A BATCH OF LETTERS.
[_Dick Scupp to his Mother._]
"ON BOARD THE 'OSPREY.'
"December 20, 1903.
"_Dear Mother_:
"I take my pen in hand to inform you that I am well and hope you are the
same. We left Manila two weeks ago and came to this place, which is
Chefoo. It sounds like a sneeze, doesn't it? It is a Chinese port on
Shantung Peninsula, pretty nearly opposite Port Arthur, which as you
know is occupied by the Russians. I wish I could be home next Friday,
which is Christmas. Tell Katy to think of me and I will bring home
something in my box for her. I am sorry to say I have lost that pair of
stockings you knit for me. I forgot and left them on the deck instead of
putting them in my bag and Jimmy Legs got them when he came round, and
popped them into the lucky-bag. I might have gone up to the mast the
next day and claimed them, but a lot of us were going ashore (it was
when we were at Shanghai) and I didn't want my liberty stopped, so I let
them go, and Sam Bolles bought them at the auction afterward for
nineteen cents. That is all I have to say at present.
"From your loving son,
"RICHARD."
[_From Oto Owari to O-Hana-San._]
_Translated._
"SASEBO, January 2, 1904.
"The exalted letter which you augustly condescended to send me on the
13th day of the 10th moon filled me with great felicity, to know that
you are in ever-increasing august robustness, as you were tormented with
light fever when I worshipped your eyebrow[1] a short time before. I do
not know where I shall go next. I see Oshima almost daily at the
barracks. A new ship is fitting out at the docks, the _Fujiyama_, and it
may be that I shall have an appointment to her, or it may be that I
shall have to go _under the water_. You will understand later. I am now
awaiting orders. Although the war-cloud in the west is dark, the people
in Tokio celebrated New Year's Day with rejoicing and festivity, as
usual. The houses and shops, Oshima told me, were covered with fruits
and flowers, and the streets decorated with flags and lanterns. Many
bands of men marched through the city singing old war-songs of the
Samurai. All the fairs were crowded. Pray condescend to take august care
of your exalted health. I knock my head against the floor.
"Remembrance and respectful veneration.
"OTO.
"TO O-HANA-SAN."
[_Hallie to Lieut. Com. David Rexdale, U. S. N._]
_Extracts._
"BOSTON, November 15, 1903.
"_Dear Dave_:
"You can't tell how anxious I am to hear from you. Your last letter,
mailed at Suez, was a very short one. You told me you had a despatch
from Washington ordering you to Shanghai instead of Hongkong, and I
ought to have received a letter from that city; but I haven't and I'm
worried about you. If it didn't cost so much I would cable instead of
writing. Do write to me at once. If anything should happen to you[2]....
"In September I had a little visit with the Holmes. Norman has been
detached from the Brooklyn Yard and appointed to the _Vulture_, which
probably will join the Asiatic squadron this winter or in the early
spring. Our old friend Tickerson has received his commission as
lieutenant (first grade) and his wife writes me gleefully on the
increase of pay as well as glory. Do you remember when you introduced me
to her, at Annapolis? They say 'Girlie' is just as proud of her as he
was in the old days, when the other cadets (all but _you_, of course,
Dave!) used to envy him as he walked down 'Lover's' with her.
"You would be interested in the football situation this fall, if you
were here. O, if only....
"Well, as I was about to say, Harvard is of course straining every nerve
to get into condition for Yale. The game comes off in about ten days,
and I'm going over to Cambridge to see it. Who do you suppose is going
to take me? Why, dear old Uncle Richard, who happens to be spending a
few weeks East, on business. Little Hallie Holmes is the dearest baby in
the world. Wasn't it lovely in Anemone to insist on naming her for me?
Aunt Letitia is tremendously interested in two things--anti-vivisection
and the Russo-Japanese trouble. She has attended several hearings at the
State House, and at one of them she spoke her mind out so forcibly that
old Jed, bless his heart, made a great racket pounding on the floor and
set everybody applauding. He had sneaked in without Aunt's knowing it,
and on reaching home was heard to express a strong desire to 'keelhaul
them doctors.' He takes great delight in his lofty 'cabin' and regularly
goes out 'on deck' at the top of the house every night, to have a last
smoke and a 'look at the weather,' like Captain Cuttle, before turning
in. Aunt Letitia reads every scrap she can find in the papers about
Russia and Japan, and so, for that matter, do I. Sometimes my sympathies
are with one nation and sometimes with the other. Of course Japan is
ever so much the smaller of the two, and her people are so quick and
bright that nearly everybody takes their side and hopes that if there is
a war she will win. But then Russia sometimes seems to me less like a
bear than a great Newfoundland dog, and, as somebody has said, it's
fairly pathetic to see how she has been trying all these years to get to
the water; that is, to the open ocean, where she can have a navy, big
and well trained, like other nations. Her ships in the Baltic seem like
boats in a tub. Anyway I do hope and pray that there won't be any war,
after all. Surely we humans know enough, have got evolutionised enough,
in this twentieth century, to settle a dispute without fighting like
savages.
