BLACKWELL FAMILY ALICE STONE BLACKWELL Kitty Barry 1906Telephone 1791 Haymarket Office of The Woman's Journal No. 3 Park Street, Room 16 Boston, Mass., April 16 1906 Dear Kitty: Enclosed are the family letters. They were taken over to Uncle George's yesterday & read aloud. Howard was at home, for once. Emma says he has induced them to come to Cambridge, & now he is on Reynold's salary without too desperately hard a time. Your aff. cousin, Alice S. Blackwell.most of the time away. However, [they] his father & mother always have breakfast with him, & feel that they have gained that. [Fra] [?Suna?] & Frances are seldom down in time to [br] breakfast with him. I have written Maria Morton that if she & Dick will [so] let Lizzie have the [?52 pounds?] a year in the U.S. which they offered to contribute for her if she stayed in England, it will just about make the difference of enabling them to get along on Reynold's salary without too desperately hard a time. Your aff. cousin, Alice S. Blackwell. Alice to K. B. B. about Mrs. Lizzie [?Rogers?]mention Dreyfus caseTelephone 1791 Haymarket Office of The Woman's Journal No. 3 Park Street, Room 16 Hotel Portland, Portland, Ore. [Boston, Mass.,] May 13 1906 Dear Kitty: Here are a number of family letters that have accumulated. Some of them are months back; still, perhaps you will like [the] to see them. I am delighted to [here] hear that you and Aunt B. are actually thinking of making America a visit. There are a lot of the sure you do like to get the family news, so I keep on sending the letters, even without response. Your aff. cousin, A. S. Blackwell younger kith & kin whom you ought to meet--fine specimens, too, whom you will like & Aunt B. be proud of. And they ought to remember & be able to tell their children that they have met Aunt B. Away off here by the shores of the Pacific I find that the young women doctors reverence her & are grateful to her. And I wish that you and I might get together again, and renew our acquaintance. Do you realize that you have written to me only once during the last five months? It makes me feel as if you did not care to hear from me. Yet I feel pretty sure you do like to get the family news, so I keep on sending the letters, even without response. Your aff. cousin, A. S. Blackwell Telephone 1791 Haymarket Office of The Woman's Journal No. 3 Park Street, Room 16 Boston, Mass., July 19 1906 Dear Kitty: I have written to Fred Mayhew to meet us next Tuesday, unless he hears from me to the contrary. It will be a quicker and pleasanter trip to go with him in our own special conveyance, & go straight to our destination, & get there by daylight, rather than to meander around by all the post offices, and arrive after dark, & risk a crowded stage. Wont you be glad to see the old Vineyard again, & to smell all its fragrances with your wonderful smellers? Howard has been written to to-day by Prof. Love, or at his request, to come up & see about some Telephone 1791 Haymarket Office of The Woman's Journal No. 3 Park Street, Room 16 Boston, Mass.,...................190 business relating to the restaurant of the summer school. He will get the letter Friday night; & as he wont want to make a longer stay than he can help in Cambridge, I shouldn't wonder if he might come up Monday & return with us Tuesday. But of course I don't know. We are well & prodigiously busy. There are half a dozen papers printed at the same office that prints the W. J. --one of them a Jewish one. The other day I saw the editor (whom I never saw speak to Papa before) call his attention to the big heading in the daily paper, "Dreyfus Vindicated," with such a look of quiet exultation! The Hebrews everywhere feel that it is a triumph for them. Love to the aunts & ever so much to yourself. Kind regards to [?Dr. C.?] Yrs affy, Alice Stone Blackwell The Park Hotel Warren, O. Oct. 12, 1906. My dearest Kitty: I cannot tell you how sorry I was to have so little time to visit with you and Aunt Elizabeth, and also to rush off to Ohio and fail to get the last days with you and see you off. To think of how many years I have been wishing for a chance to hug you, and then when it came I have been too busy to do more than half improve it! Still, half a chance has been much better than nothing + I am very glad you + that I ought not to take that until we are sure you will get the plate; so I enclose it in stamps. If the plate comes + you get it, you can leave the 50 cents for [?e]. Please give my cordial regards to Miss Annie Browne, + my remembrances to all mutual friends. If there are any of the American periodicals that you would like to have regularly, let me know which they are and I shall be glad to send them to you. We shall keep in communication by letters, + I think shall feel that we have picked up the threads + grown nearer together all around the family, owing to the fact that you + Dr. Elizabeth had the pluck to defy Dr. Mansel + come off for this trip. AlwaysAunt Elizabeth could come. I hope you will have as good a voyage back