Letters from Louis: September 1908

Letters from Louis Margutti to his mother in France, immediately following the death of his brother Victor. Three years after his burial in California, Victor's remains were returned to France to be reburied there.

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Berkeley, 18 September 1908

Darling Mama,

It is to Jacques and to Lizzie that I have confided the sad and painful mission of the announcement of the death of our little Victor. I am still under the terrible blow of being before the broken body of my little brother, my wife is sick from it and is delirious, for she loved Victor and lavished on him all the tender care of a mother and a sister. Only Victor II, too young, cannot understand the reasons hidden under the tears. I have not yet come back from the poignant sorrow of the first blow, which struck me with the brutal announcement. Someone ringing the electric bell telling me, Your brother has been crushed by a train, he is dead. Then running to the station, seeing a crowd around a broken piece and then, but no, darling mother, I suffer from too much to be able to continue.

I immediately telephoned my Uncle Raoul, who in this trial showed that beneath his rough exterior he has the heart of a man and a Christian, I owe respect to him and honor to his character to the end of my days and do not know enough words for the admiration that I have for this man; he has put aside all our resentments and has treated me like his son.

Victor will have a Christian funeral from the church of St. Joseph in Berkeley and from there to the Catholic cemetery, and his body will have respect.

He was beginning to make himself here, his boss Eugene Dimmier [sp?] liked him a lot, as did his brother Jules, and both of them held our Totor in high esteem.

He had a quiet personality, but he was not the less loved. Perhaps we did not understand each other well, but darling mother he was well treated and in the bottom of my heart I followed him step by step, he lacked for nothing.

He was getting along in English and had made arrangements with Uncle to go to the city to evening school.

Nobody seems to know yet how the accident happened. It was as dark as in an oven, and maybe he passed between two cars and nobody seems to know anything.

I only know to tell you darling mother that I know you are suffering, but I also am suffering like a miserable person, it is frightful, all this. My mother-in-law, whom Victor saw often, loved him very much, and my sister-in-law who was the first to recognize him is half crazy with grief.

Whatever you wish, it is the divine law, before which we must all submit ourselves, for on this earth the pleasures are nothing compared to the pain and suffering, we are here to suffer and to be prepared to appear before the All Powerful Creator when he calls us.

In this hour of infinite pain and sadness, where this terrible sorrow at the bottom of our hearts overcomes us, my darling mother take courage, I suffer from not being able to be near you to lavish upon you all my love, and to show you how much I loved my little Totor. We are equal in sorrow, and the God who sees us ought to hear it, and give to our Victor the place that is due him. I will write you tomorrow at greater length, for I cannot do any more. Grief has overcome me.

--- Louis

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San Francisco, 22 September 1908

Darling Mama,

Yesterday, Monday morning at 10:30, the funeral of our little Totor took place at the Catholic church of Berkeley, St. Joseph. It was a very simple ceremony, but impressive in its simplicity, a friend of my uncle played the funeral march of Chopin on the big organ.

All the friends of Victor were there and his boss Eugene Dimmier [sp?] spoke out about his deep sorrow in a beautiful way. Certainly the greatest respect was shown him and the flowers were in profusion. I enclose the cards of all those who sent their respects and I have already thanked them in your name. It is a dreadful thing to see the coffin lid cover Victor's face forever. "Adieu, mon petit Victor." Then to go to the cemetery and see him buried. The material part is forever departed, now the spiritual part, elevated and sublime, is the one we must think about. He is happy, his sufferings are finished and he sees the place he has left behind him.

How many bitter tears have I poured out, darling mother, especially in thinking of the grief that the shock is going to cause you. I am only half of what I was previously, I have an insurmountable disgust for all material things. I fear that my letter may be very little consolation to you, I regret that the circumstances do not permit me to put my arms around your neck, to embrace you with warm caresses, and to prove that the loss of your darling has been as poignant a grief for your eldest as for yourself.

The priest who spoke the last prayers over the tomb said them in French, in respectful witness to the memory of our Victor and in respect to his mother who suffers so much by this loss.

Courage, darling mother, Victor, our little darling, is now to continue the memory of Victor my little brother. Do you not believe you would be happy to see this little darling, who only wants to love you, and if not make you entirely forget this grief, at least attenuate it.

Come here, darling mother, I am earning enough to support you well, and both of us, I mean to say all four of us will be happy. I mean by that all that the material life can give as happiness.

I will write to you often darling mother, Daisy will write to you as soon as she is better, for she is so grief-stricken than she does not want to listen to anything and is inconsolable.

