MUCH LOVE TO ALL
The Letters and Diary of
ESTHER ALSOP BALDERSTON
Edited by
CATHY GASKILL
Copyright 2011 Cathy Gaskill
Smashwords Edition
PART I
“Wellesley emphasized service.
Its Latin motto is Non Ministrari Sed Ministrare
‘Not to be ministered unto, but to minister’”
--Living History - Page 28, Hilary Rodham Clinton
PREFACE
Much has been written about Thomas Elsa Jones, Organizer of Young Friends (Quakers), Missionary to Japan, President of Fisk University and Earlham College.
His mother Sarah Thomas Jones is quoted by his sister Frances Jones McCauley, as saying, “...without Esther he would have become just another small town country preacher.”
This biography of Esther Alsop Balderston Jones is a way for you to get to know her through her writings and drawings during the early and important part of her life. In the spirit of Quaker Truth and simplicity, I will try not to indulge in speculation or presume to enter Esther’s mind. I hope that you feel the “much love” that she sends to us all.
Her mother and father saved many of her letters. They saved all of her letters from her Wellesley College Sophomore Spring and summer in Europe, and from her ten years in Japan. There are a few others I have discovered. Here is the earliest one. It was written during the summer of 1904 when she was 13, and staying with her mother Mary and sister Catharine, at her grandmother Esther Kite Alsop’s “cottage” called “Hillside” in the Catskills near Cragsmoor, N.Y. Her father, Lloyd Balderston Jr. Had just received his PhD in Physics from the University of Pennsylvania. He and Esther’s brother John Lloyd Balderston were at the Balderston family farm in Colora, MD.
Envelope: Dr. Lloyd Balderston Jr. Colora Cecil Co. Md.
(Note added in margin of letter: Cath sends love & says she will write someday)
Cragsmoor, 8/17
My Dearest ‘Fater’ -
I have a great many things to tell thee [Quakers spoke to each other in the familiar terms used by early Quakers] because I haven’t written to thee for so long!
I have finished my Algebra to-day except a little back-work and the examination. The last Exam I took (over quadratics) I got 96.5 in. The Exam was valued at 60. Yesterday I went on a walk to “Hardscrabble” and the “Great Cavern” with Haldane Johnson, Gerrard Pit, Jay Kilpatrick, Marjorie Sherman, and Miss Florence Reeves.
There was more ice than I ever saw in Hardscrabble! The passage which we went back with candles the time thee took the big party over was entirely filled with ice and we couldn’t have gotten any water unless we had walked across the ice and dipped down a little crack beyond it!! The great cavern did not have ( or at least we did not see) any ice.
When we were coming over we went out the “lemon squeezer” and then Marjorie, Haldane, Jay and myself climbed down the crack, from where you go out to the lemon squeezer to the ground! It was lots of fun.
We went blackberrying this morning up by the widow Brown’s. Lots of them. Please give my love to John,
Love, Esther
I have placed explanatory comments in brackets throughout the letters and diary, but have tried to keep these to a minimum.
Cathy Gaskill, [Catharine Balderston Jones Gaskill] her daughter
Esther A. Balderston at 13½ - 11th Month [November] 1904
INTRODUCTION
John expelled from Westtown!
The news traveled through the Balderston family as fast as pen could get to paper and letters delivered. Then it spread among all the Orthodox Quakers.
Esther frowned with pain and the three creases between her eyebrows deepened. Her chin shook while her father, Lloyd, was describing what had happened to John, her older brother and the idol of her life.
He had entered Westtown in the fall of 1902 and the teachers, but particularly the masters, had noticed a series of “shikes” in which boys did mischief. Curiously, there was never destruction of property or harm to people. This had gone on for the better part of two years. John was an ordinary student at Westtown and did not appear to be involved in this series of violation of the rules. Finally in the spring of 1905 in a moment of weakness, one of the boys told a master that a group would decide they wanted to “shike”. They would go to John Balderston and he would describe to them his latest idea of exactly what they should do. It was always something very exciting and the only requirement was that they were to report back to him in exact detail how everything went. He never participated in the activities, but even so, the authorities had decided that he must be expelled!
When he was expelled, he is reported to have gone straight from Westtown, got a job, found a room, and lived by himself. Esther was devastated.
For the oldest son of a strict Quaker family of solid community reputation, whose grandfather Samuel Alsop Jr. had been a notable teacher at the school, to be expelled was a severe family disgrace that Esther felt keenly.
Esther had to go to Westtown in the fall of 1905. Most of the children from the Balderston family had gone to Westtown ever since 1799 when it was founded, and she must go! But how could she face the teachers and masters, and above all her many friends and the other students with such a shameful reputation her family now had?
This was a moment that changed her life she reported to her daughter. She realized that she was going to have to not only be a good student at Westtown, but above reproach in all respects, so as to salvage the good name of the family.
We have few mementos of Esther’s career at Westtown. She probably was a model of deportment, being characterized by her classmates as having “excelled among her companions in many accomplishments.” Her skill in German was noted.
She was on the Class Basketball and Field Hockey teams, and on the School Basketball team in 1907 and School Hockey team in 1908. In 1905-6 she was curator of Onaway, the literary magazine. Esther was also on Union Business Committee and was Secretary of it in the Spring term of 1908. She was a member of W.S.G.A.(Women’s Student Government Association) Council, and was on the Class Day Committee 1907. She was on the 1908 Class Book Characteristic Committee. She was Queen Esther in a Biblical tableau. She went sledding in the Winter and canoeing in the Summer. Esther was in the Elecutionary Contest finals in 1907, and in 1908, she received first honor. She was awarded a gold watch, which keeps good time up to the present.
