Article contents
From A Maine Woman Goes South, letters transcribed by Jean F. Hankins in 2003. This installment contains 16 letters. Historical dates appear with each letter; the article retains the original collection’s publication date.
Nellie Hankins to Betsy Kemp, Oxford, Maine, October 1, 1925
Source: PDF page 20; printed page 14.
Heading: Spelman College, October 1,1925
Dear Auntie,
It was so good to get all of the Otisfield news. Quite a lot has been happening in Otisfield since I left. I've been gone almost a month now but it doesn't seem that long.
My teaching isn't very hard. I have four classes in the forenoon and one in the afternoon, so I'm kept busy for the first part of the day but I am all through by half past one. It isn't nearly as hard as I expected it to be. My algebra classes are large so they are a little harder, but my advanced algebra and geometry I like very much.
We had our first paychecks yesterday. With my board and laundry taken out mine is $56.62. It seems nice to be supporting myself.
It is much cooler here now. We do not need our coats or heavy dresses yet but it isn't as sweltering as it was last week. We have had no rain yet so it is still very dry. At one time this summer the condition was quite serious here in the city-the water supply was so low. There was a fine of fifty dollars for using water to sprinkle lawns.
Ruth Kemp was over day before yesterday. Atlanta University is only a five minute walk from here. We are going to meet each other in town Saturday and go to a show then out of Atlanta University and I'm going to stay with her all night.
I suppose that John and Sade [John and Sarah Pottle] are moving by now. It doesn't seem possible that the house could be finished, but I suppose that the last fixings don't take so long.
Mother seems to find her work easier this year. They have fixed up her kitchen....
I hope that you are well and happy. Love, Nellie Sam
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, Lee Academy, Lee, Maine, October 2, 1925
Source: PDF page 21; printed page 15.
Heading: Spelman College, Atlanta, October 2, 1925
Dearest Marmie,
I've had two letters from you, one from Marion, one from Grace McDonald, and one from Sade and one from Carl this week, so I feel as if I had been quite lucky.
Grace McDonald had to give up her school at Casco. She strained her heart at college last year, and when she was sick the first week of her teaching, the doctor told her that she would have to rest for a while. She is hoping to be able to substitute in the public schools at Portland this winter.
Carl went out for football and sprained a muscle in his leg, so that he has a "Charlie horse" and won't be able to practise for a while.
Sade's kitchen stove has been moved and she is cooking over Mrs. Kimball's oil stove, which she borrowed. I suppose that by now they are quite well moved.
I guess that this is about all the news I have from my letters. Barbara Whitney isn't back at college this year.
Ruth Kemp was over Monday and has asked me to stay with her at Atlanta University Saturday night and Sunday. We will go to a show Saturday afternoon, so that will be quite a vacation.
I have a study period now which makes my schedule full except for one period, but it isn't too hard.
Paychecks came out Wednesday. My! but it's a glorious feeling to be self- supporting.
It has rained a little today and real rain is coming soon, I think. A real rain here, they say, will be a steady downpour for a week.
I'll write again Sunday. Very much love, Your Sammy
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, Lee Academy, October 6, 1925
Source: PDF page 21; printed page 15.
Heading: Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia, October 6, 1925
Dearest Mother,
I was over with Ruth all of the week-end, so I didn't write my Sunday letter. We had quite a celebration. In the afternoon Saturday we saw Mary Pickford in Little Annie Roonie. Then I went out to A.U. for dinner and we went to another show in the evening. We slept late Sunday morning and they brought our breakfast up to us. In the forenoon we attended the church service there and in the afternoon we went for a long motor ride with the Zimmermans, the treasurer and his family. We went out to where we could see Stone Mountain in the distance. That was the first time that I had seen the really beautiful part of Atlanta. There are some lovely mansions and estate. We came back to a little woods near Atlanta and had a picnic supper by a very pretty lake. It's the only water around here which isn't full of red clay. This lake and the woods seemed much like home-though it is not nearly so nice. When I came back here last night I felt as if I had been gone a month. It is nice to have Ruth here, and I think too that she appreciates my being in Atlanta, for the teacher with whom she chummed isn't back this year and most of the other teachers there are older married people.
I had six letters this morning. One from you, one from Evelyn [Marriner, probably], one from Elizabeth, one from Carl, one from the Ticonic Bank, and one from Colby with my fifteen dollar prize in it. I was quite happy to get so much.
Saturday I had a letter from Stelle. It was mostly about rushing. I suppose that the folks at college are in the midst of it now.
I haven't bought me any dresses yet. I've been thinking that the weather would soon change and I had rather wait until next spring to get light dresses. It is quite cool in the night now, but the days are as hot as ever. It can't last much longer though, and I think that cool weather will come soon.
I don't ever feel real homesick for it doesn't seem so far away. If I should leave here in the morning I could get to New York by noon the next day and in another day be home so the distance doesn't seem so long.
I must go to bed now and get a lot of energy to expend on my kids tomorrow.
Very much love to you all, Your own Sammie
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, October 7, 1925
Source: PDF page 22; printed page 16.
Heading: Spelman College, Atlanta, October 7, 1925
Dearest Mother,
Only half-past eight in the evening and I have my papers all corrected. I make very easy work of it. Their daily papers I check up on to see if they have passed them in. Then I throw them in the waste basket. But I have standard tests which I give about three times a week. They are very easy to correct and are really the best test of what they know, for they do their night work so much together that it means little.