"I miss you every day.... Write to me as soon as you can....
"Your loving wife,
"HALLIE."
[_From Fred Larkin to Lieutenant Staples._]
"SAN FRANCISCO, December 29, 1903.
"MY DEAR LIEUTENANT:
"'If you get there before I do,
Tell them I am coming too!'
"As I expected, the _Bulletin_ doesn't propose to get left on any
unpleasantness in the Extreme East, nor even to take its chances in a
syndicate. It wants real news, straight from the front, and, naturally,
it hits upon Yours Truly to pick it up. I wrote to Rexdale just before
leaving Boston, so it is probably no surprise to you that I have crossed
the continent and am about to embark for Yokohama. Indeed I may make my
bow to you on the quarter-deck of the _Osprey_ before you receive this
letter! The papers are full of correspondence and abstracts of
diplomatic papers from St. Petersburg and Tokio. The language of these
communications between the State Departments of the two countries is
bland and meek as the coo of a dove or the _baa_ of a lamb; but mark my
words, my boy--there's going to be a war, and a big one. There _must_
be, to justify my going out to report it! Do you remember how a reporter
in Havana in 1897 is said to have cabled to the home office of a certain
'yellow' journal not unknown to fame, 'No war here. What shall I do?'
And the editor of the newspaper cabled back, 'Stay where you are, and
send full reports. I'll provide war.' Well, our venerable and sagacious
friend Marquis Ito, together with the amiable but distracted Ruler of
all the Russias, will 'provide war' for me to write up, and that before
many days. And the little Japs will strike first, see if they don't!
Tell Rexdale, please, that I'm on my way. If anything good happens
before I see you, 'make a note on,' and give it to me for a _Bulletin_
story.
"Yours ever,
"LARKIN."
[_From Lieutenant Commander Rexdale to Hallie._]
_Extract._
"CAVITE, P. I., December 2, 1903.
" ... From Shanghai we were ordered to this port, where we have been
lying for nearly a month, doing guard duty. Next Thursday we sail for
Chefoo, the Chinese seaport not far from Wei-hai-wei, where Pechili
Strait opens into the Yellow Sea. At that station we shall be quite near
Korea and Port Arthur, and if there is any trouble we shall be
spectators, though almost certainly not participants, so you need not
worry when you see by the naval despatches at home that we are on the
outskirts of the Debatable Land. It is hard, I've no doubt, for you to
realise how the war-fever is growing, out here. I am told that the
Japanese have been steadily preparing for this final trial of her
strength with Russia for years past. You may be interested in the
make-up of the Jap. army. Under the present law all males are subject to
conscription at the age of twenty. There is no distinction of class, and
there are no exemptions except for physical disabilities, or because the
conscript is the sole support of indigent parents, a student in certain
schools, or a member of certain branches of civil service.
"The first term of service is between the ages of twenty and
twenty-three. Then the soldier enters the first reserve, where he serves
between the ages of twenty-three and twenty-six. After that he goes to
the second reserve, where his service is between the ages of twenty-six
and thirty-one; and then to the general national reserve, which includes
all males between the ages of seventeen and forty not already in active
service.
" ... I was called off, yesterday afternoon, from my writing, and later
in the day I learned that there is trouble in Seoul, the capital of
Korea. There are lots of Japanese and Russians there, and, with the
Korean natives hating all foreigners, there is material for a good deal
of disturbance. Several riots have occurred in the streets, and it is
said that our minister has cabled to Washington asking for a war-ship
at Chemulpo, the port of Seoul. If the Department assents, the talk is
that either the _Wilmington_ or the _Osprey_ will be detailed for that
duty. I must say I hope it will be our little ship, and so do all our
officers. Midshipman Starr puts it very well: 'When I was a boy, I
always liked to get right up against the ropes at a fire!' He isn't much
more than a boy now, but he's a fine fellow, and I'd trust him to do his
part in an emergency....
"_Later._--The _Vicksburg_ is the lucky ship, after all. She has sailed
for Chemulpo, and a party of marines will be landed and sent up to Seoul
to protect our Minister and all other Americans and their interests in
the city. The gunboat is commanded by Com. W. A. Marshall, whom you will
remember meeting in Washington at the ball three years ago. His ship is
about the size of the _Osprey_, and carries six guns.
"I hear that the Japanese fleet at Nagasaki is removing all superfluous
wood-work, filling its bunkers with hard steam coal, and preparing, in
general, for business. We sail for Chefoo at 9 A.M. to-morrow....
"Your loving husband,
"DAVE."
FOOTNOTES:
[1] "Met you."
[2] Mrs. Rexdale has insisted that some portions of her letter,
interesting only to her husband, shall be omitted.