Vassar College, Feb. 11, 1871. My dear papa, Some of the girls here keep a sort of journal and send it home every week, but I should^there could be very little of Interest In It. Mine would always be the same for each day. "Got up, dressed, studied, eat, walked, went to bed" would be written over and over until It would only be a waste of paper to write again. But I really think that if I have a letter always commenced I can little by little fill it up whereas when I sit down to write one in a hurry all my ideas are found to have fled.
The most important thing at present is the snow* It is now falling
fast and it does not look much like stopping before morning, even if it
does then. The ground now must be covered about an inch thick and the
drives and paths about t.ha college are not perceptible, the snow being
perfectly smooth everywhere. Last night the freshman class took a
sleighride and had a fine time although it was very cold. Prof. Farrell
jFarrar? > who iccompagnted them was very thoughtful and provided each
person with a hot brick for th^ feet which with warm wrappings kept them
talarally comfortable. kN (I find that I have maaaged
to &->ell accompanied wrong, and I must have been thinking of the French
wove* when I wrote i\) Rayioond hh an escort; he was very pleasant and it is said that he even
unbent Ms dignity so much vis to sing "the little brown jug," with them.
Bessie Higg and I are getting up a sleighride, for tomorrow night if the
storm abates otherwise we will have it neat week. But we meet with
many difficulties. In the first place we must have a professor go with
us aad have been to two of them and they cannot go, so we have two more
to try, as the other one is already engaged. Prof. Bacchus ,Backus, Is
rather a favorite among the students and is considered very witty. When
I asked him if he would go he said that "he would be very happy to do so,
but would not be at the college the next day and really could not be in two
places s.t once.*" It: might have been a smart speech for a child ten years
to make
oldAbut certainly was not for a Professor. I am in none of his classes now
next semnstsr when I take Rhetoric will be.
It is so very cold that, it is almost Impossible to keep the College
comfortable. In the North end of the building the water froze solid in the
pit-hers and the girls carmot remain in their rooms at all. Even in the
parlors; with all the heat turned on the thermisner ^ would not be above
50°. My room is in the centre of the house and is very warm indeed. I
have to open tho window several times during the day because the heat
Is op?re*ive. Last night Miss Morse told one young lady to come up and
steep with me but much to my joy she did not come. I am afraid that I
will not be so fortunate tonight but will have some one put with me. The
College i« heated by a steam boiler in the centre and a furnace at each end
and the rocms heated by steam are quite warm. All the heat that could
possibly be put on was turned on yesterday and yet it was freeaing all day
in about half the rooms in the College. The cold is not the only thing that
wa are troubled with, but we may all die lor want ol water. There has
been a great drought all the fall and we have been allowed only one bath
a week but they told us as soon as snow came we would be all right again)
the snow has come but no sun to melt It and Instead of being better off, we
are wcrse. Sach girl is allowed one gallon of warm water a day and no
more, and If the weather does not change, I fear it will be our morning
duty to take a bucket out and fill it with snow which when melted we can
use for bathing purposes. But that would be an improvement upon break*
ing the ice in the pitchers for use, as some have to do. There is so much
water used for the boilers and furnaces and making gas that unless the
snow halts soon and supplies us with water there Is some danger of the breaking up of the College, ft would be a strange thing to do but yet a
lack of water is a fearful thing. I hope that Prof. Swancoat j? , will have
Ms College open In a year and then I will come back and attend that Instead
of Vcssar, The "Republican" comes as regularly as anything from Texas,
and I am very ^lad to get ft. If you cannot write oftener than once s week
please have Mamma and Carrie do so, for I can sA,udy a great deal better
after getting my nice home letters. With much love to all ever your
loving Tulle. 
I think tl• ^ snow must be melting some, for a great many oooms and parts ol
the corridors sire leaking, So I hope we will soon have water enough to
supply aV, demands.