CATT, CArrie Chapman General Correspondence Peck, Mary Gray 1923 - 24 Rio Janeiro Jan 26, 1923 My dear Meary, Since the religious flavor has been extracted from Christmas for most people, and the day transformed into one of festive nature, it is amazing how much depends upon the setting ofsum [?], swapping cold, artificial cozy heat, and holly. One may regret absence from the family circle but in the tropics one does not regret Xmas. It isn't here. The tables were decorated with pink carnations in the dining room last night and altho there was an elaborate dinner there was no turkey and if there had been you wouldn't have cared for it. We breakfast (everyone in the hotel) in our rooms. We had paypya (overlook spelling) passion flower fruit and jusubo fruit for breakfast in our own little salon, which smells halfway between a wedding and a funeral The cause is the perfusion of flowers. I am glad you are not here. You would "bust such emotion - you who rhapsodize over an ordinary moon in an ordinary heaven, and over the beauty of flowers in a certain farm garden. Why home of [R??ds] of orchids, a [?] [?] Egyptian lotus with stephanotis, magnolias and the central bouquet has sprays of [?o] coffee with the beans on it for [g????] and [???rs] are [h??] of the tobacco plant and a red acacia! We look out directly upon the famous Rio Bay with curious [???y] mountains shutting it in all around. I’d like to stay for months myself. You would [?] “ bush” or write a book of poems no one would want to read! At any rate, you take my word it is wonderful. I had an Xmas gift of a gourd bowl filled with Brazilian nuts, fruit of the cacao tree, sapoty mangoes and figs! My but it is fascinating. However I must hurry. All mail is put on the American [sh????rs] so it will get there and I have only a few minutes to finish this. These girls are getting on! There is a diplomacy committee in the Senates whose business it is to great distinguished foreigners and they got that Committee to receive me - what do you think. So the vice Pres. of the Republic who presides over the Senate, and three very important senators received us in State. One had an English father who sent him to the United States to the University of Penn where he graduated in 1869 If you would write at once I think you would catch me at Hotel Oddo Santiago Chili where I think we will be til Feb 24 and again at Panama City, c/Senora Ester Nierra de Calvo where we will probably be about Mch 12. It takes six weeks from NY to Santiago, about 10 day to Panama CC[?] 3 and whenever any English speaking people are being received he is the spokesmen there. Mary, they [?ated] all around champagne and [?hiald] and I drank none but we got mineral water and so got on. About fifty men stood at a distance and watched the performance. All fifty of these men are suffragists! Things are moving down here and little Bereba Lutz is a wonder. She’ll stand by! The book came Xmas Eve. Naughty Mary. Thought I’d told all concerned that there were to be no Xmas presents for me. We had a party - we four and had quite a jolly hour. The rest of the day I spent writing business letters and now have reached the thank letters and this is intended to express my appreciation of your thoughtfulness of my far away ness and of my need of literary supervision I’ll follow your directions dear Mary. I am intending to go to Rome via New York since no ships of size go back to Europe from Panama. The difficulty of finding out what we ought to know is tremendous. We might find a ship and go hiking back and we may make a two weeks stay in New York. I expect to reach Juniper Lodge for a quiet undisturbed summer about June 6-10. I shall expect a visit from you one day--I don't mean for one day but for as many as you will condesend to remain. I'll tell you what I haven't time to write now. How about Rome. I think you are right if your father is frail. It must be a pity for him to slip away when you were not there. You won't have him long. I'm not very enthusiastic about that Congress. I think the delegates will all get the diarrhea altho I hope they would all get it at the same moment. The local women do not know how to do thing very well, and the hall is so impossible that I held the Board (Committee) that I would open and close the Congress and preside over the pre convention business meetings but that I would not undertake to preside over the business of the convention. Some one else must assume responsibility of the confusion arising from a convention where no one hears. Now I have gone this far. I must arise and go to a tea. After that more letters and then a midnight ride to catch the steamer. We are leaving at 8am tomorrow for another city. Lovingly, C C Catt Iquiqui, Chile Feb 23, 1923 Dear Mary, Do you know where Iquiqui is? Of course you don't. Well it lies on a low level beach with ugly volcanic rocks in front which make rapids between them and immediately behind is the mountain range, bare bleak and rocky. Hemmed in one side by the Pacific and on the other three by the Andes, a considerable town buys and sells, eats and drinks and goes to the movies. Why, because it is the outlet of the nitrate plants back in the mountains. We have been here two days. Our two ton vessel the Teno is making its first trip and it is prepared for just this kind of cargo. It has ten great cranes run by electricity--a child could manage them--and they are all going. Our ship is surrounded by scows each full of gunny sacks of nitrate. We seem about full up for we stopped two days at Autofagasta 2 and there we took our copper and nitrates. The copper mines are now owned by the Anaconda mines which has the control of the copper supply [now] for the entire world. Nitrate is found in banks like stone quarries and when dug out is fairly soft. It is then boiled and the product is white like coarse salt. As Chile was neutral the Germans did not lose their nitrate interests and might have continued their commerce, but it is shipped in gunny sacks and these come from India and England wouldn't let them have any! It is these little things of which we never heard that contribute to the perpetuation of brotherly love. I cannot imagine any lives more desolate than those consigned to this coast shut in by mountains and ocean. The only redeeming feature is the superb climate, quite like California. 3 Yet here nothing grows as there is so much nitrate in the soil that it kills every sprout. They have brought soil and made some rather pitiable efforts at parks. However this is the region in dispute between Peru and Chile and Bolivia on the side. It takes on a different significance when one is on the spot and comprehends how these people hate each other. Everybody knows the nature of the present day dispute, but the back history is interesting. An election for president was about to to take place in Bolivia. The president was a candidate. Just before the election another candidate seized him and his cabinet. Some followers proclaimed the[ir] upstart president and nobody objected. It saved the trouble of an election. He proved to be rather a lawless dictator. Congress had passed a law placing a tax of 4 10 centavos per hundred we got on nitrates is going out of Bolivian ports [or mines] but it had never been enforced. This president announced that he should enforce it and would collect the back taxes. Thereupon the nitrate company of Antofagasta not only protested but did so to the Chilean government-- their own-- The Bolivians retorted by threatening to seize the company's plant and sell it for taxes. The Chileans landed troops at Antofagasta, and the Bolivians declared a state of war existed. The Peruvians refused to declare that they would remain neutral and Chile hearing [a rumor] that an alliance had been made between its two neighbors promptly declared war against both. There was some filibustering and [?] battles, which nevertheless slew many men, when a picturesque cinema Peruvian general placed his men with their backs to the sea and told the Chileans to come on. They did, and the cinema general wheeled his horse about put spurs into it and rode over the bluff into the sea. Thus the Chileans won and took 5 from Bolivia all their coast and a [big] bit from Peru with the understanding that a plebiscite should be held in ten years in the territory of Arica and Tacna to see who should get it. That was 35 years ago but they never could agree as to how the plebiscite should be conducted, so now Mr Harding is to do it for them. I forgot to say that [the] Peruvian hero stood alone upon the burning deck because the Bolivian President who had put himself at the head of his troops sent word that his men refused to go further. The Bolivians therefore, with patriotic pride offended proclaimed another president [and saved another election] and told the coward that he needn't come back and he didn't. Now the moral of the story is that one fool man was given power by some fool male people 6 and he messed up things until the Great Pacific Dispute grew out of it. Now tomorrow we shall call at Arica. That is the point the Bolivians want on the Pacific. It is the spot where they will vote when Harding tells them how. It is a wee dusty little settlement containing nothing of interest except the bluff where a mad general committed suicide--but it is a sea port. The new little ship just came over from Glasgow where it was built and is very nice and comfortable with exceptions 1. it rolls like a barrel 2 they haven't washed the decks since we started 3 the food is queer, and the bread and butter cannot be eaten. The compensations are many the chief one being that there is a brand new library well chosen and containing many books about South America in English. No one speaks English but some know a few words and with gestures we get on. We anchor out in the sea [at all stops] and go ashore in small boats. The sea is always choppy and it is often difficult to get into and out of the boats. 7 Yesterday when we came back from Iquique (pronounced E kee kee) we had to perform like acrobats to get on the ladder and a sea wave caught me and slopped over one foot up to my knee. The sea is very deep off this coast--probably a volcanic valley to correspond with the Andes which rise abruptly from the shore. To get into the continent behind railways have been built through the mountains. That going to La Paz Capital of Bolivia climbs up to over 14000 ft and they keep pumps to fill the [?] with oxygen [Should they get the [?]