1905 EDWIN MANNERS DIARY (MDP)

Journal of Edwin Manners 1905

January 2, 1905

This morning I renewed my acquaintance with Shakespeare, in a critical Edition recently purchased, and did so with increased admiration and delight.

In the afternoon, I went over to Manhattan. Will Barricklo passed me on Broadway with a New Year's greeting. I dined at the Café Boulevard and later saw a show - much show and little sense.

January 3, 1905

Distress proceedings begun against the chattels of Abraham Lewis this morning were brought to a conclusion later in the day by settlement.

January 5, 1905

Writing is an art and not an industry, but is it not becoming an industry and not an art?

Style is more readily felt than defined.

Style is the way words are put by the spirit, whether by unconscious grace or conscious recasting while in the mood giving an individual or distinguishing effect.

January 6, 1905

Garfunkel Brothers took the store, No. 75 Newark Avenue, on lease, for one year from May 1 next.

January 7, 1905

At Colonial Hall tonight I spent a few hours at a miscellaneous ball. I did not fail of a jolly time. Some pleasant impressions were brought away. I came home with the fragrance of all the dear girls I had danced with or hugged, or was it a composite I bore on my coat of all the odors of cologne, spelt with or without a capital C? Sua cuique voluptas*.

*

January 10, 1905

Leased No. 35 Hudson Street to John Johnson for a term of three years, beginning May 1, 1905, John S. Fallow signing as surety.

January 11, 1905

Fredrick Conley. - Lease with him executed, demising certain property on Grand Street.

January 14, 1905

Handed City Collector my cheque for 2,139-94/100, in payment of taxes, this being the last day for paying the 1904 taxes without interest. One bill still hangs on appeal. The county rates were paid in December last.

Also, mailed V. a cheque for $64.28.

January 17, 1905

The charter of the American Coal Company of Allegany, a Maryland concern, expired with the year 1904. The company reorganized with some advantages under a New Jersey Charter. Today I exchanged the stock held in the former for a like amount -two hundred shares- in its successor. The old corporation dies; long prosper the new!

January 18, 1905

My nephew Harold made a flying visit, coming from the automobile show in Madison Square Garden. As he talked consumedly of auto-cars, it might appropriately be called an auto-motor visit.

January 19, 1905

Leased the Harlingen store and adjoining dwelling-house property to Edward B. Bergen for another term of one year, beginning April first next.

January 20, 1905

At No. 75 Newark Avenue, I have just had the stove doors, recessed or set back and two additional plates of glass placed in the returns, thus extending the show windows and improving the appearance. The entrance is made to correspond with that at No.77, which was altered somewhat more than a year ago.

January 23, 1905

Last night I attended a Hungarian gypsy fete at the Grand Central Palace, and enjoyed for a while some of the local color of old Hungary.

January 25, 1905

A great snowstorm prevails, with high cutting winds. It is the greatest storm I have seen since the blizzard of 1888, and bids fair to exceed that. It is also extremely cold; the mercury must be hugging Caesar (zero), while the rest of us seek something warmer. Mr. Weymer Jay Mills, who is writing at the Public Library the concluding chapters of his novel, "Caroline of Courtlandt Street", lunched with us. He read parts of the story to us. It is more of a romance, something of a comedy, with a fine imaginative feeling for the past and something of the gift and haunting quality of genius.

January 26, 1905

A club night at the Princeton Club was billed for this evening- a sort of literary soiree, with Battell Loomis, Milton Royle, James Barnes, Booth Tarkington, McCready Sykes, Hopkinson Smith, and Thames F. Millard, as entertainers. It was so cold and transit so deranged by the blizzard, that I did not know whether the program would carry, whether it were best to venture out, so I concluded to stay at home, ensconced in a cozy library chair with book in hand.

January 28, 1905

The Merry Bachelors. - What a merry time I had to-night at their masquerade affair in the Grand Central Palace! It was a gairish rout. I could a bizarre tale unfold of its strange happenings - something Poesque, yet more humanly interesting; but of this avow or never.

January 30, 1905

The weather still continues cold. After a business morning, I went over to New York for a bargain afternoon and made several small purchases. The river is unusually full of ice, but the boats manage to nose their way through flows and into the docks.

February 2, 1905

Although the night was extremely cold, I went to the Charity Ball at the Waldorf Astoria. In the Myrtle or reception room I exchanged a few words with Gen. Frederick D. Grant, whose father, the great general, I had met in former years. The Astor Gallery and main ball-room were stately. There was no extra decoration save the word Charity - studded with electric lights. As the floors and boxes filled with men and women in full dress, with a sprinkling of the military, and music breathed over all, pulses were stirred as well as feet and a fairy enchantment felt. - The march was a very simple affair - the parade of committee men in black without women in color giving it a somber appearance - and the general dancing not so accomplished as it should be. Here and there I noticed bare shoulders heaving and plunging, instead of gliding through the waters with the settled grace of a frigate at full sail. How my old dancing-master, M. De Grauville, would have ceased playing and with a wave of his fiddle and bow shouted Mon Dieu!* and certain less polite expletives. As an assemblage, it was fine, but somewhat sedate for dance: there was little of the carnival spirit, which should possess in a society function like this, and it stood much in need of a master of the revels.

*

Note.- Mr. DeGrauville taught me as a boy how to dance, in the old Jersey City Lyceum, later Hasbrouck Institute, on lower Grand street. In after years I appreciated more fully the value of this worthy Frenchman, who gave me much amusement as a youth.

February 6, 1905

Yesterday I finished reading The Times the last installment of Disraeli's novel, left unfinished at his death and now published for the first time. It is an interesting fragment written with a seasoned maturity that makes me regret the more its incompleteness. It's subacid and humor are very taking. Young Falconet is presumed to represent Gladstone and while the satire is likely to respect to his pietistic commonplaceness, it ignores his great sense for justice, his humanitarianism. Yet it gives an impression of the Commoner I have always entertained, and was is not Carlyle who called him a wind-bag? The Schopeuhauer and Oriental philosophy lugged in as a kind of antidote to British complacency and philistinism, while suggestive, is neither convincing nor well informed. There is some attitudinizing and perhaps a note of vulgarity, but there is some art and something clever said on transpiring. I always liked Dizzy and go to his novels as I go to the play.

February 15, 1905

Gave Mr. C. Frederick Long, an architect of this city, a letter of introduction to my cousin, Assemblyman Frederick Manners, of Newark. Mr. L. has some legislation to propose anent the building of a new City Hospital. He was formerly appointed the official architect of the projected building; but politics intervened and no further action could be taken until certain legal questions were settled or enabling acts passed.

February 16, 1905

The only way for families is to stand by their kith and kin through thick and thin.

February 17, 1905

The problem, especially in America, is to keep one's distinctive personality unspoiled, to remain or continue unleveled, while not standing apart but mingling freely with the masses of the people and coming under the leveling and charitable influences of democracy.

Individuality and democracy is my shibboleth. The former adds interest, distinction, poetry to life; the latter is its golden rule.

February 18, 1905

Tenement House Board.

February 20, 1905

At dinner Sunday we had with us Miss Julia Lois Muirheid, Mr. Weymer Jay Mills and Mr. Prescott Wells, a relative of the Leland Stanfords of California.

