Tag Archives: Maude Stout Bartlett

Will and Maude Stout in Happier Days

Will and Maude Stout did not always fight. Perhaps Maude doesn’t look terribly happy in these childhood photos, but it is heart warming to see that they traveled together with their spouses and individually they knew how to have a good time.

Will and Maude Stout

Will and Maude Stout, circa 1877

Will and Maud Stout

Will M. Stout and Mary (Maude) Stout, May, 1881

The three siblings were together, presumably in New York City in 1900 or 1901.  Here you see the three siblings on the right hand side and the two spouses on the left. Maude looks so sweet in this picture compared to her youthful pictures, and her later reputation.

Vera (center) had graduated high school In May 1899 when she was sent to New York to go to secretarial school and live with her brother Will. The school did not last long, as she was listed on the 1900 census as living at home with her parents.  However, her brother Will, was also at home in Killbuck on June 4 when the census was taken. Perhaps they both returned to New York that month, because surely Will and Jean were married by the time this picture was taken.

At any rate, this beautiful photograph captures what was probably the most joyful time in the lives of all five of them.

The Stout siblings and spouses

Jean Stout, Vera Stout, Maude Stout Bartlett, Carlos Bartlett and Will Stout 1900 or 1901 in New York City

Will and his wife Jean even traveled with Maude and Carlos. Here is a fading tintype from Niagara Falls. It is speckly because I enhanced as much as possible.  Will  and Jean  married in 1900 and Carlos and Maude married in 1898, and the photo was presumably taken not long after Will and Jean’s marriage. I think this photo is interesting because I believe it is taken in a photographer’s studio with the quartet posed against a painted background.

 

Stout visit Niagara Falls

Jean and Bill M. Stout, Maude and Carlos Bartlett at Niagara Falls Circa 1905

And just for fun, here are a couple more vacation pictures–these on the beach.

This picture of Maude Stout Bartlett might have been taken on her honeymoon.  I have no concrete information, but this must be Florida, and her bathing dress indicates very late 1800s or early 1900s.

Maude Stout Bartlett

Maude Stout Bartlett at beach in Florida Circa 1898 (Honeymoon?)

And here are Will and Jean Stout at the beach –probably close to New York City–with a group of friends.  Jean wrote on the back that the photo was taken by Mr. Benedict. There is a couple named Benedict in the photo of Bill and Jean’s dinner party in New York City, which I showed on this post. , Ancestor Tracking: Bill Stoutl.   Someone has circled Will in the back row and Jean in the next row down.

The other thing that intrigues me about this photograph– besides the wonderful bathing costumes–I wonder who the children are.  For sure one of the girls in the front row must be Jean’s daughter from her first marriage. Which one, I wonder?  I have no other  photos that show her, so would love to know.  In case you know her, I’m looking for  children or grandchildren of Margaret Rogers (born Oct. 1893) Owens. She married in December 1916. Her husband’s name: Temple Hubert Owens. They lived in New Jersey, but in 1952 lived in Georgia. Her husband died and was buried in Earlville New York in 1957, but I do not have information about Margaret Rogers Owens death. [ NOTE: Information found. She died in 1965.]

Will and Jean Stout at beach

Will and Jean Stout at beach with friends

Now you know that Will and Maude Stout did know how to have fun!

Mother’s Death Causes Family Conflict–A Letter from Will Stout

The Cast of Characters in a Family Conflict

William Morgan Stout (1873-1944)  intrigues me. He seemed to attract family conflict.

William Stout

Ancestor Great Uncle William Morgan Stout (1938) 65 years old.

I don’t believe I ever saw Will Stout. If I did meet him on one of his brief visits to Killbuck Ohio, I was too young to remember. My great-uncle, older brother of my grandmother Vera Stout Anderson, lived in New York City during the Gilded Age.

Recently I found a letter that he wrote to my grandmother, Vera Stout Anderson in 1937. This one letter to my grandmother is the only thing that I have in his own handwriting. It nicely fills in the personality of my elusive great-uncle Will.

The People You Need to Know

Will Stout

Very little factual information about Will Stout survives, but you can read more about him in “Ancestor Tracking: Great Uncle Bill Stout. For instance, it took me years to discover that he died in Palm Beach Florida rather than New York or New Jersey.  I expected to find him still near his relatives in New Jersey in the 1940s.  I only recently was able to uncover Will and Jean’s marriage record. There I learned her last name and that she was a widow rather than a divorcee.

