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is lined with summer homes and beaches and boat clubs from what I hear. The lake is easily seen from the trolley line that runs out to Lawrence Park and it is just one vast field of ice and snow for as far as the eye can see right now. ...... Allende is with us again and I was happy to see him. It seems he had to go back to Schenectady to attend some big IGE dinner at the Van Curler at which the Company entertained some important foreign guests. He had all his expenses paid and had a very enjoyable weekend out of it. Now he is back for two or three months to get locomotives and will be in the play afterall. Walsh, the Britisher, the reticent, happened to come in while Allende was with us and here is an extract from the conversation exactly as it was: 

Allende -- I saw a friend of yours while I was in Schenectady, Walsh.
Walsh -- Oh.
Allende -- Mr. Coggeshall of the IGE Company.
Walsh -- Oh.
Allende -- He inquired about you and I told him you were the king of the special railway motor test. 
Walsh -- Oh.

So you can imagine that Walsh might be a trifle difficult to draw out at times. Mrs. Schilling knows him and told me that he was once highly indignant because he was unable to secure some particular books at the library. Now, if we knew what books they were, we might have a clue. I wish you could hear Allende talk. He tells me that in Spanish every letter is pronounced and he speaks English the same way naturally. The proper way to pronounce Valparaiso is Vahl-pah-rah-ee-so, for instance. Did you ever study Spanish? It sounds like it might be quite beautiful. 

I'm mighty glad that you could understand my explanation of the motor. A motor for a street car is similar in appearance to these we are working on but there is no comparison as far as size is concerned. A street car motor is say 75 horsepower. These are 250 to 300 horsepower for driving huge electric locomotives and heavy motor cars for suburban service on the large roads. This particular motor we have now is for suburban service on the Illinois Central out of Chicago. 

[[underlined]] To Mother, January 1926 [[/underlined]]: We are having as bad a storm here this morning as I think I've ever been out in. If it had been much worse we couldn't have got to work at all. Even Schenectady's famous breezes paled into insignificance beside this one. I was afraid my face would be froden before I could get to the plant and I could feel my eyelashes frozen together at the sides. And yet it was only about 10° above. The air was full of flying snow and sometimes pieces of ice would sting one's face. This is the sort of weather I'd pictured Erie as having and I'm not disappointed.