February 21, 1905

The Rev. S.J. Rowland, a Princeton classmate, called this noon. A French ball and the girls I met there occupied my later evening and midnight. In the early evening I took my sisters to see some playlets in St. Mark's Parish Hall: they were tamely enacted, as such things are apt to be; but the fond parents and friends of the participants were delighted.

February 23, 1905

Perhaps an ideal of life, other things being considered, is the serious man who can sport, or the sporting man who can devote himself to some serious pursuit. That shows that the core is sound, and for the rest two halves make a whole. And sport may be the solace of sorrow, As when sorrow clips the wings of hope.

February 24, 1905

Whilst I prefer to most things the consolation and pleasure of books, I am forced to curtail my religion and anodynes of a literary kind, lest over indulgence therein impair further my already impaired eyesight. And by this care, too intermittent, my eyes have grown somewhat stronger, my vision brighter than it was a few years back.

February 28, 1905

A fire beginning about 10:30 o'clock last night and continuing until early this morning almost totally destroyed the buildings at Nos. 75 and 77 Newark avenue. They were insured for $8000. Later investigation shows that No.75 was not so badly damaged as was supposed and much good material left in No. 77. What a forlorn aspect a fire puts on the face of things!

March 6, 1905

This is my fiftieth birthday, and I feel as bright and happy as the day is golden and glorious. This is a privileged occasion. One may be as egotistical on his birthday as suits his mood and humor without the charge of it, even though it be such a dreadful thing on all the other days of the year - to some good people. It is my day. I am just scant of six feet in height, weigh one hundred and seventy- three pounds with my togs on, and can dance like a son of Terpsichore. I can do a few other things and think a few thoughts; but I am not insistent just now on the strenuous and confining or on scientific automatics. I am joyously at liberty. I recognize the persistent force of life unabated and desire to multiply types as carriers of the star of being. But, thank Heaven, I can kick over the traces and live the unbridled extreme without madness or ruin, but with renewed strength and illumination. I recognize law and controlling energies, but we know equally well that man is exceptionally free and sacred in his individuality and idiosyncrasy. I would express essential poetry. I dream and pierce the shadows. I love passionately; I resent or relent momently and smile in tears. I aspire and artise the sparks of my spirit. I fly afar over the mountains and wing my own instinctive way. I am expanding with fine religious exaltation to the four corners of the universe. I am feeling with an access of freedom and culminating years the sheer top and uplift of life. Dear God, this it is to live, to be free!

March 10, 1905

The Japanese under Field Marshal Oyama captured Muken about ten o'clock this morning. The Russian forces were commanded by General Keuropodkin. The battle, which has raged for several days and still continues, is among the most memorable of history. The taking of Port Arthur the beginning of the year, after a long siege and desperate storming of its heights, was perhaps a still more striking feat at arms. I like to lug in a big historical event here and there to set my bearings in time and circumstance.

March 13, 1905

Attended an Irish ball at the Madison Square Garden. Some of the Irish girls have marked grace and womanly witchery. I don't like their jigs, which are clumsy and jerky, but when they waltz well, they do so divinely.

March 18, 1905

Bijou Theatre.

March 21, 1905

University Club dinner. The local University Club held its annual banquet to-night at the Jersey City clubhouse. I hobnobbed a moment with former Judge Gilbert Collins and Mr. R. J. Wortendyke and sat opposite Mr. Will Barricklo and Mr. Charles C. Black, the Democratic candidate for Governor last fall. The speakers at the board were distinguished more by adventitious prestige than as good speakers. Most of them were hoarse. President C. C. Wilson as president dilettanteed somewhat stiffly and with an occasional far-fetched pleasantry; Consul General Sadazuchi Uchida, representing the prevailing factor in the Russo-Japanese struggle, was given an ovation, but spoke with some difficulty, yet impressively; Admiral Joseph B. Coghlan, as participant in the Manila Bay fight and naval expert; was listened to attentively in his bluff but interesting remarks about naval affairs, and General Horatio C. King concluded the toasts with a talk on some politics - economic questions. He was in poor voice and little eloquent, but had some ease. Yet, I fancy, speaking is not keeping up. There are a few agreeable talkers - John Hay has literary distinction, but eloquence is discounted.

March 24, 1905

Academy of Music.

March 25, 1905

Bijou Theatre.

March 26, 1905

On Sunday, March 26, 1876, my mother died. Alas, twenty-nine years ago today! O mother, my sweet mother, you are with me still: your presence is perennial. I see you now distinctly as of old. What shall I say? I know no face so fair, so dear in spirit flowers. You were beautiful, if ever woman were beautiful, beautiful in soul as well as in bodily expression - a noble investiture: and when I say beautiful, I mean everything best material and spiritual, for beauty is the bright consummate flower of all else. Be with me still, kind mother, be with me ever as you were! O thy sweet countenance be changeless as thy sweeter soul!

March 30, 1905

Mrs. Ellen Howard Welch, coz Nellie, was with us at luncheon, on her way to Ipswich, Mass., where she has a cottage by the sea.

April 1, 1905

Saw Jeffries, the pugilist, at present the heavyweight champion, play in "Davy Crockett" at the Bijou. He resembled a bear, impressive by reason of mass and strength, but little else. He was not much of an actor and drawled his lines or sentences monotonously. Yet a feeling of heroism erected itself, that here was a man who had challenged the world, who was not afraid to meet any man in it with nature's weapons, and likely to overcome him as he had hitherto overcome his adversaries. The achievements of genius appeal to me most: his appeal however, was natural. He represented individual force, akin to that of armies and navies, which, when rightly directed, make nations glorious.

April 5, 1905

It was a dull rainy evening. After running over the newspapers and dipping into a few books, I went to the Academy of Music.

April 7, 1905

At the Bijou.

April 10, 1905

There are actions and reactions, but to those who believe that through them all there is still a progression toward the ideal or a more perfect state, the great man of any time or more exactly the one who is accepted widely by or fulfils the requirements of his time must necessarily have its limitations and measurably reveal them. Take President Roosevelt, a remarkable man. So far as he represents the majority of the people and the present phase of politics, along with their virtues, he has the temporary defects of the one and passes with the passing of the other. This may seem unfair to the real man, and probably is; he has his reserves; his essential make-up transcends place and utterance; and yet judging by his speeches and writings - an intimate test, he shows no disposition to previse or discount time beyond ordinary precaution and thought, but rests in didactics and homilies. It is only the prophetic great man who can expect to fill the conditions of the future.

Constitutions and statesmen are slowly superseded. Works of custom and knowledge, even the greatest, give way to later light and discovery. Art and literature of a supreme kind last best, and in human interest and essential spirit defy fate and seem to be deathless; yet the form, the setting and fashion thereof change - their image and range are variant. Test this by an extreme. Shakespeare, perhaps the most universal genius of enduring touch, with all his splendid interpretation and poetry, is felt to be feudal and Elizabethan. A wider and finer appeal than his can now be made, even by lesser men.

April 13, 1905

Bijou.

April 14, 1905

Academy of Music.

April 17, 1905

St. Patrick's day should be the limit: yet here we have a month later blustering March winds and snow squalls, and I look out of my window to see if the Hibernians are not abroad.

