akohomban
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Sunday Feb 28, 1904
Dearest Marnie,
I got a notice of the arrival of the registered letter from dad yesterday afternoon, but I was too busy with my Washington’s birthday costume to go to the office after it- nevertheless I’m much obliged for it, (the cash), and am looking forward to reading the accompanying letter from dad with much pleasure tomorrow morning.
Yesterday was a very busy day for me. After breakfast until nine I studied - then I spent a most delightful hour with Miss [illegible]. She sewed and read me nonsense verses and we talked a blue streak about people and books and other things. [illegible] I went to procure seats for M. Beaucaine. A walk with Betty came next, and then we pressed out our costumes. Most of the afternoon I spent fixing clothes and sleeping. I went to see Miss Badgey. She can sew for me before April, but after that she is going away, so as soon as you decide just what I’m to have, she can begin. She charges a dollar a piece for shirtwaists, and four dollars for shirtwaist suits. I think a bright blue silk one will be lovely. My most imperative need just at present is stockings. Will you send me some, or shall I get some here? When I shall ever get time to really mend my things I don’t know. [illegible] all very well to say “Take a Saturday off” but we can’t do it. There is either something going on in a social way to prepare for, or else there is a special topic to do, and you have to dig in the library all day. I have two such productions to write this month and I shudder when I think of the work it means. One is on “Foreign Probations of England under [illegible]”, and the other is a Shakespearean topic, the subject of which I haven’t yet chosen.
Your book review in the reader I read with much pleasure. It has a very individual sound and a smoothness which betokens practice in writing. I hope you’ll have a lot more things in the Reader, which seems to me by the way to be a very pleasing magazine - not worth 25 cents a copy however. [illegible] Who are F.L.W., E.F., A.L., H.S., and F.B.T.? I think I should like very much trying to read some manuscripts this summer. It would be very good practice for me. Next year I am going to take a course in writing with Miss Buck which will be ever so good for me, even if not so interesting as the more literary courses with Miss Wylie and Miss Keyes.
Well we went down to dinner - give gallant youths and five fair maidens we were, all with powdered hair and [illegible] slippers. I wore my pretty dress again with the hat with the pink roses. We spent the time between dinner and eight o’clock dancing in J, and then!
It’s simply impossible to tell you how beyond measure delightful was the play M. Beaucaine. The girl who took the part of M. Beaucaine is Esther Saville, a sophomore. Miss Key says she is the best actress that has ever been at Vassar, and certainly hers was the best piece of amateaur acting I ever saw - oh such daintiness and finesse as she had, and yet such a lot of reserve force. You couldn’t keep your eyes off of her when she was on the stage. She was well supported too. She is tall and slender and looked the part to perfection. The play, as we gave it, ended not according to the Mansfield version but as it was originally written in the story, and it was tremendously effective. I think M. Tarpington would have been more than pleased to see the performance.
To-day, having torn my next to last corset cover all to pieces, I decided the Sabbath day would have to stand a shock, so I cut out four new ones and got halfway sewed - it may be finished in the course of a month or so.
I hope dad feels all right now. It’s been raining all day here and hasn’t been pleasant at all at all. Give my love to Miss Griffiths, and whole lots to Dad and yourself.
Peg.
Miss May Louise Shipp
1010 North Delaware Street
Indianapolis
Indiana
Dearest Marnie,
I got a notice of the arrival of the registered letter from dad yesterday afternoon, but I was too busy with my Washington’s birthday costume to go to the office after it- nevertheless I’m much obliged for it, (the cash), and am looking forward to reading the accompanying letter from dad with much pleasure tomorrow morning.
Yesterday was a very busy day for me. After breakfast until nine I studied - then I spent a most delightful hour with Miss [illegible]. She sewed and read me nonsense verses and we talked a blue streak about people and books and other things. [illegible] I went to procure seats for M. Beaucaine. A walk with Betty came next, and then we pressed out our costumes. Most of the afternoon I spent fixing clothes and sleeping. I went to see Miss Badgey. She can sew for me before April, but after that she is going away, so as soon as you decide just what I’m to have, she can begin. She charges a dollar a piece for shirtwaists, and four dollars for shirtwaist suits. I think a bright blue silk one will be lovely. My most imperative need just at present is stockings. Will you send me some, or shall I get some here? When I shall ever get time to really mend my things I don’t know. [illegible] all very well to say “Take a Saturday off” but we can’t do it. There is either something going on in a social way to prepare for, or else there is a special topic to do, and you have to dig in the library all day. I have two such productions to write this month and I shudder when I think of the work it means. One is on “Foreign Probations of England under [illegible]”, and the other is a Shakespearean topic, the subject of which I haven’t yet chosen.
Your book review in the reader I read with much pleasure. It has a very individual sound and a smoothness which betokens practice in writing. I hope you’ll have a lot more things in the Reader, which seems to me by the way to be a very pleasing magazine - not worth 25 cents a copy however. [illegible] Who are F.L.W., E.F., A.L., H.S., and F.B.T.? I think I should like very much trying to read some manuscripts this summer. It would be very good practice for me. Next year I am going to take a course in writing with Miss Buck which will be ever so good for me, even if not so interesting as the more literary courses with Miss Wylie and Miss Keyes.
Well we went down to dinner - give gallant youths and five fair maidens we were, all with powdered hair and [illegible] slippers. I wore my pretty dress again with the hat with the pink roses. We spent the time between dinner and eight o’clock dancing in J, and then!
It’s simply impossible to tell you how beyond measure delightful was the play M. Beaucaine. The girl who took the part of M. Beaucaine is Esther Saville, a sophomore. Miss Key says she is the best actress that has ever been at Vassar, and certainly hers was the best piece of amateaur acting I ever saw - oh such daintiness and finesse as she had, and yet such a lot of reserve force. You couldn’t keep your eyes off of her when she was on the stage. She was well supported too. She is tall and slender and looked the part to perfection. The play, as we gave it, ended not according to the Mansfield version but as it was originally written in the story, and it was tremendously effective. I think M. Tarpington would have been more than pleased to see the performance.
To-day, having torn my next to last corset cover all to pieces, I decided the Sabbath day would have to stand a shock, so I cut out four new ones and got halfway sewed - it may be finished in the course of a month or so.
I hope dad feels all right now. It’s been raining all day here and hasn’t been pleasant at all at all. Give my love to Miss Griffiths, and whole lots to Dad and yourself.
Peg.
Miss May Louise Shipp
1010 North Delaware Street
Indianapolis
Indiana
