•an 5" 
 A3 
 
 CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 CT275.L415 A3 
 
 Diary : and reminiscences portraying the 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 029 858 820 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029858820 
 
A Diary 
 
 and Reminiscences Portraying the 
 Life and Times of the Author 
 
 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
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A DIARY 
 
 and Reminiscences Portraying the 
 Life and Times op the Author 
 
 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 Printed by 
 The A. V. Haight Comtany 
 
 PoTJGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK 
 
 1922 
 
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INTRODUCTION 
 
 TT WAS about the middle of the nineteenth century that a 
 •*■ report was circulated that an immense fortune was awaiting 
 claimants in England which belonged to the heirs of the Lawrence 
 and Townley families in America, and would be surrendered to 
 the rightful claimants on production of the necessary proof. 
 
 This caused quite a commotion at the time in the Lawrence 
 and Townley families, and my grandfather, Thomas Lawrence, 
 the son of David, together with other members of the Lawrence 
 and Townley families started out to obtain the required proof of 
 heirship to the supposed fortune. During their examination old 
 records were searched, family history uncovered, and church yard 
 secrets laid bare, while agents were sent to England to examine 
 records there in the effort to trace the family history down from 
 the arrival of the three brothers, John, William and Thomas 
 Lawrence, who arrived in America in the year 1635. A con- 
 siderable amount of money was expended in this work, and though 
 the supposed fortune was never realized or discovered a great 
 amount of good work was done by which a most complete gene- 
 alogical history was obtained of the Lawrence family, which was 
 afterwards published in a volume edited by Thomas Lawrence of 
 Providence, R. I., in 1858. This Thomas being a son of Thomas 
 Lawrence of Geneva, New York. 
 
 It is to this early publication that we are much indebted for 
 the early history of our family, a history of which I think we may 
 well be proud, and which should be cherished and handed down to 
 our children's children to stimulate them to higher planes in the 
 realm of human activity. Not that I would wish them to follow 
 in the footsteps of those who have gone before, or pride themselves 
 too much on the dead past, but to feel the responsibility of the 
 present and to build well for the future. While I feel a pride and 
 deep interest in these early forefathers, I feel a much greater 
 
2 Introduction 
 
 interest in my immediate ancestry. I often think that I would, 
 like very much to know more of them, more than has come down 
 to me from the family gossip and occasional reference to them by 
 my parents and friends. I would like to know something of their 
 characters and qualities as I see and understand these things to- 
 day; how they occupied their time and what they accomplished 
 during their sojourn on earth. Not that I ever thought that a 
 better knowledge of their affairs would add materially to my 
 personal welfare, or that I thought them very different from the 
 rest of mankind, or other people whom we do know all about; but 
 they were my ancestors and were responsible, to a certain extent, 
 for my existence, and if I, as it has been written, am the heir to 
 the sins of four generations that have preceeded me, then it seems 
 to me that I should of necessity feel a special interest in these 
 ancestors of mine, who to me are a special class of people whom I 
 have a right to know about. It is this thought that leads me to 
 think that generations following me may also have a similar 
 curiosity about their ancestors, and inspires me to write this little 
 sketch of my own career, and a few things that I have learned about 
 those who have immediately preceeded me, for the benefit or 
 amusement of my grand-children, who may perhaps follow my 
 example and write additions from time to time. It may serve at 
 least to enable them to form some judgment of us who have gone 
 before, and, if they are charitable and fair, future generations may 
 find something in us to admire and to stimulate them toward a 
 higher and better life when we may have become a memory to 
 them, as is the way of the world. 
 
THE LAWRENCE FAMILY 
 GENEALOGY 
 
 r I iHE first ancestor of this family, of which we have any knowl- 
 ■*• edge, was Sir Robert Lawrence, of Ashton Hall, in Lancaster- 
 shire, England. It may perhaps be interesting to this family to 
 know that there is a marriage recorded between a grandson of 
 this gentleman and the Washington family, Sir James Lawrence 
 and Matilda Washington,. Lawrence Washington purchased the 
 property at Mount Vernon about 1743, after his return from 
 the expedition to Carthagena, where he had served under the 
 celebrated Admiral Vernon, in honor of whom he named his 
 country seat. General Washington inherited Mount Vernon from 
 his half-brother, Lawrence Washington, with whom he was a 
 favorite. Lawrence Washington died at the age of thirty-four 
 years, and was interred in the old vault on his estate. 
 
 Sir Robert Lawrence accompanied Richard Coeur de Leon in 
 his famous expedition to Palestine, where he signalized himself 
 in the memorable siege of Acre, in 1119, by being the first to plant 
 the banner of the cross on the battlements of that town, for which 
 he received the honors of knighthood from King Richard, and also 
 at the same time a coat of arms ; this coat of arms is still preserved 
 impressed on the seal appended to a document of William Lawrence 
 1680, and also Richard Lawrence 1711, preserved in the surrogate's 
 office, New York City. After this the family became eminent in 
 England, so much so, that Sir John Lawrence, the ninth in lineal 
 descent from the above Sir Robert Lawrence, possessed thirty- 
 four manors, the revenue of which amounted, in 1491, to £6,000.00 
 sterling per annum. Having, however, killed a gentleman-usher 
 of King Henry VII, he was outlawed, and died an exile in France 
 issueless, when Ashton Hall and his other estates passed by royal 
 decree, to his relatives, Lord Monteagle and Gerard. 
 
 Henry Lawrence, one of the patentees of land on the Connecticut 
 
4 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 River, granted in 1635, with Lords Say, Seal and Brooke, Sir 
 Arthur Hasselrigg, Richard Saltonstall, George Fenwick and 
 Henry Darley, commissioned John Winthrop, jr., as Governor 
 over this territory, with the following instructions: "To provide 
 able men for making fortifications and building houses at the 
 mouth of the Connecticut River, and the harbor adjoining; first 
 for their own present accommodation, and then such houses as 
 may receive men of quality, which latter houses we would have to 
 be builded within the fort." This was the same expedition in 
 which Lion Gardiner was appointed chief engineer. The above 
 individuals intended to accompany John Winthrop, jr., to America, 
 but were prevented by a decree of Charles I. 
 
 The above Henry Lawrence was of some considerable distinction 
 in England during Cromwell's time. He was born in the year 
 1600, entered a fellow-commoner at Emanuel College, Cambridge, 
 1622, retired to Holland to escape the persecution of bishops and 
 their courts; was a member of parliament for Westmoreland in 
 1641, but withdrew when the life of the king began to be in 
 jeopardy from the Independents. In a curious old pamphlet, 
 printed in the year 1660, entitled, "The mystery of the good old 
 cause is briefly unfolded in a catalogue of the members of the late 
 Long Parliament that held office, both civil and military, contrary 
 to the self-denying ordinance," is the following passage: "Henry 
 Lawrence, a member of the Long Parliament fell off at the murder 
 of his majesty, for which the Protector, with great zeal, declared 
 that neutral spirit was more to be abhorred than a cavalier spirit, 
 and that such men as he were not fit to be used in such a day as 
 that, when God was cutting down Kingship root and branch." 
 Yet he came into play again, and contributed much to the setting 
 up of the Protector, for which worthy service he was made and 
 continued Lord President of the Protector's Council, being also 
 one of the Lords of the other House. In 1646, he published, at 
 Amsterdam, his book, entitled, "Book of our Communion and 
 Warre with Angels," and a "Treatise on Baptism," the same year. 
 He married Amy, daughter of Sir Edward Peyton, Bart, of Isel- 
 
The Lawrence Family Genealogy 5 
 
 ham, in Cambridgeshire. He leased his estates at St. Ives, from 
 the year 1631 to 1636, to Oliver Cromwell, to whom he was a 
 second cousin. He was twice returned as a member of Parliament 
 for Hertfordshire, in 1653 and 1654; and once for Colchester 
 Borough in Essex, in 1656; his son Henry representing Caernarvon- 
 shire the same year. He was president of the Council in 1656, 
 and gazetted as "lord of the other house" in December, 1657. 
 He proclaimed, after the death of Cromwell, his son Richard as 
 his successor. In a Haarlem manuscript, No. 1460, there is a 
 drawing of all the ensigns and trophies won in battle by Oliver, 
 which is dedicated to his councillors, and ornamented with their 
 arms; amongst these are those of Henry Lawrence, the Lord 
 President. The motto "Nil Admirari," appears to have been 
 assumed by the President during the revolutionary troubles, 
 probably on his being a councillor. A picture of the President is 
 inserted in Clarendon's history of the rebellion. His gravestone, 
 not yet effaced, is in the chapel of St. Margaret's, alias Thele, in 
 Hertfordshire. There may be clearly traced on it the arms, viz., 
 a cross, raguly gules, the crest a fish's tail or demidolphin. A 
 letter directed by him to Sir Simon d'Ewes, is sealed with a small 
 red seal, cross raguly gules, the same crest, and a Lion in the 
 Chief, as borne by the St. Ives family. 
 
 While the Dutch were prosecuting their settlements on Long 
 Island and in New York the English settlers slowly infused them- 
 selves among the Dutch population of the island; among which 
 were three brothers, John, William and Thomas Lawrence, ancestors 
 of a numerous enterprising family in this country. These three 
 brothers, as well as the above Henry Lawrence were all descended 
 from John Lawrence, who died in 1538, and was buried in the 
 Abbey of Ramsey. In corroboration of the relationship between 
 Henry Lawrence and the above named brothers, we find on the 
 seals appended to their wills, now on file at New York, and on 
 old plate still possessed by their descendents, the same crest and 
 arms as those upon the tomb of the Lord President. 
 
 It is to William Lawrence, the second brother, who was born 
 
6 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 at St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England, in 1623, that we trace our 
 line of ancestry, he having embarked, together with his elder 
 brother John, on the ship Planter, for America in 1635 when he 
 was twenty-two years of age, and having become associated with 
 his brother John, as patentees of Flushing, Long Island, in which 
 town he resided during the remainder of his life. His correspond- 
 ence, during the years 1642-3, with Governor Stuyvesant, which 
 may be found among the archives at Albany, is ably written, evinc- 
 ing his energy and decision of character, and is evidently the pro- 
 duction of a man of superior mind and liberal education. He was. 
 the largest landed proprietor at Flushing. He resided upon 
 Lawrence's or Tew's Neck (so called), of which he was the owner,, 
 and seemed to be a gentleman of affluence; his sword, plate and 
 personals alone being valued at £4,430 sterling (see inventory of 
 his estate, on file in the Surrogate's office, City of New York,, 
 recorded in 1680, in Liber No. 22, page 24). He was a magistrate 
 under the Dutch government at Flushing, in 1655, and also held, 
 under the English government, a military commission. He was 
 also in the magistracy of the North Riding of Yorkshire, on Long 
 Island. He was twice married. By his first wife he left issue. 
 
 Joseph Lawrence, eldest son of the first William Lawrence and 
 Elizabeth Smith, his second wife, afterwards Lady Cartarett, 
 married Mary, daughter of Sir Richard Townley, son of Charles. 
 Townley, who fell at Marston Moor. At the restoration he was 
 under the necessity of selling a very valuable estate at Necton 
 near Leicester, in consequences of losses sustained by sequestra- 
 tion. His daughter, Dorothy, the youngest sister of Mary, 
 married Francis Howard, of Corby, afterwards Baron Howard of 
 Effingham, and who, on the 8th day of December was created 
 first Earl Effingham. He died 1743. The aforesaid Joseph 
 Lawrence was intimate with the above named Lord Effingham, 
 who had married his wife's sister, and who commanded a British 
 frigate, at that time anchored in the offing, opposite his mansion,, 
 which he frequently visited. His grandson was named in compli- 
 
The Lawrence Family Genealogy 7 
 
 ment to this earl (see Holgate's Genealogy of Distinguished 
 Families). He died about 1758. 
 
 John Lawrence, the son of Joseph, who was the son of first 
 William and Elizabeth Smith, afterwards Lady Carterett, before- 
 mentioned, was born at Flushing, Long Island, New York, 1703; 
 emigrated in early life to Elizabethtown, New Jersey, and was 
 proprietor of a tract of land covering its present site, and 
 which title he never conveyed away. On the incursion of the 
 British the records were taken away or destroyed, but the title 
 to the said tract of land still remains in the family. He married 
 about 1728, for his first wife, Mary Woodbury, (of whose issue 
 presently), and shortly after removed to Newport, Rhode Island, 
 where he resided many years and brought up his large family. 
 He was an extensive ship owner and engaged in the shipping 
 business. One of his vessels built at Newport, a ship, called 
 the Three Brothers, after the three brothers, John, William and 
 Thomas Lawrence, this ship was bound on an European voyage, 
 and was never heard from after leaving port. In advanced life 
 he removed to Providence, Rhode Island, and there married 
 for his second wife, Elizabeth Little, the widow of a British officer. 
 By her he had no issue. He died on the tenth day of November, 
 1781, age seventy-eight, and was interred in his family lot next 
 west of Nicholas Browne's burial place, in the Old North Burial 
 Ground, Providence, Rhode Island. By his first wife, Mary 
 Woodbury, he had issue, eleven children, eight sons and three 
 daughters. 
 
 David Lawrence, the seventh son of John, who was the son of 
 Joseph, who was the son of the first William and Elizabeth Smith, 
 afterwards Lady Carterett, as before mentioned, was born at 
 Newport, Rhode Island, the eighteenth day of February, 1738. 
 At an early period of his life he went to reside at Providence, 
 Rhode Island, and there married about 1739, Sybil, daughter of 
 Robert Sterry, Esq., a gentleman of high standing; entered into 
 commerce, and by industry, business tact, and perseverance, 
 accumulated a handsome competency. He was a zealous and 
 
8 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 patriotic cooperate* in our glorious Revolution, the intimate friend 
 of Benjamin Franklin, and named one of his sons after the patriot 
 Samuel Adams. In 1783, he removed with his family to Hudson, 
 in the State of New York, of which town he was one of the thirty 
 founders and proprietors; he was for many years recorder and 
 mayor, and held other places of public trust in that city. He 
 died at his own residence in the City of Hudson, New York, on 
 the eighteenth day of October, 1809. He was exceedingly fond of 
 belles lettres and the fine arts, possessed rare powers of reading and 
 elocution, and was "a man of great personal respectability, keen 
 observation, ready wit, and strong sense." By his wife Sybil, he 
 had issue of four sons and five daughters. 
 
 His eldest son Thomas, my grandfather, was born at Providence, 
 Rhode Island, the eleventh day of June, 1764; he died at Geneva, 
 New York, January 22, 1852. He married, 1793, Ann, daughter 
 of John Andrews, of Hudson, New York, and became widely 
 known as Captain Thomas Lawrence. He left four sons and 
 three daughters. 
 
 My father, Robert David, the son of Thomas was born on 
 Staten Island on February 25, 1808; he died at Dayton, Ohio, 
 April 8, 1891. He married my mother, Katherine Van Duzer, 
 October 15, 1833, and left four children: Thomas, William 
 Van Duzer, James Armitage and Sarah. 
 
 William Van Duzer, the second son of Robert David, was born 
 on a farm in the town of Veteran, Chemung County, New York, 
 on February 12, 1842; married Sarah E. Bates, daughter of 
 Alfred Gould Bates and Betsy Ann Elliott, in Monroe, Michigan, 
 on the twenty-second day of August, 1867, and had issue five 
 children, three girls and two boys: Alice M. died at the age of ten 
 months and was buried in Mount Royal Cemetery, Montreal, 
 Canada; Louise who married Ferris J. Meigs; Anna who married 
 Pressley E. Bisland; Arthur who married Virginia Heppe; and 
 Dudley Bates who married Kate Birch; all of whom have issue. 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF MY PATERNAL 
 GRANDFATHER 
 
 /"CAPTAIN THOMAS LAWRENCE was an old man when I 
 ^" / was born. At this period he lived in Geneva, New York, in 
 a substantial old house on the main street of the village. I 
 remember seeing him on several occasions before I was eight years 
 old, and, of course, I remember him as a child remembers. He 
 was a heavy-set man, not corpulent, of a good figure even at this 
 period when he was nearly eighty years of age. He had a well 
 rounded head and carried himself quite erect, walked with a cane 
 which he held firmly in his hand. He walked but little as he was 
 afflicted with the gout, which made him in these later days rather 
 cross and irritable, but I was a child and possibly annoyed him 
 with boisterous play, as children often do when in the presence of 
 old people, and in this way got the impression that he was cross 
 and rather to be avoided. My grandmother Lawrence had died 
 many years before (long before I was bom) so he lived alone, or 
 rather he lived with my aunt, Polly Andrews, the sister of Grand- 
 mother Lawrence, who upon the death of my grandmother took 
 her place in the family, kept house for Grandfather and brought up 
 the family of four sons and three daughters. When I knew Grand- 
 father he had retired from business after a busy life in New York 
 or neighborhood. He had spent most of his career in the shipping 
 and brewery business, chartering vessels, fitting them out for long 
 voyages at sea, etc., and, if I remember right, was somewhat 
 interested in the Hudson River navigation, and had to do with 
 ferries between New York City and Staten Island. He acquired 
 the title of Captain Lawrence in this way. I do not know if he 
 ever served as captain of any craft in his life or not. He was a 
 contemporary and neighbor of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, 
 and being engaged in similar business and in competition with 
 each other were well acquainted and good friends. In business 
 
10 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 he amassed what was considered in his day a large fortune before 
 retiring to live in Geneva, New York. This fortune was divided 
 up from time to time between his sons and daughters in his efforts 
 to give them a start in the world, and a few years before his death 
 he lost a large part of the residue by endorsing notes for some 
 business friends in Albany, New York, in whom he had no personal 
 interest or prospect of profit, who were engaged in the lumber 
 trade. He lost in this way about $75,000.00 which made a big 
 inroad into his capital after he had retired from business, and 
 reduced his income to such an extent that he was in his latter 
 days obliged to live modestly and economically. During his 
 busy life he resided at New Brighton, Staten Island. His family 
 was young and received but little of his personal attention for 
 his whole life and energies were devoted to the large and prosperous 
 business he was carrying on. As a consequence of this his children 
 grew up without that father's companionship and example that 
 is so necessary for their development and future welfare, and 
 without education or even a business training, and the consequence 
 of this was that his four stalwart sons, all large athletic men, were 
 without ambition or even the ability to earn their own livelihood. 
 Sons of rich men always labor at a disadvantage in the race for 
 a position on the world's great stage of action. Stern necessity is 
 not theirs to prod and push them on, to temper their qualities and 
 mould their characters; there seems no incentive to make them toil, 
 while luxury and plenty is all about them. They are neglected by 
 those who should lead and advise and kindle ambition in their 
 growing natures. This is what Grandfather Lawrence did not do; 
 he made a business success of life, but a failure in the rearing of his 
 family. This might have been otherwise had Grandmother lived 
 to see her children through those early years of their lives, when 
 character is being formed, but she died and left Aunt Polly their 
 bringing up and she was poorly adapted, as time proved, for such 
 an arduous task. From all I have ever been able to learn Grand- 
 father Lawrence was a most conservative, kind and generous man, 
 upright and temperate in every walk of life; greatly esteemed and 
 
Recollections of My Paternal Grandfather 11 
 
 loved by all who knew him. He always had wine on his table and 
 sideboard, but never drank to excess. He smoked only moderately. 
 Grandfather died at his home in Geneva on January 23rd, 1854 
 at the age of eighty-eight years, and is buried in the family lot 
 in Geneva, New York, where also lie at rest many of his family. 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF MY MATERNAL 
 GRANDFATHER 
 
 VI 71LLIAM VAN DUZER, when I was yet a child, lived upon 
 " * a farm up in the Town of Veteran, Chemung County, 
 New York, about nine miles north of Elmira. He was a very 
 well-to-do farmer who had come there in the early days from Orange 
 County, New York, where the Van Duzers had lived since old 
 Dutch times. 
 
 Grandfather Van Duzer was a tall thin man, of rather a peremp- 
 tory manner, decided and fixed in his ideas, and not easily influ- 
 enced one way or another. He was a man carrying considerable 
 weight in his conversation, and commanded much influence in the 
 community where he lived. He was a man of strong principles, 
 and lived up to them. 
 
 My grandmother was a petite little body, who wore colored 
 blue glasses, and my memory of her is that she was sweet and 
 attractive. My personal acquaintance with Grandfather and 
 Grandmother Van Duzer was all before I was eight years old 
 (when I went West to live in Michigan), but as my early life was 
 so intimate with them, my father's house being so near that we 
 met almost daily, I feel much better acquainted with them than 
 with Grandfather Lawrence whom I saw so rarely. 
 
 Grandfather Van Duzer when he first came into this country 
 was a farmer, kept a country hotel, ran the post office and filled 
 many public positions round about where he lived. He had been 
 selected by the people of that section, on one occasion to go on a 
 mission to England for them, to clear up, if I remember right, 
 some flaw in the title to their lands. This in those early days 
 was a great event, as he was obliged to go on a sailing vessel which 
 took months to go over and back. His mission, I believe, was 
 successful, and a memento which existed in my day, of the great 
 adventure, was an old trunk covered with horse's skin and full of 
 
Recollections of My Maternal Grandfather 13 
 
 brass tacks, which he purchased in England and brought back 
 with him. This trunk was a most inspiring thing to me for it 
 made this great voyage abroad very clear to my youthful mind. 
 Grandfather Van Duzer brought up a family of two sons and 
 three daughters, all were married and brought up families who 
 lived comparatively happy and prosperous lives. Grandfather 
 Van Duzer died in his own home in Veteran, where he had lived 
 for so long a period, on October 12th, 1860, and was buried in the 
 family lot in the country churchyard there beside grandmother 
 Sarah M. Van Duzer, who went to her rest a few years before on 
 November 12th, 1851. 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF MY FATHER 
 
 "O OBERT D. LAWRENCE was born on Staten Island on 
 ■*• ^ February 25, 1808. He was the son of Thomas, and as 
 explained in my Grandfather's sketch, was brought up by his 
 Aunt Polly, his mother having died when he was quite young; his 
 father who was a busy business man gave very little time or 
 attention to the children, and as a consequence they grew up on 
 the streets, so to speak, of New York and thereabouts. My father 
 had no desire or ambition for an education, and acquired only a 
 mediocre one in the common schools of Staten Island, which were 
 poor enough in his day. Neither had he a taste for business, and 
 I think he was considerable of a problem to my grandfather, and 
 on that account was allowed to drift along until he was nearly 
 grown before any definite action was taken in his case. At last 
 Grandfather did rise to the emergency, and did, I now firmly 
 believe, the very worst thing he could have done, and that was to 
 bind him out to a trade. He made a contract with a firm doing 
 business at #7 Maiden Lane, New York, when Father was still a 
 boy, for a period of five years. This business was distasteful to 
 Father and he was not consulted in it at all. He remained in the 
 place only a short time when he ran away and left it. Grandfather 
 was angry of course and for a time would do nothing for him, but 
 he was a man who, while quick to anger, could not remain angry 
 long. The episode soon passed, and the next move, a few years 
 later, was to place father on a farm at, or near, Hudson, New York. 
 Grandfather bought everything necessary to farm with, horses, 
 oxen, utensils and tools, and he began farming with considerable 
 enthusiasm, but Father knew nothing about farming or farm work, 
 and it was all Greek to him. He had never had the first lesson to 
 fit him for such an occupation, and, of course, his farming was a 
 failure from the start, and after a year or two of this the farm 
 was sold and the business closed. 
 
Recollections op My Father 15 
 
 He drifted for a time again. Grandfather could not get him 
 into anything that suited him, in fact there was no occupation 
 that he was fitted for. But for farming he thought he had a 
 natural bent, and persuaded Grandfather to set him up again; 
 saying that his Hudson farm was poor land and that that was the 
 cause of his failure there. So Grandfather bought a farm in the 
 northern part of Elmira, (now inside the city), stocked and fitted 
 it up in good condition, and Father was invited to try again. He 
 started in with considerable confidence, the land was rich and the 
 place well furnished, and things at first promised well. He courted 
 and married my mother about this time, and they settled down on 
 this farm where they had two children born to them, Thomas and 
 Sarah. But prosperity did not continue long with them; Father's 
 want of training or energy or something else began to show results, 
 and they were obliged to sell out and buy a less desirable farm up 
 in Veteran about eight or nine miles north of Elmira. 
 
 Grandfather continued to help Father, assisting him in many 
 ways to keep his debts paid, but that was almost an impossible 
 thing, as they would, as soon as once cleared up by Grand- 
 father, begin to accumulate again. This Veteran home promised 
 well at the start; the land was very fertile and crops large, but 
 everything seemed to slip through Father's fingers so that the end 
 of each year found him poorer than the year before. It was in 
 this old Veteran home that I and my brother Henry were born, 
 and here we lived until 1850, when my father, in debt and dis- 
 couraged, decided to move, with the consent of Grandfather, to 
 Monroe, Michigan, where he bought, assisted by Grandfather, a 
 farm on the River Raisin, about four miles north of Monroe. In 
 this change Grandfather paid off all Father's old debts and started 
 him on the Michigan farm, free and clear, with liberal herds of 
 cattle, horses and other stock. He also gave him tracts of wild 
 lands, which Grandfather had bought in early days out in Michigan 
 and had held for years. This Michigan farm, was, at the time he 
 purchased it, a paradise of a place, a perfect garden; everything 
 grew there in the greatest abundance, and under good management 
 
16 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 the farm should have supplied every want such a family as ours 
 required. But in less than ten years Father, by neglect and shift- 
 less management, had let it run down, the flocks and herds were 
 dissipated until there was nothing left of the beautiful place to 
 support the family upon. Fortunately, Grandfather had so fixed 
 this Monroe farm that father had only a life lease upon it, and the 
 creditors could not take it. We children had then all grown up, 
 except James, who was born on this farm, and when this crisis 
 in the farm affair occurred, in 1861, we were quite able to take 
 care of ourselves, and it was well that this was so for Grandfather 
 was now dead and could not again come to our relief. 
 
 The great Civil War broke out about this time, and Father 
 seeing no especial future resolved to go and join the army, and 
 was enlisted in the Michigan Light Artillery, December 24th, 
 1863, although he was at this time about fifty-four years old, and 
 ill adapted for a soldier's life. He was received in the army where 
 he remained until the close of the war, when he was honorably 
 discharged, and afterwards was received into the Soldiers Home 
 at Dayton, Ohio, given a pension, and there he remained until he- 
 died on April 8th, 1891, and now lies buried in the National 
 Cemetery at Dayton, Ohio. 
 
 When father decided to abandon the farm and go to the army, 
 by agreement with the children the farm was sold, he receiving 
 one-fifth, or an equal share with each of the children, amounting 
 to $1,466.00 each in full for his life interest. 
 
 Father's life was what might have been expected from the early 
 training he received. It was adventure he sought and change 
 from beginning to end. 
 
 In 1861, when the farm was abandoned, and Father was unable 
 to support her longer, my mother left him and went to live with 
 her relatives first in the East, and afterwards with my oldest 
 brother Thomas, and she continued until her death to make her 
 home with her children. Father loved ease and would not apply 
 himself to any steady work. He was a social man, fond of society,, 
 not the society of the best, but of those he could lead or dominate. 
 
Recollections of My Father 17 
 
 He was no business man and seemed to lack every qualification 
 for it. 
 
 He had very little regard or care for the future of his family, 
 and took little or no interest in their education or comfort, and in 
 that respect exhibited the saddest side of his character. He was 
 selfish to the extreme, and this lost to him the respect and affection 
 of those upon whom he was dependent for a happy old age, which 
 was denied him, and with which he was unable to provide himself. 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF MY MOTHER 
 
 T7"ITTY VAN DUZER was the oldest child of William Van 
 ■*■ *■ Duzer, born in Orange County, New York, on August 20th, 
 1809. Her father moved to Chemung County in the year 1830, 
 when Kitty was only twenty-one years of age. They traveled all 
 the way on horseback, while the family furnishings were carried 
 on wagons hauled the entire distance by oxen. This was long 
 before the event of railroads or even canals. They moved into 
 a new country, into a log house, and upon a government grant of 
 land which they set out to improve and to make into their future 
 home. Mother, like her mother before her, was petite, weighing 
 not over one hundred pounds in her younger days, or at the time 
 she was married, and she scarcely exceeded this during her long 
 life. She was considered the belle of the town at her marriage, 
 was very handsome and winning. She was naturally delicate 
 and all the early years of her life it was thought she would be a 
 short lived woman, and was given the very best care and most 
 careful attention. She was the family pet and favorite, much of 
 which was due to the condition of her health. She married Father 
 on October 15th, 1833. It was thought at the time a happy and 
 successful alliance. Father was owner of one of the best farms in 
 the country, the son of a wealthy New York merchant, and was 
 living as few farmers lived in that section of the state. 
 
 Mother was naturally ambitious, and would have liked to have 
 rilled an important position and been a leader in social affairs, 
 but it was not to be. She was too delicate, her children and 
 household cares, and domestic troubles bore her down while she 
 was yet young, and it is a wonder that they did not crush out of her 
 little body all the pride and ambition she possessed. She was sur- 
 rounded by her mother, father, sisters and brothers, and these made 
 her life more endurable, for after the first few years of married life she 
 found but little comfort in her husband, who was so neglect ful of her. 
 
Recollections of My Mother 19 
 
 She was always happy and contented in the company of her 
 children, who had her entire confidence, and she had theirs. She 
 encouraged them to cultivate good and wholesome acquaintances 
 and friends, and always pointed out a high standard for them to 
 follow. 
 
 When I now look backward over her life, as it appeared to me 
 at that time, and as it appears now many years after she has been 
 laid away in her grave, I can only admire the bravery and strength 
 she displayed under all circumstances in meeting the adversities 
 and storms that seemed to beset her. Her little body did not 
 seem shaped for such a career but she bore it out to the end. She 
 outlived all her family, brothers and sisters all were called before 
 her, and she lived to the ripe old age of eighty-six years and then 
 died at the old Sayer Van Duzer homestead in Horse Heads, New 
 York, May 29th, 1896. This homestead which now belongs to 
 her nephew, J. S. Van Duzer in Horseheads, New York, is situated 
 in the very centre of her life's activities, and here she was visiting 
 at the time of her death. She passed away in this place satisfied 
 to go from a world that had seemingly brought her more trouble 
 than joy. She was buried in the village cemetery at Horseheads, 
 New York, where rest her oldest son Thomas and youngest son 
 James by her side. 
 
A LITTLE SKETCH OF MY EARLY LIFE 
 
 T WAS born on February 12th, 1842, on a farm near Watkin's 
 ■*• Glen, New York. From that time until my parents took 
 me to Michigan at the age of eight years, it seems to me there is 
 little of interest to note. This was in the autumn of 1850. Rail- 
 roads at that time were not complete farther west than Buffalo, 
 where we were obliged to leave the cars and go by steamboat to 
 Detroit and Monroe. 
 
 I remember it as a long, tiresome voyage, attended by seasick- 
 ness on the lake, and that Grandfather Van Duzer accompanied 
 us, and Nero, a large Newfoundland dog who had long been a 
 family pet. I remember, too, the pleasure of landing at the 
 Monroe pier (since destroyed) on the shore of Lake Erie, several 
 miles south of Monroe. We were met there by my father with 
 horses and wagon, and conducted to the farm he had just pur- 
 chased. The country at this time literally flowed with milk and 
 honey. The orchard was full of ripened apples and peaches, 
 which covered the ground beneath the trees. The river abounded 
 with fish, and the woods with game of every kind. It was a 
 perfect paradise to me, and, as I think of it now, it must have been 
 at this period a most remarkable country to live in. I quickly 
 learned to fish in the river and to hunt in the nearby fields and 
 woods with an old long-barreled, muzzle-loading shot gun. It was 
 an easy matter to get a basket of fish or a bag of squirrels and 
 birds, if I could not kill a deer or wild turkey. At the age of nine 
 or ten I was allowed to carry a gun wherever I went. The country 
 was infested with "Blue Racers," a large blue snake, when full 
 grown often ten feet long, which I was permitted to shoot wherever 
 I found them, and it was a lively sport I made of it. 
 
 These first few years in Michigan were happy ones and they 
 stand out in my memory as a bright spot in my life. They were 
 years too of constitutional development. I went to school in 
 
A Little Sketch of my Early Life 21 
 
 winter and worked on the farm in the summer, fishing and hunting 
 every spare moment. It was the right kind of work to develop 
 muscles and strength. My special work in the summer of the 
 first two years was to ride the horse for the man who cultivated 
 the corn and other crops. I often did this from morning till 
 night. My father at this time owned many horses, and they were 
 bred on the farm. I used to ride these colts and break them in 
 to the saddle, or more frequently ride them without the saddle, 
 and many a time I was thrown off their backs only to try over and 
 over again. I became acquainted with a farmer's life, its cares 
 and responsibilities. It teaches a boy to think and act for him- 
 self, to be dependent on no one. I am sure this early experience 
 has been of the greatest benefit to me ever since. The two district 
 schools nearest our home were at least a mile away, and very poor 
 country schools they were. We lived about midway between 
 the two. We had to walk to and fro through mud and slush, but 
 that did not dampen our enthusiasm. I always liked to go to 
 school and although I hardly ever stood at the head of my class I 
 would never permit myself to remain at the foot. 
 
 It was when I was fifteen that I conceived the idea of going away 
 from home to school and, in company with two or three others of 
 my age and an elderly widow living near by as our adopted 
 mother, I started for Ypsilanti, a town in central Michigan, with 
 horses and loaded wagons of everything necessary to start a home 
 when we should arrive there. We had among us all very little 
 money, but we carried the products of the farm to subsist on, 
 and Mrs. King, our Lady Superior was a good manager; and we 
 soon found ourselves cozily settled in a little house not far from 
 the Michigan State Normal school which we were to attend. It 
 meant a great deal for me to go away from my home, my mother 
 and sister, and begin such an entirely new life. 
 
 This was the fall and winter of 1857, the year of the great comet, 
 which will never be forgotten by anyone who saw it. The nine 
 months at the Normal School made a deep impression on me. 
 The seed of ambition which my mother had planted in my breast 
 
22 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 here received a great impulse. Certainly in this institution one 
 gained a thirst for education, and every influence was in that 
 direction. I worked well but did not progress very fast, and I 
 think now that I was a rather dull country boy, very slow to 
 "catch on." 
 
 When the June vacation arrived I hastened home, and was 
 soon busy at work on the farm, a place where I had time to think 
 over the period of independence I had found in Ypsilanti at school. 
 The poverty in which we had lived at Ypsilanti was such that, as 
 I now think of it, was far better than anything else we had; for 
 it taught not only frugality and temperance but diplomacy and 
 independence, for Mrs. King, our housekeeper, turned out a most 
 disagreeable, if not a cruel old woman. 
 
 All summer, or until the fall term commenced, I toiled very 
 hard on the farm, and did everything possible to lay aside money 
 for the next school session. I joined my small savings with those 
 of a neighbor's lad, John Snedicor, and we resolved to go up and 
 hire a room or two, furnish them as best we could and keep house. 
 We found two rooms, a bedroom and a kitchen, at a cost of $8.00 
 per month. We took from our homes the necessary furniture, 
 cooking utensils, etc., (which were very few) and provisions for 
 several months; and so we started housekeeping, at the same time 
 keeping up with our classes. We took turns doing the house 
 work. Our food was plain but wholesome. We bought our bread 
 and milk, but about everything we used came up from home, and 
 we received occasionally baskets of fruit and luxuries, such as 
 they were. At times we tried our hands at some of the higher 
 products of the culinary art. I recollect most perfectly on one 
 occasion when I was making bread, I had the dough well mixed, 
 my hands still covered with it, when in walked Elliott Bates 
 (afterwards the General), much to my chagrin; he came un- 
 announced as the fashion was then in Ypsilanti. This cooking 
 one's own food was, however, such an ordinary proceeding with 
 Ypsilanti boys that it was unnecessary to offer an apology. My 
 school life here extended over three school years, at the end of 
 
A Little Sketch of my Early Life 23 
 
 which I returned to the farm; the last year I worked as hard as 
 any of the men. I was only seventeen years old, and I felt that 
 I must earn the money necessary to continue my education. 
 
 My father gave me a small piece of land, about an acre, to work 
 for myself. I planted it to corn. My mother in some way 
 obtained for me a brood of five pigs, which I fed and cared for and 
 made pets of all summer. I found several other outside jobs by 
 which I could earn some money. Our neighbor, an old bear of a 
 German, who had no sons but plenty of daughters who could do 
 almost any kind of farm work, seemed to turn readily to me for 
 help. He had a field of wheat he wished cut, and I agreed to do 
 it, after due consideration, for $16.00; with a farmer's cradle I 
 began it and for several days I toiled at it, and I wonder now that 
 I ever accomplished this heavy job at that age. It was done, 
 however, to his satisfaction, and when he brought me my pay to 
 my great surprise it was all in silver twenty-five cent pieces, the 
 sight of which spread out to view I shall never forget. This money 
 I prized very highly, for it was the first I had ever earned, and I 
 kept it safely put away for the next school year. 
 
 My field of corn ripened and bade fair to be a sufficiently large 
 crop to fatten my pigs in the fall. They had grown to be large 
 hogs and promised a big return in cash when they began to be 
 corn fed, and the time had just arrived to begin feeding them for 
 the market. I had often calculated how much they would sell 
 for, and thought I could see a small fortune in them; but dis- 
 appointment seemed to be in store for me. As I went out one 
 morning to feed them as usual, I found four of the five lay dead 
 of cholera, which was at that time prevalent in that section. 
 The other one for some unaccountable reason survived, and I 
 afterwards sold it for enough to buy a new pair of boots and a 
 cap, both of which I needed very much. Corn in those days was 
 practically an unsaleable article, and could only be fed to get 
 anything out of it. I therefore received nothing from my corn, 
 upon which I had worked so faithfully all summer. It was now 
 time to go to Ypsilanti, and my arrangements were nearly all 
 
24 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 made, when a letter came from the East (it was about September 
 15th, 1861) saying that a position would be made for me with my 
 mother's cousin in New York if I would come on and take it. 
 This was doubtless due to the efforts of my good old mother, who 
 was just at that time on a visit to my uncle Henry Van Duzer, 
 who resided in Horseheads, New York. It was the most un- 
 expected thing that could possibly have happened to me. For a 
 few days and nights I dreamed of nothing else but the wonderful 
 opening. I had envied the other boys whom I knew who had 
 obtained positions in Detroit, and even in the retail grocery stores 
 in little old Monroe. I disliked the farm and everything it stood 
 for; and I think this dislike was caused purely and simply by the 
 shiftless system which was called farming by my father and the 
 neighbors about. To go, therefore, to New York city into the 
 wholesale drug store of S. R. Van Duzer & Co. (he was considered 
 one of the merchant princes of the day) to me was simply dazzling, 
 and surpassed all my most ambitious expectations. 
 
 This was a great epoch in my life : the packing up of my meagre 
 hand bag (only a telescope bag), the starting for the East, and the 
 beginning of a new life of complete separation from my family 
 and old associates. 
 
 I was to stop on my way to New York at Horseheads to make 
 a short visit to my uncles and aunts and my mother who was 
 with them. I had been there about one week when a letter came 
 from New York saying that owing to the disturbed condition of 
 affairs (it was in the fall of 1861 just as the Civil War broke out) 
 they wanted me to wait a while, and they would send me word 
 when to come. This was a serious blow to me, and I did not at 
 first know what I was to do; but Uncle Henry Van Duzer came to 
 my rescue. He said I might stay with him and work on the farm, 
 which I did for several weeks, when he proposed to send me to 
 the academy at Alfred, New York, where I could take a course to 
 prepare me for teaching school. This I did, and was there for a 
 few months, but I was not happy there and I do not think I 
 profited by it; and I was glad when the time came to return to 
 
A Little Sketch op my Early Life 25 
 
 Uncle Henry's, where I spent the following spring and summer 
 doing all kinds of farm work, but mostly driving horses and per- 
 forming easy work as Uncle's assistant. 
 
 During the summer the first call for soldiers came from President 
 Lincoln, and I had resolved more than once to go, but each time 
 I was held back by this new appointment, which was constantly 
 used to keep me at home. Uncle Henry, when he found me 
 determined to join the Southern Tier Regiment in Elmira, told 
 me I would surely get the call to go to New York very soon, and 
 I lost my chance to get into this famous regiment, and so time 
 passed. The fall came and I was offered a position as school 
 teacher way up in the Veteran hills at something like $20.00 per 
 month and board, which I accepted and started to work. I felt 
 quite out of my element at this, and glad I was, at the end of my 
 first week's teaching to receive a telegram from New York saying 
 that the place I had been waiting for for over a year was vacant 
 and I could come on at once. Abraham Lincoln's first call for 
 75,000 men had been met ; the men had served their three months 
 and returned, and the second call for 300,000 had been made, so 
 the country was all in turmoil and excitement at the time I started 
 for New York city in the fall of 1862. I reached New York with- 
 out any money or clothes worth speaking of, and reported at the 
 office of S. R. Van Duzer & Co., with my letter from Uncle Henry. 
 Mr. Van Duzer looked me over; I must have presented a very 
 countrified figure indeed, for his first thought seemed to be, 'You 
 must go and get a new suit of clothes." After asking me a number 
 of questions about what I had been doing and the like, he told me 
 that he would not pay me a salary, but that I should, whenever 
 I needed money for any purpose, go to the cashier, Mr. Sears, and 
 he would give me what I required; that he had arranged to have 
 Mr. Sears take me to his own home, and that I would board there 
 until I got used to New York and could "get around alone." 
 
 He called in Eugene Weir, one of the clerks, to his office and 
 told him to take me up to Devlin's clothing store on Broadway, 
 where I could get a new suit of clothes, and to get the money at 
 
26 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 the desk; thus the financial question was settled, and this arrange- 
 ment lasted for a period of three years, during which nothing was 
 ever said or done to change it or the matter referred to in any way. 
 
 At first I was put to work as errand boy, and ran around the 
 city getting price quotations and carrying parcels until the work 
 became tiresome enough, but it was good work for me, and I 
 learned many things during the six months or so that I was upon 
 the street at this work. Great armies came and went daily through 
 the streets to and from the war; excitement ran high during this 
 period, and for a young fellow like me it was interesting and a 
 new experience, following so quickly after my prosaic country life. 
 
 I was advanced to the retail counter, where I assisted in waiting 
 on the class of trade, or men, known as the "Jerseymen," who used 
 to call for small parcels of drugs which they would carry with them. 
 This too was manual labor and not at all to my liking, but I was 
 careful to conceal my likes and dislikes about this time. I was 
 rapidly advanced from place to place until some of the boys used 
 to call me "Jacky of all trades," and when sent out, as I often 
 was, on family errands, getting dogcollars and such things, they 
 joked a good deal over it, to my discomfort. After all, Mr. Van 
 Duzer felt a personal interest in me and I believe was helping me 
 along in every way he could, although I could not see that he was 
 in any way responsible for it. The changes were all made by Mr- 
 Sears or others in the company's employ, and rapidly too, until 
 I found myself in Mr. Van Duzer's private office, in the advertising 
 department. It was about one and a half years after starting in 
 New York that I came close to him. I used to remain at the office 
 with him at nights, sometimes almost until midnight. His home 
 was at Newburg-on-the-Hudson, and he used to remain in the 
 city two nights a week; these nights he was fond of working at 
 the office and of having me stay down with him. He used me 
 as his confidential clerk, and intrusted to me much of his detail 
 work which was of an unimportant character. His private letter 
 book, cash book, safe keys, as well as the accounts and business 
 of making Mrs. S. A. Allen's toilet goods by private formula, were 
 
A Little Sketch of my Early Life 27 
 
 nearly all handled exclusively by me by the end of the second 
 year. 
 
 In the beginning of 1864 it became evident that someone must 
 go to London and start a manufactory for Mrs. Allen's goods, 
 which had acquired a big sale there. I was chosen to go, as I 
 was familiar with the manufacture, and on the fourth of June of 
 that year, 1864, I left by the old steamer Anchoria of the Glasgow 
 line, for that city. She was a side wheeler of about 3500 tons, and 
 it took about sixteen days to make the passage. It was a great 
 day for me when I was sent upon such an important mission, and 
 it was a big step forward, for I felt cut loose from many apron 
 strings which had bound me up to this time. After events proved 
 it was my first step out and away from the apprentice, into the 
 sphere of independence. 
 
 I was in Europe three months, during which time I fitted up the 
 factory, made up the necessary stock, and left the whole in the 
 care of Mr. Van Duzer's agent in England, Mr. Millen, and 
 returned home to New York after a flying trip to Paris of two or 
 three days. On my return Mr. Van Duzer said he had sold a 
 very large lot of his preparation in Canada, and wished me to go 
 to Montreal and start a factory there. It was finally agreed that 
 I should go, and start a branch house and build up a business 
 there, and that I could have a percentage of the profits made out 
 of that business; or he would do exactly by me as he had done by 
 Millen in London. 
 
 I had by this time drawn a salary, the first year about $600.00, 
 and the last year about $900.00. Now Mr. Van Duzer was to 
 guarantee me the same pay in Canadian money, or $900.00 in 
 gold, and so I started for Canada in November 1865, arriving 
 there the twenty-fourth, with winter fully set in and good sleigh- 
 ing on the ground. I liked the outlook the cold winter weather 
 seemed to invigorate and strengthen me. I was charmed at first 
 with the novelty of it all, and set immediately to work. Affairs 
 in the United States were settling down after the war, but the 
 customs tariff was a most incomplete and imperfect thing. Mr. 
 
28 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 Van Duzer had found a way of importing into the United States 
 alcoholic preparations, such as medicines and tinctures, and by 
 so doing saving a great deal of money, and I had hardly got 
 started at the business which I was there to do, when I received 
 orders to make and ship certain tinctures in barrels to New York. 
 Every week upon order I made and shipped these barrels in large 
 lots to the frontier at St. Albans, where I went and paid the duty 
 through the customs; all of this work was outside and independent 
 of the Canada branch house and I had no financial interest in it. 
 This went on for months until at last it was stopped at Washington 
 by the customs authorities, but in the meantime Van Duzer had 
 made a great deal of money. 
 
 As soon as this business was ended Mr. Van Duzer seemed to 
 lose interest in the Canada house and I concluded that it was the 
 alcohol question which had been the real object of the house and 
 factory; when that stopped he had really no use for the factory, 
 and I was in somewhat of a false position. Especially so, when I 
 discovered that he had sold, and I was asked to deliver, a stock of 
 Mrs. Allen's preparations to John F. Henry, a big wholesale drug 
 house in Montreal, sufficient to supply the whole Canada market 
 for two or three years, at a price giving them control of that 
 market, and putting me in a position where I could not sell at all. 
 I was greatly annoyed by it, and wrote the firm that there was 
 after this sale nothing left for me to do and I might as well return 
 to New York and stay there. They answered, telling me to come 
 down and talk it over. I went down, about May first, 1866, and 
 walked into Mr. Van Duzer 's office. He remarked, "Well, Will, 
 you appear dissatisfied; what is the matter?" I undertook to 
 explain matters, when he said something very irritating, I hardly 
 know what, as I felt I had been so badly treated. I answered that 
 I had come to New York to resign my position. He answered 
 "Very well," and in a hurry picked up his hat and coat and walked 
 out of his office. 
 
 Since I had been in Canada I had drawn very little money and 
 there was a balance due me, upon our agreement, of about $800.00, 
 
A Little Sketch of my Early Life 29 
 
 which was worth nearly double that in our paper currency. This 
 amount I abandoned and never asked for, and it was never paid. 
 I saw Mr. Sears about it, but he could not pay me nor advise me 
 what to do. Mr. Van Duzer gave me no work to do, and there 
 seemed nothing left for me but to leave at once. I had just 
 received the year before from my grandfather's estate a certain 
 interest in the Monroe farm, which had been sold, $1466.00 in all. 
 This was the only money that I ever received from any source 
 that I did not earn myself. As I had no money at all this inheri- 
 tance came in very handy just then and made me comparatively 
 independent for the time. Mr. Van Duzer was not acquainted 
 with the fact that I had it and thought I was quite dependent. 
 I was out of a situation only two or three days when I 
 received a letter from Mr. George Curtis, the head of Jeremiah 
 Curtis & Son, asking me to call as he wanted to see me. As he 
 was a great personal friend of Mr. Van Duzer, I felt sure that he 
 had been asked to do this. I called; he offered me a place in his 
 office at the same salary that Mr. Van Duzer had paid me. I did 
 not see any future before me and told him so, but said I would 
 hold the offer open for a few days. I then saw Mr. Hall of Hall 
 and Ruekel. I had become acquainted with him in my errand 
 boy days, and I had a pleasant interview there. He too offered 
 me a position, and was willing to make some special inducements 
 for me to go into his Sozodont work. That too was held open 
 for me to think about. I had just received a telegram from Mr. 
 Stanton, an old friend of mine who was in the employ of Perry 
 Davis & Son and who was aware of my leaving Van Duzer, asking 
 me if I would go to Canada for Perry Davis & Son if asked. I 
 answered that I would if satisfactory arrangements could be made, 
 and the next day I received a wire from the Providence people to 
 come down and see them. It was the fifth of June, 1866, that I 
 left for Providence by boat to see Perry Davis & Son and find out 
 what they had done for me. I arrived there at an early hour the 
 next morning, too early to go to their office. The morning was 
 bright, and all nature seemed to me in a radiant mood, and as I 
 
30 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 left my room on the steamer, dressed in a new suit of very light 
 summer clothes, and a tall stove pipe hat (a light gray) I felt quite 
 in harmony with the beautiful June morning. It was a queer 
 sensation that I felt as I walked up the Main Street, asking the 
 way to the office of Perry Davis & Son. I felt it was another turn 
 in my life, perhaps a sharp turn from boy to man, and this after- 
 wards turned out to be the case. 
 
 I found on arriving at the office that I was expected there, and 
 that Mr. Davis was already in his chair, while his lieutenants, 
 Messrs. Smith and Hall, were with him. A few minutes' con- 
 versation with them satisfied me that they were not as brilliant 
 or as able men as I had often met in New York, and I felt quite 
 at ease from the start. I noted too that I made a good impression 
 on them all, and that particularly Mr. Davis was ready and 
 willing to do anything I wanted, and at the same time he seemed 
 to be making a study of my new hat, which he took up and ex- 
 amined carefully. He was no business man, simply a kind, 
 indulgent father and friend, fond of good living and cigars and 
 the ease which his large fortune gave him. In a few hours I 
 arranged and signed a contract to go on their behalf to Canada 
 and there open an office and factory in their name, to have full 
 charge of the same and of the entire Canada business with a 
 guaranteed salary of $800.00 gold per annum, or one-third of the 
 net profits of the business, if I preferred to take that in lieu of 
 salary. This contract was dated June sixth, 1866. I started 
 almost immediately for Canada, and was soon located in a small 
 store on St. Paul Street, Montreal, adjoining the Lyman, Clare 
 & Co. big drug house. I employed one clerk and a few girls to 
 carry on the business, and started in earnestly. I worked evenings 
 and traveled, giving myself up most completely to starting this 
 enterprise. 
 