Mrs. Kennard Ross, of Pittston, Pa., a college-mate of Marie's called. Her daughter, Miss Mariana Falls Ross, came with her.

April 18, 1905

Sent a contribution to the Firemen's Relief or Pension Fund.

April 19, 1905

Took Blanche to see "Quincy Adams Sawyer", a slight but natural New England play, naturally presented - a relief after so much of the risqué, melodramatic and spectacular.

In the evening I attended a Lenten service at St. Mark's, which was impressive. The Rev. Harvey Officer, of Princeton, preached. His manner was forceful and somewhat dramatic.

April 21, 1905

Hippodrome. - The largest and costliest playhouse in the whole unbounded universe, or something of that sort, is what the Hippodrome is, and yet to-night I had to resort to a speculator to get a seat. It was in the front balcony and a good view-point for the spectacle presented. Nevertheless I felt somehow cramped in the big house - whether my legs were too long or the stout man next to me too short, I longed for more freedom in a cosier theatre. Yet here I was a Roman in the Circus Maximus, and as legion after legion trooped upon the great stage in varied costumes and colors, with beautiful color schemes, the scenic effects were magnificent - picture upon picture, culminating in a grand symphony. There succeeded a real circus or two of them, with wonderful horsemanship, gymnastics, acrobatics and elephants galore - indeed, the elephant, and not the horse as its name implies, is the symbol of this elephantine place. The chief clown, Marceline, was smooth and captivating. Presto, change! in a thrice the stage became a rippling lake, with cavalry-men charging in the distance, and what with the firing of arms, the strenuous struggle, the plunging of horses and their riders into the lake, the excitement was great, even in the excitement line: small boys jumped up, children cried, and I broke away to the seclusion of the night.

April 22, 1905

Bijou.

April 24, 1905

Sunday was a bright Easter.
I went to St. Mark's in the morning.
Mrs. McGee and Miss Dorothy McGee made an afternoon call.
The evening I spent in New York - variously.

April 26, 1905

Yesterday I filed my application, together with plans and specifications, for a building permit, to make alterations and repairs at Nos. 75 and 77 Newark avenue. Building Inspector Saul, this afternoon, in pursuance of a resolution of the Board of Alderman, denied the application and refused to issue a permit, but referred the matter to Aldermen for action. The resolution forbade the improvement of frame building on lower Newark avenue. This certainly is arbitrary - and infringement of one's property rights.

April 27, 1905

At the Academy this evening, Marie and I enjoyed "The Smart Set", a company of colored players, in "Southern Enchantment", an extravaganza. The leading man Dudley was excellent ' a coal black diamond. Indeed, the men generally stuck to their colors; but with the women it was different, they made-up in various shades approximating white and some of them were prettily made-up. The show was not very select - there was a sultry drill; yet for a jolly, rollicking piece of fun, with musical voices and sweet labials of the Southland, it passed muster.

(Article glued in with the following handwritten: Journal - April 27, 1905)

BUILDING PERMIT BEING HELD UP

Manners Estate Wants to Repair Burned Building on Newark Avenue.

The application of the Edwin Manners estate for a permit to repair the old frame buildings at 75 and 77 Newark Avenue, which were badly damaged by a fire recently, has been held up and the matter will come up for action at the next meeting of the Board of Aldermen.

The estate desires to spend $3,500 in repairing the buildings, but the permit is being held up under authority of the resolution adopted by the Board of Aldermen Feb. 16, 1900, which stipulates that no permits for alterations or additions to frame buildings on Newark Avenue between Warren and Coles streets shall be granted. The application has been referred to the Alderman.

May 4, 1905

Took Blanche to the Academy to see Kellan and Valadon in an evening of magical and sleight-of-hand parts. The house was crowded. If one did not suspect or feel certain of some deception or illusion in it all, the visibly apparent would be nothing short of a series of miracles, especially the mind power, levitation and transference of the Princess Karnac. Some of the tricks were old, but all were performed with surpassing ease and skill.

May 9, 1905

At the Bijou with Blanche.

May 11, 1905

To-night I took Sissy B. to see "Sis Hopkins" at the Academy. "Sis" was provokingly droll. It was altogether a natural bit of country manners and cleverness.

May 12, 1905

Although never a very devoted member of the Palma Club, I felt some compunction at the passing of what was once the leading social organization of the town. I was in at its birth some twenty odd years ago and to-night I was virtually in at its death, when a proposition was adopted to sell its properties to the Knights of Columbus, who had made overtures for the same.

May 13, 1905

At a Barn Dance in Manhattan - not an exclusive or swell affair, but on that account the joy of being less confined, I abandoned myself to the spirit of the occasion. I danced with the cats and the kittens, the sheep and the lambs, and came away feeling like a young buck. How exhilarating was the Sport! What a tonic it is to be in touch with the people!

May 15, 1905

Helen is at the farm and Marie has a severe cold, so I took Blanche again to the theatre - the Bijou. The play was novel, Naunette Comstock taking the part of Virginia Carvel in an attractive charming way. The costumes of the early sixties, but a generation ago, seemed almost ludicrously quaint and old fashioned, yet I remember them.

May 17, 1905

Marie went to Morristown to visit an old college friend.

May 18, 1905

Academy.

May 25, 1905

Went to Newark on business connected with the State Tenement House Board.

May 29, 1905

Coney Island. - I guided B. through all this vanity fair of moonshine and dreamland. Hesitant at first she caught the fun habit of the place and became enthusiastic or demoralized, seeing this and doing that with the grace of a young girl. Only in the Igomote village, she showed herself a real grown-up. She did not blush, but took the little naked savages just as though they had clothes on. It was all so natural, you know! We became attached to one bronze child. The attraction seemed to be mutual, for it followed us around and out to the exit, where we shook hands and left a piece of silver in its palm. Then it ran with joy.

June 1, 1905

The Bijou closes its season this week with "Way Down East". Marie accompanied me to-night.

June 6, 1905

Hired a couple to work on the farm; they go out to-morrow - three p. m. train.

June 7, 1905

Caught in a shower and driven to cover, I had an experience, ay, a romantic adventure similar to that of Pious Aeneas and Queen Dido, excepting that my queen was comely with a radiant complexion, which the swarthy Dido did not have. I had known her some years back as a fascinating little girl. In my surprise I said, "This certainly is a revelation", for it was not exactly the place where ladies forgather, and she as quickly replied, "Two revelations". And indeed we were one or two in more senses than one. We went later to the Manhattan Casino, and after dancing until long after midnight, dined and parted warmly for our respective homes.

June 12, 1905

Sunday I attended St. Mark's with Helen. The Church, in Matthew Arnold's sense as a school of goodness and in my sense as a place of uplift and revery appeals to me with a kind beautiful fitness. It harmonizes with my spirit: it has a strong hold on me, yet leaves me uncompromized and free. Otherwise it makes me feel uncomfortable as being confined and compromised, with a sense too of the untruth and insincerity of its hard and fast standards and the apparent duplicity of my attitude toward them. I can not be a hypocrite. Fortunately I am of a liberal and symbolic church. I love truth, truth beautifully presented. And there should be a poetry of action, as well as that word and feeling.

