It is Friday night. Matt & I came back from Louisville, Kentucky, today. Several of the ladies from other cities travelled in the same car & as they all got out at La Fayette, we concluded they were of the WCTU, & Mrs. Matt is off to the meeting. We did not feel rested so prepared to stay at home & I was wishful to get at my diary, which had not been touched since Monday afternoon. I wasn’t sorry when the service closed with “nearer my God to thee” at 9:30. In my humble opinion, (as T.C. used to say) the last ½ hour spoiled the meeting. We retired soon after we got home.
Monday morning (Oct. 3rd) opened out very hot. I did not move out, wrote up diary so far. Mrs. Forster told me while dining on Sunday that she had engaged me to give an address on the Monday afternoon to the women’s foreign missionary society, & they were to meet at the house. However, at night in the church amongst the intimations was one to the effect that the meeting was to be held in the ladies’ parlour on Monday afternoon. Matt nudged me & I was surprised. I felt completely given away when she told me what she had done & hesitated, however, rather than disappoint her, I yielded & lo & behold, on the Monday night, while we were at tea, telephone rang, & Mrs. Forster was invited by the newspaper people to give a report, & the next morning an account was in print. She did not let us know until she returned from telephone to tea what she had been called up for. I send you the paper, but do not make it in any way public. Also tonight, Friday, in the papers is a small paragraph intimating that Matt, with his cousin, who is touring the world, are off on a visit to Louisville, Kentucky. Monday night was pleasantly spent. Some friends came by appointment, the Morrisons & Strubels. Miss Mable Morrison is[1] [7:56] likely to become one of the family[2]. Many questions anent my travels were answered, & I entertained them with various experiences, humorous & otherwise. I was rewarded for my afternoon services by Mrs. Forster with a (national dish) mush supper[3], & I felt recompensed. So you will see how I was drawn in, & in the United States of America too.
On Tuesday morning after breakfast, Mrs. F., Sarah & I drove to the railway shop for Matt, who was to leave at 10 o’clock, as we were to set off for Louisville, Kentucky, by the 12:25 p.m. train, 203 miles from La Fayette, a fine noble engine, No. 104, “Monon” route.[4] Matt knows every engine, & its driver & fireman, so he made arrangements that in order I should see the celebrated Horseshoe bend, we were to leave the car at Bloomington yard & ride on the engine to Orleans, 41 miles, & needless to say, one of the many treats I’ve been privileged to enjoy. It was simply grand & will never forget the experience, curves innumerable en route, & covered a mile & half for every mile. The driver was very pleased to give me pleasure, & the fireman kept pointing out places of interest as we swept along. The driver’s name was Mr. Ronan. He lives opposite to Matt. The fireman, Mr. Cokie, & both very genial & kind. Matt is well known all along the route, as I had opportunity to observe. He holds a yearly pass for the whole system & kindly got me a pass return journey. This driver, Ronan, told Matt that last month he had driven his engine 5,000 miles, & his wages amounted to d. 185 or £37 gold.
This company have some monster engines. The engine alone weighing 89 tons, cylinders 21-26. They draw 35 large cars weighing 880 tons. The day was very hot. We got to New Albany, the last stop on the Indiana side of the Ohio, at 6:42. Here Matt lived for some years. Then we crossed the Ohio into Louisville, state of Kentucky, the first of the southern or confederate States, & I felt quite proud on finding myself so far into the center of this great [7:57] American Continent. At our first stopping station, Mr. Laurence Waters, Mrs. Matt’s brother, boarded the train & soon found us out, & on our arrival, a few minutes after, he took us into the station dining rooms, where we had supper, waited on by coloured gentlemen, & imagine my surprise when before me was a bottle of sauce (2 on the table) made by J. Longfield, chemist, Sunderland, England. I never heard of either the sauce or name before, but, as we all know, one has to go from home to learn news. This was the Union depot, or station. The first where Mr. Waters joined us was 14th Street station, & this is the one we started from this Friday morning. Matt went to the church to accompany Mrs. F. home tonight & they have just come in ¼ to 10, & they give grand accounts of the opening (first night) meeting, crowded church, chairs in the aisles & vestibule doors blocked when Matt got down. Now I will give up for tonight. I’m a bit weary as we were up by 6 this morning & left at 7:50 & here at 2:02 p.m.