 When the end of 1866 arrived and I had figured up the results 
 of my work for the first six months' business, I found that my 
 expenses had eaten up nearly all my profit; that with my ideas 
 and methods there could be no profit upon so small a business, 
 
A Little Sketch of my Early Life 31 
 
 for the expenses must necessarily be large; and that the business 
 might be doubled and trebled without any material increase in 
 overhead expenses. Convinced of this, I sat down and wrote my 
 views to the Providence people, and to my surprise and satis- 
 faction they wrote back that I was manager and could do whatever 
 I liked, if I could do it with the capital I already possessed in 
 Canada, or words to that effect. That was enough for me; I set 
 to work securing American agencies, and I soon had enough of 
 these outside agencies to pay all the expenses of the business, so 
 whatever profit was made on the sale of the original business was 
 clear profit. I readily saw how this was going to work out, and 
 by the end of the first year I decided to accept a third of the 
 profits instead of a fixed salary as provided in my agreement 
 papers. As soon as this was determined upon, I decided to get 
 married and settle down in Montreal. I felt sure I was on safe 
 ground and could rely upon the business for support and a living. 
 From my old school days in Michigan I had carried till now 
 the memory of a little girl, Sarah Bates, the sister of the Elliott 
 Bates before referred to, fresh and pure as a rose, modest and 
 sweet, who had never been petted, or spoiled by contact with a 
 large city, and my lonely life taught me to turn back to her and 
 seek relief from my present surroundings. I courted and won her, 
 and we were married on the twenty-second day of August, 1867, 
 at her home in Monroe. A short honeymoon and a short stay at 
 the Ottawa Hotel in Montreal, and we then began housekeeping 
 at #4 Wellington Terrace on St. Catherine Street, in a furnished 
 house. And so I abandoned bachelorhood, boarding-house and 
 hotel life, and settled down in a home of my own, and began work 
 with new zest. My business was as yet very small and afforded 
 only a modest living. My inheritance had been expended in 
 getting it started; rather than draw money from the infantile 
 business of which I wished to own a third, I took for personal use 
 none of the company's funds during the first year. This made us 
 careful and saving, so that our total expenses for living and travel- 
 ing during that first year were less than $1400.00. 
 
32 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 The foregoing, then, is a brief sketch of my early life up to the 
 date of my marriage, when I think I can safely say that my business 
 life began in earnest. I will not attempt in this sketch to give 
 even a poor word picture of the career that followed my entree into 
 business in Montreal and my marriage. The next twenty years 
 were my busy days, the busiest of my life. It was at the beginning 
 of this period that Canada and her sister colonies joined them- 
 selves into a confederation called the Dominion of Canada, and 
 this brought about a new condition. Railways were started, 
 linking the Provinces together, and trade found new channels, 
 giving a new impetus to business such as had never been known 
 in the Canadas before. A long period of speculation followed and 
 I found myself being drawn into many enterprises outside of my 
 regular business. New inventions which fairly transformed the 
 old ways into new ones came along in quick succession, such as 
 the telephone, the typewriter, electric light and power, the motor 
 car, and a thousand others of lesser magnitude, all of which, 
 together with Canada's great awakening after confederation, made 
 the period I refer to, the twenty years between 1868 and 1888, 
 perhaps the high tide in the business world over the whole American 
 continent. 
 
 I have endeavored in the foregoing to outline my career from 
 babyhood up to the time of my marriage in 1867. I have written 
 several articles descriptive of the high lights in my later career 
 rather than attempt to make it a continuous story and these are 
 hereto attached and represent some of the leading events or, more 
 properly speaking, the interesting undertakings of my business 
 life. 
 
MY FIRST TRIP TO EUROPE 
 
 /^\N THE 4th of June, 1864, I left New York on the S. S. 
 ^^ Anchoria of the Anchor Line for Glasgow. She was a 
 "side-wheeler" of 3500 tons only and depended upon her sails for 
 motive power, as an auxiliary to the engines, and the engines were 
 but little more than an auxiliary to the sails, neither being efficient 
 in themselves. This type of steamer was just then going out of 
 fashion and the great screw, or double screw, was just coming into 
 vogue, along with the big ships which, about this time, were 
 appearing on the Atlantic. This little craft would roll and slide 
 along on the ocean wave, like a cork — first one wheel would fly 
 out of the water, making a loud, run-away sort of a noise, and soon 
 the other would fly out in the same manner, and as she rolled 
 back and forward the crossbars of the main mast would dip into 
 the sea first one side and then on the other. It would be very 
 exciting work to-day to travel on such a vessel, since we have 
 become so used to traveling on the twenty to thirty thousand ton 
 floating palaces, which ride the rough sea with scarcely a tremor. 
 I, at the time, was only twenty-two years old. I had been 
 selected by my employer- — a large wholesale druggist of New 
 York— to go over to London and there establish a branch office 
 and factory for preparing his toilet specialties for the European 
 market. I was alone on the ship; that is, I did not know a single 
 human being on board when I started on this momentous journey. 
 When my employer first spoke to me about taking this trip, I had 
 felt a slight twinge of doubt and fear, but I would not let him see 
 it, and put on a bold front and expressed myself willing and glad 
 to go and assume all the responsibility of the undertaking. I 
 could not of course allow a faint heart to show itself till I was 
 safely aboard my steamer. When evening came on we were 
 already far away from the Narrows and I retired early to bed and 
 
34 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 was soon lost in sleep, for that was always to me a balm for every 
 sorrow as well as every fatigue. 
 
 Early next morning I awakened and started to dress and soon 
 found myself very ill with such depressed spirits as I had never 
 had before. The gloomiest thoughts I had ever known dashed to 
 my brain, and I was miserable indeed. I opened my cabin door 
 which opened directly into the dining room. There was a waiter 
 setting the breakfast table, the only person in sight. I enquired, 
 in a subdued and doubtful voice, if the passengers had been to 
 breakfast yet. He answered, "No! Didn't think any of them, 
 wanted breakfast." I wanted to know why when he said, "They 
 are all seasick; aren't you?" I confessed I was, but never before 
 had I heard such welcome news — " 'They are all seasick.' That 
 means, I am not the only one, and that makes the whole situation 
 seem brighter." 
 
 After two or three days we arrived at St. Johns, Newfoundland, 
 having been seasick all the way. We stopped for a few hours in 
 the harbor for mails etc., and then went out soon to find ourselves 
 in the midst of a great collection of huge icebergs, some like great 
 cathedrals afloat on the waters, but they were all shapes and sizes 
 and our little ship wound in and out among them for hours before 
 we reached the open sea again. It seemed weeks before we sighted 
 the North Irish coast and soon after "Ailsa Craig," that interesting 
 little mountain in the sea which lies just outside the mouth of 
 the Clyde, and then into the Clyde itself past the great ship- 
 yards, and, finally, at the wharf in Glasgow, where I went on shore 
 at the end of sixteen days of miserable existence on board this 
 tiny ship. The water had at frequent intervals broken into our 
 bedrooms and flooded them, and, on one occasion when the ship 
 had slid over into the trough of the sea, the water came down 
 upon the dining room table while we were at dinner in such volume 
 as to pitch the turkey, ready to serve, out of the racks on to the 
 floor, along with the glasses and china, making a sad outlook for 
 those of us able to be at the table and prepared for a good meal. 
 
 From Glasgow I went to Edinburgh, spending but a few hours 
 
My First Trip to Europe 35 
 
 in each city, which I improved to the utmost by a hurried visit 
 to the principal points of interest. The people dressed so differ- 
 ently and looked so different that to me Scotland was like a new 
 world. It was only a passing glimpse that I caught of these 
 people, but the impression gained was far more lasting and interest- 
 ing than any obtained in my later visits to this country. In due 
 course, I arrived by rail in London. A feeling of loneliness came 
 over me when I found myself alone in a big near-by hotel; "alone 
 in London," one cannot help but feel at such a time what a little 
 insect he is, but the hour was late and I sought at once that sleep 
 so necessary to cure a tired body and anxious mind. 
 
 The following morning I started off to present my letter of 
 introduction to a Mr. Gallup of the Anglo-American Drug Com- 
 pany, whose place of business was located on High Holborne, and 
 whom I had never seen; but my employer had said he would be 
 my adviser and supply me with money during my stay in London. 
 
 I was extremely anxious about this man — Would I like him and 
 what sort of a reception would I get! I found him in his little 
 tucked-up disorderly office with a pipe in his mouth (all English- 
 men smoked pipes). He was a thick-set, corpulent fellow, with 
 a red face that betokened beer in quantity, but exceedingly friendly 
 and of good nature. 
 
 He lived in bachelor apartments over his office and wanted me 
 to take a room adjoining his own while in London, and this I 
 accepted with doubts and fears, but I was satisfied later that this 
 was the best thing I could have done, for he knew the ropes, so 
 to speak, and was disposed to show me about the city during our 
 spare moments. He took me about to all the Bohemian restau- 
 rants and eating houses in the neighborhood, (which I was never 
 able to find on my later visits in London) enabling me to get quite 
 a novel view of an Englishman's life in London. I spent about 
 four weeks here getting the factory started and in working order, 
 and near the end of this time, Mr. Millan and his wife arrived 
 from New York, taking charge of the business and relieving me 
 of any further duties. I remained a few days only after he arrived, 
 
36 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 showing him how to manufacture and mix the several toilet 
 preparations he was to exploit in Europe for the New York house. 
 
 Being thus released, I concluded to run over to Paris for a day 
 or two before I returned home. This was during the period when 
 Napoleon III was at the apex of his glory. Paris was being made 
 into a modern city; grand boulevards were being cut through 
 solid blocks of old buildings and the new mansard roof construction 
 had just come into vogue. I was quite astonished and delighted 
 with the things I saw. I have been to Paris many times since, 
 but it is that visit of two days which I made in 1864 that always 
 looms up most prominently when my mind turns back and I 
 think of the beautiful city as it was at that time, with so much of 
 it in process of new construction. 
 
 I returned to London and thence to Liverpool where I boarded 
 an Inman Line steamer, the old City of Manchester bound for 
 New York and, after fourteen days at sea, arrived safely at the 
 pier in New York. Since this time I have made many trips to 
 Europe, have been over a large portion of it by automobile, but 
 this first glimpse which I had at the age of twenty-two left a more 
 lasting impression than any of the later ones and stands out in 
 my mind the clearest and best of them all. 
 
THE DAVIS AND LAWRENCE COMPANY 
 
 T TNDER the heading "A Little Sketch of the Early Life of 
 **^ W. V. Lawrence" is portrayed the beginning of this company 
 which has in reality been the foundation upon which has been 
 built, I might almost say, my entire business life. 
 
 During the first five years that I was engaged in this business, 
 I had the satisfaction of seeing a gradual development with annual 
 increases in the net earnings of the company, starting the business 
 under the old name of Perry Davis & Son; it was changed after 
 two or three years, by consent, to that of Perry Davis & Son & 
 Lawrence. Under this name, the business was carried on for a 
 period of ten years or until it became an incorporated company, 
 The Davis & Lawrence Co. (Inc.) about 1882. 
 
 My relations with the mother house in Providence, R. I., were 
 always most pleasant and agreeable. They never, to my knowl- 
 edge, failed to accept my views on all matters of business concern, 
 and always lent me their support whenever asked. 
 
 I began to accept agencies for American manufacturers, (mostly 
 in the medicine line) which the high tariff of those days aided me 
 in securing, for it was the policy of the Canadian government to 
 force outside manufacturers to come into Canada and make up 
 their goods. The Canadian provinces had but just bound them- 
 selves together into one, the Dominion government of Canada, 
 and this brought about a great and real expansion to all business 
 enterprises which may have been also accelerated by the close of 
 the great Civil War in the United States. At any rate that 
 period between 1865 and 1870 were years of great trade expansion 
 throughout the Dominion of Canada. 
 
 About the year 1871 Mr. James I. Fellows came into the office 
 and asked me to accept the agency for his then little known 
 "Compound Syrup of Hypophosphites." Before he left, I had 
 bought a half interest in his trade mark, good will, etc., with full 
 
38 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 control, for a net sum of $12,500. Mr. Fellows at the time, was 
 utterly discouraged because of his losses through mismanagement 
 of the business. He was a chemist, or small druggist, in the city 
 of St. John, N. B., had taken up the sale of this article, and, with 
 little capital and less ability in handling this new business, had 
 about failed when he came to me. 
 
 The addition of this agency to our already well established 
 business gave it new impetus and after two or three years I found 
 that this Fellows branch of our work was big enough to stand 
 alone; so I resolved to get up an independent corporation to handle 
 and extend our sales into foreign markets where our Canada house 
 was not in a position to work to advantage. 
 
 This was done and Perry Davis & Son & Lawrence, together 
 with Mr. Fellows, sold out all of our interests to this newly organ- 
 ized Fellows Medical Manufacturing Co., each making a net 
 profit out of the sale of $25,000 in addition to a fifth interest in 
 the stock of the new company. 
 
 The future of the Fellows Company business is described in a 
 separate sketch in this book. About 1880 John Wyeth & Brothers 
 also came to us and we took the agency of their pharmaceutical 
 preparations for Canada, under a contract for twenty years. 
 During all this period, the Davis & Lawrence Co. manufactured 
 and sold these Wyeth goods in the Dominion. It became a very 
 important branch of their work and much money was made out 
 of their sales. 
 
 In 1888, finding the Fellows Company business had grown to 
 world-wide proportion and needed more and more attention, I 
 withdrew from the active management of the Davis & Lawrence 
 Co. in Canada and removed to New York where I could be in 
 closer touch with the Fellows business, leaving the Canada business 
 in charge of Mr. John S. Bates who had been my assistant for 
 twenty years or more and was quite familiar with this company's 
 affairs. 
 
 In 1895 the old firm of Perry Davis & Son at Providence, R. I., 
 through death and other causes, had found it desirable to retire 
 
The Davis and Lawrence Company 39 
 
 from business and after negotiations I was successful in buying 
 out all their interests, including the old house of J. N. Harris & 
 Co. of Cincinnati, with whom the Providence house had long been 
 allied. This purchase made it necessary for our Canadian concern 
 to come down and open a factory and office in New York City 
 and take up the foreign trade that Perry Davis had so long carried 
 on. 
 
 As the business continued to develop and its field of operations 
 widened its gains also increased and the same business that at 
 the end of the first year in 1866, earned a paltry $1600., had earned 
 as high as $160,000 at the outbreak of the world war. The com- 
 pany built for itself a large and commodious factory in Montreal 
 and in New York City, from which its varied business is now 
 carried on. The Canadian Company was taken over by a still 
 greater company in the States, and the Canadian business has 
 become a branch of the New York company. 
 
 The original business started with a capital of about $3000 and 
 at the present time, 1922, the capital of the company, inclusive 
 of trade marks, is represented by its stock issue of $1,500,000. 
 with no debts, and so this concern, bom in obscure Canada, 
 fifty-six years ago, with the modest inheritance of $3000, has in 
 fifty-six years become a familiar institution in every civilized 
 country or market of the world, and like many American enter- 
 prises of the day has paid its stockholders large dividends and at 
 the same time, accummulated its million and more. 
 
A LITTLE REAL ESTATE EXPERIENCE 
 
 Which Had Much to do in Shaping My After 
 Business Career 
 
 /^^\NE day in the spring of 1867, almost at the very beginning 
 ^-^ of my business career, I was overtaken by the desire for 
 building myself a home, the first step to which was of course the 
 acquisition of a building site. 
 
 I had taken up my residence in Montreal with the idea of 
 making it my permanent home, and the future at this time looked 
 to me very hopeful; besides, I was optimistic by nature; so, al- 
 though my resources were extremely limited, I looked all about 
 the city as I went to and fro, examining each and every "For 
 Sale" that I saw posted on the vacant fields or spaces, and mentally 
 discussed the question whether I should like to live in this or that 
 particular spot; until one day I found upon McTavish Street, a 
 little way up the mountainside from Sherbrook Street, a lot that 
 seemed to answer all of my requirements. It faced the McGill 
 College grounds, which promised to remain an open vista for all 
 time. It adjoined on one side the handsome villa of Henry Lyman 
 and was already built up on the other side in a most attractive 
 and expensive manner. It had a hundred foot frontage upon 
 McTavish Street and was (although clothed in a dense growth of 
 underbrush) an ideal site for a modest sized villa, such as I had 
 in my mind's eye for my future home. After studying the site 
 over — its length and breadth, its flower and vegetable garden, and 
 its distance from my office and from my friends, I decided to see 
 the agents whose name formed a part of the inscription on the 
 wooden sign. 
 
 I did this on the following day, remarking as I entered the office 
 that I had seen a lot on McTavish Street which they had for sale, 
 and that I should like some information in regard to it — its dimen- 
 
A Little Real Estate Experience 41 
 
 sions, price, terms of payment, etc.; all of which was quickly 
 furnished to me. The interesting feature of the conversation was 
 that the owner wanted $8500 for the property, but was so anxious 
 to sell that he might do so for a shade less. The wherewithal to 
 pay for it was uppermost in my mind at this particular juncture 
 as quite alarmingly small; I figured out quickly that I had no more 
 than $250. in the bank, but that in a few months with great care 
 and economy I could get together enough more to pay $2500., but 
 that was all the capital I could expect, and it must suffice in some 
 way. 
 
 I then returned to my office and wrote the agent that I would 
 buy his lot on McTavish Street if, first, he would accept $7500 for 
 it instead of $8500; then take $250 cash down at this time (April 
 1st), $2250 on July 1st following, and accept a mortgage payable 
 three years later for the remainder, or $5,000, secured by the 
 property. The next day, the broker called and informed me that 
 his client had agreed to sell upon my terms and conditions, so we 
 drew up on the spot a regular bill of sale; the owner receipted it, 
 and I handed him the check for $250; upon which I found myself 
 at the end of my first real estate purchase, the owner (after a 
 fashion) of a villa site upon the slope of "Mount Royal"; and I 
 felt as important, I believe, as Jacques Carrier himself felt when 
 he, discoverer of Canada, first looked down from the mountain 
 top directly over it upon this very spot I had just purchased and 
 upon that great and magnificent valley of the St. Lawrence which 
 stretched itself out at his feet below. 
 
 To me it was a great risk and a venture into an unexplored field- 
 A few days later, I was walking down Francis Xavier Street when 
 I was accosted by the same broker who had sold the villa site to 
 me, and he asked, Did I want to sell my lots on McTavish Street ? 
 He knew a man to whom he could sell, and he would make me a 
 profit. I looked at him in a rather pitying sort of way, and 
 exclaimed "Sell those lots? Why, I didn't buy them to sell, I 
 bought them to build my future home upon," and I hurried along. 
 Within a few days, I was again accosted in the street by another 
 
42 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 real estate agent, who wished me to place in his hands for sale my 
 McTavish Street lots. He was sure he could dispose of them at 
 a good profit, and why not sell ? I turned away, but kept thinking, 
 "Some one wants my lots. These inquiries are not quite what 
 they seem. These fellows are not so much interested in making 
 some money for me as they appear — and that is all!" 
 
 A week may have passed, when, as I was sitting at my desk 
 one day, Henry Lyman, the gentleman who owned the magnificent 
 villa adjoining my lots, came strolling into my office. I did not 
 like this man for several reasons : one was that though he was by 
 birth an American, he had married a Canadian lady of wealth and 
 aped the English, and had almost forgotten his American birth; 
 and he would have nothing to do with Americans, which made 
 him most unpopular with them. Another reason why I disliked 
 him was that I had, when I first arrived in Canada, rented a store 
 of him, which soon proved too small; and when I wished to lease 
 it to another and find more commodious quarters for myself, he 
 had placed every possible obstacle in my way, and had shown 
 himself unfriendly, as I believed him to be, toward everything 
 American. 
 
 "Well," he said after sitting a few moments, "My wife asked 
 me to call and see you relative to that villa lot adjoining her 
 property on McTavish Street. Are you going to build on it, or 
 is it for sale?" 
 
 I answered I had no thought of selling, for I intended to build 
 me a home there. 
 
 He proceeded to explain that his wife had long contemplated 
 buying these lots and erecting a house there for her son, and 
 explained how convenient it would be for the family to pass back 
 and forth through a gate at the side. I of course thought so too, 
 and at the same time thought that uppermost in her mind was 
 the thought that she didn't want any Americans — she thoroughly 
 disapproved of all of them, this being just at the close of the Civil 
 War — building houses so near her entrance gate. 
 
 I told him I had bought the lots to build my home on, and 
 
A Little Real Estate Experience 43 
 
 that they were not for sale. He said, "At no price whatever?" 
 I answered, I would not say that, for I could not afford it. He 
 asked me, if he were to give me $500 for my bargain, would I be 
 satisfied? I answered no, but if he wanted it badly enough to 
 give me $2500 cash for it he could take the property. He thought 
 that this was too much, and that I was taking advantage of Mrs. 
 Lyman in asking it. I assured him that I was not asking her to 
 buy, and it was quite immaterial to me whether she bought it 
 or not. 
 
 He retired, only to come back in a few hours with a check for 
 $2500, saying they had decided to buy. I endorsed my bill of 
 sale over to him and accepted the check, so ending my first real 
 estate deal. Having made so easily a net profit of $2250, at a 
 time when that amount meant a great deal to me, I began to 
 watch and study the real estate sales, and at the same time began 
 a search for another site for my future home. A taste for real 
 estate had been awakened in my mind by this one little deal, and 
 it kept growing from year to year. After a time I found another 
 lot on Simpson Street, which is also on the mountain side, just off 
 Sherbrooke; this was considerably larger than the first; I agreed 
 to pay $2500 cash down and give a mortgage for the remainder, 
 about $9,000 more. These two purchases of real estate of mine 
 had evidently attracted the attention of some of the brokers to 
 me; for I was hardly in possession of my Simpson Street lots when 
 0. H. Wood, a wealthy real estate owner in Montreal, asked if I 
 would not join a syndicate of four persons to buy the old Dona- 
 gonni property on Dorchester Street, West, which was held at 
 about $120,000. 
 
 I agreed to do this on condition that he buy my Simpson Street 
 lots at an advance of $2500 over cost to me, which he agreed to 
 do. This gave me a capital of $5,000 to put into the syndicate 
 purchase, which was the proportion in cash required of me. We 
 bought the Donagonni place, divided it up, and I was successful 
 during the first year or two in disposing of two-thirds of my 
 holdings, upon which I netted very nearly $10,000, still holding 
 
44 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 a choice building lot for myself. In two or three years, I had 
 made out of my real estate deals about $14,500, and decided to 
 put it all in the new home I had been working for. 
 
 I at once started to build the Edgehill Avenue home, which, 
 with its stable, still remains almost as I built it over forty years 
 ago. 
 
 After this I bought and sold other pieces of Montreal real 
 estate, but the boom which followed after the Civil War soon 
 carried prices so high that I withdrew. But since I was so success- 
 ful in this small beginning, I felt encouraged to go more and more 
 largely into real estate speculation; and I found first in Chicago 
 and afterwards in Toledo, a profitable field for these operations, 
 which I carried on through agents until I left Canada and returned 
 to take up residence in New York in 1888; after which my opera- 
 tions were nearly all confined to this region. 
 
 I do not believe in real estate investments, except for early 
 development. To buy vacant property and let it stand for a 
 natural increase in value is hazardous. Be sure the property is in 
 the line where improvements are taking place or towards which 
 they naturally tend, then make their improvement possible by 
 laying out roads, walks, sewers, etc., after which start the ball 
 rolling by building yourself, until others gain confidence, and then 
 the work will be taken up and pushed on by others. 
 
MY RANCHING EXPERIENCE 
 
 /~\NE day in the spring of 18—, a gentleman called at my office 
 in Montreal and introduced himself, saying he had been 
 talking to a mutual friend of his and mine (Mr. Hugh Mc Kay) 
 who had suggested his coming to see me relative to my joining 
 them in a sheep ranching enterprise out in the Canadian north- 
 west, near Calgary. I found by his card that I was talking with 
 Senator Cochrane, a man who was already very prominent in 
 fancy stock and cattle raising and also owner of a large and success- 
 ful cattle ranch in the neighborhood of Calgary. He explained 
 to me that there was in the valley of the Bow River out in Alberta 
 a tract of about 250,000 acres of rich bottom lands which we could 
 lease from the Canadian Government at a bargain, or at about 
 one cent an acre per annum if we would occupy it for ranch 
 purposes. 
 
 The Canadian Pacific Railroad which had just been completed, 
 ran directly through the property and both the government and 
 the railroad were making great efforts to fill up these great prairies 
 and rich agricultural lands with anything and everything that 
 could be attracted there and would make any sacrifice to start it. 
 I knew nothing whatever about ranching or sheep raising but felt 
 rather flattered to have a call from the distinguished Senator and 
 to have him sent to me by Mr. Hugh Mc Kay who was one of 
 Montreal's distinguished and wealthy merchants and on that 
 account received favorably the suggestion that I become one of a 
 syndicate and agreed to take a tenth interest, which it was thought 
 would amount to about $10,000. to fulfill my part of the under- 
 taking. 
 
 The syndicate was formed and the Senator was authorized to 
 sign a lease for the land with the government and purchase the 
 sheep necessary to stock it. Senator Cochrane did not do things 
 by halves for before the summer was half over 5,000 fine Montana 
 
46 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 ewe sheep were being distributed upon our new ranch, and long 
 shelter sheds were being erected into which the sheep could go in 
 stormy weather. Ranch houses were also going up near by for 
 the shepherds and ranch manager. The Senator had also cabled 
 to Scotland for several blooded and costly rams which were to be 
 shipped at once along with a half dozen experienced and trained 
 Scotch shepherds. They, too, arrived at the ranch in due time and 
 everything started off in brilliant colors as the autumn approached. 
 
 It was about this time, when the ranch had been organized and 
 was in fair working order, that the Senator invited me to go out 
 and look things over with him. I accepted and it was a real 
 pleasure, that trip from Montreal in the early autumn by the 
 Canadian Pacific R. R., then a new-laid track through the wilds 
 of Canada. After leaving Ottawa there were long stretches of 
 travel with few or no stops and even those which we did make were 
 little rough boxes of stations in the woods; then along the shore 
 of Lake Superior to Winnipeg, a small town of 4,000 inhabitants 
 built on the site of old Fort Garry, a place which I knew better 
 by that name, for it had only lately been rechristened and given 
 this new name. From Winnipeg we entered the great prairie 
 beyond. This was occupied only in little settlements scattered 
 along the line of the railroad at great distances apart. The 
 buffalo that had formerly roamed over these great plains had even 
 then disappeared and the only monuments to remind one of their 
 former existence were the great pyramids of bleached bones that 
 had been gathered on the plains and deposited at the station side 
 for shipment to the east. In some places I saw enough horns 
 and bones to load a great many cars, which had been gathered in 
 from the surrounding country. 
 
 Besides these were deep winding paths which could be followed 
 with the eye, leading away over the plains in all directions which 
 had been worn by the feet of these long processions of buffalo which 
 formerly traversed these rich pastures, generally from north to 
 south or to drinking pools and streams which nature had pro- 
 vided and scattered all along the route. 
 
My Ranching Experience 47 
 
 Frequently, as the train bore westward on our journey, great 
 herds of antelope could be seen feeding and as the train came in 
 sight, they would stand at attention or startled, would skip away 
 like shadows over the grassy slopes. 
 
 Sometimes a huge wild cat or cayote could be seen, not 
 frightened, but deeply interested, as the train came in sight he 
 would stand and watch this strange apparition, this new invader 
 of his native precincts, in a way that would say — "Had I the in- 
 telligence and power, I would stop these inventions of the white 
 man from entering my sacred preserves." We arrived at the 
 ranch in due course and were soon settled in the rancher's little 
 log cabin situated just six miles west of Calgary, which was then 
 a little frontier camp or village of about 1,000 inhabitants, Indians 
 included. 
 
 In the camp was a big fireplace and a few dry logs that had 
 been picked up along the Bow River — a rapid running, foaming 
 stream that hurried by the door. It was well stocked with fish 
 and speckled trout were most plentiful there, but I found the 
 ranch people cared little for these for the reason that large and 
 beautiful lake trout weighing five to eight pounds each could be 
 so much easier captured in a narrow water course or ditch leading 
 from the river out to some "water hole" in the back country in 
 rear of the camp. These big fish were pitched out of the ditch 
 with a regular four-tined pitchfork, which tool the rancher was 
 an expert in handling. 
 
 Next morning, I was up early. The Senator, the ranch manager 
 and I, after breakfast, were off on horseback over the plains in 
 search of the shepherds and their flocks, which we had no difficulty 
 in finding, though they were often miles apart. We rode at times 
 through wide stretches of tall meadow grass, up to the horses' 
 backs, which waved to and fro in the autumn breeze, making a 
 most wonderful pasturage even in winter time after snow had 
 beaten it down, for even then the animals would dig down beneath 
 the covering and find a most nutritious food. 
 
 These shepherds follow their flocks around the prairie and, with 
 
48 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 their dogs, stay with them day and night. They carry with them 
 a wire netting which they use in making a corral or enclosed yard 
 in the open prairie. Into this corral every night, the sheep are 
 led. The shepherd stretches his little tent in the midst of the 
 sheep and, with his dogs, sleeps and prepares his food, going into 
 town or to the ranch house at stated intervals when relieved by 
 another like himself. It is in this way that the shepherd and his 
 sheep and dog become the best of friends and live in perfect 
 harmony together. Coyotes and other wild animals are always 
 lurking about where the sheep are kept and only constant watch- 
 fulness on the part of the shepherd and his dog will keep the sheep 
 from being destroyed. This day's visit with its long ride over the 
 rolling prairie will never be forgotten. It was all new to me — 
 not the sheep and the shepherd only, but the wild fowl, the wolves 
 and birds all were so unlike anything I had ever seen before and 
 then the great open prairie with never a tree in sight, the clouds, 
 the air all seemed so strange and interesting. But all this was 
 excitement for the day only and we returned to camp at night, 
 tired and hungry, ready to retire to bed as quickly as possible 
 when our evening meal was over. 
 
 During the night there came a sudden change of weather, a 
 heavy fall of snow, some six inches deep, which was dry and fine 
 as flour. When I looked out in the morning, I almost gave up in 
 despair. I thought that this would surely end our experiences in 
 this new and interesting work and we might as well go home. At 
 breakfast, the rancher remarked this was a good day for grouse 
 hunting. "They will gather together in bunches and are easily 
 shot from a horse's back." So it was agreed that we would try 
 our hand at this, for we could do nothing else. Breakfast over, 
 we were off to the open prairie. The snow spread its white mantle 
 over everything, making a sublime scene as we rode away with 
 the mercury at zero. A strong southerly wind was blowing in 
 our faces and although it was so cold and it was zero weather, we 
 did not mind it. We soon had a number of prairie grouse hanging 
 to our saddle straps and we now were after bigger game. Several 
 
My Ranching Experience 49 
 
 wolves appeared during the day. We fired at them and would 
 see them jump into the air or appear to dodge the bullet, but we 
 did not succeed in capturing any of them and we decided to return 
 early in the afternoon to the camp. As we rode back,— lo and 
 behold! the snow had all left and yet it was still zero weather. 
 Where had it gone and how could it go without melting? The 
 rancher explained that the wind we had felt so warm was the so- 
 called "Chinnook" (the Indian name for it) that it came across 
 the south and western plains and it simply absorbed the moisture 
 as it passed and had really taken up the snow in its flight, making 
 another wonder in this marvelous West. 
 
 After another day riding over and around our wonderful western 
 ranch and after visiting the sheep sheds, the stacks of hay that 
 had been cut and placed where it could be fed to the sheep late 
 in the winter in the event of the natural feeding grounds failing, 
 after hearing many weird stories and strange tales about this 
 camp or ranching life, we started on our return journey enthusi- 
 astic and exhilarated by our visit to the ranch. We talked of the 
 great future of the business. We calculated the increase, the gain 
 in wool and in mutton which was really to cost nothing to raise 
 out here where the sheep were expected to live out doors the year 
 round. The Senator counted the sheep ranch a safe and sure 
 thing and as he had made much money in cattle ranching, he 
 felt sure that sheep would prove better still. 
 
 He also had his mind on horse ranching and believed that 
 would pay best of all and as he unfolded a plan for breeding horses 
 on a grand scale, I soon fell into his way of thinking, for he had 
 high standing in the Dominion Government, and believed we 
 would not only raise the horses required for the government of 
 Canada but also for the English army, and that was a limitless 
 market. We arrived in Montreal to meet the other members of 
 our syndicate and lay before them our plan for adding to our 
 sheep ranch a new branch and that to be horses. Of course, 
 they agreed with us and the Senator was authorized to buy one 
 thousand Western mares, such as could be picked up in Oregon 
 
50 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 and Washington and a few of the best thoroughbred studs that 
 could be found in Kentucky blue grass region. Early the following 
 spring this stock arrived and every thing appeared ready for a 
 big and profitable stock raising business. The Senator appointed 
 his son as manager to live out there and take charge of the great 
 business. Before the horses had arrived in the spring we had 
 our first catastrophy. I cannot call it by another name for it 
 was so appalling and surprising. Our Scotch shepherds had 
 carried their flocks through the first long Canadian winter in 
 safety; they had fought off wolves and disease and had suffered a 
 good deal themselves in their strict devotion to the sheep, their 
 friends, when one night the shepherd was awakened by his dog- 
 out of a sound sleep and when he looked out, he saw at the north 
 of him, a great fire coming down upon him in a fury, chased by a 
 high wind the winter had left. The green grass had not yet 
 started so that the fire ran like a race horse over the great prairie. 
 The Scotchman had never seen a prairie fire before and did not 
 know which way to turn or what to do. Instead of at once lighting" 
 the grass at his feet and taking his sheep to the windward for a 
 moment while the grass nearby burned away, he opened the corral 
 and let the sheep out in the open prairie near the steep bank of 
 the Bow River and let the fire come on. It came, and the panic- 
 stricken sheep climbed over each other and, as the fire reached 
 them, they were smothered and destroyed by the hundred, for 
 those which were not burned jumped in their excitement off the 
 bank into the river and were drowned, so that few escaped of 
 this fine herd of five hundred sheep. 
 
 This was our first loss and we were optimistic enough to believe 
 it would never happen again and that now with our horses and 
 sheep and the Cochrane management, all would go well in the 
 future; so with $17,000. invested as my share in the business, I 
 was satisfied to rest and see the lambs and the colts multiply and 
 grow until they covered a thousand prairie hills, until we should 
 simply astonish the great markets of the world when we began to- 
 sell the annual increase. 
 
My Ranching Experience 51 
 
 This loss proved to be only a beginning, for following it came a 
 steady procession of them. Our mares began to disappear in 
 lots of twenties and thirties and the manager was unable to find 
 out where they went to. Our sheep also were driven away and 
 sold by our employees, and as for sales, there was not market for 
 anything. Our sheep had cost us an average of $4.50 each and 
 now our lambs and young sheep would bring only $1.50, our 
 horses were utterly unsaleable except to the Canadian govern- 
 ment who bought our horses at $30. each for the mounted police 
 which was only half of what they cost us. 
 
 This business went on this way for several years. I visited the 
 ranch the second time about the third year of its existence and I 
 concluded all our troubles were due to bad management; that 
 Senator Cochrane's son was alone responsible for its failure and 
 that we must sell out or get out quickly, or lose all we had invested 
 in it. The Senator agreed with me and the others and, after a 
 great effort, we succeeded in finding purchasers in two young 
 titled gentlemen who had lately arrived from England and whose 
 families had wanted to dispose of them and were willing to invest 
 some money to do it. They bought us out and took over what was 
 left of our great expectations. I received $3,000 back in return 
 for the $17,000 put into ranching — the remaining $14,000 I paid 
 for experience. 
 
MINING 
 
 T 71 7HILE traveling over the Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe 
 * " R. R. in the spring of the year 188- in company with my 
 wife, Mrs. Custer, the widow of General Custer, and others, a 
 young man, whom we will call Mr. B, came on board our car at 
 a place called La Junta — a junction where the road from Denver 
 comes down and meets the A. T. & Santa Fe. I had known Mr. 
 B from his early childhood and held a good opinion of his char- 
 acter and attainments, but knew little or nothing of his business 
 operations since he had left college at Ann Arbor, Michigan, from 
 which he had been graduated a few years before as a civil engineer. 
 I soon learned that he resided in Denver, Colorado, and was 
 the United States Assayist at that point and that, in the course 
 of his business, he visited the mines in that district, examined 
 and reported on the quality of the ores and was, in fact, an expert 
 in mining. 
 
 I also learned that he was en route for Albuquerque, New 
 Mexico, and from there was going up into the Magdalena Moun- 
 tains to examine mines in that region. I asked if he had ever 
 discovered a good rich mine and worked it for himself. He said 
 no, that for want of capital he had never been able to start any- 
 thing for himself or get ahead very far. He had seen others make 
 huge fortunes in mining and that Colorado was rich in opportunities 
 for those with capital. I thought to myself, "What a pity; he 
 ought to have a chance!" and a little wave or thrill passed over my 
 nervous system which I now think was a touch of "speculative 
 mining fever," for I said to Mr. B, "If in your perambulations 
 round and about these mines you at any time come across a real 
 'bonanza' — a big and sure thing — and you haven't the necessary 
 capital to take advantage of the situation, write me all about it 
 and may be I can help you." I was thinking then of the Mackey 
 mines in Nevada and the four hundred millions of gold which we 
 
Mining 53 
 
 took out of them. Mr. B left the train at Albuquerque and we 
 moved along on our journey to Mexico City, where we were going 
 for a little respite from a long Canadian winter, as we then resided 
 in Montreal. It was not many weeks before our travels had ended 
 and we found ourselves back home and on my desk there was a 
 letter from Mr. B awaiting my arrival. I opened it and sure 
 enough he had found it — had found the bonanza mine— and all 
 that was wanted was the necessary cash, thirty or forty thousand 
 dollars to make it disgorge millions — which was what we wanted. 
 He had found up near the top of one of the Magdalena Mountains 
 an old Spanish excavation or abandoned mine. He had gone down 
 into it, laid bare the mother lode, taken out a piece of ore weighing 
 about 10 lbs., assayed it (or a piece of it) and sent the remainder, 
 about 5 lbs., to me. His analysis showed it to contain about $4.00 
 in gold and $5.50 in silver to the ton, which, while it was considered 
 low grade ore, was very valuable, providing there was enough of it. 
 
 Of course, the first question that came to our mind was, Why 
 did these old Spaniards abandon it? They had done a lot of 
 work — a great mountain of dirt piled up about the mouth was 
 proof that they had worked the mine for a long time. Several 
 answers were given. One was that the Indians had probably 
 killed them, and so ended the work. Another was, that they had 
 taken out so much wealth that they did not want any more and 
 had gone back to Spain to spend it. But the mine was there 
 and Mr. B endorsed it. 
 
 I was unwilling, however, to invest so large an amount on any- 
 body's statement. I must see it with my own eyes and know all 
 about it, before I would believe it. I talked the matter over with 
 my friends. All whom I talked to about it, were willing to invest 
 their "last dollar," but this I would not allow, for had not I had 
 the burden and responsibility myself of its discovery, and why 
 should I let them in to carry away the profits and leave me the 
 glory only? I would give them a small percentage, but would 
 hold on to the main chance myself. A business friend of mine, 
 Frank Paul, of Montreal, in whom I had great confidence, as he 
 
54 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 had proven himself a very successful business man, decided to go 
 down with me and examine the mine, and, together, we would 
 decide what to do in the matter We went; we had Mr. B meet 
 us and accompany us up to the site of our new Eldorado. We 
 employed (after eating our lunch) a number of ranch ponies which 
 we mounted and started off up the mountain path or trail. 
 
 We had not gone far before the ponies began to "buck," that is, 
 jump up, lie down, stand on their heads or tails; in fact, do any- 
 thing to compel the rider to get off. In this they succeeded many 
 times over before we reached our destination, but we would mount 
 again and go on as before. When we had risen up to near the 
 top of our mountain, we looked across the valley lying between 
 us and the mountain beyond when our eyes were at once riveted 
 upon what appeared to be a mammoth lady's head and shoulders 
 firmly fixed to the side of this great mountain opposite. We were 
 all amazed at the perfect formation of the face or profile — the 
 hair so beautifully dressed in the Grecian style of knot, the ears, 
 the eye, the mouth, all in perfect detail. The whole created and 
 placed there by mountain slides, and mountain undergrowth, and 
 we were assured that this wonderful freak of nature occupied 
 many acres of land and this face, called the Mary Magdalen, had 
 been discovered by the Spaniards two hundred years before, and 
 that they had named the mountains and the face in honor of this 
 lady. 
 
 Soon after viewing this Magdalena we were down in the mine 
 examining with Mr. B the mother lode. It seemed to us a little 
 thread of ore or seam in the great rocks, but Mr. B assured us 
 that that meant nothing; that if we followed this seam for a 
 distance, it might be six inches or it might be one hundred feet, 
 we would surely come to a big deep pocket filled with this same 
 ore. We looked about; the refuse heap left by the Spaniards 
 glistened in the sun like silver, which we thought it was but 
 afterwards learned was lead or part lead and other mineral deposit. 
 The more we looked about, the more convinced we were that this 
 was the true bonanza; that this great deposit of wealth had been 
 
Mining 55 
 
 lying here for ages waiting for some sharp chaps like Paul and me 
 to come from Canada and take it away. We complimented Mr. 
 B on his discovery, returned to camp and to Montreal, after 
 arranging with Mr. B that he was to complete the purchase of the 
 property, purchase the necessary machinery, employ the necessary 
 help, and begin operations as quickly as possible, drawing on me 
 for funds from time to time to meet all expenses. 
 
 In due course, the work began at the mine. My friends and I 
 put up the money as it was spent on the works ; we paid for engines, 
 drills and tools without end; we paid for an overhead railway, 
 running from the mine down to the station at the foot of the moun- 
 tain, for how could we get our ore down to the cars and from there 
 to the smelter without it? We paid for the mine, also, for a large 
 area of land in every direction round about it, so as to control the 
 neighboring pockets that should be there and which we were sure 
 to get later on. 
 
 For a year Mr. B and his staff worked and toiled developing 
 this mine and getting it ready so that we could handle the moun- 
 tains of ore that we were about to take out with our wonderful 
 elevators and hoisting machines. 
 
 About the time I thought, and we all thought, the tide ought 
 to turn — no sales of ore were recorded upon the statements we 
 were receiving every month, only disbursements, or money paid 
 out. Paul and I decided we would again visit the mine. On 
 arrival there we followed the new tunnels through solid rock long 
 distances on the level, then were lowered down to other levels, 
 and there, too, we followed tunnels that had been cut through the 
 rock for long distances. We heard as we passed along from each 
 man we saw, "Have had no luck yet, but things look better now, 
 and we are going to strike a pocket sure, and it will be a rich one 
 when once we get there." We enquired about everything and 
 were finally convinced that we had bought the mine on the sole 
 chance that the vein which we had seen in the old Spanish excava- 
 tion would, or might, widen out and become a pay lode. We 
 became also pretty well satisfied that the Spaniards had followed 
 
56 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 this vein till exhausted, and had given it up. But having already 
 spent so much money here, we could not make up our minds to 
 shut down and abandon all at once. We decided to work sixty 
 or ninety days longer on a chance and then settle the matter. 
 
 We returned home and waited, expecting daily some good news 
 from the mine which did not come. At the end of sixty days, I 
 visited the mine again. I found Mr. B and the miners drilling 
 away at the end of a long tunnel. I asked them, "How does it 
 look today?" They replied in one voice, "It looks better today; 
 the vein is going to widen out." "How wide is it, as you have it ?" 
 I said. "About four inches, but of late it has been running about 
 two inches wide." "What was the width of this vein at the 
 beginning of our work a year and a half ago when we started?" 
 The answer was, "About four inches." "So it is practically the 
 same as it was when we started." "Yes," the foreman said, and 
 "Yes," Mr. B said. I turned to Mr. B and suggested that he 
 order out and discharge all his help and assistants and close down 
 the works. He might sell the ore on hand and machinery and we 
 would get out the best we could. Mr. B said there was only 
 about one and a half tons of pay ore on hand, and it and the 
 machinery together would not sell at a price that would pay to 
 remove it to the valley below; that we would be money in pocket 
 to abandon all where it was, and to this I agreed, and when the 
 men were paid Mr. B returned to Colorado and I departed on 
 my way home, having had my experience in mining and having 
 paid for it to the tune of about $20,000 which I again charged off 
 to the Mining Experience and retired. 
 
THE FELLOWS MEDICAL MANUFACTURING 
 
 COMPANY 
 
 HHHE most interesting experience in my business career might 
 best be described by giving a little sketch of the develop- 
 ment of this company. 
 
 In the year 1865 a doctor on board a ship then at anchor in the 
 harbor of St. Johns, N. B. went on shore and called with a per- 
 scription, which he wished to have made up, at a little drug shop 
 in that city, kept by James I. Fellows. Mr. Fellows examined 
 it and at first declined to make it up as it seemed so complicated 
 and difficult but on closer examination decided that this most un- 
 usual combination of chemicals and drugs was just what he needed 
 to take himself as he felt that he was suffering from, and already 
 was in, the first stages of tuberculosis. He prepared the compound 
 for the doctor and began using it himself and found great benefit 
 resulting from its use. He gave it to friends and others to try, 
 and samples to his physicians, and found it so popular with them 
 that in the course of a year or two he began selling it as his own, 
 or Fellows Compound Syrup of Hypophosphites. This he con- 
 tinued for several years and by advertising in the local press and 
 sending samples to the doctors, acquired a considerable sale 
 throughout New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. 
 
 About the year 1871 Mr. Fellows came to Montreal and called 
 upon me at my office. In the course of his business there, and 
 before he left, we had come to an agreement by which my company 
 should have the exclusive selling agency of his medicine for the 
 Dominion of Canada. This agreement was not destined to last 
 long because Mr. Fellows, it soon developed, had become deeply 
 involved in debt and must have at least $10,000.00 cash to settle 
 up his pressing obligations. He then offered me a one half interest 
 in his Hypophosphite business, which I finally purchased for my 
 company, at a sum of $12,500.00, we to have the entire control 
 
58 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 or management of the business, and we to furnish the necessary 
 cash to carry it on and develop it in our own way. 
 
 With this contract at hand, I started in on a big scale to extend 
 the business into the western Provinces of Canada. It soon 
 became evident that Mr. Fellows, owing to his extravagant tastes 
 and habits, was again running behind and all the time seeking to 
 overdraw or anticipate his profits, and to make loans which I did 
 not care to encourage, and after consideration, I decided to form 
 or incorporate a company to take over the Hypophosphite busi- 
 ness, rather than go on with the partnership arrangement that 
 sooner or later might draw us into trouble with Mr. Fellows. 
 
 I went to Boston, Providence, and New York, discussed the 
 matter with friends and patrons, and before I returned home in 
 about a week I had sold the business to a corporation to be formed 
 with $100,000.00 capital, my own company retaining a one fifth 
 interest or $20,000.00, Mr. Fellows an equal amount. It also 
 resulted in a cash distribution to each, Mr. Fellows and my 
 company of about $25,000.00 from sale of stock, proving as far 
 as my company was concerned, an exceedingly profitable deal. 
 
 We were soon incorporated and I was made president and 
 manager of the business. By this time I had gained great confi- 
 dence in this article and found it perhaps the most popular pro- 
 prietary medicine known on the Canadian market. It was 
 universally prescribed by the physicians and was highly spoken 
 of everywhere. 
 
 I decided that an article that would sell so well in Canada would 
 likewise sell in the United States and elsewhere, in exact proportion 
 to the population, if handled in the same way. I called a meeting 
 of the directors and laid before them a plan to send out in the 
 United States, at least twelve travelers to introduce and push the 
 sale there and also, as an experiment, send a man on a trip around 
 the world to establish agencies in all civilized countries. Some of 
 the directors looked aghast at the proposal but finally decided to 
 leave the business in my hands, to do as I liked about it, and I did. 
 
 I started the men into New England and the Middle States. 
 
The Fellows Medical Manufacturing Company 59 
 
 Also found and dispatched a man to London on his tour of the 
 world. I took entire charge of the traveling force myself. I made 
 arrangements with other people who had travelers out and used 
 them as far as possible, and our business grew from the very start 
 at a surprising rate. 
 
 I started a factory at Rouses Point, New York, that the goods 
 could be prepared in the States for the States market. We put 
 up and gave away sample bottles of the medicine by the thousand, 
 mostly to physicians. 
 
 Small dividends were paid upon the stock at first. Each year 
 as the business spread over the world, these dividends increased 
 in proportion. Factories were established in England, France, 
 Spain, Italy and Mexico and the Rouses Point establishment 
 was moved to New York to obtain better shipping facilities. 
 The man we sent around the world was followed by many others 
 and Fellows Syrup became an article of common use in nearly 
 every important market of the world. 
 
 I remained in charge and stood sponsor for this company's 
 business during the whole career between the years of 1872, when 
 the total sales were in the aggregate about two hundred gross per 
 annum, all in Canada, down to the spring of 1918 when I resigned, 
 or about forty-six years, during which time the business paid its 
 owners in dividends, over twenty-one million dollars and at this 
 time the medicine itself was as popular as ever in its existence, 
 having a sale of nearly a million and a quarter pint bottles annually, 
 and in almost every language spoken under the sun. 
 
 It is thus from small beginnings that great business enterprises 
 have grown and great fortunes have been made. I have often 
 felt that a mistake was made when I decided to incorporate this 
 company and sell out so large a part of our interest, that it would 
 have been better to have retained it ourselves, but at that time 
 no one could have foretold the great success which has attended 
 its exploitation. But again anyone could appreciate the notion 
 I had for selling as I did, getting $25,000.00 in cash for it, enabling 
 me to pay the money borrowed to purchase of Mr. Fellows the 
 
60 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 original half interest and to add $12,500.00 to the company's 
 profits besides this, still owning a fifth interest of the business with 
 the management control included. It was too good a deal to 
 turn down. 
 
THE NORTH CAPE EXPEDITION 
 
 /"\NE of our most interesting summer trips was the one to the 
 ^-"^ North Cape in the year 1886. We were then living in 
 Montreal, Canada. Upon our arrival in Bremen we traveled via 
 Kiel to Copenhagen and from thence to Stockholm and back to 
 Christiania where our trip really began. Here we hired a carriage 
 to accommodate our party, which consisted of my wife, myself 
 and four children. We found a most perfect roadway everywhere 
 we went, which was first to Lillihamer and then to Trondhjem on 
 the sea. The scenery was so striking and grand that no one who 
 has ever been through Norway and has seen it will forget the 
 wonderful mountain passes and waterfalls and the interesting 
 simple people met upon the way. 
 
 After a day in Trondhjem we went to Molde, arriving just as 
 the sun's last rays were painting this wonderful and most beautiful 
 of all Norway's fjords (with the snow-capped mountains beyond) 
 in all the colors of the rainbow. It was one of the few extravagant 
 scenes in nature which a person meets at long intervals and never 
 forgets. I remember only four of these great natural pictures 
 which stand out in my memory as the masterpieces of nature's 
 work : one of these was Mount Orizaba, in the early morning as I 
 saw it from Jalapa in Mexico ; another was Mount Tacoma, as I 
 saw it from a hotel in Tacoma in the evening glow; the third was 
 the glacier valley and mountains about near the Glacier House on 
 the Canadian Pacific Railway, which I also saw in the evening, 
 and the last was this scene at Molde, just described. 
 
