4

that the bust would not be ready for Christmas. I intend it as
your birthday present. Please was unable to get the bust from
my apartment until my return to New York, as I did not want to
give the key to my apartment to anyone else. So is now making
the duplicate and has promised to have it ready the end of January.

I am very glad you are having the town water put in at
Long Hill. And how fortunate that Billie should want it also for
his house, so that the expense is less great for each of us!

I sail most every day and am careful to hold my hand over
my ear if spray or wind may penetrate it. Of course if I should
go sailing on any day when the wind were very high, I should put
cotton in my ear.

I enclose the letter from Elaine which you kindly let me
see.

Love!

Enclosures: Pamphlet
Letter

80 Washington Square East,
New York City.

February 4, 1925.

Dear Mama:

Thank you for the box containing a dozen Rub Dry towels.
I am very glad to have them, and am sure they will be useful to me
wherever I go.

I enclose, as valentine, a couple of photographs taken
at the time of the eclipse. Miss Parker and Mr. Rosenfeld, and
Dr. Watson and myself motored up to Morningside Heights, where we
got out, climbed a knoll in Morningside Park, and from there
awaited totality. Dr. Watson had his camera along, and photo-
graphed us all. Unfortunately only these two photographs came out.
I understand the cold had something to do with the failure of the
other plates. In the photograph in which I wear glasses and am
looking at the eclipse, one notes the diminishing daylight. In
the other photograph Mr. Rosenfeld is of course the other principal.

Thank you for the clipping from the Telegram about Uncle
Albert. I suppose one is glad to have such things written, but
it does seem that Mr. Johnson might have taken the trouble to in-
form himself more rightly about the circumstances of Uncle Albert's
death. Anyhow before writing about his "sudden death at the home
of his physician."

The day of the funeral turned out to be bitter cold (por-
haps the coldes of the winter). I motored out, wearing inside my
fur coat two jerseys, and wrapped up in my two robes. Thanks to
them, I arrived at the chapel without being unduly chilled. With the
snow deep on the ground, and the temperature below zero so
that passers-by were not anxious to stop to direct us, we had
some difficulty in finding the chapel, and arrived there at the
very last moment, indeed two or three minutes after the hour set
for the funeral. The services did not begin until I had taken
my place. They were fairly simple, of the Episcopal church. The
clergyman recited "Crossing the Bar" by Tennyson. Our flowers
(lilies from yourself and roses from me) arrived just as I did,
having come out by train from New York, and having taken some
time coming by taxi and messenger to the snow-bound cemetery.
From the chapel I took Ellen in the motor to the grave, where I
stood bear-headed, for the few minutes we were there, in a snow
storm. Ellen then went in a motor with some friends to a house
in Flushing where she was stopping, and I took two of her friends
back to New York in my car. I had Ellen to dinner at the Dial
the following evening to meet her old college friend, Miss
Marianne Moore. She looked rather tired, and I hope the dinner
did not further fatigue her. I sent the motor for her and sent
her home in the motor to Flushing. I understand she has now re-
turned to Ruxton.

60 Washington Square East,
New York City.

February 17, 1925.

Dear Mama:

I should like to see the clippings from the European papers. My clipping bureau does not cover Europe. In case you do send these clippings to me, do you want them back, or may I keep them or give them to the Dial, as may seem best here?

The bran muffins have come much more regularly since you took up the now obviously good custom of writing upon the box the date of mailing. For example, the bran muffins you mailed yesterday (Monday) at 9 A.M. reached me at the Benedick at 9 P.M. the same day. And the muffins are excellent. Nevertheless I find myself tired of bran muffins at breakfast. I doubt whether I should be tired of them if I did not have to eat them right after eating a dish of bran as cereal. Since I get four or five times as much bran in the dish of cereal as in the muffin, I have decided, now that I feel I cannot go on taking both the cereal and the muffin, to omit the muffin and take only the cereal. I think of taking up eating both muffin and cereal again when I go to Edgartown where I consider the water somewhat constipating. So please don't send me any more. The excellent negro woman whom we have as cook at the Dial makes good corn bread and will make this corn bread for me every day. So I hope for the rest of my stay in New York to have this corn bread regularly. I appreciate your great kindness in having sent me the muffins so long. And please thank your cook for having made them.

