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The way FJD lived his life, more than the words he spoke within the family
circle, set an appropriate example for each of the children, all of whom earned graduate degrees--quite a distinction
even for wealthy families of that generation. FJD wanted his children to appreciate their city, but he also wanted
them to gain appreciation for the world beyond New Orleans. He himself enjoyed travel, even though he never went
to Europe until 1920, Before touring Europe, though, the family traveled extensively throughout the United States.
In the late 1890s, when George was still a young child, a terrible yellow fever epidemic hit New Orleans. FJD,
as well as Julia's parents in Cincinnati, insisted that Julia take George out of the city and travel to Cincinnati
where they would be safe. Ruth points out that the letters that FJD wrote to Julia that summer had to be fumigated
before they could be delivered. Those letters have survived with the holes punched in them where they were fumigated.
FJD assured his wife that he was fine, that the neighborhood around Jackson Avenue was not at risk. The neighborhood
most under siege was that around Napoleon toward Claiborne where an open canal existed. Some years later, it was
discovered that mosquitoes bred in stagnant water, and only then was it clear why that Napoleon Avenue neighborhood
had been so adversely affected during the epidemic. The canal was not covered by the neutral ground until about
1910--after the cause of yellow fever had been determined.
Before 1905, when the children were really young, the family spent their
summer vacations in Abita Springs. The first year the family--FJD, Julia, the four children and Mary, their nurse--ventured
further away from home, they went to Washington, D.C. When the Dreyfous family was on the streetcar there, they
saw Teddy Roosevelt's sons pedaling their bicycles in front of the Library of Congress. Every year, the Dreyfouses
completed their vacation by rendezvousing with Julia's family, the Seeman clan, in Atlantic City.
One summer in Atlantic City when Ruth was about five, she saw teddy bears
for the first time; they had just been created. Julia's brother, Uncle Edgar Seeman, gave Ruth and Caroline each
one. This event has been captured in a photograph that Ruth still has. Ruth remembers the family traveling to New
York in 1907, at the time the city was celebrating the centennial of Robert Fulton's steamboat invention and journey
up the Hudson. Ruth vividly remembers the lively parade commemorating the event, and she also recalls that many
streets were covered with boards. The family was told that the boards covered the construction sites where the
subway system was then being constructed; the first was the West Side subway. Every summer meant another North
American train trip, north or northeast: Niagara Falls, Montreal and Quebec, Chicago, Minnesota (to see where the
Mississippi River began). Not until 1914 did the family (that summer it was Caroline, Ruth and the parents) travel
west via the Canadian Rockies. They visited Lake Louise and Banff, Vancouver and Victoria. When they reached Seattle,
FJD remarked that if he had not established himself in New Orleans, he would have gone to Seattle because he felt
that the city had a tremendous future. FJD's prediction proved sound: today Seattle is the most sought-after city
in the United States, and four of his great-grandchildren have settled there.
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