 We boarded here a Norwegian mail steamer for the North Cape 
 trip, finding some very agreeable Americans on board, among them 
 the Butterfields of New York. For ten days we sailed in and out 
 of the beautiful bays and harbors of this lovely Norwegian coast, 
 never at any time entering the broad Atlantic or tempting the 
 terrible mal de mer by riding a single unruly wave. It was a 
 
62 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 summer sea all the way in these land-locked waters. The natives 
 came on board and departed at every port where we called to 
 deliver and take on the mails. The nights grew shorter with each 
 degree north until they disappeared altogether before we reached 
 the Cape and climbed to its summit, there at midnight to look 
 upon the golden orb in all its beauty on this July day, or we might 
 say, this midnight scene which we had traveled so far to see. We 
 saw strange and unusual sights both going and coming through 
 this (to us) unnatural region. The wild fowl in vast numbers 
 inhabit the islands and as the sun sinks low in the west appear to 
 retire to sleep and rest; with the firing of a cannon on board our 
 ship they would be suddenly awakened and in their fright hasten 
 away like a cloud darkening the sky overhead, there being such 
 vast numbers. At Lafoden Islands we saw Aurora in her greatest 
 beauty, and also witnessed some of those mirage scenes which 
 really startle one by their realistic forms and curious characteristics. 
 There, too, we saw the maelstrom of our childhood — that passage 
 we used to read about as children where an enchanted siren called 
 the thoughtless to a certain death among the treacherous rocks. 
 This we found a good deal of a myth, being a natural gorge in 
 between rocks where the tides played hide and go seek at certain 
 hours and times. Remembering Longfellow's story of the 
 mariner's tale to King Alfred, and the presentation of a walrus' 
 tooth to the king as proof that the story was true, we, at the un- 
 holy hour of two o'clock in the morning, entered a village and 
 compelled the owner of a little shop to get out of bed and sell us a 
 walrus' tooth, which we brought home with us and which we have 
 kept to this day to prove whatever we say of this arctic trip in 1886. 
 Our Captain was a prince in his line. He never tired of doing 
 us favors. He would stop the ship anywhere if we expressed a 
 desire to go ashore, and he catered to our taste in every way. 
 Sallie had a birthday during the voyage, and this fact became 
 known through Dudley's diary, which he was obliged to write, 
 and which he left about the deck and which everybody felt at 
 liberty to read, the Captain among others. As a result of this 
 
The North Cape Expedition 63 
 
 information, when the day arrived at noon, we were called on 
 deck to discover the ship arrayed in flags and gala decorations 
 from stem to stern, to hear the cannon salute the day by several 
 great explosions and afterwards to retire to the dining room and 
 there to find a most elaborate table fairly groaning under its load 
 of good things, and a great frosted cake covered with candles, as 
 especial honor to the occasion. It was a strictly Norwegian feast, 
 made up of Norwegian delicacies, among which I remember they 
 served instead of turkey (America's greatest product in the bird 
 line) the capilozra, about the same size but an entirely different 
 kind of bird, which lives among the snows of Norway. They 
 gave us new and strange berries and cheese and milk we had 
 never seen the like of before, and all of this was done in our 
 honor because of Dudley's diary. He was then about ten years 
 of age and a general favorite on board among the passengers. 
 
 At Hammerfest the Captain introduced his brother, or brother- 
 in-law to me and I found he was one of the largest producers of 
 cod liver oil in the world, and I made arrangements in the few 
 moments I was with him to represent his concern in Canada and 
 from that date down to the present our company has sold his oil 
 and has handled many thousands of barrels of it, at a profit, in 
 Canada. 
 
 On our arrival at Christiania I found and purchased a large 
 and beautiful meerschaum pipe in a case and sent it to the 
 Captain as a token of our appreciation for the many nice things 
 he did for our pleasure and amusement while we were with him 
 on the North Cape trip. During this voyage we passed the 
 German Kaiser William on his yacht, Hohemolern, but little 
 thought then the place he would later take in the world's history. 
 Had we known it, I am sure we should not have cheered him as 
 lustily as we did. 
 
 On our return to Christiania, we took steamer for Hamburg 
 across the Categat where we met the worst experience of our lives 
 in sea travel, but survived this, else we would not be here to tell 
 of it. 
 
LAWRENCE PARK 
 
 TT WAS in the autumn of 1889 that my brother-in-law, Mr. 
 -*■ A. M. Wellington, then sojourning in Bronxville, or making a 
 visit there, called my attention to the place by telling me that the 
 old Prescott farm was being offered for sale and that he thought 
 it could be bought at a bargain; he urged me to come out and 
 look it over. Just at this time I had withdrawn from my 
 active connection with our Canadian business in order to supervise 
 more closely the Fellows Company business just starting in New 
 York city, and that required but little of my time, except a general 
 oversight, which enabled me to go about and be much at leisure. 
 
 I promised to go out to Bronxville on the following Sunday to 
 meet Mr. Wellington and we walked leisurely over the farm con- 
 sisting of eighty-six acres. I had never been in this part of the 
 country before and experienced all sorts of emotions as I clambered 
 about over the rocks and through the blackberry bushes which had 
 been allowed to grow at random for a generation or two, with only 
 "cowpaths" remaining, through which we could find our way, 
 which wound in and out through the undergrowth and rocks. 
 To finish our tour we climbed up the hill by the railway station, 
 then simply a scrubby, rocky, berry patch. This hill is where 
 now stands the Hotel Gramatan. 
 
 I returned home wavering, for the property seemed worthless 
 for either agricultural or town development. But another thought 
 occurred to me. Would it not cut up into pretty little villa sites 
 for artists' homes or some similar class of professional people? 
 I thought the matter over and concluded that I would buy the 
 place and make its development my personal occupation, for at 
 this time I seriously contemplated retiring from business altogether. 
 
 After its purchase I hired a farmer and bought a yoke of oxen 
 and the necessary tools and began making roadways through the 
 property, the farmer employing a few Italians to aid in this work. 
 
Lawrence Park 65 
 
 I went out to Bronxville from the city about every day and staked 
 out the crooked roads as I wanted them, generally following the 
 cow paths which I found avoided all rocky points and led through 
 the ravines and valleys and in that way a narrow road was easily 
 and cheaply constructed along these lines, which were invariably 
 the lines of least resistance. I not only laid out the roads in this 
 manner but I divided the property up in building lots according 
 to this same rule, without regard to their size or shape and did 
 this work entirely by myself or with an Italian workman to drive 
 the stakes as I directed. The surveyor came after this work had 
 been done and mapped the property after I had finished staking 
 the entire eighty-six acres included in this purchase, which cost 
 $4300.00 or $500.00 per acre. The Prescott farm house, now the 
 Manor house, and an old tumble-down gate lodge, as well as two old 
 barns were included in this purchase and were all the improvements 
 on the property. I set to work restoring the houses at once, as 
 they were a disgrace to the farm, but at the same time I had no 
 thought of embarking into a regular suburban real estate develop- 
 ment, but an artists' colony, which it afterward became. I had 
 in mind the making of roads which would permit these people to 
 get in and see the property and perhaps buy it in sections. 
 
 About this time Mr. Wellington and two friends expressed a 
 wish that I would build them each a house, upon certain lots they 
 had selected, which they would rent or buy, and I finally agreed 
 to do this and this was, I suppose the beginning of Lawrence Park 
 as a residential development. 
 
 There was no water, no sewers or gas or electric lights. In fact 
 there were no modern conveniences whatever in Bronxville and 
 we were as much in "the country" as the pioneers who began life 
 out on the great western prairies, who have the sky above, the 
 land beneath, with scenery and fresh air to their hearts' desire. 
 As these first houses were going up in the wilderness, I was planning 
 to provide the other necessities, such as sewers, water, and light. 
 I made all of these of a temporary character but they met the re- 
 quirements well. I bored an artesian well to a depth of nearly five 
 
66 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 hundred feet, installed a steam pump and laid water mains which 
 were extended from time to time until the whole park was supplied 
 from our own water mains. I laid sewer lines in the same manner, 
 which in later years were presented to the village and they are 
 still in use. 
 
 Artists and others began to find the place and praise its natural 
 beauty and it quickly grew into a popular community while I 
 enlarged its borders by frequent additions of adjoining plots and 
 built each year a series of dwellings or stores or made other 
 improvements so that the Park showed evidence of continuous 
 growth and prosperity. Values increased rapidly. Some of the 
 lands bought at 25 cents per square foot near the station were sold 
 a few years later at $2.00 and even $3.00 per square foot ; and other 
 lands in proportion. This Park development, at first a fad, or a 
 business undertaken as a speculation without any well defined 
 plan of development, grew into a very large and profitable affair. 
 I built the first Gramatan Inn. The need of a hotel seemed 
 imperative for the purpose of advertising and exploiting the Park 
 and making it a success. This again necessitated the erection of 
 a heat, light and power plant to supply the hotel. 
 
 I built a casino building which in the early days of the Park 
 proved a valuable asset in bringing the residents together and 
 making them contented and happy. In order to create in Bronx- 
 ville a little civic pride Mr. F. R. Chambers, one of the citizens, 
 and myself built at our own expense, a half mile of fine macadam 
 road, the first ever laid down in this district, which led from the 
 railway station to the Dutch Reformed Church on the corner of 
 Midland Avenue. Previous to its construction the road was 
 almost impassable. As an object lesson, it was a great success 
 for the whole town of Eastchester immediately demanded similar 
 roads in every direction. 
 
 I established a weekly newspaper and printing office and called 
 it the Bronxville Review, in order to expose to the tax payers 
 the wrongs they were being subjected to by a ring of corrupt 
 politicians who had long been preying on the public in the town of 
 
Lawrence Park 67 
 
 Eastchester. The paper was effectual in supressing the gang and 
 finally bringing the leader, the supervisor of the town, to punish- 
 ment or to a long term in the State Prison. 
 
 The original Gramatan Inn caught fire and was destroyed at a 
 loss over and above the insurance of over $40,000.00 and I resolved 
 at first not to rebuild because of the sewer situation, which had 
 caused me a great deal of trouble, not being able to care for the 
 great amount of sewage the hotel sent down to the filtration 
 beds on the flat below. The village, however, after a time, two 
 or three years, agreed to provide a disposal plant if I would re- 
 build, and so much pressure was brought to bear that I decided 
 to proceed and put up a new and enlarged Gramatan Inn which I 
 did at an outlay of over $350,000.00. Many people ridiculed the 
 idea of such a house and were firmly convinced it was not needed 
 and therefore it would not pay, but I had become used to that 
 kind of talk before this. These same people had said the same of 
 our cottages, that they were all too good and expensive and that 
 there was no market for such. They said it of our stores and could 
 not possibly see why Bronxville should have stores when Mount 
 Vernon, Tuckahoe and Yonkers were so close by. But I went 
 ahead, relying on my own judgment, and found that there were 
 always people to rent or buy as fast as they were completed, and 
 that they all paid, and paid well, at the same time adding much 
 to the value of the surrounding property. 
 
 During these early years we had frequent accidents and many 
 occasions which called attention to the want of a hospital. They 
 had a small, and poorly constructed and conducted one at Mount 
 Vernon but it generally refused any cases from outside that city, 
 for it had not room to accommodate such. My son Dudley 
 was suddenly attacked with appendicitis at a late hour at night 
 and the doctors said an operation must take place at once. There 
 were no facilities at hand but by great good fortune there was a 
 midnight train to the city and they were able to take him to a 
 hospital and perform the operation in time to save his life. It 
 was after this experience that I decided to build and to give 
 
68 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 Bronxville the Lawrence Hospital, which with its endowment 
 cost me $250,000.00 and has become not only my own but Bronx- 
 ville's favorite charity. 
 
 As time went on an apparent demand for steam heated apart- 
 ments arose. I built a few and they met an unusual demand. 
 I built more and larger ones and they proved successful too. I 
 set apart certain sections of Lawrence Park for these and con- 
 structed the apartment houses upon these sections as much as 
 possible. Believing that steam heated little community houses 
 would also be popular with a certain class of refined and compara- 
 tively poor people, I built a few of these to try the experiment, 
 twenty-six in all. They turned out the most successful of all our 
 different styles of development and paid the best. And so 
 Lawrence Park developed from year to year. 
 
 In the year 1898 it became evident that the little community 
 would be better off by adopting a government of its own and 
 separating itself from the old township government. It applied 
 and adopted the village form of government to itself. It soon 
 became manifest that the village government ought to have a 
 home, and after consultations with Mr. F. R. Chambers, he and I 
 agreed to build and present to the village a public building, which 
 we did at a cost of about $57,000.00 which cost was borne in 
 equal shares by us. 
 
 The Park grew by constant purchases and additions until its 
 area amounted to over five hundred acres. The management of 
 its affairs grew more complicated until I saw a better organization 
 should be created and the business handled by several department 
 managers. I began by dividing the work and property into several 
 incorporated companies, each with its own manager and separate 
 office. Among these companies might be mentioned the Gramatan 
 Hotel Co., The Lawrence Park Realty Co., Heat, Light & Power 
 Co., The Residents of Lawrence Park Co., The Village Investment 
 Co., The Bronx Valley Press, Inc., all being really off -shoots of 
 the original Lawrence Park Realty Co. which still remained the 
 mother of them all. About this same time I came to the conclusion 
 
Lawrence Park 69 
 
 that no better legacy could be left my children than this great 
 property which bore my name and others, so I transferred or gave 
 it to them, giving each an undivided quarter interest and prac- 
 tically retired from its management, except as a general adviser. 
 
A LITTLE JOURNEY UP THE NILE 
 
 TT WAS in the year 1898, I think in the month of January, 
 ■*■ when we decided to leave New York and take a little journey 
 up the Nile for a sort of a spring vacation. 
 
 We took steamer for Naples and arrived there on a beautiful 
 morning. The sun was glittering on the lovely bay and the 
 smoke from Vesuvius was lazily rising into skies clear as a crystal. 
 It made a scene I never will forget as long as I live. We landed 
 and took train for Brindisi where we met the steamer plying 
 between London and Australia through the Suez Canal. It was 
 a large and beautiful steamer, and in due course we arrived at 
 Port Said and found ourselves amidst oriental scenes. 
 
 From there we went to Cairo. Our party consisted of Sallie and 
 myself, Anna and our old friend Mrs. Murray of New York. 
 Upon our arrival we met Mrs. Custer who was just returning 
 from a trip around the world. We explored the old city of Cairo 
 with its museums and wonderful scenes, among which the Bazaar 
 proved to be about the most interesting. We visited the Pyramids 
 going there over an electric railway, which seemed quite out of 
 accord with the surroundings but which has become a necessity 
 even in Egypt. 
 
 We went up to Memphis and for the first time went down into 
 the tombs and followed along those dismal caverns by the light 
 of a torch for, I should say, a mile, viewing the tombs of the sacred 
 bulls and all that sort of thing, everywhere being astonished at the 
 wonderful industry and wealth these people must have had in order 
 to leave behind such monuments as they did to their civilization. 
 
 We took in everything about Cairo, the mosques as well as 
 modem social habits and saw everything we could. Our steamer 
 finally came and we started up the Nile. This was certainly a 
 novel trip. We followed up the Nile stopping at every ruin and 
 town along the road for one thousand miles ending at Philae. 
 
A Little Journey up the Nile 71 
 
 We viewed the temples and tombs, always stopping at night by 
 the side of the stream, as the steamer could not find its way through 
 those shallow waters and therefore could not travel at night. We 
 often were aground by day but could easily back up and get 
 afloat again. 
 
 We learned to ride the donkey and the camel on these excursions 
 from the steamer back into the country, sometimes going to a 
 distance of three or five miles away. 
 
 The ruins showed that large cities once stood around about 
 these temples and monuments and had been completely buried by 
 the drifting sands. Parts of these cities had been uncovered but 
 most of them, like the old city of Thebes, had become a great 
 open country where leeks and onions and hay and barley were 
 growing in great fields, with here and there an ancient monument 
 or tomb rearing its head upon that dismal plain. One could hardly 
 believe that a city so great as this could have been buried and 
 lost. 
 
 Luxor, directly opposite Thebes is the most magnificient ruin 
 I ever saw. As I remember it, it was nearly a half a mile long, 
 made up of colossal columns and obelisks and long avenues of 
 Egyptian figures, but now all is fallen to ruin and the great temple 
 is situated upon a level plain along the Nile which has flooded 
 this district for thousands of years until most of what has been a 
 great city is far beneath the surface of the land. 
 
 Philae was a very beautiful spot. The English Government 
 was building a dam across the Nile for the storage of water but 
 the water had not yet risen to a height to cover the surroundings 
 and the old temple of Philae stood out in bold relief. It has since 
 been swallowed up in this wonderful dam the English have created. 
 
 Next to Luxor the temple of Osiris was the most interesting 
 ruin we visited in Egypt. It was here they found the original 
 Rosetta Stone. It is still one of the stones in the surface of the 
 wall which, until late excavation took place, was way beneath 
 the surface of the ground. On this stone is inscribed in Greek, 
 Latin and Egyptian a proclamation of the Pharaoh of that day. 
 
72 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 It was from this fact that we learned how to read the Egyptian 
 language or hieroglyphics which are seen upon all the tombs and 
 public buildings. This language is of course extinct today but 
 guides and teachers are able to read it as readily as they do their 
 own native language. 
 
 It took us about three weeks to go to Philae and return to 
 Cairo. We saw much of the people, saw them at their native 
 occupation, pumping water just as they did in the days of Pharaoh. 
 They are an ignorant, stupid lot of people, mostly naked. A bit 
 of civilization is creeping in here and there. A number of schools 
 have been established by foreign missions. 
 
 No one can go up the Nile and return without getting much 
 food for thought. The temple of Osiris in particular, gives in 
 pictures much of the religion of that day, the religion which Moses 
 undertook to copy. The father Osiris, the mother Isis and the 
 son Horus made up the holy family. They carried their dead 
 across the river Styx and believed in the future. They have 
 pictures carved in stone of raising the dead and all these things 
 antedated the arrival of Moses in the land and, naturally, much of 
 the Old Testament is derived from these Egyptian teachings. 
 
 We went from Cairo to Alexandria where we spent a couple of 
 days visiting the city and then took steamer for Jerusalem. It 
 is only a few hours run from Alexandria to Jaffa where we arrived 
 in the early morning but they have no protected harbor there and 
 the wind was blowing a high gale off shore and it was impossible 
 to leave our large steamer so we had to lie there about a mile from 
 shore, waiting for the gale to subside. We were there all day 
 and finally had to return to Port Said and there, in a safer position, 
 spent the night. Next day we were more successful. We crossed 
 over again and landed at the ancient city. It is a terrible tumble- 
 down old town at the present time. We took a train there and in 
 a few hours landed at Jerusalem. It is a very interesting journey 
 up to the city, being a steep climb all the way from the shore. 
 We crossed the plains of Sharon in sight of several old ruins and 
 villages whose names are quite familiar, as they belong to the 
 
A Little Journey up the Nile 73 
 
 Philistines, one which we passed is the village where the struggle 
 between Sampson and Goliath took place. 
 
 We were in Jerusalem about a week during which time we took 
 a carriage and drove out to Bethlehem which is only six or eight 
 miles distant. We visited the Church of the Nativity which is 
 now in a shocking condition, a surprise to everyone who goes there, 
 and most people wish they had not gone for it suggests everything 
 except what they would expect of a sacred edifice. The city itself 
 is about the lowest and dirtiest town I ever was in. It is situated 
 on a hill and the streets are filthy and full of ruts and holes. They 
 have no modem conveniences and one sees nothing there to sug- 
 gest the prevalent idea at home of this birthplace of the Saviour. 
 
 About midway between Jerusalem and Bethlehem there is a 
 spring pouring out of the side of the hill, one of the most 
 wonderful springs I have ever seen. The water gushes forth 
 in a great stream, as large as the Bronx River when it is not in 
 flood. This was the spring which Solomon in his day hitched up 
 in some way with the temple of Jerusalem. Sections of the pipe, 
 which was made out of earthen ware which Solomon used, still 
 exist. The water is pure and beautiful and is today a great part 
 of the water supply of Jerusalem. 
 
 The city of Bethany is also in a state of ruin. There are a few 
 houses but mostly cellar walls which have fallen in or been burned 
 over. It is pleasantly situated near the Jordan River and was, in 
 its time I have no doubt, a pretty little place. We visited the 
 Mount of Olives and from a tower upon its summit, probably one 
 or two hundred feet high, we were able to look, it would seem, all 
 over Palestine, and by a very intelligent guide points of interest 
 familiar to every Sunday School child were pointed out, from 
 Mount Nebo on the east to the mountains of Syria on the west. 
 Jerusalem lies at one side, the garden of Gethsemane and the 
 Dead Sea are in full view as well as the River Jordan which flows 
 into the Dead Sea at this point. 
 
 The Mosque of Omar is a feature of interest in the city today 
 and is built upon the site of Solomon's Temple. It is a most inter- 
 
74 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 esting place to visit. The interior of this mosque is largely taken 
 up with a high rock which is allowed to remain in its natural condi- 
 tion and is enclosed by an iron fence. It was by this rock that 
 Abraham built the fire where he was to offer the sacrifice of his son 
 Isaac. Underneath it is a large chamber, made in the days of 
 Solomon, cut out of the rock, into which flowed the blood of the 
 animals killed in sacrifices; the blood was then washed away 
 by water brought from the spring which I have spoken of out near 
 Bethlehem. This is one of the most interesting features as I had 
 never heard it described and it was therefore a surprise to me. 
 
 We visited what is called Zion's Hill or the City of David which 
 we found is in modern times largely given up to markets; and here 
 too were the most filthy and indescribable scenes of poverty I 
 had ever seen; old women going there to market with a penny to 
 buy a penny's worth of the entrails of animals or a horn or any- 
 thing in which there is any substance at all, for they were near to 
 starvation. We visited the Church of the Crucifixion where is 
 said to be the site of the crucifixion. This too, at the time I was 
 there, was truly a melancholy spectacle. Christ is seen upon the 
 cross between two thieves. A marble slab is constructed upon 
 the ground in front of them which is also surrounded by a low 
 iron or brass rail. It was then just at the time of a Russian 
 pilgrimage and these Russians by the score were lying on their 
 stomachs on this marble slab, kissing it and worshipping it. The 
 tomb near by where Christ was supposed to have been laid was 
 another scene of Russian piety and superstition. 
 
 In fact everyone of these places we visited had the effect of 
 creating within you disgust that a place of this kind should be 
 contaminated by human beings of the twentieth century. In 
 the Garden of Gethsemane you are met by a crowd of lepers, 
 who with their horribly diseased figures are begging for pennies. 
 Wherever you go either lepers, or others quite as objectionable 
 to your senses, appear with open palms outstretched for aid. 
 
 There were only two places in the whole area that I remember 
 visiting in which I found pleasure. One of these was the tower 
 
A Little Journey up the Nile 75 
 
 on the Mount of Olives which I have referred to and the other 
 was a walk around about the walls of Jerusalem, which I took one 
 afternoon with my guide, who was an educated man from the 
 Beirut College. We walked entirely around the city walls and 
 he pointed out and described the various scenes as we came to 
 them: the different roads and where they led, the pool of Siloam, 
 the Brook of Hebron and hundreds of other things I cannot 
 remember. It certainly was a delightful walk. My guide him- 
 self being a Moselem was violating the law in taking me around as 
 he did for he had no right to be on the outside of the wall of the 
 city, and we walked on the outside. 
 
 After these few days in Jerusalem we again returned to Jaffa to 
 our steamer which awaited us and we went to Beirut. We left 
 the steamer there and visited the College and drove about the 
 town which is very interesting owing entirely to Bible history. 
 The cedars of Lebanon grow above it upon a hill at the right at 
 the base of Mount Carmel; in fact everything you see around 
 about has a familiar name. 
 
 From there we went on to Smyrna and spent a day or two at 
 that place. We visited Ephesus, went over the great ruin of the 
 Temple there which was one of the seven wonders of the world 
 but now lies level with the ground. The marble fluted columns 
 lie strewn along the earth. The hill where St. Paul preached to 
 the Ephesians is identified by a little chapel upon its summit. 
 Here again you are impressed with the poverty of the people. 
 We in America have no conception of it. Vessels in the time of 
 prosperity probably came up to its docks and unloaded their 
 wares upon the wharves in the center of the town. Now the 
 marsh grasses have taken possession of the harbor for nearly 
 three miles away, and it is closed to navigation. No boats 
 can get to the city and as you look at it you could hardly sup- 
 pose they had ever been able to navigate such a place. From 
 Smyrna we returned by a very interesting journey through 
 the Dardanelles to Constantinople and then through the Balkans 
 to Vienna and Paris and home. 
 
SILENT PARTNERS 
 
 A T ONE time in my life the thought of being a silent partner 
 ■**■ seemed very attractive. It seemed very like pushing the 
 button and some one else doing the rest. All that I was required 
 to do was to advance a certain capital, which I could easily manage, 
 and it would go on increasing ad infinitum while I slept and 
 kept silent. The idea was a good one, I thought, and I did not 
 have to wait long for an opportunity to try the experiment and 
 become a real silent partner. 
 
 A relative of mine, Mr. S. had received a long and valuable 
 experience as a traveling salesman for a wholesale clothing house 
 in Chicago, extending over perhaps twenty years, during which 
 time he had traversed the wilds of Illinois and Wisconsin by rail, 
 traveling by night and by day, trying to appear goodnatured to 
 his customers when he wasn't, and resorting to all sorts of ruses 
 to induce those up-country merchants to give their orders to him 
 and not to another fellow representing a rival clothing house. 
 
 He wanted to go into business on his own account and stop 
 traveling. He thought with his long and valuable experience he 
 could make money for himself, as well as for the old firm he had 
 so long represented; besides this, he had a friend, a Mr. C. in the 
 same business who also had, for over twenty years, occupied a 
 high position in the office of the aforesaid clothing firm and would 
 like to join him and form a junior clothing house firm. Mr. S. had 
 a thorough knowledge of all the outside and Mr. C. knew every- 
 thing pertaining to the inside or office work of a big clothing house. 
 They had a little capital of their own, but wanted more and wanted 
 credit to make the business a big success, in which there were 
 millions for everybody — for who had ever gone into the clothing 
 trade in Chicago and not made millions? They invited me to 
 come in as "silent partner"; put up some of the cash, that was 
 needed, and let them do the rest. 
 
Silent Partners 77 
 
 Thinking as I did about this time that it was an opportunity, 
 or as they say in Paris an occasion, I agreed and the papers were 
 formally drawn up by an able lawyer. So, thereafter, there was 
 really nothing for me to do but to pass in my checks as wanted. 
 
 The firm was inaugurated, a big store secured, a staff of help to 
 run the business engaged, and the ship was launched right off into 
 deep water. Instead of starting away in a light breeze and keeping 
 close to shore they sought to pass the old and seasoned ship, 
 which they had forsaken, and tried to leave it behind. They 
 could not, or would not, go cautiously or slow and gather strength 
 as they went along. They only knew the ways of the old firm, 
 which they followed and tried to improve on or go one better. 
 Although a "silent partner" I saw the ship would not long weather 
 the gale for neither of the navigators knew how to handle the ship, 
 and they were each accusing the other of this want of knowledge. 
 Things were going from bad to worse, the expenditures were out 
 of all proportion to their earnings, and it was easily seen after the 
 first year's trial that the firm would not succeed. 
 
 The second year proved no better than the first, and soon after 
 each of the partners tried to buy out the other, and at last this 
 was accomplished. Mr. C. was permitted to buy out Mr. S. and 
 myself at a sacrifice rather than wind up the business, in which 
 case, our entire capital, it was thought, would be lost as matters 
 were conducted. I, the silent partner, was permitted to go out 
 after losing over $14,000. in the undertaking, which I was pleased 
 to charge off to the "Silent Partner Experience" and retire from 
 the clothing business. 
 
THE HOTEL GRAMATAN 
 
 J AM often asked how I came to build this hotel, what first 
 -*• suggested it to my mind. In the early days of Lawerence 
 Park the hill where the hotel stands was known as "Sunset Hill" 
 and about the sunset hour in summer the residents often went 
 up to the summit to see the sun sink down behind the western 
 hills or palisades beyond the Hudson, and it was on one of these 
 little visits that it occurred to me that a scene from a hotel porch 
 or window such as these we witnessed would be a great attraction 
 and I resolved to build here a little English inn such as I had 
 visited along the River Wye in western England. 
 
 I gave an order to Mr. William A. Bates, architect, to make plans 
 for such and when he finally had them to suit, they had ceased 
 to be the English inn such as I had thought of building, and had 
 become a little colonial inn containing only about sixty beds, as 
 I thought the one we originally had in mind would not suit this 
 hot American climate and our American people. 
 
 This colonial inn I had furnished throughout with old-fashioned 
 mahogany furniture and I had the artists of the Park decorate 
 the interior, each furnishing a large and important painting, which 
 gave the public rooms an air of importance and dignity possessed 
 by few of its kind anywhere. This "Gramatan Inn" became 
 widely known in a very short time and was soon found entirely 
 too small, so I proceeded to build a wing or extension, adding 
 about sixty more rooms, but before this had been two years in 
 use a fire broke out and consumed the whole building. 
 
 After two or three years, so much pressure was brought to bear 
 that I decided to build on a much larger scale than before, for I 
 felt quite sure that we could support a large hotel if it was made 
 first class and that it would be the greatest possible aid in making 
 and developing our Lawerence Park properties. 
 
 I gave the construction of this hotel much of my own thought 
 
The Hotel Gramatan 79 
 
 and attention. I staked out all the outer lines of the building 
 and requested the architect, Mr. Bates, to fill in the space with the 
 building. I conceived of the idea of overlapping and extending 
 the structure down the side hill and putting an entrance on the 
 lower street which was the needful thing to do to insure success. 
 It was a success from the very beginning. It has always paid 
 well, first in dividends or good interest on the investment, but 
 more in the prestige and popularity it gave to us and to Bronxville 
 as well. It advertised Lawerence Park and Bronxville far and 
 near and brought a multitude of people to Bronxville, many of 
 whom chose homes for themselves and became permanent residents 
 of the place. 
 
NOTES ON A TRIP TO CALIFORNIA 
 
 S~\ N March fifth, 1915, about 10 a. m. we arrived in New Orleans 
 ^^ after a wonderful trip from New York lasting about forty- 
 hours. Dudley accompanied Sallie and me as far as Montgomery, 
 Alabama, where he left to join Kate, who had gone on a preceeding 
 train. We also had with us, Irma, Sallie's maid. We left New 
 York with the mercury 25° above zero and found at New Orleans 
 the trees in full bloom and spring quite at hand. We stopped here 
 at the St. Charles Hotel two days and visited all parts of the city, 
 taking the tour of the harbor which we found very interesting. 
 This city appears to have a great and prosperous future ahead of it, 
 with such a harbor and such a position on the coast of our country. 
 We left at 11 a. m. on the Southern Pacific for Los Angeles, Cali- 
 fornia. It was a rather monotonous run through Louisiana and 
 Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, taking three days and three 
 nights, but though uneventful it was not tiresome and passed 
 very quickly. 
 
 On March tenth, we took a motor car and went over to Pasadena 
 hunting up Hotel accommodations. After visiting several we 
 finally decided to stop a week at the "Raymond," as the grounds 
 and general appearances were most pleasing and beautiful. In the 
 afternoon we took a "rubber neck" motor car and went all about 
 Los Angeles and noted the great change that has taken place in the 
 city since we visited it before, about thirty years ago. Then it 
 was a small town of twenty or thirty thousand people and now 
 they claim five hundred and fifty thousand people. After our 
 tour about the city we came over to the Hotel Raymond for the 
 night. 
 
 For a whole week we played and loitered about this region, 
 leaving for San Diego on the seventeenth. In San Diego we 
 found a resting place at the Coronado Beach Hotel which was 
 most beautifully situated on the Pacific shore with a perfect 
 
California 81 
 
 climate and perfect surf bathing in the sands directly below 
 our windows. Here we spent nearly a week, listening to the 
 waves, the birds and the soft, balmy breeze as it wafted its 
 sweet, fresh perfume into our faces. Surely San Diego has a 
 charm all its own and leads one to exclaim "Why has nature 
 given this place so many advantages ? Why so beautiful ?" Even 
 the sea as you gaze upon it, casts a charm over your sensibilities 
 and makes you its victim. Like all the rest, you are spellbound 
 as you sit and watch the great lazy breakers roll in and crush 
 themselves into snowy white foam on the golden sands of which 
 the long crescent beach is formed. In the eleven days since we 
 landed in California I had not seen a cloud as large as a man's 
 hand. 
 
 After San Diego came "Riverside," another Paradise on earth, 
 where we stopped to rest for three or four days at the Mission Inn, 
 a wonderful modem structure built in Mission style but a regular 
 museum in its make-up. The proprietor, Mr. Miller, is a real 
 antiquarian by nature and has money to express his taste to the 
 fullest. By this great rambling hotel he has a miniature West- 
 minster Abbey with an organ which fills the great hall with music 
 and also a chime of beautiful bells, which two or three times each 
 day, ring and play only to please the hotel patrons. They also 
 have soloists and harpists and other musicians who sing and play 
 the whole day long. I was much pleased with this and also with 
 the beautiful parrots which adorn the entrance gates, and the 
 house decorations of old Spanish water colors and paintings. 
 Mr. Miller's son-in-law, Mr. Harrison was very kind to us, gave 
 us his own motor car to go over to Mr. Smalley's wonderful 
 Garden Park at Redlands, a beautiful ride not far away, about 
 twenty miles over perfect roads. 
 
 After Riverside we took train for Santa Barbara, another 
 interesting and lovely place where we stopped for two or three 
 days at the Arlington, a new hotel on the hill over the town. 
 Here the roses and flowers excel and take the place of the oranges 
 now left behind. We took a motor car and drove out thorugh 
 
82 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 Monticito, the society suburbs where a great colony of wealthy 
 people have settled after building themselves most beautiful and 
 costly homes. We went through the grounds of a Mr. Gilespie 
 where no expense had been spared, and which I think were among 
 the finest and most costly I have ever seen. The old museum is 
 interesting but is no attraction now. 
 
 After a couple of days at Santa Barbara we went on to Del 
 Monte, where I stopped twenty-nine years ago at the Hotel Del 
 Monte, for a few days' rest. Of course that hotel was no more, 
 having burned up about the time we were here, but a larger one 
 occupied its place and the beautiful gardens I then saw are even 
 more beautiful today. The trees were big then but are bigger 
 now and older too, many showing the ravages of time have been 
 braced up and patched up by the tree doctor until they appear to 
 be old cripples on their last legs, so to speak, but I in comparison 
 have grown old too in these twenty-nine years, have been patched 
 and doctored too, else I, like the trees, would have been driftwood 
 on the sands of time. The doctoring and patching has been good 
 for both them and me. 
 
 We stopped three days in Del Monte and left on April first for 
 San Francisco, almost, if not the exact, anniversary of our visit 
 here twenty-nine years ago. We took the seventeen mile ride 
 today that we took then but how different it was! Then we drove 
 horses through the woods — now an automobile through a con- 
 tinuous settlement of cottages and settled country, mostly laid 
 out in town lots. 
 
 On March thirty-first we took the afternoon train and arrived 
 in San Francisco about 8:30 in the evening and put up at the 
 Cliff Hotel, a new house just opened for business. Here we re- 
 mained until the ninth of April going daily to the great World's 
 Fair, or Panama Exposition, or going about the great and flourish- 
 ing city of the West. 
 
 On the ninth of April we started on our way to the East at 2 p. m. 
 over the Union Pacific R. R. The weather was bright and pleasant 
 as it had been during our whole sojourn on the coast. The trip 
 
California 83 
 
 across the continent over this road is not at all interesting. The 
 fairest and best scenery we pass in the night but the road is smooth 
 and the service is prompt and perfect. 
 
 We arrived in Chicago at 1 :30 p. m. on the twelfth of April, 
 after an uneventful passage, and went directly to the Hotel Black- 
 stone where we remained two days, leaving at 5:30 p. m. on the 
 fourteenth. We spent our time in Chicago motoring about the 
 city and visiting my real estate holdings in North and South 
 Chicago. We arrived in New York at 5 :30 p. m. on the fifteenth, 
 having been away forty-three days in making our trip from coast 
 to coast and return. 
 
EARLY DAYS OF THE EUROPEAN WAR 
 
 THE twenty-ninth of July, 1914, found us, that is my wife 
 myself, and party of four friends, automobiling and at Frei- 
 burg in the Black Forest of Germany. We had been in Germany 
 for nearly two months, a portion of the time taking the cure at 
 Bad Nauheim, after which we came to these Forests for a period 
 of rest before starting again on our tour through Switzerland and 
 France. 
 
 News of war between Austria and Servia had found its way into 
 this forest sojourn of ours, but at this time, had caused no com- 
 motion or had scarcely been remarked upon in our hearing. But 
 that was not surprising for Freiburg is a little mountain village 
 far separated from the rest of the world — a simple-minded, clock 
 making community. 
 
 The time had arrived however, for us to start for Switzerland, 
 so at two o'clock our car was winding its way down the steep in- 
 cline from our hotel and we were off at a lively speed toward the 
 frontier of Switzerland. By five o'clock we had passed the cus- 
 toms, both German and Swiss, had received back the German 
 duties which had been paid on entering the country near Liege 
 about the first of June, last, and had paid the necessary duty which 
 the Swiss demand on taking a motor car into their country. Noth- 
 ing at all unusual occurred as we rolled along over the beautiful 
 roads through that fascinating country lying nearest the Falls of the 
 Rhine until we suddenly came out in full view of the Falls which 
 lie just below Schaffhausen. We only paused here for a few 
 minutes as these falls did not impress us Americans who have 
 stood above Niagara and have listened to the roar of the mad 
 waters as they leap away to the depths below, and we soon were 
 on the road approaching Zurich. It was on this road between 
 the Rhine and Zurich that we met the first suggestion that a 
 European war was approaching, and that was carts and wagons 
 
Early Days of the European War 85 
 
 on the road of every kind and description carrying soldiers to the 
 Swiss frontier. By seven o'clock we had arrived at Zurich, which 
 seemed a regular little Paris, everything betokening great pros- 
 perity and thrift. After putting up at the Hotel Bauer au Lac 
 we soon found great crowds gathering about the bulletin boards 
 and considerable excitement everywhere, the impression seeming 
 to be that a great European war was inevitable, — and this was 
 the first time that we had heard this was probable. Next morning 
 war news had become more exciting, reports that Germany, with 
 France and perhaps all Europe, was rapidly drifting into a terrible 
 war, were circulated about. A run had begun upon the banks 
 and it was plain to see that everybody was anxious as to what the 
 immediate future was to reveal. I had intended to remain over 
 for a few days in Zurich but before the day was over I decided to 
 proceed to Lucerne and get farther away from these exciting 
 scenes. 
 
 Early on the morning of the thirty-first of July we started for 
 Lake Zug and Lucerne, reaching the Hotel Schweizerhof , in the lat- 
 ter place, in the afternoon. The hotels and quays, and shops too, 
 were scenes of great animation but the crowd was made up largely 
 of strangers who did not seem to realize the real condition of 
 affairs as yet and were one and all busy with their own plans 
 and pleasures, and we settled quietly down in our hotel rooms 
 overlooking the beautiful lake and the snow capped panorama 
 stretching out before our view. The next morning, August 1st, 
 brought the war closer to us. Some of the hotels were obliged to 
 close up entirely. Others were crippled, since employees and 
 others were ordered to the ranks. The newspapers published 
 very little news, all of which had to pass the censor's critical 
 eyes, for little Switzerland had no desire to be drawn into what 
 now began to appear a world war. Private telegrams were posted 
 in the hotel giving about all the news to be had, and those only 
 added to the excitement of the hour. Troops began to gather 
 on the streets and to march almost hourly by the hotels, singing 
 their Swiss national songs and other popular airs, which added to 
 
86 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 the already great volume of excitement. The government that 
 day seized all the gasoline in the country and as there was no 
 prospect of getting this useful article which must be had if the 
 motor car is to run, I at once resolved to store my car and wait 
 until the war was over, for there was no use kicking against the 
 pricks, besides that, our taste for motoring or sight-seeing had 
 already vanished. Nothing appeared to interest us now but the 
 war news — what had happened during the day, and what would 
 happen tomorrow. 
 
 The next morning, August second, we heard on getting our coffee 
 and rolls, that war had been declared between Germany and Russia 
 and we Americans began to take counsel with each other as to 
 how we were to get away and back to our own homes, and this 
 feeling was not altogether confined to Americans either. All 
 nationalities were there and all were discussing the same subject. 
 How are we to get back to our country ? Everybody was anxious 
 and all knew their friends were equally anxious at home. We 
 all knew that it was a matter of hours only when France and 
 perhaps England, too, would be at war and mobilizing their troops, 
 and all transportation to the coast would be blocked. Some few, 
 feeling this, made a bold rush to get away. They were told there 
 was but little use, for the trains could not get through, but go 
 they would; and these, or many of them, got into great trouble 
 before they reached their destination. 
 
 I cabled home that I was nicely located at the Schweizerhof 
 Hotel and should remain there till the clouds rolled by. This I 
 did as these recollections will show later. 
 
 It could be easily seen that the several governments were 
 mobilizing their troops and that every steam engine and car on 
 the various railroads was being used for that purpose and until all 
 that was accomplished we could not be cared for. Mails had 
 already ceased to come to hand and all communications with other 
 countries had been suspended except by telegraph alone. 
 
 The next day, August third, was unusually exciting owing to 
 the Swiss troops leaving for the front. Large masses of artillery 
 
Early Days of the European War 87 
 
 and cavalry were passing for hours and everyone was asking why 
 this little republic should be sending forth such an army (said to be 
 nearly 300,000 men) when she had no war, — why she should be 
 obliged to foot such an enormous bill of expense, but no one seemed 
 able to answer. Strangers found then that their letters of credit 
 or bills of exchange, checks, orders, etc., were all useless, for the 
 banks simply declined to recognize them. Some of the banks 
 closed their doors entirely and the others put strong men at the 
 entrance who would let in two or three visitors at a time. Touring 
 about, sailing on the lake or other pleasures, were almost totally 
 stopped and the crowd of visitors at the hotel and elsewhere were 
 content to sit on the piazzas and discuss war news from morning 
 till night. Shopping, too, ceased; the stores were forsaken and 
 empty. What was a lively hurly-burly city a few days ago 
 seemed then dead as Pompeii after its resurrection. People had 
 no money and could not get it. Many millionaires thereabout 
 were unable to pay their hotel bills and were obliged to ask for 
 credit which the polite and genial landlords were too glad to 
 grant. This made nervous people even more anxious than ever 
 and there were some who were there with very limited means, 
 school teachers and others, who had their tickets paid home by 
 German or Belgian steamers and had no possible way of reaching 
 them and these people found their position most embarassing 
 and were asking help. 
 
 August fifth came in with the news that war between Germany 
 and France had been declared and thus the darkness deepened. 
 All outward trains ceased running that day and it was then evident 
 that we were "completely bottled up" in old Lucerne. The Ameri- 
 cans called together a great mass meeting at our hotel. There 
 were 2,000 present who resolved to send a telegram to President 
 Wilson for relief, which appeared to me a foolish thing to do since 
 everybody knew that President Wilson would do all in his power 
 to aid us without the asking, as he knew our predicament as well 
 as we ourselves. The banks refusing to give out money created 
 a state of affairs bordering on panic, and preparations were being 
 
88 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 made by the Americans to look after their own, and by the English 
 to look after their own, and the same by other nationalities, each 
 holding meetings in their churches or hotels to discuss the situation. 
 
 So many men had joined the ranks and gone to the front that a 
 perceptible difference was seen already on the street as well as 
 in the hotels and shops. Five days ago peace and plenty without 
 a thought of war. Today, note the change! People were already 
 beginning to worry about the food supply and the mayor of the 
 city had to post notices along the streets giving assurances that 
 there was no cause to fear on this score. Still the newspapers gave 
 no news of the war. All was suppressed by the sleepless censor. 
 
 August sixth arrived but the situation remained the same. My 
 funds had gradually been reduced, but I had refrained from going 
 to the banks until now. I visited several which had still remained 
 open to the public. I found great surging masses of humanity, 
 reaching in most cases out to the middle of the street, trying to 
 get in and draw money on their letters of credit, or money orders. 
 The banks had decided to pay out driblets of not over ten pounds 
 sterling, or fifty dollars to any one person. This amount would 
 not be of any particular use to me so I resolved to keep out of the 
 crowd and away from the banks. A mass meeting that day of 
 Americans at the "Kurhaus" ended in the election of Committees 
 of Relief and the organization of Charity Boards, but these too were 
 destined to fail, for the excitement of the day seemed to have 
 brought into existence only weak and foolish undertakings. The 
 meetings in these public places only brought out a class of talkative 
 and noisy individuals who had no practical ideas of their own and 
 so they came to naught. Our hotel had become greatly crippled 
 by the withdrawal of the men waiters, cooks and even Mr. Howser, 
 the proprietor himself; all had gone to the front and their places 
 had been filled by women and boys largely. This again resulted 
 in reducing the bill of fare from a half dozen courses to about half 
 the number. Still we had plenty of everything and no one com- 
 plained. Our hotel proprietor's wife took full charge and was 
 not only an able manager but a general favorite with everybody. 
 
Early Days of the European War 89 
 
 When August seventh came the Americans had arrived at the 
 conclusion that they were doomed to remain for a considerable 
 time, whether they wished or not, in Lucerne and were becoming 
 reconciled to it. Up to this time my chauffeur, who had remained 
 idle about the streets, was more or less of care and responsi- 
 bility. He informed me he had a friend going to Paris in a pri- 
 vate motor car who had invited him to go along and that he wished 
 to get back to Antwerp where his family resided. I thought this a 
 rather hazardous undertaking, but advised him to accept and go. 
 I gave him his wages, the price of his passage home by rail and a 
 present of a hundred francs and he started, promising to send me a 
 postal every night to let me know how he progressed. I received 
 no postal cards however until long after my return to New York, 
 months later. He did get through, however, and reached Antwerp 
 in safety. He was driven from there into Holland during the 
 sacking of that city by the Germans, and finally reached England, 
 a refugee with his family, and on writing to me of his plight, I 
 cabled the necessary assistance to bring himself and his family to 
 America where they arrived safely about the first of November, 
 and where they found employment and will make their future 
 home. 
 
 News came one day that Germany had crossed into Belgium 
 and that the first real clash of arms had taken place. It was a 
 shock to us all for we could scarcely imagine such a terrible thing, 
 or that some means of escape from a great European war would 
 not even at the last moment be provided. We had also reports of a 
 collision between the English and German fleets in the North 
 Sea, but those days we believed but little and were sure of nothing 
 except of the tramp, tramp, tramp, of the Swiss soldiers' feet as 
 they passed along over the pavement in the street in front of our 
 hotel. This we knew was real and true. 
 
 The morning of August eighth found us still waiting the develop- 
 ment of events, which seemed to be suspended in the very air 
 about us and likely to drop at any moment. The impression 
 was that Switzerland too must be invaded and drawn into 
 
90 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 the war. Everybody feared it and all were nervous about 
 it and the more people talked, the more nervous they became. 
 Germany had already invaded Belgium and England had felt 
 war's first pain in the loss or sinking of a cruiser with one hundred 
 and fifty men. We, the stranded Americans, began to feel that 
 we were in for a long stay. I cabled home that this was likely. 
 The fields round about Lucerne were filled with ripened grain 
 ready for the reaper, but only the women and children were left 
 to reap. The men had gone, or were passing in hundreds or in 
 thousands en route for the front. Our lives cannot be thought 
 monotonous even though we did nothing but live through the 
 daily routine. The excitement and war news was like a continual 
 performance in the variety show. It was a constant change in the 
 play, if not in scene. For that, however, we strolled around 
 Lucerne's beautiful lake and for hours gazed on her lovely snow- 
 capped mountains, and of these we never tired. 
 
 The ninth of August was much like the seventh and eighth and 
 every day, as far as war news was concerned, little came to our ears 
 except that the nations were mobilizing their troops and getting 
 ready for what promised to be the world's greatest and most dread- 
 ful war, and that we who were stranded must wait. Among Ameri- 
 cans there appeared to be a bond of good fellowship and good will 
 existing, not previously known. Formality had been laid aside 
 and all Americans were friends and thus interesting people got a 
 great amount of pleasure out of each other's society. Through 
 the American minister at Berne, we heard that our government 
 had deposited several million dollars in London with which our 
 letters of credit would again become available and accepted at 
 the banks. This afforded great satisfaction and relief. 
 
 One of our chief occupations appeared to be the hunting up of 
 lost Americans, that is, people who had failed to notify their 
 families at home where they were to be found. They had written 
 but their letters had been lost en route and consequently their 
 friends at home were cabling over to find out where they were and 
 whether they were cared for. 
 
Early Days of the European War 91 
 
 August the tenth! While walking the streets we strolled into 
 that little grassy glen where the Lion of Lucerne reposes in his 
 bed of rock. We sat down in the quiet solemnity of the spot 
 while our minds reverted to other days — days when France was 
 being torn by internal passion and the mob had reached the 
 palace of the king, and hours after I had left the place the picture 
 there remained fixed upon my mind. Whoever has stood in that 
 beautiful glen where Lucerne's famous Lion reposes must surely 
 have felt a thrill in his veins! 
 
 The Lion there lies in his rock-hewn cell 
 Motionless as if in a trance 
 An emblem of strength, of might and of power, 
 While grasping the lilies of France. 
 
 That look on his face, what a story it tells! 
 Who can view it and not drop a tear 
 For that gallant Swiss guard which died at its post 
 For the right and its duty held dear? 
 
 The eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth of August were days of 
 comparative rest and quiet. The Relief Committees assembled 
 daily at the American consul's office; held long discussions on the 
 existing state of affairs ending generally in doing nothing. People 
 had no interest at all in sightseeing or any amusement. A few of 
 us went up to the summit of Mount Rigi only to find the big hotels 
 all closed and the whole surroundings a barren waste. We re- 
 turned resolved to remain on or about the hotel piazzas where all 
 the life and entertainment appeared to centre. All we gleaned 
 from the papers seemed to denote that the European nations were 
 massing their troops together to fight — none of them seemed to 
 know what it was about — none of them wished to fight, but all 
 must, or thought they must, or so it seemed to us outsiders. 
 
 The fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth of August were dull 
 days of awaiting a turn in events. We were exiles far away from 
 
92 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 home but there was a consolation in it after all for here we were in 
 the good old Schweizerhof Hotel and being well cared for by Madam 
 Hauser who was in no way depressed by her husband's absence 
 at the front. He was neither shooting his fellowman nor being 
 shot at, just smoking great cigars and, as colonel of a Swiss regi- 
 ment, riding a fine horse along the frontier and running home 
 every Saturday night. 
 
 There is a sort of a fascination too about being an exile in 
 trouble far away from home, especially so when everybody about 
 you is in the same fix and you can't help it; have just to submit 
 and wait the turn which you feel sure will come if you wait long 
 enough. 
 
 On August seventeenth the skies appeared brighter. A few 
 people were starting for Paris but with little hope that they would 
 get through without many delays and much discomfort. Some of 
 us felt sorry to see them go fearing they were running into trouble, 
 unnecessary trouble, and that it would be wiser to wait a few 
 days longer till the roads were opened up and the way made 
 clearer. They were very cheerful however, as they boarded the 
 great Sweizerhof electric buses and we cheered them as they 
 rolled away toward the railway station. 
 
 The eighteenth and nineteenth of August were days of especial 
 interest in Lucerne, — talk and rumors and rumors and talk about 
 the great fight at Mulhausen right close to the Swiss frontier. 
 People were coming in daily from Berne and neighboring cities who 
 had heard the boom of cannon which made the war seem very near. 
 A few people were starting for Italy and for Paris via Southern 
 France and I heard a rumor that some of our German-Americans 
 were getting up a German special train for Holland to go through 
 German territory. This appealed strongly to me and I resolved 
 to go that way if possible, for I thought it safer to travel in the 
 rear of a German army than in the rear of the French for the 
 Germans by this time were well on their way to Paris and progres- 
 sing every day. 
 
 The morning of August the twentieth found us in a more than 
 
Early Days of the European War 93 
 
 ordinary state of excitement. The war clouds were growing 
 darker every day and while the way out of Switzerland appeared 
 open here and there, still the doubt constantly arose, Were these 
 exits proper ones and would it be wise to start ? I thought it over 
 seriously and made up my mind that, everything considered, it 
 would be better to make the plunge and go. The special train 
 through Germany was leaving at ten o'clock that night and would 
 take us. I did not like the people going that way for they were 
 nearly all German-Americans, or more properly speaking, German 
 Jews and besides that, it was the very first train carrying passen- 
 gers through Germany since the mobilization began, making the 
 risk all the more hazardous. However we packed up and 
 were off. The committee in charge, we found, had allotted to 
 us compartments on one of the newest and best first class cars on 
 the long train of seventeen. We had a huge lunch basket which 
 the Hotel Schweizerhof had well stocked before leaving and which 
 afterwards proved a most useful companion. We had all our 
 baggage with us and through the politeness of the manager of 
 the Luzern Kredit Bank, I had been able to provide myself 
 with abundant funds, including one hundred dollars in German 
 gold, against emergencies. 
 
