1903 EDWIN MANNERS DIARY (MDP)

[Note on bank letterhead]
Hudson County National Bank. Jersey City, Nov. 11, 1903
Edwin Manners Esq.
Dear Mr. Manners

Your contribution to the expenses of the dedication of the Paulus Hook Monument has been duly received with thanks, and I take much pleasure in placing your name on the roll of the few patriotic citizens we have in our community.

Yours truly
N.J.H. Edge Treas.

January 1, 1903

Conquer fear: no more be sad;
The skies are brightening overhead;
Joy brings to life the living dead -
Sigh never more; be glad!

New Year's Eve found me in Manhattan mousing around for amusement. Late at night I dropped in at a large masquerade and civic ball. It was delicious to dance the old year out and the new one in, and I did it with a looseness of spirit and abandon that put me with the gayest in the tumult of the bright occasion. The fascination of the dance kept the music in my feet until the small hours grew big.

The better the insight, the more clearly we perceive all sides of a subject, the less apt are we to take sides, the more likely are we to remain equal or indifferent. Perfect knowledge precludes partisanship. It would bring us to a standstill or at gaze. 'Tis the merit of our imperfections to stir us thereby to creation, correction and progress. We need black for whiteness, defect for wholeness, the crook and twist for righteousness, and for beauty many pains and penalties. Yet this pursuit, this action and reaction, keeps the world moving, purified and happy. The intellectual or philosophical game of tag is to find who is It or what is truth? And this is a game that never loses its interest and ends never. Indeed it could only end with one who had become the One or God, for every sentient being is but an atomic part or particle of the universal whole and has the necessary limitations of a part. The whole or all-seeing only can see and feel the true adjustment of the parts, the harmony of it all. Still it is comprehended by that marvelous part called man.

January 8, 1903

No one can be so mean to you as your friends excepting your family.

January 9, 1903

Peter Dobbins and W. Jay Mills spent the evening with us. They played whist with my sisters Marie and Blanche. Mr. Dobbins, a New York lawyer, is a new and attractive dish. Mr. Mills is the author of "Historic Houses of New Jersey," recently published. They are both bright, interesting young men. The banter and talk, literary or general, kept things moving to a pretty close.

January 12, 1903

Called this evening with Marie, Blanche and Mr. Mills on the Hardenberghs.

January 14, 1903

Meeting of the University Club.
Appealed three of the tax bills, containing nine lots of land.

January 15, 1903

Last day for paying the 1902 taxes without interest.
Paid the remainder of the tax bills, excepting those appealed.

January 16, 1903

Concert and dance at the Palma Club. Went with Blanche. The New-York University musical clubs played. While there were a few graceful dancers, there were more hoptoads: the wonder was that they didn't jar their clothes off.

January 20, 1903

Mr. John Kendrick Bangs lectures before the University Club.
Attended with B.
Received a special dividend of 20 percent from the American Coal Company.

January 23, 1903

Issued a distress warrant to John H. Masker, constable, to distrain the goods and chattels of Harry Coleman in Store No.77 Newark Avenue.

January 24, 1903

Annual Bar Dinner at the Hotel St. Denis.

January 27, 1903

There were nine items or pieces of property on the tax bills I appealed. The Board of Appeals reduced eight and confirmed one. Today I received official notice and paid the redrawn bills.

January 28, 1903

This evening I went over the river to a reception and cotillion in New-York and had an enjoyable time. I was especially pleased with one young lady. She was good-looking, graceful, musical. She had something to show and to say and showed and said it so frankly, so naturally, that I was charmed. I danced with her frequently, as much as the much-sought could spare, particularly with her full low-neck and pretty arms. We danced freely, lightly, rhythmically - O how easily we glided on the fancied ice or air, quietly possessed and enjoying, as in mastery, yet set, intensely strung, for the higher joys of harmony, grace and beauty. It was exquisite, ecstatic, a dream to be remembered and shed its fragrance long after the artists or actors had fled into the night.