Love and kisses from everyone darling mother, when one suffers one has few words to console an equal suffering.

--- Louis

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Berkeley 23 September 1908

Darling mother:

Faithful to my word, I do not want to let more than a few days pass without writing to you. Although my letter may be very sad, it is only the echo of a heart in grief through a terrible loss. I lack the words to console you and I can only express to you how much I suffer, realizing that it is your suffering. Today the inquest took place which established the cause of death as accidental.

The house seems very empty to us and neither Daisy nor I have had the courage to touch anything among the things belonging to Victor, that we consider as sacred. As I have expressed to you in my last letter, do you not think that you should get rid of your house, pack up your things, and come to join me. Be assured that it would be my happiness and that of Daisy, I earn enough to be able to give back to you in a very small way what you have done for me, but it will be with all my heart that I will share all that I have with you. Do not believe that you will be a burden to me, far from it; it will be my comfort and happiness and then you will be proud of your second Victor who by his gentleness and his love will make you a very proud grandmama.

I cannot insist too much for perhaps you have a horror of this country where our little Totor was taken from us, but think and raise a thought towards a higher sphere from where our Victor looks at us, for him sufferings are finished. His pure and noble soul has finally its well-earned place. He had a martyr's end, and towards him I raise my prayer as a penitent brother. Mother darling, answer me, take courage, Victor has not left us, he has only gone on before, where one of these days we will rejoin him, it is thus that we will know the perfect happiness that this earth cannot give us.

Love and kisses from all three,

Baby Victor, Daisy & Louis

Victor in America: Summer 1908

Letters from Victor Margutti, uncle and namesake of Victor M. Margutti, mentioned here as "Baby," to his mother in France in the summer of 1908, when he came to California to live with his brother Louis. He died in a train accident in Fresno, California, on September 17, 1908. In my translations, I have followed the style and punctuation of the originals as much as possible.

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Postcard 1: postmarked New York, New York, 5:30 p.m. 1908

To: Madame Chartrey
20 rue de Cliniancourt [sic]
près du Place du Delta
Paris, France

Monday

Mama Darling,

I've gotten off the ship well, in New York, in a torrid tropical [heat] and see it [is] at 6:00. I'm taking the train for Chicago and I will leave tomorrow evening at 9:00.

The crossing was good, and I count on being in San Francisco Saturday. I will send a dispatch to Louis from Chicago. I give you a hug and kiss, as well as Lizzie, and a good handshake to Lily and to the friends.

Your Victor

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Postcard 2: postmark illegible

To: Me. Chartrey
20 rue de Clignancourt
Paris, France

My dear Mama,

I am stopped at Buffalo for three hours, and I send you a thousand kisses, from your son who loves you.

Victor

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Postcard 3: postmarked San Francisco

To: Me. Chartrey
20 rue de Clignancourt
Paris, France

My dear Mama,

Excuse me for my long silence. I am writing you at the same time a long letter, which will leave tomorrow. While waiting, I remain your son who loves you.

Victor

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Letter 1

San Francisco, 18 July 1908

My Dear Mama,

I arrived only yesterday at San Francisco, around 3:30 in the afternoon, after having made a good journey by railroad.

At New York, I did not find a Cook's agent (you may tell them when you go by there). I found a commissioner who registered my trunks, he led me to the station at 11:00 in the morning and I had to pay him one dollar.

The train left New York only at 5:00 in the evening. I ate lunch near the station and I took a little walk. I did not stop at all at Chicago, where I arrived at 9:00 in the evening, a carriage took me to the station, and I left by the 10:00 train.

I made a beautiful journey from Chicago to San Francisco, it was only a little warm in the afternoon, but that was all. I saw some Indians on the plain, which is wild and desert, it is sand as far as can be seen, and in spots one sees a few wild horses or cows.

I am finally arrived at San Francisco, where I saw Louis at the station, from there we took the boat and the train to go to Berkeley.

Daisy received me very well, I spoke to her in English and I also saw Baby, then we dined around 6:30 and in the evening after dinner I met Daisy's mother and brother.

Then I went to bed around 9:30. I am currently sleeping in the living room, waiting until my bedroom is finished. This morning I went into the City with Louis, and I am currently writing to you from his office.

page II

He is currently an agent for a Life Insurance company. He earns a good living, but he also works a lot.

When Louis arrived at the train station, I recognized him immediately, he had not changed at all, and one would never give him [an age of] 23 years.

It is above all morally that he has changed. He is no longer the flirt he was before leaving. Nothing disturbs him. He works all morning and in the evening until 5:00, and afterwards he goes directly home, around 6:00. For between Berkeley and San Francisco there is an hour of railroad and boat altogether.

