BLACKWELL FAMILY ALICE STONE BLACKWELL KITTY BARRY JAN-APRIL 1910[*Jan. 22. Dear Kitty: I thought this had gone by Friday's mail. It was sealed & addressed & ordered given to the postman, & the nurse has just found it on my table, to my great horror.*] Dorchester, Jan. [18] 17, 1910. Dear Kitty:- Uncle George and Emma came over Sunday morning. It was a beautiful[ly] bright day, and they looked as smiling as the weather, Emma particularly. I enumerated to Emma the catalog of evils which Dr. Smith said might befall Anna and her milk and the baby if Anna did not take the medicine prescribed by Dr. Hobart. Emma smiled serenely and said that Dr. Hobart had made some sort of external application to Anna and said she was now doing well, and also expressed herself highly satisfied with the health and progress of little Elizabeth. They weigh her twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays. Emma couldn't remember what she weighed on the very latest occasion, but says that she gained five ounces (if I remember correctly) between two of her weighings. Emma says that she has grown in size and intelligence. She now has almost learned to go all through the night without being fed, and often does so. She is fed the last thing at night, at 10 or 10.30, and then sleeps until five, or six, or sometimes seven A. M. She is now a month old, and she is evidently a source of the greatest interest and delight to the family. Emma says that Frances's young man, who is still with them, continues to improve upon acquaintance, and that she (Emma) feels "tremendously better" in regard to the marriage. She says that of course it is not possible to tell as to his temper, since nothing happens to ruffle it while he is staying there as their guest, and everything goes smoothly; but he has a pleasant face, well-shaped head, and all her conversation with him leads her to think that he is a conscientious and upright young man. One day when Frances was out, he 2 asked Emma to let him have a talk with her, and he talked over his situation and prospects. He says it will be two years before he will be in a position to marry. He says he likes better to be in the forest service of the government than in the service of the lumber companies, because the forest service is really trying to preserve the trees for the benefit of the public, while the lumber companies are only after profits, and don't mind "butchering a forest." He had passed a civil service examination, standing either at the head or next to it, Emma can't remember which; but then it came to light that he was not yet 21, and was not yet naturalized. On both accounts, he was ineligible, and he will have to wait until after he is naturalized, and take the examinations all over again. Meanwhile, he is working for the Forest Service, but not for the civil service; but the man who he will be under after he has taken his examinations is keeping him with him and he is working at it all the time and learning all he can. Woodrock, the place where he works, is more than 8,000 feet above sea level and surrounded by mountains rising 2500 feet higher still. It is the centre for eight lumber camps, where the men come to get their mail, etc. There is an Englishman in charge there, who has some means and spends his whole salary in making himself and others comfortable. He imports great quantities of magazines from England to lend to the men who work inthe lumber camps, and he subscribes for The Outlook and Hans Kleiber (Frances's young man) subscribes for the Review of Reviews[)]. Emma thinks that this is not the periodical Hans would subscribe for if he were of a frivolous disposition. He said that he thought that instead of trying to go through the Forestry School at Yale, which would take a good deal of time and money, it would be better for him to be living right there in the forests, learning to know them by 3 practical experience, and working all the time for the Forest Service, and reading up at the same time as much as he could. The more Emma talks with him, the better she likes him. She told him that he and Frances were both very young, and could well afford to wait two years,-to which he agreed. But I think that after this, Emma will no longer feel unhappy about the engagement, and that it will be much pleasanter for Frances, and certainly much pleasanter for Emma and Uncle George, who have felt seriously concerned about her engagement to a young man who was almost a complete stranger. Mrs. Barrows and [Miss] Mr. Barrows and Adelaide are all very much better. On the other hand, Meyric has one of the sore throats which are very prevalent in Somerville just now. However, when Reynold dropped in to supper here last evening and told us about it, he said that he thought Meyric would be able to go to school this morning. Reynold himself has been getting very tired with overwork, and last week ate something with disagreed with him severely, and had to stay at home for a day. He has heard that his superior officer, whose name I forget, said he was very glad that Mr. Rogers had taken a day off, as he had been