June 22, 1905

Miss Estelle Ogden took supper with us yesterday and also this evening. Miss O. has travelled much and converses agreeably. She has a good voice; she has a pretty foot and hand, but otherwise, n'importe*.

*

June 23, 1905

There is a poetic, a psychic quality about a butterfly, especially a golden butterfly, that should arrest attention, if not inspire the honeyed muse, and make even materialistic turtles crane their necks. It would serve an excellent purpose, if some one should strike right through our banter and reserve of sentiment and hold aloft this symbol of spiritual beauty.

July 4, 1905

It was a fine Fourth, both in weather and comparative quiet, though there was noise enough to spare. I did some accounts and read in Matthew Arnold, in whom I find some rest and hold. After luncheon I trolleyed to Paterson, getting out at the City Hall, a fairish building before which stands Vice-President Hobart's statue. On my return I stopped at an Amusement park called Fairyland, a sort of lunet of Luna Park. While I was in a car on one of those crazy railways, being jumped and bumped and jerked about, the crown of my knox hat got torn off. Car fare, five cents; hat, five dollars: cost of five minutes' fun, five dollars and five cents. The top of my hat I managed to fasten on in a fashion; but came away feeling uncomfortable, perhaps a little sheepish and crest-fallen.

July 8, 1905

Mailed V. a cheque for $485 28/100, with a summary statement of accounts.

July 15, 1905

Paid the 1905 water rates. Had the charges against the Newark avenue property cancelled and another bill reduced. These are the annual rates: those for measured water are payable quarterly.

July 17, 1905

Yesterday afternoon I tripped it up to Fort George, prominent in scenic surroundings that seems to support and enhance this rocky point and natural bastion. They have a Paradise Park up there - naturally up there. I tripped the light fantastic in turn on three of their rather shabby pavilions - a German girl clinging to me closer than the weather would permit. Talk about Americans being practical, prosaic. We are the most interesting creatures on earth and should be in Heaven. We constantly break with business and humdrum, and dissolve the actual into the ideal, however crude at times and in spots the attempts may be. What with Luna Park, Dreamland, Steeple Chase, Electric, Fairyland and Paradise Park - lo, the names of them! we are schemers and dreamers and poets from Startown, and have the poet's faculty of realizing Litania's realm.

July 20, 1905

Trapsed around the Manhattan Employment bureaus for farm hands, but without satisfactory results: left an order at one office for a man and wife. The trouble of help is a help from trouble.

July 24, 1905

Sunday afternoon I took the pokey Long Island railway down to Seaside - Rockaway Beach. I could hardly bring my self to believe that such a poorly served road was under the P. R. R. management. The crowd was not attractive and I ventured little. I got back to town about ten o'clock and perched for a while on the roof of the Hotel Astor, where I enjoyed some quiet music and a commanding urban view, impressed by the night. After a few high balls, I felt like a commander with the subjected city at my feet!

July 25, 1905

To night the asinine majority of the Board of Alderman refused to grant me a permit to repair the Newark avenue property recently injured or damaged by fire. They were afraid to have the matter come up in open meeting for discussion, and made the refusal a caucus measure. I could still resort to law and I believe with success, but it would be dilatory, expensive, and in the meantime a loss of time and rent. On account of family convenience and exigency the permit to repair was desired, but otherwise and eventually it is best to tear down the old buildings and replace them with substantial structures.

July 27, 1905

(Article glued in with Manners corrections)
NO REPAIRS FOR OLD NEWARK AVE. STRUCTURES

The Board of Aldermen has refused to grant a permit to Edwin Manners to repair the old three-story frame houses at 75-77 Newark Avenue. The Aldermen some time ago took a stand against the perpetuation of the old wooden buildings on lower Newark Avenue.

July 28, 1905

After a business trip to Newark, on my return I transferred at Westside Avenue to a southbound car and went down to Bergen Point, crossing the kills to Port Richmond, where I boarded a car for Midland Beach. Seldom have I been so struck with the hilly and bowery beauty of Staten Island. It seemed to be sporting in natural grace and luxuriance, with delightful and inviting vistas at every turn. I too was in tune with it all, a child and sport of nature, and realized with compelling vividness that I was only a part, although perhaps a more highly organized part, of these lovely surroundings and made possible only by them and the same forces and conditions that produced them. It was a dull evening at the Beach, but as I came away I failed not of a fitting adventure, that culminated on a gently sloping hillside overlooking the beautiful bay. O happy memoried spot! O pearl of love set in this divine ring encircled by the shimmering sea! I picture the soft green spread of the cradled nook, shadowed and rangedly an avenue of stately trees and backrun by a wandering stone wall that hid and lost itself in the thick undergrowth or rich leafage of the clinging vines. But the romance of it, the sweet delicious romance of it - that is too warm and sacred for any but the loving hearts concerned.

July 31, 1905

That wave and motion of the blood and spirit, that sweet confluence of the feelings in abandon to the melting mood, yet withal defiant, setting as naught the so-called moral concepts, and pursuing with singleness of aim and strongly the course of nature to its fountain-head of being - that is love, that is the central purpose and beauty of living. All else is subsidiary. And this is a spiritual as well as a physical conception. In love body and spirit are in unison at their best. Indeed they are never separable in any act of life, for their union is life. I express the essentials. Morality, in a high sense, is not in conflict, but harmonious, although it is apparently disregarded: it may be obviously in conflict as it is artificially and conventionally imposed. True morality is a governor, a regulator, of the individual, and may not always be that of the books.

August 10, 1905

Sometimes I note, amongst married men and women, in my conversations with them, a certain lack of refinement, a betrayal of marital secrets, of what nature is reticent of, a carelessness, a too obvious coarseness, a less perfect sense of the proprieties than evidenced in maid and bachelor, that would almost seem to indicate that a marriage certificate was a license for licentiousness. One of the nastiest talkers I ever heard was a childless benedict! That fact, I have no doubt, had for him its sinister effect and relation. Yet what a conspiracy of the conventions there is against unconventional liberties! And yet I maintain and hold quite confidently that temperate sexual intercourse, instead of being in any wise degrading, is ennobling and religious - a divine command; it is an act of spiritual elevation. I believe verily that sexual exercise is the only true way to know one's soul and come by a true knowledge of one's place in the economy and harmony of existence. It is the primal law of our being that explains everything.

August 17, 1905

Late this evening I went up to the Manhattan Casino. The William Astor Chanler association was holding its summer night festival and outing there. Mr. C. has explored a little in Africa: he is now exploring darkest Tammany. I noticed him, a manly young fellow, surrounded by some politicians, and while apparently a good mixer, he betrayed a subconscious pant as if the element was not just to his taste. So have I felt and bravely overcome. So I permitted the bands, that played unusually sweet music, to set me whirling almost any petticoated reveler that came to hand in the mazy dance. So I lived awhile, while others paused.

August 18, 1905

To-night Den and I withstood a thriller at the Bijou.

August 19, 1905

I had this brief critical comment or appreciation in to-day's Times:

Henry James.

