not +a Duke. What was most amusing was the servant's room which +was quite as smart as any library or study, with fine +paintings, arm chairs and writing material. Nannie and Astor +were exceedingly friendly and we walked all over the place. +It was good to get one's feet on turf again. They sent us +back by motor, so we arrived most comfortably. I gave a +dinner to the Hopes, Wyndham, Miss Mary Moore, +Ashmead-Bartlett and Margaret. Websters could not come. +Later, came on here, and had a chat, the Websters coming too. +I read Thaw trial. + + +Early in May Richard and his wife returned to Mount Kisco and +my brother at once started in to change his farce "The +Galloper" into a musical comedy. It was produced on August +12, at the Astor Theatre, under the title of the "Yankee +Tourist," with Raymond Hitchcock as the star. The following I +quote from Richard's diary of that date: + + +Monday, August 12th, 1907. + +Was to have lunched with Ned Stone but he was in court. Met +Whigham in street. Impulsively asked him to lunch. Ethel and +Jack turned up at Martin's; asked them to lunch. Ethel and I +drove around town doing errands, mine being the purchase of +tickets for numerous friends. Called on Miss Trusdale to +inquire about Harden-Hickey. She wants her to go to the +country. Cecil arrived at six. We had a suite of eighty-nine +rooms. We dined at Sherry's with Ethel and Jack, Ethel being +host. Taft was there. Hottest night ever. I sat with Jack. +In spite of weather, play went well. Bonsals, Ethel, Arthur +Brisbane were in Cecil's box. Booth Tarkington in Irwin's. +Surprise of performance was "Hello, Bill" which Raymond had +learned only that morning. Helen Hale helped him greatly with +dance. People came to supper at Waldorf, and things went all +wrong. Next time I have a first Night I want no friends during +or after. Missed the executive ability of Charles Belmont +greatly. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII +A LONDON WINTER + +From the fall of 1907 to that of 1908 Richard divided his time +between Mount Kisco, Marion, and Cuba. In December of 1908 he +sailed for London where he took Turner the artist's old house +in Chelsea for the winter. + +Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. +December 25. Christmas Day. +DEAR MOTHER: + +We are settled here in Darkest Chelsea as though we had been +born here. I am thinking of putting in my time of exile by +running for Mayor. Meanwhile, it is a wonderful place in +which to write the last chapters of "Once Upon a Time." The +house is quite wonderful. In Spring and Summer it must be +rarely beautiful. It has trees in front and a yard and a +garden and a squash court: a sort of tennis you play against +the angles of walls covered smooth with cement. Also a studio +as large as a theatre. Outside the trees beat on the windows +and birds chirp there. The river flows only forty feet away, +with great brown barges on it, and gulls whimper and cry, and +aeroplane all day. I have a fine room, and about the only one +you can keep as warm as toast SHOULD be, and in England +never is. + +Cecil has engaged a teacher, and a model and he is coming +here to work. He is twenty years old, and called the +"boy Sargent." So, as soon as the British public +gets sober, we will begin life in earnest, and both +work hard. I need not tell you how glad I am to be at it. I +was with you all in heart last night and recited as much as I +could remember of "Twas the Night Before Christmas," which +always means Dad to me, as he used to read it to us. How much +he made the day mean to us. I wish I could just slip in for a +kiss, and a hug. But tonight we will all drink to you, and a +few hours later you will drink to us. God bless you all. + +DICK. + + +December 29th. +DEAR MOTHER: + +A blizzard has swept over London. The last one cost the City +Corporation $25,000!! The last man who contracted to clean +New York of snow was cleaned out by two days of it, to the +tune of $200,000. Still, in spite of our alleged superiority +in all things, one inch of snow in Chelsea can do more to +drive one to drink and suicide than a foot of it "on the +farm." At the farm we threw a ton of coal against it, and lit +log fires and oil lamps, and were warm. Here, they try to +fight it with two buckets of soft chocolate cake called Welch +coal, and the result is you freeze. Cecil's studio is like +one vast summer hotel at Portland Maine in January. You +cannot go near it except in rubber boots, fur coats and woolen +gloves. My room still is the only one that is livable. It is +four feet square, heavily panelled in oak and the coal fire +makes it as warm as a stoke hole. So, I am all right and can +work nicely. Janet Sothern came to lunch today and Cecil and +she in furs went picture gazing. Tomorrow we have Capt. Chule +to dinner. He came up the West coast with us and is accustomed +to a temperature of 120 degrees. + +New Year's eve we spend with Lady Lewis where we dine and keep +it up until four in the morning. We will easily be able to +get back here but how we can get a hansom from here to the +great city, I can't imagine. I have seen none in five days. +It is fine to be surrounded by busts of Carlyle, Whistler, +Rosetti and Turner's own, but occasionally you wish for a +taxicab. Tomorrow I am going on a spree to the great city of +London. The novel goes on smoothly, and all is well. I am +still running for Mayor of Chelsea. + +Love to you all. + +DICK. + + +LONDON--January 1, 1909. +DEAR MOTHER: + +I drank your health and Noll's and Charley's last night and so +we all came into the New Year together. I hope it will be as +good for me as the last. Certainly Chas. is coming on well +with another book. It is splendid. I am so very, very glad. +Some of the very best stories anybody has written will be in +his next book. + +We dined at the Lewis's. There were 150 at dinner and as we +live in Chelsea now--one might as well be in Brooklyn--we were +a half hour late. Fancy feeling you were keeping 150 people +hungry. I sat at Lady Lewis's table with some interesting men +and one beautiful woman all dressed in glass over pink silk, +and pearls, and pearls and then, pearls. She said "Who am I" +and I said "You look like a girl in America, who used to stand +under a green paper lamp shade up in a farm house in New +Hampshire and play a violin." Whereat there was much applause, +because it seemed she was that girl, the daughter of a Mrs. Van +S----, who wrote short stories. Her daughter was L---- Van S---- +now the wife of a baronet and worth five million dollars. The +board we paid then was eight dollars a week. Now, we are dining +with her next Monday and as I insisted on gold plate she said +"Very well, I'll get out the gold plate." But wasn't it dramatic +of me to remember her after twenty two years? + +DICK. + + +LONDON-February 23, 1909. +DEAR MOTHER: + +George Washington's health was celebrated by drinking it at +dinner. I had been asked to speak at a banquet but for some +strange reason could not see myself in the part. The great +Frohman arrived last night and we are all agitated until he +speaks. If he would only like my plays as some of the actors +do, I would be passing rich. Barrie asked himself to lunch +yesterday and was very entertaining. He told us of a letter +he received from Guy DuMaurier who wrote "An Englishman's +Home" which has made a sensation second to nothing in ten +years. He is an officer stationed at a small post in South +Africa. He wrote Barrie he was at home, very blue and +homesick, and outside it was raining. Then came Barrie's long +cable, at 75 cents a word, saying his play was the success of +the year. He did not know even it had been ACCEPTED. He +shouted to his wife, and they tried to dance but the hut was +too small, so they ran out into the compound and danced in the +rain. Then he sent the Kaffir boys to the mess to bring all +the officers and all the champagne and they did not go to bed +at all. The next day cables, still at three shillings a word +came from papers and magazines and publishers, managers, +syndicates. And, in his letter he says, still not appreciating +what a fuss it has made, "I suppose all it needs now is to be +made a question in the House," when already it has been the text +of half a dozen speeches by Cabinet Ministers, and three +companies are playing it in the provinces. What fun to have a +success come in such a way, not even to know it was being +rehearsed. Today Sargent is here to see what is wrong with +Cecil's picture of Janet. He came early and said he couldn't +tell until he saw Janet, so now he is back again, and both Janet +and Cecil are shaking with excitement. He is the most simple, +kindly genius I ever met. He says the head is very fine and I +guess Cecil suspected that, before she called him in. He says +she must send it to the Royal Academy. I am now going out to +hear more words fall from the great man, and so farewell. +Seymour and I began work yesterday on the Dictator. It went very +smooth. All my love to Noll and to you. + +DICK. + + +Read the other letter first and then, let me tell you that +when I went out to see Sargent, I found Cecil complaining that +she could not understand just how it was he wanted Janet to +pose. Whereat she handed him a piece of chalk and he made a +sketch of Janet as exquisite as the morning and rubbed his +hands of the charcoal and left it there! It's only worth a +hundred pounds! Can you imagine the nerve of Cecil. I was so +shocked I could only gasp. But, he was quite charming and +begged her to call him next time she got in a scrape, and gave +her his private telephone number. + +Fancy having Sargent waiting to be called up to make sketches +for you. I left Janet and Cecil giggling with happiness. +Janet because she had been sketched by him and Cecil because +she has the sketch. It's a three fourths length three feet +high, and he did it in ten minutes. I am now going to ask her +to invite the chef of the Ritz in, to give us a sketch of +cooking a dinner. + +DICK. + + + +CHAPTER XVIII +MILITARY MANOEUVRES + +In August, 1909, Richard and his wife left Mount Kisco for a +visit to Mr. and Mrs. Clark at Marion. While there my brother +attended and later on wrote an article on the war manoeuvres +held at Middleboro, Massachusetts. + + +MARION, MASSACHUSETTS. +August 16th, 1909. +DEAR MOTHER: + +We had a splendid day to day. I arranged to have Cecil meet +me at eleven at Headquarters in the woods below Middleboro, +and I spent the morning locating different regiments. Then, +after I "met up" with her, I took her in my car. Both she and +Hiller were awfully keen over it, so, we got on splendidly. +And, of course, Hiller's knowledge of the country was +wonderfully convenient. We had great luck in seeing the only +fight of the day, the first one of the war. Indeed, I think +we caused it. There was a troop of cavalry with a Captain who +was afraid to advance. I chided him into doing something, the +umpire having confided to me, he would mark him, if he did +not. But, he did it wrong. Anyway, he charged a barn with 36 +troopers and lost every fourth man. In real warfare he would +have lost all his men and all his horses. Cecil and Hiller +pursued in the car at the very heels of the cavalry, and I ran +ahead with the bicycle scouts. It was most exciting. I am going +out again to-morrow. Lots of Love to you all. + +DICK. + + +MARION, MASSACHUSETTS. +August 19th, 1909. +DEAR MOTHER: + +I got in last night too late to write and I am sorry. To-day, +the war came to an end with our army, the Red one, with the +road to Boston open before it. Indeed, when the end came, +they were fighting with their backs to that City, and could +have entered it to-night. I begged both Bliss and Wood to +send in the cavalry just for the moral effect, but they were +afraid of the feeling, that was quite strong. I had much fun, +never more, and saw all that was worth seeing. I was glad to +see I am in such good shape physically, but with the tramping +I do over the farm, it is no wonder. I could take all the +stone walls at a jump, while the others were tearing them +down. I also met hundreds of men I knew and every one was +most friendly, especially the correspondents. Just as I liked +to be on a story with a "star" man when I was a reporter, they +liked having a real "war" correspondent, take it seriously. +They were always wanting to know if it were like the Real +Thing, and as I assured them it was, they were satisfied. +Some incidents were very funny. I met a troop of cavalry this +morning, riding away from the battle, down a crossroad, and +thinking it was a flanking manoeuvre, started to follow them +with the car. "Where are you going?" I asked the Captain. +"Nowhere," he said, "We are dead." An Umpire was charging in +advance of two troops of the 10th down a state road, when one +trooper of the enemy who were flying, turned back and alone +charged the two troops. "You idiot"! yelled the Umpire, +"don't you know you and your horse are shot to pieces?" +"Sure, I know it," yelled the trooper "but, this ---- horse +don't know it." + +RICHARD. + + +Early in the fall of 1909 Richard returned from Marion to New +York and went to Crossroads, where for the next three years he +remained a greater part of the time. They were years of great +and serious changes for him. An estrangement of long standing +between him and his wife had ended in their separation early +in 1910, to be followed later by their divorce. In September +of that year my mother died while on a visit to Crossroads. + +After my father's death life to her became only a period of +waiting until the moment came when she would rejoin +him--because her faith was implicit and infinite. She could +not well set about preparing herself because all of her life +she had done that and, so, smiling and with a splendid bravery +and patience she lived on, finding her happiness in bringing +cheer and hope and happiness to all who came into the presence +of her wonderful personality. The old home in Philadelphia +was just the same as it had been through her long married +life--that is with one great difference, but on account of +this difference I knew that she was glad to spend her last +days with Richard at Crossroads. And surely nothing that +could be done for a mother by a son had been left undone by +him. Through these last long summer days she sat on the +terrace surrounded by the flowers and the sunshine that she so +loved. Little children came to play at her knee, and old +friends travelled from afar to pay her court. + +In the winter of 1910-11 my brother visited Aiken, where he +spent several months. The following June he went to London at +the time of King George's coronation, but did not write about +it. Again, in November, 1911, he visited my sister in London, +but returned to New York in January, 1912, and spent a part of +the winter in Aiken and Cuba. At Aiken he found at least +peace and the devotion of loving friends that he so craved, +but in London and Cuba, which once had meant so much to him, +he seemed to have lost interest entirely. But not once during +these years did he cease working, and working hard. On almost +every page of his diary at this