After supper on Tuesday night, we made for home, electric car, & after a chat amongst Matt’s wife’s friends, we retired to rest. It was very, very warm & the mosquitos held high jinks around me, & the following day evidences of their savagery soon were feelingly apparent on various parts of my body. We were up betimes. All arise early here, with day light between 5:30 & 6, & breakfast at 7. I was surprised when we went out to Matt’s brothers in law, Mr. Laurence & Mr. Tom Waters with us about 7:30. Business was in full swing, all shops open & streets busy, children & teachers making for school, hundreds of coloured children & grown up girls & lads & young women teachers too (schools for coloured children) schools go in some at 8 & 8:30, & go on till 2 & 2:30 with a short intervals of recess. We visited the courts, jail, fire brigade station & here saw the whole process from alarm to hitching the horses to the cars. The captain, who was a friend of Mr. [7:58] Laurence, was extremely kind & anxious I should see the system thoroughly. In fact, he was lamenting there wasn’t a ring up alarm so that I should see reality, however, happily there wasn’t an alarm. Use with them is second nature[5] & I suppose it is their calling, & don’t care to be idle. There are many stations & fires are of frequent occurrence. It began to get very hot & in the shade the thermometer registered 84°. It was getting on to noon by this. Louisville is a fine city, very extensive & very busy, enormous warehouses for the manufacture of tobacco, which is one of the industries of the city. Woolen & cotton mills also, & stove manufactories & iron foundries &c. &c. Splendid electric train systems & all railways run through the streets quite unprotected. I was amazed to see it on my arrival in America. Only at some places are there signal men & bars that rise & fall, worked by machinery, but accidents often occur & it is so common that trains pass without people noticing them, no raised platforms at stations, common level, & the train attendant has a stool which he places below the side steps of the car for passengers to step up, certainly very awkward for any person who may be lame or subjects of pain &c. We are a long way ahead in railway management & comfort, so far as I’ve yet seen, but Yanks think they are far ahead of any other nation & rule the earth, & I’ve often been questioned as to comparison, & opened their eyes when I describe our system. No porters buzzing around you here in America or Canada either to help in any way. They say that courtesies are not appreciated or expected in America, & true it is. Use is everything no doubt[6], but contrast is singularly striking here away.
Mules are the chief beasts of burden here & darkies the drivers. One darkie will have 3 & 4 mules in his yoke, 3 he drives, but when 4 he rides one of the shaft mules, & a queer spread in the street he makes. All coal carts are controlled by darkies, the colour suits. [7:59] Heavy loads are drawn by them. The coal comes up the Ohio in barges from Pittsburg[h] & moored alongside river wharfs, & all coal is drawn from there. It is a great city for darkies, & some great swells[7] there are amongst both sexes, & some smart good-looking faces amongst them. Passing some houses at night you hear the banjo going & fine songs. They are a happy folk & such laughers, yah, yah, yah, in real merry tone. The streets are wide, not very good for pedestrians, open gutters, bad smells here & there like all hot countries, but natives seem to be void of smell.