 Our sleep that night was not refreshing, but when day 
 finally dawned we found ourselves skirting along the south shore 
 of Lake Constance through apple orchards and thrifty villages 
 which adorn northern Switzerland. The train moved along very 
 slowly making long stops at every station, the Swiss soldiers 
 standing in groups upon the platform all looking serious enough 
 but appearing to have nothing to do but while away their time. 
 We soon passed into Austria at Brienz where all the uniforms 
 worn by the soldiers had changed and the Austrian cockade took 
 the place of the ugly Swiss cap. The train passed through a bit 
 of Austrian territory where it touches upon Lake Constance. A 
 number of Austrian officers boarded our train and escorted us 
 across their territory to Landau on the German side, where we 
 found ourselves at nine o'clock on the morning of August the 
 
94 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 twenty-first, trying to get breakfast, an utterly hopeless task, for 
 the so-called "Americans" like a cloud of locusts, had preceeded 
 us everywhere and what they could not eat they carried off and 
 concealed in their car compartments. After a delay of an hour or 
 two, we got away at slow speed, say fifteen miles an hour, in a 
 northeast direction, but no one could find out where we were going, 
 but we were going and that was the main thing to be desired. 
 Throughout the day the natives along our route gathered at the 
 stations, smiled and cheered us while our own travelling compan- 
 ions waved frantically the American flag from the car windows 
 and wore one on their bosoms as if they, without these badges, 
 might be mistaken for citizens of some other country. For loyalty 
 to America I never before witnessed their like. Not until our train 
 pulled into the Augsburg railway station did we know where we 
 were and then found we had been travelling around about Bavaria, 
 keeping as far off from the mobilization and government trains as 
 possible, and this was late in the night when we reached Augsburg. 
 August the twenty-second we spent travelling between Augsburg 
 and Coblenz on the Rhine, going by way of Frankfort. This was a 
 most interesting day along the railway tracks. Soldiers were 
 placed at every bridge and station and at distances apart on 
 the line of not over a mile so that the whole line was under the 
 inspection of these guards. Each station had been converted 
 into a little Red Cross Hospital most of them with beds where 
 the wounded and sick could be cared for, and nurses in their 
 pretty uniforms could be seen at these stations and they were 
 offering fruits and flowers at the same time soliciting contributions 
 to the Red Cross funds. They were all ready to act when the 
 emergency came and it was reported that in a few hours over ten 
 thousand wounded soldiers and prisoners were to arrive and be 
 distributed along these station towns. We saw many gatherings 
 of the natives along the route — who had come down to see 
 the Americans go through. No trains were to be seen. Ours 
 appeared to be the only one left and it was, as such, a curiosity. 
 All the engines and cars of every kind had been sent to the front 
 
Early Days of the European War 95 
 
 with soldiers and supplies. The great railway station at Frankfort- 
 on-Main, where we had been so often in June and July, was a 
 deserted dismal place. The tracks were strewn with newspapers, 
 debris, old boxes, etc. We did not leave the cars, being advised 
 to remain lest we be taken for English and insulted by the ignorant 
 citizens. This city appeared hit the hardest by the war of any 
 place we entered. All work on the scores of new buildings in 
 course of erection had been stopped. All factories had suspended 
 work and the streets usually so filled with a bustling crowd, were 
 dead or paralysed. 
 
 All day we had been travelling through a rich farming country. 
 It was harvest time, the fields were full of ripened grain, but no 
 one but women and children were ever seen, or if there were men 
 they invariably had the musket strung across their shoulder. 
 After we left Frankfort we ran along the east bank of the Rhine, 
 stopping at the many attractive little stations where we were 
 treated to songs and refreshments till darkness settled down over 
 the scene soon after passing Coblenz. The sun went down that 
 evening making a sight long to be remembered, for a dense black 
 cloud arose covering entirely its southern half and leaving the 
 northern half clear and crimson and its effect on the western sky 
 was so peculiar that a superstitious person might have imagined 
 many horrors yet to come. We were now in close touch with the 
 great German army along the Rhine. We began to pass more 
 frequent trains — trains of cars loaded with soldiers, most of them 
 freight cars with holes cut in their side to admit air and these 
 were packed with new recruits en route for the front. Also trains 
 of supplies, nearly everything one could think of seemed to have 
 been loaded on these, such as barbed wire and machinery, and 
 bridge material and boats. I saw all of these and much more on 
 the way and these trains always had the right of way and we the 
 the right to switch off and let them pass us. 
 
 About seven o'clock on the morning of August twenty-third 
 we were awakened by the knock of the Holland custom officers at 
 our door and we knew that we were then passing out of Germany 
 
96 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 into Holland, that little land of safety; an island as it were, in 
 the midst of a stormy sea. 
 
 The officers barely said Good Morning, and without any other 
 examination than being assured we were Americans, left us, while 
 I hastily raised the window shade only to find that we were stand- 
 ing upon a great long iron bridge spanning the River Rhine 
 with a broad marsh on either side. The bridge was alive with 
 Dutch soldiers who had erected between the tracks long lines of 
 little tents and as the bridge was a mile long, there must have been 
 many hundreds of these men guarding this important entrance 
 into Holland. Great iron doors at each end of the bridge were 
 being slowly opened to allow our train to pass and while this was 
 being done all our windows were ordered closed by the guard 
 and we were requested not to look out or to be inquisitive, but 
 we did peep out and up and down the opposite shore; on the 
 Holland side of the bridge as far as the eyes could reach we saw 
 long lines of military camps and tents of every size and description 
 with men passing to and fro among them. Lines of camp fires 
 were burning in front of these tents, a kettle was hanging over 
 each and the steam and smoke were rising in the early morning 
 air, making altogether a scene I had never witnessed before. 
 This was the frontier of Holland and I afterward found that no 
 less than 300,000 men were at this time guarding her neutrality 
 along her borders. 
 
 Our train finally got away after a detention of an hour or two 
 and soon the towers and spires of Dordrecht assured us that we 
 were on familiar ground once more and had left behind all those 
 unhappy and troubled scenes that we had lately passed. By 
 eleven o'clock we had reached Rotterdam. 
 
 We started out in pursuit of a place to remain for the three 
 weeks which we were obliged to spend here before our steamer was 
 to sail for home. From one hotel to another we drove, but all 
 were filled to overflowing with the great rush of foreigners who 
 had sought refuge here and who were waiting to get away if a way 
 offered itself. Among these were people from every land under 
 
Early Days of the European War 97 
 
 the sun who were fleeing from the scenes of war and bloodshed 
 and this port was about the last continental port remaining open 
 by which they could escape. Finding no place in Rotterdam 
 where we could lay our heads in peace I remembered my past 
 experience in motoring about these countries which taught us, 
 whenever we arrived at a hotel or town which was overflowing or 
 where the hotel could not extend to us the accommodation which 
 we desired, to leave that place and proceed to the next town or 
 the next, and so on till we found what we required. Remembering 
 this, I secured an automobile and we started away first to Delft 
 and thence to The Hague where we found very satisfactory 
 accommodations and settled down for the night at the Hotel 
 Paulez, tired and hungry after an exciting and busy day. The 
 next morning, August twenty-fourth, I took a carriage and we 
 drove about the city and though I had visited this place in 1909 
 when I was motoring about Holland, for some reason I did not 
 obtain then a true conception of the size or beauty of this famous 
 old town. I suppose it was due to the fact that we put up then at 
 Schevengen, the seaside resort a couple miles away, which at that 
 time was fascinating with the bathing and social life at the height 
 of the summer season. 
 
 On our drive we passed by the great Peace Palace and lingered 
 for a time beside its great iron gates. Everything about it was 
 still as death, a few pigeons hovered over its lofty gables and a 
 bright sun helped to dispel the gloom which rilled the place. At 
 such a time a place like this seems but a hollow mockery while 
 the nations are all at war, yet it was here that these great nations 
 so lately met and declared they would have war no more. Here 
 the Czar of Russia, the Emperor of Germany, the King of 
 England and the people of France have affixed their seals by erect- 
 ing monuments or placing some sign of their loyalty to this great 
 temple of peace. It only goes to prove how transitory are the 
 things of this earth ; how uncertain the ways of man. 
 
 I hope still that the day will come when a congress of all the 
 nations will meet here to discuss their differences and settle them 
 
98 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 without resorting to the sword, that relic of the past, of the ages 
 of barbarism. I wonder if that will ever come to pass. 
 
 August the twenty-fifth found some of my party dissatisfied 
 with The Hague and desirous of going to Amsterdam, so it was 
 decided to go there tomorrow and stop at the Hotel Brack Dolen, 
 pleasantly situated in the midst of the city bustle, where our 
 time could be enjoyably spent. 
 
 On coming out from breakfast that morning an American 
 approached me, asked about my plans and pleasures in a very 
 gentlemanly way and told me he was going to Berlin on business. 
 It was only after a conversation of at least ten minutes that it 
 occurred to me that he was Mr. Breckenridge, the assistant 
 secretary of the U. S. Treasury, who had just arrived at The 
 Hague with three or four million dollars for the relief of Americans 
 in Europe and that the U. S. warship Tennessee which brought 
 him over was now anchored in the harbor. In the afternoon, 
 with one of our ladies, I engaged a cab and we drove out to Scheven- 
 ingen. En route there, on a narrow country road, we met Queen 
 Wilhelmina and her mother, who were riding in an open barouche 
 with a coachman and footman both in brilliant costumes, and the 
 horses were also dressed in gay attire. When the carriage came 
 along by our side I lifted my hat in the very best style I could 
 command, for I have a very great respect for Holland's lovely 
 queen and have had since she was a babe in arms and have 
 always been interested in reading about her. In return she 
 smiled and bowed in a most agreeable manner. Her appearance 
 would not suggest a queen, for her dress and manner were that of 
 the ordinary well dressed people which she desires to be like. 
 She is a large woman and plain in looks today, and little like those 
 girlish pictures I have seen, although I could have recognized her 
 easily anywhere from the pictures I have seen. 
 
 On our return to the hotel, while alighting at the door, the 
 Queen's husband came up in an automobile (Prince Henry). He 
 is a well preserved looking fellow, but carries nothing about him 
 to suggest anything but a kind of drone in the hive of human 
 
Early Days of the European War 99 
 
 industry, a useless piece of humanity, but perhaps I ought not 
 say this for I know but little about him. 
 
 At Scheveningen, as we drove along the sea front, vast gatherings 
 of rough seafaring men occupied the walks and seats. There 
 were thousands of them loitering about. Upon inquiry, I found 
 they were North Sea fishermen who had been driven home by 
 the English war vessels patrolling this body of water. The great 
 hotels here were all closed for the season already— the war and 
 troubles caused by it had sent the host of visitors who usually 
 are here at this season to their continental homes. 
 
 August the twenty-sixth, I returned by rail from Amsterdam to 
 Rotterdam in order to recover our several trunks or pieces of bag- 
 gage which, when we left, were buried at the station beneath a 
 perfect mountain of baggage which had accumulated. After a 
 great deal of hard work, I succeeded in getting them and having 
 them sent along by train to Amsterdam. With all our trunks safely 
 around us we settled down to a quiet life once more. We soon 
 found that "war news," as in Switzerland, was pretty generally 
 suppressed and kept away from the people. After a while I 
 found a way of getting the London Times and with that, I was 
 able to follow daily the war situation very well, as the paper 
 came quite regularly the day following its publication. 
 
 I awakened next morning, August twenty-seventh, much re- 
 freshed, after a most comfortable night's sleep, relaxed and rested 
 for the first time since we left Lucerne a week ago that evening. 
 I was very happy to be there and especially happy that we had 
 steamer accommodations reserved by the S. S. New Amsterdam, 
 for there seemed to be thousands of people thereabouts seeking 
 steamer space. Of course, it would be furnished in time but some 
 of them were likely to be detained a long time or be obliged to 
 accept very inferior accommodation. 
 
 I love Switzerland. They were very kind to us when we were 
 obliged to stay there with them, but we were like prisoners there, 
 hemmed in on every side and we felt unhappy that we had to 
 remain unwilling guests at their table. Here it was somewhat 
 
100 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 different. We were still unwilling guests but these Hollanders 
 appeared to be such opulent hosts. Their fields were filled with 
 fattened cattle and their markets overflowing with milk and 
 honey and all things good. Besides that, they were in touch 
 with the outside world and as guests we felt we were not in the 
 way. The shops, it was evident, were feeling the effects of the 
 war, particularly the jewelry and costly goods shops. Having 
 nothing else to do we were tempted to visit them and look over 
 their marvelous bargains and sometimes to trade with them when 
 they descended in their price quotation to an abnormal level, as 
 they did the day I purchased for my niece, Bess Wellington, a 
 lovely little pearl and diamond pendant for a song. There were 
 no buyers in these shops and the dealers were extremely anxious 
 to sell for they all seemed to have a concealed belief that before 
 this great war was over, Holland would yet be drawn into the con- 
 flict and all would be lost. 
 
 On the morning of the twenty-eighth, we all started early for an 
 excursion by steamer out through the canals to the Zuyder Zee and 
 to an island there called Marken. En route, we called at Broek, the 
 Spotless Town made famous by the "Sapolio" advertising. This 
 place is renowned for its antiquary shops and its cheese factories, 
 and is a centre of the great "Edam Cheese" industry (Edam being 
 close at hand). When motoring in Holland in 1907, we found 
 out this little place and enjoyed its hospitality at that time so it 
 did not appear entirely new to us. We lunched at an artists' 
 resort in the Zuyder Zee and spent an hour or two on the island 
 watching those peculiarly dressed islanders and sea-faring people 
 and visited some of their homes, after which the steamer returned 
 to Amsterdam and we reached our hotel about six o'clock. 
 On our arrival home, we learned that the English and French 
 were being driven back into Paris and it was feared that it was 
 only a question of hours before the Germans would enter the city. 
 
 August twenty-ninth, we visited the great museum and saw that 
 famous collection of paintings by Rembrandt, Franz Hals and other 
 Holland masters. When one stands in front of the "Night Watch' ' 
 
Early Days of the European War 101 
 
 one cannot help but wonder why one man should possess such 
 extraordinary gifts as he who was able to do this piece of work and 
 that the same great gift is given to so few during the ages. Ex- 
 cepting the great Madonna in Dresden by Raphael, this "Night 
 Watch" is the most wonderful picture I have ever seen and I feel 
 in their presence like taking my hat off and being quiet. I have 
 not this same feeling when viewing any other pictures I have 
 ever seen. 
 
 I should like to see a school of art started in America following 
 along the lines of these ancient schools of Holland and Italy. I 
 cannot see why, with proper encouragement, the men of the 
 twentieth century are not as able to conquer and reach this high 
 plane of art as the old burghers of the middle ages. Perhaps more 
 than one generation would be required to do it, but it can and 
 ought to be done. If I were a young man, instead of what I am, 
 I should at least make an effort to originate such a school in 
 America. This country has now become rich and its people are 
 beginning to turn away from money getting and to take up the 
 collecting of art works and are thinking more about things beautiful 
 than ever before. It seems to me therefore the psychological 
 time for some one to start such a movement. 
 
 As far as I can ascertain, the Holland people, owing to the 
 recollection of the Boer War and their consequent ill feeling toward 
 the British, feel disposed to sympathise with the German cause. 
 They wouldn't admit that openly but it seemed to me from what 
 I could gather there that such was their feeling. 
 
 August thirtieth: Had a cable that day from Dudley which 
 made us feel that we were still in the world and had a part in its 
 affairs. It had been so long since we had any letters or news from 
 home that we had begun to feel as if we were not a part of it at all. 
 These Holland people never would speak of the war unless you 
 spoke to them first about it. They had their own papers and 
 might have new and startling news from the front, but on no 
 account would they refer to it unless you asked them and even then 
 spoke in the most guarded manner. We Americans talked of it from 
 
102 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 morning till night, yet I d'o not see that it amounted to anything 
 and perhaps the Holland way is better — that is, try to forget it. 
 
 August the thirty-first at last arrived. What a long month this 
 was and how troublesome! When I looked back over this period 
 since we crossed into Switzerland from Germany it seemed a long 
 drawn out dream, a kind of nightmare. Amsterdam, at its best, is 
 not an attractive place to stop in for a long stay. The people here 
 were too fully occupied with their own affairs to make it interesting 
 for people like us. They watched us as we wandered about their 
 streets with great curiosity as if we were God's own anointed, and 
 I really believe they were envious of us : of our nation, so out of all 
 these European troubles, so free and above all, from their point 
 of view, so rich, for the Hollanders have a great fondness for 
 riches and imagine all Americans are made of money. 
 
 September first : The weather continued bright and beautiful. 
 I called at the steamship office to pay the balance due upon my 
 tickets to N. Y. They accepted my check on a New York Bank 
 for it saved me the trouble and expense of getting Holland money. 
 This also showed the confidence they have in us Americans, which 
 was flattering. 
 
 We Americans discussed the future of our country. What were 
 we to do to prevent a nation like Germany coming over and 
 seizing our cities as they seized Belgian towns and demanding 
 high ransoms. It seemed to most of us that we had to get 
 wisdom from the lesson taught here and build up a line of defense 
 against enemies. What is this defense to be? We certainly do 
 not want to do as Germany has done — make our country a great 
 military camp. No, better we increase our navy and provide 
 defense for our coasts and train our school children to drill and 
 to handle a gun and to be patriotic, but omit the big army. That 
 seems to me to be the right programme, but in addition to that, 
 I would have both North and South America bound together for 
 mutual protection with one navy and that big enough to show the 
 rest of the world that they must let this continent alone. 
 
 The training of our school children into young soldiers, teaching 
 
Early Days of the European War 103 
 
 them to respect their superiors and making them efficient, might 
 most advantageously be made a part of our common school 
 education. The discipline this training would afford would be as 
 valuable to them as any part of their education. 
 
 September second : The clouds of war appeared darker every 
 day. The Germans were on their way to Paris and it was the 
 universal opinion in Amsterdam that they would reach there, 
 but we hoped that the French might check this horde before they 
 became drunk with their successes, in which case there would be 
 no stopping them in their mad course. 
 
 I could not but believe that the allied forces would win eventu- 
 ally, that they would be too strong for even this mighty fighting 
 machine of the Germans, who had been preparing for forty years 
 for this very war. Germany might be, and I felt was, the fittest 
 and most progressive nation in the world then, but till her military 
 spirit had been subdued, she could never take the place intended 
 for her among civilized nations. Like the United States with her 
 slavery plague, Germany had to go through fire in order to purge 
 her of this dross of militarism. 
 
 September third : The hotel manager told me that were Germany 
 to conquer France they would undoubtedly take Belgium, Holland 
 and the Balkan countries, forming a vast German empire and that 
 he believed that each of these smaller countries would come into 
 the German Empire as individual states and that it would be 
 better for them all if that were done, for "how can little Holland 
 keep up an army of 300,000 men as she is now doing?" The con- 
 federation would save the most of this at least, and might give 
 them peace and that is what they all are after. 
 
 By September the fourth we were still waiting for our steamship 
 to carry us away. It was extremely dull and uninteresting. The 
 days were long and tiresome. We read the London Times, but 
 that was so pessimistic that one felt more depressed than ever 
 after reading it. Of course, it is difficult for an English paper to 
 be cheerful when the English army is being swept along with the 
 French toward Paris like dirt before a steam shovel. 
 
104 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 What a pity these intelligent Christian countries cannot come 
 together in a high court of arbitration, submit their briefs and 
 have their contentions settled there rather than in this horrid, 
 cruel manner. This method of adjustment surely will come but 
 I fear it may not in my day. News reached us September fourth 
 that the Germans had captured 70,000 Russians in Eastern Prussia 
 and also that in Gallicia the Russians had taken as many Austrians. 
 Surely the war is progressing and the stakes are high. 
 
 September sixth : This was a beautiful sabbath morning. We 
 went out for a walk in the park. Here are thousands of cyclists 
 whirling about in every direction. I like to see them; they seem 
 to have so much enjoyment over here with their cycles speeding 
 along over the beautiful smooth park roads. This seems a much 
 saner way of getting pleasure and exercise than the keeping of 
 horses or automobiles which, for the masses, are extravagant and 
 yet are indulged in by many Americans who can ill afford it and 
 have to deny themselves many of the pleasures of life just to 
 keep up this show and appearance of wealth. I dislike greatly 
 to see our young men and tradespeople, who I know cannot 
 afford it, running about in a motor car. The cycle would be 
 much better for them. There will doubtless be a reaction by and 
 by and our employees will learn to use the bicycle in their daily 
 work and for their pleasure too, rather than hunger for these 
 more expensive and less satisfying toys. 
 
 September seventh, and with it came some of our long lost letters ; 
 many of them had been sent to Lucerne and from there sent 
 back to us here. All had been torn open by the censors before 
 they were allowed to come through. It makes one feel "mad 
 clear through" to have one's own private letters read over in this 
 way, but it is a part of war (a little tiny part) of which all is bad 
 and disagreeable. 
 
 News came here this morning that our steamer, the New 
 Amsterdam had been arrested on her way out by a French war 
 vessel and taken to Brest, a French port; that several hundred 
 German-Americans on board were taken prisoners, her cargo con 
 
Early Days of the European War 105 
 
 fiscated and detained several days and that we doubtless would 
 not be able to get away on the twelfth. This was bad news 
 indeed, but we could only hope for the best and wait. 
 
 September ninth: Will war ever cease? Can it be avoided 
 while mankind inhabits the earth? Is it not a law of nature to 
 keep the earth from becoming overpopulated? Does this law not 
 apply to both the animal and vegetable kingdom as well? As 
 soon as any species grows too prolific and powerful, an enemy 
 appears to reduce its numbers. This war came like a thunderbolt 
 out of a clear sky and I have no longer faith in human nature. 
 Great battles are today reported in progress in France, in Belgium 
 and still another in Gallicia, or the East. What a world it is and 
 how much sorrow and unhappiness! It seems to me today as if 
 the Kaiser or his advisers were alone responsible for it all. If such 
 is the case — if history proves this to be so, then I hope the people 
 of the nations will seize this power from rulers and kings and take 
 it in their own hands, for whom does war concern except the people ? 
 
 September eleventh we left for Rotterdam to board our steamer, 
 which sailed on schedule time. After seeing our baggage down 
 to the ship, we returned to Hotel Weimer for dinner, after which 
 we returned to the ship for the night and to the beautiful rooms 
 which had been made ready for us. 
 
 We awakened early next morning, the twelfth, to find ourselves 
 out in the open sea quite out of sight of land. The steamer 
 appeared like a great bee hive with its eighteen hundred passengers 
 filling every nook and comer of the ship. We soon found the 
 service was impaired, which was explained by the fact that the 
 French had taken off at Brest all the German servants, cooks and 
 other assistants and their places had been filled with new or green 
 hands, who were not yet acquainted with their duties. Later in 
 the day we were stopped by an English cruiser as we were entering 
 the English Channel. Officers came aboard, examined the 
 ship's papers and then left us, while we started again on our route, 
 but it was only a very short time when we were again stopped — 
 this time opposite Dover. The officers again came aboard, 
 
106 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 ordered our captain to take down the wireless apparatus and left 
 after putting a pilot on board to see us through the channel. 
 The straits of Dover were swarming with war craft of every 
 description and from this point of view, it did seem as if little 
 England fairly bristled with the war spirit which possessed her. 
 
 Oh, what will her future be? That question was foremost in 
 my thoughts. What is this war going to do for or against our 
 dear old England — a country I love so well? Will she be the 
 great England as in the past, is now, or will she be a greater 
 England? I cannot think of her being shorn of any glory she 
 now possesses. 
 
 I discovered here that all our life boats (and there were scores 
 of them) were hanging over the vessel's side near the water. It 
 was not necessary to ask the reason for this for it told its own 
 story. We were close to those terrible mines which might blow 
 the great ship to pieces in an instant and if the boats were near 
 the water it would perhaps save time. Our English pilot guided 
 the ship carefully along through a crooked saw tooth channel 
 for a few miles and we breathed easy again and when we retired 
 at ten o'clock, commenced to think we had run the gauntlet 
 and were safely out on the great ocean highway where only the 
 storm and the tempest had any right to be, and of this we had 
 little fear in September, for generally the ocean is in a genial 
 mood at this season. 
 
 About daylight next morning, September thirteenth, I was 
 awakened by our steamer coming to a full stop so I immediately 
 arose, looked out of my window, to see right close along side of 
 us one of those great British superdreadnoughts, the first I had 
 ever seen. She seemed a great mass of guns and heavy steel 
 decks and was on the whole, a rough looking customer. Her 
 captain or officer, was instructing our captain to take down his 
 wireless and keep it down and our captain was trying to per- 
 suade the officer that it was a human necessity on board his 
 ship and for the safety of his passengers. Appeals were useless, 
 the wireless had to come down, for the dreadnought swung 
 
Early Days of the European War 107 
 
 around in front of our vessel, took that position and waited till 
 all was to her satisfaction and then drew away and let us go on 
 our way, which we did rejoicing. All this occurred near the 
 Scilly Island and on either side of us on the horizon could be seen 
 other war vessels which were guarding the coast, both French and 
 English. The dreadnought had only dropped from sight when our 
 wireless was again restored to its position. Our route was 
 changed to a more northerly course and we were soon apparently 
 lost in the great waste of waters, only to find ourselves after 
 several days facing the northern coast of Newfoundland. 
 
 The morning of September twentieth found us plowing our way 
 through a beautiful summer sea. The morning was bright and 
 lovely and the waters about us like a great glimmering mirror with 
 scarcely a ripple anywhere to be seen. There was enough of 
 sparkle and freshness in the air to suggest that autumn was near 
 at hand making every passenger, as he or she came on deck exclaim, 
 How beautiful! We breathed our native air once more for we 
 were now sailing along the New England coast. I have become 
 very fond of the sea since these great 20,000 ton vessels have come 
 into existence — so different from those little smelly tubs of fifty 
 years ago. In those days an ocean voyage was a continuous 
 performance of misery and discomfort. 
 
 It was early Monday morning, September twenty-first, that the 
 New Amsterdam slowly pulled into the wharf at the foot of Chris- 
 topher Street and by eight-thirty we were again on American 
 soil. Our children and grandchildren too were there to meet and 
 greet us and happy we were to feel that the voyage was ended 
 and we were all safe at home once more. The summer had been 
 filled with anxiety and trouble but it was all over now. How- 
 ever, those war-like scenes we have witnessed and experiences we 
 have passed through will remain indelibly stamped upon our 
 memories forever. 
 
FAMILY REUNIONS 
 
 T HAVE always felt that it was good that families and the 
 ■*■ different members should act in harmony with each other, 
 that in union there is strength, that all the different members of 
 the family should at times get together and keep in close touch 
 with each other and work, as far as possible, for the benefit of 
 each other. In a word when it comes to family matters there 
 should be entire harmony and union. 
 
 It is most natural when the children are grown and have families 
 of their own to separate and grow apart, one going one way and 
 one another until all interest in each other is lost. This is a great 
 mistake and ought be avoided. 
 
 On several occasions during my life I have sought to bring 
 about by family reunions better relations between the different 
 members of the family, and I feel sure that they have been pro- 
 ductive of good and that all the members of the family have become 
 better acquainted and the ties between them made stronger by 
 these gatherings. 
 
 The first one of these family reunions was held in Monroe, 
 Michigan, at the Grandfather Bates' home. As the children were 
 quite small, uncles and aunts, cousins and old friends met with us, 
 and by tents and other makeshifts we were able to entertain a 
 party of twenty-five or thirty members of the family and others. 
 It was a very pleasant affair and good for us all. 
 
 The next one took place a number of years later in 1913 when 
 our entire family met in Montreal, Canada, at or about Christmas 
 time. This too was a very delightful gathering and also kept 
 the family connections closer and better. 
 
 A few years after that the family reunion took place in the 
 Adirondacks at the Big Wolf Pond where all the direct members 
 of the family and a great many more distant relatives gathered. 
 This was on our Golden Wedding anniversary. There were 
 
Family Reunions 109 
 
 probably thirty members of the family present on this occasion. 
 The Club House was set aside for our use. Large tables were 
 provided, and a chef from New York took entire charge of the 
 kitchen arrangements. 
 
 Philip Torchio of Bronxville, a friend of the family and also 
 an electrical engineer, brought up large storage batteries and he 
 wired the Club House for electric lights as well as the grounds 
 round about, and even the lake by his magical arrangements. 
 
 A week or ten days was spent here upon this occasion and each 
 member of the family had an opportunity of becoming well 
 acquainted with all the other members. 
 
 The next reunion which followed this took place at our home in 
 Daytona, Florida, during the holiday week of 1919-1920. This 
 was a regular Christmas party. An orange tree filled with fruit 
 directly under the porch entrance was wired and lighted with 
 electricity. Japanese lanterns were hung from the entrance gate 
 to the portico and in all the trees near by. 
 
 Quite elaborate arrangements were made for the housing and 
 care of the party of twenty-two members of the family. A tent 
 was pitched out on the grounds near the Christmas tree. The 
 adjoining house and grounds of Mrs. Wellington were pressed into 
 service so that the entire party could be cared for as comfortably 
 as at home. 
 
 It was so arranged that the party should arrive by train from 
 the North, reaching the house at about eight or nine o'clock in 
 the evening. The older ones well remember the effect of such a 
 change as this from the northern climate, the sudden appearance 
 at the entrance gate of the poinsettias, hibiscus and roses which 
 were in full bloom and at their very best. 
 
 They arrived the night previous to Christmas Eve so they 
 were able to join on the following day in the making of preparations 
 for the Christmas festivities. Some of the smaller children 
 present, who had never been to Florida before and had never seen 
 these sub-tropical fruits and flowers, were quite stunned with 
 
110 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 these first impressions and it was delightful to see them and their 
 way of expressing their wonder and astonishment. 
 
 This reunion lasted about ten days and they all returned home 
 to their usual school duties and natural surroundings. I am sure 
 they all became better acquainted and united by stronger ties to 
 each other by this holiday party in Florida. 
 
Sarah Bates Lawrence 
 
OUR GOLDEN WEDDING 
 
 A Story Read Before the Family Assembly at 
 Big Wolf Lake, Aug. 22, 1917 
 
 TF I tell you my experiences at all, I must go back to the very 
 •*■ beginning or fifty years from this very day, or worse still, I will 
 go back, say six months before that, when the trouble really began. 
 
 I was then a mere boy, twenty-three or twenty-four years of 
 age. You all know about boys of that age — they are "reckless 
 adventurers," "dare-devils," going about hunting for trouble. 
 They are ready for anything — love, war, or excitement — any 
 kind of a thing, it's all the same to them. 
 
 At the time I am speaking of, the great Civil War had just 
 passed, the whole world was at peace, and a great general monotony 
 ruled the universe. In fact, it was a time when there was "nothing 
 doing." 
 
 As said before, I was a young man of twenty-three or twenty- 
 four. I, like the others at that age, lacked a governor or balance 
 wheel and was going "kinder reckless." Just at this time, I 
 happened one day to pick up a newspaper and as my eyes ran 
 over its contents, they were suddenly arrested by a paragraph 
 down in one corner, which read something like this. "There is a 
 little town out in Michigan called Monroe, which claims to possess 
 eighty fair maidens of marriageable age (everyone a queen) and 
 only four bachelors." 
 
 I was at once interested and after reading the thing over three 
 or four times, I resolved to go out to Monroe at once and see for 
 myself what was the matter with these four young men. It was 
 the true spirit of chivalry and adventure that possessed me, and 
 I was soon on the way to Monroe. It was a rash thing to do, of 
 course, and it is just here, where my first experience which I wish 
 to tell about, begins. 
 
112 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 No sooner had I arrived in Monroe, than I was seized upon by 
 that crowd of eighty fair maidens and before I knew it, I had 
 surrendered ignominiously, and that before those four valiant 
 knights whom I had gone to rescue had been heard from. I 
 found out later, that they were positively no good anyway, a lot 
 of "culls" who had been "picked over" and "discarded," till they 
 had no self-respect left, so they offered me no assistance whatever. 
 I had not only surrendered, but I was tied and positively engaged 
 before being allowed to leave town. 
 
 Now this is a frank, open confession on my part, of how I came 
 to get trapped and it will, no doubt, serve as a warning to other 
 young men of twenty-three or twenty-four to beware of news- 
 paper "ads." 
 
 Now, I will take you with me (if not already tired) to another 
 little experience in this connection. It is the wedding ceremony 
 that was celebrated fifty years ago tomorrow, at three o'clock at the 
 Bates Homestead in old Monroe. The day, as I remember it, 
 opened bright and beautiful. I awakened with the birds, which 
 seemed to be singing in every tree, and their music never before 
 sounded half so sweet. I arose, walked into the garden and along 
 the street, everywhere I went, the flowers seemed to follow, and I 
 never saw them bloom so fair before. I came to the river — that 
 grand old River Raisin of my boyhood, and as I looked down 
 upon it, it seemed to laugh and sing as it pranced along over its 
 flower strewn banks on its way to the sea. Nature — all nature, 
 was en fete that day — that 22nd of August, 1867. The old town 
 of Monroe appeared to me dressed in its "very best," to brace 
 and cheer the parting guest. 
 
 As the wedding hour approached, troops of ladies, and here and 
 there a man, might have been seen wending their way toward the 
 Bates Homestead where the wedding was about to take place, 
 and ere long the house was filled to overflowing. The eighty fair 
 maidens were all there and so were the four old bachelors, for a 
 wedding in old Monroe was no ordinary or common affair. 
 
 In due course, the bride appeared, leaning on the arm of her 
 
Our Golden Wedding 113 
 
 father, who was to give her away. She was dressed in a gray- 
 poplin travelling dress, cut off just below the knees, similar to 
 those of today, worn by girls of twenty along the Avenue. She 
 wore a bewitching little hat and as she walked up to the improvised 
 altar through that difficult passage made by the seventy-nine 
 remaining fair maidens, I privately expressed to myself the deliberate 
 opinion which I have adhered to from that day to this — that of 
 the whole collection of eighty maidens, there present, (and which 
 the newspapers had made so much fuss over), my chosen bride 
 was the very best one of all. Up to the time when the bride 
 appeared with her father, I had been concealed, packed away in 
 a dark corner or closet, and only came forth in time to meet the 
 bride at the altar. I came forward trembling like an aspen leaf 
 in a stiff breeze, my knees knocking together. I was dressed in a 
 pair of lilac trousers, bought especially for the occasion, and a 
 white vest. As for coat and necktie, I suppose I wore them, but 
 I can only remember positively those trousers and those knocking 
 knees, which remain in my memory the most conspicuous features 
 of the whole ceremony. Two fine, old Presbyterian clergymen 
 were there to tie the knot — one to preach, the other to pray, and 
 they both did their part well and only pronounced us man and wife 
 when they had become exhausted from much preaching and praying. 
 
 After the ceremony and a short reception, we loaded into one 
 of Monroe's finest and best "old hacks" and amid showers of old 
 shoes and other gentle marks of affection, we departed en route 
 for Niagara Falls — that mecca of all bridal parties of the period. 
 
 The following day found us all dressed in our "very best," 
 down under the falls in the Cave of the Winds, where we were 
 attracted either by the name, (which suggested some quiet nook 
 for brides and grooms) or perhaps, we were led there by a divine 
 providence to receive the baptism from the Father of Waters, 
 which we certainly did get, in a most bountiful drenching and 
 without stint of any kind. That pretty travelling dress and 
 bewitching hat of the day before, presented a sad appearance now, 
 as it went flying through the air on its way to the hotel nearby, 
 
114 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 through a troop of boys that were laughing and jeering us as boys 
 will when a chance offers to poke fun at brides and grooms. 
 
 From Niagara, we went to Horseheads to find there another 
 experience of great value for young married people, which I must 
 recount for the benefit of those contemplating marriage. 
 
 We went to Horseheads because here lived my mother and a 
 host of relatives, to whom I wanted to exhibit my new bride and 
 who were as anxious to see, as I was to show her. When the hour 
 for our reception approached, the relatives began to assemble. 
 Some came on foot, some on horseback, some in buggies, across 
 lots, alone, and in company — it was a "motley crowd" that 
 gathered on this celebrated occasion to take a look at the new 
 blossom that had appeared on the family tree. 
 
 I was not long in discovering that the bride had made "a hit" 
 among them, or if I had not been able to detect it, I soon would 
 have known it, by the punches I received in the ribs and whispers 
 in the ear, saying "she is a Peach" or "You're pretty smart Will, 
 to catch that girl." I thought so too, and my bosom began to 
 swell with emotional pride, but this was not to last, for just then a 
 dear old uncle — the one who had six years before discovered me in 
 the wilderness, and brought me out in the light, sent me down to 
 New York and started me on my business career — this old uncle 
 came forward and right out in meeting, remarked — "William, do 
 you feel that you have accumulated enough of this world's goods 
 to feel warranted in taking to yourself a wife?" 
 
 It was like the report of a big gun from a masked battery right 
 in your face. It stunned me. I looked at the bride and she 
 appeared to repeat the question and ask, Do you? I began, and 
 after an almost superhuman effort, managed to say — "Well, 
 Uncle Henry, whether I have or not, its too late now. Don't 
 let's talk about it" — and we didn't. He soon left us, and he 
 looked as if he was doing a lot of thinking and as for me, I was 
 thinking pretty hard too, and I kept thinking for a few years 
 after that evening. In fact, that remark of Uncle's kept con- 
 stantly ringing in my ears. 
 
Our Golden Wedding 115 
 
 After this visit at Horseheads, a short stop in New York and 
 Saratoga, we might have been found cozily settled in a tiny little 
 home in Montreal. The year before we were married I had 
 started in business on my own account in that city. It was a 
 little mite of a business, or seed that I had planted there, but I 
 had faithfully cultivated and watered it for a year and I had 
 great faith that it would grow to something. My bride had now 
 become the best of partners. She attended well the ways of her 
 household and I watched well the infant business and under the 
 joint management we soon began accumulating the things neces- 
 sary to make and support a home. Economy and thrift were the 
 watchword of those days in both home and business. For about 
 seven years we continued to cultivate and water that little sprout 
 of business, at the end of which time, it had grown into a thrifty 
 bush and we were getting that ever-ringing remark of Uncle 
 Henry's out of our ears and felt that we were standing on firmer 
 ground. 
 
 From 1874 to 1888, a period of fourteen years, our experiences 
 were more variegated, for now we had not only the business to 
 cultivate and water, but by this time, we had four of the five 
 sturdy infants still remaining that had been given to us, a regular 
 quartette, that required much harrowing and much watering to 
 keep them, like the business, in good condition. They were 
 rapidly coming to the front and their education and future welfare 
 was a constant topic for conversation. The long, cold Canadian 
 winters and the fact that Canada was not our native country, 
 that Canadians never did seem like Americans to us, kept us 
 constantly considering a return to the States, perhaps to New York, 
 to live. The future of our children at last decided this matter for 
 we were unwilling for them to be educated, or perhaps to form 
 attachments with other Canadians and so lose their rights to 
 American citizenship. That became the deciding question and 
 in 1888 we packed up and with our children, came to New York 
 to live. By this time, my Canadian business had become an 
 incorporated company, with Uncle John well seated in the saddle, 
 
116 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 so I could leave it, and besides that, the business so modestly 
 begun, had outgrown Canada, and was getting a foothold in the 
 United States and many foreign countries. 
 
 Our arrival in New York was surely the beginning of a new 
 experience. Our home of twenty-two years in Canada had been 
 broken up and abandoned forever. There was nothing left to do 
 but start afresh. We resolved to let up on harrowing and watering 
 that business, and concentrate all our efforts on harrowing and 
 watering the children and, incidentally, take a little rest between 
 times. This worked well enough for a time, while we travelled 
 from the bottom of Mexico to the top of North Cape, and while 
 the novelty of being in New York and comparing its Great White 
 Ways to the ways in Montreal, but this could not last. Idleness 
 had never been a factor in our lives. We tried, but could not 
 resist the current that was constantly sweeping us forward into 
 business and active lives again and ere we were aware of it, we 
 were back harrowing and watering the business, after the old 
 methods, as well as the children. 
 
 There are other experiences I might tell you of, had I the time 
 —and of some experiences, even since those of 1888 and 1890, but 
 you know them all, and that they are not worth the telling any- 
 way. Were you to ask which was the most interesting period of 
 our lives, when our experiences were richest and best, I should 
 say from 1873 to 1883. This was that period of our lives when we 
 did our best work; were the years of greatest activity, the years, 
 when we sent out many ships that came home well laden, and 
 quite a fleet of others that were stranded on reefs or rocks and are 
 still out. At any rate, these ten years were filled especially with 
 experiences which I cannot tell you about today. 
 
 When I look about me and see this interesting group of relatives 
 and friends, of children and grandchildren, gathered here today, 
 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of that wedding which took 
 place in old Monroe on the 22nd of August, 1867, my mind natu- 
 rally turns backward over the path leading from that scene 
 fifty years ago, to this on "Big Wolf Pond," over that path, 
 
Our Golden Wedding 117 
 
 which the bride of that day and I have travelled together. If 
 over that path there have been clouds, I see them not today, I 
 only remember the sunshine, the golden fruits and flowers, and 
 its everwinding, never-tiring course, through fields Elysian, and 
 had I the power today, to turn back the clock of recorded time 
 and again meet the bride of fifty years ago today, as I did at that 
 ceremony, I would gladly go back and travel it all over again. 
 
RECOLLECTIONS OF DISTINGUISHED 
 PEOPLE I HAVE MET 
 
 QUEEN VICTORIA: We were spending a few weeks in 
 Nice many years ago when one morning, while out for a 
 walk, and passing a villa where the Queen was stopping, I was 
 fortunate enough to see her come out of the gate and get into her 
 little low (specially built) carriage, swung so low that it was but 
 a few inches above the ground and but a step to enter. It was 
 drawn by a diminutive looking horse which was driven by an 
 undersized driver. She was at that time very stout and seemed 
 entirely out of proportion to her establishment in every way. 
 It was rather a funny exhibition as she drove away and suggested 
 anything but royalty. It was a morning ride, however, and in- 
 tended to be strictly private. 
 
 King Edward: Walking with my wife one bright Sunday 
 morning in Green Park, London, I noticed a couple of gentlemen 
 following close behind and that one of them was the King. We 
 walked slowly and let him pass, following close behind for some 
 distance. They were smoking and in earnest conversation, till 
 they, in passing, saw a pretty baby in a little carriage which the 
 King appeared to recognize and stopped to play with the child 
 and speak to its lady attendant. We saw in the papers next 
 morning that the King had walked the day before to Green Park 
 with an Austrian Prince. 
 
 King George and Queen Mary: While stopping at the Windsor 
 Hotel in Montreal, during the period Prince George was in Canada, 
 I saw the pair as they drove away from the house. They made 
 but little better appearance than the Queen, his mother. 
 
 Queen Wilhelmina of Holland: I was driving in a carriage one 
 day in 1914 with Agnes Wellington on the road between The 
 Hague and Scheveningen when we saw coming up in front of us 
 the Queen's coach with coachman and footman on the box all in 
 
Recollections op Distinguished People 119 
 
 shining and dazzling dress. We pulled out, giving them over 
 half of the road, which at this point was narrow, while they passed. 
 The Queen saw that we were Americans and bowed in a most 
 gracious manner which I answered with a tip of the hat. Her 
 mother accompanied her. 
 
 King Victor Emanuel of Italy: While visiting an Industrial 
 Exhibition in Rome one day in the '80's, the King was going about 
 at the same time, with the Queen by his side, so we had plenty of 
 time to look him over well. Dudley was then only about ten 
 years old and could not be restrained from following close at the 
 feet of the King, who seemed to fascinate him. We saw both 
 King and Queen frequently down on the streets of Rome. 
 
 Lord and Lady Dufferin, while Governor General of Canada, 
 were constantly in public places. We met them once at a ball 
 at the Windsor Hotel and were introduced to them there. 
 
 Charles Frances, Archduke oj Austria: This gentleman who has 
 the credit of being the cause of the great world's war of 1914, 
 (having been assassinated with his wife at Sarajevo) was taking 
 the cure at Carlsbad in 1913 and stopping at the "Koonigsvilla 
 Hotel," where we were, and which overlooked the town. He took 
 his meals regularly in the public dining room quite near us and we 
 became quite familiar with his looks and manners during the weeks 
 we were thrown together here, as we did also with the Grand 
 Duke Alexis of Russia, who was visiting there at the same time. 
 
 One day the Austrian came in with his staff of four other young 
 officers of the army, all in a rollicking good humor, when one of 
 his aids who was reading aloud from a newspaper, dropped into 
 his chair before the Duke, forgetting for the moment a point of 
 etiquette, which the Duke resented by standing erect until a 
 brother officer aroused the forgetful one with a kick. He jumped 
 up in a hurry; the Duke sat down and was then followed by the 
 others as usual. He gave a dinner to the town dignitaries while 
 there and offended them very much by lecturing them on their 
 shortcomings and wanting in loyalty to the Crown. Everywhere 
 he went he created ill feeling and enemies. 
 
120 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 Lord Lome and Princess Louise: Lord Lome was Governor 
 General of Canada for several years while I was a resident of 
 Montreal. I saw them frequently. When Louise first came to 
 Canada, she tried to introduce court customs but failed altogether 
 in this and became as democratic as others who had preceded her, 
 and was liked by the people. 
 
 President Hayes: During the administration of President Hayes 
 I was walking one day in the neighborhood of the White House 
 when I met Mr. Willets of Monroe, Michigan, a congressman and 
 an old acquaintance of mine. He said, "Come, let us go in and 
 see the President," and before I had time to reply, we were through 
 the gate and at the door. We, to my surprise, were ushered 
 directly into the President's office where we found him seated at 
 his desk. Mr. Willets explained to him that I was a business man 
 from Montreal, and when he learned that I was not a Canadian 
 but an American and formerly from Mr. Willet's own town, he 
 began to ask a long series of questions about Canadian sports 
 and Canadian life and made me feel perfectly at home at once. 
 After a very pleasant call we withdrew and I could only conclude 
 that Mr. Willets was more than a casual friend of the President. 
 
 President W. H. Harrison: My friend, Frank Paul, and I went 
 down from Montreal to the inauguration of Harrison. We 
 listened to his address in a driving storm. 
 
 President Cleveland: I saw this president many times during 
 his administration. I met him and was introduced to him by 
 General Bates, my brother-in-law, at the Hotel Victoria in New 
 York, while passing through the office. He had just arrived and 
 was on his way to his room when we met. 
 
 President U. S. Grant: During the Civil War I saw Grant on 
 several occasions passing by in a carriage going through New York 
 either to Washington or to the West, and, in the same manner, I 
 saw him once or twice after he became President. I always 
 thought Grant a man of good fortune, a creature of circumstance, 
 rather than a man whose great ability and patriotism had carried 
 him to the highest office in the gift of his countrymen. 
 
Recollections of Distinguished People 121 
 
 President Abraham Lincoln: On several occasions during the 
 Civil War, I saw Mr. Lincoln at a distance and, after his assassi- 
 nation, while his remains lay in state at the City Hall in New York 
 I viewed them in his casket. His face was much discolored, but 
 otherwise it was perfectly natural and life like. Since that scene 
 I can never look upon his portrait or statue without this face of 
 his as I saw it in the casket coming into my mind's eye. 
 
 President William McKinley: This President was a member of 
 the Union League Club in New York, where I was also a member, 
 and I saw him often there and in other places. 
 
 President Theodore Roosevelt was also a member of the Union 
 League and I used to see him often there at lunch and about the 
 club rooms. He would always attract attention to himself by 
 his earnest, emphatic manner and conversation. 
 
 President W. H. Taft: I came into personal touch with this 
 President perhaps more than with any other for he was a golf 
 player as well as a regular visitor and member of the Union League. 
 I met him frequently and talked with him at the Hotel Bon Air 
 in Augusta, Gerogia, also at the Homestead in Hot Springs, 
 Virginia. He was a genial, affable gentleman whom everybody 
 liked. 
 
 Robert Lincoln, son of Abraham, I used to meet at the Hotel 
 Bon Air in Augusta, and oftentimes played golf with him. I can 
 hardly imagine him to be the son of the great emancipator, his 
 father, because of his generally bad disposition and irritable 
 temper. 
 
 General Phil Sheridan: This great cavalry officer of the Civil 
 War came to Montreal shortly after the war was over and stopped 
 at the Windsor Hotel in that city for a few days' rest. His 
 secretary told me that the Montreal hacks, or public carriages, 
 were a bad lot and gave the General much trouble. I told him 
 I had a carriage and pair I should like to place at his disposal 
 while in the city; that they were quite ordinary looking but better 
 perhaps than he was employing and if the General would accept 
 them along with my coachman, he would be welcome to use them 
 
122 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 as much as he choose. He accepted and used them while in the 
 city. I saw him but once while he was at the hotel, and the im- 
 pression I got was that he was a rough and uncouth sort of an 
 Irishman and moreover that he was too full of Canadian rye 
 whiskey to make him interesting. He was a good fighter^ how- 
 ever, and was of great service during the war, and I have of late 
 thought he must have been the von Hindenberg of his time as 
 this great general is Germany's greatest fighter today. (He, too, 
 takes too much whiskey, it is said.) 
 
 John D. Rockefeller: For many years past I have been crossing 
 and recrossing the path of Mr. Rockefeller; we, being both of us 
 golf players, have met on many different links and hotels. I have 
 talked with Mr. Rockefeller on many occasions and have found 
 him an agreeable kindly gentleman, simple in all his habits and 
 without a care for show or the plaudits of his fellows. 
 
 Commodore Vanderbilt: the founder of the great system of 
 railways and the distinguished family bearing his name used to 
 be, during and following the Civil War, a prominent figure to 
 those walking the streets of New York. He drove during these 
 days many fast and racing horses, which he took great pride in 
 owning, and many a time I have seen him, both in New York and 
 Saratoga, driving along at high speed in his two-wheeled sulky, 
 with one of the fastest horses in the world. 
 
 The Sherifa of Morrocco: One of the most interesting characters 
 I ever knew was this lady whom we accidentally met in the City of 
 Tangiers. It was through an old acquaintance whom we saw at 
 the races there (a Mr. Burroughs of London). He made us 
 acquainted first with Mr. and Mrs. Perdicaris who lived in a 
 beautiful villa there and who became widely known afterwards 
 by having been seized by Rasouli, the famous bandit, and carried 
 away into the desert and held for a ransom. This was during 
 the Roosevelt administration, and Perdicaris being an American 
 citizen, Roosevelt sent a fleet of warships to Tangiers to compel 
 his return. We were introduced to the Sherifa at Perdicaris* 
 house. The Sherifa was an English lady by birth, but married 
 
Recollections of Distinguished People 123 
 
 while quite young to the Sherif, a Mohammedan prince, a direct 
 descendant of Mohomet. The Sherif was at the time of their 
 marriage a student in Paris. They had lived together many years 
 in Tangiers and she had accomplished much good through her 
 high and influential position among the poor and ignorant natives. 
 She at this time was a widow with two sons — one of whom was the 
 rightful heir to the Morrocan throne, but unable to establish that 
 right. We invited her to dine with us at the hotel. She accepted 
 with a proviso that it should be in a private dining room, which we 
 gladly arranged; my wife, myself, and the two or three young 
 ladies accompanying us, with Mr. Burroughs, made a complete 
 company at the table. I escorted the Sherifa through the public 
 rooms to our dining apartment and as we passed a number of the 
 Moslems (great bearded men) fell down on their knees, picked up 
 her skirt or dress and kissed it in their devotion. As soon as we 
 were by ourselves she told us the story of her life which was most 
 interesting. She had through the position of Sherifa been able 
 to establish a big hospital among her people and to influence these 
 to go there when ill. She had succeeded in the introduction of 
 vaccination for smallpox among the Moslems, but not till she had 
 done this operation herself on more than sixteen thousand cases 
 would they allow the doctors or others to do it; and she had 
 performed other great public service which up to that time had 
 been contrary to their religion and belief. We visited her in her 
 own home and accompanied her to her hospital, the mosque and 
 grave of her husband, and enjoyed our experience in Tangiers 
 greatly because of having met this distinguished character of the 
 great world. 
 
