Tougaloo Univ.
Tougaloo, Miss.
Apr. 29, 1906Dear family,
It is a hot day, the worst we have had so far this season, and Dr. Cooper, straight from New York, looked warm in the pulpit this morning. Last evening the Woodworth's [sic] invited the teachers there to meet him. He is a great friend of the Woodworth's, and always has been since he was a classmate of Dr. W's oldest brother at Yale.
I asked him about Orange Park, and he gave me a general outline of its history for the last four years, which I already knew. He did not speak very hopefully of its present condition nor of its future. Mrs. Hitchcock, the principal has been ill so much this year that there will have to be a fifth new one in as many years. He said he wasn't as happy there as he was at Tougaloo, and I thought I could truthfully say the same.
Several of us thought we had our trip home all planned out, but new complications have arisen on the part of the Macdougalls, for the youngest daughter, who is in New York where the two older ones are teaching has scarlet fever. We gave up Mobile, as we should have to wait till the Monday after Commencement to get a boat, and then consume eight days more in getting to N.Y. I like the water route much the better but it seems like a waste of time. So we had decided to leave at noon of Commencement day, and spend a day at Mammoth Cave, and get to N.Y. Saturday night, then I thought I would spend Sunday with the Mekeel's or Mary Kitchell or Miss Cutler, and journey on Monday morning the twenty eighth of May. If the Macdougall's have to give that up, I think Miss Bauer and I shall venture it alone, and separate at Cincinnati. Gertrude M. has sent her semi annual invitation to stop there; Mary K. demands that I visit her a spell at Boonton, N.Y. whither she has retired "to vegetate indefinately [sic] as a chronic invalid," I think I shall stop there a day if she can get Miss Cutler there at the same time.
Last Tuesday evening fifteen teachers and about a hundred of the students went to a coon wedding - my third. It was in the Sanctified Church, and Dr. Woodworth officiated. They had the ends of the "pews" cut off to give room for the bridal party of eight to enter, the church was decorated with cedar and little candles, Christmas-fashion; the cedar kept catching fire, and Mr. Donald would mount a stool and flap it out with his hat at intervals. We went to the reception, and teachers and bridal party repaired to the dining room to eat turkey, salmon salad, strawberries, cake and ice cream. We teachers gave the happy pair, (former students) a clock.
Next Tuesday evening the teacher of elocution from Tougaloo is going to give a reading. He was a little boot-black in Chicago and some one offered to give him a quarter if he would learn Rienzi's address to the Romans. He showed so much talent in reciting it that he was encouraged to go to school, etc.
You might put one of the Cherokees by the south cellar window; they love to climb and sprawl. You ought not to attempt any house-cleaning alone. If Mrs. Dodge or some equally good help isn't to be had, leave it till I get home, and we'll do it by degrees.
Mr. Macdougall had a whole crate of strawberries sent him last night by one of the boys who left school last week to go home to pick, so all Stone is eating them as fast as possible. I wish you had some.
With love,
Susie.