NAWSA GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE CHANNING, EVA Jamaica Plain Oct 16, 1891 Dear Alice: Here we are at home again, as you probably saw by the paper, after a long and rough voyage. I have been so in a whirl for these first two or three days that I haven't been able to think about Pussy or how to get her; but I think I can manage to come over after her on Monday, if convenient. & I should much like to have a glimpse of you, too, so I wish you'd send me a line by return mail, telling me whether you will be at home any part of the day, and which would suit you best, morning or afternoon *; also if you will tell me the Pope's Hill trains I would be very grateful. I believe the basket is at your house, n'est-ce pas? I hope Puss has behaved herself and not given you any trouble - you were ever so good to take charge of her! I haven't heard from you for a long time, and don't know whether you never rec'd any of my letters and postal cards, or whether you were too disgusted at my blundering to reply. Or perhaps (and this I hope is the true solution) you were away on a vacation "spree," and too busy to write. Are you wildly excited over Frank Garrison's engagement? I confess I was surprised, but trust it will be a good thing for him. I wish I had had the time, opportunity or knack to pick up some things for the Suffrage Fair abroad, but we are very poor shoppers, and *[*Or if Monday will not answer, would Tues. or Wed. morning do?] although we, as well as Mrs. Cheney, had it in mind, we didn't seem to see anything suitable, or that we thought cheap enough to make money on - and it's so hard to tell what will sell! Add to this the fright over the custom house since the passing of the McKinley bill, and I really think we were excusable (though I know you will not!) for not having bought anything. I wanted to break this to you before I saw you, lest you should be disappointed. We have really been very busy and hurried most of the time, and I have not always been well, and we really couldn't. Please give my love to you mother, and believe me Ever cordially your friend, Eva Channing Eva Channing Florence, June 7, 1891. Dear Alice: Our second letter crossed, like our first, and I wonder if our third will do likewise? It was very good of you to write me again about my poor old puss. I am grieved that she should have exposed her frailties so soon. I thought she would be on her good behavior while visiting! It shows how much at home you have made her feel. I am glad, at all events, that you are enjoying the kittens. I have felt quite a longing for [them] some, so that I quite hugged a little one I saw yesterday. We were visiting the studio of an American lady [artist] sculptor, Miss Helen Reed, of whom you may have heard. After we had been admiring her charming bas-reliefs, she turned to me and asked: "Do you sketch or paint?" I shook my head with a meek and melancholy expression (she is quite deaf), and replied "No, I only photograph!" drawing my watch out and exhibiting [?Livarua's] head by way of elucidation. She immediately asked if I liked kittens, and on my nodding emphatically, led me into an adjoining room, where was her cat and a tiny roly-poly kitten of a somewhat Luvarua [?] complexion, though not so pretty. But I don't mean to fill up my letter with cats! You must know that Mrs. Cheney objects to your occupying yourself exclusively with that subject (you know she can't endure cats), as there are so many things she would rather hear about! You see, we are all hungry for have news, so exchange what bits of information we get. (Please don't imagine I complain, I'm only too glad to get letters about anything, though I do want to hear especially about yourselves.) It is strange to think of Anniversary Weeks having come and gone without our knowing anything about one of the meetings! I wonder if the W.L. Festival went off well - I hope so. I suppose you did not go to many of the others, and will not know much about the Club annual meeting. It's the first time for a good many years that Mrs. Cheney and I have not both read reports at it. Did you go to the A.C.A. meetings, of which I saw a little notice in a paper that was sent to me? Or it was probably one of the clippings Aunt Anna Parsons enclosed. (We should quite starve for news but for her.) Gymnasium is over too, and soon the schools will be closing, and everybody scattering for the summer. Then it will seem a little less abnormal to be away from everybody and everything, leading a dolce for minute life - though, after all, I'm not so sure about the dolce part of it, in the long run! I hope you will have a good, restful time in camp this summer, for