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3 September 1901 — Aboard Alert, Newport, Rhode Island | |
Tuesday. 3rd [September 1901]. Mrs Griscom, Sister Bettle, Nellie & I attended by Baker went on shore & took a 9.30 train for Boston. We got there at 11.30 & drove to the Hotel Vendome & secured rooms. The hotel was empty & being repainted &c so it was not as comfortable as it might have been. Before getting away from the station we had to claim our luggage & gave the checks to the driver of the carriage we hired. After waiting some little while he secured them. I think our English fashion of seizing our own luggage on reaching the station tho’ less methodical works quicker. At the Hotel I found a letter from Mme de Riaño who is staying at Manchester to say she could not come in to Boston to see me today so we before luncheon Nellie & I went with Mrs Bettle to the Free library a splendid building in the square close by our hotel. We admired the great reading rooms. There is even a children’s reading room set apart. We went upstairs to see Sargents fresco in a sort of lobby. The frieze with the figures is fine—but the composition above it is confused & weird & queer. It does not appear to me to be real art. It is a mixture of low relief modelling & of painting– The picture by Abbey of the “Holy Grail” seemed to me also unsatisfactory & unreal. Those on the principal stairs by Puvis de Chavannes very feeble in colour & execution though the composition is pretty. His figures are flat & without atmosphere & seem cut out in paper & stuck on the wall. Still the whole building & its adornments are far above the average & one has a sense of vastness & earnestness of purpose. After lunch which we took in the large dining room of the hotel & where we were waited upon by coloured gentlemen who gave themselves very little trouble about us, we took a carriage to go & see the town– The fashionable quarter was utterly empty– Windows closed, blinds down & even the front doors boarded up. We were taken past the public buildings new & old—saw the Lion & Unicorn still kept over the old State house– Were pointed out the distant monument on Bunker’s Hill—& the church from which the light was displayed by Paul Revere to warn the rebels of the approach of the British troops. We went through a quarter entirely inhabited by Italians—another by Germans—all as poor & squalid as any low quarter of an European city. We passed many tram cars & were jolted over the rails they travel on– At the end of a tall house at the meeting of two streets was a remarkable advertisement for Insect Powder. A huge beetle (here called a Bug) was made to run up the side of the building. He has protruding red eyes lighted with electric lamps & long legs with wh he appears to crawl. When he reaches the top of the house a huge hand squirts the Insect Powder at him—and at once his legs collapse, the light of his eyes are extinguished & he begins to sink down to the earth– On reaching it he revives & begins the ascent afresh– We drove Nellie to the station & sent her back to Newport by 4.30 train to rejoin Pansie on the Alert. While Mrs Griscom & I waited for Mrs Bettle to see her off we were almost deafened by the noise of the street– The Elevated railway ran over our heads—the trams by our sides & huge drays & cars flow in every direction. We were glad to get away. Mrs G. went to shop & Mrs Bettle & I went to a confectioners & got some tea & then we returned to the hotel & were glad to rest. We dined at 7.30 & were glad to go early to bed. | |
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