Letter from Alma to Will: 10/25/1904
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A letter from Alma, who is finishing up her undergraduate work in Oberlin, Ohio, to her older brother Will, who is stationed in the Philippines.
1904-10-25: ~AUDIO~---images---comment---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
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1904-10-25: audio---images---~COMMENT~---transcript---notes---links---site navigation
Alma's still bugging Will to write home more, even as she thanks him for the check he sent.
And I enjoyed reading the details about her coursework.
And I enjoyed reading the details about her coursework.
1904-10-25: audio---images---comment---~TRANSCRIPT~---notes---links---site navigation
135 W. Lorain St.
Oberlin O. Oct. 25
Dear Will;
Of course we were very glad to get your letter. I don’t see how you can be so careless as to let us go from May until October without a letter just because you haven’t anything to write about. You have a lot more than we have.
I thank you very much for the check. It seems to take us a good deal to live on and it cost us a good deal to get settled. We needed new rugs and some furniture. Our house is very pretty inside. Everybody remarks about it. The rooms are very tiny but they are cosy.
Did I tell you that we got a new piano? It is a Krakauer formerly known as the Dreher. We traded our old piano valued at $75 and paid $325 cash. Eva’s piano teacher in Canton Miss Brown recommends it and several other reliable people. It has a beautiful tone and an easy action. It is a very pretty piano - dark mahogany. I think selecting a piano is about the hardest work I ever did.
Eva seems to be getting along pretty well. She has improved in piano a great deal just in a month. Miss Peck a Con teacher said that Mr. Adams, Eva’s vocal teacher, said that Eva had a very good voice. He said, too, that she had been well taught.
Fred is working well, too. Miss Harford [???], his Latin teacher, said that he is a prize. He has joined an Academy literary society. He needs the training.
I have finished all my required work so now I am taking just what I like. I have Botany (Micro-technique), Organic Evolution, and Chemistry. The work in Micro-technique consists in preparing materials for laboratory use - killing, fixing, staining and mounting. All delicate specimens have to be imbedded in paraffin. It is a very lengthy process. I counted up the different steps and there are 36 diff solutions that the materials have to go through. There aren’t many solutions really nothing but Alcohol Xylol Paraffin and some stain or perhaps several stains but whenever it is changed to a different medium it has to be done gradually. To get from water to Xylol we have to use 30%, 50%, 70%, 85%, 95% and Absolute Alcohol and to get back to water reverse the process. If a mistake is made in one place the whole work is liable to be lost. Mr. Sackett, the second assistant and I are working together. We finished our first lot of material today and had some very good results. Unfortunately one can’t tell until the end whether any of it is right. It takes great care and blind faith.
I have been learning to hone a razor. Professor Grover said I did it well. I worked an hour on one last week grinding at nicks. It was in bad shape and it nearly wore me out. The next day my arms were stiff.
Evolution is very interesting. We are reading “Darwin and After Darwin” by G.J. Romanes. It takes up the proofs of Evolution. We will take up the Method of Evolution next. I am sure you would enjoy it. I am going to send my book to Sara Laird when I have finished it. She always insisted that her grandfather wasn’t a monkey. When she finishes that she will be glad to stop with a monkey instead of going on back to the work of the dust.
We have been having a good deal of company. All the girls I know are very good about coming to see me. We have had company to supper about twice a week. Eva and I were at Talcott to spend the night last Saturday. There was a dance in the evening.
Eva was fortunate enough to get in both the Second Church Choir and the Musical Union. She almost missed the choir - she was the next to the last soprano. There were 270 applicants for about 60 vacancies.
I have given up the idea of going to New York next year. I am afraid I can’t afford it. I will try to save up a little when I am teaching. I hope I can get a good place next year.
Mama seems to be very well satisfied here. She hasn’t shown the faintest symptom of being homesick. Everybody is very friendly. A great many people have called.
Now do write often. I am sure you have plenty to say. We aren’t thirsting for great excitement. You can judge from the mild tone of our letters how little excitement we have. If you knew how much we enjoy your letters then you would write ever so much oftener.
With love,
Alma
P.S. I think it must be about time to wish you a Merry Xmas.
Oberlin O. Oct. 25
Dear Will;
Of course we were very glad to get your letter. I don’t see how you can be so careless as to let us go from May until October without a letter just because you haven’t anything to write about. You have a lot more than we have.
I thank you very much for the check. It seems to take us a good deal to live on and it cost us a good deal to get settled. We needed new rugs and some furniture. Our house is very pretty inside. Everybody remarks about it. The rooms are very tiny but they are cosy.
Did I tell you that we got a new piano? It is a Krakauer formerly known as the Dreher. We traded our old piano valued at $75 and paid $325 cash. Eva’s piano teacher in Canton Miss Brown recommends it and several other reliable people. It has a beautiful tone and an easy action. It is a very pretty piano - dark mahogany. I think selecting a piano is about the hardest work I ever did.
Eva seems to be getting along pretty well. She has improved in piano a great deal just in a month. Miss Peck a Con teacher said that Mr. Adams, Eva’s vocal teacher, said that Eva had a very good voice. He said, too, that she had been well taught.
Fred is working well, too. Miss Harford [???], his Latin teacher, said that he is a prize. He has joined an Academy literary society. He needs the training.
