Vassar College, P'keeps ie, N.Y.
October 1, 1893.
My dearest Jane:
I have meant to write to you every day since I arrived,
but you can imagine that Z*ve been busy* Your letter was so sweet, -
thank-you for it. How X wish you were up here* I haven't any one to talk to*
X don't know where to begin to teU you of my doings here* In the first
place, I have passed all my exams and expect to be formally admitted to
the Sophomore class to-morrow. Vassar is perfectly lovely* How I wish
you might have a chance of enjoying it, too J You will be surprised to know
that I do not room with Louise and Bessie, but with Mollie Leverett. There
are two main buildings here, you know. One of them is the old building,
where all the recitation rooms are, and the other the Strong Hall, which
has no recitation rooms. Bessie and Louise are over in the Strong on the
4th floor, while Mollie and I are up under the eaves in the 5th floor of the
old building. I am awfully sorry that they are so far away, because we'd
have such fun with them. Jennie Estes is on the same floor with us. The
Hulst girls and Lulu O'Brien are Just below us. Frances Smith and Bessie
Beard are on the 4th, and Julia Turner on the 1st. Mary Higgin* Is In the
Strong. Edith did not come back this year, because of trouble with her eyes.
Edith Ryan of '92 is entering here as a Freshman this year. Oh Jennie,
Miss Franklin, Miss Smith's friend, is the sweetest thing up here. She's
too dear for anything. She's a little mite of a creature, a shade bigger than
Oct. 1, 1893 - 2
you are, I should think, and she has the sweetest, sweetest little ways
I can hardly keep my hands off her. And X am very well acquainted with
her already. She came up to me the first time she saw me, and asked
if I was Miss Kirkland. I felt right away as If I had always known her,
and she said she felt as If she had known me, too, because Miss Smith
had so often spoken to her of "her little Miss Kirkland." You can imagine
that that made me feel very happy, for I didn't suppose Miss Smith was
conscious of my existence outside of class. You ought to hear Miss
Franklin tell about their college days to-gether. She said that the way
she first got acquainted with Miss Smith was because she (Miss F) knew
her Greek verbs so much better than Miss Smith did J She said Miss
Smith would Itell her what things meant, and Miss F. would tell her what
the constructions were. Imagine Miss Smith eight years ago not knowing
her Greek constructions.1 Miss Franklin has the sweetest picture of Miss
Smith, taken in eighty-nine. It has her happiest expression and almost
speaks.
I wish I could get acquainted faster up here. The girls are so charm-
ing, but I'm afraid I feel a little shy, not being used to not having any body
know me. And the teachers are so lovely. One comes into so much closer
contact with them in living all under the same roof. We have been receiving
a great many calls since we've been here. The girls come very formally
Oct* 1, 1893 - 3
with their card-cases and leave their cards with the number of their
rooms upon them* All the new girls have to go to call on all their
teachers* Lessons up here are very much easier than I expected,
especially Greek. I really don't think that girls here are any brighter
than they were at P.C.L, but of course it's rather too soon to judge.
Certainly the teachers are no better* The English teachers don't com-
pare to Miss Wylie* I don't have Miss Leach in Greek, but have a Miss
McCurdy, a graduate of Harvard Annex. How I miss Miss Smith.' I
study Freshman Rhetoric fc Sophomore English, too, so that I write the
essays for both classes* That will keep me busy, but you know how much
I like it* I am reading Demosthenes In Greek. I'm studying Solid Geometry,
and the teacher of that is magnificent* Then, lastly, I study mediaeval
history.
I don't see as much of Louise and Bessie as I'd like to. They are so
far away, and we are all busy flying around all the time tho' I don't nearly
so hard as I did my last year at Packer. Each of my five studies I recite
in three times a week, and each recitation is fifty minutes long.
Mollie makes a lovely room-mate. She is very popular up here. Gets
acquainted so easily. She has only one fault,- and that is that she has such
poor taste in room decoration. That fault rather grates on me sometimes,
but in everything else she is a darling. I wish I had her charm of manner.
Oct. 1, 1893 - 4
But I guess I'll get along better after I get over the first strangeness.
This is strictly private. As it is, we haven't much furniture, and think
some things might be better arranged, and I wish I weren't weak-minded
enough to want a pretty room,
I haven't time to tell you any more. Only will you do me one favor*
Will you go to Miss Thurston and make her hunt up the missing link of
my gym suit. I'm sure she could find it if she looked. Don't on any
account send me yours, for I really never would have asked you to let me
take It if I hadn't tho't you had another suit, and I can easily have another
where at Packer. I am going to send Miss T. a note with this letter, but
111 be infinitely obliged to you if you'll go down and poke her up, and send
the clothes in question to me Just as soon as possible. They haven't my
name on them unfortunately, but send anything that looks like them that
Miss Thurston will give you.
Your writing from the Dakota gave me a little bit of the blues, too, to
think that you and I would never have the old good times there again. How
many things are over that we used to enjoy so much,- and chiefly, the
Dakota and our Greek class, I can't imagine Aunt Hennie anywhere else.
She may be very sure that I often think of her. Have you seen Maud, and
were you at Packer on the opening day? Always write me about everything,
made if necessary, but I'm sure that mine are some-
Oct, 1, 1893
such letters make me feel good.
Give much love to all your dear ones,
With a bushel of hugs for my
chum
from Winifred.
Winifred Kirkland, *97 to Jennie S. Llebmann, Brooklyn, N.Y.