FRANK I. HALLER, cont.

Milan, July 9, 1907 Just arrived after a cool five hours delightful trip from Venice. We find Milan a beautiful, up to date, fine city, something like a small Paris. The Italians are a dirty lot - they don't bathe. If you happen to be in an elevator or closed car with them they make you sick. They look well on the outside but they smell rotton. The bath tubs in the fine hotels all have English signs on them only.

-60 No other nationality seems to use them. Their idea of something fine in a hotel is to clutter the room full of useless plush covered furniture and tables all on a marble floor. Even in the fine large cities the children use the main streets and sidewalks for closets and the whole lot are a dirty set. They are smart enough to know that their art treasures bring the whole world to them and they are not going to let any more get away from them. Women's Club art classes have made millions for Italy. An old Iowa farmer's wife in the Knott party is tired of the skim milk we get with our coffee here. She dais "I'll be glad when I get where we can get milk again that hasn't been skum." Bellagio, Lake Como, July 11, 1907. We joined the Knott party yesterday at Milan and came to Lake Como and to this hotel last night, getting to this hotel at 9 P.M. We found the hotel beds the softest and cleanest since leaving home and the whole party is going to rest here two days. It is a pleasant change to be with people again and we all enjoy it. Florie, Marion, Alice Knott, Miss Cofeen and I went over to Bellagio across the lake and had a great forenco. This afternoon we go to an Italian villa where the original statue of Cupid and Psyche by Canova is to be found. We shall fish a little and probably go in bathing to-night and rest and do all kinds of nothings to-morrow, and on Saturday start on our three days ride over the Alps to Lucerne. What we shall do after

-61 Lucerne is not yet decided. These Italian Lakes are certainly the most beautiful summer resorts imaginable. The rich villas on the shores give them a unique distinction that no other lakes in the world possess. Menaggio and Bellagio, July 11, 1907. Lake Como. I have enthused more over the Certose at Pavia than over anything I have seen since landing on this side. Why the guide books make so much of the Cathedral at Milan and say so little about the Certose, which is a half hour's journey out of town, is something I do not understand. I should prefer to miss the Milan Cathedral rather than the Certose of Pavia. It is the most ideal monastery that can be imagined and the Cathedral itself is the richest in decoration that I know of. I mail you under separate cover a lot of photographs of the detail of the interior and when Dean Beecher calls again I wish you would show them to him. The Certosa is situated upon a rich level plain and the monastery walls, about 20 ft. high, are intact and cover a space roughly like Hanscom Park. Around the walls is a ditch of pure mountain running water and all through the grounds are streams of running water for irrigating and drinking purposes - pure mountain spring water. I think the grounds were large enough to support the resident monks. The grapes, olives, oranges, lemon etc., are grown here in profusion, as are all manner of flowers and blossoming trees and shrubs. The walls are draped with red rambler roses and blue wistaria. You can imagine the riot of color.

-62 There are two cloisters, one as large as Jefferson Square in Omaha. The cloister arches are all in terra cotta and the design over each differs, all in a state of perfect preservation and indescribably lovely in the quiet deserted sunshine of a July afternoon. The Convent was confiscated by the State and is now a National Museum. It belonged to the Carthusians, an order of monks who are vowed to allegiance. Around the large cloister are small chapel-like houses, in each of which a monk lived along, cut off from communion with his fellow man. Each had a little garden to cultivate to keep him from going plumb crazy. His food was handed in through a turnstile. He had a study and bedroom. It seems as if the world had lavished its choicest treasures of painting, statuary and mosaic in decorating this temple. There is one ivory shrine alone for which J. Pierpont Morgan offered three million of dollars. The winding galleries on the outside of the church are wonderful. It must have been a glorious sight when running at full blast with the brown robed monks under the rule of some great abbot. It seems a shame to despoil them of the work of centuries as the state has done, but it is for our benefit. Never have I seen marble relief so lifelike and never such bas-relief and terra cotta. The little gardens full of roses and flowering shrubs look so homelike but deserted.

-63 The little chapels on both sides of the grand center aisle of the church each has an altar in marble and costly mosaic with a fine painting over the altar. I estimate that the church cost several (twenty) millions and am not surprised to have it spoken of as the richest monastery in the world. I am so glad you insisted upon our going there. It was a morning of unalloyed delight. The photographs we send will tell the story. Am writing this under the shade of a magnolia tree overlooking Lake Como and the mountains. Menaggio, Italy Lake Como, July 12, 1907 I have already caught a fish form the walls of the hotel garden and am sitting under a blossoming magnolia tree overlooking the blue lake, 1600 ft. deep, across which the mountains, just like Pike's Peak, rise range after range, cloud capped and show patched. Yesterday we visited the celebrated Italian Villa Charlotta and, in order that you may in a slight measure understand what we saw, I mail you under separate cover a few photographs of that wonderful place. First, we too carriages and drove along the beautiful shores of Lake Como- for over a thousand years the playground of the Romans and Italians of wealth and culture. We drove past villa after villa with the formal Italian gardens that we have learned to appreciate. It was good to see the American flag flying over one of the prettiest. (I told the folks I did not know how they got on to the fact that we were Americans.) At last we came to an avenue of magnificent sycamore trees,

-64 probably seventy-five year old, along one side of which was a wall covered with crimson rambler roses and wisteria mixed. A most gorgeous sight. We waited a few minutes until the guard came to conduct our party through the grounds and then our visits to wonderland began. To give you an idea of what we were to see I have only to say that a rich American in California has already spent five million dollars trying to reproduce this garden and has none of the statuary yet. Every imaginary tree and flowering shrub and vine known is found in this thin old garden that has been making for over one hundred years. We walked under arching trees, the cedar of Lebanon, with its broad spreading branches, the tall Lombardy popular and the banana and fig tree and date palm, all in a riot of luxury. It is about the size of Hanscom Park, only it is on a hill or mountain side. While we were int he most dense part of the park a nightingale sang his sweetest song and we drank from a hidden fountain of mountain spring water. In the villa itself in a room the size of Mr. Lininger's Art Gallery which contains some of the masterpieces of sculpture of the world. Here is the original statue of Amor and Psyche by Canova and the great friese by Thorwaldsen are painted blue and the arches are light blye marble which sets off the white of the marble statues immensely. One man wanted to copy of the frieze alone and it cost over fifty thousand to make it.

