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1915-08-25: ​tour stops---images---audio---~TRANSCRIPT~---notes---links---site navigation
Swope Park
Kansas City MO
Wednesday Aug. 25th

Dear Eva:

Mother and I arrived here a little after twelve and have to wait until this evening for a train to St. Louis.  There have been other trains but not on the Chicago and Alton.  We will reach St. Louis tomorrow about eight a.m.  and will stay there a day or two.  I want to see the High School superintendent and go to the Botanical Gardens.  I have written to Mrs. Johnson and to Amy Provines and if we hear from them we shall make some short visits.  We will not stay more than a day at either place before going on to Canton.

Where did the last chapter of our chronicle end?  I don’t believe we have told you about our trials in Salt Lake City.  We had a hot dusty trip from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City - 30 hrs.  We arrived there at 3 P.M. - three hours late and very hot and dirty.  The transfer men who take the passengers from the Salt Lake Route station to the Denver and Rio Grande station told us that our train which was to leave at 5:15 would not leave until 6:35.  I inquired at the information office and was told there that it would leave at 5:15.  Then we had to go down town to get our Pullman tickets as they didn’t sell them at the station.  I never saw anything so slow as that office.  There were two men waiting on fifty or sixty people.  They would stop and sharpen pencils while we were standing there two and three deep.  While I was struggling in that crowd Mother was out buying sandwiches.  She has never recovered from the fact that they charged her 15¢ apiece for ham sandwiches - ordinary sandwiches.  Then we went out to see the city on a sightseeing car because she wanted to see the city and the man said he would be out only an hour.  He fooled around so that we did not get back to the station until five minutes of five but that should have been time enough to get our bags from the check room.  But the Salt Lake City incompetence came to a climax there.  It took me half an hour to get our bags and I never was so mauled.  Nobody was ugly but we were so tightly packed that if one person [???moved] it twisted us all.  When I finally got out it took me about five minutes to find out about the train.  I found one section and asked the conductor where car 36 was.  He said he didn’t know and he didn’t know who did know.  After a while some man said that it had gone in the first section.  There was nothing for us to do but get on the second section and take chances of getting berths.  (We got them.)  Our section left at 6:00.  I never was on such a crowded train or one with such poor accommodations.  The dressing room was smaller than on a tourist car.  There was only one diner for 250 people.  We stood in line three quarters of an hour for breakfast and we were among the early ones.  It is very uncomfortable traveling in such crowds. I never saw so much hand luggage except in Germany.  We were glad to reach Denver.  Aunt Sallie wrote to us and told us to go to the Drexel Hotel.  I had intended to go to the Auditorium but as I did not know anything about it I decided to go to the Drexel.   We ought to have known better.  Aunt Sallie is too stingy to get her money’s worth.  It was the shabbiest mustiest hotel that I ever stayed in.  We stayed there Sunday night and in the morning moved to the Oxford just next to the station.  Anne recommended that but not until after I had written to the Drexel.  It seemed rather silly to move for one day but I felt sure that we would always think of Denver as a dismal place if we stayed there.  

Anne came in from Fort Logan in the afternoon to take us sightseeing but it rained providentially.  I had said that if the [??? Lord would figure] the two trips I had taken - in San Francisco and Salt Lake City - I would never go again.  After the rain stopped she took us out to tea at a very nice tea room in a department store.  After that Mother and I went out to the City Park and got a fine view of the mountains.  We have sworn off on looking at millionaires residences, the biggest hotel, the oldest hotel, and so on.

That evening Cousin Mitchell Hanlin telephoned and asked us to dinner the next day.  We almost missed seeing him because he misread Mother’s letter and thought we were coming Tuesday instead of Monday.  We had a very nice visit.  He looks like Mother and like Uncle Johnnie.  He has a second wife and a stepdaughter who is a Junior at Colorado College.  I am very glad we saw them.
​
Some insects are biting me so I must stop.  

With love to the family

Alma
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1915-08-25: ​​​tour stops---images---audio---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
1.
Mother and I arrived here a little after twelve and have to wait until this evening for a train to St. Louis.  There have been other trains but not on the Chicago and Alton.
Wikipedia says:
The Alton Railroad (reporting mark A) was the final name of a railroad linking Chicago to Alton, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; and Kansas City, Missouri. Its predecessor, the Chicago and Alton Railroad (reporting mark C&A), was purchased by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1931 and was controlled until 1942 when the Alton was released to the courts

2.
We will reach St. Louis tomorrow about eight a.m.  and will stay there a day or two.  I want to see the High School superintendent and go to the Botanical Gardens.
I don't know why Alma wanted to see the High School superintendent.  Maybe she wanted to ask him to encourage girls to apply to Mount Holyoke.

Alma must have impressed the people at the Botanical Gardens, because they noted her visit in their magazine the following month.  See:
3.
I have written to Mrs. Johnson and to Amy Provines and if we hear from them we shall make some short visits.
I don't know who Mrs. Johnson was.  Amy was a niece of Mama Margaret's also mentioned in Alma's previous letter:

4.
It took me half an hour to get our bags and I never was so mauled.  Nobody was ugly but we were so tightly packed that if one person [???moved] it twisted us all.
I don't think Alma wrote "moved", but I can't figure out what she did write.  I wonder if Eva could decipher it.
​
5.
I never saw so much hand luggage except in Germany.
Alma was in Germany in 1910 - see: She didn't mention anything about hand luggage in the letter that we have that she wrote from there.  An unexpected thing to remember.

6.
​Aunt Sallie wrote to us and told us to go to the Drexel Hotel.  I had intended to go to the Auditorium but as I did not know anything about it I decided to go to the Drexel.   We ought to have known better.  Aunt Sallie is too stingy to get her money’s worth.
Aunt Sallie is Mama Margaret's sister Sallie Provines Ballard 1857-1922.
A quibble: You can get your money's worth if you're stingy.  It's just that your money might not be worth very much.

7.
We stayed there Sunday night and in the morning moved to the Oxford just next to the station.  Anne recommended that but not until after I had written to the Drexel.  It seemed rather silly to move for one day but I felt sure that we would always think of Denver as a dismal place if we stayed there.  

Anne came in from Fort Logan in the afternoon to take us sightseeing but it rained providentially.

This might have been Alma's friend Anne Starr, but if so, what was she doing in Fort Logan, Colorado?

As for Fort Logan,  Wikipedia says:
Fort Logan was a military installation located eight miles southwest of Denver, Colorado. It was established in October 1887, when the first soldiers camped on the land, and lasted until 1946, when it was closed following the end of World War II. After the fort closed the site was used as a mental health center and part of the land was set aside for the Fort Logan National Cemetery]

8.
I had said that if the [??? Lord would figure] the two trips I had taken - in San Francisco and Salt Lake City - I would never go again.​
​I tried and tried to figure out what Alma wrote here.  I even checked to make sure I hadn't missed a page.  I think it might be "forgive", not "figure", but I still can't make sense of it.

8.
That evening Cousin Mitchell Hanlin telephoned and asked us to dinner the next day.  We almost missed seeing him because he misread Mother’s letter and thought we were coming Tuesday instead of Monday.  We had a very nice visit.  He looks like Mother and like Uncle Johnnie.  He has a second wife and a stepdaughter who is a Junior at Colorado College.  I am very glad we saw them.
Cousin Mitchell Hanlin must have been descended from Margaret Gracey Hanlin, who was a sister of Mama Margaret's mother, Jane Gracey Provines.  Uncle Johnnie was Mama Margaret's brother John G. Provines 1849-1934.  Alma mentioned in her previous letter that they were hoping to see him.
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