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Vassar College. Oct. 21. 1894,
My dear Edith, -
I suppose that at this moment you are down at the Baptist Mission Sunday School, unless Mr. Hungate has found some one in the First Church by this time who is very ready to accomodate him by taking your place. Do you still go down there? And is Mr. Hungate all right now? I should not think you could still keep up that Sunday School now that you have more responsibilities in our church. I hear that you are [?] Secretary of our C.E. Society as well as Treasurer of the Ladies Society. I am glad they appreciate your ability, but I hope it won't wear on you to have this extra work. I wish I could step into the C.E. meetings at home every Sunday evening.
Tonight the Bible Lectures begin. They are to be given this semester by Dr. Patterson of Rochester Seminary - you see we have a Baptist this term. I am going to take notes this year. I wish that I had taken notes last year of Dr. Vincent's lectures. I shall be able to hear a good deal better this year, for I sit so much nearer the front. We had such a good sermon this morning, one of the best I have heard here.
Dr. Taylor's only brother has been very sick for some time and he died yesterday. He lived somewhere in New Jersey, I believe- Mrs. Taylor and Mary went there Friday, but Dr. Taylor did not go till yesterday.
This has been such a beautiful day- and so was yesterday. Yesterday afternoon Miss Epler took Maude Warner and Marion Lockhart and me out riding. You know she took us last June, and at that time she asked us to go again with her to another place some-time. So the time came yesterday. It was just a perfect day, the warmest day we have had here, so that it was just right for driving- We went to a place about ten miles from here. Maude and Marion each drove on the way there, and I drove all the way home. It is lots of fun to drive on these country roads, where it is so easy - not a lot of wagons and electric cars and bicycles going in every direction. It was quite hilly where we went. I mean much more so than it is within two or three miles of here. Of course I never have a chance to see such beautiful scenery anywhere else as I do around here, and the more hilly it is, the more beautiful. You can look all around you and see hills in every direction, one back of the other, and farthest away the mountains, the the Catskills especially. Here where there is no smoke the leaves are beautiful, and so often you can see a hill covered all the way up the side with trees, and the leaves are of almost every shade you can think of. It is so nice of Miss Epler to take us, especially for such long drives, for we were out for three hours. At a point about two miles from here we came to a bridge over a creek, and sitting on the edge of it with their feet dangling over, we saw three college girls. Juniors, whom^we all knew, and guess what they were doing - fishing! They were as surprised to see us as we were to see them. They hadn't intended to tell us about it till they brought home the fish. They did not catch any, but they still declare they would have if it hadn't been for three boys who came there to fish and grew too familiar with them so that they had to leave. The girls said they saw ever so many fish going around in the water.
Well, there is one thing important to report this week, and that is, that Poughkeepsie now has electric cars. They have been thinking and talking about them so long that I concluded not to say anything till I saw them. They began running out to the college on Tuesday. To be sure they have not such conveniences as electric buttons in them, but they are really good electric cars, of the same kind as most of them in Cleveland. I have not yet ridden in them, but I must take the opportunity soon, especially as the fare is reduced to five cents. I hear them sometimes in the evening and if I shut my eyes I could imagine I was at home. I think there will be more intercourse between the college and the town now, especially in going to entertainments- The girls will go to more of them in P. and the P. people will come out more to ours.
There was a famous Shakspere ^reader [crossed out: writer] in town last night, whom a good [crossed out: of] many of the girls went in to hear, with Mrs. Kendrick and the new Professor of English, Mr. Wentworth.
We are going to be very happy this year I think, in our "firewall". Mary and Belle are very congenial and we have lots of fun together. We have to work ever so hard. I mean ever so steadily, for our work is not so hard as last year, I think, but takes more time. I see better than I did last year, how much I enjoy college, and how nice the girls are etc.
How fast it grows dark- I did not notice it, but I think I had better not write any more now. I try not to use my eyes except with a good light.