January 31. 1903

Settled with Coleman.

February 2, 1903

Bought a rug for the dining room.

February 4, 1903

Engaged a man to work on the farm.

February 5, 1903

Issued to John H. Masker, Constable, a warrant of distress against the goods and chattels of Adolph Franke, at No.107 Brunswick Street.

February 6, 1903

Franke called and made a partial settlement.

'Tis easy to abuse, even the best, but what boots it? 'Tis easy to carp, fault-find and ridicule, but to what end? To break a butterfly on the wheel or make the great look small, and only for a smile in society, a vacant laugh of the club, or some meaner motive. It comes probably from a conceit that may be clever or foul, but lacks wisdom and understanding. A little raillery or pleasing banter may serve. 'Tis better to appreciate, better, but more difficult. 'Tis best to know the resistance, the will, the obstacles overcome, the courage that lasted, the fortitude that did not fail; to find merits, sweetnesses and beauties even in the meanest man as well as in the meanest flower.

February 12, 1903

An estate is a government in little; its management that of statesmanship in little; yet it requires the sagacity, the prevised ability and, I fancy, more intimate human knowledge than does statesmanship in the large. A small cause at law may present as great difficulties and involve as much learning as one in which the largest interests are involved and risked. In my own case, amid peculiar difficulties, it requires, I might almost say, the clarity and unerring stroke of Caesar to maintain the lead and best result, and I have done so at much self sacrifice and, on occasion, at the risk of assassination, dashing aside the point of the leveled pistol. Yet I kept right on, unsurprised, and ahead in the game.

February 14, 1903

Meeting of the stockholders of the New Jersey Title and Abstract Company at noon.

February 19, 1903

Denotement.

Finely tuned my soul to-night
Vibrates with each vagrant sound:
Every string touched and unwound
Brings its memory subtle, bright.

If I only could tell you
Just the ictus of my thought,
It would bring, like galleon brought
From far Ind, its treasure true;

Something of a secret dark,
Something of a soul storm-tost,
Of a barque* ship-wrecked and lost,
Something of a shining mark.

Yet I may not tell you all:
Best illusion, masque, believe;
Better never undeceive
The expectant with a fall.

And it may not quite be that:
Life's a mix of ups and downs:
Fortune's favors, fortune's frowns
Mark the breed mankind begat.

Only each is different:
The accent is soft or strong,
And the song is short or long:
Different fate to each is sent.

But a brave front fares the best
'Gainst the winds of ill or good,
Bears the better where you would,
Whether in the east or west.

I have seen and I have sung
Somewhat of a wondrous life,
Magic peace and magic strife -
Many changes I have rung.

Whether hot or whether cold,
I love you, O world, I do;
Whether false or whether true,
Beauty is thy dower of old.

February 26, 1903

What a pity we cannot always stop to get the distinguishing note or trait from all the life-books we see and pass daily. How prodigal is nature in variety and apparent waste of life; so too is the spirit with its spiritual phases. Yet the great types survive. We sometimes do catch much, more than we suspect, and the unrecognized is not waste, but has its due effect in the general mix-up. So complex, yet ordered, is the scheme.

February 28, 1903

McCoolery + Kelly having rented one of the Grand Street stores for a real estate office, I engaged them to collect some of the rents.

March 4, 1903

Attended with Blanche the funeral of Rear Admiral William Harkness, U.S.N., at No. 90 Mercer Street. He was a mathematician and astronomer of note. The Rev. Dr. Charles Herr conducted the service, and his remarks were thoughtful and impressive. The dead admiral was dressed in the uniform of his rank. The Harkness family is largely one of invalids, yet its quiet annals might prove interesting. The few times I have met Miss Jenine, I thought her a woman of fine intelligence and sensibility. She seemed, though, escaped from the accustomed sick-room, to be attractively timid and deer-like, in the light of the greater world. The father, the late Rev. James Harkness, was a Scotch Presbyterian divine and also a physician - a doctor of body and soul. I can picture him now standing in converse with my father - alas! many, many years ago - tall, erect, with snowy pale and rugged face, while my father's wore a half serious, half humorous expression. They were talking about my health, the health of a little fair-haired lad.

