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From A Maine Woman Goes South, letters transcribed by Jean F. Hankins in 2003. This installment contains 15 letters. Historical dates appear with each letter; the article retains the original collection’s publication date.
Nellie Pottle to Betsy Kemp, Oxford, Maine, January 3, 1926
Source: PDF page 84; printed page 78.
Postmark: Atlanta, Jan. 4, 1926 Heading: Spelman, Sunday.
Dearest Auntie,
...We had a pretty good Christmas day... We had a pretty good time doing nothing. In the morning they had devotions here at the college. Then we took a little Christmas tree up to the hospital for Anna It was a long needled pine. That is the only kind of Christmas tree they have down here. All day long the firecrackers were snapping and people were shooting in a regular Fourth of July way.
...We went through the Capitol building yesterday. It is a very imposing building from the outside and the first floor looks fairly well, but it is terribly slackly kept up. It is dirty as can be and the plastering is falling down and peeling off. Southerners are awfully lazy about keeping up their public buildings.
We went down the other day to see the Joel Chandler Harris house-the Uncle Remus story man. It is here in Atlanta, about a mile from here.
...We are going to have a minister from one of the Methodist churches here today.
My love to you people, Nellie Sam
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, January 3, 1926
Source: PDF page 84; printed page 78.
Postmark: Atlanta, Jan. 4, 1926 Heading: Spelman, Sunday
Dearest Marmie,
Please don't imagine me setting on an ice cake under an orange tree, cooling myself with a palm leaf fan. It is warmer than it was but it is not summer weather by any means...
There was an awful racket here when 1926 came in-all the whistles in town, and guns and firecrackers etc. We saw some very pretty fireworks out across the city. We had breakfast in our rooms that morning-a nice one. In the forenoon I cleaned my room up nicely and in the afternoon Leota and I went out to see the Joel Chandler Harris-Uncle Remus house at West End. It was very interesting to go through it and see the things-especially the autographed books by famous writers. I suppose that he is one of Atlanta's most famous men.
Friday night we went into see Betty Bronson in Barrie's play "A Kiss for Cinderella." It is very dear-a lot like Peter Pan.
Saturday forenoon we went into town and shopped some-stayed to lunch and then went through the Capitol building. It is a very imposing structure from the outside, but is very typical of Southern indolence inside. It is dirty as can be-the plastering is falling and no attempt seems to be made to keep it in repair. The Southerners let their public buildings run down terribly. We stopped into Rich's on the way back and wandered down into the bargain basement...
I had a New Years present which at first thought might not seem very acceptable, but with which I am really very much pleased. The biology teacher had to leave because of the death of her father and they have given me one of her courses. That means three hours a week more teaching-two Tues. afternoon, one Thursday afternoon-but they have relieved me of five hours a week study periods and on the afternoons when I do not have biology I will be all through by one-thirty. I shall enjoy, too, teaching the college girls and especially teaching them biology. The textbook is my freshman college text-Woodruff. I wish that I had my notes and drawings which are locked up in the house at home. I cannot very well ask for an increase in salary for I am carrying only a normal schedule now. The only way I know how to teach biology is from an Evolutionary viewpoint, and since the Dean is in sympathy with that I think that it will be all right. If I never say "evolution" they may not realize what it's all about anyway.
... Just loads of love to you, Nellie S.
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, Lee Academy, January 6, 1926
Source: PDF page 85; printed page 79.
Postmark: Atlanta, Jan. 6, 1926 Heading: Spelman, Tuesday.
My dearest Mother,
My pen scratches so terribly that if you do not mind I'm going to write a line or two by pencil...
I had my first biology class today. It seems like a nice class and such a wonderful building! I have a little office besides the lecture room and the lab-and everything is so white and clean and new. They have just put in a thousand dollars worth of new equipment.
I went to the dentist's yesterday. He found a lot of cavities but they are all small-
Lots and lots of love to you Marmie. Sammy
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, January 6, 1926
Source: PDF page 86; printed page 80.
Postmark: Atlanta, Jan. 7,1926 Heading: Spelman College, Atlanta, Wed.
Dearest Marmie,
Your nice letter, along with several others, came Monday...
I haven't been doing much extra this week but go to the dentist. I have suspected that he bores holes to fill, although he is supposed to be a reliable dentist.
