Appendix B

Comments by Jack's daughter, Alice Everson Weiss

Page 2, last para.Mother used to tell me that at one time Grandpa Everson was Dean of Russ Medical [School]. Probably untrue, as Jack undoubtedly would not have skipped over such a praiseworthy background note --(or might he?) There seems to be, even this early in the document, a derogatory attitude toward his father.

Page 6, para. 4. I was told that grandpa died of an aneurism (if at an early age, usually the after-effect of syphilis- so my doctor told me). and that before his death, he published a paper in a medical journal descring his symptoms in minute detail, which brought him some kind or another of fame or recognition.

Page 11, first para. He seems to have "visual" [eidetic] memory as distinguished from "oral" [verbal] memory. I recall in scenic fashion, but quickly forget things heard.

(I was surprised at his rather good writing, though the contents so far are of interest mostly to himself or to closely related persons).

Pages 11-12. His descriptions of the varieties and methods of tramps and criminals [are] quite interesting.

Page 12, para. 4. Vital information. One never knows when one may be able to use it, does one?

(I am beginning to wonder about now where fact leaves off and fiction begins. Methinks papa read a bit of Jim Tully and sought to emulate--could be? Also, post WW-I, the publication called "Captain Billy's Whiz-Bang" contained versification of "Toledo Slim", "The Big Rock Candy Mountains", "The Girl with the Blue Velvet Band", etc., --to be read in those days in close secrecy).

Comment by WLE: I believe Jack had read Tully's book and thought rather little of it, claiming that Tully didn't really know the world of trampdom. And yes, I recall Captain B's W-B; by today's standars, it would be considered mildly risque, at worst. The songs Alice mentions have been collected and published by all manner of folksong aficionados.

Page 14. para. 2. reference to Casabianca - My God! At five, ,Bill could recite "The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck"--I can hear him now.

Pages 14-15 and General. Minor note on tramp tricks: White tramps approach negroes as a matter of profitable practice. The flattery to the negro's ego usually results in a very generous handout. (This picked up from a former boyfriend named, of all things, Jack, who had tramped in pursuit of story material for about two years- funny? I knew nothing of papa's tramp background but damn near followed in my mother's footsteps )

(Comment by WLE: It appears Alice was temporarily confused about Jack's earlier marriages and at this point didn't realize that there had been two of them.)

Page 16, para. 1. "Don't .... .. ... ....". What was it? I don't get it. "Backhouse poet's effluvia", very effective description.

(Comment by WLE: to me, it's fairly obviously "don't shit (piss?) on the seat", but there's room here for creative imagination- e.g. "here come my two dogs.")

Pages 21-23 Reminds me of the convent. Mother could not pay full rates, so I had to work for part of my board money. In the laundry, Mondays; darning the smaller kids' socks, Tuesdays (I was about 10); carrying trays to the infirmary (they always arrived with one peach or one-half slice of pineapple, altho [they] started with two) every meal; Wednesdays, back to the laundry to work on the mangle; Thursdays, kitchen work (ate what the nuns had; very good, too); Friday and Saturday, clean candlesticks etc. for the altar, the pleasant smell of beeswax, the sour odor of vases too long filled with flowers and unchanged water, their especially foul odor after a week of chrysanthemums. Food: beans, tripe, liver, head cheese with the bristles still on, ugh!, salt cod. Every Saturday morning, a dose of Epsom salts. March to June, spring medicine, a dope made up from herbs, an oleaginous mixture resembling automobile oil with green and tan tones in which floated wilted forms of nauseous-looking vegetation. As to flogging, well beaten--had black and blue marks on buttocks and legs for two months--for clapping my hands (but softly) behind Sister's back when a "day scholar" thumbed his nose at her and she caught me.

Page 24, last 2 lines. Jack didn't care much for the old man, and I imagine the feeling was reciprocated. I still have the feeling that basically he was a "mamma's boy".

Page 25, Para. 1.Well, at least mother's story of aneurism seems to have been true.

ibid., para. 4. re writing to his mother --damned noble of him;

Page 26, para. 3: ancient history, mythology --my childhood favorites. I am convinced that if one can inherit sex (or webbed toes--who in the family has them besides my son?), that one can inherit emotional reactive factors, mental trends. Certainly nothing in my environment led me in these paths, unless, unless . . . grandma's early influence. I don't know.

Page 27, para, 3. Evidently, Grandma's effects did not all perish in the fire of 1910.

Page 28, para.1 I was born at Cherry Creek and Santa Fe [streets]. Mother was also raised in Chicago. Wonder where these two got together.