Daisy is a woman of medium height, she is blonde, and not bad in her figure, but I wonder how Louis managed to fall in love with a person like her, for she is not pretty. Perhaps she has many qualities that I do not know yet.

San Francisco is not a beautiful city, there is one house of 20 floors next to another of 2 or 3, and so forth.

There are still a lot of vacant lots.

This morning I went with Louis to see about a job for me, and at the same time we went to pay a visit to Dr. Zeeth, who was not at home, but I saw your brother, who was very charming.

This afternoon I am going to go to the station to get my trunks and have them sent to Berkeley.

Your son who loves you and who embraces you,

Victor

Hello to the friends and to Estelle

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Letter 2

San Francisco, 20 July 1908

[at Mr. Paris]
[447 Walnut Street]

1340 Milvia Street
Cal. Berkeley

My dear Mama,

I have received all the newspapers which you have sent me, and I thank you very much for them.

Sunday, yesterday, we went to lunch at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Paris, who are very nice. It really gives one pleasure, when one finds oneself completely alone in a strange city, to be able to find some good friends.

My only distraction here is my work. My brother placed me with a shellfish shop owner who speaks French. I work in his store, and at the same time, I do the English accounting that he has taught me.

San Francisco is much reconstructed since the earthquake, but there are still many vacant lots, full of all sorts of debris.

Life here is not very agreable here, but in the end I will do it.

I am going to go live in San Francisco, it is better for me, for Berkeley is situated too far from my work.

Louis has not made a very good marriage with his wife, she is not very happy, but after all they are living together, and that is the main thing.

He is very self-centered and egotistical, nothing worries him except himself, all the rest is the same to him. It is very much the American way.

page II

But I have changed my idea. I plan to stay at Louis' home a few months, because life in San Francisco is very expensive.

On Saturday I went with Daisy to the home of her sister, who is married to a doctor in Alameda. We spent a nice evening and we came back to the house at half-past midnight.

The work I do is rather interesting. I think that I am going to start at $35 or $40 per month, and at the end of six months he will give me $60, if he is happy with me.

I do not go out much, this evening after dinner I am reading a little, then I am going to bed around 10:00, for in the morning I am getting up at 6:00 to be at my work at 8:00.

If you are coming to San Francisco, do not come yet at this time, for it is the worst season, the best weather is in winter, when the climate is temperate.

Whatever you may do and whatever may become of you, write me a long letter in which you will tell me what you are doing and what is becoming of my friends. Have you gone back to Chartrettes. Have you rented, or sold?

I await your news with impatience and remain your son who loves you and who embraces you.

Victor

Send me the Poirot-Delaunay stenography method, please.

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Letter 3: written on the letterhead of the Pacific Coast Oyster Co.

San Francisco, August 18 1908

1340 Milvia Street
Berkeley

page I

My dear Mama,

I have just received your letter of Friday and I am hurrying to reply to it. I have also in hand your letters of the 17th and the 29th of July.

I think that you are in good health and that you are not too worried. In your last letter you tell me that Lizzi has come back from the Pyrenées, has she had a good journey, and is she feeling a little better.

How nice Chartrettes must be at this time and I really regret being so far away and not being able to go there to spend 1 or 2 months. But it is better that you sell Les Troènes because it makes too many big expenses for you and it is too much capital which brings in nothing.

Last week I went to see Uncle Chartrey, he scolded me because I had not yet gone to see him. But he received me well, and held me until dinnertime. He talked of nothing but you, and said that it would give him pleasure to finally be able to make your acquaintance, and that you should come here in a short time.

I still work in the same place, the work is not interesting, but since I have to do it, I do it, but I think of finding something better very soon.

I am going to send very soon some cards to Andreé as well as to Yvonne, but for the moment I have sent none to anyone, for the good reason that I do not have the money to waste.

page II

I have received a letter from Jules Chartrey and I am going to answer him. I have in hand a few cards that Lizzi has sent me from Baréges. I am going to write her shortly.

Nothing new here, only that life is always just as annoying.

I remain your son who loves you and embraces you.

Victor

My best wishes to the friends and a good handshake to Estelle.

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Letter 4: written on the letterhead of the Pacific Coast Oyster Co.

San Francisco, August 23, 1908

page I

My dear Mama,

Although not having a letter from you this week, I write to you. I think that you are in good health and that perhaps you are still at this moment in Chartrettes, where it must be very good weather, for in Paris, the heat must be torrid.

