Olga Scholtz to Charles W. Chesnutt, 10 August 1932
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[1]
August 10, 1932.
Dear Mr. Chesnutt:
Words cannot express how pleased and happy I was to hear from you. Thank you very, very much for writing to me. I received your letter early this morning and I am replying almost immediately.
You say that the office will be so clean that it will take you some time to get used to it. This I believe is only too true, for Miss Skarabotta1 laughingly said, while we were cleaning the vault, that after we get through cleaning no one will know where a single item is. We clean so thoroughly, you know. And when it comes to throwing articles away, why she says she is right there. We have n't thrown anything of yours away, but instead we put everything into boxes and are leaving it for you to arrange just as you wish, upon your return.
It certainly must be interesting to set, or rather to bait such a minnow trap as you describe and, just as you say, it is cheaper and better. It's a case of catching a big fish with a little one, is n't it? Sometimes we go out with hopes of catching nothing more (nor less) than a large sized minnow. We have never know the thrill of tussling with one of those really large fish -- the struggle that thrills every true fisherman (the nibble, a little tug on the line, then a decided declaration of war between the fisherman and the fish. That's when there's trouble on the line. Sometimes the fish gets away, but oh, what a grand feeling of having truly won a battle when the fish is finally added! I'd give anything in the world to be able to do that. Most likely though, I'd get a good ducking in the lake, and the fish would laugh in my face, "Imagine such a slip of a girl trying to land me."
Before the passing of many more weeks, Cleveland will be the host to many folks from all over the United States, when they come here to attend the air races.2 As I have never been to the races before, I hope to go this year. I wonder if it is true when they say that many who are air-minded get lightheaded? I don't know, I'm sure, but they also say that minds are like parachutes -- they function only when open. There may be some truth in that. My one desire, like every one else's, is to fly in an airplane, but my mother says that that is plane foolishness. I know of many others who are 'plane' foolish, too.
Miss Kormos3 is all rested from her vacation, and she is back at work. We went to Shakespeare Gardens, as she has probably written you. When we were there, we also walked through the German garden, the Italian garden and the Hebrew garden.4 This Sunday we plan to go to the Brookside Zoo, on the West Side in Brooklyn.5 We hope to enjoy ourselves very much.
You also speak of the children's playing circus. Was Fatima, the lady well supplied with sofa cushions? I remember when I was a great deal younger taking my father's leather belt and strapping sofa cushions to myself, in that way 'amply' filling the bill of fat lady. I'm quite sure
2 CWC
[2]
that you are enjoying your vacation, and hope that Johnny6 as well as all the others are too.
Miss Skarabotta is away -- vacationing -- so Miss Kormos and I are cleaning house this week. Bobby, Miss Skarabotta's nephew, came to the office with Miss Skarabotta this Monday. They attended the ball game that afternoon when Cleveland played Washington -- and lost the game by a score of 7 to 6. Cleveland might have won for in the last inning -- the ninth -- they had two men on base and Clint Brown, one of the pitchers, was up to bat, but he struck out when he might have won the game. Cleveland has been batting pretty steadily, having maintained its position in second place for many a week. But lately they have been slipping and are now in third place. They still have hopes of winning the pennant, not this year, but some time in the vague future. I hope they reach the goal towards which they are striving. Johnny Burnett, a Cleveland player, made the first home run in the Cleveland Stadium. That was in the game that was played on Sunday, the 7th. Just a few innings before this, Earl Averill, Cleveland's star 'home runner' was robbed of a home run by a brilliant bit of catching on the part of the Washington team.7 I like baseball, because I understand it. It's an easy game. Has Johnny any aspirations in that direction? Most youngsters here want to be 'Joe Vosmiks'.8
The latest fad in the office is golf playing. Miss Moore purchased new clubs last week, and this evening she is to play with some friends of hers. Miss Skarabotta says she can throw a bit of turf twenty feet, and a golf ball only ten. She gets stiff from playing golf -- not from hitting the ball, but from digging up the ground.
This, I believe, is all the gossip and news that I can think of. I hope that when your son9 arrives that you will 'reel'-ly awaken the lazy bass.
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. 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]
2. The National Air Races, inaugurated in 1920, were first held in Cleveland in 1929, again in 1931 and 1932, and then nine more times until the event was discontinued in 1949. The 1932 races were held from August 27 to September 5, 1932. [back]
3. 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]
4. The mentioned gardens were the first four of the now 33 Cleveland Cultural Gardens, intended to showcase the ethnic communities of the city. The first of these was the Shakespeare Garden (now the British Garden), dedicated in 1916 as part of Rockefeller Park. A Cultural Gardens League was formed to create additional gardens, beginning with the Hebrew (1926), the German (1929), and the Italian (1930). [back]
5. The Cleveland Zoological Park (now Cleveland Metroparks Zoo) was originally established in 1882 in Wade Park downtown, but between 1907 and 1916 was gradually moved to Brookside Park about 5 miles south, to make room for the new Cleveland Museum of Art. Because of its location, it was informally known as Brookside Zoo at the time. [back]
6. 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]
7. The game described here, between the Cleveland Indians (now Guardians) and the Washington Senators, took place on August 8, 1932, in the newly built Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Pitcher Clinton Harold Brown (1903–1955), infielder John Henderson Burnett (1904–1959), and outfielder Howard Earl Averill (1902–1983) all played for the Cleveland Indians in the early 1930s. The team finished fourth in the American League in 1932, one position behind the Washington Senators. [back]
8. Joseph Franklin "Joe" Vosmik (1910–1962), a native Clevelander, had joined the Cleveland Indians (now Guardians) in 1930 as an outfielder and stayed with the team until 1936; he later became a manager in the Indians' minor league system. [back]
9. Edwin Jackson Chesnutt (1883—1939) was the third child of Charles and Susan Chesnutt. Born in North Carolina, he spent his childhood in Cleveland, Ohio, graduated from Harvard University in 1905, and decided not to remain abroad after an extended stay in France in 1906. Instead, he trained and worked as a stenographer, including at the Tuskegee Institute from 1910–1912. After obtaining a degree in dentistry at Northwestern University in 1917, he became a dentist in Chicago. [back]
