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Alma asks how Will, newly arrived in the Philippines, is getting along with learning Tagalog, the local language. I haven't seen an answer to that question, but I imagine that Will's thought was probably along the lines of, "Alma, I'll send you all the plant specimens you want, but I am absolutely not learning Tagalog for you."
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Elizabeth, NJ, August 22
Dear Will,
Mama has just forwarded your letter of July 9. Please accept my congratulations on the achievement of so excellent a letter. Do it again, my dear Alphonse. How is the climate? What kind of food do you get?
Lil and I are visiting Mabel Watson. The girls left Warwick at the middle of August and Mabel wanted us to come here. It is a beautiful place. The Watsons have an immense house - over twenty rooms. The household is a very curious one - they are all freaks except Mabel. She’s phenomenally bright but that is all. Mrs. Watson and her two sisters - Mrs. Allen and Miss Hopper, and Mabel’s little ward, Orestes Cleveland, aetat five, constitute the family. Mrs. Watson and her sisters are examples of order run to seed. The whole house is suffering from the lack of a good “policing”. They never destroy anything for fear they might need it. They put things in boxes and bundles to inspect at their leisure and things that haven’t had even a preliminary inspecting lie around on tops of tables and chairs dressers and sofas. In the course of thirty years the third floor is almost impenetrable and the disease has a firm hold on the second floor and is even infecting the first. Mabel took me up to the third floor to see it in all its awfulness. I laughed until I ached. It looked as if they were moving but she said it had looked so for five years. The tendency to save has grown much worse in the last few years. Mabel laughs at it but she can’t do anything, for her mother won’t allow her to destroy anything. She contents herself with keeping her own room immaculate. Eva would be perfectly happy if she could only come here and put things in order. The rooms - the music room are especially so large that she could arrange the furniture a different way every day of the year. The music room alone is much larger than our whole down stairs.
I have been having a feast of music. Mabel and Lil play together every night. Lil says Mabel is by far the best accompanist she ever had. She has studied under the best teachers in New York and Berlin - piano & voice. She has also considerable knowledge of the violin and bass viol. Steenie is perfectly crazy over her and Mrs. Watson is very jealous of Steenie. It is unfortunate because Mabel would like to have Steenie visit here but Mrs. Watson won’t have her in the house. Steenie is visiting her aunt in Canada this summer. She wrote to me a short time ago. Mrs. Eberle says Louise’s health is very much better and she is much prettier in consequence. The girls say Steenie is very much prettier too and is very popular in New York. I am afraid I won’t see her for she doesn’t expect to return before the last of September.
We are going to New York some day this week and I will get the logarithm tables. What are you studying? I do a little at French this summer. Mabel speaks French German and a little Spanish. How are you progressing with Tagalog?
This country is a paradise for bicyclers. The roads are all macadamized for miles in every direction. We have taken a great many beautiful rides. Yesterday Mabel got such a bad puncture that we had to walk about three miles home after riding about ten miles. It was an extremely hot day.
I had a very nice visit with the Bradens before I came here. They seemed almost like themselves. They said to send love to you and to tell you to write to them.
We went to Midland Beach last week and now we are planning a trip to Coney.
I guess I have told all the news and I had better [???illegible???] and get to sewing.
Much love,
Alma
Dear Will,
Mama has just forwarded your letter of July 9. Please accept my congratulations on the achievement of so excellent a letter. Do it again, my dear Alphonse. How is the climate? What kind of food do you get?