Esther did not go directly to college when she graduated from Westtown in 1908. She and her brother John took classes at Westchester Normal School, a college where her father was teaching Physics.
Esther entered Wellesley College in the fall of 1909. It seems her nick-name was “Baldy” from the inscription in the book “Babs” by her classmate Alice Ross (later)Colver.
Here we have the following letter (kept by her mother, Mary F.) from Wellesley College.
To: Lloyd and Mary F. Balderston
219 W. Chestnut St.
West Chester, Pennsylvania
Wellesley College
13 - 2nd Mo. 1910 [February 13, 1910]
My dear Parents :
I feel as if something very wonderful must be going to happen, now that all those old exams are over, but I guess the old world will roll on much the same!
I wonder if you had about 10 inches of snow on 6th day [Friday] night? Abram Stratton says they brought both good and bad weather for to-day is clear as can be!
Well, last second day [Monday] it was 8° below here, and yet I was brave enough to wash and iron all morning. The things froze perfectly stiff before you could get them hung up. Joe [Josephine] Guion and I started to study in the afternoon, but we neither of us felt like it, so a rough-house ensued. Joe is positively the funniest little imp aged twenty, but looking about sixteen!
The next day we had no lessons assigned in anything but German and so the day was a pretty lazy one. I did a little studying for French, and talked to Lauret [Lauretta Thomas] quite some.
We had to go to Gym of course, but, joyous to relate the showers are now running and they make Gym an entirely different matter. You feel all fresh and good instead of fagged and tired!
Every morning during Midyears they have special Music after the regular chapel service, and you listen to that to calm your mind before going to an exam! French fourth day [Wednesday] A.M. was a perfect cinch. I wish they had all been. It may be like that college entrance French which I took, tho’, worse than I thought for!
Oh Father, I was quite comforted, the other day by Ruth Haven, a girl here at 641, telling me that a friend of hers, supposedly a very good hand at passing exams, flunked that same Physics!
Fourth day after-noon I spent studying German - no I didn’t at all! I went up and did Math with Lauret. I had written all the important theorems out on slips, so as to help in doing them, and she seemed to think it helped her a good deal. I’m afraid she can’t pass the whole exam, tho, for she didn’t get to the algebra at all, and didn’t get the geom. all right. They will pass her in Geom. tho’ I hope!
The next day I studied German, really, and English, and then went for a walk first with Teeny [Edith Stratton] and then with Helen, [Helen P. South] about five miles in all I guess! There was a good deal of mud and some shaded roads had not yet lost their coating of ice. There are a great many hemlocks and other evergreens around here, and they add very much to the winter views, besides giving “a mountain air” to things.
We passed the little cemetery where Carla Wenckabach is buried, I guess.
The old English Exam was horrid to a degree. I worked straight ahead for 2 hours & ten minutes on it. We have 2¼ hrs. for each exam. The exam counts very little in the grade in English.
Some teachers, and therefore I suppose, all have decided before hand whether you pass or not on the semester.
Joe and I did History that night - but first I went up and chose Glee Club concert seats. I know it is a great extravagance for me to go to that, but it is one of the great things of the year, and I just want to so much, that I am! Before choosing seats, you go in the order of classes to draw numbers for order of choice. By the time the faculty and three upper classes have chosen, there is not much left for the freshmen, and we heard all sorts of wild rumors about there being no seats left, and anyhow not enough for 96 to get any, and that was our (H’s [ Helen South] & E’s [Edith Stratton] & my) lowest number. When the time came, however, there were only about 8 freshmen there, most of them having gotten seats with upper class numbers, of people who weren’t going. Phoebe [Phoebe Riggs - ex ‘13] and I got seats one behind the other in the first and second rows of the balcony, which are really very good, and I got one behind another for Teeny and Helen, on the raised seats on the floor, so we can all see nicely.
The reason I got a better seat than they, was because Phoebe got ours on her number. You are allowed two apiece.
Well, as I before remarked, Joe and I studied History and got something done, that time and then came the German Exam, next morning. I sat beside Nan Brinton, as the Senior Faust Class had their exam. in the same room we did. It was very funny, that that morning after Chapel Professor McDougall played part of the opera “Faust”!
The exam (ours) was perfectly fair and easy. I wrote thirteen pages that time, Father!
Isn’t that History exam the funniest thing thee ever saw. Father, with those queer old maps & source questions? Mrs Hodder approves of cultivating a “historical imagination,” she says. I haven’t found anybody yet who knew about the stem duchies!
We got through in about an hour and a half. Teeny and I, so came on home. Then I started in and “plugged” as the saying is, at the math propositions I didn’t know, or at least I thought I knew the rest but it turned out I didn’t know the one about the volume of a triangular prism. I knew the figure and the general method but the exact theorem you referred to, to prove it had flown out one ear or the other, I guess!
A girl over at Eliot is going to go away at the end of this week, so she wants me to do her work for her then, and has consequently been paying me before hand by doing mine the last few days, of which I was mighty glad!
Well 7th day [Saturday] morning came and old Math. exam, and I didn’t get along very well, but I think I passed all right.