Your letter came today. I was glad to hear all the news. Marion's hair must be very becoming I think. She always looks better with her hair fluffy around her face, so the bob will be very pretty. When one of the teachers here had her hair cut last year she got a severe lecture on losing her morality, so when the girls put on their hair they talk about "maality."
It is raining this evening-a real downpour. Probably a real rain has set in. I hope so.
I bought a kimono for your birthday down at Rich's and had it sent from there. I hope that you will like it. Don't think that I was extravagent for I really wasn't. I bought it at a bargain.
The big South Western Fair is on here. It is for several of the Southern states. North and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, I think. Marjorie and I are going out tomorrow afternoon if it doesn't rain. I spend a whole lot of money foolishly for such things, but when I know that I may never have another chance to be down South and in a big place like this, it seems too bad to miss them.
Ruth is coming over this weekend and I thought I'd probably be busy so I'd start my Sunday letter now. I will finish it later.
Sunday.
Dearest Marmie,
It was quite a while ago that I started this letter but I guess that I will send what I've written.
Marjorie and I went in to the fair Friday afternoon. We had a lot of fun. We went on the roller-coaster and for a boat ride and drove a crazy little mule team. Then we went into a sideshow and saw some tiny little dwarfs. All of the evening we spent looking at the exhibits. There were, some wonderful things. I had supposed that the crops would be very poor for it has been so dry, but they were very good. The exhibits I mean. The cotton exhibits were especially good. So was the fruit and sugar cane displays. There was some wonderful fancy work. Some of it represented days and days of work. We were really cold coming back, and in the night, and it has been quite cool since. Yesterday morning it was below fifty. Today has been a lovely fall day.
I went over to a football game at A.U. yesterday afternoon. Then Ruth and I had dinner in town and she came out and stayed with me over night. The game was good. A.U. got a score in the last four minutes which gave them the game. It seemed strange, though, to see negroes playing football on a red clay field, with the hot Georgia sun beating down on them. We had a very nice dinner in town. We came back and celebrated the arrival of Marjorie's trunk. It came yesterday-almost a month from the time that it was sent. This morning Leota [Schoff] served breakfast to the crowd. We had hot pancakes and honey and fruit and toast and coffee.
In the forenoon we went to the Negro Congregational church across the city. The sermon which the young negro minister preached was one of the best that I had ever heard. The church was beautiful, the music was very good, and the service was orderly. Some of these old timer negro churches beat the Holy Rollers all ways, I guess, but the newer and more progressive churches aren't that way. In this church there were beautiful stained glass windows representing various Biblical incidents, and among them was a window of Abraham Lincoln. The negroes place him with all that's holy.
I must write more plainly so my letters won't get missent. I really don't blame them sometime for sending them to the wrong place.
The trees here are quite a bit the same type that we have at home. There is a kind of elm-cork elm, which is a little like our elms. Then there is live oak. Out in the country there are Southern pine trees-none of those here, but there is a sort of soft mossy tree which resembles evergreen trees. We have several large magnolia trees and some holly trees. There are three or four mock orange trees with big green orange-like things on them and some pecan trees. I think that there are some tulip trees too. In Savannah and on the way up I saw a lot of palm trees but we have none here. I guess that we are too far up in the mountains.
That duck must have been some duck! I've always thought that I would like to taste one but I hardly think that I would.
We eat in another building from this. The food is very good. We had some wonderful cake tonight. It was angel cake with chocolate frosting. The food isn't quite as hearty as it was at Foss Hall but I don't mind. We have salads and scallops and such a lot and I like them.
There is one thing about it here which is awfully nice. You needn't ever fear about my not being well taken care of if I'm sick. They have a hospital right here on the campus. It is about the only one for colored people in this part of the city and it does a wonderful service. They have white doctors come in from the city. One of the teachers was operated for appendicitis there this afternoon. If we are even a bit sick they take us over there.
The bell is ringing for prayer meeting. I think that I'll not stop to read this through, but take it over to mail now. An awful lot of love to you, Your Sammy
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, October 7, 1925
Source: PDF page 25; printed page 19.
Heading: Spelman College, Atlanta, October 7,1925
Dearest Mother,
Perhaps I'll have time to write a letter before my geometry class. In the geometry class before lunch one of my children asked me how many right angles there are in a left angle.
I have had no letters since Monday but I had six then so I can not complain. I try to write at least seven letters a week so that if everyone answers them I'll have a letter each day.
I bought material to make pillow covers, curtains, and table runners yesterday. For one pillow, a curtain for my bookcase, and table runners I bought blue sateen. I bought plain dirt colored scrim for my curtains-for I knew that they would soon be dirt- colored anyway. For my other two pillows I bought some cretonne. One of the teachers owns a machine so it won't be very hard to make the things up.
They are giving a series of seven concerts here in the city this winter. The price of the ticket is six dollars. At first I thought that I'd be extravagant to buy one, but I think now that I will. Each of the concerts is very good. P—? [Paderewski], you know, the great piano player, gives one.
My bell is ringing and I must go to class. A few of the girls are wearing sweaters today and I bet that it is above eighty. I suppose that it's so much cooler than it has been that it seems cold to them.
Will write again soon. Much love, Sammy
Nellie Pottle to Estelle Pottle, October 7, 1925
Source: PDF page 25; printed page 19.
Heading: Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia, Oct. 7,1925
Dear Brute,
My poor old sunbaked mosquito bitten self was overjoyed with your epistle.
You may have had lots of things that I Haven't, but I bet that you never had so many mosquito bites to the square inch as I had for a while. They are getting better now, however.
I suppose that rushing is all over now. Did you get the kids you wanted? What about Wheaton and Wellesley and the girl with a shiek bob? How much better than the other fraternities did you do?
