Theresa Sniffen Lesher was a graduate of Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York, Class of 1915, and attended Columbia University, New York, 1916-1917. DIARY OF
THERESA SNIFFEN LESHER COOK DECEMBER 25, 1915 TO DECEMBER 25, 1919 1915CHRISTMAS DAY 1915: Exactly two years ago I made the same entry in another diary. Now I am starting out again. A lot of things have happened since I've finished college, bought a car, got a brother-in-law, a new sister, and have a number of new friends. I'll have to see what comes out in this diary though Fm sure it won't last two years. December 26: It's a fearful blizzard again and we are all tied up. I can't go up to Saranac on account of it, Rats! 1916Jan. 2. Sun.: Well, I did go up to Saranac after all and I had a corking time. Very jolly and peaceful and one very lively little dance. I came home Thursday night and Friday night Philip Hart and I went to a dinner at the Apawamis with the Nichols and my word! But it was one lively party. We danced till all hours and the next day had a big luncheon here. We went to the club again in the afternoon and danced some more. Ralph Manny was here to dinner and today I am in bed with a bad cold. Jan. 4. Tues.: My cold is better but it raged quite badly for a while. Yesterday I went to Jane Hendrix for cards and later motored home with Elizabeth Chrystie. Today I stayed in bed all morning and went to the Greenwich movies with the boys in the afternoon. Played cards this evening. Jan. 11. Tues.: Today our class is giving a show downtown to raise our share of money for the endowment. I am going to usher and sell candy and will spend the night with the old Cobb. I went to the movies in Greenwich with Ralph Manny and Rosson yesterday and in the evening we saw a show in New York. Went to Sharnley's later and caught the 11:30 home. Jan. 12 Wed.: It was a great success--our movie show and I enjoyed seeing the girls again a heap. Peggy was there and Laura and dear old Betsy. The Cobb and I had a grand old gossip together and I am a rag today as a result. We are getting up a play at Rye Seminary which promises very well. Miss Mac Farland is drilling it and we rehearsed tonight. Jan. 18 Tues.: Yesterday I went to a big luncheon at Sherry's that Adeline gave for Lilian Palmer. There were about twenty there and we had quite fun though I can't hand much to the New York debs. They were awful fools and I only enjoyed talking to Joy and Hope and a few other more sensible ones. I motored out from the city with Rosson and it was pretty cold, but we had a good time. In the evening we rehearsed at the school for the play. It's rather silly, but quite fun. My work goes very well but it is hard and I shall probably flunk it at semesters. It's not bad and I rather like going in three times a week to sit in a Columbia laboratory and cut up fish and worms. Jan. 23 - Sun.: The play at the school came off very well and my harp part was all right too. We have had a number of skating parties lately and Dorothy Cobb was out here for a while for some of it and a little golf. Yesterday I saw "David Garrick" with the theater club. Jan. 30 - Sun.: I am studying my head off for the Zoology exam that rings itself on the stage tomorrow. I have spent the week working and snatching moments of play in between. Friday I went to the Philharmonic with Dorothy and later to a Vassar tea at Wanamakers. Quite fair--and very delicious food. Yesterday Helen Davis came to tea. She went back to Vassar tonight. Think of all the poor freshies getting their flunk notes tonight. I'm glad to be out of it. Feb. 4: I passed the examination--and it was by far the hardest I have ever attempted! Vassar was a bed of ease compared to Columbia. Had lunch with Elizabeth Chrystie yesterday. A full snowstorm is upon us today. Feb. 7 - Sun.: Yesterday I took gas at the dentist's and love it! Then I shopped and went up to see Grandma Lesher and later had lunch with Betty Johnson. Later we went to the opera and saw "The Barber of Seville." We had tea later and I came up on the 6:09. Had dinner at the Nichols with Elizabeth and a friend and we went to the movies in Greenwich later, am very tired. Feb. 10 - En route New York: For the last few days I have been up at Poland Springs, Maine with the Stewarts. They met me at Worcester and we all came up together. It was glorious fun for we skated, skied, tobogganed, and danced steadily. Charles Stewart certainly is a dear - I am crazy about him. There was a very jolly crowd at the hotel and we had great romps and antics. I had to leave today to be in New York for Charles Bassett's visit. Feb. 13 - Sun.: Our benefit performance of "Major Barbara" came off very well. Mamma, Charles and I dined in the Knickerbocker Grill and then went over. Yesterday we motored about all morning and in the afternoon Charles took me to "Margaret Schiller." It was a very thrilling war play. He left today. Feb. 21 - Tues.: I took my Red Cross exam today and it was easy. I went to the Alumnae lunch at the Biltmore on Saturday and enjoyed it ever so much. It was very interesting. Alfred Noyes read his poems and the speakers were Miss Wiley, Dr. McCracken, and Mrs. Mays. Friday night Miss Best and I went to 1911's show. It was very good indeed and they made a lot of money. We spent the night with Grandma and I took a harp lesson with Miss Morgan the next day. I spent all this morning in the smelly, draughty, fascinating, old lab, drawing the still more fascinating internals of a sea lamprey. I adore the cute old thing. He's so steeped in formulas and so complicated and slimy. I bought a few sandwiches at the "Beacake" Tearoom and ate them with a scalpel and a pincers that I had washed in the sink. The rest of the class shouted with amusement but I found it very refreshing and out of the ordinary. Feb. 23 - Wed.: We had a large dinner last night and went to the Charity ball. It was very jolly and we all sat in boxes against the wall and talked and gossiped about people and ate sandwiches and coffee. The dancing was fun too but it was very crowded with the plebs who sat at one end behind a big American flag and waltzed solemnly with one partner all evening. I spent the morning in the lab and lunched with Dorothy Cobb. We went to the "Great Lover" in the afternoon I thought it very sickening and sugary and was quite disgusted. It had no back-bone but was just a lot of silly women and one sappy attractive man who made fools of all the women and got things all tangled up. Bill and Elsie came to dinner and we all ate too much and were too sleepy from the ball to play cards. They went home early. March 2 - Thurs.: I have been in the city with Elizabeth at her apartment for the last three days. I didn't mean to stay so long but we got kind of wild and Bohemian and flip and I hated to go... We ate at odd hours, smoked mild cigarettes, walked Fifth Avenue unchaperoned at night and tried to feel very cappy and harmless. But it really didn't work. We're both too bound by convention and our very shockable families to get into it head over heels. I really should love to be a rather wild, independent creature who could dress and live as she pleased. I would wear silky kimonos that come to my knees, wild stockings, and my golden hair either down or in a knot at my neck. Then I'd loll on cushions and smoke and read and ride in the woods and lie under trees and smoke some more and not have to be always considering whether I was doing the proper conventional things. I suppose, though, that I'll get married like all my friends and have babies and be perfectly prosaic and hum drum all my days. The very thought of it bores me stiff. March 4 - Sat.: I've been to the movies quite a lot lately, but I'm fierce restless. I want to get out and do something or go to some extraordinary place and be absolutely independent. I love being home but somehow I am always thinking of things I'd rather be doing. I have been taking up about sixty different things as fast as lighting to try and get wildly interested - typewriting, golf, riding, driving my car, and now it's music and wanting to be able to write for clever, sarcastic papers like "Life". I yearn for a dog and to go to the war as a nurse. I doubt if I do any of them but I'll have to get out and find an outlet for these cravings that are screaming to get into play. Perhaps I feel this way on account of not knowing whether to marry Charlie. March 16 - Thurs.: Last Friday I went up to V.C. to see the girls again and I stayed with Miss Leach. It was simply splendid to be back but somehow I felt very much out of it and was not a bit sorry to go. There are so very many changes there that I felt quite alienated and could not get into the old spirit of college as easily as I did when I went back last fall. It was very comfortable staying with Miss Leach and I appreciated not being a guest of one of the college girls and being put to bed with insufficient bedding and having a cool, messy breakfast foisted on me. I left Poughkeepsie Saturday evening and met Mr. Baron, Mrs. Chamberlain, and Betty B. on the train. We went up to Lake Placid and had a splendid time there. It was an awfully jolly party and we spent all our time skiing, tobogganing, skating and snowshoeing. The winter sports were great and we simply reveled all day long and at night fairly fell into our beds with aching limbs and heads. Mr. Baron was an old darling and got up all the parties and sprees and was just as nice and thoughtful as could be. Alice came over for luncheon and then we had dinner with her over at Saranac. Kay Welles is staying with me now. March 21 - Tues.: Lately Mamma has been sick with grippe and the family have on a whole not been very interesting. Kay Welles and I had a nice time together and after she left Helen Luquier swooped down on me for the weekend and had to be entertained. Staff came up to dinner Saturday night and we all went to the lyceum in Rye and saw a show gotten up for the Woman's Exchange. It was well done and after it we all danced and had quite a little jollification. March 29 - Tues.: It's been so very springy lately that I've been awfully seedy and hollow-eyed, but today it rained and rain always agrees with me. Betty Johnson was here for two days. We took one long tramp on the beach and one long motor ride and some of the seediness left me for the air was very fresh and soft. Today she left and after a morning at Columbia spent in dissecting an amphibian I came out home and took Elizabeth Christy and Alice Wainwright to the movies. They came home for tea later and tonight I feel pink-cheeked and fluffy-haired again. April 1 - Sat.: I don't feel that way any more now because I've been dancing for two nights running and am wore to the bone. I went to a dancing class Thursday night and had a very nice time with Cecile Spofford. Friday I saw "Treasure Island" and went to a dance at Eleanor Neely's that night. Helen Davis came to luncheon today. April 6- Thurs.: I spent Tuesday night with Betty Johnson in the city. She had a luncheon that noon and we all went to Mona's to a 1915 tea later. It was very jolly and collegy and brightened us all up. Betty had a dinner lately and Bill Marting and Jack Johnson took us to the theater afterwards. It was "The Merry Wives of Windsor" and we liked it a lot. April 11 - Tues.: Charles Basset spent the weekend at the house and we all went to the theater in the afternoon (Saturday, of course) and went to a card-party at the Chamberlains later. He went back Sunday night and now Alice is coming on out here for a while. It is very springy and beautiful out but I'm very sleepy. Spent the night with Betty and took in the movies. April 15 - Sat.: I've been going very hard indeed lately and would be ever so tired if it wasn't such nice weather. Alice is home and I've been fooling with her a little besides riding horseback, playing about it at the circus and going to a very peppy dance at the Plaza with Elizabeth chaperoning. Apr. 20 - Wed.: This morning I played golf with R&son for several hours and we got along very well though I was in poor form as a whole. I bought a dog the other day but am going to return him because he isn't very healthy. Emily Van Vechten spent the night. Life is interesting to a certain degree but has a tendency to become humdrum in spots. I feel very rushed about, but dreary. April 22 - Sat: It's a wild blowy day and I'm going over to the Presbyterian Church to help Elizabeth Bowlend decorate it with palms. I motored to town yesterday with Alice and Mamma. We shopped and I got a dear little toy-bull terrier in exchange for my Boston bull. Thursday I rode horseback in the afternoon. May 2 - Tues.: I motored down to Glen Summit with Sue and Millie Wheeler last week to a house-party at Kay Welles' house. We had lots of fun and just fooled about in bloomers and were really collegey and jolly again. It felt very nice although a bit foreign. Grace Redway is here now and we are going into the First Aid class this afternoon and learn to make up Beds with people in them. May 7 - Sun.: On Thursday I motored to college meeting Nellie and the rest of Kay Welle's house party at Fishkill. We all cruised up together, the Ford and the Saxon, and set the place afire. Nell and I each had a dog in tow and we dragged the poor little kiyis all about with us. We had rooms at Careys, rather dirty ones and unspeakable beds, so we really didn't sleep much, but we were all so keyed up for fun that we didn't care. Founder's day was clear and fine and came off beautifully as regards the usual song contest, basketball, Pageants, and Third Hall play which was the "Tempest." Saturday was Field Day and it was pretty good though not thrilling - one record broken. We all motored to West Park to a picnic that noon and had dinner at Nancy Moore's down town - a large party of us and such a dinner, and such a good time! I came home today making sixty miles in about three and a half-hours. May 16 - Tues.: Times is a bit slow and I have too much leisure to meditate. Helen Luquier was here for a weekend and I have been fooling a bit with Rye females. Today it poureth, the mail is uninteresting, and I have much work to do. Oh, woe is me. I shall not inscribe again until life's prospect brighteneth. May 22: It's a little livelier and sunnier. I lunched with Joy Williams the other day and decided to see quite a lot of her this summer. Then I have "movied" a great deal and ridden horseback, played tenths and found my game wasn't so worse, and feel generally a little more self-asserting instinct. The dogs have been very interesting. Then last night a nephew arrived in our midst, really in Sloan Hospital and he has a fond parent in the shape of Alice. I haven't seen him yet but I guess he's very attractive and cunning. We're all so glad it's a boy as there has been quite a galaxy of girls in the tribe of late. May 23 - Tues.: Tuesday is a very bad day. It seems ever to rain and be chilly and I can't fix my hair right or get on a good-looking dress. Life is again the sere and yellow leaf. I have volumes of zoology to consume before Thursday when the exam arrives and am in no mood to devour it. The dogs are still diverting but rather inclined to crawl on my clean clothes and lick my face. Altogether the outlook, now that the baby has come, is not entrancing and nothing really exciting presents itself. To speak plainly, I am dreadfully bored and yearn to go to the front as a war-nurse. May 25 - Thurs.: I had my exam today and it was very easy. Then after bidding farewell to the old lab I came home and played golf and tennis at the club with Joy, Hope, Lifian and Virginia. May 26 - Fri.: My prospectus blossoms as the young bay-tree. I played golf all morning, went to Jane Hendrix for luncheon with Elizabeth Christy, and wound up at Field Day at Rye Seminary with a whole lot of the crowd and fooled about giggling at the Pink tea effect they call a Field Day. Then we had tea at the Beach Club and I just came home. I suppose this time next week I'll be just as gloomy as I now am cheerful. June 3 - Sat: I'm a pretty good weather prophet. Everything has been drab and tasteless for the last week. I've played golf, gone to movies, tea-d at clubs and frivoled generally but I feel like a submarine, nosing along the bottom of things and the waves cresting above. I want to blow up a ship and I can't get any spice or flavor out of the daily round of life. I almost wish I were galloping around college again kicking up my heels as I used to before I came home and got drowned in a mass of petty little affairs. There are nice parties that I ought to like but they bore me stiff and I don't feel like joining in at all but just sitting on the outside and scowling. There must be something vitally wrong with me. June 8 - Thurs.: I went to college with Elizabeth Chrystie and had a fine time. We saw all the girls, went to all the functions and motored home bringing Dorothy Cobb with us. We stopped off at the Knollwood Club for luncheon and then came on home. June 10 - Sat.: I played golf alone Friday morning and then came on to New York were I went to Ruth Davenhouer's bridal dinner. It was very crowded but the people (all very old for me) were interesting and Delmonico catered so the food was more than just par. A young cousin of Ruth's sat next to me and we talked college till the subject ran dry, then I talked to an instructor in English on sex novels till he thought he'd shock me and when he found I was still afloat he got discouraged and talked golf to a redheaded stalk on his right. College cured me of any tinge of modesty as regards sex novels. I even quoted Ruth Pickering's poem quite glibly to show him I could go him one better each time. I spent the night at the University Club in a spacious double room with a tiled bath, and went to Ruth's wedding at noon. The crowd was much the same as on the evening before and we stayed about an hour altogether. I went to the Allied Bazaar with Mamma. It was fearfully noisy and crowded and filled with bright booths waving with foreign flags and streamers and painted up "chickens" trying to sell buttons and programs in high shrill voices. June 18 - Sun.: During the last week I have seen very little of Rye people. Mostly I have motored, played with my dogs, fooled about at Golf with a caddy and admired my nephew. Tomorrow I go to Cornell for senior week. I'm pretty well satisfied though but I do rather hunger for a life at the front. June 25 - Sun.: My word, what a week! I went to Cornell for senior week with Charles and danced for three nights running besides sandwiching in teas, shows, class day and commencement. I came home a wreck but have kept up the game steadily. We saw the troops at Van Cortlandt Park and were all patriotic and glowing till we learned that they had only a slim chance of smelling powder. Went to a wedding and a suffrage play and a new war movie. July 2: Things are sticky and messy and getting tangled. Altogether they make me feel stodgy and cross. I had D. Cobb here for a day and we both agreed that we wanted to run off to a log cabin and get close to nature for a while. I have just been reading over my Out-west diary and the western cities were so much more fun--less formal, and more breezy. There was a big garden fete that I figured in and a gymkhana of the Greenwich Hunt Club. I am sick of it all. July 4 - Tues.: Events move fast and furiously. Yesterday Montague Glen came up for the Fourth and we had a big dinner that night followed by fire-works at the Yacht Club and then a fancy dress party at the Williams' which lasted very late. Today a lot of people came over for the tennis. The lion was a very nice member of the German embassy which is settled in Rye for the summer. After lunch we all went down to the Beach Club and won most of the cups and such in diving, swimming, and canoeing. It was all very simple and jolly. Tonight we are all off for a shore dinner at the Rye Beach Inn. July 6: Things are returning to their regular routine again after being awfully messy for a week or so. I am taking my golf lessons regularly and feeding the dogs in the old bromide fashion. July 12 - Wed.: Excessively hot. Days are full of golf, swimming, tea and tennis. Last night Vira Cornell announced her engagement at a big dinner at the Yacht Club. There were forty-two of us and we danced till very late. I lunched with Frank Ranson too yesterday and we fooled about practicing new golf strokes. The heat today is really terrible and everyone is dreadfully wilted. I sigh for Maine and the roomy, pine-wood camp where one eats and sleeps in a bathing suit. July 17 - Mon.: We've been swimming a very great deal but now everyone is scared of the terrible man-eating sharks that lurk about bathing beaches in hopes of a plump hind leg or so. It's really quite fearful and spoiled all my dives. I motored up to South Salem the other day and spent the night with Elizabeth Christy who spends her summers there on a farm. On the way back yesterday we had tea at "Orchard Farm" that is run by Virginia Cross. Tonight we're motoring in to the "Follies". Aug. 2 - Week Blueberry Island, Me.: We came up here two weeks ago and have been going thru the regular routine of swimming, sailing, picnics, and beach base-ball. There have been no guest so far, but Elizabeth Bowlend comes today and more people later on. We came here two weeks early on account of paralysis and sharks. Aug. 9 - Wed.: Betty Johnson and Betty Bowlend are here now and we've really been having very jolly times. Aug. 28 - Mon.: There have been scores of people her lately and we've all really been very busy entertaining them. They've all left now. Sept 2: Everyone is gone now and we had to give up our trip to Hot Springs on account of paralysis, but we expect to have our new car, a Locomobile up soon so we can take short trips about here. Sept 23: Ree Hart is here now. A week ago we took a motor trip that the White Mountains stopping at the Proffle and the Mount Washington with a glimpse at the Crawford House. We were gone five days and Miss Best took charge of the kids. It was very jolly motoring and yet we were all glad to get home. Yesterday we went to the coast for a shore dinner and a swim in the surf. We shall leave here next week surely. Maggie had a stroke of apoplexy a few days ago. Oct 1 - The Cedars: We toured home by way of Gloucester and Newport and reached here last night. It was a long drive and a cold one. Glad to be back! Oct 4: My work at Columbia is pretty well settled. Have been agitating a little golf and a movie show, also a few clothes. My frame of mind much improved. Oct 6: Have golfed all day long - played 22 holes in all, and lunched with the Williams. Oct 11: A lot of luncheons, golf, and Columbia, new clothes and shooting (with a new .22 Winchester) take all my time. Ufe is very full, joyous and crowded. I try to practice a while too. Mrs. Cowles, Bill and Elsie to dinner. Oct 12: The hours are crammed with the good things of this existence. I certainly lead a varied career. For instance, I spent the morning delving in an acid-reeking laboratory for chemical truths concerning milk, etc; I tear home on a noon train, step into an expensive car and whirl off to a giddy luncheon where howling debutantes shriek the latest gossip across the table. Then I don golf clothes and scoot to the golf lynx for ten holes or so. At Columbia I hobnob with weird terrors that eye me askance and whisper of the economic conditions of the poor and the pauperizing of the idle rich. At home I live in a comfortable, easy-going, highly respectable family who date from Ark; I play in Rye with flighty little creatures who swear at their golf balls and smoke their 3 cigarettes a day. Oct 16 : Spent