period I find such expressions +as "wrote 500 words for discipline." And again "Satisfaction +in work of last years when writing for existence, has been up +to any I ever wrote." + +And in spite of all of the trouble of these days, he not only +wrote incessantly but did some of his very finest work. +Personally I have never seen a man make a more courageous +fight. To quote again from his diary of this time: "Early +going to my room saw red sunrise and gold moon. I seemed to +stop worrying about money. With such free pleasures I found I +could not worry. Every day God gives me greater delight in +good things, in beauty, and in every simple exercise and +amusement." + +Twice during these difficult days he went to visit Gouverneur +Morris and his wife at Aiken, and after Richard's death his +old friend wrote of the first of these visits: + +"It was in our little house at Aiken, in South Carolina, that +he was with us most and we learned to know him best, and that +he and I became dependent upon each other in many ways. +"Events, into which I shall not go, had made his life very +difficult and complicated. And he who had given so much +friendship to so many people needed a little friendship in +return, and perhaps, too, he needed for a time to live in a +house whose master and mistress loved each other, and where +there were children. Before he came that first year our house +had no name. Now it is called `Let's Pretend.' + +"Now the chimney in the living-room draws, but in those first +days of the built-over house it didn't. At least, it didn't +draw all the time, but we pretended that it did, and with much +pretense came faith. From the fireplace that smoked to the +serious things of life we extended our pretendings, until real +troubles went down before them--down and out. + +"It was one of Aiken's very best winters, and the earliest +spring I ever lived anywhere. R. H. D. came shortly after +Christmas. The spiraeas were in bloom, and the monthly roses; +you could always find a sweet violet or two somewhere in the +yard; here and there splotches of deep pink against gray cabin +walls proved that precocious peach-trees were in bloom. It +never rained. At night it was cold enough for fires. In the +middle of the day it was hot. The wind never blew, and every +morning we had a four for tennis and every afternoon we rode +in the woods. And every night we sat in front of the fire +(that didn't smoke because of pretending) and talked until the +next morning. + +"He was one of those rarely gifted men who find their chiefest +pleasure not in looking backward or forward, but in what is +going on at the moment. Weeks did not have to pass before it +was forced upon his knowledge that Tuesday, the fourteenth +(let us say), had been a good Tuesday. He knew it the moment +he waked at 7 A. M., and perceived the Tuesday sunshine making +patterns of bright light upon the floor. The sunshine +rejoiced him and the knowledge that even before breakfast +there was vouchsafed to him a whole hour of life. That day +began with attentions to his physical well-being. There were +exercises conducted with great vigor and rejoicing, followed +by a tub, artesian cold, and a loud and joyous singing of +ballads. + +"The singing over, silence reigned. But if you had listened +at his door you must have heard a pen going, swiftly and +boldly. He was hard at work, doing unto others what others +had done unto him. You were a stranger to him; some magazine +had accepted a story that you had written and published it. +R. H. D. had found something to like and admire in that story +(very little perhaps), and it was his duty and pleasure to +tell you so. If he had liked the story very much he would +send you instead of a note a telegram. Or it might be that +you had drawn a picture, or, as a cub reporter, had shown +golden promise in a half column of unsigned print, R. H. D. +would find you out, and find time to praise you and help you. +So it was that when he emerged from his room at sharp eight +o'clock, he was wide-awake and happy and hungry, and whistled +and double-shuffled with his feet, out of excessive energy, +and carried in his hands a whole sheaf of notes and letters +and telegrams. + +"Breakfast with him was not the usual American breakfast, a +sullen, dyspeptic gathering of persons who only the night +before had rejoiced in each other's society. With him it was +the time when the mind is, or ought to be, at its best, the +body at its freshest and hungriest. Discussions of the latest +plays and novels, the doings and undoings of statesmen, laughter +and sentiment--to him, at breakfast, these things were as +important as sausages and thick cream. + +"Breakfast over, there was no dawdling and putting off of the +day's work (else how, at eleven sharp, could tennis be played +with a free conscience?). Loving, as he did, everything +connected with a newspaper, he would now pass by those on the +hall-table with never so much as a wistful glance, and hurry +to his workroom. + +"He wrote sitting down. He wrote standing up. And, almost +you may say, he wrote walking up and down. Some people, +accustomed to the delicious ease and clarity of his style, +imagine that he wrote very easily. He did and he didn't. +Letters, easy, clear, to the point, and gorgeously human, +flowed from him without let or hindrance. That masterpiece of +corresponding, the German March through Brussels, was probably +written almost as fast as he could talk (next to Phillips +Brooks, he was the fastest talker I ever heard), but when it +came to fiction he had no facility at all. Perhaps I should +say that he held in contempt any facility that he may have +had. It was owing to his incomparable energy and Joblike +patience that he ever gave us any fiction at all. Every +phrase in his fiction was, of all the myriad phrases he could +think of, the fittest in his relentless judgment to survive. +Phrases, paragraphs, pages, whole stories even, were written +over and over again. He worked upon a principle of elimination. +If he wished to describe an automobile turning in at a gate, he +made first a long and elaborate description from which there +was omitted no detail, which the most observant pair of eyes +in Christendom had ever noted with reference to just such +a turning. Thereupon he would begin a process of +omitting one by one those details which he had been at such +pains to recall; and after each omission he would ask himself, +`Does the picture remain?' If it did not, he restored the +detail which he had just omitted, and experimented with the +sacrifice of some other, and so on, and so on, until after +Herculean labor there remained for the reader one of those +swiftly flashed ice-clear pictures (complete in every detail) +with which his tales and romances are so delightfully and +continuously adorned. + +"But it is quarter to eleven, and this being a time of +holiday, R. H. D. emerges from his workroom happy to think +that he has placed one hundred and seven words between himself +and the wolf who hangs about every writer's door. He isn't +satisfied with those hundred and seven words. He never was in +the least satisfied with anything that he wrote, but he has +searched his mind and his conscience and he believes that +under the circumstances they are the very best that he can do. +Anyway, they can stand in their present order until--after +lunch. + +"A sign of his youth was the fact that to the day of his death +he had denied himself the luxury and slothfulness of habits. +I have never seen him smoke automatically as most men do. He +had too much respect for his own powers of enjoyment and for +the sensibilities, perhaps, of the best Havana tobacco. At a +time of his own deliberate choosing, often after many hours of +hankering and renunciation, he smoked his cigar. He smoked it +with delight, with a sense of being rewarded, and he used all +the smoke there was in it. + +"He dearly loved the best food, the best champagne, and the +best Scotch whiskey. But these things were +friends to him, and not enemies. He had toward food and drink +the continental attitude; namely, that quality is far more +important than quantity; and he got his exhilaration from the +fact that he was drinking champagne and not from the +champagne. Perhaps I shall do well to say that on questions +of right and wrong he had a will of iron. All his life he +moved resolutely in whichever direction his conscience +pointed; and although that ever present and never obtrusive +conscience of his made mistakes of judgment now and then, as +must all consciences, I think it can never once have tricked +him into any action that was impure or unclean. Some critics +maintain that the heroes and heroines of his books are +impossibly pure and innocent young people. R. H. D. never +called upon his characters for any trait of virtue, or +renunciation, or self-mastery of which his own life could not +furnish examples." + +In June of 1912 Richard reported the Republican convention at +Chicago. Shortly after this, on July 8, he married at +Greenwich, Connecticut, Miss Elizabeth Genevieve McEvoy, known +on the stage as Bessie McCoy, with whom he had first become +acquainted in 1908 after the estrangement from his wife. + +Richard and his wife made their home at Crossroads, where he +devoted most of his working hours to the writing of short +stories. In August of that year my brother, accompanied by +his wife, returned to Chicago to report the Progressive +convention. During the year 1913 he wrote and produced the +farce "Who's Who," of which William Collier was the star, and +in the fall of the same year spent a month in Cuba, with +Augustus Thomas, where they produced a film version of +"Soldiers of Fortune." In referring to this trip, Thomas wrote at +the time of Richard's death: + +"In 1914 a motion-picture company arranged to make a feature +film of the play, and Dick and I went with their outfit to +Santiago de Cuba, where, twenty years earlier, he had found +the inspiration for his story and out of which city and its +environs he had fashioned his supposititious republic of +Olancho. On that trip he was the idol of the company. With +the men in the smoking-room of the steamer there were the +numberless playful stories, in the rough, of the experiences +on all five continents and seven seas that were the +backgrounds of his published tales. + +"At Santiago, if an official was to be persuaded to consent to +some unprecedented seizure of the streets, or a diplomat +invoked for the assistance of the Army or the Navy, it was the +experience and good judgment of Dick Davis that controlled the +task. In the field there were his helpful suggestions of work +and make up to the actors, and on the boat and train and in +hotel and camp the lady members met in him an easy courtesy +and understanding at once fraternal and impersonal. + +"The element that he could not put into the account and which +is particularly pertinent to this page, is the author of +`Soldiers of Fortune' as he revealed himself to me both with +intention and unconsciously in the presence of the familiar +scenes. + +"For three weeks, with the exception of one or two occasions +when some local dignitary captured the revisiting lion, he and +I spent our evenings together at a cafe table overlooking `The +Great Square,' which he sketches so deftly in its atmosphere +when Clay and the Langhams and Stuart dine there. At one end +of the plaza the President's band was playing native waltzes +that came throbbing through the trees and beating softly above +the rustling skirts and clinking spurs of the senoritas and +officers sweeping by in two opposite circles around the edges +of the tessellated pavements. Above the palms around the +square arose the dim, white facade of the Cathedral, with the +bronze statue of Anduella the liberator of Olancho, who +answered with his upraised arm and cocked hat the cheers of an +imaginary populace. + +"Twenty years had gone by since Dick had received the +impression that wrote those lines, and now sometimes after +dinner half a long cigar would burn out as he mused over the +picture and the dreams that had gone between. From one long +silence he said: `I think I'll come back here this winter and +bring Mrs. Davis with me--stay a couple of months.' What a +fine compliment to a wife to have the thought of her and that +plan emerge from that deep and romantic background. + +"The picture people began their film with a showing of the +`mountains which jutted out into the ocean and suggested +roughly the five knuckles of a giant's hand clenched and lying +flat upon the surface of the water.' That formation of the +sea wall is just outside of Santiago. `The waves tunnelled +their way easily enough until they ran up against those five +mountains and then they had to fall back.' How natural for one +of us to be unimpressed by such a feature of the landscape and +yet how characteristic of Dick Davis to see the elemental +fight that it recorded and get the hint for the whole of the +engineering struggle that is so much of his book. + +"We went over those mountains together, where +two decades before he had planted his banner of romance. We +visited the mines and the railroads and everywhere found some +superintendent or foreman or engineer who remembered Davis. +He had guessed at nothing. Everywhere he had overlaid the +facts with adventure and with beauty, but he had been on sure +footing all the time. His prototype of MacWilliams was dead. +Together we visited the wooden cross with which the miners had +marked his grave. