1905, A Very Good Year
For anyone who missed the grand party at the Metropolitan Opera on May 2, 1905, here is a report from Lynn Ludlow and Maureen Mroczek Morris, who know everybody who is anybody in Polish California.
For anyone who missed the grand party at the Metropolitan Opera on May 2, 1905, here is a report from Lynn Ludlow and Maureen Mroczek Morris, who know everybody who is anybody in Polish California.
Traveling back in time again to 19th Century California where those expert tour guides, Lynn Ludlow and Maureen Mroczek Morris, take us to San Francisco’s lively gathering spot, the New York Casino. Owned by General Kris, the handsomest general in the Union Army, the Casino is known for its convivial spirit along with a steady flow of spirits. A regular patron is Rudolf Korwin Piotrowski who likes nothing more than philosophical discussions about the true nature of “Polishness” between visits to the generous – and free – offerings at the General’s table.
That Falstaffian model for Sienkiewicz’s Zagłoba – patriot, soldier, miner, merchant, California’s Commissioner of Immigration and, according to Miłosz, a liar, braggart and drunkard (a remarkable CV) – left a colorful unpublished epistolary record at the Jagiellonian library. Discovered by Maureen Mroczek Morris with Lynn Ludlow and Roman Włodek, here they are.
Henryk Sienkiewicz gave us Zagłoba, the hard drinking patriot noted for his girth – and mirth, but who knew that Sienkiewicz had found him in America?