Elwell, Abbie (Nickerson). Diary, 1878-1928 (2024)

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37.50

Abbie M. Nickerson, Vassar College, Sept. 23, 1878

It is a singular fact that in journals on those days that are fullest of adventures, and which furnish abundant material, people seldom make lengthy entries, often passing them by altogether.

The traveler starting for Europe, will furnish an admirable example. On board ship, where there is an abundance of leisure the pages of the diary are faithfully filled, but open the book, when he is fairly in the whirl and bustle of London or Paris, and what do we find? In most cases blank pages.

Yet think you these days are forgotten? Most assuredly not. The mind is ever recurring to them.

Thus I feel it may be with the days, whose record I have been to busy to write, but now in the quiet of my room, as I think over the past two months that have flown so quickly, I feel moved to write something of their many and varied experiences.

Nov. 30, 1878

I left home on the afternoon of Sept. 17. Emma and Addie Tuttle were at the station in W. Newton to see me off. Papa and I took the cars for N.Y. and changed to the boat, where we rested very well. Wednesday morning we woke quite early, and after a lunch, which mama had prepared for us, went out on deck to see what we could of the harbor.

We went under the new bridge, which had progressed considerably since I saw it before on our return from the "Centennial." Arrived in N.Y. papa made some arrangement about my baggage, and we then walked

to Broadway. Papa left his coat at the hotel, and we then visited the Post Office, Trinity, Stewart's and Tiffany's. We returned to the hotel for dinner, and after resting a while went to the boat, where I waited while papa went out for a walk. Mr. and Mrs. H. F. King came on with us, also Mr. Kingman.

We had a delightful trip ip the Hudson. When we arrived at Poughkeepsie, it was too late to go to the College, so we went to the Northern House.

In the confusion at the landing, I was separated from father, but he joined me at the hotel, soon after I reached there.

I had a very comfortable room, but did not sleep very well the first part of the night.

Papa left on the early boat for N.Y. I accompanied him to the wharf, and felt rather peculiarly, as I returned to the hotel for breakfast, alone.

During the morning I went to the college in the horse-car, which was mostly filled with girls and their friends. After waiting a few minutes in the parlor I went to Miss Morse in room J, who assigned my room, and then one of the Messenger girls took me there to leave my things. I then went to the chapel to await further developments. There I saw Miss [Shailer] and Miss Buckland, who said she was to me by room-mate. In a few minutes they came for me, and I took an examination in Phys. Geography in the Library. Miss Haskell gave me the examination, and pronounced it satisfactory.

After settling my account with Mr. Vassar I

returned to my room, where I busied myself trying to arrange my things. My trunks were brought out in due time by the horse-car co[mpany]. We had no lessons until Monday, so that we had leisure to explore and to form several acquaintances. Laura Gross came, but did not spend the first night here. I sat with her sister a while, when Laura was taking her examinations.

Sunday, Sept. 22

President Caldwell preached.

We heard vague reports of "hazing," when we first came, but the old students have been exceedingly courteous and kind. There are many things to be learned--e.g. the clothes which we consider plain, we find to our dismay, are mostly "fancy," and do we chance to put in a collar on which the marking is a little "dim" our bag is returned. There were so many bells to mind that some of us taxed our poor brains to the uttermost, and after all forgot corridor meeting.

We find our exercise a delightful change after the day's work. One of the popular walks is to the cider mill. Generally a party of five or six go together, each with a water pitcher or sometimes more beautiful though not so useful majolica. Arrived before what we suppose to be the house, we debate whether we shall go to the door or proceed directly past several windows filled with people evidently immensely amused.

At last, we go on to the barn, in front of which we see piles of apples and smell what is unmistakably the odor of cider. There are several men at work, who do not seem inclined to pay us much attention, and we stand

for a few minutes very much like laughing.

Finally one man says he will go for the measure, which, by the way, he has considerable difficulty in finding. When he has rinsed it at the pump, he calmly inquires how much we will have. Now none of us have bought cider, and here another consultation is held. On our way back we refreshed ourselves once or twice in order to lighten the pitchers. Chestnuts in due time come, and we hunt for them among the dry leaves. Anecdotes of Prof. Hinkel. What is the first step in a Greek funeral--a death.

Why did Apollo draw his bow? To shoot.

Prof. had a certain order of hearing the young ladies recite, so that knowing what part of the lesson each would have, they prepared themselves accordingly. This reached his ears, and he was very much troubled "Young ladies" said he "I am very sorry to hear this, but to prove it I will begin at the other end of the class tomorrow." Knowing this the lessons were prepared with especial care, and Prof. was convinced that the report was not true.

An English Bishop was stopping at a certain hotel. The proprietor instructed the boy whose duty is [it] was to wait on the said bishop, to answer, when he knocked at the bishop's door, and the bishop asked "who's there?" the boy my lord, but the boy very much confused said "The Lord my boy." As someone has said there is no great credit in doing some things, but great discredit in leaving them undone.

Notes on Drawing.

The following extracts were taken from several books, which I read before coming here, and I transfer them from my loose papers to this book, so I think them worthy of preservation.

Drawing is an art, which renders woman truly feminine. It increases her love of home, by teaching her to render it attractive. It is in a word, an art which lends modesty and wisdom; which subdues imagination to the control of reason. How many artists are like goats, which when fastened to a stake, begin at once to browse on what it remote and difficult to obtain? It is wiser to begin with what is in our reach, with the most simple and easiest.

See that streamlet which follows lovingly the channel nature has prepared for it, bearing in its undulating course freshness and plenty to its banks, enriching itself with little brooks that join it on the way, and finally reaching the sea, a deep majestic river: that is the emblem of talent and genius.

All styles should be studied impartially: thus one preserves originality. The pupil of all is the pupil of none. "I am nearly convinced that when once we see keenly enough there is very little difficulty in drawing what we see; but supposing this difficulty is still great, I believe that sight is a more important thing than ability to draw, and I would rather teach Drawing that one may love Nature, than teach looking at Nature that one may learn to draw." It is more important for most of us to appreciate art, than to paint or draw.

Drawing enables us to perceive the beauty of the natural world, to record things not to be described in words, to preserve something like a true image of the beautiful things that pass away, to understand the minds of painters.

M. Rouillet's Method of Enlarging.

Trace on glass or gummed gauze with lithographic ink. Take a small lamp with a flat wick cut slantingly so as to make it very pointed. When it is lighted, lower it until it forms a luminous point. Dark room. Place the lamp so that the luminous point is in the center of the image. As the lamp is placed nearer or further from the gauze the reflection is increased or diminished. If a large copy is required, divide the tracing into sections.

Fixature. Put half an ounce of white shellac in 3/4 of a pint of alcohol, cork it well and let it dissolve two days. With a little sponge spread on the back of the drawing.--

Accuracy is the first and last thing. If precision is used in the means, it will be manifest in the result. Crayons should be held inclined and not pressed between the finger. Lights may be taken out with a crumb of bread. The gauze proof is a faithful instructor, a silent teacher, responding to the eyes which consult it only by presenting truth. Sharpen the charcoal fine, for the outline should be very light yet perfectly distinct. It may be erased with a bit of muslin.

"Trust in God, and keep your powder dry." Cromwell.

Adjoining the college grounds at the rear, is a small burying-ground, surrounded by a stone wall and shaded by apple trees. The graves are nearly on a level with the ground, some of them scarcely distinguishable. We found our way there one afternoon this fall. Viva and I. We tried to read the tablet inscriptions, and one of them was as follows:

Remember me as you pass by,
As you are now so once was I,
As I am now so you will be,
Prepare for death, and follow me.

Someone had added in pencil--To follow you I'm not content, until I know which way you went.

Viva said she would like to be buried in such a retired and quiet spot. I would prefer our Newton Cemetery. I cannot bear to see neglect, although it may make no difference to the departed, it is pleasant to think that people are still remembered, and what better tribute can be paid than cultivation and care of the spot, where their bodies were placed. I sometimes think people mourn for those gone too much, and do not love sufficiently those remaining.

Children are quick to hear and apply new words or sentences. Viva told me the other day that her little cousins, who slept together, were very "cute" to use Vassar slang. One had heard someone say "excuse my back," so as he turned over in bed back to his little sister, he said "excuse my back sister." My Mother and I = Miss Storer and Mrs. Storer. The girls on Miss Brown's corridor are called Helen's Babies.

Vassar College, Saturday, Feb. 7/1880.

Sophom*ore party in Society Hall began at seven o'clock P.M. The Literature class was the first feature of the regular entertainment. Miss Foos acting Prof. B. Miss Baldwin acted Miss Pass to perfection. Miss Cora Glenn and Miss Sandford [Sanford] exchanged parts or places. Miss Home was Miss Foos, Viva was Laura Glenn, Miss Varnes was M. B. King, and Miss Lyon visited the class a la Mrs. Ray. Prof. B. distributed paper for examination amid the loud protests of the whole class, saying he would take the "moral responsibility." The Latin class followed. Miss Goodwin was acted by Miss Patterson, in a black dress and red shawl. Miss Stanton acted Miss Sanford. The usual requests of please shut the register and open the farther window were made. HS was explained in Cicero's Letters just before Dr. Hinckel made his appearance, when it was repeated in full for his benefit. Miss Coleman acted Dr. Hinckel. The Faculty Meeting was very good. Laura Gross in white represented Miss Morse and did the honors of the big book. Miss Phillips was Pres. Caldwell, Miss Moore read the minutes of the last meeting, which were very interesting. She represented Prof. Braislin. Miss Easton was the doctor, and Miss Kountz, Prof. Mitchell. The windows were hung with our carpets and 'Welcome' and two large paper babies decorated the curtain. Quid agamus? was on one side of the room, and the wall was also decorated with pictures from Harper's Weekly and Rising Sun stove polish pictures. Miss Warder and Miss Glenn, her son

"Skip," dressed in a chemistry apron, etc. distributed pea-nuts, corn-balls and apples from a little cart. And Miss Warder presented sticks of candy. Soon Misses Brittan and Nicks, as waitresses, passed plates, napkins, olives, sandwiches and coffee. The 'Glee Club' sang several pieces and we danced. A number of the cards presented had very good hits such as;--She's a daisy, she's a Darling. Warren-ted to enter heaven, below the picture of a crying child who 'wants to be an angel'. Viva sat up with George after we returned, and copied her essay in part.

Clear and cold. We were excused from breakfast and Bible-class. Spent the morning thawing oysters and making soup. I breakfasted on sardines, crackers and oranges. Pres. Caldwell preached. Viva and I walked just before dinner. I spent the afternoon in the Reading Room. In the evening attempted to call on Miss Nicks, but she was engaged. A Miss [Beech] addressed the Society for Religious Inquiry on the subject of the Christian Missions in Paris. She was very entertaining. I finished a long letter home after the meeting. Ida and Jennie Cushing are spending Sunday with Miss Cleveland. A number of the young ladies went home Friday to spend a few days between the semesters.

Sunday, Feb. 8.

Clear and cold. The semester began this morning. Miss Hinckel excused the German class after a few moments. We went to our first Greek recitation at the second period. Miss Miller pronounced the alpha-

bet and explained a little about some letters, before dismissing the class, which is very small. Spent half an hour on the ice with Laura Gross after Zoology. Cora exercised with me in Gymnastics. Misses Abbot, Starr, Glenn and Darling were admitted to '81 this evening. Miss Jessie F. Wheeler to '82. Miss Cutler to '83. Spent most of my leisure to-day on my essay. A meeting of the Philalethean Society was called after dinner in the Lecture Room.

Monday, Feb. 9/80

Very cold.

I was awakened in the night by a loud noise, which proved to be the bursting of our steam pipes. We went to Mr. Robinson the Engineer immediately after breakfast, and he had them put in order during the day. Mrs. Johns and Mrs. Ray came down, and gave us the key of Miss Storer's room, which was a very comfortable resort for the day, as our room was so cold. We were excused from Gymnastics, and I skated with Ida Cushing. I went to Miss Yamakawa's room between dinner and chapel to consult about our German, " ...zu Maria Stuart," afterward I went to see the Dr. about Physiology. I asked Prof. Braislin about taking it yesterday noon. Rec'd letters from Fanny, Addie Tuttle and Mother.

Tuesday, Feb. 10/80

Warm.

I was excused from gymnastics and skated an hour. They began to cut the ice today. Prof. Mitchell lectured at eight o'clock this evening. The lecture was very interesting. She said we must use our eyes.

Wednesday, Feb. 11/80

Although it was a hard rain storm, Society Hall was well filled to hear 'Cinderella.' The evening was a very enjoyable one, and the programmes in the shape of a red slipper very attractive.

Friday.

Sunday, always a welcome day here, was doubly so to-day, as I was tired with my week's work, especially by my essay, which I finished very late in the evening. George and I both wrote until the last minute, when she took our essays up just before the last bell. Prof. Dwight preached this morning on the text, "With God all things are possible." The discourse was very able yet exceedingly characteristic of the writer. Read the "Princess of Thule" at the spare moments. Called on Miss Haskell with Cora, in the evening.

Sunday.

Miss Storer left this morning. I walked with Laura an hour as we were excused from Gymnastics. George and I attended Miss Hinckel's sociable in the evening. A number of young ladies acted "Die drei Spinnerinen."

Monday.

Walked with Ida Cushing. Went to Miss Miller's to read Greek just before dinner, as I did yesterday at the same time. I spent the evening after study hour in the Library in connection with Zoology.

Tuesday.

I received the news from home that father was attacked by a robber Wednesday night, as he was on his way home. Prof. Dwight used the solar microscope in the Zoology class. The Beta meeting this evening was very pleasant. Miss Hoyt read a critique, Miss Fridenberg recited a piece, and there was

also a charade in three acts, 'Stage-struck.' Miss Foos and Misses Williams and Woodward with Miss Phillips took the parts very excellently.

Friday, Feb.

