Vassar College Digital Library

Mansfield, Adelaide (Claflin) | to mother, Mar. 8, 1896:

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Date
March 8, 1896
Abstract
VC 1897
Transcript file(s)
Details
Identifier
vassar:24532,,Box 21,VCL_Letters_Mansfield_Adelaide_1897_065
Extent
1 item
Type
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: VCLLettersMansfieldAdelaide1897065001
Vassar College.
March 8. 1896.

My dear Mother,—

I have put off writing today, till nearly bedtime, for I have been reading aloud this afternoon and evening to Winifred and Gertrude. You know Winifred has been In Brooklyn for a week, resting, and Just got back here Friday night. When she works too hard, she gets pains in her head and has to stop studying.

Ray went down to Brooklyn yesterday; her brother Charlie was there and telegraphed for her to come down. She will come back tomorrow morning-

 


: VCLLettersMansfieldAdelaide1897065002
She has been down to Brooklyn quite often this year. Mr.Capen came here Friday night and stayed till Saturday noon.

Tomorrow is Ray's birthday, and Mr. Capen's mother has sent her a box of things to eat. It is now reposing down in Ray's bedroom, for she made us promise not to open it, till she got back. We are afraid there is something In it that will spoil, but we have to wait in patience till tomorrow. It will be a welcome relief to have a little of something different to eat, for the food has been rather limited and monotonous lately. I don't blame the girls who are well-off for going to Smith's to dinner frequently.

Ray will be only twenty tomorrow.

 


: VCLLettersMansfieldAdelaide1897065003
It seems as Ii she ought to be two or three years older. Gertrude, Winifred, Carrie and I chipped in together and bought her a pair of silver embroidery scissors for a dollar and a half. We went to all the jewelry stores in town; the stock at some consisted of one pair, at others of two, and finally at the place where we made our purchase, we found three pairs, and the pair that we bought was the only one in town that we liked.

Kate Dunham and I have written to the Margaret Louisa to reserve ^ rooms for April 3. That is Good Friday. Kate wants to stay till the following Tuesday evening. I have not decided whether to stay so long, but of course I can simply take the train and come

 


: VCLLettersMansfieldAdelaide1897065004
home whenever I feel like it. We have to engage the rooms so far ahead, for last week they wrote that they had no vacancies til after March 21, but we do not have to tell till we get there how long we are going to stay. The time that we spend there will be the last part of vacation, which lasts from March 27 to April 8. You see we will be in New York on Easter Sunday. Ed. does not yet know when his vacation Is going to be, but I could not wait any longer for him to find out.

Ray is going to spend her Easter vacation partly with her grandmother, in Springfield, and partly with the Capens in Jamaica Plain.

Carrie did intend to go down to New York with me, but her mother has written her that the

 


: VCLLettersMansfieldAdelaide1897065005
money is getting reduced, and that she must be as economical as possible, so she will stay here all the vacation.

Friday evening we were to have had a lecture by Prof. Wheeler of Cornell, on "Athenian Sepulchral Monuments and Epitaphs", but at dinner time came word that Prof. Wheeler had the measles, and therefore could not come. Miss Leach had arranged a reception for him, to which she had invited all the faculty, and for which she had provided ice-cream. She had her party all the same, so as not to waste the ice-cream.

I have been working so hard on special topics. They always take just about three times as much time as the teacher allows. We have to have one in Biology ready for today. We each have

 


: VCLLettersMansfieldAdelaide1897065006
a certain subject to look up, and then when we come to class, Miss O'Grady calls on certain girls to deliver theirs. And each girl has to go up on the platform and give it just as if she were the teacher, without looking at her notes, and doing experiments or drawing pictures on the blackboard to illustrate. No one knows beforehand who is to be called on. My subject is seeds of plants: how they are protected and preserved, and how they are scattered and carried through the air, and how different seeds are adapted to different surroundings- It is an extremely interesting subject.

We have been having a number of special topics in history. We are working on one this week too. I have to look through twelve volumes, and take down all

 


: VCLLettersMansfieldAdelaide1897065007
the things which either prove or disprove that the wars between England and France during the Eighteenth Century were due to the expansion of England in America and India. I feel like Samuel Weller, when he said, "But whether it's worth while goin' through so much to learn so little, is a matter o' taste".

We are all impatient to have next week come, for a week from tonight the Honors will be announced. We cant guess so well about this class - who will get them - as we could about the class last year.

Prudence Sherwin is coming here to visit Kate Dunham and Irene Lawrence, just before ^Easter vacation.- in about two weeks. Kate says her Aunt Belle has not decided whether to come home in time to see Kate graduate, or to stay over all summer. But she will probably stay over, as Kate's Uncle Cal sailed the other day.

Lovingly Adelaide. [Claflin]