Michael (and fellow writers) -
I was not sure how to edit this historical fiction piece into a shortened audio version but I have pieced parts of the story together, omitting other parts, and adding a bit of back story as an introduction.
I am including the original rough draft story line, followint this shortened version, Michael, if you want to look for more that I should include or substitute, etc . Don't get bogged down on this piece though if it proves too difficult to edit before Friday.
See you then,
Sue
Shortened Audio Version -
The summer of 1900 on Diamond Lake seems to be one of constant motion and activity. Thousands of visitors come and go to the four main hotels, mostly on excursions for a day at the beach, or to attend company picnics or just to take a ride on one of the many steamboats that cruise the beautiful sparkling waters. Then there are the lucky ones who get to camp on the east shore or stay in one of these fine hotels for a whole week of the season.
Leo is an energetic 18 year old local who has worked at his father’s ice cream stand, bait shop and small grocery for the last six summers. This popular stop for the crowds of visitors heading to the island hotel property is located on the north shore along Spring Beach, just across the road from the family farm. Leo also supplies the Island Hotel with the milk, cheeses and soft drinks required by their 20 lodgers, which he takes over in his familiar delivery boat on a daily basis.
His accommodations for the season are squeezed into the back room of the small frame grocery. An upper bunk with a table set up under it and a small cook stove pretty much fills up this space. The pubic privy out back provides for the rest of his needs.
Leo’s 16 year old brother, Ray, stays in a staff dormitory room, in the Island Hotel all summer and works as kitchen help for the owner’s wife, Mrs. Bartlett, who oversees the hotel’s dining and housekeeping operation.
Leo feels connected to the Island Hotel based on his six year affiliation with the place so he always tries to abscond with one of the new summer monthly menus for Mrs. Bartlett from the Shore Acres Hotel, just down the beach from his grocery, when he fills in as a bus boy there. Leo knows that she is always eager to find out what that rival hotel is serving since their greatest draw from the townspeople and their lodgers is the renowned food served at Shore Acres.
A pretty good cook in her own right, Mrs. Bartlett has learned what her guests at the Island Hotel enjoy – including just enough chicken mixed in with the rabbit which is in such great supply on the wooded 40 acres.
Leo also tries to keep up to date on the other resorts’ attractions for Mr. Bartlett, including the popular wooden waterslide at the Blink Bonnie Hotel. Since his friend Howard pumps the water to the top of the 40 foot high slide on Sunday afternoons Leo hears all about the show offs and the scardy cats who have to climb back down all those steps in disgrace.
But Leo knows it is the Forrest Hall Hotel that really gets under Bartlett’s skin; probably since he missed out on buying that place on the west shore back in 1890. That was when the three owners of the private Chicago Club House finally sold it, to become a resort and sanatorium – complete with the estate’s original bowling alley. It wasn’t years later that Bartlett was able to round up the cash to buy half of the prime north point property on the island and two more years before he could buy the other half.
At least Bartlett, now known as the Captain, has practically cornered the market on the steamboat service on the lake, with the O.W. Powers still the flag ship of his fleet. Only the Cassopolis, a new 52 foot long beauty, built to accommodate 150 passengers plus luggage, is owned by someone else.
Business is brisk at the grocery and the hotel rivalry is more intense than ever. Weekly dances held at the outdoor dance floor behind the Island Hotel are Bartlett’s claim to fame. But the railway lines have now created package deals and are advertising Forrest Hall in Chicago which makes Bartlett even more nervous for his business. And now the Cassopolis has been sold to someone in Montana and it is rumored that a Forrest Hall investor has hired a captain to operate that sleek steamship on the lake this summer.
Sensing Bartlett’s concern Leo and Ray try to figure a plan to put the mighty Forrest Hall in its place. But the lure of learning the latest dances – hopefully put to the new ragtime rhythm – makes Leo eager to sign up for the dance lessons given at the rival hotel before the boys can really settle on a plan.
Aside from the unreal feeling of actually being in enemy territory, Leo has an even bigger shock when he does enter the foyer at Forest Hall and sees the famous Rose Melville talking and laughing with the dance instructor.
Melville is the girl from the lake who is making it big these days. First on stage in Poughkeepsie, she went on to New York and worked Vaudeville for eleven weeks. Then last year she landed a part in a movie, “By the Sad Sea Waves”. Now she is back at the lake taking a little time off while her own movie is being written just for her character that everyone loves, Sis Hopkins.