We had about two inches of snow. The storm cleared in the p.m. In the evening there was a very fine concert in the chapel given by the Mendelssohn Quintette Club of Boston.

Saturday, Feb. 21/80.

I read 'Lady of the Lake' yesterday. George and I called on Emma Bush in the evening. We have a holiday to-day in honor of Washington's Birthday. I spent most of my time working on a white shawl for mother.

Monday, Feb. 23/80.

Notes on Prof. Mitchell's lecture.

Copied June, 4. 1880.

Popular knowledge is not scientific. Mathematics are necessary to the study of Physical Science and Astronomy. Astronomy can be studied without instruments. Newton was a philosopher, mathematician and astronomer. Did you ever prove to yourself that the earth turns? Taking one inch as the diameter of the earth the sun would not come in this room. Mars is not up we are under. The earth turns more slowly than it did, viz: 1/66 of a second in 2500 yrs. The days are therefore growing longer. Stars do not set farther north or south at different seasons. Use your eyes. Kepler observed without a telescope. A mile is the smallest space that we can distinguish on the moon. The study of Science lifts us out of ourselves.

Continued from Page 72

The Revel of Sir Hugonin de GuisayWilliam S. Walsh/
Revels of the Inns of CourtT.K. Hervey/
King Witlaf's Drinking-HornHenry W. Longfellow/
Old ChristmastideSir Walter Scott/
Christmas Games in "Old Wardle's["] KitchenChas. Dickens/
A "Mystery" as performed in MexicoBayard Taylor/
Book of ChristmasHamilton W. Mabie

VIII

When All the World is Kin

Christmas Night of '62William Gordon McCabe/
Merry Christmas in the TenementsJacob Riis/
Christmas at SeaRobert Louis Stevenson/
The First Christmas Tree in the Legation Compound, Tokyo, Mary Crawford Fraser/
Christmas in IndiaRudyard Kipling/
A Belgian Christmas Eve Procession All the Year Round/
Christmas at the CapeJohn Runcie/
The "Good Night" in SpainFernan Caballero/
Christmas in RomeJohn Addington Symonds/
Christmas in BurgundyM. Fertiault/
Christmas in GermanyAmy Fay/
Christmas Dinner in a Clipper's Fo'c'sleHerbert Elliot Hamblen/
Christmas in JailRolf Boldrewood/
Colonel Carter's Christmas TreeF. Hopkinson Smith

IX

Christmas Stories

Christmas RosesZona Gale/
The Fir TreeHans Christian Andersen/
The Christmas BanquetNathaniel Hawthorne/
A Christmas Even in ExileAlphonse Daudet/
The Rehearsal of the Mummers' PlayEden Phillpotts

X

New Year

New YearRichard Watson Gilder/
Midnight Mass for the Dying YearHenry W. Longfellow

The Death of the Old YearAlfred Tennyson/
A New Year's CarolMartin Luther/
New Year's Resolutions"Elizabeth"/
Love and Joy Come to YouOld English Carol/
Ring Out, Wild BellsAlfred Tennyson/
New Year's Eve, 1850James Russell Lowell/
Rejoicings upon the New Year's Coming of AgeCharles Lamb/
New Year's Rites in the HighlandsCahrles Rogers/
The Chinese New YearH.C. Sirr/
New Year's Gifts in ThessalyJ. Theodore Bent/
"Smashing" in the New YearJacob Riis/
New Year Calls in Old New YorkWilliam S. Walsh/
Sylvester Abend in DavosJohn Addington Symonds

XI

Twelfth Night--Epiphany

"Now Have Good Day!"Old English Carol/
A Twelfth Night SuperstitionBarnaby Googe/
Twelfth-Day Table DiversionJohn Nott/
The Blessings of the WatersJ. Theodore Bent/
La Galette du RoiWilliam Hone/
Drawing King & QueenUniversal Magazine/
St. Distaff's Day & Plough MondayHone's Year Book

XII

The Christmas Spirit

"As Little Children in a Darkened Hall"Chas. Henry Crandall/
Christmas DreamsChristopher North/
The Professor's Christmas SermonRobert Browning/
Awaiting the KingF. Marion Crawford/
Elizabeth's Christmas Sermon"Elizabeth"/
Nichola's "Reason Why"Zona Gale/
The Changing Spirit of ChristmastideWashington Irving/
A Prayer for Christmas PeaceCharles Kingsley

Under the Holly BoughCharles Mackay/
Christmas MusicJohn Addington Symonds/
A Christmas SermonRobert Loius Stevenson

List of Plates

The Holy NightCorreggio/
The Holy NightC. Muller/
The Arrival of the ShepherdsLerolle/
The BellsBlashfield/
The MadonnaBellini/
The Virgin adorning the Infant ChristCorreggio/
The MadonnaMurillo/
Holy NightVan Ulade/
The Holy Family with the ShepherdsTitian/
Madonna della SediaRaphael/
The Adoration of the MagiPaolo Veronese/
The Adoration of the MagiMemling/

Vassar College, Oct. 3, 1880.

I have now been at the college two weeks yesterday. Laura Gross and I came on by way of Albany, leaving Boston at 8.30 a.m. Father came into Boston with me and Mary Gross, with Laura. A friend of theirs Mr. Saroni of Pittsfield accompanied us as far as that town. He is about thirty years of age, very pleasant and entertaining. We passed the time in reading accounts of the Boston Celebration, playing cards, eating candy, our lunch etc. Miss Spaulding was on the train and changed with us at Greenbush. It was a lovely day without, but very warm in the cars. We reached Poughkeepsie considerably behind time. As we stopped to make arrangements for our trunks the car-driver called out, "If you young ladies are going to the college you had better hurry up." After we were seated he said, "If you had given your checks here you would have saved time." Finally when considerable difficulty was experienced in getting the car on the track, he made other remarks to the same effect. We could not see what our delay had to do with the present trouble. My studies this semester are Astronomy, Rhetoric and Greek, coming on the second, third and fourth periods. Nothing of much importance has occurred since our return. The meeting of Beta last Friday evening was very well attended by members and friends, there being about ninety present. Miss Fitzhugh read a critique, descriptive of our last meeting at Mlle. [Sec's] room. George read a critique then, Miss Van Kleeck impersonated Lord Dundreary, Miss

Fridenberg played the piano, Laura Webster and her friend the violin. Sandwiches, lemonade and cake were passed, and we enjoyed a very charming evening. Friday night after the critique Miss Fridenberg read a selection from Mark Twain, in which he acts as second in a French duel. A charade, Fan, Tom, Phantom was very well acted. Miss Alice Shove read "Tom Sawyer" white-washing the fence. We then had refreshments, and adjourned. Cora and I walked in and out from Poughkeepsie, Friday p.m. Yesterday we walked to Cedar Ridge. It is beautiful weather for walking now. Viva and Lula Morrill went into town to church this morning. Prof. Braislin met our Bible class for the first time to-day. The lesson was Genesis XXVI. 12-26.

Pres. Caldwell preached as usual.

Oct. 9, 1880.

Notes from Life and Literature in the Fatherland
By John F. Hurst.
Scribner, Armstrong & Co. 1875.

Bremen. Faulenstrasse. The myth is as follows: There was once a forest where the street now is, on the edge of ... lived an aged couple who had seven sons. The father was industrious, but they were drones. The parents were very kind to the large, lazy boys, but people said they had been spoiled. Even the children came to make sport of them, and at length the eldest proposed going to work. They determined to leave home and seek a livelihood in some other part of the country. Their father feared they had been lazy too long to become industrious, but he told them if they would walk through the streets of Bremen with axes on their shoulders and spades in their hands as proof of their sincerity, he would give them each a new suit of clothes and twenty-five dollars in gold. They actually did this, and soon started off. They adhered to their resolution and rose to high positions. One morning, the people of Bremen were surprised to see seven well-dressed men with axes and spades coming into town on foot. They cried, "Can they be the lazy brothers?" Their aged parent[s] were glad to welcome them back to the little house. But the brothers said, "The house is too small. Let us build a new one." A fine house was then erected on a piece of land where there was no road. They made a street. "What shall we call it?," said they. It was agreed that since they had spent so much time in idleness

they would call it "Lazy-street" as a warning to others.

"..."

...

In SOuthern Germany the augment is often omitted.

... is used for ..., etc.

... at the end of German words is pronounced like ia in Virginia.

Miss Terry had over her door: "This is the abode of Mys. tery." (Miss Terry).

"A person can scarcely be put in a more dangerous position, than when external circ*mstances have pronounced some striking change in his condition, without his manner of feeling and of thinking having undergone any preparation for it" Wilhelm Meister at death of his father pg. 269 Carlysle's [Carlyle's] translation. Also the following, "One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, speak a few reasonable words."

President Raymond.

"Considering what I had come for and what I had got, I felt like the Irishman who was allowed to work his passage on the canal by leading the horse, and who concluded at the end of the route, "But for the name of the thing, faix! he might as well travel afut."

Dr. Raymond born in 1814.

"To praise ordinary excellencies of character in him would be a wrong to his virtues."

"Integritatem atque abstinentiam in tanto viro referre injuria virtutum fuerit." Tacitus, Agric, IX.

Extract from Vol. 44. of Atlantic entitled "The Greatest Novelist's Work for Freedom." Ivan Turgenef [Turgenev], Alex I and Alex II and their times.

Nihilism

"Prenez la terre et le ciel, prenez la vie et la mort, l'ame et Dieu, et crachez dessus--voila le nihilisme."

Extracts from Black's "Sunrise."

Chap. VIII. "Those Nihilists are becoming more and more impracticable. The aim at scarcely anything beyond destruction." Portions of Chap. III. and Chap. V. Chap. VLI--"Lind used to denounce the outrages of the Nihilists, and talk with indignation of the useless crimes of the Camorra etc."

Questions to be answered in writing critical essays.

Copied May 24/81.

1.What is the comparative position which this author occupies in English or in American Literature?/
2. Is his range of subjects wide or narrow?/
3. In what line has he achieved most marked success?/
4. Is he a profound thinker?/
5. Is he a close observer of human nature?/
6. Is he possessed of much of the imaginative quality?/
7. What can you say of his diction?/
8. Does he seem to reflect strongly any prominent tendencies of modern thought? the influence of foreign literature?/
9. Has he talent or genius?/
10. Does he exhibit much of the pathetic element?/
11. Do you see his own personality exhibited in his writings?/
12. Does he show a tendency to repeat himself?/
13. Do you note any development, advantageous or the reverse, in going from his earlier to his later writings?

Concerning a novelist.

14. Has he shown power in dealing with female character?/
15. Is his chief strength in plot or character drawing?/
16. Is he nearer the standard of fiction established by Walter Scott or that exemplified by Henry James, Jr.?

Concerning a poet.

17. What can you say of the character of his rhythm?/
18. Has he the power of making word pictures?

Miss Hisco*ck advises me to read Taine.

An idea is an image or representation of an object conceived in the mind.

Essay subjects. Copied Feb. 5/82.

Is Aristocracy the great sine qua non of American culture?/
Is the popular lecture useful to the college student?/
Charlotte Bronte's ideal hero./
The inestimable privilege of grumbling./
The Teutonic and Anglo-Saxon man./
Woman's limitations in English social life./
Trollope's novels and Sat. Review./
Are women loyal to each other?/
Pageantry and patriotism./
Spanish character in history?/
Anthony Trollope and Henry James Jr./
T.W. Higginson./
Emerson vs Mallock./
Dr. Holland, the apostle of mediocrity./
"Cranks" I have known./
Are Americans a nation of imitators?/
Sentimentality in literature - Robert Browning./
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps./
The wrong side of our indebtedness to our puritan forefathers./
Danger of the present craze for the picturesque in writing.

Essay Subjects. Copied April 15/82

The Sense of Humor as an Ameliorating Influence in Life./
The Cobden Club and its Works./
The Office of an Aristocratic Class in Civilization./
Influence of Alex. Hamilton./
Interest of Fitz Green Hallack [Fitz-Greene Halleck]./
Place of the Club in American Life./
Sheridan and Wilberforce./
The Place of Parlor-lectures in Education./
Should the Average Citizen Be a Politician?/
Howell, James and Mallock - School of Opression [sic]./
James' Life of Hawthorne./
Office of the Supernatural in Literature [from Hamlet down]/
Is America Wanting in Ideals?/
Are we fairly Represented at Coney Island?

Subject of lecture by J.H. Allen, Harvard, Dec. '81

Chivalry as affecting the condition of the women of the Middle Ages.

May 25/81.

Subjects for Astronomy lectures.

The planets Mercury and Venus./
The planets interior to Mercury./
The planet Jupiter./
The planet Saturn./
The planet Mars and its satellites./
The planet Neptune./
The 200 small planets./
The Sun and its spots./
The Moon (descriptive)./
The November meteors./
The Comets./
The Moon (Harvest)/
The Zodiacal light./
Periods of nature./
Systems of the universe./
Proper motion of the stars./
The view of astronomy before the 17th century./
The view after 1600./
Newton, Tycho Brahe, Galileo, Maria Agnesi./
Observatories. Equatorial telescopes./
Fixed stars. Variable stars./
Distance of stars and nebulae./
Eclipses & occultations./
Which is the more interesting the mathematical study of Astronomy or the observing? Why?/
Bode's law and other laws. The weight of the bodies of the universe. Sources of sun's heat & light.

First newspaper was published in Venice, and was called Gazette from the coin Gazetta for which it was sold. It was issued monthly in manuscript by the government.

Notes on Mental

April 15/82

Formal relations belong to thinking/
Real relations belong to concrete and actual existence/
Principle exists only in the mind./
All systems of philosophy may be resolved either into Monism or Dualism./
Knowledge is a knowledge of relations.

Feb. '83

"What is mind? No matter." Dr. Caldwell/
"When Bishop Berkeley said there was no matter/
It was no matter what he said."