He did not quite have the distinguished career that my mother described as “a railroad attorney”. Nevertheless Will lived in magical Manhattan during the Gilded Age. Actually, he was one of many lawyers who worked for the New York  street car company, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company.

Will’s Early Life

Will was born June 25, 1873, the oldest of three children of “Doc” William Stout and “Hattie” Morgan Stout.

Will left Killbuck Ohio for school in upstate New York, and then law school in New York City after his father Dr. William Stout nearly disowned him for what Doc Stout saw as dissolute living. This may have been the first of his involvements in family conflict.  His life turned far away from small town Mid Western living and values.  He married a widow several years older than he was.  She had a daughter who he reportedly adopted, but the couple never had children of their own.

The Interborough Rapid Transit Company Letterhead

  The Interborough Rapid Transit Company opened the first New York subway line in October 1904. Previously, they owned the first elevated lines (The El).  The city bought the IRT in 1940, and the IRT originally ran the subway lines that today are the numbered lines in the subway system. In 1929, Will would have been working for the company when they took a fare increase appeal to the Supreme Court. They asked to raise their fares from the 1904 rate of five cents to seven cents. They lost, which probably played into the end of the company in 1940.

When he wrote the letter to his sister Vera in 1937, Will still struggled because of the Great Depression. His company had some serious problems, which probably kept their army of attorneys quite busy.

Maude Stout Bartlett

Maude Bartlett at Stout-Anderson house, Killbuck (c.1952)

Maude Bartlett at Stout-Anderson house, Killbuck (c.1952)

No one every used my great-aunt Maude’s real name, Mary Emeline Stout (1875-1963) (“See Aunt Maude Bartlett Entertains a Queen”).  From family letters and the family picture, I suspect that Hattie Stout favored Maude above her other children.  This made perfect sense because Maude was studious, well-behaved, musical–all the things that my rambunctious grandmother and rebellious great-uncle were not. In this picture you see Maude standing at Hattie’s shoulder and Vera beside her father, while Will sits alone.

 

Stout Family Home in Killbuck, Ohio

Dr. William Stout and family in front of family home, circa 1885

Maude married at the age of 23 to Carlos Bartlett, and not long after their marriage, the couple moved to Buffalo, New York. She lived a social life their, filled with books and music and entertaining.

Sadly, Carlos died in 1915 at the age of 42.  For the rest of her life, Maude mourned her “dear Carlos.”  She remained in Buffalo, took in a boarder and taught piano lessons, until in the 1950s she moved back to Killbuck, Ohio.  She and my grandmother Vera had a prickly relationship, (more family conflict).  Though as my mother said, they still cared for each other. They lived at opposite ends of the small town, about 1/2 mile apart. In their later years, they  called each other on the phone on days they could not visit.

When Will wrote the letter to Vera in 1937, Maude was still living in Buffalo with an Englishman boarding in her upstairs to supplement Carlos’ Railroad Stocks pension.

Vera Stout Anderson

I have written extensively about my namesake grandmother.  In 1937 when she received Will’s letter, she and my grandfather Guy were running a restaurant in their home.  The picture at the head of Ancestors in Aprons is the Anderson Restaurant.  A short time before the restaurant opened, they had been running a boarding house.

Vera Had Her Own Troubles

When Vera received Will’s letter, Guy may have already been showing signs of the heart trouble that forced them to close the restaurant in the early 1940s.

In 1937, Vera and Guy’s youngest son Herbert had married ten years earlier when he was 19, and  already had four children.  Her oldest child, William J. Anderson had one child. Her daughter, Harriette, was dating a man she did not entirely approve of.  In other words she had troubles of her own.

Harriette (Hattie) Morgan Stout, the Mother

Hattie Stout in Buffalo

Hattie Stout and Maude Bartlett in Buffalo Circa 1910

I have written about Hattie Stout (1842-1928) who was a school teacher during the Civil War. She was a woman who was widely read and curious about everything.  She explored life to the fullest. My mother said that she even smoked a cigarette in the teens when women were expressing new-found freedoms, just to see what it was like. Her desire was to live long enough to vote, and she did indeed live to see Woman’s Suffrage.