the weekend up in the Adirondacks with Alice and Dewey and the all too adorable Oliver. I held him while he was christened and altogether we had a very nice party. Passed the morning browsing pleasantly in the American Museum and the afternoon chafing in the same place. I was twenty-two, Friday, and feel horribly ancient. Oct 22 - Sun.: I have been going very hard lately, mostly just classes and golf and seeing girls - no men as yet, but it does keep you on the jump just the same. Spend all Wednesday golfing with the Cobb - first at the Apawamis and then at Knollwood. Oct 27 - Sat.: Have just been down seeing Eleanor Neely and having a very nice time at their little cottage on Staten Island. She's engaged to a perfect kid of 20 but radiantly happy. Golf this afternoon. Oct 29 - Sun.: Just Rye things and a few extras. The Cobb was up for a few days during which we motored to Lakeville to see 13th and incidentally a beau of hers. Nov. 3 - Fri.: Have been golfing with a queer duck - Katherine Parsons, who came out last winter and belongs to the snobbiest family on the face of the earth. She's a rare bird but we had some good old tussles for our holes. Saw the Cobb the other day at Knollwood and we had a morning of golf. She beat. Nov. 7 - Tues. Election Day-: It's going to be a close run for them both and miserable if Wilson gets it. He did. We motored to The "Port of Missing Men" for the day. Nov. 15 - Wed.: Everything comes in a bunch and keeps me on a dead run. I'd like a let up for a while. Papa and I are going to Japan in May if all goes well. Nov. 26 - Sun.: Yesterday a party of us motored up to the Y-H game and saw Harvard get atrociously beaten. It was very exciting. Mont and Marion left this morning. Dec. 2 - Fri.: The pace whirls on faster and faster. A lot of boys came down with Rosson over Thanksgiving and we had a big tea dance that afternoon, also a Lesher-Cowles baseball game. It was great fun. Dec. 10 - Sun.: Kay Welles and the Harts have both been visiting. The time was packed with theaters and all manner of parties. College work rolls steadily on. Dec. 20 - Wet: Xmas shopping keeps everyone on the jump and planning holiday parties is a fearful nuisance. I will be glad when the holidays are safely over and life quiets down again. Dec. 30 - Sat: We are in the throes of an enormous house party over the New Year and there have been dances and parties every night. last evening there was a huge one at the Chamberlins and tonight at the club there will be another hullabaloo. The Parsons girls come up this afternoon and Rosson has two boys and a girl up. We had a big dinner last night at which the Nichols presided and Monday night we are all motoring in to the theater. It has been a perfectly fearful week, take it all in all and I am the color of an autumn leaf. 1917Jan. 3- Washington, D.C.: I am visiting Martha Binie down here and having a very good time so far, though I am dead tired from the New Year's house-party and long for rest and quiet, college work once more. Alas, I shall probably never sit still again in this life. Jan. 12 - Fri.: After I left Wash. I stayed in the city a few days spending one night at the club, one with Betty J, and one with Dee Cobb. Betty had an awfully jolly party and I saw several of the college girls. The dancing class met the night I spent with Dee and Jack took me there and back very duly in taxis. Since then I have worked at Columbia off and on and am agitating this children's play of the Fifth Grade quite steadily. Things are easing up a little, thank fortune. Jan. 15 - Mon.: I spent the weekend in South Orange with rafts of cousins and had quite fun. Lawrence took me for a walk and to a tea one afternoon where we met lots and lots of very nice people. A nice young married couple came to supper and I left early this morning. Spent the day at the museum drawing Tetrapod skulls and jollying along the students. Jan. 20 - Sat.: This week has been quite typical. College in the morning and sometimes afternoon, lunch with some old pal like Jean Mackenzie, and Woodcraft girls or play rehearsals in the P.M. At night there has been pool, or small dinners or singing class. This P.M. the play comes off and expect it will be rare for the kids are perfect devils. Jan. 23- Tues.: Today Aunt Carrie, Cornelia, Mrs. Barron, Mrs. Thorne, Mamma and I lunched at the University Club and later we went to a reading by Florence Wilkenson. It was all very lady-like and intellectual. Shall not inscribe again until exams are a thing of the past. Drat them! Feb. 9 - Fd: Exams are over, that them all and I don't know whether I care to continue at all. War talk, Japan, and nursing seem much more vital. Beth Ewen is visiting me and Helen Ewen, her cousin and my ex-room-mate has been fooling about the city pretty steadily taking us to shows and letting us take her to the theater. Feb. 11 - Sun.: Spent yesterday on one steady bat. Registered for my nursing course in the AM., then lunched with Dee and Betty G and saw "The Great Divide" with Betty and Irma Kellers later. Dinner and a movie show with the Nichols later. Mont Geer comes out today for Uncoln's birthday I am bored stiff to have him come. Men are convenient but really awful bores. They need so much entertaining and are such pigs. I took two of my cousins to the theater the other day and had a jolly party. Feb. 16 - Fri.: I have been in the city for two days and saw Peg Leech, Betty Bowlend, and Louise Walker. I spent the night with Betty. Helen Luquier is coming out here for the weekend. Had wonderful skating while Mont was here. Feb. 22 - 'Aboard S.S. Momus": Mamma and I are on a southern trip to New Orleans. From there we go to Arizona to visit Alice. The boat is very comfortable and aheady the climate is growing quite tropical and balmy. We have steamer chairs on the upper deck and it is a beautiful sunny day. Just now we are opposite North Carolina. Feb. 23.: It grows warmer all the time and we can sit out on deck without wraps very easily. In fact if you walk much it grows even hot. The sea is a heavenly color, sort of a sulfur blue that you see in the Yellowstone in the pools. The people grow very chummy and sociable but they are not all of the four hundred by any means. We are below Georgia now and early tomorrow morning we strike the Florida Coast. We come within a mile of Palm Beach and then strike out again into the Gulf of Mexico. We sit out here in our steamer chairs and write, read, walk the decks, play quoits or Occasionally warm up and jolly along some of the other passengers. I danced with the Captain last night and it was rare. Feb. 24: We are coasting along Florida now and the weather is tropical. In fact we are fairly sizzling even in summer clothes. Last night there was a dance and it was very good fun, but terribly hot. The coast is beautiful early this morning. We passed Palm Beach and Miami is just fading into the background. The color of the water is simply heavenly, sort of a turquoise green from the coral reefs. Feb. 25 - Sun.: It grows hotter and hotter every day and now we are in the Gulf of Mexico where the water is an ugly slate color and the sky is covered with shoals of dirty clouds. We are still writing, reading, and dancing. It was quite fun last night to dance on deck but a few turns made one feel boiled. We spent the evening sipping lemonade and White Rock. St Charles Hote4 New Orleans: The good ship got us in at about two and here we are settled in a glorious windy room in the heart of the queer Frenchy - Spanish City. We went for a sightseeing tour after luncheon and tonight are going to the Grunwald for dinner and then a show. Feb. 27 - Sunset Limited En Route -Tucson.: Today we left New Orleans and boarded the train armed with pralines, old mammy dolls and baby alligators. We are flying thru rice fields and jungles of palms and cypress. The train is very cool and the table delicious, after the heat of New Orleans. Feb. 28 - Still En Route - Texas: We are late now but have passed the Texas border and are on our way to El Paso. There was a wreck ahead of us so we are held up and are quite late. Oracle, Arizona - Ladd's Ranch: We arrived here at noon. The ranch is a neat, well-run, carefree affair where everyone suits himself. We saw the baby and spent the afternoon riding over a mountain trail on the most wonderful broncos. They fairly flew over the trails at a swinging canter that was such a relief after the eastern macadam roads where a sedate trot is the only mode of procedure. Mar. 3: Riding over the prairies took all morning and in the afternoon we tried to shoot Jackrabbits but without much success though we saw plenty. Mar. 4: Spent the day riding and trying to shoot but only hit a bird after several tries. Mar. 7- En Route Canyon.: After several days of riding, trapping, and roping steers we left. Alice, Mamma and I for Phoenix. From there we progressed by slow stages to Williams where we spent the night at a clean little Santa Fe hotel. We had to arise at 4:15 this morning to get this train to the canyon and everyone is very sleepy. The moon is still up and Arizona is bleak and cheerless. Two seats ahead a spiritualist recounts her yarns and back of me two cowboys sprawl. The alligator we bought in New Orleans still flourish. Mar. 10 - En Route Chicago: We spent two days at the Canyon and drove about the rim as well as taking one fearful mule ride down to the Colorado river where we clung to pinnacles and crags for several miles. El Tovar was attractive and interesting and we hated to leave. We are in for a fearful train trip now of four days durance and are fortified with books, knitting, and letters. I was very disappointed in the Canyon. It was stupendous, shadowy and red. Mar. 11 - Kansas: We are rolling thru a flat, dry country with now and then a stop at some fascinating spot like Dodge City. Time goes very slow - on leaden wings. I read, eat and yawn. The fourth bothersome male is on our track. There were two on the boat, one very sweet one on the train to Tucson and now another who waits outside for me when the train stops. It's an awful bore. Mar. 14- The Cedars, Rye, N.Y.: Once again at home. I went to the city this morning and got the cinders and Alkali dust of the west washed from my hair. Then I came home and went to a luncheon at Elizabeth Chrysties and we all went to the movies. After that Adeline took us all to tea at the Apawamis Club and everyone waxed very warlike. The "Huns" have sunk an American ship so we all verge on the precipice of strife- Gosh - I hope Not! Mar. 17- Chamberlain Hotel - Old Point Comfort, VA: Mamma, Bob and I took the boat from New York yesterday and reached here this forenoon. We went swimming in the sea-pool before lunch and after it we went thru Hampton Roads on a little Yacht. The night before we came I went to a card-party and dance at the Nield's so I am still sleepy. Celine Lane, a once was freshman at Vassar is here and flutters about madly. The hotel is a beauty and has every convenience from palm rooms to "Saline Natural water bathes" for obesity. The boat trip down was not out of the ordinary and the food was terrific. Mar. 18: There was a military dance here last night and I was lucky enough to meet the men from Fort Monroe so had a well-filled dance card. After the hop the men and another college girl who is married and lives here took me for lemonade and sodas. Mar. 20 - En Route Charleston: Spent the day in Richmond and came on the train tonight. The South palls on me. VillsMargharita, Charleston-: We are settled here in the most charming southern house. Our rooms are harmonies of grey and rose and the dining tables are set about a court with a swimming pool in the center. We have browsed thru old churches and today we visit the beautiful magnolia gardens and the country club. Mar. 22 - Charleston: We spent the morning at the magnolia gardens out in the country and in the afternoon Bob and I went out to the country club for golf. It was a splendid lynx and we played twelve holes. Movies tonight. Mar. 25 - The Cedars, Rye, N.Y.: Home again and ready for my nursing course! I went to a dinner theater and cabaret with Marion Drake-Smith and about a dozen others. I spent the night there and this morning went to church and had lunch with grandma. I cam up on the 3:06 with Mont and spent the afternoon and most of the evening motoring about the country. Mont went back tonight. Can't get used to being home with my dogs again. Mar. 29: Thrills over the nursing course! I adore it and the hospital work is just what I have longed for years. I had lunch with Peg the other day and of course see a lot of Dee Cobb. Mar. 30: Went to the hospital today and lunched with Dee this afternoon. The work there is very tiring but interesting. April 9: Life moves fast and oh so furious! Nursing, lunches with old pals and parties at night. Spent the weekend with an awfully jolly house party down at Betty's on the Jersey Coast. Today, hospital work and then a big dinner at the Chamberlains followed by the Charity Ball. I love the nursing and take to it like a duck to water. The children are really so patient and pathetic and so ill, some of them. April 13 - Fri.: Went to another dance on Tuesday night, nursing Wednesday, and then motored out from the city! Lunch with Helen Luquier yesterday and saw Grace Redway too at the University Club. Today, same old story, but saw some gory dressings a the hospital. Last night there was a meeting for preparedness at the Apawamis Club. Nothing was accomplished but there was tremendous talk till very late. April 21 - Sat.: Much preparedness in the air and many meeting at the Apawamis. Have been nursing all week and motoring. Went to the circus with a box party last night and had a jolly time on the whole. Have played with Dee a lot and see the girls quite a bit. Am getting very sleepy and rather tired. April 29: Went to Grace Redway's wedding yesterday, then the theater and spent the night with Dotty Taylor after hearing Bffly Sunday. Beautiful spring weather but my spirits are very low. When they rise I'll write again. May 6: They have risen a bit but are not soaring as yet. Spent the night with Jean Mackenzie and have seen quite a little of the Cobb. Mont has been out here twice since this time last week. May 13: Am o.k., very tired indeed. Alice and family are staying with us so the house is brimming. Rosson sailed for France today with the Harvard Unit. Life is so exciting with all the War talk that we rush from one thrill into another. Went to a meeting of the dancing class on Tuesday night. Dorothy Cobb came up this morning and we had some splendid golf, played seventeen holes in all. Dot stayed to lunch and in the afternoon I went over to the Nichols to an entertainment which consisted of a whistling solo; rather interesting but dull. I saw some very nice girls there though. From there I went to the hospital to see Adeline Hotchkiss who has just been operated on for appendicitis. Later-: All the nice men have enlisted and life is grey and time hangs heavy even though it is well-filled. Once more I shall register the Vow not to write until the fogs begin to drift off again. May 14: I'm busier but still blue. There is such a lot to be done I can't get time to feel low. May 25 I can now. Things have stopped with a dull thud. I took my first exam today. It was so easy that I felt dispirited. The war preparations drag on with endless red tape and wearying steadiness. They tire one so but never get anywhere somehow. It is cold for May and there is restlessness and seething everywhere but people try to go on just the same having luncheons and teas and dances. There is no snap to anything social while war hangs over us. Last night a party of us had dinner at Delmonico's and went to the theater but I felt fearfully depressed and absorbed. The food and show were all so detached from the real things. I must be falling into melancholic habits. I won't write anymore. This awful pall on everyone affects me and until I am more cheerful I'll keep myself to myself. June 6 - Week: I wish there were more chance of my getting abroad as a nurse. Things in Rye are more bearable for there have been a few outlets to patriotic spirits. There was a big parade yesterday in which my Woodcraft girls marched proudly, with myself leading. We have Navy Leagues and Red Cross classes daily. I graduated proudly last Friday and got 97 on my paper and went up flutteringly in my uniform to get my diploma. June 12 - Tues.: Spent the weekend reuning with my class at Vassar. I motored up with Dot Cobb in the wee Saxonia and had a disappointing time. It was such a mad rush all the while and we were always drenched. Of course I attended a lot of parties and such and two engagements were announced but the depression of the war hung over all. It seemed wicked to play so hard when men are fighting and dying near us. We were not sorry to come home yesterday. June 14: The military census rolls on steadily and so does Navy League work and Red Cross and movies and golf. I lunched with Peg yesterday and Joy today. Am having typhoid inoculations and they make me feel like the deuce. June 27: I spent the weekend at Glen Cove with the Parsons and had three glorious days of swimming, tennis, and golf. I came home Monday and am on the verge of a great adventure which, if it comes off, happens on July 7th. There were some Navy League movies here in Rye Friday night and I helped run them and was in a Red Cross Tableau. July 9 -S.S. "Espagne". En Route Bordeaux: Well, the "adventure" has happened and I am sailing to France as a nurse's Aid under the American Girls Aid. It is a very Frenchy boat and jammed with Ambulance boys and girls going as I am. We were all horribly seasick this morning but feel better now that we are on deck in our steamer chairs. I am rooming with two very attractive girls, Mrs. Westcott and Dorothy Jones and we are already very chummy. July 12 - Thurs.: We've had horrible, muggy weather for the past two days and were all feeling very low and stupid. I find more and more people on the boat that I know so I am not quite so adrift as I felt at first when I waved farewell to the assembled family on the pier. We're all off on a great adventure; no one knows what the next year may bring to him or her. We may all be submarined but we don't talk of it and are perfectly happy to eat, walk the decks, and sleep in our chairs. We have met some very nice boys in the ambulance. July 1311- Friday: Our fourth day at sea! It is breezy and sunny because we have left the d____ gulf stream and are cruising along in a cooler strata. Everyone feels and looks twenty percent peppier and even though it is an unfortunate date and day for mid-ocean with submarines in the offing, we don't talk of them much. We quietly place our coats and boots in readiness and eye our life preservers. Those who are equipped with submarine suits go about with a slightly superior air but we tell them that no life-boat would bother to rescue them from their comfortable rubber nooks, fortified with food, tablets and whisky. July 14 - Sat.: The people on board wax chummier daily and our steamer chairs are a perfect rendezvous for a stream of girls and boys. Last night I had an awful experience. I woke up to find a huge rat in my berth! I reached the floor in one long leap and spent the rest of the night there. It is raining buckets but we are very jolly and happy. Our fruit and candy and books keep us so. July 18 - France at last!: We are still on the steamer but are forging slowly up the river to Bordeaux. The houses and vineyards look so clean and white and orderly; Decidedly, un-American. Later. Have been very blue all evening for a number of reasons. First, we are all dead tired, secondly I am separated from my chosen pals, Dorothy having been snatched off to the "Terminus" with her association, and "K" Adams and Betty Black are at another hotel. We are at the "Bordeaux." The city seen from our seats in a café and a brief stroll about the square is very old and crumbly, but decidedly interesting. It is a lot like New Orleans. July 19 - Bordeaux: Hot as blazes but splendid weather. I slept tifi very late and then had lunch in the awning-covered café with K.Adams and Betty Black. This afternoon we took a "fiacre" and bumped over the cobbles to view a museum and a lot of mummies topping off with lemonade and some perfectly yum French candy. It is very depressing here already for there are many war widows and everywhere one sees women driving trolleys, taxis and "voitures". We are still very stilted in the use of the language but I can feel myself improving daily. There are little boys in all the cafe's and offices taking the places of the men but one frequently sees cripples attending to business with only the handicap of an arm or leg. We leave for Paris tomorrow in a special car with the unit. July 20 - Paris - 7 Rue Trocadero: It is depressing to arrive at nightfall I find. Tonight I feel very lonesome here in a huge pension in the heart of Paris. We had a long trip up from Bordeaux and only pulled into the depot at eight o'clock dusty, weary, dirty and homesick, some of us. I am not homesick yet but I do feel very much adrift since Dorothy left. She was such a jolly little person that I miss her fearfully. K.Adams and Betty Black were met at the Gare by her brother, so I am quite all alone and inclined to another period of depression. The two girls I am with just now are off bumming with two muts of ambulance drivers and after paling with a thin dame who lives across the hall I clean up and go to bed. I am crazy to get to work for this period of bumming and frivoling and throwing away our francs to kill time is getting desperate. I want to get into the swim of nursing. July 21 - Hotel Des St Pris.: As usual my days travel in freaks. Tonight I am jubilant. This morning we attended to some odd jobs, lunched at a café, and joy of joys.! I ran into Dorothy Jones. I was driving in a fiacre but leapt forth and we flew into each others arms right on the Rue De L'Opera. I left the other girls like a flash and moved bag and baggage over here to be with her. I have a funny room fronting on a court and mostly given over to wardrobes and windows. Life is one transient dream again and I shall slumber happily. It is very true that I never realized my alone condition when I left home. It is being impressed upon me daily. I am fond of Paris but not appalled. I rather take it all for granted I'm afraid. I never saw so many cripples as infest the streets, mostly in uniform, but horribly maimed. C'est Ia guerre! July 23 - Mon.: My life is running as smoothly as can be expected when ones trunk is the only one of fifty not to arrive from Bordeaux. I love being with Dorothy and Ann and Margaret in this clean, adorable hotel. We only have two meals here, "chocolate-complet" served in our rooms at nine and a dinner at night. We lunch out in odd nooks and tea where we please. We speak pigeon-French and are typical American girls but the fun is there just the same. We went to service in Notre Dame yesterday and then viewed Sainte Chapelle and St. German. The hospital is not in a hurry to move so we are still undecided as to what and where we go or do. We all want to get to work as soon as possible and get in the current of things. I met Jack Luquier on the street today. And it seemed wonderful to see a familiar face again. He is in the ambulance and homesick like all the rest. July 25: This period of waiting grows very trying to all. We are so very anxious to slave and here in Paris we are so wasteful of time and francs which should go to those who need it. Poor Dorothy is also all up in air as the Red Cross is taking over all independent