You folks must have had a grand time camping. Is Miss Runnals a good swimmer? How long did you stay? How is Y.W. coming?
Did you know that Ig [McDonald] was sick and had to give up her school at Casco? She strained her heart last year and it began to bother her this fall, so the doctor advised her to give up her school. She is at home now, 25 Morse Street. You had better write to her.
Has Harold Lloyd in The Freshman been to Waterville yet? I have seen that, and Mary Pickford in Little Annie Roonie. and Anita Stewart in Never the Twain Shall Meet. since I've been here. There is a wonderful theater, The Howard, where they also have some other numbers besides the movies. Then there are dozens and dozens of little theaters, so one can see most any picture one wishes.
Last weekend I went over to see Ruth Kemp. We went to see Little Annie Roonie in the afternoon and to Never the Twain Shall Meet in the evening. Sunday morning we slept in, had our breakfast brought up to us, then we went to church and in the afternoon motored with the treasurer and his wife. We went out to where we could see Stone Mountain, where they are making that memorial you know. We stopped just outside Atlanta on the way back and had a picnic supper by a very pretty little lake, the only one in this part of the country, I guess. Ruth is coming over to see me this weekend.
I haven't bought any new clothes since I came down. If I had known it was going to sty as hot as blazes I would have bought some light dresses, but I have been expecting it to get cooler. I think I will get me a new silk dress when I get my new paycheck.
One of my pupils in the class I just came from asked me how many right angles there are in a left angle.
Elizabeth is very busy teaching little friends, she says. I haven't heard from Elsie, but Elizabeth wrote that the old river horse is in the river and that the big bum is back in his old place of affection. Sade wrote that they had moved her stove - probably they are all moved now. Auntie wrote that the Bell Hill church was struck by lightning. Carl wrote that he went out for football and has a "Charlie horse." I guess that that is all the all moved now. Auntie wrote that the Bell Hill church was struck by lightning. Carl wrote that he went out for football and has a "Charlie horse." I guess that that is all the news I've had from letters.
We have subscribed to the Echo so now if you get kicked out of college or do any other noble deed, I will know about it.
Have the leaves begun to turn in Waterville, and is it at all cold? One night here last week it was so cold that I wanted a blanket over me, and I thought that winter had come, but it was all a false alarm. It's as hot as ever today.
I have to go for a study period now. Take this dollar and celebrate on it. I'd send a two dollar bill, but they are superstitious about them down here, and you never see one.
Much love, Nellie
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, October 13, 1925
Source: PDF page 27; printed page 21.
Heading: Spelman College, October 13, 1925
Dearest Marmie,
I have had a good day today. The girls have been good. Sometimes they are awfully noisy in class, but today they were very attentive. It is in the study halls when there are so many together that they are the noisist. But if I speak to one of them, she will quiet right down. One of them called me o her desk today and said, "Miss Pottle, you are too good to be a teacher. You ought to be a trained nurse." I'm not sure whether I should consider that a compliment or an insult.
It has been raining today, a real downpour. The ground is so hard that it almost all runs off. Since Saturday it has been lovely-like it was at home when I left.
So far this week the only mail that I have had is a letter from you. That Young Peoples Meeting must be quite a problem. I don't get Mr. Bullen's view.
We get paid at the first of every month. You see at the first of October we had been here only two weeks.
I am reading Ivanhoe. I like it very much as far as I have read.
Auntie writes often so I get the news from home. Stelle has written only once, though, so I do not get as much college news. We have subscribed to the Echo so that will be coming soon.
I don't think that Marjorie ever hears from Mark. Chappie didn't know that I was in Watertown.
Did I write to you that we can see the Blue Ridge Mountains from here when the days are clear?
It is almost dinner time. I'm hungry.
Lots of love to you all, Your Sammy
Nellie Pottle to Betsy Kemp, October 13, 1925
Source: PDF page 28; printed page 22.
Heading: Spelman College, October 13,1925
Dear Auntie,
I think that it was Thursday that your letter came. It really doesn't take the mail so very long to come. There is a special train which leaves Boston one morning and gets here at noon the next day.
It is much cooler now. One evening was so cool that I felt the need of my coat, and Saturday it was cool all day. It is much pleasenter [sic] now-about as it was at home when I left. Today it has been raining so everything does not seem parched as it has.
It must be wonderful at home now with the leaves all colored. It doesn't seem possible that the apples could be ready to pick. They raise apples here in Georgia but they are very expensive-about five cents apiece. Other fruit, though, like oranges and bananas and grapes are quite reasonable.
We went to the big Southwestern Fair Friday and saw some wonderful exhibits of crops -fruit and cotton and com and all. The stock was good too, and there was some wonderful fancy work displays.
John's and Sarah's house must be nice.
Ralph Lamb will be having a real settlement down on the [Otisfield] cove. I hope that he gets a respectable crowd in his cottage and not one which will take away the fun of our camping.
Ruth Kemp stayed with me over the weekend. We went to a negro church
Sunday. The sermon was very good and the church and music were nice.
It is good to hear from you and to hear all of the Otisfield news.
I will write to Mother now.
Love to you all, Nellie Sam
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, Lee Academy, October 18, 1925
Source: PDF page 29; printed page 23.
Heading: Spelman College, Oct. 18, 1925
Dearest Mother,
Sunday again. The time goes very quickly. Because we teach only five days a week instead of six, the weeks seem only half as long. It does not seem possible that it was six weeks ago last Friday that I left home. One ninth of my teaching year is over.