I have finished all my required work so now I am taking just what I like. I have Botany (Micro-technique), Organic Evolution, and Chemistry. The work in Micro-technique consists in preparing materials for laboratory use - killing, fixing, staining and mounting. All delicate specimens have to be imbedded in paraffin. It is a very lengthy process. I counted up the different steps and there are 36 diff solutions that the materials have to go through. There aren’t many solutions really nothing but Alcohol Xylol Paraffin and some stain or perhaps several stains but whenever it is changed to a different medium it has to be done gradually. To get from water to Xylol we have to use 30%, 50%, 70%, 85%, 95% and Absolute Alcohol and to get back to water reverse the process. If a mistake is made in one place the whole work is liable to be lost. Mr. Sackett, the second assistant and I are working together. We finished our first lot of material today and had some very good results. Unfortunately one can’t tell until the end whether any of it is right. It takes great care and blind faith.
I have been learning to hone a razor. Professor Grover said I did it well. I worked an hour on one last week grinding at nicks. It was in bad shape and it nearly wore me out. The next day my arms were stiff.
Evolution is very interesting. We are reading “Darwin and After Darwin” by G.J. Romanes. It takes up the proofs of Evolution. We will take up the Method of Evolution next. I am sure you would enjoy it. I am going to send my book to Sara Laird when I have finished it. She always insisted that her grandfather wasn’t a monkey. When she finishes that she will be glad to stop with a monkey instead of going on back to the work of the dust.
We have been having a good deal of company. All the girls I know are very good about coming to see me. We have had company to supper about twice a week. Eva and I were at Talcott to spend the night last Saturday. There was a dance in the evening.
Eva was fortunate enough to get in both the Second Church Choir and the Musical Union. She almost missed the choir - she was the next to the last soprano. There were 270 applicants for about 60 vacancies.
I have given up the idea of going to New York next year. I am afraid I can’t afford it. I will try to save up a little when I am teaching. I hope I can get a good place next year.
Mama seems to be very well satisfied here. She hasn’t shown the faintest symptom of being homesick. Everybody is very friendly. A great many people have called.
Now do write often. I am sure you have plenty to say. We aren’t thirsting for great excitement. You can judge from the mild tone of our letters how little excitement we have. If you knew how much we enjoy your letters then you would write ever so much oftener.
With love,
Alma
P.S. I think it must be about time to wish you a Merry Xmas.
1904-10-25: audio---images---comment---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
1.
Did I tell you that we got a new piano? It is a Krakauer formerly known as the Dreher.
Wikipedia says:
Krakauer Brothers, also known as Krakauer, was an American manufacturer of handmade, high-quality pianos, founded 1869 in New York City by the Jewish immigrant Simon Krakauer, his son David and his brother Julius.
2.
There aren’t many solutions really nothing but Alcohol Xylol Paraffin and some stain or perhaps several stains but whenever it is changed to a different medium it has to be done gradually.
xylol - a colorless flammable volatile liquid hydrocarbon used as a solvent
Seems to be used for paint stripper.
3.
Mr. Sackett, the second assistant and I are working together. We finished our first lot of material today and had some very good results.
Mr. Sackett is in the Non-family Ohio folks page.
4.
We are reading “Darwin and After Darwin” by G.J. Romanes.
Darwin and after Darwin : An exposition of the Darwinian theory and a discussion of post-Darwinian questions
1892
By George John Romanes
Available on Project Gutenberg.
5.
I am going to send my book to Sara Laird when I have finished it.
Sara Grant Laird is in the Non-family Ohio folks page.
6.
There's a further mention of the Evolution class in:
Did I tell you that we got a new piano? It is a Krakauer formerly known as the Dreher.
Wikipedia says:
Krakauer Brothers, also known as Krakauer, was an American manufacturer of handmade, high-quality pianos, founded 1869 in New York City by the Jewish immigrant Simon Krakauer, his son David and his brother Julius.
2.
There aren’t many solutions really nothing but Alcohol Xylol Paraffin and some stain or perhaps several stains but whenever it is changed to a different medium it has to be done gradually.
xylol - a colorless flammable volatile liquid hydrocarbon used as a solvent
Seems to be used for paint stripper.
3.
Mr. Sackett, the second assistant and I are working together. We finished our first lot of material today and had some very good results.
Mr. Sackett is in the Non-family Ohio folks page.
4.
We are reading “Darwin and After Darwin” by G.J. Romanes.
Darwin and after Darwin : An exposition of the Darwinian theory and a discussion of post-Darwinian questions
1892
By George John Romanes
Available on Project Gutenberg.
5.
I am going to send my book to Sara Laird when I have finished it.
Sara Grant Laird is in the Non-family Ohio folks page.
6.
There's a further mention of the Evolution class in:
1904-10-25: audio---images---comment---transcript---notes---~LINKS~---site navigation
DOCUMENT LISTS FOR PEOPLE:
- WILL: DOCUMENTS ----- Incoming
- ALMA: DOCUMENTS ----- Outgoing
- FRED: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
- EVA: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
- MAMA MARGARET: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
- NON-FAMILY: OHIO FOLKS ----- Mr. Sackett and Sara Grant Laird
GENERAL DOCUMENT LISTS:
- COMPLETE DOCUMENT LIST BY DATE
- DOCUMENTS BY WHERE THEY WERE WRITTEN ----- Ohio
- DOCUMENTS BY SOURCE ----- Barbara
OTHER RELATED DOCUMENTS/PAGES:
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