1901*

An interesting letter is at hand from Bill Sykes, he says, "... .Personally I am in good health and good spirits. This is the fourth year I have taught in the graded schools of Trujillo Alto, a little town six miles up in the hills from Rio Piedras. I am living in Quintana, a village just outside the city of Rio Piedras. The house is small. It has electric lights, and water from the public aqueduct. Behind is a big garden with a high fence around it. Down one side I have planted a row of potato trees that bear great trusses of potatoes; the other side I have rose bushes. The far end is devoted to annuals that do well here like zinnias, marigolds, etc There is nothing like a garden to take the kinks out of life. Last February I bought a small farm high up in the hills. I can grow almost everything that grows in the temperate zone and that grows in the tropics. I now drink coffee from my own two acre coffee patch. When I retire from teaching I will have a small pension, and I will go up to my farm and live comfortably and enjoy life. 1 will never lack for labor or have any trouble with it. A few weeks ago I hired a man for 65 cents to hoe a patch of grandules (pigeon peas). After I made the trade he grumbled 'Mr. Sykes you are muy maceta (a tight wad). It will take at least two days to do that work. A big strong man like myself ought to earn three reales a day (37½ cents).' As a matter of fact it took him 2½ days so I took him a plug of native chewing tobacco and gave him a quarter more. Far be it from me who has been a socialist for many years to exploit the poor.

"This week I have lived in the tropics for 34 full years. As every year goes by I like it more and more. While our people have some grave faults I prefer to live in a society where the amount of money one has does not determine his social standing and the esteem of his neighbors."

We have just learned of the death last October in Beverly, Mass., of Hubert M. Snow who was a member of our class Freshman and Sophomore years. Further details will appear in the next issue of the MAGAZINE.

Gene Leach and Steve Stevens were the only members of the class to greet "Hoppy" when he spoke at the Manchester, N. H., Alumni Dinner late in January.

A card from Frank Halliday in Florida {or the winter says he had lunch with Charlie Whelan in Atlanta recently. Col. Halliday retires from the Army in March, and plans to spend his winters in Florida, and at Harpswell Center, Maine in the summer.

Secretary, 37 Berkeley St., Nashua, N. H