Last night we Eliot folks had a “Cavort” in the barn. Everybody went dressed in jumpers and bloomers, or else little short running skirts and we danced and played games and had the best time imaginable. H.P.S. went with me.
Edith brought her Father & Mother up and they watched us a little while. She had planned that she and I would go in to Boston after Math. exam and meet them, but when she got home she found a p.c. [post card] saying “We spent the night in Boston” so we didn’t have to go!
Oh, but Phoebe and I had an adventure last night. A postal came for her during the day, saying there was a box for her, so I thought I’d surprise her when she came back from college, by having it here. Lauret had a package (her new suit) too, so we went down together. P’s box was entirely too big for me to manage, so she & I went in the evening to see if they wouldn’t deliver it, but they couldn’t, they said, so we had to carry it between us, and we couldn’t manage it a bit well, to say the least. We were just about to give up in despair when a voice behind said “Want me to carry that for you?” The voice belonged to a very nice looking boy of 14 perhaps, who thereupon carried the box most of the rest of the way up. He should have had some of the grand nut cake and apples and things that were in it!
Abram & Hannah Stratton were at [Quaker] Meeting this morning. It is very nice to see them. Lauret wore her new suit to-day, and it surely is becoming. The color is called “walnut,” I believe, which means a sort of pinky brown, and it is extremely suited to L’s get up.
It sounds very interesting for me to be getting a silk waist, and I certainly hope for a sample.
To-night I went to supper with my advisor, Miss Snow of the Botany faculty. She and her mother live in a little flat, and the old lady is a circus! Miss Snow is rather dignified and proper, but Mrs. S. seems to enjoy shocking her!
“Now ladies” she said at the supper table, “I want to tell you, that if you want to cut your lettuce with a knife, you may do it! I shall cut my lettuce with a knife the longest day I live!” She told us innumerable tales of her pranks in boarding school, and made us hate to leave to go to vespers.
The President of “the youngest and farthest north of American (i.e. U.S.) colleges” spoke and such a funny specimen. He was a Dutchman, that is, born in Holland, but if he has forgotten Dutch at a rate proportionate to that at which he strings to-gether English, he’s pretty thoroughly American, I guess. They are in Wisconsin on Lake Superior, and the people there are mostly Slavs & Polaks [not a derogatory term in those days] and Russians, who have fled from the persecutions there.
The things they do to get an education make you shudder, out of pure pity for the poor things.
Yesterday I was lazy, purposely and designedly lazy for about the first time since I came here! I lay round and read all after-noon! Such a luxury. My book was one of Miss Griscom’s called “Pennsylvania Stories,” about college life, some of which was good.
The other day, over at Eliot, we were standing round waiting for lunch, when I spied two little wires sticking out of the wall. I supposed they were connected with some light or other, and so I grabbed them and said “now watch something happen.” Just then, Joe Guion pushed me, and the wires went to-gether a wee spark jumped and clang, went the fire - gong upstairs! Miss G. came rushing to see what happened, but decided with us, that if they weren’t to get knocked together the wires ought to have a push button attached!
I have just sung “Kentucky Babe” to P. to put her to sleep, so I guess I’d better go myself. With much love, E.
To: Lloyd and Mary F.Balderston
219 W. Chestnut St.
West Chester, Pennsylvania
Wellesley College, Mass
1 Mo - 26 - 1910
My dear Mother: -
I enjoyed thy letter very much, and hope everything is now progressing toward good health in my family! I am astounded by Cath’s weighing 120! [Her sister Catharine] She must be getting to be a regular giant!
Well, it seems to me that I spent most of my time on 2nd and third days [Monday & Tuesday] writing a German theme! We had Parzival, to tell the story & development of, and I went to Frl. Reinecke and asked her if we had to bring in the unimportant people & events? “Oh ja!” she said, with such emphasis that I decided I’d see if I couldn’t get enough to suit the lady. Result - ten pages! That isn’t bad in English but in Deutsch it is rather stiff! Speaking of stiff reminds me of Gym. I declare I have grown 2 inches since 3rd day, for “such a stretching.” Every exercise in gym seemed to nearly pull one in two! And such a day as it was to trail up to that gym. Snow, in flakes the size of, well I don’t know what, but mighty big - were coming down all wet and soggy, and the walking was atrocious! I haven’t heard from Lauret for an age! I guess she must be getting too well to do such things as write!
