Searching for Cora Sue - 4 - The Trip

September 19th, 1910

Gathering all the courage I possessed, I spoke to Franklin about my trip after dinner this evening. I have written down more or less how the conversation went.

“Franklin, I have heard back from my relatives, and none of them has any information about Cora Sue.”

“Ah, well, in that case, I will arrange for a private investigator to take on the search, unless you have seen sense and decided to let the matter lie.”

“I don’t want a private investigator. That sounds so shoddy. I want to find her myself.”

“You do not have the strength to undertake such a journey.”

“I am perfectly fit - and am taking very good care of myself - as you well know. I do appreciate that you might be happier if I had a traveling companion. I wonder if you, yourself, might like to
accompany me. I know that it would take time for you to get someone to take over your patients, and make arrangements for all your other work to be postponed for a month or so, but it would mean so much to me if you could come along. We could think of it as a second honeymoon.”

“Well, that is a very pretty idea - and, I must say it is tempting - but practically speaking, it is just not possible. I do not wish to be absent from my work over the next year. There are too many things
at a critical point, and, I just could not do it. I am sorry to disappoint you, darling, but I must say no. Perhaps we might get a weekend away someplace - just the two of us - perhaps to Niagara where we went for our first honeymoon. What do you say about that?”

“I would enjoy that very much, too, Franklin, and I will hold you to it. But it won’t replace my trip to find Cora Sue.”

“Be realistic. That would be a very hard trip on you. Hours in uncomfortable train coaches - staying at unknown hotels. How would you even go about looking for her? Have you thought this ridiculous
idea through at all?”

“Yes, of course I have, and it is not ridiculous. I have found out about luxury train coaches that would speed me to Chicago. And, also the train from there to Denver is reputed to be very wonderful. It is
such an opportunity for me to travel. Who knows when or if I will ever have such an opportunity again.” I emphasized those words in a way so he would take my meaning without coming right out and saying -if I don’t go soon, I may be dead.

“I can appreciate that you like the idea of travel, and that you have time on your hands now that Frankie is gone. Perhaps you could do more voluntary work at church - or arrange to give music lessons again. You enjoyed doing that. And, you could always try for more concert bookings. I am sure there are many places near by that would love to avail themselves of your great musical talent.”

“No, Franklin. There is no use you trying to side track me into doing something else. This is what I want to do, and what I feel I must do. I can think of nothing else. I spend all my time planning
how to go about doing it. I will go, if you approve or not.”

“So what I think doesn’t matter to you anymore?”

“What I think and want obviously doesn’t matter in the slightest to you.”

“I’ll go with you,” said Mrs. Temple in a very soft voice. I had not even considered her as a traveling companion. She had been living with us since her husband died - and we got along okay - but each of us had our own set of friends. She has a small apartment within our house, so the only time we regularly meet is at the evening meal. I was dumbfounded.

“Unless you don’t want me,” she added.

“Oh, yes, I do want you. I just cannot believe you have offered. I am so grateful You will not regret it. I will make sure you have a wonderful time,” I effused.

“And, what about me?” growled my husband. “You are both going off and leaving me to cope on my own. I would expect that my mother, if not my wife, had more interest in my needs.”

“You are grown up, Franklin, and perfectly capable of taking care of yourself,” said my newly emerging friend and companion. “You could stay at your club for the month we are gone. And you could come back here on weekends to make sure everything was in order, if you wished.”

“I absolutely forbid you to go,” he stormed.

“You do not have the right to do that.”

“I won’t finance you.”

“I can finance us both,” said Kate, growing stronger and more likeable with each utterance.

Franklin threw down his napkin and stormed out of the room. I went over to Kate and put my arms around her. “I don’t know how I can thank you enough for this,” I said.

“And, I thank you, as well,” she added, “as suddenly I think my dull life is going to get a lot more interesting.”

Franklin came back. Addressing his mother he said, “You should know something about this woman you are planning to accompany to the ends of the earth. She is dying. She has Bright’s Disease - her kidneys are failing more each day - and she should not be away from home and medical care.”

I was dumbfounded. He had promised me faithfully that he would not tell her about my condition.

“All the more reason to go as quickly as we can,” she replied, when she had recovered herself from the shock. “Mattie looks healthy enough to me at the moment, and I am sure her mental health
which will help her physical help can only be stimulated by this trip. I have not been a doctor’s wife and a doctor’s mother for all these years to be frightened off by a bit of potential illness.”

“She might have fits, headaches, back ache that she can’t tolerate.”

“I think you don’t give me much credit for intelligence. I know what Bright’s Disease is. I have had friends who've had it - and, yes, they have died. But she is not going to go from being as well as
she is at the moment immediately into the last stages of the disease. And she is taking care of herself. I have noted the changes she has made over the last few weeks in her diet - and wondered if she was ill. And now that I know, it makes me admire her all the more for wanting to spend her last year - if it should turn out to be that - doing something she desparately wants to do. Franklin, I really am ashamed at your lack of compassion for your wife.”

“Go then. Go and good luck to you. Just don’t expect me to pick up the pieces.” Again he stormed out of the room.

“He has said we can go!” I laughed. “So let’s sit down right now and plan the date and then tomorrow I will purchase the tickets and make arrangements for a hotel in Denver.”

“I hear the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver is highly recommended,” said Kate.