. What is that? Well it is what you can get] The pass going to the copper mines above Lima rises to 18000 feet and the mines work in an altitude of 16000. One great battle took place at 13000 ft. I was never so high. There are three 8 things in So. America of which everyone has heard and wants to see. The Iguwasu falls, the greatest in the known world. They are absolutely unapproachable in summer and very difficult to reach in winter--then by a rough method. The Christ of the Andes can only be reached by a donkey ride up a long trail and Cusco the capital of the old Inca civilization. To go there requires a month of time over a dirty difficult route with no conveniences and a pass of 14000 feet. So we go away having seen none of them. We shall have arrived in Callao, done Peru in a week, taken a British ship and travelled a week on it, arrived in Panama and will be there D V when this letter reaches you. It will travel to NY by this ship. We expect to catch a Dutch excursion steamer which will take us to Havre, stopping in Venezuela Trinidad Caracas the Barbados +c. We shall or expect we shall arrive in Paris Meurice Hotel, April 10 where we shall stay a week. There the cleaners, dyers and menders will 9 be kept busy in order to make me respectable for Rome. I shall also get full reports on the Congress and will have much correspondence and a busy time. I expect to get to Rome about the 20th, (Hotel Quirinal). My but I'll be glad to get back to Juniper Ledge and have some good country food. Now, Mary, I'll tell you a secret. Pan Americanism is a pipe dream. The men with appropriations from governments have failed ignobly and when the League of Nations came So America regarded it as a release from the Monroe Doctrine which it distrusts and hates. That distrust grew when the US did not enter the League. We shall have a good Congress in 1924 I think, but voluntary women can not do what subsidized men have failed to do. Don't tell anyone I said so. I've got an auxiliary in every country yet. We may fail in Peru--only 15% of pop. is white--the remainder 10 are "various ethical types." Well, you are to come down next summer and I'll tell you what I cannot write. So America is interesting - its history, its problems and everything except its men and women! The women are vain, uneducated, and overdressed. Their end and aim is marriage, cinemas, dancing and gay dresses. The men are superficial and so over developed sensually that the women have no chance, nor the nations much prospect of greatness. They are a long way from Tipparary. To be sure there are some notable exceptions, but it is the masses that make a country. I do not feel sad that you cannot go to Rome, for I fear it would poorly repay anyone. I do not see how we can pay expenses of delegates nor how they can come from most of the European countries without their way being paid. Your letters have been most warmly received. You cannot imagine how ignorant I am of what is going on in the world. Miss Hay so carefully schedules her newspaper and magazine sending that the packages have all missed me and I have received not one in So America! Lovingly C. C. C. Circular letter from Carrie Chapman Catt to Miss Hay, Mrs. Shuler, Miss Young, Mrs. Raymond Brown, Miss Hyde, Miss Peck and Dr. Hebard of Wyoming University. En route Peru to Panama Mar [xxxx] 6, 1923 Dear Friends:- You cannot imagine how difficult it is to find opportunity to write letters when on a trip like this. I should like to write you each an individual letter beginning with an acknowledgment of letters received. I cannot do that, so I am writing you a collective letter. Whenever we are on land, we are rushing about like mad, and instead of idly resting on shipboard, there is always writing or necessary reading for information to do. We have just left Peru, where we had six complete days only. We had eight meetings, organized a national society, saw all the sights, several public institutions, called on Congress and the President and received some dozens of callers. Put that all into a daily program performed in August heat, and see how much energy is left. I have written my usual article from Peru for the Citizen and have told what is good for the public to know. I thought you might be interested in some things which for obvious reasons I shall never tell the public. In Chile we called upon the President Arturo Alessandri and had an hour's conversation with him. In the midst of it he startled me with the request that I should take a message to President Laguia of Peru! At first I thought this just talk, but he was so impressive and apparently so sincere, that it was finally borne in upon me that he was really giving me a real commission. It was an accident so foreign to all my experience that I felt rather overloaded with it. Chile and Peru do not love each other but Chile would like a peaceful settlement, because it was the conqueror and the victor is always forgiving after a generation or so. Peru hates Chile. On a copy book cover used in the public schools is a picture of a Chilean killing a Peruvian, and a gentleman told me that on a visit to a school he heard the children asked, "What are the two enemies of Peru?" The answer was, "Alcohol and Chile." When these countries went to war in 1884, Chile sacked the city of Lima, stole all the gold and silver from her cathedrals, monuments from public parks, the library from the University and many valuable pictures. Well, they have quarreled over Tacna and Arica ever since and have no diplomatic relations. So, the message briefly put was that in his own country the President was being severely criticised for having consented to the arbitration by President Harding (if you dont know about that, look it up) and that he felt sure Laguia was criticised, too, and that they should stand together and be good friends. I should tell you that I was conscious in Chile of anti American feeling. It seems that Blaine, Secretary of State in 1885, wanted the Chileans to pay reparations to the Peruvians for what they had stolen, and instead the Peruvians were made to pay the Chileans for the privilege of being robbed. Result: Chile hates the United States and Peru likes us. That commission weighed rather heavily upon me. I did not tell my party about it, as I happened to have gone with Chileans only when I saw the President. 2 In Peru, the ladies arranged a call upon Laguia with no knowledge that I had a message. It was clear to me that no knowledge of this commission should leak out as it might set fire to unsuspected fat. So I asked the woman leader, his niece, to say to him that I wanted to speak with him alone, and to withdraw the other ladies when we had staid out our regular call. It was neatly done, and in his reception room alone, I delivered the message as earnestly as I could. He received it kindly but questioned the sincerity of his president neighbor and declared that if Chile would stop persecuting innocent Peruvians in the disputed district, Peru would send delegates to Santiago for the Pan American Congress. I concluded my mission did not extend further than reporting the matter to the American Embassy, which I did. It has had no minister for some time, but now Poindexter is coming. I can think of no more unfitting appointment, altho I like the man. The Charge d'Affaires Sterling said that the persecutions were rumored but might be without foundation in fact. In the morning before the call upon the president I received a cable from New York signed by a Senora whose name was unfamiliar, saying "Free suffrage is the great need of Peru. Woman suffrage would help. Earnest hopes for success of your mission. Careful inquiry revealed that she was the wife of the chief deportee! That is, when this president was elected, history does not record how, his rivals attempted to prevent him from being seated. They had a battle in a park and much shooting. When Laguia was pulled out from under several dead men he was found alive and the army seated him. They called it a revolution. But his enemies were not content and many efforts to get rid of him, and once nearly carried out an abduction, so he just deported them all! We passed a really grand and beautiful palace located in the midst of a big garden of flowers and tropical trees, and they told us that its owner had been given a time in which to close up his extensive affairs and clear out. He is about the last. Somewhere between 6% and 15% of the population are white, and these leaders are white, aristocratic and rich. They would have a hard time [xxx] withstanding the 85% of the blacks, browns and yellows of the population, but amusing themselves with intrigues against each other as they do, they ensure the complete blackening of the entire population! There isnt much to entertain gentlemen of leisure in Peru, so that they indulge in politics. The prosaic struggle of Mr. Harding with office seekers is a boresome task compared with revolutions. Well, I have the inscribed photographs of both presidents as the reward of my first venture into diplomacy & I shall guard them well, for they will probably be assassinated or in jail by the time of my return. We had learned much about conditions in Peru before our arrival there, but we had never heard that there was an American Woman's Club A cable received on shipboard at Mollendo invited me to speak for it. I cabled an acceptance, and my reply was received two days after I had made the speech. I didnt learn how they learned that I would be in Peru, but they had a printed schedule for the year and the first meeting was to be at the Embassy (Mrs. Sterling) and I the speaker! I got there about two weeks earlier than they had guessed. These Americans, fresh and young, came out to the boat in a launch to meet me and it was a welcome sight. They were a whole group of "dears", mostly college women. Peru likes the U.S. It has an American Naval Commission, anesucational Commission and an American Financial Ex-... 