N©v. 6. 1870.
My dear Papa,
I have Just received your letter telling of the over How there has
been In Texas. How terrible it Is to have another one, when people have
hardly recovered from the losses of the other. And this I should think
must have been worse than when I was sick. Is your rock wall nearly
finished ? I think I know where it was washed away, was it not the low
place where you were going to have the water dammed 19? By this time
I expect Emilys house Is almost entirely shut-in by the fence. I am per-
fectly delighted with the additions you have been making to the house, and
it was very kind in you to send me the plan, for now I understand perfectly
what alterations have been made. Is the closet large enough to put a
trunk in? It is all so convenient for Mamma that I hope she will not st|ll
wish to carry out her plan of making the kitchen where the "brick" gallery
now is. The pump to bring water into the bathroom is a nice arrangement,
as a bathroom whose ail the water had to be "toted" in, as the darkies
would say, would not be of very much use. I am glad you have decided
not to close the window in your bedroom, for I am a real Southerner ill
wanting plenty of light and air.
The College for gentlemen which you say you have seen here is in
full view from these grounds. It is at the top of a very high hill and seems
\
to be a beautiful place. I have not heard whether school is kept there now
or not, but two years ago when Kitty graduated Aunt Juliet came here at
commencement, and as all the hotels in Poughkeepsie were full, she went
1
I,
Nov. 6, 1870 -2
out to the former boys school which was thou used as a hotel* and stayed.
Vassar College is about three miles from the river and on higher land
than the town of Poughkeepsie, though very much lower than College hill,
as the spot you speak of is called and is in an easterly direction from it.
Composition* are not required from the students who have never
studied "rhetoric." And as I have not done so, do not have to write them.
Next term however I study it, and so another year will have them to write.
I cannot wtite a composition and so am heartily glad X am not required to,
but I hope that studying Rhetoric will help me to compose, for X would be
ashamed not to have one, and would be still more ashamed to hand in any
thing which I should compose. X am only borrowing trouble for another
year in thinking of them, and X have enough to do this year without think-
ing of another year's studies.
Our class in Latin begin translating Caesar Ktonday, and then, on
we will have to work pretty hard. Tell Mary Eliaa that X want her to study
nicely with Miss Carrie when she goes home, and I will write her a nice
little letter when she learns to read printing. Love to all friends-
Accept much love and "heaps"
of kisses from your loving daughter
Julie
iJulia M. Pease, '75,
Will you please save all tha postage stamps from tho letters which come
to you? For X want to try and get a million and then the Government will
give me three hundred dollars for them.