Searching for Cora Sue -9 - En Route to Utah

So we are set for the next stage of our journey. But we had a bit of time to kill before our Sunday train, so I got out my copy of Mark Twain’s book, and looked to see if he had anything in it on Denver. I found that in his book of short stories there was one that mentioned Denver, called the Double Barreled Detective Stories. So I read it and found it very entertaining, but not giving me any hints about what to do on our last day herer. However, I did come across a newspaper clipping that I had forgotten about, and it does indirectly deal with Denver.

New York Tribune (August 22, 1902) A few days ago it was reported that Mark Twain's book,
"Huckleberry Finn," had been barred out of the Denver Public Library. On learning this The
Denver Post telegraphed to Mark Twain for an expression of his opinion on the subject. He sent the following letter, which is printed in The Post, which adds, however, that the efforts of the people who were trying to have "Huckleberry Finn" discarded from the library failed, and the book will be restored to the shelves. This is the letter.

Your telegram reached me (per post) from York Village (which is a short brickbat throw from my house) yesterday afternoon when it was thirty hours old. And yet, in my experience, that was not only abnormally quick work for a telegraph company to do, but abnormally intelligent work for that kind of mummy to be whirling off out of its alleged mind.

Twenty-four hours earlier the Country Club had notified me that a stranger in Portsmouth (a half-hour from here) wished me to come to the club at 7:30 p.m., and call him up and talk upon a matter of business. I said: "Let him take the trolley and come over, if his business is worth the time and the fare to him." It was doubtless yourself - and not in Portsmouth, but in Denver. I was not thinking
much about business at the time, for the reason that a consultation of physicians was appointed for that hour (7:30) at my house to consider if means might be devised to save my wife's life. At the
present writing - Thursday afternoon - it is believed that she will recover.

When the watch was relieved an hour ago and I left the sick chamber to take my respite I began to frame answers to your dispatch, but it was only to entertain myself, for I am aware that I am not privileged to speak freely in this matter, funny as the occasion is and dearly as I should like to laugh at it; and when I can't speak freely I don't speak at all.

You see, there are two or three pointers:

First - Huck Finn was turned out of a New England library seventeen years ago - ostensibly on account of his morals; really to curry favor with a personage. There has been no other instance until now.

Second - A few months ago I published an article which threw mud at that pinchbeck hero, Funston, and his extraordinary morals.

Third - Huck's morals have stood the strain in Denver and in every English, German and French-speaking community in the world - save one - for seventeen years until now.

Fourth - The strain breaks the connection now.

Fifth - In Denver alone.

Sixth - Funston commands there.

Seventh - And has dependants and influence. When one puts these things together, the cat that is in the meal is disclosed - and quite unmistakably.

Said cat consists of a few persons who wish to curry favor with Funston, and whom God has not dealt kindly with in the matter of wisdom.

Everybody in Denver knows this, even the dead people in the cemeteries. It may be that Funston has wit enough to know that these good idiots are adding another howling absurdity to his funny history; it may be that God has charitably spared him that degree of penetration, slight as it is. In any case, he is - as usual - a proper object of compassion, and the bowels of my sympathy are moved toward him.

There's nobody for me to attack in this matter even with soft and gentle ridicule - and I shouldn't ever think of using a grown up weapon in this kind of a nursery. Above all, I couldn't venture to attack the clergymen whom you mention, for I have their habits and live in the same glass house which they are occupying. I am always reading immoral books on the sly, and then selfishly trying to prevent other people from having the same wicked good time.

No, if Satan's morals and Funston's are preferable to Huck's, let Huck's take a back seat; they can stand any ordinary competition, but not a combination like that. And I'm not going to defend them, anyway.

Sincerely yours,

S. L. Clemens.

York Harbor, Aug. 14, 1902.

October 1, 1910

We decided not to go to church this Sunday, as we didn’t need the extra fuss of trying to find our different churches and still get back and pack. I’m sure the Lord will excuse us on this occasion,
but we must find a church in Salt Lake City so that we cannot use the same excuse next Sunday.

At 11, we checked out of our lovely hotel and took a taxi to the Denver and Rio Grande train depot. We showed our tickets and got on board the coach, the Nomad. It is a three car train consisting of the rear car, which has a glassed in observation car, the middle car which is mainly berths, two upper and two lower, and a lavatory and the first car holds the kitchen and bunks for the crew. There is a vestibule at each end, with comfortable chairs for sitting out.

We took photos of the train for our intended write-up of our adventure. Before we left, I went to the photo company to see if our photos had been developed. Luckily they were, and we were able to have them with us. Otherwise, I would have had to ask them to forward us to the Peery Hotel.
But as we have nearly used up all the shots in our current cameras - I took the opportunity to buy us two more.