you certainly need and deserve much more rest than you get, good girl that you are! I'm delighted that my kittens, or I should rather say, your kittens, are to have Mabel Barrows for a mistress. Please give my love to the dear child, and tell her I shall be anxious to hear what she names them. I shall expect to hear of a Castor and Pollux, or a Reomnibus and Remus, at the very least! Speaking of Romulus and Remus reminds me that we have just returned from a 3 day's visit to Siena, where the wolf and twins figure on all the columns, even more conspicuously than at Rome[?], I don't quite know why. It is a picturesque old town, with a good deal of artistic interest, and the cathedral is very rich and beautiful. We go to Venice tomorrow for a week, after which our plans are rather uncertain. Mrs. Cheney hopes to meet some nieces of hers somewhere in Switzerland, before we go to Bayreuth, so our plans will depend somewhat upon theirs- I wish we were in Venice today, for it is the festival of the adoption of the Italian constitution, and the illuminations will probably be beautiful, seen across the water. We were there once and saw them. There there will not be much of consequence, I think- only crowds of people out for a holiday, and all the galleries etc. closed. There was a review of troops at the Cascine early this morning, which we didn't attempt to go to in the crowd and warm weather, (second page) and there is to be some sort of a national game ("tombola") on the Piazza Lyndia late this P.M. (to) which seems to be a sort of gigantic lottery, to which tickets are sold all over the city- We saw our pleasant steamer girls yesterday, and hope for another glimpse of them in Venice. I wrote you, did I not, that they were at our pension in Rome? The other day, we went to visit a Catholic girls' boarding school, said to be a good type of this class ^of institution and frequented by the upper stratum of Italian society. It is in a beautiful building, on a hill above the city, with lovely views over the surrounding country. It was formerly a Medici palace, which accounts for the loftiness and elegance of the reception rooms into which we were at first shown. The directress of the establishment, a pleasant, cordial lady, took us about, accompanied by a former pupil, now the wife of an officer and living in Florence. We were first taken through the extensive grounds- pleasant groves and handsomely though stiffly laid out gardens, where the pupils come in their hours of "recreation" - always accompanied by some teacher, bien entendu. One of us exclaimed that the shady grove would be a pleasant place for the girls to come with their books, but one of our guides interposed: "O no, it is only for the recreation that they come here." The large low building which formed the place of recreation for rainy weather [also] contained a gymnasium- fitted up, I believe, with one set of parallel bars and one pair of rings, with no other apparatus I could see! They told me the girls had no costume to exercise in- "it would take too long to change." Then we were led through the classrooms (they would not allow us to hear a recitation), and thought the girls did not look nearly so intelligent as those in the normal schools in Rome. We saw the chapel where they hear mass with their father confessor every morning, and the dormitories up-stairs where they sleep, from two or three to six or eight, I should think, in a room- always with a teacher among them! Adjoining each dormitory was a room with long rows of wash-bowls,- it seemed as if it must be impossible for the girls to ever have a moment's privacy by day or night. The dormitories contained absolutely nothing except the beds and a row of little cupboards with shelves to contain their nightgowns and brushes,- not even a pincushion was to be seen to break the monotony! Into this institution little girls are received at the age of 8 or 9, and kept usually until they are 18; and formerly, at the time the young married lady I mentioned was a pupil there, they were not allowed to leave the place for a single night during all these years! Now they can go home to their parents during the summer holidays, in July and August (I believe), unless the parents prefer to leave them with their teachers to be taken to the sea-shore! It all made our hearts ache, and I felt very thankful I was not born either an Italian or a Roman Catholic- The University of Siena, by the way, has no women students, or even hearers; but it is not a full university, having only course in law and medicine. Yesterday was our first really hot day (today is much more comfortable), and it made us ful that we must bid adieu to Italy