-65 The most scientific gardening I ever saw is here. The way they have trained the trees to grow into straight walls making twenty foot high arches or lanes of green is amazing. Every now and then you come to a fountain where the water trickles down through a lot of maidenhair ferns artistically growing out of the rocks. Huge trees of flowering magnolias in blossom with flowers just like white water lilies scented the air. The prettiest part was a lane of lattice about half a block long over which were trained orange and lemon trees with the yellow fruit hanging down from the slate of the lattice. You see the end of it in photograph 246. I can't imagine heaven more beautiful. At least I would rather be in this garden. Every now and then you would come to the end of a lane ending in a summer house overlooking the lake to a village or church on the mountain-side opposite. It belongs to a German nobleman who lives here two months a year only. To-morrow we cross the Alps. July 13, 1907. We left Menaggio at A.M. on a little narrow gauge railroad for an hour's ride over the mountains and through the most picturesque imaginable. When we got to the end of the line at Parlezza we took the boat on Lake Lugano across that lake. Had a nice lunch on the boat with Alice Knott's party of eighteen (Miss Perkins leader). They got off at Port Tress and took a little dinkey railroad ride of forty minutes to Luino where we took another boat on Lake Maggiore for three hours and landed at Bavens, thus

-66 getting all there was to all the three Italian Lakes at Baveno. Nearly had a racket with an Italian Jew jewelry vender who said that Marion knocked his tray of jewelry over, which she didn't. I came near pelting him one in the snoot but thought it bad to have a row. We took the St. Gotthard train there as far as Domo D'Ossola where we stayed in an old inn where Caribaldi lived for awhile. It was a quaint old place, only candle light, no gas nor electricity. The roofs of the houses are all made of flat stones laid one over-lapping the other without mortar, and look as if the first wind would topple them over. From Domo D'Ossola we took carriages and had an all day drive over the Simplon Pass, by far the greatest scenery it has over been our fortune to see. We were pointed out where Napoleon stopped for a glass of milk, saw the monasteries and some St. Bernard dogs and had the most delightful time imaginable. We just landed at Brieg in the lap of the mountains and have just had our table d’hôtel at 9.30. We start to-morrow for the Rhone Glacier and stay all night at the Rhone Glacier Hotel and Tuesday we will be at Lucerne. Rhone Glacier Hotel, July 16, 1907. We drove almost all day stopping two hours for lunch at a mountain inn and at six o'clock arrived at the Rhone Glacier Hotel, where we were more than delighted to find a crackling grate fire awaiting us. First we all walked out to the glacier, which in the last twenty years has rece-

-67 ded about half a mile from the hotel, and at the present rate of withdrawal will scarce last twenty years longer. It is quite a large glacier yet and it was quite cold and wintry while we were there. The next day we started for Lucerne and had a great day. Lucerne, July 18, 1907. Yesterday I got a letter from the White Star Line saying that we could get accommodations on one of their largest and newest ships, "The Baltic," sailing from Liverpool August 22nd, an eight day boat on which Marion's party of school friends return. This should bring us home to Omaha about the third of September. This cuts our stay at Lucerne and we start for Munich to-day, leaving at 1.01 and getting to Munich at nine to-night. At Munich we will go to Ludwig's palaces, from there to Vienna, then to Nurnberg and Berlin and The Hague and Bruges and Paris and Liverpool. We stopped at the Palace Hotel, Lucerne, upon the recommendation of Mr. Lewis Reed, and found it as fine as the Waldorf Astoria. I never saw such a change as in this town. It has improved so much. The shops equal Paris and the novelties are most tempting. It is the height of the season and every hotel is full of Americans. The Knotte leave for Heidelberg with their party at 2 P.M. Got a nice lot of letters from home at this place.

-68 The hotel gave a ball last night and we invited Marion's friends down to enjoy it, which they surely did. We are favorably impressed with Switzerland and the Swiss but feel that we should not spend any more time on scenery alone, but visit the great cities over here. We feel we can't miss it anywhere here. Munich, July 21, 1907. Marion and Florie have been complaining that I do not hear well, so Florie and I went to an oculist, who examined my ears and said that a catarrhal condition of the tube leading from the throat to the ear caused the trouble, and, upon examining Florie, he found that her earache came from the same cause. I then had Florie's eyes examined and fitted to better glasses for reading. The oculist said she had fine eyes, nothing the matter, but wanted slight glasses for reading. She wears them on her nose and they are becoming to her. We went through the picture galleries to-day and enjoyed them again, perhaps more than ever before. Took a drive "Seeing Munich" in the afternoon. Florie stayed home to rest. This is a clean great modern city of 650,000 inhabitants - beautifully kept and a model in every way. It is odd to see the women turn switches at the street car crossings, etc. We are in Germany sure enough. That small feather bed that you find on every bed is here and, strange to say, in July, it is needed. It rests peacefully on the pit of your stomach till you fall asleep and then it begins to travel, from top to bottom and from right to left of the bed, till it rests upon the

-69 floor, where you invariably find it in the morning. I shall fool the beastly thing to-night by depositing it upon the floor before retiring. All well. Women barmaids are a strange fashion. They are so old and ugly as we see them that their honesty and virtue can scarcely be questioned, and I suppose that it is easier to keep the peace where there are women barmaids, but I don't fancy it at all. I have seen drunkenness anywhere yet everyone drinks. Marion is such a crank on the subject she don't let me touch anything stronger than water and, as a fact wine and beer don't agree with me, and I have no temptation so we all agree. Munich, July 24, 1907. On Monday morning we left Munich on the local Cook's tours to the palaces of King Ludwig, the crazy monarch of Bavaris, who spent 508 million marks, or 102 million dollars, in building these castles that are the wonder and delight of visitors from all parts of the world. We arrived at Oberammergan about noon. Took our lunch under the trees at an old inn. Florie and Marion have both been here at the Passion Plays, one twenty-seven years ago and one seven years ago. Florie remarked on the great improvements, new hotels galore, etc. We took carriages and drove two hours till we reached Castle Linderhof, which is a most beautiful French chateau, set in the most perfect formal gardens imaginable. Here is where the famous blue grotto is found where Lohengrin was given for the crazy king alone. The fountains are the most tasteful we have ever seen. The view

