Mrs. Gould and the 'Up All Night Look'

Today's witnesses included grand-hotel desk clerks, who made sure that everyone was sleeping where they should be sleeping. There is a desk-clerk on each floor and they have strategically placed mirrors in order to keep a keen eye out for signs of gross immorality.

In October, 1906, a Miss Harris was stationed on the 6th floor of the Bellvue-Stratford in Philadelphia, where our excitable Mrs. Gould (former actress, and then a fabulously wealthy socialite) had a five bedroom suite with a few lady friends.

At 7:45 a.m. Miss Harris saw the actor Dustin Farnum exit Mrs. Gould's suite and call for the elevator. She then observed that Mr. Farnum rode up to the 14th floor, where he had his own room.

She dutifully telephoned Miss Garner, the 14th floor's desk clerk.

Have I told you Dustin Farmer was starring in a play based on The Virginian? The Virginian is a great novel, and considered to be the first "Western". By Owen Wister. You should read it sometime.

Miss Garner, alerted by Miss Harris' telephone call, saw the actor as he got off the lift. With the aid of the mirrors watched from her desk as he entered his room. Then she called a chambermaid and arranged a subterfuge. She sent the chambermaid to Mr. Farnums's room to ask him if he needed fresh towels. Perhaps the maid could get a good look at the actor's bed.

It was reported back that, no, Mr. Farnum's room had not been slept in!!1!!1. So Miss Garner reported this back to Miss Harrison.

Miss Garner told Miss Harris that Farnum had that "Out All Night Look". But on the stand she added that Mr. Farnum was never very well groomed. (Perhaps he had a Wild West look for his stage role.)

Miss Harrison then alerted hotel managment. It is not recorded here what happened after that.
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Mind, this was in 1906. For two years, Miss Harrison wrestled with her conscience, whether she should inform Mr. Gould about his wife's betrayal. Finally she decided the Christian thing to do would be to 'follow the Golden Rule' and write to Mr. Gould.

According to testimony, one of Mr. Gould's attorneys was then sent to visit Miss Harrison at the Young Womens Christian Association (Y.W.C.A.)

It came out today, incidentally, that Miss Harrison is now employed at The Belmont, where Mrs. Gould has been languishing in (relative) poverty. This news startled and pained Mrs. Gould, the reporter notes.
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Please don't let my summary here discourage you from reading this very engrossing article. I have left out many of the most interesting signs of the times. I hope my summary encourages everyone to read this, who is interested in American cultural history.

To follow the divorce trial from the beginning, you can scroll down through my entries looking for the 'Gould' name. This is surely the best reading in the New York Times of 1909 so far, and it was always on the front page, above the fold. On some days it was even in the far right column, which is usually reserved for the most important story of the day. (Yes, this is while President Taft was preparing the country for an income tax.)

The details are minute and hook you along. There is also verbatim testimony (Q's and A's).
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Most surprising is Mrs. Gould's willingness to go through this ordeal, and her general good spirits. (She must be sober. We've learned that she is very disagreeable when drunk). Two of her charges are already dismissed. The contest now is whether Mr. Gould is guilty of 'abandonment'.

Tomorrow is Sunday in 1909. Hopefully there will be opinion articles and letters to the editor about the case. I'm not yet sure if that was apropos in the 1909 Times.

Naturally, I have not looked ahead. I have no idea what becomes of Mr. and Mrs. Gould. I already know too much about the future in general, and I am reading my daily 1909 paper because of stories like this, which reveal so much about our forebears and what they could and could not endure.

This is all news to me, each day, and it's a marvel. I feel like I'm doubling my life-span, and not just because I'm partially escaping the news of our own WMD/Rogue State era.

It's just possible I may live to see the day when the New York Times reports about Sputnik. I will be nearly 100 years old and so thoroughly---no, uniquely--- mixed up by then, my nurses may give me special attention.

See, there' that too...To be distinguished even if it's by double-barrelled senility.


Gould Divorce Trial Dearie