It seems very strange to know that it has been snowing up home, but we had a very cold snap last weekend. It was down to forty here. All of this week we have been having rain, off and on-and when it rains it rains. Anna and I went down-street Wednesday to get us rubbers. In the first store we went in we asked for rubbers and the man said "Overshoes?" We told him we wanted rubbers and he said he guessed that they didn't have them. We finally woke up to the fact that they call rubbers "overshoes" down here. But the only kind that we could get anywhere are those storm rubbers, with the tongue thing in the front. I'm afraid that I will have to get me some new shoes soon. My suede ones have worn out and I am wearing my tan shoes for both everyday and best. I do not know what kind of shoes to get.
The Lee boys seem to be shining in sports this year, as they did last. Will the Academy send a cross country team down to Colby again this year?
Stelle writes that she is expecting you down at the time of teachers convention. It seemed so good to have you down last year. I wish that I were there this year to see you.
Evolution is a dangerous subject to preach upon nowadays and I think that it is just as well as leave it alone. I have no doubt, however, but what Mr. Bullen [at Lee Academy] gave a very [good] sermon. I wonder how such a sermon would take here? Nothing is ever said either one way or the other about such theories-and I presume that that is the wisest way to treat such matters.
Don't worry about Stelle's term bill. Send what money you have in to Mr. Hubbard. Tell me how much more is due and I will send the rest directly from here - that will be much simpler and quicker. If you tell him that I am sending the rest it will be all right. When is it due? You said the last of October, but it seems to me that we had a few days in November last year.
I did some laundry yesterday. They do our laundry very reasonably but even at that it amounts to quite a bit if I send a lot. There is a wonderful chance to do our washing-a whole laundry building. There are about a hundred set tubs and more ironing boards. In the tubs one turns on the cold water and heats it by letting live steam bubble through it. It takes no time at all to heat the water, and by letting the steam stay on for a few moments, one can boil clothes right in the tubs. Our starch is all made for us so it really isn't hard work at all to do one's own washing. They do it so beautifully at the laundry, though, that it is quite a temptation to send it.
I had a letter from Amy last week. She is teaching in Houlton High School and is living with the McGarveys. She likes her teaching very much and of course she enjoys being with Vina.
I also had a letter from Ethel [Hirst]. Almon is working nights somewhere now, and is doing very well, she says. Jackie [Ethel's daughter] is quite a girl by this time. They want to come down home for a while next August.
Stelle wrote that they had quite good luck rushing [at Chi Omega]. I hope that they get a good bunch. Three of the old girls didn't come back and with our big delegation graduating, fraternity is quite small this year.
Wednesday evening we saw "The Ten Commandments." It was very exaggerated, of course, as most movies are, but some parts were very good and I was glad that I saw it.
Friday evening we heard Lillian Evanti sing. She is the only negro woman who has ever starred in grand opera but she has, in France. You would not guess that she is negro. Her skin is rather dark so you might think her to be Italian or of some other foreign blood but not negro. She is as good as anyone whom I have ever heard. Of course the audience was almost wholly colored. There was a white section where a very few people-probably mostly music teachers and such-sat. When we went in we did not tell the negro usher where we wanted to sit and we did not realize until later what a predicament he was in. If we had been negro and he had taken us to the white section, that would have been awful. On the other hand, if he had seated a white person in the negro section, that would have been much worse. Such a state of things is very embarrassing and foolish at times. On the street cars, the negroes have to move back one [seat] to make room for a white up front. There might be an empty seat beside every negro in the car and a white person would stand rather than sit beside them. I have taken a seat with a negro, though, sometimes when I've been coming in from town in a crowded car and was very tired, but of course everyone thought that I was colored.
This rain has made the campus very green, except some places where the grass is entirely dead. A shrub with beautiful red flowers, resembling roses, is blossomed. The leaves on the cork elms and live oaks are turning brown and will probably fall soon, but the magnolias and holly trees will stay green all winter.
We have to send in ranks a week from Tuesday. I am going to flunk the majority of most of my classes. They say it is a good plan to do that the first month to start them studying. Next week I give examinations.
You can't imagine how good it is to get your letters. Are you real well? Still getting fat? I am back up to a hundred and ninteen. Before long I'll be weighing a hundred and twenty-six, my normal weight, but I'd rather stay where I am.
Love to Winifred [Carroll] and Moult [Pottle] and Marion and much to you. Your Sammy
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, October 19, 1925
Source: PDF page 31; printed page 25.
Heading: Spelman College, Oct. 19,1925
Dearest Mother,
When I wrote yesterday I forgot about something. When I got out my serge dress with the grey front a few days ago, I found that one of the buttons on the front on the belt is missing. They are acom shaped buttons covered with the serge goods. I wonder if you would have one in your button bag. It is getting cool enough so that serge dresses without our coats will be very comfortable. I have turned on the heat in my room tonight for the first time.
The weather is wonderful now, just as it was up home when I left. Marjorie and I walked over to A.U. this afternoon. We stopped to see Ruth for a little while. This cool weather puts so much life into one after that awful hot weather.
A man who went over here to Morehouse and has been a missionary in Liberia for five years spoke and showed lantern slides last night. I never realized before what a wonderful opportunity the American negroes have of going back to Africa as missionaries, and of course they have things in common with and can understand the natives better than white people. Many do go as missionaries. Spelman has sent several. One thing that I was surprised to hear, though, is that the negroes from this country do not stand the climate as well as white people do. To see those pictures of the natives and their customs and all, one can't but be impressed by the advancement that the negroes have made in this country during the few hundred years that they have been here.