If strange, strange noises in the night/
Cause you to almost die of fright:/
If stealthy footfalls drawing near/
With wildly beating heart you hear;/
Then use this gift, courageous wife!/
Sometime, mayhap, 'twill save your life.

- Mouse trap

A dainty Bride should keep with pride/
Her little hands both soft and fair./
The gift inside if well applied/
Preserves the hands - But, use with care!

- Holder

Similia similibus curantur/
For Monday's blues use this instanter

-[Blaine]

Extracts from Smith College Calendar for 1881.

Selected and arranged by Kate A. Sanborn.

Copied Jan. 8, 1882.

Sat. Jan. 1

Another year of happy work,/
That better is than play;/
Of simple cares, and love that grows/
More sweet from day to day.

J.W. Chadwick.

Sunday, Jan. 2

To hope-lit New Year, with thy joys uncertain,/
Whose unsolved mystery none may foretell;/
I calmly trust my God to lift the curtain,/
Safe in His love for me, 'twill all be well.

Julia B. Cady.

Tuesday, Jan. 4

Look not mournfully into the past, it comes not back again; wisely improve the present, it is thine; go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a manly heart.

Longfellow.

Wednesday, Jan. 5.

Now [No] longer forward nor behind/
I look in hope or fear;/
But, grateful, take the good I find,/
The best of now and here.

Whittier.

Friday, Jan. 7.

Though thou have time/
But for a line, be that sublime,/
Not failure, but low aim, is crime.

J.R. Lowell.

Sat. Jan. 8

Life? 'Tis the story of love and troubles, Of troubles and love, that travel together - The round world through.

Joaquin Miller

Monday, Jan. 10.

Persistent people begin their success, where others end their failure.Edward Eggleston.

Wed. Jan. 12

It is better to say, "This one thing I do," than to say, "These forty things I dabble in."Washington Gladden.

Thursday. Jan. 13

The only reward of virtue is virtue. The only way to have a friend is to be one.Emerson.

Friday. Jan. 14

We cannot help thinking that when a head is full of ideas, some of them will involuntarily ooze out.Eliza Leslie.

Sat. Jan. 15.

The devil is credited with a great deal of mischief the stomach is guilty of.B.F. Taylor.

Wed. Jan. 19

It is not well for a man to pray cream, and live skim milk.H.W. Beecher.

Thursday, Jan. 20.

About the only person that we ever heard of that wasn't spoiled by being lionized, was a Jew named Daniel.G. D. Prentice.

Sat. Jan. 22

The cure for gossip is culture. Good-natured people often talk about their neighbors because they have nothing else to talk about.J.G. Holland.

Sunday, Jan. 30.

Religion is no leaf of faded green:/
Or flower of vanished fragrance, presented between/
The pages of a Bible; but from seeds/
Of love it springeth, watered by good deeds.
J.T. Trowbridge.

Monday, Jan. 31.

We can each have all the time there is; our mental and moral status is determined by what we do with it.Mary Blake.

Thursday, Feb. 10

Honest good humor is the oil and wine of a merry meeting, and there is no jovial companionship equal to that where the jokes are rather small and the laughter abundant.W. Irving.

Friday, Feb. 11.

Familiarity does not breed contempt, except of contemptible things, or in contemptible people.Phillips Brooks.

Wed. Feb. 16.

A sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use.W. Irving.

Sunday, Feb. 20

On this earth there are many roads to Heaven and each traveler supposes his own to be the best. But they all unite in one road at last. It is only Omnisciecce can decide.Eliza Leslie.

Thursday, March 3.

Of all amusem*nts of the mind,/
From Logic down to fishing,/
There isn't one that you can find/
So very cheap as wishing.J.G. Saxe.

Friday, March, 11.

Suffering is God's tool to cut life into beauty.C.A. Bartol.

Monday Mar. 14

It does beat all how good advice will make some people squirm.Josiah Allen's Wife.

Copied - June 2 - 1883.

Friday, Apr. 8

A bore is a man who spends so much time talking about himself that you can't talk about yourself.Eli Perkins

Wed. Apr. 27

All will join in the credo, I believe in the total depravity of inanimate things.Mrs. E.A. Walker.

Thursday July 21

The chief obstacle and inconvenience in traveling is the prejudice in favor of taking the body with us.N.P. Willis

Sat. Aug. 13

No sensible person ever made an apology--Emerson

Apology is only egotism wrong side out. Holmes

Sat. Oct. 8

If of all swords of tongue and pen/
The saddest are "It might have been,"/
More sad are these we daily see:/
It is, but hadn't ought to be./
Bret Harte

Sat. Nov. 26

Teeth are carious, precarious and vicarious.A.B. Frothingham.

Mon. Dec. 5

Everything, Nothing, Something, Enough!/
These are the infantine, adolescent, juvenile and mature stages of culture.Joseph Cook.

Wed. Dec. 7

Books are all very well, but when a girl tells me she prefers reading a book to talking to a man, I always set her down as mendacious, or else a little simple.Robert Grant.

S.G. Goodrich (Peter Parley)

The Book of Christmas - Hamilton W. Mabie, Forbes Library.

Extracts for the Introduction

When "The Birds' Christmas Carol" appeared we laughed over it to hide our tears. Mr. Janvier's charming account of Xmas ways in Provence captivated us, and we found excuse for its tender regard for old habits and observances in the fact that Mr. Janvier has been in the habit of spending a good deal of time with a group of unworldly old poets who still dream of joy & beauty as the precious things of life, and hold to the fellowship of artists instead of forming a labor union. Mr. Thomas Nelson Page, Mr. F. Marion Crawford & Mr. ... Hopkinson Smith have written undisguised Christmas stories with as little sense of detachment from modern life as if they were telling detective tales and, what is more astonishing to the worldly wise man, these stories have a glow of life, a vitality of charm & sweetness in them that make scorn & cynicism seem cheap & vulgar. And here comes Dr. Crothers and stirs the smouldering Christmas fire into a blaze and sits down before it as if it were real logs in combustion & not a trick with gas, & makes gentle sport of the wisdom of the sceptic. These recent revivals of Christmas literature have met with a surprising response from a generation popularly believed to be given over to the making money & the extirpation of human feeling. xxx Alexander Smith, whose book of essays, "Dreamthorp" is one of the books of the heart--kindled his imagination into a responsive glow by reading every Christmas Day Milton's "Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity." When one opens the volume of this great song, it is like going into a church & hearing the organ played by unseen hands; the silence is flooded by a vast music which lifts the heart into the presence of great mysteries. xx The real business of the race is not to make money but to make life full and sweet and satisfying.

Contents

I

Signs of the Season

"The Time draws near the Birth of Christ"Alfred Tennyson/
An Hue & Cry after ChristmasOld English Tract/
The Doge's Christmas ShootingF. Marion Crawford/
Thursday Processions in AdventWilliam S. Walsh/
The Glastonbury Thorn Alexander F. Chamberlain/
In the KitchenOld English Ballad/
Christmas in EnglandWashington Irving/
Christmas InvitationWilliam Barnes/
A Christmas MarketMrs. Alfred Sidgwick/
The Star of Bethlehem in HollandBow-Bells Annual/
The Pickwick Club goes down to Dingley DellChas. Dickens/
A Visit from St. NicholasClement C. Moore/
Crowded OutRosalie M. Jonas

II

Holiday Saints and Lords.

My Lord of MisruleT.K. Hervey/
St. NicholasCollated/
An Old Saint in a New WorldMrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer/
St. ThomasCollated, W.P.R./
Kriss KringleThomas Bailey Aldrich/
Il Santissimo BambinoCollated, W.P.R./
The Christ ChildElise Traut/
An April Baby is Thankful"Elizabeth"/
Good King WenceslasOld English Carol/
Jean Valjean plays the Christmas SaintVictor Hugo/
St. BrandanMatthew Arnold/
St. Stephen's, or Boxing DayCollated, W.P.R./
St. Basil in TrikkolaJ. Theodore Bent

III

Christmas Customs and Beliefs.

The Nativity of our Lord Jesus ChristFrom "The Golden Legend"/
Folk-lore of Christmas TideCollected by A.F. Chamberlain/
Hunting the WrenQuoted by T.K. Hervey/
The PresepioHone's Year Book/
Hodening in KentContributed to The Church Times/
Origin of the Christmas TreeWilliam S. Walsh/
Origin of the Christmas Carol [Card]William S. Walsh/
The Yule ClogT.K. Hervey/
"Come Bring with a Noise"Robert Herrick/
Shoe or StockingEdith M. Thomas/
Jule-NissenJacob Riis/
"Lame Needles" in EuboeaJ. Theodore Bent/
Who rides behind the Bells?Zona Gale/
Guests at YuleEdmund Clarence Stedman

IV

Christmas Carols

"I saw Three Ships"Old English Carol/
"Lordings listen to Our Lay"Earliest Existing Carol/
The Cherry-Tree CarolOld English Carol/
"In Excelsis Gloria"From the Harleian MSS./
"God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen"Old English Carol/
The Golden CarolOld English Carol/
Caput apri refero resonens laudes domino. Balliol MS. about 1540/
"Villagers All, this Frosty Tide"Kenneth Grahame/
Holly SongWilliam Shakespeare/
Before the Paling of the StarsChristina G. Rossetti/
The Minstrels played their Christmas Tune - William Wordsworth/
A Carol from the Old FrenchHenry W. Longfellow/
"From Far Away we come to you"Old English Carol

A Christmas CarolJames Russell Lowell/
A Christmas Carol for ChildrenMartin Luther

V

Christmas Day

The Unbroken SongHenry W. Longfellow/
A Scene of Mediaeval ChristmasJohn Addington Symonds/
Christmas in DreamthorpAlexander Smith/
By the Christmas FireHamilton W. Mabie/
Ode on the Morning of Christ's NativityJohn Milton/
Christmas ChurchWashington Irving/
Dolly urges Silas Marner to go to ChurchGeorge Eliot/
Yule in the Old TownJacob Riis/
The Mahogany TreeWilliam Makepeace Thackeray/
The Holly & the IvyOld English Song/
Ballade of Christmas GhostsAndrew Lang/
Christmas TreasuresEugene Field/
Wassailer's SongRobert Southwell

VI

Christmas Hymns

A Hymn on the NativityBen Jonson/
While Shepherds WatchedNahum Tate/
O Little Town of BethlehemPhillips Brooks/
The First, Best Christmas NightMargaret Deland/
It Came upon the Midnight ClearEdmund H. Sears/
A Christmas HymnEugene Field/
A Song of the ShepherdsEdwin Markham/
A Christmas HymnRichard Watson Gilder/
A Christmas Hymn for ChildrenJosephine Daskam Bacon/
Slumber-Songs of the MadonnaAlfred Noyes.

VII

Christmas Revels

"Make me Merry both More and Less"Old Balliol MS about 1540/
The Feast of St. Stephen in VeniceF. Marion Crawford/
The Feast of Fools - The Feast of the AssWilliam Hone/

Continued on Page 46

Dec. 7/79.

The Well of St. Keyne. See Southey's ballad.

It is supposed that St. Keyne came to this well about five hundred years before the Norman Conquest.

May 21/81.

Children of the Week.

The child that is born on the Sabbath day/
Is blithe and bonny, and good and gay;/
Monday's child is fair of face;/
Tuesday's child is full of grace;/
Wednesday's child is merry and glad;/
Thursday's child is sour and sad;/
Friday's child is loving and giving;/
And Saturday's child must work for its living.

Old Rhyme.

Miss Sarah P. Mc Lean of Simsbury is the author of "Cape Cod Folks"

A gift, a friend, a foe/
A lover to come and a journey to go.

"For when a woman will she will,/
You may depend on't;/
And when she won't, she won't/
And that's the end on't."

Springfield, Mass.

"Missing Link" contest conducted by children's room of the Memorial Square Library in winter of 1927-28.

Average 84% - Helen Jurkowski & Myron Jurkowski each 100%

1Jason went in search of the Golden Fleece/
2Robin Hood's home was in Sherwood Forest/
3Little Cedric became a knight/
4Midas loved his gold more than his daughter/
5William Tell saved the life of his son by shooting the apple off his head/
6The mountain and the squirrel had a quarrel/
7St. George saved the life of the princess by slaying the dragon/
8The spider caught the fly because he was able to flatter her/
9Hercules was a strong man/
10Robin Hood's favorite weapon was the bow and arrow/
11Ulysses built a great wooden horse and thereby the Greeks were admitted to Troy./
12"The Children's Hour" was written by Longfellow/
13Franklin wrote "Poor Richard's Almanac"
14"Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates" tells of sports in Holland/
15King Arthur founded the Round Table/
16Sir Galahad was the noblest knight/
17Siegfried was a German hero/
18Washington lived at Mount Vernon/
19Joan of Arc was a French peasant who was made a saint./
20Florence Nightingale nursed the British/English soldiers in the Crimean War/
21"Black Beauty" is the story of a horse/
22King Richard was called the "Lion-hearted"

Press Clippings. In Memoriam.

Advertiser, Boston, Mass. June 4, 1906.

James H. Nickerson.

Newton, June 3. James H. Nickerson, one of the oldest and best known citizens of Newton, died at his residence in W. Newton, Saturday, of hemorrhage of the stomach. He had been ill but a few days.

Mr. Nickerson had been a resident of W. Newton for 33 years, and was a conspicuous leader in the substantial development of that section of the city of Newton. For over a generation he was very active in its affairs.

He established the First National Bank of W. Newton and the W. Newton Savings Bank. In politics, Mr. Nickerson was a republican, and for several years was a member of the Newton city council, as councilman and alderman.

Journal of Commerce, New York City. June 12, 1906.

Newton, Mass. June 10. James H. Nickerson, one of the foremost citizens of Newton, died last week at his residence, West Newton. He was 76 years old, and a native of Provincetown.

For over twenty years he was prominent in the clothing business. He was the first president of the West Newton National Bank and the first treasurer of the West Newton Savings Bank. He was in the common council from 1881 to 1883, and on the Board of Aldermen from 1884 to 1888. He later served as an overseer of the

poor and as chairman of the board.