 Mr. Clemens or "Mark Twain": Another most interesting 
 character I have met is this well known writer. We met Mark 
 and his wife first at dinner with a mutual friend living on River- 
 side Drive, New York. Between each course he would get up 
 from the table and walk around the room talking every minute 
 in a most interesting and animated manner, but he seemed too 
 nervous to keep still for a single minute. His wife appeared to 
 
124 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 be a refined and interesting lady and one who apparently took no 
 notice of the peculiarities and eccentricities of her talented husband. 
 
 Not long after this dinner I was on a train for Boston, when Mr. 
 Clemens came into the car. He saw me and came and sat down 
 beside me. He began very soon after seating himself to explain 
 that he had just come through 42nd Street alongside the old 
 reservoir which was then being torn down and was at the time a 
 heap of ruins. He closed his eyes and began to describe what he 
 saw there in his own particular style, and as he told it the thought 
 came to me, "Is he crazy, is he in a trance, or what is the matter 
 of him?" 
 
 It was a picture of Babylon or Nineveh with wild beasts prowling 
 about, which he seemed to be describing, when at last, he appeared 
 to arouse himself, turned to me and asked me if I was a professional 
 or business man. I answered business, and then he brightened up 
 and said he always had liked business men better than profes- 
 sional and enjoyed their company best and that he ought to have 
 been a business man himself instead of what he was. He had 
 taken a man he called Webster in with him and they had started 
 the business of a publishing house in Hartford, Conn., but it had 
 turned out an unfortunate enterprise because Webster was a 
 fool or something worse and he was made by this failure a bankrupt. 
 He, after this failure, went over to Europe, started a printing 
 house in London and another in Barcelona, Spain. Printed his 
 own books and attended to his own business. His books enjoyed 
 an immense sale and he took all the profits himself and made a 
 large sum of money, came home and paid off every creditor he 
 had in the world. He told me an affecting story of his relations 
 with General Grant, which I will repeat as near as I can remember 
 it: General Grant wrote, after the failure of Grant & Ward, his 
 "Memoirs of the Civil War." He went to all the prominent 
 publishers and endeavored to sell the manuscript to them, as he 
 had nothing left after the failure but his good name. They were 
 disposed to buy it but on such terms as to leave Grant little or 
 nothing — a condition, Mr. Clemens said, he knew all about for 
 
Recollections of Distinguished People 125 
 
 he had himself had experience of this kind. Mr. Clemens knew 
 that Grant's book would have a great sale, that his name alone 
 would sell it, so he said to Grant, "Let me have charge of this 
 matter. I know how to do it. I have had experience, and will 
 take 10% of the receipts for my recompense and relieve you of all 
 responsibility." Grant fairly jumped at the chance; said the 
 publishers had asked him 40% on the sales and other conditions, 
 making it seem impossible. Clemens arranged for its publication; 
 sent traveling canvassers to the cities and towns, and even out 
 into the farming districts and the book sold like wild-fire — almost 
 every farmer in the nation subscribed. About this time Grant 
 was dying of cancer and had finally gone up to Mount McGregor, 
 near Saratoga, where he became aware that his time was short. 
 He was anxious about his family and knew that all he had to 
 leave was the proceeds of these "Memoirs." He sent for Mr. 
 Clemens who went up to Mount McGregor and was ushered into 
 the sick room, where Grant lay resting on his bed, pale and emaci- 
 ated so he could hardly recognize him. He took his hand and 
 tried to speak but failed, then, with difficulty wrote in pencil on 
 a pad: "How is it with the book? Is it selling? I feel anxious." 
 Mr. Clemens had prepared a statement which he handed Grant 
 and told him that if the business were all stopped that day and 
 wound up his family would receive over $400,000; but the end 
 was not yet; it would yield much more than this. With this 
 Grant seemed to relax, an expression of peace passed over his 
 face and, as he turned his face away and toward the wall, he over- 
 heard the whispered words — "I die content," and at this point 
 the nurse asked Mr. Clemens to withdraw from the room. Mr. 
 Clemens told me that over $650,000 was paid to Grant's family, 
 the proceeds of the sale of his publication. 
 
 William Dean Howells: We met this celebrity at dinner, at the 
 home of a mutual friend, William G. Choate of New York. Mr. 
 Howells impressed me as a man quite absorbed in his own particular 
 self, and he seemed bored to converse on any other subject than 
 his own work. To me he was a bore. 
 
126 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 Edmund Clarence Stedman: I was introduced originally to the 
 poet when he was in great financial difficulty. He was a banker 
 as well as a poet and had a son in his office who enjoyed his con- 
 fidence and in his father's absence conducted his business affairs. 
 This son had entered into some "outside" Wall Street speculations, 
 putting up securities owned by the father, amounting to over one 
 hundred thousand dollars, all the savings of a lifetime. The 
 Poet had a house on West 78th Street, New York, and another 
 at Newcastle, N. H., both heavily mortgaged, which he could do 
 nothing with and was about to lose them. In order to get him 
 out to Lawrence Park where I thought he would by his presence 
 add interest to the new development, I gave him, free of all en- 
 cumbrance, a house and lot for his equity in his two houses so 
 heavily mortgaged. I also was obliged in the trade, to lend him 
 some ready money to clear away his floating indebtedness, which 
 he afterward returned to me. Stedman and his wife resided in 
 Lawrence Park for a number of years or until their death. I 
 think his financial troubles soured his otherwise sweet disposition 
 and made him in his later years critical and selfish, although he 
 was held in very high esteem in the literary world up to the time 
 of his death, and I have heard him called the Dean of American 
 Literature. 
 
 My experience with American artists has been somewhat 
 extensive : Lawrence Park having been at its inception considered 
 an art colony many of them were attracted to the place, and in 
 this and other ways, I have met many who have been prominent 
 in art. Among those I have known best are perhaps — Violet 
 Oakley, Carrol Beckwith, F. S. Church, William H. Howe, Will 
 Low, Bruce Crane, W. T. Smedley, Knight, and many others. 
 
 The artist profession appears to attract a certain order or class 
 of individuals having but little in common with others out of 
 their particular set. My experience with them (nearly all) is 
 that they have not even the ordinary business instinct but are — 
 always — ladies and gentlemen and a most interesting class of 
 people. 
 
A SUMMER VACATION IN 
 LATER YEARS 
 
 TT WAS on the nineteenth day of July, 1920, in company with 
 -*■ my wife, my cousin, Julia Titsworth, and my two granddaugh- 
 ters, Lucia and Margery Meigs, that we left New York on the 
 good ship Lapland for a little summer vacation abroad. 
 
 I had planned the journey long before our sailing but whenever 
 I spoke or even thought of it, I always did so with certain reserva- 
 tions, feeling that at the age of nearly seventy-nine years one 
 could not plan anything for the future with any degree of con- 
 fidence, but now having finished the undertaking and being on 
 our return trip home, aboard the S. S. Kroonland, everything 
 accomplished as originally planned, I feel no longer reluctant to 
 speak of those plans which seemed like castles in the air when 
 they were conceived, but are now stem realities. 
 
 After about ten days en route, over a smooth and beautiful 
 summer sea, we arrived at Antwerp and went immediately to 
 the H6tel de Flandres, a newly furnished and equipped little 
 hotel in the center of the city, presided over by a Flemish gentle- 
 man who was extremely polite and who made us feel quite at 
 home from the start. He told us that the Germans, after their 
 occupation, had taken possession of his hotel and that he had 
 managed it for them. They had carried away all his silver, 
 linen and everything else that they were able to pack in their 
 baggage and had left the house a wreck, but he had restored 
 everything now as best he could and he was happy again. He 
 told us that in pre-war times the best stores in Antwerp were 
 owned by the Germans; that when the German army came, these 
 resident German shop-keepers became more tyrannical and 
 German than the enemy itself. When evacuation became neces- 
 sary and the troops began to flee, the German merchants thought 
 it best to flee with them and they left, carrying all their stock in 
 
128 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 trade. Later some of them returned and started to reopen their 
 shops, but were waited upon by the loyal citizens and told to 
 leave town before sunset and never return or suffer the conse- 
 quences. They left and have not returned. 
 
 We spent two or three days here, going about the city, finding 
 but few traces of the war. Prosperity appeared everywhere, 
 bustle and general activity indicated that Antwerp had forgotten 
 the past and had turned its face to the future with its eyes wide 
 open to trade and commerce. 
 
 After finishing our little visit here we hired an automobile to 
 take us to Brussels, only a couple of hours away, and in going there 
 passed over precisely the same road that we motored over in 
 June, 1914, just two or three months before its occupation by the 
 German army. Then this road was an avenue of shrubs and 
 trees, lined with comfortable and stately homes all along from 
 Antwerp to Brussels. Now all this was changed. The road 
 itself had been battered and worn by the heavy artillery and army 
 wagons that had come and gone over it. The houses along its 
 side, as well as the shrubs and trees, had been nearly all burned 
 or otherwise destroyed and Malines, which stands about midway 
 between the cities, lies as it appears in passing — a great mass of 
 ruins. A temporary bridge has been erected over the river here 
 to replace the ancient stone structure, the ruins of which are 
 scattered along the banks of the stream. The farms or country, 
 however, which we passed through were, as in 1914, covered with 
 magnificent crops all ready for the harvest. The wheat crop 
 was already in the shock and the gardens (the whole country is 
 mostly a garden about here) looked as if they could feed the 
 world. 
 
 Upon our arrival in Brussels, we went directly to the "Hotel 
 Metropole," a large and very pretentious building of the pre-war 
 period, when in hotel construction and hotel decoration, nothing 
 could be considered too costly or too extravagant. True, the 
 house now was somewhat lacking in silver and linen, all of which 
 we learned had been carried off by the Germans, as in Antwerp, 
 
A Summer Vacation in Later Years 129 
 
 and everywhere that they went they took away all of those little 
 trinkets and treasures, that make a hotel attractive to the visitor. 
 I learned that every hotel or public building today, where the 
 Germans had an entree had been robbed, as the natives will tell 
 you. They will also tell you that the Germans are not soldiers— 
 they are robbers and murderers. 
 
 While staying in Brussels, we engaged an auto one day and drove 
 out to Louvain, only an hour away, to see the exhibition there of 
 German barbarity. No German in future generations can ever 
 visit this city and be unashamed of his birthright. He, it seems 
 to me, will wish to go in disguise and disown his nativity. Nature 
 is fast doing its part in covering up the ruins at Louvain. The 
 green grass and the poppy that grows on "Flanders fields" has 
 taken possession of these old ruined walls and their lovely colors 
 wave over the dismal grave of many a noble building. Besides 
 nature man is busy too, and many new buildings in all parts of 
 the city are rising up out of the ashes of the one that preceeded 
 it and it will not be long before all traces of the horrid outrage to 
 Louvain will be obliterated. I was glad I was able to see this 
 city at the time I did on this account, for one can hardly conceive 
 of the terrible things done here without viewing the remains. 
 
 The country between Brussels and Louvain appears to me the 
 most fertile spot on earth. The crops now being harvested, 
 would enrich any people. 
 
 We spent several days in Brussels visiting in all parts of the city 
 which show but little of the ill effects of the war. The city seems 
 as prosperous and almost as beautiful as it did in 1914, when we 
 last were there. The public parks and squares and gardens are 
 as well kept, the flowers bloom as sweetly and the people are as 
 luxury -loving as at that time. Before the war the caf£s and 
 restaurants were crowded with a host of these people, extending 
 out over the sidewalks into the middle of the street, drinking, 
 smoking, and gossiping away their afternoons in ease and comfort. 
 It is the same today. All have apparently money enough and 
 time enough to spend it in this way. This seemed all very strange 
 
130 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 to me as it was but yesterday when we Americans were being 
 asked everywhere we went to assist the poor, starving Belgians. 
 We found the theatres crowded and "the sounds of revelry by 
 night" on every side. 
 
 We presented our letters of introduction to Brand Whitlock, 
 the American ambassador and had a very pleasant call and 
 afterward were invited to his house to tea, where we found Mrs. 
 Whitlock and a number of the legation whom she had invited in 
 to meet us. 
 
 Mr. Whitlock is a most dignified and pleasant gentleman and a 
 credit to his country. I was really proud of him and his tactful 
 diplomatic manner, so different from most of our foreign repre- 
 sentatives that it has been my pleasure to meet abroad on my 
 various visits. 
 
 After a most enjoyable week in Brussels we engaged a motor 
 car to carry us to Paris via Mons, Laon, Soissons, Rheims, etc. 
 The morning we started was one of those perfect days when the 
 earth and air and sky and our own sweet wills were all in perfect 
 tune and as the car rolled along through those avenues of rhodo- 
 dendron beds lining the roadway, through that beautiful chain of 
 parks following each other out to the battlefield of Waterloo, I 
 could not help but think how blessed we had been in every way 
 since we left our homes beyond the great Atlantic. Since then 
 we had had nothing to mar or disarrange the plans made a half 
 year before we sailed away. 
 
 On our arrival at Waterloo, we took a guide aboard our car and 
 hurriedly drove over the field that brought the great Napoleon's 
 eventful career to an end and a long and much needed peace to 
 Europe. 
 
 We motored over to the Hugemont Farm and viewed the old 
 farm buildings which were the center of the fight, now moss- 
 covered and falling with age. We also went to the Belle Alliance 
 farm and our guide pointed out the principal points of interest 
 along the "sunken road" and finally left us at the corner where 
 Wellington and Blucher met on that great day, after which we 
 
A Summer Vacation in Later Years 131 
 
 motored hastily on for Mons as we felt a much greater interest in 
 the new battle fields yet to see than these scenes of long ago. 
 
 About one o'clock we drew up at a little Italian hotel in Mons, 
 for lunch. It was on the railway square, a large open space. 
 The station had been blown to pieces during the war and was 
 now being restored The square itself had been considerably 
 damaged by shellfire, but the pavement had been repaired and 
 a monument in the center of the square was being restored. The 
 hotel had been lately renovated and was very tidy and nice. 
 
 After lunch, we started on our journey southward. It was but 
 a short distance to the border line between France and Belgium 
 and here the customs officers came out. We expected they would 
 ask to see our passports and look into our travelling bags and ask 
 if we had cigarettes or cigars, but no, they only gave us a pleasant 
 smile. We heard one of them say, "Americana" and motioned 
 us to pass on. We were soon at full speed and as we went the 
 scenes of ruin along our way to Laon increased. We had been 
 obliged to give up the Cambrai Road as the reparations had not 
 yet been completed and we would have trouble getting into that 
 city, so our course was diverted into a road east of Cambrai, 
 which we followed. A long way before we arrived at Laon we 
 could see the city upon a hill, right in the middle (as it seemed) of 
 an immense fertile plain or valley. The hill was nearly as high 
 and as large as Mount Royal at Montreal and the city covered it 
 over and reached down into the valley or plain below. Our car, 
 which was an American-made Hudson, climbed up the steep 
 incline with ease and at the top, near its ruined cathedral, we took 
 an early supper, after which we motored about its main streets, 
 then over the top and down the southern slope over the Soisson 
 Road. Laon had been one of the central and most important 
 points in the war — a "bone" over which the dogs of war had 
 fought almost to the death. Much of the city had been destroyed 
 but it will soon be restored, as it has been done many times in 
 the past and become the chief city of this region again; the richest 
 perhaps, in the history and commerce too of ancient France. 
 
132 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 After leaving Laon we at once came into the scenes of the war's 
 greatest struggle, a flat open country where the French and 
 Germans met on an open plain and fought for many months. 
 For miles about here the wonderful farming country with all it 
 possessed has been completely ruined. Not a house, a tree or a 
 thing left to denote that it had ever been anything but a vast 
 desert or waste. We came to a point where the "Chemin des 
 Dames" crossed our highway and we turned off and motored out 
 for about three miles on the famous road which is not over fifteen 
 feet wide. It had, like the field on either side, been blown into 
 great holes and heaps, but lately repaired, so our car was able to 
 travel over it. On either side of this road were dugouts and in 
 places, heaps of war's debris piled up. Loads and loads of ammu- 
 nition still remain on the field. Some in boxes, unopened, while 
 again, great shells for the cannon were piled like cord wood along 
 the way, still waiting for the railways to be completed or repaired 
 in this section to enable the government to take the stuff away. 
 Here for miles, those dreadful barrages were carried on and every 
 inch of the country was shaken up by their shells. Here too, we 
 saw those long lines of trenches which figured so prominently 
 throughout the war; the so-called "pillboxes" in which the Ger- 
 mans hid their sharp shooters; breastplates, helmets, gas masks 
 and broken down vehicles were all here on this awful field as the 
 fleeing soldiers left and even now, after two years of peace, bodies 
 of the dead are being washed out of the ground by each heavy 
 rain that were buried by these awful explosions of shellfire. The 
 body of a French soldier had lately been found in this way in a 
 shell hole near the road and some one had buried the body in the 
 bottom of the pit driven in a stake and on this had placed a French 
 helmet that told the story of a poor unknown, in this great wilder- 
 ness of death and destruction. 
 
 It was near sundown when we motored away from this dismal 
 spot. A few moments later brought us to a ruined village. Not 
 a house remained, all were a mass or heap of rubbish. In one 
 part of it we were directed to what had been a German under- 
 
A Summer Vacation in Later Years 133 
 
 ground hospital among the ruins. Down a long stretch of stairs 
 we went until we came into large corridors and chambers. Here 
 we found a complete hospital with many beds, an operating room 
 and other hospital conveniences which the Germans had been 
 compelled to leave in a hurry. It was like many other of the 
 German works we saw, most carefully prepared to protect and 
 preserve the lives of the German soldiers. 
 
 As we climbed up out of this underground hospital, situated 
 far below the level of the street, we found the day had been spent 
 and darkness gathering. Such an interesting day it had been! 
 There was nothing now left for us to do but get into our car and 
 go to Soissons, only a short distance away, where we were to put 
 up for the night. "We found here a most comfortable little French 
 inn, built up in and out of the surrounding ruins. As we entered 
 the city and motored along its deserted streets to the hotel, we 
 could not dismiss those melancholy thoughts from our minds — 
 those thoughts of the Soissons of the past as well as of its present 
 state, its long line of men who had figured in French history, its 
 many sieges and oft repeated destruction by the enemies of France 
 and the sufferings of this city. As we looked about, the dark- 
 ness deepening over and around the blackened ruins of the 
 town, we felt a sadness, a depression creep over us, a feeling of 
 sorrow and regret that this, our twentieth century, should ever 
 witness such scenes. Laon and Soissons are truly the martyred 
 cities of France, the saddest of all and most long sit in sack cloth 
 and ashes in the midst of a brave and much abused people. 
 
 Next morning, bright and early, we motored about the city, 
 surveyed the ruins and were soon on the road to Fesmes and 
 Rheims. Again at Fesmes we found only long lines of fallen 
 brick and mortar. Everything that would burn had disappeared, 
 leaving the ghostly walls toppling and falling into the narrow 
 lane-like streets. This town was the first place after Chateau 
 Thierry that our American boys attacked and it is said that they 
 literally drove the Germans out of the town by burning their 
 hiding places. I heard it also said that the Germans up to this 
 
134 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 time had not believed that the Americans were really in the war; 
 that it was here they saw them and felt their whips upon their 
 back as they ran away; that it was here they lost heart and from 
 this time forward, they only fought in self defense, as they retreated 
 into the Argonne and back to their own country. The road from 
 Soissons to Rheims is lined on either side with heaps of debris or 
 salvage gathered up in the adjoining fields by the farmers and here 
 piled up. Barbed wire forms the most conspicuous object one 
 sees. It is all tangled and rusty. In one place we saw a half 
 acre covered with wrecked aeroplanes and in another, wrecked 
 motor cars but everywhere along this road, the wreckage and waste 
 of war lies thickly scattered and is rotting where it lies. 
 
 Not far from Soissons, in the narrow ditch beside the road, is 
 buried a French soldier who had been killed in an aeroplane or 
 by a fall at this spot. Some one, unable perhaps to dig a grave, 
 had simply covered the body with earth as it lay. He had then 
 driven a board at his head and nailed on it a French color rosette 
 and here sleeps another of France's defenders in this lonely grave 
 beside the roadside in the woods. Here again, the poppy and wild 
 flowers had found him out and had woven a covering of flowers 
 that was neatly spread over this humble grave. 
 
 From a beautiful spring near this spot, a stream of clear cold 
 water flows into a moss covered basin, made long ago to receive 
 and distribute to man and beast its precious contents. Here we 
 noticed two young French peasants filling a water wagon. We 
 approached them and inquired in our very best French what they 
 were going to do with the water. One of them turned and said 
 in perfect English — "We are taking it to Soissons for drinking 
 water. Their water supply was destroyed by the Germans and 
 the works are not yet restored." I then asked him how he came 
 to speak such good English. "I have been to England and have 
 also lived in America. I learned it there. My father owns the 
 adjoining farm and I came here when the war came to join the 
 army for France and as soon as I can get Father again settled 
 and the farm in order, I intend to go back to America." 
 
A Summer Vacation in Later Years 135 
 
 Rheims was already in sight, — at least its great cathedral 
 reared its lovely tower high above the plain in which it stood. 
 Our car bounded along over this now famous road until it came 
 to a stop directly in front of the great entrance doors of this 
 wonderful pile. We entered and while we found one or two great 
 shell holes in the roof, the jewelled windows, the wonder of the 
 world, all gone, and here and there a damaged spot where a shell 
 perhaps had burst and broken the fluting off of a column, we were 
 surprised to find the great building as a whole, so perfect as it is. 
 The buildings all about it are heaps of rubbish, the destruction 
 has been most complete, which leads me to believe that the 
 Germans in shelling Rheims, had in reality, tried to avoid the 
 destruction of this one great building, for if they had not so desired 
 I can see no reason why it was not levelled to the ground like 
 other buildings about it. In Rheims the destruction has been 
 so great that even now, after two years of peace, there is no hotel 
 to supply a tourist with a lunch. We were taken to a long wooden 
 building in a park, that had been an army canteen and was now 
 turned into a restaurant, for our lunch. This is conducted, I 
 believe by the Y. M. C. A. or Red Cross until other provisions 
 are made for caring for the travelling public. 
 
 After motoring about the city, we again departed for Chateau 
 Thierry, the next point of interest in our journey. The country 
 between Rheims and Chateau Thierry appeared rather tame 
 after our motor ride from Soissons which was filled with interest 
 all the way. The Germans had not crossed the Mame, for it 
 was here that the Germans received that blow in 1914 that sent 
 them reeling back when, on their mad drive for Paris, they met 
 Joffre and Foch upon the river's bank, and the country itself 
 tells its own story. Wherever the German trod he left a trail of 
 destruction behind him. 
 
 We soon reached Chateau Thierry and were somewhat surprised 
 
 to find the town in so much better state of preservation than the 
 
 others we had lately passed. Our American boys had first met 
 
 the Germans here. It was about the first time they had met, and 
 
136 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 it is said locally, that the German soldiers could not believe their 
 eyes for they had been led to believe the Americans were far 
 away and could not enter the war. They were surprised. The 
 Americans followed them up to Fesmes and burned them out. 
 From that time on, the German army lost heart and only fought 
 on the defensive. We did not stop but motored along toward 
 Belleau Wood, which covered a hill in the distance, almost as 
 high and important as Laon. The woods seemed at present, as 
 we approached, but a large area of standing poles for the fire or 
 gas, or both, had stripped the trees like those over the region 
 about Chemin des Dames, of every limb and leaf. It was on this 
 field that the American engineers dashed in and saved the day at 
 the expense, however, of many lives. 
 
 About half way up the hill at Belleau Woods is the American 
 cemetery, where twenty-eight hundred of our American boys lie 
 buried. The place selected for this is a level plateau which over- 
 looks a broad expanse of beautiful country with the river Mame 
 flowing through the valley below. It has been beautifully laid 
 out with gravel paths leading to all parts. The graves are each 
 marked with a neat white cross at the head and green grass, well 
 cut, spreads like a blanket over all. At the handsome gateway 
 at the entrance, a pretty little stucco cottage has been built where 
 lives an American lady to direct visitors to the object of their 
 search. The whole place and atmosphere about it is made as 
 attractive as possible and is in great contrast with many of the 
 English and French burial places we had seen along our route. 
 
 As we motored down the hill from this interesting spot, where 
 lay so many of our country's dead far away in a foreign land, we 
 could not help a feeling of sadness which came over us — a real 
 sorrow, not so much for the departed ones, for they were now at 
 peace, but for the mothers and fathers and loved ones left behind 
 to mourn over their brave sons upon whom their hopes for the 
 future had been placed. 
 
 A summer shower was passing as we descended to the main 
 road below and the water fell in torrents, adding to the gloom 
 
A Summer Vacation in Later Years 137 
 
 surrounding this spot, but we had scarcely reached the main road 
 that follows the banks of the beautiful Marne river up to the very- 
 gates of Paris, when the sun came out as it was sinking low in 
 the west and cast a glorious golden glow over the landscape in 
 every direction. 
 
 It did not take us long to reach the portals of Paris, and as we 
 motored through the Place de la Concord to our Hotel Regina, the 
 last rays of the setting sun were flickering upon the tall spires of 
 the Sacr6 Coeur, which crowns Montmartre in the distance. 
 
 Our visit to the war country, which we had come all the way 
 from America to see, was ended and we breathed free once more. 
 We were glad it was ended and that we had left behind these 
 distressing scenes, — scenes that had cost the world millions of 
 lives and billions of treasure. And for what was it expended 
 and what will the world receive back for this vast investment? 
 It seems to me that in the economy of nature, some adequate 
 return must be made. The world must get back in time, some 
 return for this great investment. History will make its report 
 and we cannot help but feel that when it does the world will be 
 found the gainer for mankind's greatest sacrifice. 
 
 We were then in Paris — Paris the beautiful, the gay, the one city 
 of the world where joy goes unconfined. All traces of the war 
 had been obliterated, have been hidden away, and the people, 
 as before the war, appeared to be happy and content with them- 
 selves and each other. To judge from appearances poverty was 
 unknown, peace and plenty abounded. 
 
 In Paris, we remained at the Hotel Regina for ten days, during 
 which time we roamed about and like the busy bee, sought honey 
 from every blooming flower that bordered on our path. Then 
 while our appetites were still unsatisfied, we left for London, via 
 Calais and Dover. The Channel sought to charm us that day 
 with its beautiful peaceful face and had we not known her fickle, 
 treacherous ways, we might have concluded she was a lamb now 
 and always. We arrived safely in London, after a delightful day 
 and put up at Browns Hotel on Dover Street. Dudley and his son 
 
138 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 Dudley joined us while in Paris and met us again here in London, 
 after an air voyage across the country and channel. They did 
 not speak highly of their trip. There seems to be little doubt but 
 that in the near future we shall find this way of travelling perhaps 
 preferable to any other. 
 
 London was enveloped in fog when we arrived and for the entire 
 two weeks there the fog scarcely lifted and the cold and the damp 
 did not add to our comfort or pleasure. London is, however, in 
 spite of its climate (which we do not like) a city after our own 
 heart. We love its old-fashioned ways, its castles, its palaces and 
 its grand old homes; its Westminster Abbey and its wonderful 
 cathedrals. We love its pomp and power, as displayed in its 
 army and navy, its flag, for it represents freedom, law and order, 
 and above all, we love her as good Americans should, because she 
 is our mother. 
 
 September second brought the hour of our departure and aboard 
 the good ship Kroonland of the Red Star Line, we sailed out of 
 Portsmouth harbor at four o'clock and were soon on our way 
 home. 
 
 Our home journey over the Atlantic was even better than the 
 outward one, as we had a smooth summer sea without the 
 summer's heat and arrived on September tenth at the very dock 
 we had left on July nineteenth. And so our trip and vacation 
 ended. 
 
MY FLORIDA EXPERIENCE 
 
 A FTER many vacation trips to Florida in former years, I 
 -**■ suddenly decided to, and did, purchase in February 1916, 
 my present winter home in Daytona known as "Graylocks." 
 
 Its purchase, I might say, was a mere accident for I came to 
 Daytona with no thought of buying a home there. The way 
 it came about was this : The hotels everywhere were filled. I was 
 unable to secure satisfactory rooms in any of the leading houses 
 for my party, consisting of my wife, myself, and the Wellingtons, 
 who had accompanied us down from New York to St. Augustine. 
 We motored to Daytona one day, noticed a huge sign on these 
 premises and began negotiations for its purchase and were the 
 owners of it a few days later. 
 
 The place at that time consisted of about four acres with two 
 hundred and fifty fine orange trees upon it, all of which were in 
 full bloom, which had much to do with deciding me to buy. The 
 buildings upon it were very small and inconvenient and the 
 grounds greatly neglected, but with the orange grove and the 
 fine old Spanish Canal running through it, I saw at once its 
 possibilities and succeeded in acquiring the place at a cost, I 
 think, of $12,500., since which time I have expended about as 
 much more in enlarging the buildings and the addition of more 
 land. The following lines written by me in the spring of 1920 
 afford, I think, a fair picture of my mind regarding it : 
 I've a home in the Southland, I would tell if I could 
 Of its wonderful beauty, of its garden and wood, 
 Of the brook which flows through it, peaceful and calm, 
 Of the gorgeous Poinsettia, the tall stately palm. 
 I would tell of gray moss, whose long streamers wave 
 From the boughs of the live oaks with shadows so grave; 
 Of the orange trees' bloom and the roses' sweet smell 
 That perfumes the air in the home where I dwell. 
 
140 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 I would tell of the birds, — of the brown thrasher's call, 
 
 The song of the mocking bird, sweetest of all. 
 
 Would tell of the sunshine whose crystalline rays, 
 
 Strike into our souls a spirit of praise; 
 
 Or tell of the night with its beautiful queen 
 
 Whose lustre shines down on an ocean of green. 
 
 But words cannot tell, and lips won't express 
 
 The feelings I have for this home I possess. 
 
 Do you blame me for loving — I love it too well — 
 
 This home in the Southland — this place where I dwell. 
 After a residence in Daytona of four winters, I began to grow 
 restless as I became acquainted with the city's affairs. I was 
 about this time induced to attend a meeting of the Daytona 
 Chamber of Commerce where I met and was introduced to the 
 leading members of the city government. I was surprised to 
 find that the affairs of a city of Daytona's importance could be 
 managed by such men as I met at this meeting. I felt that they 
 perhaps were doing the best they could in the offices they held, 
 but the only idea they had, it seemed to me, was to make Daytona 
 a resort for the sporting or gambling fraternity. The meeting 
 had been called by the Chamber, to find a way to better the city 
 and make it more attractive and interesting to tourists and 
 strangers. This so-called government representation expressed 
 themselves in favor of motor car races, base ball teams and other 
 attractions along these lines. I left the meeting quite disgusted, 
 at any rate with what I had seen and heard. These men had 
 lived their lives here in Daytona and it is quite doubtful if they 
 had ever been far away from it. 
 
 I immediately set to work to lay out a plan that I thought 
 would interest tourists and strangers, would rid the city of its 
 old bridges, its disgraceful roads and unsightly parks, and with 
 the assistance of Mr. William A. Bates, who happened to be 
 spending his vacation here, we made drawings and plans for the 
 improvement of the City Island, turning it into a park or play 
 ground with big swimming or bath house, club house and a bird 
 
My Florida Experience 141 
 
 sanctuary on a large scale, etc. These plans were presented to 
 the Chamber of Commerce and created quite a sensation for it 
 was a new thing, no one had ever before offered any suggestions 
 or tried to help along the civic improvements in this way, and the 
 Chamber sought to recognise this by giving a public dinner at the 
 Ridgewood Hotel in my honor. Over two hundred of the leading 
 citizens were there to discuss the existing conditions and seek a 
 way for bettering them. The dinner was a great success in every 
 way, for it was the beginning of a New Daytona. My efforts 
 though insignificant and only a suggestion still hit a popular key 
 and started the ball rolling. Within a year from the date of that 
 dinner the old form of government had disappeared, the old wooden 
 bridges were abandoned, the wretched streets had been newly 
 paved, and the city practically made over. After the reception, 
 which the citizens had given me, I felt that I ought to do something 
 practical, make a real contribution to Daytona's betterment and 
 this desire soon took form in starting the construction of Osceola 
 Inn and Cottages, in 1921. I had in mind the starting of a new 
 quarter in the city for a wealthier class of residents, a restricted 
 section where only people of culture and refinement could gain 
 access. Building operations began about April first, 1921. The 
 Inn and fourteen cottages were open to the public on December 
 fifteenth following. 
 
 Since the date of writing is March twelfth, 1922, the enterprise 
 is too new as yet to say if it is a success or not. Enough however, 
 has transpired to satisfy me that the Inn's accommodations are 
 far too limited and its facilities must be enlarged materially, which 
 I am proposing to do the present year. I have already invested 
 about $140,000. in the enterprise and now feel that this amount 
 represents only a fraction of what must yet go in to make it the 
 social and hotel center for the tourist and stranger, who come to 
 Daytona to find rest and enjoyment amid its enchanting and 
 beautiful surroundings. 
 
BIRTHDAYS 
 
 TT HAS been said that birthdays are like milestones set along 
 -*• life's highway that we might glance as we pass and in doing so 
 determine how far we have gone on our journey. Well, I have 
 just said "good-bye" to my eightieth, and having nothing else to 
 do I set about reading over this book of memoirs which have been 
 collecting for several years. The first impulse I had was to destroy 
 them; after a little further thought, I merely concluded to cut out 
 a portion and save the remainder; but after still further consulting 
 with my niece, Elizabeth Wellington, I concluded to retain the 
 entire collection as it was, and assume the consequences. On the 
 whole it affords, I think, a fair view of the life and times in which 
 I have lived, and that was (as stated in the preface) the object in 
 view when I began writing them fifteen years ago. At the age of 
 eighty, I find myself enjoying good health, still engaged in business, 
 for I have many enterprises besides the "Osceola Gardens" develop- 
 ment in which I am greatly interested. I find myself surrounded 
 by my wife, children and grandchildren; still fond of travel and 
 the society of friends, as well as the excitement of business. I 
 have also all my faculties as in my younger days, except the sense 
 of sight which is slightly impaired but does not deprive me of still 
 enjoying the beauties of nature and the cheerful faces of my 
 friends and relatives. 
 
 Looking backward today over the long journey I have traveled, 
 with all its meanderings across continents, over seas and up and 
 down the world, beginning at that farmer's humble fireside on 
 Veteran Hills, near Watkins Glenn, New York, down to the 
 present moment, seated in my comfortable and happy home in 
 Florida, it seems to me that I can truly say that a kind and benefi- 
 cent Providence has led me through green pastures and beside 
 still waters all the days of my life. 
 
MY DIARY FOR 1913 
 
 BEING desirous of presenting to my grandchildren a picture 
 of my daily life as it was at seventy, I kept a diary during 
 the year 1913, which is given in detail herewith. About this time I 
 was trying to sever my connections with a long and busy business 
 life, and found pleasure in travel and other foibles, as the diary 
 will plainly show. Shortly after this was written the great world 
 war appeared, and did away for a period of four years with pleasure, 
 travel and many luxuries, and brought on a period of self-denial 
 greatly in contrast with the apparently luxurious habits which we 
 were falling into before the war broke out and which are portrayed 
 in this diary of mine. 
 
 My health which during the year 1913 was, as the diary shows, 
 a cause of much anxiety and concern, greatly improved after my 
 Atlantic City experience and was followed for a number of years 
 by a return to old time conditions — a healthy body and a vigorous 
 mind. 
 
 January 1st, 1918 
 
 969 Fifth Ave., New York 
 At Home 
 
 I was awakened out of sound sleep at midnight by the blowing 
 of steam whistles, ringing of bells, blare of trumpets, and in 
 short "Bedlam let loose" for every noise which imagination 
 could picture or ingenuity invent was being made into one long 
 continuous screech which, proclaiming and welcoming the New 
 Year, lasted for half an hour at least. I could not feel that 
 enthusiasm which inspired this mass of humanity and therefore 
 did not join in with them; and why should I ? Seventy-one New 
 Years had come and gone since I came upon these scenes, and 
 each of the seventy-one had come in with these same rejoicings 
 and had gone out with few regrets. 
 
 However, I like this enthusiasm of youth and am glad that 
 they have it, that they forget the past and look forward with 
 fond hope into the future; for what would life be were it not for 
 this spirit of hopefulness which lives so strong in youth? 
 
 This New Year day came in warm and bright and beautiful — 
 
144 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 quite symbolic of the general outlook, for in all of the United 
 States today, peace and plenty reign. 
 
 January 2nd. 
 
 A quiet day was yesterday, a part of which I spent at the 
 Union League Club and afterwards in company with Anna and 
 Pressley. With them I went by motor car out to Bronxville 
 and dined at the Hotel Gramatan. Ferris, Dudley and Kate 
 joined us in a pleasant dinner and we returned home by 10 p. m. 
 
 Today the morning broke like a day in May, warm and 
 beautiful. 
 
 At the beginning of every new year I feel a natural impulse 
 to set my house in order (so to speak) to take account of stock, 
 count up losses and gains, and find out just where I stand; after 
 that to make plans for future operations and improvements. 
 Perhaps I pay too much attention to these temporal affairs, 
 and not enough to my social relations with my fellow man and 
 the future existence which stares us all in the face and is such a 
 mystery to everyone. 
 
 The restless tide that ebbs and flows 
 Along old Ocean's shore 
 Reminds me of the lives we lead, 
 A "noise" and nothing more. 
 Each day we rise to battle with 
 The cares and troubles here 
 Each night retire to quiet rest 
 If quiet rest be near. 
 
 January 3rd. 
 
 I suppose everybody nearly, like myself, has a thinking cap 
 on these early days in January and is thinking over his past 
 life, what he has accomplished thus far, on the journey, taking 
 account of stock in trade — not necessarily goods and merchan- 
 dise, but of everything making up one's life, such as faith, hope 
 or charity. 
 
 One may be thinking of past errors and how to avoid their 
 happening again, planning to settle all indebtedness of every 
 kind, compromising differences with his neighbors, so as to 
 start the new year right, and making new resolutions with the 
 idea of living a better and higher life. 
 
 These are matters which are uppermost in my mind these 
 early January days, and I have always felt these meditations 
 
My Diary for 1913 145 
 
 were profitable and good, for afterwards I could start fresh 
 with a clean slate for the oncoming year. If a good plan is 
 made, a firm resolution laid down for doing better, one is sure 
 almost of reaching the goal. 
 
 Some seek riches; some for glory run; 
 Some waste their time, in idle sport and fun. 
 What is my work, what ought my hand to do ? 
 Let this then be my prayer the whole year through. 
 
 January 4th. 
 
 I have been thinking today, trying to find a good and suitable 
 name for the little farm in Lawrence Park West. It has a 
 beautiful view, situated as it is on a high bluff along the proposed 
 street called Kimball Avenue. I would like to live to see the 
 hospital planted there but the time is not yet; better remain 
 where it is a while longer, till it has grown much stronger and 
 larger than at present. Anna has just suggested "Tenacre 
 Farm" and (as it is supposed to contain about ten acres) I think 
 it might be well to adopt this name. 
 
 Mrs. Elizabeth Custer spent the night with us. Arthur and I 
 are going to the dinner given in honor of President Taft at the 
 Hotel Astor tonight. 
 
 January 6 th. 
 
 I have been thinking much today about the future of Lawrence 
 Hospital which has not developed or is not doing the good work 
 in its community that I had expected and hoped and I have 
 searched deep for the cause and have concluded that the trouble 
 is with the doctors. 
 
 We have been depending upon the local physicians whom we 
 entrusted with the work and have allowed them to run the 
 hospital in pretty much their own way. Our experience has 
 shown that they have run it for their own personal benefit and 
 advantage, and have thought very little of it as a charity as I 
 intended it. The management must make a bold strike for 
 independence. I feel inclined to recommend the employment 
 of a competent house physician and surgeon who ought take 
 charge of the wards, start an out-door department or dispensary 
 and work up a hospital business and make it a real charitable 
 institution. Our present buildings are too small even now, and 
 it is quite clear to me that we have made a serious mistake at 
 the outset. But all mistakes must be remedied and this hospital 
 
146 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 made a success. I wish this to become in time one of the 
 big hospitals of the country, which my children and those 
 after them will take a pride in supporting. 
 
 January 7 th. 
 
 I have been thinking for some time past that I would get up 
 a little family party, invite my wife and all our children and their 
 wives and husbands and go up to Montreal for a little visit, and 
 today I have arranged it and we are all to go in a day or two. 
 There are ten of us in all and I think it will afford them a "good 
 time" to return to the scenes of their childhood and there meet 
 together. I am sure, we, father and mother, will be happy to 
 have them all with us around these old familiar haunts where 
 our children were all born to us, and all will be with us, except 
 our little Alice who lies in a lonely grave on the top of Mount 
 Royal. She was a darling babe and died within a year of her 
 birth, while we lived in a little house on Plateau Street. 
 
 January 9th. 
 
 The annual meeting of the Davis & Lawrence Co. was held 
 today at the Company's office, 10 Christopher Street. 
 
 Being the father of this company which I founded in 1882 
 and of the original business out of which this company grew, 
 which was started in June 1866, I shall, I suppose, always feel 
 a deep interest in it, and especially in these annual meetings. 
 This meeting today reminded me forcibly that I am getting to 
 be a back number pretty fast. For a great many years I have 
 been a prominent factor in the annual meetings, doing pretty 
 much all the talking, (as I was most conversant with its affairs) 
 but now I have, of course, lost my connection with its details 
 and was only a listener while others talked. It was a very 
 small business to talk about at the end of that first year in 1866 
 and I remember how anxious I felt when that first balance 
 sheet was taken off. It made such a poor showing compared 
 with the one shown today. At that time, I felt much as Robert 
 Burns did when describing his feelings in his address to the 
 mouse: 
 
 "But och! I backward cast my e'e 
 
 On prospects drear! 
 
 And forward, though I canna' see 
 
 I guess and fear!" 
 
My Diary for 1913 147 
 
 January 10th. 
 
 Arrangements are all made and we go to Montreal this 
 evening on the 7:30 train. As Lawrence Davis is able to join 
 us there will be eleven of us in all. 
 
 These early days of the year are so taken up with balancing 
 accounts and ledgers, holding meetings, inventorying stock, 
 preparatory to a new start at the beginning of new year, that I 
 feel almost as if it had grown to be a bad habit, but I know it is 
 not; and I think everybody either in business or in private life 
 should at least once each year make a careful examination of 
 himself, look round about over his little sphere of action or 
 affairs and find out just where he stands in the world and what 
 he has ahead of him to do, in order to make himself a better 
 citizen, physically, mentally, morally and financially. Every- 
 body then, should the first week in January take an account 
 of stock. 
 
 January 11th. 
 
 We arrived safely in Montreal this morning at 8 A. M., 
 party consisting of: Sallie and myself, Arthur and Virginia, 
 Ferris and Louise, Anna and Pressley, Dudley and Kate and 
 Lawrence Davis. We went immediately to the new "Ritz 
 Carlton," a hotel just opened and superior to anything in the 
 hotel line that Montreal has ever known before. The weather 
 is warm and wet, but our party are all happy and bent on a 
 good time with each other. 
 
 The first evening we all went to a hockey match at the skating 
 or hockey rink, a curious game played on ice. 
 
 January 12th. 
 
 Being Sabbath morning, we all went to the American Presby- 
 terian Church in a body. We were shown into a pew close by 
 our old one, which we used to occupy when the young people 
 were real children. It seemed strange to all of us to meet here 
 together; great changes have taken place in the church as well 
 as in us. When I looked about hardly a face was recognizable; 
 another generation which knew us not filled the pews and a 
 strange minister occupied the pulpit. 
 
 January 13th. 
 
 We left Montreal for New York this morning all but Mother 
 (Sallie) who parted with us taking train for Toledo, Ohio, where 
 she was going to visit her sister Nellie Taylor, then lying sick 
 
148 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 after an apparent stroke of apoplexy, which took place in 
 September, last. We had a pleasant return journey and it was 
 agreed by all that our visit had been a success and that the 
 meeting of the family in this way once a year ought to be con- 
 tinued. 
 
 January 14th. 
 
 Mr. Joseph S. Wood of Mt. Vernon called at my office today 
 to explain his plan of "booming" Westchester County and 
 Bronxville at a Grand Central Palace show, to be held soon. 
 He expected to raise $20,000 or more and would expend it all 
 in pictures and plans to be shown by electric light. He wished 
 To have a big picture of Bronxville painted on canvas and to 
 have me give $500. toward the movement which was under the 
 charge of the Westchester Chamber of Commerce, the whole a 
 sort of Grand Opera effect. I rather scoffed at the idea and 
 told him that it would prove a failure; that they had better 
 spend their money in the newspapers and in that way would 
 get some response. 
 
 Alfred Stone came in also to explain a real estate deal he 
 wished to enter into and wanted help to carry through, the 
 purchase of several houses; I promised to aid him when he was 
 ready. 
 
 January 15th. 
 
 The Fellows Co. of New York held their annual meeting to- 
 day at their office, 26 Christopher Street. I succeeded in 
 getting the bonus to employees continued for another year, 
 which was started a year or two ago. This bonus is based 
 upon the company's earnings and gives all the important 
 employees and heads of departments a percentage of the earn- 
 ings and since none of the employees hold any stock in their own 
 right, it seems to be the only way of holding their interest and 
 good will in the business. I am pleased that the directors have 
 been willing to accept my view of this bonus business and I 
 hope it will work out for the mutual advantage of both em- 
 ployers and employed. 
 
 January 16 th. 
 
 Since the New Year arrived, it seems as if the spirit of unrest 
 had broken loose afresh over the whole world. I suppose it 
 will work out a better state of affairs, for when all classes, rich, 
 poor and all, are airing their dissatisfaction with their surround- 
 
My Diary for 1913 149 
 
 ings something naturally will soon be done. The war in the 
 Balkans, the Revolution in Mexico may disturb their own sec- 
 tions but what we hear all the time is our own local grievances. 
 Our women demand the right to vote; in England the women 
 are burning and destroying property to further their ends; our 
 laboring men cry for shorter hours, more pay and, through 
 their unions, more power. The rich complain that our present 
 laws are making it a crime to be rich and are aimed to destroy 
 corporations or prosperous business. The poor complain that 
 the cost of living is such that they can scarcely eke out an 
 existence honestly. Some one remarked at breakfast this 
 morning: "How is it that a half-dozen financiers in the city of 
 New York can rise above all their fellows and be recognized as 
 rulers of finance when there are a thousand others whose names 
 are never mentioned in New York finance, perhaps just as able." 
 I said nothing, but could not help thinking that this was the 
 spirit of the day, the keynote of socialism, one man is just as 
 good as another. It may be "the elevation of the masses" is 
 coming but men will never be equally efficient or alike. They 
 were not created that way. Nature never made two of anything 
 alike. 
 
 January 17 th. 
 
 Attended the theatre last evening with Pressley and Anna. 
 It was an unusually good play called "The Good Little Devil." 
 I believe that these plays are not only a rest to the tired-out 
 man whose mind has been overworked but are an influence in 
 the community for good : that is, if the play is of a high moral 
 character such as this one. 
 
 Am having an interview today with Dr. Dear in regard to 
 his going into the Lawrence Hospital as House Physician and 
 Surgeon. Hope he may prove to be the right man. I am very 
 anxious to see the Hospital succeed and feel that it cannot do 
 this as we are now managing it . We must get a House Physician 
 and run it as an independent charity, free of our local doctors, 
 unless they can aid us by working on broader lines. 
 
 January 18th. 
 
 Had further conversation today relative to the "employees' 
 bonus distribution" in the Davis & Lawrence Co. with Arthur 
 and John. It is an important question to decide whether this 
 method of aiding our employees is in the long run beneficial or 
 
150 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 not. If it is handed to them as a gift, it takes away from them 
 that spirit of independence that is truly American and com- 
 mendable; if not as a gift, then it is given as a sum due for 
 services which they have a right to expect and look for, and many 
 of our employees are paid as a salary all they can justly earn 
 now, besides which, they seem to make even less effort to im- 
 prove, having this annual bonus, than formerly, when anxious 
 for an increase of wages. I have grave doubts but still think 
 it is worth trying out. 
 
 January 19th. 
 
 Sallie and I attended church. Dr. Jowett preached from 
 Exodus that portion giving an account of Moses meeting with 
 God on the mountain. It seems to me this meeting was Moses' 
 first conception of his great scheme of leading the children of 
 Israel out of Egypt and bondage. He was a great leader and 
 saw that the only way to control this great horde of superstitious 
 and ignorant people was thus to excite their religious nature. I 
 cannot accept this interview with God as anything else than 
 fiction, but Moses must have been inspired to take such action 
 in order that afterward he might take the Hebrews with him 
 out of Egypt. 
 
 January 20th. 
 
 Nothing doing. 
 
 January 21st. 
 
 I have been working today upon a scheme of forming a con- 
 struction company to buy out the Alger Court property, erect 
 a series of large suburban apartment houses to be heated, 
 lighted, etc. from our central light, heat and power plant. 
 
 I think the scheme is quite feasible and if the apartments are 
 planned for refined and cultured people and restricted to that 
 class, they will prove a most profitable investment. I will have 
 the grounds laid out and an elevation made showing the com- 
 plete arrangement, etc. 
 
 Dr. Brock George Dear went out with me this afternoon and 
 examined the hospital and we talked of an engagement, he to 
 take the place of superintendent, house physician and surgeon. 
 I will look further into his credentials. 
 
 January 22nd. 
 
 Spent the day examining annual reports, especially of the 
 Lawrence Park Realty Co. 
 
My Diary for 1913 151 
 
 The business of this company calls for a peculiar talent to 
 handle it successfully, as it has grown so large and I sometimes 
 have doubts if I or my boys either have this. If handled right, 
 I think I can see a great prosperous future for the enterprise, 
 and the family name is so identified with it that it would be a 
 lasting monument to us; but unless the thousands of details 
 are followed up, unless the boys will buckle right down to it 
 and give personal attention to them or are able to get other 
 people who will, I feel sure the development must be slow and 
 expensive and the final results more or less speculative. It is a 
 business which requires close observation and a steady control. 
 
 January 23rd. 
 
 Have been further considering the Alger Apartment scheme 
 of apartment houses and the formation of a company to handle 
 the matter. 
 
 I feel that this needs to be made a distinct and separate 
 business, not mixed up with the Lawrence Park Realty Co., who 
 have already too much to look after to do it well. They can 
 own stock and even control the Alger Construction Co., but 
 should be willing to have it under a separate management or 
 Board of Directors. 
 
 A meeting was held in the evening at our house of the East- 
 chester Association and their property divided up among the 
 owners, a pleasant family party. The Eastchester Co. it was 
 decided to wind up. 
 
 January 2^th. 
 
 Went up to Bronxville today to talk over Hospital matters 
 with Miss Doty and study further the addition of a maternity 
 or other wards to the Hospital, a doctor's office and room, if we 
 should employ Dr. Dear as proposed. 
 