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX +VERA CRUZ AND THE GREAT WAR + +Late in April, 1914, when war between the United States and +Mexico seemed inevitable Richard once more left the peace and +content of Crossroads and started for Vera Cruz, arriving +there on April 29. He had arranged to act as correspondent +for a syndicate of newspapers, and as he had for long been +opposed to the administration's policy of "watchful waiting" +was greatly disappointed on his arrival at the border to learn +of the President's plan of mediation. He wrote to his wife: + + +CRUZ, April 24, 1914. +DEAREST ONE: + +We left today at 5.30. It was a splendid scene, except for +the children crying, and the wives of the officers and +enlisted men trying not to cry. I got a stateroom to myself. +With the electric fan on and the airport open, it is about as +cool as a blast furnace. But I was given a seat on the left +of General Funston, who is commanding this brigade, and the +other officers at the table are all good fellows. As long as +I was going, I certainly had luck in getting away as sharply +as I did. One day's delay would have made me miss this +transport, which will be the first to land troops. + + +April 25th. + +A dreadnaught joined us today, the Louisiana. I wirelessed +the Admiral asking permission to send a press despatch via his +battleship, and he was polite in reply, but firm. He said "No." +There are four transports and three torpedo boats and the +battleship. We go very slowly, because we must keep up with one +of the troop ships with broken engines. At night it is very +pretty seeing the ships in line, and the torpedo boats winking +their signals at each other. I am writing all the time or +reading up things about the army I forget and getting the new +dope. Also I am brushing up my Spanish. Jack London is on +board, and three other correspondents, two of whom I have met on +other trips, and one "cub" correspondent. He was sitting beside +London and me busily turning out copy, and I asked him what he +found to write about. He said, "Well, maybe I see things you +fellows don't see." What he meant was that what was old to us +was new to him, but he got guyed unmercifully. + +April 27, 1914. + +The censor reads all I write, and so do some half-dozen +Mexican cable clerks and 60 (sixty) correspondents. So when I +cable "love," it MEANS devotion, adoration, and worship; +loyalty, fidelity and truth, wanting you, needing you, unhappy +for you. It means ALL that. + +RICHARD. + + +VERA CRUZ, April 30, 1914. + +This heat--humid and moist--would sweat water out of a chilled +steel safe; so imagine what it does to me with all the awful +winter's accumulation of fat. I hate to say it, but I LIKE +these Mexicans--much better than Cubans, or Central Americans. +They are human, kindly; it is only the politicians and bandits +like Villa who give them a bad name. But, though they ought to +hate us, whenever I stop to ask my way they invite me to come in +and have "coffee" and say, "My house is yours, senor," which +certainly is kind after people have taken your town away from +you and given you another flag and knocked your head off if +you did not salute it. I now have a fine room. The Navy +moved out today and I got the room of the paymaster. It faces +the plaza and the cathedral. I burned a candle there today +for our soon meeting. The priests all had run away, so I had +to hunt up the candle, and pay the money into the box marked +for that purpose, but the Lord does not run away, and He will +see we soon meet. + + +May 2nd. + +Yesterday I went out on the train that brings in refugees and +saw the Mexicans. They had on three thousand cartridges, much +hair, hats as high as church steeples, and lots of dirt. The +Selig Moving Picture folks took many pictures of us and +several "stills," in which the war correspondent was shown +giving cigarettes to the brigands. Also, I had a wonderful +bath in the ocean off the aviation camp. I borrowed a suit +from one of the aviators, and splashed and swam around for an +hour. My! it was good. It reminded me of my dear Bessie, +because the last time I was in the ocean was with her. + +Maybe you know what is going on, but we do not. So I just +hustle around all day trying to find news as I did when I was +a reporter. It is hot enough here even for me, and I have +lost about eight pounds of that fat I laid in during our North +Pole winter! + +VFRA CRUZ-May 8, 1914. + +DEAR CHAS.: + +Today, when Wilson ordered Huerta not to blockade Tampico +which was an insult to Mediators and the act of a bully and a +coward, AND a declaration of war, we all got on our ponies +to "advance." Then came word Huerta would not blockade. It +is like living in a mad house. We all are hoping mediators +refuse to continue negotiations. If they have self respect +that is what they will do. Tonight if Wilson and Huerta ran +for President, Huerta would get all our votes. He may be an +uneducated Indian, but at least he is a man. However, that +makes no never mind so far as to my getting back. The reason +I cannot return is because I have "credentials." It is not +that they want ME here, but they want my credentials here. +The administration is using, as I see it, the privilege of +having a correspondent at the front as a club. It says until +war is declared it won't issue any more. So those syndicates +who have no correspondent and the papers forming them, are +afraid to attack or to criticise the administration for fear +they will be blacklisted. And those who have a correspondent +with his three thousand dollar signed and sealed pass in his +pocket aren't taking any chance on losing him. So, I see +before me an endless existence in Vera Cruz. + +RICHARD. + + +On May 7 Richard started for Mexico City where, if possible, +he intended to interview Huerta. At Pasco de Macho he was +arrested, but afterward was allowed to proceed to Mexico City. +Here he was again arrested, and without being allowed to +interview Huerta was sent back the day after his arrival to +Vera Cruz. + +Of this Vera Cruz experience John N. Wheeler, a friend of +Richard's and the manager of the syndicate which sent him to +Mexico, wrote the following after my brother's death: + +"Richard Harding Davis went to Vera Cruz for a newspaper +syndicate, and after the first sharp engagement in the Mexican +seaport there was nothing for the correspondent to do but kill +time on that barren, low lying strip of Gulf coast, hemmed in +on all sides by Mexicans and the sea, and time is hard to kill +there. Yet there was a story to be got, but it required nerve +to go after it. + +"In Mexico City was Gen. Huerta, the dictator of Mexico. If a +newspaper could get an interview with him it would be a +`scoop,' but the work was inclined to be dangerous for the +interviewer, since Americans were being murdered rather +profusely in Mexico at the time in spite of the astute +assurances of Mr. Bryan, and no matter how substantial his +references the correspondent was likely to meet some +temperamental and touchy soldier with a loaded rifle who would +shoot first and afterward carry his papers to some one who +could read them. + +"One of the newspapers taking the stories by Mr. Davis from +the syndicate had a staff man at Vera Cruz as well, and +thought to `scoop' the country by sending this representative +to see Huerta, in this way `beating' even the other +subscribers to the Davis service. An interview in Mexico City +was consequently arranged and the staff man was cabled and +asked to make the trip. He promptly cabled his refusal, this +young man preferring to take no such chances. It was then +suggested that Mr. Davis should attempt it. By pulling some +wires at Washington it was arranged, through the +Brazilian and English Ambassadors at the Mexican capital, for +Mr. Davis to interview President Huerta, with safe conduct +(this being about as safe as nonskid tires) to Mexico City. +Mr. Davis was asked if he would make the trip. In less than +two hours back came this laconic cable: + +"`Leaving Mexico City to-morrow afternoon at 3 o'clock.' + +"That was Richard Harding Davis--no hesitancy, no vacillation. +He was always willing to go, to take any chance, to endure +discomfort and all if he had a fighting opportunity to get the +news. The public now knows that Davis was arrested on this +trip, that Huerta refused to make good on the interview, and +that it was only through the good efforts of the British +Ambassador at the Mexican capital he was released. But Davis +went. + +"There was an echo of this journey to the Mexican capital +several months later after the conflict in Europe had been +raging for a few weeks. Lord Kitchener announced at one stage +of the proceedings he would permit a single correspondent, +selected and indorsed by the United States Government, to +accompany the British army to the front. Of course, all the +swarm of American correspondents in London at the time were +eager for the desirable indorsement. Mr. Davis cabled back +the conditions of his acceptance. Immediately Secretary of +State Bryan was called in Washington on the long-distance +telephone. + +"`Lord Kitchener has announced,' the Secretary of State was +told, `that he will accept one correspondent with the British +troops in the field, if he is indorsed by the United States +Government. Richard Harding Davis, who is in London, +represents a string of the strongest newspapers in the United +States for this syndicate, and we desire the indorsement of the +State Department so he can obtain this appointment.' + +"`Mr. Davis made us some trouble when he was in Mexico,' +answered Mr. Bryan. `He proceeded to the Mexican capital +without our consent and I will have to consider the matter +very carefully before indorsing him. His Mexican escapade +caused us some diplomatic efforts and embarrassment.' (What +the Secretary of State did to bring about Mr. Davis's release +on the occasion of his Mexican arrest is still a secret of the +Department.) + +"Mr. Bryan did not indorse Mr. Davis finally, which was well, +since Lord Kitchener of Khartum kept the selected list of +correspondents loafing around London on one pretext or another +so long they all became disgusted and went without an official +pass from `K. of K.' As soon as Mr. Davis was told he would +not be appointed he proceeded to Belgium and returned some of +the most thrilling stories written on this conflict at great +personal risk." + + +May 13, 1914. +MY DEAREST ONE: + +DO NOT BLAME me for this long delay in writing. God knows I +wanted every day to "talk" to you. But we were on the +"suspect" list, and to make even a note was risky. The way I +did it was to exclaim over the beauty of some flower or tree, +and then ask the Mexican nearest me to write the name of it +HIMSELF in MY notebook. Then I would say, "In English +that would be----" and I would pretend to write beside it the +English equivalent, but really would write the word that was +the key to what I wished to remember. So, +you see, a letter at that rate of progress was impossible. It +was a case of "Can't get away to cable you today; police won't +let me!" However, we are all safe at home again. As a matter +of fact, I had a most exciting time, and am dying to tell you +the "insie" story. But the one I sent the papers must serve. +I promised myself I would give the FIRST soldier, marine and +sailor I met on returning a cigar, and the first sailor was +the CHAPLAIN OF THE FLEET, Father Reany. But he took the +cigar and gave me his blessing. I am now burning candles to +St. Rita. What worried me the MOST was how worried YOU +would be; and I begged Palmer not to send the story of our +first arrest. But other people told of it, and he had to +forward it. You certainly made the wires BURN! and had the +army guessing. One officer said to me, "I'm awfully sorry to +see you back. If you'd only have stayed in jail another day +your wife would have had us all on our way to Mexico." And +the censor said, "My God! I'm glad you're safe! Your wife has +MADE OUR LIVES HELL!" And quite right, too, bless you! +None of us knows anything, but it looks to me that NOTHING +will induce Wilson to go to war. But the Mexicans think we +ARE at war, and act accordingly. They may bring on a +conflict. That is why I am making ready in case we advance +and that is why I cabled today for the rest of my kit. I have +a fine little pony, and a little messenger boy who speaks +Spanish, to look after the horse, and me. + +And now, as to your LETTERS, they came to-day, five of them, +COUNT 'EM, and the pictures did make me laugh. I showed +those of the soldier commandeering the vegetables to Funston +and he laughed. And, I did love the flowers you sent no +matter HOW homesick they made me! (Oh). I do not want a camera. + +I have one, and those fancy cameras I don't understand. + +The letters you forwarded were wonderfully well selected. I +mean, those from other people. One of them was from Senator +Root telling me Bryan is going to reward our three heroic +officers who jumped into the ocean. I know you will be glad. +There are NO mosquitoes! Haven't met up with but three and +THEY are not COMING BACK. + +I send you a picture of my room from the outside. From the +inside the view is so "pretty." Across the square is the +cathedral and the trees are filled with birds that sing all +night, and statues, and pretty globes. The band plays every +night and when it plays "Hello, Winter Time," I CRY for you. +I paid the band-master $20 to play it, and it is WORTH IT. +I sit on the balcony and think of you and know just what you +are doing, for there is only an hour and a half difference. +That is, when with you it is ten o'clock with me it is +eight-thirty. So when you and Louise are at dinner you can +know I am just coming in from my horseback ride to bathe and +"nap." And when at eight-thirty you are playing the Victor, I +am drinking a cocktail to you, and shooing away the Colonels +and Admirals who interfere with my ceremony of drinking to my +dear wife. + + + +VERA CRUZ, May 20th, 1914. +DEAREST WIFE: + +I got SUCH a bully letter yesterday from you, written long +ago from the Webster. It said you missed me, and it said you +loved me, and there were funny pictures of you reading the war +and peace news each with a different expression, and you told +me about Padrigh and how he runs down the road. It made me +very sad and homesick, but very glad to feel I was so missed. +Also you told me cheerful falsehoods about my Tribune +stories. I know they are no good, and as they are no good, +the shorter the better, but I like to be told they are good. +Anyway, I sat down at once and wrote a long screed on Vera +Cruz and the sleepy people that five here. + +We all live on the sidewalk under the stone porch. Every +night a table is reserved and by my orders ALL chairs, +except mine, are removed. So no one can sit down and bore me +while I am dining. Another trick I have to be left alone is +to carry a big roll of cable blanks, and I pretend to write +out cables if anyone tries to talk. Then I beckon the +messenger (he always sits in the plaza) and say "File that!" +and he goes once around the block and reports back that it is +"filed." If the bore renews the attack I write another cable, +and the unhappy messenger makes another tour. The band plays +from seven to eight every night. There are five bands, and I +saw no reason why there should not be music every evening. +After a day in this dirty hotel or dirty city a lively band +helps. Funston agreed, but forgot, until after three nights +with no band, I wrote him a letter. It was signed by fake +names, asking if he couldn't get nineteen German musicians +into a bandstand how could he hope to get ten thousand +soldiers into Mexico City. So now we have a band each night. +That is all my day. After dinner I sit at table and the men +bring up chairs, or else I go to some other table. There are +some damn fool women here who are a nuisance, and they now +have dancing in the hotel adjoining, but I don't know them, +except to bow, and I approve of the tango parties because it +keeps them away from the sidewalk. They ire "refugees," the +sort of folks you meet at Ocean Grove, or rather DON'T meet! +All love to you, and give Patrigh a pat from his Uncle Richard +for looking after you and looking for me, and remember me to +Louise and Shu and everything at home. I love you so. + +RICHARD. + + +VERA CRUZ, May 28, 1914. + +I want to be home to see the daisy field with you. That knee +you nearly busted tobogganing when the daisy field was an +iceberg is now recovered. + +The one and all came this morning and as I expected it was all +full of love from you. I DID get happiness out of the +thought you put in it. And all done in an hour. The +underclothes made me weep. I could get none here. Not +because Mexicans are