Marjorie is expecting her people in less than a week. They are in Philadelphia or beyond now. I told you, didn't I, that they are going to be down here in Florida all winter? They are coming by car. Marjorie is planning to go down there at Christmas time. She is quite excited by the prospects of seeing them so soon.
It seems a long time since I have had any mail. I really get quite a bit, but it is apt to come in lumps-several letters at a time. I surely am glad to get your letters.
Have I told you about my room since I fixed it up? I have two cretonne pillows with a rather weird mixture of blue and rose and grey and green. My day cover for my pillow is a bright blue sateen. I roll the pillow up bolster fashion so the pillow looks like a big blue sateen sausage with a long silky tassel on each end. I have covers for my wash stand and bureau of the blue sateen and curtains for my book case. I do not have a cover on my table but have a blotter. My window is a huge thing. We do not have shades but have blinds like shutter things on the inside. Long curtains would interfere with them so I made my curtains like this. [Sketch is inserted here.]
I had to get only two yards of scrim and I found a lovely silky remenant for fifty cents. I bound the inside edges with blue sateen.
We received two Echoes today. They were very good considering the fact that Charlie Ide is Editor in chief. How he ever got that position is more than I see. Colby has the largest enrollment excepting U. Of M. Of any of the Maine Colleges-654 I think it said, there are enrolled.
Have you heard from Fred and Marion lately to know about what luck they have had getting an apartment? The only thing that I have heard of them was through a letter Fred wrote me from Oxford.
Did you read how the big boat on the Clyde Line burned just outside of Florida? The City of Rome, the sister ship to The Citv of Birmingham ran down a submerine a few weeks ago. I guess that I will come home by rain in June.
We have the Boston Herald and the New York Times in the library so I get Northern news though it is often rather old.
I haven't seen a mosquito for two or three days. I guess that the weather is getting too cold for them. Many of my bites are gone but I still have quite a few left. My arms are all covered with scars now but they will go in time.
My love to you all, Your Sammy
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, Lee Academy, October 22, 1925
Source: PDF page 33; printed page 27.
Heading: Spelman College, Oct. 22, 1925
Dearest Mother,
I have been very well used this week. Yesterday I had letters from Fred and Pudge [Alice McDonald] and Carl, and today I heard from you and Auntie and John. Fred told me all about his desk which he is refinishing, about how they have furnished their apartment, and about the courses. Pudge wrote a very amusing letter. She and Jodrey are very near each other. She and Jodrey and Elizabeth met in Boston and celebrated one weekend. Carl's advanced geology courses keep him pretty busy. I hope that he does something with his geology after he gets out of school. Auntie wrote me a lovely letter about farm news. It is good to hear from her.
You must have had a busy day last Sunday. Sunday certainly isn't your day of rest. What kind of a sermon did Dr. Whittimore preach? He is a very good speaker but of all the times that I have heard him, he has never spoken on anything except missions.
I can easily send the fifty dollars for Stelle's bill. I will get my check a week from tomorrow for $155 dollars. $30 for board and about $3 for laundry will come out of that. My insurance is only $49, so I will have $63 left. I still have my $15 prize money so I can easily send $50 or $60 if you want me to. You just send in the $133.75 or whatever you send-and tell him that I am sending the rest. I will write Sunday and tell him that I am sending it the last of the week. It will be all right, anyway, for they never do anything about [it] until it is overdue a week or so. I had much rather send the money than have it around to spend, for I would surely do so. Write to tell me what you send in. I can send $60 as well as not.
I have been giving examinations this week. I hope that my kids do well. We have covered little ground so far but I wanted them to understand this first part perfectly before we began to speed. One of my divisions in geometry is very good.
Tomorrow night we have the first of our series of concerts. It is Tito Schipa, a tenor singer. He is supposed to be very good.
Today is a lovely October's bright blue day. It is quite cool and very clear. I should like to walk for about four miles. We do walk quite a bit, but it [is] all right in the city and of course that isn't like getting out on nice country roads.
Marjorie is expecting her parents Saturday. She heard from them yesterday and at the time that they wrote the card, they were nearly across Virginia. It hasn't taken them long to come.
My room has just been cleaned and it looks very nice. It is good to have it get one good cleaning each week.
Stelle should write to you oftener. She is probably pretty busy having good times and occasionally studying.
I must go take charge of the study hall now.
Very much love, Your Sammy
Nellie Pottle to Estelle Pottle, Colby College, October 22, 1925
Source: PDF page 34; printed page 28.
Heading: Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia, October 22, 1925
Dear Little Brute,
I'll write a little between dinner and prayer meeting. Then I'll come back after prayer meeting and correct about five hundred papers before I close my weary eyes in slumber.
We had yams at dinner time. Yams are much nicer than plain sweet potatoes. They candy them so they are all sugary and nice-yum, yum. There are a lot of watermellons around even if I don't send them and they often give us chicken in the dining room. I am not sure whether the little darkies steal it or not. We have pancakes with sorgum and lots of nice things-ice cream twice a week-but no baked beans.
Marjorie's people [Marjorie Everingham] are coming tomorrow, she thinks. They left home a week ago today and have been traveling by auto. We are planning now to get one of Henry Ford's new airplanes to come home in. Hazel Converse goes around with a fellow who owns one and she has been up with him.... This fellow goes to college in Illinois and comes home to Iowa in it each weekend. Quite nifty, what?
