The Flyleaf, 1959
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THE FLY IE A > ( >l3rjitit^HfMi BY #RiEijDS OF THE FLYLEAF Vol, X, No. 1 Quarterly October^ 1959 We are glad to include in this issue of the FLYLEAF the final instalment of Professor E. H. Phillips's series of articles on the manuscript collection in the Fondren library. We should like to express our appreciation to him for his willing- ness to furnish this information to the Friends of the Library and to congratulate him on the lively style in which the articles are written. Our best wishes go with Dr. Phillips as he assumes his new position as Professor of History at Austin College. 2 THE FOHDiREN LIBRf^RY MANUSCRIPT COLLECTION III. In the autumn of 1958 an alumnus and good friend of the Eice Institute, Card G. Elliott, Jr., '35^ graciously turned over to the Library a sizable col3-ection of books and manuscripts that had belonged to his father and mother to his sister, Mary Alice Elliott, who passed away vhile a student at Rice in 1929» ^^ manuscript portion of the Elliott collection consists of a nurober of diaries, scrapbooks, and notebooks, and about 500 letters. The diaries include two late nineteenth- century journals kept by Mr. Elliott, Sr. The first one begins on September 3, 1890, when ¥x, Elliott was 13 years old, and it gives a detailed picture of farm life in Kingman County, Kansas. Mr. Elliott de- scribes the many chores he had to do which included corn-husking, seed-drilling, tending pigs, and herd- ing cattle^ but he also mentions the lighter side of life such as the County Fair and the political rallies. Those were turbulent years in Kansas politics as "Sockless" Jerry Simpson and his followers were "raising less corn and more hell, " and even a boy like Elliott was caugiht up in the excitement. On October 1, 1890, his diary reads: "Republican rally in town today. Gov. L. H. Humphreys was here and delivered a speech. I played with the band." This first diary terminates on June 13, I892, and the second begins on September 3, I896, and continues to May 15/ 1900. The diary follows Kansas life and politics and reaches a crescendo on November 3rd when the entry reads: " " "Election Day. Hurrah for McKinley. Stayed up all night copying election bulletins." William Jennings Bryan had gone down in defeat "but not in Kansas, where the Republican Elliott ruefully reported on November 7th that the state had gone "Popocrat." The diary makes some colorful references to the Spanish American V/ar in l898_, and the writer's patriotic sentiments bubbled over on the 4th of July^ when he reported "Battle Santiago, American Victory" and drew a picture of "Old Glory." Card G. Elliott, 3r., also kept four small diaries during the years 1913-16, which, while highly condensed, are still valuable; these diaries refer primarily to Mr. Elliott ^s duties with the MKT Railroad, but the explosion in Europe was not completely ignored. The entry for September 3, 191^; reads: "Germany & Austria at V/ar with Servia - Russia France England & Italy not in it yet - Pres. Wilson met Enginemen & Managers on V/estern demands . Other diaries in the Elliott collection are (1) a brief diary by Mary L. Malone (later Mrs. Elliott, Sr.) covering a trip to Europe in 1905^ (2) a fine diary by Ml's. Elliott describing a trip to the Continent and Near East in I928, (3) a charming diary by Mary Alice Elliott during the sajne trip, and {h) a sprightly school diary kept by Miss Elliott from 1925-8 while she attended Walnut Hill School (Natick, Mass.) and the Rice Institute. The entries in the Rice diary are particularly interesting, a few words often speaking volumes; for example, "Feb. 16, 1928 - Got (report) card, not on pro, but busted math. The scrapbooks and notebooks in the Elliott collection range from small household expense booklets to a very detailed scrapbook of Mary Malone's trip to Europe in 1905* ^e latter includes ship menus, excursion tickets, passenger lists, sight-seeing pamphlets, theater programs (eg., Garrick Theatre and the Alhambra Music Hall), a clipping from the London Daily Telegraph of July 27, I905, in which the young Winston Churchill is taken severely to task for his views, a letter from Craig W. Wadsworth, Second Secretary of the American Embassy in London, and a letter of July 2k y 1905^ on Board of Trade stationery from Bonar Law, who was to become Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1922. Another interesting scrapbook is a "Floral Album" kept by Miss Lou Stimson during the Civil War and is replete