As usual, the girls are clustered on one side of the room as far away from the boys as they can get and there are easily twice as many of them. But they are eyeing Leo and the rest of the boys plenty, wondering who is going to be matched up and who is going to get stuck dancing with her sister.
A quick word with the dance instructor, Harry, and Leo is paired up with the best looking girl who turns out to be the hotel manager’s niece, Annie. To top off the evening Leo gets the inside track on the hotel’s layout and out buildings during a romantic walk after dancing with Annie all evening. A personal tour of the famed bowling alley, the croquet court, the barn complete with horses, pigs, chickens, and cows, and the ice house gives Leo a lot to think about as he rows his grocery delivery boat back to Spring Beach.
A clandestine endeavor is quickly planned by Leo to take place the next Wednesday, when almost all of the hotel guests will be walking to town to attend movie night, above the IGA. Securing one of the island hotel’s rental row boats that have two sets of oars for a quick getaway, Leo and his reluctant brother, approach Forest Hall in the fading light. They tie up their craft to the rusty rails of the ice house and wade to shore in the deep shadows. Climbing up those rails on hands and feet they carefully duck under the overhead door that is only partially pulled down. Giant squares of ice taken out of the lake during the winter cutting season, stand guard on the lake side opening so the boys need to flatten themselves against the walls to get past.
Soon they are inside and spend a long fifteen minutes shivering and hiding out while they wait for it to get really dark. The straw covering the ice to keep it solid in the summer heat has attracted unseen critters and even nesting birds. When Ray begins to sneeze violently from the fine dust floating up from the straw, disturbed by these fleeing residents, it is time to make their move. Running along outside, bent down below the level of the kitchen window, they make it safely to their next stop – the barn.
Leading the horses out of the paddock they move as quickly as possible to the treasured croquet court. Much fancier than the court beside the Island Hotel, there are elaborately carved hoops and elevated seats for viewing. Helping themselves to the croquet mallets the boys tap a bag full of apples across the velvety lawn and leave the horses to wander around, looking for their moonlit treats and leaving their deep hoof prints on the velvety playing surface.
Dashing back to the ice house Leo notices the hotel cook carrying a bucket of scraps in the direction of the pig pen and pushes Ray ahead of him through the shallow water, into the boat and starts rowing almost before they are cast off.
Overhearing a recounting of the boys’ activities in the kitchen the next day, Mrs. Bartlett is chagrined but not entirely displeased. When she later tells Mr. Bartlett, he is more concerned about the possible observation of his boat at Forrest Hall which might lead to retaliation for the destruction.
The next week, while setting up tables in preparation for the Flag Day pig roast, Bartlett hears the terrifying cries of “Fire!” and runs down the steps to the beach, two at a time. All four pigs set up to roast all day on spits are engulfed in flames. Buckets of lake water quickly put out the flames but also the cooking fires as well. The pigs look like porcupines without their quills, with fat still dripping out of the myriad of poked in holes. Bartlett cannot help but wonder if this is just the beginning of a nasty little battle with Forrest Hall.
Realizing that he has taken things too far and landed Bartlett in a difficult position, Leo doesn’t dare go back for more dance lessons at Forrest Hall. But he still tries hard to remember the steps he was shown to ragtime, visualizing the grace of Rose’s and Harry’s demonstration. Leo fervently hopes that the piano player and orchestra coming from South Bend for the Island Ball are up to date enough to play this new music.
MUSICAL INTERLUDE – with The Maple Leaf Rag played for a few bars?
The next weekend is the biggest one of the summer and it will stretch out this year until Tuesday which is the actual 4th of July. These four days will provide even more time for the anticipation to build for the Island Ball, followed by the Park Shore fireworks as a culmination of the holiday.
The trickiest part of the preparation is the set up for the dance. Ray is already out of the kitchen and down at the dock to meet the Bartlett’s’ biggest launch, the O.S. Powers, by noon on Tuesday. Leo’s job is to handle the upright piano when it is delivered by the South Bend orchestra in a horse drawn delivery wagon. It is always a slow ride, taking up to eight hours to get to the lake - not much faster than a person can walk along the rutted dirt roads.
