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Oct. 1, 1916
Oct. 8, 1916
Oct. 15, 1916
Oct. 22, 1916
Oct. 29, 1916
Dear Mother,
My paper is late today so I am writing my letter in the morning.
I enjoyed your interesting letter very much, and am glad you
have had a couple of good outings. My only motor rides since
I have been down here have been the jitney trip between Millville
and Bridgeton, and a couple between Mrs. Winch's and the post
office with MacDougall when he is here. He has asked me to come
up to Hammonton to see him some Saturday and then ride down here
in his care in the evening when he comes to see Miss Hodgson,
and I expect I shall be doing it one these fine days. It was
certainly a surprise to learn about Ralph's automobile.
Mr. Winch has been in bed most of the week, and has had some
bad spells, but he seems to have been improving steadily for
about a day and a half, and I hope will keep it up. The trouble
is he wants to get up too soon when he does feel a little better,
and if he had stayed in bed where he belonged all week, instead
of getting dressed and going downstairs every once in a while,
I think he would be better now. He has not had severe attacks
this week, as he has taken some nitro-glycerin tablets the doctor
gave him, whenever he felt an attack coming on.
I have worked leisurely most of the week and expect that school
will open tomorrow. However the Board of Education and Board
of Health are in a row about it. The former having voted last
night against the recommendation of the latter that it be postponed
another two weeks. And the latter maintaining that school will
be postponed anyway; so what the outcome will be I don't know.
In the meantime there will be a session tomorrow, I imagine;
the only thing that will be done will be registration and choice
of courses by the pupils, and then we teachers will need the
rest of the day in putting the results together, so that the
pupils on Tuesday can be told at just what hours their classes
come, particularly when they have courses in which there must
be more that one division.
Dr. Whitney hasn't appeared on the scene yet, but I hope will
arrive before tomorrow morning; the Board was all out of patience
with him because he appeared so late before, and I don't know
what would happen if he didn't come tomorrow; Probably they'd
wire him not to bother to come at all. You ask me how I like
him on the whole; of course as he hasn't been here the past two
weeks I can tell you little more that I have told you already.
It does rather appear that he is pretty confident in the correctness
of his own views, but I do not believe that he will be hard to
get along with, and Carey feels the same way. However arbitrary
he may turn out to be, I hope that he remains, because his place
would probably be taken by the manual training teacher, one Myers,
who is shifty and unscrupulous, a man in whom I have no confidence
whatever. About Dr. Whitney's editorial work, I don't know definitely
what he was doing this summer, but I think he was working on
some book he is writing, as he has already written some books,
two that I know of on pedagogical subjects, one called the "The
Socialized Recitation," and the other "Moral Education."
Friday evening I attended an impromptu watermelon party at a
certain Mr. Price's, where some of the grammar school teachers,
two to be exact, board. All the other teachers at Mrs. Winch's
went down, also Carey, and about five other teachers, some of
the High School, some of the grammar school. Mr. Price had gotten
four of the largest watermelons I ever saw from Turkahoe (?),
out in the country a bit, and one of these was enough to feed
the whole of us. To show you how large those melons were, the
four together weighed 193 pounds, and it was delicious. I succeeded
in establishing my usual reputation in the watermelon line, and
I trust, without loss of dignity or good manners. I furnished
some piano music and Hiss Hodgson did some singing, and there
was music of the chin variety in abundance from everyone. Poor
Carey in an ill advised moment a few nights before had asked
the difference between tatting and crocheting, and as most all
the teachers were doing one or the other, he was called on to
express opinions on the pieces they were doing; and whenever
he is among the teachers at anytime and the matter of tatting
or crocheting is under discussion, someone will say "Let's
ask Mr. Carey." The teachers seem to like him; he has a
reserve which commands respect , and at the same time makes them
like to see what he'll say in such things as this fancy work
topic; and, I believe, feel that he is good, principled and honest
as I know he is.
Thanks you for sending the snap shots; I am mighty glad to have
them. It was a surprise to know that Miss Stieberitz was up in
Cromwell, and I am glad Lucinthia got a chance to meet her. I
suppose Lucinthia got off last week and will get at work as soon
as I do, despite my five week's start. Do you know of anyone
that would be likely to ask for my tickets to the Yale-Harvard
game this fall? I have a request for mine from a fellow by the
name of Lindsay, at L. F. & C [ note - this must be
Landers, Frary & Clark in New Britain where he worked previous
to Pleasantville], and whom I would be glad to favor,
but if any of my relatives wanted them I would rather give them
first choice. I have already written Raymond, and if he says
he doesn't want them do you think it would be well to write Uncle
Ed? Or anyone else?