I am sorry to say that consultation with M. Lachaise reveals the fact that the bust has only now been sent by him to the foundry and will not be ready until next month. Somewhat birthday gift will be delayed to that extent. I shall write you before expressing it to you to be sure you are going to be in Worcester at the time it may be expected to arrive there. Of course if you are going to be in Florida at the time the bust would be delivered, I shall hold it here until your return to Worcester.

I no longer feel any pain in that ear, and hope the trouble is by. Next time I see Dr. Chace (who sent me to Dr. Duel) I shall ask him to glance into the ear again to see if it is wholly cleared up or anyhow in better condition than when he sent me to Dr. Duel about the middle of December.

I trust you enjoyed Mrs. Richardson's visit in
Worcester.

We had the first annual stock-holders' and directors' meeting of the Dial Press last Friday. Mr. Edwin G. Rich was

3

bourhood of Vienna, where I can live in the country, and still
be within striking distance of the intellectual activities and
diversions of a great capital. When Dr. Clark works during his
days in New York, he has to put a very light feather pillow
about his head and ears to protect himself from the interrup-
tions and nervous disturbance caused by the heavy trucks passing
just off Fifth Avenue where he resides. He has written a long
article on the effect of the noise of New York upon the inhabi-
tants and upon the increase of nervous disease in New York dur-
ing the past few years. But the newspapers have not published
his article because it attacks certain large companies, such as
the street railways companies, which it criticizes severely.
He has advised me to try to get something done about the traffic,
and has told me that the person for me to see is Dr. Harris, who
is, it seems, a gentleman and a man of sensibility. Dr. Harris
has sufficient means, but out of public spirit serves on the
street commission. I am therefore advising my lawyer to try to
accomplish something, either through Dr. Harris, or through
Tammany, or through other devious ways. Of course, unless some-
thing is accomplished very soon, it will be too late to be of
any use to me. Now that the snow has melted in the streets,
the noise is much greater than it was during the first few
weeks after my return from Bermuda, when I found the noise sur-
prisingly deafened by the snow.

I recently had Dr. Watson and Wildegorde to tea.
Wildegorde is looking, as always, charming.

I have made out a new will, and have got back from
Mr. Charles Mayer my two former wills. I have burned these
earlier wills. My new will is in my box at the Guaranty Trust
Company.

Aunt Myrtis telephoned upon arriving in New York to
ask me to dinner or luncheon. I dined with them, and had a
very pleasant evening. But I thought Billie looked badly.

Hughes, the friend of Allsop, who had come to me
upon my coming to New York from Edgartown upon Allsop's recom-
mendation, turned out to be unsatisfactory. Indeed his work
was so badly done that he seemed so inexact as to make one won-
der how he could have occupied in the past the good positions
which he apparently had occupied. We had some difficulty in
Bermuda, and I was arranging to send him back to New York on
the next boat, when he apologized and begged to be kept on
trial. I therefore kept him until after my return to New York.
But a couple of weeks ago he was again insulting when reprimanded
for not doing his work, and said he would like to go immediately.
This time I immediately telephoned for a taxicab to take him
and his belongings to his home perforce. I was the more ready

March 13, 1925.

Dear Mama:

Thank you for letting me see the paper in regard to
the building of a bridge between Edgartown and Chappaquiddick
Island. Of course I myself would rather have no bridge. But
as the suburbanization of Edgartown and the surrounding country
has already gone so far that I find it impossible to take up my
residence there (as I should otherwise do) there is not reason
to protest in my behalf. And from the point of view of the
towns-people the bridge would seem to be in every way advantageous.
I am therefore confident that the Bridge will be built. To op-
pose it would be merely to make enemies and would do no good. I
therefore desire that you should not quote me as not liking the
bridge. Please do not mention me in your relationship to it on
any account. I therefore return the plan to you, and do not send
it to Mr. Riccius.

I congratulate you upon the trust imposed in you by
the coloured lady. (I enclose clipping.)

I am glad you enjoy your stay in Mountain Lake and
like so much the surroundings.

I am interested to learn that Billie is thinking of
building.

