Draft of Ethel Myers’ Autobiography Notes

1914 - Trip to Europe & Wars

After the Armory show we were dead broke so I gave a studio exhibition of Jerome’s work, offered everything for half price because we were going to Europe. And went to Paris to get an apartment, bought furniture, paid six months rent and the war broke out. Two taxis. That morning Jerome went to the American Embassy to ask about conditions and was advised to get out of Paris at once.

Wet wash, trunks, clothes on chr. closet. Everyone said the war will only last a few days so we started off for a trip to Holland. Jerome in one taxi with a trunk of pictures, for we had come to Europe for exhibitions, having a dealer in London. I rode in another taxi with Virginia and another trunk of art work. At the Gard du Nord the porter refused to express an order for a top.

At this point Jerome left me with the pictures and the baby and rushed back to American Express. There wasn’t any cash to be had. But the American men all got together and gave Jerome all the Italian silver they could find. And Jerome returned and in about four hours we boarded a train for Holland with the French soldiers at midnight.

In Brussels the train went no further. They had a run on the bank that afternoon and two hundred thousand people were milling the streets. An angry mob. The station was right in the heart of an amusement park. After walking the park for some time there would be no further train until six in the morning. So Jerome took us to a hotel — no room but they gave us a small room where we sat up for our Italian silver, and the child slept. At five thirty a.m. a great gong sound and we rushed for the train which was crowded with soldiers.

As we stopped before the bridge over the Sida Sia river rumor ran that the bridge was mined. The train was packed aisle seats and platform. Wonderful boys. All of them no doubt killed in the war. The next night the Germans were in the same station we had left. In Holland for miles you could see the soldiers marching to defend the border. At Rotterdam there were more than ten thousand soldiers, many had been drinking and bidding farewell to their wives and children. We saw many trunks thrown off the trains to make room for the soldiers. (They promised to store American trunks until after the war.) The American Express was wonderful in every way.

In Holland things looked very bad and we decided to come back to America. We had taken a student to Paris with us. A young Russian boy who refused to leave Paris and we left him with an artist cousin. Three days later he joined us in Holland — a wreck. Covered with a rash from head to foot. I thought it was the measles but it turned out to be a rash from fright.  The experience was terrible. Our hotel room was a mess. All the wet wash hung up to dry.

We paid for our tickets back to London but after a week the company gave us back our passage money in gold saying, “Take the old Bat line back that after that it perhaps be the last boat.” There wasn’t a berth on board. But the Captain gave me his room with the child. All night long Jerome walked the deck and saw them planting the bombs. At the break an officer come on board our ship to tell us war had been declared. As we got near Margate we could see and hear the soldiers shooting. Everyone on board with their luggage had to be searched. By that time it was pouring rain and we were taken off in lighters, and a steep ladder and Jerome with heavy suitcases fell to the deck below. And the prisoners were held on board.

In London it was bank holiday with no money to be had and rich women could be seen (travelers), some with only a banana to eat, having exchanged travelers checks. In Holland we were more fortunate. At the Savoy Hotel we booked on three ships. Our boy student was sending cables before each ship, but the only one that was received by his family arrived in New York just as the extra came out the ship had been blown up.

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Jerome was on the committee to help stranded Americans, headed by Herbert Hoover. One foolish woman asked an American student why he had left America with so little money.

Leo Schultz, the great cellist, lost all his money in a Hamburg bank. Jerome got Samuel Untermeyer to help him and he was therefore able to get his sick wife back to America. Leo Schultz was ever grateful. We were finally able to get back to New York on the old St. Louis, steerage, with many other Americans. We lived on deck night and day. A dense fog, horns blowing. At night we went like mad with all lights out and in daytime we stood still. The old boat shock. The stewards had been taken off for military duty. Long shoreman taken on in Liverpool to replace the  stewards.

Wristwatches, steamer rugs and etc. were stolen while people slept. The garbage was thrown in a corner of the ship and food could not be eaten. I saw one woman pay a dollar for a sandwich and throw it overboard because it was crawling. No fresh food was taken on at Liverpool because England needed all the food she had for her people. We bought a good supply of crackers and cocoa before boarding the ship and on this we lived until we reached New York. Jerome paid a lot for a glass of milk for our child and she said, “What funny ice.” It was broken glass.

There were over a hundred cases of ptomaine on board. Afterward there was a great law case against the company. I lost seventeen pounds on the trip and was black and blue from laying on the deck.  We arrived in New York on August 23 and went to Luchows, where we had a wonderful steak, but we were all pretty weak.