-70 from each window is simply enchanting, nestled in the lap of the mountains. Art and nature have combined to charm the eye and ravish the sense of the beautiful. From there we drove over the mountains through the pine forests till we came to the shores of the wildest mountain lake imaginable. The shores are so precipitous that no cottages can be built except on the extreme edge where, after driving along the shore for about two miles, we stopped for supper, sending postals with the beautiful view of the lake to our friends. We sat on the veranda eating trout just caught from the lake, and maybe we did not enjoy them. From there we had another long drive of three hours till we reached the town of Flussen at 10 P.M. We had a good joke on Florie. She was eating some fruit on the sly and attempted to throw the remains (cores and skins) out of the window, forgetting that we had closed the window. So she spattered the whole window, much to our amusement and to her chagrin. In the morning we drove first to the New Shwaugstein, the Castle on the mountain top, then took our dinner at an inn in the valley on the shores of another bewitching mountain lake, and then visited the old castle of Hehenschwaugen with its quaint old pictures of medieval life on the walls, and its many ever recurring emblems of the swan. This region is where all the legends of Wagner's Lohengrin originate and we shall ever remember that when we hear the opera. From there we took the train for Munich. July 25, 1907. We stopped over a day to see the third King Ludwig's

-71 Castle, "Die Herrencheemaie." We took the morning train out of Munich, rode an hour and a half to a little station, from there took a dinkey little railroad that wound around about the back gardens, vegetable and flower, of a quaint little German village for fifteen minutes, then took a little lake steamer for fifteen minutes more and landed on an island called "Herren Insel," i.e. "Man Island," passing on our was an island called "Woman's Island." On this "Herren" island, after walking through a lovely forest for about ten minutes, we suddenly came upon a beautiful building, a duplicate of the French Versailles. Formal gardens all about with statuary and fences ten feet high, made of trees set close side by side and trimmed. Trees trimmed in symmetry etc., beautiful vistas, fully equal to Versailles, but the minute you step indoors Versailles ceases to be a comparison. Crazy King Ludwig must have spent a fourth of his 110 million dollars on the interior of this palace, all walls made of finest marbles, curtains gold embroidered like the costliest church vestments, carved furniture, walls carved out of wood and gilded with pure gold leaf, ivory ornaments, chandeliers of all sorts of precious materials, rock crystal, ivory, porcelain, gold, silver, heaven knows what not. Beds of gold with tapestries of Gobelin and finest ostrich feather ornaments. I bought a book giving all the four palaces, eighty-four pictures in all, and from that you will get some idea of the splendor and magnificence. Words cannot paint the picture. From there we returned to Munich, took an auto drive through the residence quarter and saw the magnificent new theatre, where the government opera troupe will give the Wagner festival, which begins

-72 Aug. 12th. We took a night sleeper from Munich and landed at Vienna next morning. Took a ride about that fine town and landed at noon at the Hotel Bristol, where we just missed recognizing Miss Swensburg, formerly of Omaha, Mrs. Fair's ward. We left a note for her which she answered promptly, regretting that she had to leave at once for the mountains. The porter said her Doctor had advised the step. She looked thin and old to Marion, who saw her best. At the Lichenstein Gallery in Vienna we saw a "David with head of Goliath," an exact duplicate in size of ours, with a few details changed. A much better picture than the one in the Louvre by the same artist. And yesterday we were surprised to run across a third in the Old Castle at Nurnberg, attributed to Domenichino, but not as good as any. Old Guido made many a replica. Ours is equal to any. I would rank the Lichenstein first, ours second, Paris third, Nurnberg 4th. They are all better preserved than ours. I think we should have a new canvas put on ours. We went to the Royal Treasury at Vienna and saw the crown jewels and other most precious things, guarded by soldiers so thick you couldn't step without touching one. We went out into the court to see guard mount at one and heard one of the finest military bands play. They played a waltz, probably by Strauss, and the soldiers went through their pranks afterwards like so many wooden automatons. I like Vienna. It's a big, clean, up to date business. They do not allow overhead wires in their beat streets. Each electric car has an overhead and an underground electric

-73 connection, the overhead in the shape of a horseshoe. There is no such thing as "getting off your trolley." One rail, the left, is split and there is an underground conduit about one and a half feet down for the shoe to slip along the electric third rail. The lamp posts on the "Rund Strasse," the main boulevard, which [?] the town, have little flower baskets, round ones, about ten feet from the ground. We saw a man climb up a ladder with a watering pot and sprinkle them. Fancy Chicago or New York doing the same. We stopped at the Bristol Hotel on the "Rund Strasse," near where you people stopped. The plane reminds me of Boston as a town. We got Florie a black sweater in place of her blue dress, which is being dyed black at Munich. The shops tempted us tremendously but time was so short we were saved from extravagance. Nurnberg, July 27th & 26th, 1907. Where shall I begin and what shall I say about this quaint, picturesque, most fascinating town of Nurnberg? We have been here now for two days and every minute we fall more and more in love with this most delightful place. This, you remember, is the place where Mr. Lininger found our coat of arms etc. Well, maybe you don't think we found things. First, we wandered into the great church of St. Sebaldun, so called from the wonderful iron tomb, the finest piece of iron worksmanship in the world. Well,

-74 we got through enjoying the wonderful pictures and the great organ sixty feet up on the side of the church like some huge orchid, and the little organ way up in the loft like a plaything, and were about to go out of the door when I asked the young lady attendant what the altar was that had four candles in front of it, and the quaint old pictures from the fourteenth century and she said that was an old altar erected by the patrician Haller family. Then she showed us a lot of shields nailed on the column, that ran back to 1400, and each shield had the Haller Coat of Arms. She then showed us a long gallery known as the Haller Gallery and sacred to their use to this day. Then an ancient stained glass window, fifty feet high, and a new stained window in the choir recently put there by a Haller. All with the Haller Coat of Arms. We have pictures of this altar and the Coat of Arms and the interior. We then were pointed out the house where an old lady eighty years of age, one of the Hallers, still lived, a fine house next to the historic Hana Sache house. She must be well to do to live there. We then drove out the graveyard where Albert Durer and Hana Sache and other celebrities are buried and saw a grave of our venerable ancestor. Then followed a street car that had "Haller" on it, or rather "Haller Thor," Haller's Door, till we came to that historic Haller gateway into the old walls of the city, and then came to a long park along the river given to the city by an old Haller and called "The Haller Green." Then we drove out