I told you in the fall, didn't I, about Hazel Converse, the girl from Connecticut College whom we all liked so well? In the middle of the fall she told some of us, and especially Anna to whom she was particularly confidential, that her father wasn't very well. Later she told Anna and a few others, that he had gone insane and had been taken to the insane hospital. Poor kid, we were all as sympathetic and good as we could be, we felt so sorry for her. Then about two weeks before Christmas a telegram came saying that her father was worse and for her to come home at once. She went home then and didn't come back until about a week after Christmas. She stayed only a day or two and then left for good. The night that she came back she was telling us how nice the nurses were to her dying father - he died the day after Christmas.
Then just this week the story came out. When Hazel had been gone for some little time, and Miss Tapley had heard nothing from her, Miss Tapley began to wonder- she's shrewd. After thinking it over, she took a big chance and sent a telegram to Hazel's father at the address which she had for him. A telegram came back saying that he was well and in his right mind and that he had seen or heard nothing of Hazel-and he immediately set out looking for Hazel. He just missed her in New York-she had been there with a friend of hers who had sent the telegram-the whole three weeks. She came back and told Miss Tapley, as she had told us, that her father died the day after Christmas. Miss Tapley had a good talk with her and then politely discharged her. It doesn't seem as if it could be true. We all liked her much. She is one of the kindest hearted girls that I know-and very brilliant. I suppose that she has some sort of an abnormal personality. Well, she got a Christmas vacation anyway.
Next week is midyear week-which means, besides examinations, that the year is half up. The first half has gone very quickly and everyone says that the last half seems much shorter.
Mr. Everingharn seems worse lately... On some of the shrubs the buds are beginning to swell. Now I must study. I love you a lot Mother, Sammy
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, Lee Academy, January 6-7, 1926
Source: PDF page 87; printed page 81.
Postmark: Atlanta, Jan. 7, 1926 Heading: Spelman, Wednesday
Dearest Mother,
I just came back from down street. The dentist didn't extract my tooth today. I am going again Friday. He says that I can take gas or have novocaine. I think that I will take gas to get the sensation. I had quite a lot of work to be done on my teeth.
(Thursday morning). Last evening I spent over at the lab. It is a wonderful place. There is a beautiful lecture room; a nice big laboratory and a little office. I'm going to ask for the office. Buggie Chester would weep tears of delight at it. Of course the lab isn't very well stocked as yet. I'm going to talk to Miss T .amson this morning to see if we can't get some more material for next semester.
... After I left the dentist yesterday afternoon I had quite a bit of time so I went up to the Public Library. I don't know what kind of a collection of books they have, but their magazines seem to include nearly all of the most popular ones.
One of the older teachers is going to take me to church Sunday. I should be ashamed to admit it, but I've been only three times this year. She says that the people at her church are very cordial.
Lots of love, Nellie Sam
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, January 10, 1926
Source: PDF page 87; printed page 81.
Postmark: Atlanta, Jan. 11, 1926 Heading: Spelman College, Sunday
Dearest Mother,
I'm all excited-in fact I almost haven't been able to sleep nights. I can't imagine anything nicer than to have you and Marion down here. I have started negotiations. Saturday morning I had an interview with Miss Tapley. I tried to persuade her that Giles Hall needs a matron next year but I'm not sure that she sees it exactly in that light. Then I told her how I thought that they would like to come to be with me anyway whether you had any connection with Spelman or not, and she has your name so you may hear from her. They do have white hall mothers in all the halls, but I should rather hate to have you take one of those jobs. The daytimes aren't bad-there isn't anything much to do, but you have complete charge of the girls in the evening in their study hall so you couldn't get out at all. You wouldn't have any manual labor, but would have the discipline of the girls which is much worse.
But if you would like to come down next year-even if you didn't have a job-I'd be willing to pay you enough for your board for doing my laundry and keeping my clothes mended and I imagine that you could get all the mending and more than you wanted. I think though that there will be some job open. Miss Tapley says that they cannot very well hire anyone except for a fulltime job because of the high traveling expenses. If you really want to come I'm sure that we can arrange it someway. I think that you would like. Of course it's been the pleasant things I've told you about and there are a lot of unpleasant ones which I haven't mentioned-but I think that you'd like [it], I'm excited as can be over the prospect.