Weekly Transcript, Boston, Mass. June 8, 1906.

Funeral of James H. Nickerson

Services for Prominent West Newton Man Attended by Many Friends.

From the family home on Elm Street, West Newton, the funeral of James H. Nickerson, who was long one of the most prominent men of that place, was held on Tuesday afternoon. The service was conducted by Rev. Julian C. Jaynes of the West Newton Unitarian Church and Rev. Francis Tiffany, former pastor of the First Universalist Church, of which Mr. Nickerson was a member.

There were many at the services, including family friends and people prominent in social and civic life, members of the Odd Fellows and Royal Arcanum, to both of which Mr. Nickerson had belonged, and members of the City Government, officials of the West Newton First National Bank and the West Newton Savings Bank. During the service Mrs. C.A. Morton sang a solo. The burial was in Newton Cemetery. There were many floral remembrances.

Journal, Boston, Mass. June 4, 1906.

James H. Nickerson

Dies in West Newton.

James H. Nickerson, one of the oldest and best known citizens of Newton, died at his residence in West Newton at 3.45 P.M. Saturday of hemorrhage of the stomach. He had been ill but a few days.

Mr. Nickerson had been a resident of West Newton for thirty-three years, and was a conspicuous leader in the substantial development of that section of the

city of Newton. For over a generation he was very active in its affairs.

He was born in Provincetown Dec. 20, 1830, of old Cape Cod stock, his father being Caleb Nickerson, and his mother Bathsheba Freeman Nickerson. He was married in Boston in 1857 to Mary A. Cowing of Provincetown, who survives him. He leaves two married daughters, Mrs. L. H. Elwell, wife of the well-known Greek professor of Amherst College, and Mrs. W.W. Harrington of West Newton. There are six grandchildren. Charles Harvey Nickerson of Norwich, Conn., and Henry Paine Nickerson of Boston are nephews to the decesased.

After acquiring a competency in business at Provincetown the late Mr. Nickerson moved to West Newton in 1873. He established the First National Bank of West Newton and the West Newton Savings Bank. He was the chief owner of the Electric Signal Company, treasurer of the Boston Physicians and Surgeons' Supply Company, and had recently accepted the treasurership of the Halifax and Suburban Electric Railway Company. He held various other positions of trust and responsibility. He was a prominent Odd Fellow. In politics Mr. Nickerson was a Republican, and for several years was a member of the Newton City Council as councilman and alderman.

Record, Boston, Mass. June 4, 1906.

James H. Nickerson.

Newton, June 3. - James H. Nickerson, one of the oldest and best known citizens of Newton, died at his residence in W. Newton, Saturday, of hom*orrhage of the

stomach. He had been ill but a few days.

Mr. Nickerson had been a resident of W. Newton for 33 years, and was a conspicuous leader in the substantial development of that section of the city of Newton. For over a generation he was very active in its affairs.

He established the First National Bank of W. Newton and the W. Newton Savings Bank. In politics, Mr. Nickerson was a republican, and for several years was a member of the Newton city council, as councilman and alderman.

Transcript. Boston, Mass. June 4, 1906.

James H. Nickerson of Newton.

Mr. James H. Nickerson died at his residence in West Newton Saturday. He was born in Provincetown Dec. 20, 1830, of old Cape Cod stock, his father being Caleb Nickerson, and his mother Bathsheba Freeman Nickerson.

After acquiring a competency in business at Provincetown he moved to West Newton in 1873. He established the First National Bank of West Newton and the West Newton Savings Bank. He was the chief owner of the Electric Signal Company, treasurer of the Boston Physicians and Surgeons Supply Company, and had recently accepted the treasurership of the Halifax and Suburban Electric Railway Company. He held various other positions of trust and responsibility. He was a prominent Odd Fellow. He was for several years a member of the Newton City Council as councilman and alderman. His wife and two marrried daughters survive.

Globe. Boston, Mass. June 6, 1906.

Funeral of James H. Nickerson.

Newton, June 5 - The funeral of James H. Nickerson, who was for many years one of the most prominent men of West Newton, was held this afternoon at the family home on Elm St. The service was conducted by Rev. Julian C. Jaynes of the West Newton Unitarian church. There were many floral offerings, including a piece from the West Newton Bank. Tributes were also sent from the Odd Fellows and Royal Arcanum.

Transcript. Boston, Mass. June 6, 1906.

Funeral of James H. Nickerson.

Same exactly as in Weekly Transcript, Boston, Mass. June 8, 1906.

Essence of "Marco"

Inserted in '82 letter by L. Farrar

Jan. 14/29

Into a paragraph Ivor Brown Distills O'Neill's Current Play.

O'Neill has great fun with Marco, and is wise not to make him a knave. He sees the Venetian as a kind of cunning simpleton fed high with "success literature" and starting out to "make good" like any little "go-getter" from the Middle West. He is earnest and efficient and amiable; all that is wrong with him is that he has only one eye. Beauty, pathos, wisdom are blotted out; he just plods on and piles up the booty. The East with its wisdom and its patient brooding on the goal of life cannot touch him. And how can the Kaan and the Princess resist so naively confident a creature? To them he is a curio. "So this is Europe!" they seem to say, and smile upon their thrones while Marco studies the markets. It is a great opportunity for sardonic fun, and O'Neill has displayed a new aspect of his art in making the most of it [Manchester Guardian]

Ida [Howgate] & Mrs. Oliver of Washington

Mrs. [Hove's] letter Jan. 27/29

Mrs. Oliver had operation for glaucoma on both eyes. They reached Italian Riviera & I.H. fell ill. They reached Florence & she wore a plaster cast for 6 mos. for spinal misplacements then heavy jacket of leather & steel & then she was taken one night desperately ill with intestinal obstruction, was operated on at 2 a.m. She has been able to take a little walk in hospital grounds.

From a Vassar paper

Miss Cushing

The news of Miss Florence Cushing's death three days before the opening of the dormitory named in her honor came as a distinct shock to the college. Through this event Vassar has lost an alumna, a patron, and a friend. It has lost something more--the influence of a rare and valuable personlaity.

Miss Cushing was more than a generous alumna who retained an affectionate interest in her alma mater after graduation, more than a hard-working and conscientious trustee. She was an individual who was not afraid to recognize the weaknesses of the institution she loved, and, seeing them, could not content herself with a mere shrug of the shoulders or even a denunciation. Her life in relation to the college is a record of battles fought and won in its behalf, of old and worn out ideas overthrown, of new and better ones set up. Her peculiarly appropriate position as the first woman elected to the Board of Trustees, in itself a tribute to her progressiveness, was used by her as an opportunity for even greater activity. Part of a clipping enclosed on the back of another in '82 class letters Feb. 1928

Youthful Old Age by Daniel Hoffman Martin

Booklet enclosed by L.R. Peck - Mr. Martin was pastor of Fort Washington Presbyterian Church 174th & Broadway N.Y. City

He said "Many people think they must lie down & die when they reach their seventieth birthday just because the Psalmist said that three score years and ten were the limit of life. That unfortunate bit of poetry has killed a good many people. The Psalmist was speaking of the average. If you really want an age limit, take that spoken of in Genesis 6:3, "And the Lord said ... his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." Let us form a club of that sort."

Prof. Osler (?) thought that the zenith

of efficiency was reached at the age of 35, and [suggested] chloroform at 40. If that plan had prevailed at the start the world would be many centuries behind its present advance. All mighty movements of civilization have been generated by men of mature years. Most of our presidents had passed their 60th birthday.

"Age is opportunity, no less/
Than youth itself, though in another dress./
The soul's dark cottage, battered and decayed,/
Lets in new light through chinks that time has made."[1]

Idleness is the old age microbe. Retiring from business is a common form of suicide.

Count Waldeck of the French Court lived to be 109. He never married until he was 83, & his lovely wife said she had fallen in love with him because he was irresistible and the youngest of her suitors. "True, he is 80, but that is only 20 four times over," said she. So you cannot judge the tenant from the tenement. A candle flame shines brightly in an old candle-stick as in a new one. Time makes his dents only on the casques of men. Time writes no wrinkles in the spirit. Gladstone at 80 said to his birthday callers: "It is better to be eighty years young than forty years old."

Theodore Cuyler preached in my pulpit several times after he was 85 with all his old time vigor, a fine example of youthful old age--If youth has ambition, age has fruition; if youth can talk of plans, age can show results. Youth has prosepect; age has retrospect. [marginal note; transcriber unsure of correct position of previous sentence in text]--Is there a deadline? strength, judgement, reserve power do not balance the buoyancy of young blood, the energy of young ambition demanded by the merchant. An employer is apt to feel that an elderly man's habits are hard to change & that he is set and cranky & not teachable. If the applicant make the

[Marginal notes; intended position in text of the following unclear to transcriber:]Bismark von Moltke

Daniel Webster achieved his best work after 62.

Thiers/
Gladstone/
Thaddeus Stevens & Joseph Cannon Caleb/
Joshua 14:10-11

[1]This is attributed to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow but the diarist does not acknowledge.

impression that he has banked his fires he cannot expect employment. It takes live steam to move machinery--it cannot be done with the exhaust.

When Victor Hugo reached 50 someone said to him, "Do you feel old?" He replied, "I feel younger than ten years ago, because forty is the old age of youth, but fifty is the youth of old age."

A called expressed a wish that a Pope of Rome who was ninety, with mind as vigorous as ever, live to be a hundred. He replied "Would you limit me to that?" John Wesley was planting churches until 88. Franklin labored until 84. Gladstone was directing destinies of England after 80 & beginning new studies in Greek when past 85. Duke of Wellington served his country as Prime Minister at 85. Tennyson was "crossing the Bar" ar 83; Carlyle was writing essays at 86; Michael Angelo was busy at 90. Julia Ward Howe recited in public at 94 the "Battle Hymn of the Republic." This grand old lady said, "The deeper I drink of the cup of life the more I love it; the sugar is all at the bottom." Robert Browning taught that we should reach our best in old age. He says in "Rabbi Ben Ezra" "Grow old along with me. The best is yet to be." etc.

Three stages of life growth, equilibrium and decay

Worse than failing eyesight etc. is feeling of dependence. Worst of all is the old age that has no love for spiritual things; no consolations of religion in the winter of life. "the hoary head is a crown of glory when it is found in the way of righteousness." Such a one can sit at life's West-window gazing with hope-glinted eyes toward the shining hill tops of glory. Where Jesus talked with the woman of Samaria he could read her thoughts and that she was fearful of losing her beauty when she lost her youth. She was probably using cosmetics to give the delusive bloom of youth to her face. Jesus said "I will be a well of water etc. Jesus in the heart is the fountain of perpetual youth.

That my strength shall be as my day,/
And the toils of the road will seem nothing/
When I get to the end of the way./
3. He loves me too well to forsake me/
Or give me one trial too much;/
All his people have been dearly purchased/
And Satan can never claim such./
By & By I shall see Him and praise Him/
In the city of unending dayRepeat two last lines/
4. When the last feeble step has been taken/
And the gates of the city appear/
And the beautiful songs of the angels/
Float out on my listening ear!/
When all that now seems so mysterious/
Will be plain and clear as the day;/
Yes, the toils of the road will seem nothing etc./
5. Though now I am footsore and weary,/
I shall rest when I'm safely at home;/
I know I'll receive a glad welcome,/
For the Savior Himself has said "Come";/
So when I am weary in body,/
And sinking in spirit, I say--/
All the toils of the road will seem nothing etc.

When in the eventide of life and almost or quite alone, how blessed is the consciousness that Christ, "the friend that striketh closer than a brother" is ever nigh, fulfilling his promise "Lo, I am with you always." Comforting thought that when we are called upon by the sleep of death to say "Good-night" to our friends on earth it will be only that we may in the light of an eternal day, say "Good morning" to those whom we have "loved long since and lost a while."

Miss Margaret Baker, niece of Mabel Foos, has managed the Champion Chemical Co. since the death of her father Scipio Baker some years ago & within the past two months has taken over the active management of the Foos Gas Engine Co. founded by her grandfather John Foos. Total capitalization $650,000 and 300 employees. Her grandfather A.A. Baker founded the chemical co. Being the granddaughter of two manufacturers it would follow that Miss Baker would naturally have a double endowment of manufacturing instinct. Granddaughters, say the students of heredity, are much more likely to reproduce characteristics of the grandfather than are sons or grandsons. Ability in a given field tends to step across the sex line as it descends & alternates back and forth as a compensation to either sex, holding the balance of nature level in the long run.

Miss Baker laughingly says she manages business from necessity having had them forced into her hands by reason of being the sole heir of her father. Still it is hard to make the chickens take to the pond or keep the duck out of the ... Anyway Springfield (Ohion) has a woman managing one of its most active plants and reaching out and assuming the management of a second one with all the initiative of her forebears. [Her mother was Jessie Foos]

From M.B.B.

Pensions for the Old - Canadian Gov't. will pay 1/2 pension & the provincial gov't the other half; and British Columbia has just provided a maximum pension of $240. a year for 2500 old people. If you asked a native of the Congo what he thought of pensions for the old he'd say, "They seem quite needless to me. Here in Africa, when persons are too old to work or hunt we take them to the river bank & drown them. They don't object because they know it would be of no use, & we have one less to feed.

1864.

Life of Poor Tip, [circled by diarist:]DOG [end of circled text] who died December 1st. 1863. Poughkeepsie; Telegraph Press.

Preface to the third edition.

[circled by diarist:]Dog [end of circled text]

It is not often that a modern author's works are so popular as to call for successive new editions, but I felicitate myself in claiming this honor. The popularity of this work, I believe, has been owning more to its brevity than its substance--a warning to all other authors. Especially I would impart to the fraternity the secret of my success: that to the reading public it is gratis. M.V.

Poughkeepsie, March 4, 1864.