-75 into the country and on the way found one fine new restaurant called "Zum Haller Schloss," another "Zum Hallerstein," and finally came to the real, genuine "Haller Schloss" or Haller Castle, surrounded by a wall ten feet high enclosing about twenty acres. We drove to the front door and pulled the brass rod. We heard a bell tinkle and slowly and mysteriously the door opened a little way. As no one appeared Marion began to poke fun at me. I rang again, again the mysterious pulling back of the door and the door opening about two inches with no one in sight. Then some one poked out a hand from the fifth story and said "Come up" (you chump!) I climbed up the stairs, found the first four massive stories devoted to storage of grain and household goods and the stairs clean and newly sanded down. The old pennant couple that I found up stairs as caretakers told me that the old palace or schloss had passed out of the Haller family in marriage many years ago, but, of course, would always be known as the "Haller Schloss." I shall have a picture of it before I leave here. It is not a handsome, imposing palace but a great big, old, substantial, ugly old pile about four hundred years old, but the real thing sure enough. Now you think that ought surely to be enough, but the best is yet to come. We found a church, "The Church of the Holy Cross," given in 1360 by Berthold Haller as a votive offering for the Haller family. With the church is an old hospital and rectory, all enclosed with a wall, all built at the same time and known as the Haller Denkmal, or monument. The hospital is now an inn and I send you a postal herewith showing the whole thing. Above the door in the wall are the Haller Arms and I mail you (Mama Haller)

-76 herewith the German guide gotten out by the sexton, which please preserve till I can translate it. In the Church are the mourning shields of the dead Hallers with their cost of arms and their wives coats of arms since 1360. The sexton insisted upon calling me "Baron Haller" and insisted that I come to service Sunday and sit in the "Baron Haller reserved seats" and said that I had the legal right as a Haller to be buried in the churchyard. I told him I did not (yet) care to exercise the prerogative. But, say! it was fun to nose out the old Haller tribe. One was a magistrate and is buried in a church in Frankfort. They have been big guns in their day and in this part of the country. To-day we took an automobile and drove sixty miles to the old walled town of Rothenburg, older and more interesting in many respects than Nurnberg, and, as we were going through an old Museum, Marion saw our coat of arms and bought it for you. It's like the one we have that Mr. Lininger got. To-morrow we will look up a few more things and see if we can find anything more, but we have the hotel man and guides quite worked up about the Haller quest. In one of the oldest houses we found the Haller coat of arms where a man married a Haller girl four hundred years ago. I told Marion what had happened once might happen again. The church of the Holy Cross, Nurnberg, Germany, given in 1360 by Berthold Haller, together with the hospital and rectory. The main altar is a folding affair with painting on all four panels, both sides, by the artist Michael Wolgemut.

-77 They are fresh and bright to-day. The subjects are scriptural and the English government tried to buy them for 50,000 marks. ($12,500) some years ago but they are not for sale. The statue of the founder in cost of mail, a crusader maybe, is in the wall, as he died and is buried in the cathedral at Frankfort as judge in 1551. An old organ, pumped by pulling two ropes and yet in use, dates from the year 1725. July 29, 1907. Went shopping to-day. Called upon Baron Haller von Hallerstein, the same old gentlemen that Pa, Ma, and Marion called upon seven years ago. Found him the owner of two four story houses, facing the square with the "Schonen" fountain and the Frauen church, where the figures march three times before Charlemagne and how each time, a quaint old performance that has been going on for four hundred years. The old fountains of this town are interesting and world renowned. We spent Sunday in the old town of Rothenburg, about sixty miles from here, going in an automobile. It is older than Nurnberg and in many respects it is still more interesting. Had an interesting experience in Rothenburg. We (Florie and I) were in a picture shop, Marion sitting in the carriage. Driver of carriage misunderstood remark made by the proprietor of picture shop and drove off with Marion to an old part of the town, and before we could run after him he disappeared from sight. When we did find them Marion was scared to death and almost in hysteria. She thought she was being abducted. Something wrong with her nerves.

-78 Found a good deal of the Haller family again to-day in the city Hall in fresco and paintings on the wall. The Hallers were "in it" here for about three hundred and fifty to five hundred years sure enough. Frankfort am Main, July 30, 1907. Arrived at 2 P.M. after a morning's ride from Nurnberg. It rained all the way. We visited the cathedral here and found the tomb of Haller who founded the church and hospital at Nurnberg. It is a stone slab about six feet high showing the figure of a knight in armor. It seems that he was mayor or some great official of this town at the time he died. It is a fine piece of carving in a fine old church. It beats the band how much old Haller family truck we run across. Florie found an old window of the Haller family at a Nurnberg antiquity store but they wanted $30.00 for it. So many of the old houses here have sun dials on them. It is interesting and dates back to the time when clocks were few and far between. Our mail has been missing us. None of Dean Beecher's letters have reached us yet but we think we have located the trouble and how to remedy it. We go to Nauheim, a watering place, to-morrow to rest up a few days. I do love the quaint old buildings of medieval times and am daily more interested in architecture. It is the foundation of all the arts.

-79 I notice that the fine hotels no longer advertise that they have a lift but advertise such things as vacuum cleaners, meaning that instead of running sweepers over the house they clean with dustless vacuum suction hose. I notice that there are no lawn mowers used in this country. The grass is all out by the old fashioned scythe. It is enough to sadden the heart of an implement man to see how few farms implements are used by the people in Continental Europe. One car load would run the whole country for a year. Wet weather is spoiling the crops here. If we expect to check the ever increasing tide of travel to Europe we must make the places of interest and natural beauty in our country accessible by means of good roads. We must inculcate a love for nature in our children and foster out of door life and sports. We cannot compete with Europe in monuments of history or in architecture or art but we are rich in the beautiful and the sublime in nature if we but educate our eyes to see and make such spots accessible. In every fourth or fifth village is the parish church and on Sunday morning you may see the men and women of the neigh boring village making to church along the highway, dresses in black, the sexes segregated in groups. I noticed wherever there was a group of young girls a group of young men, within speaking distance, was sure to follow, while the married men were content to linger out of ear shot of their spouses, inspecting the growing crops and obeying the scriptural injunction to get some rest on the Sabbath.

-80 All Europe is immeasurably behind us in the use of agricultural labor-saving machinery. Grain is still universally sown by hand and out with the old scythe, or cradled and still thrashed out by flails on the barn floor as in scriptural times. Fields are still largely spaded instead of plowed and the old wooden moldboard plow, iron sheathed, is still in use. More oxen and cows than horses are still used on farms. In feet, they do no farm in our sense of the word. Europe is a vast garden and we can learn much in the way of soil fertilization, crop rotation and saving the crop after it is raised, especially in the curing and harvesting of the grass crop of which we are criminally wasteful. Probably the main reason for the lack of labor-saving farm machinery is due to the fact that land has been so subdivided through inheritance during the last few hundred years that no one man owns enough land to warrant buying farm machinery, and human labor is still cheap in rural districts where women and children habitually work in the fields. Owners of large estates are beginning to appreciate American farm machinery and in some places they have small threshing machines," and I predict a growing demand for American farm machinery, provided we are willing to cater to their peculiar wants and conditions.

