Class of 1907
On April 12 Dick Lane wrote me of interesting stops at Gibraltar, where "thebig experience was the sight of both theHome and Mediterranean English Fleets;Algiers, Bizerta, Sidibout-Said, Tunis,Tripoli, Septis Magna, Malta, and Sicily.
"Every place we've seen has been ititeresting, but we decided quickly that Taormina is easily the loveliest. We're in anold monastery, converted into a very finehotel, about 600 feet directly above thesea, at just about the beginning of theStraits of Messina, and.' looking south toMt. Aetna, the upper part white withsnow, smoking away wildly but constantly,and recently covered by clouds. It's agrand sight. Back of us is the quaint, livelytoicn and back of it rugged hills andmountains."
Further letters to friends describe marvelous experiences in Rome—motoring through the "hill towns" and Florence. The Lanes will be back in Boston about May go.
Among the 130 Boston debutantes to be presented to Boston society this next season is the J. F. Crockers' daughter Martha.
The following vivid picture of missionary work will be especially interesting to those at our reunion last June who had the pleasure of becoming acquainted with the "Class Baby":
"As I sit at my desk, the sun is pouring down outside my window, a soft breeze is moving my curtains, the Indian Ocean, some ten miles away, gleams softly blue. We are about 1200 feet above sea level, so though we are comfortable, Durban must be sweltering. I have just come back from visiting the native Sunday school (Inanda village), where our Inanda girls teach. It was interesting to watch the little groups of happy black faces, as the classes assembled under the trees. The church is set on a hilltop overlooking the valley. The view toward the mountains on the other side was remarkably clear today. But here the tops of all the mountains are level, as if at one time the land had been all plateau. Across the valley the mountains reach up, but they all stop at the same place, and seem very flat to eyes accustomed to New England hills. For a moment I remembered the White Mountains in June.
"A Sunday here makes me think of Wheaton, for the girls assemble under the trees, to read, or write letters, or just to talk.
"Sunday morning the chapel service is in Zulu. Pastor Gumede is a splendid Zulu speaker, so I have been told. The staff is expected to attend the service, so most of us take our Bibles and worship each in our own tongue. The girls wear the school uniform on Sundays, a dark skirt and jumper with a white blouse. It is interesting to sit on the platform and look down upon 250 girls all so neatly dressed. The first thing one notices here is how happy and bright the girls are. Many of them are very good-looking.
"I'm afraid the average college student in America would think herself overworked if she had to do as much as these girls do. Classes begin at 6:30, breakfast at 8:00, chapel at 8:45, classes until 1:00 with a brief recess at 10:00. Then there are three more forty-minute periods from 2:00 till 4:00. In the evening the girls must go to 'prep' (girls are high-school age, 15-18), a supervised study period. At least supervised 'prep' helps them to get their work done, and keeps them from being overloaded by any one teacher. In between times they must do school work, which includes cleaning the classrooms, dormitories, teachers' rooms, and such outside work as hoeing the school garden and tidying the lawns and paths. There should not be many idle hands to get into mischief!
"At first it seemed as if the academic work would completely overshadow any missionary work I might do. Can you picture me teaching, 'Amo, amas, amat' to the Zulus? Latin is one of the required subjects for girls expecting to take the examinations for teachers' certificates, hence the' struggle with declensions and conjugations. My other subject at present is English. At least I am not having to teach it to girls who know only Zulu. But even girls who have had English right through school do not find 'lvanhoe' any too easy. The difficulty is that they are ambitious to do just the same work that the European students do, and cannot realize that they have not the same cultural background of girls who read many books before they come to 'Ivanhoe.' Their vocabulary is naturally limited. In an essay I got a reference to 'congratulate iron,' meaning 'corrugated iron.' The roofs of all our buildings, by the way, are of corrugated iron.
"Two or three times a month I expect to visit local Sunday schools, taking with me a group of girls to help teach. I shall ride horseback (!), the girls will walk. It's no great stunt to ride these horses, they are so very easy-going. The Sunday schools are situated in the valley, there are about a dozen which come under the supervision of the school. Every week we send out copies of the lesson, and Sunday school cards. I never expected to see the picture cards of my youth printed in Zulu! Of course one of the girls will have to interpret for me, and that will be something to look forward to.
"There are so many things to write about, I'm sure I haven't mentioned half of them. I expect to get letters popping with questions. Perhaps I should mention one more thing, there are about twelve white teachers, three of us American missionaries, and nearly as many Bantu teachers. And believe it or not, one of the Europeans asked me about the Indians!"
"As I stood this morning looking at the mountains, I remembered most vividly the other Sunday at Peckett's, and felt that through you I might send greetings to the people I met there, See you in 1942, maybe!"
"Most sincerely,
"It was a privilege and a source of greatpleasure to attend as our Secretary's substitute the Secretaries Association meetings May 13 and 14.
"CHARLIE WOODWORTH."
All classmates will deeply sympathize with Ed Barker and his family over the death of his daughter on April 27. From the Rutherford Republican we have the following:
"Miss Agnes Marie Barker, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward B. Barker, 31 Hasbrouck Place, Rutherford, died early Wednesday evening at her home, following an illness of several weeks with typhoid fever.
"Miss Barker, a popular member of Rutherford's young social group, was taken ill in Winsted, Conn., where, since last fall, she taught physical education in the public schools of the town and the private high school there, Gilbert School.
"Born in Brooklyn, N. Y., she was twenty-two years old and had lived in Rutherford since 1917. She attended Union Elementary School, was graduated from Rutherford High School in 1933, and in June, 1937, received her degree from Sargent College of Physical Education, Boston University. At college she was a member of Pi Gamma Mu, national social science honor society. She was considered one of the most outstanding students in her class and was a member of the Student Government Association for three years, belonged to the Black Masque, honorary literary society, Honorary Auxiliary, and the Dancers' Club. She was interested in swimming and riding. She was a member of the Congregational church.
"Besides her parents she is survived by a brother, Craig."
Secretary, 140 Federal St., Boston