ventures and throwing lots of us out of jobs. Desperate girls with no assets but money throng the streets. Like all of us, they have teased until their parents let them come ...only to find that what they expected to have handed out to them on a silver platter is not forthcoming. It is hard to get over here, harder yet to get just the right work; but they need us terribly. It seems incongruous. Spent the last two days batting about Paris and sightseeing. One item of news.! My trunk at least arrives and I found it awaiting me guiltily at the Gare. July 26: Last night we had a taste of the real thing. Dorothy and I went to a party given at the station for soldiers returning to the trenches after six days leave. They looked so desperate and hunted and the party really cheered them wonderfully. Mrs. Vanderbilt and Madame Coucor gave it and we passed wine and cake and comfort kits. They were so grateful and tried to kiss our hands. There was a group of twelve men who had escaped from Germany after fifteen months imprisonment. We talked to them in pigeon French and learned they had walked for eight days with four biscuits apiece a day. They finally reached Holland and got from there to England. The twelve were quite the lions of the evening and they surely deserved it. It was a thrilling experience to see that great smoky waiting room packed with soldiers in soiled uniforms, going back to be killed, for all they knew next day, but growing more and more jovial as the singing and cheering progressed. Today we went to Saint Cloud and had a glorious time in the beautiful woods and terraces there. July 27: Very hot and muggy today. We breakfasted very late and then did several odd jobs around. Lunched with Kala Bonier and Margaret Erkard at a luxurious spot called Ciro. Then at four I went to Mile Wolfhugel's for tea. She is a very sweet French woman who knows the Nichols well. We had a nice jolly talk over our patisserie and tea. Margaret and Anne went to their pension tonight and we reign supreme in our three rooms, salon, bedroom and bath. July 28 - Sun.: Had a very interesting day on the whole. This morning we got up late and then had lunch at Ciro's again. It is a very gay, delicious little spot and we were distressed to hear later in the day that young girls in France did not go there unchaperoned. Nevertheless we had a wonderful time and didn't feel a bit conspicuous. This afternoon friends of Dorothy's motored us out to Fountainbleau for tea. It was a beautiful drive and the woods and chateaux were very impressive. We didn't get home until about seven and had washing day tonight. August 5 - Sun.: It has rained persistently the entire week and we have divided our time between sightseeing and stopping at 4 Rue Auber for gossip about the hospital. All are restless and very eager to get to work but Paris is very unsettled just now and we must be patient. Today Dorothy and I went to Versailles for a picnic and had a lovely time. It is a beautiful spot and we cooked eggs and cocoa in the prettiest place we could find. Later it simply poured and squelched a children's entertainment which was to be there, so we came home. We have been visiting the military hospitals at Neuilly and RiseOranges and found them fascinating but full of horribly crippled and disfigured "poilus". It is all good training so I make myself look at them. August 7- Tues. Hotel TarnLse - 4 Rue d'Alger.: Dorothy did not get off with her canteen unit so we shook the dust of the Saint Peres from our feet and came over here where a lot of the unit are staying all together. I met Lindsay Donaldson this morning and he took me to lunch at a fascinating place called the "Chinese Umbrella" He is going to stay here and is an awfully nice boy; works in the Norton Hayes ambulance unit. This afternoon I purchased a hat and a fountain pen and then went out to tea with Carita, K.. Squibb, Dorothy and a Mrs. Sturtevant. August 9: All wired to be on the march but no new as yet. Went to the movies yesterday with Margaret Erhart and Carita and saw some rare ones. I am still trying to connect up with Rosson but no luck so far as he is in the war.. We both hope for the best but I fear we won't hitch up till Xmas. August 10: Just fooled all day and tonight I went out for dinner with Lindsay Donaldson. August 11 - Ris-Orangis - Seine et Oise: Life is a strange phenomenon after all. (the following is scratched through-Having carefully inscribed the fact that I would dine with Lindsay the wretched boy never showed up leaving me sitting in my glad rags for the better part of an hour in the hall, growing more famished by the minute.) This morning early comes a no explaining all in sad accent. We lunched together today at the Pavilion de Champs - Elysees After tea at the "Chinese Umbrella" I embark for the weekend at Military Hospital NO. 76. It is in the country and I am sick to death of Paris in August. Went to another party at the Gare the other night. It had fewer thrills and we came home early. The poilus were pretty stolid and lacked enthusiasm. Later: Ris Orangise is the most heavenly spot. I knew I was tired of the city but never knew I loved the country so. Miss Porter had engaged a room for me with a sweet little woman who is terribly excited over my coming and has a house set in the middle of a fruit garden. She brought me up a whole plate of peaches before I went to bed. It was heavenly to sit on my little veranda at night and see only trees and stars and smell only fruit trees and hay. August 12 - Ris-Orangis: Having a perfectly heavenly time here. There are two nurses staying here too with this dear little Madame Carré and today we roamed the foret and had lunch at a place called the "Hermitag'è.where one sits in a wine-covered nook and eats omelettes and cheese. August 13 - Paris: Back again at the Tamise and spent the afternoon agitating the question of uniforms. Dorothy left for her canteen work at Bar-le-Duc, Saturday so I room alone again. I miss her terribly but life will turn a new corner soon and some new wrinkle will appear to engage my attention, I hope. I have been playing off and on with K. Adams, Betty Black, Carila and Katherine Squibb but have reached the state where my own company satisfies me completely. At Ris-Orangis we used to hear the guns at night when all was quiet and aeroplanes were always scudding about. The ~ there, were very interesting and were willing to be talked to and pampered to their hearts content. Some of them act so bored and blasé when you try to be chummy. We still fume here in Paris but are all praying to get on the march which still looks pretty distant. The nurses are wild with rage. August 14: All are agitating the subject of uniforms fiercely and we vibrate between the Bon Marché, the Galeries Lafayette and Au Printemps. I am making all my own collars. I had lunch at the "Chinese Umbrella" with Margaret Erkart and Kala Bonier. Tonight two "aids" out at Neuilly took me out to dinner at an Italian place on the Grand Boulevard. They are both V.C. 1916 and as nice and jolly as they make them. We had a splendid time. August 15: Today was the same old story of fuming and gabbling about getting off to the front. Tonight I have just had dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Reckett who finance the hospital at Rise-Oranges. They stay at the Ritz and were perfectly charming people, relatives of the Connors in Rye, and they fed me to a bounteous repast. After one of these boosts life always seems more hopeful but when morning comes and we meander expectantly to 4 Rue Auber it is always the same old story of "Dr. Moody expects to have a conference today" or "Miss Hollirigsworth hasn't been in yet." We get very depressed, but hen, many others are in the self-same predicament and we shouldn't kick. August 16: Four of us took a French lesson this morning together. We have decided that we need to employ our time better than in merely gossiping and sewing after lunch I strolled a bit and had tea with K. Adams, Betty, Carita and Squibb at the "Afternoon Tea". We talked and ate too much. Tonight six of us sat in the parlor knitting and chatted. It is quite an interesting situation. Here we are; twelve attractive girls in the early twenties all anxious to serve our country and none knowing at all what we are in for. We are groping in the dark and the war swirls about us like a great whirlpool. Uniforms of every description swarm the streets and we can only guess at where their owners have been or seen. The men have such impassive faces that tell nothing and we pass them on our way to tea and shopping without a thought. Oh my eyes are opening slowly! The personal element is nil. There is a grim, firm hand that sweeps all individuality before it and leaves a great mass of machine-made men and women in its wake. Our unit is getting there. I can see it in others and feel it in myself. We still kick and make catty remarks but there is something coming out in every girl that never showed before on the boat or in our early Paris days. August 18 - Sat.: I am sitting up sleepily in bed having finished "petit dune?' which woke me up by appearing an hour too soon. We enjoyed our third aeroplane raid last night at three-twenty. I was wakened from a sound sleep by hearing the sirens shrieking on the Rue de Rivoli. I really lay and shook for about ten minutes while the aeroplanes tore about above and hideous horns succeeded the sirens. Then someone kicks on my door and I found it was Squibb who had come to wake the community on the fourth floor and invited us to watch the aero-light from her window. By this time everyone could be heard stirring drowsily so I felt my way down the pitch-black stairs and sat for half an hour on Squibbs bed waiting for the bomb that we felt sure was labeled 'Tamise Hotel". As none developed we grew bolder and ventured out on the Rue de Rivoli where we could see the aeroplanes like glowing stars darting here and there. Often we mistook an aeroplane for a star till it began to advance or retreat on the Rue, where we huddled in our great-coats over night-gowns and bare ankles there were cars tearing about to see that no lights were on and men in uniform hurrying goodness knows where. At about four a big car, all lighted passed blowing a lively bugle call and we knew the danger was over for that night. I went crawling up four fights again to my room and am terribly weary this morning as a result of the raid. We won't know for days whether the Boche was caught or not or where the bomb fell. August 21 - Tues. - Military Hospital No. 76. Ris-Oranges.: On service at last by gum! But not our unit yet. They are stewing in Paris but I packed up and came here where I am on duty in Salle A as an auxillere. I only got in by pull but I adore the work and am the envy of our unit for this is a hospital au luxe. Miss Porter and Mrs. Clapp are sweet to me. My duties are making beds and being general helper about the ward. The blessé's are very interesting both intellectually and physically. August 23- Thurs.: Life as an auxililiarie Salle A rolls merrily on. I wear my white coiffe and aprons and am on a dead tear all day beginning at 6:30 a.m. My duties consist chiefly in making beds and rubbing backs but today I graduated to temperatures and was allowed to put the last touches on a few simple dressings. Also I was left in charge of the salle and had a feeling of egotism hitherto conspicuous by its absence. The Recketts stopped in to see me today and Mrs. Reckett asked me to join her canteen which goes to the front next week. I wish I could but I don't dare leave my own unit. Since I came I have been swimming, bicycling and have played tennis. The nurses are so nice to me and on every off hour I am carried off somewhere. The work is mostly routine and we stick to it hard but I enjoy it immensely. The things I have had to get used to here I will enumerate: 1) Warbread for everything. 2) one lump of sugar or none. 3) no butter to speak of. 4) no sweets to speak of. 5) very limited varieties of meat. 6) no milk except in cooking. I must ~o down now as it is half-past seven and I am due in the salle. August. 26 - Sun.: Things are running happily but we look for a new lot of blessées in any day as the salle is rather empty. I am learning a great deal from watching the blesséds and their friends who come to see them on visiting days. Today there is a little trickle of "bourgeoisie" wandering thru the hospital and on every side can be heard the smacking of French kisses. I adore the work even though it is hard and gory. I talk a lot with the men and take temperatures, nib backs and hand around during dressings and walk around the quaint little cobbled village where the children run after us and call "good night, Miss". I have been swimming, in the muddy Seine and have played tennis and cycled but in my off hours I mostly read or write out in the dense green park around the hospital. It is heavenly. Yesterday I took an hour off to go to a blesséds funeral in the Catholic Church in the village. The old priest and two grimy little acolytes led off, followed by the pallbearers and the tearful family. They were all weeping, even the onlookers on the pitiful little procession for the French are very sympathetic, and it was a touching sight. The priests changed back and forth in the dim little chapel while we kneeled in the back. Then the line of march was reversed and we flied out into the sunshine again and shook hands with the poor old mother, and grandmother who had lost their second boy. Just now I am in charge of the ward and am swollen with importance. The victrola is making the air ring with music, the blessé'es chatter with their friends, the friends chatter louder and cackle and peer curiously about and stream thru the halls and stairs. A few poor blessé' with no friends lie listlessly and sadly watching the others or trying to sleep. September 2 - Sun.: How time flies when one is working. I can scarcely believe that the summer is nearly over and the fall tang is in the air. I have been to Paris for the night and the subject of our going was agitated as usual but rather more vehemently. After signing my papers I came tearing back here as the pangs of homesickness were already upon me. Homesickness for this clean, tree-shadowed, wholesome hospital where I sleep like a log on my board like army cot with the moon and stars glowing though the wide windows. I missed the child-like blesséts and the scramble for tea at ten and at four and the orderly run of things. Paris seemed more like a dirty, seething whirlpool then ever and I was so happy to be here again I fairly beamed even at the idea of making the detested beds. I have been swimming, playing tennis, and taking bicycle rides thru the villages near Rise, quaint cobbled little huddles, with delicious boulangeries where we load up with cakes at every opportunity. When the craving for sweets is too much I dash down to a tiny epicene in Rise and buy, for an exorbitant sum, some chocolate. au lait. September 9 - Sun.: It has been a long, unbroken week full of very hard work from 7:30 till dark. Last Monday night a load of 42 blessés came in. I got up at midnight to see it. It was an interesting, rather easy sight; the long, grey-tiled corridors lit by stable lanterns, and the orderlies shuffling along carrying stretchers with mangled wrecks on them. We took their names and numbers and temperatures and then I went down to stand by the door and watch the big ambulances roar up and unload their cargo into the orderlies' stretchers. It was one o'clock when the last load was in and I sat down by Miss Hunt for a picnic lunch of eggs and tea and sandwiches. I am a little discouraged about my own unit. It is so slow getting to work. September 16 - Somewhere in France - (Flanders): After two months I have managed to secure my "laiser Passer" up here to see Rosson. I left Rise at seven and took the long six-hour trip up to the war-zone on the Boulogne train. We tore thru camps and troops and hospitals and cemeteries and all the paraphernalia of war and are here at last. I alighted on the tracks beside the ocean with a sea of tents in front of me, and the sand dunes behind against the sky. I asked the way to the American hospital and was stunned to have the cockney sentinel reply "Right here, Ma'am." Well, I located Rosson and he almost died of surprise. The hospital is all in marquees and huts and tents and two weeks before, the Boches had dropped five bombs and killed as many people. The tents were riddled with the shrapnel holes. I spent two blissful days at Dannes Camiers with Rosson and his friends, walking over the dunes and getting supper at little out of the way spots, and visiting the wards and sitting at night watching the lights at the front and waiting for air raids. The nurses were very nice to me and took me right in. I am on my way home now and will soon be in quiet, well-behaved Rise. Flanders is a bleak, desolate waste after the south of France. We are very near the lines and right on the channel. On clear days we can really see England. I hated to leave Rosson but in this strange existence nothing lasts very long at a time. Life here in France is a checkerboard of despair and joy, boredom and thrills. I feel ten years older and look it by gum. September 24 - Ris-Orangis: I have been working here a month and now a new turn has presented itself. I leave here tomorrow for good. I shall spend two days in Paris and then go up to Mrs. Recites canteen at the front for three months. I decided to go last week, pulled the necessary wires, and here I am, all packed and ready. For the past week I've been bicycling to Junky for dinner, attending the presentation of decorations in the ward and working very hard. Our own unit has given me three months leave and the stream of war will carry me on to a new battlefield now. I said goodbye to all my "blesses tonight and felt very sad. We have one boy of twenty with lockjaw. He hates me and has an ugly disposition but now I am learning I feel so sorry for him (the following is crossed out-I could almost kiss his set jaw.) September 28 - Fr Somewhere in France (Braisne, Aisne, 6 miles from the front): I spent two happy, crowded days in Paris eating my utmost of the best fare to be had and buying many necessaries. I saw all of the aids and had jolly parties with them all. Then on Thursday Miss Porter and I armed with much red tape came out here with Mrs. Reckitt on a military train from the Ga4de l"Est. We left Paris at eight and reached here at two. Braisne is evacuated; a mere dusty shell of a village filled at all hours with trails of ambulances, files of horses, and disheveled poilus marching wearily to and from the trenches. We live right in center of town where an endless stream passes under our windows day and night. The canons sound very close and make me think of July third at home when all the firecrackers are starting. There are two other girls here in the house and we five run the canteen. Last night we served coffee from five till eight. It was just like a play. The big dim room, we three women in spotless white, the dirty poilus, and the little stage at the end where the men sing in turn. It was so crowded that many of the men climbed ladders outside the windows and I filled their cup from there. I met some nice Nortan Hayes boys, among them my cousin, Schuyler Van Vechten. We hardly slept last night for the cameons bumped past all night and the guns began booming again at four. October 1: Yesterday we were invited over to the Norton Hayes Camp for lunch. Two of the boys came for us in an ambulance and we tore over there, huddled in the back under the stretchers. We lunched under a huge tent and the boys were sweet to us. My two cousins introduced me to most of the camp. After lunch we were smuggled into an ambulance again and this time Schuyler took us up thru a shelled village which was still under fire. Vailly was a sad little scrap of a village and we could see the Boche shrapnel and the avions still hovering over it when we left. Of course we went at top speed all the while and were covered with dust and blown to bits when we arrived home. The boys stayed for tea in the garden. The canteen work is so interesting that I hate to have time off. One-poilu writes me infatuated notes and begs me to marry him. My yellow hair is the attraction for the poilus love blonde locks. We had avions and star-shells and all manner of bombing last night. October 3 - WecL: More Boche avions, more bombs, and more ambulance men hanging about us like flies. There were yesterday seven all sitting in rows on the grass in our little garden. It seems strange to be passing tea-cups and cigarettes with gallant American boys while six miles off we can hear the guns booming and the Boche Aeroplanes whirring overhead. The work at the canteen thrives and more poilu lovers crop up every day. They roll their eyes and press their grimy notes into my hands when I pour out their coffee. The boy at Rise with lockjaw has died! My first war experiences. October 8 - Mon.: Today Mrs. Reckett and I walked along the road to Vasny for miles and had tea with the English canteen there. Lieutenant Simon of the Norton-Hayes camp brought us back in his car and there were a raft of ambulance men and French officers for tea and we had to hurry thru it to get to the canteen by five and the crowd was thick as mud. They sang and monologued to the accompaniment of a terrible cannonading in the trenches and the windows shook out of their sockets. Am getting very tired and sick of my uniform, but I simply adore the work and the rather Bohemian life. October 15: It grows frostier and snappier every day and there are only three of us running the canteen now. As the two other girls are gone. The poilus are jolly and merry and I am growing very fond of them. They shower me with smutty bon-bons, crayon sketches, postal pictures of themselves, and grimy love-letters. It is all very amusing and interesting. The ambulance boys have been coming in to tea quite regularly and we sit and chat about home in front of our cozy little fireplace. The guns are very quiet but everyone is getting ready for the big attack. October 18: A new side of my nature is coming to the fore. Our poilus are going up to the front for the attack and it breaks my heart. A slender little Sergeant of twenty-one summers has been in saying goodbye and we are quite triste. Then an automobilist who plays the piano beautifully has just escaped being struck by a great Boche obus that fell a few hundred yards from here and killed seven men. It is too terrible and I feel to awful and upset and horribly dazed. The canons and star shells and bombs keep us awake all night and all day the poilus going back keep us on a nervous tension, which verges on hysteria. Our little pianist goes up the lines tomorrow with his car. Yes, the offensive is on and the air is charged with electricity. We all had the "caffert" tonight badly and I felt as though my smile was just glued on while inside I seemed turning to dust. We carried off the evening fairly well but everyone was thinking of the seven men killed right near us and the others on their way "out there" whom we will probably never see again. I keep 1918February 27 - Braisne!: >Back again, rather glad on the whole to be here. We had endless red-tape on the way but finally reached here Monday afternoon having been conveyed over from Soissons by a genial Colonel who drove us to desperation with his fearful English. The countryside swarms with Americans, most of them pretty rough but here and there one stumbles on a more polished product.Mrs. R. and Dorothy have been alone all this while and are rather fagged. Oh, the bitterest blow of all! The 104th are gone. I feel terribly about Rugby and the little prisoner. March 4: We have been having snow and mud and slush and rain for days and everyone is sniffling. The soldiers are not very interesting; mostly a few Genie Regiments and American boys and time drags a bit. The General and staff came to tea yesterday and were unusually dull. Everyone speaks of the attack and they say it will be the worst and the bloodiest that has ever happened. We don't know whether to expect it here or up in Flanders or down in the Vosges but in any case it will be a terrific struggle March 7: Yesterday we went to Vasseny to the Evacuation hospital and brought papers to the American wounded there. The boys looked so stunned and dazed and were pretty badly cut up. We felt a little shy at first; they were the first Amex "blesse" I had seen but when we saw how drearily lonesome and homesick they were we felt more at ease. It more than repaid our muddy tramp over and our aching feet that night. It is too bad to put the Americans in a french hospital when they are so horribly banged up and long for an English voice. March I5: The universe seems crashing about our ears! The two territorial Infantry Regiments which have been the back-bone and mainstay of the Canteen since last September have gone! That means that we are once more cookless and have to slave about grimly and smuttily preparing our own meals. I took my day today and cooked lunch and dinner and feel weary in consequence. There are very few men here now; not more than five hundred or so in a day and we feel idle. The March days are beautiful though and we can sit in the garden for tea. The Courselles ladies have been here and several French officers. The canteen is full of Americans every evening and it makes it very jolly for us though sometimes they grow a bit rowdy and boisterous. Everyone speaks of the attack almost daily and we are all on more or less of a nervous tension. Some think it will come here, and some furtherdown the line near Reims. Time only can tell. We went to Soupir the other day and saw the splendid chateau and statues that are completely ruined. We ate in a smashed up pavilion beside a little lake and after some officers took us up the kills to the German trenches and cemeteries and we had our pictures taken in the middle of a vast cave where the Boches used to be quartered. It was very fascinating and "bizarre" and tiring and after a sixteen kilometer walk home we were dead to the world. The day was very beautiful and hot and we never reached home until six o'clock. The canteen was opened by our poilus on service but we felt guilty. Mrs. R. has been away almost two weeks on "perm". March 21: We still cook, ourselves, and otherwise have very rare experiences. Monday we went to St. Giles, beyond Fesmes to a very sporty luncheon with a group of automobile men and two American officers. The Amex are leaving this sector and Braisne is full of rowdy Infantrymen all day and night. They come thru weary and dirty and vulgar and ask endless questions. Last night we were wakened almost every hour by loud halloos in the road and real American swearing. The guns are bumping very loudly tonight and we hear that a great deal of gas has been shot over.