-81 From Nurnberg to Rothenburg by automobile. Sunday, July 28, 1907. The Paris edition of the New York Herald is full of the movements of Americans who are touring Europe in their automobiles. I am no longer surprised that Americans find automobiling here worth the difference that it costs to ship a car here. We took a ride last Sunday from Nurnberg to the old walled medieval city of Rothenburg about the same distance as from Omaha to Lincoln. The comparison will tell why the home of the automobile is still on this side of the water. Think of riding sixty miles on such perfect roads that we never experienced a bump. The road was hard and smooth as a race track, without a ridge even as large as a mole hill. No grade that the machine could not take on fast speed. The car rode like a Pullman sleeper and this was the ordinary country road much as is found everywhere over here. It was a revelation to us. You could not tell from the riding of the car when you came to a bridge or a culvert or a railroad crossing, everything is leveled to avoid a jar. The entire community seems interested in making automobiling pleasant and desirable. Sign posts give warning of sudden turns and sharp corners, steep hills and railroad crossings. Children cheer and wave at passing automobiles and grown people smile a pleasant greeting as you pass and no one seems to bother about speed regulations. We learned the answer on

-82 this trip to the old query "Why does a hen cross the road?" It is - "Because she sees and automobile coming." I never saw such healthy looking young children, two to five years of age, as here in Germany. I think that it would be a great thing for the future Americans if our babies would come to Germany to be born. How the long dachshund ever gets out of the way of the automobile I don't understand. He is a regular vestibule train of a dog and takes some time to get past a given point. Bad Nauheim, July 30, 1907. Being but one hour from Frankfort we ran down to this place to see what a German watering place was like. Stopped at the Villa Fortuna where Mr. Lewie Reed stops when here. It rained and we can't keep comfortably warm so we shall pull out for Berlin to-night and get there in the morning at 7.30. We saw a lady with red shoes and a gold bracelet on her ankle. Would hate to stay here six weeks at a time like poor Lewis Reed. Shall be mighty glad to get back to Omaha again. Am tired of traveling. We enjoy ourselves immensely but the annoyance of travel are not to be escaped. Berlin, Germany, Aug. 1, 1907. We arrived at 8 A.M. in a cold rain. Fortunately at the last hour we got a berth in the sleeper for each of us and had a good night's rent. We took Cook's automobile, "Seeing Berlin," and enjoyed a two and a half hour ride.

-83 We hired a blanket apiece for ten cents each and were warm and comfortable. I am more than delighted with Berlin. It is the finest city we have yet visited. It beats Vienna which is saying a good deal. In the Charlottenburg addition of the city the street car rails run through flower gardens and grass borders. Think of beautifying a city with street car right of way. There isn't a crack or a hole in the streets anywhere, asphalt and wooden block. The wide tree lined streets are a delight to the eye and are health giving and refreshing. The great park, "Tier Garten," in the middle of the city in a great feature. Everything so clean and up to date and substantial given an air of prosperity not seen elsewhere. "Unter den Linden" shown what a street can become. It must be all of three hundred feet wide. First, a wide sidewalk, then a wide asphalt road for the vehicles on both sides, at least fifty feet, then a grass plot and a walk for pedestrians, a hundred feet, then a place for horse back riding thirty feet. It is a great street for taking care of crowds. We are glad we came to Berlin. Are now 8/3 on our way to Amsterdam writing on the train, which is a rough one. The part of Holland we are now passing through along the border of Germany in quite wild, would pass as some western county in Nebraska. Have been up an hour and haven't seen a windmill yet. Saw a sail gliding across the fields along some invisible canal. It's cold and dark out. The thermometer was fifty-eight in Berlin yesterday.

-84 I met Mr. Tom Kelly and Herr Gahm quite by accident on the streets of Berlin. Gahm says that story of being drafted into the German Army is a fake and that inside of six months he will return to Omaha. Marion is trying to bring my table manners up to boarding school standards and kicks me under the table when I do not come up to standard. (Just saw first windmill.) I will have scars all over my legs but will graduate with honors. We anticipate a pleasant time going back with the Knott party on "the Baltic." Will save about three days for London - may run out to Oxford and Stratford-on-Avon if we find time. Allwell. Amsterdam, Aug. 3rd and 4th, 1907. It rained all day yesterday and was fifty-eight degrees cold so we visited the museum, which we were surprised to find to be one of the very best in Europe. In many respects the best. I presume the building is the best one in Europe for the purpose and as a representative collection, not confined to one country, it is the finest we have seen. Of course, the greatest Rembrandts in the world are here and Van Dykes, etc. We were exceedingly lucky to get into the private gallery of Baron Six, who has the finest private gallery on this side of the pond. He has only thirty or forty pictures but some of them are the best Rembrandts in the world. To give you an idea of how valuable the collection is, - when the father of the present baron died he left the estate to be equally divided among his two sons, the present baron paid his brother fourteen million dollars for one-half interest in this collection of about thirty pictures.

-85 Probably the most pleasant excursion we have taken on this trip was the one we took to-day (Sunday). We started at 10 A.M. took a little boat to an island, then took the queerest little dinky railroad train across the island, then a larger boat to the fishing Island of Marken, then a boat to Volendam, then a dinky little railroad train, then a boat, and landed in Amsterdam again at 5 P.M. The little railroad train was too funny for anything. The little box cars about the size of a bedroom were divided into first, second and third class compartments, as are all European trains, each compartment about the size of a bathroom. The engine was a square box like arrangement, no front nor rear to it. When we got to a crossing the engineer picked up a hand dinner bell and rang it. When we came to a little village the train slowed up and the conductor took that dinner bell and walked in front of the engine, ringing the bell and clearing the track. The train went so close to the houses that you could touch the walls with your hand, and the inmates sitting at their windows carried on conversations with the occupants of the cars, and the village boys took this opportunity to sell travelers things they didn't need. The country is flat with water canals in place of fences to divide the fields. The large canals are considerably above the level of the country and it was an odd night to look up and see a large excursion boat with a thousand people and bands playing and flags flying, slipping along among the trees with no visible means of support, as you can't see the water for the walls of the canal. You can go everywhere by boat in Holland, by small cross