over-working badly. You see, they are short-handed at present at the office through the illness of one of the staff, and Reynold is such a willing worker that under those circumstances [that] he always takes a double load upon his shoulders. The nurse, Mrs. Perry, met him at supper last evening, and says that she quite fell in love with him, he seemed so alert and helpful and kind. It was Mrs. Winkleman's evening out, and I have no doubt he helped Esther and Evelyn do up the supper dishes, as of course, he ought to have done; still, it is not everybody who would have thought of it,--men folks, especially. Did I tell you that Emma distributed woman suffrage literature literature at the polls during the election here the other day? The folks at our State Headquarters asked her to, and she did. She gave it out to about 150 voters, and also to some women who asked for it, and even to a few small boys; but they returned with so many more small boys who asked for it, that she was afraid she shouldn't have enough, and told them that she couldn't give them anymore; she must keep it for voters. She gave me a lively and amusing account of it. I wish I could remember all that she said. The law requires you to keep at least 100 feet away from the polls. Also, you must not stand in the street; you have to get the use of somebody's doorstep. She asked at a house which had a convenient doorstep, and got permission without difficulty. She had assorted her leaflets, using the one by Senator Hoar for those people who looked to her as though they were educated and might know about Sen. Hoar; and a pink poster [postal] with woman suffrage sentiments in large type on it, for the less intelligent- looking. That is part of what we call our Rainbow literature,-hand- bills in five or six different bright colors, which they use to give away at fairs and open-air meetings. Emma said that everybody was polite to her. Nobody would be likely to be otherwise, she is so pleasant in her looks and manners. She has done a great deal of giving out of literature for the Mass. Woman's Suffrage Association, [for] at the food fair, etc., and she quite likes it. I had been getting on finely until Friday last; Friday and Saturday I wasn't quite so well. The Dr. thinks is was because I had eaten something which didn't agree with me. Today I seem to be getting better; at any rate, I am feeling immensely better than I did a fortnight ago. Your letter of Jan. 6th came this morning. You say "You have heard how Aunt B. approves of [sweet] wee Elizabeth sharing her name." 5 I have not heard anything on the subject. You must not take it for granted that I see letters that you send to anybody else, for in most cases I do not; but of course I knew that Aunt B. would be pleased if she was able to take it in. We are hoping that Nannie's next may be a girl, in which case it is to be a little Emily. I wish that we might have a little Ellen, too. Aunt Ellen was so good- hearted and so very fond of the children. Perhaps Howard or Anna or Nannie may name some future daughter for her. We now have quite a wide field of possibilities for youthful additions to the family. It seems extraordinary that at this season you should find the fogs "like a wet, hot blanket." We don't have any hot fogs at this time of year. I laughed at your injunction[s] in regard to Dr. Smith,- "Tremblingly obey, [don't] do not disobey." I can remember just the tones in which you used to say that to me in my childhood. From whom is it a quotation? Yours affectionately, Alice Stone Blackwell Jan. 18. Since dictating this I have had a note from Uncle G. on business, & he mentioned that he had had a letter from you expressing you & Aunt B's pleasure about Elizabeth.Dorchester, Jan. 27, 1910. Dear Kitty: The weather is gray again, threatening rain. They seem to enjoy things over in Cambridge, no matter what the weather is. Howard and Helen lately gave a pantomime party to a number of other young married people and friends. They threw shadows on a sheet, while somebody read aloud an astonishing poem by the author of Pinafore. This was the libretto of the performance: There was a young lady who looked out of her window and saw a young man going by in the street, and they winked their eyes at each other and fell in love. She went to the priest to confess her sins. She confessed that she had forged a check, and held a candle while her parents murdered a man--they were robbers--and a whole lot of other bad things. The priest said that it was wrong, and a pity, of course, but that girls would be girls, and he would give her absolution at the rate of half a crown a crime. Then she went on to say that she had still something more to confess, and she told him about her winking her eye out of the window at a young man. The priest said that that was very dreadful indeed; that it wouldn't do for her to marry the young man; that he was of a quiet and peaceful disposition; that it might lead to her father and mother abandoning their business; that they were very good customers of his, always needing to buy expensive indulgences; that her