soon. We have been very fortunate in our weather so far, and have all kept well- unberufen, as the Germans say! If you see Alla Guster, please give her my love, all tell her I am hoping she will find time to answer my letter before long- Thanks again for your care of pussy- my love to your mother, please- I hope she is well after all the meetings- Yours affectionately, Eva Channing * Wellesley United States Senate Committee on Standards, Weights, and Measures Moses E. Clapp, Minn., Chairman Henry A Du Pont, Del. John H. Bankhead, Ala. John K. Shields, Tenn. William Hughes, N.J. Gertrude B. Spaulding, Clerk Washington, May 7th, 1913. Miss Eva Channing 40 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Mass. Dear Madame: Yours of the 29th ult. is at hand. Before many of those now interested in the subject had entered this earthly vale of tears, I was combatting for Woman Suffrage, not on the plea of her right to vote, for I would no more discuss the right of a woman to vote than I would my own- some matters are beyond the pale of discussion- but every student of our institutions must recognize that every issue, in its last analysis- no matter what it is - becomes a moral question, a question of right or of wrong, and it long ago seemed to me a mistake to try to solve moral problems and hold at arm's length from participation, the greatest moral force of the ages, American womanhood. With considerations of esteem, I am, Respectfully yours, Moses E. Clapp Hotel Hemenway Boston Leonard H. Torrey November 8, 1929. Dear Alice: What a dear you were to send me that charming book! It came this morning, and I have been looking it over with great delight. It is very interesting, comparing your versions with the Spanish ones, and I think you have accomplished the difficult task of putting poetry into poetry remarkably well. (I've tried to just a little with German poems, and know how difficult it is.) It is wonderful to think that you have been *Eva Channing able to translate such a large number of poems, with all else that you have done! It shows that you have learned the art of utilizing all the minutes,- I only wish I had! Although you say you have done this only as a sort of recreation, I think you have accomplished something really worth while, in bringing these unknown authors and their works within the ken of their northern neighbors. Their poetry certainly has an originality, a flavor of its own, that deserves to be known outside of their boundaries. And it's the appreciation of what other races can do that makes largely for mutual good feeling. So this book is an excellent Armistice day gift! Thank you, dear, a thousand times. Your loving friend, Eva Channing (second page) Hotel Hemenway Boston Leonard H. Torrey March 28, 1929. Dear Alice: The envelope was already addressed to you before yours reached me, this after- noon. So now I can thank you for the per- fectly charming kittens, and the two sweet "pomes". Surely no one ever had a more delightful Easter card! I am sorry to hear you are poorly again, but I trust the trouble is partly temporary, at least. You were much missed at the annual meeting of the Boston League on Tuesday, as you will realize, I think, before the end of the week! I turned my ankle nearly two weeks ago, as a result of being nearly run over, and this has hampered my locomotion, just as I was beginning to forget I had any knees or feet. But it is slowly getting better, * E Channing I am happy to say. I am still doing four sets of exercises a day, besides periods of rest, and there never seems to be time for anything! I hope, in a future state of existence, the external part of us will not need so much attention. I've just been reading (a little while each evening) Gertrude Atherton's "The Jeal- ous Gods", the fascinating story of Alcibiades. Perhaps you'd not think it fascinating, it is so full of fighting. But Greece always has a great charm for me, and the author has ab- sorbed the life, customs and history of the country very faithfully. But I didn't mean to write a letter-- I only wanted you to know I was thinking of you lovingly at this season. Ever you affectionate old friend, Eva Channing (second page) Florence, May 19,1891 Dear Alice: You are angelic to take such beautiful care of my poor old pussy, and then to write me such a nice long letter about her! It came to me a week or two ago in Rome, and I have been trying ever since to find time to answer it as it deserved. That is, I first waited to visit some schools (I had promised to hunt up some information on higher education of women, for a committee of the A.C.A.), so that I could send you some notes for the W. Journal, and then