-86 country canals, and large main waterways. The country, of course, is flat but beautiful; green fields with black and white Holstein cows, - windmills everywhere and steep tiled roofed houses and barns combined - wild waterfowl everywhere, - snipes, ducks, herons galore, tame now because winter is the hunting season. The water is full of fish and everybody fishing from his own doorstep. Every village has its different costumes for men and women and you can tell where a Hollander comes from by his or her clothes. One village will be Roman Catholic, the next Protestant, and the fiercest hatred still exists between these religious factions in Holland. They indicate so many things by the dress. For instance, in Marken to distinguish boys from girls - as both dress like girls till ten years old - you will find on the cap that the boy wears a small button worked into the crown. (I have one of the boys' hate.) We amused ourselves watching the kids as they came toward us, trying to guess which was a boy, but we couldn't tell them apart till we looked at the back of the head where the button, or lack of button, told the tale. I shudder when I think what might happen if they mixed caps and a boy grow to manhood thinking he was a woman all the time. I wonder how they keep tab. Until the women of Marken are fourteen they wear all their hair, - one long curl on either side of their head and a bunch hanging down their back. On their fourteenth birthday that back bunch comes off and ever thereafter the

-87 two front curls, one on each side of the head, is all the hair the girl has. Of course she wears her lace cap all the time. Some of the women were eighty years and older and it seemed superfluity to call attention to the fact that they were no longer fourteen. A married woman wears a gold band across her forehead, an unmarried one wears the band half way across. From the looks of the bunch I knew I think they will wear the half-length bars for a hundred years or more. Orphan boys in Amsterdam wear a costume half black, half red, one pant leg black, the other red, half coat black, the other red, it looks picturesque. The men wear bloomers and large silver buttons on their trousers. All wear wooden shoes and leave the shoes at the door when they enter the house. The houses, no matter how poor, are so clean you could eat off the floor, and the streets are as clean as our asphalt pavements on a side hill after a cloudburst. I venture to say that the streets of Edam (where Edam cheese comes from) are the cleanest in the world, not a match even on the ground. Strange to say the people are personally dirty - bath rooms unknown. The signs on the house are jaw breakers. I copied one from a small store across the street from our hotel. I don't know how much longer it would have been if the house had been longer. Here it is, - "Goedkootelehenamiddelen." One sign

-88 read "Skuipt de Koop." Skipped the coop, I guess. At Edam there is a snug little hotel with this sign above the door -"Dam Hotel." There are a lot of hotels in Europe that ought to have the same sign above the door. These people adore Queen Wilhelmina, whose husband is now good to her. Holland is prosperous. The people are pleasant, honest and clean about their houses. We like it. To-morrow we visit the historical city of Haarlem, whose siege by the Spaniards in 1572 and heroic defense are described by Motley. We then go the Hague where the Peace Conference is in session, and then to Brussels and Paris, London and home. You bet we will be glad to get to that good old Omaha once more. We have missed a lot of mail that we expect to get at Paris. Florie is at home here. The women clean house every day in the year and are dust and dirt crazy. If you ring the front door bell the servant polishes it up again when you turn the corner. Aug. 5, 1907. From Amsterdam to Haarlem. Staid all night at the historic old town of Haarlem. Saw the town hall with the Franz Hals collection of paintings valued at several millions of dollars. I would not advise any one to stop off at Haarlem. The pictures are not pleasing and the church is poor and common, although large with a fine organ. We arrived at The Haag or Hague and have a fine suits of three rooms, the only ones to be had. This hotel is headquarters for the

-89 Peace Conference and is very much crowded and extremely swell. We simply want to see the great guns at feed for once and then we will skip out for Schweringham, the watering place nearby. It seems the Dutch are much more reconciled to their Prince, the husband of Queen Wilhelmina, since he risked his life to save a lot of people a year or so ago, or recently. I don't seem to recall the incident and don't like to ask because these people think the whole world knows of the transaction. This hotel is owned and managed by one of the richest men here and his name is Haller. He says that his grandfather, or great-grandfather, was Chief of Chamber to Napoleon the First, and accompanied him on all his campaigns. We must look him up when we go to Paris. The farmers steer their wagons by a sort of rudder on the front end instead of using a tongue or shafts for the horses. Our stay in The Hague has been spoiled by constant rains, which have been a phenomena in this country all summer. We shall not go out to the watering place, Shweringham, on account of the wet but will strike for Brussels at 10.10 or 2.20. We took a drive about town and enjoyed the old trees in the park immensely. Old Haarlem has a park that we have not seen excelled when it comes to grand old elms. We were disappointed in not seeing Mr. Choate at

-90 the hotel at dinner last night. They say he was invited out. Our rooms are two doors from the Queen Mother's apartment. Brussels, Aug. 7, 1907. Staying at the Hotel Flanders where you folks and Florie stopped nine years ago and here we are again. Saw all the sights, including the Weirtz Museum and the manikin etc., and at 4.20 leave for Bruges and to-morrow night will be in Paris where we expect a bushel of mail for all quarters. The weather is rainy and cool. We wear coats all the time. Many new buildings here. The Kind is building a fine palace. Town is more familiar than any we have visited twice. Anxious to get home. All well. Bruges, Aug. 7, 1907. We are charmed and delighted with this beautiful old place, once the foremost city of the world, now an inland, poor dead town of about thirty thousand inhabitants. It is a story of the vanity of all things, but the beauty of the buildings and bridges and pictures is here. The canals that divide the town make it almost the most picturesque place we have been in. I should advise any one coming to Europe to miss Brussels and Antwerp and, by all means, to visit this place. We were astonished at what there is here to see and regret that you and Pa never made this town. Will bring you photos of the good things as you can get some idea of what we are enjoying.

-91 I am wondering what sort of weather you are having and how it affects the crops. The daily rains and cold here have made a bad harvest. I fear that you may be experiencing the reverse and that hot weather may have had a bad result on the corn. We expect to reach Paris in time to-night to get out mail and then we will get busy shopping. We have had an instructive and never-to-be-forgotten time but we shall be glad, very glad, to get home again. We did not realize there was so much beauty in the old country as we find on every hand. The world seems prosperous everywhere, but there are signs at home that I do not like the financial situation. Aug. 8, 1907. Landed in Paris from Bruges via Brussels at 8.30. Went immediately to Cook's. Got lots of belated mail but not yet Dean's first letter. While reading mail Gilbert Hitchcock called out "Hello! Haller," we had a chat, he, Florie, Marion and I. He was just about to take the "American" for home Aug. 9th. He told me that Mr. Reed, Mrs. Kountze (Herman) and Mrs. Whitmore and Eugenia were here, and that Mrs. Monnell had just left for Brussels and that Howard Baldridge and his wife would be here to-morrow. We landed at the Normandie Hotel, next to the Montana (formerly the Binda) and find that Eugenia and Mrs. Whitmore are at this hotel also. Mr. Reed called at noon. I spent the afternoon with him. He looks well.

