Chicopee Falls,
440 Broadway,
Jan. 16, 1906.Dear Lucy:-
I have really started to write to you. Strange, isn't it. At present it is pouring with rain. but I am going to the theater. this afternoon. To-morrow I return home. It has seemed such a short week and I have enjoyed myself so much.
My aunt has a beautiful home. It is lit with electricity and heat with hot air. and O, such a lovely bath-room. If I have the fortune to ever have a home of my own. there are two things I am going to have in it. A fire-place and a bath-tub.
My Aunt & Uncle start for the N.Y. automobile show Thursday. Uncle showed me the machines. One to be used to carry people. about. It is painted a grey white with red leather upholsterings and red running gear. and brass mountings 50 horse-power. 75 miles an hour. value $3300. Don't you want one.
I went over the whole shop a tremendrous [sic] building. 6 stories high. The large bodies are made of aluminum. After being painted they are baked in ovens. Every machine when done has to be tested. They put the machine into an old body and then use it. You see a good many go by the house. Testors [?] they are called. Perhaps what would interest you are the two floors where the different parts of the machinery are made. The machines are automatic. one man attending to several. Each machine does several different things. Then it stops and waits for the man to attend to it. It is marvellous [sic] how human ingenuity could make such things. I could watch them for hours. In the basement are enormous pumps which pump lard oil into all these machines. I wished you might have been with me you would have enjoyed it I know.
My aunt has a beautiful collection of china. Mostly Japanese. It is beautiful. She has also a genuine Sevres vase. It is lovely. the art-dealer gave it her as she had bought so many things. He told her it was price-less. I hardly dare to handle any of them. She has vases, incense burners, chocolate sets, bowls, celery-trays, puff boxes, quaint little mandarins who bob their heads if touched, cracker-bowls and many other things. Every color is burned on seperately [sic], and also all the gold used has to be 18 carat. if a less pure gold is used it would turn to a white powder when fired. When there are 76 different colors on one incense burner you can imagine how long it takes to make them.
My cousin came home for X-mas. He worked everyday but X-mas. They have a new rule now. If you want to finish the course in three years, you have to pay $20 etra [sic] for each extra study. That is going to make it hard for the floor-boys. His room mate he finds very congenial. He has decided to be a teacher. Latin or Greek are what he is makeing [sic] a specialty[.[ He was an usher at the Harvard Yale foot-ball game.
Well, I guess it is about time for the frost-man, so I will wind up for now. I hope Mary and the measles are getting alone nicely.
With love,
Edie.[It appears the car company that Edie visited was the Duryea in Chicopee Falls, but I couldn't figure out any Duryea model that fit the word "Testor." Any help solving this mystery would be gratefully appreciated.]