Madras,
Feb. 5, 1928.Dear Miss Turner,
You will have received my cable accepting the instructorship in Physiology at Mount Holyoke. I am very pleased to have you offer it to me. I have been thinking hard about it all day trying to think of any reasons why I should not accept it. The only one of any importance, as far as I can see, is the question of my innate ability and whether it really is sufficient to warrant my striving to stay in college work. I often honestly doubt if it is. However, I still cherish the ambition of becoming a true teacher and I feel rather uncertain whether or not I'd be a bit better in high school work. Besides probably I shall achieve more by building on past experiences, trying to eliminate for the future some of the causes for difficulties in the past, instead of plunging into new difficulties.
Then, I think you know my faults and abilities about as well as anyone and if you are willing to try me out, I'm willing to do my best.
There are plenty of reasons why I want to accept the position, chief among them being that of all the people of my brief contacts, I don't know of one I should rather work for and with than you. And then beginning at the bottom, so to speak, of the physiology game, it will be a comfort to be on familiar ground without having to make adjustments to a strange place and people and methods which do take considerable time & energy. And I shall be glad of your advice for getting the Chem. and Physics etc. which I know I need sadly. And the joy of working in the new Science Building is pleasant to anticipate.
Is there likely to be any feeling on the part of the zoology Dept that I am a deserter, so to speak? Not that it matters except that to be fore-warned is to be fore-armed. And I think I know a bit how your "hand has been force" & it has made me sad, for I can't help loving Miss Morgan, but I can't respect her as I did as a student. And that's that.
Where shall I live? Shall I let you arrange? I think I should like being off campus if I could be in a place like the one Madeline Grant & Miss Hewes used to be in opposite the Sycamores. But I should be very happy to be in Brigham, for that would seem something like old times. Are you still living there & do Madeline & Miss Hewes still have meals there? I don't pine to be the head of a student table, for I'm a rotten conversationalist, but still I think our students usually help out better than Indian girls do. Sometimes I feel absolutely desperate at table with them. But I think I can trust your judgment and 'twould be easier for you to arrange than for me at this distance.
What people on the faculty do I still know? Are Bea Hyslop & Evelyn Clift to be there next year? I seem to be full of questions.
There has been considerable excitement in Madras recently. Since the meeting of the All-India conferece when the resolution was passed to boycott the Simon commission, national feeling has been running rather high. On Feb. 3 the day the Commission landed in India, things came to a head. In most centers things were fairly quiet the boycott taking only the form of the closing of shops & suspension of business in protest, but in Madras there was real rioting in some districts with much stone-throwing, the burning of an Englishman's car, & finally the firing of the police into a mob. Two or three people were killed & several others injured & the Men's Christian College being in the thick of the fight had many windows smashed. We are now wondering what may happen when the Commission actually comes to Madras on Feb. 17th. Perhaps a little sober reflection may calm them somewhat. On the other hand they may become more bitter. It is difficult to say.
My latest plan for the trip home is to spend an extra 3 weeks in Madras or somewhere in India, instead of in England waiting to make connections with Miss Sawyer. I hope to be allowed to correct University Exams & earn a bit, perhaps enough for our Burma trip. It suits Miss Coon better to postpone that a bit since Miss McDougall expects to go to a Jerusalem Religious Conference & will not return until May. And I feel I shall both earn & save money by waiting. The only hitch is that I wonder if I can possibly make connections with Eleanor. I most awfully want a chance to see her & exchange views with her now that I have been here a couple years. I have not heard from her for a long time. I do hope she's being fairly moderate, but I doubt it!
It is a relief to feel settled about next year and the settlement pleases me very much. I hope the fulfillment will please us both.
With love,
D. Elizabeth.