I really don't know how far Princeton is from here, but I should
guess that it was about seventy five by rail. The letter you
forwarded this week was from Grumman in Bridgeport. He is still
studying at New Haven, preparing eventually to go permanently
to Yale in China. I learned in the Alumni Weekly that Sid Lovett,
one of my class mates, had lost his wife, to whom he was married
in the early part of this year, I think. It is a great pity and
seems very hard; Lovett is one of the finest men I ever knew,
and had a particularly beautiful character, I don't know what
was the matter, the item only said that she died suddenly.
I find there is still another address that I would like. John
Schwieters'; you will find it in my class book on the rack in
the parlor - Somewhere in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but I can't remember
it.
The laundry didn't get off until Friday morning as I forgot it
Thursday. At the rate it has been coming down here from home
I imagine you got it by Saturday night. The extra bathrobe got
down here last week, and thank you.
I got a letter from Mr. Wachter this week, just a personal one
in answer to one I wrote him awhile ago. My successor there didn't
last but about three weeks. C.F. forced Mr. W. to fire him on
account of irregularities in work in former department, discovered
after he changed.
I hope all are well and send love to everybody,
Very affectionately
Sylvester
Dear Mother,
School finally commenced Monday, and what became of the feud
between the Board of Health and Board of Education about it,
I don't know. I have heard of no further efforts on the part
of the former to close down. On Monday of course there were no
classes; in the morning the pupils registered and made out their
choices of courses, until about ten-thirty; in the afternoon
they were notified as far as possible about their textbooks and
first assignments, their being brief, ten minute periods for
this purpose. The last two hours in the morning we spent in teachers
meeting, and the afternoon from two o'clock on in distributing
the pupils names into the different periods where a subject was
given in more than one period. All this is not as easy as it
may sound; at least we didn't leave the building until five o'clock
or thereabouts. As I believe I wrote you sometime ago, Miss McClellan,
Carey, and I have the downstairs rooms, where the Freshman have
their desks; it has been up to us, therefore to take care of
the Freshman. On Monday morning we grouped them all in my room,
got their names, ages, parents names, etc., by way of registering
them; then I gave an extended talk on the various courses between
which they might choose, supplemented by a remark or two from
the others. There is the Classical, the General, and the Commercial
Course; if they choose the Classical, there is no further choice
of individual subjects for them; but if they choose either the
General or the Commercial three subjects only are required, and
the other is elected from three alternatives in the former, two
in the latter. Of course the chief thing to talk to them about
was the meaning of the three courses and of the electives where
there was a choice of subjects to be made. We talked up the General
course pretty strongly as against the Commercial, and a lot more
Freshman are taking the former this year than for some years,
and a lot less taking the latter; how much was a result of our
talk we can't measure, but all the teachers are glad to see things
come as they did,
Of course a number of Freshman subjects require more than one
class to accommodate all the pupils taking them; therefore we,
that is Miss McC., Carey, and I had to spend quite a little time
arranging the lists Monday afternoon so that no one should have
any conflicts. As a matter of fact, we were not successful, although
I didn't discover it until the next morning, when I started reading
off the class lists to the Freshman assembled in my room for
the occasion, and found that most everyone that was scheduled
for English first period was also in the first period General
Science class. I made some impromptu changes so that they could
get along for the day, but at the end of the day I had them hand
in schedules I had asked them to make out as I read off the names.
Then I rearranged the class lists, so that the classes would
be divided up evenly, checked them up with the individual schedules,
went over the latter for bad arrangements, such as no recitations
in the afternoon, corrected these, then made out new individual
schedules for each pupil, and class lists for each teacher. This
took until six o'clock, but since then everything has gone first
rate, and classes for the last three days of the week have been
running on regular permanent schedule. An extra period has been
added, and there are now three in the afternoon instead of two,
regular classes being over at three o'clock.
Dr. Whitney appeared the last minute again; it seems the reason
for his staying away so long on both occasions is that his father
has been very sick, having suffered a stroke of paralysis a while
ago. Monday evening Carey and I went around to see him, and I
got my long belated chance to make my report on text books and
reference books. He accepted my recommendations bodily, which
included new text books for Mediaeval and Modern History and
Civics and reference books for American History and Mediaeval
and Modern History. In Civics I could not make as definite a
report as in the other subjects; instead of definite recommendations
I made an outline of the various phases of the subject for which
I should like reference books, and opposite each one wrote in
the name of some book or books which covered the field; as most
of them were books which I only knew by title, I didn't want
to narrow it down to a choice of one, where there were more than
one, without seeing if he had any preferences between them, provided
he happened to know the books. So between us we decided on that
list; and I hope he will be able to get them, as well as the
history reference books. There is not a Civics reference book
in the school library, and the quantity of history reference
books is none too generous.
