From Vineyard Gazette editions of June, 1909:

There was quite a ripple in quiet Edgartown on Saturday when the Tea Room on Davis Lane was opened, and one realizes at once, that it is a long-felt want in our summer life. The Tea Room, in connection with Mrs. Leonard’s Studio at the Arts and Crafts Cottage, was in gala attire, being a bower of daisies which were most kindly contributed by some of the children of the neighborhood; even they entered fully into the spirit of the occasion and did their noble best to beautify the place.

The cottage is the latest acquisition to the Art Colony in the lane, being opposite the Branstock Art School. There were many things of various crafts on exhibition from the National Society of Craftsmen in New York city, of which Mrs. Leonard is a director and one of the craftsmen. Everyone was interested in Mrs. Leonard’s work of china decoration, which has a charm of it own.

The appointments of the Tea Room were charmingly dainty and attractive, with its delicate china and spotless linen, and as everyone knew everyone else, there was quite the air of a social function, with gay chatter over the tea cups. The Studio and Tea Room will be open daily, and one feels quite sure it will be a haven of rest and pleasure to motorists and sailing parties, as one must have some place to refresh the inner man and please the eye.

The whaling brig Daisy, Capt. Benjamin D. Cleveland, arrived at New Bedford after a 13 months voyage. The brig has again made a successful voyage, bringing home 2,150 barrels of sea elephant oil, about 1,000 pounds of bone from sulphur bottom whales and 300 barrels of sperm oil. The brig made her voyage to the South Georgia Islands instead of Desolation, for which place she fitted and to which she has made several voyages before. Capt. Cleveland changed his plans on account of the warning of the French government, which threatened to seize the vessel if she went to Desolation.

The Cape Cod Canal Company has closed a contract with the Alfred Sorenson Company of Boston for the handling of 2,000,000 tons of heavy granite to be used in the construction of an immense breakwater extending from the shore line at Sandwich well out into the bay for the protection of shipping intending to use the proposed canal. This calls for an expenditure of $600,000 and its completion in six years. Some 40 barges and small schooners have been chartered to transport the stone from the quarries in Maine. The canal is actually developing into a reality, for three schooners, laden with granite for the construction, have already reached Plymouth.

The Vineyard Haven-Edgartown stage is a carryall that never fails to excite comment, for George Cleveland ships the most miscellaneous cargo that ever man got together: cut flowers and potted plants, frozen fish from Ben Cromwell and asparagus from John Howland, packages of rolled oats and stray letters that he picks up along the way, a half barrel of pickles and three bags of plaster, mysterious boxes and small packages, the usual number of mail bags, with a barrel of lettuce and a passenger or two thrown in.

Half of the front seat is regularly occupied by freight, and the other half by George, and not infrequently a passenger is wedged in between and any stray girl who wants a lift always gets it, while George’s unfailing good humor and repartee, to say nothing of an occasional breathless brush with an automobile, keeps things at concert pitch all the time. George was mightily pleased at a recent comment of a stranger. It seems that as two women were about to take the stage for the Bluffs, Renear came along and suggested that they better go with him, as his rig was a “palace car” compared with the stage, but the women stuck by George and on the way over asked him to point out that “palace car” when it passed, which he did.

In the meantime Renear had collected two passengers and a mountain of trunks, having taken out the back seat in order to accommodate the load, and as the women looked it over, one of them sniffed and turning up her nose remarked, “Well, about the only difference that I can see is that that ‘palace car’ is a baggage car, while the stage is a freight car.” George is chuckling yet.

Compiled by Cynthia Meisner

library@mvgazette.com