not as large as I am, but because no +Mexican of any size would wear 'em. So I've had to wash the +few that the washer-woman didn't destroy myself. And when I +saw the lot you sent! It was like a white sale! Also the +quinine which I tasted just for luck, and the soap in the +little violet wrapper made me quite homesick. Especially was +I glad to get socks and pongee suits, and shirts. I really +was getting desperate. God knows what I would have done +without them. + +I want to see you so much, and I want to see you in the same +setting of other days, I want to walk with you in the daisy +field, and in the laurel blossoms, and clip roses. But to be +with you I'd be willing to walk on broken glass. Not you, +too. Just me. + +RICHARD. + + + +VERA CRUZ--June 4, 1914. +DEAR OLD MAN: + +I am awfully sorry for your sake, you could not get away. Of +course for myself I am glad that I am to see you and Dai. At +least, I hope I am. God alone knows when we will get out of +here. I am sick of it. Next time I go to war both armies must +fight for two months before I will believe they mean it, and +BEFORE I WILL BUDGE. + +It is true I am getting good money, but also there is +absolutely NOTHING to write about. Bryan doesn't know that +unless he talks by code every radio on sixteen ships can read +every message he sends to these waters. And the State +Department saying it could not understand the Hyranga giving +up her cargo is a damn silly lie. No one is so foolish as to +think the Chester and Tacomah let her land those arms +under their guns unless they had been told to submit to it. +And yet today, we get papers of the 29th in which Bryan says +he has twice cabled Badger for information, when for a week +Badger has been reading Bryan's orders to consuls to let the +arms be landed. Can you beat that? This is an awful place, +and if I don't write it is because I hate to harrow your +feelings. It is a town of flies, filth and heat. John +McCutcheon is the only friend I have seen, and he sensibly +lives on a warship. I can't do that, as cables come all the +time suggesting specials, and I am not paid to loaf. John is +here on a vacation, and can do as he pleases. But I ride +around like any cub reporter. And there is no news. Since I +left home I have not talked five minutes to a woman "or mean +to!" The Mexican women are a cross between apes and squaws. +Of all I have seen here nothing has impressed me so as the +hideousness of the women, girls, children, widows, +grandmothers. And the refugees, as Collier would say it, are +"terrible!" I live a very lonely existence. I find it works +out that way best. And at the same time all the correspondents +are good friends, and I don't find that there is +one of them who does not go out of his way to SHOW he is +friendly. What I CAN'T understand is why no one at home +never guesses I might like to read some of my own stories. . . . + +DICK. + + +Of these days in Vera Cruz John T. McCutcheon wrote the +following shortly after Richard's death: + +"Davis was a conspicuous figure in Vera Cruz, as he inevitably +had been in all such situations. Wherever he went, he was +pointed out. His distinction of appearance, together with a +distinction in dress, which, whether from habit or policy, was +a valuable asset in his work, made him a marked man. He +dressed and looked the `war correspondent,' such a one as he +would describe in one of his stories. He fulfilled the +popular ideal of what a member of that fascinating profession +should look like. His code of life and habits was as fixed as +that of the Briton who takes his habits and customs and games +and tea wherever he goes, no matter how benighted or remote +the spot may be. + +"He was just as loyal to his code as is the Briton. He +carried his bath-tub, his immaculate linen, his evening +clothes, his war equipment--in which he had the pride of a +connoisseur--wherever he went, and, what is more, he had the +courage to use the evening clothes at times when their use was +conspicuous. He was the only man who wore a dinner coat in +Vera Cruz, and each night, at his particular table in the +crowded `Portales,' at the Hotel Diligencia, he was to be +seen, as fresh and clean as though he were in a New York or +London restaurant. + +Each day he was up early to take the train out to the `gap,' +across which came arrivals from Mexico City. Sometimes a good +`story' would come down, as when the long-heralded and +long-expected arrival of Consul Silliman gave a first-page +`feature' to all the American papers. + +"In the afternoon he would play water polo over at the navy +aviation camp, and always at a certain time of the day his +`striker' would bring him his horse and for an hour or more he +would ride out along the beach roads within the American lines." + + . . . . . . . . . + + +On June 15 Richard sailed on the Utah for New York, arriving +there on the 22d. For a few weeks after his return he +remained at Mount Kisco completing his articles on the Mexican +situation but at the outbreak of the Great War he at once +started for Europe, sailing with his wife on August 4, the day +war was declared between England and Germany. + + + +On Lusitania--August 8, 1914. +DEAR CHAS: + +We got off in a great rush, as the Cunard people received +orders to sail so soon after the Government had told them to +cancel all passengers, that no one expected to leave by her, +and had secured passage on the Lorraine and St. Paul. + +They gave me a "regal" suite which at other times costs $1,000 +and it is so darned regal that I hate to leave it. I get +sleepy walking from one end of it to the other; and we have +open fires in each of the three rooms. Generally when one goes +to war it is in a transport or a troop train and the person of +the least importance is the correspondent. So, this way of going +to war I like. We now are a cruiser and are slowly being painted +grey, and as soon as they got word England was at war all +lights were put out and to find your way you light matches. +You can imagine the effect of this Ritz Carlton idea of a ship +wrapped in darkness. Gerald Morgan is on board, he is also +accredited to The Tribune, and Frederick Palmer. I do not +expect to be allowed to see anything but will try to join a +French army. I will leave Bessie near London with Louise at +some quiet place like Oxford or a village on the Thames. We +can "take" wireless, but not send it, so as no one is sending +and as we don't care to expose our position, we get no news. +We are running far North and it is bitterly cold. I think +Peary will sue us for infringing his copyrights. + +I will try to get in touch with Nora. I am worried lest she +cannot get at her money. As British subjects no other thing +should upset them. Address me American Embassy, London. +I send such love to you both. God bless you. +DICK. + + + +Richard arrived in Liverpool August 13, and made arrangements +for his wife to remain in London. Unable to obtain +credentials from the English authorities, he started for +Brussels and arrived there in time to see the entry of the +German troops, which he afterward described so graphically. +Indeed this article is considered by many to be one of the +finest pieces of descriptive writing the Great War has +produced. + +For several days after Brussels had come under the +control of the Germans Richard remained there and then +decided to go to Paris as the siege of the French +capital at the time seemed imminent. He and his friend +Gerald Morgan, who was acting as the correspondent of the +London Daily Telegraph, decided to drive to Hal and from +there to continue on foot until they had reached the English +or French armies where they knew they would be among friends. +At Hal they were stopped by the German officials and Morgan +wisely returned to Brussels. However, Richard having decided +to continue on his way, was promptly seized by the Germans and +held as an English spy. For a few days he had a most exciting +series of adventures with the German military authorities and +his life was frequently in danger. It was finally due to my +brother's own strategy and the prompt action of our Ambassador +to Belgium, Brand Whitlock, that he was returned to Brussels +and received his official release. + +On August 27, Richard left Brussels for Paris on a train +carrying English prisoners and German wounded, and en route +saw much of the burning and destruction of Louvain. + + + +BRUSSELS, August 17, 1914. +DEAREST: + +Write me soon and often! All is well here so long as I know +you are all right, so do not fail to tell me all, and keep me +in touch. If _I_ do not write much it is because letters do +not get through always, and are read. But you know I love +you, and you know twice each day I pray for you and wish for +you all the time. I feel as though I had been gone a month. +Gerald Morgan and I got in last night; this is a splendid new +hotel; for $2.50 I get a room and bath like yours on the +"royal suite," only bigger. This morning the minister did +everything he could for us. There are about twenty Americans who +want credentials. They say they will take no Americans, but to +our minister they said they would make exception in favor of +three, so I guess the three will be John McCutcheon, Palmer and +myself. John and I, if anyone gets a pass, are sure. With the +passes we had, Gerald and I started out in a yellow motor, +covered with flags of the Allies, and saw a great deal. How I +wished you were with me, you would so have loved it. The country +is absolutely beautiful. We were stopped every quarter mile to +show our passes and we got a working idea of how it will be. +Tonight I dined with Mr. Whitlock, the minister, and John +McCutcheon came in and Irving Cobb. John and I will get together +and go out. All you need is a motor car and you can go pretty +much everywhere, EXCEPT near where there is fighting. So what I +am to do to earn my wages I don't know. I am now going to bed +and I send my darlin' all love. Today I sent you a wire. If +it got to you let me know. Take such good care of yourself. +Remember me to Louise, and, WRITE ME. All love, DEAR, DEAR +one. My wife and my sweetheart. + +Your husband, + +RICHARD. + +The following is the last letter that got through. + + + +BRUSSELS, August 21, 1914. +DEAREST ONE: + +I cannot say much, as I doubt if this will be opened by you. +The German army came in and there was no fighting and I am +very well. I am only distressed at not being able to get +letters from you, and not being able to send them. I will write +a long one, and hold it until I am sure of some way by which it +can reach you. + +YOU KNOW WHAT I WOULD SAY. + + + + + +Mrs. Davis had waited in London to meet Richard on his return +from the war, but a misunderstanding as to the date of his +return, coupled with her strong sense of duty to his interests +at home, gave occasion for the letter which follows: + + +LONDON, August 31, 1914. +DEAREST ONE: + +Not since the Herald Square days have I had such a blow as +when I drove up to 10 Clarges, and found you gone! IT WAS +NOBODY'S FAULT! YOU WERE SO RIGHT to go; and I COULD NOT +COME. I am so distressed lest it was my cable saying I could +not get back that decided you to go before the fifth. But +Ashford says it was not. He tells me the cable came at +THREE in the morning and that you had arranged to be called +at six-thirty in order to leave for Scotland. So, for sending +that cable I need not blame myself too much. I sent you so +many messages I do not know which got through. But I think it +must have been one saying I could not return in time to see +you before the fifth. THEN, no trains were running. The +very NEXT DAY the Germans started a troop train, and I took +it. The reason I could not come by automobile was because I +had a falling out with the "mad dogs" and they would not give +me a pass. So Evans, with whom I was to motor to Holland, got +through Friday afternoon and sent the cable. As soon as I +reached Holland, I cabled I was coming and kept on +telegraphing every step of the journey, which lasted three +days. + +I telegraphed last from Folkestone; even telling you what to +have for my supper. As you directed, Ashford opened the +cables, and when I drove up, he was at the door in tears. He +had made a light in your rooms and, of course, as I looked up +I thought you still were in them. When they told me I was a +day late, I cried, too. It was the bitterest disappointment I +ever knew. I had taken the very first train out of Brussels, +the one with the wounded, and for three days had been having +one hell of a time. But I kept thinking of seeing you, and +hearing your dear voice. So the trip did not matter. I was +only thinking of SEEING YOU, and thanking God I was shut of +the dirty Germans. We had nothing to eat, and we slept on the +floor of the train, the Germans kept us locked in, and, all +through even Holland, we were under arrest. But nothing +mattered, because I was so happy at thought of meeting you. +As I said neither of us was at fault. You just HAD to go, +and I could NOT COME. But, you can feel how I felt to learn +you were at sea. + +I was so glad I could use your old rooms. I went to the table +where you used to write and was so glad I could at least be as +near to you as that. No other place in London could have held +me that night. Not Buckingham Palace. I found little things +you had left. I loved even the funny pictures on the wall +because we had talked of them together. It was ROTTEN, +ROTTEN luck. But only the Germans and their hellish war were +to blame. I drove straight to the cable office, and tried to +wireless you, knowing you would feel glad to know I was well, +and safe and sound. But the cable people could not send my +message. You were then out of reach of wireless, on the Irish +coast. And for nine days there was no way to tell you I had +come back as fast as trains and boats and the dirty Germans +would let me. Oh, my dear, dear one, HOW I LOVE you. If +only I could have seen you for just five minutes. As it was, +I thought for five days more we would be together. What I +shall do now, I don't know. I must go back with either the +French or the English until my contract expires, and then, I +can join you. Tomorrow I am trying to see Asquith and +Churchill to get with the army. And I will at once return +across the channel. But, do not worry! I will never again +let a German come within ONE MILE of me! After this, +between me and the Germans, there will be some hundreds of +thousands of English or French. So after this reaches you I +will soon be on my way HOME. Don't worry. Get James back +and Amelia and everyone else who can make you comfortable, and +trust in the good Lord. I have your cross and St. Rita around +my neck, and in spite of what the Kaiser says, God is looking +after other people than Germans. Certainly he has taken good +care of me. And he will guard you, and our "blessed" one. +And in a little time, dear, DEAR heart, I will be back, and +I will become a grocer. God love you and keep you, as he +does. And you will never know HOW I LOVE YOU! Good night, +dearest, sweetheart and wife! I am writing this at your +table, and, thanking God you are going to