I did little teaching on either Monday or Tuesday, having most
of the burden of the Freshman on my shoulders, but on the last
three days of the week have been right at it.. In American History
we have been able to start right off with the text book, as we
are using the same ones they had last year, and the same applies
to my Algebra course, in which I have two classes. It seems so
strange to be teaching algebra! In Mediaeval and Modern History
our textbooks have of course have not yet arrived, and I have
therefore had to do most of the talking, asking them questions
wherever I can. The first couple of days I gave a brief outline
of the growth of man from his crudest stages and the history
of the world up to the fall of Rome, where the study begins.
Then, beginning in the middle of the period Thursday, and continuing
thru Friday I discussed the geographical basis of European History
and incidentally tried to find out what they knew about European
geography; as I expected, their knowledge wasn't vast. I created,
I think, quite a little interest Friday by asking a number of
questions to find out the pictures in their minds of the shape
and boundaries of European countries, and the general topography
of Europe, and then disallusionizing some of their pictures by
springing a real map on them. Tomorrow one of the class is to
give a report on some outside reading she has done on the Germanic
tribes of the early centuries, their invasions of the Roman empire,
and also the inner causes of the Fall of Rome. Tuesday I think
I shall discuss the history of the early christian church up
to the time the study begins, because it played such an important
part in European History in the Middle Ages.
As I said before, it seems quite strange to be teaching Algebra,
but I think that I shall have no trouble with it, particularly
as it will only go as far as quadratic equations. Dr. Whitney's
new schemes of supervised study, and so on, are not yet in effect,
and probably will not be until he finishes the discussion of
them in teachers meetings. I haven't of course gotten a chance
to know about my pupils real well yet, particularly in the large
Freshman algebra classes. In my American History class I have
eight pupils, the whole Senior class; in the other History course,
about a dozen pupils, of the Sophomore class. In each algebra
class I have about twenty five pupils (there are sixty in the
Freshman class). I know most of the people in my classes by name
already, and know to a certain extent who will be the dull ones
and who the bright ones in my history classes.
At the last minute they had to put a lot of old desks in the
high school as the new ones didn't come in time, and they haven't
yet gotten the seats for the first floor in the assembly hall;
the furniture that is short will probably come off and on until
Christmas, and I hope by the first of the year they will be fully
and permanently equipped. Carey's and my rooms are the only ones
which have decent desks; the rest of them have old double desks
or seats without desks temporarily.
Saturday I took the trip up to Hammonton, which I mentioned a
week or two ago. I left here about nine o'clock and got up there
in about a half an hour (it's about half way to Philadelphia).
MacDougall met me at the station and we went around town in his
car thru the morning; first to a vacant lot where different members
of the Boy Scouts had plots of land on which they had grown vegetables
or flowers and on which MacDougall was one of a committee to
make awards for best care taken of plot thru the year, most interesting
and so on. From there we went out to a Mr. Kind's who is a large
florist, his specialty being dahlias, and according to his story
he has sold practically every blossom that has come out this
year. He devotes one section to testing and experimental work,
and has in that section over four hundred varieties, and there
certainly are some beauties. The one that struck my fancy most
was a very deep, almost black red cactus dahlia.
Hammonton is a great peach section, also grape and berry section,
Around it practically every bit of land is under cultivation
and utilized, and there are a number of very well-to-do farmers
there. Thru that section there are very many Italian farmers,
and they are also are several of them very prosperous. Hammonton
is a much pleasanter town than Pleasantville; it is very shady,
and we have no shade; and it's business center is more up-to-date
looking: I imagine it's a little larger, anyway, although it
doesn't seem so.
MacDougall, as I have probably said before is the instructor
in the vocational school of agriculture there; he has a room
fitted out in the center of the town, where classes and lectures
are held, and then he has to go out around a great deal, as all
the outside work, practical work done by the students in connection
with the school is at their own places; consequently he has to
go around and supervise and inspect this work. He's also frequently
called into consultation by farmers in the neighborhood, who
are having troubles with their crops or animals for which they
are unable to find the cause.
We started back for Pleasantville in his car, an Overland runabout,
about half past three, taking about an hour for the ride. Along
the road a large portion of the way there is this unused wooded
land, covered with fairly young and low growth, interspersed
with the inevitable Southern New Jersey scrub pines, and covered
also, MacDougall tells me, with half rotted stumps of other growths,
which make the land difficult and unprofitable to clear. For
one stretch there are a number of tracts which were sold to easy
marks by enterprising land speculators, but very little land
around them is cleared, and they don't look as though they gave
anyone much of a living. The most striking thing about the trip
was that there are about eighteen miles of absolutely straight
road, from a couple miles out of Absecon, just above Pleasantville.
