Letter from Grace McClurg to her family, January 8, 1911

Evanston, Ill.,
Jan. 8, 1911

Rathur looked for Mr. Row yesterday but have not heard from him yet.

Dear Folks:
There is not much to write about today. Routine of schoolwork. Have played most of the week. Hard to get down to business. Last evening a number of us went skating. Ice soft in some places. Evening mild. Rained before morning. I was sweating like a harvest hand when we came off the ice at 10. Had had my coat checked and skated in my sweater. So I didn't take cold by getting chilled too soon. We had started out to have a B and skating party, but on account of a Chapin Hall party, our best skaters among the boys couldn't come. Ted Crouse And I were about to give it up when Fisk called up to ask me to go. I told him we were getting up a party and would be glad to have him join, and would he please bring someone else. He brought Coe. I realized more than ever what a stick Fisk is. Actually, it is impossible to conceive of a fairly well built lump of human flesh with enough gray matter to get a master's degree being such a noneinty. Inertia. Not a particle of force. Perfectly good because of utter incapacity to be bad. The girls congratulated me when I told them that I had actually made him laugh hearty once on the ice. They asked how it could be done. There is but one thing in his favor. He can “skate like an angel.” Haven't been out yet with as easy a skater. I certainly did enjoy the evening. Skating parties are different from house parties, because if one can skate, everything else is lost sight of for the time. I do not know what will happen to me when I get so that I can't skate. It is so easy for me to glide along in those swift long strokes, and growing easier all the time. There is an exhiliration in the swaying movements and blood-stirring exercise that can't be told. Nothing brushes out the cobwebs like a good skate. I missed Ed last night. “Andy Jim” Moore Was the other man. Widney was going but couldn't. Four girls. There is another I wish I could be in our party some evening. There would be the combined pleasure of master skater and congenial friend, one with considerable back-bone. Alice is coming out this p.m. Had splendid church service this a.m. It was about time for dinner the old cook left. Too independent for our fussy matron. We girls have cause to regret that she left.

Have been in again to see about getting thru this year. It is quite likely that I will have to take summer work, tho I hope not. I'm glad that I have a good record behind me, for it is going to be a help in asking for a lot of credits none of which I am entitled to after the first year, also in asking for permission to carry heavy work next semester. Here's a conundrum: if you do not get it, I will tell you next week. “A big Indian and a little Indian sat on a log. The big one said to the little one, ‘you are my son, but I am not your father.’ What relation is the big Indian to the little one?”

Am sleepy. Got to sleep at 12 last night. Must close with love from

Grace

Mama, those cuff-buttons belonged to Ted Crouse and had been in the waste. As soon as I gave her the waist she asked about the buttons, then I remembered those in the box. They were hers. Better than “ten-centers.” Ha! Ha!