TNGenWeb Project/TNGenNet, Inc., (a Tennessee nonprofit public benefit corporation). "The Howard-Smith Collection" Transcription copyright: 1998, by Mrs. F. A. Augsbury; all rights reserved. The originals are at the McClung Library in Knoxville. This file is in text format. Please use your browser's "back" button to return to the previous page. ******************************************************************************* To: R. Spurrier & Lida Howard-Smith From: Marion (Howard-Smith) Alexander, American Legation, Athens, Greece ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- American Legation Athens. Feby. 6, 96 My Very dear Brother & Sister, This must be a letter to both of you as I am so behind with all my letters that I shall be long catching up. In the first place, many, many thanks for your picture, dear Sperry. I am awfully glad to have it, though I do think you a handsomer man than the picture would let you be. Eleanor too, says Uncle Sperry is much handsomer than that. However it is a picture of you & I keep it where I can see it every day & glad I am to have it. I have not been well for about two weeks, even then I had only been well a few days from a five days headache that nearly laid me low. The first of the two operations that I hope will start me into good health, is over & I am up & about again though I have not been going out at night lately. Dinners, balls, receptions & teas have been keeping them going night after night, that is, Eben & Eleanor. I am always ready to hear all about things when they come home. This has been a very gay season but as lent begins early it will soon be over. Eben & Eleanor learn to be very independent of me. They gave two dinners while I was in bed, but they are gracious enough to seem pleased when I can be on hand. Eleanor came back from her three weeks visit to Zante much improved in health & spirits. She had a charming time in a great, big old house, full of young people. I am so glad to hear such good reports of you, Lida, as Sperry gives me. That you are stronger than you have been for a long time &, consequently, truly able to go about & enjoy life. That Logan is stronger too, &, up to the time Sperry wrote, free from Rheumatism, is good news. He will, I hope, outgrow that tendency. Elise seems to me tiny, but that is very sweet in a girl & I know what a comfort & pleasure she must be to both of you. I shall not know where to place her when I come home, having left her a little baby. As for Leight's prospects, I just had a very cheerful letter from him & believe he will be successful one of these days, but he does have disappointments & failures enough to discourage any one but him. At present Teddy seems more quiet & less full of noise than I have been used to hearing. Father's & Mother's health seems wonderfully even for their age. I feel always a little uneasy about them being so far away, but all the reports I get are such as to encourage me in the hope of finding them about as I left them when the four years are over. The younger children keep about the same, though heavy colds pulled each one down some for a while. They all went to a childrens' afternoon ball, with a cotillion, last week & had a grand time. Margaret is funny though-she prefers a quiet time at home & says dancing makes her dizzy. Howard is much more of a ham than Alex. He likes such things & loves to go up to a girl & making a low bow, with his heels together like an officer, ask the favor of the dance with her, & the girls like him. Alex says it is all such stuff!! My two boys are so different. The young prince Andrew who sends for them to play with him every chance he gets, is fondest of Howard, & so is the king, but Alex is liked so much by those who know him best. Eben is sitting opposite me, reading his paper & smoking, poor man he asked me almost imploringly, this afternoon, if there was anywhere to go tonight & said "Thank God" when I said no, it is his only evening of quiet this week, or next either, I suppose, as the week after is lent, so everything will be rushed along the last week of the Carnival. However, his excellency is looking much better than when we left America & keeps wonderfully well. I get very cheerful letters from Emma. She seems up to her ears in all sorts of things, babies, doctors, Salvation Armies, servants, Sunday school scholars, with here & there a trifle of dissipation thrown in, like serving tea at the Y.M.C.A. rooms, or going to a concert. She is a happy little creature, God bless her! There really must be an end of things, & I think there might soon to be of this letter, as I am apt to fill the pages with what will surely bore you both. You all saw in the papers the death of the Metropolitan of Greece, I suppose. he was said to be a very fine man, & more than brilliant, a good man, very rich but also very charitable. They had a splendid funeral, but no longer have the horrible custom of seating the dead man in his chair & placing it in the Church for all to come & kiss the extended hand, & then carrying it, in the chair, through the streets to the cemetery. The last Metropolitan seeing that awful ceremony in his predecessor when he was dying urged that they would not do him so, & that broke up the ancient custom. Many of the Greeks disapprove of the change very much. The court & diplomatic corps have been in mourning for the grand duke of Battenburgh which means that we had to wear black for a week. Now, with dear love for you all, I really must say goodnight. M.H.A. I forgot to say, I had a long, sweet letter from Emma Benedict Knapp a few days ago, I had written to her when I saw the notice of Carrie's death. Will Van Voorhees had left her & her children penniless & run off to Mexico. I have not heard from Emma before for 20 years.