the farm, and to +peace and happiness. I SEND YOU ALL THE LOVE IN ALL THE WORLD. + +RICHARD. + + +LONDON, September 3rd. +MY DEAREST ONE: + +It was a full moon again tonight and I think you were on deck +and saw it, because by now, you have passed the four days at sea +and should be in the St. Lawrence. So I knew you saw the moon, +too, and I sent you a kiss, via it. It was just over St. James +Palace but also it was just over you. + +Today has been a day of worries. Wheeler cabled that the +papers wanted me to be "neutral" and not write against the +Germans. As I am not interested in the German vote, or in +advertising of German breweries (such a hard word to SAY) I +thought, considering the EXCLUSIVE stories I had sent them, +instead of kicking, they ought to be sending me a few +bouquets. Especially, as I got cables from Gouvey, Whigham, +Scribner's and others congratulating me on the anti-German +stories. So I cabled Wheeler to tell papers of his syndicate, +dictation from them as to what I should write was +"unexpected," that they could go to name-of-place censored and +that if he wished I would release him from his contract +tonight. Considering that without credentials I was with +French, Belgian and German armies and saw entry of Germans +into Brussels and sacking of Louvain and got arrested as a +spy, they were a bit ungrateful. I am now wondering WHAT I +would have seen HAD I HAD credentials. + +I saw Anthony Hope at the club last night. He had to go back +to the country, so I dined alone on English oysters. Fancy +anyone being NEUTRAL in this war! Germany dropping bombs in +Paris and Antwerp on women and churches and scattering mines +in the channel where they blow up fishermen and burning the +cathedrals! A man who now would be neutral would be a coward. +Good night, NEAR, DEAR, DEAR one. It has been several weeks +since I had sleep, so if I rave and wander in my letters +forgive me. You know how I am thinking of you. God bless you. +God keep you for me. + +Your husband who loves you SO! + + +LONDON, September 7th. +DEAREST: + +I just got your cable saying you were at the farm, and well! +HOW HAPPY IT MADE ME! I cabled you to Quebec, and to Mt. +Kisco, and when two days passed and I heard nothing, today I +was scared, so I cabled Gouvey to look after you, and also to +Wheeler. I went to the Brompton Oratory today, which is the +second most important church here (the cardinal lives at +Westminster) and burned the BIGGEST CANDLE they had for you +and the "blessing." A big woman all in black was kneeling in +the little chapel and when I could not get the candle to stand +up, she beckoned to one of the priests, and he ran and fixed +it. Then she went on praying. And WHO do you think she +was? Queen Amelie of Portugal, you see her pictures in the +Tattler and Sphere opening bazaars. So she must be very +good or she would not be saying her prayers all alone with the +poor people and seeing that my Bessie's candle was burning. I +have been waiting here hoping to get some sort of credentials +from Kitchener. But though Winston Churchill has urged him, +and tomorrow is going to urge him again, they give me no hope. +So I'll just go over "on my own" and I bet I'll see more than +anyone else. I have fine papers, anyhow. I am now writing +Scribner article, so THAT is off my mind. And now that +you are home, I have no "worries." I wish I had got your cable +earlier. I would have had oysters and champagne in +BATH TUBS. Give my love to all the flowers, and to Shea and +Paedrig, and Tom, and Louise, and Gouvey and the lake. And +take SUCH good care of yourself, and love me, and be happy +for I do so love you dear one. I DO SO LOVE YOU. + +YOUR HUSBAND. + + +September 15th. +DEAREST: + +Tonight I got your cable in answer to mine asking if you were +well. All things considered twenty-four hours was not so long +for them to get the answer to me. You BET I will be +careful. I don't want to get nearer to a German than twenty +miles. At the battlefield I collected five German spiked +helmets but at the Paris gate they took ALL of them from me. +I WAS mad! I wanted to keep them in my "gym," and pound +them with Indian clubs. I wrote all day yesterday, so today I +did not work. There is nothing more here to do. And as soon +as my contract is up October 1st, I will make towards YOU! +Seeing the big battle was great luck. So far I have seen more +than anyone. I have had no credentials; and yet have been +with ALL the armies. Now I am just beating time, until I +can get home. The fighting is too far away even if I could go +to it. But I can't without being arrested. And I am fed up +on being arrested. Today all the little children came out of +doors. They have been locked up for fear of airships. It was +fine to see them playing in the Champs Elysees and making +forts out of pebbles, and rolling hoops. + +God loves you, dear one, and I trust in Him. But I am awful +sick for a sight of you. What a lot we will have to tell each +other. One thing I never have to tell you, but it makes me +happy when I can. It is this: I LOVE YOU! And every minute +I think of you. + +With all my love. + +Your + +RICHARD. + + + +PARIS, September 15th, 1914. +DEAR CHAS.: + +I got this morning your letter of August 25th. In it you say +kind things about my account of the Germans entering Brussels. +Nothing so much pleases me as to get praise from you or to +know my work pleases you. Since the Germans were pushed in +every one here is breathing again. But for me it was bad as +now the armies are too far to reach by taxicab, and if you are +caught anywhere outside the city you are arrested and as a +punishment sent to Tours. Eight correspondents, among them +two Times men and John Reed and Bobby Dunn, were sent to +Tours Sunday. I had another piece of luck that day with +Gerald Morgan. I taxicabed out to Soissons and saw a wonderful +battle. So, now I can go home in peace. Had I been +forced to return without seeing any fighting I never would +have lived it down. I am in my old rooms of years ago. I got +the whole imperial suite for eight francs a day. It used to +be 49 francs a day. Of course, Paris that closes tight at +nine is hardly Paris, but the beauty of the city never so much +impressed me. There is no fool running about to take your +mind off the gardens and buildings. What MOST makes me know +I am in Paris, though, are the packages of segars lying on the +dressing table. Give my love to Dai, and tell her I hope soon +to see you. The war correspondent is dead. My only chance +was to get with the English who will take one American and +asked Bryan to choose, he passed it to the Press Association +and they chose Palmer. But I don't believe the official +correspondents will be allowed to see much. I saw the Germans +enter Brussels, the burning of Louvain and the Battle of +Soissons and had a very serious run in with the Germans and +nearly got shot. But now if you go out, every man is after +you, and even the gendarmes try to arrest you. It is +sickening. For never, of course, was there such a chance to +describe things that everyone wants to read about. Again my +love to Dai and you. I will see you soon. + +RICHARD. + + +In October Richard returned to the United States and settled +down to complete his first book on the war. During this +period and indeed until the hour of his death my brother +devoted the greater part of his time to the cause of the +Allies. He had always believed that the United States should +have entered the war when the Germans first outraged Belgium, +and to this effect he wrote many letters to the newspapers. +In addition to this he was most active in various of the +charities devoted to the causes of the Allies, wrote a number +of appeals, and contributed money out of all proportion to his +means. The following appeal he wrote for the Secours +National: + +"You are invited to help women, children and old people in +Paris and in France, wherever the war has brought desolation +and distress. To France you owe a debt. It is not alone the +debt you incurred when your great grandfathers fought for +liberty, and to help them, France sent soldiers, ships and two +great generals, Rochambeau and La Fayette. You owe France +for that, but since then you have incurred other debts. + +"Though you may never have visited France, her art, +literature, her discoveries in Science, her sense of what is +beautiful, whether in a bonnet, a boulevard or a triumphal +arch, have visited you. For them you are the happier; and for +them also, to France you are in debt. + +"If you have visited Paris, then your debt is increased a +hundred fold. For to whatever part of France you journeyed, +there you found courtesy, kindness, your visit became a +holiday, you departed with a sense of renunciation; you were +determined to return. And when after the war, you do revisit +France, if your debt is unpaid, can you without embarrassment +sink into debt still deeper? What you sought Paris gave you +freely. Was it to study art or to learn history, for the +history of France is the history of the world; was it to dine +under the trees or to rob the Rue de la Paix of a new model; +was it for weeks to motor on the white roads or at a cafe +table watch the world pass? Whatever you sought, you found. +Now, as in 1776 we fought, to-day France fights for freedom, +and in behalf of all the world, against militarism that is +`made in Germany.' + +"Her men are in the trenches; her women are working in the +fields, sweeping the Paris boulevards, lighting the street +lamps. They are undaunted, independent, magnificently +capable. They ask no charity. But from those districts the +war has wrecked, there are hundreds of thousands of women and +little children without work, shelter or food. To them +throughout the war zone the Secours National gives instant +relief. In one day in Paris alone it provides 80,000 +free meals. Six cents pays for one of these meals. One +dollar from you will for a week keep a woman or child alive. + +"The story is that one man said, `In this war the women and +children suffer most. I'm awfully sorry for them!' and the +other man said, `Yes I'm five dollars sorry. How sorry are +you?' + +"If ever you intend paying that debt you owe to France do not +wait until the war is ended. Now, while you still owe it, do +not again impose yourself upon her hospitality, her courtesy, +her friendship. + +"But, pay the debt now. + +"And then, when next in Paris you sit at your favorite table +and your favorite waiter hands you the menu, will you not the +more enjoy your dinner if you know that while he was fighting +on the Aisne, it was your privilege to help a little in +keeping his wife and child alive." + +The winter of 1914-15 Richard and his wife spent in New York, +and on January 4, 1915, their baby, Hope, was born. No event +in my brother's life had ever brought him such infinite +happiness, and during the short fifteen months that remained +to him she was seldom, if ever, from his thoughts, and no +father ever planned more carefully for a child's future than +Richard did for his little daughter. + +On April 11 my brother and his wife took Hope to Crossroads +for the first time. In his diary of this time he writes, +"Only home in the world is the one I own. Everything belongs. +It is so comfortable and the lake and the streams in the woods +where you can get your feet wet. The thrill of thinking a +stump is a trespasser! You can't do that on ten acres." + +A cause in which Richard was enormously interested +at this time was that of the preparedness of his own country, +and for it he worked unremittingly. In August, 1915, he went +to Plattsburg, where he took a month of military training. + + +PLATTSBTTRG, N. Y. + +August, 1915. +DEAR OLD MAN: + +This is a very real thing, and STRENUOUS. I know now why +God invented Sunday. The first two days were mighty hard, and +I had to work extra to catch up. I don't know a darned thing, +and after watching soldiers for years, find that I have picked +up nothing that they have to learn. The only things I have +learned don't count here, as they might under marching +conditions. My riding I find is quite good, and so is my +rifle shooting. As you could always beat me at that you can +see the conditions are not high. But being used to the army +saddle helps me a lot. I have a steeple chaser on one side +and a M. F. H. on the other, and they can't keep in the +saddle, and hate it with bitter oaths. The camp commander +told me that was a curious development; that the best +gentlemen jockeys and polo players on account of the saddle, +were sore, in every sense. Yesterday I rose at 5-30, +assembled for breakfast at six, took down tent to ventilate +it, when a cloud meanly appeared, and I had to put it up +again. Then in heavy marching order we drilled two hours as +skirmishers, running and hurling ourselves at the earth, like +falling on the ball, and I always seemed to fall where the +cinder path crossed the parade ground. We got back in time to +clean ourselves for dinner at noon. And then practised firing +at targets. At two we were drilled as cavalry in extended +order. We galloped to a point, advanced on foot, were driven +back by an imaginary enemy, and remounted. We galloped as a +squadron, and the sight was really remarkable when you think the +men had been together only four days. But the horses had been +doing it for years. All I had to do to mine was to keep on. He +knew what was wanted as well as did the Captain. After that +we put on our packs and paraded at retreat to the band. Then +had supper and listened to a lecture. I ache in every bone, +muscle, and joint. But the riding has not bothered me. It is +only hurling the damned rifle at myself. At nine I am sound +asleep. It certainly is a great experience, and, all the men +are helping each other and the spirit is splendid. The most +curious meetings come off and all kinds of men are at it from +college kids to several who are great grand fathers. Russell +Colt turned up and was very funny over his experiences. He +said he saluted everybody and one man he thought was a general +and stood at attention to salute was a Pullman car conductor. +The food is all you want, and very good. I've had nothing to +drink, but sarsaparilla, but with the thirst we get it is the +best drink I know. I have asked to have no letters forwarded +and if I don't write I hope you will understand as during the +day there is not a minute you are your own boss and at night I +am too stiff and sleepy to write. + +All love to you. + +DICK. + + + +DEAREST: + +It is now seven-thirty, and I have had twelve busy hours. +They made me pass an examination as though for Sing Sing, then +a man gave me a gun that at first weighed eight pounds and +then twenty. He made me do all sorts of things with it, such as +sentries used to do to me. Then I was given the gun to keep, and +packs, beds, blankets, and I made myself at home in a tent; then +I was moved to another tent with five other men. Then I got a +horse and they galloped us up and down a field for two hours. I +lost ten pounds. Then we were marched around to a band. I +had a sergeant on either side of me, so I did not go wrong, +OFTEN. Then, aching