-92 To-morrow morning we start for the Bon-Marche and hope to get in a good day of shopping. What a splendid death Mr. Paxton had. I cannot understand how Mr. Devalon was called upon by the Custom Office to do anything about those two colored prints we sent you. There is no duty whatsoever on photos and colored prints and when I get home I shall give Ben Barrows a piece of my mind for putting H.P. to this trouble. I would not have burdened him for the world. He ought not to be bothered at all, the business keeps him worried enough. It is astonishing how well Americans like Paris. Mr. Hitchcock has not been anywhere else and says he never had such a good time. Reed says he may stay all winter. Rather good joke on me just now. I thought I made the chambermaid understand that I wanted a hot bath, but I knew better when the waiter came in with a bottle of beer. I made the waiter and the maid drink the beer as one on me. It reminds me of Marion's French. She and her girl friends ordered chocolate in their best boarding school French and they got two soft boiled eggs on toast sent to their room instead. They ate them. We went shopping this morning and Florie and Marion got themselves some drygoods. We took lunch right across the street. It rained - as usual. I have a lot of fun teasing Marion about her baths. I insist that she shall take one in each country we visit, and she has just advised me with considerable unction that she

-93 did not take one in Austria, nor in Holland, nor in Belgium. I have punished her, or tried to. I learned quite a number of things at the Bon-Marche about the management of the business. They are doing a constantly increasing business each year. This last year forty-five million. Clerks start in at $100.00 per year and the best got only $200.00 per year, but they all got a commission on what they sell and an interest in the profits. They use women only where they have to, - in ladies' departments - and then not in the cloak department. They claim that women cannot stand the hard work of putting away things after showing etc. Each clerk dusts and keeps in order his department. They eat lunch at the firm's expense and are compelled to do no to avoid late coming in. Formerly they were all served a seven o'clock full course dinner but the married men rebelled because they wanted some time with their families. Now it is abolished. The young ladies all get a cup of chocolate upon coming in the mornings. Each clerk at noon passes by a plane in the dining room and takes from a tray either a bottle of wine or a bottle of beer for his or her dinner, at the firm's expense. They also feed several hundred young men whose parents live out of town. They have three general managers, or a board of three, who again are subjects to the stockholders. In the will of the proprietor it was provided that the building should go to the stockholders. One share of stock is now worth seven hundred thousand francs, or one hundred and forty thousand dollars. They have the right system. Each clerk shares

-94 in the prosperity of the firm. Of course it is to the interest of each clerk to sell the highest priced goods as well as the largest amount. They are behind the times when it comes to office saving devices and methods. Did you know that Mr. Binda went to the dogs when his wife died, lost his hotel and lived here at the Normandie? Peachie Whitmore just called upon us, looking like a siren in red. We just sat and admired her. Marion thinks she has the prettiest feet of any one she knows. She and her mother have been having the time of their lives going to see the Midnight Sun. Were hob-nobbing with Ex-Queen Kugenia of France in her yacht. It seems the Empress is an old friend of the family and that Eugenie is named after her. No one in Omaha has any better time then they. I am waiting for Mr. Reed who is to show me some of the places he knows here. Aug, 15, 1907. This is a national holiday and ever museum and store is closed. Mr. and Mrs. McGrew and Gene Brown had but this one day out of four left to see Paris and did want so much to see the Louvre. It rained till ten when we called upon them at the Hotel Maurice and walked over to the Louvre, only to find it closed. In the afternoon we took two electric automobiles and went out to Versailles. The roads were nice after the rain and we enjoyed the gardens and plants and roads immensely. A young man from Toronto, Canada went with the McGrew party. His name is Vodrey. There

-95 seemed to be a mutual attraction between him and Gene Brown. Lewis Reed went back with his wife to Nauheim yesterday morning at 9 A. M. The night before he took us out to see "The Abbey" and "Maxims," two of the rather loud show places of Paris where you don't take young girls. Florie and Marion did not go, only Mr. and Mrs. McGrew, Mr. and Mrs. Webster, Flora Webster, and Gene Brown and I. It wasn't any worse than we have seen on the stage time and again at Omaha, only the audience was mostly the high class demi-monde. We did not stay ill the audience got under the influence of champagne, which they do about three A. M. It is a sorry commentary on life in a gay city and is nothing worth seeing at any rate. Aug. 16, 1907. Went to the Luxemburg Museum of pictures, statuary and vases. I think the modern artists are doing about everything the old masters did. I missed Whistler's picture of his mother, which is at some exhibition of American artists somewhere. One more day in Paris and then good-bye to Paris, perhaps forever. This has been a remarkable trip to us, full of beautiful things, full of pleasure and sorrow, hard work, many a time tired and sick we have wished ourselves home again. I can note a great difference in myself between fourteen years ago and now. I am not he strong, well man that I was then. If we could only realize what

-96 good health means we should do more to preserver it. I thought I knew but I can look back now and see where I made a mistake in not taking more out of door exercise etc. I shall be glad to get home to regular habits and familiar surroundings. I guess I am peculiarly a home man. I come from an ancestry that are home staying, home loving people, and, while I have had my family with me, I have missed the company of familiar faces in street and hotel. I shall not care to some again soon. I would like Mexico or some nearer home trip next time. Sunday at 9 A.M. we leave for London. Sail 5 P.M. Aug. 22nd. Aug. 18, 1907. We left Paris at 9.50 this morning and arrived at Calais at 1.30. Took a small Channel steamer in a drizzling rain and a sea with white caps. By lying flat on our backs we succeeded in crossing without getting seasick but it was a narrow escape. We do seem to be unlucky at sea, always striking bad weather. We dread Aug. 22nd for fear of sea-sickness. It seemed a good catch to reach English soil where we could once more read the signs "Use Pear's Soup," "Beacham's Pills" etc. Language goes far toward making the nations kins so we may expect much from the new language "Esperanto." We are glad to get back to the London papers. The Paris New York Herald is such a poor excuse of a paper - regular snob sheet. Of course, if we go away with the desire to hear no news from home and get a complete change and rest,