I enjoyed the ride very much; the country is of course quite
pretty now, although the large amount of dust on these roads
rather spoils the appearance of the roadside trees.
Have you read in the papers about the hold up and murder in Hammonton
last week? A man by the name of Ryder, who owns a great many
large cranberry bogs at Atsion, north of Hammonton, with his
brother, his daughter, and another man were driving out to the
bogs Thursday morning to pay off the men, and in a lonely stretch
of road were held up by a number of masked Italians, probably
his own laborers. The daughter was driving and didn't stop, but
the robbers were armed and made free use of bullets, killing
the brother and wounding all the others; the woman kept on driving
even after she was wounded and eventually got to the nearest
town. These were people whom MacDougall new well, or rather,
all except the brother who was visiting there from the West.
And Saturday afternoon I saw the car, which was the one they
used, in a garage at Hammonton, plentifully dotted with bullet
holes.
Mr. Winch has been getting worse this week, and his attacks are
coming with greater frequency; the only thing that relieves the
pain now is the hypodermic injection of morphine; and I am afraid
that his days are numbered. His daughter from Wilmington, Delaware,
a Mrs. Smith, has been here since Wednesday, helping Mrs. Winch
as much as she can.
The "old friend" arrived in due time, and apparently
it didn't cost much more to send him than we have been paying.
Thank you for the oranges enclosed. You ask me about the cereal
breakfasts; we have shredded wheat two or three times a week,
and the other mornings oatmeal, and good oatmeal, with cream
of wheat as a change once in a while. We also have eggs or some
meat like liver and bacon or croquettes and some hot muffins
or hot rolls, which Mrs. Winch certainly does know to cook; beside
that I have a special cup of cocoa every morning; I didn't ask
for it and tried to induce Mrs. Winch not to bother with it but
she wanted to make me something, so I take it, and it tastes
fine with the muffins or rolls.
That new armored car of the British just "eats 'em alive",
by the sound of the stories about it; I suppose its virtues have
been at times exaggerated, particularly when the enthusiastic
observer talks about the mowed down trees, and about when such
and such car took its first house, but I guess its a pretty effective
machine.
Raymond is going to use my tickets to the Harvard game; its fortunate
no one else did want them; and I intended to word my last week's
letter that any offers made were contingent on his reply to the
letter I had written him.
Just what I can or shall do about election time, I don't know
yet; shall let you know as soon as I do. President Wilson seemed
to have a pretty cordial reception on his trip out to Omaha last
week; I think he will get a great many more votes in the middle
west than the Republicans think for. As far as I can judge, the
fact that he has kept the country out of war appeals to the voters
in that section particularly. Oh, I do want to see that miserable
Hartford Courant eat its words on the 8th of November!
I hope Uncle Bill is feeling better again. Tell him for me he's
got to quit staying out nights.
Thank you for sending along Lucinthia's letter. I enjoyed reading
it very much. The Constitutional Government and International
Politics courses look interesting and I hope she finds them profitable.
Of course the others will be so anyway.
There are a few other things that in a less eventful week I would
probably write about, but it past time to go to bed; and we'll
continue in our next.
With much love to all
Sylvester
Dear Mother,
I have just seen Sam Sewall off to Philadelphia after a visit
from him thru today. He has only been in Philadelphia about ten
days, and last night called me on the telephone and arranged
to come down for the day. Needless to say, I was mighty glad
to have him do it, and we arranged it so that I met him today
at Atlantic City about eleven o'clock. We wheeled around the
Boardwalk until five minutes of twelve, and then came out to
Pleasantville. He took dinner with me at Mrs. Winch's and spent
the afternoon until half-past four; MacDougall drove us up to
the Absecon station then, where Sam took his train for home.
He has had some trouble with his knee the past year, was once
in the Philadelphia hospital he has been in before, and for quite
a while this summer was in a hospital at Keene, NH. Both occasions
were, I believe, the result of falls he had on the bad knee.
He is, however, quite well in that respect and every way now,
although of course he limps and I imagine always will some. While
at the hospital in Keene, he met and saw a great deal of a Mr.
John Winch, who is own uncle to Mr. Winch here, so of course
he and the Winches had something in common right away. Wasn't
that strange? Sam has liked his law work more and more as he
has gotten into it, and now seems very much enthused over it.
I am very glad it turned out that way, for I had grave misgivings
of the outcome when he started the study so reluctantly. I hope
to see him down here again before long.
