1903-10-29: ​​~TOUR STOPS~---images---audio---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
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1903-10-29: ​tour stops---~IMAGES~---audio---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
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1903-10-29: ​tour stops---images---audio---~TRANSCRIPT~---notes---links---site navigation
Canton Ohio Oct, 29 1903

Dear Will:-

Your letter came last week telling your news.  Was very sorry indeed to hear that you had been sick.  I hope you will take care of yourself and not get sick anymore in that unhealthy place.

Thank you very much for the money Mama and I were both glad to get it.  I gave five dollars to Mrs. Smith and was going to get a suit with some of it but Alma could not send mama money to go away on so I let her have what you sent.  Alma is going to send me some money next month then if you ever have a five dollar gold piece to spare I would like to have you get me some of that stuff you got Alma.  She hasn’t gotten it yet I guess so I don’t know what it is like but I saw in the Army and Navy Journal that a brides dress was made of it so I want some.  I might take a sudden notion to get married and would have to give it up just because I would not have the proper thing to be married in.  Wouldn’t that be sad.

Mama and Aunt Mary went to Michigan yesterday and I am keeping house for Fred.  I don’t mind the work but I get so lonesome.

I am getting along well with my vocal now and have had a good many songs since you were here.  I have been singing a good deal in public too and have received lots of praise.  I haven’t had much chance to practice on the piano lately because mama has been sewing all the time getting Laura ready to go and also herself so I have had most all the house work to do.

I suppose mama told you that Laura was going to St. Louis.  She went Tuesday morning in deaconess garb.  She is to do Traveler’s Aid work there.

Now that she has gone there I wouldn’t be surprised if Fred would go too when we move to Oberlin.  We are still talking about moving and mama has really become quite anxious to go.

Grace, Mary, and Fanny Holt are coming Sunday.  They are coming out to have suits made because they can get it done so much cheaper here than in Pittsburg.

Did you know that Mabel McKinley Baer is singing in vaudeville now & she is making a tour of the country and is to be in Canton sometime next month.

The lecture course begins next month too and Susanne Adams is to be the first.  She is the dearest singer they ever had in Canton

They say she gets either one thousand or fifteen hundred a night.

June Bracken is taking piano lessons in Steubenville this winter.  She takes two a week.  She is talking about coming to Oberlin next year and staying with us.  I hope she will for we would have a jolly time.  I just love to sing to her playing.  I wish you could hear her she is a very good player.

You must have forgotten the dreadful scolding I gave you for not writing oftener or else scolding has lost its effect.  You need not think you must wait until you get your pay to write because we are glad to get your letters even if they haven’t any money in them.  I think you might write every week or at least every two weeks.  But once a month or six weeks is not very often and of course it seems even longer than that to us.  Now won’t you try to write oftener?

I wrote with pencil because this paper is so dreadfully hard to write on with a pen.  I hope it will be all gone before I want to write again.

Now do take care of yourself and don’t get sick away off there.

With much love,

Eva
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1903-10-29​: ​​​tour stops---images---audio---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
1.
The pagination for this letter looks as though it ought to be wrong, but I think I've got it correct.

2.
Was very sorry indeed to hear that you had been sick.
Somewhere or other I'm sure that there's another mention of Will being sick in the Philippines, but I couldn't find it offhand.

3.
I gave five dollars to Mrs. Smith
Mrs. Smith was apparently Eva's singing teacher.  She gets mentioned in Eva's letter about her high school graduation.
4.
I would like to have you get me some of that stuff you got Alma.  She hasn’t gotten it yet I guess so I don’t know what it is like but I saw in the Army and Navy Journal that a brides dress was made of it so I want some.  I might take a sudden notion to get married and would have to give it up just because I would not have the proper thing to be married in.  Wouldn’t that be sad.
The wedding dress joke was continued here: Haven’t you sent that jusi to Alma yet?  I do hope you will feel moved to send me some before I want to get married.

I've included this letter in: ...because it shows openness (joking, but there) to the idea of marriage.

And, because of the jusi, I've included this letter in:​
5.
Mama and Aunt Mary went to Michigan yesterday and I am keeping house for Fred.
​Aunt Mary was Mama Margaret’s older sister Mary Provines Hicks.  More about her in the Provines and Gracey section.  And there's more about the visit to Michigan in the following letter:
6.
I suppose mama told you that Laura was going to St. Louis.  She went Tuesday morning in deaconess garb.  She is to do Traveler’s Aid work there.
I googled for Deaconess garb, and found that it really was a thing, and that care went into its design because the Deaconess people didn't want to look like Catholic nuns.

This update from Eva is the reason that this letter is included in:​
7.
Now that she has gone there I wouldn’t be surprised if Fred would go too when we move to Oberlin.  We are still talking about moving and mama has really become quite anxious to go.
The move happened the following August.
​
8.
Grace, Mary, and Fanny Holt are coming Sunday.  They are coming out to have suits made because they can get it done so much cheaper here than in Pittsburg.
Grace, Mary, and Fanny were daughters of Mama Margaret's younger sister Agnes.  See the Provines and Gracey section.

9.
Did you know that Mabel McKinley Baer is singing in vaudeville now & she is making a tour of the country and is to be in Canton sometime next month.
Mabel McKinley Baer was William McKinley’s niece, daughter of Abner McKinley and Anna "Annie" Endsley.  And, of course, William McKinley was from Canton.

10.
June Bracken is taking piano lessons in Steubenville this winter.  She takes two a week.  She is talking about coming to Oberlin next year and staying with us.  I hope she will for we would have a jolly time.  I just love to sing to her playing.  I wish you could hear her she is a very good player.
I think June did go to Oberlin with the Stokeys, but I'm not really sure.
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