IROQUOIS1
BUFFALO
Tuesday morning, Sep 10th, 1901
My dear ones all:
Don’t you think I have considerable nerve to walk into this palace of a hotel, use their ??? and stationary just as if I owned it all? I feel nervy but tonight Mrs. B & I are going to patronize their cafe and they will get even. I have just received your good letter written Saturday PM. Mrs B has one from Breck - very ?????? to her so we are happy & will go very soon on our our coach ride & expect to see everything of interest. Mr Wilburn knows where the president is & all the beautiful homes here. I now just how grandpa Hodge will talk of this attempt on the president’s life2 & as you say there is too much freedom in this country. Business here on Maine St. was almost at a stand still for a little while when it first happened. The weather continues fine, cloudy and cool today. I wear my jacket the times when we are out. We went for a car ride yesterday & tried to attend the Convention of Women’s Suffrage3 but got there too late: so yesterday was a quiet day. I read your letter over several times & enjoyed Websters - I am sure I will like “the cat that is a kitten” & if it could only stay a kitten I would like it better. I am sure if he is confined to the house any with his arm, he will miss his mother. Otherwise he will not remember, only occasionally, that he has one. I am sure the ducks & chickens were good & you enjoyed Sunday, well, we did too - although you remember I cannot yet quite make up my mind about going on to Montreal but if we do go we will make a round trip of it & return here - we will stay here this week at the Juobia. The people there are nice their meals are all we could ask for the price & they humor me to plenty of fruit and melon & everything I want.
Mrs B. is very well please & then when we came down town we have been to one good place. Not so good as McGee’s but tonight after our ride we will go to the best the city affords as they say. I have a great curiosity to see it too.
I continue to feel well & sleep the best kind, no sickness of any kind. That is one thing I am staying here through this week, maybe I will want to keep very quiet a few days soon.
Tom Egans death is a shock to me. I saw him, looking finely, when I went to Sandstone last. Greeleys are due here this morning but we did not go to meet them or will not probably. I only hope they got a good shaking up. I am glad the big fellow is back. It will not seem so lonely for you but every time I think of his going away it sends a sorry pang through me & I keep hoping some thing may develop so he will not be obliged to but I know too it is a forlorn hope but if wishing could keep him he would not go. Sometimes this seems a tough old world. Be sure to remember me to him & tell me of his plans as they develop themselves.
Some day we are going to shop a little cosy windows, drug stores, hardwear & every kind is filled full of “jim cracks4 ” & not much to tempt me yet. I never saw so much & all very much alike - it has been so considerably everywhere but nothing as it is here & crowds everywhere
I will write soon, but maybe not tomorrow, as we talk of going out to the Expo5 once more & want to start early & take it easy.I am doing that all the time & want to put on some used to be fat.
Mrs B. sends regards. Be sure & tell Mr Mc that I wrote Miss James about Jo and ask him what he heard & say too that Mrs B. says the last she heard when she left home was that “father was going to buy McAllens Billy & buggy” & by this time she expected he was in their farm. That’s a trip for him.
All -My love to the family & though I do not write to each separately, you are all in my heart
Yours, Carrie
Transcription and Historical Notes from Emily:
1. The stationary used was from the Iroquois Hotel in Buffalo. I tried to recreate it at the beginning of this post. It was very nice paper, I'll admit... Want to read a great description of the finery Carrie was experiencing at the Iroquois when writing this letter? Follow this link.
2. Major US History event discussed here! At the time it was written, the President was William McKinley. Mrs. Breckenbridge and Carrie E. Hodge were in Buffalo, New York, during the Pan-American Exposition - also attended by President McKinley. While giving a speech on tariffs and international trade, McKinley was shot twice by Leon Frank Czolgosz. Eight days later, on September 14, 1901, President McKinley died and the shooting was officially an assassination. Carrie and Mrs. B. wrote their letters on September 10 so the President was still alive. Indeed, doctors and staff had high hopes of McKinley’s recovery at that time but one of the bullets had gone through his stomach, pancreas and kidney. Ultimately he died because of the gangrene surrounding his wounds. For more interesting facts about this event, see this Wikipedia entry.
3. I couldn't find anything specific about this convention but it was likely part of the Pan-American Exposition. It does answer a pretty cool question though! My great-great-grandmother was in favor of women’s suffrage (well I doubt she would go to the convention if she wasn’t!). Activism runs in the family!
4. When I’m transcribing and think I am reading something correctly but it sounds totally bogus or strange, I google it. I hit jackpot right away on “jim cracks.”! It seems to be a slang term meaning things that are “shoddily built” or...cheap... If it sounds familiar, it’s probably from the song “Blue Tail Fly” which is the one with the refrain “Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care” etc etc. The song is probably talking about cheap corn whiskey. Thanks again to Wikipedia for helping me figure this out!
5. The Pan-American Exposition happened in Buffalo from May 1 through November 2, 1901. Some amazing inventions were unveiled at this Exposition like the x-ray machine (which the doctor’s thought was too risky to use to locate the 2nd bullet in President McKinley’s abdomen) and some sort of power transmitter invented by Nicola Tesla which allowed the entire World’s Fair to be electrically lit using power from the Niagara Falls! However, the assassination of President McKinley probably overshadowed a lot of the amazing things featured at this World’s Fair... Check out this Wikipedia link for more.
