Olga Scholtz to Charles W. Chesnutt, 2 August 1932
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August 2, 1932.
Ans.1
Dear Mr. Chesnutt:
You may be surprised to hear from me, but Miss Skarabotta2 tells me that you enjoy receiving letters, and, as I enjoy writing them, perhaps you will accept this one from me.
Your luck at fishing ought to be great, as every one wishes that you may have caught a great many fish. If there is anything that I enjoy so much, it is rising at approximately four o' clock in the morning, climbing into our old dilapitaded old Ford -- it runs like a motor boat -- and riding out to Fairport, Ohio, where the fishing is wonderful.3 What do you use for bait, if I may ask? The night before our proposed fishing venture, we all take flashlights, and search the lawns for night crawlers, or so we call them. That is the easiest way of getting bait that I know of. I dislike taking a shovel and really digging for worms. By this time, if the weather has beeen as fair as here in Clevelnad, you must have secured an enviable coat of tan.
Miss Skarabotta told me that while you were at Ludington,4 you came across a circus. Just two weeks ago, right in our vicinity a carnival -- and the trimmings that go with it -- was installed in one of the municipal playgrounds. In just a day's time, they had a ferris wheel, a merry-go-round, all the tents, booths and stands set up and 'ready for business'. Old as well as young people were drawn toward this spot, and they enjoyed themselves immensely. It was fun just walking around and around, trying to see what was to be seen for nothing. I ventured to walk into the tent where supposedly there was a ten foot mummy, a four foot and a half male and female pigmy, and a three-headed, three-armed and three-legged man -- all mummies -- were. As an added attraction there was a Princess Zulu who danced the original snake dance of the Hawaiians.
I suppose Johnny5 could have spent forever and a day just watching the performers, at the circus. So could I.
Miss Kormos6 got back today from her two-week vacation. All of this morning, I spent in washing your new desk, inside and out. And it is going to be polished after it dries thoroughly. The drawers are all to have new oil cloth put in. I think that all of this week is to be spent in cleaning out the cupboards.7
Please accept my sincerest wishes for your continued good health.
Sincerely yours, Olga ScholtzCorrespondent: An Olga Scholtz worked as a stenographer for Chesnutt & Moore. Most likely, this is the same person as Olga Scholtz Blabolil (1914–2009), the daughter of Czech immigrants, who got married in 1935 and lived in Cleveland's Brooklyn Heights neighborhood for the remainder of her life, where for many years she worked as an executive secretary for Cleveland Public Schools.
1. Chesnutt's response to Scholtz has not survived, but it is clear from her August 10, 1932, letter to him and from Helen Moore's reference to "letters received this week" on August 11, 1932, that he did answer sometime between August 2 and August 10. [back]
2. Emilie Skarabotta (1908–1990), the daughter of Hungarian immigrants, was a stenographer and notary public who worked for Chesnutt's and Helen Moore's stenography business in the early 1930s. She was eventually listed on the firm's letterhead. [back]
3. Fairport, Ohio (now Fairport Harbor), is a village on Lake Erie at the eastern edge of the Cleveland metropolitan area. [back]
4. Ludington, Michigan, is a former lumber town and port city located on Lake Michigan's eastern shore, about 40 miles west of Idlewild, Michigan, where the Chesnutt family spent summers. It attracted tourists to the Lake Michigan beaches, inland lakes, and area forests as early as the 1890s. [back]
5. Chesnutt's grandson "Johnnie," John Chesnutt Slade (1925–2011), spent much time with his grandparents as a small child, since he and his mother, Dorothy (1890–1954), lived with them until the fall of 1931, when her husband John G. Slade (1890–1976) completed his medical degree at Howard University. He and his mother also spent the summers with his grandparents in Idlewild, Michigan. [back]
6. Margaret Kormos Shuri (1910–1979), the daughter of Czech immigrants, was a bookkeeper who worked for Chesnutt & Moore from 1930 to 1932; she married in 1937. [back]
7. See Helen Moore's letter of August 22, 1932, regarding the second-hand office furniture that Chesnutt & Moore bought internally from the Union Trust Building for their offices. [back]