3 pert. The ladies took part of us by train and me by automobile to Lima and deposited us at Hotel Maury. They departed and made no suggestion for this afternoon. We arrived at 11AM. No one called. This had never happened before. Indeed the city was deserted. A holy quietude prevailed. We did not learn till later that this was not to be interpreted as usual piety. The entire city had gone to the bull fight! The Americans were all there! The reason they said nothing about it was that the seats were all gone and they couldn't invite us. More, our particular friends were all guests of the high officials. The President was there and exceedingly sorry that he hadn't known about us in time to invite us to his box. It was a fine afternoon! Nine horses were gored to death by the bulls, and six bulls were killed by the matadores! More, the chief matador was gored himself! This was on Sunday. The papers on Tuesday carried an interesting item to the effect that the President's Aide had on Monday called on the wounded matador who was doing well, and then he called on Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt at the Hotel Maury! I call that fit evidence upon which to claim immortality. I wish I could describe our hotel. Our "appartment", Rosa's and mine, consisted of two rooms, one the sitting room which had a large window with iron bars and a door opening upon the court occupied by the office, the salon and the water closets! The latter sent their perfumed odors to us at every breath. All passers by were as much with us as tho they had been in the rooms. The back room contained our beds and was lighted by six windows close together in a balcony overhanging the street. This was our washstand. At first we closed all the windows when we washed our hands, but later we just dodged. When we bathed, (sponge only), we had to keep our eye on the street, the hotel boys and each other! The hotel was more unclean than usual, One woman recently insisted upon having the carpet removed from her room. They assured her it was carefully swept every day. She persisted and got it up. Under it were newspapers dated 1871! We had a delightful time in Peru, but we could not eat, sleep or really bathe! We lived mostly on eggs, bananas and Jesus! Dont think me sacriligious. Jesus is the name and the only name of a bottled Peruvian mineral water which we had to drink. We would give a good price for a drink of plain iced water, but that is one of the sacrifices the traveller must make. we have only had good bread and butter at three places since I left N.Y. in October. The bread in S.A. is mostly sour, partly because they like it so, partly because the cook usually has bad luck. The butter is in various stages of decay and is often quite impossible and force of circumstances compels the adoption of the "no breakfast theory". Result: a "figger" growing daily more sylphlike. Attached is the proof. Here I am making a speech with the interpreter by my side who translated sentence by sentence. The thermometer was ranging around the 90's and there was nothing but fizzy Jesus to quench my thirst. There wasnt much time for organizing and the S. American mind is slow. Everyone predicted failure. Well, we organized, but I am not sure but the infant has already expired. By throwing aside all the methods used in the north, such as parliamentary usage, motions, votes, etc. and adopting those used in S.A., it was done. We got delegates from the existing organizations and they came to the University, (the oldest in the western hemisphere, 1551). I was a bit annoyed at the presence of a priest who hovered near. The women didnt seem to notice him and I thought he might have been invited. Soon he burst into a speech and said that the women ought to organize. That was well, but time was limited and when he burst forth again, a woman said, "This is a private meeting called for a special purpose. You have no business here and no right to speak at all. He looked startled but soon slunk away. I conclude that the ferment of "Gentle light leading on" is at work even in Peru. The organizing difficulty was a wholly new one. The uppers and the middles have no association. All the University women, doctors etc are not only middle class but mostly of decidedly mixed blood. The pure Castilian speaks language but would die before she would equalize herself with those of color. Every man has done his best to populate Peru and has had no hesitancy about miscegenation, but the Castilian woman imagines she is keeping the race pure. Some of you remember the incident of the Chilean delegate who did not get the money. Well, she got back as far as Lima where she said she was visiting her brother. She called on me and one of the Castilians came while she was there. I introduced her from Chile. I have heard but never saw a genuine snub before. The Chilean left instanter[?] Soon a Peruvian woman of the middle class but white and of good family entered. I introduced them. The snub was repeated. It reminded me of the scorpion. This little beastie doesnt change expression of his face when he's out to dispose of an enemy–he sits down on it with his tail and its done for. This lady hadnt any tail, but every muscle stiffened while she smiled. I never saw anything like it. What wouldnt an Anti have given to know how! We got a respectable mixed board, but the aristocrats became conspicuous by their absence. I presume it will result in the commons carrying on. Well, I gave the others a chance. For years different kinds of agencies have been trying to organize these Peruvian women. The Council tried, Anna Gordon tried, and one woman in an effort to get an auxilliary for the Peace and Freedom League spent a year there, and all failed. Latterly, the wife of the Cuban minister has tried to get a committee, at Mrs. Lansing's request, to cooperate with the next Scientific Pan Am. Congress which meets in Lima next year, and she has spent a year at it and hasnt got it yet. (She, Mrs. Baralt, is a second cousin of Horace Parkers wife and a fine woman). In view of all this I do not feel boastful that we called into life the form of an organization. The wife of the chief of the Naval Commission, Mrs. Frank Barrows Freyer, is a charmer. Tall, with an absolutely perfect Junoesque figure, brown dyes, nearly black hair, peaches and cream complexion, perfect bow mouth hiding perfect teeth, she is a rare beauty. Her grandfather was Spanish and born in California. She learned Spanish before she learned English. The Peruvian uppers took her to their heart as one of them. She is an imperious creature with her own ideas, but she chose to help. She was a steam roller incarnate. I coaxed and she rolled, and some surprised women found themselves organized. When Clemenceau left the U.S., I read that an interviewer asked him if his mission had been fulfilled. He replied with a twinkle in his eye, "Well, I dont know yet whether its a boy or a girl". I told this story to Mrs. Freyer and she replied, "Dont worry! I know these women, and its a pair of twins". You cannot imagine how curious it seems to be in a country with a 5 really new race. Castilian features with occasional negro wool, Indian or Chinese qualities and generally with the straight hair of the Indian, they are in reality a merged race. At the penetentiary I did not see a white man except the chiefs. At the Orphan Asylum I saw amongs t the 500 children two white ones. The orphan arrangement is common to all S.A. and came from Europe. Perhaps we have it too. A revolving box in the wall contains four niches. It may be turned to the outside a baby deposited in each niche, and then turned inside. So there isnt a trouble about disposing of illicit fruits. Alas! most of them come afflicted with venerial disease and have to be treated at once. The Sisters are are certainly martyrs, even if they are not very scientific. They are mostly French. It is commonly believed that a good many of these orphans belong to the priests, but I saw some really good faces among them. I suppose the good ones keep things going, altho after this trip I am inclined to the opinion that the chief asset of the Catholic Church is its sisters. Their institutions were invariably cleaner, more cheerful and human than the mens, which are supposed to be more up to date. We will arrive in Panama tomorrow. The Captain has had an inquiry from the Dept. of Foreign Affairs to know if we are aboard. I hope their intentions are friendly. Well, dear Friends, excuse my collectivity and be assured that I love you collectively and individually. I am well, and enjoying the process of blazing a trail. Very truly yours, CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT 1 On SS Venezuela April 10, 1923. My dear Mary: I have received some scores of letters from you in my day and each one has told me what a remarkable woman I am. Of course every one has been written with tongue in cheek and I knew it and you knew that I knew it. I've lived to the ripe age of 64 without ever doing a noteworthy thing but after passing that limit I've performed an heroic and startling feat. I've written, finished my address for the Congress a month hence! Such foresight would be commendable at any time, but that it could be done in such bedlam as reigns on this ship from 6 a m to 10 p m is a marvel which puts King Tut in the shade. To be sure it isn't much of an address; that has nothing to do with the case, the point is that it is finished. This ship has rolled in the high sea which blesses us by its continual presence so that one cannot walk on the deck nor sit in a chair nor lie on a bed. The salon is so crowded with children, gossips and parents that there is small chance for inspiration there, but the artists who bang the piano at the same time make that place sound like a machine shop at full tilt. I cannot work in my cabin where there is neither table nor chair nor light and I cannot work out doors nor indoors, yet that thing got done, Mary! If I live to get on land I shall walk like a turkey gobler and keep it up till I get [at] out to read in Rome and then I'll feel like a picked spring chicken. This is the last letter probably that I shall ever write you - certainly on this trip. Once on land I shall have to work like a sailor. I think I have deserved further praise for I have written 15 articles for the Citizen on the trip - three I have mailed from this ship. The less said about their quality the better The great thing was that they were done at all. Now having complimented myself on a whole page we will pass on. You needn't waste any space trying to correct my style Mary. You couldn't give me a style if you tried. I note that big is not a nice word, so [in] the next letter [I write after receiving your criticism] I said large whenever I was tempted to say big, but I have no assurance that large is better style than big. I have no dictionary with me so I can only use the simple words that I know how to spell. Those articles of mine are pretty [?], yet they do represent about all I know about SA, so you needn't ask