Is Ann Merrick Miss Merrick's cousin? What is she like. How did the two transfers go? I am sorry that you lost to Tri Delt. A few years ago such a thing wouldn't have happened, but Tri Delt is coming right along lately. Never mind, though, no one is the wiser, are they?
Instead of saying "How do you do?" in a very formal way, people down here say, "How are you feeling?" and you are supposed to tell them. I should think that if anyone were profane and wasn't feeling well, that a person would get a surprise sometime when they asked them that.
Another teacher and I were walking into town the other day and we had to walk through a place where they were repairing the street. All at once I looked up and all that I could see was stripes about me. We were right in the midst of a crew of convicts. They weren't chained together or anything. I guess that they do quite a bit of work for the city. Sometime we are going out to the Federal Prison to look it over. Did I tell you that I've seen Stone Mountain?
Ma says that she doesn't hear from you very often. You should write to her at least twice a week. I plan to write three times a week while I'm down here.
Fred wrote all about their apartment. It must be quite a place.
I have Old Madge stuck up in my mirror and you along with her. She's a good looking Old Brute and the combination of you and her is very good. I didn't get a picture of you to bring down. I'd like one.
How is everything going at college? How do you like German? Have they had Freshman Banquet yet? Did you let them get away with it? When you write tell all about the college news-the games and everything.
Write right back as soon as you get this. Much love, Nell
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, October 24, 1925
Source: PDF page 35; printed page 29.
Heading: Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia
Dearest Mother,
I guess that I will begin my tomorrow's letter today. There is about an hour between now and dinner-at noon Saturday I have cleaned my room fastidiously this morning and have done quite a big washing and some ironing. If one wants to it is permissible to wash our clothes and send them to the laundry to be ironed at half price.
I am supposed to chaperon at the Tuskeegee-Morehouse football game this afternoon but with it as rainy as it is now I doubt if there is a game. We like to be asked to chaperone at the games.
Marjorie's people came yesterday morning-eight days from Kitteiy. They came just about fifteen hundred miles. The weather was very good and they found few bad roads. They are going to start on for Florida tomorrow morning. They said that all the way down they were meeting people coming back from Florida because they could find no place to live there, so Mr. Everingham thinks that they had better hurry on before the season is any later.
The first of the series of concerts came last night. Tito Schipa sang. I didn't realize until I saw him that he is a famous singer but I remember now that I have seen his picture advertising his Victor Records. He is very good-a tenor. Almost all of his songs were in Italian or French. When he announced his songs he spoke in a decided Italian accent but later as an encore he sang "Somewhere a Voice is Calling" with perfect English pronunciation.
Jose Echaniz, a pianist, gave some selections which were very good, too. If I had been them, though, I should never want to sing before the audience again. Several came in while Schipa was singing his last selection. There were very few when the program began, and not many until intermission. People down here are always just about an hour behind time.
It was raining when we came out and we called a taxi. As we were waiting this taxi came around the comer, skidded, and crashed against the curbing across the street. Neither the car nor the man was hurt, but we decided to wait for the next taxi along.
I have had my suede shoes tapped and new heels put on them. It cost a dollar and a half. Isn't that an awful price? I could have bought new ones in a bargain basement for that price.
I have to get my kids ranks out to-night. It hurts me much worse than it does them.
I'll write some more tomorrow.
Sunday morning. I am back from breakfast and have my room all cleaned. We have breakfast at seven o'clock Sunday morning, only a quarter hour later than on weekdays so our Sunday forenoons are long. We have dinner at one. I haven't been into town for church the last few Sundays. It is nice to have the forenoon to write letters.
Marjorie's people have just left. It is raining but they thought that they must be on their way. I guess that the rainy season is on all right. I woke up in the night and it was raining so hard that I thought of waking Marjorie up to see if we hadn't better start building an ark. The rain just pelted down. I suppose that with a summer as dry as this has been there must be quite a lot of moisture up above.
Leota is frying pancakes for her breakfast. We had them over in the dining room this morning. We usually have either sorghum or white karo sirup on them, though, so they aren't quite as good as they would otherwise be. We had sausage this morning which was good. The food still continues to be good. We have so many starchy things though that we are getting fat. I gained a pound last week.
We were going out to the Federal Prison yesterday, but we called up and found that it was general bathing and clean up day so that no visitors were allowed.
I finished reckoning up my ranks last night. They are not so good. I hope that it isn't my fault. My Algebra classes keep me pretty busy now-especially the advanced class. I am going to write for an answer book. It will help me quite a bit even if I do have to work out all the examples myself.
I went over to see Ruth Monday afternoon but I haven't seen her since.
There is a blue jay outside. We saw them here when we first came down. I always supposed that they liked a cold climate but apparently this suits them too.
Don't you think that this is a good stationary for twenty cents a box? They wer having a sale on it down at West End.
Have I told you about Eldora Hayes-the little girl who runs the elevator here? She is a sophomore and is repeating Algebra and taking Geometry to me. She earns every bit of her expenses. She stayed here all summer to work. She lives only twenty miles from here but she has been home for only two weeks for more than a year now. She makes all of her clothes. Of course the material which she uses is very cheap and she makes them without patterns, but they look very well. She isn't very quick to learn so she has to study hard. She has done very well in both of her courses to me this six weeks.
Give my love to Winifred and to Moult. Will they be in Lee during Christmas vacation or will you and Stelle be celebrating alone?
I think that Marion owes me a letter, but I know how busy she is.
It doesn't seem possible, does it, that we have been away from home nearly two months. One sixth of the school year is up. Much love to the best mother in the world. Her Nellie Sam
Nellie Pottle to Betsy Kemp, October 25, 1925
Source: PDF page 37; printed page 31.
