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Date
May 19, 1895
Abstract
VC 1897
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Transcript file(s)
Subject (Topical)
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Identifier
vassar:24523,,Box 21,VCL_Letters_Mansfield_Adelaide_1897_055
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1 item
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: VCLLettersMansfieldAdelaide1897055001
Vassar College, May 19.
My dear Mother,— 1895.
I hope you are having as beautiful weather as we, it has been cool, just cool enough to be pleasant, all the week- very good weather for studying, and I hope we will continue to have it cool for two or three weeks, for that reason, because we have a good deal of studying before us- The last two weeks are always filled with "extra work" such as reading up about things, and doing all sorts of things out of the ordinary - which is harder than the usual routine. Tomorrow we finish up our laboratory work in chemistry, and have review and written lessons the rest of the time. We are having written
My dear Mother,— 1895.
I hope you are having as beautiful weather as we, it has been cool, just cool enough to be pleasant, all the week- very good weather for studying, and I hope we will continue to have it cool for two or three weeks, for that reason, because we have a good deal of studying before us- The last two weeks are always filled with "extra work" such as reading up about things, and doing all sorts of things out of the ordinary - which is harder than the usual routine. Tomorrow we finish up our laboratory work in chemistry, and have review and written lessons the rest of the time. We are having written
: VCLLettersMansfieldAdelaide1897055002
lessons In almost everything. Miss Macurdy told us to learn the names and subjects of Plato's thirty-six dialogues, for next lesson,- a sample of the crazy things she has us do.
This morning Dr. Hunstone of Brooklyn preached. We have only one more church service in the chapel here, beside the Baccalaureate sermon. I suppose you will have Children's Day the Sunday before I get home.
By the way, we have had some more discussion this week about how we shall get home. The Nickel Plate and the B and O are both anxious to have us travel on their lines - The Nickel Plate offer a ticket for about nine dollars, with a stop-over at Niagara Falls- A number of the Western girls are going that way and going to stop at the Falls. I could not find out the particulars about this
This morning Dr. Hunstone of Brooklyn preached. We have only one more church service in the chapel here, beside the Baccalaureate sermon. I suppose you will have Children's Day the Sunday before I get home.
By the way, we have had some more discussion this week about how we shall get home. The Nickel Plate and the B and O are both anxious to have us travel on their lines - The Nickel Plate offer a ticket for about nine dollars, with a stop-over at Niagara Falls- A number of the Western girls are going that way and going to stop at the Falls. I could not find out the particulars about this
: VCLLettersMansfieldAdelaide1897055003
ticket yesterday because the girl who knows about it was not at home when I went to ask her. To take the B and O we would go to New York first, and from there we would take the B and O and the fare from New York to Cleveland would be about nine dollars. This goes by way of Washington, and allows a stop-over at Washington, for the day, leaving there in the evening. This, you see, gives a chance to see the "capitol of the Nation", though it is round-about. But it would cost less, or at any rate not more, than the regular fare on the New York Central, counting in the cost of being at Washington during the day. The girl who is advertizing for this way, will get the circulars and time tables in a few days, so that we will know more about it. I don't know
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whether or not you could find out about these ways at home, but I should think you could. Fares must be getting cheaper, for the Nickel Plate gives fare from New York to Chicago for thirteen dollars.
Maude Warner went home yesterday- She has been sick a great deal this year, and so thought she might as well go now. She will have to make up all her examinations the first part of next year. You know she is the girl who lives in Cincinnati.
Yesterday we did an extravagant thing. We went to see "Buffalo Bill", who is in town. We were talking about him at the table at lunch yesterday and some of the girls were describing the glories of his exhibition to Miss Macurdy. She listened with a great deal of contempt at first. She has never
Maude Warner went home yesterday- She has been sick a great deal this year, and so thought she might as well go now. She will have to make up all her examinations the first part of next year. You know she is the girl who lives in Cincinnati.
Yesterday we did an extravagant thing. We went to see "Buffalo Bill", who is in town. We were talking about him at the table at lunch yesterday and some of the girls were describing the glories of his exhibition to Miss Macurdy. She listened with a great deal of contempt at first. She has never
: VCLLettersMansfieldAdelaide1897055005
even been to a circus in her life, her taste running chiefly to Latin and Greek plays and Boston lectures. But she really became interested in Buffalo Bill's career, and said she really believed she would like to go. I think she was most induced by the fact that Buffalo Bill is the brother of Mrs. Irvine, the President of Wellesley College. Still she was not sure whether it was proper to go. But she agreed with us that she would go and take us if Mrs. Kendrick thought it was proper. So we went. We all enjoyed it very much. I have always heard that Buffalo Bill was worth seeing, and so it was, but, like the circus, I think I should not care to see it more than once. I think Buffalo Bill's was better than the circus. Ray told Miss Macurdy that all the best people
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in Chicago went to see Buffalo Bill, but this did not do much to raise it in Miss Macurdy's estimation, for her knowledge of Chicago people was limited, she said, to what she had learned from a Boston friend of hers. This lady told her about meeting a wealthy Chicago man, and the only sentence of his conversation which she reported was this: ' Then up I gits and jumps on my horse." But that was enough for Miss Macurdy. Since then she has looked on Chicago people with abhorrence. Miss Macurdy amuses us so much sometimes- I used to read jokes about Boston people in the newspapers, and thought them all very much exaggerated, of course. But Miss Macurdy certainly goes far ahead of anything I ever read about Boston intellectuality.
