Letter June 8, 1917B Standardized Text
This is the “standardized text” version of the Mascot Moskovina documents. This version is presented in an easily readable and searchable format. Punctuation is modernized and inserted where needed for clarity. Abbreviations are spelled out, insertions are incorporated, and crossouts and duplicate words are deleted. First words in sentences have been capitalized; other capitalization issues have not been edited. Moskovina’s spelling is routinely irregular and creative; where it is possible to discern her meaning, spelling has been standardized.
[p. 1]
[letterhead]
GRAN HOTEL MAURY
VISCONTI Y VELASQUEZ
SUCESORES
de Angelo Bertolotto
CASILLA CORREO 1104
TELEFONO 133
Lima-Perú
[no date]
My Darling little Nondas
It is ages ago since I have written you a letter and from your letter I see you did not receive all the p.c.'s I sent you, so I am going to enclose some in this letter with some stamps and the Snap shots I promised you. You will hear from your dear Mama what a terrible place Guayaquil was, but there was one thing that made it a memorial place for good times: My Husband had made the acquaintance of some gentlemen there. One was the Roman President of a big bang [bank?] there and the others also were big business men. Well they invited us out nearly every day to Tea or after the performance and sometimes to dinner. At one house we went to right outside in the Country. The man had built a wonderful villa, The furniture all coming from Barcelona, and the garden was exquisite. It had a miniature stream in it and in the middle of this it had a little island on which he had the house built in miniature. This house was the home of 3 wonderful Parrots with million colored plumes and one white Australian Cockatoo, And the whole garden was masses of wonderful roses and flowers. The house stood right on the edge of the river and from the Balcony one could see nearly the whole of Guayaquil.
< I am addressing this letter to you dear Nondas so that if the post man should bring it whilst your dear Mama is out you can open it. And I am sure your dear Mama won’t mind; if I addressed it to her you would have to wait till she came home. >
< I can’t imagine as anything as a tiny wee tot as I last saw you at the Midway gardens >
[p.] 2
Then The day before we left they gave a dinner party. First we went < on > launch on the River then to dine. We had a panama hat on each of our places worth in American money 50 dollars as there in Ecuador they make the finest hats. Ours were Christobol hats. The most expensive are the Jipijapa Hats; they are like linen made by the Indians. Then they have the most wonderful hammocks there handwoven like a Panama hat. I received a present of one of those and a little tiny native bird called a Mantito. It sings sweetly and has an orange colored front and its head back & tail are blue black and sometimes mauve coloured; it is a darling. And then I had two little parakeets different shades of green and deep orange under the wings. Well, I arrived safely with my birdies here to the Hotel. And as they were so tame I let them crawl around their cage as their wings were clipped and they could not fly. Suddenly I missed one; he had fallen into the street and a man had quickly picked him up and stuck him into his pocket and ran off. I was heart broken for that was the tamest birdie I ever saw. It ate from my hand, came to me when I called it, and oh it was just too sweet. The other one is not so tame But I have hopes that it will tame. I have it and my little Mantito left. Ecuador was warm in the afternoon & cool in the evening. But here in Lima it is quite cold sometimes especially in the evenings. They say the further south we are going the colder it will be. I sleep with two blankets on my bed so I can’t imagine what the other places will be like. The Incas, a very ferocious tribe of Indians here in the interior, had many years ago a way of mummying heads and making a human head by taking the bones from the skull then shrank the skin so that the head is no bigger than a small coconut. I have seen one and it is tiny human face born of course with long black hair, just the head they kept. A Lady who came from Chimbote one of the ports, Mrs. Reeves they have a huge sugar plantation about 12 miles inland and all the boats that stop at Chimbote a day have their English people go and visit these people who
[p. 3]