Heading: Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia, October 25, 1925
Dear Auntie,
I was glad to get your letter and to hear that you all weren't frozen up in Maine. I saw by the Boston paper that you had been having a snow storm. We have been having rain all of this week and there seems to be no prospect of its clearing up yet awhile.
The apples must be fine. They raise very pretty apples here in Georgia but they do not have much taste and they are very expensive. It seems too bad that when there are so many people who would like apples there is no sale for them up home.
I hope that John and Sade are able to get into their house soon. The more they are delayed the cooler it will be getting.
Eva Bean has a hard time with her boils. She probably eats too much sweet stuff and fancy things. And then, if anyone starts having them, it seems to be hard work to get them out of your system.
Stella Q. Should write oftener, but I know that when I was in college I used to find it hard to take time to write letters.
I hope that Mr. Kimball will be able to stay in Otisfield. He is as good a minister I think as they have had for some time.
Your folks have done quite a bit of hunting. Is the fox fur any good at this time of year? I hope that Uncle Sid [Sidney Kemp, Aunt Bet's brother] was able to go to Jerry's last week.
Marjorie Everingham's people were here over the weekend. They are going to be in Florida during the winter. It took them eight days to come from Kittery to Atlanta by Ford. They said that they found good roads almost all of the way. If was just about fifteen hundred miles here and they have five hundred miles more to go.
I had a nice letter from Fred this week telling me all about how he and Marion have their apartment fixed and about his courses. He teaches just the same thing in each one of his classes so it isn't so very hard.
We had to pass in our ranks for the first six weeks this week. That means that one-sixth of the school year is up. Time goes very quickly.
This is Sunday, so tell Uncle Sid that I may [get] some of the chicken which the little niggers have swiped. I had rather have some baked beans, though. I haven't had any since I left home.
Much love, Nellie Sam
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, October 28, 1925
Source: PDF page 39; printed page 33.
Heading: Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia, October 28, 1925
Dearest Mother,
We have lunch at twelve and my next class begins at twelve forty-five so I haven't time to write between the two, but I'll start a letter.
A bunch of the young teachers in one of the other halls invited the young faculty over to their hall for a party last week, so we returned the invitation for the crowd last night. I don't like the idea real well because some doubtful ones are going to be huffy if they aren't placed in the "young" class.
Leota heard today that it has been snowing again up home. It is very nice weather here this week. Last week was rainy, but it is fine and warmer this week. Today is warmer. We have been wearing our sweaters, but we really do not need them.
Monday I had a letter from Mr. [George] Ellis about insurance for Leota Schoff, a letter from Aunt Ada, and yours. I haven't had any other mail as yet this week.
You didn't speak very complementarily of my picture in the snapshot. I was seasick at the time.
I could send the money for Stelle's bill just as well as not, but I will keep it, so send for some any time that you want it. It will take about a week for it to get back from the time that you write so allow time. I suppose that Stelle's fraternity dues will be due before long.
I'm sorry that you weren't able to go to Waterville. We had such a good time when you came down last year. It is too bad that you don't live in Dixie where people do not need coats. Everyone but Marjorie and me does have a winter coat though. But we find ours plenty warm enough so far.
How did Mr. Jaehne[?] enjoy his steak and the other effects?
Aunt Ada lamented the fact that she hadn't heard from you for a long time. She wrote me a nice long letter. I guess that she gets pretty lonesome sometimes.
Marjorie's people expected to arrive in Lakepoint, Florida, where they are to spend the winter, this noon. They found very bad roads between here and there [Florida].
My children have been very good so far this week. I expect, however, that there will be one grand pow-wow among them when ranks come out. My high school pupils did fairly well, but the biggest part of the junior high school algebra classes flunked. However, they are picking up now and I hope that at the end of the next six weeks more will pass.
Anna [Erickson] has been talking Swedish to us. She can talk it all right, but she says that she hasn't the slightest idea of how the words are spelt. Both of her parents are Swedes, but her father doesn't speak the language.
I hope that I will hear from you tomorrow-I usually do get a letter Thursday.
Much love to you, Nellie Sam
P.S. Have you heard from Cole? I'd write to him but I haven't the slightest idea where he is.
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, October 30, 1925
Source: PDF page 40; printed page 34.
Heading: Spelman, October 30, 1925.
Dearest Mother,
What was my great pleasure yesterday to receive letters from you, Auntie, Elizabeth, Sevia and Marion-a long one with snapshots of her bob.
Pay checks come tonight so I'll send Frank B. His check for fifty tomorrow. I am awfully glad to be able to do it.
(Saturday evening)
I left my letter last night to go to hear a man give a lecture on Alaska. It was one of the lyceum courses which the college has. He was very good and had some lovely views of Alaska. He has been, for many years, connected with the fisheries there.
This morning we went into town and cashed our checks. I got certified checks for Mr. Hubbard and for my insurance policy money. I bought a few other small things that I needed. I am sending you four bulbs-two hyacinth and two jonquils. Perhaps they will freeze on the way and they may be no good, but in either case it will be no great loss. The little bulb pot is one which I found here in the room. The girls down in the grades have some pottery classes I think and perhaps they made it.
My room is very high and is several feet longer than it is wide. It is papered in a very pretty blue figured paper. The paper is very inconspicuously figured and the border is cut out. There is a moulding at the top of the border and then about two feet of wall papered like the ceiling. My room is arranged like this: [Nellie's sketch of her room is drawn below.]