Hattie served as her husband Doc Stout’s assistant, keeping the house and his instruments spotless. She even took care of patients who had to stay in the Stout home in Killbuck for a brief time while they recovered from some illness.  The couple loved to travel, and Hattie accompanied her husband to medical conventions, went to the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893  and also visited her son in Manhattan and rode on a double-decker bus.

When Doc Stout died in 1910, Hattie had Vera’s husband take over managing the farms she inherited. She moved into a small house so that they could occupy the large house Doc Stout had built in the center of town.

The End of Hattie’s Life

Hattie visited Maude in Buffalo after Carlos died. By 1920, her health failing at age 78, she had moved to Buffalo to live with Maude. She died in Maude’s home in 1928 at the age of 85.

Cause of Death

Hattie Stout Death Certificate Cause of Death, 1928

The family story ran that Hattie had turned away from the medicine practiced by her late husband Dr. William Stout and her belief in some alternative treatment contributed to her death. When her son Will Stout wrote a letter to her daughter Vera in 1937, Hattie had been dead ten years, but he was still angry.

I was curious about her cause of death. Because she was in New York State, I had to pay $18 and then wait about 9 months before I received the copy of the death certificate.  I have more to say about the cause of death, shown above, in a little bit.

The 1937 Letter from Will Stout to His Sister Vera

Here’s an image of the first page of the four-page letter that Will sent to his sister on April 22, 1937, revealing another family conflict involving Will. As you can see, it is not the easiest handwriting to transcribe, but I have transcribed pertinent parts of the letter below.  Here you can see the name of the company he worked for.

family letter

Letter from Will Stout to Vera Anderson, 1937, page one

…she is impossible it seems to me, & the six weeks or so that I indured (sic) during Mother’s Illness, was sufficient for a lifetime.

Dear Vera & Family,

[ He opens with a response to a recent letter and the fact Vera had not written frequently, which worried his wife. He goes on to complain about his financial circumstances. That may have seemed a bit strange to his much poorer relatives. After all, they did not live in a big city and have a job as lawyer with a large corporation!]

Fortunately for my peace of mind we have been very busy here in the office and have had little time to worry about being the under dog.

It will not be long now when we will be completing our plans for our vacation which as usual I hope to take in August. So far our idea is to drive to Ohio for a day or so & then skip back to a little cottage on a nice little lake upstate where we were for 3 wks last year. It is very unpretentious, very quiet, & cheap & the best place for complete relaxation & rest that we have found yet, so if nothing happens to disrupt our programme (sic) We will start the last Friday or Saturday in July & ought to be in Killbuck the following Monday & Tuesday Aug. 2nd or 3rd, but don’t make extra plans for us we can not stay long for which you should be thankful,

[Here Will mentions possible visits to relatives along the way]

…  the time will be short enough, in fact too short so that we will get ourselves disliked all along the line, but that seems to be the best we can do for I have engaged our cottage starting the 10th of Aug. & so what we are thinking of doing before that date means that we will have to hustle.

[Then he gets to the matter of avoiding his sister Maude. I have bolded the significant statements.]

I don’t suppose you know what Maud is going to do this summer as yet. So when you find out let me know. I have not heard from her in year and I don’t intend to have any Part of my vacation disturbed by a possible scrap, so if she is going to be at Killbuck the 1st week—Aug that will change our plans Of course if she is in Buffalo when we drive thru I will stop & say hello. But that will be all as I recall it she was not at Home the last time we stopped and I suspect she was just as pleased as we were. The last time we did see her she never asked us in the House. But that is all right by me, I am not mad about it & Jean [his wife] is very sorry for her & about the whole thing & gave me fits for not trying to placate her but she is impossible it seems to me, & the six weeks or so that I indured (sic) during Mother’s Illness, was sufficient for a lifetime. That is enough of that, So don’t fail to let me know when she will be if you learn.

Aside from a few colds & minor bellyaches we have faired (sic) very well physically, & I can think of nothing else by way of news. We are looking forward to seeing you & those wonderful kids that a doting Grandmother is crazy about.

Don’t wait so long in finding time to write again.

Love to all

Jean & Will

What Happened in 1928?