By the way, mother, thy last letter, postmarked 6.30 P.M. reached me by noon the next day. It certainly is ever so nice to hear on 2nd day! I asked definitely about the payment in Feb. and it is $100.00
This after-noon we had a most interesting lecture on “heraldry”. I enjoyed it ever so much. She had (she was Miss Lathrop, a Lit. faculty) painted various shields with devices and she explained them to us. One was a man who went on the first Crusade and had a silver shield with 3 red diamonds, like this. [See illustration] His name was “de Mount Acute” or “Mont Egue,” I suppose in French, and by the time the coat of arms descended to his grandson, who went on another crusade, he fixed it like this [see illustration] and his name had now become Montague! Very interesting nicht wahr [German for isn’t that so]. She told us how to know the colors when they are printed in black and white & so on. This evening I went up to College Hall to dinner with Marjorie Sherman. Her room-mate had Eliz. Albright who was May’s room-mate and we had a mighty good time! Dorothea Lockwood ‘06, who is the Registrar’s Secretary, had the great bravery to bring a man into the dining room to dinner! Imagine a poor lone man among some 200 girls! We nearly exploded afterwards when the girls were dancing in the parlor, and this man was standing at the door just hemmed in with girls all talking at once and trying to persuade him to dance! He didn’t! I saw the beautiful comet to-night. Astronomers must be feeling pretty cheap not to have discovered it until it was right here! I am feeling sort of stewy because I can’t consult with Father in person about my lessons for next year. I have to take another science which had better be chemistry, I guess, and then I want 4 hrs. Ger. And 3 hrs. French and that, with 2 hrs. required English and 2 or 3 hrs. required Bible makes at least fourteen of my possible 16 hrs. Then I should like to take about eleventeen other things. Elocution would be nice and be pleasant as well as profitable, and a course in the history of Art would also be nice. But Economics would be grand too, so what should I do? Of course there are a few days (100 or so) before this momentous question has to be decided. I must write to C [her sister Catharine] for her birthday [January 28th] to get there in time even if the banner doesn’t. I received a nice letter from Aunt E [Esther Alsop Harris] and also one from Miss Everett, this week. She asks me to find out about some tree-day exercises in the dim past, and I haven’t been able to discover a thing yet! I don’t know what is going to happen, but Miss Pope actually put some words of praise on a long theme of mine on “The Causes of the Fall of Rome”! World must be coming to an end! With much love, E
Esther Alsop Balderson's Diary February 1911
February 13, 1911
Rec'd letters from Mother & Ruby Davis [subsequently
referred to as R.D.] suggesting leaving
college for the 2nd semester [of her sophomore year] and going to Germany etc. with R.D. to study.[Ruby Davis was her language teacher at Westtown.]
February 20, 1911
Spent the past week flying around making arrangements to
leave college and went to Phila to-day. Had 15 min in
N.Y. i.e. train arr. Gn'd Central 1.45 & I took a taxi
to Penna Sta. & left at 2.00!
February 21, 1911
At Westtown making plans with R.D.
February 23, 1911
Do. [ditto] Sorry to find that I can't go to Selma Taber's
wedding and so must miss my first chance to be a
bridesmaid!
February 24, 1911
Went to H. M. [Helen Morton] Smedley's
[a Westtown classmate]
February 25, 1911
H.M.S. had a surprise kitchen shower for Selma, which
was a grand success. A dinner party in the evening
and then left for home at 9.02
February 26, 1911
The next five or six wks. spent at home getting ready
to go and doing Chemistry Experiments in Father's
Laboratory. In order to make up that work.
W.B.S. [Westtown Boarding School]
2-12-1911
Dear Mother: -
Teacher Ruby called me into # 16 yesterday after dinner and told me her plan and showed me thy letter. She asked me whether I thought it sounded hopeful or not. I said I thought you certainly would do it if it was possible. Mother, she just must go no matter what happens. Teacher Ruby is just the very best person in the world for her to go with and she must go. I don’t know what I could do to help out but I am certainly willing to do anything if she can only get to go. I haven’t said anything about it, of course. The people here don’t even know she [Ruby Davis] is not coming back in the Spring Term yet. I think it is just too nice for anything for her to think of taking Esther with her in the first place. I can easily give up having the girls come out next summer, for instance and I am sure we can work Y.M. [Quaker Yearly Meeting] vacation somehow so as to save quite a little. She just must go, that is all there is to it. … Mother dear, if Esther takes this trip, I don’t want thee to think of making me another dress as I can get along very well with that other one. … Well, I must stop and write to Esther, as it is my turn.
With lots & lots of love
From
Catharine
April 6, 1911
Mother [Mary F. Alsop Balderston] & Grandmother [Esther Kite Alsop] and I left home for Philadelphia - had a drawing room!
April 8, 1911
Sailed for Germany on "S.S.Ypiranga" Hamburg-Am.
line with Ruby Davis. About fifty people to see
us off. Many flowers gifts and letters 7th day
An Bord des Dampfers Ypiranga den 8ten Apr. 1911
Hamburg-Amerika Linie
My dear Mother,
Well we have had our dinner, seen to our chairs, and now write a little!
Thee should have seen our flowers. Besides my violets, roses and carnations, I had a great sheaf of daffodils - some from Selm and Alfred & some from Beck Carter & another huge lot of carnations from Teeny & Lauret. Isn’t that nice? I haven’t had time to open my steamer letters yet, but there are two from Father besides the lovely nail scissors! I haven’t any thee knows! Selm gave me the cunningest little leather thing for pins. It has little chamois flaps inside with multitudes of pins! The writing paper Ahaz [Helen South] sent is lovely thin Highland linen. The diary from Dorothy Drake is a leather Line a Day Book - very scrumptious. Nell’s little basket of fruit looks too good for words and everything is perfectly grand! The Fiskites [Wellesley students living in a house called Fiske] sent me the very nicest thing they could possibly have though of. It is a 1911 Legenda [Wellesley yearbook] and will be no end interesting to look at. We took our flowers into the dining room (some of them) and they really are the prettiest there - a huge bouquet - for R. D. had a lot too!
Our seats are at the Captain’s table and there are two B. G.’s there! [B.G. may mean important German]
Mother - did thee see that ridiculous Bob Davis or Nell or whoever it was who threw confetti all over me at the last minute?
It relieved the situation immensely for everybody roared and so did I - of course. That whole end of the deck is covered with it! There are only about 60 or 70 Cabin Passengers - it seems very empty now!