Died on the morning of the 1st Dec., 1863. (Picture of dog)

On the Death of Poor Dog Tip.

The subject of this memoir is well-known by many of the inhabitants of this City, having been seen by them accompanying his master in his walks through the public streets.

Tip was some 10 years of age, of humble extraction, but respectable parentage; born in the beautiful town of Auburn, the residence of the honorable distinguished Secretary of State, and on the premises of my-host late of the "Auburn House," to whose generosity his master is indebted.

Tip was about 2 months old, and the size of a full-grown rat when he left the place of his nativity and became a denizen of the town of Po'keepsie [Poughkeepsie]. His outfit for his journey was a little Merino cloth covering in a small boy's school-basket, and his transit was by railroad

[marginal note:]wood cut of train

[marginal note:]Page 2nd

and by steamboat [inserted between two vertical lines:] cut of steamboat [end inserted text] in the care of a little lad. Nothing especial attended his journey; but the new condition of his life led to weeping and sadness by leaving, as he did, his younger brothers and sisters behind, for whom he was often seen to weep. After a few days, however, Tip became more reconciled to his new home and began to be

playful; but on one occasion indulged in this native propensity so far with an elder dog of his master's that Tip was thrown into fits or spasms by over-excitement. Tip was half brother to Dog Don who was poisoned some years since by strychnine placed in meat in [text circled by diarist:] cut of a dog [end of circled text] his master's yard in revenge for Don killing a Cat. Don died in his mistress' lap with convulsions, after terrible agony of a few hours.

The grave of poor Don, with his monument, now stands in his master's garden, upon which is the following words:

The Grave of poor Dog Don/
He had no enemy in life,/
And but one in his death,/
And that was his assassin.

Aged 2 years, 2 months 17 days.

Faithful and true he always proved/
Till death's insidious bait he ate,/
Placed inside of his master's gate./
Where many a passer by have seen/
His bounding over the verdant green./
Confiding, generous and kind,/
Did ne'er suspect that man, or friend,/
In friendship's garb, tempt him to eat/
The deadly poison in the meat.

[On the page to the left of the epitaph is a drawing that looks to be a memorial stone or flame.]

Tip always had more courage than discretion, which trait of character frequently got him into trouble. On one [marginal note:]Page 3 [end of marginal note] occasion, riding with his master's coachman on the box, seeing another dog pass, which his extreme politeness accustomed him to salute with a wag of his tail and a bark, he leaned too

[marginal note:]cut of coach

far over the Coach and fell to the ground, both wheels passing over his body. The coachman stopped, picked him up bleeding profusely from his mouth and nostrils. This catastrophe cost Tip some six weeks confinement and much suffering.

As I said, Tip was good-natured and bore no malice to other dogs; but to cats and rats he was a great enemy. Seeing one of the latter cross the lid of a large kettle in an instant he was after him, and both went, head and heels, to the bottom. As fortune would have it, Tip escaped with only a good drenching, but the rat was drowned.

Tip, as I said, was rather mischievious than ugly: On another occasion, at Springside, he plunged into a pond amidst a flock of geese and ducks, but an old gander so terribly frightened him, that he would never look upon a goose again [text circled by diarist:] cut of a fountain in shape of a swan [end of circled text] without trembling; and as to rats, he never but once, after he fell into the kettle, troubled them, and then in a chase of one he fell off the dock log into the river, and having no place to escape came near being drowned.

[text circled by diarist:] cut of a ship [end of circled text]

Some year or two after, Tip was taken suddenly ill and his life so far dispaired of that all preparations for his funeral were made and his grave dug by the side of Don's, when, early next morning, out came Tip from his kennel wiggling and waggling his tail on hearing his mas-[text circled by diarist:] cut of dog [end of circled text] ter's voice.

[marginal note:]Page 4

Perhaps there is no other animal in the world more faithful and true to their attachment than

[marginal note circled by diarist:]cut of dog lying by a safe with the big key

a Dog. Examples are numerous in history, and in this respect Tip was not excelled. He would wait hours in all weathers for his master's appearance in the morning, and although often he had reason to be cross and fretful for his tardy delays, yet he never resented it. Tip was pretty particular what company he kept, and was seldom seen in [bad], always kept near his master when permitted to accompany him, and if he lost him would in an instant make a bee line for home.

Peace to his ashes [parenthetical text inserted by diarist:] head of dog [end of parenthetical text] Good bye, poor Tip. May there be a good place for good dogs in another world.

E.C. Temple

"Templed Promontories of the Ancient Mediterranean" in Geographical July '27 Review. E.C. Temple. Before Aug. 1927 Patricia Dunkerson, her niece, dau. of Bonner Temple has passed entrance exams in Latin & Franch with honors. She is 15.

M.B. Britton. Sept. 1927

Arrive at Lake Tahoe in a.m. circle the lake by steamer andleave in p.m. Newphew Herbert is in Harvard School Los Angeles & his brother Weslet in navy on the Idaho. Niece Belle had an operation. Comments on short skirts. Mollie Woodward remarked in Students' Ass'n [Association] Meeting "This is a progressive age." Burta had only one year at school before entering as a "prep" at V.C. [Vassar College]. Had had German governess teach Grench and English chiefly through Shakespeare dictation. Older brother at school in Switzerland collected stamps which were burned in S.F. fire in 1906. "Tout passe, tout casse, tout lasse" Rose Baldwin lived in San Jose and attended same school as B's Spanish-Irish-English sister-in-law (not anxious to enter V.C. [Vassar College])

What a lovely time Marion E. must have had in Norway & Sweden. She seemed a very enthusiastic and appreciative traveler when she met her mother here after a world tour. I had a train letter from Miss Edith Bridges (Head Mistress of the Ransom-Bridges School Piedmont California which sends many girls to Vassar) in which she spoke of stopping off at Winnetka and enjoying M.E.'s companionship for a time. Am glad that a critic has found Edna St. Vincent [Millay] of the breed of Tennyson, although she may not realize it--in the King's Henchman at least. In Sunday paper in San Francisco Lindy week under L's picture were Tennyson's lines:--
For I drift into the future, as far as human eye could see/
Saw the vision of the world and all the wonders that would be;/
Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,/
Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales."

[Diarist's marginal note: Perhaps not Tennyson at his hest but the seer a poet should be]

We have express parcel service now & soon will have passenger service to New York as we now have up and down the coast.

Play made from Browning's Ring & the Book (Caponsacchi(?) outstanding dramatic even on New York theatrical season. Abbie Elwell thought of Burta when the old Amherst House burned. No wonder! Part of my astral body must have been hovering over the smoke - with delightful memories of the summer of 1883 there with Mlle See. She was about to take up her work at Wellesley and was connected with Dr. Sauveur's summer school. Friendship for Abbie Leach began there; she was about to teach at Vassar - after opening the "backdoor" of Harvard (Radcliff[e]) for women. There were two "might-have-beens" who made the place quite exciting, one destined for the wide spaces of Kansas, the other, a graduate of Williams, for a cosmopolitan existence ending permanently in Paris. I did not dream of the possible home in Paris at that time! Am so fond of Paris! But have no regrets! Jessie Wheeler practices what she preaches ($1000 annuity funds) J.F.W. notices in V. [Vassar] Quarterly for Sept. Eliz. Howe gifts to library. Read Stresemann's speech at Oslo when receiving his share of the Nobel peace prize. Elimination of freshman & sophom*ore year discussed. The Sarah Lawrence Junior College in Bronxville, Marion Coates 1907 President under Vassar as a Cooperative elder sister. Pres. Wilbur of Stanford favors Junior Colleges. See p. 69 in Vassar Sept. Bulletin about the first in Empire State and the opening wedge is under the auspices of Vassar! Written by M.B.B. on Lindbergh Day Sept. 16/27. Almost 1 o'clock & here comes out of the North Everybody's Boy riding The Spirit of St. Louis (how that name of their beloved King must have touched the hearts of the French) together the spirit of Youth Triumphant, bringing hope for the future of this ever-renewing old world!

J.M. Luhrs

From Basel Oct. 11/27. On the way to a sanatorium for her husband who has had a nervous breakdown.

M.R.S.

Oct. 31/27

Old-fashioned counter. Bennington church 165 yrs. old. ["On a cane"] in 1932. [Writing running over onto adjacent right-hand page:] Middleton Murray's "Jesus Man of Genius," "Woman in White" [end of overflow text; continues on next line of left-hand page] I have a real "hunch" that Al Smith will be elected.

G.B.C.

Nov. 4/27

At Hotel Grosvenor, 35 Fifth Ave. Dorothy & family at Summit Mt. St. Michel and Chartres is certainly a great book and Cornelia Stratton Parker in "More Ports & More Happy Places" gives Henry Adams full credit for excellent advice he gives about places & things worth seeing. Deephaven Camp, Squam Lake. Mr. C's brother Hanford lives at Marblehead. Margaret C. graduated at Middletown. Ruth C. Mitchell is authority on Immigration & went to Czecho Slovakia at Pres. Masaryk's invitation during the war to make a survey of the young women's activities. Dr. Mary C. Schuster is trustee of Cornell, her alma mater. Lawrence's "Revolt in the Desert" appealed to me. Gertrude Bell's Letters. I agree with Mary Sanford about Ludwig's "Napoleon" but would the English have given so hurried a version of his incarceration on St. Helena?

I read recently an account which made the island seem quite an earthly paradise. Trollope I love especially the Barchester series. Doesn't Mary like Hugh Walpole's "Cathedral" "The Green [Mirror]" and the "Jeremy" books?

Lindsay Crawford Hamilton & Crawford Buckland Hamiltom's pictures sent.

Fanny Young

Nov. 12/27

Did you hear someone say just as the Holland Tube exercises closed "Thank God that's over?["] The speaker forgot the tell-tale Mike. Mrs. Josiah Tubby of Westfield talked in [Chatham] to Porch Reading Club about "A one-woman flower garden." Readings held for 10 wks. every lady welcome. dues 15 [cents symbol] a meeting. money used for books.

It was exasperating for Abbie E. to have those good chickens stolen not to mention the apples. We keep White Wyandottes too and while we do not name them as we did at first, we find them a great pleasure and a lot of care. I would love to hear Marion E. tell of her summer journey. Mr. Young wants to congratulate James Elwell on his success in corn raising. Enjoyed "The Grandmothers"

found the greatest possible pleasure in his companionship, and few husbands are so constantly quoted. "Mr. Babbitt says" was a recurring phrase. From Columbia he went to the Univ. of the South at Sewanee as head of a department. One of Sewanee's trustees, named Stuck published an autobiography in which it was generally felt that he had done ample justice to his own merits. Prof. Babbitt dubbed it "Stuck on Himself." This was too good to be discreet.

Dr. Home rec'd medal from Ass'n for the Prevention of Blindness. He has now as his fancy-work the preparation of his address due next June as President of Eugenics Research Ass'n. His predecessor in that office was Mr. Frank L. Babbitt, for so many years Vassar trustee. Mr. B's address last June was admirable. I hope Dr. Home will do as well.

Napoleon in Captivity by Julian Park presents reports made to his government by the Russian Commissioner at St. Helena. Sir Hudson Lowe was indeed stiff, a martinet, and without imagination, but he was sorely tried. To the end, Napoleon was a Corsican peasant. If you wish some hours of joy try Guedella's "Palmerston." Our annual hegira is under way. The Wymans are "over there" & Jan. 6 at midnight Ida Howgate & J.F.W. sailed. My great niece 2 mos. old & still unnamed is destined for Vassar. She will be 3rd generation.

Jan. 31/28

Mary E. ... has a grand-niece Margery Borden. Thought Jalna very unpleasant & "Dusty Answer" is like unto it. "Roosevelt a Hero to his Valet" enjoyable. Reading for mind's sake "Pupin's New Reformation."

When Abbie E. left Plymouth for Boston, if she had turned left at the hotel instead of at the center, she would have found a shorter and very beautiful road to Boston by New Found Lake, and could have stopped off at High Field to

see what has been called the finest view of the lake, and incidentally to call on me. Really no one should go to N.H. [New Hampshire] and omit what is thought by many to be its most beautiful lake. You see, I am not exactly modest about the location of my home, but I didn't make it. Send a postal addressed simply Bristol & I will write proper directions. I have enjoyed Robert Frost's North of Boston because when I read my mind flies up to N.H. [New Hampshire] & I can see it all happening around New Found Lake. I like to fall back too on Trollope--Barchester Town is a favorite.

M.C.B.'s grandchildren

Hadwen Barney2 girls1 boy/
Mary2 girls1 boy/
Beth3 girls live in Montreal

J.F.W.

March 22/27

I was once asked "Gie me the varse about the little dog that lappit up her blind" and made a guess about Mary Stuart's execution. The laugh is quite often on the librarian I heard this in Troy lately "Who was Anne Hathaway in connection with Shakespeare?" And my successor said she'd try to find out during the day! And in another reference room the librarian explained that "blue sky laws" had to do with building permits for tall buildings in N.Y. [New York]. I don't know why I should have mentioned ancestors to M.R.S. or anyone else. "We all have 'em." Mr. Dwight Marvin of the Troy Record is a cousin to Dr. Taylor. Miss Cushing has made a fine recovery from an operation for cataracts on both eyes. Vassar came near losing the Student's Building from cigarette stubs, discovered just in time in a waste basket & Wellesley has lost a dormitory from careless smoking. The charming library of Alumnae House has lost its charm for me owing to stale tobacco odors. I have met the Dean & Mrs. Morris a warden--they did not impress one [as] leaders. But I do think Harriet Sawyer seems the right person in the right place & a difficult place at that.