It is a pretty slick operation getting the upright piano onto the launch from the wagon, with a ramp for the piano’s wheels to roll across. Just a few blocks are needed to keep it from rolling around once it is on the steamship’s deck. Watching the whole process is a big hit with the passengers who are already on board for the trip over.
The O.S. Powers is still the most elegant steamboat on the lake even though it has been around for 26 years. At 70 tons it is 65 feet long with a beam of 16 feet and can carry 350 passengers on the main deck. Today the Dowagiac Band is set up on the upper hurricane deck and begins to play for the crowd of nearly 100 passengers as the steamship moves away from the dock.
Some weeks the wind cooperates as Leo makes this delivery, by not showing up for the hour of transport. Then the water just curls away from the bow, playing along the sides of the boat until it burbles up behind the stern. But today it is gusty and the white painted docks are starting to glow as the midday sun shines purely on them with the darkening grey sky as a menacing backdrop to the south.
Three quarters of the way over Leo starts to relax as the steamboat begins to slow for the landing when a lot of hooting and hollering is heard, but not from the O.S. Powers. Looking up Leo sees two things at once – the Cassopolis is bearing down on them and Ray is throwing rocks from the shore, which are falling far short of their target.
Passengers on both boats are in various states of panic and excitement, depending on their ability to swim. Now the band stops playing as they try to grab their music stands and cling to their instruments as if they are life preservers.
Leo is mostly tending to the piano whose chocks have loosened from its small wheels, allowing the heavy upright to roll back and forth with every swell created by the intruding ship.
Holding his course the captain of the O.W. Powers seems coolly distant from the crowd’s heightened anticipation of a crash. Judging that the Cassopolis draws a good 4 ½ feet, he is confident that the shallows off the north point just ahead of the dock will scare the Cassopolis off but it does one better – pitching everyone on board that steamboat forward as it’s hull is grabbed suddenly and firmly by the lake bottom.
Hastily reversing its engine the Cassopolis hangs up for a long three minutes before backing off the sand bar and heading toward Blink Bonnie Hotel at a leisurely pace.
Exchanging grins Leo and Ray start the struggle up the 100 steps to the hotel along with Bartlett and one of the ship’s crew, who is left behind to help with this precarious chore.
The gathering storm makes everyone move with even greater care because rushing this job would make it suicidal. Once under the roof of the dance floor the piano is protected by a stiff, musty canvas boat cover. At least it won’t need to be moved back down those stairs again until 1:00 a.m. after the dance ends with the midnight Fourth of July fireworks display on Park Shore.
Original Rough Draft - full length
Summer 1899 Leo is a happy go lucky 18 year old who works at his father’s ice cream stand, bait shop and small grocery in the summer which is located on the north shore of Diamond Lake along Spring Beach. His main business is selling provisions to the hundreds of visitors heading to the island for day trips and picnics at the turn of the century. Leo also supplies the Island Hotel with the milk, cheeses and soft drinks required by their 20 lodgers, May through September. His accommodations for the season are squeezed into the back room of the small frame grocery building. An upper bunk with a table set up under it and a small cook stove pretty much fills up this space. The pubic privy out back provides for the rest of his needs.
Leo’s 16 year old brother, Ray, stays in a staff dormitory room in the Island Hotel all summer and works as kitchen help for the owner’s wife, Mrs. Bartlett, who oversees the hotel’s dining and housekeeping operation.
Leo feels connected to the Island Hotel based on his six year affiliation with the place. He always tries to abscond with one of the new monthly menus for Mrs. Bartlett from the Shore Acres Hotel (just down the beach from his grocery) when he fills in as a bus boy there. Leo knows that she is always eager to know what that rival hotel is serving since their greatest draw from the townspeople and their lodgers is the renowned food served at Shore Acres. A pretty good cook in her own right, Mrs. Bartlett has learned what her guests at the Island Hotel enjoy – including just enough chicken mixed in with the rabbit which is in such great supply on the wooded 40 acres.
Leo also tries to keep up to date on the other resorts’ attractions for Mr. Bartlett, including the popular wooden water slide at the Sandy Beach Resort. Since his friend Howard pumps the water to the top of the 40 foot high slide on Sunday afternoons Leo hears all about the show offs and the scardy cats who have to climb back down all those steps in disgrace.