As for my wanting to come back next year-when I came I had no idea of staying more than a year. But I like [it], and I think that it is well for a teacher to stay long enough to make a fairly respectable record for herself before she moves to another place. Of course there is the chance that I may not be asked back. There usually are two or three each year they say, who aren't asked back. But if they ask me back and you decide to come down I think that I'll have nerve enough to ask this. Hazel Converse's going leaves the whole biology department without a teacher. They have divided her work up this year but next year the vacancy will be there. I think that I'd have the courage to apply for the position. It is in the college-entirely. I'd be a Professor and would get sixteen hundred-if I got the job I'd like it I think. So far I've like[d] my biology class a lot and it's such a wonderful place to work. The other afternoon I found a storeroom over there which I didn't know about before and it has just loads of supplies. They have spent two thousand dollars on supplies for the department this fall so far.
Well, I suppose that the only thing to do now is to wait until they hire next year's teachers. It's hard to wait, though. I've even planned where we are going to room. I have a dandy position in view for Marion, too.
I went to church today with Miss Woodward to the First Christian Church, and they were so lovely to me that I think I'll go again. I never saw the like of the way they make strangers feel at.home in these churches and they knew, too, that I came from Spelman....
Lots and lots of love, Your own Sammy
Nellie Pottle to "Lee People", Lee Academy, Lee, Maine, January 14, 1926
Source: PDF page 88; printed page 82.
Heading: Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia, January 14, 1925 [mistake for 1926]
Dear Lee people,
I was very much pleased when a letter came from my mother today, asking that I write to you about Spelman.
I wish that you could get a real idea of what Spelman is like, for it probably isn't at all like what you imagine-at least it isn't like what I expected.
To understand what the school is like you must know how it was founded. Back in the days immediately after the Civil War Miss Sophia Packard and Miss Harriet Giles, two New England women, were traveling in the South, and came to realize the desparate [sic] need for education among the negro people-especially the negro women. Miss Giles and Miss Packard decided to talk to one of the colored preachers about it, so they went to the home of Rev. Frank Quarles, the pastor of the Friendship Baptist Church. They knocked several times and he didn't come, so they were about to leave when he came to the door. He excused himself for not coming before, but said that he was on his knees praying that God would send someone to help the negro women in his church. Can we explain the coincidence in any other way, than by believing that God answered his prayer?
So on April 11,1881, Miss Giles and Miss Packard founded Spelman (not called that then) in the basement of the Friendship Baptist Church, with about a dozen middle aged, married women as pupils, a pencil and piece of paper each for equipment, and the Bible as the only textbook.
In a few years the school outgrew the basement and it became necessary to find some new place for it. Out in this part of the city was the old camping ground of the Union Army, from which Sherman started on his march from Atlanta to the sea. The old barracks were still standing so the school was moved to this present location -1never realized before just what it was like to be "Tenting Tonight on the Old Camp Ground."
The school has rapidly grown. It has always been connected with the Baptist Home Mission Society. I never expected to be writing a missionary letter, but that is really what this is, I suppose, for in our Commissions the Baptist Home Mission Society designates us as missionaries. However, although the Baptist Society does do much toward the support of the school, it is from Rockefellar [sic] that it receives a great part of its aid. Mrs. Spelman was John D.'s grandmother, and the whole family has always been interested in the school. A cousin of John D.'s is on the faculty now.
Spelman today is one of the highest rating schools of the South. Georgia has a very low educational rating, and the humor of the situation is that while the Southern whites are looking down on the negroes, these negro girls here are getting a better education than any of the white girls.
The school still keeps its missionary atmosphere. There are a great many religious services, and Bible is required of all the students. It is wonderful to be in a place which has such a beautiful religious spirit.
Until lately the restrictions have been almost unreasonably strict, and would seem to some to be so yet. For instance, many of the girls never get out of the gates of the campus from the time they enter in September until they leave in June. Day before yesterday, the restrictions on dress were removed. Before, they had been allowed to wear only cotton dresses, black stockings, and black oxfords. The announcement was given at breakfast time that from now on they would be allowed to wear anything in good taste. You should have seen the light stockings at chapel, an hour later! They are, however, all of them showing very good taste in their dresses, even with the restrictions taken away. I think that it is advisable to let them use their own judgment a little. The negro people are so governed by the whites and have so little opportunity to express their rights, that they need a little liberty to develop a consciousness of self-reliance.
I have just come back from Thursday night prayer meeting now. It is quite thrilling to see them march in. When the bell rings, the girls start out from their halls and file across the campus. Those who get to the assembly room first sing until the girls all get seated. I like especially well to see the nurses come in. There is something about their quietness and neatness and stiff starched uniforms which is quite awe-inspiring.