Page 42, Para. 1. "Ich maux nix aus " - mother often used the phrase. She said she learned it in the German-Jewish neighborhood in Chi where she lived as a child. She did know many German and Yiddish phrases and songs.

ibid., Para. 2: Was this mamma? apparently not. I emphatically deny that I died 47 years and 8 months ago, and mother did not die in a whorehouse-- at least, none that I was running.

So apparently this gal was #1 - oh yes, mother did tell me that he had a wife before her who committed suicide and unless my memory is very faulty, Millie told me the same thing.

ibid., Para. 4. "I passed the buck"--typical.

Page 44, bottom of page. "he didn't appeal to me."--by implication?

Page 47, Para. 3.Mother said that grandma dreamed of this fire when it occurred. Whether grandma told her that in later years, or whether my father and mother were then married, I cannot tell from this part of the text. He mentioned leaving his wife after her baby was born (page 42) but which wife, deponent sayeth not.

(WLE: As I read the account, the wife mentioned on page 42 was his first wife, not Alice's mother (Mary), and it is fairly clear that he left her before the baby was born.)

Page 47, Para. 3. I was premature--here's the story of the clairvoyant dream. I have certain telepathic receptivity--any others in the family with either?

Page 52. Para. 2 (near end). "One Hell of a liar"--he did not need much practice. Incidentally, [in my] past 18 years' experience with people who sell things, [I] find nearly all very successful salesmen psychopathic--have extreme desire to "put something over" on people.

Page 55, Para. 6. He belonged to the Steamfitters' Union in San Francisco. Tim Reardon, lately deceased, knew both him and mother. Tim was quite a powerful labor politician in his day.

Page 56, last Para. At the time of writing this past history, he had any squawk coming about feminine infidelity ??

Page 61, last Para. This seems to be about April 1900.

Page 66, last line. I don't doubt it.

Page 71, Para.1.Out creeps the little Puritan (the creep), the primrose trail is OK for males, but for the ladies-? uh-uh.
Para. 2, last line. "For once. . . " and only? -I am being bitchy.

Page 74, Para.4. The sheep has handed me my first real laugh.

Page 76. He always wanted to be a hero, I think - the "Private Life of Walter Mitty".

Page 78, Para. 1. Enter Mary. Marriage, 1901--I was born in 1905.

Page 80, Para. 1. I am amazed at the brevity with which he passes over four years. I'll bet the brevity was because Millie would either see this or was typing it for him.
(WLE: Millie was quite unhappy over the thought of publishing his MS., and the thought that she might see it might well have influenced Jack's choice of language.)

Para. 2. "In the summer of 1905. . ." I was born on Feb. 5, 05. It didn't take him long to get over his great love [for Mary].
Para. 3 I thought he had his foot injured in the fire. I had the year right, but the place wrong.
Para. 4. "not given to sacrilegious mouthings . . " I question that. At the time I witnessed his violent anger in San Anselmo, I'm sure he was god-damning all over the place.

Page 83, Para. 2. Look who's talking about taking unfair advantage of people --the phoney jewelry-- phoney patent medicine--but himself yet? My second chuckle.

Page 82, Para. 3. They first lived in S. F. and Millie confirmed to me that mother, Grandmother and I lived there with them for a while in 1909. Incidentally, why call her Louise? Bill born November, 1908?
Middle of Para. This confirms my statement--my mother and Jack's mother remained together as long as possible after my birth and his departure.

Page 84, Para. 1. He brought mother some English woolen material from which she had a suit made immediately after the first World War.

Final Comment. My apologies for questioning where fact left off and fiction began. While much was omitted, I believe all that was contained was factual.

Re the last page: It appears that somewhere, name unknown, there was still another of the tribe.

On the whole, I found it an extremely interesting document, sections of which could possibly be incorporated into a group of short stories, or used as the theme of a novel.

The Puritan conscience amazes me. I find too little humor, wry or otherwise, and too much of a certain pedantry of which I here seem to be equally guilty,

Final comment by WLE: I never met Mary (Alice's mother) and don't know what her maiden name was. I have the impression that Millie felt uneasy about both Alice and Mary and discouraged any contact with or talk about them. Unfortunate, because I recall Alice as quite a real person. I seem to recall having seen her once since World War II, while living on Jayne Ave. in Oakland, but can't be sure. Somewhere about then, I lost contact. I do recall her saying she had discouraged her mother from attending Jack's funeral, fearing that she (Mary) would have made quite a theatrical production out of the event.