Letters from Vienna Page 1

September 17, 1913 Dear Mama & Papa & Baby Boys and Uncle John:      We have now been on board just six days and have six more to travel. The boat is slow of course, but I understand is considered one of the best boats on the line because it is especially steady, so little rolling and we feel so slightly the motion of the engines. Slight as it all has been, however, I have had a notion to be sea sick - merely for diversion, you know.      Mid the strains of “Home Sweet Home”, our boat pulled slowly away from the pier – the sides of the decks were lined (with people) as we all watched the waving of kerchiefs and flags as we gave our last look at American shores      Every one was quite happy. The novelty of it all made us forget how hard the parting had been. After dinner in the evening we went for a walk around the deck and met many people, learned their names and where they were going and what they were going to do. Found our party going to Vienna – most every one else was going to Berlin or elsewhere.      One Danish girl who has travelled on every continent of the globe who is now going over to get her “trousseau” and will marry the Vice President of the Standard Oil Company in November Miss Wolf (?). Watch the big papers and you may see an account of it.      Again, a little Scotch girl who is going to spend a year learning German because she is to marry a German. She too has travelled on every continent, has her estate in Scotland.      A German actor who paints his face and blackens his eyebrows.      A brother and two sisters from Columbus (Ohio), who have worked and earned every penny to go abroad and study music for a year. Play beautifully.

 

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