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23

[[underlined]] To Mother, January 21, 1926 [[/underlined]]: I think this play will be a scream and I am just suited to the part I am going to have too. I have been practicing talking like a girl for the last three evenings in my room (having informed the Schryvers first of the circumstances) and I believe I can get away with it all right. I disguise myself as a famous Broadway star in most of the play, wear a scarlet dress and appear very theatrical indeed. I think it will be loads of fun. Allende must also practice in his room for he has to get onto the colored dialect. I have promised to help him tonight before rehearsal. (This was written at the plant during the day). ...... Last night spent about 1 1/2 hours next door with Lottridge, one of the testmen, who just came off nights and also eats at Mrs. Webster's. 

Erie, Pa.,
Friday, January 22, 1926.

Tonight I was Forman Craton Zuck by adoption at the "family" dinner at church. I heard the wonderful news that Allende is coming back Monday; no explanation. And tonight I was put face to face with another of those questions that is hard to decide because one can't quite see what's right and wrong. Mrs. Stevens would like me to have a room with them. It is a marvelous opportunity because to be in a home like theirs would do me no end of good from a cultural point of view. She says she would like to have a man in the house when Mr. S is away, as he is much of the time. Of course, it would be terribly far from the Works, which is the chief disadvantage. She said I could have my room and my breakfast gratis. I don't want to feel under obligation to them really and yet it is in a way a service to them. I shall talk further to them about that part of it. The important thing is the fact that I have the opportunity to live with them.

Erie, Pa.,
Saturday, January 23, 1926. 

Had an interesting time this evening at the Duttons. His library fascinated me. And he is such a puzzle. I was amazed to hear him use slang and even ungrammatical expressions such as "this bird" and "you was." Mrs. Dutton was sweet. I was sorry she'd bobbed her hair though. Mr. D's new novel, "The Crooked Cross," was out today, and Dreiser's book is again on sale. I must read it. Lenore Sterrett, the Jane of the play, was there too with her guardians, I judge. Somehow, she doesn't impress me very much. She is affected because I note her manner isn't consistent, a situation that always results in a disillusionment, and a powerful argument for one standard of manners, morals, talk, etc. the best standard one can measure up to. This idea of writing a book keeps running through my mind, and the notice of a 1926 prize novel contest only brought it up again. I'm really beginning to think seriously of writing [[underlined]] something [[/underlined]] anyhow.