A letter
and card written in French came from Emanuelli Paterno, which Miss Emmie
Werner translated for me. Soon after my return Susan Slattery Wear called
to invite me to dinner with her and Holliday in their house at 4643 Pershing.
Semple Scott and another girl were there also. So the same crowd that
had been together before their marriage were having fun together again.
A group of men who had just graduated from Harvard
came to St. Louis the year before the World's Fair to get jobs. They were
Fred Russo, J. S. Tritle, Osborn van Brunt, and Carl Prescott. Three of
them married three of my friends: Fred Russe married Bessie Prince, Sam
Tritle married Nell Hoblitzell, and Osborn van Brunt married Edith Morrell.
All were attractive, intelligent, and popular with men and girls. Charles
O'Fallon included then in his houseparties. They reciprocated by asking
a houseparty group to dinner at Florissant Valley Country Club. Because
of my social activities I did not have much time to keep up correspondence
with Mr. Herron-Allen or the Baron. I had received two letters from Mr.
Allen in one of which he told me he was frequently seeing Miss X, the
nice young woman companion of the old English Lady in Egypt.
Lionel Chambers must have been out of town. Mr.
George F. Baker, his uncle, may have sent him to St. Clair, Missouri,
on a job in some mining interest he owned. I do not know how long he was
there. However, he had a number of jobs before he joined Scott Hancock
in a law office. This venture was good experience for both of them and
Mr. Hancock was an admiring friend for life. Then Mr. Alexander Cochran
took Lionel into the law office of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. Mr.
Cochran had two children - a son John and a daughter Ella, who were both
handsome and intelligent. John got into some kind of trouble and illness
of which I know nothing. Lionel helped him in many ways before he died
rather unexpectedly. The Cochrans were so depressed over this that they
asked their son's devoted helper to come to live with them, which he did
for about a year. His sympathetic and buoyant spirit was a great solace
to them and they were lifelong friends. The Cochrans built a handsome
house in Westmoreland Place. Ella Cochran and her friend SaLese Kennard,
who lived in Portland Place, went to Mary Institute and graduated a few
years before 1895, my date. They were both friendly with me until they
died. Ella married Dr. Greenfield Sluder and SaLese married Luther Smith,
one of the Amherst friends that Bert Bushnell brought to see me when I
was at Art School. All of this may be one reason I did not see much of
Lionel Chambers during the summer of 1903. I was busy with some of the
young Harvard men and other friends.
When I wrote to Mr. Herron-Allen that I was glad
he had enjoyed seeing the Miss X we had met on the Nile trip, his answer
was a surprise. He wrote me about their marriage. He said they often spoke
of me and the time I made "pulling candy" on the boat. They
asked me to send the recipe, which I did with my congratulations. Another
of his charming notes on his interesting paper came. The paper was folded
in such a way that no envelope was used, then sealed with black sealing
wax. A couple of months went by when news that interested the McKessons
and me appeared in papers and magazines. Mr. Edward Herron-Allen, noted
Persian scholar of London, had been knighted by King Edward VII. This
was for Mr. Allen's literal translation of the complete Rubaiyat of Omar
Kayyam (Sp?). Edward Fitzgerald had rendered it into charming English
verse, well expurgated. Mr. Allen's unexpurgated translation from the
old Persian was valuable to Persian scholars. Thus he became Sir Edward
Herron-Allen.
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