Vassar.
Sunday, March 10 1872
My dear Carrie,
I have Just come from the meeting of Religious Inquiry, and after
being very much bored there for nearly an hour, I do net feel much inclined
to write. A missionary from Chile was the speaker and if he had spoken
well he might have interested us very much in the doings of a strange land,
however, he did not, and our pleasantest recollections of him will be connected with his sermon this morning, for it was only half an hour long.
You know we usually have to listen to sermons mare than an hour long.
Today I was just preparing to get sleepy when Mr. Gilbert stopped.
This last weak has been a fearfully cold one. The Art Gallery was
so icy cold that we could not paint at all. It has been like one of our northers, only of course much worse. The wind whistled all round the house and found its way into every crack and crevice. All the windows and even
the blinds were closed but yet the corridors were bitterly cold. In many
of the rooms ice formed an eighth of an inch and even thicker. Our room
was very warm all the time and was a refuge for many of the girls who
had to leave their rooms on account of the cold. It is warm again and today has been so rainy and sloppy that we were excused from outdoor
exercise. Such a day as this, is not very conducive to cheerfulness, and I
think almost everybody has been somewhat blue or homesick. I have not
suffered from the latter maladie much since Christmas, perhaps because
I have not had time to mope. Our little oasis in the barren time from January to April has been a lecture from Wendell Philips. He lectured here last Friday night and, as he always does, delighted everyone who heard him. The subject was "The Lost Arts," a lecture he has been giving for thirty years, he says. He looks very little elder than when we heard him before, and I presume If you had heard him again your old time wish to be in his wife's place and sit at his feet and learn wisdom of him would have been renewed. His wife does not seem to appreciate her good fortune, however.
Tonight Mollie Hill and I have been to call on Cliffie Leverin
(Clifford Loverin, '75.) She is really a fine looking girl, and talks well,
seems quite gifted but is rather flighty. Very many do not like her, and I
think I do not care to know her very intimately. It seems Bettie Paschal
came North with Miss Loverin last summer. Cliffie is something after
the style of Bettie. The twenty minute bell has Just rung so I most close.
I missed your letter this week, the one which usually comes on
Saturday. Presume it will come tomorrow. Love to all from your stray
sheep, Julie.