I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

Category: Personal

  • Post Cards From The Heart – Luke Writes Bessie


    Confederate Rest and Monument, Mobile Ala.

    March 18, 1906

    3/18 arrived ok. 5.00, Luke P.

    First comes love, then comes marriage.  On March 18, 1906 our lothario Luke began a flurry of post cards to Miss Bessie Bogan who lived in Alabama City, Alabama.   Alabama City was an unremarkable small town six miles from Gadsden in Etowah County – north of Birmingham and west of Atlanta – and a long, long way from Luke’s home in Fort Morgan at the southernmost point of the state beyond Mobile.   The distance measured 350 miles to be exact and it begged the question of their meeting.   While one in five relationships in March, 2012 begins through match.com, according to match.com, and distance is a Skype away today, finding the love of your life a hundred years ago wasn’t done on a computer dating site.

    How did Luke and Bessie meet?   Maybe it was the old-fashioned way.   A friend of a friend.   Or maybe it was a friend’s second cousin who came to Alabama City for Christmas and they met at a Christmas Eve service in a small church.  When Luke came to see his cousin and saw Bessie again the following March, sparks flew in all directions.   Let the games begin.

    Paul de Longprae’s Residence, Hollywood, Cal.

    March 24, 1906

    When the roses bloom again.  with best reg.

    Luke’s interest in architecture was evident from the earliest post cards he sent to Bessie.  The Confederate Monument in Mobile was a local landmark for him, but the card itself has a subtle layer of still visible glitter lightly sprinkled on the black and white images. The barely twinkling glitter outlines a line of trees in the background and what appears to be a wreath wrapped around the monument.  Classy… and sure to impress a country girl from Alabama City.   The second card was more colorful and not from around those parts.  It was a picture of  Paul de Longprae’s home in Hollywood which at that time had achieved some notoriety.  The successful French flower painter built the mansion in 1901 and the house was magnificent with gardens to match that gave him ready subjects for his work year round.   The cryptic message When the roses bloom again was a hint of romance from Luke and most likely a reference to a shared moment from his recent visit.

    The next two cards Luke sent to Bessie were from the “Oilette” series of post cards produced by Raphael Tuck & Sons and printed in England beginning in 1903.  The Tuck cards were among the most popular post cards during the late 1800s and early 1900s during the picture penny card boom years. In small print on the address side of these cards were the words  Art Publishers to Their Majesties The King & Queen.

    Belfast Cave Hill 

    May 05, 2906

    With best Reg.  L.P.M.

    St. James Park From The Monument

    June 02, 1906

    In July, 1906 Luke sends another “local” post card from Mobile with a message saying he is leaving soon for another place that Bessie clearly already knows about.  Not surprisingly, his last card from Mobile is a street with imposing architecture.

    Royal St. Looking North From Conti St., Mobile, Ala.

    July 10, 1906

    In city on business. will leave soon. With Best Regards from Yours Truly.

    Indeed, the following two post cards sent by Luke to Bessie in August, 1906 were postmarked Hot Springs, Arkansas.   Why the trip to Arkansas?  Perhaps job related?  Perhaps to visit other family?

    Eastman Hotel.   Hot Springs, Ark.

    August 11, 1906

    This is all one hotel quite a nice structure.

    I hope to get a letter soon.  Coming down about the 17th.,  Luke

    By August of 1906 the young couple must’ve been hot and heavy in their correspondence because Luke was in the stage of racing to the mailbox to look for a letter from Bessie.   When one wasn’t there, his high spirits sank and he had to let Bessie know his disappointment with the passive aggressive tone I hope to get a letter soon.  Hah.  Translation: Please write to me or I will kill myself.

     The Eastman Hotel had over 500 rooms and was one of the largest in Hot Springs at the turn of the twentieth century.  The town was home to several major league baseball training camps and it wouldn’t have been unusual for Luke to see Babe Ruth walking from the hotel to the racetrack after practice.  He might not have noticed if he were on the way to the post office, though.