Trees shade the paths, more especially in by & suburban streets. In the principal business streets there are no trees & it is very warm during sunshine. Men sit outside shops & saloons in great numbers throughout the day, & at nights & mornings too, everybody sits out side, either on the paths, steps, chairs, & where a bit garden front there they have chairs or seats. Architecture has not been studied much, tho’ there are good buildings. Streets are not cleaned like ours, crossings are dirty & gutters nasty. In the afternoon, Mr. Laurence Waters, Matt’s wife’s eldest brother, drove us in his buggy to Cave Hill Cemetery, a very large area & most beautifully laid out, & nature has helped to beautify it. The ground is undulating, has a fine lake & also a fine pond of water lillies [sic], splendid sculpture & some magnificent tombs. I admired this cemetery & I fancy is the largest & most picturesque I’ve seen. Happy Valley at Hong Kong excells [sic] it for richness of verdure & choice of situation. In Cave Hill, a large area is set apart for soldiers who fell in the Civil War, each marked in perfect order by a small uniform stone, looks very striking, & appeals to the side of sympathy & patriotism. Many of the young soldiers who volunteered for the late war are home on furlough, both “coloured gentlemen” & white men, & in every city & town, they [7:60] are every where in evidence. Not one of which I’ve yet seen carries a soldierly bearing. I’m off the bit again[8]. After doing Cave Hill (but just before leaving I snapped the buggy with Matt & Mr. Waters in it as a memento) he drove us to Jacobs Park via the Boulevard, a drive of 7 ¼ miles through Louisville city & suburbs, a very pretty drive & quite the Rotten Row style. Society seem to make this the evening drive, & there were hundreds on the road, all sorts of conveyances other than our style. Buggies are the popular carriages here, but I don’t admire them, beautiful horses they certainly have. Ladies do much of the driving & most of the attendants are “coloured gentlemen”. A few are “white men”. The other brother-in-law, Mr. Tom, & his wife, overtook us in their buggy & I snapped both on this road. Lots of gents indulge in racing & some excitement was manifested. A fine cycle track runs parallell [sic] with the drive & many cyclists were taking exercise. After supper, 6 p.m. (oh, we dined with Matt’s sister-in-law, Mrs. Johnson, with whom the mother, Mrs. Waters, is staying just now with a broken arm. She fell on the platform at Louisville on returning home from a 2 month visit to Matt’s home, La Fayette, & has had to stop at Louisville. Her husband was at home a few miles out of the city. They are retired store keepers. All seemed well to do). Matt & I went to visit a great & old friend of his, Mr. Wandless, a Newcastle man, been out here about 50 years. His wife is a Morpeth body & was a Miss Margaret Smith, & has a sister now in Morpeth, a Mrs. Purdy. Hugh is Mr. Wandless‘ Christian name. He could not trace the Bellerly family but possibly Mrs. Wandless may know the connection from the Mrs. Purdy, & I’ve chronicled this incident for a reference when home. The address is 6th street, between Oak & Ormsly Sts., Louisville, Kentucky.
[7:61]
We returned to our host’s house, c/o Mrs. Field, Washington St., & soon retired. I was very tired with the heat & long day. So was Matt.
[1] Inserted on facing page: “Matt weighs 16 stones, I weigh 12st – 2lb, Herbert 8 – 8, Monday Oct 3/98. [Editor’s Note: Matt = 224 lbs or 101.8 kg; William = 170 lbs or 77.3 kg (he had lost 5 lbs since 7/28); Herbert = 120 lbs or 54.5kg]
Sketch of interior of St. Paul’s by Herbert.
Mr. M Forster,
1242 North 14th & Howell Sts.,
La Fayette,
Ind.
Minor & Herbert sells:
Peaches 10 ltr baskets for 30 cents (1/3) or per bush do[llar] 1-40
Grapes 8 ltr baskets for 15 cents [72?] or 2 for 25c
Tomatoes 30 cents per bushel
Pumpkins, monsters for 5 & 7 ½ cents
Water melons 5 cents
Apples 48 ltrs to bushel, 1 do. 40 cts. per bushel
Sweet potatoes, 25 cents peck or 60 ltr to bush/dollar
Green corn 7 ½ c. doz heads
Pop corn 2 ½ c. per lb
Squash for pies 5 c. each
Dried cod, very grand, 3 ltrs for 25 c
Beautiful split mackerel in pickle, large 15 c. each
Herring in pickle 5 for 10 c
Pickles in barrels
Sauerkraut (white cabbage) 5 c. quart
Who[le] coffee in pkts 1 ltr. 12 ½ c. also other quality 15, 25 & 30 c.”
[2] Mabel and Robert Minor were married on 27 November 1902
[3] Cornmeal and milk
[4] The railroad earned the name Monon due to the convergence of its four main routes in Monon, IN. The Monon line was unusual in that its main line ran down the middle of streets in several cities, most notably Lafayette, New Albany and Bedford.
[5] i.e., “They are used to it.”
[6] See previous footnote
[7] archaic : a person dressed in the height of fashion; a person of high social position or outstanding competence.
[8] i.e., “Out of control,” as when a horse does not have the bit fully in its mouth and is running freely.