To MR. JOHN IREDELL,
Summerfield,
Guilford County,
North Carolina.
Baltimore, Oct. 1, 1906.
Dear Father:
I have been here nearly a week now, and have got pretty well fixed, so I
thought I would report to you tonight. I find that there will be a lot
of hard work with classes, laboratory hours and study, but, as I told
you before I left, I intend to put my shoulder to the wheel and aim so
high that you will have just cause to be proud of me when I become a
Doctor of Medicine. I see that I shall have to cut out all idea of
amusements and pleasure and put my nose to the grindstone.
My college--the P. & S.--opened last Thursday with an address by the
Dean, a helpful speech that I should like you to have heard. For,
although I chose medicine chiefly because Uncle Will made a success of
it out in Texas, I was glad to hear the Dean tell what a noble
profession it was to relieve suffering millions.
The college occupies a red brick building at Calvert and Saratoga
streets, and is operated in connection with the City Hospital, which
adjoins it and where there are hundreds of patients. I don't know
whether you remember the locality, as it has been so many years since
you were in Baltimore. It is close to the business centre, only a block
north of the Courthouse and the Postoffice. There are about 300
students. They come from all parts of this country, and even from
foreign lands. I will bear in mind what you said about not being too
thick with any of them.
I have secured a boarding-house on North Calvert street--No. 641. It is
kept by a widow lady from Mecklenburg county, and she calls it the
Yadkin and makes a special effort to attract "Tarheels." Nearly all her
boarders are from North Carolina, and we get the papers from Raleigh and
other places, so that it is quite homelike for me.
I pay $5 a week board, and there ought not to be many extra expenses,
except for books, so I can get along nicely on the $35 a month you said
you would give me. But I told them at the College to send you the
tuition bill. That was all right, wasn't it?
Your devoted son,
HUGH.