Letter, Kate Gleason to James Gleason

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William Gleason,
Manufacturer of Machinists Tools,
Office, Brown’s Race,
Rochester, N.Y., Nov. 21st. 1888

Dear Jim,-
The O.W.J. must be truly appalling when even your brilliant
and well trained intellect fails to conquer it. I’ve heard that
the students were thinking of getting up a petition to the faculty
to substitute some other text book and I should infer from your re-
marks that you might be induced to try the ‘repeating’ vote system
on it and sign it in several different places. What professor
have you in it? If it were only Prof. Jones, now—I have no doubt
he would give you an honorable anyway for my sake.
I will send you the initiation money when I send your pin, -at
the end of this week or the beginning of next. You don’t seem to
be in your usual desperate hurry so I’m taking my time.
I’m still in the preliminary stages of gloomy despair for Emma
may go to Detroit any day; but as she has’nt got there yet, I have
not plunged into the dark abyss itself. Your see her hostess, to
be, is sick and until she recovers, Emma continues to illumine us with
her society. But Prs Schlick is now convalescing and may be ex-
pected to send for her any day.
Mother is going down next week sure,
Elinor is going too, of course, and she has a couple of stunning new
gowns and a jacket. Mother has’nt any new gown and what’s worse,
she has resurrected the old tweed dress I wore to the office for the
last three years, washed it and had it made over for herself. But

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I pledge you my honor, Jim, that I will use every effort to secrete the
thing so that she cannot take it with her as she now intends doing.
If I manage to impound that, she will have to wear her best dresses
and then she can’t miss making a captive of every boy down there.
Warner is what you used to eloquently term ‘a lallah”, is’nt he?
His father wrote him that he would have to support himself for a year
and if he managed to do it and would promise to be a good boy, he
might send him through college another year. So he came down to
ask my advice about looking up a job. He can’t afford to take the
job of apprentice here for he could’nt support himself on the wages,
$4 a week. His father sent him a letter of introduction to D.A.
Woodbury but when young Warner presented it, Mr. Woodbury told him (
so young Warner confidingly imparted to me) that he considered Mr.
Warner Senior had swindled him about a $30.000 piece of property and
he would like to see him and all his relatives including our young
friend in, – well in a warmer climate, before he would help him one
cents’ worth. Warner was down here Friday afternoon, and Satur-
day afternoon and Monday afternoon and then again Tuesday afternoon, –
He has’nt showed up yet to-day but perhaps I can still support life,
even if he does’nt come. There is a good deal of sameness in his
conversation, – it is principally monosyllabic unless he is talping
on the merits of ’92 in cane rushes, base-ball etc. etc as compared
with ’91. He was particularly interested in the outcome of the
tug of war to have taken place last Friday. As you were to be in
it and your letter is suggestively silent about it, I take it for
granted the ‘92’s got laid out. Business is good, in fact it is
very good and Father has about made up his mind that you are to stay
long enough to graduate; you ought to make a violent effort to do it
in three years for we are only waiting for your return to spread out

[handwritten in side margin]
like the American Eagle until the shadow of the Gleason tools, extends around the
Earth. We are making a gear planer for the French government now. I’m glad you
have asked Madge to the party and hope you’ll enjoy yourself.
K.G.