father had a fine young robber already picked out for her, and that she must take him and renounce the other. So the young lady's 2 mother cut up the rejected suitor into small pieces. I believe Charles was the young man who winked, and Marguerite Thomas was the girl. They had to be provided with adjustable eyelids made of paper, which would wink and throw a shadow on the screen. It is to be hoped that Helen's new maid is not a Catholic, for she would certainly have been scandalized. Evelyn has a very dirty little boy in her kindergarten. He lives over a stable and smells of it tremendously; in fact, he is so odorous that she dreads to have him come in. Not long ago, he was absent for several days, and she asked his sister, a little older, why Teddy didn't come to school. The sister said, "Oh, Miss Barrows, he is afraid that you or Miss Doherty (Evelyn's assistant) will kiss him!" Evelyn and Miss Doherty had fits of laughter over it. Mrs. Gray, our pussy cat, continues her nefarious efforts to get into the front part of the house, where she is not allowed. Every now and then, when an outside door is open, she slips in, and I hear them hunting her, sometimes even up into the third story, and talking to her with a mixture of affection and reproach. Then I beg them to bring her in to me, so that I may stroke her. The nurse brings her in her arms and holds her out, and I stroke her head and scratch her cheeks and chin, and she purrs like a good one. She is a bad one, however, for the other day, when she had been walking up and down in the most amiable way with the nurse while she took her walk on the piazza, then when Mrs. Perry took her in her lap and was petting her, and she suddenly gave a great sweeping scratch, leaving the marks of all her claws upon Mrs. Perry's hand and wrist. It was done without visible provocation, and Mrs. Perry had been a little shy of her ever since.3 I saw the comet the other night, without knowing that it was a comet. I was sitting up for a few minutes at twilight, while the nurse made my bed, and was looking out of the west window. I saw what I supposed to be the evening star. I thought it was of a queer shape, and I said to myself, "It looks more like a comet than a star." But I supposed that it was a flaw in the window glass which made it look so, and I kept on casting an occasional glance at it, without thinking anything more about it. The next day, when they began to read me things from the paper about the comet, I came to the conclusion that that was what I had seen. After that, it was muffled in mist. I am very sorry to say that Mrs. Barrows has another threatening of gall-stones, but she seems to be better this morning. Yesterday my friend Hattie Turner came to see me and brought a glorious [bright] big bunch of crimson snap-dragon, another of fragrant white pinks, and a third of sweet peas, perfectly lovely. She is going abroad in May, to Italy, Dresden, and elsewhere. Anna was told by the nurse the other day that she might walk down stairs to breakfast, but she must crawl up again, on her hands and knees. Charles said that he didn't need to go to the library early that day, and lingered about, without telling why. When Anna was ready for her breakfast, he just picked her up like a baby and carried her down stairs, and afterwards carried her up again. Little Elizabeth is reported to take her meals with great gusto. Dorchester, Mass. Feb. 11, 1910. Dear Kitty: [Elon?] Huntington has been retired on half pay. He did not ask for retirement, but was summoned before the retiring board at Washington & pronounced incapable of sea duty & therefore retired. His family are both glad & sorry, Aunt [Ey?] says - glad to have him at home, & sorry that his health is thought to be bad enough to necessitate it. In our little summer settlement at Chilmark, all the mothers of young children will feel safer to have a competent doctor within call.4 Wouldn't you like it, if you could take the big Elizabeth in your arms and carry her up and down stairs as easily as Charles did Anna? I am so glad that the new maid has turned out so well. Laura was a good riddance. Aunt Emily sent me on the letter from Mrs. Tubbs and your other friend--I forget the name, at this moment--and I sent them to Uncle George, who has returned them. Mrs. Tubbs must be a very good friend. I don't think of any more news. My life is busy with writing and clippings, but there seems to be very little of family interest. Your affectionate cousin, Alicia Stowe Blackwellis a great deal better, & has begun to walk out. I hope you and Aunt B. are having pleasant weather. Yours affy, Alice Stone Blackwell. And I think he will take great pleasure in improving & beautifying Chester Poole's place. Aunt Emily has sent me back another batch of family letters, & I enclose them. I think you will be interested in reading them even though they are not very new. She & I are both of us supposed to be improving slowly. Yesterday & day before, I sat up for an hour each day - the first day in the east window of Papa's room, the second day in the window of the hall, where