I am particularly glad that Billie looks better. I
do hope that leaving off meat is going to work a permanent im-
provement.

I am sorry to hear of the death of Gordon Webster of
pneumonia.

I myself contracted a cold last week Saturday. It was
so bad on Sunday that I could scarcely move. I could not even sit
up to read, but lay on my couch all afternoon and evening. On
Monday I felt somewhat better, and went about a little. Tuesday I
apparently caught more cold, for I felt worse on Wednesday and
Thursday, and to-day I feel most miserable. This is the worst cold
I have had since my attack of influenza when I was ill in Worcester
about this time last year. I am very discouraged about it. I am
going to the Adirondacks or some such place if I do not feel better
in a day or two. Of course I can do no work and cannot enjoy my-
self and am the more miserable because of the noise of traffic un-
der my windows.

You will be interested to hear that Miss Sophia Witten-

2

borg, the Assistant Editor of the Dial, who indeed has been with us (originally as stenographer) since the old Dial was brought to New York the summer after I joined it in Chicago, is leaving us upon April twenty-fifth. I wrote Ellen Thayer to come to town last week for a conference with Dr. Watson and myself. She lunched with us at the Dial Saturday and dined with us and Miss Moore there Saturday evening. She has accepted the position of Assistant Editor and will begin work July first (two weeks after she has finished her school year) or, if she finds she needs a longer vacation (she now looks very tired) she can come to us September first. Mr. Burke, who has taken Miss Wittenberg's place before when she has been away (as she was in bad health all last spring) can come to us upon the twenty-fifth of April, and will remain with us as Assistant Editor until Ellen takes that position. I have confidence in her ability, and look forward to having her in charge of the editorial offices.

Last week I went to see "The Wild Duck" which is being given by the Equity Players, an actors' organization. It is not a cast built up about a star whose name is used in advertising the play, but more the sort of cast one gets in Central Europe. The play was thus extremely well acted. The part of Hailmer Eidal was not so well done as it was by Lionel Atwell in the Nazimova production some years ago. But the girl that takes the part taken by Nazimova was better than Nazimova. And the play is very charmingly costumed and staged in accordance with the period. "The Wild Duck" is so impressive a play that one can see it often without taking in it any the less pleasure for that.

Monday, the day upon which I felt somewhat better, I went to see an exhibition of the sculptor Nadleman in the company of my friend Mr. Demuth. We found most delightful the pieces of grotesque wood carving and the marbles and bronzes. After Lachaise, Nadleman is surely as good a sculptor as we have in this country. His things are selling at enormous prices. Six thousand dollars was, if I remember correctly, the price of one he had sold, although we were there on the morning of the opening of the public exhibition. We also visited the exhibition of Seven Americans at the Anderson Galleries. This includes the work of Mr. Demuth. Indeed his things were the best there. I took two of them for The Dial. Among other artists represented were Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove, and Georgia O'Keefe.

Love to Billie and Aunt Myrtis, and yourself!

April 20, 1925.

Dear Mama:

Thank you for the clipping in regard to the
camp on Asnebunskit Mountain. I enclose the clipping.

Again congratulations upon your success in
Edgartown! I have just dictated letters to Swartz and
Osborne and Chadwick, notifiying them of my coming prob-
ably on May first. It is pleasant to look forward to
getting away from the noise of New York and to have reas-
onable expectations that one will not be going into a
worse noise. I intend to go by rail to Providence and
to have Thomas meet me at Providence and to motor in the
Pierce from Providence to New Bedford. Will the house
be already for me on the afternoon of May first. Should
not the water be run for a considerable time after the
pipes have been put in before I start to live in the
house, when we shall have to use it for cooking and also
for drinking?

The fact that you find it cold at Edgartown now
does not make it certain that it will still be cold af-
ter the first of May. Anyhow the cold, even mingled
with dampness, does not appall one who has suffered so
much worse things in New York. I am glad you like
Billie's new house, but it would not have suited me for
many reasons which I believe I let you know at the time
I decided not to buy it.

