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JAY WILLARD STERNER
1889 1902
As a prelude to the many volumes of the Diary which
follow, this elaborate explanation of how Willard Ster-
ner and Jennie Disbrow came to be in the same spot in the
year 1882 may seem a bit lengthy - but have courage, it
is nearly finished; in fact, that part is finished.
There remains now merely the brief task of bridging the
gap between my arrival on the scene and the day I first
started to keep a diary.
I arrived at 607 Sixth Ave., in what was still offi-
cially Ocean Beach but was so soon to be definitely and
for all time Belmar, at exactly 10:15 A.M. on October 23rd
1889 simultaneously with the first snow flurry of the
year. The birth certificate shows only "Child, male,
white (no name as yet)." It may be of interest to note
that Dr. Thompson automatically put his address as Ocean
Beach but then bethought himself and put down "place of
birth" as Belmar.
Number 607 was a large and rather pretentious house
for the place and period, something far beyond my father's
means at the time but he, as did many of his neighbors,
counted on paying for it with summer rentals - a hope
that was never dashed. On the adjoining lot to the west
he built a humbler dwelling which we always called "The
Cottage," into which we migrated every summer while the
big house was occupied by the summer tenants. Behind
the cottage, on the back of a vacant lot owned by the
Borough, was our chicken yard where, when I was somewhat
older, I sifted ashes and cleaned out the chicken house
every Saturday before being permitted to play or go else
where - tasks of which I complain so bitterly in the
pages to come. At the time I appeared upon the scene,
my maternal grandmother, Louisa Lane, to be known here-
after as Grandma, was living with us. Later, she spent
part of the time with mother's younger sister, hereafter
36
JAY STERNER
referred to as Aunt (pronounced "Ant") Lou.
Six weeks after I was born, Aunt Lou was married to
George Thompson in our living room, then known as the
"Sitting Room" to distinguish it from the parlor which
was only used for special occasions. I have been told
that I was a most unwilling spectator at this ceremony.
Thereafter they set up house-keeping in Newark and thence
when I was five or six, to Providence whence she visited
us periodically and - what is more important from my view
point - where I visited them nearly every Summer from `96
on. Just when I made my first journey I don't know, but
it was very early in life that I travelled to New York
by train and thence overnight on the Sound steamers to
Providence. By the start of my first diary in 1902, I
had spent the greater part of at least three summers in
New England where I had my little circle of Providence
playmates with one set of ideas, vocabulary, and accent;
while at home in Belmar I had the usual small village en-
evironment so that I was equally at home with either
group. Thus, when I was very young, I became aware that
life went on in sundry different ways in a world that
was quite attainable even to a small boy and which was
in many respects, not only bigger but more important and
interesting than Belmar.
Writing now, after recording here over three cent-
uries of Family history in America, the village of my
boyhood seems incredibly raw and new. And yet, though
many memories of that remote epoch are very clear, I have
no recollection that Belmar seemed new to me then. On
the contrary. As I recall it, the town seemed old, long
settled; no thought crossed my mind that things herea-
bouts had not always been more or less the same. The
school was not yet ten years old when I first entered
what seemed to me its great front doors and yet I re-
37
JAY STERNER
call distinctly the floor worn into hollows by countless
feet, the dry, musty smell of it - a smell I still assoc-
iate with public buildings, especially old schools.
Our little village was ideally situated for a resort and
for the all-around development of small boys. It was re-
ally a peninsula, bounded on the north and west by Shark
River, on the east by the Atlantic, and on the south by
Como Lake. Down its center ran Silver Lake. During my
early boyhood the houses were still relatively few and
the vacant fields and patches of woodland many. As the
town filled in and I grew older, I gravitated first to
the lake and then, more and more, to the River which, by
the time the diary really starts in 1906, becomes, with
the Asbury Park High School, the focal point of my ex-
istence. All that is covered later in The River.
Of the pre-school years I remember only unrelated
incidents. I remember the excitement of the annual move
to the cottage in the early Summer, the move back to the
big house in the Fall. I remember being led by Dad into
the parlor which, for this very special occasion, had
been converted into a bedroom, and there being introduc-
ed to a very red-faced, noisy mite who, I was told, was
my new little brother Donald. In my excitement I danced
around and around, looking into Mother's hand mirror the
while, till I grew dizzy, fell, and broke it; but the
seven years bad luck did not materialize - at least not
until many years later.
Most vividly of all do I remember a Christmas Eve
when Dad assembled the entire family in the dining room
behind the tightly closed sliding doors while he was
mysteriously busy in the Sitting Room. Then he tip-toed
out through the hall and joined us, threw back the slid-
ing doors, and revealed a Christmas tree in the bay win-
dow beautifully glowing with dozens of little wax tapers
38
JAY STERNER
all alight. More than that. The tree itself was burning
cheerfully so that I could snatch but the briefest glimpse
before Dad had dashed heroically to the rescue screams of
the women and my own crows of delight, snatched up the
burning tree, rushed it out through the front door, and
whipped it, ornaments and all, furiously up and down in the
snow till the conflagration was extinguished.
During the first years of my life Belmar was chang-
ing rapidly from the village Mother had known. The Vil-
lage, which at first merely partially lined the main, "F"
street was now stretching down toward the summer colony
along the beach front, which in turn was reaching rapid-
ly westward until, by the time I was aware of the place
as an entity, the two had merged - although for a gener-
ation or so the old summer residents still, on occasion,
referred to the business district as "The Village."
