Vassar College. Sep. 21. 1896
My dear Mother,—
I must write now as fast as I can to get this in before
the nine o'clock mail. I have been so engaged with Freshmen that Z
have not had time to write before, but I knew papa could tell you that Z
arrived safe. The rest of the girls came on Tuesday, but there was not
so much to be done that day so that it was all right for me not to get here
till Wed. There were ten of us- Seniors Z mean, and our duty was to
meet aew new comers and parents at the front door, find out what they
wanted and take them wherever they ought to go- to Miss McCaleb's
office, to Mr. Dean's office and to Mrs. Kendrick1 s office - all «*on dif-
ferent floors, so that we were running up and down all the time. Zt has
been very interesting work indeed, and Z am glad Z came to do it. All
the time that Z have not been taking people somewhere Z have been stand-
ing around talking to them, here and there, answering their questions etc.
A chief part of the conversational efforts, has been to get hold of
people who had to go to the Windsor and praise up the Windsor to them
before so that they would be willing to go there and not take up a lot of
Mrs. Kendrick's time in objecting to the Windsor. We have tried to save
her time as much as possible for fche has had to be talking to people from
morning till night since Tuesday morning. The parents are a great deal
more talkative than the girls usually, and so Z have listened to a great
many parents telling me their daughter's history, present and past.
Sept, 21, 1896 - 2
There were a number of girls whom I had heard about before-
hand, one of them, Julia Tar box, a sister of the girl who roomed with
Edith Penfield in Oberlin. She was a special protegl for the first day
or two, because she felt so badly— I had her sleep up here in Ray's
bed room, and she wept on my shoulder most of the evening. But she
was soon happily settled, for she has been put in a very nice room with
two very pleasant sophomores for room mates. But since then we have
had a worse case on hand - a girl by the name of Miss Newborg - a wealthy
German Jewess from New York City. She was so very home sick Satur-
day noon that she went to Mrs. Kendrick and told her she must go home
immediately and would never come back. Mrs. Kendrick tried to per-
suade her to stay, but she could not seem to succeed, so she sent for me
and asked me if we would be willing to keep her in our room over Sunday
and tide her over the homesick period- The girl consented to come with
me and we have had her till just now- For the first hour or two in our
room she would not say a word, but just nodded her head yes or no. -
then finally she-said replied "Yes" to one question. The next step was when
she volunteered a question, and by bed time she had progressed so far as
to say that she thought she could be contented to stay if she could be in
this building. Sunday morning she had X gone back a little and wept some-
what, but the rest of the day she steadily grew more cheerful and at bed-
time said she was nearly cured. So this morning she has gone over to the
Sept. 21, 1896 -3
Windsor! The class seems to me to be a very fine class- Libbie
Poppleton is here as a member of it- I met her in the hall - and
Florence Dowling too - One of the other Freshmen told me about her
aad said her mother was here. As soon as I could find out where her
room was I went there but she had just taken her mother to the train.
I have not seen Florence yet. This other Freshman said that Mr.
Dowling had just had a call to Toledo, and they are now moving there.
We have not finished fixing our room, because Ray and
Winifred did not get here till Friday night, and I had no time to spend
till -yes* Saturday afternoon. I think we shsll have quite a pretty room. \
And it is very conveniently situated. Most of the girls in our class are
back, but about thirty have dropped out of the Sophomore class-
Ethel Chapman is here visiting Carrie Abbott - came Saturday night and
will stay till this noon. X have not had time to see her much because
Miss Newborg has been clinging to me-
I was so glad papa could stop though he did not stay very long.
I showed him most of the buildings but not much of the grounds- Ray
says to tell him she wishes he had come while she was here- Ed says
he and Wiers will stop off for two hours Tuesday afternoon. X have a
Greek recitation then but Miss Leach said she would excuse me from it.
I found the things I left here all right, and no moths. I have a time to find
room for my clothes.
Sept. 21, 1896 - 4
X suppose Lou 1s settled at home by this time and will soon be started
in college* Has Grace Thum paid the three dollars yet? I lent her two
books too, algebras - which I suppose she has returned by this time.
We have our picture of McKinley on the outside of our door - where it
looks very fine.
It is time for the mail now, so farewell — Ray sends her love — and so
do I -
Lovingly Adelaide. jClaflin}