Particularly, what happened in Buffalo during that “six weeks or so” that Will refers to? Of course we will never know for sure. But thanks to the doctor who signed the death certificate on January 24, 1928, we know that Hattie died of Diabetes Mellitus (commonly called just diabetes). According to the certificate, she had suffered from Diabetes for twelve years. That was not a particular surprise, as diabetes crops up in several generations in my family. My grandmother (Hattie’s daughter), my sister and one of my sons all have been diagnosed and treated for diabetes.

The most common modern treatment for diabetes, insulin, began to be used in the early 1920s, so would have been available to Hattie.  Read History of treatment of diabetes here. (U. S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health)  Did she feel that insulin injections were unnatural?  Did she prefer to use some alternative treatment, like the treatment with high fat diet,(article from Journal of Diabetes and Metabolism) which had some supporters at that time? Was she afraid of needles? Or did she, as my family suspected, join a religion that forbade medical treatment?

When I saw on this death certificate “Contributory” [cause of death] as gangrene of the foot I thought of another possibility.  The most common recommendation to deal with the gangrene would be amputation of the foot. She might, understandably, be reluctant to lose her foot, and refused treatment. So perhaps it was the infection that killed her.

The Death Certificate

A minor point: her birth date is given as August 4, 1842 on the death certificate, and date of death is January 24, 1928.  The calculation that she was 85 year, 4 months and 20 days old therefore is slightly off.

One more mystery popped up when I read the death certificate.  I mentioned earlier that Hattie had been living with Maude in 1920.  However, he death certificate says that she has only lived at that address for four months.  Either she had changed her address back and forth from Buffalo to Killbuck, or the census had caught her just visiting in 1920. In that case, she didn’t actually live with Maude until later.  So why would she go to Buffalo in October of 1927?

Presumably Hattie was quite ill by that time. Travel away from home would be difficult, even though she was fleeing to be with her favorite daughter. The only logical reason I can think of for the trip would be to receive some kind of alternative treatment not available in Ohio.

Whatever reason she had, it is clear from Will Stout’s letter that he was present in Buffalo when his mother died. He argued with Maude (and presumably his mother) about Hattie’s treatment.  I can picture the New York attorney descending upon the two ladies at 16 Robie Avenue, ready to take charge.  He was, after all, an attorney–used to arguing.  However, from what I know of Maude, she could be very determined. She may have decided to go along with their mother’s decision about her illness. If so, she would dig her heels in and her older brother would hold no sway. And as we can clearly see, Will lost the argument. His mother lost her life. However, William M. Stout signed the death certificate, listing his address as 537 West 149th Street, NY City. (According to current real estate site, built in 1910, in an area near Riverside Drive and Broadway called Hamilton Heights, a northern portion of Harlem. Many of the buildings still show the decorative touches of the Gilded Age.)

I am glad to have this glimpse into the personality of William Morgan Stout. However, I am sorry that it is a letter that reveals a family conflict. Despite his wife’s gentle admonitions, Will did not seem to be one to easily forgive.  On the other hand, judging from her refusing to  invite him into her house, neither was his sister Maude.

Great Grandma Bakes Cakes for 32 People

My first thought upon looking at Great Grandmother Harriet (Hattie) Morgan Stout’s letter to her daughter was, “I hope she wasn’t attempting to teach penmanship when she was a teacher!” I have the feeling Hattie would have more success when she bakes  cakes than when she tries to write legibly.

Letter from Hattie Stout 1910

Letter from Harriette Morgan Stout to her daughter Maude Stout Bartlett, May, 1910

I will spare you the chore of trying to figure out what Hattie was saying in this letter to Maude Stout Bartlett. I have transcribed the entire letter at the bottom of the post if you want to read the whole thing. But since it has references to unidentified people who are not of much interest to a reader 100 years after the letter was written, I will first summarize the letter’s high points.

Hattie would have been 68 years old that year, and her husband, William Cochran (Doc) Stout would have been 65. Maude Stout Bartlett was 35.  My grandmother, Vera Stout Anderson was 29 and had been married just six years but had three small children.

Last week I talked about this letter’s reference to my grandmother, Vera Stout Anderson who was planning to grill.  There’s another food reference in my great-grandmother’s letter which also left a few questions, when she bakes cakes for a Sunday School party. But there are more serious subjects here, also.