The week past has kept me busy, but don't believe it will prove
to be unique in that respect. So far I haven't had more than
enough time to prepare work day by day, but hope I shall soon
be able to plan things further ahead, and do other things necessary
aside from planning recitations of the daily assignments, such
as doing extra reading myself so as to be able to bring in more
interesting and instructive sidelights, preparing topics and
references for outside reading, and so on. My Mediaeval and Modern
History text books haven't yet come, so I have started the class
studying temporarily some English History text books that are
on hand.
By a chain of circumstances, I am taking charge thus far of the
training of the football team. Would
you believe it? Cruse was hired for the Athletics man at the
high school, but he hasn't seemed disposed to take care of anything
but baseball and track; and early last month when we first came
together he asked Carey and me if we couldn't come out do and
a little football coaching, but at the time we gave him little
encouragement. When school began, Cruse hadn't started anything
in the line of football practice before a couple of boys came
to me and wanted to know if I couldn't come out that particular
night or very soon, to help out the team. I told them some or
all of us would come out as soon as we could, which was about
two nights after that; but in the meantime Cruse had decided
to go to Philadelphia to have his appendix, which had been troubling
him for some time, and excessively so for some days previous,
removed. He expected this would take a month, so whether he had
been going to do anything about the football situation or not,
this would cut him out of it. So Carey and I went out and watched
the boys the first night we had the opportunity, about a week
ago Thursday, and talked the situation over with some of them,
particularly with reference to possibilities of getting a coach
from outside; telling them that as neither of us had played football
at college or school, and our only knowledge of the game was
from a spectator's standpoint, we hardly felt that we could give
them proper training alone; it goes without saying that to try
to bluff the boys along that we knew the game, would soon reveal
our ignorance, and seriously lessen, if not destroy, any respect
they would hold for us outside or in the classroom. And to have
a coach from outside is not a new thing. Well, by Tuesday, I
succeeded in getting the services of a certain Thomas Wootton,
a young real estate man in town, to come out two nights a week;
he has played and coached football before, so knows the game,
and is a first rate fellow who could have none but a good influence
on the boys; in addition to this he is giving us his time, which
is of course very much appreciated. I go out to practice every
night (from 3:00 to 5:00) whether it's his night or not; when
he is there I go to watch him, and when he's not there, I keep
the boys going along the lines he has started them on, or depending
to suggestions he gives me in private. Besides, one of the teachers
has to be with them anyway, to be responsible for their good
behavior after they return to the school.
Cruse got cold feet on his operation when he got to Philadelphia.
And appeared on the scene again Monday morning; he has been out
to practice only once, however, and although he can give the
boys more original good pointers than I can, I think I'd rather
just as soon now that he'd stay away, as he might try to undo
some of Wootton's work when the latter isn't present, and needless
to say I have more confidence in Wootton than Cruse. I hope with
Wootton's help, or rather, direction, we shall be able to turn
out a decent team. However, it the last thing I ever expected
to be doing; but it will do me no hurt, and more likely do me
good to be out in the air that amount of time, also the knowledge
I myself gain may prove useful, and it may help me along in my
personal relations with the boys.
There is a Yale '82 man living here in Pleasantville, whom I
met a couple of weeks ago. He is a Mr. McMillan; a man very much
interested in boys, and in all civic activities of a wholesome
character. He has asked Carey and me to come around to his Boy
Scout meetings sometime, and probably we shall; but I would hardly
feel that I could make a regular practice of it. With all the
other things I have on my hands. I spent the evening at his house
last Tuesday, meeting his wife, who is a Smith graduate, and
a woman who takes a great deal of interest in the affairs of
the world, very intelligent, interesting, and pleasant. They
are people who I am sure it will be well worthwhile to know.
Monday evening we had another watermelon party at Mrs. Price's,
at which we devoured another one of the big four, which, by the
way, was the only one left after the party of ten days previous.
How anyone can keep a perfectly good watermelon in their house
all that time is more than I can comprehend.
Last evening I went with MacDougall and Miss Hodgson to spend
the evening at Mr. and Mrs. Maltby's. Mr. Maltby I think I have
mentioned before as superintendent of vocational instruction
for Atlantic County. They were having a small house party over
the weekend, and invited a few people from Egg Harbor and Pleasantville
there for the evening. We played progressive "five hundred,"
had refreshments of cakes, candy, and ice cream, delicious ice
cream, something like frozen pudding without the undesirable
maraschino flavor; musical renditions were given by Miss Hodgson,
and two other young ladies in song, and yours truly at the piano.
We dispersed about midnight.
