To MR. CLARENCE ROWAN,
Raleigh, N. C.
Baltimore, Oct. 25, 1906.
Dear Old Chum:
Haven't heard a word since I wrote you from home to say I was coming to
Baltimore to study medicine, but suppose you're too busy rushing the
lady you're going to marry. Say, old man, I'm clean gone myself.
Prettiest girl I ever looked at. Saw her two Sunday nights in church
when I first came, and then was lucky enough to meet her at a church
social. I wish you could have seen her. No, I don't, because if you had
I should have had you for a rival. Anyway, she looked a vision. She's
tall, with a stunning figure and a graceful way of holding herself.
She's a blonde, her hair glinted with gold, her eyes as blue as--I was
going to say indigo, but nothing about her is as blue as that. I never
did take to blondes, you know, but this one has got me, because she has
vivacity and unbends most delightfully. I talked to her half an hour the
night I met her. Gee, but the fellow who brought her looked sour! I must
have made some kind of an impression, for when she was bidding me
good-night she asked me to call. She lives on a street called Guilford
avenue, in North Baltimore. I was over there last Tuesday night. Asked
her if I might come when I saw her at church Sunday. I tell you she was
a dream in a pink gown, with her golden hair all done up on her head in
some kind of a way I can't describe, but looking magnificent. She told
me about a fellow who wanted to come see her that night, but she let him
know she had another engagement, and the way she told me, looking at me
with those splendid blue eyes, just made me feel I was cutting some ice
there. She can tickle the ivories in great shape, and spent most of the
evening at the piano. She goes to the theatre a lot, and she had all the
latest comic opera songs, like those of Anna Held and Marie Cahill, and
she can play ragtime out of sight. I tried to get her to play some
sentimental things, but she said she wasn't in that mood. I'd like to
catch her when she is.
Tomorrow afternoon I expect to be a great occasion. She studies painting
at the Maryland Institute, an art school here, and she has asked me to
go sketching with her out in the country. I'll have to cut some of my
college work, but you can bet I'm going to do that all right.
Yours,
HUGH.