March 22: Furious bombardment all day! The house shook and the whole country seemed to rumble like a gigantic earth-quake or a thunder-storm. They say the Boches are taking advantage of fewer men on the front now that the Amex are gone. Its like the attack of last fall but almost louder. March 23: Went to Soissons sitting on mailbags in the tresor de poste camion. We have not heard many shells although at a distance. They were hitting at the gare but we could hear the whistle plainly. Did some shopping and came home by easy stages in camions. Later: the attack so long expected is really on!
The Boches are firing again on our mud-hole! The shells have been whistling every fifteen minutes regularly and all the french are crouching in cellars. We opened the canteen but only a few Amex sauntered in. We have our masks tightly clutched but if the real thing comes we are goners and masks will avail nothing.
April 1: The English are doing rottenly. I can't see why the United Empire can't hold out against a Boche offensive without calling on poor little France to back her up. The Germans are near Amiens! Very little doing here. There are few men at the canteen and time drags. Yesterday we climbed up to La Follies with a french interpreter who has been very decent to us. It was quite fun. We still do our own cooking with a poilu to clean up after us. Yesterday was Easter Sunday and we spent it in being disgruntled over the fact that we are in the Aisne and not in the Somme just now. Am very tired.Later yet: We ate lunch on the run dashing cellar-wards at intervals. The shells were dropping all around us. One hit the military post and killed two mules. We went down to see them between salad and compote course. We picked up bits of shrapnel still warm. Thirteen shells in all. March 24: A beautiful sunny day. We were shelled out of bed at sever this morning and after that they fell at intervals of eight minutes. I made cocoa at the Canteen and ran for the Abri regularly in chorus with the men on service. A column of artillery men passing thru were struck and eight men killed besides twelve horses. Bits of eclats were brought us from the fray, one covered with blood. Dust and powered shrapnel fell in our garden and we have passed the day rejoicing in the cellar. The English are hard pressed for the real attack is up there. A long gun has actually reached Paris! It seems unbelievable but true. March 25: No shells and a tranquil day. We were exhausted from the last two days however and sat around playing checkers and reading as we dared not open the canteen. Thirty two shells fell yesterday. The canon here are answering the Boches now and there is a tremendous rumbling partout. The English are retiring and the french are being sent up to help the. Paris was shelled again. We just remembered yesterday was Palm Sunday. How wild! We opened the canteen at night and served coffee by candle-light as the shrapnel had cut the wires. March 27: Another entirely peaceful day. We are still very tired however. The English are holding the lines with the French behind them. Avions tonight but no bombs. April 4: The effect of shells and other disturbances is wearing off. Life blooms at rare intervals. The canteen is dull for all the men are in the Somme trying to keep back the Germans. Regiments of infantry and artillery pass us every day on their way up and this sector will soon be entirely held by territorials. April 7: Germans only ten miles from Amiens! They are trying to separate the French and English Armies. Loud shooting up on the front. Mrs. R. came back yesterday with our fifth cook. The canteen is dead. If it wasn't for the interpreter I should perish of ennui. He comes from Lille but has lived in South America for twelve years. Altogether a very nice man. April 8: The battle still rages but more tranquilly. The interpreter is good fun. He came to tea this afternoon after helping us tack oil cloth on tables at the canteen for three hours. April 9: I'm not sure but that, in my old age I am waxing amorous over the lonely little interpreter. Spent the morning working over the tables again with him. Some job. April 12: Troops and troops, and still more troops! They flood the town and that they plan an attack, but no one knows. We are working like slaves at the canteen and last night we gave each artilleur who was "going up" a gift. It made the evening a trifle hectic but enjoyable, like last fall. Five bombs fell last night near the Gare! The noise shook us up considerably but no damage was done. The little interpreter is still faithful. April 16: Still scores of troops. Dorothy Conner left on "perm" yesterday. I miss her very much. We asked an American Sanitary Section to tea the other day and had a flurried but enjoyable two hours. The garden was jammed and we passed candy and sandwiches till we were ready to drop. But they all had a good time and so did we. We have been to two dinners lately. One was with the group Vadon at Arcy and perforce, very winey and gay. We came rolling home in a limousine at midnight. The second dinner, a day later, was with the new General of this cantonnement. The dinner was delicious and the officers were charming men, but revelling, after the days work doesn't agree with us. We have all been very cross. The news is bad. Fritz is pushing up into Flanders! April 21: The avions come every night and keep us awake with bombs and guns till we are nearly crazy. We spent a lovely sunny afternoon walking with an Italian Captain and Karl Stalars, the interpreter. They both came back for tea in the garden later. Three regiments of Infantry passed this morning with flags and music. April 27: We have been outrageously gay and skittish lately. No New York debutante could hold a candle to our flittings. We went to tea with the Amer. Sanitary Section and had a good time. That night we dined with the Seventh Dragons and had a very cozy little party. The next day we went out to lunch and wound up with a concert at the canteen and tea at home with Mr. Stalars and an American boy. After dinner three more came up to the house for a dance! The canteen goes on just the same but we are tired and apt to feel cross again. It's no way to work but "que voulez-vous". We must have a little fun to brighten the greyness of these horrible war times and it helps the men a great deal. April 30: What a day! There are four thousand troops in town and we have been on a dead run all day serving them and entertaining them. They were cuirassiens who had come down from the Somme and were rather jolted up from their ordeal. The interpreter continues to be very much in evidence but we all are fond of the boy. May 2: D. Conner and Mrs. Henrick came up here yesterday and are quite broken in. Today was lovely! We went up on the hill near the Chateau des Follies with two poilus, the Italian Captain, and the Interpreter. It was a beautiful May day and the woods were full of flowers and birds. A cuckoo, the first I have ever heard was cuckooing his head off and we sat right on the edge of the ledge and ate "high tea". D. Conner had brought back all sorts of luxuries so we had chicken, strawberries, and other duceurs from Paris. It seemed odd to be so peaceful and gay while we could see German shrapnel bursting a few miles off. We came down at seven and were very late at the canteen. May 5: It is raining torrents. Forme conjectures as to the Interpreter are all off. I feel like a numb finger. Life ebbs very low. I shan't write again until the clouds lift. We are doing over the canteen in blue which means endless painting and curtain making. I feel quite in harmony with the color scheme. May 7: The clouds have lifted in one quarter only to descend in another. We walked yesterday, our same little quartette, Mrs. R. the Captain, Mr. Stalars, and I. It seemed nice to get out on the hills and away from gossipy, petty, little B. May 10: Things are clearing up a little and the skies look brighter. D. Jones is leaving us which is quite a blow but we expect to hitch up together to go home next fall. There are simply thousands of troops at the canteen just now and we are working our heads off. While the big salle is being painted we go about plastered with "bleu d'horizon". It doesn't show on the poilus but our white dresses are sights. The troops are the 4th cuirassiers and 273rd Infantry, on their way Somme-wards of course. The canteen and the town are over-run but it makes us happier to be busy. Mrs. R. left for Paris again today on a short leave. May IS: Perfectly glorious weather and hordes of troops! They come marching wearily in every morning laden to the limit with their kit but stepping our cheerily to the music of their band. We got some very good picture of them. Mrs. Henrick and Dorothy J went to Soissons today as the latter leaves soon. Avions last night - we had almost forgotten them. K.S. much in evidence. May 20: Very hot. The Interpreter has been sent to Courcelles and is very low spirited in consequence. The town is filled to the brim with chasseur Alpines. They certainly earn their appellation of "Les Diables Bleus." They are terrors all right. Yesterday a Protestant Captain who is a minister held a service in our dining room. Two officers, three poilus, and we girls made up the assembly. It was my first Protestant service in months! May 24 - Paris again! Westminster Hotel: Lots has happened lately. Mrs. R. came back and the Interpreter has been much in the foreground, principally because he fainted dead away when we were out walking the other day. I was terrified but managed to bring him around finally. We took him home by slow degrees and got him a little buoyed up before he went home. Paris is very empty on account of the shells and bombs that have been showering it but it seems nice to hear and smell a big city again. May 26: We are enjoying ourselves to the full. We went to the American Church this morning and later went to see the Little Prisoner who is ill in a hospital. He was so glad to see me! We lunched here and tea-ed at Dixie's after a long drive in the Bois de Boulogne. Have seen Agnes Nicholson, Eleanor Leslie and many others we know. Shells and bombs have changed Paris but we are having a jolly time tout-meme. May 27: Fancy! At six o'clock this morning the "Bertha" began to shell Paris again; just as we thought we were well rid of the war-zone. They fell all over it seems. Life is very pleasant on the whole. We shop a great deal and meet everyone and eat in every expensive restaurant in town. May 28 - Horror of horrors!: The Germans have advanced on the Aisne and are almost at Braisne. Mrs. R., Dorothy C., Mrs. Herrick and Adrianne came down last night with scarcely any but the clothes on their backs - real refugees. Shells were hitting Braisne like June-bugs and everyone has left. The worst of it is I left all my possessions "la-bas" and they will furnish Boche homes from now on. Quel malheur! We lunched at the Ritz with the refugees and spent the P.M. chatting with them in the Bois. Dinner at Prunniers and Petly Gunn our gardener came here to see me tonight. A shell fell in the Tuileries when I was there this morning but it seemed tame to the Aisne. May 29:The Germans hold Soissons and have crossed the river that runs back of our garden!We are picturing fat Prussian officers pouring over our pictures and sorting out our underwear to send back to Berlin. We are real "pays envahis" now.Today we lunched at the Tipperary with Mrs. Herrick and shopped later. Then I tea-ed with Mrs. Soper and four other girls whom I already knew at Rumpelmeyers. Mrs. R.,Dorothy C., Dorothy G and I went to Henri's to dinner and later to the "Comedie Francaise". Paris is shelled constantly and some fall tout pres. It really makes one jump. No word from the Interpreter. I am seeing him a prisoner or wounded. I am dying to know. May 31:Have hired a harp to practice on.It keeps me from thinking too much but my fingers are terribly stiff. Ran into some of the other Aisne refugee canteeners today. The Boche are advancing all the time. They even hold Fue-en-Tandenois but they can't get Soissons and Reims. The checker-board of "despair and joy, boredom and thrills" is showing us the despair and boredom side just now. June 1: It's mostly despair.I don't hear a word from Carl Stalars and am dreadfully anxious. Dorothy C., D.G. and I took on night work at the Gare du Nord with the Aisne refugees. We worked like slaves and taxied home at four very done up. We feel a special sympathy for the people as they all come from the country we have left. The work is very depressing too. We dined last night with the Greenoughs who have an adorable apartment across the river. Later; a letter has just come from Carl Stalars! He was almost a prisoner twice and hasn't slept for five nights, but he's safe and that's all that matters. June 2:Another night of refugees after which we rumbled home in a carrion with some screaming Red Cross men. They certainly were "rarae aves" and we shook with laughter all the way home. The Germans are being held at Soissons and Reimsbut they certainly are coming on in the middle and have reached Chateau-Thierry. Night work is very tiring. We only sleep a few hours each day. June 6 - Ris-Orangisonce more:D. Conner and I are out here as V.A.D's as the hospital staff is low and our spirits are lower. We need work and there's plenty of it here. Dorothy Jones left for her old haunt, Bar le Duc also so the canteen is dispersed for the present Mrs. R and our little band are keeping house here in a villa. We all had dinner together at the Inn tonight. Have had a hectic time trying to get my uniforms and other necessities that the crown Prince is probably sporting around Braisne. It's nice to be out in the country again. Everyone is leaving Paris and the streets and Gares are choked with refugees. It took two hours to register our bags! A Day Later; I am under Miss Porter in the officer's ward; one commandant (very grumpy), three Captain (very peevish); eight Lieutenants (very fresh). It's a funny world altogether. June 10: There is loads of work here and I am very tired. Last night Mrs. and Mr.R. Dorothy C and I walked up to the "Hermitage" in the forest for dinner. We sat in a bosquet and felt very peaceful and far from hospital sights and smells. June 13: Still at the nursing game. It's some job alright and we do our best but it certainly is a long day and we are always glad when time off comes. We went to Paris yesterday and enjoyed it immensely. It seemed good to have a real tea and taxi again. The officers in my ward are much nicer, now that I know them. One little lieutenant who was paralyzed received the Legion d'Honneur the other day. It was very thrilling and involved much flourishing of swords and kissing. June 16: The push is held for the moment but the Germans are only 43 kilometers from Paris! There are blesses pouring in here all the time and we are frightfully busy. Also very tired. When it grows too strenuous we go down to Rose Cottage and have tea or dinner in the garden with Mrs. R. The Italian Captain turned up yesterday to our blank astonishment. We almost fainted with surprise. He says B. has been burned! Quel tristesse!That takes away our last hope of ever getting our belongings back. June 18: The work is appalling but I am getting to know the men so well that it is easier to nurse them. Dorothy and I bicycled to Jursy for dinner tonight and ate it in a little Inn on the Seine. The Boches are held for the moment but the Austrians have attacked in Italy. June 23: Always much nursing action on hand and never an idle moment. Mr. and Mrs.R are dears. With Dorothy C. we make frequent pilgrimages to bins in the neighborhood where we can dine on omelettes and strawberries and forget the war. The Italians are doing well and have pushed the Austrians back to the Piave and even beyond it in places. June 28 - Barbizon - Inn de la Foret.: We three refugees started on a bicycle trip today landing here after a five hour pedal from Ris. The country is lovely and the Inn here is a dear little spot right in the woods. It was particularly glorious to get away from the hospital routine and life. June 29 - Ris: We bicycled to Fontainbleau this morning and had a very wonderful lunch at the big hotel there. Then we found the Dumaiguseys and we talked for an hour or more about our new canteen which we pray will develop soon. We took the train from Fontainebleau to Villeneuve St. George and then cycled home from there stopping for dinner at Jurrsy. It was a splendid trip altogether but we are dog-tired from the combination of hospital grind and real physical labor in pumping some seventy five kilometers on indifferent bicycles. The front seems fairly calm but of course Fritz will break out in some new spot like the measles. Have just heard Bill is over here with Troop A., but I don't know just where. July 7 - Sunday: We're having such sultry hot weather lately that it is fearfully hard to stick to the grind of work. On the Fourth we went over to the Aviation Camp near here in one of the ambulances. The medicine-chef, Major Penhallow, asked us and we went chaperoned by Mr. and Mrs. Reckett. At the campwe were convoyed about by some charming American officers. We saw all their planes and ate dinner on the grass with planes buzzing over our heads. Later there was a sham battle and we danced and felt like a real Fourth of July. We came home about ten, dead tired. Mildred Woodruff and a friend came out this afternoon and we went up to the Hermitage for dinner. July 10: Rosson suddenly appeared on the scene last Monday and I went to Paris at once to be with him. We had dinner at the Cafe de Paris and then saw movies. I cam out on late train and then repeated the performance the next day with Dorothy C. in tow. It was lots of fun but I am fearfully sleepy tonight. Rosson went back to Boulogne this noon so the spree is over and the nursing stunt on again in full swing. We have a Boche on our floor. The poor kid has a fractured arm, typhoid fever, and bronchial pneumonia. My inadequate German doesn't go far with him but it helps a little. It seems weird to nurse an enemy patient but he is pathetic, simply terrified and swell. July 20: It is scorching July weather and there is a big Franco-American offensive on and the ambulance seem to roll in every few hours. Everyone is exhausted. We have been operating for two days steadily and I went in to do some of the administering. We worked till three this morning and are beginning again in an hour. Inbetween times I go swimming in the Seine for brief moments. But the Germans are being pushed back - so what does it matter how hard we work! The French are near Soissons again! We spent the "quatorze Juillet" in Paris on a long bat but parties like that sound, fearfully frivolous just now in this rush. August 3 - Saturday - Houlgate, Calvados: Dorothy and I have left the hospital for good and are up here on the coast resting up for our new venture in the canteen line. I felt badly to leave the poilus but we were both rather fagged after the rush and tear of the past two months with the offensive on.The Americans are actually pushing the boches back and are holding them at Fere-en-Tardenois. I wish they could go further but the Americans are worn out. We got some of them at the hospital, pretty badly shot up. We swim, eat, read, and write. It is quite gay and very pretty. It seems great to be near the sea again after a year of inland air. August 9 - Friday: The French and Americans hold the beastly Boches beyond the Vesle and our village must be worse than Ostel or Charonne ever were. We are playing tennis, swimming and meeting nice people. Spent one day at Trouville and Deauville just spreeing. The country club here is very sporty and racy. August 9 - Monday - Paris.: No news from the front. D.C. and I are at the "Castile" cooling our heels and champing the bit after our glorious holiday. I meet people from home every where. They seem very green and verdant to us seasoned ones. Have seen Ned Cowles. August 30 - Hostess House Y. W. CA.!: We are steeped in this noble and uplifting atmosphere. Incidentally we work from three till ten in a Y.M.C.A. canteen. Incidentally I am laid low and quite ill so have had to stay tranquilized for a while. September 1 - Epinal Vosges: We three are on our rocky way to a little huddle at the heart of the Vosges and a few kilometers from the lines again. Wejourneyed all yesterday