Letter, Kate Gleason to James Gleason

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William Gleason,
Manufacturer of Machinists Tools,
Office, Brown’s Race,

Rochester, N.Y., April 9th. 1889
Dear Jim,-
In response to your appeal, I enclose a $20 bill that Mr
Chapin just gave me, it is all I have in the world and you must be
sure to take good care of it. Enclosed you will also find a postal
to acknowledge it on and if you please I would like you to acknow-
ledge it right away instead of keeping me on the ragged edge for a
week or so as you did the last time I sent you money in this shape.
I suppose for this loose way of sending money ^I will be sorry yet like the
pitcher that ^went once too many times to the well but the temptation of
putting in a bill when it’s fifteen minutes walk up to the bank and
back after a draft and you’re busy is too much for me.
When I read in your letter that you had called on Gertrude
and the very next day spent the afternoon on the lake with her, I
felt tempted to remind you that you have a family depending on you for
support for some few years to come and that you can’t afford there-
fore to fall in love with Gertrude but then I thought of Jo’s pea
story and I concluded I would’nt. The pea story goes like this, -the
mother went off and locked the children up in the house for the day
and before she went, she told them to be good children and not put any
peas up their noses. They had’nt thought of that special piece of
mischief until she suggested it so when she came home she found that
the children had all put peas in their respective noses and as a
consequence they had to be amputated. People at Cornell get re-
markably spoony in the spring-time, -not that I have ever experienced
it but time and again I have seen how others were afflicted.
I’ve just had a call from Johnny Elbs. Remember him?
He is the fellow that helped Frank Hughes make a fool of himself by
jumping in the bay in his Sunday-go-to-meeting suit. He seems to
know a good deal more know. I should think from the fifteen minute
conversation I had with him that he now knows about as much as Irv.
Briggs. Also Walter Barron called. “Absence makes the heart
grow fonder” and he is truly very far gone. If this keeps growing
in a few days more nothing but chains and an anchor will keep him in
Rochester, -keep him from Ithaca I should say. I saw Prof. Hale
to-day and he wanted to know what is the matter with Blood for not
calling on him. You might tell Blood that there is an explanation

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wanted. And if he does’nt know it already he can ^get $6 back by re-
turning his seat checks.
Was just trying to think if there was’nt
some important news around the shop to tell you when it burst upon
me that you had not yet heard about the foundry dividend. We hav-
ing have been making money at the rate of 12 & 1-2 per cent per an-
num for the first six months. What do you think of that? What
will you give me for my stock. We are keeping this tremendous
profit a dead secret for fear all the capitalists in town will
embark in the fdy. business and ruin our trade.
They are having a mission for men at the cathedral now and last
night one old sinner got so uproarious that the patrol wagon had to
be summoned. The patrol wagon backing up to the cathedral did’nt
look exactly proper. He was’nt any of our friends.
The street car strikers are still healthy. The company has
almost all their cars running but people are afraid of patronizing
for the reason that they would be very liable to be hit with a brick.
Judge Keeler is fining all the rioters $50 or 50 days and there are
50 new policeman but it does’nt seem to cool the ardor of the mob much.
There is to be a public meeting to-night and all the citizens are
to be vacinated so as to raise scabs for the street car company.
Joke. Please don’t tell I told you.
We are all flourishing except
that Emma Michel is expecting a visit from one of those Detroiters and
I am afraid he means business but I mean business too.
Lovingly,
Kate.
In case this letter is opened by a postal thief, the money
is carefully concealed. You will find it behind the postal card.