with inscriptions by Confederate soldiers testifying to the kindness of Miss Stimson and the other Canton, Miss., ladies. There is an ante bellum notebook kept by Mary E. (Russell) Stimson which gives considerable family history of Ephraim Judson Stimson and his children. An interesting feature of this album is the inclusion of locks of hair of deceased members of the family - one such lock, still braided, is dated 183O. For the economic historian there are two interesting note- books; one of ©1915 gives a considerable information on the operation of the Katy Railroad, and a booklet of 1913-15 gives the details of a series of wage agreements between the Katy and the Railroad Brother- hoods. The Elliott collection also includes many letters; these extend from l8^0 to 1932, though most are from the early 20th century. There are seven letters from the Civil War days, giving a picture of civilian life and attitudes in Mississippi. Four of these letters are from Lou Stimson to a hospitalized soldier, Walter L. I'-fe.lone, whom she later married; her letter of July 1, ld6k is particularly choice, for she net only tells of learning a new song, "Just before the Battle, Mother, " which "brought tears to her eyes in spite of its Yankee origin, but she also discusses with poignancy her attitude tov/ards her Yankee relatives. In a September letter she records her reaction to the news of the burning of Atlanta and describes the activity of Yankee raiders in her own neighborhood. Miss Stimson' s letters reveal a charming personality and a cultivated literate hand. There are four other groups of letters in the Elliott collection. One group consists of a number of letters from Kansas, 1900-30, which give an ex- cellent picture of rural life, especially in the little town of Goddard, A second group consists of letters of Mary Malone Elliott, including many written duxing her two trips to Europe, 1905 and 1928; Mrs. Elliott was a very keen and sensitive observer who wrote with a great deal of charm. A third group of letters are those of Mary Alice Elliott, consisting mainly of letters written while she was a student at Walnut Hill School and while she was on the cruise with her mother in I928. These vivacious letters are quite charming, and the picture of New England prep school life of a generation ago are bound to be of considerable historic interest as time marches on. The last group of letters consists of the correspondence of ivir. Elliott, Sr., on a variety of subjects but mainly on his work with various railroads in- cluding the Santa Fe, the Fort Worth and Denver, and the Katy, where he was the assistant to the 6 chief of operations. A valuable letter in this group is a 115 page typed copy of the report of W. A. Webb, Chief Operating Officer, to C. E. Schaff, President of the Katy, describing the Katy's operations over the past year. There is a particularly interesting "dividend" in the Elliott collection j it is a letter from an American soldier in the Philippines who was engaged in suppressing Aguinaldo's fight for in- dependence. Extracts from this letter, which was written in I^nila, October 6, l899^ are as follows: Your letter of July 30 arrived yesterday after having taken a salt-water bath for about ten days. The transport Morgan City carrying troops and mail ran on the rocks off the Japan Coast and went down before the mail could be taken off. Since then divers have been at work and all the mail has been saved. Your letter is still damp but I can read it OK as the ink did not blur any (and this was before the day of the underwater pen! )•••! like the Philippines fine and a soldier* s life is not so bad except at times. We get $15.60 per month board and clothes If a man wants to make money the array is no place for him. Still several of the boys save $10 per month. If you want to live an easy life for 3 years, see the world and have a few hair-raising adventures the army is all right.... ]y^ company is General Otis* bodyguard at present time while the rest of the regiment is doing patrol duty on the streets. Otis lives in the residence of the Spanish Ex-Gov-General. The residence is in a large shady park with walls on 3 sides and with the Pasig river on the other side. s . We have two large well ventilated buildings for our quarters. A building on each side of the palace. Our duty is all done in the shade and with the cool breeze from the river life is rather pleasant even in this hot country. Perhaps we ought to be satisfied to stay here but nearly all of us long for the lines again.