“YOU CAN ALMOST SMELL MURDER IN THE AIR”
(Texas) Two 1890s Letters from Texas. From Hartford, Connecticut attorney George Henry Sage, who is in Texas for business, to his wife Mary “Polly” Eno Sage. A. [George Henry Sage] Autograph Letter, Signed. Galveston, Texas. August 3, 1891. To his wife. Handwritten letter 25.5 cm. 6 pp. One corner of the letter is torn off, affecting some of the text. Describes his arrival at the “Mallory docks” in Galveston, so presumably he arrived on a Mallory Line steamship.
My Darling Mary
We reached the Mallory Dock at between 7 & 8 this morning & in Company with 3 other fellows proceeded to get bkfst. I then went to Post Office & with joy in my heart an anticipation of getting a letter from the little girl I love so dearly. I marched up to the general delivery window & inquired for Mr. George H. Sage, Esq. The clerk looked & said there was nothing. I told him I knew better & if h did not get his skates on & hand me, the letter I would let the merry beams of the morning sun into his person. He looked again & said there was no letter there for any such person. I told him very terribly that I knew you had written to me, &, as you always keep your word he had better find that letter & not come any wild & wooly Texas _____ racket on a son of the Golden Ridge of Connecticut. By that time there were several person standing around to see the fun. The young man seemed to resent my arrogant manner, but as it is a criminal offense to shoot a white man in Texas he looked and looked again, & finally handed me your letter with the remark that it as been placed in the wrong box. Well dearest, you can just bet I enjoyed that letter” Altho it was over a week old! It seems like getting home again to read your kind words. We had about 20 cabin passengers on board & all but 2 were as sick as they could be last Monday as we came around Hatteras. I was the 2 that were not sick. Well it made me feel better any way & I am not feeling fine . The trip has cured all my ills including the pitchfork hole in my foot. The passengers were a miscellaneous group but we had a good deal of fun out of (chunk of page missing) I have a list of the passsengers & (page gone) over them all when I get home. (page gone) some mighty funny things. (page missing) stopped at Key West Florida and (corner chunk of page missing). The bill came for dinner so must go. Will write you as often as I can & if youwill address lettters to San Antonio I will get them from there as that will probably be my headquarters. Write me as often as you can darling for you know I love to hear from you so much. With all the love you can imagine for yourself I send you kisses by the hundred & will stop now & get my dinner & rush for the steamer. ____ Ever Yours ___
(2nd letter)
This letter gives the context for the following letter where some seven months later he completes his work in Brazoria, Texas. B. Autograph Letter, Signed. Brazoria, Texas. February 8 [1892]. To his wife Mary “Polly” Sage. Handwritten letter 25.5 cm. 6 pp. Some 1700 words. A great letter from a Hartford, Connecticut lawyer in Texas on business. Describes his trip by train and riverboat to Brazoria, Texas to attend court, traveling on the riverboat “Alice Blair,” with colorful descriptions of the voyage, African American workers on the boat and the town of Brazoria:
(The letter in full.)
My Sweet Darling Wife,
The court adjourned last night until this a.m., so I have just about time to drop you a line & let you know where I am & where I am going from here. Well, sweetheart, the crowd of “boys” -- 12 in number, has been hanging around here since 2:30 Thurs. “We all” came down from Houston to Columbia by rail. When we reached Columbia, a great big, 7 foot tall coon stood on the platform of the dry goods box depot, & with a voice that sounded like a foghorn in distress, began to bellow “Ho for a sail.” “Speed, safety & comfortable.” “Right from the board walk to the Palace steamer Alice Blair.” Darling, it was the only way to get to Brazoria, so we all went down & got aboard. It was an old float boat with a water wheel at the stern for locomotion & an upper deck, where they serve meals, sold rum & gave you a shave for 15¢. Such a hashed up, sloppy dinner as we had, you can perhaps imagine without my going into detail. We eat down in the bow of the boat to enjoy the scenery of the famous Brazos River & staring us in the face was a sign about 10 ft. square with the words “gents will not & others must not put their feet on the railing.” Quinn Horton took a shave, & after the barber & cook had finished the dishes, they came out on the deck, & with a violin & guitar gave us some regular old sugarcane melodies. Of course they were both niggers – nobody would work at manual labor in a steamboat except a nigger. The Brazos River, Polly dear, is about 100 foot wide in some places between Columbia and here & some places were only just wide enough to let the old boat through. Trees have washed some into the river & instead of getting them out of the way they squirm around & get the boat over them the best way they can. I think some fellow must have been going from the Brazos River in the “Alice Blair” when he wrote “we’re going down the ribber (sic) on the Gospel Raft, like Noah on the good old ark, etc.” It took us about 1 1/2 hours to reach here & since coming we have practically owned the town. We filled up the hotels to overflowing. Captain Harris, Quinn Horton & myself all sleep in one room about 6 x 8. Have been kept busy night & day since Thursday, but we have now given concessions to Groton & our bids are filed. We are to leave here about 10 o’clock & go up the river on “Alice” to Columbia & from there to Houston. Frank Conger from Groton, New York, came into Houston Thursday & has been down here ever since. His two Texas agent are here also and if they don’t get the work it won’t be for want of representation. Brazoria County has the reputation of standing first in the number of murders committed in the State of Texas. You can almost smell murder in the air as you walk along the streets. I had a chat with an old doctor of this county last night & he told me he had attended about 200 cases of shootings & stabbings & the like. Such a storyteller as he was! Have I mentioned the “Kangaroo Court” to you sweetest? Well, don’t let me forget to tell you about it, for it is the most ridiculous thing I ever heard of - shall reach Houston sometime this p.m., & as I have some business to attend to may not get a chance to see Lana, but rather think I may. There is to be a big letting(?) at Galveston, Monday. I’m first going to run down in one train & and back in the next to San Antonio & see if I can’t finish up my business & get out of here. …..”
The last part of the letter concerns his missing his wife and “civilization” and his exchange of letters with his client who accused him of improperly conducting his business in Texas: He wondered why it was that every man who came to Texas always got balled up & did business in such a left handed, slip shod way & that I was about as bad as Parson Pendleton, etc,. etc. [A reference to R. E. Lee’s artillery chief, whose name became synonymous with being a useless fool]. He reports his detailed lawyerly response and his request for an apology for these accusations.
A wonderful, firsthand account of Brazoria, Texas and river boat travel on the Brazos in the late Nineteenth Century.