the plants are. Emma said she was coming to see me yesterday, but she was prevented, so I have not much family news to report. She said over the phone that little Elizabeth's stomach had been sour & her bowels not acting quite right, & Dr. Hobart had prescribed magnesia, and (wonderful to relate) Elizabeth had been allowed to take it! They were not worried about her; she is very well in the main. Anna went to see Dr. Hobart at her office, & Dr. H. said she was very nearly all right. She was to come again in a week. Dr. Smith on her last visit to me said that I was better than the time before. Esther Burrows is better, & tomorrow she comes out here for a week's rest & recuperation. A friend of Evelyn's met Howard & Helen at the College Club the other had got his pension. I learned it from Frances Alofsen's letter. How much is it? I am very glad he is able to get away from the bad air of that court. Mrs. Barrows[*has been worse, but a letter from Elliot to Esther said he thought she was somewhat better. You did not tell me that Harry [Titterton/] *] day. They were going to the theatre or opera, & said they were out for a spree. She thought Helen looking better than she she last saw her. Emma also told me that Helen had about got over her Job's comforters, of which she has had a series - big ones & little - ever since George Howard arrived. They came just where they made it inconvenient for her to sit down. Helen told Evelyn's friend that she was going away for a week or two, but I did not hear where to; & Howard told her that they had been having a great deal fo trouble about help, but thought they had a satisfactory maid at last - or had one in view. Emma was coming out to see me yesterday afternoon, but something prevented her. The nurse had put everything in apple pie order, to be ready, as she always seems to feel it necessary to do when company is expected, even if it is only a member of the family. If she had arrived, I should probably have a flood of small family gossip to report, but as it is, there is not much news. Poor Grace P.S. Emma has just telephoned that Howard & Helen have started today for N.Y. Howard comes back Monday, Helen not for a fortnight. George Howard remains at Cambridge in charge of Miss Kirkby. Helen felt the need of a change & will visit a favorite cousin of hers at Passaic, N.J. She will also see her cousin Will Thomas.Howard was going to try to fly about and see all the family between Friday night and Monday. I hope he will succeed. Frances Millette is still at Gardner. Emma says she went to the Symphony Concert last night & went fast asleep. I wish she could impart to me some of her excellent gift for sleeping. However, I am sleeping much better than I did. 45 Boutwell Ave. Dorchester, Mass. April 14, 1910 Miss Barry, Rock House, Hastings, England. Dear Kitty:- After we heard Emma's report of Grace's present condition, we thought that Florence might put off her visit to Boston until later. But on Monday afternoon Florence was espied climbing the hill with Evelyn Barrows. Florence had been out to Waverly, and found Grace worse that she had ever seen her though not worse than she was when at Caldwell. She seemed hardly to know Florence. She had also been transferred to a less desirable room. It seems that the prices at the McClean Hospital are not $35. a month, as I had supposed, but $35. a week, which is pretty steep. Florence felt as though Grace ought to get better accomodations for that money. Still, the McClean has a very high reputation, and from all.accounts I should judge that poor Grace was not in a state at present to realize what her quarters were like. Emma has gone to Washington to attend the National Woman Suffrage Convention, and has taken Florence along with her. Emma first tried to persuade Uncle George to go. He thought it would be altogether too dull for him while she was attending the Convention. Then Emma told Anna that, since Elizabeth is now getting only one meal a day from her mother and the rest from a bottle, she might as well get them all from a bottle for a week, while Anna went to Washington. But Anna said that she had been to Washington twice already, and had not the least wish to go again. Then Emma asked Florence, and offered to pay all the expenses. Florence was delighted with the idea, but objected that she had no suitable clothes. Anna thereupon brought out various dresses of hers, which she had worn before the advent of little Elizabeth, and she made Florence try them on, and they proved to fit her very well, and were also very becoming. Anna tried one of her hats on Florence, and that also proved to fit her and to be becoming. Everybody took the greatest interest in rigging Florence out, and Helen came tearing over with an empire gown of hers that she was eager to lend, and Charles offered in joke to lend some of his clothes also, I believe. Anna insisted that Florence should go, and hauled out one of her trunks, and packed the clothes into it in the most capable way. Florence went off in great glee, declaring that she felt just like Cinderella. Anna told her that