    Falls and Big Horn River, Thermopolis in Distance

    August 16, 1906

    With Best Respect from Luke

    The final post card postmarked in Hot Springs was a breathtaking view of the falls pouring into the Big Horn River in Hot Springs County, Wyoming with the town of Thermopolis snuggled in the valley next to the river.  Quite a different tune in this card as if to halfway apologize for the brusqueness of the previous one.  With best respect from Luke.   Sweet.

    Next stop:  College!

    Georgia School of Technology, Atlanta, Ga.

    August 31, 1906

    I expect a letter Real Soon,   L.P.M.

    The Georgia School of Technology which later came to be known as the Georgia Institute of Technology or Georgia Tech was started in 1885 and offered one degree in mechanical engineering.  By the time Luke enrolled in the fall of 1906, degrees in civil, electrical and chemical engineering had been added to the curriculum.   Going to school in Atlanta meant being closer to Miss Bessie Bogan of Alabama City, but letters and post cards were still the only ways to keep in touch.   Passive aggressive I hope to get a letter at the first of August was now a much bolder I expect a letter Real Soon by the end of the month.

    What a difference six months makes in the lives of young love and lovers!   Bessie kept these picture post cards from Luke to remember their early stories, and I can feel his passion growing with each picture for these are not random post cards but ones carefully chosen to send a message to his beloved.   He wanted her to know that beauty and art and freshness and flowers and flowing rivers reminded him of her and how much he cared for her.

    I think I’ll leave him at school today.   He needs to study this week so he can make the trip to Alabama City this weekend.

  • Post Cards From The Heart – It’s Been Quite A Pleasure Trip To Me


    Bessie loved the sights she’d seen on her honeymoon trip and wrote her longest comments on a post card of Thomas Circle dated Sunday, September 29, 1907.   Was she writing to one of her sisters or someone in Luke’s family or maybe just a note to remind herself of the awesome experience she’d had on her stay or maybe even to her dear friend Florence?   You be the judge.

    We are taking in the sights of the city. It has been quite a pleasure trip to me. Seems like our trip to Y.C.F. July 4th., 1904.   Yours, B.B. M.       Sunday, Sep 29, 1907 

    Of course, Bessie wanted to visit the Post Office and make sure she had a post card from the Home of All Post Cards!   The building didn’t disappoint her and Luke was entertained by her enthusiasm for a site he considered to be of lesser importance in the overall scheme of D. C.

    They both must have enjoyed the fountains on their Sunday walk through the Capitol.   Bessie had two interesting pictures of fountains she saw on this day in September of 1907.

    Batholdi Fountain

    Sept 29, 1907  We saw this fountain but it was not frozen like this.

    The Neptune Fountain at The Congressional Library made an impression on the couple as they began their tour of the Library.    No tour guides today as they decided to wing it on their own and Bessie concluded this library was “The finest in America…” 

    Reading Room, Congressional Library

    Sunday, Sept 29 – 1907   Luke and Bessie

    In the midst of the post cards Bessie kept from her trip, I didn’t find a single one of the hotel where they stayed, but I think it must have been near F. Street N. W. because her final post card from the weekend was of that street.

    The scene shifts to Arlington, Virginia tomorrow as the honeymooners head south to Lee’s mansion and then further south to Washington’s Mount Vernon, but for this last day in Washington we’ll watch them holding hands as they leisurely stroll down F. Street in the midst of the trolleys and tourists.   Their D. C. days have passed quickly, but Bessie has the post cards that will keep her “pleasure trip” in safekeeping.

  • Post Cards From The Heart – Pennsylvania Avenue Washington’s Favorite


    Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D. C.

    Washington’s Favorite, Sept. 28 – 29  1907

                    B. and L.

    Horse-drawn carriages and trolley cars mingled with the newfangled motor cars that made Pennsylvania Avenue a noisy busy scene for our honeymooners Bessie and Luke as they toured Washington, D. C. over the weekend.  Bessie called the street Washington’s Favorite to indicate the importance she felt it had for the city in 1907 and, indeed, it remains the most famous avenue in the city a century later.