It certainly was grand for so many people to come down - wasn’t it? Oh - I forgot to say that Helen Smed [Smedley]gave me two boxes of candy and three boxes of crackers “to eat with it”. That is like her too, I think.
I forgot to say that Margaret Thom sent me a telegram for a steamer letter. We are sailing along past flat Jersey or Delaware or whatever it is, and might just as well be in a house for all the noise or jar there is!
Our chairs are on the side of the deck where we were most of the time and look very comfortable. R.D. says the boat seems very nice and very steady. Our stateroom she thinks is nicer than one they once paid exactly twice as much for, and altogether we are very much pleased.
Nearly all the people on the boat have German names and many of them talk German.
We are writing up in the “saloon”. Saying that makes me think that all the people around us at dinner had “light beer” or something of the sort. Our knives and forks & spoons are gigantic - to suit the German appetite, I suppose!
I must write some other letter so fare-bye.
With a great deal of love from E
P.S. There are three men in the room opposite - thank fortune the door opens farther down the hall! There is confetti all over everything in our room! I got $10 in German money from R.D.
4 mo 11th
Dear Mother & Father,
This is my “diary” to be mailed home to you when we reach Hamburg. This turns out to be a twelve day boat instead of a 10 day! We’ve had a very bad storm the last few (2) days - i.e. 1st & 2nd [Sunday and Monday] and nearly everybody was in bed! R.D. did not get up 1st day, but I stayed on deck till about 4.30 and then went down to see how she was - which move was fatal, as I stayed there until this morning! It made us feel sort of cheap, but we found that the captain said it had been a regular hurricane and that the front of the boat was damaged $1,000.00 worth - we felt better. Today is perfectly lovely to celebrate my birth-day, I suppose! Not that Mr. Sea has quieted down too much but the sun is shining and the ocean is blue and lovely - with cloud shadows here and there. We are in the middle of the Gulf Stream now. R.D. is not feeling very spry to-day - but managed to get into her chair. I am quite pert walking about, only I don’t want any of their German messes to eat! [A joking reference to the German word for meal] The steward now has a chance to fix up our room which is covered with confetti still! I had several grand birth-day letters - Teen & Lauret & Ahaz & Helen & Selm. I think the little German Testament is grand, and shall write C [Catharine, her sister] about it. Aunt Anne [Anne Balderston] gave me a cute little book of Friendship verses, and I just noticed that this writing pad which Aunt J. [Jane Balderston Jones] gave me is marked for my birthday too. R. D. said she had a box of mints for me, but considering the fact that I already have 2 she will refrain from giving it to me! I am reading a book by J. K. Bangs - “The Looking of Acre Hill”. There is a cute kid not far off who is a small Brede - I think (yes, she is) She was lying flat on her back on her Mother’s lap saying “See - See - See” (sea - sea - sea -) There are two of them dressed just alike - in gray coats & peaked caps! They have blue veils festooned around their caps - to what purpose I leave![See Drawing]
4 mo. 12
I walked the deck considerable yesterday and got to feeling quite spry. It was great to watch the prow of the boat go pitching down - splashing the water away. Did I tell you what a funny old Mr. Martin said? He remarked that he had re-named this boat - it was not longer the “Ypiranga” but the “Debutante” because it danced so well! It’s not dancing very much to-day tho! There is a young girl about 15 named Christine Stockton on board. We have been running races on the other side of the deck! She thinks she’ll go to Wellesley - but it’s five years yet so she’s not very certain! The girl sitting next to me was 1910 at Smith - haven’t found out her name. - Oh yes - it’s Legate. She knows some people at Wellesley. R.D. is reading “Pride & Prejudice” which I have read. There is a little girl on board who can speak nothing but Portuguese! She plays a little with the other children but has rather a mournful time, I think!
The Doctor is a circus. This morning while the band was playing he was dancing with some of the German girls and trying to teach them some step or other! We roar at him he’s so dapper! The captain said good morning to us - he has much “bay window” and wrinkles over his collar. (beer?)
4 mo. 13
Last evening there was lovely moon-light and we enjoyed it thoroughly. Part of the evening some of us had our fortunes told by a funny old man from Missouri! This morning was so warm that a sweater was all I needed! I actually went into the dining room for breakfast and dinner. R.D. is not able yet, so at first I stayed up with her! There are three old Germans near me, and they impressed on me that I should take beer - it was so good etc!! You would laugh though to see me march up to the little “schänke” (bar) and ask for a -- lemonade - don’t get excited. [Esther and Ruth, as good Quakers, did not drink alcoholic beverages] The lemonades are very good anyhow whatever the beers are! This morning we had quite an exciting time, The 1st officer took R. D. the Smith girl - the Stockton girl and a red headed lady (who thinks she’s a girl) out to the end of the ship to see the swirl of the water and the 3rd class quarters. Then we went all the way out to the front and saw the steerage quarters. We were a little afraid of going down on account of disease - but he said it was all right & we were interested in seeing their old bunks - trunks etc. They are Polacks [I don’t think she uses this as a derogative term] - only 27 of them. We’ve been playing ring-toss and shuffleboard on the other side of the deck to-day. But they say there is a storm coming to-morrow! Oh dear!
The Smith girl - whose name is Legate is reading Uncle Wm out loud! I found the Mrs. Brede is the one I thought. She knows Aunt Sue K.[Kite] I think!
4-14
Yesterday there was great excitement because another vessel was sighted! It was a slow English tramp and we soon passed it! Did I tell you another joke that funny Mr. Martin made? He said if the ship went down he’d just send a wireless to his son saying “The ship’s gone down - I’m the sole survivor and I’m treading water!”
