Part 27 (1/2)
LONDON-February 23, 1909
DEAR MOTHER:
George Washi+ngton's health was celebrated by drinking it at dinner I had been asked to speak at a banquet but for soreat Frohitated until he speaks If he would only likerich Barrie asked hi He told us of a letter he received frolish in ten years He is an officer stationed at a small post in South Africa He wrote Barrie he was at ho Then ca his play was the success of the year He did not know even it had been ACCEPTED He shouted to his wife, and they tried to dance but the hut was too small, so they ran out into the compound and danced in the rain Then he sent the Kaffir boys to the ne and they did not go to bed at all The next day cables, still at three shi+llings a word caers, syndicates And, in his letter he says, still not appreciating what a fuss it has made, ”I suppose all it needs now is to be made a question in the House,” when already it has been the text of half a dozen speeches by Cabinet Ministers, and three co it in the provinces What fun to have a success co rehearsed Today Sargent is here to see what is wrong with Cecil's picture of Janet He came early and said he couldn't tell until he saw Janet, so now he is back again, and both Janet and Cecil are shaking with exciteenius I ever uess Cecil suspected that, before she called him in He says sheout to hear reat an work yesterday on the Dictator It went very smooth All my love to Noll and to you
dick
Read the other letter first and then, let ent, I found Cecil co that she could not understand just hoas he wanted Janet to pose Whereat she handed him a piece of chalk and heand rubbed his hands of the charcoal and left it there! It's only worth a hundred pounds! Can you iasp But, he was quite charot in a scrape, and gave her his private telephone nu to be called up towith happiness Janet because she had been sketched by him and Cecil because she has the sketch It's a three fourths length three feet high, and he did it in tento ask her to invite the chef of the Ritz in, to give us a sketch of cooking a dinner
dick
CHAPTER XVIII
MILITARY MANOEUVRES
In August, 1909, Richard and his wife left Mount Kisco for a visit to Mr and Mrs Clark at Marion While there my brother attended and later on wrote an article on the war manoeuvres held at Middleboro, Massachusetts
MARION, MassACHUSETTS
August 16th, 1909
DEAR MOTHER:
We had a splendid day to day I arranged to have Cecil meet me at eleven at Headquarters in the woods below Middleboro, and I spent the iments Then, after I ”met up” with her, I took her in my car Both she and Hiller were awfully keen over it, so, we got on splendidly And, of course, Hiller's knowledge of the country onderfully convenient We had great luck in seeing the only fight of the day, the first one of the war Indeed, I think we caused it There was a troop of cavalry with a Captain as afraid to advance I chided hi confided toAnyway, he charged a barn with 36 troopers and lost every fourth man In real warfare he would have lost all his men and all his horses Cecil and Hiller pursued in the car at the very heels of the cavalry, and I ran ahead with the bicycle scouts It was ain to-morrow Lots of Love to you all
dick
MARION, MassACHUSETTS
August 19th, 1909
DEAR MOTHER:
I got in last night too late to write and I am sorry To-day, the war came to an end with our army, the Red one, with the road to Boston open before it Indeed, when the end ca with their backs to that City, and could have entered it to-night I begged both Bliss and Wood to send in the cavalry just for the , that was quite strong I hadI was glad to see I a I do over the farm, it is no wonder I could take all the stone walls at a ju them down I also met hundreds of men I knew and every one was most friendly, especially the correspondents
Just as I liked to be on a story with a ”star”a real ”war” correspondent, take it seriously They were alanting to know if it were like the Real Thing, and as I assured them it was, they were satisfied Some incidents were very funny Iaway fro manoeuvre, started to follow the?” I asked the Captain ”Nowhere,” he said, ”We are dead”
An U in advance of two troops of the 10th down a state road, when one trooper of the eneed the two troops ”You idiot”! yelled the Umpire, ”don't you know you and your horse are shot to pieces?” ”Sure, I know it,” yelled the trooper ”but, this ---- horse don't know it”
RICHARD
Early in the fall of 1909 Richard returned from Marion to New York and went to Crossroads, where for the next three years he rereat and serious changes for hi between him and his wife had ended in their separation early in 1910, to be followed later by their divorce In September of that year my mother died while on a visit to Crossroads