questions, just keep on reading them. Miss Roderick must have enough to run a year. But you asked if I had seen anything of Inca or Aztec ruins. Dear, dear Mary, the Aztecs confined their ruins to Mexico and I haven't been there, but I've got a little package of stuff including an ear of corn right out of an Inca grove. I'll tell you about it one day. As a matter of fact Peru isn't interesting to most folk. If you are interested in Inca business, the place to see the relics is not in Peru (I learned there) but in the Museum of Natural History New York. I shall make it as soon as I get home and before anyone else asks me about relics in Peru. If you get down to New York in time, you can go along and then you will know as much as I do--maybe more. I had a terribly amusing time in Peru but it wasn't with the relics it was with the amazing moderns. I believe I wrote a private company letter including you about the phases I couldn't put in the Citizen letter. You will get it someday. I was never so tired of a ship as I am of this. We took it just three weeks ago tonight and I am counting the days and hours till we can get off. 2 We have three days more and what is more dreadful four nights. The portholes are closed and they ought to be. We got drenched twice. We had just a wee crack and half the Atlantic came through it. We had to send baggage, rug and mattress to the drying room for two days and this happened twice! So now it is air tight. They have put on their steam heat until it is as hot as the tropics. O Lord deliver us I pray, and am grateful when more more hour has brought us nearer port. As a matter of fact a trip to So America is not exactly comfortable. We did not have an ideal accommodation in any hotel. The Gloria in Rio was fine and a very big French window opened upon as glorious a view as the imagination can paint, but on a terrace just below our window, a jazz band played till 1 o'clock for dancing and at 5 am a talkative group of men came to clean up the terrace. A brilliant light played into our window during the same hours. So while we refreshed the spirit with Rio's wonderful view, it was difficult to get much rest for the body. That was the best accommodation we had. On land I had to work really hard with never a minute for calm reflection. On the other hand a tourist taking the same trip with nothing to do would be bored to death. We haven't been bored. Concerning the Incas again, Pizarro marched across the desert and barren mountains from Callao to Cusco, but no one can do it now except by mule back trail! To get there one must get off at Mollendo and catch a train with two stops over a night that goes up twice a week and in the process go over a height of 14000 feet. When one arrives there is little to see but a wall and living Indians who have made a [?] [?] descent from Inca days. The peculiar fenced in condition of S. America can never be quite comprehended until seen. The Andes in about three ranges begun at the very shore on the West and the ports are the mouths of rivers or canyons that run down to the ocean. Before people can reach productive lands they must climb those high forbidding mountains. Most of them got tired before they got over and so located the capital of Columbia where [it takes] 7 days are consumed in the process of getting to it and sometimes when the boat runs aground in the river it takes a month. La Paz of Bolivia is 12000 feet up in the mountains. In Chile a little strip of land lies between the mountains and the sea so they made a Republic of it. The East Coast is more accessible but the mountain wall bounds the north as well as west. When one gets into the interior there is plenty of production land, rain, malaria, 250 known kinds of snakes [mostly poisonous] and other indications of civilization. They have been 400 years getting over the mountains. There are four wonders in S.A. --the [Iguanasu?] Falls, the longest, highest in the world, the famous Christ of the Andes the Chilean Lakes and the Inca ruins. All are so inaccessible that only the brave see any of them and even they are only one on a trip. Were those things in any other land there would be a tourist agency toting people to them. I began this Sat eve. It is now Sunday morning. After a sleepless airless night in which we rolled more energetically than usual 3 Rosa is sitting by my side picking out my finished address on a Corona and turning to ask me to read my hieroglyphics every minute. Many thanks for your letters which are always more enjoyable than anyone else's and which I never answer, no matter how many questions you put. I hope if you really write a pamphlet on the record of the Republican Party you will send me a copy even if anon. I wish [?] need ask me to write one. By the bye I have been informed that the book will be out April 1, but with an amendment that it probably won't. They sent me a copy of the circular and I thought it was deadly. Mrs. Shuler was going to send me the first copy but I told her she needn't mind, that I didn't want to see it till I got home. I haven't heard from anybody since! I hate the old thing. I am now retiring from the literary field, but Mary I'm thinking of making another tour--a survey of Central America. It belongs with the job I've undertaken, but I won't take a troup next time. I shall have one comrade a fluent Spanish speaker and a Catholic if possible. I haven't made confession to Mollie of this new development of my wanderlust, so please leak not--You are the first confidante. I've just found out how to make a survey and I think I ought to execute now. What think you? I shall make for Juniper Ledge by the first boat that takes the shortest cut and where I shall stay serene and undisturbed till the next fit takes me. When you will you are coming to enliven us by your presence and see my ear of Inca corn --my only trophy. I have heard that Maud Park is coming to Rome. I am glad for the trip will do her good and I want to see someone who has authority to act. I have not urged you or anyone to come because I have not expected that the Congress will be very inspiring. I may be wrong, but Europe was so depressing to me that cannot imagine anyone living there having much optimism and without that quality a Congress is a dead affair. Because I did not approve of the place at this time, those who were set upon it [?][?] worked harder and that may produce results. To tell you a sacred secret Mrs McCormick messed things rather sadly when she wanted only to help. I wanted to resign as badly as she did, but I do not approve the idea of quitting a job till the time is up--for the same reason I don't like the idea of suicide--its being a quitter and Mrs McCormick was a quitter. She is sweet and wants really to help but she was hurt and lacks the discipline [?money?] people get out of poverty. I mention this because you did. I did deliver my mind but when Dr. [?] ran out of the room crying because she thought Italy was insulted and was going home, I went to her and in the presence of the others I did not apologize nor say I was sorry that I had hurt her feelings. What I said was that she acted like a baby, that a grown up woman with a cause ought to talk back and defend her country when attacked and not run away. She was saucy in the afternoon! I really was a bull in the china shop but instead of breaking the china I think thus got more spirit. That figure is slightly mixed. Lovingly I am in this last letter Yours truly C.C.C. Batch of paper from Rosa Manus with Juniper misspelled!! C. C. C. "Juneper Ledge" Millwood Westchester Co New-York June 25, 1923 Dear Mary: Please drop your cooking and go at once down to the Geneva Experimental Station and ask the man in charge if he does not want an entomological research station. I've got it if he does. Worms, cut and uncut, grubs maggots, larvae, caterpillars, moths butterflies beetles weevils spiders, mosquitoes, cicadas grasshoppers locusts [flies, bees and bumbles]. Some have legs and some don't. Some have eyes, wings abdomens and heads, antennae and [?]. Then there are bugs, plain bugs and trimmed bugs, some with stripes, some with King Tut patterns and a great number carry lanterns at night. They live in coccoons, and tents, cans and burrows, on trees and on rocks, on the seams of our clothes and the springs of our beds. Every twig on every tree has as many lice [some green, some black] as the German Reich has marks and everything has a thousand ants milking their cows. They come in schools flocks, herds shoals and bevies. The birds were never so plentiful. They are all round and fat, yet they have made no impression on the swarming multitudes. This morning they sang a wild anthem altogether which scared a little baby red squirrel [so that] he nearly ran into my shoe. They sang altogether, Worms worms of Juniper Ledge Fat juicy and sweet This place it couldn't be beat For things birdies like to eat. Worms worms Each day I see a million or so new species and an entomologist would find it a treasure. I am sure he couldn't know them all. Won't you see him soon? The cook has gone crazy or at least is on the high road. She leaves Saturday and we are hopeful she will leave us alive. Mollie being an optimist thinks she can get another. She wanted to know what to say to candidates. Tell the truth said I. "The place is for sale. If it is sold, out you go. If it isn't sold no one knows when we will close and then you go." I think the applicants will be numerous. I expect to do the cooking myself. I will not however have company while I'm doing it. I shall brag about my results but I shall offer no proof. I'll wager you can't make a pastel de Mais. Well wait till I have [tried] and if it doesn't kill the family I'll tell you how. I am sending you (soon) a picture in a frame. It is very small so don't be agitated. I am sending it for the background. The only way to live peacefully is to adopt a cook when she is young and bring her up the way you did. But even she might have got married instead of having an operation. Think of that when the fire is hot yet the pot won't boil. Can you boil an egg? I can when someone boils the water and keeps the fire going. Aug 1, 1923 C. C. C. "Juneper Ledge" Millwood Westchester Co New-York Yes, Mary, this stationery came from Rosa and because she got our name misspelled and because we now get our mail at Box 69 Assuming I am wasting its elegance upon such mortals as you. This will inform you that I never cooked at all. Mollie dragged another cook out of the agency. One left in the morning and the other was here for dinner. She cannot cook as well as Annie but her good nature is rare among humans and we are happy these days. Flora Hay will be here until the end of the week. Another Hay sister and her husband are motoring around the country and will turn up for a night next week or week after. After that the coast is fairly clear and I am ready to receive you any day provided you let me know in time to stave off any other visitors. Mollie is saving some boilers for you and if you don't come soon they will be setting hens. Come down and partake of our cookery awhile and you will go home and appreciate Eliza more. I've invited Clara to come out a bit when you are here. My literary duties are pretty heavy these days and I am studying Spanish. I cannot understand myself yet. I am reading up on Mexico and trying to keep up with the Ruler. I've had little time for farming and it has been too dry to be interesting anyway. I have written seven letters--all business and I haven't time to play with you. Come on and I'll tell you all I know and show you my only treasure. I read as well as contribute to the Citizen. I see you have been engaging in dreams and cynicism yourself. You ought to be at it all the time. I shall have a few jokes to tell you if I don't forget them. Lovingly, Carrie Chapman Catt Plan to get off at Harmon and we will meet you. I'll thank you for those brogans when I see you. I think they are great but Mollie doesn't admire them. I wear them in the parlor instead of the garden! Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission, Inc. President Carrie Chapman Catt Vice-President Secretary and Treasurer Mary Garrett Hay Eleanor Bates Directors Directors Mrs. Arthur L. Livermore...New York Mrs. Raymond Robins...Illinois Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker...Texas Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton...Ohio Mrs. Thomas B. Wells...New York Telephone: 4818 Murray Hill 171 Madison Avenue New York, August 7, 1923. Miss Mary Gray Peck, R. F. D. Clifton Springs, N. Y. My dear Miss Peck: We have been having horribly hot weather down here. Miss Hay's sister and her sister's husband arrived on Thursday and remained over Sunday and although the thermometer did not mount so high, the humidity was at its worst. I do a bad impression of my disposition; therefore, we set your date to cover Sunday, August 26th. We shall expect you on Friday the 24th. We can stand guests at the maximum of four or five days, so you need not be prepared to depart before. Miss Hay wishes me to say that we have had no rain all summer, that the garden and the flowers are failures and perhaps there may not be much to eat. She also wishes me to send this special bulletin. A weasel got nine of her broilers and a stray cat another, so her department is not as prosperous as usual. It would do a fat thing like you good not to eat for awhile. If you have a perennial that spreads its seeds around, you might bring me some of those seeds. You gave me some honeysuckle and it turned out to have black blossoms. I am going to pull it all up as it is too suggestive. If you have any more, I will take some. I have never been able to get any seeds to grow of that perennial which blossoms in the early spring the name of which I cannot remember, but I can see it in my mind's eye. You have it, I know. It has little pink bells along the raceme. If you have some seeds of that, I will gladly receive a few. Let me know what train you will take and we will be at Harmon to bring you up on the 24th of August. Lovingly yours, Carrie Chapman Catt Sept 20, 1923 C. C. C. "JUNEPER LEDGE" MILLWOOD WESTCHESTER Co NEW-YORK My dear Mary Peck: I am a wee bit angry at you and a wee bit grateful. The anger is [a??used] over the fact that when you had had a horrid visit her, you sent a present to the hostesses, one each. That was unnecessary and I don't like the habit. If it was inspired by "duty" I am very angry; if by impulse I am a little grateful--and agree to enjoy peppermints [?] a bit provided you never send me another present. The real gratitude is over the apples which I accept with pleasure and have treated all the family with one apiece--and kept the rest myself! These are the finest apples every, excepting Ezras. We have nothing down this way like them. For these I give grateful thanks. The little jar will be doing its duty when you come again. I was filled with remorse after you had gone home because I had not worn my sandals when you were here. They are really perfectly grand in feeling but on my feet they resemble The mobilization of the U. S. Navy for a review! You should have had a vision of them in action! We are going to town on Oct 8 and will stay at Bretton Hall, 86th St and Broadway. I leave Oct 27th but Mollie will stay there until I return about Dec 20th. I Leave again Dec 29th I do not know how I'll come out on my lectures - that is whether I can stand this place. I regard the experiment as a useful test. I'm not making much progress on it my lecture, but I've got in the mutual dread - that is a dainty bit. Tomorrow I shall have a good day at it for both girls and Mollie are going to town. If I can keep John at a distance I shall hope the house all to myself. Mollie got a cook for five weeks and she is excellent, neat clean jolly and a fine cook. Next year I shall get three for 6 weeks each! Mrs Upton spent Sunday with us and seemed quite like herself. She told a new story about her birth which I must tell you some day - it is a funny one. Yes I'll send the lecture list by and bye Be a good girl and forget how dismal we were To tell the truth we were a good deal upset over Hannah's departure We are in better humor now. Lovingly Carrie C. Catt C. C. C. "JUNEPER LEDGE" MILLWOOD WESTCHESTER Co NEW-YORK Monday evening Oct 2, 1923 Dear Mary: The second bushel of apples arrived duly. The Ezra's I have learned to know, but what is the other apple - red striped - very perishable, juicy and with a flavor fit for the Gods - that is even better than Ezra's best. That astonishes me; I didn't know any so good grew. Thanks for the collection and for each item, delectable gifts of nature in her most generous mood. Mollie is spending the night in town - one of her meetings on. I've had a grand day - all the morning I orated out on the porch trying to memorize the lecture I've written and all the afternoon three men and I have been making cider for vinegar and finished the job out in the October sunlight. Here is some news. I am not going to Mexico! It is quite a story that I will not bore you with but briefly, where it is gently announced that we have "recognized" Mexico as the result of negotiations by a special commission and we are congratulating ourselves upon this peace move on the part of the great and glorious; Mexico is so mad because the will of Uncle Sam was imposed upon her. that I am advised that my visit would do more harm to the cause there than good. That is quite a blow. I knew they hated us but I didn't know it was that bad. I finally wrote to an American girl I know there and asked her to go to my correspondents (who had given me an affectionate and cordial invitation to come) and find out why they didn't answer my letters. She found out and it is the fact above amplified. They do not dare to have me come and don't dare tell me not to. I have had no letters yet! However, I've talked to some folks who know Mexico and they confirm the report of conditions there. I am advised not to go to Central America for the reason that they hate us worse! I don't know what I shall do. I have not had time to check. I hate this job of kindergartnering Spanish American women and have a good notion to let them fight their battle alone. They can do it when they get started. You say nothing appeals to my ambition like suffrage--no "flaming zeal" you call it. Yes Mary there is, it is this peace business, but I don't think I have the resources to draw on for a real fight. My lecture tour at $100 per is a test, first of my own endurance, second to survey the field and see how far the public will yield. I might enlist for a short haul C. C. C. "Juneper Ledge" Millwood Westchester Co. New-York but I couldn't for a life job since my life is on the ebb. I've written a safe and sane speech and taken out all the cynicism and gummed it together with "sweet reasonableness." I've omitted the most controversial parts and will try this on the unsuspecting public--provided I've mind enough to memorize it. I've got Tacitus and his "mutual dread" [in] it and I'm out to substitute mutual confidence, but Mary when did Tacitus walk this sphere. I've no encyclopedia nor a thing that knows him. Now here is a call for help for a missionary. I don't know whether the [speech] is deadly dull or worth 100 cents. Now I've got a lecture on the World's Woman Movement to do. Where shall I begin and where end? I cannot think of one idea to put in it and I'm stuffed to overflow with the whole subject. I'm a single track minder sure enough. Why are people interested in women; I cannot think. I thought they were past history. I've moved on this summer and left all interest in them with my stuffed off first life. I've buckled on armor for another lapse and I can't go back--and those are $100 per too. Tell me what to do. So you are out for a course of lectures. My it has taken me all summer to get one, but I've wheels enough left to make a dozen. Do you get $100 per? Then you are a mediocre reformer compared with which we commercial lecturers have little concern! I'll join your reform of no clothes, or I would were it not that I have difficulty these days to get on clothes enough. I'm sure an exposure would be a strong dose to the [?] you [?] it, but it might bring on a premature death. I am going to the theater and to dinner with five men and incidentally four women and I believe the play is Cymbeline but I do not know the name of a single man--isn't that exciting? It is to be on the 13th which is as far as I have been informed. I have several things I should tell you--nice juicy gossip, were you here, but I'll never write them. By the way this new cook treated us to wild mushroom soup. It was delicious and we are all alive. Dangerous experiment wasn't it? Next Monday night we will be at Bretton Hall. I hate to be off the farm, but many things are calling, calling. Again thanks for the Hawleys the Ezras and the McKinnon best of all--also the Peppermint jar and yourself. Lovingly, C. C. Catt [1928?] C. C. C. "Juneper Ledge" Millwood Westchester Co New-York I've a good deal to tell you about archeology and politics, "cabbages and kings" but you're not invited to come down unless and until there is a cook, so don't get any new clothes yet. Mary, I promised you the first volume of that wretched book, then Mrs Brown told me you got their first volume. Now don't you want to give that to the library and let me keep my promise? I'm going to get some copies from Mrs Brown I think. I have given none away yet. Yours shall be the first. If you have No 1, then give the copy I send away? Will you? The Leslie meets next week--no this week and I've been full of business getting ready for it. I've promised to go to Newburgh tomorrow to speak and here it is hot as Panama and nothing cool to wear--nothing to say either. I am expecting to make another tour next fall. I must hurry to get them all in before I am 70. After that I may settle down. Send me a receipt Mary--fool proof please. More important business calls. Good bye Mary CCC O yes I am well, very well. Mollie isn't at all well. Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission, Inc. President Carrie Chapman Catt Vice-President Secretary and Treasurer Mary Garrett Hay Mrs. Thomas B. Wells Directors Directors Mrs. Percy V. Pennybacker...Texas Mrs. F. Louis Slade...New York Mrs. Raymond Robins...Illinois Mrs. Harriet Taylor Upton...Ohio Telephone: 6770 Ashland 17 Madison Avenue New York, Oct. 16, 1923. Miss Mary Peck, R.F.D., Clifton Springs, New York. Dear Mary: At one time you gave me the impression that you had been making quite a collection of my photographs. I want to add another which Dr. Hebard has just sent to me and also an editorial. What a sweet, modest young thing I was! This is the dress in which I presided over the graduation of my first class when I was superintendent of the schools in Mason City, Iowa. Most cordially yours, Carrie Chapman Catt 400 Modern Rooms Operated by Royal Hotel Co. Geo. T. Thompson, Mgr. Quincy, Ill. Nov. 14, 1923. Hotel Quincy Hotel Newcomb Dear Mary: I found your letter here and I've had another. I've given in 16 days 10 paid lectures 2 without pay and six talks--that's not so bad for 60 plus and six states, is it? It doesn't leave much time for anything else. Yesterday I was all [?] up and wiling to be a crusader for all the days to come--it was pure vanity. The night before we had [had] an audience of 1300 and hundreds turned away. The handsome smiling [???esses] were so enthusiastic over my poor little speech [and] that I almost thought it worth while. Today I want to run home to [?] and never crusade anymore. After getting to bed at midnight for three nights, and sleeping with one eye on my watch I arose at 5:30 am. I could get no b'kf't at hotel and we wanted to get it at the station. I had to wait so long for my taxi that the only breakfast I could get was a cup of coffee and a bit of bread which I hastily swallowed as I perched on the edge of a counter stool. Then I had to travel in a day coach. By and bye I became aware that we were [?] along and I became anxious. I was to change cars at Hannabal. To cut the story short, no persuasion would induce the train [there] to wait [for] my train and we arrived an hour late. My speech was at 2:30 and it was 12:30 when I got to Hannabal. I found a bridge and a wagon road across the Father of Waters there (a fact the Conductor did not know) and was soon ensconced in a well worn Ford which for $9 took me over a muddy bumpy 20 miles to Quincy. I snatched a cup of coffee and a piece of pie at Hannabal, arrived in Quincy 20 minutes before the meeting dressed in that [?] and appeared on the tick of the clock! It seemed too much like campaigning to like it well. 400 Modern Rooms Operated by Royal Hotel Co. Geo. T. Thompson, Mgr. Quincy, Ill. Hotel Quincy Hotel Newcomb I've had my dinner [now] and I shall [now] go to bed for a night of baby sleep. I predict it's a poor hotel and the bed may give me bad dreams. I ate those six apples you sent all by my lonesomes. They came with me and I ate one every night. They were gorgeous, wonderful--100% better than those Washington Delicious which are selling for 10 cts apiece--no comparison at all. Many thanks. What a sight trees containing 1000 barrels must have been! I didn't know just who or what to choose to plant the kiss on in Minneapolis which you ordered bestowed. The League was having a meeting which was fine. They have a splendid organization with the right feeling in it. It was very heartening. The meetings were good in Minneapolis and St Paul. I don't know how they felt about me. I have been giving some pretty straight talks. If I could get at the people of this nation, I could convert them to the League I know. How is that for conceit. I do not know that we shall go to Cala. Mollie has got to go somewhere and she cannot go alone. I [ba??] to the South West. Ariz and New Mex. as the climate we both need, but there are not good hotels nor much to do there. We shall not decide until I get back the 12th of December. I have meetings around New York - two or three - and much to do I think we may get off Jan 1. Argentine has thrown up the Congress. I've cabled Brazil. if B won't take it I'll be in a kettle of fish. I cannot think about it much now __ my present occupation is so absorbing. I find it lonely work. I'm representing no organization none go far enough to please me, so I miss something I've always had. When I get home I'll know more than when I left as to what the people are thinking. By the way the most satisfactory explanation of the Farmer Labor role in Minn is [?] of it was a big protest against the persecution of anti war demonstrations and against the war itself! Maybe they would find out by and bye that nations will go to war but they will knock everyone who brings it off their political perch This I regret doesn't seem happy to certain Senators - mores the pity. I have a lovely story to tell you about Ripon but this is all the paper they brought me, so I'll reserve it and hie myself to bed. Good night Mary dear, I'm tired. CCC 400 MODERN ROOMS OPERATED BY ROYAL HOTEL CO. GEO. T. THOMPSON, MGR. QUINCY, ILL. HOTEL QUINCY HOTEL NEWCOMB I found some more paper so heres the Ripon story. I found the house where I was born and a very respectable one it is, having been made over and built on to The street along one side of it is named Lane St. I had a reception at the college and that was pleasant. The story [h????] is that the Republican Party was born a few blocks from my birthplace! and there is a little building with a tablet on it telling of this remarkable event. The college president, a good Republican of course, said the tablet ought to have a verse of scripture It now reads The Republican Party Was born here ~~~~1854. The president would put below Ye must be born again I say Amen! Magnus Johnson tells this story. I had a hired man named Ole. One night Ole was spending much time brightening up the lantern. I say Ole where you got to, Sparkie says Ole. Says I when I went courtin the girls I didnt take no lantern. Well says Ole just see what you got! Having told you these stories I shall sleep better. Wish I had one of your apples now! I hope the winters germs will let you alone--and also your Father and Eliza. It's hot down here--that is for November. CCC. The Adolphus Owned and Operated by The Dallas Hotel Company November 25 1923 Dallas, Texas R. B. Ellifritz, Managing Director Dear Mary: This is my fifth Sunday "on the road." On three of them I had meetings, one I travelled all day and on this one I merely moved over from Ft. Worth on the shortest journey I've had. I thus escaped the women at Ft. Worth and also those at this point. I had one hectic 24 hours and I haven't recovered from it. It began with packing up, signing a stenographer's days work, having a half hour interview and taking a train at 10 o'clock. A transfer about noon took place in a small station with no posters. By engaging four who each carried a way getting on and off the wrong train I was finally deposited in the right one I arrived at 3.30 where I was met and conveyed to the President's house (of A + M College) where I dressed in a hustle, and drove to the near by town to an elegant tea. There I stood most of two hours. I was too tired to eat dinner and at 7.30 was speaking to an audience of 3000 mostly boys (no girls at that college) Then I had a cold dinner and went to bed but I could only drowse and at 4.30 I took my train for Houston. I am still making up my sleep lost that night. I have been making calculations tonight and up to date I think a moderate estimate would be that I have spoken to 25,000 people [up to date] I have visited 17 cities and made 25 speeches I have 10 towns more to visit and at least 3 extra speeches. Yes, this nation knows how to kill a fellow with kindness Down here The Adolphus OWNED AND OPERATED BY THE DALLAS HOTEL COMPANY R.B. ELLIFRITZ, MANAGING DIRECTOR. Dallas, Texas they bury you with flowers Every woman who performs in any way gets a huge corsage bouquet. Of course I cannot wear them on account of my expansive girth so I carry them like a newborn babe. It floats around 80° down here these days which is much too hot for my winter clothes Texas is a wonder though; it is boiling over with wealth and prosperity I have seen nothing like it anywhere. Oil everywhere, (cars pay 9 cts today for gas) a bumper cotton crop at 35 cts per lb &c &c. When people want to call upon a neighbor, they have to take a sleeper to get there! Do you realize that Germany is only 2/3 as big as Texas? It is all tillable and livable too. On the Rio Grande they raise wonderful grape fruit oranges oranges and melons. Yes, Lloyd George is a wonderful speaker but even he must have run to froth on the 70th The trouble with him is that he don't stay put. I see he had pep enough left to whack Baldwin when he got home. So you would like me to try my hand at converting you to the L of N. Well, first I am not trying to convert anyone to the L of N, but I am using the League to paint some morals. I think I bring so much proof of the correctness of my message that most of 'em don't get the message, so I'll denude it for you. There are 64 nations in the world. 54 of them have joined the League of Nations which means that this many countries undertook a construction program for permanent peace after the war. They pledge themselves to resort to diplomacy or arbitration in case of differences and not war. 24 of these were in the great war and paid the cost of it for 4 years, but are now paying the cost of the first experiment in world peace. On the outside are ten nations. The first nine are 1 Afghanistan, 2 Dominican Republic 3 [?] 