Here, nothing new, only that it is splendid weather. I still work in the same place and I am beginning to get along with Louis well, he is very nice to me right now.

Last Sunday, I went to spend the day with Uncle Raoul, I had lunch with them and some friends, then we went to walk on the beach, which is beautiful, and in the evening I also dined with them. I came back to the house at midnight.

We have taken a few photographs, I will send you a group, for I am in the group with them.

Alice leaves this week to spend a few days at the home of some friends. I have loaned her a few books in French.

I will ask you to send me the family tree of the Chartreys, the copy only. I will copy it too, and I will give one version to Uncle and he will give me the date of his marriage and of the birth of his two daughters.

page II

Could you not send me a nice diablo in aluminum for Alice, who asked me for one, that would please her, and here they are horribly expensive.

You need only send it to me by parcel post, I think that it is the most economical way.

I have received a card from Lizzi in which she tells me that she has come back to Paris, and perhaps she is at this moment in Chartrettes with you. I am going to write her in a little bit.

Nothing more to tell you, I remain your son who loves you and who embraces you.

Victor

A handshake to Estelle and a hello to the friends.

Embrace Lizzi for me, and a handshake to Jules.

The Chartrey family sends you its best wishes.

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Letter 5

San Francisco [no date]

My dear Mama,

Although not having a letter from you this week, I write to you to tell you that I am in good health.

I am getting used to the American life little by little, it is a great life change, and it is very hard to live here when one has lived in Europe. But in spite of everything I want to live here at least four years, so that I can learn English thoroughly, and then I will return to Europe, to Paris probably, and think of entering the Suez Canal [Company].

Here I live a rather brutalizing life, for I leave for San Francisco at 7 o'clock and I come back from there at the same hour in the evening.

Today I am telephoning Uncle Chartrey to ask him when I can go to see him, not yet having had the time to do it.

The Paris friends are well, I have seen Mr. Paris this week.

And you, dear Mama, what is happening to you? What are you doing? Tell me this in a long letter, it would give me great pleasure, for often I am sad and thinking of you, and of the friends that I have left to come here.

I have received a long letter from Jules and I am going to answer him one of these days. Excuse me to him, if I have not yet written to him [when you see him], but I am very busy here, and I do not have much time to myself.

I regularly receive the Echo de Paris, for which I thank you.

I have received a card from Aumont. One came from the Simonnets.

I am still working at the shellfish shop, while waiting to find better, and while waiting I remain your son who loves you and who embraces you.

Victor

My best wishes to the friends and a handshake to Estelle and a hello from me to her.

One [a card] came from Gladys.

Billy Bob's Miserable Experience

Hello World, Billy Bob here. I want to report a most insulting situation foisted on my by my humans. I love and respect them and all, but they certainly have no notion of what they have done to me this time.

This afternoon, a sore from a bite wound that I received a few days ago--one that the humans saw only as a crusty place on my ear--broke open. It had swollen a bit, and it was itchy, so I scratched it. Big deal. Except when I scratched it, blood started going everywhere and the humans got quite excited. Blood on the floor of the kitchen. Big deal. I climbed into the bathtub to relax (one of my favorite spots) and they found blood all over there, too. Marilyn started stroking me so that I wouldn't scratch my ear, and Gary got the carrier, and they took me to the 24 hour veterinarian on Lamar. Not my usual doctor and staff (whom I know quite well), but decent folks, I thought.

Well, it turns out that the new veterinarian thought that my scratching was a problem. She gave me this totally ridiculous collar to wear--fits around my head like a dish--so I can't scratch my ear for a week. And I can't go outside either.

I don't know if I'll make it through the week, frankly. And the humans aren't sure either. I feel like a bubblehead--my sleek cat ways of slithering silently from place to place have become a series of big-headed bumbles. And the sheer indignity of my position is an insult to my status as big dude-cat of the world. We are all pretty miserable about this.

Family History: Victor Chartrey de Menetreux - Portrait

Denis Victor Amedée Chartrey de Menetreux
Born 21 July 1831
Died 7 April 1899

Father of Laure Chartrey
Great-grandfather of Victor Mario Margutti
and Victor Louis Alexander Margutti

Family History: House at Chartrettes, 1912

Home of the Chartrey de Menetreux family

Family History: Victor Chartrey de Menetreux - Story

The following is translated from a typewritten copy in French, presumably prepared for the alumni yearbook mentioned in the title. I give the title of the article in the original French, and my translation after it. My explanatory notes are in square brackets, in italics. I have followed, as much as possible, the punctuation and capitalization of the original.

