THE ROMANCE OF A BOTTLE NOTE (1902)
Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes.
The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations.
Do you know the history of YOUR house?
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Floating along in the water, down the southern shore of Martha’s Vineyard, came bobbing a corked green beer bottle with what looked suspiciously like a note inside.
Coaxing the bottle to shore with a stick, Harold A. Thomas barely got his shoes wet in retrieving the missive. It was certainly a distress call from the survivors of a sunken ship marooned on some unknown exotic island.
Upon uncorking the bottle, Thomas fished the note out with some effort, unrolled the coarse paper, and began to read the nicely penned lines therein:
“On board the good old ship Southwark the first day of September, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and two, we, the ‘Smart Set,’ have assembled in Cabin No. 5, to celebrate the last night of a most agreeable voyage.’
Not the note that Thomas had expected, his hopes of saving the daughter of an ambassador or the owner of a large and profitable railroad company, were suitably dashed against those great rocks that had so recently been the cause of the imagined marooning.
Thomas, hoping to salvage something from his discovery, read on.
“A reward of $5 will be given to any mortal or immortal who will bring this note to Howard S. Parker, 414 Madison street, Brooklyn.”
Immediately he began to compose his return letter.
“Picked up on the south shore of Martha’s Vineyard about three miles from Gay Head, on Friday, September 12, 1902. Harold A. Thomas, 501 West One Hundred and Thirteenth Street, New York City.”
Several days later, one of the members of that “Smart Set,” George L. Byrne, called at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle office with the note, together with the letter apprising Mr. Parker that it had been found by Harold A. Thomas.
“A check for the $5 reward,” the Brooklyn Daily Eagle article went on, “was to-day mailed to Mr. Thomas.”
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Brownstone Detectives is an historic property research agency. Our mission is to document and save the histories of our clients’ homes. From our research, we produce our celebrated House History Books and House History Reports. Contact us today to begin discovering the history of your home.