4 Thibet 5 Equador, 6 Mexico 7 Turkey 8 Russia 9 Germany. None of these are fitted for war nor to lead peace just now The Adolphus OWNED AND OPERATED BY THE DALLAS HOTEL COMPANY R.B. ELLIFRITZ, MANAGING DIRECTOR. Dallas, Texas The 10th nation proposed the League, pressed it upon the world and then withdrew. This nation is better prepared for war than any other nation in the world Half the gold of the world is here. 1 We have more submarines than any other nation 2 " " the largest navy save one and equal that 3 " " more airplanes than any other nation except two - France + England and are building up to their strength 4 We have the best chemical warfare preparation 5 We have more oil than any other nation, and this is now used on the fastest vessels, sub and other varieties 6 Our army is much greater than in pre war times &c &c. Now the point is that the nation best prepared for war has no program for peace. No one knows what its policy is or if it has one at all. It is paying the cost of the war for half the time and is paying nothing for a peace program. I now ask M. G P. whether she approves of this nation standing before the world as a possible aggressor, a leader in preparedness with no gesture toward peace and with 85 cts out of every federal dollar going for war. Then if M G. P doesn't approve, I ask her to come forward with a program to say the League is defective and therefore we will do nothing is cowardly. My plea is do something bigger and finer than the League if anyone can devise a plan, but if not, then join the League as a gesture toward peace if for no other reason. I make no argument for the League. I do not defend it nor answer arguments and objection. I merely state the facts. If I had Lloyd Georges gifts I'd [make] put these bald facts in such burning fashion that my audiences would go home to walk the floor instead of sleeping. The Adolphus OWNED AND OPERATED BY THE DALLAS HOTEL COMPANY. R.B. ELLIFRITZ, MANAGING DIRECTOR. Dallas, Texas Since I haven't I fear they sleep altogether too well and wonder what I am raving about. I have put the message to you baldly -- can you get around it? The Covenant is the beginning of the Versailles Treaty but we didn't ratify it and have nothing to do with it. Nations which did not ratify that Treaty merely ratify the Covenant. The Versailles Treaty may be a bum one [and] but what I want to know is who in authority would write a better one? M. G. P. The Nation and the Republic might write one to suit them better, but what would they do with it when they got it?? I am going for peace trusting to justice to follow when minds are calmer To wait for justice means another war. Now you've had quite a lecturette and I'm going to bed. there is a window with French doors - a big one wide open and the door into the hall is open and a slatted door closed. ~~ it is that hot down here. How hot are you? Since you liked the Magnus story heres a Texas one. A child was asked to tell what he knew about Geo. Washington. The child said "He was a great American led the Revolution named Martha Custis and because the father of this Country" I've reread your letter at this point I always hate to leave here if they are so wonderful - your letters, but how you do puff me up with compliments I can lay no claim to. Mary I know myself often have you do and there is nothing about me that you say here is I am an old scrub - thats all - My speeches are punk and brick. I never made a good one and no one knows it better than I. My gifts are for farming. Lovingly, C.C.C. Dec 30, 1923 Dear Mary: Altho I have not yet had a moment to look into Mrs Harrison's big book. I was aching to do so and am very glad to have it and especially after your reading I hope you left some marks in it. Many, many thanks. I took some Chilians to see the Potters. The Shulers took us to Sancho Panza. I had a theater party Xmas and saw The Nervous week. On Monday I am taking Frau Schruber to see The Covered Wagon and I am planning to see The Swan!!! What do you think of that. I am writing you on my Paris stationery just to thank you. Some day here will be a letter. Bless you for all you wrote on my tour. I was never more alone than on that trip. I suppose we go to Porto Rico Cuba and Florida. I am coming to Utica. Lovingly, Carrie Chapman Catt CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT 171 MADISON AVENUE NEW YORK Jan. 14, 1924. Miss Mary Gray Peck, Clifton Springs, New York. My dear Mary: I want to thank you for the dainty gift. Imagine me sitting on the front porch of a large and populously occupied potel and every five or ten minutes taking it out and sifting it over my nose. Meanwhile I have taken a lesson in knitting and between the powderings of my nose I shall be knitting. One day last week, on my birthday, the Griesels, who sit at the same table in the hotel, were not aware of the occasion until we were at dinner. They then took me to their apartment and presented me with a ball of cotton, two knitting needles and a crochet hook; then Elsie Rogers, Mrs. Griesel's sister, went to the newsstand and presented me with a handful of packages of gum. Imagine also that all the time when I knit and when I powder, I will be chewing gum. When I returned from my Western trip, the doctor said that although he hated to admit it, I was in better condition than when I left. After some weeks of knitting, gumming and powdering, I shall return to be examined once more. It will be a fair test as to whether rest, to which the doctors love to consign their patients, or work, which the patients love to perform in preference, has the best effect upon health. I shall regard -2- it as a final test. Very many thanks. I now see that my rocker on a front porch would have been quite incomplete without this universal feminine vanity. If I see you at Utica, I shall be very glad. If I do not, I will know you have not recovered. You are at liberty to come to St. Petersburg and sit on the porch along with the rest of us. In case you come, bring your knitting, your gum and your powder puff. Mollie and I are leaving on the 26th for Cuba. There we will probably remain a few weeks. Then we will go to St. Petersburg through Key West and there we shall stay until about April 1st. The burdensomeness of the process gets on my nerves before I start. I cannot tell you at present the name of the hotel, because we are going to look them over and select the one we like best. In the meantime, letters sent to 171 Madison Avenue, will be forwarded and I beg to assure you they will be needed and perhaps you will never get so good a chance to have them answered. I have not read Mrs. Harriman's book. It will go along with me - everything else is International Relations. You ask how I am feeling. I am feeling like a frolicsome young lamb in May - never was better in my life. I am so well organized that I run down at the end of 8 hours a day and cannot labor over union hours; otherwise, I do not see but that I am as peppy as I was when I was forty. Lovingly, Carrie Chapman Catt THE NEW WILLARD, WASHINGTON. CAPITOL HOTEL COMPANY FRANK S. HIGHT, MANAGING DIRECTOR Friday night April 11, 1924 My dear Mary: I know what a sad vigil you are having and what a strain it is for I've been through it. It will end someday and then you will have time to think. That is the sad way of the world. The Pi Beta Phis are a fraternity of which I became a member 46 years ago. It was then in a few several colleges - not one really [unperta???] and not one Eastern. Now it is everywhere and has 13000 members and receives annually $1000s royalty on its badges! Mrs Coolidge is a member and also Mrs Walace. Mrs C. gave a reception this afternoon. I arrived at the station at 3 pm and at 4 pm I was dressed and ready. They expected 250 Pi Phis and 1300 came. To cotton up to a presidents wife was too much. They gave Mrs. Coolidges portrait to the White House and THE WALDORF-ASTORIA, NEW YORK AND THE BELLEVUE-STRATFORD PHILADELPHIA, UNDER SAME MANAGEMENT it was unveiled. Then all of us went on the lawn and had our pictures taken. I stood there on the wet grass for an hour and came home at 6 pm on the verge of a chill, but I [?] with the tub and chased it away. Then I had a frugal supper, dressed and got to the Law Enforcement meeting where I spoke. They had 560 delegates outside of Washington. Now the excitement of doing two conventions in one day interferes with my accustomed sleepiness, so I am sending you this hasty note. Tomorrow, I shall go to the Pi Phis in the morning, play in the afternoon, and speak at a banquet in the eve. They will seat 800 in this hotel and have seated 350 in another. The smaller group will come here for the speeches. Great time for women. The DAR are gathering for their affair next week. I get back Sunday afternoon and Dr. Jacob will either be there or about to be there. We are not going to the farm until after the League convention. Of course you cannot come which I regret. I think you will come to see us before the summer is over. I am going to Los Angeles The New Willard, Washington. Capitol Hotel Company Frank S. Hight, Managing Director for the Biennial--speaking June 12th. I shall leave about the 3rd and return about the 17th. I don't feel very happy myself. Mollie got over some of her maladies but has rheumatism so badly in her shoulder she has to be helped off and on with her clothes. The doctor is hard after it and I hope it will have moved by the time I get back. I'm pretty feeble myself and I think I'll frankly quit. Well, dear Mary, chew gum. Its real and highest use is the control of emotion. It helped me through my husband's last sickness in a marvellous way. Try it. I'm glad you have the good nurse. Keep up as brave a front as possible. There is a turn in the road for you just ahead and much that is good is coming The Waldorf-Astoria, New York and the Bellevue-Stratford, Philadelphia, Under Same Management This is the time when you have to walk through the shadow alone What a lonesome old world this is - in all the hard times and places. It is now midnight and I feel the dreams quietly coming on so good night. I am thinking of you up there with your dreary watch and am hoping for your sake and your dear father's as well, that it will not be long. Lovingly