[Some paragraph breaks added for ease of reading.]119 Huestis St.
Ithaca, N.Y.
Nov. 11, '06.Dear Jennie;
I expect that by this time you will think that I was never going to write, but I have finally got around to it, at last. I expect that you have heard through Will and through home, some of the numerous things that have happened up here. There are so very many things that happen up here that are of interest, every day that it would be a mighty big job just to enumerate them. Well I will try and tell you one or two things.
I suppose that you have a pretty good idea of how the campus looks by this time, by the postal Will sent you. But you certainly miss a lot by not seeing it, by standing on the campus yourself. When you get out in front of Morrill Hall you can see to the south, west, and north for eight or nine miles. To the north west is the lake not far away but four hundred feet below you. Then to the southwest you look over a valley onto hills which rise up eight hundred or a thousand feet. There are lots of other beautiful things but I can't describe them. You just have to see them yourself.
Then the country is just full of gorges. Last Sunday, Will, another fellow and myself went down to Buttermilk Falls, three miles south of here. We started at the bottom. To begin with there was a fall about one hundred feet high. This was not a clear for the rocks sloped at about 75°. But the water coming down over these rocks certainly was pretty. We climbed up to the top, and we found another fall of about one hundred feet just a little further up the stream. Then we climbed up to the top of that. We got up prety high then, and it was fine to look back. Then came a gorge in which the water had cut out of the rock a gorge about ten feet wide and fifty feet deep. There were also several several [sic] small falls. We kept on, sometimes twenty feet above the stream, and other times right at its side. It certainly was beautiful. I can not describe it any where near as it ought to be.
Well we went for almost a mile, climbing over rocks, get up on banks and so forth. At one place there was a natural tower of stone over fifty feet high, about fifteen feet in diameter that stod right in the middle of the stream. I wish I could get you some pictures of it, but they haven't any picture postals at all of it. This is only one of the gorges around here. One day Will and I went to Taugannock Falls. It is a clear fall of 220 feet, the highest fall this side of the Rockies. Then the gorge is lined
upon both sides with perpendicular walls of stone, four hundred feet high. It certainly was gorgeous. I will try to send you a picture of it. Well I guess I have told you enough about scenery by this time.I will have to say something about how we, the poor freshman, have gotten a pretty good beating from the sophs. They have four events in the fall in which the supremacy is decided. In the first two events, the track meet, and baseball game the sophs beat us all out. Then on Halloween night they had the annual flag rush. Five men on each side have hold of a piece of canvass about a yard wide and three yards long. Then when a whistle was blown, ten more men on each side rushed in from opposite sides. Then there was a general roughhouse for ten minutes, at the end of which the umpire blew his whistle. Then the number of hands that had hold of the canvas were counted, and the side having the most hands beat. They had three rushes, one for heavy weights, one for middle weights and one for light weights. Well in the heavy weights the sophs beat 19 to 18. But in the middle weights we beat by about seven majority. Then in the lightweights the sophs beat with a small majority. We got most hands altogether, but we lost two of the rushes, so the sophs won.
Well, the worst of all was the Frosh-Soph football game. It came off last Friday and was pretty bum. The Frosh team has been practicing for two months, having a regular coach, and having a training table. Then the sophs had only been practicing only two or three weeks having no coach, and yet they beat us 5 to 0. I guess one reason was they didn't let Will play. He has been practicing all the season, but has not gotten into any of the games. However he is on the training table and he gets a mighty good thing out of that. He gets $10 board for $3. the Athletic Association paying the rest. I don't know as you will be much interested in the above, but I hope that you can wade through it successfully.
Well, I guess I will ahve to say something about Christmas before I stop. I do in practically every letter I write. You see I have Christmas on the brain. I want to know on what day and about what time you are going home. Perhaps we could meet in Philadelphia as Margaret has suggested. We are going to leave here just as quick as we can, possibly cutting a lecture or two, getting home the night of the twentieth. You see we are in a mighty big hurry. Now if you will tell us where you are going we might arrange something. Do you realize it is only five weeks and four days before we are home. Time is just a flying up here, going at about the rate of sixty minutes per hour. We are having a mighty fine time up here, but we will be glad to get home.
Now I don't really know just what things interest you, so you will have to write me a letter full of question's [sic] (just like the letter's [sic] I get from Margaret), and I will endeavor to answer some of them at least. I hope that you will find time to write even just a small letter, for I have [not] heard anything yet as to how you are getting along, etc. The only thing that I know is that when you went, you went over to the trolley because the 6.31 was late. About three different people wrote me that, in about three or four different letters, so I have that fact well lodged in my brain. Hoping that you are enjoying yourselve [sic] as much as we are ourselves. I remain
Your sincere friend
John D.P.S. How did you like the candy that we had up at the Schaaffs. Ours was fine. About a month ago, in a letter May wrote a lot of scribbles and said if we could translate it, she would send us each a box of candy. We sent her a letter and explained it in hieroglyphics, and as a result we each got a pound box of mighty swell fudge. It lasted about two weeks, but, alas, it is all gone now.