We hugged each other again, and sat down and made as many plans as we could. The first decision was easy to make. We would leave in a week’s time - Monday the 26th of September.

After discussing the matter with Kate, as I am now calling her, at her suggestion, we decided to travel by the Penn State railway coach. I went to the train station, just down our road, and was able to purchase our tickets – with the return half being open as far as date was concerned.

I went to the telephone exchange in town, and asked them how best to find out about hotels in Denver, and asked if she had a listing for a place called the Brown Palace. She had a directory and was able to connect me.

The Brown Palace seems to be just the sort of place we want to stay - central and luxurious. After consulting with Kate, I sent off a check for our deposit. We booked from September 27th - October 4th, but I said we might well be altering our dates, depending on how things went on our trip.

I bought a camera. I want to record the trip for posterity - which I suppose means Frankie and his children, should he ever have any. It pains me more than I can say that I will most likely never see Frankie married and my grandchildren.

I bought a Brownie camera for $1 which seems quite easy to use, and was pleased to see that the film for six pictures was included and already inside. “Made of wood and jute board with an imitation leather covering and is equipped (I am quoting from the man in the shop) with a simple fixed-focus lens and rotary shutter. It is capable of producing successful exposures in relatively strong sunlight with subjects in focus from several feet to around 100 feet. It has no viewfinder but is marked with V-shaped sight lines on the top of the box which aid, when held at waist level, in aiming the camera toward the subject. The Brownie is pre-loaded with roll film, and yields six 2 1/4 inch square images
per strip which can be tracked through a built-in red indexing window.”

I was told that developing, printing, and mounting the prints would cost 40 cents.

We left, as planned, on Monday, September 26. The local train took us into New York. We then took a cab cross town to Penn Station at 7th Avenue and 32nd Street and caught the Pennsylvania Special at 4 p.m. Our 84 passenger coach was very luxurious, with a maid and club car attendant. Kate availed herself of the service to have a manicure, and I tried out the shower bath, before we settled down in our beds for the night. There was no chance to get bored, as we not only had the scenery rushing past, but we had a selection of magazines and newspapers to read.

Our porter told us the story of how this train had set a record for the fastest ever run.

“It was between Crestline, Ohio, and Fort Wayne, Indiana, and I know what you think, Ma'am, that it was a very flat piece of land, and I have to agree with you that it was. Now you would have thought this was a circus train going back that day. If it had been, it couldn’t have attracted a larger crowd. Farmers from the country for miles around drove their biggest wagons, loaded to the guards
with wives and their children and their neighbor’s children to see the 18 hour train go by. They didn't see much. The cry of the whistle and a cloud of smoke warned them of its coming. Then a flash of red and in another second their straining eyes were gazing at the spot where the train had been. It is almost as easy to mark the flight of an artillery shell as that of a train making from 85 to 100 miles an hour.”

We had a good night’s sleep, and arrived in Chicago at 8.55 a.m. as scheduled.

We then had to catch the train to Denver, which was on the Burlington line. Mr. Lester had written
in his book about his travels how wonderful he thought this train was and he was proved right. Attached to the express engine were the hotel-cars, (pictured above)  which were every bit as luxurious as our Pennsylvania Special had been, although they weren’t quite as fast. I read what
Mr. Lester had said in his book about it.

To one who has never seen these modern contrivances in railroad travel, they are of unusual interest. Such a car is very ingenious in its arrangement. It contains a kitchen - the existence of which would not be detected by any unpleasant odors - wherein is a cooking range, a
sink with hot and cold water, a wine closet, a china closet, and provision lockers. It can carry stores for forty people during a journey from Chicago to San Francisco, and is supplied with 1,000
napkins, 200 table-cloths, 400 towels of different kinds, ample bed-linen, &c. &c. The commissariat is as ample as can be wished, and the tables will seat forty persons. By day you can write comfortably at a table, in a room closed off if you wish, or lounge in easy arm-chairs, or stretch
yourself out at full length on a sofa, while by night these arm-chairs and sofas are transformed into beds, upon which you cannot fail to sleep soundly. The cars are heated by hot-water pipes, are
thoroughly ventilated, made with double windows, and so constructed that the noise of the train is almost entirely overcome. The introduction of hotel and sleeping-cars upon American railroads has
made traveling almost as comfortable as staying in one’s own drawing-room.

I can do no better than quote Mr. Lester’s book in describing what happened as we left Omaha, for a train journey which was a first experience for me.

At Antelope, 451 miles west of Omaha, we have our first view of the Rocky Mountains, whose snow-capped peaks rise high above the Black Hills, often hiding themselves in the clouds. To these mountains we look anxiously, as they seem impassable; and we await with eager eye to behold the triumph of the engineer who has laid the track for the iron horse over their very summit.

Cheyenne
- We now enter the young Territory of Wyoming. We have passed through the Lodge Pole Creek Valley, which abounds with herds of antelope, and where are found deer, bears, and wolves. Just before we reach Cheyenne, we see directly before us the Rocky Mountains, lifting their huge, dark sides against the sky.

Cheyenne is the terminus of the second division of the road and is also the junction of the Denver Pacific Railroad. (where we will be heading south.) A few houses around the dépôt, the Company’s buildings, and a few scattered over the plain, form the city. It is 516 miles from Omaha and 106 from Denver.