To E. Home

May 8, 1928

On the dock awaiting our arrival was a good looking Japanese young man of 28. He was Shige's great nephew, K. Masuda, son of the great playwright, and a grandson of Shige's sister. He had been waiting nearly two hours and came aboard at 7:30 to greet me, I had previously cabled that the 19th would be my free day and he promptly said that the 20th would suit better, took my intricate program of shore trips, rearranged it in a masterly way and persuaded the cruise directors that it was better so. I then presented him to Mr. Rollins after I succeeded in getting that old gentleman up and them I proceeded to go "with my party" to Nikko, sunshine, cherry blossoms and beauty everywhere. Next day I went to Tokyo [and] as I entered the Imperial Hotel at once caught sight of a tiny figure, all in black, shiny black hair, a little bent Japanese whom I at once recognized as our merry little Vassar friend. She had found Mr. Rollins and we at once persuaded her to lunch with us--also K. Masuda who happened in. Then Shige said I was to go to Prince Oyama's right after luncheon & that Mr. Rollins & Betty might also come. She was about to telephone for a car when we reminded her that we had one at our disposal. We had a very long ride and lost our way once, the streets are so different since the earthquake.* Shige had not been in that part of the town for years she said. At last we turned down a mean, narrow street and then entered an enclosure, and then we were in a private landscaped garden of several acres and at the residence where Stematz lived and died--the Japanese house for the big brick and stone American house had been utterly destroyed. Even the name of the street had been changed. Shige demanded our cards, which fortunately we had with us. Then a servant was sent in again to know if we should remove

*The Great Kanto Earthquake, which struck on September 1, 1923, was at the time considered Japan's worst natural disaster.

visit first the new theatre, back stage, under stage, dressing rooms, foyer & wonderful revolving stage and then to another theatre to witness the Cherry Blossom Dance by Geisha girls. Shige remarked that the music was all melody & no harmony, said she no longer played a piano, but one of her daughters did. One son is in politics & his party was reelected the next day during considerable excitement. Another son, a business man I had just a glimpse of as we met by chance. When we left the theatre Shige darted back to claim her clogs which she had checked at the box office. Mr. Rollins was so delighted with his entertainment he said if I could persuade our Jap. friends to lunch on the ship the day we sailed he would pay all the bills, so it was arranged that the Oyamas, Shige & the Masudas were to come to the Resolute for luncheon & to see us off.

Madam Masuda & the Prince had engagements but the Princess, her four children & three Masudas could come. But Sat. I was to go to Kamakura & be met by the eldest Masuda son, taken to his lovely country home, where also I met Mrs. McLeod & both of us & the Masudas photographed there, then to see the Great Buddha the [Kerannon] temple &c. & all of us back to Yokohama where we gave them luncheon at the New Grand.

Sunday dawned very cold & rainy, but just the same Princess Oyama came in her J. robes & clogs, the little girl came in kimona & rubber boots, the boys in European school suits (see photo). We went to the Robbins [Rollins'?] suite to leave wraps & the little girl put on cleft hose & slippers. A Japanese man servant was with them to help. Strange to say the Masudas & Oyamas had never met--and to my great disappointment Shige telephoned regrets. We had much we wanted to talk about but I did not see her again. Betty Rollins picked out gifts for the children, for

want to pass this on as a contribution to the class letter you better edit it. Where is that class letter I mustn't miss it. I could receive it after June first. Your letters have been a great pleasure to me on this trip. I had the surprise of my life to find a letter in Formosa from [Lou Kountz]. She once said she was happiest on an island. Well my best joy is being on a cruise, especially one like this "luxury cruise." I have been perfectly well and in keen enjoyment of every day. Such weather & such seas couldn't happen again. "The Resolute" suits every one. Nobody pays an attention to the German on board, they are sufficient unto themselves and keep apart. Birthdays are celebrated on this cruise and as mine happened at another time of year somebody wished one on me, April 10th, gave me a fine dinner and a long string of carved amethysts to my complete astonishment. I didn't know until coffee, that it was my party. "But that's another story." Good bye for now. J.F.W.

Copy of Baroness Uriu's letter to J.F.W. "in fine penmanship & faultless English" Odawara, Japan, March 20/28

My dear Miss Jessie Wheeler: Your long interesting letter giving minute details of Princess Oyama's room at Alumnae Hall was read with joy and I thank you and the class for remembering my dear friend so lovingly. Now again your letter from Java has come & I know for certain you are enjoying the wonderful sights of the world. I have written to young Princess Oyama of your intended trip and she was delighted at the news. She writes to know the date of your arrival, so that her sisters could all meet you. Mrs. Home kindly sent me this illustrated schedule-time of the "Resolute" and I have sent it to her. You already know my husband is an invalid & we are living in

Odawara near Hakone mountains. He is a little better so I should be delighted to meet you in Tokyo and call on you at the Imperial Hotel. I think you reach Yokohama on the 17th and you must see Nikko with your party. Let me know the day you expect to spend in Tokyo so that I may go down to the city and meet you at the Hotel. Hoping soon to meet and greet you. I remain your friend Shige Uriu.

Cablegram 18th April 28.

"Mr. & Miss Rollins, Missis Jessie Wheeler and Missus Mcleod resolute dog Shronisaki radio.

We invite you luncheon nineteenth Masuda will meet at pier to-morrow. Please answer to Taro Masuda Gotonyama [Gotenyama] Shinagawa tokio [Tokyo] baroness Uriu and Masuda."

Mr. Rollins had a letter of introduction which had been sent to Admiral Uriu (an invalid but this was not known to Mr. Geo. Batchellor who gave the letter). Shige whished to honor Mr. R[ollins] & Miss R[ollins] the granddam. She was only 11 but that also was not known. Taro Masuda is the wife of Masuda, the playwright and translator of English plays into Japanese & I think part owner of the new theatre, a very wealthy man apparently as he has 20 acres of park surrounding his home in Tokyo--a fine modern house, a Japanese house adjoining & also tea houses on the grounds.

Masuda's son, a prosperous importer was educated at Andover and Philadelphia, a daughter has also visited America and had been in Boston the guest of Mrs. McLeod. The Masudas had their 3 sons and one daughter (perhaps more). Masuda ... is nephew of Baroness Uriu. I think the Atlantic Monthly recently had an article about Mr. Masuda & his fine literary work. Mechanicville July 22/28 - Mary Barney I usually think of you on your leap-year birthday & did this year on shipboard where a prize was offerend anyone born on Feb. 29. Sad you could not have

had one in 1900. If I had arrived on April 28, this year I should have had two birthdays in the same week. This year I shall have a year of 367 days - leap year too but no results. April 28 came Sat. followed by April 28 another Sat. The youngest boy on board ran down the deck yelling "Ain't it awful! Two baths in one week!" My natal day did not appear on the ship calendar, but one night I was asked to a special dinner and didn't know until it was over that it was a celebration for me when my youngest friend Betty Rollins gave me a long string of carved amethysts "Because she loved me so." Betty just invented a second birthday for me & chose it on Apr. 10.

Met 5 ladies from Kentucky, widow, ... Florence Vassar 1925, ... Jessie, Miss Willie Kennedy & Miss Lucia Burnam her sister-in-law. D.A.R. Club chose J.F.W. Regent. She posted a notice that she would receive and pack books & reading matter to be given to men in the U.S. service in Honolulu or on battle-ships. 150 choice books new and expensive probably $350.00 worth were given. The Navy Y in Honolulu took charge of the distribution for me, saying it was the largest, finest and most needed gift of books ever received. Somebody put an item in the local paper and callers came to the ship to thank me but I was driving around the island & didn't see them. One left a native fan covered with forget-me-nots and lovely roses & 2 Troy tourists rushed down to see me off regretting that they hadn't known in time to entertain me. Also on "Resolute" were 8 persons I had cruised with before & altogether I was less lonely than for many years. In S.F. was stunned with the Rodins. I called up M.B.B. & she came aboard bringing plentiful pansies, mints and Laura's book. Mrs. Boothe, cousin of J.F.W., has a home in Pasadena called "Ninovan" Cherokee for "Our Home." Compiled a family history in [1923] which Mrs. B. has printed.

[In margin:] Jan. 11/29 - Dear Miss Sanford. I thank you for your kind note of sympathy. It is truly the greatest loss to me and I am feeling very forlorn. I pray you may enjoy always good health. Very sincerely yours, S. Uriu.

I wore knickers for riding camels, elephants and "all the little cattles" as old Hinkle used to translate. Properly clad my 14 mile ride to Darjeeling on a Tibetan pony was enjoyable & so was a journey to Amber on the Maharajah's elephant. Once were completely surrounded by the Japanese fleet that was "in formation" & most impressive. We were among the English fleet in Hong Kong. After seeing the bathing ghats of India & the very temple described in an early chapter of Mother India I can quite credit every word of that book. I hope it may start some reforms. I wish someone would reform the Empire State and make it unlawful to keep in office a man unmindful of his country's laws. I saw much of the Smith family while I was vice chairman of the Sesquin of Burgoyne's surrender. We had 220,000 guests, 42,000 cars on the battlefield, no disorder, drunkenness or accidents. I heard that Al. was drunk or so full he couldn't find the food on his plate at the banquet. I met that family again at Kingston. I was invited to most of those things and I hope never to meet them again. I had to be in several movies with them as I was receiving on the guests platform. I worked all of May, June, July, and Sept.-Oct. 8 on hat sesqui business. Aug. every one of the 6000 of us took a vacation. I went to Boston, called on E.M. Home & spent two days at Mrs. Wyman's paradise. Have you seen the slogan "Ale Smith of H2 over." I think I hear Abbie say she is like old Dr. Caldwell neglecting so many good places to stop. And yet I would like to start a discussion about "Steps to the Temple" and the rise of Eugene O'Neill & his "Interlude." About the Annuity Plan at Vassar, having assisted in its formation I intend to keep on parking money there. And as for endowing the Campus--since visiting Japan I realize even more fully what a valuable educational asset beautiful landscaping can be.

[In margin:] Dec. 12 - From M. R. Sanford - B. Brittan has just sent me a letter from Baron Uriu "Your kind letter of Oct. 29th has reached me. Alas! My wife died on the third instant having been ill since last July. Her disease was cancer in intestine. After a few hours suffering she passed away peacefully. Herewith I thank you for your unchanging friendship towards her ever since her college life at Vassar. May you enjoy a long life, is my sincere prayer. Very sincerely yours, S. Uriu.

Dow

Much to my surprise I enjoyed reading The Education of Henry Adams. It is so true that we get adjusted to our environment & think we have found our right place in the scheme of being when everything is changed. Count [Keysurling] seemed to have the same trouble & I hope he will find that he is all wrong in his last theory of life. Suggests we wear white & pansy colored scarfs or shawls at 50th.

Kountz

As I have read each letter of this series I have become more convinced that I could never write anything worthy to dangle on that cord and have hesitated to add my ever poor epistolary effort--but I am no quitter as you all know so here goes. Bermuda in spring of '27. Sailed from N.Y. to England & took trip to North Cape. Totnes a little town on river Dart is a regular story-book sort of place with a lovely hotel that had once been the residence of Seymour family. Motored through Cornwall & had a few days at Broadway, very charming old spot in midst of lovely country. Took 3 weeks of independent travel after North Cape trip. Visited Ratvek [Rattvik], Sweden on Sunday so we could see the beautiful old costumes which peasants wear on that day. Then to Stockholm, one of the fairest cities of the world, often called the Venice of the north. Side trip to Visby, interesting medieval town, "Once the Queen of the Baltic," now city of roses & ruins. Gota Canal trip trip & cruised through Sweden 3 days till we reached Gothenburg. I think the cafeterias must have originated in Norway & Sweden for they havein most of the hotels what is called the (smorgusbord?) [smorgasbord] and the guests go to a long table & help themselves. Crossed to Denmark in cars on boat. 2 wks in Copenhagen etc. & went from Esbjerg to Antwerp. 3 wks. in Belgium, took a car & visited Malines (where Cardinal Mercier is buried) Louvain & there saw the new library America is giving, spent a night at spa at Hotel Britannique where Kaiser abdicated and where the armistice negotiatopm were held for 6 mos. Visited Dinant the martyred village, Namur, Tournai & battlefield of Ypres where we saw that wonderful Menin Gate built by England for those whose

bodies were not found. Spent some days in Bruges went to see butter market in Middleburg Holland and stayed in a hotel called Abdy. Sailed for U.S. from Rotterdam. Came to Wash. & had charge of niece's family of three children while she was adding a fourth to the brood. Joined Woman's Club. My sister & I have a furnished apartment. Just now we have sister's 2 grandchildren with us as their small brother has scarlet fever. Sent Feb. 27th.

[Semple]/
Chicago/
March 22'28

The class letter always finds me in a different place, as it does most of us; for do you realize what nomads we are? Or is it the age we live in? Clark U. went to Cambridge & visited Leonora House Booth 2 wks. Saw E.M.H. Her Julian is a winner - such mental grace & force combined. I had never met him before. Meeting a classmate is an event for me & Dr. H is the first class husband I've had the privilege of inspecting. 3 yrs. ago I saw B.B. in S.F. & before that not a soul since the Vassar Jubilee year, though I have spent the last six years largely within the holy precincts of New England where '82 is well represented. The wonder is that I've missed you or have I passed some of you on the street somewhere & been haunted by a familiar look from beneath my unfamiliar grey hair? Mine's headed towards whiteness. My last year's trip to Kentucky to rehabilitate Bonner Semple D. was crowned with success. She has taken hold of life again & next week E.S. goes to Louisville to see the production of Bonner's first play by the Art Club, an episode of the life of Caesare Borgia, entitled "The Minotaur" in allusion to the combination of prince & beast in the man. In Christmas holidays read a paper before Agricultural History Society & Am. Hist. Soc. A series of my articles on the eastern Mediterranean is being translated into Arabic for publication in Quarterly Review issued by Amer. U. Beyrout [Beirut], Syria & having a large circulation in Near East. I am now deep in

Hilaire Belloco Danton which I gratly enjoy after seeing Max Bhemhart's production of Danton's Tod in N.Y. in Dec. Have you seen Eugene O'Neill's "The Strange Interlude" 9 act play - 5 hrs. that keeps one's mind boiling with queries, theories, protests & shocks as one tries to formulate what the play writer is driving at. In the end one realizes it is a pathological study in feminine psychology.