-97 Then the Paris Harald is just the thing. We arrived in London at P. M. too late for the evening services. We are at the Cecil, have nine rooms, Met Miss Martell of Omaha, the dressmaker, just as we went up stairs. Hope to get lots of mail at the bank to-morrow. This town hasn't changed in fourteen years to me as much as some others. Well, our European trip will soon be a memory London, Aug. 19, 1907. It rained all day, more or less, and it is so cold and dreary that we put in the day shopping without buying to amount to anything. Caught a little cold but got some Yaeger underwear that will make me warm and comfortable. Rather sorry to have our trip end in one way but shall be so glad to get back home again. Seems as if I have been away a year at least. Aug. 27, 1907. We have been on board "The Baltic" now five days and every minute has been delightful. It takes an effort of the imagination to realize that we are on board ship and not at some seaside resort. The only drawback is that we have had so much fog and the fog horn has been going day and night. We have made over four hundred miles per day, which is a good average for this boat. We may land at New York by noon Friday instead of some time on Saturday.

-98 We have made some pleasant acquaintances, among others, Mr, and Mrs, Miller of Des Moises, Iowa, connected with the Savings Bank of that place It is pleasant to have Miss Perkins' party with us. They are nice people and Marion enjoys her school friends so much. We will never use anything but a large boat hereafter on trips that we may take. I am convinced that the large freight boats are the ones to take. I prefer a small crowd to a ship load of twenty-four hundred people as we have. Mr. Miller of Des Moines tells me that prominent English socialist told him that out of the forty million inhabitants of the British Isles, between thirteen and fourteen million are below the pauper line. That is, thirteen or fourteen million would starve to death inside of thirty days if without work. They have nothing to pawn to keep themselves alive for a month. This is due to the low wages paid to working people in the manufacturing business, in order to undersell the world and compete, where tariffs are against them as with us. This trip on the water agrees with me. I just notice on the bulletin,- "Passed a fisherman's dory - abandoned and waterlogged." What a tragic history this small item may cover. This morning it is rumored that some alarm was felt in New York as to the whereabouts of "The Baltic." It seems we have taken the Northern, or shorter late summer route, instead of the ordinary Southern route, have been for several days in fogs and out of communication with land. We have sent a Marconi wire stating that the old "Baltic" is not only O. K. but beating her

-99 record. I will wire you from New York when we are safe on land, and wire you again form Davenport when we shall arrive home. I can recommend this boat as the best ever. Were is not for an occasional little tremble, caused by the propeller we would not realize that we were moving. Thursday, Aug. 29th, when we awoke at seven we heard some one cry out "a whale!" and were delighted to see four of the spouting in the distance. We watched them for an hour. Soon we saw a light-house and feel now that we are drawing near to home again. There is a rumor on board that we shall break the record for this ship. The sea is like glass and looks beautiful. We shall be sorry to leave this ship. Last night there was a dance on deck that livened things some. We shall mail this from the pilot boat and it ought to reach you several days before we do. The purser has just been giving us good American money for our English. It looks almost strange (but mighty good) to our eyes. They are glad to take American money anywhere in Europe. "Anything to please the Americans" is the cry abroad. Aug. 29, 1907. The last day on board ship was enlivened with athletic games for boys and girls and young men and young women, amusing and interesting, such as whistling race where the men race to where the girls are sitting to receive them, whistle a song the title of which the girl must write on a slip of paper, which the man races back to starting point with. First main returning gets the prize.

-100 The cigarette and needle game. Men run up to girls, - thread needle while girl lights cigarette. First man getting back to starting point with needle threaded and lighted cigarette wins. Cook fighting for boys consists of two boys with hands tied over sticks that pass under their knees. Sitting in this position one tries to push the other over the chalk circle. The egg and spoon race consists of eggs set on end at one end of the course. The girls race for the eggs and pick them up with spoons, not touch egg by hand. Race back to starting point with egg in spoon. Potato race. Buckets at one end of course, potatoes at intervals. Game, - get one potato at a time and deposit in bucket. He who gets all in bucket first wins. The most fun is a pillow fight between two men who sit on a spart about six inches in diameter, without touch spar with hands, then strike each other with pillows till one falls off. Tug of war as usual, broad jump as usual. Three legged race. Two boys with one right, one left leg strapped as one. Human wheelbarrow race. Chalking the pig's eye, blindfolder. With chalk try to put eye into pig drawn on deck with chalk. Late this afternoon we came across a floating ship, a light-house flying American flag. Fine sight. Toward evening we ran across a float of fishing vessels, about

-101 twenty, a pretty sight. This morning at 7.30 we saw a school of whales, spouting water into the air. First I ever saw. It was interesting. The sea was like glass all day, a most wonderful record, not a ripple all the way over. We are sorry to miss the Perkins party. The good ship "Baltic" broke her record. We were only six and a half days on the water and reached good old New York at 9 A. M., in dock. By eleven we were through the Customs and had our trunks checked for Omaha via the Pennsylvania road. We were fortunate to get on the same train and same car with Dr. Knot and family. At Chicago Mr. Guenther and Albert and Mrs. Slyder met us at the train. They all went with Florie and Marion to Mr. Gunther's for a lunch while I went to the Rock Island to see about a train for Davenport. Found that by rushing we could find the 5 P. M. train and did so, getting in an overcrowded car and feeling the first of that real hot summer weather that the Middle West is so famous for. Reached Davenport at 10 P.M., took the street car and found the best mother on earth waiting for her boy. What a good talk we had till twelve. Then went to sleep in the bed that I was born in and the next morning, Sunday, we made arrangements to go out to the Aunts for dinner in an automobile. Went down to Uncle Charley's, where we found Uncle Henry waiting for us with an automobile (a Maxwell). The grin of delight on his face when we saw his machine and our surprise was worth the price of admission. What a day at the Aunts! and a ride home is the evening over to Rock

-102 Island to see Rose's baby. Then the 10.30 train home, where at 7.30 we were met at the depot by Mr. Davalon, Dean Beacher and Mother. How familiar the old buffalo wallows in the asphalt streets looked and how the old bumps recalled our familiar streets. Home again. We found bands of music awaiting us with street parades. It happened to be a legal holiday, Labor Day, celebrated on Sept. 2nd because Sept. 1st came on Sunday. This winds up our trip. Already the annoyances are forgotten and the beauties of nature and art that we saw in those three months will forever be a rich field for remembrance. Happy to have seen it all together.