in every bone and with my head filled +with orders and commands, I got into the lake and escaped. +You can believe I enjoyed that bath. It certainly is a fine +thing, and I am glad I enrolled (for every one has been as +nice as could be), but I miss you and Hope terribly. It seems +years since I saw you. I am going to my cot quick. It is now +eight o'clock, and I feel like I had been beaten in a stone +crusher. Kiss Hope's foot for me. + +Your loving husband, + +DICK. + + +Monday. +DEAREST ONE: + +I got such a beautiful letter from you! With pictures of +Hope playing with the Bunny. It is the best picture yet. I +carry it next to my heart because you made it, because it is +of her. And she sits up now? Well, I will miss the big +clothes-basket. I loved to see her in it. Years ago, when I +left home, she was trying to crawl out of it. What you tell +me of her--knowing what you mean when you say "Kitty" and +"Bunny"--is wonderful. How good it will be! You must come +close under my arm, and tell me every little thing. I feel so +much better now that we have broken into the last week, and +are on the home stretch. We have broken the backbone of the +long absence, and, the first thing you know, I'll be telephoning +to have you meet me at White Plains. + +This is me sewing up a hole in my breeches. The socks are +drying on the line, my rubber bath is on the right. I am now +going to Canada. But I'll be back in half an hour; it's only +200 yards distant. All the folks here are French, and the +signs are in French. Last place we halted I bought +lumberman's socks to wear at night. I sleep very well, for I +buy my raincoat full of hay from the nearest farmer, and sleep +on that. Today we had another "battle." It began at 7.30 +and ended at one o'clock. We were kept going all that time, +taking "cover" behind railroad embankments and stone walls and +in plowed fields, finally ending with a bayonet charge. I +killed so many I stopped counting. + +Don't let Hope forget her father. Better put on a wrist-watch +and my horn spectacles, and hold her the wrong way, so she +will be reminded of her Dad. + +Good-night, my dearest one. You will never know how terribly +I miss you and love you, and want you in my arms, and you +holding Hope so that I can have all my happiness in one big +armful of all that is good. + +YOUR LOVING HUSBAND. + + + +Wednesday. +DEAREST ONE: + +The Vitagraph people came today. They have a great film to +stir people to preparedness called "The Battle Cry of Peace." +It shows New York destroyed by Germans. They took pictures of +several of the better-known men showing "them" preparing. I +was taken cleaning my rifle, and, as the captain was passing, +I asked him to get in the picture with me and be shown +instructing me. He was delighted, but right in the middle of +the picture he "inspected" my barrel. I had not cleaned it, +and he forgot the camera, and gave me the devil. You can +imagine how the crowd roared, and the camera director man was +delighted. I wanted it retaken showing the captain patting me +on the back. + +Roosevelt turned up today, and was very nice. Martin Egan +came with him and the British Naval Attache, and they have +asked me to dine at a real table at Hotel Champlain with two +other men. It will be fine to eat off china. The "hike" +begins Friday, and we sleep each night on the ground, but the +country we march through is beautiful. All that counts is +getting the days behind me and getting you in my arms. Doing +one's "bit" for one's country is right, but as the man said, +"God knows I love my country and want to fight for her, but I +hope to God I never love another country." Good-night, dear, +dear one! How wonderful it will be to see and hear you again. +Kiss Hope for her Dad. + +RICHARD. + + +Saturday. +DEAREST: + +This is writing with all the love, but with difficulties. I +am sitting on a log and the light is a candle. Today we had +our first fight. It happened the squad of eight men I am in +was sent in advance, and I was 100 yards in front, so I was +the first to come in touch with the scouts of the Red Army, +and I killed a lot. My squad was so brave that we all got +killed THREE TIMES. But as soon as the umpire rode away we +would come to life, and go on fighting. Finally, he took us +prisoners, and made us sit down and look on at the battle. As we +had been running around and each carrying a forty-pound pack, we +were glad to remain dead. But we have declared that nothing +can kill us tomorrow but asphyxiating gas. I have terrible +nightmares for fear something has happened to one of you, and +then I trust in the good Lord, and pray him to make the time +pass swiftly. + +Good-night, and all the love and kisses for you both. + +RICHARD. + + +On October 19, 1915, Richard sailed on the Chicago for +France and his second visit to the Great War. He arrived at +Paris on October 30, and shortly afterward visited the Western +front at Amiens and Artois. He also interviewed Poincare, and +through him the French President sent a message to the +American people. At this time my brother had received +permission from the authorities to visit all of the twelve +sectors of the French front under particularly advantageous +conditions, and was naturally most anxious to do so. However, +through a misunderstanding between the syndicate he +represented and certain of the newspapers using its service, +he found it advisable, even although against his own judgment, +to go to Greece, and to postpone his visit to the sectors of +the French front he had not already seen. On November 13 he +left Paris bound for Salonica. + + +On Way to France, Oct. 18, 1915. +DEAREST ONE: + +You are much more brave than I am. Anyway, you are much +better behaved. For all the time you were talking I was +crying, not with my eyes only, but with ALL of me. I am so sad. +I love you so, and I will miss you so. I want you to keep saying +to yourself all the time, "This is the most serious effort he +ever made, because the chances of seeing anything are so SMALL, +and because never had he such a chance to HELP. But, all the +time, every minute he thinks of me. He wants me. He misses my +voice, my eyes, my presence at his side when he walks or +sleeps. He never loved me so greatly, or at leaving me was so +unhappy as he is now." + +Goodby, dear heart. My God-given one! Would it not be +wonderful, if tonight when I am up among the boats on the top +deck that girl in the Pierrot suit, and in her arms Hope, +came, and I took them and held them both? You will walk with +her at five, and I will walk and think of you and love you and +long for you. + +God keep you, dearest of wives, and mothers. + +RICHARD. + + +October 24. +MY DEAR DAUGHTER: + +So many weeks have passed since I saw you that by now you are +able to read this without your mother looking over your +shoulder and helping you with the big words. I have six sets +of pictures of you. Every day I take them down and change +them. Those your dear mother put in glass frames I do not +change. Also, I have all the sweet fruits and chocolates and +red bananas. How good of you to think of just the things your +father likes. Some of them I gave to a little boy and girl. +I play with them because soon my daughter will be as big. +They have no mother like you, OF COURSE; they have no mother +like YOURS--for except my mother there never was a mother like +yours; so loving, so tender, so unselfish and thoughtful. If she +is reading this, kiss her for me. These little children have a +little father. He dresses them and bathes them himself. He +is afraid of the cold; and sits in the sun; and coughs and +shivers. His children and I play hide-and-seek, and, as you +will know some day, for that game there is no such place as a +steamer, with boats and ventilators and masts and alleyways. +Some day we will play that game hiding behind the rocks and +trees and rose bushes. Every day I watch the sun set, and +know that you and your pretty mother are watching it, too. +And all day I think of you both. + +Be very good. Do not bump yourself. Do not eat matches. Do +not play with scissors or cats. Do not forget your dad. +Sleep when your mother wishes it. Love us both. Try to know +how we love you. THAT you will never learn. Good-night and +God keep you, and bless you. + +YOUR DAD. + + +PARIS, November 1. +DEAREST ONE: + +Today is "moving" day, and I feel like ---- censored word, at +the thought of your having the moving to direct and manage by +yourself. I can picture Barney and Burke loading, and +unloading, and coal and wood being stored, and provisions and +ice, and finally Hope brought down to take her +third--no--fourth motor ride. And God will see she makes it +all safely, and that in her new house you are comfortable. + +Last night I dreamed about Hope and you, a long dream, and it +made me so happy. Something happened today that you will like +to hear. When the war came the French students at the Beaux +Arts had to go to fight. The wives and children had nothing to +live on. So, the American students, about a dozen of them, +organized a relief league. The Beaux Arts is in a most wonderful +palace built by Cardinal Richelieu and decorated later by +Napoleon. In this they were gathering socks, asphyxiating masks, +warm clothes. They were hand painting postcards for fifty cents +apiece. The "masters" as they call their teachers, also were +painting them. I gave them some money which was received +politely, but, as it would not go far, without much +enthusiasm. As I was going, I said, "I'll be back tomorrow to +get some facts and I'll write a story about what you're doing." +This is the part that is embarrassing to write, but you will +understand. They gave a cheer and a yell just as though I had +said, "Peace is declared" or "I will give you Carnegie's +fortune." And they danced around, and shook hands, and +Whitney Warren, who is at the head of it, all but cried. +Later, he told me the letter I had written for his wife's fund +for orphans by the war had brought in $5000, that was why they +were so pleased. So we, you and I, will try to look at it +that way, and try to believe that from this separation, which +is cruel for us, others may get some benefit. Tomorrow, I am +to be received at the Elysee by the President, and I am going +to try to make him say something that will draw money from +America for the French hospitals. If he will only ask, I know +our people will give. In a day or two, I think I will be +allowed to see something, but, that you will know best by +reading The Times. + +Your loving husband is lonely for you, and so it will be always. + +RICHARD. + + +November 17th. +DEAR SWEETHEART: + +My last letter was such a complaining one that I am ashamed. +But, not leaving me to decide what was best for the papers, +made me mad. Since I wrote, I ought to be madder, for I have +been to the trenches outside of Rheims in Champagne; and, had +they not deviled the spirit out of me with cables, I believe I +could have written such a lot of stories of France that no one +else has had the opportunity to write. Believe me no one has +yet told the story of the trench war. Anyway, in spite of all +the photographs and articles, to me it was all new. I was +allowed to go alone, and given carte blanche to see whatever +I wished. I saw everything, but it would not be possible to +write of it yet. It was wonderful. I was in the three lines, +reaching the FIRST line by moonlight. No one spoke above a +whisper. The Germans were only 300 to 400 yards distant. But +worst of all were the rats. They ran over my feet and I was a +darned sight more afraid of them than the Germans. I saw the +Cathedral, and the only hotel open (from which I sent you and +Hope a postal) was the same one in which we stopped a year +ago. I had sent the hotel my book in which I said +complimentary things, and I got a great welcome. They even +gave me a room with a fire in it, and so I was warm for the +first time since I left the Crossroads. And this morning it +SNOWED. On my way back to Paris, I stopped to tell the +General what I had seen and to thank him. He said, "Oh, that +is nothing. When you return, I will take you out myself, and +I will show you something worth while." I am going to carry a +rat-trap, and two terriers on a leash. Tonight, when I got +back, there was a letter from you, but no writing, +but there was a photo of Her, and me holding her. How is it +possible that any living thing is so beautiful as my child? +How fat, and wonderful, and dear, and lovable, and how +terribly I want to hold her as I am holding her in the +picture, and how much better as I really don't need my left +arm to hold such a mite), if I had you close to me in it. I +miss you so, and love you so! I told Wheeler before I left as +I was not going to waste time traveling I would not go to +Servia. So, as soon as I arrived, I was fretted with cables +to go. I cabled to stop giving me advice, that I had a much +better chance in France than anyone could have anywhere else. +Maybe, before I arrive, the Greeks will have joined the +Germans, in which case, I WON'T LEAVE THE SHIP. I'll come +straight back on her to the Allies. + +RICHARD. + + +November 20th. + +This is the way Hope's cat looks, "My whiskers!" she says, "I +never knew I was to be let in for anything like this!" When I +told her about the big rats in the trenches she wanted to go +with me next time, but, today when I told her that the Crown +Prince of Servia made his servants eat live mice (he is no +longer Crown Prince), she looked just as she does in the +picture. "Then, what do _I_ eat in Servia?" she said, and I +told her both of us would live on goat's milk. + +You will be glad when I tell you I have been, warm. We came +pretty far south in two days, and, the damp chill of Paris is +gone. On the train a funny thing happened. An English +officer and I got talking and he was press censor at Salonica +where I am going after Athens. I asked him to look over the +many letters I had and tell me if any of them would be likely +to get me in bad, being addressed to pro-Germans, for example. +He said, "Well, THIS chap is all right anyway. I'll vouch +for him, because this letter is addressed to me." + +SEE THE CAT! +HOPE GAVE THE CAT TO HER DAD. +IS THE CAT SAD? +YES +IS THE DAD SAD? +VERY!! +WHY IS THE CAT AND THE DAD SAD? +THEY WANT HOME AND HOPE. +DO THEY LOVE HOPE? +DON'T MAKE THEM LAUGH! + + + +We leave, the Basses, the English officer and +I, in a small tub of a boat for Patras, and train to Athens. +I will try to go at once to Servia. Harjes, who are the Paris +house of J. P. Morgan, gave me a "mission" to try and organize +for the Servians the same form of relief as has been arranged +for the Belgians. He gave me permission if I saw the need for +help was imminent (and it will be) to cable him for whatever I +thought the Serbs most needed. So, it is a chance to do much. +To get out news will be impossible. However, here I am and +tomorrow I'll be good and seasick. + +I have your charm around my neck, and all the pictures, and +the luck-bringing cat, and the scapular, and the love you give me +to keep me well and bring us soon together. That is the one +thing I want. God bless you