THE CRY OF CROWS

THE CRY OF CROWS : The Secret journal of Margaret W. (AKA Margaret Loretta Whitney - 1925 to 1931)

Renovations at the noted Montford Arms Hotel in Corvus Mound, Oklahoma uncovered a journal kept by the wife of one of the hotel's earliest managers. The manuscript fell into the hands of a well-known, but unscrupulous journalist who sold it to a tabloid for an unspecified amount. Excerpts appeared in print under the salacious title, The Secret Diary of Margaret W, and later in the mass-market publication, Murder at the Mound by Skyler Dunworth-Michaels before a lawsuit halted further reproductions of the journal.

Legal experts, historians, and heirs of the various parties involved have now made possible this select publication of the diary. Unfortunately, there are several serious gaps in the narrative, leaving many to wonder if the journal had been previously edited by parties concerned with what the journal may have revealed about prominent citizens of early Oklahoma. The Donalson Corporation, known to have ties to the area of the Montford Arms, recently attempted purchase of the document from the one surviving heir located. Strangely, members of a small holding, Yellow Wolf Ltd., successfully acquired the rights and have now made available the following for publication.

1929

The year started out with such promise. There was an never ending stream of the wealthy from oil, industry, and government coming to the hotel. Such lavish parties! They seldom allowed their talk to even acknowledge that things could ever change. How different now.

Whitney spends his evenings in the office going over the books. We are waiting to see how bad things will be after the disaster in October when the stock market plummeted. Already we are hearing rumors of former guests who have - died. There are others we hear have lost everything. One is now living with the men he once oversaw in the mines and works with them to scrape by to survive.

So much suffering. Yet, there is one who seems unmoved by all the problems. Indeed, he seems quite jovial at times. That man....he is like a shadow bringing cold chill and a sense of something wrong...evil each time he enters a room. The maids are all frightened. I am too....

1928

1927

1926

April 27, 1926…
Whitney had asked me to check the room reserved for the Judge’s stay on the second floor.
There had been so much to do today and poor Whitney was in a state. So many little problems are cropping up. The staff is growing increasingly irritable and the cook had to separate two of the maids who’d started to fight! It is as if the world is crumbling around us… I mention this to Whitney and he merely quotes one of the books he is always reading…Today he merely said, “Sometimes to build you have to destroy.”
It seems that more and more, the burdens of life here are weighing down upon him. This despite having made such powerful associates such as that horrid Judge Forbes and Senator Johnson…”

May 1926
Forbes was here for drinks before dinner. He has been here since mid-summer and, if he does as he has been want to do, he will leave after Halloween. I do not like him. He has a bad influence on Gerald as well. Gerald is more anxious and unsettled after his visits. Forbes has been leaving him books to read and these seem to further disturb him. They are the writings of a German man with strange ideas. He spouts such nonsense about people doing what they want to do…and their being superior beings….

I saw Forbes and another man teasing one of the new maids. Her face was bright red as she dashed away and they smiled at me with such daring looks. They sleep till all hours, they interfere with the maids, provoke they other guests and they seem to do no work. It is party, gaming, and drinking with them all the time. They are such hedonist! Gerald refuses to speak to them. Is it my imagination or is there a different feel to the hotel when he is here?

June 19, 1926
The heat has been excessive these last few weeks, the air so heavy and hot, like a pool of water stagnating by the day. Tempers are frayed and I have never seen so much quarreling among the staff or such grumpy visitors to the hotel. I was so glad to see this last group leave today…we have few staying here now…I am so happy that we can take a small rest until the next scheduled guests arrive. I am reminded of the lines by Milton (I think it was he) “such bickering to recount…what more worth is it than to chronicle the wars of kites or crows flocking and fighting in the air?”
I am sure it will be the same with all of us and we will one day laugh at the petty bickerings of these last weeks But until then we really do sound like a bunch of those blasted birds screeching in the trees nearby! I remember when we first came here there seemed to be few of those birds around. Now….they seem to be everywhere and growing in number. I am tempted to learn to fire a gun and do away with the lot of them!
See…even I am worn to a frazzle…I am not myself lately. I am having those dreams again. They are so disturbing and they rob me of needed rest. They seem so very real though…no doubt my suddenly aggressive attitude towards those birds comes from those unseemly dreams. Imagine me carrying a sword!
All we need here, I am sure, is a breathing space to get our perspective back. Maybe I can get Whitney to tear himself away and we can picnic at the mound as we did when we first came here. Enjoy the sun, listen to the meadowlarks and enjoy the fresh air. Then all will be right with the world once more.