New York Times Saturday Review of Books:

Recently I have been reading some excellent things by Henry James and found no insuperable difficulties in the way of his expression, but charm in its fineness and ingenuity. He is a delightful artificer of words. Although his style is not exactly rich and weighty, it scintillates with a kind of white light, showing by its characteristic involution or qualifying phrase the very nuances of a nimble intellect. It is pleasing, alert, brilliant, but lacks or selectly avoids the familiarity of humor. His example is particularly important as teaching, it would seem, that literature is essentially a fine art, and not an industry.

Perhaps he might be compared in prose with Swinburne in prosody. They both unravel and weave with splendid art and dexterity the skein of language into patterns of a piece complex but beautiful. The fabric is light, spun to a thinness, yet it shimmers with silver, if not always with golden spangles. It is an advance on our Doric speech.

Those who have a taste for the choice and distinctive in writing, with an occasional subtilty to test their own equipment, will be amply rewarded for the stress of attention, appreciably good, that they may sometimes experience in reading Henry James.

E. M.

Jersey City, Aug. 15, 1905

August 23, 1905

This afternoon Marie and Julie Muirheid took a sail with me down the bay, and I piloted them through the parks and midways of Coney Island. We dined in a balcony-box overlooking Luna Park at lighting up time, and were delighted with the brilliant ensemble. Julie and I rode on the elephant Judy. We took a trip to the moon, passed in a gondola through the canals of Venice, watched the races in the hippodrome, had silhouettes cut and visited the attractive ball-rooms, but my lady demurred or was too proper to dance in such public places. We did a few stunts, as the phrase or slang is, and started back on a late boat. Fine indeed were the receding views of the artistic while towers gemmed in lace-work of light. They stood up boldly from the waters for some time, and then became blurred and blotted out.

August 24, 1905

At the theatre again to-night with Den. The play was less thrilling than the last, but more natural, better rendered, and conveyed a good lesson.

August 28, 1905

Yesterday afternoon was autumn-like. The atmosphere glittered with a rich golden light. I went up to the Bronx and explored its precincts. The dark Fordham buildings frowned somberly on a beautiful green that appeared as fresh and glaucous, even at this late season, as an incoming freshman class. I paused a while at the Columbia Oval to see a cricket match, and summoned up recollections, book memories, of English school and university. The pure air, the woodsy smells, the zest of the grass, the pleasant landscapes, all put me in a happy glow, and I walked along with an easy but commanding gait, feeling a pleasure in the exercise of power, the joy of a young man to run a race.

I came down Jerome Avenue by trolley to the Harlem river, where a concourse of people listened to a music-band and witnessed a game of base-ball. The bridges and viaducts were crowded with overhanging heads. In a restaurant thereabouts I had two soft boiled eggs and a cup of black coffee, and felt like a fighting cock. I strolled into the casino near by for a short diversion and then penetrated deeper into Manhattan.

By the way I noticed two crude prints, highly colored, in a show-window, one of a man toying with a woman on a couch; the companion-piece showed a black devil escorting the same man to a warmer bed; indeed, there were flames and fiery reds that looked positively cruel. My attention was arrested. Some years ago I had seen a similar set of prints in a store in Jersey City. At the time I said to an intent laborer standing by, "That is all nonsense: do you believe it?" And he rejoined with some conviction, "I really think I do believe." A little startled at this and by some thing in his aspect and tone of voice, I still gave weight to the words of that plain man. Surely, thought I, I may be mad, divinely so, I hope, but this man speaks as mortals speak and wisely. Yet certes who knows? The pictured symbol has its truth: it gives a warning note, a note of eternal appeal. The Erinyes still pursue those who pursue evil, so I reflectively pursued the streets into the deepening brooding night, feeling its mystery and beauty, that touched every figure, everything seen, with subtle poetic significance. What an endless charm the city has at night! How sensuous and suggestive it is! What inviting stories and dreams lurk in its shadows! And I had my tales to tell and dreams too.

And then I crossed the majestic river to my dear old Barrow street home.

September 4, 1905

Mrs. Flavel McGee (Julia Randolph) came to us Friday evening and remained until yesterday. Her son Bennington returned from Europe Sunday morning. They go to Greenwood Lake to-day. Widow McGee has a confiding womanly temperament and a quaint personality. She has a measured, dignified manner, and no little charm. I do not mean to imply any marked intellectuality, even if that were not beside the mark, but in her presence I could not help but feel, with all my love of youth, how much more finished, experienced, wide-eyed, storied, deep, rich, mellow and wise one becomes with advancing years.

September 6, 1905

Yesterday at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the representatives or plenipotentiaries of the Czar and Mikado executed the treaty of peace that put a period to the severe Russo-Japanese war. In theory at least, it would seem, that similar terms and conditions could have been reached in mutual convention prior to the commencement of hostilities and to forestall the same; but practically or in actual experience, it would likewise seem, that a certain amount of strife and sacrifice must precede the attainment of desired ends, however imperfect. The results in this case are but tentative and time-serving. With all the exchange of conventional courtesies, how far we still are from the true amity of nations and the real brotherhood of man. Yet we are moving toward that shining goal.

Furthermore, it would seem, for the secrets of diplomacy are well guarded, that some strong influence or pressure from the greater outside governments was brought to bear upon the signatory nations or parties to the conference, constraining them, at some hazard and compromise, to conclude the treaty of peace. Whilst it some what nipped the fruits of a comparative victory, yet one by no means final, the motive of the constraining powers was altogether laudatory and their achievement a brilliant fait accompli in international regard.

September 7, 1905

In a bucolic mood this afternoon I visited the Richmond Fair, at Dougan Hills. That word Dougan has a strong echoing sound well suited to its hills and dales. I was like a colt let out to pasture and ran over the grounds scenting the air. I brought up at the race track, where I stood amazed at some of my equine friends performing in such motley antics on the course. This, I mused, is not my horse-world, although I may get there if I keep on. Then I became more human and wandered amongst pigs and hens, and dogs and cattle, rustics and politicians. I noted them all and they were all of the show. It reminded me, in lesser degree, of the old Waverly Fair some years back, probably the best agricultural exhibition at the time held anywhere in the Country, certainly the most popular. I heard Blaine make a good speech there once.

September 13, 1905

My sister Virginia was here most of the afternoon. We talked chiefly over family matters.

Mrs. McGee and her daughter Dorothy, a sweet pretty girl, called in the evening. Miss Dorothy is about to go to a ((shool)) at Ossining for some special courses, and I told her something of the place and of my old ((shool)) or cadet days at the Mount Pleasant Academy there. It is a town of cadets, and I fancy she will capture some silver or brass buttons!

September 14, 1905

After one or two attempts at writing my will which I put by, as most men with much hold on life are apt to do, I brought myself this afternoon bolt upright to the task and forced my pen through three or four pages of testamentary disposition and rounded it off per formam*. I stuck in my pet butterfly, not so much as a hopeful light flickering amid the glooms of testamentary and mortal remains, but as a symbol of spiritual beauty: yet it did cast on the paper darkly begun a poetic gleam that was oddly reassuring and delightful.

I made only a few bequests and left the bulk of the property to my family. We have had a few tiffs and differences, but withal blood counts, and I do not deem it particularly generous to give away what I shall have no longer any use for, although, to be sure, I could have consumed it, wisely or not, in my sublunary lifetime. It is always well to keep a certain residuum of money as well as strength: it assures more happiness than its spending would and has its own satisfaction.

