Summer Vacationers Were Livening Up NYC
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Hill Country Living
By Coulter Fussell
It’s a Wagner Week and this column is for everyone who is into Broadway plays. This letter is between two college-aged friends (one of which is our own George Wagner) who are about to have a great time in New York City going to comedy shows and boxing matches!
Brooklyn, NY Sept 1903
Dear George,
Your letter came yesterday. This is Saturday night, I shall work next week and be with the New York Tel. Co. on the 19th so I shall be free when you get here. But as to where in the city a telegram will reach me either before or after that date, it is impossible to say. You may address it here at the time and if I am here at the time, all right. If not, a friend of mine will open it and telephone me the contents; for I can let him know every morning approximately where I will be during the day. The friend in question is LeRoy Braswell of West Point, Mississippi and my present roommate. He’s a pharmacist in a drug store near here and is a very nice sort of fellow, so it’ll be all right.
I’m glad Stockdale is coming up. He was in my good books at the U. of M. though I did not know him intimately. Hope Warner will bring up a few, too – the more the merrier. Haven’t heard from him lately. Supposing that you do not get Ithaca news, I have the following items from New York papers of various date.
A wind storm swept the lake up over the marshes, destroying a good many boats and damaging Renwick Park and other property. The new pumping plant just installed by the water company was burned to the ground. A deep well sunk for experiment has proved a regular gusher and will be followed by others enough to supply the city.
There have been several cases of fever this summer but not so many in the previous summers. Ex-president A. D. White spent the summer in Ithaca, published a new book and is about to leave for Europe to work upon another. The outlook for athletics is said to be good. That’s all I remember.
Things are getting lively in N.Y. now by reason of the return of the summer vacationists. The re-opening of the theater and the Shipland Bay races. I have been to see Henrietta Crossman in “As You Like It,” Mrs. Langtry in “Mrs. Deering’s Divorce” (not good), “The Roger Brothers in London” (as usual) and have tickets to Mrs. Fisk in “Magdala” and John Drew in “Captain Dieppe.” There are also George Ade’s “Peggy from Paris” and “Three Little Maids” and the “Princess of Kensington” and other comic operas said to be good.Also, Coney Island is still ablaze. There is the Hay Market, the Casino, Tom Sharkey’s place, etc. You really couldn’t find it dull, at least not as long as our money lasts so hurry up! There are other and better things, too, you know.
I suppose we will have to leave here on the 24th, George? Must stop now.
Good night,
Yours B.B. Beckett
643 Tompkins Ave.,
Brooklyn
