Dear Girls:

January 1916 and September 1920. Four and a half years since Robin visited. When he came I immediately read the whole of vol. III *** out my contribution to find by the instructions at the beginning of Vol. IV that it should have remained so back it will go.

What worlds of things have happened in the past four and one half years. When I wrote last we were preparing for a visit to NY while Warren did some PG work at Harvard Medical. We went and returned and the following fall before the snow fall (to be exact the day following election) left *** West VA the little mining town where we had spent six very happy years to come back to my home state: to settle not in Baltimore but in Hagerstown, the second city to Baltimore in importance. I know Edith Powell will sniff at this for the census man did give Cumberland 1000 greater population but Hagerstown outweighs that fact in its numerous other attractions. I'll not begin to enumerate for tho' I'm not the official booster of the Chamber of Commerce, I'm his brother.

For a year and a half we lived uptown in a most desirable new residence district but at the end of that time we learned that if we wanted a husband and father we had better move down town where we could have the office in our own home. So here we are and manage to catch a glimpse of 'Daddy' for a few minutes at meal times. All those contemplating matrimony! (Notice I did not say spinsters!) Beware! Don't marry a MD especially a general practitioner for they belong to every one but their families. The only chance we have is to get in the car and take 'French beam' for as long as possible, an hour a day or week and that is what we frequently do.

I *** our location for it is ideal for catching motorists. We are only two blocks from the centre of town going west on the Old National Highway which runs from Baltimore and Washington *** through Cumberland, *** Pa, Wheeling W.VA., to Columbus, Ohio. For those who feel the lure of the road it is the very best pick and the most wonderful scenery you can find any where. Here are our best wishes that you may all come to visit us so land as no more than eight or ten come at once. Our house is old and large and when the three spacious bedrooms are filled I can put up a cot or two and a crib which Isabel has discarded.

I'll not go into detail about war work, surgical dressings, knitting (which I do now only when my daughters are in dire need of sweaters) food conservation, Liberty Loan Drives, etc. for as the others, I did all I could. Maybe not as important work as some others did but all that circumstances afforded.

With the armistice my work with Suffrage began. Not that I had not been a suffragist before that! This is an old community, and pretty set and we have had an uphill fight with much opposition. Need I say I am happy today! I am especially interested in woman's office here for we will be able to do so much for so many unfavorable conditions such as housing, schools, etc. Bu the time Robin comes round again I hope to be able to tell you of some important changes that have come about.

When we came here Isabel, our baby was not walking and Elizabeth only a baby herself. This year Isabel started to go to Kindergarten and Elizabeth who will be eight in October goes into the fourth grade. They are just as different as they can be, Isabel our baby, and Elizabeth forever head buried in a 'Fairy tale'. At last I have found a common interest: roller skates. And they have them on before breakfast and think they are badly treated because I object to their wearing them during meals. They are both healthy children and tho they have had measles, mumps, and whooping cough and Elizabeth scarlet fever they have never been really sick with any (and we all escaped ''flu'.)

I manage to go down to Baltimore fairly often I rarely go up to Goucher except for alumnae Day and this I try to do each year.

The summer of 1919 Warren and I left the children with a Nurse and ran off in the car for a week. Passing through Easton we stopped for a few minutes to see Esther Bixler and Carrie Fehr and pressed on that weight to Delaware Water Gap. The following morning we were driving around seeing the sights when we passed standing by the roadside a car with a Maryland license. 'Heels MD' called the owner, whereupon Warren stopped and we began to talk. He said he was a Methodist Preacher n Washington and knew some Hagerstown people. Then we started off and the man's face haunted me so we went back and I asked 'Didn't you marry Clara Robinson?' 'I certainly did' he replied 'and here she comes down the road with the children and her two sisters' (Mary who had just returned from overseas and a younger sister) 'And who are you?' he asked. I told him, and blush to repeat his reply 'Never skinny Louise Lawrence'. By that time Clara came up and we had a good chat. As they were going the same route we said we would meet them at Watkins Glen, NY. Sure enough we met Saturday night and spent Sunday there together. This year we were not so fortunate in meeting friends, though we did have a wonderful trip in the car from Boston to Hagerstown.

Like all mothers and house keepers I am busy busy getting the children started in school and preparing for winter. And in between times amusing myself by watching the tactics of politicians changing favor of the women whom they have always (?) wanted to have the franchise. Indeed, were my duty not elsewhere, I know Id be right in the thick of it.

I must close so you can have a little patience left for the ones following. My best wishes for every one person, your children, your husbands and sweet hearts.

Always loyally,

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