she looked perfectly correct, and that she could go and call on President Taft if she wanted to. I contributed my best white lace waist, which Emma telephoned for at the eleventh hour, and Miss Siebker took it into the city and delivered it to the porter on board the Pullman car. I suppose that Florence is now having the time of her life. She will be mixing with Mrs. Mackay and Mrs. Belmont and all the muti-millionairesses. I am sure that the changewill do her good, and that she will go back with yards of amusing experiences to relate to Elliot. Emma was also very much pleased not to have to go alone and especially to have someone to hook her dresses up behind. She had been looking forward with dismal forebodings to being in a strange place with nobody to rely upon for hooking her up except a possible chambermaid. Uncle George scoffed at the preparations and the excitement. He said that women's idea of pleasure seemed to be to get into the most uncomfortable clothes possible, and to travel in the most uncomfortable way. But they went off in high spirits. I continue to do well, apparently, and have been downstairs twice. The weather is lovely, the grass is green, the water blue, and everybody is beginning to sigh for Chilmark. Aunt Emily writes that she is beginning to look forward to her spring visit to Boston on the way to York. It will be very nice to see her. Your affectionate cousin, Alice Stone Blackwell. 45 Boutwell Ave. Dorchester, Mass. April 19. 1910. My dear Kitty:- I see by the morning papers that I have been reelected at Washington. I had my doubts whether I should be, but am glad that I am. Uncle George and Anna have had no word from Emma except postalcards, and they called yp this morning to know whether we had heard anything. I have had no news since Saturday, but there were two letters from Florence received before that which I am going to have Mrs. Perry read to Anna over the telephone. We agreed that this should be done when I had had my breakfast; but when Mrs. Perry called up, Elizabeth was having her bath, so it has had to be postponed again. They are the same two letters which I enclose to you. The weather is coming out beautiful, and we are hoping that they are having the same kind in Washington for the last day of the Convention. It is a local holiday here, being the anniversary of the battle of Lexington; so Evelyn Barrows has been able to go away for a little visit. Mr. Barrows has been pruning the shrubs, and the fields are dotted over with people digging for dandelions. I do not think I should like to have my summer home in a place like Hastings where 2000 people come down from London and spread themselves over everything whenever there is a holiday. Chilmark is better. [If you heard of anyone wishing to buy or rent a country place I wish you would mention the one that the Parrows own in Norristown, New Jersey. It is said to be a beautiful place and the rent from it has been the bulk of their income. This year it is not rented, and it takes about all of Father's and Evelyn's earnings to pay the taxes and repairs.] Aunt Nettie has been asked whether she would like to take Sadie and Jack to the Vineyard with her when she goes down on April 26th. We are provided with a girl for this summer and so shall not need Sadie. She likes Chilmark and is a perfectly honest respectable young woman, and a very good cleaner, though not a first rate cook. I am curious to hear whether Aunt Nettie will decide to take her. I should feel more comfortable to have her going with Sadie than with no one but a strange girl. Still, after Agnes and the children arrive complications might arise from little Jack. [later] Anna has called up, and Mrs. Perry has read to her Florence's last two letters over the phone, interrupted by laughter at both ends. Florence does write very amusing letters. No word has come to either of us since last Saturday. After that the Convention apparently became so exciting and strenuous as wholly to absorb Emma and Florence - that and sightseeing. We know that they went to Mt. Vernon because there was a card dated from there. Mrs. Willie Mayhew has sent Mrs. Barrows a beautiful box of arbutus picked with the leaves on. It arrived looking as fresh as when it was first gathered - with the dew on it, perfectly lovely. (over)Di[r]d you see the article by Mrs. Isabel C. Barrows in th the "Outlook", giving Tschaikowsky's letter to her telling about the trial? he had a few moments with Mrs. Bres[c]hko[w]sky before she was taken away to go to Siberia and she sent he her love to Mrs. Isabel C. Barrows and to me. It almost knocked me over when I read it. Miss Wilde is a little better and protests that she is quite able to get the Woman's Journal to press. Mrs. Cray's kittens have not yet arrived, and there is no other news. Your affectionate cousin Alice. P.S. Dear K. I was writing this letter to Aunt Emily, & told my secretary to make a duplicate copy at the same time, for you. The passages in pareneis letters marked ( ) are those that I asked Mrs. Perry to skip in reading them over the phone to the Cambridge folk.