I am going to put in some needles that I found here when I came back, I did not know they were here, and I don't know just where they came from, but perhaps you and mamma will be glad of them, at least if there are no better ones in the house than there were this summer. Lovingly Adelaide. [Claflin]
My dear Edith, -
I suppose that at this moment you are down at the Baptist Mission Sunday School, unless Mr. Hungate has found some one in the First Church by this time who is very ready to accomodate him by taking your place. Do you still go down there? And is Mr. Hungate all right now? I should not think you could still keep up that Sunday School now that you have more responsibilities in our church. I hear that you are [?] Secretary of our C.E. Society as well as Treasurer of the Ladies Society. I am glad they appreciate your ability, but I hope it won't wear on you to have this extra work. I wish I could step into the C.E. meetings at home every Sunday evening.
Tonight the Bible Lectures begin. They are to be given this semester by Dr. Patterson of Rochester Seminary - you see we have a Baptist this term. I am going to take notes this year. I wish that I had taken notes last year of Dr. Vincent's lectures. I shall be able to hear a good deal better this year, for I sit so much nearer the front. We had such a good sermon this morning, one of the best I have heard here.
Dr. Taylor's only brother has been very sick for some time and he died yesterday. He lived somewhere in New Jersey, I believe- Mrs. Taylor and Mary went there Friday, but Dr. Taylor did not go till yesterday.
This has been such a beautiful day- and so was yesterday. Yesterday afternoon Miss Epler took Maude Warner and Marion Lockhart and me out riding. You know she took us last June, and at that time she asked us to go again with her to another place some-time. So the time came yesterday. It was just a perfect day, the warmest day we have had here, so that it was just right for driving- We went to a place about ten miles from here. Maude and Marion each drove on the way there, and I drove all the way home. It is lots of fun to drive on these country roads, where it is so easy - not a lot of wagons and electric cars and bicycles going in every direction. It was quite hilly where we went. I mean much more so than it is within two or three miles of here. Of course I never have a chance to see such beautiful scenery anywhere else as I do around here, and the more hilly it is, the more beautiful. You can look all around you and see hills in every direction, one back of the other, and farthest away the mountains, the the Catskills especially. Here where there is no smoke the leaves are beautiful, and so often you can see a hill covered all the way up the side with trees, and the leaves are of almost every shade you can think of. It is so nice of Miss Epler to take us, especially for such long drives, for we were out for three hours. At a point about two miles from here we came to a bridge over a creek, and sitting on the edge of it with their feet dangling over, we saw three college girls. Juniors, whom^we all knew, and guess what they were doing - fishing! They were as surprised to see us as we were to see them. They hadn't intended to tell us about it till they brought home the fish. They did not catch any, but they still declare they would have if it hadn't been for three boys who came there to fish and grew too familiar with them so that they had to leave. The girls said they saw ever so many fish going around in the water.
Well, there is one thing important to report this week, and that is, that Poughkeepsie now has electric cars. They have been thinking and talking about them so long that I concluded not to say anything till I saw them. They began running out to the college on Tuesday. To be sure they have not such conveniences as electric buttons in them, but they are really good electric cars, of the same kind as most of them in Cleveland. I have not yet ridden in them, but I must take the opportunity soon, especially as the fare is reduced to five cents. I hear them sometimes in the evening and if I shut my eyes I could imagine I was at home. I think there will be more intercourse between the college and the town now, especially in going to entertainments- The girls will go to more of them in P. and the P. people will come out more to ours.
There was a famous Shakspere ^reader [crossed out: writer] in town last night, whom a good [crossed out: of] many of the girls went in to hear, with Mrs. Kendrick and the new Professor of English, Mr. Wentworth.
We are going to be very happy this year I think, in our "firewall". Mary and Belle are very congenial and we have lots of fun together. We have to work ever so hard. I mean ever so steadily, for our work is not so hard as last year, I think, but takes more time. I see better than I did last year, how much I enjoy college, and how nice the girls are etc.
How fast it grows dark- I did not notice it, but I think I had better not write any more now. I try not to use my eyes except with a good light.
I am going to put in some needles that I found here when I came back, I did not know they were here, and I don't know just where they came from, but perhaps you and mamma will be glad of them, at least if there are no better ones in the house than there were this summer. Lovingly Adelaide. [Claflin]