both, Hope's dad and your husband. + + + +ATHENS, + +November 26th. +DEAR HEART: + +I am off tonight for Salonica. I am not very cheerful for I +miss you very, very terribly, and the further I go, the worse +I feel. But now I am nearly as far as I can get, and when you +receive this I will--thank God--be turned back to Paris, and +London, and HOME! I thought so often of you this morning +when I took a holiday and climbed the Acropolis. On the top +of it I picked a dandelion for you. It was growing between +the blocks of marble that have been there since 400 years +before our Lord: before St. Paul preached to the Athenians. I +was all alone on the rock, and could see over the AEgean Sea, +Corinth, Mount Olympus, where the Gods used to sit, and the +Sphinx lay in wait for travelers with her famous riddle. It +takes two days and one night to go to Salonica, and the boats +are so awful no one undresses but sleeps in his clothes on top +of the bed. + +Goodby, sweetheart, and give SUCH a kiss to my precious +daughter. How beautiful she is. Even the waiter who brought +me a card stopped to exclaim about her picture. So, of +course, being not at all proud I showed him her in my arms. I +want you both so and I love you both SO. And, I wanted you +so this morning as I always do when there is a beautiful +landscape, or flowers, or palms. I know how you love them. +The dandelion is very modest and I hope the censor won't lose +it out, for she has a long way to go and carries a burden of +love. I wish I was bringing them in the door of the Scribner +cottage at this very minute. + +RICHARD. + + +VOLO, November 27. + +I got here today, after the darnedest voyage of two days in a +small steamer. We ran through a snow storm and there was no +way to warm the boat. So, I DIED. You know how cold +affects me--well--this was the coldest cold I ever died of. I +poured alcohol in me, and it was like drinking iced tea. Now, +I am on shore in a cafe near a stove. We continue on to +Salonica at midnight. There are 24 men and one woman, Mrs. +Bass, on board. I am much too homesick to write more than to +say I love you, and I miss you and Hope so, that I don't look +at the photos. Did you get the cable I sent +Thanksgiving--from Athens, it read: "Am giving thanks for +Hope and you." I hope the censor let that get by him. The +boat I was on was a refrigerator ship; it was also peculiar in +that the captain dealt baccarat all day with the passengers. +It was a sort of floating gambling house. This is certainly a +strange land. Snow and roses and oranges, all at once. I +must stop. I'm froze. Give the kiss I want to give to Her, +and know, oh! how I love and love and love her mother--NEVER +SO MUCH AS NOW. + + +SALONICA November 30th, 1915. +DEAR OLD MAN: + +I got here to night and found it the most picturesque spot I +ever visited. I am glad I came. It was impossible to get a +room but I found John McCutcheon and two other men occupying a +grand suite and they have had a cot put in for me. To-morrow +I hope to get a room. The place is filled with every nation +except Germans and even they are here out of uniforms. We had +a strange time coming. The trip from Athens should have taken +two nights and a day but we took four. The Captain of the +boat anchored and played baccarat whenever he thought there +were enough passengers not seasick to make it worth his while. +He played from eleven in the morning until four in the +morning. I don't know now who ran the ship. It is so cold +when you bathe, the steam runs off you. I never have suffered +so. But, it looked as though every one else was singing "Its +going to be a hard, hard winter" from the way they, dress. +Tomorrow I am going to buy fur pants. You can't believe what +a picture it is. Servians, French, Greeks, Scots in kilts, +London motor cars, Turks, wounded and bandaged Tommies and +millions of them fighting for food, for drink, for a place at +the "movies," and more "rumors" than there are words in the +directory. To-morrow, I present my letters and hope to get to +the "front." I only hope the front doesn't come to us. But, +it ought to be a place for great stories. All love to you old +man, and bless you both. How I look forward to our first +lunch in your wonderful home! And to sit in front of your +fire, and hear all the news. All love to you both. + +RICHARD. + + +December 6, 1915. +DEAREST ONE: + +I have been away so could not write. They took us to the +French and English "front" and away from Greece; we were in +Bulgaria and Servia. It was at a place where the three +boundaries met. We saw remarkable mountain ranges and deep +snow, and some fine artillery. But throwing shells into that +bleak, white jumble of snow and rocks--there was fifty miles of +it--was like throwing a baseball at the Rocky Mountains. Still, +it was seeing something. Now, I have a room, and a very +wonderful one. I had to bribe everyone in the hotel to get +it; and I have something to write and, no more moving about I +hope, for at least a week. I am able to see the ships at +anchor for miles, and the landing stage for all the warships +is just under my window. As near as McCoy Rock from the +terrace. It is like a moving picture all the time. I bought +myself an oil stove and a can of Standard oil, and, instead of +trying to warm the hotel with my body, I let George do it. +But it is a very small stove, and to really get the good of +it, I have to sit with it between my legs. Still, it is such +a relief to be alone, and not to pack all the time. +McCutcheon and Bass, Hare and Shepherd are fine, but I felt +like the devil, imposing on them, and working four in a room +is no joke. We dine together each night. Except them, I see +no one, but have been writing. Also, I have been collecting +facts about Servian relief. Harjes, Morgan's representative +in Paris, gave me carte blanche to call on him for money or +supplies; but I waited until today to cable, so as to be sure +where help was most needed. It is still cold, but that +AWFUL cold spell was quite unprecedented and is not likely +to come again. I NEVER suffered so from cold, and, as you +know, I suffer considerable. All the English officers who had +hunted in cold places, said neither had they ever felt such +cold. Seven hundred Tommies were frost bitten and toes and +fingers fell off. I do not say anything about how awful it is +not to hear. But, if I had had your letters forwarded to this +dump of the Levant, I never would have got them. Now, I have to +wait for them until I get to Paris, but there I will surely get +them. Cables, of course, can reach me, but no cables mean to me +that you are all right. Nor do I want to "talk" about Christmas. + +You know how I feel about that, and about missing the first one +SHE has had. But it will be the LAST one we will know apart. +Never again! + +I want you in my arms and to hear you laugh and see your eyes. +I am in need of you to make a fuss over me. McCutcheon and +Co. don't care whether I have cold hands or not. You do. +Your ointment and gloves saved my fingers from falling off +like the soldiers' did. And your "housewife" I use to put on +buttons, and, your scapular and medal keep me well. But your +love is what really lifts me up and consoles me. When I think +how you and I care for each other, then, I am scared, for it +is very beautiful. And we must not ever be away from each +other again. God keep you my beloved, and both my blessings. +I cannot bear it--when I think of all I am missing of her, +and, all that she is doing. God guard you both. My darling +and dear wife and mother of Hope. + +Your husband, + +RICHARD. + + +SALONICA, December 18th. + +DEAREST WIFE AND SWEETHEART: + +I am very blue tonight, and NEVER was so homesick. +Yesterday just to feel I was in touch with you I sent a cable +through the fog, it said, "Well, homesick, all love to you +both." I did not ask if you and Hope were well, because I +KNOW the good Lord will not let any harm come to you. I am +certainly caught by the heels this time. And it will be the last +time. As you know, I meant only to go to France where no time +would be wasted in travel, and I would be able to get back soon. +But the blockade held up the ship and on the other one the +captain stayed at anchor, and, then when I got here, the Allies +retreated, and I had to stay on to cover what is to come next. +What that is, or whether nothing happens, you will know by the +time this reaches you. So, here I am. For TEN days until +this morning we have never seen the sun. In sixty years +nothing like it has happened. The Salonicans said the English +transports brought the fog with them. Anyway, I got it. My +room is right on the harbor. I never thought I would LOVE +an oil stove. I always thought they were ill-smelling, +air-destroying. But this one saved my life. I wrote with it +between my knees, I dry my laundry on it, and use the tin pan +on top of it to take the dampness out of the bed. The fog +kept everything like a sponge. Coal is thirty dollars a ton. +To get wood for firewood the boatmen row miles out, and wait +below the transports to get the boxes they throw overboard. I +go around asking EVERYBODY if this place is not now a dead +duck for news. But they all give me no encouragement. They +say it is the news center of the world. I hope it chokes. I +try to comfort myself by thinking you are happy, because you +have Hope, and I have nobody, except John McCutcheon and Bass +and Jimmie Hare, and they are as blue as I am, and no one can +get any money. I cabled today to Wheeler for some via the +State Department. I went to the Servian camp for the little +orphans whose fathers have been killed, and they all knelt and +kissed my hands. It was awful. I thought of Hope, and hugged +a few and carried them around in my arms and felt much better. +Today for the first time, I quit work and went to see an American +film at the cinema to cheer me. But when I saw the streetcars, +and "ready to wear" clothes, and the policemen I got suicidal. I +went back and told the others and they all rushed off to see +"home" things, and are there now. This is a yell of a letter, +but it's the only kind I can write. My stories and cables are +rotten, too. I have seen nothing--just traveled and waited for +something to happen. Goodnight, dearest one. I love you so. +You will never know how much I love you. Kiss my darling for +me, and, think only of the good days when we will be together +again. Such good days. Goodnight again--all love. + +RICHARD. + + +HARBOR SALONICA, December 19th. + +I am a happy man tonight! And that is the first time I have +been able to say so since I left you. The backbone of the +trip is broken! and my face is turned West--toward you and +Hope. John McCutcheon gave me a farewell dinner tonight of +which I got one half, as the police made me go on board at +nine, although we do not sail until five in the morning. So +there was time for only one toast, as I was making for the +door. Was it to your husband? It was not. It was to Hope +Davis, two weeks yet of being one year old, and being toasted +by the war correspondents in Salonica. They knew it would +please me. And I went away very choken and happy. SUCH a +boat as this is! I have a sofa in the dining-room, and at +present it is jammed with refugees and all smoking and not an +air port open. What a relief it will be to once more get +among clean people. We must help the Servians, and God knows +they need help. But, if they would help each other, or +themselves, I would like them better. I am now on deck under the +cargo light and, on the top floor of the Olympus Hotel, can see +John's dinner growing gayer and gayer. It is like the man who +went on a honeymoon alone. I am so happy tonight. You seem so +near now that I am coming West. + +How terribly I have missed you, and wanted you, and longed for +your voice and LAUGH, and to have you open the door of my +writing room, and say, "A lady is coming to call on you," and +then enter the dearest wife and dearest baby in the world! + +God bless you, and all my love. + +RICHARD. + + +ROME, +Christmas Eve, + +1915. +MY DEAREST, DEAREST, DEAREST: + +I planned to get to Paris late Christmas night. I cabled +Frazier at the Embassy, to have all my letters at the Hotel de +l'Empire. I MEANT to spend the night reading of you and +Hope. I made a record trip from Salonica. By leaving the +second steamer at Messina and taking an eighteen-hour trip +across Italy I saved ten hours. But when I got here I found +the French Consul had taken a holiday, AND WAS OUT BUYING +CHRISTMAS PRESENTS! So, I could not get permission to enter +France. With some Red Cross Americans, I raged around the +French Consulate, but it was no use. So I am here, and cannot +leave UNTIL MIDNIGHT CHRISTMAS. When I found I could not +get away, I told Cook's to give me their rapid-fire guide, and +I set out to SEE ROME. The Manager of Cook's was the same +man who, 19 years ago, sold me tickets to the Greek war in +Florence, when the American Consulate was in the same building +with Cook's, and Charley was Consul. So he gave me a great +guide. We began at ten this morning and we stopped at six. +They say it takes five years to see Rome, but when I let the +rapid-fire guide escape, he said he had to compliment me; we +climbed more stairways and hills than there are in all New +York and Westchester County; and there is just one idea in my +mind, and that is that you and I must see this sacred place +together. On all this trip I have wanted YOU, but NEVER +so as today. And I particularly inquired about the milk. It +is said to be excellent. So we will come here, and you, with +all your love of what is fine and beautiful, will be very +happy, and Hope will learn Italian, and to know what is best +in art, and statues and churches. I have seen 2900 churches, +and all of them built by Michael Angelo and decorated by Raphael; +and it was so wonderful I cried. I bought candles and +prayers, and I am afraid Christian Science had a dull day. +Tomorrow we start at nine, and go to high mass at St. Peter's, +and then into the country to the catacombs, where the early +Christians hid from the Romans. It is not what you would call +an English Christmas, but it is so beautiful and wonderful +that you BOTH ARE VERY NEAR. + +I sent you a cable, the second one, because it is not sure +they are forwarded, and I hung up a stocking for Hope. One of +the peasant women made in Salonica. I am bringing it with me. +And the cat is on my window--still looking out on the Romans. +The green leaf I got in the forum, where Mark Antony made his +speech over Caesar's body. It is the plant that gave Pericles +the idea of the Corinthian column. You remember. It was +growing under a tile some one had laid over it--and the yellow +flower was on my table at dinner, so I send it, that we may know +on Christmas Eve we dined together. + +Good-night, now, and God bless you. I am off to bed now, in a +bed with sheets. The first in six days. How I LOVE you, +and LOVE you. Such good wishes I send you, and such love to +you both. May the good Lord bless you as he has blessed +me--with the best of women, with the best of daughters. I am +a proud husband and a proud