Part 6 (1/2)

RICHARD

The Players,

16 Gramercy Park

24th, 1891

DEAR FAMILY:

I had a great day at the gareat many old football men and almost all of them spoke of the ”Out of the Game” story cu to you, so ignorant are you, were there and we had long talks I went to see Cleveland yesterday about a thing of which I have thoughtinto politics in this country To say he discouragedthe rain is wet He see faenteel I also saw her and the BABY

She explained why she had not written you and also incidentally why she HAD written Childs I do not knohat Cleveland said h I found out what I could expect fro here but apparently a place abroad if I wanted it

But he thought Congress was perfectly feasible but the greatest folly to go there

dick

CHAPTER V

FIRST TRAVEL ARTICLES

For Richard these first years in New York were filled to overfloithree, so far as the limitation of his ould perhly realized that New York was not only a very small part of the world but of his own country, and that to write about his own people and his own country and other people and other lands heuntil the end

And for the twenty-five years that followed that hat Richard did

Even when he was not on his travels but working on a novel or a play at Marion or later on at Mount Kisco, so far as it was possible he kept in touch with events that were happening and the friends that he had lish and French illustrated periodicals and to one London daily newspaper which every day he read with the same interest that he read half a dozen New York newspapers and the interest was always that of the trained editor at work Richard was not only physically restless but his mind practically never relaxed When others, tired after a hard day's work or play, would devote the evening to cards or billiards or chatter, Richard would write letters or pore over soazine, consult maps, make notes, or read the stories of his conteazine froht to hiave him as much pleasure as if he had been the fiction editor who had accepted the first story by the eans of our army and navy he found of particular interest Not only did he thus follow the movements of his friends in these branches of the service but if he read of a case wherein he thought a sailor or a soldier had been done an injustice he would proton, and the results he obtained were often not only extreed party but caused Richard no end of pleasure

According to ement with the Harpers, he was to devote a certain nu of The Weekly, and the re of his experiences for Harper's Monthly He started on the first of these trips in January, 1892, and the result was a series of articles which afterward appeared under the title of ”The West from a Car Window”

January, 1892 (Soht, Wednesday, and went to bed and slept for twelve hours To-day has been ain The snow has ceased although the papers say this is the coldest snap they have had in San Antonio in ten years It ht have waited a month for me I think It has been a most dreary trip froone, there is mud and ice and pine trees and colored people, but no cowboys as yet They talk nothing but Chili and war and they make such funny mistakes We have a G A R excursion on the train, consisting of one fat and prosperous G A R, the rest of the excursion having backed out on account of Garza who the salient warriors i whom he may devour One old chap hite hair came on board at a desolate station and asked for ”the boys in blue” and was very rasshopper Garza” had scared thereet a possible corined The excursion shook hands with hiether The excursion tells lass manufacturer, an owner of a slate quarry and the best embalmer of bodies in the country He says he can keep them four years and does so ”for specimens” those that are left on his hands and others he purchases froue He has a son who is an actor and he fillstales of Indian warfare and the details of the undertaking business He is SO funny about the latter that I ith laughter and he cannot see why-- Joe Jefferson and I went to a matinee on Wednesday and saw Robson in ”She stoops to Conquer” The house was absolutely packed and when Joe came in the box they yelled and applauded and he nodded to theh to say ”How are you, I don't just relad to see you--” It was so ot up and bowed as I would have done

SAN ANTONIO

I knew more about Texas than the Texans and when they told ly-- That is all the sarden or wood scene by daylight or Coney Island in March--that is what the glorious, beautiful baking city of San Antonio is like There is ardens of the Mexicans and snow around the palms and palmettos-- Does the sun shi+ne anywhere? Are people ever warly and muddy, the Mexicans are reatly disappointed But I have set h to the bitter end-- But I will not write anything for publication until I can take a e where I adh is on me-- But there is still London to look forward to and this et better when the sun comes out---I went to the fort to-day and was o on to Laredo, if I expected to see any ca nor is any expected but they say they will giveas I want I rite you froo to-morrow, Saturday--

dick

At Laredo Richard left the beaten track of the traveller, and with Trooper Tyler, who acted as his guide, joined Captain Hardie in his search for Garza The fa this side of the border, and the Mexican Government had asked the United States to find him and return him to the officials of his own country

In Camp, February 2nd

DEAR MOTHER:--

We have stopped by the side of a trail for a while and I will take the chance it givesAfter Tyler and I returned to camp, we had a day of rest before Captain Hardie arrived

He is a young, red-h with living in the West but h I were his son which is rather absurd as he is only up to ht and youa fence for all the shade there is and the horses andor swearing at the sun