 Alfred Stone called at office relative to my assistance in his 
 buying some Cedar Street houses. Says he will need the money 
 ($6,000.) the first of March next, but hopes to effect sales which, 
 if accomplished, will enable him to get along without the loan. 
 
 Talked with him about his personal affairs but do not feel 
 that I gained much by it. He means right but is rather vacil- 
 lating, something he may overcome by experience. I advised 
 him to take sides, choose his friends and stand by them, not to 
 try to be friends of everybody, as he seems to be now doing. 
 
152 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 January 25th. 
 
 A beautiful bright winter day. In company with Sallie went 
 to see Dr. Bosworth who treated us both for a slight catarrhal 
 trouble in throat and nose. He remarked that both of us looked 
 so young and vigorous, he could not understand us. He said 
 it was over thirty -five years since we first visited him and yet 
 we looked just the same. He is, he says, seventy years old 
 today and looks full of years and trouble. It is true, we have 
 much to be thankful for. Our lives have been along peaceful 
 roads which for over forty-six years we have travelled together. 
 Our children have become men and women, who are a credit to 
 us and grace their position in society, of which we may feel 
 proud. We started on our journey poor and with few friends 
 and but little influence, while now we have abundance and are 
 strong in friends and blessed with good health. 
 
 January 27th. 
 
 Yesterday, Sunday, Dr. Jowett delivered a beautiful discourse 
 in the morning; and in the afternoon we motored out to Bronx- 
 ville and attended a meeting of the Hospital Executive Com- 
 mittee when the matter of securing Dr. Dear as house physician 
 and superintendent was introduced. 
 
 I think that two prominent members of the committee are 
 afraid they will antagonize the Medical Board by doing this. 
 They are afraid to do anything lest the doctors "strike." This 
 lack of independence is regrettable for I fear the hospital will 
 never succeed or amount to anything unless the management take 
 matters in their own hands and act independently of the doctors 
 who are consulting their individual interests and not those of 
 the hospital. However, this is a matter that can't be decided 
 in a moment. Better let it drift in hopes that everything will 
 become harmonious later on. It can drift for a time at any rate. 
 
 January 28th. 
 
 When men reach the age of seventy years and over, it is a 
 question in my mind what they ought to do with themselves, 
 what to think of and generally occupy themselves with. I do 
 not know how it is with men generally, but I am myself such a 
 creature of habit that I find no pleasure in doing differently 
 from what I have always done — that is to visit my office regularly 
 and occupy my mind with business affairs, when at home in 
 New York. 
 
My Diary for 1913 153 
 
 I do not care very much for society or for public amusements; 
 rather prefer the quiet of my own home and fireside; I do not 
 smoke or drink and therefore am not by nature a social or club 
 man. I rather enjoy travel; when away from home and office 
 I get out of this old groove of habit. I can for a short period 
 be quite happy with golf and enjoy the excitement of the game 
 and new friends, but my own home and fireside appeal to me 
 strongest. 
 
 Old men and cats, the habit have, of sitting by the fire 
 And as the embers slowly die, they draw a little nigher. 
 
 January 29th. 
 
 A diary such as this is but a mirror of our minds and reflects 
 what we are thinking of day by day. These winter days we 
 are now passing through afford but little activity of mind or 
 body. It is a time of year when all nature rests and I am only 
 a part of the general whole, a cog in the wheel so to speak; for 
 I feel at this time a disposition to let things drift rather than 
 crowd them along, the feeling which I formerly experienced. 
 Later on as spring approaches, I may think better and feel the 
 rising sap rushing through my veins and with it, more energy 
 and life. 
 
 January 30th. 
 
 What a great mystery our lives are, the earth on which we 
 live and the heavens above, yes and all that in them is, what a 
 mystery! Why has the Creator thought best to conceal from 
 us the hand that created it and why he created it all? 
 
 Can it be He has hidden these great secrets knowing we could 
 not comprehend, and that when we have passed over the great 
 divide and left our earthly bodies behind we shall then under- 
 stand? Will the secrets of God then be laid bare to us that we 
 will see and understand all. That, it seems to me would be a 
 real heaven to be able to see and grasp these things which are 
 now such mysteries, to travel throughout the universe and 
 understand God's creations and why they were created. Surely 
 it would fill a "life everlasting" and be heaven indeed! Will 
 I ever be there? 
 January 81st. 
 
 Today we had the annual meeting of the Lawrence Park 
 Realty Co. at the Bronxville office. Former officers were re- 
 elected and little else was done, except to agree to push on our 
 
154 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 apartment house construction in the name of other corporations 
 and keep our own company a holding company and continue a 
 conservative policy. I am of opinion that is best. For the 
 present, better just rest on our oars and let the present storm of 
 unrest and troubled waters pass; surely the present continued 
 opposition and criticism by the Bronxville minority can't last. 
 The railroad crossing or bridge matter seems to be the base on 
 which it is all built and Ward Leonard the sole builder. I 
 heard today he was being attacked by the Sagamore stockholders 
 and it was already in court. 
 
 February 1st. 
 
 Alfred Stone in today regarding an exchange of one of the 
 houses he has purchased lately for a house on Gramatan Avenue. 
 I advised him to beware of cheap property in houses; that I 
 felt sure of his Maple Street houses but knew nothing of these 
 other ones. I do not believe in trading a good horse for a poor 
 one or even for two poor ones; they are both poor property and 
 it is so with house property. 
 
 I am glad Alfred has started in upon this line of trading. He 
 may get on the right track yet. I shall help him in this experi- 
 ment and hope he will succeed, in that event, I will feel well 
 repaid. To live on commissions from renting houses is a pretty 
 slow business and that is what he has been doing all his life so 
 far, and his father before him. 
 
 February 2nd. 
 
 (Sunday) Arthur and Virginia with their two boys came 
 down, attended church and lunched with us making a very 
 pleasant visit. I wish our children would do more of this 
 bringing their little ones to see us in this manner for I do not 
 feel sufficiently acquainted with the grandchildren since we see 
 so little of them. These grandchildren are exceedingly interest- 
 ing, each one of the nine is so like himself or herself and unlike 
 the others. If we could only read their futures and see what the 
 world has in store for them! I suppose it is best that we cannot 
 know this and that their future is as a sealed book to be read 
 only when their career is ended. I would like to know that their 
 lives had been useful and happy ones and that they, like the 
 rose, had budded and blossomed and that their fragrance had 
 made them loved by everybody. 
 
My Diary for 1913 155 
 
 February 4th. 
 
 This is a bright sunshiny winter's day, one that makes the 
 spirits rise within you and makes you glad that you are alive 
 and well and happy with your station in life, with what you are 
 doing in the world. I have no doubt but that with my income, 
 there are many who, if they had it, could do more and get more 
 out of it than I do, but when I look about and see so many 
 people trying to get a great deal out of life in charitable works, 
 in social and club life, in politics and public affairs, in sports 
 and athletics, and the failure they make of it all, I am inclined 
 to think it is a difficult task so to order our lives that they will be 
 perfect, or even please the principal actor in the play — Oneself. 
 
 February 5th. 
 
 Up at Bronxville today locating and trying to find a way 
 to erect a large cafe and grill room in connection with the 
 Gramatan. I think we have solved the problem and this 
 extension dining room may become a very attractive feature of 
 the hotel. Have also been considering our own water supply, 
 tank location, etc. The Gramatan is already a great property 
 and will (well managed) grow to be a greater and better one 
 every year. We must improve it in all its parts and constantly 
 improve; that should be our policy. 
 
 Going to the theatre this evening with Capt. Louis Van 
 Duzer and his wife, also Anna and Pressley, all of whom will 
 dine with us before going. 
 
 February 7 th. 
 
 Preparing to go south tomorrow for a few weeks change. 
 
 I enjoy getting away from the February and March storms 
 and unpleasant weather, but this winter seems so exceptional. 
 It has been so warm and pleasant that it seems hardly worth 
 while going away. Attended the Semi-Centennial of the form- 
 ing the Union League Club at the Club House last night. 
 Joseph H. Choate, Elihu Root and others spoke upon the history 
 of the Club and country during the fifty years since it was 
 founded. I was much pleased to be there and am pleased that 
 I have lived during such a period of the world's existence as I 
 have, for it seems to me as if the world has gone ahead faster, 
 done more for civilization and the uplifting of man than a 
 thousand years had done before. I hope we are not going 
 ahead too fast. Sometimes I fear we are. 
 
156 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 February 8 th. 
 
 Sallie and I with our maid left for the South on the 3 :34 train, 
 going straight through to Augusta, Ga. Expect to remain 
 there at the Hotel Bon Air for about three weeks. 
 
 February 9th. t 
 
 Sunday P. M. Arrived at Augusta and Hotel Bon Air where 
 we found many old acquaintances and friends, also that same 
 genial warm and beautiful climate which I have learned to like 
 so much during the past half dozen years, during which I have 
 been coming here. Many of our friends were on hand to bid 
 us welcome. 
 
 February 10th. 
 
 Had my first game of golf this morning. Only made eleven 
 holes with a score of 58, which is even better than my average 
 here. I thought it better to start this way but I will try to 
 make the full 18 hole course tomorrow. I will play with Mr. 
 Corelli of N. Y. at 9:30 on Wednesday, with Mr. George F. 
 Baker of N. Y. at the same hour on Thursday, with Mr. Edsall 
 of Wallingford, Conn, at same time or hour on Friday. 
 
 February 11th. 
 
 Played 18 holes of golf with Mr. Corelli. We came out about 
 even, and when we finished, I found myself very tired, as I 
 might expect, having played so little of late. 
 
 Golf 
 On a level here we meet them 
 Playing golf, that royal game, 
 Men of letters, men of money, 
 Men who're not yet known to fame 
 Poets, scholars, men of fashion 
 Chase the ball from green to green 
 All forgetful of the morrow 
 Of what they are, or what they've been. 
 
 February 12th. 
 
 My Birthday 
 Three score years and eleven 
 Make the days which God has given 
 Generous gifts He's made to me 
 But small returns is all I see. 
 
My Diary for 1913 157 
 
 Now if the past I should review 
 There're many things I would undo 
 There're many things I ne'er have done 
 Which plainly should have been begun. 
 
 At this late day what can I do? 
 Too late to start my work anew 
 There's nothing left but be forgiven 
 And seek another gift from heaven. 
 
 February 13th. 
 
 Out on the golf field with Mr. Geo. F. Baker, I put up an 
 excellent game for me, and beat him badly. 
 
 February 14-th. 
 
 Snow and ice again! How queer it seems down here. No 
 golf today. It does not seem like Augusta of the past. Last 
 year and this, if continued, will ruin the reputation the town has 
 "for the finest climate, etc." The hotel is filled, however, with 
 very interesting people from all parts of the United States and 
 many of them of national reputation, prominent and popular. 
 I enjoy seeing these people and meeting them as I do here where 
 formality is nearly all thrown off and they are seen in the natural 
 every-day life enjoying themselves. While men of every 
 profession are here, some of the most prominent today are 
 successful business men. President Taft is expected in a few 
 days. 
 
 February 15th. 
 
 Played 18 hole game of golf today with Mr. Hermstone of 
 New York. It was very wet and foggy and the consequence 
 was, it took me 120 strokes to make the 18 holes. 
 
 February 16th. 
 
 (Sunday) Beautiful bright day; went to the Baptist colored 
 church with Sallie and heard Dr. Greig preach. Very quiet 
 nice day with a walk in the afternoon. 
 
 February 17th. 
 
 Played golf in the forenoon with J. G. Cannon of Scarsdale, 
 N. Y., 18 holes; came in very tired; but I feel stronger I think, 
 every day. I find so many pleasant people here that time passes 
 very pleasantly. Had a talk with Mr. Robert Lincoln (son of 
 the martyred president). He is getting to look old but is better 
 
158 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 than last year. I should think him about 68 or 70 years. The 
 hotel is now quite filled up with guests and there are many 
 people about the corridors and on the golf links all the time. 
 
 February 18th. 
 
 Hotel life after all is rather monotonous. We have the same 
 bill of fare for breakfast, dinner and lunch to pick over and if 
 you pick well you will get along fairly well. It's precisely the 
 same in our social enjoyment ; if we go about and pick out only 
 those who are congenial and interesting and steer clear of the 
 others, we can find in a place like this a feast of reason and have 
 a delightful time of it. 
 
 February 19th. 
 
 Played golf, 12 holes with Mr. Barnhard of Boston and 
 Ipswich. He seems a very nice fellow and much of a gentleman. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Ball of New York, proprietors of Best & Co., 
 whom I have met and like, are leaving for home today. 
 
 In evening, played bridge with Judge Gregory, Mr. Waterman 
 and Mr. Esdell. I really believe that card playing is not in- 
 tended for me. I never could remember the cards that have 
 been played and therefore will never make a good player. I 
 think too much time is wasted in card playing anyway; that 
 we would all be more profitably employed in reading or even 
 talking with each other than at this play. I have never felt 
 like working to be an expert at it. 
 
 February 20th. 
 
 Played golf with Mr. Esdell. The links were wet and weather 
 foggy or misty but warm; made very bad work of it and came 
 home, wet through; but such is golf. 
 
 Letters from J. S. Bates upon the business prospects and 
 plans. His long service and faithful, honest attention to the 
 business are great arguments in his favor as a manager. 
 
 February 21st. 
 
 Nothing doing. 
 
 February 22nd. 
 
 Played 16 holes golf today with J. G. Cannon. For some 
 reason I was nervous and unable to make a good score and think 
 I must take it easier for a few days; have been overdoing; 
 Cannon suggested trying a new ball on the 11th green; I did so 
 and won the next seven holes. 
 
My Diary for 1913 159 
 
 February 24th. 
 
 Went to hear a negro preacher yesterday, a Dr. Walker, who 
 is attracting a good deal of attention here. He is no ordinary 
 man and if he lives, is going to be a great colored leader of his 
 race. This church is certainly an attractive one. Today we 
 read of big blizzards traveling over the north and northwestern 
 states. 
 
 February 25th. 
 
 Played 18 hole golf this beautiful bright morning with Mr. 
 Corelli, and came out second best. My game goes from bad to 
 worse. 
 
 February 26th. 
 
 Awakened by the cackling of a large flock of wild geese I 
 sprang up and looking out of my window, I should say there 
 were a hundred, and they were passing over the hotel going 
 north. This surely was a harbinger of spring. 
 
 Played 18 holes of golf with Mr. Humstone; came out even 
 at end. The morning was a most perfect one and I think I 
 never enjoyed the game more or the morning more in the open 
 fresh air. This seems a very monotonous life here, the same 
 things over every day; but I do not find it tiresome or the time 
 to pass slowly for I enjoy the people I meet and these southern 
 skies and the birds and the flowers, the running brooks, the good 
 fresh air, everything. 
 
 February 27th. 
 
 Played 12 holes of golf today and then rested in the afternoon; 
 took a carriage drive about the city to Hampton Terrace. The 
 golf course, etc. which was very enjoyable, particularly to 
 Sallie who has not had much attention from me as the morning 
 games of golf have so fatigued me that I have been obliged to 
 rest the remainder of the day. Have about concluded this 
 fatigue is largely due to the hot bath after exercise and not to 
 the game so much. I will stop the hot bath after today. 
 
 Played Bridge in the evening with Mrs. and Mr. Edsall. 
 
 February 28th. 
 
 Played golf today with Judge Gregory of Albany and Judge 
 Stoddard of New Haven, both better players than I, but by 
 close attention I kept up fairly well with them. Been raining 
 this afternoon, weather hot and muggy. 
 
160 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 "Looking Backward" 
 
 Here I am way down in Georgia 
 Looking outward toward the sea 
 All my thoughts are backward turning 
 To the days of "sixty-three." 
 
 In my thoughts I see an army 
 Marching on with drums and fife, 
 Marching with proud banners flying 
 All around is bloody strife. 
 
 At its head heroic Sherman 
 Leads his host both bond and free. 
 He is pointing ever eastward 
 "They are marching to the sea." 
 
 And I see the vanquished rebels 
 Swept before his marching men ; 
 See the Star of Dixie setting 
 Setting, not to rise again. 
 
 March 1st. 
 
 Commenced raining at midnight and has continued all day 
 long. Never saw such continuous or more vivid lightning. It 
 has been a very dull day for every body shut up in the house. 
 
 March 2nd. 
 
 Attended the old St. Paul's Episcopal Church (oldest in the 
 city) this morning. I found both the church and the service 
 very attractive. This is a building that was built and used in 
 "old slave days" and to the visitor suggests many thoughts of 
 those days and customs so changed now. 
 
 March J+th. 
 
 Played golf today with Mr. Humstone of N. Y. and put up 
 the very worst game of the season. He was very lame and 
 gouty too and did no better than I so that the play was bad 
 enough. 
 
 Today Woodrow Wilson takes Mr. Taft's place as the Presi- 
 dent of the United States. The general impression is that Mr. 
 Wilson will have a most uncomfortable term of office, that the 
 outlook is stormy ; that he and Congress will not get along well 
 
My Diary for 1913 161 
 
 together; neither he or his Cabinet will agree; and that he and 
 W. J. Bryan will not long remain together in the Cabinet for 
 both are headstrong and will try to dominate each other. Only 
 time will tell as to this. 
 
 March 5th. 
 
 Ex-president Taft arrived here at our hotel from Washington 
 this morning with his wife, daughter and others (they came as 
 guests of the city of Augusta). He was looking very happy 
 that his official life at Washington was over. On his alighting 
 from the automobile, the hotel people set up a great cheer, he 
 took off his hat, waved his hands and asked of the great crowd 
 on the piazza: "Are there any here who play golf?" He recog- 
 nized everybody with his famous smile and then went to break- 
 fast. After breakfast, Harry Lauder of the Scotch Serenaders 
 came, played and sang; afterwards the Taft party proceeded on 
 foot to the golf club. The weather is simply perfect and the 
 mocking birds show their appreciation by a charming chorus 
 in nearly every tree. 
 
 March 6th. 
 
 Since I came down here on February 10th, a constant stream 
 of interesting people have been coming and going; among them 
 were the following whom I have met and conversed with : 
 
 Robert Lincoln, the son of our martyred president ; it is rather 
 sad that the son has rather few of the characteristics of his 
 father. "He is overshadowed" so to speak. 
 
 George F. Baker, said to be America's leading banker and 
 worth $50,000,000; a most bashful and retiring personality. 
 
 James G. Cannon (another) but less modest. 
 
 Ex-Secretary Lacey of the U. S. Treasury under Harrison, 
 one of the most delightful men I have met. 
 
 J. B. Forgen, the leading banker of Chicago if not of the U. S., 
 considered the head of all U. S. banking, modest and unassuming. 
 
 Judge Stoddard of New Haven, a curious combination. 
 
 Judge Gregory of Albany, an erratic person. 
 
 H. A. Strong of Rochester, rather brusque, with a nice wife. 
 
 Minister Greig of Brooklyn, rather conceited. 
 
 Mr. Corelli of New York; Mr. Edsall of Wallingofrd, Conn.; 
 Mr. Pike of Chicago; Mr. Reams of Brooklyn; Mr. Banks of 
 Chicago; President Taft of Washington; Mrs. Mc Clintock of 
 Washington. 
 
162 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 March 7th. 
 
 Played golf this morning with Mr. Morse of New York; a 
 most beautiful morning and we had a delightful play. Pre- 
 paring to leave for New York this afternoon. 
 "I love a Georgian sunset 
 
 As it gilds the western hills, 
 
 The curling mist arising, 
 
 From the valley which it fills. 
 
 I love the singing of the birds, 
 
 Their song my bosom thrills. 
 
 I love the soft and balmy air 
 
 The peace that it instills. 
 
 I love the crystal dewdrop 
 
 When it glistens in the sun, 
 
 The game of golf, the flying ball 
 
 The field of sport and fun; 
 
 The towering pine, the little flower 
 
 That blooms beside the brook 
 
 All seem to beckon, say to me, 
 
 'Come tarry here and look.' 
 
 I love them, we are lovers 
 
 These Georgian friends of mine 
 
 And I shall always love them 
 
 Until the end of time." 
 March 8th. 
 
 On the cars all day; arrived at New York at 5:30 p. m. when 
 
 Anna and Pressley with the auto car met us at the station and 
 
 dined with us at 969, our Fifth Avenue home, as also did Dudley. 
 
 I am very glad to be at home again, as I always am after an 
 
 absence of a few weeks. 
 
 March 9th. 
 
 Listened to a sermon by Dr. Jowett, which did not seem to 
 be up to his average discourse. It may be I was tired from my 
 trip home. 
 
 March 10th. 
 
 I begin to think Dr. Jowett is too pronounced a Presbyterian 
 for me. He is one of the kind which requires you to cast aside 
 your reason and rely upon faith alone in religious matters; you 
 must believe, you must have faith and accept the word of God 
 and his ministers or you are outside the pale. I hoped this 
 
My Diary for 1913 163 
 
 ancient sort of preaching has been done away with and from 
 what I know of Dr. Jowett, he ought to see that this age needs 
 more advanced thought. 
 
 March 11th. 
 
 Been working today drafting a new will; my old one dated 
 December 27th, 1910 seems to have become a little out of date 
 owing to the great changes which have taken place and are 
 taking place among those whom I would like to aid in the world 
 when I am gone. 
 
 I have decided to give and transfer to my four children who 
 already own (by a previous gift) one half of Lawrence Park and 
 the Bronxville properties, the remaining half of the stock, so 
 that this entire property will be owned jointly by them. I feel 
 that they have reached the age when they can discreetly own 
 and handle this great property and it affords me very great 
 pleasure to be able to place within their hands such a property 
 with so good a name and such good credit. I value Lawrence 
 Park properties and the Brooklyn real estate which is included, 
 worth three million dollars, or near it, and it ought to continue 
 to develop as time goes on and become of great value. 
 
 March 12th. 
 
 Today I signed transfer for my Lawrence Park stock to the 
 children in equal shares to each so that they are now the owners 
 of the whole property, less two shares, which I retain so that I 
 may continue an officer of the company. Have continued work 
 upon my new "will." Having provided liberally for my 
 children in the Lawrence Park gifts, I intend to put the re- 
 mainder of my property into a trust that a large number may 
 be benefited, if I can accomplish it, and that the children may 
 have an assured income in the event of the Park proving in- 
 sufficient or unfortunate. This I will endeavor to extend so 
 that the grandchildren, nephews, nieces, etc. may all come into 
 the distribution. 
 
 March 18th. 
 
 Arthur and Dudley were in today and referred to my gift of 
 Lawrence Park Realty Co. stock of yesterday. They signified 
 that since they were to have the responsibility and care of this 
 great property that some arrangement ought to be made whereby 
 they should own more of the stock and enjoy more of the profits 
 than the girls, who have nothing to do, or at least no responsi- 
 
164 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 bility over it. There is much to be said on their side and I will 
 see how this situation can be improved. Can't see just how 
 it can be accomplished. 
 
 March 101. 
 
 Very little unusual transpiring in office. Went to Bronxville 
 and reviewed the work going on there. The new Gramatan 
 apartment house on Sagamore Road is just starting. It will 
 be heated from our central heating plant and, I trust is the 
 beginning of a successful and prosperous line of similar opera- 
 tions. I feel quite sure that these country apartments in Bronx- 
 ville will prove a great success in every way if the owners can 
 take a strong businesslike position regarding them, first build 
 high class buildings and then restrict them against all but 
 desirable and congenial people. They must be surrounded by 
 open gardens with flowers and playgrounds for children. 
 
 March 15th. 
 
 Lawrence Davis called this morning, as did Walter Bates. 
 We talked over the question of girls' wages in our factory, etc., 
 now being so widely discussed. Walter who has charge of the 
 D. & L. factory, advises doing away with "piece work" and 
 paying all by the week. I had to oppose this idea. I believe 
 it discourages ambitious girls or those anxious to please and get 
 along; I suggested that they advance piece work prices to make 
 it more attractive; that they investigate the character and life 
 of every girl employee and only keep and allow those of good 
 character on the premises and those living at home or with 
 relatives. Also, to be careful and always keep a good lady 
 forewoman who will see that the standard of morality and 
 excellence is kept up among her girls in this department. 
 
 March 16th. 
 
 At church in the morning. Went to Bronxville with Lawrence 
 Davis in the afternoon. 
 
 March 17 th. 
 
 These March days are not agreeable to me. I love the South 
 and only wish I had remained there till about the 20th or 25th. 
 I would have done so except for the fact I had so many things 
 on my mind which I wanted to do at home and we get to 
 thinking when down there among the birds and flowers that 
 
My Diary for 1913 165 
 
 those conditions must exist or soon will, at home, and so we 
 pack up and go there. 
 
 March 18th. 
 
 Spent day in office. Took Doctor and Lawrence Davis to 
 lunch at the Union League Club and in the afternoon Arthur 
 and Dudley were in here discussing the Lawrence Park affairs. 
 I feel that there is enough for all; that they ought all to be satis- 
 fied with their portions and pull together. I am doubtful if 
 they will use this option. Would rather they would expand by 
 doing personal work or going into other branches, outside 
 ventures, and leave the park holdings as arranged. 
 
 March 19th. 
 
 Motored out to Bronxville with Sallie; met Heath (our new 
 English gardener) took him over the park and engaged him to 
 come on April 1st, and start up a garden department in connec- 
 tion with Lawrence Park. He is to take charge of all public 
 and private grounds belonging to the company; extend our 
 nursery hot beds and later on, hot houses, etc. I do hope he is 
 big enough a man to make this work a success. I would like 
 this garden work and farm work, two separate departments, to 
 become lucrative and self-sustaining and at the same time prove 
 a most important auxiliary in building up the Hotel Gramatan 
 and making Lawrence Park the leading and most attractive 
 suburb in New York. 
 
 March 20th. 
 
 Meeting today of the Fellows Co. but nothing of special 
 importance before it. I cannot help but wonder what the 
 future of this business is to be. The holders of the stock, it 
 seems to me are getting farther and farther away every day. 
 Originally I knew the owners and they were practical business 
 men, and now the owners are women, boys and girls, and trust 
 estates who never come in touch with its affairs or know any- 
 thing about the business or its managers. At present we have 
 Dr. Anger at the head and he is, I consider, a fairly able manager 
 but without vision; if he should fall out, I suppose others would 
 appear to fill his place even though they are not visible now. 
 The company must devise a way that its employees who are 
 not stockholders will be provided for liberally if they show 
 interest in its affairs. Perhaps the bonus plan will accomplish 
 this; if not, some other scheme must be tried. 
 
166 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 March 21st. 
 
 Been thinking today of our summer vacation. Have about 
 concluded to return to Carlsbad and take the "cure" again this 
 year. I believe I was benefited last year by it and I am sure 
 the trip there is as pleasant as any I know of. It occurred to 
 me today that I might extend this trip through Russia, to Japan, 
 and home by the Pacific; it would be novel and interesting and 
 is becoming so easy to make it that I must look into it and see 
 if it seems advisable. I can see it would be quite an under- 
 taking and doubt if either Sallie or I are justified in making it. 
 A few years ago I would have loved to plan and carry out such 
 a trip but we begin to feel the weakness of old age. 
 
 March 22nd. 
 
 Smith, an old chauffeur, called in to see me today and asked 
 for a reference. When he left my employ two or three years 
 ago, I discharged him for permitting "new tires" to be taken off 
 my car and old second hand ones being put on in their places. 
 The inference was, of course, that he did it, selling the new ones 
 and buying and putting on the old. I refused to give him a 
 reference or certificate of character. He looks seedy and 
 degenerate. Why is it that young men are unable to see that 
 "character" is everything to them; that it is their only "stock 
 in trade," and without it they will find life a terrible struggle, 
 not worth the living. Smith I think, by his looks, has fallen 
 to a very low level. 
 
 March 25th. 
 
 Easter Sunday. Dr. Jowett preached on David Livingstone. 
 The day was bright and pleasant. Have been thinking today 
 about our existence here; what it really means; what is to be 
 the future of the human race. It would seem as if we soon should 
 understand the source of disease and without medicine cure or 
 prevent it. Find the cause of old age and then remove the 
 cause. Find out the very beginning of everything, even of 
 the universe itself. It seems to me that electricity or a spirit 
 akin to it will yet be found. The great spirit of the ancients, 
 the source of all life, the beginning of everything; that which 
 appeared in the burning bush at Sinai to Moses, the "Great I 
 Am "who plants his footsteps on the sea, who rides upon the 
 storm; is then Electricity, or this undiscovered spirit, the Living 
 Spirit, the Alpha and Omega of everything? 
 
March 26th. 
 
 My Diary for 1913 167 
 
 Faith 
 
 How beautiful are the mountains 
 When the sunbeams die away 
 When the mellow shades of evening 
 Weep o'er the expiring day. 
 
 In faith I see tomorrow 
 Much brighter than today 
 In peaceful rest we slumber 
 Till the night has passed away. 
 
 When from our friends we're parted 
 From friends who've gone away 
 The faith we'll meet tomorrow 
 Makes light the pain today. 
 
 Who Am I? 
 
 Only a unit, a waif out at sea 
 That drifts with the wind and the tide 
 I came from a country I never can know 
 While on to another I ride. 
 
 Why is it then, I should fain be so proud 
 
 Or boast of my high station here ? 
 
 For when I look backward there's naught I can see, 
 
 If forward, an ocean so drear! 
 
 My creator has made me just as I am 
 His design I'm unable to know. 
 My faith it looks upward, in certainty rests 
 That I'm led as He likes me to go. 
 
 March 28th. 
 
 Held a meeting of the Executive Committee at Lawrence 
 Hospital today at the Hospital in Bronxville. We discussed at 
 length the employment of a house physician and surgeon to 
 take Miss Doty's place when she leaves in the fall and it was 
 finally decided to recommend this change to the Board of Gover- 
 nors at their next meeting. A case of Scarlet Fever developed 
 in the hotel and they wished to send it to the Hospital Isloation 
 
168 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 Ward, but this request had to be refused as we had decided at 
 our meeting today that no more contagious cases could be 
 received, for fear of endangering the health of all our other 
 patients since this ward so closely adjoins the main building. 
 I was sorry to have to do it. The patient was removed to New 
 York. 
 
 March 29th. 
 
 Have been trying to think out a plan for a more satisfactory 
 development of Lawrence Park. There are so many industrial 
 and other extensions to this real estate investment, so many 
 outside connections that ought to be made that I forsee too 
 many complications and too many cares for its owners. It 
 seems to me just at this junction a Napoleon of finance ought 
 to take hold of it, that it is too big for either me or my sons. 
 Neither they nor I can run a hotel, a farm, a big real estate 
 speculation, a newspaper, and extensive apartment house con- 
 struction business. Outside talent, people who do know these 
 things must be got into it if 1;hey are to succeed. How is that 
 to be accomplished? This must be studied out. 
 
 March 30th. 
 
 Heard Dr. Jowett preach today. In the afternoon Dr. 
 Dear came up to dinner, and also Arthur. I was glad to meet 
 the doctor in this informal way and get acquainted. He appears 
 reserved and gentlemanly. I fear he lacks magnetism and 
 perhaps sufficient tact to fill the position in the Lawrence Hos- 
 pital which he has applied for. 
 
 April 1st. 
 
 Been trying to revise my will in accordance with the advice 
 of the lawyer, Charles Pierson. I would like very much to 
 have formed a trust to last for a period of forty years, but there 
 seems no way but make the Trust dependent upon the life of 
 some one, so I have selected the name of my youngest child, 
 or Dudley, and at his death the Trust ends. 
 
 April 2nd. 
 
 Spent the day making a study of Lawrence Hospital situation. 
 Called a meeting of the directors to be held at a Gramatan 
 Hotel dinner on the 7th and intend to take definite action in 
 regard to the installation of our own physician and surgeon and 
 the building of a new isolation ward. I should like it in place 
 
My Diary for 1913 169 
 
 of our old one, which we have decided to close because it is so 
 close to our main building and dangerous. I have written out 
 a full statement of the case and will present it at this meeting 
 and trust the Board will stand by me, as I doubt not they will. 
 April 3rd. 
 
 Been at work today studying a plan for a Hotel Gramatan 
 Co. I wish to provide a way to get into the service and manage- 
 ment an interested set of men as managers and believe the only 
 way to do it is to give them a stock interest; this it seems to 
 me can be done by giving or selling them blocks of stock which 
 they can make valuable by close attention, etc. Besides this, 
 I would like to find a way that the owners might take out of 
 this hotel a part of the investment and put it in other Lawrence 
 Park investments. 
 
 I talked today with Geo. H. Prentiss & Co. about it and they 
 offered to examine into and aid me. Went in the evening with 
 Sallie and Mrs. Custer to the Hiawatha moving picture show 
 at Natural History Museum. It was a wonderful exhibition. 
 
 April 4th. 
 
 Up to Bronxville today ; found Burke Stone very ill and given 
 up by doctors. He looks unnatural; recognized me when I 
 entered the room but could not speak so I could understand. 
 Poor Burke! I have known him for over forty years. Life 
 has been in his case, a disappointment; I am sure that success 
 never favored him, but "failure" has been a constant companion. 
 Now being old and poor, death would be, I think, a welcome 
 guest. I visited the hospital; it was quite full. So much 
 anxiety and suffering in one day has made me feel quite despon- 
 dent myself. Added to this, is the knowledge that Nellie 
 Taylor is now on her way from Toledo here and will add another 
 sorrow soon to our circle of friends. 
 
 April 5th. 
 
 Nellie Taylor, Agnes and nurse arrived this morning early 
 and we met them at the Harlem Station with car, and I sent 
 them with Dr. Charlton out to the Hotel Gramatan; Nellie will 
 remain there until some permanent arrangement for her future 
 can be made. She appeared very well; for her mind is her 
 diseased part. She therefore may live for a long time. I slept 
 very poorly last night and regret this new condition for I have 
 been a very good sleeper all my life. 
 
170 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 April 6th. 
 
 Attended church this morning. Dr. Jowett was particularly- 
 interesting. Went to Bronxville with Sallie in the afternoon 
 to see Nellie and bring Agnes down to her train for Toledo. 
 
 April 8th. 
 
 Went up to Bronxville and spent most of the day. In the 
 evening had meeting of trustees of Lawrence Hospital at dinner 
 in the Hotel Gramatan. There were twelve of us sat down, and 
 the dinner was in every way a success. 
 
 After the usual proceedings I spoke to the meeting on the 
 subject of employing Dr. Brock Dear and abandoning our 
 present system, which has given four of our doctors a monopoly 
 of the hospital, and through which patients have sometimes 
 been charged beyond their means, to the injury of the hospital. 
 Resolutions were passed as I proposed, and I believe the em- 
 ployment of Dr. Dear or some other good house physician and 
 surgeon will begin a new era in the life of the hospital. I hope so. 
 
 April 10th. 
 
 Hospital questions seem to arise daily; something must be 
 done to give room for growth and new wards provided. The 
 idea came to me today of adding at the south end, along Palmer 
 Avenue, a large building containing double wards and addi- 
 tional rooms. It is the best thought yet and I have just given 
 it to Mr. W. A. Bates and asked him to draw plans and elevation 
 so I can see how it will work out. Judson Titsworth of Mil- 
 waukee called today; I did not know him at first; have not seen 
 him for at least thirty years. He married Cousin Julia Van 
 Duzer of Horseheads; my favorite and only cousin that I ever 
 cared about. 
 
 April 11th. 
 
 Who can foretell what this change of government at Washing- 
 ton means to the country. If Mr. Wilson, our new president, 
 is able to carry through his proposed changes in tariff and 
 banking laws and make what is now a highly protected country, 
 a semi-free-trade one, it would seem as if he had a revolution 
 before him. For about fifty years we have been building up 
 the protective system. Mr. Wilson appears to be independent 
 and fearless. He seeks no aid from anyone. Everyone hopes 
 for the best and believes him honest and capable. Time will 
 show what he is and what the future has in store. At the 
 
My Diary for 1913 171 
 
 present, the future looks stormy and uncertain for the business 
 of the country. But I can't help but have faith in Wilson and 
 believe that he is the right man in the right place. I hope so 
 at any rate. 
 
 April 12th. 
 
 Burke Stone died at Bronxville at 10:30 this morning. Poor 
 Burke, during all his life he has pursued the even tenor of his 
 way which has been a modest retiring one. Burke has never 
 sought a "front seat" in any of the theatres of life, always 
 content to remain behind. I have tried at various times to 
 help him out but to no avail, for like many a flower which was 
 bom to blush unseen, Burke was bom to lead a life of incon- 
 spicuous mediocrity. He was generally liked and a good fellow 
 but lacked the elements of success. So one by one our old 
 friends depart. 
 
 April 13th. 
 
 Went out in auto to Bronxville with Sallie, Agnes and Bess 
 to Burke's funeral service which was held at his residence in 
 the afternoon at 3 o'clock. 
 
 April IJfth. 
 
 Went out to Bronxville in the auto again this morning with 
 Sallie, Agnes and Bess and from there to Kensico Cemetery 
 where Burke Stone was finally laid to rest beside Adele, his wife, 
 who was placed there only a year or so ago. When his body 
 was being lowered into the open grave, I could not help but 
 think as I thought of Burke's life of toil and trouble: "O death, 
 where is thy sting, grave, where is thy victory?" for death 
 came as a messenger of peace and the grave a refuge of peace 
 and rest — a blessed end. 
 
 April 15th. 
 
 While in the Cemetery yesterday, I went with Sallie and 
 Agnes to view my own last resting place, or at least the one I 
 hope to occupy when that last day has come. The thought 
 occurred to me that this, my future house, ought to be put in 
 order for it could not be long before it would be wanted; the 
 surroundings were so beautiful this early spring day, the lake 
 in front, the budding willows and singing birds all so inviting, 
 I could not think of Death as the enemy he is pictured at all, 
 but as in Burke's case (so with us all) a welcome visitor when 
 one's strength has gone. I will try and make my cemetery lot, 
 
172 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 if spared, an attractive home and then perhaps my children 
 may wish to sleep there with father and mother when they, too, 
 are tired and weary of life. I would like to have them there 
 beside me, — and yet what does it matter? "Dust to Dust." 
 
 April 16th. 
 
 Have been in the office all day; the boys came down and 
 lunched with me at the club and we talked over Bronxville 
 affairs. I realize the work they have before them and wonder 
 how successful they will be in the great job I have given them 
 to do. They want to do right and to succeed, but they have 
 not yet learned to rely enough upon "personal effort" and to 
 see that it is that only, which succeeds. I think when I have 
 thrown it all upon their shoulders, all the planning and plotting 
 which so big an enterprise needs, that they will feel the weight 
 and bear the burden more easily. They have too long depended 
 on me to do the important work and it has become a habit. 
 
 April 17th. 
 
 A meeting of the directors of the Fellows Co. today. Dr. 
 Anger made a very comprehensive report of the business, which 
 appears to be in a satisfactory condition in all the markets of 
 the world. 
 
 April 18th. 
 
 Met Dr. Dear and went over the Hospital with him. Dis- 
 cussed his work there and its future extensions and develop- 
 ments. He seems to lack agressiveness or push, but it is hard 
 to tell what he is in these preliminary talks. Miss Doty had 
 every part of the building polished and clean and I was really 
 proud to show it. 
 
 April 19th. 
 
 My life these days is not crowded with excitement or stirring 
 events. It has been a long time if ever, since I have taken 
 things so easy as now. It may become monotonous or tire- 
 some and I may have to take up some business occupation 
 again to avoid disintegration or general good-for-nothingness. 
 I find myself dropping into these lazy ways too naturally. I 
 have rather admired old men who stuck to their work and at 
 last fell down in their harness, and do not quite see why I am 
 retiring from all active business the way I am now doing. I 
 feel as able as ever, but I know I am not. 
 
My Diary for 1913 173 
 
 April 20th. 
 
 Attended church and listened to Dr. Jowett who was in his 
 usual mood which certainly makes him a powerful speaker. 
 
 April 21st. 
 
 Out to dinner today with my old friend, Tudor Jenks, whom 
 I took to the Union League with me. He is about the most 
 typical representative of a good man "gone wrong" I have 
 ever met. An honest, upright, educated and accomplished 
 man without a practical idea in his head ; a sort of waste of good 
 material; that at least, is the way he looks to me. Perhaps I 
 misjudge him. 
 
 April 22nd. 
 
 The idea of making the Lawrence Park Realty Co. a mother 
 of several corporations occurred to me today. This one corpora- 
 ration cannot continue the development of Lawrence Park and 
 keep apace with the demand for apartments, residences, busi- 
 ness buildings, etc. without borrowing large sums of money and 
 this only causes anxiety and trouble and should be avoided. 
 The thought I have is to create a hotel company to own and 
 run the hotel and get a practical hotel man interested in it to 
 advise and manage it. Same with our Heat, Light & Power 
 Co., our apartment house business, our business building 
 business, our cottage and home building business; all to be 
 separate corporations to be partly owned and in some cases 
 perhaps controlled by the Lawrence Park Realty Co. 
 
 April 23rd. 
 
 In office all day working on the reorganization of Lawrence 
 Park, getting its active business into several companies so as 
 to remove, as far as possible, any cause of friction between my 
 children. If I can divide it up so that the joint estate will be 
 inactive and all the business done by sub companies, I hope in 
 this way to preserve the unity and individuality of the Park 
 and it will go on as heretofore and become a great family monu- 
 ment. 
 
 Meeting of the Executive Board of the Lawrence Hospital 
 today at my office to decide on new extension to be built and 
 the employment of Dr. Dear. All satisfactory. 
 
 April 24th. 
 
 The boys have expressed themselves fully today upon then- 
 relations to the Lawrence Park Co. affairs. A great joint 
 
174 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 family ownership such as is here represented by this company 
 may not prove practical. It may be the children would all 
 be better off to divide up the property and each manage their 
 own in their own way. If this is done, my dream of twenty 
 years, it seems to me, would vanish, that of creating a big 
 community, a sort of family monument, etc. in Bronxville. 
 Perhaps we can find a way to hold it together through the sub- 
 company idea and this we must try to do, for I don't wish to 
 see the children bound together in any way if they wish to live 
 separate, or at least separate their business affairs. 
 
 April 25th. 
 
 The Lawrence Park Country Club and golf links were started 
 soon after we opened up Lawrence Park West. It was intended 
 to be a "drawing card" and an attraction that would bring to 
 the Hotel and park a class of influential, desirable people, who 
 might become future residents. In this it has failed and is 
 only a recreation ground for the young people about the hotel 
 and village and is without any influence whatever. 
 
 I have taken the matter up after talking last evening with 
 Rev. Dr. Jowett and shall try to change all this, even if the 
 Club has to retire and we may have to make it a private golf 
 course, a strictly Lawrence Park affair, which I now believe it 
 ought to have been made and kept from the first. 
 
 April 26th. 
 
 My entire experience in life teaches me that he who would 
 succeed in any walk of life, on the farm, in business, the profes- 
 sion or elsewhere, must do as Dr. Jowett expressed it to me the 
 other night when I met him at dinner, "forego the pleasures and 
 vanities of this world and work." He said he could not go out 
 to dinners, to theatres, the club, etc. for the reason that he could 
 not keep late or irregular hours and accomplish anything. To 
 do his work properly and well, he had to keep a great deal of 
 time by himself, and study over the problems of life. I know 
 if I have ever accomplished anything in the world it has been 
 done in the privacy of my own office, or room, not with the 
 aid of society, or others. It is a great error to think we must 
 always have amusement or pleasure; our own success in life is 
 better value. 
 
 April 27th. 
 
 Sunday. Heard Dr. Jowett preach in the morning; motored 
 
My Diary for 1913 175 
 
 out to Bronxville in the afternoon with Sallie, visited the farm 
 in company with Arthur, Virginia and all the grandchildren, a 
 load of them. 
 
 April 29th. 
 
 The suit taken by the Village of Bronxville to compel the 
 Lawrence Park Realty Co. to remove a corner of Arcade Block 
 said to encroach on Pondneld Road was heard today and I 
 attended. This action will doubtless work out to everybody's 
 advantage as the question ought to be settled in order that our 
 title to the property be made clear. This trial, however, has 
 clearly shown to me the truth of that old proverb that "Whom 
 the gods would destroy, they first make mad." This action 
 was instigated by Ward Leonard and A. E. Smith out of jealous 
 spite and to reflect on the Realty Co. and show them up to the 
 public as encroachers and robbers of public lands. The trial 
 resulted in discrediting almost everybody the Village put on 
 the stand and I trust in their defect. We shall widen the road 
 to fifty feet anyway some day. 
 
 April SOth. 
 
 Very much occupied today considering the matter of dividing 
 the Lawrence Park business into several companies. 
 
 A human thought, O, what a power 
 For good or evil end 
 Should we not then consider well 
 Each thought or word we send? 
 
 A little word is a little thing 
 But spoken out in time, 
 Might save a soul, a nation save — 
 Then watch those words of thine. 
 
 May 1st. 
 
 Spring has really arrived here. Today it has been warm and 
 vegetation is springing forward with a bound. How wonderful 
 nature is; how mysterious are her ways! These sudden changes 
 give food for thought and make us realize how little we really 
 know, what little "mites" we are in the great Universe of God. 
 
 May 2nd. 
 
 Attended Mrs. Titus Meigs' funeral today. She had been so 
 long a sufferer and a care to her relatives and friends, her 
 
176 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 departure was a blessed relief to all. Why should we then fear 
 death, especially when we are old and ripe with years. Death 
 then comes as a sweet refuge and relief and it was a wise dispen- 
 sation of Providence that provided a way for us to drop off 
 these human shackles and flee away from the cares and burdens 
 that weigh so heavily upon the shoulders of the old and feeble. 
 
 May 3rd. 
 
 A ride out to Bronxville in motor car constituted the principal 
 work of the day. 
 
 May 5th. 
 
 Visited Bronxville with Violet Oakley and discussed with her 
 a scheme for building and establishing in Lawrence Park West 
 a colony of artists. To build a quadrangle of apartments and 
 a large studio; in that connection form a society or club of 
 selected "honor artists" and if possible, create an American 
 School of Decorative Art. The plan discussed is full of interest 
 and I hope something may grow out of it. Violet has the genius 
 to do it and make a success out of it, but I realize it is a big 
 undertaking not likely to mature in my life time, but perhaps 
 I can be instrumental in getting such an institution started. 
 I would like it. Would like to see grow up in Bronxville a 
 school of art like the one at Barbizon outside of Paris. Where 
 is there a better field for it than here? 
 
 May 6th. 
 
 Had further conversation with Violet Oakley regarding the 
 art-school plan which I brought to her notice yesterday. She 
 is attracted to it but has such large orders and is so filled with 
 her own personal affairs she is reluctant to take hold of anything 
 that is going to interfere with her own efforts. I am more and 
 more convinced that she could handle the work better than any 
 other person that I know of and would make a success of it if 
 anyone could. I feel sure the scheme is a feasible one and that 
 it would become the nucleus of a school of art in this country if 
 Violet would take it up in earnest. She feels I think, a doubt 
 if she has the right temperament to get along with others. She 
 may be right. 
 
 May 7th. 
 
 Went down to Seagate this morning with Anna and Sallie. 
 Anna is going to reside there by the sea this summer; we took 
 lunch with her in her cottage. The salt air and quiet soothed 
 
My Diary for 1913 177 
 
 me into a peaceful state of mind within the short time I was 
 there (only three hours) and I am sure it will prove a good 
 place this summer for Anna and her family. The visit makes 
 me feel like getting out of the noisy city and into a more peaceful 
 abode, and living there, more according to nature in my old age. 
 We go to the Gramatan for a month on Saturday next, and 
 will see how that change affects us. 
 
 May 8th. 
 
 This writing a few lines daily in your diary is no task if one 
 gives it no thought or makes it no care. That is why my diary 
 seems so insipid I suppose, to me. One of these days, I should 
 like to go all over it and see if I can't introduce a "little ginger" 
 into it. If I do, that might make an already light intellectual 
 product a still more insipid affair. This thing as it is, will 
 probably illustrate the daily wanderings of a restless mind which 
 has for seventy-one years been grinding. The grist, judged 
 from the standpoint of this diary, appears small and hardly 
 worth while. Our minds like our bodies (everything considered) 
 are wonderful creations, but they do wear out. 
 
 May 9th. 
 
 The new tariff passed the House last night and if it is approved 
 by the Senate, it seems to me it will create a great change in 
 our present business methods. Everyone looks ahead with 
 doubt and fear of what the result may be. So also, with the 
 Income Tax which is about being imposed by Congress. Doubt 
 and fear of such legislation which is a new departure in this 
 country pervades all circles and everyone is asking and wonder- 
 ing if the golden age of prosperity and peace which we have en- 
 joyed ever since the Civil War in 1865 has ended and if we are 
 entering a new cycle, a period of class hatred and strife. There 
 is certainly a great unrest throughout the nation today. 
 
 May 10th. 
 
 Closing 969 Fifth Avenue for the season and going to the 
 country. Our winter's stay in New York has been, I think 
 about the happiest we have ever had. Sallie and I have en- 
 joyed the best of health and Swenson, the old butler, has 
 managed the servants, and Sallie has managed Swenson, in a 
 most diplomatic way and all has been peaceful and enjoyable. 
 Besides that, my business cares and responsibilities have been 
 light and I have taken life easier than ever before. 
 
178 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 Were it not for this constant change, what a dreary thing 
 our lives would be. 
 
 May 11th. 
 
 Spent the Sabbath in Bronxville with Louise and her interest- 
 ing family. Lawrence Park is in all the beauty of springtime 
 and is at this season of the year, the most beautiful country 
 place I know of about New York. 
 
 May 18th. 
 
 Sallie and I came down in our motor car and took Dr. and 
 Mrs. Jowett to Bronxville with us as they lunched with us today. 
 Louise invited us to bring our guests and lunch at her house, 
 which we accepted, and after lunch took the guests in the auto 
 all about the Park, Hotel, etc. and then sent them back to the 
 city. They expressed themselves greatly pleased with the 
 Park and it certainly did look its best. 
 
 A canopy of dogwood blossoms seems to spread over the 
 major part of the Park. Dr. Jowett said it was to him "a real 
 Paradise." 
 
 May 13th. 
 
 Spent most of the day at my office. Came down to the city 
 in my auto with Sallie and Ferris. Prepared for the Hospital 
 meeting on the 19th, which must be rather a tame affair as 
 there is so little doing at present and we can't discuss our future 
 plans very profitably at an annual meeting, as they are most 
 likely to misunderstand and the discussion result in differences 
 best to be avoided. 
 
 May 14th. 
 
 Stayed in the country all day and my time was pleasantly 
 occupied going about from place to place examining the changes 
 which go on so rapidly in Bronxville and enjoying the beauties 
 of the season. 
 
 The dogwood this year is most wonderful; the flowers are 
 often three inches in diameter and the trees resemble banks of 
 snow in places. I do enjoy the flowers and birds very much; 
 they add greatly to our lives and make the world a much better 
 place to live in. 
 
 May 15th. 
 
 Held meetings today of both the D. & L. Co. and of the 
 Fellows Co. directors. Both meetings were satisfactory and 
 
My Diary for 1913 179 
 
 the business done by both companies since January 1st has been 
 quite up to the average and should satisfy anyone with the 
 showings they make. Affairs at the Lawrence Hospital do not 
 move along so smoothly. The doctors continue to clash with the 
 superintendent and the hospital regulations and act like a lot of 
 undisciplined colts who would like to break every rule and run 
 everything their own way. We must in some way check this 
 and maintain a high excellence for everything in the hospital, 
 at whatever cost. 
 
 May 16th. 
 
 Why do we trouble ourselves with the thousand mishaps and 
 troubles of others that occur every day? The newspapers 
 gather them together and serve them up every morning, the 
 very worst they can find in all the world and we read and ponder 
 over them. I often think the race would be better off if the 
 newspapers could be put out of existence and all the great 
 chapters of crime and accidents left unpublished. For what 
 advantage is it all to us? 
 
 May 17th. 
 