But Leo knows it is the Forrest Hall Hotel that really gets under Bartlett’s skin; probably since he missed out on buying that place on the west shore back in 1890. That was when the three owners of the private Chicago Club finally sold it, to become a resort and sanatorium – complete with the estate’s original bowling alley. It wasn’t until ’89 that Bartlett was able to round up the cash to buy half of the prime north point property on the island and two more years before he could buy the other half.
At least Bartlett, now known as the Captain, has practically cornered the market on the steamboat service on the lake, with the O.W. Powers still the flag ship of his fleet. Only the Cassopolis, a new 52 foot long beauty, built to accommodate 150 passengers plus luggage is owned by someone else.
Winter 1899 – 1900
Leo and Ray both reluctantly return to the family farm across the road from the grocery for the long winter months, to help out with the animals.
The upcoming millennium is a hugely anticipated event with this New Year’s Eve providing the pinnacle moment of transition into the new 20th century. Leo and Ray secretly plan to celebrate at the shuttered Island Hotel with a batch of hard cider – concocted by the boys in Leo’s back room of the grocery store last November.
With their grandmother a charter member of the W.T.C.U. (Women’s Christian Temperance Union) they need to cover their tracks well – claiming to be invited to a party at the Bartlett’s Park Shore winter home as part of the summer staff.
It seems even more exciting to try out their first hard cider on the island because of the endless stories that Leo and Ray had endured about the Red Ribbon Picnic held on that very shore back in 1874. It was June 8th when train cars unloaded delegations of people from Kalamazoo and Battle Creek at the Air Line Railroad stop near the Shore Acres hotel. A fleet of steamboats ferried 250 to 400 people on each trip to the island, running continuously throughout the day The Three Rivers contention was so desperate to attend that they came on the 2:30 mail train and had to ride home in a freight car. The crowd was all very self righteous and sober in Leo’s imagination as they rallied for the Temperance Reform.
Ice skating over to the Island after dark on New Year’s Eve is an easy journey with Leo knowing every part of the shoreline from the daily grocery deliveries. And Ray knows that the storm cellar door next to the kitchen has a broken padlock, only put in place to appear secure. Inside the hotel the cider heats up quickly on top of the 400 pound iron stove that had been brought over on two row boats strapped together and hauled up the 100 plus steps to this spot several summers ago.
Warned to just take the chill off the cider and not boil off the spirits, Ray keeps a close eye on the kettle for that first wisp of steam and quickly pulls it off the fire. The first taste of their glorious creation is lukewarm but heats them from head to toe. Staying at first by the stove for warmth, the boys now take the lighted gas lamp to the parlor and curl up under blankets on the stiff horse hair filled settee. They are ready for an evening spent playing cards until the new millennium arrives.
Both boys wish they could get their hands on the new Norwood 85 deck, due to be issued soon to commemorate 1900. It is promised to feature the risqué design of Cupid and Psyche in an embrace. The newest playing cards in the Bartlett’s collection for their lodgers’ use are the ones with actual photograph picture postcards on the back. Of course Bartlett is keen to get his hotel and dance floor on the backs of all the cards played with at the lake but he knows that would cost a fortune.
Leo and Ray finally settle on the Columbian Exposition deck of cards and spend more time discussing all the gossip they had heard about the grand fair in Chicago than they did playing cards. Both remember hearing about the Midway Plaisance from their friend Charles, who had attended the fair with his family six years ago. Luckily Charles’ older sister was trusted to take him along to the amusements while their parents spent time absorbing high culture in the White City. By the time they realized that their children had been allowed to experience all the fakes, the hokum and even witness the hootchy-cootchy - which their mother promptly proclaimed to be just a disgraceful belly dance – it was too late. After that the whole family left so abruptly that no one even got to ride the giant Ferris wheel.
Falling asleep just after hearing the gunshots that echoed off the lake shores surrounding them at midnight, the boys awake mid morning to find that the ice has melted away from the shore line about three feet. Their jump across after flinging their skates ahead of them was tenuous but successful.
As the lake’s ice thickens in January, after weeks of record cold, the town organizes an ice fishing competition. Still in trouble for staying out all night on New Year’s Eve and arriving home a bit tipsy, the boys are not permitted to enter. Moping in the barn the afternoon of the competition they decide to take the horses out for a ride and end up racing through the competition, scattering the fish below the surface in all direction as the thundering hooves are heard all over the lake.