Lil and I are visiting Mabel Watson. The girls left Warwick at the middle of August and Mabel wanted us to come here. It is a beautiful place. The Watsons have an immense house - over twenty rooms. The household is a very curious one - they are all freaks except Mabel. She’s phenomenally bright but that is all. Mrs. Watson and her two sisters - Mrs. Allen and Miss Hopper, and Mabel’s little ward, Orestes Cleveland, aetat five, constitute the family. Mrs. Watson and her sisters are examples of order run to seed. The whole house is suffering from the lack of a good “policing”. They never destroy anything for fear they might need it. They put things in boxes and bundles to inspect at their leisure and things that haven’t had even a preliminary inspecting lie around on tops of tables and chairs dressers and sofas. In the course of thirty years the third floor is almost impenetrable and the disease has a firm hold on the second floor and is even infecting the first. Mabel took me up to the third floor to see it in all its awfulness. I laughed until I ached. It looked as if they were moving but she said it had looked so for five years. The tendency to save has grown much worse in the last few years. Mabel laughs at it but she can’t do anything, for her mother won’t allow her to destroy anything. She contents herself with keeping her own room immaculate. Eva would be perfectly happy if she could only come here and put things in order. The rooms - the music room are especially so large that she could arrange the furniture a different way every day of the year. The music room alone is much larger than our whole down stairs.
I have been having a feast of music. Mabel and Lil play together every night. Lil says Mabel is by far the best accompanist she ever had. She has studied under the best teachers in New York and Berlin - piano & voice. She has also considerable knowledge of the violin and bass viol. Steenie is perfectly crazy over her and Mrs. Watson is very jealous of Steenie. It is unfortunate because Mabel would like to have Steenie visit here but Mrs. Watson won’t have her in the house. Steenie is visiting her aunt in Canada this summer. She wrote to me a short time ago. Mrs. Eberle says Louise’s health is very much better and she is much prettier in consequence. The girls say Steenie is very much prettier too and is very popular in New York. I am afraid I won’t see her for she doesn’t expect to return before the last of September.
We are going to New York some day this week and I will get the logarithm tables. What are you studying? I do a little at French this summer. Mabel speaks French German and a little Spanish. How are you progressing with Tagalog?
This country is a paradise for bicyclers. The roads are all macadamized for miles in every direction. We have taken a great many beautiful rides. Yesterday Mabel got such a bad puncture that we had to walk about three miles home after riding about ten miles. It was an extremely hot day.
I had a very nice visit with the Bradens before I came here. They seemed almost like themselves. They said to send love to you and to tell you to write to them.
We went to Midland Beach last week and now we are planning a trip to Coney.
I guess I have told all the news and I had better [???illegible???] and get to sewing.
Much love,
Alma
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1.
Elizabeth, NJ, August 22
No year given, but the mention of the logarithm tables for Will make this 1903. I don't think I've uploaded any of the other letters in which they're mentioned.
2.
Do it again, my dear Alphonse.
I assume this is a reference to Alphonse and Gaston. Wikipedia says:
Alphonse and Gaston is an American comic strip by Frederick Burr Opper, featuring a bumbling pair of Frenchmen with a penchant for politeness. It first appeared in William Randolph Hearst's newspaper, the New York Journal on September 22, 1901, with the title "Alphonse a la Carte and His Friend Gaston de Table d'Hote".
3.
Lil and I are visiting Mabel Watson.
Lily Love was originally a Canton friend who also went to Oberlin. I'm not sure exactly where Alma met Mabel, but I've put her (along with Lil, of course) into the Non-Family page for Ohio folks.
4.
Mabel’s little ward, Orestes Cleveland, aetat five
Orestes later lived with the Stokeys while attending school in Oberlin, so I have him in the Non-Family Ohio folks page. "Aetat five" is age five, aetat being a Latin abbreviation.
5.
Eva would be perfectly happy if she could only come here and put things in order. The rooms - the music room are especially so large that she could arrange the furniture a different way every day of the year.
I love this glimpse that Alma gives of her younger sister, who was 18 years old at the time.
6.
Steenie is perfectly crazy over her and Mrs. Watson is very jealous of Steenie. It is unfortunate because Mabel would like to have Steenie visit here but Mrs. Watson won’t have her in the house. Steenie is visiting her aunt in Canada this summer.
Steenie is Abastenia St. Leger Eberle, originally a friend from Canton, so she's on the Non-Family Ohio folks page. Louise, mentioned later, is a sister of Steenie's.