March 7, 1903

Reading newspaper after newspaper, magazine after magazine, book after book, I felt that they were all done by the same hand, all run in a machine groove. What sameness, what convention, what respectable dreariness! And I thought what a rare and great thing it is to be distinctive or original in thought or expression. What a blessing such a mind confers! It adds to the life and interest of nations. It is the divinest gift, man's greatest glory!

March 12, 1903

When one arrives at that mature state when he has no surprises, when he can look at the current great or at least those so accounted or widely popular, as something crude, unfinished, undisciplined, though talented, dogmatic and assertive, though unlighted to the depths and heights, it is perhaps time for him to drop out of the game altogether; for the big complacent world can only stand a certain amount of excellence - anything beyond that it is piqued at or views with suspicion. The avant-courier in any field is a suspect, at least, if not convicted of all the crimes in the calendar. But happily in the end he prevails and may have the prophetic insight and satisfaction to know that he will prevail. He may or may not have a certain contempt or pity for the prevailing ignorance and prejudice; for genius is justified of its children, yet truly great souls are magnanimous.

March 19, 1903

Could English be more easily writ! If people think well of me, that is no great matter, but it is well, for it shows that there is some intelligent opinion among those concerned; if they think ill of me, that too is no great matter, but it indicates a measure of narrowness, prejudice, mist and ignorance; it indicates that the rooms of the mind need enlightenment. The wonder is, taking the one and the other together, that judgments approximate the truth as nearly and justly as they do. There must be some saving grace somewhere. The awkward squad is not always awkward.

March 21, 1903

One may write confidently in a journal or familiar letters some things that may not seem fit, worth while or dignified otherwheres. How sweet are the unconfined recesses of the intimate!

March 26, 1903

How is it that men like Howells and Clemens, common of birth and breeding, if uncommon of mind, lose their gait as realists and so artificially romance about woman as an angel, in instances where their humor and sense of the ludicrous seem to be asleep; whereas they truly to the manner born, while chivalrous enough, treat her as a little lower than of the angelic choir, or as co-ordinate with man, or by and far, the lesser man? It comes from the greater difference between them, from knowledge or unfamiliarity in varying degree of distinctions and relative values, the importance of the essential and the reverse, the attractiveness of novelty and contrast, just as the countryman, unaccustomed to towns, is deeply and strangely impressed by them, while the urbanite brought up amongst all these things becomes comparatively indifferent, but nevertheless is appreciative, if less demonstrative, and has a better sense of measure and proportion in his regard for them. He is acquainted and knows and is content with an occasional ripe remark; the other is exclaiming ingenuously over the pleasing prospect, forgetful of the beautiful countryside he has left.

April 2, 1903

I believe in belief. Agnosticism, while touching me in part with its safety, is too negative and barren. Belief of some kind, and preferably of a positive kind, is necessary for the conduct and happiness of life. If there were none, one would have to be invented. Agnosticism is a nice balance, but limits too much man's powers. Yet equally I have little patience with any doctrine or theology that belittles man. The soul is the supremest fact or force in life, in time, and I claim for it, now and in undissolved continuity, the supremest place in eternity, in the universe, time and space being in either case but a calculated phase or section of the infinite. What is highest here and of a piece is highest there in continuance, not different, but the case escaped, entered into a freer, more magnificent existence.

April 13, 1903

Although the sun came out occasionally, yesterday was essentially a grey Easter. In the morning I attended St. Mark's with my sisters. We had Miss Marie VanVorst and Miss Estelle Ogden at dinner, and they helped to brighten the occasion. New York claimed me for the afternoon. I enjoyed the beginnings and fair show of Spring, according to nature and the code of fashion, but the pageant on the avenues was less brilliant than usual. I went up to One hundred and fifty-fifth Street and wandered over the substantial viaduct, dreaming as an idle school-boy against the rail of the Harlem bridge, following in view the course of the river with its scenic recesses, - and piqued to renewed interest by a university shell-boat that shot arrow-like beneath. Some waltz music drew me to the Manhattan Casino for a few moments, but I soon drifted home.