Dr. Fred Verhoe of Harvard Med. Sch. removes cataract at any stage.

Mrs. F.E.B./
915 4th St. S.E./
Minneapolis/
April 28/28

While in Cal. saw B.B. & M. Derby & [daughter] who came to see me at Los Gatos. Marion Derby is a dear & they tell me is making a great success of her work. Spent a few hours later in S.F. with B.B. who sent a gift of delicious candied fruit. On Feb. 29 I was 68 & have had 16 birthdays. Can you answer why not seventeen? I do not feel 68 though I look it. This snow white hair is a sure give away. A few nights ago there came in on radio a N.Y. program - the old song "The Little Brown Church in the Vale." The church is the church in Bradford, Iowa where I was born and where I attended church and S.S. until we moved to Charles City when I was 11 yrs. old. Bradford at present consists of three or four houses and the church. The church, I suppose, because of the song has become a sort of Congregational Shrine, is visited by thousands every year and is a favorite place for weddings. In that respect a rival of "The Little Church Around the Corner." In 1926 there were 429 couples married in it. The fee is $5.00 & this revenue has put the church on its feet. At prsent the pastor of First Con. Church of Nashua, a town 2 miles away also serves as pastor of Little Brown Ch. Song was written by a Dr. Pitts?, a Rush Medical graduate in 1857. The church was a long time in the building, the people were poor (the pastor's salary was $450 a year) the war came & the ch. was not dedicated till 1864. Dr. P. was present, the song was sung & no service is considered complete without singing the song. The bell a gift from a Mass. friend of Dr. Nutting the builder & first pastor is a

Meneely bell*, & the church was the first church in the country to have a bell. It still hangs in the old belfry & its tone is as sweet and clear as ever. All of the above for your adult education so that the next time you hear the song you can visualize its setting. "Christina Humanism" by Dr. Stafford some of you may have heard him in Old South Church Boston. He is a [Minn.] boy, brilliant but very human. He was pastor here for a time & lived near us. He & his wife were friends of my children. "Giants [in] the Earth" made a deep appeal to me because of the familiar country described. Wonderful picture of a man's effort, hope & despair. I hear Rolvaag lecture not long ago, an earnest man with little use for the present day novel. Only two he mentioned as worth while were "Black April" by Julia Peterkin and "Grandmothers" by Wescott. When I get fed up with a lot of the novels of the day I take "Barnum" by Werner, have a good laugh over his Yankee shrewdness & feel better. W.C.A. Assn. building a new club for girls, costing $150,000 & housing 175. M.B. in building committee & soon a new settlement house is to be built for the colored group.

E.M. White/
May 21/28

Last July my second nephew Edgerton Watling was married to a lady for whom he had waited ten yrs. Rose would not marry while her invalid mother was living. They are Texans. Thanksgiving Day John & I started for Redlands, Cal. My neice lives there. Going west from the Dalles, we admired the Columbia River Highway which some call one of most beautiful scenic drives in world. Farther south Mt. Shasta was an impressive sight. As we were to be 2 months in Redlands we two a three room apartment. We visited Mexico at Mexical [Mexicali] & Tiajuana [Tijuana] out of curiosity. The round table restaurant in Long Beach was new to me. The zoo in San Diego was very good

*The Meneely Bell Foundry was established in 1826 in West Troy (now Watervliet), New York, by Andrew Meneely. Two of Andrew's sons continued to operate the foundry after his death, while a third son, Clinton H. Meneely, opened a second foundry across the river with George H. Kimberly in Troy, New York in 1870. Initially named the Meneely Bell Company of Troy, this second foundry was reorganized in 1880 as the Clinton H. Meneely Company, then again as the Meneely Bell Company. Together, the two foundries produced about 65,000 bells before they closed in 1952.

grew after one eruption & was afterward buried by liquid rock so we have something in the way of a petrified forest. In many places the lava is a mile in thickness and nowhere less than 1000 ft. About 15 miles from my home are found the picture rocks. Here the lava blocked the Columbia River making falls, and here there was a salmon run. Consequently the Indians gathered at this place to get their year's supply of fish and transact other business & recorded a part of their story in their own picture writings which are most important of any in U.S. Oldest are of the earliest inhabitants of America made by a tribe which antedates the Incas of Mexico. Also there are pictures between Incas & modern Indians. Latest were made after Spanish conquest and when Indians had obtained horses. I hope Mrs. Susan Miller Dorsey, Supt. of Ed. in Los Angeles will be first Secretary of Education in President's Cabinet SHe would have the work of that office in fine shape in a short time. I hope to vote in Nov. for a man who is dry, strong for law enforcement and otherwise capable. I think our Am. . . . School is one of the finest institutions here, and the deightful occasions when we have speeches a program & refreshments, & welcome into full citizenship those aliens who have pass their examinations.

F.E. Conable

I, too, am sorry compulsory chapel has been abolished. As Abby Nickerson says Dr. C could not hold our undivided attention so we could carry on our own line of thought, but there was an inspiration in just being together. Chapel & silent time did do something for us unconsciously. My son is stationed at Fort McArthur, San Pedro & I am there the greater part of my time. Minnie Hoyt Moses & Josephine Blake of '80 lunched here last week. Minnie is spending summer at La Jolla &

*Susan Miller was born in Penn Yan, New York, the daughter of James and Hannah (Benedict) Miller. A graduate of Vassar College, Miller moved to Los Angeles in the early 1880s with her husband, the Rev. Patrick William Dorsey, who had accepted a position as minister of the First Baptist Church. In 1894, while teaching at Los Angeles High School, her husband left her with their young son. By 1902, she was working as a school administrator. In 1920, Dorsey became the first female superintendent of Los Angeles City Schools. She would serve in the capacity until her retirement in 1929. In 1937, Susan Miller Dorsey High School located in the Jefferson Park section of Los Angeles was dedicated in her honor. She died in 1946. Dorsey Hall, a dormitory at Scripps College in Claremont, California is named for her.

came out on same train from Chicago with Thad Jones, nephew of L. Kountz. Pres. of Repub. Woman's Club of Monrovia & Duarte, called on all registered Republicans & checked names on election day etc. Senator Evans was guest of honor & increased enthusiasm with a . . . address.

M. Derby/
I do hope some of you are admirers of the soul that goes marching on for I have something that may interest you. From our cottage porch we can see nightly a brilliant light beckoning us away up on the summit of our beautiful hills (the realty people call them The Hills of Happiness but I fear they have been hills of misery to many early settlers in the days when the name Cal. lured the worn & weary with visions of eternal peace, plenty & sunshine. One of these settlers was John Brown's widow. I have longed to climb the rocky, precipitous road but too far to walk & too rough for our machine.

All that I could learn here was that the place belonged to the Supt. of the Oakland Technical School. Delighted to find recently in a S.F. paper notice that the owner was opening the place as a resort. Mr. D & I employed a red-headed . . . with an old machine that looked as tho Mary Ann Brown might have used it if such a thing were possible 50 years ago, and through beautiful woods with many a stop for drinks for the old conveyance & passing 2 or 3 intriguing deserted old homesteads we gained the summit with its glorious view of the entire Santa Clara valley & more and saw below us amid old cypress & pine trees planted many years ago the white cottage where Mary Brown sought peace after the tempestuous life & death of her husband. The old clover leaf windows are still in door & gables & the atmosphere in the old rooms tho' the owner had added a big fireplace even a Roman bath and this summer has put up screened cottages with electric lights & running water. In spite of this it seems to belong to an-

other time, so far away from and above our modern noise and hustle. The wild flowers still linger & I do not wonder that Mary thought this her haven of peace & forgot the long & rocky climb like the road of her life. But it did not last, they mortgaged of course and even if they could raise anything, which I doubt, where were the markets & transportation in the then sparsely settled valley? She must have lived in vision too and been a congenial wife, his second to John. She certainly had courage for she married him at 16, a widower with 5 children, the oldest but two yrs. younger than herself & John told her that he had nothing but poverty and a wandering life to offer. Mr. Stuart, the intelligent owner of the place has collected everything in reference to their lives many days reading & I could only get a little in our day there but my interest is great & I should like soon to have one of the little cottages for a week filled with his pamphlets, books and photos of the stern visaged John & Mary - with glorious night views of heaven & earth. The folder enclosed does not give the atmosphere & the people spoil the effect of the old building. Poor Mary Ann got deeply into debt & had to accept help (which they say her indomitable spirit long refused) from liberal hearted people in her last days & is buried in the interesting old cemetery at the foot of the hill under old . . . and cypress trees. Mary Anne, widow of John Brown. I read and re-read COnrad's definition of art in the preface to Narcissus. Our dau. talks in her busy life of travel & it is an inspiration to know of Marion Elwell whom we all liked greatly.

M.B.B./
July 4/28

Bernard Shaw a vegetarian. C. Macadam living on liver & fruit. Spent winter in Honolulu now in Michigan. "A son of Mother India" Dutton 1898 by D.G. Mukerji is good reading. Those who were "profs" when 78 was graduated may remember Minnie Botsford. She was one that

[in margin:]
[Less] Anatomical--Granddaughter (being lectured) "I seem to have heard that the girls of your period 'set their caps' at men."

Disapproving Grandmother--"But not their knee-caps." Humorist (London)

Elizabeth Foster, known as "Mother Goose" was born in Charlestown, Mass. in 1665/
married to Isaac Goose of Boston in 1693/
made a member of Old South Church in 1698/
left a widow in 1716./
The first edition of her "Melodies" published in 1719./
She died in 1757 AE. 95 yrs.

Until her marriage she lived in Charlestown. Her husband owned the land n what is now Wash. St. (also) in and about Temple Place. She was a second mother to ten children. She had beside six of her own. Her daughter Elizabeth married Thomas Fleet a printer who lied in Pudding Lane. He wrote down her songs and published his accumulated notes under the title of Mother Goose's Melodies."

Feb. 25/83

Reflect on your present blessings, of . . . every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of . . . all men have some. Chas. Dickens.

The Only True Mother Goose. 103 pp. 60 [cent symbol] Lee & Shepard./
Exact reproduction of 1883 "dear little quarto edition" as E.E. Hale calls it in his preface. Mother Goose buried in Old Granary Burying-ground Boston.

Semple, E.C. Influences of Geographic Environment./
1911 Holt $4.00 Ratzel's theories of geographic conditions as chief factors in social, economic, moral, physical & intellectual development of man.

Farrar/
Jan. 1929

Margaret & Reginald/
Katharine/
Ruth has adopted Anne and a little Ruth - 4 1/2 lbs. and known as "Peanut" in hospital. Caesarian baby between 8th & 9th month. At 6 mos. weighs 16 lbs. Two handed bridge. Samuel Anton Howard, Jr. left law for ... near N.Y. Celebrated 40th wedding anniversary Jan. [June?] 12.

Nothing to Wear. An Episode of City Life./
Butler.Miss Flora M'Flimsey of Madison Square./

Pictures/
Alex. Smith./
"The lark is singing in the blinding sky,/
Hedges are white with May. The bridegroom sea/
Is toying with the shore, his wedded bride,/
And, in the fulness [sp] of his marriage joy,/
He decorates her tawny brow with shells,/
Retires a space, to see how fair she looks,/
Then, proud, runs up, to kiss her. All is fair--/
All glad, from grass to sun."

Mary HowittThe Ballad of Richard Burnell.

CaryPictures of Memory

KingsleyThe Three Fishers.

Holmes.The Last Leaf.The mossy marble rests on the lips that he has prest/
In their bloom/
And the names he loved to hear, have been carved for many a year,/
On the tomb.

Leigh HuntAbou Ben Adam/
Clement C. MooreA Visit from St. Nicholas./
WolfeBurial of Sir John Moore/
WordsworthThe Old Oaken Bucket

Eleanor Osborn, dau. of Laura Gross had a boy born Armistice Day 1928.

Jan. 27/29

Dr. Howe was 80 in Sept. died of pneumonia Dec. 27/28. Mary King B's oldest son alone survives. He has lost right arm.

Tennyson.

"Break, break, break,/
On thy cold gray stones, O Sea!/
And I would that my tongue could utter/
The thoughts that arise in me.

O well for the fisherman's boy,/
That he shouts with his sister at play!/
O well for the sailor lad,/
That he sings in his boat on the bay!

And the stately ships go on/
To their haven under the hill;/
But O for the touch of the vanish'd hand,/
And the sound of a voice that is still!

Break, break, break,/
At the foot of thy crags, O Sea!/
But the tender grace of a day that is dead/
Will never come back to me."

Vassar, Room 39.May, 9/80.

{ii/Paris}{Rik/America}{Hill/John/Mass.}

A letter thus directed reached J. Underhill. Andover, Mass.

What have you that others use most? Your name./
How long can a goose stand on one leg? Try it and see.

One hundred and one by fifty divide,/
And then if a cipher be rightly applied,/
And your computation agree well with mine,/
The answer will be one taken from nine./
CLIO./
Can you prove that a cat has ten tails?/
No cat has nine tails, one cat has one more tail than no cat, so it must have ten./
KIND = "A little more than kin, a little less than Kind"/
Shakespeare./
I am, yet I cease to be when it occurs to you what I am./
Ans. Riddle./
Of what was Joan of Arc made (maid)? Maid of Orleans./
How far can a fox go into a wood? To the middle./
How many eggs can a man eat on an empty stomach? One/
What is the difference between the north and south poles? Ans. All the difference in the world./
Restaurant. Res = thing; taurus = bull [therefore] res-taurant = a bully thing./
Two ducks were standing one facing the north, the other the south, how could they touch bills without turning around? Very easily as they were facing each other./
What is there that is as old as the hills? The valley between them.

"Adage by a young lady./
Man proposes, but mamma disposes." Punch.

