Part 23 (2/2)
”W D Howells”
It need hardly be added that Mr Howells's good nature prevented his adherence to his rule!
Rudyard Kipling is another whose letters fairly vibrate with personality; few ly, or, incidentally, considering his e
Bok was telling Kipling one day about the scrapple so dear to the heart of the Philadelphian as a breakfast dish The author had never heard of it or tasted it, and wished for a sample So, upon his return home, Bok had a Philadelphia market-man send so in his English ho wrote:
”By the way, that scrapple--which by token is a dish for the Gods--arrived in perfect condition, and I ate it all, or as rateful for it It's all nonsense about pig being unwholesome There isn't a Mary-ache in a barrel of scrapple”
Then later caht:
”A noble dish is that scrapple, but don't eat three slices and go to work straight on top of 'eoodness you'd give another look at England before long It's quite a country; really it is Old, too, I believe”
It was Kipling who suggested that Bok should name his Merion home ”Swastika” Bok asked what the author knew about the otten the name, but the Smithsonian will know),” he wrote back, ”about the Swastika (pronounced Swas-ti-ka to rhyure] and one [figure]; one is bad, the other is good, but which is which I know not for sure
The Hindu trader opens his yearly account-books with a Swastika as 'an auspicious beginning,' and all the races of the earth have used it It's an inexhaustible subject, and soht to be full of it Anyhow, the sign on the door or the hearth should protect you against fire and water and thieves
”By this time should have reached you a Swastika door-knocker, which I hope may fit in with the new house and the new nae-smith; and you will see that it has my initials, to which I hope you will add yours, that the story may be co strawberries in January and co of the heat, which for the last two days has been a little ht But what a lovely land it is, and how superb are the hydrangeas! Figure to yourself four acres of 'em, all in bloom on the hillside near our home!”
Bok had visited the Panama Canal before its co on it, asking the the Canal first and talking about it afterwards” He wrote the result of his talks to Colonel Roosevelt, and received this reply:
”I shall always keep your letter, for I shall want one I feel just as you do about the Canal It is the greatest contribution I was able to make to my country; and while I do not believe my countrymen appreciate this at the moment, I am extremely pleased to know that the men on the Canal do, for they are the reat job I am awfully pleased that you feel the way you do
”Theodore Roosevelt”
In 1887, General William Tecumseh Sherman was much talked about as a candidate for the presidency, until his famous declaration came out: ”I will not run if no the weeks of talk, however, ious views, so that he was a Roman Catholic; others that he was a Protestant
Bok wrote to General Sherman and asked hily Roman Catholic, but I am not Until I ask some favor the public has no claim to question me further”
When Mrs Shere wrote General Sherman a note of condolence, and what is perhaps one of the fullest expositions of his religious faith to which he ever gave expression cae gave to Bok
”New York, December 12, 1886
”My Dear Friend:
”Your ht here last night by your son awakens in my brain a flood of memories
Mrs Sherrandfather, Hugh Boyle, was a highly educated classical scholar, whom I remember well,--married the half sister of the mother of James G Blaine at Brownsville, Pa, settled in our native town Lancaster, Fairfield County, Ohio, and becahters, Maria and Susan Maria beca, about 1819, and was theShe was so staunch to what she believed the true Faith that I ah she loved her children better than herself, she would have seen the, than to depart fro ion as soht to be encouraged; and to hiion was Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, or Catholic, provided the acts were 'half as good' as their professions
”In 1829 e of the Supre his , Mary Hoyt of Norwalk, Conn
(sister to Charles and James Hoyt of Brooklyn) with a frame house in Lancaster, an incoh, and uncouth children as ever existed on earth But father had been kind, generous,heart; and when it ceased to beat friends turned up--Our Uncle Stoddard took Charles, the oldest; W I ); Amelia was soon married to a merchant in Mansfield, McCorab; I, the third son, was adopted by Thohbor, and John fell to his namesake in Mt Vernon, a merchant
”Surely 'Man proposes and God disposes' I could fill a hundred pages, but will not bore you A half century has passed and you, a Protestant minister, write me a kind, affectionate letter about my Catholic wife from Mansfield, one of my family homes, where my mother, Mary Hoyt, died, and where our Grandmother, Betsey Stoddard, lies buried Oh, what a flood of hter of the Revd Mr Stoddard, who preached three times every Sunday, and as often in between as he could cajole a congregation at ancient Woodbury, Conn,--who came down froulate the faentle as as afraid of Grandma as any of us boys She never spared the rod or broom, but she had more square solid sense to the yard than any woman I ever saw From her Charles, John, and I inherit what little sense we possess
”Lancaster, Fairfield County, was our paternal hohter, Betsey Parker There Charles and John settled, and when in 1846 I went to California Mother also went there, and there died in 1851