Of course when I first became aware of anything be-
yond the confines of our house and front yard, Belmar
was just a delightful and wonderful place; but you child-
ren would have considered it all very primitive. There
was no electricity except some "arc" lights on "F" Street,
not even gas yet, no sewer or water. Our lights were
kerosene lamps, the cooking was done on a wood or coal-
burning range. Our house, however, was ultra-modern by
current standards. While we had the usual little house
which had a half-moon cut in the door and stood shyly
and apart behind the grape-arbor, our bath room was
equipped with a flush toilet and marble hand-basin and
there was running water there and in the kitchen. This
was supplied from a large tank in the attic which was
filled by a hand-pump in a kitchen closet by the stove.
The water came from a well beneath the house and one of
my daily chores was to deliver 100 strokes on this pump
every day.
39
JAY STERNER
Just when the water and sewer came through I don't
remember but it was when I was still small enough to
crawl through the cast-iron 12" mains as they lay be-
side the trench into which they were to go. I was fas-
cinated by the bubbling lead with which they sealed the
joints after packing them with oakum.
The extension of the trolley tracks from Avon across
the new bridge and on to 16th Ave. is another date not ac-
curately established in my mind. It was long after I had
started school. I remember vividly though the day the
first trolley came through. I was watching a "Medicine
Show" when suddenly there was a banging and crashing out-
side and everyone rushed into the street, leaving the
tent deserted. The new track was covered with gravel
which the wheels were noisily crushing to the accompan-
iment of showers of blue sparks and the most unholy din.
Mother and Dad both being school teachers, they
taught me to read and write and do simple arithmetic
quite early so that, when I entered school in 1895, the
September before my Sixth birthday, I spent only a few
weeks in the Primary (known as the Busy Bees) and then
was moved up to the First Grade with a further advance to
the Second with the beginning of the second term. The
following Fall I entered the Third Grade and in September
1897 I entered the Fourth Grade under a Miss Lucy Corson
of Cape May and she and I were advanced together so that
I had no further teachers until I had left the Eighth
Grade and the Belmar School.
The walk from Sixth Ave. to the School at Twelfth
was not a long one. Sometimes I dawdled along "F" Street
gazing into all the shop windows - particularly Kinmouth's
Drug Store with its patent medicine samples "for free,"
and Mrs. Hutchinson's Candy Shop with its licorice shoe-
strings, its cats-eyes and its all-day suckers. On other
days I wended my way up "E" Street on 11th Ave. beyond which
40
JAY STERNER
lay thick woods through which a path meandered diagonally
toward "F" Street, emerging in front of the school. Twelfth
ran east barely a hundred yards into the woods past the
Baptist Church which stood on the southeast corner of 12th
and F. South of this to 16th lay only open fields and
scattered woods.
When occasion arose the open land south of 16th Ave.
became a circus lot. Here I saw Buffalo Bill in all
the glory of his white suit, flowing white goatee, long
locks and drooping mustache, and Annie Oakley with her un-
erring .22 (loaded with buckshot, I was later to disco-
ver; though no breath of such scandal seeped down to us
at the time). Also there was a lesser light known as Paw-
nee Bill with his show and the 101 Ranch too, upon occas-
ion. There must have been circuses but I don't remember.
Having learned to read and enjoy it early, I devel-
oped into a full-fledged bookworm and became a rapid and
voluminous - though by no means scholarly - reader and
lived much in the land of books and imagination. Not
that all was pleasure for me even then. I had my chores.
The only allowance Don and I ever had was one cent
every Monday - the "Monday Penny." For anything more we
had to work. I have mentioned the 100 strokes on the
kitchen pump, and the chicken yard. Every Saturday came
the never-to-be-broken routine which must be carried out
before I was free to join my friends. There was the cel-
lar to be swept, the chicken house to be hoed out and the
floor sprinkled with dust from the freshly-sifted ashes
from which I had carefully picked what useable coal might
remain. The diary will tell of other odd jobs - the
Daisy air-rifle earned painting a fence, the nickles re-
ceived from Mrs. Pyott for carrying in her coal, various
and sundry things.
During my earliest years Dad was still manager of
41
JAY STERNER
Warman's but in 1895, when I was six, this yard folded
up and he opened a bicycle store at the same location
in partnership with a man named Gus Pyott. Within a
year or so they shifted to the more centrally located
building owned by my grandmother at 9th and F, she
having now moved in with us. That same year he became
manager of the Charles Lewis Yard in Asbury Park; which
meant that he was simultaneously carrying on the bicycle
business with Gus, being District Clerk of the Board of
Education, Secretary of the Building and Loan, and man-
ager of Lewis's. So, by 1902 when the diary begins, you
can see we are definitely getting up in our little world.
