by Francisco A. Rios
Horace Tabor’s Loneliness
Whatever promise the mines in Mexico may hold out to Horace, he pays a terrible price in loneliness, and probably guilt, at being away from his family for months at a time, especially when there is a serious illness at home. The modern device of the telegraph allows for rapid communication, but sometimes it makes his absence from Lizzie all the worse, as he writes on Dec. 4, 1893 from an unstated location.
My Darling Wife we have spent two days very lonesome one at El Paso and one here… Your dispatch being before me which you wrote only an hour or so since makes it seem as if I could walk in next door and find you but alas that is not so you are 7 or 8 hundred miles away and the worst of it is I am headed the other way. I do wish we had matters so we could be together I am needed so much on account of the children. They need lots of care. Oh my love I never fully know how much I love you until I go away. If I knew I could see you in a few days it would not seem so tough. I did so hope when I wired you from Chihuahua to come here if you could leave the business that it was in shape that you could come would not be lonesome anywhere if you was there. I love you to death.
Horace
When Horace receives bad news, he feels all the worse for being away. On Dec. 6, 1893 he wrote three letters from Nogales, Arizona, one to each member of his family.
My own Darling Lily
Your Papa was all broken up when Billie Cooper told me that you had had the Scarlet Fever It was so terrible that I was not there to help take care of you I have written mama about it and oh my sweetness I love you high as tongue can tell and will get through down here as soon as possible and then be with you I do not ever intend to leave you Mama or Honeymaid again more than for a very few days and not even that if I can avoid it Darling be an awful good girl and love Papa with all your might. Kiss mama and Honeymaid lots for Papa. Uncle Pete sends love and looked awfully sad when I told him of your sickness
Your Papa
When he writes to Lizzie, he does so again on both sides of a page. The ink bleeds through the page and makes the letter a challenging word puzzle, even as one gets used to his penmanship.
My Darling Wife
It was a fearful shock that we had when Billie told me that our darling Lily had had the Scarlet fever and how badly I felt that I was not with you to help take care of her I was so fearful that she might have a relapse that I wired you immediately with full intentions of returning to Denver unless your dispatch was satisfactory I recd yours today here stating that Lily was entirely well Now of course I know what that means you put that she is entirely safe now I want you to try and get business so you can leave and then go with the children to Las Angelos and I will join you there say the last of Jan for I very much fear that our dear and affectionate Lily will fall away in that climate she must go to near sea level and she is more to us than blocks of brick or mines…
Horace vacillates in his evaluation of the Santa Eduwiges. He says now that it “will do well or pretty well from now on,” and a third party thinks the property is “good or very good.” As to “blocks of brick,” Horace has to consider the possibility of losing the Tabor Block and the nine lots of the Tabor Grand Opera House in Denver, valued altogether at $1.9 million, good security for a million-dollar loan, an appraiser tells him. But these properties are not worth Lily’s health and life.
Tell Mother that her night watching and care of Lily will never be forgotten Oh my Darling wife do not forget that you and the children are my all oh do love me ever and hard as I do you
Horace
Seldom, if ever, in the popular Tabor “legend” do we see Horace as he is when he opens his heart in these letters to Lizzie and Lily. Horace’s third lettter of the day was to Silver Dollar, who probably needed help in reading and understanding her doting father’s letter.
My loving little Honeymaid
I love you more than tongue can tell How is your and Cupids little dog and your white Kittie Hug and kiss Mama and Cupid for Papa and tell Mama be sure and write Papa to this place so I can get it on my return if she has sent a better arrangement which I wrote her about
I love you your Papa
(Editor’s note: Next month, in the final installment of the Tabor letter series, the author presents a narrative recalling a visit with Mrs. Tabor in Leadville in the latter years of her life.)
