Viewing page 42 of 141

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

to the accepted idea of a theological student. They are real fellows of the highest, finest type, reaching out for things that are far more important than whether or not one says "damn" once in a while. For what matters it, if one's heart and soul are striving to [[underlined]] live [[/underlined]] and make the world a fitter place in which to live.

[[underlined]] To Mother, March 3, 1926 [[/underlined]]: I'm in charge of work now, having a new man with me named Burns, a big, blond-haired, raw-boned, jolly fellow brought up on a farm near Scranton. He's a good fellow to work with and we get along excellently. Castellino and Ferella wer up in my room the other evening and I showed them my photographs. I believe that of all the boys I've shown those Shoals pictures, Shoalers included, these two appreciated them the most. They were almost ecstatic about some of them and admired the poetry and titles beneath each one, so different from the average young American, who doesn't seem to have a bit of poetry in his soul. Ferella, although an engineer, is very artistic and temperamental. When we had finished looking at mine, he brought out a lot of his own photographs, which he evidently carries with him always. They were lovely and so interesting. He had some beautiful scenes taken in Venice, scarcely looked like photos, more like paintings. He had others taken in the Alps, Genoa, Milan, Pisa. There were several of parties of friends on picnics, at the beach, in the mountains, all Italians, and all taken in Italy. They were so typically Italian-looking too, one of his sisters being beautiful. It pleased him to have me rave about the beauty of the little Italian Princess Marie, with the beautiful big dark eyes. Castellino was actually envious of us both on account of our pictures. ...... Tonight I go to rehearsal again. Saturday they are giving a dance at church for Nancy Harsh, the Middle Atlantic secretary of the YPRU. I presume you have heard of her. I knew her at Star Island. I'm going to take both Lenore and Marie Elliot to this, so certainly nobody can accuse me of any leaning toward one, or any partiality. That should be indeed safe and they are both awfully attractive girls.

[[underlined]] To Mother, March 4, 1926 [[/underlined]]: Christiansen, the other sign-up on this test, has just gone into the office so that leaves me the only sign-up out on the floor, meaning that from now on, I shall be in charge of work all the time. We are running a heat run now but one of the bearings has been so hot it has required constant attention to prevent its burning up and hence I haven't had such a leisurely time as usual on this type of run. Ferella is in here with us now and of course conversation turns to worthwhile things. I can't imagine him or Allende, for instance, wasting time discussing trivialities the way a lot of us do very often. A copy of "Life" leads to a discussion of American art and I proudly show him a picture by Charles Dana Gibson, something any American can feel justly proud of; Ferella appre-