At this time my two most intimate friends were Ed-
ward Glass and Clarence Cooper. Ed was the youngest
child of an Army captain who had been killed by Indians
about the same time Ed was born in 1890. The Glasses
lived in a rambling house of the gingerbread (Carpenter's
Gothic) type of the `70s with his mother, his older bro-
ther Beaumont, and his sister Virginia. For long peri-
ods his Aunt Sadie, wife of an always absent Colonel
Blocksome, lived with them and was an important member
of the household. They had a maid named `Jessie' - they
were the only family I knew who kept a servant. They
also had a house in Washington to which they repaired at
irregular intervals, so that Ed too was in contact with
the great world beyond Belmar - just as I was with Provi-
dence - as well as with the world of the past and of books
about which much of our play revolved. But the outstand-
ing thing we had in common, as I think back upon those
distant days, was our love for the primitive out-of-
doors and a curious love of danger for its own sake;
never for us the motto -- "Safety First."
Clarence ("Pete") Cooper was the younger of the two
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JAY STERNER
sons of a man who kept a dry goods store at the northeast
corner of 6th and F, half a block from my home. His
brother Harry was some four or five years older but fi-
gures prominently later. The Coopers were all Belmar -
no outside contacts.
Having set the stage for Belmar to some extent in
all of the preceding, let me now turn to my second, my
New England home, in Providence, RI.
In 1960, looking for what was worth salvaging among
the relics in "Ma's" attic, I found a map of Providence
dated May 1893 - and immediately pictures came swarming
back out of that long-ago [period] when I was a little boy.
Muriel, who is eighteen years my junior, says I live too
much in the past. This is probably so; but, after all,
my present is not too inspiring, my future cannot be
too long to hold out too much promise; so I am thankful
for the bright spots I have known. While I admit that
mine has been a sadly mis-spent life from any practical
point of view, it has given me a past crowded with the
most wonderful memories of things I did and saw and felt
while I was so inexcusably frittering away what should
have been, they tell me, years of dedication to the im-
portant things of life. But not to get side-tracked in
trivialities, what I here wish to do is to give the
reader, if such there should ever be, a hint of how this
map brought back again, if only briefly, those Summers
around the turn of the Century when I visited Aunt Lou
and Uncle George at 11 Plenty Street, Providence.
Plenty Street runs from Broad Street to Elmwood
Avenue. The first house in from Broad Street on Plenty
was ours, #11, a two story apartment (in Providence
they were called tenements). Aunt Lou and Uncle George
occupied the ground floor; above us were the Thorndykes.
Mrs. Thorndyke's maiden name was Pepperell and her mo-
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JAY STERNER
ther lived with them. Those names meant nothing to me
then; but now I marvel that here, under the same roof,
lived descendants of the Bradfords, the Thorndykes, the
Pepperells - not to mention the Desboroughs.
Across the street on the north side, occupying all
the space from Plenty to Peace Streets, and back some
200 yards on both streets, was St. Joseph's Hospital.
At the back of the hospital on our street was Mother
Superior's garden with its little pool and marble bench.
in this pool were goldfish for which I one day fished
with a bent pin for a hook; Mother Superior caught me in
the act and spanked me soundly as she sat upon her marble
bench. At the back of this garden was the "Dead House"
where those who had died in the hospital were tidily
tucked away until the undertaker came during the hours
of darkness and carried them off - or so we were told.
Next to the hospital grounds was the parochial school.
Several blocks south on Broad was a huge, ugly yel-
low brick Baptist Church where I attended Sunday School.
I remember none of my classmates nor my teacher, but I
do recall my introduction to the well-coached mass demon-
strations so perfected today by our Communist brethren.
The Superintendent, a Mr. Waterman (of fountain pen fame,
I think) was very proud that this was the largest Sun-
day School in all creation - or something. At the start
of the hour he would stride briskly front and center de-
claiming loudly - "Good Morning, Children." Whereat, as
per instructions, the three, or four, or five thousand
of us Chorused back - "Good Morning, Mr. Waterman."
At its west end, Plenty Street dead-ended on Elm-
wood Avenue. Beyond, stretched a large street of open
field with little patches of trees. The map shows it
much smaller than I remember it - but then I myself was
very small at the time. This was our favorite play-
44
JAY STERNER
ground where, in the shelter of the trees, we had our
campfire and roasted potatoes, ears of corn.
There were trollies on both Broad and Elmwood;
north-bound took you down town to the Library and the
shops and Potter & Buffington's factory where Uncle
George superintended the manufacture of Jewelry; south-
bound took you to Roger Williams Park, the Falls of the
Pattuxet and all the world beyond. The Park stretched
from Broad to Elmwood which at this point were nearly a
mile apart.
This Park held my consuming interest. In its cen-
ter was a large pond with swans and various water-fowl,
and it swarmed with horned pout which came rushing to
you when you knocked two stones together and ate bread
from your hand. In the pond's center was an island
where, on summer evenings, a band played semi-classical
programs. Either they were very good or the fact that
the music came to us across the water in the still air
of the summer night did something special to it. Even
today, when I hear the Poet and Peasant overture, I
am back there again sitting on the turf at the water's
edge, a little boy of nine. The bright particular star
of these performances was Bomenard Church who played
the solos on the cornet or the trombone.
But my deepest and most abiding interest was in
none of these. In my letters I ask Aunt Lou for news
of my animal friends - for so I thought of them. In my
child's mind (and I must admit that this reprehensible
attitude has persisted to this very day) the distinct-
ion between the so-called lower animals and humans was
not nearly so sharp as it appears to be in most. If,
for any reason no matter how trivial, any living crea-
ture gained my affection or respect or deep interest, be
they dog or cat or horse or human or mouse or even a
45
JAY STERNER
little reptile like Bill the Lizard, they thereupon be-
came "persons" or "friends" to me on a more or less
equal footing with all other persons who had gained my
affection or respect or interest.
