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HARLAN PAGE FRENCH : 1880 - 1921 ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT DIARY OF AN ERUDITE AND EXPRESSIVE LATE 19TH CENTURY BUSINESS ENTREPRENEUR

8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall. On offer is a super, original manuscript diary handwritten by Mr. Harlan Page French, an expressive 19th Century business man and entrepreneur born in Pleasant Valley [Cambridge] Vermont but spent most of his adult life in Albany New York. In 1881 Harlan's business of French & Choate Stationer succeeded the Readers and Writer's Economy Company. His partner left the business in 1884. While not a day to day diary Harlan writes 154 handwritten pages in the 6" x 11" book beginning March 15th, 1880 through to February 13th, 1921 but sometimes not writing for years but he retrospectively brings the reader up to date regarding his life, his business and his family after the gaps. He and his family, wife Augusta (nee Bowers) and his daughter Florence, take many vacations leaving the city as he suffers from allergies. Interestingly he takes "Cocaine" for his hay fever. Readers will find Harlan a super diarist. Here are some snippets: "March 15th, 1880. Here I am in New York but not so well pleased with my position as I might be. The business of the Readers and Writers Economy does not start off very briskly and I am a little dissatisfied. However things will probably take a more favorable turn soon and I shall feel better. Have called on Mr. Fisk at 346 Broome St. this P.M. and had a pleasant chat with him. Shall look around a little by and by and see where I can get boarded to the best advantage. We have had a few callers today and a little trade and that is an improvement on Saturday." "April 13th, 1880. I am completely tired out and discouraged. Things are getting more and more mixed every day and there seems no possibility of straightening them out. I am discouraged and very blue. If it was in my power to go back four months, I should be very sure to continue my relations with the S. S. F. Co. for all of casting in my lot with a concern managed by men with no capitol and no experience. But I am blue tonight and shall probably feel better tomorrow. It is not because business is dull but because it is managed in such an unsystematic and un-businesslike way that I am so discouraged. I have been hoping it would improve but I can't see that it does." "September 1st, 1880. The weeks are passing rapidly and when a few more days have gone my wife and baby will be here again. Business is picking up again and we have enough to do from morning till night. Fred Choate came down here for a fortnight ago tomorrow and is going to work for me through the winter. He is doing nicely and seems perfectly contented. Mr. Holmes is evidently getting interested in Mrs. Fellows, for which I am rather sorry. But boys will be boys and he is not yet too old to be a boy I guess. Our affairs at Boston are going on in the same old way. Mr. D. is still running things in his impetuous and changeable way and still neglecting important matters which he pursues some imaginary valuable contacts. Economy notes are played out and subscribers defrauded of their money. Catalogues and circulars are not forthcoming, great promises are made in our advertisements and but little is done towards fulfilling them. In fact our President does all his work, in my opinion, in about the worst way possible……" "July 8th, 1881. I want to put on record my belief that Dr. Nichols course with the Economy notes has been such as to show positively that he is not capable of doing anything in a business like way. We have had only one number dated in 1881 and although another was promised at once, nothing more has been heard of it. The management of the Economy Club and notes has been such as to seriously displease and disgust its friends and has hurt our reputation and our business greatly. And still Mr. Coolidge and Dr. W. can't seem to see it." "November 22nd, 1882. In April (the 1st) I found a co-partnership with Monsieur Smith and Choate's and we have been running the business together since. In May I took a trip to Chicago, St. Louis &c and with fine success. On Oct. 13th, I started on a second trip and took in Milwaukee, St. Paul, Minneapolis &c. Had a pleasant and successful trip which I enjoyed quite well for me. Business boomed while I was away and for a week after my return but now it is at a quiet stand again. It has been very dull this week, so dull that I do not understand it at all and I have been decidedly down; but I am beginning to recover today. I noticed that I am always troubled with the blues after I return from a trip and I attribute it to the change to indoor work and the taking up of the responsibility which I had laid aside during the trip." "September 11th, 1883. On August 2nd myself and family left Brooklyn and went to Cambridge where I left wife and child and on the 4th started west. Was gone a little over five weeks and had fine success but business in the store was very dull and I came home sooner then I otherwise would on