But the spirit of the present occasion was the spirit of Goethe's line -

"Wait only, soon thou too shalt rest!"

September 16, 1905

This morning I executed my last will and testament in the Fuller Building, Messrs. Rryan and Runyon, attorneys, being the witnesses, and placed it in my safe deposit box.

September 18, 1905

It was overcast, yesterday morning, but Marie and I were engaged to go to Virginia's, and so we trooped down to Perth Amboy. After dinner, we took an automobile ride in the Beekmans' Cadillac car. It is a fine traveler. We went like the wind over good roads through Metuchen to Plainfield, where at the junction of two avenues well lined with trees, we turned about and retraced the distance in still quicker time. Harold drove the machine and handled it with splendid skill, letting it out by degrees on straight and clear courses until it fairly flew and caused not a few sensational thrills. The evening came on with rain and Marie thought best to remain overnight, but I went back to town.

September 28, 1905

A diary can only be selective and partial, as indeed, in the last analysis, is even the most exhaustive biography or autobiography. And I may say much is gained thereby. I could pile up a volume on the record of a day, but its tedium might be less arresting and expressive than an epigram. Try the detailed and excursive, and find an experience. We sometimes speak of the inadequacy of language, and in a final sense it has its shortcomings. But now and here, by and large, there is virtue in limited expression, the applied secret of the poets. Muse on the sign-marks of thought. Do not pick beauty to pieces: enjoy its aspect and impressions. Artistic is the reticent and more ideally true than the jejune enumeration to the last penny. So is the laconic, the sensuous form and grace, the spirit word, the vital or pregnant phrase, the dexter or sinister suggestion, the bright gemmed picture, or the somber Delphic glancing furtively into the shadows. 'Tis the fusing and creative power of the imagination, whose wonder eyes discover and whose fingers fashion deftly, musically, the particular or essential crystals from the general mass. These jewels of many facets are symbols and hold more of light and truth and reflect it more finely and interpret life more subtly than the elaborated treatises of the schools.

October 3, 1905

The Academy of Music opened its season the end of August with "Hearts of Gold", a smooth Southern piece, and I have seen several of its offerings since, but little to edification. Last week, however, "Pretty Peggy" (Peg Woffington) was prettily enacted and staged. The Black Crook filled the Bijou: it was a lurid spectacle, but much modified from its old production, and in my case provocative of German imaginings.

October 5, 1905

Executed building contract with Donnelly and Phelan, together with plans and specifications, for the masonry in the construction of the new brick buildings at Nos. 75 and 77 Newark Avenue, and had the necessary papers put on file.

Yesterday and to-day notices were served on Ex. Mayor Hoos, Michael Doyle and William Kelly, adjacent owners, warning them to protect their respective property and interests during spiling and construction.

October 6, 1905

Signed with Charles K. Long the usual papers for carpentry on the proposed Newark avenue buildings and directed them filed.

Also, signed application papers to Building Inspector Saul for the required permit to build.

October 9, 1905

Executed Contracts with E. H. Moore and Brother for the plumbing and gas fitting and with Andrew Lemon for the painting, at Nos. 75 and 77 Newark Avenue.

The building permit to erect these buildings was duly issued and the fee therefor paid.

The contracts thus far amount to something over $12,000, with several extras staring me in the face, and the architects charge to top it off.

October 12, 1905

We think in language and what a labyrinth it is! How various and haunting are its ways! Do not imagine (but if you have imagination, I am sure you will not,) that words have a certain precise determined fixity of use and meaning. So the pedagogues and dictionary-makers apparently would lead you to believe; but even they hedge and give synonyms and allow several laxities, and perhaps this implication is unfair to them, misinterprets them, though it be incident to their hard vocation. For there is an identity of body, but not of the set pawn. Rather is it of a creature with soul, of individual distinction, but of infinite expression. For truly words and language live, move, breathe, and change in color and countenance. And when you see a familiar word strangely used, do not criticize or condemn, but appreciate. Ask if the author has not made a charming use of it, given it a distinctive shade or meaning. And from this you may go on to a feeling for the golden utterance, the magic light of word and phrase. For this indeed is the sweet personality and spirit of live writing, while else wise or other is only its anatomy, its mechanism and dross. Purity and elegance of language should be studied, yet the too exacting precisionist provokes me to a sense that he lacks largeness of view and sympathy. I can not agree with him in his forthrightness, which pertains of right to science, but seldom is seen where prevail the idioms and graces of speech.

October 19, 1905

Communicated with Hudspeth and Carey, Attorneys for Mrs. Flora, in regard to alleged encroachments on their clients land.

October 24, 1905

Received Lloyd & Co.'s cheque for $5,950 00/100 in payment of 140 shares of American Coal Company's stock, sold at 170.

Lyric Hall.

October 25, 1905

Bijou. - At the theatre to-night as I gazed through my opera-glasses, a dainty Parisian pair by the way, I could not help but feel that I was taking an undue advantage, that I was discovering the penetralia of persons and intruding upon the sacredness of faces; so I put the glasses by and contented myself with the soft veil and illusion of near-sightedness.

October 28, 1905

Gave my consent to the Hudson Street Railway Company to run trolley-cars on Barrow street, provided no poles are placed before or in front of my house. I did this more on account of the resulting good to property and the city in general, that will come with more transit facilities and the better service of all induced by competition, than for any direct advantage, which is doubtful at present, but certain in futura*.

*

October 30, 1905

Westminster Hall.

November 2, 1905

Consented to the Hudson Street Railway Company's operating lines on Railroad Avenue, it being understood that the railroad embankment between Warren and Henderson streets is tobe removed. The railroad company's tracks are tobe carried on an elevated structure, while the street railway runs be neath on the surface. This will benefit property, especially at this point.

November 3, 1905

Bijou.

November 6, 1905

Sunday Blanche and I dined with the McGees at their house on the Boulevard. Mrs. McG. is an admirable mother and her children are devoted to her. They all acted so naturally, with a quiet, refined, well-bred air, yet withal a touch of quaintness that was very attractive. I remarked their ordered ease and B. how lovely they were in their home, what a pretty picture of home life.

November 7, 1905

Voted in the morning, read in the afternoon, and talked politics meanwhiles. In the evening Mr. A. D. Riley called, and we went over the river and joined in the election night parade and carnival on Broadway. There were noises galore with horns and rattles and fun a plenty with confetti and French ticklers. At the Hotel Astor and Waldorf-Astoria, we regaled ourselves and watched the returns come in, noting the comments. At midnight we dropped in at the Princeton Club, where election results were being received by ticker, and on the way home got more fully the outcome of the contest on this side of the river. Boss rule is breaking up or down, and the attitude of the voter is becoming more independent and thoughtful.

November 13, 1905

Prince Louis of Battenberg and the officers and men of the visiting British fleet are doing the town and are being done by in a royal yet democratic fashion. It is pleasant to see them on the streets and in the café's and places of amusement. Even the Prince went to Stauch's on Coney Island this evening and drank beer! King Edward's sailors are a jolly set and well met.

