January 2011

As an octogenarian I cannot help telling you how much I enjoyed your article on the Overland Limited [December, 1963].… I am a railroad engineer’s daughter and all my family were railroad people.… More than once, until his death in 1906, my father was taken off his regular run to haul Theodore Roosevelt’s special train. Mr. Roosevelt always came forward to shake hands with the crew at the end of a division and left $5 in the hand of each member of the crew. Andrew Carnegie never came forward but left a generous tip for each man.… My father was eventually crushed to death by his own engine between the doorway of the round house and the tender of his engine as the hostler was taking the engine out onto the turntable. … Thanking you again for the pleasure of the article on those days of the glory of the railroad.

I note on page 112 of the December 1963 AMERICAN HERITAGE a broadside referring to Bishop Talbot’s visit to Wallace, Idaho. Regrettably I must inform you that you have been taken in by a forgery committed by that remarkable old bamboozler and pioneer printer, Thomas J. Easterwood of Dundee, Oregon, whose papers it has fallen my lot to administer until they are made available for public use in 1970.

If you will examine page 87 of Bishop Talbot’s My People of the Plains , you will find that the broadsides were printed on green paper. The two copies extant, one at the University of Oregon and one in the Easterwood papers, are printed on white stock of casein content which was not manufactured until some time after the Bishop’s visit. On the margin of page 88 of Easterwood’s personal copy of this book is a phrase in his handwriting, “set and print.” … [He] discovered that collectors paid well for Western … broadsides. …

I have just received the February, 1964, issue of A MERICAN H ERITAGE , and note with much interest the cover illustration which reproduces a water-color drawing by the Russian Paul Svinin. The caption which describes this illustration contains references which are not strictly factual, however. The First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry has two existences; and all of its “gatherings” are not purely social ones. The Troop … serves today as an armored reconnaissance company of the 28th Division, Pennsylvania National Guard.

I am green with envy at the [February] cover illustration which I did not know existed, though I have Svinin’s book. Bravo to you for smoking it out and getting it into the light of day.

Mrs. Brown is one of the foremost collectors of military pictures in America.

Late Sunday night, officials began arriving from West Chester, the county seat of Chester County, in which Coatesville was located. Soon the arrests came. In all, twelve men from Coatesville or neighboring areas were indicted for murder in varying degrees. Police Chief Charles E. Umsted and Officer Stanley Howe were indicted for involuntary manslaughter. The governor of Pennsylvania, John K. Tener, took the unusual step of sending his attorney general and his deputy attorney general to aid in the prosecutions.

In quick succession six of the cases came to trial in the West Chester Court House. One after another the men were acquitted. Usually the juries deliberated only for brief periods. Most of the defendants left the courtroom heroes, cheered by crowds in their home areas.

REMEMBERING THE MAINE WIVES AND SWEETHEARTS DAYS OF GLORY A REMARKABLE BAMBOOZLER NOT PURELY SOCIAL BROWN IS GREEN GUNTER’S CHAIN A CORRECTION

Having read “The Great White Fleet” [in the February issue] I strolled down to the local hobby shop and bought a plastic model kit for the Oregon, Olympia and the Maine . I have no quarrel with the Oregon or the Olympia but when I got to the Maine, I made a revolting discovery —it was the same ship and kit as the Olympia except that one smokestack was moved.…

Now as you are probably familiar with these model kits, you are probably aware that they are usually very accurate in their data, detail, proportion, etc.—that is, they are authentic scale models and are sold as such. In this sense they are history in the hands of kids (and some not quite kids any more) and may be the only history that ever makes an impression on these kids—nothing like the visual impact, you know.

Being a veteran of the “Great White Fleet,” I read your article on its famous cruise with great interest, and I congratulate you on it. My wife was also interested… she and I met on that cruise, first at Monterey and later at San Francisco, which was her home.

…The picture of officers drinking a toast was apparently a Junior Officers’ Mess, the more elderly gentleman on the left being the pay clerk, who was usually in that mess, and the others, from their collars, being Passed Midshipmen or Ensigns. It was probably the traditional Saturday night toast to “Sweethearts and Wives.” … The toast was, “Here’s to our sweethearts and wives—may our sweethearts become our wives, and our wives ever remain our sweethearts.” Sometimes the last phrase was parodied to “—may they never meetl”