April 16, 1903

Do not say of this one or that one, He is vain, conceited, egotistic or presumptious. He may be that: he may be these in varying degree. Only it is better for you not to judge; is he not his own best judge? And may you not be one of these or all of these by so doing? In the broadest sense they do not exist, or play a necessary, though unrecognized, part. Accept the inevitableness of man. He may have only essential self-respect or proper personal measure. Inquire rather, if this one or that one speaks the truth or the great thing or simply in the grand manner, or achieves something. If he do that, the rest is of little concern: it may annoy the small but does not affect the equinimity or admiration of the magnanimous. Nor be deceived by the familiar aspect of men and things. The spirit of man, of the universe, is a continuing fire and lights up the present as it lighted the past. There may be a Christ, a Shakespeare, today as well as yesterday; indeed, the cumulative man-god of the latest time is greater than these, greater than the less rich, less complicated type of an anterior age.

April 24, 1903

Style is not simply the garment and ornament of thought or speech; it is something more essential than that. It is not only the antiseptic which preserves letters, but it is very much the spirit of the whole matter.

May 1, 1903

This morning I gave myself a half hour or so to looking over the newspaper reports of the dedicatory ceremonies of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. Louis. It is said that President Roosevelt and former President Cleveland received an almost equal ovation. In a Southernly inclined atmosphere the honors were naturally evened. And I think Mr. Cleveland's attitude on the Negro question is more statesmanlike than the President's too logical acceptance or recognition of the law. Logic is a good mental exercise, but it goes to pieces when applied to life. This gave him the pas* against the prestige of office. The President's speech, however, was excellent. In directness, acquaintance and easy style, it was superior; but Mr. C's slow paces showed some interesting aspects of the subject. Its very heaviness and somewhat old fashioned providential assumption of a "people favored of God" may have appealed to the multitude and been accounted learned. In a measure under some name of original or evolutionary force, it was well enough. Certainly the Louisiana Purchase contains some mystery that refuses to clear. Yet generally speaking, the multitude has not learned or had time to consider, like scholars, that the more thoroughly a large weighty matter is known and possessed, the more readily it is presented with lightness of touch and luminosity. Inferentially this may seem like praise too high, and of the President generally it is; for he is not a stylist, not a literary man in the technical sense, for all he writes and says. His utterance is too often lax, commonplace and prolix; it lacks mellowness, point and originality.
*

May 9, 1903

After luncheon Marie and I went to an exhibit of book bindings at the Grolier Club. There were various quaint and handsome covers, those of silver, repousse or pierced, prevailing. Finely wrought as these were, they had a somewhat cold and heavy look beside the soft, flexible skin. There is something in the touching of skin in book or otherwise that is comforting and lovable; it was made to caress. And yet in the few instances where the human tegument appeared, a little shudder struck me and Marie exclaimed, "How uncanny! It gives me a creepy feeling." Can there be cannibals among the Groliers? I asked and M. replied, "What more natural for growlers to be!" One of the main exhibits was a book literally of gold, leaves and cover. Its context evinced an Eastern king's vital faith in immortality; for in letters of gold he prays to his dead grandmother as if she were present, and confers on her some high title of rank.

May 15, 1903

This evening I trolleyed over the meadows to Newark and dined at the Auditorium on Orange Street as a guest of the Princeton Club of that city. The feast was given in honor of President Woodrow Wilson. He was enthusiastically received and made a talking speech. I thought, however, that he limited too much the scope of the university and the class of students desired there. A university should comport approximately with its name and be a microcosm of all types and aspects of learning and men.