The great event of this week was
The great event of this week was
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our Tree celebration. The Sophomore class chose a tree and put on it their class crest in bronze, with appropriate ceremonies, and then when they are Seniors, they bury their class records beneath this tree. We dressed up last night as darkies, and such a sight as we were! We wore the gayest striped underskirts we had, and the oldest and brightest waists. Belle wore my dressing sack - that tight flannel one, but as she is much thinner than I, there was room for two sofa pillows - We also wore red and orange sashes. I made use of that big hat of Aunt Allie's, trimmed with red and blue ribbons and yellow and purple flowers of Ray's. We blacked our faces and hands in great style and ran out through the corridors, spied only by our next-door neighbors. The Freshmen came
: VCLLettersMansfieldAdelaide1897055008
out to bother us - and also some Juniors - because we are supposed to have our fun with no other classmen around. The Freshmen were waiting outside the gymnasium, where we were assembled, ready to march to our tree. They grew quite impatient waiting for us, for every once in a while they clapped and told us to hurry up. At last we silently departed out of the back door, leaving the Freshmen in front. But they soon came after us, and in the midst of our program joined hands and ran around us in a circle. But after this they subsided - especially since Ray yelled to them to make their circle into an eclipse. At the tree we all gathered close around and the President of our class "called the meetin' to order", and said that the "minutes of
: VCLLettersMansfieldAdelaide1897055009
de last ten meetin's would be omitted." This raised a shout, because in our last class-meeting some one remarked that all our minutes had to be read and approved before our Senior year - and they have almost always been omitted, in fact I have only had to read them once since I have been Secretary. So some one moved that we spend a few minutes reading back minutes, and I read all the minutes for the last ten meetings or so.
Then Ray made the Tree Oration, which I need not describe, as it is printed on the programme, though when she gave it, she added several more jokes-
Jessie Thain made a short "Chain Oration" putting the chain which held the bronze crest, around the tree. These orations were interspersed with singing - Nancy McClelland
Then Ray made the Tree Oration, which I need not describe, as it is printed on the programme, though when she gave it, she added several more jokes-
Jessie Thain made a short "Chain Oration" putting the chain which held the bronze crest, around the tree. These orations were interspersed with singing - Nancy McClelland
: VCLLettersMansfieldAdelaide1897055010
always makes up some songs for us to sing on every occasion - Then we went two by two, singing, to the gymnasium, where we were entertained by a "minstrel show" - The colored orchestra - Ray and fifteen or twenty other girls dressed as colored men - sat up on the platform, and enlivened the proceedings with occasional jokes and conundrums. Then there were "living pictures" - The Heavenly Twins - were the largest and the smallest girls in the class. "Two little girls in blue" were two of the tallest girls in the class, dressed in hideous shades of blue which would not harmonize. A "prima donna" also made her appearance, rigged out in stunning finery - and sang Home, Sweet Home, with all the affectation and languishing that could be put into it, and the tune only near enough to be recog-
: VCLLettersMansfieldAdelaide1897055011
nizable.
After this we got up from the floor - where we had sat during the performance - and had sarsparilla and peanuts - and conversation - of course all in the dialect of the darkies -
When we came home, we stopped in at the rooms of some of our friends - rather startling them by our appearance. Some of our best friends could not recognize us and were much surprised this morning when we spoke of having been up to see them.
There! I do run along so when I am writing to you. When I start out I always plan to write several letters, but I begin yours first so as to be sure to get it done, and then I write so long on it that I very, very seldom get so far as writing another letter. It will not be long before I won't have to write to you - will it?
Lovingly Adelaide.
After this we got up from the floor - where we had sat during the performance - and had sarsparilla and peanuts - and conversation - of course all in the dialect of the darkies -
When we came home, we stopped in at the rooms of some of our friends - rather startling them by our appearance. Some of our best friends could not recognize us and were much surprised this morning when we spoke of having been up to see them.
There! I do run along so when I am writing to you. When I start out I always plan to write several letters, but I begin yours first so as to be sure to get it done, and then I write so long on it that I very, very seldom get so far as writing another letter. It will not be long before I won't have to write to you - will it?
Lovingly Adelaide.