The train started out on time, and we were a very select group on board. There were only another ten
passengers, and the crew of six.

To pass time, I asked the porter to tell us a bit about the history of the train.

“Well Ma’am,” he said, “Colorado railroad pioneer General William Jackson Palmer, in a
letter dated January 17, 1870 to his fiancée, Queen Mellen, described his vision for building 'a little railroad a few hundred miles in length, all under one's control with one's friends,' and 'I would have a nice house-car made, just convenient for you and me - to travel up and down when business demanded, and this car would contain every convenience of living while in motion.' He and his bride had exclusive use of it for the first three years.”

We did indeed find the train luxurious. It is decorated throughout in mahogany and silver, which
gives it a very rich feel. The velvet upholstery is burgundy, and matches the outside color of the train. It was steam-heated, which although the weather in Denver was still very pleasant today, we were
sure we would value when we went through the higher mountain passes.

Later when the same porter came through again, he said, “I forgot to tell you ladies that this train has been used by Presidents of the United States. Both U.S. Grant and Teddy Roosevelt have sat in those same seats that you are sitting in now. And we’ve had European royalty and quite a few millionaires.”

It seems that Teddy Roosevelt's name comes to haunt us wherever we go. He also had stayed at the Brown Palace Hotel.

When dinner time came, we were served on heavy silver service, with cut glass, and finest china. But the best part of the trip were the views. We managed to take quite a few extraordinary pictures as we rode by. (pictured above)

The next day, all the news in the papers is about the Los Angeles bombing by dynamite of the Los
Angeles Times building which apparently happened yesterday. The explosion started a fire which killed 21 newspaper employees and injured 100 more. I am glad our searches did not take us to Los Angeles.

As we sat on the train, we discussed what our strategy would be for trying to look for Cora Sue in Salt Lake City.

“There will be no possibility of checking for her phone number unless she is still going by her maiden name - but I doubt that. If she has a child, and is living with a man, she will go by his name.”

“It wouldn’t hurt to check for Cora Sue Kellogg’s just in case things didn’t work out with him and she is still single.”

“I think our main clue to his identity is in the fact that he is a jeweler. We can go and ask at all the jewelery stores.”

“There might be hundreds.”

“Yes, but they will know each other. If we ask if any of the other jewelers have a wife called Cora - it might get us nearer our goal sooner.”

“I just thought of something. You are a Catholic, so Cora Sue must be too. She might be known at a church. We could contact all the Catholic churches in the area to see if she is a member.”

“If she has a child which is illegitimate, or is living with a married man, I doubt if she would
even go to church. She would know that they would say that she was living in sin and that she would have to give up the man if she wanted to be a communicant in the church.”

“Well, it is worth trying. His wife might have died, and she might have married him when he was
available. We just don’t know.”

“I think the fact that he made silver jewelery and was living in a place where silver is mined is
important. He might not be a jeweler as such, but a silversmith - someone who makes objects including jewelery out of silver.”

“Yes, we can certainly see if there are any of those around. They would be less in number than
ordinary jewelers.”

“Can you think of any other possibilities? What sort of hobbies did she have?”

“She didn’t really have many hobbies. She sang quite well, but wasn’t really good enough or
confident enough to want to sing professionally.”

“We could check to see if a baby born somewhere in mid summer 1900 has a mother called Kellogg. I think they ask for the mother’s maiden name on the birth forms.”

“Will they tell you that?”

“I'm not sure, but I think it is probably a public record. It would be in some sort of record office in the town hall or someplace like that.” 

“There might have been hundreds of babies born at that time, so that is really not a very
good option, but we will keep it in mind. Do you think if she was pregnant, she might have tried to get rid of the baby?”

“No, I really don’t think she would. Even if the father didn’t marry her and she had to do it
on her own, I think she would keep the baby as best she could.”

“Of course, the baby was only a speculation about why she might have left in a hurry. She might not
have been pregnant at all - or if she was, she might have miscarried.”

“If she was married, I think she would have wanted to have children.”

“But if he already had children, maybe he would not want any more.”

“Well, when we are settled in our hotel, I think we will first check to see if there are any listed
silversmiths - and if that does ‘t work out, we will try the jewelers next.”

So on we traveled, enjoying the magnificent scenery - going through very tight mountain passes. This really was a feat of great engineering - putting a railway line right through the mountains. And what a wonderful view we had when we reached our destination. This city has magnificent mountains, the Wasatch Range, for a backdrop, and a huge lake in front.