When I can find the place open to get one, I must get a picture of the building. This is one of the oldest buildings and doesn't compare with the newer ones but I rather like being here. We have some awfully good times.
I saw Ruth [Kemp] downtown today. She had just been talking with a Spanish lady whom Alice met in Spain who lives here in Atlanta now. Ruth had visited her several times last year, so she invited Ruth to ask me out sometime with her. A little later we met the lady and she extended the visit for tomorrow. I will tell you all about it when I finish my letter tomorrow night.
I haven't been feeling real well today. Since I came down here I've eaten the least between meals that I ever have in my life. I haven't bought any candy or stuff like that. But last night Win and Anna took a box supper to a church affair and they told the rest of us that we might have what they didn't take for a lunch. They left quite a bit and I guess that I ate more than as good for me. I feel all right tonight, however, after lying down this afternoon.
Sevia wrote that Cris and A1 are married. I suppose that Al is At Querry, although I didn't know that they had kept up their acquaintance. Lydia Smith is training in some hospital in Boston. Catherine Lombard had been in St. Barnabas with Sevia. Lillian Witham Leach is there now. Sevia didn't say anything about Grace in this letter. She said that she now has charge of the upper floor of the hospital and has several nurses under her.
Marjorie has been looking up her trains for Christmas. She is planning to go to Lakeland and even if she has to go Christmas day and come back Sunday. I am hoping that they will let her go Thursday. The fare is about $49 for the whole trip and that is a lot for just one day. It is so round about that she would get to Boston sooner than she can get there.
I must get to work now. I am coming to things now which take some studying. I'll write more tomorrow.
(Sunday night). Lights have gone off and I've been away all day so I will now finish my letter and studying by my blessed kerosene lamp.
I've had a wonderful time today-one of the most interesting experiences I've had. I spent the day in a real Spanish home.
Ruth told me to come over about nine so I went over in a pouring rain. You can't even imagine what these rains are like. They are about ten times worse than anything that we have at home. Well, we took the car out and transferred at Terminal Station and went away out to the aristocratic section of the city. It was about ten o'clock when we got to the Campbells'. Mr. Campbell is a typical Georgian-a perfect Southerner, and he's wonderful. Mrs. Campbell looks quite a bit like Theresa and has quite a Spanish accent. They have a dear baby-about two years old. They were right at the door to meet us. In the living room they had an open fire burning and they promptly began to get breakfast for us. I never breathed a word of the fact that I'd already eaten one breakfast-it was about eleven then, I guess. They served us a wonderful breakfast there before the open fire. After they cleared that away we talked and read, etc., until about two and then Mrs. Campbell began getting dinner, so we helped her. She got a Spanish dinner-fried chicken (in deep fat), fried potatoes, boiled red cabbage, nice fresh string beans, spicy pickles, a Spanish salad with onions and pimentoes and tomatoes, etc., little brown crusty biscuits and pie. Later we had after dinner coffee.
Mrs. Campbell let Ruth and me do the dishes after dinner. It seemed good to be domestic again.
Later we played the Victrola and Mr. Campbell took turns dancing with us. It didn't bother my conscience at all dancing on Sunday, but it probably would have bothered the authorities here enough-had they known it-so that they would have fired me.
They are certainly wonderful people and it is so interesting to talk with Southerners and get their viewpoint. Two ideas of things Northerners get all wrong-one is about negroes and the other is about Southerners. It isn't in the least true that Southerners do not worry about the negro problem-they worry a whole lot more about it than we do and of course it is right that they should. But no one understands just what the Southerner has to contend with. What they fear more than anything else and hate terribly to think about is intermarriage between the negroes and whites. And they say that if social equality should ever come, that would come, too. On the other hand, they think the only thing to do is to educate the negroes and they have the greatest respect for us teachers who are working among the negroes and think that we are doing a great work. I can understand their viewpoint exactly-and it isn't true as we Northerners think, that the Southerners dispise [sic] and abuse the negroes. Personally I think that the thing will work out all right in time. It will be a long time and I don't think that ever there will be a social equality among the negroes and whites. But I think that with the education of the negroes, these dirty negro slum districts will change into respectable sections of the city and that sometime even though the negroes are segregated in parts of the city-away from the whites-their city will be just as respectable and good looking and decent as the white section; and that they may have as high a culture and as much civic pride as the whites. I hate to see so much mixture between thetwo races or any races for that matter, and if the negroes get a race pride there won't be. It is too bad for them to try to be just like the white race for in so many ways they are superior to us.
Mr. Campbell brought us back in the car. They have invited us out to spend some weekend and want us to cook them down East dishes-they never speak of us as coming from the North but as coming from down East. We are going to make some brown bread and bake beans-they never had any. What else do you think is typically New England?
Ruth is coming over to have dinner and spend the night with me Wednesday. It is surely nice to have her here.
It is still raining. I guess that all of the water which was supposed to rain last summer is only now coming. It's been raining most of the time for two weeks now. But they say that November is a beautiful month here, so no doubt we will have better weather soon.
Thanks for writing to Sade about the button. I guess that she has moved now so I may not get it but I'll fix the belt some other way.
Well, I must study a bit before I go to bed. It's too bad that I have to teach. I find it rather inconvenient to find time for it often.
I would like awfully well to see you tonight but since I can't I'll be content with thinking how nice it would be.
Give my love to everyone, Your own Sammy
Source and transcription
Original complete PDF, transcribed by Jean F. Hankins, 2003. Original spelling, bracketed notes, and omissions marked with dots are retained. This web edition was extracted from the scanned transcription; consult the PDF when an exact reading is important.