A German man is cutting out dogs for one of the little Brede’s! Our chairs are now on the other side of the ship because the wind has changed. There isn’t any storm at all - it’s lovely. No music to-day because it’s good Friday. They drink beer just the same. We slept or stayed in bed till nearly noon.
4 Mo. 15
We discovered last night that the funny Mr. Martin who makes the jokes (Robert Martin is his name) used to go to Westtown! He knew Grandfather Alsop and nearly all the “top benches” [a term for important Quakers] as he says were there with him. He also knew a Sam’l Balderston minister at North Meeting and various other B’s among them Mark. Isn’t it funny how you meet people who know people etc.! There are no white caps this morning.
4 Mo. 16
The little Bredes are eating Easter Eggs and the Captain just came along saying “Fröhliche Oster” to everybody! Last night the phosphorescence was lovely. I had imagined it a sort of yellow sheen - but it looked like myriads of tiny blue electric lights turned on suddenly and then off in a second. It was lovely. The band played some killing things last night. In one they played & sang and laughed too, it was something about “Meyer - Meyer” - and all the kinds of Meyers there are! I tried to talk German a little at the table - but it’s rather difficult alone! R.D. is unable to go down yet. She is not “See Krank” [seasick], but upset as she sometimes is on land. She lived on oatmeal porridge yesterday - which has the pleasant German name of “Haberschleim”. I tease her by calling it “slime”.
We had a very gorgeous dinner to-day - Easter dinner with wonderful German frills, and pretty souvenir menus. I will save mine of course. I actually dressed up in my silk dress and new pumps and felt quite like another person from my ordinary - red clad self! Saw a whale spouting to-day.
4. - 17
They say we have passed seven steamers to-day! I have seen five I think. It really feels like getting somewhere! To-morrow we enter the English channel, just think! The birds have come again too - real live Irish or English speaking birds - I’ve no doubt! R.D. came down to supper to-night - her first time in the dining room since the first day on board. Did I mention before that many of these German men are Phila. orchestra men? One of them plays beautifully for us!
4 -18
Only it is really the 19th because I didn’t have time to write yesterday! We had a perfectly gor-ge-ous storm of wind yesterday and I spent all the time looking at it! In the morning we knew it was mighty rough but by after-noon it was _______ well mountainous! The sun was shining and all that but you may imagine how high those waves were when I tell you that way up on the top-most deck (where we stood to wave good-bye) we got just doused by the spray from one! The side of the lower deck where everybody was, was simply soaked in spite of the canvasses entirely enclosing it! And as for the deck where the gang plank was - it was often washed with a foot or so of water and there was almost continual spray over it. The waves just came piling up from the south and you’d think they were going to smash the whole ship - when she’d quietly ride up on the top - tipping however so that the rail of the lowest deck nearly went in! My it was exciting! We stood on the promenade deck at the front and watched for hours. There were rain bows large and small in the continual spray and often the old wave just piled up and launched a ton or two of itself over the rail below! The poor sailors had a hard time skidding across, and if they were so lucky as not to get soused by a wave the spray was almost as bad! We even got wet once or twice standing as we were some twenty feet above! Finally they put up the canvass there and we had to leave, but the back was exciting enough! Anyone standing where thee and Aunt Jane did would have been - well slightly damp! At supper I had to hold on to the table - for fear I’d fall under (maybe) - but it wasn’t safe to let go of knife or fork or it would go skidding across the table! It was certainly great fun (no rain you know) and I felt quite sailor like when I learned to walk the deck in a moderately straight line - Please notice I was not sea sick in this storm which was much worse than the other! R.D. was a little - I’m sorry to say!
We are now in the Channel and it seems like a lake in comparison altho it is really pretty rough. We’ve been seeing land off and on since 11.30 this morning such excitement!
4.20
I saw the white chalk cliffs of Dover this morning before breakfast. We are to have the Captain’s dinner this evening - swell occasion. R. D. feels some compunctions about letting Grandmother but especially Uncle John pay for the express of that trunk out to W.B.S. [Westtown Boarding School] and so I said I’d mention it to you just to relieve her mind. I am sitting on the floor of our state-room amid the litter of our unpacked belongings. We are just taking R.D.’s little suitcase with us in Hamburg.
4.21
They had the wonderful Captain’s dinner last night with much good things and music and illuminated ice-cream - masquerade of the stewards, etc.
We have had our last meal on the boat and every body is getting ready to get off - so fare well for this lengthy scrawl - We land at Cuxhaven and go by rail to Hamburg.
Much Love to all,
E.
Really Europe - hurray! I put the stamps on in Cuxhaven waiting room!
4-22-1911
Dear Folks,
I am beginning this letter in Hamburg at Frl. Winckel’s Pension – and upon 2nd thought I guess I shall finish it here so I might have dated it here at the top! We landed yesterday as you already know. The last few hours on the steamer were loads of fun! Everybody was rushing ‘round saying “good-bye” and “Auf Wiedersehen” and then running to the window to gaze lovingly at that real green grass and a lovely old windmill which were about the first things we made out as we approached Cuxhaven! The landing place there is beautiful – clean and nice. It surely seemed funny to say “good-bye” to the “Ypiranga” after twelve days on board her! Oh – I must tell you about funny Mr. Hinckleman who sat next to me at table. Before we left the boat he thanked me for “being so kind to him” and all that. “An old fellow like me” he said – which was all nonsense because I hadn’t talked to him very much or anything – and then after we got off he came up and said “Good-bye” again and went off saying to me “Well – I hope dot you get a good husband – you deserve one”!!! That’s German for you all right – I guess some German girls have a pretty nasty time of it!