father; and soon I will be a +HAPPY husband and a HAPPY father. + +Good-night, dear heart. + +RICHARD. + + +PARIS, December 28th, 1915. +DEAR OLD MAN: + +Hurrah for the Dictator! He has been a great good friend to +me. I will know to-day about whether I can go back to the +French front. If not I will try the Belgians and then London, +and home. I spent Christmas day in Rome in the catacombs. I +could not wear my heart upon my sleeve for duchesses to peck +at. It is just as you say, Dad and Mother made the day so +dear and beautiful. I did not know how glad I would be to be +back here for while the trip East led to no news value, to me +personally it was interesting. But I am terribly tired after +the last nine days, sleeping on sofas, decks, a different deck +each night and writing all the time and such poor stuff. But, +oh! when I saw Paris I knew how glad I was! WHAT a +beautiful place, what a kind courteous people. We will all be +here some day. Tell Dai she must be my interpreter. All love +to her, and you, and good luck to the syndicate. YOUR +syndicate. I have not heard from mine for six +weeks. They have not sent me a single clipping of anything, +so I don't know whether anything got through or not, and I +have nothing to show these people here that might encourage +them to send me out again. They certainly have made it hard +hoeing. Tell Guvey his letter about the toys was a great +success here, and copied into several papers. + +Goodbye, and God bless you, and good luck to you. + +DICK. + + +PARIS, December 31st, 1915. +DEAR OLD MAN: + +To wish you and Dai a Happy New Year. It will mean a lot to +us when we can get together, and take it together, good and +bad. I am awfully pleased over the novel coming out by the +Harper's and, in landing so much for me out of The Dictator. +You have started the New Year for me splendidly. I expect I +will be back around the first of February. I am now trying to +"get back," but, I need more time. I can only put the trip +down to the wrong side of the ledger. Personally, I got a lot +out of it, but I am not sent over here to improve my knowledge +of Europe, but to furnish news and stories and that has not +happened. + +I am constantly running against folks who knew you in +Florence, and I regret to say most of them are in business at +the Chatham bar. What a story they make; the M----'s and the +like, who know Paris only from the cocktail side. One of our +attaches told me to-day he had been lunching for the last 18 +months at the grill room of the Chatham, where the "mixed +grill" was as good as in New York. He had no knowledge of any +other place to eat. The Hotel de l'Empire is a terrible +tragedy. They are so poor, that I believe it is my eight francs +a day keeps them going; nothing else is in sight. But, it is the +exception. Never did a people take a war as the French take this +worst of all wars. They really are the most splendid of people. +I only wish I could have had one of them for a grandfather or +grandmother. Bessie writes that Hope is growing wonderfully and +beautifully, and I am sick for a sight of her, and for you. Good +night and God bless you and the happiest of New Years to you both. + +Your loving brother, + +DICK. + + +These postcards are "originals" painted by students of the +Beaux-Arts to keep alive, and to keep those students in the +trenches. They are for Dai. + + +PARIS, December 31, 1915. +DEAREST ONE: + +The old year, the dear, old year that brought us Hope, is very +near the end. I am not going to watch him go. I have drunk +to the New Year and to my wife and daughter, and before there +is "a new step on the floor, and a new face at the door," I +will be asleep. Of all my many years, the old year, that is +so soon to pass away, has been the best, for it has brought +you to me with a closer tie, has added to the love I have for +every breath you breathe, for your laugh and your smile, and +deep concern, that comes if you think your worthless husband +is worried, or cross, or dismayed. Each year I love you more; +for I know you more, and to know more of the lovely soul you +are, is to love more. Just now we are in a hard place. I am +sure you cannot comprehend how her father, her "Dad" and your +husband can keep away. Neither do I understand. + +But, for both your sakes, I want, before I own up that this +adventure has been a failure, to try and pull something out of +the wreck. If the government says I CAN, then I still may +be able to do something. If it says, "NO," then it's Home, +boys, Home, and that's where I want to be. It's home, boys, +home, in the old countree. 'Neath the ash, and the oak, and +the spreading maple tree, it's home, boys, home, to mine own +countree! This is Hope and you. So know, that in getting to +you I have not thrown away a minute. I have been a +slave-driver, to others as well as to myself. But you cannot +get favors with a whip; and, the French war office has other +matters to occupy it, that it considers of more importance +than an impatient war correspondent. So long as you +understand, it will not matter. Nothing hurts, except that +you may not understand. The moment I see you, and you see me, +you will understand. So, goodnight, and God bless you, you, +my two blessings. Here is to our own year of 1915, your year +and Hope's year, and, because I have you both, my year. I +send you all the love in all the world. +RICHARD. + + +January 5, 1916. +MY DEAREST ONE: + +WHAT PICTURES! WHAT HAPPINESS! What a proud Richard! On +top of my writing yesterday that I had had no sketches of +yours, and no kodaks of Hope, eight came to-night, and oh! I +am so proud, so homesick. What a wonderful nurse and mother +you are! Was ever there anything so lovable? And that she +should be ours, to hold and to love, and to make happy. These +last eight days in Paris, in and out, have made me so homesick +for those I love, that you will never know what the delays meant. +I felt just the way poor women feel who kidnap babies. In the +parks I know the nurse-maids are afraid of me. I stick my head +under the hoods of the baby carriages, and stop and stand +watching them at play. And tonight when all these beautiful +pictures came, I was the happiest father anywhere. + +The delay was no one's fault, not mine anyway, nor can I blame +anyone. These people are splendid. They are willing to do +anything for one, but it takes time. When they are fighting +for their lives and have not seen their own babies in a year, +that you want to see yours is only natural and to oblige you +they can't see why they should upset the whole war. But now +it looks less as though I would have to call it a failure. +And Hope may be proud of me, and you may be proud of me, and I +will have enough ammunition to draw on for many articles and +letters, and another book. + +It has been a cruel time; and when I tell you how I worked to +get it over, and to be back with you, you will understand many +things. The most important of all will be how I love you. +Only wait until I can lay eyes on you, you will just take one +look and know that it couldn't be helped, that the delay was +the work of others, that, all I wanted was my Bessie and my +Hope. + +How heavy she will be, if she is anything like the picture of +her on the coverlet, she is a prize baby. And if she is +anything like as beautiful as in the baby carriage she is an +angel straight from God. I want to sit in the green chair and +have you on one knee and her majesty on the other, and have +her climb over me, and pull my hair and bang my nose, and in +time to know how I love you both. + +Goodnight, dear heart, I wish you had had yourself in the +picture. I have three in the summer time with you holding her +and that is the way I like to see you, that is the way I think +of you. I love you, and I love her for making you so happy, +and I love her for her sake, and because she is OURS: and +has tied us tighter and closer even than it has ever been. I +love you so that I can't write about it, and I am going to do +nothing all spring but just sit around, and be in everybody's +way, watching you together. + +How jealous I am of you, and homesick for you. Of course, she +knows "mamma" is YOU; and to look at you when they ask, +"Where's mother?" Who else could be her mother BUT THE +DEAREST WOMAN IN THE WORLD, and the one who loves her so, and +in so wonderful a way. She is beautiful beyond all things +human I know. If ever a woman deserved a beautiful daughter, +YOU DO, for you are the best of mothers, and you know how +"to care greatly." + +Good-night, my precious, dear one, and God keep you, as He +will, and help me to keep you both happy. What you give me +you never will know. + +RICHARD. + + + +CHAPTER XX +THE LAST DAYS + +After a short visit to London, Richard returned to New York in +February, 1916. During his absence his wife and Hope had +occupied the Scribner cottage at Mount Kisco, about two miles +from Crossroads. Here my brother finished his second book on +the war, and wrote numerous articles and letters urging the +immediate necessity for preparedness in this country. As to +Richard's usefulness to his country at this time, I quote in +part from two appreciations written after my brother's death +by the two most prominent exponents of preparedness. + +Theodore Roosevelt said: + +"He was as good an American as ever lived, and his heart +flamed against cruelty and injustice. His writings form a +text-book of Americanism which all our people would do well to +read at the present time." + +Major-General Leonard Wood said: + +"The death of Richard Harding Davis was a real loss to the +movement for preparedness. Mr. Davis had an extensive +experience as a military observer, and thoroughly appreciated +the need of a general training system like that of Australia +or Switzerland and of thorough organization of our industrial +resources in, order to establish a condition of reasonable +preparedness in this country. A few days before his death he +came to Governors Island for the purpose of ascertaining in +what line of work he could be most useful in building up +sound public opinion in favor of such preparedness +as would give us a real peace insurance. His mind was bent on +devoting his energies and abilities to the work of public +education on this vitally important subject, and few men were +better qualified to do so, for he had served as a military +observer in many campaigns. + +"Throughout the Cuban campaign he was attached to the +headquarters of my regiment in Cuba as a military observer. +He was with the advanced party at the opening of the fight at +Las Guasiinas, and was distinguished throughout the fight by +coolness and good conduct. He also participated in the battle +of San Juan and the siege of Santiago, and as an observer was +always where duty called him. He was a delightful companion, +cheerful, resourceful, and thoughtful of the interests and +wishes of others. His reports of the game were valuable and +among the best and most accurate. + +"The Plattsburg movement took a very strong hold of him. He +saw in this a great instrument for building up a sound +knowledge concerning our military history and policy, also a +very practical way of training men for the duties of junior +officers. He realized fully that we should need in case of +war tens of thousands of officers with our newly raised +troops, and that it would be utterly impossible to prepare +them in the hurry and confusion of the onrush of modern war. +His heart was filled with a desire to serve his country to the +best of his ability. His recent experience in Europe pointed +out to him the absolute madness of longer disregarding the +need of doing those things which reasonable preparedness +dictates, the things which cannot be accomplished after +trouble is upon us. He had in mind at the time of his death a +series of articles to be written especially to build up interest +in universal military training through conveying to our people an +understanding of what organization as it exists to-day means, and +how vitally important it is for our people to do in time of peace +those things which modern war does not permit done once it is +under way. + +"Davis was a loyal friend, a thoroughgoing American devoted to +the best interests of his country, courageous, sympathetic, +and true. His loss has been a very real one to all of us who +knew and appreciated him, and in his death the cause of +preparedness has lost an able worker and the country a devoted +and loyal citizen." + +Although suffering from his strenuous experiences in France, +and more particularly from those in Greece, Richard continued +to accomplish his usual enormous amount of work, and during +these weeks wrote his last short story, "The Deserter." + +The following letter was written to me while I was in the +Bahamas and was in reference to a novel which I had dedicated +to Hope: + + +MOUNT KISCO--February 28, 1916. +DEAR OLD MAN: + +No word yet of the book, except the advts. I enclose. I will +send you the notices as soon as they begin to appear. I am so +happy over the dedication, and, very proud. So, Hope will be +when she knows. As I have not read the novel it all will come +as a splendid and pleasant surprise. I am looking forward to +sitting down to it with all the pleasure in the world. + +You chose the right moment to elope. Never was weather so cold, +cruel and bitter. Hope is the only one who goes out of doors. + +I start the fires in the Big House tomorrow and the plumbers +and paper hangers, painters enter the day after. + +The attack on Verdun makes me sick. I was there six weeks ago +in one of the forts but of course could not then nor can I now +write of it. I don't believe the drive ever can get through. +For two reasons, and the unmilitary one is that I believe in a +just God. Give my love to Dai, and for you always + +DICK. + +P. S. I am happy you are both so happy, but those post cards +with the palms were cruelty to animals. + + +On the 21st of March, 1916, Richard and his wife and daughter +moved from the Scribner cottage to Crossroads, and a few days +later he was attacked by the illness that ended in his death +on April 11. He had dined with his wife and afterward had +worked on an article on preparedness, written some letters and +telegrams concerning the same subject and, while repeating one +of the latter over the telephone, was stricken. Within a week +of his fifty-third year, just one year from the day he had +first brought his baby daughter to her real home, doing the +best and finest work of his career in the cause of the Allies +and preparedness, quite unconscious that the end was near, he +left us. In those fifty-two years he had crowded the work, +the pleasures, the kind, chivalrous deeds of many men, and he +died just as I am sure he would have wished to die, working +into the night for a great cause, and although ill and tired, +still fretful for the morning that he might again take up the fight. + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Adventures and Letters +of Richard Harding Davis + + + diff --git a/old/alrhd10.zip b/old/alrhd10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..52193bc --- /dev/null +++ b/old/alrhd10.zip |