as you had out, and I am sure you will feel much better [than] acquainted with all the younger generation of Blackwells than before, and it has been grand for them to have the honor of seeing Aunt Elizabeth & the pleasure of knowing you. Certainly it has been one of the greatest privileges of my life, as it was the greatest happiness of my childhood. I hope the photo of Papa will be ready for you to take with you, & that you will get the rocking chairs & the blue plate & the other things. that were wanted. By the way, you gave me 50 cents just before I came away, & I took it half mechanically ; I supposed it was for the blue plate; but it has occurred to me Oct. 18, 1906 My dear Kitty: You and Aunt Elizabeth are somewhere but on the briny deep, and we hope that the raw, east windy weather we are having here does not extend far enough out to sea to reach you. The morning after you left, Papa went to help the oatmeal, & caught himself serving out first a very small spoonful for Aunt Elizabeth [*the*`] habit had become so strong! We miss you. Aunt Emily went home the day [*after*] you sailed, & Florence came up from M. V. to attend the world's W.C.T.U. Convention. I think she is looking well. She had bought a second ticket for the convention in the hope that Elliot would come, but he felt that he couldn't get away, so Floy is taking Lizzie with her on Elliots ticket. Reynold has not succeeded yet I'm finding a satisfactory flat. we have opened that bag of old family letters & found several from Aunt Elizabeth (which I shall ultimately send on to you), & many from Uncle Sam & Grandma Blackwell, & one from Papa praising Aunt Emily to the skies; & one from Mr. Spofford strangely dissuading Papa from marrying Mamma. This seems especially funny. We have not got marly to the bottom of the bag yet & we may have all & sundry other finds. before us. We are so glad to have had this visit & do hope you will have a comfortable voyage & get home in good condition. Yours affectionately, Alice Stone Blackwell. Emma is at Gardner, Aunt Nettie has postponed her departure from the Vineyard till the first of next week, as she prefers to transact at M.V. the legal business made necessary by Edith's death. Edith left no will, so all her small property goes to her mother. Elliot was to drive Aunt Nettie to Edgartown to see about it. I addressed the World's W.C.T.U. Convention last night, making one of the five minute addresses of welcome. It was a huge audience, & my little speech went off well. Florence had meant to attend, but was so tired (having got up about 3 A.M.) that she decided to go home ; & it was lucky, for we were packed like herrings for a long time in a terrible jam in the vestibule, & it would surely have been too much for her. I don't know when I have been through quite such an experience. Papa is well, & flies about with his usual vigor, & things move along in the same old rut that you saw when you were here. We have not set eyes on any of Uncle George's family, but doubtless no news is good news. To-day is the anniversary of Mamma's death. Thirteen years, & I have hardly made a beginning on her biography! I ought to be kicked. We often speak of you & Aunt B., & speculate about the weather, & your chances of escaping seasickness, & wish we could get a message by wireless. Telephone, 1791 Haymarker Office of The Woman's Journal Boston, Mass. Nov. 7 1906 My dear Kitty : Your welcome note from Queenstown just rec'd & I shall send it the rounds of the family immediately, beginning with Uncle George. Glad of the good news as to weather, & steadiness of ship, & excellence of Captain & his reading of prayers, & goodness of Aunt B.'s appetite. A whole banana is 50 percent better than she did on land! But I am sorry for that "lean, scared tabby". It sounds as if the majority of the passengers were not kind to cats! Papa is out this evening at a meeting of some sort of British American society with his friend Mr. Stark. Sadie has gone away for a few days' holiday, tired out. But she did all she could to make things easy for Mrs. Barrows in her absence ; brought up a basket of potatoes, & another of onions, & another of something else--I forget what -- & went all through the Armenian reception, very finely & with immense applause ; & Miss Marshall gave us a very interesting account of her journey through Armenia. Emma, Papa & I are planning to spend next Sunday at Clay's Hill, if I don't have to kite off to Vermont. I suppose by this time you & Aunt B. are settled down again & rested, & feel as if you had never left home. Your aff. cousin, Alice Stone Blackwell.house to leave things as shipshape as possible. We have had a desperately busy week, with the annual State Suffrage Convention, the Journal going to press, and an Armenian reception to Miss Annie Marshall of Edinburg, all pretty nearly coinciding. For three nights running I was up till after 1 A.M., on one of them till 3 A.M.! And now am awaiting a telegram that may oblige me to start for Vermont to address the