Francis Davis Millet to Alfred Parsons: On Board R.M.S. "Titanic", April 11, 2012

"Queer lot of people on the ship"

This entry is part of the feature Jonathan Ned Katz: Francis Davis Millet and Charles Warren Stoddard, 1874-1912

Transcription of the Letter

ON BOARD R.M.S. "TITANIC."

APRIL 11, 1912

Dear Alfred,

I got yours this morning and was glad to hear from you.

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I thought I told you my ship was the Titanic. She has everything but taxicabs and theatres. Table d' hote, restaurant a la carte, gymnazium, turkish bath, squash court, palm gardens, smoking rooms for "ladies and gents", intended I fancy to keep the women out of the men's smoking room which they infest in the German and French steamers.

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The fittings are in the order of Haddon Hall and are exceedingly agreeable in design and color.

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As for the rooms they are larger than the ordinary hotel room and much more luxurious with wooden bedsteads, dressing tables, hot and cold water, etc., etc., electric fans, electric heater and all. The suites with their damask hangings and mahogany oak furniture are really very sumptuous and tasteful.

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I have the best room I ever had in a ship and it isn't one of the best either, a great long corridor in which to hang my clothes and a square window as big as the one in the studio alongside the large light. No end of furniture cupboards, wardrobe, dressing table, couch etc., etc. Not a bit like going to sea.

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You can have no idea of the spaciousness of this ship and the extent and size of the decks. The boat deck has an uninterrupted space as long as our tennis court almost, and the chair decks are nearly as wide as our large courtyard, or quite. 500 people don't make a show on the decks.

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Queer lot of people on the ship. Looking over the list I only find three or four I know but there are a good many of "our people" I think and a number of obnoxious ostentatious American women, the scourge of any place they infest and worse on shipboard than anywhere. Many of them carry tiny dogs and lead husbands around like pet lambs. I tell you when she starts out the American woman is a buster. She should be put in a harem and kept there.

Yes I had the Devil of a time in Rome and if this sort of thing goes on I shall chuck it. [Millet was involved with the reorganization of the American Academy in Rome] I won't lose my time and my temper too. I think [Wiliiam Rutherford] Mead will resign. Lily will tell you about her [Mrs. W. R. Mead, the former Olga Kilyeni], the b... [bitch] she makes trouble everywhere and he, poor wretch, has to dangle about her day and night. I pity him.

I wrote from Paris the day we arrived. I couldn't tell where we should stop because I didn't know whether Lily would go to the Grand or not. We found it excellent.

Yours always,

Frank