The Zoo was at the west end of the Park near the
Elmwood Avenue entrance and I visited it at every opp-
ortunity. I have mentioned the horned pots. There
were the prairie dogs in their village with the little
owls who lived so peacefully with them. I had been told
and was convinced that there were equally peaceful
rattlesnakes deep down in their burrows although, watch
as often and as closely as I may, I never saw one.
Under some trees close by, far enough apart to be
out of each other's reach, were chained two delightful
little bear cubs who loved peanuts. One was surely and
snatched as his due whatever you handed out but showed
no faintest interest in the donor. The other would sit
up and wave to you as you approached as though it were
you, not the peanuts, which were welcome. Naturally I
gave this second one all my attention and most of the
peanuts. One day I was squatting down feeding my little
friend and rubbing her nose from time to time, when the
indignation of the neglected cub became more than he
could endure - and he acted. Suddenly I was struck hea-
vily from behind; I felt a sharp nip in the seat of my
tightly stretched pants, and was precipitated head first
into the soft, furry stomach of the cub I was feeding.
So, children, your father has been attacked and bitten
by a bear - albeit a very tiny bear.
A little to the left of the bear cubs and the prai-
rie dogs was a heavily fenced enclosure where dwelt my
particular friend Baby Roger. As I recall the story,
the elephant who was his mother was with a travelling
circus visiting Providence when her time came upon her
46
JAY STERNER
and she was left at the Zoo to have her baby. In return
for supervising this event and supporting her until Baby
Roger was weaned, the circus people presented him to the
City. When I knew him in 1899 he was probably two or
three years old and very friendly. I always visited him
and I always tried to bring him something special; and
I was convinced that he knew and liked me personally -
as he may have done since he saw me often enough. He
had, however, one very reprehensible habit, a trick
which indicated a depraved sense of humor. Whenever an
admiring crowd assembled, he would start sidling over
toward his water trough where there was always a large
puddle of trampled mire as vile smelling as any pig sty.
Here he would surreptitiously fill his trunk with this
horrible brew and then - Whissssh! - he would blow it
expertly over the goggling crowd. After my first dread-
ful experience I recognized the preliminaries and retir-
ed up the slope to my little bears where I could miss no
detail of the inevitable catastrophe.
So these were the animal friends to which I refer
in my letter. Of course there were the big cats in the
Lion House - a family of lions, two magnificent Bengal
tigers, a black leopard, many others. But with them
there was not the same rapport; I could only admire them
from afar and gaze raptly at their lithe, sleek beauty.
As to my human friends, mt New England playmates,
I only remember two. One was Hermann Wegrin who lived
next door; his father was a Swedish pastor and I was
much impressed by his large library, mostly in Swedish.
The other was Connie Fairweather, a negro boy who lived
half-way down our street toward Elmwood and whose mother
took in washing. What eventually became of Hermann I
never heard for he moved elsewhere, but from Aunt Lou I
heard that Connie, after graduating from Brown, went on
47
JAY STERNER
to law school and became a successful practicing lawyer
in Providence. I almost forgot Don Carlos Thorndyke,
eldest child of the family up-stairs. At four he spoke
the most meticulously correct and delightful English and
I was very fond of him.
But, after all, my real friends were Uncle George
and Aunt Lou, and the letters I wrote this beloved aunt
and which now follow reveal something of what went on
at 607 6th Avenue in the years preceding the 1902 di-
ary. It not only partially covers this earlier period
but it does it at greater length and it does it better.
I don't know why these letters should have been so much
more mature than the diary unless it was because, al-
though they seem spontaneous enough, they were written
to someone whose regard mattered very much to me; where-
as the diary was just scribbled down any way to myself,
who didn't matter at all.
Aunt Lou was a shining personality to all us kids -
I mean to my playmates as well as to Don and me. She
was "Aunt Lou" to all those boys. She understood kids
and their little interests, she liked them (perhaps being
childless herself) and they all felt that and loved her.
The fact that to them she was a beautiful woman, always
beautifully dressed, who appeared only at intervals from
what was to us in those days far-away New England, did
not detract from the effect.
I have no way of knowing how much of this comes
through to the casual reader but to me it brings it all
back so vividly that, as I read these letters, I am for
the moment a little boy again, writing to one whom he
loved very much - and who didn't mind saying so when he
was only six.
And now for the letters themselves. The first has
no date but was obviously written shortly after school.
48
JAY STERNER
No date
See my ship and School House. I go to school
every day and have learned to read. I wish you would
come to see me. I have a little black kitten. She is
a playful little fellow and Donald and I have fine fun
with her.
Jay Sterner.
* * *
14th Dec. 1895.
My dear Aunt Lou:
How I like you. Donald (who was two
that January) does not like the kitty because he does
not treat her right. I went to the pond and slid on the
ice and got my feet wet and went home right away and I
never went out again that night. I have a theatre from
the New York Recorder, Jr. and it is nice. Papa and Ma-
ma fixed it for me. When I came home from Sunday School
and saw it I was surprised. There stood the little
Brownie Band among the trees and it looked so pretty.