Although I doubt whether I can get much more
than a thousand dollars for the Pierce from a dealer,
I am hoping to get as much as two thousand for it from
Dr. Watson or Mr. Lasell, and have offered it to them
for this price. I consider that the car has more value
for people who know the past history of the car than it
would for someone buying it from a dealer. For example,
I should not have been willing to pay a dealer as much
for the Packard as I was willing to pay Mr. Lasell for it,
knowing the history of the car from Mr. Lasell, and Mr.
Lasell's statements being corroborated by Dr. Watson.
Indeed I should not have bought the Packard at any price
from a dealer. If you care to buy the Packard for two
thousand dollars, the robes go with it to you. Anyhow
I should be glad to loan you the Packard for the time
I am abroad, which may be very protracted. I should have
to make the one condition that, should the Packard need to
to be painted while I am away, it should be repainted by

2

the Packard Company in Boston, and that any scraping should be done that the Packard Company advises before the paint is put on, and that it should be painted jet black, everywhere - everywhere, that is, except for the shiny metal parts which are not painted at all. If you do not care to buy the Pierce for two thousand, please let me know so that I can arrange for the disposal or not so arrange. And if you do want to buy the car with the robes for two thousand, please let me know, and whether you wanted one with the car now. In case you want to buy it at that price, and in case you let me know right away, and in case it would be a great convenience to you, I should be willing to get on without Thomas here in New York for three days, thus enabling him to take the car to you in Worcester immediately.

I enclose Mr. Dinsmore's letter.

Thank you for putting in a new stove at Long Hill. I fear we needed it. Is that stove now in? If not, are you sure it will be in and in perfect running order by the first of May. Of course I have to have running water while using the house. I understand then that all the plumbing will be in order before May first?

Is it possible for me to have at Long Hill as soon as I arrive upon May first the two large blue and white quilts which I used last year.

I am glad you are buying the Murillo. I dislike entrusting the Bode letter to the mail. When you are next in New York I can give it to you. I understand you are not taking the Rubens.

The bronze head is now ready and can be sent on to Worcester as soon as the pedestal for it is completed. This should be any day now. I shall then have it sent to you as soon as ready.

Can you not arrange to have some one else get the Long Hill house ready rather than bothering to go down yourself?

I have had a terrible time with the noise and had to move out of Minetta Place. First I moved to the Waldorf whence I was driven by further noise to the Pennsylvania. And here I have also had to another room. I looked at the Harvard Club rooms and the University Club rooms, and found them both - those obtainable - quite lacking in both air and light. Mr. Clark has of course a permanent room, which is quite another matter. These permanent rooms are all taken year in year out.

New York, N. Y.

June 7, 1925.

Dear Mama:

The heat in New York has been most oppressive ever since my arrival Monday morning. The thermometer has been in the neighborhood of, or above, 90 every day and today is no exception. My room at the Pennsylvania Hotel (the same room I had a month ago), although on the top floor and on the west side where I do not get the morning sun, is, nevertheless, not as cool as you would anticipate. I find, indeed, that my old apartment at 80 Washington Square where I have had to be going through my files yesterday was degrees cooler than this room on what is technically the seventeenth floor of the Pennsylvania Hotel, but what is really the twenty-second floor because the first floors of the hotel have names rather than numbers.

Miss Parker has twice been out with her mother and her uncle, the physician, to Bloomingdale to be examined by psychiatrists. It seems to be determined that she is mentally deranged, but, most important of all to me, she has not yet been examined by Dr. Russell. Dr. Russell has, unfortunately, been out of town all last week. Miss Parker is, therefore, still living with her mother, which I find most unfortunate in her present condition. For example, she was locked in her bedroom by her mother two days ago for a short time when her mother had to leave the room. Miss Parker got out the window, which is on the ground floor, climbed a ten-foot wire fence at the back and so escaped.

2.

into the city streets, hatless and not herself. Fortunately she returned alive without having done any damage so far as has yet been ascertained. She has given evidence of much hostility, both toward her mother and myself, so I shall, therefore, feel more at ease when I know that she is not in her present situation, quite a selfish point of view, apart from my desire that she shall be properly cared for.

