Po'keepsie Nov. 15th / 68

My dear Mother:-
I received your good long letter the first of the week & would have answered it before but have been very busy.

Yesterday I had a real nice time six of us girls with one of the teachers Miss Moss started about eleven in the morning for a walk to Sunrise hill which is about two miles from the College. We were all dressed in our gymnastic dresses so that we could walk and climb fences easily. The day was beautifully clear & quite warm so that from the top of the hill we could see for miles in all directions the Catskill at the North West the Shawangunk at the West & the Fishkill at the South & Southwest.

Thursday Morning.
I began this letter yesterday but did not take time to finish it today I am not feeling very well I went to Miss Avery this morning & got excused from my lessons - the first time since I have been here & am going to try & keep quiet today thought I must send a letter off to you.

I have invited Kate to go home with me Christmas would it not be pleasant for me if she came for then I should have company she would probably make us a visit & then go to Arthursburg for a day or two she is quite delighted with the idea & has or is going to write home about it.

I think it would be real pleasant for her to visit me then for she never will come in the summer vacations as she wants to be home then.

I wish pa would write to me! have not had a letter for ever so long from him.

I have not rec'd the Introductory letter for Charley Jones don't let him forget to send it & right away if he has not because Miss Lyman has asked for them.

Give my love to all Write soon to your affectionate daughter
M. F.  Cowles

Please excuse this scribble for I don't feel much like writing

[Almire (Cowles) Chase,
prep  VC 69 spec '69-70]

[typhoid fear]


For the Eagle.
Vassar College, Nov. 4th, 1868.
Messrs. Editors:
As exaggerated reports are in circulation
respecting the health of this institution, and
such as are calculated to occasion its friends
very needless anxiety, will you allow inc to
give through your columns an exact state-
ment of the Facts, drawn from the official re-
port of the resident physician :
In a family of over four hundred persons,
there have been under medical treatment
during" the last three weeks thirty-five cases
of every description.The large majority of
these have been from the various ailments to
which every family is at all times liable, for
the most part from different degrees of gas-
tric, pulmonic or other functional disturb-
ance, and all have yielded as kindly as usual
to proper remedies and hygienic precau-
tions.
Nine only have been ill of continued fever,
taking on a typhoid character. These were
clearly developed but not violent cases -
Three or four of them were ill enough for a
few days to occasion a good deal of anxiety
as to the possible result) but in no case has the
disease assumed a malignant form, or failed
to yield to the treatment employed. No
new cases have occurred for the last twelve
days, and all who have been sick are either
well or convalescent.
The sickness has at no time been of an
epidemic character in the College, and there
have been no cases, so far as we know, in the
neighborhood. A thorough scrutiny of' the
premises by the resident physician and trus-
tees reveals no defect in the sanitary arrange-
ments of the (Institution, nor any traceable
local cause. Every indication is, either that
that the seeds of disease were brought hither
by the individuals affected, or, where this
was not the case, that it was developed here
under general atmospheric or other condi-
tions not confined to any particular locality.
All the professors, teachers and employees
have been tree from sickness.
The regular business of the College has
proceeded quietly and without interruption,
the students as a body continuing cheerful
and in full average health.
J. H. RAYMOND,
Prest. Vassar College.‘