account of the unfavorable conditions of our finances and the discouraging letters received from Mr. Stoughton. It is a sad fact that trade has not equalled our expectations and is not likely to. We are running behind and in looking the matter squarely in the face yesterday and today I am compelled to say that I do not see how we are going to make a success. I fear for the future and am very blue and depressed. It does seem as though we had ever been in such close quarters before and I can't for the life of me see our way out. I can only do my best and trust in providence." "June 18th, 1886. Albany New York. Well my journal has had a long long rest. For months I didn't care to put down my thoughts and feelings on paper and so have written nothing. My New York experience is over. After three and a half years of hard work, unsuccessful in its results, I closed out all our goods that I could, sent the rest to H. B. Mims and Co. of Troy on sale and the 18th of May 1885 I entered their employ as a traveling salesman. I have not been with them a little more than a year and am quite well satisfied with my position. I have lately been on my vacation to now, going up on May 25th. It is just six years this summer since Gusta, Florence and I went up there together and spent two weeks on the farm and we are enjoying this visit very much. We drove down to Uncle Marks' on Thursday and up to Pleasant Valley where I was born…." "August 15th, 1886. Pittsburgh……I hope I have found a remedy for hay fever in Cocaine which I have been using for three days. I am certainly feeling much better than I did a year ago today and am hoping the improvement will be permanent. This afternoon I have taken a ride across the Monongahela and up an inclined plane on to the bluff west of the city. Made the acquaintance of a young Scotchman who is employed in one of the larger hotels and who, like myself, was out of a walk. Have a pleasant walk, a good view of the city and now will spent the evening reading." 'July 17th, 1898. It is more than 12 years since I have written a line in my journal but I am alone tonight and I will begin again. Twelve years ago I was with H. B. Mims and Co. as a traveling salesman. I remained with them until December 31st, 1890 when I left their employ and became the manager of the Albany Teachers Agency which had been started by Will Choate three or four years before but which had never amounted to anything. I started into my work with a will but the first year's business was very unsatisfactory. The second year was better and after a while I succeeded in establishing myself on a paying basis. For the last three years business has been good and we have been contented and happy. On May 1st 1890 we moved to No. 2 Leonard place and after two or three years we purchased the house and thus gained a home of our own. The years have brought their trials, their joys and sorrows to Augusta and me but we have much to be thankful for. The "baby" is now a young lady who has just completed her second year in Vassar and she and her mother are now visiting Mother Bower's and Fannie in No. Cambridge. On Saturday June 25th I went to Amherst to attend the reunion of the class of 68' thirty years after graduation and I want to make a brief record of my experiences…." "August 11th, 1898. A week ago this A.M. I received a telegram from Edward Flanagan telling me that Ned Bowers died the night before, August 3rd. Augusta and I were entirely unprepared for this sad news and the shock was almost too much for her. On Friday morning we started for Cambridge and arrived at mother's about 5 P.M. Fannie was at Lexington looking for a minister to conduct the funeral services and when she returned she reported that she had engaged my college classmate, H. H. Hamilton. The funeral was at Concord on Saturday afternoon and we laid poor Ned away beside his brothers. It was a sad, sad day and one long to be remembered…" "August 25th, 1904. Lake Placid. For five years past I have taken a vacation in the hay fever season to escape the annual attacks which have troubled me for 34 years and thus have been able to pass the months of August and September in comparative comfort. In 1900 we went (Augusta, Florence, Mother B. and I) to Nova Scotia and spent ten days. The next year we made a longer trip and remained three weeks. Florence did not go but Fannie Bower went for a single week and left Augusta and me to finish the season alone. In 1902 we spent 2 weeks at the Randall House in Morrisville, went from there to Bethlehem N.H. for a week or more and then home to Albany via Boston. Last year (1903) we, Augusta and I, came to Lake Placid on August 22nd, arriving in from Westford via Elizabethtown and Keene Center. We remained ten days, stopping at Northwood's Inn then went to Morrisville for nearly two weeks, to Bethlehem N.H…..This year we have planned a change and came up here to Lakeside Inn on the 23rd. We came by the D. and H. taking a parlor car on the fast express leaving Troy at 1:45 P.M. We had a fine trip taking our dinner on the train and ar

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