I said to a '79 man jokingly, Is not your class too much in evidence? "Ah," said he, "this is our night; we have the President!" Yes, I replied, but '77 has the faculty and the trustees; it is a case of Congressional government and '77 is the Congress. Vide* Wilson on Congressional Government.
*

May 26, 1903

New York City is celebrating the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its founding. It is the case of a big municipality, bound in commercial pursuits, trying to express its life and spirit and failing lamentably. No voice of Pericles, no paean of Pindar, no spiritual visions, no great music or drama of the fate and change in human affairs! Only a few flags a-flying, some bunting on the face of the City-Hall, and some public school children re-composing for prizes the somewhat meager annals of the time. And yet it is a wonderful city, wonderful in mass, energy, quickness, life, commodity, and material progress, but seeming measurably dumb and desolate of soul.

Freedom and joy are widely spread and praised, but are less concrete than they seem. There is social unrest. The prevailing political parties are upheld, not by important animating principles, but by a system of rewards and punishments based solely on slave-like adherence or fealty, a system that is not a little better than blackmail but worse, for it corrupts a whole community.

If it only could possess itself and listen and know and act. If it only had the celestial utterance to tell its secret, its mystery and power! Then forsooth it would come to its own, to its harmony of spirit, and be truly great.

June 1, 1903

Rented the store at No.77 Newark Avenue to Seaman Behr for eleven months at $75 a month.

June 4, 1903

A yellow day, caused by smoke in the atmosphere from numerous forest fires and the sun's rays struggling through. The effect is peculiar. There has been no rain of any consequence for fifty days or more, an unprecedented period, and the crops are seriously damaged. Farmers grumble and parsons pray.

June 11, 1903

Some men are born delicate, but grow strong with the advancing years: these are the evolutionary men who know how to live and have a happy issue out of all their difficulties.

Others begin strong, but fail to understand and withstand the countervailing influences: they blight their promises, pitch into pits or scuttle their fair but unilluminated barques: these are the devolutionary men who find life a house of trouble and quickly degenerate to death.

June 18, 1903

You reporters may report me. Only preserve your individuality and distinction and mine, and don't let the machine rule them out. You are not small men because you imprint another, provided you do it greatly against the convention of journalism. Plato, the great, did that for Socrates, the great, and the Christ of the Greeks would not have been for us save for the gospels of Plato. Emerson modestly says of himself that he is a reporter and suburban man, and there is a sense in which this is true: but he was metropolitan in his message. Yes, you may note in love and illuminated language the doer and adventurer, whether in word or deed; you may say of this one, Ah! there is the cause, the solicitude of our subject and care. Consider that, the marvel and beauty of it: consider and wonder at the cause and solicitude of our subject and care!

June 26, 1903

To-day came word of my Aunt's death - my mother's sister Christiana Johnes. She died last night at Narragansett Pier. She was a dear old lady of eighty-seven years and wonderful vitality - alert and bright of mind to the end. Until within a fortnight she corresponded almost weekly with my sisters and her recent letters showed no failure, but kept their usual keen interest in life and its affairs. Her death brings to a close the generation of my father and mother.

July 4, 1903

The Fourth was a fine day with a tempered air; but the afternoon and evening found me less temperate, for I broke loose like a boy, giving my spirit free vent, and touched the infinite of instinctive joys. Why materialize by naming concrete details? Enough the flow of life, the supreme passion, the beauty fulfilled, the complete harmony!

August 4, 1903

Joseph Cardinal Sarto, Patriarch of Venice, was chosen to-day Pope by the College of Cardinals and assumed the name of Pius X. I recall distinctly the death of Pius IX., a punky Pope, the long pontificate of his successor Leo XIII., a man of fine attainments, whose recent demise was widely mourned, and now it is the tenth Pius. Not very original in nomenclature or in anything else, the Roman Church makes a certain effective appeal by its very stability and persistent sameness; yet one may note some slight yielding in spirit at least to meet modern evolutionary and democratic tendencies. It is also true that Protestantism and Catholicism have re-acted on one another to the benefit of both. Perhaps it is just as well not to interfere with these salutary and corrective influences, but to let them continue to work for the world's welfare, instead of attempting to bring them together in a stereotyped church unity. Spiritual like natural forces will have their way and work out their form of being for the best.