make everyone welcome who comes there. Well they have come to Lima here especially to see us. Well this lady told me that about 15 years ago a Captain coming along that way had a man on board, a missionary who wanted to go way into the interior where the Indians sometimes practice cannibalism. All advised him not to go but he persisted and went. He was particularly marked by his red hair. Well, nothing was ever heard of him but about two years later just below Pacasmayo [?] [page torn] another port on the way from Ecuador to Lima there is a tiny port and if the weather is not too rough the boats stop there (our boat did not stop there). Well, there the Indians come from the interior and sell their curios to the Boat. Well an indian came on the boat of this same captain with some of these mummied heads to sell. They get about 100 to 150 dollars for one. Among these heads the captain saw a little white faced one with red hair which he of course recognized by the hair as that missionary he brought down that way two years ago. This is a true story and the heads are genuine; I have seen them. They have a nice Loo [?] and a lovely Museum with these Inca relics in. Whilst Stopping at the different
[p. 4]
ports the boat could never go near land as the water had too much under swell in it and sand, branches and rock prevented it. So they loaded cows from huge truck boats onto our boat by ropes around their stomachs or taken up by their horns. The boat rolled on their waters like on a high sea because the water is terrible rough. Sometimes the boats could not get near at all and have to pass right on. We have now when we leave here on the 17th June another trip of 6 days to Valparaiso Chile. from there we go to Santiago, Chile and there to Buenos Aires Argentina. where we stop 2 months. The other day we gave a Benefit performance for Pavlova. That means that people who like her especially give "X" flowers and presents and that all the money that comes in goes all for "X" as the company is touring under "Bracale the Opera Hymnasio" and not Pavlova', Well, did she get flowers? I should say so. She got a huge life sized Swan in white roses made on a lake of flowers, and another was a huge Dragonfly of flowers. It was marvelous. Then there was another a urn of flowers [sketch of urn] white roses with lilac flowers growing from the top then the [word missing] of the was made as if it was flowers in a basket but there was no basket [page torn—sketch of flower arrangement] And then a huge harp [sketch of harp] every part of flowers and four huge bunches of flowers and a filigree silver Basket a foot high, which took 10 months to make filled with violets that cost $300 to $400 dollars and a 5 pieces of Inca ancient gold work, each worth $100 dollars apiece and a huge gold plate half the size of this page & very thick. engraved upon from some Peruvian corporation. and 4 huge bunches of flowers. And when the curtain was ready to go down she got flowers thrown from all sides; the stage was just covered with roses. I will try and get you a copy of the picture that was taken. I was in the picture. Lucky for me, don’t you think so? Now really I must stop for my arm is giving out. I have to wait till tomorrow to write a letter
[letter continues in margins of p. 3]
< home as I can hardly finish this. Perhaps you will think it too long and tiresome as I am a bad story teller. Now I do hope get this from me. I hope Both you and your dear Mama are well and that the flower make good programs. The flower I have enclosed comes from ‘X’s benefit so it especially valuable. Write me a long letter of yourself and your dear Mama. What do you do about your dancing? Write me and tell me if you know the names of the steps then I will send you some exercises to do. Tell me if you understand this
jeté right back,
" left "
do 10 of these and do the same from the front to back.
Échappé, jeté jeté, échappé changement de pied 10 times and plié each time never do stiffly and point your feet. With Love and Kisses from Mascot >
[p. 1]
[letterhead]
GRAN HOTEL MAURY
VISCONTI Y VELASQUEZ
SUCESORES
de Angelo Bertolotto
CASILLA CORREO 1104
TELEFONO 133
Lima-Perú
[no date]
My Darling little Nondas
It is ages ago since I have written you a letter and from your letter I see you did not receive all the p.c.'s I sent you, so I am going to enclose some in this letter with some stamps and the Snap shots I promised you. You will hear from your dear Mama what a terrible place Guayaquil was, but there was one thing that made it a memorial place for good times: My Husband had made the acquaintance of some gentlemen there. One was the Roman President of a big bang [bank?] there and the others also were big business men. Well they invited us out nearly every day to Tea or after the performance and sometimes to dinner. At one house we went to right outside in the Country. The man had built a wonderful villa, The furniture all coming from Barcelona, and the garden was exquisite. It had a miniature stream in it and in the middle of this it had a little island on which he had the house built in miniature. This house was the home of 3 wonderful Parrots with million colored plumes and one white Australian Cockatoo, And the whole garden was masses of wonderful roses and flowers. The house stood right on the edge of the river and from the Balcony one could see nearly the whole of Guayaquil.