    Saturday morning was cool and crisp as the couple continued their adventures with a visit to The Smithsonian Institute where they were immersed in the museum of American history and its most recent significant addition, the flag known as The Star-Spangled Banner.  The flag was loaned to the Smithsonian in 1907 by a Maryland family that had owned it since it flew proudly at the Baltimore garrison which successfully resisted the British naval bombardment in the War of 1812.  An American lawyer named Francis Scott Key had watched the cannons fire during the night from a boat a short distance away and when he saw the ragged American flag raised as the light of dawn bathed the scene,  he wrote the words to what would be recognized as our national anthem by President Herbert Hoover in 1931.  When Luke and Bessie saw it in the Institute almost a hundered after the War of 1812, they were moved by the careful preservation of the tattered faded stars and stripes.  What a country!

    Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D. C. 

    Sat Sept 28, 1907

    No time to linger here, though, as they needed to grab a quick lunch before the afternoon’s excitement of a  tour of The Capitol…food required for stamina.

    The Capitol, Front View                            Washington, D. C. 

    Prettiest View, Sep 28  –   1907

    House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.

    Sat Sept. 28th from 12:30 – 4:30

    Spent in Capitol

    Capitol, West.  Washington, D. C. 

    Capitol has 437 rooms in all. We spent 4 hrs here on p.m. Sep 28. Sat. 1907- A guide explained all to us.

           L and Bess

     Although the tour of The Capitol ended at 4:30, Luke and Bessie decided to save the rest of their D. C. sightseeing for Sunday.  The Smithsonian and The Capitol in one day had been overwhelming – an overload of facts and hard on the feet in pre-tennis shoe days.  Luke’s leather boots and Bessie’s honeymoon heels weren’t designed for comfortable wear and their adrenalin sagged in the late afternoon.  Get to the hotel and lie down, they decided…have a late dinner and a little night music.

    And that’s where we’ll leave them until tomorrow…

  • Post Cards From The Heart – Mr. Roosevelt Wasn’t Home


           Friday, Sep.27 – 1907   Viewed city from Monument

    Bessie and Luke left the Jamestown Exposition and continued their honeymoon with a visit to Washinton, D.C.   The Washington Monument was a must stop for them as they got their bearings inside the city and planned their stay.   Where to go first?   So much to see and do in the nation’s capitol and only three days for sightseeing!   The answer is the same as it is for many of us who travel to D.C. a century later, whether honeymooning or not.   The White House.   The iconic symbol of America’s pride in itself.

    Visited Fri Sep 27 – 1907.  The home of Teddie – he was not there.

    Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States and held that office from 1901 – 1909.   He was famous for his Rough Riders in the Spanish American War of 1898 but in 1906 received the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to negotiaite the Russo-Japanese Treaty.   War and Peace.  Two of the thorniest obsessions of American Presidents, and Teddy Roosevelt was no exception.   So in 1907 when our friends Luke and Bessie came to call,  he would have been the inhabitant of The White House as they stood in line to get their tickets for a tour of his home.  Alas, as she wrote jokingly on her post card, Teddy was not there. Bessie was so excited to go through the historical residence she bought a post card for each change of rooms and wrote the time for every half hour of the tour.

    Blue Room, White House, Washington, D. C.

    Ten a.m. Sept 27th  1907. L and B

    State Dining Room

    10:30 a.m. Sept 27th 1907

    Luke, Bessie

    Red Room

    Eleven a.m. Sept 27th 1907

    Executive Mansion, East Room

    Eleven thirty a.m., Sept 27th 1907

    East Room

    12 p.m. Sept 27th 1907

    The tour lasted two hours and was unforgettable for the young couple who were completely taken in by the guide’s descriptions and stories that came with the house.   If these walls could talk.

    The day was half over and Luke suggested they walk past a couple of other buildings he wanted to see on the way back to their hotel for a late lunch and afternoon delight.   It was a honeymoon, after all.