The rest of the week I have been at my daily tasks, daytime and
evening, and I have nothing out of the ordinary planned for this
week, although, as everything last week happened on short notice,
I can't tell what the week may bring forth.
I really have enjoyed myself very well since I've been down here,
though of course I've done nothing particularly exciting; the
very pleasant, immediate surrounding I have, are probably largely
responsible. For not only is my room, the house and table everything
that could be desired, but it seems as though we were all part
of a family - and there is a great deal of bantering between
us, which, as everyone except Miss Tolbert at times, is good-natured,
keeps the household alive most of the time. I never saw anyone
who laughed as much as Miss Davis does; she is one of the most
cheerful persons I ever met. Miss Hodgson is mot so uniformly
cheerful, but she is the one who usually starts the pot boiling.
I don't believe I told you one little interesting thing about
my visit to Hammonton last week - that I ate a fig right off
a tree. There is just one man there who has three or four trees;
keeps them out in the summer but has to put them under glass
in the winter.
I had read in the Courant about the beast of a man who assaulted
Tony Hoffman's little girl; saw also a day or two later a man
had been caught who tallied to the descriptions of the other
girls who were with her. I certainly hope they get the fellow
that was responsible and give him the limit of the law's punishment.
Whatever it is, it isn't bad enough; hanging's too good for such
as he.
I forgot to mention last week that I had gotten Aunt Sarah's
letter.
Did I tell you that one of MacDougall's sisters is attending
Uncle Watson's school? Taking up playground work. So I suppose
she knows Dorothy, and perhaps Dick and Uncle Watson.
I almost missed the question about Negroes in my classes. One
boy and one girl in one Algebra class. One negro girl and a mulatto
boy in the other.
Thank you for the heliotrope you sent; it pressed very well.
Things have certainly kept late this year. Must close now, with
much love for you and all.
Sylvester
Dear Mother,
Yesterday and today have been the two most beautiful days of
the fall here, ideal weather for the Yale pageant, if it has
been as good up in Connecticut; and from the fact that there
is a full account of the pageant in this morning's Times, I conclude
that weather conditions were satisfactory.
After considerable effort to find an opposing team, the Pleasantville
High School football team had its first game yesterday. We hadn't
succeeded in getting a match to Friday, except that we could
have had one with some Pleasantville boys not in the High School;
however the High School boys didn't want to play them, as some
of them were alleged to be given to rough and unfair methods
of play. Wootton and I told the boys on Friday afternoon at practice
that there would surely be a game with somebody; and in the evening
I went over to Atlantic City, determined to find a team somewhere.
I went to the Y.M.C.A as the most natural place to get information,
and before I left there had my game arranged. Several of the
fellows who were around the Y.M.C.A got interested and made up
a team on the spot; and I was only too glad to get them, whether
they were a regular team representing a regular organization
or school or not, because we felt it quite essential that the
team should have a game with someone, for the sake of the practice,
and keeping up interest. I spent a good deal of time unsuccessfully
Saturday morning, trying to find a referee, trusting to chance
there would be enough turnout at the game to fill the other positions,
umpire, timekeepers, and linesmen. As a matter of fact, however,
I even had to get my referee out at the field, but he was a fellow
who knew the game well, so that worked out all right.
Our fellows played better than I thought they would be able to,
especially our little quarterback, Lairgna [sp? -db], who was
as game as they make them, The team who came over was heavier
than ours, and some of them much older, but they were at a partial
disadvantage because they had only organized the night before,
and worked out their signals on the car coming over. There was
no scoring up to within a few minutes of the close of the game,
and then Pleasantville got what the referee declared to be a
touchdown, but which the Atlantic City team refused to accept
as such. They refused to play unless they could have it their
way, so the game was declared forfeited to us, 1 - 0, as is usual
in such cases. It is such an unsatisfactory ending, but there
was little, if any, ill feeling about it. Next Saturday we play
the Hammanton High School here at Pleasantville. Our football
field is laid out in the Pleasantville ball park. I spent all
Friday afternoon with five or six of the boys measuring off and
marking out the field with lime, and setting up the goal posts;
its a somewhat longer job than it sounds.
We have had two teachers' meetings this week, mostly given to
discussion by Dr. Whitney of various improved methods of teaching
that have been put into practical effect in various cities of
the country. From a consideration of these we are each expected
to work out a scheme for our classes. Dr. Whitney has traveled
extensively, and studied in half a dozen universities. In America
he has visited a great number of schools. Especially where some
of the new ideas he has been giving us have been worked out.