in slow stages, leaping from train to train, crawling thru Chaumont, American Headquarters, and making friends with every type of officer and poilu. We wound up the day sitting in inky blackness in a compartment with some amusing but querulous Frenchmen, and an American chaplain who saved our famished souls by offering us chocolate and biscuits. As we had picnicked all day we were in a starved state. We reached Epinal at midnight and staggered into the town and our hotel where we slept like logs. September 1 Lorraine - Saint DiJ: We are "sous le flu" all right; six kilometers from the Boches and a nice roomy village something like Soissons but more inhabited though nearer the front. We motored over from Corcieux thru ruined villages galore and beautiful scenery. The mountains are wonderful and it is hard to believe that the trenches are just on the other side. We eat in the wildest spots; little boulangeries and cafe's, etc. It is a gypsy life but fascinating. We are talked to by every American and Frenchman who can pick us up and meet some interesting types. No luck for canteens though. September 2 - Nancy. Quel Tour!: We had a fearful row at our hotel last night until midnight Military police and other authorities stomped up and down to our rooms. They wanted us to pay for the night in advance! We held out against a drunken concierge and a darkie police who was a perfect lamb but finally we gave in.We shook the dust of Saint Die at 5:30. Dorothy and I got out by climbing over the iron-spiked garden and commandeering an automobile. We came to Baccarat where we spent the day and saw a thrilling air-fight. The Boches set fire to a "saucisson" and it blazed up while the two men saved themselves in parachutes. The guns boomed a few miles off and it felt like home again. After an afternoon of wandering about with American boys who fairly clung to our skirts, we boarded the train and came here thru Luneville and other interesting cities which were all invaded at the beginning of the war. We had an air-raid tonight. September 4 - Paris (darn it).: We had two despicable air-raids in the night. Nancy is famous for them it seems. We left there on the 7:30 for Paris and came straight thru the American sector passing by Toul, Chalons, Bar-le-Duc and Vitry Le Francois. At the second-named we dashed out of the train to see D. Jones but she was off duty. It was hard luck. I was wild to see her again. Arrived in Paris at four. It was interesting to go right thru the American frontier towns and an unforgettable experience. Our boys look so cheery and gay always. September 6 - Connantre - Marne.: D.C. and I are off on another wild jaunt. We are settled in a shaky little barracks in the wilderness of a poilu equipment camp. We run a Canteen for the soldiers all on our own and shall continue to run it for two weeks. Had a ghastly hot trip coming out here. September 10: D.C. and I are running the show alone. We give drinks to several thousand poilus a day and are tickled to pieces to be rid of the dirty pig of a directress who left here on our arrival. We slave from nine to nine but it's nice to be among the poilus again. An old peasant woman cooks our meals and our little menage runs quite happily. September 19: We have picked up with two American Officers here and have been motored to Fere Champemoire thereby to do a little urgent shopping. Food is fearfully hard to procure. Our canteen is hard work but good fun. We cook our own supper and entertain in our flimsy board shack. We gave a very sporty tea yesterday to two canteeners who live near here and the officers. Also made some fudge for the occasion! October 1 - Amer. Hosp. 44 Rue Chauveau - Neuilly.: I have been installed for almost two weeks in the hospital here, trying to pick up from a nervous breakdown. Have a ducky little room to myself and all the day to read and ponder. Was in bed for a week but am up at last, praise be! D.Jones is joining us again. She cameout to see me and we had a glorious talk. Grandma Isaac just died. Saw Mrs. Herrick again. She ran over from her hospital to see me. On our way home from Conantre we came thru Epernay, Dormono and Chateau-Thierry. All are perfect wrecks since the retreat. Shell holes, ruined towns and trophies of war around. It was a terrible country to travel through. I never saw such wanton devastation. October 14 - Hotel de L 'Aigle Noir - Fontainbleau.: The clouds hang lower than ever before. Came here for golf and had two days of it but now D.C. has "La Grippe Espagnole" and her brother has recently died so the atmosphere is fearful. Have never felt so low. We are taking D.C. back to Paris in a car this P.M. She is pretty sick, poor kid. Heaven only knows what I'm going to do now. I shall absolutely not write another word in this journal until the atmosphere clears a little. Since last May life has been one feverish nightmare. Later. I am recuperating at the Ritz with Mrs. R. having brought D.C. sixty fearful miles in an ambulance to Paris where we got her into the hospital. I am so worried and weary I could almost give up. When we came from Fontainebleau we motored thru Ris-Orangis and all the country there I know so well. But the circumstances were so sad this time! October 21 - Braise, Aisne!! The tide has turned a little Dorothy is very ill but at the hospital and making progress. D. Jones and I batted a little and then voici, we, Mrs. R. and I got our papers to come here to view the remains. We came by train to Fere-enTardenoir and then had a scrambled lunch with a very polite French Captain who hoisted us onto a train composed of one car and an engine and countless poilus. Inthe pouring rain we hit Mont Notre Dame - a fearful joint all stuck up with German officers. - not a civil in sight. We ran into our old postman and finally got an ancient cart to Braisne. Joanne was with us and we bounced about like beans in the springless voiture so we rattled along in the gloaming. And then the sadness! Braisne is awful. Nothing remains. Every house has been "atteint". We went to our own and stumbled over mountainous debris to the kitchen. There I ran my head into a huge funeral wreath! The-whole-side-of-N.,,2-zaubaxrg-de There I ran my head into a huge funeral wreath! The whole side of No. 2 Faubourg de Reims is gone! The salles Boches didn't leave a rag! I picked some flowers in the dear little garden where we used to have tea so often. There are shell holes in it now. We came back and the Major de Cantonnement gave us dinner with his very jolly poppotte. Then we slept on heaps of straw - like the dead. We were motored to Soissons this morning. It is fearfully dangerous because there are mines on every corner but the destruction was awful. Some genial poilus fed us and we took the train to Campisgne and thence to Paris. We are exhausted mentally. The strain was terrible. The Boches only left two weeks ago and their wreckage was unspeakable no civils were permitted to return so the place was even gloomier. The trip has made me really ill. I did love the Aisne so much. I am at the Ritz again now - a sad specimen of life. November 1 - Neuville Sur Pont - Marne.: Mrs. R., Dorothy J., Jeanne and I came up here by Revigny and Sainte Menehould and arrived in the middle of the night. We are to be attached to the 38 Corps d'Armes, which is up ahead. A battle rages and the guns are terrific. I have never seen so many German signs or shell-holes or smelly no-man's land before. We eat at a very jolly artillery poppotte and are now awaiting orders. The town is dull and we are billeted out like soldiers. Dorothy C. recuperating but will join us soon. We lead a real poilus life. November 4: Though we are not yet affected we have travelled all over this Argonne and Champagne country in various vehicles. Two days ago we found ourselves in the middle of the American advance way up in the Lancon district near Grand Pre. We got there almost by mistake as we started out for a peaceful walk and were picked up in a camion by some homesick boys. An Ordanance Officer finally sent us home, forty kilometers, in a motorcycle car sitting on each others laps. The advance has been wonderfully rapid and we all hope for a quick peace. The country we have been thru is all Boche and still smells fearfully of recent battles. It is even more depressing than the Aisne battle-fields. November 9 - Juneville, Ardennes: Dorothy J., Jeanne and I are living in the only roofed over house in this awful County. We came sixty kilometers by carrion yesterday with our Material and found ourselves the sole inhabitants of a village just evacuated by the Germans. A General gave us tea and we are trying to be cheerful in spite of difficulties. The mud and devastation in unbelievable. We are trying to install a canteen at the Gare but we can find nothing to work with. The house we live in is entirely Boche as regards papers, officers, clothing, etc. rumors run that an armistice has been signed and the soldiers are jubilant. November 20: We have been running the canteen alone for almost two weeks in a draughty German barracks. But now our money is running out. We have no word from Mrs. R. and the Gare is going to move. We are quite on the ragged edge of desperation. Our house is the only one with a roof. We have had to do a great deal of nursing and bandaging as there is no doctor. We even dose up Boche prisoners. The armistice is signed! I can't believe such wonderful news. There are about 2000 permissionaires a day here. No mail, no papers, and no intercourse with anyone but soldiers for three long weeks. November 25: Last Sunday Mrs. R. and Dorothy appeared having followed our vague trail for five days. We motored back to Reims with them and saw the Cathedral, dined in a cellar with numerous refugees and came back alone on the permissionaire train arriving here at 3:30 A.M. They went on to Epernay to telephone. We got our first mail in a month and read it by candle-light in the train. Our food is low and we are not very busy. December 2 - Epernay - Marne: Our orders to leave came a day ago and we at once picked up the canteen and our house and came along by slow stages in the train. For two nights we haven't slept. Last night we lay on the floor of Mrs. Reckitt's room and the night before we were sitting about our fire waiting for the permissionair train to arrive. I hated to leave our little canteen that we had started ourselves but orders are orders. Our two poilu helpers came with us and the canteen material arrived in four wagons today. We spent yesterday afternoon in Reims having lunched in the same cellar as last Sunday. It seems great to see Dorothy C. again. I do admire her so much. December 5 - Maillard - Rue de Justice - Epernay: We are settled here in our nice little house and it seems good to be in our ownhome again. The canteen is quite fun and we make soup and cocoa for permissionaires as we did up on our scrap-heap in the Arde nnes. The town is a cheerful little spot as most of these Champagne villages are and the canteen is in a barracks near the Gare. No mail for two weeks yet and we are feeling isolated again. December 19: We are working like slaves in our soup kitchen and it has poured every day. Our barrack is chilly and so is the house but we gather about our wee fire and enjoy having a home of our own. Approaching Xmas attristes our spirits - my second one in French! December 24 - Christmas Eve: I'll never spend another one out of the States! We are doing up bundles for each other and trying to keep warm and the house is full of holly and greens. We have a tree at the canteen and it is very pretty. I am going to midnight mass tonight with Jeanne. The rain keeps up and this Marne valley is ghastly - We had such lovely snow in the Aisne. December 27. We had a very nice Xmas. We filled each other's shoes with presents and opened them by the fire. Then we had an American breakfast and later opened the canteen. After a big Xmas dinner we made ready for our party to eleven American M.P's in town. It was a howling success. We played games till midnight and I never laughed so since I have been in France. The boys were as tough as they make them but simply dear. last night we went out to dinner with six Amer. officers.Today the two D's are on a jaunt to Braisne and Mrs. R and I are holding down the show alone. It is bitterly cold and I am pretty tired. 1919January 10, 1919: Very cold and everyone very much on edge. Jeanne left us and is due back and tears have flown and dryed. The canteen is a bore. We are all sick of it. Life lately has consisted in cooking and washing. I feel like a scullery maid. We are made to move on. The marketing here grows more irksome by the day.January 16: Still here but Mrs. R has gone on to Charleville to try and find us a hangout. A wan-eyed banshee cooks for us. It rains all day and every day. I went to Chalon with Mrs. R. to hunt down Generals and scare them into letting us get into the occupied district. Result was uncertain. Canteen work very necessary but our nerves are a-twitter. Ican't make cocoa without falling into it. The American Red Cross are moving in - We move out - where! Shall not writes until business booms. Old poilu pals greet us daily. We are well known characters after all these months working for the French Army. Can;t decide whether I should go home or not! D. Cobb is married!Darn her. Bill is on his way home and writes me to come too. Ishan't! January 21 - Reims: D. Jones and I are on our way back to Guneville to track down some stray cases of milk. We wandered thru streets full of barbedwire and finally got taken in by two poilus. We shared our supper with them and are sleeping on a shaky bed under a huge hole made by a 155 obus. Jan. 22 - Sedan, Argonne: Our jaunt grows wilder momentarily. We left Reims in a carrion full of permissionaires and bumped over battlefields as far as a forsaken little hole near Le Chatelet. There we were dumped out and footed it with our bag and blankets for several kilometers to Neufleize. The cases of food were a minus quantity - rein a faire, and the Ardennes looked a little bleaker and more ravaged than when we left them in November. When we were half frozen, discouraged and famished, a nice American officer in the Mallet Reserve appeared in a Ford. He was shocked at our plight and took us in. We insisted on going to Juneville - but no trains ran there and the town was pitiful. The owner of our house had returned - a frail, sad little party. Lieut. Legon insisted on taking us to Le Chesne, their headquarters, and we were taken in, fed, warmed, and cheered in tiny Remorques which the officers inhabit. The boys were dear to us and a Lieut. Thayer appeared in a Fiat to motor us to Sedan. As no trains run we are here for the night in a doubtful hotel. Jan. 23 - Charleville, Ardennes: The two Lieuts. appeared this morning and motored us up into Belgium! of all wild spots, for lunch. We ate it in a delightful little Inn at Bouillon and the country was lovely and rocky and mountainous. We left Belgium late in the afternoon and were motored to this haunt, the Kaiser's old lair in better days. The people are very Boche in character and the hotel consists of a few bedrooms without blankets and a bar-room. We left the boys regretfully tonight. Jan. 24 - Epernay: We walked four kilometers to the Station and took a train at 8:30 which brought us here at five! We changed at Reims but were very cold and light-headed for lack of food on our arrival. D. Conner back from Paris tonight. Jan. 28 - Nancy - Lorraine: D. Conner and I came on here on the spur of the moment. We only decided at breakfast to go to Metz and we had an hour in which to get our papers and catch the Nancy train. Jan. 29 - Metz - Hotel Royal: We ate a picnic lunch on the train and shared it with two nice Amer. officers. Metz is very German city but the people are busy painting out the German signs and putting up French ones. Our hotel used to be the "Hotel Kaiserhof'! We saw all the sights and went to the movies tonight. Everyone talks German and looks it too. Jan. 31 - Paris - Hotel Castile: We got home only to find a telegram from D. Jones telling us to send our papers to Paris. We compromised by taking the train to Paris and surprised Mrs. R. at the Ritz for dinner. It's nice to see Paris again, but we are off for home tomorrow. Feb. 9 - Strasbourg, Alsace - Freezing cold: We are all four of us here after a two days fearful train trip. The city is much more German than Metz and my feeble efforts in Dutch are pretty poor. We are looking for rooms and a canteen but the job is difficult even with numerous French officers to assists. Feb. 12 - Snow partout: The pastry and candy here are delicious and the weather so snappy and cold that we eat all the time. The restaurants and tea-shops are very gay albeit entirely German. We have found a house in the German student quarter which was formerly occupied by a lady now interned in Berlin! We have also found a "local" for the canteen. We lunch and dine with the poppette of a nice Etat-Major. Feb. 17 - S Inselstrasse: We three girls came out here tonight and the house is so de luxe that we fairly bask in comfort. For the first time in almost two years we have baths and steam heat. The canteen progresses slowly and we have found an Alsatian cook for the house. We went to a dance Sunday afternoon with some French officers and had a corking time. Feb. 19 - Weather very warm: The house is our chief joy. Otherwise we are very twittery and inclined to bicker. I don't like living in a city. We are too far from the canteen. The family have cabled me tocome home! Would go in a minute but I can't make up my mind to leave D. Conner. The officers are very nice to us. Feb. 23 - Sunday: We gave a party for the officers of the poppotte tonight and danced until the small hours. We had a ripping time andgood ices and patties. They are very decent men but only fair dancers. Feb. 28 - Friday: Got a second cable from home but shall stay here till April and then try to go home with D. Conner. The canteen is open and already beginning to fill up with bleu d'horizon. It is quite cozy and pretty but a mile from the house and we trudge it twice a day. March 3: Two American officers came from Toul to see us yesterday and we had a regular party. They took us to lunch at the Maison Rouge, then we went to the theater and later they came to dinner here. Today D.Jones left us for good. Iwent to the Gare with her tonight. Got a third cable from home. M'en fiche! March 6: We go swimming now in a beautiful natatorium near the canteen. Also we see the officers fairly often and quite enjoy it. March 14: We have been going to the Opera and theater and giving English lessons at the Canteen (which is booming by the way). We three are very congenial and our house is so comfortable and the weather so springy that everyone is quite cheerful. We went to tea with a charming Alsatian lady and her daughter the other day. March 18: It is beginning to be sleety and cold again and the work is fairly well underway and keeps us very much tied down. The English lessons run merrily on but we have attached a loony M. P who haunts the canteen and almost drives us to drink. All weary. March 19: All three of us pretty tired from racing between here and the "Germania" and the city. Weather quite cold. Madame Foray, her husband and daughter came to tea, also Mme Erickson and her daughter. All lovely people. March 26: The German Frau who formerly lived here has returned! How she got her laisser passer I don't know but we have seen her from the upper windows while our Alsatian cook did the talking. She is a terror (Frau A) and has a face as hard as nails. Incidentally Mrs. R. is at Paris and we two are alone running the show. We have been to a very sprightly Bazaar attended by a little Chasseur Lieutenant who picked us up when we were watching a "retraile" and were half crushed in the mob. We dread the advent of the Boche villainess as all her truck reposes in the garret here. March 28: The villainess comes back each day and alternately curses and weeps at our gate. But today she is to be let in and we are on tender hooks. The strain is really rather unnerving. We swim and have tea and teach English and are very busy but happy. Later: We have spent the afternoon harboring the pest, her niece, and a doddering old Alsatian to say nothing, of an "inventair" and several "bon hommes". A French officer stood guard and the old pill, who is really very snappy and devilish remarks and telling the two what they had "im nord Francisa Gethan.