C.C.C. CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT 171 Madison Avenue New York Aug 3, 1924 Dear Mary: How you was? I owe you several letters but I have been so overwhelmed first by over production chiefly peas currants and gooseberries and later by underproduction of water from above that like all other dirt farmers there is no time except for dirt. Flora Hay is here. I suppose she will go away next week. Rosa Manus will arrive Sept 6. Are you coming down this summer to talk over next winter? Well sometime between Aug 18 and Sept 6 is likely to find the coast clear here and a welcome We are not pretty to look at for we are rapidly turning brown the flowers droop in the bud and the plants themselves shrivel up. There may not be much to eat but we can give you parcha, harchuda and coibanubisca none of which you ever tasted. The have 105 pears on the trees I planted, 3 apples and 17 quinces. I am very proud of them. Westchester Co League of Women Voters is to pay us a visit this week, and we are planning how we can manage them. We are having them to tea and cake of punch (Votsled) and cake. No plans are yet made for later than October. I am lecturing from Nov 7 to Dec 1 -- then nobody knows but something will be done. Maybe there better be a caucus. Come along Lovingly CCC CLASS OF SERVICE SYMBOL Telegram Day Letter Blue Night Message Nite Night Letter N L If none of these three symbols appears after the check (number of words) this is a telegram. Otherwise its character is indicated by the symbol appearing after the check. WESTERN UNION TELEGRAM NEWCOMB CARLTON, PRESIDENT GEORGE W. E. ATKINS, FIRST VICE-pRESIDENT CLASS OF SERVICE SYMBOL Telegram Day Letter Blue Night Message Nite Night Letter N L If none of these three symbols appears after the check (number of words) this is a telegram. Otherwise its character is indicated by the symbol appearing after the check. RECEIVED AT 10 13 WX NEW YORK NY 340PM 21 MARY GRAY PECK RFD CLIFTON SPRINGS NY PAPER RECEIVED I SEND MY AFFECTIONATE SYMPATHY DO COME TO BUFFALO IF POSSIBLE CARRIE CHAPMAN CATT 359P Aug 10, 1924 My dear Mary: Where in the Bible is there the prediction of the coming of Anti Christ? Nobody knows down here and I have to know right away. You are the only biblical authority I ever knew. Did you ever raise straw flowers? I never saw them growing until now when I have some. When should I gather them--as soon as they are in full bloom? Two important, but unrelated questions needing an immediate reply! Flora is leaving the 16th. Perhaps Mrs Pennybacker will be over Labor Day and Rosa is coming the 6th. Coast Clear from 17 to 29. Awaiting to hear from you in the midst of a welcome and glorious thunderstorm. Lovingly, C C C Carrie Chapman Catt 171 Madison Avenue New York Aug 13, 1924 My dear Mary: Your at hand. Would it be possible for you to come on the 22nd? Perhaps the Pennybackers may turn up on the 30th. You always stay too short a time when you come here. A week end includes Friday night and Monday at the least. Hastily, Carrie C Catt Council of National Defense Washington Woman's Committee Aug 20. 1924 All right Mary we will pick you up at the office. Come there please at 3.30. When you arrive in N Y. why not breakfast at the station then take a taxi to our office and leave your bag or tags (Miss Wald will be there by 9 am) then you would be free of trouble for the rest of the day. This is a suggestion only. No word from Mrs. Pennybacker yet. You talk as though you had had rain enough up there. If you have and if there are a lot of little plants that have come up from the spring seed of your canterbury bells or fox glove just bring me a few I've never been able to get either one started If they don't behave that way in your garden forget it. Lovingly, C.C.C. Aug, 1924 Carrie Chapman Catt 171 Madison Avenue New York My dear Mary: A thousand thanks for the prompt response to my hasty call for biblical information. I am glad that on my way through life I found you for you are the only person I ever knew who can answer such questions. My need was dire but the reason must wait till you arrive. Yes come on the 26th. We can meet you perfectly well at 6. a m. But this is our plan. The car will go into town on Monday and will meet you at [?] if that is your convenience. If not go on into the city and the car will go to town that day and bring you out at 4 p m. I shall be at work in my office all that day - or the day before if you decide on [Har????]. It will not inconvenience us at all to come for you. Just let us know You must stay at least over Friday for that is Mollie's birthday and I want a birthday cake but she cannot eat cake. We will let her blow out the candles and cut the cake and will eat it. I am sure you never had a chance like that. Lovingly, C C Catt Dear Mary: I've been trying to write you a note ever since you left us. I've just got the last of my six articles in Miss Roderick's hands. I've written a [new?] one for which I agree to be paid if they don't burn it. [E?????a] is still in the hospital - of course Clara told you we had had an automobile accident. It is difficult to place responsibility and I shall have a considerable sum to pay. Well now we sent you only ten instead of twenty five carnations because we discovered they were not blossoming out of doors and we thought ten would be as many as you'd want to pat and fuss with. We shall go to town soon since we are pretty well broken up. We shall go to Britton Hall. I start off Nov. 4. I return Dec 3. I shall go to Washington about Dec 15 (maybe) The Congress will be held Jan 18 to 24. Head quarters Washington Hotel (secret as yet. I shall probably run up to New York to look after things and there we go - Dear Mary what I wanted to write you long ago was that it will not be to Spain -- the ships are too cold Mollie doesn't feel like so much exertion. I guess it will be California. Can't say yet. At any rate I've answered your questions. I suppose we will go in somewhere between the 10th and the 20th. We are not happy here, but it is lovely I wish now another spring would come [?glet] away! Meet you in Washington! Lovingly, Carrie C Catt Sept 26, 1924 Fireproof Best in the West [*Dear C.-- forgot to enclose this. M*] The Oliver South Bend, Indiana Nov 30, 1924 My dear Mary: I had a letter from you in which you said you would write again if I'd tell you where to write. I tried to write you and give you my Chicago address, but I couldn't get it done. In Chicago I started a letter to you but apparently it got lost. Now I am decidedly on the home stretch with only a speech on Monday (tomorrow) in Michigan City and one on Tuesday at Detroit and then New York on Wednesday. It has been a hard trip with little time to do anything but attend to my business. I will have been gone 29 days. I have travelled 8 days had meetings on 21 with about 10 extra speeches There have been 9 Luncheons, 9 Dinners, 1 Tea 1 Reception and the speech was made at 2 Banquets. Well thats that. That Conference on The Cause and Cure of War is going to come off Jan 18-24. I shall go to Washington with my two attendants, Mollie and Rosa. We may go Dec 15--we may go the day after Xmas. We will stay in the Hotel Washington. There will be general committee meetings in New York on the 11th and 12th and then I will know better just what there is to do. When that Conference is over there is still a big vacancy in my mind as to what is going to happen. Things have happened. Some optimistic devels are going to build a building adjoining our office building and shut up the windows of the Citizen. That means that we must also move. We have found a place in the same building where we may go May 1. We have a lot of stuff in our office that has been waiting since 1920 for somebody to have time to go over it. Fireproof Best in the West. The Oliver South Bend, Indiana There being no one else I must get it done between February and May and also prepare for that Pan American in April. I have concluded that if Mollie does not require a warm climate this winter I will return to NY and finish my job which owing to the moving cannot be postponed longer and if Mollie must go I'm going to try to find someone similarly afflicted to go with her. She is so much better that I do not need to worry about her. At any rate visions of Alhambra, Delhi and California in a two months space have faded for me. I conclude that two conference, with a mob of "furriners" coming over to that Council in May must [?] have heard me speak in Podunk and therefore I must do something for them in reparation, with a movein in April and a lot of old junk to go over lest there be some immortal history in it before casting it out into the dung heap, will be all that a woman goin' on 66 ought to do between Dec and June. Therefore, dear Mary, I hereby solemnly and regretfully notify you that so far as I am concerned all [f???s] off for the next twelve month When I've finished with peace and pan americanism with a little P. and got all the [f?rr???ers] home I shall know that at last I am white, merely one and free and can do as I please I may then dream dreams that come true. All this I could have told you a month ago and I've tried to do so as a matter of justice to you, but until this moment I couldn't manage it * First Conf. on Cause & Cure of War Fireproof Best in the West. The Oliver South Bend, Indiana Dear Mary, I shall expect you to attend that Conference and you can come as much in advance as you can afford. We stay at the Hotel Washington where the cheapest room alone is $5. I feel very humble about disappointing you if I have. I'm a limpid reed to lean on. My dear Mary. I take my pen in hand to thank you for a box of apples, most delectable apples that put those 10 cts apiece Washington ones quite out of competition. They were eaten, digested one by one and every step of the process was gratifying. They were received months ago - or was it years ago. It was when we were in the most stew of a life time anyway I have no doubt that had I been a lady of leisure, it would have been nearly as long before I said my thanks I should be spanked for my behavior. What say you? Some day we'll tell you the story of that automobile upset and all it meant, for I must pack my belongings for tomorrow early I am on the move. Today I was out at dinner and met some nice brainy people-they agreed with everything I said!! What a grand and glorious feelin' Goodnight, dear Mary, you are a nice girl! Lovingly, CCC Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.