Suite 926 18 Broadway New York May 19th, 1916 Dear Jack Yours of March 29th reached me Apl 12th, and by same mail I received a letter from Harry also; you would have heard from me sooner but I have been quite ill, which I will explain later. Why I wrote my former letter was simply that I personally don't want to be misunderstood, misquoted, or misrepresented, and it is my nature to extend to others just the same treatment as I myself like to receive. This I felt that you would appreciate getting the opportunity to explain a mistake, or if you had been misquoted to have an injustice to you straightened out; for this reason and for this reason alone I wrote as I did to Harry; and I told him that if he deemed it fair to you he should show you the letter. In a word, my letter was written in fairness and in justice to you, as I am not the kind to harbor an impression which may not be square to any one. It is perfectly clear from both yours and Harry's letter, which I received same day as yours, that he misunderstood your remarks and as a consequence misquoted you; however you see my object was to get things straight between Harry, you and myself, and I am perfectly satisfied from your letter that you appreciate not allowing you to remain under any doubt. Am further satisfied from your and Harry's letter that you acted perfectly square in the matter, and the cause of the little misunderstanding arose entirely out of a misquotation of your words by Harry. Well Jack, I note you say that you did not hear from all you wrote to. When I read your first letter and saw your plan, I felt that your efforts, from my experience, would be a failure, yet of course it was not for me to say so. The whole situation is to me the queerest proposition I have ever been up against, rather the most stupid piece of business I have ever heard or read of; you can get no one to do any thing and all are more interested than you or I. You suggest that my coming over might help to straighten matters out. If you review the facts I feel you will alter your opinion on this point. You know I have no weight with Lillie and her associates, except by process of Law; as for Bee, outwardly she is not as antagonistic as Lillie, but I prefer Lillies's antagonism than Bee's silence. Again Bee, as one of the Trustees has a duty which does not go hand in hand with silence, Lillie has not. I have hot heard from Bee in six or more months, and think I am safe in saying that as far as business is concerned I have not heard from her in almost a year. As for Sam, he and I don't correspond. As for Gordon, I had not seen him in over a year until he turned up for five minutes just before Easter; he has been up the country living; I have never spoken to Gordon on the subject and would not. As for Hugh, I have seen him once, twice I think, since he came over; I know nothing whatever of him. Again, even if I could accomplish anything, I could not get a Passport, without which I could not land over, and without which I could not return here. But suppose this difficulty did not exist, why should I, the smallest interested party under the Will waste my time and money for a thankless bunch, who won't do anything for themselves. I have never asked them to dp anything for me. No Jack the suggestion is useless from any angle you view it from; and thus it is that I have made up my mind to test the legality of the whole affair as soon as the war will permit, meanwhile if they all want to amicably adjust the situation - IN THE INTERESTS OF ALL - they have the oppertunity. I feel that this course is the cleanest way to clear up Father's affairs and do honor to his memory, and not allow things to go as they have and are. This covers fully your letter. What a wretched time you have been having in poor Ireland. I had hoped that Ireland had seen her darkest days, and that after the war a United Ireland would spring up for the good of all; it is possible that good may come out of evil, and that out of this dark cloud the Sun may shine. The trouble has caused a great split in the Irish race over here, there are now three distinct Irish camps, First the Loyalists, second the Redmondites and Third the class that has always made the Irish race the laughing stock of the world, and which were so beautifully represented recently in Dublin. Of course this latter class are that class of Irish that would sell their country at any time as Judas sold his God; they are the class that sold themselves to Germany, and they are the only breed of mankind, during the present war, that have proved traitors. This class over here might mean a third of the Irish over here; thus of course they represent a big political vote, for that reason, and for the reason that they are so easily bought and sold, their cause is taken up by some of the big Politicians. Of course like in Ireland a number of the Priests are on that side, indeed I notice with regret that the R.C. Church seems to be turning the situation into capital for itself. But I want to say this, there are plenty of good Catholic Irish over here who blush at the situation. I want to say this, the Germans have become a very hated race over here, but the Irish are held in more contempt today by the American people. and no one regrets it more than yours truly. I hope Youghal has not suffered much and that the poor old town refrained from mixing into the muss. Let us hope that from it all will come good. Now a word about my recent experience. I was up calling on Captain and Mrs Hyde on March 29th, just before starting for home I felt a little bilious, but thought when I got out in the air and had a chance to vomit I would be all right. Well Sir I took my departure but when I got in the air I realized that I was quite drunk as well as being ill, as I walked to get my car I became more and more intoxicated, so much so that I was reeling all over the side walk. I quickly got rid of all that was in my stomach, and when my car arrived I was hanging on to the gas lamp at the corner of the street in the good old fashioned style. Well I boarded the car and hung out through the end of it trying to vomit a most peculiar kind of gas. I had to ride over half an hour on this car before making a transfer, when I got to the transfer point I was in an absolutely helpless drunken conditions physically, but mentally free of any effects of the intoxication. I went up to a policeman and asked him to get me a doctor quick, he did so, and when I got landed in a chair in the Dr office I was all in, or in other words I had no control over a muscle of my body, a perfect case of complete ptomaine intoxication. Well the Dr called up a hospital and in a few minutes I was trollied on a stretcher and whisked off in an ambulance The Dr came along in the ambulance and at the hospital two other Drs and four nurses got busy, while a couple of orderlies helped me into a cot. Then the Drs got to work with a stomach pump and washed and washed out my stomach; this of course had the effect of displacing all gas, and if there was any kind of poison in my stomach getting it out also, but before they commenced I told them that my opinion was that the poison was in the entestine and that I would suggest to clean out the entestines first; but of course you know every one knows better where the shoe pinches that the wearer, so the Drs thought best to tackle the stomach. Well after they got through washing they covered my entire stomach with a mustard poltice, after which I became very comfortable and was feeling good until next forenoon when the gas began to exert itself again, then of course they realized that the trouble was in the entestines, thoroughly washing them out, after which I became normal from ever point. Then for twenty four hours I touched nothing, not even a drink of water; next day I pulled up fine and the day following I was brought home and had my own Doctor take hole of me. Whether the journey home was too much for me, after about five miles, I cannot say but I do know that for the following week I grew weaker and weaker; then the turn for the better cane and the third week I got out for the first time, still suffering from intoxication and feeling as if I was using some one elses legs. Well the fresh air did it work and I improved right along, however even yet I cannot move my head to fast without finding decided traces of the intoxication, but I feel in time it will pass away. The Drs in the hospital as well as my own Dr told me that they never saw a worse case of ptomain poison and that they had grave doubts of my being able to throw off the poison. I got the whole trouble from eating ONE bite of a bad red herring on the Sunday morning previous to the attack. The moment that I swallowed that bite I realized it was bad and fortunately for me did not touch it further. I have gone into my case in detail as I thought it might interest you or be of use to you at some time in your business. Now Jack I must close. I trust you and yours are all well. Also hope that you and I perfectly understand each other, and that all times we will not allow each other to lie under any misunderstanding which plain square talk will remove. Oh by the way. I received your papers with the account of Doyle v Ronayne case; it was very interesting. Had Doyle published the facts as facts and not as a scandle he would have won out and Dr Ronayne would have got it in the neck. Poor "Den". Again I hope everything is well with you. Your affectionate Uncle Richard W Long PS (in hand script) Isn't it sad about poor Henry Green's death?