My papers in Washington Square I find in a most confused condition and find that Miss Parker has been doing all sorts of things during my absence in Edgartown during the two weeks she passed ostensibly taking a rest cure in or near New York. For example, I find she gave the key to my apartment to a Dr. Schott who was at my apartment more than once and had the key over night. The key was given to him by Miss Parker so that he might attend to the packing of my Beardsleys which were to be sent to the Museum. The Beardsleys arrived O.K. but of course I do not know what other things may or may not have been molested by Dr. Schott at my apartment. Nobody seems to know anything about Dr. Schott and now I am informed that the key to my apartment was lost by Miss Parker's baby. I am forced to believe that she is secreting the key.

Several manuscripts of mine have disappeared and may be lost, and other things of little monetary worth have disappeared, all of which is very annoying. Should she be placed in an institution I shall try to have the physician in charge of her attempt to regain my possessions. Of course one does not know what she is up to with them now, or whether they have been destroyed. Among the missing manuscripts is the original English manuscript of my article on

3.

Schnitzler. This was translated, as you will remember, into
German and appeared in a Viennese periodical. Of course I can,
therefore, get the German version, but no longer have the English
version which I most want. And am sure I can not always recall
the original phrasing in re-translating back now from the German.
I remember sending you the Viennese magazine at the time and think
I sent you a typewritten copy of the English version. Will you be
so kind as to look whether you have the English version of an
article entitled "Arthur Schnitzler"? If you receive this letter
in time to let me know by telegraph so that the telegram will reach
me here at the Pennsylvania Hotel not later than Tuesday morning,
please do so. Otherwise write to me at Edgartown.

I have taken passage on the Fall River boat leaving
Tuesday afternoon and hope to be home at Edgartown for lunch
Wednesday. I have written Thomas and Hedwig.

I hope you will also be coming down to Edgartown soon
and that Uncle Ernest and Aunt Rosalind will be visiting you there.
I have not heard from them in New York so presume they disembarked
at Boston. I only hope I shall be able to remain in Edgartown the
rest of the summer and not have to be running back to New York
because of the mess in which my affairs now are here.

I am spending most of my time with my lawyer trying to
arrange plans for discovering the source of the unpleasant slanders
which are circulating about me. I am sorry to say that my lawyer
and others feel that Miss Parker in her mentally deluded condition
is probably responsible for the origination. Nevertheless there

4.

are obviously other people working in the matter now. We are
employing a detective agency (which will be almost as expensive
as my lawyer who charges me, to judge from past experience, about
a thousand dollars a conversation (exaggeration!)). I will, of
course, say nothing further about any of these matters. I merely
desire that you and Billy and Mr. Riccius should be forewarned
to the extent I forewarned you over the telephone. Should anyone
try to interview you, you should try to avoid it, but, should they
succeed in interviewing you, you should say nothing but that the
matter is in the hands of my lawyer. Of course I should be noti-
fied immediately should anything occur in this connection at
Worcester. I should not be notified by telegraph but by registered
letter properly sealed. Nothing in regard to this matter should
ever be said over the telephone. When I leave town Mr. Burke is to
represent me in the affair in addition to my lawyer. Mr. Burke
being at the Dial five days a week all day makes him a good person
to have on the job.

I have had a most trying interview with Mrs. Parker
and a very trying interview and several telephone conversations with
her uncle, Dr. Wood. Mrs. Parker refused for a long time to accept
the gravity of the situation and now, having done so, is, I believe,
very much broken up. It appears likely that the mental defect,
although only now appearing, in the daughter is the result of
inheritance, probably from the father, or at least from his side
of the family. He has been demented for several years. Of course
I did not know anything about this until these troubles began to
occur, when I made inquiries, indeed before leaving New York. At
the time I thought it was only eccentricity, not believing it

5.

possible anything of that sort was wrong with Miss Parker.

I talked with Miss Gregory about it and she and I both realized
the possibility but decided there was as yet no reason to think
anything of the sort and that Miss Parker was only very nervous
and more eccentric than usual. She has always been very eccentric
although very nice and generally valuable to me.

80 Washington Square East,
New York City,

July 20, 1925.

Mrs. Edward D. Thayer,
Edgartown, Mass.

