On January 24, 1898, Alice Ruth Moore in Brooklyn wrote an indignant letter to her fiancé Paul Laurence Dunbar in Washington, D. C., about an offer for a reading he had received. Paul was invited to recite his poetry in Boston by Mrs. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, a prominent African American journalist. Paul had forwarded Ruffin's letters to Alice and asked for her advice.
It makes me sick to see how dishonest she is. She wishes to have an entertainment that would be a profit. You are a good drawing-card and would fill the house. Good. Well, why cannot she be honest and say, "Mr. Dunbar, will you help us," instead of masking under a guise of helping you in your "literary career." It rouses all the honest wrath in any soul to see such hypocrisy, such grasping at a straw and pretending to save the straw, instead of being saved. Boston is anxious to hear you, but better that you forfeit the golden privilege of "meeting the literati of New England," than go under such auspices. You are young, dear, with a career before you that, thank God, isn't begging to be helped along at such a rate. The time has passed for you to grasp at anything for the sake of being seen. You can afford to be dignified and wait for the right moment.
Alice Ruth Moore to Paul Laurence Dunbar, January 24, 1898. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 8).
Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin was a highly-respected civil rights advocate and suffragist who founded the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, and was a charter member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
She is to the Colored Women of America What Fred Douglass was to the Race at Large. Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin is one of the most notable colored women in the country. For many years she has been a conspicuous figure of the life and public movements of the people in the city of Boston. The St. Pierres have been well-to-do colored people in Massachusetts for nearly 200 years. There is scarcely a public movement started among women that Josephine Ruffin is not consulted.
"Mrs. Josephine Ruffin." Salt Fork Valley News (Tonkawa, Oklahoma). September 7, 1900. Page 8.
Despite Ruffin's high reputation, Alice held her in low esteem. Alice had lived in the Boston area and knew Ruffin personally, and she warned Paul not to let her take advantage of him.
I laughed heartily over "Ma's" letter. That's what we call her, you know, "Ma Ruffin." Sure, go to Boston if she will give you your price; but don't go for a cent less. She won't give it to you, I know, because she's rotten as to business methods.
Tuesday morning.
My dear Boy, I had sealed this letter and had it ready for mailing, but after sleeping on Mrs. R's letter, I rose and opened it to say thusly, -- Decline her offer as best you can, politely, but firmly. She isn't a woman to be trusted, dear I know her well, I've worked by her side for years. She would probably guarantee your price, and wouldn't hold herself responsible. I know she did this in the case of Fannie Barrier Williams, Mr. Fortune, and one or two others. I would like ever so much to have you appear in Boston, but not under Mrs. R's auspices. She is too uncertain. Decline, but if anyone else makes the offer go, won't you? Now Mrs. R. and I are friendly, and I wouldn't speak this way to anyone else but you; but I'd hate to have her running around Boston saying that you were anxious to appear in Boston and wrote her to help you.
Alice Ruth Moore to Paul Laurence Dunbar, January 10 and 11, 1898. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 8).
Alice was raised in New Orleans but moved to Massachusetts at about age 20. She published an essay that was wickedly critical of the women she encountered in Boston.
The Boston woman is better than a study; she is a collegiate course with object-lesson lectures and gymnastic attachments. She swarms with a greedy pertinacity to anything that savors of lecture. She clings to halls and long-haired men or spectacled women earnestly, persistently. She refuses to be turned aside from her pursuit of soul development by such commonplace things as home duties. She roams free in a glowing pasture of lectures and meetings undeterred in her noble purpose by so much as an inquiring glance from the feeble manikin that she may someday annex as her husband. Icily regular in her walk, coldly blank in her stare, freezingly polite when addressed, it seemed worse than folly to dream of penetrating beyond her frigid exterior and finding such a thing as a heart.
"A New Orleans Philistine in Boston," by Alice Ruth Moore. The New York Age (New York, New York). March 11, 1897.
In several letters to Alice, Paul mentioned how he did not intend to accept Ruffin's invitation.
I shall decline Mrs. Ruffin's offer with a great deal of pleasure. She shall not say I asked her for anything or received anything at her hands.
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alice Ruth Moore, January 12, 1898. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 8).
About Mrs. Ruffin's letter, you know I had already written to tell her that I could not come to Boston, and, of course, I could not write and retract that now. Am not particularly enamored of Mrs. Josephine St. P. anyhow.
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alice Ruth Moore, January 18, 1898. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 8).
Boston has not extinguished her literary efforts to have me there. What do you think of the matter? If I should consent to go had I better hold out for $50.00 and expenses? It's a long trip you know, and could not be made without great haste and effort on my part and while I do not want to appear mercenary, I want cold-hearted, bean-fed Boston to understand that I am not coming for my health or the incalculable honor of meeting their literati howsoever distinguished they may be, or desirable the meeting. Write to me at once about the Boston affair as you see.
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alice Ruth Moore, January 22, 1898. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 8).
Paul received a letter from Ruffin's assistant, Mr. Tobias, again asking him to recite in Boston. To make his snub of the offer more powerful, Paul told Tobias he was going to New York instead to give a reading for the benefit of the Hampton Normal and Agricultural School.
I will send him a letter of cold and dignified enlightenment. I will tell him that I see a chance to help Hampton by reading in New York, and as it is better to give, etc. I have used all my spare time for that etc.
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alice Ruth Moore, January 26, 1898. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 8).
I answered Tobias' letter and I think he will feel like an ass when he gets it.
Paul Laurence Dunbar to Alice Ruth Moore, January 31, 1898. Paul Laurence Dunbar Papers, Ohio History Connection (Microfilm edition, Roll 8).