November 21, 1905

Most people are so immersed in the conventions that their whole lives are colored by them. They think in terms of the state, the church and, to magnify a particular, the institute of marriage. They are startled out of their complacency, when one speaks simply, originally, elementally. This ought to do them good and re-erect their minds; but it is more apt to make them uneasy and inimical. They seem to dread a voyage of discovery in unaccustomed seas and prefer to stay anchored in the harbor of habit. And after all there is much to be said in behalf of their conservatism: it gives stability to life and makes the steps in progress safer, though more slowly paced.

November 23, 1905

Amicus He hath seen the world, and come
To the silence of the tomb.
Much he thought and much he did,
But the best of it is hid.
Ah, how little do we know
Of the ships that come and go!
Just as little of him dead,
Of that noble heart and head.
Yet I see in spirit now
Victory smiling on his brow!
Once he said he could not tell, -
Fine the sight that broke the spell -
Golden were his word and phrase:
Now a light and glory dwell
On his face upturned in praise!

December 6, 1905

Mr. Weymer Mills looked in on us this evening and stayed to tea. He came especially, I fancy, to tell us of the Mark Twain dinner he attended last night at Delmonico's. He had with him a bust of the humorist as a souvenir of the occasion. He seemed somewhat shy of or on busts, and wanted to present it to us. We urged him from sentiment that it was the proper thing for him to keep it. We discussed Mark and his writings, and while we felt that he was a great original, we likewise felt that he was not markedly refined and elegant. With all his uncommonness there is about him a generic commonness. Perhaps this it is that helps to give him his vogue.

December 8, 1905

To night I went to a reception at Westminster Hall, Manhattan, and danced until the early Saturday hours. I felt a sweet content, almost a religious serenity. How divine is the dance, how expanding, how free!

December 9, 1905

The delightful impressions of the night were rudely dissi-pated, when I got up late and found in my morning mail a threatening postal-card. It was anonymous, but purported to come from a tenant of mine who had served as a convict. The writer threatened to take my life, if he caught me in one of my Grand street houses. He had determined to stab me to death. How dreadful, not to be able to enter one's own houses without being killed! It may only be a bluff, probably is, but is a despicable piece of blackmail nevertheless. I turned the card over to the Police Department and directed that it should reach Chief of Police Murphy. I asked that the matter be investigated and some protection given. For a while I was shaken up and disturbed, but soon gained a philosophic mood. One might as well be dead as fear. And it is really only its surprise or sudden onset that affects me much; my heart recovers itself quickly, holds bravely out and even dares.

December 12, 1905

Should I be assassinated at any time, and strange to say several attempts have been made in that direction, put this on my tomb:

He died a martyr of individual freedom.

Perhaps that should be my epitaph in any case, as I have made no end of sacrifices for the sake of personal freedom. How much I have missed, because I would not be a time server! Yet there comes with such decision a train of sweet compensations.

In the excitement and pressure of the moment or in the mood suspicious, unfairly aroused, I may bear too hardly on an isolated incident or event and interpret it too widely, when a proximate cause might better be assigned. Yet here and there a sinister fact or sore is only too apt to indicate a diseased state, an irruption of the body politic or social. For unrest and discontent, only partially suppressed, for unsatisfactory, artificial and strained conditions, look anywhere. And I would ameliorate these. I am more than lenient with my tenants and employees. I have mingled freely with the people, perhaps unwisely, for dangers lurk here, dangers from elements that will not mix, from wrong alignment, passion and sinister crime; but with a view to better understanding and assimilation and in pursuance of my divine prerogative to seek happiness and pleasure where and how I pleased. I have sympathized with the unfortunates and in many quiet ways aided them. Why, therefore, I should incur any hostility or ill will, save for a placement somewhat superior, but not particularly to be envied, is difficult to comprehend. Indeed, I have sometimes envied the common lot as less hedged, as the freer happier one. And if I am victimized, it may be (O irony or fate!) because I have steadily tried to bring all ages and conditions together - all races, the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the circumscribed classes and polyglot masses, between and amongst whom there still sadly exist most wretched antipathies and misunderstandings, - not to level or obliterate distinctions, which are the relish and incentive of civilization, but to emphasize and appreciate them with kindliness of feeling, and to make the lot of all happier and marked by entire freedom. And in that word freedom resides so much. I do not mean liberty alone. The liberties, personal, religious, political, are shadows of what should be and buttressed by poor half-way measures, much damaged and compromised. I mean something more inclusive, more intimate and precious. The individual is still the victim of a system in church, state, business and society. I do not advocate license, although that is preferable to soul-slavery; but let any one try to work out, within reasonable limits, the genus of his own instinctive and distinctive being and see how cruelly the system will hamper his efforts, curtail his powers and even deny his God-given rights. He will meet with countervailing forces on every hand to checkmate him - he is surrounded by fences set up too often by prejudice, presumptions and ignorance. I would break down the bars. I contend for beautiful freedom; I mean real freedom, something original and bright, altogether greater than liberty, something that directs aright, gently yet firmly, through stupid opposition, that which illumines and unshackles the mental core, the heart of the matter, - the greatest cause a man can stake his life on!

Moreover, it may be considered, that a certain mildness or gentleness of manner and disposition, that should've accounted amongst the wise as an element of strength rather than weakness, may have amongst the ignorant and unbalanced, induced an attempt at intimidation. If so, it is almost ludicrously ill-advised and ill-considered. Because, however impressed, I do not know upon whom it would have less effect as a deterrent. I feel the jar of an ugly threat as something uncanny and unexpected; but there is comparatively little fear in my composition. My courage is not worn conspicuously, but meets the moment. I have military blood in my veins and a martial spirit as firm in resistance or onset as can be found. A rocky resolution carries it to the finished end. I have faced the leveled revolver, brushed it aside and gone straightway about my business. I do not say this otherwise than in tempered self-respect.

Yet I can not help but think that these hostile manifestations are only sporadic and causeless, or, if criminally inspired, due to some misapprehension; for in my goings about I meet with much evidence of good will and many marks of popularity, not that I particularly court this or despise, and my own feelings toward all are surely of the friendliest character. And still nothing can shake my faith in the sodality, the confraternity of man.

December 26, 1905

Christmas with us was a joyous occasion and the Christmas spirit was rife. The other night Mr. Weymer Mills, in conjunction with my sister Blanche, dressed the parlor and various trinkets, achieving in one instance a wonder-tree quite marvelous to behold. And so it is that today we are enabled to exchange greetings and presents in truly true yule-tide settings, and enter again, as it were, like little children into the kingdom of Heaven.

January 1, 1906

The New year opened auspiciously with a bright day.

In the evening I went with Marie and Blanche to the Muirheids'. They had arranged a pretty table and feast, which we enjoyed very much, together with their genuine unaffected talk.

January 11, 1906

Sometimes I speak in a manner sarcastic, though the way be a choppy sea and far from beautiful sailing. My critics or enimies, and they are often the same thing, may be angels, but they are angels mockingly disguised. They sometimes stimulate and give me pointers. How good of them, how kind! At times they act as eye-openers as to their own smallness and coarseness, and limited vision. As a whole they are foolish, miserable lot, intellectually and otherwise: in particular their color note is black - blackleg, blackguard, blackmailer. I have put them all in hell, Dante-like, and their black souls make fitting fuel for its red flames.