And he has traveled all over Europe and studied in Germany; has
been in Palestine, too, I know; probably I'll find out several
more places he's been to before the year's out. As far as I can
make out, he is financially independent and supervises schools
for the love of the work. He's a many-sided and peculiar creature.
On Monday he appointed various faculty committees for student
activities. I am on the Committee on Freshman, with Miss McClellan,
and in this capacity we shall have to be present at all class
meetings and be a sort of advisory committee in all Freshman
class activities. I am also on the Orchestra Committee with Miss
Ryder, and it will be out duty to organize a school orchestra,
we are going to start tomorrow. We have already had our Freshman
class organization meeting, at which the class named two nominating
committees each of which was to bring in one slate for each class
office we decided to have. One committee met with Miss McClellan
and the other with me Thursday afternoon and selected their candidates.
Then Friday afternoon the whole class met again to elect the
officers from the two slates presented to them; this meeting
I had to leave to Miss McClellan as I was in my old clothes out
on the football field, covered with lime by that time. It was
a curious thing that all the names suggested by my committee
were elected.
When I went to Atlantic City Friday evening, I went with Carey
and the Misses Hodgson and Davis, expecting to go roller skating
after I completed my other errand. On my way down to the Garden
Pier on the Boardwalk, where we were going, and where they had
already gone, I met them coming back; Thought at first they had
had enough of it, but the trouble was that there was no skating,
and we could find none anywhere. As it was nine o'clock when
I met them, there was no use in going to a show, and our evening's
dissipation, except for a considerable walk on the Boardwalk,
simmered down to patronage of an ice cream parlour for one round.
Carey went up to Philadelphia yesterday with Cruse, primarily
to buy a shotgun, as he is an enthusiastic hunter, or "gunner"
as they call them down in this neck of the woods. They also attended
the Univ. Of Penn - Penn State football game, which unexpectedly
resulted in a 15 - 0 victory for the former. Cruse is a graduate
of Penn State,
Sam is still at the University of Pennsylvania Law School; you
remember he lost a year thru his sickness in 1915. When he does
graduate, I think rather than start private practice, he intends
to enter the law department of the Pennsylvania railroad. By
the way, I forgot to mention last week, that he is still single,
and without intentions, he says; I didn't have time to question
him very far about the particular case he had a year ago last
summer, but shall probably learn about it in time.
Mr. Winch has steadily improved the last two weeks, and since
Thursday has been downstairs. Yesterday afternoon he went for
an automobile ride with Mr. Wilson. Today he doesn't feel quiet
so well, probably got rather tired yesterday from bouncing around
in Mr. Wilson's Ford. This morning I was afraid he had an attack
on the way but it fortunately didn't materialize.
Mrs. Winch has every facility for pressing clothes, even to a
special tailor's board for coats, so that I do my own pressing.
I only had one fig up there at Hammonton, and liked that all
right, but I imagine that very many would be rather sickening.
Apples aren't very plentiful here, apparently, although I have
had a few.
Yes, I am glad that we can use that collapsible bag for mailing
laundry. It certainly is much less bother than doing it up in
paper.
I hadn't heard until you wrote that Ern had gone out for the
Republican nomination for representative. In a way I'm not surprised
that he did, because I recall that he mentioned once or twice
thru the summer that he would like to do so. About my election
day vacation, I'm afraid I'll not have the time to make more
that the one day, much as I'd like to spend the Sunday home;
it isn't so much the school time that I would lose, as I could
find a substitute readily for my algebra classes, and give my
history classes something to do themselves. But the outside time
that I need for planning, and for studying for my state examinations.
President Wilson's re-election chances look brighter to me every
day; reports in the newspapers indicate that the Republicans
are pretty much worried; the Philadelphia North American, an
anti-Wilson paper, has been conducting with other papers thruout
the country, a straw vote which gives Pres. Wilson thus far a
majority, and in the last few weeks he has been steadily gaining
in this vote. Men who had bets at 2 to 1 on Hughes earlier in
the campaign are now hedging, according to stock market reports.
The betting now is about 10 to 8 in Hughes favor, with plenty
of Wilson takers. And I notice that one of Mr. Hughes' managers,
although listing enough states in the sure Republican column,
classes Connecticut as doubtful!
That paper you sent me from Jim Cooper was a little occasional
sheet of class news 1913 is going to have, called the Eavesdropper.
With it was inclosed a very neat pair of covers to keep them
in, same color as the class book, with my name in gilt at the
bottom. The Eavesdropper had some news of Hughie McLean, so unless
something has happened since then, he's still alive.