 We left Louise in her lovely home this morning and moved 
 up to the Gramatan where we are likely to stay indefinitely, for 
 we cannot seem to make any plans on account of the condition 
 Nellie Taylor is in. Louise and her family appear to be most 
 happily placed. They have a beautiful home and her children 
 all promise well, bright, good-looking and in health, they ought 
 to be a comfort to her in her old age, and will. We motored 
 over to Miss Master's School, Dobbs Ferry, in the afternoon 
 where we were entertained at tea. Miss Masters (there are 
 two of them) was most kind and showed us all about the school 
 buildings and grounds. They certainly have made a great 
 success of their work and are exceptional women. 
 
 May 18th. 
 
 Took Mrs. Custer and Mr. Frisell, along with Sallie, and 
 motored up to Greenwich, Conn. It was a most delightful 
 ride at this season of year when nature is doing her best. 
 
 May 19th. 
 
 Hospital annual meeting at the Casino. Elected the regular 
 board and everything passed off without anything of special 
 note. 
 
180 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 May 20th. 
 
 Started early this morning with Louise, Kate and Bess 
 Wellington on an auto tour to the Berkshires. First stop was 
 at Pawling for lunch at the Dutcher House. After a good 
 lunch, I found the proprietor refused to accept pay, which was a 
 most unusual affair. He seemed to infer that I was a "hotel 
 man" and ought to be his guest. We continued our journey 
 to Stockbridge after lunch and arrived there about 6 p. m. 
 after a beautiful day. 
 
 May 21st. 
 
 Continued on auto tour; started about 10 A. M. for Pittsfield 
 via Lenox, lunched at Lebanon and arrived at Poughkeepsie at 
 5:30 P. M. Went directly to the Vassar College where Louise 
 and Bess were much at home, having spent so many years of 
 their life in that college. Walked through the grounds and new 
 buildings and at last to chapel at 7 p. m. where 1000 girls 
 assembled for prayer. Dr. Taylor, then President of the College, 
 spied us from the pulpit and soon came down and welcomed us 
 and insisted that we spend the evening at his house, which we 
 did, meeting all or many of the faculty and enjoyed ourselves 
 very much for they are an earnest body of teachers and doing a 
 great work. Over twenty-five years before this, in Dr. Taylor's 
 first year, I called first at Vassar to introduce Louise, then about 
 to enter college. There were three hundred students and one 
 building only in those days. What a change has taken place! 
 
 May 22nd. 
 
 Today, like many days in my life, has not counted in the 
 things I might have done. It has been overcast and rainy. 
 We continued our auto tour from Poughkeepsie down to Fish- 
 kill and then across the ferry to Newburg; went up and walked 
 over the S. R. Van Duzer place, which back in 1861 to 1865, 
 when I was a clerk in S. R. Van Duzer & Co.'s wholesale drug 
 store, was so familiar, for there I often went to spend my "week- 
 ends." The place itself is now owned by Fred Van Duzer, one 
 of the sons who lives in England and keeps it up as in the old 
 days. But to me how sad, for those whom I knew there are all 
 dead, except Henry and Fred and they were mere babes at that 
 time. We motored down to Tuxedo and lunched at the club 
 there. After lunch we ran down to Nyack and home to Bronx- 
 ville, thus ending our three days' outing. 
 
My Diary for 1913 181 
 
 May 2Srd. 
 
 Down at the office this forenoon and attended to a few things 
 I found to do and returned to Bronxville to think and to talk 
 over the engagement of Mr. Marvin to come in as manager of 
 our new Residence & Housing Co. I regret I do not know his 
 business abilities better; he seems such a fine, efficient man, but 
 who can tell as to this until we have tried him. I sincerely 
 hope he is industrious and will make a success of it. I like 
 success and I hate failure, no matter what it be. 
 
 May 24th. 
 
 I enjoy the country so much that I stayed out today to walk 
 about the Park. I went everywhere and thought of many 
 things in my wanderings that would add to the attraction of 
 the Park and that I would like to do, but should I continue this 
 work? Should I not rather withdraw and leave everything in 
 the hands of my boys? This, too, I think often of. I have 
 had a long and practical experience in the upbuilding of the 
 Park and it seems as if this ought to be given, with the property 
 itself, to the next generation; yet when I think of this, I am 
 inclined to take up the responsibilities again and put my doubts 
 aside and keep on while I am able and strong to serve. The 
 time is coming when I cannot. The experience and education 
 I have on these Park lines the boys cannot purchase; perhaps 
 they may inherit it. 
 
 May 25th. 
 
 I went to the Village Dutch Reform Church and listened to 
 Dr. Robertson who though nearly eighty years of age, preached 
 with considerable vigor and interest. He impressed me as a 
 good man with a heart in the right place, but one who was not 
 ordained by nature a preacher or leader of men. Possibly in 
 his younger days he may have been more impressive and con- 
 fident, more forceful and possessed with more magnetism. In 
 all of these he seems to me deficient, today. 
 
 May 26th. 
 
 One of those perfect days the poets describe. I arose early 
 feeling fresh and fine. Truly I have much to be thankful for 
 and I am thankful for it. A good breakfast at the Gramatan, 
 a ride by motor car to my office and back again has filled the 
 day. 
 
182 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 May 27th. 
 
 A great wave of reform in business efficiency is passing over 
 the country. Everybody, from President down, is discussing 
 present wasteful methods and how they may be improved upon. 
 We have been accustomed in this country to waste as much as 
 we consume, and be careless about our business affairs, trusting 
 largely to luck, and the bountiful Providence which has never 
 failed to supply our needs, and more. Our youth have grown 
 up to think that the world owes them a living whether they 
 work or not. Our workmen and servants are of the same kind. 
 
 May 28th. 
 
 Lawrence Davis writes again today that Davis & Lawrence 
 Co. are likely to loose another important agency. I think that 
 Lawrence has been trying to delegate to others the executive 
 work he ought to do himself. He seeks to avoid responsibility 
 which is "inefficiency," the disease that is destroying our young 
 men and our big business corporations of the country today. 
 The man who keeps a grasp upon his whole business, who attends 
 to it, "wins out." He who leaves it to others and trusts them, 
 fails. 
 
 May 29th. 
 
 What will the future of our country be ? That is the question 
 I often ask myself and await an answer that never comes. The 
 change in peoples' line of thought and activities has been so 
 great that I can only see the change but am unable to conjecture 
 the outcome. People are not so serious, life is not so earnest, 
 everybody old and young, is restless and anxious, but people 
 do not wish to apply themselves or plod along but to take a 
 short cut or road to wealth. Nothing laborious will be sub- 
 mitted to. All want ease and comfort. 
 
 If the boy wishes to become a carpenter, he wants to get 
 there at one step; no real practice or experience. If a lawyer 
 or other profession or trade, it's all the same. 
 
 May 30th. 
 
 Decoration Day, a quiet day at the Gramatan; took an auto 
 ride in the afternoon to Briarcliff Lodge. This Memorial 
 Day does not really mean much to the younger generation, but 
 to me it brings up afresh those anxious times of '61 to '65 when 
 real armies were marching up and down Fifth Avenue and 
 Broadway, and real earnest soldiers filled the ranks. I think 
 
My Diary for 1913 183 
 
 these memorial exercises are excellent and serve to keep us from 
 forgetting what has happened here in the past and might happen 
 again. In a country so big and varied as the United States the 
 idea of certain sections seceding and setting up for themselves 
 with isolated governments would often occur, were it not for 
 this terrible experience of the Civil War. May it never be 
 forgotten! 
 
 May 31 st. 
 
 I do love the month of May, the long pleasant evenings, the 
 joyful bright mornings. I awaken early and listen to the birds, 
 first chirping then, as they get awake, breaking forth in such 
 songs of joy and contentment. It is a very beautiful world and 
 man has been appointed to an important position in it and it is 
 evident he is no creature of chance but the wise product of 
 nature, or of nature's God, destined to fill a niche in the great 
 temple of God's universe, to act an important part and perhaps 
 in the providence of God, be awarded an advance to a higher 
 plane of work beyond the grave. Christianity is built upon 
 this thought and it has a place, it seems to me, in every mind. 
 
 June 1st. 
 
 Dr. Dear came up and lunched with us at the Hotel. I 
 invited Dr. Charlton to meet him at lunch, after which we went 
 over to the Hospital, where we met Dr. J. W. Smith and dis- 
 cussed the matter of employing Dr. Dear after September first, 
 next. The two Bronxville doctors opposed his coming and 
 showed a very narrow spirit regarding all the hospital affairs. 
 I feel more than ever that I have got to force along the expansive 
 movement already begun, if the hospital is to shake off this 
 doctors' yoke it now labors under. 
 
 June 2nd. 
 
 Resolved today to move the Isolation Ward over on the 
 Alger Place, but this move is dependent on some action by the 
 Village Board. Bought tickets to Rotterdam by the S. S. 
 Amsterdam which sails the 10th instant, for a few weeks abroad. 
 For a summer vacation an ocean voyage seems the most inviting 
 of all the scenes before me. It is the easiest, and at my age, 
 I am influenced largely by that fact. 
 
 I do not know but I will form a liking for keeping a diary. 
 It gives me something to think of, and it is so easy, as I do not 
 have to think hard, just jot down anything that happens to 
 
184 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 pop in my head when the book is opened. Of course, no one 
 but me will ever read it, and I don't know as I will ever care to 
 look over its contents. I promised myself to keep it for a 
 year (1913) only. 
 
 June 4-th. 
 
 I never pass this, the 4th of June, without thinking back to 
 1864, the June 4th when I took passage and started for my first 
 trip over the Atlantic, the first time on the old Anchoria, a 
 3500 ton side wheeler running to Glasgow. That was a great 
 event, the greatest one in my life up to that time, and will 
 therefore never be forgotten. I was dreadfully shaken up for 
 it rolled about and pitched like a cork on the water. We were 
 sixteen days going from New York to Glasgow. I was sent 
 out by my employer to start a manufactory at 205 High Holborn 
 London, for making his toilet preparations known as Mrs. S. 
 A. Allen's Hair Restorer, Zylo-Balsam, etc. This steamer 
 carried sail and her single screw was only an assistant to the 
 sails and side-wheels. It was out of the water half of the time 
 at least. 
 
 June 5th. 
 
 Went down last evening by auto and spent the night with the 
 Bislands at Seagate. Enjoyed a delightful restful sleep and a 
 lovely ride up to the Battery on their tidy little steamer this 
 morning. 
 
 This day is also long to be remembered. It was June 6th, 
 1866 that I, at Providence, signed that first agreement with the 
 old firm of Perry Davis & Son to go to Canada, and there start 
 that Canada business which has been my principal life's work. 
 That Canada branch has since absorbed the original concern 
 and also brought into existence the Fellows Medical Manu- 
 facturing Company, an offshoot which has grown out of it. I 
 am not likely to forget therefore, June the 6th. I carried away 
 with me when I left Providence that June 6th, the following 
 agreement signed by Perry Davis & Son and myself. It was 
 setting sail upon new seas, but I thought myself at the time, 
 quite able to steer the craft. 
 
 Providence, R. I., June 6, 1866. 
 Mr. William V. Lawrence 
 Sir: 
 
 Since conversing with you respecting your going to Canada 
 
My Diary for 1913 185 
 
 for us to establish and take charge of a branch house there for 
 putting up the sale of the Painkiller, we have decided to make 
 you the following offer: We propose to furnish you with the 
 Painkiller in bulk manufactured and shipped in bond at the 
 cost of the article here in sufficient quantities to supply the 
 market there; also to furnish you with sufficient capital to 
 introduce and carry on the business to the best advantage as 
 far as it may be practical and advisable to do so, and pay you 
 for your services a salary of Eight Hundred Dollars per annum 
 in gold — or give you in lieu thereof the privilege of taking a 
 one-third interest in the Canada business at any time you may 
 elect to do so. You to take the entire charge of putting up and 
 preparing the Painkiller there for the market, using such means 
 for advertising and selling it as you may deem best for all 
 concerned, making full returns to us monthly of all money 
 transactions, and in all things using your best endeavors to 
 build up and extend and make the business profitable to us. 
 
 In this, it is our intention to make for your advantage to 
 engage in the enterprise by giving you a liberal interest in the 
 business you may be instrumental in building up in Canada; to 
 furnish all capital for doing so and thus secure for the Painkiller 
 all your time and talents while the connection shall continue; 
 and in case you elect to take the interest named, it shall be for 
 a term of not less than Five Years from this date. 
 
 (signed) Perry Davis & Son 
 The above proposition I hereby accept. 
 
 (Signed) Wm. V. Lawrence. 
 June 6, '66. 
 
 June 7th. 
 
 Held a joint meeting last night of Executive Committee of 
 the Lawrence Hospital and the medical board at the Hospital 
 building. 
 
 The doctors wished to protest against our employing Dr. 
 Dear as our new superintendent. The meeting ended without 
 our reaching a very satisfactory conclusion and I fear the 
 doctors are going to oppose and make trouble for Dr. Dear. 
 They are a narrow and selfish body of men, considering their 
 own pockets rather than the welfare of the hospital or the poor 
 at all. 
 
 I have to watch this situation closely and not let them use 
 
186 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 the hospital for their personal ends. It must be broadened out 
 into an institution for the poor with a high standard of excellence 
 and with inefficiency eliminated. 
 
 June 9th. 
 
 Spent the day getting ready to sail in the morning for Europe. 
 It really seems too bad to leave Bronxville with all its attrac- 
 tions behind; never before was it so beautiful, but will it last? 
 Every year, every day, almost, new buildings and changes are 
 taking place. The rural country landscape is fast disappearing 
 as the modern big buildings rise up and shut off nature's kindly 
 work from view. I suppose this must happen and that Bronx- 
 ville will yet be, instead of this little Paradise which it is today, 
 a great blustering crowded center of human activities. 
 
 June 10th. 
 
 Breakfast at the Gramatan at seven. Off by motor car for 
 Hoboken soon after (Miss Doty accompanies Sallie and me). 
 We had a great reception on the boat New Amsterdam — children, 
 grandchildren and relatives. It was delightful to have so many 
 take the trouble to come and see us off and as I looked at them 
 all on the wharf together waving to us, I thought how satisfied 
 we ought be, and were, that of the whole flock, there was not a 
 single black sheep or lamb that could humble the family pride. 
 The first day at sea has been delightful, the steamer glides over 
 the still water noiselessly, and the air is invigorating and health- 
 giving. I long already for my morning salt water bath. 
 
 June 11th. 
 
 On board the New Amsterdam. 
 
 Once more we plow the trackless deep 
 Bound for a foreign shore. 
 Once more we watch the glistening spray 
 And hear Old Ocean's roar. 
 
 There is a soothing influence which life on an ocean liner has 
 over me I can find nowhere else. Relaxation and a general 
 letting down till about the third day, when I begin to take 
 notice and enjoy myself and to read and speak to fellow pas- 
 sengers. 
 
 Today the sea has been smooth and the sky without a cloud. 
 I have been reading Bryce's South America, a most interesting 
 description of a trip down there. I should like very much to 
 
My Diary for 1913 187 
 
 make this, and will try to do so when the Panama Canal is open. 
 I do not sleep as soundly or as well as usual; am restless or 
 nervous, don't know which. It's quite a new experience for 
 me and calls to mind my dear old mother who was so sleepless 
 in her later years. 
 
 Sleep 
 
 Come gentle sleep, come fold thy wings 
 About my couch and me. 
 
 These wandering thoughts; these troubled dreams 
 I would have none but thee. 
 
 In childhood's day it was not thus, 
 You came to me unsought, 
 You took me to your bosom then 
 Sweet Peace to me you brought. 
 
 I would that now you'd come again, 
 These thoughts and cares efface, 
 Just as you did, when I, a child, 
 Slept in your dear embrace. 
 
 June 13th. 
 
 What a batch of mysteries our lives are. Our entrance into 
 the world and our exit from it, and yet they are no more mysteri- 
 ous than our existence while in it. We appear each and all to 
 have a mission to perform, a certain part to play, a niche to 
 fill, but that is all. Can it be we are simply cogs in the great 
 wheel of progress which Nature or Nature's God has created, 
 which simply aid to carry to completion Nature's wonderful 
 plan? Who can conjecture what these plans are or what our 
 future is to be? Will this mystery ever be cleared away, will 
 our minds ever grow to grasp it ? 
 
 As my years multiply, I cannot keep my mind from constantly 
 reverting to that thought. What is man and for what purpose 
 does he inhabit the Earth? Is there a future life, or does death 
 end all ? 
 
 June 14th. 
 
 How like us human beings is the great ocean liner upon which 
 I travel today from New York to Rotterdam. The steamer 
 
188 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 throbs with life from stem to stern, childrens' happy voices, 
 strains of sweet music and the din of massive machinery blend 
 together in a harmonious whole which make her, as she plows 
 along through the blue ocean, a real living thing, meeting storm 
 and tempest, or ocean's peaceful calm in her course, as a master. 
 But how little it avails, a little ripple as she passes, a white 
 spray rises at the bow, a slight commotion at the stern and the 
 waters hasten to fill the rent which the ship has left behind, and 
 all is over; the sea is herself again and no mark is left to show 
 where our great ship stood. So with us, we create in the world 
 perhaps a little stir or a little commotion for a short time, then 
 the elements obliterate every mark that shows that we ever 
 existed. 
 
 June 16th. 
 
 I fear I have grown too pessimistic of late; have come to 
 looking at current events too much from that standpoint. I 
 suppose it is due to myself alone and I am sure it is a bad habit 
 to get into. When I think of the great improvements which 
 have taken place during the past fifty years since I have been 
 active in the world's work, I do not see how I can be pessimistic 
 at all. The world is better today than ever before, is much 
 wiser, and sound thought (not brute force) rules. Brute force 
 in localities may occasionally get the upper hand but it cannot 
 hold on. I have just been reading Bryce's South America, a 
 country where Spanish superstition and ignorance ruled so 
 long but which has now driven them far away and let in a new 
 light to drive out the darkness ; and this is typical of the situa- 
 tion the world over. 
 
 June 17th. 
 
 All Nature revels in a change. The earth, the sky, the 
 heavens above are ever changing and so with the waters, the 
 air and everything that is. It changes. In the morning, like 
 the grass it groweth up, it withereth and dies, and such is life. 
 Here I am out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean travelling to 
 Europe, my twenty-third time over this great waste of waters. 
 One might ask Why this waste of time and money ? Why cross 
 the pathless ocean so often? My answer is, I am a creature of 
 nature; I seek change of scene and here the great waves, the 
 clouds, the great ship itself, are all (like the world we live in) in 
 motion. Here I find that which I seek — a change. 
 
My Diary for 1913 189 
 
 June 18th. 
 
 This question has often risen in my mind : You have travelled 
 a great deal; in doing it you have expended a large amount of 
 money and energy and what has it availed you? Has it paid? 
 
 My reply to the question is this : Travel has in my case been 
 a great leveler; a steam roller as it were, which has crushed and 
 broken down a host of imaginary obstacles, such as errors, 
 superstition and doubt. 
 
 Travel has taken away that sense or feeling of my own infini- 
 tesimal littleness and has given me a broader view of the world 
 and a more correct view of humanity. 
 
 For instance, my mind formerly saw kings and distinguished 
 men in halos and pictured them as different from ourselves. 
 Travel has brought me to see them and meet them and I have 
 found them as ourselves — human. 
 
 Far-away Egypt with its Pyramids, its temples, its ancient 
 Thebes and Memphis — my mind had pictured Egypt as a sort 
 of dreamland, a picture-book not real; but after seeing it, how 
 changed the picture became I can see it now as the home of 
 a superstitious and ignorant race of people; the children of 
 Israel were a race of hirelings; Pharaoh, the king, a selfish tyrant 
 who would have his people worship him as a god. 
 
 Before meeting President Hayes and President Taft, I had 
 pictured them very superior men. After seeing them, I thought 
 them only ordinary, just like ourselves and so the old proverb 
 comes true: "Familiarity breeds contempt." 
 
 June 19th. 
 
 At about noon today we came in sight of the Scilly Islands 
 and expect to reach Plymouth and land our English passengers 
 this evening. Have had a long and uneventful passage, but 
 when I look back to that first voyage over the ocean in 1864, I 
 can only see it as a wonderful improvement over that sixteen- 
 day voyage on a 3500 ton side wheeler which I then crossed 
 upon. 
 
 June 20th. 
 
 Today will finish this ocean trip. Our steamer arrives at 
 "The Hook of Holland" this evening at 8 o'clock. We stopped 
 at Boulogne at noon today and landed passengers and with 
 them Mr. Jacobs, our traveler friend who was met by Mr. 
 
190 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 Lyford. I have enjoyed the trip over. It has been a delightful 
 rest, quiet summer seas, all the way. 
 
 How many stations there are along the journey of life! How 
 many changes and shifting of scenes! How busy we, "Life's 
 actors" are, in keeping up with the music which never ceases to 
 play, till the journey of life is ended; its play over and the 
 curtain has rung down for the last time! My diary I think, 
 will show (if anyone would read it over) that life's scenery 
 changes like the wind. There is no stability at all. 
 
 June 21st. 
 
 Up early (5:30); breakfast on board; passed the Customs, 
 took a carriage and carried our baggage over to the "Maas" 
 R. R. Station and at 8:30 were off; travelled by train up the 
 Rhine via Dusseldorf, Cologne, Bingen to Frankfort and there 
 at 6:30 p. m'; went to the Hotel Englisherhof for the night. 
 We were very tired and rested beautifully; up and off at 8:30 
 in the morning via Nuremburg and arrived here at Carlsbad at 
 3 :30 and soon were at the Hotel Konigsvilla. 
 
 June 22nd. 
 
 Sunday. Arose late after a good, long, restful sleep and began 
 the treatment by going down to the Elisabeth quelle and taking 
 the water (3 glasses). We arrived in Carlsbad yesterday in 
 the rain ; when we left it last August, we left in the rain by our 
 own motor car, and in it we motored to Paris and London in the 
 rain. I hope we shall escape that extreme this year. It is a 
 bad start however (Mercury at 54 degrees, fires in our room, 
 etc.). 
 
 June 23rd. 
 
 Finally settled at Hotel Konigsvilla. Large parlor, bedroom 
 and adjoining room for maid, 280 crowns per week. This 
 morning broke bright and beautiful and I think we may enjoy 
 our stay at Carlsbad for the hotel is certainly a lovely restful 
 spot. 
 
 June 24th. 
 
 Up and down to the spring before seven; spent an hour 
 walking and sipping my three glasses of water. The crowd is 
 made up of people who do not interest me. In fact, a tiresome 
 lot who speak every imaginary tongue except one I can under- 
 stand. 
 
My Diary for 1913 191 
 
 These people are mostly a sad unhappy lot and I shall be 
 glad to leave and mix with a more attractive people. The 
 weather is now bright and the beautiful city does much to make 
 up for the uninteresting human kind in Carlsbad where all 
 except man is divine. 
 
 June 25th. 
 
 We have within us a force, a spirit, or it may be "a guardian 
 angel" (good or bad) which is leading us and has led from infancy 
 over the level spots and hilly places along the highway of life. 
 
 I suppose that this is our soul or that invisible part or portion 
 of us that dominates the body while it lasts and when it dies 
 the spirit or soul returns to its maker. If then our bodies are 
 thus made, simply as an habitation for this spirit (or soul) and 
 that for so short a time, what has our maker designed to do 
 with the soul which lives on after the body has returned to 
 dust? That is the question every human mind is asking; yet 
 no response. Perhaps God in His infinite wisdom may make 
 this matter clear to us beyond the grave when we are released 
 from these earthly bodies and have put on immortality. 
 
 June 26th. 
 
 Fairies 
 
 "Believe in Fairies?" "Oh no" I hear you say. 
 But as to Guardian Angels no one doubts today 
 That they guide us in our rovings, direct our steps and thought 
 That they make us do in some way the very things we ought. 
 
 Oh, I believe in fairies 
 
 In Guardian Angels too 
 I believe in everything 
 
 That's honest, straight and true. 
 I'd rather trust in everything 
 
 Than, not believe at all 
 And I won't stop believing, 
 
 Until the heavens fall. 
 
 June 27th. 
 
 I am beginning to lose faith in Carlsbad weather. Last 
 year we were here for three weeks and it rained nearly every 
 day. This year it has rained every single day since we arrived 
 and we have had a fire in our porcelain stove most every day 
 
192 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 to keep warm. There is very little one can do here and time 
 goes rather slowly. Three glasses of water in the morning, a 
 bath perhaps in the afternoon, read the papers, eat three dia- 
 betic meals (that is a lot of stuff no one cares to eat) and then 
 go to bed — that is a day's work at Carlsbad. One or two quiet 
 walks if weather permits, but then you most always get caught 
 in a shower and get wet through. 
 
 June 28th. 
 
 Having nothing else to do, I spend part of my time trying to 
 write an epic, which generally fails. It annoys me that I can't 
 write to suit myself. I feel I have it in me and yet I can't do 
 it. I had similar ideas when I was a boy at Ypsilanti attending 
 school; I felt that I could write and draw, that I would like to 
 take up "art and poetry" and study and work on them and I 
 used to think a great deal about it. I wish now I could have 
 done this and that I had made these more of a "fad" during my 
 life, for I might have enjoyed the work and profited by it. 
 There is nothing I would rather do now than frame up little 
 stanzas and rhymes, if I could only write them satisfactorily, I 
 should be very happy. 
 
 June 29th. 
 
 Have just finished reading Olive Prouty's Bobbie the General 
 Manager and have enjoyed it very much; it is such a natural 
 sort of a story, I like her style. There is in this world an excess 
 of make-believe and not enough of genuine honesty, spending 
 one's life trying to climb into the good graces of others, generally 
 ends in failure; it's making false pretensions; it's a counterfeit 
 and is sure to be detected and thrown out. 
 
 June 30th. 
 
 A dull rainy day — in the house by the fire most of the day. 
 
 Inherited Fortunes 
 
 Are they beneficial to the recipient or not? Do they destroy 
 his chance of usefulness in the world's competitive industries? 
 If necessity is the mother of invention, a creed I thoroughly 
 believe in, does wealth which comes without effort thereby 
 remove necessity so essential to success in life? I have been 
 often asked if I was not happy that I had been enabled to give 
 to each of my children a liberal competence to place them above 
 
My Diary for 1913 193 
 
 want in this world's goods. I have invariably answered, "I do 
 not know" or, "I am not decided whether I am or not." If in 
 providing all this for them I have closed the door to their success, 
 if I have taken away all necessity for them to work out their 
 own success, if I, in placing them above want, have injured their 
 prospects in life, how can I be happy over it? On the contrary, 
 if they are able to use their inheritance as a stepping stone to 
 some higher thing in life, I shall surely rejoice and be happy. 
 
 July 2nd. 
 
 Sallie and I took a long walk out as far as Kaiser Park; the 
 walks and drives about Carlsbad are very beautiful and it's a 
 great pleasure to be able to climb these hills and wander about 
 the way all do. Few people of our age can do it as well and 
 with as little fatigue. Yesterday and today the weather has 
 been genial and some of the clouds have rolled by and we have 
 hopes of better weather. 
 
 July 4th. 
 
 A cold disagreeable day it is. The people here, however, 
 observe it the best they can. "Old Glory" floats from nearly 
 every housetop and groups of people could be seen staring at 
 the display of flags as they waved in the breeze and were talking 
 about what it meant. It suggested to me the following lines: 
 
 Old Glory at Carlsbad 
 
 Flag of my country in this far away land 
 What are you saying to the people who stand 
 Watching you proudly unfold to the breeze 
 A tale of my country! A story to please? 
 
 It's a story of freedom: I know by your wave 
 Every star, every stripe is a symbol of praise 
 For they tell of a country beyond the blue sea 
 Where the voice of the people rules over the free. 
 
 They tell of a land where the smile of the poor 
 Is an emblem of joy, in a house that is pure. 
 Where the harvests are rich ; the mines never fail 
 Where naught but prosperity ever's entailed. 
 
194 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 They tell of a land where truth boldly rides; 
 Where error lies prostrate and tyranny hides; 
 Where the youth are taught wisdom rather than war; 
 Where virtue is golden and vice is abhorred. 
 
 Wave on then my banner in this far away land 
 Your message is read and all understand. 
 Go carry your story from Pole unto Pole 
 The world it will listen, to the flag of my soul. 
 
 July 5th. 
 
 It is two weeks since we arrived here in Carlsbad. To com- 
 plete the so-called treatment it takes one week more, when I 
 hope we shall be able to go on our journey homeward, braced 
 and fixed up for another good long period at home, in health, etc. 
 
 I have never before 1913 kept a diary and I wonder if I will 
 be persevering enough to continue this through the year. Had 
 I done so during the busy period of my life, I think it might have 
 been more interesting but now when I am out of the race, "in 
 the sear and yellow leaf," I have a different view of everything; 
 the color has mostly faded and the yellow leaf affords little to 
 enthuse or write about. However, it is, I suppose, a picture 
 of my life as in the year 1913. 
 
 July 6 th. 
 
 Sunday. A quiet day and afternoon walk with Sallie out to 
 Kaiser Park added to the morning stroll, the three glasses of 
 Market Brunen water constitute the day's work. 
 
 July 7th. 
 
 Prince Charles Francis, heir to the Austrian throne and 
 successor to Emperor Franz Joseph is stopping at our hotel. 
 An amusing incident occured today at the dinner table as one of 
 his aides or lieutenants sat too soon and before the Prince had 
 seated himself. The Prince stood erect and waited until the 
 aide had discovered his plight and jumped to his feet. 
 
 What Are You? 
 
 A constructionist, one who goes about building up, adding to, 
 improving and bettering things wherever he happens to be? 
 Are you making two blades of grass grow where only one existed 
 
My Diary for 1913 195 
 
 before? I like such people and I wish there were more of them 
 in the world. What would it be if we had them not? 
 
 Again, there are Obstructionists, who never accomplish any- 
 thing; they always see a lion in the path and turn aside. They 
 prefer to wait till tomorrow rather than act today. The days 
 and years with them roll around only to find themselves in the 
 way of others who "do things." 
 
 The worst of all, however, is the Destructionist, who is ever 
 building or trying to build on other foundations than their own. 
 They would comer the market, cheat or even steal their brother's 
 inheritance if they could only obtain advantage or control. 
 They will tear down but never build up for such is their nature. 
 They are pessimistic and will always sell short in the market 
 and make money out of other people's misfortunes. 
 
 July 8th. 
 
 Off early this morning by train for Marienbad. Took Sallie 
 and Mrs. Hockinghull. Lunched at the Hotel Wiener and 
 afterwards went up to the "Agerland Restaurant" on the top of 
 a little mountain for afternoon tea; home for dinner after a 
 pleasant day and change of scene. 
 
 Weather continues cold and rainy tonight, though the day 
 was pleasant and about the first one we have had since we came. 
 Met the Kleinbergs from Montreal, who had Montreal papers, 
 and again proved how small the world is, as they seemed to 
 know all our friends. They are Jews and people I never was 
 acquainted with. Also met George R. Reed and wife of New 
 York real estate people. They are staying at our hotel. 
 
 July 9th. 
 
 These days at Carlsbad are not at all interesting and I would 
 rather spend the time somewhere else, but the waters are helping 
 me as the analysis shows the sugar in my blood is disappearing 
 gradually; when I arrived it was Z}4, per cent sugar and now, 
 ten days later, is 1 /10 of 1%. It is a sad sight, however, to me 
 to see such crowds of people as are here, all seeking relief from 
 some bodily ill. Some so fat that they are deformities; next 
 to them in the line are some so thin that they have little left. 
 Few are happy and this is depressing. The doctors too, seem 
 to be so grasping; the profession has the commercial spirit so 
 highly developed that we can't feel the confidence in them which 
 we ought. It is a pity the medical profession could not serve 
 
196 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 and lose sight of money. They must live, however, like the 
 rest of us and I do not see how the situation can be changed 
 unless they are regulated by law as in Germany and that does 
 not seem right to me. 
 
 July 10th. 
 
 I have been developing for the past year what seems to be a 
 lame back, and since I have been here, it has grown worse and 
 makes me sleepless at night ; I am so very nervous. The doctor 
 says it is muscular rheumatism. It calls to my mind my poor 
 old father who used to suffer, as far back as I can remember 
 him, with his back. He carried his hands behind him much of 
 the time for a support. Mother too, always complained in her 
 later years of her weak back so I suppose I came by mine natu- 
 rally. But, after all, how much I have to be thankful for and 
 how thankful I am that since that great operation of mine at 
 Johns Hopkins Hospital three years ago, I have realized such 
 health and happiness after many years of discomfort. 
 
 The Awakening 
 
 Is this the dawn of a new born day 
 That drives the darkness from my way? 
 
 That opens out before my view, 
 A scene so bright, so fresh, so new? 
 
 All seems so changed, the world so fair, 
 Which in the darkness I could not bear. 
 
 Yes, yes, it's morning, I feel the bliss, 
 
 Its gentle touch, its ardent kiss; 
 Thrice welcome morning, welcome light, 
 
 After a long and troubled night, 
 A night of dreams, of fear and fright, 
 Thrice welcome, thou the morning light! 
 Johns Hopkins Hospital, 
 Christmas, 1909. 
 
 July 12th. 
 
 I have tried to write poetry, 
 I've tried to write prose, 
 I've made a great fizzle 
 As this diary shows. 
 
My Diary for 1913 197 
 
 I have thought I would burn it, 
 Conceal the bare truth, 
 The proof that an idiot 
 I'd been from my youth. 
 
 But since I can't change 
 The facts in the case 
 I'll here give the proof 
 Though it be a disgrace. 
 July 14th. 
 
 Our last day in Carlsbad. 
 
 Have now been taking the cure for over three weeks. I took 
 today both the regular carbonic acid bath and the electrical 
 treatment, which Dr. Ganz has prescribed. Have very little 
 faith in either, but when here the doctor wishes to do something 
 for you, and recommends everything he can think of, — that's the 
 way it looks to me. 
 
 July 15th. 
 
 Had a poor night's rest; couldn't sleep. Up early, saw Dr. 
 Edgar Ganz who said I had arterial scelerosis, an old man's 
 trouble (hardening of the arteries), and every man of my age 
 must have it. It was the first I was ever told of this, yet I 
 knew already that my arteries had changed under the Carlsbad 
 treatment. We left on the 1 1 :45 train for Paris and I am writing 
 this on board the train just as we are entering into Germany, or 
 crossing the Bohemian border. It is showery but the country 
 looks lovely as the vegetation is so green and luxuriant. 
 
 July 16th. 
 
 We reached Frankfort-on-the-Main about 9 o'clock p. m. 
 after a very pleasant though rather long-drawn-out journey. 
 Went to the Hotel Englisherhof for the night and after a ten 
 o'clock supper retired. I was awakened about 1 a. m. with the 
 trouble of the night before about my heart increased, and it 
 kept me awake the remainder of the night, not with pain but a 
 nutter or uncomfortable sensation which made me very nervous. 
 I decided to remain over for a day before starting on our journey 
 for Paris and today am resting quietly at the hotel. I fear our 
 Carlsbad life has been too strenuous and the cure too exhausting. 
 At any rate, the rest I am taking seems very acceptable. 
 
198 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 July 17th. 
 
 Had another bad night owing to my heart's condition which 
 was not only uncomfortable but alarming. We finally deter- 
 mined to take a motor car and go up to Bad Nauheim, only 
 twenty miles away and consult a heart specialist there, which 
 we did after breakfast. We saw Professor Th. Schott, whom we 
 were told was the very highest authority on diseases of the 
 heart, and his advice was to stop here and take the Nauheim 
 baths or treatment, that my heart was very much enlarged and 
 badly strained and I should have immediate care. We engaged 
 rooms at the Jesche Grand Hotel: Sallie and Kate, (the maid) 
 then returned to Frankfurt for our luggage and returned at 
 three o'clock. We then settled down for a long stay. Dr. 
 Schott called again in the evening to examine me the second 
 time. He examined Sallie also and ordered baths for us both 
 to begin tomorrow. 
 
 July 18th. 
 
 Took my first bath this morning after a very comfortable 
 night. Dr. Schott called after my bath, looked me over again 
 and it was plain that my heart was getting back into a more 
 normal condition. He ordered a daily bath and nothing more. 
 I now feel satisfied that my heart has been too large for a year 
 or more; that I ought to have been aware of it but was not. 
 The doctor says I am in the right spot here and he can and will 
 reduce it to a normal condition. Sallie has decided to take the 
 baths also under Dr. Schott's care; he says he can help her too, 
 but as she is in excellent physical condition, the best for years, 
 I do not feel quite satisfied to have him experiment, thinking of 
 the old adage "Let well enough alone." The weather is rainy, 
 hotel bright and cheerful and people about here rather attractive. 
 
 July 19th. 
 
 Another comparatively good night's rest though my heart 
 only permits me to sleep in short quarter or half hour periods. 
 I go off to sleep quickly, however, which is a new procedure. 
 Had my second bath and the doctor called again and ordered 
 no bath, but rest for tomorrow. 
 
 We cabled home in reply to a message expressing their anxiety 
 that "I was improving." I suppose when one has reached the 
 age that I am they should expect these indications of a break- 
 down and take them philosophically as a part of our life's 
 
My Diary for 1913 199 
 
 expectations, as a warning of the approaching dissolution bound 
 to come to everybody, a natural landmark along life's highway. 
 When my end finally comes, I can wish for no better way out 
 than a sudden quick stroke and have it over. 
 
 July 20th. 
 
 Sunday. Received letters this morning from home which 
 are always like "oases in the desert" refreshing and satisfying 
 when one is far away and among strangers. I slept better last 
 night and I think I am getting rested, my strength is coming 
 back again. The treatment may be having some effect. I 
 hope so. 
 
 July 21st. 
 
 Waiting for our trunks which we checked from Carlsbad 
 through to Paris, little expecting this change in our plan; very 
 inconvenient but can't help it. Taking a bath every day and 
 the doctor calls once or twice, listens to my heart beat and is 
 then off on a run. 
 July 22nd. 
 
 Slept better last night and I see great improvement in my 
 condition; had a second strong "Mother Lye" bath today. Dr. 
 Schott called and as usual made examination, said nothing and 
 ran away. Life here is quiet and refined; I like it very much. 
 Received a cable from home with Dr. John W. Smith's London 
 address ; will try to get into communication with him and return 
 on same steamer with him. 
 
 Received letter from Mr. Will Bates enclosed plans for new 
 hospital wing which I like very much; unless the Village will 
 buy the property "out and out" it now seems as if I had better 
 proceed and erect this wing, giving it whatever funds are neces- 
 sary to complete it, beyond their own building fund which now 
 amounts to about $30,000. I feel less and less like selling to 
 the Village. They will not keep the place up in good shape as 
 I would do. 
 July 23rd. 
 
 Doctor says no bath today. Our trunks have at last arrived, 
 though the keys sent by post to the frontier are now lost. We 
 must employ a locksmith to open them. I hope, however, this 
 will end our trunk troubles. Had a good sleep again last night 
 which encourages me to believe that this treatment here begins 
 to count. 
 
200 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 July 24.th. 
 
 Meet a few people each day and among them some pleasant 
 ones. I sleep and lie about nearly all the time as Dr. Schott 
 wishes. The days pass rather slowly and both the days and 
 nights seem long. I had little idea when I came over I was 
 running into such scenes and such experiences as I am having. 
 But such is life; its stream runs through a channel of ever 
 changing scenes. Its banks and sides are not always decked 
 with flowers, are often strewn with debris and choked with 
 driftwood; at times are bathed with sunshine and shadow, 
 through all of these, the stream of life must pass ere it reaches 
 the deep sea. 
 
 July 25th. 
 
 I really enjoy Bad Nauheim; it is a lovely little town and when 
 we think what a mecca it is to the tired out hearts we must 
 feel thankful that man and nature have here met and done so 
 much for suffering humanity. I wonder if it would be possible 
 to start in Bronxville bath houses and bring there the kind of 
 talent which could take Nature's gift, the water, and use it as 
 a medium of cure instead of so much medicine. 
 
 July 25th. 
 
 Today like the several preceeding ones, has been quite un- 
 eventful; we take our morning bath, Dr. Schott calls, and we 
 go out for a little walk in the afternoon, generally up to the 
 Kurhaus where we take a cup of tea and listen to the music for 
 an hour or so and walk home. Fair weather seems at last to 
 have arrived and it certainly seems nice and revives one's 
 spirits after so long a period of depressing weather. 
 
 July 27th. 
 
 Sunday. Dr. Smith from Bronxville came over from Wies- 
 baden this morning to see us. I took him in and introduced 
 him to Dr. Schott who received him very cordially. They 
 examined me carefully together and whatever conclusion they 
 arrived at they kept to themselves. My heart continues weak 
 but I hope I am in the right place and with the right doctor to 
 get well. 
 
 July 28th. 
 
 Awakened this morning greatly improved; took my regular 
 bath. Doctor examined me again and ordered me to take a 
 long walk which I did with greater ease than I have done for 
 
My Diary for 1913 201 
 
 some time past. He came a second time (after the walk) when 
 he and Dr. Smith went over me together and found an apparent 
 change for the better. 
 
 July 29th. 
 
 Sallie asked me today what I was keeping this diary for. 
 What good was it? It's a question I have frequently asked 
 myself. I have never kept one before and it really seems a lot 
 of trash. I answered her thus : 
 
 A few years ago, I wrote a little sketch of my parents' lives 
 and also of my own with a prefeace stating I had often wished I 
 knew more of my grandparents, their mode of life and more 
 about them, how they lived, etc. It occurred to me that I 
 would keep a diary for one year, the year 1913 and some time 
 in the future, when I had the time, I would take this diary and 
 use it as notes and memoranda and would write it out in a 
 better and more complete form and incorporate it all into those 
 memoirs for my children and grandchildren, which might be of 
 interest to some future generations if not to those very near. 
 This diary presents a picture of my life as it is today, as it is 
 during the year 1913 when (nearly 72 years of age) I have with- 
 drawn from active business life and am trying to enjoy the 
 fruits of my toil in travel, rest and pleasure. 
 
 July 80th. 
 
 The weather has at last settled down and is well nigh perfect 
 and we are beginning to go about drive and walk, and time 
 passes more pleasantly. 
 
 July 81st. 
 
 Dr. Smith left us this morning going to Switzerland. Dr. 
 Schott was in after my bath and ordered massage which adds to 
 the day's duties. We drove up through the Hochwald and 
 through Johannesburg this afternoon, a beautiful drive and took 
 tea on our return at the Kurhaus with the Gardiners of New 
 York, people we met on the steamer. Played bridge in the 
 evening after dinner with Mrs. Frank and Mrs. May of New 
 York. The music like everything at this hotel is excellent and 
 first class. I never stopped at a better appointed house and 
 hope the owners may succeed in their undertaking. They 
 deserve to be successful. 
 
 August 1st. 
 
 Life at Nauheim is not very different from life everywhere 
 
202 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 only it seems less active. We eat and sleep, take our bath, see 
 our doctor, then rest and so on through the twenty-four hours. 
 Today I had an extra, a real "masseur" sent by Dr. Schott who 
 put me through a lot of silly motions of my hand and feet and 
 called it exercise; he spent an hour with me and I consider it was 
 all a farce. It was, of course, the celebrated Schott Heart 
 Movement. I will, when he comes tomorrow, suggest that he 
 try a bit of osteopathic treatment on my spine which I have 
 found so beneficial in the past. We had a nice long drive today, 
 went over the Frauenwald round to the Johannesburg and again 
 to the Kurhaus for music and tea. Played bridge in the even- 
 ing with the Gardiners of New York. 
 
 August 2nd. 
 
 Didn't rise from bed this morning till near ten o'clock; had a 
 bad night's sleep and felt seedy. My masseur called about 
 eleven and I told him I wanted to have him exercise my spinal 
 column and cut short the other exercise; he made a long speech 
 praising the Schott foot and arm movement, but acceded to my 
 wish. He no sooner began than I found the cords between my 
 shoulder blades and back of my neck were contracted and very 
 sore; he rubbed and pinched them and nearly killed me but it 
 seemed to afford instant relief and how I wished I was in N. Y. 
 and had my old osteopath to do it. I really believe my heart 
 trouble comes from this and he will cure it all. He promised to 
 come tomorrow and give me another treatment and I have 
 great hopes and expectations. 
 
 August 4th. 
 
 Dr. Schott called and said I must keep very quiet today and 
 rest ; that the bath had acted very satisfactorily but I must not 
 overdo. He seems to think of but one organ in the body, the 
 heart. I begin to feel doubtful about all of these cures and all 
 of these doctors, and wonder if we just responded to Nature's 
 own demands if we would not get along better and live just as 
 long; that is, use our sense which nature has given us, lead quiet 
 and decent lives and stop all of this chasing after health and 
 happiness, going to the ends of the earth to advise with doctors 
 who only know one of the many organs we possess and who 
 think far more of making up good bills than they do of curing us. 
 
 August 5th. 
 
 With the Doctor, the masseur, the bath at the Sprudel, I 
 
My Diary for 1913 203 
 
 find myself quite busy each day which includes the usual after- 
 noon drive to the Parks, and which ends at the Kurhaus where 
 we stop for tea and to hear the music. The great Zeppelin air- 
 ship sails over the Spa nearly every afternoon in its excursion 
 from Frankfurt-on-Main and I am beginning to wish I could go 
 aboard of it. It carries daily from a dozen to fifty passengers 
 and surely is a wonder. When I think back and see what has 
 been accomplished for humanity since I was a boy; what great 
 labor-saving devices, what wonderful inventions, I am simply 
 amazed and wonder what is still ahead, — after the electric 
 current, the mastery of the air, the automobile, what next? 
 
 August 6th. 
 
 Many there are who seek fame and wealth, but few find. 
 Why? Because they are not persistent or serious or honest in 
 their effort; they feel that these things ought to come to them 
 by chance. Honest work is the keystone to success; without it 
 there is nothing. Success in life and love are only reached by 
 direct personal effort, not by proxy. Again, it is not persistent 
 work alone but work with thought and care and interest, that 
 succeeds. The prevailing fashion of today is to work as little 
 as possible, the prevalent idea being few hours for work and 
 'many hours for play and recreation and travel. This is an 
 error; there is more pleasure in knowing one has done his duty, 
 has made a success of his life and his undertakings, than all the 
 social conquests, games and sports will give in a lifetime. 
 
 August 7th. 
 
 My heart is still weak; the rheumatism or arteries, I feel, are 
 mainly responsible for the trouble. It seems to move about 
 between the small of my back and the neck, first in one place 
 and then in another. Dr. Schott says those Nauheim baths 
 will take that all away, it only needs time. He gives no medi- 
 cines, relies on the Nauheim water with implicit confidence and 
 I am gaining faith in him. He certainly is a wonderful man and 
 has unbounded confidence in himself. I have had for the past 
 few years, more or less rheumatism about my left shoulder and 
 spine, and it is no wonder that it has found its way near my 
 heart, yes, too near to feel comfortable. How fortunate it is I 
 have not the smoking habit or the drinking habit! I hear of 
 men here who have to forego both on account of their hearts. 
 What foolish habits they are anyway and how silly. There 
 
204 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 are a few fashionable sporty women smoking cigarettes every 
 evening in the public rooms, how vulgar it does seem! I never 
 could endure to see a man, especially a young man, smoking or 
 drinking during business hours. I have a similar feeling to see 
 women smoke at any time. It is such a silly habit. 
 
 August 8th. 
 
 One redeeming feature of a long protracted stay at Nauheim 
 is this fine big and luxurious hotel where we are stopping 
 (Jesche's Grand Hotel). It is, taken all in all, as complete and 
 luxurious a hostelry as I have ever stayed in. For board and 
 lodging, I pay 64 marks per day, which includes large room and 
 bath for Sallie and me and a small room for the maid. The table 
 is unexcelled. To this of course, has to be added the tips and 
 little extras, but even with them all the prices are not so high as 
 at the "Bon Air" at Augusta and other American and foreign 
 hotels. We visited today the great evaporation plants for 
 recovering the Sprudel Lye and salts used in the baths and for 
 shipment. They are expensive scientific establishments where 
 evaporation by natural rather than by steam or artificial means 
 is done through thornbrush constructions which the water 
 filters through. Hundreds of invalids sit near to breathe the 
 salt or medicated air during the day as it passes through the 
 air and brush. 
 
 August 9th. 
 
 To Sallie 
 
 (With due acknowledgment to John Anderson, My Jo) 
 
 Sallie dear; my Sallie dear 
 When we became acquainted 
 You were a buxom country lass 
 With cheeks that Nature painted. 
 
 Your locks were like the ravens, 
 Your lips, words won't express! 
 The smile which then you cast at me 
 Has e'er my soul possessed. 
 
 But now, you have grown old dear, 
 Your locks are white as snow; 
 Your heart beats warm, as then dear, 
 In those days of long ago. 
 
My Diary for 1913 205 
 
 Sallie dear; my Sallie dear 
 We've climbed the hill together, 
 And many a happy day dear 
 We've had with one another. 
 
 We now are climbing down, dear 
 Still holding on each other; 
 When at the foot we'll sleep dear 
 Life's pilgrimage then over. 
 
 August 10th. 
 
 Sunday: All days are pretty much alike at Nauheim; every- 
 body is here for rest, and the "cure" and there seems to be a 
 stereotyped course to be followed and they follow it. All classes 
 of society meet here high and low, at our hotel; we have dukes 
 and counts and barons and their wives; just now we have a 
 black prince, a Maharajah, of an Indian Province or state who 
 is here with his white wife and mother-in-law. Strange that a 
 respectable white woman as she appears, could consent to live 
 with one so much beneath her, even though he be an Indian 
 prince. I feel indignant to have them eat in the same dining 
 room with us. She sold herself for money and position. 
 
 August 11th. 
 
 The cure is progressing day by day and my heart is becoming 
 normal again, I hope. Dr. Schott says I am doing nicely but 
 can't set a day when I can start homeward. My life has always 
 been so occupied that these long weeks at Carlsbad and here 
 seem a great waste of time, a new departure. 
 
 August 12th. 
 
 Even the news we get here in the papers is very old. The 
 Balkan War is happily ended and articles of peace are at last 
 signed. Turkey is loser of most of her European possessions 
 and the map of Europe considerably changed. President 
 Wilson is doing all he can to keep out of a war with Mexico. 
 I think today war is becoming more dreaded than ever before, 
 for with the modern inventions it has become too terrible and 
 expensive for sane governments to entertain, — soon I hope 
 international questions may be decided by a grand court of the 
 nations rather than by the sword, as in the past. 
 
206 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 August 15th. 
 
 It is pleasant to feel the glow of health return after a period 
 of ill health and anxiety. Rheumatism near and about the 
 heart, the heart's doubting, feeble beat and the Doctor's anxious 
 look and care, altogether, cause no little feeling of unrest. 
 With daily baths (I have now taken twenty-one) and regular 
 massage treatment daily, I feel as if life had been wholly re- 
 newed and I was a new being. Dr. Schott says we may leave 
 for home next Wednesday, the 20th inst. and we will begin our 
 preparations to go as soon as the time arrives. My heart which 
 was very much enlarged has contracted and is now practically 
 normal. 
 
 August 17th and 18th. 
 
 Sunday and Monday. Weather cloudy but not rainy. 
 Continue to improve, taking short walks. Sallie and I play 
 bridge in the evenings with Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Gormley of 
 Rochester. 
 
 August 19th. 
 
 Have decided to leave here tomorrow at one o'clock for 
 Cologne en route to London. Will break the journey again at 
 Ostend. Dr. Schott called this evening and I paid him one 
 thousand marks for his services while here. He called to see 
 me twice almost every day and considering he gave treatment to 
 Sallie as well, his charge is not so unreasonable. I never wa"s 
 watched so closely as he has done and I consider his treatment 
 of me has been good. He says I must return next May or June 
 and have treatment again. He gave me instructions how to 
 care for myself when I am away. 
 
