Letter, Kate Gleason to James Gleason
A letter from Kate Gleason to her brother, James Gleason. Kate tells Jim about a care package that the family is assembling for him and of their mother’s plans to visit him at Cornell for Thanksgiving. She reports on social events and her participation in the Fortnightly Ignorance Club. She discusses the family business, the political allegiances of Cornell professors and students, and a mutual acquaintance’s choice for president.
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William Gleason,
Manufacturer of Machinists Tools,
Office, Brown’s Race,
Rochester, N.Y., Oct. 13 1888
My dear Jim,-
I will transmit my thoughts to you through
the medium of a lead-pencil because I am too com=
fortable to take my feet down from the chimney=piece
as I should have to do if I used the Caligraph.
I have just put a tag on your laundry to [reship?] it
I have prepaid the ex. Mamma has put in some pears
& she desired me to tell you that they are green green.
yet. She can’t have a great deal of confidence
in your perception or she would’nt think the in=
formation necessary for they are so hard you will have
to break them with a club. Mamma, I should say
Mother is going down to see you at Thanksgiving
& she is to bring you a box. Gertrude Nugent will
put a loaf of brown bread in it like the loaf you ate
at one meal, Mother will roast a turkey for it, Emma
will put in the pickles & preserves & the rest of us will
whack up for the et ceteras.
Mr. Geismar has just left me and he desired
me to send you his dear love, also the information
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that the Cadets are to have a ball next Friday
night. Complimentary and invitations are limited.
Your presence would be considered an honor.
Mr. [Kenau?] is now back from New York but he has
said nothing more about the photo. expedition so you
will probably have to exist this winter without that
particular memento of the boat. To be sure it rains
every day as usual but the chances are that when it
gets through raining, it will snow all the time &
that will be no improvement.
Emma has been asked to join Lillie’s club & is to go
Monday night to see what it is good for. I have
an engagement at the Fortnightly Ignorance Club
that night so will have to trust to her to give me
a detailed description.
We stand a show of receiving an order for
a ten ft. square planer as well as some
other tools from a Cleveland concern. Mr.
Clarke thinks we have the inside track but
Mr. Clarke has been “left” before now. I’ve
heard a base libel on the Cornell Professors &
students,-that the large majority of them are
Democrats & Free-Traders. It isn’t so, is it?
With the usual amt of affection.
Kate Gleason
P.S. Fritz Schlick now thinks he will vote for Harrison.