    State War and Navy Departments, Washington, D.C. 

    Fri Sept. 27, 1907

    Agricultural Building 

    Fri Sept 27 1907

    Naturally he wanted to see the military and agriculture  buildings on the very first day of their visit, and Bessie went along with him.  She purchased the post cards for their memory book which she faithfully kept as a reminder of each day’s adventures.   It was a world without digital cameras, a world without cameras unless you were a professional photographer, so the post cards were Bessie’s attempt to preserve their reminiscences.

    Let’s leave our Alabama couple to themselves on this Friday night in the Big City and wish them well until we meet them in the morning.

  • Post Cards From The Heart – Greetings From Jamestown


    The leather post card on the front of the tattered photo album should have been a clue indicating the significance of the Jamestown Exposition in the life of Bessie and Luke, but it took me several days of pouring through the photos to figure it out.   Duh.

    The Jamestown Exposition was held from April 26 to December 1, 1907 at Sewell’s Point in Norfolk, Virginia.   It was one of many expositions popular at the turn of the twentieth century and was a celebration of the 300-year anniversary of the initial landing in Virginia by the English colonists.   Unfortunately, it was a financial disaster for its supporters and a cultural disappointment tainted with racial conflicts.   Attendance eventually reached 3 million visitors and included President Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain who came as a replacement for former President Grover Cleveland as a guest of honor on Robert Fulton Day.   President Roosevelt spoke on Georgia Day, June 10, 1907, on the steps of the Georgia Building.   Although Bessie purchased a post card marking that historic event at the Exposition, she didn’t arrive until three months later.

    In spite of the negative press and rumors surrounding the Jamestown Exposition, Luke and Bessie chose it for the first stop of their honeymoon trip.   The wedding date remains a mystery, but this trip is certainly the honeymoon.  More than 100 post cards in her album describe the trip of her lifetime.   Luke and Bessie, she wrote on almost every one of the cards that she used to carefully preserve her memories of the adventure.   September 26, 1907…the first day.

    The displays of two squadrons of ships remained one of the most popular sites throughout the Exposition and Bessie bought several post cards of the remarkable water exhibits to remind her of the sight.  The displays influenced a number of important visitors from Washington, D.C., too, and probably led to the formation of a naval base in Norfolk ten years after the close of the Exposition.

    The Main Auditorium was a must-see, of course.   Sept. 26 – eve – 1907     Luke, Bess

    A choice which surely was Luke’s was the Mines and Metallurgy Building.   Since he worked for Atlanta Steel,  he would want to visit this exhibit and Bessie bought a card for him.

    Sept 26. P.M. – 1907   Luke, Bessie

    A totally unexpected surprise of the trip was the chance meeting of a young man from Canton, New York.   No mention is made of how the meeting took place.  Perhaps they met at a concession stand having lunch?  Regardless, we learn much about him from his post cards.   His name was Wm. J. Heckles and he would maintain a friendship through their post card correspondence for many years with the newlyweds from the South.   His first post card was sent a month after their encounter at the Exposition.

    My dear Mr & Mrs Moore, I have at last reached home tired out but well pleased with my trip…Hope you had a fine trip home and reached there all right.  I only stayed one day at Jamestown and stayed the rest of the time in Philadelphia and New York.  Hoping to hear from you I remain in F.L. & T.      Wm. J. Heckles, Canton, N.Y.    What’s this?  Texting on post cards a hundred years ago?  Every one of his post cards through the years closed with F.L. & T.     LOL.  I have no idea what he meant.

    Another post card was sent while the Moores honeymooned.  Bessie wouldn’t receive it until she got home, but it came from China, Texas.

    I think you should write me, F    Clearly, Florence from our last post was feeling left out.

    The Jamestown leg of the trip lasted two days and Bessie saved this post card to mark her last day there.

    1907 on night of 27. Leaving Jamestown for Washington

    Bessie and Luke continue their journey to Washington, and we’ll meet them there next time.