Senate. All are well. Howard's reference is to a woman I wrote him about who cures baldness, & has brought out a new crop of hair on Mr. Gulesian's head. Reynold has at last engaged a cozy little flat in Somerville, $16. per month, but only 15 minutes walk from his work. He will be able to spend several hours with Lizzie every afternoon, & means to help her with the washing & ironing. (Reynold has just got home, & is this moment reading your letter & laughing over the two whole bananas). Please send this letter on to Frances, & any of the enclosures that she would care for. Papa & I went to Cambridge last Sunday. Howard was still at home, & writing report in a big chair surrounded by cushions, & walking with a crutch ; but he seemed jolly, had a call from his friends Bload & Dyke while I was there, & seduced Papa out for a walk around the garden. Papa recited "Marco Bozarris" by request, at the Ar. Boston, Mass., Nov. 22 1906 Dear Kitty : When Papa & I went over to Uncle George's on Sunday, we were shown your letter, & he was about to send it on to Aunt Emily. All were well over there. Papa took both dinner & supper at Uncle G's ; I only supper, as Reynold, Lizzie & Sal had been invited over to our house, & Reynold was going to give Mr. Sweeny, our new man of all work, a lesson in managing the acetylene generator, & I wanted to learn, too. If I had not been a fool I should have learned long ago. After the dinner, & the lesson, I joined Papa at Cambridge, while the Rogers spent the evening at Pope's Hill. The poor things have been having a hard time. I think I wrote you how a water pipe burst in the warehouse where their goods were stored, & spoiled the books Lizzie had brought from England. Then their furniture, which they had bought, was delayed in arriving, & Reynold had to sit on a pail turned upside down, instead of a chair, when he took his first dinner at home ; but I trust they are getting straightened out now. It must be very convenient to Reynold to be so near his work. We miss him. No sooner had he left than something went wrong with the generator, & this week we have had to fall back on Telephone, 1791 Haymarket Office of The Woman's Journal No. 3 Park Street, Room 7 kerosene. We used to think it gave a fine light when we used it all the time ; but now that we have got accustomed to the much superior light of the acetylene, the kerosene seems so dim, hot & smelly that it disgusts us. I am mortally afraid of the acetylene, though, especially now when Reynold is no longer there to manage it ; & if it depended on me, I would go back to kerosene to-morrow. But Papa couldn't bear the change. I'm afraid we shall all be blown up some day. Any way, my will is made ; that is one comfort! We expect Miss Wilde back now any day. UncleGeorge took Papa for a walk to Mt. Auburn cemetery, to see the "Stone pear tree," & informed me that he expected to find me sitting on a stone under it; but the gate was locked & they couldn't get it. Frances Millette is coming to our house to-day for a visit & to spend the night. Emma has gone to Gardner. The little pot of Jerusalem cherries that was got for Aunt Ey's 80th birthday is still bright & pretty. Mr. Barrows got home yesterday from a visit of several weeks among relatives in N.Y. & N.J. He came back ill - Mrs. Barrows says he always does, because the food he eats away from home upsets him. He had called on Aunt N. & Grace the day before he came back, & found them both well, though G. looked thin. He says she has taken hold finely, & is doing all the work, & carrying everything on. She had cooked a beautiful dinner for him, but he could take nothing but a cup of hot water. Aunt Nettie told him she thought it was best to keep right along with her work, & go to everything, just as if nothing had happened, although the thought of Edith is always present [*know whether there is much in it that will interest her, but she may as well have it. Papa still has "the gift of this gab very [?gallofine]" He called me his "dissipated, deleterious daughter" the other day Remember me to Aunt B. Yr. aff. cousin Alice Stone Blackwell.]with her. The little cat we brought home from West Brookfield has proved a good huntress, but so chronically untidy that we thought we should have to get Emma to chloroform her, but we have commuted the sentence to banishment, & decided to make her a barn cat. The barn & woodshed swarm with rats, too. I think I wrote you that Howard has taken a trip to Cleveland to see his sweetheart. He can't stay away from her long at a time. Emma will go to E. Orange next week for the annual meeting of the New Jersey W.S.A., of which she is president; & she has asked Papa to speak at it; & he will probably spend the night at Aunt Emily's. Blackwell is well & is said to be getting fat. We are well except for colds. I expect to enclose some [*more family letters next week, after I have shown them to Uncle G's famly. Don't forget to send this letter on to Frances Hofsen. I don't]Office of The Woman's Journal No. 3 Park