Spring, 1900
Leo and Ray are sent down the road at the end of April to their aunt’s farm to help with the spring planting since their two cousins are still not back from the war in Cuba, even though it ended last summer. Leo hangs out more and more with one of the colored farmhands, Luther, and begins to hear all about a new musical craze called ragtime. Since Ray played clarinet in the school band the syncopated rhythm is something he can sort of imagine when he hears the description of the music but Leo is more interested in knowing what kind of dance steps go with this new sensation.
Summer, 1900
Business is brisk at the grocery and the hotel rivalry is more intense than ever. Weekly dances held at the outdoor dance floor behind the Island Hotel are Bartlett’s claim to fame. But the railway lines have now created package deals and are advertising Forrest Hall in Chicago which makes Bartlett even more nervous for his business. And the one steamboat, Cassopolis, that is not in Bartlett’s control has been sold to someone in Montana and it is rumored that a Forrest Hall investor has hired a captain to operate that sleek steamship on the lake this summer.
Sensing Bartlett’s concern Leo and Ray try to figure a plan to put the mighty Forrest Hall in its place. But the lure of learning the latest dances – hopefully put to ragtime rhythm – makes Leo eager to sign up for the dance lessons given at the rival hotel.
Aside from the unreal feeling of actually being in enemy territory, Leo has an even bigger shock when he enters the main hall in the hotel and sees the famous Rose Melville talking and laughing with the dance instructor.
Melville is the girl from the lake who is making it big these days. First on stage in Poughkeepsie, she went on to New York and worked Vaudeville for eleven weeks. Then last year she landed a part in a movie, “By the Sad Sea Waves”. Now she is back at the lake taking a little time off while her own movie is being written just for her character that everyone loves, Sis Hopkins.
As usual, the girls are clustered on one side of the room as far away from the boys as they can get and there are easily twice as many of them. But they are eyeing Leo and the rest of the boys plenty, wondering who is going to be matched up and who is going to get stuck dancing with her sister.
A quick word with the dance instructor, Harry, and Leo is paired up with the best looking girl who turns out to be the hotel owner’s niece, Annie. To top off the evening Leo gets the inside track on the hotel’s layout and out buildings during a romantic walk after dancing with Annie all evening. A personal tour of the famed bowling alley, the croquet court, the barn complete with horses, pigs, chickens, and cows, and the ice house gives Leo lots to think about as he rows his grocery delivery boat back to Spring Beach.
A clandestine endeavor is quickly planned by Leo to take place the next Wednesday, when almost all of the hotel guests will be walking to town to attend movie night, above the IGA. After landing silently in one of the island hotel’s rental row boats, Leo and a reluctant Ray creep up the rusty rails of the ice house on hands and feet, ducking under the overhead door that is only partially pulled down. The rails are used to pull the giant squares of ice out of the lake during the winter cutting season. Soon they are inside and the boys spend a long fifteen minutes shivering and hiding out while they wait for it to get really dark. The straw covering the ice to keep it solid in the summer heat has attracted unseen critters and even nesting birds. When Ray begins to sneeze violently from the fine dust floating up from the straw, disturbed by its fleeing residents, it is time to make their move. Running along, bent down below the level of the kitchen window, they make it to their next stop safely – the barn.
Leading the horses out of the paddock they move as quickly as possible to the treasured croquet court. Much fancier than the court beside the Island Hotel, there are elaborately carved hoops and elevated seats for viewing. Helping themselves to the croquet mallets the boys tap a bag full of apples across the velvety lawn and leave the horses to wander around, looking for their moonlit treats and leaving their deep hoof prints on the velvety playing surface. Dashing back to the dock Leo notices the hotel cook carrying a bucket of scraps in the direction of the pig pen and pushes Ray ahead of him into the boat and starts rowing almost before they are cast off.
Overhearing a recounting of the boys’ activities in the kitchen the next day, Mrs. Bartlett is chagrined but not entirely displeased. Mr. Bartlett is more concerned about the possible observation of his boat at Forrest Hall which might lead to retaliation for the destruction.
