home in her open
carriage, so she and her daughter and I rode through the empty streets
in the gray light for miles and miles, as, of course, I did not get out
of such company any sooner than I had to do. They had taken Irving's
robe of cardinal red and made it into cloaks, and they looked very odd
and eerie with their yellow hair and red capes, and talking as fast as
they could.

DICK.

CHAPTER VIII

CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA

About January 1, 1895, Richard accompanied by his friends Somers
Somerset and Lloyd C. Griscom, afterward our minister to Tokio and
ambassador to Brazil and Italy, started out on a leisurely trip of
South and Central America. With no very definite itinerary, they
sailed from New Orleans, bent on having a good time, and as many
adventures as possible, which Richard was to describe in a series of
articles. These appeared later on in a volume entitled "Three Gringos
in Venezuela."

January, 1895.

DEAR FAM:

On board Breakwater at anchor. You will be pleased to hear that I am
writing this in a fine state of perspiration in spite of the fact that
I have light weight flannels, no underclothes and all the windows open.
It is going to storm and then it will be cooler. We have had a bully
time so far although the tough time is still to come, that will be
going from Puerto Cortez to Tegucigalpa. At Belize the Governor
treated us charmingly and gave us orderlies and launches and lunches
and advice and me a fine subject for a short story. For nothing has
struck me as so sad lately as did Sir Anthony Moloney K. C. M. G.
watching us go off laughing and joking in his gilded barge to wherever
we pleased and leaving him standing alone on his lawn with some papers
to sign and then a dinner tete-a-tete with his Secretary and so on to
the end of his life. It was pathetic to hear him listen to all the
gossip from the outside world and to see how we pleased him when we
told him we were getting more bald than he was and that he would make a
fine appearance in the Row at his present weight. He had not heard of
Trilby!!

We struck a beautiful place today called Livingston where we went
ashore and photographed the army in which there was no boy older than
eighteen and most of them under ten. It was quite like Africa, the
homes were all thatched and the children all naked and the women mostly
so. We took lots of photographs and got on most excellently with the
natives who thought we were as