Doc Stout’s Ill Health

Hattie writes the letter on Thursday, May 12, 1910.  In the letter she worries a lot about her husband Doc Stout’s health.  He had a stroke, or perhaps more than one stroke, a little over a year earlier.  Hattie says

Pa is feeling about as usual but complains for the last week of his arm and leg being so much more numb than it was or has been for a long time. don’t know why it is so. It may be the weather has something to do with it. It has been so cold and disagreeable for the last two weeks. He can’t be so very billious for he has just finished a course of pills. He is asleep now on the davenport and snoring as usual. I do hope he won’t have another stroke. Seems cheerful & it is not that that caused the numbness.

In fact, Doc Stout did have another stroke. He died just three months after Hattie wrote this letter, in August 1910.

Doc Stout funeral

The Killbuck Community Band returning from the cemetery after funeral for Doc Stout. Grandfather Guy Anderson front left. Sign on left “Watch for locomotive.”

Focus on Daughter Maude

There is no question that the tie between Hattie and her older daughter, Maud, was very close.  When Hattie wrote this letter, Maud was 35 years old and had been married for twelve years. She lived in Buffalo New York, and according to the census form that she answered the previous month, her husband was a traveling railroad agent.  In other words he traveled around the country and promoted railroad travel during the Golden Age of train travel. In 1900 they had lived in Killbuck and he described his job as traveling salesman.  And the absences apparently took a toll on Maude.

Wish you were here to go up with us in the morning and you might as well be here all the time if you could content yourself as to be there all alone. Your visit quite spoiled us for Pa misses your smile as much as I do and always says wish Maud was here if anything out of the ordinary happens or if we were going some where Say Maud would enjoy this.

I don’t believe you are getting used to the staying alone biz very fast. Quite nice of Miss Pierce staying all night with you . Wish you had some one. Can’t you hunt up a young girl to come to stay at night with you{?} Even a day would help to relieve the monotony.

Hattie Bakes Cakes

Pa wanted to entertain the Sunday School another time So I had them Mond. evening. Had a nice time. Served ice cream, cake and coffee. Bought the ice cream of Robb & made the cakes myself. Had 32 plates including my own and Pa’s. The music was fine and the quartette sang lovely.

Good heavens, great-grandmother, for the sake of a descendant who writes about food traditions, could you not have shared at least what KIND of cake?  And I’m wondering what size pans and how many cakes it took to serve 32 people. Since Hattie was a reader of Godey’s Lady’s Magazine, perhaps she found the recipe there.  I’ll do some searching and see what cake was most popular in 1910 and give it a whirl. Although I can’t promise to bake cakes for 32.

Hints at the Way They Lived in Killbuck, Ohio in 1910

We learn that family is tight and see each other frequently. The people she writes about include her son-in-law’s family members–their whereabouts and health. Guy Anderson’s widowed mother, Mary, has been living with her other son, “Ben” until yesterday when Vera picked her up and took her to the farm where she and Guy live.

We learn that although Doc Stout is a doctor, he owns a farm and his wife is a bit concerned about getting the spring corn planting done. Guy is probably going to help with the corn planting and is bring them the planter.  After Doc Stout died, Hattie depended on Guy to manage the farm. (When I was a girl, my Uncle William J. Anderson lived on the farm and it remained in the family until we descendants sold it a few years ago.)

She mentions the weather–so chilly for May that they are burning the stove every day.

Hattie passes on a bit of gossip about townspeople–one woman who is going to Chicago and one who is pregnant (perhaps unmarried, since she says “is in a fix and begins to look plump a little.

In Closing

Hattie returns to both the subject of how much her father misses her  and Maude’s unhappiness and loneliness. Then she closes with a bit of advice.

Pa said how much Maud and Carlos would have enjoyed it—wish we had had it while you were here. He talked about it for a long time but I did not ______ it very strong thinking he would forget it but he kept it up so I let him go and done the best I could. We’re not very tired. Took things easy and did not worry and that is half the battle.

Good by. love to both. don’t get lonesome or afraid. Nothing to fear but the Comet and it is too far off.

I cannot make out that word about her reaction to Pa’s wanting to have the party, but it seems logical that she is saying she did not encourage his idea, but when he would not let go of the idea, she reluctantly went along.

The “Nothing to fear but the Comet” refers to the biggest news event of the year of 1910.  Haley’s comet came around on May 19, 1910 and was the center of attention for months, causing riots and stories predicting doom. The newspapers would have been covering it heavily about the time Hattie wrote this letter.  But she adopted a matter-of-fact scientific view rather than the less informed panic.