The hospital connected with the college is one of its greatest agents. It is the only hospital for negro people in this section of the city-they are always begged not to close it in the summer time. The doctors are all the best white doctors from the city. In time I suppose negro doctors will be admitted, but as yet the negroes have not had opportunity for medical training.
There are about six hundred students in the college and we have seventy on the faculty-only about thirty or so of those are teachers, however, for all the hall matrons, the secretaries, etc., are classified as faculty members. We have students from the first grade through college. The grades are a part of the training school for teachers. There is that training school department-like a normal school, the regular college course, and the home economics course.
It is very interesting work. Funny things are always happening. At first it seemed funny to hear them talk. I had difficulty in understanding them, although they do not have as pronounced a dialect as the Southern white people do. "Four" is "fo," "store" "sto," handkerchief "handshekif' and many other little peculiarities of speech like that. In the Souther, after noon it is "evening," rubbers are "overshoes," a week from next Saturday is "Saturday week," etc.
For the most part the girls are very good students, they are eager to learn, and are exceedingly well mannered.
Spelman is a wonderful school. I know of no other enterprise which is showing such gratifying results as the advancement of the negro. From a race of slaves they [are] coming to be a race which has some of the finest musicians, poets, artists, and other successful persons.
Of course white people of the South do not respect the negro, but nevertheless the colored people are advancing just the same.
Since we depend on Northern Churches for our support it is through you that we are able to do the work. Northern churches are all the time sending barrels of things which are sold to the people in rummage sales and the money comes back to the school. Many churches make supplies for the hospital, dining rooms, and teachers rooms. So you see, you Northern people have a part in Spelman too.
Best wishes to you all,
Sincerely, Nellie E. Pottle
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, January 16, 1926
Source: PDF page 91; printed page 85.
Heading: Tapley Hall, Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia, January 16, 1925 [mistake for 1926]
Dearest Mother,
I have been over here all of the afternoon and evening making out my examinations. Leota and Anna aren't ready to go back to Giles yet so I'll write while I'm waiting for them. This next week we will be pretty busy with midyears. My classes, some of them, are very large, and so that will mean a lot of papers to correct. But we have Friday off to do it. It will seem good to start out again on a new semester, forgetting that which is past-which is probably exactly what the kids will do.
They are certainly studying now. Eldora, our elevator girl, has been studying her geometry steadily from nine o'clock this morning through this evening. It is rather hard on the kids who have outside work to do. Alma Fuergerson [sic], the girl who cleans my lab, works twenty hours a week. She is awfully smart but she studies every spare minute that she has and her hall mother told her that she should get some recreation. "Oh," she said, "I get twenty hours of recreation each week, working over in the biology laboratory." She's an awfully nice kid. We have a lot of fun together. I imagine that she's about my age.
... Last Tuesday morning the restrictions on dress were removed and it was surely a happy lot of youngsters who heard the news. The funny thing about it was that nearly all of them have silk dresses which they brought. They all looked very nice at the entertainment last night.
...This morning I was very industrious. I cleaned my room thoroughly and mended three pair of stockings. Besides that I helped two kids on some back work. One of them is a girl in my advanced algebra class, and she had never taken up factoring in her freshman algebra. She is really quite smart but of course she is terribly handicapped by lack of preparation. She works so hard that I think that I will pass her.
Good night and lots of love, Your own Sammy.
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, January 17, 1926
Source: PDF page 92; printed page 86.
Postmark: Atlanta, Jan. 18, 1926 No heading
Dear Mother;
I am learning to type, and I am doing it the right way too... Anna has been fixing a stencil for me to use to print my algebra exams with. Next semester I will have my large algebra class divided, to make two classes fore [sic] two of Anna's practice teachers. It is my largest class so it makes it rather nice for me.
... I've been reading over your last letters. I'd sort of like to be in Lee tonight. I was wondering today what seemed to different here besides the lack of snow, and I decided that it was because I've been right here in a big city ever since September. Just think of it-I haven't seen a field for more than four months. I don't in the least blame you for not wanting to go back next year but there are some nice things about Lee-especially the good times that you faculty have together. You wouldn't find that in many places, although we have it here.
I hope that the letter I wrote for your missionary circle will be something that you can use. I had to write it in quite a hurry for I didn't have much time and so I didn't stop to think out just the best things to say.