Now as to my friends and laudators - ah, that is a bright story that connotes with white, good white souls - yes, they are all of them childred of light and learning! How could they be otherwise? for it takes a great soul to know a great one. Bravo! my Muse.

Cash Account. January 1905

If your purposes are right, you are well prepared.
Do no wrong, unless it be to overcome wrongdoers.
If a man come at you with a bludgeon, knock him down.
If he be sarcastic, be sarcastic too.
Put yourself right, harmonize your being.
If you are tired, rest up, rest up.
If you are rested, get down to business.
If you are all screwed up, screw yourself out of it.
Do not be desperate.
What a world of wisdom there is in that! and yet how can I mention it? What a black mark I shall get for mentioning it!
I wonder if we shall ever be on frank terms with ourselves?

Cash Account. September 1905

(Article, glued in:)

EDWIN MANNERS WILL BUILD ON NEWARK AVENUE

Edwin Manners of 287 Barrow Street, who owns the houses of 77 and 75 Newark Avenue, near Henderson Street, which were partly destroyed by fire, has decided to build in place of the same a three-story brick building, as permits were refused him several times by Building Inspector Saul to repair the burned houses. The new building will be 40x80, with pressed brick front, bluestone trimmings and copper cornices. The lower floor will contain two large stores and the upper floors apartments for two families on each floor, with all improvements. This building will cost about $15,000 and will be a great improvement in the neighborhood.

Mr. Manners is following the example of Manuel Krause, the jeweler, of 74 Newark Avenue, who also tried to obtain permits to make alterations to his building, but owing to its condition the Building Inspector refused to issue one. Mr. Krause is now building a two-story brick building, 25x42, which will contain two stores on the lower floor, four rooms on the upper floor, and will cost about $10,000.

(with written note following)

From the Jersey City Journal, September 2, 1905.

This appeared without my knowledge. The upper floors are planned, not for families, but for business purposes. I was unaware that I followed anybody's example. Perhaps I was pushed a little in a general move. I though I was acting on my own initiative, as the exigencies of the case demanded.

Cash Account. October 1905

(two news blurbs with accomp. note referring to the Newark Ave. building project)

MANNERS, Edwin, with Donnelly & Phelan; all mason and piling work required in the erection of a three-story brick building at 75 and 77 Newark Ave. C F Long, archt ....$5,993

MANNERS, Edwin, with Charles K Long; all carp and roofing required in the erection of a three-story brick building at 75 and 77 Newark Ave, Charles F Long, archt, $5,400; Edwin H Moore & Bro., plumbing and gas fitting, $591; Andrew Lemon, painting, $170.

Cash Account. November 1905

Picture of two pre-teen siblings, with description:

Kodak picture, taken a few years back, of Miss Helen McGee, named for my sister Helen, and Master Flavel McGee, facetiously called $Little Billee$.

Cash Account. December 1905

Saturday, December 16.

When I was at the Mt. Pleasant Military Academy, I indulged to some extent in pistol and rifle practice, and was accounted a good shot. I have since had little use for firearms, using a borrowed fowling-piece only a few times. On account of my recent occurrences, I purchased today a revolver as a matter of precaution or protection. I did so, however, with some misgivings. The ominous thing set my imagination to opening all sorts of doors leading into galleries of tragic events.

While the police do passably well, considering the material and difficulties to be overcome, they are famous for doing the vanishing act whenever needed. Where self is involved self-reliance is the best safeguard. I deprecate. I hate violence of any kind, and should regret the necessity of any resort to it; but as a dernier resort* one may have to accept the privilege of the law to self-defend, and may thereby render a public service.

*

Memoranda 1905

(four lithograph prints glued in depicting male stately attire in the years 1818, 1858, 1878, and 1904-05.

(Article on population figures) Following are the figures for the entire county:

	1905	1900
Jersey City	232,699	206,433
Bayonne	42,441	32,722
Hoboken	65,464	59,364
West Hoboken	29,082	23,094
Weehawken 8,028 5,327	8,028	5,327
Town of Union	16,872	15,187
Town of W. New York	7,196	5,267
North Bergen	11,134	9,213
Guttenberg	4,563	3,825
Kearny	13,595	10,876
East Newark	2,828	2,500
Harrison	12,803	10,596
Secaucus	3,191	1,626
Totals	449,896	386,028

Increase, 63,848.

(Memoranda)

"The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction."

- Blake.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Now as to my friends and laudators - ah, that is a bright story that connotes with white, good white souls - yes, they are all of them childred of light and learning! How could they be otherwise? for it takes a great soul to know a great one. Bravo! my Muse. Cash Account. January 1905 If your purposes are right, you are well prepared. Do no wrong, unless it be to overcome wrongdoers. If a man come at you with a bludgeon, knock him down. If he be sarcastic, be sarcastic too. Put yourself right, harmonize your being. If you are tired, rest up, rest up. If you are rested, get down to business. If you are all screwed up, screw yourself out of it. Do not be desperate. What a world of wisdom there is in that! and yet how can I mention it? What a black mark I shall get for mentioning it! I wonder if we shall ever be on frank terms with ourselves? Cash Account. September 1905 (Article, glued in:) EDWIN MANNERS WILL BUILD ON NEWARK AVENUE Edwin Manners of 287 Barrow Street, who owns the houses of 77 and 75 Newark Avenue, near Henderson Street, which were partly destroyed by fire, has decided to build in place of the same a three-story brick building, as permits were refused him several times by Building Inspector Saul to repair the burned houses. The new building will be 40x80, with pressed brick front, bluestone trimmings and copper cornices. The lower floor will contain two large stores and the upper floors apartments for two families on each floor, with all improvements. This building will cost about $15,000 and will be a great improvement in the neighborhood. Mr. Manners is following the example of Manuel Krause, the jeweler, of 74 Newark Avenue, who also tried to obtain permits to make alterations to his building, but owing to its condition the Building Inspector refused to issue one. Mr. Krause is now building a two-story brick building, 25x42, which will contain two stores on the lower floor, four rooms on the upper floor, and will cost about $10,000. (with written note following) From the Jersey City Journal, September 2, 1905. This appeared without my knowledge. The upper floors are planned, not for families, but for business purposes. I was unaware that I followed anybody's example. Perhaps I was pushed a little in a general move. I though I was acting on my own initiative, as the exigencies of the case demanded. Cash Account. October 1905 (two news blurbs with accomp. note referring to the Newark Ave. building project) MANNERS, Edwin, with Donnelly & Phelan; all mason and piling work required in the erection of a three-story brick building at 75 and 77 Newark Ave. C F Long, archt ....$5,993 MANNERS, Edwin, with Charles K Long; all carp and roofing required in the erection of a three-story brick building at 75 and 77 Newark Ave, Charles F Long, archt, $5,400; Edwin H Moore & Bro., plumbing and gas fitting, $591; Andrew Lemon, painting, $170.

Donnelly + Phelan	$5,993.00
Charles K Long	$5,400.00
Moore + Brother	$591.00
Andrew Lemon	$170.00
(total) < TD>	$12,154.00

Memoranda, 1905 (Article on population figures) Following are the figures for the entire county:

Increase, 63,848.