The next week, while setting up tables, in preparation for the Flag Day pig roast, Bartlett hears the terrifying cries of “Fire!” and runs down the steps to the beach, two at a time. All four pigs set up to roast all day on spits are engulfed in flames. Buckets of lake water quickly put out the flames but the cooking fires as well. The pigs look like porcupines without their quills, with fat still dripping out of the myriad of poked in holes. Bartlett cannot help but wonder if this is just the beginning of a nasty little battle with Forrest Hall.
Realizing that he has taken things too far and landed Bartlett in a difficult position, Leo doesn’t dare go back for more dance lessons at Forrest Hall. But he still tries hard to remember the steps he was shown to ragtime, visualizing the grace of Rose’s and Harry’s demonstration. Leo fervently hopes that the piano player and orchestra coming from South Bend for the Island Ball are up to date enough to play this new music.
Looking forward to the family reunion for the first time in recent memory Leo and Ray take a rare day off work the last Sunday in June. It is an unusually somber gathering since Aunt Edna has just learned that one of her sons, Todd, is struggling to take care of his desperately ill brother, Jimmy, in a military hospital tent down in Cuba. The fever being bad enough, Todd’s letter describes the foul beef rations that have made him so sick as well.
After mumbling words of concern the boys head purposefully out to the barn, unnoticed by the preoccupied elders, to find Luther. Leo is eager to show him his newly learned dance steps. They are surprised to find Luther all dressed up and ready to leave for the afternoon. He is on his way to the Given’s farmhouse where he is going to hear ragtime played by a visiting musician, Scott Joplin. Escaping to Cass County from Kentucky back in the 50’s, the Givens have a big old farmhouse with a wide screened porch across the front. Joplin is there to get away from the Missouri summer heat heat for a while and has agreed to try out his new composition on friends and family.
Luther says that he will start to play about eight o’clock that evening. Anxious to leave he invites the boys along and makes sure they know the way. Leo and Ray both promise to saddle up the two horses and join Luther as soon as they get free after dinner.
With the first set already under way Leo and Ray hear the piano as they ride up to the farmhouse. Inside the living room all eyes are on the young colored musician, dressed in a white shirt and stand up collar, satin black tie and a matching dark coat and pants. His fingers fly all over the keys as his foot keeps time with the basic beat. He keeps nodding his head sharply as he throws in the accidental notes that lead you away then immediately back with their ragged melody. On the porch a few couples are adapting the two-step, keeping time with the boom-chick of the bass notes without a problem.
Leo remembers Harry telling the dance class at Forrest Hall about actually seeing Joplin at the Columbian Exhibition. Even though Joplin had to set up outside the Midway where the other colored musicians were relegated, huge crowds gathered every night to hear what this houseful is hearing now.
Since they had barely managed to sneak away from the family party and needed to get back very soon, Leo looks for Luther with the hope of an introduction when the first set ends. When the music stops, Joplin is immediately surrounded as he accepts a drink to cool down from the intensity of his performance. All that Leo can hear is the buzz of the crowd and the name of the greatest song he had ever heard, Maple Time Rag. It is apparently Joplin’s first big hit, published just last year. Looking longingly back as they saddle up, Leo spots Harry stepping outside with Rose Melville. He is fanning himself with pages that are a blur of musical notes. He looks like he is in heaven.
The next weekend is the biggest one of the summer and it will stretch out this year until Tuesday which is the actual 4th of July. These four days will provide even more time for the anticipation to build for the Island Ball, followed by the Park Shore fireworks as a culmination of the holiday.
The trickiest part of the preparation is the set up for the dance. Ray is already out of the kitchen and down at the dock to meet the Bartlett’s’ biggest launch, the O.S. Powers by noon on Tuesday. Leo’s job is to handle the upright piano when it is delivered by the South Bend orchestra in a horse drawn delivery wagon. It is always a slow ride, taking up to eight hours to get to the lake - not much faster than a person can walk along the rutted dirt roads.
It is a pretty slick operation getting the upright piano onto the launch from the wagon, with a ramp for the piano’s wheels to roll across. Just a few blocks are needed to keep it from rolling around once it is on the steamship’s deck. Watching the whole process is a big hit with the passengers who are already on board for the trip over.
The O.S. Powers is still the most elegant steamboat on the lake even though it has been around for 26 years. At 70 tons it is 65 feet long with a beam of 16 feet and can carry 350 passengers on the main deck. Today the Dowagiac Band is set up on the hurricane deck and begins to play for the crowd of nearly 100 passengers as the steamship moves away from the dock.