Next Sunday the play will be Rip Vanwinkle or Cinderella
or Uncle Tom's Cabin and many others. We had Little Red
Riding Hood I wish you could have seen it!
Donald is going to get a ball for Christmas. Who
do you think is going to buy it?
How is the canary bird?
That is all I can write tonight. With love from
Jay.
* * *
6th Jan. 1896.
Can you come down by Monday? How I'd like you to.
I was promoted the night before last. The first time I
went there Miss Pyott (Gus's sister) said I could take
my slate home for good work. I am going to a Brownie
play with grandma Saturday night. At Asbury Park, love
to Uncle George.
Jay Sterner.
49
JAY STERNER
Dear Aunt Lou: 27th Jan. 1896.
I have a little mouse in my trap. he is
so cute. We feed it crackers, candy, cheese and pot-
cheese. And he drinks water, and he washes his hands,
and he bites our fingers sometimes. And we pin his wheel
fast, because he gets his feet sore if he goes around
too much. (So once again the tiny ghost of little "Sharp
Eyes" rises to haunt me, this time after sixty-two years
- and that is many many mouse generations for one lost
little pet to journey through to his master who loved
him and still remembers.)
Aunt Lou I do not want you to come when you were
going to come but in the Spring time, or you can come
when you were, and come in the Spring time too. Because
I want to go home with you and see my friends the ani-
mals. And Uncle George too. Here are the stamps to pay
you for the plate. I like it very much.
Your loving friend
Jay Sterner.
* * *
Dear Aunt Lou: 1st March, 1896.
Today there was a storm. I think the
river is flooded by the way it looks as though it was,
I guess. I think the river is up to the top of the
bank. And Oh! I will get some fish And wont I have fun
gathering the fish. And maybe some crabs that the river
has brought in with todays storm. And maybe some lob-
sters and I am going to sunday school today and wont
that be nice. Just think. I have been home from sunday
school 8 weeks. Just think. Yester-day I made a little
kite for myself isent that nice. And I cant help think
of the good time down at the river getting the fish and
crabs and other things. A ship named St. Paul quite a
little while ago half past one in the morning it struck
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JAY STERNER
ashore (at Long Branch) it had 400 people aboard her.
And thank you for the gold cents and for my drawing
cards which I enjoyed them very much. And thank you for
mamma's box of candy which contained two brandy candies.
And I gave it to her. And when she bit it she jerked
her head back as quick as she could And spilt some. But
my next letter wont come to you. It will be to grand-
ma Sterner in Pennsylvania isent that nice? only 60
miles from Belmar I think. And I am glad you and Uncle
George Are coming down here.
Jay Sterner.
* * *
Dear Aunt Lou: 30th March, 1896.
Next Sunday It will be punch and Judy
wont that be nice? You know last sunday was a nice one
I am writing this outdoors in the sun. I have been
trying to fly my big kite yesterday and today isnt that
nice? And it would not fly isnt that too bad! bad! bad!
Georgie broke my little kite so he made me a big kite
and I went and broke it all up! up! up! isnt that too bad?
I went and got two wasp's nests and took them in to Ma-
ma and one of the doors were shut and mamma said that
she thought that a wasp was in it and I smashed it all
up and it was only a little spider's nest that the wasp
gave him to keep while he was away. And then I played
with the drain and I filled a little hole that I found.
Jay Sterner.
* * *
6th April, 1896.
I want you to come here in two days. Yours in great
haste. - Jay Sterner. - Uncle George: I want you to be
sure to come with Aunt Lou.
Jay Sterner.
* * *
5th July, 1896.
Dear Aunt Lou:
I thank you for the ten cents you gave me.
Donald lost five cents of it. And I am going to buy four
packs of fire-crackers at Hilliard's. Mamma is going to
give me the five cents Donald lost. I thank you for the
little boat that you sent me. And I had lots of fun
yesterday I had a sky-rocket and a roman candle and some-
thing else that made little stars come out of it. And
we went to the Park and saw the parade and saw satan in
a wagon and a goat was in with him and they had horns on
their heads.
With love from
Jay.
* * *
Dear Aunt Lou: 16th October 1896
Are you coming this year? I'm in the 3rd
Grade! She lives in Long Branch! We get the Sunday
Tribune now (instead of the "Recorder"). You know the
sled I got christmas I got it up out of the cellar to-
day. I wont get the theater any more. I wont get the
Ray Tags either. (These are cut-outs for the children
that came with the Recorder which was now defunct) I
am going to get Bushy soon as I get one dollar and one
half dollars. I got Through the Looking Glass and what
Alice found There. All about little chess men that
Alice made friends with. (My first book review)
Your loving Jay Sterner.
* * *
Dear Aunt Lou: 26th October, 1896.
Are you coming this year? I got a letter
from Leah (Coward who had lived next door) to-day and
she sent me a examples that she does in school. And she
told me that she was in the third reader and I dont know
what room she is in at all.
52
JAY STERNER
And thank you for the knife you sent me. And thank
you for the book.
Your loving
Jay Sterner.
* * *
My dear Grandma: 14th November, 1896.
I am so sorry that you went away. I
helped mamma just lots. I pumped all the dish-water, I
got the chicken food and the coal. And I was good to
Donald. And Charlie (Miller) hit me right in the face
and made me cry. And he made believe that he was friends
with me and when I went over to Charlie's house, he began
saying to you to tell Aunt Lou to send me her picture.
