Edward Searles and Angelo

Anglo’s last trip with Mr. Searles to the Canadian Rockies.

Travels and Mr. Searles Passing

“Mr. Searles loved to travel and had been planning a trip to Europe; to go after the war was finished.  But I was released too late, in 1919, so we went across Canada to Vancouver, instead that year. We went to Lake Louise, in Alberta, and we didn’t stay in the big hotel, but in one of the cottages on the lake. While we were there the manager found out who he was, and that he owned a railroad. Those big hotels in Canada were owned by the Canadian Pacific Railroad, so they treated him like the owner of a railroad would be treated! I wanted to hire a couple of horses and go riding with him, up the mountain. He laughed, and told me to go and enjoy myself. So I went alone; all the way up! You reach a point where you would put your horses, and then you would walk up the rest of the way; five hundred feet further up. There was a tea house up there and, and if you wanted they would let you carve your name in the wood. There were names there from all over the world, and I carved my name there…After we left Lake Louise we went to Vancouver, then to Seattle and then to San Francisco, where we stayed in a big hotel on Nob Hill. After that we went to Chicago, then to Buffalo, where we had to spend a few days because I was sick. He arranged for me to see a specialist there. We went all over. When we returned to Methuen, Pine Lodge wasn’t ready, so we stayed at the Red Tavern. We used to stay there, or stopped in for lunch a few times myself, when I was working for Mr. Searles. I knew the manager, Mrs. Barnes, very well! When we were back at Pine Lodge I was talking, one day, to Arthur Brown’s daughter. He was a kind of butler there, and helped Miss Littlefield run the place. His daughter was a nice girl; pretty, but kind of pudgy. We were just walking on the grounds, shooting the breeze, and the old gentleman must have seen us because he spoke to me about it the same day. He said, ‘Don’t get serious with her, I want you to marry a princess, not just any girl!’ He thought I was something special. I was special to him; he thought of me as his own son. Well, later, during the will trial, Art Brown, and others testified that they didn’t know that the old gentleman thought of me as special; I was surprised! Well, when we took that trip Mr. Searles was feeling all right, and he was in good spirits because he was travelling again. A few weeks later we were back in New York, at the Murray Hill apartment. And one night he called for me because he couldn’t pass urine and was in pain; he had a prostate gland condition and had been treated for that before. I was scared so I went down to the desk and asked them to call his doctor; Dr. McCarthy. He came in and after he spoke with Mr. Searles the doctor started to bleed him. In those days they thought that would relieve the pressure, so that he could pass urine. I saw the blood and I fainted, and when I fell I hit the radiator! When I came to Mr. Searles helped the doctor to get me up, and was telling the doctor to forget about himself, for the moment, and take care of me first! That’s how he was; but I told them I was all right. He was treated for that, while we were in New York, and afterwards he felt all right again.”

“Later that year I received news that my mother had died and that my family there could use my help. Mr. Searles had his New York office book passage for me on a steamer, so that I could return to Greece. The trip took twenty-three days! I was away for about five months because I was arranging to bring my whole family over; Mr. Searles gave me enough money to do that, and when I was there he sent me another Thousand dollars! He was very good to me and I wasn’t able to thank him enough for what he did for me and my family.”

“During the time I was gone he took sick again, in New York, and I never knew about it; he didn’t want me to worry about it. When I returned to New York he was at the Murray Hill apartment, and that was when I found out he had been sick, and Walter Glidden, from Pine Lodge, was taking care of him. He hugged me, and cried; he was so happy to see me again! After that, when we were back in Methuen, Mr. Searles was talking to me and said that since he was going to rest at Pine Lodge until he felt well enough to travel again, that I should get an education and that he would ask Arthur Walker to find a good school for me. I went to school in New York, but the course was too difficult for me to understand; it was a language problem. At the same time I was nervous about the old gentleman because I wasn’t in contact with him. I went to see Walker, I always called him ‘Arthur’, and he said I should get away and unwind. He persuaded me that Mr. Searles wasn’t that bad and that I should take a vacation. So I went to the Catskills because I knew someone up there. While I was there the old gentleman was dying in Methuen, but I didn’t know it.  Seavey’s step-daughter, Emma, back in New Hampshire, was writing to me at the Murray Hill Hotel in New York, That’s where she though I was. She was saying that Mr. Searles was dangerously ill and that I should get back to Methuen because he would want to see me. Well, I received a telegram from Arthur Walker, at where I was staying in the Catskills, because he knew where I was. He informed me that the old gentleman had died, and to come back to Methuen for the services. I went back to New York and while I was waiting for the next train to Boston I walked to the hotel to get some things from my room, and that’s when I found two or three letters from Emma Richter saying ‘Angy, where are you? Why don’t you answer me? Mr. Searles is very sick, and you should come back right away!’ That was my mistake, going on that vacation. If I had been in New Hampshire, at the castle, or in New York, I would have heard about it, and would have gone back to Methuen in time to see him again.”