Kalckreuthstr. 5,
February 17, 1910. [she almost wrote 1909!]My dearest Honey:
It's such a long time since I have talked to you and it is not because I have forgotten you either. I have not been feeling up to the mark lately and it has taken all my grit to push myself through the regular routine. Every day I am thankful that I am away off here where I can live this thing through by myself, but the next time I am born I hope I'll not be a female. And that I say while I remember that I have not had to suffer a little of what most women endure.
My little companion has left me again - She went to Dresden on Tuesday for a look at things and came back today. Tonight she went off to a private hospital here to have an operation on her nose[.] She has been deaf a lot lately and the doctor says she needs more room in her nose - You know the trouble. Poor child! She was so nervous tonight. I was reminded of my own experience in Nashua three years ago. And she has no dear friend to see her through as I had - Honey, I'll never, never forget how good you and your mother were to me then! She comes back from the hospital in a few days and is promised a new, well-behaved nose in a fortnight. Your note arrived tonight and she was pleased to get it.
I know just how the missionaries feel who get letters only twice a year. No mail has come for me for days and this morning I had a heap, three from you - And such nice ones, dearest. I laughed so over your interview with Miss Brown - I hope you really feel lively and are not putting up a big bluff. Certainly you deserve that fellowship and I believe you'll get it - But of course it is just possible that I am prejudiced. It is very probable that I should lack the courage to approach all these people whom you attack, but it seems to me some times that I shall never again dread to do anything that I can carry through in my own language[.] I don't mind so much when I ring out my abominable German for the amusement of the maids and the clerks in the shops but with people of my own class - that's an other [sic] matter. I am dreading very much the formalities connected with leaving the university - It is as hard to escape as it is to get into the institution. But I shall have more courage in the morning.
I am glad you like the postcards I am fond of them, myself. But are you sure that the envelope is not torn off in the custom house? Miss Rowell took Miss Purington's Great Britain to the P.O. for me the other day and the clerk in charge rebuked her for not tieing [sic] it up so that the package could be opened. One of these days, just as soon as I gather force enough to get to the P.O., I shall send you a birthday present - The office is quite a distance away and sometimes I don't get there as I mean to.
I suppose your cousin Jessie is fast married by now - Wonder how she will like the married state after being single so long - Hope your mother does not get sick from the excitement - I don't quite understand your inquiry about places this summer. Are they for your self or your mother or both? Grace Townsend, in general, knows everything, but I don't know how familiar she is with boarding places in Gloucester - There's that Mrs. Babson in Pigion [sic] Cove, you know, Mt. Hol- woman, with whom J. Moody has spent two summers - If this place is for yourself, also, I should say, provided my advice were asked, that neither Woods Hole nor Gloucester would give you enough of a change - The air is too mushy in both places. Get on
eone of the steamers that leave Boston harbor and go down on the Me. coast, or board a train that will take you into the [...] Mts. The saving in board will pay the traveling expenses if you find the right place - I hope New England wont have a drought next summer. If you think it best to stay near Boston, look up places near Newburyport, Hampton or Rye, so that I can see you once in a while. I wish I were rich enough to hire a cottage with you somewhere, but I can't afford it this summer, neither is my mother able to have as much case as that would mean[.]Miss Pushee came in just now with a formidable document that serves as a ticket for visiting schools. She had to go through a lot of red tape to get it and has waited two weeks and nine. I am wondering if she will get into the Gymnasien. They say it is very difficult for a woman to secure this permission.
I am still working on my list of things to be done before March 1. On Monday night I attended one of the Nikitsch Philharmonic concerts that they praise to the skies here - It seemed to me much inferior to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, but perhaps I was not in the mood. The Pergamon Altar frieze was one of my last week achievements - a fine thing - I have never seen any work to compare with it except the Elgin Marbles - But the ladies and gentlemen were so battered - I was reminded of the story I heard the other day about the Victory - "If she was the winning lady, in what condition must the other side have been?" The frieze is very poorly shown now because a view house is being built - In the meantime the slabs are on the veranda of the New Museum, walled in to keep people from carrying off souvenirs.
