22 Wholley Ave.
New Haven, Conn.
June 5th 1892.
Dear Alice -
You are out walking this pleasant afternoon or sitting in the library reading. I have been sitting here in the room watching Lowe [?] write or looking out of the windows, wondering when the spirit of writing would come along and finish this letter. The first lines were written right after dinner. I ate my dinner down at Lowes boarding place. He asked me down with him and I couldn't refuse. I like the eight dollar board full as well as the restaurant fare. I am existing at Wrights for the present, while I am working at the printers. That's the place where you took dinner when you visited this town.
Lowe's dinner must have been too much for me, it kept me sleepy all the afternoon. I told Roger that the engraving at the head of this letter letter [sic] showed how busy the rest of the family was. Lowe suggested that they were buzzing so fast that I couldn't think what to write.
Roger Townsend takes quite a fancy to our company. He is nine years old. Thy have moved into one of Mr. Baldwin's houses. Mrs. Baldwin is his aunt. Lowe got him to write a letter to his, that is Lowe's mother. At first he didn't know what to say but succeeded [sic] in making out two pages. Roger's mother seems to take a fancy to us too. Roger says she wants us to call before we go away. I am afraid Roger wont get much good out of my Sunday school class. They are an interesting set. One of them climed [sic] over the back of the seat to-day. But still they are all fine fellows and I can't blame them if they are more interested in a circus than in the lesson.
One of them asked me in class today if I went to the circus last Wednesday. Of necessity I said yes. Ebersole and I went in the evening with ten thousand other simpletons. That was the first time I ever went to a circus. And I can't say that I am sorry I went. That's the worst feature of the case. The audience was the most interesting part of the show. I saw only three persons that I knew in the whole evening, though the college fellows were scattered in thick all through the tent. After shocking you with this news and bringing down sick-bottles [sic] of wrath on my head I will turn to themes more appropriate to the day!
President Dwight dropped his sermon just before he got ready to preach it. The manuscript was untied and blew around the pulpit carpet. Prexy got down and gathered it together in a hurry, but the leaves didn't come up in right order. This disturbed the sense a little and left several breaks to be patched up ex-tempore, and that is hard work for Prexy, when he is brought to it so sudden. He kept on talking and hunting for his sheets at the same time. When he did get under way he gave a good sermon.
I found New Haven very much changed when I got back monday night. It was dark as a pocket and I left it bright as day. It had rained here too. It reached here at eleven o'clock after an uneventful ride. I found pleasant company in a young chap going from Springfield to Berlin. I must look up his name this minute. It's on a newspaper which I had with me and which is lying on the floor at the corner of the bureau. As near as I can make it out it is John Pinchie, spelled phonetically. He lives in New Brittain. [sic]
If you don't know Miss Haynes in your class you had better make her acquaintance. She has a brother in Yale Seminary in the Junior class with which I recited this year. This brother has a cousin Lane by name, in the Sophomore class. He boards at Wrights restaurant, and is a quiet good natured fellow with a good head. He lives in Hadley and knows most of your teachers and several of your students. His mother was in the famous class of '61 and once roomed with Miss Bordwell. His father was in the class of '56 up over the mountain. But his sister expects to go to Wellesley. If you keep your eyes open you may see him up there some time.
yesterday I took a long walk with freshman Kellogg out by West Rock. We ran in with a curious old chap who staid by us until we got back home[.] We discussed the tariff, college education and various other topics. He used to work in the coal-mines of England, hunting after fire-damp. [?] Now he goes around to asylums prisons and poor houses putting in electric wires. he is good hearted, as indeed every body is but would be called a hard ticket. [?]
Now it is supper time. Just as I begin to feel like writing I must go down and spoil my good feelings. The air is cool and pleasant just now. The dark clouds are giving way to silver tones against which the large tops of the elm trees stand out in solid black, and the air is filled with the music of crying babies and discordant pianos. Excuse me for the picture but that's the way it looked just then.
[sketch of clouds inserted within paragraph]
Goodbye for the present,
Yours for length, CharlesMonday 7.45 All
Fine day this. Got Lowe up at 4.30 and had him studying for his examination.