“Love to all my dear ones. I can’t quite tell you how dear you all are to me.
“Affectionately,
“Your Father.”
Doctor Von Ruck, after an examination, thought it possible that by ridding him of his cold and catarrh he might be “straightened out,” though he thought it doubtful, and we find Kern writing home, “I suppose I will stay here until there is a marked improvement,” wistfully adding, “I would certainly like to be with you at Kerncliffe and be pottering around the place there instead of wandering around in the woods here.” He found life pleasant enough at Asheville but for the longing for home. His health gradually improved, his cough diminished, and he was able to take long walks in the woods, and to do much reading and writing. Aside from his desire for Kerncliffe he was constantly harassed by the feeling that he could not afford to do nothing, with expenses going on, for he had given too much of his life to the public to have accumulated as he might, had he been more selfish. I had a letter from him from Asheville saying that he found he “did not respond to treatment as readily as he did ten years before,” and would probably be there indefinitely, and within ten days the report appeared in the press that he was in Washington. The story of May, June and July is told in detail in a letter to me—the last—written July 24th:
“I have been sick almost continuously since the 5th of this month—so sick that I have been unable to pay any attention to correspondence. I think I wrote you from Asheville, where I spent a few weeks in April and May. I went from there to Washington the forepart of May to meet Theodore Bell on a law matter of some importance. About that time I had a proposition from the Lincoln Chautauqua Association to fill the vice-president’s thirty-one engagements with that association in seven southern states, or as many as might be made before the adjournment of congress, commencing May 17th, and speaking every day, including Sundays, on the international situation—the aim and duties of patriotic Americans.
“The doctor advised against it, but I thought I would try it, and if I found it too much for me, I would quit. So before leaving Washington I called on President Wilson that he might give me a special message to the southern people—which he did—and that, I suppose, is the basis of the story that I was out speaking for the president on the food supply.
“I started on May 17th with two speeches in east Tennessee. I think I can give you my itinerary from memory: May 17th, Kingsport, Tenn.; 18th, Greenville, Tenn.; 19th, Cartersville, Ga.; 20th, Gainesville, Ga.; 21st, Monroe, Ga.; 22d, Covington, Ga.; 23d, Carrollton, Ga.; 24th, Decatur, Ala.; 25th, McMinnoitte, Tenn.; 26th, Tullahoma, Tenn.; 27th, Athens, Ala.; 28th, Anniston, Ala.; 29th, Meridian, Miss.; 30th, Gulfport, Miss.; 31st, New Orleans, La.; June 1st, Lafayette, La.; 2d, Alexandria, La.; 3d, Mansfield, La.; 4th, Shreveport, La.; 5th, Monroe, La.; 6th, Ruston, La.; 7th, Vicksburg, Miss.; 8th, Clarksdale, Miss.; 9th, Helena, Ark.; 10th, Bunkley, Ark.; 11th, Covington, Tenn.; 12th, Dyersburg, Tenn.; 13th, Brownsville, Tenn.; 14th, Humboldt, Tenn.; 15th, Hopkinsville, Ky.; 16th, Frankfort, Ky.; 17th, Carrollton, Ky.—all of which appointments I filled.
“It was getting pretty hot the end of the first week, and I was feeling very much fagged and was about ready to throw up the sponge, when the weather changed, and from that time on every night was cool (I spoke only at night), and by conserving my strength the best I could I thought I was stronger on June 17th than when I commenced.
“I was intending to come from Carrollton, Ky., directly here for a good long rest, except that in a moment of weakness I had promised the chautauqua people to open their chautauqua at Battle Creek, Mich., on June 25th. I had been corresponding with some New York people about an important legal matter, and when I got to Frankfort, Ky., on June 16th, I had a telegram from them that they wanted to see me in Washington the next week—the 19th or 20th. Mrs. Kern, with whom they had also been in communication, also wired suggesting that I go to Washington directly from Carrollton and finish everything so that when I reached home I could stay. So I wired them that I would be in Washington the following Tuesday—the 19th and on until Sunday—and I went there. They couldn’t get ready for the conference that week, and after waiting in Washington until Sunday I started for Battle Creek, Mich.
“I had tried to get out of that engagement, but the chautauqua people held me to it, and I went via Fort Wayne and South Bend, and made my speech at Battle Creek on the 25th. I started for home the next morning. I took a G. R. & I. at Kalamazoo and spent the hottest day of my life going to Cincinnati (through Fort Wayne again). I there had to take an upper berth to Roanoke and got to Hollins at noon the next day, pretty much played out.
“I rested all afternoon, slept next day until 10 o’clock, and while eating breakfast with Mrs. Kern about 10:30 and discussing with her the good times we were going to have, the telephone rang and here came a long distance message from my New York parties that their business was ripe, and that it was of the highest importance that I should meet them in Washington the next morning. Well ... I took the noon train for Washington.