Jay.
* * *
Mt dear Aunt Lou: 20th November, 1896.
I made a dart today. I read a story
about a boy and a scorpion. I will tell you about him.
A boy was hunting for locusts. He had caught a goodly
number, when he saw a scorpion and, mistaking him for
a locust, reached out his hand to take him. The scorp-
ion, showing his sting, said: "If you had but touched
me, my friend, you would have lost me and all your lo-
custs too!" Dont you think that was a nice little story
it was out of Aesop's Fables. I have read Beautiful Joe
once, and a lot of other books through. I have read
a lot of stories out of the Arabian Nights.
Your loving Jay Sterner.
* * *
Dear Grandma: 25th November, 1896.
How glad I was to get your letter the
other day and to hear about the old good friends of
mine the Animals. And what about Baby Roger? Are you
53
JAY STERNER
going to take Donald and I to the Park next year? I am
so sorry the Bison died of lonesomeness for he had no
friends there. He was all alone when I saw him. I am
to have a vacation this week. Gus (Pyott) you know went
hunting down in Virginia and shot a deer and we ate some
of the venison for dinner today noon. Oh! It was grand!
Send my love to Aunt Lou and Uncle George.
Jay.
* * *
Dear Grandma: 15th December, 1896.
How do you like my name in the paper? I
was home every day early and papa gave me a dime. I
want you to send back that spelling paper please because
mamma is so proud of it. It was my lesson at school
the other day. I would so like you to come down Christ-
mas. How about that Christmas kiss that you are going
to get from Uncle George. It will be made of a mouthful
of sugar and that will be so sweet that you will faint
away.
Jay Sterner.
* * *
Dear Aunt Lou: 21st March, 1897.
I have got a furr for your kitty and will
send it with his letter, and I received the United States
flag allright and I have one just like it of Cuba and I
put them face to face for you know that Cuba wants Uni-
ted States to help them and United States wants to help
Cuba too. I want you to please ask Uncle George to send
me all the buttons that he has for I want to put them
all on a ribbon and pin the ribbon to the wall.
Your loving friend Jay Sterner.
* * *
Dear Aunt Lou: 7th April, 1897.
I thank you ever so much for the dime,
and for the buttons, and for the pin which I gave
54
JAY STERNER
to Donald because I had the buttons in the same letter, and
he wanted something. I hope your little kitten is not
to old to play with the rabbit skin now, for I am send-
ing it in this letter.
Jay.
* * *
Dear Aunt Lou: 24th October, 1897.
I thank you for the book and the pencil,
I am writing with the pencil now and dont you think it
writes good? I thank Uncle George for the candies that
he sent us. Papa gave me St. Nicholas and Grandma gave
me a book called Jan of the Windmill. I was out hickory
nutting yesterday and brought home two pockets full, my
coat pocket and my pants pocket. We had a fire down a-
long the river and had lots of fun running around and
getting hickory nuts. In my St. Nicholas there is a
story called my narrowest escape, it tells about a man
who had to go across the ocean in a boat, it was a large
one but they sent a little boat to come back in, and a
gale struck them and there boat was swamped but they got
to the ship all right.
Jay Sterner.
* * *
Dear Aunt Lou: 23rd October, 1897.
I thank you so much for the colored
crayons and the globe. The book grandma gave me is a
fine one but I like the colored crayons best I think the
trip to Providence is the best of all for I can visit
all my friends. Where is the little fox terrier I fed
peanuts the last day I was there? Have they got any
more animals in Roger Williams Park? If they have I
wish you would tell me what kind they are. Is that grey
hound there yet? Now we can go up to the corner and get
on the trolley and ride to Asbury Park without having to
55
JAY STERNER
[go all the] way down to the chutes. At school we have Miss
Corson and the vice-principal is Mr. Love, the brother of Mr.
Love, the old Principal.
Jay.
This letter is a truly gorgeous thing for in writ-
ing it I used every crayon in the box Aunt Lou had given
me, Note too that this tells the date when the trollies
went through sixteenth Avenue.
* * *
Dear Aunt Lou: 31st December, 1898.
I thank you very much for the presents
you sent me. Mamma gave me five volumes of "Cooper's Sea
Tales". The pictures in "Black Beauty" are very nice.
Ginger was a nicer looking horse than I expected. The
engine does not work just right, he and mamma has sent
to the "Youth's Companion" to tell them about it. I got
eight books in all - I gave Perce Cooper my old "Black
Beauty" this afternoon. Donald is riding around the
table with his new velo[c]ipede and having a fine time. I
also got "Treasure Divers" and "Micha Clark". Mamma just
found a peanut down in the toe of my stocking she was
mending. Tell Thomas (Hutchins, across the street) that
he will have a boy to pull him this summer. A Happy
New Year to you all.
Your loving nephew
Jay.
* * *
Dear Aunt Lou: 12th April, 1899.
I thank you very much for my photos and
for my five cents. How is little Peter Piper (the can-
ary) and Roxy (the cat who was to be the mother of
Sancho and Frisky that summer). Please hurry and come
down.
Your Nephew Jay.