August 20, 1903

Ejected Joseph T. McCoobery, until recently, an agent of mine, from premises, No. 324 Grand Street. He proved unfaithful to his trust as a collector and also owed rent for the store or office he occupied.

August 27, 1903

Culture is completeness, and requires a certain nobility; for it is only attained by living a full rounded life, regardless of blame or praise.

August 31, 1903

Leased No. 307 Grand Street to Frank P. Schroder. Vide lease.

September 17, 1903

When I am with men I put up a hundred fences as guards and proceed cautiously, diplomatically; with women, it is different - with them, I have no fences or take them down gradually until I speak spontaneously to the soul. While I respect men's knowledge as more seasoned and mature, I trust them less, particularly in the intimacies of the spirit.

September 18, 1903

Ah, the sweet composure that comes from knowing what is known - all that can be known in the large, and perceiving clearly what is tobe - the universal types and conditions - what must necessarily be, howsoever qualified or varied in details and degree; this is an alpine-view, and with it one may lie down comfortably and die content.

September 19, 1903

Penetrating the province of pleasure, I dwelt for a little while with its queen and her fairies: it was an exhilerating experience. I felt its divine influence and the divine office and luxury of joy. Those who deny themselves this have certain compensations, however unlovely, but they miss so much, so much that makes up the full measure of man. Shall I say that they lose the half of the whole of life? I try* to make my own being as full and free and finished, that is, as developed and trained or cultured, as conditions permit. My own business affairs occupy as much of my time as I can well spare to the strenuous life - which is somewhat overdone - and still leave a sufficiency of energy and leisure for those graces or sweet amenities that seem necessary to make up a complete life, a beautiful and accomplished life. I am an individualist, and believe that if the units are highly wrought, the whole fabric of the State is pro tauto* perfected.

*The "try," I fear, is something of a lie; for I slip along too easily for that, and do not do much more than simply guide my barque along the stream or turn aside as occasion serves into havens of pleasantness and peace. (E. M.)
*

September 24, 1903

Rented store No. 77 Newark Avenue to L. H. Goldberg for a term of three years at the term rent of $2700. See lease.

September 30, 1903

M. J. Ford finished the new paving and repaving at Nos. 75 and 77 Newark Avenue. I had the old wooden platform torn away, the brick walls repaired, and the stone flags laid up to the building line, so as to make a broad and unobstructed sidewalk.

October 13, 1903

Settled insurance for a fire-loss recently at No. 104 Brunswick Street.

October 14, 1903

Joseph S. Pilling completed the building of new wood and coal sheds at Nos. 320-322 and 324-326 Grand Street.

October 15, 1903

Re-insured plate glass at No. 77 Newark Avenue, so as to include two new panes or lights recently set. The store doors were placed further back to extend the show-windows by the addition of two lights of glass.

October 19, 1903

Sinclair note for $500 due.
Note paid.

October 27, 1903

Issued summons against Michael D'Amato for $200, returnable Nov. 5.

November 2, 1903

Loaned Henry F. Torrey $250 on collateral.

November 18, 1903

Mr. Mills's book, "Through the Gates of Old Romance," put in an appearance to-day. It is prettily or quaintly dedicated "To the Four Manners* of Manners House on Old Barrow Street," the four being Marie, Helen, Blanche and Edwin.

Mr. Mills recently returned from a trip to Europe and kindly brought us souvenirs.

*It would be more correct to say the four Mannerses, though less euphonious. (E. M.)