EXTRAIT DU BULLETIN DE L'ASSOCIATION AMICALE DES ANCIENS ELEVES DU LYCEE CHARLEMAGNE
AVRIL 1899
VICTOR CHARTREY DE MENETREUX

A few days ago, I received a copy of our 1898 yearbook: on the first page I read these words, "To be sent at my death to M. DUBASTY," signed CHARTREY, then, on the other side, a few lines, a simple and laconic curriculum vitae, the text of which I reproduce:

"CHARTREY DE MENETREUX (Denis-Victor-Amédée), born at BATIGNOLLES, the 21st of July 1831. Entered the COUTANT boarding school in 1840. Left CHARLEMAGNE in 1846 in order to finish his studies at the BOURBON college, Bachelor of Letters in 1850, Bachelor of Law in 1852. Clerk of an advocate [lawyer], clerk of a notary [lawyer], became head of the office of the Parisian Gas Company [streets and homes were lit by gas] in 1858, left this company in 1865 and entered the Company of the Suez Canal in 1865 at ISMAILA, as head of the movement; principal agent in 1870 at PORT-SAID, in 1871 at SUEZ PORT TEWFIK, retired in 1897; 34 years of service. Knight of the Legion of Honor, Officer of Medjidieh, of the Rose of Brazil, of Nicham, Knight of the Savior of Greece, Knight of the Crown of Italy, Meritorious Knight of Austria with the crown of gold, Knight of Francis Joseph. Chartrey was successively the Consular Agent of BELGUIM at PORT-SAID and the Consular Agent of DENMARK at SUEZ."

The wish of our comrade is thus carried out, and the cold naming of the different steps of his life shows very well what his uninterrupted labor was.

What must be added is that he acquitted himself of his delicate functions as the main Agent of Transit and Navigation with a zeal and an energy that never failed. In 1882, notably, when the English landed in Egypt and when the Company of the Suez Canal found itself engaged between the invaders and the troops of Arabia, the personnel of the Company showed a most firm and energetic attitude: in the front rank was found CHARTREY DE MENETREUX, of whom an Administrator of the Canal (later become President of the Administrative Council after the death of Mr. Ferdinand de LESSEPS) wrote, "For your part, you have upheld the honor of the flag and have shown a tenacity which the English find worthy of respect."

When, at the end of his long career, our comrade was decorated [with the Legion of Honor], he received the warmest congratulations from all parts: among them, a letter written by a former minister of France in Cairo, since become an ambassador in a great capital city, containing these lines, "You are among those who honor the Legion of Honor by becoming one of its members."

CHARTREY DE MENETREUX loved FRANCE and never missed coming here to take his vacation almost every year, when he could disengage himself from the heavy responsibilities of his functions. He told me, the last time that I saw him, that these trips were his great joy. Singular destiny. When our comarade left the Company in 1897, he laid his plans to live finally in FRANCE, in his peaceful retreat of Chartrettes. Two years afterwards, the 7th of April 1899, he died there in his sixty-eighth year. It was for him as it is for many: rest became a funeral. He was among those for whom work is the condition of life.

Our comrade busied himself with charitable works and was the long-term President of the Administrative Council of the Hospital of SUEZ. He very naturally loved our Association, and he thought of us until the last instants of his life. We preserve the memory of this honest man, of this great worker, and we send his family our respects and sad sympathy.

GEORGES DUBASTY

Spring, the Sweet Spring...

The first signs of spring are arriving... green sprouts are poking through the soil, birds are checking out nesting spaces, and Billy Bob is checking out the birds. We still may have a few days of frost before us, but this is the time when Texas is most like California: clear, bright days and crisp, sharp nights.

In my earliest memories, when Highway 10 between our house in Pasadena and our grandparents' house in Redlands passed mostly through farmland, smog was not yet a daily occurence. Our grandparents' house was surrounded by orange groves, and sheets hung out to dry in the "winter blossom season" (as our grandfather called it) came in delightfully scented, perfect for pulling over our heads and telling ghost stories when we were supposed to be in bed asleep.

The best-known spring flower here is the Texas bluebonnet, of course. (It is known elsewhere as the lupine flower.) When we first moved here, we were on the edge of town, and all the open spaces were filled by bluebonnets in the spring: fields of flowers just a little darker than the sky. My little girl, standing among them for her photo, had flowers to her knees.

Later, the paintbrush and black-eyed susans came into bloom, but less spectacularly, as the grass was higher. And then the heat settled in, and the fresh green of spring gave way to the bleached landscape of summer, when all the native plants "estivate."

The cycle is beginning again, little by little...