Dear Mama:

I was of course very surprised that you learned
that you had not been able to make it sufficiently clear
to the postmaster that he should hold my mail. Mail sent
to the Plaza should have been forwarded by the Plaza to
my apartment where it would have been got by my man. What
about the book about which I asked you? Did Mr Ripley
forward anything but letters? And what authority does
Thomas instance for giving the order to have my mail for-
warded? I telegraphed Hedwig about two weeks ago asking
her to send on some soap and pomade for my shampoo. I
asked to have these things sent to the Plaza and she sent
them which was of course no reason to ask the postman to
send my mail to the Plaza or indeed any where else. I
expect you received my telegram and arranged to have all
further mail held either by yourself or Mr Ripley.

I intend to leave here Wednesday afternoon and to
go to Nantucket for a few days. I could not see you in
Nantucket. I shall let Johnson spend these days in Edgar-
town getting clothes and other things which I shall be
needing. After a few days in Nantucket I intend to return
to New York and to remain here for a few weeks more. I
may go abroad from New York the latter part of August,
but my plans in this respect are not yet definite.

As I already informed you I am doing nothing further
in regard to the annoyances in the last couple of months.

New York has been rather more endurable the last couple
of days and my room here is airy and comparatively quiet.
But I do not know whether I shall return to this room or
a similar room or whether I shall try to get a good room at
the University Club.

I have had the Murrillo removed from the Metropolitan
and have entrusted it to Harold Ehrich of the Ehrich Gal-
leries. He is trying to sell it for 10,000, I to receive
7,500. He is to arrange for its sending to your house in
Worcester when you require it and in case he has not sold
it by that time. Because this is the off season it is

-2-

unlikely that he will have sold it. He feels that if
the picture had been given him last winter he might have
sold it for the higher figure. He wants the Bode letter
which I sent you. Could you send it or arrange to have
it sent registered mail to Mr Harold Ehrich, The Ehrich
Galleries, Fifth Avenue, New York? and in sending it ask
him to acknowledge its receipt?

I came so near to going to Nova Scotia that I did
go to see Thomas Cook. But I found the advertisement so
to me uninteresting that after further consideration I
gave up the trip. I found the boat going from Boston is
very small indeed and that the trip is nearly a day and
a night. The trip from New York in twice as long and
the boat a little larger.

Dr Watson was in town a couple of days last week
and I had very pleasant talks with him. I told him of my
decision to resign the editorship of The Dial with the
close of the year. I shall have no connection with it
except inasmuch as I am a stock holder who may contribute
to its financial support.

I am sorry Walter Edwards should have been put to
the trouble of coming to New York. He told me by the way
that the noise of the motor boats is now almost as bad as
it was last year. Do you find it so? Have you spoken to
Mr Schwartz about it?

80 Washington Square East,
New York City,
July 23, 1925.

Mrs Edward D. Thayer,
Edgartown, Massachusetts.

Dear Mama:

Thank you for your kind letter of July 20th. You did right in not lending the Dreamer to Lawrence Johnson.

After much indecision I have today decided to go abroad as soon as I can conveniently have my apartment dismantled. Johnson should arrive in Edgartown Friday at noon to pack up all my belongings and, aided by Hedwig, close the house. Mr Riccius should arrive in Edgartown at my house Saturday evening. He will supervise the final closing of the house and will see Manuel Swartz and one or two other people in my behalf. He and the servants will all come to New York on Monday. Mr Riccius will ride in the motor with Thomas. Here he will be so kind as to help me with arranging for the disbanding of my apartment and for the storage of my things. He will have to return to Worcester probably on Thursday. I am trying to arrange to sail for Europe on Thursday or Friday or Saturday but may have to wait two or three days for the proper boat. I shall wire you the date of sailing as soon as I know it. Perhaps I shall know it before you receive this letter.

I am sorry to have given up your house in which I promised myself a pleasant and industrious summer and autumn. I thank you again for letting me have it.

I want to sell the Packard and my price is two thousand dollars. Do you want it? I shall let Thomas go paying him one month's extra salary before I leave.

I am not taking any secretary abroad with me because I want as complete a rest as may be permitted me to have. Since I am giving up The Dial I may even find it possible to get on without a secretary permanently. Miss Moore and also Mr Burke point out to me the advantages of that course.

I shall either be taking some friend abroad with me or meeting someone over there. I shall probably go either to Sweden or to Germany or to England, in this order of probability.