Yesterday morning I rose up early and went down to a nine o'clock lecture by Prof. Frobenius also, I think, is the brightest mathematical light here. The lecture was an advanced one on Determinants, but the class numbered from 50 to 60, a half dozen women - A course of that sort in Chicago would not number over 12 or 15. But they say there are 14,000 students connected with the university. To offset this exercise I went home by way of Wertheim's and fell before a little hand bag, the kind everybody carries here, pretty dark blue kid, lined with grey undressed kid, 6.50 marks - Miss Pushee says it was a bargain, so I [am] sure it is.
Good night, dearest - Oh, I wonder how many thousand years it will be before I can say that to you really.
Sunday morning. I am up in D_ Rowell's room in the sun. She has a big front room on the highest floor, with sun all the morning when it shines and we have had several good days lately - My days have been strenuous lately - On Friday after my lectures I went over to Mayer & Müller's the big book antiquarian place here, to give a last word regarding a $40 book I have ordered for the library. And incidentally I looked up atlases - Honey, I must have one before I leave this land, I think. There's Andree's, a very fine one, a new edition last year, which I can have for 25 marks, regular price 32 marks - That's better than Suckert will do by me, but on the other hand the volume is bigger and heavier than the Century Atlas and think of carting that around. But I think it would be fun to get one here. I thought books would be given away here, but they seem to me higher than in England. The only cheap books I have come upon are the 20 pfennig copies of the classics, but the print is pretty fine.
There's a nice man here in the house whom possibly you know, Mr. Biddle - He has supplied physics apparatus for Miss Keith and Miss Laird and lives in Philadelphia next door to the Yarnells - He is so funny, because he knows not a word of German and the way he tells of his experiences would amuse you - Well, I have wandered from my chronicle. Friday afternoon I rushed from the dinner table to Meineckestrasse where D. Rowell is - Found her low in her mind and very gory. Had [...]ited blood all over her night dress, so was lying in her chimmy. Proceeded from there in great haste to Mrs. Hessin's, more than an hour out of town. She had invited a pleasant little English lady to meet us, somebody who knows Miss Flint, was educated in the Amer. College for Girls - Mrs. Hessin is a nice lady - I got back here just in time for supper and immediately after it, went down to the Hospital with a nightie for the kind and on the way back stopped at the Hobarts to give Mr. H- Miss Rowell's ticket for In den Dolomiten and to ask them to defer their dinner here to next Sunday instead of today as planned.
Yesterday morning I went shopping with Mrs. Lloyd - She's a nice one to go with because she sees everything[.] She helped me pick out a silk piece for a shirt waist that I think I shall like very much, plain blue, the right color for that blue striped shirt waist dress that Miss Lyon made me last spring. Paid 3.50 a meter, good quality - Don't think I'll have it made up here but do it myself next summer.
I wish you could have attended the lecture on the Dolomites that I heard yesterday - illustrated with the most beautiful colored pictures I ever saw. Our old friends were all there, bless 'em, in fine condition - The flowers were in bloom and those great white cattle we saw on the way to Misurina See were as handsome as we could wish - There were no women in the little black hats and short jackets - I felt sorry about that. After the lecture I kept on the untergrund as far as the Zoologische Bahnhof and called on my little charge - Was afraid that I'd not get in, visiting hours being over at five, and Fräulein Schubert was not pleasantly received when she asked permission for me over the 'phone after dinner. Miss Rowell hopes to get back here on Tuesday, was more cheerful. I should think that there would be a good deal - of after pain with such an operation but she said "no" - Cocaine (?) was used - Ether is not given as freely as in the States - These Germans have fewer nerves to bother them. Miss Pushee came in for a minute after supper and found me getting ready for bed -
The chronicle is now up to date - I'd have sent this off before but there has been no steamer. The "Rolling Billy" sails Tuesday and I hope will get this to you anon[.] Tomorrow the Amerika comes in and I hope will bring letters. I wish she might bring you among her passengers, honey -
Goodby, and best love -
S.E.S-If for any reason you write to D. Rowell don't refer to her hospital experience