You asked me how many of the Colby people will be back next year. I'm quite sure that Leota [Schoff] will. If Marjorie's father gets real well so she would feel like leaving her people in the North, Marjorie will be back. I don't know about Anna. She loves her work here and, of course, she has a wonderful position, but her father and mother are very old people, and she feels almost as if she should be with them next year. She would probably get a position of the High School at her home. That will mean that she will have to come down from teaching college to teaching high-school pupils. It will also mean a drop from a salary of $1600 to one probably not more than $1100. If her brother should come home to live she will stay here.
That play "The Pill Bottle" is cute. The girls in Y.W. put it on once...
Heaps of love, Sammy
Nellie Pottle to Estelle Pottle, Colby College, January 17, 1926
Source: PDF page 93; printed page 87.
Heading: Spelman College, January 17 [1926]
Howo you all feeling a Jumbo?
I'm glad that you liked the hope chest. I thought that that was about the size that you would appreciate filling. You know they were selling those Stone Mountain half-dollars for a dollar, and I had that one passed me in change somewhere.
I guess that you will be some baby when you get dolled up in your new slicker and your velvet slippers. By the way, have you ever bought your rose satin slippers yet?
Gosh, Stelle, I should have liked to be at that feed that you had down at the fraternity rooms. Yum yum, I'm hungry. I bet that you have a good bunch of freshmen.
Later at Taplev. Anna is typing my examinations while I am writing letters. Isn't that service for you? We give our midyears this week. I suppose that you will be taking yours soon. I'll give you a dollar for every A you get on your first semester marks.
Did I ask you if you know a freshman Deke named George? His sister teaches here. What is he like? She goes up to Smyrna Mills each summer and knows a lot of people up that way.
I'm darned hungry. I didn't wake up this morning so I haven't had any breakfast. We will have either chicken or fried rabbit for dinner, since it's Sunday.
The beads from Mildred and Ted came all right. I have quite a collection of neck adornments at present. Fred and Marion sent me some beautiful beads. I told you that Sevia wrote me, didn't I? Flivver Ford and George Sawyer engaged. Bertha Appleby at College, Oris and A1 married. Dot Carney training in some hospital, Hank Allen an osteopath in Portland, and a lot more news that I've forgotten now.
Some of the January jasmine flowers are beginning to blossom here. I guess that we won't get any more snow, but we did have enough to show on the ground one day.
Write again once in a while petite.
Love to Jumbo, Sambo
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, January 20, 1926
Source: PDF page 94; printed page 88.
Postmark: Atlanta, Jan. 21, 1926
Dearest Mother,
Two more exams tomorrow and then it will all be over-except correcting the papers. Some of those which I have corrected have been quite encouraging. Some haven't been so much so.
After Christian Endeavour meeting over at Morehouse South last evening six of my advanced algebra girls gathered around and began telling me their story. Gladys Boston-she knows about twice as much about algebra as I do-said, "You know we prayed about that examination." And one of the other girls said, "Yes, last night before we went to bed we all got down on our knees and Gladys prayed for us." I was glad that I had given them a fairly easy exam, otherwise their faith in prayer would have been shattered, I'm afraid.
I have had no examinations today so I've been letting down and turning up my summer dresses-
Yesterday was a legal holiday, banks closed and everything, for Lee's birthday. ...
I must get to correcting papers now. Heaps of love to you, Mother, Your Sammy
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, January 21-22, 1926
Source: PDF page 94; printed page 88.
Postmark: Atlanta, Jan. 22, 1926 Heading: Thursday evening
Dearest Mother,
Your Sunday letter came today as usual. I should be correcting some of my many papers but it is hard to get down to it.
I corrected my geometry papers-from my best division-and I had one or two papers that were almost perfect. The only real mistake on one was an omission of "all right angles are equal." The other papers would, most of them, have had high marks if they had done the original which I gave them. That counted 20 so it brought their marks down a lot.
The more I think of it I don't blame Marion for wanting to change from teaching English. I thought that I wanted to teach it, but it must be discouraging to have such awful results as one gets in English. It isn't so bad when the pupils do not know math- that is sort of expected of them. But to have such horrible use of their own language is awful. Marion would like teaching the expression courses, I think.
Friday.... The college faculty is having a party for the college girls and some of the Morehouse men tonight. It is quite a swell affair I guess.
We have today off to correct papers. I have about a hundred to do. Big classes make a lot of papers to correct. I have already corrected at least fifty besides these. I should like to sew tomorrow if I can get anything to work on. I think that I will make myself two school dresses.
Heaps of love, Sammy
Nellie Pottle to Annette K Pottle, January 24, 1926
Source: PDF page 95; printed page 89.