Must close with much love to all,
Sylvester
Dear Mother,
This is probably the last letter I shall write you before Election
Day, as any letter sent next Monday morning wouldn't reach you
until after I got home. I plan now to leave here at one thirty,
going over to Atlantic City first, and getting a 2:05 thru express
for New York. If I have good luck, I shall take a 6:00 express
out of Grand Central, arriving in Berlin in time to get the 9:02
for Middletown, which should enable me to get home on the nine
thirty trolley. I haven't definitely planned when I shall go
back, but I think I shall probably take the six thirty trolley
down, the 6:59 Berlin Trolley, and a thru express for New York
leaving Berlin at 7:28. This will get to New York at about ten
o'clock. I want to try and work it so that I can see New York
on election night for a couple hours and incidentally get the
returns; then get a sleeper about midnight for Philadelphia and
come over here from Philadelphia in the early morning in time
to get to school. I'm writing Jim McNeill that I'll work around
the polls Tuesday, provided the time I am on hand is sufficient;
before I left home I said I should do so if I could.
The Pleasantville High School football team got defeated by Hammonton
yesterday, 6 - 0. It was a slow and not very interesting game.
They want us to play a return game up at Hammonton, and I think
we'll probably give it to them as our schedule isn't yet full.
I hope the boys will be able to turn the tables on them when
the time comes. This week we play a team from Atlantic City which
calls itself "The Alumnus."
Friday night the Senior girls gave a reception to the Faculty,
at which all the Senior and Junior students were present, meaning
about twenty in all. They had a very entertaining program arranged
and I enjoyed the evening very much. The affair was held in the
High School gymnasium, which was prettily decorated with autumn
foliage and American and other flags for the occasion. The first
event must have been inspired, I think, by my American History
course, which all the Seniors are required to take; the names
of many characters well know in American History had been written
on slips of paper, and one of these was pinned on each person's
back; then each one was supposed to guess what name was pinned
to him or her, and to aid in guessing was privileged to ask such
questions as "Was he an explorer?", "Was he a
General?" The first to guess won first prize, and the last
the booby. The second event was a stunt with dumbbells; we formed
into equal sides, chosen by a leader for each one; at either
end of the gymnasium there were two chairs about two feet apart,
two dumbbells were placed at one end, and the leader of each
side was given a long stick, and at the word "Go!"
started pushing one of the dumbbells down the room with the stick,
was obliged to go between the two chairs at the other end, then
come back and go between the other two chairs and around to the
starting place, where the race was taken up by the next one on
each side, and so on, till everyone on each side had gone around
once; of course it was a race to see which side would finish
first.
For the third event, the girls had written on various slips of
paper, different crazy stunts such as singing the alphabet to
the tune of America, making an imitation of a dog bark, imitating
a commuter catch a train, and so on. These slips were put in
a hat, and one by one they were drawn out and the indicated stunts
performed. Miss Tolbert, who is an ardent suffragette, drew for
her stunt a two-minute talk on suffrage, which she of course
didn't try to do seriously. Three teachers were selected as judges,
I being one of them; we were to award a prize to the best male
and best female performer, and we voted Miss Tolbert's suffrage
stunt the best female performance, but she declines to believe
that I concurred in the decision, as for some reason she things
I don't sympathize and agree entirely with her suffrage views.
After this event there were refreshments, dancing, and cards,
the party breaking up at about eleven.
The rest of the past week has been uneventful in either school
or leisure hours. This week I shall give the first tests I have
made up in my teaching career.
The Barber Asphalt Paving Co. is sure enough Mr. Sewall's firm,
and it was quite a surprise to learn that Jack had gone to work
for them. I did know, however, that Jack wanted to quit at Naugatuck.
The pamphlet on physiology arrived safely and I thank you very
much for it; it will probably prove useful in studying for that
physiology and hygiene examination. It wasn't anything that belonged
to me.
Mr. Winch has been downstairs now for two weeks without having
any attacks. He doesn't seem to get his strength back very fast,
however, and is very short of wind, or rather gets very easily
out of breath.
We started to form our school orchestra this week; we hope to
have three or four violins, a cornet, a clarinet, a cello, a
trombone, and drums and traps; we may be able to get a viola
also, as I was talking with Mr. McMillan in the post office the
other night, and he said that Mrs. McMillan had a viola which
me might use, and I understood him to say she would help some
one to learn to play it. Miss Ryder and I are the committee in
charge of organizing the orchestra, and Miss Haskell, the music
teacher, will do a good deal of the training. I shall probably
help out some with the Boy's Glee Club also, when football season's
over, as Miss Haskell wants me to play the accompaniments for
her, so that she won't have to do that and conduct the singing
both.
I hope I shall see you all at 9:40 on Monday the 6th and find
everyone O.K.
With much love,
Sylvester
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