We had no trouble at the customs, had to open nothing, and came right on here in a special express train (Schnellzug). It did not have the regular compartments, but had a door at each end of a car and a hall along one side and the seats fixed in groups of three facing each other. [See illustration] The country is lovely and I enthused all the way outwardly and inwardly. It was quite flat with irrigated farms & windmills and charming little thatched cottages of red brick with white beam work set on the outside. I’ll draw one because I can’t get any p.c.’s [post cards] of it here! [See illustration] That isn’t very good but maybe it will give you a little idea. The windows are as everywhere – casements and have many bright flowers in them, and nearly every yard, though full of chickens, wood and other things is as neat as wax! We saw lots of women in the fields working, or digging in their gardens! The roads seemed very good – tar or asphalt perhaps and were nearly everywhere lined with trees. In one place I could see about two miles, I think, all lined with a double row of elms of even height! Some of these roads were built by Napoleon they say.
We arrived in Hamburg about 3.30 and left all our baggage at the station except the little suitcase of R.D.’s. One other lady from the boat came here with us. We have quite a nice room on the 3rd floor – the meals seem good too. I am charmed with Hamburg! The first funny thing I saw was a baby carriage! All the babies ride backwards from the little Lord Fauntleroys in velvet and lace to the chubby little fellows in leather aprons! Then right on the next block was a dog cart – with a big black dog hitched to one side and a man pulling a strap on the other to help! The police all wear swords and helmets with gold points sticking up. They also, in common with many German men, nearly all wear little turn up moustaches. A style set by the Kaiser I suppose.
This morning when we got up the children were all going to school. They wear little knapsacks on their backs to carry their books in – and the smaller ones often have a nurse with them.
Yesterday we walked down to the Alster which is a river sometimes broad and sometimes narrow bordered here by the finest shops and hotels and above by beautiful residences. I am sending you a picture in a roll which I think perhaps I can have framed sometime. Jungfernstieg is the largest street. This morning we had our breakfast of rolls & butter & coffee (we’re not going to drink coffee always!) and then started out. First we had our money changed at the Am. Ex. Co. [American Express] then sent our trunk on to Berlin and while in the station got weighed! I haven’t been weighed since October 1909! I weigh 54 Kg. which I make out as 119 lbs. – quite a little for me. R. D. [Ruby Davis] is 114 lbs. We didn’t gain anything on the boat (especially R.D.) and I was thin before I left you know. [Esther was 5 ft. 3 inches tall] … After accomplishing this important transaction we took the “ringbahn” – a trolley going around the city. We went all through the old city with its queer tall and narrow houses and canal streets full of barges being poled by a man or two. Now I must go to bed.
4.23.1911
In this course of the Ringbahn ride we passed the Bismarck Memorial of which I have sent you a picture. (please keep these p.c.’s for me) After this we took a little steam boat on the Alster for 5 cents round trip. People use them as trolleys - sort of – going to their homes near the landings. You will see the little steam boats in the picture. After this we walked about a little and met about half of the passengers of the “Ypiranga”! After lunch we and Mrs. Hildeburn, a steamer acquaintance who is at this house went out to Hagenbeck’s “Tierpark”. Do you remember seeing his trained animals in Phila. at the Export Exposition? This is a zoo and considered very fine. We thought the variety of animals good and the artificial rocks for the goats and cave for the bears very imposing – but the whole affair rather small and not to be compared with the Bronx! [Zoo] We met one friend there tho. As we came up to the enclosure where the camels – ponies etc were, we were greeted by the loud braying of a little gray burro, who came running down to the bars to meet us. He recognized his countrymen all right!! I petted him and told him we could speak his language and knew all about it!
I’ve discovered too, that the dogs and cats speak good plain English, and that people can’t laugh in German!
This morning we went to church in the St. Nikolai Kirche – a very large edifice much ressembling [sic] Cologne Cathedral R.D. says . The preacher looked like an old Burgomeister (modern ones too I guess) with his pointed beard, white ruff and black gown. We could understand pretty well – the greatest difficulty was the echo of his voice. The organ is one of the largest in the world – too large I think for you couldn’t hear the singing at all and felt as if your ears were bombarded all the time!
After church we went walking – looked in shop windows and at the Kaiser Wilhelm Denkmal, [Memorial] seeing also a house where Klopstock once lived and a Lessing Monument. Then we went into the Rathaus, (courthouse or Town Hall). It is very beautiful with different rooms for committees and banquets besides the “Senate & House” for Hamburg is a free Hansa city, coining it’s own money etc. There is a beautiful ball room too for the “Festlichkeiten”. [Festivals] After dinner we started out for a private Art Gallery but found it closed. However we saw about 6 people from the boat, talked awhile and then proceeded to the Kunst halle (art gallery) for an hour. There are two or three Bonheurs one Corot three or four Troyons and any number of mediocre modern German productions there. We were not impressed.
We are just getting a bit acquainted here & must move on to-morrow morning. There is a very nice English girl who has lived in Australia. When we said we came from around Phila. she said “Let me see - that ‘s in the Rocky Mts. isn’t it?” And she seems very intelligent - too! With a great deal of love, E.
