Part 23 (1/2)
SAN FRANCISCO, February 26th
DEAR MOTHER:
We got in here last night atinto Jersey City Before we knee had seen the Golden Gate, and were snug in this hotel Today as soon as we learned we could not sail we started in to see sights and we h We went to the Cliff House and saw the seals on the rocks below, to the Park, theRestaurant We also saw the Lotta monument, the Stevenson ilance Coht I went to a dinner the Boheood speech
Think of ME h not to talk about the war but the ”glorious climate of California” instead and of all the wonders of Frisco So, I reat hit It certainly is one of the few cities that lives up to it's reputation in every way I should call it thecity, with more character back of it than any city on this continent There are only four deck rooms and we each have one The boat is s on her, will I think be comfortable I knoill be that, and it may be luxurious
dick
On way to japan
March 13th, 1904
About four this afternoonan irregular line of purple ainst a yellow sky, and it was japan In spite of the Sunday papers, and the interuide books and maps which hadSun with just as much of a shock and thrill as I first saw the coast of Africa We forgot entirely we had been twenty days at sea and remembered only that ere ten miles from japan, only as far as New Bedford is froo in in the o in now but we must wait to be piloted over the sunkenfroave us our first idea of war To-morrow early ill be off for Tokio, as it is only forty et all sorts of news before we land, but that is e expect to do It will be good to feel solid earth, and to see the kieishas and cherry blossoo to the front and that for a week at least Cecil and I can sit in tea houses with our shoes off while the nesans bring us tea and the geishas rub their knees and h Harper's, a book on Hawaii and one of japan that I have read and like and which I think will help you to keep in touch with the wanderers With all my love to all
dick
TOKYO, March 22nd, 1904
DEAR MOTHER:
The ”situation” here continues to rees hourly There are three ”coluination That is, so far as they concern the correspondents The first lot have chosen themselves, and so have the second lot But the first lot are no nearer starting than they were teeks ago Ihere for weeks and weeks I do not like to turn out Palo with the first bunch On the other hand I aet to the front, and I aht to do If the second column were to start immediately after the first, we then would have two men in the field, but if it does not, then Collier will be paying 1000 a week for stories of tea houses and ”festivals” Paln if I take his place in the first column and that would be a loss to the paper that I do not feel I could ets any more complicated I'll wire Collier to decide
Meanwhile, we are going out to dinners and festivals and we ride I have a good pony the paper paid for Cecil has hired another and we find it delightful to scamper out into the country We have three roo room They look very welland as it is still cold we keep the-room to ourselves and to which we can ask our friends The food is extreood Griscom and the Secretaries have all called and sent pots of flowers, and we are dining out every other night In the day we shop and ride But all day and all night we the correspondents plot and slave and intrigue over the places on the coluht but no one knows if it ever will move So, naturally, I want to be on the first The rows are so engrossing that I have not enjoyed the country as I expected
Still, I alad we came It is an entirely new life and aspect It completes so much that we have read and seen In spite of the bother over the war passes I learn things daily and we see beautiful and curious things, and are educated as to the East, as no books could have done it for us John Bass as my comrade in arms in Greece and his wife are here They are the very best Also we see Lloyd daily, and the hotel is full of aet to the front Of course, we know less of the war than you do
None of the news from Cheefoo, none of the ”unauthorized” news reaches us Were it not for our own squabbles ould not know not only that the country was at war but not even that war existed ANYWHERE in the world We are here entirely en tourist and it cannot be helped The o with the Russians are equally unfortunate Think of us as wandering around each with a copy of Murray seeing sights
That is all we really do, All my love
dick
YOKOHAMA--April 2, 1904
DEAR MOTHER:
I just got your letter dated the 28th of February and the days following in which you worried over me in the ice coated trenches of Korea I read it in a rickshaw in a warm sun on my way to buy favors for a dinner to Griscom We have had three warm days and no doubt the sun will be out soon The loss of the sun, though, is no great one
We have lots of pleasures and lots of troubles in spite of the Sun
Yesterday the first batch of correspondents were sent on their way I doubt if they will get any further than Che cheered the atmosphere like a storet rid of thehted to be off
Soood sign as it now puts us ”next” But after they had gone it was pretty blue for soood friends as I want I kno men I like as well as I do John Bass Many of the It was, by all odds, the crowd one would have wished to go with As it is, I suspect we all will ed on the Yalu None of the attaches have been allowed to go, so it really is great luck for the correspondents Tell Chas I still aan in New York and kept on in Boston, San Francisco, and here It alas my boast that I had the most complete kit in the world, and in spite of Charley's jeers at reatest ever seen For the last ten days all the jap saddlers, tentit
dick
TOKIO--May 2, 1904