Bold Spirit - Linda Hunt [62]
fourteen commonwealths, dined with governors,
hobnobbed with railroad presidents, and saw the
sights of the continent and now are homeward bound.
—MINNEAPOLIS TRIBUNE JUNE 2, 1897
While grieving the death of Bertha and fearful that diphtheria had entered their home, Helga learned that the city of Brooklyn refused to help, so she announced they would look for private funds. Helga’s break came when famous New York railroad titan and afterdinner speaker Chauncy Depew was “greatly interested in the remarkable women” and “was touched” for a free railroad pass on his line to Chicago.1 Helga probably personally solicited Depew’s help. He also may have read about their plight in the newspapers. On May 4, almost one year since stepping out from Spokane, the women boarded a train in New York, bound for Chicago. From there, they walked to Minneapolis where they arrived on June 2 and stayed at the Scandia-Excelsior Hotel.2
This fortuitous stop drew the attention of interested news media and two lengthy articles appeared in the Minneapolis Tribune and Minneapolis Times. Reporters visited the women in their hotel where they were entertaining the kitchen staff with their adventures. In the month since Helga and Clara learned of Bertha’s death and Helga made her plaintive plea for public assistance to return home, the mood of the mother and daughter had changed considerably. Before leaving New York, Helga evidently negotiated with the sponsor or sponsor’s representative once more, attempting to get her book published. They left with an agreement that gave both Helga and Clara a strong sense of direction and satisfaction, even peace. After telling of their remarkable accomplishment and the failure to receive the wager, the Minneapolis Tribune mentioned that the matter was finally satisfactorily adjusted, and “the women will receive $10,000 when the book is written by them and describing their travels and adventures is completed.”3 The Minneapolis Times mentioned a similar settlement over the contract “between the two pedestrians and private parties in New York” adding that a book “will be published under the direction of the eastern parties.”4
On their way home, Helga and Clara stopped in Minnesota where the Minnesota Times and Minnesota Tribune carried extensive articles about their adventures.
Courtesy Portch/Bahr Family Photograph Collection. Detail of this photograph on this page.
Part of the new agreement included funds for Clara to traverse by rail during the next summer on practically the same route over which she and her mother walked “for the purpose of securing illustrations for the book that is to be published.” They seemed enthusiastic and trusting of these new arrangements.5 These two lengthy June 1897 articles framed the scope of their historic achievement and set a tone suggesting how their “story” would be received by readers in America. After listening to Helga and Clara describe their adventures, both reporters used words such as “wonderful” and “marvelous” to summarize this 3500-mile transcontinental trek. After hearing Helga and Clara tell stories in the hotel, the Minneapolis Times recognized that the unique view of America these women experienced was comparable to best-selling British travel fables of the era. “A story was unfolded that would shine among the thrilling tales of Munchausen’s adventures. This one was vastly superior, however, because true.”
Then, in recognition of the rarity of such an effort, the Minneapolis Times writer mentioned that no women unattended had ever attempted this feat before. After detailing some of the narrow escapes from death the women encountered on the trip, the reporter concluded, “The incidents of the trip are certainly enough in quality and quantity to fill a good-sized volume.”6
A description of the women in the Minneapolis Tribune used language that assured readers of the normalcy of the remarkable women who “presented a very home-like appearance” as they “modestly made themselves comfortable in the kitchen at the hotel,