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Elisina Tyler to Mildred Barnes Bliss, October 10, 1915

Paris.

October 10th 1915Sunday.

Dearest Mildred,

I have heard the distressing news of Mr. Cross’sCharles Robert Cross (1881–1915), an American lawyer who assisted in the relief work of Mildred Barnes Bliss’s American Distributing Service (Service de distribution américaine). On October 8, 1915, he died from injuries sustained in an automobile accident near Dinard four days before. See Bliss Papers, HUGFP 76.12, box 1 (3 folders); and Mark Antony de Wolfe Howe, Memoirs of the Harvard Dead in the War Against Germany (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1920–24), 1:58–69. For the Blisses and the American Distributing Service, see letters of September 30, 1914, and December 26, 1914. death with infinite regret. I fear this means a great trouble to you, poor dear. I hope Russell Greely [sic]Russell Greeley (1878–1956), a portrait painter, was director of Mildred Barnes Bliss’s American Distributing Service (Service de distribution américaine). Greeley was in the car with Charles Robert Cross when an accident occurred on October 4, 1915. See “Dr. Charles R. Cross Killed Accidentally; Car Overturned While Taking Hospital Supplies to Dinard—Russell Greely [sic] Injured,” New York Times, October 10, 1915. For the Blisses and the American Distributing Service, see letters of September 30, 1914, and December 26, 1914. is getting on well.Royall Tyler expresses similar sentiments in his letter of October 18, 1915.

I am writing to say that I expect to go back to Royall on Thursday morning, and that I am free on Wednesday afternoon or evening, if you chance to be free. I could also make myself free from five to seven on Tuesday, or lunch either day. If none of these hours suit you, I will bottle my grief—old wine in an old bottle,—till the end of October.Royall Tyler indicates in his letter of October 18, 1915, that Elisina Tyler and Mildred Bliss had met "the evening before," either Saturday, October 16, or Sunday, October 17.

My best love as usual and as ever: I am in this respect disenchantingly monotonous.

Ever yours,

Elisina Tyler.

 
Associated Places: Paris (France)