Postmark: Atlanta, Jan. 25, 1926 Heading: Sunday
My dearest Mother,
I've had quite a busy weekend. Friday was a free day and I corrected papers steadily all day long. In the evening the college faculty had a party for the college girls and invited the Morehouse men and the Morehouse faculty. They have some of the nicest people over there, mother. If you should come down next year I think that you would like the negro people just as well as I do.
Yesterday morning I finished up my papers and guess what I did in the afternoon! I bought me a new spring hat and coat!...[Much about clothes]
I went in to church this morning with Miss Woodward. I liked the Sunday School class which I attended very much. They were very cordial. This afternoon we are going in to hear Sherwood Eddy at a big mass meeting at the auditorium. I know that he will be good.
Does Moult ever get as far South as Atlanta on his radio? On the night of February 11 8 o'clock Central Time, our girls and some of the Morehouse men are going to broadcast from the Atlanta station. If you can possibly get a chance to hear them, I hope that you will. They are really wonderful.
Last evening I kept study hall for one of the teachers. It was a lot of fun. The girls were just as good as can be. I don't know as being hall mother would be such a bad job after all. Of course there is no work except superintending and disciplining.
I made a most exciting discovery the other day. Hazel Mitchell, one of the secretaries in one of the offices, went to University of Maine for a year and belonged to the local which is now Chi Omega. She is an awfully nice girl. She comes from Portland, is a friend of Margaret Smith and has been up home visiting the Lorings. She plans to go back to Maine sometime. I want her to get initiated.
... On Friday evening I hear Paderewski. it's nice to have something like that to look forward to during the week-
Just loads of love, Marmie, Sammy
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, Lee Academy, January 25, 1926
Source: PDF page 96; printed page 90.
Heading: Spelman College, January 25, 1926
Dearest Ma,
Your letter and Marion's came this morning. Your Mission Circle must have had a nice meeting with you. Do they ever do mission work, I mean make things to send away? I wish that they'd make a nice soft comforter and send it to Spelman Negro College especially designating that it is to go on Miss Pottle's bed. Mine is pretty tattered....
It wasn't until this afternoon that I had my tooth out. I enjoyed taking gas so much. It's a very pleasant sensation. I had supposed that it would be a lot different than it was. My tooth was abcessed so I guess that it was a good thing I had it out. My face hurts a little tonight but I don't think that it is going to swell.
Marion's letter sounded quite enthusiastic about Spelman next year. Sometimes the awful thought occurs to me that I may not be asked back next year, but we will know about that soon.
We went to the auditorium yesterday afternoon and heard Sherwood Eddy and Mordici Johnson and another man talk. They were very good, both of them. Mordici Johnson is a white colored man. He was very well received by the audience. Mrs. Hope and Mrs. Dean Archer from Morehouse sat right behind us in the white section. We were the only ones, I imagine, who knew that they were colored.
Lots of love, Nellie Sam
Nellie Pottle to Annette K. Pottle, Lee Academy, January 31, 1926
Source: PDF page 97; printed page 91.
Postmark: Atlanta, Feb. 1,1926 Heading: Spelman, Saturday.
Dearest Marmie,
This is a rainy Saturday afternoon when we can't get out to do much so I guess I'll write a bit.
Do you remember Dr. Johnson back at commencements at Colby? He is a Colby graduate and was, for some time, principal of Coburn. They had him down here to speak to us teachers and the college students on educational principles. He was very, very good but said some things which I imagine sounded pretty radical to the old-timers. He said that he could give no justification for teaching algebra or geometry to average high school girls, and I'm sure that I can't either. What earthly good it is going to do them is more than I can see. If the skill which they acquire in that could be transferred, there might be some value but physchologists [sic] no longer believe in that. It seemed so good to see a real husky he man again. Dr. Johnson is very pleasant to talk with.
On Wed. and again Thurs. evening I heard Dr. Mordici Johnson-one of the leading negroes of today. On Wednesday evening he spoke in a white church and many of the white people shook hands with him afterward and that is quite a lot for them to do. I never heard a more eloquent man, and I've never met one with a more magnetic personality, or a more truly Christlike spirit. We were so glad that we had the chance to talk with him after the meeting here Thursday night. He is white. He went to school here at Morehouse, to Rochester, and later to Harvard.
Last night we heard Paderewski. He really is wonderful. I wish that I could appreciate him. The auditorium was packed.
... Heaps of love, Your 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.