October 30, 1926…
The spirit of Halloween has invaded!
I know that sounds melodramatic but the episode today can hardly be described any other way. One of the maids came running in, screaming that she had seen “death.” When I questioned her she pointed to the low wall in the garden. A line of six crows stared boldly back at us. She kept repeating “six is for death…six is for death” When I demanded an answer, she ran sobbing out of the hotel. The head of housekeeping had joined us by that time and she said it was just an old rhyme about crows, “One’s bad luck, two’s good luck, three’s health, four’s wealth, five’s sickness, and six is death...”
I looked outside and saw another one take his place to make seven. Surely that would cancel the bad luck and calm the maid. When I noted this, the housekeeper (a woman who I have found so sensible) paled until I feared for her health and then crossed herself devotedly…
“God save us,” she whispered. “Some add that seven is the devil come to call.” I said, “Surely, you don’t believe that, do you?” The woman simply looked at me and then said she had to get back to work.
Gerald laughed when I recounted this. He shrugged it off as a good fireside tale and I soon found myself laughing with him…but, for some reason, I just can’t forget the look on her face…

1925

June 12, 1925
“I am so proud of my Gerald…manager already of such a fine and respectable hotel such as the Montford Arms. The hotel is an impressive structure, sitting on a small hill, or rise, with the town ringing it on one side and the open meadows rolling off into the distance on the other. It is a mix of styles all blended together with no spared expense. The manager’s quarters in a wing over the kitchens, but overlooking a small private garden space which I love already. A Spanish style gate opens on to the guests patio but it is kept locked and the rose brushes have overgrown to nearly hide the metal bars from sight.

The apartment is small but seems larger because there are doors and windows everywhere. I can walk from the entry to the sunroom and then around to the entry again without, should I so choose, ever opening a door. The owner had it painted just before we came and the wood is glossy white and the walls in the parlor a pale rose, the bedroom a blue and the kitchen the yellow of butter.

Gerald has ‘very good prospects’ he tells me. I believe he means the fact that several highly placed gentlemen have served as benefactors of a sort. I so look forward to our life together. Chicago was such a strain and the weather so frigid and damp.I know that we will have happy times as we build a family in this lovely home and in such an upstanding community…”

July 30, 1925
“The Governor’s party was here last night, and the gowns of the ladies were so lovely! Next week the Senator has reserved rooms for him and his son. I am in such a state! I must make certain I do my Gerald proud and do everything in my power to help him succeed. I just wish that he did not spend so much time with Judge Clayton Forbes. Forbes claims he comes from a good family. He appears to be a man of some success and has every appearance of refinement, yet I am never comfortable in his presence. I feel his eyes on me far more than seems - appropriate - for a man who says he is my husband’s acquaintance. Nay, for any man. Gerald says I am being a silly goose, but I do not like him – not one bit…

October 31, 1925
The hotel is filled with festive fall color and pumpkins with candles line the walks outside. This new way of celebrating Halloween has become popular and I must admit I rather enjoy it myself. There is a large tin basin under the old oaks and children of the staff and town are bobbing for apples. There is a magician charming the children of the guests in the small ballroom and the large ballroom is being readied for a wonderful ball this evening. I so look forward to it!

A sound caught my attention as I helped with the entertainment for the children. A cluster of crows, raucous and fearless erupted from the stand of trees on the far side of the old mound. They raced toward us so low several of the mothers clutched at their hats for fear they would be torn right off. Strangely, the birds circled in rapid succession and then dashed off again toward the far horizon. It was so strange that we stood there for a few moments until one of the children splashed into the washtub and her cries drew out attention back to the festivities. It reminded that the very name of the place honors those strange dark birds with their grating call.

Gerald has promised to squire me around the floor! It will be marvelous….

Dec. 25, 1925

Whitney surprised me with the most lovely hostess gown! He ordered it from Franklin and Simon on 5th Avenue in New York. I could hardly believe my eyes as I pulled the filmy chiffon tunic out of the box and marveled at the fine Margot patterned lace and the color was such a lovely peach silk crepe. I danced around with it held tight to my breast and Whitney grabbed me and kissed me as he has not in many months. He has promised a candlelight dinner with wine and music from the phonograph…

1924

1923

I walked to the nearby mound today. The sky was sapphire and the wind only slightly warm. The bare branches are finally budding. As I neared the place, a flock of crows squawked and cawed loudly as they flew away. They startled me and I looked up to follow their flight and as I lowered my gaze once more I saw a man. He slipped away on the far side of the mound and disappeared into the thick foliage...

1922

1930's