< I am addressing this letter to you dear Nondas so that if the post man should bring it whilst your dear Mama is out you can open it. And I am sure your dear Mama won’t mind; if I addressed it to her you would have to wait till she came home. >
< I can’t imagine as anything as a tiny wee tot as I last saw you at the Midway gardens >
[p.] 2
Then The day before we left they gave a dinner party. First we went < on > launch on the River then to dine. We had a panama hat on each of our places worth in American money 50 dollars as there in Ecuador they make the finest hats. Ours were Christobol hats. The most expensive are the Jipijapa Hats; they are like linen made by the Indians. Then they have the most wonderful hammocks there handwoven like a Panama hat. I received a present of one of those and a little tiny native bird called a Mantito. It sings sweetly and has an orange colored front and its head back & tail are blue black and sometimes mauve coloured; it is a darling. And then I had two little parakeets different shades of green and deep orange under the wings. Well, I arrived safely with my birdies here to the Hotel. And as they were so tame I let them crawl around their cage as their wings were clipped and they could not fly. Suddenly I missed one; he had fallen into the street and a man had quickly picked him up and stuck him into his pocket and ran off. I was heart broken for that was the tamest birdie I ever saw. It ate from my hand, came to me when I called it, and oh it was just too sweet. The other one is not so tame But I have hopes that it will tame. I have it and my little Mantito left. Ecuador was warm in the afternoon & cool in the evening. But here in Lima it is quite cold sometimes especially in the evenings. They say the further south we are going the colder it will be. I sleep with two blankets on my bed so I can’t imagine what the other places will be like. The Incas, a very ferocious tribe of Indians here in the interior, had many years ago a way of mummying heads and making a human head by taking the bones from the skull then shrank the skin so that the head is no bigger than a small coconut. I have seen one and it is tiny human face born of course with long black hair, just the head they kept. A Lady who came from Chimbote one of the ports, Mrs. Reeves they have a huge sugar plantation about 12 miles inland and all the boats that stop at Chimbote a day have their English people go and visit these people who
[p. 3]
make everyone welcome who comes there. Well they have come to Lima here especially to see us. Well this lady told me that about 15 years ago a Captain coming along that way had a man on board, a missionary who wanted to go way into the interior where the Indians sometimes practice cannibalism. All advised him not to go but he persisted and went. He was particularly marked by his red hair. Well, nothing was ever heard of him but about two years later just below Pacasmayo [?] [page torn] another port on the way from Ecuador to Lima there is a tiny port and if the weather is not too rough the boats stop there (our boat did not stop there). Well, there the Indians come from the interior and sell their curios to the Boat. Well an indian came on the boat of this same captain with some of these mummied heads to sell. They get about 100 to 150 dollars for one. Among these heads the captain saw a little white faced one with red hair which he of course recognized by the hair as that missionary he brought down that way two years ago. This is a true story and the heads are genuine; I have seen them. They have a nice Loo [?] and a lovely Museum with these Inca relics in. Whilst Stopping at the different
[p. 4]
ports the boat could never go near land as the water had too much under swell in it and sand, branches and rock prevented it. So they loaded cows from huge truck boats onto our boat by ropes around their stomachs or taken up by their horns. The boat rolled on their waters like on a high sea because the water is terrible rough. Sometimes the boats could not get near at all and have to pass right on. We have now when we leave here on the 17th June another trip of 6 days to Valparaiso Chile. from there we go to Santiago, Chile and there to Buenos Aires Argentina. where we stop 2 months. The other day we gave a Benefit performance for Pavlova. That means that people who like her especially give "X" flowers and presents and that all the money that comes in goes all for "X" as the company is touring under "Bracale the Opera Hymnasio" and not Pavlova', Well, did she get flowers? I should say so. She got a huge life sized Swan in white roses made on a lake of flowers, and another was a huge Dragonfly of flowers. It was marvelous. Then there was another a urn of flowers [sketch of urn] white roses with lilac flowers growing from the top then the [word missing] of the was made as if it was flowers in a basket but there was no basket [page torn—sketch of flower arrangement] And then a huge harp [sketch of harp] every part of flowers and four huge bunches of flowers and a filigree silver Basket a foot high, which took 10 months to make filled with violets that cost $300 to $400 dollars and a 5 pieces of Inca ancient gold work, each worth $100 dollars apiece and a huge gold plate half the size of this page & very thick. engraved upon from some Peruvian corporation. and 4 huge bunches of flowers. And when the curtain was ready to go down she got flowers thrown from all sides; the stage was just covered with roses. I will try and get you a copy of the picture that was taken. I was in the picture. Lucky for me, don’t you think so? Now really I must stop for my arm is giving out. I have to wait till tomorrow to write a letter
[letter continues in margins of p. 3]
< home as I can hardly finish this. Perhaps you will think it too long and tiresome as I am a bad story teller. Now I do hope get this from me. I hope Both you and your dear Mama are well and that the flower make good programs. The flower I have enclosed comes from ‘X’s benefit so it especially valuable. Write me a long letter of yourself and your dear Mama. What do you do about your dancing? Write me and tell me if you know the names of the steps then I will send you some exercises to do. Tell me if you understand this
jeté right back,
" left "
do 10 of these and do the same from the front to back.
Échappé, jeté jeté, échappé changement de pied 10 times and plié each time never do stiffly and point your feet. With Love and Kisses from Mascot >
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