April 4 - Paris - Hotel Castille: D.C. and I came down three days ago. We had a fearful hot night on the train and were limp when we finally debarked. We have done a great deal of shopping here and are pretty tired and snappish. Don't know yet our mode of crossing the "big pond" and are inclined to disagree. I want to go by way of England while D.C. holds for a transport. Lunch at Pruniers - very refreshing. Tea at Columbines with Miss Lyall.April 12: We finally bullied the authorities into giving us passage and we leave for England tomorrow. Have been playing with Mildred Woodruff and shopping. Today's my last day in France! April 13 - London, England: Had a poor crossing but came comfortably on the whole. We had lunch at the Hyde Park Grill and went to service in Westminster Abbey. Are staying at a very nice little hotel, the Dysart. England is cold but sunny. I hated to leave France. April IS - "Little Green", Sussex: At Mrs. R's invitation D.C. and I came down here for a few days and are alone in this lovely country home, waited on hand and foot by the retinue of the house and growing fat fast. The country is beautiful and miles from everywhere. We did some shopping in London but were very glad to come to the country. Later; we lunched with a nice family of Vaughns near here and they are coming here today. The sleek luxury of being butlered and maided is very sweet after our total abstinence during the war. Everyone has a certain charm. The Vicar's wife and daughter came to tea and the two daughters of General Vaughn, Aileen and Gladys stayed on. They all dress like frights but are so jolly they simply rise above it. You absolutely overlook their awful shoes and striped sweaters. We four girls took a glorious ramble and scared up pheasant and quail and rabbits on every side. April 23 - Brest- on board S. S. "New Amsterdam": We left Plymouth two days ago and are now sitting in the harbor of Brest loading troops. We have been here a day already and are pining to be off. It is nice to see France again but I am homesick to go back to it. Can't work up much enthusiasm about America somehow. People on board are fairly interesting and we have been inveigled into playing games a bit. April 26 - Mid-Ocean: The trip is quite fun. We have made up a nice table of two Englishmen and an American Major and we play shuffle-board and deck tennis all day. At night there is always dancing. Twice a day we go down to the steerage and while the band plays we dance with as many of the 2000 troopers as is possible in one short hour. They belong to the 77th Division and have been over a year. We are on the go every minute and the weather has been beautiful. But one gets weary and we are both tired. Six sets of deck tennis and four hours of dancing are strenuous. Made 376 miles yesterday and 373 today. May 1: We land tomorrow.I don't believe it for we have fairly grown into this boat. The last two days have been pretty rough so tennis and dancing have been minus quantities. The last two years seem like a dream. I can't believe that we are going back to the states at last. I shall miss Dorothy a great deal. [no date] The Cedars. Rye, N.Y. [in red pencil is written 1919]: Home once more after a perfectly wild day. We docked at about ten and I fell into the arms of the family soon after. It was good to see them again. We had lunch at Maillards and motored out home in a Pierce-Arrow limousine that seemed to have sprung from the earth. May 7 - Later: Have been running here, there and everywhere with my pals. Keeps one on the jump to remember old faces. May 13: In the last week I have been seeing all my old friends, playing golf, and getting into the run of two years ago. May 25: Yesterday I went to the Chrysties to dinner and then to a dance at the Beach Club. After it stopped we all motored up to Greenwich to the Pickwick Inn and several other clubs all of which were closed so we finally landed up at lunch wagon and ate egg sandwiches. Mont Geer was out here and is staying over Sunday. My car has come, a very sporty cadillac roadster. Various people are giving luncheons and teas for me, but they bore me. Nothing seems real after France. Dorothy Conner and I had a joint lunch at the Apawamis but she has gone to Oregon now. Ido miss her so much. Iwent to Boston to see Alice and Dewey and then spent a week in the Catskills with Molly Parsons. June 11, 1919: I have just returned from Reunion at Vassar. I roomed with my two old pals, Dorothy and Margie and it seemed too good to be true. We three motored down together yesterday and Margie spent the night. V.C was just the same as ever. It seemed strange to be singing and marching in true college style after the two indescribable years just passed in rather grim surroundings. July 12 - Buffalo.: Am visiting Margie Crosby and having lots of fun. Feeling refreshingly young after two years of grimness. I do Miss D. Conner very much. July 23 - The Cedars: The house is being torn down, the family are all up in Maine and I am camping out in the gym with Papa and Arthur. Ispent last weekend between the Landons at Great Neck and Laura Pratt's at Glen Cove. Stephen and I went on a party last night and just returned. July 30 - Blueberry Camp, Maine: Came up last week with father and feel a bit odd as yet.Before I came I received a letter from N. Desmarquoy congratulating me on getting the Croix de Guerre! Also received my official citation. Alice and her little boy are here. A few guests so far. August 26: We have had quite a mob up here, about twenty in all and I feel like a summer hotel. Stephen Landon was here for two weeks. Vera Cowles, E. Chrystie and Teedy still remain. Many shore dinners, picnics, etc. Sept. 6: The latter guests are Eliot Cabot, Keith Kane, Molly Parsons, Frances Shattuck, Paul Frost, David Haughtling and Margaret Bottomley. We had a big house party over Labor Day. Bill and a friend, Mike Bossard came upand we nine children were together for the first time in our lives. We spent most of the day taking pictures. The life here seems very calm and carefree after France. A year ago I was working in a canteen at Connantre in the Marne and serving several thousand poilus a day. Here I read a little, practice a little, but otherwise an quite useless. I miss my old pal, Dorothy Conner, very much. Sept. 23:Jack Kunhardt and Stephen Landon have been back again and just left. We are en famille. The boys and Alice have gone too. The boys left for college yesterday. Sept. 30 - South Salem: I came down from Maine two or three days ago and spent Sunday with Vera Cowles in Rye! Played 18 holes of golf and then on Monday came up here to the Chrysties. Have played 18 more holes since at the Ridgefield Country Club. Oct. 14 - Hotel Netherland: The whole family are living at this hotel until our house is settled. It's a bit hectic but I enjoy being in the big city. Have started classes at Columbia, French at the Berlitz School and lectures evenings at the Institute of Arts and Sciences. Itake French with my old war pal, D. Jones. I have the Cadillac in town and have had some nice trips with Stephen into the country. Spent the weekend at Great Neck, Long Island. Hunted waitresses today and winter clothes. October 26 - 9 East 75 St.: We are reasonably well settled here in the old root-tree and the hours are filled with French lessons, classes at Columbia and motoring out to Rye to see the new house. The latter is coming on fast. Spent the night at the Nichols in Rye. Ido loathe the city air and endless pavements. Got a long citation from the military governor of Strasbourg. My chief virtue seemed to be "sang-froid". See Stephen a good deal and the other night I went to a class dinner where I saw many of my old pals. Peg Leech, H. Strait, M. Lovell and K. Welles. I left this house when I was seven. Nov. 6: Went to Princeton to visit the Pynes over Sunday. Very festive and bibulous. Motored to Rye yesterday with S. and had dinner at the Pickwick Inn. Am quite weary and snappishly inclined. Nov. 13 - Princeton: Went to the Harvard game last week. Motored out to Rye with Jack Kunhardt and Bob and a friend for supper Sunday night. Played golf Tuesday and lunched at the club in Rye. Yesterday went out to dinner with S. Nov. 15: Played golf with Rosson and a friend this morning. We were pretty fair - all three of us. Then we went to the place in Rye and had a picnic lunch in the gym. Motored home and went to a tea-dance at the Biltmore given by the Norton Hayes Ambulance unit that was at Vassenry when we were at Braisne. I went with Lawrence Van Vechten and a Mr. Thabor. Molly Parsons to dinner tonight and we went to "Buddies" afterwards. Dec. S: I went up to Boston to see Alice and my new niece. Also to take in a visit to D. Cobb and go to the charity ball and the game with Jack Kunhardt. We dined with them that evening before the ball. I motored down from Boston in my car with S. who came up to get me. I spent Thanksgiving with Bill and Elsie and an uproarious house-party. Very good fun but a little too much of it. Large quantities of cocktails, baseball, golf, motoring and gambling. Louise Witherbee, Dorothy Hancock and I were the girls. Men were all troop men in the 27th Division. D. Conner is on from the west and I am simply delighted to see her again. It is like France when I didn't see her for five weekends. She had the flu at Paris and I was canteening up in the Ardennes with D. Jones. Dec. 8: I spent the weekend at Rye with the Nichols. Dec. 22: Have been having a good time but very different from our soup kitchen at Epernay. Went on a party with Bill Parsons the other night. Dec. 25: When I began this diary four years ago I wrote "I'll have to see what comes out in this diary". It came out! Two years of war, and a nephew and niece, another new car, a horde of new acquaintances, a new country home, spending the winter in our town house, and a new attitude toward life - a "laisser aller" attitude. Went to dinner at the Cooks - Fahys was on Elsie's house-party for Thanksgiving. Afterwards a dance at the Ritz - had a very nice time for a spinster of my advanced age - twenty-five. Fahys brought me home at 2:30 A.M. We spent Xmas at Bill's at Purchase and then saw the opera that night - "Cavalieri Rusticana" and "Il Pagliacci" - with the two boys. I see D. Conner quite often and I do enjoy our friendship so much. THERESA SNIFFIN LESHER COOK FOR DECEMBER 26, 1919 TO JUNE 11, 1923 1919Dec. 26, 1919 - New York City -9 East 75 Street: What will this book bring forth? The last journal was productive of many events - the war holding the star place, of course. I start anew now. New York holds many attractions but I long to live abroad again. Who knows. - I may get back again one of these days. Dec. 28: I think I shall only write up days of note in this new book. There's no use describing a string of events that may happen ten times a year and life here in New York is varied but with a great deal of similitude thru out. Today is Sunday and in the city I dread it. We all went to the Hayes tea yesterday afternoon - a big debutante affair but interesting. Miss Morgan, my old harp teacher, came to dinner and looked over my harp. I have played so little in the last three years that I feel quite a stranger to the instrument. 1920Jan. 6, 1919: Did I say I would only write up 'days of note"? Ever since New Year's Eve we have been seething like a boiling pot. The boys went back to Harvard last Sunday so we are settling down - but I'm a rag. Jack Kunhardt came down from Boston on New Year's Eve and I gave a dinner for the two boys that night. We motored out to Rye after dinner to the Apawamis Dance. It was a good party and we stumbled back to 9 East 75th at day-break. The next day there were 36 relatives here for lunch and the Conners and Elizabeth Christie thrown in. We went to the opera that night. Jack, Steve, and I motored out to Rye for skating on Friday. Parties followed in rapid succession. College begins tomorrow and I am too exhausted to think of it. Jan. 13: I am beginning to study for my examinations. They will be terrors, I haven't a doubt. Have been playing alternately with D. Conner, Fahys Cook, Stephen Landon and the ever-present Charles Bassett - whose form never languishes. I went to the Landons for dinner and a show on Friday. Then to the Parsons for ditto and bridge on Saturday. Sunday Fahys Cook came up. Last night I went to dinner and a show with Hal Downey and another man and girl. Had to see "Monsieur Beaucaire" for the second time. Quite a bore. I shall not write now until my exams are over. January 28: Everything came in a rush last week and when I arrived at my stupid genetics examination I couldn't think consecutively. Of course I failed miserably and will count myself lucky if I can ever show my face within Columbia's portals again. Our first "at home" went well in spite of a terrific storm. Steve and Jack K were both down over Sunday. We had a party Saturday night with Martha Keep - saw "Irene" and then danced 51 March 13 - Laurel House, Lakewood~ NJ.: A few bright spots shine out here and there. Steve, Martha Keep and I are down here ostensibly because Steve has a frightful cold. The air is dry and piney and we expect to ride horseback and golf if possible. See D. Conner frequently. We both champ at the bit for our war existence. Saizedo still on tour so I take lessons from a pupil of his. Have joined a gym class of Molly Parsons on Thursdays and am stiff in consequence. Genetics has left statistics, praise be. March 31: Spring runs rampant. I have the car out and charge about a bit. Have been to Rye. S. Landon is home. It will be interesting to note whether in this coming summer I go to China, Italy, France, Near East, or sit quietly at home. The latter probably. See D. Cornier, Molly P. and Ellie off and on. April 12: Spent the weekend at Bill's at Purchase on one mad riot. It began with Maria Cook's wedding and the opera Saturday afternoon and we finished up that evening at three A.M. having taken in dinner, a show, a dance and motored out to Purchase. Yesterday we went to the beach for a picnic and in the afternoon Hal Downey and I played Elsie and Fahys in a two ball four-some. We won two up. Came in with Bill this morning. Jack K was down over Easter. April 16: Motored out to Rye yesterday to a big luncheon given for E. Christie and Lorraine Manny. Liz has just announced her engagement to Ralph Manny. They met up in Maine at our camp. Last night Helen and David Remer went to the opera with me. April 28: I have been running back and forth to Rye quite violently. Dee Cobb is down and we went out one day to see the house. Play with Dorothy Conner quite a good deal for lunch and French lessons. Am once more on the verge of a venture but doubt its future. Nevertheless it excites the imagination. May 21: Took my genetics exam this morning and passed it, unless I'm a worse fool than I think I am. Have been to Boston for the last two weekends. Beyond this I have nothing to record. Life holds no prospects. Have been elected a director of the Women's University Club! June 2: Have my M.A. at last. Spent Decoration Day in the Pocono Mts. with D. Conner. Had some good golf and tennis. This evening motored to Longue Vue with Fahys for dinner. June 28 - Maine: We have been here at the camp about three weeks. We motored over to Harvard Class Day and had a splendid time. The people who congregated up there comprised F. Shattuck, M. Keep, D. Conner, S. Landon, F. Cook, G. Kunhardt. The weekend was very hectic as one might imagine and last night I came down here with Father and Fahys. July 8 - Aboard S.S. "Conopic": Margie Crosby and I are off on a wild jaunt to Italy. I at the "Club de Vingt." Alice and Oliver are here also and Dewey came down last week. I am making a feeble attempt to study this week, but it is quite useless. The combination of frivoling, living in a large family, and taking graduate courses do not go well. January 30: My last examination and our last "at home" are things of the past. Both were terrific. At the last named people came in swarms and herds and droves. In the evening Bob, Elizabeth Chrystie, Bifi Parsons and I had dinner at the "Palais Royal" and saw "Abraham Lincoln." Feb. 11: I passed my last taken exam. The first one I very likely failed in but Prof. Morgan has the flu so "j'en sais rien". I have been out at Rye quite a good deal. Snowshoed all last weekend at the Nichols. Steven Landon has gone to West Virginia on a job. Time hangs heavy. Feb. 17: It flies on the wings of speed now. By fair means or foul I just squeaked thru genetics and am now on the last lap for an M.A. Last week was a crowded one I took two harp lessons from Carlos Saizedo and went to the Plaza Grifi with a crowd for tea after that a box-party at the opera and then went to the Chrysties over Sunday. Steve and Jack K and Martha Keep and Ralph and I were there. We had a sleigh-ride one night and coasted at the Apawamis the next afternoon before returning to N.Y. Saturday P.M. I took Aunt Adele to lunch at the Astor and saw "Saza" later at the opera house. Feb. 24: I spent last weekend at Sag Harbor, L.I. with the Cooks. Fahys was perfectly dear to me and so were all his family and we had a glorious time. We spent three solid days skiing and coasting and all came back together yesterday evening. I took a harp lesson this morning and am writing back correspondence this afternoon. Feb. 28: Yesterday D. Conner and I played together for lunch, movies and tea. Kay Welles went to the opera with us on Thursday. Today Fahys took me to lunch and the theater, then came back here for tea. Went to the Parsons for a dinner given for Lydia Bablott. Harp lessons and genetics flourish. March 4: The snow is starting to melt and the city is unattractive. For various reasons the season drags. Salzedo goes away on tour, many of my friends are south, Genetics has merged into mathematics, and no interesting men abound. When more sprightly moments occur I shall write again - pas avant. March 6: Time does still pass on leaden wings. I said I wouldn't write till it flew but I seem to be just the same. Am madly restless for something novel and feel very cooped up here in the city. If only something really thrilling would happen! Well, here's hoping. stayed in N.Y. a week and had a very good time with various beaux. Spent the Fourth with the Landons at Greenwich and went to Coney Island with Stephen. Also ran out to Bill's twice with Fahys for dinner. Margie came on here a few days ago and we fussed about our passports for a while. Charles brought us flowers and candy by the yard and Fahys, Mr. Crosby and "Mike" saw us off. We are en route Italy and are all agog. We expect to be over about two months. I left Maine on June 29. The boat is very "Italiano." July 11: We sleep on deck for it is fearfully hot. Our flowers have faded but the candy and our Dean's cake boxes still hold out. July 12: We have left the gulf stream-praise be, and the air is much cooler. We read, play deck tennis, and eat. The people on board are not very thrilling - a bit too foreign. July 14 - Porta Del Garda - Azores: We hit the Azores early this A.M. and got out to take a look at the place. The town is Portuguese and very foreign in appearance - houses of a pastel shade, many tropical plants and very villainous looking inhabitants. We drove about in a car and sampled a few shops and beggars and then came aboard. July 17: Stifi ploughing along but we hit Gibraltar tomorrow and lose a number of people. I shan't mourn although a few very nice ones have sifted out. We play a great deal of bridge, dance with the hoi polloi and read trash novels from the ship's library. The weather is superb and we are getting wonderfully rested after a strenuous time in New York before sailing. July 18- Algeciras, Spain - Hotel de Reina Cristina: We reached "Gib" this AM. and drove about the Rock, then out to La Lenia, a Spanish town nearby. At noon we came across the bay here and are staying at a most attractive hotel built in true Spanish style about a court with oceans of lovely flowers everywhere. We got a carriage and drove after tea and are quite in love with Spain. July 19 - Mid-Mediterranean: I'm sorry to leave Hispania. Last night we strolled about the town and marvelled at the mixture of Spanish beauty and dirt. "Gib" itself didn't thrill me. The rock is awe-inspiring but the town itself is a jumble of narrow streets and English Tomnies and flapping Arabs and Moorish bazaars. We got very tired parading its one Main street. We now carry four kinds of money for all emergencies - English lbs., Italian lire, Spanish Pesetas, and Amer. dollars. July 23 - Naples: We got in last night but were not allowed to land. The bay was heavenly - just like the pictures with Vesuvius spouting in the back-ground. We came to the "Excelsior" this morning after passing thru the vile, hot greasy customs. Everyone tried to cheat us and I never did love Italians, but I'm fascinated to be in their land. We spent the afternoon driving about the hills back of the city and had tea overlooking the bay. It seems strange to be adrift in a foreign land with my erst-while room-mate. July 24 -"Excelsior": Today we took a car and went out to Pompeii and had lunch. The ruins are all they are painted and we enjoyed it, but were scorching hot. Then we motored out to Sorrento - a lovely drive by the sea. Had tea there and strolled out to a very Italiano restaurant for late dinner. July 27 - Excelsior -Rome: The day before we left Naples we did up Capri. The Blue Grotto was lovely but the sea trip was very tedious, particularly as most of the good ship "Canopic" were aboard. The next night we came on here. I love the city. It is so old and picturesque and yet alive. Naples was horribly dirty and sordid. We put ourselves in the hands of "Cook" to get us to Geneva and gave up the better part of a scorching day to seeing the Vatican, the Coliseum and all the average sights. All the chic people have left Rome for the summer but it has a flavor of gaiety nevertheless. We found a rare little tearoom, done in Cubist style, for our meals. July 30 -Florence -Hotel Mineiva: We left Rome at 1 P.M. last night and came here thru perfectly lovely Apennine ridges just flooded with moonlight. We arrived at midnight and spent today doing the Pitti Palace, the Uffizi Galleries, the Cathedral and the chief drives with a nervous little guide who maddened us. The real event of the day happened when two wild boys on a bicycle crashed into our cab. They just lay on their backs and bawled. I was certain they were terribly injured tifi we drove back and our guide jerked them to their feet. They subsided gloomily amid the gathering crowd but their wheel and our cab were damaged. We go on to Venice tonight. Margaret is beginning to feel the effects of continued travel but so far I am as stalwart as ever. Praise be I'm not one of these fragile flowers. August 1 -Venice -Hotel Danielli: We came to Venice yesterday and paddled up in state in a gondola. One cloud on the horizon. Margie decided to be ifi so I have had to browse around alone. I have bought up most of the shops in the Piazza San Marco and been to service at St. Marks and circled around the Palace of the Doges and went swimming in the Adriatic at the Lido. I love Venice and all its canals and bridges. Later: this P.M., M. being better we teaed on the Piazza and then paddled about the streets of (I mean canals of) Venice. August 5 - Geneva, Switzerland - Pension Mathey: We left Venice two days ago and came here on an all day trip thru Verona, Milan, over the Swiss border and then Lausanne and here. We arrived at Minuit and woke up the three girls, Margie's sister, Helen Crosby among the,'~, They have a sweet apartment and took us right in and we have a pension very near but we eat with the girls. We went somewhere on the lake for dinner and are entranced by the encircling Alps. August 6: We shopped part of the time and went up on the "Saleve" for a picnic tonight. We went up in a funicular and came down on foot thru dear little Swiss villages. Got my first mail today. August 7: Today we took a tour around the lake in the boat. It stopped at Lausanne, Montreux, Vevey and all sorts of little resort towns. We got off at Montreux and went to see the chateau of Chillon. Wonderful scenery everywhere. August 8- Interlaken: A nice little touristy town right under the "Jungfrau." Today Helen, Margie and I went way up to where patches of snow begin and climbed one steep peak. It was tiring but good exercise. August 11 -Lucerne -Hotel Schweizerhof. We came here two days ago and are surfeited with food and scenery and lingerie. The place is full of American tourists and on our tour of the lake today we saw dozens. We go swimming in the lake and have tea and buy chemises. Swiss houses are dear but the people irk me- a little too German. August12 -Berne: We left Lucerne this morning, loaded with our newly bought lingerie, and arrived here for lunch. Very delicious food and a dear, quaint, arcade, gable roofed city - somewhat like Strasbourg. We walked around and saw the famous bears and drove in the Wald. We're staying at the "Bernerhof'. I'm still too fresh from war experiences to enjoy hearing guttural German though. Aug. 15 - Geneva.Pension Mathey: We came back three days ago and have been to a dinner party at the apartment with our President Mac Cracken as guest of honor. Our trunks turned up yesterday. We hadn't seen them since Naples. August 17- Hotel Petrograd - Pants: Home once more in my adopted country. How I do love it! We left Geneva last night having spent a very delightful afternoon at Mrs. Brown's home on the lake. We are staying at the same old joint where D. Conner and I hung out during our war stay. Saw Jeanne, our little maid. We fell on each other's necks for joy. Also met some of the Canopic boys - the nicest ones praise be! August21: Have been to Versailles and ordered expensive gowns and had meals at most of my pet haunts such as Henri and Boeuf a la Mode. This hotel is a fearful sanctimonious hangout but central and respectable. Went to the Opera last night and saw "Samson and Delila" - very beautifully done and surpasses the Metropolitan. August25: Still Paris and going hard and enjoying life. We are getting gowns and hats and enjoying life to the limit. Aug. 30 - DysartLondon: I came here via aeroplane this P.M. Left Paris at 3:30 and arrived about eight. I was scared stiff and half frozen and shaking in every limb when at the Croyden air field. It was glorious in a way and exhilarating but I really experienced physical fear for the first time since the shells hit Braisne. I have been back to B! with Mrs. Reckitt, her nephew, and another boy went on a motor trip to Chateau Theiry, Soissons and Reims. We spent the night at the little "Croix D'Or" in Soissons where we used to go when we came in from B. to