A sewing-machine -- A needle.

I cannot shape your life; ah! if I could,/
This year should bring you nought but what is good:/
Blue skies above your head,/
Blossoms beneath your tread./
(harbor scene-picture)/
I cannot shape your life, but one who can,/
Long since hath hath framed for thee the year's fair plan:/
Go forward, gladly still,/
Trusitng His loving will.

Valentine 4 1/2 x 6. Picture of boy with sailor suit, bearing flowers & wearing botany can.

Kind group which included Mary Hill, Mary Bernard, Polly Freeman/
Sallie Dickey - she was a special friend of Stella Hunt (Mrs. Shattuck)/
Miss B. has been living with her brother at Williams since his wife died./
Eel River north fork, Eureka most western town in U.S. has Shakespeare Inn. Redwood Empire Highway on south fork of Eel River is magnificent. Stag's Leap in Napa County. I had a happy year at Napa Ladies Seminary before entering college; this and a couple of months at Mme. Talbot's in Paris (she had a little red Am. school house in her garden) constituted my schooling before V.C. except the governess of my childhood) ... Clear Lake Park Tavern Nat & Burt, Kendall Twins, admitted to Stanford U. 350 can enter out of thousands who apply - it seems quite an achievement. Character, a reputation for hard work and aptitude tests must count, for their marks have been nothing wonderful. High school & grad courses in calculus, blueprint work in design & type - writing & short hand & spelling! Youngest grand nephew Herbert Hewson of Los Angeles is in Harvard School. Thinks he will be an artist. [inserted below line] The other is on U.S.S. Idaho. [end of inserted text] A critic of Ludwig's last book on one more influential than either Bismark or Napoleon writes "Emil Ludwig will never wipe from his heretofore shining literary coat-of-arms the smirch this book smears on it" Eliz. H. dismissed Napoleon as "a Corsican peasant to the end." M.B.B. resented it. Spent first eight years of my life under the shadow of Napoleon le Grand & the lesser shadow of N. le Petit, they made life pleasant in Paris and under the sunshine of the Code Napoleon the same code now called Code Civil by the "Republique" and found satisfactory. Napoleon seems to have been the first encourager of canning processes (by Nicholas Appert) How grateful U.S. hotel owners should be? "Mother" fine study of Sardinian peasant by Italian author who won latest Nobel Prize in literature. Keyserling said U.S. was under rule of a matriarchate. Boulder, Col. U. summer school has 27 unmarried men & 2300 women! O'Neill's Lazarus Laughed interested me greatly. Pasadena citizens financed its presentation. Saw his father act L'Assomeir (?) [L'Assommoir] by Zola. That was a shocker, yet "respectable" audiences crowded to the theatre. E.M.H. & E.S. -- agreed with Mencken (?) or admired d'Anninzio's parnographic ... (he harks back to last century) written in such beautiful Italian they really are insidious - Arnold Toguble? "Nude woman show" & Captive 7 months in N.Y. - a jury acquitted the principals who were arrested, Mayor of Detroit stopped it after one night. [Nassar] might again use old name "Society for Religious Enquiry" & so attract Jew & Gentile as well as Christian. H. Hoover, quaker, ran true to form in his war work. When he is Pres. perhaps he will help greatly in bringing that so elusive peace to mankind "The Quakers, Ma'am, I've always held to be above par.["] [Trader Horn*] Mary Barney's next birthday will be in 1932. Can't we call her our most youthful? Sent July 10/28

*Intended placement of Trader Horn reference uncertain but believe it refers to preceding quote regarding Quakers.

R.F.D. 3 - Clarkston, Michigan, Oct. 2/28, Care Mr. Arthur Stewart

Dear ...:--I shall soon be in Cal. again. I spent June in Sequoia Nat. Forest with old friends but the altitude was too high for me & the mineral water--there was no cold water--did not agree with me. The trip was trying across the continent & by the time I reached my sister's I had another relapse. I was sent to the Simpson Memorial Hospital in Ann Arbor where only pernicious anaemia patients are nine in number--so each case is studied carefully. I learned nothing new after my experience in other hospitals. Little is known about this disease. Liver and its extract & hydrochloric acid being helpful but not curative. Remissions & relapses are to be expected. Climate has no effect so I may live anywhere. I expect to start for the west about 20th of Oct. I have a 10 day lay over in S.F. en route to San Diego. I have rented same cottage in La Jolla I had a year ago--the "Water Witch." Carolyn Macadam.

Stella Flora Broadhead - world cruise on Franconia Jan. 15-May 31

S.F.B. & sister after a month or two in France & Italy will join cruise at Naples - Aug. 16/28]

Did the Vassars come from Switzerland. I was interested in an item in our evening paper about a discovery made in the hotel where we go for winter sports. I enclose clipping. I don't suppose the plaque can be bought but I should love to have it as a fire back in the big room we are opening up in second floor. We play Bridge for two nearly every evening. Read 3 vol. book on 30 yrs. war by Ricarda Huch. My husband is a walking historical library. Ludwig's Napoleon will be a Xmas present for our old uncle 91 yrs. who reads all day without glasses. He admires Napoleon & reads chiefly memoirs & political history of that period. About a month ago we went for a week to a small summer village 4000 feet high in the Rhone Valley. Village comprises hotels, chalets and peasant huts each & all of which are abandoned in winter. We had an opportunity to admite the wonderful system of irrigation in the canton of Valais. The water from the glaciers is conducted along the mountain sides in parallel streams at altitudes 1200 ft. apart. The installation was a feat not unattended with danger. The workmen had to be suspended by ropes down the sheer Alpine steeps. The canals through which the water flows are like picturesque natural brooks, bordered by trees & forming delightful promenades. See opposite page.

Miss Sanford writes Warden Norton's wife had a dear little girl born July 3, Anne Aston "they say" is a perfect child & lovely looking--Abby Elwell's "James" sounds so awfully worth-while. I'd like to know him. Stematz' court dress is now in a proper case. Oct. 13th '28/
29 Washington Sq. N.Y. Tel. spring 5434. Nov. 2/28. Came to apartment Oct. 1 after 6 mos. in Europe. Dorothy in Summit has 5 children. Richard born in Sept. Crawford a year ago last April. Saw at bridge in Sarajevo where the great war began and near Paris the Peace Glade at Rethindes [Rethondes] where the armistice was signed. Motored up & down eastern shore of Adriatic. Ragusa we liked most. It has excellent Imperial Hotel. Motored through northern Apennines - settled down in Florence for 4 or 5 wks. Met Mr. C at Marsielles & visited towns in southern France & after a weekend at Carcassonne in the [cite] went to Barcelona. [Ms. P. & C.] Pyrenees & V. & L. - Paris - England - Wales. Constance

[written vertically on bottom half of page]
is Assistant Executive Secretary with Church Mission of Help in Newark.

Mrs. C. Edwin Young. 124 Fairmount Ave. Chatham, N.J. mentions Daniel Hoffman Martin who is he? "The Hayloft" at Naples Maine is a "good place to eat" & filled with very fine antiques. Hooked rug made by Sheriff Jones' mother. Isn't that fame for you! Liked Northfield Hotel. L. Kountz going to Holy Land Dec. 5/28. Father's house in Newark demolished. Only two of the old brown stone houses left. [Kemekle] arm Windor [Windsor] chair.

Mrs. [Colgrove] attended Bamberger Vassar tea. They had to go out & bring in others to make an audience for the distinguished guest. I heard Mukerji address at Bamberger Bookshop. He is an inspired speaker apparently oblivious of his audience. His word pictures of his beloved Himalayas are more beautiful than anything in his books. Miss Jane Perry Clark made an address at Conference of International Migration service of which every Vassar woman might well be proud. Dec. 11/28

Lydia Peck writes "E. Howe always used to speak of Stematz' little brown hands." Geo. N. Harvey obtained from Gov. Smith an investigation of proceedings of Phillips' "The Pipe King" ... [Maurice] Connolly's administration as Borough Pres. of Queens is her nephew & brought about Connolly's indictment. G.N.H. has been elected Borough Pres. for 1 yr. His slogan is "unbossed we bought [fought] & unafraid." Lloyd Upton Harvey is his son. A photo of him as an open mouthed laughing baby was enclosed. Flushing High School boy when asked who was Achilles replied, "Achilles was a Greek hero whose mother, when he was young dipped him in the river Stynks till he became intolerable."

[written horizontally at top of page]
Vand Sainte-Croix-Interessante deconverte. M.F. Stehle-Jaccard, proprietaire de l'hotel d'Espagne a recemment deconvert dans son immeuble une grande plaque on "taque" de cheminee, en fonte, du poids de 200 kg. environ, sans doute fondue a Mortean on au Locle ou des artisans creaient jadis ces ornaments de decoration pour les foyers. Cette plaque, de grandes dimensions, comporte de magnifiques armoires, sous la form d'un blason complexe et singulierement elegant d'aspect, Suivant la determination de M. le Dr. D. Galbreath (Baugy), le savant heraldiste, il s'agit des armes des epoux Nicolas de Hennezel, seigneur d'Essert et de Chavannes, et de sa femme Sebastienne de Gingins--La Sarra, dout le coutrat de mariage fut conclu le 13 janvier 1643. Nicolas de Hennezel e'tait fils de Louis de Hennezel et de Marie de Vassar. Sebastienne de Gingins, etait la fille et la seizieme enfant de Joseph de Gingins et de Barbe de Stein. On trouve dans cet ensemble magnifique les elements des armes des Hennezel, des Gingens des joinville et des Vassar.

January 12th

Tokio, Japan.

Dear Miss Sanford,

We just received your letter of December 22nd from Boston. We are very sorry for that we did not write you quite long while, since we came back to Japan. Last year was not happy one for us. We lost our father in March and [aunt] Baroness Uriu in November.

But we are now getting well and living very peacefully near to our mother's and we expect to have a baby next month. Uncle Uriu seems very lonesome, but his children, grand children and all relatives and friends are trying to make him feel happy.

We enjoyed ourselves very much, while we were in your country and wish to go back to see you very soon, though we are going to stay here for a few years.

We hope you and Miss Stokes will have a nice winter in Boston and come back to New York with good health in the spring.

Very sincerely yours,
I. Isogaki

This from the husband of Baroness Uriu's great niece.

M.R.S.

1Masuda who is to be an artist great nephew of Shige

2Mrs. McLeod of Boston

3Checo Masuda

4J.F.W.

5Princess Oyama, dau. in law of Stematz

6Mr. Rollins

7Mrs. Richardson of Boston

8K. Masuda - great nephew of Shige {rich importer unmarried but looking around Shige says}

April 22 - 1928

Prince could not come nor elder Masudas on account of a wedding.

[written vertically on right hand side of page]
Agusa Oyama

Katsura Oyama

Mayumi Oyama

Sakiko Oyama

R.F.D. 3 - Clarkston, Michigan, Oct. 2/28, Care Mr. Arthur Stewart

Dear ...:--I shall soon be in Cal. again. I spent June in Sequoia Nat. Forest with old friends but the altitude was too high for me & the mineral water--there was no cold water--did not agree with me. The trip was trying across the continent & by the time I reached my sister's I had another relapse. I was sent to the Simpson Memorial Hospital in Ann Arbor where only pernicious anaemia patients are nine in number--so each case is studied carefully. I learned nothing new after my experience in other hospitals. Little is known about this disease. Liver and its extract & hydrochloric acid being helpful but not curative. Remissions & relapses are to be expected. Climate has no effect so I may live anywhere. I expect to start for the west about 20th of Oct. I have a 10 day lay over in S.F. en route to San Diego. I have rented same cottage in La Jolla I had a year ago--the "Water Witch." Carolyn Macadam.

Stella Flora Broadhead - world cruise on Franconia Jan. 15-May 31

S.F.B. & sister after a month or two in France & Italy will join cruise at Naples - Aug. 16/28]

Did the Vassars come from Switzerland. I was interested in an item in our evening paper about a discovery made in the hotel where we go for winter sports. I enclose clipping. I don't suppose the plaque can be bought but I should love to have it as a fire back in the big room we are opening up in second floor. We play Bridge for two nearly every evening. Read 3 vol. book on 30 yrs. war by Ricarda Huch. My husband is a walking historical library. Ludwig's Napoleon will be a Xmas present for our old uncle 91 yrs. who reads all day without glasses. He admires Napoleon & reads chiefly memoirs & political history of that period. About a month ago we went for a week to a small summer village 4000 feet high in the Rhone Valley. Village comprises hotels, chalets and peasant huts each & all of which are abandoned in winter. We had an opportunity to admite the wonderful system of irrigation in the canton of Valais. The water from the glaciers is conducted along the mountain sides in parallel streams at altitudes 1200 ft. apart. The installation was a feat not unattended with danger. The workmen had to be suspended by ropes down the sheer Alpine steeps. The canals through which the water flows are like picturesque natural brooks, bordered by trees & forming delightful promenades. See opposite page.

Miss Sanford writes Warden Norton's wife had a dear little girl born July 3, Anne Aston "they say" is a perfect child & lovely looking--Abby Elwell's "James" sounds so awfully worth-while. I'd like to know him. Stematz' court dress is now in a proper case. Oct. 13th '28/
29 Washington Sq. N.Y. Tel. spring 5434. Nov. 2/28. Came to apartment Oct. 1 after 6 mos. in Europe. Dorothy in Summit has 5 children. Richard born in Sept. Crawford a year ago last April. Saw at bridge in Sarajevo where the great war began and near Paris the Peace Glade at Rethindes [Rethondes] where the armistice was signed. Motored up & down eastern shore of Adriatic. Ragusa we liked most. It has excellent Imperial Hotel. Motored through northern Apennines - settled down in Florence for 4 or 5 wks. Met Mr. C at Marsielles & visited towns in southern France & after a weekend at Carcassonne in the [cite] went to Barcelona. [Ms. P. & C.] Pyrenees & V. & L. - Paris - England - Wales. Constance