Vassar College. Oct. 18. 1896.
My own dear Father,—
I am going to be energetic today, and write my letter now
between Bible class and church. The Bible classes met for the first
time this morning: it is a branch of T.W.C.A. work that has just been
started up this year. Before this we had only the Bible lectures Sunday
evenings; we stil4r have them, but we wanted something more, that would
give us a systematic plan of study for each day. So we organised five
classes of about a dosen esch, three to study the life of Christ and two
to study the foreshadowings of Christ in the Old Testament. We use
outlines prepared by Prof. Burton of Chicago — who happens to be our Bible
lecturer this year. The course is arranged for fifteen minutes * study every
day, and we meet Sunday morning for an hour right after breakfast. Ray
is the leader of one of the Old Testament eeusse classes, and I have the
other. I think the work will be very interesting. I wish we could spend
more time on it, but of course we are all so busy that we can not plan for
everything that we would like.
I always think I shall get a great deal of work done on Saturday,
but somehow or other, so many things come up on Saturday that I never
succeed in getting much studying done. Most of Friday afternoon this
week I spent in bicycle riding. Did I tell you that Ray has her bicycle here,
and I rent an hour a day on it? We have not had the use of it very long
because it was about two weeks after she got here before she could get a
Oct. 13, 1896 - 2
man to unpack it. But for tha last two weeks I have been out whenever
the weather permitted. Unfortunately we have had a great deal of rain.
Friday afternoon was the first time that I have taken a long ride; another
girl and I rode for two hours.
Where are the Walker Iron Works, or Electric works, or some kind of
works? A girl here has a brother there now.
The Rev. Egertoa R. Young, whom we heard at home two or three years
ago, is going to speak to us tonight.
Friday evening we had another campaign demonstration. Mr.
McKinley received four delegations at his home. That is, we had a girl
dressed up as Mr. McKinley, another as his wife, and a corner of the
Lecture Room fixed up as the porch of his house. There happened to be a
door in the corner, which represented his front door, and we had two
platforms together, for his porch floor, with posts at the corners, wound
with branches of autumn leaves and vines, to look like a vine twining up
around pillars. Mr. McK. and his wife sat on the platform, together with
Ex-President and Mrs. Harrison who and Baby McKee, and Gov.-elect Black
of New York state, who happened to be visiting at the House - and also, last
but not least — Mark Hanna, (whose part throughout this campaign is taken
by Ray, - the chairman of the committee). Of course the Lecture Room was
crowded, so we had to have police to clear a path for the delegations. There
Oct. 1 a, 1396 - 3
were two delegations of workingmen, who were dressed up In old coats,
overalls, old straw hats, etc. and they carried Implements such as the
hods that bricklayers use for carrying bricks, etc. — where they
managed to get them I do not know. The head of each delegation made
a short speech to Mr. MeKinley, and then he replied, and afterwards
invited them to shake hands with him and his wife. Another delegation was
composed of dudes, - "Young Men's MeKinley Club from Chappieville",
They were splendid - You would not believe that intelligent girls could
look so much like anane dudes. Of course most of them wore eye-glasses,
and cork mustaches, and parted their hair in the middle, and for canes
they carried short window-poles, with brass ends, which they held in their
mouths a good part of the time. The last delegation was the "New Woman's
Gold Standard Brigade", which they asked me to see to. I got Mary
MacColl to make the speech, and she was fine - dressed up in the most
severe and strong minded fashion, with her hair twisted into a tight knot,
and big spectacles oa. She made a fierce and emphatic speech in the
regular old Woman's Rights style, jerking her head and continually taking
off her spectacles and using them in gesturing. After her speech I read
an "ode" a la Mrs. N. Coe Stewart la the Women's delegation which went
from Cleveland in the summer. I was entirely a different type from Mary -
the high-faluten simpering type of the New Woman. I tried to model some-
what after Gay Stewart. The ode - which Ray wrote - was full of
Oct. 18, 1896 - 4
high-faluten mixed figures etc. I wore my bonnet, with the addition of
8t flowing
strings, and my red cape, and a stunning^veil of pink chiffon - my
liberty scarf. Some of our delegation were rigged out in swell things
and others - the strong-minded species wore bicycle suits.
After all the speeches, the delegations formed in line and had a
procession up and down the second and third corridors. Every 4h4»g-body
was so enthusiastic and entered so much into the spirit of things that we
had a very jolly time,—lots of singing and yelling.
Last night the Gold Democrats had a mass-meeting. They are
few in number but they happen to have in their ranks some fine speakers,
so they had a very entertaining time. Republicans were invited to the
meeting, on the ground that "there is yet time to reform". Secretary
Whitney, Grover Cleveland, Col. Breckinridge and others made speeches -
very bright ones-. The girl who represented Grover Cleveland was made
to look pretty much like him, and wore a stove pipe hat, which greatly
added to the impression. A novel feature was the presence of the "shades
"true"
of the old^Democratic party - Jefferson and three or four others. They
were entirely covered by sheets and ...
which said, "The True Democracy, present in spirit".
Yesterday half of the Freshmen and half the Seniors went to Lake
Mohunk: next Saturday the rest of us go. I do hope it will not rain.
Oct, 13, 1396 - 5
Mamma asked me about Ed's letters. I would like to have
them sent, because he can not find time to write me very much; and
you can send 4h> him mine, if he will take care to keep them - for I will
have no other record of what goes on in college. I will send his back
home,
jLovc to all, Adelaide. (Claflin,