Templeton, Mass.
Sept. 20, 1903.
Dear Lucy:-
When you get this I suppose you will be a whole year older than you are now and how big you will feel! I shall send a small package through the mail at the same time. I send this and something else along alter if I ever get it done. Cattle show took so much time that I have n't got it done. I thought that I should have all nice [sic] to write to you but I haven't. Bourn's shop was burned last night. The alarm sounded about half past nine. I had been in bed for half an hour and was sound asleep and slept through it all even though the Baldwinville whistle, the shop whistle and the power-house whistle were all blowing, the alarm going up here, teams going up and the platform car went up screeching away. It was only the main shop but that is quite enough. The paint shop and store houses were saved and only a little lumber burned. Everything was gotten out of the office. They are pretty sure that a freight train set it. There was one that was four hours late that got there about nine o'clock and was there switching for sometime. They think that a spark flew on to the roof and caught as the fire started from the roof. There is very little insurance but probably they can get something out of the railroad. The station was saved also. Bessie, with the great noise down at the shop, Linnie, and Dorothy with the Orthodox bell in her ears slept right through.
Well, there is so much to tell about cattle-show that I don't know as I can get it all in. To begin with the S.A.H. Float. The most important as "WE" got the prize. But I must tell you about our decorating it. In the first place Mrs. Parkhurst ordered twenty-five yards of green cheese cloth at Gardner, and wanted to send it up. It didn't come and about two weeks after she got some pink. She was tired that day and went up on the Baldwinville car & went into Rand's and there was her cheese cloth. The conductor refused to bring it any further.
Wed. night we went over to Mr. Scollary's [sic] barn and commenced trimming. Cheese cloth was put on the wheels green and white all first green and then white so that the spokes were hidden and on each hub was a silver cross. Around the wagon was white cheese cloth hanging the full width so that the under part of the wagon was hidden[.] The floor was covered with hemlock & Mr. Farington made the seats which were made so that each one was a little higher than the one below it. There were 3 rows of seats in front and in back. The banner was a star made of wood covered with evergreen and a silver star in the middle with the words letters L. A. H. on it. We girls wore white dresses, green ribbons (made of cheese cloth) on our hair and green sashes over our shoulders with a knot at the side. Bill O'Brien wore a white suit, a green tie and, like the rest of the girls, no hat.
We started about ten o'clock and went up as far as Mr. Lincoln's on the Hubbardston Road and waited there until nearly eleven I should think. I forgot to tell you that Linnie road ahead all decked in white on her horse. She was fastened to us by white reins which went to the top of the float which had little knots of green on them and every once in a while. Well finally we started. We went around by the store and church and over to the Chamberlain's and turned around and came back and went down to the Grange & turned around & went home. We had our pictures taken not less than ten times I think. But we were happy for we got it, five dollars. Three reporters have all our names so that a full account will appear in all the papers, I suppose.
We had our booth over by the band stand and took in over thirty dollars but I think that there is considerable expense to come out of it. We sold candy, lemonade, laundry lists, & match scratchers, & had guesses on a doll. I guess that Mama will tell you more about the cattle show for I have written about all I possibly can. I saw Maud Shippee, Mildred Ames, Helen Estes, Be[r]tha McGee Bates, Grace Hubbard, Fanny Pierce, Sigrud Anderson & Alice Colman up from school in the P.M.
X X X X X X X X
X X X X X X X X With best wishes & lots of love, X X X X X X X
X X X X X X X X X X X X Mary X X X X X X
We sang that song on the float, "Look up & not down do you see etc.["]