Neue Wilhelmstr. 2
bei Frau von Ehrenthal
Berlin
4 26 1911
Dear Folks,
Above is the address to which you can send one or two letters after receiving this! You already know that we arrived here I suppose, for my Hamburg letter was mailed from Berlin. When we arrived at the station we found that the train started 10 min. earlier than we had thought so we had no time to mail letters. We had quite a terrific time to find a boarding place here driving about for well on to two hrs! We found several rooms but they were all too expensive and we were determined not to pay more than M. 4 ($1) a day. We finally found this which is only two blocks from Unter den Linden, and is therefore central (and noisy!) We have two rooms tho which is more than we expected. One is fair sized and the other small opening into it with double doors. The amount of furniture they contain is really appalling! There are four tables of various sizes, one wardrobe bed wash stand chiffonier sofa of course and two chairs in the larger room while in here are a bed wash stand wardrobe sofa chair table and a huge big old fashioned desk with boundless room in it! I am writing at it now. We have to spread our few belongings about in thin layers to make any pre*se of using all the space, and in fact we really wish some of the furniture were in Guinea so we could have a little more breathing space! Of course each room has a huge tile stove in one corner too! Our long cab ride was rather expensive but only half as dear as at home and then we went rolling down the Sieges allee where Kaiser Wm. has statues of his ancestors, and we should have had to do that sometime anyhow, so we felt comforted! That after noon we went to the Am. Ex: Co. for mail but found none. It will seem much nicer after we have received our 1st letters forwarded from Paris! The city is really very beautiful. Unter den Linden as you know has very small trees but the Tiergarten [animal
garden](there are no "Tiere"[animals]) is lovely. The trees are about half way out and there are flowers every where and birds. We intend to study out there a lot. It is very warm that is I mean not cold at all here and I cannot wear my red dress at all I guess! Ycterday morning we went to see Frl. Klemm. She is very nice indeed but unfortunately has not changed her plans and is all packed up! So we
went to Frl. Von Zitzewitz (please notice that we associate only with people who have von in their names!) She is a cunning little lady and will give us the work in idioms and Goethe all right I thinl1and for two marks (50 cts) a lesson! Hurray!
We are changing our plans a little. Here in Berlin we expect to take lessons only in idioms and Goethe and then to stay only five wks (i.e. until June 1 st). Then we go on to Dresden (notice change in my "Gehenschmitz" to Weimar Jena etc. and, if R.D.'s friend Frau Wolber is to be at home we shall stay there three weeks say and take the other course which I have to make up! There is a university there and we could get private lessons from a professor probably. From there we would proceed as before planned. The reason we do this is that we think I can do better at my work if I do not do so much at once, but finish this work here and start fresh on the other!
Yesterday after noon we went to "Werthheim" the largest store
in Germany. It has perhaps half as much ground space as Wan."s,
[Wannamaker's] and is four stories high maybe! Nevertheless I got
some beautiful towels there for Selm., six for about $2.75 that's 45
cents apiece and I really think I could not have gotten them as nice
under at least .75 apiece or maybe a dollar at home. They are big,
huck ones with damask figures in them. Along the ends they have a
damask strip with three big poppies in it and then there are little
poppies here and there over the towel. I think they would not know themselves in that picture but they are really very pretty and I hope she will like them. I am just going to put a big T not so big in proportion as the one I drew, on it. The towels are huge! These were a little cheaper because they were not quite the usual length the man said but they were plenty long enough for me, (they are about 40 or 45 inches) since the others seemed like table cloths to me! You can see them because I'll not send them to Selm on account of duty. She is probably to be married before we get back. Did I tell you that Alfred said that the first thing they knew if they kept making the wedding sooner and sooner, they would find they'd been married some time ago! Crazy nut!
4 27 So far, I have not been able to find any paper letters so I may have to get the towels stamped. We go to our first lesson today. Much love to all,
E.
We are speaking German quite spryly (to each other!) I will tell you about the people here in my next.
Neue Wilhelmstr. 2
Pension V. Ehernthal
Berlin
4-28-1911
Dear Father and Mother, -
To-day we received our first letters from home (or anywheres) and are therefore quite sot up. … We are having a great old time with the German. When we are to-gether we (I should say I) often get wound up and talk quite some, but then I can stick in English words when I don’t know the German – but at the table it is different! The other day we got to laughing so hard on the street over such foolishnesses that we decided people would think we belonged in the “Tollhaus” (madhouse). For instance – I would say in the train “Diesen Zug jiggelt mich” and R.D. to-day called me a “Snacherin”! Fifth day we had our first lesson with Frl. Von Zitzewitz and to-day another. She promises to be very interesting and I like her very much too. If I can only learn enough in five weeks! Yesterday we were walking down Unter den Linden on our way to the P.O. [Post Office] when we heard a peculiar auto horn and saw all the soldiers along the street and many of the men salute or lift their hats. The Kaiser [Kaiser Wilhelm II] had gone whizzing by in his auto, and we had caught only a glimpse! A very ordinary looking auto with only this peculiar horn. Whenever the Kaiser is in it there is a flag on the front so the soldiers know when to salute! There are beautiful shops all along unter d. Linden, and we like to look in the windows. The Post office (branch) is back in a little court off this street of streets. We were much amused by the “stamp machines”, You put in a 10 pf. [pfennig] piece and get out a stamp – like a chewing gum thing!