* * *
56
JAY STERNER
Summer of 1898
Dear Mamma: (in Providence)
"The Adventures of Brownie" are in "Cad-
well's De Novo Library". I was reading over the names
on the back of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and I happened to see
the name of it. Grandma took me over to the Park "Opra
House" to a play by the Bryne Brothers. It was fine.
The name of the play was "Going to the Races". there
was a party set out in an air-ship and the air-ship is
wrecked by an explosion and the air-ship goes in two.
[My-my! What a scary portent of what Grandpa was to wit-
ness in Lakehurst, NJ some thirty-eight years later. He
took pictures of the Hindenburg just before it reached
Lakehurst - and its ultimate destructive demise - as the
great airship was sailing overland on its way in to Lake-
hurst. We have found two of those pictures. It is un-
known if Grandpa took any more. -Todd]
There is a fine artist there, he drew pictures of Hobson
and Dewey. The picture of Hobson was fine but the pic-
ture of Dewey was not so good. Papa has given me the
old sewer place under the grape arbor and maybe he will
build a shed over it. I did not spend any of my time
playing marbles but I went over to Cleve Hankin's hut
and had some fun. Saturday I did not have my hut so I
went over to Cleve's hut instead. Tomorrow I am going
to get up early and bale out some of the water from the
sewer cistern and fix it up. I did not spend Donald's
penny at all but will spend it allright. The painter's
have nearly finished the big house only they haven't got
the green paint yet. Saturday afternoon I painted the
chicken-house the same color that the big house is,
I mean the body. Papa says I must paint the roof and
give the whole thing a good coat of paint. Say mamma
can I have your little doll's stove in my hut if papa
dont object?
Kisses from Grandma, papa and Jay.
* * *
Later that same summer
Dear Mama:
Oh how I wish you and Donald were here.
What is the color of Aunt Lou's kitty? I wish you would
57
JAY STERNER
let me know if I can play marbles for fair (keeps) with
Percy and the boys around here? I want you to write me
a letter every Sunday too. I like the books that papa
brought home very much. I am writing on "Uncle Tom" now,
Papa thinks I can have Cleve Hankin's old wheel because
it runs easier and dont cost so much. I think that box
of marshmallows was fine in looks and fine in eating.
I haven't read a bit of that "Child's History of England"
yet. Grandma went into it for good the first night but
I haven't seen her with it since. I wish that when you
come home that you get "The Adventures of a Brownie" in
New York at the same place Papa got these books. I
sleep with Papa now and we have a fine time in bed. How
is Donald getting on with the cat? Have you been to the
zoo with Donald yet? Linnie was here today when Grandma
was at Sunday School and I didn't know where Papa was.
Linnie said that she thought she could see you before
you went away. She did not come in the house but went
right on home.
How is Aunt Lou and Uncle George. Love and kisses
to you all.
Jay.
* * *
Dear Aunt Lou: Late Spring of 1899.
I wish you would come down here and get
me. There is only two more days of school and I want
you to please come and take me up to Providence. Mamma
says that if I get promoted she will give me a cent for
every day I am up there, and papa says he will give me
a cent every day I am down here. Isent that nice? I
got ninty in Spelling and ninty four in number work.
Jay.
* * *
58
JAY STERNER
September, 1899.
Dear Aunt Lou:
School will begin tomorrow. Tell Marie I
thought the story a very nice one. I am fixing the Col-
umbia for a race. I go out in the river in a trunk lid.
I went almost across it once. Tell Herman to come down
next summer. Ask him if he is still fighting with Cony
(Connie Fairweather). My love to you, Uncle George,
Marie and Herman.
Your Nephew Jay.
* * *
Dear Aunt Lou: October, 1899.
Thank you again for the boat, Aunt Lou.
She has won a good many races. She is best in a light
breeze. I am going to have more keel put on her and
Mr. Pierce is going to make a new set of sails. Tell
Uncle George that I thank him very much for the quarter,
I did not expect it. I got the book "20000 Leagues un-
der The Sea" and I think it is a fine book. Mamma has
given me a book I haven't read yet. Donald gave me a
book strap for my birthday. Papa brought home an ice
cream treat for my birthday supper.
Please remember me to Herman and Eddie and give my
love to Marie and Mrs. Doldt, and kisses to you and
Uncle George. Good night,
Your Nephew Jay.
* * *
ITEMS FROM THE BELMAR WEEKLY GAZETTE. - Issue of 3rd Dec. 1899
NEW GAME
A new Game of War has been played at the house of
Jay Sterner. The game is played with swords instead of
guns. There are two sides. The two sides rush at each
other and begin to fight. Whenever anyone is hit he
must drop. When all of a side have been killed, those
59
JAY STERNER
still standing are victorious. Donald Cooper shoots a
bow and arrow in the game of war. He is a fine shot by
this time.
LEARNING TO WHISTLE
Donald Sterner is just learning to whistle and is
making everybody whish that he had never heard of it.
DONALD'S ADVENTURE!
Mrs. Morris (an Irish washerwoman who lived at 606
Seventh Ave.) pulled Donald Sterner off the fence of his
own back yard because she thought that it was her fence.
He was really on a tree blowing feathers to Hazel Cooper.
She twisted his arm around and jerked him off into a
barrel. She then began to hit him about the face and
also in the stomach.
* * *
Dear Aunt Lou: 4th March, 1900.