Street, Room 16 Boston, Mass., March 9, 1906 Dear Kitty: No special news. We are having a thick, wet snowstorm, almost the first of the season. Emma dropped in at the office unexpectedly; she & Anna had come into the office to shop in spite of the weather, as some things were needed for the dressmaker. Howard is well. He has been taking part in a little play, [*present position less secure than it was when Howard was to the fore. It is a perplexing situation, hard on Reynold & still harder on poor Lizzie, who has not been in any way to blame. your aff. cousin, Alice Stone Blackwell. Papa went to the Victorian Club last night, & urged them to petition King Edward about the Congo atrocities.]with some of those young people over at Auburndale to whom he goes so much; & when Papa & I were at his house on Sunday, he showed us a number of big photos of different scenes in the play. Emma said that it was a silly piece, in which Howard had to take the part of a sentimental & unsuccessful lover; & that she couldn't separate Howard in his assumed character from Howard himself, & she did not like to see him doing it. Anna was much mortified because a [*suspect it to be a mistake. Howard has had to give up his position as President of the Harvard Dining Association to take this new office; & Uncle G. point out that this makes Reynold's] reference in the play to a pair of trousers had made her snicker & cause the back of the bench on which she was sitting to shake, & she was afraid the young men had observed it. Anna wants a diamond ring, & is saving up her money for one; but she has several times sent contributions out of her ring money to a home for old & invalid horses, in which she [*But Reynolds intimates that things are being made so uncomfortable for Lizzie where she is that she had better come over; & he insists that living (except for rent) is cheaper here than in England - that both meat & groceries cost less in America, I am surprised at this, &] is much interested. I am pleased about this, regarding it as a sign of grace; but Emma says no allusion must be made to it. She thinks it might get around again to Anna, & Anna would be vexed. Uncle George is well; he was expecting to make a short trip to Orange, on business. Florence is not at all well; I am worried by what I hear of her nervous condition. She is so worn out that, as she herself says, she dissolves in tears if anyone looks at her. Reynold has been talking with Mrs. Barrows, & she thinks he & Lizzie [*& their boy could live on his $40. per month if Lizzie is a good manager. Of course they would have to live in a very poor & [?pindud] way.] En route to Oregon April 26, 1906 Dear Kitty: This afternoon I started for my Western trip, & am now jolting along through the beautiful scenery of Western Mass., its steep hills & winding waters made more beautiful by the approach of sunset. Emma & Howard & Anna came down to the train to see me off, & so did Clara Barlow, who is making Emma a visit. Papa was just getting paper to press, or he would have been there, too. Clara looks unchanged with her gray curls & goodface. I was sorry to have to run away with hardly a minute to speak to her. But I am travelling in ease & luxury. To save money to the Suffrage Association, which pays my Expenses, I am travelling "tourist," a sort of second class; the seats are of woven bamboo instead of plus, but just as comfortable. Well, I happen to be the only passenger in this tourist car to-day, so I am able to spread myself all over it & have good air, while the regular passenger cars are jammed & crowded. I left all well. In the few minutes [*in Hastings, & had a very pleasant time; but you were not at home. Your aff. cousin, Alice Stone Blackwell.] that Emma was with me before the train started, she told me a funny thing. Anna went out to something the other night, with one of Howard's friend, & they took the latch key. Uncle G. said, "Now, it is not likely you will lose the key, but in case you should, here is a string that I have hung down from the window, attached to a bell close to where we sleep." Uncle G., Emma & the rest went to bed early & slept like dormice. [*words - and how those Russian Jews did cheer him, even before he opened his mouth! They had heard him before. Miss Henry of Australia is here. She says she called on Aunt B.]In the middle of the night to their amazement, the bell rang. Uncle G. went down & let them in, & found that they had not lost the latch-key, but that he himself had inadvertently secured the door after them with a bolt or something so that the latch-key wouldn't open it! Papa keeps very busy. He was much stirred up & elated because the presidential suffrage bill passed one house of the R.I. Legislature, & he sent off letters & literature to the members; & he is deep in reciprocity & writes letters to the papers, & send copies to Congressmen & the president, & at the Russian [*freedom meeting in Faneuil Hall the other night, he made the best speech that was made - several people said so after-]