7.
We are going to New York some day this week and I will get the logarithm tables.
Will's request for logarithm tables is mentioned in two later letters from Mama Margaret:
1903-08-26 LETTER FROM MAMA MARGARET TO WILL
1903-09-13 LETTER FROM MAMA MARGARET TO WILL
8.
I had a very nice visit with the Bradens before I came here. They seemed almost like themselves. They said to send love to you and to tell you to write to them.
The Bradens were neighbors and good friends from Canton. Their son, John, a friend of Will's, died in September 1901 on his 21st birthday, so in 1903 they would have still been getting over it - if they ever really did.
Elizabeth, NJ, August 22
No year given, but the mention of the logarithm tables for Will make this 1903. I don't think I've uploaded any of the other letters in which they're mentioned.
2.
Do it again, my dear Alphonse.
I assume this is a reference to Alphonse and Gaston. Wikipedia says:
Alphonse and Gaston is an American comic strip by Frederick Burr Opper, featuring a bumbling pair of Frenchmen with a penchant for politeness. It first appeared in William Randolph Hearst's newspaper, the New York Journal on September 22, 1901, with the title "Alphonse a la Carte and His Friend Gaston de Table d'Hote".
3.
Lil and I are visiting Mabel Watson.
Lily Love was originally a Canton friend who also went to Oberlin. I'm not sure exactly where Alma met Mabel, but I've put her (along with Lil, of course) into the Non-Family page for Ohio folks.
4.
Mabel’s little ward, Orestes Cleveland, aetat five
Orestes later lived with the Stokeys while attending school in Oberlin, so I have him in the Non-Family Ohio folks page. "Aetat five" is age five, aetat being a Latin abbreviation.
5.
Eva would be perfectly happy if she could only come here and put things in order. The rooms - the music room are especially so large that she could arrange the furniture a different way every day of the year.
I love this glimpse that Alma gives of her younger sister, who was 18 years old at the time.
6.
Steenie is perfectly crazy over her and Mrs. Watson is very jealous of Steenie. It is unfortunate because Mabel would like to have Steenie visit here but Mrs. Watson won’t have her in the house. Steenie is visiting her aunt in Canada this summer.
Steenie is Abastenia St. Leger Eberle, originally a friend from Canton, so she's on the Non-Family Ohio folks page. Louise, mentioned later, is a sister of Steenie's.
7.
We are going to New York some day this week and I will get the logarithm tables.
Will's request for logarithm tables is mentioned in two later letters from Mama Margaret:
1903-08-26 LETTER FROM MAMA MARGARET TO WILL
1903-09-13 LETTER FROM MAMA MARGARET TO WILL
8.
I had a very nice visit with the Bradens before I came here. They seemed almost like themselves. They said to send love to you and to tell you to write to them.
The Bradens were neighbors and good friends from Canton. Their son, John, a friend of Will's, died in September 1901 on his 21st birthday, so in 1903 they would have still been getting over it - if they ever really did.
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LINKS TO OTHER RELEVANT PAGES IN THIS WEBSITE
DOCUMENT LISTS FOR PEOPLE:
- WILL: DOCUMENTS ----- Incoming
- ALMA: DOCUMENTS ----- Outgoing
- EVA: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
- MAMA MARGARET: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
- NON-FAMILY: THE BRADENS ----- Related
- NON-FAMILY: MABEL, LIL, STEENIE, AND ORESTES ----- Mabel, Lil, Steenie, Orestes
RELATED DOCUMENTS/PAGES:
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- DOCUMENTS FOR THIS YEAR: 1903
- DOCUMENTS FOR THIS DECADE: 1900-1909
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WHERE CAN I FIND THIS DOCUMENT IN OTHER LISTS?
- DOCUMENTS BY WHERE THEY WERE WRITTEN ----- New Jersey
- DOCUMENTS BY SOURCE ----- Barbara