shop. The next day we lunched right on the Chemin Des Dames. I went to "Faust" that night and we have seen many shows including the Folies Bergeres. Peg Leech and Betty Coatsworth and her mother turned up and we had a glorious day at Fontainbleau together. The last time I was there D. Conner got the flu - it was triste in those days. London is dear but oh that aero trip! I can't forget it. Sept. 10 - London: Last Saturday M and I went out to visit the Recketts at Littlegreen and spent a most delightful five days golfing, tennis, and walking. The country was beautiful and their place is so well kept up and in such perfect taste that one just melts into the atmosphere. It was quite a wrench to come back here to gloomy London. We've been to a number of good shows but I miss Paris. Sept. 14 - "St. Paul" - Mid-Sea: We came aboard this awful craft four days ago and have all been desperately ill and low-spirited. We are with Peg Leech in a vile room and the wretched ship has pitched and rolled from stem to stern. I long for a glimpse of land and home. Sept. 24 - The Cedars - Rye: We finally arrived after ten dreadful days at sea. Our new house here is lovely. I have played golf and been swimming and leave today for a weekend at the Cooks on Long Island. Oct. 1: Had a fine golfing weekend - swimming, motoring and all. And was sorry to return. D. Conner is in the offing. Am crazy to see her. Peg Leech, Stephen, Fahys and Paul Frost have been out here. Oct. 8: Bored stiff with golf and motoring to the city to have fittings and dentist appointments. Have seen D. Conner. Had lunch with her. Alice was here over the weekend. Oct. 10: Was bridesmaid yesterday for Elizabeth Chrystie. We had a small dance the night before for the wedding party. Fahys was up and we had a good time all in all. Not quite so bored as I was before. Life is looking up a little. Oct. 19: Motored up to New Haven with Betty B. for Molly Hart's wedding. Spent Columbus Day motoring with F.C. Had lunch at the "Port of Missing Men" and then watched the polo at Gedney Farms. Oct. 25: Spent the weekend with Molly P. at Huntington. Had good sailing, golf and baseball. Also my first experience in clamming. Nov. 1: Spent the weekend at Boonton visiting Beatrice Littell and husband. Golfed today. Steve has just had his tonsils out. Nov. 6: Harding elected president! Golf everyday but not much progress. Nov. 15: Went to the Y-P game with Fahys and Harold and May Downey. Danced at the Commodore later. Loads of fun. See all I can of D. Conner. Nov. 22: Went to the Y-H game with Stephen Landon, Alice Dewey, and Marjorie Clary and husband were here over Sunday. Lunched with K. Welles today. Wish we were living in town tho my two rooms here are lovely. Nov. 29: Spent Thanksgiving and the weekend at Bifi's house up at Purchase. It was hilarious and the hours were late but it was fun. However today I am quite a rag and very low in my mind. I'll keep off the records until life cheers. Dec. 4: Much cheerier. Have been staying in N.Y. at the town house quite steadily and been on several theater parties. Father has been down with a cold for weeks and is living in town. Dec. 6: Spent the weekend at Purchase. F.C. there too. Played golf, went to a dance at the Apawamis and played baseball with a crowd on Sunday. Dec. 13: Very similar to last weekend as regards golf, baseball and movies at the club. F.C. spent the weekend here. Dec. 14: Feel on the verge of a precipice or sitting on a volcano. When I write again it will be to say something definite. Dec. 27: I think it is quite definite now that I am going to Smyrna in January to teach. The last few days have been scrambled. Xmas and all the Everett family arrived simultaneously. The house swarms like a beehive. F.C. was up for Sunday. 1921Jan. 3 1921: Spent the weekend of New Year's at the Cook's at Sag Harbor. Two fairly definite items that may or may not materialize 1) Going to Smyrma next week. 2) sort of semi-engaged to F.C. Jan. 7: Am engaged to Fahys! Jan. 11: Aboard S.S. "America" en route Smyrna. The last ten days have whirled and I am so tired and weary I can't think. Fahys has given me my ring - a beauty and has been up in Rye constantly. We played golf and dined out a good deal and wore each other to the limit of our strength. This last Monday we motored to N.Y in my car and saw his grandmother and got my ring fixed and were very crazy about each other and all. Today 58 has done me up. Helen Crosby and I and a Missionary person are all three in a cabin on a boat of the Italian Line - very strange and foreign with only 13 first class passengers. I came off in the usual cloud of orchids, candy, and fruit baskets. It was hard to leave Fahys. Jan.15: Principal joy in life is sending and receiving wireless messages from Fahys. Had a terrific storm for two days and was very low. Was hurtled against the rail so hard that I wrapped around it several times. Jan.17: Sighted an Azore this noon. Getting bored. No wireless for two days. Jan.19: Was I bemoaning no wireless? A terror arrived this morning from F.C. demanding my return from Naples. Am desperate and worried. Will not write until the clouds lift. Jan.24. Napoli - Italiw I was here only last July with Margie. Now I am with her sister dutifully bound Smyrna-wards. Half the passengers have left and we rattle about quite forlornly. Spent the mourning on shore - took a room at the Excelsior and bathed in real H20 in a real tub. I miss Fahys more every day. Really don't see how I can stand the strain much longer and he is evidently pretty desperate judging by his messages. Jan. 26: Athens Hotel Grande Bretagne: We landed at the Piraeus this afternoon and were met by a fussy little Y.M.C.A. Greek who took us in tow and brought us over to Athens in the train. We are welcomed effusively by the combined Y.M. and Y.W.'s of Greece and taken in special charge of by a Greek lady who escorted us here to the hotel along with our train of trunks, fruit baskets, victrola and shawl straps. We stay here four days before going on to Smyrna to the International College. I miss Fahys terribly. He is such a dear. Jan.27: Spent the morning doing business stunts, had lunch at the "Angleterre" and went up to the Acropolis this P.M. Fascinating place and wonderful vi~w of the bay. We had tea with our Greek lady later and then got manicured. Saw Verdi's "Ernannes" last night and met the bass at a very Bohemian supper later - true local color. Athens is cold - no fires- but lovely sunshine and streets full of soldiers going to the front and quaint peasants. H. and I both very tired but springy and ready for anything. Jan.28: We spent the morning buying bags embroidered by the Greek peasants, down in the bazaar - very real and oriental. This P.M. did the museum and are surfeited with the classics. Tonight went to the movies and saw the royal family till I would know them in China. I like Athens - it is very clean and has tall cypresses shooting up among the houses and the Greeks are gentle, polite, and have kind faces. The hotel abounds with Russian refugees, French, English and a spriniding of German. Jan.31: Aboard S.S. Arcadia. We came aboard this lousy craft this afternoon and are in charge of a Greek Y.M.C.A. sailor. The boat is very informal. Greek soldiers and steerage Turks lie about sleeping outside our door like dogs. It reminds me of our canteen at Juneville in war days. Our stateroom "de Luxe" is about ten by four and dirty. We dined in a long unaired salle with quantities of unwashed and greedy foreigners of all descriptions. We walked the tiny deck tonight but the beauty of the Aegean sea is not made up for by the squalor of the Attic race-particularly when it travels third class to Smyrna. We have taken to our berths. There is nothing else to take to. Feb. 1 - American ColL Institute: Smyrna, Asia Minor. We landed this noon and were met and warmly welcomed by Dr. McLoughlin the president, Mr. Harlow, and a very nice girl called Perkins who works here in the girls school We browsed thru the Turkish bazaars this afternoon and they are very real - dirty, lousy, smelly, and yet intriguing. Tonight after a good tea my spirits fell. We eat with sixty of the dusky pupils and I feel like an albino and back in college days sitting at long tables passing bowls. When my thermometic spirits rise to rosier heights I will write more of Smyrna. At present my barn-like room and a great longing and aching for Fahys eclipse all distractions. Feb. 3: Feeling rather grippy and sore throat-like but happier than hitherto at the prospects of work. Have shopped a bit and driven about the tiny streets. Spent yesterday at Paradise - the boys school where Helen is located. The house we teachers live in is attractive and less barn-like on acquaintance. It is very cool. We had an "at home" here yesterday and went to a bridge party given by a Standard Oil man yesterday evening. The Perkins girl is a good scout and cheers my solitude. Feb. 5: Had two solid days of honest to goodness tonsillitis but yesterday effected a remarkable recovery and went to an at home at the consuls. Today twenty-four of us including teachers and boy scouts went on an all day hike to the ancient Acropolis of Smyrna. We climbed for miles and then cooked lunch on the further side. The view was fine and a Turkish peasant with his sheep and two dogs came and watched us. After lunch we set a trail which the boy scouts followed thru the pelting rain, and caught us in a cave. We walked thru the valley to "Cordelia" named after Richard Coeur de Lion, and took a train home. Feb. 8: Played golf all P.M. with Ruth and an Armenian boy and won by two up. The course is on the campus at Paradise and is pretty poor but good fun. I had tea with Helen and Dr. McLachlan. D. Jones suddenly appeared yesterday. I was at the Turkish school at Salahone when her note came saying she was on the "Karlsbad" in the bay. I went out and brought her here for the night. We dined at "Costis", and I enjoyed the first appetizing meal I have had in Smyrna. Yesterday had a wire from F. and today my first letter. Feb. 10: Received a huge home mail today. F. very dispirited and low. Have been browsing thru the bazaar and captured a rug and two alabaster jars. Am anxious to start my work. Exam week is almost over. Feb. 19: Pelting rain and low in my mind but immersed in work. I teach History, Bible, Reading and Geography. The girls are eager and intelligent. My Turkish room is chilly and yet I enjoy it. The life is regular and not too monotonous. When the goat-stew palls I cook in my room. I played hockey with the men at Paradise yesterday and fairly creak today. Spent the night at the McLachans with Helen and brot her down here with me today. The Greeks are planning an offensive at Bruca and I feel back in bellum days. Am taking Greek lessons. Enjoy them. March 13: Almost a month has gone and a very busy one. I teach all day and every day and feel quite an inmate of A.C.I. Twice a week I coach the girls in basketball and once a week I go to Salahane' to start a Camp Fire Girl Club. We go to the various "at home" teas at the consulate and about once a week all the Americans in town meet for bridge. I stay with Helen at the McLachlans quite often and they are very hospitable. I play golf there at Paradise often and if it were not for plaintive cables from F.C. and the family I would be almost happy. We went to see the whirling dervishes this afternoon. March 27: Easter Sunday. Very busy and moderately happy. I take Greek lessons three times a week so I study a great deal. My teacher, a young Greek girl, is a wonder. She makes me think of Melpomene, the muse of tragedy. She heard all her family were massacred in Caesarea but I think the rumor was false. The Greeks have begun their attack and the city if full of solders. I spent the weekend at the McLachlans with Helen. We played bridge with our two beaux, an Armenian and a Swiss last night. We went on a marvelous hike a few weeks ago to the Leidja valley. We were gone twelve hours and were footsore and weary but it was glorious. I just happened to look back to the first page of this book and find written "what will this book bring forth - I long to live abroad again, who knows but I may". Well, this book has brot forth an engagement on my part, a trip to Europe last summer, and now here I am living in a mission school in the Near East under trying conditions. The school is very poor and altogether it is almost worse then the war. My engagement was announced on February seventeenth. Notice of it have just begun to trickle thru to me. April 2: The week has been hard. The weather being warmer we all feel tired and if I had not gone on a picnic to Guez Tepe with the lower school on Friday I should have been a rag. Today Helen came in and we shopped around and then went out to Paradise and had a picnic ~ deux by the river. Late in the P.M. we took a bicycle ride and I got the 6:40 home. I now have four rugs and wonder in what home they will be. April 7: Today being Greek Independence day the school had a holiday and Ruth and I took a picnic lunch to a little Greek village in the hills back of Smyrna. It was a beautiful walk thru the valley but quite warm. The people all eyed us very curiously. Later we went to the Consul's and had tea and bridge. Helen came down. Monday night Mehmet Au took us to see the Howling Dervishes. They were very gaunt and howled touchingly. We looked on from a sofa in front of a latticed window. I liked the whirlers better. April 11: Saturday I went to Guez Tepe with the sophomores on a picnic. Helen came down and spent the night and Sunday I went to Paradise with her. Every time a troop train leaves for the front we hear a volley of shots that is quite deafening. Rumors go that they have shot at the minaret and several people have been killed. Refugees are swarming the streets from the interior. April 13: It is reported that the Turks have retaken Kara-hisar which is bad news as it means that Christians in the interior will be massacred. My poor Greek teacher is down and out again. The Yeranian sisters here in the school went to the Gare last night and met their parents from Kara-hisar. They had been en route for days. It was a gladsome reunion for the four sisters. The shooting has stopped but the war is the one subject of conversation. Later: I have just been to the station to see the wounded coming in with Miss Sirinedhou. They brot in quite a number and sent them off in ambulances. It is so like France that I feel homesick. I want to go out and nurse them. April 14: A clipping from N.Y. speaks of the "Smyrna" battle. We are scarcely that. I spent the afternoon at Paradise. Mrs. Jacobs gave a tea and I went out with the Seniors and then had a long visit with Helen. There is a cat on the roof opposite which has been there for four days. It is slowly starving before me. April 18: We shot the cat. It stayed there for five days without food in the scorching sun. I spent the weekend at Paradise. Helen had a birthday party and after it we all walked out to the aqueduct in the moonlight and sang. It was like home. Another wire from F! Today is what they call earthquake weather - very close and still have been quite tired. April 20 - Ephesus: This morning early Ruth, Gertrude and I left Carnavor Bridge with a party to come here for two days. It took us four hours to come forty miles! The hotel here is a dear little affair and quite unlike Asia Minor - wisterias and shaded paths. The ruins were marvelous. We spent the entire afternoon trudging over them and are exhausted tonight. There were two kiddies in the party and they were very game. We played bridge tonight a little. Ephesus is a cute little town and very restful after the clamor and yowling of Smyrna. I must admit that the closer looms my departure, the more I regret leaving A.C.I. I am very devoted to it now; the girls and the teachers, particularly Miss S. They have all been so very good to me. April 23 - Smymw Yesterday I went out to the big Greek hospital at Karantina with the Greek teachers and Miss S. as guide. We went loaded with flowers, candy, and oranges and gave them about to the soldiers who were wounded. We sang also and the men enjoyed it so much. I felt quite like France. There were several hundred men and room for many more. Another big offensive is on, they tell us. I would love to nurse. April 24: Yesterday P.M. We held a rummage sale here at the school and served tea. I held the grab bag which was a novelty to Smyrna and made a tremendous hit. We made seven pounds on it and all of the things were pure junk. Helen spent the weekend here. We had dinner at Costis, I had a Greek lesson and then we talked and laughed until the small hours. Today we avoided church and took a walk on the quay but no excitement. There were only three destroyers in and a nasty wind. This P.M. I went visiting poor people with the King's Daughters. Some of them were dreadful living in unutterable squalor. No mail. April 26: A mail at last! F. very restless and thinks I am overdoing matters. I can't go before June possibly now. This P.M. I went to the Greek hospital and Karantina again with flowers and met Helen there with some of the college boys. They sang in the wards and the soldiers loved it. I am very tired tonight. Miss S. gave me a darling collar. She is a dear and I hate to think of leaving her. April 29: On board S.S. Victoria en route Constantinople. School stopped two days ago and we were all exhausted. I simply throbbed in every bone with weariness. Miss S. gave me several Greek lessons and I bought a new rug and played some golf and here I am with Helen on my way to C. [Constantinople] to pass a part of our Easter (Greek) vacation. Last night I went to the Armenian Church service with a bunch of the girls and stayed up in the chapel till midnight. Very sleepy. We are in at Mitylene right now. April 30 - Sea of Marinora: Had a wretched night and are eating picnic meals in our cabin. The air is clear and cold. We came past Troy early this morning and stopped at Dardanella and Gallipoli. It was interesting passing the battlefields of Anzac. The Dardannelles were lovely - very grey but here and there patches of golden gorse. Gallipoli is a dreadful little hole. Most of the houses were blocked with sandbags or shot to pieces. We came out into the sea of Marmora after lunch and are due at C. about 3 A.M. The boat is a steady little craft and swift, but dirty! Our fellow passengers are Turks, Russians, Armenians and English. May 4 - Pera Palace Hotel - Constantinople: We landed Sunday and spent the day sightseeing; also the next day and yesterday we went on a trip up the Bosphorus to the Black Sea. We lunched at a little resort town called Bubdere. The city is filled with hungry looking Russians selling anything from flowers to lace and furs. May 5: Have met up with some people we know and yesterday Mrs. Dulles took us out to the Eyoub Mosque outside the city. We climbed up to the hill outside the mosque and drank ginger-ale before wending our way home in a "kaik". Mr. Dulles is first secretary of the embassy and his wife is a friend of D. Cobb's and E. Chrystie at home. We had several people to tea the other day, among them Miss Dard of the girl's college and Zoe Demetracopolou the sister of several girls at A.C.I. H. has a terrific cold. We hope to sail on Sunday. May 7: Clover Dulles gave a luncheon the other day and asked us. She lives in a very pretty little Turkish house. Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Welles, cousins of K. Welles, were there. Later we went to a tea dance at the embassy and had a splendid time. Mrs. Bristol was the hostess and many Naval Officers abounded. Bruce Mac Lachian turned up and has fixed up our passports and got us saffing on the "Policos" tomorrow. May 10 - A.C.I. Smyrna: We arrived yesterday after a very pleasant trip on the "Policos" and were met by Andoni and Mr. Cauldwell. I went right out to Paradise with Helen and got in on the final end of the conference. Many delegates in evidence and an abundance of emotional religion. H. and I are left quite cold by the flood. School began today and I am back in the swim again. No mail! May 13: Weather growing very hot and tiresome. Lessons drag a good deal. An enormous mail! F. quite snippy and I am furious. I am making up Greek lessons by leaps and bounds. We have formed a Greek table where we talk very spasmodically. The girls bring me roses in huge quantities so my room is always fragrant. On Wednesday we went to a big garden-party at one of the English homes at Bournebat. There was tea and dancing and I felt civilized. We drove home in the twilight thru beautiful scenery. Greek tonight. May 16: Blazing hot! Yesterday about thirty of us went to the Leidja Valley on a picnic. Fortunee went ahead with Andoni to start the barbecue and we came later on foot and by boat. The valley was beautiful. We played games and came home about seven. Miss S. gave me a Greek lesson tonight. May 17: On Sunday I went to all the Greek services there were and sang Greek hymns lustily. Yesterday I took the girls walking to the quay and Helen dropped in to see me. The days are long and enervating now. Three of us sleep out on the terrace in the moonlight. May 19: I am getting very depressed at the thought [sic] of leaving here. I am quite attached to the joint although the food and weather are awful. I am devoted to Miss S. Tuesday night we went on a glorious moonlight picnic to the aqueduct - some of the Paradise teachers and Helen, Miss Fleming, and I. We sang and bayed at the moon till very late. May 22: Friday night nine of us went sailing in the bay and took our supper. Coming home the wind grew so strong that we had to land and trudge ten weary miles to Paradise. But the moon was glorious so we didn't care. I had two hours sleep and took the 7:15 down to Smyrna and started off on a picnic with the Seniors to Diana's baths. The days are blistering hot now and we wear as few clothes as possible. May 24: Sunday night I felt the pleasure of malaria and had a glorious time with it - My first and I hope last experience but worth while recording. I went to Paradise this P.M. and had some good tennis. The food is awful right now, but I am so attached to the place and Miss S. that I dread leaving. Cool weather. They spoke perfect English, were friendly and very jolly. Miss Sirinidou was a type of the educated, classical looking Greek, tall and dark and dignified. I simply worshipped her for her courage, sweetness and general dignity. The that [sic] of perhaps not seeing the native teachers again is unbearable. Of course I'll see the Americans Olive may come this summer and "El Perk" will sit on my doorstep when she arrives. I didn't know one could become so attached. But then I felt the same way about France and Braisne and got over it! June 20 Off the French Coast: H. a little better but feeble in spirit. We should have docked tonight but bad weather held us back. Have been desperately seasick all day and this trip added to the last month of hot days and energetic living in Smyrna have worn me to a rail. I never remember being so thin. F.C. will have a jolt unless Paris and the "Aquitania" have a salutary effect. Perhaps he will turn from me in disgust in which case I shall fly back to A.C.I. and Miss Sirinidou. June 22 Hotel Vouillemont Paris: Had a delightful day in Marseilles did the corniche drive and took a room at the Splendide for the day. In the evening we came on to Paris spending the night en route. We are both drunk with joy at being here. We do adore it so. Paris is full of nasal Americans in great evidence. We have shopped as usual and bought just the sort of things you can get only