Some weeks the wind cooperates as Leo makes this delivery, by not showing up for the hour of transport. Then the water just curls away from the bow, playing along the sides of the boat until it burbles up behind the stern. But today it is gusty and the white painted docks are starting to glow as midday sun shines purely on them with the darkening grey sky as a menacing backdrop to the south.
Three quarters of the way over Leo starts to relax as the steamboat begins to slow for the landing when a lot of hooting and hollering is heard, but not from the O.S. Powers. Looking up Leo sees two things at once – the Cassopolis is bearing down on them and Ray is throwing rocks from the shore, which are falling far short of their target.
Passengers on both boats are in various states of panic and excitement, depending on their ability to swim. Now the band stops playing as they try to grab their music stands and cling to their instruments as if they are life preservers.
Leo is mostly tending to the piano whose chocks have loosened from its small wheels, allowing them to roll back and forth with every swell created by the intruding ship.
Holding his course the captain of the O.W. Powers seems coolly distant from the crowd’s heightened anticipation of a crash. Judging that the Cassopolis draws a good 4 ½ feet, he is confident that the shallows off the north point just ahead of the dock will scare the Cassopolis off but it does one better – pitching everyone on board forward as that ship’s hull is grabbed suddenly and firmly by the lake bottom.
Hastily reversing its engine the Cassopolis hangs up for a long three minutes before backing off the sand bar and heading toward the Sandy Beach Resort at a leisurely pace.
Exchanging grins Leo and Ray start the struggle up the 100 steps to the hotel along with Bartlett and one of the ship’s crew, who is left behind to help with this precarious chore.
The gathering storm makes everyone move with even greater care because rushing this job can make it suicidal. Once under the roof of the dance floor the piano is protected by a stiff, musty canvas boat cover. A quick glance at the sky is somewhat reassuring since the storm seems to be staying mostly to the south. Good news for the lake activities, but bad news for the rest of the orchestra who should be just starting out from South Bend with their instruments for tonight’s performance from that direction.
Bartlett stares out at the lake, hardly noticing the fleet of sailboats jockeying for position as they round the island buoy in the regatta. Instead he is visualizing his steamboats lining up at the dock plus the menagerie of little vessels hoping for an empty place to land on his beach tonight. And then, he hopes, there will be the dramatic landing of Rose Melville’s infamous naphtha boat with its three foot waves, to cause a little chaos as they crash on shore. He can almost see the excited throngs heading up the stairs, many in their patriotic red white and blue party clothes.
But Bartlett also has a momentary flash back to the Island Ball six years ago when the orchestra was an hour late arriving and he cringes at the memory. Trying to appease a party crowd without a party was most humiliating. Hiring a band closer than South Bend would be a better idea but Robert Elbel has such a great reputation and is willing to come all the way to the lake from the city.
Out in the hall hangs a rudimentary telephone, installed seven years ago. Unfortunately it provides limited service, only connecting to those with a phone on the same exchange. So there is no way to get in touch with anyone outside the county, let alone with Elbel in South Bend to find out about any expected delays.
Keeping an eye on the southern sky, Bartlett’s mind shifts back to the near miss on the water this afternoon. Leo certainly has a lot to answer for as his actions keep causing these increasingly dangerous reactions! His good intentions, on his hotel’s behalf, are just not enough in Bartlett’s book.
When he finally stops by the kitchen to share his concerns about the orchestra’s probable delayed arrival with Mrs. Bartlett, he notices that Leo has an excited look about him as he whispers something to Ray who is busy sweeping up scraps of pastry and flour as the dinner pies are put into the oven.
Just minutes later, sitting in his office, Bartlett hardly notices the familiar cranking of the telephone into action or the beginning of the conversation in the hall. But now he is focusing on the plan that Leo is pleading with someone to make happen for him.
Replaying the earlier words which were missed but are still rattling around somewhere in his head Bartlett also realizes that Leo had asked to be connected with someone at Forrest Hall.
Speechless, Bartlett listens intently to Leo who was now begging for both support and assistance from someone who seems to be a girl and it sounds like she knew what Leo was asking her to do.