 August 20th. 
 
 Starting for Cologne on the 1 :10 train; very glad to begin our 
 homeward journey. Day is bright and cheerful but I did not 
 sleep well last night; took too long a walk yesterday around the 
 lake. I do not feel as much like starting as I did yesterday. 
 
 Later: Most delightful ride on the east shore of the Rhine 
 down to Cologne. I have been up and down the Rhine several 
 times but this day's ride seemed to make the most pleasant 
 impression of this magnificent river and region, I ever had. It 
 surely is a poetic region. Arrived at Cologne about 7 p. m. 
 Stopped at Hotel Excelsior, a fine new house. 
 
My Diary for 1913 207 
 
 August 21st. 
 
 Up and breakfasted at eight. Went into the cathedral for 
 a few minutes to see again the stained glass windows which I 
 saw last thirty-six years ago. The cathedral is very beautiful 
 but does not appeal to me as the cathedrals of England do. 
 Lincoln or Ely or even Canterbury, are so much more chaste 
 and attractive. We left at 10 o'clock for Ostend via Malines 
 and Bruges and reached our "Hotel Place" at Ostend at 4:30 
 p. m. The fresh sea air, walk on the magnificent esplanade and 
 a short visit to the Kurhaus finished up a very pleasant day. 
 Met in the evening with Mrs. Duhme and Mrs. Small from 
 Cincinnati. 
 
 August 22nd. 
 
 Beautiful bright morning after a good night's sleep and we 
 are starting in good spirits for the trip across the channel which 
 promises to be fair. 
 
 Later: We arrived at London about six; went to the Carlton 
 Hotel; met Mr. Morehead and his wife from Bronxville with 
 latest news; received mail from home. Sallie and I discussed 
 our wedding anniversary this date, and the forty-six years of 
 married life as we crossed the stormy channel and we concluded 
 that taken all in all, the stream of our lives had run as smooth 
 and the waters had been as placid as the average, all the turmoils 
 and troubles of life considered. 
 
 August 23rd. 
 
 After an extra good night's rest we arose at eight; took break- 
 fast, and then a cab, and shopped around for nearly three 
 hours; then took lunch at Princess restaurant, which we found 
 very satisfactory and will patronize again. The Carlton table 
 is good but prices are exorbitant. We have bought tickets 
 for Windham's Theatre tonight for "Diplomacy." The theatres 
 are nearly all closed or I would not have selected this old play. 
 
 August 24th. 
 
 Sunday. Took a long walk with Sallie this morning along 
 the Thames Embankment, Cecil Park, etc. and back to Carlton 
 Hotel. Afternoon drive in the parks and dinner at night at 
 the Princess Restaurant where they had a picture show during 
 dinner as well as music. 
 
 August 25th. 
 
 Tried on my new clothes at the tailor's, which I ordered while 
 
208 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 in Nauheim and the three suits and overcoat appear quite 
 satisfactory and will be finished tomorrow. Called on Mr. 
 Backhouse of Roberts & Co. and talked over the Fellows busi- 
 ness for an hour. He tried to find out my estimate value of 
 Fellows stock, but as I suspect he wishes to buy some of Mr. 
 Fellows' children's stock of them, I would express no opinion 
 of its value. 
 
 August 26th. 
 
 Quiet day. Spent the forenoon shopping about town and 
 went to the theatre in the evening. Saw the "Great Adventure" 
 by Arnold Bennet. Find myself today weak and unable to 
 take proper exercise; suppose it is due to the long treatment 
 and diet at Carlsbad and Nauheim. Met Frank Paul of 
 Montreal today on the street; also the Chalmers from Chicago 
 who are nice people. The following was suggested to me by 
 reading an item in a London paper saying the discovery of the 
 birth of an "atom" had been made by a professor of Chemistry 
 in London. 
 
 If this world has from an atom grown 
 So have the stars through the heavens strewn. 
 Who made that atom this I would know, 
 Whence did we come, and whither go ? 
 
 If God the Father is a spirit, then, 
 And if His presence is in everything, 
 Then He's in me and I in Him — 
 Why should we be such slaves of sin! 
 
 August 27 th. 
 
 Took a drive around London; some shopping but soon tired 
 out and spent the afternoon in my room. 
 
 August 28th. 
 
 Left the Carlton Hotel at 11 a. m. Took the 12 m. special 
 for Liverpool and Steamer Adriatic which sailed for home at 
 5 p. m. The steamer looks very attractive to me and I heaved 
 a sigh of relief when I became settled and the steamer began the 
 homeward trip. It seemed so restful and I was so happy to 
 leave behind me all the weeks of care and troubles I have been 
 through since I landed on this side of the ocean, June 20th, last. 
 
My Diary for 1913 209 
 
 August 29th. 
 
 Felt much stronger on arising this morning; took a good 
 breakfast and begin to feel like myself again. The sea is smooth 
 and weather fine. Met the Carstensons from Scarsdale and 
 Mr. and Mrs. Williams of Patterson, N. J., all fine people. 
 Ship's run, 432 miles. 
 
 August 30th. 
 
 Had a good day, the sea being calm and the day beautiful. 
 Life at sea when the weather conditions are good is most satis- 
 factory to me. The strong sea air seems to impart new life 
 and spirits. My appetite is sharpened and life looks brighter. 
 In past voyages at such times my mind was ever looking forward 
 and planning undertakings or work to be done but now I con- 
 stantly find it going backward over the past and uncertain and 
 doubtful about the future. If a thought of that kind does come 
 to me it is connected with the everlasting "If I am able," "If 
 I live," etc. 
 
 Played cards in the evening with the Williams of Patterson, 
 who also invited Charles Scribner (of Scribner's Magazine, New 
 York). I am a poor card player and Mr. Scribner was dis- 
 agreeable about it. I resolved never to play with him again. 
 In fact, I do not like the man, having discovered this temper in 
 him, before this meeting. 
 
 August 31st. 
 
 Women's Suffrage 
 
 So much is said now-a-days about a woman's right to vote 
 that I have tried to find out where I stand on the subject. I 
 have been unable to discover any valid reason why she should 
 not vote if she wants to. She is (the average woman) as capable, 
 perhaps as the average man, and her instinct to choose the right 
 and refuse the wrong keener than the man's. But there is 
 something in me, I cannot say what it is, that rebels at the 
 thought. I feel that she is lowering her flag, as it were, that the 
 cultured and refined woman is getting down to the level of the 
 common woman, that it is a form of degeneracy. As long as 
 woman can command the respect of man, she can control them, 
 and though the weaker vessel, she rules as if by magic. Perhaps 
 I am of the old school or there is a bit of the old Lawrence 
 
210 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 aristocracy left in me which came down from the Crusaders and 
 is opposed to these latter day ideas. At any rate, I prefer the 
 modest retiring woman of sense, who attends to the ways of her 
 household, her children and her husband, rather than the militants 
 of London, the fish wives of Paris or those women who parade 
 the streets of New York and make speeches to the tiresome 
 mob on the public streets and squares, attended by the flags 
 and drums, asking votes for women. I believe that women will 
 accomplish much more in the world and continue to improve 
 the human race and themselves as well, by not voting but 
 simply by exercising the power of love. 
 
 September 1st. 
 
 Labor Day. Summer is ended and autumn is here. I can 
 hardly realize it; nearly three months have passed since we 
 sailed away from our native shore and a few days more (Provi- 
 dence permitting) we shall be in our native land again. I hope 
 the summer has not been wasted ; I felt the need of a change when 
 I left New York but today I do not feel as well by a great deal, 
 as when I left. I feel older and less confident in myself, but the 
 "cures" that have so weakened me, may bring good effects 
 later and I may yet discover that the summer has not been 
 wasted as it now appears. I feel rather weak and discouraged 
 today but tomorrow may be brighter. It is thus with me in 
 these later days. 
 
 September 2nd. 
 
 Weather very warm, as we are in the gulf stream and after 
 the continued cold weather we have had, it seems doubly 
 oppressive. We find the people on board are agreeable and 
 the ship itself all that can be desired. 
 
 September 3rd. 
 
 Weather continues hot and sea smooth. The steamer is 
 slow, making about 420 miles in 24 hours. Today we are in 
 communication by wireless with Sable Island and I sent a 
 message home that we were all well and happy (cost 14 sh. 8d 
 or $3.50 which shows that ocean telegraphy is still expensive). 
 
 September l^th. 
 
 As we approach New York we grow anxious as usual to 
 hasten ashore. The voyage has been a most agreeable one but 
 we are always glad when it is ended. 
 
My Diary for 1913 211 
 
 September 5th. 
 
 Arrived at the wharf about 11 a. m. John and Ada, Agnes 
 and Arthur, Dudley, Louise, Anna, Kate, and Virginia were 
 all waiting for us. They had my Minerva Car in which we 
 motored to Bronxville and stopped there with Dudley and Kate 
 for a few days' visit. 
 
 September 6th. 
 
 Found myself pretty tired this morning and have not felt 
 like making much of an effort today. Took an auto ride in 
 the afternoon round about the Park, Mt. Vernon, etc. ; decided 
 to go up to the Adirondacks with Louise tomorrow night and 
 spend a few days resting in the mountains at her camp near 
 "Tupper Lake," do a little fishing and perhaps run up to Mon- 
 treal and look over our Montreal business affairs, if able. I 
 will do this if I recover sufficient strength or ambition. I do 
 not know which it is I am in need of. 
 
 September 7th. 
 
 Sunday. Quiet day. Louise and I started for the Adiron- 
 dacks this afternoon; motored over to Yonkers and took the 
 evening train there. 
 
 September 9th. 
 
 Arrived at Tupper Lake at 6:30 a. m. We took breakfast 
 at the Altamont Hotel and drove out to the camp where we 
 found Louise's family all on the dock waiting and cheering us. 
 
 September 10th. 
 
 Weather cold and rainy; found camp cold at night when the 
 fires go down and the bed damp. Had a bad night; poor sleep. 
 Louise, poor girl, worried about my comfort. I fished in the 
 afternoon with Dan; caught a 10 lb. pike who fought over a 
 half hour before we got him into the boat. 
 
 September 11th. 
 
 Had a severe bilious attack last night brought on by cold, I 
 think. Had severe pains all night and got up this morning 
 feeling "rocky." Spent a quiet day but the weather has been 
 unusually cold and even frosty. 
 
 September 12th. 
 
 Went out today with both rod and gun; found a flock of 
 ducks feeding in the lake and after a little maneuvering about, 
 
212 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 I was fortunate enough to shoot a pair of them (red heads); 
 bad luck fishing today ; only caught one bass. 
 
 September 13th. 
 
 Chased about a good part of the day after duck but got none 
 for I had no decoys and it was difficult to get near them. 
 
 September 16th. 
 
 Left the camp at 11 a. m. with Louise and we picked up 
 John Bates at Tupper Lake, who arrived there this morning 
 and we left for Montreal. We arrived there about five o'clock. 
 Weather was fine, cold and clear. Before leaving camp, Lucia 
 asked me to write in her visitor's book so I wrote the following: 
 
 FOLLENSBY 
 
 If the first man Adam had lived today, 
 Expelled from Eden and had come this way, 
 Here he'd have found an Eden to his mind 
 Better perhaps than the one he left behind. 
 
 Here he could fish or walk the pathless wood, 
 Hunt the wild buck or chase the duckling brood, 
 No flaming swords about this lovely lake 
 To warn away when he would merry make. 
 
 Here Mother Eve a quiet life might live, 
 Might ne'er a trouble to her helpmate give; 
 Might prove herself a more deserving wife 
 With Adam live a less tempestuous life. 
 
 September 17 th. 
 
 Stopped at the "Ritz Carlton Hotel" which is rather advanced 
 for this city of Montreal and I fear its future success. 
 
 September 18th. 
 
 Spent day in Montreal with Lawrence Davis and John Bates. 
 Inspected our Montreal factory and regret I did not find things 
 there in as perfect condition as I would like. Lawrence Davis 
 is rather careless, for the factory I found in disorder. Hope he 
 will establish a better system, and better order hereafter. 
 Bought a diamond bracelet for Louise, which she selected her- 
 self. I want her to have it in remembrance of the lovely visit 
 I have had at her camp. 
 
My Diary for 1913 213 
 
 September 19th. 
 
 Arrived home from Montreal this morning; found Sallie 
 there with her servants, and the house nearly ready to go in. 
 I will be glad to feel settled for I will be satisfied to rest now 
 after a summer abroad with all its disappointments and excite- 
 ments. 
 
 September 20th. 
 
 Sallie and I spent the day with Agnes in Bronxville. Visited 
 the hospital; found the superintendent, Miss Berry, tired out 
 nervously; said she could not stand the strain any longer and 
 must give up her position, so I must look up a successor and let 
 her assume her old place as operating room nurse. 
 
 September 21st. 
 
 Sunday. Remaining with Agnes at Bronxville for a few days. 
 Motor ride with Dudley in the afternoon. 
 
 September 23rd. 
 
 Visited today the Bronxville office and Hotel; found myself 
 very nervous and the night found me quite exhausted. I think 
 I must get settled at home soon where I can be away from 
 Bronxville where I have been and am still, so deeply interested 
 in everything that is going on I cannot separate myself from it 
 all now. All the improvements and changes fascinate me as no 
 other business I was ever interested in has done. I have had 
 much enjoyment in the Lawrence Park development and find 
 it hard to turn my back on it all. 
 
 September 24th. 
 
 In town attending to little business matters, accumulated 
 during my absence. Sallie is still getting the house to rights 
 preparatory to our going in next week. 
 
 September 25th. 
 
 In town again today. Ordered a new Victor Victrola for 
 the Gramatan and arranged with the management to hold once 
 each week a musicale with refreshments, which I hope will 
 awaken a little social life. The Hotel Gramatan appears quite 
 prosperous, but more entertainment is needed to make and 
 retain its popularity. 
 
 September 26th. 
 
 The weather is superb and I enjoy going about Bronxville and 
 watching all the improvements going on; was in town again 
 
214 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 today; the automobile ride is the chief attraction; took Kate 
 and her southern girl friend, also Bess Wellington, and brought 
 Sallie back with me to the hotel, she having given the house 
 over to Louise and her family who have just arrived from camp 
 (the Adirondacks). Had another talk with the hotel manage- 
 ment about a better service, the musicale, etc. and they seem 
 anxious to go ahead and try it out. In the evening we had in 
 Virginia's rooms (she is at present stopping at the hotel) a 
 little rehearsal of some of the Victrola pieces which were perfectly 
 fine. 
 
 September 27th. 
 
 I am quite resigned and contented now to be back again 
 among my relatives and friends after a summer abroad with all 
 its perplexities and anxieties. Almost everybody I meet 
 expresses his happiness to see me back looking so well and ex- 
 presses the anxiety which he felt about me when the report was 
 circulated of my illness at Bad Nauheim. It is very pleasant 
 to feel that one has friends and I am sure I have a great many 
 in Bronxville who are anxious for my welfare and happiness. 
 
 September 28th. 
 
 Sunday. This is the most perfect Sabbath morning I ever 
 knew. The earliest breath of autumn seems to be in the silent 
 ai' which, like the water falling in the fountain on the hotel 
 terrace, sparkles and dances in the sunshine with the first frost 
 of the season. This is a beautiful world and I thank my Creator 
 for bringing me into it and permitting me for a season to enjoy 
 its beauties ; for a good constitution and a well formed body and 
 mind; for permitting me to live the full period allotted to men 
 (three score and ten) in the full possession of my faculties and 
 ability to enjoy the continual feast he has provided. 
 
 September 30th. 
 
 Have been quite active today getting my books and accounts 
 arranged, but am unable to accomplish much without fatigue. 
 
 October 1st. 
 
 We moved down from the Hotel Gramatan into our town 
 house today. Louise already there had her servants and all in 
 fair running condition and it did as it always does, seems nice 
 to get back into our own home once more after a summer abroad 
 with all the changes and excitement which that means. 
 
My Diary for 1913 215 
 
 October 2nd. 
 
 I suppose everybody likes their own home best after an 
 absence of about five months' roaming about the world. Mine 
 seems very luxurious and satisfying, so restful. My present 
 home, at 969 Fifth Avenue, corner of 78th St., New York City, 
 I built in the year 1891. It was built according to my wife's 
 and my own taste, and we have found but little in it that we 
 would change. It may seem to the stranger unnecessarily 
 large and costly, being on a Fifth Avenue corner, but to me it 
 seems the embodiment of comfort and just what a home should 
 be. I love my home. 
 
 October 3rd. 
 
 Went up to Bronxville by motor with Sallie today; the weather 
 was perfect and I enjoyed the outing very much. In the fore- 
 noon I was down town and visited both the office of the Fellows 
 Company and the Davis & Lawrence Company and talked over 
 their respective businesses with their managers, Dr. Anger and 
 Mr. Bates. Both offices report business up and ahead of former 
 years. 
 
 October 4th. 
 
 Took a motor car ride to Bronxville. Visited the hospital 
 and arranged for Dr. Dear's accommodation as he comes to 
 begin work on the 15th. Called on Miss Nutting at the Teachers' 
 College who has promised to get a new superintendent at the 
 hospital to succeed Miss Doty. 
 
 October 6th. 
 
 Attended church this morning. Ferris and Louise who are 
 staying with us, accompanied. . Dr. Jowett preached. 
 
 October 6th. 
 
 Had a return of my heart trouble last night and was kept 
 awake a good portion of the night. It seemed to be more 
 nervous than otherwise and hope it will pass away. We hold a 
 meeting of the Lawrence Park Realty Co. at the house this 
 afternoon. 
 
 October 7th. 
 
 The present year has been an eventful one. Since President 
 Wilson went into office last March he certainly has done much 
 and ought to accomplish much more before the year ends. I 
 
216 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 have been a Republican nearly all my life and have stood up for 
 Republican principles but I like Mr. Wilson's administration so 
 far, whether his principles are Democratic or what not. I 
 think he is going to satisfy the public's wishes and if he does we 
 shall have increased prosperity and less fault finding than we 
 have been accustomed to for the past year or two. 
 
 October 8th. 
 
 Since I came back from Europe I have neglected my diary. 
 There have been so many other things to think about and to 
 distract the mind, I haven't been able to get my mind down to 
 diary, poetry, or anything else; this, too, has advantages the 
 reader may think, if he doesn't say it. 
 
 October 11th. 
 
 Motored out to Bronxville today with Sallie. Visited the 
 Hospital, arranged for Dr. Dear's arrival, his office and room. 
 
 October 12th. 
 
 Sunday. Attended church and heard Dr. Jowett preach. 
 He did not speak with his old force and has not got into the 
 spirit of his work, at least it seemed to me less impressive than 
 it did last May. 
 
 October 13th. 
 
 Texie Bates arrived this morning with her two little children. 
 She seems very happy over her approaching marriage with Mr. 
 Brooke who also arrived shortly after herself. He seems rather 
 a slowgoing fellow, for so active and lovely a lady as Texie is; 
 but he may be much better than he looks at first sight. Offhand 
 I should say he was not good enough for her. 
 
 October 14th. 
 
 Texie is leaving for Europe in the morning with the two 
 children. She is going to marry Mr. Brooke in January next, 
 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Sallie and I concluded to anticipate 
 the event and give her a marriage present now, thinking she 
 would have use for money, and gave her $250. each, which will 
 prove the most useful and convenient present she could have; 
 we gave her our checks today for which she was very appre- 
 ciative. Texie seems very poor in this world's goods. 
 
 Had a meeting of the Hospital Board today and discussed 
 the affairs of the Hospital. I presided as usual. The meeting 
 was at the hospital. 
 
My Diary for 1913 217 
 
 October 15th. 
 
 Went down early this morning with Texie Mc Kee and 
 children to see them off on the Red Star Steamer Faderland for 
 Europe. The children, Bates and Frances are very lovely little 
 things and I am very fond of them. 
 
 Dr. Dear has arrived and begins his work at the Lawrence 
 Hospital today. I hope he may be the right man in the right 
 place, but in some way I have certain misgivings and fears that 
 he won't succeed; a trial at least will solve these doubts. 
 
 October 16th. 
 
 Meeting of Fellows Co. today at the Christopher St. office. 
 At opera in the evening with Sallie, Mollie Taylor Rathbun and 
 Bess Wellington, where we had The Jewels of the Madonna, a 
 very artistic and beautiful production. 
 
 October 17th. 
 
 Worked in my office all the forenoon and went out to Bronx- 
 ville after lunch for a motor ride. My office now removed to 
 969 Fifth Avenue is yet so new, it does not seem natural or 
 convenient; but I hope to get used to it and be able to work in 
 it to advantage. 
 
 October 18th. 
 
 Forenoon at office work; afternoon motored over to Brooklyn 
 to visit Sister Sarah who has just arrived home from Horseheads 
 where she has bought a house and garden of three acres for her 
 summer home. Considering she is over 77 years old, this move 
 seems rather ambitious but since she acquired the place for 
 $3500. I think it shows good sense if it will afford her any 
 pleasure; she has but a few years left and if country life will 
 afford what the city declines to give, quiet and retirement, she 
 has chosen well. Sarah has saved up this purchase money out 
 of the pension I have been paying her and it is all her own 
 money and if she chooses to spend it in this way, I approve, 
 though I would preferred having her use it more exclusively for 
 personal comfort. 
 
 October 19th. 
 
 Sunday: Attended church in the morning; in the afternoon 
 motored out to Bronxville with Minnie Davis. Evening spent 
 at home with the Misses Little from Monroe, Michigan, who 
 happened in. 
 
218 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 October 20th. 
 
 Meeting of the Fellows Co. this afternoon at their office in 
 Christopher St. Nothing of special interest came up. Very 
 heavy rain this forenoon, so I remained indoors up to 1 :30. 
 
 October 21st. 
 
 Went up to Bronxville on the 10:35 train and returned by 
 motor in the evening. In company with Arthur, visited the 
 farm and consulted with Mr. Wilson, the manager, and also 
 went over the new park road proposition suggested by Arthur. 
 I advised temporizing with these roads rather than building new 
 macadam ones at big expense, for the reason that the Realty 
 Company cannot spare the money that would be necessary. 
 
 October 22nd. 
 
 Went down town today with Anna. Examined the Coin 
 Counter machines and her new business, which I think promises 
 well. I hate to see her part with even half of her interest in 
 them, which she talks of selling, for she has worked hard and 
 long on these patents. 
 
 October 23rd. 
 
 Was in office all day working on a plan to take over the 
 Lawrence Hospital property, give the Hospital my ten acre 
 farm and start, or rebuild, on a larger scale there. I believe, 
 today the Hospital should do this. They would then have 
 land on which to grow or to develop economically or properly; 
 besides this, it is noisy owing to its position near the railroad and 
 center of everything. We made a mistake in a way, locating 
 here, and another in the style of building we put up, but it is 
 not too late to move and correct it. Financially it was no mis- 
 take, the property has advanced in value greatly. 
 
 Going to the opera tonight with Dud, Kate, Pressley and 
 Anna. On our return from opera, were shocked to hear of 
 Mrs. J. T. Murray's sudden death; she has long been a very dear 
 friend. And so they go! 
 
 October 24th. 
 
 Went up to Bronxville today and took Dr. Smith out over 
 the "Tenacre Farm" and asked him to consider it the future 
 site for the Lawrence Hospital and criticise it as he saw fit, for, 
 I said, I had decided it would be wise to move the institution 
 over there as soon as possible and that I would bring the sugges- 
 
My Diary for 1913 219 
 
 tion before the Board soon and wanted him to know about it. 
 I also went through the Nurses' quarters. I was pleased to find 
 this house in such nice condition throughout and its inmates so 
 happy and contented and showing so much pride in the care of 
 the place. 
 
 October 25th. 
 
 This has been one of those tiresome October days when it 
 rains and rains without ceasing. Have hardly been out of the 
 house today. It has given me an opportunity to do some of 
 my office work which is very much neglected of late. Since 
 bringing my office up to the house I do not find it easy to think 
 or do the same work I did when down at 542 Fifth Avenue, but 
 it may be just as well. 
 
 October 26th. 
 
 Sunday. To church this morning with Anna and Pressley. 
 Sallie suffering with a bad cold thought it best to stay at home 
 and in bed. 
 
 Mexico in a long protracted revolution has attracted much 
 attention; is holding her election today and everyone is interested 
 in knowing what will happen next. 
 
 October 28th. 
 
 Quiet day at home writing letters; and a motor car ride in the 
 afternoon. The elections are now on and the campaign is un- 
 usually disagreeable; one would think every candidate was a 
 liar or a thief. What a pity it is that our political affairs have 
 to create so much ill feeling. 
 
 October 29th. 
 
 Motored out to Bronxville and back this afternoon bringing 
 Dr. Charlton and wife back with us to dinner; a beautiful ride 
 it was. 
 
 Sent letters to Executive Committee, proposing that I pur- 
 chase the present Lawrence Hospital property and that we 
 begin over again (all new) on the Tenacre Farm which I offer to 
 give the Hospital free, I ask them to consider the proposal, and 
 we will act on the matter at the next meeting. Saw Miss Berry 
 today and she promised to accept the position of superintendent 
 of the Hospital in place of Miss Doty. 
 
 October 80th. 
 
 Spent good portion of today at my office work. Went to th e 
 
220 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 opera in the evening and took as guests Dr. and Mrs. Charlton 
 from Bronxville. "Tosca" was the opera (most too dramatic 
 for me) at same time it was beautifully done. 
 
 October 81st. 
 
 Called on both the Davis & Lawrence Co. and Fellows 
 Co. this morning. Several unpleasant subjects are before these 
 companies. First the income tax; nobody seems quite to under- 
 stand the new law which appears very vexatious. And again 
 the French Government appears to be beginning a campaign 
 against all private formulas containing poison (as Fellows Syrup 
 does). Roberts & Co. of Paris have made a suggestion that we 
 get around the laws by signing a paper apparently making the 
 syrup over to them "as owners." As I look upon this concern 
 with a feeling of great distrust, I can only treat their suggestion 
 with contempt. 
 
 November 1st. 
 
 Motored out to Dobbs Ferry (Miss Masters' School) to see 
 Lucia Meigs. After a pleasant call and tea with Miss Sallie 
 Masters and the girls, we motored over to Bronxville and 
 thence home to dinner. Anna and Sallie accompanied us. 
 
 Pressley took dinner with us and left for Washington, in 
 reference to his coin counter patent, on midnight train. 
 
 November 2nd. 
 
 Sunday. Motored out to Bronxville. Meeting today at 
 the Hospital of the Executive Committee to decide on future of 
 Hospital; shall we give up present site and building and go over 
 to the Tenacre Farm? Took Mr. Geller over the farm; meeting 
 passed pleasantly and the committee thought the move desirable. 
 The exposure of H. C. Merritt's defalcation made a stir in 
 Bronxville last night when it came out and it was learned that 
 Merritt had run away. Arthur and Virginia returned with us 
 and dined at 969. 
 
 November 3rd. 
 
 In office all forenoon. Afternoon motored about the city 
 and through the Park with Sallie. Lunched at the Union 
 League with John Bates. 
 
 November 4th. 
 
 The elections today will end a long drawn out era of strife 
 and ill feeling, mud slinging, and bitterness. It is hoped it will 
 
My Diary for 1913 221 
 
 be the death of Tammany Hall which has so long stood for 
 corruption and everything that is bad in New York city's 
 politics. But Tammany Hall has survived a great many 
 defeats. 
 
 We motored out to Bronxville and, after lunch with Anna, 
 went to Kensico Cemetery. I had drawn a design for our lot 
 there, a sort of screen or pergola effect which I wished to study 
 on the ground. I feel that if something of this kind was erected 
 and covered with vines and flowers, that it would be less chilling 
 and cold than these mausoleums and statuary effects, and 
 according to my taste, much simpler. I like the scheme and 
 will try to have it elaborated. 
 
 November 5th. 
 
 The elections yesterday turned out to be a complete over- 
 throw of Tammany. I do hope we may now get a better city 
 government and hold on to it for a long time to come. This 
 has been often thought before when the new government proved 
 no better than the old. 
 
 Dr. Dear phones in that he is having trouble with Dr. Austin 
 who seeks to overrule and put him in an inferior position. I 
 see trouble ahead over the question and it remains to be found 
 out if the doctors have it in their power to overrule the directors 
 and run the hospital or not. They seek to make the hospital a 
 luxury to the poor by charging big fees and thereby cutting 
 out the charity features. Unless I can make the hospital a 
 sort of harbor for the sick poor to run into and there be cared 
 for, the hospital will be a failure in my estimation. 
 
 November 6th. 
 
 In office all the morning; Dudley phones decision in Sagamore 
 Road question has been decided against us. I am surprised at 
 this and can only see it as a socialistic movement. If we have 
 any case for an appeal, I feel inclined to carry it up higher, but 
 I fear our best course is to avoid further legal complications 
 with the Village. 
 
 I was down at Pressley's office last night to meet the parties 
 there who have been infringing his coin counter patents. I 
 found them a pair of characterless Irishmen perfectly devoid 
 of principle and I fear that Pressley has a lot of trouble ahead 
 with his patents; it looks now as if he had been deceived and 
 really had no basic patents which the courts will protect. Going 
 
222 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 to opera this evening. Louise arrived from Adirondacks this 
 morning. 
 
 November 7 th. 
 
 Returned from opera last night with a very bad cold though 
 Dr. Bosworth treated me for it in the afternoon. This morning 
 I was so hoarse that I decided to remain in bed all day and see 
 if that would not break it up. 
 
 All nature at this season appears to grow old and die. Late 
 autumn on that account never seems a joyful season but rather 
 sad and sorrowful. 
 
 November 8th. 
 
 Old men I think are all pessimistic. I think I am and it has 
 come on me in the last year or two. It seems to me before that 
 I always saw the bright side and would not look at the other, 
 but now I wonder what we were bom for, why brought into this 
 world to fight a long drawn out battle which continues with 
 most of us from the cradle to the grave. It is a curious and 
 interesting subject to consider, added to that is the still greater 
 question, "The Hereafter," which is filled with such mystery 
 and curiosity Are we filling the mission we were sent to do as 
 God intended us to do and has he other work beyond the grave, 
 rewards or otherwise ? 
 
 November 12th. 
 
 Went out to Bronxville, met Dr. Smith and advised him to 
 quit following the leadership of Dr. Austin for it would get him 
 into trouble; that Austin was trying to get Dr. Dear out of 
 the Hospital and he, Smith, was backing up this effort. I 
 assured him it would be wiser for him to fall into line with the 
 Hospital board and work with them and not against them as 
 Austin was doing. I also assured him that Dr. Austin would 
 soon be dropped from the Medical Staff if he did not change his 
 tactics and stop his constant opposition. 
 
 Smith did not like it but could see my advice was well in- 
 tended. 
 
 November 13th. 
 
 Held meeting today of the Executive Committee of the 
 Lawrence Hospital. Dr. Dear was elected to the medical 
 board and new rules were promulgated for the guidance of Dr. 
 Dear and the other physicians. I hope they will work out a 
 
My Diary for 1913 223 
 
 better state of affairs. One thing is certain; this crude un- 
 scientific surgery being practiced there, which we have had to 
 endure for the past four years, has got to be eliminated from the 
 Lawrence Hospital, and if our country doctors will not aid in 
 this movement, the management must discard them all rather 
 than permit this condition of affairs to go on. 
 
 November 14th. 
 
 Saw Dr. Frank Bosworth again today who treated my cold; 
 but his treatment seems to lack the power it used to have on 
 me years ago. I expect it is the difference in years; it is one 
 thing to work on good solid new material, and another, to work 
 on that which is worn and old. 
 
 Lunched with Arthur and Dud at the Club. They are con- 
 sidering plans of adjustment with the Village of Bronxville in 
 the Sagamore Road case lately decided in court against us. 
 The boys are gaining new and varied experience daily. Their 
 position in life is so different from mine at their age that I wonder 
 how I would have met the problems that confront them daily. 
 
 November 15th. 
 
 Consulted with Tayntor & Co. (34th Street) in regard to the 
 erection of some suitable monument or other memorial on my 
 lot in Kensico Cemetery. The one they designed I had to 
 condemn as it was too elaborate and pretentious. I would like 
 to have a simple natural looking resting place to rest in when 
 life's fitful fever is over. Where flowers and shrubs and vines 
 shut out to a certain extent the curiosity hunter or vulgar crowd. 
 Perhaps I will find something to suit me. 
 
 November 16 th. 
 
 Sunday. Rained continuously all day and we did not leave 
 the house. Ferris and Lucia spent the day with us. 
 
 November 17 th. 
 
 Visited Christopher Street offices ; considered the new income 
 tax and its effects on our company; we concluded it best to 
 operate our whole Fellows business in name and for account of 
 the old Montreal Co., a foreign corporation; we will have a 
 company meeting this week to decide. 
 
 November 18th. 
 
 Went up to Bronxville today; Sallie came out on the car in 
 the evening and I returned with her. I told Dudley I would 
 
224 William Van Duzer Lawrence _ 
 
 buy in the future, Lawrence Park mortgages in preference to 
 all other investments and had so worded my will that my estate 
 would continue to invest all its surplus in these mortgages, 
 thus helping the children along with their development and I 
 think it means very much. Went over to the farm and feel 
 rather discouraged over conditions there. The farmer, Mr. 
 Wilson, is an honest fellow but has no correct conception of 
 business His ideas are so contracted he can never prosper. 
 
 November 19th. 
 
 Considering today the purchase of a big factory property on 
 Christopher Street, now occupied by John Wanamaker, for 
 account of Davis & Lawrence Co. It offers about three times 
 the room they now use and can be bought for 1100,000, the 
 agents say. I will look at it. 
 
 November 20th. 
 
 A quiet day; went to opera tonight. Had Mr. and Mrs. 
 F. R. Chambers at dinner and afterwards at opera. 
 
 November 21st. 
 
 Spent the day in Bronxville. It has been a summerlike day, 
 so warm and bright. 
 
 Received from Tayntor & Co. a revised drawing for the 
 cemetery monument, copied from my original drawing, which 
 I like, it being a colonnade or screen effect going half way round 
 the lot. This I think enables the vines and flowers to eventually 
 cover the construction and with care, will make a very natural 
 and pleasing appearance. In the course of time, it will appear 
 like an old ruin which is what I desire it to be. I acquired the 
 idea from a visit to Sir Walter Scott's grave at Dryburg Abbey. 
 
 Motored out to Bronxville with Sallie and Miss Doty. Visited 
 the Hospital and called on Miss Harrison and also on Nellie 
 Taylor, both suffering from similar troubles and both incurables. 
 Both have been in bed for over a year past and are quite help- 
 less. I should dread such an end to my career. When I go I 
 should prefer a shorter path, but who can decide in this matter? 
 Certainly not ourselves. 
 
 November 24th. 
 
 Sunday. I am still suffering from a severe cold, which refuses 
 to give up. I went to church and heard Dr. Jowett but did not 
 feel well and almost wished I had remained at home. 
 
My Diary for 1913 225 
 
 Spent most of the day with Arthur considering the Wanamaker 
 stables for a large factory building, but owing to the unsettled 
 condition of affairs, after going carefully over the property, we 
 decided to abandon the project and incur no debts at present. 
 Went in the evening with Sallie to the Gardiner's home on "West 
 71st Street and played bridge till 10:30. 
 
 November 25th. 
 
 Feeling badly with my bronchial cold today. Went down 
 and had Dr. Buster give me an osteopathic treatment and will 
 continue this for a while and see if I can't get up a little more 
 vitality and throw off the cold in that way. 
 
 November 26th. 
 
 Not feeling up to par by a good deal today; went down and 
 took lunch at the club with the boys, Arthur and Dudley. When 
 I go over the many things they have on hand I can see ahead for 
 them busy lives if they manage the great business they have as 
 it should be done. I feel that they are a great aid to each other 
 and I hope they will always pull together as well as they do now. 
 
 November 27th. 
 
 Thanksgiving Day. Ill in bed all day. Dr. Louis Conner 
 came in to see me. He prescribed for my grippy cold. I was 
 very sorry I could not go down to take my thanksgiving dinner 
 with the family Arthur and Dudley with their wives were 
 here and so were Anna and her husband. We cannot expect to 
 enjoy many more Thanksgiving dinners together and it seems 
 too bad that I should be so near but yet unable to join in it. 
 I really do feel thankful, not only on this day but every day of 
 the year, for all the blessings that have been given me to enjoy. 
 I sometimes think that I have more than my share or more than 
 I deserve and I thank the Giver of all mercies for His many 
 kindnesses to me. 
 
 November 28th. 
 
 In bed today; Dr. Conner called and said I was getting better 
 and he hoped I would soon get rid of my cold. So distressing! 
 
 November 29th. 
 
 Forty-eight years ago today I arrived in Montreal in company 
 with J. W. Curtis to represent S. R. Van Duzer and Co. in that 
 city, with a promised salary of $800 per year out of which I had 
 to pay for my living expenses; it does not now seem as if my 
 
226 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 future looked very bright. But then it looked different to me. 
 It really was breaking away; burning all ships behind me and 
 starting off on a voyage alone. Ever since that day I have 
 thought and acted as my own judgment indicated; have steered 
 my own craft through all sorts of water. 
 
 November SOth. 
 
 Sunday : 111 in bed all day, but my cold is no better. I begin 
 to think a change to the sea or south would be the best thing to 
 cure it. 
 
 December 1st. 
 
 Dr. Conner was in today and advised me to go down to 
 Atlantic City for a few days, a change may break my cold when 
 medicines and care do nothing; I will get off as soon as possible. 
 
 December 2nd. 
 
 Came down to Atlantic City on the 3:04 this afternoon; 
 found delightful room on the sea and the air quite warm and 
 balmy and hope it will soon afford relief to both Sallie and me, 
 from our present bronchial troubles. This place never appealed 
 to me very strongly. I never liked the boardwalk show, the 
 mob of humanity which infects every hole and corner of the town, 
 and when here I always feel a desire to fly away from it all. 
 This time few people are here; the Hotel Marlborough Blenheim 
 is empty as it is out of season, and I hope the salt air will act as 
 a cure and my visit may turn out better. 
 
 December 3rd. 
 
 Travelled up and down the Board walk; rode in the wicker 
 chair and sat on the Esplanade listening to the sea and so this, 
 my first day at Atlantic City has passed. 
 
 It was four years ago today I had to undergo that serious 
 operation in Johns Hopkins Hospital which has proved such a 
 boon to me. 
 
 December 4th. 
 
 Was taken quite ill today, my bronchial cold seems to have 
 taken a turn for the worse. I sent for a trained masseur to 
 come in and rub me over; thinking that might aid my circulation 
 and help me. 
 
 December 5th. 
 
 Stayed in bed nearly all day; the masseur treated me again 
 
My Diary for 1913 227 
 
 but I felt no better. He found I had a little temperature and 
 advised me to call in a doctor. 
 
 December 6 th. 
 
 Since my temperature had risen to 101, 1 sent for Dr. Marshall 
 who after examination reported I had bronchial pneumonia and 
 must remain in bed. 
 
 December 7 th. 
 
 Quite ill today. Dr. Marshall located the trouble in my lung 
 today. Ordered treatment which seemed to take immediate 
 effect. I coughed a great deal and raised a great deal of frothy 
 matter. Doctor sent a nurse this morning, Miss Hunsecker. 
 
 December 8th. 
 
 Dr. Marshall called this morning and reported me doing well 
 and said I responded well to treatment ; I found myself greatly 
 exhausted. 
 
 December 9th. 
 
 I do not experience any trouble or difficulty in my breathing. 
 In fact, I do not realize that I am ill other than the bad cold 
 and cough which I am having, so I can lie and think ad libitum 
 and what a pleasure it is to think and thus while the time away. 
 I regret that my thoughts run too much to the past. 1 would 
 rather think of the future, plan for the future, but how can I do 
 this when my vision only reaches to the horizon and that is so 
 nigh or, at least, it seems so when I think of my age and my 
 reason tells me not to embark in new enterprises now. 
 
 December 10th. 
 
 I do not feel today like writing in my diary. Do not feel ill 
 or if I am do not realize it. 
 
 December 11th. 
 
 This little fever of mine drags along slowly. I can scarcely 
 realize I have one but the doctor appears anxious and cautions 
 everybody to be on their guard that I take no cold or fresh 
 infection. 
 
 December 12th. 
 
 If this is pneumonia which I have it is not so awfully bad after 
 all. I have always heard this disease was the old man's friend 
 for it comes and carries them out of the world with the least 
 possible trouble or inconvenience. I do not feel that my time 
 
228 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 has come or will come for a long while yet ; but old age as I see 
 it and know it does not appeal very strongly to me; I would 
 rather go now than live to become helpless or a burden to any 
 one. 
 
 December 13th. 
 
 It certainly seems as if the family are determined we shall not 
 be sick down here in Atlantic City by ourselves for some of the 
 children are with us constantly; no sooner does one set leave than 
 another one arrives. 
 
 December 15th. 
 
 I can see no real change from day to day; my temperature 
 continues rising and falling but the watchful care which Sallie 
 gives, and the help of the doctor and nurse, keeps me comfort- 
 able and happy, almost willing to be sick to have so much 
 attention given me. It really pays to be ill. 
 
 December 16th. 
 
 When sick it is pleasant to feel that you have friends who love 
 you and minister to you and remain by your side. 
 
 December 17 th. 
 
 Lawrence Park 
 
 When I decided to buy the old Prescott Farm of 86 acres at 
 Bronxville, I had no thought of turning it into a suburban 
 development or park. This was an afterthought which was 
 suggested by my inability to retire from business as I had 
 started out to do. At this time, I had a strong yearning or 
 desire to be busy but not confined to office, as I had been for 
 the twenty-five years previously. Then the desire came to 
 build up an artistic and exclusive community, a home for my 
 children and their children after them, one that would absorb 
 my surplus capital and give me an outdoor life and afford me a 
 chance to work along independent lines and exercise a certain 
 genius for constructive work of which ever since my boyhood 
 days I have felt I possessed a little. 
 
 Now, after twenty-three years' work on Lawrence Park, 
 during which time it has prospered and become a large develop- 
 ment of about 500 acres, I feel safe in saying that the early 
 conception I had of it was a happy one and has been beneficial 
 to me in many ways. Has made me more widely and favorably 
 
My Diary for 1913 229 
 
 known as a constructionist than I was before, which is a reputa- 
 tion I prefer, as a business man, to any other. It has also, by- 
 giving me employment of a congenial nature, added I believe, 
 years to my life. 
 
 December 19th. 
 
 As we pass through life how often we are halted by the way 
 by sickness such as I now suffer from. Are these attacks sent 
 in order to chasten us and make us more patient and thoughtful 
 beings, make us remember that our bodies are not made to last 
 forever but just frail and delicate organisms that we can't 
 neglect or abuse? Make us remember that soon they will 
 disappear from earth — and what then? 
 
 December 20, 21, 22nd. 
 
 I still remain weak and unable to sit up but think for all that, 
 I am gradually mending; the doctor says so and that the progress 
 toward recovery is slow but sure. Agnes and Bess arrived 
 here today and I was very glad to see them; they both have been 
 such good friends for so many years that I feel I have few like 
 them whom I can depend on for sympathy when sick, and for 
 good congenial company when well. 
 
 Ordered Geo. H. Prentiss & Co. to buy a list of stocks today 
 for investment. 
 
 December 23rd. 
 
 Sat up today for over an hour; found myself weak and tired 
 and glad to get into bed again. 
 
 December 24th. 
 
 Sat up today both morning and afternoon. The Doctor 
 called and said I was doing well and nothing but time was wanted 
 to cure. This illness certainly has taught me patience and I 
 suppose must work toward other benefits but I find it hard to 
 discover them. 
 
 It being Christmas Eve, my thoughts turn back to that lonely 
 manger in the Church at Bethlehem and I wonder that through- 
 out Christendom tonight so much happiness could have flowed 
 from this forsaken spot, as it appeared to me when I visited it 
 a few years ago. I think the story of the birth of Christ the 
 most beautiful ever written and that Christ was the greatest of 
 all living men, but as to his divinity, the Son of God — his only 
 Son, I cannot believe that. 
 
230 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 December 25th. 
 
 We have had today a most unexpected Christmas. Sallie 
 and the nurse, Miss Hunsecker, decorated the room with ever- 
 green wreathes and ropes and afterwards Bess Wellington came 
 in all gotten up as Santa Claus and distributed presents and 
 flowers, a great basketful in all, among us. The day is rather 
 dismal with the great surf beating heavily on the sandy shore 
 beneath our window. 
 
 At the age of seven, what a wonder Christmas seemed 
 With its toys and joys; "old Santa" and his team 
 Made young blood tingle and youthful spirits rise. 
 If only youth could last and ne'er be wise! 
 By seventy, alas, How different Christmas looks! 
 Instead of fairy tales, are papers, friends and books. 
 
 December 26th. 
 
 Agnes and Bess departed for New York this afternoon. My 
 progress toward recovery appears slow; I find myself very weak 
 and despondent but my temperature left me today and I hope 
 now to make better headway. The pure fresh air off the rolling 
 surf below my window ought surely aid my recovery, and besides, 
 the weather keeps bright and sunny. 
 
 December 27th. 
 
 The year is quickly coming to an end. It has been quite an 
 eventful one and yet I cannot see that I am much better off than 
 I was last January. I do not feel quite satisfied with the results 
 as I see them and I wonder if anybody ever is when they look 
 back over the past. We all might have done better and done 
 more. The year is quite symbolic of our lives; it comes in with 
 ringing of bells and joy; it goes out a melancholy picture, old, 
 decrepit and unloved. 
 
 December 28th. 
 
 Sunday. Improving more rapidly and now hope my illness 
 is near an end and we soon can return home. 
 
 December 80th. 
 
 The day came in bright and beautiful and my trouble, though 
 still very tenacious seemed to let up enough to make me feel 
 that danger had passed and the doctor said I could safely return 
 to my New York home. We arrived there about 6 p. m., tired 
 
My Diary for 1913 231 
 
 but happy to get back among those I love and in my own quiet 
 and congenial dwelling. After four weeks in a great hotel by 
 the sea, with the waves pounding the sands below my window 
 night and day, my own house never seemed so welcome and 
 cheerful. 
 
 December 31st. 
 
 Today the old year which I have followed day by day passes 
 away and when I look back over the field, when I think of its 
 trials and all the experiences I have gone through since the first 
 day of January last, I can hardly wish to repeat these experiences 
 and yet there has been mingled with the pain, cups overflowing 
 with pleasure and satisfaction to more than offset these periods 
 of adversity, proving to me that 
 
 There is more joy than sorrow 
 In this lovely world of ours; 
 More smiles and hours of pleasure 
 Than of mourning or of tears. 
 
MY THEOLOGY 
 
 TN THE beginning, before the heavens or earth were brought 
 ■*• forth, God then as now, was the great "I Am" the Great Spirit, 
 "the Omnipresent," "the Eternal," whose presence was life itself 
 and without which there never was, and cannot be life. 
 
 "GOD IS LOVE" 
 
 The universe proclaims this truth, and out of His love the 
 universe has grown to what it is today. 
 
 At first an atom appeared within the realms of space, conceived 
 of God, for God was in that atom. In love He cared for it, and in 
 due time plowed it, harrowed it and it brought forth of its kind; 
 of His love other atoms were also bom and He plowed them and 
 harrowed them and watered and they brought forth of their kind; 
 and thus did they multiply until the heavens and the earth and 
 all that in them is were created and He pronounced them good. 
 
 And God was in every living thing in earth or heaven and with- 
 out Him there was no life. 
 
 The Spirit that is within us which we call life, is God who 
 abideth in us and has created us in His own image and when we 
 pass from life to death, the Spirit within us returns from whence 
 it came to a life everlasting. 
 
 If, then, we are one with God, that is, created in His image, 
 and God is our life, and abides within us (and God is love) why are 
 we the sinners that we are; why do we not take on more the 
 character and attributes of God? 
 
 The answer might be — God has, through nature, made certain 
 natural laws for the government of our natural bodies which we, 
 His created children, are expected to follow and obey. If we fail 
 to follow or obey, we are punished while in the body by those 
 laws in accordance with our disobedience. Hence it follows that 
 we are punished on earth for sins committed while we are in the 
 
My Theology 233 
 
 flesh, and when we die and our spirits are set free, we go back 
 from whence we came to the Father, to life everlasting. 
 
 The foregoing illustrates as near as I can express it, my idea of 
 the creation of the universe and man. This plan of creation is 
 not, I am sure, in accordance with the teachings of the Old Testa- 
 ment, nor is it perhaps altogether in harmony with the teachings 
 of the New. 
 
 The Old Testament appears to me to have been written by 
 Moses and the prophets in a way best to captivate and interest a 
 superstitious and idolatrous people, to prey upon their imagina- 
 tions and enable these leaders of thought of their day to lead their 
 followers up out of darkness into the light of civilization. 
 
 The story of the creation as well as the story of Jonah and the 
 whale symbolise the entire Old Testament writings as practised 
 by these ancient writers. It had great power and effect in con- 
 trolling these superstitious and idolatrous people such as the Child- 
 ren of Israel were at the time Moses led them up out of Egypt. 
 
 The Old Testament religion appears to me to have been built 
 upon or to have grown out of that still older religion of the Egyp- 
 tians which preceeded it and which is even to this day clearly set 
 forth in pictures and words in the temple of Osiris and the tombs 
 in Memphis. Moses was learned in the ways of the Egyptians 
 and it is only natural that he should, in giving to the Israelites a 
 new religion, have introduced into it all that seemed to him good 
 in the old. He doubtless also thought that the "end justified the 
 means," else he would not have resorted so often to the miraculous 
 and superhuman in order to keep his followers in the faith he was 
 teaching. Holding these views, it would seem to me better for 
 the cause of religion in our day if the Old Testament could be 
 obliterated as a sacred book (a part of our Bible) and become a 
 part of history which it really is. 
 
 After this discussion of the creation of the world and of the Old 
 Testament, I feel it necessary to express my feeling toward that 
 new and later religion. That religion of "Love thy neighbor as 
 thyself," conceived and taught by Jesus of Nazareth, the greatest 
 
234 William Van Duzer Lawrence 
 
 teacher and the most sublime and perfect character that the world 
 has ever produced. 
 
 The Creator has planted in every human creature of every race 
 and color, a strong desire or craving for something beyond the 
 grave, some word or message from those who have gone before, 
 from that undiscovered country from which no traveler has e'er 
 returned. 
 
 Jesus of Nazareth brought to humanity perhaps the most 
 gratifying message and did more to satisfy this craving of humanity 
 than any other man. While recognizing Christ as the greatest 
 teacher, the most perfect and lovable man, the wisest leader that 
 was ever bom among men, his Divinity my intelligence refuses to 
 admit. The many miracles he is accredited with such as: The 
 loaves and fishes — The turning water into wine, and many others 
 I believe to be the inventions of his followers, who, clinging to the 
 teachings of the Old Testament, sought in these unnatural and 
 miraculous conceptions to magnify and introduce the great 
 religious system that Christ had formulated in a pure form, free 
 from every kind of hypocrisy as well as of every form and cere- 
 mony. A religion so simple that infants and primitive man could 
 understand and embrace and be the better for it. 
 
 My conclusions then are that the apostles and followers of 
 Jesus have in a large degree failed in their writings to give a true 
 and simple story of the life and teachings of Christ and in so doing 
 have weakened rather than strengthened the cause for which 
 they worked. It has often occurred to me that the apostles and 
 followers of Christ who have written the books of the New Testa- 
 ment had misconceived their master's true conception of socialism. 
 It does not seem to me right or in accord with his real character 
 that he should say "Give unto Caesar the things that belong to 
 Caesar and to God the things that belong to God," if He were, as 
 is claimed by so many to-day, the source from which our modern 
 socialism flows.