for the last week I have been waiting for an opportunity to write any of it down. The enclosure I send is not brilliant, but may contain some bits of information which are not familiar to American readers. Don't of course feel obliged to print it unless you please, but if you do, I wish you'd send me two or three copies of the paper it is in, as we did not order our Journal sent after us. I thought you'd rather have a little letter to the Journal (excuse corrections, for I've no time to copy), and a very short, scrawly letter to yourself, than a longer and better private letter,- so you must excuse the haste of this. and are enjoying a great deal but shall be ready and glad to come home when the time comes. I shall be delighted to hear from you at any time you are able to write,- direct always c/o Brown, Shipley J Co. Leondon, my love to your dear mother, and best regards to old puss and her family! Yours ever, Eva C. My correspondence has fallen sadly into arrears, so I cannot devote a great deal of time to any one person! Indeed, I get so tired sight-seeing that it's a real effort to write at all, so I do nothing but scratch. We generally take a gallery or museum in the morning, and a long drive in the P.M. Between whiles we are only too thank- ful to nap or rest (I'm scribbling this in place of the rest today), and evenings we are in the general salon of the pension, as we have no light but candles in our bedrooms. As it was, I wrote most of my enclosed letter to the Journal last evening in the salon, with Marrima[?] and Mrs. Cheney playing piquet at my elbow and people conversing in English and German all around. Still, it's less distracting here than in Rome, where not only the climate was more enervating (so that we got tireder - what a queer looking word!), but we also had so many callers. besides friends in the house, that it was hard to do anything- Those delightful girls I must have told you about in that stupid steamer letter (second page) turned up at the pension in Rome, and made it very pleasant for us. One of them had a birthday on the 14th, and as mine was on the 17th, but we were to leave the 16th for Florence, we had a common celebration of the two birthdays on the 14th, in Mrs. Cheney's room,- with original poems, an American flag, Italian fruits and roses etc. etc.! We saw a good many pleasant people in Rome, as Mrs. Cheney had some letters of intro- duction, and then Miss Sarah Adams (Mrs. James F. Fields' sister, and an old friend of Mrs. Cheney's) had a flat there, and invited us to meet a number of distinguished people at her rooms- Mr. & Mrs Charles Dudley Warner, the artist Vedder and his wife, G. Maria Crawford and the Terry's, Miss Annie Bruster, Sigurd [?] Seanciani etc. Of course we wanted to spend our main strength on the city itself- the Vatican Sistine Chapel. all the splendid sculpture galleries etc. etc. Then afternoons we visited many of the lovely villas, had a beautiful drive out on the Appian Way etc. etc So together with visiting schools Eva Channing and attending to our social duties, you may imagine that the time during our visit (4 days over a fortnight) was filled very full. We are all very fond of Rome, and it seemed very natural. Although the new part is of course much built up, the old part (which is really Rome) is quite unchanged, except that they have excavated the House of the Vestals in the Forum, and dug up lots of interesting things, there and elsewhere. We did not arrive until a few days after the powder explosion which broke all the windows, so escaped that fright; but we had the excitement produced by the labor "demonstrations" on the 1st of May- Not that we saw any of the riots personally, as we were prudent enough to keep out of the way, but we heard about it afterwards, and seemed to feel the excitement in the air. Florence seems if anything more changed than Rome, with trains running through and round it in every direction. But the glorious old pictures are the same as ever, and we are reveling in them, taking a fine gallery each day. Mrs. Cheney has to ride everywhere, which has prevented Marriana[?] and me from walking as much as we otherwise should, and so kept us from getting over-tired; so we are all in good condition. We have enjoyed (second Page) Although this youthful Alice May wear a golden crown, It is another Alice Who's queen of Boston town! Her talents and her virtues Can never all be told,- But, best of queenly treasures She has a heart of gold. And so tomorrow I will send My thanks for such a loyal friend E.C. November 27, 1929. *Eva Channing POST CARD Alice and her Friends Charles Folkard Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.