When are you coming down? My Mockingbird
is broken. The knot came off the string. I am glad
that Mamma has a birth-day. Thank you for all the things
you sent me. Tatters (a black, raggedy stray dog I
was allowed to keep till his owners returned that summer)
followed me to Sunday School. He generally is sent
back but he came sneaking up to us and we let him come. He
seemed almost wild with delight because I did not send
him back. I'm going to print the "Belmar Weekly Gazette"
(sample above). You better not bring Sancho or Friday
down here for there is a dog in the house. There has
been a wreck down to Point Pleasant. It was a British
ship "County of Edinburgh" from South Africa. I have a
piece of hard-tack from it. We still play that Game of
War that I sent to you in the newspaper a month or two
ago.
How is Herman getting on? I hope Uncle George is
better today. How are you, Mrs. Doldt, and Marie getting
60
JAY STERNER
along?
Your loving Nephew Jay.
* * *
30th December, 1900.
Dear Aunt Lou:
That little boat you sent me is a fine
one. I have lots of fun in the bath-tub with it and it
tows my big boat.
I had a fine time with those lantern slides. They
are fine ones. There are two with the different nations
on them and two with a sea fight. Ed Glass has an uncle
who is a Major or something in the Army in China and he
has a Chinese flag and two Imperial Palace uniforms and
some lovely chair and sofa covers, yellow, green, and
gold, with the Chinese dragon on both of them. His
uncle got them in the looting of the palace. Ed put
them on and picked up a saber and he began to chase Cla-
rence and me.
I haven't read Uncle George's "Elephant" yet. I
have been too busy with "the 28th", but will soon at-
tack the fierce beast. I had some cocoa Xmas night and
now we have it every Sunday night. I enjoy it so much.
Your nevy, Jay.
* * *
14th April, 1901.
Dear Aunt Lou:
Please come down here as soon as you can.
I have a fish-globe and have put two fish and a young
eel in it. I have them right here on top of the desk.
We have lots of sand and little shells and stones on the
bottom and they seem to be having a good time. I am go-
ing to save up and get a large globe and some gold fish.
Donald and I were very much surprised and pleased.
Please ask Grandma to come down with you when you
and Uncle George come. We have named the two little
61
JAY STERNER
fish Nibble and Dibble and we call the Eel Swiggles.
We had three fish and two eels but one of each died. I
had to give your anagram letter up in despair, but I
got it almost worked out, all but a few words. I liked
my little Easter Card very much. I wish I could go to
Keith's with you, Grandma. Did they have any good moving
pictures there? [Note that the "cinema" had only just
recently been developed by the French inventor brothers,
Auguste and Louis Lumière, when they had developed the
first good cine camera and projector. First public viewing
of their films took place in 1895 - just five years before
this letter. So, moving pictures were probably a really hot
new thing here at this time, as the technology was still
pretty new. -Todd] I will have to close now. Good Bye!
Your nevy, Jay.
* * *
From Willard Sterner to his first-born in Providence.
July 7, 1901.
My dear Boy:
Your very welcome letter reached here all
right and we were pleased you had such a good time on
the Fourth. Be very careful tho' with your cannon. A
little boy in Newark only last week put a small stone or
bullet in his cannon and when he fired it off hit a
woman in the face and killed her instantly.
But I almost forgot to tell you our little chick is
growing fine and he is real tame. Tonight he came to
the back door and sat on the top step chirping till I
put him in his basket. He has not seen his mother for
a week.
Friskie has not changed much, only he occasionally
springs towards the chick and knocks him over or fright-
ens him away. The little chick now keeps at a safe dis-
tance and stalks about the yard watching for game which
seldom escapes him.
I see but few of your playmates. Harry Cooper has
not been here since you went away and his brother Percy
is now working for Ed Bowne who lives where Ervie Morris
lived last year. (606 7th again)
Mamma and I counted twelve or thirteen peaches on
your tree. You would probably count fourteen as thir-
62
JAY STERNER
teen is not a good number.
Donald had more fun with his caps about home but he
took his fire crackers over to Don's and had his fun o-
ver there.
Your two white chicks now roost in their summer
house and seem quite big, but the ten others are growing
fine.
How have you been getting along since the very warm
weather began? Donald has not had any swim yet. We are
afraid of his rheumatism and we have not had a chance to
go ourselves.
The little boy in our house is not nearly so large
as you (in the big house rented for the summer). I wish
he was big enough to cut grass. Our lawn looks fine and
our recent rains make it look very pretty.
With kind wishes to all and a good night kiss to
you, I must now close.
Yours affectionately,
Papa.
* * *
29th October, 1901
Dear Aunt Lou:
I am writing this letter on my new writ-
ing cabinet. The other day I was over at Rogers' house
and an old colored lady gave us a lot of things. I also
found some foreign stamps beside a bonfire (the start of
a new craze). I didn't have the Canadian, the Cuban,
nor the one cent stamp. My album is a fine one and I
have a lot of stamps. Tell Uncle George I am ever so
much obliged for those stamps. I want to see Don Carlos
and you folks pretty bad. Tell Mrs. Pepperil I was glad
to get those stamps. Love to all.
Your nevvy, Jay.
* * *
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Todd L. Sherman (afn09444@afn.org)
© Copyright 1995/1996 by Todd L. Sherman. All Rights Reserved.