Circus Troup
Jan 4
Montgomery’s Hotel1
Hyderabad Deccan.
Sallie dearest:
I feel just like a circus troup. We are living on the train and have been all week, except two nights at Hyderabad. We left Bombay and found that we had to change at such unearthly hours of the night that we asked them if we couldn’t have a car or rather two – each one has two compartments and two baths, so the Gillis’ have one, Mrs. C. and I one, father and the servants each one. So now they just drop us off wherever we want to stop. If it is in the middle of the night, then we can just sleep on and have breakfast when we feel like it, and then do our sightseeing and be hitched on again to the next train.
I don’t believe I have ever discoursed to you about Dak bungalows, have I? Well, all over Burma and India there are little houses, a dining room, living room and four or five bedrooms with baths where anyone can go and stay all night, a care taker who will heat water for you and a stove, also plates and pans, etc. In so many of these small towns there is no hotel, so the Dak bungalow is most convenient – although we must take our own bedding, food, etc. However this car arrangement is even better for we are more independent. Sometimes there are refreshment rooms in the stations, but generally we cook our own things. We found at such times the servants were rather in the way, so now we take turns getting the meals. Mrs. C. and Dorothy one time, and Adelaide & I the next. All the preparing and cooking takes place in the bathroom, so the menu is always a surprise to the rest, and we manage to have pretty good but not elaborate meals. Everything “turned” of course except fresh fruit, which we always have piles of. Last night we gave them hot tomato soup, creamed salmon and peas, asparagus salad, canned pears, crackers & cheese, and nuts. Now I know just how a porter at home in a dining car feels, and I certainly shouldn’t like to be one all my life.
We spent a couple of days at the caves of Ellora. They aren’t really caves, but wonderful temples carved out of huge masses of rock, not built piece by piece but just cut right there out of the solid rock just as it stood. They really are marvelous, and although they were done hundreds of years ago, they are still perfectly preserved. There is an interesting old fort there too where we walked miles and miles up and down steps, through underground passages, over walls, and up to the tops of towers till I was ready to drop.
We were at Hyderabad for father’s birthday, so gave him a surprise party. In the center of the table we had a Hindu begging bowl filled with poinsettias and red ribbons leading from it with silly but appropriate Indian toys for each person, which they pulled out during dinner. It is such a small place that we could get very little, but fortunately I had a delicious almond paste cake very gaily iced, and candles made in Bombay with his initials and date on top, so brought that with me. I tried to have everything he likes, and for salad I cut long papayas in two, chopped up the centers with mayonnaise, and stuck in each a sail with the “Albatross”1 written on it, and in the mast a little admiral’s flag I made of blue ribbon and white court plaster stars. We had red bonbon crackers to pull with camels and elephants on, and Mrs. Gillis gave us each such cunning little figures of Indian men, the washman, coachman, policeman, etc. all in their characteristic dress & turban. For place cards I drew albatrosses with spread wings and cut them out, and Mrs. C. made up an appropriate verse for each of us. Father was very much surprised, and seemed to enjoy it.
Did I tell you about the beautiful rugs they make in Peking and TienTsin? Lover just told me he is having six beauties made for me. Three 9 x 12, two in Delft blue and white, one dark red for his den; two 7 x 9 very oriental looking, and one smaller of the very best weave. There are three qualities. Most people get the second or third, as the first is more like that silky kind that can be used on the wall or piano or table, but I’ll be glad to have one of that kind. He and Punk and Dick were just starting off on a tiger hunt in [Shansi] Province, and now I’m worried for fear there’ll be a smile on the face of the tiger.
In Shang’s last letter she enclosed a letter to me from a girl in Australia saying she had sent me 120 rabbits tails remembering a remark I made that I should love to have some, so perhaps they are home now. In a very unconcerned way [we] said she wanted to send me more but had cured them herself, and in the midst of it went out to play polo – her pony fell and threw her on her head, so that she knocked a hole clean through her skull and was unconscious for two weeks, no one expecting her to live. The day she wrote me was the first day she’d been allowed to use her eyes, as one was stone blind from the fall, although the doctors said it would get all right in time. She was a most attractive girl, and I do hope she’ll be well soon. Wasn’t it sweet of her to remember me?
Yes, angel, I’m glad you told Mrs. Farrow about taking out the linen. You can do whatever you choose about telling people I’m engaged. At first I didn’t want it known, but now I’ve got so used to the fact myself that is seems different, and of course when I do get home people will see my ring. However I don’t think it need be heralded abroad, but if someone does ask you, say whatever you think is best, for I know it will be right. How people know it I can’t imagine, but every now and then I get letters from people in the Philippines remarking about it.
In a way this living in the car is fun for awhile, but I shall be glad to get to a hotel and be able to move around and not have everything fall on the floor whenever I lay it down; the juggling and dust are the worst part of all.
It was nice for you to go to Hudson and I’m anxious to hear about it. The other night at a dinner my partner was a man from Franklin, a Mr. Stickler, Standard Oil man, wasn’t that queer?
Heaps of love,
Alice.
January 4, 1914
Address c/o U.S. Consul, Cairo , Egypt.
1 Still in business 2009
1 The name of his flag-ship. Remember his name is Admiral Albert Ross. The ship used in the motion picture “White Squall” bore the name Albatross.