 

ENTIRE LETTER TRANSCRIPT

(With a few additional notes)

Envelope: Mrs. C. E. Bartlett, 16 Robie Ave. Buffalo NY

postmarked Killbuck, May 12 p.m. 1910 Ohio

Killbuck Thursday

Dear Maude and Carlos You see one day ahead but, I or rather we are going to go up to Vera’s in the morning and want to start from here by eight-o’clock so I know would be no time to write letters I have written one to Will [brother William Morgan Stout] one to Clem [I have no idea who this is] and now comes your turn last-of course but not-least for I cut theirs off short for I have some things to do this afternoon yet.

Vera is going to have a grilling tomorrow and will put in two grills – She has one in now & wants to put another in as soon as I get it there with the lining and bottom as she has asked about 10 or 12 and they all could not get around one grill to any advantage. We will take Sarah Jane [Probably Sarah Jane Brink Anderson, wife of Guy Anderson’s uncle] along with us if she wants to go. Vera was down after Mary [Mary Brink, Guy Anderson’s mother] yesterday. Ben [Bernard Franklin Anderson, Guy’s brother] fetched her this far and Vera met her. [In 1910, Mary was living with Ben and his wife She will stop up there until Sun. Net seems better now. don’t think it is anything permanent though. [“Net” is Nettie Andress Anderson, wife of Ben. In fact her illness was permanent, and she died the following year.]

Pa is feeling about as usual but complains for the last week of his arm and leg being so much more numb than it was or has been for a long time. don’t know why it is so. It may be the weather has something to do with it. It has been so cold and disagreeable for the last two weeks. He can’t be so very billious for he has just finished a course of pills. He is asleep now on the davenport and snoring as usual. I do hope he won’t have another stroke. Seems cheerful & it is not that that caused the numbness.

We have not any corn planted yet and we are just as well off as others. Guy [Leonard Guy Anderson, son-in-law of Hattie, wife of Vera] will finish his by tomorrow Eve and then we will have the planter Sat. guess he will come down and work it as Nett don’t understand it very well. do hope it won’t rain any more for a while. The sun is shining bright now but the wind is cold and we have the gem going all the time. [The “gem” “Gem” is a type of stove. They originally were coal burning, but by 1910 it could have been gas.]

Wish you were here to go up with us in the morning and you might as well be here all the time if you could content yourself as to be there all alone. Your visit quite spoiled us for Pa misses your smile as much as I do and always says wish Maud was here if anything out of the ordinary happens or if we were going some where Say Maud would enjoy this.

I don’t believe you are getting used to the staying alone biz very fast. Quite nice of Miss Pierce [Perhaps a Buffalo friend] staying all night with you . Wish you had some one. Can’t you hunt up a young girl to come to stay at night with you{?} Even a day would help to relieve the monotony.

I have not cleaned our bit of house yet and don’t care if I don’t as long as this beastly weather lasts but I expect when it gets warm I’ll be so lazy that I won’t feel like moving one bit. Martha [don’t know who this is] washed for me at lest{least} Sat & I ironed yesterday.

I guess the news is rare about here Glenner(?) is in a fix and begins to look plump a little. I saw it in her face.You know that __ are over there. [She appears to be speaking about a woman who is pregnant, but I have no idea who she is talking about.]

Clara Started for Chicago yesterday. [Another mystery person]

Pa wanted to entertain the Sunday School another time So I had them Mond. evening. Had a nice time. Served ice cream, cake and coffee. Bought the ice cream of Robb [1920 Census shows Joseph Charles Robb as owner of a bake shop in Killbuck] & made the cakes myself. Had 32 plates including my own and Pa’s. The music was fine and the quartette sang lovely. Star’d {Started}____about eleven oclock. Vera and Guy came down but left the kids at home.

Pa said how much Maud and Carlos would have enjoyed it—wish we had had it while you were here. He talked about it for a long time but I did not ______ it very strong thinking he would forget it but he kept it up so I let him go and done the best I could. We’re not very tired. Took things easy and did not worry and that is half the battle.

Good by. love to both. don’t get lonesome or afraid. Nothing to fear but the Comet and it is too far off.

Mother.