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From Dome of Many-Coloured Glass (1955)
- University of Iowa Press
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[195] X From Dome of Many-Coloured Glass (1955) Post Wheeler and Hallie Erminie Rives (George) Post Wheeler (1869–1956), former editor of the New York Press, became a career diplomat in 1906 and held posts in the U.S. embassies in Tokyo, St. Petersburg, Rome, Stockholm, London, and Rio de Janeiro. Garland first met Wheeler and his wife, the novelist Hallie Erminie Rives (1874– 1956), during his Chicago years and later at New York’s Lantern Club (also spelled Lanthorn), where writers read their work at weekly Saturday banquets . In 1923, during the Garlands’ second summer in England, Wheeler had invited them to attend the annual garden party at Buckingham Palace. In Back-Trailers, Garland notes, “I, too, began to consider clothes. I decided, however, that an old plainsman such as I was, could ill afford to buy or hire a long-tailed coat and silk hat even to see the King and Queen eat raspberries and Devonshire cream, and as my wife would not permit me to wear a sack suit and a soft hat, there was nothing for me to do but to gain a place at the gate and see them sweep grandly in” (314). Ironically, in 1899 Garland had astonished his friends by purchasing a formal coat and hat during his first visit to England. one incident connected with the garden party we regretted. Hamlin Garland , ever since the old days of the Sign o’ the Lanthorn Club, had been a close friend of Wheeler’s. He had come to London, with his wife and their two daughters, for a stay of some weeks and Wheeler had put the quartet on the list. With his near-white wide-brimmed Western sombrero, Hamlin was a striking figure. When Wheeler broke it to him that the affair demanded a top hat, he rebelled. He and Wheeler wore the same size and Wheeler had an extra one, but Garland’s objection went deep. He was a frontiersman, and a sombrero belonged to the border. The wearing of the badge of Eastern servility to fashion was to him disloyalty to his principles. To the chagrin of his wife and daughters, who went and enjoyed themselves , he remained adamant. In his later years we saw much of the Garlands in Hollywood, where they elected to live. He had spent much time studying the “talk-signs” of our garland in his own time [196] Indians on the Western plains, in which his nearest friend, the late Gaylord Beaman, was an adept. The stroke from which he died paralyzed his right side. He could not speak, but he was able in his last hours of consciousness to communicate his final wishes to his wife through Beaman in this sign language, many of whose signs could be made with one hand.1 Note 1. In a letter to Eldon Hill, Beaman described Garland’s final hours after his cerebral hemorrhage: “The doctor came promptly; but he very shortly lost the ability to talk. He could, however, write quite legibly although his left side was paralyzed. When it became too difficult to write, he talked to me in Indian sign talk. I little thought that I would have to act as an interpreter” (5 March 1940, Eldon Hill Collection, Walter Havighurst Special Collections Library, Miami University, Oxford, Ohio). From Post Wheeler and Hallie Erminie Rives, Dome of Many-Coloured Glass (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1955), 685. ...