in Paris and are exhausted but happy. Lunch at Paillards and dinner at "Boeuf a la Mode": A huge floral offering from F.C. arrived. A cable says that Steve was married today! I am terribly stunned but getting over it. June 24: As usual we are "doing" Paris lunching and dining at our pet haunts and buying clothes. We saw a show last night the real thing in French humor. Yesterday afternoon a pet little poilu of mine had tea with me here and we revived Braisne. Lunch at the Ritz and more shopping. Very tired and miss A.C.I. and Miss S. every minute but simply enthralled to be here. Drove up and down the Champs Elysees just to soak it in. Have a new hat and two dresses. Bessie Vine is here too so we three are bumming about in chorus. Have seen Jeanne and been kissed to bits. Later 12:50: The end of a perfect day and probably my last fling of single blessedness. Late in the P.M. we three drove to the Bois and it was heavenly. June in Paris is like ambrosia. When I came back my little poilu was waiting for me, Charles Heranger and all agog to talk for hours, but I had to send him off, being an engaged lady. A last cable from Fahys demanding my boat! We dined at "Laperouse" across the river and then went to some Russian sketches by actor refugees. They were splendid and we laughed till we cried. We walked home afterwards, in our new hats and gowns with the moon over the trees and then later making the Place de la Concorde snow-white. We are tired to death but jubilant. The food is such a joy after Costis at Smyrna that we are inclined to gorge a bit. Sailing tomorrow. June 25 S.S. Aquitania We have been travelling since 8:26 when we took the train to Cherbourg leaving our beloved Paris in a grayish mist with the sun trying to burn thru it. We had a hellish time at Cherbourg on the lighter for it began to rain and we were all dog-tired. But the boat is a marvel of comfort and luxury tables for two, swimming pool, tearooms, libraries and all the "modern conveniences." Our cabin is a gem mahogany bed-steads and hot water. Quite a change from the lousy "America" of last January. Smyrna is very dim. Fahys' uncle and aunt are on the boat! Isn't it a joke? June 30: We land tomorrow and already wireless messages are arriving. Mr. and Mrs. Fahys, an uncle and aunt, are aboard and it makes it very pleasant also Horace Conner. We go swimming every afternoon and dance a little and enjoy life on this floating hotel. At present we are in the Gulf stream which is horrid but the trip has been lovely on the whole. I wish I were not so fagged looking. Am trying to perk up with a shampoo and manicure today. My bones simply protrude and I look like a walking appeal for the Near East Relief. In a day I will be thru with bumming and must "settle down." Ugh! July 7: Landed last Friday and have been in a whirl ever since. F.C., family and Stephen were at the dock. Alice and Dewey motored down from Boston the same night. The next day was stifling but we played tennis and went swimming. In the evening we all dined at the yacht club and stayed for the fireworks and dance. On the "Fourth" we swam most of the day and F.C. and I went to the beach on a picnic with Bifi and Elsie. Have already received letters from Rosa and Christine! Tonight F. and I are dining with his sister, Mrs. Edwards. July 12: We have been house hunting here in Rye and with little luck. It seems strange to house-hunt in my own hometown. I swim and golf and motor a good deal. We go to Maine tonight. July 25 Blueberry Camp Maine: We have been here almost a week and are pretty well settled. F.C. and Dewey came up over the weekend. Alice is here with her two children. We swim a great deal and play croquet. There are only we five girls here now but I am busy with wedding preparations such as hemming table napkins and making out invitation lists. August 28: F. comes up weekends and we have had a houseful all along. I visited M. Keep at York Harbor for two days and then motored down to Boston to the tennis with her and Alice. It was very exciting. This week, Mr. Mills, Fahys, Madeline Pressprich, Mr. Scrivens, his brother and a friend were here. We played baseball and had sailing races. August 30: We had a terrific day yesterday. We motored to the coast in my car and Mr. Nutter's and swam in the surf and had a picnic lunch on the beach. After lunch we motored to Old Orchard for a turn on the Roller Coaster. We got into one dreadful thing that almost killed us all a sort of bowl which whirled. We swam again and then between Sanford and here the Ford broke down and we had to walk home and even row up the island. We are all exhausted today. 67 Sept. 6: Over labor day we had Dick Searle, F., Dewey, Helen Ewen and Ellen Hasbrouck. On Thursday I had motored to Gloucester and spent the night with Peg. We had a fine weekend. Sept. 16: I spent last weekend most delightfully at Sag Harbor. The Cooks are lovely to visit and ideal as future in-laws. I came to the Rye house on Monday and Fahys and I inspected a house we want to take and talked it over with the Goodwins. Then we motored to Pickwick Arms where we had dinner and from there to Bridgeport where I met Bob just home from abroad. We came up here together and the next day mother left with Margaret to go to Westover. We are on our own as it were. We went to Home Acres for supper last night and walked home by moonlight. This AM. Bob and I motored to Sanford for marketing with all the children. Tonight we go to Portsmouth to meet Fahys. Sept. 22: Over last weekend we had Dick S., Fahys, Dewey, Polly and Dumpy Watson. Bob has left for a textile school now and in a few weeks I'll be married. Mother took Margaret to school and left us here in camp which we ran to the best of our ability. The days are windy and clear. October 6 The Cedars, Rye: I motored down last week with Constance and Mam'selle. We had a lovely trip spending the first night at Milton. I am deep in the business of getting married. It's terrific! New York every day, rain or shine and I'm only half there! I am getting my wedding dress from Louis also a few other things. I attended a "Twig" and saw some of my old pals again. D. Conner is on here. We had lunch at number 9 and it was glorious to be with her. Oct. 17: D. Conner spent a week with me. We played golf and I went and still go daily to the city for shopping. I have all my linen now and almost all my clothes. F. and I spent a delightful weekend with the Livingstons at Tivoli. We golfed all day and everyday. Wedding presents are beginning to trickle in. Oct. 24: Presents pour in now. The babies and I go into ecstasies over the undoing of parcels. I had a large luncheon last Thursday lots of Old pals reunited such as H. Lugueer and Laura Pratt. Afterwards I motored them up to King St. to see our house. It is a dear small but compact. My shopping is about done only the brides maids hats remain. The dresses are being made at Alice Maynard. Uz Chrystie gave a lunch for me at the Apawamis and Lfflian Stears gives another tomorrow. Fahys and I are buying furniture now. Nov. 1: We have had 200 wedding presents! And some are very lovely. Alice and D. Conner are back again the former with the two children. M. Keep gave a dinner and theater which was very good fun. I spent the night at the Cook's in N.Y. after it. My dresses arrive tomorrow. I spent three hours at Mme Louie fitting my wedding dress last Saturday but it is lovely. Mrs. Barrett here in Rye gave a luncheon yesterday for us three and then we came home and opened more presents. The little girls are being flower girls and the others are M. Keep, Elsie, E. Bowlend, D. Cobb, Margaret and D. Conner. Alice is matron of honor. Things move rapidly but well. Nov. 7 Homestead, Hot Springs, Va.: The wedding was tremendous! The dinner the night before was lots of fun. We had a nigger band and dancing and invited the people that the bridal party were staying with such as the Godleys and Dennisons. Mr. and Mrs. Cook of course came too and all the sisters and husbands. Lots more presents kept arriving continually and we put them all 330 in Arthur's room and across the hall. Mrs. Nichols gave a buffet lunch Saturday noon which about forty of us attended. The wedding was at four and my dress and veil really were beautiful. The church was jammed to the doors and we all pranced up in perfect step and Fahys and I got married quite duly. The reception was enormous and went off with a swing, mostly due to the efforts of F's ushers who were corkers. We left the house in a perfect hail storm of rice and rose petals and are still dripping them on our trail. We went off in the roadster to Valley View Farm at Pleasantville and spent the night there. Then yesterday we motored to N.Y. still shedding rice and left the car, took the train here and arrived this A.M. The hotel and grounds are great! We have played 24 holes of golf already and are very weary but still in a haze after the thrill of the wedding. I saw people there whom I had not seen in aeons Mil Sutton, Miss Morgan, etc. The latter played at the church as a wedding present. Nov. 11: We play golf every single day and are getting quite fair scores. I got par several times yesterday. We have heard from home several times and my new name looks funny on an envelope. We have two good horses and do some riding over these Virginia trails. In the evening there are always movies and dancing. We lead a lazy life, having breakfast in our room and eating when we feel like it. Nov. 16: Yesterday we rode to Valley View for lunch and then took a long ride thru Warm Springs Gap and home. We came down the Switzerland trail and didn't get back until six. Our golf improves daily. I got a 54 and Fahys a 46! We are aiming for 88 and 100 for the 18. The Frank Landons are here. Nov. 23 En route Ashville: We played 18 holes of golf almost every day and had some glorious rides all over the country. Our golf improved a little. The Frank Landons were there and we saw a little of them. Yesterday we left at 3:45 and changed trains at Charlottesville, where we stayed a few hours and took in a movie. We arrive at 11:15. It is very jolly touring the country with a nice husband and have him do the fussing over bags and tickets. Nov. 28 Grove Park Inn Ashville: We spent Thanksgiving with Steve and Marion at Ceal. We reached Waynesville at five and were met by Steve. We spent the night at a very nice boarding house and early the next day we rode the 15 miles to the "River" as everyone there calls it now. Marion was waiting at the lodge with a delicious Thanksgiving dinner and the air was balmy and lovely. The next day we all four rode to Sunburst and chatted on the way with the neighbors scattered over the area. On Saturday we all rode in to Waynesville stopping for a picnic lunch en route by the East Fork. I had a nice little mare and F. a foaming charger. We arrived here that night and yesterday played the golf course. Today is a dub day rain and snow but we walked to the top of Sunset Hill. The hotel isn't up to Hot Springs in some ways but surpasses it in others the food is excellent but service poor. Dec. 11 678 King Street Portchester: Here we are, an old married couple and about semi-settled in our house. We came home about a week ago and in those brief seven days I have carted our wedding presents over here, spent two days in the city doing the opera and playing in one of Miss Morgan's Xmas concerts. Fahys has bought me a new harp a beauty, and we are in quest of furniture for our dining room and bedroom. Dec. 16: We are almost settled. We have a maid and a two year child and live happily and harmoniously in our habitation. It is really very pretty and our furniture looks well in it. The living room with my new harp is lovely. Dec. 22: Things still progress nicely but the baby has a whining cold which is annoying. F. has bought me an adorable little cocker spaniel and I practice a good deal on my new harp. Dec. 27: Xmas was spent in celebration between the two families. On Sunday Fahys and I motored to Garden City and New York where we duly viewed Madeline's and Maria's babies. Then we came back to a large formal dinner at the Barclays. It was very jolly and I enjoyed every minute immensely. Yesterday was our own party at the Cedars. F. and I raked in some very desirable loot a mirror for the dining room, books, a wood basket, and I gave him a ship picture. In the P.M. we walked with Dewey and Alice to Manursing Island. 1922 Jan. 6, 1922: Spent the weekend of New Years at Sag Harbor. All the Cook children were there with respective spouses. We skated and played baseball but it was bitterly cold. Alice and Martha Keep came to lunch the other day and on Wednesday my old roommate D. Cobb spent the day here. Jan. 22: Kay Welles was here for the day last week. It was very jolly reviving our pasts as we have both been married recently. I belong to a Literary Club now which meets about at the homes of the highbrow members. I had Frances and Liz here to lunch 70 before the Twig last week. We went to the Dennisons to dinner on Thursday. I brot my harp and played in the evening. The crowd was very musical and bohemian but not too congenial. We dined at the Putnams the next night which was more jolly. Yesterday Mrs. Cook gave a big tea for me at the Plaza in the Rose Room. Loads of people came and it was very pleasant dancing and talking. Mrs. Cook and I received while mother and Alice circulated. The party lasted till seven. Alice came home with us for the night. This P.M. Jack Kunhardt, Frances S. and Merton Gundry came to tea; also the Charlie Kings later. Bob and Alice to supper. Jack hasn't changed a bit just as fascinating. So is Steve Landon with whom I danced yesterday. My old beaux are beginning to interest me again. Feb. 15: I spent a very agreeable six days in Washington visiting D. Conner. Her friends are mostly Navy but we also were entertained by Fondrose Wainwright and the Birnies. F. stayed with his Ma in N.Y. Last night we dined with the Shippen Davises and went to a show at the Commodore for the Babies Hospital. Tomorrow night we go to a party for Reg Livingston and his fiancee. We seem to gad quite a little but we aren't keen on it at all. We spent one weekend at Milton with Alice and went to a dinner-dance at the Milton Club. Here in Rye the Twig and the Literary Club flourish apace but I'm a little restless. Feb. 27: D.C. was here for a week. We saw the Russian actors I saw in Paris last June with Helen Crosby. Jack Reynolds spent Wash. Birthday with us and we motored to the Port of Missing Men and went to a dance at the Apawamis and had a very good time. Friday night we gave our first dinner and paid off some old scores to the Putnams, the Dennisons, and had D. Conner and Jack Reynolds too. I think the affair went off smoothly on the whole. We had supper with the Godleys last evening very pleasant. March 4: Every foreign mail brings me a little closer to Smyrna and my Greek lessons at the Berlitz school help to keep me in touch. Our dog Buddy is growing and is very cute. Altogether our menage flourishes tho the baby riles me occasionally. She's cute but when she frets I go wild. Have been pretty tired lately. Went to a lunch at Eliz. Chrysties yesterday. March 10: We've been out every night this week and are wrecks in consequence. We went to the Nichols for supper on Sunday. Monday, I had the Literary Club here in the P.M., and the Goodwins to dinner, Tuesday we dined with the Howland Davises in N.Y. and went to the Snarks show afterwards. I enjoyed it immensely but was tired. Wednesday we went to the Monroes here in Rye. The Dennisons and Marie Louise and Warren were there. It was a very pleasant party. Last night Dave and Ruth came here. We played bridge and were horribly beaten. The baby is being boarded out, praise be! But I've had to raise Betty's wages in consequence. It's worth it. I am chairman of the joint committees of a Smith versus Vassar basketball game in the armory!
March 20: Last week we dined with the Merle-Smiths in great state and had a delightful time and took in the Remsens, Jolles, and had Pa and Ma to dinner. Harry Cook spent the last weekend with us and we have had various members of his household here on Sunday to tea. For supper last night we entertained the Godleys and Edwards. We all played and sang afterwards; a very jolly evening. We are slowing paying off dinner debts. I practice steadily and have plenty of outside work to keep me busy. 1923Jan. 61923! August leaves today and we have no future. Life is drear. Have ~aid all my bills and have no money left. There is lots of snow but it's melting now. Shant write for a while. Jan. 14: Things are better. During the last week we have had four menials! Now we seem fairly quiescent with one ancient one who seems fair. There has been snow, snow, everywhere and real winter is upon us. Today we went up to the Shaw's place and skied all afternoon. There was a big crowd, the Curtises, Bulkleys, Whites and Meeks but poor skiing. Last night we dined at the Bulkleys and later went to the Biltmore for dancing. Edith weighs 16.8. Jan. 19: Had the current history class here yesterday L. White, P. Meek, B. Flower, and Mrs. Hane. Miss Richards got carried miles up into the country before she found us. Tonight we dine with the Shaws before a dance at the Apawamis. Am very tired and spiritless. Had lunch and went to the theater "The Seventh Heaven" with M. Keep on Wednesday and the day before I went to a huge and elaborate luncheon at the Metropolitan Club, given by Mrs. Roswell Bates bunches of violets for favors! Jan. 21: We enjoyed the dance very much but the general atmosphere of melting snow and gray sky is dispiriting. I haven't touchec/the harp for days. Father is in Cuba and the children have whooping cough. Feb. 9: Fahys and I have both had very had grippe colds and were in bed off and on for ten days. We go to Lakewood tomorrow to cheer us on our way a little. Have been elected to the N.Y. Junior League which means I'll have to do some work for it. Went to a lunch and bridge at Mrs. Hite's yesterday very rich viands but the bridge was poor. Feb. 14: Today I attend a hug~ Women's Assoc. luncheon at the Presbyterian Church and go in as their future president. We enjoyed Lakewood and both got well rested up. Took nice walks about the lake and slept late. Arrived in N.Y. yesterday morning and spent the day with D. Conner. At 4:30 attended a Junior League tea dull and inclined to be patronizing. I have Edith this A.M. and am tired. Haven't felt right since Christmas. Feb. 24: The weather continues terribly cold. Last night it was 3 below zero. We spent the holiday with D.C. and her fiancé. They came up for the day and we all went to a large buffet lunch at the Apawamis followed by dancing. Later we skied and walked. In the evening we dined with the Monroes and our car broke down so we were late getting home. Last night we dined with the Davises and went to a first anniversary dance given by Reg and his wife. March 2: Just a hint of spring in the air nothing tangible as yet. The Bible class met at Mother's in the P.M. and seems highly successful. We certainly gathered in a godless lot of people and yet all of them highly intelligent. I went to N.Y. on the 5:25 and dined with Horton Ijams and his wife. Reg and Alice Livingston, and the Henshaws were there. Played bridge after dinner and won easily. We spent the night with Edith and Jim. March 2& All hints of spring gone for good. I expect cold and cheerless days from now on. We played golf on Sunday and almost froze. D. Conner was out for the weekend. Saturday night the Irwins dined here. Also Nan Bulkley and we went to a lecture at the club later "The French Point of View". Yesterday I shopped a little and lunched with D.C. Literary Club every Monday. April 8: Played baseball at the Crawford's this P.M. Very good fun and splendid exercise. Nice tea afterwards. Later the Godleys and Mary and Hal Downey dropped in for cocktails and to see Edith. We motored to N.Y. with Edith and Miss Allen yesterday to get some photos taken. We lunched at the Cook's and also brot E. in to see her great-grandmother, Mrs. Fahys. April 15: Certainly a grey and bleak April! We have tried to wear spring clothes and played golf but it gets chilly every day, it seems. The Burchells and Mannys dined with us Friday night and yesterday we dined with the Steers. We went to a dance at the Apawamis and from there to the Biltmore very good fun. Today we churched and baseballed at the Crawfords. April 28: Spring is more evident hyacinths and daffodils being out but today is chilly and cold. Last night the family with Aunt Adele and Bob dined with us and we went to "Robin Hood" afterwards. Father gave a large dinner at Shenys last week and took us all to see Jane Cowl in "Romeo and Juliet". The party was to celebrate the successful outcome of the Vassar Salary Endowment Fund. There were 36 of us in all. May 10: E. weighs 22 lbs. and is very pretty. We now have a police dog in the family but only temporarily. I took a second prize on Tuesday, May 1st, at a daffodil show. Have been playing golf with D. Conner who comes out here for lessons. My game is pretty fair. Dined at the Putnams on Tuesday and went to a good Garden Club lecture in Greenwich. Today is very cold and dark but the apple blossoms are out and other things are sprouting. May 15: Lunched at Mrs. Curtis and went to Twig at Virginia Shaw's all off at the end of nowhere in the Sterling Estate. Sewed all the P.M. and was bored stiff. Have most of my spring outfit, praise be, so I can rest awhile on that score. We have a police dog puppy whom I adore and F. abhors. Am immensely depressed as I don't know whether we will keep this house or where we will move to and I yearn for a job. May 21: We had a very nice weekend lunching on Sunday with the Godleys and all going to the beach later with little Edith. It was pretty cold but the sand and striped umbrellas felt like summer. We've sold the police dog! And are looking at a house now on Father's place. Went to a bridge party at Alice Wainwrights and won the prize. I'm home with a bad cold. May 27: Dined with the Evans Ward's last night at the Yacht Club which celebrated its opening dance. Pretty slow. Will have E on my hands for a week now and feel rocky about it. June 2: The week draws to a close and I am a mental and physical wreck. We dined out a couple of times and on Decoration Day I had to go to town to chaperon a bunch of Margaret's friends to lunch and the theater. Last night the Wards and Balls came to dinner and we had a very successful party. E. is very fussy on account of her vaccination and the weather has turned hot. June 5: D. Conner was married yesterday and the day was a scorcher. We just stood about in that lovely house on Seventeenth Street getting hotter with every breath. Dorothy looked beautiful and she and Dug went off in a shower of rose leaves. Miss Allen is back! June 6: Have had E. at the beach all the P.M. A frightful storm came up but we weathered it. Went swimming for the first time as the day was a terror for heat. Liz Manny, Priscilla Meek and K. Pomeroy were with me. June 8: Grey and cold and a general air of lassitude after three days of intense heat. Am depressed in spirits but E. is now at the stage where she pulls herself up and stands by her crib crowing. Dined with the Stantons on Tuesday and tonight go to the Nichols. June 11: Have been taking E. and Miss Allen to the Manursing Island Club every day tho its hard to work in with my own engagements. E. adores the beach. Led the Meeting of the Women's Association today and the speaker, Miss Ogg, of the Mountain White District wasn't bad. Still considering whether or not to remodel Cedarcroft. < |