November 21, 1903

This afternoon I watched from my windows the Paulus Hook procession as it moved down Mercer Street. Afterward I took Marie and Blanche to Elks' Hall on Henderson street, where the dedicatory exercises took place. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, of Virginia, a grandson of "Light Horse Harry", the hero of the Paulus Hook attack, August 19, 1779, was appropriately and significantly the principal speaker. His oration, so-styled, rambled somewhat afield in history and Lee biography, but perhaps the commemorated Revolutionary fight, though important in its way, did not loom sufficiently large for his rhetorical flourish and eulogy. He had some periods of elevation, which proceeded more from resonance than thought. The spirit of the matter, however, was fine, and we enjoyed very much seeing and hearing this chivalrous Southern gentleman and soldier. Indeed the whole celebration was fitting; but the small monument, a sort of cemetery shaft, at Washington and Grand Streets, it was designed to dedicate, is a poor symbol of the civic pride and patriotic devotion of a city of 225,000 people, and yet perhaps it takes their just measure; for the city corporation itself appropriates nothing but the privilege of the site and only about a score of citizens volunteered to contribute anything to defray the expenses of the occasion. Still it was a beginning, and the remnant saved the day. The state legislature made an appropriation for the monument, at the instance of the Daughters of the American Revolution, but it was ridiculously inadequate.

December 2, 1903

Torrey loan due --- Paid.

December 3, 1903

Puzzling

O for more lighting knowledge of the world,
To lessen the despair of final truth
And show the path of life brightly unfurl'd
From time's old age back to its primal youth!
What's said or heard but utterance stale? No joy,
No voice to cause surcease of this annoy?

'Tis but to wander on conventional ways,
To count the clock and crown the smaller men;
The really great are left without the bays,
For common is the crowd and rare is stellar ken,
And more the envelope is than is the soul,
The immanence and spirit of the whole.

Yet far and large the mass possess the right;
It lives the little, but it knows the great,
In short or longer run it has the sight
To see the vision and affix its fate.
The dumb beast moves, it seems, unlit by dreams,
Yet life converts to gold its sunken beams!

December 16, 1903

Blanche and I saw "Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall" at the New-York this afternoon. Bertha Galland made a fascinating Dorothy. Mr. William Lewers, a handsome young fellow, took the part of Sir John Manners becomingly, though not perhaps with sufficient dash and vitality. Queen Elizabeth, in all the stiffness of ruffs and brocade, put in an appearance in the person of May Robson, and the play occasionally struck an Elizabethan poetic note. The English ancestral life showed charmingly, but gave me pause at certain points and reflections favorable to our more equitable democracy.

December 19, 1903

The Williamsburg bridge was opened to-day to traffic. The event caused little stir in comparison with the opening of the first Brooklyn bridge by President Arthur in 1883. The new structure makes no advance upon the old in point of beauty: indeed, it is, distinctly ugly, but an important piece of engineering utility. Its relative interest is less; the city's magnitude greater.

December 24, 1903

Wagner's Parsifal was rendered at the Metropolitan Opera House, this Xmas Eve, and amid many misgivings scored a peculiar success.

January 11, 1904

I speak as an individualist. Life is a matter of degrees in the living of it. The more advanced the personality, the more fully the personality is developed the more greatly, the more distinctively, will it be lived and enjoyed. The man of the world has a freedom of experience and, if well balanced, a seasoned wisdom beyond that of the philosophers. Some of the precepts and advice proffered by professors misgive. They do not seem to be warranted by a rounded understanding of life. Accordingly I came to-day, with some surprise, yet entire approval, upon this by President Hyde of Bowdoin College:

"The man who goes on working without giving a considerable period to play is selling his great birthright of personality - for a mess of commercial pottage."

What uniform and dull machines, our business, our conventions, our systems of law and morality make of us!

1903. Cash Account. December.

2 Photos (from playbill?) with caption: Photo(s) by Gilbert & Bacon.

1. A SCENE IN "DOROTHY VERNON OF HADDON HALL." Miss Galland as Dorothy and William Lewers as Sir John Manners.

2. MISS GALLAND AS DOROTHY VERNON. With whom everybody falls in love.