Something about a dance instructor and a trip to the Givens’ farm outside of town and the pledging of payment for tonight’s entertainment seemed to be the gist of it. There was either enthusiasm at the other end or merely agreement from being worn down by Leo, but something is definitely under way. None of it makes any sense to Bartlett who just nods as Leo tells him that the Island Ball will begin on time tonight – with or without Elbel’s orchestra.
Catching the next steamboat to shore, Leo is off and running. In the kitchen Ray is just shaking his head and mumbling as he switches pies for roast beef in the oven for Mrs. Bartlett.
Stopping by the grocery to grab a better change of clothes and check on his cousin’s till Leo is glad to see that the holiday business has been brisk. Sneaking a bag of cash from the safe in the back room, just in case, Leo throws his cousin a salute as he dashes out the door.
Waiting at the Shore Acres dock Leo realizes all the parts of his plan that must happen perfectly for it to succeed. Annie needs to find Harry and send him on his way to look for Joplin who must be willing to play for a crowd expecting an orchestra instead. Then Harry needs to get Joplin to Rose’s lake house for her to take Joplin over to the island – all by 9:00 p.m. and it is already 5 o’clock.
If Rose would just arrive in her fabulous boat Leo would know if all the pieces are falling into place. Waiting on the Shore Acres dock Leo strains to hear the distinctive roar of the naphtha engine. Jumping into the launch as it barely slows down results in almost a perfect U-turn pick up maneuver as they head off to Rose’s home on Eagle Point. Leo is invigorated by the roar of the engine and mesmerized by the view of the elongated V shaped wake it creates at the stern. Distant rumbles of thunder in the south are a lot easier to ignore in the still bright sunlight over the lake – especially now that Leo’s plan is coming together to save the Island Ball.
Jumping onto Rose’s dock and helping tie up the boat Leo is suddenly shy following Rose up the stairs to her gracious house on the hill. Entering a screened in porch with a well worn swing, Leo’s stops short as he gazes at the entirely different view from this south side of the lake. Sitting on the edge of his seat he accepts the sweet iced tea offered and is grateful when Rose excuses herself to get ready for the dance.
Almost nodding off as he swings and sips Leo wakens abruptly when he hears that wonderful ragtime music coming from inside the house. Not daring to enter, Leo peaks over the swing through the house window and sees Harry bending over the piano that is being played by Scott Joplin.
After a supper of cold meats, cheeses and homemade bread and jam Leo makes a quick change of his clothes and the four of them are off in the naphtha boat and headed to the island at 8:30. Grateful that the sun has already set, Leo helps with the landing and tries to mix in with the crowd in the fading light. It seems odd to be climbing those familiar stairs along with guests at a place where you are usually working behind the scenes.
Hurrying ahead of the other three, Leo arrives at the dance pavilion to find Bartlett welcoming guests but furtively looking at his watch every other minute. Everyone is talking and pointing toward the empty orchestra stand with expressions ranging from surprise to stern disappointment.
Although Bartlett doesn’t want to leave the guests he finally allows Leo to pull him away to a clearing halfway back to the hotel. In that clearing are Rose, Harry and Scott Joplin who is looking clam but with a gleam in his eye. The introductions are hardly acknowledged by Bartlett in his preoccupied state. Rose finally gets his attention when he hears her say something about Joplin being an opening act.
Leading the group into the dance pavilion seems like the perfectly planned next step of the evening but Bartlett’s legs feel like rubber as he walks to the front of the floor.
Not even knowing the name of this young man beside him Leo gets the crowd’s attention and lets Rose describe the new line up for the evening. Scott Joplin is already seated at the old upright as the crowd finally settles down to listen.
Watching the audience as he leans against a corner post Bartlett sees a whole range of reactions. At first there is a slight grumbling about the lack of an orchestra, although they have been promised to appear soon. Then there is a shift as slight as a change in the wind before a storm.
The younger people are trying out dance steps to the new syncopated rhythm and a few older regulars are beginning to tap their feet to the regular beat. Sensing that the crowd is still uncertain and that the balance could be tipped either way, Rose grabs Harry’s hand and they head to the center of the floor. The opening act expands to merge ragtime with a dancing exhibition. Now everyone is at least curious if not enthralled with this unexpected performance and many people are feeling a sense of adventure as this new music becomes more familiar.
As the repertory nears its end the applause for the young Scott Joplin swell to include more applause for the weary orchestra members who are making their way to their space at the front of the dance floor.
